sentries noticed the outrunner roaring up on them from the badlands. Roland was driving, Mordecai standing behind him at the big gun turret. Bloodwing was clinging to Mordecai’s shoulder, its head ducked, its red eyes glaring a challenge at the enemy.
They got closer, closer yet, and now the sentries were taking aim at them, and Roland wondered when Mordecaiwas going to get around to firing the turret gun.
Bullets cracked overhead and zinged off the armored front of the outrunner. Roland hunched down far as he could and still drive.
“Mordecai? You still back there?”
“You said to pick my targets. Let me concentrate!”
The enemy lines were forming up now, about fifty meters off. Forty. Thirty . . .
“Mordecai?”
A bullet cracked into the outrunner’sroll bar.
A Psycho was stepping out with a big rocket launcher on his shoulder and a grin on his face.
“Oh, Mordecai ?”
Mordecai fired a shell— whoomf! —and it went directly into the rocket launcher’s muzzle, down the tube, and struck the rocket inside, which was just then coming up the barrel.
The rocket launcher exploded in a ball of fire, taking the weapon, the Psycho, and four other soldiersstanding on either side of him with it.
“Good shot!” Roland admitted.
Especially good, he thought, since the outrunner was bumping along on the uneven ground, bouncing on its shocks, and sometimes jumping hummocks.
Roland steered for the gap in the lines that Mordecai had made with that shot.
Mordecai fired again, three times more in quick succession, taking out a sniper, a Psycho witha submachinegun in each hand, and four men reaching into a box of grenades. He hit the box, and they all blew up with it.
Then the outrunner was careening right through the enemy lines, men running to get out of their way, some of them firing after them. Roland drove right over one of General Goddess’s standards, her sign on a dyed cloth hoisted on a wooden pole, the pole snapping and flipping past him.
Mordecai shouted an order at Bloodwing, something Roland couldn’t clearly hear, and the creature was suddenly flapping and soaring, then diving at the face of a man swinging a tripod machine gun toward the outrunner. The man screamed as Bloodwing, hovering in front of his face, scratched both his eyes out with a practiced double motion, one eye with each set of talons.
Roland dodged the vehiclepast a rocket launcher, so that the rocket missed and killed two Psychos; Mordecai blew up that launcher too as they were passing it.
Up ahead he saw a cluster of three Psychos with combat rifles trying to get a bead on him. Roland’s only weapon at the moment was the outrunner itself, and he knew better than to slam it into those beefcakes head on. That’d probably wreck him. Instead he actedas if he was veering completely around them, ducked under a spray of bullets, andthen cut sharply back toward them, hitting the group glancingly. Bing bang boom, he hit the three in sequence, and he could hear bones popping with each impact.
They plowed through tents, Roland feeling the outrunner roll over a Psycho bandit lying in a tent, the guy’s bones audibly crunching, the man’s scream evenmore audible.
“Sorry, buddy,” Roland said.
He drove on, and startled faces turned toward him as Psychos leapt out of the way. Three bandits in a row peeing in a trench jumped into the sewage to get out of Roland’s way as he drove past the urinal ditch.
He drove on, bullets smacking against the outrunner, even as an energy bolt from an Eridian rifle struck the seat beside him, burning a holethrough it, and another bolt caused a charge explosion to detonate just in front of the outrunner.
“Dammit!” Mordecai said, as the vehicle jumped at the near impact.
Roland glanced over his shoulder in time to see Mordecai with his feet bounced into the air, his hands desperately holding on to the turret grips, till the smaller man fell back down on his feet again.
Roland chuckled,
They got closer, closer yet, and now the sentries were taking aim at them, and Roland wondered when Mordecaiwas going to get around to firing the turret gun.
Bullets cracked overhead and zinged off the armored front of the outrunner. Roland hunched down far as he could and still drive.
“Mordecai? You still back there?”
“You said to pick my targets. Let me concentrate!”
The enemy lines were forming up now, about fifty meters off. Forty. Thirty . . .
“Mordecai?”
A bullet cracked into the outrunner’sroll bar.
A Psycho was stepping out with a big rocket launcher on his shoulder and a grin on his face.
“Oh, Mordecai ?”
Mordecai fired a shell— whoomf! —and it went directly into the rocket launcher’s muzzle, down the tube, and struck the rocket inside, which was just then coming up the barrel.
The rocket launcher exploded in a ball of fire, taking the weapon, the Psycho, and four other soldiersstanding on either side of him with it.
“Good shot!” Roland admitted.
Especially good, he thought, since the outrunner was bumping along on the uneven ground, bouncing on its shocks, and sometimes jumping hummocks.
Roland steered for the gap in the lines that Mordecai had made with that shot.
Mordecai fired again, three times more in quick succession, taking out a sniper, a Psycho witha submachinegun in each hand, and four men reaching into a box of grenades. He hit the box, and they all blew up with it.
Then the outrunner was careening right through the enemy lines, men running to get out of their way, some of them firing after them. Roland drove right over one of General Goddess’s standards, her sign on a dyed cloth hoisted on a wooden pole, the pole snapping and flipping past him.
Mordecai shouted an order at Bloodwing, something Roland couldn’t clearly hear, and the creature was suddenly flapping and soaring, then diving at the face of a man swinging a tripod machine gun toward the outrunner. The man screamed as Bloodwing, hovering in front of his face, scratched both his eyes out with a practiced double motion, one eye with each set of talons.
Roland dodged the vehiclepast a rocket launcher, so that the rocket missed and killed two Psychos; Mordecai blew up that launcher too as they were passing it.
Up ahead he saw a cluster of three Psychos with combat rifles trying to get a bead on him. Roland’s only weapon at the moment was the outrunner itself, and he knew better than to slam it into those beefcakes head on. That’d probably wreck him. Instead he actedas if he was veering completely around them, ducked under a spray of bullets, andthen cut sharply back toward them, hitting the group glancingly. Bing bang boom, he hit the three in sequence, and he could hear bones popping with each impact.
They plowed through tents, Roland feeling the outrunner roll over a Psycho bandit lying in a tent, the guy’s bones audibly crunching, the man’s scream evenmore audible.
“Sorry, buddy,” Roland said.
He drove on, and startled faces turned toward him as Psychos leapt out of the way. Three bandits in a row peeing in a trench jumped into the sewage to get out of Roland’s way as he drove past the urinal ditch.
He drove on, bullets smacking against the outrunner, even as an energy bolt from an Eridian rifle struck the seat beside him, burning a holethrough it, and another bolt caused a charge explosion to detonate just in front of the outrunner.
“Dammit!” Mordecai said, as the vehicle jumped at the near impact.
Roland glanced over his shoulder in time to see Mordecai with his feet bounced into the air, his hands desperately holding on to the turret grips, till the smaller man fell back down on his feet again.
Roland chuckled,
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