Retaliation

When: Before the HK's attack
Where: Corridor intersection

Snatching up the Archiver weaponry as it 'ported in, both the 'Dwarf's crew and Enforcers alike scrambled for whatever cover they could find as the HK's howled down the corridor towards us

Personally, I just started panicking
I have neither the military training, nor the dearth of imagination commonly required to be a soldier, so in these sort of circumstances, unless I have the comforting reassurance of some massive weaponry backing me up, I'm generally like a fish out of water.
I've have often found myself envying the way everyone else seems to know exactly what they're doing in these situations, and how they all seem to take the possibility of their imminent demise so easily in their stride, when, personally, the idea just scares the living shit out of me!
I suppose it's possible that everyone else might be just as scared as I am; but at least they've been trained how to shoot straight, and that they can rely on their comrades in combat, whereas I have... well... None of that!

That's kind of depressing

Anyway...
If I'm honest, I suppose I should admit that I was hoping Jay would notice my predicament and help me out, but instead: He was all business; concentrating on sighting an Archiver rifle down the corridor, his centuries of combat experience apparently having kicked in to drop him into survival mode, so he just glared at me and told me to get into cover
That stung a little
How can be be indifferent to me, now that she has turned up?
Smeg's sake
Yeah, ok; I know that all sounded pretty needy, and I'm really not that kind of girl; but you'll have to excuse me for feeling a little unsure of myself - I badly need to know what's going on with us, now that Katrina's back, but the moments before an imminent attack, really aren’t the time or the place

We need a good talk - One which I really, really hope turns out ok...

Davie was good enough to drag me out of the direct line of fire in the end, and push one of those crappy alien assault rifles into my hands
I had checked the Archiver weaponry out as soon as Holly had alerted me to the Enforcers aboard the Dwarf; but frankly, I was unimpressed with anything as prone to exploding as their guns seem to be, so having one of the damned in my hands did little to calm my nerves

Crouching down near the wall, I tried mimicking the others and trained my gun down the corridor in the same way they were; but the thought that I might die here in this dank, miserable corridor kept intruding and making it hard to concentrate - I knew that it would be folly to just cut and run, but idly waiting in a dark, filth besmirched tunnel for your death to come to you during some idiotic final stand, seemed like lunacy to me!

Our wait only finally ended when one of the Enforcers opened fire; his weapon's muzzle flash lighting the corridor up in stark relief, and distantly illuminating the glossy black armoured shells of the dozen or so droids that were screaming towards us
Inexpertly training my own weapon on one of the HK's as everyone else opened up with a barrage of high energy, I was absolutely stunned to see the Huzard's suddenly drop in on the droids and send them crashing to the floor, somehow penetrating their shields with daggers and other low tech weaponry - I guess that STCP field technology must be tuned to energy and high velocity projectile weapons, otherwise those lizards wouldn't even have been able to get close; a fact I suppose I should bear in mind if tangling with Enforcers is going to be a regular feature of my life from now on!

Moments later, the Huzard's had vanished as quickly as they appeared, leaving only a few smoking metallic shards scattered across the ground, having appropriated the rest of the debris for whatever the hell they felt they needed it for
I couldn't help myself
"See?" I gave Jay an unnecessarily supercilious glare "That's why we should be nerve gassing the smeggers!"
I'm not sure if he heard me or even gave a toss, but I guess he had other things on his mind as Katrina suddenly wheeled around to raise her rifle and point it at Jay's face

I've got to ask: What the hell is wrong with that woman?
I mean, I'm not complaining too much about it, since it gives me just a faint glimmer of hope, but why does she seem to hate Jay so much?
What's been done to her?
Was it something Jay did?
And what's the thing with her ...girlfriend(?) as well?

Phil quickly antagonised things, and escalated the situation by pointing his gun at Katrina's head, only to have his thoughtful efforts quickly rewarded by a rifle muzzle being rammed in behind his ear; the rest of the Dwarfer's and Enforcers all hurriedly raising their own weapons until they were all stood there in some stupid, small arms circle jerk
I inwardly sighed
Smegging soldiers with their smegging guns! - I'm sure they get off on the idea that they can kill someone with the twitch of a finger
It's so lowbrow, it's vile
I was about to warn the stupid goits off redecorating the place in hint of brain, and remind them that we were all at risk with the Huzards still in the area, when Pancake (typically) screwed the delicate balance of power up by phasing out and disappearing – I guess I'll never know if he pulls this kind of shit on purpose or if he's just the sort of hapless goit that this stuff happens to
Weirdly, some other guy just waltzed on in a few seconds later and to my amazement wound up pissing one of the Enforcers off so much that he wanted to kill him within moments, and indeed even tried!
I guess the fact that the guy not only didn’t die, but turned out to be invulnerable, was the only thing that stopped an all out shooting session, and kept everyone else alive!
I've got to admit that even I was pretty amazed!
What the hell had this guy done to himself to be able to withstand a blast to his temple like that, without even wincing?
How far does this invulnerability of his go?
Does he need to breathe?
How about if I spaced him and launched him towards a star?
Would he survive contact with the photosphere?
Deeper?
How about the core?
He wouldn’t be able to move under that kind of pressure and gravity, so that's one option if he ever became a threat - But what if he could move?
Could he survive past an event horizon?
What would that make him?
Some weird kind of singularity?
What else can he do?
What else can I make him do?
What if I...
Jay interrupted my thoughts by suddenly kicking the gun out of Katrina's hands, with Whitewolf quickly piling in to restrain her, so I figured I'd show willing by joining in and wrestling the cuffs, that Davie proffered, onto her
On reflection, I guess I probably shouldn't have done anything of the sort, since it'll only look like I was enjoying it and will make things look bad for me; but even though she and I have history, it seemed that she was less bothered about me than she was about having wasted an opportunity to kill Jay

Why the hell would he want to choose this horrible, hate fuelled cow over me?

After (almost) everyone had got over themselves, and their urge for their stupid macho posturing, we all, by general agreement, headed on over towards the Promenade, Seymour burbling some bollocks about settling everything over a nice cup of tea, although privately I wasn’t sure if I could ever see that happening!

I've got to say that the journey to the Promenade wasn't particularly enjoyable; Jay barely took his eyes off Katrina, and I just wound up trailing along behind him, like his pathetic, lost little shadow
Smeg's sake... This is what you get for lowering your defences!

It was Whitewolf who, for reasons best known only to himself, suggested a few pints in Parrotts; and against almost everyone's better judgement we soon found ourself ensconced amidst cheerful family bedlam, and sat around a large round table, glowering at each other as vermin scurried everywhere, shrieking and chittering wildly as Jay and Phil went to the bar to shout up the first round

Katrina largely avoided my gaze, and everyone else's for that matter, preferring to chain smoke instead of involve herself in any dialogue, although the Asian woman she was with regarded me coolly, taking the occasional, tired puff of her cig
I tried some of my admittedly rusty Japanese with the the Enforcer's squad leader, but he just stared at me quizzically - I guess I speak a different dialect or something
Seymour just burbled interminably, trying to converse on a range of numbingly banal subjects and falling miserably with them all, before finally trying, desperately, to escape by wheeling away towards the bar
By this point, I couldn’t stand not knowing any more, so I quickly stood and pushed Seymour back up to the table before stalking away towards the bar

There were things I needed to discuss...

Phil glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of me as I strode over towards them, nudging Jay as he skilfully scooped four pints up off the bar
"We've some thirsty guests" he announced as he hurried off with the drinks "I'll leave you guys to it"
"Hey Cass" Jay nodded in acknowledgement to me, but it took a couple of deep breaths, before I was able to summon the courage up to turn and look directly at him; my heart feeling as if it were about to burst when I finally did
"Hi" I started, flashing him something of a wan smile, and trying to keep the tone of my voice even, although I'm not sure if I got even close to managing it "I think we need to talk"
Poor guy didn’t even get chance to respond as an explosion suddenly erupted outside on the promenade, making us both jump
“What the hell?” Jay unslung his rifle and hurried for the door
If I didn’t know better I'd say that the explosion was just really smegging convenient
Making my own way outside, closely followed by the rest of our companions, we were greeted by the sight of a small army or suicide vested Malodorians massing behind Pancake who suddenly dropped his trousers to blast the lot of us with his man milk
Apart from nobody being naked, it was like the worst grumble flick you ever saw
The smegging stuff just went everywhere
I had it in my hair!
In my smegging hair!
Have you ever had that shit in your hair?
It's hell to wash out!

In the stunned silence that followed, Pancake, still holding his swollen, dripping member in his hand, gabbled some half-arsed apology, and as Phi suddenly started screaming in horror. I quietly flicked a drip of the rapidly cooling filth off one of my eyebrows and bought my assault rifle up and shot the little goit in the face
It didn’t kill him of course, but the force of the impact was enough to bowl him over, so I shot him again while he was down on the ground and strode over towards him to shoot him again in the nuts

I was absolutely incandescent, firing shot after shot into him until he finally fizzed out of existence and Jay quietly pulled me away, gently removing the rifle from my hands
Still shaking with anger, I took a couple of ragged breaths as I gazed into his eyes
“I'm going for a very long shower” I eventually managed “You're welcome to join me, but after that: You and I need to talk”

I stalked off towards our quarters, the Malodorians mutely parting to let me past, many falling to their knees and prostrating themselves on the ground, wailing and moaning about the true gods!

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