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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5007229" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 9 (June 9, 2008)Chapter 30Catalina opened fire with her laser, but while she scored a hit, the beam merely drew a dark line across the snakeman’s torso, inflicting little apparent damage.  She got its attention, and had to dive for cover behind a tree as the alien shifted its rifle in her direction.  Two shots lanced past the tree, but a third scored a direct hit, exploding the trunk in a cascade of wood splinters and knocking Catalina roughly to the ground. Vasily roared as he emerged out of the swamp behind the snakeman, the stun rod in his hands, its tip flickering with electrical energy.  The snakeman turned to shoot him, but he intercepted the sweeping barrel of its rifle with the bole of the staff, knocking it down and away before sweeping the weapon into the creature’s face.  There was an electrical surge as dancing blue tendrils of energy enveloped the creature’s head, then it crumpled in a heap at the Russian’s feet. “GOT YOU!” Vasily yelled.  Jane and Buzz ran to help James and Catalina.  The medic had gotten clear of the burning bush, suffering only some minor burns in the process.  Catalina was a bit unsteady for a moment, but she quickly recovered, joining the others as they looked down at the stunned alien. “Damn,” James said, bending to examine it more closely.  “Let’s get this back to the ship and into cold storage.”  Vasily tried to lift it, but couldn’t manage to raise more than half of its bulk from the mud.  “Heavy,” he panted.“We’ve got to secure this alien,” James insisted.  “It’s different than the other one, and new.”Catalina and Jane were looking over the crashed alien ship—from a respectable distance—with Catalina adjusting the controls on the motion sensor.  The ship was a small scout, only slightly larger than the wreck they’d captured in the northern deserts of Mexico.  This one, however, was more intact, its landing perhaps cushioned by the trees and sodden ground of the swamp.  “Something, possibly inside,” she reported, although the display on the device was hazy with interference from the alien wreck.  Vasily bound the alien with cables taken from his pack, fastening its jaw and binding its arms tightly to its torso.  “Okay, is secure,” he said.  “If we find power supply in alien ship, I buy everyone drink, okay?”“We can come back here and deal with the ship later,” James said.  Catalina and Jane had edged forward.  They found a hatch in the back of the alien craft, which was cracked slightly open.  Vasily shrugged at James.  “I think everyone keen to neutralize alien inside,” he said, standing and joining them.  James sighed, and after giving the alien a quick check to verify that it was not going to revive in the immediate future, rose and followed them.  “Bad choice, guys,” he muttered to himself.  Vasily and Jane got the hatch fully open, and the Russian led the way inside.  There was a cloying cloud of smoke in the air, and they wore their gas masks, giving them the look of aliens themselves as they moved forward into the main compartment.  The ship was too small to offer much room to hide, and the snakeman pilot greeted them with a blast from a plasma pistol.  Vasily was hit in the shoulder and fell back; laser fire from him and from Jane blasted through the crowded compartment.  At that range, either side could hardly miss, but the odds were against the alien.  Less than ten seconds after Vasily had first entered the ship, the alien lay sprawled across the controls, blackened streaks covering its body from a dozen hits.  Vasily, on the other hand, could barely stand, grimacing as he tested a leg that had been struck by another of the plasma bolts.  “You’re a bit messed up, big fella,” Catalina said.  “I just fine,” the Russian said, limping as he made he way back out of the ship.  Buzz slipped in past him, moving forward to check out the ship’s controls.  He grimaced as he pulled the snakeman free of the command console, letting it slump to the floor of the ship. James was there to meet Vasily as he came out of the ship.  He attended to the injury in his shoulder, the worse of the two hits he’d taken.  “Your wound doesn’t look so hot,” he said, opening up his medical satchel.  “Wound never do,” he said, settling back against one wing of the alien craft. “Power systems seem destroyed,” Buzz’s voice came over his communicator.  “How is ship?” Vasily asked. “Well, the power source is down and it is not going to fly for a while.”“Then we go back to Skyranger now,” Vasily said.  He waited for James to finish applying a pressure bandage to his blackened shoulder, then pushed himself up to his feet, wavering slightly before stabilizing.  “Come on, let’s grab that alien and get back.”</blockquote>

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