by DJ Morand
“Now!” Abel called and the three opened their eyes and drew their weapons. Abel drew his two pistols and raised both arms on opposite sides of him, letting the purple-red plasma bolts burst from his guns. Two soldiers, one on either side of the trio, fell immediately crying out in pain with plasma burns on their faces.
Zee dropped to one knee, shrinking his silhouette considerably, and drawing his rifle out in a single motion. He squeezed the trigger and a rapid fire of projectiles pounded into another soldier tearing through his legs and clothing exposing him to the elements. The cries of pain rose as the cold settled in. Echo drew her pistol and aimed for Mercury. She squeezed the trigger. The plasma blared hot as it lanced out towards her target and then abruptly ceased as it hit some sort of energy field surrounding the Lt. Colonel.
“Don’t think it will be that easy Abel!” Mercury called out. Still shielding his eyes but recovering quickly. Mercury moved around behind the rocks again and drew his own plasma pistol. He fired back at the trio as Abel and Zee took cover behind the front canopy of the Snowskipper. Echo followed suit shortly after. Hunkered down behind the vehicle Abel looked to Zee.
“How many?” the captain asked through panting breaths.
“I count two downed by plasma, another by rail. That leaves four including Mercury.” Echo replied instead.
“Roger. Give me some cover, Zee.” Zee nodded and leaned over the Snowskipper firing off his rifle in rapid succession. Abel bolted from behind the vehicle to a nearby rock. He missed that one of the soldiers had already moved behind the rock.
Abel and the soldier looked at each other in a moment of shock. Abel acted first and kicked the man between the legs with as much force as he could muster. As the soldier went down Abel pulled the trigger on his left pistol putting a plasma round into the back of his skull.
“Zee!” Abel called out. “Another one down.” Zee heard the Captain call out over the gunfire and laid down another barrage at the rocks where the rest of the soldiers and Mercury were hiding. He could hear Abel’s plasma pistols blasting as well.
The trio was nearly a fair match with their attackers. Zee held his fire for a moment, hoping to give the impression he was out of ammo. One soldier took the bait and Echo shot him in the leg. The sizzle of the plasma round could almost be heard over the chaos of the firefight.
“Zee! We need to kill that emitter! You have a location!?” Abel called over the raging battle.
“Working on it now Captain.” Zee called back. As he leaned back against the Snowskipper with one hand pressed to the side of his head.
“Work faster Zee!” Abel called as let another salvo fly from behind his rock as chunks of rock flew past his head heated with the plasma of his enemies.
“Definitely faster!” Abel said. Zee merely nodded as he continued the scan of the area, maps and landscapes blazed through his mind. A few short seconds later an image of a small cylindrical object, with a few lights flashing on it, appeared in his mind.
“Ten meters to the north-northwest Captain. It is giving off a good deal of interference so it may not be wholly accurate.” Zee called.
“Zee, that is right through their line of fire!” Abel grumbled.
“So it is.” Zee stated matter-of-factly, not seeing the issue.
“Give me some cover you two!” Abel called to Echo and Zee.
A moment later he heard the combination of Zee’s rail bolts slamming into rock and the high pitch whine of the plasma pistol Echo was wielding. A second later both guns went silent and Abel bolted from his location, diving and engaging the propulsion jets on his belt. The jets were not meant to be propulsion for body sledding, but they managed the job well enough. Abel slid across the ice and snow like a seal.
Originally, he had installed the jets on his belt to enhance a leap if he needed. They would burn out quickly. If he didn’t reach the emitter before then he would be in the open without any hope of escaping, let alone shutting off the emitter. He quickly rolled to his left and slid on his back another meter before he lost momentum. The left jet failed before the right and it spun him in a tight spiral before he regained his bearings. Abel sat up feeling the damp snow starting to melt into his clothing.
Great, wet and cold in this tundra, he thought sardonically. With his clothing wet, his nanites would have a hard time of warming his body without burning off some sort of intake. He couldn’t remember when he had last eaten, but he was sure it wasn’’t today.
Abel sat up with both plasma pistols drawn and aimed for any enemy in sight. He saw none, but he could hear the firefight continuing in the distance. He scrambled to his feet and looked around for the emitter. He saw the small cylindrical object only a few steps away. He trained his pistols on the emitter and squeezed the triggers simultaneously.
The back-blast knocked him off his feet and he was sure part of his face was burning. He dropped his pistol and grabbed at his face. Feeling around he felt a piece of metal and the pain in his hand matched the pain in his face. He pulled a piece of plasma heated metal out of his eye socket and flung it away. He sunk his hand in the snow and grabbed a handful for his eye as well. The pain was excruciating as the plasma continued to sear his flesh.
“Flakking Glitch!” he screamed. He could hear dual Snowskippers starting up and he hoped that one of them was his own with Zee or Echo at the helm. He received a communication through his neural implant a moment later.
“Captain!?” It was Echo’s voice, she sounded genuinely concerned. “Ping your coordinates if you are getting this. Mercury took off in his Snowskipper.” Abel grimaced, then sent the ping. He felt like he’d been launched a kilometer, everything ached and while his nanites were working to repair his flesh he felt weak.
“Where … Zee?” He managed to send before the pain arched across his head and blackness took him.
* * *
Eden - Badlands: Silence Territory
2972 ESD - Thursday, November 5th 14:31 hours
“Well flak, Mercury. Why don’’t you just have us close our eyes and execute us on the spot?” Echo recognized the command and slammed her eye lids shut. Even with her eyes closed she could see the blinding flash of light.
A second later she could hear the whine of Abel’s pistols and the rattle of Zee’s rail rifle. She lifted her own weapon in sync with the opening of her eyes and squeezed the trigger. Bright purple-red plasma bolts barked from it and arced towards her enemies. The bolt blazed towards a horribly thin man with ragged facial hair and a menacing look in his eye. A smaller flash burst around him as the bolt connected with some sort of shield.
“Don’t think it will be that easy Abel!” the man cried in a fury. Echo squeezed the trigger again, firing in a flurry. The man ducked behind the rocks as the bolts connected with the stone and broke off chunks, the plasma clinging to the surface. The man dove out and returned fire as she scrambled back behind the Snowskipper with Zee.
“How many?” Abel asked, panting.
“I count two downed by plasma, another by rail. That leaves four including Mercury.” Echo said, not realizing Abel had been talking to Zee.
“Roger. Give me some cover, Zee.” Echo heard Abel emphasize to Zee. She watched him dive behind a rock and Zee opened fire into the enemy ranks. His shots weren’t effective in killing anymore of the soldiers, but they gave enough cover for Abel to dive behind a large stone. A moment later she heard the whine of his plasma pistol.
“Zee!” Abel shouted over the enemy fire. “Another one down.” Echo grinned, then gritted her teeth. Abel and Zee appeared to have a close friendship, and she felt like a third wheel. She continued to take shots at Mercury and his goons from behind the Snowskipper. The whine of the plasma pistol, rang after each shot. The feeling was exhilarating. She loved the feeling of combat and the smell of freshly discharged plasma. She had never fought other humans before and this left her feeling a bit apprehensive about her own excitement in the face of this enemy.
Zee stopped and pulled back,
winking at her. She understood the ploy and watched for an enemy to come out from cover. One soldier did and she took aim and blasted him in the leg. She winced as the plasma sizzled. Echo ducked back behind her cover and shuddered at what she had done, more because she had enjoyed it.
“Zee! We need to kill that emitter! You have a location!?” she could hear Abel calling to the Quintarran.
“Working on it now Captain.” Zee gave her a look of concern. She gritted her teeth and gave the Quintarran a nod. She turned back to the battle and squeezed off a few more shots, as Zee sat back against the vehicle his hand to his head.
“Work faster Zee!” Abel bellowed as the whine of his blasters melded with her own as they both took shots at the enemy. She reveled in the shared comradery. “Definitely faster!”” she heard Abel yell again.
“Ten meters to the north-northwest Captain. It is giving off a good deal of interference so it may not be wholly accurate.” Zee was still holding the side of his head as if trying to block out the noise of battle and concentrate at the same time.
“Zee, that is right through their line of fire!” Abel complained.
“So it is.” The ever stoic Quintarran said calmly.
“Give me some cover you two!” she could hear Abel order.
Right away, she thought. She began firing her pistol with a renewed sense of vigor ensuring that the soldiers would be too fearful to rear their heads. A moment later, Abel was diving across her field of vision. She stopped shooting and watched in marvel as jets activated at his hips, launching him across the snow and ice like some kind of rocket propelled sled.
Echo shook her head at Abel’s acrobatics and took aim at the soldiers coming out in pursuit. With someone’s life, besides her own, on the line, she felt an instinctual need to protect, one tempered by her own rage in the heat of battle.
What has gotten into you E? Is this what a firefight always feels like? She took aim and downed one of the soldiers before he could finish pursuing Abel.
Maybe, it is worth it, she thought. Zee was firing as well, when a plasma bolt struck him in the upper shoulder. He didn’t even cry out in pain, he just spun back quickly and grabbed a handful of snow packing it into the wound. With grim determination Echo fired her pistol, killing the remaining soldier, just as a blazing fire erupted from the Captain’s location.
The Snowskipper flared to life again, the engine starting up as if it had just been idling. Echo helped Zee into the cockpit and shut the Transteel viewer. The viewer lit up with location schematics and provided relational data.
The landscape came into view on the holo-display and she began motioning across the screen entering in commands to locate the Captain. Echo located a signal that could possibly be Abel, just as she caught sight of Mercury’s Snowskipper taking off for the Border Towns.
“Flak it!” She cursed as she brought up the communications.
“Captain!?” Echo sent a communication to Abel’s neural implant. “Ping your coordinates if you are getting this. Mercury took off in his Snowskipper.”
A moment later she received a location, and a response. The landscape view lit up with a single dot, marking Abel’s location.
“Where … Zee?” Abel’s thoughts formed into the words on her screen.
“Captain? Zee is here, he’s safe. Captain?” There was no response, she looked to Zee and he shook his head, indicating he didn’’t know what had happened either. Echo feared the Captain had been shot or killed, so she drove to his location while tracking him on the Snowskipper’s view screen.
Abel had been flung nearly two hundred meters from the blast and it was a bit difficult to find him amidst the snow and debris. Once they reached him she noted that his left eye socket had been horridly burned and packed with snow. Echo couldn’t imagine the pain that would cause and how he had even managed to put anything against it.
She noticed too, while helping Zee put Abel into the vehicle, that his left hand was also badly burned. Though it looked considerably less so; probably his nanites, she thought. Once they loaded Abel into the Snowskipper they continued their course to the Border Towns. Not only did they need supplies for the ship, they needed a medic.
“Hang in there Abel. We’re getting you to safety.” She whispered in his ear as Zee piloted the vehicle. His wound had already healed over and he was near to one hundred percent. She considered seeing if she could get some Quintarran nanites, but she wasn’t sure if that was a good idea with the EXOs about.
“Zee, how much longer?” Echo asked softly.
“A matter of minutes Captain Shade. So long as we don’t hit another ambush.” Zee said with complete sincerity. Echo realized he was serious and began to worry about a second ambush. It had been the heroics of Abel that saved them from the first. That made twice she owed her life to the man.
BORDER TOWNS
Eden - Border Towns: Silence Territory
2972 ESD - Thursday, November 5th 15:40 hours
Mr. Breaker Jones sat back in his lazy chair. It was not much of a chair, the cloth was tattered and the recliner was horribly broken. It was not that he could not repair it; it was more that he did not care to. The chair was comfortable and he could sit in it and smoke a cigar without worrying about cinders or smoke damaging the chair. In truth, the chair was a glitching piece of crap and he liked it that way.
Mr. Jones, as everyone in The Silence called him, was a burly man in his middle years. The gray in his full beard overshadowed the stark black in striking contrast. He would rock in his chair and it would creak, but it was a sound that pleased him.
Mr. Jones was a leader, the head boss of The Silence gang. The Silence ruled this part of the Border Towns and made sure the people of the towns were kept safe from the influence of the inner city. He didn’t much care if someone left his town, but if they came back with ideas of a better life or grandeur –– he felt it was his duty, and the duty of The Silence to teach them a lesson.
Mr. Jones’ Monday had started off just fine - a cigar, a glass of brandy, and a woman. He never wanted more than these. Sure he ate his fill as any other man would, but that was a need, a necessity. He sat back in his lazy chair looking down at the curly blonde locks of a woman’s head in his lap. Yes, this was a fine Monday indeed.
Just as he was enjoying his last few draws on his cigar the front door of his parlor burst open. No one had knocked, or requested entry, they had just kicked the door open and disturbed his fine Monday.
“Wha’ de flak!?” He cursed as he pushed the woman off him and grabbed his plasma pistol off the table. He aimed the gun at the entry, where his door had been, and realized it had not been kicked open, but rather blasted open.
“Flakking glitch! My flakking door!? Seriously? Someone is gonna take heat for dat. Show yo’self!” His rough accent belied his upbringing in the poorer parts of Eden. He had been nothing but a street rat before fighting his way to the top and organizing The Silence. He was furious that anyone would try to attack him in his own home, let alone on this fine Monday.
“Calm yourself you overgrown child.” Mr. Jones recognized the voice of Mercury Frinz anywhere. It had been Mercury who put him on the track to becoming the kingpin of the Border Towns. No one messed with The Silence, because The Silence had connections.
“Oh for decency’s sake put some pants on!” Mercury cried as he noticed Mr. Jones was nude from the waist down. Mr. Jones looked down at himself and had forgotten the woman was still there on the floor.
“Go on git!” he said and the woman scrambled out from under the table where she had been hiding. Mr. Jones put his pistol back down on the table and grabbed a pair of rough-spun pants from the back of his lazy chair.
“Wha’ do yo’ want Mercury?” Mr. Jones said as he pulled his pants to his waist and pulled a fraying drawn string tight to keep his pants up. The folks in the city might have fancy self-adjusting clothing, but here in the Border Towns they still used cloth.
“Abel Cain is back on Eden.” Mercu
ry said with all the calm he could muster. Mr. Jones burst out with laughter – it was not a joyful type of laughter, instead it was bitter and cynical.
“Dat foo’ kin go where’ver he please. I doan want nuthin’ ta do wit’’ him again.” He said as he picked up his cigar from the floor.
He noted it probably had at least one good puff left in it, so he sat back down in his chair and reveled in the creak of his favorite chair. As he relit the cigar, he took a long draw and sighed contentedly as the smoke wafted out of his mouth and nostrils.
Mercury gave him a disgusted look. For centuries humanity had managed to squash the use of tobacco and other drugs. Sure, someone occasionally designed something new, but on the whole, addictive drugs were on a steep decline. The people of Eden, having to deal with the hardships they did, discovered how to turn certain funguses into a smoke-able product. Mercury had tried to discourage it, but had been met with a hardened resolve.
“Well, that is too bad Breaker.” Mr. Jones gave Mercury a look that could melt steel. No one called him Breaker anymore - he had earned Mr. Jones. “Remember I made you, and The Silence, I can unmake you just as easy.” Mercury sneered in obvious contempt.
“Dat so? Din unmake us.” Mr. Jones challenged, his hand itching to raise the pistol.
“Damnit Breaker!” this time Mr. Jones slammed his fist on the table and Mercury raised his plasma rifle aiming it at the hulk of a man. “Sit the flak down you flakking glitcher. You saw what I did to the door, you think you can take this heat?” Mercury challenged, a crazed look in his eye.
“Damnit Mercury! Wat de flak yo’ want? Las’ time we go up again’t de Kodiak we all got fried. I kin’t do dat again.” He was whining now. He knew it and so did Mercury. Mr. Jones had nearly died the last time Abel Cain had paid a visit to Eden, and a full third of his gang fell to the Kodiak’s guns.
