“No,” Wyatt said. “It’s too early to call it over. We can still fix this.”
He turned to Dorian. “Get my flight module ready. I’m going after the CBG. And I need one helper.”
Five minutes later, Wyatt was strapped into the module and giving the convoy rapid instructions. Then he rose into the air on a column of flame.
Eisen went with him.
He drove a second lander with two robots inside, keeping pace beneath Wyatt’s low flight path. In mountains like these, hunting a single target that could cloak itself was nearly impossible from the sky alone. They needed ground eyes.
Wyatt had already plotted the shortest route to Sunset Harbor Base. Along that line, he and Eisen—air and ground—pushed forward, coordinating through the Shadow Falcon’s feed.
Back at the halt site, everyone moved like the clock had teeth.
Every carriage showed damage. Even the wing panels on top had been punched through. By sheer luck, the TBM hadn’t been hit.
Dorian led several CTR units in disconnecting the ruined water bay and grow bay, then began patching bullet holes and reinforcing joints.
Starling and Linneya harvested the orange beans and stripped usable equipment out of the grow bay, moving it into the remaining compartments.
Minks took two robots back along their approach route. Their job was simple: erase wheel marks within a ten-kilometer radius.
Big Blue climbed the nearest peak with two robots and watched the surrounding ridgelines for movement.
Four hours passed.
The convoy still wasn’t fully repaired when Eisen returned—alone.
The questions hit him at once.
“Did you find the CBG?”
“Where’s Wyatt?”
“Why are you back by yourself?”
“We chased for more than fifty kilometers,” Eisen said, clearly frustrated. “Nothing. Wyatt told me to return.”
Linneya’s voice tightened. “Then why didn’t he come with you?”
“He’s still searching,” Eisen said. “But if he hasn’t found it before dark… he’s going straight to Sunset Harbor Base.”
Starling blinked. “He’s going to attack it?”
“Yes,” Eisen said. “The moment he shows himself, every enemy unit will pivot toward him. That gives us space to slip out.”
Starling went still. “He’s going to brute-force it.”
“Sunset Harbor is a real base,” Big Blue said grimly. “Permanent garrison, twenty thousand units. He always does insane things alone.”
Linneya grabbed Starling’s hand. “Is he going to get hurt?”
“He won’t do it without odds,” Eisen said. “He knows what he can survive.”
“And us?” Starling demanded. “What do we do?”
“We wait until nightfall,” Eisen said. “If he isn’t back, we leave. After he disengages, he’ll meet us on the west coast.”
Starling didn’t like it. But Eisen said the thing no one wanted to hear and everyone needed to.
“We’re in hostile territory. Linneya’s safety comes first.”
Starling stared at the darkening sky. “Four hours. He has four hours to find that damned CBG.”
Eisen almost said the truth—that the odds of spotting a cloaked unit in mountain terrain were miserable.
Instead he only said, “I hope he does.”
An hour later, Minks returned. The supply transfer finished. Dorian’s CTR team had the convoy patched enough to move and started repairing the wing panels on the roof.
Another three hours bled away. The light faded. Everyone stood facing northwest, straining for a glimpse of jet flame.
Nothing came.
“We go,” Eisen said at last. “Stay optimistic. He promised he’d meet us at the coast.”
“Wait,” Linneya whispered. “Maybe he’s coming back right now.”
Half an hour later, the valley was fully dark.
Eisen pushed again. “If that CBG got away, this place isn’t safe. And we can’t afford to sit still anymore.”
They were climbing aboard when Linneya looked up.
Her face tightened in fear—then snapped into relief.
“Look! Wyatt’s back!”
A streak of flame carved across the night. Wyatt dropped in from the darkness and landed in front of them as if he’d never left.
Linneya ran to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You changed your mind?”
Eisen stared. “You came back… did you—”
Wyatt tossed a Hyena head onto the ground. “I found the CBG. And I got this back.”
Eisen’s eyes widened. “You actually found it?”
Big Blue leaned in. “Then where is it?”
“Terminated,” Wyatt said. “But not by me.”
Silence—sharp and immediate.
“Then who?” Starling asked.
“I don’t know,” Wyatt said. “When I saw it, it was already down. Its head was smashed in. So was the Hyena head it stole.”
Starling glanced at the dented plating and the blunt-force scarring. She shivered.
Minks exhaled slowly. “Someone helped us.”
“Twice,” he added. “The mysterious flare before this. Same hand, I bet.”
“I thought the same thing,” Wyatt said. “On the way back.”
Starling’s shoulders sagged in relief. “As long as it’s not an enemy, fine. You made it back. That’s what matters.”
“And you don’t have to die at Sunset Harbor,” Big Blue muttered.
“Going there’s easy,” Wyatt admitted. “Getting out would be the problem.”
He turned to Dorian. “Repairs?”
“Done,” Dorian said instantly. “Been done.”
“Good,” Wyatt said. “We move. Now.”
The convoy rolled out again toward the coastline—three hundred-plus kilometers away.
This was still the ninth day.
***
With two full carriages gone, their speed jumped. On the tenth day they covered almost half again as much ground as usual. If they could keep that pace, they’d be out of the Budalawa Mountains within three days.
The eleventh day went the same. Confidence started to return. Their straight-line distance to the shore had dropped to a bit over a hundred kilometers.
On the twelfth day, a continuous ridge forced a long detour. Progress stayed steady—but Big Blue noticed something that made his stomach knot.
At fifteen meters, he could still hold a stable wireless link with Wyatt.
On the thirteenth day, that stable range expanded to thirty meters.
Big Blue barely spoke all day.
On the fourteenth day, they reached the western edge of the mountains. The peaks had fallen into lower hills. The coastline was probably ten or fifteen kilometers away.
It should have been good news.
Instead, Big Blue discovered he could link cleanly with Wyatt from fifty meters.
Panic flooded him.
On the common channel, he blurted, “Comms are coming back. Wyatt… I’m done.”
Wyatt answered with the same confusion Big Blue felt. “Is the signal shielding only effective inside the Budalawa Mountains?”
“If that’s true,” Big Blue said, voice tight, “then I can’t leave this range.”
Because the moment communications restored to anything like normal, Phantom Forge would find him instantly—
And take his body back.