|
After reading all the
warrant data, the pack make their way to the main shuttle bay in
good spirits at their luck of a big payday and when they approach
their ship for the Cassiopeia sector they hear someone shout from
behind a spacecraft bay ...
"Hey dog, finished licking old Gillian's boots yet!"
... The dogs look over their shoulders ... it's Jack "Doberman"
Drum, a notorious killer who has a known reputation of stealing
other bounties ... seems troubles already found the pack!
Top Dog!
As Doberman approached, along
with his two usual henchman, he barked loudly, “I want this
bounty squid head”, and placing his hand on the General’s
shoulder, “I want this bounty bad!”
Quarren was taken aback by Doberman’s demand, “This dog run’s
ours Jack, step back before someone gets hurt!”, but before the
General could react, Doberman pulled out a hidden blade and
attacked! That was his first mistake. These where no rookies, and
under the General’s guidance had become a deadly squad of
Search/Destroy Agents. With Doberman gaining the upper hand and
striking the General in the ribs, he was surprised to find that the
blade failed to puncture his jacket, especially as it hit a well
hidden full battle flak-jacket Quarren always wore, “Grrrrrr,
damn you Quarren!”, he growled, just as the General pulled his
electronux baton and struck back.
A quick and fierce skirmish ensued, with Whiphid killing one of
henchman with a spear before he could move, right through the
throat, then knocking both Doberman and his other henchman to the
ground with a flying charge, although Musta did strike him with his
deadly sorcery when trying to hit Doberman, and with both Verpine
and Quarren quick to finish the fray, the battle was over in an
instant! Strangely enough, while all this was going on, none
of the space port guards interfered, which Verpine later found out
was due to a payoff … dirty dog tactic’s as usual!
Once Doberman and Jor Jor where put down by Whiphid, the GCC guards
stepped in, seeing things where not going his way, “Stand back
you scum, there’s no fighting on the port decks!”, and drawing
their elec-batons, poked and prodded the various dogs away from
Doberman lying on the floor, knocked unconscious.
Verpine was not happy and drew his blaster, “I’ll have your hide
Doberman, if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll skin you alive!”,
but the guards stood in his way. “I’ll see you when I get back
you stinking mutt!”, Verpine called as he put away the blaster
and made his way to his spacecraft, the Retribution, “That mutt’s
going to be trouble GQ, we should have put him down!?”
“He was right”, General Quarren thought, ”no dog likes to
be beaten in a ‘fair’ fist-fight, but we’ll have to deal with him
when we get back. Let’s go lads”, GQ called, “some
outer space will do us the world of good ... lets get out of this
Doghouse!”, and with that they took flight towards the
Cassiopeia system, healing a few bruises and minor armour damage
along the way.
T’Kal Party Leader - H'Ki R'Lac (Ki to his friends!)
A week later, the Retribution found itself coming out of hyperspace,
approaching the planet Sylvester, “This is the planetary command
for Sylvester G’Hac spaceport, please state your ships designation
and purpose for your visit!?”, the ships communicator came to
life, “Please respond!”
Verpine was used to these query’s and quickly responded with the
ships id, crew and intentions, “ … here on the request of the new
party leader H'Ki R'Lac to track down the assassin Rock Faced Tack.
Ships computer confirms landing coords as SGH0023, G'Hac City
... can you confirm?”
The comm was quite for a few moments, "Welcome Search/Destroy
Agents, glad you could make it. We’ve been expecting you.
Coordinates SGH-00-23 are correct. Buckle up, it’s stormy season
here and good luck with getting that killer!”
“Stormy season”, Verpine thought, “the Retribution won’t
have any problems getting through a few sand storms.” How
wrong can you get! The problem with Sylvester, and especially the
Dulka sector, is that the storms where driven by electrical
thunderstorms as well, and as the spacecraft hit the lower
atmosphere, it suffered a dozen hits before Verpine could gain
control as the autopilot went off-line. Everyone was buffeted
about the ship with their weapons being scattered everywhere …
another space-roller-coaster! Luckily, Verpine was an expert
pilot and managed to get the craft down quickly into the spaceport
and only with a couple of bumps along the way! A force field quickly
covered the ship and tractor runs moved the landing bay, and craft,
into safe shelter within the spaceports massive hangers.
As the craft moved across the spaceport, the crew dusted themselves
down and checked their equipment. Only the Generals dagger was
smashed in the landing … “There goes my favorite tooth pick! I
loved that tool!” Verpine shrugged and laughed, “Be glad it
wasn’t your head GQ!”, and with that shutdown the Retributions
systems.
Looking out the window, GQ wasn’t impressed with the surrounding
scenery, “… another dust bowl like Q’Quackery … just what
my scales need! Qeeezzzz, I can feel them getting dry already
…”, taking another drink through his gills. Verpine unlocked the
side hatch, then lower the ladders, aware that they already had
company.
“Lieutenant U’Tar at your service gentlemen. If you could follow
me to the GCC offices, we’ll get you signed in and party leader
R'Lac will be with you shortly!”
General Quarren saluted back at the soldier and ask to be lead on. “Wonder
what these offices will be like”, Musta muttered, “another
shithole I bet!” You could tell he was a physic, as he guess
exactly right … a cruddy office with even grubbier human GCC
officers. After the usual formalities, the dogs signed in and waited
only a few moments before R'Lac’s hover-limo pulled up outside.
Getting out with welcome arms, R’Lac was in great spirits to see the
bounty hunters waiting for him, a typical political out to win
votes. “Welcome gentlemen, welcome to our fair city! Please grab
your equipment and we’ll get you to some suitable accommodation for
you after you long trip. Please call me Ki, all my friends call me
Ki!”
 Shaking
each of the mutants hands, except Whiphid who growled and grunted at
people he didn’t know, the dogs left the offices and got into the
hover-limo, a plush vehicle well outside their credit limits, and
with a quick drive through the spaceport the dogs found themselves
in a small hotel, pretty plush with comfy furniture, communication
terminals and large vid-screen's for each of them. “Feel free to
ask the reception for anything you may want. Your doing our city a
great favour in hunting down this nasty assassin know as Rock Faced
Tack. All the vid-slugs are at your disposal and call if you need
anything! Good luck gentlemen!”, R’Lac called as he quickly
exited the main reception area of the hotel for his limo.
Verpine was tired from the long flight and headed to the main room,
“Ahh, good old A.C.E.R. vid-screen's, always a welcome sight to
my bugeyes.” Switching between the channels, Verpine came across
an old earth transmission, “Corrrr street? That sounds like crap”,
and with that settled down to some well earned rest. As for the
others, they began checking the comms for some more feedback on Tack
and any other sightings of him. “Strange”, said Whiphid, “seems
R’Lac used to be the manager of the D’Core mines when they used to
be in full production?” Quarren leaned over Whiphids hulking
body, “What else you found Whip?”
“Hey GQ, something’s not right with my terminal", Musta
puzzled, "If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone was tracking
my movements! Whip, check the following address and
I’ll monitor your system … yeah, someone’s clocking our movements!!”
“Hey, what you guys looking at?”, Verpine asked, bored with
Earth TV, “Seems our host is not as honest as he likes to make
out ... but then again, what politician is!”, Quarren replied.
Having exhausted their resources trawling through the various
computer networks, the dogs made their way into the city, looking
for the less reputable places where all the rouges hang out, and
where the usual gossip can bring home truth with what’s really going
on. In one encounter, the barman of the Rust Monster tavern,
mentioned that Gwen was out to help all the people in this sector to
get back monies owed for miss-sold lands and properties, which
didn’t make him too popular with the New Zen Corporation … “ … bound to make him a few enemies I bet! We’re talking millions in
lost credits agents, millions!!”, said the barman, pouring synth-gins
all round for the dogs.
After being in the city for a few hours, the dogs had a sense of
being watched or followed. GQ finished his drink, “Let’s get back
to the hotel, we seem to be attracting some unwanted attention.
Whiphid, drop behind and follow anyone that’s dogging us.”
 After
a few minutes outside the tavern, Whiphid slunk into the shadows and
waited. A large brute, but with the skill and stealth to hide unseen
when needed. A short time later, two small vid-camera’s flew by,
scanning the various streets and quickly making their way after the
other dogs. One hung back, looking for Whiphid it seemed, then took
off. Quickly following the camera’s from various vantage points,
Whiphid could see that it was his fellow bounty hunters being
followed back to the hotel. “Something’s not right in this city!?
Why should we be followed when we're here to help, and by whom?
Maybe Tack’s onto us already!”, he thought.
Once the dogs where in the hotel, the camera’s peeled off and
Whiphid made his way in quickly, letting his comrades know what he
found. “Camera’s following us!? The communication array bugged?
Yeah, something’s definitely not right”, GQ spouted, “make
sure you sleep with your weapons nearby tonight!”
After a restless sleep, the dogs where woken by the young maid, who
finished preparing a wide selection of foods to please their
pallets. “Lovely bugs GQ”, Verpine said through a full mouth,
“try some!” Verpine was known to have little thought or care
for poisons with his acid gut. “I know they might be drugged, but
I’m hungry!” GQ shook his head and got stuck in too, might as
well die on a full stomach. Whiphid sniffed a few bits of steak, and
with his enhanced smell, could tell that the food was OK, apart from
being overcooked. He liked raw meat or fish when he could get it,
but food’s food and he and Musta wanted their fill too, finishing
off some strange wines as well. GQ laughed, “A last meal lads
before the firing squad!”
Having finished and washed up, they gathered all their equipment and
made their way down to the reception area and waited for R’Lac, but
only his aid came through the door … “Morning gentlemen, we’ll
take you to the outskirts of the city, equip you with some sled
bikes for the ride ahead and you can be on your way! I know
your dying to get at 'em!”
“Wait one minute, who are you and where’s R’Lac?”, Verpine
hissed! “Sorry”, said the aid, “My name is Ulla F’Kol, I’m
R’Lac’s first aid? I thought you had been informed that he has been
called away on political duties, a meeting with the royal house to
be honest! So, I’ve been sent to show you the way and give you this
comm-tablet with the best directions to the D’Core Mines and this
Spacial Displacement Clamp for dealing with the laser force-field.”
“We’re not happy that someone’s been following us and monitoring
our computer and vid-screens last night … what’s the meaning of
this!”, Verpine once more hissed, angry that they’ve been kept
in the dark about R’Lac’s movements.
“It’s common practice to monitor the movements of
ALL
strangers in the city at the moment and with Tack still at large, we
need to be vigilant in case he try’s another attack!”, and with
that, the aid walked away from any further questions the group had
in mind. “I guess we should follow then?!”, Musta snarled,
then he and the others made their way to the hover car outside. It
was another scorching day in the Dulka capital … “ … all of 40oC,
at least … just what the skin care doctor ordered“,
Quarren thought.
Travelling in the air conditioned hover car was a luxury none of the
dogs complained about. They knew that the ride ahead would be long
and dusty (and most likely bumpy!), so best to enjoy the cool
air while they could! While they travelled F’Kol explained that the
SDC was simple to use … “just place it at the base of the force
field and press the activation button and a portal will open for
each one of you to pass through. A remarkable device, tested by our
best technicians!”
QC took the device and placed it in his spare shoulder pouch. A
small device, simple to use … “We’ll see how well it works when
we get there”, he said, looking around at his fellow dogs. They
where soon at the city outskirts where 4 sled bikes where being
guarded by a small group of troops, amongst them the young
lieutenant they met earlier. “We’ve programmed the sled bikes
with the D’Core Mines coords, so you won’t have any problems getting
there. Don’t deviate to far from the path laid in, it’s by far the
safest way into the heavy storms, although a longer drive. Six or
seven hours and you’ll be there. Good luck gentlemen, and give Rock
Face one for the military!”, and with that, he and the group of
soldiers took off in an APC.
Only the aid and the dogs now stood looking into the deep deserts of
the Dulka sector. “Six, seven hours … great, that and electrical
storms to deal with … another walk in the park General!” Verpine
muttered, testing the bikes, terminals and fuel levels … “… yeah,
more than enough to get us there and back GQ! OK squad, let’s go!”
Verpine fired up his bike, being an experienced grav-bike rider, and
took off like hellfire was after him! “Let’s see how tough these
grav-bike beauties really are … yippie-kiiii-yaaaayyyyyy motherrrrrrr!”
Verpine was known to be extremely reckless in all thing’s and the
faster he could go, the happier he seemed!
“He’s definitely got a death wish General!” Whiphid said, and
with that, the others took off after him, at a more reasonable pace
to get the feel of their vehicles.
Anyone Seen My Dog!?
After a few hours, having taken odd shelter in the rocky
desert landscape to freshen up now and again, the dogs where making
good time, until the General caught sight of a strange shimmering in
front of his grav-bike and before he knew it had hit something!
Flying over the handle bars, he knocked himself unconscious, while
the others saw a massive metal plated beast appear from nowhere,
obviously what the General had run into and also knocked
unconscious, but only for a few seconds.
As the cybernetic dog regained consciousness, it shook it’s head and
began to survey the area, picking up on the General lying on the
floor a few feet ahead of it. It’s eye’s began to glow as it seemed
to be assessing the body on the ground … “Yah, yahhhh .. here yah
tin-plated mutt … yah, yahhh!” It was Verpine, who could
see the General in mortal danger, driving his sled bike at top speed
to distract the beast! Before he knew it, the beast fired some
heavy lasers from it's eyes, catching him square in the chest … but
nothing happened?!? The creature shook it’s head and lunged at
Verpine, who by now had it’s full attention and was in close
proximity to it. As too the other dogs, they where having a hard
time stopping their bikes and both crashed into the desert rocks,
knocking themselves out.
“Jeez, what a couple of muppets!” Verpine thought as he could
see the beast lunge for him. It was a massive beast, well over 5’ at
the shoulder, and moved with an unnatural speed, catching Verpine
off guard! A heavy bite to his shoulder, the beast took him and his
bike down, just as Musta and Whiphid regained consciousness. “Hold
on Ver, we’re coming!”, Whiphid called, pulling his heavy
blaster for a long shot, but they had their own problems … another
cybernetic dog appeared from behind one of the rock outcroppings! “Look
out Whiphid, another one!” Musta called out, pulling up his
rifle from the sand and quickly aiming!
Whiphid dived to the side and let rip with a single shot, but
missed, still groggy from the crash, and also taking a couple of
laser hits to his chest, but once again not receiving any damage? As
Musta raised his rifle, the beast phased in and out in the extreme
heat … “What’s going on?!”, Musta thought, then shouting,” … the beasts a
holographic projection! Whiphid, get over to Verpine …
quickly goddammit, he’s getting munched!”
Verpine could feel the teeth of the cyber-beast burning through his
toughened hide, and being trapped underneath it, let rip with his
hand blaster to it’s chest at point blank range, an easy hit, but
sadly with little effect! A small burn mark on the creatures armour,
Verpine knew he was in trouble, but luckily the General was on the
case. Having eventually recovered from the crash, he made his
way quickly to help Verpine, trying to strike with his electronux
batten, but he missed with his first strike. It did however distract
the beast from just attacking Verpine, as it stood back a few paces
to strike at both of them with teeth and claw! With each strike they
made, it had little effect, but it’s attacks where deadly, knocking
Verpine down again and scarring the army toughed General!
Then suddenly it stopped and collapsed where it stood! As Whiphid
and Musta ran up, they congratulated their comrades on a job well
done. “We never stopped it, someone … ", and just then they
all found themselves surrounded with a large number of troopers, who
also appeared out of nowhere, but not soldiers they’d seen before,
and even their uniform and insignia was different. “Who are you!?”,
General Quarren shouted, pulling out his auto-thwup rifle.
One of the soldiers stepped forward with empty raised hands,
obviously their leader, “Easy mutant, we’re here to help. I’ve
disabled the cybernetic attack droid. We’ve been tracking it for
days … seems you’ve done us the favor with crashing into it and
disabling it’s holo-skin!”
The General, and Verpine, where not impressed! “What kind of
thing is that!”, pointing to the CAD. on the floor, “It’s
busted my shoulder, look at the damage it’s done!”
“Yes, it is pretty impressive as a covert attack unit. Our tech
boys will have a field day analysis the vid-slugs on this training
session. You’ve come across our training grounds, what where you
doing passing through here?! This is restricted for military only.
Be thankful we where nearby!” The officer was obviously annoyed
that the mutants where in restricted territory. One of the other
soldiers approached, placing his hand on his leaders shoulder, “I’ll
deal with them sir, the obviously don’t know the area, and looking
at their badges and general features, I would guess their
Search/Destroy Agents from the GCC, most likely after Tack?”
The General nodded, lowering his weapon. “Once again we’ve been
set-up!”, he thought, “I’m going to have words with R’Lac
when we get back, me and my baton!!!”
The senor soldier moved away and called in for a support vehicle to
take away the CAD and have the medic’s see to the mutants wounds,
while the junior officer handed Quarren a communicator, “Call me
if we can be of help. One good turn deserves another. Your bikes are
ready for you, except the one which crashed into CAD, so you’ll have
to double up. Good luck Sir”, and with that, saluted to the
General and faded away into the deep red deserts … “Holographic
projection, way to advanced for this world, I guess we’ll never know
where these soldiers came from, or what planet even!”
There Be Morks Ahead!
After getting patched up by the medic’s, the dogs headed off into
the last run of the desert to the mines. Ahead, they
could see a large dust storm … “Visor’s down guys, it’s a
blizzard ahead!” Sadly, that was the least of their
worries, the sand storm was in fact a massive herd of wild Morks,
local wildlife which where used as cattle and steeds in and around
the Cassiopeia systems. Extremely
sturdy beasts, which could also trample a man to death if caught
underfoot!
The herd had been spooked by something big, a beast so large they
knew they had little chance to get away, but their instinct told
them to run … right into the bounty hunters! The herd swamped the
dogs, except Verpine, who’s experience at riding grav bikes from a
young age had helped he weave through the beasts, and with GQ on his
back seat, made for a safe area. The other dogs where not so lucky,
an once again crashed and burned, and also suffered terrible damage
from being trampled, but managed to get some protection from hiding
behind the downed, wrecked, bikes.
After a few minutes, the main bulk of the herd had passed, with odd
stragglers huddled in groups in and around the various rock
outcroppings. Verpine approached the two crashed bikes at a steady
pace. Laughing, he shouted over the heavy bikes engine, “Look
GQ, mutt and jeff have crashed again!”, but before the General could
respond, they both saw four massive tentacles rise from the desert
land and attacked the small Mork groupings!
“Stom, what the hells this now!”, Verpine said, “this deserts one
big trap, I can see why Tack’s come out here to hide!”
This new threat, which the dogs later found out was a Desert Worm,
had set it’s “eye’s” on getting some Morks, but the noises from the
grav-bikes, and Musta running about, attracted it’s tentacles to
each in turn, trying to firstly grab them and then pull them under.
The Morks where easy targets, but the bounty hunters had a bite!
Whiphid quickly drew his spears and began throwing them across the
open spaces towards the tentacles as they rose out of the desert,
almost instinctively sensing when they would come, and quickly
killing two, one which had got a hold of Musta. Of course, his heavy
blaster also worked a treat as he evaporated another, with Verpine
shooting the last one, but not before the beast had claimed two more
bikes and a load of Morks.
The dogs where now down too a single bike, but where only a short
ride to the mines. “I’ll drive back and forth and drop each one off in turn,
GQ. My fuel cell will be burnt out by the time I do the
last run, so we’ll just have to hope there’s another way out of the
D’Core Mines!”
A short time later, Verpine pulled up at the large outcropping
before approaching the main road to the mines. Having been at the
site for some time, Quarren explained that the main gates where
protected by a overhanging hill opening and a couple of heavy
laser turrets, “We’ve got trouble”, the General sighed, “the gates
are protected by a couple of heavy lasers, most likely put up
to shot down any large craft which might attack the gateway. As
it’s too open to sneak by, I suggest we blast them!”
The open area, saturated with missile and laser blasts from previous
airstrike encounters, was impossible to sneak past, so a full frontal attack
was all the dogs could do, and with careful aim, began a barrage on the
turrets. Strangely enough, the dogs managed to destroy the towers
quickly before they suffered any hits. The turrets where designed
for hitting bigger targets, not skilled fighters who knew how to use
the terrain to hide their positions and take careful aim to destroy
them. So, after a few short exchanges, the dogs had blasted a clear
path to the D’Core Mines.
As they approached, they could see a landing pad to the right of the
main gates, which had a single-cockpit spacecraft on it, protected by
the same force-field as the main gates. “We’ve only one clamp for
the force-fields, where should I use it?”, Quarren asked. Verpine
wanted to get his hands on the spacecraft. “We could use the ships
heavy weapons to destroy the laser force field round the gates!”,
knowing that the field could only take so much firepower
before collapsing the generators.
Musta stepped forward, “My powers will be more than enough to
destroy the field!”, and began chanting strange keltic words and
made various gestures towards the shields. “Stop Musta, I’ll use the
clamp first, then Verpine will be able to blast our way into the
main gates!”, at which point Musta stopped his incantations and moved
back from Quarren as he approached the force field protecting the
spacecraft. “Give me some space, dogs!”, and laid down the
device on the base of the force-field, pressing the activation key,
“Zzzzzzz-Kaaaaa-boooommm!”, the device
channeled the power grid through it and exploded in front of the
General! Thrown back, the he crashed into
the ground, badly burnt and knocked out cold. “GQ!!!”, Verpine
cried, “Whiphid, the medikit, help the General!” But Whiphid was on
the case, “He’s OK, just a bit bruised and burnt. He’s as tough as
old boots the General. Give him some space and I’ll patch up his
burns.”
“Damn that R’Lac, he’s sent us here like fools! We should have
pursued him first before coming out here!”, Verpine cursed! “We’ll
wait for the General to recover before we do anything else.”
A few minutes later the General recovered from the booby-trap, “What
hit me?! I feel like I’ve been run down with a cell-baster-train!” After a few
more moments, he gathered to his feet to see what to do next. “Guess
we’ll have to go with Musta’s suggestion”, and giving him the nod,
watched as the sorcerer pulled forth his orb and began chanting the strange keltic symbols over it … “Cha d’fhuaireadh am
facal Beurla” … and holding the orb high, a massive blast of laser
energy came from the universal powers of the orb and struck the force-field!
However, as the energy source was the same power as the force-field,
it struck the shimmering wall with no effect, the power surge being
suppressed into the ground around the spacecraft, and with it Musta’s powers where drained in a single
tremendous blast! “Damnation, all my
powers went into that strike, now I’ll have nothing when we meet
Tack!”
The dogs where at a loss what to do next. Luckily, Whiphid began to
survey the surrounding area and noticed that one of the craters near
the back end of the landing pad had exposed a heavy claded cable.
Standing round the small crater, they let rip with their blasters,
eventually destroying the heavy plate and burning right through it.
With Verpine’s last incendiary blast, the cable split and the
spacecrafts force-field dropped, “Yesss, the crafts ours!”, he
cried, and without a second thought, jumped into the cockpit,
”mmmm, pretty advanced technology, a neural interface headband …
that could be a problem!”
The other dogs stood back, expecting Ver to take off and blast the
gates. “What’s the problem?” Quarren shouted, “Get the craft up and
blast those damn gates open!”
“It’s not that easy GQ! The ships interface is more advanced than
what I’m used too. It could fry my brain if I’m not careful. Give me
some time.” Verpine took a few minutes more to check the various
guidance and computer controls before placing the interface band on
his head, “Better to burn out than fade away, I guess, or turn
into a gibbering idiot!”, Verpine
muttered to himself, and with that placed the band on his head and
began feeling it probe him for commands codes and
instructions!
As Verpine’s hand quickly moved round the system controls, and with
his thoughts clear in his mind, he managed to gain control of the
ships basic command functions, “Right, let’s get this baby in the
air … hover mode engaged! … OK, flight plan, negative … surface
mode, left two clicks, three clicks forward, nice and easy … weapons
engaged, full charge to the forward array … target … main gates …
fire!!!” The ship barely moved when the blasters fired, a stealth
fighter well beyond what Verpine and the other dogs had seen before.
With a single blast focused on the gates, the force field and gates
where destroyed! Having done his job, Verpine quickly landed the
ship and took the headband off, a little sore for the whole
experience. “I’ll take the interface as well, just in case Tack
finds his way back to the spacecraft.”
Jumping out, Verpine was impressed with the damage he caused. The
way was clear to enter the D’Core mines! Strangely enough, after the
dust had all settled, there was no sounds coming from the mines. All
seemed too quiet as the bounty hunters walked deeper into the
compound.
Rock Faced Tack!
“Let’s make our way to the main office’s”, Quarren said, "There’s
bound to be a communication system there we can use to call in for
some transport.” A few minutes later the offices were ahead. The
encampment was surrounded by various chemical and fuel tankers, “Careful with your blasters lads, we could set this whole
place up if we hit one of those units!”, but before they could get
near the offices, a strange humanoid shape began to manifest before
them from the sand and rocks scattered about the area, growing
larger with each passing second … Rock Faced Tack!
“Damn you mutants, I’m going to make you pay for wrecking my
gates!”, and with that kept growing to over 20m’s in height whilst
forming large boulders with his hands to throw at the bounty
hunters.
“Stom, Tack’s bigger than we thought!”, the General called out, “You
know the drill dogs, blast him to the seven hells on Xoxoner!”, and
drawing his RPG launcher let rip with a couple of frag’s, only to be smashed
with a couple of boulders in return!
Whiphid, Verpine and Musta all opened up with their blasters,
finding Tack to be an easy target to hit. Shots to the body, legs
and arms seemed to cause little damage to the monstrous form of
Tack, and with each blast he suffered the wounds regenerated just as
quickly as the dogs caused them. “We’re not getting anywhere with
this”, Quarren thought, “Tacks too powerful even for our weapons to
do any harm!”
However, as Verpine missed with one of his shots and struck a fuel drum, the old chemicals began to pour onto the ground
around Tack, which Whiphid noticed he couldn’t absorb, and was even
causing him distress. “GQ, the chemicals, Tack can’t regenerate
because of the chemicals! Blast the tankers!”, which all the
dogs began firing wildly at all the fuel tanks around the compound.
It was true, the chemicals poured all over the encampment and began
to poison Tack, who took his regenerative powers from the land,
but now it was beginning to cause him harm. He started to shrink in
form, trying desperately to move around the spillage, but suffering
all the time from explosions of chemicals being thrown over him.
“Damn you mutant scum dogs, I’ll crush you like pebbles!”
With all the explosions going on about them and the chemical spills
spreading quickly into fires, the bounty
hunters realised that they had been a little bit over zealous with
blasting the tankers, “We’d best get out of here, the whole place is
turning into a toxic bomb!”, Verpine shouted as he ran towards the
main gates. However, Tack was still alive and unless they had proof
of the kill, they stood little chance of getting their bounty money,
but as luck would have it, or rather that Tack knew the place was going
to blow as well, he metamorphed into his moving sand form and began
quickly moving towards the main entrance as well!
“GQ, we need to put Tack down! He's trying to escape.
If he gets outside, we'll never be able to contain him!”, Whiphid called, quickly moving
between the flames, “Use your grenades to set the place off!” The
others didn’t need any prompting, throwing loads of frag and
incendiary grenades towards the sand mass that was Tack. Musta
managed to fumble one of his grenades, but luckily as they where
running away, the blast didn’t cause anyone any harm as it went off!
“Sorry guys”, Musta said, “think I’ll just make headway to the gates
before I do us anymore harm!”
Although the various grenade blasts didn’t have much effect on Tack, the large pool of
chemicals surrounding him ignited, trapping him in a pool of fire! As he burned within the chemical firepool, he couldn't hold his form
anymore and returned to his natural humanoid shape, “Help me,
dogs, help me … I’m
trapped! I give up, I’ll do what you say … help me!”
Verpine and Quarren stopped and looked at each other, “There’s no
way we can get to him or contain him if we every get out”, Quarren
shouted over the intense flames, “Put him down Ver with your
incendiary shot!” Ver didn’t need a second prompt and took aim at close
range, firing his number 3 incendiary cartridge at Tacks head,
“Sorry Tack, bosses orders!”
It was an easy hit for Verpine as the crippled body of Tack lay
in the flames and as he raised his hand for help, the tunneller beam cut through his fingers and split his skull in half,
“Job done GQ! Did you get that on the camera?” Quarren nodded, using
the head camera to zoom into Tack’s body as it started to melt in
the intense heat of the chemical fire, “There’s no way he could
every recover from that fire pool, let’s go Ver, the others are out
already!”
As the General was the last out of the exploding compound, choking
from the fumes and eyes watering with all the heavy smoke, he saw
the other dogs washing their heads down. “Over here GQ, we’ve got
some water left for you!” He quickly made his way to where the other
dogs where, feeling the cool water wash away all the fumes and crap
over his head. “I thought things couldn’t get hotter in this
infernal desert, but we’ve got our bounty, so lets get back to G’Hac …
and some payback for R’Lac!” All the dogs nodded, with Verpine
calling back to the group, “I’ll take the
spacecraft back to the city’s spaceport and arrange for some
transport to come and pick you guys up, see you a couple of hours!”
Verpine jumped into the ships cockpit and took off, heading towards
the city’s spaceport in less than 20 minutes, but did run into a bit
of a problem. The craft was reported stolen some time ago from the
neighbouring planet. However, when Verpine gave his
authorisation
code, they let him land in the security area, and led him to the GCC
office’s. A few hours later, he approached his team mates, who where
more than happy to get into the cooled APC.
“Seem’s R’Lac’s left the planet
boss, no-one knows where or why?”,
Verpine said as the dogs made their way back to the city, “we’ll
worry about him at a later date, I’m looking forward to getting our
payday at the GCC offices when you show them the vid-slug.” Quarren
nodded, “Yeah, once they see the evidence, they have to mark the
warrant as terminated and pay up!” The dogs all smiled, they had
suffered a few cuts and bruises, but nothing serious. They would
soon be home on the Doghouse above New Britain on Earth, which
suddenly became a welcome thought to all to get away from this dust
pit!
The End! |
Warrant
Sheet