The Tornado Sojourns (2) – Chapter 06 – Hostile Territory

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.