“Turn around. We’re going to leap to the shielding wall, slide down with our claws and climb out the hole we just made. Understood?”
I sighed. He was right and I knew it. There was no sense arguing with him. I wanted to go after Bantia and Ulixes, but we could do that more easily from the ground. Blow a new hole in the base and get in there…now that we knew what this damn thing was made of.
I turned to face the back side of the shield doors and leaped forward, catching myself with extended claws that penetrated the metal. With a few adjustments and finger flexing I was sliding down the wall at a nice, smooth pace, my claws cutting through the heavy metal like butter.
If it hadn’t been so dark, I would have felt like a pirate with a knife, riding down the center of a sail. Except maybe I needed a white pirate blouse, tight black leather pants, a nice, tight bustier, and a parrot on my shoulder. Now that would be an adventure.
Darius could be the sexy young stud about to walk the plank, waiting for me to swoop in and save him.
Like that would ever happen. He’d probably dive in the water, wrestle a few sharks, and take over the entire ship.
Maybe then he’d fuck me up against the mast of the ship during a storm. Lightning strikes illuminating the sky. Sea spray landing on his back. A canopy of stars over our heads. The two of us alone and unafraid, ready to cash in all the pirates’ treasure and retire to a tropical island where we would have sex in a hammock, or on the beach—sand be damned—or with me bent over a barstool, buzzed on piña coladas as he filled me from behind.
The bright light coming through the opening Darius’s grenade created was like a flash bomb inside my helmet. Athena adjusted at once, but I was still blinking hard and trying to regain my bearings as I swung my feet out through the opening, then rolled so my Titan’s chest faced the outside of the blast door. I dug my claws back in so I could slide the rest of the way down.
“Status, Athena?” I asked.
“No hostile forces within range.”
Nice. At least I didn’t have to worry about being shot off the wall like a sitting duck. I could have used my boosters to basically fly down, but why waste the energy. I might need them later. Because until we were inside this place, this mission was not over.
Glancing up, I watched as Darius performed an identical maneuver to mine, swinging through the opening, flipping, grabbing onto the exterior with his claws. He was sliding down the wall with me, keeping pace until our Titans’ feet touched solid ground.
“Athena, can we blast a hole here without endangering the others?” I asked.
“Unknown.”
Damn it. I wanted to get in there, but I didn’t want to hurt Bantia or Ulixes if they were directly on the other side of the blast.
Facing the giant door, I turned to my right to count off twenty paces. On the inside, Team One had taken off to my left. Assuming they continued that direction, this should be safe.
“Where are you going?” Darius asked.
“Keep up.” At my mark, I backed away from the door, lifted my arm, and fired my largest grenade at the door, chest high. I wanted the largest hole possible, and losing half of my blast radius in the rock under the door would be a waste. “Fire in the hole!” I yelled.
Darius’s Titan tackled me to the ground as a giant plume of rock and debris rained down on us from the blast.
“What are you doing?” I yelled.
“Are you insane?” Darius’s voice sounded off. Shaky. “You should have let me do that.”
“Why? Because I’m a girl?”
He growled, the sound one of frustration. “Because you’re mine.”
Two nearby Titan teams ran for our location, then disappeared inside the entrance I’d created. Brilliant. I made the opening, and they beat me inside. “Get off me.”
“You weren’t saying that last night.”
Oh God, I was going to kill him with my bare hands.
“Get. Off.”
“No. We’ve done our job. Ground forces are already on the move.”
I turned my Titan-sized head to see that he spoke the truth. Hundreds of smaller attack units were racing toward us, armed to the teeth, battle cries on their lips. They wore armor exactly like I’d seen when I was playing what I’d once believed was only a video game. The stats on the armor were impressive, and I knew they could take a hit. More than one.
As if on cue, the general’s voice resonated inside my helmet.