Shimazu stepped further forward and to the left, and found himself sinking to just below the knee in the fine ash and rocks that covered the surface of the slope. His left foot landed at an angle and he realised that the ground underneath the ash was jagged and rough.
"Watch your footing, the ash is deep here and the rocks are uneven!" He lifted his sword to a high guard position, holding it over his centre of gravity to help him balance as he adjusted his feet to try and get a better position, watching the pack of beasts pad down the slope towards them. Unable to find a good purchase, he pushed forwards a little more, then a bit further, but just found more of the same uneven terrain, knife-like ridges of rock covered in deep drifts of pulverised rock and dust.
Aswon moved up behind him, the ash only rising up to his mid-shin level, but just as cloying and treacherous. He had to lean forwards to balance, the steep slope rising towards the crater rim only fifty metres above them, but as he powered up the slope after Shimazu, he activated his spear, feeling the magical energies course through him.
On the right flank, Hunter raised the barrel of the gun, snugging the padded brace into his shoulder and laying the targeting reticule over the closest beast as it charged down to the slope towards them. With a mental command the gun switched over to automatic and then fired, a long burst ripping from the barrel. Copper jacketed rounds hit the creature as it approached, but at least half the rounds seemed to glance off the scales that covered the side of the creature, while the rest dug in only just below the surface. When the explosive cores detonated, they blew outwards, sending scales and flesh flying into the air, wounding the creature, but not slowing it down – at least not yet, anyway.
Tads was a step behind and to his right, and as the creatures closed she concentrated and looked at her team, extending her magical defences over them. They looked like large lizards, but there was no telling if any of them had magical powers – Aswon had hinted that they might be fire-breathers, and if so her spell shielding might be the difference between escape and being char-grilled in a close encounter with one of them.
The first of the creatures leapt at Shimazu, stubby little legs propelling it through the air as it bounded off of a boulder, and the jaws opened wide, revealing rows of fangs, serrated cutting and grinding surfaces that lined the side of the mouth and led to a gullet that looked suspiciously light – almost as if it was glowing.
Shimazu's sword flashed down and sideways as the beast tried to bite at him, slicing off a large chunk of flesh from the side of its head. As he struck, the air around him was filled with debris as a swarm of superheated stones was fired into the air, driven by the roar of fury that erupted from the beast. Shimazu flinched, raising his arm to cover his face as best he could and felt the impact of the hot ejecta slam into his forearm, making the armour smoke and give off pungent fumes. The rest of the beasts gave answering roars, and continued to swarm forwards, two more on the left heading towards Aswon and Shimazu, while a few headed to the right towards Hunter and Tads.
"This does not look good!" Marius called out, unjacking from the control. The engines idled, the massive propellors turning at minimum speed and generating barely any thrust, as he clambered back through the doorway into the troop area, heading for the door on the left side of the craft – or the right as he faced the battle. "Come on, Kai!"
Kai grabbed his bow and scrambled over the cargo that blocked the access to the rear ramp, throwing the bow and his quiver forwards and then using two hands to scramble over the cargo containers and clamber past the drones, bikes and other miscellaneous gear that blocked their way.
One hand still raised to shield his face, Shimazu swung back with his sword, aiming for the now unarmoured patch of face and thrust his sword deep into the flesh. Another burst of super-heated air and shrapnel burst towards him, making him wince and sway backwards a little. He felt his feet sliding on the slope as he tried to move around, the thick ash cloying and robbing him of his accustomed nimbleness.
Aswon took a deep breath, commanding his body to be calm. Immediately his heart rate lowered a few beats, and he extended his senses, moving more carefully and with consideration. He felt his way through the ash, moving through it rather than fighting it, trying to understand the flow of the particles around him rather than just bulldoze his way through the obstacle. Advancing, he stabbed forward, trying to distract the second creature that was moving in towards Shimazu's flank, the tip of his spear skating down the armoured scales until it found a weak point and then penetrating the hide shallowly. The head snapped around to roar at him, and the same blast of heat and near-molten stone shards pelted him, making him, too, flinch and try to cover his face.
As he turned slightly to try and shield his exposed flesh, his left ear caught a low rumble, an almost inaudible gurgling that came from the direction of the first beast that now lay slumped at Shimazu's knees, slowly sliding towards him over the top layer of ash.
"Shimazu! Move back! NOW!" he shouted, ignoring the pain as a tiny pebble entered his open mouth and impacted his cheek, burning his sensitive flesh before the saliva in his mouth cooled it. He saw the lizard he'd stabbed continue to move towards Shimazu, apparently not dissuaded by his attack to its side.
Hunter switched targets, moving to another beast that was now moving towards Aswon's flank, and fired another long burst at it. The angle was slightly better, and he saw a few more rounds punch into the beast rather than skittering away harmlessly, and the explosive rounds blew fist-sized chunks of flesh and scales out, but the beast appeared to be tough and resistant to damage. It slowed, but didn't stop, continuing on its way towards the tribesman.
Tads looked at the beasts, extending her magical senses and trying to work out what the creatures were evolved or descended from. About a metre long, with perhaps another half-metre for the thick tails that swayed the opposite direction to the body, stabilising them as they ran. Short legs ending in webbed feet, each tipped with a number of razor-sharp looking talons. Armoured scales that layered down over the body with a shifting hue of reds, oranges, browns and greys, larger down the spine and smaller around the shoulders and head. So far at least, not breathing fire – though their exhalations seemed to be pelting both Aswon and Shimazu like a very small meteor storm, this appeared to be as a result of a weird biological process rather than a magical attack. She started to gather energy together, looking up the slope and wondering which creature to attack…
In the tilt-wing, Marius skidded to a halt next to the door and yanked it open, ignoring the drop below him to the steep slope. He hit the release button on the stowed gun and a smile formed on his lips as the heavy machine gun sprang free of the armoured box built into the side of the door frame. Grabbing the receiver one-handed he pulled the gun down and to the side, the articulated arm supporting the weight and making the gun float through the air. A quick check that the ammo feed wasn't kinked and he worked the bolt, feeding a round into the chamber.
Up slope, the creature swung at Shimazu again, sending a blast of superheated stones his way as it tried to bite his chest and rip him to shreds – a hasty cut of the sword fended it off, opening up a wide cut on the underside of the neck, allowing molten rocks to fall out, sizzling on the ash, sending small plumes of smoke up into the air.
"That's enough of this!" Shimazu probably wasn't even aware that he'd voiced his thoughts, concentrating instead on what he was about to do. With a flex of the knees he thrust himself upwards into the air and slightly backwards away from the creature, his legs pulling free of the cloying ash and sending rivulets cascading down the slope behind him. His jump pushed him nearly two metres back, but when he landed, he concentrated hard, spreading his weight between his feet and willing himself not to sink. He wasn't sure how it worked – clearly it was a magical effect of some kind – and he couldn't explain it to others. If pressed he'd say that somehow he imagined his feet being wider, bigger, flatter – like the legs on a crane, distributing the pressure from above. Regardless of how it worked through, it did – and his feet stayed on the top of the ash, not even depressing the surface enough to leave a footprint. Now he'd be able to move more freely, ignoring the risk of a broken ankle or a trip or fall from some unseen hazard.
Aswon looked around quickly, and with a hand he waved at the pair coming in on the right flank. "Shoot them!"
"You don't say!" Hunter's response was snarled, but the gun barrel was already tracking that way as he laid his cybernetic sights over the closest creature, getting ready to fire.
The first creature that had died, the one that had been close to Shimazu, bulged suddenly. Deep inside the stomach the processes that had kept the molten rocks moving around within it had stopped, letting the slag settle into a large pool. It started to burn through the specialised stomach lining, and then the surrounding tissue and blood vessels. When the molten mass hit the relatively cool liquid of the creature's bloodstream, it flash-boiled, building up intense pressure. The sinews and bones held for a moment, before bursting explosively.
Armoured plates, ribs, femurs, teeth, molten rocks the size of a fist – they all blasted outwards from the corpse, flying in every direction. The blast wave rolled over the other creatures armoured hides, staggering them a step, before slapping into Aswon and Shimazu, driving them back a step or two from the ferocity of the blast wave. Streaked with hot blood, intestines and a patina of chemicals that cooled and streaked their armour, they managed to bend and sway, absorbing the impact of the blast. Shimazu was intensely glad that Aswon had called out the warning – if he'd been at point blank range, there was no question that he'd have been seriously hurt, possibly incapacitated and maybe even dead from taking what looked like a claymore to the face. Let alone what the other creatures would have done to him while he was injured.
He released his grip on the sword with the right hand, leaving it in just his left, allowing him to reach down and grab his pistol from the holster on his right thigh. Fighting in melee range clearly had its drawbacks, and he took advantage of the small amount of open ground his jump had furnished him with to fire off a carefully aimed shot at the exposed throat of the next creature. His bullet punched through the open gash that his sword had cut, and hit something vital; the creature dropped and thrashed for a few moments before laying still. An ominous gurgling sound emerged from its stomach, and without needing to think about it both Aswon and Shimazu started to reposition themselves, moving away from the blast zone. Aswon swayed and shimmied again, cutting through the ash and using the length of his legs to his advantage, while Shimazu smugly just danced across the surface.
On the right flank, Hunter fired another long burst, rippling explosions gouging chunks down the flank of the closest target. It was driven back on its squat legs, blood spraying from wounds and a long bellow of pain ripping from its throat. He could see flashsd of red and yellow light from some of the wounds, indicating he'd blasted down to the stomach cavity in places, but it stubbornly refused to die, dragging itself forward towards him. The slitted eyes were locked on him, unwavering and apparently not caring about the damage inflicted – a predator completely transfixed upon its prey.
Dakkka-dakkka-dakkka-dakkka-dakkka-dakkka… the heavy machine gun rounds flew past Hunter and Tads, only clearing them by half a metre or so as Marius got the big gun in action. They hit the creature hard, penetrating from the front of the armoured plates and blasting a channel deep inside it, almost flipping it end over end as the rounds struck in short order.
More creatures emerged from the defiles and cracks choked with ash, burrowing up from their hiding places and starting to run down the slope towards them. Amongst them were some larger specimens – possibly females to the males they had seen so far, maybe adults compared to a pack of juveniles. Whatever they were, the fifty percent increase in size surely wouldn't bode well for dealing with them.
Kai had managed to worm his way out of the chopper and drew an arrow from his quiver, quickly nocked it and drew the powerful bow back until his fingers stroked his earlobe. The fingers flexed, and the limbs snapped forward, driving the heavy arrow up the slope and into the central creature. Despite the heavyweight head and the mass of the arrow, it failed to penetrate through the armoured scales, skittering off the impact site and sliding back most of the length of the creature before it wedged in between two of the scales near the base of the tail. As it slammed to a halt, the internal sensor was tripped and a short high pitched whine carried through the air as the capacitor charged – then with a bright flash, electricity arced from the arrow head, dancing and coruscating across the scales as the taser discharge arced to ground.
Tads saw the big creatures emerge along with more of the smaller ones, and quickly glanced left and right, then accelerated her movements. They weren't far up the slope, and she hoped to hell that they were just far enough. If she threw her stunball and it knocked Hunter out, he'd never forgive her – assuming that it didn't kill him indirectly. But a quick count told her that there were enough of the creatures that they wouldn't take them down in time before they were over-run.
Both her hands raised into the air, fingers grasping at the mana she had called and shaping it mentally into a ball, before she grunted and flung it at the creature that Kai had just hit, focussing on the sparks and thrashing form. The roiling mass of energy was focussed by her will and started to build up over the centre of the pack of creatures. She gasped then, as the air wobbled and warped in front of her. She saw streamers of energy lash out from the centre point of her spell, one each to the larger creatures. Mana was siphoned away, being consumed somehow by them, sucking away the power from her spell until with a sad little pop the spell dissipated entirely. A moment later the backlash hit her, ripping through her skull and catching her off balance as her mind struggled to work out what had just happened. Blood spurted from her nose and her eyes watered as if she'd just been punched in the face by a professional boxer, and she reeled to her side. Only a quickly outthrust hand from Hunter steadied her and stopped her from falling.
Off to her left, Kai and Aswon saw the spell being dissipated by the creatures and gasped, realising that their ability to deal with them as a pack had just been nullified. They couldn't afford to let the creatures close to melee range, especially not given the unstable state of their digestive systems upon death, but they didn't have the firepower to stop them all, it seemed.
Shimazu fired his pistol again, targeting a fresh creature that was sprinting down the slope towards him. Without an open wound to target, his round spanged harmlessly off the incredibly dense and tough armoured plate, ricocheting up slope with a whine. With a snarl, he rammed the gun back into the holster and resumed a two-handed grip on his sword, taking a step forward. This was going to hurt…
Aswon stabbed down with his spear, planting it into the ash while he swung his body, the rifle sliding around until he grasped it with his now-empty hands. Without time to take his normal careful aim, he snapped off a shot against the same target that Shimazu had shot, hoping the more powerful rifle round would punch through where the pistol had failed. He hit, and the round did penetrate – the tungsten-coated armour penetrators he had loaded making short work of the armour plate. Being more slender than the pistol round, though, the bullet didn't do enough damage to do more than slow the frenzied charge slightly. He forced the barrel down and fired again, the second round hitting something vital and dropping the creature in its tracks.
"Fire in the hole!" Hunter raised the rifle a few degrees, and his hand racked the underbarrel grenade launcher. The mental impulse was gone and the round already leaving the barrel as he heard several of the team cry in dismay to him. The grenade landed on target, right on top of the creature still twitching from the taser effects, exploding with a deafening roar. The blast wave drove ash up into a cloud, forming a hemisphere of particles and blasted rock that drove outwards for metres. The crack of the grenade echoed around the volcano, rumbling back and forth, sending rivulets of ash cascading down the slope as the sound wave battered at them. A thought skated through Hunter's mind – could you get ash avalanches? Presumably you could, from the shouting of his teammates.
Marius fired another burst from his door-mounted gun at the target to the far right – about the only thing he could see currently, at least until the ash started to dissipate a little. Under the impact of the 12.5mm rounds the creature was driven to the ash, skin rupturing and bursting into flames as the stomach was breached, cooking it from the inside out.
Kai likewise changed targets, aiming to his far left with a ripper head, hoping the broad slicing head might find better purchase. He was in luck with his choice of target – already wounded, it was slow moving and roaring in pain, and the arrow penetrated the head with ease, driving into the brain and slaying the beast.
A ripple of explosions rang out across the landscape, driving the ash further into the air as multiple targets started to disintegrate, their strange digestive habits turning them into bombs. The original hemisphere of ash raised by the initial grenade distorted, columns driving out and forming smaller conflicting ash clouds of their own. The team couldn't be sure what was killed by the grenade blast and what might be caused by their fellow creatures exploding – all they could see was smoke and thick haze. A moment later, though, the second wave of creatures burst out of the explosion, their bodies undulating over the surface of the slope as they charged down towards the team.
Shimazu saw one coming straight for him and sidestepped, swinging it further away from the team to try and stop its headlong process. The sword flashed out and struck a nasty blow, slicing flesh open from neck to tail all down one flank. It spun sideways, lashing out at him with jaws and Shimazu flinched as he was once more pelted with searing hot breath and rocks – but a moment later a shot rang out, punching a hole clear through the creature. It staggered sideways, a fresh bellow of pain ringing out in reflex before its internal systems collapsed, dragging it to the ground.
Aswon blinked, then spun round, changing targets and looking to see what would come into view next, while a part of his mind wished that his magazine was a little larger – he only had one round left. Another of the smaller critters angled towards him and he snapped off a shot, missing it by no more than a finger span in his haste.
A rumble sounded, and the team saw a patch of ash nearly four metres wide quiver and then slide into motion. As it slid down towards them, the motion grew wider, eroding at the ash on either side and bringing down more and more of the particles with it. The avalanche was aimed straight at Hunter and Tads, and behind them the tilt-wing.
Hunter started to wade through the knee high debris, trying to get to the side of the danger area, then gasped in surprise as he felt Tads launch herself at him and grab hold of the top of his tac-vest, trying to haul herself bodily up his back. It seemed so out of character for her, that he stopped moving entirely for a moment, trying to work out what she was doing. A split second later he understood – as he started to rise up and out of the ash, ascending vertically through the air in a smooth continuous motion.
Tads gritted her teeth with the effort as she controlled the levitate spell cast upon the big ork. She knew she didn't have the strength to lift and hold him – she was hoping that she did have the strength to hold on TO him instead. The massive headache pounded at her skull, making her vision wobble, not helped at all by the struggle of lifting the pair of them. Still, she had control of the spell – for now – and lifted them clear of the avalanche's path, and away from any remaining creatures.
Marius and Kai saw the grey wall of ash starting to build up speed, heading towards their position and the rest of the team scrambling to avoid it. Marius pushed the gun back towards the container mounted vertically by the door, jamming it back into the stowed position as he hit the control panel button to raise the rear ramp – there was no way he was letting that hit the back of their craft and flood the cargo bay – it would wreck everything!
Kai heard the motors start up behind him, and turned to see the metre-wide gap starting to close. Bow in one hand, quiver in the other he tried to run through the morass, arms windmilling and legs pumping as he bounded and hopped through the terrain, already feeling a quiver in the ground around him. As the ramp continued to close he flung himself forward, arching his back to try and bring his legs around and get through the gap before it disappeared entirely. The metal tail ramp caught his trousers as he dived through, snagging him for a moment until the fabric ripped and he sprang through, rolling down the inside of the ramp as the door sealed shut firmly behind him.
Hunter still had his rifle in his hands as he rose through the air, and as one of the larger creatures burst out of the cloud of ash, he found himself in a perfect position to stitch fire down the spine of the creature, the explosive rounds burrowing down and blowing vast chunks out of the nervous system and sending it slithering to a halt. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Aswon fire at the last remaining visible small creature, his round striking true this time and sending another corpse skidding down the ashy slope.
As the last critter Shimazu and Aswon had been facing fell, the explosion of its corpse sent another mound of ash sliding, starting a second avalanche that rumbled down towards them. Shimazu continued to track left, running across the surface of the ash and easily outpacing the slide. Aswon had a much harder time – he waded to the right, but had to slow and let the first avalanche flow past him, feeling the undertow tugging at his feet as he got a little too close for comfort, then burst into action and move into the now much shallower spot where it had been to avoid the second, as if he was playing some kind of old-school computer game, dodging obstacles as they descended upon him.
Aboard the tilt wing they heard the impact of the avalanche as it hit the back ramp, sending a deep shudder through the entire craft. Marius added power, ramping the engines back up to speed and getting them to the point where he could vault into the air if required. But, the pillars of rock raised by Tads were strong and sturdy, grounded in the bedrock itself, and the ash flowed just as quickly to either side of the angled rear of the chopper, sending two large streams of debris sliding down through the pillars. A resonant noise filled the chopper as the ash made the pillars 'sing', thousands of kilos of ash grinding away against the rock in its headlong rush to obey gravity.
The noises faded away as the slides ran past the craft, descending the slopes and picking up speed and volume, both merging into one roaring front that pounded down the slopes, annihilating vegetation on the lower slopes, sucking down entire trees under the roaring tide of grey death.
Aswon and Shimazu started to tentatively make their way back towards the chopper, careful to avoid setting off any more landslides as they did so. Kai saw them coming and slid open the other side door and prepared a rope, lowering it down to help them climb back aboard.
"Where's Tads and Hunter got to?"
"Up in the air still – I think they're looking for somewhere to drop the token." Shimazu climbed past Kai and made room for Aswon to swarm up the rope, having passed his spear up first to the outstretched hand of Kai.
About thirty metres up in the air, Tads had a problem. Along with the massive headache and the effort needed to concentrate on keeping the spell up, she was slipping. Slowly she could feel her fingers sliding across the slick material of the armoured clothing that Hunter was wearing. Both hands were clenched onto the best purchase she could find, but despite that, she could feel herself losing her grip, the materials sliding millimetre by millimetre out from between her fingers.
Hunter could feel her shifting on his back, her breath becoming more rapid and little grunts of effort. If the situation had been less dire, no doubt he'd be cracking jokes about the grunts… but he was aware that if Tads fell, from this height she could well be knocked out – and then the spell holding him up would drop. And at exactly that time, he'd drop too. And if the fall didn't drive his legs up through his hips, he doubted he could stop on the sixty degree slope without an inordinate amount of luck, and it was likely he'd bounce, tumble and fall another fifteen hundred metres after that. The armour would just help keep the pulverised gloop all in one place to make it easy for the rest of the team to scoop up.
He dropped the rifle, letting it fall on its sling and reached behind him with his hands. It was difficult, between his bulk and the constricting armour, but after a few false grabs, he found what found like the top of her trousers and managed to hook his fingers around her waistband. With that done he straightened his legs and then bent the knees, trying to lift Tads up on his calves. Once he had some of her weight on, he pulled her firmly towards him by the waistband, locking her in place.
"I've got you. You are NOT going to fall. So let go with your hands, and reach up to my right shoulder, and grab the carabiner clipped on there."
Tads took a deep breath and commanded her hands to let go, trusting to his strength and resolve, her hands moving to quickly grasp the metal clip running through his shoulder loop. Numb fingers struggled to undo the screw over the gate, but after a few seconds she managed to get it turning and unhooked.
"Ok, I got it. Now what?"
"Don't panic, but I'm going to lean you back a little bit. When you can get a hand between us, put the crab through your belt and then clip on to the load loop at the bottom of the backplate. That'll spread your weight up and over both my shoulders."
"Don't lean me! No! Hang on, I can tilt you forwards a bit." She manipulated the spell a little, tilting Hunter forward about fifteen degrees, so she just had to push herself to the vertical rather than lean back over nothingness. A bit of fumbling and she managed to get them clipped together, and even managed to turn the locking screw a turn or two. "Ok, clipped on."
"Good, I'm going to relax my arms, then legs. You'll sink a little bit, but then you'll be fine. Here we go…" She did indeed sink, and let out a little gasp as her trousers were pulled up, the waistband and belt taking the full weight of her body. Certain parts of her anatomy were put under more pressure than they were used to, sending signals to indicate their distress up to her brain, adding another thing for her to think about. "There, all fine. Ok, I'm just going to change ammo, then can you just fly us up to the crater edge so I can throw this thing in?"
He ejected the mag and stuffed it into a pocket on the front of his vest, then undid the clip holding another pouch shut and pulled out his own armour-piercing rounds – Aswon had had success with them, so he figured they should work just as well for him, and if they were going closer to any more of those critters, he wanted something that would put them down fast and hard.
They floated up to the crater rim, flying through the air smoothly and gracefully as Tads concentrated on her magical energies. When they had got over the top, Hunter pulled out the token and hurled it as far into the crater as he could, watching the stone arc through the air and land on the slope, not far above the water. It bounced and slid once, coming to a rest just above the shimmering surface of the cobalt blue water.
"That looks nice – it's a pretty blue. No doubt it would be awful to your skin, but it looks nice."
"I agree. Almost certainly going to be strongly acidic, and laced with metallic compounds. Don't think whoever comes up here after the token is going to enjoy this journey at all. Not our problem though. Oh shit…"
"What is it?"
"Turn us to the left and look right, and you can see for yourself. But then if you can get us down to the chopper, that would be good!"
Tads turned them and looked over as directed, staring across the beautiful but deadly lake to the far side of the crater, and saw the dozen or more Salamanders swarming over the ridge and rushing around the crater wall towards them.
"I guess the pack we saw on the other side heard the noise and decided to come and investigate. Ok, taking us back." She concentrated again, looping them up and over the rocks and heading back towards the tilt wing, coming in carefully along the fuselage to avoid the massive rotors which were moving fast enough to just be a blur, before neatly slotting them in through the open door.
"All aboard, Marius! Let's go!" Kai called out as soon as they were in and landed, heaving the door closed as he did. A moment later, they rose into the air, lurching slightly to the side as they did and started to fly north west, heading for the far side of the islands so they could find somewhere quiet to stop and refuel, before continuing onwards towards Hong Kong. Tads was just heading for her seat when she felt a large hand grab her and pull her backwards.
"Uurk!" She span in place as Hunter pulled her towards him, enveloping her in a big hug that he held for a few seconds. When he released her, he gave her a wink, and passed over a pack of painkillers.
"You're welcome Hunter."
