First Contact Fallout by Aer-ki Jyr (novels for teenagers .TXT) 📗

sensor backdrop and noticed an empty spot he’d be easy to find. Right now though he didn’t need to be showing up with reflective Mushgu’vu, because he was going to head towards the gunships.

The Zen’zat dropped from the tree and took off running. He actually had better passive sensors in null mode because he could register everything they absorbed and the weapon discharges were more or less visible through the trees as spouts of heat rising above wherever the gunships shot. He couldn’t get a direct line on them yet and had to guestimate where he was headed based on the previous course the other two Zen’zat looked to be traveling.

Going up against gunships was stupid for a Zen’zat…assuming the gunships were crewed by veterans and he knew these weren’t. They were flying too low to the treetops, and if he could get close enough without getting spotted he might be able to ambush them.

It was a gamble, but right now he didn’t feel like leaving whoever these were to be hunted down from the air, for eventually some of the firepower raining down into the trees would hit them, and there was no way to cloak and run with that damn Mushgu’vu. Not for them, or for him if these gunships flew overhead and spotted him. But beyond that, if they were out here they had to be close to finding Tu’vac, and without armor he was going to stand out easily for regular gunship sensors given his mass.

If Mario’topa was going to protect him, assuming he hadn’t been found and killed yet, he needed to take down those gunships if possible.

The Zen’zat sprinted through the underbrush, weaving his way between tree trunks until he could pick up the signals of the pair ahead on his passive sensors. Then he stopped and picked another tree to climb, scaling it quickly then perching near the top like a pitch black piece of fruit hanging from under the branches. He knew not to go above the leaves, for that would make him easy to see, but if these gunships were focused on the pair of Zen’zat and nothing else they might just miss him.

And they did. Their Dre’mo’don fire down into the jungle was burning a path right towards him and to the left. Either these Zen’zat were expert dodgers or the gunship crews were a horrible shot. Trees or no trees, at least something should have got through to hit them by…

Then it happened, and one of the Zen’zat fell to the ground while the other kept running…and the closest of the gunships slid to a stop over that spot and continued to shoot Mario’topa’s fallen kin while simultaneously drifting 56 meters away from his position at a slightly higher altitude.

His feet gripped the tree trunk in the best possible place, then using a combination of his muscle and armor enhancement Mario’topa launched himself up through the leaves and into the air as a dark blob that seemed to half melt into the blue sky as it pulled in and blended with the surrounding light. The gunship didn’t fire on him nor even moved in response as he crossed the gap and landed on the side, using his grip points in ‘shield grab’ mode to allow him to stick for a moment. He knew the gunship had a method of wicking them to removing clingers, but hopefully before they realized what was going on…

Yes, there were three inside, two in the three-man cockpit and another in the hold, and Mario’topa had easy access to their minds at a simple brush, into which he sent a jamming telepathic impulse that froze two of them. Fortunately that was the two pilots, but the one in the hold was a Bo’ja, and he had limited telepathic resistance via his mental strength, but none of them had the blocks that Zen’zat had by default.

Mario’topa held the two pilots in zombie mode, with the weaponsfire going down into the jungle stopping from this gunship while the other continued to drift away pursuing the other Zen’zat. Thought it was hard to do, Mario’topa held both minds in check, then used his Pefbar/Lachka to reach into one of them and scramble his brain, which killed him within seconds.

The body went limp the moment he did, for there was no longer any functional mind to hack. Before he did so to the other he made that pilot lower the shields and put the gunship into automatic hover mode with a code lock on the controls for the number 211. That way the gunship could only be flown after unlocking them with that code. Otherwise it would simply hold on its last settings, which was hover mode with the doors unlocked.

Mario’topa scrambled across the smooth hull once the shield went down and opened the access hatch to the hold right after sending a Fornax blast inside. That gave him enough of a head start to get his feet on the interior deck before the Zen’zat-sized Bo’ja was able to fire at him. A weak telepathic attack occurred simultaneously, but it did little more than distract his balance for half a second. After that he was taking the few steps necessary to get to hand to hand range with the slightly taller Bo’ja and engaged him directly with a mix of punches, kicks, and forearm blasts.

The Bo’ja was equipped much like a Zen’zat, but they lacked the Ikrid defense that rookies badly needed. Why the Zak’de’ron wanted them to replace Zen’zat he didn’t know, but as they exchanged blows Mario’topa slipped through his rudimentary mental defenses and momentarily blacked him out.

The Bo’ja fell to the ground, and before he could snap out of it the Zen’zat hacked into his brain and trigger the auto-release on his armor, which retracted into a pair of forearm gauntlets and a thick visor that covered his tiny eyes. Mario’topa shot