Here it is (longish one)
Did I jettison something? Dane wondered to herself as she finished the pre-landing checklist. She had managed to straighten the ship out, and was now on a fairly soft approach to the landing pad. Her sensors did detect a small, ship-like object rocket away from the cargo area, but her alarm panel hasn’t indicated any open airlock or hull breach.
It’s almost as if something was attached to the outside of the ship, Dane thought to herself.
Hope it didn’t damage anything.
The tiny insertion shuttle rocked violently as another barrage of gunfire racked the ship, yet did very little in the way of damage.
“Damn, those things are annoying. What the hell are they, bro?” Fenis called from the back.
“Little busy. Ask later” came the reply. Koveris grinned slightly, all four hands grasping the seats adjacent to him for stability, his claws digging deep into the upholstery. After a few seconds, Kaden leaned forward, towards Fenis, and whispered,
“It is later, you know.” Fenis broke into a wide smile.
“Oh Javin?” he called forward with a sing-song voice.
“What?” came back the not-so-happy reply.
“What the hell are those annoying things?”
“Damn suits of flying power armor with big-arse machine guns that are slowly, but efficiently, chipping away our armor, and will cause us to crash UNLESS YOU SHUT YOUR PIE-HOLE AND LET ME FLY THIS DAMN THING! Okay?” Javin was not amused.
“Sure. Why didn’t you just say you were busy?”
Javin’s reply was a barrel-roll, tossing the entire team about, and causing more than a few curses.
“CSI Cargo Run 3-45, please power down your ship completely and stand by to be boarded.” Gordon’s voice was noticeably calmer now. Dane merely shook her head in frustration.
Why wouldn’t they believe that it’s really me? She thought to herself,
They think I had something to do with that other craft too. Dane did as she was asked, and then secured her firearm in the cockpit lockbox. She grimaced as she did this, thinking
Yeah, really don’t need them wondering why I’m armed….
Gordon was reasonably relaxed by this time, his feet propped up on the desk as per usual, and a double-shot espresso in hand.
These 16-hour shifts were murder, he thought as he took a sip. The interlopers were a good twenty miles away and fading fast, the aerial interceptors having them on the run. Within moments, Gordon was fast asleep, his espresso forming a mud-brown puddle on the floor below him.
“How much futher?” Fenis yelled up to the cockpit for the third time in twelve seconds, as yet another burst of autofire slammed into the little ship. Fenis was getting sick of being a large, metallic target, and was itching to deal some payback. He patted his assault rifle fondly, images of full-auto retaliation playing out in his mind. Koveris growled low and dug his claws in deeper as another burst rattled the shuttle.
“Everyone, brace yourself! Ground impact in less than eight seconds and it’s not going to be the gentlest landing.” Jovin called out, as he begin engaging reverse thrusters, shaking the vehicle even more than the near-constant barrage of gunfire had. Kaden extended a long arm forward, resting his hand on the level to lower the exit ramp.
We need to do this, and fast.
“Gorram it, that ship is fast.” Ken hollered over his comm to Fayne.
“We’re going to have to step up the pace.” Fayne murmured her agreement, fiddling with her Warpath rifle as she ran, adjusting the weapon’s sighting mechanism to target smaller targets. She doubted very much that these invaders had power armor, let alone mecha of their own.
The ship’s impact with the hard, barren ground hadn’t been as bad as Kaden was expecting, but neither was it as gentle as it could have been. Still, he was alive, and that was a good thing.
Well, still alive at the moment, he thought to himself as he hazarded another look around the ship’s exterior and out at the dust-ball planet they landed on.
A few, hastily-constructed buildings dotted the nearby landscape around the ship. A lone miner with a slow-charge laser pistol strapped to his hip stared dumb-founded at the ship that just landed in his backyard. Everywhere Kaden looked, there was no green, no plants of any color, no color at all for that matter. Just the same, red-orange that seemed to dust everything.
Geh, he thought,
I hope this doesn’t stain my wings.
With a primal growl from Koveris and a warcry from Fenis, the two Mycabri exited the ship, intent on securing the area. Koveris bypassed the stunned human, heading straight for a vantage point of the target building. Fenis, on the other hand, ran straight up to the human and demanded that he surrender.
Kaden glanced back at Liz with another raised eyebrow. She merely flashed her fangs at him and drew her sidearm – a beautifully handcrafted Grayhawk. Kaden took a brief moment to admire the instrument of death, knowing it was his species’ technology and the Mycabri tenacity that made it such a prime tool to possess.
The sound of Fenis’ assault rifle firing quickly brought Kaden back to the present. He mentally chided himself for losing focus.
Never going to make Seraph if you keep doing that, he thought to himself as he quickly brought his own sidearm up to play. Quickly scanning the area, his sharp eyes immediately caught sight of Fenis’ target – the two aerial interceptors that had been harassing them, coming in fast.
Dane sighed once again, as the corporate thug checked her ident-card and then looked to her again.
Yeah, she thought as he checked for a fifth time,
it’s a bad picture, I know.
“Huh. Bad pic, ain’t it?” the very large, and slightly intimidating, Brute said to her as he handed back the ident-card.
“Really? I didn’t think so.” Dane replied innocently, batting her eyelashes at the Gene-Spliced in front of her. The heavily muscled guard stammered for a moment, as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, avoiding the pilot’s gaze.
“Uh, well, I guess you check out, er, well, mostly. I mean, that is your picture, and, well…” the Brute's voice trailed off as his brain stopped sending information to his mouth.
“Relax. I’ve done this route for the past two years, and Gordon can vouch for me personally. Can I go get a cup of coffee now?” Dane asked. The Brute merely nodded his head and stepped aside, allowing Dane to pass.
Kaden dove to the side, using the deceased miner’s corpse for cover, as the aerial interceptors strafed his general area for a second time, kicking the red-orange dirt into the air.
Frag, they’re getting closer, Kaden thought to himself as he hauled himself to his feet and glanced a look to the rest of the team. Fenis was leaning out from behind the minimal cover offered by the building’s awning and firing his assault rifle wildly, killing nothing but air molecules, as the two aerial interceptors rocketed out of range.
Koveris was taking up position a good thirty feet from the target building’s entrance, and Liz was just about to breach that with a running shoulder to the plastic door. Kaden allowed himself a slight smile.
This is going to be quick and… Kaden’s smile turned to a slight frown as he saw Liz skid to a stop and look to the east. As he turned his own gaze that way, he felt the ground tremble slightly.
“Oh hell no….”
Artwork submitted by the immensely talented Walt "kroh" Robillard, premier artist for Sleep Dep Creations. Thanks Walt!
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