The drones reported that the island was free of hostels, though they persisted in playfully labeling Dirk with a question mark. Jocasta tucked her long barreled pistol into its holster at her hip and followed the big armored man up onto the beach. The pristine stretch of sand was somewhat marred by the large surface effect air boat that had run up on the sand and grounded. It was easy to imagine the mercenaries leaping from its sides, yelling and brandishing weapons while the sunbathing tourists fled like panicked geese. Jocasta skipped over to one of the piles of detritus and picked up a bra that appeared to be made of little diamond shaped sapphires woven together with gold wire. She held it up to her chest and struck a pose.

“If you are quite finished?” Dirk asked. Jocasta stuck her tongue out and dropped the expensive piece into a pocket, despite the fact it seemed unlikely to do too much to conceal even assets more modest than her own.

 

“If lingerie and airboats don’t improve your mood I fear there is no hope for  you,” Jocasta opined philosophically and hopped up onto the deck of the barge. It shifted slightly under her weight but was stuck fast in the sand. She was just about to ask Dirk how they should get it out onto the water when he planted both hands on the curve of the hull and heaved. For a long moment nothing happened save a whirring of servos in his armor, then the boat slid an inch, then two, then slid out into the water, Dirk jumping aboard just before the water reached the knee joint of his armor. Jocasta grabbed the controls, took a moment to orient herself and then fired up the big fan that drove the barge. The subsonic thrum made Jocasta’s belly tingle and her air streamed out towards the reversing fans as she backed them. She turned her hair golden blonde and shook it like a model in a commercial. No use wasting a good wind effect. As soon as the barge had come around enough, she jammed the throttle forward and the noise grew so intense that Jocasta’s comm deployed a cancelation wave to mute it. A great wave of white foam formed beneath the bow as they picked up speed and then the hull lifted and they were skimming the water at the head of a long wake. The barge wasn’t a pleasure craft, but it was designed to shift thousands of kilos of cargo quickly. That kind of power still translated to speed when it was empty. Jocasta let out a whoop and shoved the throttle to the gate. Almost immediately  red carrots sprang up in her vision. Only one of her drones was aloft, flying a pattern high above, the others busily clinging to the surface of the barge and one gripping onto her hair for dear life. Fortunately the lone overwatcher was sufficient to provide warning. A large airboat much like their own was arrowing towards them on an intercept course. Within moments it hull was visible, laser fire licking out from it like a questing tongue. A quartet of what looked like high end jet skis were flanking it like outriders. The laser fire flecked harmlessly of the hull, powerless to do much damage to what was essentially just steel skirting without any mechanical components to damage, the engines buried under the deck. Dirk returned fire with much the same result. As they closed Jocasta saw a flash of smoke on the enemy deck. For a moment she thought Dirk had hit something but then a man rocketed into the air, leaping the distance on a tail of fire, his jet pack carrying him onto the deck infront of them with a crash.