“Oh, no one said anything about not coming,” Will told her.
“And the rest of you?” Rhea glanced toward the back seat; the Wardenites nodded their heads.
“We’re in,” Jairlin transmitted. “We’ve come this far…”
“We’re not about to abandon you now,” Miles agreed.
Rhea sighed softly. A part of her had been hoping they would accept her proposal and stay behind, because it meant she wouldn’t have to protect them all.
“Have the convoy set a course for the bull,” she said.
The vehicles changed directions and cut across the plains to head directly for the bull that harbored Veil’s semi.
“What’s the plan?” Will asked. “We shoot down that bull, and keep firing until we surgically remove the vehicle from its back?”
“Something like that,” Rhea said.
The pod members were perking up, and they began turning toward these latest newcomers. Once more their suckers dripped acid in anticipation.
She fetched her pistol and leaned out the passenger window.
“Shoot them in the mouth,” Rhea sent.
16
As the convoy got closer, Rhea noted that the Tasin carrying Veil’s semi had retreated to the center of the pod, apparently fearing it might acquire yet another parasite. It had placed several other bioweapons between itself and the convoy.
“Fire,” Rhea said.
The technicals pulled ahead and opened fire; plasma bolts slammed into bioweapons in the forefront. The stricken creatures backed away, screaming in pain.
The technicals continued to shoot at the Tasins, but the pod was huge, and it seemed like there was always another creature dashing forth to replace any that fell.
“Stop!” Rhea said when they were about a hundred meters from the enemy line. “Back up!”
The convoy came to a halt and backed away. The technicals continued to fire as the pod gave chase. Rhea joined in, as did the other Wardenites, leaning from the windows of the SUV.
One of the technicals was too close to the enemy line, and it was flipped onto its side when a creature swiped at it.
A bull led the charge.
Rhea aimed her pistol at its sickening mouth and fired several shots in rapid succession. The bull swung its head to and fro, as if trying to shake off the blow, but continued running. It was fast catching up with the retreating convoy and would soon overtake them.
“Have the technicals concentrate fire on the mouth of the bull!” Rhea sent.
The technicals bombarded the bull. Plasma bolts ripped into its face, and the creature slowed, coming to a halt as the others passed it. When they plasma fire stopped, it was to reveal a bloody, gaping hole in its face. The creature collapsed and didn’t get up.
As the convoy continued to retreat, she had the technicals concentrate their fire on different Tasins in the forefront that were getting too close. A good seventy-five percent of the pod was giving chase. The other twenty-five percent remained behind: the bull with the semi strapped to it was among them.
As she watched, the semi released its harpoons and dropped to the ground. It drove through the smaller group of bioweapons—plasma fire erupted from the cabin now and then to keep the creatures at bay. In seconds it burst through their ranks and raced away west. A few Tasins pursued, but quickly gave up the chase when they received plasma blasts to the face.
“Keep firing,” Rhea ordered. “But turn us around! Head west!”
The vehicles spun around, front ends drifting over the rocky terrain. Then they accelerated, swerving away from the incoming Tasins to pursue Veil once more. The plasma turrets in the technicals swiveled so as to remain trained upon the bioweapons the whole time, or tried to anyway: there were too many of the creatures to track, and because the convoy had slowed slightly during the directional reversal, a couple of Tasins got a bit too close. Three more technicals were crumpled. Another Tasin almost got a fourth technical, but Rhea, still leaning out of her window, targeted its main sucker with her pistol, and managed to repel it.
Even though the vehicles were now accelerating in their forward directions, some of the faster Tasins were still able to gain upon them. The convoy continued to bombard the creatures, at least for the first few moments: unfortunately, the plasma turrets bolted to different technicals began to overheat and stopped firing. The indicators of the effected vehicles flashed blue on the overhead map.
One of the big bulls suddenly leaped into the air and came arcing down toward Rhea’s SUV.
“Swerve!” she yelled as she fired at the incoming creature. The other Wardenites leaning outside similarly targeted it with their rifles, but it wasn’t like they’d be able to stop that huge blob of feathers and legs from coming crashing down upon them.
The SUV turned and narrowly avoided being crushed beneath the bull. The creature landed hard, collapsing, but then crawled to its feet a moment later, dusted itself off, and rejoined the pursuit.
Turrets continued to overheat, causing more technicals to cease firing. This allowed more of the Tasins to approach vaulting range.
“I want the overheaters to draw them off!” Rhea transmitted. “Have them break away one at a time. Slowly. The goal is to bring as many Tasins with them as possible each time.”
The pick-up trucks that had stopped firing began to swerve away from the group, one at a time as she requested. Each departure drew some of the bioweapons. The defenseless technicals were often quickly overtaken and destroyed.
There were only about ten Tasins pursuing now. They were still closing. Two of them tried to vault toward the convoy, like the bull had, but the SUVs and technicals scattered each time, and the creatures smashed only into the hard rock of the ground.
“I want the remaining technicals to concentrate their fire on one Tasin at a time!” Rhea ordered. “As designated by my pistol!”
She targeted the closest creature and the vehicles joined in, as did the Wardenites. The bioweapon went down shortly. She
