“So what’s on the agenda today?” Auggie asked. “We taking the skiff out?”

“Yeah. New orders from Queen Bitey.” Monte said. “We are going to patrol north in a big loop and come back.”

“Uh, Why Queen Bitey?” Auggie asked. “Is there something wrong with Tree?”

“No. It seems Queen Bitey was tired of the inefficiencies in Tree’s planning and decided to take direct control.” Monte explained. “Who knew ants like efficiency and order?”

“Today will be great.” Monte continued on. “The skiff has new weapons. We have new weapons. We got these cool little life vests.”

“Okay.” Auggie said. “Run that by me again. How do life vests in the air work?” Auggie asked as he fiddled with the straps and buttons on his weird new contraption.

“It’s really a misnomer.” Monte explained. “It’s really more of a slow fall vest.” Monte pointed to a few of the straps. “The blue straps here. Attach to lines on the gunwales. If you fall out, it automatically activates the slow fall function. It’s not unlimited but it runs for about a minute. It runs longer if you recharge it or run it at a lower rate.”

“The red tab is for getting back into the boat.” Monte explained. “It’s paired with the skiff. Once you pull it, Swoops over there gets a buzz and brings the skiff over, and up you go. Nothing too it. Range is about 100 feet. It has enough upmhf to get you clear of the canopy. Takes about five minutes to recharge naturally. You can top it up faster but again, that’s up to you. Not everyone has a high regeneration rate. A Lot of the tools Tree is making are mana hogs. Either get your regen up or you need to wait.”

“Anything new on the guns?” Dario asked.

“Nope.” Monte replied. “It’s still blast’em and rack’em.”

While Monte was going through his explanation of the toys on the craft. Swoops was busy going through her preflight checklist.

Mana berries. Check.

Mana flow topped off. Check.

Mana actuators. Check.

Noisy monkeys strapped in. Close enough.

Airspace above clear. Sure.

Swoops poured her mana into the mana accumulator. Blue mana began to hum and flow through the power system. Swoops chittered in her ant laughter. The skiff began to float up into the air.

“Release the lines.” She chittered. Auggie and Dario moved to throw off the mooring lines.

“FOR THE QUEEN.” Swoops chittered and released the mana restrictor on the accumulator. The mana force pods glowed a neon blue and the skiff screamed into the air.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.” Screamed Auggie. The wind tore away any sound he made. He looked around and saw Monte and Dario were in a similar situation. They couldn’t talk to each other like this. Monte was making some weird flappy motion with his arms.

Swoops took the skiff in a large sweeping turn around the tree. The skiff gained altitude during the climb out. Pretty soon everyone had a bird’s eye view of the surrounding area. It was very boring. The land below was gently rolling hills, partially obscured by the forest surrounding Tree.

Swoops finally slowed down. The wind rushing over the skiff lessened in intensity.

“Swoops, Soar.” Swoops crowed into the wind. It was hard to tell with an ant, but Swoops looked very pleased with herself.

“Holy shite.” Monte said. “Swoops, you gotta warn us before you pull shit like that.

“Swoops gotta swoop.” Auggie said from the right side. He turned to look out and view the surrounding area as the skiff floated above the canopy.

Swoops nodded her head. “Swoops gotta swoop.”

“Alright everyone.” Monte called out. “Eyes out, guns out. Let’s do some scouting.”

The skiff continued to the north for another twenty to thirty minutes. After the first ten minutes, the skiff passed from the forest to the plains surrounding Tree.

“Does this skiff have a name?” Auggie asked.

“Uh.” Monte articulated. “Not really. I just call it the skiff. Never really thought about it.”

“Check it out.” Dario called out. “Nine o clock low. Looks like something on the ridge.”

“Bring us in closer Swoops.” Monte called out. “Slowly.”

“Swoooooops.” Swoops agreed.

“Oh shit. That one has a bow.” Auggie said. “And it's drawing on us.”

Ziiiiiipp.

Ziiiiiipp. Thonk.

The first area missed high. The archer adjusted and the next shot struck the hull. It managed to punch through. The arrowhead and a good six inches of shaft were now sticking out of the bottom of the boat.

“Return fire.” Auggie yelled at the same time Swoops jinked the skiff to the left. The movement of the skiff added to Auggie’s momentum as he tracked the ground target causing him to topple over the side.

“Oh. Shiiiiiiit.” Auggie’s voice dopplered away as he fell towards the ground. The slow fall vest activated. Auggie’s travel towards the ground became much slower. However he continued to tumble through the air. He landed heavily on his side with a crunch.

“Huh.” Monte said under his breath. “We never tested it while tumbling. I should make a note of that.”

Monte cupped his hands and yelled down. “The red cord, dummy. The red cord.”

Auggie weakly reached up and pulled the red cord. The vest glowed red and he shot up into the air.

“Swoops.” Monte called. “This is all you big guy.”

“Swooooops.” Swoops called as she maneuvered the skiff back around.

Dario began to lay down some covering fire for the skiff.

Swoosh.

Swoosh.

Swoosh.

Three fireballs in quick succession shot out from the mana gun. The sounds of the explosion ran into each other and made a low rumble. The blast of heat caused the things to back up and the smoke and dust obscured the skiff as it came up underneath Auggie.

Monte managed to pull him in the skiff. “You okay buddy?” He asked.

Auggie gave a low moan. “Fuuuuuuuuuuck.” He groaned.

Monte stuck a mana berry in his mouth. “Here suck on this.” It was no healing potion but the mana berries restored energy and helped speed up the natural regeneration of the body.

In a low breathy tone Auggie managed to whisper. “That’s what she said.” He coughed wetly before his hand went limp.

Monte checked for a pulse. It was weak and thready. “Swoops get us back to Tree. Someone can heal him there.”

Swoops nodded and made an ant line back towards the tree.