Asher ducked behind the bulkhead of the MACC as a bolt of plasma impacted against the dark maroon metal of the giant tank. The MACC sat halfway submerged in the red sands having recently been revealed by the last storm. It was a prize of immense value which was why the captain of their own MACC had attempted to salvage it but then then a local Incandi tribe had attacked them just before they could get it up and running again.
Asher ran out of cover the massive two-handed thunderstrike maul in hand. He swung and activated the ion thruster propelling it forward with lightning-fast speed. The maul struck down and crushed the armor of the Incandi raider, his blood spattering Asher and the walls around them. Twitch rolled out from another hallway the two plasma pistols in his hands a blur as his fingers moved with inhuman speed.
“How you holding up your side?” Twitch asked rolling behind cover and reloading his pistols.
Asher yanked his maul loose and blocked the strike of a spear and caved in the skull of his attacker. “Doing just fine, you?”
Twitch looked around the corner and blasted off three shots, screams sounding moments later. “It’s going.”
Another man slid into cover beside them a riffle shouldered as he let loose a trio of shots down the hall. “Asher, Twitch,” he said nodding to them as he loaded another clip of piercer rounds into his riffle.
“How many you spot out there?” Asher asked Krell.
“Full war party,” Krell said. “At least two hundred warriors, probably every man in their tribe.”
A buzz came over their coms. “Get back to Kali,” the voice of the captain said.
“Say again captain?” Asher said touching the input button on the side of his headgear.
“We’re pulling out, there are to many Incandi raiders,” the captain said. “I’m not putting Kali at risk to try and salvage some old dune wreck.”
“This is a MACC,” Asher argued. “Its illarium plating is worth a fortune alone not to mention the wealth it could bring in aresite.”
“I’m not going to risk Kali to try and rescue this wreck, you have a pregnant wife back at home, do what is best for them,” Captain Pashter said.
“I am,” Asher said angrily. “They deserve a better life, another MACC could give that to them. We could actually prosper on this world.”
“There is no prospering, there is only survival,” the Captain said. “Either get back to the ship or be left behind.”
“I’m staying then,” Asher said.
“Your funeral,” the captain said and ended the comm.
“What’s the plan?” Krell asked.
“You staying?” Asher asked.
“I’m not leaving this prize to those scavengers,” Twitch said. “I’m with you.”
“Me too,” a deep baritone voice said as Johan came down the hall. He carried a two-handed heavy machine gun and it let loose a steady barrage of plasma down the passage.
Three other men jogged up to them shooting behind them to keep the Incandi raiders behind cover.
“We heard you were staying behind,” Leaf said. “We want to join you.”
River and Carl nodded behind him, and Asher looked at the six men and nodded. “We all have families back in Andromeda who we might not make it back to but that’s always a risk for people like us. If we have a MACC of our own, we can get enough credits to buy passage for us off world to one of the new colonies on the edge of the empire.”
“The risk is always death for us,” Johan said. “We are Dust-devils, our lives are meant to be expendable.”
“Not to me,” Asher said. “Today we will all see victory. We’ll hold the bridge; we fight until they all die or we drop. Krell, you get this ship’s weapons back on board. Twitch and I will keep them from sabotaging the reactors. You four hold the bridge and give Krell the time he needs.”
“Lets send these desert rats back into their caves,” Johan said as the group split up.
Krell led the four others up one of the two sets of stairs up to the bridge on the third level of the massive tank. Twitch and Asher moved to the main reactor ducking behind a wall as a blast of plasma fired from above them.
Asher looked to Twitch and nodded and ran fire following behind him. Twitch stepped out into the open and looked up his pistols a blur as he found target and hit them with pin point precision his fingers a blur as he cocked and fired the plasma revolvers again and again. Men dropped over the railings as they fell. Asher pushed up and jumped to the second level the blast from the thrusters on his jump boots helping to propel him upwards.
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Asher’s superhuman strength crushed in the illarium armor of the raider as he dropped his pistol and thrust his spear towards his neck. Asher charged forwards his maul’s shaft telescoping down in length to make it more manageable in the tighter confines.
Barreling through the Incandi raiders Asher devastated them with his maul getting to the doors of the reactor room. Slamming his shoulder into them he pulled a blast charge from his belt and pressed it against the seal of the door. There was a blinding flare of light as the charge went off putting up a temporary weld to keep the doors shut.
Asher turned and ducked as an Incandi fired a plasma rifle towards him. Asher pulled a revolver from its holster at his side and fired. The high explosive round exploded on impact turning the man to paste. Asher ran and jumped, catching the ledge with his left arm and pulling himself up. He swung to the side as a raider thrust a spear at him. Swinging up Asher grabbed the man by the front of his armor and tossed him down the three stories to the metal floor at the base of the reactor.
Getting to the next door Asher set another charge and welded the door shot. He turned and ran and jumped pushing off the reactor in the center of the room and landing on the walkway on the opposite side. Twitch moved up beside him firing off a few more shots.
Heavy banging could be heard as the raiders tried to break through the doors into the reactor’s main room.
“You welded the other doors?” Asher asked.
“Yeah,” Twitch said reloading his revolvers. “I think we got everyone in the room.”
“Then we need to help them hold the bridge,” Asher said. “We can activate the shockwave then and clear anyone else in the ship.”
They pushed open the doors and were immediately under fire. A blast of plasma hit Asher straight in the chest and began burning through his chest piece. Twitch screamed and fell back the side of his face burning as plasm chewed through his flesh. With a roar Asher charged forwards going low before impacting the four men firing on them with the force of mag round. Bones crunched and Asher felt a hot pain in his leg as a spear stabbed deep into his thigh. His maul swung around and caved in the man’s skull. The two other men got to their feet and their riffles lifted up to point at his chest point blank.
Shots rang out and they dropped, Twitch staggered forwards clutching the side of his face a single pistol in his left hand. The two-man moved to the bridge where their comrades awaited them. Johon passed out his left arm missing, a black stump all that remained and a tourniquet around his arm just above the blackened flesh. Leaf was propped up against the wall his right leg splayed out a red stain staining the metal floor around it.
“Come on,” Asher said. “Everyone get inside, we’re going to shock the floor.”
He grabbed Leaf the man seeming small in comparison to his massive frame. He pulled the man into the bridge; the faraday cage and the rubber floor would keep them safe. Twitch rushed inside and handed Krell the device. Krell plugged it and flipped a switch. The lights shut off and the hair on all their necks stood up for a second. Anyone inside the MACC not in this room would be dead now from the electoral current passed through the ship. Krell switched the systems back on and hotwired its systems.
“Weapons on!” he shouted.
Asher sat down in the captain’s chair and grabbed its controls. The screens around the room turned on and he sighted along the MACC’s main rail-gun. The Incandi raiders had various speeders and vehicles surrounding the half-submerged MACC. He couldn’t even see the other MACC that had abandoned them, its captain and crew long gone now.
The raiders scattered as the MACC came online and fired. A light tank exploded as the rail round hit it. Asher let them flee. He stood up and knelt beside Leaf as they packed the bullet wound on his leg with stim-gel from a med kit to stop the bleeding and speed up its healing. Johan was the one with the most serious wound, he’d have to get a bionic replacement when they got back to Andromeda.
“We all survived,” Asher said as he looked around the bridge. “I wasn’t sure if we could pull this off.”
“You got us through Captain,” Krell said clapping him on the shoulder.
“You want me to be captain?” Asher asked.
“You’re the one who made the decision to stay,” Twitch said. “You got my vote.”
“And mine,” Johon said.
One by one the others all voted in favor of Asher.
“Well then,” Asher said. “Get us moving and back to Andromeda.”
Asher looked up to the bulkhead above the door to the bridge where the name of the MACC and its motto were displayed on a bronze plague.
Anubis
“We are judges of death,
Weight the hearts of men,
Sifting the righteous from the wicked.
Our will is final.
The verdict is death.”
--
Anubis rolled up to the gates on Andromeda. The energy shield that protected the fortress city from the iron storms that scoured the planet.
“This is the MACC Anubis,” Asher said over the radio haling the gate control. “Requesting entry into the city.”
There was static in reply and Asher frowned.
“This is Anubis haling Andromeda, please respond,” Asher said.
“Go away,” a raspy voice came over the radio. “You don’t want to enter.”
Asher face furrowed in more concern. “This is my home, open the gates.”
“Your funeral,” the voice said, and they could hear them break down in a fit of coughing. “There’s plague, if you enter you won’t be allowed to leave.”
The energy wall came down. Anubis rolled forwards on its heavy treads, the crew suddenly nervous and anxious about their return. Asher ran down the gang plank and gagged as he breathed in the fowl smelling air. The docks were empty, something that was unheard of. He ran down the street’s past piles of corpses. Getting into an elevator he slammed the controls rising up to a higher level of the city.
Moving through the tight alleys and streets Asher ran up the steps of a housing complex. Pale faces looked out of windows at him as he pushed open a door. Asher saw his sister Naomi pulling a white sheet over the bed she turned her face pale and streaked with tears.
“Asher,” she said her voice choked.
“Is she…is she…” Asher said but couldn’t finish.
“She didn’t make it,” Naomi said. “She was to weak after the birth, and they…your son didn’t make it either.”
Asher stared down at the white sheet the grief, rage, confusion. His face went blank as he stared down at the bed and crib beside it.