Stone Soldiers 5: Black Knight Down (15 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The situation was going to hell faster than he'd ever seen. Major Campbell was worried. It was still the middle of the night in Oklahoma, but dawn was finally approaching in Washington. The Generals he'd been trying to reach were now making a decision on the trouble unfolding.

On the many monitor screens in Argon Tower's Command and Control Center, the battle was raging. The Stone Soldiers had long since depleted their ammunition. They had resorted to fighting these strange, blue, Vedic beings with knives and stone fists. Then the dinosaurs had begun appearing. Record-sized allosaurs, rampaging around the impact crater and tossing the men about like they were toys.

Campbell had ordered the gunships to return- both had been forced away by the crazy, sudden storm front that appeared over the crash site when the Black Knight was opened. Orbiting at a thousand feet and a half mile out, the Blackhawks were woefully equipped for a mission like this. They'd served only as transports for the original mission of finding Colonel Kenslir and having him explain what the hell he was doing in Oklahoma.

Still, each Blackhawk carried two, side window-mounted 7.62mm miniguns- six barreled electric cannons of spinning death that could eliminate lightly armored vehicles. And, as it thankfully was looking, eight meter long allosaurs.

The black dinosaur that had charged out of the crater and chased Josie Winters and Jimmy Kane into a shipping container was taking the full brunt of a minigun now. It bellowed and snapped at the stream of tracer fire spraying over it. Chunks of flesh and blood erupted from the monster then it simply collapsed to the ground- dead.

It was a small victory.

The second helicopter had reported taking fire from the ground- a missile had passed through the helicopter's fuselage with minor damage. And the being that had thrown it was still standing. That was troubling.

The feeds from the men's tactical targeting visors showed the Vedics had transformed themselves- into some kind of blue stone easily as durable as the stone soldiers themselves. The barrage of 7.62mm rounds splashed harmlessly off them, like heavy rain.

The one identified as
Shiva
leapt into the air now though, and erupted in a bright ball of fire. He hung for a moment above the ground, his upper arms transforming into wings. Then, like a dragon, he roared and flame spewed out from his mouth.

The three allosaurs remaining in the crater were still rampaging- two had stone soldiers in their mouths, ineffectively trying to chew them up- Paul Briones and Wayne Stevens.

"Fall back!" Mark Kenslir yelled across the come circuits. >>>SCATTER<<< he broadcast a moment later. From his feed, it was obvious he was battling the Vedic identified as Kali- a spinning, kicking, stabbing flurry of knife and axe thrusts versus the blue woman's wildly slashing four swords.

Major Campbell was decided. He couldn't wait for Washington. The team needed support now. He moved behind an Airman at one of the many workstations in the Command Center.

"Have the Raptors engage! Right now!"

"Yes, sir!"

***

B'Yabshaw was in the air now, flying up to meet the whirling-winged machines the humans were using to rain their metal projectiles down. The thunderous roar of the aircraft told him these were no magical craft, but mere machines. And he could destroy a machine.

He dodged to the left, rolling away from a stream of gunfire directed at him. Then he tucked his wings in, transforming them back into arms. He had reached the helicopter.

B'Yabshaw slammed into the side of the aircraft, right beside the spinning barrels of the minigun. All four of his hands griped the surface of the craft- which parted easily in his grasp. Surprisingly, the vehicle was sheathed in only a thin shell of metal.

Ramming his head forward, he shattered a window in the side of the vessel, leaning inside it, then turning to see the very surprised and frightened crew. His mouth gaped wide as they scrambled to pull pistols from their flight vests.

Fire filled the interior of the helicopter. A moment later, it erupted in a bright flash in the sky, pieces scattering in every direction. As momentum carried the mass of burning debris down, a jet of pure flame headed straight for the ground.

Like molten steel poured into an invisible mold, the flame touched the ground and formed the shape of a man- a four armed man. Then the flames shifted, moving forward, a swirling column of fire.

Mark Kenslir ducked under another slash from Vishnu's sickle. Spinning in place he was again able to leg sweep his opponent, toppling the antediluvian. Kenslir then leapt on top the fallen, blue-stone man. Focusing all his might, he drove his right fist into the chest of the fallen creature and prayed his guess was correct.

Kenslir felt the blue stone explode under the impact, shattering and flying out in all directions. The resistance was as he'd hoped- only a thin wall of stone, then a void. Like the stone soldiers, the antediluvians were not solid stone- they had open cavities were their lungs had been when they were flesh. B'Ashmayaw broke apart into several pieces, head, arms and legs flying away in different directions. But the victory was short-lived.

Colonel Kenslir felt the pressure of an allosaur's bite as one clamped down on one of his legs. He was jerked up into the air by the monster and whipped around. Any other man would have had his spine shattered. Kenslir's merely turned to stone.

The Colonel executed an upside down sit-up, curling his upper body around the surprised dinosaur's head. Grabbing the bottom jaw of the monster with both hands, he dug the heel of his good foot into its upper jaw. With a terrific heave, he wrenched the jaws apart.

Kenslir could feel bone break under the black, slimy skin of the monster. Teeth exploded outwards as he wrenched his damaged leg free. He felt himself thrown clear as the beast shook its massive head to dislodge him.

The Colonel rolled with the impact of hitting the ground, managing to come up in a partial crouch on his good knee. His left leg was out of commission now- lacerated by a dozen deep punctures and fractures above and below his knee. It would take a few minutes to heal.

Worse, he'd dropped his knife and tomahawk when he destroyed Vishnu. And there were still two more allosaurs and three Vedics remaining.

***

Jimmy opened the doors of the shipping container and peeked out. Satisfied all was quiet in their immediate vicinity, he motioned for Josie to come forward and willed his body back into a more human form.

The duo emerged from the container onto a scene of apocalyptic proportions.

The impact crater still glowed with the unearthly, bright white light of the Black Knight satellite. A single helicopter was circling it now- minigun firing short bursts down into the crater. The howls of dinosaurs could be heard. About a half mile away from the crater, a massive pile of burning wreckage had ignited the grassy fields near the impact crater. Twisted metal in the flames revealed it had until very recently been a helicopter.

A crackle off lightning flashed from within the crater.

Jimmy balled his fists and looked toward Josie. "See if you can make it to the house. I've got to go back in." His body again transformed into a hairy werewolf.

Josie grabbed at a furry arm. "Jimmy! No!"

The werewolf hesitated, looking back and forth between the crater and Josie. Bright yellow eyes softened for moment, then regained their resolve. Jimmy shook off Josie's grip and bolted away, dropping down on all fours as he ran.

***

The Son of Zeus was bleeding from a dozen wounds- many of which would have killed a lesser man. He had thus far been cut, stabbed and pummeled with terrific force. The antediluvians were regaining their strength with every passing moment. The tide of battle was shifting.

Then a miracle happened. The strange Colonel who could turn to stone when injured had knocked the one resembling Vishnu right onto his back. Then he'd struck the fallen antediluvian square in the chest. Like ice, the blue-skinned Nephilim had shattered- literally exploding into dozens of pieces. Then Kenslir was quickly plucked away from the scene when an allosaur grabbed him. But the damage was done.

Ah-moowatt, the naked sword wielder that Hercules had barely been able to fend off, showed great fear in her eyes. Her slashing attacks faltered and she stepped back.

Hercules took the opportunity to retreat himself. He spun on his heel and charged away, scooping up Kenslir where he knelt on the ground and charging up the slope of the impact crater. He was able to just dodge the attack of an Allosaur that snapped at them as he ran.

Above the crater, several of the stone soldiers were recovering. They had been fighting the dinosaurs hand-to-hand- when not being attacked by Kali, Shiva, the red-robed Vedic sorcerer or the now-dead Vishnu. One stone soldier still struggled against an allosaur in the crater- held clamped in its jaws.

The dinosaur finally shuddered and collapsed to the ground as another burst from the orbiting gunship ripped its back to pieces.

If they could reorganize, they might just stand a chance of winning.

"Retreat!" Kenslir said, pulling away from the priest. His leg was clearly injured but he was again standing on it. He waved his hands at the men scattered along the rim of the crater. "Fall back!" he yelled. Even as Hercules watched the stone texture of his wounds was turning flesh once more, the injuries healed.

Hercules was baffled by this order and was about to object. But amid the shrieks of dying dinosaurs and the buzzsaw firing of the helicopter's minigun, he heard a new sound. A roaring.

Twin missiles raced down from the sky, moving almost too fast for Hercules to make out. He felt himself jerked off his feet and thrown to the ground almost simultaneous with a brilliant fireball that erupted in the crater. A moment later, a shockwave and debris blasted out of the crater and a roar filled his ears.

When Hercules opened his eyes, the light from the Black Knight in the crater had gone out. Fires burned in little patches here and there and the lone Blackhawk in the air continued to circling the site, but was no longer firing its guns.

A hand extended toward Hercules and he accepted it and was pulled to his feet. Colonel Kenslir was still standing after the massive blast, but looked as though he should be dead. His left arm, part of his left leg, most of his torso and half his head were gray, covered with black soot. His tactical goggles were cracked and broken and he casually reached up and pulled them free.

"You okay, priest?" the Colonel asked. The stone flesh of the Colonel was already mending, filling in where it had been torn by shrapnel.

"Fine," Hercules said. He stepped past the Colonel and looked down into the crater. As he did so, two jets roared by overhead, shaking the ground with their passing.

"Yours?" Hercules asked.

"It never hurts to have a little air support," His head was again flesh-colored, and the hair burnt off most of his head was slowly regrowing, reforming his flattop hair cut.

Hercules nodded and turned back to the crater. The allosaurs were dead now- blown apart by the blast of the two Air-to-Ground missiles. Their charred, torn bodies burned, filling the crater with smoke.

Still, there seemed to be movement in the crater.

As if sensing his thought, the orbiting Blackhawk came closer and switched on a searchlight. The bright light revealed that all was not as well as these Americans might have hoped.

Despite the massive force of the two missiles, the Vedics were still moving. The sorcerer in the red robe was back in the Black Knight. Beside him, Shiva was sitting at one end of the fallen satellite- metallic consoles rising up around him and forming into something. The one called Ah-moowatt, who looked like the Vedic Kali, had a head in two of her hands. As she re-entered the Black Knight, she looked back over her shoulder at the priest and snarled. He realized then that she was carrying the stone head of Vishnu- the one the antediluvians called B'Ashyamaw.

The red-robed antediluvian extended his staff and lightning shot out from it- striking the helicopter. The search light exploded, and the helicopter banked away quickly. A side-mounted minigun opened fire again, a stream of tracer rounds lighting up the Black Knight.

The bullets deflected away from the satellite, turned by some invisible bubble of force surrounding it. Then the light from the Black Knight came back on- more muted this time.

The petal-like panels of the fallen satellite quickly began cycling back up, closing over the four-armed passengers. Then the ground around the craft shook and the black crystalline material cracked and broke apart.

The Black Knight rose into the air, turning slowly around as it gained altitude and speed. The helicopter gunner shifted his aim now, raking minigun fire across the hull of the rising craft. If the rounds did any damage, none was apparent.

The former satellite continued to rise, until it reached a height of several hundred feet. Then it began moving southwest. At first slow, it rapidly picked up speed, accelerating away and managing to crack the sound barrier before it vanished from sight.