In which a woman comes to the rescue.
In the middle of a vast, empty field rested a marvel of antique engineering. It was the last air-ship designed by Edgar Faranoff, and the first to feature exclusively aether-based thrusters. Although its successive models were vastly improved, they were very rare, and most people were still using balloon based air-ships. The Jerboa had been well maintained and passed down through two generations. It was currently owned and operated by Alexis Winthrop.
She sat in the cockpit with her legs resting on the control panel. One of her feet tapped nervously on a lever while she solved a wooden puzzle cube. She had already solved it a dozen times that day, but it kept her occupied. Once it was solved again she slammed it down and pushed a button on the dashboard. From the hall behind her whizzed a small metal basket suspended by a rail from the ceiling. In the basket was a small rag doll with a mechanical skeleton called a Dirigible Doll. Once the basket came to a stop, the doll reached down and handed Alexis a cup of tea.
“Thank you, Marcella,” she muttered as she took the cup and cradled its warmth. She dreaded the call she was certain was coming.
The local towns had panicked when they got word that a Remnant base had popped up in their neck of the woods. They decided to band together, marshal what forces they had, and nip in the bud a possible invasion. As added insurance they decided to hire some extra guns. As a very expensive extra gun, they just decided to use Alexis as a contingent plan, which was fine by her. She had seen what the enemy could do. She had no desire to go up against them unless she absolutely had to. If she was lucky, she thought, her employers would all get wiped out before they had a chance to call for her.
Her comm buzzed and she winced.
“Drat.” She flipped a switch on her dash. “Orders?”
There was static on the other end. A man's voice was barely coming through. All she could make out was fear and the words “Immediate assistance.”
“On my way!” she shouted and she began to push levers and turn dials. The Jerboa came to life and shot into the sky.
As soon as she was in flight she started charging the main weapon. The trip wasn't going to take long and she wanted to be able to take out whatever the biggest threat was immediately. The sensors warned of the upcoming battle and she slowed just enough to get a good look. There were armored combat vehicles deployed on the ground, cannons posted at every corner of the fort, and in the center there was one monstrous weapon. It looked like one giant cannon surrounded by lightning rods attached to its length. She watched in curious awe as the lightning rods charged with electrified aether and energized a shot from the cannon. It took out one of the remaining air-ships in one blow. There were only six others left now. Alexis found that she had been instinctively aiming at the center cannon. She waited a moment for the rods to charge again and fired.
The Jerboa's main weapon was a smaller, original version of the Remnant's center cannon. The energized shot shattered the rods in mid-charge and caused a tremendous explosion, forcing the air-ships back several yards. Many of the soldiers were flung across the field.
A proximity alarm sounded briefly before something slammed against the bottom of her ship. Her safety harness nearly snapped from the force of her being knocked into the air and she fought to keep the vessel steady. Marcella zoomed back into the cockpit and gestured emphatically toward the hall while in her little bucket. Alexis turned and saw that something had pierced the hull of her ship and was sticking up in the hall. It was several feet wide, as tall as the hall, and made of polished brass. A large panel opened on the foreign object, revealing a tall man covered in mechanized armor.
Captain Winthrop freed herself from her seat and ran to shut the hatch to the cabin as he climbed from the missile. The impact had jolted the ship so hard that the frame around the hatch had bent, it wouldn't budge an inch. There was nothing she could do to separate herself from this man who was retrieving an aether rifle that was nearly as big as she was from the missile.
She grabbed her two-shot blunderbuss that was hooked to the back of her chair and charged at the intruder, placing both rounds into his chest just as he had leveled his rifle at her. His armor seemed nearly undamaged, but the force knocked him against the wall. Alexis grabbed her side-arm and shot the wall beside him, fracturing a power converter. The jolt of electricity fried instantly and the ship lurched. The Jerboa no longer had enough energy to keep both itself and its embedded missile afloat for much longer after the damage it had taken. The proximity alarm sounded again and she was knocked forward by the force of another missile piercing the cockpit.
Without looking back she got to her feet and ran down the hall. There was nothing on board that could kill another one of those things without killing her as well. She strapped on a jump-pack that was hanging by the back hatch and pulled a lever. The ship's back panel flew off, revealing the battleground below. With no hesitation, Captain Winthrop jumped out into the fray.
She wasn't high enough to enjoy the fall. Almost immediately she had to ignite her jump-pack. It wasn't a full on rocket-pack that she could fly with. It was only meant to cross small ravines, or get up and down platforms quickly in battle. Some time ago she learned the hard way that it could be used as a makeshift parachute, and it was better than drifting slowly in the sky through crossfire. Her descent stabilized, but a nearby explosion knocked her aside and she lost control, spinning the last twenty feet before a hard impact.
Light flashed behind Alexis' eyes and she forgot what was happening for a moment before the pain came rushing in. Pushing herself past the raw nerves and jarred bones, she stood and looked around. Her ship fell slowly behind the silhouette of the burning fort as she was shot.
