I ducked as the bandit's clever hammer chopped off a few inches of my hair, nearly missing my neck. I responded by crouching and kicking the ugly man's feet out from under him. No sooner had his back thudded on the ground before I sank my hunting knife in his chest.
I got up on my knees, surveying the six bodies that lay bleeding around me. Bandits often hunted in small groups, ravaging small caravans and care trucks, murdering wanderers, raping women, stealing currency... or most anything for that matter. Things could not be worse.
My roll of bandage tape was running low, but I couldn't let my wound bleed any more. The fourth bandit had a menacing blunter with nails through one end, (A blunter is an improvised weapon with no definite edge) and landed a solid strike to my right arm.
Marvelle, the fourth planet in the Interstellar Parliamentary Alliance, had been destroyed through war, famine, natural disasters, chemical weapons. Nothing could be worse, to destroy the entire planet wholesale would be mercy at this point. But too many resources such as iron, copper, and not a few precious gems and metals still resided here. The mining establishments here made this an extremely rich region 215 years ago, but when I was a little girl, the IPA, or the Alliance, had grown too greedy for the riches in our communities, as well as other planets. Over half of the entire system of colonized planets revolted against their Alliance masters, but their foes were too well armed and equipped. The rebels referred to themselves as 'Independents,' but since their lack of proper uniforms caused most of their soldiers to be seen in their brown coats on the battlefield, Alliance loyalists often nicknamed them 'Browncoats'.
All my life, I wished to join them, but dreams are more worthless than whisps of air out here on the border planets. Everyone fights for what they can get, and not uncommonly, what they already have. I used to belong to a refugee camp in Ravenwald on the other side of Borje Canyon, but the Alliance mistakenly assumed that it was a Browncoat base, and bombed it to ash... then bombed the ashes just to be sure of no survivors. I was thirteen, and had left to go hunting for my first time alone, when I returned, every soul I had ever known was taken away from me.
After looting the bodies of my attackers, I found 4 credits, and about 32 platinum currency. Not a bad find at all. Not enough to get some medicine, but enough for resources for the next few days. Although finding currency was never an issue with this occupation, finding someone willing to exchange supplies I need is. Apparently I'm not the ugliest female in the universe, or I am and no one seems to care; bad men in every town I step in eyeball me head-to-toe with their probing eyes. I usually end up killing them in defense and turning half the town into an uproar after me. It's like a curse that follows me, constantly reminding me that I'll never belong anywhere.
After retrieving my arrows for my bow slung over my back, I limped off to the great unknown. I had found an old prospector's map from my travelings, and although it didn't give the locations of any political borders or cities or points of civilization, it was extremely accurate as to geographical terrain and significant natural landmarks.
The mountain cresting the horizon in the distance was called Kinefold. Rumor has it that when the terraforming machines landed here and started giving the planet Earth-like qualities, Kinefold was too high for the oxygen atmosphere levels to reach. So the extra-soiled dirt never hindered the mining facilities there, the miners could dig straight through the raw sand and rock to obtain minerals. Plus without the resistance of atmosphere for take-offs and landings, it was a prime location for a spaceport.
Perfect mining facilities? Perfect location for a commercial exportation spaceport? There's no way there's no civilization there. There has to be somebody there... somebody with some resources to get me through to the next city.
For the next two days, I saw no living creature in sight. I had become accustomed to the extreme silence and loneliness that one encounters when they don't meet anyone else for long periods of time. But I still feared the possibility that one day I might be the last human on this planet. I feared it more than death.
But I was not alone long after that. I moved mostly at night, and on the third night after my previous encounter, I heard men sitting around a campfire, yelling vulgarities and laughing at inappropriate humor. They were camped outside of a downed spaceship, half buried by the sandstorms that occur in this region. I sneaked around the front of the ship, and almost walked right in front of a guard, sitting on the nose of the ship. I could try to go around him, but it'd be lengthy. Besides, he looks tired and might have some spare loot on him. I crawled up the side of the ship without making a sound, and with the swing of my sike, I severed his spine with almost no noise. After a quick looting of his pockets, I found a measly three platinum... hardly worth a kill, but it was more for convenience of travel than for coin.
The voice behind me startled me, "that doesn't belong to you."
I turned to face a man over 6 feet tall, browner skin, and has never seen a razor in his life. "And I suppose he came by it by more noble means?" I questioned the man.
"That's none of your concern..." he looked at my body up and down, "dang!" he said in astonishment. I hated hearing that. It was obvious his intentions were less than admirable.
I raised my improvised blade to show I meant business, but he took no note of it. "I'm not interested in trouble, I just want to be on my way."
"I think you should come more MY way." the man yelled, then lunged at me. He must've been too drunk to see straight, because I stepped out of the way just before cleaving his head right off.
The other bandits took notice, one of them called out, "hey Merf! Look there! Another whore to bleed!"
Oh God, why did You make me a woman?
I took off running with what little energy I had. The dark night was my friend tonight. I ducked under the ship's starboard engine that had wrecked in a sand dune 200 meters from the wreck. The obscenities and vulgar language of the bandits could still be heard ringing through the air, but it was apparent no one knew where I was.
By daylight I was able to identify that the intense run had caused my arm to begin bleeding again. I was drained of energy and felt more and more lightheaded with every passing hour. It was apparent I needed medical attention, my arm felt like a puppet with no hand, and no command for movement seemed to twitch it.
I traveled for another full day without rest or shelter. Doubts began to squirm their way into my mind- why on earth would people settle in a barren land like this? I hadn't seen a plant for at least 25 miles. I slunk to my knees as a light sandstorm began to roll in. The sun was almost non-exsistant, my supplies were almost out, I was watching myself bleed to death...
...maybe to die isn't such a bad idea after all.
I fell on my back and closed my eyes. The bells of Hell had come to collect me...
No, wait, that was a REAL bell! That's a signal bell! They use those in primitive colonies to signal imminent natural disasters.
Looking over a nearby ledge, I saw it! The mining colony under Kinefold! I didn't have the energy to be excited; in fact, the only thing I could do was utter, "oh finally!"
The trek down the rocky cliff was less than painless to say the least. I think I fell from more ledges then I actually climbed down from. I made it into the town right as the sand started to dart through the air like crumb-sized darts. Picking a nearby establishment that looked like it had goods in it, I darted through the front door.
It was the general store, luckily. The tender was bald with a big black mustache and glasses, yet had beautiful blue eyes. The wood floor was well swept, but obviously extremely old. Old plants and trophy skulls were mounted on the ceiling rafters. And the best part of all, apart from the tender, every inhabitant was a woman, so I had little danger here. Tenders weren't usually interested in making trouble for me since I gave them money. "Long journey, eh miss?" he asked in a strange accent, I had almost forgotten about the dirt and old blood then encased my entire body.
"I reckon so. Just looking for some supplies," the women looked at me as if I was an intruding ghost, "you don't happen to have meds here, do you?"
"Naw miss. Small apothecary ain't got nothin' niether, not the caliber you need," he pointed to my injured arm, "but the big ol' fancy Alliance base on the top 'o Kinefold would have stuff you need, if you're okay tradin' with the feds."
I gave him a stone look, "I'm not." I'd rather die than go crawl to my enemies asking for help.
"I see," said the tender, "where are you headed, miss?"
"Anywhere and nowhere. Alliance done burned everything I ever known back to dust."
"You ain't the only one, miss," he stroked his mustache, "you fight, missy?"
"I've been surviving tangles with murderers and rapists for come near a decade."
The tender was impressed, "well I'll tell you what, sweetheart, you have coin?"
Verbally, he sounded suspicious, but his body language nor his expressions showed any signs of mischief, I figured an abstract answer couldn't hurt much, "a little, why?"
He indicated his shelves, "we've been having some troubles down here under the boot of the darned Alliance. So here's what I say, take a listen: You buy what you need to get up to yonder mountain, you steal meds you need, and any more you can carry and bring them back to us so we can heal some of our sick. If you do that, and come back alive, not only will I have the doc fix you up for nothin' but I'll pay back twice whatever you buy from my store today."
I turned to the ladies sitting at the tables in the middle of the store for confirmation, "he tells the truth, dear. You hold up your end, he'll hold up his. Jeffworthy ain't no liar."
I gave the tender a disbelieving glance, "you must be pretty desperate under those terms, hm?"
The tender gently took off his glasses, then folded them in his pocket, "I don't think you understand, miss. We were once the richest community on the planet until the war, 30,000 people used to live here. Now we're bucking for 300 maybe. We need med help, and the goramn Alliance isn't going to help us any. You're the first person who hasn't tried to take advantage of us or didn't hate the Alliance."
I thought for a moment. It would be a suicide mission. But which would I prefer? To die in the wilderness, or die avenging my people with a small percent chance of survival? I began to walk out the door to see if the tender would try to stop me, but he didn't make a sound. Instead, he simply looked at me with pleading eyes.
I shook my head, "I'm going to need bandage tape, grinding stone, life support gear, something with 20% or more protein content, I'm going to need two knives weighing no more than 3 ounces each and enough explosive material." I sputtered it out so fast that the tender ripped a piece of paper out and started writing it all down.
He lifted his eyebrows questioningly when he finished making his list, "anything ELSE?"
A small smirk escaped me, "Yeah... do you got something to drink in this joint?"
I was surprised at how mild the sandstorm was, it only lasted for about half an hour and delivered only an inch or two of sand. I left nearly my entire fortune at the general store, I wouldn't need currency if this is a one-way suicide trip. Something felt wrong about not holding up my end of the bargain to bring back promised meds for that desperate town, but who can yell at me for being dead?
The tender told me of a old abandoned miners elevator that leads to the top of the mountain. It was half buried but it ran on an independent battery source (in case cave-in's killed the main power) and was still operational.
The ride up took about 4 hours. The power only hiccuped twice and only for a few seconds. I wore the robust life support the entire way up in case the oxygen had been drained. I expected to pop above ground in almost zero gravity and no oxygen, but niether seemed to have effect, and it was very dark. I was under an A-Sphere. With high tech technology, small bases and spaceports adjacent to a planet could produce it's own oxygen, and recycle it with that of the planet's. If an A-Sphere was in place, that meant I was extremely close to the base. I climbed on top of a nearby hill and saw bright lights further up the hill. I packed away my life support and started climbing.
The base was massive! The biggest I have ever seen. From the fuel tanks, I could tell that this was a refueling and rearming station for cruisers and battleships. The symbols on the tanks weren't Tachyon-1 gas like civilians were supposed to use, it was Ulphiria-12L. Tachyon is mined in asteroids that have been heated and cooled quickly, it's a gas that, when lit, excites very quickly and will propel things through space. It's not very efficient, but it's cheap, and that's what the Alliance wants out of it's galaxy, cheap. Ulphiria is a much more rare gas and is illegal for civilians to use, it's carefully collected out of dying blue stars, and burns very slowly but efficiently. The numbers simply meant the degree of which the material was refined for better efficiency.
If those tanks contained Ulphiria, and I ignited them, then it would take decades to cool this place to the point that the Alliance could use it again, even space-cold wouldn't touch it. But Ulphiria only burns under intense heat. Then how to they ignite it in battleships? They must use high-grade Tachyon to start the engines, then inject Ulphiria to get it going.
If I could find Tachyon tanks, and use those to ignite the Ulphiria, my mission would be no less than complete!
I made it to the fuel tanks without much trouble, but this was the hard part: The fuel security is patrolled by small droids with light machine guns, they are programmed to identify anything out of the ordinary. As I began to plan a daring attempt to sneak inside, I noticed they only patrol the inner 3 isles of tanks, I could drop my satchel charge over the fence by the far tank and let it blow after I'm clear.
It began to dawn on me that I might make it out of here alive.
I dropped my satchel charge by a T-4 tank that should ignite the two U-12L tanks right beside it, then began to make my way into the infirmary. It was at the back of the main barracks, somehow I would have to get through all those Alliance troops to make a medicine heist and make it back out alive. I was about to peek my head through the door when I heard them talk about a droid discovering something suspicious by the fuel drums.
Darn! They found my explosives!
I waited for the barracks to clear out, then bolted without even looking through the barracks to the back infirmary. A doctor was shocked to see me come running through his door, but under pure adrenaline rush, I sank my knife in his chest before he could scream. But the nurse noticed and screamed for him. Dang! This is NOT going as planned! I ran to the shelves and took sweeping motions with my arm, knocking dozens upon dozens of medicines, vials, and bottles into my backpack. I was back out of the infirmary in about 30 seconds total, but it was enough for an Alliance soldier to take notice. He started to attack me with the butt of his rifle, but my reflexes proved their worth, I ducked under and slid my knife clear through his gut while I sank my second knife in his neck. I retrieved them both before he fell and started running for the door as fast as I could.
I made it outside the barracks only to be greeted by 30+ Alliance guns trained on me. The officer was enraged, "what won't those goramn villagers think of next? Now they're preforming medical theft!" He shook his head, "no matter. Say goodnight, traitor."
Taking a chance on the explosives, I armed the detonator, "goodnight!"
~*~*~*~
The woman came in, terrified, "Jeffworthy! Jeffworthy! Did you see that catastrophic explosion on the mountain?"
The general store tender left his counter and stood outside on the dirt and sand road. The mountaintop glowed with an intense burning blue flame. "Well, I guess she got her revenge."
"...and you got your meds." I said, limping twords the store. "Now, how about that bargain?" I nearly passed out in his arms.
"I'd be honored..."
I got up on my knees, surveying the six bodies that lay bleeding around me. Bandits often hunted in small groups, ravaging small caravans and care trucks, murdering wanderers, raping women, stealing currency... or most anything for that matter. Things could not be worse.
My roll of bandage tape was running low, but I couldn't let my wound bleed any more. The fourth bandit had a menacing blunter with nails through one end, (A blunter is an improvised weapon with no definite edge) and landed a solid strike to my right arm.
Marvelle, the fourth planet in the Interstellar Parliamentary Alliance, had been destroyed through war, famine, natural disasters, chemical weapons. Nothing could be worse, to destroy the entire planet wholesale would be mercy at this point. But too many resources such as iron, copper, and not a few precious gems and metals still resided here. The mining establishments here made this an extremely rich region 215 years ago, but when I was a little girl, the IPA, or the Alliance, had grown too greedy for the riches in our communities, as well as other planets. Over half of the entire system of colonized planets revolted against their Alliance masters, but their foes were too well armed and equipped. The rebels referred to themselves as 'Independents,' but since their lack of proper uniforms caused most of their soldiers to be seen in their brown coats on the battlefield, Alliance loyalists often nicknamed them 'Browncoats'.
All my life, I wished to join them, but dreams are more worthless than whisps of air out here on the border planets. Everyone fights for what they can get, and not uncommonly, what they already have. I used to belong to a refugee camp in Ravenwald on the other side of Borje Canyon, but the Alliance mistakenly assumed that it was a Browncoat base, and bombed it to ash... then bombed the ashes just to be sure of no survivors. I was thirteen, and had left to go hunting for my first time alone, when I returned, every soul I had ever known was taken away from me.
After looting the bodies of my attackers, I found 4 credits, and about 32 platinum currency. Not a bad find at all. Not enough to get some medicine, but enough for resources for the next few days. Although finding currency was never an issue with this occupation, finding someone willing to exchange supplies I need is. Apparently I'm not the ugliest female in the universe, or I am and no one seems to care; bad men in every town I step in eyeball me head-to-toe with their probing eyes. I usually end up killing them in defense and turning half the town into an uproar after me. It's like a curse that follows me, constantly reminding me that I'll never belong anywhere.
After retrieving my arrows for my bow slung over my back, I limped off to the great unknown. I had found an old prospector's map from my travelings, and although it didn't give the locations of any political borders or cities or points of civilization, it was extremely accurate as to geographical terrain and significant natural landmarks.
The mountain cresting the horizon in the distance was called Kinefold. Rumor has it that when the terraforming machines landed here and started giving the planet Earth-like qualities, Kinefold was too high for the oxygen atmosphere levels to reach. So the extra-soiled dirt never hindered the mining facilities there, the miners could dig straight through the raw sand and rock to obtain minerals. Plus without the resistance of atmosphere for take-offs and landings, it was a prime location for a spaceport.
Perfect mining facilities? Perfect location for a commercial exportation spaceport? There's no way there's no civilization there. There has to be somebody there... somebody with some resources to get me through to the next city.
For the next two days, I saw no living creature in sight. I had become accustomed to the extreme silence and loneliness that one encounters when they don't meet anyone else for long periods of time. But I still feared the possibility that one day I might be the last human on this planet. I feared it more than death.
But I was not alone long after that. I moved mostly at night, and on the third night after my previous encounter, I heard men sitting around a campfire, yelling vulgarities and laughing at inappropriate humor. They were camped outside of a downed spaceship, half buried by the sandstorms that occur in this region. I sneaked around the front of the ship, and almost walked right in front of a guard, sitting on the nose of the ship. I could try to go around him, but it'd be lengthy. Besides, he looks tired and might have some spare loot on him. I crawled up the side of the ship without making a sound, and with the swing of my sike, I severed his spine with almost no noise. After a quick looting of his pockets, I found a measly three platinum... hardly worth a kill, but it was more for convenience of travel than for coin.
The voice behind me startled me, "that doesn't belong to you."
I turned to face a man over 6 feet tall, browner skin, and has never seen a razor in his life. "And I suppose he came by it by more noble means?" I questioned the man.
"That's none of your concern..." he looked at my body up and down, "dang!" he said in astonishment. I hated hearing that. It was obvious his intentions were less than admirable.
I raised my improvised blade to show I meant business, but he took no note of it. "I'm not interested in trouble, I just want to be on my way."
"I think you should come more MY way." the man yelled, then lunged at me. He must've been too drunk to see straight, because I stepped out of the way just before cleaving his head right off.
The other bandits took notice, one of them called out, "hey Merf! Look there! Another whore to bleed!"
Oh God, why did You make me a woman?
I took off running with what little energy I had. The dark night was my friend tonight. I ducked under the ship's starboard engine that had wrecked in a sand dune 200 meters from the wreck. The obscenities and vulgar language of the bandits could still be heard ringing through the air, but it was apparent no one knew where I was.
By daylight I was able to identify that the intense run had caused my arm to begin bleeding again. I was drained of energy and felt more and more lightheaded with every passing hour. It was apparent I needed medical attention, my arm felt like a puppet with no hand, and no command for movement seemed to twitch it.
I traveled for another full day without rest or shelter. Doubts began to squirm their way into my mind- why on earth would people settle in a barren land like this? I hadn't seen a plant for at least 25 miles. I slunk to my knees as a light sandstorm began to roll in. The sun was almost non-exsistant, my supplies were almost out, I was watching myself bleed to death...
...maybe to die isn't such a bad idea after all.
I fell on my back and closed my eyes. The bells of Hell had come to collect me...
No, wait, that was a REAL bell! That's a signal bell! They use those in primitive colonies to signal imminent natural disasters.
Looking over a nearby ledge, I saw it! The mining colony under Kinefold! I didn't have the energy to be excited; in fact, the only thing I could do was utter, "oh finally!"
The trek down the rocky cliff was less than painless to say the least. I think I fell from more ledges then I actually climbed down from. I made it into the town right as the sand started to dart through the air like crumb-sized darts. Picking a nearby establishment that looked like it had goods in it, I darted through the front door.
It was the general store, luckily. The tender was bald with a big black mustache and glasses, yet had beautiful blue eyes. The wood floor was well swept, but obviously extremely old. Old plants and trophy skulls were mounted on the ceiling rafters. And the best part of all, apart from the tender, every inhabitant was a woman, so I had little danger here. Tenders weren't usually interested in making trouble for me since I gave them money. "Long journey, eh miss?" he asked in a strange accent, I had almost forgotten about the dirt and old blood then encased my entire body.
"I reckon so. Just looking for some supplies," the women looked at me as if I was an intruding ghost, "you don't happen to have meds here, do you?"
"Naw miss. Small apothecary ain't got nothin' niether, not the caliber you need," he pointed to my injured arm, "but the big ol' fancy Alliance base on the top 'o Kinefold would have stuff you need, if you're okay tradin' with the feds."
I gave him a stone look, "I'm not." I'd rather die than go crawl to my enemies asking for help.
"I see," said the tender, "where are you headed, miss?"
"Anywhere and nowhere. Alliance done burned everything I ever known back to dust."
"You ain't the only one, miss," he stroked his mustache, "you fight, missy?"
"I've been surviving tangles with murderers and rapists for come near a decade."
The tender was impressed, "well I'll tell you what, sweetheart, you have coin?"
Verbally, he sounded suspicious, but his body language nor his expressions showed any signs of mischief, I figured an abstract answer couldn't hurt much, "a little, why?"
He indicated his shelves, "we've been having some troubles down here under the boot of the darned Alliance. So here's what I say, take a listen: You buy what you need to get up to yonder mountain, you steal meds you need, and any more you can carry and bring them back to us so we can heal some of our sick. If you do that, and come back alive, not only will I have the doc fix you up for nothin' but I'll pay back twice whatever you buy from my store today."
I turned to the ladies sitting at the tables in the middle of the store for confirmation, "he tells the truth, dear. You hold up your end, he'll hold up his. Jeffworthy ain't no liar."
I gave the tender a disbelieving glance, "you must be pretty desperate under those terms, hm?"
The tender gently took off his glasses, then folded them in his pocket, "I don't think you understand, miss. We were once the richest community on the planet until the war, 30,000 people used to live here. Now we're bucking for 300 maybe. We need med help, and the goramn Alliance isn't going to help us any. You're the first person who hasn't tried to take advantage of us or didn't hate the Alliance."
I thought for a moment. It would be a suicide mission. But which would I prefer? To die in the wilderness, or die avenging my people with a small percent chance of survival? I began to walk out the door to see if the tender would try to stop me, but he didn't make a sound. Instead, he simply looked at me with pleading eyes.
I shook my head, "I'm going to need bandage tape, grinding stone, life support gear, something with 20% or more protein content, I'm going to need two knives weighing no more than 3 ounces each and enough explosive material." I sputtered it out so fast that the tender ripped a piece of paper out and started writing it all down.
He lifted his eyebrows questioningly when he finished making his list, "anything ELSE?"
A small smirk escaped me, "Yeah... do you got something to drink in this joint?"
I was surprised at how mild the sandstorm was, it only lasted for about half an hour and delivered only an inch or two of sand. I left nearly my entire fortune at the general store, I wouldn't need currency if this is a one-way suicide trip. Something felt wrong about not holding up my end of the bargain to bring back promised meds for that desperate town, but who can yell at me for being dead?
The tender told me of a old abandoned miners elevator that leads to the top of the mountain. It was half buried but it ran on an independent battery source (in case cave-in's killed the main power) and was still operational.
The ride up took about 4 hours. The power only hiccuped twice and only for a few seconds. I wore the robust life support the entire way up in case the oxygen had been drained. I expected to pop above ground in almost zero gravity and no oxygen, but niether seemed to have effect, and it was very dark. I was under an A-Sphere. With high tech technology, small bases and spaceports adjacent to a planet could produce it's own oxygen, and recycle it with that of the planet's. If an A-Sphere was in place, that meant I was extremely close to the base. I climbed on top of a nearby hill and saw bright lights further up the hill. I packed away my life support and started climbing.
The base was massive! The biggest I have ever seen. From the fuel tanks, I could tell that this was a refueling and rearming station for cruisers and battleships. The symbols on the tanks weren't Tachyon-1 gas like civilians were supposed to use, it was Ulphiria-12L. Tachyon is mined in asteroids that have been heated and cooled quickly, it's a gas that, when lit, excites very quickly and will propel things through space. It's not very efficient, but it's cheap, and that's what the Alliance wants out of it's galaxy, cheap. Ulphiria is a much more rare gas and is illegal for civilians to use, it's carefully collected out of dying blue stars, and burns very slowly but efficiently. The numbers simply meant the degree of which the material was refined for better efficiency.
If those tanks contained Ulphiria, and I ignited them, then it would take decades to cool this place to the point that the Alliance could use it again, even space-cold wouldn't touch it. But Ulphiria only burns under intense heat. Then how to they ignite it in battleships? They must use high-grade Tachyon to start the engines, then inject Ulphiria to get it going.
If I could find Tachyon tanks, and use those to ignite the Ulphiria, my mission would be no less than complete!
I made it to the fuel tanks without much trouble, but this was the hard part: The fuel security is patrolled by small droids with light machine guns, they are programmed to identify anything out of the ordinary. As I began to plan a daring attempt to sneak inside, I noticed they only patrol the inner 3 isles of tanks, I could drop my satchel charge over the fence by the far tank and let it blow after I'm clear.
It began to dawn on me that I might make it out of here alive.
I dropped my satchel charge by a T-4 tank that should ignite the two U-12L tanks right beside it, then began to make my way into the infirmary. It was at the back of the main barracks, somehow I would have to get through all those Alliance troops to make a medicine heist and make it back out alive. I was about to peek my head through the door when I heard them talk about a droid discovering something suspicious by the fuel drums.
Darn! They found my explosives!
I waited for the barracks to clear out, then bolted without even looking through the barracks to the back infirmary. A doctor was shocked to see me come running through his door, but under pure adrenaline rush, I sank my knife in his chest before he could scream. But the nurse noticed and screamed for him. Dang! This is NOT going as planned! I ran to the shelves and took sweeping motions with my arm, knocking dozens upon dozens of medicines, vials, and bottles into my backpack. I was back out of the infirmary in about 30 seconds total, but it was enough for an Alliance soldier to take notice. He started to attack me with the butt of his rifle, but my reflexes proved their worth, I ducked under and slid my knife clear through his gut while I sank my second knife in his neck. I retrieved them both before he fell and started running for the door as fast as I could.
I made it outside the barracks only to be greeted by 30+ Alliance guns trained on me. The officer was enraged, "what won't those goramn villagers think of next? Now they're preforming medical theft!" He shook his head, "no matter. Say goodnight, traitor."
Taking a chance on the explosives, I armed the detonator, "goodnight!"
~*~*~*~
The woman came in, terrified, "Jeffworthy! Jeffworthy! Did you see that catastrophic explosion on the mountain?"
The general store tender left his counter and stood outside on the dirt and sand road. The mountaintop glowed with an intense burning blue flame. "Well, I guess she got her revenge."
"...and you got your meds." I said, limping twords the store. "Now, how about that bargain?" I nearly passed out in his arms.
"I'd be honored..."
Nice ;)
ReplyDeleteThough, Can't lie. Would have loved to see Mal or Jayne in passing ;) haha
Yeah but Jayne wasn't with the Browncoats and Mal was never assigned to Marvelle
ReplyDeleteThose were real places from the show?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, no. I made them up. I used the show to create a villain and create atmosphere behind the plot.
Delete