I danced and weaved through the volley of plasma bolts fired at me, each one just barely missing. I aimed down the iron sights of my pistol and fired every chance I got, and every time a man or woman guarding the bridge fell to my plasma bolt. Five down. Thirty to go. Just have to keep this up, and they’ll be dead in no time.
The hallway I fought in widened from fifteen feet where I stood to thirty-five, where the guards had placed tungsten-steel barriers. I took care not to fire too often. The pistols I took from the guards had a nasty habit of overheating. I couldn’t afford to stop firing and risk getting shot or firing too much, overheating, and then getting shot.
I spun, ducking under a bolt, and fired with my left pistol at one of the guards, then jumped while still spinning and barely missed another five bolts. I heard a man curse among the guards, and I took a quick second to look at them. Twenty-nine left. Twenty panicked and overheated their weapons. Now’s my chance. I fired four quick shots with my pistols striking four of the nine guards who hadn’t overheated their weapons. Another smaller volley of bolts came at me from the remaining five guards that didn’t overheat.
Jumping lightly to the left, I fired twice before going into a roll and jumping as soon as my feet hit the floor again, going into a somersault, sticking the landing, and firing thrice more. The last five guards with no overheated weapons fell. Fifteen down. Twenty to go. I then ran and flipped off the nearest wall as I dodged the volley of bolts. I continued to dance through the hail of fire as I slowly picked the rest off one by one. Nineteen…eighteen…seventeen…sixteen…Oh shit, didn’t mean to shoot you there. I had missed my shot and accidentally shot a man in the groin. I quickly shot the man in the chest so he didn’t suffer too much.
Soon after, five guards remained. Then four…three…two…and one. The last guard pleaded for his life, but I didn’t pay attention. He might have said something about family, but I didn’t care what he may have to say with a plasma bolt in his face. With that final shot, the corridor went silent, and I looked at one massive airlock door with closed electromagnetic blast shields.
“Did you have to kill the last guy?” Yang asked cautiously.
“Yep,” I answered without hesitation while examining the door blocking my way. Then I pointed to a panel on the other side of the corridor and said, “Open that panel and wait for my signal.”
“O-okay.”
I went to the opposite side of the corridor and examined the security panel. Type six holographic forty-five-digit rolling encryption combination lock! Fuck! This will take ten minutes, maybe. Let’s see if I can do this. I began decrypting the codes.
“Uh, Violet, I think we have people incoming,” Yang said, distracting me from my hack and making me hit a firewall, forcing me to start over.
“Can’t you handle it?” I asked, struggling through the decryption.
“No. I’ve never killed anybody before.”
“Well, this is the perfect time to start. Grab a pistol or rifle, aim down the sights, and pull the trigger.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Yang said hesitantly.
“It is,” I retorted, then cursed as I hit another firewall and had to restart the hack again. I heard shots being fired behind me, and I did my best to ignore them as I restarted the decryption again. After concentrating on the lock, I finally heard the lovely sound of the blast doors opening. I smiled and saw the system commands I had access to, which opened and closed the door, turned the lights on or off, and opened or closed the door blast shields.
As my vision cleared of the lines of code, I snapped back to reality. A plasma bolt passed inches from my head, and I whirled on the guards shooting at me. Yang cowered behind a barrier and fired blindly with a pistol. Every shot of hers wasted. I snarled in frustration, made five quick shots, and killed the guards entering. Then mentally closed the airlock opposite Yang and I.
I looked down upon the cowering Yang and said with as much restraint as possible, “Did you not hear what I said? Aim down the sights and fire. Not fire blindly at the guards while cowering behind a barrier!!” My voice roared by the end, and Yang flinched hard enough to drop her pistol.
“I-I’m sorry! I-” Yang pleaded, but before she could get anything else out, I dashed forward and kneed her in the jaw, knocking her out.
“We’ll sort this out later,” I said, then turned toward the airlock door between me and the bridge. I willed the door open with a simple command script and entered, everything about me emanating calm as though I walked into a coffee shop while several dozen guns pointed at me from all sides. My calm disposition confused the soldiers and guards on the bridge just enough that they didn’t fire.
I closed and locked the door behind me and examined the bridge. The room had been made thirty feet wide and fifty feet long with ten-foot ceilings. Screens and buttons flashed from councils around the room. Near the front of the room, two crevasses filled with computers and a few men and women within used it as cover. At the far end of the room were several large viewports with polymer glass standing between them and the vacuum of space.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I then examined all the men and women in the room. Though, only one caught my eye. She stood in the middle of the room with perfect posture and caramel skin. I guessed her height to be five-foot-ten inches tall, like myself. She had a pointed chin, a lithe, muscular body, chestnut hair in a bun under a military cap, and steel-gray eyes staring daggers into my non-existent soul.
She’s not fazed by my entrance, which means nobody else is phased either. So, she’s the commander or someone of importance and high rank. I thought for a moment as I stared back at the commander. Then a moment of realization dawned on me. I’ve seen her before. I smiled and said, “Hi, you must be the commander of this vessel. Mind if I know your name?”
The woman stuck up her chin, looked down her nose at me, exuding arrogance, and said in a cold, controlled voice, “My name is Admiral Mori. And you must be our prisoner Violet V. Vermillion. I’d say it’s a pleaser meeting you, but it’s not.”
“Ha! Good one,” I laughed, “I thought I liked you. Hey, how about after I finish slaughtering all your men and women in the room, we go a few rounds in your privet courters.”
“What?” Admiral Mori asked, disgusted.
“Oh, sorry, is common vernacular too difficult for you?” I teased, “Allow me to be more verbose,” I cleared my throat and constructed the most elegant of proposals I could, “Once all your people are viciously and violently eviscerated in various volatile ways, would you like to have visceral and vociferous intercourse?”
“What!?” Admiral Mori asked again, even more disgusted as a slight blush formed on her cheeks.
“Oh, for fucks sake. Listen up, panty soaker. I got a job to do and people to kill. So, if you could roll over and fuck me raw, it would mean a lot if you could just do that. My safeword’s Zoidberg.”
Admiral Mori grew visibly angry, saying, “My orders are to take you in alive. But I’m sure they’ll settle for a corps. Fire at will!”
Before anybody could fire, all the lights went out, and the blast shields on the viewports closed, encasing everyone in total darkness. “Aww, what did Will ever do to you?” I teased, my voice echoing in the darkness. I took out my kyoketsu, and a tiny blue light lit up where I stood in the shape of a dagger with a crescent blade. It began to rock back and forth, slowly gaining speed before moving in a circle, illuminating my maddening wide smile in flashes. Then the dagger started to pick up speed until it made a high-pitched whistling sound and bathed me in blue light. “Well, what are you waiting for?” I taunted, “Fire at Violet.”
They did, and the room lit up with blue plasma. I ducked and spun, throwing the glowing dagger at the closest person. The blade passed through their neck and decapitated them in an instant. Pulling back on the weapon and grabbing high on the cord with my opposite hand, I spun the blade several times over my head, killing more people. I pulled back on the cord and spun it in a small circle before me while sending power through it, making a shield that blocked a good portion of incoming fire.
I then swiveled to the side and threw the dagger at the next unlucky people killing them. The glowing blade met flesh and tore through it hungrily. I pulled, grabbed, and swung the blade in a wide ark around me before bringing it down on another person and slicing them in two. I pulled on the cord, spun, grabbed it, and spun again in the opposite direction, grabbing the weapon and spinning it again to make a small shield.
Then I took a moment to count the people in the room. I killed ten, leaving fifteen left, not including the Admiral. I took a deep breath and let time slow down around me. Clearing my thoughts and planning my next course of action. Then I sprung into motion as I dashed to the right side of the bridge and swung my blade, rending two people in half as I sent a pulse of energy down the weapon’s length. Grabbing the base of the blade as it came back around, I threw it at the next person in line, sticking the man in the chest. I pulled him forward, wrapped the cord around his neck, using him as a meat shield, then sent another energy pulse through the cable and decapitated the man.
I then threw the dagger at the next person, hitting them between the eyes and entering their brain. I pulled back and made several quick spins with the dagger, killing the people in the control crevasse, then threw it at the next person, killing them. I jumped over the control crevasse and swung the blade at the Admiral and the last few people in the room. Admiral Mori nonchalantly ducked, making me miss but still killing the last few people above and below in the last control crevasse. Then I deactivated the blade casting Admiral Mori and myself in total darkness.
Holding back a laugh, I turned the lights on, revealing the gruesome mess around us. Admiral Mori didn’t move a muscle as she waited for my next move. I chuckled a little, “You are one cold bitch. I just slaughtered your crew, and you didn’t lift a finger to help them.”
“This coming from the person who slaughtered them.”
“True. So, what now, Admiral Mori?” We fell silent for a moment. The tension in the air felt palpable. Then we both burst out laughing, clutching our stomachs and doubling over with mirth. “You have no idea how hard it was not to laugh at that name! HAHAHAHA!!!” I said, laughing when I caught some of my breath.
“You thought it was hard! Imagine my position, being called that for two months straight!!” Admiral Mori said in a higher voice, laughing.
“Ha! Oh, god, the torture! Haha! Ah, it’s good to see you again, Haru!” I said, turning toward Haru.
Haru turned and threw off her military cap, letting down her long, wavey, chestnut hair. “Aww, no pet names? I missed those,” Haru said.
I stood straight, gently took Haru by the chin, and said, “Good to see you again, my sunray.”
Haru’s smile disappeared, “That’s a terrible pet name.”
“I know. I’m out of practice.”
“Well then, best get in practice or else no, how did you put it, visceral and vociferous intercourse,” Haru teased, then walked over to a control terminal on the left side of the room while taking off her military jacket, revealing a black tank top and bandages peeking out from underneath that around her chest.
“Aww! Fine, I’ll come up with something. But for now, we got to deal with a different problem.”
“What problem?”
“The failed apprentice outside that door,” I said, pointing at the airlock entrance.
“That sounds like a personal problem,” Haru said.
“True, but I need the right stage. Think you can help with that?”
Haru smiled over her shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, I got you, darling.”
“OH-”
“You can’t use it.”
“Fuck!”
***