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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dougal DeKree" data-source="post: 2632226" data-attributes="member: 1353">06 - Harm set, harm get.“Let me introduce us, Chraron. These are Rico, our pilot and Dodger, our weapons expert. I am Boris, a diplomat of our company.”“An armed diplomat? You are used to heated arguments then, I presume?” “I can care for my own in a conflict, but heating things is really Martha’s field of expertise…” Boris replied with a glance at the heavy flamer they had left back at the shuttle.“Oh, and that picture of misery is Frank, a scientist. He is crying since we saw your ship – he believes that the universe is out to kill him. Which brings me back to topic number one. I think that the survivors of the crash will come here to take control of the shuttle.”“Oh yes, and there will be survivors. You stained their honour and that is something they will never forgive. It’s them or us now.”Boris nodded in agreement, relieved that his instincts seemed to work, too, when it came to aliens. On the other hand every new race they had met yet was not too different from his own. But that was something he could ponder about later. First of all, they had to prepare.“I say we set up a trap for them. They’ll come from the side and try to surprise us…”“No.” the Tulgar interrupted. “When their anger is burning, they won’t go about this logically. They will come here directly.”“Boss, she’s the expert, so let’s prepare for a direct assault. It’ll make things easier.” Martha spoke out on that.“Very well, you two are my fighting experts. We’ll dig in grenades in their direction, one every ten meters. Everyone keeps two grenades for emergencies. Then we’ll improvise some cover and then we wait for someo… thing to appear. Frank, you are on watch, so that we won’t be taken by surprise. Everyone got that? Go!”They worked frantically for the next couple of minutes, digging holes, camouflaging grenades and building makeshift cover.---“Freeze!” M’rrol roared.His plan had worked perfectly. He had known that choosing patience over instinct would be the key for success here. He had split his team into three groups of 3 Falar each, and ordered them to sneak to a designated position to wait for his signal. His team was on the starboard of the shuttle, the second team had crept near from portside and the third had snuck up from the rear. All were armed with assault blasters and wore combat armour.“You have vanquished Prrrl’Mur. Impressive, for monkeys. Thank you for doing my work for me. Now, lay down your weapons and…”A large detonation ripped the next words from his maw. One of the buried grenades had exploded as a Falaris of the second team had left his position in anticipation of their victory and stepped on it. When his torso fell to the ground, twitching, the dying soldier pulled the trigger of his blaster.Chaos ensued.Two humans dove for cover,  one fiddled about with a grenade and one turned in his direction and opened fire with a machine gun. At the same time the Tulgar – M’rrol couldn’t remember the name, but it certainly would include honour at some spot – turned towards the team at the shuttles rear and charged with her sword held high.His troops, however, were experienced soldiers and lost no time to return fire. Some of their shots managed to hit the humans despite of their cover, and the one wielding the machine gun was hit twice.Still they were standing and fought back. The Tulgar had already disarmed two opponents, literally, the second team was covered with suppressive fire and his new security officer lay dying in front of him for all the exoskeleton combat armor he wore. Obviously this machine gun was loaded with HEAP* ammunition.“Enough is enough!” the imperial captain thought as he lost his temper.“FOR THE JERONAN EMPIRE! CHARGE!”Another explosion cracked in his ears, accompanied by a huge ball of flame near the shuttle. That stupid human had dropped the primed grenade at his feat, close to the flamer – the result tasted like BBQ with napalm. Well, he wouldn’t pass on his genes, for sure. M’rrol couldn’t help but be amused by this display of inferiority.---Lt. Rico felt the immense heat at his back. When he turned around, he saw the charred corpse of Frank fall to the ground, immolated in the flaming liquid Martha’s flamethrower used.“Frank is dead! Wait what’s that…” he saw something small and white speed into the shuttle, but before getting a closer look, a blaster shot tore apart his left shoulder. “Medic!”“We have no medics, Rico, keep shooting!” Dodger replied as she felled another opponent with a burst from her gun. “Look at that charging cat, it’s huge! Must be the lea…” The captains blaster shot perforated her right lung and Dodger fell, unconscious and bleeding.For Boris time seemed to slow down. His team members out of action and a huge charging lion he needed to decide fast on what to do. “Chraron! Behind you!” with that, he turned and threw his last grenade towards the attackers coming from port.---Chraron heard the shout and finished her duty. Three cats unconscious, three weapon arms severed. These would pose no more problems. She turned and saw the captain slow down 30m away from her. He grinned and raised his assault blaster. She could see right into the guns barrel. “He’s too far away” she thought.---The pain! It felt like some red-hot crowbar plunged into her chest. Martha could see the ground fall towards her and then - she was standing upright, an assault blaster in her…claws(?!) and could see the captains back. Also she could see herself lying on the ground, her blood flowing freely.“What the f***?! Ah, if this is my last dream I must savor it!” Martha Dodger said aloud, aimed at the lionmans exposed back and pulled the trigger. The weapons switch was set to “automatic fire”. He had no chance.---Rico grew weaker with every second due to blood loss. When he heard Dodger uttered something that sounded like “meow” he blamed his blood loss. Then he could see two feet – obviously not human. When he looked up he could see a grinning tigers head. The Falaron aimed at his head and...suddenly Rico was sitting behind the shuttles flight controls, throttle in his…claw? A glance in the mirror above him showed the Falaris pilot that had brought them down, but he knew that was him now.Whatever had happened, Rico was quick at adjusting to new situations. He checked the sensors, floored the throttle and let the shuttle leap forward. In the process one Falar standing near the shuttles exhausts was turned to ashes before Rico squashed the cat (that had just shot him) with the shuttles landing gear.---“So you say you are Martha?”“Yes” answered the lynx stock Falaron in perfect Terran. “But please call me Dodger, Martha is lying over there, dead. I always knew I would die when my flamer explodes!” Dodgers new grin was even more unnerving than her old one. Those fangs!“And you are Rico?” Boris looked at the small Falaris pilot.“Yessir. I don’t know what happened, but I think it’s cool – my reflexes are far better than before! Plus I now know how to speak Falar!”Boris sighed and turned towards the Oort. “Then you are Frank, I guess?”“Hairless monkey! Why should I call myself Frank? You talk as stupid as your species usually is!” the translator told Boris.“Hmm, well, I’m ok with that. So we only have one loss and defeated all survivors of that ship. A good result I’d say! Well done, team! Let’s fly to the wreck.”“After arming yourselves and collecting the trophies of this skirmish, of course?” Chraron asked. “You wouldn’t leave military equipment behind, would you?”Boris shook his head. “Of course not! Let’s get to work then. Oh, is looting okay for your codex, Chraron?”“Since we defeated them in battle, their equipment is now rightfully in our possession. Apart from that I will not use Falar equipment, but I don’t mind if you do.”“Please tell us, if there is anything you would like to have. We are in your debt!” Boris bowed towards the Tulgar and began collecting everything of interest.After retrieving the remaining grenades and looting the fallen they buried the three human corpses and left for the site where the Rapid Claw had crashed.---* HEAP = High Explosive Armor Piercing</blockquote>

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