Into the Black

(Sana POV)

Damn it all! The flyer would have been here in the morning, and they could have left this Freemen outpost for their real base. With a flyer and harvester, they would have been able to step down dangerous jobs like raiding, and make the easy money grabbing the spice. And now everything was falling apart!

Blackstone was late checking in on the sentries outside, so she sent five men to find out what was going on. Four never made it back. What was left of the fifth was so badly mangled she could tell it was only the combat stims that were keeping him on his feet. One arm hung limply by his side, and blood flowed from a plethora of wounds, including one nasty one on his forhead.

“It was a shuttle, boss! Couldn’t see it, but I heard it. We just got outside the curtain, and saw Blackie lying there with ‘is throat cut. Then, next thing we know, shuttle opens up and launches a missile at us! Marko took it to the chest, there wasn’t anything left of the bastard from the waist up. We were all hurt, but the others, they tried to fire at the shuttle, and the blasters cut them down like dogs. I ran to the tunnel. Had to… let… you… know…” Towards the end, the raider’s voice cut off as the sims either stopped working, or were no longer able to counter the blood loss, and he slumped to the ground.

Sana was about to give orders when there was a loud bang echoing from the tunnels headed towards where the captives were being held, followed by gunfire. Damnit, they were under attack, and whoever it was had an assault shuttle in support. That was not good.

“What the hell are you waiting on? Get your asses in gear! Everyone suit up, and weapons hot, we’re under attack!”

The former Confederate commando grimaced as she watched the raiders attempt to come to some kind of order. It was taking them entirely too long to get into their armor and get the weapons ready. A couple had still been sleeping! Damned slobs. She missed the professionalism of her old team. Too bad that captain seemed to think letting him tap her ass was part of her duties as a commando. She only broke his jaw, but he was connected, so she was out with a dishonorable discharge.

Since then, work had been hard to find, so she had eventually ended up a raider, and this time, when someone got handsy with her, she just killed the bastard and took his stuff. That was how she’d come to be the boss of this band of misfits. The old boss didn’t take no for an answer, and tried to drug her. Too bad (for him) she had full toxin screens implanted, and the military hadn’t ripped them out when they let her go. She made the bastard choke on his own cock before she killed him.

FINALLY, the men were armed and ready to fight. Of course, Sana hadn’t been idle this whole time. She’d had the first three guys who were ready for combat guarding the main door into the sleeping area they’d taken over as a barracks. Now that the whole crew was ready to fight, she six of them towards the prison area to check on the guys who still hadn’t responded to the radio, and sent the other four to guard the harvester and make sure no one took off with their payday.

They had almost made it to the prison chamber when gunshots were heard over the radio, and the bastards started screaming about being attacked. Then, everything went silent once again. That, of course, had everyone on edge. Who the hell was attacking them?

She was about to give the order to push forward when she saw a glint in the air. “COVER!” And with that, she dove behind an outcropping, hoping to hide from the worst of the grenade’s blast. She was surprised when it turned out to be a flash-bang, but her combat augments filtered out most of the light and sound as they were supposed to, leaving her unsteady from the blast, but uninjured and still able to fight. Her men, however, were cut down in a hail of gunfire. Poor bastards never had a chance.

Damnit! At this rate, she’ll lose everything, all because some damn raider scum couldn’t put down a handful of fighters. Peeking out from behind the rock that covered her, she saw five people, all dressed as Freemen. One of them was one of the prisoners they had kept tied up! Fuck, that was why none of them had resisted too much once the killing was done. They knew others were due back soon!

She ducked back as a bullet ricocheted off the stone in front of her. Fuck, if there were Freemen here, then she couldn’t take on however many warriors they had. Especially since some had gone to the Harvester, and were likely making their way back now to flank her. There was only one way she got out of this alive. Calling out at the top of her lungs, she said, “I demand an honor fight!”

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(Mirikon POV)

“I demand an honor fight!” Looks like the last surviving raider was trying to do something desperate in order to get out of this with her skin intact.

I looked over to Shanni, and said, softly, “Honor fight?”

She whispered back, a look of disgust on her face, “If one commits an offense in sietch, then one can demand a trial by combat. By tradition, so long as a Freemen warrior hears the claim, the fight must be honored. Damn it!”

I sighed, and said, “What are the rules for an honor fight?”

“It is a duel, one on one, skyclad, without armor or shields. You may use no weapon other than a single blade. The duel can be to first blood, until one yields, or to the death.”

“I see. So she’s hoping she can beat one of us in a knife fight to at least get out of this alive and free. Well, that’ll make things easy.” Shanni did not look happy with this, so I said, “If she wins, we let her walk home alone in the desert. That’s pretty much a death sentence, anyways, but it is so much easier to arrange an ‘accident’ far from prying eyes, if that’s what you like.”

That calmed her down somewhat, so I began pulling off my armor. ‘Skyclad’ meant butt naked, so that’s how I was going to do it. Also, it was nice to get out of the suit for a while. I kept Widowmaker in my hand when I stepped into the hallway, watching as the knelfi woman, also naked, stepped out as well. I took a moment to look her over, and smiled lecherously. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy taking you down.” Let her underestimate me, thinking I’m just a guy who can’t think because of the blood leaving his brain for other places. I saw her look of disgust, and just smiled. She had experience with that kind of guy, it seemed. Good. Anger made people careless.