To tell you the truth, I really have no clue who Durandal is. All I know is that every few months these creatures, much more powerful than the H'won, appear and start tearing the place apart. Normally it wouldn't bother me, 'cus I'm not especially fond of this place myself, but those guys always manage to find my little safe-house type area where my last shards of humanity sit. Thus, the name "hounds". The reason Durandal is in front of it was that they have 'Durandal' tattooed on their backs.
I really don't know much about my life beyond what I have learned from my meager personal belongings. I woke up with them in an airlock on this station three years ago, and those objects the only things I had with me. Well, them, the guns, and complete amnesia.
It's pretty sad, when you think about it. All I have left of my "normal" life is a guitar, a sketch-book, and a photo of Einstein.
Back to the matter at hand.
I moved quickly yet silently to the airlock, keeping my shotguns out and at the ready. These guys are tough, man, and I've had quite enough bad experiences with them to not be cautious.
As I rounded a corner, I saw them unloading into the central hallway leading out of the airlock. I counted six of them. They were the reptilian kind, the ones that looked similar to the H'won, but toting machine guns and grenade launchers. But that wasn't a trouble for me.
With a flick of my thoughts, I felt my shotguns disappear and felt the familiar weight of my SSM launcher on my shoulder. Aiming it carefully, I placed my hand on the trigger and stepped forward.
"Yo, ugly! Over here!" I yelled.
Yes! They fell for it! By yelling at them ,their killer instinct took over and they were now running down the hall towards me. Cooly I looked down the crosshairs at them one more time, and fired a single missile.
The front two had just enough time to move out of the way. The third one was not so lucky. The missile hit him squarely in the face, which probably hurt like hell. The resulting explosion killed the two hounds that had dodged the missile, and two behind him.
One, however, managed to avoid the explosion and quickly fired two grenades at me. Barely dodging them, I took cover behind a wall an quickly switched out my rocket launcher for my shotguns. Turning the corner I fired off two shots, the returned to my position behind the wall as several bullets whizzed by me.
I've got to end this, I thought to myself. Switching out my shotguns, I hefted my tommy gun and turned the corner one last time. The poor dude hardly had time to raise his gun.
Walking forward into the mass carnage, I flipped over the body of the alien I had just killed. Sure enough, the word "Durandal" flashed brightly in iridescent paint on his back. But then something on his belt caught my eye. It was an access chip. I quickly reached down and grabbed it, along with the purple energy drink he had with him.
The access chips, incase you're wondering, are worth their ten times their weight in gold on this station, for they allow me to cut deeper into the system's memory, retrieving files about everything from H'won production facilities to dossier files on any number of people. I have yet to find mine though.
That's when I heard it. What sounded like a cross between an orangutan and a komodo dragon. That, my dear friends, is how the H'won communicate.
Quickly I reloaded my tommy gun and gulped down the purple drink. Ugh. It tasted like liquified gym socks. Running to the hallway from where the sounds emanated, I quickly fired off a whole clip of ammo.
Not a good idea. Sure I had just killed the one dude, but now I was as helpless as I was out of ammo. I quickly put away the gun, leaving myself with just my fists. Or so it seemed. For then, just as I knew they would, two more H'won popped out and came at me, firing those staves like crazy. That's when I pulled out my concealed pistols and shot the first one right through his skull. Dropping the pistols, I grabbed the second one and wailed on him several times, taking savage pleasure at the red blood that was squirting out.
Wait, hold on. H'won have yellow blood. Oh well. As I pulled my fist back one last time, a call rang out.
"Wait!"
I looked down at the bloodied pulp that was this poor guy's face. "Did you just talk to me?"
"Yes," said the H'won, or whatever this guy was. "My name is Jensen. I work for the FBI. I was sent to infiltrate Tycho Industries, and I was caught."
For those of you who don't know (which should be all of you), Tycho Industries is the company that funds the H'won experiments.
"And this is supposed to help me how?"
The man pressed another access chip into my hands. "This chip will put you into direct contact with the president. You need to send him everything you know about Tycho, the H'won, yourself, and this station. By the time you send them the info, NASA will have triangulated your position and sent a shuttle to take you back to Earth. I have but one request"
I looked at this man, who not five minutes ago I was trying to kill, and who had single-handedly brought me the hope that I had been without for years. "Anything."
"I want you to kill me. Kill me before the P'for technology they put in me forces me to try and kill you. I want to die a human."
I smiled at him and pulled out one shotgun. "Thank you so much," I said.
"No," he said, looking straight at me. "Thank you."
And then I pulled the trigger.
