Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Far Beyond the World
Part XXVIII - Two for the Show
On the western outskirts of the Inner City known as New Chicago...
It happened hard and fast, as must catastrophic things do.
One moment the Draconian warrior manning the pilot chair of the lead hover-tank was half-dozing while his rotating tactical display was empty, the next moment he was wide awake as the screen lit-up with multiple readings.
"By the Royal House--what is that?!"
The Gunnery Officer looked up from his own nap sharply, "Sir? What is it?"
"Dial up Tactical!"
He did so and gaped at the readings, "Isn't that-"
"It is!"
And over the rise, followed by a wave of swirling grit and dust, came a pair of hover-tanks. But you couldn't see them, not one inch of their exterior armor, because they were covered in blue-robed Nomads. They were piled three bodies-deep all over the two tanks and more Nomads clung along both the fore and after blaster cannons. There had to be nearly fifty to a tank and as the two war machines roared toward the edge of the city, and the line of hover-tanks there, the Nomads started peeling themselves off and springing from their perches.
"By Draconia!" stared the battalion leader, "This--This is what we need to do!"
"Yes, sir!"
"We-" but his command was lost to the winds of eternity as the fore canon of the hover-tank on the left had cleared of bodies and without hesitation it had fired, sending it's devastating purple tri-beam flying across the rapidly narrowing gap and it slammed into the front of the lead tank and pulverized it's forward section, atomizing the battalion commander and sending whizzing shrapnel back across the crampt cabin to shred the startled gunner.
And a moment later the rest of the tank detonated, just like the one beside it, followed by two more. By that time the remaining four tanks guarding this segment of New Chicago's boundary had recovered from their shock and were swivelling their canons to bear upon the turncoat tanks, but then the first wave of running Nomads reached them and dived underneath, rolling past the glowing yellow repulsorlifts the tanks floating upon and they were slapping homemade charges to the utility hatch there.
The Nomads scrambled free and a second later four muffled explosions sounded one-after-another, sending smoke billowing out from the ventral sides of the tanks, while inside their compartments, pilots and gunners were jarred and stunned.
The Nomads crawled back under the tanks and were up and inside within moments, before even one warrior could recover and draw his blaster. The eight Draconians died in less then two seconds, then the hatches clanged shut and the tanks rotated around to bear upon the Inner City, joining up with the two tanks they had rode in on, the one Buck Rogers had captured and the one they themselves had taken in ambush, now repaired. And with that the Nomads now had six tanks instead of just two and they rumbled into the city and went looking for trouble in the most obvious fashion...
* * * * *
On the opposite side of New Chicago...
"That's our signal." said Captain Buck Rogers as he lay in the dirt between Twiki and Dr. Huer, peering through a pair of macronoculars.
The six hover-tanks guarding this segment had rotated around 180 degrees and set off into the city in a rush, leaving the entrance unguarded.
Buck grinned, "Looks like Thaelin did his thing to the letter. Those mutants are smarter then they look."
"They are indeed." agreed Huer, "Though I think they jumped at the idea of invading the Inner City a little too eagerly."
"That's for the diplomats to sort out once Earth is ours again, Doc." said Buck as he climbed to his feet and dusted off his vintage blue jeans and brown leather bomber jacket.
He'd borrowed the outfit from the Nomads, but drawn the line at wearing the robes. It turned out that the mutants had lots of 20th Century clothing in storage, but they actually preferred the ragged hand-woven robes and accrutements of their struggling ancestors.
To each their own, thought Buck as he and the others set off at a run into the city, their loss is my gain. It's nice to feel normal again. Plus, looking like the Marlboro Man I bet I can kick all kinds of extra butt!
A leather hip-holster clung to his right side, but in it was no 20th Century automatic pistol, nope, but a big-bore Draconian blaster pistol, and it certainly wasn't set on Freeze.
Neither were the blaster rifles he and Huer were toting. This wasn't a game, they were playing for keeps, and pity the Draconians who tried to get in their way!
"There!" shouted Buck as a pair of warriors emerged from the front of a blasted-out pharmacy, their arms laden down with pill bottles.
The Drac's dropped their purloined drugs in surprise and went for their blasters, but Buck and Huer had their own rifles at the ready as they ran and blue fire blazed forth and that was the end of them.
"Bidi-bidi-bidi! Give'em one for me, guys!" chortled Twiki as he raced behind them as fast as his little legs could carry him, Dr. Theopolis banging against his chest as he ran.
"Try and keep me steady, Twiki!" cautioned the Quad to the Ambuquad, "I am not as tough as I look!"
"Yer doin just fine, blinky!" replied the drone as Buck's rifle swung toward a Draconian who came hurtling out of an alley. He sent him blasting back into it in a hail of aquamarine a second later, while Huer snapped up his own blaster, firing from his shoulder, and took out a sniper three stories up.
The armored man screamed and plummeted down onto the sidewalk in a heap, the invading trio tore past him and Buck gestured with the barrel of his blaster, "Look! There!"
The other three did and they saw a rust-colored Draconian tram a block ahead, with a Lieutenant and two of his warriors standing between them and it. The leader growled orders at his men then spun around and raced for the sleek transport.
"Take'em DOWN!" roared Buck and he let loose with his rifle.
The two Draconians were already firing back and Dr. Huer dodged to the right, while Twiki jumped behind an overturned refuse bin, covering Theopolis with his graspers.
Blaster fire lashed down the street and slapped at Huer's heels as he hoofed it into an alleyway, while Buck stood his ground and fired back, the stalk of the blaster rifle hard to his right hip. A blue bolt sizzled past his face while another charred the thermocrete a foot before his feet, but the warriors were firing wildly and he knew it. Buck was not, he was a stoney block of resolve and his aim was true, his finger churned on the trigger of his rifle and sent back hot plasmatic death, and first one soldier had his left arm blown off at the shoulder, and then the second lost the top of his helmet, and with it his life.
They went down hard, the one without an arm howling to the heavens, Huer shot him dead from the alley even as Buck torpedoed past him toward the Draconian personal transport vehicle. The Lieutenant was half into it, reaching for the boxy comlink he'd left on the seat, but he saw Buck coming for him and jumped back out, quick-drew his blaster pistol and fired!
He's FAST! Buck's instinct's yelled and he threw himself down, diving toward the pavement, losing his rifle in the process, and the Lieutenant's energy bolt flashed over his head, missing by inches, then he landed hard and scrambled for his own weapon, yanking it free of the holster in a blur, while he rolled to the side, another bolt slamming down into the street where he'd just been.
"Hold still, human!" snarled the bearded Lieutenant as he pivoted in place, fanning his pistol after Rogers, who was rolling sideways across the street in a rush.
And Buck did as demanded, jarring to a stop on his back, blaster held out before him and quick-aiming upside-down he blasted off a shot, vaporizing the Draconian's left ankle.
He screamed in agony and pitched over backwards. Buck rolled over and sprang up, finished him off with a second bolt, then rushed past him to the tram, piled inside.
Dr. Huer and Twiki ran up a moment later, the silver drone bearing his fallen blaster rifle, and they got in. The older man looked around at the open-air passenger compartment, "Is this vehicle safe?"
"It's more for show then for combat, yeah." Buck finished analyzing the controls and found what he was looking for, the engine roared to life and they shot away with a glow of ventral repulsors, "Back in the 20th Century they called a rig like this a convertible."
"Convertible into what?" Theopolis's receptors blinked as Buck reached maximum acceleration and sent them hurtling through an intersection without bothering to check if anything was coming at them laterally.
"Well, if it had a roof, then it would be retractable."
"But this craft does not have a roof." said the AI as they roared up an embarkment and rocketed down a raised overpass, white-walled New Chicago buildings blurring beneath them, while skyscapers winged by on both sides.
"Don't make me toss you overboard, Theo." growled Buck.
"No need to get testy, Captain, I was only making an observation."
"Why don't you 'observe' how far we are from the Energy Directorate Building, Doc."
"Checking...we will arrive there in two point three seven minutes, if you take the next exit on the left."
"Gotcha!" and Buck sent the tram shooting down the offramp and plunged into the heart of the city.
They shot down the descent for thirty seconds, then turned onto a curving bend, without Buck slowing down even one iota.
"Be careful, Buck! If we crash, this will be over before it's started!" warned Dr. Huer as he clung to the passenger seat for dear life, while Twiki, who was sitting in his lap with Theopolis on his, gripped the door and dash tightly with his graspers.
"I know what I'm doin, Doc!" Buck grinned as the wind screamed around their stolen tram, "I was born to raise hell!"
"This I know all too well!" replied Huer as Buck pulled them out of the tight turn and levelling out at ground-level they shot through a short tunnel and emerged on the opposite side, where the rising ivory spires of the Energy Directorate Building rose up before them like the battlements of a fairy castle.
"Home again, home again," chanted Buck in excitement, "jiggedy...jig...aw, crap..." and he slammed on the brakes.
Their tram ground to a halt in a blast of reverse repulsors and they came to a jarring hover in the middle of the road.
Dr. Huer stared aghast at what lay ahead, while Buck slumped back in the driver's seat, his face miserable.
"So much for that." he growled and punched the steering column.
"Yes, Buck, so much for that." replied Huer sadly, as they beheld the base of the Building, which had a hole blasted through it nearly twenty meters wide and at least six stories of it's interior were caved in on it, completely blocking access to it's equipment, which meant it was impossible to bring the Defense Shield and Global Pulsar Batteries back online to use against the Draconians.
"Bidi-bidi-bidi," moaned Twiki, "the quarterback is toast..."
To be continued...