On the Hunt Pt.2

(Read the previous part here)

“Go get him. Oh, and if anything happens to Ivy, I’ll kill you myself. Byeeee.” Victor’s voice came over the comms.

“I….wait, what?” I tried, only to be cut off by the noise of sublights engines engaging, and the two ships disappeared into the upper atmosphere.

“I hate him.” I muttered to myself.

“Me too!” Mark interjected cheerfully.

Before me, the front stabilizers of my Sparrow flattened the rows upon rows of corn in front of us.

We were on the trail of a crater. The only signs of it were a slight depression in the wide plain of crops all around us. And we must’ve been getting close, because the corn around us now seemed to be leaning away, as though some great force had collided with the ground somewhere nearby.

Suddenly, the crater we were looking for appeared in front of us.

“Well….” Ivy said quietly.

Mark gave a low whistle as he looked out on the hole in the Earth.

The crater was about 30 yards across, and circular. Towards the center, the land buckled and dropped off as it approached the center of the crater.

Some remnant shards of something lay strewn around the hole.

I slipped over edge and started into the crater, my foot narrowly missing a burning object partially covered by the dirt that surrounded it.

I picked it up, patted it against my leg to extinguish the flames, and took at it.

“I think it’s plasteel.” I said after a moment, “we’re on the right track.”

More of Mick’s Armor Plating was scattered about the dent in the Earth.

“This is good. It means he’s on foot.” I observed.

“Very good. It means we have the advantage.” Ivy pointed out.

“So which way did he go?” Mark asked, ecstatic to be part of the conversation.

“Good question….”

“And why would he jump out of his ship mid flight?” Mark positied, as Ivy walked around the edge of the crater, looking for his trail.

I stood in the center, my fingers tapping a beat on my visor.

Why? It didn’t make any sense. Even by a Titan’s standards, this was stupid, and seemed to go against all the other evidence of Mick’s tactical genius.

Unless…..

“Drew!”

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Ivy’s shout.

She stood, one arm extended, index finger pointing towards the ground.

Leading away from her, was Mick’s trail, disappearing into the thick nest of corn.

“Great! Let’s get the Sparrows and we’ll nail this sucker!”

Ivy’s face stayed low, drawn long.

“Look.”

At that moment I realized. Mick’s trail lead back towards the crash site. My stomach dropped. We’d been played by a master of the art.

Well played.

“Back to the Crash Site. Now!”

We hopped aboard our Sparrows and tore back through the corn, following our original path.

“Why’s it such a big deal if Mick makes it back to the Ship?” Mark asked naively.

“Weapons, Ammo, a Sparrow. Take your pick.”

He fell silent.

We raced on, comms silent, until we returned to the crash site.

Mick had stripped the ship bare. He’d taken the Sparrow and run into the corn.

“Shit.” I muttered.

//Baited and switched by a master. It seems the team’ve got a lot of work before them. Next week, we’ll return to the story of the Fall Guys(sorry)//

(Read the whole series here)

Submitted June 30, 2018 at 05:04PM by Wilbsorama https://ift.tt/2lNzhI9