"Hey, Blue-boy! What're you doin' in here? This place is for People only! No D-Bees!" The crowd in the small tavern became silent as everyone awaited the travelers response.
Lamia closed his book and placed it in his knapsack, downed the last of his beer and thumbed a few credits for the bar tender while muttering something under his breath.
"Hey, D-bee! I'm talkin' atcha! Pay me some respect!" This time the bald man stood up, knocking his chair over in the process. His right hand twitched his coat away from his hip, revealing a low-slung NG-45LP in a gun slingers quick-draw holster. His left cheek twitched under his cybernetic eye as his hand twitched near the gun.
Everyone in the tavern moved quickly away from the two, each vying for a good position from which they could safely watch the impending carnage. Everyone, that is , except the bar tender who turned to yell at the gun slinger, "Damn you Clem! If you squish this young man I swear you'll clean the mess up yourself this time!"
"Stuff it Joe!" Clem punctuated this by spitting on the floor. "You deaf, D-bee? Answer me!"
Lamia turned toward Clem for the first time, calmly looked him over from head to toe, then turned to leave.
Apparently too honorable to shoot someone in the back, Clem followed him quickly out the door. As the tavern's patrons hurried outside to get a better look, Clem walked out into the street. With more anger than before, he sneered "Turn your D-bee ass around and face me, you chicken-shit!"
Lamia, although walking down the middle of the street, appeared to be oblivious of Clem's continuing verbal assault.
"That's it! I'm gonna shoot his ugly ass off!" Clem said, though he still waited for a response.
Lamia stopped. "Ugly?" he asked. When he turned around everyone saw that, aside from the lack of cybernetics and his skin being blue, Lamia's face was identical to Clem's. Lamia spit just as Clem had and said in a perfect duplication of Clem's voice. "I sure am. I'm the ugliest asshole south of Chi-Town!"
The bystanders all began to laugh uproariously, causing Clem's ears and cheeks to turn bright red. With a growl, Clem pulled his pistol and fired a shot directly at the mocking blue face.
The particle beam hit Lamia square between the eyes. Everyone on the street stood silently waiting for the smoke to clear, waiting to see if there was anything left of Lamia's head, waiting for his lifeless body to fall to the ground.
Lamia did not fall. When the smoke cleared everyone saw that he stood, unscathed. His face had returned to normal, and now had a broad smile spread across it. "Now it's my turn." Lamia mumbled under his breath again. With a snap of his fingers, he disappeared.
The crowd began to whisper amongst themselves, but the words "demon" and "Line-walker" were spoken enough times to be heard by Clem. His face turned pale and with a stammer he said "I don't mess with no magic-users! They's the hand of Satan!"
Just then, as if to accentuate Clem's point, Lamia reappeared directly in front of Clem, the barrel of his Ingram Mac-10 just barely touching Clem's forehead.
The crowd fell silent once again. A strong breeze picked up a small whirlwind of dust and defiantly carried it down the street. deeper into town, a dog could be heard barking. The moment stretched on.
"Bang!" Lamia said suddenly and everyone jumped as if he had actually fired. Everyone except Clem, who fainted dead away. As he hit the ground the towns people could see a growing wet spot appear on his legs.
Everyone laughed even harder than the first time. Some of the people went back to what they had been doing, and some approached Lamia to congratulate him and shake his hand. Pushing to the front of the crowd was a broad shouldered man with red hair wearing a metal badge on his coat. "One side, out'a the way." he called as he pushed up to Lamia and the fallen Clem. When he reached them Lamia handed Clem's Pistol to him with one hand and the E-Clip from it with the other.
"I think everyone will be safer if you were to hold on to these, officer." Lamia said. He had already put his sub machinegun back in his knapsack, so when the man took Clem's weapon Lamia was empty handed.
"Okay everybody, show's over. Go on about your business." the man said as he put the clip in his pocket and the gun under his belt. Turning back to Lamia, he offered a hand and said "Sheriff Pounds. And you are?"
Lamia took the hand in his own and answered "Lamia Jam. Call me Lamia."
"Lamia. Hmmm, fitting. I appreciate your not killing Clem. He can be a nuisance when he's drunk, but at the same time when it comes down to it, he's carried more than his load of taking care of this town." After shaking hands vigorously, the Sheriff turned his attention to Clem. "Could you help me get him off the street?"
"No problem." Lamia answered as he bent over to help the Sheriff pick Clem up. He managed to disguise his strain
fairly well as the two of them carried Clem to a bench on the sidewalk across from the bar.
As they set Clem down, Sheriff Pounds said "Do me a favor next time you're in town and look me up first thing; that way we can keep this from happening again. Sometimes we have worse than Clem hanging around, if you know what I mean."
Images of Coalition Dead-Boys passed through Lamia's mind. "Absolutely. Where can I find you?"
"My office is just down the street there, on the left" Sheriff Pounds answered pointing at the second building from the edge of town. "I take it you were just leaving?"
"Actually I was. I'm on my way home to Kingsdale."
"I see. Well, There's a ley line about a mile west of here. If you travel along that you shouldn't have much more trouble with the likes of Clem."
"That was my plan. Thanks to the ley line I should be able to get there within a couple of days." Lamia responded.
"Of course. Well, it was nice to meet you. Good luck and Gods' speed."
The two shook hands again and Lamia started walking out of town again, waving back at the towns-folk as he passed by.
·
The alley was filthy, strewn with the refuse of the downsider dregs who dwelled in the buildings on either side. All manner of garbage was piled high against the walls, as if someone had carefully stacked it so as to leave a passable, albeit forbidding, pathway to whatever den of iniquity lay at it's dark end.
As disgusting as it was, the refuse made a perfect camouflage for the waiting ambush that made that little voice in the back of Pillar's mind scream for him to prepare himself. With an audible grumble, he continued sloshing through the puddles down the narrow pathway into the alley. Too quiet for the human ear, Pillar sub-vocalized into the short range radio implant hidden in his jaw under his bushy brown beard; "Jackson, Constanti, I'm picking up four heat-sig's about ten paces ahead of me, and my sixth is about to scream my head off. You ready?" As his partners gave him the affirmative, he clicked the stud that released a concealed laser rod into his left hand.
As if on cue, two thugs stepped into the path from their hiding places, blocking his path. Without the passive nightvision his left eye provided, Pillar would not have been able to see that the first one was a human carrying a mac-10, and the other was an ogre wearing gauntlets sporting vicious looking serrated vibro-claws. Even without the nightvision, however, he would have recognized the sound of the mac-10 being cocked over the din of a Juicer Bar. Without a second thought Pillar leveled the laser rod on the reject with the mac-10 and squeezed the trigger. A coherent beam of red light appeared for a nanosecond, leaving a hole the size of a grapefruit where the thugs upper chest used to be. Before he fell to the ground Pillar saw the beam of light that passed through him impact with a pile of garbage at the far end of the alley, burning a hole through it and the brick wall beyond, stopping only when it hit a panel of armor plating just under the brick facade.
Good, he thought as he turned to smear the ogre, this alley is the way to Biggens' Chop Shop. Suddenly the ogre leapt straight up into the air, avoiding the blast that Pillar fired, as well as the avalanche of brick that fell from the unfortified building to Pillar's right. The flash from the second discharge flared the nightvision in his cyber-eye, but was enough to send reflections of the tell-tale metal bands on the ogre's upper arms and neck.
"The ogre's juiced!" Pillar screamed as he dove into the refuse to his left. He felt the ground shake as the three-hundred pound D-Bee impacted the alley where Pillar had been standing. At the same time he felt the searing heat as the refuse at his feet ignited from the laser blast one of his friends sent from the rooftop to the ogre below. Miraculously, the D-Bee didn't manage to dodge the shot. The ogre stood for a moment staring down in shock at where his left leg used to be and where black smoke lingered from the cauterized wound. Abruptly the shock hit him and he fainted dead away, falling into the alley to his left.
Must've been a JAEPer, Pillar thought as he turned to see about the other two heat -sigs. Already recovered from the flare-out, his cyber-eye switched to infrared, revealing two heat signatures further into the alley; one was running full-tilt around the right corner, the other was fading quickly under the pile of rubble that resulted from Pillar's last laser shot.
"All clear" he voiced as he stood and brushed the garbage from his camo fatigues and black sash. Stepping over to the ogre Pillar slid the laser rod back into the spring loaded compartment within his bionic left arm and then checked the ogre for lifesigns. He was indeed alive, still breathing steadily. He would probably be out for some time from the shock.
Jackson came rappelling down the side of the building happy for the opportunity to try out his recently installed Triax NGL-31 Grapnel and Launcher. As he considered for the first time the danger of flipping the cord to loose the grapnel so that he could reel it in, he asked "Is he dead?"
"No, I think he'll be okay actually, minus the leg of course." Pillar answered as he pulled a card case from the ogre's pocket. Inside was a picture of an overweight human woman sitting on the lap of a mostly balding old ogre, probably his parents; also there was a credit card, a picture map to a nearby bar, a gold coin, and the business card for Biggens' Chop Shop. Pillar used the ogre's limp hand to thumb the balance on the credit card; only two hundred-seventeen credits. With a smirk, Pillar pulled his own card and thumbed a forty-five hundred credit transfer to the ogre's card, then put the card case back where he found it. He then pulled off the ogre's forearm vibro-blades and put them in his own backpack.
"Good grief, Pillar!" said Constanti as he sloshed through the puddle at the front of the alley. "You and your friggin' 'Order of the Black Sash'. Why don't you just put the D-Bee under and fleece him like he would've done you?"
Pillar took the question as rhetorical since he'd had the argument with his friend countless times. Instead he put one of his own cards into the ogre's pocket and led the other two further into the alley, saying "I wouldn't knock the order if I were you, Constanti, seeing as how it's about to buy you an eye to replace that ridiculous patch you wear."
"Ridiculous?! I like my patch!" Constanti answered, but he grudgingly shut up.
"How much did you give him?" Jackson asked as they rounded the corner and came into the light from the neon sign over Biggins' Chop Shop.
"Forty-five, which if he's got half a brain he'll use to start saving for a usable leg." Pillar answered as he stepped up to the door and pressed the buzzer. A four-inch square panel at eye level on the door slide up revealing a vid-plate. The cold blue face of a VX-370 Stopper 'Borg filled the screen and a low rumbling voice said "State your business" in a most hostile manner.
"Black Sash is my business." Pillar answered, showing no intimidation whatsoever. The three stood and waited as the Borgs' face was replaced with the words 'one moment please'. Pillar smirked and wondered what percentage of Biggens' customers could actually read. After a moment the panel slid back into place and the door opened.
Inside the three were engulfed in a blinding light, obviously to disorient any naer-do-wells with evil intent. Before their natural eye's adjusted their cybernetic ones took in the entryway; it was a long narrow hall with just enough room for about ten men. Another door with four weapon barrels protruding at just below waist level was at the far end. After the outside door closed behind them the one at the end of the hall opened and a portly man with a devilish goatee and mustache came through with open arms.
"Brother of the order! It has been so long I was beginning to think that the order was a figment of my imagination! Or at least that I was the only one left. Come in, come in!" The portly man shook hands with Pillar and led him and his friends into the his waiting room. It's class was a surprise to both Constanti and Jackson considering the neighborhood, but Pillar seemed to expect it's luxury. Instead of the glaring halogen bulbs that lit the entryway, this room was lit by four floor lamps with exotically ornate lamp shades. There was a large sofa with a coffee table in front of an impressive vid screen. Beside the vid screen was a terminal with a scrolling list of the available programing. Beyond that was a nice poker table with enticingly padded chairs. In the corner was a hot-cold vending machine that offered several carbonated beverages as well as coffee and three kinds of soup. Jackson went to the machine as Pillar, Constanti and the large man took seats at the table.
"I am Doctor Biggens, as you may well have guessed. What can I do for the order this evening?" asked the portly man with a pleasant smile.
Pillar glanced to Constanti as he started. "I am Pillar and these are my friends, Constanti and Jackson. We are traveling warriors and were recently defending a small town against a group of marauding Brodkil. My friend here lost his eye in hand to hand combat with one of the giants, and I am here to see it replaced."
"Is your friend a member of the Order?" Biggens asked without losing his pleasant demeanor.
"I regret that his morals deem him unfit for membership. He is therefore my Compulsory Endeavor."
Biggens pleasant smile slipped for a moment as Pillar said this. The Compulsory Endeavor was rarely used within the order, and usually only as a form of punishment for a member who had broken one of the Sacred Precepts. Likewise to use the Order Privilege for a Compulsory Endeavor was practically unheard of; in fact it was almost blasphemous.
Biggens hesitation prompted Pillar to continue: "I would not have invoked the Order Privilege except that we are short on resources at this time." As he spoke Jackson sat at the table beside him.
Biggens now seemed unconcerned with any pretense of friendliness. Instead his face showed hostility. "If you had invoked the Privilege only to gain entry to my establishment I would have understood; my location would obviously necessitate it. But to come to a brother and ask charity for a Compulsory Endeavor... I am speechless..."
Pillar quickly tried to salvage the situation. "It is a self-imposed Compulsory Endeavor, brother. Rest assured that I have never broken even one of the Sacred Precepts. I have only taken it upon myself to be charitable upon the dying wish of another, my friend's mother." Constanti lowered his good eye in reverence at the mention of his mother, which changed Biggens attitude quickly.
Grudgingly, Biggens relented. With an exasperated sigh he said "Very well. I will replace your Compulsory Endeavor's eye. But I must first ask that you do one thing for me; I have been expecting a shipment from Triax for some time now and I fear that something has interfered with it's transport. Will you see that it arrives?"
Jackson raised an eyebrow at that. Not a member of the Order, he was still familiar enough with the Sacred Prefects to see that Biggens was about to be in violation himself; had he asked that they see what had become of the shipment, he would have been well within his rights, but he was asking that they make sure that it arrives. If Pillar accepted the terms, they may very well be held responsible for replacing a shipment that may never have been sent in the first place. Before he could speak up, Pillar answered Biggens:
"I am happy, no relieved to do so for you, Brother Biggens." As Jackson rolled his eyes Pillar went on. "I am also sure that you will do an excellent job of replacing my friend Constanti's eye. We were told that you only use the finest parts from the best sources. Of course, we do not need anything fancy for the replacement, just regular vision with thermo-imaging."
Jackson had to sip from his beverage to hide his smirk. Biggens face was turning a color not far from that of the Borg that answered his door. Jackson then realized that he had seen no sign of that Borg since their entrance, and wondered if he was beginning to slip.
Biggens stood and shook Pillar's hand again, saying "I would be honored to help a brother in need." He then turned to Constanti and said "Go through that door and wait on the table while I prep for surgery and find the replacement."
Biggins and Constanti left the room leaving Jackson and Pillar sitting at the table by themselves. After a moment Pillar spoke. "Don't start. This is the best deal I could swing."
Jackson grunted at that, downed the last of his drink and said "I just have two questions; one, how do you know that this guy Biggins is a respectable member of the order? And two, if he isn't, where the hell are we going to come up with the creds to replace this shipment of his, which for all we know is bogus too?"
A few months earlier, Pillar would have felt obligated to throw down with Jackson for insulting a fellow member of the order. Now however, Jackson had reason to be skeptical. Over the past seven weeks, the three of them had been run through the mill by fellow members of the order who turned out to be less than respectable. Likewise, Biggens recommendation had come from a non-member of ill-repute. Pillar was beginning to steam. "It is not my place to question the actions of a brother who has not already shown himself to be at odds with the Prefects. Would you have me disavow the Precepts myself?"
Jackson kept his cool. "I know, I know. It's just that the Order of the Black Sash was supposed to be a reliable source of support for it's members and their friends and family, but recently it has been falling short."
Pillar stood and stormed over to the vid-screen terminal as if to select a program, but Jackson knew better. After a long moment, Pillar spoke: "You know that I was disappointed when you declined the invitation to join the order." It was more of a statement than a question. "Now I think I understand."
Jackson stood and walked over to his friend. He put his hand on Pillar's shoulder and said "No, I don't think you do old friend. I knew that if we both joined the order, we would eventually be doomed. One of us had to stay out to do the dirty work that the Precepts would not allow. It was the only way."
The two stood for an awkward moment before Pillar took a deep breath and changed the subject; "So will it be Juicer Football or ISS Patrols?"
As they plopped down on the couch Jackson said "Actually I was looking forward to seeing the latest Prozek Speech." They both laughed at that as they immersed themselves in the wonderful world of super-sports.
··
Meela awoke to the scent of a powerful psychic. So powerful, in fact that she momentarily forgot where she was and nearly fell from her hammock in the upper branches of a tree to the stream below. She steadied herself and took in her surroundings; the sun had not yet risen to her left, though the sky in that direction was beginning to brighten. A few of the birds who shared their home with her chirped a few times in protest of her stirring, but none had yet started their morning songs. With a smile she whistled quietly back at the birds, then began the decent from her perch. At the base of the tree she stretched to get her blood flowing. When she felt wide awake she concentrated on her prey; She estimated that the psychic was closer than she had originally thought, and that it was not alone. After a moment she visibly shuddered as she realized that there was a strong presence of evil among the strangers as well.
Deciding to forego her morning bath, she reached down into the bushes and pulled a dull gray sword hilt from among the leaves at it's base. I'll be needing a good bath when I'm through with this group she thought as she began to prowl into the woods towards her game.
No sooner than she began tracking did she feel an unfamiliar voice fighting it's way into her head. Instinctively she closed herself off to the world, but still the voice smashed it's way into her head. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE VAMPIRE flashed through her mind like a wild fire. With an audible growl she fell to the ground grasping her head. She suddenly felt a strong wave of unnatural hatred overcome her. With a growl she activated her flaming sword and began charging headlong through the woods.
As she entered a clearing she took in her opponents. A short thin man with pale white skin and tiny vestigial black horns like her own stood in the middle of the clearing, no doubt the source of the evil and the psychic abilities as well. Surrounding him were four even shorter males of a species she was unfamiliar with; they had forward thristing jaws, low sloping foreheads with massive bony brows over their pale blue eyes; they wore camouflage pants and no shirts, revealing very hairy, strong muscular upper bodies.
She took all of this in between stepping into the clearing and lunging forward to attack. As her feet hit the ground within slashing distance of the nearest of the strange little men she felt her entire body seize up. She couldn't move! Try as she might, she just couldn't bring her arm around to attack the strange little men with her flaming sword.
"Fascinating." said the tallest one. The four others grunted excitedly.
Meela cursed herself for not bathing earlier, for if she had she would now be wearing her clothes. She could smell the lust as if it oozed from the pours of the tiny men. The one closest to her carefully reached out a hand to touch her breast.
"Ah-ah-ah, Paulo, you know better." said the tallest of the five. As Paulo retracted his hair-covered hand, the tall one continued; "White skin, black hair, vestigial horns; If she wasn't so tall, I'd almost think she was Malvoli, like myself." The four hairy ones cringed at the word 'Malvoli', and Meela noticed the scent of lust give way to the scent of fear.
"This world may be an interesting conquest after all." said the little man as he stepped closer to her and caressed her hip. Meela struggled against the pyschically imposed paralysis with all her might, but it was a futile effort. The small man revealed a sharp toothed grin and said "Allow me to introduce myself. I am known as Belial." Walking around her slowly, he spoke to Paulo again. "Paulo, fetch me a slug".
···
"I don't like it, Aisu." Roger brought the battered Titan Exploration Robot to a halt in a clearing on the east edge of the sprawling town.
Aisu unstrapped his seat belt and stepped to the ladder at the rear of the compartment. With a flair of his cape, he turned to his young human friend and said "We all know this is probably a trap, but what choice do we have? If we don't find Jaina's niece in the next few months, we'll never get her off the Juice."
"I still don't like it!" Roger grumbled as he struggled to pull the sleeve of his Huntsman armor over the shiny bionic limb that replaced his left arm.
Climbing out into the open air, Aisu could see the five story tavern that was the center of this wilderness community, The Rusty Nail, dwarfing every other building in the valley. He had been here time and again, each time noticing a stronger atmosphere of distrust and paranoia.
"Just like I remembered it; Filthy and run down." Jaina sneered as Aisu stood beside her on the shoulder of the two story behemoth they called home. "Didn't you say you'd never bring me back here?" she asked in an accusatory manner
that made Aisu's pointed ears burn with shame.
"Jaina, I. . ." He stood with his hands out trying to find the words to sooth his love's anger, feeling like a fool. He was grateful when Roger finally emerged from the hatch.
"How's that Sensor turret, Jaina?" Roger asked as he handed his back pack to Aisu to better climb out of the compartment.
"I've got the radar jury-rigged, but I wouldn't trust it. We need to completely replace it." Jaina responded as she shouldered her L20 Pulse Rifle and began to descend the ladder on the back side of the robot.
"We don't have time to hit the Salvage yard before the meeting. We'll have to catch it on the way back." Roger turned to his Elven friend and added "If we don't get killed on the way."
The Rusty Nail was a typical response to the large number of transients that found small communities like Bassville the perfect little piece of civilization. Many trappers who worked the surrounding Ozark mountains came to Bassville to sell their wares, and the majority of the same spent half their profits in The Rusty Nail in the first twenty four hours of their stay. It would have looked like a saloon from the old west if it weren't for the reinforced steal and ceramic polymers used in place of wood for building materials.
Aisu, Roger and Jaina sat at a table at the corner of the second floor balcony, giving them an expansive view of the main floor. Ragged men gambled away their credits at roulette and craps tables, occasionally bursting out in excited yells, but more often grumbling about the tables being rigged.
"It's good that you wore your hood, Aisu. I don't think the new customers would appreciate the company of an elf." Roger said as he loosed his Ion Blaster from it's holster.
As Aisu pulled his hood forward to better shadow his features he watched a group of six Coalition Dead Boys enter the building. A squat man with a limp approached the leader of the group whose red sash and odd helmet gave away his rank as a Specialist.
"Isn't that Genoe, our contact?!" Roger growled as the squat man pointed directly at their table.
"Get down!" Jaina screamed as she leveled her pulse rifle on the traitorous dwarf at the feet of the Coalition Search and Destroy Squad. As her shot went through the Dwarfs torso, the Dead Boys dove for cover under nearby tables. Bedlam erupted as trappers and vagabonds scrambled to get out of the line of fire.
Roger crawled to the edge of the balcony pistol first, fired a short burst, and risked a glance towards the door. "They're coming up the stairs!" He shouted as he ducked down to avoid the return fire.
Aisu muttered under his breath and waved his hands. A swirl of blue energy appeared and formed a glowing transparent wall between the approaching soldiers and Aisu's party.
As shots bounced off of the magic energy field, Roger and Jaina continued to shoot at the soldiers remaining on the lower level. Aisu mumbled again and another swirl of mystic energy formed a circular hole in the air. "Let's get out of here!" He yelled as he pulled a pistol from his own belt and fired a shot around the collapsing energy field.
Roger dove head first through the hole, followed by Aisu and then Jaina. As they disappeared through the hole, the three soldier that had come up the stairs scrambled forward to shoot through the hole after them.
All too soon for the soldiers the mystic portal closed behind their quarry. the lead soldier turned to the table that the D-Bee lovers had been sitting at and saw a small wrapped box with a ribbon on it. "Hey, what's this?" he asked himself a nanosecond before the disguised fusion block exploded in a ball of flame, atomizing the three soldiers and everything else within ten feet.
Roger landed with a crunch on the now shattered remains of the already heavily damaged sensor turret that was formerly the 'eyes and ears' of his beloved exploration robot. "Aargh! Of all the rotten luck-!" he exclaimed as he made a futile attempt to place the pieces together.
Aisu came through the portal right behind him and scrambled to get the hatch open. Jaina landed on the robots shoulder and scanned the surrounding area as Aisu gestured toward the area of sky that they had just fallen from.
"Roger! They've got reinforcements in the air!" Jaina shouted as she watched two SAMAS lift off out of the trees
to the south. "They haven't spotted us yet!" she exclaimed as Roger pushed past Aisu down the hatch.
"Our radar's completely blown!" Roger screamed in frustration as Aisu scrambled down the ladder into the compartment.
"We'll have to abandon the Robot before they make us!" Jaina snapped as she jumped down into the compartment. "Get your things! We only have a few seconds!" she yelled at Roger as she opened the storage bay and grabbed her duffel.
"Not my baby!" Roger moaned as Jaina pulled him from his chair and pushed him towards the ladder. As he grabbed his own bag he was momentarily deafened by the roar of the SAMAS' jet engines as the human sized power armor did a flyby.
"They've spotted us!" Jaina yelled in frustration as she pushed by Roger to see out the hatch.
"We can't risk running for the woods!" Aisu said as a the high pitched whine of a second set of jet engines flying by was garbled by the sound of the SAMAS' railgun burst peppering the previously unscathed right side of the robot. Waving his hands and chanting again, blue energy swirled at the front of the compartment and formed into a mystic door to a wooded area with a stream. "Quickly! Through the portal!"
The two SAMAS came around at the end of the valley and rocketed towards the robot at break-neck speed. As they flew past the robot they extended their left arms and simultaneously launched their mini-missiles at the open hatch on the robot's shoulder.
"Direct hit!" shouted the lead pilot into his radio as plumes of flame and smoke rose from the hatch of the Titan Robot. A moment later the Robot's self destruct went off, cracking the nuclear core of the power source. "Lieutenant! I'm reading a radiation leak on their robot! Looks like they hit the self destruct."
Lieutenant Calhoun mounted his Sky Cycle and responded "Affirmative. Return to base camp and prepare to head home. I'll inform central of the leak and organize an evacuation. Calhoun out." As he launched his cycle and headed for the mayors house outside town, he thought to himself Why do I get the feeling that those three will turn up again?
Walking along the stream behind Aisu, Roger monitored the radio transmissions coming from the town half a mile away. "The self destruct caused a reactor leak. They're too busy evacuating that town to come looking for us."
"Good riddance." Jaina said as she hacked her way through dense foliage to avoid having to walk in the stream.
"Sorry about your robot, Roger." Aisu said turning to his friend. "We'll get you another one eventually."
A few moments later Roger said "I hear their hiring robot pilots in Eminence."
"Maybe when we get there we can get a few leads on Genoe's source." Aisu surmised.
Jaina stopped and turned on Aisu with death in her eyes. "That is enough! Little Sara is dead! I'm sick and tired of you leading us on this wild goose chase so you can convince me to go through detox! It's not going to happen, so just forget it!"
"But Jaina, I-" Aisu tried to respond.
"No! I've had enough! When we get to Eminence, we go our separate ways! End of discussion!" Jaina turned and easily leapt the fifteen feet across the stream and trudged off through the woods. After a moment, Aisu and his friend sloshed through the stream and silently followed.
What have I done? Aisu silently asked himself. Have I lost her already?