I Do NOT own Saber Rider or Seijushi Bismarck. Don't sue me.
A/N: Hey! Two chapters in less than 24 hours! A record for me. I actually have the ending written, but I want to go through the series, so I'll save it for when the time comes. Thanks for reading!
Chapter 15: Tranquility
Colt picks up the bag and nods to the cashier, "Have a good day," he says flashing the woman a smile and heads out the door of the store.
"I think you need to teach me some manners, miss," a man says as he grabs a blond woman's arm.
She tries to wrench her arm from his grasp, "Let go of me!" she says loudly, causing the man and his companion to laugh.
"Let's go some place a little more pri-" the man next to the one holding starts to say when Colt runs into him, spilling the contents of his bag.
"I think you two should leave the nice lady alone," he states firmly, casting a glance to the frightened woman. "She asked you nicely to release her."
"I say you need to mind your own business," the bigger of the two men says as he reaches for his gun.
"Uh-uh," Colt chides, his gun already drawn and aimed. "I don't think you want to do that, mister. Now, leave her alone and get on out of here," Colt states as the other one pulls his gun and Colt shoots the handle, causing him to let go and the other man to shove the woman down to the ground and go for his gun. Colt shoots the gun from the man's hand and grabs it off the ground and aiming for their feet, he fires several shots, causing the two to imitate a hopping-like dance as they turn and run off, cursing him as they run. After they are far enough away, he turns to see about the woman. "Are you all right, Miss?" He asks as he collects the items he had dropped and places them back into the bag.
"I'm fine," she says curtly and turns to enter the store.
Colt goes to follow her, but she allows the doors to swing closed behind her, knocking into him and causing him to fall flat. He chuckles and grins as he picks up the items once more and heads back into the store in search of the woman. "Hey now, you could at least thank me for saving you from those men," he says as he spots her and walks towards her.
"Thank you for being trigger happy?" she asks. "I think not. You're just as bad as they are," she quips as she gathers the rest of the items she needs and pays for them before heading back out the doors.
"I was just trying to show them that it ain't nice to hurt a lady," Colt replies innocently.
The woman looks at him skeptically and allows a small smile. "My name's Robin," she states. "And you didn't have to resort to violence, but I'm not sure they could have been stopped otherwise," she admits as he turns and starts walking down the sidewalk away from town. "Where are you going?" she asks curiously.
"Back to camp," Colt replies with a nod to the outside of town. "I'm with the Star Sheriffs and we're looking into Outrider activity out this way. My name's Bill. Bill Wilcox, but my friends call me Colt," he adds with a smile.
"We've had some raids from them recently not far from here," she replies quietly. "They mostly leave our town alone, though I hear they're moving in our direction."
"Wait, you don't live here?" Colt asks.
She shakes her head. "I live in a small town call Tranquility. We are a peaceful group, we don't believe in weapons or violence, unlike many that live here in the city. The Outriders pretty much leave us alone, but recently..."
"Well, we are here to look into the activity. Mind if I come back with you so that I can have a look around?" Colt asks.
"I suppose that would be okay," Robin replies hesitantly. "As long as you promise not to start a fight or something," she adds.
Colt grins and nods,"On my honor, I promise to behave."
Robin chuckles and nods to her car," Then climb in and let's go." They load up and get in and she heads out of the city and down the road towards the country.
"Has anyone heard from Colt?" Saber asks as he comes down the ramp of the ship to the campsite.
"I passed him and some woman heading away from town," Fireball replies. "He handed me the supplies and told me not to wait up. He'd let me know if he found any Outriders."
Saber sighs, "Leave it to Colt to find a distraction. We need to start investigating these raids, I suppose we can give him until morning, barring anything out of the ordinary."
"I say he's got his mind on other things, if you get my drift," Fireball retorts. "The Outriders are not going to be a priority for him."
"We'll just have to deal with him later," Saber replies. "We can't really afford to go after him right now. I jut hope he's ready in the event of an attack."
"I wonder why the Outriders are way out here anyways," Fireball muses.
"Perhaps they think this would be a good place to have a base," April states as she finishes setting up a place to cook meat.
"Aye, not a lot of people, so they could work mostly undetected," Saber states.
"Well, we'll go and get him in the morning then," Fireball says as the three go back to their work.
The pair are just about to the town when Robin slams on the brakes, narrowly missing a boy with a small bow and arrow in his hand, aimed for them. "Josh! What are you doing out here?" she says as she quickly gets out of the car and over to the boy, taking the make-shift weapon from him.
"Protecting the town," he replies matter-of-factly. He sees Colt as he gets out of the car and walks over. "Who are you?" he asks the cowboy.
"Name's Bill," Colt replies and holds out a hand in greeting.
"I don't trust drifters," Josh states with a glare and turns away and heads for the other side of the car and climbs in the backseat.
Colt shrugs and heads back to the passenger seat, climbing in as Robin starts the engine once more and they continue to the town.
They are met by a group of townspeople who eye Colt with distrust as he takes the groceries into a building for Robin.
"Why did you bring him here?" a man that appears to be a leader asks.
"He saved me from some men that tried to hurt me," she replies. "He's a Star Sheriff and says he was willing to look into the raids since he was in the area, so I let him come back with me."
"You were attacked?" another man asks, receiving a slight nod in reply. "I told you it's not safe for you to go into the city alone."
"I'm fine, Robert, and now maybe we can stop the raids before someone gets hurt."
The sound of an engine causes everyone to stop and turn just in time to see a couple of Outrider fighters appear. They start firing toward the group.
"Head to the shelters!" Robert calls as the people scramble.
Robin starts towards the building where Colt went when a fighter hits her car, blowing it up. She stops and turns towards the fighter, yelling at him, "You jerk! Get out of here! We haven't done anything to you!"
The fighter turns and starts firing close to her, freezing her in her tracks.
Colt comes running out of the building towards her and shoves her to the ground, rolling both of them behind cover. He jumps up and fires two shots at the fighter, causing the Outrider to fall of the vehicle to crash and blow up. He is aiming for the second fighter when Robin grabs his hand and pulls the gun down, allowing it to escape. "What'd you do that for?" he asks annoyed. "I coulda had him."
"I told you, we don't believe in violence," she replies. "You already killed one of them," she adds nodding to the body of the downed Outrider as it disintegrates.
"That's one less that can come back and try to hurt you," he retorts as several other people come out of hiding.
Robin glares at him and turns to head back into the church. "They've never attacked up like that before. I'm sorry I brought you here, Colt," she says in anger and storms into the church.
"I can sure see why she's a school teacher. I'd not want to get her angry and be a kid, that's for sure."
Robert comes over to Colt, "It's not her fault. The Outriders killed everyone else she cared for. All she has left is her little brother Josh. It's why she's so against violence now."
Colt looks over to the entrance of the church and sighs, "I guess she has her reasons, but sometimes you have to fight to keep from bein' run over or killed by the Outriders," he replies.
"So how can we be of assistance?" Robert asks.
"I thought all y'all were against violence?" Colt replies.
"We do not like violence, that is true. However we can see that in order to keep our town we must stop the Outriders," Robert replies. "Tell us what we can do to help."
Several of the townsfolk step out holding older looking weapons.
"It's not much, but I'm sure we can deter them from taking us," a woman states as she holds up her rifle.
Colt nods and looks around. "It seems that the church is the center of your town," he starts speaking slowly as he forms a plan in his mind.
"It is also where we have an underground shelter," Robert replies.
"So let's set up shop there. It's near dark. We can hope that the other Star Sheriffs get here before the Outriders. On the chance that they don't, I'll take first watch at the head of the hill, so I can shout a warning to give y'all time to get ready," Colt replies.
Robert nods and turns to the others and starts preparations.
Colt heads out to the hill and pulls out his com-link, "Anybody there?" he asks.
"Go ahead, Colt," Saber replies.
"We got Outrider trouble," he replies. "How soon can you get here?"
"I'm afraid we're stuck here until morning, cowboy. April's almost done making repairs to the engine from our last battle, but she said it'd be morning before we could head out."
"Well, I guess I'll just have to hope our luck holds til then," Colt says and closes the connection. He takes a look around and is just about to sit down when he hears a sound behind him. His hand on his blaster, he pulls it and turns around, coming face to face with a frightened Josh. "You really shouldn't sneak up on people like that, Josh."
"I...I came out to see if you wanted company," he mumbles quietly.
Colt smiles and pats his head, "I don't mind, so long as-"
"Josh!" Robin calls angrily. "I told you to stay in the shelter."
"But...but, I was just gonna-" Josh starts to reply.
"I can't handle it if I lose you, Josh. Go back to the shelter," she says forcefully.
Josh sighs, looking dejected, "Yes, ma'am." he nods to Colt and Robin casts him a wary glance before turning and escorting Josh back into the church.
Colt spends the next few hours keeping watch, not long before dawn, he notices lights moving through the forest below. "Hmmmm," Colt mumbles as he moves to get a better look. A minute or so later a flare is shot into the air. "Damn it! Outriders," he says aloud and turns back to where the townsfolk are hiding. "Here they come! Get ready!" he calls as soon as he spots his destination. They scramble several people manning guns set up along a perimeter and Colt jumps into the makeshift bunker and joins them, his blaster out and ready. "Here they come," he says quietly as the first fighter comes into view and they begin firing.
They manage to make a small dent in the enemy forces, holding them off for nearly half an hour before one of the women on the front lines is shot.
"Nora!" Robert calls as he rushes to her aid, another man stepping in to fire in his place.
A couple of women come out and Robert helps carry her into the shelter where Robin, Josh and several others are.
Robin waves them into a side room and they lay Nora out and Robin starts tending to the woman's wounds. "The burns are bad, but thankfully not fatal," she says as she works. She notices Robert standing there concerned and looks up at him, "Go help fight, I've got her," she says firmly.
He hesitates for a moment before leaving the room back out to the fight.
Robin looks up to find Josh standing there mouth agape in a mix of shock and fear. "Josh, this is why I don't like fighting, people can get hurt or killed," Robin says quietly. He nods slightly and takes a breath to calm himself just as a window is shattered and an Outrider appears and goes to grab him. Withouth thinking, Robin grabs the gun that Nora had and fires it, hitting the Outrider killing him. She realizes what she's done and drops the gun in shock just as a second Outrider appears and moves to fire his weapon when he is hit and killed. She looks around wildly to see Colt lowering his weapon and she runs to him and he embraces her and Josh, who has come up after her.
"You're safe now, the others have just arrived and are fighting them back. I've got to go help stop the renegade unit or no one is safe," he says quietly.
Robin releases him and looks up, her fear becoming a resolve to be strong and he releases her and turns and runs back out to the battle.
"Care to let me on?" he calls on his com-link as the ramp lowers and he joins the Bismarck team.
"Glad you decided to join us, cowboy," Fireball calls as he hist the button to enter challenge phase. The ship transforms and they fire immediately, knocking the head off the enemy renegade.
"That was easy," Colt whoops.
"I wouldn't count your chickens yet, Colt," April says as the renegade shoots out wires that grab onto the ship and send out electrical pulses, causing them all to scream in pain.
"Got to get out of this!" Saber says between gritted teeth.
"On it," Fireball manages to say. He hits a couple of buttons and manages to fire a blast that knocks them away from the enemy renegade and snaps the cables that had them.
"Now, Colt!" Saber calls and Colt fires everything they have, blowing up the renegade and ceasing the attack.
Once they are sure the threat is over, they return to the town and Colt is met by the townsfolk with Robin and Josh running ahead to greet him. She grabs him in a hug, much to the amusement of the others.
"Looks like Colt might have found a keeper," Fireball says grinning.
"No wonder he came here rather than back to the ship," April mumbles.
"Perhaps the woman will calm him a little," Saber says with a chuckle.
The three turn to watch the spectacle as Robin and Colt talk for a while.
April answers her com-link and sighs, "Looks like we'll have to drag lover boy out of here. My father needs us at Cavalry Command."
Saber nods and starts towards Colt.
Colt sees him approaching and says something to Josh, pointing, causing the boy to look away and he leans in and kisses Robin briefly.
She smiles at him, looking a bit bewildered, a blush on her cheeks.
He grins and whispers, "Wait for me?" she nods and leans in and kisses her once more before heading towards his teammates and up the ramp.
They follow, looking a bit stunned, the ramp closing behind them and Colt lets out a whoop as they take off.
Robin and Josh stand there watching them take off, her hand against her chest and she sighs with a mix of emotions running through her.
Colt watches her image fade from sight of his screen and sighs, tipping his hat and slinking down into his unit for a nap during their flight.
