The newfound purpose drove Alec forward. Hopping into Quip, he fired up the engines and took off through the mansion gate out into the town proper. He sped by the barons' mecha soldiers patrolling a clearly curfewed street. They all turned to look at him, and then, recognizing the vehicle, paid him no heed. He got to the bottom gate between the Teretha and the town of Sinclair. It was heavily armoured, and it looked like the most veteran soldiers congregated here. A guard waved him forward, and the gate began to open slowly. The guard sneered at him and made a rude hand gesture at him. This man was bold; Alec would give him time, but there was no time to deal with such a petty action now. Alec had a bigger game afoot.

  They guided him through, and Alec could see the long lines of hoverhaulers being loaded with Teretha women and children. The old gunslinger allowed himself a smile of satisfaction as he hailed Quip.

  "Bridles got a tracker, Baron said long-range sensors don't work, so I'm guessing that things outfitted with a coded transponder. I want you to crack the outer door and keep it moving. I'm gonna get that thing off you on the move. Zig-zag, let's loose those short-range sensors and then get to the Teretha." Alec moved to the door, which cracked open for him.

  "Alec, it will be a relief to have it gone. There seems to be a lot of chatter and happenings on the way out. Is that your doing?"

  "We had to move up a schedule; the Baron is neither stupid nor patient. He had fifty vials just waiting there to entice me, Quip. Thought he was on to me, but I managed to talk him into getting the rest of the women and kids to the safety underground." Alec felt a measure of pride at his quick thinking and using the Baron's ego against him."

  "I will keep it steady." It was the last thing Quip said as Alec climbed out. Clearly, his ride did not share his optimism. He climbed out onto the cockpit, arranged like an insect head on the living quarters. The wind was whipping the dust into Alec at the rate of gunfire. He was thankful for the tough jacket he wore, but where each fake explosion hole was, he felt the sting of the elements.

  He climbed back and found the four-inch cable that was chained to the connector with six secure chains. Alec backtracked his hands about a foot down the cable and willed a shot of Aamaranth down into his hands. The reflexors and augmented skeleton made short work of the cable. Crushing it in two. Alec cast it off, and it fell beneath Quip. The vehicle deliberately moved to crush it under the left three wheels. Alec climbed back to the top of the cockpit, and as he cleared the top of the vehicle, he got a view of the town fading behind him.

  "Good riddance," Alec said aloud. The next time he saw the place, he would be bringing the fire of war. Four lines of dust cutting the terrain, moving at a quick pace towards them, caught his eye. The Baron had sent some company. Alec felt his confidence fade slightly as he climbed over the glass cockpit and into the side door Quip opened for him.

  "Alec, it seems we have some company. I sense four personal two-wheeled vehicles. They are closing quickly and seem to handle the terrain well. Each is carrying a payload I find slightly concerning. They could do significant damage."

  A light flashed on the radio, indicating an outside source wanted to make contact. Alec activated it and listened.

  "This is Baron Von Sinclair, hailing the hired gun. Are you there, Alec?" The Baron sounded chipper and confident.

  "I'm here." Alec let the talk button go and waited with held breath.

  "I thought you may need some help, so I sent four of my best to assist you, as you see fit. I feel having some baronhood blood along may help guide your revenge."

  "I work better alone, and men like that will only give us away. The point is to track the traitor." Alec was watching the bikes close in on him and Quip. He could see the goggles of the front rider. A large energon rail-prong gun suspended off the left side of the bike, auto-targeting Quip's most vulnerable parts.

  "I agree," the Baron's voice was sickeningly sweet. "The point is to track the traitor, and I feel these four are exactly the right soldiers for the job."

  The four riders came fully into view. It was an apocalypse crew; the Baron must have had them waiting in reserve. Alec felt his stomach drop. It was his ego that had been played. It was he who had missed the nefarious nuance within the Baron's lair. Alec knew Quip was right to be concerned.

  Apocalypse crews were rare. Four riders, four bikes, one mind. They operated with a full neurolink between them, never taking a break. Alec had never seen these off Earth Prime. The baronhood must care immensely for the Aamaranth mining planet to house a crew here.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "Alec, they are priming the rail-mounted energon. I will do my best to shield us and take evasive maneuvers, but I do not know this planet and do not trust myself not to misstep us down an equally dangerous cliff."

  Alec fancied their odds with the cliff over the crew a little more. He looked around for a place where he could crash and survive to face the augmented soldiers unprepared. There was nowhere to hide. The Baron had him in his sights and had fired a perfectly executed shot. The precision caught Alec off guard, and now he and Quip, alongside the teretha on this planet, may pay the price.

  "Activate targeted defence. I'm turning off the regulators. Quip…”

  "Yes, Alec."

  "Let it rip."

  Alec shut off the regulators he had installed on Quip's weapons systems, which he employed since the swamp where he tamed the vehicle. There was a certain fear to it, but it was equal to the fear of facing the Baron's apocalypse crew. He at least trusted Quip not to kill him, as a long-time travelling companion, if not a friend. Alec hoped at least.

  Quip peeled forward as if he was wild with pure Aamaranth. It was a feeling Alec knew but did not trust, but he needed Quip to be as wild a beast as he was in the beginning. He heard panels on the exterior flip and twist, revealing the most diabolical of anti-everything weapons. Alec heard a crackle and fizzle and pulled up a rearview on the vidtronic. Quip had released some blinding flares and was targeting his own energon blasts.

  The crew lived up to their reputation and began to deftly outmaneuver Quip's attacks, closing the space between the vehicle and the squad. They fired the rail Energon weapons and large chunks of rocky earth were carved away from the planet's surface, leaving perfect cut lines oozing with molten energy. The shots that got close to Quip were countered by releasing its own energy blasts, functioning like an intelligent impact suit. Soon, however, all of Quip's attention was taken up by diverting the attacks.

  "Auto-pilot buddy, I know you got a lot on your mind, but you're about to have someone on your roof too." Alec stepped to the door and manually released it this time. The closest biker had pulled up beside Quip's living bay and was standing on his bike, ready to jump across. A blast of energon rocked Quip sideways, yet the crew member still made it.

  Alec climbed to the roof, wind pulling his jacket like a sail. He mustered his Aamaranth, flexed his legs, and jumped. The world moved in slow motion for him, and he aimed perfectly true, landing like he defied gravity on Quip's roof. The deadly crew member was already there. The soldier crackled an energy whip, and it reached out to Alec with a glowing flare. Alec laughed out loud. The fool, a whip against an immortal, was so ill prepared…

  The thought was cut short. The whip made contact and stung his hand. As Alec was marvelling at first, the sensation of real pain, a further horror set in. The sting of the whip had left a sting that had interrupted the Aamaranth flow like a dampener. Alecs' left arm lay limp from the elbow, unresponsive to his mind.

  He pulled his revolver with his right and sent another blast of Aamaranth through his veins. Quick as a flash, Alec fired two shots; he didn't have time to mark this target. The first was deflected from a thick, heavy armour under the soldier's coat. The military goggled eyes flashed with information feeding into the hive mind. The member of the apocalypse crew let the other Whistler strike him in the shoulder. The impact of the large slug pulled the man off the back of Quip. Alec sighed with relief, one down.

  It was not so, a bike dipped behind Quip, and caught the rider. Alec spied him closing the gap once again as his rail gun charged. The blast nearly took Alec off his feet, but Quip had managed to mitigate the damage with a blast of its own. The impact suit did the rest for Alec, but it did not help his balance. Alec pitched off the back and felt himself weightless for a moment. The impact suit took the damage from hitting the ground, but Alec still bounced along and rolled with the momentum of Quip's speed.

  “Quip, Stop! Come back!" Alec called out as he finished his roll, but to no avail. He had let quip go wild, and it had returned to it with fervour. Alec started to run to it, but then stopped as Quip topped a rise without slowing, and Alec knew he was alone. The growl of four engines grew close behind Alec.

  He turned on his heel and looked at the four riders holding a semi-circle behind him. Six shots left, he looked at one of the riders and whistled a tone. He spun and looked to another whistling the next note in the scale. While he did this, he fired another two shots at the leader, who was closing quick. Time returned to a regular speed for Alec as he slowed the Aamaranth flow. He was nearly out, and Quip had left with the reserves. The leader side-stepped Alec's first shot but took the second directly to the visor. His digiglasses shattered, and he called out in pain. His left eye oozed blood, but he gripped his whip all the tighter.

  The other two whistlers found their marks. The one on the left took a whistler to the elbow, and his hand fell as useless as Alec's. The one on the right took the Whistler straight to the heart. Alec heard a metallic TWANG as the bullet bounced off shielded armour. These targets had weak points; the armoured targets, Alec would need to find another route.

  Three more whips sprang to energetic life. The air buzzed around Alec as he turned his pistol point in his hand between our crew members. The lack of his preparation had caught up with Alec. The frantic pace of the stars had brought him to this moment, and he felt in one single moment that weight on his shoulders crush him.

  The first whipping took the feeling from his leg, the next from his right arm, causing him to drop the firearm. Alec did something he had not done since he was a child; he cried out. It was primal and more of frustration than pain. It caused the briefest of pauses as the men considered what beast could produce such a noise. The whips sped their pace, Crack, Crack, Crack! Alecs' vision went blurry, then black. He finally knew the sweet release of a fully unthinking mind.