Gregor's Run: The Universe is too Small to Hide

by Saxon Andrew

  The old man took another bite of meat and chewed it for a few moments before looking at the Priest, “Would you send ye family if ye were in our position?” The Priest stared at the old man and sighed heavily. The old man reached over and lifted the water skin. He took a long drink and then wiped his mouth with his arm before saying, “I didn’t think ye would.”

  The Priest sat down on the sand and reclined against the log beside the old man and watched the freighter disgorging huge numbers of floaters and mobile blasters. He sighed and shook his head as floaters roared past them overhead. “You’ve been expecting us?”

  The old man looked at him with a smile, “Ye think?”

  “Your people will not be able to hide from us indefinitely.”

  The old man smiled and lowered his eyes, “And neither will yours.”

  • • •

  The Captain of the warship that landed in the clearing watched the Priest and old man on his monitor and listened to their conversation. He heard the old man’s last comment and looked over his shoulder as he said, “Get us back in orbit.”

  His Executive Officer, who had also been watching the monitor, said, “We’re supposed to stay here and wait for their surrender.”

  “Did you notice that old man’s expression when the first freighter arrived with an active force field?”

  “Yes, he didn’t react.”

  “What does that tell you?”

  The XO hesitated and his eyes widened, “He knows they exist.”

  “I am not going to stay here on the ground and jeopardize the safety of my ship.”

  “But what can they do against a force field, Captain?”

  “I have no idea but you need to ask that old man; he doesn’t appear to be concerned. I do know there are no warships in orbit above this planet but there are hundreds of millions of the local inhabitants on this planet’s surface. I am not going to remain on the ground where they can get to my ship. The Priest has a communicator and he can call me if the locals choose to surrender. Something about this whole thing is way out of kilter and I’ve heard of too many expeditions that came to this planet and didn’t leave it. Take the ship into orbit…now!!”

  • • •

  The Priest heard thrusters and turned away from the old man when the warship he arrived on began lifting from the clearing. He stood up and stared at it with his hands on his hips. The old man said, “Sit down and relax. They’ve obviously been listening to our conversation and I think they don’t know what to make of it.”

  The Priest looked back at the old man, “You think?” The old man burst out laughing as the Priest sat back down.

  • • •

  Kel smiled, “I like him! That former Clan Leader is incredibly brave. I hate to admit it, but I like the priest too. I admire his bravery.”

  Gregor nodded, “Most humans have a good sense of humor. The floaters should be arriving here shortly.”

  Kel lifted his communicator, “Everyone get into your blinds. Do not fire on the Attack Floaters, allow them to pass unhindered.”

  The ten teams of Dragons and Archers in the tree went to their cutouts they had previously made in the branches and slid out of sight. The Floaters couldn’t move into the canopy and that prevented them from detecting the Dragons and Archers inside their cutouts in the branches. The metal in the trees stopped their scanners and prevented them from being detected from under the trees. They waited and soon, a massive number of Attack Floaters began passing on all sides below them. Gregor sat in the cutout with Kel and shook his head, “I knew they’d be coming in large numbers but this exceeds my wildest estimate.”

  “Did you notice they all had force fields?”

  “I did.”

  “That’s a good thing, Gregor.”

  “I know; it makes them have to take the widest routes between the trees where the ship and force field won’t make contact.”

  “So far, so good.”

  “Kel, you could fall out of this tree and say the same thing for about a hundred and eighty feet.”

  Kel was silent for a moment and then started chuckling, “I need to remember that to use later.”

  “Let us pray you get the opportunity.”

  “My mother will scream laughter if I tell her.”

  An hour later they heard the roar of engines in the distance and soon a long column of mobile blasters and troop transporters could be seen moving under the trees toward them. Gregor watched them approaching and ducked back into the blind, “Kel.”

  “Yeah.”

  “The force field generator is in the center of the approaching column.”

  “Ok, so what?”

  “I know you were planning to drop a tree on it but there might be another way to do this.”

  “Go on?”

  “Evidently, whoever build the generator and mobile blasters weren’t concerned about putting them under the protection of armor. All of the operators are sitting in control chairs on top of them exposed to open air.”

  “And?”

  “Well, the force field generator and mobile blasters are powered by small reactors. One of the metal inserts in an arrow should be able to puncture the containment vessel releasing the gasses inside of it.”

  “That would cause a nuclear explosion and I don’t want to be anywhere near one of those, Gregor?”

  “No it won’t. It will just release a radiation cloud that’s under high pressure that will shoot out of it. If I hit the containment vessel on one of the mobile blasters, the force field will hold the escaping gas inside it and allow it to fill the column from end to end.”

  “Won’t that poison the ground?”

  “Maybe. But I suspect if it is released into the air, it will just scatter and lose its radioactivity rather quickly. The same thing is going to happen if you drop a tree on the force field generator. Its reactor will break open and the gasses will rise into the trees.”

  “But the radiation won’t kill the troops under the force field immediately.”

  “No, but they will be little more than walking dead if they’re exposed to it.”

  “I don’t like the idea of possibly poisoning the planet.”

  “Kel, the half-life of the radiation would only be about a year and the destroyed machines could be used as markers to warn people not to go near them for a couple of years.”

  “So we pulled all these trees up here for no reason?”

  “No, I say drop them as soon as the gas fills the force field and then get out of here after the trees are dropped before the hot gas rises.”

  Kel pulled out his communicator and set it to the general frequency, “Explain this to everyone.”

  Gregor took the communicator and it took about an hour before the questions ended. Kaylee didn’t like the plan at all but finally relented when Gregor asked her what was going to happen when a tree hit the force field generators. She had to admit it would result in the same thing. Gregor sealed the deal when he said, “At least doing it this way, the force field will contain the radioactive gas long enough to poison those under the force field. Just make sure you get out fast before the gas starts rising!”

  The last thing Kaylee said was, “Thank God the Clans are nowhere near where this is happening.”

  Gregor handed the communicator back to Kel and he put it in his pouch. “Do you honestly think you can hit a small moving reactor this high up?”

  Gregor smiled, “Watch and learn, oh wise lizard of the trees.”

  • • •

  Gregor watched the columns pass under them on all sides for two hours and then used his link to contact Kaylee, “This looks like the last one moving directly toward us. I’m going to hit the rear mobile blaster’s reactor. I want you to hit the one at the front of the column.”

  “Why are we going to hit two?”

  “The gasses will shoot into the center from both ends of the column. Once you see them reach the center, have your Dragons release the trunks and get out of here!”


  “I’m scared to do this, Gregor!”

  “That’s part of being here, honey. The last column is below us, are you ready?”

  “On three. One, two, and three!” Kylee quietly said over her link.

  Gregor stood up out of the blind and raised his bow. He sighted on the last mobile blaster’s reactor and released the arrow.

  • • •

  The Commanding Officer of the Column sat on top of the force field generator and stared at his scanner’s display. All he was seeing was large animals moving quickly away on all sides from his vehicles. There were so many of them in this freaking forest that he ordered his scanners to filter them out. The two hundred warriors riding in their transports were oblivious of any dangerous animals around them. The Commander suddenly saw two small blips of life forms high in the tree overhead and he lifted his communicator to target them. Suddenly, gas exploded out of the lead mobile blaster and rushed back toward the Generator. Gas roared in from the rear as well and he started coughing uncontrollably. He gasped for air and then he stopped as a two-ton piece of wood crashed through the force field and flattened him along with the force field generator. Every vehicle in the center of the column was heavily damaged or outright destroyed as the huge tree trunks rained down on them. The surviving mobile blasters began firing at everything around the column but did not shoot into the trees above them. The gas blocked their vision and they didn’t see the tree trunks come out of the top of the tree. The gas cleared and the surviving senior officer began yelling into his communicator.

  • • •

  Kel and Kil flew through the tops of the trees and Kaylee yelled at Gregor, “Shouldn’t we have stayed and fired at the survivors!”

  “No, they’re as good as dead.”

  Kaylee looked back over the tops of the trees and said, “I don’t see the gas!”

  “We’ll worry about that later! Get ready to do it again!”

  The ten Dragons and riders rushed deep into the trees and arrived at another tree as a Movement Column was approaching. It suddenly stopped and Kaylee said over her link, “They must have heard about what happened to the last column.”

  “It appears you are right.”

  The column wasn’t moving and Gregor saw the mobile blasters start swiveling their barrels above them toward the trees. Things were about to get dicey. “Kaylee.”

  “Yes, Gregor.”

  “They’re going to see us if we stand up in the blind.”

  “Their scanners are set to detect body heat Gregor. Ask Kel to give you his pouch. Cut holes in it for your arms and face. Put it over your head and chest before you notch your bow and move up just long enough to fire.”

  “But they’ll still detect my arms.”

  “Gregor, there are so many small tree dwelling creatures in these trees that their scanner’s programming will reject it. The scanner has to be programmed to reject small heat signatures or it would be whited out by all the life forms in the branches.”

  “Did I ever tell you that you are absolutely the most brilliant person I know and that I’m the luckiest man alive to have you love me?”

  “No, but it irks me that it takes this to hear you say it.”

  Gregor laughed and asked Kel for his traveling pouch. Kel resisted but another Dragon said, “Give it up! I’ll share mine with you and carry your communicator!”

  Kel hissed and emptied the contents into the cutout. He kept the communicator in his neck blaster’s sling. Gregor took out his sword and cut holes into the pouch and saw Kel flinching, “What?”

  “My mother gave that to me when I was a young, small hatchling.”

  Gregor pulled the pouch over his head as he remained prone in the cutout, it easily covered his upper body and head. “She can give you another one. And if you were little when she gave it to you, I’d hate to see what you call big!”

  Kel blew out a breath, “I was only ten feet long when she gave me that pouch.”

  Gregor shook his head as he heard the column’s engines start roaring and said as he notched an arrow, “Only ten feet long! You were absolutely tiny!” Gregor said with dripping sarcasm. The column moved under the tree and Gregor said over the link, “NOW KAYLEE!!”

  He moved up on his knees and fired the arrow. Gas rushed into the column and Kel released the trip wire when it reached the center of the column. Gregor jumped on his back and Kel exploded out of the cutout and was moving at high speed into the canopy. Blaster beams hit the branches below them but the ten Dragons and riders were away before they hit.

  Gregor took Kel’s communicator and passed the information out on the general frequency about using the Dragons pouches before they arrived in front of the next column. The Columns called the floaters to turn around and come back to provide them air support under the trees. Gregor sent a message to Kaylee and she relayed his orders to the five Dragon’s and Archers in her group. “Do not fire at the floaters until after we fire at the column. When we fire at them, take a quick shot at a floater moving under us and then we’re running. You can see the top of the floater and should have a good view of the pilot. Try to hit him but even if you miss, you should do some damage to it.”

  • • •

  A hundred miles away, Ellie was telling the archers in her groups the same thing. She and Lizabet were the lead archers and they hit what they were aiming at. Ellie had a burn on her left calf where a close miss by a Movement blaster had burned her. She was thankful for the archers hidden in trees several miles ahead of them in the advanced positions. High numbers of floaters had not yet made it back to the columns. She was amazed at the numbers sent to conquer them and knew that Gregor’s Dragons and Archers were facing numbers far higher than what she was dealing with. It was getting increasingly more dangerous with each attack. Three of her Dragon/Archer teams had been killed by blaster fire and it was getting worse as more floaters arrived above the mobile columns. There had to be another way to get at them. The floaters were getting more numerous by the minute and they were as thick as eating bees above a corpse of a dead Nagsta.

  “Bem, tell the others to leave here and move ahead of this column.”

  “We’ll be leaving the tree trunks we carried into the trees!”

  “I really think those flying things can see them and they’re focusing their blaster fire into those trees ahead of the column. Lizabet and I will go to the ground a couple of hundred yards out from the column. We’ll fire from there and ye and Lizabet’s Dragon will have to run like the wind to get us away but I think we can do it. The other members of the team will be in trees between our escape route and us and will shoot at the floaters as they come after us. How long will it take ye to climb a tree?”

  “About four seconds.”

  “Do it in three. We’ll hit them and run away through the trees above their blaster fire.”

  “Can you hit a reactor from that far away?”

  “Yes, I know I can and Lizabet is probably better than me. Just keep one of the trees between us and that column.”

  “The blasters at each end of the column will be able to see us on their scanners, Ellie.”

  “They don’t know that ye Dragons are with us, Bem. They’ll be focusing on the tops of the trees and will probably decide that we’re a Nagsta trying to run away.”

  “This is putting a lot on that belief, Ellie.”

  “How many Nagstas have run away and not been fired on, Bem?”

  Bem hissed and said, “There you go asking a question. Let’s go give it shot.”

  “No, let’s give it two shots.” Bem laughed as they raced through the canopy to get ahead of the column.

  • • •

  Ellie and Bem were hiding behind the trunk of a giant tree and Lizabet and her Dragon was hiding behind a tree two hundred yards west of her. The floaters above the column were following orders and stayed directly above the long column searching the trees for hanging tree trunks and archers as it moved through the forest. As the column passed,
Ellie looked at Lizabet and raised her bow. Lizabet raised hers as well and moved as Ellie and Bem moved to the side of the tree. She fired the arrow and Bem took off like he had boosters tied to his tail. Ellie looked and saw Lizabet was also moving at full speed as they arrived at trees another two hundred yards away and their Dragons leapt twenty feet up the tree’s trunks and went up the trees at amazing speed. They disappeared into the canopy and not one blaster beam was fired at them and no floater moved their way. The floaters and mobile blasters were focusing their fire into the trees above the convoy. Bem activated his communicator and sent out the new tactic on the general frequency.

  • • •

  Gregor sat on Kel in the top of a tree and shook his head. Kel’s back leg was blistered from a close miss of a mobile blaster beam. Three Dragons and their riders weren’t as lucky and they were now down to seven teams. The three teams that were hit were blasted into little more than gas and vapor. It was too dangerous to continue attacking the convoys from overhead. It was nearly impossible to fire through the floaters moving over the columns to hit the reactors and the number of floaters moving above the columns continued to grow more numerous as time passed. He had also seen a blaster beam barely miss hitting Kaylee and Kil as they leapt out of its way. This tactic was suicide to continue.

  Kel said urgently, “You need to hear this.”

  Gregor took the communicator and heard Ellie say, “I repeat, I’ve found another way to hit them. Please listen to what we did.”

  Ellie went on to describe what she had done and Gregor smiled and shouted, “Ellie, I love you!” Gregor began talking to Kaylee over their links and they raced ahead in the canopy above the column moving under them and set up in the forest ahead of it. They fired at the column, raced away, and made the safety of the canopy without being fired on. Gregor looked at Kel, “Are you going to make it my friend?”

  “It hurts but my hide has not been penetrated. I can keep going.”

  “I should have thought of this tactic before.”

  “Actually, it wouldn’t have worked earlier, Gregor.”