A Dramatic Turn of Events
"Get the weapon onto the ship! NOW!" the captain began screaming at his...men? Lobsters? Pirates? Whatever, he yelled at them.
He turned to leave, and a shot rang out. The sound that one hears when cracking open a crab leg sounded as a bullet passed right through the face of the pirate captain. Letting out a horrible screeching sound, the captain whipped himself around in pain, thrashing his tail in the way a normal lobster would when you picked it up out of the water.
A second shot was fired; this time, a beam of light followed the bullet as it hit the captain on the underside of his now exposed head.
"Sorry, I didn't know where his brain was," Kiera's voice said through the orb around Tom's neck.
Equipping his greatsword at the same moment Derek retrieved his mace and shield, Tom dashed forward to get a kill of his own. One Lobster was already pushing the weapon up the ramp of the ship, but the last in line turned to see what was happening.
A screech emitted from the lobster as he saw his captain lying dead on the ground, motionless. It charged Tom, raising its claws in an intimidating display, snapping them over and over. Tom and Derek didn't slow their charge. As they neared, the creature reached one of its pincers out to snap at Tom, and he batted it aside with his greatsword.
Getting an idea, he equipped his lightsaber instead and spun around to move further down the pirate's extended arm. Pressing the button, the weapon hissed to life. Completing his turn, while raising the weapon over his head, he brought it down on the creature's arm, cutting it off with a clean swipe.
Derek had blocked the other claw with his shield and brought his mace down on it, a terrible crunching sound emitting from the impact. The lobster let out the same screech of pain its captain had when it had been shot the first time. Looking up at the ship for just a moment, Tom saw that the ramp was closing already, all the other lobsters inside.
From behind him, a beam of concentrated energy shot out at the ship from the Deshieldinator on the walls and impacted the ship. A previously invisible shield around the hull of the ship flared to life around the lead ship as the weapon began to blast at it. Tom refocused and saw that Derek had already moved forward and was bashing at the side of the monster.
Turning the lightsaber into a reverse grip, it stabbed it into the side of the creature and ran down its side, opening a huge gash down its armored body. Its screams of pain reached a new crescendo at the attack but went completely quiet as Derek jumped onto its back and bashed its head in with his mace until it went still.
"Well, we're on this side of the shield now, so I guess we have to fend for ourselves," Derek said, shrugging.
"HYRAHHHHH!" came a battle cry from behind Tom, and he spun to see what was happening.
Frank was charging out of the gate toward the barrier.
"Frank?" Tom said, confused.
"Frank," Derek replied, chuckling. "He was ordered to stick with you no matter what and watch your back."
Tom then noticed that James, Mark, Lacey, and Susie were all running behind him, falling behind at Frank's speed but trying to keep up.
"Looks like you might be doing more babysitting than Frank is," Derek said, fully laughing at the sight of the others struggling to keep up.
"I'm just glad it's not only the two of us now. Though, I would prefer that everyone stayed inside the barrier."
A sound like shattering glass sounded from above them, causing Tom and Derek to duck suddenly in reaction. They covered their heads with their hands until they looked up to see it was the ship's shield failing. The Beam of light didn't stop and moved to hit the next ship, a shield appearing around it as well.
Tom heard the sounds of jet engines revving up as he noticed the F-35s taking off from the side of the building. Once they reached the appropriate height, they took off into the sky, away from the ships, to circle around. Seeing them pass through the shield and fly in formation around to line up their shots, Tom deactivated his lightsaber and equipped his greatsword again.
"This is going quite well, don't you think?" Tom said, smiling at Derek.
"You just had to fucking say something, didn't you," Derek scowled at him.
A beam fired from the front of the ship, hitting the shield of the guild. It was the same color as the beam that was firing at the other ship.
"Shit, I didn't think they could get it up there that fast," Tom swore.
He watched helplessly as the beam continued, then flickered, then stopped altogether. The sounds of the screeches of pain reached his ears right before a lobster corpse was flung over the side of the ship. It landed with a horrendous crunch on the pavement.
"Looks like Kuthir made his appearance," Tom said.
"Those Mastadonians have proven to be quite valuable," Derek smiled up at the ship.
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"So, what should we do now?" Tom asked.
"I say we wait. Let this play out a bit. We do have people for a reason, you know." Derek replied.
Frank and the others reached them shortly after, and Frank picked up Tom in a bear hug, not even winded. The others, however, were panting heavily when they arrived.
"Frank," Tom managed to squeak out. "Can't breathe."
Quickly setting him back down, Frank apologized but smiled at him still. They moved out from under the ship and closer to the shield, knowing that from this side, they could not reenter the guild area. As they watched, the shield from the second ship burst as well before the beam moved to a third ship to begin taking down its shield.
The ships began rising into the air again to move out of the area when Tom heard the familiar sound of airplanes moving overhead. He looked up to try to catch a glimpse of what was happening and saw the F-35s coming in hot. They began to fire their missiles at the pirate ships with no shields, leaving trails in the sky as the exhaust from the rockets propelled them forward at blistering speeds.
"Maybe we shouldn't be this close to the ship," Derek said, fear suddenly gripping him at the thought of the missiles hitting the ships, Herbert's words about the fireball runes playing through his head again.
"Oh, shit, you're right!" Tom said, and they began to run along the edge of the shield to get further away.
"Lacey, get a barrier ready!" James shouted as they ran.
They heard the first of the missiles impact the lead pirate ship behind them and an explosion louder than anything Tom had ever heard before sounded as flames erupted over and over from the impact. Lacey barely managed to get a barrier up in time to stop the waves of flames that poured over them, the concussive force from the explosion knocking them all to the ground. It washed over the barrier and across the side of the shield surrounding the guild, engulfing them in flames before dissipating.
Sounds of engines failing sounded from above them as they began to sputter, then go out as the pirate ship began to fall to the ground.
"Go, go, go, go, go, GO!" Tom yelled as he stood up and began running.
Lacey dismissed the barrier as they all began to sprint forward as fast as they could. Frank grabbed Susie in one arm and Lacey in the other as they began to lag behind. As the ship began to crash into the pavement, pieces of the street began to fly in all directions, some pelting the runners as they attempted to get to safety. The ship hit the shield around the guild and turned to the side, moving in the same direction as Tom and his guildmates.
"No, no, no, no, NO!" Tom said in the same cadence he had told them to go, seeing the ship approach faster than they were running.
"Quit fucking running straight forward, GO RIGHT!" Derek shouted from behind him.
Tom began to veer to the right as the pavement began to crack under his feet. After running for another few seconds, Tom heard the scraping of metal as the ship passed by where they had been moments before, but he didn't stop running.
Eventually, the steel scraping on the pavement stopped, and Tom slowed and stopped, turning to see what was happening. More than a few of the lobster pirates had been thrown through the protective glass of the ship and out onto the road. Some had even been crushed by the ship as it passed. Others were trying to stand again after hitting such an unforgiving surface, and one had been unlucky enough to have been impaled on a telephone pole that had broken in half during the crash.
"Frank...smash," James said as he pointed at the lobsters that were on the ground.
Setting Susie and Lacey down, Frank equipped his greataxe and activated his rage ability before leaping forward with astonishing speed and power, landing on the closest lobster. He began hacking at its back with his axe as it screeched in pain before plunging his hand into the opening he created and ripping out some of its insides.
"We shouldn't let him have all the fun," Tom smiled malevolently as he charged in as well.
The others followed suit, arming themselves and following closely behind. Spells were launched, weapons smashed into the shells of their enemies, and James fired at their eyes in an attempt to blind them.
More of the pirates began to crawl out of the ship and toward the fighters as they continued to kill off the ones who were injured already.
"Shit!" James said as he began to fire at the new arrivals.
Shots began to ring out from the building behind them, hitting the lobsters who were emerging from the downed ship.
"Kiera to the rescue, again," Tom chuckled as he stabbed his greatsword into the head of another crustacean.
Tom could hear shouts from behind the ship as explosions sounded from overhead, another ship beginning to fall to the ground. Soon, from in front of the ship came a stream of fighters roaring their anger to the skies at the opportunity to kill some of the creatures that dared to invade their planet.
"Well, I'll be damned. This wasn't the plan, was it?" Tom asked, looking at Derek.
"No, but this went smoother than we had hoped. Let them have their fun," Derek smiled at him.
Tom smiled at the people rushing into battle. they began to smash and stab at the creatures, overwhelming them at first. Lobsters screamed and tried to fight back, some managing to get a hold of one or two fighters here and there before having their claws cut or ripped off by another member of the guild.
Kevin roared a battle cry while he held a lobster's claw at bay, then ripped the smaller pincer off completely and used it to stab the creature in the face.
"Well, I think now is as good a time as any to use our trump card," Tom said.
"Why? We're doing fine," Derek countered.
"I just wanna see what's gonna happen."