Operation Phoenix:  The Hunt For Samhain


Part 5


 
[flashback...]

        There was a brief moment (about 2 seconds worth) of silence, and 
then the calm and quiet of the forest was shattered by the tremendous noise
of the exploding Jihadlinker...



	The X'hirijq were fanned out along the shoreline, and had largely 
had time to duck for cover when the explosion came.  The force of the 
blast was still a surprise, though...

	There was a large flash of blindingly brilliant light, followed by 
a tremendous explosion as the mini-fusion cell powering the JihadLinker 
overloaded.  A ball of flames spread over the area, and all the trees 
within a 15 foot radius were knocked over by the shock wave, sending the 
few X'hirijq snipers still in the trees sprawling.  One of them was 
squashed under his tree as it fell on top of him, pinning him beneath it.

	Only one of the troops was actually killed by the blast, though 
several were injured slightly by rock and debris sent flying by the blast.

	Regardless of casualties and injuries, the blast served its 
purpose--it distracted and scattered the X'hirijq troops in the area, and 
gave Samhain some time to flee the area...



	Samhain helped himself downstream by swimming a bit.  He stayed 
submerged to hide his location, but was still very concerned about the 
success of his little endeavor.  He had to hope he could get far enough 
away before they reassembled and resumed the hunt... else he could be in 
real trouble...



	Samhain had more troubles than he knew about.  Above him, all 
along the shoreline snipers had been left behind the group to cover the 
river in the event Samhain fled downstream.



	Samhain was out of air... he had to surface...  He popped out of 
the water, and as soon as he did, blasts came at him from the treeline.  
Plasma balls.  Nasty.  He suddenly wished he had Cyberpyro's immunity to 
flame, but didn't.  All he had was a river to duck back into, covered by 
the rising steam from the last shots, which had fortunately missed... 
albeit closely enough to give him a sunburn on one side of his face and on 
the opposite arm, but missed nonetheless.

	"FUCK!" Samhain uttered underwater, as he swam diagonally across 
the river.  He knew the side he was on would be death all the way along 
its shore, so headed towards the safest place he knew...



	The X'hirjq commander was livid.  "That's IT.  I've HAD it with this guy.  
Dump the slug weapons.  I don't care any more if we burn this forest down 
with the plasma weapons.  I want him FRIED!!  TRACK HIM!  NOW!  HE'S 
CLOSE, DAMMIT!"

	And with that, they started the chase again, spurred on by reports 
coming in from one of the snipers.  And he was crossing the river.  He had 
to be--else the other snipers further downstream would have seen him too...



	Samhain crawled out of the river and coughed a bit.  Swimming that 
far underwater hadn't been easy, but he'd made it.  He struggled his way 
to his favorite cave, to try and find a defensive position inside.  They 
were close behind him now... he knew they were.

	Closer than he expected, in fact.  As he got into the cave, a 
plasma blast came through the cave mouth behind him and blasted the wall, 
causing the mouth of it to collapse partially, and the cave went black.

	"Well..." thought Samhain, "I get some time to figure what I'm 
going to do now before they get here... I hope..."  And with that, he set 
to rigging a few traps before they came in after him.

To be Continued....


"The Hunt for Samhain"
Copyright 1995, David R. Hibbs
All Rights Reserved.