Sam twists the Machine’s arm and I can
hear the metal tearing and twisting. He grabs the Machine’s arm with his other
hand and uses them both to yank off the Machine’s arm.
As Sam tosses it aside, the Machine
punches Sam into the air with his other fist. I would have tried to help, but
at this point, I have pretty much had it.
Not that the Machine gets a break either.
Darrac flies over the Machine again,
this time with a trail of over twenty micro-missiles following him. Most of
them slam into the Machine before it can react with only three going over the
Machine’s head.
The Machine staggers backwards following
the explosion, the armour and lasers on its chest a useless mess.
Then Sam zooms back down and grabs the
Machine’s remaining arm with both hands. He gives it a good pull, yanking out and
tossing it aside like he did with the other. Sam reaches down and rips away the
remaining chest armour from the Machine.
Sensing it isn’t going to beat to Sam, the
Machine uses its flight abilities to zoom along the deck and off the carrier.
Sam appears to be about to pursue, but
takes one look at me and lands next to me. He puts a hand out for me and I
grasp it with my left as my right arm is disabled.
“You’re in bad shape,” notes Sam.
“He had me on the ropes several times,”
I say, “Without Spartan or Darrac, I would have been killed before you got
here.”
“What were you doing here before the
Machine came?” asks Sam with a glance at Spartan, who has landed not too far
away.
I give Spartan a look and we lock eyes
before I reply, “Nothing important.”
Darrac lands on the ground next to us.
He’ is also pretty banged up.
“We should leave,” says Darrac matter of
factly.
“I agree,” I reply, “Lantern, you need
to carry me. The Machine took out my rocket pack early on.”
“Okay,” says Sam as he hooks his arms
underneath my armpits.
***
I let Vance fly while I make some
repairs to the armour in the Star
Guardian. The ship doesn’t have the full resources of the lab back at base,
but I can get the right arm of the Sentinel armour working again.
Mia got off at Sydney in Australia, her
home city. We left her in the hands of the local heroes and authorities. Darrac
took the Dust Corsair back to space
while we headed home.
“What do you think will be waiting for
us back home?” Sam asks me as we near the British Isles.
“Mary wanted to borrow Narszara for a
mission and it’s pretty late so our parents might be worried.”
“Not mine,” says Sam, “Mum never
married.”
“My mum knows, but my dad and sis
don’t,” I say, “I’m going to be spending tomorrow getting the
Sentinel armour back
in working order.”
“I’m sure somebody will have an
explanation for us to fall back on,” says Sam confidently, “Did you use your
money to buy the stuff from Mia?”
I shake my head, “No. I used the
Sentinel’s account. Using Daniel Griffin’s account would have been too traceable
and just plain stupid.”
By the time we land, I have gotten both
of the armour’s lasers working again in addition to the left arm’s sonics. The
sonics of the right arm have been almost utterly destroyed and need to be
rebuilt from scratch.
This means it’s going to be a while
before Narszara’s suit is built.
I wonder what Narszara is doing now?
“Narszara,” I call her my comm.
“Yes milord?” comes the swift reply.
“How did your day go?” I ask her,
“Because the Sentinel armour needs some serious repairs. We’re going to have to
delay starting on your new armour.”
“I have aided the Defenders in repulsing
an attempt by the Baglio Syndicate to gain a foothold in this nation,” replies
Narszara, “What is the damage to the Sentinel armour?”
“Right sonic and rocket pack completely
destroyed,” I answer, “The lasers and left sonic will need more serious repairs
to be bought back to fully functioning. The helmet and HUD need fixing and
entire outer armour needs replacing. The right arm also needs more extensive repairs
as well.”
“Sounds like our upcoming days will be
busy,” replies Narszara, “What happened?”
“The trip went well,” I reply, trying to
make it sound like nothing major happened, “Then we got involved in fight
between two groups of Sektain separatists. Next we made friends with some space
pirates and I bought a good haul of Sektain equipment. I’m quite please with
that. We went home with our new space pirate friends and investigated a couple
of signals. An oil platform and Spartan’s aero-carrier.Spartan and his bounty
hunters tried to capture me and my space pirate ally. It went poorly for them.
Then the Machine showed up and beat up a few times. Darrac saved me a few
times. Than Lantern showed up and save me and totally defeated the Machine
again. We headed back home for proper after that.”
I pause for a moment.
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