Planet New Caledonia, Equatorial Region
14:11 Local time
The Updraft made a final low sweep of the sector. Her patrol shift was finally coming to an end and Venna “Zephyr” Sorris set a course back to the hideout. Her mind was full of how she’d tweak the poorly calibrated thrust profile on her new engines and other sundry modifications. But all that stopped when she saw it.
Smoke. And lots of it. Coming from the direction of the hideout.
Her curiosity got the better of her and she switched back on her receiver. Her comms were filled with chatter, on a channel normally used for only the most urgent of messages. The hunters had found them.
As Venna sat there and confronted the fact that the runner network was over and they were all screwed, she could see ahead a small group of other runner ships being pursued by a set of hunters. She had a choice. She was still outside their effective range. She could just bug out; forget it had all happened, find a new life. Or…
—
Apogee looked back. The hunter was still on her tail. Those wide cross-sectioned ships looked like they were designed to ram into other ships! How barbaric! Spike and Radian weren’t faring much better. The set of tricks they’d packed were running thin and the missile locks were blaring.
Suddenly, there was a streak of afterburners and a blast of light and smoke erupted in the midst of everything. Thinking quickly, the runners took advantage and scattered. A tight-beam message hit their comms.
“This is Zephyr, follow me. We’re getting the hell out of here.”
