“Now if our communicators worked in here.”
The Tibbar snorts and charges at the pair. Hauser opens fire, not at the creature but at the chandelier suspended from the ceiling. The beautiful crystals transform into impaling spikes crashing down onto the Tibbar. The makeshift projectile daggers shear flesh. None of the fragments do any major damage due to the thickness of the creature’s hide, but they do open the skin.
Hauser fires.
The beam cooks the now-exposed muscle tissue, sending the lizard limping for cover.
“Bet you’ve never seen a Tibbar retreat before,” Hauser jeers.
The crashing chandelier sends more than the Tibbar scrounging for cover. All energy weapons have ceased discharging. Reynard uses that second to scan the casino.
Humanoids attempt to gather the loose credit chits distributed across the floor from the decimated gambling machines. The Braeco’n, now weakened in numbers, have taken a position allowing them to fire on anyone moving toward the exit. The Halcary had the same idea, only on the opposite side of the entrance. The wounded Tibbar maneuvers itself behind some machines.
Raptor lizards travel in packs of three or five. Reynard’s unable to locate any more of the Tibbar.
Doug assumes a position between the Tibbar and the Halcary. When his eyes meet Reynard’s, he taps his watch.
Reynard missed the chirp of his communicator during the exploding plasma bolts. He activates it.
Doug’s whispers crackle through, “The Halcary cut through the casino’s communication jammers.”
Useful, Reynard notes, but none of his crew members have their equipment. Somehow they must commandeer a weapon from the Braeco’n or the Halcary. A retreat deeper into the casino could allow him to ambush one of them.
“Not to smerth’n rush you along, but Ki-Ton has taken the princess.”
His numerous questions don’t outweigh getting out the front door.
“We’ve no weapons.” Reynard focuses on the current pressing issue. “Hauser, cover me.”
Without explanation Reynard bolts for the corridor leading to the Dracon’s Arena.
Halcary fire.
Hauser picks off a Braeco’n warrior who took too long to aim. Both groups of warriors leave the gambling machines around Hauser a smoldering slagheap, allowing Reynard to escape.
Aurulent attendants and the knightly armored guards block him from reaching deeper into the casino.
JarBok waves him back, “They hunt you. We won’t allow you to bring further destruction. Go back and we won’t turn you over.”
Not directly, but going back means capture or death, “Not without a blaster.”
JarBok snaps a finger and a knightly guard hands Reynard a pole arm weapon.
“How do I get to my weapons?” he demands.
“Only Aurulent genetics are allowed to enter the weapons cage.”
Getting past the Halcary’s complicated without having to protect one of these slave girls.
The hum of the e-clips curdles his blood. Reynard dives to the ground, covering one of the Aurulent slaves with his body. Intense plasma bolts incinerate parts of JarBok and his contingent. Armored knights burst from hidden wall panels in defense of the complex but are met with firepower shredding their durasteel decorations.
Two Halcary left standing in the corridor drop their drained energy clips and jam in freshly charged ones. Reynard rolls off the female in time to witness Joe slice his blade through the only weak point in the Halcary armor. The neck joint comprised of a microfilament fiber lacks the hard armor carapace of the rest of the suit. Nearly impossible to target and hit with energy weapons, the blade of a Calthos warrior slides easily through the neck junction.
Before the first Halcary falls, Joe severs the windpipe of the second.
“Three Halcary, six Braeco’n remain.”
Reynard flips to his feet from his back. He keeps the Aurulent from running away, flinging her toward Mark and Leahla. “Hold her. We need her to retrieve our weapons.” He trades the polearms for the Halcary rifle activating the e-clip.
Scott secures a Halcary rifle.
“Where’s Amye?”
“I have yet to locate her,” Joe admits as he draws a cloth across his blade to clear it of blood.
“No hunting for her now. JC’s unconscious near the entrance, Doug’s pinned down as well as Hauser, and there’s trouble on the Dragon.”
“Australia?” Scott asks.
“Keep the Aurulent secure,” Reynard marches past them; he has little time to formulate a plan let alone answer questions from rookies only slightly less combat green than him.
“What do you propose, sword brother?”
“Kill them before they kill us.” Reynard presses his communicator, “Doug, find and get to the weapons cage door.”
Only Reynard’s first shot hits his planned target. The top of the slot machine explodes. The Braeco’n behind it catches a shower of superheated metal chunks. Shrapnel rain forces the remaining warriors to cover as more plasma bolts destroy the casino around them.
Scott sends his own dispersal of plasma at the Halcary. The well-armored warriors seek cover as swiftly as the Braeco’n. They return fire only to have their shots blocked by the wounded Tibbar leaping at the Commander.
The opportunity affords Hauser a vantage on the Braeco’n.
Doug maneuvers into the next row of slagged gambling machines placing himself closer to the inside entrance of the weapons storage area.
With the last discharge of plasma, the red barrel of the Halcary rifle fizzles, allowing the latest Tibbar to arrive to leap clear. Reynard clubs the beast bending the heated barrel.
Scott blasts the creature, but even the Halcary weapons only singe the natural armor hide. He jams the trigger mechanism, and the remaining energy clip whines in a backwash. Scott turns his rifle into a club as well, making sure the Tibbar crunches down on the power cell location.
Reynard falls to the floor, flipping to his stomach the instant before the weapon paints the casino in Tibbar chunks.
Two down.
Hauser uses the distraction to reach a vantage point. The computerized manacle on his forearm whirls to life.
Reynard scrambles from the raptor corpse remains, calculating how to reach the weapons storage with the Aurulent, unarmed and with five Braeco’n, three Halcary Head Hunters, at least one remaining Tibbar and Mokarran marching through the door.
His assessment sends him into a double take and he notes fully armed Mokarran units have arrived. The cannons they sport as simple blasters
