“What about you?” Wedge asked, his eyes wary.
“I got a date with Tiny.”
“Huh? But we’re all outta rounds. We don’t have any weapons left to shoot it with.”
“Still got one left.”
She slung the Stoss onto her back. “This helluva big shot right here.”
Aranea patted the spear, her longtime companion of so many battles past, and offered up a silent plea. Don’t let me down now.
She opened the ship’s rear hatch. The howling wind ripped at her body. They were close enough to Diamond Weapon now that she could make it. At this range she wouldn’t have to worry about being blown off course.
She tuned the comm to the 87th’s general channel and wondered how many were still alive to hear her message.
“Attention, all units! This might be the last thing I ever say to all of you, so listen up. I’ve resigned my command and the squadron is disbanded. As of today, we’re no longer in service to the empire.”
From the cockpit, Wedge was yelling at her to come back inside, but she ignored him. She kicked off from the lip of the hatch, into a dive straight at Diamond Weapon’s head. The dropship, Wedge at its helm, continued to speed on toward Tenebrae.
As she plummeted, she uttered one last quiet line into the comm. “I just want you all to know . . . It’s been an honor to serve with you.” And then her spear was out, and she was closing in on the target. Just a hair off her intended trajectory. Well within tolerance.
“Hey, Tiny! I got a present for you!”
The monster’s massive head was directly below her. The disgustingly colored tumor of a core on its brow was dull and lightless, thank the Six. She didn’t want to have to deal with the same lethal crimson beam that left Gralea’s ground forces a smoldering heap.
The Stoss struck true, right into the core’s center. Diamond Weapon roared in reaction. At such close range, the sound was unbearable. It felt like it might rattle her skull apart. But with both hands on the spear, she had no way to cover her ears. The only thing she could think to do to get her mind off the pain was scream back. She fired the Stoss’s thrusters to dig in as deep as she could and yelled back at the monster until her throat was raw.
She’d hoped that one dive might be enough, that she’d take out the core and be done with it. Unfortunately, the empire’s giant pet seemed to be engineered a bit tougher than that.
Diamond Weapon twisted its giant body and tossed its head from side to side. Aranea clung to the Stoss, still lodged deep in the core. She flicked its controls, changing the spearpoint into a hook shape for an extra bit of anchorage.
Even with that, she was barely hanging on. Her body was thrown up, down, left, right as the monster thrashed, the force of its movement making her as nauseated as a cadet on a maiden airship flight. It took all of Aranea’s effort to keep clinging to the Stoss’s shaft, and so her guard was down when Diamond Weapon swiped one huge arm up toward its head, as if swatting away an obnoxious fly. She was hurtling downward before she knew what hit her.
She landed right in the guts of the downed dreadnought. Her back slammed against the hard armor plating―the same armor that had deflected all her earlier cannon fire. Her vision went white. The back of her head throbbed and burned. She thought she might vomit.
But she couldn’t just lie there. She had to get up. Aranea gathered her remaining strength, trying to jump back to her feet. Instead, all she managed to do was to roll to one side.
As pathetic as it was, the roll saved her life. One giant fist came smashing down beside her.
Aranea stared, horrified, at where the monster’s blow had crumpled the heavy armor plating like paper. With a single strike, Diamond Weapon had inflicted more damage than the full, sustained firepower of an imperial dropship. This time, she stood. Gotta stop this thing, she thought. Can’t let it reach Tenebrae.
She angled her spearpoint skyward and jumped high.
“Never imagined myself going toe-to-toe with a giant magitek weapon,” she shouted into the rushing wind. “Just goes to show, you never know what life’s gonna throw at you!”
Her spear bored into one of exposed areas in the monster’s midsection, and she silently thanked the ground forces for chipping away the armor on its chest and upper arms. The Stoss couldn’t generate enough altitude for her to reach Diamond Weapon’s head in a single jump, so it looked like she was in for some free-climbing. She hoped at the same time she might find a way to slow down the thing’s limbs.
When she finally made it to the upper arm, she let out a frustrated grunt. The Stoss was planted firm and deep, but she was at a dead end. She couldn’t find any route to get higher. Worse, Diamond Weapon’s giant hands continued to flail at her. She leapt down, withdrawing to the safety of the ground to regroup for another attempt.
“Let’s try that again,” she said. A high jump, and she made it to the chest, spear anchored deep. Another jump, and she scaled the upper arm. The shoulder was next, but in swooped a giant hand, swatting her away, and she was back on the ground, game reset.
But she was getting the hang of things.
“Y’know, it’d be real nice,” she began, leaping up once again, “if you’d just die already.”
Diamond Weapon’s arm swept in. She jumped again, before it could knock her away. This time, she just might make it.
“Hrrraaaugh!” Her war cry echoed as her spear drove into the core. She hadn’t connected right at the middle, but it was a solid hit nonetheless. She flicked the controls on the Stoss, transforming the speartip to its hook shape, and then she thrust in again. The spearpoint began to rotate rapidly, churning that section of the core’s rotten red tumor mass to mush.
Her body lurched downward as Diamond Weapon staggered, her assault seeming to have an effect. She kicked one boot against the core, thrusting herself away from the monster before its arm could knock her down again.