"You're attacking the Legion? And you want me to fight with you again?"
"Yes." He tapped the black gun attached to the Hellrazor that he carried. "Fight?"
"Yes! Yes, of course."
The smile that broke across Sahrin's face showed his fierce sharp teeth. He motioned her to follow.
They started across the courtyard. She noted the looks of suspicion and hatred from the crowd around the fire as she passed. There were harsh comments thrown out, but Sahrin paid them no mind. Debbi was just grateful to be with him again. It didn't occur to her that she was going into a dangerous battle. Any sign of friendship among these hostile strangers buoyed her.
Darkness was thick inside the canyon. There was no moonlight and no starlight. The sky was tannis black.
Debbi hid in high brush. She crouched low in the saddle, hugging the neck of her chanouk. She rubbed her hand along its sinewy shoulder and felt the great beast breathing beneath her, its chest rising and falling against the insides of her thighs. The chanouk was amazingly still. Except for its slight breathing, it didn't move a muscle. Its tail lay stiff stretched out behind it. Chanouks were fierce creatures that humans had never mastered, but Debbi trusted this one. He was the same chanouk she had ridden when she last visited Martool, the one she had jokingly named "Little Joe." The beast had acted as if he remembered her when she saw him in the stables. Debbi knew there were several other chanouks hidden in the wild darkness around her, but she could neither see nor hear them.
She heard a sound from up the path. It was the sound of shuffling feet. She switched her goggles to starlite view. A group of nine undead Legionnaires came around the bend in the path fifty yards away. They walked in a distended line without great order or concern, moving casually, some dragging palsied legs, a few carrying weapons which dangled carelessly from their slack fingers.
Debbi felt her chanouk's skin flutter as its muscles tightened. It made a low rumbling sound in its throat.
She slid her Dragoon from its holster and held it close.
Debbi saw Fareel a hundred feet away. He was flat over the back of his crouching chanouk on a rock ledge some fifteen feet above the rambling Legionnaires. He held a large war ax at the ready, his obsidian eyes ablaze with loathing.
The head of the line of Legionnaires staggered past Debbi's hidden position. Her goggles provided such a clear view of the situation she felt a surge of panic that she was in plain sight. But the zombies didn't notice her. They trudged past slowly and carelessly like typical soldiers moving from one position to another behind the lines, not expecting trouble.
Then trouble struck.
At the front and the rear of the line, chanouks leaped from the darkness and slammed into zombies. Five out of the nine undead went down under the claws of the chanouks. The remaining four in the center of the column turned wildly, brought weapons up or began to focus on targets for psychic attacks.
Debbi kicked her mount out of the brush and crashed into two troopers. The massive beast slashed one across the chest, knocking it to the ground. Then he clamped his massive jaws onto the shoulder and arm of the second one, lifting it off the ground and shaking it like a toy.
Debbi was jarred violently by the motion of her mount. Luckily, she was strapped into the saddle. She couldn't control her chanouk's fighting moves, but she could try to control her own.
The Ranger aimed her Dragoon at a Legionnaire who was swinging its assault rifle toward Sahrin. She fired a needle, but missed because of the jarring ride. Her chanouk bucked and twirled as he tossed a trooper into the air. During the momentary lull at the bottom of Little Joe's leap, Debbi brought her sidearm up and down on the opposite side of her mount's neck and fired again.
The trooper with the assault rifle froze. Debbi pumped a shell into its head and it dropped. Her chanouk whirled again to strike another target as she shot the prone trooper a second time, just to be sure.
A flash of energy down the column caught her eye and she heard a scream. An anouk flopped lifelessly in the saddle. Debbi tried to draw a bead on the syker who had fired the psychic blast. Another flash passed by her and she smelled burning hair. Her chanouk roared and swung around yet again, sinking down on his forepaws. Debbi was tossed forward. Lying on the ground in front of her was the undead trooper that Little Joe had slashed on his first lunge. The chanouk slapped a heavy paw on its chest and clamped his large jaws around the trooper's head. The undead thing continued to thrash.
Debbi aimed her weapon along the chanouk's shoulder and fired two needles into the struggling zombie. It froze. Little Joe exerted more pressure and Debbi winced when she heard the trooper's rotted head pop.
Two Legionnaires tried to retreat, but Fareel blocked their path. The warrior raised his glowing war ax and eagerly charged. His bloody chanouk suddenly reared with a horrible screech. It flopped sickly onto its back and lay stone still.
Fareel struggled to free himself from beneath his heavy chanouk. Debbi spurred forward along the path, dodging between other anouks who were engaged in close combat with zombies. She lowered her Dragoon straight-armed and fired. A needle hit one trooper in the back and it faltered. The second scrambled over the dead chanouk and aimed its assault rifle point blank at Fareel. The anouk slapped out desperately with his ax and knocked the rifle aside.
Debbi fired at the attacker and missed. The zombie brought the rifle back down and prepared to fire. A lance sliced the air from behind Debbi and slammed into the Legionnaire's back. The trooper staggered to its knees and pulled the trigger. Shells stitched wildly across the ground, hitting the dead chanouk, and into Fareel. Fareel screeched a war cry and slashed at the zombie with his ax. Even wounded and trapped under the chanouk's body, his strength was such that he nearly sliced the trooper in half at the waist. The zombie's upper torso toppled back like a loaf of bread split in half, still firing as it fell.
Little Joe leapt onto the thrashing torso with both forepaws and bit into the shoulder and head. The beast growled and tore the upper torso free from the lower half, wrenching vertebrae like gristle.
Debbi suddenly felt herself being battered from the saddle. The leather straps held her fast, but she screamed from the pressure. A zombie behind her had recovered from the needles. She tried to twist and take a shot, but she was pounded in the back by a monstrous force. Her breath escaped and the Dragoon flew from her hand. She desperately tried to turn her chanouk with her knees and hands, but Little Joe was frenzied by tearing at the cadaver in his mouth that still scrabbled at the chanouk's snout with its fingers. Another blast flashed past Debbi's head. Bright specks flew in her eyes.
Little Joe now sensed the danger and released its quivering prey. He spun around, slinging Debbi in the saddle like a rag doll. She saw the syker facing her, its eyes glowing for another strike. Little Joe reared up on his hind legs, bred to take a blow for his rider. She waited for the impact, hoping the chanouk could take it.
Then she saw the undead syker separate into several pieces that flew in different directions. Behind the spatter of black ichor stood Sahrin and his chanouk with ax, claws, and fangs bared.
Pushing herself up wearily, Debbi signaled her thanks and spun Little Joe around, looking for more targets. Through her goggles, she made out the green scene of carnage strewn up and down the path. Nine Legionnaires were either dead or quivering in conditions of severe dismemberment. She also saw that three out of six chanouks were down and two anouk warriors dead.
She unhooked herself from the saddle and slid to the ground. Little Joe nuzzled her in the back with a snout covered in black goo. She shoved his nose away and went to Fareel, retrieving her Dragoon on the way. The anouk snarled at her when she approached, but she ignored him and put her shoulder to the lifeless carcass of his chanouk. She dug her feet into the ground and shoved. Fareel strained, pushing against the saddle with his free leg. Sahrin appeared, grabbed his friend under the arms, and pulled.
Finally, Fareel's leg popped out from under the heavy animal. He snatched hi
s war ax from the ground and attached it to his belt. Then he slapped Sahrin on the arm, ignoring Debbi. The Ranger walked back to Little Joe, too beat to even care. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fareel kneel next to his dead chanouk and lay a hand tenderly on its massive neck. The savage warrior bowed his head in prayer.
Debbi lifted herself back into the saddle and strapped in. Sahrin placed the dead warriors across the backs of the remaining chanouks.
Debbi chucked her mount further up the path past the mournful Fareel while the other anouks finished policing their dead and mutilating the zombies so that the troopers could not possibly regenerate. Nine Legionnaires gone and only two anouks lost. The ratio was better than the sun gate battle, but this was just an ambush, not a war. The anouks worked the territory better than the Legionnaires, particularly with the rock climbing abilities of the chanouks. They could slip around the rough terrain and strike small squads of troopers. But soon the Legion would settle into their permanent positions for a siege, and the anouks would have to take the fight to an organized, dangerous, and remorseless enemy.
Debbi rode leisurely down to the bend in the path from which the squad of Legionnaires had come. She was proud of the way she sat her mount and was getting used to the chanouk's weird, prowling gait.
She felt a buzzing near her head and heard a clipping sound against a rock shelf behind her. Then another. She looked up the path and saw another group of Legionnaires approaching. They were not lackadaisical like the first group. They were moving with a purpose; they had weapons up and were shooting at her.
She tugged the reins and wheeled the chanouk. "Saddle up! They're coming!"
The anouks all stared at her as she came pounding up the trail with bullets zinging after her. The unmistakable sound of gunfire sparked them to their mounts.
Fareel stood next to his dead chanouk. He pulled an atax from its place on the saddle and turned to face Debbi. She galloped past and without thinking or slowing she reached out her right arm. The anouk seized her forearm with iron fingers, took two steps, and swung up onto the chanouk's rump behind Debbi. Then remarkably, he twisted and flung his shuriken-like weapon back at the onrushing Legionnaires.
Sahrin and another warrior rode hard in front of her, both with dead comrades stretched out in front of their saddles. A few more yards and they would reach a tight fissure in the steep cliff face to their right that led up to a wider trail some fifty feet above. This trail would take them back to a waste sluice in the walls of Castle Rock that they had used to leave the city outside the watchful gaze of Legionnaire spies.
As they approached the fissure, however, they were surprised to see three Legionnaires step out of it into the path. These troopers sent an energy bolt smashing into Sahrin, knocking him unconscious.
"No!" Debbi shouted. She raised the Dragoon and fired the black gun. She missed.
More energy slashed out and caught the anouk who rode next to Sahrin; Debbi didn't even know his name. The blast stuck so hard it tore him in half. His upper torso was ripped from the saddle, but his lower half remained strapped in. His chanouk tried to rear on his hind legs as he was trained, but it was too late to save the rider. The chanouk turned the aborted capriole into a leap and in two incredibly fast strides was pouncing on one of the zombies. With the grisly remains of his master still locked to the saddle, the chanouk tore into the trooper.
One of the other undead troopers turned to face the chanouk and pumped surges of energy into it. The chanouk screeched and fell back, clawing futilely at the attacking zombie. The third Legionnaire held up its hands toward Debbi and Fareel.
Debbi tried to steady her aim. She heard Fareel curse over the sound of gunfire from behind. The first Legion squad had no doubt sent distress calls to nearby patrols. Now Debbi and her ambushers were the ones being ambushed.
Debbi guided her chanouk with one hand while firing with the other. Her needles bounced off a force screen.
Fareel dropped from behind Debbi and raced to Sahrin's chanouk. At a dead run, he leapt up behind his stunned friend and grabbed the reins. He turned to Debbi and shouted something. Then he led Sahrin's mount toward the sheer cliff face on their right. The beast leaped onto the rocks and began to climb.
The chanouks could easily scale the rock wall, but they would be sitting ducks for the Legionnaires below. Still, it appeared to Debbi there was no other escape route. If they stayed where they were, they would be cut to pieces anyway.
Shots sounded from behind. Little Joe spun and reared, taking several shells in the midsection. Debbi tried to pull his reins toward the cliff, but he refused to come off his defensive stance. He roared, forepaws lashing the air at the Legionnaires who had stopped advancing and were settling in to open fire.
Suddenly one of them locked up. She recognized the telltale body rigor and she actually stared at her Dragoon to see if she could have fired a needle by accident. Then another froze while the head of the first one shattered. A third locked. Another zombie was hit in the chest and slammed to the ground.
Debbi heard gunfire from above. She looked up the cliff face with her starlite goggles.
On a rock outcropping fifty feet above the path she saw three humans and muzzle flashes. Then she saw one figure move and recognized the hat and the long, flapping trail of a duster.
Ross!
She continued to stare, not believing her eyes.
The Legionnaires turned their attention to the snipers above. Sensing an opportunity, Little Joe dropped to all fours and charged. Debbi was taken by surprise and jerked back hard as her chanouk barreled into a zombie and clutched it between his two clawed forepaws. The enraged chanouk repeated his favorite maneuver and bit down on the syker's head.
Debbi twisted in the saddle and needled one of the two Legionnaires left standing. When it froze, she blasted it.
Ten feet away, the last zombie turned methodically toward her. Its chest opened up with a shot from above, but it continued to raise its weapon toward her.
The thing was hit by a shower of so many black needles that she could actually see them in flight. It locked up. She couldn't tell if it was her shot or the barrage that followed from above that disintegrated the body.
Then she remembered the zombies at the other end of the trail covering the escape path. She wheeled her chanouk away from its rending and raised her Dragoon. All three of those Legionnaires were down and the chanouk with the gruesome half rider sat amidst them plunging its fanged snout into a rib cage.
She scanned the cliff face and saw another group of humans. She couldn't make out features through the goggles, but she saw hats and coats that she recognized as belonging to Colonial Rangers.
"Ross!" She rode Little Joe to the base of the cliff. "Is that you?"
"Dallas," came Ross's booming voice, "are you all right?"
She laughed too loud with relief and kicked her chanouk onto the cliff. It began to climb. She felt excited that the Rangers were all watching her, no doubt with disbelief, as she performed a difficult feat astride a ferocious chanouk. She adopted her best blase face as Little Joe reached the outcropping where Ross and his group of Rangers stood. As she rose up over the edge of the rock shelf, she reined in. Little Joe clung to the rocks and turned to regard the humans, his snout dripping black gore. His lips rippled with a deep growl, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
"Howdy, boys." Debbi shifted in the saddle, drew up one leg in a casual manner, and said with a deadpan drawl, "What brings you to this neck of the woods?"
"Came to save you," Ross replied quietly.
"Appreciate it."
"Don't mention it."
Ross shouldered a Hellrazor. He stood impassively a mere three feet from the growling chanouk as the wind whipped his duster. On the other hand, Ringo and Ngoma crowded back as far away as they could get without toppling off the cliff. Ross ran his eyes up and down the strange sight in front of him. Debbi noted happily that his face was a little fuller than it had been when she left.
<
br /> "So," he said, "you ridin' monsters now?"
Debbi patted Little Joe on the neck. The chanouk chuffed and Ringo jumped. She smiled with a small shrug.
Ross nodded. "Suits you."
He turned and gave a sharp whistle to the other Rangers. They started climbing back to the trail above.
Debbi took a deep breath, comforted by the presence of her comrades. She grinned and followed them on her monster.
Chapter 18
"How many Colonial Rangers were in those two ships?" Quantrill received the hours-old images of the two Stallions, their hulls scored by brain blasts, streaking through the canyon toward Canyon Rock. The General had set up his command post in the rear compartment of the old Stallion that he had commandeered in Temptation.
Captain De Klerk willed himself to stare into his commanding officer's eyes. "Our scans indicated eight, perhaps nine."
"Was Captain Ross with them?" Quantrill demanded.
"I don't know." De Klerk pointed to a spot on a map. "Shortly after landing, they engaged in a firefight with a patrol here. We suspect they intervened to rescue one of their own who was fighting with the anouks. We lost thirteen destroyed. Three more are recovering."
"Thirteen?" Quantrill tapped his decaying fingers on a fold-down tabletop. "In one fight? Thirteen lost." He burrowed his gaze into De Klerk. "Now there are black guns inside Castle Rock. And Colonial Rangers who know how to use them. Allowing those Stallions to pass through our lines may cost us dearly, Captain."
"We tried to bring them down, sir. We scored several hits with brain blasts, but they made it to safety. Even so, nine Rangers? What can nine Rangers do against an army such as ours?"
Quantrill slammed his fist onto the table. "I don't know! Let's ask Captain Marat. Maybe he has an opinion."
De Klerk quickly offered, "General, I think it's safe to assume the Colonial Rangers have come to retrieve their comrade. They know we will take Castle Rock and obliterate every living soul inside. Rangers aren't going to risk their lives for anouks."
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