Hand-to-hand with four-armed aliens sucks, he decided.
Jack crashed down on the KzSha to his right, and Taylor raised his MAC and blasted a round through the alien on the left. Motion on the left caught his eye. His blade snapped out from his left arm as he spun and blocked a KzSha blade that would have impaled him. He swept it up and away, but then the alien’s other blade swept in.
He blocked it with his right arm, and the blade sliced into the MAC mounted there. As he jerked it up and away, the KzSha came along with it, pulled closer to him. Before the alien could regain his balance, Taylor stabbed it through the thorax, then threw his right arm to the side violently. The blade in his MAC broke off as the KzSha was slung to the side.
The MAC registered as inop on his display—and there was no telling what would happen if he tried to fire it with the alien’s blade jammed in it—so he toggled his jumpjets and slammed into the closest KzSha, using his momentum to knock the alien mech over. He jumped up as the alien swung a blade at his leg and landed on the alien’s head. The alien spasmed, then went still.
Taylor looked around; there were no additional targets close by, except for one that had been behind the mech line, halfway to the ship. This one wasn’t in a CASPer, and it was slightly larger than the rest, with blue-black wings. Even if Taylor hadn’t recognized her, the fact that she still carried Stan’s fedora as a trophy would have instantly given her away.
“You are so mine.” Taylor started toward her, but a CASPer arm blocked his way.
“No she’s not,” Jack said. “This one’s mine.”
The cowboy advanced on the queen, who threw the fedora aside like a piece of trash.
“I don’t need your metal contraptions to fight you,” the wasp said. “I can kill you just like this.”
“Just shoot her and be done with it,” Taylor said.
“No can do, Chief. This one’s personal.” Jack’s next words were low and quiet, as if spoken to someone else. “This one’s for you, old buddy.”
The other KzSha had been killed, and the rest of the Human CASPers approached to make a ring of sorts around the ongoing battle.
Taylor nodded. Whatever happened, the queen wasn’t getting away. Damn right.
Jack had reach on the queen, but the KzSha was faster and had two blades—plus two other hands she could use to grab him—to Jack’s single blade and extra hand. The queen danced around, slicing and withdrawing, and Jack was shortly bleeding or damaged in a number of places. A hit to his left leg had his mech limping as something in the linkage had been damaged.
“Just shoot her!” Taylor repeated.
“Too easy,” Jack said.
Taylor gnawed his lip. He means to make her feel this.
The fight continued for another 30 seconds, though it seemed an eternity to Taylor. Jack still hadn’t gotten a good hit in, but now his right arm—the one without a blade—hung limply at his side.
The queen danced forward, blocking with one blade while striking with the other. She also kept trying to grab Jack’s suit. If she could get behind him and hold on while she stabbed him, it would be all over.
Fair fight be damned. I’ll kill her myself if it comes to that.
Jack swung at the queen, who danced back, but Jack had overextended himself. As the blade went past her, she stepped back in, looking to grab his broken right arm. She got one hand on it and drew back to stab Jack, but his right hand lashed out—he’d been faking!—, grabbed her by the neck, and yanked her close to him—too close for her to use her blades. She struggled and pushed away from him, but the mech was stronger.
The end of Jack’s blade pressed against her thorax, glinting in the sunlight. “I’ll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, ‘cause I think I’m better than you.”
The KzSha leader struggled to push herself far enough away that she could use her blades.
“Burn in hell, you murderous bitch!”
A gush of blue sprayed the ceramacrete as Jack’s blade plunged through the queen’s body, its tip exiting through the small of her thorax.
“Rest in peace, my friend.” Jack held the queen aloft as she let out her final exhale, then lowered his blade and allowed her corpse to slide quietly off.
“Nice moves there, old-timer,” Taylor said, walking over. “Are you all right?”
The cowboy scooped up Stan’s fedora and tucked it into a panel for safekeeping. “Not quite yet, Chief, but I will be…in time.” For the first time in what felt like ages, Taylor could hear a smile in his voice.
“There he is!” House shouted.
Taylor turned to find Akoya rounding the corner of a building alongside two KzSha guards. The Sumatozou spun and started running, leaving the KzSha behind.
“Oh, no you don’t.” Jack blasted off on his jumpjets. After a second, Taylor hit his, then the rest of the group took off in pursuit.
Akoya only made it about half a block before Jack slammed down in front of him, blocking his progress, with Taylor close behind.
“Looks like it’s Two-for-Tuesday.” Jack snapped out his arm blade and reared back to strike. “Lucky me.”
“Wait!” Taylor shouted.
The cowboy’s blade froze in mid-air as the Sumatozou threw up his hands.
“Please!” Akoya begged. “Please don’t kill me! You need me!”
“Don’t do it, Jack,” Taylor repeated.
“Why not?” the cowboy demanded. “The queen may have taken Stan’s life, but this fat shit gave the order. In my book, that makes him just as guilty, if
