Guns of Mars 66
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 19.2
The gale struck the airship lifting its stern high as the vessel raced ahead in a futile effort to escape the storm’s fury. Millions of millions of particles swept over every surface, some as fine as talc, others jagged bits of shale the size of a fist. The iron sky was streaked with bolts of lightning as the dust cloud grew in size and velocity.
Halak had brought along a larger company of men this day. Two of them were battered to the thwarts and swept overboard and away in the torrent. Their shrieks were lost in the howling wind.
Those who had not managed to get below decks were clinging to railings with all their strength. The only one who remained upright was the hooded figure. He stood braced at the wheel fighting to maintain control of the vessel. The bow had to come up or the whole ship would flip over prow to stern and be hurled helpless in the rushing wave of hot jetsam that engulfed it.
Xenbah Halak crouched against the fore rail of the quarter deck, crushed in place by the punishing wind. Every inch of exposed skin was being abraded by the fine bits being hurtled at him. It felt like countless tiny fires as flecks of flesh were flayed away under the assault. Shielding his face with an arm, he glanced back at the pale creature now battling to keep the ship upright in the face of the tsunami of sand.
Bhar-Bhartee’s mouth was open in a soundless shout of defiance. Ropey blue veins rose up through his waxy flesh to stand rigid on his slender forearms, face and neck. His teeth were gritted and jaws clenched tight as he struggled to move the wheel to his will.
The bow came up and, for a dizzying moment, the airship moved before the storm. It was carried along at greater and greater speed, propelled over the land on a mighty current. With a herculean effort the hooded man held the wheel steady with one hand while reaching for a control lever. It took all his weight to pull the lever to him to extend some foils out along either side of the ship’s hull. But the foils buckled under the ballistic pressure being exerted on them by the tailing wind. Some snapped free from their moorings and spun away into the whirling void.
With that the vessel bucked and canted and the bow dropped to bring the deck to a sickening angle. The hooded man struggled to regain steering, feet braced on the deck planks and bent near double.
It was no use.
The airship’s aft section struck the crest of a dune causing it to skip over the sand as though atop an endless march of ocean waves. It heeled violently to starboard, the hull to that side plowing up sand and dust as it raced rumbling across the surface. Wood splintered and iron braces bent like reeds.
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
