Luna gripped her handlebars tight, hunched down over them, and rode faster.
She dared a glance back. The alien ship was still there, taking the twists and turns with them, firing at random when it couldnt line up the perfect shot. It swung from one side to the other as it sped along the valley, and then, without warning, Luna saw one edge of it clip a wall.
Watch out! she yelled, as it bounced from one wall to the next, struggling to correct its flight as it ricocheted like a pool ball, sparks flying as it hit one wall, then another, angling down toward the valleys rocky floor.
The noise as it struck the earth seemed to fill the world, dust flying up as it plowed in nose first until everything behind it was obscured. Luna and the others had to keep riding flat out just to stay ahead of it. They were running out of room, though, because the valley was coming to a halt, sealed in by a wall of rock that was punctured only by the opening of a storm drain. Luna rode toward that far end, hoping the ship would stop before it crushed them all against the wall. She pulled up next to the wall, wincing as the ship got closer.
Gradually, though, it slowed, squealing and scraping its way along like a plate dropped from a table until finally, rattling, it ground to a halt.
Luna pulled up in front of it, the others spreading out in a half circle around it, engines still running. She heard a hiss of escaping air as a hatch near the top opened, and she stood in shock as a figure staggered out.
This wasnt one of the controlled. There was nothing human about the spindly, insect-like figure who clambered down from the hatch, spiny plates looking like armor, but broken armor, with rents that leaked clear fluid onto the ground as it advanced.
Is that them? she heard Ignatius wonder aloud. Is that what the aliens look like?
Does it matter what they look like when we know what they want? Luna asked.
But we can study it, Ignatius said. We need to try to capture it.
It kept approaching, reaching for them as if even now it would find a way to kill them.
Get it! Bear yelled, and the Dustsides bikers fell on it with fists and pipes and knives, striking again and again with anything they had. Luna heard the armored plates crack with a sickening sound that reminded Luna far too much of someone stepping on a beetle.
No, Ignatius said, theres so much we can learn.
Right then, however, Luna felt as though theyd learned the most important lessons: theyd learned what one of their enemies looked like, and theyd learned that they could die.
Then a light flickered on the front of the ship, twisting in the air, taking the shape of a tall, hairless figure that looked nothing like the creature they had just killed. It spoke, and some technology in the hologram translated the words, the same way it had with the boxes at the slave camp.
You have killed one of our servants, the being said. But it is not of the Purest. It does not matter. You do not matter. You are an obstruction to be removed, and you will be, unless you submit now.
We know what that feels like, Luna shouted back at it. And we broke free. Were going to break everyone free!
You will not obstruct the Hive. You will die.
It flickered out of sight, and in the sky beyond where it had been, Luna thought she could see the specks of more of the ships closing in. It seemed that the aliens werent holding back when it came to killing them.
We need to get out of here, Luna said.
Theres no easy way past the ship, Cub said, and if we ride out onto open ground, theyll pick us off easily.
Then we need to go into the storm drain, Luna said.
Bear looked over at it, then at her and Cub. I dont like leaving the bikes.
I think its that or die, Dad, Cub said.