Short Bursts

Muckleshoot
by Matt Riggsby

The next edition of Car Wars is coming! To help prepare, coming up,” Muck warned. “Going right, Kid. Look for a shot,
Pyramid proudly presents this vignette, spotlighting one aspect May; this’ll be tight.” Muck drifted the rig to the edge of the
of its bold new world. Visit carwars.sjgames.com to keep road, then wheeled it over hard going into the curve.
abreast of the latest developments! “Almost,” May shouted from above him as the rear of the
rig slid almost but not quite into the trees on the upper slope.
YYY Brakes and tires protested the whole of the 180-degree curve.
Chunks of the crumbling remains of Old Mullan Road “Almost!” Then the anti-tank gun in the fore turret let off a
rattled into the undercarriage after a near-miss from a gre- series of shots, drowning out the vulcan. Muck caught a flare
nade launcher. Muck yanked the wheel hard, and the next out of the corner of his eye, and three windows became two.
one missed on his right as his left side sheared branches from “Got the pickup!” May exclaimed. “Think we got the
the young fir trees growing along the cracked pavement. The cycle, too.”
“Muckelshoot Joe” logo on the side would need repainting if “Kid?” Muck called. “Kid? . . . We’ve lost the rear turret,
the rig ever made it to Fort Minneapolis. maybe the Kid. Angle the side cameras as far back as you can.”
“Hell of a short cut, Muck,” May called down from the tur- “Road’s blocked. Even if they get it cleared, they’ll keep
ret above. their distance. Think we’ve got them scared, Muck.”
Muck ignored her. “Talk to me, Kid. Half the monitors Muck went into the next curve, keeping as much speed as
are dead up here.” The dashboard displayed three windows he dared. “They won’t stay that way long if they know we –”
on the world out of view of his windshield. One of them He was cut off by a blast rocking the rig. A constellation of
showed the narrow road behind. A pack of vehicles followed, indicators on his dashboard lit up yellow and red. Battered
weaving across the two-lane road, moving close to fire, and but still rolling, Muck recognized the dragon-headed sedan
falling back into the morning mist, keeping enough distance coming up the cracked asphalt ahead of them. “Oh, hell,”
to dodge mines. he thought.
“I count two cars and three cycles up close,” Klamath Kid’s
voice crackled back over the headset. “Couple more farther About the Author
back. Hang on . . .” Muck heard the deep buzz of the vulcan
Matt Riggsby has written over 120 articles and supple-
in the turret at the back of the trailer through the headset and
ments for Steve Jackson Games.
felt it through the body of the rig. The closest of
the cars was a matte black sedan sitting high
on thick off-road tires, with a grenade launcher
up front in a shroud shaped like a dragon’s
head. Flare from the vulcan obscured the view
for a moment, but the sedan shuddered and
swerved off the road, disappearing into the
overgrowth down the southern slope.
“Colors?”
“Could be Mountain Technicals. There’s
a skull on one of them kinda like the Loup-
Garous, but it’s in bad shape. Must have
boosted that one.” The vulcan buzzed again
as a cycle with a large, ominous tube mounted
on one side roared up from out of the mist,
jinking wildly across the road. A pickup truck
with twin machine guns pointing over the cab
came up behind, firing steadily.
The road ahead vanished, bending tightly
behind the jagged wall of trees. “Sharp curve

Pyramid Magazine 34 December 2015