It took a second or two for them to realize what had just bounced into the room, but then the screams started. They didn't notice that the pins were still in the grenades, but then that's not what I'd be thinking about at a time like that either.
"GRENADE! GRENADE!"
"HOLY SHIT! AAAHHHH!"
The guy that had been to the side of the door bolted out without looking and ran right into K'rth and his Power Disk. The Shaktar straight-armed him and then hooked a strike that clipped the Interceptor under the chin and the blade growled like an electric razor as it hit and bit through. Again, I was thankful for my raincoat as the gout of blood from the headless body splattered onto my head and back of my neck. I kicked the falling body out of my way on its way down and handed K'rth his pistol as we dove in.
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" a man screamed from near the far wall, but he froze and made a nice target when he saw me. I swept the red dot onto his gut and fired, the round blasting open the armor of his lower chest and dropping him to his knees. He doubled up into a screaming ball as he tried to hold his insides in and I held back on a second shot. These bastards were going to suffer and I wasn't going to waste a round to make it easy for him to die. Around me, the wall was stained and sticky with gore and I counted at least three human-sized bodies that had been executed, but no Chagrin. Looking around like that was a distraction that nearly cost me.
The air near my arm snapped twice and I went prone, scrambling for cover behind what looked like a giant blood vessel. Another burst went wide, but then there was the shriek of K'rth's disk and the sound of it hitting pay dirt. Something wailed and died elsewhere in the room and I leaned around for a shot, looking for movement. The wall and the cover around me popped ap art as bullets tore into it and I ducked back, finding that I had been splattered with something wet. As I wiped it off my face, I saw that it was watery and white like paste and wondered if this meant the walls could bleed. I wasn't going to worry about it because it probably wasn't as toxic as the lead poisoning I might get and scrambled for better cover. Someone fired again and the rounds chopped up the floor, but at least I remembered to duck the spray this time. Even without the grenades going off, we were sure tearing up the landscape.
K'rth fired back and I leaned around low when I heard someone running. There was a passage on the far side and I sited in to peg it and wait. There's a good reason that doorways are called vertical coffins and I dropped the Interceptor the moment he made a dive for it. With three down, the odds were getting much better for us. I didn't need the drug rush to enjoy this, but it probably was helping.
"Good shot," K'rth said and motioned that he was going to advance. The moment he moved forward, someone in the dark far corner fired at him so I fired back at the muzzle flash. The wall and ceiling around me took a few hits when they returned it, and I ducked away. K'rth covered me this time and I moved forward to the next cover where we both took a moment to reload and listen.
"Do you see Obie yet?" I asked. From my vantage point, I could see some of the area to the sides, but not directly in front of me where the largest collection of "machinery" seemed to be based. Calling it machinery seemed like a bit of a stretch, considering everything looked like the bleeding guts of a deathsuit. Liquid squirted from a number of places and I felt my stomach turn.
"No, but there is a lot more damage in that sect-" he started, but ducked back when rounds spattered across the area around him. "-section."
"They sure are liberal with their ammo," I commented. "Must be great not to have a bullet tax."
I popped up, fired again at the muzzle flash, and ducked back like before. Again, someone opened up but the response was a little slow. I figured we had only one shooter and he was trying to split his targets, but where were the rest of them? I didn't see another way out of here and they couldn't have gotten past us.
K'rth leaned around and then ducked back just before they shot at him again and I realized that the weapon sounded like a KACK-10. The shooter had to be low on ammo unless he had a second weapon because those SMG's only have about thirty rounds in a clip and he hadn't had a chance to reload. The other option was that he had several weapons near him and I popped up and ducked back to draw fire. When no one fired at me, the two of us bolted towards where the shooter had been.
The Interceptor was behind a low row of what looked like cabinets and was reloading frantically as he saw us coming. Suddenly, he started screaming and I knew something had gotten to him first. He bucked and rocked in place, dropping the clip he was trying to load and striking down at whatever had him.
"He's mine," I said to K'rth who covered me as I put the hammer down on my Blitzer and ran towards the cabinets in front of me.
Kick Murder always seemed like the perfect specialty for me, ever since I saw my first Chang-Socky film as a kid and got hooked. Of course, my idea of hand-to-hand has changed a great deal as I grew up, but there's one thing that hasn't. It still feels damn good to dish out pain to someone who deserves it.
I went airborne just in front of the cabinets, pumping my right leg up for more height as I launched. He saw it coming and pulled again at his leg, but he was rooted in place and completely helpless. The blade edge of my right foot caught him in the upper chest on the way down with a crunch, folding him up and slamming him backwards. His weapon and helmet dropped, and I kicked both away from him as I waited for him to try to get up. A flying kick is something that you can't do to an alert opponent, but he had been acting like he had a leg in a carrien trap and I couldn't resist. I glanced back and saw that it had been Obie holding him in place and the leg of the Interceptor's fatigues was torn open. K'rth dropped in behind me and knelt next to the Chagrin, so I concentrated on the target in front of me.
"GET UP!" I yelled, but he was wheezing and didn't budge. With a tug, I yanked the Interceptor to his feet and tossed him against a protrusion that might have been a table. He was still dazed and clung to it like a drowning man, but that only made me angrier. When he tried to duck into a fetal position, I swept his feet out from under him and laid him out on the floor. He moaned and rolled to his stomach and I holstered the Blitzer, pulling my MAC instead.
"DEFEND YOURSELF, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I yelled at him again and this time, he did what he was told. He pulled one of those cheap Dark Night MAC rip offs and lunged, but was too winded and way too slow. I stepped out of the way and let him take another swing, but it was easy to avoid and the blade whipped past.
"THAT ALL YOU GOT?" I asked and he struck again. This time I blocked his striking arm at the wrist and slashed him twice across the inside of his arm and wrist. Without letting go, I put another one across his armor and a third one down the center of his face that sent him screaming to the floor. Like always, their kind is pretty brave when they're shooting defenseless civilians or employees, but can't handle a stand up fight.
"Do we need him?" I asked K'rth, disgusted with the bastard and a little irritated that he hadn't fought back harder.
"No."
The Interceptor might have been begging but I didn't hear him any more than his team had heard the crewmember pleas when they shot them. My mind still had the echoes of Obie's screams and that was all I needed when I slashed him across the trachea and left him to die choking.
"Alisss," a voice hissed behind me.
I turned and knelt down next to Obie, seeing that he had taken enough lead to kill ten people but was still able to talk. The wounds to his face and throat gave his voice a wet rasp and I took hold of his claw to comfort him. As I watched, the spurting blood around his throat slowly stopped and the wounds sealed themselves. His breathing became easier and he squeezed my hand back with enough power to hurt. Meanwhile, K'rth stood up and covered the room. With the darkness of the blasted out lights, at least half the room was in shadow and I couldn't see a thing.
"You had me worried. How are you, big guy?" I asked, knowing that if he was talking he probably just needed time to get back in the green. Karma makes some incredible products.
"O-kay," he answered. His voice was cleaner now and I smiled at him, seeing that some of the deeper wounds were still there. Half of his left tusk was gone and he was covered in gore and debris, but there was no telling whom it belonged to. If it weren't for the body count in the room, I would have said that the Chagrin had been on the receiving end. As it was, it looked more like a draw.
"Looks like they ruined your T-shirt," I said, looking at the wet rag that used to be his favorite shirt. One of his friends, a 313 named Clint had given it to him and it had his name on it, or rather it had his name on it spelled in typical Stormer fashion. The word "OBE" was missing most of the B and the O now, but at least the holes beneath it were closed. I'm sure he made them pay for it, but I made a mental note to get him another when we got back to Mort.
"Alex, there are still two others," K'rth said and I let go of the 714's claw. "He will be fine, given time."
"I know," I answered, sheathing my MAC and pulling my Blitzer. I took a moment to replace the spent shell and moved to the edge of our cover. "Any idea where they are or why they stopped firing?"
"No to both," he answered as he wiped the edge of his Power Disk off on the body of an Interceptor and sheathed it. "Wait-"
Shapes began moving from the dark corner and then we were under heavy fire. Bullets tore into the cover, from at least three or four weapons and I caught a glimpse of two people running for the passage. I tried to pop up twice, but each time had to duck or risk catching a slug. K'rth held onto my shoulder and held me in place.
"They have two submachine guns each. We'll catch them after they've emptied their clips and are without cover in the passageway," he said and the evil grin returned. I nodded appreciatively, because I like the way he thinks.
Three of the weapons had gone empty and hit the ground before the two Interceptors were at the opening, but we waited a second longer to move. As we rushed forward, I nearly tripped over the body of a man in Crackshot.
"Damn, Obie," I mumbled as I advanced with K'rth at my shoulder. Somehow, the Chagrin had managed to take down one of the Vets. Maybe "Take down" wasn 't the correct phrase - dismember was more like it because pieces were spread out all over the place. It looked like the 714 had managed to get the guy's helmet off and tried to pull him out through the opening and no one had managed to stop him in time.
K'rth veered to the left and I moved to the right to cover the angles as we closed on the opening and I turned my laser painter off to keep from giving them any warning. There was activity on the other side, so we knew they weren't running yet and I slowed down and braced to take the shot. I really hoped some moron would lean around right in front of me and make this easy.
It's a real kicker when the old saying about "what goes around comes around" is put into play and you're on the receiving end. Of course, it sort of fit the lousy roller coaster kind of week we had been having.
A pair of dark shapes pinged around the corner to land at my feet and I cursed.
Grenades.
But this time, they didn't have their pins.
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