The Withered Land: Dragons and Marauders

Dragons and Marauders, Part Thirty-Five

Wilder and Ryonne had exited the three-wheeled turmumbleer autocycle's pilot's enclosure at the foot of the elevated approach-ramp leading up to the aerodrome skydock. The narrow and elongated, delta-shaped vehicle was a magneto-electrical, hybrid powertrain conveyance that sat three adults and possessed amphibious capabilities. It's thirty-inch airless, terrain armor tires sat in a configuration of two tires on either side of the front cabin and one larger forty-inch tire in the rear. It was the predominant the choice of public security officers as they traveled Peravendath's long boulevards and extended avenues, but, though the autocycle was armored and fitted with an engine that could town several times the vehicle's own weight, it did not come equipped with any kind of weaponry. Security force assault vehicles were, for the most part, turbojet aerial transports since Peravendath's interior borders consisted of multiple, interconnected island locations. The turmumbleer was an economical way to provide speedy transport for small police and urban rescue teams.

The Traveler in Red and Ryonne had found their vehicle in a cluster of wrecked, crashed and demolished vehicles, some overturned and set ablaze, after they had left the site of Mahrkath Serundi's demise. The duo didn't talk much as they appropriated the empty autocycle, stepping over the bodies of a pair of island constable's who'd fallen prey to invading Hyaenirax wild-packs run amok. The chaos and violence ascendant in the streets outside the building only slightly impeded their progress as they made their way back towards the harborside of the main island.

The avenues they navigated were a mess of hysterical human activity where people had broken into small, contentious groups warring against one another, with some people trying desperately to escape to some safe venue and with the island-fortress' invaders ruthlessly scourging the civilian herd through random acts of terror and murder. Several times during their brief journey, they were shot at with particle beam weaponry, but the gunfire was mostly unfocused and undisciplined -- it was obvious they were not the specific targets of a hunt and destroy mission. Mounds of debris and scattered collections of fallen bodies created a multitude of traffic obstacles through which Wilder and Ryonne guided the turmumbleer in a speeding rush across the main capitol island to the multimodal aerial platform where the jetellin had been docked on their arrival.

The aerodrome skydock's external structure was fire-scarred and pitted with impact divots resulting from a hurricane of pinpoint lasergun and particle-stream weapons fire. From street-level, the sixteen story rise of the skydock's massive skeletal framework into the deepness of Peravendath's night sky was both daunting and imposing, a scene intercut with retina-scarring strobe flashes of weapons fire and explosions from the mayhem surrounding it. The aerodrome's airport aprons and taxiway bridges were still intact, but the control tower and the accompanying operator services lounge and customs crowd-channel gates were a ramshackle mess of splintered masonry and twisted, melted metal. Wilder and Ryonne caught fleeting glimpses of shadowy figures darting this way and that throughout the gangway, mezzanine and controlled-access public transport areas. It was apparent there was still a battle going on abroad the skydock, likely between the remnants of the aerodrome's security forces and a Saurotetramorph assault unit.

"We need the jetellin," Ryonne said. "We need to get as far away from here as we can as soon as we can. I have a dark feeling that we're witnessing the collapse of Peravendath and the beginning of a nasty civil war with Ometh Nastreq that will ultimately benefit no one."

"Too true. Anarchy and bedlam, that's what we've got here. So, yes, we do need the jetellin. Its independent computer network and tracking telemetry can help us locate the rest of the team. Not to mention how much help the ship's cannons and torpedo launch bays will provide us as we maneuver away from this madhouse," Wilder reasoned.