The ATV returned fire with blistering accuracy. Then it suddenly sailed free of the hillside and shot through the air. Simon watched in dread as the ATV rotated in midair, obviously out of control. He pulled up the comm-link to the other vehicle.
“Jennifer,” he called.
Jennifer Mapleland was a friend from Simon’s childhood days. Only a yearapart, they’d grown up together and trained together. She’d only recently leftthe Templar Underground to join his group as they actively sought out survivors in the city. Both of her parents had died at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
“Carnagor,” she called back. “Came up from the ground. Sensor drones didn’tdetect it.”
Simon saw the Carnagor then. The huge demon reared on two legs from the hillside as if in triumph. Its efforts only served to dislodge it, though, and it tumbled down onto hapless Gremlins below.
Jennifer’s ATV hit the ground on its side then rolled over onto its top. Itspun in a loose circle as it tilted back and forth. The demons started for it at once.
“Simon,” Jennifer called, “we’ve got to abandon the ATV.”
“No,” Simon replied. “Stay with it.” They’d never make it out of theengagement alive if they left the vehicle. “We’re coming back for you.”
“Thank God,” Nathan said. He cut the wheels sharply and brought the ATVaround in a tight turn. “I’d have had real trouble with you if we’d bailed onthem, mate.”
Simon hailed the third ATV. “Borden.”
“Yes.” Borden was an older Templar who was seasoned as an ATV commander withthe British armored units.
“We’ll need covering fire.”
The third ATV roared up the same hillside Nathan had chosen.
“You’ve got it, mate,” Borden replied grimly. “Whatever you’re going to do,you’re going to have to be bloody quick about it.”
Simon silently agreed.
*
“Danielle, lock on the Carnagor.” Simon watched the demon gather itself andstart for the overturned ATV at a distance-eating lope. With its speed and proximity, it was going to reach the trapped Templar before Simon’s vehiclecould reach them.
“I have target lock,” Danielle said.
“Fire at will.”
Immediately, missiles bearing Greek Fire launched from the forward tubes. Simon tracked them for only a second and knew they were on target. He turned his attention to the overturned ATV.
“Borden, see if you can slow up the ground forces,” Simon suggested.
“I’m on it,” Borden replied. His ATV’s guns erupted and spilled death acrossthe demons’ frontline.
“Nathan”
“Ram Jennifer’s ATV and hope we can right her, right?” Nathan asked.
Inside the suit, Simon nodded then caught himself. “Yes. We’re only going toget one attempt at this.”
“I know, mate. No prob, right?”
“No prob,” Simon repeated, but his words were more hope than declaration. Hebracketed the Carnagoralready on fire from Danielle’s marksmanshipin hissights and fired.
The demon stumbled and Simon thought he might have mortally wounded the Carnagor, but Danielle’s next salvo of missiles removed all doubt. For a second,the demon vanished in the huge sheet of twisting flames. Then it stumbled through the fire and stretched out on its side, skidded several feet, and lay prone within inches of the overturned ATV.
“I thought it had us,” Jennifer said.
The demons may still have you, Simon thought before he could stop himself. He pushed the thought of his mind and concentrated on the effort they were about to make.
“Brace yourself,” Simon suggested.
“Impact imminent,” the AI reported in her cool voice. “Altering course.”
The safety systems. Simon cursed himself for forgetting those. Even when the ATVs were on manual control, there were defensive safety overrides in case the driver couldn’t see a disaster looming under battlefield conditions.
The ATV started to slide away from Jennifer’s vehicle.
“Abort safety overrides,” Simon ordered.
Immediately, Nathan recovered control of the ATV and drove into the other vehicle. Even though he was braced for the collision and was in his armor, the impact jarred Simon soundly. If not for the seat restraints, he would have been hurled forward and possibly through the broken window.
Nathan had hit the other vehicle a glancing blow on the side. Simon’s ATVrocked up as if it was going to overturn, then settled back to the ground. A brief glance at his HUD revealed that Jennifer’s vehicle was slowly swinging up.For a moment, it seemed to hang and Simon was afraid that it wouldn’t flip backonto its wheels. Then the apex passed and the ATV dropped right side up.
A brief cheer carried over the radio frequency, and it was coming from all of the ATVs. The celebration was short-lived because the pressing matter of survival was once more quickly at hand.
Nathan’s course took him into the demons. Simon had his hands full for thenext minute or so burning through ammo in the Spike Bolter. Most of the demons went down before the palladium spikes and the Greek Fire missiles.
The exterior vid showed that the ATV was on fire as well. The tires were pretty much fire-resistant but Simon knew they weren’tcompletely so. Having a blowoutor multiple blowoutswould leave them strandedand as vulnerable as Jennifer and her team had been.
The ATV bumped and shivered as it rode over demons. Blade Minions leaped to the attack as Nathan downshifted and cut sharply back toward the open area. The demons’ sharp forearm blades grated against the ATV’s palladium armor. Simonknew the vehicle was taking damage that would have to be repaired at some point. Left to their own devices, the Blade Minions would have peeled the ATV open like a tin can in spite of the armor.
“HARP shield ready and standing by,” Danielle said.
When Simon switched to an exterior view of the ATV, he saw that it was swarming with demons. Inside London, he wouldn’t often get caught like this. Thecountryside was far too open to provide adequate cover for a small group of warriors outnumbered by a larger force as they were now.
The HARP shielding would blanket the entire ATV but seriously drain the batteries. Another charge
