Huxley emerged back into the hot sun with Thatcher at his right hand. Shading his eyes, he found Cesar along with his helm technicians exactly where he had left them. Front and centre. Striding over, Huxley tried to glean anything from the holo panels arrayed in front of him, not knowing where to look he said “Anything come up?” Cesar glanced over his shoulder at them; a bead of sweat was making its way past his left eyebrow. “Bogeys, lots of them. The situation is just over this ridge.” Huxley nodded at Thatcher, who began hollering at the troops over the radio to check everybody was at action stations.

 The Hercules had been retrofitted with gun ports which provided a field of fire on both flanks. Rows of snub nose Magnetic Accelerator Cannons protruded from the hull, swivelling gently. They were integrated into the ship and could therefore be controlled by the Hercules’ AI, but Huxley had made the decision early on in his tenure that they should be controlled primarily by men under his command. That was so they could focus their fire on the things he wanted as well as being on hand to tackle any boarding parties that tried to leak through the gun ports and overrun the ship from within. A cacophony of sound offs returned to them instantaneously. Everybody was ready below deck. All non essential crew would have picked up small arms and dug into their assigned corridor, ready to fight to the last. They all knew what happened to bandit prisoners, and death was definitely a preferable option.

A dozen more soldiers filtered out onto the top deck and took up positions at the gunwale. Opening a metal armament chest Huxley distributed specialized tools which levered grappling hooks as well as ammo and melee weapons. The Hercules began struggling up a steep slope which Huxley imagined was the only thing separating them from the Wombat and whatever had been distressing it so much. Huxley could only imagine what was happening, Maw worm infestation? Bandit attack? BESC misfire? Over the roar of their sandship’s engines some muffled sounds made it to his ear. It didn’t sound good. Touching his ear unnecessarily, Huxley shouted over the din. “All units, prepare for further orders; we’re going in loud and blind and it sounds like the fucking Hot Gates on the other side of this ridge.

“Heard, understood and acknowledged.” came the reply from his below deck lieutenant. Nerg. Huxley looked back at Cesar, he nodded encouragingly, his game face set. This was it. Time was slowing now, the sun bright in his eyes directly ahead, the Hercules pointing towards the sky. Huxley stood at the prow, taking a knee to steady himself as the ship fell down the side of the ridge and into hell.

The had entered what appeared to be a huge sand crater some miles across. High slopes all fed down to a plateau where one of the most frenzied activities Huxley had ever seen in the Desert was unfolding. An enormous sandship battle was now filling the air with a cacophony of metallic sounds and explosions. Huxley unhooked a pair of tactical binoculars from the gunwale and looked down. A mixture of buggies on huge wheels, Sand skiffs and bigger craft were all swirling in a maelstrom of colours. Cannons, lasers and plasma were all being fired at each other and it seemed something was blowing up every second. More buggies and skiffs were flooding over the ridge and racing down to join the fray. Through the binoculars Huxley noted that there appeared to be three rival bandit groups fighting for controls. Their units flew different color flags: blue, orange and black. Each clan had a flagship which stayed clear of the melee, prefering to sit back and fire shells into the crowd.
“Gods help us.” Cesar muttered over comms. 

“Hostiles off the starboard side! Engaging!” Huxley whirled round. training his binoculars on a gaggle of fast moving buggies that were making a beeline for them, mounted machine guns spitting fire. The Hercules’ broadside put a round through several of them right away, panicking them into changing course.

“We saw them off, there are more coming though!”

Looking forward again, Huxley realized that one of the ship’s wasn’t moving and had obviously been destroyed some time ago. Several miles in length, the abandoned freighter looked like it had been attacked by the desert itself. It lay on its side and its hull had ragged gashes all down it. It was the obvious epicentre of the brawl that took place all around it. Ant-like men were climbing up its side as Huxley watched. It was in the shadow of this enormous beast that he found the Combat Wombat. Unrecognizable from the elegant craft it had once been, a fire raged from a huge rent in its side; smoke billowed all around it. Zooming in Huxley could see some of the crew engaging in bitter hand to hand combat with swarms of fierce looking bandits. The Wombat was moving, but only just and Huxley could see immediately that its jet engines had taken a lot of damage.

“Down there, next to the freighter!” Huxley shouted over the din, hair going wild in the wind. “I see it cousin, we’re going in!” Cesar boomed, putting the old Sandship into full tilt down the side of the crater.