Outlaws (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 2)

Chapter 31

Nolun found it very difficult to grasp the few seconds that elapsed between jumping and landing, but remembered feeling a mix of terror, fear, and determination. As they neared the ground, it became clear that Dante had timed their jump just right. Both of them landed on the roof of a speeding car that had just managed to zoom by before they hit the ground. Nolun almost fell off, but Dante grabbed his arm, managing to catch him before he fell off and was scattered across the pavement. As the car began to slow after feeling the two large bumps on the roof, Nolun grabbed the rifle and moved to the window, aiming the gun at the driver. The driver screamed slightly and jerked to the side. Nolun squinted his eyes. "Do not slow down. Understand? Head towards the truck up ahead." The driver looked down at the gun, then nodded slowly. He pushed down on the pedal, and the hover car accelerated and began to weave through traffic. Nolun and Dante balanced themselves as best they could, crouching to keep themselves steady on top of the car. Nolun could see the truck up ahead, but then heard sirens behind them. He turned and saw more GDF pursuit cars and cycles behind them, moving through the different cars. Nolun cursed and saw the soldiers aim their weapons at the car, firing. The bullets flew over them, and Nolun and Dante ducked down, trying to be as less of a target as possible. Nolun looked around, weighing his options. They were sitting ducks on top of this car. They needed to get back to Andress and the others. Then, he had an idea. He nudged Dante, then stood up slightly, and, while the cars were still moving, leaped across to an adjacent car, grabbing onto the hood. Dante quickly followed suit, and they began the long trek across the hoverway.

The truck was large, and Bunker was barely able to keep it under control considering the circumstances, but he managed to a fantastic job of moving through the crowded road, with the GDF vehicles in pursuit. Andress was holding her composite rifle, the only weapon that Gottlieb had let her keep, with the rest being God knows where else. She was taking shots at the different vehicles, hitting the windshields and hoverpads underneath the cars, disabling some of them, landing only glancing blows on others. Koil was holding his own as well, keeping the shooters on the pursuit cars at bay with the wide spread of fire from his submachine gun. Andress ducked back down into the truck to reload, and shouted at Bunker. "Where's the Renegade located?" Bunker shouted back from the front seat. "From where they were taking it, probably the shipyards. They were going to try and disassemble it for parts." Andress slapped a mag back into her rifle, and aimed out the window with new vigour. You're not taking my ship. She shot another round off, this time shooting out another windshield. She heard a buzzing, and saw a GDF cycle ride up beside the truck, and try to shoot Koil at point-blank range. Koil saw him, then grabbed the arm which held the gun, shoving it into the truck, and slamming it against the doorframe, making him drop the weapon. As the cyclist was stunned, Koil opened the door hard, slamming it into the cyclist, knocking him off course and making him hit another car, flinging him off. As Andress nodded at Koil, she looked ahead on the road, and her eyes widened. Coming down off of one of the entrance ramps was a large truck with a turret on the back, which was currently aiming at the truck that Bunker was driving. Bunker shouted to the other three. "Hold on!" He turned the truck to the right just as the turret started firing.

As Nolun and Dante kept leaping across cars, they managed to avoid the fire of the soldiers in the pursuit cars. They both almost slipped off more than once, but managed to right themselves almost immediately. Then, as they saw themselves getting closer to the truck with the crew on it, they noticed something behind them. Two sleek black pursuit cars had managed to catch up to the both of them, and the doors on the side of the both of them opened, and two figures in armour and cloaks leaned out. Nolun recognized them as GDF Neo Shock Troopers, the High Monarch's personal guard. They both pulled out what looked to be plasma blades, like Zero's sword, but shorter and more sharp. They jumped out of the cars and landed on two normal cars next to them, and began to make their way towards Nolun and Dante. Nolun was surprised, but knew he had to keep going. As he kept jumping, he heard the car bounce slightly, and turned to narrowly dodge a plasma blade hitting his face. The Shock Trooper had caught up, and was slashing his plasma weapon. Nolun managed to block the attacks as best he could, but it was difficult. He could see Dante had similarly engaged a different Trooper, and was fighting him hand-to-hand, which was something Nolun had never seen before. He saw Dante using several different fighting techniques, until he finally managed to catch the hand wielding the plasma blade, and then broke it, pulling the weapon out of his hand, and kicking the Trooper back onto the windshield of the car behind him. With that done, he jumped over to Nolun's car, and with the two of them, they managed to sweep the legs of the other Trooper, and knock him out with a boot to the face. Then, they heard gunfire up ahead, and saw a turret firing at the truck which held the crew. After moving across a few more cars, they had a considerably large gap between their car and the truck. When they were thinking about what to do, the door opened and Andress was there, reaching out with her hand. "Jump!" Nolun looked at her, trust evident in his eyes, and he leaped from the roof, and managed to grab the side of the truck, along with Andress's hand. As soon as he made it into the truck, he saw Dante leap across the gap with inhuman skills, and land on the roof. He saw the turret up ahead, and then gripped the plasma blade in his hand. He yelled down at Bunker. "Hold it steady!" As the truck took the bullets, Dante raised his arm, and threw the blade at the gunner, hitting him square in the chest. Once the hail of bullets stopped, Bunker accelerated, hitting the back of the truck, and knocking it off course. The turret truck hit the wall, and turned over, causing almost all of traffic, including the other pursuit cars, to come to a grinding halt. Now that they were all there, they turned off onto the entrance to the shipyard, to find their home.