The Starlight Lancer

Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Battle of Freewater

"I feel as though, in this tiny town, I've found a new and wondrous purpose. Not one as big as I had in mind back in my days as a detective, mind you, but wondrous nonetheless. See, it's so easy for everything to get lost in the noise out there—for everything to feel like nothing matters. But here, everything always matters. I always thought I wanted the high-society life, but here I've found something else—something vibrant, and strong, and funny, and ugly, and messy, and beautiful. I think I'd like to stay for a little while longer."

—Reister Fell, former Galactic Detective and Warden of Freewater, in personal writings

Echoing booms streaked across the desert—Zaina was close to Freewater. The distant cracks and pops, rhythmic in succession, filled her ears as she ran through the sands of Archava. Alight in the sky were the sounds of battle.

The sloping hill leading to Freewater's plateau was occupied—one of the rectangular transports was hovering beside it, out of Fell's line of fire. More mercenaries were jumping from the transport's open hatch and crawling belly-first up the slope. Two reached the top together, peeked over to line up their shot, and turned into red mist as a high-caliber scrap bead struck the hillside. Red-and-white meat-paste rolled down the hill, spraying blood in every direction. The others, undeterred, continued the climb.

Where's the other one? Zaina wondered, and then shook the thought out of her head. Her focus had to be on getting to Freewater. She grabbed the grenade dispenser and programmed it to its most destructive setting. With a handful of the explosives in one hand and her cipher in the other, Zaina sneaked up to the floating vehicle. Luckily, the mercenaries' attention was focused on the battle ahead, and not behind them. She casually tossed a few grenades into the hillside amid the crawling biriflers, and saved the last one for the transport itself.

The biriflers took notice—screaming, they turned around to fire at her; some picked up the grenades and were trying to throw them back when they detonated. Zaina sprinted away from the ship, which groaned and creaked as it landed and rolled down the dune. The mercenaries were lost to a wave of pops and an eruption of sand; when it settled, pieces of the enemies jutted out from the hillside. Much of the sand was wet with blood or charred.

As soon as the dust settled, Zaina ran and cleared the edge in seconds. Now atop the plateau, she took the battle in.

The dreich was twisting about in the sky, with missiles exploding all around it; Ardual rode on the automaton's back, firing off explosive rounds from a heavy scrap rifle. The desert rider was overturned, with whatever mercenaries left using it for cover, and the other transport was nowhere in sight.

Reister Fell, in his helmet-less warsuit, stood at the forefront of town. All the suit's weapon systems were engaged, including a rotating scrap cannon on one of his wrists and missile ports jutting from nearly every joint on the armor. The very top of his head was exposed, but he was largely safe without the helmet. Xyrthe was beside him, cipher drawn and hex-guard at the ready. A birifler peeked out from behind the desert rider—after a wet, crunching impact, he immediately fell dead to the sand with smoke streaming from a hole in his head. Tracing the shot, Zaina found Leda's birifle peeking through a window in Freewater's central tower.

The second transport was still in play—the mercenaries had to be dealt with now. Without hesitation, she charged toward the tipped rider, and all the firing from Freewater stopped. The mercenaries, seemingly unsure, poked their heads out to see why—and didn't notice Zaina coming in from behind until it was too late.

In a mad state of bloodlust, she slaughtered them in seconds, deflecting their desperate attempts to survive off her hex-guard. No heed was paid to their panicked screeching. Once they were dead, the rhythmic pops started once more from Freewater, hitting a rock formation a few hundred feet from Zaina; for a moment, she caught a glimpse of Veimla Tescoll avoiding the falling rubble and slipping back under cover.