[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
aiming for was more than fifty meters away. They also had sprung off hard. The
water would tend to slow them but they'd do the same thing in microgravity.
The point was that the entire team suddenly appeared in the opening, moving
fast and making for very hard targets.
As they reached the end of their tethers, the combined forces swung
theminward towards the far wall. Herzer could see a group of fighters grouped
there and the team was headed right into their midst.
There wasn't much control in the situation but he did manage to get his feet
down towards the approaching bulkhead before he hit. He'd engaged his mag
boots so he clamped with one, at least, the other taking a moment to get down.
The team had flown through a cloud of bolts in the crossing but nobody seemed
to be hit. On the other hand, half of them had landed on their side or back
and were now floating in the water instead of clamped down and prepared to
fight. Lines had also gotten tangled and two of the team were bound up like a
spider's prey.
Herzer ignored the unavailable members of the team, concentrating on the bolt
thrower. It was one of the newer crew-served versions that had a clamping
base. At the moment it was skewing to engage the floating Blood Lords and
ignoring the ones that had managed to clamp to the wall. It was also protected
Page 149
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
by a solid line of fighters bearing pikes.
Herzer drew his mace then paused. He detached his previous safety line rather
than trying to retrieve it and got out his second of three. That one went onto
the wall of the cylinder then he undid his mag boots and bounded off in the
direction of the waiting wall of pikes.
Passing well over the pikes he, again, followed a parabola to the wall,
butbehind the defenders and also behind the crew served bolt thrower.
The bolt thrower had "killed" at least three of the floating Blood Lords but
now the crew slowly tried to turn it to engage the new threat.
Herzer didn't give them time to pin him down. He was about six meters from
them, a slow walk with the boots, but he had another weapon. He removed one of
the hand magnets, now attached to a line similar to the safety lines but
lighter, and carefully threw it at the crew.
The magnet missed to the side but when lightly retrieved it stuck to the
armor of the gunner.
As soon as the magnet was in place on the shoulder of the gunner, who didn't
appear to notice the device, Herzer slid one foot forward and the other back
to brace himself and gave the line a sharp tug.
The first reaction was to cause the gun to swivel away from him as the
surprised gunner tried to maintain control. His grip slipped, however, and he
went spinning off into the depths of the tank, arms flailing wildly.
Herzer dropped that line and plucked off another, spinning it towards the
assistant gunner who was frantically trying to get the gun lined up on him.
This one missed entirely but when it bounced back at the end of the line the
line itself coiled into the gun mechanism.
Herzer gave it a tug and was pleased to see the gun swivel away again. Better
still, it seemed to be snug. He leaned down and carefully released his boots
and then used a gentle tug on the line to start himself towards the gun.
The assistant gunner tried, again, to get the gun lined up on him but Herzer
was moving rather fast for microgravity and he passed the gun before it could
get more than half-way slewed. As he did, he leaned down and lightly tapped
the assistant gunner on the helmet with his padded mace.
The action caused him to pause and spin towards the wall of the cylinder,
especially when he hooked the rubber pick into the gunner's neck.
As soon as his feet were down and clamped, landing behind the assistant
gunner who was now trying to turn and draw his mace at the same time, Herzer
extracted a fake punch and laid it on the AG's neck right at the seal.
"Kill," he signaled with his hand, showing the AG the punch.
"Agreed," the AG signaled, spreading his arms.
The pikemen had turned to engage the threat at their rear but they had more
problems than that. The rest of the Blood Lords had gotten into formation and
were advancing from the front. The pikes presented a formidable wall that was
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]