Pendragon's voice comes over the comms:

"— worm just fucking ate Starfist, trying to hold them off but there's fucking four of them—"

The transmission cuts off with a frustrated FUCK.

"If you two got the target get in the air!", the site commander says rapidly. "You don't need to deal with the other worms! Stand by for further instruction!"

Then she tries to think. The dungeon isn't collapsing so target 2 wasn't the core. 

But targets 3 and 4 are really far apart from each other - can Skybreaker get Rhombus across the dungeon - Can they get a teleporter in here in time - are there other options -

Starfist is dead. 

Starfist is dead and because he's dead Arrakis might get away, it's going to start trying to leave any minute now, Flay can destroy dungeon cores the same way she can destroy anything else she can hold but she can't do it quickly, there's no time,

...No. No it won't. 

She lets go of Traceless's arm and slides it into the sleeve of her suit that's currently sitting unworn on her lap.

Her voice on the comms is crisp and professional. "Flay, Pendragon, if you two can get to and surface target 4, I'll destroy the core. Menhir will have to take over tracking."

"I can take over," Menhir confirms. 

"Do you need me along to do this safely without Seo Tae-Hwan?"

Headshake. "Don't think I can get us both there in time." She finishes sealing her suit - 

And then she's gone, flying through the air and heading northeast. 

"Flay, Pendragon, Flywheel is on her way to target four to handle core elimination. Do you copy?"

Transmission from Flay

COPY ST2 EN ROUTE TO TARGET 4 RENDEZVOUS FLYWHEEL 

Transmission from Flay

BL BAD MAY ABUSE MORSE COMM LINE BEFORE REGROUP BUT NOT SOON CUT ME OFF IF NEEDED

Her group has a longer distance to travel to get to target 3 then Flay's does to get to the last one. It's more time to think.

She doesn't want to use it for that. She wants this thing dead.

"Acknowledged, Flay, will monitor comms and cut you off if needed."

Flywheel, still in the air from her first hop, navigates the comm interface to start a short private call with Traceless. "I need you tell me now to turn off my wideband comms when my backlash goes above a 6." (She's already configured it to auto-accept private calls from him - they talked about it, after getting the helmet briefing.)

...just in case nobody gets to overhear this from through his headgear either - "Turn -" does order matter - "- uh, when your backlash goes above 6 turn off your wideband comms. Anything else?"

"Not that I'm thinking of. ...Thanks." 

"Of course."

Flywheel looks at the map, blinking dots confirming what she'd already suspected would be true, and sighs to herself.

Back to the main call, then.

"Taking a shortcut," she says idly, so they don't get alarmed at her telemetry shifts.

She tucks away her velocity and hits the ground jogging. (No sense in getting winded.)

They've got no idea what that means but apparently the slowdown is ???planned???

Using her power efficiently is all about spotting and taking advantage of opportunities. Figuring out how to get close to whatever she needs to use it on. Finding the right things to take energy from. Getting them to move the way she wants them to. It can be tricky, and it's taken her a lot of practice.

Sometimes, though, it's as easy as travelling on foot in a straight line.

HELLO NAUGHTY ESPER IT IS WORMS TIME!!!

She feels it coming and stops, flickering her sensory power on and off as she waits for it to approach.

Three... two... 

CHOM-

One...

Aaand she's as close to its center of mass as she can get without generating more backlash than getting closer would save.

Now.

The worm is was moving pretty fast, and she's very small.

-MP!!!

One moment its mouth is closing around her.

In the next, it bites into only air and sand.

...?Where? ?Snack?

"Intercepting target 4; ETA 3 minutes," Flywheel reports, her voice somewhat stilted. (She's flying with her feet pointed forward - she's not immune to air resistance, and she's going fast enough that it matters quite a bit.)