sturdy grave marker, then rolled to the grassy ground with her weapon ready. Knox took position behind one of the fake pillars-more sculpture than support-at the front of the crypt and readied his own nickel-plated automatic. The Dark Wolves fired at their assailants. The creatures seemed to not even notice the bullets and continued their approach. 'What the Hell are these things?' Carl Bly shouted as he let fly another three-round burst. Oliver added his firepower to Bly's and assured, 'Easy chap, we'll put them down.'
The approaching horrors fired again, this time with far more accuracy. A series of shots not only hit one of the tomb's fake pillars where Knox stood, but literally ripped away the stone there. It exploded off the facade in big dusty chunks, chasing Knox from that spot to a more concealed position behind the crypt.
Another volley aimed for and disintegrated the gravestone behind which Nina had placed Maple. The marker blasted away from top to bottom, becoming nothing but powder floating away on a summer night's breeze. Maple tried to flee as his protection evaporated. The powerful projectiles punched through his hide and did to his body what they had done to the tombstone.
'No! No!'
Nina's shouts could not stop the doctor's destruction and her well-aimed bullets that hit the attacker did not dissuade its assault. Indeed, like the other shots flying in the monsters' direction the creature did not even feel the impact. It just moved forward, alongside its partner, and strolled in for the kill; to silence those who had learned the truth.
'We can't hold these things!'
Nina agreed with Carl but a glance at her watch told her that they must hold these things for another two minutes.
She found an anti-personnel grenade on her battle suit, pulled the pin and threw it toward the approaching danger. The explosive detonated between the two creatures, showering them with shrapnel. They wobbled in response to the deadly rain, halting their approach briefly. But as the shrapnel faded so did their hesitation. The creatures marched forward again, thirty yards and closing, their strange weapons firing and forcing Nina to seek new cover further away.
Maddock followed his Captain's lead, using the M203 launcher on the barrel of his weapon to lob another explosive grenade at their assailants. This one hit directly beneath one of the things and detonated, peppering the undercarriage of the monster, causing it to hop, but any damage remained light. It strutted forward on its tripod of legs, firing in flashes that brought light to the lightless meadow of headstones.
Knox popped out from behind the mausoleum, held his pistol in both hands, and fired in heavy thunder claps at the creatures now twenty yards away. His addition to the fight only brought unwanted attention. A flurry of alien pellets whizzed by his head. He dove to the ground and rolled between rows of markers, the tops of which were torn away by pursuing fire.
Odin barked and ran to Nina's side as she knelt and squeezed more shots from a fresh magazine.
Oliver Maddock reloaded his M203 launcher and caused another delay in the monsters' approach when the projectile exploded. A very brief delay. 'We need to fall back!' Carl spoke the obvious. Nina objected, 'We have to get the body! Listen! We have to take it with us.' Knox ran to her position, grabbed her arm, and pulled her in retreat saying, 'Forget the body! Fall back!'
Carl Bly stood with a grenade in hand. A series of shots hit the tombstone he used for cover, pushing through the granite and hitting him. He managed to toss the explosive but with much less strength than intended. It stopped far shy of its target and exploded harmlessly. Maddock hooked an arm around his friend's waist and dragged him off at a fast limp. 'We can't move fast enough!' Knox shouted. 'Leave me,' Bly said. 'Not a chance, buttie,' Maddock insisted with a touch of Welsh slang. 'Now shush your noise.'
Knox, however, appeared to be right. The four people and their dog retreated down an open hill face among row after row of monuments to people long past. Those same monuments proved an obstacle for the three-legged pursuers, causing them to step daintily between statues and tombstones. Nonetheless, they gained ground and their deadly projectiles came closer and closer to hitting another mark.
Nina turned and fired again, kneeling behind a wide grave marker. Alien rounds chipped away at that stone fast. She consulted her watch, and then turned a hopeful eye toward the sky.
'C'mon, c'mon, don't be late.'
A swoosh of air and flashes of searching spotlights announced the arrival of Shepherd's contribution to the team as Eagle One roared in over the slope of the hill with the twin plasma cannons under its triangular nose firing flame-like bursts of energy at the aliens.
The expert pilot flew the craft with precision, swinging its back end around toward a suitable landing position while the turret-mounted guns under the nose cone stayed locked on target. The blasts from the ship's guns obliterated stones, spat earth and grass into the sky, and forced the hideous guardians to halt their pursuit. In turn, the strange pellets from those animals took aim at the aircraft, punching divots in its hard hull in a series of clings, clangs, and dings.
Hauser lowered the Eagle between the attackers and the escaping team, opening the starboard side door from his position in the pilot's seat. The bright light of the passenger module cast a glow over the grassy hillside.
Nina entered last, covering Maddock and Knox as they helped the injured Bly inside. Odin-in a running leap- jumped up and in.
The Eagle's powerful main guns managed to blast off one of the creatures' legs, but could not destroy them; their hides appeared much stronger than their spindly frames suggested. Still, they could not advance into that fire and they could not stop the Eagle from lifting off and away from the grounds of St. Mary's cemetery.
Inside the passenger compartment, attention turned first to Bly. Blood oozed from his side. They laid him on one of the bench seats and removed his clothing to assess the damage.
'Got right through your armor, mate,' Maddock said.
'Yeah-ouch-and through a tombstone on the way there-argh-too.'
Nina told him, 'Good thing, too. Goddamn tombstone saved your sorry ass. But look, it's bleeding pretty good. You need to see a doctor.'
'Yeah, and we lost ours,' Knox said.
Nina computed quickly. 'Okay, listen. We'll stop at one of the hospitals down town and get him to emergency. Maybe we can get him patched up and out again without too many questions.'
Knox shook his head, 'No way around this, Captain. We've got to toughen up and keep moving. Those things weren't there by accident and I'm guessing Internal Security and who-knows who else will be all over us real soon. But there are more things to consider.'
Nina turned to him with angry eyes. She would not leave comrades behind. She would not let Bly bleed to death.
Gordon, however, gave her reason to reconsider: 'They're going to know we saw the body. They're going to figure out how close we are to figuring this all out. They're going to start covering their tracks; erasing everything. We have to move fast, Captain. Remember that promise you made to Ashley.'
Her brow furled. She did not like lectures.
'He's right,' Bly spat between grunts of pain. 'Just drop me off and you keep going. Cap, you gotta find out what is going on.'
'I'll stick with this one,' Maddock volunteered. 'Maybe we can get in and get out of the hospital quick. But you're gunna have to move a shade faster, methinks.' Knox grabbed Nina's arm so as to grab her attention. 'Let them go, Captain. You have a mission to complete.' 'W-what? Where? We have everything.' 'No, we don't. There's a lot more to do. More places to go.'
'Like where?'
'Someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look like the Redcoats flew all the way up here to kill Trevor Stone. They then made sure those assassins got shot down and then put together a fake body. That means there's still another place to look for answers.'
'I don't follow you.'
'Come on, who could do this? Think. A body that was not a body. Something that resembled a living thing but was never alive. And those things that attacked us. Where have you seen something similar?'
'I–I don't remember them. I've never seen anything quite like them.'
'Get out the hostiles database, Captain. Page through it. Go back to the first edition, when the illustrations
