The Prophet understood Natalya’s plan and pulled himself out of the hole on top of the transport. Natalya punched the accelerator, flying perpendicular with the hoppers and opening fire.
Blasts erupted against the side of the Zhou, obliterating the hoppers and sending them crashing to the ground like swatted flies. There were too many to shoot, however, and they turned their guns on the transport once they recognized the threat.
Natalya didn’t give them an opportunity to fire. She rammed into the side of the Zhou and flew directly behind Sisi. She hadn’t intended to hit the building, actually, but her turn wasn’t quick enough and she shattered office glass and cracked her windshield with the high-speed maneuver.
“Oops,” Natalya said. “You okay, Jasper!”
“Peachy!” Jasper shouted from the transport’s roof, sword glowing as he slashed a hopper that clung to the back of the vehicle.
Natalya sped up and flew below Sisi. The scientist must have seen Jasper on the roof, because Natalya felt a clunk as Sisi turned her welpro on the transport. Sisi landed on the windshield, smiling with glee.
“My arms are really tired!” Sisi announced as she clung to her welpro.
Jasper helped her up and inside the vehicle.
“You got the transmitter?” Natalya asked as the two entered the vehicle.
“Tada!” Sisi said, holding the yellow universal transmitter in front of her. Then she collapsed face-first from exhaustion.
“Good work.”
Natalya flew to the Zhou roof, where Co stood like a blast-throwing sentinel, peppering the two remaining transports with holes. When Natalya entered the fray, the transports didn’t know how to react, and made a too-tight turn to face the transport.
Co leveled her gun, firing a wave of blasts at one and a cannon-slug at the other. The first struggled to maintain altitude and fell, smoking, to the ground. The second exploded in a shower of flames as Natalya came to a halt at the side of the roof.
The next moment, Co landed inside the transport.
“Nice jump,” Natalya said.
“I’m real glad I rolled over here to throw up,” Sisi announced, spilling her guts into a cargo locker a meter away from where Co had landed.
Co simply nodded and asked, “I need to fly gunner?”
“Right now we just need to get out of here,” Natalya said. “Hold on.”
Natalya dove straight at the ground as more black Zhou Guard transports, and a large gunship, had finally gotten their orders straight and flew to engage the stolen transport.
“Augustus, we’re headed your way,” Natalya announced into her communicator as she zipped above the low buildings and approached the smog shields. She hoped the distracting bomb meant their communication would be lost in the confusion.
“Natalya! Do you have a present for me?” Augustus asked.
“Are you still at the landing zone?”
“All capital ships are assembling in orbit to confront whatever sent the neutron bomb. They’re sealing the Zhou District shields, Captain. I suggest you hurry.”
Natalya looked ahead and saw the invisible barrier that kept Prosperity’s pollution out of the government district. It shimmered with added energy. She knew the tall skyscrapers loomed on the other side of that barrier, but wasn’t sure if she’d make it in time if she didn’t keep going straight ahead.
The little transport broke the shield barrier near street-level, blasting through the gap between skyscrapers so fast the street vendors below shouted with anger as their fruits, nuts, and chickens on a stick took flight in a sudden whirlwind.
Free of the shield, Natalya said, “I hope you closed that locker, Sisi,” and turned the transport vertical.
Sisi screamed but kept the locker she’d vomited in pressed closed as the transport gained altitude.
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Natalya spotted Chimera through the cracked windshield, the ship slowly reaching for the upper atmosphere. The transport couldn’t make it much higher, definitely not with a hole in its roof, but the Zhou Guard transports and the gunship were gaining behind her.
“Augustus, can you land?” Natalya asked.
“Not without alerting the defenses I’m afraid, Captain,” Ptolemy answered. “We must maintain course to avoid detection.”
“Alright, then I’m coming to you. Auggie, crack a window for me.”
“How indecent, Captain. I love it,” Augustus said.
“Sisi, you done spilling your guts back there?”
“I don’t remember eating pancakes,” Sisi noted.
“Forget the smell and focus. I need you to use that gravity projector to hook us onto Chimera.”
“Neat! Permanently? If we use the heat from Co’s blasters to—”
“Just enough to get us onboard!”
Natalya flew the transport straight at Chimera. The deformed spaceship seemed to be floating in the air, it moved so slowly. Natalya saw the gangplank open and flashing lights illuminate the airlock. She only slowed when she was right beneath the ship, decelerating to match Chimera’s speed and inching closer and closer to the gangplank.
The wind whipped the little transport about beneath the ship, but when Sisi activated her welpro the transport leapt up, crunching against Chimera’s underside.
The gangplank was right in front of the windshield. Natalya fired her carbine at the glass. The opening shattered, wind tossing the transports’ occupants backwards.
Natalya looked down and saw the chasing transports and gunship fall back, unable to maintain pursuit in such high altitude.
“Co! You first!” Natalya shouted over the roaring wind.
Sisi, with Jasper’s help, held the welpro against the transport’s roof to keep it flush with Chimera.
Co shouldered her blaster and stepped over the twin pilot seats, denting the windshield’s frame with her robotic hand as she steadied herself. With precise, careful motions, Co put a leg onto the gangplank and wrapped her arm around one of the support poles. She let go of the transport and hooked her robotic arm onto the gangplank, grabbing the straps at the airlock.
Safely secured to the ship, Co held out her hands to help the others onboard.
“Jasper!” Natalya said. “You’re next. With the transmitter.”
The Prophet only hesitated a moment before stepping around Natalya and accepting Co’s help onto the gangplank. He made sure his sword was sheathed so he could secure the transmitter and keep a hand free for Co to grab hold of.
“Sisi, give me the welpro,” Natalya said as she activated the transport’s autopilot. She kept her finger on the switch, ready to turn off manual control, as Sisi approached the captain. The transport shuddered with each step, the welpro’s hold weaker as Sisi moved.
“Which button turns it off?” Natalya asked as Sisi handed her the device.
“This one,” Sisi said, pointing to a switch on the welpro. “Be careful with it.”
“Will do. Now get up there.”
Sisi accepted Co’s help and ran inside Chimera once her feet touched metal. Co turned back, her robotic arm reaching for Natalya. Natalya flipped on the transport’s auto pilot, grabbed Co by her metal wrist, and switched off the welpro.
The transport fell beneath her. For an instant, Natalya hung in midair. Then Co pulled her onto the gangplank.
“Thanks,” Natalya said as she and Co entered the cargo bay.
“I didn’t throw up that time!” Sisi declared as Natalya returned the welpro to the celebrating woman. “High-five!”
Natalya accepted the scientist’s high-five.
“Good thing. Slippery gangplank would have made things difficult,” Co noted as she sealed the gangplank and airlock.
“Augustus, we’re clear,” Natalya said into her communicator.
“Buttoned up and ready to go,” Augustus replied.
Natalya felt the rumble of atmosphere slip beneath Chimera’s hull as he broke into outer space. She had just enough time to make it to the bridge before Augustus plotted their course. The viewscreens displayed the Prosper fleet assembling to meet the ruse threat. There were so many ships, so many behemoths of energy and metal they spread far beyond the viewscreens’ periphery.
Hundreds of capital ships ten times the size of Chimera rumbled into a square formation. At the center was the Butterfly, a vessel shaped like its namesake, thin wings spread out from its thick middle. The torso was a single, massive cannon, tall as a skyscraper and capable of firing a cannon-slug twice the size of Chimera.
Just beside Butterfly was the solid black, step-roofed capital ship Shihuangdi, Qin’s personal warship. It was a blocky construction, just like the other capital ships, but a darker shade of black. It looked like the Zhou building laid on its side. The stepped, square roofs angled to a pointed bow and tapered thicker toward the stern. A thick, onyx ring covered the stern in cannons and blasters. Each of the ship’s four sides had a long, round cannon not quite as big as Butterfly’s main gun, making the Shihuangdi look like a nightmare had grown around the Zhou and sent it horizontally into space.
“Do we have a heading?” Natalya asked.
“Orders are still coming in,” Ptolemy announced over the bridge loudspeakers. The man must have been in his quarters, no doubt surveying Prosper’s fleet chatter. “I sent a signal relaying false orders for us to retrieve reinforcements. We have clearance.”
“Let’s go,” Natalya said, taking one last look at black Shihuangdi before Augustus activated the opalescents.
Chimera bolted out of the solar system in a dazzling display of color.