by Ken Lozito
Connor saw where the canyon walls narrowed, making driving through it almost impossible, even with things like a double-jointed axle assembly that allowed the wheels of the ATV to function at steep angles. Perhaps he should consider submitting a request to have the Field Ops development team build an ATV that could also fly short distances. He glanced upward and noted the jagged walls of the narrow canyon. Maneuverability would still be a problem in these close quarters.
"Have a little faith," Connor said.
He walked ahead and ran his fingers along the canyon wall. As he expected, it was mostly comprised of dry rock to match the season they were in. If they'd had some explosives with them, they could have blasted enough away to widen the path.
Ian powered on the ATV and turned on the headlights, then stepped out from the vehicle and came over behind him. He glanced at the SD-15 in Connor's hand. “I’m not sure that's going to do anything for us,” he said.
“Not with the default setting, but we can modify it. Do you have yours handy?” Connor asked.
Ian shook his head and went back to the ATV. “At least they had the foresight to come stocked for a survey mission,” he said.
Connor had a small side panel open on the SD-15. “I said Dash was reckless, not stupid.”
Ian snorted. “Alright, what are you doing with that thing?”
“Modifying the threshold for the sonic-field emitter so it directs a more powerful blast, but it only has an effective range of about one meter. I figure it should be enough to make this path just a bit wider,” Connor said.
Ian watched for a moment. “And you say you didn’t get into trouble as a kid.”
Connor smiled. “You’d be surprised by some of the skills you can acquire by getting into some trouble,” he said and closed the side panel. “Let’s try this one first, and if it works the way I think it will, we’ll modify yours.”
Ian frowned. “What happens if it doesn’t work?”
Connor frowned, feigning ignorance. “Not sure,” he said in a careless tone and squatted down by the wall. He glanced up at Ian. “It could take my hand off, so be ready with a tourniquet, and be sure to grab whatever’s left of my hand.”
“Maybe we should wait a minute and test this thing out first,” Ian said, sounding genuinely alarmed.
“Nah, it’ll be okay. Or it could just fizzle out, but if I’m right, it should do something like this,” Connor said and placed the end of the SD-15 close to the canyon wall, then squeezed the trigger. An ear-piercing blast shot from the weapon and gouged a three-meter section of the canyon wall into dust. Connor felt the powerful blast press back against his chest, and Ian jumped nearly a full meter away.
Connor grinned and then coughed. “I think that should work.”
Ian’s eyes were wide as he looked at the pathway. “I didn’t know these things could pack that kind of punch.”
Connor smiled. “They can if you override the safeties, but it’ll only get three shots like that one before the power needs to recharge.”
Connor fired his remaining two shots and then modified Ian’s SD-15. Though Ian was twenty years Connor’s senior, he grinned as he was about to take his first shot.
“Just make sure you hold it firmly,” Connor warned.
Ian nodded and squeezed the trigger. Connor kept an eye on the upper canyon walls in case they’d inadvertently started a landslide while Ian finished firing his salvo, and Connor thought it looked like they could squeeze the ATVs through.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of shifting rocks along the wall and Ian glanced at Connor in alarm.
“We’ve got to move! Get in the ATV, now!” Connor said.
Connor ran back to their ATV while Ian leaped inside the one Dash had borrowed and darted ahead. Connor slammed his foot down on the accelerator and the tires spit out rocks and dirt behind him in a long stream until they managed to bite into the ground. Then the ATV lurched forward. Connor glanced up at the canyon walls as a rocky cloud of debris began to slide down over him. Rocks and pebbles pelted the armored roof of the Polaris ATV.
“Come on, baby. Just a little farther,” Connor urged.
The ATV was struck by a small boulder and Connor bounced around in the cab. He kept his foot on the accelerator and steered the ATV away from the landslide, but he could hardly see in front of him. The ATV was slowing down, succumbing to the weight of the rockslide.
Connor growled and the electric motor let out a high-pitched squeal as he engaged the high gear. After a heavy moment, the ATV slowly started to move and Connor extended the suspension kit, forcing the tires into the ground. The ATV burst forward, throwing dirt and rock out in front of it like a dark wave, and then he was clear.
Connor blew out a breath and caught up with Ian.
“That was too close,” Ian said.
“It was,” Connor agreed.
He heard Ian sigh. “I thought I was either going to have to dig you out of there or explain to Lenora how I had to leave you buried alive.”
Connor watched as Ian began driving forward.
“Glad to save you from Lenora’s wrath. Now, come on. We need to get caught up,” Connor replied.
Connor sent the drones ahead. He doubted the ryklars would be running along the canyon floor. They could quickly scale the walls with those claws of theirs and have the high ground.
“Damn it, Dash,” Connor said, gritting his teeth.
No one else was going to die on his watch. Enough people had already done so and he’d be damned if Dash and the others he’d convinced to come with him on this foolish trip would fall victim to the whims of the young.
Chapter Five
Dash glanced toward the door, which was covered with thick, tan vines, but that wouldn't offer much protection if the ryklars outside discovered they were in there. He heard Jim trying to calm Selena down.
“What are we going to do?” Merissa whispered.
Dash had no idea. He'd never encountered ryklars before. He was aware of them, of course. All the colonists knew about one of New Earth’s apex predators. He'd read reports, but he'd never had a firsthand encounter with them. Their cries made his skin crawl. He tried to block out the sound and gestured for the others to come closer. “We sit tight and remain as quiet as possible. Maybe they'll just move on,” Dash whispered.
The ryklars communicated with each other through a series of harsh grunts and screeches. Dash knew they were susceptible to sound, particularly at the ultrahigh frequencies. A loud cry echoed from outside, much closer than the others had been before. Selena jumped and then immediately clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle a yelp. Jim put his arm around her shoulder. Merissa glanced up at the roof and Dash followed her gaze to the hole he'd descended through. For the last five minutes, the ryklars had been running around outside, scouting the area, searching for them. The more Dash thought about it, the more he started to believe the ryklars had tracked them there from the canyon. He didn’t want to think about what would have happened if the ryklars had caught them out in the open.
Merissa came over to his side and leaned in. “What if they don't go away?” she asked.
Dash tried to think of something they could do, and for a moment his mind went blank. They still had drones in the area, so he opened the comlink to one of them and a video feed appeared on his internal heads-up display. The drone was in wide-area-patrol mode high above them and he angled the camera feed to point down toward the NEIIS building. The ryklars had leopard-like spots with a gray hide on their backs. They had two sets of arms and thick, muscular legs. When they stood up straight, they were over two meters tall, with rippling muscles. They were immensely strong and their claws could rend through the hardened alloys used on armored ATVs. The ammunition they used for the CAR-74 hunting rifles could penetrate even the toughened ryklar skin, but the rule was to avoid a confrontation. Ryklars were cunning hunters and it seemed that they had somehow stumbled onto the research party’s scent.
“How many of them
are out there?” Jim asked.
Dash engaged the drone's recognition software so it would identify individual ryklars and a count appeared on his heads-up display. Dash shared a map of the immediate area with the others, and as the drone identified ryklars, markers began to appear on the map for the creature’s locations. The drone made a wide arc of the area and the count went up to over forty, but only twenty of them were near the NEIIS building.
“There's so many!” Selena said with a gasp, looking at Jim in alarm, her eyes wide with terror.
“Hey,” Dash said calmly. “We need to keep it together. If we panic, they'll find us. We just need to wait them out.”
Selena nodded her agreement, but as she did so, they heard loud footfalls on the roof. The four of them instantly froze, hardly daring to breathe. Another ryklar reached the roof. They couldn't see them through the hole, but they heard them shuffling around. Loud blasts of air came from the ryklars' mouths.
Dash gestured for the others to move toward the wall. He brought his rifle up and Jim did the same. Merissa had hers ready, but Selena's hands were shaking so badly that Dash just wanted her to keep still. Dash watched the gaping hole until his vision blurred and he slowly switched the safety off his rifle.
Don't come in here. Don't find us. We’re not here.
Dash kept silently urging them to just move on, but he saw a shadow move across the opening in the roof and his heart sank. This wasn't going to work. The ryklars were going to find them in here. If they left the shelter, the ryklars would pounce on them, so they had to stay in here as long as they could. Dash frowned, trying to think of something he could do to buy them some time, and his eyes widened as an idea popped into his head. He opened the drone’s control interface and engaged the comms systems, then put his hand over his mouth to muffle the sound he was about to make. As he started making growling noises, the ryklars heard him through the drone outside the building. He had the drone fly by the ryklars in a sweeping arc, snatching their attention. The ryklars on the roof padded off and leaped to the ground. Dash continued to make noises, doing everything he could think of so the ryklars would stay focused on the drone and not the building they were in.
He glanced at the others and they were watching his actions in surprise. Then Merissa nodded encouragingly. Dash wasn't sure how long he could keep this up, but it seemed to be working for now.
“I’m going to check the door,” Jim whispered.
Dash nodded.
Merissa went over to Selena’s side and Jim quietly went to the door. He took a deep breath and peered around the corner, trying to see through the vines, but his foot slipped on the mossy ground and he stumbled forward. As his shoulder slammed into the doorframe, his finger involuntarily reacted on the trigger and a single shot burst from his CAR-74 hunting rifle. Dash was so startled that he stopped making noises and everything went quiet for a heart-stopping moment. Then the ryklars screeched in alarm and Dash watched the video feed in horror as they converged on the building.
Dash looked over at Merissa. “I need you to cover the roof with your rifle. Got it?” he said
Merissa brought her rifle up and aimed it at the roof. After a moment, Selena did the same. Dash hastened over to Jim, who was muttering an apology. Dash waved it off; there was nothing they could do about that now. He hovered in the edge of the doorway and peered through the vines. The heavy footfalls of a ryklar charged right up to the wall of vines and stopped. He could only glimpse the creature, though it was less than two meters away. Dash aimed his rifle where he thought the creature's head was and waited.
The creature blasted an ear-piercing screech—a hunting tactic ryklars used to startle their prey—but Dash had been expecting it. For a fleeting moment, Dash's eyes locked with the ryklar's feral gaze. Then, with sickening clarity, Dash saw the ryklar charge forward and he fired his weapon. The slug tore through the vines and into the ryklar’s head, silencing it, and he heard the dull thump as the ryklar stumbled backward. There was a moment of heavy silence and then the other ryklars started charging toward them, shrieking.
Jim took a position on the other side of the doorway, but they could hardly see through the tangled vines. They had to wait until the ryklars were directly in front of the doorway before they could shoot, so the ryklars quickly adapted and began to avoid the direct route.
Jim kept blindly firing his weapon and missing.
“Conserve your ammo,” Dash warned. “We need to make each shot count.”
The ryklar count had jumped to forty-eight. Dash encoded a distress beacon into the drone and sent it high into the sky. The distress beacon would broadcast at the strongest possible signal within the drone’s capabilities. Hopefully, somebody would receive it and send help.
Dash kept a careful watch on the doorway, but the ryklars were regrouping.
“Dash,” Jim hissed. “I’ve got a signal for the ATV—our ATV!” he said, his voice rising in surprise.
Dash frowned and brought up the PDA interface on his HUD. Sure enough, there was a return ping from their ATV. How the hell did it get here?
Merissa glanced over at them and then back up at the hole in the roof. “What's happening?” she asked.
“Help is on the way. We just have to hold out,” Dash said.
Just then, several ryklars climbed onto the roof and the team heard more scaling the sides of the wall.
Oh crap, Dash thought.
He glanced at Jim. “Cover that door. We have to be ready!” Dash said.
He moved away from the doorway and positioned himself midway between Merissa and Jim so he could assist both of them since he was a much better shot than Jim. He tried opening a comlink to the ATV, but just as he engaged the link, a ryklar dropped through the hole in the roof. Then the screaming began.
Chapter Six
They'd been making steady progress through the canyon, going as quickly as they could, knowing that the ryklars were closing in on Dash and the others. Connor hoped they’d found shelter. As foolish as Dash was, he could also think on his feet and Connor hoped it was enough.
The path had widened and Connor moved his ATV into the lead. Ian was driving the damaged one and Connor didn’t want to risk it any more than necessary. He hoped the ryklars would concentrate on his vehicle when they caught up to them.
The ryklars were cunning hunters. He had little doubt that they had picked up Dash's trail and were tracking them wherever they were. Field biologists often reported that the ryklars would only relent if there was an overwhelming show of force. This behavior was also influenced by whether the ryklar pack had recently consumed a meal. Unless the ryklars were under the influence of the NEIIS and their ultrahigh-frequency devices, they would rarely kill for sport. They hunted to survive but were also territorial. The colonists hadn't tracked ryklar activities beyond colonial encampments, something else they would have to rectify now that they were making a permanent home here on New Earth.
Connor sent his two recon drones to scout the area ahead. As they reached the end of the canyon, he detected the signal of a third drone—the drone that was registered to the ATV Dash had used. At least he'd had the forethought to take a recon drone with them. If their drone was still active, there was a good chance they were still alive.
Connor tasked one of the drones to scan ahead with infrared while the other one scanned with sonic wave detectors because it was hard to predict whether the ryklars would try to conceal their presence. They could hide their body heat at will and then the only way to detect them was through the sounds of their heartbeats. The infrared tactical display appeared on his HUD and he noted the drone had detected over forty ryklars in the area, and their numbers kept rising. They seemed to be gathering around a structure that was almost entirely covered with thick vines. Connor had seen these vines before. They were quite common throughout New Earth and were incredibly durable. He’d made use of such vines while training early Search and Rescue teams to build a hoist or any number of things.
Connor noted that there were several dead ryklars just outside a particular area of the NEIIS building, so he assumed there must be a doorway hidden nearby. He broadcast a comlink and it was immediately answered.
“Connor, thank god you're here! We've got ryklars attacking us in here! Please help!” Dash said.
Connor heard the sound of CAR-74 hunter rifles being fired and saw ryklars storming the roof.
“Those kids don't have much time. Whatever we’re gonna do, we need to do it fast,” Ian said.
Their ATVs didn't have any weapons, so the only thing they could do was try to bait the ryklars into chasing them.
“I'm going to try to draw them away,” Connor said and glanced at the other ATV. “I want you to hang back and see what they do. If you see an opportunity to get near that building, go for it.”
Connor had kept the comlink open so Dash would know what they were planning even if he couldn’t answer them.
Ian pulled his ATV over to the side and opened the door. He kept his foot on the door while he stood up so he could get a high vantage point of the building the kids were trapped in, then brought his rifle up and began firing on the ryklars.
Connor slammed his foot on the accelerator and the ATV darted forward. He drove straight toward a cluster of ryklars and slammed his palm down on the horn, startling them. Connor plowed into the nearest ones and the creatures screeched in pain as over twenty-five hundred kilograms of hardened metallic alloy crushed three ryklars before they could scramble out of the way. The ryklars regrouped and turned away from the building, jumping off the roof and barreling toward the ATV. Connor jerked the steering wheel and pressed down on the accelerator. Multiple ryklars slammed themselves right into his vehicle, which rocked violently with the impact. Connor heard several animals stomping on the roof. The ryklars snarled as they tried to claw their way inside and Connor yanked the steering wheel from side to side, trying to throw them off. Then he jammed on the brakes and the ryklars were flung forward. Connor pressed down the accelerator to run them over and one of the ryklars pulled its companion out of the way.
