NOVEL NEXT Ch30 Lorna: Dressage
07:15, February 23, 2295
Near Danforth, Interstate 57 (I-57), IL 60930, Terra Alliance territory
Lorna had picked this stretch of I-57 for a reason. The cracked pavement, the isolation, the way the morning shadows made visibility shift—if Xin couldn't handle a Space Rover here, he'd get them both killed on Osram.
She looked over the Space Rover, taking in its massive tires and white armored plating marked with battle scars. A Gauss Machine Gun sat mounted on top, its barrel pointing skyward. Even sitting still, the Rover looked intimidating with its dark-tinted windows.
She then watched Xin circle the vehicle, taking in the battle-scarred armor and mounted Gauss gun like a kid at a military museum. Cute, she thought, then pushed the thought away. She had work to do.
"We only have another day before the Osram mission begins. Get yourself familiar with the controls," she said, keeping her voice flat. No encouragement. Let's see if he needs his hand held.
The way he swallowed before climbing in told her plenty. Good—he was nervous. Fear kept you alive in the field, as long as you didn't let it control you.
She entered the passenger's seat and leaned against the Rover's frame, arms crossed, as he fumbled with the harness. The instrument panel clearly overwhelmed him. First test: does he admit he's lost or pretend he knows what he's doing?
"These Rovers were used in off-world missions," she said, watching his hands shake slightly on the controls. "They've survived harsh conditions that could kill a man in seconds. Osram, Mars, Venus, Europa, Io. You name it."
He nodded, still staring at the controls like they might bite him. At least he wasn't pretending to be an expert.
When he finally engaged the drive, the Rover lurched forward like a drunk Diabolisk. Lorna bit back a smile. Worse than Thomas on his first day. Much worse.
"Focus," she snapped. "We don't have all day."
"Right." His jaw clenched. Good—he was fighting back his frustration instead of making excuses.
"More throttle control," she instructed, deliberately making her tone sharper than necessary. "You need to feel the engine beneath you—balance the weight distribution between the front and rear tires. Remember, everything out there wants to kill you, even the gravity."
"That's what people on the Extranet say, yeah," he replied, trying for casual and missing by a mile.
Time to turn up the pressure. "In '91, on Osram, we were in a canyon. Threw one of these into a tight corner too fast, and we lost half the Vanguard marines. The Rover flipped, sent them crashing into a rock wall."
She watched his olive knuckles go white on the wheel. The Rover's response got even worse, jerking and stuttering across the broken asphalt. Come on, Xin. Show me something.
"Switch seats, now," she commanded.
As they changed places, she made sure to brush against him—close enough that he'd smell her lavender perfume mixed with gun oil. His pupils dilated. Still thinking with your dick, even when terrified. Typical.
She took the wheel and immediately pushed the Rover to its limits, taking the same stretch at triple his speed. The machine purred under her hands, responding to every micro-adjustment. She could feel him watching her, probably wondering if she had a death wish.
"Driving on Earth is nothing compared to Osram," she said, executing a perfect drift around a pile of debris. "Notice how I put in half the effort you did, but the rover feels lighter."
She pulled to a stop and stood. "Now, do it again."
When he took the wheel this time, she saw him trying to mimic her movements. Still jerky, still fighting the machine. The Rover skidded sideways, nearly clipping a concrete barrier.
Moment of truth.
"Do you even understand what the fuck you're doing?" The words came out colder than she'd intended, but she didn't take them back.
She watched his face carefully. Would he crumble? Get defensive? Like Emmanuel had during his training?
Instead, he took a breath and met her eyes. "Tell me how to fix it."
Well, shit. First test passed.
She felt something in her chest—approval mixed with something else she didn't want to name. Her hand moved unconsciously to the scar on her cheek, the rough tissue a reminder of her own failures.
"You're gripping the wheel too tight," she said, her voice softer despite herself. "It's not about forcing it. Feel it—let the machine guide you. You fight the Rover, and you'll lose."
"I see," he said, watching her intently.
"Try steering this thing when the ground's breaking apart under you. Venus quakes, massive fissures opening beneath us—and I was still driving at 60 clicks. You don't win that fight by muscling through. You win by feeling the feedback." She gestured for him to take the wheel again. "Alright. Do it."
This time when he drove, she noticed the change. His grip loosened, movements becoming more fluid. The Rover responded better, not perfect, but better. Fast learner when his ego's not in the way.
"Good," she allowed. "This thing's built to handle rough terrain. Trust the suspension system; it'll do the work for you."
His smile was small but genuine. She found herself fighting the urge to smile back.
The sensor alert saved her from that mistake. Red lights flashed across the console—Helionite signature ahead. Her body tensed automatically, fingers drumming against her thigh.
"Helionite dumps ahead. Just another day in the Midwest wilderness," she said, forcing her voice to stay even.
Through the windshield, she could see the yellow barrels stacked haphazardly, some already leaking. The sight made her jaw clench.
"Is this common out here? Unorganized Helionite dumps?" Xin asked.
"Most of these were dumped by lazy Mega Corps who don't want to pay for their own nuclear waste storage," she said, not bothering to hide the bitterness. "But since those fat cats are also financial backers of the Alliance Armed Forces, no one cares. It sucks to be a local resident."
Movement caught her eye—Maurs, dozens of them, tearing into the barrels like kids with candy. Each one the size of a hoverbike, their ant-like bodies glistening with leaked Helionite.
"Maurs. You don't see them often because they're mindless collectors for the Fenris Horde. Usually too busy harvesting Helionite or Zephyrium to bother humans." She reached for the Gauss gun controls, muscle memory taking over.
Just pests, she told herself. Not a real threat. But her hand still drifted to her scar.
"In the Imperium, we'd let our fusion waste flow through those fancy green columns to show power," Xin said. "But this..."
"Welcome to the Terra Alliance, where corporate profits matter more than…everything." The sensors screamed another warning. The Maurs had noticed them, their bodies crackling with absorbed energy. "But since we're SIMU, we'll exterminate these pests just the same."
She activated the weapon systems with practiced efficiency. The familiar hum of the Gauss gun charging helped steady her nerves.
"Wait for it," she murmured, more to herself than him.
The first shot was perfect—center mass on the lead Maur. It exploded in a spray of ichor and chitin. The second and third followed just as precisely.
This is what I'm good at, she thought, letting the rhythm of combat wash over her. This is control.
She was dimly aware of Xin watching her, but she didn't care. Let him see what he was getting into. Let him understand that beauty and death went hand in hand in her world.
The last Maur fell with a wet crunch. She powered down the gun, fingers lingering on the controls.
"I usually handle the shooting while guys do the driving," she said, glancing at him. "You'll see what I can do when we meet monsters that fight back."
The universe had a sick sense of timing. The sensors lit up again—multiple fast-moving signatures. Skuggrs, at least half a dozen, their cockroach bodies built for speed and spite.
"Drive, don't stop!" she commanded, already swinging the gun around.
"As you wish!" He gripped the wheel tighter, and she was pleased to see him apply what she'd taught him. The Rover surged forward smoothly.
"Skuggrs are clever fuckers. They know there are humans inside vehicles like ours." She tracked the lead creature, waiting for the perfect shot. "But today, we're hunters and they're prey."
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Acid splashed against the Rover's armor, sizzling and smoking. Xin flinched but kept driving. Good boy.
She fired in controlled bursts, picking off Skuggrs with methodical precision. But for every one she dropped, two more seemed to appear. The acid damage was adding up.
"Let's kick this hunt into overdrive, then," Xin said, and she heard something new in his voice. Determination.
"Keep at this speed. I'll cover us." Two more Skuggrs exploded under her fire, but she could see Bone Fiends joining the chase. "Shit. Pack hunters."
The Bone Fiends moved like rabid wolves, using the Skuggrs' acid attacks as cover. Several managed to leap onto the Rover, claws scraping against armor.
Then Xin did something she didn't expect.
Without warning, he yanked the wheel hard right, veering off-road. The maneuver was violent enough to make her grab the gun mount, but she recognized the logic immediately. The sudden lateral G-force ripped the Bone Fiends from their perches, sending them tumbling into concrete barriers.
Did he just...?
"Not bad. Now it's my turn!" She couldn't keep the approval from her voice as she cleared the remaining threats.
They were almost clear when the Skuggrs made one last coordinated attack. Acid splashed across the rear armor, melting through to expose wiring. The cabin filled with the acrid smell of burning metal.
"Need to clear a path, Lorna," Xin said, steady despite everything. "I'm going to punch it."
She met his eyes, saw the determination there. No panic, no hesitation. Just trust that she'd do her part.
"Go!"
He floored it. She fired. They moved like they'd been partners for years instead of days. When they burst free of the ambush, she felt a rush of something dangerously close to pride.
"We did it," he breathed, hands shaking now that the adrenaline was fading.
"Good job," she said simply. But inside, she was already tallying score. Second test passed.
The sensor alert that followed turned her blood to ice. She knew that bio-signature. Knew it like she knew her own nightmares.
Through the cracked windshield, she saw him emerge from the treeline. Three times the size of a normal Bone Fiend, deep olive exoskeleton woven with rotting flesh, tubes pulsing along his oversized face, extending to his spine, gore dripping from his maw.
"Fuck," she breathed. "Mao Dakai."
Rachel screaming as he dragged her away. Sarah's eyes going dead as the virus took hold. Monica begging for death after what he'd done to her.
Her hand found her scar again, fingertips seeking any anchor over the rough tissue. She found none.
"Drive. Now!" She forced the words out through clenched teeth. "That bastard's taken down entire Psi Lynx squads. Rachel, Sarah, Monica. Didn't just kill them. He..." Bred them. Used them. Made them birth more monsters. "He turned them. The ones he doesn't eat, he breeds. And the gun won't stop him."
Xin hit the accelerator without question. But Dakai kept pace easily, his massive frame moving with impossible grace.
"Who's in that Space Rover? Sarah's sister? Monica's long lost cousin?" The monster's voice was cultured, mocking. It made her skin crawl.
"Shut the fuck up, you dritt!" She opened fire, knowing it was useless but needing to do something. The rounds barely made him flinch.
"Monica screamed prettier than you will," Dakai called out, his voice carrying over the gunfire. "Such lovely soprano notes when I—"
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
Lorna squeezed the trigger and held it, pouring rounds into the monster. The Gauss gun screamed, barrels glowing red-hot. She knew it wouldn't stop him, but Monica's face kept flashing in her mind. Young, eager, fresh out of training. I was supposed to protect her.
"Lorna, the gun's overheating!" Xin shouted.
She didn't care. More rounds. More violence. If she could just hurt him enough—
The gun seized with a grinding mechanical protest. Overheated. Jammed. Useless.
"Shit!" She slammed her fist against the mount.
Dakai was gaining now, close enough that she could see the individual tubes pulsing along his spine, smell the rot wafting from his maw. Thirty meters. Twenty.
"He's not stopping," Xin said, wrestling with the controls as the monster closed in.
Think, Lorna. Stop panicking and think.
But before she could recover, Xin acted. Without warning, he yanked the wheel hard left, sending the Rover careening toward a cluster of rusted shipping containers abandoned by the roadside.
"What are you—"
The Rover's reinforced front armor slammed into the containers at an angle, sending them toppling like dominoes directly into Dakai's path. The monster tried to leap over them but misjudged—one container clipped his shoulder, sending him tumbling in a mass of flesh and metal.
"Fuck me, I could kiss you right now!" Lorna breathed. The man had bought them seconds. Maybe half a minute.
She forced herself to think tactically again, pushing down the weird flutter in her chest, deliberately not looking at how Xin's hands tightened on the wheel, his ears going red, sudden intake of breath.
"Good thinking. The gun would need thirty seconds to cool enough for limited fire. Dakai would recover in fifteen, twenty at most." she compartmentalized, already working to clear the jam. "But don't slow down. He heals fast."
"Got it." Xin kept the speed up, putting distance between them and the recovering monster. "Should I—wait, I can get you a better angle if I ease up just a little—"
"NO!" But he was already doing it, dropping their speed by half.
Fuck. He doesn't understand.
Through the rear camera, she watched Dakai rise from the wreckage, tubes along his spine pulsing faster now. Angry. His powerful legs bunched, and he launched himself forward, covering impossible distance in a single bound.
"Xin, floor it! NOW!"
Too late. Dakai landed on the road just ten meters behind them, close enough that she could see his rows of teeth through the rear view. One more leap and he'd be on them.
"Sorry, I thought—"
"He's a persistent fucker!" Lorna's mind raced through everything she knew about Dakai's patterns. "He lets prey think they're escaping, gets them to waste energy, then—no, wait! Hard right at that dead tree NOW!"
Xin obeyed instantly this time. The Rover skidded around the turn just as Dakai leaped. Instead of landing on their roof, the monster overshot, his massive bulk carrying him past their new trajectory.
"He always leaps straight," she explained rapidly, hands flying over the gun controls. "Can't adjust mid-air. His mass works against him. Keep making sharp turns every time he bunches up to jump."
"I can smell you through the chassis, little younglings! One man in his forties, and one woman nearing the end of her—twenties, is it?"
The casual accuracy of it made her want to vomit. But she forced herself to watch his movements, track the pattern. Bunch. Leap. Land. Bunch. Leap. Land.
"Left at that boulder!"
Xin turned. Dakai overshot again, roaring in frustration.
"Right at the fence!"
Another miss. The gun beeped—partially cooled. She had maybe twenty shots before it would overheat again.
"The old quarry!" She pointed ahead, a plan forming. "The rocks will slow him down. He's too big to maneuver well there. And Xin? When I say 'brake,' you hit them hard."
This time, Xin didn't question her. He threaded the Rover through the quarry's entrance, and she watched Dakai follow, his bulk forcing him to slow as the paths narrowed.
"I've played this game before, little girl," Dakai snarled. "Your friends thought the trees would save them too."
Monica had run for the trees. It hadn't saved her.
But Lorna wasn't running anymore.
"Brake!"
Xin slammed the brakes. The Rover skidded to a halt just as Dakai committed to another leap, expecting them to keep fleeing. Instead, he sailed over them, crashing into a cluster of boulders with enough force to crack stone.
"KNEECAP THE FUCKER!"
Ten shots, placed perfectly at his right knee joint as he struggled to extract himself from the rocks. Not enough to cripple him permanently, but enough to make him stumble, limp, slow.
"Drive! Through there!" She pointed at a narrow passage between two rock faces.
Xin threaded the needle perfectly, while behind them Dakai's roar of rage echoed off the quarry walls. His injured leg made the narrow paths impossible to navigate at speed.
When they finally emerged on the other side, she allowed herself to breathe. Her hands were shaking. She hated that Xin could probably see it.
"He won't give up," she said, hating how her voice shook. "I've seen him chase prey for days. He's...as persistent as those creeps in subways. Likes to wear them down until—" Until they're exhausted but not dead, so he can take and impregnate them.
Through the rear view, she could see Dakai at the quarry's edge, his red eyes promising future encounters. The damage to his leg was already healing.
"We got lucky," she said quietly. "He'll remember us now. Remember you." She turned to Xin, needing him to understand. "Next time we meet him, it won't be about escape."
Next time, I'll kill him. For Rachel. For Sarah. For Monica.
"Uh, I'm sorry," Xin said in a low voice. "About slowing down. I didn't—"
"You didn't know." She cut him off, but not harshly. "And that move with the containers? That was smart. Really smart." She paused, then added, "Monica would have liked you. She was clever like that."
The admission hung between them, more intimate than any physical touch.
Behind them, Dakai's roars grew fainter as his size became a liability.
"On a side note," Xin said as he turned to her, his hands steady on the wheel. "Earlier, back there, did you say you could…ki—"
"I was talking about the maneuver, obviously. Get your mind out of the gutter." She shot back, but her fingers had found a strand of blonde hair, twirling it around her index finger. The faintest heat crept up her neck, and she turned toward the window, daring him to call her on it.
"Sure." His shoulders slumped as he looked away from her to focus on the road ahead, nodding slowly. "Maneuver is important."
When they finally emerged on the other side, she allowed herself to breathe. Her hands were shaking. She hated that Xin could probably see it.
The Rover limped along, stinking of acid and burnt metal. She should call for evac. Should report the encounter. Should do a dozen professional things.
Instead, she heard herself say, "Up for more? Pistol training, touring the brig, all that."
It came out like a challenge, because that's all she knew how to do. Challenge and dare and push until people either broke or proved themselves.
Instead, Xin grinned at her "Bring it on."
Third test passed.
Something warm unfurled in her chest. She told herself it was just approval. Just professional satisfaction at finding a partner who wouldn't fold under pressure.
She was getting good at lying to herself.
"Drive us back to Evanston HQ and have the Space Rover repaired. We'll grab a quick bite along the way."
"Roger that!"
As he drove them home, she watched him from the corner of her eye. The way he'd handled himself, the way he'd trusted her, the way he'd acted instead of freezing...
Dangerous, a voice in her head warned. Getting attached is dangerous.
She leaned forward, jabbing at the Rover's entertainment console. The holographic interface flickered to life, displaying her recent playlist. Her finger hovered over "Toxic Devotion" by the Neon Valkyries—a 2290s neo-synthwave band that had taken old Earth songs and weaponized them with harder beats and darker lyrics. The original "Toxic" had been some Digital Age pop song, but the Valkyries' version was all grinding bass and warnings about getting too close to someone you might burn alive.
Perfect.
She cranked the volume dial hard right, the Rover's military-grade speakers flooding the cabin with pulsing electronic beats and the lead singer's haunting vocals. The bass line thrummed through the armored chassis as she drummed her fingers against her thigh, tapping out a rhythm that matched her racing heart.