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Chapter 1 Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Megaera arrived in the kitchen at exactly 0500 to be greeted by the smell of coffee and find Alaric and Childers finishing up a breakfast of scrambled waddler egg, broat bread, and bacon.

"We saved you some Aunt Meg," said Alaric as he slid a loaded plate and a large mug of coffee over to her spot at the table.

Megaera nodded her thanks and then sat down to eat, ignoring the other two. Under the best of circumstances she wasn't a morning person and before she had her first cup of coffee she wasn't even approachable. After finishing up her breakfast, draining the last of the coffee, and helping Alaric with the dishes, she opened an inconspicuous door set in one of the kitchen walls to reveal a set of stairs leading downwards.

"Alaric," she said as she began to descend the steps, "saddle up the horses. Sky Pilot and I will draw weapons from the armoury and meet you in the barn."

Several flights later the steps led into a small reinforced plasticrete room with several doorways leading out of it. Alaric immediately went through one of the doorways.

Seeing Childers' confused look Megaera explained, "All the farm's buildings are connected via these tunnels." Pointing at the doorway to the left she continued. "The guest houses and unmarried quarters are that way, along with the aid station. The barn and comm center are to the right. Workshops, and messing and berthing areas are straight ahead through the left hand door. The other door leads to the garage, power plant and armoury."

"What, no anti aircraft batteries?" asked Childers teasingly

"It's in the barn," replied Megaera. "You'll see it when we get the horses."

"I was joking," said Childers.

"I wasn't," answered Megaera. "Come on," she said jerking her head in the direction of the doorway leading to the armoury. "We need to draw weapons. Alaric is saddling up the horses. It's a long ride to where Athanaric said he saw jubjub tracks and I want to get back to the farm before dark."

"Your brother said you had a farm but this isn't a farm it's a fortress. Are all Tizonan farms like this?"

"More or less. Some of the bigger families that have a larger permanent population on their farms keep their heavy weaponry permanently emplaced. We don't because it takes manpower to keep it maintained and we don't normally have enough people on the farm to spare for their upkeep."

Childers shook his head in disbelief. "Do you really think that this sort of paranoia is necessary?" he asked.

"It's only paranoia if you don't have enemies, Sky Pilot," said Megaera refusing to take the bait about planetary paranoia. "And Tizona has its share of them. Lets go. The armoury's this way."

Once in the armoury Megaera walked up to a rack of weapons, took one down from the rack and handed it to Childers "Micro grenade launcher with a 50 round canister loaded with HEAP grenades," she explained.

"A grenade launcher?" asked Childers as he took the weapon and automatically checked to verify it wasn't loaded. "What are we hunting, tanks?"

"Almost," said Megaera as she took another weapon and canister down from the rack. "Jubjub birds."

The look of confusion on Childers' face was replaced by one of incredulity. "Now I know you're joking," he said. "Birds?"

"They're not really birds" answered Megaera as she took another grenade launcher down and checked its action. "One of the members of the original exploration team was a student of Earth mythology and named them after a monster called a jubjub bird. A jubjub is 3 meters tall and weighs in around 500 kilos. They can sprint at speeds up to 120 klicks per hour and have a beak that can punch through a Lancer cuirass They hunt in packs usually two or three males together but in breeding season there may be one or two females as well. Short of a plasma grenade launcher this is about the only man portable weapon that will stop a charging jubjub before it gets you. And while you're reloading the launcher after killing the first one the other members of the pack will be on top of you. If you're lucky the beak strike will kill you. If you're not they'll pin you down with their foot claws and rip you apart while you're still alive."

Megaera decided to press home her point. She really didn't care if Childers was killed by a jubjub but she did care what her grandmother would say if he was. "They have multiple sets of lungs and hearts and breathe through slits in their sides that look like gill slits so heart or lung shots are a waste of time. The only way to quickly kill one is to destroy its brain, and it's buried in the body cavity surrounded by layers of bone and muscle. If you have to use this on a charging jubjub aim for the chest just under the neck. Two rounds will usually suffice but use three just to be sure. If you're on its flank aim just under the hump in the middle of its back. The brain's under the hump. Don't bother with a head shot. A head shot will blind them but it won't kill them and the don't need to see you to find you. They can track their prey by electrolocation. They can detect electric fields generated by muscular contractions, like your heartbeat. So shoot fast and don't miss."

A few minutes later laden with weapons and spare ammo canisters they were in the barn. Alaric had three horses saddled up, the saddle bags laden with travel rations and emergency survival gear. As Megaera had promised the antiaircraft battery was located in the barn. A hyper velocity missile launcher with its own targeting radar.

"It's not that I'm complaining about riding per se," said Childers, "but why are we going to the site on horseback rather than using one of the farm vehicles."

"We'll actually be safer on horseback than in a vehicle if things totally fubar," said Alaric as he tightened the girth on his horse's saddle. The animal had expanded its stomach when he had first tightened the saddle girth and he been waiting for the animal to relax so that he could finish tightening it. "Jubjubs prefer horse meat to human meat. If we arrive in a vehicle and things go south they'll try to dine on us. If we go in on horseback they'll go after the horses instead... probably"

"Ok, I'll accept that," said Childers as he checked his own horse's saddle, "especially since you use horses so much of the time. But that leads to another question. Why are you using horses in the first place when you have vehicles?"

"Several reasons," said Megaera as she finished her own checks. "One, while we have vehicles, most are military vehicles. A Ung Tae is an outstanding vehicle if you want to carry a platoon of Lancers and give them fire support, but it's not much use when plowing the north forty. Secondly, horses are reliable and self replicating. They don't need imported parts or fuel. And third, in a pinch you can eat them."

Once they had saddled up and left the barn Megaera kept the horses moving at a fast walk. She wanted to cover as much distance as possible before the rising sun warmed up the air and the no-see-ums began to swarm and changed the trek for a long one to a miserable one. No-see-ums were the Tizona analogue of a terrestrial gnat and even more annoying. They were attracted to human sweat and flew in swarms climbing into their victim's eyes and nostrils until her or she was nearly incapacitated. There were repellents that could be used but they smelled so bad that most Tizonans refused to wear them opting instead for the simpler solution of wearing goggles and a mask to cover mouth and nose.

By the time they had left the farm proper the sun was well above the horizon and the temperature had begun to rise. Temperatures on the Tizona steppes tended towards the extremes. During the summer the daytime temperature could reach over 40º C while at the night the temperature could plummet to below zero. The fields of broats had given way to the greenish black vegetation that was the Tizonan equivalent of steppe grass, the monotony of the terrain being broken only by the occasional solitary torchwood tree. The only visible animal life was the occasional small group of waddlers, their six legged gait giving them the sway that was the source of their name, and the no-see-ums which were now out in full force swarming around the traveler's faces and attempting to work their way under their clothes. The only bright spot in the trip was Childers. The priest had an amazing store of off colour songs and stories concerning his days in the Broughton Home Guard which he obligingly shared with the others all of which Megaera was sure were completely fictitious. Especially the one concerning a goat, a call girl, the Commandant of the Guard, a state dinner, and a misunderstood address.

The arrived at the north pond shortly before noon. The pond was little more than a puddle but it was fed by an underground spring and was filled with water year round. As a result there were a number of torchwood trees growing by the pond. Torchwood trees tended to grow out as much as up, their limbs extending outward until they bent and touched the ground whereupon the limb would grow roots and then start to grow upwards. A cluster of torchwood trees would turn into a thick tangle perfect for concealment if you were a predator staking out a water hole. And considering that the hunting party was currently looking at dead waddler there was a good possibility that predators were present. Megaera took her grenade launcher out of the saddle scabbard and dismounted indicating with a wave of her hand that the others should do the same. Somewhat to her annoyance she was stiff from the ride. Even more annoying, Childers didn't appear to be.

Laying her grenade launcher on the ground beside the body of the waddler Megaera squatted down beside the corpse, fanning a cloud of no-see-ums away from her face as she did so. Childers and Alaric took positions on either side of her their weapons at the ready in case the jubjubs decided to make an appearance. As she had suspected the waddler had been killed by jubjub birds. The waddler's brain hump had been pierced by a beak strike. From the tracks surrounding the animal she guessed that there had been between three to five of them in the pack. What was unusual was that the waddler was still more or less intact. Apparently the jubjubs had left before they had finished their meal. She suspected that she knew who had interrupted them and that the jubjubs were going to take offense that that someone else was at their kill. Her suspicions were correct as a moment later there was an earsplitting cry from the direction of the grove of trees followed by an obscenity from Alaric. She threw a glance at the trees as she scrambled for her weapon, there were five jubjubs bearing down on them probably thinking that the intruders were trying to steal their kill.

The noise of the jubjubs 'cries was joined by the cracking sounds of grenade launchers as Alaric and Childers began to fire and the frantic neighing of panicked horses. Both men were firing in controlled three round bursts. The first two jubjubs went down quickly but the deaths of the first two forced the other three to change their angle of approach and their most vulnerable spot was no longer exposed. Megaera began to fire at the nearest bird , which unfortunately was also the target of Alaric and Childers. The animal was literally blown to pieces but the other two were now virtually on top of the humans. Megaera dropped the fourth almost at her feet but the fifth was already striking at Childers with its beak. Childers threw himself to the ground narrowly avoiding being split open like a rotten melon but the bird wasn't finished. Standing over Childers it raised one of its legs for a foot strike which would have impaled the priest had it struck home. But before it could strike, Childers switched his weapon to fully automatic mode and fired a score of rounds into the bird's abdomen. Not even a jubjub bird's physiology could take that much damage and the bird simply collapsed, covering the priest in its entrails as it did so.

"Like you said, shoot fast and don't miss," said Childers as he began to crawl out from under the pile of of gore.

"I guess you're good for something after all," said Megaera her nose wrinkling at the smell of the bird's entrails. "We'll leave the jubjubs here. If there's another pack in the area they'll find the dead ones and move on. Now lets get our horses, I want to get back home before dark."

Childers took Alaric's proffered hand and hauled himself to his feet. "I can cook too," he said.

After a brief pause to let Childers wash the worst of the blood and gore off they headed back towards the farm arriving shortly after Tizona's primary moon Dyrnwyn was just over the horizon. Tomoe and Theo were waiting for them when they arrived. Tomoe ran up to Alaric who began to give her a highly dramatic version of the hunting expedition, in which he played critical roles. Theo's greeting was much less restrained, simply waving the other two over to him. He lifted an eyebrow at the sight of Childers' soiled garments but refrained from asking any questions.

"We received a message from your regimental HQ Meg," he said when they got close enough for easy conversation. "Your leave's been canceled you're to report back to regimental HQ immediately. Your deployment schedule has been moved up. Athanaric will be taking you to the Colada hopper port tomorrow morning."

"Well I guess it's goodby then, Sky Pilot," said Megaera to Childers. "Looks like you won't be able to show me that you can cook after all."

"I still might get that chance, Major," said Childers. Seeing Megaera's confused look he continued. "When your regiment departs, you'll have an attached negotiations team. Your superiors would like to negotiate a peaceful settlement if possible. I'll be part of team, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to try my cooking on Arzawa."

Chapter 1 Chapter 3