The airship trembled as it broke through the crimson skies, a storm of glassy rain pelting the reinforced portholes. Ember Kamara adjusted the strap of her railgun, the weapon slung across her back reflecting the eerie glow of the distant electro-storm. Her long, fiery red hair whipped behind her like a living flame as she stood on the open balcony of the vessel’s observation deck. Below, the surface of Oathos V stretched endlessly—a labyrinthine quilt of shattered canyons and volcanic rivers lit by alien bioluminescence. Somewhere in those canyons was her target: the last shard of the Nexus Core, humanity’s salvation—or its doom.
She wasn’t dressed for the cold, though the atmosphere was harsher than steel. A flame-patterned combat bikini top clung to her battle-scarred frame beneath a weathered, high-tech white duster jacket with a fur-lined collar that once belonged to some forgotten officer. Her shorts were reinforced with lightweight alloys, and strapped against her thighs were energy packs for the gun. Ember’s boots climbed up to her knees, designed for traction in hostile terrains, the once-black leather now marked with years of conflict. She looked like a vagrant from some half-remembered past, but her eyes—they were sharp as daggers, determined as ever.
The roar of engines filled the air as a sleek, insectile drone emerged from the misty horizon, its searchlights blinding against the storm. Ember didn’t flinch. She raised a hand to her earpiece. “Bren, how long until the suppression field kicks in?”
“Three minutes tops,” Bren’s voice crackled. He was gruff, impatient, probably hunched over the control deck. “You jump now, or they’ll lock onto us before you make it five feet out there.”
Ember smirked. Bren loved to overstate the risks. Gripping a tether line anchored to the ship’s railing, she tightened her gloves, their fabric conducting the faint hum of the electromagnetic mesh embedded within. “I don’t need three minutes. I just need thirty seconds. Keep the cloaks up until I’m clear.” With that, she vaulted over the ledge, her boots skimming the whistling currents of the electric storm. Below her, the ground loomed—a patchwork of jagged blue crystals that seemed alive, pulsating with energy. She descended like a comet, her railgun lighting up as she fired bursts at strategic points to clear landing space.
The drone pivoted in midair, its lights converging on her trajectory. Ember gritted her teeth, yanking the glider wings folded into her belt’s harness. A pair of kinetic-energy wings flared out in a cascade of plasma, leveling her descent—but the drone was fast. Too fast.
Suddenly, heat seared her left side. A bolt from the drone’s primary cannon tore into her duster. Swerving, Ember landed on her feet atop a jagged crystal spire, the structure humming beneath her weight. “Alright,” she muttered as she swung the railgun to her front, its mechanical components whirring to life. “You want me that badly? Let’s dance.”
In the blink of an eye, the world turned into chaos. The drone’s next barrage slammed into the spire, fracturing its edges and sending Ember leaping to another crystal outcropping. Her railgun crackled, firing precise, calculated magnetic pulses. The drone’s outer shell sparked, a layer of its armor collapsing like shattered carapace, but it pressed forward, releasing a swarm of smaller hunter probes. A volley of micro-explosions erupted around her. Ember dove, sliding under a crystalline canopy and bringing the railgun to her shoulder.
“Bren, tell me you’ve figured this out!” she shouted, sweat dripping down her temple despite the cold. Her railgun’s charge levels flashed at 20%—not ideal for sustaining this kind of prolonged fight.
“Give me ten seconds!” Bren barked back. “The field needs a stable lock or your tracker’ll go dead.” He spoke faster now, the tension crackling audibly through the comms. “But hey, at least you’ll have that shiny Nexus Core if you—oh wait, never mind, ‘cause you’ll be pulverized first!”
“Thanks for the pep talk,” Ember muttered as she unleashed a charged shot straight into the swarm. The blast scattered the hunter probes, their fragmented remains falling like glimmering ash. But the drone—damn it, the drone—was still intact. It loomed closer, its primary cannon gathering energy for another devastating strike.
Ember’s mind raced. She could see the edge of the ravine now, a sheer cliff that descended into Oathos V’s burning heart. “Bren,” she hissed. “Trail me toward the core once I’m gone. I’m outta time.”
Without waiting for his argument, she sprinted toward the ravine’s edge, the winds howling as if protesting her reckless charge. The drone followed, relentless, its glowing barrel now blinding in the storm’s thick air.
It fired just as she jumped. The shockwave hurled her into empty space, tumbling wildly as magma rivers surged upward to greet her. But Ember wasn’t one to fall aimlessly. Yanking the final set of kinetic wings free, she locked onto a narrow crevasse below. The drone plunged after her, gunning with unstoppable malice—until the suppression field activated at last. A sonic boom ripped through the sky as the electromagnetic disruption pulsed outward, disrupting every electronic signal in its range.
The drone sputtered, its systems collapsing in on themselves. Like a dying beast, it spiraled and crashed into the volcanic expanse, swallowed by molten fire.
Choking down a breath, Ember landed hard on her knees, her gauntlet gripping onto a ledge. Below, in the flickering light of the molten cascades, a luminous blue shard—the Nexus Core—beckoned. She couldn’t help but laugh—a sharp, triumphant sound that echoed through the alien abyss.
“Bren,” she muttered into her comms as she rose, dusting ash off her battered duster. “Told you I didn’t need three minutes.”
Genre: Futuristic Action/Adventure
The Source…check out the article that inspired this amazing short story: Red Hot Yoko Littner Cosplay Costume Ideas
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