Kaelith approached the overturned vehicle. The truck, still balanced with its front end hanging over the edge, was battered and smoking. Kaelith moved cautiously, glancing back at the Airblade to ensure their escape route was still clear.
Positioning himself at the back of the truck to open it, Kaelith once again used the plasma cutter to slice through the lock. Sparks flew as the cutter ate through the metal, causing the lock to fall off with a metallic clink, its severed portions glowing red-hot.
As light seeped into the dark truck, Kaelith finally got a good view of the contents inside. His eyes widened in surprise.
As I remained in the Airblade, ready to step in if necessary, Kaelith's voice crackled through the earpiece, [Tokei! I found a person in the other truck!]
Taken aback by this unexpected development, I tried to piece together what this new information could mean. "Is there anything else in there?"
After a second of silence, likely as Kaelith looked around, his response came back, [The only other thing I can see is some kind of intricate black and gold sword that looks pretty expensive.]
"Never mind that. Is there anything else in there?"
Kaelith hesitated before answering, [No, just the person and the sword. The rest of the truck seems empty.]
I frowned, "Is the person alive?"
[Barely,] Kaelith responded. [Looks like they're unconscious, maybe injured. What should we do?]
I weighed the options quickly. Bringing an unknown person into our midst was risky, but given the fact that they were being transported with precious metal, they must be of equivalent or greater value to the Kyritite. "Get them out of there and bring them aboard. We'll figure out who they are later. And take the sword, too. It might be important."
He carefully pulled the unconscious figure from the truck, a young woman dressed in what appeared to be the armor of a wandering knight, her face pale and streaked with dirt and her deep red hair a dry tangled mess. The sword he mentioned was held in her hands, its ornate hilt glinting in the dim light.
"I've got her," Kaelith said, his voice strained as he lifted the woman. "She's not too heavy, but she's definitely out cold."
[Understood. Get her to the Airblade, and be quick about it. We're running out of time.] Tokei said through the intercom.
The roadway suddenly began to shake violently, as if the portion under the truck was threatening to collapse entirely. The floor of the truck began to shift and caused kaelith to lose his footing slightly before
Kaelith tried to move as fast as he could to get to the back and escape. However, the falling truck picked up its speed, rapidly hurling toward the desert floor. He made a desperate dash, but before he could get out, the truck had gone past the point of no return, and gravity viciously pulled the truck and him toward the sandy ground.
His body flew back into the truck and violently smashed into the truck's interior. The woman he had picked up crashed onto him, still unconscious, with the sword she held still grasped arms as if it were glued to them. The truck hurtled downward, and Kaelith braced for impact.
Farthington, who had sat down because he was tired saw the truck falling and muttered to himself, "That's a lot of damage… is it really going to seem like some large snake caused this? Anyway, where did the country bumpkin, Kaelith, go?"
Inside the truck, Kaelith struggled to shield the woman from the worst of the impact. The ground rushed up to meet them, and he closed his eyes, bracing for the inevitable. With a tremendous crash, the truck hit the desert floor. Sand and metal flew in all directions at the truck settled on the desert floor.
[Farthington.]
"Yes madam. What do you have to say?"
[You did see the truck that just fell, right?]
"Indeed."
[Well, that truck also had Kaelith in it.]
"Ahhh. I suppose he was a brave fellow. May he rest in peace."
[Just go down there and check it out…]
"Fine, but I want a new suit."
[Whatever. Just go!]
"Hmmm, how to go about getting down now…"
Farthington walked over to edge of the roadway which the truck fell off of and took a look around. After a moment of searching he saw a small staircase off of the side of road that led down to a caged ladder that scalled a pillar of the elevated roadway.
"Huh. How convenient."
Using the ladder to climb down to the surface of the desert, Farthington landed in the sand and came off of the ladder.
"Ugh, there's sand in my shoes now. I better get some compensation for the losses I'm incurring here."
He then walked over to the crashed truck and peered into the trailer of the truck, which had lost its doors in the crash. He saw Kaelith slowly stirring as he got up.
"I see that you're still alive," Farthington commented
"No thanks to you," Kaelith muttered as he got to his feet and brushed sand off of his outfit.
"Wow, you could be a little more appreciative of me. I came all the way down here just to check on you."
"Gee, thanks," Kaelith said halfheartedly.
"Who's the woman?" Farthington said as he pointed to the lady with the sword lying next to him.
"Hell, If I know. Tokei just said to bring her back with me to the Airblade."
"I see. I suppose that we might get some bonus pay if we extract her…"
As the two of them worked together to pull the woman from the wreckage, a low rumbling began to emanate from the ground beneath their feet.
Kaelith's eyes widened, and he desperately yanked the woman out of the truck, hoisting her over his shoulder and moving as fast as he could away from the unstable vehicle. Farthington hastily followed suit.
Suddenly, the ground behind Farthington exploded, sending a shower of sand into the air. A massive tunnel-boring snake, its matte body, rough from constantly scraping against the sands, glinting in the desert sun, rose from the depths, its segmented form undulating as it crashed back down onto the sand. The force of its impact sent shockwaves through the ground, causing the already unstable roadway to tremble even more violently.
"Dammit! I get paid enough for this!" Farthington shouted, his voice barely audible over the cacophony of the snake's movements.
Kaelith and Farthington sprinted away from the looming threat. The tunnel-boring snake, a creature designed for excavation and destruction, reared back, its menacing jaws opening wide, Lined with vast rows of teeth were visible, as it prepared to strike.
Inside the Airblade, I watched in shock as the scene unfolded below. "Kaelith, Farthington, get out of there now! That thing is going to tear my errand boys- I mean you two apart!"
"We're trying!" Kaelith yelled back, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Farthington ran ahead of Kaelith like a bullet, "I'll Keep going! Kaelith buy me some time!"
"Tokei! How do we get out of here?" Kaelith cried out, unable to find a feasible way to escape.
Looking down from my vantage point high in the sky, I saw a single way to deal with this catastrophe, and that was to step in myself. "Neuro! Take control of the Airblade while I get out and bring the Airblade down to pick us up when the coast is clear!"
As the butterfly door of the Airblade's cockpit opened high in the sky, I leaped out of my seat, my body racing toward the world below. While I was falling, I activated Combat Trance 2.0 and took a look at the situation below.
The world around me slowed down as my senses heightened. I could see every detail with crystal clarity—the massive, armored snake coiling and thrashing, Farthington and Kaelith struggling to get away with the unconscious woman, and the wreckage of the convoy scattered across the sand.
I adjusted my trajectory, angling my body toward the snake. As the ground rushed up to meet me, I manifested a blade out of data shimmering with a blue and purple glow and prepared for impact.