"The trolls are approaching, Mil E,"
Amanda said from her place in the dirt. She was now sitting
upright with her legs folded over themselves. She sat straighter
to see the trolls, then looked at Maltin. She frowned and pushed
the tip of his rifle barrel outward.
"Your weapon was pointing at Mil E,"
Amanda chastised him.
"No shit," Mili and Maltin both said at
once. Mili crossed herself and made a face, waiting for the
rifle to fire. When nothing happened she opened one eye and
looked up.
"Coward," she said and swiveled around to
hold her rifle over a rock.
Maltin pretended to backhand Amanda
before swinging his own rifle around. Amanda sat up higher and
surveyed the trolls again.
"There certainly are a great deal of
them," Amanda said as she looked around brightly.
"Oh, really?" Maltin said in
amazement.
"Are you certain you can defeat them all
by yourself?" she asked.
"No lady. I'll shoot a few, Mili will
shoot a few, and you'll talk us to death so they can come up here
and barbecue our dead bodies. Understand?"
"That's not much of a plan, Maltin. I
believe I should assist."
"Fine, here," he tossed her a screamer
grenade without looking. She held it daintily between two
fingers and dropped it in the dirt.
"Shoot that one," she pointed at the
nearest troll and shook Maltin's shoulder as he was about to
shoot. He stopped, lowered his head for a moment, then sent
eight quick flashes of light into the chest of the nearest
troll.
"Good, he was a leader," Amanda said in
satisfaction.
Maltin watched the approaching army for a
moment, then turned and looked at Amanda. She returned his look
brightly. Maltin searched around until found his screamer
grenade lying next to her knee. With a sigh of disgust he
grabbed it, flipped off the safety, and tossed it as far as he
could throw. It exploded, sending five trolls flying through the
air.
"Very good, Maltin, you damaged two of
them... sort of."
"If you can do better, then do it,"
Maltin demanded.
"Certainly. She raised both hands, palms
up, and pushed them outward toward the trolls. With a look of
extreme concentration she closed her eyes and bit her lip.
Streams of light flew down from the sky and flew through hundreds
of trolls without hesitation. The humans could hear the popping
sound when each little speck of light penetrated a body and shot
out the back.
The trolls screamed and fell, kicking in the dirt.
"Hey, the little light guy's are helping
us!" Mili yelled, then turned to see Amanda's strange actions.
"Good work, girl, you show them," she yelled as Amanda
concentrated.
When the remaining trolls turned and
fled, Amanda sighed, and relaxed. She blinked rapidly, obviously
exhausted, then gave Mili a nearly authentic smile. "Godonya,"
she said with a winked.
"Hey, has Maltin been teaching you how to
talk?" Mili demanded.
"Gotcha," Amanda said, pointing at her
chest.
"Well forget everything he told you.
Maltin is a moron and you're talking just like him.
Understood?"
"Understood," Amanda said with great
relief. Maltin screamed an objection.
The sky darkened. They coward and looked
upward to see a massive ship filling the sky with the tip just
passing them and the tail still over the horizon.
"Better call the little light guys
again," Mili said nervously.
"I'm afraid it will do no good, Mil E.
The micro-bots you call the little light guys were invented by my
people to announce an event through an aerial display of lights.
They are constructed of common metals, and powered by a renewable
sodium pellet. They are now exhausted and must recharge in the
sun, but even fully charged, they can not pass through
metal."
"Well do something!" Maltin demanded. He
raised the barrel of his rifle, moved the barrel around several
times, searching for a target, then sighed and lowered the barrel
with a helpless shrug.
"You didn't shoot," Amanda said.
"No shit? You think this little rifle
will do any good against that thing? All it will do is get them
mad?"
"They are quite mad already, but a
properly placed concentration of fire in just the right area
could do a great deal of damage," Amanda nodded, changing
positions.
"Yeah, right," Maltin growled.
"It could," she insisted, looking at
Mili.
"Amanda, these rifles are a lot like the
little light guys, they don't work well against metal."
"I'm aware of the potential for a laser
guided, laser energized, plasma powered particle beam. If you
would shoot at that dome at the bottom, for instance, you would
temporarily disable the guidance system for their weapons," she
pointed at a protrusion near the front of the ship.
Maltin looked at her skeptically, then
brought up his rifle and concentrated his fire in the area she
had indicated.
"You too, Mil E," Amanda pointed, urging
her on.
Mili brought up her weapon and added her
own beam to Maltin's. It took several minutes of concentrated
fire before they saw a change. Flashes of electricity and a
small explosion brought a cheer from Amanda.
"This is fun," she said, dancing around a
bit from her seat on the ground. "Now point at those bulges at
the sides. You need to destroy all four of them. They use those
to communicate."
It took much less time to destroy each
bulge at the sides.
"Very good," Amanda clapped. "Now they
can't communicate with the big ships, or the trolls coming up
behind us," Amanda said brightly.
"The BIG ships?" Mili asked.
"Behind us?" Maltin said at the same time
and swung around. He searched the boulders littering the
hillside, they were crawling with trolls.
"Better bring back the little light
guys?" Mili said as she turned and added her fire to
Maltin's.
"They have expended their energy," Amanda
said regretfully. "But I do have help coming. It should arrive
in a few minutes."
"It's a nice thought, but we'll be dead
in a few minutes," Maltin growled. He concentrated on the
leading trolls, remembering the old adage coined in the 3rd, the
bravest dies the fastest. When the first five trolls were
smoking the trolls following sought cover and fired from behind
boulders.
"You know," Amanda picked up a small
cylinder of plasma ammo for Maltin's gun, "these would make
excellent weapons under the right conditions."
"Yeah, how?" Maltin said without looking.
They were temporarily blinded by yellow bolts of energy searching
the boulders from the ship above.
"Holy shit!" Maltin screamed, batting at
glowing rock particles on his clothing and packs.
"See, they can't shoot properly now,"
Amanda said, pointing at the ship.
The energy beams searched through the
boulders of the hiding trolls, killing dozens. Several more ran
from the boulders to avoid the approaching beam. Maltin and Mili
took advantage of this, of course, and brought down several
before they could find safer cover.
"Yeah," Mili yelled happily. Amanda
smiled at her then turned as Maltin continued talking.
"How will they make good weapons?"
"They contain a great deal of energy. If
one of them was out there among the trolls, and it exploded, it
would destroy a vast majority of your enemies."
"And us along with it. Those things are
a suspended neutron explosion captured at the moment of impact in
a giant collider. The laser inside the rifle can kick energy out
of the cylinder and it gives you an almost inexhaustible supply
of energy. But if you crack the case, it goes off like a nuclear
bomb."
"But you are carrying expended cartridges
in your bag," Amanda pointed at the pile of bags beside him.
"How do you... never mind. So how...
WATCH OUT!" he yelled, pulling Amanda aside as an energy beam
from the ship above cut a molten valley between them and
Mili.
They checked themselves after the beam
passed, to make sure they were unhurt. Mili looked at them from
across the huge, molten ditch.
"Don't try to jump it, it will burn you
alive," Maltin shouted. Three simultaneous beams from the enemy
made him duck and pull Amanda behind a new boulder.
"This is very annoying," Amanda frowned
at him darkly while brushing herself off.
"Well Soorrryyy for saving your life,"
Maltin growled.
"The beams had already passed harmlessly
when you assaulted me. Please try to control your fear,
Maltin."
"My... MY fear?"
"Yes. Now hand me those bags," she
pointed while crossing her legs again.
"Here," he tossed them in her general
direction. She pulled the bags closer by the straps. Without
even looking in the bags she took out an expended cartridge,
glowing a sickly white in her hands, and a screamer grenade. She
fished in another bag for tape and taped the two together. She
dumped the contents of one bag out in the dirt, ignoring Maltin's
shouted objections, and slid the bundle into the bag.
"Now, if you can manage to activate that
noise maker and toss it out there before it explodes, you might
survive," Amanda said, dusting her hands off.
"Gimme the damned thing," he said,
putting down his rifle. He felt through the side of the bag
until he found the safety, flipped it off, and twirled the bag
around his head while he counted silently, then let it go. It
sailed gently up, then came back down to land among the trolls.
One troll scrambled to grab the bag, intent on throwing it back.
Maltin had anticipated this and released it during the last ten
seconds of the countdown. The screamer was already making a
horrible sound.
"Hit the dirt!" Maltin yelled at Mili.
He was about to pull Amanda down, but she glared and lowered
herself without his assistance. Maltin peeked around the corner
of the rock and watched in horror as the troll began swinging the
bag around his head, then released it. The grenade went off
while the bag was only four feet from the troll. The restrained
plasma, suddenly released from the tiny cylinder, swept over the
enemy boulders like a wave of liquid fire. It billowed and
boiled across the ground, coming uncomfortably close to Maltin
and his little army before it burned itself out.
Amanda sat up with a smile, surveying the
cleared area before them.
"Neat trick," Maltin reluctantly
admitted. "I wish we could use the same thing to get rid of that
damned ship," he pointed above his head.
"No need, my help has arrived," Amanda
pointed behind them. Maltin turned to look over his shoulder.
He stiffened then shouted and scrambled through the dirt for his
rifle. When Mili saw the commotion she looked behind her,
screamed, and immediately started shooting.
"Stop, Mil E," Amanda held up a hand.
"What the hell?" Mili yelled, reluctantly
lifting the barrel of her rifle.
"These mechanical devices have been
reprogrammed by the city to help us," Amanda pointed at the
gently bobbing row of 9-16's awaiting her orders.
"Then what are you waiting for, use
them?" Maltin shouted.
"I'm waiting for that area to cool down,"
Amanda pointed at the fifty foot deep ditch, now cooling.
A pair of huge energy beams searched the
boulders and came extremely close to Maltin.
"To hell with the ditch, shoot the damned
thing."
"I really shouldn't," Amanda insisted,
then closed her eyes. The line of 9-16's rose from where they
floated behind them and made a run on the ship. Their screaming
weapons began as they neared the ship. The residual noise kept
the humans pinned to the ground with their hands over their ears.
The huge troll ship suddenly rumbled like the far off sound of
thunder. In a moment the side blew out of the ship, raining hot
metal over miles of landscape. The ship tried to defend itself,
taking out many of the milling saucers, but like a huge dying
beast it suddenly shuddered and started to list to the right. It
lurched and the right side fell several feet, then the entire
ship started to drop.
"Oh shit!" Maltin screamed. He grabbed
up several bags and ran for the hot ditch. Amanda was right
behind him with several more bags, which she deemed important.
Mili dove into the ditch with only her rifle. In a moment it was
obvious that they should have waited. Maltin started cursing and
rolling around on the smooth, hot lava. He finally positioned
the bags so he could lay on them without burning to death. Mili
screamed and jumped to her feet. She dove to land on top of
Maltin. Amanda delicately positioned several bags, then sat and
watched the ship falling on them. As the ship crashed to the
ground above them, Amanda ducked and covered her head. The sound
was unbearable. First the crash, then the internal explosions in
the ship. When the ship stopped falling it was less than ten
feet above their heads. Waves of dirt came washing down the
sides of the ditch, burying them in a small avalanche. More
explosions rocked the ground beneath them, as they clawed their
way out of the dirt so they could breath. Maltin had the sense
to pull what bags he could find out of the dirt and toss them on
top, then he helped Mili up out of the hole. They saw Amanda
suddenly pop up from her own hole, so dirty that her white skin
and golden hair were black. There were little mounds of dirt
between her elfin ears and her head. She shook like a dog and
suddenly became recognizable again. She pulled the bags out of
her hole and tossed them on the new dirt, amid little explosions
of dust. As they stood and looked around, Maltin suddenly
realized that he was the only one holding a weapon. He looked at
the four foot deep pile of dirt where he'd last seen Mili's
weapon, then shook his head.
He ejected the plasma cartridge from the
side of his rifle and stared at the sickly pale color, before he
reluctantly shoved it back into his rifle. All his spare
cartridge were now somewhere above them, smashed into the dirt by
the troll ship.
"This way," Amanda said hoarsely as she
pointed ahead. She picked up the bags she had saved and started
struggling ahead through the mounds of soft dirt.
"I lost my weapon," Mili whispered
harshly.
"Yeah, I know," Maltin said and started
forward.