“*static* Antesia, keep up darling. You'll fall behind the hunting party”
Antesia Baskarra attempted to keep her hoverbike level as the rough terrain tangled with the gravfields. She grimaced as the quip of her mother's voice faded into the hiss of radio static, and jammed the accelerator to maximum. The matriarch was perched at the Estate, watching the proceedings from satellite and scout drone telemetry, no doubt enjoying it immensely. Anestia bit her lip at the thought.
The house's Hunt was covering vast amounts of ground in its quest to catch a worlds-famous Wastrel bull. The massive reptilian flying beast was picking up speed towards the northeast. Her house's domain included the canyon network of that quadrant of Edani Six. A dry section of the temperate world, the harsh climate bred similar harshness into its creatures. The Wastrel could reach six hundred kilos, with a wingspan of ten meters to sustain loft and accelerate it to attack speeds for killing its prey. These great, horrific creatures were prized trophies on Edani Prime. Antesia was determined to acquire one for her family's honor.
She keyed her private comm. “Shoriya, you got an update on the Wastrel's vector? These scouts are about as useful as Unc's old slaver”
“Picking up a reading in the Sorra de Riu. The canyon's walls are bouncing the signal around, and the scouts haven't accounted for the interference. . . but I think we've got 'em.”
Antesia's mouth drew back into a tight grin. Her friend had the reaction time and cognitive abilities of the best of the Knights; She could kill you with a sword, or with a tightly aimed surface-to-surface missile strike. Shoriya's family had been servants of the Baskarra house for more than a century, but were largely treated like equals. Protectors and allies in causes holy and political, some of the finest the Kingdom had. And the Baskarra would rely upon them to get off this backwater world into more. . . valuable real estate.
“Antesia! Meet you at the entrance of Sorra de Riu. We need a plan of attack <hiss> the wastrel's getting tired, and will need to put down soon to rebuild energy.”
The mammoth wastrel wouldn't be able to keep up its flight long after being flushed out of its den by the Hunt's drones. The muscular creature was ideally built for quickly gaining altitude and pouncing upon enemies, not trans-continental migrations.
Antesia came into visual range of the canyon, which rapidly began cutting into the plateau as the riverbed of a centuries-old seasonal stream. There, the Wastrel had gone in search of refuge. The dark form of Shoriya's bike and armored body also grew as Antesia flew up to a bluff on the canyon, to get a better view of the situation.
Shoriya flashed Antesia a grin through her facemask as the heiress pulled up alongside her.
“Kem and Scal are going to be chasing those phantom readings for an hour. Comm chatter sounds like they're going to be hunting around Alturó de Foc.”
“Should give us enough time to do it then. Any ideas?”
“He'll probably have a perch picked out of sight from the main route. Tributary canyon. Cold-blooded, invisible to thermal imagers, and metallic content of canyon walls rules out submilimeter scans. We'll need to do a visual sweep over a half-kilometer zone down from the head of Sorra de Riu. You take the overwatch position at fifty meters altitude, and I'll go on the floor to bait him out.”
Her mother's words from earlier were still burning a bit in her ears. She felt warmth flushing her cheeks as she objected. “I should be on the floor providing the bait. You're better at providing visual sweeps anyway. You know I don't have your implants.”
“If that is what you wish, my Lady.”
Anestia's blush intensified further, but she now felt further motivated to carry out her plan. Adjusting the gravfield of the bike, she slid into the recess of the canyon, which slowly widened and deepened into a gash in Edani Six's surface. She looked up at the form of her friend which matched her velocity and maintained a forward position some twenty meters ahead.
Blood pumped through her body as adrenaline fed Anestia's alert state. Every rust-colored splotch, every shadow that seemed out of place, kicked her heartrate back up again. The minutes dilated and blurred together. Shoriya's steady stream of reports provided some bedrock to Anestia's conciousness. The regularity was a clock that ordered her otherwise disjointed thoughts.
“Got something-”
In an instant part of the cliff turned into a living blur of rock, as it rose into the air. The Wastrel's wings unfurled like dark cloud in the sky. Shoriya's bike immediately swerved left to avoid it, and by instinct Anestia pulled out her pulse rifle, braced it against her shoulder, and laid down a stream of death towards the monstrosity.
The Wastrel's eyes glistened a deathly blue in the evening sunlight, and the rust-colored wings flapped mightily, dragging it higher and higher, above the burst of laser-propelled plasma. In the span of those few seconds, Shoriya had pulled out her own rifle, lancing out in a brilliant burst of rapid-fire bolts.
The Wastrel's hulking mass shuddered under the joint attacks, but it still moved and wheeled towards Anestia. The momentum of the upward flight had ceased, and the wings began a fell beat, flinging the beast towards the bike near the canyon floor. Anestia lurched the bike forward: the only sound tactical option was to fly under the Wastrel and force it to overshoot its target. It was a risky manuever. If she couldn't close the gap, Anestia would be vulnerable. And very dead.
Shoriya seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation, and wheeled her bike around, steadying her rifle's aim, and unleashed. The stream of shots flew into the wings of the massive creature, scorching the webbing and breaking holes through it, thereby reducing the bull Wastrel's maneuverability and thrust. The skullplating wouldn't be easily damaged . . . at least not quickly enough for it to matter now.
Anestia's bike swept forward under the shadow of the Wastrel. Sensing the failure of his attack, the Wastrel pitched upward again, flapping against the dry Edani air, out of the canyon's recess, wheeling around once more to strike.
Shoriya and Anestia were ready. The Wastrel's damaged wings made the turn ungainly and slow, a perfect opening for the finishing blow. The Khanid duo unleashed a barrage of rifle fire against the cranial plate of the Wastrel, which let out a blood curdling scream. The bull wastrel's turn twitched, and the mighty beast lost control, toppling into the cliff above Anestia. Her feeling of jubilation was immediately turned to horror as the rocks dislodged by the collision tumbled towards Anestia and her bike.
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Topic: Edani hunt, part one. (Read 896 times)