Incessantly, the bullets pelted. With explosive power despite their small caliber, the crusher-bullets gouged holes all over the shining roadway. Yet none reached their car. So far, the bullets were only hitting spaces of road that they’d already passed.
“Shouldn’t we, I dunno, go off road or something!?” screamed Undertaker.
“There’d be no point,” said Min calmly. “They must have detectors that allow them to take aim. Going off road would only hurt, by causing us to decelerate.”
“But there’s still that radio jamming!”
“You know nothing. Communications and detectors work over different bandwidths.”
“‘Fraid he’s right,” said Bill, who picked up speed. “Don’t worry, Undertaker. I removed all of the safety mechanisms for a time like this.”
“But driving straight ahead’s basically ASKING them to snipe us off the road!”
“Aerodynamically speaking, we should be too far away for them to ever hit us,” said Min, as composed as ever. “I don’t know what their guns are capable of, but judging by the fact that we haven’t gotten hit yet, I don’t think I’m mistaken. In fact, the bullets haven’t even reached that close to us.”
“I’m praying you’re not mistaken,” said Marca, who had her hands clasped in front of her chest.
“Have you got anything to add, Lafier? You know, as an expert in war?” said Jinto.
“I’m not an expert on war in terrestrial worlds .” Lafier seemed wounded for some reason. “Regardless, I suggest you prepare your phasers . At this distance, the damping is not enough.”
“Do you have anything, Min?” asked Marca.
“I do. Should be able to make use of the smokescreen rounds. Former Republic of Camintair military issue, K211 model. It’s made out to have the best EM wave absorption rate in cosmic history.”
“Then why didn’t you pull ‘em out sooner!?” Undertaker blasted.
“Because they took a great deal of effort to acquire,” said Min.
“Now’s the time, if you don’t mind,” Marca ordered.
Min reluctantly drew the satchel closer, retrieved what looked like a can, and tossed it out the window. “I might as well throw these in for good measure.” Min grabbed from the satchel ten-odd disks, each around three dagh in diameter, and scattered them over the road.
Bill looked back from the driver’s seat. “What’re those?”
“Sensor mines. They’re designed with killing people in mind, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t work against cars.”
“Holy hell, where the good goddamn did you get this stuff!? You’re nuts for weapons, nuts!”
“Oh, those I made myself. Already tested them, too. They may seem small, but they’re high-performance, and with extremely low incidence of mechanical error,” he boasted. “But never mind that. Bill, can you shake them off?”
“Leave it to me. This baby’s the fastest ground-crawler in Clasbule. And we’ve got a lead.”
“Won’t this thing go any faster!?” Sleet shouted at the officer driving.
“No can do,” said Entryua, having the back of his cowering subordinate. “This is a command car. It’s not built to be able to catch up to a speeding car. That’s why we send the patrol cars first.”
“Why didn’t you say that before, dammit!?”
“You didn’t ask,” he said, unruffled.
That was met by a smack upside the mouth, delivered by Kyte with the handle of his gun.
Prick! He was dizzy with fury. He could list a number of things he hadn’t much liked about how they’d treated him, but he never hit them. Entryua managed to swallow his rage, and wiped the blood from his mouth.
Suddenly, the car slowed. They looked up, and saw a wall of black approaching.
“Don’t slow down, it’s just a smokescreen!” said Sleet, nudging the driver in the head.
The command car ventured into the thick black brume, and the vapor, highly viscous, moved in through the windows kept open for firing. Entryua covered his face with his hands, hoping to protect his eyes and nose.
Suddenly, that instant, a merciless KAPOW!
We get hit!? Even as Entryua struggled to make heads or tails of the situation, the car lurched left.
“A mine! It blasted the electromagnet!” With the electromagnet at the hovercar’s front left down for the count, all balance was lost. The horrid screech of metal scraping against the luminescent pavement of the road assailed their ears.
“All cars halt!” ordered Sleet.
“Don’t stop, veer away!” Entryua leaned against the driver’s seat. “We’d just be bumping right into the next ones, you dimwit!”
The driver chose Entryua to obey, and took the car into the field at the side of the road.
The patrol cars that had been following them also ran into disaster.
The one that punched the smokescreen right after the command vehicle got its anterior electromagnets destroyed, the frontal part that had been raised now swayed by wind pressure. It careened sideways and turned over, sliding across the road on its roof. The patrols cars after that one proceeded to collide into it.
To add to the list of woes, those cars that slammed on the brakes even more got hit by rear-end collisions, while others pitched forward above the cars that had stopped, and still others evaded those fates only to eat landmine blasts...
At last, the very last car in the line divined from the noise that something had happened beyond the mists, so its occupants released the wheels, rode into the fields, and thus became the sole car to avoid any damage.
“Quick, get away!” Entryua waved his hands in the air, forgetting the position he was in.
Soldiers and police officers alike came crawling out of their respective wrecks. Police cars had a reputation for sturdiness; regardless of the severity of the damage, there seemed to be next to no casualties to speak of. But they couldn’t afford to dawdle.
The hydrogen fuel of the toppled cars had caught flame, and a blast rocked both soldiers and officers. The crops were also engulfed, and the smoke of the fires mixed with the smokescreen. Entryua coughed violently.
“Accident on the road,” Undertaker solemnly informed the rest.
“Road safety. It’s important,” gloated Bill, his smile a mile wide.
“You’re too right,” said Min soberly.
“Is there jamming still?” asked Jinto.
“Don’t worry, imperial citizen . Oh wait, sorry, almost forgot, you’re a noble ,” said Bill. “The jamming continues. They can’t call for backup.”
“But something is coming.” Lafier shaded her eyes with her hand and looked into their travelling direction.
The sparkle of Guzonh lay right before them. Some object clad in flickering, twinkling lights was rising between the shining city-trees. Said object took along with it five smaller flying objects.
Then they passed overhead, soaring by without so much as sparing the gang a glance.
When the glowing crest emblazoned on the belly of the largest ship came into view, Marca’s shoulders dropped with relief. “Phew, that had me wound up. It’s just the fire department!”
“Well, that fire is pretty huge. They could probably see it from there,” said Bill.
“Hold on...” said Jinto. “That thing might be a plain old fire ship, but it’s still flying.”
“Duh. It’s faster than over ground.”
“But the enemy was riding in those cop cars just now, right?” said Jinto.
“So it’d seem, but what’re you getting at?” asked Min.
“I mean, if the enemy took to riding cop cars, what’s to stop them from taking over the fire department?”