Above their heads passed the stinging wind of laser fire. Conor turned over and unloaded both his clips down the hall, bullets spraying everywhere and hot cartridges hitting Kearney's face.
When it stopped, Kearney looked up and saw a pile of bodies down the hall, all of them swarm. He saw their bodies and weapons dissolve, giving him chills down his spine.
Conor got up from on top of them.
"Sorry guys, are either of you hit?"
Kearney looked at Azure who was checking herself for damage. Then he looked down and saw some blood on his left arm. It oozed out of a long cut on the shoulder.
Seeing his own blood made Kearney's hair stand on end.
"My arm?" he said in shock.
Conor looked down at it, "Damn, Kearney, that's a nasty scratch. You okay?"
Kearney stared at his arm in shock, not saying anything for what felt like minutes. Then Conor took a bit of his own shirt and ripped it, then tied tightly it around Kearney's arm, stinging him, but stifling the blood loss.
Kearney shook himself out of the stupor and looked at Conor, "Why didn't I feel it? Shouldn't I know if I've been shot?"
Conor nodded, "It was the adrenaline, haven't you ever been in a fight before? Nothing hurts until afterwards."
From past experiences, Kearney was forced to agree.
They heard footsteps down the hall the swarm had come from, like a steady tapping it alerted them to approaching danger.
The trio picked themselves off the ground and hurriedly recovered their dignity. Conor decided to take the break to reload his guns.
"We need to get closer," he said, "take them at close range instead of long range."
They walked quietly up to the corner and listened intently for the footsteps.
The tapping was getting closer, increasing in magnitude and speed.
Azure raised her katana.
"I've got this."
She began to rub a button on her katana's hilt.
When the footsteps couldn't be any more than ten feet away, Azure turned her body into the corridor and pressed the button on the hilt.
The katana suddenly shot out of the hilt and flew down the hallway trailing a wire and causing a lot of squishy sounds to be heard by Conor and Kearney.
When the squishy sounds stopped, Azure relaxed her body and deftly flicked her wrist. The katana blade returned to the hilt with a click, and she pulled down a small protruding metal piece until it snapped into place. The katana had the swarm's black blood spattered all over it, but with another flick of Azure's wrist, the blood was flung onto a nearby wall.
Kearney and Conor poked their heads out into the hall and took a look.
In a line, on the ground, was the bodies of ten swarm. They all contained the same wounds, a sword shaped hole in their skulls.
"How did you do that?" Kearney asked in amazement.
Azure smiled mysteriously, "It's spring loaded, when I press the button, the powerful spring shoots my blade forward. This took a lot of practice to get right, but it is so worth it when the time comes."
While Azure explained the blade, Conor checked the swarm's dead bodies before they dissolved.
"These are all warrior swarm, they have heavier armor and weapons. Must have been sent to find us." He stood up and let the bodies dissolve. "Counting the five I killed, there should be around thirty five warriors remaining in here, not counting the piloting or engineering crews. We need to hurry, but keep your eyes open, don't let any of those idiots surprise us."
The three of them took off down the hallways with Conor leading the way, any swarm in front of the group quickly fell to Conor's infallible aim. Any swarm that thought they could get behind the trio was sorely mistaken when they were cut down by Kearney's blaster, or Azure's fast katana.
Around five minutes later, and what seemed like an Arwing full of swarm guts later, Conor stopped in front of a door and caught his breath. Behind the door there was a powerful thrumming.
"Here's the engines." Conor heaved out, "I'll make sure there's none in there, you guys watch my back."
Conor had run out of bullets to one of his SMGs a few corridors back, and had only a half clip left to his second. The dejected SMG hung at his side, too valuable to be left behind. Conor still hadn't taken off his cloak, or redrawn his knives, which intrigued Kearney.
The engine door burst open as Conor kicked it in and ventured through with gun sight held up to his eye.
Inside were five swarm with tools in their pudgy hands. When they saw the gun pointed at them, they dropped their tools and held their hands as high in the air as they could go. One of them began its screech, not loudly to draw attention, but questioningly.
Conor turned his gun around and fired a bullet straight through its head. The swarm crumpled to the ground completely silent, leaking its black blood all over the floor while it dissolved.
Conor pointed the gun at each swarm in turn and dropped them with one bullet each, sending them all to hell.
Kearney looked at Conor in disgust, "They had surrendered, why did you kill them."
Conor popped out his clip and checked the bullet count, "Three things. First, we don't have supplies for prisoners. Second, we don't have room to take them back. Third, the last time we took prisoners, the guards were killed and the swarm took their place, it took over a month to track down all the swarm. This is the standard operating procedure now."
Azure and Kearney walked into the room and closed the door behind him, the engines inside made so much noise Kearney didn't even hear the door close. Now they were yelling to be heard, but even then it was difficult to make out the words.
"So how do we take the engines out, they look too powerful to swing a sword through them." Kearney yelled.
Conor reached down to his boots and pulled out one of his knives, "Like this." He shouted. The white haired gunner hit a few buttons on a control panel, then pried the cover off with his knife. He spliced a few wires together, then closed the panel again.
Looking to Kearney and Azure Conor, resheathed the knife and hoisted his SMG. "The engines will die in around five minutes; we need to get out of here!" Then his eyes widened and he pointed behind Kearney and Azure and yelled at them, "DUCK!"
Kearney hit the ground and heard something whistle above his head, he looked to the left and saw Azure barely avoid a haircut.
Behind him he heard the whistling again and instinct took over his body. He rolled to the right. Where he was a second ago was impaled by a massive blade.
Conor opened fire on the owner of the sword, shooting small bursts so Kearney and Azure could get up on their feet. As Kearney did, he got a good look at their attacker.
He was tall and muscular, a powerfully built man. In his hand he lofted an impressive broadsword like a toy, and armor covered most of his body.
Kearney and Azure raised their weapons as Conor unloaded his last bullets into the man's armor, continually forcing the man to defend his vulnerable face. When the gunfire stopped, Conor dropped the SMG to the ground, and his black cloak followed.
Under his cloak, Conor looked like he could outfit an army. He had pistols in holsters under his armpits and on his hip. Along the shoulders were tiny knives in pouches, clearly meant to be thrown. On his legs were two small Uzis in calf holsters, and in his boots were his dual curved knives.
The man who attacked them stopped protecting himself and looked up, he hefted his sword to his shoulder and opened his mouth to speak.
"I am t- ea- mm- sa-, st- f- the- fm- of- t-rr- Ke! Fear me!"
The whine of the engines had blown away his words.
Conor cupped a hand to his ear, "WHAT?!"
"I AM THE mrrfffgll gr- too- rem-! FEAR ME!
While the man was distracted by yelling louder than the engines, Conor slid up to Kearney and Azure's side. "This guy apparently took the form of Ike, one of our top warriors. His broadsword is a son-of-a-bitch to be hit by. His armor covers so much of him, so my guns won't do much, mostly just a distraction for you two to get him with your swords."
The man had finished yelling, and looked at the trio maliciously, daring them to say he had not shouted loud enough.
Kearney holstered his blaster and decided to mock the man further, "WHAT?!"
The man sighed and shook his head exasperatedly. Now he was shouting as loud as humanly possible.
"I AM THE SWARM COMMANDER SATUNE, THIEF OF THE FORM OF THE WARRIOR IKE. I FORCED THE GREAT WARRIOR HIMSELF TO FLEE! I AM THE COMMANDER ABOARD THIS SHIP! FEAR ME!"
Conor shrugged, "Okay."
With hands that blurred in the action, Conor pulled his pistols out of his armpit holsters and began pulling the triggers, unleashing a hail of bullets at the swarm-man.
Satune roared in annoyance as sparks lit off the armor covering his arms and chest.
"HA!" he yelled "YOUR WEAPONS ARE LIKE FLIES TO ME!"
Satune swung his sword at Conor, who was forced to drop his pistols and roll to the right. As he came out of the dodge roll, the Uzis seemed to magically appear in his hands and began to fire.
The swarm commander held his sword over his face and deflected the small caliber projectiles upwards into the ceiling.
He then began to walk towards Conor, who continued to spray the bullets towards Satune's head, effectively blinding him.
Conor looked to Kearney and mouthed the word 'three'.
Kearney understood the idea and held up his unladen hand, holding up three of his fingers. Then put them down individually, to two, then one. As his last finger curled into his fist, Conor stopped firing and backed up.
Kearney rushed straight in and slashed through Satunes armor to cut his ribs. Black blood burst out of the wound and gushed down the armor.
Satune roared in pain and swung blindly at Kearney who was unable to dodge and was hit by the flat side of the blade. His armor may protected Kearney from cuts, but this hit smashed his ribs and flung him off to the side. Kearney's head hit the engine and stars danced in front of his eyes, the pain spiking through his body nearly immobilizing him.
"Damn it" Kearney spat out.
Satune smiled grimly, and charged at Kearney, sword stretched out in front of him.
Kearney saw the light reflect off of the broadsword; saw Satune rushing towards him, eager to finish off the downed ginger swordsman.
Then Azure was in front of him, deflecting Satune's sword up with a well-placed upwards slash. Then she turned on the spot and weaved a web of steel into Satune's armor, scoring gouts of blood with each hit.
Satune clumsily turned himself around and attempted to backhand Azure, but she ducked under his arm and slashed twice at his shoulder and then jabbed her sword into his leg.
Satune pivoted, driving Azure's katana out of her hands, then punched her squarely in her gut. The sheer power of the hit sent Azure flying into the air and crashing painfully next to Conor, who had just brought his throwing knives out.
Conor brought his hands down, and the knives flew towards Satune's head. Two stuck in his cheek, leaving saliva and blood dripping freely from his mouth.
Satune then turned ominously towards Conor, the sword in his hands deflecting the next volley of knives.
Conor backed up tentatively, his hands raised for another throw, only holding Satune back by his fear of the knives entering his unprotected eyes and blinding him.
Kearney gripped his side and watched in horror as Azure lay on the ground holding her stomach, and Conor prepared for his final throw of the dice.
Anger flooded through Kearney's bloodstream, not unlike the frustration he felt earlier today with the Arwing.
He got up, gripping his splitting side, and retaking his sword.
The swarm grinned maliciously, feeling that triumph was his for the taking. But he was distracted by the perceived threat of Conor, and didn't see Kearney stand up.
Kearney looked at satune's back and imagined where his sword would go, imagined the flesh parting as his blade cut through muscular sinews and veins. And he began to run towards Satune.
Conor noticed Kearney, and threw his final knife towards the body of Satune, the knife deflected off the armor and skidded to the side. Lying uselessly on the ground.
Satune laughed as Conor looked hopelessly up into his face.
Then the laugh was cut off into a gurgle, as Kearney's blade sprouted from his gut.
If the cuts had been like flies before, this was the wasp that ended him.
Satune fell to the ground and dissolved in a painful scream of black nothingness.
Kearney fell to the ground as well, but fought to remain conscious. Pain spots flashing in and out of his vision, his ribs feeling like they would throw themselves out of his chest. A pain in itself to breath.
Conor walked over to Azure and picked her off of the ground, "you okay, Cipher."
She tenderly helped herself up, then grabbed at her stomach again, "I should be fine, what about Kearney?"
Conor walked over to his weapons and replaced them in their holsters with a grim look on his face, "I don't know if he will make it. We only have a minute or two before the engines start to fail, so let's get Kearney and scram. Hopefully you're okay enough to take out any swarm we run into.
Kearney began to feel his eyes droop, and drowsiness overcame his adrenaline. He slowly gave in to the welcoming blackness of a calm sleep.
