Search at Snargate

It had taken Gudrun Ure two months to get the data that Snay Black had left at Maxton for her decrypted.  Two months in which she had been hounded around the Cantwara sector by the Arbites, and the Inquisition.  The data that she had hoped would help her bring down the corrupt administration had turned out to be one name, Argos Cannon.  A man that she discovered had been subjected to servitor conversion and had been reported killed in a firefight with the Volkstan at Aycliffe.  More time elapsed than she cared to admit before reports came to her that his damaged remains had been salvaged and were located on a farmstead at Snargate.

Not having an exact location for the remains Gudrun, Bowen, and Zilog-80 spread out.  Bowen took out his bio-scanner and started to calibrate it to Cannon`s bio-pattern.

Argos Cannon`s bio-pattern was hard to tie down with all the background signals caused by the local flora and fauna.  While Bowen tried to clarify the pattern Zilog-80 headed to the farm building to see if he could find any mention of Cannon there.

After a lot of cursing Bowen was finally able to locate Cannon`s position.  The damaged servitor was half buried in a pile of junk.  Bowen cleared some of the debris away from the cyborg and started to pull the data from Cannon`s processing core.  Bowen was completely absorbed in his work and did not notice the bio-scanner registering a powerful bio-signal approaching his position until the horror burst out of the ground and start to lope towards him.

Gudrun Ure opened fire on the creature, a Cantwara vulture beak, her las-bolts ricocheting off its carapace.  The creature charged towards Bowen hissing as it snapped its beak in quick succession.  Bowen`s attention was finally pulled away from his work and he opened fire with his las-pistol scoring several hits but having the same effect as Gudrun`s shots.  Swearing to himself Bowen pulled free his chainsword and met the creature in melee.  The two combatants were evenly matched Bowen cut deep into the creature’s flank as its beak took a chunk out of his shoulder.

The creature let out a raspy drawn-out hiss in pain and launched itself at Bowen.  He desperately parried, but even his prowess in combat could not match its animal fury.  The creature lashed out determined to dine on this creature that had hurt it.  One of its hooks got through Bowen`s defences the bow sliced cleanly through his right arm.  The warrior held onto consciousness long enough to see his friends charge into combat against the creature.

A cold rage flowed through Gudrun`s veins she had seen many of her friends killed in her long life, and now she feared that she had lost another. Her weapon was a blur as it moved through the air dismembering and decapitating the vulture beak.

 Zilog-80 rushed to his fallen friend and quickly stabilised his condition.  Bowen`s right arm lay on the floor a ruined mess, but at least he would live.

Zilog-80 looked over at Argos Cannon and saw the servitor starting to reboot it turned to look at Gudrun and spoke in its cold mechanical voice.  “The bio-scanner is registering another strong signal”.  Gudrun shook her head and turned in the direction that the servitor was pointing just in time to see the ground part as a fresh danger reared its ugly head.

Not waiting for the creature to come at her and still burning with cold rage Gudrun charged towards the creature.  The Ambull blinked in confusion its prey did not usually run towards it.  Before the creature could react to this new predicament Gudrun was upon him.  She attacked the creature with the fury of a Valkyrie and the skills born of 4,000 years of warfare even this dread creature feared through out the sector was no match for the millennia old warrior.