The sky was still burning.
Smoke trailed behind the last bomber Inferius had shot down, spiraling like a black ribbon into the cloud–sea far below. The Bloodhawk creaked in protest, her plates dented, her hull trembling, but she still flew—barely.
"NOW!" Netoshka roared.
Battery fired the magnetic tow-grapples. Four lances of shimmering steel shot across the sky and latched onto the armored belly of the Sawtooth Command Blimp. The cables snapped taut, jerking the Bloodhawk violently forward. Everyone who wasn't braced was flung to the floor.
The two airships locked together like a pair of struggling beasts.
And then Inferius Squad jumped in.
THE DECK OF THE COMMAND BLIMP --
Incoming fire snarled like lightning.
Zopi landed first, rolling behind a rusted ventilation unit and firing three silent shots with surgical precision. Each bullet found a bandit skull.
Raine leapt next—crashing down like a meteor, collapsing the deck plating under his boots. Sawtooth raiders backed away in panic as he swung his reinforced arms, flinging two men overboard with one sweep.
Alev landed in a swirl of cinders. He exhaled a thin breath—and fire licked across the deck, carving a blazing perimeter that cut several raiders off from the rest.
Twila emerged from shadows, shifting her shape mid-air into a mirror-copy of one of Krane's enforcers, infiltrating their ranks before stabbing two of them in the back of their heads.
Genrihk descended last, cloak fluttering in a dead wind. His eyes burned an eldritch blue.
"Они жаждут душ.," he whispered.
Dozens of skeletal spectral arms surged from the deck, grabbing ankles, dragging screaming Sawtooth bandits to the floor.
And above the chaos—Netoshka landed in a burst of glitch-static, the deck rippling around her boots as if rejecting reality.
Her orders cut through the carnage.
"Split up! TAKE THE BLIMP. Find Krane. Don't let that bastard run got it, you see him, you smoke him on sight!"
Inferius surged forward.
THE COMMANDERS --
The Sawtooth Razors were never just raiders.
Krane raised elite killers—his
"Razor Commanders."
And three of them arrived.
Commander "Varkesh"
A brute carved from steel plates and scrap metal, jaw replaced with a serrated crusher.
He charged towards Raine.
Their collision cracked the deck in half.
Raine grabbed his metal jaw and head-butted him.
Varkesh laughed—a metallic rasp—then slammed her spine-first into a bulkhead.
Commander "Harvey"
A wire-thin assassin with retractable garrote-threads lining his arms.
he targeted Genrihk and Twila.
The two blurred across the deck—afterimages, flashing knives, sparks flying with every clash.
Commander "Gorik"
A heavy gunner carrying a rotary cannon built from welded scrapyard parts.
Alev and Zopi teamed up against him—sniper shots ricocheting off his armor while fire peeled the metal red-hot.
Everywhere, metal clanged, air hissed through ruptured pipes, and the blimp groaned like a dying colossus.
But Netoshka didn't stay.
She didn't need to as she could've stayed and helped the others.
But unfortunately She had one target and one target only to catch.
NETOSHKA ENTERS THE INNER CORRIDORS--
She slipped into a maintenance hatch as the others kept the commanders busy.
The interior of the blimp felt wrong—dim orange lights flickering, machinery grinding, alarms blinking red across the walls. The floor quivered with the engines straining. Every distant explosion echoed through the metal like a heartbeat.
Netoshka kept her pistol raised, walking steady but fast.
Her eyes twitched in glitchy shivers—numbers flickering at the edge of her sight.
Bzz...1 3 6 13 24 15 17 bzz..
She swallowed them down, forcing her mind to stay locked in reality.
She reached the captain's office door.
It was already cracked open.
She pushed it with her boot—
The lights snapped off.
A whisper of movement.
Netoshka's arm shot up—
Steel slammed into her wrist.
A strong grip twisted her gun away.
A knee hit her ribs.
She stumbled back—
—and Krane Stratos stepped out of the darkness.
THE AMBUSH--
Krane's smile was all teeth.
"Well, well, look who we have here.." he said, voice like stained glass cracking.
"The Glitching Banshe herself. You actually boarded my home."
Netoshka spat blood and reset her stance.
"You wanted our attention dipshit. Well Now you have mine."
"Oh, I know." Krane twirled a hook-blade.
"And I'm very excited."
He lunged.
The office became a blur of slashing metal, overturned furniture, and glitch-bursts tearing through the walls. Netoshka's movements distorted, her outline splitting into three frames before snapping back together.
Krane ducked a swipe, slammed her into his desk, and drove a knife toward her throat.
She grabbed the blade bare-handed.
Her palm bled—but she didn't release.
"You're… infuckingsane," he said, breath shaking with something like delight.
"I've been told." She twisted his wrist until the blade snapped.
She kicked him through the office window.
He crashed onto the outer walkway just outside the captain's quarters.
The blimp lurched violently—
Engines shrieking.
Pipes blowing.
A distant explosion rocked the hull.
Krane climbed to his feet, wiping blood from his mouth.
"Then let's finish this somewhere more dramatic, shall we?!"
He sprinted toward the upper ladder—the one leading to the main deck.
Netoshka chased him.
The entire blimp was beginning to die beneath them.
THE BLIMP IS FALLING APART
As they climbed, the deck tilted sharply. Sirens wailed. Fire burst through a vent beside them. The sky outside flickered with exploding mini-balloons and chain-reaction fires from Alev's last attack.
The entire structure groaned, metal screaming.
The fight was pulling them toward a ship that wasn't going to stay airborne much longer.
Krane reached the top first, stumbling onto the exposed main deck—wind howling, flames crawling up the balloon canopy.
Netoshka emerged seconds later.
They faced each other under the burning sky.
The final confrontation had begun.