III: Numb

It was supposed to be a simple, straightforward run. They'd done heaps of these before. Plutarkian or rat encampment somewhere. Usually quite poorly defended in its infancy, a prelude to setting up something that could prove harmful in the future. All they had to do was sweep through while the camp was still a camp, before it could develop into something more that might be harder to get into.

The camp itself looked like every other generic camp they'd razed. They were young, eager, amped. Well, except for their veteran team leader. Quartz was a fair bit older than the rest of them. He was one of the few survivors of the old school special forces. He'd seen and done it all. The rest of them were eager to get going.

There had been fifteen of them. Lined up together along the ridge overlooking the camp.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

They'd always teased Quartz about being paranoid. They'd learned too late that you should always listen to the guy with the most experience. Especially experience in situations like the one they were in. It was supposed to be a simple, straightforward run.

"You have bad feelings about everything." Ruby hadn't meant anything by it. She was daring, impetuous, brazen and hot. Damn hot. She was a slut. But that didn't stop every male in the company from wanting her. Everyone except perhaps Quartz had been involved with her at some stage. "This don't look so hard."

Really, it didn't. Just a small bunch of tents. Nothing doing.

Quartz hadn't responded to the tease, just frowned and turned his attention back to the subject of scrutiny.

"We goin' or what?" Benihana, the only other female in the group, could be impatient at times but she gave the guys a good run for their money in the area of testosterone induced action. He remembered her cybereyes glinting green as she'd turned to look at Quartz, at the same time fingering the trigger on her rifle.

He remembered wondering if it had been resignation, not exasperation, in Quartz's sigh. "All right then. Let's go."

They'd bolted down the side of the ridge. It was in the middle of an open, flat area, no rocks or dunes to hide behind and launch their preferred method of sneak attack. Still they'd done quite well on other camps set up like this. Storm at dawn, overrun the camp. No drama.

It would have take them two minutes absolute tops to reach the camp. They were about three quarters of the way there when it hit. He remembered the white hot agony striking the entirety of his back, lifting him he didn't know how far off the ground and ptching him forward face first onto the sand. Raising his head in confusion, glancing around him. Jaxx and Flamer had died instantly. Flamer was in several pieces in a roughly circular area with a radius of a metre, Jaxx was missing most of the skin and flesh off his body.

"Keep going!" He didn't know how long he or the others would have remained in shock if Benihana's voice hadn't spurred them into action. Training took over and kicked their stunned bodies into motion. They continued running towards the camp. His back burned with every jarring step he took. His mind grappled with what had just happened. That never happened. That could not happen. Forbidden thoughts stole into his numbed mind. Was the camp trapped? Did they know we were coming? It had happened before.

Plutarkian grunts had popped up from quite random and unexpected places around the camp, some surfacing from the sand, surrounding them. The deafening rattle of machinegun fire all around. He saw Ruby crash to the ground, her arms over her head, twitching as the bullets flew over her, a couple tearing through her clothes but not harming her. He saw Hotwire dancing the dance of the dead as crosssfire refused to let his corpse hit the ground. He saw Riot lose his head in an explosion of blood, his body taking a few more seconds to register that it was no longer alive before it crashed into the sand. He saw Quartz hit the ground, clutching his leg.

He remembered running up to Quartz, the older mouse telling him to keep going. At the time he must not have registered or something, he bent down and hefted Quartz up, dragging him along. The time to fall back was long past, they could only keep going and going. Past Quartz he saw Benihana ducking her head, felt more than heard her wince as the tip of one of her chestnut ears and the earring that had been in it was shot off.

"Get down!" Benihana finding them a small dune to duck behind. Ungracefully but effectively, he'd dipped his shoulder, overbalancing and throwing himself anf Qaurtz to the ground, using their combined momentum to roll. Benihana firing off a few more shots and dropping in beside them.

"We're fucked." Benihana reloading her gun.

"No shit." That, surprisingly, had been him. His throat was burning from the run and breathing in the hot air so fast. He hadn't thought to use his gun on the run in. They shouldn't have needed to use their weapons til they were inside the camp. He was still good as far as ammo went. All three of them flinched as gunfire ate the air above their hiding spot. Benihana was the first off the mark, rising up and returning fire. He rose to do the same when she ducked to reload.

It was a losing battle and they all knew it. Quartz fired behind them. It didn't take a whole lot of time for them to be surrounded by armed Plutarkians. Ruby was being dragged in as they were escorted into the camp. They were the only ones left.

*******

Amazingly, she still had the repair kit.

Turning her wings into a skin pouch, Nightshade stuffed the repair kit into it and sealed the pouch up. Her shoulder burned where she'd scraped along the sand for about twenty or so metres. She'd lost some skin off it and her arm. A bit of blood was seeping through. It didn't concern her. Somewhere in the maelstrom she had lost sight of Lilandra. She had no idea where to even begin looking for the ship or its passenger.

Nightshade hissed angrily. Stupid. A million and one ways to have stayed on Lilandra's back and fought her way back into the bridge rushed her mind. She shook her head. No point worrying about that now. She'd have to find her way to Lilandra. Flying was out of the question. Down here was not so bad after the sandstorm had passed but she could see the effects of the thermals higher up. The winds would mince her.

This desert was vast and she didn't have a clue where to begin looking or even which general direction to walk in.

A voice behind her. It was smooth and tenor, and speaking an odd language. Nightshade flicked an ear in its direction before actually turning. She wasn't entirely sure of the life form that stood before her. It was male, stood about six foot something on hind legs with a rodent type head. And it was pointing something silvery at her.

Nightshade cocked her head inquisitively to one side. A bolt of light emitting from the silvery thing struck her in the chest.

It burned, it froze, it stung, all at the same time. Her muscles contracted around the source of the pain. How the fuck can light hurt so much? Her shoulder flared as she hit the sand, slid along on her back for not very long and lay there. Her first reflex of course was to get up. Her body did not respond. A thought started occurring to her but she almost immediately lost it as darkness encroached on and drowned her consciousness.

*******

Mace held the blaster out for a moment longer. He was so used to moving targets -- usually targets moving away from him as fast as they could -- that he almost couldn't believe how easy that one had been.

"Heh," he smirked, lowering the blaster to his side. He approached the still blue-grey form. Mace had seen many odd things in his time. This...female as far as he could tell...was one of the stranger. She didn't move when he drew near. Just to be on the safe side he held out his blaster pointed at her and made sure she wouldn't be able to miss it if she did decide to strike out.

The girl was definitely not Martian. She wasn't anything Mace recognised either. He knelt down, and prodded her head lightly with the barrel of the blaster. She moved in response to the prod, nothing more. Mace examined his bounty carefully. Her head was feline, large eyes, very slight muzzle, crowned with long purple-black dreadlocks. Her ears were oversized, giving the impression of a pair of butterfly wings. Her arms and torso were standard, although her hands were slightly larger and fingers slightly shorter and thicker than expected. Her legs were a lot longer than they needed to be for the body, but that was because they were on backwards. Her feet were large paws. She wasn't wearing any clothes, though the shiny velvety fur on her body gave the impression of a full bodysuit.

He lightly caressed a breast with the back of his hand. The smooth velvet fur was wonderfully soft to the touch, warmed by the girl's body.

"I know a whole lotta people gonna be interested in you," he said to the comatose form. Flicking the safety on, he holstered his blaster and lifted the girl. She was a lot lighter than he had anticipated. Mace's brow furrowed briefly in puzzlement. With a mental shrug, he carted his load back to his waiting bike.