Inertia was a funny thing. I remember a demonstration in high school when a teacher of mine took a bicycle tire and spun it, and the circular momentum took the tire from verticality to a horizontal shape. While our situations are quite different, I sympathized with the tire somewhat, pressed into the - surprisingly plush - seat as Shade growled, engines flaring and a sudden burst of superheated air spewed from exhaust ports. Several new ports, to my alarm, had opened up from the sides of the craft, many of them intake or output, but the thing that alarmed me was the realization that the Sickle was no simple hovercraft.
Our burst didn’t simply go forward, we arced over the nearest buildings. We didn’t continue our ascent beyond a dozen feet, gliding off of the momentum Shade had put off. Clearly, it wasn’t meant to be able to fly long distances, but our hover ceiling was such that we could go over many obstacles. Or, I should be specific, our gliding capability after a burst of energy like what we just had would be more than enough to go over most troublesome areas.
“What the hell! You can fly with that thing?” I heard Daniel’s voice ring over my headset.
I leaned over the edge of the craft as we passed him, slowing slightly, “Not quite! But close enough! See you at the finish line!” I waved as we disappeared behind buildings.
He grumbled over the line as we thrust forward, shimmering air cascading in our wake. An array of thrusters conducted a delicate symphony any time we adjusted, and I could feel Shade instructing me in real-time how to pilot it. Ahead, I noted that the ball of lightning had grown bright, vaulting legs of electricity making it look almost like a massive spider crawled over rooftops, effortlessly hopping over the streets below. Terry was moving quickly, but slowed down every time that he had to adjust in height or direction.
We had no such problem.
Another tug of inertia accompanied our acceleration and we blazed past him, our speed only increasing. I noted that the vehicle was running hot across the four main engines, two on the flanks and the two in the rear of the vessel. The dozen or so smaller thrusters were hardly taxed, mostly used for stability than anything else. We could keep this up for quite a while longer without any fear of the engines overheating.
Below us, I also witnessed the darting green form of Alice in the streets below, our path gradually leaving complicated city streets and reaching the highway through the city, a veritable straight shot aside from all the cars. We’d see how our straightaway speeds would do here, though it alarmed me that Alice was actually so mobile. Our acceleration could push further, but Alice was able to move like liquid over any obstruction, small buffering limbs extending from her suit and using anything she vaulted over like a springboard.
As I began to pass by overhead, I heard her laughing, “Let’s see what you got, then!”
Alice bounding form almost blurred, her speed increased dramatically. She avoided vehicles entirely now, and I found myself pushing hard with the Shade to overtake her. Behind us, Terry unleashed what seemed to be a lightning storm, also beginning to catch up.
How fast are we even going right now? I thought to myself, glancing down to the speedometer. I passed Alice at 180 kph.
I blinked at that, Alice, what the actual hell? It was almost ridiculous that she was somehow going even that fast.
Then another flying form joined me, metallic wings glinting in the light of the sun peaking through clouds. “You’re not the only one who can fly!” Fran laughed, I shook my head. I still gained in speed, but Fran’s acceleration was much higher. She was still facing me as she accelerated, her wings flaring out before flapping, suddenly sending her surging away.
“Yeeeeeeah!” I heard Daniel roar over our shared channel, a juggernaut of steel pounding the ground, picking up speed like a freight train. The center had the fewest cars, but it wasn’t empty.
Not that it mattered to him. An unfortunate minivan had gotten in his way, and I watched in no slight amount of shock as he simply plowed through it. Half of it seemed to simply disintegrate. Heat radiated off of his back as he increased speed, though he was no longer the fast of the group. Even Terry could beat him on a straight away.
Slowest, of course, was a matter of perspective. Most people had probably gotten used to the fast speed of their own two legs, which of course was to say very slow. A behemoth of steel moving at around 110 kph, or roughly 70 mph. Our group was very mobile, though I could still see the value of a vehicle at long range.
Fran held an absolute advantage in a city. I had no doubt that her magnetics were pushing off of every piece of rebar in the highway beneath us, or in the buildings around us. Her speed would drop outside of the city. I think. If not, she would be hands-down the fastest flier of the bunch, and I doubted anything short of a true aircraft would be able to do more.
That said, I felt Shade push a thought to me, overtaking her in a blaze of speed. I grinned, not sure if we could do anything like that, but the Sickle seemed to have a spirit of competitiveness at the least.
“Alright, give me your best.” I said, taking my hands off of the steering as the A.I. took over, gleefully pushing forward. Contrary to what I expected, it actually went lower to the highway, instead of the 6 meters or so up we were at previously. To my alarm, I could feel the engines priming this time. A building energy that made my fingertips tingle, I gripped the harness I was strapped into tightly, pressing myself into the seat preparatorily.
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The instant that we launched forward I saw a burst of fire as the air combusted in a burst behind us, we surged, the wing-blades of the Sickle sweeping through a pair of vehicles cleanly, leaving a superheated cut through them. Singing metal greeted my ears, and I felt my insides tighten against the forces on my body. We overtook Fran, who cried out some curse in alarm and tried to keep up.
It was useless, although I was afraid of how long this was going to last. Realistically, I knew that I wouldn’t be hurt by any g-forces at this rate, but I’d never been one to enjoy roller coasters. And this definitely seemed like it would count.
And yet, it was liberating, especially when Shade rose, twirling in the air and moving over traffic signs. We slowed, and I could see engine levels for heat rising into the yellow.
“We didn’t even top out.” Disbelief coated my words at that. If we could do that, was there anything that would be able to keep up? Wolven wouldn’t be able to do anything to us if we decided to run away.
Our speed bled off gently as we reached the suburbs in record time. Hard to imagine that we’d been walking most of the time. Truly, modern day mobility had changed my perspective on distance. A few miles was nothing to me now, when just a few days ago a few miles was an inconvenient distance to start walking.
We set down near an abandoned diner, Shade vibrated with what I assumed was joy. Something about the exertion seemed to please it greatly, and possibly winning.
Fran landed next to us, laughing, “Wow, I should have just gone my max speed at the start. I didn’t expect that at the end.”
“I think I would have lost, yeah,” I nodded, Fran’s speed would not something that I could sustain for long periods of time. Perhaps long enough to get out of the city, but I didn’t need to sound like a sore winner.
Alice and Terry came in next at almost the same time. Terry shot a long steel bolt into the ground as his machine leaned back, killing momentum and sending a wave of electricity forward. Instead of flooding the area, it concentrated on the grounding rod.
“Neat trick,” Alice commented smiling and breath straining from effort, “I didn’t expect us all to be so fast.
“Most of us, anyways,” Daniel commented grumpily from over the channel, arriving only half a minute later. “I remember when I used to be the fastest.”
“That didn’t last long,” I commented, grinning at him as he shook his head and shrugged emphatically.
“Well, I’ll just keep to my strengths.” He laughed, “I can still probably blow things up better than you guys.”
Of that, I had no doubt. He’d armed his mech to the teeth, complete with what looked like a tank cannon on his right shoulder, and a missile launcher on his left. Not, of course, including his arm mounted guns, or auxiliary weapons. Without a doubt he was the backbone of our teams firepower.
“Alright, from here in we’ll be moving a lot slower, keep an eye out for any signs of biotics as we go.” I began, and detailed our plans further. There wasn’t anything complex at this point in time, we needed to see what was going on in the sector.
I got back into the Sickle, urging it to be as stealthy as possible. To my surprise, sound almost completely dropped away from the vehicle, though I did feel the amount of power available had decreased. Not enough to be a problem, after all we didn’t need our top speed here. Alice and I headed the group, our tracking abilities probably the best of the group. Shade retracted its wings as much as possible while we moved, scanning around. To my pleasant surprise, Shade likewise shared in some scanning duties, able to detect changes in the ground and to some extent the environment. It wasn’t perfect, but between the three of us, we were able to pick up on broken branches, twigs, gouged ground, all painting a picture of biotic activity.
That was far too old for it to be of use. But that in itself told us something. Nothing new had roamed this territory, unusual in an extreme for biotics.
As we scouted, a grim air fell about our shoulders. None of us expected that there would be nothing to indicate activity. If it were any other circumstances, I’d maybe even be happy about that. But with Wolven around, I highly doubted these biotics had simply migrated away.
Finally after almost an hour of searching and almost 13 kilometers from Gilramore, we found our first fresh tracks.
Hundreds of claw marks and felled trees marked this stretch of once-forest. Less hardy plant materials were shredded and pulped on the ground. Every fourth tree had been scratched and gouged, and of them every sixth had been entirely felled. It was hard to tell exactly what we were looking at, but Wolven would be one of the few things to leave such a strange scene behind.
“Well, I think it’s safe to say that it went that way.” Daniel murmured, tense and awaiting the inevitable sighting of the thing. The direction he gestured in was clear, the path of trees that were crushed, clawed, or bitten through heading steadily northwards.
“That explains why were getting so many biotics up north, too.” I grit my teeth, uploading information. A general alert that Wolven was almost definitely around the north. “Let’s keep going, I want to see what we’re looking at.” And if we can kill it, I added mentally, realizing that this abomination had done more that I’d expected it to be able to do.
After an hour of searching, Alice was the one who found something unusual, “I have a hive here.”
We all stopped, turning to the direction she pointed. I could see nothing, and wondered at what tipped her off. Still, in spite of not seeing it now, none of us thought to disregard it. Alice had demonstrated an uncanny ability to follow tracks so far, in spite of the fact that my scanning abilities were far greater than hers in terms of equipment.
The clouds had parted somewhat, light shining down through the trees that remained. The mound itself would have likely been subtle and hard to find unless you directly stumbled upon it.
Or if you’re Alice. I glanced to her, flabbergasted that she’d somehow found this.
Even so, my attention rested upon the remains of the hive. It looked like it had been dug out, literal tons of soil displaced and heaped in long, sprawling piles into the forest around. When it was large enough, I’m sure Wolven had simply stuffed itself into the tunnels.
My stomach flipped as I imagined patchwork monsters seeping into a hive, easily capturing additional prey.
And what would happen to the core in that situation?...
“We need to go in. I have to see what happened to the core, if it’s even still there.” I breathed slow, not looking forward to another underground excursion so soon after the first.
It has to be done. I don’t need a hive coming back to life when Wolven’s around. The others looked around warily, worried as I was that Wolven was just lying in wait around us.