[Project 52] The Last Flight of The Black Baroness (1st of 52)

It was time, she decided as she waited for the rest of her flight to suit up for take-off, standing proud in her tribe’s colors.

She fitted on her goggles and flexed the wings on her bio-engineered flight pack, testing if it was up for the task at hand and was rewarded with a perfect response. The Black Baroness is ready for tonight’s foray to get the red elixir from the wandering colossi so vital for her race’s survival, her sixth in half as many days.

Why can’t our race and these colossi just live in harmony, her mind randomly asked before she caught herself. She knew the myths and the history; ever since her race was seen as a nuisance by the colossi. These colossi, tall, moving living mountains with varying patches of forests all over their bodies, were the best readily-available source of the red elixir. Her ancestors did what they needed to survive. However the colossi upped the ante; from simple flames and barriers they started using weapons of genocide and mass destruction and other advanced technology on her race. The Baroness can’t blame them; a legend tells how one member of her tribe took down one of the colossi with a single attack. Well, I guess they won’t blame me for what I’m about to do, she grimly muttered to herself. Not only is this for her tribe, it’s also revenge for her mother and the other tribe members who fell while doing their sacred duty.

***

She knew the drill and better. Her tactics are unorthodox but efficient and earned her the title Baroness and the right to flaunt her tribe’s silver-stripes-on-black coat-of-arms. A flight wing composed of four to five instead of solo affairs, one will distract the colossus by flying close to its head, the others take turns extracting the elixir. She assigns the interference duty to young inexperienced pilots. She believes that if one were to survive running interference for your wing mates, elixir runs will be a piece of cake. The remaining members scatter and take turns in attacking, flying either high or low to maximize the coverage and avoid the colossi’s weapons. So far she’s never proven wrong.

Ten minutes in she sighted the target and its various defenses. The towers emitting poison fogs are quite easy to avoid, she never understood the reason why these colossi still use such stupid defenses. The lightning siren is another thing, though. These cursed machines call out to her kind with unnatural and hypnotizing songs then emit lightning on contact, instantly killing those who foolishly brush against its many arms. Though theoretically one can fly between the arms (like what she did twice before), the Baroness has lost way too many wing mates to such devices. A life is too much a wager these days.

A sudden gust blew her flight apart, forcing them helker-skelter toward the lightning siren. It’s that damned tornado generator again, her mind screamed as she tried to bring order to chaos by ordering everyone to fly up as high as possible. Then she heard the sickening sizzle of burning flesh and an anguished cry. She just lost Clare, the one assigned to interference duty tonight.

***

The flight regrouped, the Baroness giving out orders to those who remained and not allowing grief to settle in. She will run interference to give Elaine and Sophia enough time for a elixir run. The Baroness will go in first then when the colossus is sufficiently distracted the rest will follow one after the other in the vector and direction opposite the one she’s flying to avoid detection. When they’re done they’ll head back to base while she tries to make one more elixir run before heading back herself. Easy enough, she figured.

She started her divebomb run towards the colossus’ head. Jinxing randomly along the six axes she quickly drove the colossus mad with frustration, flying faster than its eyes’ ability to track her. On her radar she saw Elaine starting her run as planned and let go a sigh of relief… that was cut off mid-exhale when Sophia started screaming bloody murder over the radio and charged the colossus head on.

She knew there was something going between Clare and Sophia. If they get out of this alive she’ll make sure to pick virtual strangers for each flight. She deliberately flew in the colossus’ field of vision and ordered Sophia to just do her elixir run. The colossus roared and slapped a spot on its body. Someone must have managed to get in but she wasn’t sure if that someone was able to extract the elixir and get away. No one was answering on the radio but she got her answer soon enough. The colossus looked at its palm and scrapped Sophia’s crushed body off with a fingernail.

She continued to defiantly buzz in front of the colossus, deftly avoiding its swatting and grabbing hands while trying to stay calm. Two of four dead, not good at all. The colossus went still, eyes tracking something and suddenly lunged after a while. The Baroness dodged and flew away, turned around, lining up another buzz run. Then she saw the colossus open its clenched fist to reveal Elaine alive but with her flight pack crushed. She still fought back, vainly trying to push back the fingers that was closing in even though she knew it was no good.

The Baroness was now alone. Fighting back tears she flew high to reassess the situation and wait for the colossus to settle down. One thing was for sure - their sacrifices will not be in vain.

***

The Baroness gently lifted off from the colossus. Again, she succeeded in where others failed but this is one success she will never want again given its steep price. A few seconds later she heard the colossus roar in pain as the anesthetic they use during extractions ran out. It better roar, she sneered. In her anger she drilled an extraction hole for every member of her flight that fell tonight. She turned around to admire her handiwork but her schadenfreude quickly turned to almost-controlled fear when she saw the colossus staring at her. She beat her wings harder, unwilling to jettison her precious cargo.

She almost didn’t notice the pair of shadows closing on her from both sides, so focused she was in reaching the nearest cover. Lessons handed down through generations rushed through her head as the colossus closed in for the kill. Make your body as compact as possible. Tuck your limbs in, secure the flight pack. If you can, look for crevices on the colossus’ hands and aim for one of those. Hope that the colossus is an idiot and will make a half-assed job in slamming its.

***

“What the HELL is wrong with these mosquitoes? Four in what, five minutes?” Nem said as he washed blood off his hands. Must be the weather. Or I don’t know, there must be a hole in the screen somewhere, he muttered as he closed the kitchen lights.

(A/N. A tad late of sorts but here it is, first of hopefully 52 stories and what-have-you this year. And yes, four mosquitoes in five minutes is not an uncommon sight these days.)