Before leaving, Blin had handed command of the entire fleet—including Limit—over to Wyatt.
So while Wyatt dispatched the rescue ship, he also issued escort orders across the fleet. By the time the Observers on Twinmoon Bay’s outer perimeter detected incoming enemy ships, his own fleet had already entered the atmosphere.
Veil calculated the rough enemy count: about 200 fighters, 4 attack ships, 1 Heidelberg carrier, 2 Leviathan warships, and 10 escort ships.
The numbers were less than half of Wyatt’s available strength. For once, he had a battle where he outnumbered the enemy. Still, after a moment of thought, he deliberately pulled half his forces back—partly so he wouldn’t scare the enemy into retreating, and partly to test his own ability to command a large engagement.
The enemy crossed the shoreline and pushed into Twinmoon Bay’s airspace. To avoid accidental hits on Integrity and the rescue ship during the melee, Wyatt had Veil move Free Will to the far side of the islands and recalled the twelve Super Windgods.
The enemy mistook the maneuver for retreat and rushed to surround Free Will.
More than two hundred enemy fighters dove toward the ship—only for nearly the same number of friendly fighters to drop out of the storm clouds above at the last second.
The roar of engines swelled into a scream of air as hundreds of missiles tore through the sky at once.
The enemy was caught completely off guard. Fireballs bloomed one after another across the clouds. Smoking wreckage fell like rain.
The battle report flashed across the common channel. The red enemy count plummeted. When it finally stopped dropping, nearly half of the enemy fighters were gone—and Wyatt hadn’t lost a single craft.
Before the fight began, Heligen had been dragged to a flat mountaintop by an Avenger. Boca had found a chair, and Heligen sat in it, staring in disbelief at the slaughter happening overhead.
Nearby, Wyatt and Merc exchanged a few quick lines and laid out the next steps.
Enemy warships finally emerged. Surviving fighters fell back toward their carrier. Wyatt refused to chase, wary of a baited ambush. Instead, he ordered nearby escort ships to airdrop a dozen temporary anti-air towers on the surrounding slopes and above the mountaintop.
The hexagonal columns slammed into the ground, extended six steel claws into the rock to anchor themselves, then unfolded honeycomb missile ports. Each tower carried sixty-four Persuader missiles.
Merc found a good position and set up his two-meter OIS-2X, feeding a palm-long armor-piercing high-explosive round into the chamber as he waited.
After a short regroup, the enemy warships advanced again. Half a minute later, both sides entered main-gun range.
Wyatt held his fighters back. He let the warships trade broadsides first.
Limit’s firepower was brutal. The enemy ships buckled under it, and their fighters—freshly reorganized—couldn’t resist. They screamed forward again.
Wyatt had been waiting for that. He ordered the mountaintop towers to fire.
Thin pillars of flame lanced upward, and dense swarms of Persuaders surged into the enemy formation.
The sky detonated into bright blooms again. The enemy fighter count dropped sharply.
Only then did Wyatt order the full offensive. His fighters surged in.
The remaining enemy fighters charged the mountaintop, trying to destroy the anti-air towers. Enemy robots attacked as well. Because they were smaller, more of them had survived—but a rough count still put them under three hundred.
Merc opened fire. Each thunderous shot meant a fighter falling out of the sky.
Meanwhile, dozens of hidden Avengers on the slope and mountaintop focused their fire on the enemy robots.
The enemy robots hit the ground, used the terrain for cover, and pushed upward while returning fire. The hillside turned into a vicious gunfight.
Heligen thought the attackers were coming to rescue him. He jumped up and shouted—until the Avenger guarding him glared him back into the chair.
The enemy still had numbers, so Wyatt drew his own weapon and joined the fight. Boca tried to edge away when no one was looking, but after hesitating, he quietly came back on his own.
With Merc and Wyatt holding the mountaintop, the enemy robots were quickly wiped out. In the air, the outcome was already decided. With fighter support, enemy warships fell one by one. Only a single Leviathan warship was still struggling—but its end was only a matter of time.
…
***
After roughly an hour of high-speed flight, Blin spotted a contact that looked like his target. He closed in and confirmed it: a CR-17 transport ship, with a Phantom fighter escort on each side.
He zoomed in on the transport’s numbered hull and sent the image to Wyatt. Wyatt had Boca verify it, and Boca recognized it instantly: Jody’s ship.
Blin’s confidence surged—and then he ran into a problem.
In Nightmare form he could easily send all three aircraft to the bottom of the ocean, but he couldn’t retrieve anything from the wreckage. He could shoot down the escorts and order the transport to turn back, but the return trip was long. If Jody contacted Edean in secret, rescue could arrive—or he could destroy the storage unit.
The safest option was to seize the storage unit first. But when Blin checked Little White’s position, she was still far away.
“Cha-cha-cha, Little White—why are you so slow?”
“Slow? This is my top speed,” Little White snapped back.
“Hurry up. I found him. I’m waiting for you to make the grab.”
“Fine. I’m coming.”
Blin stayed at range behind the transport ship and waited.
Half an hour passed.
Little White still hadn’t arrived. The fighting back at Twinmoon Bay was nearly over. Blin’s impatience spiked—then an island passed beneath them, and he suddenly had an idea.
He slammed forward. The sonic boom alone made all three aircraft react.
Blin fired a missile into one Phantom, then snapped into a hard turn and raked the other with cannon fire.
Both escort fighters exploded and splashed into the sea.
The transport ship popped a turret from its dorsal hull and opened fire. Blin rolled away, then sent a few precise shots that shredded the turret.
The transport panicked and tried to flee.
Blin locked on and sent a message: “Jody. I know you’re in there. If you want to live, turn around.”
The transport slowed and replied, “Who are you? What do you want?”
“Don’t worry about who I’m. Do what I say. Or I’ll send you down to keep those two Phantoms company.”
The transport finally stopped and began a slow turn.
Blin guided it down onto the island they’d just passed.
It was barely an island at all—more like a reef that rose above the surface. Once the transport landed, it took up a full third of the available space.
Blin hovered a dozen meters away and said, “Come out. Bring what you’re taking to Edean.”
Ten seconds later, the hatch opened.
A tall man stepped out carrying a briefcase.
“You’re Jody?” Blin asked.
“Yes,” Jody said.
“Open it. Let me see.”
Jody complied. Blin confirmed the contents, then opened his belly bay.
“Now put it inside,” Blin ordered.
Jody hesitated, face tightening.
“Move,” Blin said. “Once it’s inside, you can leave.”
Jody had no choice. He stepped forward with the case.
He took two steps—
Rat-a-tat-a-tat!
Gunfire erupted. Two Avengers burst out of the transport ship, firing as they charged.
Sparks flew off Nightmare’s frame. Jody screamed as his right leg was cut off at the knee. He hit the ground hard, shrieking in pain.
Half of Blin’s missiles were still in the open bay. The sudden barrage nearly set them off. He snapped the bay shut and prepared to return fire—only to see that one of the Avengers had already grabbed the briefcase and pressed a gun to it.
“Apocalypse Ranger,” the other Avenger said, “didn’t expect to run into you here.”
Blin froze. “Ogen…”
“Yes,” the Avenger said calmly—Ogen, wearing someone else’s face. “Wyatt’s fight at Twinmoon Bay was beautiful. But I want to know something: what’s inside that storage unit? What could possibly be worth this much trouble?”