The first little pig built his house alone. And when he was alohe wolves came.

  Devoured, the first little pig was.

  The sed little pig enlisted his friends. And together, they raced from the forest to a patch of nd that no one would bother wandering too. There, they built a whole vilge. And even though they were secluded and together, the wolves came with tooth and cw.

  Devoured, the sed little pig was.

  The third little pig enlisted more pigs. And together, they built a whole fortress. On a mountain, with sword and arrow they protected themselves. And even though they were defehe wolves came with anization and patie the end of the day, mountains are cold and stone ot feed little pigs.

  Devoured, the third little pig was.

  The fourth little pig realised the issue. And the fourth little pig built his house o the wolf’s forest, on a brilliant patch of nd right o the river. He built his house, more pigs came, and they eventually chased the wolves away. Not once did the wolves try to eat the little pigs.

  For the path to the fourth little house aved with wolf skulls.

  - “The Four Little Pigs”, as told by Mam, Goddess of Hatred.

  “EVADE DOUG!” Erik shouted, his voice crag over the speakers. On pure instind nothing else, Dougs rolled Raptor Oo the side. Erik had screamed the and, and that immediately triggered the panic respohin Dougs to get moving. He heard the burst of gunfire and he felt Raptor Otle as it just about mao dodge the oning hail of fire. Erik’s shouting once again came through the speaker. “SPEED UP! THEY’RE ON YOU!”

  Up in the skies above the Anktydan O, half-way between Arika and the UNN, two great birds were r through the air. Huge handmade monstrosities of amalgamated parts, with no blueprint ever made, instead being deviously simple things of fines fixed into the hull. Two built into the wings, two fixed ono the rear. Pitch bck, apart from the red fmes bursting from their jets and red eyes painted uhe cockpits. And with yellow peaks that housed autoons in.

  Birds of prey, unstoppable and notorious, for where a Raptor flew, a Daughter-Goddess of Arascus was sure to appear. They had made a name for themselves during the White Pantheon’s invasion of Kirinyaa as undisputed Kings of the Sky. Yet now, flying close behind them, five white hawks came to threaten their monopoly on sky-violence.

  Dougs turned his trol stid flicked the arm for the Goddesses in the back. He pushed the idea of whatever Anassa and Neneria would say to him after this out of his mind. Fer was there, and Fer liked him. At least, he thought she did. The woman had agreed to take a photograph with him. That should be enough. Right? The photo of operation Misfortune was glued onto the gss of the cockpit.

  And behind that gss, Dougs saw two jets fly so close he could just about make out the pilots steering them. Mae guns bred and Dougs turhe stick. Raptor One’s wings shifted, fps on one wing folded up, then down oher, the bck jet went into a spin. The white jets of the White Pantheon, two engines and two rear fins each, were slow to react.

  Maybe it was the maery ihat was slow. Or maybe it was the pilots themselves. Dougs and Erik and had both flown the Raptors for more than a year now, and both had kill ts hire than a dozen each. Shooting down unfriendly birds in the sky wasn’t as easy as just keeping the enemy iicule. “Goddesses!” Dougs shouted. “Apologies for the ride! HOLD ON!”

  Dougs turhe eleic assistan his helmet on and the world around him ged. He still saw his cockpit, a in the gss of his helmet, he saw through the eyes of the Raptor. Through the thousand or so tiny different cameras that had been fitted for the Kirinyaan Invasion. An enemy jet was diving in from above him.

  Dougs flicked his stick up, as if he was about to crash into the enemy jet, and he pressed the button oerburner down. Raptor One’s engine roared as they were fed excess fuel, four burning fox-tails of fme trailed after the pne as it shot forwards before the hail of steel from above tore through it. Dougs cut the fuel jets just as quickly as he put the air break on ahe deceleration force him into the straps of the seat. In one horribly sharp turn, as if the bck rear fin of Raptor One had hook onto an invisible signpost, Raptor One made a full rotation in the air.

  “Hold on Nene!” Neneria felt Fer squeeze her by the stomach with one arm and hold onto the seat with the other. And something within Neneria turned, her stomach twisted upside down, and she closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and tried to keep everything inside her. Oh no. It was ing.

  Dougs heard Raptor One scream as it suddenly made a full backwards, the tiny little fps on each wing that guided the pne practically screaming in frustration as the wind and air pressure threateo snap them off. “Oh yes you do.” Dougs whispered to the pne as the ilted upwards, the stabilized. He was flying upside down, above him the endless dark blue of the Anktydan O. Below him, the white clouds of a sea about to eorm.

  And ahead, one of the White hawks of the White Pantheon. It was gently flying away, banking as to enter a sharp yet safe turn. Dougs cracked a smile as he flicked the afterburner on for only a sed. Raptor One shot forwards, the two jets that were chasing it had to slow down in fusion as the thunder of Raptor One breaking the sound barrier left them stunned.

  “Ana!” Fer shouted. “Catch it!” Fer most likely smelled it before Neneria eve it. The acidid sour stench of vomit. She felt Neneria’s stomach vulse around her arm and the strength left Neneria’s hands as they slid backwards. An orb of red illumihe rear as Neneria started to breath heavily. Fer’s nose suddenly lost the smell of vomit, she looked around, and saw a red orb, perfectly spherical, holding some dirty-brown liquid. It aque and through it, Fer could see a disgusted Anassa sigh in exasperation.

  Up in these skies, there was no such things as geurns. Just as when Raptors would strike at rabbits by chaotically dropping on them, all screeg violend no prang grace, so did Raptor One close in on the white jet perf that slow roll. It even tilted to the side, exposing its rge, ft body to Dougs’ jet. The man steering it held his breath, as he always did. He watched the heads-up-dispy in on his visor line up. He saw the reticule turn from a pale eleic green to the crimson of blood.

  And he jammed his thumb down onto the button on top of the trol stick.

  Raptor One screamed as it released a hail of huge bullets in an instant. The entire pne shook as the barrels of its autoon spun as if the mae was vibrating. It sted for only a sed. Dougs released the button and pushed forwards and into a spin. The purned right-side up once again and then arced upwards and into the air. Dougs watched the tiny hail of explosions appear ihat White Pantheon pne. Small bursts of fme that raced up and dowire body. And then those tiny bursts of fire sparked something, the fuel tank, the engine, maybe the ammunition, whatever it was, it felt exploded into a great ball of red and e fmes and bd grey smoke.

  Anassa stared at Neneria as the Goddess of Death held on to Fer. Those dark eyes met Anassa’s crimsons once again and Neneria spasmed. Fer held her in pce, but the womached, curled around her arm, and threw herself forwards as she twisted. Neneria, havien nothing in the m, released noxious stomach acid as she vomited again. Anassa sighed, snapped her fingers, and caught ead every droplet before they so much as thought of nding on the floor or walls or ceiling of the cargo hold. Much less Anassa herself, she would blow the pne if that happened.

  Dougs smoothed out his flight path as he heard Fer shouted besides him. “KEEP IT STEADY! WE’RE SICK HERE!” It was always like that when Raptor Oransported a Divihey couldn’t unicate normally through they radio, they would scream through the steel walls of the instead.

  He tried to at least, a came up behind him. Dougs looked up, the s in his visor moved further, he saw a White Pantheo approag from behind and top of him. A swerve to the right, a spin, a scream from Fer again, a curse from Anassa, and Erik came up over the radio. “I’ve got you Doug. Keep at it, we’re ing onto Uory.”

  And Dougs saw a bck thunderbolt shoot so close past that white hawk it may as well have goraight through it. The pale jet exploded into a brilliant ball of fme and fire, and its wreckage plunged down onto the calm o below. “Goddesses!” Dougs said into the radio. “Hold on! I’m going to push her now.”

  “You weren’t before!?” Fer’s shout came through the wall as Dougs uhe side buttons. The same meism that ehe jets to catch up to Leona’s jet in the first pce. Dougs had hought he would ever ignore a Goddess before, but right now, he did.

  “Erik. Full speed ahead.” Dougs said as he pressed the first switch. The engines omentarily, their rear fps reahemselves to make a tighter exit. Dougs pressed the sed switd they re-ignited as fuel nozzles started to build up pressure. And the third switch.

  A spark set the jets alight. Raptor One did not slowly scream with the trolled burn of engine fmes, it set the sky behind it alight as a fireball burst out from behind the aircraft. The soni shocked the few fishing boats in the os below, but Dougs never heard it, the pne simply outran the sound. Fire burst out over its hull as the air was ignited by the sheer fri of the metal bolt slig through the atmosphere. It carved a gash of fire into the open the sky.

  Half of the Anktydan O was crossed in fifteen minutes.

  Dougs did not see the ground, it was the mere dark blur of water too dark to keep track of, but he saw that the horizon was no longer one smooth line and instead had the jagged ridges of mountains, so he let the long-distance supersonics rest. The jet stalled as he cut the fuel, although it still kept hurtling forwards, the engines unlocked themselves once again, the man fps extended once again and the trolled jets of steady flight came back. “We’re slowing down?” Erik asked over the radio.

  “I have hostiles on radar.” Dougs answered back. From the north and from the south. More than a dozen pnes bined. Dougs was sure in his capabilities as a pilot, and he was sure of Raptor One being the ued apex predator of the sky, but he was not that sure. He flicked the s el to the rear . “Goddesses, we’re approag the UNN. Landing may be difficult.”

  Fer’s shout came bastantly. And it was exactly was Dougs wao hear. “Let us jump!” The Goddess of Beasthood shouted from the rear.

  “Aye Aye.” Dougs answered as he flicked the switches of the rear . The alert that always came up for open doors appeared in his dispy.

  “Are we retreating?” Erik asked.

  “We are. I’m just dropping them and then back to Arika.” Those jets from the sides started to get closer and Dougs pulled the pne up. He wasn’t going to be baited into going deeper into the try. He looked left, six white arrows glinting in the sunlight. He looked right, the exact same se. “Goddesses! I would advise you to jump now!” The pulled the pne even further and prepared to close the doors. The supersonics would tear the pne apart if those were open.

  “GO GO GO!” Dougs shouted as he pulled the pne up. The jets of Raptor One screamed as the pilted up. The chasis shot past underh him like an arrow. And he kept on twisting the pne in a full circle, the pressure lights on for the rear doors, for the wings, for the jet engines and for the pump iy all bring.

  Dougs felt Raptor Oall as the jets struggled for oxygen. The great bck arrowhead in the sky came to a stop for a mere instant, and then Dougs felt himself tipping backwards as the pne fell. He smiled as his eyes sed that terrible, grey, grassless ndscape.

  Below him, the three Goddesses had jumped out and were falling like tieorites onto the ruined shores of the UNN. That was a job well done. He patted Raptor One’s trols aarted the engines ohe mae fell to an altitude it could actually operate in.