Bolo Strike by William H. Keith

Author:William H. Keith [Keith, William H. ]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0-671-31835-7
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Published: 2001-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

I wait while Major Ramirez, Lieutenant Bucklin, and Lieutenant Tyler exit my aft hatch and make their way clear of any possible danger from rock or debris kicked up by my aft tracks. At Colonel Streicher's command, then, I engage my drive and begin moving on a course of one-two-five, angling toward the city of Ghendai. I am concerned about leaving the command staff in this exposed position but know it would be much worse if a battle took place in their immediate vicinity.

We will not be gone for long, however. I deploy one of my Dragons and two Wyverns to stay close, just in case.

* * *

Elken, in troll form, sat strapped and squeezed into the narrow, upright seat on board the black and yellow godflier as it emerged from a hidden tunnel entrance, normally covered over by a slab of featureless ferrocrete. A second flier followed close behind as the two streaked across grassland, hugging the undulations and folds in the ground to avoid enemy radar detection.

The Sky Demon Bolo has been lured away to the southeast, the god's voice said inside his thoughts. We are deploying mobile guns to deal with the forces left to guard the enemy ship. You should have no trouble carrying out your mission.

They would still have to move quickly, in and out as fast as a striking seadart. As soon as the enemy Bolo figured out what was going on . . .

"Contact!" the godflier's pilot called from the cockpit forward. "Hold on, back there, trolls! This is going to get a little rough!"

The godflier swooped nose-high, and Elken heard the shriek-bang thunderclap of particle guns firing.

He clutched his gauss rifle more tightly against his armored chest and waited.

* * *

Long moments after the Bolo had dwindled in a cloud of dust over the southeastern horizon, Lieutenant Kelly Tyler was still seething from the unfair treatment she'd received at the hands of Colonel Streicher. Damn the man, she thought. He has no right! . . .

And yet a part of her tried to soothe, tried to calm and smooth ruffled emotions over. Of course he had the right. He was the regimental commander, her commanding officer.

But Victor was hers. . . .

"Kelly!" Major Ramirez shouted suddenly, intruding on her black thoughts. "Incoming!"

Major Ramirez was standing in the shadow of the ECD spacecraft, waving to her frantically. Kelly was still out in the open. She'd been unwilling to jog clear of Victor with Lieutenant Bucklin, favoring instead a sullen, dogged walk, and had been left by herself on the field. She'd not even realized she was now alone.

North, something like a six-legged spider was stalking rapidly across the plain, a blocky, turreted body suspended beneath the housing that connected six massive, trunklike legs.

She'd seen the thing in military ID downloads. It was a Mobile Armored Gun Battler, code-named Tarantula by the Confederation. Employed as a kind of slow, mobile fortress to engage armor and air assets, it was far too lightly armored

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