Just a few kilometers away, large vessels flew overhead. They looked makeshift, heavily modded, pieced together from junkyard scraps into something barely new.
"Yeeehaaa, BITCHES!"
"Woooo, motherfuckers!"
"It's hunting season! I'm gonna mount that ass crack over my bed!"
CAT's expression hardened as he listened to the sounds coming through the AT-45 Raider's sensors.
"We've got competition now," he said flatly.
Dixie jolted awake at the sudden stop.
"Cut me pork chop— it's pirates, ain't it?"
He pulled on his helmet to confirm his suspicion.
"Oi, Cat! What's the plan now? Originally it was one-on-one, now it's one-on-one-on-a-drunken-bloke-during-a-beach-party!"
"Affirmative," Cat replied. "This actually makes the situation more efficient. Unlike your processing mindset. Those pirates are just meat for the grinder. The grinder will overheat — and then we move in. The grinder will break."
Cat gripped the controls and started driving toward the chaos.
"Mr. Tyson," Moore said, her voice tense, her hand gripping the armrest hard enough to almost tear it apart. "Aren't those pirates from Warlord Judge? How are we supposed to leave no man's land without dying?"
Tyson looked at her calmly.
"Moore."
She stopped talking, waiting.
"We ain't coming out alive," he said quietly. "It's likely one of us will die. maybe more. Even them."
He nodded toward Dixie, Cat, and Nyxa.
Then Amaru spoke her eyes up open slowly and softly.
"We're going to live."
Everyone turned toward her.
"We ain't gonna die. No one will. Because I already did. And now I'm in a clone body, yet my original soul still burns inside it." She looked at Moore. "I learned something, when you die, you realize who really cared about you… and how fast it all ends, out of your control. So let's take control now. Delay death. Stretch it longer."
Amaru smiled, not her usual insane grin, but something human.
"Live on, Alan."
Moore blinked.
"I don't know why you call me Alan. Moore's my name. But if it means something to you… if it's your form of good luck… then fine. You can call me Alan."
She hesitated, then smirked faintly.
"But don't get too comfortable. I still have my suspicions about you."
For the first time, she relaxed
Just a little, from what she'd heard.