Natalya ran to the other end of the square, climbing over the wrecked bus. She kept her carbine shouldered, and Jasper kept his sword at a high guard. When they reached the wide street in front of the cake-shaped building, Natalya knelt in front of the window, her gun trained on the dark opening.

“I’ll go first,” Jasper offered.

“Haven’t we gotten to the point where that’s a given?” Natalya asked.

“I announced it to make sure you don’t shoot me, not to stop you from going first.”

“Just get in there already.”

The hole was small enough Jasper had to crawl through, sticking his legs in first then pushing himself to the other side. Natalya kept her carbine trained on the interior, the golden light from Jasper’s sword reflecting off pale, stone walls. After Jasper had walked through a doorway, the room apparently a small office, Natalya followed.

The thick air stank of rotten leaves and humanity. Natalya spotted a few cots in darkened rooms as she followed the golden light of Jasper’s sword.

“Uh, Captain,” Augustus said in Natalya’s ear as the hallway opened to a large, pitch-black room.

“Yeah?” Natalya asked.

The sound of falling water came from the room ahead. Jasper paused.

“We just picked up another ship in the area,” Augustus said.

“Do you have the Key Core yet?” Ptolemy asked.

“Getting there,” Natalya replied.

“Discretion is vital, Natalya.”

“Then be ready to land when I tell you. Now shut up, I’m working.”

Natalya nodded at Jasper, who entered the dark inner chamber. As he raised his sword, the glow reaching a high ceiling, Natalya saw the dribbling artificial waterfall, the polished stone counter at the center, and the painted pathways leading all directions.

“Hotel lobby,” Jasper explained. “Stayed here once. That waterfall was beautiful, once.”

“Loss of aesthetics isn’t my priority,” Natalya said, searching the trash-strewn ground. “Doesn’t look like there was any fighting in here. Hello!”

Natalya’s voice echoed the question back.

A fuzzy clump of hair peeked from the other side of the hotel’s check-in counter.

“Captain,” Jasper said, pointing at the counter.

“I see it,” Natalya said. She didn’t aim her carbine, she lowered it, but made sure to stand close to Jasper just in case she’d made an incorrect assumption as to who this was. “Hello there.”

“Is that a sword?” a tiny voice asked, the clump of hair rising to reveal two wide eyes and a small, pink forehead.

“Yes it is.”

“Are you here to fight dragons?”

“Excuse me?”

“I only heard of swords used to fight dragons. But there aren’t dragons, just robots. Are there dragons now too?”

“No, there’s no dragons. What’s your name, sweetheart?” Natalya asked.

“Dana Kiran,” the little girl answered.

“My name’s Natalya. This is Jasper. Where are your parents?”

“The robots took them. If you’re not here to fight dragons, are you here to fight the shiny man?”

“Who’s the shiny man?”

The sound of a gunshot, muffled with distance and the many layers of stone walls, echoed in the lobby.

“Captain, we have a problem,” Co said in Natalya’s ear.

“Is there anyone else with you?” Natalya asked Dana.

Dana screamed and ducked behind the counter, fleeing toward the other side of the lobby.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Stop!” Natalya hurdled the counter and grabbed Dana around the waist, struggling to hold onto the screaming child. “Jasper, get to the square — I’m right behind you!”

“Let me go! I don’t wanna go, I wanna stay here!” Dana pleaded, tiny fists pounding on Natalya’s arm.

“Dana. Do you want to learn how to fight dragons?” Natalya asked.

“You said there weren’t dragons!”

“I lied. There are dragons, and the man with the sword is here to fight them.”

The girl stopped squirming.

“We need your help, Dana,” Natalya said. “Do you want to help the man with the sword fight dragons?”

Dana nodded.

“Good. Then take this,” Natalya let go of the girl. Dust rained down from a distant explosion as Natalya handed Dana a small electro-stick, a short-range stunning weapon the little girl looked at with wide-eyed awe.

“Hit anyone with it who comes too close. Can you do that?” Natalya asked.

“I can,” Dana replied.

“Good. Hold my hand. We’re going to a ship.”

“I thought we were fighting a dragon.”

“One thing at a time.”

Dana put her hand in Natalya’s, and Natalya pressed her carbine against her shoulder to steady her one-handed aim as she ran to the exit.

They reached the tiny window in time for a wave of dust to cloud their view. Natalya never let go of Dana’s hand as she crawled through the opening, pulling the girl outside a moment later.

“Stay low,” Natalya said, crouching and raising her carbine.

The dust began to part. Natalya saw the ruined pyramid on the far side of the square, stone still collapsing on top of mangled hoppers as more of the robots leapt through the ruins. Co was better than a destruction crew sometimes. Natalya just hoped Dana was the only one who’d been hiding in the ruins.

Co, the robotic-armed beast of a woman, stood in the center of the square, blasting away at incoming hoppers.

Sisi hid behind her, using her welpro to hurl chunks of the mangled pyramid at the robots. Jasper took the majority of the robots’ fire, deflecting their blasts into the air.

Natalya added her carbine’s blasts to Co’s, pin-point shots hitting hoppers right in their sensor nodes, or rendering them lame with shots to their gyroscopic midsections.

“Where’s the dragon?” Dana asked over the gunfire.

“Auggie, where’s that air support?” Natalya asked.

“Coming in. All fresh and warmed up for ya,” Augustus answered as Chimera burned its way through the atmosphere. He came in like a fiery rocket, and fired twin blasters at the hoppers. Chimera turned about, descending over the flat square as Co and Jasper mopped up the remaining robots.

“Dragon!” Dana shouted, screaming and running back for the hotel.

Natalya hooked an arm around the girl and was just able to catch her. “No, that’s not a dragon, it’s our ship,” Natalya explained.

“You said you were going to fight a dragon!”

“I lied again.”

“You’re a mean liar.”

“I know. Auggie, what’s the status of that other ship?”

“Orbiting the planet on its way toward us,” Augustus answered.

“I recommend we hurry, Captain,” Ptolemy said. “We should just be able to make it out of the system if that ship maintains its current speed.”

“Prosper, Gaozu or Changyu?” Natalya asked.

“It’s not registered with any of them, but it looks like a Prosper ship.”

“Great. Okay, Dana, ready to go?”

Dana shook her head.

“Well we’re going anyway,” Natalya said, and ran into the square with the child in her arms.

Co raised an eyebrow at Natalya when she spotted the captain coming closer. Moving refugees meant money, so the more the merrier. But unless Dana’s parents were wealthy, and still alive, bringing the child with them would be less than profitable.

“Everything okay?” Natalya shouted over the sound of Chimera’s engines. Augustus was trying to find a safe spot to land in the debris-filled square.

“Girl’s got the Key Core, Prophet didn’t die,” Co said, giving what amounted to the most celebratory explanation of the engagement Natalya could expect.

Jasper ran to Natalya and Co, nodding with approval.

Sisi emerged from the other side of the ruined bus a moment later, the safe containing the Key Core hovering in front of her welpro.

“Good thing this safe is blast, scanner and lick-proof. We’d be bits of protons if the Key Core got hit,” Sisi said. “Course we’re bits of protons now, but I like my protons in the current mass they occupy and not scattered throughout the—”

“Just get it ready to board,” Natalya said.

“’kay.”

“Hoppers,” Co said, her eyes, and now her gun, pointed back toward the ruined pyramid. “On the way.”

Natalya knew even the many they’d destroyed couldn’t be the extent of the opposition on this ruined planet. She set Dana down as she leveled her carbine, ready to give Dana and Sisi cover.

“Hurry it up, Augustus,” Natalya ordered.

“These things take—” Augustus began.

“We’re in a rush, Auggie.”

Chimera finally set down on its extended legs, billowing a tornado of dust as it settled. The gangplank lowered a moment later.

“Board the ship, Dana,” Natalya said as Jasper lit up his sword and ran to the rubble.

Before Jasper or Dana could take two steps, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky. Natalya saw a glowing object hurtling toward them like a fiery blue comet.

“Auggie, I thought you said we had time!” Natalya accused.

“Time for what? The other ship’s still in orbit,” Augustus replied as the comet seemed to evaporate. Pieces peeled away and fell toward the square.

“Run!”

The small craft got close enough that Natalya fell to the ground with the blast of its sonic boom. It tilted up a moment, coming to a halt over Chimera. One last piece fell off the side of the tiny ship, landing with a pulse of a shield emitter on the dust-laden square.

As Natalya got to her feet, carbine raised, the dust parted to reveal a man braced with one arm on the ground to cushion his fall. He rose on his feet, gray and black compression cloth over his entire body showing his muscle-solid, thin frame. Grey metal protruded from his skin like boils all over his body. An angular gash scarred his right eye. His black hair was long and wild, and his eyes were concealed behind a thick pair of black discs.

His forearms glowed blue, the tell-tale sign of a micro shield emitter. But he wasn’t holding such a device, and it glowed brighter than the tiny emitter on Co’s arm. When he stood, he looked directly at Natalya and raised a pair of black pistols.