"Get ready," Cissel shouted, her body tensing like a coiled spring. "I'm going out now. I'll attract their attention outside the walls to force them into a low-altitude dive. You stay in the shadow of the towers, wait for your opening, and make sure to hit them hard! Don't miss a single bastard of them."
Her shout was followed immediately by a massive leap off the high walls. Seeing her plunge into the open kill zone without a shred of hesitation crushed the last remaining thread of doubt and fear inside Luke's heart. He watched, breathless, as she became the focal point of the mechanical swarm's wrath.
Cissel landed gracefully, rolling several times across the soil to minimise the impact of the fall. The moment she stabilised, she snapped her head upward. Her gamble had worked; the high-altitude sensors of the fifty drones had pivoted as one, locking onto the only mobile life sign in the area.
*Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*
