"Alora's Tale" - Malaki Anthology #9 - Worldbuilding Excerpt

Alora leaned back in the pilot’s chair and kicked up her feet onto the console of her commandeered SR-172 hovercraft, the salty taste of her sparse evening rations still clinging to her tongue. Looking to her left, she reached into a bag that was hanging from her chair and pulled a small collection of books from it. She turned each of them over in her hands, running her thumb over the worn pages and spine with gentleness and care, before placing the ones she wasn’t looking for back in the bag. Two books remained, an Old-Tongue novel and a Literate dictionary. Settling in again, she opened the novel. She was eager to resume reading about her band of misfits and their daunting quest to destroy an evil ring.

Reading in the Old Tongue was slow, as often she had to stop to reference the dictionary for an unfamiliar word. However, Alora was delighted to find that she was able to remember many of the words that she had already learned. The more she knew, the faster she could decipher the mysteries held by the pre-End War tech that the Exiled frequently scavenged from the Wastes. She glanced briefly across the cockpit at the jerry-rigged light refraction drive that she had installed before their excursion and wondered if she should test it again, just to be certain that it would work if and when she needed it to.

Nah. One more test isn’t going to change anything.

Her focus returned to her book. It took her a moment to find where she had left off. She finished the chapter she had been on for the last week and had just started a new chapter when Kayde’s voice disturbed the silence of the cockpit. His words were laden with effort and breathlessness.

“Alora, I need extraction.”

Alora glanced at the timepiece embedded in the console. Kayde was a full twelve hours ahead of schedule. She sighed and put her books away before responding, making sure that her annoyance with being interrupted early was clear.

“You sound like haka, what happened?”

“Not now, Alora, I’m being pursued. Meet me at the Edge, district 172.”

Alarmed, Alora swung her feet down from their perch and started priming the hovercraft’s systems for takeoff.

“Yes sir! Running dark, I’m on my way.”

Something must have gone horribly wrong. Judging from the time, Kayde had likely just completed his assassination. However, he was supposed to have ample time to escape and exit the city via one of their incursion sites. Their agreed-upon rendezvous point was outside the city walls, not inside.

Alora finished firing up the hovercraft within seconds, her hands flying over the menagerie of switches and buttons on the console without thought. The whine of the thrusters warming up filled the cabin and the low whump-whump of the rotors spinning up outside the craft resonated in her chest. She pulled the chair forward, closing herself into the cockpit.

Taking the twin joysticks in her hands, she coaxed the craft into the air and guided it out of the cave she had been using for cover with steady motions. When she was clear of the mouth of the cave, she forced the hovercraft upwards into the darkness and turned it until she could see Malaki’s tower, shining brightly in the distance. She angled upward and tapered up the thrusters, propelling the craft forward with ever-increasing speed.

“I’m going to burn so much fuel getting your ass out of this mess, Kayde.”

“Just get here, Alora. You can complain about it later.”

“You had better hope that this LRF drive works, otherwise we’re going to have bigger problems to worry about.”

“I trust your skill as a mechanic and a pilot. There’s a reason why you’re the one flying that thing and no-one else. Now less talking. More flying.”

“I’m coming as fast as I can, boss. Standby.”

Alora’s heart began to beat with anxiety as she reached across the cockpit and flipped on the LRF drive. There was no way for her to know if it was functioning correctly from inside the hovercraft, though she desperately hoped it was. She was rapidly gaining altitude, a necessary precaution to get over the walls. The light-refraction drive would make sure that she wasn’t seen, but if she was going to make it into the city without attracting unwanted attention from the Enforcers, she needed to make sure that they couldn’t hear her coming either.

Miles melted away below her, and the wall of the city soon came into sight as a hard-edged line beyond which all city light ceased. An altitude warning began to blare in the cockpit, but Alora silenced it and continued to climb. The SR-172 wasn’t designed with these heights in mind. Marking the Spire as her point of reference, Alora adjusted the rotors and angled the thrusters towards the ground to counteract the thinning atmosphere.

The ground below disappeared out of her field of view, leaving only the stars and the Spire towering above her. She pressed onward, counting the minutes in grave silence while she estimated the remaining distance between her and her target. Her eyes remained fixed on the tower as it grew closer. The structure far surpassed anything Alora had ever seen in terms of scale. Even at this height, there was still a sizable portion of it above her that she wouldn’t ever be able to reach in an SR-172.

Her best guess was going to have to be good enough and Alora felt that if she continued flying she would overshoot her target. Taking a deep breath, she inverted the hovercraft and cut the engines. The sensation of weightlessness overcame her as she dropped into free-fall. The sleek vehicle sliced through the thin air as it made its meteoric descent.

Alora breathed out with relief to see the gaping maw of the city directly below her, meaning that she wouldn’t have to adjust course. Its depths glowed menacingly orange with the light of furnaces and foundries, like some great beast from the pages of her books waiting to swallow her and the the SR-172 whole. Alora was glad to oblige it. In the moments before she reached the mouth of the shaft, Alora fired up the rotors again. They strained against the momentum of the craft, whining loudly. The hovercraft shot into the shaft, continuing to fall at an increasingly slower pace.

Haka, if they didn’t know I’m here, they do now.

As Alora watched the levels of the city zip past, she realized that her current pace wasn’t going to be fast enough to slow down in time. The icy fire of adrenaline flooded her veins. Relying on instinct and every bit of her technical know-how, Alora flipped the SR-172 around so that she was oriented towards the sky and ignited the thrusters. She desperately hoped that there were no lingering civilian craft in her path, or else she’d be dead faster than she could blink. The metal frame vibrated and groaned with stress as the thrusters and rotors struggled together to overcome gravity. Alora yelled reflexively, willing the craft to stop falling.

Slower. Slower. Finally it stopped, deep in the well of the city. Shaking in exuberance and fear, Alora feathered the controls and leveled out the hovercraft, tapering off the thrusters. Her voice shook as she spoke.

“Kayde, I’m here. I’ll be at the Edge of district 127 in moments. What’s your status?”

Gunshots sounded in the background of his transmission this time, much to Alora’s alarm.

“I’m pinned at the Edge and running low on ammo. Any time now would be lovely!”

Alora increased the rotor speed, ascending up the shaft again.

“Almost there, Kayde. Just hold on. I’ll tell you when to make the jump!”

She found the edge of district 127, which accounted for a fraction of the total circumference of the shaft. Deactivating the LRF drive, she leveled out and positioned herself perfectly in the center of the Edge. The flip of a switch opened the craft’s topside access hatch.

“Right in the middle, Kayde. Ten feet down. Use the dorsal hatch.”

“Copy that! Throwing smoke and bugging out!”

Alora waited tensely, watching above her. Moments later, Kayde vaulted over the railing at the Edge. He sailed out of her field of view before she heard him impact on the canopy of the hovercraft. He wouldn’t be able to hear her if she radioed him, so she increased the rotor speed again and began their ascent out of the city. The wind from the rotors dispersed the smoke as she passed, revealing two full squads of Enforcers. She smiled with amusement, imagining stunned faces behind those gleaming visors.

Thanks for the toy, bitches.

They recovered and opened fire, but by then Alora and Kayde were already near the edge of their range. Alora reactivated the LRF drive. She heard Kayde’s rifle clatter to the floor behind her, followed by the thump of his boots as he landed hard in the passenger hold. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him limping towards her. Blood seeped through the fingers of a hand clasped against his side.

“Holy...! Kayde, stop moving. You need help!”

“A wild shot through the smoke got me. Figures. The bastards couldn’t hit me when they could see me, but they get lucky when they can’t. Nekhra.”

He grunted in pain and slid against the bulkhead.

“Hang on. I’m going to get us out of here.”