Gifts from Below
06 Apr 2024Ryuko Ntsikana
Gifts from Below
Colonia Region
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Ryuko knelt down next to the bandit, accessing his suit's forearm controller to inject its occupant with a nociceptive inhibitor, as Tara stood guard, reviewing the strewn bodies of the other bandits who had been guarding six nearby escape pods. The bandit's breathing was raspy and struggled as he clutched the charred side of his armor where the heavy plasma bolt had impacted. By all rights, he should be dead, with the others, but by luck or misfortune, had survived, even if for a short time.
Ryuko looked at the bandit's face through his suit's faceplate. "Hey … hey … stay awake. Can you hear me? Do you know who you are or where you are at?"
Ryuko shook him as the bandit's pupils constricted and his body began to relax. "Who's in the escape pods? Why were you guarding them?"
Tara looked over her shoulder at the bandit, shaking her head. The damage was too extensive, with his ribcage, one of his lungs, and other nearby internal organs cauterized from the plasma's impact.
Ryuko shook the bandit again as he blinked his eyes. "Why are those escape pods important?"
"Smug … ler." Bubbles began to appear from the bandit's mouth. "Get people inside … no witness…" The bandit's eyes went wide and lifeless as Ryuko shook him a couple more times before shaking his head.
Tara surveyed the scene around them. "Let's get them loaded and run a bio-scan, but you shouldn't report it to anyone until we know more. They can either be a big payday or make us the next target."
Ryuko stood up, looking toward the nearby Scarab vehicle. She was right, and he knew it. This was either a payday, or they would become the hunted.
Aby's voice sounded over their helmet's headset. "Another ship is descending above. The flat trajectory is within the parameters of a reinforcement drop. You have two minutes before they arrive."
Tara put a fresh charge in her plasma rifle and began scanning the space above them as Ryuko bounded to the Scarab, hopping into the driver's seat.
Ryuko sped around the scene in the Scarab, using its automated cargo loader to scoop up four of the escape pods, as Tara began a progressive low gravity hopping motion in the direction of the ship, but staying in range of the Scarab to provide covering fire should Ryuko need it.
"One minute and thirty seconds," Aby announced, watching from the bridge of the ship. "As a reminder, the Scarab can only hold four."
Ryuko focused on getting the nearest ones. "Bring up the emergency screen but don't touch the ship's power settings. We don't want to give away that we know they are coming until the last second."
Tara was the first to visually spot the ship. "Got it, directly above us. Vulture class, coming down flat for a drop."
"Got 'em … fire up the ship, Aby."
The Scarab began speeding toward the ship as the lighting came on. A smile appeared on Tara's face as she neared the front stairs to enter, her plasma rifle at the low ready.
The Vulture's descent increased as it registered the increased power from Ryuko's ship, as Tara began running up the stairs and Ryuko's Scarab skidded to a halt underneath the ship's vehicle hangar.
Ryuko's Krait began to rise into a low hover as the Scarab disappeared within the hangar, with the gear raising up into their housings.
Tara appeared on the bridge first as Ryuko exited the Scarab and began running down the corridor. "Punch it!" Ryuko shouted over his helmet's communicator, as Tara took the pilot's seat, the Krait's engines flaring, rocketing above the Vulture, which was now deploying the bandit reinforcements on the lunar surface.
As Ryuko entered the bridge, he climbed into the right-hand seat of the Krait, securing himself. "Activating the Taipan fighter. Get the weapons ready. I want those two we left behind."
Tara's smile grew larger as she activated the weapons. "A bit bloody today, aren't we?"
Ryuko activated the fighter bay as its display appeared on his helmet's faceplate. "This much trouble for escape pods, it has to be something important to waste this much manpower on, and besides, these are bandits, and we don't need witnesses."
Tara pulled the Krait into a high-g flip maneuver the moment the Taipan fighter launched.
Ryuko pointed its nose towards the surface, boosting the engines as the fighter's twin beam lasers charged. "I'm going for the bandits, get the Vulture!"
The Taipan fighter jinked as the Krait slammed into the Vulture, as it began to rise, knocking it back towards the surface while Tara held down the trigger of the Krait's four fragmentation cannons and large beam laser, melting through the Vulture's shields and hull.
The bandits on the surface fired from below at the Krait but were out of range to have any effect as they watched their ride get vaporized above them. They didn't see the Taipan fighter now boosting its engines, skimming the surface toward them, until two of the six-man team were impacted; their remains flying far across the low gravity of the lunar surface.
"That left a mark," Tara sang out as she dipped the Krait's nose, vaporizing a third bandit with the large beam laser.
The three remaining bandits were unsure of what to do as they had just witnessed half of their squad's size reduced in such a rapid and brutal fashion.
As Ryuko's Taipan fighter began its second approach, he could see the surviving bandits' hands begin to rise as their weapons fell. "Level so I can dock the fighter. Looks like these three want to chat. If they flinch, melt them."
Tara kept the Krait's weapons sights on the target zone. "Thought there were to be no bandit witnesses?"
Ryuko chuckled as he began to dock the fighter. "I said a chat, not invite them in for tea."
Aby maintained his focus on the scanners. "No additional ships detected near our position."
With the fighter docked, Tara began to lower the Krait towards the surface, its weapons remaining deployed and on the bandits, as Ryuko stood up. "The moment I'm back out in the Scarab, hover and keep the weapons on them. If they have a change of heart, turn them to ash, but don't hit the pods."
The bandits watched as the Scarab dropped and landed on the surface, its twin plasma repeaters pointed at them, as the Krait hovered above with all of its weaponry firmly fixed on the bandit's position. With their own ship turned into scrap, and their squad reduced by half, they each knew their only minuscule chance of living another few seconds was to surrender. Better to live as a slave than as a scorched smear on a nameless moon.