Nova whipped around to face him, aiming her gun at his face. "We're leaving."
Toro had ten guards with him, all of them aiming guns at the Hunters.
"No, you're not. You will open that ship and help me destroy Buta."
"You're not getting inside," Nova said, her finger closing around the trigger.
"Open it now or my guards will start shooting."
The guard nearest to Gin stepped forward and pressed the barrel of his gun against her wrinkled forehead.
Nova bit her lip. Both she and Tyra had guns, with the two of them shooting they could maybe take out five of the guards before the others could respond, but by then it would be too late. She looked at her fellow Hunters, their expressions hopeless.
"Crusader open the door," Nova said out-loud.
The door hissed as it slid open.
"Beautiful!" Toro said.
He pushed past his guards, and Nova, and stepped up into Crusader's engine room. He ran his hands over the pipes and wires that kept the ship going. He turned to face them, his eyes shining. "Hurry up! We have a war to win!"
Nova reluctantly climbed in after him, followed by the others. Toro's guards kept close to him, their guns drawn.
"If you want me to fly, I'll have to get to the pilot's pod, won't I?" Nova said, shouldering past the guards and Toro.
This wasn't how she'd imagined her reunion with Crusader. She couldn't stop to enjoy the familiar smell of the engine room, or run her hands along the rusted walls. She couldn't even say hello to Cal properly because he was nowhere in sight. She stomped through the ship to the pilot's pod and sat down. The front screen was filled with the lab and the solid walls on every side.
"How exactly am I supposed to fly you out of a closed room?" Nova yelled over her shoulder.
A second later Toro appeared, smiling in the doorway.
"That wall is a door," he said, pointing to the far wall.
Nova frowned. It certainly looked like a wall to her.
"Do you have speakers to the outside?" Toro asked.
Nova nodded and pressed a small green button near her thumb.
"Open side door," Toro said.
A section of wall slid away to reveal the city beyond. The towering buildings reflected the midday sun. Smoke billowed up out of the city, creating black smog in the air.
"Hurry up," Toro said.
Nova sighed and pushed forward on the throttle. She could have let autopilot take over, but she didn't want Toro to know that she had that technology. The less he knew, the better.
Crusader and the other ships lifted and moved through the lab, knocking over benches and glassware, and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake as they shot out into the open air. Nova was tempted to slam her elbow into Toro's throat and be done with him, but she could feel his guards just behind her, their guns trained on her back.
She pushed Crusader forward and then hovered outside of the building. The streets below were filled with people running and guns shooting. At the outer edges of the city flames flickered through the smoke.
Some people stopped in the streets and stared up at them, shouting and pointing, but most of them were too consumed with the battle for survival.
"Buta's main force is coming this way from the main gate. Go there," Toro commanded.
Nova leant against the controls and guided Crusader towards the thickest gunfire. The further they went, the more dead bodies they passed. Buildings on either side had been reduced to smoking rubble that spread out onto the street.
"He'll pay for this," Toro said softly.
A red bolt the size of a car shot out of the smoke below and slammed into Crusader's underside. The ship rocked to the side and Toro and his guards sprawled against the equipment. Nova only just managed to keep Crusader in the air.
"What was that?" Toro said.
"They've got anti-aircraft weapons," Nova said. "You could have warned me."
"I don't know what they have," Toro said.
Nova pulled the controls to the right and Crusader spun around, flying away from the mayhem.
"What are you doing?" Toro said.
"Two more hits like that and we're going down," Nova said. "The shields are already at sixty percent."
"You will fly down there and take out Buta's forces."
"They'll shoot us down before we can even see them."
"Take us down now, or I will kill one of your companions."
He gestured to his guards and a second later they thrust Tanguin into the pilot's pod. She landed on her knees with a grunt. A guard stepped forward and pushed his gun into the back of her head.
"Take. Me. Down," Toro said.
Nova's face flushed red. All she could imagine as she turned Crusader around was smashing Toro's face into a brick wall, over and over again. She could picture each one of his teeth falling out as she crushed him into a bloody pulp.
She wasn't exaggerating. If they got hit by another anti-air blast they'd be in serious trouble. She could already feel Crusader's engines shuddering beneath her.
Nova opened her mouth to warn Toro again when a familiar buzz filled the air. She slammed her hand into the auto-pilot button and spun in her seat. She ripped her gun off the control board and fired. Cal had already taken down the man who'd had his gun pushed against Tanguin's head and three other guards.
The noises coming from the engine room suggested that Gus had got the jump on a few of them as well. Tanguin snatched the gun off of the fallen soldier behind her and fired twice, taking a guard in the chest.
Toro lunged at Nova and Tanguin, knocking Tanguin sideways so that her head slammed against the controls and she slumped to the floor. He grabbed Nova's arm and twisted it up so that she fired into Crusader's ceiling. Smoke twirled out from the blackened hole.
Nova grunted and kicked Toro's knee. He collapsed, his weight falling against her and they fell to the floor of the pilot's pod, the air pushed out of Nova's lungs.
Sounds of fighting echoed from the engine room but the door to the pod remained empty.
Nova strained against Toro, trying to twist the gun back down, but his muscles bulged pinning her to the floor. Her legs thrashed and she caught him between the legs. His grip on her arm wavered and she twisted free, bringing the gun down, and fired at Toro's face. It exploded in a shower of red that coated the pilot's pod, and rained down on Nova and Tanguin.
Nova wiped the goo out of her eyes and reached for Tanguin, gripping her arm.
A flurry of movement caught her eye and a guard burst into the pilot's pod, gun raised.
Nova's wrist flicked and she fired. The guard collapsed to the floor with a dull thud and Nova let her head fall back.
Cal hovered in the doorway with his small pistols still extended.
Nova breathed a sigh of relief that caught in her throat. "Cal."
"Thought I'd play some hide-and-seek," he said.
Nova burst into laughter and then covered her mouth. She was surrounded by dead bodies, in the middle of a war zone. Probably a bad time to be laughing.