Most of the warlords were focused on the rest of the lone wolves now. The Dark Mark and Rodrigo had cleared out the human fighters around the blast doors. Pierce steeled himself and made a beeline for the automatons. As they unleashed hell, Pierce slid behind a large boulder that took the brunt of the first round of fire. The smoke from the explosion concealed him as he lunged forward and fired several shots that took down a couple automatons.
Just as the deadly squad of robots spotted Pierce and fired in unison, Pierce launched into the middle of a group of fighters behind a barrier, using them as human shields against the blasts.
Using the billowing smoke as cover once more, Pierce rushed up the embankment behind enemy lines and slashed through several human fighters with the blades on his weapon. The automatons fired into Fireshot’s troops with no regard for their safety. They had been ordered to place human life as secondary to eliminating Pierce. He was able to skirt past their shots as the enemy soldiers took the brunt of their fire. Slipping up past the automatons, Pierce caught up to the Dark Mark and Rodrigo.
“What took you so long?” Rodrigo said.
“I was covering your asses,” Pierce said. “You ready for this?”
Rodrigo answered with a smirk and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
The Dark Mark met Pierce’s eyes. She nodded.
Pierce, the Dark Mark, and Rodrigo began blasting at the robots from higher ground, leveling those that still remained, shredding them until there was nothing left but scrap metal and a pile of spare mechanical parts.
They’d done it. They’d taken out the automaton squad.
Pierce was about to jump down and infiltrate the underground bunker. Another squad of automatons emerged from the blast doors. There was no way Pierce and the lone wolves could keep taking so many losses, regardless of how much damage they did. This was it. The whole cause was doomed. All that sacrifice and bloodshed, and this was how it was going to end.
Out of nowhere, a loud whooshing noise came from the side of the battlefield. Pierce watched in awe as a wave of firepower roared through the enemy’s defense. It was Letha, Aero, their allies, and all their followers. Pierce couldn’t believe his eyes.
29
For The Thrill Of It!
Planet Kill, Fireshot’s Territory
The thrill of battle tore through Letha. Her muscles felt the burn, and the rage and bloodlust took over. Screens with bids and excited chatter popped up and around her and all her people.
Now wasn’t the time to get distracted by extra points and fan chatter. It was time for an ass-whooping, time to be done with this shit-stain once and for all. Her entire team ran straight for his fortress as Pierce and his allies took care of the automatons. A straight path led through the robots. There were no obstacles other than the natural ones, and any traps Fireshot might have left. Ulric wasn’t holding his hand this time.
As the woods before them filled with fighters, she attached the scanning device and switched it on, watching as a grid of pink lines showed across the ground, blue in the distance where it was out of range for an attack, but could still scan. Red dots were everywhere, and now the numbers were starting to pop up, telling her which ones were level ten and above.
Fireshot wasn’t here, though she knew where he would be. He was never on the front line, but his warlords were, and some of their best fighters. Fifteen of them were level tens and above, enough to make all the trouble, all the credits that she’d spent on the air strike missiles, worth it. As her troops pulled up behind her at her signal, she sent the barrage of missiles down upon those warlords.
Lower levels were caught in the explosions, some diving clear.
She lowered her fist as the fires gave way, and they charged forward, smashing through the surviving Noobs, engaging in combat those who’d survived the strike or had been too far to be affected. Now it was fair. Now she’d have a shot of actually getting to the tower where Fireshot would be waiting.
Charging through, shooting here, cutting there, she led the battle past the woods, working her way to the back of the hill. The domed tower peeked through the leaves ahead, glowing red in the evening light. This was it, the time for retribution.
She wore her battle armor and had her rifle at the ready, but had come with bigger plans that needed more specific tools to get the job done. Blades were ready at her wrists, the shocker at her side. Whatever she had to get in there and take him out, she had strapped on for this.
A team of men and women charged out to meet them, and gunshots dropped one of hers amid screams of pain. Letha stormed the tower, her generals at her side, others moving up to take the enemy flanks and prepare for other attackers. Shots rang out from the trees and energy shields flashed. Brink had a hook that he used to slam up through a man’s jaw, then flipped him over to rip him open a second later.
Aisha was like a new person, totally reborn since Reckoning Day. She rushed in there with the best of them and let her blasters do the work. Kale and Redwood had teamed up against a group of three and were forcing them back up against a rock wall.
Shots rang by Letha’s head. She ducked, took aim and blew half of a woman’s skull off before rolling and wounding a man with a shot to his foot, then blasted through his chest as he fell.
Her team had this handled, she realized. She took aim again. Instead of prolonging this battle and waiting for backup, she needed to take action on Fireshot now. The sun was setting, the day almost gone. Too much time had been wasted already.
At the rear archway, she split off from the rest. The fight was here, the enemy was here, but Fireshot was not. One tower with a glass dome stood above the rest, and she had a feeling that he was hiding there. He would be standing above it all like the god he thought he was, enjoying the bloodshed on both sides, relishing in the death and mayhem that was all because of him.
In a way, Letha knew this because she could almost identify with him. Almost. She knew the line, and she was still sane enough to see that line, to know that crossing it led down a dark path.
She barreled in, pausing only once at a gleam of light that caught her eyes. A tripwire! Fuck. She froze. Moving past it, slowly, carefully, she eyed the walls for motion-triggered mines or grenades or other traps. Finding none, she reached the stairs and began her ascent.
With each step she imagined tearing Fireshot limb from limb, watching as life faded from his overconfident eyes.
Then she was at the door, shooting off the handle in case it was locked. Letha kicked the door the rest of the way and paused at the bewildering sight.
Fireshot stood at the glass dome, watching the chaos, completely nude and erect. Two women and a man were around him in silks and various stages of undress, pleasing him as he watched. He barely noticed her. He simply waved a hand to signal two guards on either side of the broken door.
They approached, but were no match for her. A quick shot to one, then a face strike with her rifle and stab in the neck to the second, and they were down.
Finally, Fireshot gazed at her and smiled, gripping one of the women by the head and pulling her hard onto his cock as he grinned. A spasm went through his body and Letha thought he was about to cum right there, but then she saw the man behind, pulling beads from Fireshot’s ass.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Letha demanded. “Your people are dying for you, and this is what you’re doing?”
Fireshot grinned, thrust the nameless woman aside and grabbed his balls. “You want a taste, Letha? I always knew you’d come my way.” He winked and shook his dick at her.
She gagged a little, but her finger was ready on the trigger. Letha loved a good lay, to stare at her lovers’ cocks as she stroked them or the feel of a man’s balls in her hand, but the sight of Fireshot like this disgusted her. It was offensive, nasty, like seeing a demon’s wrinkled teats in a movie she vaguely remembered. As far as she was concerned, all sense of sexuality had failed to ever exist the moment he was involved.
One of the
women was giving her a sensual look that Letha couldn’t quite ignore. The woman licked her lips and slid her hands along her body. She sighed.
“If any of you want to leave,” Letha said, “do so now. Join my army, and I promise you won’t ever have to see this shitbag again.”
There was a moment of hesitation, and then the woman giving her the eyes lunged, leaping up and running for freedom.
Fireshot tried to grab her by her hair, but Letha shot, aiming directly for his left testicle. A flash of energy rose up and the bullet never found its mark, but it was enough to cause Fireshot to recoil. The woman escaped his grip. She hit the energy shield, spasmed, and fell through to Letha’s side, her hair smoking. If this shield was like others Letha had encountered, the woman would live, but hurt for a few days. The shields stopped rapid projectiles but had lesser effects on blades and, apparently, people.
The other two shrunk away as Fireshot advanced, dick starting to droop.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, taking aim again. “Doesn’t the realization of your own mortality turn you on as much of the death of those around you?”
He glared and held his hands out. The remaining two pleasure slaves began to dress him, first in his stained undergarments, and then in battle armor.
A screen flashed up beside Letha that had bids ranging from “Bite off his dick while you have the chance,” to “Kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out,” but the one she accepted said, “Make it fair. Let him dress, then duel.”
He watched, then glanced at his own screen. It was backwards to Letha, but she saw clearly what he selected: “Fight this bitch to the point of death, then hang her out the window by her intestines and light her on fire. Let the world watch her burn.”
“That’s rather gruesome,” she said with a shake of her head. “Not that I should be surprised, coming from you.”
“Hey,” he replied, with his arms still spread out. “I’m just the angel of death, they are the gods. When they command, I obey.”
Calling the viewers gods? That was sure to get him some die-hard fans, though it wouldn’t matter after she’d killed him.
“Some angel. At least your cock is covered.” She tried not to stare while his sexual playthings finished dressing him like a doll. In those few moments, she tried to wrap her mind around what a weird scene this was, what a strange planet this was. No matter how long she stayed, there were always new ways to surprise and disgust her.
All for the final prize, she reminded herself. Soon it would be over, and she would leave this planet, find her target, and have her justice.
Right now, that meant destroying this bastard.
They were done with him, finally, and again Letha repeated her offer to the other two. Instead of replying, they walked to a trunk behind them and removed several weapons for Fireshot. Most notable, Letha thought, was the metal glove that resembled her shocker. She raised an eyebrow, not liking the taunting laughter from Fireshot.
“This little pretty was a gift from our mutual friend, Ulric,” he said. He pulled it onto his left hand. In his right, he accepted a serrated blade, and nodded. “End her.”
The other two had weapons also, she realized almost too late. She dodged to the side to avoid a shotgun blast from the man. Her shield vibrated against her chest, alerting her that it wasn’t going to last much longer. At least it had saved her from this blast.
She dove to her left, coming up and tearing through the man with a throwing knife. She followed up with a lunge and smaller knife, slicing up through the throat and into the skull. The woman slammed into her from behind, screaming and striking with two super-charged kali sticks. Each strike set off a powerful charge of electricity.
The woman got in two solid hits, and Letha knew she didn’t want a third. She jammed a blade backward and threw herself into the wall. She stepped away and felt the suction of the blade. The woman gasped, then hit the floor with a thud.
Now it was just Fireshot and Letha, surrounded by the sounds of gunfire and explosions outside.
“You can’t hope to beat my army,” Fireshot sneered, eyes narrowed, crouching as he began to circle her. “We outnumber you. We’re far better-equipped.”
“All I have to do is beat you,” she countered. “When they see your head in my hands, they’ll fall into line like the timid little bitches they are.”
“You’ve come a long way,” he admitted. “Level, what now? Twenty-five?”
She nodded.
“Yeah, I watched you,” he continued. “I landed about six months after you did, actually. But I’d paid attention at home. You were easy to predict, too soft on your followers to do what needed to be done and progress quickly. Viewers back home want a show. They want death and sex and over-the-top fun. You think killing a couple of ruthless pricks and sleeping with three or four dudes—or chicks—is going to do it? Think again, sister.”
“I remember when you arrived,” she said, glaring back. “The way the Dragon took you in, had you carry his leash. I still remember when you were called Pete, when they talked about the bids that came in and what the Dragon did to you. You talk about putting on a show, after that?”
His lip curled and he shook his head, laughing. “You still don’t get it, do it? I signed up for this shit. You think I didn’t know what Planet Kill was all about? I liked everything he did to me. I’m not evil, I’m not up here doing any of this because my heart’s turned black and shriveled up, or because I think I’ll get through it without suffering.”
“Yeah? Tell me then. I’ll bite.”
“I’m a showman, just like we all are.” He grabbed his package with a flourish, now covered in metal-composite for protection. “The men and women back home want to be able to flip between channels, to get a close-up of my dick getting sucked, to watch those beads coming out of my ass, one at a time. Hell, I’m not into dudes in the least, but the viewers like it, so I jammed my pecker into this guy when he begged for it. There’s nothing wrong with that, because he fucking signed up for it too, and he loves it. I’m the ultimate champion, the one they all want to cheer for, the one they want to see never leave this place.”
He drew near, lowering his voice, “But when I do, someday, I’m going to use all of my power, influence, and money… and I’m going to use it to ensure this goes on forever, maybe even expand it to the outside world. Why should we all be so constrained? We need orgy-viewing parties, we need the freedom to go down on each other in the streets while others watch and throw credit chips in a hat. Fuck, all I wanna do is have some fun. The viewers know I’m not the only one. But you… you’re outdated. It’s time for you to be put down.”
He lurched toward her, and she laughed as she sidestepped him. She caught him with a blow from her shocker. His armor absorbed most of it, but the shock still caused him to stumble across the floor.
“I’m the predictable one?” she asked with a wink. “Let me try. Big long speech, blah, blah, blah, attack.”
Letha feinted, and he actually took the bait, overextending himself. She dodged and spun under his arm then struck him again, this time on the back of his head. The force caused him to stagger away from her, and he nearly fell to one knee. His hand left a bloody streak on the wall where he caught himself
He turned with fury. “I’m a showman, an entertainer. What the fuck are you, you sorry bitch?”
“Hope,” she replied, and this time attacked with everything she had. The two warlords threw blows left and right, their blades scraping off of metal. “Hope for everyone who believes in a better life, but doesn’t want to devolve into the likes of you. Hope for all the men and women who were sent here against their will, for those false volunteers. I represent that fucking hope, but to you? To you I represent death.”
With that, she brought her blade up to his throat, so that he needed both arms to block it. Then she struck with her shocker. The first strike connected with his groin and sent an uncomfortable spasm across his face. The second came with a drop of he
r knife so that, for a second, he thought he had the upper hand. Her shocker made contact again, full force, and sent him literally flying back into the far wall, where his armor cracked open and left him like a snail without a shell. He tried to stand, vomited, and then stared at her with crazed eyes.
“Do you have any idea how the fans will turn on you if you kill me?” He spat out, more vomit and saliva. “There are parts of this planet you haven’t even touched, allies I’ve been making who will get bids like you’ve never heard of. You touch me, you’ll be begging for your life to end before they’re done with you.”
“I’ll take that chance,” she retorted, drawing near to finally snuff out this shitnugget.
A flash of light hit his hand and too late she realized he had his shocker on. It was coming for her. She attempted to block, but then saw a tube at the end, two holes facing her, and her mind formed the words, “Oh fuck.” Before she could say it, some sort of liquid sprayed out and then flames erupted from his glove. The liquid stuck to her armor and fanned the flames, so that within a couple seconds she realized that not only was her armor on fire, but she was starting to cook alive in it.
He was almost upright again, laughing maniacally as he struck once more. This time he missed, covering the wall behind her in flames. She struggled, working to get the armor off while still keeping her eyes on him for his next attack.
The woman on the floor who had tried to flee was stirring, and Letha glanced toward the door. They needed to get out of there.
Bids showed up: “Go down together in a blaze of glory,” “Grab him so you both burn,” and more of the sort. She had to imagine that whoever was bidding now was on his side. The viewers thought he was doomed anyway, so they wanted to take her down too. Of course, if she accepted a bid like that, her family would get some payout at the end.
Except she had no family.
And she had no intention of dying this day.
Planet Kill Page 27