She glared, hand clenching and unclenching inside the shocker, and then she let it go, turning and running her hands through her hair. “These friends of yours, they’re all scum and you know it.”
“Are any of us better? Do you have a moral line you keep secret?”
She turned on him. “Yes, as a matter of fact. But you’re right, if we want to hold our base, if we want to come out of Reckoning Day intact, we need troops. That means at least a temporary alliance. Send out feelers to the most trustworthy of your friends, will you?”
Aero nodded. “On it, buddy.”
When he’d left, Brink and Kale quietly entered the room, while Redwood and Trunk took the initiative and organized the others in cleaning up and setting up a perimeter in case more attacks came.
“So, do we sell our souls?” Kale said with a sniff. His face contorted with the smell of death, while Letha was doing her best to ignore it. The odor was somewhere between hot iron and a warm, steaming pile of feces.
“We double down,” Letha replied. “We take on more recruits than we ever have before, we….” She trailed off, distracted by a loud bang outside, followed by sparks and distant cheering.
It wasn’t an attack. They all knew that sound, and rushed out to get a look. Sure enough, over the lake, as it would be elsewhere across the planet, a large display lit up the sky. This massive screen displayed Letha’s and Fireshot’s faces, with a huge, red letter “V” between them… Below their names was an option for accept or decline, along with a bid. Someone, or a group of someones, had just bid two thousand credits to see Fireshot and Letha fight one-on-one.
That was a hell of a lot of credits, and the exact amount Letha had lost to the Dark Mark in her attempt to get to Fireshot. It was a no-brainer.
“Accept!” Letha shouted, grinning. The green “accept” button under her name lit up. A second later the same happened for Fireshot. The screen changed to reveal the location of the fight, along with a special drop: an item that would be delivered to the winner if they defeated their opponent in a flawless victory.
That rarely happened, but sometimes the weapon was so worth it, one side would find a way to cheat or be so overwhelming when they entered the fight that there was no way they would lose.
While the shocker wasn’t the craziest weapon on Planet Kill, Letha certainly loved it, and it had been won in a flawless victory in one such fight.
The screen displayed an image of an octagonal shield, one that strapped around the chest and created an energy shield around its user. Shields were incredibly rare, and some viewers considered using them cheating, but having one meant she could fend off a sneak attack. It meant she could go into hand-to-hand combat and not have to worry about an opponent getting a sneak attack on her. To top it off, this one apparently had a stun effect to it, which would compliment her shocker nicely. An opponent had a chance of being knocked unconscious if they hit the shield at close range.
Just seeing it there made her mouth water, she wanted it so much.
“Well, that simplified things,” Brink said from her side. “Assuming you win, I mean.”
“Oh, there’s no question. I’ll win.”
Brink nodded, but Kale’s eyes revealed his uncertainty. “Is your leg healed up? I mean, even if it is, there has to be a reason Fireshot accepted this. He has the numbers right now, why not just engage?”
Letha pointed up to the sky where the image was fading. “Maybe you didn’t see the two thousand reasons, or that sexy, sexy shield.”
“Which is a rare drop,” Kale shot back. “You’re going to not only fight Fireshot like this, but somehow get a flawless victory?”
She shrugged. “A girl can try.”
He shook his head, hands on his hips, staring at her. Finally, he nodded. “Ain’t no stopping you anyway, and no going back once you’ve accepted. That would be suicide, as far as viewership is concerned.”
“Exactly, so I mean to use what I do have at the rock. Go all in on this, meaning…” She turned to him, then Brink. “Gather ‘em up.”
“Right before Reckoning Day?” Brink grumbled. “They’re not going to like that.”
“Do you disagree that this could be our shot? That if I take him out, we have a lot less to worry about?”
Brink shook his head.
“Kale?” she asked.
“We’ll get it done,” he said, but hesitated. “Aero and his fighters too?”
She pondered this, debating the ramifications of making her new allies give their credits to her. “Let Aero upgrade, but his people, they should give their credits to me.”
“Roger that,” Kale said with a grin. Apparently, he liked this idea a lot more than Brink did. He always was the greater risk-taker of the two.
Letha hiked off to the upgrade station. She made her way up the incline, following rocky paths and steps cut into the hill, until she was at the top. Up here she could look out past her base, see the outpost where they had lost Ghost in the distance, and even make out the trees of Aero’s land. Beyond that, desert stretched out for a long way, which was actually more fitting with the way the weather was quickly going.
While days were generally hot and nights were cold, the weather could swing from one extreme to the other very quickly, and today was proving to be one of the hottest days in some time. Sweat pooled at the small of her back and under her breasts, and she grimaced, wishing the bath was clean.
There were more springs not too far off, and she decided she’d have to make a trip to them. First, however, she had to deal with upgrades.
She entered the small building, admiring the artwork, as she always did. It was too beautiful not to. Sliding her hand along the monitor’s display, multiple windows opened up before her. Armor, shields, projectiles, close-combat, rifles, and more. Letha had to consider what Fireshot would bring to the field. He liked to fight with trickery, but he’d earned his name for the way he liked to blow shit up. She imagined he’d come at her with some sort of weapon that would hit her from afar, maybe even scorch her entire side of the field. Anything was allowed in these battles.
She had been considering the legendary striking sword for one of her generals. Ghost, actually, but since he was gone, maybe Brink. It was a sweet sword with level five corrosion, which meant it would be able to tear right through any armor level five or below. However, that would have to wait, just like the damn air strike and level scanner she had her eyes on. It was always a game of waiting here, always weighing best options and resources.
At the moment, she had to focus on the fight with Fireshot, and that meant a different strategy.
If Fireshot was going to come at her with explosives, she’d need a shield for herself. Even though she tended to choose to please the viewers by going into battle scantily clad, she already owned a pretty good set of body armor that would go great with the shield.
Scrolling through her options, she found Echidna only offered some level three shields. Not great, but easily affordable. One was especially focused on anti-fire effects. She figured that made more sense than one that was basic and one that offered energy-enhancement. Fuck stims—the last thing she needed was the crash after those things wore off.
She finished with the shields and was glad to see the station was equipped with the one she’d picked, a grinding sound and vibration told her it was circulating through inventory before doling it out.
The straps fit over her shoulders and clasped around in front in a way that gave extra emphasis to her breasts when she wasn’t wearing her body armor. She imagined that image could get her extra viewership love, but right now she’d forgo that for her body armor. She was glad to find that she had enough for a fire shard, which seemed to be common sense when going against someone named Fireshot. It slipped into the shield and would grant her an extra defense against flames, though it was only level five, so it wouldn’t last longer than five seconds. Letha hoped it would be enough to get out of any fiery situation.
Scrolling
through the long-range weapons, she considered her next purchase. The shield had only been possible because of the extra credits she’d received for her questionable way of finishing off Skinner. The memory of that made her shudder.
She also had enough left to grab a projectile or two, and would use the credits from Aero’s crew and her people to ensure she had the best weapons. They could have her old ones if there was an upgrade worth getting. Sometimes leveling up the weapons themselves made the most sense, but only if they had an elemental effect, like the corrosion sword.
She had just pulled up the weapons screen when a whirring came from outside. Only one person made that sort of sound this side of the scorching desert—Ulric, the Warden. He must’ve seen her approaching on his screens and not been too far off, or have something incredibly valuable for sale.
The door opened and she left the screens up, figuring she’d get rid of him fast enough and get back to it. He entered, his bright gold-trimmed white body armor gleaming in the sunlight, its internal cooling system whirring, and a mask that concealed his facial features. Wardens wore the armor and shields to avoid hostile acts against them. Secretly, Letha thought using the white armor was something to do with acting like they were gods, or ambivalent angels, here to see that all went according to some kind of holy plan.
He waved a hand. “Cameras off. Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind about me?”
“You aren’t part of the game,” she replied. “No.”
The Warden removed his mask. “I offer sales to my most valued customers,” he said, stepping forward and looking her over like a thick ribeye.
“Touch me and we see how well that shield holds up before I take your life.”
He stared icily, lip twitching, then shook his head. “Letha, you’re well-received by the audience, I won’t deny that. However, don’t think for a second that makes you more powerful than the piss-ant you are. This is all a game. I’m the fucking DM.”
“The what?”
He ground his teeth. “Here I was coming to give you the first chance at a new item I thought you’d want. I have a feeling you’re going to have to say no if it’s at full price.” He licked his lips. “Last chance.”
She needed to buy some black-market goods, but this wasn’t going well. As she often reminded herself, she wasn’t a prostitute. Everything she did here was because she wanted to. Fuck this asshole if he thinks he can get sex from me in exchange for a discount.
“Take your bullshit somewhere else, Ulric. If you got something to sell, let me see it. The weapon, to be clear, not your tiny, wrinkled dick.” She held up her hand, pinkie bent halfway. The insult was probably too much, but too late, she’d already said it.
He sniffed and shook his head. “Do you realize you smell like dirty ass? Fucking you would be like making love to a clogged sewage pipe. At any rate…” He flicked up a screen that showed the stats of a rifle, then turned back to his pod while she marveled at the numbers. “You just leveled up, correct?”
“That’s right,” she said, eyes wide. Level twenty-five, with options for fire effect or electricity. This rifle could shoot rounds that would explode and cause more damage to one target, or branch out and hit surrounding targets. A round that then used the target as a conduit for what was essentially bursts of lighting. Now that could be damn valuable.
“How much?” she asked.
He grabbed his crotch and winked lewdly “How about five thousand credits and you lick my asshole while jerking me off?”
She breathed deeply, wishing she could tear out his throat right here, but instead just turned from him, back to the machine.
“Would you prefer I lick yours?” he asked. “The way you smell, I’m going to have to charge an extra thousand for that.”
“You know I don’t have the credits,” she replied.
“How much do you need?” another voice asked, and she turned to see it was Aero. Some of the other fighters were there as well.
“I told you, I’m not parting with my credits,” Nurse whined. “Fuck this, and fuck her.”
“If you want to be part of my camp, you will,” Aero replied. “Learn how this works, fast, or I toss you out. Got it?”
Nurse looked at him like he’d stabbed her in the heart, but nodded.
“The price is six thousand,” Ulric said.
“Fuck me,” Aero replied, turning to Letha. “Sorry, the most we can get you is another six hundred. That’s all we’ve got, including mine.”
“And only Letha is a high enough level to use it,” Ulric said. “Matter of fact, there are only three other fighters on the planet who are high enough level.” He paused for a moment. “What were your words, exactly?” He suggestively looked at Aero. “Fuck me?”
Aero glanced around, then cursed. “Cameras off, is that it? They’ll start wondering soon.”
“Sure, sure they will.” Ulric chuckled. “We can always throw up a video of Letha taking a shit, touch it up to make it look like she’s doing so in the temple. Maybe we should regardless, just for fun?”
“You want tricks, go talk to another camp,” Letha said. “We’re interested in buying legit here.”
“Ah, that’s a shame, considering what I heard happened with the Dark Mark.”
Damn, how did he know about her? Letha had always assumed the Dark Mark had been low-key enough to not draw his attention. No one said a word.
Ulric glared at each of them in turn. “Fuck you all. You aren’t getting shit from me. Let’s just see how this little spat between you and Fireshot goes. I’ll tell you this, he isn’t afraid to do what’s necessary to win.”
With that, Ulric put his mask back on, turned to his pod, tossing the amazing rifle in the back, and shook his head at them all before leaving.
“I should have blown his head off,” Brink said.
“You could’ve tried, and then I’d have lost two generals this week,” Letha countered. “No, you don’t have my permission to die yet.”
“Come on,” she waved Aero and her generals into the temple with her. “Let’s figure out what other equipment we can actually afford.”
They followed her in, while Rodrigo, Redwood, and Nurse set up a defense outside. She could never be too careful when buying upgrades.
Leveled up and with the right loot, Letha returned to her base to check on the baths. A few sections of the shallow water were untainted, so she quickly washed up enough to not feel too repulsive, then suited up for the fight.
Reckoning Day wasn’t one to mess with, so she put on her body armor—a thin, adaptable layer of biotech-enhanced metal. It still showed the contours of her body while providing an extra layer of protection. The level three shield that she strapped on would be useful as well. Letha attached the shocker to her waist and a blaster to her hip. Her rifle magnetically attached to the back of her suit. At a small noise, she glanced over to see Aisha in the doorway.
The younger woman looked troubled, staring at the floor with something clearly on her mind.
“It’s Reckoning Day,” Letha said. “We all might die today. Even more reason to get it out.”
“We’ve failed you,” Aisha replied.
“No, we all failed ourselves.”
“Can I… make it up somehow?” Aisha lowered the edge of her shirt so that her shoulder was visible, and looked up at Letha with seductive, yet sad, eyes.
Letha shook her head. “You know the rules on this day. Focus. When we win, we celebrate. Not before.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, if… I don’t know. You need comfort?”
“Do I look like the type of woman who needs comfort from you?” Letha snapped, hating that she sounded like a bitch right now.
Aisha shook her head and pulled her shirt back up. She was about to turn and go, but Letha held up a hand.
“Wait.” She walked over and took the younger woman’s hand. “I get it, you’ve been through fewer of these. You haven’t seen the ups and downs of this place li
ke I have. Believe me when I say this defeat was nothing in the grand scheme of things. We’re going to get them, and when we do I’ll gladly let you go down on me all day long, if that helps you sleep better at night.”
Aisha laughed. “It probably would, you know. Feeling you squirm, tasting you….” She looked away, unexpectedly embarrassed.
Letha took the young woman’s hand and ran it along the metal of her body armor, pressing it to the cleft between her legs—not that she could feel it, but for Aisha’s enjoyment.
“I’m not going anywhere. Don’t you, either.” She dropped her hand and pointed to the door. “Get ready. Right after the fight with Fireshot, we have to get ourselves some recruits. I want you to show me what you’re made of today. Set up the mines, whatever traps you can, and gear the fuck up.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Aisha said, and Letha couldn’t help but stare at her perfect ass as she walked off with a bounce in her step.
When she was gone, Letha sat on her bed for a moment and stared at the wall. All of the previous Reckoning Days ran through her mind. All of those days that, for the new recruits, had to be the most terrifying day of their lives. For Letha and her kind, though, it was just another day of replenishing troops, finding new lovers, strategizing for how best to improve ratings and get better audience bids.
It was all just one big fucking game.
Her memories of the day she arrived had vanished almost as soon as she’d gotten them. She’d blocked out those traumatic events. She still had nightmares sometimes. Limbs severed. Blood spraying. Men and women bleeding, screaming, dying. Crazy fighters yelling. Guns shooting, lasers blasting, explosions everywhere… running through trees, trying to survive, to escape.
But there was no escape.
With a deep breath, she stood. Now she was the monster, the one who would bring the terror. At least she did it for the right reason. The only reason. Justice.
She found her generals and moved out, glad to have been able to upgrade and still have enough fighters to make this day count. Her hands were already twitching at the anticipation of going up against Fireshot alone, her mind already racing with ways she could end that son of a bitch.
Planet Kill Page 14