Tiera’s Type-VI descended from out of the black of the night sky like a swooping hawk onto Joe’s smaller Type-3. Mac tried to feel bad for the guy, he really did. But the way Joe’s suit was absolutely face planted into the dirt and was held there by the larger type-VI only made him smile. That should take the annoying prig down a notch. It could hardly have been an accident that Joe was the one to suffer the first impact.

  “Start running!” Mac commanded his bolt as he followed his own advice.

  “One, you want us to just leave him there?” Scruffy questioned.

  “Do you have the skill to take down that type-VI?” Mac replied even as he increased his distance. “Split up and make it harder for it to catch you.”

  “We get attacked by a large enemy, and you want us to split up?” the noble elf directly questioned his bravery.

  “You think there’s only one of them?” Mac shot back as he dashed away.

  “Run, run as fast as you can,” Tiera’s now creepy sing-song voice taunted over their comms. “I’m hunting noobs in old tin cans.” She perched on top of Joe’s battle suit like a falcon seeking her next target. Tiera Sardonyx sounded like she was having far too much fun, which technically speaking, should have been impossible for a trollip.

  “This is soooo not right,” Seven commented as he reluctantly turned to follow Mac.

  “She’s absolutely off her rocker,” Eighty-eight added as he too began very quickly figuring out how to put one step in front of the other as rapidly as possible.

  Several of the battle suits tripped over themselves or collided as they attempted to turn and run. Others just plain careened haphazardly through the trees bouncing off or through the trunks like some preschool teacher had just told her children to hide and started counting.

  Tiera pounced on one of the fallen suits and then rocketed up into the sky. “Do you know how a red hawk teaches its fledgling to fly?” Mac could hear her sadistic grin through the comms.

  “Of course, it would be me,” Scruffy accepted his situation fatalistically as the stars grew uncomfortably closer and clearer in the cold night air. The feel of talons in his back suddenly faded, and a moment later he had that gut wrenching sensation of weightlessness accompanied by a clear view of the distant lights of the major city he had recently arrived in.

  “Not good,” the elf commented concisely as gravity began to reassert itself.

  “Better learn to fly, baby bird,” the shock leader taunted over the comms.

  “Move, Move, Move!” Mac ordered as he weaved through the trees with most of his bolt following him.

  The blue light of another descending type-V glinted from his left immediately followed by the sound of crunching metal.

  “Aaiiieee!” cried Seven from the surprising amount g’s as he was lifted up into the sky.

  “Shock leader, I found a baby seal. What should I do with it?” The type V pilot asked rhetorically even as it ascended.

  “Do you think it can fly?” Tiera called back playfully.

  “Why don’t we find out.”

  It was right about then that Scruffy started cursing over the comms.

  “Two, try voice commands,” Mac suggested as the trees rushed past him increasingly faster. The AI was feathering his thrusters for longer strides.

  “Interceptor class descending on our position,” Haley broke in. Apparently, that still wasn’t going to be fast enough.

  “Give me a fix on it, Haley,” Mac replied. The feeling that touched his brain next was not exactly disorienting, but it was certainly… intrusive. It was best described as a map Mac could feel in his head rather than see with his eyes. This had to be the renowned second sight boasted about for Type-3’s but never incorporated into later versions for some undisclosed reason.

  Mac waited until just the last second then rolled to the side as the hunting battle suit pounced on his last position kicking up a plume of dirt and rotten undergrowth. Mac regained his feet and sprayed a few rounds of training ammo in the general direction of the unseen attacker. He was rewarded by the sight of several sparks lighting up from contact. Time to leave.

  Mac turned his attention back to running for his life, but then he noticed the awkward presence riding lightly on his back with its arms wrapped around his chest.

  “Hey there, Handsome,” said Haley from his right shoulder. “Nice moves dodging that attack.

  To say Mac was a bit startled would be an understatement. “Don’t look at it. Don’t look at it,” Mac warned himself silently.

  “Don’t look at what?” Haley asked curiously.

  Mac couldn’t help but glance to his right. The aethereal, transparent face of a beautiful, twenty-something, wide-eyed young woman smiled back at him. Shining energy defined her features and hair, which flew back in the wind supposedly from his passing.

  “Oh look. Someone else wants to play with us,” Haley glanced upward drawing Mac’s eyes and senses up into the night sky. Sure enough, Mac more felt than saw the descending predator. He once again dodged at the last minute and came up firing dummy rounds at his attacker who had landed so close that he could make out the features of the pilot’s face through the very familiar cockpit.

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  “Almost had you there, laddie.” Amethyst teased.

  Nessie was her battle suit?! “Ohhh…” realization finally dawned on Mac. It all made sense. What smile that remained on his face quickly faded with the blood as the ramifications of that knowledge set in.

  “I hope you’re getting along with Haley,” Amethyst taunted in her adorable accent.

  “Well enough,” Mac replied as he back pedaled from the superior opponent seemingly bent on his destruction.

  “Really,” Amethyst sounded genuinely surprised. Mac noted her beginning to swing her cannon arm around in a slow, intentionally telegraphed motion.

  “Haley, please plot us a high speed, low altitude course out of here,” Mac requested.

  “Plotted,” Haley replied beside his ear in a focused tone of voice.

  “Engage.”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Haley replied happily as Mac watched Amethyst’s face disappear in the distance.

  Five seconds later, Mac felt his suit auto orient his legs and lean him over to permit him to skid to a halt.

  “Maneuver complete,” Haley replied surprisingly seriously from over his shoulder. Mac wasn’t sure if it had been better when Haley was just inside his mind. “Displaying bolt,” she spoke gently into his ear before he could request it aloud.

  At least four of them were moving. Okay three of them were moving and one was spinning around as if in free fall. The icon stopped spinning suddenly and an, “Oof” echoed over the comms.

  “Take that one up for another flight,” Tiera practically giggled over the comms.

  “Oh, please no, not again,” Scruffy nearly cried.

  “Here comes that red-haired witch,” Haley alerted Mac to the approaching light glimmering through the trees by pointing a dimmed version of a female hand so as not to overpower the light of Nessie’s rockets.

  “Haley, I’ll take suggestions,” Mac offered nervously.

  “You, will?” Haley’s voice sounded surprisingly hopeful in his ear.

  “Hurry, please,” Mac chided the AI.

  “Homing rockets, holo-flares, cannon?” Haley answered dutifully as the attacker drew nearer. “Rockets ready,” the AI read his mind before he could even vocalize his answer. “On your command targeting right thruster.”

  “Fire.”

  “One away,” Haley reported. “Readying holo-flare. Recommend you relax your core for supplemental evasion maneuver.”

  Mac watched as Amethyst picked the first rocket out of the sky with a sweep of light cannon fire… Then picked up speed straight at him.

  Mac closed his eyes and allowed himself to sag a bit, “Get us out of the way, Haley.”

  The sudden movement was more substantial than Mac expected. He could see in his mind’s eye as his suit left an image of itself behind for Nessie to charge into. The waiting tree took the brunt of the hit and collapsed. Mac felt three homing rockets release from the launcher over his left shoulder, and the word “Error” blinked across his mind a split second later.

  A beautiful North Anglic giggling wafted across a private channel into Mac’s mind followed by, “Rockets need time to properly arm, laddie. Ten meters at minimum., thirty on default setting.”

  Amethyst swung her cannon around. “Lower haptics!” Mac urged the AI.

  “As if,” Haley replied stubbornly.

  “Dragon Scales,” Mac cursed as he instinctively flinched.

  A glint of deep red flashed across his vision just before Nessie was tackled to the ground in a rolling melee.

  “Natalia?” Mac voiced even as he broke into a run to escape.

  “You’re just leaving me?” the vampire replied in obvious shock and disappointment over the comms.

  “It’s the sky for you, lassie,” Amethyst warned and she grabbed a hold of Natalia’s battle suit and launched off the ground.

  “I’m sorry,” Mac replied apologetically and a bit belatedly as Haley guided him through the trees.

  Mac’s second vision kept an eye on the two other battle suits as they spiraled upwards into the darkness and then released their bond shortly before the apex, but Natalia didn’t fall.

  “The sky is mine, wench,” Natalia threatened and then dove at Amethyst.

  Nessie maneuvered easily above the strike and then dropped a hammer blow onto the back of Natalia’s suit, sending her plummeting back to earth like fallen goddess. “Good luck getting your rockets back after that, lassie,” Amethyst scoffed. “And don’t for a wee moment think you’ve gotten off Pict-free, laddie,” Amethyst advised him as her rockets flared from her perch in the night sky.

  “Are we cloaked?” Mac asked Haley.

  “Can’t do that, but we are at low power and concealed by terrain,” Haley replied before ruffling his hair affectionately. It only partially disguised the fresh rifling feeling across his brain.

  “We got this, Mac,” Haley advised him.

  “Define ‘this’, please,” Mac replied a touch annoyed.

  “Survival with minimum damages,” Haley replied sweetly. “It is your prime objective, even though it should really be strengthening your bond with me.”

  “I’ve got a bolt of people out there, too,” Mac reminded the AI with false bravado. “I’d like the same for them.” It was punctuated by the scream of someone else plummeting helplessly through the night sky.

  “Engage your AI and request flight,” Mac called into the comms if for no other reason than to prove his previous statement. Haley should have routed it correctly.

  “Open comms will reveal our position,” Haley responded…fearfully?... into his ear. It sure felt like she clutched his chest a bit tighter.

  “We know how to fly. We’ll be fine,” Mac soothed the AI and patted the ethereal arm about his chest.

  “It’s not the flying that worries me, it’s the initial grappling,” Haley explained. “I don’t want to get damaged again. It’s hard to keep a pilot after something traumatic like that.”

  “I won’t leave you,” Mac assured the AI with the full depressing realization that Amethyst would never let him pilot Nessie again. If he wanted a battle suit, Haley was his only option.

  “Really?” Haley sounded cautiously hopeful. “You promise?” Mac could feel her ethereal arms tighten around his chest and her head against his own in what felt like a super clingy hug.

  “I promise,” Mac replied hurriedly, trying to look around the battle space for the threats he knew were out there somewhere. They could be stalking him even now.

  Haley released her grip to stand in front of him revealing kindly—if not a touch thin—proportions clothed in an ethereal sundress. She had placed her hands on her hips, and a questioning look had taken up residence on her face. Had she not been a ghostly image of light, Haley would have been the prettiest girl Mac had ever seen, even if she was a bit on the short side. She peered inquisitively up at him; wide, expressive eyes met his own over a well-portioned nose, and pouty lips relaying her present displeasure.

  “I promise,” Mac repeated. “You can stay with me.”

  “I’m turning up the haptics,” Haley decided with a curt nod of her head.

  “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Mac spread his hands out in front of him, “I just said…”

  “I know what you said,” the AI interrupted. “I have perfect memory.”

  “But…”

  “We’re in this together,” A faint smile graced her ethereal lips. She spread her arms and twirled toward him, stopping as her head landed against his chest. “This is the part where you give me a reassuring hug and tell me everything’s going to be alright.”

  “Don’t you have that backwards?”

  “The AI looked back up at him with wide pleading eyes that seemed to course with miniscule ones and zeros. “Please keep me.”

  Mac reached out and tentatively hugged the image leaning into his chest. She felt surprisingly warm.

  “I can make your heart beat more efficiently,” Haley snuggled closer even as Mac nervously tried to scan his surroundings. “I could also make it stop.” Mac’s eyes widened in terror as he glanced down at the delicate female leaning into his chest.