How about seconds?
Ah, the middle chapter of the trilogy…
Will it be the weakest link, or will it attain “Empire” status? Only time and the legions of my devoted fans (which would be… me, although I’m frankly not that devoted and will probably wait for the DVD) will tell.
CONFRONTATION>
Part 2 of 3
“Here we go. Both signals locked at one site.” Ocelot lightly tapped the LCD monitor absently before punching up the city map. Kiyagi looked over her shoulder. They had set up a temporary ops base in an abandoned bus depot just outside of Caracas.
“Do we have a precise location? We can’t plan the insertion without layout information.”
“Gracias, Mr. Genius. I’m working on it. This is the industrial sector just east of the city. Enhancing resolution…”
“There they are. The signals are coming from below that long warehouse. Must be a sublevel. Do we have intel for these buildings in the archives?” Kiyagi turned to the Scout, working on a separate module.
“Checking, Señor. One minute, please.”
“Ocelot, if this is an underground complex, it will be a challenge to just walk in. We’ll have to do recon on fortifications, check out entry points, and set up a perimeter.”
“I can do that with the Scout. We can start the assault once the Anaconda Guards make contact. I sent out a request through SELVA1, and they’re en route.”
“You’ll need more help than that for the Interest, Gata. Wait. Where is Mariposa?”
“She’s posting guard. Somewhere outside. You know how she is. After the Valley, she’s probably aching for some human target practice.”
“Well, you’ll need her, of course.” Kiyagi’s brow furrowed. “It still might not be enough. There has to be another way.”
“Relax, puto. You worry too much. We’ll get inside, play it quiet and keep it short, and Flamenca will be back in your lovin’ arms before breakfast.” Ocelot grinned widely at the dirty look she got from him. He opened his mouth for a retort when the map screen flashed. One of the signals was on the move.
“Shit! It’s Bandito. He’s moving away from the complex, toward town.”
“Are they transporting him? Check his biotag readings.”
At this point the Scout broke in. “Señor, the warehouse is vacant in city records. The property is owned by a Colombian shipping corporation.”
“What the hell is the Interest doing operating out of Colombian-owned property?”
“Kiyagi, Bandito’s conscious. He’s moving alone. He might have escaped.”
“Finally, a stroke of luck. Trigger his hormonal navigator. We can bring him back, check him out, and he might be able to get us around their defenses.”
“No response. There’s no reaction from him at all. You can see him onscreen now.”
They could barely see the Junglefreak loping down streets. Periodically he would flash out of sight for an instant and reappear a block away. They triggered his homing signal through his biotag again, but there was no reaction at all.
“Is it possible he doesn’t feel it?” Ocelot looked questioningly at Kiyagi.
“No chance. He’d have to be dead not to respond. He’s ignoring it. It’s like he’s overriding his behavior norms.”
They sat in silence for a moment, then looked at each other in horror. Kiyagi spoke first.
“How long has he been in Interest custody?”
“About 8 horas, as far as we know. But how could they wash and rewire him that fast?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know of any tech that lets you work that quickly. But if they have something we’re not aware of…”
“Dios mio. If he’s become a tool, we’ll have to switch our strategy.”
“NO! This is our window. They will be watching him if they can, and we can slip in and retrieve Flamenca undetected.”
“Kiyagi, this is Bandito we’re talking about. If he is rogue, you of all people know…”
“His behavior started this whole mess! We need to get Flamenca back, then we can work out how to go after Bandito. We need the Doctor’s help. We can’t do it otherwise.”
“Curare will find us when his business in the Valley is complete. I don’t want to hear your complaints, cabron. If we don’t shift our attention to Bandito completely, we need someone to track him and keep tabs. He’s a danger now, whether you want to admit it or not.”
There was a soft noise behind them, and they turned. Mariposa stood in the doorway, watching and listening. She bowed swiftly and turned, slipping out the door without a sound.
“Well, I guess she’s on that,” Ocelot said as she managed a smile. Kiyagi was not as amused.
“We’re spread too thin on this one. You’ll need better resources for storming that castle. There must be another way.”
“Stay here on the coms. Coordinate the attack and send the reinforcements. We need you as the eyes and ears. I’m going in after your novia.”
“This isn’t about pride. You’ll get yourself killed, Ocelot.”
“Haven’t you heard? Nueve vidas!” With a wink, she strode out the door followed by the Scout.
Kiyagi stepped to the window and watched the Jaguar Assassin lift off in the Aztechnology pod, employing the stealthtech to travel unseen through the Caracas streets. She was brave. She was skilled. She was stubborn. It would not be enough. The plan was to maintain radio silence until she reached the compound and could establish a ground satlink. It would take at least 45 minutes of travel time and hardware setup. The backup Guards would take at least as long. Plenty of time to extract the tag, set the satellite relay bug, and get airborne...
Kiyagi drew an ornate Toltec knife, encrusted in gems and with a rune-enscribed obsidian blade. It was one of the finest blade weapons he had ever seen, and Doctor Curare had given it to him as a gift when he assumed command of the Anaconda Guard. Keep it always by your side, he had said. It will bring you luck, my friend. Use it well. Kiyagi gazed at the artistry of the blade and the handle for a few moments, a faint smile playing across his face. Then he spun the blade in his hand and drove it hard into his left shoulder, gritting his teeth against the pain.
______________________________________
Roland Muldoon pressed himself against the gate wall and stayed perfectly still as a pair of ceratosaurs stomped past, their snorting exhalations clearly audible. He slipped into the Colony behind the predators and ran down a side alley. Did the Colonists know of the Weeping? He heard the sounds of chaos and fighting from the neighboring streets, and moved a block away. He would be useless without decent weapons and some form of communication. He ran to a nearby Patrol Office. The building was dark and a few of the windows were shattered. He climbed in and moved through the deserted hallways to the rear of the building, where the armory was. A few of the office doors had been knocked off their hinges, and he thought he saw a body across one of the desks. He passed through the armory doors and saw that nearly all of the weapons had been cleared out. Christ, he thought. That’ll mean a lot of dead dinos for the Weeping to feed on. He shuddered involuntarily at the thought.
Muldoon finally found a pulse rifle and two dart pistols. With these and a long hunting knife, he turned to leave. The phone lines were dead, but there would be radios in the neighboring rooms. He heard hissing as he walked out of the armory and froze, his hand lowering to the knife. A troodon was sprinting at him from an open door and leapt into the air. Reacting on pure instinct, Muldoon shifted his body weight and grabbed the animal around the neck. He turned with the animal’s momentum and slammed it against the metal grating of the armory door, knocking it unconscious. The troodon slumped to the floor and Muldoon walked away.
“Couldn’t use my knife on you, little guy. I’ll save it for the big fellas if I have to.”
Roland Muldoon walked out of the Patrol Office and ran down a deserted street. He watched the shadows and listened carefully for close noises above the distant commotion. The urban jungle indeed. Christ. He worked his way around the fringe of a heated battle between a group of embattled Wuxia knights and swarming pterosaurs. It would have been fascinating to watch under different circumstances. In a poorly-lit alley, he almost trudged through a deep puddle before he saw the edge of the murky substance extending toward him, a solid sheet of oozing liquid splitting into amoeboid pseudopodia.
“Fucking hell.”
It certainly answered his questions about whether the Weeping had reached the Colony. But did anyone know? He had to reach the High Council to let them know. He would ask if anyone there had heard what had become of his daughter. He ran back around the building, away from the flowing sludge, and took a different street. He figured it might be the wise choice. It was alarming that the Weeping had begun seeking out living and healthy victims, because it meant that it had grown considerably in power over the past few hours.
Muldoon navigated through the labyrinthine streets of the Colony, working his way toward the Grand Chamber and avoiding the sounds of battle. He reached a familiar intersection at last. It was one of several in the Colony where six different streets joined. It seemed completely deserted, and he started jogging across when a bellowing to the side stopped him in his tracks. He glanced and saw a large ankylosaur emerging from an alley, totally blocking the route. Muldoon thought for a brief moment about how strange it was, as if the animal had been guarding the intersection…
From all sides, animal calls and heavy footsteps could be heard. It was obvious to Muldoon that he had chosen the wrong intersection to venture across, and he turned back. A grunting Stygimoloch cut off his escape route and pawed the ground, lowering its thickly crowned head with the fearsome circle of rows before it charged. Muldoon ran to the side, unshouldering his pulse rifle, as the animal broke into a sprint. He fired off-balance at the animal and saw a large stegosaur appear in the street he had picked. Veering hard to the right, the charging animal hard on his heels, he leapt into the air and grabbed the bottom rung of a fire escape ladder. He pulled himself up with one hand as he spun around and fired almost point-blank at the bellowing animal. It hit the ground twitching. Dinosaurs started to emerge out of every street, moving toward him. A gigantic head poked around the corner of the building he was hanging from and roared, the sound terrifying at such close range. Why is it always a bloody tyrannosaur? Muldoon thought absently as he slung the rifle over his shoulder once more and climbed swiftly.
By the time the animal had moved around the side of the building, Muldoon was on the first landing. He moved against the shadows of the building as the huge predator nosed the fire escape and tried to locate him. It huffed in frustration and ducked again, seeking his trail. Other dinosaurs moved in under the fire escape, searching for him with no fear of the giant. The tyrannosaur lumbered around the opposite side of the building, returning to the main entrance to wait. Muldoon was remarkably calm for being in such a predicament. He wasn’t sure why he felt so calm. Being out of sight above the animals, he felt his confidence level rise. He would get out of this, just as he had gotten out of everything else…
The window behind him shattered as a Struthiomimus threw itself through it. Muldoon and the animal tussled to the edge of the landing, where he used brute force and his low center of gravity to trip it up and shove it over the railing. On its way over it caught the rifle strap. Before he could react, Muldoon was dragged over the edge. He tried to catch the steel railing but slipped, the weight of the animal dragging him down. The body of the dinosaur broke his fall somewhat, but a shooting pain went through his knee. The other dinosaurs were all around him suddenly and Muldoon closed his eyes. All he could hear was growling and snapping jaws and an almost deafening whirring sound that grew and grew and grew. The animals around him yelped and roared as they turned from their intended victim to face the commotion. Muldoon opened his eyes a crack and saw a giant shape descend to the ground, lightning bolts of energy flying from it. Tarsala had arrived.
The giant blattoid landed on the ground and folded its wings. The dinosaurs rushed toward it as chitinous biowands slid into its foreclaws and mesoclaws. A multifrequency vibratory shriek erupted from Tarsala’s oral palps as powerful spells were cast by each of the four wands simultaneously. Writhing ropes of sparking plasm tied down a bellowing stegosaur as it advanced, tail swishing back and forth. A hovering ball of lightning shot out of a second wand and rose above a cluster of dinosaurs. It flashed once, and the animals cast strong shadows on the ground as they grunted and shook their heads. A second burst of energy came as an force wave, and the animals were knocked onto their own shadows. The shadows themselves sprang to life, creeping over the creatures and pinning them to the ground. Two swiftly running megaraptors came at Tarsala from behind, jaws wide. Without looking, two of the insectoid’s limbs bent at impossible angles to aim behind. With a sharp whistling call, twin invisible energy blasts erupted from the wands and the two animals were flung backwards, spinning like tops, until they struck a brick wall hard and fell unconscious.
Roland Muldoon took out his dart pistols and made his way to relative safety. It was amazing to watch Tarsala in combat. Muldoon picked off a few stragglers to make the insectoid’s job easier, but the creature was handling itself well. Other mages joined in the fray and soon the dinosaurs were being driven back. Muldoon felt a tugging at his arm and turned.
“We have to go, Dad.”
“Alita! I was going to look for you.”
“You were not hard to find. To your own daughter, you are a predictable old bugger.”
“Fair enough. Listen, we have to warn the High Council that the Weeping…”
“Yes, they know. And that’s why we have to go. NOW.”
A building along the edge of the intersection collapsed as a flood of oozing putrescence spilled out onto the street. Alita and Roland Muldoon sprinted towards an open street, the dinosaurs finally clearing out. Tarsala wheeled and used all four biowands to lace a force net between two opposite buildings. The Weeping struck the barrier and could not immediately pass through, but began to eat away at the fibers. The insectoid and the other mages worked furiously now, trying to drive the dinosaurs out without knocking them unconscious, tying them down, or otherwise leaving them to be devoured by the Dark Nemesis. Roland Muldoon and his daughter took one last look at the brave defenders of the Colony, then ran to find safety and someplace where they might prove helpful.
______________________________________
Ocelot and the Scout worked quickly, moving around the perimeter of the vacant warehouse. The Scout had found an entrance portal in one of the corners of the warehouse, guarded by motion detectors. Disabling them would not be difficult, but backup alarm systems would be difficult to predict. Ocelot had been working on finding out a second entrance in a different building while avoiding the strategically positioned cameras along the walls and even protruding from the pavement. She needed an overhead shot and building schematics; she wanted a plan ready for when the Guards arrived to complete insertion by daybreak.
But she had not been able to contact Kiyagi. Interference, she thought with a scowl. He had said it might be a factor. At any rate, he wasn’t responding to her hailing. She checked his biotag position readout. He was still in the temp command center. Or at least somewhere in the depot. The biotag locators were not as precise as she wanted, and this was going to be a major issue for the insertion and recovery mission.
Ocelot and the Scout began setting up the mobile satellite beacons. Kiyagi had been reluctant to use this strategy because of the imprecise nature of the locators, but Ocelot was certain it would be their ace in the hole. She still had the hardware necessary for the field satlink, and the beacons would give a rough perimeter. With a little luck, she could get the whole compound up on the sat grids and bring one of the Fuego units into range within an hour. Once Flamenca was isolated in the grid, the laser track would be able to fry up everything around her. That would help balance the numbers and give them a chance. But it was risky. Her exact position would have to be verified in order to fire the satellite laser without concern for her safety. Ground-truthing. That was going to be difficult. Ocelot began checking her weapons and limbering up.
______________________________________
At the entrance of the Snowflake Gate, three guards and a mage stood watching the distant sights and sounds of the battle. Lady Devereaux had given them strict orders to be stationed at the Gate and not to move. She had muttered something about “insurance.” Guarding the post had always been assigned to trained dinosaurs, but it seemed the Heroditus Club had reassessed their strategies. The few streets leading to the base of Mount Jennifer where the Snowflake Gate was located were blockaded with whatever was handy at the moment. The guards held high-tensile crossbows with shock-tipped titanium arrows and pulse rifles slung over their shoulders. The mage had evasion gas ampules and a dragonstring wand given to him personally by a Mage Chief, one of Tarsala’s apprentices. Suddenly, the young mage had become an important person in the Colony, and his chest swelled with pride. He was frightened nonetheless, and his heart was beating so loudly in his ears that he didn’t hear the approaching animals at first.
Small groups of dinosaurs had advanced along two of the streets leading to toward the Gate entrance. A crowd of people had gathered to drive them back. A recent High Council decree forbade the use of lethal force against the animals, and it was difficult to hold them back. A trio of Triceratops charged a makeshift blockade of wagons and dumpsters. One of the massive steel dumpsters rolled across the street like a tin can and slammed through the supports of a power column. The massive transformer complex at the top of the column toppled and slammed through the roof of a nearby building. The sparking transformers smashed through three stories before striking the ground floor and exploding outward. A group of fleet-footed Gallimimus dinosaurs were silhouetted against the bright flash as the walls of the building buckled and blew out. Billowing flames spread quickly to the other buildings of the neighborhood as the writhing power lines hit the street. Two stegosaurs and a crowd of Colonists trying to frighten them back simultaneously fell convulsing as the high voltage current flew through the dampened ground.
The guards advanced and shot at the nearest running dinosaurs with their shockbows. The animals ducked and weaved, and only one went down. Two small raptors sprinted directly at the young mage, who hurled down an ampule and vanished in the cloud. He apparated 10 yards away and hit the animals with an immobilization spell. Behind him, an allosaur circled around a crushed hovercraft and approached him. The mage backpedaled and tried to remember a stun spell for a large animal. As the guards and mage were drawn away from the entrance, a small Compsagnathus picked its way through the wreckage and slipped unseen into the entry tunnel. The animal slipped through the winding passages and stopped short of the Snowflake Gate. Along the edge of the massive Snowflake projection, runes and inlaid slivers of the Sunstone glowed with mystical energy. The light emanating from the slivers was dim as the Sunstone’s power was used in the Colony’s defense, and growing dimmer by the moment. The small compy watched the light gradually fade and seemed to grin. It turned and scampered away, exiting the mountain tunnel and running down the side streets. The attacks of the other dinosaurs abruptly stopped and they wandered away from the Gate entrance, leaving the guards and the young mage to gather their nerves and work on removing the wreckage and immobilized animals.
Visibility Rising…
The finale still to come… it’s all so EXCITING!
(Should I tell them that the end of the finale is really just another cliffhanger because this is the Saga that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends…?
Nah. Wouldn’t want to demoralize ‘em. Hey, wait. Ah, CRAP! I’m dictating.)
Will it be the weakest link, or will it attain “Empire” status? Only time and the legions of my devoted fans (which would be… me, although I’m frankly not that devoted and will probably wait for the DVD) will tell.
CONFRONTATION>
Part 2 of 3
“Here we go. Both signals locked at one site.” Ocelot lightly tapped the LCD monitor absently before punching up the city map. Kiyagi looked over her shoulder. They had set up a temporary ops base in an abandoned bus depot just outside of Caracas.
“Do we have a precise location? We can’t plan the insertion without layout information.”
“Gracias, Mr. Genius. I’m working on it. This is the industrial sector just east of the city. Enhancing resolution…”
“There they are. The signals are coming from below that long warehouse. Must be a sublevel. Do we have intel for these buildings in the archives?” Kiyagi turned to the Scout, working on a separate module.
“Checking, Señor. One minute, please.”
“Ocelot, if this is an underground complex, it will be a challenge to just walk in. We’ll have to do recon on fortifications, check out entry points, and set up a perimeter.”
“I can do that with the Scout. We can start the assault once the Anaconda Guards make contact. I sent out a request through SELVA1, and they’re en route.”
“You’ll need more help than that for the Interest, Gata. Wait. Where is Mariposa?”
“She’s posting guard. Somewhere outside. You know how she is. After the Valley, she’s probably aching for some human target practice.”
“Well, you’ll need her, of course.” Kiyagi’s brow furrowed. “It still might not be enough. There has to be another way.”
“Relax, puto. You worry too much. We’ll get inside, play it quiet and keep it short, and Flamenca will be back in your lovin’ arms before breakfast.” Ocelot grinned widely at the dirty look she got from him. He opened his mouth for a retort when the map screen flashed. One of the signals was on the move.
“Shit! It’s Bandito. He’s moving away from the complex, toward town.”
“Are they transporting him? Check his biotag readings.”
At this point the Scout broke in. “Señor, the warehouse is vacant in city records. The property is owned by a Colombian shipping corporation.”
“What the hell is the Interest doing operating out of Colombian-owned property?”
“Kiyagi, Bandito’s conscious. He’s moving alone. He might have escaped.”
“Finally, a stroke of luck. Trigger his hormonal navigator. We can bring him back, check him out, and he might be able to get us around their defenses.”
“No response. There’s no reaction from him at all. You can see him onscreen now.”
They could barely see the Junglefreak loping down streets. Periodically he would flash out of sight for an instant and reappear a block away. They triggered his homing signal through his biotag again, but there was no reaction at all.
“Is it possible he doesn’t feel it?” Ocelot looked questioningly at Kiyagi.
“No chance. He’d have to be dead not to respond. He’s ignoring it. It’s like he’s overriding his behavior norms.”
They sat in silence for a moment, then looked at each other in horror. Kiyagi spoke first.
“How long has he been in Interest custody?”
“About 8 horas, as far as we know. But how could they wash and rewire him that fast?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know of any tech that lets you work that quickly. But if they have something we’re not aware of…”
“Dios mio. If he’s become a tool, we’ll have to switch our strategy.”
“NO! This is our window. They will be watching him if they can, and we can slip in and retrieve Flamenca undetected.”
“Kiyagi, this is Bandito we’re talking about. If he is rogue, you of all people know…”
“His behavior started this whole mess! We need to get Flamenca back, then we can work out how to go after Bandito. We need the Doctor’s help. We can’t do it otherwise.”
“Curare will find us when his business in the Valley is complete. I don’t want to hear your complaints, cabron. If we don’t shift our attention to Bandito completely, we need someone to track him and keep tabs. He’s a danger now, whether you want to admit it or not.”
There was a soft noise behind them, and they turned. Mariposa stood in the doorway, watching and listening. She bowed swiftly and turned, slipping out the door without a sound.
“Well, I guess she’s on that,” Ocelot said as she managed a smile. Kiyagi was not as amused.
“We’re spread too thin on this one. You’ll need better resources for storming that castle. There must be another way.”
“Stay here on the coms. Coordinate the attack and send the reinforcements. We need you as the eyes and ears. I’m going in after your novia.”
“This isn’t about pride. You’ll get yourself killed, Ocelot.”
“Haven’t you heard? Nueve vidas!” With a wink, she strode out the door followed by the Scout.
Kiyagi stepped to the window and watched the Jaguar Assassin lift off in the Aztechnology pod, employing the stealthtech to travel unseen through the Caracas streets. She was brave. She was skilled. She was stubborn. It would not be enough. The plan was to maintain radio silence until she reached the compound and could establish a ground satlink. It would take at least 45 minutes of travel time and hardware setup. The backup Guards would take at least as long. Plenty of time to extract the tag, set the satellite relay bug, and get airborne...
Kiyagi drew an ornate Toltec knife, encrusted in gems and with a rune-enscribed obsidian blade. It was one of the finest blade weapons he had ever seen, and Doctor Curare had given it to him as a gift when he assumed command of the Anaconda Guard. Keep it always by your side, he had said. It will bring you luck, my friend. Use it well. Kiyagi gazed at the artistry of the blade and the handle for a few moments, a faint smile playing across his face. Then he spun the blade in his hand and drove it hard into his left shoulder, gritting his teeth against the pain.
______________________________________
Roland Muldoon pressed himself against the gate wall and stayed perfectly still as a pair of ceratosaurs stomped past, their snorting exhalations clearly audible. He slipped into the Colony behind the predators and ran down a side alley. Did the Colonists know of the Weeping? He heard the sounds of chaos and fighting from the neighboring streets, and moved a block away. He would be useless without decent weapons and some form of communication. He ran to a nearby Patrol Office. The building was dark and a few of the windows were shattered. He climbed in and moved through the deserted hallways to the rear of the building, where the armory was. A few of the office doors had been knocked off their hinges, and he thought he saw a body across one of the desks. He passed through the armory doors and saw that nearly all of the weapons had been cleared out. Christ, he thought. That’ll mean a lot of dead dinos for the Weeping to feed on. He shuddered involuntarily at the thought.
Muldoon finally found a pulse rifle and two dart pistols. With these and a long hunting knife, he turned to leave. The phone lines were dead, but there would be radios in the neighboring rooms. He heard hissing as he walked out of the armory and froze, his hand lowering to the knife. A troodon was sprinting at him from an open door and leapt into the air. Reacting on pure instinct, Muldoon shifted his body weight and grabbed the animal around the neck. He turned with the animal’s momentum and slammed it against the metal grating of the armory door, knocking it unconscious. The troodon slumped to the floor and Muldoon walked away.
“Couldn’t use my knife on you, little guy. I’ll save it for the big fellas if I have to.”
Roland Muldoon walked out of the Patrol Office and ran down a deserted street. He watched the shadows and listened carefully for close noises above the distant commotion. The urban jungle indeed. Christ. He worked his way around the fringe of a heated battle between a group of embattled Wuxia knights and swarming pterosaurs. It would have been fascinating to watch under different circumstances. In a poorly-lit alley, he almost trudged through a deep puddle before he saw the edge of the murky substance extending toward him, a solid sheet of oozing liquid splitting into amoeboid pseudopodia.
“Fucking hell.”
It certainly answered his questions about whether the Weeping had reached the Colony. But did anyone know? He had to reach the High Council to let them know. He would ask if anyone there had heard what had become of his daughter. He ran back around the building, away from the flowing sludge, and took a different street. He figured it might be the wise choice. It was alarming that the Weeping had begun seeking out living and healthy victims, because it meant that it had grown considerably in power over the past few hours.
Muldoon navigated through the labyrinthine streets of the Colony, working his way toward the Grand Chamber and avoiding the sounds of battle. He reached a familiar intersection at last. It was one of several in the Colony where six different streets joined. It seemed completely deserted, and he started jogging across when a bellowing to the side stopped him in his tracks. He glanced and saw a large ankylosaur emerging from an alley, totally blocking the route. Muldoon thought for a brief moment about how strange it was, as if the animal had been guarding the intersection…
From all sides, animal calls and heavy footsteps could be heard. It was obvious to Muldoon that he had chosen the wrong intersection to venture across, and he turned back. A grunting Stygimoloch cut off his escape route and pawed the ground, lowering its thickly crowned head with the fearsome circle of rows before it charged. Muldoon ran to the side, unshouldering his pulse rifle, as the animal broke into a sprint. He fired off-balance at the animal and saw a large stegosaur appear in the street he had picked. Veering hard to the right, the charging animal hard on his heels, he leapt into the air and grabbed the bottom rung of a fire escape ladder. He pulled himself up with one hand as he spun around and fired almost point-blank at the bellowing animal. It hit the ground twitching. Dinosaurs started to emerge out of every street, moving toward him. A gigantic head poked around the corner of the building he was hanging from and roared, the sound terrifying at such close range. Why is it always a bloody tyrannosaur? Muldoon thought absently as he slung the rifle over his shoulder once more and climbed swiftly.
By the time the animal had moved around the side of the building, Muldoon was on the first landing. He moved against the shadows of the building as the huge predator nosed the fire escape and tried to locate him. It huffed in frustration and ducked again, seeking his trail. Other dinosaurs moved in under the fire escape, searching for him with no fear of the giant. The tyrannosaur lumbered around the opposite side of the building, returning to the main entrance to wait. Muldoon was remarkably calm for being in such a predicament. He wasn’t sure why he felt so calm. Being out of sight above the animals, he felt his confidence level rise. He would get out of this, just as he had gotten out of everything else…
The window behind him shattered as a Struthiomimus threw itself through it. Muldoon and the animal tussled to the edge of the landing, where he used brute force and his low center of gravity to trip it up and shove it over the railing. On its way over it caught the rifle strap. Before he could react, Muldoon was dragged over the edge. He tried to catch the steel railing but slipped, the weight of the animal dragging him down. The body of the dinosaur broke his fall somewhat, but a shooting pain went through his knee. The other dinosaurs were all around him suddenly and Muldoon closed his eyes. All he could hear was growling and snapping jaws and an almost deafening whirring sound that grew and grew and grew. The animals around him yelped and roared as they turned from their intended victim to face the commotion. Muldoon opened his eyes a crack and saw a giant shape descend to the ground, lightning bolts of energy flying from it. Tarsala had arrived.
The giant blattoid landed on the ground and folded its wings. The dinosaurs rushed toward it as chitinous biowands slid into its foreclaws and mesoclaws. A multifrequency vibratory shriek erupted from Tarsala’s oral palps as powerful spells were cast by each of the four wands simultaneously. Writhing ropes of sparking plasm tied down a bellowing stegosaur as it advanced, tail swishing back and forth. A hovering ball of lightning shot out of a second wand and rose above a cluster of dinosaurs. It flashed once, and the animals cast strong shadows on the ground as they grunted and shook their heads. A second burst of energy came as an force wave, and the animals were knocked onto their own shadows. The shadows themselves sprang to life, creeping over the creatures and pinning them to the ground. Two swiftly running megaraptors came at Tarsala from behind, jaws wide. Without looking, two of the insectoid’s limbs bent at impossible angles to aim behind. With a sharp whistling call, twin invisible energy blasts erupted from the wands and the two animals were flung backwards, spinning like tops, until they struck a brick wall hard and fell unconscious.
Roland Muldoon took out his dart pistols and made his way to relative safety. It was amazing to watch Tarsala in combat. Muldoon picked off a few stragglers to make the insectoid’s job easier, but the creature was handling itself well. Other mages joined in the fray and soon the dinosaurs were being driven back. Muldoon felt a tugging at his arm and turned.
“We have to go, Dad.”
“Alita! I was going to look for you.”
“You were not hard to find. To your own daughter, you are a predictable old bugger.”
“Fair enough. Listen, we have to warn the High Council that the Weeping…”
“Yes, they know. And that’s why we have to go. NOW.”
A building along the edge of the intersection collapsed as a flood of oozing putrescence spilled out onto the street. Alita and Roland Muldoon sprinted towards an open street, the dinosaurs finally clearing out. Tarsala wheeled and used all four biowands to lace a force net between two opposite buildings. The Weeping struck the barrier and could not immediately pass through, but began to eat away at the fibers. The insectoid and the other mages worked furiously now, trying to drive the dinosaurs out without knocking them unconscious, tying them down, or otherwise leaving them to be devoured by the Dark Nemesis. Roland Muldoon and his daughter took one last look at the brave defenders of the Colony, then ran to find safety and someplace where they might prove helpful.
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Ocelot and the Scout worked quickly, moving around the perimeter of the vacant warehouse. The Scout had found an entrance portal in one of the corners of the warehouse, guarded by motion detectors. Disabling them would not be difficult, but backup alarm systems would be difficult to predict. Ocelot had been working on finding out a second entrance in a different building while avoiding the strategically positioned cameras along the walls and even protruding from the pavement. She needed an overhead shot and building schematics; she wanted a plan ready for when the Guards arrived to complete insertion by daybreak.
But she had not been able to contact Kiyagi. Interference, she thought with a scowl. He had said it might be a factor. At any rate, he wasn’t responding to her hailing. She checked his biotag position readout. He was still in the temp command center. Or at least somewhere in the depot. The biotag locators were not as precise as she wanted, and this was going to be a major issue for the insertion and recovery mission.
Ocelot and the Scout began setting up the mobile satellite beacons. Kiyagi had been reluctant to use this strategy because of the imprecise nature of the locators, but Ocelot was certain it would be their ace in the hole. She still had the hardware necessary for the field satlink, and the beacons would give a rough perimeter. With a little luck, she could get the whole compound up on the sat grids and bring one of the Fuego units into range within an hour. Once Flamenca was isolated in the grid, the laser track would be able to fry up everything around her. That would help balance the numbers and give them a chance. But it was risky. Her exact position would have to be verified in order to fire the satellite laser without concern for her safety. Ground-truthing. That was going to be difficult. Ocelot began checking her weapons and limbering up.
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At the entrance of the Snowflake Gate, three guards and a mage stood watching the distant sights and sounds of the battle. Lady Devereaux had given them strict orders to be stationed at the Gate and not to move. She had muttered something about “insurance.” Guarding the post had always been assigned to trained dinosaurs, but it seemed the Heroditus Club had reassessed their strategies. The few streets leading to the base of Mount Jennifer where the Snowflake Gate was located were blockaded with whatever was handy at the moment. The guards held high-tensile crossbows with shock-tipped titanium arrows and pulse rifles slung over their shoulders. The mage had evasion gas ampules and a dragonstring wand given to him personally by a Mage Chief, one of Tarsala’s apprentices. Suddenly, the young mage had become an important person in the Colony, and his chest swelled with pride. He was frightened nonetheless, and his heart was beating so loudly in his ears that he didn’t hear the approaching animals at first.
Small groups of dinosaurs had advanced along two of the streets leading to toward the Gate entrance. A crowd of people had gathered to drive them back. A recent High Council decree forbade the use of lethal force against the animals, and it was difficult to hold them back. A trio of Triceratops charged a makeshift blockade of wagons and dumpsters. One of the massive steel dumpsters rolled across the street like a tin can and slammed through the supports of a power column. The massive transformer complex at the top of the column toppled and slammed through the roof of a nearby building. The sparking transformers smashed through three stories before striking the ground floor and exploding outward. A group of fleet-footed Gallimimus dinosaurs were silhouetted against the bright flash as the walls of the building buckled and blew out. Billowing flames spread quickly to the other buildings of the neighborhood as the writhing power lines hit the street. Two stegosaurs and a crowd of Colonists trying to frighten them back simultaneously fell convulsing as the high voltage current flew through the dampened ground.
The guards advanced and shot at the nearest running dinosaurs with their shockbows. The animals ducked and weaved, and only one went down. Two small raptors sprinted directly at the young mage, who hurled down an ampule and vanished in the cloud. He apparated 10 yards away and hit the animals with an immobilization spell. Behind him, an allosaur circled around a crushed hovercraft and approached him. The mage backpedaled and tried to remember a stun spell for a large animal. As the guards and mage were drawn away from the entrance, a small Compsagnathus picked its way through the wreckage and slipped unseen into the entry tunnel. The animal slipped through the winding passages and stopped short of the Snowflake Gate. Along the edge of the massive Snowflake projection, runes and inlaid slivers of the Sunstone glowed with mystical energy. The light emanating from the slivers was dim as the Sunstone’s power was used in the Colony’s defense, and growing dimmer by the moment. The small compy watched the light gradually fade and seemed to grin. It turned and scampered away, exiting the mountain tunnel and running down the side streets. The attacks of the other dinosaurs abruptly stopped and they wandered away from the Gate entrance, leaving the guards and the young mage to gather their nerves and work on removing the wreckage and immobilized animals.
Visibility Rising…
The finale still to come… it’s all so EXCITING!
(Should I tell them that the end of the finale is really just another cliffhanger because this is the Saga that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends…?
Nah. Wouldn’t want to demoralize ‘em. Hey, wait. Ah, CRAP! I’m dictating.)