Drifter

Eli took aim down the holographic sights, lining them up on the center of the armored pod. He hadn’t seen a railgun before, outside of news articles about experimental navel weapons. Now, he held one in his hands.

The methodically shaped hunk of composite alloy sped up as it traveled down the length of the barrel. It struck quite a bit higher than he had expected. A horrific sound tore its way through the room. A clean, perfectly round hole had been punched into the target, a flat black void against the glossy black of the armored pod. Eli couldn’t tell how deep it had penetrated, but it certainly looked deep.

The human adjusted his aim. Before he could squeeze the trigger again, Bohoat Mog made his move. A bulkhead came lose, was ripped off the wall. The plate raced over to the armored bounty hunter, halting and hovering in place between him and the human.

Eli fired several more times. The slugs pierced the metal plate, punching the whole way through. He was unable to tell if they were doing any damage to the target that sat on the other side. He checked the indicator, saw that he only had two rounds left.

The torn and battered plate was thrown at him. He dived to one side. It sailed past, smashing into a terminal, which exploded in a cascade of sparks.

Eli got back up, hauled the weapon into position. His target was covered in deep dents, but it still floated there.

“Die!” the thing in the armor shouted, the actual word that he used sounded like the name of a demon from a forbidden faith.

Eli side stepped as he let another round fly. It struck center mass, a jet of nasty looking liquid sprayed out of the hole. Eli reached the cover of a low area as Bohoat Mog opened fire. He hunkered down as superheated death flew overhead. Rays and plasma struct the deck in front of the pit, turning it into a glowing sludge.

Eli rose up. His shield flashed. He fired the final slug, which struck low. Hunkering back down, he dropped the empty railgun, drew his pistol, and started pondering his next move.

***

Gami peeked out from behind the tower. The sheer amount of fire that was being put on target lit the bridge up. She saw the captain scramble away, rendered in weird jerky motions by the strobing light. From her vantage point she could see the human bounty hunter pinned down.

At the rate Bohoat Mog was firing, he’d burn through his energy reserves quickly. Eli likely wouldn’t last that long.

She dropped down, landing on top of the armored killer, grabbing ahold of him with her free hand. Now she dangled off of the top of the pod. The pull of artificial gravity was almost instantaneous. She placed the charge, before getting ripped off of the shell and flung across the room.

Gami let out a cry of pain when she hit the wall. As she struggled to recover, she began to hear explosions. Eli was out of cover, firing his pistol at Bohoat Mog. She could tell that it was high caliber, but the rounds were still harmlessly ricocheting off of their target. She used her cybernetic uplink to send the detonation signal to the explosive charge.

The blast was less than impressive, little more than a flash of light. This was because it was focused inward. Bohoat Mog let out a long, distorted cry of agony. The shell collapsed onto its side.

The two bounty hunters got up, made their way over to the inert pod. They eyed one another unsurely. At last, Eli put his sidearm back in the holster and thanked her.

“You don’t have to thank me,” she said in an annoyed tone.

“Sure I do, I’m a Texan.”

A hatchway on the downed pod burst open. Something shot out of it, a sickly-looking hybrid of a slug and a snake. It bled from severe wounds. The horror sprang toward Gami, fangs bared.

Eli caught it with his mechanical hand. The thing looked at him with hate filled eyes, proclaimed that he would end the human’s life. Without a word, Eli used the strength of the artificial hand’s grip to crush it, killing it before it could manage a death cry.

Eli looked around, found that no one was left on the bridge, “Where’d Aydem go,” he asked.

Gami jogged over to a control station. After punching a few buttons and moving a track ball around, something appeared on one of the screens. It was footage from a security camera.

Aydem ran into the hangar bay at a dead sprint. Jiraa tore after him, firing a weapon. The rounds missed, bursting into wild arcs of electricity. Aydem ran up the boarding ramp of a luxury shuttle. The ramp went up before Jiraa could reach it. He threw something at it in rage as it took off.

“You got in my way,” Gami chided, as she started jogging out of the bridge.

“How was I supposed to know that you were planning on doing that?”

“You underestimated me,” she briefly glanced at the deck plates, “Maybe I underestimated you as well.”