In this part of town, I wasn't under dressed. Although about half of those thronging the street had light body armour on I wasn't the only one carrying a sword. However I knew that their's were all mundane where as mine wasn't. Now given the prevalence of high technology you would have expected brightly lit shops advertising their wares with blazing neon or holographic signs in a street adorned with similar illumination and advertising. But this shadow is not like that, at least not in this town. There were a couple of shops, both selling a mixture of second hand guns and armour that had simple neon signs, and an electronics store that was electrically lit, but the remainder either used lanterns, candles, or globes which glowed due to a fusion of magic and technology. As it turned out my choice of off the peg clothing was rather limited and effectively boiled down to jumpsuits, trousers, T-Shirts, and camo, leather, or denim equivalent jackets. There was other off the peg clothing available but I'm not in that line of work. The alternative to the off the peg range was to have something made up, but the choice of fabrics was a little limiting, as were the cuts, and I didn't have 24 hours to waste waiting. In the end I visited three stores, procuring three jump suits, one of which I immediately changed into, some fresh underwear, a rather nice leather jacket, and a really nice pair of leather boots. It was as I was exiting the boot shop that I noticed the group of wolfen standing off to one side down the street. Beyond them, closer to one of the city gates were another group of what I initially thought to be Wolfen. However on closer examination they proved to be Coalition Dog Soldiers. The Wolfen, two females with six cubs were watching the Dog Soldiers and looked decidedly distressed.
If I were a different person I'd have ignored the situation as everybody else was doing but thats not in my nature, so I walked over to them. Their initial response was defensive and it took me a few minutes to get them to tell me what the problem was. It seems the group of Dog Boys had accosted them on the way into the city center but had been thwarted by the appearance of a militia patrol. They had spent all day following them about and now they feared to return to their houses, which were a sufficient distance outside the first security zone for the Dog boys to be able to rape, torture, and or kill them, and then leave the city limits with out the alarm being raised. I searched through the knowledge I'd acquired from Zreb. The weapons in this shadow were considerably more powerful than on my native shadow and were capable of instantly killing an unarmoured individual. Depending upon their mission the Coalition Soldier carried some of the best weapons and equipment available, but dog boys didn't usually get the best and typically had very light armour preferring to fight hand to hand; the knives they carried however matched the rest of their weapons in their destructive capability.
I asked the two if they had any weapons or armour. Both carried short knives but had no armour. I told them to wait where they were - I'd be as quick as I could. I retraced my steps to one of the establishments I'd passed about an hour earlier. From outward appearances it was dilapidated and rundown, having but a single faintly glowing glow ball in the window. The first time I'd passed it I hadn't given it a second glance but something had made me return and look a little closer. What had become clear was that although every thing appeared run down, the few weapons, and simple armour that was on display were immaculately clean. This establishment was obviously run by somebody with a good knowledge and a select clientell, one they wished to remain that way. I made my way inside causing a bell to tinkle somewhere in the rear of the premises. A short while later a squat reptilian figure emerged. He was initially surprised by the fact that a human female was in his shop but quickly recovered. My initial request for armour was met with sceptasism and a suggestion I went to a more traditional outlet. When I insisted I wanted something akin to the Japanese lamella armour worn by the Samurai, that his inquisitiveness got the better of him, and allowing him a quick examination of my sword sealed the deal. Unfortunately he didn't have any lamella, he had either rigid plate type armour, various forms of ring mail, or chain mail. The plates and the ring mails were either to restrictive or would be too ineffective. This left the chain mail. I don't know how he achieved the adjustments since somehow he manipulated the armour in his hand to give me the degree of fit and flexibility I wanted. He was also able to supply a pair of arm bracers to provide some degree of forearm protection, although they wouldn't stand up to a full directed strike. He was also able to supply the equivalent of a shotgun equivalent to the energy weapons in use, but this was outside the budget I had available, so I was forced to settle for a heavy pistol.
My purchases completed I made my way back to where I had left the Wolfen but they'd gone. Inquiring at the gate indicated that they'd passed through about 20 minutes previously. I decided to follow them, which resulted in the guards extracting the gun from the storage case I that it had been supplied to me in, and providing me an energy clip for it. In this section of the security cordon, side arms and non-powered armour was permitted, as were cyborgs and others similarly equipped. This meant that this section of the city was busier and it took me a little while to locate the Wolfen.
Again the situation was repeated with the dog boys lurking close to the security gate and the Wolfen trying to work out what to do a short distance away. The dog boys had their armour on now, and looked far more sinister, the impression the armour was designed to create. My arrival did little to appease the distressed state of the Wolfen, and my armour didn't impress them. This left them the choice of either accepting my help despite their reservations or attempting to get home on their own. The increasing state of distress of the children eventually forced them to accept my assistance, and we moved towards the gate. This triggered the rapid exit of the dogboys ahead of us, such that by the time we cleared the gate they were no longer in sight.
At this point I was reliant on the Wolfen's eye sight since their night vision is considerably better than my own. After several hundred yards of walking we turned left and began to descend into a gully. We'd nearly reached the bottom when I felt that tell tale itch and drew my sword. The wolfen, noticing my action stopped; one of the children began to cry. Realizing their ambush had failed four shapes emerged from their hiding places about 50 feet away.
"These Wolfen are under my protection. You can either leave now under your own steam, or you can leave in a wooden box courtesy of the city militia."
"Yea? You and whose army DBee lover. We'll save you till last"
They started forward at a lope and two beams lit the night, one blowing a whole in the track and the other burning a hole in the armour of one of them. I leapt into the air and blinked. There was a looked of surprise as I appeared above them. I completed the somersault, striking down as I passed over head, and landed behind them. One down three to go. I was surprised at the speed they recovered, and had to roll sharply to avoid the charge of the one closest to me. This gave the other two the opportunity to blindly throw themselves at me causing me to have to block furiously and take avoiding action. I was going to have to play this fight slightly differently.
Adjusting my body weight I backed off a couple of steps. My retreat had been enough to trigger another lunge by the two closest, but I wasn't after either of them. Leaping into the air, my right foot found a shoulder and I sprang again my momentum propelling the dog boy ground wards. I landed in the clear, the rearmost of the three now somewhat isolated. His attack was clumsy and easily avoided. As I spun past I struck down, severing his left leg. I turned my attention to the remaining two. One was getting back to his feet whilst the other was drawing his pistol. I realized I wouldn't reach him in time. I dived to my right and began tumbling. The gun cleared the holster, came up into the firing position, and he was struck by a beam weapon from behind. I altered direction. He rolled to his right a second blast cleaving the spot he'd just vacated. He rolled again, trying to identify the new threat, and fired blindly in the direction the shots had come from. His roll brought him directly into my path. The last one was now considering his options. He dropped to all fours and turned to flee. He didn't make it very far.
I sheathed the sword and turned to locate the source of the aid. A third figure in armour and carrying a rifle had joined the two wolfen. They definitely knew one another. I moved towards them. "I owe you some thanks for your intervention. Things may have turned out differently without it."
"Who are you and what do you want. We can take care of our own thank you very much?"
"I take it this is your normal method of saying thank you? The more normally accepted methods are 'Thank you for your assistance is there anything we can do for you in return' or 'Thank you for your assistance we can manage now' or for those of a particularly grateful disposition 'Thank you very much, we can't offer you anything in return but a little hospitality' "
"We're not in the business of offering hospitality to strange DBees no matter how helpful they've been. From outward appearances it's not possible to tell what sort of entity, demon, or creature you're dealing with. So you can go back where you came from and leave clearing up this mess to us."
The figure raised the rifle and pointed it directly at me. "I see" , I took a step back and blinked, appearing directly beside her. By the time she reacted she was on her back and I was holding the gun. As she got up I walked back towards where the nearest dog boys lay. I bent down and began removing weapons from the body. As I rifled its belt pouches to see what else it had, the armoured figure walked up behind me, her pistol in her hands. "Put that away before you do anything else stupid"
"Give me my rifle back or I'll shoot you."
"No you won't. And I'll think about it."
"Give it back or I'll shoot"
I turned and stood up. "Now you won't because if you were going to you'd have done so by now"
She raised the gun as if to fire but she was well within reach now . As her arm moved I grabbed the wrist with one hand and the gun with the other, twisting both and sliding under the locked arm. This forced her head down. A quick kick to her left leg sent her sprawling to the ground leaving me holding the gun. Retrieving the utility belt and weapons holster from the dogboy I replaced the C18 pistol in its holster and shoved her Northgun through the webbing. She'd gotten to her feet and was eying me angrily.
"Do you have any more weapons you wish to give me or are you going to be a good little girl and behave?"
Her eyes darted from me to the body of the first dog boy I'd beheaded about 15 feet away. "Don't even try. You'll never make it and I'll be forced to find another means of embarrassing you."
She started to run. She was quick but not quick enough. This time, as she went down I grabbed her wrists pulling them behind her body and snapped the cuffs I'd removed from the dog boy on her. Sitting her up I removed her helmet and released the breast plate of her armour. I tossed both into a pile a little way away. "Any more trouble from you and you'll find yourself naked"
She hissed at me. I began stripping the second body. I'd removed the belt by the time she struggled to her feet and lunged at me. A quick sidestep enabled me to tap her lightly with the stun stick. By the time she came too, I'd stripped the other two bodies. I had one pack with a radio, 4 pistols, 16 energy clips, 2 stun sticks, 4 vibro knives, one rifle, and 12 credit sticks with a total of just under 8000 credits on them. In addition I had one set of crusader armour, a Northgun NG57, a Wilks 457 Rifle, a RMK med kit and a medical pack with assorted herbs, lotions, bandages and medical paraphanalia in it. In addition I had a trussed up naked female wolfen.
"Now then, what am I going to do with you?"
A voice from in the dark spoke, "I suggest you let her go. It's likely she's learnt her lesson by now"
"I'm not so sure. Why don't you come a little closer where I can see you."
"You humans are all the same. You always pick fights at night when you're least able to see. " A big wolfen strode out of the darkness. He was dressed in a jump suit and carried a rifle, although it was currently pointed at the ground. "Now then Princess Chan-Barriman of Amber, why don't you release young Jezx, and we can go somewhere more comfortable"
"You appear to have me at something of a disadvantage, however I don't think I'll release her just yet, Why don't you get the pair of your friends who are skulking round behind me to pick up her things whilst the three of us go somewhere more comfortable" I unlocked the shackles on Jezx's ankles and hauled her to her feet.
The wolfen laughed, a long deep laugh. "Ok We'll do it your way". He shouldered the rifle and started walking up hill in the direction we'd been heading. After about 100 yards we turned left. Wolfen of all ages and sizes now started appearing out of doorways, apparently just to catch a glimpse of me. Some followed along behind, but most just returned to their dwellings. Another 70 yards brought us to a large but non-descript building. Yzuvu lead the way up the steps and held open the door for me. Jezx, made final act of defiance forcing me to physically manhandle her in ahead of me. The room was half full of wolfen, one or two humans, and a few other races I didn't immediately recognize. Jezx left out a howl and then broke down into a sobbing heap. I dropped the keys to her cuffs onto the floor where she could reach them, "Next time, I suggest that when you're told to desist from doing something you do it, especially where you're out-matched."
A hush had fallen over the room. A figure I recognized stepped forward. "What's the meaning of this? This was supposed to be a thank you for your help, but you humiliate one of us instead."
The tall wolfen who'd come in after me stepped forward. "She does us no harm. I watched most of what happened. We all know Jezx can be a little hotheaded. She chose her path by continuing her actions when she had nothing to gain by them. Perhaps she will learn by them. Now then, I think drinks and refreshments are in order for our distinguished guest, after all it's not every day that a figure from legend appears and rescues two of our number without any consideration for her own safety. Please Princess come and sit with us"
"On one condition - you all cut the Princess crap and call me Cordelia, which is after all my name."
| Previous | Next |
|---|
| Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supporting Cast - Cordelia | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |