The sudden flash of sunlight was brutal on my eyes, so I was forced to cover them as we soared out of the building.

Seconds before this, we had been navigating the winding roadways inside the depot, and firing at the occasional perceptive solider here and there, our path led us to an opening to the outside world in the form of an entrance for vehicles to be shuttled through for maintenance. The gigantic door was coming down while closing off to adhere to the quarantine procedures I imagined. Aaron floored our buggy at the sight of freedom, making me fall back into my seat and brace myself for what was likely to be a dramatic exit, and we sped through to the outside moments before the clearance became too small.

The car's engine wined with acceleration as I could feel ourselves dropping down from the pull of gravity, for there was a ramp that led up to the ledge we sped out from. Our sudden impact made me open my eyes again as our vehicle's profound suspension made us bounce a few times before returning to a steady and levelled speed. We were now racing down a long expansive dark metaled bridge suspended above another chasm with the buildings of the abandoned city within clear view beyond the towering walls that guarded the depot.

It was exhilarating to have the sun shining on my face and the wind blowing through my hair and ears, but we were not clear of danger yet, because there were many soldiers stationed at the gate up ahead. Having no desire to stop for any reason with freedom so close in sight, Aaron floored the accelerator to its absolute max, which made the airless tyres squeal with friction as our speed neared ninety miles an hour.

Resistance was met as the soldiers guarding the gate opened fire on us, but I fired back with the awesome punch of my turret, annihilating a few in the process. One of the soldiers that evaded my range fled into what must have been a security booth of sorts because the fleeting thoughts I read from him before he was shielded by the metal structure regarded the activation of a barricade. I tolerated no such initiative and fired everything I had at the booth, which was able to pierce straight through the alien metal unlike my telepathy and killed him instantly before any barricade could be activated—which also destroyed his console in a large combustion as a bonus.

We raced past the checkpoint seconds later and sped onto the cleared abandoned street of the desolate city, maintaining our high speed as the acoustics from the neighbouring building amplified our engine's roar. "We're almost outta here, Krystal! Watch our backs for any copycats tailing us!"

I readily complied and spun my turret around, looking for any pursuers but I could not see any. What I did see were massive columns of black smoke rising from the dark asymmetrical fortress we had only been in moments before, mouthing and awed 'woah' to myself as I watched the depot become more and more distant as we drove out of the city. The juxtaposition between trying to escape the dark alien deathtrap and returning to the wide-open brightness of day played on my mind a little bit as I began to accept our current circumstances.

Even though I sensed that Aaron was still greatly tense as he drove at this speed, I began to lean back into my seat and rested my arms out the sides of my turret. Despite it all, this was turning out to be a marvellous day in the end. Before I got too relaxed, I made sure to check the inside of my backpack that was nestled securely underneath my legs. Seeing both the circuit cutter and the Cloud Runner's homing beacon still snuggling safe and sound together is when I finally granted myself a selfish moment of respite, tapping my finger on the hilt of my staff.

We made it to the outskirts of the city minutes later with no sign of the Combine.

Aaron thankfully reduced our speed to a much more comfortable gauge as he drove us down the sloped walls of a massive dried-up drainage canal that led straight out of the city and into the open country. Before we knew it, we were cruising across the dry and uneven landscape with ease thanks to the versatility of our escape vehicle, kicking up a large trail of dust behind us. "There's no sign of them, Aaron," I reported again, leaning forward in my gun canopy to better communicate with him. "Not in sight or mind. I think we've outrun them at last."

Though I couldn't hear him, I saw Aaron heavy with cautious relief as he removed one hand from the wheel to rub his forehead wearily. "I couldn't have planned a more nerve-wracking escape if that was my intention," he said, with a harmonious blend of joy and the consequential release of pent-up, leftover dread after planning this heist for a month. He took his eyes off the terrain for a moment to turn around and look at me with pride. "I couldn't have done any of this without you, lassie. My rump would have been peppered steak if you hadn't been there with your fancy magic and whatnot."

I rested my chin on my crossed arms, still leaning forward. "Don't mention anything about it. It was the least I could do to help my generous Earthly hosts."

Aaron gave me a silent nod and a smile before turning forward as I reclined back into a lounged position in my seat. "You know, in all seriousness," Aaron called back, "we likely should ditch the car real soon. It's only a matter of time before the Combine track it down. They can be awfully good at that once you've pissed them off as much as we did."

I had thought about that myself when we were escaping, but I was hopeful that the depot was in such a bad state that they would have to prioritise everything they had into salvaging what remained of their supply line. Regardless, I was beginning to understand that taking risks with the Combine wasn't wise, especially when we were driving stolen military hardware that was likely full of tracking devices.

"You're right. We should," I agreed, lacing my fingers together. "How far away is the estate from here?"

"Not terribly far; about five or six miles or so," Aaron relayed. "We should get home by the end of the day if we walk the rest of the way from here."

I looked out to the horizon, taking note of the hazy mountains in the distance and the hilly arid terrain that continued for as far as my eyes could gage. I was also made aware of the sparse abandoned farmland and the few small buildings in it, such as a couple of large white windmills. "Why don't we find the set of tracks we rode into the city on? We should go on foot for the remainder of the journey then."

"You read my mind," Aaron agreed. "Erm… you did read it, right?"

"Not this time," I laughed.

We continued for a little while longer, resigning myself to our easy plan. It wasn't until I sensed unusual cerebral waves appearing out of nowhere did I started to become uneasy. I wrote it off initially, hoping that I was just merely over-sweeping the area and received a false telepathic signal, but that has never happened before. It was simple, it was driven, and its thoughts were monochrome just like the Combine soldiers. These thought patterns were unique, though; almost akin to animal brainwaves, yet still 'directive' like the soldiers. It was an upsetting combination that inspired little confidence, and the waves grew stronger with each second, telling me that it was coming our way and coming fast.

I looked directly in the direction where I sensed the waves to our rear left, and spotted a dust cloud in the fair distance that I could tell was dwarfing ours. I was extremely puzzled by the hazy appearance of this distant entity; It had a rounded exterior and was creme and brown in colour. It was flying low to the ground and was also dreadfully fast, closing in on us with unsettling speed, which only revealed how massive this speeding entity truly was the closer it approached.

I should have warned Aaron of this much earlier when I first spotted this, but it wasn't until I heard the choppy whirring sound of its propulsion did I spun my turret around and aimed squarely at it. "Aaron! Incoming!" I shouted. I sensed Aaron taking note of this enormous airborne interloper, and nothing but pure terror erupted from his mind at the sight of it.

"GUNSHIP!" he cried, flooring the brakes as hard as he could before I had a chance to fire, making me lose my aim and balance though I managed to stay in the canopy. Aaron pulled a wise tactic as this 'gunship' sped right in front of us, clearly intending to knock us over as it soared past in a cloud of dust.

Before we could inhale all the dust that had been blown into the air, Aaron floored the accelerator again and made a hard turn in the other direction. As we regained our speed, I spotted the gunship soaring up higher into the sky, revealing its bizarre alien features. It had a long smooth body with a creme and brown patterned top and had a white underbelly.

It had two large purple compound insect-like eyes positioned towards its rear and possessed long flipper-like limbs up front by a round stumpy head, where a long and frightening cannon could be seen fixed just below the head. This gunship looked much more like a flying aquatic creature than military hardware, but that mattered little in the end when its purpose was to kill us by merciless means. So, I had to give a little bit of that back.

I spun and pointed my turret up towards the sky and began firing. Streaks of pulse bolts shot up into the air, just barely missing my target as it started spinning around once it gained some altitude. I could see its massive cannon locking onto us and started firing much bigger and more powerful pulse bolts, just barely missing our scout car as they made the earth around us explode, which made Aaron curse as he narrowly avoided the shots by swerving us violently, making it a challenge for me to hang on.

The gunship's burst fire ended, and I could hear it loudly groan with great displeasure as it began to descend towards us, keeping up with our speed. I began firing again, managing to land nearly all of my shots. I then quickly realised in one terrifying moment that my shots weren't doing anything. The gunship seemed impervious to them—not even shooting it in its eye seemed to harm it. Whatever the reason as to why this was, I knew that we needed another approach fast.

I watched the gunship soar a dozen feet right above us, bending and twisting its body along with the air currents while its flipper limbs moved around to stabilise it. I now had a clear and almost too personal view of its underbelly, which was full of prosthetic wiring and modules that glowed a bright blue. My attention was drawn primarily to the large ovular-shaped cavity right in the centre of its belly, where a bright light could be seen growing larger and more intense as energy began to build up to a point of needed expulsion.

The moment I released this gunship's tactic I began pounding at the gab with my boot. "Brake it! Brake it!" I hollered, making Aaron do precisely that, though I sensed his intention to make another sharp turn in addition to that, making me grab hold of the rail around my canopy. Aaron swerved away just in time before the gunship's belly cannon released a powerful blast that made the ground explode at such high intensity it threatened to topple our car through shear force, though Aaron expertly pulled off an insane set of driving skills that prevented such an outcome as we sped off in another direction.

I could hear the gunship roar in outrage as it began to chase after us again once it realised we were still fleeing. Knowing that my mounted turret was insufficient in fighting this thing, I had to resort to a much more trusted method. Despite the bumpy ride, I stood up from my seat and drew my staff, deploying it to full length. Syphoned power still cracked from its spearhead, though I felt it was significantly less now than when in the depot. I suppose all good things had to come to an end eventually, so I had to make these last few shots count.

As the gunship came low to the ground to speed alongside us, I pointed my staff and unleashed arcs of power into it, which did manage to puncture its haul and harm it as it groaned in audible pain. I could sense its thoughts during this; it registered me as a threat to its well-being but lacked the will to flee, just like the foot soldiers. This made me pity the creature, but I was determined to make sure that me and Aaron would be the only survivors of this fight.

Amidst my counterattacks, I saw the gunship's pulse cannon turn in our direction again, and I managed to conjure my shield around our car the precise moment before it fired. My shield was now much bigger and encompassed the whole vehicle in no small parts to the energy it stole, but the pulse bolts were so powerful that it nearly burst the shield, though its rounds momentarily stopped before it could.

The gunship groaned with frustration as it began to rise into the sky again right over us. I concluded that its pulse cannon had to be dealt with if we wanted a slim chance to make it out of this. It had been revealed that this creature was at least vulnerable to my electrical blasts, but I had so little left in reserve I likely couldn't hope to kill it with what remained. I had to make every volt count, and I think I knew where I could concentrate it all.

Making an outrageous gamble, I pointed my staff up at the sky while the gunship was still orienting itself, likely planning to dive down for another bombardment with its belly cannon if its foggy thoughts alluded to anything. Closing one eye, I aimed up at the gunship's pulse cannon. Like I did in the maintenance bay, I channelled my staff to hone in on the cannon's specific metallic properties and prayed that I might disable that deadly weapon.

I then released a massive surge of power that I still had trapped in my staff, depleting most of its syphoned reserves, though I did not fully realise this at that time. The flash blinded my vision, the intense buzzing made my ears ring, and the air turned hot with charge. An enormous explosion erupted at the front of the gunship, and a harrowing shriek from the weaponised creature followed as it momentarily lost control of its flight, nearly falling into a tailspin before its giant fan blades and external propulsion engines corrected it. A trail of filthy black smoke could be seen billowing underneath its head where the pulse cannon used to be, where all that remained were sparking wires and metal fragments dangled hazardously in the air.

"WHOOOOH!" Aaron hollered in the cab with delight, evidently noticing my handiwork. "Killer shot, lassie!"

I was both elated and bewildered as a result of that sequence, but I was lucky that I managed to keep my hand on the grip of my canopy. While the pulse cannon was now gone, that dreadful cannon on its belly was still a great danger to contend with. And seeing as I now had all of that syphoned power completely drained from my staff—now having returned to its normal glow—I now had to get creative in putting down this beast, for I sensed little chance of dissuading it from its assigned purpose of terminating us even without its augmented weapons.

"Aaron, I'm leaving my pack in the gunner's nest!" I yelled to him up front as the gunship swayed unsteadily in the sky. "Don't be alarmed by what's happening!"

What I was going to do I felt was unethical, even for creatures, but I had to use my telepathy to coerce the gunship closer to us so that I could have a better chance at jumping onto it and freezing its rotary fan. It wasn't necessarily 'mind control', but I had a better chance of nudging a more simple-minded creature to do as I desired as opposed to a sentient one. As dangerous as it is perhaps was stupid of me to even think of doing this, my ice spell had quite a short range. I had to be more up close to achieve this.

I was so far successful at this plan; the gunship was starting to veer towards our still-speeding vehicle under my telepathic influence. The gunship was semi-aware that it was being influenced but currently lacked the concentration to resist, though I feared that would not last forever. I had to be quick.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Aaron yelled in confusion, knowing that I was responsible for the gunship's unnaturally non-aggressive behaviour as it drifted towards us.

"Don't worry! I know how to wrangle flying beasts!"

"That's not an animal, it's a weapon! You can't tame a live, angry weapon!"

"I'm not!" I shouted back, still trying to maintain my telepathic orders to the jaded gunship. "You have to trust me! I'm going to put an end to this!"

That was the last thing I said before I jumped from my canopy. "Lassie, no!" Aaron hollered seconds before I landed on the back of the gunship. It wasn't expecting how spongy its surface would be when making contact

While my leap was successful, it came at the unforeseen cost of temporarily weakening my telepathic influence to the point where the gunship broke free of it and was now fully aware that I was riding on its back. It did not take kindly to this and contorted its body upward as it shot into the sky again with me holding onto a crevice in its resin-like armour plating for dear life while still holding my staff in my other hand.

My legs dangled as the gunship made a near-vertical ascent, though it couldn't go too far with it due to the nature of its rotary system without spinning out of control. With that on my mind, I realised just how frighteningly close my feet were to its giant tail fan as it spun with ferocious speed, making the air loud and choppy. I needed to overtake this weaponised creature again before I could get ripped to shreds by those spinning blades, which I believed was the gunship's goal when I eventually would lose my grip.

Still holding tightly to my staff in my other hand, I lifted my arm to rein this beast in a little more forcibly. "HEEL!" I commanded before pounding its haul with my quake-strike spell, making the gunship lurch with pain as the impact forced it to straighten its flight path, returning to a much more comfortable horizontal trajectory. I pounded its haul once more, creating a massive pock that warped its armour, forcing the gunship to get lower to the ground until we were about twenty feet off from it, though our speed was still too fast for comfort.

Regardless, I climbed to my feet with my hand still clutching the crevice of this armour plating. I turned my attention to the massive fan behind me and unleashed a continuous stream of freezing magic straight into it. The magic was doing as I hoped; frost and facets of ice materialised around the ring of the gunship's rotary tail, and within moments the fan blades drastically slowed as ice consumed them. Before they could be completely locked in enough ice to freeze its engine completely, the gunship wailed with turmoil as it began to sputter and spin out of control, which was enough to make me lose my grip as I flew off the spiralling synth.

To prevent my imminent death by breaking every bone in my body upon my inevitable crash, I whipped my staff forward and released a powerful and keenly focused jet of flames at the ground, drastically reducing my velocity to a much more tolerable speed, though my landing was anything but cushioned as I tumbled incessantly on the literal scorched earth created of my means before stopping. Although my landing certainly hurt, I remained conscious, and I quickly lifted my head to see the state of the gunship. I could see its enormous airborne body tumbling out of control towards the remains of the abandoned farmland about half a mile away, still producing a trail of black smoke as it spun around on its side before crashing straight through one of the few old windmills, causing the entire structure to crumble to rubble, enveloped by a billowing cloud of dust.

I did nothing but breathe in suspense as the loud sounds of the collapse subsided, leaving me in the silence of the open land I had been left in. Humouring the idea that I might have vanquished that synthetic monstrosity singlehandedly, I held my head as I lay on the ground, shaking it with disbelief over the dangerous lengths I had made to pull that off. I was about to pull myself back up on my feet to shake some of this dirt off of my jacket and suit until I heard a familiar whirring sound stir up again in the distance.

I looked at the ruined windmill and saw the gunship shoot up from the cloud, creating a rippling air current through it as its rotor fan spun with unsightly life. It looked like I didn't make enough ice to permanently ground the creature as I hoped. I began to run as fast as I could in the other direction once I sensed it spotting me in the fields and pursuing me with vengeful speed. The chopping sounds of its fan grew dreadfully louder with each second, and I ducked down to the ground as it passed what felt like mere feet right above me, creating a huge volume of wind that whooshed over me.

The gunship made an angered rumbling sound that resounded deep within its inner workings as it spun around again to face me. It drifted back towards me again, and I saw the underside of it begin to glow with a hot blue light that meant it was charging its belly cannon. I desperately jumped in the other direction, hoping to outrun the incoming blast, but the gunship fired and caused the earth behind me to explode, sending me flying out of control before I tumbled into the grass.

I rolled to a hard stop on my back and heard my staff landing a few feet away from me. The blast rendered me in a much more delirious state than I truly could afford to be in; my head rattled with trauma as I tried to crawl towards my staff, relying mostly on its magical signature to find it rather than my blurry vision. The wind around me began to whip much more intensely as the gunship loomed above me, gurgling like grinding gears in a ballast mixer. The grass was now blowing flat against the ground as I rolled over on my back to see the gunship hovering mere feet above me, as a smaller pair of purple insect-like eyes that I had not noticed underneath the head was staring down at me, glistening enough for me to see a dozen reflections of myself.

It was an absolutely terrifying sight to have this monster hovering over me like this. It would seem that the Combine had not completely removed this creature's natural instincts to play with its prey like it was with me now. Even without its guns, it was still going to see its commands through, and it was making sure that I was showing fear before it began to rise a few stories above me while charging up its belly cannon, positioning it right above me.

I and my surroundings began to glow blue underneath the cannon's mouth as I whipped my head to see my staff inches away and sensed that just a fracture of syphoned power remained inside it. I saw no other means of escape, so why not take this creature down with me? Seconds before the cannon could obliterate me out of existence, I reached for my staff and released the very last amount of syphoned energy straight into the mouth of the gunship's cannon, and the entirety of the creature erupted in a massive and fatal explosion that sent its giant biomechanical remains scattering in all directions, making the ground quake to various degrees as the smouldering pieces settled in the tall wild grass, which was now swaying gently in the natural breeze.

All returned to quiet harmony again as the fiery smoke cleared away from the sky. I was still curled up on the ground with my arms covering my face even after I knew the gunship had been destroyed. But after a moment of looking around at my immediate surroundings, noting the flaming debris of the gunship scattered all around, I let my arms fall to my side along with my tensed legs—even letting go of my staff.

I just lay there for a moment with my eyes closed, intent on just breathing and recollecting myself now that I had confirmed proof that all danger had finally passed. It might not have ended the way I planned, but the outcome was all that truly mattered. "Krazoa ro fhuajot…" I whispered under my breath in Saurian.

I cannot remember exactly how much time had passed until Aaron found me, but the next thing I knew when I opened my eyes, I saw Aaron on his knees right by my side, wearing a look of amazement and terror as gently propped me up with his arm. The sun was in my eyes, so I was squinting a little as I looked up at my dexterous friend. "Oh… Hello there…" I greeted tiredly, managing an equally tired smile as Aaron held me, and I could feel his hand trembling beneath my back as he stared at me before looking around at all of what remained of the gunship.

Surprisingly, while his thoughts were ones of immeasurable relief, his face twitched before holding his forehead and let out a mighty but shaky sigh like he had been holding his breath for hours. "Oh, sweet Jesus …" he uttered, almost like a whimper before whipping his head backwards with his eyes fixed to the sky. "Lassie…you really pushed me over the limit this time. I'm not taking you on another excursion ever again."

While I could not read feelings in the way I could read thoughts, the number of conflicting feelings I could see swelling in Aaron's tired and weary eyes was almost as overwhelming for me as it was for him. Likewise, I seemed to have stumbled into a greater ray of peace since destroying the gunship that he had not found quite yet, so I raised my hand and touched his cheek, trying to communicate that all was well now. "Believe it or not, my friend, but I've survived much more deadly encounters than this. Being light and nimble kind of helps me with that," I reassured, running my fingers through his grimy beard.

Of course, what I said was half-true in actuality, but the goal was to try and ease the still-permeating tension inside my Earthling friend, which I think was starting to work as his broad shoulders eased along with his shaky hand. "Yeah. I imagine it does," he acknowledged with a gentle smile, holding my raised hand with as much tenderness.

After another moment of us generally taking in all the action that had transpired, we both agreed that it was time to get moving again should the Combine realise that the gunship they dispatched was now in smouldering pieces. Aaron helped me to my fight by literally pushing me upward with the hand he had underneath me, but not before I grabbed my staff off the ground. He had the scout car parked a short distance away and went over to grab my backpack out from the gunner's seat with all of its vital contents still inside and unharmed.

I swung my bag over both my shoulders as Aaron removed his cap to scratch his head. "Okay, I think we ditch our scent by ditching the car now. They'll have a much easier time finding that than us."

"Agreed," I said, finally dusting myself off like I originally wanted before. "Let's see if we can't make it back by sundown. I at least hope we can; I'm still not quite adjusted to your planet's day cycle."

"We'll make it back before then," Aaron assured, though he looked at me with slight concern. "You sure you're up for a few miles of walking? I mean, you just wrestled with a gunship and won—with all your legs and arms still attached no less. I could carry you if you'd prefer to take a load off?"

I chuckled as I shrunk my staff before clipping it to my belt. "That is sweet of you to offer, Aaron, but I would fancy a nice quiet walk out in the countryside after such a stressful day, wouldn't you think so?" I insisted. "Besides, I rather like having my legs still attached. I would prefer to still use them for as long as I still have them."

Aaron nodded at my request before we ventured off from the crash site and found our way back to the train tracks. We had no further trouble with the Combine at any point after that day either. Truly, this was a lovely way to end a day as unforgettable as this.