At the precise moment
that Merri and Malena came under fire Shiyne sat bolt upright and gasped
“I’ve found them,
they’re on the surface and they’re in danger”
“Do you know where?”
Zerrad asked, as he had not been able to establish comms
“Not yet” she replied
and closed her eyes and tried to get a fix.
Lyris, who had been
scanning for the pod in space to no avail, stopped what he was doing when
Shiyne spoke, but now didn’t know what to do, and then Asti shouted
“I’ve got it”
“Got what?” he asked
“The transponder
signal” she replied, “it’s in the southern hemisphere”
“Co-ordinates?” he
barked
“On your screen…. Now”
she said and sat back and gave a smug sigh
“Great, now I can do
what I do best” he said and changed course towards the southern hemisphere.
The Laser fire missed
them by some distance which was probably as a result of the tremor, they didn’t
stand around to debate it though and decided the best course of action was to
leave the clearing ASAP.
Merri reached the
trees as another volley of Laser fire came their way, and they were closer than
the first shots, in fact one struck the tree a foot to her left.
Once in the depths of
the wood they didn’t present such an inviting target, which was good but she
became separated from Malena, and that was bad, as they had no working comms.
After thirty minutes
she could hear her pursuers giving chase and she was tiring so they were
closing in on her.
Merri could hear them
behind her clearer and clearer, yard by yard, calling loudly to each other as
they crashed through the forest.
She was beginning to
panic as she had lost her bearings and although she had been running for half
an hour she had no idea what direction she had been running in, but then ahead
of her there was the sound of rushing water.
It was a warm day and
she was sweating profusely with the exertion as she reached a wide fast flowing
stream.
She moved upstream
about 20 yards until he found an easier place to cross but she couldn’t dwell
to long as the “Lost Boys” were hot on her heels.
“This way” she heard
one of her pursuers call when she was half way across the stream and then she
lost her footing and ended up knee deep in cool water so she waded to the other
side and clambered out, a few minutes later she paused briefly by a great oak.
“Oiy” a voice called
in a hoarse whisper
She looked around but
could see nothing and so prepared to run again
“Up hear” the hoarse
whispering voice said
She looked up and
could see nothing above her but the canopy.
“Here” the voice
repeated
And then she saw her,
it was the unmistakable smiling olive-skinned face of Malena looking down at
her and she threw down a rope, from the survival kit.
“Quick” she urged, so
Merri grabbed the rope and quickly climbed up it, and once she had safely made
it she hugged her friend and Malena quickly pulled the rope back up again.
“Thank you” she said
and settled down in the hollow crook between the oak boughs.
“Hush” Malena retorted
and settled down beside her and they sat in silence with their lasers drawn as
their pursuers were crossing the stream and by the commotion and the cursing it
was obvious than more than one of them had fallen into the water as Merri had
done.
A lot of cursing
followed along with pledges to make sure she paid in pain for their
discomfiture.
“They came this way”
one of them called
“They’re very
persistent” Merri whispered
“They must be after
your stylish boots” Malena retorted and Merri giggled
“Hush” she said and
giggled too
“I have the
transponder pin pointed” Asti said and added “But that only tells us where the
pod landed, it doesn’t tell us where they are”
“This is a recent
image of that sector” Zerrad said and they all stopped what they were doing and
studied the map, apart from Shiyne who was sitting with her back to them with
her eyes shut and after a few minutes Lyris said and pointed
“If it were me I’d go
this way”
“Cliffs” Shiyne said
abruptly
“What was that?” Asti
asked
“Cliffs” She repeated,
her body was rigidly stiff and her head was shaking,
“That’s where they are
going, to the cliffs” she almost shouted out the last word and then all the
colour drained form her cerise coloured face and she collapsed back into her
chair unconscious
“Shiyne!” Asti called
and rushed over to her
“Terrell, come to the
flight deck, its Shiyne” Lyris urged
The “Lost Boys”
blundered about in the woods around them for another hour searching for them,
until darkness began to fall and they wandered off back the way they came.
They crossed the falls
again on their return and there were more splashes and curses.
They waited until the
voices faded away and when they couldn’t hear them anymore Merri got up to
leave.
“No not yet” Malena
said, “wait for your eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness”
Merri thought for a
moment and realizing the logic of her words she sat down again.
“Well my eyes are now
accustomed to the dark, and I still can’t see a bloody thing” Merri said as she
looked down from their hiding place
“I know, I think we
should stay put until morning” Malena said, “We’re quite near the pole so the
nights are very short here”
It may have been a
short night but the frequency of tremors made it seem much longer and neither
of them got any sleep to speak of.
So, when dawn came
they were eager to make an early start and reach the cliffs as so as possible.
They had planned to
stay in the safety of the tree tops rather than risk the forest floor again but
the tremors that had plagued them all night continued to hamper them by day and
they both had near misses when the bough they were on shook so violently they
were almost thrown to the ground.
Once they had climbed
down to terra firma they weren’t much safer, as the risk of falling had been
replaced by the risk of things falling on them as the tremors grew in
intensity.
They were ten yards
from the bottom of the cliffs when the shooting started again thankfully their
aim was no better than it had been the day before and this time the two of them
returned fire and in the ensuing exchange Malena killed one and Merri severely
wounded the other.
But they knew that
they would be reinforced sooner rather than later.
They both looked at
the cliffs, and although it was not a steep climb they would be very exposed on
the ascent and would be sitting ducks for the “Lost Boys”
While they were
considering their next course of action they suffered the biggest tremor since
they had been on the planet.
It was stronger,
longer and deeper and tree after tree was felled and even the cliffs slipped
and slid.
All Merri and Malena
could do was hold onto each other until it was over.
When it had finished
they looked around and saw that not only had the quake not killed them it had
thrown them a lifeline.
A large Mangium teak
had been toppled, but the 100-foot monster had not fallen to the forest floor
as many of its kin had, it had come to rest against the cliffs and provided
them a more surefooted route to the top while offering them some cover at the
same time.
“Let’s use the tree”
Merri suggested and set off at a run and Malena was right behind her.
The Mangium Teak was
of substantial size and the trunk was more the fifty feet across so getting
onto the trunk was their first challenge which was finally achieved by
scrambling up the exposed roots until they were standing upright on the trunk
of the fallen tree and then they immediately started running again and they
managed to proceed halfway up its length before the shooting started again.
But the marksmanship
was no better than it had been earlier and so they didn’t break their stride
until one shot took the heel off her left boot and she almost fell, and she
would have done too if Malena hadn’t grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to
safety behind a large bough.
They both sat down to
catch their breath and then Merri saw the damage to her favourite boots.
“Bastards” she yelled
and opened fire
Merri’s shooting was
much more accurate than her adversaries and she hit two in her first few
bursts.
By that time there
were about ten “Lost Boys” shooting at them but they were all much the same
standard, but they could see more approaching and they couldn’t hold them all
off, so they had to start creeping upwards from bough to bough, but they
couldn’t shoot again as it would have given away their position.
Fortunately, the
further up the trunk they went the denser the foliage became, but the fact that
they couldn’t be seen didn’t prevent their pursuers from taking pot shots, some
of which were uncomfortably close, but it got worse once the “Lost Boys” joined
them on the tree and then they had to return fire which gave away their
position to everyone.
But thankfully their
aim didn’t improve so they managed to cautiously fight their way to the cliff
top but the posse chasing them was still swelling and no matter how many of
them they killed they just kept coming and the fuel cells on their Lasers
weren’t going to last forever.
“I’ve got an idea” Merri
said, “But it means sacrificing one of the Lasers”
“I don’t think we have
many options” Malena said
They compared power
levels on the two lasers and it was Merri’s that had the most depleted fuel
cell.
“Cover me” Merri said
and crept back among the foliage and along the trunk and crawled her way about
twenty feet along its length and about ten feet from the Cliff edge.
She carefully placed
the Laser in a spot where it would be most effective as well as being visible
to Malena.
Once Merri had crawled
back to where Malena was hiding she nodded to her friend and Malena fired at
the Laser and it instantly exploded sending a shower of debris over the girls
and the tree to the bottom of the cliff, taking the “Lost Boys” with it.
“Well that should slow
them down a bit” Merri said, “Come on”
And they ran up the
exposed slope of the cliff before the dust settled and concealed themselves
behind a rocky outcrop.
“Ok try the comms”
Merri instructed and Malena immediately complied but to no avail.
“Nothing” she said
“There’s nothing
coming back at all?” Merri asked
“No, I mean there’s
nothing going out” Malena said and shrugged off her backpack and when she had
it in front of her she sighed
“And that’s why” she
said and pointed to a blacked patch around a jagged hole
“I can’t believe it
not one of them can shoot for shit and they manage to take out the comms” Merri
said in disbelief just at the precise moment the first on the “Lost Boys”
appeared over the brow of the ridge
“Oh shit” Merri
exclaimed
“So, what do we do
now?” Malena asked
“I don’t know but if
you’ve got any suggestions I’m listening” she replied
“We could try praying”
Malena suggested
“Do you think that
will help?” She asked
“Well it won’t hurt”
Malena said
“That’s true, so what
would you pray for?” the Captain asked
“For the Tornado to
appear and make light work of that lot”
“That’s a good prayer”
Merri said, “but in the meantime, can you shoot someone”
“No problem” Malena
said, took aim and fired at the closest target and pulled the trigger and ten
Lost Boys fell to the ground and Malena and Merri looked at each other in
surprise, then they heard the roar of engines as the Tornado appeared above
them, with the ramp down, the deadly accurate salvo was courtesy of the
forward-facing twin Pulsar Lasers supplemented by Zerrad, Parse, and Pulsat
firing from the ramp.
“I love the power of
prayer” Merri said
Lyris was in the left
seat and by using every ounce of his skill and with the Tornado’s four vertical
take-off jumper engines engaged, he hovered the Tempest class freighter a few
feet off the ground while still laying down a field of fire.
“As lovely as it’s
been, it’s time we took our leave”
Merri said
“I couldn’t agree more”
Malena agreed and the two of them made a run for it.
The Laser fire from
the Tornado intensified as they crossed the twenty yards of open ground and
clambered up onto the ramp.
“We have them” Zerrad
said “Get us out of here”
Parse and Zerrad
continued to fire as Pulsat raised the ramp and Malena added to the fire power
and then their targets disappeared as the Tornado headed for space.
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