Chapter 31: Healer’s Discourse — Part 9
Didi, immediately on her left, shot ahead of her, and Xeti lagged a little behind. “Keep together, don’t go rushing off.” She warned. “We don’t want to break ranks until we have actual individual targets to pit ourselves against.”
The five Chran ships blew panels out of both sides, golden streaks curving out like missiles. The projectiles took form, twin massive cyborgs covered in sharp edges. Shadow took the lead, firing blasters with pinpoint accuracy, destroying three cyborgs before they could get their anti-blaster deflectors fully on line, Xeti killed two more that way, those remaining were fully prepared for trouble. Once the deflectors were online, the blasters became useless, and the crew found themselves needing to close some serious space. Shadow accelerated into fighting range of the lead Chran, synching her pallet extension with her servo-enhanced punch. The pallet bar pierced the Chran’s chest, spraying a mix of blood and hydraulic fluid everywhere.
She swung her right hand around, and her right arm pallet bar severed the cyborg’s mechanized head from its shoulders, sending the shattered skull out of sight. The Chran wasn’t finished, though it was, for all intents and purposes, dead. Its fist swung out, and Shadow blocked, then kicked repeatedly into its chest with her knees, her knee bars ripping repeatedly into the Chran’s chest and stomach cavity. Something shorted out inside the Chran’s body, and electricity fizzled around Shadow. She forced herself away, leaving the spasmodic Chran to die as its cybernetics electrocuted its biological systems.
She turned back toward Didi, who had a Chran in a telekinetic hold. Didi had stabbed his chest and back about seventeen times. The Chran was struggling against her hold, not intelligent enough to understand the source of its entrapment. Didi pierced his skull twice, and then broke his spine in three places. His system crippled, the cyborg shorted out and died, electrically charged plasma fading into space. Didi whooped in joy and headed for her next target.
Xeti had dispatched two of the Chran by tearing them to pieces. Xeti was surrounded by mechanical refuse, body parts, and mixed fluids before he changed course and headed straight at the nearest ships. Shadow was more cautious, having kept count of the enemy. There had been ten cyborgs launched, and She counted only nine dead. The tenth, hiding somewhere, in space, had been more cautious, apparently, than its counterparts. This factor alone was enough to make Shadow’s skin tingle in warning. When she found the last target, Shadow’s heart raced.
“Damn.” She said. “I can’t believe I was so carelessness.”
“What is it?” Xeti asked.
“Tech Leader.” Shadow answered
“Shit.” Didi said, rushing to Shadow’s side.
“It hung back, it had time to learn our strategies. It used the dumb cyborgs as a means of exposing our weapons potential.” Shadow pulled her pallets back in, testing her systems before confronting the monster.
“I can come back around.” Xeti suggested.
“Take out the ships. If they get to the Mercy, we’re dead. We’ll take care of this bastard.”
Didi studied the black cyborg with a mix of awe and curiosity. “He doesn’t look so tough.”
“That’s because you’ve never fought one before.”
“You have?” Didi said, surprised.
“Bare handed.” Shadow said. “Just you remember how I looked before the symbiont healed all my scars.”
Didi shivered involuntarily. She had heard horror stories of the Tech Leader Cyborgs. The Chran stored within their memory the reflexes of every soldier fighting under them. If this leader had ever had crew who had fought Shadow before, he would have experience against her that she did not share with him. If Shadow had fought a tech bare handed and won, and that Tech survived long enough to transmit his battle stats, this Tech would know her fighting just that much better. Didi felt fortunate to never have faced the Chran before now. The Chran’s memory of her abilities would be considerably less than they would be of Shadow’s.
The Tech opened with a missile launch, sending two-dozen mini missiles into space on ballistic paths straight for Didi and Shadow. Shadow dodged and shuffled, and Didi swung out at the missiles, trying to keep them from hitting anything vital. A near hit spun Shadow off course. Shadow felt blood trickle down her nose, and Didi was startled, smoking, at least as passed for smoke in space, and her pallet bars were glowing brightly from the encounter.
