>ON!
It was easier to complain about being cold than it was to be warm - since cooling down was a much easier task than remaining warm. One could guess that either extreme wasn't healthy, and a tepid medium had to be struck between them to exist comfortably. But, this was not a place of comfort, or care - because it cared not. Nobody expects the dirt beneath you to help you - just for you to fall on it when you run out of breath.
This was the way of life the Chelti reaches. You had to stand on your own to feet and fight against everything by tooth and nail to keep on living - only the strongest, smartest and craziest could survive out here.
Shira was hanging over the edge of a cliff-side landing pad, cliff-side in that it was literally drilled into place on the side of a giant mountain. The rope was around her waist and she had her legs forced against the rock, looking up. In her lips, under the hood, was a cigarette and her emotions showed she was a little bored.
Around her seven other commandos hung from under the pad by rope and claw, the seemingly bottomless drop underneath not fazing them. One of them held the thin stalk of a peeping camera over the lip of structure, surveying the scene.
Above them a mass of arms was on display from just about everywhere within the known galaxy and a few without. A similar variety was on display among the customers as they milled through machineguns, exotic weapons, explosives, even a few vehicles and aircraft, including a medium sized dropship.
Nepleslian gangers and gun runners mingled with Lorath, Phods, Separa'shan, and even a few unknown species. Vicious criminals and scum made up the majority of the clientele. Four of the heavily covered customers were some of her commandos in deep cover. The conversation topics passed around were mostly price negotiations and twisted imaginations being rought over what to do with the goods. Crooked smiles, sly grins and upwards sneers dominated their facial expressions.
"It's like a terror supermarket." One of the commandos commented from his perch.
"Sick, isn't it?" Another commented, whilst peering through the camera's feed.
Shira watched the images on her own wrist-computer. She smirked on how others commented. "Looks like a lot of candy out there just for us to grab when we are done with the job to me. I mean look at all those lovely guns!" She whispered with cigarette still hooked between her lips.
"Shame we gotta shoot around 'em. I want something to play with after this."
"I'd like to say 'Stay frosty', but I don't think that's appropriate right now. Just keep your eyes out for the bomb. If our guys can't get their mitts on it we'll have to take Measures."
"I have an idea," Shira said and chuckled looking at the chelti who spoke last. "Let's pull our guys aside and toss a grenade in there. It explodes and kills few dudes, causes some chaos. Then we just get to see them shoot each other. It will be hilarious. I mean look at them, the looks they give each other. Criminals are funny." To her it was all just a game after all.
"There are over one hundred different guys up there. I think it'll take more bang than that to kill enough for that."
As he spoke something happened through the camera. One of the commandos had been bidding on their target. A planetary mold-colony bomb, designed to seed life on hostile, airless planets, but could also devastate the ecosystem of any planet if used poorly. And it was certain that everyone who was bidding on it wasn't interested on its intended, safe uses.
It was too dangerous to be allowed out of safe hands. How it had even gone missing was a mystery, not even the efforts of the Department of Minor Secrets had uncovered any clues beyond a missing item in a storage rack.
Their instructions were simple: Get the bomb back, and kidnap the asshat who'd stolen it so he'd spill on how they'd lost it.
"Well," Shira said watching her own feed and contemplating where the thrown grenade would make biggest boom. "We can expect some action, mates. Otherwise I would not be here now, would I?" She chuckled at her words.
There was a visible shuffle as the camera watched, with the seller pushing the commando incognito away. Obviously the negotiations hadn't gone well.
"Fuck..." one of the commandos commented quietly as the tensions escalated.
"This isn't looking good, we have to mo- wait." One of the commandos swivelled their camera above the crowd and towards a lone black speck on the horizon, gaining speed. "What is that?"
-
"Aaaaand it's a wonderful day in buttfuck nowhere for killing~!" The lone figure was skating along the icy plateau, singing and ignoring the cold. He was drawing all sorts of attention from the assembled quarrellers and bidders. "Hellooooo dead people!"
The chelti Commando looked to another, seeking some sort of identification or an answer. "Vaga, he is." One commando commented bitterly. "Thinks he's some sort of hero."
"Well guys, not that I am not comfy around here," Shira said and tossed the cigarette butt away. "but let's use the fact that everyone looks at that looney and climb up shall we? We have a bomb to take back." Off her belt she unhooked two picks she used both to climb and kill people. She hacked one into the ice-covered rock and tested if it held. It did. It always did, the others could sense she was pleased as she started making her way up. If there was someone who was supposed to be a hero around these parts it was her and not some crazy guy on skates.
"Xenon is go, repeat, is go." one of the commandos said into his radio before beginning to make his own way up over the lip of the landing pad.
-
Meanwhile, above them on the landing pad, the attention of the criminals was diverted away from the hassle over the bomb and now focussing on the lone Yamataian skating by, suddenly swivelling a GP-1 rifle into action and firing wildly into the crowd of terrorists. During which, he didn't pause any of his movements, and kept moving like a whirlwind.
The customer that had been arguing over the bomb suddenly turned around and planted a closed fist right into the sellers face. Three other, seemingly unrelated figures suddenly emerged. One wrapping his weapon around one guards throat and hauling him off his feet, before slamming the butt into the guards face.
By the time the other investors realised what was happening, a handful of them had been given trans-cranial lead therapy. Those remaining bought up guns of their own and started firing or diving behind the widely available cover of the merchandise.
"What are you screaming for?" Luca roared to the criminals as he wove between gunfire. "I'm just getting warmed up!"
Another one of the sellers' entourage fell as a folded axe was flipped up to the ready and brought down repeatedly by the other commando, adding to the screaming and confusion within the crowd.
Shira smiled internally as she reached the top a little ahead of others. She used her ice-picks to pull up. The tall chelti woman did not even have to try being quiet as the gunfire was loud enough. She got on her feet and sheathed her picks.
Just a few meters in front of her was a lone sentry, who did the wrong thing. He turned around to look at the chaos within the bazaar. It was the last mistake of his life though, as Shira grabbed him by his hair from behind. In her hand was already a large knife which rested on her belt until now. With one swing she cut his head off.
Whistling she looked at the head, turning it in her hands so it was facing her. The man looked sort of surprised. Shira forced his mouth open ad took a grenade of her belt, stuffing it into the dead man's mouth. She pulled the pin and yelled at the group of gangsters not very far.
"Hey, assholes!" She spoke Trade luckily, commandos had to be good with languages. With that she kicked the head and let it fly among the group of terrorists.
With a live grenade in its mouth.
The head bounced on the surface of the pad and rolled to a stop amongst the gangers, slowly it spun around until the open mouth pointed towards them. They had time to flinch back and then it exploded. Men flailed as they were blown off their feet, scraps of bone and a stain on the floor were all that remained of the head.
Bullets started flying overhead as sentry guns joined the fray, firing at the lone iceskater. A blizzard from the two multi-barrel, automated turrets above one of the hangars.
The lone figure began to watch time slow down around him - watching the crevices and ravines in each of the snowflakes in the air and the lead flying through and shattering each of them. He pointed his right hand towards one of them and clenched his fist. A piton on a cable fired at the sentry and impacted with it, and a pulse of electricity could be seen running along the cable before its owner started reeling in towards the Sentry like a human missile whilst disrupting the sentry's internal workings with electricity - and destroying it a moment later.
"Aww!" He seemed positively crestfallen as he laid down on the roof, looking at the other sentry firing at him, and being forced onto the defensive as he dashed along the rooftop - snow, sparks and shards of metal were dancing across the roof. The lone figure put the GP-1 over his back and drew what looked like a metal flare gun. "You know I hate waking the baby!"
Over by the bomb one of other customers had pulled his own weapon and nailed a commando through the chest. The high powered projectile ripping through his armor at that range and sending the unlucky soldier flying off his feet onto his back.
Before the weapon could be brought to bear on another commando, one of them turned and swung an open hand at the assailant, the air seemed to distort itself from around the hand and suddenly the man was knocked into the air backwards away from the commando.
He landed roughly on his back and slid to a halt on the icy steppe. He grunted and hoisted himself back up. Then he saw the roof running figure. Standing up and easily swatting a terrorist out of the way he walked towards Luca.
"Pavone!" he shouted, angrily. His mouth twisted in a hideous smile, his crude cybernetic cyclopean eye glowed. The rest of his body was covered by his heavy coat against the cold. "Remember Drift, you bastard? I'll throw you into a fucking star for what you did to us!"
The other sentry was exploded by the flare gun - now known to the world as a pistol-configuration grenade launcher of Lorath design. "What? Sorry, I don't speak your dialect of whining minge." Luca yelled. "Gonna have to speak up a little mate!"
"Let me speak a language you do understand, then!" he said, and raised his giant handgun.
It was less of a handgun and more of a grenade launcher with a handhold, with a revolver action for bullets bigger than most peoples thumbs. It went off with surprisingly little flash though, obviously it was part railgun, but the slug was massive for a personal weapon.
All Luca had to do was raise his right hand again. The knuckles were glowing white hot and electricity arced between them. A pulse was sent forward and detonated the errant slug in mid air. Luca then leapt through the explosion and yelled: "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO YOU'RE FUCKING WITH?!" He was like a demon leaping out of Hell to pursue his quarry.
The giant man gritted his teeth in fury at the miss.
There was a roar over by the bomb as a giant bear-like creature bowled over the commando that had knocked the cyclopean man away, sending him rolling over the pad and towards death.
The Kodian was fearsome indeed, large even for their species. It was wearing a thick suit of bodyarmour, with guns strapped against it's forelegs and ammo and gear hanging from a belt just in front of its hind legs.
Meanwhile on the other side of the pad. Shira was getting a running start, heading right to the place where here headnade exploded. As the stunned terrorists were coming to she was already there, holding both picks in her hands. Those picks were really good at giving a skulls a coin-slot and Shira was good with them. Accidentally getting a coin-slot also meant death.
Swing after swing, she dealt with the criminals. Some tried to defend, only to meet the off-hand pick's nasty point burying itself into their temples. Other started running away in fear. Unlike Luca, Shira looked like part of a military.
She had a armoured boots, cargo pants and coat with a furred hoodie on. On top of it was a chest-armour and various pieces of deadly armaments. From the hoodie her snout could be seen with vicious smile on it. Next to her mouth was a small tube with a bite bit at the end, for extra oxygen if she needed it in the thin atmosphere.
"Come on guys," she shouted at other commandos. "We need to get to the bomb and you are behind me already. I killed at least eight!" She laughed out loud and put her picks back on her belt. She picked up a gun one of the criminals had. It was a lever-action rifle. One Shira never really saw, but seemed interesting enough. She raised it and aimed at Kodian. Time to get the prey's attention. She smiled and fired.
"Yes, Shira!" One of the Commandos, codenamed Ratbag was closer to the bomb, and had killed about three men with a salvaged Yamataian sword - before finding it too flimsy for his tastes and throwing it away in favour of his pump-action double-barrelled shotgun. "Shira, what shall we do about... the 'Pavone' one?"
"I'm gonna bop you in the nose! I'mma bop your nose!" Luca yelled at the Kodian as he held up his fists towards the ursine creature, still on fire from the explosion of the grenade. What he didn't see, however was the rifle fired by the Equite Chelti.
"OI!" Shira shouted at the Kodian. "You furry abomination! Let's have a chat!" She said and smiled yet again. "Without fists!" With that she started walking towards the bear.
"Hey, I saw it first!" Luca yelled over the din - completely unaware of what the Equite was capable of.
"Fuck you!" She shouted back at him. "It is the most interesting thing to kill here! Others are just boring small fries!"
"Couldn't have put it better!" Luca yelled. "Goons, mooks, this guy's the big cheese!"
"Your fight is with me, dirtbag!" The giant clone yelled, levelling his handcannon at Luca and firing again while he was distracted.
Luca sidestepped the bullet out of a reflexive action, watching the projectile pass on by and spin through the air - sending ripples and distorting the sound through it via the Doppler effect. However, the bullet grazed the shoulder pad of his jacket and threw him off balance, leaving him unable to make a proper counter-attack.
The Kodian growled angrily as the bullet sparked off its armored shoulder. It stood to its full height and reached up its arm to grab one of its weapons, swinging it back down towards Luca in an off-hand attack. It's attention mostly on the woman who shot it.
"Your meat looks poor and stringy, but I'll try to enjoy it anyway." The Kodians loud voice carried without effort even through the ambient gunfire and screaming. While most Kodians managed to look cute and cuddly, this one looked rugged and mean, its jaws bared in a menacing snarl.
Shira picked up speed starting to run towards the fray. She used to rifle to hit anyone standing in her way. No matter if she had to shoot it or literally hit someone over the head with it. "I will handle the skate-guy and the furry thing. You handle the objective!" She radioed to the rest of the commandos.
She closed the gap and ran to where Pavone was fighting. Using a pile of boxes as a step up she jumped, the rifle turning in her hands. She flew at the Kodian not paying any attention to her and trying to hit him over the head with her makeshift club.
The Kodian roared and began bringing its cannon up to blast Shira away, the barrel glowing with energy.
The cyclops guy grabbed the shoulder of his heavy coat and stripped it away with ease, casting it aside and baring his trousers and woollen jumper. His limbs looking grossly thick even under his covering clothes as he ran at Luca, adding his own roar of rage to the mix.
"Start with my Fist if you wanna eat me - I could do with a bear skin rug!" He heckled before realising that the Cyclops was back for seconds. "Well, well! This is a melee!" He noted that the bear was pointing a Cannon, yes a Cannon cannon, at the fellow combatant who'd also wanted a piece of the bear.
Of course, there was such thing as honour amongst warriors, and he flipped his HHG out and fired a WHITE bullet at the bear's cannon-wielding hand. He was just good at these uncannily skilled shots without the need to aim. However, he did ignore his cyclopean pursuer in favour of the bear. He did want a bear skin rug for the pad.
Luca's bullet smashed into the Kodian's hand Cannon, knocking it aside just as it fired. A beam of light whipped past Shira's side and hit the backside of a very large missile of some description, carried on the back of an even larger vehicle. Both promptly exploded into flame, the missile's solid-fuel booster cooked off, and suddenly the flaming front half of a missile and warhead spun through the air and into the side of the cliff.
Everyone felt a rumble through the floor of the landing pad, except for Shira, because she was still flying. But it spelt something ominous. "I smell an explosion!" Luca commented aloud.
The butt of Shira's newfound club crunched into the nose of the Kodian, sending even the large alien staggering backwards, roaring in rage and pain.
Shira landed in front of the large beast, the rifle in her hands broken in half. She realised that the crazy skater probably saved her life and that meant she had to pay him back. And that sucked. Shira backflipped to get out of Bears reach in time, drawing one her two Ice-picks in flight and checking what the cyclops was doing on the side.
"DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME, PAVONE!" yelled the Cyclops, clearly incensed by not having any attention paid to him by his sworn adversary. "I CAN, AND WILL, EAT YOUR HEART WITH A TOOTHPICK! AFTER I THROW YOU INTO A SUN!" He screamed as he tackled Luca from behind, sending the two rolling away across the platform.
There was a groan from the cliff the landing pad was anchored to, and suddenly everything tilted dramatically as the rock started giving way. Things slid slowly from the jolt, but held steady for now, but the numerous groans and creaks indicated that the platform was rapidly losing structural integrity.
"Grab the bomb, into that drop ship!" one of the commando's ordered, pointing at the medium sized shuttle.
Shira meanwhile had a bear to deal with. The pad tilting, played in her cards as she was dexterous and agile. She doubted, the ton weighing beast will have it so easy. It still was not tilted that much though. Shira ran forward and tried to slid between Kodian's leg in attempt to get behind him.
The ice-covered pad and the fact that the bear did not expected this allowed her to do. The kodian tried to maul at her as she slid under him, but only crushed some of the ice, where Shira was just a mere second ago. On the other side of the bear, Shira quickly got on her feet. The nails in her shoes made sure she won't slip. Turning aside, she cleaved the ice-pick into bears ankle using both hands.
The beast roared in pain and turned around, swinging his giant arm as he did. Shira tried to dodge it, but was not fast enough. The hit send her flying, until she fell on the ice and slide few more meters. The chelti woman shook her head and slowly got on her feet.
"YOU BITCH!" The kodian roared. "I will eat your face for this!" He added another threat.
"Yeah, yeah," Shira responded with cheeky grin. "Like I did not hear that one before, fugly."
The bear roared and charged at her. Which was hard for him with the ice-pick still stuck in his foot. Limping it tried to cover the distance.
Meanwhile!...
"Oh balls." Luca groaned as he was in a tussle with Mr. Cyclops. His eyes were rolling as his body was rolling towards the edge of the platform. "Listen, how are you going to eat my heart with a toothpick..." He asked before looking over the edge of the platform, "...and turn me into a pancake? Have you done your research? I can float, and I have a grapple stunner. You do the maths, moron!"
And then Luca started actively rolling towards the edge of the platform, and the Cyclops started to freak out. In the midst of resistance, the cycloptic clunkhead was wondering why he didn't just shoot Luca when he had the opportunity. Cyclops quickly disengaged from Luca's grip and the two stood up to exchange blows rather than just roll off. And then the Cyclops drew what looked to be a dagger - until it extended and decided to become a sword with a telescoping series of clicks.
Luca frowned as he held his fists up. "C'mon now, you said you were going to float?" The cyclops heckled. "Let's see you do it in halves." Luca was now on the defensive as he evaded swings of the blade, ducking and twirling as he tried to find an opening in the Cyclop's flurry of blows. He knew he wouldn't be able to block or parry an attack.
He tried to fire the Grapple Stunner's claws at the cyclops, but he didn't fall for that trick twice, instead bending away from it to avoid it. "Hah. Not this time." The piton eventually reached the end of the line and landed on the ground. It started to reel itself back in, but Luca noticed something as it skittered along the ground. He didn't grin - since that'd give his intentions away.
Just as the piton was beside the Cyborg’s leg, Luca gave the line a flick, and it coiled around the mercenary's leg, tripping him up and sending his sword to the ground. Luca didn't have time to grab the sword and finish off Cyclops, and found himself being pulled in by his own line, and fell to the ground and got a kick in the face for his troubles.
"Ah ah ah, not quite, Mr. Pavone. Thought you were clever and got cocky, didn't you?" The Cyclops Cyborg picked up his sword and put it against the back of Luca's neck with a sneer as Luca examined his boot, and the piton wrapped around it. The platform creaked and a tremor was sent through it, unbalancing the Cyborg for a moment.
"Too clever by half." Luca replied as he grabbed the piton, impaled it into his foot and sent a shock through it. The Cyclops fell over, and Luca stood back up. He then picked up the sword and wanted to finish him off, but he felt another tremor through the platform, and another.
It was time to go. Positively annoyed by this, Luca dropped the katana and made a run for it. "Next time, you one-eyed lunatic!" Luca yelled as he made tracks, turning his back on the stunned foe sliding away towards the edge.
-
The pad was starting to tilt even more, but the kodian used his massive claws to prevent itself sliding down. Shira meanwhile climbed up, trying to get away from it to something she wanted to use to finish the bear off. As she climbed she threw various thing around her his way. Cannon shells, guns, boxes of ammo, while he threw other stuff her way. Cannon, some poor guy, a box of shells. Shira hit him with most of those, but it did not slow him down one bit. He meanwhile did not hit at all, but it made her slow because she had to evade all the stuff and persons he threw at her.
Finally she reached her destination and turned around to face the beast. She drew her second pick. The bear stopped few meters away and grinned, showing his big teeth.
"Finally giving up, eh?" He said and chuckled. It was not happy chuckle though. It was the 'I will eat you in few seconds' kind of chuckle.
"Not at all," Shira simply said and pointed next to herself. There was something large chained to the platform, it was clear to see it was vehicle. And it was right above the bear.
"Oh, fuck me," was the last thing bear said, as Shira swung and cut the chain. The chain broke and its burden was released. It started sliding down at the bear, who roared in anger. He could not evade in time though, and was taken by the vehicle, an ex-paragon APC. Within seconds both swearing and screaming bear and the APC fell off the edge of the pad. Disappearing into the mists below.
"Well, that was fun," Shira said and smiled. "Oy, team. Status report!" She radioed to rest of the commandos.
Luca eventually bumped into Shira and looked over at where the Kodian had gone, and he groaned: "I did want a Bear Skin rug you... you..." He finally got a look at her face. "Thing that I can't quite put into words because I've never seen it before." All in one breath. "What the hell are you supposed to be; Skippy?"
"Yer not exactly handsome yourself, hair-face." She said looking at Luca and chuckling. "And if you want your rug, it will be somewhere at the foot of the mountain. Feel free to collect it."
Luca sighed when he looked down the ravine and realised that even though he didn't mind a drop, it would be quite a while down to fetch the bear's pelt. "What are you anyway? You speak the language, you kick a whole lot of arse, and you aren't afraid of Bears." He folded his arms and smiled at the Chelti, genuinely impressed. "Already we're off to a flying start on intergalactic relations with me."
"Name is Shira, I am chelti." She said simply, because she saw no reason to hide it. "What are you supposed to be? Some kind of crime-fighter? Or just an agent of chaos?" She was curious what was this man supposed to be.
"Can I say both?" Luca grinned. "Because its very likely to be both." He felt the platform beneath him creaking and groaning under the new stresses from it.
"My kin seem to have commandeered a gunship," Shira said looking at tac-computer on her wrist. "Care for a flight?" Luca nodded and shrugged his shoulders in agreement. It'd been a long day after all.
Meanwhile, for those not lucky enough to have names...
One of the commandos swung a bag-headed and severely secured person over her shoulder, while a few more arrived from the main group to start pushing the bomb towards the dropship. As the platform began to tilt they skidded and slid backwards, their claws digging desperately for traction until they finally began moving forwards again.
The commando who had been bear-swatted earlier managed to pull himself up, holding his aching chest. His less lucky companion with the hole through his chest twitched and gurgled. The wounded chel staggered over and leaned down.
"Come on, buddy. We gotta get out of here." he said gently, hoisting his wounded mate across his shoulders, who gave an ugly series of coughs in thanks. The two of them making their way towards their escape with the commando using his rifle to cover his comrades pushing the bomb.
A second group had broken off and run for the plane. Shooting their way to the rear loading ramp they boarded and ran through to the cockpit. A helmeted pilot turned and shouted to them.
"We need to get out of here!"
His only reply was a pistol aimed at his head and a flash. One of the commandos took the chair on the other side of the cockpit and began fiddling with the controls. The engines began spinning and powering up. The ball turret in the chin started moving, and suddenly a stream of 17mm death going at 1500 rounds per minute started cutting through a swatch of the platform, killing most of the remaining terrorists too slow or stupid to have run for their lives at this point. The large dropship started to ease forward, with the remaining commando on the rear ramp firing his machine gun from the waist dramatically.
Just as the mysterious man and the very mysterious alien woman had finished their little conversation the bomb had been pushed to the lip of the loading ramp. It just needed a final push and they would have it up the ramp.
"Let's get going," Shira told to the man next to her. She used her claws and spiked boots to start moving towards the gunship. "This is Shira, bear down. I am coming to the gunship with one friendly hitchhiker." She radioed to other commando's. Making her way into the gunship and joining the commandos to help them push the bomb inside.
Luca, meanwhile, hopped aboard and looked about the interior of the Gunship, "Listen," he asked Shira, trying to ignore the smell of kangaroo in the air, "Could you drop me off ... here when you're all done and whatever that is-" he pointed to the bomb the Commandos were pushing inside, "-could you drop me off here?" He pointed to a Starmap, and pointed to Nepleslia Prime.
"If you want, you're welcome to First Contact here - I'm sure you and the Nepleslians will see eye to eye on a lot of things!" He said this based on the display of badassery he saw exhibited by the Commandos.
Shira came to him as the bombs was in the gunship already and back-door closing. "Well, I don't know where exactly we can drop you off, but first we gotta get back to our ship. I plan to chat with you there. Good opportunity to get to know you guys better." She said and chuckled a little.
Luca chuckled somewhat. "Well, I'm not the most reliable person to tell you about the rest of the universe. Got a skewed view, see?" He was happy to make that admission since the world was big, huge, complicated and occasionally messy - and Luca had barely scratched the surface of it all. "All I know is blowing stuff up. Hardly reliable information!"
Shira tapped her arm in though. "Well...." she started, pausing for a while. Knowledge of blowing stuff up is important too." She said and then had to brace herself, as the gunship started sliding down the tilted pad.
"Everyone grab onto something!" The chelti commando in the pilot-chair shouted. The gunship started sliding down, its nose slowly turning to the side. "Well fuck," said the pilot as the gunship slipped over the side.
Luca responded by pointing the Grapple Stunner straight up, firing at the ceiling, reeling himself in and clinging to the roof like some deranged, mis-limbed spider. "Wait, where's this ship going?" His voice was still calm as he felt the tilting of the ship.
"Down, right now!" shouted the pilot. The gun ship was falling down, turned to the side and rotating slightly.
Some of the commando's were shouting while Shira went "wheeeeeee!", obviously enjoying the predicament.
The gunship kept rotating sideways as it was falling down, finally being upwards again. And then the pilot hit the thrusters. Engines roared and everyone felt the weight of several Gs on their shoulders as the gunship suddenly stopped falling.
"Aaand going up," said the pilot as she he flow away from the mountains and up into the snowy sky.
Luca, meanwhile was clinging to the ceiling like an angered cat. Sticking to it like something that was incredibly sticky, adamantly refusing to cave into the G forces exerted upon him. Once he felt weightlessness and eventually equilibrium, he reeled himself down, and detached the Grapple Stunner from the ceiling, reeling it back into his wrist. "Well! You certainly know how to make an exit. So what is there to discuss?"
Shira looked at him, still smiling. "Close encounters of various kinds!" Luca blinked and raised his eyebrows. He took a moment to register what she meant, and he didn't feel ready to boldly come where no Nepleslian/Yamataian has gone before. He frowned and bared his teeth.
Oh, crap.
>OFF!
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the Ravine, two figures were wondering how they were going to get back up. They were alive, somewhat well, and suitably pissed off about their pride and joy getting stolen by a bunch of 'idiots'. In actuality, the Commandos were taking back what was theirs - Luca, meanwhile, was just there because he could.
"I shall dance upon his entrails - THEN you can eat him." Cyclops frowned as he started walking downwards through the ravine, hoping to find a river. He had survived thanks to being caught by his ursine partner at the bottom of the ravine.
"I saw him first!" The kodian yelled back, clearly annoyed and sporting a jetpack. "You can dance on them after I'm done eating them!"
"Eugh!"
It was easier to complain about being cold than it was to be warm - since cooling down was a much easier task than remaining warm. One could guess that either extreme wasn't healthy, and a tepid medium had to be struck between them to exist comfortably. But, this was not a place of comfort, or care - because it cared not. Nobody expects the dirt beneath you to help you - just for you to fall on it when you run out of breath.
This was the way of life the Chelti reaches. You had to stand on your own to feet and fight against everything by tooth and nail to keep on living - only the strongest, smartest and craziest could survive out here.
Shira was hanging over the edge of a cliff-side landing pad, cliff-side in that it was literally drilled into place on the side of a giant mountain. The rope was around her waist and she had her legs forced against the rock, looking up. In her lips, under the hood, was a cigarette and her emotions showed she was a little bored.
Around her seven other commandos hung from under the pad by rope and claw, the seemingly bottomless drop underneath not fazing them. One of them held the thin stalk of a peeping camera over the lip of structure, surveying the scene.
Above them a mass of arms was on display from just about everywhere within the known galaxy and a few without. A similar variety was on display among the customers as they milled through machineguns, exotic weapons, explosives, even a few vehicles and aircraft, including a medium sized dropship.
Nepleslian gangers and gun runners mingled with Lorath, Phods, Separa'shan, and even a few unknown species. Vicious criminals and scum made up the majority of the clientele. Four of the heavily covered customers were some of her commandos in deep cover. The conversation topics passed around were mostly price negotiations and twisted imaginations being rought over what to do with the goods. Crooked smiles, sly grins and upwards sneers dominated their facial expressions.
"It's like a terror supermarket." One of the commandos commented from his perch.
"Sick, isn't it?" Another commented, whilst peering through the camera's feed.
Shira watched the images on her own wrist-computer. She smirked on how others commented. "Looks like a lot of candy out there just for us to grab when we are done with the job to me. I mean look at all those lovely guns!" She whispered with cigarette still hooked between her lips.
"Shame we gotta shoot around 'em. I want something to play with after this."
"I'd like to say 'Stay frosty', but I don't think that's appropriate right now. Just keep your eyes out for the bomb. If our guys can't get their mitts on it we'll have to take Measures."
"I have an idea," Shira said and chuckled looking at the chelti who spoke last. "Let's pull our guys aside and toss a grenade in there. It explodes and kills few dudes, causes some chaos. Then we just get to see them shoot each other. It will be hilarious. I mean look at them, the looks they give each other. Criminals are funny." To her it was all just a game after all.
"There are over one hundred different guys up there. I think it'll take more bang than that to kill enough for that."
As he spoke something happened through the camera. One of the commandos had been bidding on their target. A planetary mold-colony bomb, designed to seed life on hostile, airless planets, but could also devastate the ecosystem of any planet if used poorly. And it was certain that everyone who was bidding on it wasn't interested on its intended, safe uses.
It was too dangerous to be allowed out of safe hands. How it had even gone missing was a mystery, not even the efforts of the Department of Minor Secrets had uncovered any clues beyond a missing item in a storage rack.
Their instructions were simple: Get the bomb back, and kidnap the asshat who'd stolen it so he'd spill on how they'd lost it.
"Well," Shira said watching her own feed and contemplating where the thrown grenade would make biggest boom. "We can expect some action, mates. Otherwise I would not be here now, would I?" She chuckled at her words.
There was a visible shuffle as the camera watched, with the seller pushing the commando incognito away. Obviously the negotiations hadn't gone well.
"Fuck..." one of the commandos commented quietly as the tensions escalated.
"This isn't looking good, we have to mo- wait." One of the commandos swivelled their camera above the crowd and towards a lone black speck on the horizon, gaining speed. "What is that?"
-
"Aaaaand it's a wonderful day in buttfuck nowhere for killing~!" The lone figure was skating along the icy plateau, singing and ignoring the cold. He was drawing all sorts of attention from the assembled quarrellers and bidders. "Hellooooo dead people!"
The chelti Commando looked to another, seeking some sort of identification or an answer. "Vaga, he is." One commando commented bitterly. "Thinks he's some sort of hero."
"Well guys, not that I am not comfy around here," Shira said and tossed the cigarette butt away. "but let's use the fact that everyone looks at that looney and climb up shall we? We have a bomb to take back." Off her belt she unhooked two picks she used both to climb and kill people. She hacked one into the ice-covered rock and tested if it held. It did. It always did, the others could sense she was pleased as she started making her way up. If there was someone who was supposed to be a hero around these parts it was her and not some crazy guy on skates.
"Xenon is go, repeat, is go." one of the commandos said into his radio before beginning to make his own way up over the lip of the landing pad.
-
Meanwhile, above them on the landing pad, the attention of the criminals was diverted away from the hassle over the bomb and now focussing on the lone Yamataian skating by, suddenly swivelling a GP-1 rifle into action and firing wildly into the crowd of terrorists. During which, he didn't pause any of his movements, and kept moving like a whirlwind.
The customer that had been arguing over the bomb suddenly turned around and planted a closed fist right into the sellers face. Three other, seemingly unrelated figures suddenly emerged. One wrapping his weapon around one guards throat and hauling him off his feet, before slamming the butt into the guards face.
By the time the other investors realised what was happening, a handful of them had been given trans-cranial lead therapy. Those remaining bought up guns of their own and started firing or diving behind the widely available cover of the merchandise.
"What are you screaming for?" Luca roared to the criminals as he wove between gunfire. "I'm just getting warmed up!"
Another one of the sellers' entourage fell as a folded axe was flipped up to the ready and brought down repeatedly by the other commando, adding to the screaming and confusion within the crowd.
Shira smiled internally as she reached the top a little ahead of others. She used her ice-picks to pull up. The tall chelti woman did not even have to try being quiet as the gunfire was loud enough. She got on her feet and sheathed her picks.
Just a few meters in front of her was a lone sentry, who did the wrong thing. He turned around to look at the chaos within the bazaar. It was the last mistake of his life though, as Shira grabbed him by his hair from behind. In her hand was already a large knife which rested on her belt until now. With one swing she cut his head off.
Whistling she looked at the head, turning it in her hands so it was facing her. The man looked sort of surprised. Shira forced his mouth open ad took a grenade of her belt, stuffing it into the dead man's mouth. She pulled the pin and yelled at the group of gangsters not very far.
"Hey, assholes!" She spoke Trade luckily, commandos had to be good with languages. With that she kicked the head and let it fly among the group of terrorists.
With a live grenade in its mouth.
The head bounced on the surface of the pad and rolled to a stop amongst the gangers, slowly it spun around until the open mouth pointed towards them. They had time to flinch back and then it exploded. Men flailed as they were blown off their feet, scraps of bone and a stain on the floor were all that remained of the head.
Bullets started flying overhead as sentry guns joined the fray, firing at the lone iceskater. A blizzard from the two multi-barrel, automated turrets above one of the hangars.
The lone figure began to watch time slow down around him - watching the crevices and ravines in each of the snowflakes in the air and the lead flying through and shattering each of them. He pointed his right hand towards one of them and clenched his fist. A piton on a cable fired at the sentry and impacted with it, and a pulse of electricity could be seen running along the cable before its owner started reeling in towards the Sentry like a human missile whilst disrupting the sentry's internal workings with electricity - and destroying it a moment later.
"Aww!" He seemed positively crestfallen as he laid down on the roof, looking at the other sentry firing at him, and being forced onto the defensive as he dashed along the rooftop - snow, sparks and shards of metal were dancing across the roof. The lone figure put the GP-1 over his back and drew what looked like a metal flare gun. "You know I hate waking the baby!"
Over by the bomb one of other customers had pulled his own weapon and nailed a commando through the chest. The high powered projectile ripping through his armor at that range and sending the unlucky soldier flying off his feet onto his back.
Before the weapon could be brought to bear on another commando, one of them turned and swung an open hand at the assailant, the air seemed to distort itself from around the hand and suddenly the man was knocked into the air backwards away from the commando.
He landed roughly on his back and slid to a halt on the icy steppe. He grunted and hoisted himself back up. Then he saw the roof running figure. Standing up and easily swatting a terrorist out of the way he walked towards Luca.
"Pavone!" he shouted, angrily. His mouth twisted in a hideous smile, his crude cybernetic cyclopean eye glowed. The rest of his body was covered by his heavy coat against the cold. "Remember Drift, you bastard? I'll throw you into a fucking star for what you did to us!"
The other sentry was exploded by the flare gun - now known to the world as a pistol-configuration grenade launcher of Lorath design. "What? Sorry, I don't speak your dialect of whining minge." Luca yelled. "Gonna have to speak up a little mate!"
"Let me speak a language you do understand, then!" he said, and raised his giant handgun.
It was less of a handgun and more of a grenade launcher with a handhold, with a revolver action for bullets bigger than most peoples thumbs. It went off with surprisingly little flash though, obviously it was part railgun, but the slug was massive for a personal weapon.
All Luca had to do was raise his right hand again. The knuckles were glowing white hot and electricity arced between them. A pulse was sent forward and detonated the errant slug in mid air. Luca then leapt through the explosion and yelled: "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO YOU'RE FUCKING WITH?!" He was like a demon leaping out of Hell to pursue his quarry.
The giant man gritted his teeth in fury at the miss.
There was a roar over by the bomb as a giant bear-like creature bowled over the commando that had knocked the cyclopean man away, sending him rolling over the pad and towards death.
The Kodian was fearsome indeed, large even for their species. It was wearing a thick suit of bodyarmour, with guns strapped against it's forelegs and ammo and gear hanging from a belt just in front of its hind legs.
Meanwhile on the other side of the pad. Shira was getting a running start, heading right to the place where here headnade exploded. As the stunned terrorists were coming to she was already there, holding both picks in her hands. Those picks were really good at giving a skulls a coin-slot and Shira was good with them. Accidentally getting a coin-slot also meant death.
Swing after swing, she dealt with the criminals. Some tried to defend, only to meet the off-hand pick's nasty point burying itself into their temples. Other started running away in fear. Unlike Luca, Shira looked like part of a military.
She had a armoured boots, cargo pants and coat with a furred hoodie on. On top of it was a chest-armour and various pieces of deadly armaments. From the hoodie her snout could be seen with vicious smile on it. Next to her mouth was a small tube with a bite bit at the end, for extra oxygen if she needed it in the thin atmosphere.
"Come on guys," she shouted at other commandos. "We need to get to the bomb and you are behind me already. I killed at least eight!" She laughed out loud and put her picks back on her belt. She picked up a gun one of the criminals had. It was a lever-action rifle. One Shira never really saw, but seemed interesting enough. She raised it and aimed at Kodian. Time to get the prey's attention. She smiled and fired.
"Yes, Shira!" One of the Commandos, codenamed Ratbag was closer to the bomb, and had killed about three men with a salvaged Yamataian sword - before finding it too flimsy for his tastes and throwing it away in favour of his pump-action double-barrelled shotgun. "Shira, what shall we do about... the 'Pavone' one?"
"I'm gonna bop you in the nose! I'mma bop your nose!" Luca yelled at the Kodian as he held up his fists towards the ursine creature, still on fire from the explosion of the grenade. What he didn't see, however was the rifle fired by the Equite Chelti.
"OI!" Shira shouted at the Kodian. "You furry abomination! Let's have a chat!" She said and smiled yet again. "Without fists!" With that she started walking towards the bear.
"Hey, I saw it first!" Luca yelled over the din - completely unaware of what the Equite was capable of.
"Fuck you!" She shouted back at him. "It is the most interesting thing to kill here! Others are just boring small fries!"
"Couldn't have put it better!" Luca yelled. "Goons, mooks, this guy's the big cheese!"
"Your fight is with me, dirtbag!" The giant clone yelled, levelling his handcannon at Luca and firing again while he was distracted.
Luca sidestepped the bullet out of a reflexive action, watching the projectile pass on by and spin through the air - sending ripples and distorting the sound through it via the Doppler effect. However, the bullet grazed the shoulder pad of his jacket and threw him off balance, leaving him unable to make a proper counter-attack.
The Kodian growled angrily as the bullet sparked off its armored shoulder. It stood to its full height and reached up its arm to grab one of its weapons, swinging it back down towards Luca in an off-hand attack. It's attention mostly on the woman who shot it.
"Your meat looks poor and stringy, but I'll try to enjoy it anyway." The Kodians loud voice carried without effort even through the ambient gunfire and screaming. While most Kodians managed to look cute and cuddly, this one looked rugged and mean, its jaws bared in a menacing snarl.
Shira picked up speed starting to run towards the fray. She used to rifle to hit anyone standing in her way. No matter if she had to shoot it or literally hit someone over the head with it. "I will handle the skate-guy and the furry thing. You handle the objective!" She radioed to the rest of the commandos.
She closed the gap and ran to where Pavone was fighting. Using a pile of boxes as a step up she jumped, the rifle turning in her hands. She flew at the Kodian not paying any attention to her and trying to hit him over the head with her makeshift club.
The Kodian roared and began bringing its cannon up to blast Shira away, the barrel glowing with energy.
The cyclops guy grabbed the shoulder of his heavy coat and stripped it away with ease, casting it aside and baring his trousers and woollen jumper. His limbs looking grossly thick even under his covering clothes as he ran at Luca, adding his own roar of rage to the mix.
"Start with my Fist if you wanna eat me - I could do with a bear skin rug!" He heckled before realising that the Cyclops was back for seconds. "Well, well! This is a melee!" He noted that the bear was pointing a Cannon, yes a Cannon cannon, at the fellow combatant who'd also wanted a piece of the bear.
Of course, there was such thing as honour amongst warriors, and he flipped his HHG out and fired a WHITE bullet at the bear's cannon-wielding hand. He was just good at these uncannily skilled shots without the need to aim. However, he did ignore his cyclopean pursuer in favour of the bear. He did want a bear skin rug for the pad.
Luca's bullet smashed into the Kodian's hand Cannon, knocking it aside just as it fired. A beam of light whipped past Shira's side and hit the backside of a very large missile of some description, carried on the back of an even larger vehicle. Both promptly exploded into flame, the missile's solid-fuel booster cooked off, and suddenly the flaming front half of a missile and warhead spun through the air and into the side of the cliff.
Everyone felt a rumble through the floor of the landing pad, except for Shira, because she was still flying. But it spelt something ominous. "I smell an explosion!" Luca commented aloud.
The butt of Shira's newfound club crunched into the nose of the Kodian, sending even the large alien staggering backwards, roaring in rage and pain.
Shira landed in front of the large beast, the rifle in her hands broken in half. She realised that the crazy skater probably saved her life and that meant she had to pay him back. And that sucked. Shira backflipped to get out of Bears reach in time, drawing one her two Ice-picks in flight and checking what the cyclops was doing on the side.
"DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME, PAVONE!" yelled the Cyclops, clearly incensed by not having any attention paid to him by his sworn adversary. "I CAN, AND WILL, EAT YOUR HEART WITH A TOOTHPICK! AFTER I THROW YOU INTO A SUN!" He screamed as he tackled Luca from behind, sending the two rolling away across the platform.
There was a groan from the cliff the landing pad was anchored to, and suddenly everything tilted dramatically as the rock started giving way. Things slid slowly from the jolt, but held steady for now, but the numerous groans and creaks indicated that the platform was rapidly losing structural integrity.
"Grab the bomb, into that drop ship!" one of the commando's ordered, pointing at the medium sized shuttle.
Shira meanwhile had a bear to deal with. The pad tilting, played in her cards as she was dexterous and agile. She doubted, the ton weighing beast will have it so easy. It still was not tilted that much though. Shira ran forward and tried to slid between Kodian's leg in attempt to get behind him.
The ice-covered pad and the fact that the bear did not expected this allowed her to do. The kodian tried to maul at her as she slid under him, but only crushed some of the ice, where Shira was just a mere second ago. On the other side of the bear, Shira quickly got on her feet. The nails in her shoes made sure she won't slip. Turning aside, she cleaved the ice-pick into bears ankle using both hands.
The beast roared in pain and turned around, swinging his giant arm as he did. Shira tried to dodge it, but was not fast enough. The hit send her flying, until she fell on the ice and slide few more meters. The chelti woman shook her head and slowly got on her feet.
"YOU BITCH!" The kodian roared. "I will eat your face for this!" He added another threat.
"Yeah, yeah," Shira responded with cheeky grin. "Like I did not hear that one before, fugly."
The bear roared and charged at her. Which was hard for him with the ice-pick still stuck in his foot. Limping it tried to cover the distance.
Meanwhile!...
"Oh balls." Luca groaned as he was in a tussle with Mr. Cyclops. His eyes were rolling as his body was rolling towards the edge of the platform. "Listen, how are you going to eat my heart with a toothpick..." He asked before looking over the edge of the platform, "...and turn me into a pancake? Have you done your research? I can float, and I have a grapple stunner. You do the maths, moron!"
And then Luca started actively rolling towards the edge of the platform, and the Cyclops started to freak out. In the midst of resistance, the cycloptic clunkhead was wondering why he didn't just shoot Luca when he had the opportunity. Cyclops quickly disengaged from Luca's grip and the two stood up to exchange blows rather than just roll off. And then the Cyclops drew what looked to be a dagger - until it extended and decided to become a sword with a telescoping series of clicks.
Luca frowned as he held his fists up. "C'mon now, you said you were going to float?" The cyclops heckled. "Let's see you do it in halves." Luca was now on the defensive as he evaded swings of the blade, ducking and twirling as he tried to find an opening in the Cyclop's flurry of blows. He knew he wouldn't be able to block or parry an attack.
He tried to fire the Grapple Stunner's claws at the cyclops, but he didn't fall for that trick twice, instead bending away from it to avoid it. "Hah. Not this time." The piton eventually reached the end of the line and landed on the ground. It started to reel itself back in, but Luca noticed something as it skittered along the ground. He didn't grin - since that'd give his intentions away.
Just as the piton was beside the Cyborg’s leg, Luca gave the line a flick, and it coiled around the mercenary's leg, tripping him up and sending his sword to the ground. Luca didn't have time to grab the sword and finish off Cyclops, and found himself being pulled in by his own line, and fell to the ground and got a kick in the face for his troubles.
"Ah ah ah, not quite, Mr. Pavone. Thought you were clever and got cocky, didn't you?" The Cyclops Cyborg picked up his sword and put it against the back of Luca's neck with a sneer as Luca examined his boot, and the piton wrapped around it. The platform creaked and a tremor was sent through it, unbalancing the Cyborg for a moment.
"Too clever by half." Luca replied as he grabbed the piton, impaled it into his foot and sent a shock through it. The Cyclops fell over, and Luca stood back up. He then picked up the sword and wanted to finish him off, but he felt another tremor through the platform, and another.
It was time to go. Positively annoyed by this, Luca dropped the katana and made a run for it. "Next time, you one-eyed lunatic!" Luca yelled as he made tracks, turning his back on the stunned foe sliding away towards the edge.
-
The pad was starting to tilt even more, but the kodian used his massive claws to prevent itself sliding down. Shira meanwhile climbed up, trying to get away from it to something she wanted to use to finish the bear off. As she climbed she threw various thing around her his way. Cannon shells, guns, boxes of ammo, while he threw other stuff her way. Cannon, some poor guy, a box of shells. Shira hit him with most of those, but it did not slow him down one bit. He meanwhile did not hit at all, but it made her slow because she had to evade all the stuff and persons he threw at her.
Finally she reached her destination and turned around to face the beast. She drew her second pick. The bear stopped few meters away and grinned, showing his big teeth.
"Finally giving up, eh?" He said and chuckled. It was not happy chuckle though. It was the 'I will eat you in few seconds' kind of chuckle.
"Not at all," Shira simply said and pointed next to herself. There was something large chained to the platform, it was clear to see it was vehicle. And it was right above the bear.
"Oh, fuck me," was the last thing bear said, as Shira swung and cut the chain. The chain broke and its burden was released. It started sliding down at the bear, who roared in anger. He could not evade in time though, and was taken by the vehicle, an ex-paragon APC. Within seconds both swearing and screaming bear and the APC fell off the edge of the pad. Disappearing into the mists below.
"Well, that was fun," Shira said and smiled. "Oy, team. Status report!" She radioed to rest of the commandos.
Luca eventually bumped into Shira and looked over at where the Kodian had gone, and he groaned: "I did want a Bear Skin rug you... you..." He finally got a look at her face. "Thing that I can't quite put into words because I've never seen it before." All in one breath. "What the hell are you supposed to be; Skippy?"
"Yer not exactly handsome yourself, hair-face." She said looking at Luca and chuckling. "And if you want your rug, it will be somewhere at the foot of the mountain. Feel free to collect it."
Luca sighed when he looked down the ravine and realised that even though he didn't mind a drop, it would be quite a while down to fetch the bear's pelt. "What are you anyway? You speak the language, you kick a whole lot of arse, and you aren't afraid of Bears." He folded his arms and smiled at the Chelti, genuinely impressed. "Already we're off to a flying start on intergalactic relations with me."
"Name is Shira, I am chelti." She said simply, because she saw no reason to hide it. "What are you supposed to be? Some kind of crime-fighter? Or just an agent of chaos?" She was curious what was this man supposed to be.
"Can I say both?" Luca grinned. "Because its very likely to be both." He felt the platform beneath him creaking and groaning under the new stresses from it.
"My kin seem to have commandeered a gunship," Shira said looking at tac-computer on her wrist. "Care for a flight?" Luca nodded and shrugged his shoulders in agreement. It'd been a long day after all.
Meanwhile, for those not lucky enough to have names...
One of the commandos swung a bag-headed and severely secured person over her shoulder, while a few more arrived from the main group to start pushing the bomb towards the dropship. As the platform began to tilt they skidded and slid backwards, their claws digging desperately for traction until they finally began moving forwards again.
The commando who had been bear-swatted earlier managed to pull himself up, holding his aching chest. His less lucky companion with the hole through his chest twitched and gurgled. The wounded chel staggered over and leaned down.
"Come on, buddy. We gotta get out of here." he said gently, hoisting his wounded mate across his shoulders, who gave an ugly series of coughs in thanks. The two of them making their way towards their escape with the commando using his rifle to cover his comrades pushing the bomb.
A second group had broken off and run for the plane. Shooting their way to the rear loading ramp they boarded and ran through to the cockpit. A helmeted pilot turned and shouted to them.
"We need to get out of here!"
His only reply was a pistol aimed at his head and a flash. One of the commandos took the chair on the other side of the cockpit and began fiddling with the controls. The engines began spinning and powering up. The ball turret in the chin started moving, and suddenly a stream of 17mm death going at 1500 rounds per minute started cutting through a swatch of the platform, killing most of the remaining terrorists too slow or stupid to have run for their lives at this point. The large dropship started to ease forward, with the remaining commando on the rear ramp firing his machine gun from the waist dramatically.
Just as the mysterious man and the very mysterious alien woman had finished their little conversation the bomb had been pushed to the lip of the loading ramp. It just needed a final push and they would have it up the ramp.
"Let's get going," Shira told to the man next to her. She used her claws and spiked boots to start moving towards the gunship. "This is Shira, bear down. I am coming to the gunship with one friendly hitchhiker." She radioed to other commando's. Making her way into the gunship and joining the commandos to help them push the bomb inside.
Luca, meanwhile, hopped aboard and looked about the interior of the Gunship, "Listen," he asked Shira, trying to ignore the smell of kangaroo in the air, "Could you drop me off ... here when you're all done and whatever that is-" he pointed to the bomb the Commandos were pushing inside, "-could you drop me off here?" He pointed to a Starmap, and pointed to Nepleslia Prime.
"If you want, you're welcome to First Contact here - I'm sure you and the Nepleslians will see eye to eye on a lot of things!" He said this based on the display of badassery he saw exhibited by the Commandos.
Shira came to him as the bombs was in the gunship already and back-door closing. "Well, I don't know where exactly we can drop you off, but first we gotta get back to our ship. I plan to chat with you there. Good opportunity to get to know you guys better." She said and chuckled a little.
Luca chuckled somewhat. "Well, I'm not the most reliable person to tell you about the rest of the universe. Got a skewed view, see?" He was happy to make that admission since the world was big, huge, complicated and occasionally messy - and Luca had barely scratched the surface of it all. "All I know is blowing stuff up. Hardly reliable information!"
Shira tapped her arm in though. "Well...." she started, pausing for a while. Knowledge of blowing stuff up is important too." She said and then had to brace herself, as the gunship started sliding down the tilted pad.
"Everyone grab onto something!" The chelti commando in the pilot-chair shouted. The gunship started sliding down, its nose slowly turning to the side. "Well fuck," said the pilot as the gunship slipped over the side.
Luca responded by pointing the Grapple Stunner straight up, firing at the ceiling, reeling himself in and clinging to the roof like some deranged, mis-limbed spider. "Wait, where's this ship going?" His voice was still calm as he felt the tilting of the ship.
"Down, right now!" shouted the pilot. The gun ship was falling down, turned to the side and rotating slightly.
Some of the commando's were shouting while Shira went "wheeeeeee!", obviously enjoying the predicament.
The gunship kept rotating sideways as it was falling down, finally being upwards again. And then the pilot hit the thrusters. Engines roared and everyone felt the weight of several Gs on their shoulders as the gunship suddenly stopped falling.
"Aaand going up," said the pilot as she he flow away from the mountains and up into the snowy sky.
Luca, meanwhile was clinging to the ceiling like an angered cat. Sticking to it like something that was incredibly sticky, adamantly refusing to cave into the G forces exerted upon him. Once he felt weightlessness and eventually equilibrium, he reeled himself down, and detached the Grapple Stunner from the ceiling, reeling it back into his wrist. "Well! You certainly know how to make an exit. So what is there to discuss?"
Shira looked at him, still smiling. "Close encounters of various kinds!" Luca blinked and raised his eyebrows. He took a moment to register what she meant, and he didn't feel ready to boldly come where no Nepleslian/Yamataian has gone before. He frowned and bared his teeth.
Oh, crap.
>OFF!
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the Ravine, two figures were wondering how they were going to get back up. They were alive, somewhat well, and suitably pissed off about their pride and joy getting stolen by a bunch of 'idiots'. In actuality, the Commandos were taking back what was theirs - Luca, meanwhile, was just there because he could.
"I shall dance upon his entrails - THEN you can eat him." Cyclops frowned as he started walking downwards through the ravine, hoping to find a river. He had survived thanks to being caught by his ursine partner at the bottom of the ravine.
"I saw him first!" The kodian yelled back, clearly annoyed and sporting a jetpack. "You can dance on them after I'm done eating them!"
"Eugh!"
