Salomé was helping Nauma open one of the containers, while Baby could be heard breaking the locks on the other one. The journey to the containers had been uneventful, but two New Keo troopers had been waiting there and opened up on them as they arrived. One of Salomé's men had died instantly and it could have been worse, but a huge winged creature appeared out of the black sky and tore them to pieces. Baby almost opened fire on it, but Salomé held her back.
"It's Sventa."
There were unsettling cracking sounds in the dark and then all was quiet.
"Thank the Temple she's on our side." Said Baby.
Nauma broke the last chain and opened the service hatch on the container and jumped back. There was a loud grinding sound as the sides of the container folded down and inspection lights came on. Salomé suddenly felt very exposed, and sent her small team off to defend the area as best they could.
"Is that it ?" Said Nauma.
Inside the massive container was what looked like a huge weapons pod of some kind that filled two thirds of the space.
"Stay here, I'll check on Baby." Said Salomé.
As she reached her Baby was activating the other container and it was opening up and inspection lights were coming on inside.
"How did they get that here ?" Said Salomé.
In front of her was an old model Imperial raptor craft and it looked what it was, eighty feet of shiny black lethality. Salomé heard one of her people fire, and saw a shape collapse that was hard to distinguish in the dark. Then there was the sound of wings behind her and then screaming. Salomé had seen a lot of wars, but this was starting to get to her. Baby was caressing the raptor and giving it a look of love.
"Heavy, fast, difficult to knock out of the sky." She said.
"Ok," said Salomé, "but we're lit up like a casino here, get it into the air so we can help at the settlement."
No one had ever called Baby bright, but she knew how to fly just about anything and she loved raptors. She clambered up the side footholds and released the catches to open the cockpit.
"Oh goody, more fucking light." Said Salomé.
The cockpit lit up and there was that reassuring high tech whine as the engines came to life. As Baby climbed into the cockpit, Salomé thought she saw movement and went into a crouch. The odd thing was that the New Keo trooper seemed to be running away from something and paying no attention to her. Then as he turned and instinctively put his hand up to defend himself, Sventa was on him and had him covered by her wings. Sventa pushed his dead body to the ground and folded her wings back, and Salomé watched in stunned silence as the dark angel used her talons to dig out one of his internal organs. His liver ? Thought Salomé.
Sventa took a bite and then looked at her, so she waved at her. It felt an absurd thing to do, but Sventa waved back and then she picked up the rest of the liver and hurtled straight up into the sky.
"Fuck me." She said.
"What ?" Said Nauma over their link.
"Nothing, just check your targets carefully, Sventa is thinning the enemy out for us."
Baby settled herself in the cockpit and felt comfortable as she turned on the various instruments. In most one person fighters she felt cramped, but in this she had room for her legs and her elbows. Everything checked out at 100%. This was a very old design, but someone had obviously made sure all the systems were working perfectly, but it was no use without the pod. Baby ever so gently took the raptor up just high enough to clear the container and took it back in reverse over the top of the pod in the other container. As she did so blaster fire raked over the back of her craft. The raptor was in no danger, but she was happy to see the fire returned by the Yakkies of her team. She lowered the craft over the pod and aligned the pod with its connectors and saw the green lights come on when it was secured.
"Why aren't you gone yet ?" She heard Salomé say.
"Got full power now, just heading off."
There was a gentle hum as she turned on the inertial damping and took the craft slowly up into the sky. She knew the pod was the key to the power of the craft and its inertial damping, but not being a techie she had no idea why. She did know the pod was incredibly heavy though, and weighed more than an Imperial shuttle all on its own.
"On my way." She said.
