Minutes passed and he felt he was
being watched; slowly crouching down he scanned the area for an infrared heat
trace. There! He saw something move, like it was keeping up with him but
stalking him, what the fuck was it? Maybe it was one of those phantom black
cats that frequented the wilderness and were sometimes reported in Renford,
though he’d never seen one himself? Looking around he saw no movement but still
he felt uneasy; nerves, tiredness and stress he told himself. For three more
minutes he waited not moving but watching, still nothing. Fuck this I’ve got to
move, Noel thought. Slowly getting up with his machine guns pointing forward
just in case and turning his back, he plodded on into the unknown.
Little did he know he was being successfully stalked by one of the laser
dogs he had spotted earlier, a large dark grey coloured Standard size Devil
Snail attack unit. Only once was it spotted and only then very briefly by its
quarry, leading to confusion and fear in the target, an ideal solution taking
the edge off the victim. Soon the attack unit would engage Noel and show no
mercy. Quickly outflanking him, coming around a high rise of rough terrain, the
Devil Snail easily moved over the ground, four legs gave excellent mobility and
agility. Taking unseen laser tracking ranging shots from its eye mounted lasers
it got the exact distance from itself to Noel and prepared to fire. Stopping to
crouch down to be below the skyline, in case Noel scanned the area with his
infrared spectacles or binoculars on night vision mode, the animal was ready.
Silently in its head it set up a firing solution and fired its twin eye mounted
laser cannon at its target, a member of the Frontier Corps called Noel.
Suddenly tripping over an exposed tree root, Noel fell over and swore,
at the same time as pretty light green laser fire speared over his head singing
his hair and burning his backpack. What the fuck was that? Shaking both in fear
and with the breath knocked out of him from falling, he panicked bringing up
his weapons firing two burst of silenced bullets in a wide arc to give himself
reassurance more than to kill whatever was out there. Again the laser fire came
down around and near Noel setting the large partly exposed tree root on fire
and surrounding peat, acrid blue smoke and orange flames erupted forth. Noel
fired the remainder of his magazines blindly again and ditched his smouldering
backpack. Quickly reloading both machine pistols, he fired a quick five round
burst from the army one on his right shoulder. He kept his own in reserve.
Opening his backpack and swearing as he burnt his fingers on the burning
fabric, he took out extra magazines and grenades hurriedly putting them in
front of him. Tossing the burning backpack away, he grimly knew he wouldn’t
need the food, other provisions and equipment inside it. This was a battle he
knew he wouldn’t win; still he would make whatever was attacking him pay a
price for its foolish action. Pulling the pin from a single grenade he counted
to three and tossed the grenade into space still unsure where his enemy was.
How come it didn’t show up on infrared if it was a dog? Was it able to cloak
itself from view by matching the background temperature of the terrain? Was it
even alive or a robot? He shut these evil thoughts from his mind and waited –
Bang! The grenade went off, he wasn’t distracted now, he was ready for battle
and to die, in no way was he a coward. Again another grenade sailed forth to
keep his enemy at arms length and more green laser fire stabbed the night,
scything a wicked pattern around Noel, burning the very ground making small
rocks glow and the peat burn angrily. Now he got a location on roughly where
the dog was located, from the point of origin of where the laser beams started.
He fired a short burst of gunfire as his grenade went off wide of the target. Firing
the last ammo from the army gun, he threw it down. Scrabbling for a third
grenade he pulled the pin with his teeth, grimacing as the metal ring caught
his gum making it bleed. Counting to three he lobbed the bomb at the dog, just
about making the range. Bang! It went off next to the animal, just as it fired
again, knocking it over in the blast. Laser fire arced up harmlessly into the
night, missing Noel who fired at the dog and saw his bullets land near it,
maybe hitting it.
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