AEGIS Tales

by Todd Downing

  They crossed another self-contained island of jungle trees sprouting from the grassland before they arrived at a massive tree line.

  Caruso nodded at the map. “This must be the opposite side of the jungle where we crashed.”

  Razi agreed. He took out the field glasses and scanned a three-hundred-sixty-degree perimeter. Caruso saw his double-take when he looked eastward, past the pockets of jungle in the open veldt.

  “What is it?”

  The young guide nodded in the direction of his discovery. “I think their base must be there, just shy of the ridge. I saw a truck headed south along the rocks. And a guard tower.”

  Maria Caruso sighed. This was a larger Silver Star presence than she was hoping for, by a factor of many degrees. They could bypass the camp, which would of course lead to an investigation into their missing motorcycle scouts, and an eventual direct conflict which her expedition of three couldn’t hope to win. Or they could take stock of their assets and put them to the best possible use in taking the fight to the Silver Star. She gazed away in thought, then her face darkened with a mischievous grin. “I have an idea,” she announced.

  They bounced and rocked along a path clearly laid by the predators of the area, probably the very allosaurs which had given them chase the previous night. Suddenly Razi slowed the bike and Caruso raised her goggles to her cap. In the center of a slight indent at the base of a giant tree trunk lay a tidy nest full of reptilian eggs. The jigsaw-piece remains of a female human were scattered about the vicinity.

  Leigh Taggart.

  They hadn’t stopped more than the few seconds it took to realize what they’d stumbled on before the thunder started, and the same pair of allosaurs appeared from the darkness of the jungle.

  “There they are!” Caruso shouted excitedly. She fired a single shot from her Mauser, hitting the first predator in the chest. It had the desired effect―the allosaur shrieked, almost birdlike, and gave chase.

  Razi didn’t wait for instruction. He twisted hard on the throttle and the Douglas took off along the path, coiled reptilian leg muscles pounding the earth behind them.

  They raced for almost three kilometers, as fast as Razi dared take the uneven ground and dense jungle to each side of the primitive road. Caruso fired the occasional gunshot over her shoulder to keep them interested.

  When they burst from the tree line, they were within a short sprint to the Silver Star base camp. They knew the lookout in the guard tower would see them. This was the pivotal part of the hastily devised plan―one that could easily end in their destruction. Caruso hoped the guards would buy their disguise, and would choose to focus on the pair of rampaging dinosaurs behind them.

  Which is precisely what happened.

  As Razi steered the motorcycle through the open stockade hewn from native trees, another machine gun erupted in fury from the guard tower, tearing into the allosaurs, which in fact only made them angrier. As the bike sped past the tower, Caruso grabbed one of the stick grenades and tossed it casually under one of the struts.

  The guard tower crumpled over with the resulting explosion, the sundered leg flipping end-over-end and impaling a troop truck. The allosaurs, undaunted, held course, and Razi took them on a tour of the Silver Star camp. Soldiers spilled from canvas tents, guns spitting fire and lead every which way. The mounted Maxim gun on the sidecar answered in kind. Then Caruso saw a stack of propane canisters and dropped another stick grenade at its base as they passed.

  Razi throttled the bike to full speed, and Caruso smiled through clenched teeth. They were agents of chaos, bringing death to acolytes of darkness. As they passed scattering groups of men and women in paramilitary uniforms, she felt a righteous anger well up in her. Perhaps these were not the actual perpetrators of her father’s murder, but they served the same madman, and wouldn’t have hesitated to kill her if their positions were reversed. So neither did Caruso hesitate on her trigger. The mounted Maxim gun spat death into the masses. One of the officers saw through the deception and fired his C-96 pistol at the sidecar and the bullet ricocheted away. A second shot grazed Caruso’s right arm, drawing blood.

  Then the Douglas was past the officer and the two allosaurs stormed through the crowd, flinging bodies left and right like rag dolls. One of the creatures diverted behind a row of canvas military tents, the other keeping pace behind the motorcycle.

  The propane canisters exploded in an orange-tinged ball of heat and flame, igniting the nearby tents and several Silver Star agents, who flailed blindly and fell over one another in an almost-comical ballet of death. The allosaur chasing the motorcycle burst through the flaming wreckage of tents and supplies and personnel. It too was on fire, and clearly not pleased at the fact.

  Caruso nudged Razi and gestured ahead to a tent at the highest point in the camp. “Up there! The radio tent!” She dumped the Mauser in the floor of the sidecar and grabbed the MP-18, wrenching back the bolt to cock it.

  Razi sped forward and skidded to a halt outside the opening.

  “Keep driving! Don’t wait for me!” Caruso was out of the sidecar and rolling into the tent before the bike came to a complete stop. Razi looked over his shoulder just in time to pull out of the path of the rampaging, flaming dinosaur.

  Caruso rolled to her feet inside the radio tent, prepared to fire the submachine gun into whomever stood in her way, but the structure was empty. She took a step toward the large, older model radio console, but realized they’d never be able to carry it out with them. Peering out through the open tent flap, she spied the fiery allosaur thundering in her direction.

  Firing full-auto out the back of the tent, Caruso created a neat perforation that split in half as she dove through. The tent crumpled and ignited as the dinosaur stomped over it like a stampede of elephants. Radio parts and fragments of burning canvas were flung everywhere as the wounded allosaur tumbled down the opposite hill, snout over tail, clipping Caruso’s leg and sending her rolling into the dust.

  She lost her grip on the submachine gun, but grabbed it again as she scrambled away from the wounded dinosaur. A giant tail thrashed, almost flattening her. She scurried down the hill toward the monster’s head, emptying the contents of the magazine into its burning body. The creature flicked its tail again, and Caruso hit the ground with a thud and lost her breath.

  Razi pulled the motorcycle into the shadow of one of the infantry tents and began to open fire on every enemy agent who ran into his line of sight. But some of them were already starting to smolder and dissolve on their own. It was not uncommon for the masterminds of the Silver Star to preemptively pull the plug on a failed operation, gathering the life force of the agents home to be used another day. Razi shrugged to himself―at least it made his job easier.

  Then he saw the row of tents begin to flip into the air and crumple to the ground as the second allosaur sprinted up the path toward him. Flinging his gun into the sidecar, Razi jumped back onto the saddle and departed at full throttle.

  The allosaur pursued, but its feet and body had become entangled in tent rope. It staggered and limped along after the speeding motorcycle. Razi noticed, and slid to a stop. The dinosaur stomped closer. Razi stepped from the bike and released the third stick grenade from the sidecar, gripping the handle tightly.

  The giant creature stepped within a half-dozen meters in front of Razi, lowered its head and bellowed its horrible, angry animal cry. Razi could have frozen in terror―most rational people would have. But at that moment he hurled the grenade into the open mouth of the beast, and ran diving to the ground with his arms flung across his face.

  The grenade exploded, sending a macabre spray of reptile meat, bone and brain matter in an impressive radius. The allosaur, virtually headless, stood twitching for a good ten seconds before collapsing to the ground. Razi finally let himself look up, expecting an armed squad of Silver Star agents to take him prisoner, but none came.

  Maria Caruso staggered to her feet, watching the first allosaur roast and crackle in a giant h
eap of flesh and tent canvas. A cloud of dust gradually revealed Razi astride the Douglas.

  “You okay, Maua?” he asked.

  “I think so,” she replied, groaning as she slowly ambled toward the vehicle. “What about you?”

  Razi gestured and made an “explosion” noise. “See any more agents?”

  Caruso shouldered the MP-18 and leaned against the sidecar. “By the smell of things and lack of enemy gunfire, I’d say we’re clear.”

  “What about the radio?”

  “It was too big to carry, and now it’s in pieces.” Caruso ripped the Silver Star cap from her head and rubbed her aching temples. “But we might be able to salvage parts.”

  Razi nodded, removed the cap from his own head and tossed it onto the burning allosaur carcass, then pulled his driving goggles down over his eyes. “Where do we go now?”

  Caruso took a deep breath and gazed up at the hot blanket of clouds that hung over the valley. “We should go back and check on Dr. Muir,” she instructed. “But first, we’ve got some work to do.”

  # # #

  They found the second troop truck abandoned outside the Silver Star camp, smoldering uniforms scattered inside and out. Caruso took the truck, and Razi stayed on the Douglas. They cleaned out the non-burned supplies from the camp, then retrieved the remains of their compatriots from the jungle clearing and the balloon crash site.

  They made the central cavern encampment as the sun fell behind the western mountains. Muir was already in good spirits, but they improved even more when the two entered the cave, packs laden with more rations, weapons and radio components.

  Caruso tasked Muir with taking stock of their haul, while she and Razi returned outside the lava tube to bury the remains of John Brand and Leigh Taggart.

  Muir assembled a Sterno-Inferno camp stove and started water to boil, then busied himself with the packs. A good week’s worth of rations, some tools, and radio parts. He looked them over for some time, until Caruso and Razi reappeared from outside, soaked in the sweat from their physical labor.

  “What do you think?” she asked the German scientist.

  “I think we cannot build a two-way radio with this,” he answered. “Maybe a weak receiver.”

  Caruso’s face furrowed into a mask of worry. “Then we should settle in, and figure out how to survive. It may take AEGIS a month or more to send help, and we should assume the Silver Star would not willingly give up the valley.”

  “We need to be ready to fight,” added Razi.

  Muir nodded. “The valley has fresh water, shelter and seemingly plenty of wild game. And the diamonds and other minerals... this will be a prize for AEGIS, if we can hold onto it.”

  Caruso nodded to the stockpile of weapons next to the cave wall. “At least we we’ll have a fighting chance. And then there are these...” She picked up her canvas satchel and opened the flap, producing a fist-sized object and handing it to Muir.

  He peered over his glasses and beheld a pale sand-colored dinosaur egg with light purple mottling. This couldn’t be part of her plan.

  Caruso looked at the floor. “You know my family back in Tuscany raised saddle horses...”

  Muir looked at her in astonishment. She smiled, winking at him.

  The egg began to twitch in his hand, a small crack beginning to form.

  About the Authors

  TRISH HEINRICH was one of the co-creators of the superhero comedy webseries The Collectibles. Her first novel, Serpent’s Sacrifice, was published in 2017 and is the first book in an urban fantasy superhero series, “The Vigilantes”. She currently lives in Washington State with her writer/editor/producer husband, and their two geeky children. You can connect with her at www.trishheinrich.com or on Facebook.

  R.L. PACE has had a widely diversified career ranging from circus ringmaster and radio broadcaster to financial planner and rocket fuel researcher. That rich background has served as a springboard and catalyst for his writing, which in addition to this contribution, includes the novels of the Rising Son trilogy, essays, short stories, and political commentary. He lives with his wife, two cats, and a dog in the Puget Sound area of Washington State.

  DAVE CLELLAND took up writing at an early age, but only recently began putting serious words to pages. Airships and antique airplanes hold a special place in his heart, and he loves a good adventure, so he is excited to contribute to the Airship Daedalus canon. When not word-smithing, he can be found counting fish and traveling the world.

  COLIN FISK has been publishing stories and games for more than thirty years. Though best known as one of the writers and designers of the original Cyberpunk RPG, he’s worked on more than ten published games as well as various supplements. When he’s not writing or working at his day job in the technology world, he can be found speaking at conventions, watching movies, taking photos, or cooking with ingredients from his garden. Colin lives in Reno, Nevada, with his wife and fellow author, Margaret McGaffey Fisk and their four cats.

  Dan Heinrich is the co-creator of the critically acclaimed web series The Collectibles. He has also served as story editor for the full length Airship Daedalus novels and “The Vigilantes” novel series from his wife, Trish Heinrich. Although he is a veteran screenwriter and voracious bookworm, this is his first published short story.

  JAMES STUBBS is a longtime game designer and author of fiction under various pseudonyms. He served as line producer on the popular 1PG roleplaying games from Deep7 Press, authoring many supplements in addition to publishing original and licensed material under his own Heyoka Studios imprint. He also contributed to material to the Airship Daedalus roleplaying game. A die-hard pulp fan and aficionado, James lives in Darlington, South Carolina.

  RON DUGDALE was born in Iowa and moved to Washington State at a young age. A former Navy man, Ron came back from the Gulf War and opened a “geek boutique” called The Gamut in Seattle. He was a founding partner of Deep7 Press, and in recent years has moved on to other endeavors which includes his own photographic studio. He currently lives in Tukwila, Washington, with his Manchester terrier, Apollo.

  TODD DOWNING has written extensively for stage, screen and tabletop adventure games over the past thirty years, with his second Airship Daedalus novel, The Golden City, due imminently. He is the original creator of the AEGISverse, having written the comics and radio dramas that everything in the setting is based on. You can connect with him at www.todddowning.com, and keep up to date with Airship Daedalus and the AEGISverse at www.airshipdaedalus.com.

  Also available:

  - Airship Daedalus -

  A Shield Against the Darkness

  - Airship Daedalus -

  Assassins of the Lost Kingdom

  (by E.J. Blaine)

  - Airship Daedalus -

  The Golden City