It didn’t take them long to reach the surface. Whatever else had been communicated to Neil’s mind he clearly had an exit route planned. The coiled around several corridors, rushing through chambers the purpose of which Sayeeda couldn’t guess. All the while the tremors grew more frequent and more violent, until merely staying upright became a real challenge. At last they burst out onto the snowy polar tundra, having avoided the open dome with their deadly ceramic discs. The Highlander sat perhaps three hundred meters away, although slightly around the corner of the shield dome from their present location. As soon as their boots touched the perma frosts all the Terrans tensed and York touched a finger to his ear. Junebug reengaged her helmets electronics suite with the flick of a switch and her helmet AI immediately tuned her into the commo net the Terran’s were using. It was a crackling static hash with only occasional understandable syllables but the computer did its best to correct the signal. “...ty… have sustained heavy.... respond.... equitorial anoma….” Though the signal was poor it was unmistakable slugged as the November Sky, which meant at least the vessel hadn’t been destroyed. York didn’t bother trying to respond, instead he lead the party at a run to the battered freighter. Junebug half carried Taya as they rushed up the ramp, Neil leaping up the ladder and into the cockpit a half second ahead of the mercenary. Without even a pretense of caution Neil lit all six thrusters at once and the ship tore into the sky, wind howling through the still closing landing ramp. “How long have we got to get out of the system?” Sayeeda demanded as they climbed through the troposphre. “Seven Garl’t,” Neil responded automatically, his hands flying over the controls. “What the fuck is a Garl’t?” she demanded. The pilot shrugged helplessly. “Damned if I know, it must be...” Neil trailed off as they broke the atmosphere. Towards the equator a vast silvery thing was tearing itself free of the earth. Sayeeda guessed that it must have been the size of a small city and it was bathed in a crackling electric discharge. The atmosphere above it ionized and there was a flash of nuclear detonation as a mass driver struck the thing on the side of the shoulder. The creature, whatever it was, didn’t pause, it merely raised a massive palm and a green beam of light, so bright that the Highlander’s optics blacked it out to save from burning the crews retinas, lashed skyward. One of the Chalcedon cruisers vanished from the sensor board. “Get us to the November Sky,” Sayeeda said, her voice, normally calm, held an unexpected note of awe. She tapped a series of keys feeding Neil the vector information he needed. Below them the planet began to pulse, its mantle beginning to crack, the oceans boiling as the volcanic fury beneath bubbled up from mile long cracks in the planets skin. The November Sky shuddered out of the rip, a mere two or three thousand kilometers away, having outrun the light of its departure. The bow of the ship was a mass of melted metal where it had suffered a mass driver hit from one of its opponents. The void shields had saved the ship, though it would be months or years in dock to repair the damage. “Get us aboard,” York snapped but they were already moving towards the open launch bay.