Justin Case: Unlimited Power

The Search for Item 98527

The fall was just long enough for the crew to think about avoiding a sudden collision with the ground without being long enough for them to act on such thoughts. They hit the cold stone ground with a thud, a clatter, and a rumble of muffled curses. Those curses intensified as a moving slab of rock far above covered the hole, cutting off all light except that blasted orb, still floating above them.

After a few curses of her own, Suzie Grady, the second in command, did roll call. Ten "here's" later, the only missing person was Justin, even if she did need to call George's name twice. Jenkins and George pulled out their sensor suites while the rest turned on their lights and checked their gear.

The floors, walls, and even the ceiling seemed to be filled with ancient carvings. There were no obvious exits. Time to call Justin.

"Justin, we're in a large room with lots of carvings and no exits. Want to come join us, or should we go back to you?"

Justin's voice came back over the radio. "Not worth the time or the antimatter. See what you can discover down there, and I'll find a way to join you."

Suzie sighed, but George announced, "I've found a tunnel hidden behind a meter of rock! Seismic readings say that it connects to a large network of tunnels!"

Then Jenkins stepped on a button and darts sprayed the room.

***

Justin deactivated his radio and kept his eyes on the broad-shouldered, blue-skinned forms emerging from the foliage. They seemed to be wearing a primitive form of exoskeletons, a thick metal cage around their limbs and torsos. They carried assorted weapons, ranging from large machetes to a sonic cannon. The tech looked so old, Justin half expected to find that they were trailing power cords back to a generator somewhere.

"WHO ARE YOU?" the one in the lead repeated.

Justin gave a half-bow. "Justin Case, and you?"

"WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS HERE, JUSTIN CASE?"

The speaker was the biggest one, standing directly in front of Justin and holding what appeared to be a bladed weedwhacker. A glowing, bladed weedwhacker with a grenade launcher on the other end. Justin fiddled with his pockets as he eyed the group. There were at least five that he could see, and they were moving to surround him. The smallest of them was more than a half a meter taller than him.

Justin stalled, continuing to surreptitiously search his pockets.

"You know, some of this and a little of that. I just kind of go where adventure takes me."

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?"

Not a lot of patience, thought Justin, and probably even less of a chance to talk my way out of this.

Justin threw his arms to the sides, tossing a Tesla grenade at the person with the sonic cannon to his right and a linear attractor between two of the exoskeletons on the left. A spray of lightning and a localized EMP from the Tesla grenade fried the sonic cannon while the linear attractor threw the pair of hapless exoskeletons together, removing the machetes and the flechette gun from his list of problems. Justin jumped and activated his hoverboots to avoid a thrust from the leader's weedwhacker just in time to get speared by the last person's lightning lance. For the second time in a row, Justin's electrical defenses failed him painfully. Barely a minute after first gaining consciousness, Justin Case was out like a light.

***

"Nobody move!" shouted Suzie once the darts stopped firing.

Another rollcall confirmed the death toll. The darts had killed Jeffrey, Jimmer, and Judy. Punched right through their kevcarbon armor.