Reflections

<snip>
Davie was being led through the atrium towards a large, important looking hut, and judging by the small crowd gathered outside something rather interesting must have been going on. As they drew nearer they shoved Davie forward, and he saw Cass walking out. “Cass!?” Davie aske, incredibly surprised to see her in this of all places, “What’s going on?”
“Shaky relation ship with the Huzards, turns out Jay is their savior, or something.”
“Jay? As in Jay Chrysler? How is he alive?”
“I’ll tell you later, he’s in there right now with Gomez, Seymour, a guy named Alex, and a very large hamster.” she said, pointing with her thumb into the hut.
“What are they doing in there?”
“Looks like you’re going to find out.” Cass said with a diminutive smile as one of the Huzards pushed him inside.
</snip>

Cass tiredly strolled a short distance away from the initiation ceremony to sit beneath the gloomy, spreading shade of an alien tree and leaned back against its gnarled, ancient trunk to stretch her long legs out in front of her, her boot heels scraping through the dirt, sending tiny insects scurrying for cover
It hadn’t been the best of days she reflected: She had been attacked by lizards, buried in giant rabbit shit, captured and tortured by Simulants, lost her bra to a horde of tiny perverts, and now she was having to pretend she was some sort of dangerous brood queen in order to prevent her evisceration at the hands of a tribe of backward sexists
Shaking her head in disbelief at the days’ events, she pulled a pack of fags out to glumly select one of the last seven fresh cigs left in the entire universe and slip it between her lips
She hesitated a moment before lighting it, wondering distantly if she ought to just quit now given that little luxuries like cigs and running water were looking like they were going to be infrequent pleasures at best, but just shrugging and sparked the thing up anyway, reasoning that while she was going to have to give up soon enough, she didn’t think it was too much of concession to delay it for a bit when she’d had to spend most of her day in mortal peril

Smoking in silence for a while, she savoured the nicotine buzz and reflected on how much her world had changed in the blink of an eye that had lasted more than three billion years: The ‘Dwarf was warped almost beyond recognition from a familiar environment that she had more or less been the master of, into something unfamiliar, alien and even frightening; Holly was insane, at least two warring civilisations had risen, and from what she had glimpsed from the preliminary schematics she had been able to extract with her terminal before Holly had fried it, there was quite a lot more of the Dwarf than there had been, although it was impossible to say what was there or where it had come from without exploring the deep lower levels
Exhaling, she glanced over at the men, glumly standing around the sand box
“C’mon guys” she shouted “You should be done by now; What’s keeping you?”
“Smeg off” one of them snapped “It’s alright for you – all you have to do is just lie there! We’re doing all the work here!”
“Want me to make sex noises to set the mood or something?” Cass smirked
“Yeah, alright” Jay grinned, looking for all the world like someone who had been here before and was taking all this in his stride
“Huh, ok” Cass muttered, somewhat piqued at having her bluff called
“Ahem…” she cleared her throat “Is it in? …Uh uhh oh… yeah, oh yeah that’s right; oh, ow, shit you’ve caught my hair, wait a second, I need to … I’m… Oh, oh, oh, yeah … Aaaaaaaa, oh yeah… Oh… Oooh… Hold on, my leg’s gone numb… That’s it, just put it… Ouch! Not there you smegging idiot!”
Cass took another drag of her cig and blew the smoke out
“Is that helping?”
Alex shot her a black look
“Not particularly”
Jay opened his mouth to contribute his own rejoinder but his words died on his lips as the sound of distant gunfire erupted across the Arboretum and one of the Demon Mini-Phil’s burst out from beneath the sand in the sand box and launched itself at him with an evil hiss, straddling him across his chest and punching him hard in the face, bloodying his nose
“Ah, shit” Jay snarled, hurling the struggling creature off and fumbling for his weapon as another dozen or more of the things burst through the wattle and daub back wall of the hut and began swarming towards the humans
Huzard braves butchered several of the little critters with their spears and claws, but as more and more swarmed into the hut through the hole, their numbers proved too great for even for the speed and ferocity of the warriors, with many of them evading the spears and leaping up at Jay who was quickly overwhelmed and wrestled to the ground, even in spite his nanosuit and the other Dwarfers battling to aid him
Outside the hut, Cass had scrambled to her feet in panic and hauled her pistol out from its holster to wave it ineffectually around, trying to aim somewhere that wouldn’t result in the death of any of the humans or wind up pissing the huzards off
“Shit!” she screamed as Jay went down “Someone smegging well help him!”
“What the hell do you think we’re doing?” Davie snapped as he bodily hauled one of the vicious little critters off Jay to smack his machete wetly into its head
Cassandra’s response was drowned out by a volley of laser and bullet fire that raked wildly across the huzard settlement, scattering the crowd and culminating in several explosions; one of which levelled a nearby hut, showering Cass and the fleeing huzards with debris, and seemingly acting as a signal of some sort for the Demon Mini-Phil’s who scattered in all directions, running as fast as their little legs could carry them, leaving a stunned collection of humans and huzards, eyeing each other with suspicion
“Smeg me” Jay coughed, hauling himself up from the floor and brushing himself down “What the hell was that all about?”
“Let me see!” Cass ordered, striding up to him and reaching up to cup his chin in one hand, her other hand on his forehead, thumb on his brow, pulling first one eye open and then the other as she stared into his eyes, checking for any signs of pupil dilation
“Oh? What’s this?” Jay smirked, gazing back into her green eyes, her slim fingers feeling pleasantly cool on his face “Are you a doctor or something?”
“Not by a long shot” Cass murmured “But since I know some of the theory, I’m probably the best you’ve got”
“A few scratches, but you’ll live” she announced as Jay suddenly jerked away from her and began hurriedly patting his pockets
“What?” Cass asked with a frown
“The smegging access key!” Jay snarled in anger “It’s gone! The Phil’s must have got it!”
“Oh, bloody hell Chrysler” Seymour snapped “Can’t you do anything right!?”
“Now, just a minute…” Jay started but was interrupted by the huzard chief
“Our God warned us about you!” the chief shrieked, making the humans all turn to regard him and his menacing looking braves in surprise
“Traitorous Humans!” the Huzard chief continued with a note of hysteria in his voice “Kill them all!”
“¡Santo dios” Gomez sighed “What next!?”

<tag>
Everyone! – What are we going to do now, and who was responsible for that gunfire? – was it the Simulants, or maybe some of the other Dwarfers? – Any of our newer members fancy joining in?
</tag>