“Level head… level head… level head…” Adrianne repeated the words over and over again. It sounded silly but it was one way to keep from focusing on the many negatives of her situation.
With Silent Blur’s weapons still set for her experiment, Adrianne had no choice but to keep running through the forest at far above recommended speeds. Each tree was in the forward view for about a second before they were shrinking in the distance behind her. In that time she had to twist and turn around several more trees while keeping track of what was happening on her scanners. Captain Bubbles rocked and flipped around angrily with each twist warning her of her actions.
It was a shame she had to run. The gankers avoided entering the canopy, so far. The only weapons they seemed to use were the hover hunters. The cloaking hunters never had thick armor. They relied on surprise and disguise. Their thin light shell aided their acceleration and battery life. It also ruined their use in a basic fight. One good hit from anything was all it took to break one.
If the gankers in the ships above needed the hover hunters to find her, she had a possible advantage. The ships could outrun her, but the hover hunters already proved to have trouble when Silent Blur was at full speed.
As she was planning her next move, a rather large tree seemed to leap out of nowhere directly in front of her. “What the… NOT GOOD,” Adrianne shouted to herself. She twisted the ship and clawed at the ground. She even used the rockets on Silent Blur’s wings to slow the ship. She stopped mere centimeters from the tree, leaving scorch marks on the bark. Full speed could be a little too dangerous.
She looked at the sensors again. They showed her what she already knew. The two cloaked ships were circling just over the canopy above her. The hover hunters tried to keep up with her but were running out of power. They were flying back up to the ships, perhaps to recharge.
Now that the immediate threat was on pause for a bit, she had to choose the best path back to Rubin’s Trail. Only two ships were on her scanners. The other two had to be around somewhere. These gankers have proven to be well prepared before. How they got so prepared, she didn’t know. However, she didn’t want to run into any traps.
By now, she was running again and had reached Rubin’s River which flowed north from Rubin’s Mountains towards Rubin’s Trail. There was little point in trying to hide from the gankers. They already knew where she was. She ran north along the river and conducted another long range scan of the known cloaking frequencies. She also pinged for motion to see where all the ships were and where they were going.
They were leaving.
It took Adrianne a little time to trust that what she saw was real, but it was. They were all turning around and heading back towards Rubin’s Mountain. Surly nothing she had done caused them to fly away in such a hurry. So what was it?
The answer came with the roar of the mighty sky guard fighters. These ships didn’t hide their presence at all. Even if they wanted to they’d have trouble. There were at least eight of them flying in formation. Apparently, the gankers were running away before they had a chance to lose the fight.
Adrianne heard a call on her ship communicator. “This is Sky Guard Es-Gee-Five-Twelve calling Silent Blur,” the voice called calmly, “Greetings Dr. Yu. Are you in need of any further assistance?”