Free Marauder Aegus by Aya Morningstar

full speed away from me.
    I run as fast as I can under the numbing haze of the darts. I leap toward the spider-dog, but it dodges me.
    I roll through the mud as it scurries farther away. “No! Get up!” I tell myself.
    Back on all fours, I chase after it, but I realize it’s moving in a wide circle now. It must be at the maximum range for controlling the flyer, and it can no longer run straight away from me.
    I predict its circular path, and am able to successfully cut it off. I spare a glance backward and see the flyer approaching the tree–approaching Anya.
    Using all of my energy for one last burst of speed, I leap directly into the spider-dog. I go straight for its heart and tear out its power-cell.
    I look back and see the flyer plummet to the ground and break to pieces. I let out a sigh of relief, but waste no time in running back to Anya.
    I shift to Marauder form at the tree trunk and leap against the bark. The haze is thickening, but I scale the twenty meters in less than thirty seconds.
    “Anya!” I shout.
    I see her, and her eyelids are drooping. There’s a dart in her neck. I panic. No!
    I’m nearly on her, but suddenly her body goes limp and begins to slide off the branch. I won’t reach her in time.
    I jump off the tree trunk just as her unconscious body drops from the branch. I grab hold of her in mid-air, and we finish free falling together.
    I flex my body, forcing myself to be positioned beneath her to break her fall. I hit the ground hard, but I hold her up, absorbing the impact for her.
    The force of the fall knocks the air from my lungs, and sharp branches cut and dig into my skin, but I feel Anya breathing in my arms and against my chest.
    Thank the Seraphim–she lives.
    But the soldiers must be close behind us, so I shake her gently and call her name. She doesn’t wake up.
    I remove the dart from her neck, but I know the tranquilizer is already circulating in her blood. It may be hours before she can wake up.
    I hoist her body over my shoulder and start to move at a swift pace deeper into the jungle.
    I can’t move as fast as before, as the tranquilizer has numbed me and hindered my coordination. It’s a struggle to get and maintain my footing against the thick foliage, and if I move any faster, I risk falling over and dropping Anya.
    After trudging through the vegetation and undergrowth for twenty minutes, I catch the first scent of human males. It’s coming from behind us.
    I try to push myself to move faster, but hunger tears at me.
    Soon I can hear the Imperial soldiers’ awkward footsteps plodding through the jungle, and I know that I will have no option but to make a stand and fight.
    I continue moving for now, but I search out straight, sturdy branches as I go. I gather as many branches as I can find, holding them in my free hand, while I clutch to Anya’s warm and soft body with my other.
    I start to look for a position to fortify, and soon I reach a raised ridge. The ridge forms a rough convex semi-circle, so that when I look up at it, it’s surrounding me on all sides.
    This is the spot.
    The ridge extends beyond the maximum range of my vision in either direction, which will be good once I am up on the ridge, but for now it means I’ll need to scale it while holding Anya
    I have to leave the thick, heavy branches I’ve gathered at the bottom of the ridge–for now–and I begin to scale the ridge with one hand and two legs. Through the drowsiness, hunger, and exhaustion, my body aches as I climb, gripping to roots and rock as I go, but I push on. If I fall or give up, Anya is as good as dead.
    I reach the top of the ridge out of breath, sweat-soaked and panting, and I place Anya against a tree. I prop her head against the trunk of a tree and begin descending the ridge to gather my branches.
    I expect the climb to be easier without Anya, but my body is so spent that it almost feels more difficult on the way back up–the branches seem to weigh even more than Anya.
    I barely