Outlaws (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 2)

Chapter 3

Bunker stood at the front of the entrance to the hallway, the twins and Dante flanking his back. He hoped that Koil could distract the guns enough for them to make their escape. They had already flown in under fire, and that had been hard enough. Bunker wasn't sure the Renegade could take another ride like that. And he had been especially annoyed when the Phantom Drive hadn't worked, so that was out as an option. Then, he was snapped out of his thoughts by a voice coming over his radio. It was Nolun's voice, and he could heard heavy breathing. "Nolun to crew of the Renegade...captain is secure. I repeat, captain is secure." Bunker's eyes widened and a smile spread across his face, and Elicia and Edvard cheered and jumped for joy, while Dante clenched his fist in victory. They barely had any time to celebrate before bullets began to pepper the wall next to their heads, and Bunker ducked behind the corner, and began to shoot his heavy gun back at the incoming forces, the chaingun thudding in his hands as he grit his teeth and focused. Dante was swinging his sword back and forth, cutting any bullets that flew at him in half, and defending the twins behind him, who were firing back with their pistol and shotgun. Bunker was figuring out a plan to cover Nolun and Andress's escape, when something silver flew past his head, and he turned to see a small explosive charge fly into the elevator shaft behind them. His eyes widened and he shouted. "DANTE!" Dante whipped his head around and saw the charge fly in, and dove to grab it, but the fiery explosion consumed the shaft before he could reach it in time.

After Nolun sent out his message to the crew, he picked up Andress, her rifle resting in her human hand, and began to shuffle towards the lift. Then, he heard gunfire coming from up the shaft, and just as he was about to look at Andress, a small metal cylinder came clunking down the shaft and landed making a small beeping noise. Nolun quickly grabbed Andress and threw the both of them down to the floor, covering her body with his, and the explosion echoed through the small area. After the smoke cleared, Nolun sat up in his now slightly singed jacket and looked at Andress below him, who was coughing. "You alright?" He asked, then Andress gave a weak thumbs-up. "Stellar." She said, and Nolun keyed his comlink. "Bunker? You copy?" There was static, and then Bunker came through, slightly distorted. "Yeah, I'm here. You two alright?" Nolun sighed in relief. "We're a little fried, but we're ok." Bunker's voice came back through. "The shaft's completely destroyed. You're going to have to find another way out!" Nolun cursed and then answered back after a while. "Bunker...head back to the Renegade. If we're not back in 10 minutes...get out of here. Got it?" There was silence over the line, then Bunker finally responded back. "...roger that. Good luck." The line cut off, and Nolun picked up Andress again. "C'mon Red. We're not out of this yet." Andress groaned in pain, then chuckled. "I hate that name, you know." The two trudged toward the hallway that lead to the other lift, and Nolun smirked. "Well, if we get out of this, you'll have enough energy to punch me later."

Gottlieb was sitting in his office, and watching the entire affair through the cameras at his desk. The entire maximum security level was surrounded, and they had no way of escaping. The other Slingers were already leaving the lift entrance and were heading back to the hangar. Their little surprise that Gottlieb had left for them would come later. For now, he was focusing on Lovecraft and Metreo. He was looking forward to the torture that would come to them when they were eventually caught. He would put Metreo through as much that Lovecraft did, then give her even worse pain, but not enough to kill of course. The High Monarch did expect them to be alive when they arrived, after all. Then, Gottlieb saw something that made him pause. The two of them weren't heading for the lifts, as he originally thought they would. Instead, they were walking towards the emergency evacuation area. No...they couldn't be...Gottlieb quickly switched cameras and saw that Metreo was pressing buttons on a console, and a small circular hatch opened on the wall he was facing. Gottlieb slammed his hand on the desk. "NO!" He shouted out loud. They were going to use an escape pod to get away. That's why their crew was heading back to the ship. They were going to pick them up. Gottlieb gritted his teeth, then a thought went through his head. A grin broke out across his face, which then grew into a large smile. They weren't getting away this time. He ran out to the command deck and turned to the captain. "Captain, activate the machine." The Captain looked bewildered and looked at Gottlieb. "A-Are you sure that's a good-" "I SAID DO IT!" Gottlieb yelled angrily, and the Captain quickly ran off to one of the technicians. "Charge up the Engine with maximum power!" The technician nodded and began to type out commands on the console, and pulled down a lever.

In the bowels of the ship, the large ion engines began to rev up, and a large circular device with several rings attached to it began to come to life, while the rings spun around and rotated. They started slow, but then went faster, and faster, until a blue light began to glow in the middle of the rings. A whirring sound could be heard, and an alert went out across the ship, with a robotic voice saying the warning. "Attention all crew. Spatial Warp imminent. Strap yourself down immediately. Seal all open doors. Warp in T-minus 120 seconds." While Dante, Bunker and the twins were running down the hall back to the Renegade, they heard this message echo along with all the alarms. Elicia looked at everyone slightly worried. "What do you think that means?" Dante muttered as he ran ahead of them. "Nothing good." They made it to the hangar, and quickly made it inside the Renegade. Bunker and Dante ran to the cabin, and started the ship's engine. "Maximum thrust, Dante!" Dante nodded and pushed the lever forward, and the dropship's large engines boosted forward, and the ship blasted through the hangar's blast doors, managing to barely scrape through the crater. Then, as they flew out, they immediately turned straight around, and Bunker keyed Koil on his comlink. "Koil, meet us underneath the ship!" Koil came through with sounds of laserfire in the background. "I thought the plan was for us to book it after you got out!" Bunker shook his head. "Things got complicated, so now Nolun and Andress are leaving in an escape pod. We're gonna pick them up, we need you to cover us." Koil responded, his voice confused. "I don't think I need to...the guns just stopped firing." Bunker looked up and and saw the large cannons were indeed immobile. "Doesn't matter. We'll keep going. The Renegade and the Swift flew down towards the bottom, when the Independence Zero began to glow. Then, it seemed to stretch forward for a moment, and seemed to fly off at an incredible speed, then vanished completely. Bunker looked up, shocked, and looked over at Dante, who also seemed to be bewildered. They sat in silence at the empty space in front of them, and then Koil's voice came over the radio. "No...impossible..."