《Sand, Clouds, and Steel》Chapter 5: Asher Rivet
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Asher Rivet
Heat washed over me from the gunner section as Ava fired the weapon mounted on the airplane. I had never heard of a weapon that could cause such destruction. Had it been another airplane or even a crawler, we would have won the battle in an instant.
“Are you okay back there!?” I called worried for Ava.
“A little shaken, and I have a nice tan now, but fine all the same,” Ava called back. To her credit, her voice only cracked twice. I’m not sure I would have kept my composure had I fired a weapon like that.
I turned my attention back to the sky in front of me, but couldn’t help but mumbled. “Seriously, where the hell did this thing come from?” A glint in the sky drew my eye, as what looked like a man with wings came flying out of the storm. He was headed directly for us. “Ava! We have incoming!”
“I see it!”
I spun the plan so she would have a clear shot. It stopped then started to drop like a stone. “Shit! The crawler!” I jerked the stick and angled towards the creature. I was about to open fire with the mounted machine guns, when the creature stopped again. It held out its hand and what looked like a ball of fire lanced towards the sand worm that was tightening its grip around the crawler.
There was a small explosion when it struck the already wounded section on its member. I pulled up just as I was about to hit the creature. The creature started to drop again but this time I could see it was clearly aiming at the worm. There was an spray of gore as the thing hit the creature and plunged inside of it.
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“I guess its on our side for now?” I suggested to Ava. There was some motion from the crawler as the large pile drivers that had shot into the ground suddenly retracted. The crawler could start moving again, but the sand worm was in the way. “Think you can control that weapon a bit better now?”
“Yeah!” Ava called back.
“Fire two quick blast so that the section in front of the crawler gets hurt. Maybe it will dive under the sand and give it a chance to escape.”
“Got it! I’ll give it a try!”
I angled the plane and brought us around so that the front of the crawler was to the side. A few seconds later, there was another outpouring of heat as Ava fired. The beam sliced through the air faster than any bullet before it slammed into the sandworm. Steaming blood fountained into the air as she made her first cut.
Doing a roll, I lined her up for the second cut. The heat around the plane was already to unbearable levels, so it must be even hotter next to the weapon. Ava fired again and finished her cut. We held our breaths until the sandworm seemed to decide that the crawler wasn’t worth the pain it had suffered.
With an eruption of sand, the sandworm managed to sink faster than I would have thought possible. The crawler immediately accelerated sending its own eruption of sand around it. I didn’t fail to notice a few pieces of the crawler falling from its sudden acceleration. I just hoped they weren’t to systems that were important to the operation of the crawler.
A crackling noise suddenly filled the cabin before it cleared up to an almost understandable level. “Ash… Can… hear m…”
I grabbed the radio and quickly replied. “Fortitude!? Can you hear me? You were breaking up pretty heavily there.”
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It crackled again before the voice returned. “Asher?! Can you hear me?!”
“Mom?” I asked surprised. I coughed. “Yes.”
“Thank god. Tell… the situat…”
“You’re still breaking up, but I’ll assume you said situation.” I looked down to make sure the sandworm was really gone. “The sandworm seems to be fleeing, but I’m saying that with a grain of salt. A creature from the Vortex appeared and attacked the worm.” I looked up at the storm in question. It had more than tripled in size, and I swore I saw glimpses of what looked like an island inside it. “The Vortex is still growing rapidly but has slowed considerably.”
“We got most of that, Asher. Good job up there.” There was a pause. “We’ve decided that you and Ava are now an official crew. That bird is yours so take care of it.”
I glanced back at Ava who had a bewildered expression. I was inclined to agree with her. Even if they were injured, we still had four other pairs that we more trained, not to mention older than us. There must be a reason behind mother’s decision. “Understood. What would command like us to do?”
“How much fuel do you have left?” a man’s voice replaced my mothers.
Throwing another glance at Ava, I decided to fudge the numbers a bit. “Just about an hours’ worth give or take a few minutes,” I replied. We actually had several days worth if the gauge was to be believed.
“Good. We need you to know what's going on with the pirates we saw earlier."
“Eric! You can't make them…” the transmission cut out again, though it sounded on purpose this time as my mom started arguing with the others on the command line.
I shook my head, no matter what we needed this information. “You okay with us going?” I looked back and found Ava had bright pink skin. That was going to hurt for the next couple days… or weeks.
“Let’s get it done.”
I tapped the radio. “Don’t worry mom. We got this.”
The line was silent for a few more seconds before she responded. “Be careful!”
Placing the radio back, I adjusted some of the settings then looked to the Vortex. It would be fastest to through the beast, but I had never piloted through a storm before. Maybe next time, the thought making my heart beat faster in excitement. Banking left, I accelerated while watching the winds that were washing off the storm bank.
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