It had been an endlessly busy two weeks.
The sheer amount of work to do, both to service new contracts for food from restaurants and the Undaunted, to seemingly unending pet orders alike, but also going to a specialist doctor and tending the growing eggs as they carefully monitored their somewhat biologically jury rigged solution to Syl’s fertility issues.
They had all spent long hours just… watching them develop. If Jerry ever had to go looking for Syl, it seemed he’d find her down by the tank, just… watching, and praying. He had never considered himself someone who ached for fatherhood, but his heart burned for Syl, and he knew that greeting their first children together was everything to her. So he held her, and told her it would be okay, all while praying to whatever god would listen to him that he wasn’t a liar.
It all came down to today. They’d headed to a specialist hospital two spires over from Syl’s clinic at the break of dawn and Syl had gone under for a short surgery via axiom teleport. After that… they’d just had to wait. The hours ticked by, Syl seemingly more nervous by the minute… until the doctor came in to tell them the news.
Six successful implantations.
This should have been a joyous day. A glorious day to celebrate. To rejoice!
Instead, Jerry found himself in yet another gun fight.
He snarls in frustration as he physically hurls himself between Syl and an incoming laser blast, taking it on his axiom shield before yanking her behind cover. His bride recovers from the shock of the moment and quickly triggers the emergency switch that had been added to her own comm device.
‘Good girl.’
He thinks to himself before reaching into his axiom pockets and withdrawing his rifle.
The Desert Tech MDRX was a bullpup style assault rifle and DMR. With Jerry’s set up, and its powerful 6.5 Creedmoor ammunition, thousand meter shots were just another day at the office. Something that required artillery as far as a lot of the aliens seemed concerned.
Differences in their fighting styles aside, the withering assault on the couple was more than enough to keep them deep in cover, which probably meant some heavies were moving in to get up close and personal with them.
Jerry frowns, scanning the area, looking for some way out of the kill box the ambushers had set up. It was a two story shopping plaza that had some middle end clothing stores, decent restaurants and the like. They’d been crossing through it from the hospital to a nearby mass transit hub to head home.
The main area on the bottom floor had numerous tables for dining and heavy duty planters like the one they were sheltering behind. Above them, a variety of sky bridges criss crossed through the air. Decorated with more thick looking planters on the sky way that would make for decent cover against all but the heaviest antipersonnel fire.
Still, he can’t take full advantage of all this varied terrain. Can’t even maneuver freely. Jerry glances back at Syl and frowns. No, he can’t move too hard, he can’t risk Syl getting hit, and risking the little lives now confirmed to be slowly growing inside her wasn’t an option either. He’d be damned if he let this petty snake whore harm any of his girls, even the ones who were barely even a fetus yet. He was limited in ways that he suspected the enemy didn’t know, but he couldn’t let them find out either. If this was vengeance, Syl would become the primary target.
Another snarl, gnashing his teeth at the sheer indignity of it all. They could have attacked him nearly any other day and it would have been fine, but no, the day he’s bringing his newly pregnant wife home from the hospital, that’s the day they decide to go gunning for him.
He’d seen at least one six armed Desert Nagasha with a shit load of paint on her before he’d gone to ground, so this was retaliation of some kind for the morons he’d bumped off. Some crime lord’s idiot daughters maybe? Shit, he probably did the woman a favor if those were some of her heirs.
Syl for her part is looking much calmer this time. Her breathing and pulse were elevated, the fur on her tail was standing up rigidly, and she had a protective hand over her stomach. Still she was steady when she met his eyes. She knew what had to be done.
“We need to move.”
“I know. Give me your pistol.”
“What?” Jerry blinks and does a slight double take.
“I’ve been practicing with it like a good girl. Give me your pistol and some magazines then maybe we try to get up to cover on the upper level of this plaza. I can cover you from there and stay decently out of trouble.”
Jerry takes a breath, and considers his mental map of the plaza. That... would, or could work. How to get up to that part of the plaza though? He had been working to mimic Eymali’s natural stealth field before she left, but he wasn’t nearly good enough to conceal himself for long, never mind conceal Syl too. He was never an illusions kind of guy like some of the nerd squad had turned out to be. There was one option though... It was a stretch. If he could do it... Jerry places the rifle’s sling over his shoulder and around his torso, letting the weapon hang before grabbing Syl and pulling her tight.
“What are you doing?” The Volpir woman looks up at him curiously. “You’re not about to just sprint for it are you?”
“No. Well. Yes, but not just that. I have another idea in mind. Just... hold tight and fortify your body with axiom. As tough as you can get. I’m not sure this will work.”
“Okay, doing it, but what are you going to-”
Quickly, Jerry begins pulling some of his stash of grenades out of his coat, a few frag and flash bangs go over the planter to hopefully ruin some asshole’s day, and the smoke grenade he dumps at their feet. He takes a few deep breaths, visualizing where he wants to be and tensing his body, flooding it with axiom.
The world slows down, he can feel his pulse lower in his ears as everything stops for a second, and he races over to the nearest set of stairs, bounding them as carefully as he can with his precious cargo in his arms, getting them behind cover once again.
“-do... what in the goddess’s veil!?” Syl’s eyes open wide in shock. “T-time manipulation? Or was that teleportation?”
Jerry shakes his head as he peeks his head out of cover and surveys the scene they’d just left. “No, I just moved, really, really fast. Got the idea from a TV show. I don’t think I’ve got the brain for quantum mechanics that’ll apparently let you teleport.”
The Marine hisses with pleasure as he sees a flash of plasma ignite the smoke he’d left behind for a moment, dispersing it, revealing a confused pair of heavy infantry, one in what appeared to be good quality custom power armor and the other in a mech suit similar to the models the EFL pirates seemed to prefer.
The power armor clad woman had to be a Cannidor simply for the sheer scale of her. There was some blood splatters and junked equipment on the far side of their former barrier, and a wrecked mech suit. Remnants from close encounters with his grenades. So that was most of their assault force down.
Jerry starts pulling equipment from his Axiom pockets. A war belt with a heavy metal buckle that leads to a thigh holster for his MP7, a shoulder holster rig for the Field Pistol that he passes off to Syl, along with an earpiece with integrated mic to tie her into the local human tac net. There was even some light body armor that he quickly strapped on, giving him access to still more ammunition as well as his kukri fighting knife.
He’d been caught with his pants down once, and it had nearly gotten Syl hurt. He’d determined that wouldn’t happen again, and had started carrying all sorts of extra gear meant to better protect himself, his wives, and ensure they can move and communicate effectively.
Syl watches with wide eyes as she sees her husband “get tactical”, finishing the look with some in ear active noise canceling units that doubled as his comms with a throat mic for talking. She’d known he was a warrior of course. She’d seen him fight, seen photos of him in his dress blues from the unit known as the Marine Corps, and seen him in his Undaunted dress whites besides. It was another thing to see her man gird his loins for battle right in front of her.
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“Alright, keep your head down till you hear another explosion or three, relocate further back, then assess and take pot shots if you feel like I’ll die if you don’t help. Otherwise I want you purely defensive, and using that shield ring if anything looks in your general direction. Me taking a hit or two is one thing, but your life, and the life of those kits is worth a hell of a lot more than me needing to get patched up.”
Jerry reaches over and rests a hand fondly on Syl’s stomach, intertwining their fingers for a moment before leaning in for a gentle kiss.
The Cannidor’s roar of frustration brings Jerry back to the present. He winks to Syl... and accelerates again.
Toriyama, eat your heart out.
As he runs he tosses a few more grenades out, some smoke grenades to random parts of the area, some more flashers and frags to the power armored troops he suspected were at least partially mercs, and another lethal grenade or two lobbed at extreme range towards the base of fire on the second level that seemed to be a handful of Nagasha and a mix of varied alien thugs.
His back hits cover again as he quickly assesses the situation. The upper level group and the surviving mech suit had fairly uniform colors, similar to the thugs that attacked the store the other day. So that’d be the gang. The Cannidor on the other hand had vivid colors and markings on her armor. A mercenary almost for sure then. It would make sense, that level of talent would be pretty damn expensive... it was about as much violence as you could probably pay for on Centris. Jerry considers... and makes his decision.
He pulls up an app on his comm unit. The special forces troops had recently been issued some new software to allow them to hack into enemy communications in the field. It was a simple piece of software, hardly complicated, but functional. His rudimentary efforts were rewarded quickly.
The gangsters weren’t using any type of encryption.
“-And another thing you stupid fucking snakes. I was promised a decent fight, but your prey’s clearly run off. Did you really bring all this out for one guy?"
”Shut up mercenary, you know nothing of our honor...”
“Actually, I’d like the Merc to keep talking. That you Ms. Cannidor?”
Jerry watches with a grin as she stops and looks around, clearly trying to find him.
“You got me... this is the human I assume? Those dulcet tones sound all warm and manly, guess they weren’t kidding about men being the fighters for your kind.”
“WHAT!? This is an-”
“Shut it snake, you’re being rude, a man’s talking you know.”
The Cannidor raises her wrist without even looking and launches a plasma grenade in the general direction of the Nagasha’s crew. A shriek of outrage echoes across the channel in the wake of the explosion.
“How much are they paying you, Cannidor?”
“Not terribly much for how little of a fight they’ve brought me Human, unless you’re going to come out to play soon.”
“Oh I will, but I like having friends to play with. Back up’s on the way, but I’d rather deal with these stains now. You seem like you’re hefting some. I’ll double your pay if you switch sides.”
“Double’s a good place to start. You’re already speaking my language... And if I want more than just money?”
“We can negotiate while sitting on the mound of corpses. I bet they’ve got more girls nearby right?”
“Oh yeah, they brought plenty of the dumb cunts. Not worth much, but with a horde that big it’d be... exciting.”
“Care to join me for a little excitement then?”
“Careful now, a girl might think you’re propositioning her if you talk like that, and I’ve heard interesting things about what cute little things like humans can do. Fine, you’re on, but expect to negotiate further after this is done... I might even do something wild like demand to get to buy you dinner if you’re at all decent looking and you show me a decent fight.”
“Deal.”
Without another word said, and before the mech suit next to her can react, the Cannidor swings a power armored fist through the armored cockpit. He swears he can hear the squelch of flesh being destroyed and a spine snapping and he winces a bit as the mech suit falls to the floor in a heap.
“Damn, she doesn’t screw around.”
Jerry takes another half breath, and accelerates, taking himself down and standing right in front of the Cannidor merc, he was taking a risk, she had just betrayed one employer already after all.
The big woman startles as she notices Jerry suddenly standing in front of her. “How in the sweet Goddess did you fucking...”
“Never mind how I did that, turn your comms off and get your helmet off quick.”
Merc or not, she knows how to follow orders, and quickly crouches down to get the bulk of her nearly ten feet of Amazonian shark woman behind a semblance of concealment if not cover.
“Say, you are pretty good looking! Yeah not bad at all for a cutie like you. Like someone crossed a Cannidor man with a Tret man then got him geared up for an action porno that doesn’t skimp on the action.”
The Cannidor leers at him as her helmet comes off, her smile full of the Cannidor trademark white and pearlies. A rough cut mane of scarlet red hair, a few scars and some tattoos on her neck and back on her face that screamed Maori to Jerry completed the look. This was one bad bitch.
“Smells like you’re in season too, wives not taking proper care of you stud?”
“Considering both my wives are pregnant, including the one these dumb bitches just tried to kill, I’d say they’re making proper use of my time. Besides, humans don’t...”
The Cannidor holds out a hand quickly.
“Wait. Much as I’m very interested to hear all about your reproductive cycle in particular, I need you to repeat that. Your wife’s pregnant?”
Jerry gives her a no duh look as he passes her another earpiece, already switched on. “Yes, we’re just coming back from seeing the neonatal specialist at the hospital.”
“Oh hell fucking no.”
The Cannidor’s icy blue eyes narrow, burning with a ferocity that her casual manner had previously held down as she tucks the ear piece in place and adjusts the mic.
“My name’s Jaruna, and our deal just changed human. I’m going to kill these cunts for free. Bad enough to attack a man, but to endanger a pregnant woman too?”
Jaruna lets out a stream of guttural curses in what must be the Cannidor language before roaring loud enough that the entire damn spire can hear her.
“I’m coming up there to rip your heads off and shit down your throats you goddamn snakey cunts! Don’t bother running, because I’ll hunt you down to your lair and burn your fucking tree house down too. Fight here, or die tired!”
Jerry’s surprised expression must have given Jaruna pause as she reseals her helmet.
“What? Something in my teeth? I don’t have a lot of rules, but no pregnant women and no kids is about as far as it goes, they were already paying triple my usual rate because a man was on the list.”
“Jerry by the way.”'
“Pleasure to meet you handsome, hope you like sushi, because I’m still taking you to dinner, even if all the violence is a cash free transaction now.”
Syl picks exactly that moment to switch onto the tactical channel from HQ’s emergency circuit, which Jerry had muted on purpose. This fight was going to get nasty, and getting distracted at the wrong moment could be lethal.
Plus he had the most beautiful woman on Centris to play comm officer for him.
“Jerry, what’s going on? What was that roaring and... who’s on this net with us? And what’s this about sushi?”
“Syl, meet Jaruna, the power armored Cannidor who’s about to help me kill the people who just tried to hurt us.”
“Hey there. I’m Jaruna, your friendly neighborhood gun for hire. I’m going to be up front with you ma’am. You’re the first wife?”
There’s a pause for a second as Syl processes the introduction and question before she cautiously answers.
“Yes. I am his first wife.”
“Great. If this man fights half as good as he smells, and fucks half as good as he fights, I want in. Goddamn imagine the daughters a bad ass male could fuck into you. Just the thought gives me the warm and fuzzies thinking about my babies conquering planets. So yeah, post mulching these shit heads I’m taking him, you, and any other wives he’s got to sushi. We’ll eat. Chat. Get to know each other. Review footage from my helmet cam of particularly epic kills of your family’s enemies if you’re into that sort of thing.”
Syl’s surprise is audible across the net, and her mouth moves before her brain catches up.
“He’s better in bed than he smells and he fights like something out of a movie.” Then she processes for a second. “Help us get out of this and we’ll at least join you for dinner I’m sure... though I’m a bit worried about the trend of meeting potential new wives in life threatening situations.”
Jerry can practically hear the shark-like female smiling, and he briefly imagines her chomping on a giant cigar just to complete the action movie picture.
“This has happened before? Hell you guys sound like all sorts of fun! Shit sister, say no more, let’s get this problem dealt with so we can go get some grub and get to know each other all dignified like.”