Adam slammed the controls forward, thrusters on full burn, cutting like a comet across a field of devastation. Debris whizzed past him on either side coming dangerously close to fracturing his wings, but he rolled and spun his jet in ways no pilot should have been able to, but with the pressure of his hands he coaxed the hunk of metal to life transforming it into a powerful creature of beauty, like a dragon flying at the whim of his command.

Inside his head, the pain and the panic had died to a dull throb at the base of his skull. The frontal cortex of his brain was silent and dead, holding nothing more than the whistling of wind. The flying wasn't a conscious effort, but a deep instinct that went further than his basal brain stem, and further than the very basic neurons in his spinal column.

Like this was the very thing he had always been meant to do.

Ahead of him two tendrils converged in on each other, churning downward to block out the light of the stars, swirling in dark spirals as they tried to grasp and crush him. He cut in a sharp corkscrew passing through the rapidly closing gap and erupting out on the other side. Another tendril burst up to meet him. He screamed in rage thumbing the trigger on the side of the joystick and calling down a hail of fire and an eruption that blew chunks of shadow apart with a ball of light.

More tendrils burst upward from the darkness, until it seemed like Apollyon himself was focusing all his energy on stopping Adam's ship. Weather that was the case or not, he could not stop fighting.

A tendril shot towards him from the left, and he dropped sharply in vertical, forced to spin left as another tendril shot at him from ahead.

They were closing in around him.

There was no way he could make it out.

And then.

Light.

It was gentle, but still powerful, caressing his skin with a fiery gold luminance like the noon day sun. Adam turned his head, just in time to see the form of a man coalesce into existence at his side, running across the field of black in time with the speed of his jet. It was nothing more than a silhouette, marked out by a few simple lines of light and dark to distinguish its features.

And then more light.

He turned to his other side just in time to make out another form running at his other side.

A wolf, or perhaps a dog. It ran with incredible fluid strides, matching the pace of his jet and the man that ran on his left. Its head was low and its ears were back. Its long tail streamed out behind it.

A wall of blackness rose up in front of him.

No way through.

But then the human silhouette drew back its hand, a fiery spear of light appearing between its fingers briefly before it through. For a moment it was nothing more than a streak of blackness to cut through the dark, but when the speartip met blackness, what followed was an explosion of light ripping outward and tearing a hold in the black. With a silent bark or howl, the wolfdog raced forward over a field of stars and leapt before Adam's ship through the rapidly closing hole widening it with another eruption of light.

The human figure spun on the spot, massive hand cutting around behind Adam's ship, and like a man throwing a discuss, Adam was whipped around in a circle so incredibly fast the edges of his vision blackened and faded.

And then the figure let go.

The airframe of his jet screamed at the sudden acceleration, metal bending and warping around him.

Inside his suit fealty went critical as the incredible pressure built up threatening to kill him.

The hole ahead was closing fast.

Adam screamed, forcing blood up into his head to chase away the black.

It took everything in him to hold the ship steady as they rocketed at impossible speed forward.

The black hole moved from miles to yards in a matter of moments closer and closer until, they burst through, passing through the black and the remaining hexagon just as the void shield fuzed shut behind him.

And then their right engine gave out.

He felt it as a pop that rattled the already warped airframe of the fighter.

She would never be skyworthy again.

And she let him know as nearly all the dials and screens on the inside of the fighter lit up critical.

Then they lost the second engine, which blew out with another rumble.

Overhead the canopy cracked under the horrific strain rapidly depressurizing the cockpit.

Together they were brought into a flat spin.

EJECT

EJECT

Fealty commanded inside Adam's helmet, while simultaneous orders appeared on the screens before him.

Their flat spin became more violent, more rapid as they were dove into the necritorium's upper atmosphere.

Fire began to lick at the edges of their ship.

Adam's vision was turning black.

G forces approached 9 gs

Almost ten.

His body felt like it weighed two thousand pounds. Simply lifting a finger seemed impossible, much less pulling the ejection handle, but he had to try. He tried to scream, but his chest was being crushed, but still it served to tighten the muscles of his abdomen and legs, keeping him focused just long enough to reach down and pull the ejection handle.

And then.

FWOOSH.

The canopy was ripped off and tossed away to architect knew where.

He and Krill were thrown violently from the rapidly spinning plane Adam one way and Krill another.

Adam's stomach dropped. He flailed and kicked for a second, spinning and over end with his hands and legs kicking out to either side. He didn't know which way was up or which way was down, the entire world simply kerning into one incomprehensible blur.

He held his legs and arms out to either side.

There wasn't that much air yet, the atmosphere was thin and wind resistance was negligible.

But still he managed to flip over holding his arms out like a skydiver.

Fealty had regained itself as well.

Below them, the jet had broken into fiery chunks.

"Krill!" Adam shouted into his helmet, "Krill"

He looked around, scanning the sky for signs of the doctor, and thought the worst for a moment until he spotted him some distance away and a little below. For a moment Adam feared that the violent ejection had killed him, if he was in his vrul form he certainly would have died long ago, but when he noticed the pronounced kicking and flailing of limbs, he felt himself relax if only a little.

Krill was still caught in a tangled mess of confused limbs, probably panicking.

Adam pinned his arms and legs together, streamlining himself and diving rapidly towards where Krill churned and flailed.

He caught up with the little doctor quickly, latching onto his mech suit like a gecko clinging to a tree, "Krill I'm here, Relax."

They continued to spin, plunging towards earth, fire licked at the edges of their suits as they encountered air resistance at speeds higher than usual terminal velocity. Fealty tracked heat resistance as the exterior heat rapidly climbed

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGG." Was Krill's only reply.

Adam fought against Krill's flailing arms, but the Vrul was like a drowning man, too panicked to listen.

In frustration Adam drew back his fist and punched Krill in the helmet briefly stunning him, "LISTEN TO ME! WE ARE NOT GOING TO DIE!"

At least that seemed to knock some sense into him, "Fuck!"

At least his words were coherent now.

"Hands out to either side, legs spread eagle and face down, you spin upright and fire jetpack on my orders.

"I'm not a soldier!" Krill protested.

"Than you shouldn't have signed up for the war!" Adam shouted.

Krill went quiet, and Adam rapidly spun himself in a small circle, still clinging to the front of krill's mech, he flipped them over so krill was facing down and Adam was facing up, falling interlocked together for the time being.

Gripping onto Kril's suit, Adam pulled him closer, resting the forehead of his helmet against the forehead of Kril's helmet as wind whipped past them. He allowed his mirrored visor to retract, so Krill could see his face through the visor, "I swear to you, we are going to make it through this. You me, all of us.: He was shouting over the roaring of the wind, which was still deafening even through the padding of his suit. He gripped Krill's arm tighter.

"That a promise you think you can make?"

"When have I ever let you down?"

There was silence for a long moment, except for the roaring wind.

"You've always wanted to say that, haven't you?"

Adam grinned and let go, spinning back around so he and Krill were falling together side by side.