TWO

  Knight Roose leapt at the invader in a blur of speed, a trail of violet fire trailing behind her. The wolf met her with a howl; his black axe split the air at waist height while azure energy covered it. Alice bent at the waist, upper body parallel to the ground, and then kicked straight up with her leg. Her bare heel clicked the invader’s jaw shut with an audible crunch and threw him back down the hall.

  Kon aimed his pistol down the hall, but cursed as the knight reengaged before he could fire. The two forms were a blur, trading blows so fast he struggled to keep up. It was readily apparent, even to his novice eyes, that Knight Roose was clearly superior. Her lack of weapons or armor were slowing her down, her blows not as effective as her fists slammed into the armored breastplate four times in a half second. The wolf just grunted and brought his axe down in an overhand swing that threatened to split Alice in half.

  “Can’t do anything about that fight. I can prep our escape.” Kon turned away from the fight and ran toward the line of escape pods that lined the hallway. Each had a rectangular hatch with a manual lever switch to open it. Emergency drills had made it muscle memory as he grabbed the first handle and pulled down. The green light next to the lever glowed to tell him that there was a good airtight seal on the other side of the hatch.

  Air whooshed as the pneumatic system worked, letting the hermetic seal break and Kon to look at a second hatch, this one on the floor. Kneeling down he grabbed the lever and threw it back letting out a wave of stale air. A three rung ladder led into the single seat escape pod. Kon hopped down without using the ladder and landed heavily in the seat.

  Blank screens stared back at him as he reached over and started the powerup sequence. It wouldn’t take long, they wouldn’t be emergency pods if they did, but it would still take a few seconds. He left the pod as it still warmed up and popped his head out of the hatch to witness the fight. His heart sank.

  Alice was bleeding from a wound above her hip. Red blood ran down her side and over her leg even as her aura flared out, brighter and more dense than ever before. The invader was being pushed back down the hall as he struggled to keep up with the flurry of blows that threatened his existence. Bulkheads were gouged and dented and a few fresh corpses in the sleek black armor of the invaders were on the ground.

  Kon had a job and it wasn’t gawking. He stayed close to the wall and ran toward the next pod and began the process all over again. It took less than a minute but by the time he emerged again the fight had shifted back into the wolf’s favor.

  Alice had another long, deep, cut on her, this time along her bare thigh. As they turned Kon got a glimpse at her frustrated and pale expression. Her flames were weakening, her aura nearly exhausted, and Kon looked back at the pod he had just powered up.

  “I could get out while she’s still distracting him.” Poisonous thoughts filled his mind as fear wove an icy cloak around his heart. His hand trembled as he lifted the pistol up and took aim. He wanted to dive into that pod and escape. He wanted to live.

  He wouldn’t abandon his senior.

  The pistol hummed and then shook as the powerful magnets came to life. The boxy frame heated under his hand and then the 10mm bullet was firing down the hall at subsonic speeds. He aimed for the edge of the wolf’s leg, away from Alice. It was still a hard shot with how much they were moving about, but he was certain the slug should have ripped into the armor without fail.

  A glow of blue fire cloaked the axe as it spun in a sudden reversal and there was a bright spark right above the wolf’s knee. Shock exploded through Kon as he realized the invader had blocked the pistol shot.

  It had pulled his axe out of position though. Alice landed a clean punch on the wolf’s muzzle and ivory teeth went and spilled out across the floor as the wolf was lifted off its feet and thrown into the interior wall. Metal groaned and dented as the invader’s body pressed against it with enough force to create a dent. Alice leapt to finish him off just as a trio of black armored invaders turned the corner, firing randomly and filling the air with bolts of yellow energy.

  Kon ducked back into the escape pod hatch, keeping one eye and the pistol out, and fired as fast as his finger could pull the trigger. The super magnets along the barrel ensured there was no kickback and he could track all three of the invaders with ease as he emptied the magazine in three seconds.

  All three invaders went down, their energy absorbent armor failing to prevent the old school kinetic rounds from ripping through them. A pair of beams had hit Alice in the two seconds they had been active, both scorched trails along her body, leaving a shoulder hanging limply and a blackened spot on her already wounded thigh the size of Kon’s fist.

  The wolf used the momentum shift to recover. He was back in full form even as blood and tooth fragments fell out of his mouth. His fur was drenched in blood and thre was a wild look of hate to his face as he sent Alice back with a flurry of attacks. Kon glanced back at the pod and sighed.

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  “Get to die here, I guess.” he prepared to throw himself into the fight when he heard Alice sigh.

  “I hate regrowing limbs,” Alice muttered angrily just as her smooth evasions stuttered. It was all it took for the dark axe to split skin, muscle and bone. Alice’s wounded arm fell from her torso and blood poured out in great spurts as she grunted in pain.

  Kon etched the look of horror the wolf had on its face into his memory. The blow had been too aggressive and had taken the invader out of position, his body exposed to Alice’s retaliation. She kicked him in the side, her aura flaring brightly right as the blow landed. Metal screeched as it was bent inward, a deeper crater than the last hit, and the wolf tried to stand.

  Alice arrived before he could recover, one foot snap kicking to hit the axe holding wrist and pinned it to the wall. She gripped the wolf’s head with her only hand and smiled grimly at him with blood stained teeth. She dented the wall further using the wolf’s skull until there was nothing left in her hand but bits of fur and bone. Alice’s aura flicker and disappeared and her legs buckled as she collapsed next to her vanquished foe.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Kon said as he ran toward her. He pulled the emergency bag off his back as he skidded to a halt next to her, already ripping supplies out. Alice looked up at him with half clouded eyes, exhaustion and pain weighing her down, and she grimaced as she looked down at herself.

  “I’m a mess. Think you can get me that axe though. It was a good axe.” She was half delirious as Kon pulled the bulky, red, emergency aid kit out. A white cross decorated the front and a distant part of his mind wondered why first-aid kits had the cross on it.

  “Synth-skin to stop the bleeding, ma’am. Please don’t kill me,” Kon asked politely as he grabbed the knight’s thigh and put the bandage over it. Hot blood coated his hand and her legs were slick as he tried to clear the area around the slash as fast as he could to apply the bandage. Alice just grunted, her breathing having deepened, and Kon could feel the pull around him as she tried to meditate. There was just so little mana in space.

  Synth-skin bandages were long rectangular pieces of cloth that had an anti-bacterial coating that also had minor regenerative properties along with a localized anticoagulant that could slow bleeding. They worked well in conjunction with nanite shots that would promote increased blood flow and help seal wounds from the inside.

  It took a few minutes and nearly all the synth-skin bandages in the emergency kit to cover Alice’s wounds. She had taken more than just the axe blows, thin shallow cuts ranged up her remaining arm, across her stomach and down both legs. Kon glanced over at the headless invader and saw the blood coating its free hand. Claw wounds.

  The stump of her arm took three bandages to cover and even then the bandages were steeped red in moments. Kon worried about that but he had to believe that the nanite shot would keep her alive. She was starting to nod off, eyes draped close and her body swaying as her breathing grew shallow and erratic.

  “Alice! Alice! You have to stay awake! I’m going to give you a nanite shot, it’s going to sting!” he yelled into her ear, but got no response. Pressing the silver cylinder against her neck, he pressed down on the yellow injector button and the entire cylinder hummed for a split second before he felt the mechanism jerk in his hand. He knew from reading the manuals that a trio of thick needs had just rammed themselves into Alice and deposited millions of nanites into her bloodstream.

  She jerked awake and her head snapped around as her eyes bulged in fear and pain. Her eyes caught sight of him and narrowed as her breathing grew normal and she groaned slightly.

  “Get me on my feet and into one of those pods. They’ll have a camp set up already,” Alice’s voice was a near whisper as he wedged his shoulder under her remaining arm and strained to get her on her feet. She was a heavy woman, packed full of muscle and dense bone, and they staggered together to the closest pod.

  Getting her down into its depths was a bit of work, but he got her settled and strapped into the seat. Her eyes were closing already but her pale appearance had gained a bit of color to it and her breathing had normalized.

  “Don’t forget my axe,” she whispered as she passed out. Kon paused as he worked the settings in the escape pod and looked at the crazy knight. She was bleeding out in a burning spaceship and all she seemed to care about was getting her trophy. He finished with the settings, locking the pod's internal navigation system onto the closest shuttle’s tracking beacon he could find.

  With the countdown timer set for twenty seconds, he ran back up the ladder and sealed the hatch behind him. The computer would do it automatically, but with the state of the ship, he didn’t want to leave it to chance. Racing toward his abandoned emergency gear, he hastily threw it all back in the big duffle back before dutifully grabbing the axe.

  It was a hefty peace of steel and he grunted in effort as he had to use both hands to pick it up. He tossed it all down into his own pod as he sealed the hatch behind him and slaved his own navigation system to Alice’s. She had launched moments ago and already rocketed downward to the planet. Buckles clicked as he got his harness situated just as he was shoved back into his seat as the escape pod raced out of the short chute and into space.

  Interior panels lit up in front of him, showing the limited data that could be displayed by the weak sensors along the craft. Kon took it all in at a quick glance and then was forced to reread it all.

  Alice’s pod was following a shuttle’s beacon. A shuttle that no longer had engines running or life support. Or was even in one piece. It was following the piece of the shuttle that had broken apart and still had the beacon as it fell toward a different part of the world than the rest of the survivors were headed to.

  His fingers ran over the controls, but this was an escape pod, not a shuttle. He couldn’t remotely access Alice’s pod and have it locked onto another pod. She’d have to do that herself. And she was passed out in her seat. Defenseless and wounded. Kon groaned as he realized he couldn’t abandon the injured knight.

  His pod followed hers toward the mass of black clouds that blocked out his view of the planet. Kon hoped that the pods were rated for atmospheric entry.