CHAPTER 3 – A FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL

  As soon as the airship descended from the clouds all hell broke loose. The ship dropped a payload of void busters. They exploded on impact causing the ground to shake in a bck fire. It left behind crafters with pods that released rift eaters. Thankfully, the ship had overshot when dropping the pay load sparing the transport of any damage. The bad news was they had to deal with a hoard of rift eaters. Qin and Margaret both leaped off the transport to intercept the incoming hoard of rift eaters.

  Johnny looked back and slowed down after they had jumped off. He was afraid of losing them. “Go, we will hold them off. You need to find a pce for cover. Our mission it to transport the portal mage. Stuff like this happens all the time.” Said Qin as she kicked off the ground into the air. Her hands began to glow as she shot fists full of radiant energy. She shot off six in all. Wherever the balls of light hit. They turned into small cybernetic dragons. The dragons were metallic silver. On all fours they were as tall as Johnny’s torso. The dragons were five feet from tip to tail. The dragons just stood there as they waited for an order.

  “Attack.” She yelled. Her six dragons began to sughter the incoming rift eaters. A few managed to get around the summons but were easily dealt with by Qin as she fried them from the air. Soon the first hoard of rift eaters had been dealt with. The group was happy to also get rift eater essence as well.

  Johnny could tell what was going on but was giving the reply from Cleo who was sitting next to him as she watched the fight. It didn’t help him that the portal mage was freaking out with her guards. He was busy heading to the northwest. He was hoping he could hide under the big trees from the airship.

  The ship made a sharp turn to follow back on the attack. It dropped more void busters this time straight over top of Johnny. He heard the spheres screaming towards the transport. One was on a bull’s eye path for the vehicle. He knew there was no way to dodge it in time.

  “Incoming.” Yelled Julia as she quickly manned the 30mm. She fired the cannon. Johnny was expecting shells to fly out but only saw radiant energy as it bsted the void buster. The void buster exploded into shrapnel. Before it could even make impact. Julia activated a barrier spell that deflected the falling debris.

  Johnny kept going as the other spheres exploded around him leaving even more craters. This time the rift eaters were on all sides of him instead of behind. Qin and Margaret were quick to act in the air. Cleo and Lisa both jumped off the clear path for Johnny ahead. Julia focused on covering protective cover for the transport.

  Soon the second volley of rift eaters had been eliminated. Johhny only had a fourth of the way for the trees. When the airship shot at the base of one of the trees. The tree had to have been 500 feet in height and 50 feet in circumference. The tree fell with an ear shattering crash. Johnny tried to turn to the left to go around. In response, the airship fired off three volleys of void busters. This time Johnny was pinned in with nowhere to go.

  The first two volleys nded exploding leaving craters too big for Johnny to navigate through; the third volley had an even bigger sphere that was three times as rge. It nded with the others in the third group in the center.

  Johnny was now worried about something big coming out only to find a giant mantis creature that was in humanoid form. The mantis was followed by four humanoid rift eater guards. Johnny could see an evil smile on the mantis’ face as it approached him.

  Despite the setback Johnny decided to put his driving skills to use to escape, but first he would need a distraction to pull off his pn. Johnny called on the team’s contact. “Can you guys distract our host long enough for me to make a run for it?” They all agreed in unison as he prepared his next move. Julia followed the rest as she jumped off the transport. Johnny had to hope his crazy idea worked. It has been a while since I pulled a stunt like this.

  Johnny put his pn into action while the others kept the new hosts busy. He applied a few rocket boosters from the prototype’s onboard terminal. The rocket boosters appeared on the back side of the transport on sides. The rockets were powered by radiant essence. He needed to get the transport to jump the crater. Although the more he thought about jumping the crater. He thought that maybe he could jump over the fallen tree. He decided to go with his second idea to get more distance from the reptilian humanoid. He hadn’t expined his pn fearing they would think he was crazy. At this point any idea for escape was better than having the portal mage caught.

  The group was fighting hard, bsting magic and all. They were doing a good job keeping the mantis busy. Johnny fired up the rockets and told the portal mage and her guards to buckle up and hold on tight. They asked what was going on, but before anyone could get a word out Johnny hit the boosters. The group began to freak out as Johnny rocketed for a giant branch on the fallen tree. Johnny just ughed with excitement when he hit a crater to get some air. He then hit the boosters to full throttle while in the air. He then hit a branch from the fallen tree. The result caused Johnny to do a barrel roll as he flew over the tree barely clearing it. The transport nded on the ride side wheels first, before setting back down. The transport didn’t escape damage though from the jump. A few of the wheels had bent from the nding. The right front wheel had fallen off. The suspension also suffered significate damage as well.

  The dust finally settled after Johnny made his nding. “Is everyone alright back there.” Johnny asked the portal mage and her guards to see if they were okay. They just grumbled saying they were fine. After checking on the others. Johnny tried to get the transport to move. He dropped the rocket boosters to lessen the load for more speed. The damage it had suffered made it crawl at a minimum speed of 5 mph.

  Johnny was getting frustrated. He looked up to see the airship had swung back to take chase. He was gd he managed to get into the tree line. He was also nervous now that he was a sitting duck. The ship fired into the trees. Most of the shots clipped off trees or pounded the ground. One shot hit one of the discarded rocket boosters causing it to explode into a massive fireball. Everyone had a jump scare from the bst. He was then messaged by Julia asking if everything was alright. He replied he was fine. He had discarded one of the rocket boosters off the transport. It had gotten blown up from a hit by the airship.

  Johnny was unsure what to do since he was on his own. He could continue further into the tree line or stop the transport and have Albert repair the damage while he manned the 30mm cannon. Johnny decided to go with the tter. He could get help from the girls when they reached him. Johnny radioed Julia of his pn. He then had Albert take over damage control.

  The fighting stopped to watch Johnny take off. Everyone was in shock with Johnny’s stunt. Julia was worried when she saw Johnny disappear over the tree. Qin and Margaret, who were both engaged with air support, told Julia he had nded on the other side. Although, they told her the grim news. The transport they told her had suffered some damage from the nding.

  Once everyone got out of the shock they began fighting again. The airship began to fire over where Johnny had nded. The shots were mostly blocked by the trees, some managed to hit the ground. An explosion could be heard from the other side.

  After seeing the airship firing over the trees. Julia decided on a tactical retreat. She asked Johnny if he was alright after hearing an explosion. He radioed back with a static connection saying one of the rocket boosters he had discarded exploded.

  A few moments ter Johnny contacted her again informing her that Albert was doing damage control while he would mount up on the cannon. This news caused Julia to decide. Keep fighting or make a tactical retreat to give Johnny back up. She chose the tter informing the others. They managed to push back the mantis as they made their way over the tree. Qin had her summons piggyback Julia, Cleo, and Lisa over the tree. They covered the retreat into the woods.