***The events of this segment take place simultaneously with the events 
in the battle for TRES HQ, part 9.  --Samhain

Shadows Strike
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

	The defenders had no choice; the X'hirjq were too many and too 
strong.  It was time again to scorch the earth and move backwards to the 
next battle line, taking as many X'hirjq down in the process and leaving 
as few of their own behind as possible...

**********************************************************

	The two Shadowwarriors-turned-foxes hunkered down in their holes, 
and listened as explosions, screams, gunfire, and footsteps passed 
overhead.  They were safe in their holes for now, but soon they would be 
sitting in the middle of enemy territory. 

**********************************************************

	The group of battlearmored X'hirjq were pleased with their 
progress.  They were pushing their prey backwards towards its home, and 
it was proving to be little challenge for their devourer-class 
battlearmor's speed, agility, and weapons.  Their prey was proving to be 
pathetically weak--so much so that their cloaking devices weren't needed.
	Suddenly, the lead huntress stopped cold, scanning cautiously around 
her for some perceived danger.  She growled lowly into her radio, 
[Something is not right here.  There is danger.  We are no longer the 
hunters in this area.  Proceed with extreme caution...] 
	Before she could give the order for them all to cloak, two holes 
opened up in the ground in the middle of the group, and the two 
ShadowWarriors rose up from the ground like a mist rising from a swamp, 
seemingly moving in slow motion.
	They landed, flexing their powerful leg muscles with the effort of 
catching their own weight plus that of their massive APATHY launchers, 
loaded to their maximum capacity.  They pivoted slowly, each firing in his 
particular field of fire, sending shells flying from the gaping maws of 
the tube-like launchers.  The lead huntress, being closest to the two 
warriors and thus the most immediate threat to them was the first to 
fall.  For that matter, she was straddling the imaginary line between 
their two fields of fire, and caught two of the APATHY shells in her 
torso, the first digging deep into her gut and eating it away with 
superheated acid, the second hitting just barely above the first and 
detonating its tremendous warhead, ripping her and her armor in half and 
sending a mist of entrails and blue-green phosphorescence showering in 
a half-moon behind her.
	The other X'hirjq instinctively activated the cloaking devices 
in their battle armor as the flurry of fire began to fly, but for several 
of them it was too late as the rocket propelled shells dug into their 
armor and then ripped them apart with a charge of shaped explosive that 
would make a LAWS missile look tame.  One of them took an acid shell in 
her midsection, where it punctured her armor and injected its lethal 
payload directly into her stomach.  She screeched in horror and agony as
the acid promptly ate its way from her midsection all the way down to her 
feet.
	In all, 8 of the 13 X'hirjq in the area fell in the initial surprise 
attack that came sprouting forth from the ground. 
	The two ShadowWarriors stood poised, their weapons not even half 
empty, hanging ready at their left hips.  They swept the area cautiously 
with their weapons and senses, knowing full well that there were more of 
the enemy around that they simply could not see.
	Just then, Hemley's eye caught a flicker from off to his left.  
Apparently one of the cloaking devices had not survived entirely intact, 
as he could glimpse the outline of a massive form every so often.  He 
grinned viciously as he squeezed off a high explosive shell to finish her 
off, only to suddenly find that she had only been a diversion.  The real 
attack was coming from behind him, and he quickly found himself slashed 
nearly in half, gushing blood and guts from his midsection.  His last act 
as a living being was to fire his APATHY directly into the ground, the 
explosion of the shell acting as an extremely powerful grenade, taking 
both him and his attacker out in a shower of flying rock fragments.

	Riggins was alone.

	He swept the area, not knowing where to look, where to turn, or 
how to tell where his foes were.  Suddenly, a realization dawned on him 
and he looked around again, and found what he was looking for.  Before he 
could act, however, the hackles stood on end on the back of his neck, 
telling him he was in trouble.  Instinctively, he dropped to a knee, and
rolled away just in time to hear the whooshing of a blade passing through 
where he had just been, and popped an acid shell into the hole in the air 
that his attacker had to be occupying.  There were several brief 
flickers of light from various locations around the attacker, 
indicating a hit as the acid injected by the shell started eating away at 
various internal systems.  It finally fell in a heap at his side as he 
looked back at his objective.  Yes, there were tracks in the gathering 
snow.  He grinned, and then proceeded to rapidly walk the tracer effect of 
the shells along and over the tracks and screaming at the top of his 
lungs.
	 "JIHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!"
	Just then, a shell found the first of the remaining X'hirjq, sending
a leg flying.  Another round hit a second of them, nearly pushing her 
backwards she was at such close range, and then exploded, scattering  
her across the nether regions of Colorado.  The last one, however, 
leaped out of the way, and he could no longer tell where she was.  She 
did, however, need to land somewhere, and would try to land on him if 
possible.  Accordingly, he rolled away from his position, leaving a 
trail of fragmentation grenades behind as he went.  It wasn't exactly 
sporting of him, but this was war.  She landed, as expected, 
directly on top of one of them, knocking her partially off balance, and 
telling him her location.  He fired off three rounds in quick 
succession, leaving little trace of the X'hirjq who was once there.  It 
was done.
	Riggins had lost a colleague today, but not before they had taken down a 
bakers' dozen of the enemy, and, after all, he was still alive to fight 
again.  He only hoped that those still in the battlemechs would do as well... 

To Be Continued...

"Shadows Strike"
Copyright 1996
David R. Hibbs

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