Hold on tight! Glitch yelled, his voice cracking with panic.
The garbage shuttle turned sharply to the left, throwing me against the wall. I looked outside, and i saw a fire streak zipped through the smog, it was a heat-seeking missile, which went past the flight deck, missing us by an inch. It blew up about fifty meters away, sending a shockwave that shook the whole ship.
WARNING. SHIELD INTEGRITY: 40%.
INCOMING BOGIES: 12.
We can't get away! I yelled, gripping the pilot seat. This is a trash hauler, Glitch! This hauler is made for slow trips, not fighting!
I'm trying to lose them in the smog! Glitch yelled back, furiously controlling the holographic controls, with sweat dripping down his face. But they're locked on us! It's that signal! As long as that is on, we're a clear target!
I turned back to the cargo bay, i nearly fell as the ship turned sharply to dodge a laser fire.
Sarah was kneeling next to Maya, who was breathing fast, staring at her cybernetic arm with scared eyes. The red light on her wrist was blinking faster now, Beep. Beep. Beep. It's sounded like a time bomb.
It's welded to her bone, Sarah cried out, looking at me. Her hands was shaking as she looked for a release latch (but there was none). I can't get it off without surgical laser! And right now we don't have time!
Cut it off, Maya gasped, grabbing a sharp metal bar from the floor. Cut it off! Mom, do it! Before they kill us!
No! Sarah grabbed her hand, wrestling the bar away. I won't hurt you again! I won't do it!
If you don't, we all die! Maya screamed, crying.
The ship swayed again. BOOM.
A laser hit our engine. The sound was deafening. Smoke filled the cabin. The lights flickered and died, and red emergency alarms came on.
I stumbled over to them. The floor was tilting as the engine failed.
No one is cutting anything, I said, grabbing Maya's cybernetic wrist.
Let go of me! she screamed. You're the monster! You're the glowing one! Get away from me!
Maya, listen to me! I shouted. "I can stop it. And i don't need a knife to".
I looked at Sarah. Her eyes showed fear and doubt.
Hold her down, I said.
Sarah looked at her daughter's terrified face, then at the smoking engine. She nodded and held Maya shoulder down.
Do it, Elias, she whispered.
I put my hands on the cold metal prosthetic. I closed my eyes and looked at the code.
Skill: Network Sense.
The world turned into lines of data. I saw the arm, It was a conplex web of circuits. And deep inside, like a tumor, was the tracker. It was a piece of jagged code, It was sending our location on a military band.
Skill: Energy Siphon.
This will hurt, I said.
Just do it! Maya yelled.
I pulled.
I didn't drain the battery. That would shut down the arm, but the tracker had its own power. So i went for the signal's frequency, i visualized the jagged code as a red string wrapped around her nerves, and I yanked it.
ZZZRT.
Sparks flew from Maya cybernetic elbow. Blue electricity jumped between my fingers and her metal skin. She screamed as the neural feedback loop hit her nervous system.
Elias! Sarah cried, flinching as if she felt the pain herself.
Almost... got it!
I felt the code resist. It was encrypted with Malachi's personal signature. It fought back, trying to burn my mind, sending spikes of heat up my arms.
You want to fight? I thought. I am a devourer, i don't fight i eat. And i drained the tracker until the code disintegrate into raw mana . I sucked the signal dry.
CRACK.
The red light shattered. And black smoke came out from it. The blinking stopped also.
XP GAINED: 200.
TRACKER DISABLED.
Maya passed out, from the shock, but her arm was still intact. And she was still breathing.
It's gone, I said, wiping my face. Glitch! The signal is dead! They cannot see us now!
Great! Glitch yelled from the flight deck. But the missiles are still locked on us from the last ping! We have three incoming, and I have no flares! They're close in!
I ran back to the flight deck, sliding on the tilted floor. I looked through the broken window, and I saw them. Three missiles, trailing smoke, coming for us.
Can we shoot them?
We don't have guns! Glitch screamed. We have a trash compactor and a grappling hook! We're done, Elias! We're dead!
I looked at the dashboard. The shield generator was at 20%. The shield was flickering, barely holding the wind out.
Glitch, put all power to the back shields, I ordered.
He looked at me like I was crazy, and said. That Will kills the engines! We'll fall out of the sky! And we'll crash!
If those missiles hit us, we are dead, I said. But If we crash, we might live. Do it!
Glitch paused for a second, and then slammed a lever down.
The engines died. The ship went silent, entering freefall.
The missiles closed in. Five seconds away.
I grabbed the shield generator console. It was hot.
Skill: Overcharge.
I poured everything I had into the machine. All the energy i stole from the warden, the prison mainline, and from the tracker. I poured it all into the shields.
WARNING. SHIELD OVERLOAD. CAPACITORS CRITICAL.
A huge blue bubble of energy expanded around the ship, zapping with lightning, right when the missiles hit.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Everything went white after the blasts. The sound was very loud. The blast didn't kill us, but it knocked us out of the sky like a fly getting smacked.
We were spinning uncontrollable in the sky. And the gravity failed. Throwing me into the ceiling, i smacked my head, then crashed back to the floor. Junk was flying everywhere, loose screws, datapads, and hull pieces.
We're going down! Glitch yelled. Terrain warning! We're hitting the Rust Sea! Brace yourselves!
Pull up! I yelled back.
I can't! The controls are dead! And There are no hydraulics!
I saw the ground coming fast through the busted window. It wasn't land, but a nasty ocean of scrap metal, tons of old machines, cars, and droids piled up for ages.
"Sarah! Shield Maya"! I yelled, hugging the pilot's chair.
We hit the ground hard.
CRUNCH.
Metal screamed as the shuttle got ripped through a mountain of junk. The flight deck window shattered, spraying us with sharp pieces of glass. Everything was spinning. We tumbled, and we smashed through piles of junk, until we finally stopped...
Everywhere went silent.
I opened my eyes.
I was hanging upside down, strapped into my seat. Blood dripped from my head onto the broken control panel, tap-tap-tap. The flight deck was shattered. The air here smelled like wet rust, oil, and rain.
Glitch? I croaked, my voice sounded rough.
Here I am, a weak voice groaned from the floor (which is now the ceiling). I think... I broke my joystick. And my arm.
I unbuckled and fell to the ground. My legs were weak, but I forced myself up. I crawled to the back.
It was a place for trash metals. Sarah was coughing, pushing a panel off herself. She was bleeding a little on her cheek, but she was alive. She held Maya, Who was still unconscious.
We're alive, Sarah whispered, checking Maya's pulse. And she's okay to. Her pulse is strong.
We climbed out of the wreckage.
We stood in a canyon of rusted cars and droids. The junk walls was high. The rain washed The filth from our faces.
High Above us, I saw gunships circling. They hovered around, checking the crash site for heat-signals. Then, seeing the great damage and no heat-signal, they left.
They think we're dead, Glitch said, limping out with a broken datapad. He sat down on a rusted bumper. They saw the blast, And thought no one survived.
I looked at my hands, my power was still resonating.
I looked at the ship. It was ruin . And we were stuck, in pain, And had just our clothes.
But we were free.
Where are we? Sarah asked.
Sector 0, Glitch said. The Rust Sea. The Scrapyard. This where the Corporation dumps Everything there want to forget. junks, robots, waste... and us.
I picked up a robot arm. It was rusted, but the servo still hummed.
I looked to the horizon. I didn't see trash, but i saw resources. XP!.
Nice, I said. I'm going to build an army from their junk.
My wrist-comp beeped.
QUEST UPDATE: SURVIVE THE FALL (COMPLETE).
REWARD: 500 XP.
NEW QUEST: THE UPRISING.
OBJECTIVE: CONQUER SECTOR 0. BUILD A BASE.
I tighten my fist, crushing the metal in my hand.
Let's get to work.