She shoots a look back at him, optics flaring bright golden for a moment, and just maybe one can imagine the grin that might lie behind them. Then her attention’s all ahead, and there’s a happy chuckle from her vocalizer as she fires the drives and brings their nose up hard.

The buildings ahead of them drop from view, their entire field of vision filling with sky and the two lean dark shapes above them. They’re accelerating against gravity, pushing the cabin’s occupants backward as the compensators lag in keeping up with their maneuver. Almost absent-mindedly the Exo reaches up for a handhold, wedging her feet against the chair’s mounting. The ship is rattling around them, prompting Ghost to hover nervously over the controls at Blaze’s side.

The two skiffs they’re aiming to bolt between are already swinging about. Blaze adjusts their course, keeps a steady optic on the screen. The skiffs cross their forward cannons’ fire as they spin, trying to catch the rising jumpship. Too slow. She knows it. Trusts her ship.

They blow between the sluggish dropships, cracking the sky with supersonic velocity. The hull rocks once, twice under cannon rounds. But the engines burn steady, taking them up and out through the clouds.