Tracy pulled up the holoscreen on his smart arm again, checking the steeder's readings. The KEC bar still had some time until a full charge. If the speed reading on his HUD wasn't being thwarted by the racing dust cloud, then those deputies and their small posse would catch up to him within a few minutes.

"Seeing as they hate it so much, let's give 'em a taste of Earthen justice."

The horse whinnied again.

With one high kick, he dropped into the saddleseat and moved the horse into a trot, then a gallop.

Tracy had ridden horses before. He grew up around them thanks to his grandfather. But not one like this. Sun beams reflected off of the chrome hide making the equine vehicle seem more like a flash of lightning skipping across the Martian surface. The metal steeder was not only designed to imitate a horse, but to improve upon it. The leg pistons moved with measured efficiency. Hydraulic hisses and mechanical hums resonated through Tracy's legs as the bot beast kicked into overdrive.

Tracy leaned forward in the saddle, letting the horse have its head. The steeder aimed its whole frame forward, lunging into an eternal fall. He could almost feel glee emanating from the steeder as it found satisfaction in fulfilling its design.

The speedometer continued to rise, but despite going much faster than a biological horse ever could, Tracy knew it would reach a limit. The only way to break that cap would be to morph it into a true hover speeder, but he couldn't until the kinetic energy built up.

He sifted through the operating system screens again, searching for new options. One such option brought up rear monitors that sent a mini feed to the inside of his goggles. Behind the cloud of dust kicked up by the steeder, his pursuers grew larger in the rear view, gaining ground on him. And behind them, the storm.

Soon Tracy's ears detected new thrums, the pulsing of speeders.

Pew.

A blast riveted the ground to his right. Tracy drew the reins away to the left. Another blast, closer this time, same side. Again they drew away.

"Alrighty, boys," Tracy yelled into the wind. "You ordered your own tombstones."

Meter by meter, they edged Tracy closer to the chasm.

One of the speeders drew up alongside him. They had all day to shoot and no obstacles. They could gun him out of his saddleseat at any moment. They wouldn't. Not yet. Like felines, they'd toy with their prey first.

His lips tugged at the side of his face in a smirk. In times like this his heart should have exploded from his chest. But he was used to it. The thrill outweighed the twinge of fear. Like the horse, Tracy felt right at home doing what came natural, what he was born to do. The Martian air tasted fresher, now that the chase was on.

Tracy's flesh hand held the reins, but he let his alloyed arm hang at his side, matching the motion of the steeder.

It was all a ruse. Let 'em think they had him. Let them think his back was up against the wall.

Tracy bared his teeth and drew one of his .357 JC Maxwell double action coil revolvers with his cybernetic hand. He could not really feel it the same way his flesh hand could. But he did have receptors installed that told him in a roundabout way that he palmed the gun. All he knew was that the men following him were at a disadvantage. He knew for certain that his draw was the smoothest, fastest draw this side of Mars. What was good on Earth was amazing here thanks to the lower gravitational pull of the planet. Metal thumb cocked metal hammer.

His electromagnetic shots raked the cockpit of the speeder nearest him. The bulbous windshield shattered, spraying his pursuers in a shower of fiberglass shards. The speeder swerved, turbine whining with a shrill yip. They hit a crater like a jump.

"Liftoff," Tracy hollered.

Airborne, they toppled towards him in a wicked barrel roll.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

He aimed overhead and squeezed the trigger again for good measure. His aim was true. He struck the pilot in the shoulder. When the speeder completed its roll on the other side of him, the deputized posse member had no time to course correct and went over the edge of the canyon. The scream of the speeder climbed octaves higher as the vehicle plummeted to eternal depths.

Victory burned in Tracy's chest. But he wasn't out of the thick of it.

Still had four men, and all in all, eight possible barrels could be pointed in his direction now.

Thumbing the cylinder release, he cracked the revolver against his thigh with a swift flick of his wrist, ejecting the cartridges. Clenching the steeder with his knees, Tracy retrieved a speed loader from his duster and dropped seven fresh bullets into the chambers, then snapped the gun whole again.

Quick as a wink, he toggled the KEC bar and swore. Still not enough to transform the steeder, but the bar was climbing fast.

The terrain shifted. The grade tilted downhill. He steered for a natural ramp leading into the canyon. Crimson walls rose on either side of him. Even if he were to enter the maze of the labyrinth, the dust trail his steeder left in the wake would ensure they could easily track him. He either had to outrun them, which wasn't likely, or deal with this posse now.

The jagged walls of the canyon leaned in like massive citadel gates being closed to ward off intruders. The path grew narrow. And then Tracy saw it.

A thin bedrock bridge arched overhead connecting the canyon walls. In a few moments they'd pass underneath it. Beyond it, the trail climbed back up and out of the canyon. Shots zipped overhead, electrifying the air coming through his respirator. Tracy huddled in the saddle as close to the bobbing horse head as he could get.

Clenching the steeder with his knees, holding on for dear life, he raised both revolvers. Detecting he was attempting to make precise shots, the HUD inside the goggles projected holographic front sight targeting on the ends of his barrels, drawing enlarged beads for him. He squeezed the triggers with wild abandon, aiming at the thinnest section of the bridge. The cylinder chambers spun like tornadoes, unleashing a barrage of magnetized ammunition.

The shots scored the natural bridge in a neat cluster, but nothing seemed to happen. Had he missed? Had the shots penetrated? Then, poof. A crack snapped across the bridge, severing the stone. Low rumbling resounded from on high as a rain of rock boulders was a-coming down.

Tracy's guns twirled around his pointer fingers before the holsters sucked them back in securely. It worked. He couldn't help but beam with admiration at his own gunwork.

But the reality of the collapsing boulders wiped his smile off. Within milliseconds, he calculated, he realized he wasn't going to make it under and through to the other side. At the speed he was going, even if he drew the steeder to a complete stop, his momentum would carry him sliding into home plate, right beneath the falling bridge. The whine of the speeder turbines being thrown in reverse filled his ears, but he knew his enemies were in the same predicament.

The KEC bar on the steeder blinked, flashing across Tracy's HUD.

Full charge.

His fist mashed the button. The steeder's legs tucked in. Tracy felt weightless as gears spun, pistons retracted, and cogs slipped into place. Panels folded, pipes extended, and handlebars sprung from the steeder's back. Tracy had no room between the walls for error. His cybernetic hand clamped on the emerging control and he throttled it. The single jet roared to life.

Tracy found himself no longer atop a horse, but a muscled hover chopper.

"Yeehaw!"

The steeder lurched forward and hightailed it out from beneath the rain of boulders.

The posse wasn't so lucky.

One speeder ran smack dab into the chaos and exploded on impact.

Tracy did not stop until he climbed the top of the grade. Only then did he look back. The surviving deputies crawled out of their wrecked speeder. They managed to slow down in time to just miss being buried alive. They fired shots at him, but they were so far away Tracy needn't even dodge. He tipped his hat off with an exaggerated dip so as to be sure the boys caught the motion and the sarcasm.

"Read between the lines, boys," he muttered.

They shook fists at him as he sped off alongside the canyon.