“Nothing on the Network,” reported Mahz.
“No visual contact to the Southeast,” Zur beamed.
“Nothing to the North,” came Hif’s voice.
The Ants were close now. I raised my hand-blaster, aimed carefully, and fired. I was rewarded by seeing the machine collapse and smoke as the attending Ants abandoned it. Then the advancing Ants were on me.
I burned two to my right, then spun and got another as it tumbled into the trench behind me. I backpedaled, burning another, not realizing until later that it had some mechanism attached to its underside, presumably a stun ray.
Such weapons might be effective to ambush patrols, but not in open combat against a Tzen of the Warrior caste. I was constantly moving, presenting an ever-shifting target to the Enemy. Twice I abandoned the trench, clearing a space in the swarm with my blaster before rolling back to relative safety.
My wedge-sword was out now, and I used it freely on living and dead foes alike as the trench became more congested with bodies. I crawled sometimes over, sometimes under the smoldering corpses of Ants in my frantic evade-and-attack pattern.
Suddenly, the flow ebbed. I realized it was dark; the scene was lit by scattered fires touched off by our hot-beams. A beam hissed out from above me, scoring heavily in the ranks of the Ants. It was Mahz, giving me cover fire from the turret gun.
“Mahz! I ordered you to cover the tunnel!”
“I stopped that thrust, Commander. They broke off the attack after I burned the first ten as they emerged.”
I burned another Ant.