From Ashes and Dust (Book One)

Chapter 11.1

Darkness swallowed them. Vatra felt a fear trickle up her spine—one she hadn't felt in a long time. She dared a look over to Spyro and swallowed the hard lump in her throat.

"This is not good," Spyro echoed Vatra's own feelings.

Nodding, Vatra undid her restraints. She didn't wait for the ship to stop moving. Stepping out of the cockpit, Vatra looked over the others with a wide sweep of her gaze.

"What's the plan?" Hisato inquired.

"Plan?" Vatra chuckled. She reached a hand over and motioned over a space behind the cockpit. A compartment spun open, revealing a multitude of weapons. "Well, I've never been one to go down quietly."

Revna stepped forward, her hand slapping against Enyalius' chest in an attempt to stop him from approaching the weapons. His sparkling eyes lost their glimmer as they dropped away from the array of guns and knives.

"I can at least look like I could kill one of them," Enyalius said.

Shaking her head, Revna motioned through the cockpit. "That's not it. If we go out there with weapons hot, we'll all immediately be shot at. And not all of us will survive that," she replied.

"Yeah, not sure how I feel about dying that way," Hisato muttered. He slicked back the sides of his mohawk and leaned against the counter in the small kitchen.

Silence passed between them. The ship jolted to a stop, and they all swayed on their feet like stalks of grain.

Vatra snapped a gun from the compartment. The shortened stock of the weapon mimicked the shape of a shotgun, but the ammunition it fired was even more destructive.

"Now you're acting like a god," Enyalius mused. He hopped over the metal grating, magnetic boots thudding with each step, and clapped his hands together in an almost giddy manner. "Throw caution to the wind. I love this plan!"

"I do not," Spyro disagreed. He placed a hand on the barrel of Vatra's weapon and yanked it away from her.

Cutting her eyes to Spyro, Vatra kept herself from grabbing the weapon back. "I'm not letting us all die here."

"If they wanted us dead, they would have shot us down," Nat said. She pushed herself from the wall, where she had been leaning in a quiet observance of the others, and walked confidently toward Vatra.

A feeling of unease gripped Vatra's heart. She narrowed her eyes at Nat. "They seem like the type to play with their food before they eat it. Maybe they thought blasting us from space was too quick."

Nat shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think that's the case here."

"And you're so sure about that?" Vatra pushed. She stepped closer to Nat and straightened her back. "Am I the only one that saw what happened to Belltower? I'd bet a life on the fact they want us all dead."

"We don't have time to argue," Revna interrupted.

As if on cue, the boarding ramp to the Agkistrodon lowered. The enemy had managed to hack into their controls, apparently, and were about to come on board.

Spyro rushed over and returned the gun back to the hidden compartment. Seconds before the first thud of a boot sounded, the weapons were concealed once more.

"Show us your hands!" A voice shouted.

Dragging her eyes from boring holes into Nat's skull, Vatra found herself looking out over half a dozen armored soldiers. Their dark grey suits were well-made; they were no pieced-together scraps. Each suit was a replica of the other, appearing shaped to the wearer over a black jumpsuit beneath. The symbol displayed on the chest plate of their armor was the same one on the ship and jamming signal.