"Come down!" Rem shouted. "You know our orders! We're to stay hidden, and not attract attention!"
She sniffed, "Mere males do not give orders to the warriors of Praxis! Besides, I'm tired of sitting in that machine-reeking ship. And who is there to see us, so far from any settlement or outpost?
Go back in, if you're afraid."
Rem had a mind to close the hatch and leave her outside, too. And there was the urgent need to relay the awful, bewildering message about the Karbarran children. But he knew that Hunter had experience with war, and that extreme caution was always advisable when one was dealing with the Invid.
He took a few steps further into the open, craning his neck to look up at her. "If you're through with your little games, you can act like a solider, and-"
He was stopped by a voice-processed growl, a feline hunting cry as uttered by a terrifying machine. A Hellcat had come around the shuttle's bow, moving to cut him off from the hatch. A second appeared at the stern, and let out a scream of pure catlike anger.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Consider the sentient "Tiresiod" brain-Praxian, Terran, Karbarran or what have you. Roughly one hundred billion-plus neurons. The potential number of connections these neurons can make with one another, according to some calculations, exceeds the total number of atoms in the Universe.
One sets mere machinery against such a creation only at some risk of unlooked-for results.
Cabell, A Pedagogue Abroad: Notes on the Sentinels' Campaign
Gnea saw the Hellcats, too. Rem wondered why their presence hadn't registered on the much-touted sensors of the winged horse. Perhaps Gnea's flying lessons had distracted it.
The Hellcats, their slitted eyes glowing like coals, stalked closer. They were a form of four-legged Inorganic mecha, so jet black that they shone with blue highlights, and much bigger than the biggest saber-tooth that ever lived. The Hellcats were armed with razor-sharp claws, sword-edged shoulder horns and tail, and gleaming fangs.
Rem had kept an Owens Mark IX mob gun nearby in case of trouble, but not near enough; the short, heavy two-handed weapon and its shoulder-strap-equipped power pack were lying near the inner side of the hatch beyond reach as the two Inorganics moved toward him.
That left only the pistols he and Gnea were wearing-and from what Rem had seen on Tirol, it took more stopping power than the heavy handguns had to put down a 'Cat. Rem backed up slowly, step by step, the Hellcats padding after; they were gaining a little each second but savoring the moment, not quite ready to pounce.
Then he recalled the saddle scabbard Bela had mounted on Halidarre, with its Wolverine rifle.
"Gnea, do you have-"
Somehow, his voice triggered the Robotech beasts, and they both slunk forward, segmented tails lashing, preparing to spring. Rem tugged at his pistol, doubting he had time to get a single shot off, doubting that Gnea could take accurate aim from a banking winged horse even if she did have the Wolverine.
The Hellcats sprang just as something brushed past him and he felt himself struck from above and behind. Or at least, that was what he thought. The next thing he knew, he was being hoisted aloft, held against Halidarre's saddle, by the Robohorse's lifting fields and beating wings, and by Gnea's firm grip on his torso harness.
The lead 'Cat almost got him, its wicked claws sliding along Halidarre's flank but leaving no mark. The horse banked, eluding the second 'Cat's aim, and gained altitude. A sizzling bolt from Gnea's pistol missed both felines.
"Your jostling spoiled my aim!" she scolded Rem, as he kicked and grabbed wildly for purchase. Then, between her hauling and his struggling, she had him up and draped over the saddle bow, belly-down.
Rem thought the horse's power of flight would save them from the surface-bound Hellcats, but he could see he was wrong. One was already leaping up a small hill of discarded equipment and stacked crates with astonishing speed, giving chase. His field of vision was severely limited by Halidarre's neck, body, and wing, and by Gnea; he couldn't see where the second 'Cat had gotten to.
He called a warning to Gnea, but she had already seen it. Halidarre changed course abruptly.
With its fantastic quickness and strength, and in the confines of the dome, the Invid mecha came close to nailing them. Halidarre almost bucked Rem into the air, filling with her wings and cutting hi her impeller fields. Gnea herself only kept her seat by a determined gripping with her long, strong legs.
But the Hellcat missed, landing on a lower ledge of the heap and turning to surge up its side again for another try, missing its footing twice in the shifting debris. Gnea turned the winged horse for the opening in the dome, to reach temporary safety.
"No!" Rem yelled. "I left the shuttle hatch open! We can't let them get inside!" It was very likely their only hope of escape, now that the flagship was engaged in battle, and probably the only way of linking up with the recon team again in time to get them offworld.
To his horror, as he looked down dizzily, he saw the second 'Cat's tail disappear through the hatch.
Rem spied the Wolverine rifle in its scabbard and somehow managed to get it out without dropping it. But by that time Gnea had banked around a mountain of decrepit machinery off at the far side of the dome, and he had no clear shot. She picked a spot that looked stable and landed, high above the floor of the dome.
He slid down off the saddle and Gnea leapt down after. Off in the distance they could hear growling and the shifting of junk that meant the first Hellcat was still stalking them.
"There's no time to waste," Rem decided. "I have to go after the one that got into the ship. Can you handle this one?"
She pulled her own sidearm from its shoulder holster and took his from his belt as well, balancing them in hands bigger than his. "It seems I must, doesn't it? And so I will, somehow."
Halidarre snorted and reared a bit, wings deploying and beating a little faster, half lifting her into the air. A sudden thought occurred to Rem. "We'll have to split up and take on both Hellcats at once. Gnea, how good is your control over the horse? How fine is your touch?"
She smiled grimly. "Try me, Tiresian!"
A few moments later, the feline mecha bounded up among the peaks and sinkholes of discarded industrial rubble and came around the corner to behold Bela standing, waiting, with both pistols leveled. There was no sign of the male Tiresiod, but the sound of jumping and occasional slipping told it that he was in all probability making his way down toward his ship.
The Inorganic ignored the sound of Rem's frantic escape; its huntmate would take care of him.
And, more to the point, once a Hellcat was zeroed in on a particular quarry, it pursued that quarry to the exclusion of all else.
The limitations of the early-model Living Computer in Karbarra's capital meant that the central brain could spare no attention for the 'Cat's report of the encounter, what with the outbreak of battle above the planet and the immediate need to prepare for defense. The Hellcats would simply return with slain enemies to show what they had found and eliminated.
Surprise wasn't a mental trait of any great importance to the Invid mecha; when it saw that the tactical situation had changed only slightly, it simply began an even more straightforward attack, dodging Gnea's inexpert shots by jumping behind a mound of debris. Then it began working its way in her direction. There was no sign of the winged-quadruped mecha, but the 'Cat kept eyes and ears and other sensors alert for possible air attack.
It watched from concealment as Gnea crouched in the inadequate shelter of a smelting processor, and the Hellcat began gathering itself for the final rush, choosing a route around a convenient bit of broken machinery.