In another life I might have been content to sit back and watch a muscled alien warrior fight with a giant alien bear. Sounds kind of hot right? Watching a fearless warrior fight for your life. In actuality I’m terrified. The alien bear lets out a giant roar that hits us all with a wall of force. The three Riga women are stood in front of me, forming some sort of shield, but I push past them. I want to see the fight.

“You picked the wrong warrior, creature!” Vax runs forward with his staff held up. He charges across the dirt without fear, vaults into the air and strikes his staff against the bear’s head. The creature lets out another loud roar and rears back onto its hind legs.

They both fall into an adrenaline-fueled fight that is fast and furious. The bear quickly realizes that Vax isn’t fucking around, lunges forward and swipes its colossal paws through the air. I shout to Vax to watch out, but the blow connects and sends him tumbling across the jungle clearing.

“Vax! No!” I struggle free from Phasma’s grasp and run out into the clearing to help Vax. I hear the Riga women behind me shouting something, but my mind is focused solely on helping him. As I get to him he’s standing up again. Blood runs from three claw marks on his chest.

“What are you doing?!” he shouts at seeing me.

“Helping, what do you—Ah!” Vax jumps at me and knocks me to the floor, and we tumble across the dirt just as the bear charges past us. It thrusts its giant paws into the dirt and skids around. We’re back on our feet again and the bear is about to charge once more. Vax does the unthinkable and shoves me back before sprinting for his staff. “Get back and stay back!” he yells.

His shove forces me back a few paces to the Riga survivors, but I’m having none of it. The bear charges again and this time it has its sights on me. I can’t explain what happens, but everything seems to slow in that moment. The jungle brightens. My feet feel firmer on the ground. My hands raise into a fighting stance.

A five-ton bear is seconds away from crushing me into bone gelato and I’m cool as a cucumber. That’s when my legs squat and explode upwards, sending me clear over the top of the charging beast. I flip through the air and land a second later much like a ninja would, one arm out and one knee down. I look down at my hands and feel stunned. The Riga are looking at me. Vax is looking at me. Even the giant elephant-bear looks confused.

There’s a look in Vax’s eyes that says, What the fuck was that? I don’t know honey. But I’m asking myself that too. The bear charges at Vax, and he shoots two bright pulses of blue from his staff in return. The creature rears its head back and roars at the shots, stumbling over its feet and tumbling down, only to clamber back up a moment later. The bear looks a little dazed, but it’s shook the attack off easily enough. Vax sprints over and we’re back at each other’s sides again.

“Its skin is too thick,” Vax says, panting wildly. “My staff isn’t powerful enough. We have to get out of here.”

“I can distract it,” I say while keeping a close eye on the bear that is quickly collecting itself. “I’ll jump it again. You get Loola and the others out of here.

“No way, too dangerous, we’ll—wait—is that the monkey from before?”

My eyes light up at the sight of Punky. He’s dropped down onto the ground in front of us and has more of those red seed pods. The alien bear lets out another roar and this time a long jet of fire escapes his mouth, fluttering up into the sky and igniting the surrounding trees.

“Fuck,” I gulp. “It breathes fire.”

Punky lets out a strange little roar of his own and runs forward. “No Punky!” I scream. The little purple monkey vaults up into the air and launches the red seeds pods at the bear. They explode as tiny orbs of green fire and the bear reacts violently, shrieking wildly and backing away. I realize now why he grabbed the pods earlier.

“The seed pods!” I shout, looking around at the little red orbs that are all around us. “Throw them! They work!”

In a few seconds the air is full of tiny red orbs. We all join in the attack—I end up launching a dozen of the tiny pods and I’m quite amazed because every one of my shots hits its target. I’ve never been a thrower before, mind you, I’ve never been one to jump over elephant-sized bears either. I don’t know what has changed, but whatever it is, it’s helping me to kick ass.

Countless numbers of the tiny pods explode against their target, swallowing the huge predator in a blanket of green fire. It’s not enough to down the animal, but the fire is sufficient enough in pushing back the bear. It makes a quick retreat into the jungle thicket, whimpering as it does so.

“You saved us Punky!” I run toward the purple monkey who hops up onto my shoulder almost instinctively. I turn around and beam at Vax.

“Don’t even ask Piper, the monkey is not—”

I gasp loudly before Vax can finish. “How dare you! This little monkey saved us all!” We’re both about to get into another heated argument about keeping wild alien-monkeys as pets when Loola interrupts.

“Um, guys? Sorry to break up the whole monkey argument, but that might be a problem.” Loola raises her slender hand and points at the horizon, which is now ablaze with fire. Past that fire there is the distant drone of approaching engines. In the sky I can see a cloud of black moving against the red clouds above us. My eyes focus, and I realize it’s not a cloud at all. It’s a wall of Horkax soldiers on hover bikes.

“The fire!” I shout. “It must have attracted them!”

“Ship!” Vax roars. “Now!”

We take off at breakneck pace once more, running along the sheer wall until we find our way back to the ship. As we approach the giant chrome orb the engines fire up and blue flame sprouts from the bottom. A ramp descends rapidly and Vax shouts at the Riga and I to get on board. The Riga run up the ramp, and Punky doesn’t waste a second either, vaulting from my shoulder and clambering up the ramp after them.

Vax flashes me a stern look but says nothing in the moment. We’re just about to climb onboard ourselves when a dozen hoverbikes scream into view, hurtling for us at breakneck speed. I don’t know what happens in that moment, but my heart slows again, and I find myself in a state of complete calm. Vax and I launch into battle without a moment’s hesitation.

It’s weird seeing things in slow motion, especially as it’s happening to your own eyes. Four bikes fly right at me, clearly trying to hit me, and I jump and roll through the air, twisting and turning, dodging each one with ease. Bright laser fire crawls past, crackling loudly as it burns the air. A dozen shots graze within an inch of my skin. I turn to see Vax as he pounces into battle, knocking locust men from bikes, firing back with expert precision, knocking legs from drivers that have been dismounted.

I join him in the fight, launching into hand-to-hand combat like it’s something I’ve done all my life. It’s crazy, but I feel like I have, and I’m certainly holding my own, twisting guns out of arms, blocking simultaneous punches, flipping over crouched bug soldiers and launching my feet into their face with much delight.

“Behind you!” Vax warns. We spin together in a dance of combat that is both beautiful and terrifying. I block, kick, punch and flip as more of the locust men arrive every second. There were dozens to start but now there are hundreds. My body is still calm, but my mind is starting to panic.

Monroe’s voice crackles through Vax’s wrist, which has just slammed two locust heads together. “Sir! We need to take off! The fleet-ship is approaching! If we don’t leave now it’ll shoot us down!”

We both turn to find the ramp, but there are too many Horkax between us and the ship. “Clear the way!” I yell to Vax while firing a laser pistol through the skull of a locust man.

“Too many!” he yells back. We dance through a few more seconds of combat before he speaks again. “I have an idea! Head for the bike!” He thrusts his elbow back into a bug behind him and nods at a downed hoverbike which is on the ground a few feet from us. Vax pulls his wrist back to his mouth. “Take off Monroe, we’ll meet you in the air!”

“But sir!—”

“Just do it!”

We punch and kick our way to the bike. Vax takes the controls, I jump on the back, grabbing another laser pistol from the ground as I do so. Monroe pulls Vax’s ship up into the air. Monumental cannons of blue flame belt down and the orb lifts up. Vax fires up the hoverbike and it ascends too. “Hold on!” Vax yells into my ear. “Keep a tight hold and shoot down anything that follows!”

I spin around on the bike and clench my thighs tight against the rumbling metal body. I’m back to back with Vax. As soon as we lift into the air chaos erupts. A hundred other hoverbikes ascend from the bright yellow canopy below us and laser fire screams at us from every direction. “Go!” I scream. “Go, go, go!”

We thunder up and spin around, looping and twisting through the air. I shoot at a new target every second, seeming to pick them off with startling ease. The guns feel good in my hands. The smooth metal triggers feel right against my fingers. I squeeze and bright green laser bolts glide through the air to light up their target. I’m getting pretty good at this, and I don’t hate it.

“Hold on!” Vax pulls into a sharp ascent that is nearly vertical and I squeeze my legs tight for dear life. He throws one hand around my stomach and keeps me held against his back. I fire at Horkax, but the pursuit is endless. They’re getting closer. I can’t keep up.

“There’s too many Vax!” I yell as the jungle shrinks below us. The sky is a brilliant shade of sapphire red. The jungle might be distancing, but the Horkax are not.

“Just hold on!” he yells back. “Monroe!” Meet us at the atmosphere breach! Have the cargo doors open!”

There’s no answer back, and if there is I can’t hear it. The approaching Horkax army are just seconds away. I fire and fire, dropping the locust from the sky with bright explosions, but another is always there to replace it in a second. The laser pistols grow hot in my hands, burning at my palms.

Among the horde of dark green bikes there is a locust soldier at the front, perched on top of a crudely painted hoverbike which is bright red. I decide to take my fury out on that one. Why not? I squeeze, a bolt of laser rains down and hits my target. The bike explodes, and the pilot falls back to the alien jungle in a ball of flame.

“Two more seconds!” Vax shouts.

There’s a moment of curiousness then for me, because the entire approaching wall of Horkax soldiers stop. They stop their ascent and hang in the air for second before gravity takes over again. A hundred hollow alien eyes stare back at me vacantly, as a hundred pilots sit statue still. It’s such a bizarre sight that I can only stare with my mouth wide open. It’s almost as if they’ve all turned off, all at once. The horde falls back to the jungle below as an immobilized wall, but I have no time to see their impact.

Our own bike is shaking from the altitude and the engine cuts. It’s clearly not designed for flying this high. I drop my guns and hold on for dear life, fearing that we’re about to plummet to our deaths. The bike carries on with its own momentum and we thunder through an opening at the bottom of Vax’s ship. “Jump!” he roars. “I can’t stop!”

We vault from the bike together and I tumble across the floor violently. An explosion rings out across the bay a second later as the bike collides with the wall at the back of the cargo bay. Metal ricochets off metal, heat singes my skin. Everything goes quiet.

I lay there on the floor looking up at the ceiling above me, very aware that several bones in my body are broken. Vax’s voice is in the distance somewhere, but it sounds muddy and my vision is all watery.

I try to lift my head to find him, but there’s a pain screaming down my spine that says no. It’s agony, and I realize it’s bad because even adrenaline can’t cover it. Still. We made it. We really made it.

A broad silhouette breaks the harsh white lights overhead and I squint as muffled voices bubble in my ear. I want to stay awake and find Vax, but the pain is too much to bear, and I can already feel my body crashing. A quick rest will help maybe. My eyes pull down like lead weights and I fall into weightlessness.

Everything goes dark.