Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
PREVIOUSLY: While the pirates wait for their new transport ship, Rue and Garr take the girls sight seeing on Baralland. Laurine uses the opportunity to try to retake WHISPER while Red Klaw's men corner the rest of the pirates on the planet below...
Herrick and his juiced up gang of power junkies close in on Rue and Garr. Many of them have vision implants similar to Red Klaw's; they can easily see Fay and May square off, backs to Rue and Garr. The dirty streets of Baralland around them are suddenly deserted.
Herrick smiles to himself, killing these four will win him a great deal of favor with Red Klaw. He lunges at Rue, His movement sends everyone else into action.
Rue whips out a large gun and fires at Herrick, the bullets bounce harmlessly off of his mechanical torso.
Garr snatches the cane off of his back. He jerks the blade out just in time to drive it through the heart of the nearest attacker. He twists and jerks the staff back to slash at another thug. At the same time he swings his heavy tail, knocking two others off their feet.
Fay and May are a blur, even for those with enhanced vision. Their sharp hands and quick feet find deadly chinks between mechanical implants and flesh. Bodies begin to pile at their feet.
Herrick grabs at Rue, Rue feints to the side and shoots Herrick's knee. This part is all flesh, the big man wails as he crumples!
Garr cracks him in the head with his staff and Herrick falls silent. Another thug grabs Rue from behind, his mechanical hand clenches down onto Rue's throat. Rue reaches under his own arm to drive the barrel of his gun under the man's rib cage and pulls the trigger!
Garr's staff clangs loudly against the metal arms of another attacker. He spins and drives his blade up under the guy's chin, straight into his brain.
The girls have run out of attackers. Garr shakes his last opponent off his staff. Rue turns and levels his gun at the last of Herrick's juicers. The man looks suddenly terrified, he turns and bolts off down the street.
As they catch their breath, the pirates scan the carnage. Fay asks, "Friends of yours?"
Rue kneels down next to Herrick's unconscious body. He grabs Herrick roughly by the hair and lifts his head so that they can all see the three claw marks branded into the back of his neck.
"Friends of Red Klaw." Rue says grimly. "C'mon, we need to get back to WHISPER. Let's see if Kross is finished with our ship yet." He gets up and leads the others quickly back to the loner ship.
Meanwhile on WHISPER, Val snatches his gun from his quarters and races back to the lift. He gently pops a component back into the control panel and the power in the lift lights up. He punches the "level 2" button, quietly the lift drops back down to the bridge level. Before he exits, Val pulls the component out of the control panel again, the power blinks out.
On his way to the bridge, Val glances over the railing to the cargo bay. It's empty, Laurine is gone. He stops to do a double take. He hurries to the railing to scan the cargo bay. Her helmet lays discarded near the wall, but she's nowhere to be seen.
"Crap!" Val hesitates, with the lift disabled, there's no way she could have gotten out of the cargo bay. Maybe he should just open the air-locks down there and let her get sucked into space.
Val turns to run onto the bridge. He's sure Laurine's hiding some where down there waiting for him to come back, he has to flush her out!
He runs past the captain's chair and trots down the stairs in front of it. As he reaches the gunnery deck a strange scrapping noise reaches his ears. He pauses at the top of the stairs to the cockpit to pinpoint the sound.
It seems to be coming from the back wall. With his curiosity pushing his plan out of his head, Val moves closer to the wall. Suddenly there is a clang. A panel in the wall slides to the side, Laurine stands behind it.
Startled, they stare at each other for an instant. Then they both grab for their guns. With her cumbersome space suit on, Val has the advantage. He shoots.
Laurine dives back into the shaft behind the panel. Val follows her, he can see engine components behind her, he restrains himself from shooting again.
Laurine shoots at him. Bullets ricochet past him and lodge into the back of a gun seat. Val dives into the shaft, he scurries along the floor searching for cover.
Laurine turns and runs back in the direction she came. They are at the head of WHISPER'S whip drive, if she gets into a firefight here and damages something on this proto-type, Red Klaw will kill her. She decides to take this fight back to the cargo bay and finish it there.
Not wanting to loose sight of his intruder, Val scrambles back to his feet and races after her. She scampers down a steep set of metal utility stairs into a cramped room that houses a massive power generator. It looks like it's crammed right up behind WHISPER'S nose.
A long power conduit stretches away from this toward WHISPER'S tail. Laurine races along side of it, her heavy boots clang loudly on the metal gangway. Not too far down, the gangway splits, a set of stairs, only half as long as the last ones but just as steep, lead back up to the cargo bay. The other half of the gangway accompanies the power conduit as it disappears into a dark tunnel.
As Laurine leaps for the stairs, Val sees a clean shot, he takes it. The bullet rips just past her shoulder and skiffs harmlessly off the handrail. She heaves herself up the stairs and lunges for the door.
Val is almost half way down the gangway when she disappears into the cargo bay. He races after her.
When he reaches the door, he pokes his head out cautiously. He is just in time to see Laurine disappear into the port side battle bay. He shoots.
She dives into the bay, rolls, and skitters back to the door to return fire. Val ducks back into the whip drive access shaft, bullets pepper the wall of the cargo bay above him.
This crazy woman is shooting the hell out of his ship, she can’t do that! He lifts his gun up and takes a deep breath. As he exhales, he slips over to the other side of the door so that he can almost see the battle bay. He barely sees the top of her head as she tries to peer around the corner.
"Why don't you throw the gun down and come out...?" She calls to him.
He snickers quietly, as if! But, he steps slowly into view, with his gun in hand, hanging loosely at his side he walks openly toward her.
Laurine is caught off guard, she hadn't really expected that to work. She leans out to shoot.
Val whips his gun up and opens fire! Three shots; one sails wide into the battle bay, one lodges into the wall at the battle bay entrance. The third bullet flies straight into Laurine's throat, just below her chin.
As Val's bullet rips through her throat, it impacts the tiny bomb implanted there in Red Klaw's brand. It explodes! With a brief POP, Laurine's head disintegrates.
Val jumps! He in no way expected that! His jaw hangs open as he watches Laurine's headless body crumple.
The crackle of his wrist com startles him, "Val! Are you there? Are you okay?" Rue's voice squawks.
Val shakes himself back to his senses, as he turns toward the aft of the cargo bay he speaks into his com, "Y-yeah, I'm here."
"We're going to Kross's to get the S2S, we'll be there as soon as we can." Rue tells him.
"Okay." Val responds. He reaches the controls for the cargo bay and flips the switch for the massive doors in the floor. While they slowly open, he walks over to Laurine's body.
At the edge of this solar system, there is a flash as several mean looking ships drop out of hyper space. While Val drags Laurine's body toward the cargo bay door, Red Klaw and his armada fire up their sensors to search for WHISPER...
...To Be Continued.