Alex walked down the driveline talking to each of the waiting Blackwave specialists. ‘Jon, stay in front of me where I can see you. That goes double for you Todd. I want both of you in my sight at all times. Ok, comm-check!’
Each of the six Blackwave specialists ran through their Hive Tab communicator link checks. These communicators were unique to the Blackwave forces and used a special high frequency sideband. In addition to provided selective or broadband communication, the link allowed Alex to monitor the physical status and see the local area around each specialist.
‘Dieter, for a little bit forget your hobby and don’t get caught up trying to identify each of these birds. Keep focused on your job or one of the little ones might step on you. Tom, keep your far end of the line tight and watch these two boys. He glared at Jonas and Todd. Listen here you two, if any of these dinos turns toward our line, let Dieter or me handle it. I don’t want you guys firing at every little bird that runs across our path.’
‘All right, Bob and Toshi just said all is quiet so let’s move. Re-light any areas that seem to be going out. No need to be quiet anymore so let’s whoop it up. We have to get them moving.’ Alex waved them on and they began their push down the valley.
As the flames walked down the slope and neared the widened valley floor, several hadrosaurids on the edge of the herd screeched an alarm. The herd stopped feeding and began to form into defensive circles. The oxygen-enriched fire was burning very bright for such a low level of green brush. A slight breeze behind them pushed the smoke and flames ahead and toward the waiting herd. The flames flared and sparked running before them. The burn skirted most of the higher islands of strange brush-like plants that clumped into bunches of trees. Some of the pines took the flame and flared into hundred foot tall candles.
Alex called over his radio, ‘Dieter, slow down a bit. You are letting your end get a little too far ahead. Keep the drive level.’
The fire flared into a clump of dry bushes under a pine grove. The bushes exploded into flame with a loud bang as the oil in the needles reached its flashpoint. That woke up the T-Rexes.
Toshi had crouched low in the brush. Luckily, he found a large hole that he could easily fit into under one of the bushes. There was nothing in it. As far as Toshi was concerned, it was an instant foxhole. It would hide both him and his scent. The sweat seemed to pour from his forehead. Was it the heat or his nervousness?
When the pine trees exploded, Toshi jumped but never took his eyes from the three bodies sleeping in front of him. The big one raised her head and sniffed the air. Quickly she rose and with a deep-throated warble woke the others.
‘Momma just woke up the kids.’ Toshi called over to Alex. ‘They jumped up quickly enough but seem to be confused. She’s about a hundred feet away from me now. She’s walking over toward you. Do you want me to do her?’
‘Hold on and hang in there Toshi.’ Alex called. ‘Dave said she would be looking for other T-Rexes attacking her. Hopefully she won’t come after us.’
‘She’s coming on toward you and getting closer to my position. The other two are following but they seem confused. Wow, she is a monster!’ Toshi reported.
‘Alex, this is Bob. Toshi won’t say it but they aren’t any more than thirty feet away from him. We’re going to have a hard time putting all three of them down if they turn on us.’
‘Hang in there Bob and Toshi. Give it a few more moments.’ Alex returned.
‘Alex, Todd here. What are these big tunnels under the brush clumps?’
‘No unnecessary chatter Todd.’ Alex called lowly.
‘Toshi here. They apparently didn’t see any threat. I can see the front of your burn now and the whole family is moving down toward the herd. Looks like it’s working.’
David turned to Seth. ‘OK, the herd is starting to move. They don’t seem to be in a big hurry do they?’
The herd moved down the valley staying in front of the driving wall of flame and smoke. Excitement rose as the end of the valley began to funnel them together. The panic grew with the arrival of the three T-Rexes. Some of the hadrosaurids didn’t know if they wanted to form a defensive circle or run before the flames. They began bleating and screeching as they bumped into each other. Some tried to push and others resisted, attempting to form a defense. Three young bulls threat-charged the T-Rexes but the theropods didn’t even seem to notice the threat.
The three T-Rexes moved through the edge of the herd and the deep melodious yodels of the hadrosaurids grew. The T-Rexes didn’t stop to harass the bunched hadrosaurids but couldn’t seem to resist taking a swipe or nip at any who foolishly passed close by. Smaller dinosaurs were running throughout the herd without any apparent cohesion. These herd followers normally relied on the organization and protection of the larger hadrosaurid herd and their confusion increased the rising panic of the herd.
All along the ground small dinosaurs, birds and mammals were running between the feet of the fleeing dinosaurs. Some of the dinosaurs looked like chickens or turkeys as they ran down the valley without the ability to fly for more than a few dozen feet. Confusion grew in the valley and some of the larger dinosaurs who were standing alone began to panic. They drew back and bleated. Some of the hadrosaurids rose on their hind legs and stomped the brush around them. Others ran in panic toward the protection of the herd. A few were so frightened they ran into trees or stone cliffs at the edge. Not all of them rose after they fell.
‘Alex!’, Mark called in on the main channel. ‘You’ve got movement behind you. Something man-sized but we haven’t been able to identify it yet.’
Dieter broke into the link. ‘If you mean the mottled-green colored ones with the ring of long red feathers around their dome shaped heads those are Stegoceras. They are plant eaters. They shouldn’t bother us but I don’t know how they got behind the burn front.’
‘Wait a sec. I just saw something jump on Todd and he went down. Checking now.’
Alex brought up Todd’s link. Through the link he saw long, slender black jaws open and close over his helmet.
Dieter had seen a black figure jump through the air and land on Todd’s right side. This was no lightweight. Todd went down as though a sumo wrestler tackled him. As Dieter ran over, another head popped up from a hole in the ground next to Todd. Coal black and slightly larger than Todd in size, these dinosaurs looked like miniature, slimmer T-Rexes. He saw Todd try to grab his pistol but the black figure had a solid grip on Todd’s head and shoulder. He could see Todd’s body armor hardened to full strength where the teeth clamped the shoulder. The dinosaur twisted and raised his right hind leg with its killing claw to slash out at Todd but Todd’s hand grabbed it and they tumbled across the ground. Two more coal black attackers rushed out of the nearby brush ignoring Dieter as he ran to help Todd. Dieter could see blood on the edges of Todd’s blouse but the specialist continued to wrestle two assailants now.
Dieter hip fired and dropped three of the coal-black attackers as he ran over. He came up on the three wrestling figures and swung the rifle butt hard into the base of the skull of the attacking dinosaur on top of Todd. Small eyes turned, cold and yellow-white as a day-old corpse. They glared into Dieter’s but the attacker held onto Todd’s helmet and frantically clawed with its hands as Todd let out a helmet-muffled scream of pain and anger.
A shot rent the air right by Dieter’s ear and threw a third attacker down as Alex flew from his tractor to help. Alex jammed his pistol and fired point blank into the open mouth of the beast trying to get a better purchase on Todd’s shoulder. The raptor flew back from the impact of the hollow point slug as it ripped through the soft upper mouth and expanded into the base of the brain casing. Dieter jammed his rifle between the two-inch teeth of the raptor holding Todd’s head and levered down on the stock to ease some of the clamp pressure. Alex’s arm snaked in to thrust his pistol between Dieter’s arms, punched the muzzle into the base of the creature’s jaw at the joint. He pulled the trigger just as the muzzle slipped down
along the bone.
The Dinosaur’s mouth flew open involuntarily as the slug ripped alongside its head partially tearing through the sinew and muscle to momentarily stun the beast. Lethal claws on its legs flailed the air in mindless reaction to the blow. Alex dove forward and thrust the muzzle into its face to fire again, point blank through the eye of the beast.
The sun-hot plasma discharge of a python piston solidifies in the first two inches when exiting the muzzle. This force field-sculpted, small packet of raw plasma, hot as the coronal gases of a star, had not had enough time to solidify because of the direct muzzle contact.
The superheated, hyper-velocity plasma stream passed through the bone and tissue with no more resistance than a shot fired in the vacuum of space. Its flash instantly transformed solid bone and brain into gas that exploded outward carrying blood, muscle and bone shrapnel in a growing mushroom of vapor that flew into the faces of three other black demons converging on the fight. The attackers flew back with a wild shriek of anger and pain as the superheated liquid and detritus hit them like the shape-directed death of a claymore mine.
Alex unwrapped himself from Dieter and Todd. He climbed over the tangled men and blast-cauterized head of the beast. Alex holstered his pistol and reached down to grab Todd’s weapon.
Rising like some blood-soaked specter from the grave, Dieter yelled incoherently as he picked Todd up by the blouse and utility-web to throw him over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. The world before Dieter moved slowly and his anger flared to tint his vision with the red overtones of enlightened rage. Beside him, he heard Alex screaming as he fired controlled, three round bursts. For the first time Dieter noticed Dan calling over the communicator, telling him to pull back to the camp. The air around them was saturated with the shouts of men and the screams, screeches and piercing, warbling low whistles of a hundred steam engines.
Dieter’s rifle was on his back along with Todd. He staggered onto his feet. He reached around with his free hand and pulled his pistol. A familiar shove on his shoulder started him moving. He hoped it was the right direction. Hypervelocity slugs began to fly past him to strike something close behind. He didn’t dare look back but stumbled over the charred ashes and around the small islands of brush and trees.
Every clump of brush seemed to hide more of the black devils. Some ran by them. Some charged with a strange warbled snarl that grated through the mastoids behind their ears. Dan was yelling something at Dieter through his Hive Tab but it was all that he could do to carry Todd and force his legs across the ash and body strewn ground.
He felt something grab the webbing on Todd’s back and lift. Instinctively he swung around with the pistol and saw Alex shouting something into his face. He swung his head back in time to see four more black, massive heads flying toward him. Dieter fired by reflex. One crashed to the ground as its head flew back from the bullet’s impact. The second stumbled, his leg broken by the wild second shot. Alex pulled them on like a terrier with a rat and single-handed fired his rifle into the third and forth attackers. They jumped and stumbled across the bodies as they fell before them with teeth and fore claws reflexively snapping the air as they died. A tail swung over and struck Dieters leg almost knocking them into a boulder but Alex’s grip held and pulled them on. They had been only a few hundred yards down into the valley when the attack began. Groups of black demons were pouring from the standing islands of brush as they ran. They seemed to attack anything they saw as they emerged into the bright light of day.
The Hunter was just ahead of them. Molly was standing in its side firing one of the large waist guns into the brush. Dieter saw that there was a path of dead dinosaurs strewn between him and the Hunter. He ramped through the fallen bodies, slipping on loose limbs and stomach gore like a drunken sailor. He and Alex fell, more than ran, up the ramp to collapse inside the bay. Mark and Dan were outside the door pouring controlled bursts out into the brush. David came running up along-side Seth. They were covered in ash, soot, small black feathers and gore. Molly grabbed the controls as they climbed aboard and the door clamped shut.
Seth climbed up toward the cockpit, his foot slipping on the mucus covered tile. The Hunter rose to safety with the grace and casual flight of an air balloon and stopped to hover over the valley.
Below them lay a field strewn with dead, coal black, miniature Tyrannosaurus dinosaurs. David was in the copilot seat next to him.
‘I’ve never seen anything like that. Most swarmed out of those bushes like wraiths rising from the grave. Others came from the holes that we uncovered when we burned out the brush. They broke into small packs that charged and attacked anything that was in the area.’ David was shouting over his shoulder to Mark. ‘Look, they’re coming out on both sides of the burn. Thank God that we weren’t further up the valley. There are even more of them in front of the burn. Those on that side couldn’t get back to us and instead turned on the retreating hadrosaurid herd.’
‘They bunch together when they run like the swarms of grackles you see in fall.’ Seth calmly added as he reached down for his coffee thermos. He took a quick swig and handed it over to Dieter. ‘How’s Todd and was anyone else hurt? Do we have everyone here?’
Matt checked the compartment. ‘Molly was at the door and ran the count as we came in. Everyone is here.’
Molly climbed over to Todd and carefully lifted his arm. ‘Looks like Jon was the first one in, I had to skull-cap him to keep him from closing the door. He’s laying over there. We’ll have to check him for a concussion later.’
‘We need to stop this bleeding. Good thing he didn’t rip an artery. It got him right through the edge of the armor. Here, hold this tight.’ Molly placed Alex’s hand on a handkerchief over Todd’s arm and opened the medical kit as Alex handed it to her.
‘He’ll be alright. We need to get him back to Doc. Aside from some cuts and a few puncture wounds. Everyone else seems to be OK. We lost all of our equipment with the exception of our personal arms.’ Dan commented. ‘Guess we were pretty lucky this time.’
‘This is the second time in one day that Todd gets bitten.’ Molly said as she began cleaning Todd’s wounds. ‘He’s still alive, guess it’s his lucky day too.’
‘We should have brought Sara along.’ Dieter said. ‘This is probably way beyond my depth but I think these were Nanotyrannus. They used to think they were young Tyrannasaurus but they aren’t. If they are Nanotyrannus, then they are in the same family but that’s about as big as they get. About the size of a man. Totally different tooth set and life style than their monster cousins.’
‘They aren’t supposed to be burrowing though. I did see some other small dinos coming from some of the holes. They looked something like our Hypes. Maybe the Hypes do the burrowing and the Nanotyrannus use them for lord knows what.’
‘Nano huh?’ Seth commented from up front. ‘They looked plenty big to me? Where do they get this Nano business?’
* * * * *
There was pandemonium in the valley below. The fire continued up the valley with less control but still pushing the remaining dinosaurs closer together and out the bottom. The T-Rexes were already out of the valley as were most of the hadrosaurid. The Nanotyrannus packs were now more intent on escaping than attacking those around them. Those on the back side of the fire finished eating the dead without any thought as to what species they might have been. When finished, they did not re-enter their dens but stayed in the scorched earthen area looking hungry, lost and confused. Smoke filled the air rising high in the warmth of the mid-day sun. The fire burnt itself out as planned at the base of the valley leaving isolated patches of smoldering wood throughout the area.
Mark stood between Molly and Seth at the front of the Hunter. ‘See how the smoke is rising from all those points in the valley? They must be the tunnel entrances. It looks like there is a massive grid of interconnected tunnels through the valley.’
Toshi spoke up. ‘Yeah, I almost bought the farm right there. I was sitting in one of th
e tunnels watching the T-Rex’s leave when I heard all of this scratching and scraping coming up below me. I shot out of there and a dinosaur came charging out. Wasn’t one of those black demons but, by this time, I was hearing fire all around so I popped him. They barely fit through those holes but they can move pretty fast.’
‘Did you smell any smoke coming from the hole?’ Mark asked.
‘No, but I could feel a breeze going into it. Bob and I didn’t stick around after that. We ran around the cliff wall-edge and back to the camp where we saw Molly firing from the Hunter.’
Mark watched the valley for a few seconds more. ‘The fire must have run down the tunnels. Normally it would only smolder in a tunnel even one as large as that. With all the debris at the entrance and the high oxygen content of the air the flames must have walked right down into the tunnel complex.’
David thought about it for a minute. ‘Unless the dinosaurs took grass down there, there wouldn’t have been much to burn inside the tunnels. I don’t think the peat moss in the valley went that deep. Of course, the tunnels might have been filled with feces, you know what I mean, guano?’
Mark shook his head. ‘I guess this valley was a powder keg waiting for the first lightning strike to set it off. I wonder if all of the valley’s are like that. We haven’t seen any rain since we got here, come to think of it. They may not have a lot of thunderstorms to burn off these dry leaves and branches.’
‘Not a very elegant job but we seem to have accomplished our mission. There are a few exceptions down there but we can try to drive them out with the dozer or simply shoot them. We must bottle up the lower valley exit before they decide to return. Bob that will be your job since you are our demolition team. We want to narrow the exit down there but leave it wide enough for a rain-swollen stream to exit the valley. Fence off the entrance with trees after you narrow it. We’ll throw up a chain fence later.’
Nodal Convergence (Cretaceous Station Book 1) Page 18