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Loxxon is back among
the Pugeants making cursing croaks, knocking aside shooters, and otherwise
restoring discipline.
"What goess on here?" the Pugeant Leader hisses.
The first footman announces, "We saw herrr, Thee bothhersom
humaen!"
"Laxxxtive wass to deel with herr," Loxxon growls.
"Laxxtive thoughtt hadd runn herrr outt," the first
spotter whines.
"Waste of time, waste of shotts," Loxxon roars.
But then one of the footmen return from the bothersome feemale's
shelter in the rocks, carrying the remains of a burned, tattered cloak on the
end of his bolt-action laser.
Loxxon flicks out his tongue several times to appraise the
relic, "Thiss smelll of ccharring," he turns to the Pugeant
carrying the second laser-rifle, "Thisss is goood. Goood
shoootting," then turning to his troupe, "An enemy eliminatedd,
addvans to vicctorry!"
The Pugeant column reforms and continues to in to reoccupy the
secret base.
The three Warriors stay closer together as Starbuck leads them.
The buildings begin to get more substantial as the Warriors near the landing
area.
"The Sabbatical seems to have us headed in the right
direction," Apollo observes.
"But what is it that we are trying to find?" Starbuck
turns to inquire.
"She said our 'cargo' was near here," the Captain
replies, "I'm hoping she was referring to the missing civilians."
"Finding the Citizens would be better than finding a crate
of used daggit-shew toys," Starbuck agrees.
"Slow down," Boomer cautions, "Looks like we have
company."
The Warriors turn to see the pugeants advancing in a line right
at them. The lead Pugean throws its bolt-laser to a shoulder and lets go with
a round. The Warriors reflexively crouch and go to cover.
Starbuck aims and lets loose a shot that nearly clips one of the
Pugeant. The Mercanaries scatter and begin firing on the Warriors.
"We may have opened a whole can of larvae," Boomer
remarks.
"They started it," Starbuck frowns as he levels off
another shot at the Pugeants.
"They didn't give us much of a chance to identify
ourselves," Apollo speaks up, ducks as two sabots hit high, and then is
around the side and cuts loose with two good blasts.
"Just wanted to know," Boomer replies, and takes a
shot that hits a pile of poles.
Just then a heavy volley of full-bore assault rifle comes
pouring in. The Warriors crouch.
"Our Tinned-friends?" Starbuck calls out.
Apollo watches as the shooter fires off two more rounds,
"From the glare it looks to be alien," Apollo calls back.
Stabuck twists to dump a few blasts from a Colonial Laser at the
shooter. Boomer and Apollo add a few extra. Somewhere in the volley, the
rifle-geant is taken down.
One of the footmen scrambles to retreive the laser-rifle and
slides back to cover just ahead of a laser-blast.
Loxxon is baffled, the sound of Colonial lasers-firing? First
the Metalloids, then the bothersome humaen female agent, but his strategy had
worked, only to run into thesee? Were these now Colonnial Warriors he faced
tooo?!
Admidst the exploding laser fire, Loxxon evaluated the
surroundings. The smell of warehouse reached him, and an idea came to his
lobes. Over on the Humaen side there was a building, with a ledge overlooking
the Warrriorz.
Loxxon grasped the rifle in his possesion and slapped three of
the Pugeant fighters to follow him to the right this time, around the end,
around the side.
The Colonial Warriors are trading shots wiith the Mercanaries.
"I don't like being pinned down," Apollo calls above
the din, "Our position is too precarious."
"Pre-carry, what?" Starbuck asks loudly.
"Precarious; as in Untenable," the Captain replies,
concentrating on timing between laser-sabots to put a shot into the Pirate
line.
"Untenable, that really clears things up," Starbuck
says to himself, before reaching over to drive a Pugeant back to cover,
"By the way," Starbuck conti8nues louder, "What of our
Sabbatical?"
"She should be with us by now," the Captain agrees.
"Here comes Bo Peep now," Boomer calls out.
And from the right side, the young Sabbatical half stumbles in
behind the Warriors and throws herself flat onto the ground, "Don't mind
me," she speaks up, "I lost my footing."
Boomer checks a quick glance back to the young Sabbatical. It
looks like her cloaking is gone, and a shoulder is torn off of her
under-tunic.
The Young Woman rolls over slowly, looks up, and yells,
"Colonials, watch out!"
The Captain and Starbuck look up to see a Mercanary perched on a
roof-ledge above them with a bottle in his hand. The two dive for cover, as
Boomer wheels and from one knee puts a blast into the attackers chest.
The attacker drops the bottle and falls backwards into the
building. A second attacker leaps out and takes a shot with his bolt-laser.
Multiple shots from Statbuck and Apollo explode around and
behing\d the hapless Mercanary. The Pugeant pitches forward, releasing his
rifle.
The bottle of liquid drops to where Starbuck and Apollo had been
located and explodes in a blue flame. The bolt-laser lands nearby.
The Sabbatical lunges to retreive the bolt-laser. Just then a
third Pugeant with the second laser-rifle rounds a corner, rifle leveled.
The Sabbatical manages to squeeze off a desperate shot which
causes the Pugeant to take a step back, and his shot goes high.
Captain Apollo and Boomer recover their balance and take out the
rifle-gean with several well-placed shots.
With the blue-fire scorchng the facade of the ruined building,
Stabuck retreicves the laser-rifle briefly, and then tosses it aside,
"Great, our assailant has been firing on full-bore and has burnt out the
circuts."
"We could have used the extra fire-power," Boomer
shouts agreement.
"Isn't my stellar micron of aim, missing at that range," the
Sabbatical grumbles as she crawls up behind cover and unleashes a shot.
Boomer glances over to see where the Sabbatical's grasp on the
bolt-laser is starting to shake.
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