Galaxy's Edge Space Bar (archive)

[Myitt]

In the split second she has while Seran makes a show of demolishing a piece of the bar counter, Myitt draws her Dracon and pushes the bar seat back as she stands up, backpedaling half a step and firing the Dracon where Seran's arm had been...a split second before he swung it toward her.  It skims her jacket and makes a neat two inch slice into her upper arm before she can back up further, growling in pain and frustration.

<Jesus, the f*cker cut me!> her host wails unhelpfully.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Keirdan continues to cry, looking back and forth from Connor to Shal. His face begins to redden.


***

Shal's breathing becomes shallow, and begins to slow.

[Breekan1]

Breekan sets Shal down and grabs the medkit. His fur is nearly half-blackened now, and a demon's face seems to be drawn on the back of his head. He takes out a strange steel clamp, as well as several strips oozing with bright-green goo and a few small, black metal spheres with needles and protrusions sticking out at odd angles. He places Shal's stump in the clamp, and takes hold of the trigger. He bites his lip, and pulls. The clamp slams down on Shal's leg, the steel morphing to squeeze down as tight as possible, cutting off the bloodflow.

[Gumby]

Conner keyes his radio.

"We need a medic down at the bar, right now!" A moment later, a transport comes and a medic runs out.

"Medical Officer Jonathan Keyz, whats the situation?"

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Keirdan crawls to Shal and Breekan, and sits silently next to Shal.

***

Shal's skin is now glowing a fiery white.


***

Keirdan presses his hands against Shal's cheeks.


***

Shal's temperature begins to rise rapidly.

[Breekan1]

Something red flashes in Breekan's eyes. He grits his teeth, and grabs the bandages. "Try not to let this scar you, buddy," he says as he grabs Keirdan in one arm and wraps the bandages around his mouth.

****

A hole opens up on the  planetoid the Space Bar rests upon. The grass beneath it dies, and from it sounds the thudding of the cogs of a terrible, unseen machine. One-by-one, red and black figures fall silently to the ground. Their claws slice the air, and their howls lay waste to the wild life in the immediate area. They begin to run.

[Myitt]

Ignoring the cringing pain in her arm, just after Seran has swung at her Myitt turns and whips the nearby empty bottle of redin at Seran's face with her free hand, desperate to do something before he can make another swipe.  He's much taller, faster, and extremely well armed...she just has her drunken wits and a gun.  Her Dracon arm isn't down for the count, but it's starting to feel all tingly.  Blood drips down her arm, mostly soaking into her jacket and slowly, in little drops, dripping onto the sawdusty floor.

Focused on the fight, her heart hammering in her ears, she doesn't even have time to register that her friend is dying across the room, out of her line of sight.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Keirdan begins to struggle against Breekan, clawing at the table covering his mouth. Quickly realizing it's hopeless, he stops struggling, and begins to cry again, his body wracked with sobs.


***

Shal's temperature continues to rise.

[Breekan1]

"Don't make this tougher than you have to, kid!" Breekan shouts as he wraps the boys arms and legs. He ties the bandages tightly, and sets Keirdan (somewhat roughly) onto the ground. He looks through the assorted metal spheres and doo-dads, trying to find one to regulate temperature. The dim light of the basement makes reading damn difficult.

****
The runners continue on their course. The stars shine off their robin's egg blue eyes. Rather than run like soldiers or panicked convicts, they lope like dogs. Their howls kill everything nearby, but from afar sound like ragged, high-pitched giggling.

[Gumby]

The medical officer said.

"What is happening to that person? Do you know the cause?"

[Breekan1]

Breekan looks at the med officer for a moment. "If you wanna help, take the kid outside, keep anyone else from getting in here without permission and toss me a flashlight."

[Gumby]

Baffled, but obediant. The medic tossed breekan a flashlight, and picked up the kid.

"Come on kid, out we go." He said as he took him outside.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Keirdan struggles against the officer's grip. He bucks his entire body, kicking up towards the officer's face as hard as he can. Immediately upon exiting the bar, Keirdan hears the "giggling". He freezes and his face pales. He begins to gag.

[Breekan1]

Breekan unearths a small black ball streaked with red piping on one hemisphere and blue on the other. A series of grotesque symbols on the underside of it seem to make out the words "Thermal [illegible] Mechanism" in an alien language Breekan only halfway understands. He places it over Shal's heart, where it attempts to make its way through the flesh and into her heart, causing the meat, bone and cloth in its way to ripple past like milk.

The encroaching blackness on Breekan's fur begins to subside slightly. He leans back, and breathes deep. "Okay, sis. We're gonna be okay, I think. If this works. We just need to find you a boost pill and a blood capsule, and we should be out of danger."

*****

100 feet from the bar, the creatures descend upon a dully curious herbivore. Panic briefly fills its face as it begins to turn and run, before a series of loud, wet bursts sound. Blood and tissue begin to dribble from its orifices, and it stumbles left and right before its eyeballs explode. Before it hits the ground, the creatures have torn it to shreds. Their laughter sings through the air.

[Gumby]

Conner looked and saw some strange carnivores devour another animal.

"Um, Breekan? What are those things? I think they're laughing."