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- - - Chapter 3 - - -

Interview / / / Terminal

"Amita's directions through the Corpus facility were accurate and she kept us from encountering large patrols," Manmi continued, recounting to Cephalon Suda how she was rescued from the Corpus outpost on Venus, "Two small skirmishes and we were in the cargo transport. It's repair work seemed a bit less complete than the Cephalon had made it out to be, but once she transferred herself into the ship's systems it was able to break itself free of the anchors and get airborne. Once we began to ascend it became apparent that Amita was in no way qualified to fly."

"Was there any enemy interference?" Suda asked, "Anything making the flight more turbulent than normal?"

"Nothing." Manmi answered.

"A Cephalon should be able to get the fundamentals of ship flight from The Weave. That Amita did not is very curious."

"What is The Weave?" Manmi asked.

"A common medium shared by all Cephalon to facilitate communication and the exchange of information. This is not new information for me. Tell me what happened next."

"We were in the air for a little while, maybe ten minutes. It was long enough for Little Duck - the leader of the trio - to introduce herself and her fellows from Vox Solaris, Blister and Fusel."

"Vox Solaris was involved in your rescue? Did they indicate how they knew you were there?"

"I didn't have time to ask." Manmi said, continuing her story, "Before I could think about introducing them the ship had alarms go off and it began to descend rapidly. It was a semi-controlled crash, but we all got banged up in the landing. Blister's safety harness malfunctioned on impact and he was injured and unable to move himself.

"Little Duck and Fusel left to get help. She gave me a better weapon and told me to lay low until they got back. About five minutes after they left, Amita picked up a Corpus patrol approaching the crash site. There were only four or five hostiles, but the ship had no defenses and many of its systems were compromised. I couldn't just run either, because Blister was still wounded. Luckily, the Ventkids showed up."

"Ventkids?" Suda asked, "I am unfamiliar with this organization."

"I wouldn't call them an organization," Manmi elaborated, "But they distracted the Corpus patrol. Some came in and helped me with Blister. They got us both out of there."

Manmi had one hand on Bobo's shoulder and the other out to the side for balance as he tore out away from the crash site with her on the back of his board. They were moving at great speed and when he bent his knees Manmi did the same, following his movements as best she could. He jumped up as they came over the crest of a bank of snow and the board lifted high into the air. I then spun around three times before landing, leaving Manmi momentarily disoriented.

"Keep up keep up!," Bobo yelled over his shoulder at her, "Can't gutterball the plank or the glinties gon blow us out. Can't be suckin' wind with MOAs in our vape." The K-Drive banked hard to the left to avoid hitting a boulder too vertical to go up and Manmi had to use both hands to grab Bobo's shoulders to stay on board. Up until now she had always thought that she had good balance but this was a whole different level. It was uncanny what this kid was doing, and she felt like dead weight slowing him down.

He leaned the opposite way and and they banked to the right, weaving between two boulders just as glowing blue bursts of energy struck the snow behind them. Looking back, Manmi saw three of the bipedal robots chasing after them. One of them planted itself in the ground and shook as it fired a three shot burst of blue energy at them, but it missed as Bobo dropped the K-Drive over the edge of a cliff. Manmi felt her stomach rise up into her throat as they fell and then it dropped to her toes when they landed; vapor and snow exploded out from them and coating Manmi's Zariman suit. She was glad that the suit was insulated and keeping her warm-ish, otherwise the frigid atmosphere and the speed that they were going would have frozen her down to the bone.

Bobo had the board hop and did a three-sixty before jetting off forward again. He zigged and zagged the K-Drive up another cliff from the one they'd fallen from earlier and then he took them into a cave. It felt very confined for the speeds that they were going and Manmi squeezed Bobo's shoulders again out of nervousness while trying to make herself smaller behind him. There were brief moments where she felt as if her shoulders or her head were skimming against the rocks of the cave. The ride was terrifying, but very very short and they were soon emerging out into the open air of the Orb Vallis again.

Manmi yelled as she was nearly thrown from the K-Drive when Bobo turned sharply and took them back up the mountainside rather than down. He laughed at her reaction and jumped a small gap before tilting the board to the side and killing all of the momentum, bringing them to a stop at the very peak of the mountain.

Bobo took a half step off of the board and planted one of his boots in the snow as he adjusted the goggles he was wearing, looking down to one side. He said "Checknah," and motioned for Manmi to look down as well. She saw movement; two figures traveling rapidly over the snow and heading southward.

"That's Kuvac and Glide," he told her, "Your pal's still wit'em. We got the null-units off their exhaust ports. This is terminal! Reckon we can run a lark back to 'ome base."

"Run a… what?" Manmi asked.

"Oi! She speaks! Hahaha," Bobo said with a laugh, smacking Manmi's shoulder, "For a sec I reckoned you'd been brainshelved. Heh. Aight, check it," he pointed almost due south, "That there's 'ome base. Fortuna. We gonna take this vert downa then up that road through the Grow Site," his finger traced the route for Manmi, pointing at a cluster of buildings much closer than where they were heading, "Coolant river past that we can landbridge over. Catch the road on the far side 'n cut it downways to the big cluster there," he pointed south-east to a large land mass in the middle of the massive lake, "Keep to the road 'n bank it over to Fortuna. Chek?"

Manmi had followed the route he pointed out to the best of her ability, but was only about seventy-five percent sure what most of what he said meant. The general idea was pretty straightforward, but it seemed to her that they were taking the long way around.

"Wouldn't it be faster to just go straight there?" she asked, pointing south at Fortuna.

"'Course it'd speed us," he said dismissively, "But Kuvac 'n Glide get the short run t'day; gotta get Blister back fast don't they? We're scapegoatin' the glinties away from'em. Pull their lenses this way 'n the others can go thatway. Chek that?"

"I understand," Manmi said, putting some of the pieces together in her head after a few seconds of thought. Bobo got back on his board and held out his hand to help Manmi back on.

"Hold on to ya hood, gonna turf it this time." he said. As soon as Manmi was on the board and holding his shoulders he kicked a hidden switch on the board and they accelerated quickly, this time going much faster than before, and that was before they started going down the steeper slopes.