Jasper and Gondo sat in her apartment, discussing their strategy in the coming operation to take down the Astral Engineering Core once and for all.

  “You really think this plan is gonna work?” Jasper held the glass of high-end bourbon in front of her face, swishing it around and peering through it. They were the better part of their way through the bottle, and a warm haze had settled over Gondo.

  “It’s the best one we’ve got, so far,” he said, reaching for the jug to top off their drinks.

  There was a loud crash and the bottle exploded, taking most of Gondo’s hand with it. Even in his inebriation his instincts clicked into place, harnessing his focus immediately.

  The dull cloud of the bourbon vanished. He shut off the pain screaming from his hand as he made his way to the floor. A stream of bullets bounced off the psychic shield he had hurriedly encased himself in.

  Jasper was already on the ground and seemingly unharmed, launching jagged bolts of electricity out the shattered window. Gondo turned his gaze that way and saw a nightmare lurking in the shadows, fire blooming from its many arms.

  Amidst the gunfire he heard a hollow “TOONK” noise and something bounced off his shield. A moment later the back half of the apartment exploded, pushing him closer to the destroyed window, and the deep dark drop beyond.

  A beam of energy swept across the room, punishing his shield. If not for the protection it offered Gondo would have been bisected through the torso.

  “It’s Burt!” Jasper yelled, bolting to her feet and rushing towards the broken window. She reached it, launched herself in the air and took flight, never ceasing her electric assault.

  It seemed Burt was attacking with 2 heavy machine guns, a grenade launcher, and some kind of ultra powerful beam weapon. He was approaching steadily, alternating fire between the weapons so that his barrage never faltered.

  Jasper flew off clockwise to circle the around the cyber-behemoth, her blasts drawing the attention away from Gondo enough so that he could act.

  He began rolling towards the window, and once he made it continued to roll straight off. After a moment’s drop he kicked himself off the side of the chasm and took to the air himself, launching psionic spears skyward. Where they impacted, red heat signatures peppered the monster’s trunk, but nothing yet seemed to slow it down.

  Gondo flew in to engage, but once he closed in began to drop from the sky like a stone. Bullets punctured his body in a line from leg to shoulder as Burt adjusted his aim.

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  “You damn fool!” Gondo admonished himself. Of course Burt had a psychic dampening field surrounding his body. Gondo had gotten too close and had lost his focus, dropping his shield and his ability to hold himself aloft. As he fell, he left the shield’s perimeter and quickly regained control.

  That was a close one. Too close.

  Now Jasper’s tactic made sense. Keeping her distance she was distracting the cyborg while also flanking him. Gondo was now below the sphere of the monster’s dampener as he moved counter clockwise to find his way to its flank.

  He continued to hurl spears and psionic bolts upwards at the creature but the damage to his body was definitely slowing him down.

  Jasper floated above him, her hands reaching up above her as she summoned a massive ball of energy. Bullets, beams and grenades all bounced uselessly off her shield as she emitted a bright aura. It started as a jagged blue orb but gradually grew to a white hot globe, blotting her out completely from his vision.

  She hurled the ball of energy at Burt, which traveled slower than you would expect, but still the beast struggled to evade with his main attack focused on Gondo.

  The energy attack burst meters from the Burt’s body, creating a blinding flash.

  As Gondo’s vision returned he saw the hulking chassis careening straight for him from above. Burt had used any remaining jets that hadn’t been destroyed by the blast to angle his fall at Gondo floating below.

  Before Gondo could maneuver out of the way he was inside the dampening field, and the monster hit him like a freight train. It’s cybernetic appendages were sparking and useless, but it still had one functional human arm which grabbed Gondo in a vice-like embrace.

  The two crashed into the wall of the chasm and then dropped into the blackness.

  Air whistled by, their faces just inches away from each other. Gondo could clearly see the ravage that had replaced Burt’s old fashioned good looks.

  “Looks like we die together, hombre,” Burt’s voice crackled and chuckled grimly from a broken speaker. Through some unfathomable series of events, his mustache remained intact. It tickled against Gondo’s face as they dropped downwards into oblivion.

  Gondo used all his remaining strength to free his right arm, the one that had been pulverized by the initial burst of fire.

  “Seems like it, but I’ve got one more trick up my sleeve,” Gondo said as he leaned back, swinging his right hand and the large chunk of glass from the exploded bourbon bottle protruding from it directly into the remains of Burt’s face. The glass plunged into one of his too blue eyes and the speaker let out a tangled yowl.

  Gondo kicked off hard and managed to free himself from Burt’s grip. The force pushed him just outside the dampening field and he found the shreds of his focus right before smashing against the wall, narrowly throwing up a shield in the nick of time. He bounced off, then stopped his downward motion, floating in the air.

  Once again he watched the failed Reeler as he plummeted out of sight, screaming vengeance and murder. The sparks from his devastated chassis slowly disappeared from sight.

  Jasper almost blew past him as she dove downward to the rescue. She swooped upwards in an arc and collected Gondo in her grasp. The pair made their way back up the ravine. Once they were back at the base she laid him down on one of the protruding docks as waiting medical bots began to quickly patch up the series of holes that climbed up his side and cauterized the twisted stump of his hand.

  Lowell and Ignasius appeared from the body of the base and ran to Gondo. They worriedly leaned over his broken body.

  Gondo’s blood soaked face broke into a smile.

  “Got any more of that bourbon?”