Into the Frying Pan Pt.IV
Alwen had just barely turned off the last of her really important machines before the ship’s lights cut out once again. Some of her equipment was attached to the ships main power grid and just had to run through a shutdown sequence, others like the handheld MRI scanner needed to have its battery removed manually. The ship went dark, and Alwen once again found herself floating in complete darkness, her heartrate quickened as she began to fear that all their efforts had been for nothing and they were now going to slowly freeze to death without power. Then the red emergency lights flicked back on, and Alwen fell to ground on her side for the second time that day.
Gato, who had been helping her save as much life saving equipment as possible, had been by a counter and had held onto it to keep himself from floating off. He looked around slowly and blinked a few times until his eyes adjusted to the red light. Terran eyes adjusted much slower than her own, so she had been able to stand and get her bearings faster than him. They had just locked eyes and smiled at each other in relief when a horrible ripping sound screeched through the ship.
‘It’s too early for the Bosun to play his bagpipes.’ Alwen thought.
But then the ship’s PA clicked on, and she heard the last words she had ever expected to hear. “All hands, prepare to repel boarders. I repeat, all hands prepare to repel boarders.”
There was a second tearing sound and Alwen realized that it was the sound of an enemy ship cutting into the hull, not the Bosun’s morning wake up call. Without any more conscious thought Alwen reached to her side to confirm Makaze was at her side before she rushed forward to find the nearest gun locker.
A firm paw gripped her on the shoulder “What the hell do you think you’re doing” Gato growled.
“The Captain said all hands, that includes me.” She shot back as she broke free of his grip.
“You’re a doctor,” he snapped “This is where you need to be.”
She clenched her fist and glared daggers at him, “no, until we secure a safe corridor for patients to be moved through my place is out there, filling the halls with lead and steel until someone can relieve me. Isn’t that what you’ve been drilling into me for the last half year. Didn’t you tell me that standing around in the med bay means jack and shit if my patients can’t actually get to me. These people don’t care if I’m a doctor, they’ll break down my door and kill me where I stand. And if you continue to hold me back they’ll get us both”
He looked wounded, and she wanted to continue shouting when another rip broke her out of her fury. Without another word she turned and jogged to where she knew the nearest gun locker was, she punched in her specific code, opened the door, and began to slide the basic combat vest around her torso. Right now she didn’t have the time to find and put on her special combat armor, right now she had to put some basic armor on and find a point to hold. Marines would have been waiting around in full armor the moment the ship entered combat, now she just had to hold off the invaders until they could relieve her.
Once her vest was on she grabbed a grenade belt and a .50 caliber rifle and moved to the nearest choke point that had been drilled into her since her first week aboard. As soon as she had picked point to hold there was a burst of air and blur of movement as strange armored bipedal aliens began to rush into the Astaroth. Alwen had seen a lot of aliens during her time in space, but these didn’t look like anything she had seen so far. They stood a little taller than her or her Terran friends, they had a thick three fingered hands, their arms were short and stubby looking, and their legs bent backwards. They wore large bulbous helmets with dark tinted visors so she couldn’t see their faces.
One turned a little sideways and suddenly Alwen was remined of an ancient Torweni mural of the wicked ‘sea spirits’. It was in a southern temple and was built just after the monstrous sea spirit king Grehur was supposedly killed. Legend said that the holy warriors who had killed the last of the sea spirits constructed a great pyre and burned all of their corpses until nothing remained. These armored aliens bore a remarkable resemblance to the old paintings of sea spirits, before centuries of time had warped their visage into a more Torweni like shape. These invaders were Kruhur, and they were just as intimidating as legend had it.
She gulped down her fear at coming face to face with her peoples ancient enemy and she removed a grenade and tossed it down the corridor. The Kruhur had just begun taking up a position and were unready for the surprise attack, the grenade burst, and Alwen filled the smoking hall with bullets. She fired in short bursts and made sure to duck back behind cover when their own pulse rifles returned fire. The metal wall behind her began to get hot from the concentrated fire and she pulled herself away before it burned her back. She heard the heavy thuds of metal boots fall and she fell back as the Kruhur marines charged forward, she tossed her second grenade before ducking behind a ledge. The grenade went off and she heard the telltale wail of creatures in pain, she pushed her sympathy down as she popped around the edge to once again fill the hall with bullets. She saw that her grenade had dropped four Kruhur, two were very much dead and the other two were groaning in pain and were trying to crawl their way to safety.
For a second Alwen’s mind put herself in their place, it made her imagine how scared and terrified she would be in their position. She gritted her teeth and remembered what the Hellworlders had drilled into her head over the course of the last year, ‘its either you or them’. She lowered her gun and shot both retreating Kruhur in the back, putting an end to their lives before she lifted her gun back up to deal with the other Kruhur marines that were moving up. She fired to keep them pinned down and prevent them from shooting back.
Somehow through the roar of gunfire and the ringing in her ears she heard something metallic hit the ground, she turned and saw a strange fist sized object bouncing just off to her side. Her legs moved without her even thinking about it and she dove for cover just seconds before the Kruhur grenade went off. She felt a stinging pain and she cried out as shrapnel cut into her leg. She ignored the pain and pushed herself up and brought her gun forward once more, during the brief moment she wasn’t pumping bullets in their direction the Kruhur marines had moved up and were nearly on her. She pointed the rifle at the nearest Kruhur and pulled the trigger, she braced herself for recoil that never came as the gun jammed in her hands. She looked down at the weapon in her hands and felt betrayed by it, just as the Kruhur marine arrived in front of her.
~~~*~~~
The ship was sitting dead in the water, hostile forces had boarded his home, and the woman he loved had just ran into the fight headfirst. And Gato couldn’t figure out why the hell he couldn’t move his legs, couldn’t figure out why his body wouldn’t spring into action. This was everything he had spent countless hours building himself up for, hours training for this moment. And he was standing there like a coward.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
He should have returned to his station the moment the ship entered combat, he should have realized they would be vulnerable once they ejected that reactor, he should have done a thousand other things. Instead he had followed Alwen around like a lost puppy, the moment the ship first shook with enemy fire his mind had been consumed with worry, and that was the last thing he had wanted. He wanted to be the strong lone warrior, like he had been in the pit, he didn’t want anyone to hold him back from doing what had to be done when the time came. But ever since that day in Noctis when she had confessed he had been having doubts, and that was the last thing he wanted.
Doubts would hold him back, and the last time something held him back he had failed to save the person who had saved him from a life of misery. Wendy had pulled him out of the darkness, she had showed him what it meant to be a man. And then when it came time to save her life, he had failed. Failed because he was a selfish piece of shit. He could have saved her life, there was enough time to jump in front of the bullet, but he hesitated.
And now here he was standing around while Alwen faced the enemy alone. He hated himself, hated that the moment she called him on his shit his whole body froze up with fear. His mind was filled with the horrifying images of Vi dead on the ground, bleeding and broken. It hadn’t been like this before, when they went to face Kazlum she had just been another ally. He didn’t want her to die, but the knowledge that she could die in that fight hadn’t paralyzed him with fear like it was now. That was before she had opened up to him, before he realized that what he felt for her was more than just a physical attraction. And now that the ship was under attack his mind replayed that night on Isos, but instead of Wendy it was Alwen in her place, and the very thought of her getting hurt had sent his heart racing.
He was in a waking nightmare, and he couldn’t break out.
And then he began to hear explosions and gun fire, and then he heard a scream of pain. In that moment all trappings of intelligence and sapience went away, and old animalistic instincts took their place. In that moment he dropped to all fours and began to sprint forward, he was no longer Gato the man, but Gato the Jaguar. His claws dug into the hardwood floors and gouged large gashes into their surface as he pushed himself forward faster and faster.
He saw the Kruhur soldier standing over Vi, gun pointed at her, and he roared like the animal he was. He planted his paws down one more time before he leapt forward with all his strength. Distracted by his roar the Kruhur began to turn away from Vi, just as Gato opened his jaw and gripped the voidlings neck and bit down with all his strength. He had vague distant memories of his mother biting into the skulls of caiman, completely ignoring the softer flesh available and killing it with one bite to its brain. He was reminded of how he used to marvel at her strength as he bit through the tough Kevlar like material that guarded its neck. The Kruhur was knocked down from the force of his pounce and once Gato’s forepaws were on the ground he used his new position to rip the voidling’s throat out.
The exposed artery briefly pumped a stream of thick blue blood into his face before he leapt forward once again. He jumped onto the nearest Kruhur, fixed his jaws around a ledge on its helmet and jerked his head back. The latching mechanism on the helmet broke easily and the helmet flew off the Kruhur’s ugly head, but not before the force snapped its neck.
What little remained of Gato the man turned to a terrified Vi and roared “Leave!” before the beast reasserted itself and turned back to the remaining Kruhur.
They seemed to be visibly shaken by the brutality he had just displayed and were slowly backing away, like they could convince him that they weren’t a threat after they had invaded his home. Did they think he was just some stupid beast? He briefly considered standing up and drawing his sword, or maybe using his strength to grapple one Kruhur swing it into another. But swinging swords and grappling was how a human might approach this, and he was not human, he was a jaguar, and he wanted to feel their bodies shredded by his claws. Most other Felinoids trimmed their claws down to get more use out of the more simian like paws, but Gato kept his long and dealt with the decrease in dexterity.
He jumped forward and one of them tried to shoot at him, but his smaller profile on all fours allowed him to dart beneath where the Kruhur had been firing and charge right at it. He slammed it against a wall with enough force to put a dent into the steel corridor, his ears detected a rustling behind him, and he turned just in time to see the last remaining Kruhur charging at him with a set of wrist blades. He was able to turn just enough to avoid being hit in the spine, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid the blade entirely. He was stabbed in his side, but he had enough adrenaline pumping through his system to dull whatever pain he should be feeling, he gripped the forearm of the Kruhur and braced it against his other arm and broke the limb right at the joint. He heard the Kruhur’s muffled scream within its helmet as the Kruhur backed away gripping its broken arm in pain.
He was about to step forward to finish the job, but stumbled on the first step. He looked down and saw the gaping gash in his side leaking lots of dark red blood all over his sleek black fur. The room tilted a bit and he had to focus on standing still. Unable to keep moving charging recklessly like he had been he instead withdrew his sword and ran it through the Kruhur’s neck.
He heard footsteps thundering down the hall approaching their position, he turned to face the oncoming enemy, but the loss of blood was hitting him too fast and he began to feel very faint. He tried to prop himself up with his blade, but he lost his balance and fell on to his uninjured side. His vision began to go black, and he could just see the first Kruhur poke its black helmet around the corner when a lone gun shot broke its glass visor and it fell dead to the ground. He felt two hands grip him under the arms and tried to pull him away, he turned his head to see a blurry violet skinned woman.
“I said leave.” He groaned as Alwen yanked on him again.
“Not happening.” She growled under her breath as she let go with one arm to shoot the next Kruhur with her hand gun, she had to fire several times before it fell dead.
“I’m not worth it, just leave me, you’ll get hurt if you stay.”
“I said ‘not happening’.” She huffed as she reached back under his shoulder to continue pulling. “I don’t care about whatever stupid suicidal complex’s you’ve got going on, you’re life is under my care, so don’t you ever try and throw it away. You got that?!”
He wanted to respond, but the pain and blood loss was getting to him and he felt everything grow cold as his vision went black.
~~~*~~~
Alwen felt like she was dragging a living boulder, she couldn’t fully reach around his massive shoulders and remain standing so she had to grip onto one of the hard lines of his steel cord like muscles. Which was made awkward by the handgun she was holding, the same gun Gato had given her as a gift on the capital and had shot Kazlum’s brain with. She didn’t dare put it down as she heard the heavy footsteps of more Kruhur soldiers approaching, she was able to pull the 150 kg. man around a corner and hoped he wouldn’t bleed to death while she was handling the oncoming Kruhur. The stab wound looked bad, and she hoped it hadn’t hit something vital. She wanted to reach for the first aid supplies hanging off her hip and begin dressing the wound, but right now she didn’t have the time to do that safely, not with more enemies on their way. Best way to take care of her patient right now was end the fight. She blasted the next Kruhur who came around the corner, and it dropped like a sack of bricks. She took aim at the next one who wheeled around the corner and pulled the trigger, only to hear the disappointing click of an empty mag. She didn’t have a spare mag on her, so she threw the gun and darted back around the corner to draw Makaze. Pulse fire lit up the space were she had been standing, she heard the heavy fall of boots as it charged forward to reach her hiding spot. The moment she saw it peak around the corner she brought her blade down on its shoulder, the blade cut into the exposed area of its neck, but not enough to kill.
It jolted back in pain, and she used this chance to force its rifle away from her body with her hips. They struggled against each other, both trying to get the upper hand, when a small metal object landed next to them, she looked down to see a grenade had landed right next to her once more. She closed eyes in anticipation of an explosion that would send her to Reyfa, but that explosion never came. Instead white smoke burst out of it with a soft hiss, and soon the area was so obscured Alwen could only see the Kruhur in front of her. Her eyes caught a glimpse of a small red dot in her peripheral vision before a sword blade pierced through the smoke into the Kruhur’s neck, just millimeters away from Alwen’s jugular. She turned to see a maroon gloved hand gripping the handle of the blade and the enraged face of a tall Terran woman with one glowing red eye.
“Attend to Captain Gato, I will deal with the rest” Captain Astarte growled before pulling her blade out of the Kruhur’s neck.
Alwen heard other footsteps as more armored Terrans emerged from the smoke, two stooped down to help her move Gato back to the med bay. Alwen stumbled away from the now dead Kruhur and watched as Captain Astarte calmly stepped forward as more Kruhur emerged