The Shattered Stars: Breach of Contract

by Vance Huxley

  “I want you to understand why we are like this, Les Putes and the rest of the Chiennes.” Fleur sighed. “We are all taught to fight.” She hesitated a moment before continuing. “But we also have to learn to be Divas. Though not putain, cheap ones. I had three months training in la bagnio. I had to pooch the officers, and learn to do it properly to be a courtisane, high class Diva. We use the training to help us go undercover. That is why our bloc some women Troopers, the Chiennes. We are Divas who kill, sent out to infiltrate and assassinate or just cause confusion and unrest. I have served seven years with Les Chiennes, the last three in this squad, Les Putes. We called our squad that because officers always think we are only good for pooching anyway.”

  “Shite. So you had no choice, you get to be a Diva anyway?” Bobby wondered how the women he’d visited had ended up as Divas or spam. He’d always thought they did it to get out of the complexes, if he thought at all. Maybe they’d stood in a court and been given a choice of bad futures, and Diva had been the best?

  “This is the best of two bad choices. In a spam palace the girl cannot say no, but as Chiennes we get to kill some of them, the men, and can say no most times. Though our officers all have a poochy girl, and sometimes the Legion officers come to visit. We are allowed to kill any others if they try but if we can’t stop them, that is called training.” This time Fleur hugged Bobby really hard and from her voice she also had a lot of bitterness hidden inside someplace. “If all the Basteds had been waiting for a poochy party, it would have been my fault if I didn’t escape.”

  Something suddenly hit Bobby, because he’d never really thought of it that way. “Magpie might have ended up with those choices if she’d ended up in a court.” Bobby explained Magpie and how she ended up sort of his squad sister. “Maybe our squad treat women a bit different because of Magpie though we still go to Divas, except Hood. Actually Bells is still obsessed with pooching, so maybe Magpie is just a special case to him.” Bobby sniggered. “Magpie is really pissed about your legs.”

  “You haven’t checked if my stockings are real yet?” Fleur lifted the cover and looked down. “Can you tell?”

  “I’m not sure, and I want it to come as a nice surprise if you let me find out. I wouldn’t want to try something and lose the amie thing, the friend bit.” Bobby gave her an amie kiss. “Like that.”

  Fleur laughed. “Maybe it is time I told you what ami really means. Friend.” She gave him a small kiss on the cheek, smaller than recent ones. “Or boyfriend.” This one, on his lips, felt a lot more like the recent versions, maybe even longer and Bobby kissed back. Still not Diva though, and that confused him.

  “So is it amie or boyfriend, you and me?”

  “Amie means girlfriend if you say it. You never had a girlfriend?” Bobby didn’t answer. “Ah, a Timer at fifteen so just the Divas?”

  Bobby sighed. “Yes.”

  Fleur giggled. “This is an ami kiss, boyfriend ami.” Another longish soft kiss followed, and Bobby began to think more about Divas. “This is Diva.”

  By the time she’d done Bobby had her held tight and close with a hand gripping her ass. “Shite! Don’t do that again unless you mean it. I’ve not been near a Diva for over six months!” He released his grip and took his hand off the silky shorts. “Sorry.”

  “Boyfriends get to stroke there, gently.” Bobby realised that Fleur still held him tightly. “Sometimes a boyfriend gets more, but then it isn’t poochy. With a boyfriend it is faire l’amour, and definitely not Trooper and Diva poochy.”

  “I get it, no poochy. Just a cuddle at night.” Bobby wondered if he could keep to that, though right now pain would stop any attempt at anything. Maybe if he healed too well, Pepee might be interested in poochy to take the pressure off?

  “No poochy and no l’amour, not just now.” Fleur chuckled. “But if you stay good until I feel better, maybe you will find out which I want?” The young woman hesitated. “Because I have decided that this time it will be what I want, not as a job. I will tell the rest tomorrow.” She pulled Bobby’s hand back onto her shorts. “Hold me tight tonight, Beebi.” Her head came down on his shoulder, she sighed, and was asleep. Bobby had no idea how Fleur did that, relaxed and went to sleep in moments. He spent a long time getting his head round what she’d said, and thought he might not need Pepee after all. Providing he only stroked Fleur’s shorts gently. Confusion gradually blended into sleep.

  * * *

  Bonjour ami kissing involved Fleur giving his ass a little squeeze, which startled Bobby and made her laugh. As they came out, settling their weapons and still laughing about Bobby’s attempts at French, Pepee had her back to them. She climbed down a ladder and set off down the corridor to the bog without looking back. Before they could climb down Bobby’s tapper signalled four times. An alarm from Siflis! Bells stiffened, then stood up from his position by the ladders and looked up at Bobby. Bobby gestured. “Go and back him up.”

  Bells started jogging up the corridor, the little Kraut automatic swinging from a sling as he cradled his injured arm with his free hand. Fleur turned to Bobby but before she spoke Hood and Magpie burst out of their room, still sealing their jackets but with weapons already slung. “Is it an attack?” Even as Hood asked they all heard a carbin rattling down the corridor.

  “Go on, back up Siflis while I tell Fleur.” Bobby turned to Fleur. “Siflis sounded the alarm with his tapper. Let the Putes know what’s happening and send who you can.” A shotgun boomed. “They’re getting close if he’s used the shotgun.”

  Fleur pushed. “Go, l will send the others.” Bobby climbed down as fast as he could, cursing the strange ladders with their weird spacing, then set off running. Ahead he heard more carbin fire and saw Hood and Magpie pause at the corner, look, and then run out of sight. An explosion echoed followed by the ripping sound of Bells’s Kraut.

  By the time Bobby reached the corner, Hood came back round, towing Siflis by his collar. Carbin fire sounded then Magpie backed around the corner, festooned with the weapons kept at the barricade and shooting as she came. “A rocket blew a hole in the barricade. There’s no blood on Siflis, or not a lot so he’s not shot.” Bells followed, firing off another clip with the Kraut. Not aimed shots because one-handed the thing threw rounds everywhere.

  Magpie put her head round the corner but pulled back when a carbin tried to shoot her. She put her carbin round to let off half a clip. “There’s four still coming and they’ve got a shield, a piece of metal to stop plastic flechettes even close up.”

  “Bells, get back and cover the ladders to free up someone who can go hand to hand.” Bells glared but set off back up the corridor. Siflis groaned and tried to sit up, then fell back. He had no helmet now so something had hit him hard. “Lie still Siflis, and let Hood drag you because it’s quicker. Hood, get him back to the centre. With that metal shield they’ll get right up close and then stick carbins or shotguns round this corner. Set up behind a few bins this side of the hospital corridor.” That would allow Hood to cover Bobby’s retreat. “Ask someone to throw you the toe gun.” With luck that would go through the shelving. Magpie fired another short burst, pulling her head back as a carbin replied.

  “Where do you want help?” Baiser had her carbin ready.

  “We’ve lost the barricade and they’ve got a shield. Help Hood to get Siflis back there.” The pair set off at a run, dragging the scout. Bobby moved forward, stuck his shotgun round the corner, let both barrels go and peeked. The attackers had fastened two shelves together so nothing showed around the edges. “Come on Magpie, run like hell.” Ahead of them Hood and Baiser tumbled Siflis over the bins and followed. Pepee had taken up a position in the nearest junction but as Bobby and Magpie ran past he waved Pepee to follow. “Come on, back to the others.” Pepee let off half a clip towards the corner, then joined him and Magpie in their dash.

  Either they ran fast enough or Pepee’s flechettes slowed the attack, but either way everyone got over the bins and dropped flat before the att
ack reached the corner. At least three carbins and a shotgun poked around the corner and ripped off half clips but at over three hundred metres the hail of flechettes hadn’t the power to bother a Trooper jacket. Hood grinned, brandishing the leg with one toe attached. “This made a hole in that shelf Mickey carried, so get ready with the shotgun.”

  Bells waved the Kraut. “Knock the bledrin shelf out of the way and this’ll sort it.”

  “Why are you here, Bells? Where’s Fleur and Ecarlate? Is there another attack?” Bobby looked back towards the other guard post and Fleur showed her head around the door from the ladder room.

  She showed her shotgun, briefly. “Ecarlate is watching for an attack the other way and I am guarding the ladders. I can shoot from here if they charge you. How many are coming?”

  “I saw four. Two of them were bandaged but shooting well enough. Then they put that shield up.” Magpie sounded frustrated. “The flechettes just bounce off it and won’t go through jackets anyway except close up.”

  “There were five. I dropped one with the shotgun but then that bledrin rocket came in.” Siflis sat up, but Baiser pushed him flat.

  “Stay down. We are behind bins.” Siflis jerked his head round, startled, then smiled at her.

  “Last I remember was the barricade.” He patted himself. “Someone give me a carbin. Where’s my helmet?”

  “Back there. If you saw five, we’ve got some missing.” Bobby turned round and shouted. “Fleur, warn Ecarlate there’s two missing.” He paused. “Use coms because it doesn’t matter now. Everyone is here.”

  “Except the two SEPA. If they joined up, we’ve got a problem.” Bells glared at the carbins. “Plastic ammo! The basteds sent us out here to fight aliens with plastic ammo!”

  Magpie glared. “These aren’t aliens and plastic is all they’ve got as well. We can’t hurt each other seriously except close up where it gets bloody, but we can’t hurt property either. Which bit do you think matters to Control?” She paused. “Beebi, you hit one with a solid finger shot when Mickey carked it?” Bobby nodded and Magpie frowned. “Maybe one of the others got hurt by Mickey’s grenade.” Baiser put her head up and fired a short burst.

  Pepee moved a bin and looked through the gap she’d made. “They are coming behind the shield.”

  “Let them get nearly to the next junction, the nearest one, and then tell us.” Bobby glanced at the leg with one toe laid by Hood. “Will that solid toe really go through a shelf from here, Hood?”

  “It should when they get a bit nearer, Beebi. That corridor isn’t much over fifty metres away.” Hood sniggered. “That’ll be a shock for the basteds. Be ready with the carbins.”

  “Yeah, but we’ve only got plastic flechettes, no notsi ammo. I wish we’d found the Frog Super’s grenade. It wasn’t in his feet.” Bobby caught Baiser staring. “Sorry, Francais Super.”

  She smiled. “I didn’t know about the foot, only that your Super had a grenade. Frog doesn’t bother me, if Rosbif is Oke with you?”

  Siflis sniggered. “I don’t care what you call me, just smile when you do it.”

  Baiser smiled wider at Siflis. “Oke, Rosbif.”

  “Nearly there.” Pepee didn’t sound happy, but that might be the people coming to try and kill her. “Now.”

  Hood must have been waiting because the shot echoed her words, knocking the shield back before it twisted and dropped down. Baiser, Siflis and Pepee emptied their carbins, while Bobby and Magpie fired shotguns before adding their flechettes. Men were down and rolling about yelling, someone started screaming, and for a moment Bobby thought they’d done it. Then a storm of gunfire burst out behind!

  “Beebi!” The shooting came from inside the ladder room, carbins and a shotgun. Fleur staggered back out of the doors, frantically trying to get her carbin up and backing towards Bobby. She turned as another burst hit her, chewing into her arm and throwing her sideways. Fleur staggered a few more steps towards the rest of them before crumpling. Bobby leapt to his feet, cramming more shells into the shotgun and running forward. He dropped, rolling sideways as a carbin barrel came round the edge of the door from the ladders and opened up with a long burst. Behind him someone cried out as Bobby fired a shotgun barrel, came back onto his feet and kept running.

  “Keep shooting at them. I’ll cover Beebi.” Hood would need time to get set so as a head showed from the ladder room Bobby let go the other barrel and kept running. The head moved back too quickly for a hit he thought, but it would keep the basted cautious. Bobby bent to grab Fleur’s collar and started dragging her, shocked by the amount of blood because she wore the Frog Super’s jacket. Flechettes shouldn’t go through!

  “Beebi!” Flechettes flew past from the ladder room as Hood shouted. Bobby glanced up, firing the carbin one-handed. He kept dragging Fleur as the Trooper in the doorway threw himself sideways inside again.

  “Into the corridor, come on, quick.” Bobby glanced back to see Baiser crumpled up behind the bins. Bells sat hunched over his arm, the Kraut on the floor nearby, while Pepee blazed away wildly down the corridor. “Magpie, bring Baiser with you then give cover.” Hood lay flat, aiming his carbin past Bobby at the ladder room. Bobby left him to it, because at this range Hood could shoot the nuts off a bat so he’d hit a head. Beyond the low line of bins one of the attackers lay still while four were crawling or staggering into the nearby corridor, trying to get away from Pepee’s hail of flechettes. Their wounded man had caught up but it hadn’t done him much good.

  Bobby took it all in at a glance then concentrated on dragging Fleur, with his free hand on the slung carbin. He wouldn’t hit anything, but might make the other bloke flinch and miss. At the last minute Bobby swerved in towards the corridor, so he only blocked Hood’s line of fire for a few seconds. Hood followed him into cover, dragging a startled Pepee with him. For a moment Bobby thought she’d swing the carbin towards him, then she snapped out of it. From the litter of clips she left, it might be empty anyway.

  “Bells?” He looked up as Bobby shouted, face sheet white.

  “Same arm. Hurts.” Though he’d picked up his Kraut before staggering into cover.

  “Baiser?” Magpie looked up while wrapping a bandage around the woman’s head.

  “A solid round hit her helmet. She’ll live but she’s out for now.” Magpie glanced back at the end of the corridor. “A solid hit my leg, maybe two.” Bobby looked down at Fleur in sudden understanding. Someone in the ladder room had steel flechettes!

  Fleur’s eyes flickered open. “Two on ropes. Down ladders.” She spat blood. “Super jackets but got one.” Her eyes closed again and Bobby tried to see how bad she’d been hit. Then he sighed.

  “Hood? You got a GV?”

  Fleur’s eyes flicked open again. “No. Hospital.” Bobby opened his mouth to say there wasn’t one, then realised what she meant. He waved away the hypodermic Hood offered.

  “Hey, Beebi Basted. You still alive?” Beebi recognised the American voice.

  “Waiting to carve you a new one.”

  “No chance. You lost one at least, three wounded bad and maybe dead.” Flechettes whined down the corridor. “One is stranded down the other end and you’re cut off from food and water. At most you’ve got three up for hand to hand and I’ve got twice that.”

  “Bulsh. We can count and you just lost three more.” Bobby forced a laugh. “We’ve got enough food and water, and the one at that end can let in our reinforcements. Game over, Ranger boy.”

  “Sound off SEPA.” Two voices sounded speaking with what might be an Australian accent. “Your count is off and they brought solid flechettes. I’ll send one of them off to come up behind that Frog dame all on her own.”

  “Luck with that. Your count is off and your man will run into the Frog Super. Better yet, he knows about the solid rounds now, and he’s got his own surprise.” Bobby kept talking but his brain worked on the problem, and it didn’t look good. He’d got four if it came to close up, but those solid rounds had pooched him c
ompletely. They’d go through a Trooper or even a Super jacket at these ranges, and even knock a metal leg out temporarily.

  At least he’d made the basted Ranger slow up, because he didn’t sound so sure now. Not beaten though. “I didn’t hear that Frog Super shouting, so I reckon you dealt with him. No problem in any case. The one at the other end will have to be lucky with flechettes at this range so we’ll sort you out and give her the option. She can shoot the Super or we get her from both sides.” The Ranger sounded more confident as he spoke. “We can get close enough here to hit you from both sides with all seven of us. Give it up, Beebi.”

  Bobby kept his voice down. “Pepee?” She looked round, startled. “Tell Ecarlate to loose off a short burst at anyone trying to sneak up. Just a few to let us know, then we’ll stick a shotgun round the corner. Use the tapper so they don’t realise.” Pepee looked back blankly for a moment, then nodded sharply and concentrated on sending the message. Bobby raised his voice. “Why give it up? You’ll top us anyway.”

  “Not the Divas. You can save them.” He laughed. “We really do want them alive.”

  “Maybe I’m the greedy type.” Even if he wasn’t both Magpie and Pepee were wide-eyed and shaking their heads. “We’ll just sit here until a few of your wounded bleed out, then nip out and top the rest.”

  “You had your chance.” Silence fell.

  Bobby spoke quietly. “There’s some bins left in that room behind us, the one halfway down. I’ll drag them out and make some sort of barrier. Then if they get close, we fall back and make them come the last bit in the open.”

  Hood hesitated, then asked. “What about Fleur?”

  “She wants to go in there, the hospital.” Bobby looked round and sighed. “Find out who else isn’t up for a hand to hand fight and they can go in there. I’ll shut the door on the way out so they have a chance because that one locks. I’ll put some food and water in there in case.” If the Rangers didn’t know the warming trick, they wouldn’t get in. Hood went round the rest. Siflis said no, while Baiser shook her head when Pepee asked her even though she couldn’t sit up yet. Bells just snarled and waved the little automatic. Pepee spoke to Siflis and he looked startled, then when she dropped her shorts he got out a dressing and started on the wound in her ass. She’d collected a solid round in her metal leg as well.