by Logan Jacobs
But it sure as shit couldn't be any worse.
I heard the distinct pop of Aurora’s pulsar gun as it shot tiny little mini-suns. She had the gun aimed below her and fired as fast as she could pull the trigger as she ran. Several alien roars of pain came from underneath the scaffold. I smiled just a little knowing that at least of a few of the nightmare creatures were being hit.
That smiled faded fast when three of the silver-black things chewed their way through the walkway in the ten feet between Aurora and I. Two saw me and crawled toward me with scary speed in a loping four limbed gallop. I lost sight of Aurora as they reared up on their back legs when they got within striking distance of me. The creatures were easily seven feet tall. Their bodies somehow skinny and bulky all at the same time.
I had maybe a millisecond to decide what to do before they reached me and I was torn to shreds. Above me, I saw that several access panels had broken loose at some point and ropes of thick dark electrical conduit cable hung in loops from them five feet to the left of the walkway. I lifted my right hand and blasted the closest creature in the face with a shotgun blast from my Equalizer.
Their eyes apparently weren’t as durable as the rest of them because the creature howled, and its hands flew up to empty sockets full of slimy goop. The one behind it roared angrily, and I leapt over the walkway’s railing just as it swiped at me with a massive backhanded blow. The clawed hand hit me right in the stomach, but I’d hoped it would do exactly that and was prepared for the impact. I went limp for a second and let the power of the beast’s strike carry me the distance to the cables that hung from the ceiling.
I reached out with my left hand and caught the nearest cable. In my head I figured I’d grab one and swing like Indy out in a wide arc and land just behind Aurora on the other side of the walkway.
Unfortunately, the cable wasn’t connected to anything, and I fell ten feet down before it finally caught. My arm felt like it was going to come out of its socket as I hit the bottom of the fall but I managed to hold on. I swung in a long parabolic arc only four feet above the hoard of creatures below. The Equalizer roared in my right hand as I let loose at the closest of the monsters. I knocked a few down for the count but others just flew back several feet from the force of the impact, got up and came at me again.
The Equalizer shots ended up spinning me around in a circle on the end of the pendulum as I swung back up toward the walkway. I caught a tilt-a-whirl glimpse of Aurora, dark matter all around, as she loosed purple tinged bolts of the stuff at several of the creatures that had jumped onto the walkway.
I felt the top of my arc coming and kicked out with my legs as hard as I could as if I were jumping off the swings in elementary school and let go with my left hand. My kick gave me an extra few feet of height and distance and with flailing arms I landed feet first on the shoulders of one of the creatures as it approached Aurora from behind.
I jammed the barrel of the Equalizer to the base of its neck and pulled the trigger. The buckshot shredded the thing’s flesh at point blank range, and its now severed head snapped its jaws twice before it realized it was dead. A pulsar shot flew past my head into the open mouth of another one of the monsters as it was about to sink its razor teeth into my shoulder. The creature’s head evaporated in a spray of sizzling meat.
“Grab my arm!” Aurora shouted, her face a mask of determination. I holstered the Equalizer and grabbed hold of her outstretched hand. Just as I did, disks of dark matter materialized under her feet, and we shot up into the air above the walkway. Aurora leaned forward, and we zoomed toward the hallway entrance ten yards ahead of us. Wind battered my face as we picked speed. I could see the strain on Aurora’s face as it took all her will to control this much dark matter at one time.
We were only a few feet away from the opening when two creatures crawled up the wall and into our path. I drew my left handed Equalizer and fired as soon as the barrel cleared the holster. My finger pulled the trigger as fast as it could and a barrage of fiery death flew at the beasts. The incendiary rounds burned deep in the bodies of the creatures, and they lit up like jack-o'-lanterns. The monsters danced in pain as their bodies blazed from the inside out, and they fell off the walkway. A moment later, Aurora and I flew into the hallway at full speed.
I let go of Aurora’s hand and hit the ground hard. Our speed caused me to roll out of control for about ten feet before I came to a stop. Aurora had spun around and hurled large dark matter blasts at the roof in front of the opening.
The dark matter exploded on impact and when the dust and purple-black energy cleared, the entrance had been completely blocked by the wreckage. She turned to run toward me when one of the creatures burst from the rubble, its clawed talons stretched out before it, ready to shred and tear.
“Aurora, duck!” I screamed and pulled my right Equalizer. The gun blasted three times in quick succession as Aurora dodged right and slid to the ground. The shots shredded the weakened monster and black, ichorous blood splattered everywhere.
I picked myself up and helped Aurora to her feet. Some of the thing’s blood had gotten on her bicep length gloves and splashed across the back of her corset.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied and dusted herself off. “That was close.”
“Too close,” I sighed in relief. “At least their blood isn’t concentrated acid.”
“Um, Marc?” Aurora said with more than a tinge of panic in her voice. She held up her arms, and I saw tiny tendrils of smoke come from the fabric where the alien’s blood had gotten on them.
“Me and big fucking mouth,” I blurted out. “Take them off!”
She pulled the gloves off as fast as she could and dropped them on the ground where they continued to smoke. The white skin on her arms was splotched bright red where the blood had burned her.
We smiled at each other for a second then realized that her corset started to smoke as well.
“Come on,” I urged, and we ran down the hallway which turned out to lead right to the bridge. I searched frantically for something to wash the blood off while Aurora attempted to unhook the clasps of her corset.
She grimaced in pain as her skin began to burn.
“Fuck this,” I muttered and drew my SVA. I pressed the button on its molded grip handle, and the laser sharpened blades sprang out. “Don’t move.”
I took a breath, rose the SVA high over my head, and slashed down. A second later Aurora’s corset fell to the ground with a neat slice right down the middle.
Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you looked at it, she had on a separate bra top and now stood in front of me wearing what amounted to a battle bikini. A large patch on her back was an angry red color and parts of it had already started to blister.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I looked around for some water. I found a half drunk bottle and doused it on some medical gauze I pulled from a pouch on my holster. “Here, let me put this on it.”
She hissed as I put the water soaked gauze onto the burn, and her eyes glowed brighter from the pain.
“I am okay, Marc,” she said through gritted teeth. “It will begin to heal shortly. I consumed enough life force before that fight that I can spare some to help with the burns. Wait? Are we on the bridge?”
I glanced around, and sure as shit we were.
“Um, yeah,” I blurted out somewhat in shock.
“Well, find the damn reboot switch and let’s get the fuck out of here,” she urged. “I’ll cover the door.”
I had to concentrate so as not to watch her full hips sway as she turned away from me and positioned herself at the doorway. After a second of searching, I found a large blinking yellow button that read: Reactor Core Reset.
“Let’s go the hell home,” I said, pressed the button, and closed my eyes.
A second later I opened them again, and I was still on the bridge.
“Uh, what the fuck?” I said out loud and pressed it again.
Again, not a goddam
n thing happened.
“Marc, quit screwing around,” Aurora said and walked over to where I was. She pressed the button but still nothing happened.
Then a very calm male voice came from out of nowhere and said, “The circuit for remote reactor core reset has been damaged. Manual reset is required.”
“Oh fuck my life,” I uttered and shot the blinking yellow button.
Just then a doorway that lead to another part of the ship opened, and three ugly as sin champions rushed into the room.
“Aurora, we’ve got company!” I yelled as I let go with the shotgun Equalizer and ran down the length of the bank of computers we’d been standing behind. The blasts splashed off a protective shield one of them activated. Only one of the uglies had a gun, and he pointed the massive triple-barrelled device my way and pulled the trigger. Three foot long tongues of muzzle flash shot out of each barrel as the arm that held the gun flew upward from the kickback. I hit the deck just as the huge console of computer controls I’d been behind exploded in a shower of sparks and plastic bits. I looked back, and there was just a giant, jagged gaping space where the three foot thick computer bank had been.
“Oh, boy,” I muttered and willed my legs to move.
Aurora threw handfuls of dark matter at the trio but it had about as much effect as my shotgun blasts. The three aliens crouched behind the shimmery translucent green energy shield. There was a Tall-Ugly who reloaded the tri-gun rather slowly, Medium-Ugly who held the shield projector in both hands with what looked like a considerable effort, and Little-Ugly who held nasty recurved blades in each hand.
Medium-Ugly pressed a button on the shield generator and started to move them into the bridge. Tall-Ugly snapped the tri-gun closed and took aim while Little-Ugly vaulted out of the shield, bounced off a wall in a tight somersault, and landed right in front of Aurora. He began to swipe at her with the blades, and it was all she could do to fend off the blows. A dark matter shield formed on her left arm and a short, foot and a half long spear of the dark pink-purple energy extended from her right hand like a lance.
She blocked a blade edge and then began to attack on her own. Soon the two spun and parried, slashed and blocked, and leapt and stabbed in an awesome sword fight. It was like evil Yoda fighting a good guy Asaj Ventress with all the spinning and twirling. I would have been mesmerized had Tall-Ugly not fired his fucking hand cannon at me again.
I dove just as the equipment panel I’d been behind blew up.
“Jesus, what did those computer thingies ever do to you?” I yelled and drew the incendiary Equalizer. I fired twice with my left hand as Tall-Ugly began the slow process of reloading his gun. Medium-Ugly took the opportunity to move the shield generator closer. I saw the veins in his neck bulge and throb with the effort. The high-velocity armor-piercing rounds hit the energy shield but instead of bouncing off they began to drill into the green force field. It was like watching something move slowly through a big block of jello. The shield finally managed to slow the bullets to a standstill but the rounds then began to glow red, then white hot. They got so white I had to avert my eyes. When I looked back the rounds had burned out but there were large char marks on the green shield and cracks had spiderwebbed out from where the bullets hit.
Medium-Ugly griped the shield generator with all his might, his biceps bulged and tendons strained. Light blue sweat poured down his face. They’d moved far enough into the room that I could now see the thin fiber optic filaments that went from the generator into his chest. Energy pulsed back and forth from him to the device and back again. Tall-Ugly worked faster to load his stupidly powerful but cumbersome tri-gun. In that instant I saw my chance.
I rose from what little cover the computer console I’d hidden behind was going to provide and aimed both guns at the shield. I fired off a volley of shots with my left hand that stitched a row of blazing hot red dots across the front of the shield. My right hand took its time and aimed carefully at where the cracks had already formed and then barked off three well-placed shots. Holes blew through the barrier and showered the two uglies with hot energy shield. Tall-Ugly’s shot went wild as bits of energy shield burned his flesh, and he destroyed a blinking control panel that sat next to the remote reboot button for the reactor.
I advanced on them full of double fisted Equalizer fury. Three more shotgun blasts, and the shield shattered spectacularly in an emerald explosion. Medium-Ugly screamed in pain, as if his guts were being torn from his insides, and then fell to the floor unmoving and lifeless.
I took a chance to glance over at Aurora who held Little-Ugly in one hand by the throat. He flailed at her wildly but his blades bounced off her dark matter covered arm. I wasn’t aware she could do that, and it was pretty freaking cool. She locked eyes with the little freak, and he cried out in terror as the blue vapor like energy of her Shriike flowed out of her mouth and began to suck him dry. At the last moment before his eyes closed all the way in the sleep of death, she drove the dark matter lance into his belly.
“Yikes,” I grimaced. That was definitely a side of Aurora I had not seen before, but I didn’t get much opportunity to ponder the rather psychopathic action because Tall-Ugly grabbed me by my shoulder and threw me into the wall.
The big fucker moved a hell of a lot faster than he reloaded a gun because he was on top of me in a flash, and I felt his rancid breath hot on my face.
“Marc Havak! You’re flim-flam luck ends on this blarn-farkle day,” he shouted at me in a somewhat Estonian or weird Eastern European accent.
I was going to say something pithy when he punched me twice in the face.
“Shut up your dooty-poot mouth,” Tall-Ugly growled and hauled me to my feet. I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at that one.
“Dooty-poot?” I giggled through the pain in my face. “Your race sucks at cursing you cock-sucking ass faced shit stick motherfucker.”
“Words hurt, human,” Tall-Ugly said, and he actually looked like I’d wounded him. “Dispose of him anytime.”
“Who are you talking to fart-breath?” I asked and struggled against his vice like grip.
“Her,” he said and motioned toward Aurora who had her pulsar pistol pointed right at me. Her eyes blazed purple, and her tattoos were the brightest I’d ever seen them. Excess life force literally dripped from her to splash on the floor and dissipate like rain drops. The wickedest smile I’d ever seen another being wear pulled at the corners of her mouth. Aurora looked like the queen of the damned who all would love and despair and give themselves to eternal doom.
Chapter Sixteen
Tall-Ugly laughed like a malevolent child. “Do it,” he urged. “Destroy the bobo-flarn, and we shall collect the bounty.”
Aurora’s eyes met mine, and the nagging question that had flitted behind my consciousness for the last few days exploded forth from my brain. Who would Irrus get to turn against me? That was why I’d been so nervous before this match. Part of me knew that there would be a weak link. All of Grizz’s warnings. How he had been betrayed by Tyraxx, and what was done unto him would be done unto me. I felt hot tears well up in my eyes but I choked them back. If I was going to out I was glad it would be someone I knew. Not some demented space demon or ugly troll.
Aurora raised the gun, and I resisted the urge to close my eyes. I wanted to see this death coming. To accept it like a true champion. If I couldn’t make Grizz proud in life, I would give him an honorable death.
I saw the barrel of the gun glow hot as the tiny ball of a super agitated atoms sprang forth. In agonizing slow motion I saw the fiery ball, no bigger than a pinball, shoot out of the gun and spin toward me. I felt the incredible heat of it as it sailed past my face and tore a burning hole in Tall-Ugly’s forehead.
The wicked smile froze on his face, and the light went out of his eyes. His hands relaxed. His legs buckled, and he fell to the floor.
Dead.
I watched Aurora as she lowered the gun and holstered it. Saw her struggle against her predator nat
ure that only wanted to hunt and consume. Ravage and feed.
Then I saw the purple of her eyes return to normal.
“Marc, I’m sorry,” she whispered as tears took the place of the purple energy, and she began to tremble slightly.
I moved to her in two long strides, took her in my arms, and kissed her full on the mouth with every ounce of my soul. She melted into me, and we embraced for what felt like a millennium.
“Why?” I finally asked.
“Irrus approached me the night after the big arena match,” Aurora said as she broke the hug. “He threatened to kill everyone if I didn’t agree. Even to have Grizz erased from the mainframe. So I agreed.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” I asked quietly.
“The way he spoke made me believe there were spies everywhere,” she admitted. “I figured if I kept it to myself we’d be less likely to give ourselves away and then when the time came I could double-cross him.”
“I’m glad you did,” I said with more than a touch of relief. “Double cross him that is. Wish you could have given a brother a heads up at some point though. I nearly poopoo-doodood my jumpsuit.”
“I’d never betray you,” she whispered as she looked up into my eyes. “But for a second I saw the pain in your eyes. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I sighed as I hugged her again. “You did what you thought was best, we’ll--”
“Warning. Warning.” The male computer voice came across the comms again. “The temperature regulation unit for the fuel cells has been taken off line. Critical heat levels will be reached in ten minutes.”
“Okay, this shit just isn’t funny anymore,” I said as I threw up my hands.
“Maybe we can turn it back on,” Aurora said as she began to search the deck. “Where’s the temperature regulation unit?”
I turned to look at the big pile of jumbled wires and plastic bits where a console had been.