Bantia answered between grunts as we tugged together. “Bringing up the rear, of course. As usual.” There was frustration and worry in her tone, but admiration as well. Trust that he would be all right. And I missed those touches in Darius’s prior rantings at me all the more.
“How long do we have?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Not long.”
Shuttles were doing touch-and-goes on the ground near us, hovering just low enough for the evacuating troops to leap onboard. The moment they were full, they soared away, another waiting to take its place.
I lost count of the troops as they poured out of the wall, running at full speed. Finally Ulixes appeared.
“Clear.”
“Thank Vega,” Bantia said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Turning together, we all ran for the nearest shuttle large enough to hold our Titan frames. Darius paced behind me, but I wasn’t going to waste energy yelling at him to hurry. My bad feeling had gone from mild anxiety to full-blown panic attack. We had to get out of here.
Now.
The first blast knocked me to my knees. The shock wave lifted my Titan and threw me into the cliff wall more than twenty meters away.
I slid down to slump on the rocky ground. I hurt, but everything seemed to be intact.
I looked up and winced, threw my arms up to protect my Titan’s chest as chunks of rock and twisted metal fell from the sky to bury me alive.