“Come in, Andy," Johns said as he turned the steering yoke slightly and slowly veered away from the other Monstro.

  “Andy here. Hey, this is getting bad, man. I just narrowly avoided taking a harpoon to my tire, but they’re coming around for another pass.”

  “Nothing has changed. You know what comes next.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I got it. Opening bay doors. Do your thing."

  Zed realized with growing dread that Johns had allowed him to hear the exchange. He could have easily left Zed out. He wanted Zed to wonder and worry about what was coming next.

  Out the cockpit window, Zed could see the rooftop loading bay doors on Andy’s Monstro fold open, exposing the interior to Mars’s thin atmosphere. He didn’t envy whoever was tasked with cleaning out the fine Martian dust, assuming they survived.

  A moment later, Johns sealed the cockpit hatch, and Zed glanced through the porthole to glimpse the roof of their own cargo bay folding open.

  Johns adjusted the voice link again. “Thabisa, this is your final warning. Pull back, or the blood that’s spilled will be on your hands, not mine.”

  “I can’t do that, Johns, and you know it. You’ve crossed a line.”

  “Fair, but I’d rather not have to cross another.”

  There was silence on the line. Then, the unmistakable vibration of a harpoon making contact somewhere to the rear. Johns scowled.

  “So be it.”

  They were within sight of the launch complex now. From the ground, there wasn’t much to see. The three landing pads had been built in and around three craters that lay in a rough triangle. The crater walls acted as a natural barrier for the rocket exhaust, but additional excavations and 3D printing had created useful tunnels and platforms.

  There was a building in the center that had been printed as a hub for the three pads and a dock for ground vehicles.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Hold on to something, boy; this could be a little rough,” Johns said as he interacted with something in his CIG.

  Zed looked back toward the other Monstro. For a moment, he thought he saw a belch of dark smoke emerging from the top hatch. As the dark shape spread, he realized it wasn’t smoke, but rather a swarm of modified drones. Without thinking about it, Zed realized he had used his altered eyes to zoom in on the drones. He could now see in excruciating detail exactly how the drones had been altered.

  "God, no," Zed gasped.

  One of the drones shot up into the sky, only to flip over and descend with terrible speed at the nearest Chariot with a connected cable. The drone missed by a few feet, but the ensuing explosion severed the cable and flipped the Chariot, sending its rider spinning into the dirt.

  Chaos ensued as the pursuers realized what was going on. Chariots veered away from the crowd of drones that began to rain down around them. Several more Chariots were flipped by explosions in near misses.

  One of the Chariots with a cable trailing from Andy’s Monstro started to wobble as they attempted to back away. The order must have come through for them to back off, but the two figures in turtle suits were struggling to free themselves.

  As if in slow motion, Zed saw another drone zip into the sky and do a powered fall as the pair of riders looked up in horror.

  A violent explosion of fire and metal sent bodies flying through the air and out of Zed’s sight. He looked on helplessly as the explosion played out before him, melding with what he’d seen and felt when Alina had died in much the same way.

  A whispered prayer escaped Zed’s lips. “Please let them be okay, I beg you.”

  Pushing off with all his might, cast be damned, Zed threw himself across the cockpit and slammed into Johns, knocking them both into the window and causing the Monstro to swerve wildly.

  With his right arm, Johns tossed Zed back against the far side of the cockpit. He landed with a gasp as his back crunched against the window. He dropped at an awkward angle into the co-pilot chair, struggling to catch his breath.

  “That was your one and only shot, boy. I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t need you conscious for this little excursion either. Keep that in mind. Besides, I’m not even the one controlling the drones. That’s your man Andy,” Johns said, gesturing to the other Monstro. “I know this upsets you, but as I told Thabisa, this violence didn’t have to happen. It’s on them now.”

  “Do you really believe what you’re saying?” Zed replied weakly, still struggling to refill his lungs.

  “They were warned, and these are the consequences,” Johns said with cold assurance. “I think they’re finally getting the message, though. Hear that?”

  Zed listened. The groaning noises of the cable that had been pulling at them a few moments earlier had ceased. Cables still trailed from Andy’s Monstro, but there were no Chariots at their ends.

  Johns got back on the voice link. “That’ll do, Andy. Save whatever drones you’ve got left; we may yet need them.”