[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Page 32
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
mincemeat out of them," he was saying when an energy bolt exploded in the
street. He caught up with Rook a moment later in an alleyway, but the
newfangled Enforcer had pursued him and loosed a shot that nearly fried both
of them where they stood. They launched and took up ground-level positions on
either side of the alley's exit and poured return fire into the Invid ship as
it rounded the corner.
The Enforcer found Rand first and swung toward him, the triple nodes of
its cannon primed for fire. Rand leapt away just in time, amazed to see two
steady streams of crimson fire where he had expected annihilation discs.
Elsewhere, Scott and Lancer were facing off with the second Enforcer.
They had their backs to the wall as the Invid came at them, its rear thrusters
keeping it airborne, a flying insect nightmare in the city's twilight.
"I'll draw its fire," Scott told Lancer. "Get above and do some damage!"
The Enforcer's cannon muzzles came to life, spewing two deadly beams,
which converged and struck the base of the building, sending shock waves
through the streets. Glass was now raining down from everywhere, along with
snow that was avalanching through the dome's ruptured skin. Both freedom
fighters jumped aside, but Lancer stayed in the air while Scott attempted to
lure the enemy onto a wider boulevard. He dug in at the end of the street and
waited for the Enforcer's approach; then, with the thing scarcely two hundred
yards away, he launched two time-charged Bludgeons from the right forearms
tubes of his battle armor. The missiles detonated in the air over the Invid's
back, with a collective force great enough to throw the thing face-first to
the street. Lancer was in position now, and on Scott's command he activated
nearly all his suit's launch tubes; missiles arced from the open compartments
and racks and fell like a fiery hail on the immobilized alien ship, destroying
it even while its own cannons were blazing away. To add insult to injury,
Scott launched another missile into the dome overhead, loosing a fall of
massive ice chunks, which sealed the Enforcer's fate.
Rand and Rook were still being pursued by the first ship, whose pilot
was obviously the more experienced of the two.
"Boy, this high altitude's beginning to affect me," Rand told his
teammate, fighting for breath.
They had stopped to go face-to-face with the ship after realizing that
Scott and Lancer were coming in to outflank it. Now all four of them opened up
at once, throwing everything they had against the Enforcer and what was left
of the devastated dome, burning and burying it much as they had its companion
ship.
But suddenly there was another ship in the arena: a drab gray-green
command ship with orange-tan highlights. They had seen this one before and had
hoped they wouldn't see it again.
"Scott, behind you!" Rook warned.
The team scattered, but the command ship stuck with Scott, pursuing him
through several blocks-literally through the buildings, although Scott was
using the doorways and the alien was simply making his own. Ultimately they
squared off, the giant insectlike ship and the diminutive Cyclone, and Scott
flicked on his externals to say: "I had a sick feeling you would show up
again."
The Invid raised its cannon arm and would have slagged him then and
there had it not been for Lancer and the others, who distracted it with
rooftop fire. Scott seized the moment to leap away, but the command ship
continued to stalk him-probably angered by the earlier comment, Scott had the
temerity to say to himself. Even Lunk, Annie, and Marlene had joined the fray
by this time; they were packed into the APC, riding circles around the Invid's
feet while spraying it ineffectually with machine-gun fire. Down on his butt
with the alien looming over him, Scott wondered how they had gotten the
vehicle down to street level, but he didn't dwell on it for long, because the
Invid was ignoring the trio and raising that handgun again.
Just then Annie somehow succeeded in angering the thing with some silly
comment; the Invid switched targets, reangled its handgun, and fired off a
Page 33
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
rapid burst that nipped at the carrier's tail. The APC was unscathed, but
something had been thrown from the rear seat-something pink and
soft-looking...
Scott realized it was a dress of some sort but couldn't believe his
scanners when he saw that Marlene was running back to retrieve it! Lunk had
brought the APC to a halt and was yelling at her to forget about it.
The Invid ship swung around and took one giant step, aiming menacingly
at its defenseless prey. In the cockpit, Corg stared down at the sister his
race had lost to the Humans and could not bring himself to fire.
Scott, meanwhile, had launched himself straight up, crying out Marlene's
name and launching half a dozen Scorpions straight into the Invid's back.
Leaking fire from its seams, the alien whirled on him and raised its cannon,
but Scott was again quicker to the draw with two more missiles that managed to
sever the ship's right arm.
The cannon hit the floor with a thunderous crash, but Corg wasn't about
to retreat just yet. He turned and stomped after Scott, shouldering the ship
through the walls of the building and out into the street.
There, the reunited rebel team ganged up on the command ship, paralyzing
it with missile fire and opening up the rest of the dome. It was as though a
dam had collapsed: hundreds of tons of snow and ice were pouring into the
city. The Invid struggled against the slides but eventually succumbed to the
sheer weight of the fall. It went down on one knee, systems sputtering and
shorting out, then tipped to its side.
"To the Alphas, everybody!" Scott commanded.
"Well, there goes the world's shortest vacation," Rand said in response.
Lunk, Annie, and Marlene were waiting for them on the roof. Once more,
Scott couldn't figure out how the APC had managed it, but he didn't stop to
ask. He reconfigured his mecha to its two-wheeled mode and told Lunk to stow
the four Cycs in their Veritech compartments. Marlene was frightened but
unhurt. Scott wanted nothing more than to hug her, his battle armor
notwithstanding, but he contented himself with simply touching her shoulder.
Shortly they had the Veritechs in the air, the APC slung from the
undercarriage of the Beta.
"Sorry about the accommodations," Scott apologized to Lunk, Annie, and
Marlene, "but the fresh air will do you good."
Lunk swung himself around in the driver's seat of the APC to look back
at the massive holes in the ice dome that had kept the city a secret from its
surroundings for the past twenty years. In his hand he held an electronic
detonator he had rigged to the computer control system of the city's thermal
furnaces.
"Now or never," he said out loud, and thumbed the trigger button.
Five minutes later the city exploded with near-volcanic force; a
swirling pillar of fire shot up into the winter skies, vaporizing snow and ice
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]