CHAPTER FIVE
Gunna... a fighter
Thumps reverberated inside the cargo hold, followed by sounds of many small things pelting the hull. Without another warning, the ship began spinning sideways, throwing people off their sticky-boots. Gunna felt her body being pulled toward the hull at a frightening rate and she impacted it hard. Just as quickly as it started, the spin stopped as the ship’s side boosters fired, and Gunna saw people trying to get their bearings. Knowing there would be no better opportunity to escape, she pushed off the hull with her feet and promptly crashed into a red trooper, the impact causing her body to spin around several times before landing in the arms of someone she quickly realized was Fallen Night.
“I have you,” Fallen Night said as she boosted toward the main bulkhead door. As they traveled the distance, Gunna could hear a voice shout, “Guns!” followed by the sound of swords clashing. She twisted her head to try to see more, but Fallen Night’s left forearm obstructed the view, so she turned her head forward and realized they were almost at the doorway. Fallen Night stopped their momentum, let Gunna go, grabbed the door latch, twisted it open, then pulled out her sword, went behind Gunna, and cut the bindings. “Get out of here!” she shouted, but a split-second later, the room erupted in gunfire.
Gunna turned toward the shooting and saw the Colonel, pistols out, firing into the red troopers. Several of the reds, including Black Skull, were firing their own handguns, either back at Colonel Iravani or into Sjálfstæði’s warriors. A familiar set of colors caught her eyes and Gunna focused on Yellow Wolf booster-charging into several troopers, White Wolf in tow, cutting through red troopers whose reflective armor exploded in response. In just seconds Yellow Wolf’s sword was broken but White Wolf, backing up her twin, cut through the now damaged armor of three enemies, dispatching them; she then grabbed a sword from one of the dead troopers and gave it to Yellow Wolf.
Gunna wanted to help them and turned back to Fallen Night to ask for a weapon but recoiled in horror as her friend’s head shattered. Gunna was then struck by projectiles, causing her body to spin in the micro-gravity. She tried to stop the momentum, but the Firewood’s crew had disabled assistance controls in the suit--eliminating control-use of sticky-boots and boosters. She was little more than a floating target.
By chance, a trooper flying by ran into Gunna, causing her body to change planes and bump into the hull, where she used her hands to stop the spin. She next twisted to a position facing the fight and saw Major Karin Fjallhafsins in a battle with two red troopers. The Major’s sword was broken, and she was using the sharp end to stab at her enemies. Gunna looked around and saw Fallen Night’s sword, pushed herself to it, then grabbed it with her left hand.
Without the use of sticky-boots or boosters, she knew the only way to move around would be to use the environment. Gunna grabbed a hold-grip with the free hand and pulled herself toward the bulkhead near the corridor door. She then planted her feet and pushed off hard, aiming toward the Major. As Gunna flew, she felt several impacts to the armor, but there was little time to consider them as she crashed head-first into both of the Major’s opponents, driving Fallen Night’s sword through the neck of one. She then tumbled uncontrollably across the rest of the cargo hold, striking the bulkhead with enough force that she lost consciousness.
Gunna was jolted awake by a severe pain; she opened her eyes and saw a red trooper pulling at a short-sword lodged in her shoulder. Before she had time to react, Major Fjallhafsins flashed by, tackling the red trooper, the two disappearing from her view. Gunna looked for something to grab onto, reached out with her right arm, and caught sight of a deadly battle just meters away.
Colonel Iravani was reloading one of her pistols, having holstered the other. Gunna could see a headless Golden Fox floating a few meters away, sword still in her hand, a red trooper impaled upon it. Golden Fox’s best friend, Brown Bear, was violently chopping at a red trooper who was attacking one of the Ice Lions. Gunna’s heart raced as she wanted to help, but then sank when she caught sight of White Wolf boosting away from the battle with Yellow Wolf’s seemingly lifeless body in tow. Ignoring the pain, Gunna managed to flip over and pull herself forward with the right hand, grabbing anything and anyone nearby in an effort to get to the Runningwolves who were now huddled together at the far end of the room. As she moved through the battle, she saw several white and blue troopers floating along with at least half-dozen lifeless reds. She tried not to think about the losses and focused instead on getting to the twins, Gunna thought it her duty… for she was their wolf blood.
When she got to the Runningwolves, White Wolf was on her back against a corner area of the room, arms wrapped around her sister’s torso, Yellow Wolf’s back pressed up against her; Gunna could hear White Wolf’s muffled crying from behind her helmet’s face-mask, “Systir mín. Systir mín. Vaknaðu. Vaknaðu!” Yellow Wolf had several holes in her chest and Gunna knew she needed immediate medical assistance.
Gunna quickly worked to remove her own armored glove; it took several twists, but she managed it even with the sword in her left shoulder. With the gloveless hand, Gunna flipped open the latches around Yellow Wolf’s helmet and popped it off. Next she placed two fingers around Katý’s neck and checked for a pulse. It was faint, but she was still alive. “Systir þín er á lífi, elskan,” Gunna told White Wolf. She could see the young warrior sigh in relief. “We have to get her to a doctor, okay?” she told White Wolf, who nodded. “I can’t boost in this suit, okay? You’re going to have to get us out of here, elskan mín.”
With that, White Wolf secured an arm around her sister, locked the other around Gunna’s right, then boosted the three of them out of the cargo room and into the main corridor. After a few meters, she fired side boosters and dragged them into the medical facility where they were met by two doctors, both of whom looked startled.
“What the hell is going on?” demanded Doctor Ásdís Hjálms, a tall, slim, blond haired woman.
Gunna placed her good hand on Ásdís’s shoulder and said, “We’ve been attacked. No time to explain. Save her. And someone get this blade out of my shoulder… please.”
Ásdís acted quickly and pulled the floating Yellow Wolf into a partitioned room and disappeared, with White Wolf not far behind. The second doctor, Saga, quickly looked Gunna over and raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Glad to see you alive, Gunna, but I see what look like half-dozen holes in you. That’s apart from this sword stuck in your shoulder. I’m gonna have to operate.”
“No time. Yank this thing out of my shoulder, patch me up, and put me back in the fight,” Gunna barked.
Doc Saga placed a hand on the left side of Gunna’s face and said, “Elskan mín, I am going to have to operate on that shoulder. There is no way to get that sword out without cutting through muscle and bone.”
“No time for that, Doc. You got a cutting beam?”
“You want me to cut your shoulder off?”
“No, the blade! Cut it off as close to the skin as you can get.”
“Alright, alright, wait here,” Saga said, understanding, “I’ll get the cutter.”
Gunna realized she also needed something else and asked, “Can you see if you have an extra pair of sticky-boots too? Mediums… I have no control over the ones I’m wearing.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Doc Saga promised, then pushed off the hull and floated to the back of the medical bay.
As she waited, Gunna could hear a fight going on mere meters down the corridor outside the medical bay. Guns were being fired, with both men and women screaming, crying in agony, and she felt an overwhelming urge to get back in the fight to help her friends. Thankfully, Saga soon returned carrying a pair of boots and a cutting beam. “After I cut the blade, you can see if these will fit,” Doc said.
“Thanks,” Gunna replied, taking the boots in her good hand and letting them sit at her side.
“Lean back,” Saga told her and she complied, then Doc started removing as much of the sword as possible. It took only a few seconds for the blade with hilt to separate from the metal left in Gunna’s shoulder.
“Now give me a local anesthetic, so I can fight with the other arm,” Gunna told Saga.
“Right,” Doc Saga answered and grabbed a plunger.
Once the anesthetic was applied, the pain in her shoulder disappeared. Gunna moved her left arm up and down and felt nothing at all--no pain, nor her arm. She also didn’t have much mobility. The left arm would only move forward about half way before it refused to budge. It would make swinging a sword with two arms difficult, but she’d work with it. “Excellent work, Doc,” she told Saga, “now please help me get these boots off and the others on.” Doc Saga did as asked and within a minute the new sticky-boots were on… a bit large but at least she had something.
Gunna got up off the medical cot, thanked Doc, engaged the boots, then walked toward where the twins disappear earlier. She rounded the corner of the partition and saw Yellow Wolf unconscious on one of two beds, White Wolf hovering near, maintaining a solid grip on her twin’s left hand.
“Mamma!” White Wolf cried when she saw Gunna, the young warrior’s face full of grief. On any other day, Gunna would have comforted her, but this was an extraordinary situation and she needed a weapon.
“Your sword,” Gunna demanded, holding out her right hand. With a stunned expression, White Wolf silently handed over a sheathed sword. “Takk, elskan,” Gunna said, tucking the sword under the wounded left arm. “You have your combat knife, right?” she asked, making sure Kata had protection in case the fight came to her. White Wolf patted her leg armor, indicating she did. Gunna could see Yellow Wolf’s combat knife was also still attached. “Your sister would want you to use hers as well,” she told Kata. White Wolf looked at her sister’s blade and nodded. “Good,” Gunna said, kissed White Wolf on the cheek, then went to Yellow Wolf and kissed her on the forehead.
“You go back? You fight?” White Wolf asked in broken English.
Gunna looked at the grief-stricken warrior and offered her an empathetic look, “Yes. I go back. I fight.”
White Wolf embraced Gunna, holding her for several seconds. “Ég elska þig… úlfablóð… mamma mín,” she said, tears pooling around her eyes.
Gunna thought about asking Kata to leave with her, but knew White Wolf would not abandon her twin. “I love you… my little wolf blood,” Gunna told her instead, then, without hesitation, pushed off the hull, rounded the partition, past Doc Saga, and exited the medical facility… into a battle.
The red troopers had pushed Sjálfstæði’s warriors back into the corridor and Gunna worried the red armor she was wearing could create confusion, so she pulled out the pin in her hair, letting the mane flow freely. There would be no mistaking her for the enemy now.
“Gunna!” shouted a voice she recognized as Aurora’s. The green armored warrior boosted to her, “I’m with you!” she shouted through the helmet’s faceplate. “We got pushed out of the cargo hold, but I saw the Black Skull was still in there!”
“Let’s kill that limp-dick!” Gunna shouted.
“Grab onto me! I’ll boost us through!”
“My left arm is hell,” Gunna said, gesturing at the now sawed off blade in her shoulder. “I can’t grab onto you and hold my sword.”
Aurora sheathed hers, took White Wolf’s sword from Gunna, and said, “I’ll give it right back to you!”
Gunna wrapped her good arm around Aurora’s right shoulder and looked down the corridor where Blood Knife was in the process of pulling her blade out of a red trooper, the Major backing her up armed with a new sword. Gunna also saw Brown Bear fighting in a three-prong alliance with the Flaming Shark and Black Eagle. She couldn’t see any other Sjálfstæði warriors fighting but noticed the floating bodies of all Ice Lions. Despite their personal differences, they remained true to their warrior’s honor, falling together. Gunna wanted Black Skull to pay and barked, “Go!”
Aurora boosted past the corridor battle, through the entrance to the cargo hold, and inside where the fight had started. There they found Black Skull and Violet Rose attending to their wounded, helmets off, blue and red bodies floating nearby. Aurora stopped their momentum and Gunna landed on the hull in the new sticky-boots.
“My sword,” Gunna demanded, and Aurora handed her White Wolf’s sheathed blade. Gunna took it in her good hand, flipped it forward, and unsheathed the blade; the scabbard continued toward Violet Rose who deflected it with his sword.
“Our prisoner has fight left in her,” Black Skull said, impressed. “Should have stayed out of it. We didn’t come here to kill anyone.”
“Could have fooled me, limp-dick,” Gunna barked.
Violet Rose went left, and Aurora boosted to intercept.
Black Skull moved in the opposite direction, toward his helmet; Gunna ran at him, sword at the ready. She closed quickly, and Black Skull was forced to take up a defensive posture, holding his sword at the side with both hands. Gunna got within striking distance and swung White Wolf’s sword at an exposed section of his chest, but he calmly sidestepped the attack, slicing at her weapon with such force that it broke her grip. She tumbled, unarmed, trying to slow, but the boots lost their grip and Gunna’s body impacted the hull on the side of her wounded shoulder. Even with the anesthetic, her pain-receptors reacted and, for a brief moment, she lost all awareness… until Black Skull’s blade found its mark in her side. “Ball-sack!” she cried out in pain as her good hand instinctively grabbed his blade in an attempt to yank it away, but Black Skull held a tight grip. He then put a foot on the bulkhead, pulled back with great effort, and freed the sword, cutting through her right hand. He raised both arms up above his head, ready to cut Gunna in half but spun suddenly as gunshots came from behind him and projectiles impacted his armor. Gunna looked toward the sound and saw Colonel Iravani firing a pistol from the arch of the bulkhead doorway. Black Skull, already hit several times, boosted sideways in order to avoid more shots. The Colonel’s aim followed as she continued to fire, and Black Skull screamed as more projectiles found their mark; a moment later, he let go of the sword and raised his hands in surrender.
Gunna looked around for Aurora and found the green warrior circling with Violet Rose, both looking for an opening to kill the other.
“That’s enough!” the Colonel shouted, pistol extended. “Drop your sword!” she ordered, but Violet Rose didn’t listen, or couldn’t hear her, and continued circling with Aurora. He then attacked.
Aurora deflected two quick swings by Violet Rose and riposted a third, striking her opponent squarely in the left breast of his armor. It was an advantage for him as his torso’s reflective armor still functioned. It reacted, shattering Aurora’s blade at the tip, thrusting her arms back. Violet Rose then cut across his right to attack Aurora’s unprepared left, but the green warrior deflected his sword with her broken blade, then thrust the jagged tip into Violet Rose’s neck where it found weaker armor, then flesh, and ripped open the man’s throat. Violet Rose boosted backward, away from Aurora, left hand cupping the wound, stopping as if to reassess. His reprieve was short-lived as a shot from the Colonel’s direction pierced through his skull and brains, ending the fight.
Black Skull screamed in anger and boosted at full speed toward the Colonel, who turned and fired several times at the Sergeant; if the projectiles hit, they did not stop him as his armored body impacted hers with an ugly crunch, and the Colonel’s body tumbled backward, her pistol bouncing off the hull. The unarmed Black Skull next boosted toward Aurora, grabbing a short-blade fixed to the outside of his right thigh, then aimed it at Aurora in an upward stabbing motion. The green warrior swung her broken sword up to meet Black Skull’s attack, but he changed planes and Aurora’s swing missed while his short-blade found its mark inside Aurora’s inner left thigh. Aurora lost the grip on broken sword and grabbed for the blade inside her leg. Gunna knew her friend was not going to last long without help.
She saw Black Skull’s discarded sword was close by, against the bulkhead. She pushed off the hull, floated toward it, grabbed the sword with her right hand, then planted her legs on the hull, and pushed off, heading directly toward Aurora and Black Skull who were fighting for control of his short-blade. Gunna was upon them quickly and, with one hand, cut at Black Skull with his own blade. The strike glanced off his shoulder but managed to partially connect with the top of his unarmored head, taking a portion of his scalp and hair with it; he cried out in anger and pain.
Unable to stop her momentum, Gunna crashed into the inner hull with her good arm, and lost grip on Black Skull’s sword which bounced away. She twisted her body in time to see Black Skull pull the short-blade out of Aurora’s thigh, hold it above his head, and plunge it through the top of Aurora’s helmet, piercing her brain. A whimper escaped Gunna’s lips as she watched another friend die.
Black Skull did not hesitate to boost toward her, weapon at the ready. She had no weapon… her wounds were severe and strength was slipping away. She’d fought hard to get back to her girls, but death was coming… and she was not afraid.
Gunna thought of her daughters… and her friends, and the Runningwolf twins… then pushed off the hull and met Black Skull’s attack… glad that her childhood fears had been wrong. She would not die alone… Gunna was dying surrounded by people she loved…
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