Chapter 122-Invinsible fortress

Chapter 122: 122-Invinsible fortress

"Can these monstrousities reproduce?"

[Unknown. No sufficient data is available.]

"Wonderful! Just wonderful!" She rubbed her forehead.

The world was becoming more terrifying by the hour, and her system was offering answers that only created more questions.

Still, the information was useful. If the birds depended partly on their metallic networks, then future weapons could target those structures. She would need samples, but she wasn’t about to send herself or Nathaniel outside while the creatures were still swarming.

"Continue collecting data. I want to know whether the metal is naturally produced by their bodies or absorbed from the environment."

[Command acknowledged, host.]

[I will continue to collect data. Any new information will carry priority and be delivered immediately they are collected.]

A sudden impact rattled the concealed ship. Nathaniel stumbled, and Aymara immediately caught him around the waist.

"Are you all right?"

He nodded, though his face had grown even paler. "I’m fine. What was that?"

"One of them probably struck the barrier."

Aymara helped him into a nearby chair and crouched in front of him. "Stay here. I’ll monitor the repairs and make sure nothing gets through."

Nathaniel caught her wrist before she could rise. "Aymara."

She looked at him. Their eyes met and for a long moment, their eyes did the talking.

"Don’t do anything reckless," he finally said after catching his breath.

Her expression softened for a moment. She found it moving that even at a time like this, he worried for her. "I won’t be reckless. I have too much to protect."

His fingers loosened around her wrist, but his eyes lingered on her face as though he wanted to ask something else. In the end, he said nothing.

Aymara gently squeezed his hand before standing. She had no intention of letting the ship fall apart. Not when she had spent so much time building a safe place for them.

And certainly not because a bunch of flying scrap metal had decided to ruin her day.

Outside, the pirates were discovering that their situation was far worse than they had imagined.

---

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN IT’S GONE?!" Captain Rourke’s roar was nearly drowned out by the screams around him.

He stood on the deck of his vessel, staring at the empty stretch of ocean where Aymara’s cruise ship had been.

Moments earlier, the enormous vessel had been right there, its defenses flashing as the metallic birds attacked. Now there was nothing: no ship, no lights and no silhouette against the sky.

Only the relentless shrieking of the creatures circling overhead.

"Find it!" Rourke shouted. "Use the radar! Thermal scanners! Anything! I don’t care what you have to do!"

"Captain, the sensors can’t lock onto anything!" one of his men yelled from the damaged control station. "It’s like the ship never existed!"

"That’s impossible!" Captain Rourke refused to accept that Aymara just disappeared like that.

A metallic bird swooped down before the man could say another word. Its wings spread wide, catching the sunlight as it plunged toward the deck.

BANG! BANG!

Someone fired a burst of bullets, but the shots merely sparked against its body. The bird twisted in midair and opened its hooked beak.

A stream of green acid sprayed across the men. "Urghhh!" Their screams filled the air.

One pirate collapsed as acid ate through his shoulder armor. Another threw himself overboard, only to discover that the ocean below was hardly safer. Something large moved beneath the water, and the man disappeared beneath a violent splash.

Rourke’s face turned ashen. He had expected Aymara’s ship to be a difficult target. He had not expected the entire sky to turn against him.

"Get the heavy weapons!" he roared. "Bring out everything we’ve got!"

His men scrambled to obey, but panic was spreading faster than orders could control it. The birds were too fast, too durable, and too numerous. Every time one was driven away, two more seemed to take its place.

Their ships had become traps and the woman they had intended to rob had disappeared.

"Where is she?" Sarah screamed.

She clung to a metal support as the ship lurched beneath her. Her hair was tangled, her clothes stained with seawater, and her face was twisted with terror.

"Aymara!" she shouted toward the empty ocean. "You can’t just leave us here!"

Dylan grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the railing just as a bird crashed into it. The impact sent a shower of metal fragments flying across the deck.

"Move!" he yelled.

Sarah stumbled after him, barely avoiding the acid that splattered where she had been standing.

Her eyes widened as she watched a pirate writhe on the deck, desperately trying to scrape the corrosive liquid from his clothing.

"This is her fault!" Sarah cried.

Dylan stared at her as if she had lost her mind. "Her fault? You’re the one who told Rourke about her ship!"

"Because I thought we could get aboard!" Sarah snapped back. "I didn’t know these things would appear!"

Another metallic shriek cut through the air. They both looked up just in time to catch three birds were circling their vessel. Their red eyes glowing as they tracked the movement below. One folded its wings and plunged toward them.

Dylan dragged Sarah behind a stack of crates. The bird struck the deck where they had been standing, its metallic claws gouging deep marks into the surface.

It lifted its head and released another stream of acid, melting the edge of a nearby container.

Sarah clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.

Dylan’s heart hammered against his ribs. He had wanted Aymara’s ship. He had imagined stepping aboard, apologizing, and convincing her to take him back. Once she saw how much he had suffered, surely she would remember the good times they had shared.

He had even imagined himself standing beside her again, enjoying the security and comfort he had once taken for granted.

However, instead of a secure life, he was hiding behind a crate while a metal bird tried to melt him alive and Aymara had vanished.

"She planned this," Dylan muttered.

Sarah stared at him. "What?"

"She knew this would happen. That’s why her ship disappeared. She left us here on purpose!"

The accusation gave him something to cling to. If Aymara had deliberately abandoned them, then he didn’t have to confront the possibility that he had made a terrible mistake by betraying her.

Sarah’s expression darkened. "She can’t do this to us! She has enough weapons to fight those things. She could help us!"

"Then why isn’t she helping?"

Neither of them had an answer but at the same time they had an answer. They knew why she didn’t help but we’re in denial and refused to let themselves go there.

They couldn’t see the concealed cruise ship. They couldn’t detect its heat signature or electronic emissions and even the sophisticated sensors aboard their vessels returned nothing useful.

To them, Aymara had simply vanished, abandoning everyone to a massacre.

They had no idea that she was still there. Hidden beneath full-spectrum camouflage, her ship remained suspended in the same patch of ocean.

Its defensive barrier active while repair drones worked frantically on the damaged hull and cutting units descended toward the chains wrapped around the propellers.

Aymara watched Dylan and Sarah through the external cameras. She saw Sarah screaming for help and Dylan pointing furiously at the empty ocean, blaming her for their predicament.

A cold smile touched her lips. "Unbelievable," she murmured. "They really think I owe them my life."

She had not left them. She was simply no longer willing to let them see her and there was a difference.

"System, status report."

[Hull repairs: 38% complete. Defensive barrier: 71% energy reserve. Propulsion obstruction removal: 24% complete. Estimated time to sever all chains: eleven minutes, assuming no additional interference.]

"Eleven minutes," Aymara repeated.

Outside, another wave of metallic birds descended upon the pirate fleet.

The ships shuddered under the assault. Screams and gunfire echoed across the water. Acid burned through railings and equipment and people, while damaged vessels drifted helplessly in the creatures’ path.

Aymara’s smile faded as she studied the remaining birds.

She didn’t want the pirates near her ship again. She certainly didn’t want them discovering her location while the propellers remained trapped.

"Keep the camouflage active. If the birds come too close, use the disruption pulse again. Don’t waste ammunition trying to kill them with weapons that won’t work."

[Command acknowledged, host.]

She glanced toward Nathaniel, who was watching her from his chair.

"Everything will be fine," she promised him. "I’ll get us out of this mess... somehow."