Slingers (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 1)

Chapter 15

The masked figure looked up at the fleeing ship, the one which only seconds ago had picked up the man in black with the two swords. He had fought bravely, and with skill. He had never encountered anyone like him before. He had become slightly uneasy when he found that the  man in black could match his speed and more, but it was of no concern. He wasn't meant to feel concern. The masked figure knew that the Pieces were on that ship, and that he would need to follow it. His ship was over the next ridge. Coincidentally, that's where the ship was heading as well. Confused, he began to run and follow, until he realized what the ship was doing. They were going back for the body of the one in armour. Why? Whatever the reason, they were foolish for even considering it. Running up the hill with incredible speed, he managed to keep pace with the ship quite well. He heard explosions and gunfire from the Resistance around him, but he blocked it out, and focused on the prize ahead of him. As long as they weren't in direct contact with him, or it wasn't an immediate obstacle, he would just simply ignore it. Those were his orders. He never fully understood them. But he did understand they were meant to be followed no matter what. Or else The Hurting would come back. The Hurting was unbearable sometimes. They only did when he did something that they apparently didn't like. He couldn't ignore The Hurting, no matter how hard he tried. So, he learned to listen. Obey, no questions asked. Or The Hurting would come back. As he crested the hill, he saw that the ship had landed justa few feet away from his fighter, and the people inside were surrounded by Resistance soldiers. He stopped and crouched out of sight, listening to what was going on, waiting for the right moment...

Andress flew the ship over towards where they had left Bunker, and saw a horrible sight. His body was lying there, motionless in a pool of blood. She gripped the controls tightly. No no no no no no no...This couldn't happen. Not again. She should have never left him behind...The Renegade landed gently down on the gravel, and as soon as they touched the ground, Andress opened the cargo bay and ran out, over to Bunker's body. She looked at him and saw that his faceplate had been shattered, as well as a large gash in his neck. The masked figure must have severed his artery. She looked down and began to feel tears welling up in her eyes, and held back a sob that almost racked her whole body. She felt a hand come down softly on her shoulder. She wheeled around and saw that Dante was there. She hadn't even heard him walk up on the noisy gravel. He was looking into her eyes, then stared down at Bunker's body. Andress bit her lip to keep herself from breaking, and was just about to speak up when Dante raised his hand and extended a single finger at Bunker's chest. Andress was confused, and put her hand on it. Was it just her imagination or-? She put her head down on Bunker's scarred armour plating, and heard a slight wheezing. Very weak, but identifiable as breathing. She stood up quickly. "He's still alive!" Dante looked down and felt his neck where the gash was. "He must have just missed the skin and hit the armour. It cased some bleeding due to the blade, but the plasma cutter on the bottom instantly cauterized the wound." "Get him onboard to Dewey!" It took both Andress and Dante to lift up Bunker's heavy and large body, but before they could begin to move towards the ship, they heard the cocking of rifles, and saw that they were surrounded by several Resistance soldiers, all aiming at their heads. Andress cursed and looked around. There were too many of them. Then, a voice among them spoke up, one she oddly enough recognized. "Andress?" She turned and saw a boy slightly older than her holding a rifle walk forward, his silver hair and green eyes shining. "Koil?" Andress said, surprised.

Koil Barton hadn't expected much when he had volunteered to lead this attack on the Nimentia mining colony, but he certainly hadn't expected this. Before him stood the red-haired, tough-as-nails girl who had been his comrade once, but had disappeared for several years. Now, she was here on a backwater planet in the middle of a conflict between the Resistance and the GDF. He looked around at his fellow Resistance soldiers, and called out. "Stand down! They're not a threat." The Resistance complied as Koil walked forward to Andress, who was carrying a man in heavy armour with a shady-looking man in a black coat. "Oh God...is that Bunker?" Andress nodded grimly. "What happened to him? Is he...?" "Not if we don't get him medical attention." "We have a medbase on our mothership. It's got some advanced equipment. We can get him onto it." Andress nodded. "We'll need escorts to get us off this planet." "No problem. I'll task some Vulcans-" This was interrupted by a scream from one of the Resistance members on the hill behind them. They spun around to see a masked man slicing through several member of Koil's squad. Andress's eyes widened. "We need to go! NOW!" She and the man in black began to carry Bunker onto the ship, and Koil turned to his squad. "Hostile inbound. Open fire!" The soldiers fired at the masked figure, but his sword appeared to block any bullet shot, and he sliced through the squadron like nothing. Koil fired off a few shots at the masked figure, and then heard Andress's ship taking of behind him. The masked figure saw this too. He ran away from what little soldiers were left, and towards a modified GDF fighter, and quickly flew after them. Koil spoke into his comlink. "Vulcans 3-1 and 3-6, unidentified GDF fighter in pursuit of civilian ship in Sector 129. That ship must be allowed to reach the mothership! Take out that fighter!" The pilot radioed back. "Copy that, Vulcan 1-1." Koil assessed what was left of his men. If that figure was as good of a pilot as he was a fighter, then Andress was in trouble. He ran across to the commandeered landing pad, and found his fighter sitting there. He got into the cockpit and immediately activated the boosters. The wings folded back to pursuit mode, and the Swift flew into the sky.