When the Devil Dances

“I don’t know,” Indy said tightly. “We’re on a forty degree slope, sliding downward in max reverse, firing sideways at about forty miles per hour. We’re not designed to do any of those at all!”

“Shit,” Mitchell muttered.

“I’m losing it here, sir!” Reeves called. “We’re headed for a bluff!”

“TARGET! Lamprey, two thousand meters!” Pruitt sang out.

“Danger close!” Mitchell called, indicating that the explosion of the gun’s own penetrator could potentially damage it; the minimum recommended distance for a SheVa to engage was over three thousand meters. “Fire!”

* * *

“Take the pass, he says,” Gamasal complained. “Where is the honor in that? Where is the loot?”

“We get a higher cut,” Lesenal replied. The two were nest mates, an unusual occurrence in Posleen society, and instead of taking individual oolts had chosen to colead a single company. It was perhaps this oddity that had led them to attach themselves to Tulo’stenaloor; compared to a Posleen trying to make himself a general, coleaders of an oolt was nothing. “A cut specifically of everyone who uses the pass.”

“But once they swing around and open up the other passes, everyone will use those,” Gamasal grumped and adjusted the oolt’pos to clear the ridge as low as possible. “I still say we could take that other gap, the one the humans call ‘Newfound.’ ”

“Ah, but the way there is too easy to close,” the coleader pointed out. “In those hills the humans and their snipers can pick off the Kessentai like so many abat. The way to Balsam is clearer. And with us in place, the humans will be scrambling to find a way to escape. Follow the plan. And watch out for that gun. We were lucky yesterday, I don’t want our luck to run out.”

“Oh, fuscirto uut,” Gamasal replied. “You mean that gun?”

* * *

The round from the SheVa gun hit the Lamprey high and silver fire jutted from every opening. The skyscraper-sized ship dropped out of sight immediately, but there was another right behind it.

The second Lamprey was, however, the least of SheVa Nine’s problems.

“Aaaaah!” Pruitt screamed as the overstressed vehicle slid sideways on the slope, bounding off a bluff and hitting at an angle with a sound like a thousand junkyards being dropped from the sky.

Major Mitchell opened his eyes to red emergency lights and swore. “Indy!”

“I’m here, sir,” the warrant officer said. “We just blew every breaker in this thing; if this was a Star Trek episode, Pruitt would be flying across the compartment. But we didn’t lose the tracks!”

“I got nothin’, sir!” Pruitt called. “And we had another Lamprey up!”

“I saw,” Mitchell said. “Are we functional? What’s our status, Indy?”

“I’m working on it, sir,” she said. After punching a few buttons lights started coming back on. “So far, everything is working. But if you want me to certify the gun as functional, I can’t, sir. We just took a hell of a beating; we’re almost sure to have stress damage on the supports.”

“I’m up!” Pruitt said. “Where’s the Lamprey?”

“I’m not!” Reeves said, gunning the SheVa as his treads spun in place. “I think we’re stuck!”

* * *

Gamasal slammed the Lamprey down through the trees and opened the assault door. “Let’s go!”

“Why are we doing this?” Lesenal asked. “Our mission is to take the pass!”

“The gun is in the way!” his coleader said. “We’ll cross this ridge and destroy the gun. Then continue on our mission. Oh, and since we’re here and have taken out the defenders…”

“… The net will designate it as our fief,” Lesenal said. “Clever. You realize, of course, that we could just drop below the level of the ridge and fly around. And so will Orostan.”

“We are but simple oolt-Kessentai,” Gamasal replied with a flap of his crest. “How could we have thought of that?”

* * *

“No, no, NO!” Orostan swore. “Go around!”

“And miss a chance to kill it on the ground?” Cholosta’an said. “Not to mention getting that as a fief for taking out the defenders? No chance.”

“Besonora!”

“Yes, Oolt’ondai?” The Kessentai had been with him from before he joined Tulo’stenaloor and Orostan preferred to have him available. But he was running out of trustworthy Kessentai that could handle ships. “Take an oolt’poslenal. Gather the best of the local forces. Take Balsam Gap. Hold it until I get there. Do not fail, do not get distracted and do not get high; there is a heavy defense center nearby.”

“Yes, Oolt’ondai,” the Kessentai replied. “I go.”

“All other ships,” the oolt’ondai called over his communicator. “Get that GUN!”

* * *

“Major Mitchell?” Chan called. “What’s your status?”

“Oh, we’re stuck,” the SheVa commander said calmly. “We’re jammed between two bluffs, stuck in a ravine. There’s a company of Posleen on the ridge above us. We expect they’ll be attacking any time now. And there are, presumably, other landers around. They should be showing up just as soon as it goes from bad to worse.”

“Any chance of you getting out?”

“Oh, sure,” the major said sarcastically. “If we had an engineering team to blow up the cliffs.”

* * *