The beeping on the radar was coming fast, almost a steady tone.
“Spam in can,” Jak muttered, snapping the bolt on the big .50-caliber machine gun.
“Can’t run, can’t hide,” J.B. muttered. “Gotta fight.”
Striding to the rear of the vehicle, he replaced Dean and prepared the .40 mm rapidfire. “I’ll try for the laser again. Doc, back me up.”
The old man nodded.
“Thought you said it was pure luck that worked last time?” Dean admonished.
“Got a better plan?” the Armorer snapped.
“Yeah,” Ryan stated. Busy in the dim light of the dashboard console, he activated the missile launch controls. “We’ll hit it with everything we got. Mildred, see if you can angle a fifty to fire straight backward.”
“Okay.” The physician grunted, struggling with the rubber antivibration blocks of the breech to align the vented barrel. “It doesn’t want to, but yes.”
“Jak!” Ryan snapped. “Get the port blaster.”
Turning off the interior lights to allow them to see into the darkness outside better, Krysty then killed the keening of the radar.
“It’s here,” she announced, resting a hand on the forward 75 mm rifles. Pointed toward the earth embankment, they were utterly useless for this fight. “Ryan, give me your SSG-70. I can snipe from the outside.”
Grabbing the bolt-action Steyr off the floor, he tossed it to her. “Take Dean with you.”
“Why?” the boy demanded suspiciously.
His father faltered at a reply, but everybody knew why. So that somebody might survive the battle.
There was a movement at the side door as it closed.
“Hey, where’s Shard!” Mildred asked, glancing around.
“There he is!” Doc said, pointing out the louvered slots of the rear door.
Visible in the headlights reflected off the sides of the pass, the wounded man was sprinting for the bridge, a bulky satchel strapped to his back.
J.B. checked the floor of the tank, then looked outside again. “He’s got my bag of explosives!”
“What’s he doing?” Dean demanded. “Running away?”
“No,” Jak said, and he touched two fingers to his temple as a salute. “Crazy son of bitch.”
“He’s trying to save all of our lives,” Krysty answered soffly. “And I doubted the courage of a slave.”
“Free man,” Ryan said.
Mildred started for the side door. “We have to stop him!”
J.B. took her arm. “It’s too late.”
STOPPING IN rim middle of the bridge. Shard crouched amid the churned greenery as the Beast rumbled out of the bushes from the other side of the gorge. Its laser cannon immediately pulsed once, and the missile pod on top of Leviathan was vapor.
“Twenty,” Shard said, dashing out of concealment. He only hoped what Mildred had told him was true, or else this was for nothing.
The Ranger paused before the bridge, as if consideiing the matter, then rolled onto the structure.
The bridge actually bowed under the robotic tank, small girders snapping.
“Fifteen,” Shard panted. leaping on the back of the big tank and scrambling across its angular hull. Perfect for deflecting incoming rounds, the irregular hull offered good handholds.
“Ten!” he screamed as electricity crackled over the hull to dislodge the intruder. Limbs shaking, wounds reopening, Shard climbed across the turret, straddling the cannon with his bare legs.
A flurry of metal crabs scurried out of an opening, their razor-sharp pinchers snapping wildly. The Beast was almost off the bridge, Leviathan sitting there in plain sight. The tiny drones covered his body, ripping at his flesh, as Shard reached a count of one and stuffed the bag of explosives directly into the side exhaust vent of the laser cannon as it pulsed again.
For the briefest instant, Shard saw his hand vanish, then blackness took his vision and the whole world erupted.
THE MASSIVE EXPLOSION engulfed the Ranger completely, swamping the bridge in thunderous flames, the supports twisting like warm taffy. Its laser gone, multiple internal systems destroyed, the Ranger tried to backtrack for safety but Leviathan cut loose with its own firepower, aiming at the bridge, not the adamantine hull of the predark tank. Struts snapped, columns buckled. In a deafening cacophony of tortured metal, the bridge broke apart and dropped out of sight, taking the Ranger with it. Rushing to the edge of the broken roadway, the companions watched as the robotic guardian disappeared into the distance.