Emissary
Chapter 4 - The Deserter

A fennec male walked through the bulkhead and onto the bridge of a small freighter. The ship was shaped like a "T" with the longer point of the T serving as the ship's bow, a cluster of thrusters pointing aft at the center of the cross of the T and the outriggers that stabilized it forming the horizontal portion of a T. The pilot had just finished taking a shower after a long haul towards home and he was still scrubbing at a wet spot of fur behind his big fluffy ears when the hum of the slip drive cut off in a thunderous crash as the ship reverted into real space sooner than intended.

"What in blazes-" The captain and lone occupant of the vessel began to swear as radiant blazes of energy flashed past his viewport, scoring the hull before he could slide into the pilot's seat and kick the ship into motion and evade. "Bloody hell! Whole army out here." He dove and dipped towards the planet, his intended destination, and tried not to think about the growing cloud of interceptors behind him. If he could get into the atmosphere, he stood a better chance of losing them. Out here? He was a sitting duck.

He flicked the switch to fire up the shield generators and was dismayed to see a blinking red light tell him that shields were a no-go. So much for diligent maintenance, Ryn. He told himself. Seeing a gap in the invading force's fleet, the pilot rolled his ship and pulled up, exposing his hull's stronger belly to the following ships and making for the gap, which just so happened to be along the hull of one of the invading dreadnaught-sized ships. His fur stood on end as he got closer to the ship, an electric haze bleeding from the larger ship's shield generators.

With a wild spin, he broke away from the ship and dove straight for the planet, juking as he went in hopes of saving his hull any further damage. He knew he should have double checked the shield generator before leaving. He told himself he could beat himself up later if he survived. Flicking on the sensor array mounted on top of his ship, he was pleased to get a solid readout and and displeased to find that the invaders had already hit the city. Numerous explosions, pockets of fires and crumbling buildings, and fast moving metal objects characterized the city he had once called home. His colony was under attack. It was time to make those who had done it pay.

Diving into the monstrous skyscrapers of the city, he saw one of his four pursuers collide with a skyscraper and blink off his radar. He grinned. This is going to be easy. He pulled back on his throttle and slowed the ship down, turning into a tighter gap between two more buildings and two more pursuers crashed. Problem was, one of them made it and was frying his hull now. Burning bolts began drilling his ship and without any space to maneuver in, he was left with nothing to do but speed up and hope. Holding his control stick steady, the fennec increased his speed and shot towards the edge of the buildings. He broke free and looked left as a red and white mech suit raced towards him. Rolling, he narrowly avoided the suit and he looked in the rear viewscreen as a white and blue mech suit crashed into the pursuing interceptor, destroying the smaller vessel.

"Unidentified vessel! State your allegiance!" A firm voice came through the communicator.

The pilot flicked on his microphone and grunted, "My own. I'm just here to make sure my colony doesn't burn down under your diligent defense. And surely you recognize the Motherwill."

The communicator was silent for a long moment. The voice came back with a much harsher tone, "Deserter. We need all the help we can get, but you're not it. Get yourself to ground or get lost."

"No can do, mech. They'll tear me up down there. Tell ya what, I'll stay close and you can keep an eye on me so you know I won't "run" again." The pilot rolled and pulled the ship up to follow the flight path of the two mech suits. One definitely looked inexperienced as it swayed and moved far too mechanically for a trained pilot. The fennec grinned, "And from the looks of things, you really are taking any help you can get."

He was met with silence but at least he wasn't being yelled at any more. He worked to keep up with the mechs, his own freighter being about twice the size of a mech made it somewhat difficult. Fact was, his ship was big enough to carry one of them in its hold. Originally, that's what his ship had been for.

Curtly, the voice came back through the communicator, "Another wave. Think you can be useful, Ryn the Deserter?"

Gripping his controls a little tighter, Ryn grinned to himself, "Bet on it." S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FindNøvᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The next wave of invading craft opened fire, a mixture of laser fire and missile barrages. Ryn slipped his ship sideways with maneuvering thrusters and opened fire with his bow guns, sending bursts of blazing energy back at the invaders. Two were consumed by the fire and vaporized while three more got singed or scored, falling out of formation or exploding after a struggle to regain control. The two mechs took advantage of the disarray and tore through the wave of fighters. Two dozen attackers were quickly reduced to four fleeing survivors. The mechs and Ryn's ship, the Motherwill, turned and flew back down towards the city to regroup.

"So. You do know how to stand and fight. Come on, day's not over."

Ryn glared at the red and white mech through his viewport. "Deep breaths, Ryn. Deep breaths. You could fry him. Nobody would know..." Pushing his ship into pursuit, Ryn followed his unlikely allies back into the city and to the next fight.

As they raced along, Ryn kept his eyes on nearby buildings, hoping to find one particular structure and ensure it was intact. Breaking slightly from the group and pulling into a familiar block of buildings, Ryn felt his heart sink when he saw his former home had become little more than a crater, the skyscraper dotted with blown out glass and shredded superstructure. Fires burnt all through the building and he took a deep, shuddering breath. He flicked on his communicator to a private frequency, "Mom? Sis? You alive in there?"

The communicator answered with static. He had his answer. Turning his ship back into formation with the combat mechs, Ryn set his eyes on the next cloud of attacking ships.

"What was that about, Motherwill? Get lost?" The voice came on again.

Ryn scowled and flicked off the communicator. He opened fire on the swirling mass of ships, careful not to hit any of the defending mech suits but very narrowly missing his red and white escort. Get lost yourself, bastard. Ryn thought as he aced one assault craft after another.

Racing through the melee, he drew the attention of several interceptors who looked thirsty for a larger, easier target. Just as intended. They chased after the Motherwill and seemed to forget that he wasn't alone. The clumsy blue and white mech chased after the Motherwill and began picking off the pursuers. Ryn grunted to himself, Not bad, not great. Once the last one of his pursuers exploded, Ryn pulled the ship around and almost ran into the mech. He got a close look at the thing as it clumsily reversed direction and flew backwards in front of him. Bipedal, human-like, though the "head" was more of a convex dome instead of any kind of head analog. Angular stabilizers were affixed to the mech and would have kept it stable were it in skilled hands. As it was, it tumbled and shook awkwardly as wind resistance hit the stabilizers at odd angles.

Ryn stared at the "head" of the mech suit and imagined the pilot was staring back at him. Shaking his head, he increased his throttle and forced the pilot to dive underneath him. He wasn't keen on a staring contest and regardless, after today, he wouldn't be seeing any of these people ever again. The moment this invading force broke enough for him to leave, he was gone. His home was destroyed and his family lost; he had no reason to remain here.

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