Turning around, while hiding behind the training machine, Robert glanced to the side at the mirror. The latter showed a group of four. Dressed in tight black costumes as if directly from an action movie with a small budget, they were aiming at his position from futuristic-like rifles. They could look dumb in those leather clothes without a single sign of protection, except knee pads, but the devastating effect of constantly flying projectiles was speaking by itself. Bright green to the level of being almost a visualization of toxicity, they were eating away anything they touched, be it metal, a tough polymer of the walls, or glass.
No wonder they don’t have any defense – it might be useless. Or it could be another reason that I don’t know. Still, it gives me a chance.
Noticing how the green balls lacked the piercing effect as if the weapon was specially made less deadly not to destroy the outer layer of the spaceship, Robert nodded to himself before grabbing two weight plates near him. Sending it to the side in a strong throw to redirect the group’s attention for a moment, he immediately charged out of his cover. Pushing his body to the side to avoid another dangerous projectile, Rob launched the second plate right in the middle of the shooter’s ranks.
“Be careful!”
The yell was slightly too late. The humans still managed to dodge the training weight, jumping or ducking down, but it gave enough time for Robert to get close. A strong straight kick had sent the nearest middle-aged man with blonde hair in the flight. Not stopping on that, he instantly switched to the next target, who appeared to be a skinny young man with a wide forehead. Grabbing the end of the barrel, Rob forcefully pulled it to himself. The opponent, who seemed to barely step out from teen’s age, attempted to shoot him, but timely conjured steel took a hit. Burning under unknown devastating energy, it dissipated under Robert’s command. He, on the other hand, was already planting his fist in the stomach of the shooter. The latter instantly tried to bend down from the pain, but Rob’s grip was firm. Stepping behind the young man, Robert squeezed the enemy’s neck, while shoving his rifle to the floor.
“Don’t shoot or he will…”
Rob couldn’t finish as the incoming projectile was already covering half of his sight. The short height of his human shield couldn’t cover most of his big frame, making Robert an easy target. The creation of a thick mask had saved him, taking an impact instead of his face. Still, a small part of this dangerous energy managed to burn the face of his captive. The loud painful scream and following convulsions made them halt their actions, while Robert only tightened his grip and slightly crouched down.
“Stop, Riley! What the fuck are doing? You almost killed Billy!”
“My face, my face, ahhh!”
“Fucking hell, he is a space ranger!”
All three shouts went simultaneously, while Robert was looking at the young woman with short pink hair. Despite the natural beauty, she lacked any charm with her serious expression and visible resolve in her eyes. The small scar had left its mark on her upper lip, while several rings were decorating her eyebrow. Her rifle was looking directly at Rob’s face and had no sign of lowering.
“You do it again, you die,” dispersing the mask, Robert spoke with unhidden threat. The girl only smirked at that as if trying to provoke him.
“Riley, come down and don’t mess with him!”
The anxious voice of a middle-aged man attracted Rob’s attention to the man. The blonde, who finally managed to get up from the fall and was massaging his ribs, looked quite ordinary and plain. Part of his hair color came from age, making it a mixture of gray and light brown. He was well-built, clean-shaved, and seemed to be a leader of the group, as he was the first to speak with Robert.
“Listen man… sir… I am sorry. We mistook you for a demon. Pure accident. Let’s treat it as an accident and part ways. I mean, currently, you must be busier with your responsibilities than with…”
“Then with whom? With possible criminals who smuggled the weapons inside the tourist ship?” Speaking as calm and confident as possible, Robert spoke without blinking. It was a guess, but taking into account the absence of bracelets, proper weapons in comparison to a guard’s baton, no military or police signs on the clothes, and small backpacks, it had a good chance of being true.
“About that…,” the blonde scratched his head before sighing.
“Let’s just shoot him. He is alone,” Riley suggested, leading to a real outburst.
“Hey, sister, for space’s light sake, do not kill me!” screamed Billy, while fighting with pain from a small burn on his cheek.
“Nope, we are not going to shoot anyone!”
“I agree with Roger. You don’t mess with space rangers,” it was the last member of the group. Again young, but slightly older than Riley, with ebony skin, he had odd yellow eyes and gave off a feeling of a veteran, who had seen some shit. His appearance looked messier, with black stubble on the face, and long unkempt hair. Even his clothes were rumpled. On the other hand, only he was slowly and barely noticeably moving to the side as if trying to encircle Rob.
“Shut up, newbie!” The answer from the girl was short.
“Nope. And you better listen and look around. There were at least half of a dozen demon’s corpses, which were killed with bare hands. Including a Hound. Do you think you have a chance to stop him?”
“John is right, Riley. Calm down and lower your weapon. We have a much bigger problem around,” the leader’s voice was filled with tiredness and fear.
“If I may add… Listen to John. He is smart. From all of you, he is the most dangerous, but still wishes not to add a few bodies to this room,” Robert grinned.
“Your face almost begs for plasma ball… but fine. For now,” Riley nodded, suppressing her anger, and finally lowered the rifle.
“So who are you and what are doing here? And one more thing – I am not a space ranger. Treat me like a random guy with a battle experience and small amnesia,” Robert decided to be direct. He wasn’t sure how long he would stay in this realm as the feeling of pull was steadily intensifying. Still, it could be enough time to meet his demise because of not asking a few questions.
“Wait, what? You are not…? But we clearly saw the nanobots,” the surprise of Roger was quite sincere.
“You had to be Deprived then. So, also criminal. Heh, such an odd coincidence,” noticing the question on the face of his leader, John explained, “Former ranger, who still has his nanobots as they couldn’t be taken out easily, but without proper energy source to create any proper gear or weapon. Such exile is a punishment for something big, but not enough for a death sentence. Still full recall of the status and rights with a permanent mark of a criminal. Very rare case.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Colleagues, then…” nodded Roger with a relief.
“Can you finally release Billy? You are choking him,” Riley was barely holding her irritation. Pointing at her brother, she turned around and went to check the corridor behind their back.
“So trusting now… Okay,” Rob smiled on the demonstrative action, before stepping back from the young guy. The latter immediately started to cough only to rush to the nearest mirror to his scar.
“Damn, sister. Why the fuck did you do it?” He yelled with anger and followed the girl. The only answer Robert managed to catch was “Grow some balls, Billy.”
“So, the mutual agreement of nonhostile action against each other is achieved. Now, to my question – what are you doing here?”
“Maybe let’s discuss this later as there are more demons,” Roger tried to switch the topic but was interrupted by Rob’s grunt. “Okay, I’ll tell. Long story short – we got a wind about courier with precious item. We didn’t know what it was exactly, but everything pointed to nanomachine serum. So, we boarded under disguise and fake identities, waited to leave the orbital space, and went for the target.”
“I guess it wasn’t a serum,” Robert commented with understanding.
“Obviously. It was a crazy cultist with a summoning scroll, which was instantly used right on the spot without any regard for his own life. I guess he was a suicide summoner on his way to the place, but our appearance messed up his plan… and ours too. Just bad luck,” John sighed.
“Bad luck? Damn, we’ve lost Amelia there… She was our hacker,” Clenching his fist, Rogert slowly muttered, “I will fucking murder Stanley, who sold us this info! Jackpot he said! Easy money! Bastard!”
“So, what is the plan?”
Turning around, Robert went to the remnants of his bathrobe. It was covered in the purple blood of the demon but still could work as a cover for his exposed rear part. However, the state of the cloth was too filthy, so he paused for a moment in an attempt to think of a replacement. Not that he was shy but being the only one without clothes felt weird – almost as if he was some kind of perverter.
“Catch!”
Luckily John found a simple white towel somewhere in the gym, throwing it to Rob. The piece of fabric wasn’t big, barely covering the third part of his thigh, but at least could be fixed in one place and even gave the ability to move without holding it. Nodding in gratitude, Robert examined the plasma rifle, he got from Billy. It was short-framed, bulky, with a massive barrel and with something akin to a battery instead of a magazine. The number of remaining shots, the safety button on the weapon, and an ordinary trigger – everything was quite simple and familiar. The fact wasn’t something special as with similar human body physique the basic construction of any range of weaponry had to be convenient.
“The authentication is unlocked. Unfortunately, we don’t have any spare batteries – this mission wasn’t meant for big usage, and it was already hard to get even it through the scanners,” John explained while examining the corpse of a hairless werewolf, “you have nice punch!”
“Thanks. So, again, what was your plan?”
“We had command codes for an escape pod, but the alarm messed them up. The captain of the ship had locked everything in an attempt to stop the demons. So, we had something with the same level of authority to unlock the gates. Luckily, according to records, another officer, second-in-command, went to his lover into this section and never returned. We are here to check her room,” explained Roger.
“Let’s hurry up! I am hearing Imp’s growls!”
Riley’s shouts came from the corridor. A second later both she and her bother ran inside the gym. The leader silently pointed to the lift before sprinting to it, while Robert and John stayed behind. It appeared a good idea as familiar burned monkeys were already charging. Rob barely managed to step forward and raise his rifle when what appeared to be an Imp was mere meters from him. The instinctive pull of the trigger sent a surprisingly strong flash of heat through the weapon’s frame. In the following moment, a green ball had emerged from the barrel, shooting forward right into a moving target. The red-skinned demon tried to twist itself in the air to dodge, but the plasma still got a portion of a flesh to burn.
The wild scream, filled with horrible pain, resounded through the corridor when the Imp dropped down without the part of its torso and rear limb. Raising its head upwards, it attempted to continue its whine only to meet the steel-conjured boot with its face. The cracking sound of a shattered skull had interrupted the suffering of the enemy, but the person who made it happen was already busy with shooting. Quickly aiming in a short sequence, Rob was sending new high-heated projectiles into incoming demons.
The half-second delays between shots prevented them from making a wall of fire or precisely speaking, plasma in front of him. Moreover, the Imps were fast and nimble, using the walls or even a ceiling to avoid the green flying death. Fortunately, Robert wasn’t alone. Standing shoulder to shoulder, John was killing the enemies with a surprising efficiency. Skillfully aiming at constantly moving red-skinned living targets, he was downing them with deadly precision.
The demons were losing limbs, turning their lunges into clumsy falls. The plasma tore holes in their toothy faces, momentarily making their bodies go limp. Sometimes it missed, when another Imp avoided the projectile with a hellish agility, leaving a deep burned mark on the surroundings. However, they were slowly and steadily approaching. There were more than a dozen bodies around already, which only worsened the situation, giving the demons an improvised cover. Not that they were so clever to use deliberately, but even a single accidental help meant another needed shot to finish the imp.
“They are not ending,” commented Robert, while glancing at a new indicator that showed the temperature of a weapon. The latter was obviously on the verge of overheating from intensive shootings. At least his battery was still showing over half of the charge.
“They would not – the portal wasn’t closed, not it was exhausted,” answered John without turning his head. All this time he was calmly standing in one place, showing zero anxiety or worries, “Hey, guys, what is taking so long?”
“Done!... Oh, shit!”
Riley’s immediate reply with a fast change in tone made Robert shoot a glance at others. The scenery of the opened lift doors with a werewolf lunging on Roger and pressing the man to the floor sent him into a dilemma – to help or to let them deal with a threat. He saw how the girl was already trying to aim, while Billy gripped the demon from behind in an attempt to pull it away from the leader. Gritting his teeth to suppress emotions, Rob hastily turned around only to meet three demons already flying onto him.
Luckily the first literally jumped onto his barrel, making the shot as simple as it could. John killed the second, sending a portion of plasma into the Imp’s neck. The heated substance burned the flesh in a blink, beheading the demon right into the air. Still, both parts followed their inertia, hitting Rob in a moment. The following attack of the third hellish monkey was met with the corpse and a conjured shield. Piercing everything with claws, the demon tried to rip the defensive layer apart, but Rob was already attacking. Tightening his muscles, he raised the hanging enemy upwards, before dropping it down with a strong blow. Something cracked under the steel, painting the floor purple.
“Be careful!”
The warning came in time. Dispersing the steel and dropping the rifle, Robert rolled forward, avoiding another demon. It was immediately shot by John, but that didn’t mean Rob was in safety. Losing his range weapons, he had to rely on the brute force strategy. The hammer’s swing had interrupted the incoming imp, sending it back only to meet with its ally in midair. Both disorientated demons only managed to land before dying from plasma.
“Hounds! I have an idea. Be ready,” John yelled once again, pointing with its barrel at several hairless werewolves that emerged on the other side of a corridor. Robert didn’t answer, making another swing with a hammer. The imp tried to avoid it, but the weapon just increased its length, smashing the redskin body into the nearest wall. On the other hand, the “newbie” followed with his execution of the plan, sending Rob’s dropped rifle across the floor right in the middle of the corridor with a fast kick. Taking aim, while ignoring all enemies, John made a shot.
Seeing how the plasma ball pierced through the air between two jumping imps, barely avoided the face of another, and squeezed through the tiny opening between the clawed rear legs of a Hound before finally reaching the frame of the futuristic weapon, made Robert’s eyes wide open. Then something in his mind clicked, and he hastily conjured a huge shield in front of him. The following explosion painted the world into a mixture of green and red, cutting all Rob’s swears.