Koban: The Mark of Koban Read Online Free Page B

let me put a
scope on that line first.” Thad dropped prone, flipped up the scope shields and
sighted in on the fuzzy stampeding line.
    “What the hell are those?” he asked in amazement. “They’re
huge, and they have what looks like trees on their heads.”
    Unable to resist his own look, Dillon followed suit and from
a prone position saw a line of lumbering animals with wide flat looking things
growing from the top of their heads, and what could only be tusks, bounding up
and down as they kicked snow ahead of the charging line with thick massive legs.
They definitely looked elephantine.
    “Damn, Gloria and Yancy didn’t make them up after all.”
Dillon laughed in wonder.
    “Make up what? That team has seen these before?”
    Gloria Goodwin and Yancy Moulder made up another hunting
team that helped keep nearly twenty five thousand people supplied with meat,
and sometimes served as explorers.
    Dillon Laughed again “So they had claimed, and they named
them too, which is why I thought they had made the damned things up, to sucker
me into repeating the story and looking like a fool.
    “Those fine beasties are what you call moosetodons. I shit
you not!” He laughed even harder.
    Still chuckling, he explained, “Gloria and Yancy claimed
they saw some of these when they took a shuttle farther north to check on
another abandoned Krall compound, one Jake reported from our original landing
day on Koban.”
    “Why the goofy name? Wait! Never mind for now,” Thad
interrupted himself. “We have to shoot some yak if we want to make our meat quota
today.”
    “Thad, these new animals are charging towards us, and have
three times the mass of a yak, so any two of them will give us even more meat.
We can wait for them to come close and take two of them down. You know us
scientists types will be thrilled to have a new species to dissect. Plus you’ve
called these elephant guns,” he patted his .50 caliber rifle. “Now you can
prove that.”
    “OK, you repeated that stupid name for them, and now the
elephant gun comment. What are these supposed to be?” Thad asked.
    “Gloria said they’re Koban’s equivalent to the Earth’s
extinct mastodons, but with long thick hair, as a cold weather adaptation. Sort
of like a wooly mammoth, also long extinct.”
    “Fine, then why not call them a mammoth instead of…, what
was it you said?”
    A dopy grin on his face, Dillon repeated the name.
“Moosetodons.” Unable to restrain himself, he snickered again.
    Sighing, Thad had to ask. “Why the ‘moose’ prefix?”
    “You said it yourself, they have a tree-like growth on their
heads. Gloria and Yancy said they are wide antlers that resemble a moose’s
headgear. They also have tusks and a short trunk-like proboscis. Now you know
why I didn’t repeat their claim. I assumed they were pulling my leg, waiting
for me to repeat their ridiculous description and look like an idiot.”
    He looked towards the still thundering line, growing clearer
by the minute “We’ll have good shots in five minutes.”
    As the big animals grew closer, it was obvious they were at
least nine or ten feet high at the front shoulders, with a back that sloped
somewhat to the rear quarters. The legs were thick and very similar to an
elephant’s, but slightly longer, better suited for running. They had mostly
white shaggy, snow blending thick hair, with traces of teal that suggested they
wore that frequently seen color in summer.
    The line of the stampede angled to pass to the front of the
hill, offering a perfect choice of shots for the two hunters.
    Lying prone Thad and Dillon discussed which animals to bring
down and how. They decided shots behind the rather small, two-foot wide
flapping ears on those massive heads would likely be a fatal shot. Dillon
cautioned that they would have to avoid hitting the seven-foot wide and
slightly up curved antlers, which might deflect their bullets, firing from
their high vantage point.
    The tusks angled down and