by S. J. Bryant
Nova ran a hand over her forehead. "Now to kill the Watcher."
Maya's mouth twisted. "Are you guys planning on carrying me there?"
Nova caught Maya's eye and raised an eyebrow. "Your legs aren't injured, don't tell me you're going to wimp out now."
The corners of Maya's mouth lifted. "Tommy was right, we are similar."
Nova nodded. "We stay here for an hour or so, then we find the crazy bastard."
"How are we going to find him?" Aart said.
"That robot left us a trail." Nova nodded into the trees where a cleared path of broken branches disappeared into the forest.
Aart shook his head. "An hour it is then."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Nova used her good arm to cling onto Aart's uninjured shoulder and he lifted her to her feet. She winced at the new pain in her side and teetered, but Aart kept her steady. She took three deep breaths. "Okay, let's do this."
"Yep, I can't get off this planet soon enough," Maya said.
Cara nodded. "Me neither."
The four wounded Hunters staggered through the trees along the robot's trail. Maya clutched her broken arm close to her chest while Cara's face swelled with purple bruises.
Nova gritted her teeth as she leaned against Aart's shoulder and dragged her feet forward. Her side burned like she was being stabbed with a hot iron and exhaustion flooded her muscles.
"Watcher is being awful quiet," Aart said with a grin.
Nova nodded. "I have a feeling he might be packing."
Maya clenched her good hand into a fist. "I hope we catch him before he goes anywhere."
"Oh, we will," Nova said. She refused to let him get off the planet without meeting face to face.
As she suspected, it wasn't far from where they fought the robot to its home base. The trees opened into a wide clearing where the robot's tracks disappeared down a long ramp. It lead underground and ended in a rolling door. The thick metal looked almost as out of place as the robot had.
Faint tyre tracks marked the ramp but they were old and covered over with the robot's footsteps.
"Ten credits says our man is in there," Aart said.
Nova snorted and then winced as a sharp pain jabbed through her chest. "I'm not taking that bet."
"What are we going to do?" asked Cara. "Just go down and knock on the door?"
"Somehow I don't think he's going to answer it for a group of vengeful bounty hunters," Aart said.
Maya went to step forward but Nova gripped her arm, pulling her back into the trees.
"What?" said Maya, pulling her arm free.
"After everything he's had lined up for us on this planet you think his home base is going to be unguarded?"
"Did you miss the giant fighter droid back there?"
Nova rolled her eyes. "More than that. I just think we should be careful."
Aart grabbed a rock with his good arm and hurled it towards the underground bunker. At the peak of its arc it burst into a million tiny pieces with a bright flash of light. "Lucky that wasn't you, Maya," he said with a grin.
"Motion sensor turrets," Nova said.
Aart nodded. "I saw one in the trees to the right."
"I spotted one above the roller door," Nova said.
"Something moved over there," Cara said, pointing to the left of the door.
Aart nodded. "Shouldn't be hard to disable. He was probably counting on his giant robot friend to take care of any unwelcome visitors."
"I'll circle around and take out the one above the garage, it's blind on the back side," Nova said, already limping into the trees.
"We'll take care of the other two," Aart said.
Nova waved her hand in acknowledgement but didn't look back, she didn't want them to see the pain twisting her face with every step. She breathed in reluctant gasps, each one another jolt of agony.
It felt like hours that she spent walking through the forest, circling the underground bunker, before finally reaching the other side. Here the only sign of the bunker was a slight mound of dirt covered in grass, like a low hill.
A bright flash and a sharp crack burst on the other side of the hill where the turret in the trees had been. One down.
Nova bent low, ignoring the pain in her side, and crept up the hill. Near the top she dropped to her knees and then her stomach, peering over the top and into the forest on the other side.
Shadows moved in the trees; Aart and the others. A moment later another explosion took out the second turret, a trail of smoke lifting into the air.
Nova inched forward and peaked over the hill where it dropped sharply onto the ramp. The turret sprouted just to her left, a roving motion sensor and metal plasma pistol glinting in the sunlight.
She crawled closer. No grenades. No high-powered weapons. No scramblers. She frowned down at the machine, mind ticking. She reached down, hands like claws, and gripped the motion sensor at the back. She strained, chorded muscle standing out on her arms, and twisted.
The thin stalk connecting the motion sensor to the rest of the gun snapped, coming loose in Nova's hand. She pulled it back up over the ledge and lay panting in the grass. She drew a deep breath. "Aart! Give it a test."
A moment later a rock sailed out of the forest. It soared through the air and clattered onto the ramp, rolling forward until it bumped against the roller door. The turret didn't move.
"Threat neutralised," Nova said, climbing to her feet and staggering down the side of the hill. The others lurched out of the trees and joined her, the ragged group shuffling down the ramp to the rolling door.
"So much for his high security," Aart said with a grin. "But what do we do now?"
Nova nudged Aart to keep moving. "It can't be that hard to get in. The robot managed it."
Maya sauntered to the other side of the ramp. "There's another door around here."
Nova and Aart hobbled over to stand next to her. She pointed down a thinner ramp with a small door at the bottom, obviously designed for people rather than machinery. The door didn't look nearly as thick as the rolling door and a simple number pad blocked the way.
Cara stepped out in front. "Allow me."
She strode down the ramp and examined the number pad, squinting at the numbers for just a few moments before punching in four digits. The door buzzed and a red light flashed over Cara's head.
"What are you doing?" Nova said with a frown. They would never make it in if Cara was going to try and guess the combination.
"These pads are always the same," Cara said. "The numbers that make up the code are always worn. Look."
Cara pointed to where the number four should have been written. It was barely readable compared to the five next to it. Nova looked over the rest of the keypad. Cara was right; the four, seven, and one were all worn down.
"You put in four digits," Nova said.
"These kinds of locks always use four digit codes," Cara explained. "One of them must be used twice."
"Oh," Nova said. "And how do you know so much about locks?"
"You know guns," Cara said, trying another code. "I know locks."
Nova shrugged. "Fair enough."
The door buzzed red.
Cara tried six different combinations until, on the seventh attempt, the door buzzed green and clicked.
Cara pushed against the metal and it swung inwards. They stepped inside, guns raised.
The dark corridor beyond the door rang with desperate and panicked noises, scuffling and cursing. Someone cursed in the darkness ahead. Nova's chest tightened. She had no way to know what to expect and in her current state she'd make a less than average opponent.
The four Hunters crept down the corridor, towards a faint red light. They stepped around the corner at the end of the hallway as a single group and stopped.
A large room lined with screens and buttons surrounded them. The screens displayed different views of the planet and Nova recognised many of them; the burnt remains of a massive purple plant lay on the floor in one screen
while a corpse filled another. Scorpions littered the floor of another scene.
An overweight man with dark stains under his arms stood in the centre of the control room. The sweat made his shirt stick to his fleshy body as he shoved things into a duffel bag, talking to himself. "Stupid, stupid Hunters. But they won't catch me. No sir."
"Hello, Watcher," Aart said, stepping forward and leaving Nova leaning against a control unit. He aimed his gun at the man's head.
The man jumped and squealed like a stuck pig as he stumbled back. He tripped over a chair and sprawled backwards. He landed with a grunt and scrambled on all fours away from them, whimpering like a caricature of himself.
He reached the far wall and pushed his back up against it. His feet kept pedalling even once he stopped.
"D-don't come any closer," he said, sounding nothing like the ominous Watcher who had stalked them across the planet. "There are guns aimed at you. You'll be dead before you take the first step."
Nova leaned against the computer terminal and took a deep, painful breath. Her side hurt, her shoulder hurt, and her head hurt. She hated the fat man who had tried to play god with their lives, and the anger seethed just below her skin. He'd already killed a handful of good Hunters. What if one of them had been Aart?
"I don't think so," Maya said, taking another step forward.
"N-No, but your next step will mean death," he said, still sitting on the floor.
Maya took another step forward.
"Your guns seem to be broken," Maya said, her voice icy.
"Look, just let me go please. I didn't do anything wrong."
"I'm sorry?" Maya said, stepping closer. "You see, it sounded like you just said that you didn't do anything wrong, but my dead best friend would probably disagree."
"It wasn't my fault," he said. "Tommy was killed by one of you Hunters. It wasn't my hand that pulled the trigger."
Maya's hand clenched at her side and somehow her bandaged arm made her seem even more intimidating. She towered over the man, staring down at him. He flinched under her gaze, his mouth twitching as sweat poured down and created a pool on the floor.
"I'll tell you what," Maya said. "Let's play a game. Why don't you give me one good reason why you should live."
"His name's Garin," Cara said, pointing to a computer terminal where his photo and details gleamed.
"Okay, Garin," Maya said. "Why do you deserve to live?"
Garin looked around the room with wild eyes. He stared at each of the Hunters in turn, begging for mercy.
"Because I-I have money!" Garin said. His voice rose in triumph.
"Oh?" Maya said. "How much money?"
"Several thousand," Garin said. "It's right there in the drawer." He nodded his head to a metal drawer.
Aart stepped over and yanked it open. A cred-stick rolled to the front and he snatched it up. "Eight thousand."
"You see?" Garin said. "That's two thousand each. Twice the original bounty."
Garin pushed himself up the wall to his quaking legs and stepped closer to Maya. He whispered to her but his words carried easily in the small room. "Of course, if you kill your companions there'll be more for you."
Maya glared at him, her eyes flashing. "Gee you're right. Except that these people saved me. So no, I don't think that will be happening."
"Fine, fine," Garin said. His voice regained some of its cock-sure tone and it made Nova shiver as memories of the sandstone tunnels came flooding back. "But if we're all done here I'll be on my way."
Garin took a step to Maya's right, towards his half-packed bag. Maya also took a step sideways so that they stood face to face.
"Come now, Maya, don't play games," Garin said, his voice faltering.
"But I thought you loved games?"
"Look, I gave you the money. Now let me go."
Aart tossed the cred-stick into the air and caught it again. "The guy owns a planet, I'm sure he has more than eight thousand."
The four Hunters stared at Garin.
"Well- um. Of course I've got more credits. But they're stored off world. If you let me leave I can transfer them straight to you. You'll all be rich."
"But, Garin," Nova said, stepping away from the wall and walking towards the man to join Maya, ignoring the lashes of pain that coursed through her. "If we let you go what's to stop you doing this again? To other people?"
"You have my word," Garin said. He sounded affronted at the very notion.
"Somehow, that's not good enough," Nova said. "I don't know about the others, but I don't think two thousand is enough credits for me. I'd much rather see justice done."
Maya lifted her gun and pressed it into Garin's forehead. "Me too."
He flinched away from the metal, his back pressing against the wall.
Nova lifted her hand and placed it on Maya's weapon, forcing it down, away from Garin.
"Oh mercy. Thank you Nova Tabryn. You are a great woman," Garin said, out of breath.
"I wouldn't be thanking me yet. You see, as much as I'm sure you deserve to be shot, I think it would be a much more fitting punishment to put you in the catacombs."
"What?" Garin's eyes popped wide.
"You subjected other people to them, surely it's only fair for you to feel what it's like."
"That wouldn't work," Garin said. His head whipped to either side, and his lips trembled. "I built them; I know how to get out."
"I don't think so," said Nova. "You never planned to be stuck down there. That place is sealed like a grave. Kind of fitting don't you think?"
"Be reasonable!" Garin said. "That's not humane."
"Exactly."
"I've found the signal blocker," Cara said, flicking a large red switch.
Static filled the air and then a lone voice filtered through Nova's chip, Cal. "Nova? Nova? Come in. I've had strange readings from the planet. Please confirm location."
"Cal," Nova said.
The other Hunters gazed into the air, probably also communicating with their ships.
"Nova! I've been trying to reach you for days."
"Yeah, we ran into some complications," Nova said. "Can you come and get me? I can't get off this planet soon enough."
"Confirmed," said Cal.
Nova nodded and turned to the other Hunters.
"My ship is on its way. Who wants the honour of putting Tubby here underground?"
Aart stepped forward. "I think we'd all like to see that."
It didn't take long for the ships to arrive. Nova loaded Garin into Crusader and locked him in the small cell in the storage bay. The four ships flew back to the tunnel entrance that led down into the prison.
"I'm going to go in and get Tommy's body," Maya said. "Unlike the rest of us, he actually has people who will care that he's gone."
Aart stood. "I'll help."
"How about the only person without an injured arm gets him?" Cara said.
Together, they carried Tommy's body back up from the prison tomb. Nova watched in solemn silence. It was rare for a Hunter to be given so much respect after death. Usually they were left to lie wherever they fell.
Next, they pushed Garin towards the tunnel entrance. He stumbled and fought against them, but they pushed him forward, faces stony.
"It's no use," Garin said. "I'll just get out and then you'll regret it."
"I'll tell you what," Nova said. "If you get out, you just try and find me. I might regret it, but not as much as you."
Garin's mouth snapped shut and he stared at Nova with wide eyes. She glared back at him with cold hatred and shoved him the last metre past the door.
The four of them heaved the door closed, taking the rusted key with them. The thick door blocked everything, including Garin's screams.
Nova pulled out her pistol and aimed it at the cliff-face above the tunnel entrance. She fired four shots into the rocks. Small chips sprayed through the air followed by bigger rocks, starting a small landslide that sent a tumble of rocks collapsing down to cover the doorway. Ther
e was no way Garin was getting out this way.
"I'd call this a job well done," Aart said.
Maya frowned. "I'd call it a massacre."
Cara placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah."
Maya met Cara's eyes. "I guess the guild could use a new Hunter now... you seem alright."
Cara's eyes widened and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"Couldn't ask for better," Nova said.
"I took note of your ships' call-signs," Maya said, turning back to Aart and Nova. "Maybe I'll see you around."
Aart grinned. "You bet. The next time I get trapped by a psychopath you'll be the first people I call."
Nova nodded. "You know, with all the abandoned ships and hardware left by the other Hunters there's quite a bounty."
Maya's expression froze and she nodded slowly.
"Hell, you could buy a whole house on Vix," Nova said, locking eyes with Maya.
Maya nodded once more. "There's enough here, someone could almost get through to the outers."
Nova smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. "There's a lot, but not enough for that. Not that."
Aart looked between them. "I don't know what secret messages you guys are passing but I'm starting to feel left out."
Nova clapped a hand on Aart's shoulder. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it."
"I heard bounty."
"Yeah, we'll split what's here, then I'm leaving this damned planet."
"Home?" Aart said.
She clutched her side, holding the stitches together and trying not to puke across Aart's shoes. "Yeah, I think I need to see the medical wing anyway."
Aart grinned. "I'll see you there."
Nova nodded to Maya and Cara. "See you around."
They nodded back and shuffled to their own ships.
Nova climbed up into Crusader and hobbled into her sleeping pod. Cal hovered along behind her.
"Cal, can you please fix up the dressings. Crusader, take us back to the Maw."
"Confirmed," Cal and Crusader said in unison.
With that, the ship lifted off Kopet and shot into the sky.
Nova winced as Cal inspected her wounds, but it wasn't long before she collapsed into much-needed sleep.