On the other side of the cabin Thorn was also sitting up, having just woken as well.
Fethan looked round at them both. "Ah, at last, the snoring ends," he said.
"Why've you stopped?" Thorn asked, scratching at his beard.
Only when he said this did Eldene realize that there was no vibration from the engine.
Fethan gestured to the door of the ATV. "Be best if I show you, I think," he said.
Thorn opened the door only after he saw that Eldene had copied him in flipping up her mask. The door made a slight whump as it opened, but the pressure differential was such that little breathable air would be lost from the cabin. Eldene followed him out into surroundings little different from those she and Fethan had encountered when first going out into the wilderness. To her left lay flute grass, plantains and native rhubarbs, cut through with a curving path made by the ATV — that path already blurring out of existence as the new grass slowly regained its upright position. The ATV rested in an area strewn with blister moss, the occasional algae-green tricone shell, and flashes of that bright green plant Fethan had identified for her as real grass imported from Earth. To her right there stood an embankment topped with a high mesh fence. When Fethan clambered out of the ATV and led the way up the bank, Thorn and Eldene followed with caution, since the sounds of explosions and gunfire from beyond the fence were almost constant.
Along the base of the embankment, below the fence through which they were gazing, was a muddy track, then a band of grape tree orchards. Beyond these lay squerm and sprawn ponds. On the causeways and embankments between, a running fire-fight was taking place: groups of Theocracy soldiers lay down covering fire for a gradual retreat towards a distant mesh-fenced compound; Underground forces advanced behind grav-sleds on which had been mounted shielded rail-guns. Bodies and wrecked sleds were scattered all across this area. A Theocracy armoured car was burning — the fire fed by its own internal air supply — and some of the ponds were red, and foamed with voracious feeding.
"The rail-guns on the sleds are a recent addition," observed Thorn.
"I was just speaking to their commander," said Fethan. "Because of the resistance here, and the lack of cover, they dismounted what they could salvage from the wrecked towers of the previous compound they took. This fight has been going on since yesterday: every time they drive the Theocracy soldiers back to the compound, they get hit by the towers still working here."
"Then we should go round," said Thorn.
"That'll add three hours to our journey and, from what I understand, the problem's going to be solved anyway in the next hour." Fethan glanced to the sky above the far right of the compound. "In fact, probably in the next ten minutes."
The military carrier with its retinue of aerofans was clearly a welcome sight for the Theocracy soldiers guarding the compound, for they waved as it came racketing in over the ponds. Two minutes later they were burying their faces in the black soil as missiles lanced down from the carrier and turned the two ironwork towers behind the compound fence into glowing wreckage. These men could not hide from Lellan's fighters, who guided the aerofans in above them and opened up with the side-mounted rail-guns. The rebels pounded those trying to hide into slurry, and those who abandoned their weapons and ran out with their hands in the air just made easier targets. Within half an hour the forces of the Underground had taken this more difficult compound.
"Let's get moving," said Thorn, as he observed the carrier and its retinue depart.
Eldene tried to feel some pity for the Theocracy soldiers — as would have been morally right — but all she felt, when they drove down a causeway past smashed and near-obliterated bodies, was annoyance at such waste of equipment. As they passed the compound buildings — Fethan giving a salute to the commander of the rebels — she observed with a deep empathy a group of bewildered and bowed pond workers, their arms clutched protectively around their scoles. Almost with embarrassment she realized she was patting her hand against the itchy area below her breasts where the wound left by her own scole was still healing, then clutched that hand in her other one to still it. To then see that some of the rebels wore the padded overalls of pond workers underneath their flak jackets — bulging with their own scoles — immediately raised her mood. These people — obviously recent recruits — she saw, further on, distributing packs of ajectant and weapons amongst their recently liberated fellows.
Beyond the compound lay more of the carnage of battle, which they drove through for the best part of an hour before seeing another high embankment and mesh fence ahead of them.
"We should reach the first co-ordinates by late afternoon," said Fethan. He glanced at Eldene. "Do you want to take over now?"
Eldene hesitated — she wasn't confident about driving the ATV up the bank and using it to knock down the fence, as Fethan had done upon entering this agricultural area. Before she could formulate a reply, there came a sudden staccato clattering down the side of the ATV, and pieces of something were rattling and pinging around inside the cabin, and yellow breach-foam was oozing from holes in the vehicle's walls as it sealed them.
"Shit! Shit!" Thorn yelled as the ATV lurched, throwing both him and Eldene to the floor. As she grabbed for one of the wall handles to try and pull herself upright, she got a canted view through the front screen as Fethan drove the vehicle down into one of the ponds. Thorn was quickly up into the weapons control seat, the visor across, his left arm stiff at his side and blood trickling down from his torn biceps.
"Where the fuck did that come from?" he asked, whilst manipulating the controls of the weapons turrets, and turning his head from side to side — the visor throwing up views for him in whichever direction he looked. "Got it!" One of the turrets whined round above, and emitted a low thrumming as it emptied part of a magazine. "Fethan, take us up and out. They've just gone down into a pond."
"Sorry, trooper — got a burst tyre," said Fethan.
"Who attacked us?" Eldene asked.
Thorn unstuck the visor from his face and glanced at her, then to Fethan, who looked curious to know the answer as well.
"Small armoured car, bloody fast as well," he replied.
"Running?" suggested Fethan, studying the display that showed the tyre re-inflating.
"I'd guess so," replied Thorn, pressing the visor back into place. "Yep, definitely running — they're up and moving now."
Fethan wound up the power in the motor, and slowly eased the ATV out of the pond. With a horripilation, Eldene observed the hooked bouquets that were the mouths of squerms flashing up before the screen and brass segmented bodies whipping through the air and dropping away. The ATV still had a lean-down on the back left corner as that tyre, after auto-repair, slowly inflated. They came up out of the pond and turned, bringing into view a black armoured car running on front steering treads and rear balloon tyres. It had nearly reached the embankment when both turrets on the ATV stuttered and hissed. After a few seconds one of the turrets stopped firing, and from it came mechanical clonks and buzzings as it inserted another magazine. On the bodywork of the car flashes ignited and fragments of metal, from its armour and from ricochets, splashed into the surrounding ponds or flung up small explosions of earth. Then it was up the embankment, flattening the fence before it, then down and gone.
"Fuck," said Thorn succinctly, pulling the visor from his face. "That tyre ready to run yet?"
Fethan shook his head. "Two minutes at least."
"Your arm," said Eldene.
Thorn glanced at the wound, then reached down, pulled an evil-looking knife from his boot, and with practised ease split the material of his sleeve and peeled it back from his leaking flesh.