Page 19 of Thruster (Hunted Relics #9)

"Holo, this is insane!" I say over my StarJumper's suit coms, regretting asking him for advice.

“That is what it takes during war, Kelta. If you want to do the impossible, you have to be willing to do the impossible. I can’t get you on that ship. You have to leach a ride!”

I walk to the edge of the wing as he catches up to a Skysprinter. We’ve plucked a less-damaged SkySprinter from the sand and got it running within an hour.

Dunes rush by beneath us when I look down. Fuck. Fuck! “Fuck!”

I’ve officially lost my mind over a super hot metal man.

Holo communicates with the other pilot about what he found during the attack.

“Lieutenant Araldin will honor you during Ershalshir tonight.”

Holo glances out at me and gives me a nod. Then he tips the smoking Skysprinter toward the other. My heart pounds hard, rattling my chest and shaking my muscles. But the StarJumper's suit moves smoothly as if it knows exactly what I want it to do.

I slide down the wing and drop between the returning Skysprinter's rear thrusters. Setting my hands on the hull, I switch on the magnetic palms and boots with a thought and hunker down for the ride into space.

“Good luck,” Holo says. “Please don’t make me regret this.”

"No promises," I whisper. The raucous drone of the Skysprinter's engines shake my suit. "But you gave me a chance. And you're right, we have to take chances or nothing ever changes."

"I pray the stars are on your side tonight." Holo banks off toward the mountains as we rise from the surface of Ellipsis. A glimmer of silver darts out of the cockpit. Holo's Skysprinter glides another few miles and bashes into a hillside in a plume of smoke and fire.

Pray? Holo said… I’m starting to think he’s retained more of his humanity that he realizes.

The ride into space in my crouched position is terrifying. I'm so high up that I can see the curve of Ellipsis, its green lands, gold dunes, and gray mountains fading below me. Atmosphere dissipates. Systems blink on across my visor, keeping me warm and shielded. The ship vibrates less beneath my boots and gloves as space surrounds us.

I close my eyes, wishing I was someone else in another place. It's disorienting to not know my trajectory, to have no control.

And men willingly climbed into these suits to go into battle? To fight snakes on two feet, snakes that used to be human?

HoloStarJumper 2612: Yes. And they did it for the same reason you are.

For love?

His communication scrolls across the screen and echoes in my head. He told me the suit connected to my body and mind. I didn’t realize how much. “You can hear my thoughts? That’s a dangerous place to hang out.”

HoloStarJumper 2612: I have heard everything from Titans wanting to murder others to their erotic desires and even seen the visual memories of Brothers watching Brothers and humans die. Nothing you think can scare a Titan. We get emotional, too. The difference is we have programming to stop physical displays.

"Wish I could switch that on right about now." My breath comes fast as the Skysprinter nears the berserker. How Holo knows which fighters came from which vessels beats me. But I'm glad we're on target.

HoloStarJumper 2612: Slow inhales and exhales. Just focus on what you want to do. And avoid getting shot if you can. I’m disconnecting feed. You’re safer that way. Good luck.

“Thank you, Holo.”

I don’t get a response.

“Holo?”

HoloStarJumper 2612: I heard you.

“Okay. One last thing. Don’t give up.”

HoloStarJumper 2612: …

“Promise me.”

HoloStarJumper 2612: Yes, ma’am.

He sounds reluctant.

“Say it like you mean it.” I’m panicking as the edges of a ship close in. “Holo! I need to hear you say it!”

HoloStarJumper 2612: I won’t! I won’t give up. Be safe. Watch your back.

HoloStarJumper 2612: Disconnected.

I close my eyes and sob once out of fear of what’s ahead. I’ve never interacted so closely with the enemy. They might find me right away. I might not make it off the ship. I don’t know. But I do as Holo said and think of what I want.

Kill Solcrue. Save Thruster. Get off this ship.

First things first…Kill Solcrue.

As the ship sets down, a map of the berserker loads in my helmet. A sealscreen ignites between us and space. I look past the red-hot engines to the floor, then demagnetize my gloves and boots to ease out and look around. Most of the hangar's occupants are at the far end, working on other ships. Sliding to the edge of the tail, I cautiously peer under it and find my pilot speaking with an officer near the hangar's exit.

“Are there any Titans aboard?” I ask the suit’s AI.

A dot appears in a distant room.

“Can you plot a path, avoiding high-traffic areas?”

It gives me a zigzag in green through the map.

Slinging myself over the edge, I ease my body down with surprising control. Holo wasn’t kidding about the suit’s assists. I just hope I don’t have to pee, or I’ll be pissing in my suit. There’s no way I’m getting out of this in time without help.

That’s what that funky smell is in here. I guess when you’re stuck in space for hours, there’s no other way to go.

I grimace as I collect the rifle from my back. Gross.

The navigation takes me through a side door and into a dark maintenance room, where I climb up a ladder to a narrow walkway around the perimeter. I follow it through two cargo bays, up another ladder, and to a security-coded door in an adjoining corridor. Thruster is supposedly in a cell on the other side, but I have no way in.

“I need another path.”

The program charts a route that circles through half of the ship and comes in behind where Thruster is likely at.

She was all that mattered. If everyone is gone, my only purpose is to destroy what I can.

I pause. “Can you identify the voice?”

A program lifts, code running in swirling layers that pulse with the recording.

Voice Type: Titan…Identification Processing.

This is my purpose now. My purpose. Kill them all. Every sentence is broken up like the thoughts are said through pain. Without her I— What’s the point? Nothing is worth anything. Except this. Come on! Why won’t you overheat? Damn Engines.

Voice ID: Thruster, Cosmic Piercer.

The idea that he’s trying to overheat himself and die, whatever the reason, cuts into me. Stop!

ThrusterLocal: Identify yourself, StarJumper.

Starjumper 2612Thruster: Why are you so hellbent on sacrificing yourself? Is it guilt? Over what? Being alive when the others aren’t? Because I think they’d want you to fight, to give these slithery bastards hell!

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: You don’t understand. They have taken everything from me.

Starjumper 2612Thruster: Don’t I?

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: How are you here? I thought you were all destroyed.

Seeing a guard approaching and pulling back the sleeve on his shirt, exposing his wristband, I step back into the shadows. Cloak.

He doesn't seem to notice me as he scans his wristband. The moment he does, I charge out of the shadows and barrel into him. The metal StarJumper's suit makes me far heavier and stronger. We careen through the doorway and to the floor. I rip the wristband off of his arm as he gasps for breath, then I punch him in the face. "That's for taking my man!"

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: Kelta?

There's no time to respond. Six guards are on me quickly, firing warping pulses that glance off of walls and turn the prison into a ping-ponging weave of blast waves. They weren't prepared for my entrance, just like I wasn't ready to greet them. I get up and hide behind a support pillar.

Lifting my rifle, I peek out and see a bullet racing straight for my head. I dart back behind cover, then turn the other way and find an easy target.

The guard falls from my shot with a charred mark on his chest. Someone steps out from behind a rack of torture tools. I turn and fire as I run.

I’m so lucky the suit has good aim.

Rounding the core rooms, toward Thruster’s cell, I find the other four formed up in a squad, chasing my tail. I fire as fast as the gun will let me. They can’t escape or disappear. I want this over now.

The first goes down, then two more. The fourth turns back and fires at me. The fiery plume plants in my chest and shoves me back. Red alerts flash in my vision but quickly subside.

I grin and take one more shot. The fourth drops. Then, I hustle to Thruster's cell, swipe the band, and lug him out.

“Kelta?”

I hug him, then step back. “Sorry if that’s weird.”

He encourages me toward a door in the back of the prison. “I definitely prefer your human body. But I’m more stunned to see you here.”

The doors at the entrance open as we exit into a back passageway, and more guards follow. When we step out of the prison and the door slams between us and the squad, we’re greeted by the barrel of a gun. Thruster launches backward in a blanket of glittering green light.

KillStar narrows her eyes at me. “You—”

She grabs me with one arm and throws me against the wall. My vision spots white, then gray, then shadows of objects. My suit thumps over steps, down, down, then down again.

Metal groans.

I gasp for air, my lungs tight, my body thrumming with pain.

My helmet opens. Water splashes in my face. “Wake up.”

I splutter and spit, unsure if it’s something I want to be drinking. Blinking, I look across the room at her face.

KillStar tilts her head.

“Where’s Thruster?”

She doesn’t respond.

When I try to move, I find something holds my suit in place. I peer down at the metal bars she's looped over me. She's a beast of a cyborg if she can warp metal so easily. She could’ve ripped off my head or every limb.

“Why did you save me from that Welvir?” she asks.

I try to think back through the pounding in my head. I want to sass her with a question about why she’s working for the Solcrue, but by the way she’s got me pinned down, I think it’s best I obey. “You didn’t strike me as a combatant at the time. Welvirs don’t hold back.”

She walks up to me and punches the wall right beside my head, denting it. “I am a soldier!”

I'm not convinced she knows what she is. It's something in her eyes, the way they lack the emotional conviction of someone who understands why they are where they are and why they do what they do.

“You didn’t attack me. You looked human and Titan. I will not hurt either. Both are important.”

She steps back like this is news to her. “Why? And why do you want Thruster?”

"Because they are my family. We help each other, fight for each other, try to make each others' dreams come true."

She curls a lip and looks away like I disgust her.

“Look, my whole family might be stardust by now. I don’t know. We were separated. But I’m not giving up in case they’re still alive. And if they aren’t, I’m making friends along the way that I hold close to me like my family.

"I help them. They help me. That's how we survive. You can't chain that. You can't blow it up. It's just something in our hearts, minds, and souls. So I guess I saved you because that's just who and what I am. It’s the same with Thruster. Take it or leave it."

KillStar stares at me for several breaths, then turns and walks away. She stops at the door leading into an adjoining room, looks back, then leaves it open as she walks away like I'm not a threat to her.

What in the actual fuck?

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: I’m coming for you.

Starjumper 2612Thruster: Stars, I hope so.

He pauses.

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: A dirty comment, now?

Starjumper 2612Thruster: It gets my mind on a topic I like. I think I’ll focus on getting out of here just so I can be with you again. I’m tired of hate ruling me. I want to fight for something good instead of something bad.

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: I’ve found a way in. Just hang tight.

Starjumper 2612Thruster: I am. Literally.

I struggle inside the bars.

A distant clang sends rippling pulses down the corridor.

I hope that’s Thruster. The golden glow that fills the hallway makes me smile.

He bursts into the room. “It’s not good. Three squads on my ass. But I set a bomb. Just need to send the signal. Wanted to find you first.”

“Did you see KillStar?”

“Is she the one that did this to you?” he asks as he pries the bars from my body and helps me out of the web of metal.

“Yes, but she didn’t hurt me, she just…talked to me.”

“What’d she say?”

"Wanted to know why I saved her and want you."

KillStar appears in the doorway, fury in her eyes. “You set a bomb?”

We look over at her.

She lifts a cannon of a gun, then writhes and holds her temple. “Get out of my head!”

Thruster gives me a wild look, slaps my helmet shut, and shields my suit with his body. The gun goes off and tears a hole in the side of the ship. Thruster and I are sucked out.

My heart races as the air pressure leaves, and cold silence surrounds us. My visor flashes with warnings.

ThrusterStarjumper 2612: Your boots are down?

Thruster reads my screen as the alerts feed me the devastating news.

ThrusterStarjumper 2612: You’re in a suit that can’t fly?

I nod and choke up. “It was the only one we had that I knew how to use! I wasn’t going to leave you up there!”

Ice crystals coat Thruster's synthskin.

“Are you going to live?” I ask him.

ThrusterStarjumper 2612: Oh, yeah. This is nothing. But my power is very low.

"You wasted energy trying to hurt yourself when that's exactly what the enemy wants and the opposite of what I want. Never do that again. Please."

ThrusterStarjumper 2612: I was trying to turn myself into a bomb to take out the ship. I thought you died. They told me they killed you, found the Brothers, and knew that we’d found the ship.

“Well, I’m not dead,” I say. “I think it was all lies.”

ThrusterStarjumper 2612: They showed me images.

He holds me tight.

Terror grips me harder than Thruster as we tumble to Ellipsis. It doesn’t matter now what he believed. We’re plummeting toward the planet, and I don’t think he has enough juice to save us. I clutch him against me, wishing there was something I could do.

“I believe in Titans. I believe in you. I believe in us .”

Thruster rests his head against mine.

ThrusterStarjumper 2612: I’m sorry I’ve failed you.

There must be something we have in common, some way I can power him.

StarJumper 2612Holo: Help us!

Ping sent…

The world grows in size as the berserker gets smaller. It still hasn't blown, and I wonder if it's because Thruster is waiting until we're further away. But as a Skysprinter exits a hangar, I wish he would blow it anyway before too many more escape.

HoloStarJumper 2612: How can I help?

StarJumper 2612Holo: Thank the stars! Thruster’s low on power. I have no functioning engines. Is there a way I can transfer suit power to him?

HoloStarJumper 2612: Charging Port in chest plate, near collar. Green to charge. Blue to discharge.

I run my hands over the carapace as we rotate towards Ellipsis’ surface and find the port, but my space gloves are too bulky.

Thruster sees what I’m doing.

ThrusterStarjumper 2612: Hold onto me.

I grab him around the waist, which is much harder in the bulky mech than I like.

He pries the connector free.

ThrusterStarjumper 2612: Do you need power?

“No. You take it.”

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: I’m not doing that. You might suffocate. I can’t control the discharge rate. You could give me too much.

I snatch the plug from his hand, snap it into his side, and then punch the button on my suit.

Thruster fights me, then stops when we drift apart. He catches my wrist and pulls us together again.

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: Kelta, what are you doing? You could suffocate!

I slow my breathing, knowing I’m on limited supply with the regulator down. “I’ve been low on oxygen before. And I trust you. Break me out when we’re in the atmosphere. You’re the only one who can get us down in one piece.”

Thruster’s face screws up as we fall. He braces me against him like I’m already dead.

Seconds later, breathing becomes more difficult. I hear the first ripples of air over my helmet as my mind grows fuzzy and thoughts blur. “I…trust you.”

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: I’ll do everything I can to get us down fast. I can’t lose you.

“In case I don’t make it…”

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: Don’t say that.

“I love you.” Dizziness grips me. If I die, I want him to never doubt his importance or how I feel. “I’m glad… you caught me. Thank you…for life.”

The atmosphere shimmers across my helmet, a faint line between the darkness and the gorgeous blues of air I wish I had.

ThrusterStarJumper 2612: Kelta!