The Vang 3: The Battle Master by Christopher Rowley

Author:Christopher Rowley [Rowley, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780345358592
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 1990-09-13T07:00:00+00:00

The Secondary Form was sent into the cave and left behind. The Battlemaster retraced its tracks, erasing most of the evidence of their passage. Then, hefting the gun, it went on, around behind the humans and through the ambush point and down a shallow valley.

To one side lay a boxed-in canyon, a pocket eroded from the limestone behind a barrier of some harder stuff.

The Battlemaster discerned movements within this canyon. It moved to gain a vantage point above the open space within.

Here extreme care had to be used to avoid detection by the humans. There were lookouts posted above on the tops of a rock spire at one side of the canyon entrance.

The Battlemaster reached a position within a cleft of rock. A nest of wild bees was nearby, and they reacted to the presence of the intruder with a few stings.

The intruder did not react to the stings and did not make any overtly hostile move toward the nest. The bees gave up after a while and went back to their daily round.

The Battlemaster ignored the stings, though the hostform jerked with each one. As the histamine reaction began the Battlemaster intervened to damp it down; the hostform could be required for peak activity at any moment.

After a while the other humans returned, mostly in a group accompanying the ATV that had been rescued from the brambles.

Others appeared from the caves and formed a group around the ATV. Some began to disassemble it.

The fuel cells were removed and examined.

Exercising extreme care, the Battlemaster worked its way back up the slopes behind the box canyon and eventually returned to the narrow cave where the Secondary Form was hiding.

All was undisturbed. The Secondary Form had healed its wounds and begun the repair of the internal organs. However, both hostforms were hungry and food was required.

The Battlemaster hunted through the thickets and discovered a rabbit, which it ran down and killed. It gave the rabbit to the Secondary Form and went on until it had found a couple of sluggish lizards. These it ate quickly, stripping off the skins and jerking the flesh down the gullet.

To supplement this the Battlemaster tried various plants growing wild. Many had defensive alkaloids, but from sorrel and wild parsley it took several sprigs for their essential vitamins.

Quite rapidly the food replenished the Battlemaster's strength.

With the Secondary Form following close behind it began to move back toward the box canyon where the humans were encamped.

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