Morning came fast, and before long, the Gearmaster was up and at it. Orion was sure to bring him some food, which had been legally obtained using the Gearmaster’s money, and they stood together at the dusted office desk.
“I’m nearly complete with that chip,” the Gearmaster said, staring into his cheese danish. “There is just one little extra thing I’ll need to make sure that the technology works as intended.”
“What’s that?” Orion said, already done with his own danish. The bakery wasn’t too far away from their hiding spot, and if the owner recognized who he was, he clearly hadn’t cared.
“A cloudship shield.”
“Cloudship shield?”
“Yeah. There aren’t very many cloudships that come equipped with that sort of thing, but it’s very important that we get one for the protection chip. They carry all the right components for me to really get the Clockwork going.”
“Who would even need a cloudship shield? They’re not even designed for combat. The only few I’ve seen that had weapons on them were…”
“Syndra’s cloudships, yes.”
“So I need to sneak onto a cloudship, not get killed, and somehow steal their shield thing?”
“It’s that or have two hundred fifty thousand wings offhand that we could use to buy one. There is a company that makes them in the Engineering District, but background checks are always run on whoever enters.”
“So a Syndra cloudship it is. Alright, what’s a good way for me to find one?”
“Going into the air?”
“That’s it?”
“I guess I could jury-rig something on that radio of yours to intercept cloudship transmissions, but I don’t think I could reverse the damage I’ll do to it.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get up there and figure it out.”
Before deciding to leave, he turned said radio on. It was back to the original channel where he’d learned about the evacuations in the northern Housing District, and apparently they were still hosting. His work had paid off, at least for now.
“It’s clear to see the effect that Orion and the Clockwork have already had on our country from the events of yesterday. There are a lot of mixed calls out there right now. But I, for one, am willing to call the kid a hero. A force of good against Syndra’s oppressive force.”
He smiled and switched channels, but nearly regretted it immediately. “He’s a menace,” the host said. “A murderer. No better than the man he thinks has stolen control of the country by force. Orion Muldane should own up to the damage he is doing and turn himself in.”
He tried a few more channels, each with a different opinion, until he found another who had just finished playing a song. “Welcome back to the Engineering District Ministry Faith channel, and for those of you just joining, we’re spending all day discussing the satanic nature of Orion Muldane and his terrorism against Syndra’s leadership. We have a guest speaker, Pastor Ben, from a portion of the Agricultural District.”
Orion immediately turned the radio off. The last person he wanted to hear anything from was the pastor of the church that Rami had to go to.
“I’m just trying to help.”
The Gearmaster approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. “You know, some will never accept who you are and what you’re doing, even if you are the hero.”
“I mean, sure, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be upset about it.”
“By all means, be upset. Just don’t waste the energy you’ll need for later. And by that, I mean going to get that cloudship shield generator.”
The Gearmaster left to go work on the chip some more, leaving Orion to sit in silence for a moment. Then, he went out to the main area, flagged the Clockwork down, and they were off in the air.
The day before, they saw the highest concentration of cloudships above the Housing District, but he knew traditionally they’d all be over in the Commerce District. Once he’d reached the point in between the two, he towed the line, keeping his eyes peeled for any of the small vessels.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long. Any Syndra cloudships had long banners with an ‘S’ symbol on them that draped down obnoxiously long, and within a few minutes of being in the area, a group of three appeared nearby. He could tell his presence was creating a stir in the thin crowd below him, and he was sure to have been spotted by the very ships he was targeting.
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He chose the one closest to him to target, and together, he and the Clockwork landed on the small deck.
Two people with batons joined him on the deck, their hats nearly taking off in the wind. Orion, per usual, had the Clockwork take priority in the fight, and in the span of seconds, one challenger was crashed into a wall, teetering near the edge, and the other was running back inside in fear.
Orion grabbed the unconscious man and pulled him away from certain doom before snatching the baton for himself. Then, he stepped through the door of the ship, face-to-face with the pilot.
He flipped two switches, one to throw on some alarms and the other to enable autopilot. Then he grabbed his own baton and swung it at Orion, who narrowly dodged.
Orion took his own chance to sloppily swing his weapon, which was blocked easily. In turn, the pilot took his own baton to Orion’s stomach, forcing him to his knees.
The Clockwork stepped in after, crashing through the top of the doorframe and landing a destructive blow on the pilot, who careened into and out of the wall, plummeting to the ground below.
His human companion chose not to think about the scene that was awaiting those in the city and instead moved forward in the ship. The Clockwork was worried, but opted to stay behind for the moment, if only to keep the structural integrity of the ship intact.
There were three people awaiting Orion downstairs. All three cowered from him, and the one who had originally joined him on the deck threw his weapon down.
“We surrender,” one said. “Please don’t hurt us.”
“Tell me where the shield generator disc is.”
“Shield generator disc?”
“Yes, to protect the cloudship.”
“We don’t have one,” another said. “Our ship is running some supplies. We don’t have any weapons.”
“No weapons?”
“Yeah. That would have been the middle ship.”
Bullets ripped through the hull of the cloudship, and Orion ducked. Splinters of wood filled the air, nicking him in a couple of places, but fortunately, none of the bullets were coming close. Still, that wasn’t a chance he was going to continue taking, and he ran upstairs to rejoin the Clockwork, who was ready to go to their next target.
Orion hopped on and they took off, this time opting to smash into the cockpit rather than the deck. The pilot crumpled on impact, and the ship veered right, almost tossing Orion back out of the hole they’d just created. The Clockwork grabbed his shirt and held him long enough for his other arm to correct course. With that out of the way, he enabled autopilot.
“Thanks,” Orion said, and grabbed his baton again. This time, they were much more likely to be ready to fight.
Sure enough, four people were waiting for him, batons ready, fear plastered on their face. They were clearly expecting to fight the Clockwork and not him.
“Shield generator disc.”
“Over our dead bodies,” one said, rushing forward. This time, Orion was able to deflect the attack and aimed for the head. It clacked loudly, his opponent dazed, but he could still try for another shot at Orion, who ducked underneath. A moment passed where Orion felt like he was already getting the hang of hand-to-hand combat before the man kicked out and sent him into the staircase.
He hopped back up and went for another swing. They had a bit of an even matching of blocking and empty attacks before Orion landed a kick to the shin, momentarily confusing his opponent and allowing for the final blow to the head.
The other three approached at once, ready for an uneven match, but the Clockwork’s fist smashed through the ceiling and grabbed one of them before disappearing through the hole. A scream and loud thud could be heard upstairs, and the three of them still below stopped to stare into the hole.
When the second fist punched through and grabbed person three of four, Orion went for a cheap shot, sweeping the last man off his feet.
“Tell me where the shield disc is and how to get it.”
“Okay, alright. I concede. Hated this job, anyway.” The man slowly got up, hands in the air, and walked over to the engine of the ship, which was pumping and humming loudly. He flipped open a panel on its side and revealed a blinking disc, which he removed from its slot.
“This isn’t a shield generator disc,” Orion said, looking it over. “This is a GPS beacon.”
“Yeah, we don’t actually have a shield disc on this ship. That’s the guys to our right.”
Orion threw the disc in frustration, then stomped back up the stairs. The Clockwork was standing over the unconscious bodies of his three targets, but stepped out onto the deck for another takeoff. This time, as they approached the third and final ship, a purple hue activated around the hull of the ship.
This one for certain had a shield.
They landed again, and this time, Orion was tired of the delays. He kicked at the door, but when it didn’t budge, he motioned for the Clockwork to knock it down. It raised its leg and extended it forcefully, sending the door completely off its hinges.
The pilot hardly had enough time to switch to autopilot and grab his baton before Orion came down on him, tapping him twice pretty hard in the chest and removing the baton from his hand. He then turned to go to the basement, but was stopped when the pilot jumped at him and wrapped his arm around his neck in a chokehold.
They both went down, Orion on top of the pilot, and he wrestled to break free from his grasp. He took one of the two batons and continued to prod the man as hard as he could in the side, but he wasn’t budging. The man was too strong. At some point a few seconds in, the Clockwork intervened, grabbing the man delicately by the arm and throwing him out the window and onto the deck, where he didn’t move.
Orion allowed himself a moment to breathe, then went down to the deck, where once again four people waited for him.
“I’m getting awful tired of this,” he said, panting. “Give me the shield generator disc, or I’ll have the four of your bodies retired, too.”
Something about the way he put it snapped the men to reality, and they each set down their batons. One of them took the role of getting the generator disc while the other three retreated. It was much larger than the GPS disc and had the manufacturer’s information on the backside. Once it was removed, the purple hue encasing the ship disappeared, rendering it vulnerable to attacks.
Not that they had much to worry about now that he had what he came for.
As he came back up the stairs, a loud rumble filled the air. He quickly gave the Clockwork the disc, which was slightly too large to fit in his compartment with the stone, and stepped out onto the deck to see what was happening.
A much larger airship, still carrying the Syndra logo, was approaching from the distance. Emblazoned in large, blocky words was the phrase CAS Nullen.
And then the first mortar shell connected with the cloudship.