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[indent][color=lightgray][b]Left![/b]

The truck veered hard as it narrowly avoided another large pine that had materialized out of the darkness. Whatever accoutrements that had not been vacated previously were tossed around haphazardly throughout the interior. Shaking hands smashed the gear shift and prayed to whatever powers existed that the whole rig didn't stall. Somewhere beneath the roar and protest of the engine, the sound of branches snapping in the distance followed as their pressures maintained a close distance.

Setzer peered out into the darkness from his position at the back of the truck. He clutched his sword waiting and watching ready to repel any persistent robots. A roar sounding off in the distance and somewhere to the right of them a cluster of trees exploded. With all the lights turned down, their attackers were forced to go off of audio clues and their accuracy was seeing the worst of it. Not that Setzer was complaining as just one lucky shot from one of those machines was probably enough to blow all of them sky high. Somewhere ahead of him he heard Gideon somewhere ahead of him yell out another direction and felt the entire truck jerk. The Princess was doing surprisingly well at not crashing them yet. 

His eyes flickered upward towards the skies. He intently watched a cold and unwelcoming blanket of skies watching, waiting. And then he saw it a slight flicker of bending light that marked the slow pursuit of the cruiser. He watched the slight glow as it began to charge for another bombardment. He turned his head and called back towards the driver’s cabin yelling as he did. 

“Oi! The Fireworks are about to start up again.”

Chasing after the vocal conformation the sky flashed with a rapid strobe of hot white. Collette saw the flash in the rearview and a second later the landscape ahead of her began to detonate. It was almost as if night had become midday as the area around them was oversaturated with light. The heat licking at their skin and drawing the moisture from the body.  Trees were tossed through the air like pieces of straw, boulders flung about like pebbles, and the earth itself spewed up chunks of molten material. The truck jerked and weaved dodging detonations that nearly toppled the truck just from the resulting shockwave. The smell of burnt earth and fire filled the air. 

The explosion having acted like a flare to their pressures continued their own volley in earnest their shots landing much closer to their intended target. For the first time in a long time Setzer wasn’t one hundred percent confident about anything. They were going to die. They were going to die in a shitty fucking truck, in the fucking woods.  They were going to die more hungover than drunk. They were going to die and he could do nothing about it. He couldn't swing his sword at a cruiser and even if he could he wasn’t quite sure that it would necessarily do anything. 

This manic chase ontinued for what felt like an eternity. Eventually tires bounced from dirt roads to slick asphalt. The woods ended they had no choice but to go back to the highway. The bumping subsiding somewhat as the Truck began to pick up speed. Illumination coming once more  from highway lights. It would be it. They could now get an easy shot off at them especially from the ship. 

And then something strange happened. 

Their pursuers stopped. Mechanical frames halted at the very border of the woods. Raised Cannons were lowered. Eyes flickered from a piercing orange to an unassuming blue. And very slowly they began to disappear back into the darkness. The ship froze in the sky. Another low tone from somewhere within its bowels was sounding that seemed to stretch across the land and vibrate their very bones but it stopped. It flickered and then vanished scattering like a disturbed reflection at the water’s edge. 

They drove onward in continued silence still on edge. Setzer could of swore he could hear the heartbeats of his companions pounding waiting for the other shoe to drop. Yet all that was heard was the occasional cry of a wolf somewhere in the distance and the sound of wheels against asphalt. Cautiously the lights of the truck were flicked back on and headlights cut through the darkness. The sounds of the radio left on from before and seemingly forgotten in the chaos began to [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWh9l8RSkPk] slowly fill the truck.[/url]

Collette’s hands were still shaking. Her heart felt like it was somewhere in her neck and refused to move down. Very gently she pulled her foot of from the gas pulling them from a frantic gallop down to a slow and steady trot. The old engine letting out a low sigh of relief as it did, a few seconds away from overheating itself. She flickered her head towards Gideon who still peered into the darkness ahead of them. 

“You know you can loosen up a little bit.” She commented but whatever or wherever the jab was supposed to land somehow fell flat. “But uhh thanks for making I sure I didn’t flip this thing and kill all of us.”

In the back Setzer collapsed finally into a seat. The sword vanishing back into the mist. He breathed deeply wincing slightly as the adrenaline that filled his body slowly began to subside and the pain came rushing in. Nothing was broken from what he could tell maybe some deep bruising and a cracked rib but nothing that the magic of medicine couldn't fix.He peered out the back watching the lonely and desolate landscape roll on by. He tried not to think about those that didn’t make it. That wasn’t conducive to moving forward, to the mission. Yeah guess that was what they were on now, a mission.

He fished around in his pants and pulled out his cell phone that had somehow survived. The screen was cracked and half the buttons seemed permanently pushed in but it still turned on, which was something. The signal was weak but it existed. Though he didn’t even know who they would call, who would they tell. Oh yeah, we have an enemy princess that was here on a diplomatic mission, her shipped crash and then robots tried to kill us. Who would believe them? At best they would take it as WARDEN trying to prolong the war at worst they would take them as rogue agents acting out of line. 

A warning light flickered on as the gas began to run out. Sighing Collette followed the signs off of the highway. Still very much in rural Rassvet the town they pulled into could barely be considered a town more of a rather large rest stop. Yet it was what they had going for them. Silently they pulled up to a self-service gas station harshly illuminated by an artificial glow that was disrespectful to the eyes. Somewhere within a small kiosk an employee pulled away from their phone to look at the scorched and banged up truck. A cock of the head and then a shrug as they want back to whatever they were doing.  Attached to the station was a ramshackled building whose flickering sign of neon red advertised motel and vacancies. The prospects of sleeping an appealing idea.  A key turned, an engine stopped.

Setzer dropped out of the truck and stretched. As he did he looked around at the emptiness that stretched out beyond them. The only sign of life  beside them and the employee being the five or so long haul trucks parked in the motel parking lot. 

He sighed, tired.

“So what’s the plan?”[/color][/indent]