by Isaac Hooke
The team arrived at a shimmering area of the bulkhead far to the southeast; Bright One’s pod passed through, vanishing. Rade and the others followed.
They stood on a metal pathway that appeared to lead across a bright countryside. Overhead, the illusion of sun and clouds was very convincing. On either side of the pathway tall grass led away to distant trees.
Rade realized he was in a glass tunnel that passed through one of the dinosaur habitats. He saw that the plains on either side were empty, as if all of the dinosaurs had been chased away. But by what, he couldn’t ascertain.
“Glass?” Tahoe said. “This is interesting. Why not use the membranes?”
Harlequin posed the question while he advanced.
These tunnels require far less energy to maintain than a membrane, Bright One responded. They are intended as viewing facilities for the crew. Not every Elder wishes to observe the world through the confines of the cameras.
“Why not just set up tiny exploratory drones and send them out into the environments?” Lui said.
We have those, too. But these tunnels also serve as maintenance and feeding conduits.
“Wait, aren’t there any closer lifepods?” Fret asked. “Why do we have to go through all this to evac? We don’t need the scenic route.”
I am taking you to lifepods capable of holding your large mechs. There are closer units, yes, but these are designed to interface with Elder and their transport vessels.
“The transport vessel you’re in right now looks about as big as one of our mechs...” Manic said.
Yes, but these will not fit inside the smaller lifepods either—we must dock to the lifepods and enter via an airlock. Unless we use the larger lifepods, which I am taking you to now. I could take you to the smaller units, if you were willing to abandon your mechs...
“No,” Rade said. “We’re keeping our mechs. We’ll never survive down there in our jumpsuits alone. Not if we have to face the likes of tyrannosaurs again.”
Rade sensed motion on the plains and he spotted hundreds of dark objects approaching at a run in the distance. The tunnel began to shake.
As the objects closed, Rade realized it was a herd of a hundred-plus Orodromeuses. The vaguely ostrich-like dinosaurs raced across the plains; some in the forefront occasionally tripped, only to be trampled by those that came after. A herd of Titanosaurs followed closely behind the group, towering over the first herd.
“Hey, Elder dude,” Bender said. “Don’t suppose we can get the weapons on our mechs reactivated early?”
Your weapons will reactivate when you leave the ship.
“Yeah, but it’ll be too late by then,” Bender said.
I’m sorry, but there is nothing I can do.
The shaking increased in intensity as the dual hosts approached. Upon reaching the tunnel, for the most part the dinosaurs cleared the obstacle, readily leaping over—the exterior would have been visible thanks to the reflection of light from the outer layer of glass. But some of the dinos apparently didn’t notice it because they smashed right into the translucent passage, spewing a shower of feathers into the air and cracking the panes. Sometimes their feet caught on the surface as they leaped across, tripping them, and the dinosaurs landed crashing on the other side. Those who fell were often trampled, especially when the Titanosaurs arrived. The latter beasts rarely tripped on the tunnel itself, their tall, massive legs offering easy clearance.
And then the herds were past. Rade watched the tail end move away across the plains to the left for several moments, and then he surveyed the carnage on either side of the tunnel. The glass was cracked in several places where the dinosaurs had struck. Orodromeus corpses littered either side. Some of the feathered beasts were still alive, struggling to get up, but their broken limbs prevented it.
“The hell?” Fret said. He was staring at the plains to the right, where the herds had originated.
Rade followed the gaze of Fret’s Hoplite and spotted several smaller packs of predatory Dromaeosaurs racing over the grass, followed by an extremely large T-Rex. The dark red and black plumage told him it was Betsy.
The giant carnivore occasionally overcame one or two of the Dromaeosaurs and stomped them underfoot. A trail of broken Utahraptors, Deinonychuses and Velociraptors were left in Betsy’s wake.
“Now we know what they’re running from,” Lui said.
“If I was a dinosaur,” TJ said. “I’d run, too.”
Betsy snatched a lagging Utahraptor from in front of her and crunched down on the helpless predator while swinging her head to the side, causing half the body to break away in a spray of gore.
“Wooeee, Betsy is having a field day out there,” Bender said. “I bet her pussy is wet.”
“Just like yours,” Manic said.
The Dromaeosaurs vaulted over the tunnel. The T-Rex swiped the side of her head into one last trailing Utahraptor, sending the body hurtling toward the tunnel. It smashed into the pane next to Rade, and fresh smears of blood appeared as the lifeless dinosaur slid down, making a sound like a squeegee on a windshield.
The T-Rex seemed on course to vault over the tunnel, but then her gaze alighted on the mechs and she dug in her heels, ripping away grass and tearing a short furrow in the ground as she came to a halt.
The massive carnivore bent low and nuzzled aside the feathered corpses that lined the outside of the tunnel. Apparently Betsy wanted to get a better look at the Hoplites within.
“Nobody move,” Rade said.
Betsy paused to tear into one of the broken Orodromeuses that was still struggling nearby, stilling it, and then she ran her gaze across the Hoplites sheltering behind the cracked glass. Her eyes lingered for a moment on Harlequin, who stood on the metal path outside his mech, but then she continued shifting her head, moving from mech to mech, until her eyes fell upon the transport pod that Bright One occupied.
It was at that point her nostrils widened, and she exhaled in a sudden loud, angry huff. Rade heard a drawn out guttural sound emanating from her throat, almost like a low-pitched, serrated growl.
“I don’t think she likes you,” Bender said.
Betsy drew back her head and rammed her thick muzzle into the glass like a wrecking ball. The surface in front of the Elder transport pod spidered severely. The T-Rex withdrew and head-butted the same area again, causing the cracks to expand even more.
“Uh,” TJ said. “Can we please get our weapons reactivated?”
“Bright One, does your transport pod have any weapons?” Rade asked. “If so, now would be a good time to use them. Otherwise, reactivate ours!”
My pod does, but unfortunately as a scientist I do not have the authorization to deploy them. Only a guard unit has this ability. And I can’t re-enable yours. I’m sorry.
“Without weapons, how were you planning on herding the dinosaurs like you mentioned?” TJ asked.
By frightening them.
“Don’t think that’s going to work with Betsy,” Fret said.
The T-Rex slammed into the glass tunnel once more, and this time caused visible breaches as pieces of glass fell away.
“Time to get out of here,” Rade said. “Argonauts, move!”
fourteen
The team erupted into a run and hurried down the translucent passageway. The motion drove Betsy into a frenzy, and she advanced right along with the party, repeatedly ramming into the tunnel beside them, nearly breaking through the glass each time. She targeted whatever moving object was closest to her, regardless of whether it was Bright One’s transport pod or a Hoplite. The strikes slowed her down slightly, so that soon the huge T-Rex was shadowing the mech on drag.
She struck a section of tunnel that was previously weakened by impacts from the fleeing herds, and Betsy’s head abruptly plunged inside.
Lui, on drag, was in the thing’s path; he activated his jumpjets, narrowly avoiding those massive jaws.
“Jeez,” Lui said. “I feel like a worm trying to outrun an angry woodpecker.”
<
br /> The jaws withdrew and Betsy continued following them outside the tunnel.
“Why isn’t the atmosphere from the tunnel killing it?” Manic said. “Ask Bright One!”
Harlequin typed the question as he ran.
Breach membranes have activated on either side of the tunnel, preventing more of our atmosphere from venting inside. There is more than enough breathable atmosphere in the prepared environment to absorb the harmful air. The dinosaur will notice a bad smell when she rams her head inside, and that’s about it.
“Sort of like the smell that permeates the air when Manic takes off his boots?” Bender said.
Once more Betsy breached the tunnel, and Lui nimbly dodged forward.
“Looks like she brought a friend,” TJ said.
Rade spotted another T-Rex running alongside Betsy. It was about half her size, about the same dimensions as the bull that Rade had encountered in the jungle previously.
Betsy ceased her attack attempts and merely shadowed the party, matching their speed, while the second T-Rex kept pace beside her. The pair exchanged squawks, and then the smaller one pulled ahead with incredible speed.
“What are they doing?” Tahoe said.
“They’re coordinating... planning something,” Lui said. “Can’t be good.”
“Look at the little one run,” TJ said. “Even at our top speed, we’d have trouble matching that.”
“I’d hardly call it a little one,” Lui said. “Considering it’s still three times our size.”
“Hannah,” Bender said. “I’m calling that one Hannah.”
“Cheetah would be a better name,” Fret said.
“How about Cheetos?” Manic quipped.
“Hannah bitches!” Bender said.
“What’s a Cheeto?” Harlequin asked.
Up ahead, when Hannah was roughly fifty meters in front of the party, the dinosaur began madly ramming her large muzzle into the glass panes of the tunnel.
She broke through a moment later and managed to squeeze her body entirely inside. She began to slowly worm her way toward the party in the tight confines, blocking all access forward. There was no way the team could squeeze past, not even in their jumpsuits.
“Interesting...” Tahoe said.
Rade heard a shattering some distance behind him; turning around, he saw that Betsy had broken through the glass a few meters behind Lui and stuffed her colossal head inside. Though her body was too immense to fit, the tunnel readily accommodated her head, and the huge, gaping maw waited there eagerly.
“Uh, I think we’re being herded,” Lui said.
“Surus, it’s time for you to revert to your native form,” Rade said. “Take out this blockage.” In her Phant form, she would be able to incinerate the T-Rex on contact.
Surus didn’t reply.
“Surus?” Rade asked.
“I’m sorry,” came a voice over the comm. It was the voice of Sprint, her Hoplite’s AI. “Surus is temporarily incapacitated. She seems to be struggling against a psychic attack. I have taken control of the mech.”
“What?” Rade said. “Harlequin, ask Bright One why my alien friendly is on the receiving end of a psychic attack.”
Harlequin relayed the question.
Text appeared above Bright One’s transport pod: The attack appears to be sourced from somewhere aboard. One or more of the Elder are responsible. I’m not sure why they are doing this.
“Damn it,” Rade said. “Harlequin, grab your laser rifle.”
Harlequin opened the compartment on the leg region of his Hoplite and swapped the holographic text generator for the aforementioned rifle.
“Is it still active?” Rade asked.
“The rifle remote interface is online,” Harlequin said. “I’m getting a charge.”
“Shoot down Hannah,” Rade said.
Harlequin moved to the front of the group and aimed his rifle at the dinosaur that was worming its way toward them. He fired, apparently striking the eye region, because as Rade watched the yellow orb exploded in a stream of blood and gore.
Hannah wailed in pain, squeezing both eyes shut. She had ceased her advance, but otherwise seemed alive: the weaker laser apparently hadn’t penetrated deep enough into the brain cavity to terminate the creature. If the team still had cobras, on the other hand, Rade had no doubt the blow would have killed the dinosaur.
“The hell!” Bender said. “A shot like that should have taken it down. We’ve killed aliens with similar shots from laser rifles before. Not to mention really big robots.”
“You forget how big the brains of these things are,” Harlequin said. “Robots are far easier to take down, because of the miniaturization in the AI core. For this creature, even if my shot bored through its entire brain, unless I hit a critical ganglia structure, it would hardly make a difference to its huge brain, considering that the spot size of the rifle beam is a little under a millimeter.”
“Take out the other eye,” Rade ordered.
Harlequin fired again. He struck her closed eyelid, and there wasn’t the same eruption of blood and gore, but Hannah cried anew and began trying to backtrack. She was unable to make any headway, however, because her taloned feet continually slipped on the glass behind her, which was covered in some sort of slimy liquid. Rade guessed the dinosaur had voided her bowels when her eyes were hit.
Behind them, Betsy roared in outrage, and forced her head deeper into the tunnel; the surrounding glass broke away bit by bit as Betsy slowly, angrily wormed her jaws inside.
“Harlequin, take down Betsy!” Rade ordered. “Lui, help Harlequin!”
Harlequin hurried to the back as Lui cracked open the cockpit of his mech and swung down to the storage compartment, retrieving his own laser rifle. When Harlequin arrived, the two of them aimed at the open maw before them. The pair didn’t have a clear shot of the eyes, since those jaws obscured the rest of the head, but the throat was laid bare before them.
They fired their rifles together, combining their beams to double the intensity.
Betsy shrieked in anguish and withdrew entirely from the tunnel. She staggered backward outside, wobbly on her feet.
“Do you want us to finish the job?” Lui asked.
And then Betsy slammed her head inside once more, harder than ever. More pieces of glass broke off around the rim of the hole, and the jaws drove straight toward Lui and Harlequin, who were forced to retreat. Her advance was checked by the jagged rim, though as before, the surrounding glass slowly peeled away as Betsy compelled her head deeper.
A third T-Rex abruptly slammed into the tunnel on the opposite side and began breaking through. Rade spotted movement in the distance behind it; he zoomed in, and realized more T-Rexes were approaching. A herd at least fifteen plus.
“Guess Betsy decided to stop hunting in isolation,” TJ said.
“Maybe the Rexes don’t like to leave anyone behind,” Tahoe said. “Sort of like us.”
“No dino gets left behind!” Manic mocked.
“Inside your mechs,” Rade ordered Harlequin and Lui. “We’re going to vacate the tunnel and make a run for the forward gap Hannah made for us. After a little diversion...”
“Who gets to be the bait?” Bender asked hopefully.
“I do,” Rade said. “Electron, follow my lead.”
He opened up the cockpit and swung down to Electron’s storage compartment, and retrieved the laser rifle. Then he leaped to the ground in his jumpsuit and made his way to the rear of the party; he aimed at Betsy’s open mouth and fired.
The big T-Rex howled in pain and outrage, but nonetheless forced her head deeper into the tunnel.
Rade stood his ground as that head forced its way toward him and he fired three more shots in rapid succession; finally Betsy withdrew, standing to her full height outside and shaking her head drunkenly as if to clear it.
The third T-Rex repositioned to get inside the large gap in the tunnel that Betsy had created.
Rade took a running leap and activa
ted his jetpack, thrusting through the opening. The third T-Rex tried to snatch Rade out of the air, but Electron slammed into the carnosaur’s neck, causing the Rex to snap at empty space.
Betsy swerved her body toward Rade, who continued jetting away. Electron appeared underneath him and Rade landed in the passenger seat on the upper back.
“Come on, Electron,” Rade said. “As fast as you can...”
Betsy was quickly closing. The third T-Rex had also joined in the fray, moving away from the tunnel to capture this easy pray. Rade glanced at the remaining members of the herd in the distance: they were still relatively far away.
“Now, team!” Rade said. “The coast is clear!”
The others emerged from the broken tunnel in their Hoplites and sprinted toward the forward hole Hannah had drilled.
Rade aimed his rifle scope at Betsy, using the onboard AI to help stabilize his shot. He targeted the leftmost eye and squeezed the trigger.
Betsy pulled up short and howled in pain. The T-Rex spun her body about, slashing her tail at imagined opponents in the air. Both eyelids were closed, though from the left oozed a thick, red-yellow liquid that seemed a mixture of plasma and blood. Like Hannah, the smaller laser apparently didn’t penetrate far enough into the brain tissue to do more than blind the dinosaur in the left eye.
While Betsy was doing that, Rade targeted the other incoming T-Rex and also struck the eye region. It must have been a lucky shot, because that particular T-Rex collapsed instantly, thudding loudly as momentum rolled its limp body across the grass for several meters. When it came to a stop, the tongue lolled lifelessly from its mouth.
“Take us back!” Rade ordered Electron. The Hoplite began running toward the hole that Hannah had drilled through the glass. The aforementioned dinosaur was still caught in the middle of the tunnel. She had ceased attempting to crawl backward, and instead was slowly shoving herself forward toward the gap left by Betsy.
Meanwhile Betsy finally got the pain under control and resumed the chase. As she moved in behind Electron, she made the mistake of directing her good eye at Rade.
He aimed his targeting reticle over the exposed orb, but Betsy must have realized the danger she was in because she turned her head to the side just as he squeezed the trigger.
