Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [96]
The men leaped to the hovering transport ship, while the soldiers on board it caught them and pulled them inside. Nobody bothered to find seats. Lanyan, the last to jump across the gap, spun to look behind him just as angry Klikiss surged around the corner. 'Take off!'
The shuttle climbed away from the cliff city, leaving the bugs behind. More and more Klikiss piled together at the edge of the drop-off, staring at the overloaded ships rising away like drunken bumblebees. Lanyan sat in a very undignified position on the slippery deck watching through the wide-open hatch as air whistled past.
One by one, the monstrous bugs leapt off the cliff, spread their wings, and began to fly toward the shuttles.
'Give me a friggin' break! Seal this door and engage maximum thrust!'
'I see 'em,' the pilot called.
Three troop transports circled back and opened fire with defensive jazers, picking off the flying Klikiss. But for every one they blasted, three more took flight. Bugs continued to boil out of the cliff city.
'Only one way to stop this. Get me on the comm directly to the Jupiter. I want my weapons officer.' Like a whale plunging deep in search of krill, the Juggernaut dived toward the lost city while the troop transports continued to shoot at individual Klikiss. 'We've got to plug the leak. Take out that transportal. Destroy the city. Demolish the whole thing.'
The Jupiter's battleship-calibre jazers glowed orange, then white. A broad lance of blinding energy struck the alien city. A second blast brought down the cliff face, erasing the ruins in a landslide. The invading Klikiss inside the tunnels were wiped out, and the transportal was gone in the blink of an eye.
The few remaining insect warriors were now cut off from the rest of their hive, and flew about, disoriented. Lanyan regarded them as gnats to be squashed. As smoke and fire continued to curl up from the rubble below, Lanyan directed the troop transports back to the Juggernaut, retreating without shame.
He had to get back to the Hansa. Chairman Wenceslas wasn't going to like this one bit.
Fifty-six
Hud Steinman
Thoroughly disgusted at how the Llaro town had turned into a veritable concentration camp, Steinman decided it was time to leave by any means possible. Many of the more naive colonists clung to a foolish hope that nothing bad was going to happen to them, kidding themselves that they would be safe from the Klikiss so long as they took no drastic action. Steinman didn't buy it for a second.
Conditions were growing steadily worse inside the walls. Margaret Colicos had somehow convinced the bugs to feed the captives, but the meal certainly wasn't very appetizing. The bland and disgusting mixture provided basic nourishment, as long as the people ate enough of it - if they could stand it. Steinman had the unsettling impression that the Klikiss were trying to fatten them up. He had put up with it for as long as he could tolerate, and now he just wanted to get out of here.
Several groups had already organized themselves and slipped away with packs of minimal supplies and tools, rushing off to meet Davlin Lotze. They believed the man had established a sanctuary out there somewhere. But Steinman had no intention of going as part of a group to live in an even more crowded and miserable camp than the one he was leaving.
Enough was enough. He had always meant to spend his life as a hermit.
In the late afternoon, he pounded on the door of the dwelling Orli shared. A red-faced Crim Tylar yanked the door open and looked at him with an unwelcoming expression. 'What do you want? Any news?'
His wife Maria stepped close behind him. Her dark hair was beginning to be streaked with grey, like a touch of frost on an early winter