FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Homecomings A Scarborough Fair Story by RedFox6

Chapter Five A Hard Day on the Planet Part One Confederation of Independent Star Systems Planet Haiphong Myeong Yun Present Day

Flavia Decima was not happy. The senior agent on site for the CRC External Intelligence Committee had just been finishing her day at the embassy and was preparing to go home when the priority message had come through. Looking at the date, she'd sworn under her breath, damning the techs in Communications. The message had been sent two days earlier, but they had deliberately waited until the last minute to forward it to her. Now, instead of an enjoyable evening relaxing at home with her slaves waiting on her, she was in one of the worst slums in the capital city of Myeong Yun, sitting in a darkened bar that would have to work very hard to rise to the level of a dive, waiting for her contact to arrive. What she could see in the semi darkness made her happy that they kept the lighting so low, while the smell was truly appalling. She was sure it would take several washings before the stink was removed from her clothing. In fact, she was wondering if it might not be easier to just burn the clothes instead of trying to launder them. Despite a thick layer of sawdust, the floor was still sticky with unidentified detritus, while the liquid in her glass, laughingly called beer, seemed to swirl with a life of its own, apparently trying to climb out of the glass. A quick sniff when the server had brought it over, and she'd pushed the glass to the center of the table, hoping the foul smell alone wouldn't poison her. "Good thing all my shots are up to date," she thought, a sardonic smile flitting across her face.

The inhabitants fit the decor. Human and morph, all had the reek of despair and desperation rolling off them in waves. "Although that could just be their stench," she thought. "I doubt any of them have seen soap in six months, if then."

Even though she obviously didn't fit in here, everyone was leaving her alone, the half naked male writhing on the floor in front of her being a very graphic example of what would happen if anyone bothered her. When she had first sat down, this aggressively drunk wolf had come over and made a crude demand for money, drugs and sex. Without a word, Flavia had calmly shot him with her sliver gun. The toxin in the dart caused excruciating pain, cramping up his muscles and restricting his breathing. He wasn't even able to scream. He would recover in several hours, but until then would be unable to move on his own. His 'friends' had already stripped him of everything of value, including his shoes.

Finally, her contact, a massive, one eyed boar morph named Aitas, arrived. He casually booted the convulsing wolf out of the way before sitting down.

"Secret admirer?" he asked, looking down at the wolf while his paw enfolded the glass.

With an insincere smile, Flavia responded, "You know there's no one but you, darling."

With a sort of horrified fascination, Flavia watched as Aitas slammed the 'beer' down. He replaced the glass on the table, grunted, then said, "So. Down to business. Time's money, and time's a'wasteing. What can we do for you today?"

"A simple snatch and grab." she replied, handing over a small holocube. "Everything you need to know is on there, including their itinerary. We want the rabbit. Preferably alive, there will be a bonus then. But if that's not possible, proof of death will be sufficient. The best opportunity will be at Hanuel Caravansary. If your attempt fails there, we have influence with the owner, and can get her and her party ejected from the caravansary without the protection of a convoy. You can make your second attempt as they return to the spaceport, alone. We have informants at Kwan Jeong; they will tell us when the subjects arrive, and when they will leave for their trip Notify us when you are successful through the usual channels, and the exchange will be made at the usual location. Any questions?"

Aitas quickly glanced through the briefing cube, managing to keep his face expressionless as he saw how much was being offered. "It seems to be fairly clear," was his laconic reply. "We'll be in touch when we're done." He rose and stalked out of the bar.

Flavia followed a minute later, pleased at a job well done. As she left, she was thinking, not of the operation, but of her horse morph slave, Incitatus. He'd displeased her the night before and she'd left the poor dear trussed up for punishment that morning, standing and holding weights above his head. The weights were attached to pulleys on the ceiling, and as his arms tired and he let them down, he would pull painfully on his testicles. She was sure that he would be much more eager to please when she arrived home. "Even his magnificent body should be getting tired by now," she thought as she entered her car. "Maybe I should leave him tied up this way all night. He's been getting above himself, and needs to be reminded of his proper place." Aitas and the operation were pushed to the back of her mind as her chauffeur drove her out of the neighborhood.

The Scarborough Fair made the transition from hyperspace. Her sensors quickly unscrambled and began determining their exact location. They had entered realspace fairly close to their desired coordinates, and just outside the extensive Haiphong defense perimeter. A few degrees closer, and they could have provoked an attack from the planetary defense forces.

Fast moving picket ships supplemented the numerous defense satellites, while closer to the planet three cruiser battle groups stood ready to respond to any attack. They obediently took their place in the queue, waiting for the authorities to scan their ship before letting it approach Haiphong.

"Haiphong's become a little paranoid over the past couple of centuries," Leu was saying. From previous visits he knew that the security procedures would take some time, so he decided a little history lesson would help to fill that up. "Couple of hundred years ago, they fell on hard times, and haven't fully recovered yet."

Tollel looked down and gave a small smile. She already knew most of what Leu was going to say, both from their previous visits and from her own researches. But she let him continue, knowing how much he loved to teach and lecture. In fact, she often wondered if he'd been a teacher in a previous life. And besides, it would probably be new to Aoife.

"The planet does not rotate," he said. "That means that morning, day, evening and night all last four months each. Plays Sheol with your sleep patterns. It has also screwed up the climate as well. Normally, the weather patterns are very calm and clear, extremely hot during the day and extremely cold during the night. It can get bad, but we shouldn't have any superstorms while we're here, though.

"Which will be a good thing," he went on with a grim smile. "The superstorms have been known to last for weeks. The only way to survive them is to hunker down in a fortified position and pray it holds up."

Leu looked at the two and smiled, before continuing, "You're probably wondering why the original colonists came to a planet that doesn't rotate. The short answer is, they didn't."

A few quick keystrokes, and the screen was filled with the image of a lush, verdant planet. Clouds drifted across a blue sky, and the landmasses were covered with vegetation, thicker near the equator and thinning out towards the poles. "This is what Haiphong looked like two hundred years ago.

"Pretty nice, huh?" Leu smiled sadly at the image. "It used to be a very nice planet. The climate was relatively moderate, the land was fertile, the economy was booming, and everyone was sharing in the wealth. Would have liked to have seen the place back then," he said, wistfully.

"And then, they pissed off the Lady Leroy," he went on. "What exactly they did has been either lost or suppressed, but the end result is the planet we see today."

A few taps of the keyboard, then a picture of a small, sleek looking space yacht came up on the screen. "This is the Lady Leroy. There have been confirmed sightings of her for over two centuries, with stories going all the way back to the Terran Hegemony. In all that time, no one has ever seen her dock anywhere, or made contact with any crew she may have. No one's even really sure where the name came from. The theories on what the Lady Leroy really is range from alien probe, to lost Hegemonic tech to an extrusion into our reality from some other dimension and everything in between.

"Like I said," he went on. "No one knows the details, but Haiphong and the Lady Leroy had an 'altercation'. What little is known is that the Lady Leroy tore through Haiphong's defenses like they weren't even there. Warships and orbital defense satellites were destroyed, spaceports were annihilated, and major parts of the infrastructure were smashed.

"And, as a grand finale," Leu continued, more than a little awe lurking in his voice, "somehow, the Lady Leroy stopped the planet from rotating.

"Don't ask me how it was done. People have been studying it for two hundred years, and they still don't have a clue. But the immediate results were a devastated environment and a collapsed economy.

"After their little 'incident' with the Lady Leroy, there was chaos and anarchy for several years while the planet slowed to a stop and everyone tried to adapt to the changed situation. Warlords and strongmen swarmed over the planet, carving out their own little kingdoms, while offplanet raiders took advantage of the lack of planetary defenses and stole everything and everyone they could.

"Eventually, a cadre of the old military command reunited the remaining military units and took over what was left of the government. It took a few decades, but they eventually gained control over the entire planet."

A quick smile, then he went on, "Well, mostly anyway. On most parts of the planet, the central government's control is shaky at best. They mostly control the cities, but the countryside is pretty much up for grabs. The central government concentrates on three things mainly; collecting taxes, defending the planet from attack, and keeping themselves in power by any means necessary."

"Leu," Marie interrupted. "the scan ship has reached us. Prepare for scanning. I estimate it should take five minutes TS for the scan and a further five minutes TS for the analysis, and then we should be cleared for landing."

The screen switched from the Lady Leroy to a large warship, bristling with weapons and sensor arrays.

"Target lock achieved," Marie announced. "Weapons are cold, I say again, weapons are cold. Scan beginning now."

"Better than that other time," Leu remarked. "Then they were worried about some sort of sneak attack, and were scanning everyone with weapons hot."

"And boarding and physically searching any ship that registered the least anomaly," Marie added, disapprovingly. "The last time that happened, it took most of the day to be cleared, and it took us several hours to clean the mess they left behind."

A small smile, then Leu remarked, "You'd be surprised how much of a mess a squad of armored space marines can make tromping through your ship."

"Leu," Marie interrupted, "the scanning is through. We have been cleared for landing and given our coordinates."

With a puzzled frown, Leu said, "Well. That was quick. Last time it took much longer."

"Apparently they have upgraded their scanning equipment," Marie responded.

With a glance at Aoife, Leu asked, "What about our 'special sections'?"

"They are still undetected," was the answer. "I am beginning the descent now." Guessing that Aoife would want to watch, Marie switched the viewscreens to show their approach to Haiphong. Another screen showed a graphic display detailing their course to the planet's surface.

Thrusters fired, moving the ship towards Haiphong, contra gravity controlling their descent to the surface. Their flight path took them to the Kwan Jeong Spaceport, one of the few that had been spared by the Lady Leroy so many years ago.

A routine landing as they settled gently into their slot, right between two large bulk freighters. The two freighters dwarfed the Scarborough Fair, casting shadows that provided shade for the ship.

While Tollel and Aoife prepared themselves for the trip, Leu spent some time on the scanners, watching his neighbors.

One ship was loading sealed cargo containers, while the other, a Whale class from Anderson Consolidated Mercantile Enterprises, was offloading heavy mining equipment and disgorging new slave laborers. Under the watchful eyes of their overseers, they docilely walked down the ramp single file, naked and barefoot, with chains connecting their collars and their arms cuffed behind their backs. At the foot of the ramp, they were separated out and loaded into closed cargo trailers for the trip to their new homes. Some would labor in the government mines, while others would work in factories, assembling various types of electronic products. Two squads of heavily armored Anderson Consolidated troops, battle rifles at low port, kept an eye out for any trouble, unlikely as that might seem in the heavily guarded spaceport.

Haiphong was a leader in high end electronics, with numerous mines providing ample supplies of copper, nickle, Palladium, gold and other precious metals. Slave labor kept their production costs low and profits high, and enabled them to undercut much of their competition. In the Confederation, it was almost impossible to get computer products that didn't have Haiphong components in them. It was just a small reminder of how much of the Confederation economy depended on slave labor.

With a rueful shake of his head and a small, sad smile, Leu switched off the scanners and began searching for a convoy heading for the same caravansary they were going to. It didn't take long before he found one, and he quickly applied to join it when it left in twenty hours.

He made an appointment to meet with the convoy leader, a black bear morph named Isi Cuauhtémoc. It was also on his way to the trailer rental franchise. He had enough time for a shower and a change of clothes before his meeting. After all, first impressions are very important. And Commander Cuauhtémoc had a very good reputation for running successful convoys through the outlands regions.

"If we get in with him, it'll be good," he was saying to Tollel and Aoife in the main hold. "For one thing, the next convoy doesn't leave for almost forty hours. And he's one of the best convoy commanders around, with a loyal contingent of well trained and armed guards to back him up. It'll cost us a thousand crowns up front, plus 10% of what we make, but it'll definitely be worth it. Commander Cuauhtémoc's reputation alone will deter most of the bandits infesting this area.

"After I talk with him, I'll pick up the trailer we'll need," he went on. "In the meantime, you two can get the cargo ready for loading.

"Marie will help you with the crates." A small smile, then, "Be careful, they're loaded with antique furniture from H'Veni in the Al ha'Rem. That stuff is currently popular here, and is going for a premium. We should be able to see a tidy return on our investment."

The interview with Commander Cuauhtémoc went well, and, after payment, Leu was assigned a spot in the convoy, with strict orders to be there two hours before departure time, fully loaded and ready to go.

Leu's next stop was a rental agency, where he arranged to rent a trailer for a one way trip to Hanuel Caravansary, at a fairly reasonable rate. Leu personally inspected the various trailers available, before making his choice. Hitching it to the back of the Runabout, he headed back to the Fair, arriving some two hours after he'd left.

In that time, Aoife and Tollel, with the help of Marie's drones, had moved the cargo to the main hatch. They were sitting on folding chairs just inside the hatch, sipping cool drinks and chatting with each other while awaiting his return. They both wore standard ship suits, trousers and blouses of rugged and hard wearing denim, with Scarborough Fair patches, the only difference being that Tollel had her collar on and was perched on a small stool, while Aoife was seated on a much more comfortable lounge chair.

With the help of Marie's drones and cargo arm, it didn't take long before they had the trailer loaded. They locked up the vehicles after carefully securing the crates so they wouldn't shift and damage the furniture within. The trailer and car were parked under the watchful eye of an activated PDW.

With a satisfied smile at a job well done, Leu led the others back into the ship to await their departure. Fourteen hours gave them plenty of time to eat and sleep and prepare for the trip.

Showered and fed, they all wound up in Leu's bed together. They took turns pleasuring each other in all possible combinations. In the intervals when Leu was recovering from his exertions, Tollel and Aoife would put on a show and enjoy each other until he was ready again. Finally, when they were all too exhausted to continue, they fell asleep wrapped in each others' arms.

After breakfast, they piled into the Runabout and headed off to join the convoy.

Arriving at the rally point, they checked in and were assigned a spot between two of the larger cargo carriers, massive tractor-trailers with gun turrets on top. The convoy briefing went quickly, and then the vehicles moved out of the spaceport onto the road to Hanuel Caravansary.

Armored cars and troop carriers were at the front and back of the convoy, while fast moving scout cars covered the flanks, moving up and down the convoy as needed. Scouting ahead were bikes, swift and agile, and crewed by reckless, seemingly fearless daredevils riding highly personalized machines bristling with nasty looking spikes and light weapons.

The road had been cut through fairly rugged terrain. In some areas it was fairly flat, stretching out for kilometers to either side while in others hills and depressions pressed close, providing potential ambush points for anyone brave enough or desperate enough to risk attacking one of the well armed convoys.

The convoy kept to a steady pace, with only two short stops, interrupted by a longer stop for lunch. Twelve hours after they left the spaceport, they pulled into the walled compound of Hanuel Caravansary. The security checks went quickly, and the convoy broke apart to do their selling, the only caveat being that they had to reassemble in 24 hours for the trip back to the spaceport.

The crew of the Fair quickly made contact with their buyer, a cheetah morph by the name of Catarina Maria Pan, a dealer in rare and exotic furniture. Ms. Pan was a jovial, friendly individual, always ready with a smile and a joke, although observant individuals could tell that her smile never extended to her eyes. A shrewd and canny businesswoman, Ms. Pan was Leu's equal in bartering. The haggling went on for over an hour, what with the uncrating and good natured yet minute inspection of every piece of furniture. Finally they came to a mutually agreeable arrangement, both sides thinking they had come out ahead.

As the arrangements were being finished and the cargo transferred from Leu's rented trailer to Ms. Pan's vehicle, none of them noticed the small group of humans and morphs who were closely watching them from the shadows.

They returned the trailer to the rental site, then traveled on to the commercial section for some shopping and dining while waiting for the return trip to the spaceport.

With the Runabout parked in a secure lot, the three strolled through the business district, looking in the shops as they went.

A weapons shop caught Leu's eye. Prominently displayed behind the thick security glass was a selection of grenades, including Hush-a-Booms®. Like a kid in a candy store, it drew him in, a look of delight and desire on his face.

"Aw, Sheol," he said, smiling happily. Then, into his comlink. "Marie! They have Hush-a-Booms®!"

"No, Leu," she responded sternly. "We do not have the necessary funds to purchase such an expensive luxury item."

"We could use some of the money from House al-Malik...," he began, only to be interrupted.

"You yourself have declared that that money is to be used only for emergencies." she said.

"But, but, Hush-a-Booms®," he went on plaintively.

"No, Leu," Marie continued. "We do not have the budget for those."

"Not even one?"

"No. Tollel, Aoife, please escort Leu away from this shop."

Smiling, the two took his arms and led him safely away from temptation. Still, he gazed longingly at the shop until it was out of sight.

Further down the strip, they entered a small restaurant. A good meal, and a chilled bottle of Starflare beer, restored Leu's good humor.

The unexpected pleasure of a Starflare, expensive though it was, enabled him to cope with just about anything, including shopping. Leaving the restaurant, they moved down the strip, checking out the displays in the various shop windows as they went. Periodically, Tollel and Aoife would stop to exclaim over something that caught their attention. Occasionally, they would drag Leu into a shop for a closer inspection. A few purchases were made, mostly clothing for Aoife to supplement her shipboard wardrobe with.

Unfortunately, being in a protected zone lulled Leu into letting his situational awareness lapse, and so he missed the people who were shadowing them through the district.

Eventually, Tollel and Aoife managed to get their fill of shopping, and willingly followed Leu to their rented quarters, there to await the return convoy's departure.

Giggling and carrying some parcels, Tollel and Aoife entered the bathroom together, promising Leu a surprise.

Yawning widely, Leu took off his vest, laying it and his weapons on the bed. Smiling, he thought to himself, "I could get used to this. A good meal followed by hot sex before bedtime. Looks like things are going okay for a change."

With a loud bang, the door was blown off its hinges and three armed morphs charged into the room. Leu dived over the bed, grabbing his vest as he went, just as the first morph opened up with a rocket rifle.

The large caliber explosive rockets chewed up the wall as the cat morph tried to track Leu's fast moving body.

Belly down, looking under the bed as he drew his automatic, Leu could see the feet of his attackers. Chunks of the bed were blown off as the other two attackers added their firepower.

Aiming as quickly as he could, Leu fired two three round bursts under the bed. The first morph crashed screaming to the floor, both ankles shattered by the bullets. A third burst struck him in the head, ending his sufferings. With his grenade launcher in his other hand, Leu rolled to his right, trying to avoid the rounds coming his direction.

While the cat with the rocket rifle provided covering fire, the last morph began circling around to get a clear shot.

Just as he cleared the end of the bed, Leu fired his grenade launcher. At such close range, the fletchettes tore the morph apart, knocking his body backwards across the room.

There was silence as the cat's magazine ran dry. Leu popped up like a manic jack in the box, and began firing, catching the morph as he was trying to reload. A couple of bursts later, and the last morph didn't have to worry about reloading ever again.

Ears ringing from the gunshots, Leu could just barely make out the sound of a vehicle rapidly accelerating away from their room. Nothing but silence came from the bathroom. Looking over, Leu could see holes where several errant rounds had pierced the door.

"Deity's child, no!" he screamed as he rushed over. Visions from his dream came back as he pounded on the locked door. "Tollel! Tollel! Aoife! Are you all right?"

Standing back, he prepared to kick in the lock. Just as he kicked, the door opened. Off balance, Leu almost fell on top of Tollel.

"Leu," she said, rushing into his arms. "We're alright. We dropped to the floor when the shooting started. What happened? Are you alright?"

"I'm good," he said, hugging her tightly. "Oh deities, I thought I'd lost you."

Looking past them, Aoife stared in horrified fascination at the bodies in the room. They seemed to bring back ghostly memories, that stayed tantalizingly just out of reach.

Leu and Tollel were still holding each other when Security forces arrived. They were led to the main office for questioning.

An hour later, they were still in the main office of the caravansary, answering questions about the attack over and over again. The owner of the caravansary, a lemur morph named Hyeon Young, finally cut the questioning short. In his excitement, his command of Lingua Franca began slipping, as he rendered his judgment, "You bring trouble here. You are not welcome here, you leave now!"

Commander Cuauhtémoc himself was there, and despite his most impassioned arguments, Administrator Young still insisted that Leu and his party be banished from the caravansary immediately.

In the end, there was nothing they could do but accept the judgment. Under escort, they went back to their room and packed their belongings for the return trip to the spaceport. Commander Cuauhtémoc went with them. He spoke with Leu while Tollel and Aoife loaded the Runabout. "I'm sorry, Captain," he said. "But there's nothing I can do. And I don't have enough people to spare for an escort for you."

"Not a problem, Commander," Leu replied. "I understand completely. We thank you for your help and all that you've done for us. I'll just call our ship and let them know we're coming home early."

"May the Pancreator go with you, Captain," Cuauhtémoc said.

Shaking hands with him, Leu answered, "Thank you again, Commander. And don't worry, we'll be fine."

Before calling Marie to update her on the situation, Leu took a go-pill. With the powerful stimulant racing through his system, his fatigue vanished and he practically vibrated with nervous energy.

When she heard the situation, Marie's first response was an offer to fly the Fair there and pick them up.

"Unauthorized flight?" was his response. "You know that'd never work. The defense grid would shoot you down before you got 50 klicks. No, we'll just have to do it the old fashioned way, along the road.

"We'll be able to make better time than the convoy, so we should be back in six hours or less," he said.

"Leu," Marie said. "you have not had enough time to sleep, you are not properly rested for the trip."

He interrupted her. "It's okay, Marie. I took a go-pill, so I'm good to hook."

"Leu!" she replied, scolding. "You know what that does to your system."

"Don't worry, Marie," he said. "We'll be safely onboard the Fair before I have to crash. I'll be fine."

Under his breath, he continued, "And it's not like we have a choice." He glared daggers at the lemur morph who had ordered them out of the caravansary, suspicions about just what exactly was going on running through his mind.

They left the caravansary, heading back to the spaceport as fast as the Runabout would take them. Running on anger and the go-pill racing through his system, Leu drove steadily through the hours. He kept up an intermittent conversation with Marie over the commnet as they traveled. In between, he sipped at a bottle of water to combat the dry mouth that go-pills always gave him. Looking in the rearview mirror, Leu smiled at the picture Tollel and Aoife made, sleeping wrapped in each other's arms in the backseat.

Passing through a defile two hours after they'd left the caravansary, three vehicles showed up at their rear. Two ground cars sporting heavy weapons on improvised mounts, and an armed rotor, modified from a heavy cargo lifter, swooping low in the sky. The fallback plan was starting.

Leu kept a close eye on them as they moved closer, flipping off the safety on the chain gun.

"Marie," he said. The commnet was filled with static. "Marie!", a little more urgently. The commnet remained jammed.

"Aw, Sheol." He looked in the back and said, "Tollel, gun! Bogies at six o'clock!"

Tollel came out of her doze immediately. The training Leu had been giving her over the last year came in handy as she automatically went into an immediate action drill. After a quick look at the status board, she placed her fingers on the fire control, activated her implants and powered up the turret. She swiveled it around to face the oncoming vehicles, hoping to warn them off without having to kill anyone. Selecting the HEDP magazine for the chain gun, she targeted the closest car.

Seeing the turret rotate, the two cars split up. Going to either side of the road, they attempted to catch the Runabout in a crossfire as they opened up with their heavy weapons. Their first rounds fell to either side of the Runabout, trying to force them to surrender without a fight.

Tollel fired on the nearest car. Unfortunately, it jinked at just the right moment, and the rounds missed, traveling on to detonate in the surrounding countryside.

The other car immediately opened up on the Runabout, several rounds bouncing off their armor.

As Tollel swiveled the turret around to fire on the second car, it decelerated and dodged behind a small hill, frustrating her aim. She cursed and looked for the other car.

The first car moved in again, scoring a long burst on the Runabout's armor, sparks flying as the heavy rounds bounced off. The grenade launcher on the car fired, but the grenade was poorly aimed, flying high over its target and blowing up some empty countryside.

Despite Leu's jinking across the road, Tollel managed to put a three round burst into the first car. The high explosive, dual purpose rounds penetrated the passenger compartment before detonating, spraying a deadly cloud of shrapnel that shredded the occupants. Losing control, the car swerved off the road, flipped over and began rolling for almost a hundred meters before coming to a stop. Anyone who hadn't been killed by the shrapnel died in the wreck.

Seeing this, the rotor swooped in to assist the second car. All thoughts of taking them alive was given up, and the attackers were going for the kill.

A target lock icon appeared as Leu was swerving across the road. A second later a puff of smoke came from the rotor as it launched a missile. The Runabout's EW suite automatically fired chaff. After a heart stopping moment, the missile locked onto the chaff instead of the car, and detonated harmlessly in midair.

At the same time, Tollel fired off a three round burst at the second car. It bounced over a small rise just as she fired. Instead of the rounds striking the passenger compartment as intended, they hit the front of the car, shredding the front tires and destroying the engine. When the car landed, the driver lost control, and it flipped over and slid for several meters on its roof. The top gunner was strong enough to keep his grip as the vehicle rolled over, an action he probably regretted as he was caught between the roof and the road and turned into a red paste, marking the path of the rapidly disintegrating car. His compatriots were bounced around the inside, one being ejected from the car to go pinwheeling across the countryside in a tangle of shattered bones and broken limbs, while the others were battered and crushed in the wreckage.

The rotor swept in, firing its twin machine cannons and launching another missile as it came. The second missile chased after the chaff again, while Leu's evasive maneuvers dodged all but one of the machine cannon rounds. That one struck the side, knocking the car sideways and peeling off some of the armor, but failing to penetrate.

While Leu fought for control, Tollel switched magazines to armor piercing and fired at the rotor. At first she was elated. A direct hit with all three rounds. Her elation turned to horror as she saw the rounds bounce off a force shield.

As the rotor overflew them to the left, she fired a longer burst, with the same results.

"Leu!" she screamed. "They have shields! I can't get through!"

"Aw, Sheol," Leu muttered. "I knew I should have sprung for the missile pod.

"Keep trying," he said. "Maybe you can get through with enough shots."

Tollel locked on and fired a ten round burst. Despite its maneuvers, several rounds still hit, but the rotor's shields deflected them harmlessly away from the craft. Desperately, Tollel kept firing, expending the magazine in a futile attempt to penetrate the shields.

The rotor looped around, and came at them from the front. The gunner guessed correctly which direction Leu was going to jink, and walked his fire up the front of the Runabout. The sustained hits penetrated the front armor, shredding the engine and blowing off a tire. The rounds continued up the vehicle, spiderwebbing the windshield, peeling off some of the roof armor and mangling the turret as the rotor overflew them.

Leu fought for control of the car, managing to keep it from rolling over as it came to a stop in a cloud of dust off the side of the road.

Staring out the cracked windshield, Leu and the others watched helplessly as the rotor circled around for a frontal attack. With the engine wrecked and the turret out of commission, there was nothing they could do to stop it.

When the dust cloud settled, the rotor began its strafing run, machine cannons blazing......

To be continued...