**Actionette** - "How long is a dead mans fuse?"

Who: Jed Calvert, Mk7, Peter, Callum, Chris Harris and Efof
Where: In the hatchery of the Thorax
When: As Jay and Amber kill
Most of the Canaries had been killed, acting as general fodder against
the Hymenoptera soldiers that kept entering the hatchery.
Callum peered with his gun ready through one of the tunnels leading
out of the room, it had been a main entrance for the Hymenoptera into
the cavern they were in. He prepared to let rip into the next wave, as
he had done so many times before in the past half hour.
He heard a screaming and Efof came running out, waving his four arms
like a lunatic.
"What the hell were you doing in there?" Callum asked, never taking
his gun from its aim.
"Well I went in to see if I could plant a few grenades… " Efof panted.
"But… well… theres a big one."
Then it came through, it was a big one. Larger than any of the
hymenoptera they had seen in the ship. It roared as it picked the
remains of the last Canary out of its teeth.
"Ah shit!" Said Callum and fired a full round into its underbelly.
It chased them and Callum backed up a few meters to where the large
cargo ship "Fools Gold" had crashed. He turned to Chris Harris.
"Chris, I need to re-arm. Cover me!"
Chris Harris, who was stood on the hull of the `Fools Gold' started
laying down cover fire. When Callum had finished reloading he looked up.
"Hey, where's that Cowboy Jed guy?"
Chris didn't say anything, instead he stopped firing and pointed at
the large Hymenopter in front of them.
Jed was riding it like a rodeo bull.
"Yehaaaaaw!" Said Jed, enjoying himself. The Hymenoptera snorted in
aggravation and annoyance at being mocked.
Chris, Callum and Efof clapped and cheered him.
Harris received a message from Amber via walkie talkie and turned to
the others.
"Time to rock and roll guys!" he said.
Efof gave him a thumbs up, leaving Callum to ask him if he really just
used `time to rock and roll' in a serious sentence.
Mk7 shot off the rodeo Hymenoptera's legs, and shouted to Jed.
"How are we going to light that dynamite?" asked the small robot.
Jed climbed down off the crippled monster and gave Mk7 a surely grin.
"Don't worry li'l buddy. Ah'm way ahead of you!"
Then the Texan cowboy took the cigar out of his mouth and carefully
lit the fuse on the dynamite. He lobbed the red stick towards the
barrels of moonshine.
"One job done." He said.
"Urrr… how are we going to get out of here?" asked Callum.
Jed looked around. "Mah boat!" he pointed to the wrecked Fools Gold.
"That piece of junk! Its broken!" Said Mk7.
"Nah, it always looks like that. Its got us out of worse scrapes. Eh
fella? Eh?" he nudged one of his crewmen that had been stood next to
him. But the crewman didn't say anything, he just collapsed with a
bloody hole in his head where a Hymenoptera had just taken a bite.
"Ah well." Said Jed and chomped on his fat cigar.
"Can I suggest we get a move on!" Said Harris, getting a bit nervous
that the dynamite was going to go off.
"Hey hold yer horses! Don't rush, it makes it look more dramatic if we
leave just in the nick of time!" said Jed calmly.
"Yes but that stick of dynamite only had a short fuse, and we still
need to dig most of that wrecked ship out… and we don't even know if
it'll start!"
They all piled into the wrecked rustbucket. Mk7 got in first and
plugged himself into the antiquated controls. It grinded as he tried
to start it.
Jed got in last and gave it a kick as he did so. It purred to a start
in response.
He sealed the airlock and made his way down the short corridor to the
bridge. The ship was much larger than a Blue Midget or Starbug, so had
plenty of room to move around inside.
He nodded to the few of his crew that actually survived, but it was
the Blue Dwarf crew that mainly filled up his bridge.
He nodded to Mk7 who was trying to fly the ship, and shooed Chris
Harris away from his Captain's chair.
The ship (to everyones amazement) did have enough strength left to
lift off the ground, although ripped a new hole in the Hymenoptera
mothership's side as it was still only partly wedged into it.
Mk7 backed the ship out of the tear, but the side engines snagged on
the hiveship's wall.
"Damn, I can't shake it loose!" said Mk7.
"How long was that fuse again?" Asked Callum.
"Long enough" said Jed, confidently.
Then the dynamite blew up, igniting the strong whiskey and blowing up
straight in the `JMC Fool's gold''s face.
It blew them backwards, spiriling them like a cartwheel through space.
Behind them the mothership shrivelled and disintegrated like a
fast-forwarded video of a decaying plant.
The ship stopped spinning and the crew stopped vomiting. Jed and Mk7
however looked sure-footed and steady the whole time.
"Back to the big blue I guess…" Said Harris.
"Aye" said Mk7, laying in a course. "Oh…" he said a moment later in
confusion. "Which one?"
They looked out of the windscreen. There were two Blue Dwarf's. One a
little closer than the other.
"That's not the immediate worry…" said Harris, as head of security was
always looking out for possible threats.
The remainder of the Hymenopteran fleet (which was still around a
hundred ships) were all now angled towards them.
"I guess its pretty obvious who just blew up their mothership" Harris
said.
"Who?" Asked Efof, then a moment later added "oh yeah. Just ignore me."
The "Scorpion" ship that they had first commandeered flew straight up
to them, flexing its scorpion claws.
"I don't suppose we left somebody on that ship did we?" asked Harris.
The ship came closer and used its large scorpion claws to clamp down
on the Fools Gold. Gripping it securely in space.
"I guess not…" Callum mumbled. Assuming it must have now been re-taken
by their insect enemies.
Mk7 turned around. "Any ideas guys?"
<Tag! If anyone's got any ideas how we can get out of this scrape
quickly, lets make a quick escape so we can get back to the Blue Dwarf!>