Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle by Mark E. Cooper

Author:Mark E. Cooper [Cooper, Mark E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, war, sorceress, Military, space marines, alien invasion, cyborg, merkiaari wars
ISBN: 9781905380534
Publisher: Impulse Books UK
Published: 2013-03-04T06:00:00+00:00

The morning dawned overcast and Shima expected to get wet before she found her friends. She didn’t care. Weather was just something to be endured on a hunt; nothing to be done about it, certainly no point in complaining. Her pelt would shed the rain, and she was warm enough. She had clean water and plenty of cooked meat. She ate some of the uncooked leftovers from her feast last night for breakfast, but left the rest for the scavengers to clean up. She had plenty of cooked meat in pouches on her harness. She wouldn’t need to hunt again today. She buried the ashes from her fire along with the bones in her fire pit, wanting to leave her campsite as she found it. Shima took one last look around, and set off to find her friends. She was determined to do that before night fell.

Shima travelled quickly, retracing her path and then moving into new territory in a straight line aiming for the river. She was sure Gina wouldn’t cross the river. Not that she couldn’t do so, but where was the need? Shima felt sure she would cut Gina’s trail before reaching it.

As it turned out, Shima was right, but it took longer than she thought. Gina was heading south still, following the path of the river it seemed. Nothing wrong with that, but surely a survey should cover a wider area? If Shima had to survey the valley, she would have zigzagged west to east to cover more terrain. It would slow the journey south, but that didn’t matter. The task wasn’t to follow the river, and there wasn’t an expiry date on their survey. Whatever the reason, Shima had her friend’s scent and their tracks now. She could quicken her pace even more and catch them easily before night.

Shima set out to do just that.

She realised long before finding them where they had to be. On the flight out, Kate had shown her the terrain on one of the shuttle’s displays, and she had pointed out the huge lake at the southern end of the valley where the river entered the gorge. Following the river so closely was the clue. Gina was either at the lake it emptied into, or heading directly for it. Shima didn’t know why. Perhaps Varya wanted to consider it as a location for the colony. It wouldn’t be unheard of for a Shan city to be built on the shores of a lake after all, and the idea quite intrigued her. Still, it did seem odd that the tracks arrowed right toward it without variation. Surely it made more sense to survey the entire valley on the way?

Whatever the reason, and with the aid of the harmonies and her hunting skills to avoid trouble, she arrived upon the shores of the lake safely by late afternoon.

“What took you so long,” Kate said, grinning as she approached. She was holding a stick with something edible thrust onto it. A fish. She took a bite.

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