The scene around the breach was chaotic.
The hole offered the most obvious point of ingress for our attackers, but there was also a standard entrance on the opposite side of the passenger cabin that was used to exit the ship. Luckily, in the ship’s current unpowered state, that door was as sealed shut as the interior doors.
From my vantage point opposite the breach, I heard the Merdudes start pounding on the doors with something metal, presumably trying to break them open.
Three attackers rushed the breach opening, meeting resistance from Cash and Dick, who engaged them in hand-to-trident combat.
Meanwhile, Ryuuk and I tried to keep more from rushing into the breach and overwhelming them, firing shots past the fighters to strike anyone attempting to come through the gaping hole in the side of the ship. After a few well-placed shots to the head by Ryuuk, the Merdudes seemed deterred from rushing the breach. I could hear scrambling all over the hull as they swarmed the transport looking for alternative ways inside.
My angle had me shooting past Cash’s fight with two of the Merdudes. Although both enemies brandished weapons, one a trident and the other a shell club, Cash chose to fight them with his bare hands, blocking attacks and pummeling his fists into his opponents without flinching.
Cash and his two opponents faced off in the breach gap, effectively acting like a road block to anyone else trying to enter or exit the hole. In comparison, Dick’s fight with the third Merdude ran the entire length of the passenger cabin. His tactic seemed to hinge on evading the larger, more-skillful fighter, using the small confines and scant windows of opportunity to throw swift kicks at the enemy’s groin and other vulnerable areas. He was leaping over lounge chairs and throwing large panels of debris at the Merdude to keep him off balance. I wasn’t sure exactly how he planned to win that fight, but it was entertaining to watch.
Growing exponentially more frustrated as the fight went on, the Merdude finally managed to grab Dick by the leg as he went for a kick. He flung Dick across the cabin and over the bar, knocking bottles of booze off the wall to shatter all around him.
“Not the booze,” Dick groaned as he struggled to his feet. “Now, you’ve gone and pissed me off.”
Dick knocked the shards of glass off his jacket as he stood, looking up just in time to see a trident flying at his head. He dodged it, barely. The trident flew by him, ripping through his leather jacket and tearing a gash in his arm before burying itself in the wall behind him.
“That went a lot smoother in my head,” he groaned.
Caught off guard, Dick would have definitely taken the Merdude’s fist square on the jaw. Except, the blue fishman’s arm froze in midair, after which he immediately dropped to the ground, lifeless.
Vomero stood behind him, casually wiping blue-green blood off four spikes protruding from his fist.
“You’re welcome, dickhead” he said to the other man who was still poised as if waiting for a blow to fall.
“It’s just Dick,” he replied, then bent down to peer at the dead Merdude. “What the hell did you do to him?”
Light-blue foam gurgled from his mouth and blood seeped from the corners of his eyes.
“Neurotoxin.”
Dick touched the blue-green blood, rubbing it between his fingers to examine it before he replied.
“Very effective.”
Another Merdude’s body came sailing past all of them to crash into the wall. The Merdude’s body slid down the wall to the floor, where he stayed permanently. Vomero and Dick looked at each other, then at the breach where Cash had tossed the body from.
“Also very effective,” Dick said.
Looking back toward the breach, I saw Cash picking up the last Merdude by his trident. The metal weapon had somehow become completely wrapped around the fishman’s neck. Cash flung the guy out of the breach, where he landed in the water and floated belly up like a dead fish.
“Come on fish-fucks! Is that all you’ve got!?” Cash roared at the enemies who swarmed outside at a safer distance.
“Dude really needs to cool it on the steroids,” I commented, drawing nods from Vomero and Dick.
“That’s right! You’re scared to come in here, now, huh?” Cash continued.
“Ummmm...I can’t believe I’m even saying this,” I said to Cash, “but I think they’re actually trying to avoid the bird guy who’s sniped four of them in the head through the breach.”
For once, Ryuuk was all business with his long-range sniper rifle propped on an overturned lounge chair for support. He tipped his hat in acknowledgement as he continued to stare stoically down the barrel and fired off a few more shots. More Merdudes dropped dead as he did. The rest began retreating below the water to avoid his shots.
“Eh, whatever,” Cash said, a little deflated.
The pounding on the transport door stopped. Their attackers apparently realized the door was too fortified to be pried open with metal sticks and clubs. Unlike the interior doors, the exterior hatch was made to withstand the pressure of space travel.
“Do you think they’ve given up?” Dick asked hopefully.
“Not likely,” said Ryuuk. “I can still see their shadows swarming ‘neath the water.”
“They’ll be back once they figure out a Plan B,” I guessed. “In the meantime, we need to figure out our own plan.”
“I’ve got an idea,” said Vomero. “But I’m going to need that huge laser rifle on Beefy Boy’s back.”
“I have a name, you know,” said Cash. “And also, hell no! Nobody touches, Carla.”
“Ugh, gross, he named it,” Dick commented.
“Oh, you’re telling me you don’t name your weapons,” I said, skeptically.
“People usually like to come up with their own name for my weapon,” he answered, suggestively. He coupled his comment with a wink and sexy half-grin.
I rolled my eyes in disgust. Though, I had to admit my distaste was equally directed at myself as I suppressed a tiny shiver of arousal. I held my breath, thinking that cutting off my airways to the pheromones would help. It did not.
“Look,” Vomero argued with Cash. “Do you want to slowly drown as those fish guys swarm in through the hole and rip us apart?”
“What do you need it for?” Cash responded. The idea of drowning had apparently backed him down from a hard “no.”
“I might be able to absorb the energy from your rifle’s power core enough to jump start the transport.”
“Why does it have to be mine? Other people have energy-based weapons.”
“Because yours is a very high-powered weapon,” Vomero explained.
“That’s what she said,” Dick whispered in my ear.
I jumped, startled both because I hadn’t heard him move and because he was standing way too close for my libido to handle.
“Really? I figured it was Eww, gross, what is that?” I had decided the best defense was offense. That and distance, lots of distance, I thought, trying to push myself away from where I was leaning on the wall.
“Easy,” he said, steadying me as I swayed. “I just wanted to check on that head wound.”
“Oh so, you’re a doctor, now?” I asked sarcastically.
“I can be a lot of things. Roleplay is kind of my thing.”
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“Do you ever stop?” I asked in exasperation.
“I get that question a lot.”
Literally everything out of his mouth sounded like an invitation to sex. I sighed.
“I’m really starting not to care if we drown.”
Refusing any more help from Dick on principle, I rummaged around in a storage compartment behind the bar, eventually locating a med kit. It had seen better days, but then so had I.
The only thing I actually was interested in from the kit was the stim shot. Stim shots were like a synthetic adrenaline laced with a healthy dose of healing compound. It wouldn’t be a permanent quick fix like Minerva’s abilities. But it would take the fuzziness out of my head and speed the recovery process significantly. I didn’t want to get into another fight feeling next to useless.
I had just applied the stim when the Merdudes made their next move. The sound of webbed feet swarming all over the top of the ship was almost deafening, and the ship groaned as it leaned slightly more toward the front.
Next, an incessant pounding joined the roaring cacophony, but this was emanating from the bottom of the transport.
“They’re targeting the holes on the bottom,” Vomero yelled over the noise. He was still hooked to the status update system via his technomancer abilities.
“Damn,” I said. “Looks like Plan B is to sink the damn thing. How long do you think we have before the water starts to pour in that breach?”
“Not long,” yelled Dick. “We’ve got to get this done, now!”
After convincing Cash that he could fix Carla in the event that they survived, Vomero went to work in the now half-submerged control room while Ryuuk and Cash guarded the breach.
After prepping the few remaining passengers for the looming fight, I joined Vomero and Dick in the control room. They seemed to be arguing over what to do with the little power they might get from Vomero’s trick.
“We need everything on the flight system,” Dick insisted.
“There's no way it’ll lift us out of the water when we’re partially flooded,” Vomero challenged.
“Then we’ll just pilot it like a boat and outrun them on the water.”
“Temporarily, maybe. We don’t know how fast they can swim or even how long we’d be able to keep the ship moving.”
“What good will the support systems do?! This thing doesn’t have any weapons!”
“But it does have a shield!”
“Shields only protect us until the power runs out and then we are right back where we started.”
“The shield will keep the water out so they don’t sink us!”
“Temporarily!”
“We can also pump out water, and then maybe we will have enough juice to move the damn ship!”
“Guys! Seriously,” I finally interceded. “We're all going to drown while you stand here and argue like idiots. Let’s just see how much it gives us before we lose our minds.”
“Fine!” they both practically shouted in unison.
“Just hurry,” I urged. “We don’t have long before the water reaches the breach. That’s game over.”
Vomero slung the rifle over his back and waded through the water to the control dais.
“You’ll want to stand back, out of the water,” he said.
Dick and I moved back to the corridor leading to the passenger cabin. It was the closest we could get without being in the water. I could see Vomero in the control room from where I was.
Vomero placed his hands together as if holding something invisible between his palms. Slowly, the rifle began to glow and the air crackled as electrical tendrils seemed to snake its way from the rifle on Vomero’s back and down his arms to gather in the air between his palms. When the rifle finally went dark, seemingly drained of power, Vomero brought his palms together and the energy from the ball seemed to coat his arms like long gloves. Then he placed his palms on the dais. The energy pulsed through the console, some of it sparking over the surface of the water and along the walls. I snatched my hands away from the metal bulkhead I was holding, feeling an electric zap in my palm. Vomero, despite being in the middle of the electrified water, looked unfazed.
The console in the front blinked on, pulling up the view screen. The sensors had been damaged and the image of the Merdudes clinging to the side of the ship was pixilated. Lights inside the ship blinked on and doors popped open that had been previously shut. Unfortunately, Dick and Vomero’s bickering over what to do with their stolen power supply was pointless.
“Fuck!” spat Vomero.
“That doesn’t sound good,” I called.
“We don’t have enough to fly, pump or shield,” he called back.
“What can we do?” Dick said.
“Basically, what you see. Viewscreen, system updates, lights, open doors...”
Vomero’s voice faded off as one of the system update screens popped onto the view panel. Even from my vantage point, I could see what it was telling us. The ship had detected a crash and the possibility of sinking. As such, it was activating emergency evacuation protocol.
“What does that mean?” Dick asked. “What is the evacuation protocol?”
“It means all of the exterior hatches are opening.”
Without another word, Dick and I bolted down the corridor toward the passenger cabin. We arrived just in time to see the main hatch swish open.
* * *
Merdudes poured into the cabin from multiple sides.
I didn’t bother to slow my pace as I charged toward the first enemy in front of me, summoning my weapons in mid-stride.
With a single thought, two matching tattoos on my body lit up; both looked like a series of five stars connected with a jagged line running the length of each inner forearm. As the light from the tattoos faded, a glowing dagger made of shimmering light manifested in each hand.
Spinning the daggers in my palms so that they pointed backwards, I brought my arms up in front of me and went to work. The first blow caught the Merdude low in the hamstring as I slid under the swing of his club. Pivoting back towards him from behind, my second blade sank cleanly into the side of his neck to finish the job.
Turning, the next attacker jabbed a trident toward my chest. I swiveled cleanly to the side, deftly avoiding the thrust and used his own momentum to run my left blade up his arm and across his throat.
In the back of my mind, I could hear the clash of battle as the other travelers engaged the invading hoard of Merdudes. Revolver blasts reverberated through the small space, bodies were thrown against each other, and screams chased the sound of limbs being torn apart. But my focus remained laser sharp on the opponents in front of me.
I took a sweeping blow to the legs from the next attacker. It knocked me off my feet and to my back. My daggers crossed quickly in front of my face, deflecting the downward plunge of his trident. I dispersed my daggers in an instant. This left my free hands to grasp the base of the weapon.
I used the trident as leverage to swing my body around it like a pole. My feet connected with his shins, throwing the large Merdude’s body off balance and to the ground. As he hit the hard metal, his arms stretched out toward me holding the trident. I plunged my now re-summoned dagger into the soft spot between his armpit and ribcage. His body thrashed for a second before falling limp.
Jumping to my feet, a nearby fishman moved to ambush me. But before he could reach me, two other Merdudes locked in combat with each other crashed into my would-be attacker, knocking him out cold. I didn’t have time to wonder why Merdudes were fighting each other. The blast of Ryuuk’s revolver peppered the group of tussling fishmen, allowing me to turn and face an opponent pressuring my back.
This Merdude was larger than most, but slow. He swung, and I ducked. He charged, and I dodged, slicing him with my blades each time his body passed by me. After a moment, we were both splattered with his blood. As his movements became clumsier from exhaustion and pain, I found an opening to slice cleanly through his right bicep, effectively rendering him helpless to continue the fight. He found no mercy, however, as my dagger pierced the underside of his chin, skewering his skull.
Despite our success taking out the enemy, I could tell we would eventually lose this battle to numbers. I took a moment after my fight with the big brute to survey the scene. Ryuuk crouched in a corner behind Cash, using him as cover to fire shots at more of the Merdudes. Cash was having moderate success brawling against the fishmen, but the increasing amount of opponents he was facing at one time was starting to overwhelm him. I couldn’t see Dick anywhere in the chaos, but even Vomero had joined the fight, zapping and stabbing what enemies he could reach.
“This seems like more than a couple dozen,” I shouted to him, as I fought the next approaching Merdude. “They just keep coming!”
“Sensors indicate reinforcements arrived,” Vomero yelled back, stabbing another stunned enemy in the neck with his poison claw. “There’s so many of them they’re even fighting each other.”
“I noticed that,” I said, but my attention was momentarily occupied as I fought and dispatched two smaller opponents at once. As the second one fell dead to the ground, I turned to Vomero.
“Desperate times, then,” I said to him.
“Desperate measures?” his tone inquired. I nodded.
We both knew we were dead if the fight continued in its current state.
“I need a second. Can you cover?”
The look on his face meant he understood whatever I was about to do would be the last thing I could do. Vomero nodded and sent another zap of electricity arcing through the metal floor toward a Merdude approaching our position.
I closed my eyes...
Silently, I forced the chaos of the battle around me out of my mind. Constellation tattoos nearly invisible under normal circumstances lit up across my forehead, cascading around my eyes and down the bridge of my nose like a mask of glowing stars.
Pausing, I let the power of my deity gather inside of me. Then I opened my white-glowing eyes and chanted a Zodian benediction, my voice resonating with power.
“Celestial Archer, I call upon your strength. Lend me your aid, Sagittarius!”
Pandemonium ensued as the shriek of what sounded like falling missiles exploded all around the transport. Screams emanated from the Merdudes outside, causing their comrades inside the transport to falter, unsure of what was happening.
As I channeled the power of my strongest Zodian ability, it was as if I was outside my body and could see the streaks of light plummeting like falling stars. The attacks honed in on anyone I considered an enemy at the time, crashing into them with explosive force and obliterating them completely.
I knew what came next, however. The vast power of the cosmos channeling through my body would drain my stamina instantly once the attack was spent. I also knew the attacks wouldn’t reach my enemies inside the transport. The ship itself would ironically obstruct the path of the attack and take the blows instead.
The transport shuddered as the percussive attacks pounded into the hull.
“My turn, then,” I heard Vomero whisper as he caught me mid fall. He placed me on a nearby bench along the wall. One of the few wooden ones, I noted as my consciousness began fading.
The last thing my mind registered before blacking out was the deafening hum of energy and the metallic, battery-like taste in my mouth as electricity sizzled through the air.