by John Shirley
“I love this cannon, Mordecai!” he yelled. “I wanta marry it!”
“Be some funny-looking kids,” Mordecai replied.
He looked into the pit again. Smoke rose and swirled, obscuring his view, but after a few seconds he was able to see that the Crusher had fallen on its port side—to the left—and there were gaping holes in the hull in several places. Even after falling into the great hole, the land vessel was huge, like a steel skyscraper, tipped over into a sinkhole. The superstructure was bent, twisted by collision. Mordecai saw movement in the darkness at the edges of the Sudden Canyon—the Tunnel Rats were already there, closing in around the periphery; they were clambering up rock formations to leap onto the Crusher. Rifle shots banged in the shadowy canyon, muzzle flashes strobe-lighting it up. He could see Reamers moving around down there in the hull’s breaches and on the slanted deck. There seemed to be quite a few survivors. He had a feeling that Reamus was too tough, and too prepared, not to be one of them.
Mordecai turned to Bloodwing and said, “Fly down there, watch for big enemies, anyone making their way up here. And see if you can find Daphne.”
Bloodwing said, “Errr!” and dove into the pit, spreading her wings to glide down over the wreckage.
Mordecai stood up and trotted back to the outrunner. On the way he saw an outrider parked an eighth of a kilometer out; he could just make out the shape of the Claptrap in it. The robot was just sitting out there, watching and waiting. The robot—and, in a way, Elenora Dufty.
At the outrunner Mordecai chose a new rocket launcher he’d bought from Marcus, a backpack full of ammo, a belt of grenades, a gas mask, and the corrosive SMG. He already had a machine pistol holstered on his hip.
Brick had moved the cannon right to the edge of Sudden Canyon and was firing Eridian blasts down into the pit, close to the incline that led to the wreckage, as Mordecai walked up to him. “Brick—you’re not shooting Tunnel Rats, I hope? They’re a weapon we’re using here, eliminating some of the Reamer sons of hives I’d have to kill.”
“Not shooting at them. But I want to.”
“Later, I’ll bet, we’ll have reason to. There’s no way they’re going to honor the treaty long. The rodent-faced sons of bitches are treacherous. If they come at you like they’re on the attack, then fine. Now what I brought that thing here for, mainly, besides frying giant pink worms, is to shoot a hole in the base of the superstructure. Probably Reamus is in there. And I don’t want to go through those gaps down there, where everything’s burning, unless I have to.”
“How’s this?” Brick fired at the superstructure, close to where it met the deck. The blast made a black mark on the metal. Brick kept firing, squinting, his tongue caught between his teeth as he concentrated, nailing the same spot over and over, till the metal turned red hot, then white hot. The cannon itself was overheating, waves of rippling air rising off it.
“Careful, don’t burn up the cannon. It could explode. We don’t know, we’re the first we know of to use the damn thing.”
“You wanna cut through that steel or not?” Brick kept firing and at last the metal buckled and then imploded, the detonation momentarily blowing away the smoke rising from the wreck.
“That’ll do ’er. Now let that thing cool off while I head down there and see if I can get in!”
Brick held his fire as Mordecai readied the rocket launcher and started down the slope. He skidded part of the way, and had to run the last few strides to make a poorer target, when someone shot at him from behind an overturned freight tram on the slanted deck.
The potshots went wide, kicking up dirt to his right, and Mordecai was below the firing line from the deck; then, hurrying along the gravel and dirt verge under the hull, he angled toward the prow. Fallen crusty gray-brown rock, made of a big shattered stalagmite column, was tumbled into a crooked accidental staircase up to the deck. Mordecai ran toward the staircase of fallen rock—and then spun to his right when a black arrow flashed past him from that direction. He glimpsed a Tunnel Rat, face hidden in a gas mask, coming at him with a crossbow in its hands. The arrow struck the hull and exploded, too close to Mordecai for comfort, the shock wave knocking him down. He rolled, letting go of the rocket launcher, and pulled his machine pistol. “We’re supposed to be allies, you damned fool!” Mordecai said.
The Tunnel Rat jeered, “Food cannot be my ally! The Chief Engineer said if we saw you—we could kill you, too! You are a lower creature, a meat creature!”
The Tunnel Rat aimed the crossbow at him—and then Bloodwing was swooping down, slashing at the Rat’s eyes. In the back of his mind, Mordecai noticed something odd—that Bloodwing wasn’t screeching, as she usually did, to get the target’s attention.
The Tunnel Rat screamed as Bloodwing popped out his eye, and Mordecai shot the mutant in the belly, tearing him up with one long burst. So much for the Tunnel Rat treaty.
The Tunnel Rat fell dying, and Bloodwing flapped over to Mordecai as he stood up, landing on his shoulder.
“How come you’re so quiet? Oh—I see . . .” Bloodwing had something clamped in her beak. Mordecai reached up and tugged a piece of paper from his pet’s beak. “Is that a note? First time you ever brought me one.” He unfolded it, and despite the desperate haste of the lettering, he instantly recognized Daphne’s handwriting:
M—I’m at aft of Crusher, outside pinned down
Where R you?
Daphne
“She’s alive!” Mordecai blurted. “Can you believe that, Bloodwing?” He holstered the pistol and picked up the rocket launcher. “Let’s go find her!”
He heard the crackling whistle of the Eridian cannon as, carried along by a sudden feeling of elation, he jumped up the staircase of fallen stone. He saw burning pulses fired down to hit the gunman on his left, the man crouching behind the overturned tram. The Reamer couldn’t even get off a scream before the pulse blew him into a fountain of boiling blood.
“Damn, Bloodwing, look at that. One shot. Let’s try not to get into Brick’s line of fire when he’s blasting away with that cannon.”
They got to the deck, which was angling down steeply as a playground slide. There was nothing for it but to slide down the deck, and that’s when four of Reamus’s men came into view around the base of the superstructure, walking along the uneven inner railing of the Crusher’s port side. They opened up on him, missing because a sliding man makes a bad target. But Mordecai didn’t miss. He fired one shell into their midst and it blew two of them, shields sparking, off the vessel, blew another apart, and knocked down the fourth.
Mordecai jumped to his feet when he got to the railing, ran along it as if it were a steel mesh sidewalk toward the aft. The survivor of the four Reamers got up just in time to receive the muzzle of the rocket launcher in his chops as Mordecai swung it like a club. He felt the crunch of the man’s skull collapsing and ran past him, firing another shell toward two more Reamers at the back of the superstructure, blowing them off the deck.
“Gotta be careful, I don’t wanta hit Daphne by accident, Bloodwing,” Mordecai said.
He came to a place where the sloping deck was torn up, the slanting plane of steel on his left interrupted by a twisted flower-petal shape of jagged metal around the blast zone. Flame-ammo rounds fired up at him from below deck and burned past Mordecai’s deck. He fired three shells down into the hole, the explosions lighting up the men below as they were flung against the bulkheads.
Then he had passed the rupture in the deck and found himself at the aft of the Crusher.
There was no sign of Daphne.
Mordecai strapped the rocket launcher over his back, bringing the SMG into play, then looked again over the aft rail of the tilted land vessel. Still no sign of Daphne. Several freshly dead Tunnel Rats were sprawled on the stone floor below. He saw no one alive.
“Hey, dumbass, are you blind or what?”
Mordecai turned sharply to his right, raising the submachine gun—but holding his fire. That’d been Daphne’s voice
, and she had sounded surprisingly unfriendly. “Daphne?”
A gust of subterranean breeze cleared smoke away, and there she was, hunkered with some guy wearing a gas mask, behind a pile of rocks. Daphne’s gas mask was pushed back on her head. She looked bruised, disheveled, angry, and tired. “You going to rescue me or not?” she called. Was she joking? But she wasn’t smiling.
“Hey—I’ve been trying to since I saw you last!”
“Yeah? You took your time! I had to bust out on my own! Bigjaws nearly ate my feet!”
“I saw his body . . . and Jasper’s . . .”
“You going to get me up out of here?”
“Just a second.” He had heard boot steps behind him; he spun and fired almost point-blank at a one-armed Reamer-uniformed Bruiser Psycho coming at him with an axe in his hand. “Be my bleedentine, darling!” the Psycho bellowed. Mordecai had to duck to his right so the axe hit the railing and not him. A burst from the corrosive SMG punched eight acid-burn rounds in the Bruiser’s belly. The Psycho screamed and giggled at once; Mordecai swipe-kicked his adversary’s legs out from under him, and the Bruiser fell on his back, convulsing in death.
“Mordecai?” Daphne called out. “Can you spare a moment for me?”
“Yeah, uh, look, baby, I almost got brained by an axe up here.” He looked at the bodies of the Tunnel Rats. “You kill those scumbags?”
“Naturally! You sure weren’t here to do it! But I’m outta ammo and there’s more of the bastards coming!”
“Who’s that with you?”
“Just get me up there!”
“Hold on . . .” He found a loose cable and drooped it over the railing, holding on to his end. It wasn’t far down to Daphne, with the tilt of the ship, and she quickly clambered up. The man with her came up more laboriously. She and Mordecai had to reach down and help him onto the deck.
The stranger pulled off his gas mask. “Fluron!” Mordecai burst out. “Daphne, you know who this guy is?”
Mordecai raised the submachine gun—then remembered he’d fired the entire clip.
“Yeah, I do, and don’t shoot him,” Daphne growled, looking around. “He’s a friend of mine.”
“A friend of yours? He works for Reamus!”
“Not anymore!” Fluron said, holding up his hands palms outward. “I promise!”
Mordecai snorted. “Okay, if Daphne vouches for you.” He slapped a new clip into the SMG and gave it to Daphne, along with several grenades. He unstrapped his rocket launcher and nodded to them. “Come on. I’ve got to get you two out of this hole before I take Reamus down.”
“Reamus is alive?” Daphne asked, as they returned along the rail walk toward the prow. “You’d think most everyone’d be dead in this wreck by now.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he were alive,” Fluron said. “He’s liable to be in his Living Armor. That’ll protect him from almost any kind of damage.”
“What Living Armor?”
But before Fluron could reply, five Tunnel Rats came into view around the corner of the superstructure, sliding down the slanted deck.
“Yo!” Mordecai shouted, as the Tunnel Rats got to their feet on the railing and turned crossbows and shotguns their way. “I’m working with the Chief Engineer! We’re allies! If you’re looking for food, head belowdecks! There’s dozens of ’em down there just waiting to be—”
That’s all he got out before they opened fire.
A crossbow bolt slashed past Mordecai’s face, exploding on the deck behind him, and another buzzed overhead. Bloodwing was already in the air, darting down, distracting the Tunnel Rats. The Rats’ shotgunner was running toward them, raising the weapon. Daphne opened fire, catching the shotgunner with a double handful of corrosive rounds before the man could fire. The Tunnel Rat spun and fell, shrieking as its skin bubbled away in green steam.
The other four were standing near two fallen but intact barrels marked with the insignia for toxic explosives. Mordecai shouted at Bloodwing to return; she flapped back to him as he fired at the barrels, the rocket hitting the deck just in front of them, splash effect detonating both containers. A green-tinged double fireball erupted, incinerating the remaining Tunnel Rats.
“I always wondered if that’d really work,” Fluron said.
“Works if you manage not to blow yourself up with it,” Daphne said. She reloaded the SMG and led the way along the railing.
As they went, she sketched her escape from Gunsight for Mordecai, and he told her what had been delaying him. But she didn’t seem inclined to forgive him. She just looked at him and shook her head.
Mordecai could hear the distinct sound of the Eridian cannon going off, firing intermittently—Mordecai wasn’t sure what Brick was firing at.
They gave the ruptures in the deck a wide berth, and saw no more Tunnel Rats or Reamers. But they could hear them.
The Tunnel Rats had entered the lower gashes in the Crusher’s hull, overwhelming the few surviving Reamers with sheer numbers. The Reamers shouted in panic; shouts became screaming . . .
“Not a good time to be belowdecks,” remarked Fluron, swallowing hard.
They went on, soon reaching the prow of the ship. Not waiting for the others, Daphne climbed over the rail, jumped on the stone stairway, and made her way to the slope leading up to the edge where Brick stood beside the smoking cannon, his fists on his hips. The steep incline was littered with the fried bodies of Tunnel Rats—some of them were just splashes of flesh and blood, recognizable only by bits of gear.
Mordecai hurried to catch up with her. “You’re alive . . . kinda,” Brick said, as she ran puffing up to him.
“I know I don’t look like I’m alive, but I am,” Daphne said, dryly, as she joined him. “Whew!” She pointed at the cannon. “What is that thing?”
“Eridian cannon . . . Mordecai, you take care of the cannon. I’m gonna go down and kill some Tunnel Rats. They came at me like we had no deal! I’m gonna make the bastards pay!”
“Suit yourself, but it’s not worth the trouble, if you ask me—being as Daphne’s alive.”
“Not smart to let Reamus live,” Brick said.
He was right about that, Mordecai figured. “But there’s a good chance he’s dead . . .”
“We should get out of here,” Fluron said, joining them, eyes wide with fear. “I think I hear the Get Clear siren.”
“The what?” Mordecai heard it then, a whining siren from deep within the wreck of the Crusher.
“I’m going to the outrunner,” Fluron said. “Daphne? Coming?”
“Yeah. I’ve had enough.”
She and Fluron started toward the outrunner—Mordecai turned to Brick to suggest they go, too—
And then, in the wreckage of the Crusher, something emerged from the big gap Brick had burned in the superstructure. It barely fit through the gap, squeezing out, and then standing.
It was Reamus, his body below his chest hidden within a carapace of stainless steel, glimmering with a translucent purple shield. The carapace, Reamus’s Living Armor, was supported on six jointed metal legs, each leg ending in sharp steel talons, the limbs computer-enhanced to be as dexterous as any insect’s. An energy cannon jutted on the upper edge of the armor, at the level of Reamus’s bare chest. He had steel-gauntleted hands clamped on the swiveling cannon, and his other two hands each clasped an explosive-round shotgun.
There was blood on his face—he’d been injured in the wreckage. But not injured enough.
“Looks like we burned an exit out of that wreck for him,” Brick said, stepping behind the Eridian cannon. “Just as well. I don’t like to leave an enemy unkilled.”
“Yeah. Bloodwing—go back there and do what you can to protect Daphne!”
“Errr!” she responded, and leapt into the air.
Mordecai glanced back at Daphne. She and Fluron were hurrying over to the outrunner. Maybe she’d get on its turret and join the fight. He hoped so. He had a feeling they’d need all the help they could get.
&
nbsp; Reamus confirmed the feeling, stalking quickly off the slanted deck and up the incline toward them, climbing steadily.
• • •
At the outrunner, Daphne settled into the driver’s seat, Fluron beside her. He found a couple of med hypos under a seat and gave them each some. As strength came back into her, and Bloodwing circled over them cawing, she thought about going back to help Mordecai.
Then a woman’s voice came on the ECHO. It was Moxxi. “Mordecai? It’s me, Moxxi! I got your frequency from Marcus! What do you say, big boy! I think it’s time you and me stop playing and got married! Come on back to Moxxi’s and we’ll get back to old times! You as much as admitted you wanted to! Even if that bitch is alive—you and me both know she’ll just kill you in her sleep one of these days!”
Daphne activated the ECHO. “Moxxi—have you been playing around with Mordecai?”
“Is that Daphne? My goodness, you are alive! As for Mordecai, he’s all mine, girl! May as well give him up!”
“He’s taken up with you? Really?”
“Really! Let me talk to him!”
“Kiss my ass, bitch!” Daphne snapped, cutting the connection.
“Let’s get out of here, Daphne!” Fluron said. “Reamus is coming outta that hole and you promised to help me get off this planet! Mordecai is Moxxi’s now—you heard her!”
She stared off toward Sudden Canyon . . . and made up her mind.
• • •
“You two! You did this!” Reamus roared. “You’re behind this cowardly destruction of my Crusher! I’ll tear you slowly to pieces for that!”
Brick fired the cannon, several quick pulses that struck Reamus on his chest and his armor—the shield held, weakening only slightly.
“Come and get some!” Brick roared defiantly.
Mordecai was aiming the rocket launcher down at Reamus—when the mutant let loose with a triple blast from his armament, one from each weapon, the shots triangulating on the cannon. The Eridian howitzer turned red hot and vibrated with the excessive energy. Brick swore and stepped back—then kicked the cannon down the hillside so that it rolled end over end toward Reamus.
