2065
| | Sep/Oct 2065 |
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Kestrel had just cleared the ridgeline and Brooke was beginning to catch her breath when Recon Eight yelled in her ear, "Lead down! Lead down!" Brooke's heart slammed into her throat, and the channel broke into a chaos of questions before Tran yelled over the chatter, "Settle down, dammit!" The channel went quiet before Tran continued, "Recon Three is assuming command. Command's got reinforcements on the way, so let's keep moving and meet up with them." Hawk pulled ahead and turned a few degrees to the right, and the rest of the squadron followed suit. "Above all, we are not going to - " "Bandits at our five!" called one of the Raging Scavengers, and Brooke looked back and right. Half a dozen Buccaneers, heavily armored muscle cars with square bodies, split grilles, and Slaver banners fluttering from their roofs, roared down the slope of the ridge in their wake. At their head rode some long, lean, pure-white muscle car that Brooke didn't recognize, even with the hours she'd put into studying cars at the Training Center. It looked like a Phoenix had been heated and melted like candy, all the harsh lines softened and stretched into something much faster. Round headlights bulged over the barrels of machine guns. Brooke felt suddenly, horribly conscious of how few magazines she had left. And how many hits fleet, fragile Kestrel had taken in the brawl. The whistling of air through the new bullet holes along the edge of the roof... She forced herself to take a deep breath, ignore the bad thoughts, and reload her gun. Her hands moved through the practiced motions without any input from her mind. "Scatter! Scatter!" Tran's voice yelled in her ear. Kestrel jerked sharply to the right, and the ground exploded to their left, throwing up a cloud of dirt and sand. The Vampire's skin chimed like her baby brother's rattle as rocks bounced off steel next to Brooke's ear. The Recon formation came apart like a flower in a sandstorm. Cars scattered across the basin, fighting for maneuvering room. Rockets rained down, tearing up more geysers of sand. To Brooke's right, Recon Eight disappeared in a fireball and a static-washed scream. A dark green Buccaneer passed Kestrel on the left side, rockets flying from its nose and missing Hawk by bare feet. Human skulls flapped out on chains from its rear bumper, and Brooke pulled her trigger. Her tracers severed one of the chains, and a skull flew off into the desert. Hawk and Kestrel turned to chase, their tracers sparking off the Slaver's armor and scarring the white insignia on its door. Metal screamed as bullets stabbed through Kestrel's left armor, spraying sunlight and metal shards into the Vampire's interior. Lines of fire bloomed across her face, thighs and arms. Her gun bucked hard, like an angry goat straining against her hands, and fell silent and still. Brooke opened her eyes to find her gun perforated by the bullets, the ammunition feed severed. She glanced aside at Mellie, wiping blood out of her eyes from a mess of cuts on her forehead, and then past her driver. The unknown white muscle car was turning on the sand outside, coming around for another pass. The white car bore no banners or spikes, only a black shield-and-lance on its door. Mellie twisted the wheel hard to the right, trying to turn faster than the white car, but Brooke could only stare, transfixed, as Death bore down on her car. Then a gray flash roared past Kestrel, slamming into the white car's side and spinning it around. The red tracers bound for Kestrel sprayed harmlessly into the air. "You owe me a drink, lover!" Lorna mocked from Brooke's headphones as her Phoenix turned for another pass, and Mellie's face took on a savage grin under the blood. The white car turned its spin into a loop, until its nose was pointed at Lorna's car. Its guns flashed with yellow fire as they found a target. "Mel-" Lorna's voice screamed, then cut off. The Phoenix shuddered and came apart in a vortex of metal and smoke, flying into Kestrel's path. The white car skirted the Phoenix's wreck and raced for the desert. "No!" Mellie screamed and hammered her accelerator, taking off after the fleeing Slaver. Brooke reloaded her gun and tried her trigger, but nothing happened. Mellie bellowed, "Kill it, kill it, killit!" in her ear, but all the squeezing of Brooke's fingers couldn't wake the gun from its slumber. "I can't!" Brooke cried, blinking away tears and blood from a cut above her eye. Mellie reached over and snatched the gun's handle, her finger clenching the trigger. Again, nothing happened. Whatever the white car was, it was blazing fast once it got going. Blue-tinged smoke puffed from its exhaust, and it was quickly lost from sight over a ridge. "Four! Four! Come back, dammit! Status!" Tran asked in both their ears, but Mellie kept driving up the ridge. Kestrel hit the top of the ridge and flew partway down the other side. In the distance, Brooke could see the white Slaver, easily two hundred meters away and receding toward the distant mountains. Kestrel rolled down the slope and coasted to a stop. Mellie stared after the Slaver, stone-faced, until it was out of sight, then turned Kestrel back toward the highway. "On our way back, Three," she said, and there was no expression in her voice at all. ### From Iron Duke's cab, Williams watched his right flank roar down the slope to envelop the Slaver left, which collapsed under a blitz of cannon and rocket fire. The few surviving Slaver cars backed away and ran for the desert, but a group of sedans from Williams' reserve caught them and tore them apart. Then the survivors of the fight around the Slaver artillery counter-attacked, leading to a vicious brawl around and between the captured vehicles. Williams glanced aside at his left wing, which was winning its long-range gun duel with the fragments of the Slaver right. He could see the moment that the Slavers began to waver. He nodded, waited a moment, and called over the radio, "All units, advance. Let's end this thing!" Iron Duke's engine revved, and the Fire Engine began to roll down the slope toward the raging battle. ### When Kestrel limped back to the highway, the rest of Recon had parked on the ridge west of the highway, near the spot where they had waited in ambush for the Slavers to arrive. As Mellie brought Kestrel up to the ridge, Brooke watched relatively intact SUVs spread out to the perimeter of the combat zone, followed by teams of people carrying packs of tools toward the two wrecked Phoenixes and one Buccaneer, shimmering in the heat on the basin floor. Mellie parked Kestrel, killed the engine, and stepped out onto the sand, walking away down the slope into the basin. Brooke, caught by surprise, grabbed Daisy's holster from her footwell, opened her door, and followed on shaky legs. Mellie picked up speed as she walked down the slope, limping to walking to jogging to running by the time she hit the basin floor. Following behind, Brooke noticed that Mellie didn't have her rifle with her. Mellie reached the shattered wreck of Lorna's Phoenix, bent to look through the side slit, and dropped to her knees next to the corpse of the car. Kestrel could have looked like this, she thought, with a sinking stomach. Brooke stepped up behind Mellie and bent to look in the slit. After a single moment of incomprehension, Brooke realized what she was seeing, and had to stand up and take herself away from the horror of the car's insides. That hole in the other side... the armor must have failed, come into the car like shrapnel... If Kestrel's armor had failed like that... She closed her eyes and swallowed the contents of her stomach before they could escape. She'd seen corpses before, sheep and goats and wolves, and once a person, but she'd never imagined that a body could hold so much blood. Or be in so many pieces... The image of Lorna's mutilated body swam before her mind's eye, but she pushed it back and down. That could have been me. This is the life you've chosen, a voice mocked in the back of her head, a voice Brooke wasn't sure was her own. Is Hanlin Hold looking so bad now? A pair of fingers touched Brooke's shoulder, and she jumped, jerking Daisy free of her holster. Roger Hanlin stepped back, raising both his hands in reassurance. "Relax, it's me!" His dark eyes searched her face, for what, she could not say. "Sorry." Brooke slid Daisy back into her holster. "What's going on?" "We're checking and clearing all the loots, and Tran wants you over there." He bent down to the Phoenix's slit, and quickly stood, swallowing. After a moment, he glanced at Mellie and went on, a bit shakily, "Well, I think just you, Brooke. I think she'd understand if... if Mellie stayed." "Go, Brooke," Mellie said, her voice creaking like a rusted hinge. "I'll be alright." Roger nodded and started toward Wolf, parked some twenty feet away. The Phoenix had taken several bullet holes, and lost part of its rear bumper to a rocket strike, but it was still in better shape than Kestrel, which looked like it had been chewed by a pack of rats up and down its left side. Brooke put a hand on Mellie's shoulder. Back on the Hold, Mellie had always made Brooke's childish pains hurt less. Mellie wept with hurt, and Brooke felt at a loss to soothe her friend's pain. Mellie shrugged off her hand. "Just go, Brooke." Brooke nodded and started walking toward Wolf. ### When she got to the Phoenix, Roger was sitting in the drivers' seat. As soon as she closed her door, he hit the accelerator, driving up the ridge. At the top of the ridge, Brooke spotted a badly damaged Voyager sitting at the bottom of the other side, and a blackened crater halfway down the slope. Beyond them lay the remains of the Slaver convoy, with figures swarming around the lorries, or picking between the scarred and holed hulks of the Slaver combat cars. "Is that where - " "Yeah." Roger took a hand off the wheel to point at the crater. "That was Tarantula, apparently. And nobody survived out of Scorpion, either." "How'd it happen?" She still couldn't quite believe that Orth was dead, but seeing the crater that had been a proud Legion car helped bring it home a little more. "That white car. That Osprey, it apparently knocked out Scorp first, and then Tarantula." Roger shook his head. "I've only seen those on the Somerset racetrack, never in the field." Brooke nodded, finally recognizing the name. Ospreys were some of the rarest cars in Evan, each of them handcrafted by the finest mechanics of far-off Sarsfield. "She saved us." "Orth?" "Lorna." Brooke shook her head. "She rammed the white car, saved us. Then it got her." "Oh." Roger steered Wolf toward the nomad Motorhomes and Box Vans, which had been towed apart from the lorries of the Holy Rollers convoy. Brooke recognized Tran, waiting in her metal-plated vest for them at the foot of one of the Motorhomes. All around, mechanics from various gangs were going from one wrecked combat vehicle to the next, tying red or orange strips of cloth to each. Marking them as salvageable or scrap, Brooke realized. Brooke and Roger stepped clear of Wolf, and Tran looked Brooke up and down with a hunting rifle in her hands. "Good to see you made it, Brooke." She gestured at the nearest Motorhome, a blue model with the rippling black scars of a recent flamethrower attack across its lower half, well below the narrow windows. "I'm late to report to the Gray Riders. You and Roger clear these out, make sure there's no Slavers hiding in 'em." She glanced down at Daisy's holster. "You've sure got the right tool for it." Roger nodded and slung his rifle off his shoulder. Brooke drew Daisy and checked the shells in her breech, and took some steps toward the Motorhome. The metal around the Motorhome's door was carved with intricate curling designs, filled with colored paints. Brooke laid a hand on the designs, and Roger grabbed the door's handle. "Cover me," Brooke said, and Roger nodded and opened the door. Brooke stepped up the narrow stairs, Daisy held at the ready.  Barbara Martinez of The F-Bombs died at Gates of Somerset. Amy King of The F-Bombs died at Gates of Somerset. Lewis Clark of Axis of Weevils died at Lost Oasis. Steve Benitez of Engine died at Forever Yellow Skies. Carl `Herman` Sherman of Harrys Hippos died at Northern Farm Land. Peter Straight of Maxxed Out died at Never Plains: Sand Storm. Bradley `Sure Would` Forest of Maxxed Out died at Never Plains: Sand Storm. Wilma `Flintstone` Gloria of Maxxed Out died at Never Plains: Sand Storm. Alan `The Hack` Hansen of Fortune Hunters died at Sandy. Melanie Campbell of MegaCityStreetJudges died at Gates of Somerset. Anthony Wilkerson of The F-Bombs died at Acid Land. Danny `Fitty Cal` Barrett of Bujinkan died at Double Down Arena. Jennifer Pitts of Bujinkan died at Double Down Arena. Mark Cannon of Produce_Vendors died at Road to Somerset. Scott Rempe of God Killers died at Gates of Somerset. Alan Rose of Paceys Raiders died at Sandy. Richard Lemmon of Triumph died at Somerset Arena. Henry Pritchett of Paceys Raiders died at The Maze. Gladys Gonser of The Pikers died at Great Southern Desert. Alan Jeffries of God Killers died at The Pits. Benjamin `does not` Lai of Maxxed Out died at Highway to Hell. Walter Reyes of Rabid died at Interstate Mythos. Clare Osburn of Cestus Dei died at Under a Bloody Red Sky. Sammy Ray of The Pikers died at Pathway to Darkness. Clayton Marshall of The Pikers died at Pathway to Darkness. Tammie Kelley of Raging Death died at Pathway to Darkness. Dawn Dandrea of God Killers died at Once Upon a Town. `Mega` Matthew Johnson of Blood Roses died at Gates of Somerset. Gabrielle Dark of Nightelves died at Road to Somerset. Roo Dolph of Road Templars died at Chaos Canyon. `retard` Marla Fairley of Elements of Harmony died at The Pits. John `RETARD` Sotomayor of Elements of Harmony died at The Pits. Scott `retard` Pierce of Elements of Harmony died at The Pits. Chester Bender of The Griefing Griefers of Grief died at Double Down Arena. `Miss` Kelli Jackson of Blood Roses died at Road to Somerset. `The Hero` John Thurston of Blood Roses died at Gates of Somerset. Mary `Vodka` Serna of King of Clubs died at Lost Trail: Overland. Edna `Fitty` Elliott of The Ansome Cousin Jacks died at Gates of Elmsfield. Moses `quick draw` Santos of Brassicas died at Forever Yellow Skies. Stephen `Black Bear` Barber of San Jose Baggers died at Highway to Hell. Susan Rodriguez of The Wolfhounds died at Gates of Somerset. Heather `Death Seeker` Capo of Nightelves died at Road to Somerset. Emile Mangrum of MADHAT died at Highway to Hell. Terrence Fisher of The F-Bombs died at Gates of Morgan. Sarah Nelson of Joels Bastards died at Gates of Morgan. Carl Dunn of Clarinbridge Crushers died at Gates of Morgan. Roo Dolph of Road Templars died at Gates of Morgan. Clinton Smith of Road Templars died at Gates of Morgan. Angela Coates of Road Templars died at Gates of Morgan. Gregory Wolfe of Road Templars died at Gates of Morgan. Nelson `Donnie` King of Arrogant Atheists died at Gates of Morgan. Avis Null of Arrogant Atheists died at Gates of Morgan. Sheila Ballantyne of Arrogant Atheists died at Gates of Morgan. Merry `Effing` Christmas of Cestus Dei died at Gates of Morgan. Ronda ` On Da` Raggs of Cestus Dei died at Gates of Morgan. Rebecca `phone` Boothe of v.i.n.d.i.c.a.to.r.s. died at Gates of Morgan. Jesus Manes of Rogue Traders died at Gates of Morgan. Michelle `Scraps` Dickerson of Rabid died at Never Plains: Sand Storm. Anthony `Not Right` Desantis of Rabid died at Never Plains: Sand Storm. Nancy `Bad Date` Choi of Rabid died at Never Plains: Sand Storm. Lydia Williams of L.C.R. died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Claude Culver of the mad mad crushers died at Interstate Mythos. `Laughin`` Larry Hill of Road Rifters died at Forever Yellow Skies. Sam `Hammer` Eubanks of Road Rifters died at Forever Yellow Skies. Alfred `Pennyworth` Wagner of Draggin Dragons died at Scattered Hills: Bridge Out. Mattie James of MegaCityStreetJudges died at Northern Foothills Racetrack (at night). Alice `Acid` Tripp of Blood and Iron died at Once Upon a Town. Audrey `Lady Luck` Lopez of Department of Motor Vehicles died at Pathway to Darkness. Joseph `It`s my law!` Murphy of Department of Motor Vehicles died at Pathway to Darkness. Jarvis `Jarhead` Kinsey of Cranberries died at Gates of Elmsfield. Robert `Chuckles` Williams of No Aiming Just Shooting died at Gates of Gateway Truckstop. `The Gentleman` Nathan Zachary of Blood Roses died at Under a Bloody Red Sky. Sol Devine of PA Racers died at Road to Elmsfield. `Tob` Anton Rankins of The Ansome Cousin Jacks died at Gates of Somerset. `Capt.` Donald Barboza of Hessians died at Gates of Somerset. `Maj.` Paul Rocheleau of Hessians died at Gates of Somerset. `2nd Lt.` Joyce Long of Hessians died at Gates of Somerset. `Lt. Col.` Cora Buskirk of Hessians died at Gates of Somerset. Linda `Hush` Usher of Abysmal Horrors died at Gates of Somerset. Fay Benson of Engine died at Northern Farm Land. John Belmonte of Engine died at Northern Farm Land. Darrel `Mustang` Moss of Scarzams Dragoons died at Road to Elmsfield. `General` George Patton of SwordStroke Enterprises died at Highway to Hell. Dorothy Rich of Project 43 died at Scattered Hills: Bridge Out. William Castaneda of The Ghosts died at Forever Yellow Skies. `Bomber` Ralph Ivey of Project 43 died at Northern Farm Land. `Scouter` Flossie Williams of Project 43 died at Once Upon a Town. `Knack-kneed` Kevin Bruno of The Ansome Cousin Jacks died at Highway to Hell. Maria `Maund` Schrecengost of The Ansome Cousin Jacks died at Highway to Hell. Efrain Hale of The Ansome Cousin Jacks died at Highway to Hell. Sherman McFarland of The Pikers died at Gates of Texan. Richard McClung of Axis of Weevils died at Northern Speedway. Valerie Compton of war mongers died at Road to Gateway Truck Stop. Michael `Lugnuts` Reed of Department of Motor Vehicles died at Sandy. `Just Another` John Doe of Department of Motor Vehicles died at Sandy. `Bad Bad` Betty Ruble of SwordStroke Enterprises died at Once Upon a Town. Darwin Darwin of SwordStroke Enterprises died at Once Upon a Town. `Serious` Sam Horwitz of Flying Froggies died at Gates of Somerset. Michael Healy of The F-Bombs died at Gates of Badlands Truckstop. Kim `Queen of Cool` Basso of Blood Roses died at Gates of Somerset. Judith `Shattered` Glass of Highway Hellriders died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Charlie `sex molester` Chester of The Angel Smurfs died at Somerset Rally Circuit. James Daves of Rainbow Anthrax died at The Dunes Race Course. Stephanie Duggins of Roams Runners died at Ring of Death Arena. Anne McDade of Clan Hammer died at Highway to Hell. Jennifer Fernandes of Useless Children died at Gates of Somerset. Jason Constantine of Coolerheads died at Gates of Badlands Truckstop. Rose Blake of Coolerheads died at Gates of Badlands Truckstop. Joel Wynne of Holy Mutant Death Squad died at Lonesome Highway. Amanda Harris of Frontline Assembly died at Gates of Somerset. Christopher `Likes To` Ogle of The Tronophiles died at Gates of Somerset. Virgil `Trench` Gutierrez of Paceys Raiders died at Forever Yellow Skies. Harry Sack of SwordStroke Enterprises died at Double Down Arena. Bong Waters of SwordStroke Enterprises died at Gates of Somerset. Timothy Dyck of Rabid died at Gates of Somerset. James `Flames` Lopez of San Jose Baggers died at Gates of Somerset. Betty Diaz of Lobotomizers died at Road to Somerset. `Comrade` Viola Spillman of Bad Baby Bunnies died at Once Upon a Town. June `Bug` Quintana of San Jose Baggers died at Texan Rally. `Wagon Doctor` Roy Wagnon of Maxxed Out died at Somerset Arena. Abby `Sable` Wiliams of Paceys Raiders died at Gates of Somerset. Benjamin `Kettle Corn` Kaufman of Chrome Religion died at Road to Gateway Truck Stop. Ricardo `Bulletmancer` Fierro of Chrome Religion died at Road to Gateway Truck Stop. Brenda Carlson of war mongers died at Road to Somerset. Victor Gonzales of v.i.n.d.i.c.a.to.r.s. died at Once Upon a Town. Felix Honeycutt of Clan Hammer died at Lost Oasis. Anthony Butler of Clan Hammer died at Lost Oasis. Cindy Sparks of Clan Hammer died at Road to Elmsfield. `Insane` Jane Negron of Class of Nuke Em High died at Gates of Badlands Truckstop. Vickie Levin of Lord of Rockets died at Somerset Rally Circuit. `Doc` Caroline Honeycutt of BibleThumpers Anonymous died at Somerset Arena. Doris Hoch of Useless Children died at Blown With the Wind. Edmond `Dean` Martin of Coolerheads died at Scattered Grounds. `Butthead` Rod Munch of SwordStroke Enterprises died at Never Plains: Sand Storm. Anita Christiansen of Confusion died at Ring of Death Arena. Louise Sutton of Project 43 died at Northern Farm Land. Kevin `Gat` Melendez of Project 43 died at Once Upon a Town. Augustine Saunders of Lobotomizers died at Somerset Arena. Irma Balderas of Lobotomizers died at Somerset Arena. Edward Walton of Lobotomizers died at Somerset Arena. 1. Blood and Iron (Somerset): $889.  This list shows just who has been winning the most lucrative prizes on the circuits and arenas of Evan, during the past month. 1. Hot Trax: $785705. |
 With the major leagues coming towards their conclusion, the current leaders are: Evan Race Ladder - Axis of Weevils In addition, the leaders of the minor leagues are: Circuit of Evan Wilderness Rally II League - Blood and Iron Relations betweens the Civs and Reds have soured following several high-profile Civ attacks on Red refugee transports.  |