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firing depleted transuranic slugs that had awesome, armor-piercing
capabilities. The powered gatling consumed ammunition at an amazing rate, and
the Battloid had to transfer fresh boxed belts of rounds to it frequently from
integral reserve modules built into various parts of its body.
The reloading took only moments, but in the middle of a firelight that
could be a long time. Rick found himself on empty as a pod dashed at him. He
hit the thrusters built into the Battloid's feet and launched himself at it,
just as its cannonade blew up the deck where he'd been standing.
He had no choice but to attack it hand to hand before it could get a
bead on him. All around him, Battloids were locked in similar close-quarters
fighting against the pods, up and down the SDF-1's decks.
But the alien Battlepod crewman was shrewd and quick. The pod lashed out
with one foot and sent Rick's Battloid flying backward with a tooth-rattling
jolt. The Battloid crashed to the deck, its pilot dazed.
He shook his head clear just in time to send the Battloid rolling to the
side. He avoided the pod's next fusillade, rolled again, and brought the
Battloid to its feet dexterously. And now, the chain-gun was reloaded.
Rick fired a long burst, taking the pod dead center; he watched it
dissolve and fly into pieces, an expanding, blazing sphere. But out of the
ballooning explosion zoomed a new enemy, one of those strange alien mecha that
had been mostly staying out of the fight up until now.
Whoever was flying it was either a masterful pilot or crazy or both. The
battle-armored figure came through the fireball in one piece, though, and
nearly bowled Rick over. Its weapons came close to downing Max on one side and
Ben on the other as the two Vermilion wingmen dove for cover.
The lightning-fast attacker was gone before they could fire at it, since
the SDF-1's surviving batteries were hopelessly slow in tracking it. The three
Vermilion fliers got their Battloids to their feet, shaken but unharmed.
"Let's finish this thing!" Rick said in clipped tones. At his command,
Vermilion went into Veritech mode, skimming the deck, turning pods into
expanding balls of incandescent gas with intense autocannon fire.
The last few pods leapt high, thrusters cutting in, trying for a
slim-chance vertical escape while the remaining Botoru pursuit ships dove to
try to cover them. The lower battle and the upper became one as the mecha
swirled and fought. Rick peeled off to go after two escaping pods.
"So they think they have won, eh?" Khyron mused, his pod standing in the
shelter of a superstructural feature of the dimensional fortress's flight
deck, hidden and waiting.
Rick bagged the pods, and Ben and Max went back down to take care of an
insistent pursuit ship that was still strafing the SDF-1. They returned to
Battloid mode, blasting it into ten thousand pieces.
Meanwhile, Rick had picked up two more tri-thrusters on his tail. He led
them down to deck level, and Max and Ben bagged them from behind with streams
of high-density slugs.
"Nice shooting!" Rick said, relieved. Then he saw what was coming up
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fast behind him. "No!"
It was the strange alien attack mecha, the one that had nearly nailed
him moments before. He braced himself to be hit, perhaps killed, then and
there. But it zoomed past, gaining altitude rapidly, pulling away as if the VT
were standing still.
Rick realized that it matched the description of that souped-up
Zentraedi who had done so much damage to Roy Fokker's Skull Team just before
the Skulls recovered the stolen pod in which Lisa, Rick, Ben, and Max had made
their escape from the aliens.
Rick cut in auxiliary power, going ballistic, determined to end the
warped cat-and-mouse game.
In her special suit of Quadrono powered armor, Miriya laughed
scornfully.
Khyron's cruiser was close enough to the SDF-1 that the ship's turret
guns were making serious hits on it now. The remaining Battloids on the deck
were also keeping up a steady volume of fire at the suicide ship. But that was
of no matter; in moments, the battle would be over.
In his massively reinforced command center, Gerao braced for collision.
"Veritechs, be ready to get clear on my command," Claudia said, having
taken over some direction of fighter ops while Lisa readied the Daedalus
Maneuver.
Miriya swept by, only a few feet off the deck. Rick was right on her
tail, chasing her high and low, around and around.
She went into another climb, but the irritating Micronian stayed with
her in the six o'clock position, chopping away at her with autocannon fire.
Not that it concerned her very much; Miriya was sure she could turn on
him and kill hilm whenever she chose. But she monitored the coming impact of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]