“Sir, I hate to interrupt this touching moment, but they would like to see the documents pertaining to our meeting,” the pilot called over his shoulder. “Itinerary, meeting locations, all that fun stuff.”

“The documents?” Seth cursed under his breath. His eye twitched as accessed his CAM. “Sending you forged credentials now. Just try to make sure they don’t look too closely.”

Several tense minutes passed. Seth stood in the center of the transport, looking towards the pilot. Mian drummed her fingers on the datapad. She kept the stylus pressed against her cheek. Xaleyp felt his heart thumping in his chest. A slight pain from his healing ribs still ached within. What if they knew what their ship was? What if the Arcadians didn’t allow them in? What then? Finally, the pilot turned to them.

“Access granted, sir. We’re authorized to land at New Alexandria Galactic Spaceport.”

“Yeah, no, I don’t think we will.” Seth walked up to the pilot. “Yeter, follow the course they gave you, but once you get within twenty kilometers so, break off and head west, away from the city. We’ll need to be fast.”

“Does this ship have any weapons?” Xaleyp asked. If they were discovered and needed to defend themselves, he didn’t want to be stuck as a sitting duck.

“Not unless you’re breaking the window and hanging out with a rifle, which I wouldn’t recommend,” the pilot said. He scoffed as he said the words. “It’s meant for quick, peaceful missions and escapes. Not for flying through an enemy fleet or into a battlefield.”

The transport moved past the waiting vessels. They all held their breath as the Arcadian military fleet grew larger. If something was wrong, the group onboard the transport would know instantly. Soon, they were flying between the frigates and cruisers, getting closer and closer to the planet. None of them broke formation, and the transport slowly approached the planet without raising any alarm.

The ride through the atmosphere was bumpy, at times forcing Xaleyp and Mian to hold on tight to their seats despite the fact the straps were holding them secure. Soon, the view of New Alexandria filled the viewport. It was a large metropolis with cars and ships flying around towering skyscrapers. Nearly every building was at least several stories tall and took up a city block. It was a shining city, not that different from Mornage. However, they didn’t approach the structures.

As soon as they were getting close to New Alexandria, the transport fell into a steep dive. The swampy ground rapidly grew larger in front of them, and they were just meters above when the pilot pulled the ship out of the plunge. They were heading away from the city now with Yeter expertly dodging the bog trees around them, cutting through vines and leaves. He cringed slightly after the stunt, his shoulders jerking up.

“They noticed, sir.” The pilot turned to look at Seth. “By the sounds of it, they’re definitely not happy we broke from the flight pattern.”

Somewhere in the distance, they heard a roaring of engines growing louder. The trees around them and leaves above gave them adequate cover for now, but it wouldn’t last forever. The Arcadians would find them, one way or another.

After about a hundred kilometers, Yeter set down the transport rather faster than any of them expected in the marsh below. The repulsor engines underneath screamed in protest at the harsh maneuver as it tried to stabilize the craft. A crash resonated around them and water sprayed up, soaking the sides and leaving murky trails down the window. It sunk a meter into the soft mud before coming to a stop. Each of them undid their straps and stood up, heading for the door. Seth went into the back room and returned with five assault rifles and two magazines for each, struggling as he tried to hold them under his arms. With a clatter, they dropped to the floor in the middle of the transport.

“Just in case,” he said as he passed them out. He locked one of his magazines into place at the bottom of his rifle. He also retrieved a pistol from the back and slipped it under his Modular Fabric. It wouldn’t be easy to get to, but it may prove useful in a pinch. “Assume anyone we see is hostile unless proven otherwise. Yeter, grab a couple sacks of food. Captain, torch it.”

Both of them nodded. Yeter went into the back and emerged with a bag slung over each shoulder. He handed one of them to Mian. Meanwhile, Seth was opening the door while Redman began to set the seats on fire with a plasma torch. The engines were steadily intensifying. Xaleyp looked up in the air and back towards New Alexandria. He couldn’t see them between the leaves and vines, but his CAM marked the location of three different drones heading towards their location.

“We’ve got incoming.” Xaleyp locked one of his magazines into place and aimed towards one of the drones. “Want me to take them down?”

“From this distance?” Seth shook his head. “You’ll just tell them exactly where we are. Redman and Yeter, you head north and circle back around when you’re sure they didn’t follow you. Xaleyp, the girl, and myself will head south. We’ll meet at Avalon, a town almost directly west of us. I’m sending the coordinates to all of you now.”

A chime came through Xaleyp’s CAM to alert him of the message. The drones were getting closer. A crackling fire started to engulf the transport from the inside out. Billowing smoke rose into the sky. Something inside exploded, tearing a hole in the ship's side. Redman and the pilot began sloshing through the marshy water at a brisk pace. The sword gleamed on the back of the captain with each step he took. Xaleyp followed Seth and Mian as they walked in the opposite direction from the other two.

“Sir, are you sure we should be letting Redman take the sword with him?” Xaleyp asked. The swamp water stuck to his pant legs, but the Fabric prevented any from getting against his body. “Can we trust him?”

“Of course we can. I’d trust him with my life. In fact, I am. Now keep moving.”

Behind them, the drones found the abandoned ship. They circled around the pillar of smoke like vultures over their meal before descending. Their scanners must have picked up the two trails they left behind. One drone took off north while the other two streaked towards the three of them. As soon as they saw the trio, the machine guns on the underside unleashed a barrage of bullets. The metal slugs splashed in the water and tore into the thick trees. Their goal wasn’t for a precise attack, but to completely overwhelm their enemy, and with the firepower the machines had, they might be able to do just that. What did he get himself and Mian into?

Xaleyp pulled Mian out of the way of the gunfire as a stream of bullets ripped through the air she had just been in. They hid behind a tree, both of them readying their rifles. It was close. Too close. He couldn’t lose her, too. Seth ducked out of the way just in time, rolling through the muck a dozen meters away from the two of them.

As the drones flew past the tree side by side, Xaleyp’s CAM lit up both as enemies. He aimed his rifle at the one closer to him and fired a burst of shots as it turned around. The rounds dug into the metal of the craft, but they did nothing to slow it down. The machine gun spun up and unleashed another torrent at the two of them. Splintered wood cascaded from above where the bullets struck the tree. A series of gunshots erupted from beside him as Mian fired her own rifle. The shots tore into the engine and it fell from the air, crashing into the swamp.

Across from them, Seth was firing a stream of bullets at the drone that came after him. He aimed for the machine gun, and the barrel spun uselessly a few times before laying limp, disabled. The drone, no longer able to fire, turned itself into a projectile and set a course to crash into Seth. Xaleyp brought his rifle up again and let loose a volley at its engines. A fire erupted from the side. It spun out of control, sinking into the water with a crack. Once the swamp settled and there was no more noise aside from their own panting, they came out of their hiding spots. The three of them met in the middle of their hiding spots.

“I guess they know we’re here now,” Seth said, wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead. He looked at the two wreckages of twisted metal and smoke. “Nice job, but we need to move faster. This is what we’ve been training you for.”

He took off at a jog, sloshing through the murky water. Xaleyp and Mian stared at each other for a moment.

“We’ve been training to run through a swamp and get chased by drones?” Xaleyp muttered under his breath. “Seems awfully specific.”

Mian laughed, covering her mouth to make sure Seth didn’t hear. He joined her, looking down at his feet. She looked at Xaleyp for a moment, a smile on her face and one eyebrow raised. Like she was studying him.

“What?” he asked. His voice was perhaps a little harsher than he intended, and he muttered a quick apology.

“It’s nothing. Just thinking.”

He found the nonanswer more infuriating than any actual answer she could have given him. Before he questioned her further, she turned away and took off after Seth. He was quick to follow. Their legs pumped up and down to clear the water with each bounding step. The green and brown of the swamp sprayed in all directions. Some spots were soft and squishy, making them do a double take to make sure they didn’t slip in the muck.

The journey to Avalon was long and tiring. Tree roots jutted out in their path at random intervals and in all directions. They had to hop and slide over them to keep from tripping. The only thing that they heard around them during their trek were the sounds of nature. Bird songs. Some sort of frog croaking. The gentle splashes of animals running away from them. But no more engines were coming their way. Why would they send just the three drones after them, especially when they were destroyed so easily?

As they crested a hill jutting out of the swamp, they finally saw it. The spires of the towers came into sight first, followed by the low rooftops of houses. It was a short and sprawling town. Unlike Mornage or New Alexandria, the buildings were mostly small and spread out. Some cars and freighters scurried between the buildings, both on the ground and in the air. On the right side, a tunnel disappeared into the ground for the hyperlanes connecting the different cities around the planet. An expanse of grassland between them and the buildings was a marked difference from the swamp they had been traversing through for hours. The green blades seemed to invite them to lie down and stay for hours, hours they didn’t have. Beyond the city and to the sky above, they saw the rings sparkling as they orbited around the planet, seeming even more magnificent from the ground than they did from space.

There was some rustling to their right, and all three of them rose their rifles to aim at the shifting leaves. After a couple of seconds, Yeter and Redman came into view. Redman had a cloth tied around his upper arm. There was a red spot on his forearm. Around the stain, his Modular Fabric blinked in and out of its appearance, malfunctioning from the damage. The sword still hung on his back. The trio lowered their guns, moving forward to join the pair of them.

“Ah, you made it.” Seth gave the hole in the captain’s arm a look. “Are you going to be alright?”

“Aye, sir.” Redman nodded. He scanned each of them. “Damn drone got a lucky shot in before we took it down. You three didn’t have any issues then?”

“Nothing we couldn’t handle.” Seth began moving towards the city. “Now, let’s get going. We have a lot to do and still a long way to go.”