I snorted, and ran forward, glad she was with me.
“You take the leaders,” she said. “I’ll take the tail.”
“Done,” I said, finding my first target, and hoping I wasn’t making a mistake.
Askavor was fast, but the arach were still going to reach the drop-ship just after he did. I didn’t know what sort of window that gave Rohan for getting into the ship.
“A small one,” the boy replied, “but I can get into a smaller space. I don’t need to drop the sides.”
This was true. I just hoped the little smart ass got his backside inside before they could grab him.
“He will make it.” There was not a skerrick of doubt in Askavor’s voice.
Cascade said nothing, and I made a note not to shoot the dog, because I knew he’d be right out front, taking the spiders head on.
“Noted.” T’Kit acknowledged, and I was glad.
It would be very bad if one of our allies killed the dog, especially as it was his vote of confidence that had finally broken through the ice of hostility directed towards Askavor. Having the dog die in the weaver’s defense would be really unhelpful, right now.
This time the vespis agreement came in a chorus.
“Noted.”
Now, I did stop. I flicked the safety off, sighted on the arach leading the way across the shuttle field, and fired. It flinched, but kept going.
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” it sneered, and I hated not being able to keep psis at mental bay.
I was going to have to better, was I?
Fine. Challenge accepted, motherfucker.
I couldn’t see their eyes, and their legs blocked where their heads joined their abdomens, but the abdomen itself? Yeah. I could see that just fine. I sighted on the most vulnerable point I could think of, exhaled slowly, and squeezed the trigger.
Carapace tore away from beside the spinnerets, and the arach shrieked. Seeing how close it was getting to Rohan and Askavor, I stopped being careful. Now I knew where to hit, and there was no more time. I ran forward. The lead spider was injured, but covered by the one following.
Fair enough. I shot at that one, instead.
Alongside me, half a dozen Blazers were already firing. They hadn’t been having a lot of effect, until my last shot. Now, there were hits closer to the back of the fleeing arach, and more cried out in pain.
They also stopped.
And turned.
And came towards us.
Oh... Great.
I’d stopped running, again, and dropped to one knee, bringing the Blazer to my shoulder…
Damn.
They’d turned—which meant I could see their eyes. It also meant the drop-ship was behind them. Askavor was behind them, too, moving so he stood between them and the ship. I knew the drop ship could withstand the Blazer rounds, but Askavor? Not so much.
“Move!” I shouted, both in my head, and into the wind, but Askavor stood firm. “Move!”
“He can’t,” T’Kit told me, and I saw why.
“Crap.”
Not all the arach had turned… and there’d been more than four.
“We can take these,” came another vespis voice, and I was lifted into the air, as T’Kit decided our next move.
“We will not let Askavor fall.”
Well, Hell, no, we wouldn’t.
T’Kit swept around the edge of the oncoming arach, keeping us out of the firing path of the other vespis. I glanced back, and saw they’d formed a firing line, between the settlers and the attacking spiders. I also saw Mack and Tens running at a tangent, around the edge of the crowd, on a course that would get them to the drop-ship, without taking them through the fire-zone.
Two more arach had circled beyond the buildings and come at the drop-ship from the other side of the field—which wasn’t why Askavor refused to move. Only three of the first arach group had turned. The fourth one, the leader, had kept going.
As I watched, it closed the distance, charging in under Askavor’s striking forelegs, its momentum barely slowing before it slammed, jaw-to-jaw into the weaver. Cascade darted forward, locking onto an arach foreclaw and biting down hard. Askavor used his forelegs to brace against the arach’s abdomen and push it back, while he whipped his second pair of legs forward stabbing at its face.
Weaver legs were all much longer than arach legs, I noted, but arach were stockier, and their carapace thicker. I wasn’t sure Askavor had the power to punch his way through. While Cascade worried at the foreleg he had hold of, and Askavor held his opponent in battle, I looked for the two shadows I’d seen closing from the other side of the ship.
“Rohan, you have incoming!”
“I got them,” the boy answered. “Tens?”
“Ten seconds, kid.”
“Not your kid,” Rohan muttered.
“Just make sure you’re ready.”
It took me a few seconds to work out where Rohan was located—and, while it was a relief to see him under the drop-ship and not out the other side, it was alarming, too. The two other arach had split, one maneuvering to come up on Askavor’s flank, the other coming around the shuttle, clearly in search of the boy.
“I see him, Cutter.”
Well, that was all well and good, but what the fuck was Rohan going to do about him?
“Wouldn’t you like to know….”
Little shit.
I lost sight of the arach warrior as it went behind the shuttle, and I hoped Rohan really did have it under control, but there was no more time to think. T’Kit flew low enough for my feet to skim the grass, and then let go.
“You go after the boy,” she said. “I will assist Askavor.”
I had enough time to flex my knees for landing, and tuck into a roll, keeping the Blazer across my front, and my finger well and truly off the trigger, but that was all. The wasp lifted away from me, flying up and over the ship, and out of sight. While I’d have liked to go help her, I had to get to Rohan.
“Incoming,” I said, racing
