It didn’t work.
She spotted the blur of an incoming foreleg in the corner of her eye, and let go of the branch she held, dropping down. The boughs above her snapped as the Werang’s limb struck.
She swung down, and pointed her pistol upward at the exposed head, but the Werang had its eyes closed.
The cyborg leaped onto its back and latched onto the fur well away from the reach of the head tentacles. It shook its body, trying to get rid of him, momentarily forgetting Rhea.
She glanced at the feed from Gizmo, and saw that Will and Horatio were latched onto Werangs in a similar manner. Other creatures kept trying to snatch them off their upper backs, forcing Will and Horatio to constantly roll around in the fur.
Unexpectedly, the runts at the base of the tree began stampeded away into the forest, abandoning their companions. The runt on the tree quickly slid down, and when it reached the bottom, it too hastened from the scene. The cyborg dropped to the ground before it could take him very far.
The other, bigger Werangs continued trying to pry Will and Horatio from the backs of their brethren, until Rhea heard a rumbling sound. The tree began to shake.
Glancing to the north, she saw a dust cloud hovering above the treetops, and slowly growing closer.
Uh, we have company of some kind, Rhea sent to Will and Horatio.
The cyborg leaped onto the big oak next to hers and began to climb frantically. Rhea decided to put some further distance between herself and the ground as well.
The bigger Werangs began to pick up on the vibrations, and they too started dashing away into the west. Will and Horatio’s mounts were the last to depart. Horatio hopped down right away, but Will had to slowly clamber down the furry flank; when the creature reached the treeline, he leaped onto a nearby bough. Horatio followed soon thereafter and scaled into an adjacent tree.
Rhea reached the height limit of her current tree: the branches higher up were unable to hold her weight. So she held herself in place and watched as the dust cloud rapidly approached below.
The rumbling sound grew in volume, until it was all consuming. The cloud of dust swept over her like a mist, and in its dark confines, she caught glimpses of body parts: giant tentacles, snakelike heads, claws the size of human bodies.
These aren’t Werangs… Rhea sent. Nor Kargs, or Tasins.
No, they’re not, Will agreed. I’ve never seen anything like this before.
Nor have I, Horatio transmitted. And I’ve studied every creature in the Net archives.
Maybe it’s a new bioweapon, developed by one of those rogue nations you mentioned? Rhea suggested.
Could be, Will said.
I would like to see one of them in its entirety, Horatio said. Unobscured by that “dust.”
It’s not natural, is it? Rhea said. That cloud?
No, Horatio said. While there’s enough loose soil here to produce such a cloud, it should be trailing them, not concealing them entirely.
Rhea nodded. That’s what I thought.
And then, just like that, the cloud passed. It receded to the south, vanishing as quickly as it had come.
Well, that’s something else to watch for, Will sent.
Passing clouds of dust that harbor a new type of bioweapon? Rhea asked. A creature that scares away even Werangs?
Yep, Will transmitted. Now then, how about we go and meet your new friend?
Rhea glanced at the cyborg, who yet clung to the treetop beside hers.
Rhea leaped from branch to branch, jumping three stories at a time, until she landed on the ground. One of her knee servos buzzed in complaint after the final impact; thankfully she felt no change in motor function, and the humming noise quickly went away.
“Careful,” Will said, coming alongside her. “Try to make that body of yours last until the next settlement, at least. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to get there, only to have to spend all your earnings on repairs. Leaving you with the same amount of debt.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Rhea agreed. She raised her hood and pulled it close to hide her face.
Horatio joined them, and together the three of them approached the dead oak the other cyborg was climbing down. The man had holstered the rifle on his back so that only the stock protruded; meanwhile Rhea and her companions kept their weapons at the ready, though lowered.
The trio halted several meters from the base, and glanced up, waiting. As she watched the man slowly descend from branch to branch, using his tail as a fifth limb along with his arms and legs, Rhea thought he was trying to hide his strength—she had seen him jumping between trees with relative ease earlier, after all. She thought him fully capable of descending as quickly as she had but said nothing.
“Gonna be a long wait,” Will commented.
“It’s certainly a big tree,” Horatio agreed.
“You might want to pick it up a little!” Will called to the man. “The Werangs will be back!”
The man did increase his pace, but he still seemed like he was trying to conceal his strength—he never lowered himself more than one branch at a time.
“Do we wait for him?” Horatio asked.
Will pursed his lips. “Hell with it, let’s go.”
He started walking from the tree. Horatio joined him.
“Wait!” Rhea said. She hurried after him and glanced over her shoulder at the man. “Don’t you want to know who he is?”
“Nope,” Will said.
She was still looking over her shoulder, so that when the man leaped the rest of the way to the ground—six stories—she saw it. So much for trying to hide his strength. His body, or at least his legs, were definitely stronger than her own, if he could withstand an impact from that height without his servos complaining in the least.
“He’s here,” Rhea hissed under breath.
The other two turned to face him.
The man’s hood was raised, like Rhea’s, so that the upper half of his face remained concealed in shadow. He was tall,
