“Time to fly,” Revin said.

The Almerian pilot nodded.

The ship lifted into the air with nothing but a slight rattle and a rumble. Flying in a stone and metal box still blew Revin’s mind.

They lifted from behind a hill which had hidden them from the rest of Jebuthar’s ships. Revin saw the battle occurring below with his own eyes now, rather than the saurians’. The automatons were torn to pieces, the thrashing giganoto’s heads launching them left and right, shattering and breaking.

Revin saw the human soldiers executing Omrai’s training. Each worked in a three-man team, two taking out the weapons of the automaton, and the third jumping forward, driving a longspear straight into its core. It was hard work, and though the limbs were only moderately difficult to remove, the chest armor, and by extension the core, was harder to pierce.

Saurian injuries and deaths echoed in Revin’s mind. But so, did righteous indignation. The saurians had come to understand, and could almost sense, the wrongness of their enslaved brethren. They pushed ahead, united by a single hope. That they may have a chance at the man who would enslave them all.

Jebuthar.

Revin looked ahead. They flew in a wide arc around the battle, avoiding the range of the giganotos’ anti-gravity spines. Ahead, floating large and intimidating, was Jebuthar’s command ship. It hovered over the behemoth ships, at least twice as large, sleeker, and more heavily armed.

Their plan was working so far. The spines from dead giganotos hung on the end of very long chains beneath their little ship. Far enough away to not affect its functionality or ability to fly, but they had installed a pulley system to pull the spines up once they’d landed on the command ship. Those would disable the command ships flying technology, making it crash.

He looked to Beadoróf.

“Time to kill the tyrant,” Beadoróf said.

Revin nodded. “And save my family.”

This was the critical moment. Would Jebuthar notice them? Would he have time to react? Cannons from the command ship came to life, turning toward them and firing. The pilot lifted the ship higher, narrowly missing the hurtling cannonballs. Revin caused a saurian below to glance up. The spines were still attached!

He looked back into his own ship. The yutarapters waited with several squads of nervous soldiers. Revin kept control of their appetites.

He looked to the front, seeing the command ship in front of them. With a hard thud, they landed. “We’re on!” the pilot yelled reaching to his side and pulling a lever. Immediately, the back ramp opened. Soldiers and saurians poured out onto the nearly flat top of the ship.

Revin followed them, using his walking stick to keep up as best as he could. The pain in his knee and his face demanded that he rest, but he ignored them too.

Revin arranged the yutaraptors in a defensive perimeter around the men who hammered their little transport’s anchors into the roof of the command ship.

Beadoróf stood next to Revin.

Revin checked his metal-weave mastersuit for the hundredth time. “Omrai, we’ve landed.”

There was a loud clank. A latch on the roof opened about sixty paces away.

The fear threatened to take him, it held its mighty chains over him. And he would have frozen, if not for the feel of Scarback and the other saurians in his mind. They faced the horde and didn’t falter. Instead, they turned their fear into rage.

Revin did the same.

“Look out!” Revin shook out of his trance, causing his raptors to duck.

Blasts of bullets ripped through the air as several automatons fired. A few men were hit, but most ducked in time. One bullet grazed Revin’s side, bouncing off his mastersuit and tearing his robe over it. He winced at the pain of the impact but muttered quick thanks to Father God for the monk who’d come up with the weave in the first place.

A dozen automatons climbed out of the hatch, blades and shields ready.

“Here they come!” Revin readied his saurians.

Beadoróf jumped forward, first blades flying. Revin’s eyes widened.

Beadoróf’s blades were ones he’d stolen from automatons, tougher metal than Ateyan weapons. He thrust into an automaton with a loud crack and a fizzle. He pulled his blade out, bringing with it shards of a still-glowing core. He used his pommel and smashed another one’s shield, denting it and knocking it back. He leaned back and swung his other blade up in a wide arc, knocking an automaton’s head clean off with a shower of sparks.

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Ravin realized he was staring, his raptors still waiting for his command. First Ismander, and now Beadoróf had proven to be incredibly capable fighters. Something Revin didn’t expect from monks.

Perhaps Revin wasn’t the only monk who’d grown tired of the Hiriv’s sleepiness.

Several automatons broke off from the fight with Beadoróf and charged at Revin. He drew his blade and called on his raptors for help. Before the metal monsters could reach him, his raptors jumped them, knocking them down and tearing apart their gears.

One made it through the raptors and charged Revin with a lowered spear. Revin swung his blade downward and stepped to the side, blocking the spear and dodging the attack. It moved in, and Revin looked for more help. Everyone was engaged in their own fights.

Revin struck. The automaton blocked the strike in a rapid motion, precise. Not the lumbering dullness of other automatons. Its free hand tightened into a fist as it stepped back in a firm stomp. As if it were angry. Narazoth must have been paying special attention to its control.

Revin was pushed back, half tripping more than once on his knee. He felt concern from a raptor that watched him. He headed for the edge of the ship.

Revin tried to stand his ground, but the automaton thrust its spear again.

He stepped to the side, trying to dodge, but just as the spear-tip scraped his mastersuit a sharper pain went up his knee and he fell. Hard.

He groaned. His arm dangled over the edge of the ship. He thought of how far that fall would be, and ice ran down his spine. He looked up, and the automaton thrust and charged. Birdy flew in and pulled on the automaton’s spear.

The automaton stumbled, trying to hold on to its spear without falling over the edge. Revin took the opportunity and kicked it in the back of the leg. It tumbled over, careening to its doom.

He looked up as Birdy flew there. He chirped excitedly at Revin. Revin smiled. “Now head back to safety,” Revin said to Birdy. Birdy flew off reluctantly.

He looked towards the fight and watched his raptors tear apart the last automaton.

Beadoróf had a ring of broken metal around him. Revin’s eyes widened. How good of a warrior was this man? And he was a monk? Despite the lack of blood, the scene was almost disturbing, Beadoróf’s face twisted in a scowl of rage.

“Beadoróf!” Revin said, standing carefully away from the edge. “Let’s keep moving!”

Beadoróf nodded.

They sealed the latch and the soldiers returned to anchoring their transport. Several moved to the cranks to pull up the gravitonium spines and began the process of pulling up the chains.

Revin heard more short whistles. His heart jumped in his chest. Another latch opened, automaton rifles sticking out.

“What’s taking so long?” Omrai’s voice said in Revin’s mind.

“Under fire!”

“You’re on top of us!”

Revin reached out to his saurians. Jebuthar’s ship floated only several hundred feet in front of them.

And it had stopped moving.

“We’re still under fire!”

He looked back to the automatons as something new rose from the top of the ship, a large cannon. It aimed right at their small ship.

Revin’s eyes widened. “Beadoróf!”

Beadoróf looked in the direction Revin pointed, and without a moment’s hesitation, he sprinted toward the cannon. Revin watched as Beadoróf picked up an automaton’s spear and jammed it into the cannon’s spinning gears. It popped loudly and went quiet.

Revin breathed a sigh of relief. Beadoróf went to work on the automatons with his remaining sword, even grabbing another off a broken automaton. Revin couldn’t believe how much of a fighter he was. It reminded him of Ismander.

The cannon hummed, deep and loud. Revin looked at the soldiers and his yutaraptors, they all stood in its way. He commanded his yutaraptors to flee and jump aside. Revin dodged. The broken cannon fired.

It exploded more than fired, knocking Revin to the roof. His ears rang in pain as he pushed up from his hands and knees. Eyes blinking. Beadoróf lay on his back. He felt the terror of two yutaraptors plummeting to their deaths off the top of the ship. His terror compounded when he looked for their ship.

It was gone. Revin’s heart sank.

“Revin! What happened?” Omrai’s voice said in his mind.

“The gravitonium, we’ve lost it…”

Beadoróf was getting to his feet and Revin forced himself up as well. Most of their soldiers were alive, as were most of his raptors.

Beadoróf looked to where their transport had been. He nodded firmly motioned to the hatch right behind the cannon.

“We’ll do our best to fulfill the rest of our objectives,” Revin said to Omrai. Beadoróf jumped in. “We’ll figure out how to land this thing as soon as we can.”