Red Sun Bleeding Read Free

spiders appeared. And Calder realized that what he had ejected from the tree wasn’t exactly a spider... at least, not an adult one. The mature hunters weren’t rat-sized. In fact, the mastiff hunting hounds in the exiled prince’s palace kennels would have given the fully grown spiders a respectfully wide berth. They had a series of legs down either side; large and small limbs interweaved like a dancing tank, with at least four feelers up front for carrying and hacking with sharp, poisoned bristles. Dagger-sized fangs angrily clattered around their mouths, clusters of eyes at the top of the central body bulb focusing on Calder. They didn’t appear happy in the slightest to find uninvited visitors in their tree, mistreating their hatchlings. For Calder, the feeling was mutual. There was a long, low sound like creaking wood. He realised that while Janet Lento wasn’t speaking, she could still make some noises and was at least aware enough of her surroundings not to appreciate having dozens of nightmare-sized spiders scampering towards their perch above the jungle. Calder unslung the rifle and pointed it towards the ground. He squeezed the trigger but nothing happened. Cursing, he pressed the safety selector to semiautomatic and let have at the creatures below. His rifle was recoilless… the same magnetic field that accelerated the darts to hypersonic velocities catching the back burst and absorbing the energy, using it to help power the gun. Only a slight quivering with each hail of pellets triggered. Every short burst made a zup-zup sound as the gauss field flexed, followed by an angry explosive cracking as his ammunition broke the sound barrier. A swine-like squealing came from the spiders below as they were literally blown apart by each volley. They didn’t sound much like spiders… the arachnids back on Calder’s freezing home world, Hesperus, had been coin-sized, silent and shy. Shrewd enough to avoid humanity for the most part. These ones kept coming, leaping up at the lower trunk until Calder sighted on them. Not much more to it than pointing and squeezing. Colourful bodies bursting with the impact. The nobleman heard a scampering noise from the back of the tree, and he stood up, leaning against a branch to hose a wave of spiders climbing up the rear with bullets. He changed position, the assault on the front renewed with fresh vigour. They drummed against the wood as they climbed. Calling their pack, or maybe communicating with each other. Calder resisted the impulse to check his ammunition count. He sweated, shooting furiously into their ranks for maybe five minutes, beating back one attack from all sides simultaneously. The spiders finally started acting intelligently too, backing away from the tree, whistling angrily and impotently against the intruders, shaking their colourful fur fans as they attempted to intimidate the two newcomers. What was it the mining camp manager had said back on the landing field, describing the base fence’s murderous automated weapons? We’re not in the food chain and they’ve learnt it the hard way . Too damn right. This was probably the first time these things had run into humanity. Their fate was about the same as most non-sentient predators introduced to mankind across so many worlds.
    ‘Keep away!’ shouted Calder. ‘This tree is part of my kingdom now.’ So, this is what his realm had shrunk to, the measure of his reduced circumstances. The first time he actually shot a modern weapon, too. Any guns in the sim entertainment shows that the ship’s android, Zeno, had used to bring him up to speed on modern existence probably didn’t count, as real as they had seemed at the time. It seemed shockingly easy compared to the many tedious years of real training with sword, shield, crossbow, longbow and armour he’d endured in his youth. His father and his man-at-arms permanently disappointed in Calder’s martial progress. If he had only possessed a couple of crates of