In the last section of Loeta's chapter, she got herself settled into her new home on Jex. While wandering the streets she came across Fainter and Charder working on their speeder and asked them if they had any work going. Knowing that she wanted to learn how to fly. They let her come aboard and the three of them took off in the speeder.
Here's the first part of her chapter if you want to catch up fully without the recap.
@killerwot/new-life-part-1
The speeder took off into the sky and it was the fastest vehicle Loeta had ever been aboard. The seat she was in had a windshield, which helped to keep the wind from her face. But, it didn't stop it, altogether. Her hair was blowing wildly, she tried to tie it up. The G-force was too powerful though, so she was unable to keep her hands raised enough to do anything about her hair.
The driver, Charder, ducked and weaved through the cityscape. Buildings were flying past them so fast that all she could make out were blurs. Every time the speeder banked left or right, she felt as if she would fall from her seat to the ground far below. She loved every second of it.
Looking over she could see Charder's face was frozen, looking straight ahead with a look of pure concentration. Beyond Charder, Fainter whooped and laughed with each near miss. Not that Loeta could hear anything over the wind, which had become white noise at this stage.
The ship slowed to a bare hover and Loeta looked over at Charder who glanced over to her. "Want us to let you off?" He asked with a grin. Leota couldn't really hear the words, but, could make out his lips and assumed that's what he said. "No! Keep going!" Leota shouted while banding the site of her seat with a closed fist.
Without warning the speeder sped up once more, this time almost faster than before. If that were even possible. Charder was careful to avoid the buildings, but looking forward Leota noticed that he was aiming the nose of the speeder downward. Dodging other slower ships and speeders as he did. Now in the midst of other transporters, the speed of their ship made Loeta's adrenaline peak. Her hands were shaking but, she felt calm and at peace with herself and the situation she found herself in.
Looking over at Fainter, Loeta could see that his initial excitement had changed and even he was looking a bit worried. She wondered whether she should be worried now too? Regardless though, she wasn't able to muster up any emotion, negative or otherwise.
Without warning a bullet whizzed past Loeta's head, then another. She turned around, seeing a heavily armoured vehicle behind them. It continued to fire blindly. She saw Charder making a sporadic movement, but, couldn't hear what he was saying. Behind him, Fainter held some sort of small, plastic capsule up to his face and seemed to be inhaling. Within a few seconds, Fainter made some adjustments to his seat and swiveled around facing behind them, and began to fire on the ship.
Loeta looked around her seat, there were a few different dials and gears. She grabbed one stick wrenching it back with all her strength and her seat flew backward, she thought the whole side chair was going to come off the main speeder with the force it jolted her back with. Turning one of the dials the seat swiveled backward. But, it didn't lock into position. Each turn the speeder made seemed to leave her seat moving randomly. She gripped the handles of the turret gun and began to fire too, upon the ship which was chasing them down.
Charder did a good job of keeping the ship steady, but it was still almost too fast to aim and be precise while shooting. Fainter waved his arms which Loeta saw out of the corner of her eye. Looking at him, she saw that he was pointing to the front cockpit in front of her seat. Looking down below the gun was a small compartment. Opening it, she saw a few capsules that Fainter had just used. She inspected it for a moment, brown liquid was seeping out of the small housing, the house with the liquid was attached to some sort of mouthpiece. She put it up to her face and emulated the same move she saw Fainter do. But, nothing happened. Instead, she just had a metallic taste in her mouth, which made her almost gag.
Looking back at him with the Capsule in hand, he made a gesture with his free hand in between shots. She did it again. this time, pressing down on the liquids house. A blast of the brown liquid came out in a hazy mist. She inhaled and soon the capsule was empty. Loeta chucked the empty capsule at the ship that was pursuing them and began to laugh. She felt like she was opening her eyes for the first time, everything seemed clear and bright. She could see bullet trails coming from the ship. She was focused like she had never been before and knew what she had to do.
Gripping the handles of the mounted gun, she started firing. She hadn't noticed how jittery the gun was, before. Her whole body moved with each shot of it, but, in a way that made her think that the gun was a part of her. An extension of her arms. The chair continued to swivel each time the ship banked, but, Loeta was able to get a lot of hits on the pursuers each time it steadied. Within what seemed like moments, the pursuing ship went down. Loeta watched it fall from the sky, descending to the ground like a fireball. Exploding on impact. She was sad that the ship was gone because she wanted to keep on shooting at something.
Soon Charder took the speeder down, flying it slowly through some large double doors into a warehouse. Once inside Loeta noticed all of the other ships, which looked similar to the one they were flying in. She noticed too that on the outskirts of the warehouse, there were a lot of spare parts and piles of scrap throughout.
Each of them left the speeder, Loeta felt a bit dizzy when she stood up. "What did you think of that! Wasn't it a rush!" Fainter shouted once he was out of the speeder. "Who were they?" Loeta asked once he finished. "Militia. Peacekeepers, they call themselves. You saw there though, nothing peaceful about them." Charder said. "Yeah, we were just minding our own business and started getting shot at," Fainter added. "Lost a lot of friends to those bastards." He continued on.
Loeta noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. A heavily scarred Trisken, followed by a Gnosian and an even more scarred-up Trisken. "Who's this? Where's Sancta?" "Sancta died on our way there. We got shot up by some Militia petrol, we dodged them but had to land to do some repairs. Then she came up and asked if we had work." Charder responded. Loeta looked at them while they spoke. The Trisken looked over at her and looked her up and down. "We've no need for any more entertainers." He said.
"She helped shoot down one of those armored militia vessels they've been using recently. The thing went down in a cloud of smoke. Wouldn't have made it back here without her." Fainter did his best to paint Loeta in a good light. "That so?" The Trisken asked. "I did what I could." Loeta replied.
"What work were you looking for, exactly?" "I want to learn how to fly and maintain ships." Loeta said. "Well, you're in the right place for that. But, what makes you think you can handle flying one of our speeders?" The Trisken stared intensely at Loeta after he finished speaking. She was dumbstruck and didn't know how to respond to him.
"She didn't piss her pants when I started flying through traffic, so she's probably got a good chance of handling herself in the air." Charder interjected. "We'll see." The Trisken said as he started to walk up to the speeder. Loeta looked to see Charder open a hidden compartment on the underside of the speeder. Each of them started to carry away, armfuls of the capsules Loeta had taken earlier.
Fainter walked to stand beside her. "It's not all fun and games. They're the main reason we're out there flying." He said. "What are they?" "We call them Vits, some people call it Haze. You've seen first hand what it does. It helps keep the mind focused. Which is important when you're flying fast enough to break the sound barrier." Fainter began to laugh as he finished.
"So, you think I have a chance of fitting in around here?" Loeta asked once Fainter had stopped laughing. "You took some Vits, shot down a militia transporter, and aren't afraid of flying fast. You'll fit right in! I can get you sorted out with a room to stay in." "That would be great. I have a place to stay, but, it wouldn't hurt to stick around here for a few days here and there." Loeta said happily. Is this the life I want to get into? Loeta asked herself. She couldn't deny that it was exciting. She liked the people. It was different than anything she had ever known before. Loeta didn't know if that was part of the appeal. But, if she would have to guess, she would imagine it was.
The End
So, ends another chapter of Loeta's. I've been enjoying writing for her and can't wait to continue with her story. But, it's time to get back to one of the other characters. Hope you enjoyed it!
Here's a link to the next chapter in this series. Which is the epilogue to this book. Following Cutter.
A World To Depart (Epilogue) @killerwot/a-world-to-depart-epilogue