Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Box Set

Table of contents-15

WhileI was admiring the overbite, Carli’s hand-held rocket hit the greennose, exploded and rained blood and bits of flesh upon theland.

“Goodshooting, Carli.”

“Thankyou, sir.”

“Keepready in case we see another one. Let’s move out.”

Istarted down the path. Raiders on both sides and behind me. Thegreencrocs sounded their displeasure as we walked. But the rustlingsoundsand the chattering of large teeth diminished. From the sounds theyhad drawn back.

“Tek,how far is it to the next chamber?”

“We’rein for a fifty-mile hike, sir.”

Whichwas not going to be easy. The red, mushy sand didn’t give muchsupport. My boots kept sinking into it. Sand came above the rim ofthe boot.

“What’swith the sand, Tek?”

“Idon’t want go into lengthy detail, but it’s not exactly sand,sir. Looks like it, but it’s not. Mixture of what we might callsalt water, sand, clay and something else that I can’tidentify.”

“I’mnot going to do fifty miles of this. Raiders. Ignite your jetpacks.We’re going to fly over this.”

Iheard the rush of air as the jets spurted.

“Let’sgo,” I said.

AsAstrid lifted from the sand, a black tentacle flashed up andwrappedaround her leg. A second tentacle grabbed the other leg. Ourshieldsdidn’t protect from underneath. Undisturbed, Astrid pointed herlaser rifle at one tentacle and fired. The red laser sliced thetentacle in two. Sewer smells exploded in the air. I blew away thesecond tentacle with my rifle.

Thesquad soared into the air, getting us away from both the smells andthe creatures.

“Moderatespeed,” I said.

Twomiles high in the air I spied the outline of the tall, bronze wallmarking the demarcation of the chamber. We flew peacefully over theforest with its green denizens and spied two more of the largercreatures, but we were well out of teeth range.

Likeducks flying south for the winter, the squad formed a V in the airaswe flew toward the next chamber. Flying is much preferred tosloggingyour way through a sandy bog with icky if not deadly creatures. Ilooked around but, thankfully, there was no winged counterpart ofthetentacle monster that had grabbed Astrid.

Flyingat cruising speed, the trip took just less than thirty minutes. Welanded six feet from the bronze wall. I turned to Cajun.

“Canyou open this one too?”

“Pieceof cake,” she said. “Give Tek and me about ten minutes and we’llhave it open.”

Chapter 10

Theysprang the doors one minute ahead of schedule. All the Raiders hadtheir rifles ready. We prepared to blast anything that might bebeyond the thick bronze.

Butinstead of hungry animals or hostile aliens, we walked into a thickLondon fog.

Heavy,gray clouds rolled over us. The previous chamber had been bright,asif a midday sun shone. A darkness, instead, gripped this chamber.Wetatmosphere. A slight wind blew the heavy gray clouds around. Nosounds except for the distant croak of what might have been a frog.We could see about five feet in front of us. No more.

“Thisis definitely not a day at the beach,” Astrid said.

“Justas well. We didn’t bring our bathing suits,” I said.

Thefog surrounded us. Thicker than fogs on Earth. It offered someresistance as we walked into it.

“Tek,analysis. Is this fog just fog?”

Nota stupid question. There are three planets we know of where cloudsare lethal to sentient life. Scientists have never solved themysteryof them, but the best theory is the separate clouds are actuallyoneentity, connected and somehow mentally tied in with one another.Staytoo long on the planet and they are toxic.

“Fogseems to be just fog, sir. Thicker than on Earth but with nopoisonous elements.”

Iwiped the water off my face.

“Thisseems to be flat land, sir, for at least five miles. The fog iscausing static in our scanners. But I see nothing moving here. Noanimals. No aliens. Nothing humanoid. Nothing in theair.”

“OK,let’s see if we can have a nice if wet relaxing walk to the nextchamber,” I said.

Ibent down and touched the ground. But it wasn’t dirt or grass.Solid. Material like cement. I pushed against it, but it was firm.Our new London was paved over.

“OK,let’s proceed with caution,” I said.

Aswe walked, I noticed there was a sticky quality to the fog. Itstayedon our uniforms, at least for a while. Pieces of it would hang ontoour sleeves and pants. I reached to my jaw and pulled away athree-inch piece of gray. Fingers might slide through the fog oneminute. The next minute the fog coalesced and became semi-solid.Thenthe gray would dissipate again.

Ourskin and suits became wetter and wetter. Annoying, but notmenacing.I wiped my hands on my uniform, trying to dry them. But the uniformwas wetter than my hands.

Theone plus was we didn’t have to worry about bumping into trees. AsTek said, we walked over flat land. We saw no creatures of anykind,large or small. No shrieks or cries from large animals with toomanyteeth. I grabbed a towel from my suit – our uniforms have apotpourri of objects – and wiped my face. I halted the column whileI put on gloves to keep the hands warm. Several other Raiders didthesame.

Althoughthis London was paved, we walked into a patch of mud. We sloggedthrough it for a mile or so.

“Tek,where did the mud come from?”

“Endof the road, major. Think of it as a county highway in a ruralarea.The asphalt ran out so we stepped back on dirt and grass. Andmud.”

“Anythingshowing on the scanners?”

“Nota thing, sir. So far there’s nothing to be alarmed about. Nothingmoving here.”

Ilooked, but still couldn’t see farther than ten feet. I heardnothing besides our boots stomping on wet mud. I grabbed a patch offog and tore it from my suit.

“Whyis the fog sticking to us, Tek?”

Heshook his head. “Don’t know that, sir. The elements in the foghere are different than the elements on Earth. Annoying, but nomore.There’s no toxic materials in the fog.”

“Howmuch farther until we hit the next gate?”

“Westill have a good ways to go. A dreary march but at least no one isshooting at us.”

“Ordesiring us for lunch,” Astrid said.

Still,the nerves weren’t as calm as I’d like them to be.

“Carli,send a flare ahead. I want to make sure there are no surprises onourtrek.”

Ablazing yellow shot into the dark fog. It landed about a half milefrom us. The light revealed nothing but fog, fog and more fog. Itburned brightly even on the ground, highlighting the mud around it.

“Twomore, Carli.”

Withtwo twangs, yellow beacons soared into the air and landed aboutthreefeet from the original. The increased light just revealed morefog.

“OK,let’s continue. The sooner we get to a dry place, thebetter.”

“Maybethe next chamber will be a desert,” Astrid said.

Asshe marched, she took a deep breath. Then belted out thesong.

“Wecan dare and we can do,

“UnitedMen and Brothers too.

“Theirgallant footsteps to pursue,

“Andchange our country’s story.”

Tekand Clint joined in. So did Carli and Cajun.

“Ourhearts are stout and got us fame.

“Forsoon it’s known from whence we came.

“Whereverwe go they fear the name.

“OfGary Owen in Glory.”

Theold marching song of the 7thCalvary. Soldiers have sung it for centuries. It does have a catchytune. Astrid added a verse.

“Weare known from air to ground.

“TheRaiders have such great renown.

“Whenwe charge they fear the sound.

“OfGarry Owen in Glory.”

Ihummed as I walked. Such songs do liven your steps. After a mileAstrid switched to the‘YellowRose of Texas.’The squad also gave a shout-out to‘Dixie’,another rousing tune.

“Howmuch farther is the next chamber, Tek?” I asked.

“Abouttwenty miles.” He was looking at his scanner. “OK, we may have alittle trouble ahead, major.”

“What’sup?”

“Abouta mile ahead of us, we have manholes opening up in the surface. Andthere are… creatures coming out of them, at a pretty fastrate.”

“Whattype of creatures?”

“Tryingto get a focus on them. They’re streaming out one after another.Here…”

Herushed over to me and I looked at the small screen on his wrist.Fogmarred the picture. On the screen the ground cracked, or at least acircle of it flipped open. Out of it, at a very fast pace, scurriedafour-foot long creature, black, six legged, a long stinger as atail.It looked very much like a scorpion from Earth. A blackscorpion.

“Major,looks like there’s dozens of those manholes and we’ve gotscorpions pouring out of them. There’s a couple of hundred out nowand they are fast.”

“Raiders.Guns ready. Shields out…”

“Major,those things are not heading for us,” Tek said.

Thatpuzzled me. “Then where are they going?”

“They’reabout five miles from the next chamber. They’re heading for thatwall. That’s not all. In back of us, major. Two miles from theentrance. Other holes are popping up and more scorpions are runningout. They’re heading toward that wall too.”

“Theywant to get us between them. Raiders, jets on! I don’t like nightflying but we’re headed up. We’re heading to the wall as fast aspossible. When we get there, set up a defenseperimeter.”

Werose up into the fog. After a vertical mile, we headed toward thewall. We flicked on the lights on our guns, which were never meantasflying and landing lights, but we had to improvise. I hoped therewere no flying counterparts to the scorpions or we would fly intothem. We flew about ten miles per hour through the heavy fog, whichbecame thicker and thicker. A gray mass, hard as a rock, bouncedoffmy forehead, splitting the skin. Blood flowed out. The fog pebblespounded the other Raiders too. Groans and shouts of anger flewthrough the air. Looking below, I tried to see where the scorpionswere, but they were encased by the fog. A fog that gave themperfectcover. I groaned as another piece of fog flake crashed into my leg.Astrid yelped as a sharp-edged piece of fog plunged into her suit.She grabbed it, yanked it out and dropped it below. Blood leakedfromthe wound, but the medical nanos went to work. They sealed thewoundquickly. The swift wind, rippling across our uniforms, blewdownward.It grew in strength. The wind hammered us toward the ground. Westeered up, but the furious gusts pushed us toward the dirt. It wasgetting tougher and tougher to keep a steady course as the galewindsstrengthened.

Abouta mile from the gate, the forests ended and open ground appeared.Hundreds of scorpions raced through the forests. We soared abovethem.

“Increasespeed. We have to get to the gate first,” I yelled over the wind.“Carli, Clint, Murdock, get your fire bombs. Follow me. We’regoing on a bombing run.”

“Iwas going to suggest that myself, sir,” Clint said.

“Astrid,take the squad to the gate and set up the perimeter. Cajun, you andTek open that gate!”

Iswerved downward and saw my fellow Raiders behind me. I grabbed afire bomb and headed for the insects. The line of the six-leggedcreatures had to be a mile long and probably a mile wide. Darn theymoved fast! By the time we were in bombing range they had covered aquarter of a mile. Thankfully, with our new improved techno-bombswedidn’t have to worry about angles or wind speed that would throwthe firebombs off target. All we had to do was drop them and theyhittheir target.

“Onmy order, let’s drop them all. Everyone in position.”

Achorus of ‘yes’ came from my communicator.

“Dropthem!” I yelled.

Assoon as the bombs left our hands, we zoomed for the wall. The windstried to blow the round bombs off course, pushing them to theright.The bombs wiggled, eased over, but rapidly came back on line. Theyhit the ground and a wall of blue-orange fire exploded into theair.For the first time the dim gray chamber was alive with light. Ifeltthe heat a mile away. The water on my face and hands evaporatedwiththe heat. The orange flames engulfed the trees and burnt away thefog. The trees crackled. Leaves wilted and fell from branches. Icaught one glance of the long lines of scorpions. They stretchedformiles.

Iturned around when I saw that not all the rattling, movingscorpionswere the same. About a half-dozen scorpions, three times the sizeoftheir counterparts, but just as fast, headed for the Raiders’ camp.As I watched, one lifted the large tail and spit three blue ballsofflames at me. I swerved to the left, but too late. The blue ballsmoved at light speed. One exploded into my leg. I groaned and spunthrough the air. The jets sputtered and I went down. I tried tocontrol the descent but I spun wildly. I bounced hard on theground.When I turned over, I saw three black adversaries scuttling throughthe fire and they were within three feet. I grabbed my laser rifleand fired at the closest. The yellow beam hit the back of thescorpion and shot up into the air. It didn’t slow the scorpion downa bit. It kept prodding toward me. I fired again. Same result. Thetwo others closed in on me too.

Withmy leg throbbing and weakened I tried to scramble. But my scramblewas akin to the movements of a hundred-twenty-years-old arthriticman. The scorpions ran within two feet. I fired at the legs of one.Success. The laser cut them in two. The scorpion had one pair oflegs, but its right side was on the ground. I yelled when I putweight on my right leg. Scorpion rushed a foot from me.

Handsgrasped me around the shoulders and lifted me from the ground.Carliand Clint. The scorpion’s tail, quick as lightning, zoomed throughthe air. The stinger plunged into my leg just above the ankle. Igroaned again as the two Raiders flew me toward the camp.