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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1878641" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 68: And its Only Our Second DateThe ground flew past beneath them at an incredible speed. They were up high enough that sand was not causing any problems. It had taken only a couple of minutes, and now the two Darks were so far beyond the plateau that it wasn’t even a speck in the distance. Good. This would be sufficient for the moment.    Dark stopped, wings flaring out and then keeping her up. Akan’s Dark, who she still thought of as Akan, stopped a moment later, giving her a confused look that did not go with the rest of him. She picked up on why immediately, and said simply, “We have more important things to do than waste time with them.”    He studied her for a long moment, obviously trying to figure out if he could challenge her. She could kill him easily, and he soon realized this, and simply nodded. Dark smiled to herself at this acknowledgment of superiority, and turned towards the West. There. Distant...but strong. Calling still. Calling to them. Just as it had been before. She and Akan exchanged short looks, both knowing where they needed to go. There was no choice, really. Not yet. But soon...    In the now dawn  light of the sky, the two dark figures flying across were easy to see. However, one had to be looking. And currently, neither Jen, Voort, or the Narani within the three speeders after them were paying any attention to the sky. Two of the speeders were directly behind them, having as much trouble as Jen was with lining up shots. The ground was getting rockier and more uneven as Voort was slowly being forced towards the edge of the plateau by the third speeder. Jen was doing her best to fire off shots behind them, then to the left to keep all of the Narani down. This was not doing well, though, as it was currently about five shooting on them compared to Jen being the only one to return fire.    Voort was ducked down low, barely able to see over the protective screen of a viewport as he wove around the larger rocks that the repulsorlifts would not have helped them to get over. This constant sliding around was causing Jen as much trouble as the Narani were. Thankfully, the two speeders behind them were having the most trouble with their shots. This allowed Jen to reached over the right side of the open speeder and fire off a few shots at the third speeder.    They only impacted the side of it, and she immediately had to duck down to avoid the return fire from three slugthrowers. There were a few loud ding sounds against the hull, though she also heard a few whiz over through the air. They were all missing, but Jen knew that these Narani had a much better chance of getting in that one lucky shot if only because of their number. Most people didn’t like odds, but this was one of those times that odds were very likely to catch up with a person if they weren’t careful.    That’s when the pilot of the third speeder attempted something that Jen had been waiting on. He tried to slide the speeder in to close the distance between them Voort managed to catch sight of this maneuver, and also saw that this was timed exactly when there was a large rock wall to the left side. No way to pull away...    “Hold on!” he called over his shoulder and hit the tried redirecting a little more power from the senors to the engines. Jen felt them gain a bit more speed, but when she looked up over the side, saw that it had done them no good. The other speeder slammed into them, jerking them to the side. In that moment, both Jen and the three Narani leaned over the sides to fire at point blank range. Jen got a shot off that hit the Narani aiming for Voort, and managed to duck back down as the speeder’s pulled away from each other and the two Narani took shots at her.    She’d definitely lost a few hairs from those shots. Voort’s mind was racing as fast as the speeders were. Currently, he was trying to keep up with the distance to the edge of the plateau, which they were being driven towards. He could easily slow down and head the other direction, but it was likely that they were expecting that. So...do exactly what they wouldn’t expect. As the rocks started to level out again, Voort allowed his eyes to dart across the interior of the speeder. His eyes caught sight of what he was looking for. With a free hand, he reached over and pulled the small box over to him. He tossed it over into the back with Jen, “Open that and see what’s in it!”    Jen fired off two more shots to keep the closest speeder back, then dropped down to do what he’d said. The box opened easily, revealing a small collapsible tent, a pair of medpacs, a grappling spike launcher, and two glowrods. She relayed this to Voort, who then told her to get out the grappling spike launcher and attach it to her blaster. Not liking where this was going, Jen did this anyway and ignored the fact that the launcher was nearly bigger than her small blaster.    By the time she’d gotten it out, Voort had done something that surprised everyone except him. He pulled the speeder hard to the left, now speeding straight off the edge of the plateau. Voort then hit a couple of switches, and jumped over into the back of the speeder with Jen. The Narani were too busy reorienting themselves to continue firing for the short moment. He took the gun from Jen, handing her the box and giving her a long look. Neither of them said anything, but Jen quickly wrapped an arm around him.    How she knew what he’d planned to do was simply instinct. It was crazy...insane...and would work. And besides, it was too late to turn back. Literally. They were no longer running a half meter above the ground. The speeder had shot off of the plateau, and because the repulsorlifts could not handle this height, they were plummeting. Quickly, knowing that the distance down would not be far, Voort jumped out of the speeder with Jen hanging on. He immediately fired the grappling spike towards the cliff face. It latched in somewhere not far away, and the cable suddenly tightened. Voort managed to hang on despite the violent jerk. He payed no attention to the speeder now below them, focusing on the quickly approaching rock wall.    Knowing it would hurt, but having no other choice, Voort extended his legs towards the wall. Then they hit. Or rather, Voort’s legs did. He cringed from the shock of pain and nearly lost his grip on Jen from the force of the stop. Slowly, he allowed his legs to fall down to a more relaxed position. He allowed a glance to the cliff top above, but it was Jen’s voice that got his attention.    “...and how are we supposed to get down from here?”    It was a valid question. In fact, he’d expected for some reason that there would be a ledge near. There wasn’t. Instead, there was still a long drop below. Thinking about this, he knew of only one option, “Let the box drop...if it doesn’t make it, oh well...we’re going to have to climb the old fashioned way.”</blockquote>

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