Chapter 137 - Elven Delivery Service

  Gemini-II poured on the power, and I could hear the strain of its four turbines even over the cacophony of my own aircraft. It sped toward the crag until the very last second, at which point all four of its rotors tilted the opposite direction. It stopped just shy of pancaking itself against the cliff face, instead bringing the prow level with the opening of the nest. A ramp descended from the prow, and two noblin igni came forward with flaming nozzles held in thick leather gloves. Each nozzle was connected to a hose running back into Gemini-II, and each one belched out a column of flame that roared into the mouth of the cave to discourage any night haunts from coming out while the ramp continued to extend.

  Whoever the pilot of the enormous aircraft was, they brought it in close to the hole in the cliff until the ramp bridged the gap, and then the prow pushed against the cliff face. The igni pushed forward with their flamethrowers, and a tide of excited goblins followed across the ramp, weapons raised. I spotted a canoneer surrounded by especially manic zealots near the head of the line who practically stumbled overthemselves to be the vanguard—even to the point of risking getting singed by the igni.

  I would have liked to be there with them, charging into that darkness to face what had become a great threat to our tribe. But my place was in the sky, doing the job few other goblins had the experience to do.

  “Boss, we got incoming!” called Eileen.

  I banked over for a better view, seeing several night haunts who must have squeezed out of a second exit. They launched themselves in the air and circled down toward Gemini-II

  “I see them,” I said. I pushed the stick over and sped toward the creatures menacing our airship. The engine whined as I poured on speed. “Remember,” I said into the intercom, “Don’t hit the balloon.”

  In answer, the aircraft shuddered with the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of the self-cycling guns. One of the night haunts jerked in the air, hit by my gunner, and the rest scattered and wheeled to address the interceptors coming in. I banked left hard to avoid the grasping rear claws of a night haunt that passed within a few meters of my fuselage—close enough that its tail scraped our underside. The creature hauled itself around, almost impossibly nimble (and probably thanks to some System-given skill). It beat its wings furiously, trying to catch up. We passed a jet spiraling down to the deck, wing severed, along with the night haunt who had collided with it and still clung to the ruined aircraft.

  I turned the opposite way to avoid becoming a blue stain on the ridge line. Another of the interceptors angled my direction, flying just overhead with its nose gun flashing. The night haunt on my tail went down, and I turned to find a new target. There was no shortage. I spotted two silvermanes dropping down from the higher altitude battle with Chuck’s heavy fighters. They found the live wires strung across the top of the envelope and flinched back, clinging instead to the wood and metal siding. The goblins still on board stabbed outward with spears and poles, but the silvermanes were even tougher than regular night haunts and weren’t that easily deterred. All the while, more of my goblins poured across the ramp. I could no longer see Armstrong or the igni, who were now inside the cave. But I could see smoke rising from fissures along the ridgeline.

  “Keep on ‘em!” I called out and angled us down toward Gemini-II. I drew level with the massive airship, and then skirted her port side flying knife-edge, careful to avoid the vortices around the turbine. My gunner tracked the silvermane clinging to the side just as it yanked a pair of goblins out from behind the defenses and flung them out into the air. It ripped open a section of barrier and started to claw its way into the airship. The nose gun began to fire again, and the creature flinched back, roaring in pain from a hit on its flank. It pulled out of the hole it had created and swiped at us as we flew past. I was already pulling up as hard as possible to avoid the cliff face, bringing us around in a tight circle. My flight techs were pressed to the floor, squawking under the weight of the additional G’s we pulled. Goblin bodies with their giant heads really were not designed for maneuvers like this.

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  The silvermane night haunt followed, broad, powerful wings somehow able to keep up with our jet engines in these tight close-quarter dogfights. It raced to cut us off, rearing up its claws, which I had no doubt would shred through the skin of the jet as easily as paper. I yanked the stick to the side, putting us in a roll. Behind me, the crew squawked as their feet lifted off the deck and they grabbed whatever was nearby to hold on. Ahead, a smoking, fiery jet smashed into the side of the cliff face, erupting in a fireball. I slammed the throttle forward, pouring on the speed as debris started to rain down.

  Our interceptor shot below the worst of it, but the silvermane chasing us was struck by both falling rocks and debris from the other jet. A section of turbine engine fell right on its wing and the creature dropped like it had an anchor tied to it.

  I shook my head to clear it and pulled us back into a climb to circle around on the fight. Smoke was now pouring out of multiple fissures in the cliff face as my assault team pushed deeper into the nest behind the igni. The night haunts that did manage to escape through cracks and crevices in the stone were being engaged by Chuck’s wing of heavy fighters—who dealt with ‘haunts on their tail much more effectively thanks to their rear-facing gunners.

  Amid the interceptors near Gemini-II, I spotted the biggest silvermane I’d seen yet flashing with lances of green energy. “There he is!” I shouted to my gunners. “Looks like he’s riding their alpha. Get ready!”

  Pushing the stick forward, I put us at an angle to intercept the gigantic silvermane carrying the elf as it chased one of the other interceptors.

  “Elf on my tail! Elf on my tail!” shouted Eileen over the radio.

  “Hold on, Eileen, I’m right behind you,” I said.

  We dropped into the fight in progress, and I got us lined up enough for the gunner to start thumping away with his nose guns. I couldn’t make out the elf from where we were, but I could definitely see the green spells starting to fly back at us from the back of the alpha night haunt. Its wings were massive, and it had a tail as long as at least two of our jets lined up in a row. Rounds poured out of the nose gun, striking the silvermane. It roared in frustration and broke off the chase from Eileen, though didn’t look particularly injured.

  I jerked the stick to the right, narrowly avoiding one of the beams—only for another to strike us a glancing blow that erupted in a carpet of moss on our wing’s leading edge that immediately blew a screen of green fibers in front of the canopy. Unable to see properly, I hauled back and the jet struggled as it attempted to climb with a quarter of its wing surface now covered in heavy, non-lift-producing moss. The turbine behind me caught fire from the strain, and both of my loyal techs started squawking and trying to extinguish it.

  “King Apollo, the flight control surfaces have become less responsive,” added Taquoho.

  “No kidding,” forced out through grit teeth as I struggled with the stick. “Taquoho, be ready to bail out,”

  “I do not wish to abandon this craft just yet,” he said. “Give me a moment.”

  A smooth stream of pale, blue flame traced out of the console and along the electrical wires to the turbine engine. They mingled with the small orange fire and then turned a shade closer to purple and streamed back into the console. The Turbine engine sputtered for a moment, and then roared to life again.

  “Nice!” I said. “Taquoho, what did you do?”

  “Quo has joined with Massa-Morez with his knowledge of your combustion engines. The celebrated union you are speaking to is Tabun-Maduri-Horal”

  “So, Ta-ma-ho, now?”

  “Just so.”

  The whole thing had happened faster than a Vegas wedding, but it seemed to have done the trick. The added speed started to tear the moss free from the leading edge of our wing, and the canopy cleared enough that I could keep us from crashing. We were back in the fight—just in time to see the Elf take out one of Gemini-II’s turbines.