The Iron Pillars

Chapter 27

Later that evening, Aaron led a small party to the grove of trees with a capped vial in his hand. Keira and Ace had done their work and left the chemical mixture to brew for several hours. They'd marveled at how they'd poured gallons of various liquids into the mixture, and yet in the end, it simmered down to only an ounce of red plasma. 

Meanwhile, he and Sila had gone about preparing the Stingray, which took longer than he'd expected. Wendy spent most of the day probing at the near impenetrable network defenses of the APEAS, often consulting with Aaron when he had a moment. It had been mostly fruitless, but as he constantly reminded her, eliminating options was as productive as finding a solution. 

"Alright, let's try to do this quick." he said presently, "I'm hoping to get airborne by the top of the hour." 

Brant nodded from where he walked a few paces behind Aaron. "How long of a flight?" 

"Twelve hours." 

"What?" Keira asked in disbelief, "How?" 

"We're on the east side of the continent, and heading farther eastward." Aaron answered, "Where Alconte's tightest security measures are in play. So I plan to use cold fuel the entire flight." 

"Oh." 

Hannah cleared her throat. "It can only go half as fast, right?" 

"Well, it can go similar speeds to regular fuel, but you're right, if we're referring to stability. If you go regular speeds with the stuff...yeah, it can really mess things up." 

"Tends to combust." Sila added. 

"Exactly." 

Ace coughed. "What're you gonna test that compound on, anyway? A tree?" 

Aaron nodded. "That was my plan. I actually have no idea how it's gonna go." 

Before long, he found himself in range of the nearest tree. He glanced over his friends, unscrewed the cap, and took a deep breath. Aaron hurled the contents of the vial at the tree trunk and watched as it sizzled, melting the outer bark into a pasty brown goo. It slithered down the trunk and charred the wood beneath it before transforming it into a similar steaming paste. 

After giving it a moment to cool, Aaron stepped closer. The acidic substance had successfully burnt halfway through the trunk, and its drippings had caused substantial damage below the impact point as well. 

"Not a whole lot better than a splash of bloody acid." Wendy commented. 

"It really isn't." Aaron agreed thoughtfully. He glanced back at Hannah a moment, too deep in thought to notice her confused grin. "That changes my plans." 

"How so?" Brant asked. 

"I was originally thinking an exploding, hollow shell. But it seems the stuff's not very effective in a splash. A consistent beam, though..." 

"Like mah laser gun?" Hannah suggested. 

Aaron's face brightened. "Exactly! I think that's the solution! If I could figure out a way to put this in a special cartridge for that, I think that could work." 

Wendy squinted. "How do you come to that conclusion?" 

"Well, it builds on itself, as you see with the drippings. But the problem is, gravity exists and pulls the concentrated glob apart. In a laser beam, though, we could hold a steady dose on one spot, and the chemicals would build on each other." 

"You've got a bloody tight schedule, love." 

"I do. But if this works, I think even killing the god of endurance will be a piece of cake."