Silver Saint

Seventeen: Bring Down The Sky

//Report: Quinn, Jackson.

//Axion Industries manufacturing base.

//Designation: "The Forge".

//Reliving an unpleasant memory.

//Resume log.

I could feel my palms ache as I stared down the shimmering parabolic shapes of the static cannons as each one crackled with electricity.

Targeting lasers danced like spotlights, painting the front of our Guardians in a wash of red. The cannons were mounted side by side, linked to a large metal beam strung with immense wires that hung directly over our heads, stretching across the length of the crater.

It almost looked too ludicrous to be a real defense system-haphazard chains lashed each dish into place, electricity nipping up and down their lengths where they crossed the front of the weapon. The gantry itself seemed overloaded, the weight of the static cannons making it sag in places.

Far overhead, the silhouette in the window stared down at us from the observation window. Commander Locke had us dead to rights-there was nothing we could do in time to evade, destroy or intercept each bolt of lightning before it leapt along the path of the targeting laser and struck us dead. I could only pray that our new command capsules were better insulated than SPEAR's-but something in my gut told me that it wouldn't matter much.

"You know, I never got to see these things deployed in Warsaw," Locke replied. Her voice rang out both through the hangar and over the comms, echoing in our ears.

"Commander," Leto breathed. I saw his mech shift ever so subtly toward me, attempting not to show any sudden movements. "What's the plan here?"

It was hard to breathe in my claustrophobic capsule-I forced myself to take a long, slow breath and think. The fact that we weren't dead meant that our enemy didn't want us to be-not yet, at least. Which meant she wanted to talk.

"Then what's all this about?" I pressed. I tried to force more confidence into my voice than I actually felt, speaking loudly. "If you weren't in Warsaw, why do you care so much?"

"Because," Locke replied, "in Warsaw, you robbed Axion Industries of the only decent commander it ever had. A good man whose memory I strive to honor every day."

I heard her tone darken, and I felt the first tingle of static begin to nip at my fingers and toes.

"Captain William Avery wasn't a brute like Harlow or a corporate stooge like our Director," Locke declared. "He wasn't some tyrant barking orders from the safety of a boardroom, or a thug breaking soldiers to his will. He was a leader. He stood with us, fought beside us, and bled for us. You don't see that in Axion. You don't see that in any of them."

My hair, now longer than the standard SPEAR crew cut it had once been, began to float, held aloft by the waves of energy each cannon emitted. I needed to think. I needed to think! I fought back the panic and scanned my flickering screens, staring around the room.

There was no chance we would be able to shatter all twelve static cannons before they fired, but maybe we didn't have to.

"Cadenza!" Leto barked. "Aim for the observation deck! End this!"

"Are you insane?!" Kedrick barked. "Even if she's actually standing up there, that's not going to stop the static cannons!"

Amani's Guardian didn't move a millimeter.

"Commander," she intoned. "Any time now."

All the while Locke continued to speak, her anger cutting through my concentration.