By David C. Daoust
Major stood gripping his assault rifle, back to the wall, as the bullet fire ricocheted from the far wall in front of him. The small group of invading ‘Seaguard agents’ had managed to make it back down to where they had locked up the strange man that had accompanied the Armored Personal Carrier. An APC that had, unwittingly, allowed the small team to enter the secured Barracks ship of the Red Faction, they strategically ‘followed behind’ the beat up vehicle as it entered the open gates.
Unfortunately, after that point, all had NOT gone according to plan. They failed to stop the plan to fire the ion cloud, dismantling the nanites throughout the entire moon of Twin Crown. Despite it all, things seemed somewhat salvageable. All the way up until the good Dr. Sun, which Major was ordered to safely deliver to the Otomo Corp cruiser’s lab, insisted that they ‘reacquire’ the stranger.
Major was not in a position to countermand the woman’s wishes. Not with all the failures that he had accrued throughout the few days he had met the small woman. She was, after all, a high ranking employee of Otomo Corp (even if she wasn’t of the Seaguard). And also, Suzanne’s ‘sister’. All of which made Sims weary of upsetting anyone; the mistreated soldier was on thin ice as it was.
Now, they found themselves pinned on the far side of the small brig. The Red Faction soldier’s having taken the elevator down on the opposite side of the small hall of holding cells.
Major rolled his eyes as the small burst of bullets, which followed his peek around the corner, forced him back to cover. He shared a look with the soldiers around him, signaled that there were two on the right, one on the left. One was clearly a Medic; the small carbine in the medic’s hand though, was far more than adequate, in their cramped, narrow, position.
He spotted the small Doctor with the strange hand gun in her hand. It was an unusually designed gun, had a strange ‘arm’ sticking off its grip. The Good Doctor looked somewhat serious, and somewhat scared at the same time. Suddenly, the gun snapped to life, the strange arm that stuck out to one side, suddenly slipped up her sleeve, and secured itself to her forearm. The gun then retreated up her sleeve.
“Wow,” the small doctor said in reaction to the sudden movement of the inanimate object. “What the heck was that?”
Sims recognized it as a coded weapon, such a device is coded to the owner’s DNA, which basically meant it had a mind of its own, though only in the right company. It must have been stripped of its programing though, probably a black market version. Sims had noticed when she’d grabbed the weapon from the pile of clothes, had also witnessed the dark haired stranger’s sudden collapse into nothing, he’d, as of yet, not been able to acquire further details.
“You know how to use that thing?” Sims asked in hushed tones, the plan to ambush them unawares, formulating in his mind.
“Um…” Dakota answered quietly, as though the idea was ludicrous, “You know I’m a Doctor, right? I took an Oath. ‘Cause no harm’ ring a bell?”
“Well, what did you bring a weapon for then?” Sims asked as he dumped the plan.
He spotted the small girl standing behind Mari as even more soldiers could be heard arriving within neighboring corridors. He knew they had to move. And he knew she was a bot. Snatching the assault rifle that the older woman, Mari, had yanked from the small girl’s hand earlier. He tossed it back to the small bot.
“Hear that?” Sims signaled to the small group of soldiers that could be heard charging through the barracks-ship, then continued as briefly as possible, “We need to move! Hologram’s won’t work on these guys. Think the guys down the hall will fire at a little girl?”
“That’s a terrible idea!” Mari suddenly announced, a bit louder than she’d intended.
“She’s not a real little girl,” Sims shot back.
“She’s not even a SHE,” Mari insisted, “She’s a HE, and HE is a member of my family…”
“Don’t worry, Mari,” the rough, gravelly, voice of Vincent came out of the small girl’s mouth, “This isn’t a normal body. I’m pretty sure, even if they do fire… I’ll be just fine.”
“That’s insane!” Mari responded.
It was too late.
Sims grabbed the small girl-bot by her hair, and practically hurled her around the corner, gun in hand. He waited a tick, the bullet fire did not follow, though neither did Vincent’s gun fire. Sims could see that the bot was trying to fire; its finger couldn’t pull the trigger. The bot was too weak!
Sims rolled his eyes again, this time, when he went around the corner, he fired quickly and efficiently, he took advantage of the confusion of the small girl being within the line of fire. The bullets struck true, dropping all three, in three precise shots, though the high-tech weapon would just knock them unconscious, leaving a trail of dead would be way too hard to cover up, even for the Seaguard.
They rushed down, the now empty, corridor. Sims popped the cell, as the rest of his team secured the elevator for their escape.
Hopefully, before the approaching soldiers could pin them in the cell.
The two unarmed red soldiers stood off to either side as Sims entered. Sims was ready for their ambush though, because he was the one who put them there. The soldier slammed his rifle’s end hard into ones face, and dropped the next with another shot into the man’s chest.
The last man in the cell, sat calmly, on one of the other benches, clearly uninterested in fighting off the soldier, which was good, because he was the one they had come to collect. Knocking him out would have complicated matters.
The good doctor suddenly rounded the corner, entering the cell behind Major Sims.
“Aren’t you a little ‘under-dressed’ to be a Red Soldier?” the stranger said, though was clearly comparing her to the red soldiers that had accompanied the well dressed woman into the cell.
“What?” Dakota asked, then shook her head briefly, “We’re here to rescue you!”
