Deece jumped up, looked up in the turret and asked T Bar what was wrong. Everyone woke up asking! T Bar's eyes were wide open as he pointed for them to look out the cockpit windows. There was a massive amount of hill people around the edge of the crevice and they were heavily armed.
The Mach 1000 was a sitting duck for one with an HST (Heat Seek Terminate) shoulder fired thermite cannon. Tokey shouted out,"Do nothing, T Bar do not fire!" T Bar grinned and said,"Never even crossed my mind Toke."
Maren said,"Hey look, there's a guy up there on a large rock waving for us to lift!" "I see him, go ahead Deece but slow,"Tokey said with a worried look. As Deece raised the Mach, the guy on the rock motioned for them to land on the left side of the top of the crevice. Tokey shouted,"Just do as he is instructing you to do Deece.....T Bar, don't move the turret an inch!"
The guy on the rock motioned for them to land and they did. Tokey opened the door and stepped out by himself to greet the hill people. They gathered around the Mach like zombies gathering around a live lunch. A tall well built woman walked up to Tokey and said with a gruff voice,"Why are you here?" She was dressed in a white and brown animal fur.
She had two handguns with a hunting knife between them, mounted in holsters on the hips. She was carrying a T-60 rifle which can blast off a corner of a building. She had a brass snake on her right arm and a tattoo of a bull skull on her left. She had bear claws laced into her long black hair.
Tokey replied,"We were just resting, we are hiding from the Roians, we hate the Roians." She laughed and said,"We too hate the Roians, they kill one of us, we kill one hundred of them.....the Roians do not come to this place anymore!" Tokey asked,"Are you the leader of this tribe?" She replied,"I am Izzar, the daughter of Chief Kolar....he is gone to battle the Husgors....I am in his place."
Tokey introduced himself and the others as they stood looking out the door. Tokey told Izzar about the beginning revolution against Seloria, the Roians and Cain city. The ice was broken and Izzar invited them to a feast. When T Bar stepped out of the door and saw Izzar's guns, he told Tony and Deece,"I am so in love!"
T Bar winked and smiled at her and she grinned while running her closed hand down the rifle barrel. Lyran looked at T Bar and said,"I think she likes you." Dara laughed and said,"What a match those two would be!" The feast began and each person put a chunk of chosen meat on long wooden rods with metal forks on the ends.
They held the meat in a bonfire that was blazing 15 feet high. Tokey took a bite of his and asked Izzar what kind of meat it was because it was so delicious. Izzar grinned and said,"We call it Roian on a rod!" Tokey swallowed hard as she laughed," It is buffalo, deer or pig. I believe that you have pig."
There was a large circle of people around the fire. A woman with a violin and a man with a harmonica began playing music. They were playing the instruments in harmony and it sounded like a beautiful haunting organ. Some of the people began to dance.
It was much like Native American dancing and it was filled with joy and laughter. The wine made them happy and the music mellowed their hearts. Tony and Dara sat together holding hands, Lyran leaned against Deece as they talked about the night, Maren and Tokey went back to the Mach 1000 to check on Jeezose. He was still out of it but would moan and mumble "Mother" now and then.
T Bar was busy flirting with Izzar. Any woman with that many guns, had to be the woman for him. T Bar asked Izzar if she likes to fly. Izzar answered,"No, we just shoot what flys down, then turn them into pig pens....I have never been up in the sky." T Bar said,"You might like it, you can shoot anything from up there!" Izzar grinned and said," I can shoot anything that is up there also."
No sooner that she said that, a camp guard came screaming,"ROIANS!" Coming out of long clouds in the north were about 30 Roian Battle Tanks. They were in a V formation with a much larger craft in the center. The larger craft is the rumored IZAN ship. This is the first time it was known to be used in battle. It is armed with 21 plasma cannons and can transport 1000 troops. It is shaped like a pyramid cut in half, the lower part.
Tokey had already fired up the Mach 1000 and the rest were running to it. The people were scattering into battle positions and T Bar was trying to convince Izzar to come with him. Deece and Tony were at the door shouting for T Bar to come now! A plasma blast hit just a few feet away from T Bar and Izzar.
T Bar was hit with rock shrapnel in his right arm and her fell. Izzar helped him up as Tony ran to them. Tony and Izzar helped T Bar in the door and T Bar had a death grip on her gun belt. She cried,"Let me go, I have to go!" Tokey shouted,"Close the damn dor or we will all die!" and the door began to shut. Izzar lunged for the door but was too late. The Mach 1000 was lifting and Deece was in the turret firing on the Roians.
Deece was plucking off the Battle Tanks as Tokey was maneuvering from their fire. Izzar was screaming,"What can I do, What can I do!" Deece helped her up in the turret and said," You keep firing on the Tanks and I am going to get the Therzedo ready!"
Izzar took the MAC 5500 cannons in hand and began unloading on the Roians. Deece saw three large blasts out the window and shouted,"Damn woman, you can shoot!" As Maren was tending to T Bar's wounds, T Bar shouted,"That's my girl!" Tokey turned the Mach to face the IZAN ship and told Deece to fire. Deece blasted out two Therzedos at the ship and they exploded about 200 yards from it as Deece shouted,"What the f**K, did you see that Toke, they didn't even get to it?"
Tokey yelled back,"We have to get the hell out of here!" Just as Toke said that, a plasma blast hit the Mach. It shook it hard and flipped the side up but thankfully it glanced off of the Cryvaron (ceramic iron) wedge plates. The plates were designed to protect the inner craft. The plasma can weaken the plates with a few direct hits. Tokey maxed out the Nitrix engines and in a short time, the Mach was doing 3200 mph.
The Admiral of the Roian ship is Jevis. He is as cold and evil as Seloria. He wears dark shaded glasses that are like vertical tears, curving to the corners of his mouth. He wears locks of braided hair on his ear lobes of enemy officers he killed personally. He is a pure, very black African man. He won Selorias admiration by sending her the head of a rebel leader with roses sticking from drilled holes.
Jevis is the only high ranking black officer in the fleet. His battle record stands above all others and Seloria has chosen him to rescue her son. Jevis saw that the Mach 1000 was escaping and ordered a small crew to meet him on the shuttle deck. Tho he had lost 27 Battle Tanks, he remained calm and his voice was steady and precise. With the shuttle manned, it launched from the IZAN and headed straight for the Mach 1000.
Jevis commanded the main gunner to only bring the Mach down, do not destroy it! The shuttle is twice as big as the Mach and is just as fast. Within minutes, the Mach 1000 was in sight of the shuttle crew. Jevis shouted,"Heads and roses for our Mother god!"
