Post
by Praeothmin » Fri Feb 24, 2012 7:48 pm
Another tranquil update...
Chapter 45
They advanced in silence, each providing cover to the other as they had been taught, their injuries forcing them to a slow, painful progression.
As they came upon the clearing where the small craft had landed, they stopped in a crouch, hiding behind ice arches, and examined their surroundings.
Nothing moved, and their spirits were lifted a bit, but then they noticed movement from across the clearing, a form extricating itself from a snow pile, where it was apparently hiding.
Their spirits dropped as they recognized the form of the man who had attacked them, the man who had knocked them out easily, as if they did not know how to fight.
They had been exploring senses on full alert when he came down upon them, and before they knew it they were lying on the ground, hurt, and he had calmly disarmed them and taken their Comm-links, and then had knocked them out.
As he advanced, though, their spirits rose again, for the man was clearly hurt, which, for them, meant he’d met the Major and lost, as did everybody.
His jaw was hanging in a weird manner, and his right arm had clearly been bent the wrong way.
He was looking to his right, their left, as if something there was holding his attention.
His left hand came up, grabbed his jaw, and he pulled and twisted, and it reset itself with a loud pop.
This made him grunt in pain, but the pain was apparently short lived.
He did the same thing with his right arm, extending it fully, pulling on it with his left, then flexed his biceps which had the effect of making his right arm bend correctly.
He flexed his fingers a few times, rekindling the blood flow in that arm, and then he looked as good as new.
He kept looking for some time, as if in deep thought.
They were getting nervous, as they didn’t know what to do, and the Major was nowhere to be seen.
Then the door of the Raptor opened, and a bloody Boomer, with her head bandaged by an expert hand, came out on the Raptor’s wing, her pistol in hand, aiming at the man.
He had turned and was facing her, unconcerned, a smile in his face.
“Why are you smiling?” An angry Boomer asked the stranger.
“And where is James?” She added, worry in her voice.
“I’m just smiling ‘cause I find it funny your two friends hiding behind the arches to your left think they can surprise me.” The man said with his deep, throaty voice.
Hudson and Hicks looked at each other, nervous, and came out in unison, both covering the man with their weapons.
“And I suspect your friend, James, is on his way to wherever these Mercs decide to bring him.
Seeing as how they thought he was me, and how only one person knew where I was, I’m thinking the bounty originated on Helion Prime, so my guess is that’s where they’re bringing him.
Now if you’ll excuse me,” The man continued, “I’ll take your ship and be on my way.
I have places to go, people to kill, bounties to remove.”
“You think you can get through us all and get to the ship, big man?” Asked Hudson, trying to remain calm, using the fact his two comrades had weapons trained on the dangerous stranger.
It wasn’t easy.
“You think you can stop me, little boy?” Replied the man with a smile.
“We might not be able to,” Said Hicks, “But this will.” He added, lifting his hand in plain view to show the stranger he was holding an unpinned grenade.
“You may be able to take us all out, but this will take you out.” He said.
The man scared Hicks, but his duty didn’t allow him to show fear, and if Hicks was anything, he was a man of duty.
“You would do it, wouldn’t you?” The man asked, though his amused smile said he already knew the answer.
“So it seems we are at an impasse,” Boomer said, “Because you want our shuttle, and we need it to get back to our ship and find out what happened to our Commander.”
“So how do we play this?” The man asked.
It was Hicks who answered.
“Let me make things really clear for you, so you don’t get any ideas: We have a ship in orbit, our Command ship if you will, and that ship has sensors sensitive enough to detect us, and our current position.
It’s how we found you.
These sensors are good enough so that if our shuttle goes in the air, with four bodies, only one of them alive, they’ll know, and they’ll take the ship over and most likely slap you silly before throwing you in a brig.”
Hicks truly didn’t know how efficient the Musashi’s brigs would be to contain the man, but he had to at least try to impress him.
“If they sense four lifesigns, but one of them not the Major’s, they’ll want to talk to us.
If they can’t, we’re back to scenario one.
In fact, any scenario which doesn’t include us, alive and well, and in control of the Raptor, sends you in our ship’s brig.”
“So it seems we’re all going to the same place, only I don’t have to do anything but let myself be driven.” The man said.
“Why the hell should we take you with us?” Hudson asked, trying to shore up some courage.
“Because I know the planet they’re going to, and I’m pretty sure you don’t, so you need me as a… Let’s say navigation consultant.” He answered.
“Also, because unless I’m on that ship when it leaves, none of you leave here alive.” He finished, dead serious.
Hicks had no choice but to accept the man’s conditions, hoping with all his heart the man had believed everything he had told him, and that the Musashi could indeed do all he said it could.
“What should we call you, then?” He asked the man.
“Riddick!” Was all the answer they got.
*********************************************************
James regained consciousness as the small ship was still ascending, letting him know not much time had passed since his abduction.
He didn’t move and controlled his breathing so no one would know he was awake.
Unless they have an empath, he thought bitterly, remembering the first time he’d woken up on the Musashi.
He heard some people taking, and recognized one of the voices as the leader of the team that had kidnapped him.
“In and out, unsuspected and undetected.
Damn, I love a good smash-and-grab.” The leader said.
“Not so fast… Not so fast, Toombs.” Another male voice said.
“We're pickin' up fields here.”
James kept listening and heard some kind of warning pings, thinking the fields they mentioned may be the Musashi scanning them.
“Unknown fields detected on hull.” An unknown female voice, one James believed came from the computer, stated.
“I knew it.” Toombs said.
“Here it comes.
Is this some kind of scan?” He asked.
“I don't know.” A new voice said.
“Readin' our BTUs, maybe?”
“Let's drop one.” Toombs ordered.
“Dropping!” A fourth voice replied.
“Decoy launched!” The computer voice stated.
James heard the warning pings stop, which most likely meant that the Musashi had already gotten what it needed.
But to the occupants of the craft, it meant that the scanning ship had taken the bait and had locked onto the second ship.
“Preparing to engage ion drive.” The computer said.
The ship then accelerated quckly, reminding James of when the Musashi went to Warp.
“Ok, ladies, let’s go deliver this big pussy here to Helion Prime and collect our bounty.
Can you believe we’ll be getting one point five million creds for this one?” Toombs asked, his voice merry.
“Yeah, for sure!” One other Mercs said.
“But don’t you think we got him easy like?
I thought he was supposed to be this super dangerous killer?”
“Don’t believe all you hear, Jenkins.” Toombs answered.
“Well, ladies, let’s get us in hibernation mode, the trip’s gonna last for some time.”
James heard the men get to their seats, and heard a lot of clicks and clacks, buckles were being adjusted, panels were being programmed, and after what he roughly calculated as half an hour, the only remaining noise in the ship was the main control panel, running routine checks and controlling the ship’s flight.
He waited for another half hour and started to get dizzy, so he opened his eyes and saw that he was plugged in some sort of blood pumping machine, like all the others, and that this machine was apparently cycling his blood and replacing it with some kind of blue liquid.
James understood his reinforced immune system was fighting against the effects of the liquid.
He needed to unplug it if he wanted to remain conscious.
Time to get out of these restraints, he thought.
