Chapter 7 - Somewhere on Baronia III
Newt kicked and clawed at her Centurion captors as they tossed her into a cold, damp cell. One of them held her pinned to the ground face down, while the other grabbed a knife and sawed at Newt's hair, cutting it haphazardly at her neck. "You bastards!" She bucked to get them off her.
The two Centurions grinned and laughed and they got up. Newt jumped to her feet as they jabbed at her with sticks. She kicked out at them and one of them caught her foot. The dampness of the floor made her lose her footing and she fell flat on her back. The Centurions grabbed her by the wrists and put iron shackles around them, attached to long chains, which were attached to a wall.
"What do you want from me?" she screamed at the Centurions.
The one who had cut off her hair, held it up to his nose and sniffed it. "The word on the streets is that you and a friend of yours killed Galor Skul's son at the Louvre on Aquifer."
Newt could only assume that the Centurion son in question was killed by Hicks at that seedy bar she found him at. But she wasn't about to tell them that. "I don't know who you're talking about. I don't know him and I don't know no Galor Skul."
"Oh, you'll know him soon enough."
"We'll be back to have some fun with you later," promised the second Centurion.
They left her alone, closing the door behind them with a bang. Newt dabbed at an ache above her left eye from the impact of the dropship when it had gotten shot down by some kind of Centurion weapon. Her hand came back stained with blood and she was already feeling woozy. She felt around her head as the weight of her long hair was gone. They sliced it off unevenly and she clenched her teeth in anger. Her next thought went to Packer, wondering what had happened to him.
Minutes later Newt heard the sound of an approaching ship. She quickly got up on her feet and headed for an opening in the wall, barely reaching as the chains prevented her from moving any further. It was the other dropship from the Judgement. They were coming to rescue her. She watched as the dropship swooped down at an impossible arch and then leveled off at the last second, coming down to rest at the center of the courtyard. She gazed down and saw that she was approximately two hundred feet up in a stone tower. Her attention was drawn by the dropship's ramp coming down. The first one she saw was Hicks.
Hicks came down the ramp, yielding two pulse rifles with grenade launchers. He was pissed off and there was nothing worse than fucking Centurions pissing him off. They were all dead meat. Behind him appeared Privates Snow and Roth and Corporal Krall, holding similar weapons.
A slew of Centurions poured out of the entrance to the compound. Some of them had alien drones on leashes. This made the squad of bug hunters pause in bewilderment.
Snow leaned toward Krall. "Do you see what I'm seeing?"
"Yeah. I'm beginning to put some of the pieces together, like how the fuckers get around," responded Krall.
"Looks like our Centurion friends have a hand in it," said Roth.
Hicks didn't wait for anyone. He started forward, his teeth clenched in spitting anger.
The Centurion leader, Galor Skul emerged onto a stone balcony. "What do you want here?" His voice echoed throughout the courtyard.
Hicks stopped and stared up at the Centurion on the balcony. "Where is she?"
"Where is who?"
"Don't fucking play games with me, you piece of shit. I know you have her. We traced her PDT here."
"Oh, you must mean the human female. I'm afraid she didn't make it."
Hicks blinked several times and clenched his teeth again. He felt his blood start to boil, felt the adrenalin start to kick in…His mind went completely blank as he raised both pulse rifles and let loose.
Centurions went down. Aliens tore away from their handlers and ran to attack. Snow, Roth and Krall flanked Hicks and open fired. The Centurions returned fire at the team.
Newt watched the carnage below, praying that no one on her team was killed on her account. She shook her head, unable to believe how stupid she had been. The Centurions couldn't be trusted. Her gut instinct had been to ignore the distress message. But her morals always seemed to get in the way of her best judgment. Now her and her team were fucked.
The shooting continued and the team took refuge behind a large stone statue. When most of the Centurions and aliens in the vicinity were dead, Hicks came out from behind the statue and moved toward the balcony where Galor Skul was shaking his fist down at him in anger. Hicks braced himself and launched two grenades, one after the other.
Galor Skul reacted too slowly and the grenades detonated at his feet. His crumpled body flew into the air.
Hicks was seething with anger and he was unable to control it. He didn't want to believe that Jorden was dead. He lowered his head and tried to control the sudden onslaught of emotions. As the team continued to shoot at the Centurions and aliens still pouring from the compound, Hicks turned and wearily walked back toward the dropship. From the corner of his eye he saw an alien charge in his direction. Without looking, he raised his pulse rifle to the right and fired. The alien collapsed at his feet and he stepped over it.
Newt saw Hicks start to head for the ship. She struggled with her bounds, pulling on the chains imbedded in the stone wall. The stake started to loosen. She pulled harder, shaking the chains back and forth until the stake finally dislodged from the wall. The force knocked Newt backward, off her feet. She quickly got up and jumped toward the window opening. "Hicks!"
Hicks picked up the sound and he whirled around toward its source. The sight of her in the window of the tower made Hicks frown and take several steps forward. She was alive.
Newt yelled out again. "Hicks!"
Hicks moved toward the tower. When he arrived at the foot, he began to scale it effortlessly, grabbing the jutting stones and using them as foot holds. Newt moved back as Hicks reached the window and climbed through the opening. She threw herself at him, squeezing her arms around his neck. Hicks embraced her tightly, elated that she was still in one piece. Then he released her and looked her over. She looked fine except for a gash above her left eye. And her long hair was gone. It had been cut short in uneven patterns just below her ears. He didn't dwell on it for long and drew his revolver. He carefully shot off the long chain attached to the cuffs on Newt's wrists. Then they headed for the window.
When Hicks looked down, there were three aliens scaling the wall and heading up toward them. Another movement caught his eye. On the balcony where he had killed the head honcho, three Centurions were setting up something that looked to him like a rocket launcher. "Shit!" He touched his communicator. "Krall, get the team the fuck out of here. The dropship's about to get torched."
"What about you?"
"Just go for now. We'll find some other way out." Then he backed away from the window, pushing Newt back with him, just as the first alien reached it. He raised his pulse rifle and blew it away.
"Come on!" yelled Newt. She dragged him out the door.
They raced down the corridor and Newt quickly glanced through the small windows of each door to check the other rooms for Packer. Then she found him inside the third room. She kicked the door open and grabbed Hicks' revolver. As Hicks dealt with the advancing aliens, Newt shot the chain holding Packer.
Then the three of them sprinted down the corridor. A spiral staircase led down to the main floor and they ran out the back door. They found themselves out in a street.
Centurion citizens scrambled to get away from the humans that had suddenly appeared out of the compound where the sounds of shooting came from. Then they screamed and ran as Centurion guards came running up the street, firing their weapons.
Hicks raised his pulse rifle and mowed them down. Then the rifle was empty. He tossed it on the ground and grabbed Newt's hand. "Time to go."
They ran down the street. Newt turned to look down one of the alleys and saw a vehicle with its side door hanging open. "Hicks."
Hicks stopped in his tracks and turned.
"That's a Centurion Cruiser," said Packer. "Nobody knows how to fly those damned things."
Hicks ignored him and ran down the alley to the vehicle. Packer followed Newt. She jumped in first, sitting in the front passenger side and Hicks slid into the driver's seat.
"I'm telling you. It's useless," said Packer.
"Are you coming or not?" asked Newt impatiently.
"Oah, hell..." Packer jumped in back and Hicks pulled the door down, slamming it shut. "The controls are excessively complicated. Believe me, I've tried before."
Hicks focused his eyes on the controls, studying them intently. Then he started pushing buttons and the Cruiser came to life.
Packer stared with his mouth open. "How'd you do that?"
The Centurion Cruiser lifted several feet off the ground and moved forward. The moment it cleared the corner, a Centurion Patrol pulled up behind them. Then three others appeared.
Packer glanced through the back window. "Uh oh. We've got company. Four Centurion Patrols."
Hicks made an abrupt left to avoid colliding with a freighter in the process of taking off. One of the Patrols didn't react in time and collided right into it. Both the Patrol and the freighter exploded. The three remaining Patrols started shooting double rays of lasers at the Cruiser that swerved and dipped to avoid the blasts.
Newt found the control for the rear cannon and started hitting it. A blast from the Cruiser's rear cannon struck the closest Patrol.
"Good shot," praised Hicks. He took the Cruiser around the corner of a building. The two remaining Patrols came around fast, and at very close range continued to blast at them with lasers. Hicks thought fast and swerved the Cruiser into heavy oncoming traffic.
Packer's jaw dropped. "What're you, nuts?"
Hicks ignored Packer and concentrated ahead.
"You think they're pissed off about us killing their leader?" asked Newt.
"Why don't you roll down the window and ask them?" responded Hicks.
Hicks sent the Cruiser into a dive and Packer banged his head on the ceiling. "Oww! Watch it!" he rubbed his sore head.
Horns blew as vehicles swerved out of Hicks' way. Behind him, the Patrols tried to copy his movements. One of them reacted too late and smashed head on with an oncoming transport vehicle. Another huge explosion resulted.
Hicks frowned. "How the fuck do you get outta this crazy town?"
"Should we stop for directions?" asked Newt.
The remaining Patrol bashed against the side of the Cruiser, trying to push them into the nearby trees. Hicks returned the favor by bashing them back. The Patrol skimmed over the top of the trees. Then it moved behind them, firing the lasers again. Suddenly Hicks hit the brakes and the Patrol rear ended them with tremendous force. Before the others could recover, Hicks sped up and then hit the brakes again, and again. The Centurion Patrol smashed into their back end and then fell behind. And then the Cruiser started smoking.
"Uh oh," said Hicks. "We're going down."
The Cruiser started to drop from the sky. The Patrol tailed close behind it. Hicks held the wheel, trying to keep the Cruiser's nose up. Up ahead was a grassy field. The back end touched down first as the Cruiser skidded forward and then turned sideways before it started rolling. When it finally stopped moving, the hatch flew open. Hicks, Newt and Packer staggered out of it and scrambled to get away. They managed to throw themselves on the ground just as it exploded.
The Patrol circled above them. Then all of a sudden the Judgement's dropship appeared out of nowhere and launched a missile at the Patrol. It exploded in mid-air and the three on the ground had to duck again.
When the flames in the air died, the dropship touched down and the ramp came down. Krall emerged, pulse rifle in hand.
"Looks like the cavalry arrived just in time," said Newt. She got up and then the world started spinning around in her head.
Hicks had started to get up when Newt suddenly fell and he caught her before she hit the ground. He lowered her on the grass and when he removed his hand from behind her, he looked at the bright red blood on it. He turned her and saw the bloody wound on her lower back. "Fuck…"