“Any drones?” Daniel asked Manny, who rode in with the last group of scouts.

“None Dat,” the petite man answered in perfect English, having worked in the states on several occasions.

“Then it’s time,” Daniel decided, and led 2,500 horse warriors out of the Sacramento complex. After a hard ride, they located an old soccer field complex, where they rested and grazed their tired animals for the night. The men ate beef stew that had been prepared in Sacramento, and slept under the stars.

The second day, a drone had to be taken out and dynamite was dropped into a couple of green power circles that opened up in their ranks. The horse riders still had to move along the highway at a good clip, but having extended the trip to two days, as Juan Carlos had requested, paid off.

“Since we left the wagons and cattle behind, and everyone is riding single, we have made good time,” Juan Carlos said to Dat after riding up to him near a large field. “Let’s rest the horses for a few hours and let them graze. Then we can walk them until it gets dark.”

“Sure,” Daniel said, not being used to such long hard riding. “My butt hurts anyways.”

When darkness fell, they remounted and started to ride more cautiously. In this manner, they completed the ninety-mile journey north. The horse that Daniel was riding hadn’t been named as it was a fairly new addition. Once Daniel learned that, the song Riding Through The Desert On A Horse With No Name by America popped into his head. For the rest of the night, he couldn’t get the annoying lyrics out of his head.   

A couple of hours before daybreak the horse army had reached Chico, having lost only a couple dozen riders due to lagging or injured horses. Juan Carlos refused to leave the tired or wounded animals alone, so their riders stayed with their mounts until they were able to fall back to Sacramento.

Scouts provided that the enemy numbers were the same as before. Nothing had changed since Daniel had been there the first time. Thousands of seekers guarded by three overseer columns, with six hover cars each.

The three overseer units were separate from each other and positioned around the outer perimeter of Chico. The enemy columns were parked about five hundred yards out from the depleted city, on overwatch. The overseer’s attempt to protect the seekers would fail today.

The only difference this time was that nearly all of the city was now gone. About half of the seekers were picking up chunks of concrete and were throwing them into white power circles. The only other debris remaining were random piles of wood and paper.

Daniel took the last half hour of darkness to go over their battle plan one more time.

“Juan Carlos, you will sweep in from the south with your thousand horsemen and hit the column positioned on the south side of the city. I will come in from the north with a thousand riders and eliminate the column to the north. Creeper and his five hundred troops will hit that column to the west. Any questions?”

“How much times do you two needs to get to your targets,” Juan Carlos questioned, looking at his solar watch.

“Fifteen minutes. Sound about right Creeper?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah, maybe twenty. I have a small wooded area to pass through, but my column is closer than yours Dat.” the dirty man calculated.

“Okay, let’s say twenty minutes. Each of the three protection columns have twenty-four overseers in them. We have ta’ take out those big guns in those hover cars, or this fight will be over before it even gets started. Once you’ve taken out your column, head straight into the rubble of the city and we’ll all converge on the seekers and destroy them. They’re the main target of this mission.”

When Daniel returned to his troops, he handed out six of his nearly depleted supply of grenades to some of his riders, saying, “One for each car. Timing is everything. We need to blow them all up at the same time, or as close together as possible, before the overseers can unload those auto blasters on us.”

Juan Carlos and Creeper’s groups were using dynamite. Daniel and his horsemen moved out at a fast trot circling the city widely, passing through several outlying suburban neighborhoods, trying to get in close to the enemy before the dawning sunlight exposed them.

It didn’t take long before explosions on the other side of the city alerted Daniel that his time was up. Juan Carlos’ force was attacking. Then Daniel’s troops were there, with the column of six cars sitting just a few yards from them.  

“Charge!” Daniel shouted, sending his horse warriors right at the overseers. Boom! . . . Boom! Boom! . . . Boom! . . . Boom! Come on, where was number six? he thought. Finally, a sixth explosion followed the first five. Red blasts responded to their attack. Luckily, they were only single beams, indicating that his men had put the grenades right under the rapid-fire gun mounts as he had ordered.

A drone exploded just above Daniel, showering him with sparks. The clan leader had placed men with sniper rifles all around the dead city for just such a purpose. They were to eliminate any drones that they saw. A surviving overseer to Daniel’s immediate front sent a baton blast at the rider beside the clan leader. enveloping both horse and man in a red circle. With a fizzle they were ash.

Daniel urged his mount forward and smashed the overseer across the head with the butt of his shotgun. The incredible blow merely turned the thing’s head sideways. The black-suited alien turned and pointed its baton at him. That is when Daniel saw the dynamite stick burning between its legs, the wick nearly spent!

Daniel instinctively threw himself off the side of his horse when the explosion demolished the overseer, and sent his horse toppling. Daniel managed to clear the dead animal just in time, rolling through the dust and landing on his butt. The side of his mount had been shredded by shrapnel from the explosion.

The only thing left of the overseer was separated arms, legs, head, and a torso. The helmet visor was cracked, but still intact. Damn these aliens had some fiercely strong armor. Daniel himself had two steaming shards of metal protruding from his right leg, about the size of pencils, plus a couple of black burn marks on his thigh.

It looked like Daniel’s group had eliminated their target column. The wounded man rose to his feet, intent upon finally getting a look at one of these creatures, when one of his men rode up and gave him the reins to a riderless horse. He took them and wobbled towards the dead overseer, when he saw rapid fire red blasts far to his west.

Creeper’s men, the third to reach their targets, had failed to take out at least one of their auto-blasters and it was wreaking havoc on them. If they didn’t eliminate that mega-blaster, then the whole mission was in jeopardy of failing.
           

“Six of you ride with me!” Daniel shouted. “The rest of you attack into the city and take out as many seekers as you can. If we fail to take out the rest of that column, then ride out after your attack run and head back to Sacramento as planned!”

Daniel mounted his new horse rapidly, ignoring the pain that it caused to his wounded thigh. He also chose to ignore the black ashes in the saddle from the horse’s previous rider. Within seconds, he was racing towards the source emitting the red power circles in a wide arc at an incredible rate.

Daniel urged his newly acquired mount to go faster, prodding it in the ribs with his heels and shouting, “Yah! Yah!” The already tired horse, panting and snorting, took him to breakneck speeds. Six of his riders paced him and soon they were moving in a line. The rest of his forces had turned towards the seekers, intent upon taking out the real goal of the mission.

Daniel’s line surged forward, wind knocking off sombreros and whipping through their hair while they raced towards their new target. To Daniel, it felt like they were in some kind of surreal old west cowboy movie, only they weren’t after some villainous cattle rustlers, they were after aliens.

It took a couple of minutes, but they finally reached the enemy column. Four of the six hover cars were burning wrecks. The two closest to Daniel and his men were still intact and heavily engaging Creeper’s retreating forces. At least half of the fleeing man’s horses and riders had been reduced to ashes. All eight overseers from the two intact alien vehicles were still in the fight.

Daniel and his six fighters came in from the city side of the column. They were a hundred yards out when the two nearest overseers, the drivers, turned and began firing their batons at the seven advancing horsemen.

At ninety yards out, the horse to Daniel’s immediate left turned to ash, sending the rider toppling off into the dust. At seventy yards, the man and horse to his immediate right was enveloped in a red power circle and disappeared with a fizzle, leaving an ash trail floating in the wind.

The remaining fighters closed ranks and continued advancing. Daniel would rather that they’d spread out, to make themselves harder targets, but knew that it was human nature to close in during times of danger.

Daniel crouched low in his saddle and urged his panting steed forward, focusing on destroying those guns. At fifty yards another rider disappeared, while one of the big guns began to swing towards them. Crap.! Crap!! Crap!!! This was going to be close.  

At thirty yards, Daniel grabbed the two frag grenades hanging on his vest and pulled straight down. This not only freed them, but released the pins, starting his five- to seven-second count. The last rider to his left fizzled away into a red glow of ash.

The man to his right had lit his dynamite stick too early, and had to toss it behind them before it blew him up. The woman next to that man was struggling to get hers lit in the racing wind, then the point was moot, as she transformed into ash.

At ten yards out several things happened simultaneously. The big gun locked in and aimed at them. Daniel tossed both of his grenades and turned his horse hard along the already burning hover cars, nearly crashing into them. The pair of horsemen continued along the burning hover cars. Daniel was hoping that the smoke would provide them some cover while they retreated. His last mounted man was riding hard on his heels.

The explosions rattled their teeth, with Daniel having cut that much too close for comfort. Fortunately, the grenades had eliminated both the enemy cars, and their operators. When they went back for the rider who had toppled into the dust, they discovered that he had broken his neck during the fall.

The two remaining riders turned towards the city, seeing that their forces were reaching the outskirts. Daniel’s entire breakoff attack had taken less than four minutes, although it felt much longer.

A loud shrill whistle sounded, repeatedly blaring out an annoying blast. In the distance, Daniel could see that a group of seekers had been pushing a command module towards a green power circle, where it dropped in and disappeared. The group of seekers were turning to get another module from a line of several, when the alarm had sounded.

The seekers immediately stopped working and let out loud growls. After sniffing the air, they turned and began to run towards the charging pair of horsemen at a sprint. In other parts of Chico, a couple thousand seekers were charging headlong in different directions, heading for various attackers. Gunfire could be heard erupting across the wooden remnants of the city.

Daniel and his partner stayed astride their mounts and once the enemy drew close, engaged. Daniel dropped two seekers quickly with his Ranch Edition shot gun, then drew the Taurus .357, thinking that he should’ve brought something that was easier to load and carried more rounds for this mission.

“Rat . . . tat, tat, tat . . .rat. tat, tat, tat!” His partner opened up with an M-4, mowing down seven seekers in a row. “Blam!” Daniel dropped the last one with a shot from his revolver.

Numerous gunshots and explosions , followed by screaming, sounding off from ahead of them in the rubble. The pair moved forward, anxious to get into the devastated city to help their embattled friends.

Once in, Daniel saw that the former big city was now only wooden beams, house frames, and papers blowing all about. Apparently, the aliens had no use for wood or wood byproducts. The enemy just left it behind, marking where a city once stood.

It looked like an eerie skeletal graveyard marked by what looked like long outstretched wooden hands making one last dying grasp at the sky above. Everything else was gone! Everything but a few thousand seekers.

Daniel and his man came upon six of the milky-eyed bald men that were beating a black man to death with their pry bars. The clan leader dropped two with his 12-gauge, while his partner shot the rest with his M-4 and reloaded a fresh magazine.

A Hispanic lady came running around from behind a pile of wooden beams, chased by two seekers. She was blocking their line of fire on her pursuers. Just then a green power circle opened near her. Daniel reached in his pack and grabbed his last frag grenade, tossing it into the circle.

The middle-aged, wide-hipped, portly Hispanic female was rapidly losing the footrace with her attackers. She was breathing heavily, her eyes wide with fear.

“No municion! No municion!! Ayudame!!!” she screamed as one of the seekers caught up and struck her on the back with his pronged bar. Daniel’s partner dropped the attacking seeker with two rapid shots from his M-4.

The chunky woman had been knocked towards the green power circle. Daniel leapt from the back of his horse, simultaneously sending two rounds into the second pursuing seeker with the .357 that was held in his right hand, while catching the woman’s own reaching hand with his left.

“Ayudame . . .” she pleaded again.

Daniel was holding onto the woman’s hand, with half of her body now in the energy circle, which closed in response to his grenade attack. He had been staring into her fear-filled, panic-stricken brown eyes, which quickly glazed over with the cold lifeless stare of death. Her body had been cut in half when the circle closed. Daniel turned away from the smoking cauterized mess, resting his face in the dirt. Damnit! I thought that I had her.

When Daniel rose to his feet, he heard a single shot from the M-4. His partner had dropped a third seeker who had come around a wood pile and was about to pound Daniel on the head with his pry bar. The Mexican man had saved Daniel from certain death.

Daniel remounted his horse and they continued farther into the wooden ruins, riding between various piles of debris. Gunshots still rang out all around them. When the pair rounded the next pile, they were facing at least fifty charging seekers, who immediately smelled them approaching. With several loud growls, more of the brain-erased men began to pour out from around other piles of wood. Daniel and his partner were surrounded.

“We’re screwed,” Daniel said to the Mexican man.

“Se acabo,” his partner agreed, and opened up with his M-4. Daniel pumped two rounds into the closest two seekers with his shotgun and then unloaded his .357 into the wall of enemy to their front. He went for his boot knife, not having time to reload since the seekers were closing in fast.

A hail of gunfire erupted from behind them, mowing down the seekers to their rear, followed by numerous horsemen riding past the pair of relieved men, to engage the rest of the enemy. Creeper had brought his remaining forces back into the fight!

“Not gonna let you steal all the glory, Dat.” The burnt-faced man smirked at Daniel, who had never been happier to see the stringy-haired scuzzy man in his life.

There was a final smattering of gun fire erupting here and there, then it died off. Juan Carlos rode up with a dozen riders and nodded at Creeper and Daniel, asking, “Casualties?”

“I lost at least half my men, maybe a little more,” Creeper answered.

“No idea,” Daniel said, not even sure where the rest of his riders were.

“Why didn’t the overseers reinforce theirs troops? We’ve been heres for a while?” Juan Carlos seemed perplexed.

“We blew out a green circle.” Daniel grimaced at the horrible memory. “I think it’s a good sign though. Maybe we’re draining their resources.”

The man beside Daniel, the one who had stayed with him the whole time, held out his hand and said a long phrase in Spanish. The man finished speaking and smiled, revealing that his two top front teeth were capped in gold.

When Daniel looked confused, Juan Carlos translated, “He said that his name is Paco. He used to owns a brothel in Tijuana that ran a donkey show. Now he kills aliens. He wants to know if he can stays with you as your personal guard. He said that you needs one because you fights like a crazy wild man.”

Daniel grasped Paco’s hand, laughing as he shook it, saying, “Si.”

“So, original plans boss?” Juan Carlos questioned in his thickly accented voice.  

“Yes, sound the signal. We separate into small groups of ten and you guys make your way back to Sacramento. Travel slow and rest the horses. They are exhausted. Everyone makes sure that the camp is clear of drones before entering the complex. Only go through the gate at night,” Daniel ordered.

One of the men with Juan Carlos sounded three long blasts on a trumpet, signaling the departure. Doc, the white man with silver spectacles, quickly tended to Daniel’s shrapnel wounds before they departed. On the way out they heard several explosions, relaying that Daniel’s troops were dynamiting the command modules as he had ordered.

When Daniel and Paco went to separate from the others, Juan Carlos turned and said, “You can keeps that horse, Commander Dat. Her name is Ocioso. In Spanish it means idle … or useless. Because she was very difficults to tame and train.”

Daniel smiled to himself. The beautiful mare was anything but useless. We all have a role to play, and Ocioso had just played hers well, helping to win the battle for Chico.