Honored, p.8
Honored, page 8
part #9 of Arena Series
"You're going to lose, you stupid piece of shit! You don't know anything about our species--and now we know all about you! You're going to lose this war, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. My people already went back to the Vanguard and told them all about you! You're so arrogant you actually thought you could show the Vanguard your interior and get away with it! That's how stupid you are!"
Principal Racao went deadly still. He stared across the room at Richmond laughing his head off.
The scanner displayed Richmond's life signs in the background. He couldn't stop tittering at the sight. He didn't even know why.
Principal Racao didn't move for a minute. He eventually came to some decision and moved away from the wall. The control panel vanished--and all the windows opened to broadcast Richmond's presence to the Vanguard.
He only laughed louder. Of course, these creatures didn't broadcast to the Vanguard when Richmond was on the run and at large on the Marauder.
The Brath didn't want the Vanguard to know that Richmond and his friends had been shooting up the Marauder from the inside, or that Richmond had freed all his friends.
He was still laughing about it when the first blow hit him from nowhere. It hit hard and jolted him against the magnetic field.
It hurt--badly--but even the pain made him laugh louder. Once he started, he couldn't stop. The pain struck him again and again, but the longer this went on, the funnier it seemed.
The impacts of those hits built to a bone-crushing assault. He heard himself screaming in between bouts of insane laughter. The Brath would execute him. Good.
Principal Racao stood off to the side watching. He actually turned his back to Richmond and faced the windows to stare at the Chronon Vanguard.
Richmond couldn't recognize any faces in the sea of windows, but they all must be watching him. They were about to see Principal Racao use this energy field to kill Richmond.
"You idiot!" Richmond roared in hysterical fury. "You can't kill me! I'm already dead! Don't you know that?! I'm already dead! You can't kill a dead man!"
A brutal concussion hit him and knocked him out, thank the stars.
CHAPTER 13
Richmond woke up when the magnetic field released its hold on him. He slumped and actually sobbed in agony when he felt all the injuries all over his body.
Two Brath caught him when his broken body collapsed off the wall. He fell into their arms. He couldn't stand.
Every square inch of his body felt broken. Blood dripped into his eyes. At least his ordeal would be over soon.
Then he remembered. Why didn't the Brath kill him already? Why didn't they use the energy field to execute him while they had him restrained? That would have been the quickest, easiest way to do it.
The broadcast windows followed him along the walls when the Brath dragged him out of the room. They were still displaying him to the Vanguard.
Principal Racao came with him this time. Racao followed the other Brath when they dragged Richmond into the corridor.
The broadcast windows followed him even here. The Brath must be taking him somewhere else for execution. Was it possible the energy field couldn't hit him hard enough to kill him?
He glanced around. What if...?
He barely thought that when one of the side chambers opened nearby. Four Brath had to stop on the threshold and wait for their crewmates to haul Richmond out of the way.
In that split second, he caught a glimpse of a number of other Brath working on controls inside that room. They didn't appear to be doing anything Richmond hadn't seen a million times before.
He also saw some Brath bending over workbenches and tinkering with his laser rifles. They were studying the weapons.
How curious. The Brath had never thought to search those captured Lilri fighters for weapons. They didn't realize until now that Lilri weaponry could damage their energy field. A smart race would have studied those captured ships in more detail before now. The Brath were slow on the uptake.
The sight of the laser rifles snapped Richmond back to his senses in a split second. He would never get another chance like this.
He dove sideways to tackle his escorts. His pain evaporated in a cloud of adrenaline. He knew exactly what he had to do.
He grabbed the Brath standing on his left--the side closest to the open chamber entrance. Time slowed to a snail's pace. Richmond positioned him sideways from the Brath, and just in time.
The creature's disc erupted when the Brath tried to shoot him, but Richmond held onto the creature's side where the disc couldn't hit him.
He threw all his weight against this one individual. Richmond rode the creature to the ground and swept the disc's energy blast toward the open chamber.
All the Brath ducked to avoid the shot. The ones who had been waiting to leave the room wound up huddling closer to the floor. Their presence kept the entrance open.
None of that mattered. Richmond knew where his laser rifles were. He could see them with his own eyes. His fingers itched to hold them again. He didn't care if the Brath broke every bone in his body.
He threw his captured guard away, rolled into the chamber, and dove behind the workers when his escort opened fire on him.
He charged across the room and all those shots hit the workers. The Brath who had been working on the rifles backed away as the disc shots got closer. The workers left the rifles unguarded.
The Brath in the corridor saw exactly what he was trying to do. One of them rotated the disc toward the laser rifles.
Richmond barely got his hands on one of them before the workbench underneath it exploded in his face.
The concussion hurled him away and smashed him into the sidewall. He heard the Brath around him squealing in high-pitched distressed tones.
He didn't give a shit about any of that. He was the only human being on this Marauder.
He didn't even bother to aim before he opened fire. He swept his laser back and forth across the room in random directions while he blinked the confusion out of his brain.
He stumbled to his feet. His body wasn't in the greatest shape. His own madness kept him running on fumes, but he wouldn't last long.
His laser deflected off the pipe walls, searing them open, and the energy exploded when the laser hit them.
He smashed up the entrance. The Brath who had been escorting him cowered out there waiting for an opportunity to shoot back at him.
He took a second to clear his head. He couldn't get out that way.
His wild shooting cut down all the Brath in the room. Dismembered bodies lay all over the floor, but he didn't care about that, either.
His fogged brain actually considered killing everyone on board, taking control of this Marauder, and flying it back to the Vanguard line. The experts could go over this ship at their leisure and find out how the Brath did everything.
Richmond didn't have time for that. He had to get himself off this ship--and he could only think of one vessel powerful enough to do that.
He still couldn't get out of this room--not with all the Brath standing guard out in the corridor.
He fell back on his old strategy and defended himself on his way to the far side wall. He picked up his second laser rifle off the floor on his way there and used it to bore a hole into the adjacent room.
He dove into it and heard the Brath advancing into the control room the minute he stopped shooting. He had to work fast.
The second room was empty. No one was in here. He considered using the controls to see where all the other Brath were stationed outside. Then he remembered that he didn't have a disc harness anymore. The Brath could recapture him any time they wanted.
He shot three more times into three more rooms before he turned to the corridor. He blundered into a second control room and had to drop all the Brath there, too.
He no longer cared how many of them he killed. He would annihilate anyone who got in his way.
He took a disc harness from one of the workers, put it on, and used it to exit the room into the corridor.
He emerged twenty yards away from the room where he'd reclaimed his rifles. A group of Brath stood around the entrance. Principal Racao was still with them.
Principal Racao distinguished himself from the others by talking to them in those high-pitched squeals. That must be their language.
The instant Richmond laid eyes on the bastard, he knew he couldn't walk away until he got payback--for all his friends.
Zuna might not even have survived to make it back to the Vanguard. Hayes might be dead, too. They all could be.
Richmond raised his rifle. None of the Brath saw him. He could have shot them all from behind and maybe he should have.
He didn't need to, because he had all the power here. He turned toward them and stalked up behind them.
They were all so busy listening to Principal Racao that they didn't see Richmond until he got right up behind them.
A few of them glanced over at him. It took them too long to accept that he wasn't in the control room anymore.
They started to turn in his direction, and he reacted on pure instinct, but he didn't swipe his lasers back and forth.
He targeted each Brath one after the other. He dropped them right there at his feet and left Principal Racao standing.
Principal Racao stared at him. The creature still stood sideways, facing where his people had just been standing.
Richmond knew enough about the Brath by now. They had to face their target to shoot their disc weapons. Richmond was perfectly safe from Principal Racao as long as the alien faced slightly to the side.
A million thoughts raced through Richmond's mind of all the grisly, sadistic things he could do to this alien.
Richmond could cut Principal Racao to pieces with his laser. He could leave this alien bleeding and writhing on the ground exactly the way Racao had left Richmond and his friends.
Racao squealed a few times. He was trying to talk to Richmond, but Racao didn't have the walls to talk for him here.
Was that the reason the Brath always took Richmond and his friends to that room--so Racao could communicate with them?
Richmond didn't want to hear anything this creature said--nor did he want to give Principal Racao a chance to shoot his disc weapon at him.
He fired his rifle. He didn't really aim that time, either. He wound up shooting through the creature's shoulder.
Principal Racao whipped back and staggered into the pipe wall behind him. He swiveled in Richmond's direction, and Principal Racao's disc weapon went off. The blast almost clipped Richmond, and he reacted by firing back.
This shot hit Principal Racao in the abdomen, punched through, and hit the pipes behind him.
The energy converged from both sides and slammed into Principal Racao's body. That shot through Racao's abdomen seemed to drive the energy field crazy. Surges rushed through the pipes from all directions. They slammed into his body again and again.
He struggled and tried to tear himself away, but the energy field held him.
Richmond stood frozen in time, watching this alien thrash in his death throes--or was the energy field as incapable of killing him here as the energy field had been incapable of killing Richmond?
Richmond couldn't bring himself to shoot Racao--not like this. His morbid fascination for this special brand of justice got the better of him.
He should have run for it while he had the chance, but he just had to see this. The energy field raced down the pipes as fast as it did when the Brath traveled from place to place on the Marauder.
One thump after another hit Principal Racao as the energy converged. Each concussion jolted him and made him squeal in agony. Blackish blood poured from the alien's mouth and even leaked from his eyes.
Richmond started to lower his weapon. He couldn't kill this creature, much as he would have liked to. All the hatred in the world couldn't make him attack.
Another hellish surge of energy came together behind Principal Racao's back. The surge hit him full force and knocked him loose from the magnetic restraint.
His body collapsed on the floor at Richmond's feet. Racao rolled over and sprawled there where Richmond had no choice but to see him.
Blood trickled sideways across the alien's face. Parts of the creature's body weren't the right shape anymore.
Principal Racao made another squealing noise. This sounded like pleading.
That sound kept going. Racao didn't stop. Was he begging for his life--or for Richmond to put him out of his misery?
The sound set Richmond's hair on end. He couldn't leave any living creature like this. He raised his rifle to shoot the alien in the head, but Principal Racao collapsed first. His head lolled to the side and his limbs went limp. He flopped on the floor and lay still.
Richmond stared down at the body. What an anti-climax. He should have killed this asshole--but then again, Richmond had killed him.
CHAPTER 14
That moment of quiet after Richmond shot Principal Racao--the silence sank deeper into his bones.
The silence made him acutely aware of his own injuries. Adrenaline had masked the pain until now. He was hurt much worse than he realized. He didn't trust himself to continue with this mission until he got some medical treatment.
He didn't know where else to go, so he decided to backtrack to the confinement chamber where the Brath had held him and his friends as prisoners. He didn't know if the chamber would still work, but he had to try it.
He stopped there and removed Principal Racao's disc harness first. Richmond didn't plan to stick around long enough to find out, but he felt certain that Racao had the most unrestricted access to every part of the ship.
He didn't know why he thought that killing Racao would somehow stop all the other Brath from coming after Richmond. Of course it hadn't..
He made it a dozen yards up the corridor before another transport window materialized right behind him. The Brath could create these windows anywhere for their own convenience.
A dozen Brath exited the window and immediately opened fire on Richmond while he was still running away.
His injuries were catching up with him, now that he had become aware of them. He staggered sideways, trying to run in a straight line.
That moment when he lost his balance saved his life. The first barrage from the Brath's disc weapons hit the pipes right next to his head. The energy exploded out of them and sent him toppling into the opposite wall. Blasts and explosions followed him every step of the way.
He fired blindly behind him and blundered on. He didn't know anymore if he was heading in the right direction to get back to the confinement chamber.
He wouldn't be able to go in there--not with a bunch of Brath on his tail. He couldn't let himself get trapped in another enclosed space.
He took a split second to aim his laser at the corridor wall, fired, and pitched off his feet into another control room. He must have bored through the wall right next to where the opening should have been.
All the Brath workers spun around when he somersaulted across the floor. He didn't have time to right himself or even get to his feet before all the Brath stormed in through the real opening to take him down.
They tried to shoot at him, and hit their own equipment instead. The workers dove out of the way squealing in fright--or maybe they were squealing in fury because their own crewmates were shooting at them.
The energy inside the control panels exploded in the same way. The erupting energy combustions put the workers in just as much danger as the Brath themselves.
Richmond tried to stand up, buckled at the knees, and fired his laser in all directions. He felt himself starting to slip into a fogged state where he wasn't totally one-hundred-percent conscious of where he was or what he was shooting at.
He didn't really care what he was shooting at. His life was already forfeit. Anything and everyone left on board this Marauder was his enemy. What the hell did he care if he destroyed any of it?
He tried to swipe his laser at the Brath, the workers, the controls, the walls--anything. He wound up sprawled on the floor with the Brath coming toward him to mow him down. He couldn't stay here.
The Brath still had no way to counteract his laser. He had all the advantage of firepower.
He forced himself to concentrate on the Brath alone, passed his laser across their ranks, and bought himself a few precious seconds while Brath in the rear advanced to take their dead comrades' places.
He didn't bother to try to stand up. He wasn't even sure anymore if he could stand. He kicked out against the floor, slid himself behind another workbench, and fired his laser into the floor.
The heat burned him through his clothes--and then the floor collapsed.
He plummeted--and realized too late that he was falling straight toward the drive reactor. How did he get here? He'd been nowhere near it.
He couldn't orient himself, but the gods of hopeless causes saved his ass again. He slammed down on a massive tangle of corridor pipes forming a net over the drive reactor.
He almost wished he really did plunge into it and get burned alive. Instead, he smashed down onto the pipes and groaned in agony when he felt bones break.
Richmond tried to roll onto his side, but everything hurt. Moving hurt. Holding his weapons hurt. Breathing hurt. Forget about running--but he had to run.
Rolling over like that made him lose his balance again. He rolled too far and fell off the tube. He slammed down on a hard metal floor and actually screamed in pain. At least he was alone. No one could see him at his lowest point.
Thank the stars the Brath weren't broadcasting this to the Chronon Vanguard. Richmond couldn't have tolerated that.
No one saw him. No one knew. He was alone. He was already dead.
He rotated onto his knees, but he didn't dare to try to stand any more upright than that. He crouched there, hugging his arms over his broken body. He barely kept a hold on his rifles. He couldn't let go of those for anything.
His gaze darted around what looked like another hold. He was definitely in the drive reactor chamber--which meant he wasn't far away from both the trash hold and the warship. He just had to get there.
