Guns of Mars 39
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 10.4
It was then that Kal turned in his saddle, his rifle raised to his shoulder and fired back at the man. The thunderous boom of it echoed off the high walls to strike the bounty man’s thoat. The man was thrown forward in the saddle, the horn digging into his gut and knocking the wind from him. His mount dropped to its forecannons, its front four legs folding under it as it slid to a halt. The man leapt clear as the animal rolled to its side, legs thrashing. Blood sprayed from a fist-sized wound to its thick neck.
“I told you,” the thark called back, “I only needed to outride you!”
The bounty man recovered his feet and raced to where his carbine had fallen to the dust. He dropped to grace himself against the now dead carcass of the thoat and sighted on the back of the retreating thark. The front blade of his rifle centered between Kal’s upper set of shoulder blades.
As he squeezed the trigger, something made his target leap from view. The thark was fighting for control of his mount as it turned away from his original course to run back the way they come. The man stood to watch, the carbine lowered. The panicked animal had kicked up a pall of dust. Its violent bucking caused the thark to lose his grip on the lead line. The pack thoat plunged away in a different direction, kicking and squealing.
Something emerged from the shadows along the western wall, a long, dark shape rushing from the greater blackness. A humped back covered with black armor plate, multiple powerful legs propelling it forward with astonishing speed. A row of eyes gleamed fiercely in the dying light above a wide gar mouth lined with rows of spade-shaped fangs. It raced toward the thark still struggling to retain control of his mount.
An adult orluk, the bringer of death in the great canal.
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
