The creature screamed as its eye exploded, and it let go of the tree.
Rhea shoved off, holstered the pistol, and landed on the trunk. Looking down, she watched the heavy Werang break away several branches as it dropped to the ground far below. The other Werangs cleared away from the base, and the tree shuddered when the creature impacted.
The bioweapon didn’t get up.
Because the man had been concentrating his fire on those tentacles to protect Rhea, the second Werang had climbed the far side of the tree unhindered and was rapidly closing with him. He turned his attention to that one and unleashed his rifle, but it kept its head turned away and didn’t stop, regardless of how many times he shot each tentacle. The Werang could smell blood.
Rhea frantically tried to relocate herself to the opposite side of the tree so she could get in a shot. Meanwhile, the cyborg man climbed between rifle blasts, until the branches he sought for handholds began to break away above him. He could climb no further: the boughs were too weak to support his weight here.
The Werang was within swiping distance, and it reached upward with a front paw to strike. Rhea watched it all via Gizmo’s feed in the upper right of her vision.
The cyborg shoved off, vaulting toward the adjacent tree.
The bioweapon swung its head, snapping at him as he passed by. Its head poked past the boughs above her.
Rhea got the shot she was looking for.
She unholstered the pistol, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.
The creature screamed as its eye exploded, and it let go of the tree. It fell, writhing, breaking away branches all around it. Some of those branches plunged straight toward Rhea.
She shoved off the trunk, leaping toward the same tree the cyborg had chosen. She holstered the pistol and grabbed onto a big branch as the Werang fell behind her, hitting the ground with a loud thud. Miraculously, it got up again.
Glancing up, she saw the cyborg precariously perched on the thin upper branches overhead. The man took a step, and the branch he stood upon broke.
Rhea reached out and grabbed his ankle as he plunged past. But the branch she had been holding onto with her other hand broke away, unable to handle the added weight and momentum.
Rhea tried to latch onto different branches on the way down, but they all broke away. The cyborg lashed about with his tail, trying to find purchase as well, but he, too, had no luck.
Another Werang was climbing this tree, and it wasn’t far below them. Those jaws opened eagerly to accept the free meal.
Finally, their downward motion was arrested when the cyborg wrapped its tail around a branch that could hold their combined weight. They hung there, hovering above the bioweapon, with Rhea dangling from the man’s ankle.
The Werang continued to approach. It kept its head angled down and to the side, hiding its eyes from them, and climbing with the aid of its tentacles.
Rhea withdrew her pistol and opened fire with the cyborg, and together they struck at the feeler tentacles. Those appendages withdrew of course, but that didn’t stop the forelegs from carrying the beast ever higher. Rhea and the man would be within swiping distance of those forelegs in moments.
She had hoped her luck would last a little longer, but it looked like it had finally run out.
15
Rhea stared at that gaping maw, and those forelegs, prepared to leap aside for the swipe that was surely coming. No doubt the man above her was similarly readying himself.
But then shots came in from the side. They struck the creature on the right side of the head, but must have missed the eye, because it did not squeal, nor otherwise let go of the tree.
Will and Horatio.
The creature turned its head toward the source of the attacks, keeping its eyes hidden. Rhea glanced in the same direction, and spotted her friends perched atop one of the silos.
The energy bolts continued to come in, assaulting the Werang, which kept its head bowed as it took the blows. One of the bioweapons on the ground followed those energy bolts, racing across the rocky terrain toward the silos.
Will and Horatio diverted their attacks and tried to bring down the incoming Werang.
The bioweapon closed its eyes and issued a strange, cyclic call as it approached.
The bigger Werangs darted en masse around the sides of the farmhouse. Apparently, feeding was now done. They raced toward the silos to join the runt.
Oh, crap, Will sent.
Meanwhile, since Will and Horatio were no longer shooting at it, the Werang on the tree had resumed climbing.
Rhea had an idea.
She aimed at the boughs that were holding up those limbs and fired repeatedly. The cyborg, understanding what she was doing, switched his aim from the Werang to the boughs as well.
The energy bolts melted through the branches, causing them to fail beneath the weight of the creature. The Werang’s forelegs lost their hold, and it clawed at empty air, trying to find purchase. It fell backward, grabbing onto branches lower down.
Rhea and the cyborg shot those boughs, too, but the creature was already clambering to the other side of the tree, and out of their view.
Rhea scaled the cyborg’s leg and swung onto a branch nearby. The man pulled himself onto a bough as well and started to make for the far side of the tree.
Rhea meanwhile, glanced at Will and Horatio. Her friends had switched to the top of a different silo—the one they had been standing on, along with the second beside it, had been crumpled by the huge Werangs that had rounded the farmhouse. Those creatures had the last silo surrounded, and were preparing to pounce…
Rhea’s artificial vocal cords were more akin to loudspeakers than anything human and could be used to produce a variety of different sounds. On a whim, she decided to mimic the cyclic call she had heard moments before,
