PSUFF - A Bleeding Planet

[colohue]

[COLOR="black"]Chapter Five
Overrun


She woke up with a massive headache across the left side of her temple. She could feel the warm ooze of blood dripping down her face. Her shoulder was cut, she could feel the blood down her arm and there was a definate graze on her knee. Damn her for wearing a skirt.

Tiffany Firebrand raised her head and instantly felt the crunching agony run through her head. Fighting through the pain she continued to rise until she reached her feet again. Her head protested violently and her right knee also made it's objections felt.

She made to gather her bearings, unable to piece together where she might be. She had left the party early, Lucieus had blanked her completely after all.

She was at the spaceport. Why had she wanted to go to Parum? She couldn't go now anyway, the shutters were down. Which meant that the Colony was under attack. Who would want to do that though? Feeling strangely faint she put a hand to the nearest pillar to steady herself.

As she did the shutters on the Moatoob gate burst open in a shower of rock and dust. The sound sent Tiffany down to her knees.

From the wreckage came several figures, all of them Beasts. Tiffany's eyes however, were drawn to the lone female standing at the front.

Her skin was dark, her eyes emerald green and lizardlike. Her face was long, this and stern. Her hair was blood red and gathered up in a bunch on the back of her head. She wore a sleeveless white button up shirt, together with plain black trousers and boots. On her forehead was a purple band, Tiffany knew from her training that it denoted rank. What really caught Tiffany's attention was that this Beast was armed to the teeth.

"Halt where you are!" she commanded when she spotted Tiffany. As the woman drew a handgun and a dagger Tiffany dived behind the pillar, only for the woman to throw her dagger with such force that it smashed into the pillar, slicing across Tiffany's face. She fell to the ground, slipping straight back out of consciousness.

-

"Tiffany. Tiffy wake up."

Whispers in the night. A familiar voice. Tiffy? Had he come back for her? Don't open your eyes.

"Tiffany Firebrand get your arse up now!"

Firebrand? That's not my name. No, that is my name. Not his, mine.

"Lucy," she muttered through the fog of her own mind.

"Praise the Holy Light, you're alive," she recognised Lucy's voice now and recognised also the feeling washing over her body. She forced her eyes open and smiled as she felt her blood returning to her body.

"Hello little girl, you just made a fairly big mistake."

Lucy reacted with the speed of a bullet. She leapt into an attack stance and threw a fireball bigger than herself at her enemies. The Beasts scattered in search of cover, with the woman shouting commands of; "three here, two go round to pincer her. You, come with me!" and she ran down the stairs towards the Guardian Barracks.

Lucy made another attack, this time sending a wave of ice that ripped a bench apart to freeze a Beast in it's tracks.[/COLOR]

[colohue]

[COLOR="Black"]Chapter Six
Under The Rubble


There was utter silence in the devestation that was General Lucieus Kain's office. Part of the ceiling had caved in, the lights were all broken. The only light came from the faint glow of the stars outside the heavily cracked window.

The first sound to break the silence was a deep male voice as it burst into laughter.

This was closely followed by a female voice doing exactly the same thing.

This was followed by a second male voice, this one considerably lighter, saying, "will you please shut up!?"[/COLOR]

[Kitsadoodles]

Once again, your story is amazing. I like it a lot, keep it up! This story is gonna get somewhere fun!

[colohue]

This is very strange for me. I usually plan ahead what's going to happen. Chapter four came from me going on a walk with mr poo_fly.

Then it changed when I wrote it. I honestly have no idea what's going to happen next, I'm quite excited.

[nomercy]

I'm sorry I over-looked this before. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.

[colohue]

yay, audience went +50%.

[Poo Fly]

loving it, easily one of the best stories ive read in a while

[colohue]

[COLOR="Black"]Chapter Seven
Rescue Mission


"Tafi, where's Rejik?"

"I am unsure. Are you aware of the location of General Kain?"

"No but at a guess I'd say start with his office!"

Vladimir burst through the doors of the kitchen and sprinted down the hallway with Tafi following close behind. They passed the rubble of the ballroom entrance, shooting past it without really seeing it.

Kain's office was thankfully on the same floor. They turned the corner to the correct corridor and heard laughing straight away. They both paused for a moment in shock.

"Reji!" Vladimir called through the crushed doorway, then flinched when part of the ceiling gave way up the path.

Neither of them were particularly surprised when it was actually the voice of Lucieus that answered. However, Vladimir was a little surprised that his first words were, "I am going to kill that bloody android!"

Wondering what Lucieus could possibly blame on him now Vladimir decided to cut his losses and scarpered back towards the ballroom. Tafi began to calmly shift some of the collapsed wall out of the doorway.

Vladimir turned the corner towards the ballroom again to find that many had now escaped through the kitchen as he and Tafi had. With nobody to save here Vladimir continued onwards. As he turned the next corner he saw the elevator at the far end of the corridor open. Three beasts emerged. Vladimir would have been glad of the assistance, but the presence of the rifles in their arms confused him. That was until the first volley hit him in the chest, launching him back down the corridor. Screams came from the Guardians. They were trapped and they were unarmed.

Many shots were fired over Vladimir as he laid in a daze. Grav bullets. Cheap. Smart though. Wasn't going to work though. Not on this android. He would let them get close then leap up and surprise them. They were in a good position now. Vladimir twitched in the perfect failure to rise.

There were more shots fired as Tafi came to the corridor to try and block the Beasts off. The Guardians from the ballroom scarpered back into the kitchen.

Tafi had a saber and handgun ready, but the Beasts took her down quickly. The first hit struck her in the face, sending her spinning away and bouncing off the rear wall. The next shot hit her in the back as she went down.

However, when the Beasts made to invade the kitchen they quickly encountered multiple angry Guardians bearing kitchen knives. Only one escaped the pounce, running backwards away from the kitchen and all of the Guardians. He took several shots towards the kitchen before his back encountered something solid and curved. Then Rejik headbutted him and he blacked out.[/COLOR]

[colohue]

[COLOR="Black"]Chapter Eight
Sweat Marks And So On


The elevator rattled and shook as it bumped its way downwards. Aroma sat on the floor and rubbed small circles on either side of her head. Strangely, it didn't help.

Rejik had a lot of experience with alcohol. As such he had developed a method of sending electric discharge through the body, seperating and dispelling alcohol from the bloodstream. Nothing however, could defeat the headache that followed. It also resulted in a great amount of sweat and a horrific thirst. It was an emergency treatment after all. Originally, it was meant to expel viruses from the central intelligence onto data storage discs. Rejik was a master adapter.

Nevertheless, Aroma's dress was now stained with sweat. Sixty thousand meseta this dress had cost her. Then she had had to customise it a little. She hated sewing, it was a woman's job. Worse was that sweat always gathered in the hairiest places of the body. Since she had been careful to look her best only one part of her body, besides her head, had any real hair on it and it wasn't a place she liked to attract attention to. However, judging by the fact that Lucieus was very carefully not looking at her, he had already seen. He shouldn't have been looking in the first place.

"Rejik, is it just me or does the spaceport look a little different?"

Rejik joined Lucieus at the elevator window. It looked as though the Linear Line had passed through it. Chairs were broken, pillars were broken, even walls were broken. It was swarming with Beasts, who seemed to be having trouble with somebody over by the Linear Line gate. Rejik zoomed in, but the angle of the elevator defeated him.

"I'm ready if you are Louie."

Lucieus pressed the button for the spaceport before turning to face Aroma, who was sat on the floor looking miserable.

"Are you armed?"

She lifted her head to regard him with a groan. She spent a moment working out what Lucieus had said, then dragged herself up and answered with a quiet, "turn around."

This confused Lucieus, who paused for a moment in the attempt to work out her reasoning. With Aroma getting aggravated over the lack of turning Rejik simply grabbed Lucieus by the shoulders and spun him around.

"You too, Reji."

"What," Rejik protested, "but I've already seen-"

"Do it."

Grumbling, Rejik complied.

"We're about to reach the spaceport. I hope you're ready."

Cassius in the left hand, Angelous in the right. Headache causing her immense pain and sweat marks causing her immense embarassment. Well, as ready as possible.[/COLOR]

[colohue]

[COLOR="Black"]Chapter Nine
The Motauri


They entered the scene of devastation with no idea what to expect. They plotted a little, but they couldn’t really think of much. Aroma stopped on the fourth floor, while Rejik and Lucieus went down one extra floor, switched elevator and rose up to the fourth floor from that side. The only plan they had was to rescue whoever was surrounded at the Linear Line. Aroma was to provide cover from this side and, should she come under fire, she could fall back to the elevator.

Rejik and Lucieus moved quickly and quietly towards the Linear Line. They paused as they reached parallel to the Moatoob gate. There were several Beasts arrayed there, on the lookout for Guardians undoubtedly. One Beast stood out from the rest. He was wearing a ceremonial robe instead of the typical Beast apparel. His hair was held back from his face with the red hair band that denoted rank amongst his people. The hair band was different however. It held a large, round Ruby in place on his forehead and kept his long, red hair running down his back out of his eyes. His eyes were horrible. Their beetle black colour contrasted sharply with his white as snow skin. This gave the impression that a six foot ghost had appeared in the Guardian’s Colony. Lucieus recognised him instantly. In truth, a face like that is impossible to forget. His name was Gorthus Motauri, chief sorcere of the Motauri family.

He seemed to be the major source of damage in the place. Some of the spells he was launching across to the Linear Line looked immense.

As planned it was at this point that Aroma provided her distraction. She dodged out of her cover and took three quick shots. After the first Beast was hit Gorthus turned towards the sound and threw up his right arm. The resulting wave of energy swallowed the other shots and heavily dented the wall above the Parum gate. Knowing that Aroma would be safely heading down in the elevator, Lucieus and Rejik moved quickly on to the Linear Line. Gorthus moved his troops to hunt Aroma.

They dashed into the Linear Line, Twin Sabers drawn and spent less than a second examining what they were up against. None of the Beasts were capable of defending themselves against Guardians of this rank and calibur. It was over before any of them even knew what was coming. As the final body fell the boys with blades were left staring at the exhausted bodies of Lucy Harliter and Tiffany Firebrand.

“Keep quiet,” Lucieus commanded in a whisper, “once Aroma’s task is finished we have to go out fighting. Gorthus is in charge by the looks of things so we have to take him out.”

“Gorthus?” questioned Tiffany, “Gorthus can’t be in charge. Tylian is here. Gorthus shouldn’t even be here.”

“Well who do you think has been throwing all those spells this way? I haven’t seen Tylian but I’ve seen Gorthus. He is the one in charge.”

“I saw Tylian.”

“You were wrong.”

“Excuse me,” Rejik interjected, “if you’d both quiet down a little. Perhaps they’re both here.”

“No,” Lucieus answered, returning to his whisper, “if both his generals were here Aramus would be too.”

“So what if he were here?”

“You’ve seen Aramus!?”

“Again, Louie, quiet down.”

“Well have you seen him or not?”

“I don’t even know what he looks like.”

A violent outcry came from outside, followed by the sounds of an even more violent explosion. The four of them moved out to the attack and as all abruptly fell silent they all had to stop and stare.

A great pillar of rubble and flame had burst out of the far elevator and, stood before it with arms raised, Gorthus had frozen it in time.

“What are you doing!?” Aroma screamed as she ran towards them from the nearer and more intact elevator, “kill him while he’s distracted!”

For a moment the explosion continued with a sudden and almost deafening roar before the sorcerer regained control. At the same time his men started firing from multiple positions between the frozen explosion and the Moatoob gate. Aroma threw herself flat to the ground and Lucy rushed towards her. Rejik and Tiffany led the charge towards the other side, with Lucieus not far behind.

Their deflections from their daggers and sabers bought them enough time to find cover near the Neudaiz gate, but not much further. A strange thing was happening with the explosion. It seemed to be moving backwards, returning to how the elevator was before it exploded. They had to move fast before Gorthus could get back into the fight.

Aroma and Lucy provided the opening for them. Lucy loaded Aroma’s Angelous handgun with her Grants magic. The next shot from the Angelous was a mammoth blast of light energy that literally disintegrated the Beasts it was shot at.

It was a famous move amongst the Guardians, the Beasts stared.

They reached the Motauri gate, rather unfortunately, as more Beasts made their entrance. Even more unfortunately, as more Beasts made their entrance. Even more unfortunate was the arrival of Aramus Motauri himself.

Rejik halted to take on the snarling Beast while Lucieus made to flank him and Tiffany continued on towards Gorthus.

In the first swing of his behemoth of a sword Aramus bore Rejik to the ground. Seven foot of muscle with the texture of granite was not wasted on him. Lucieus came under attack himself in moments. Lucy lined herself up to throw fire into the masses while Aroma moved up to support Tiffany.

Rejik rose to face his yellow-eyed opponent again. He used his twin sabers to move in to the attack, but was forced to bring them back to defend against another brutal swipe.

As their blades clashed and Lucieus struggled to defend himself Aroma finally landed a hit on Gorthus. As he dropped to the ground, trying to stem the blood coming from his arm, the pillar of fire burst outwards with a deafening roar. The Colony was showered with rubble.

In the ensuing shock Rejik hooked a saber under Aramus’ sword, then dragged him stumbling forwards so that their heads smashed together. Neither of them went down, but Rejik felt better for having got a hit in. Aramus’ response was to head butt Rejik back. Rejik went down, losing his still-hooked saber in the process.

With Gorthus down and his entourage sporting dagger wounds of the fatal variety Tiffany moved in to help the overwhelmed Lucieus.

Aroma paused with her head still swimming to survey the scene around her, Lucy had gone down, a victim to the violently scattered debris of the elevator explosion. Her forehead was bleeding profusely. She might have been dead, Aroma couldn’t tell. Rejik was down too. Dodging and blocking Aramus’ sword, but leaving himself open to equally damaging kicks.

With the arrival up the stairs of a female Beast the Motauri considered the battle over. As a unit they returned through the gate. Aroma sent a rain of bullets after them but the female’s daggers covered their back effortlessly. In response she launched one of her daggers, but Aroma’s aim sent it launching back, plunging deep into the Beast’s leg. The last thing Aroma saw before the airlock closed was a look of absolute hatred aimed her way.

Then the Guardian Barracks exploded.[/COLOR]