[I MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT, PALADIN! THE LANDS OUTSIDE THE GREAT U.S. OF A. ARE FILLED WITH THE ENEMIES OF AMERICA! THE GREATEST THREATS TO THE MIGHTY U.S.A. ARE THE COMMUNISTS, THE FASCISTS, THE GAYS, THE HERETICS, THE MUTANTS, AND THE XENOS!
IT IS EASY TO OVERLOOK THE XENOS SINCE THEY ARE LAST ON THE LIST, BUT DO NOT BE FOOLED, PALADIN! THE XENOS ARE EVERYWHERE OUTSIDE AMERICA! TO FRATERNIZE WITH THEM WOULD BE TREASON!]
“Of course, great PAST, it is surely as you say! All hail America! Down with the Xenos!”
- Lazlo Smith, Level 31 Patriotic Paladin, Fireside Chats with PAST
With Raylan back in formation we started to explore the remaining tunnel. It led us upwards, occasionally narrowing enough that we had to walk single file, while in other places it broadened to ten or even fifteen feet across. We’d traveled several hundred yards when Raylan suddenly held up his hand for us to stop.
Without waiting for a reply, he slipped quietly off into the darkness ahead. I strained but couldn’t make out whatever he was seeing – I was behind Elin and her Light was in my eyes.
I fought back a sense of irritation at not being able to contribute, but I was the one who’d asked him in the first place. I need some quieter attacks. A stronger version of the sonic capacitor mod, maybe. Can’t do anything about it now, though.
His Light went out, and the tunnel was abruptly twice as dark. He carefully made his way forward, disappearing into the black. I waited, tensely, for a few moments.
There was a soft thunk, then a choked inhalation, followed by the thud of bodies hitting the floor. It really wasn’t that loud, though if the orcs had been wearing metal armor it would have turned out differently. If anything, their furs probably softened the sound of their bodies landing on the rocky floor.
Elin and I moved forward, finding the boys standing over the bodies of two more orcs, illuminated by the glow of two torches crudely jammed into crevices in the rocky walls. A large, bloody spike descending from the ceiling marked where Zaire had impaled the first one, and the other one looked like it had been run through with a spear from behind. I looked at the body, then at Raylan, then back at the body.
Raylan explained.
My compliment was sincere. That was a nasty Skill, especially for a Knife Fighter. It would help him take down larger monsters with his relatively small weapons. Even though each of his daggers had a foot-long blade, they were still quite short compared with most swords.
I looked around, but didn’t find any obvious clues as to why the orcs were stationed in this particular spot. Leaving the torches and bodies where they were, we moved on, more cautiously than before. It wasn’t long before we encountered another pair of torches, hammered into the walls like the first, but without any guards.
Ahead, the tunnel curved around out of sight. As we rounded the turn we found ourselves in front of another junction leading out of a larger area perhaps thirty or forty feet across. Before us, the path split in two directions, one illuminated by another pair of torches. Raylan and Elin led the way towards it, none of us noticing the dark opening to our far right, nearly behind us, until it was too late.
WARGH!
We spun as a pair of howling orcs charged us. My eyes widened in shock as the first massive figure charged right past me and smashed into Elin’s hastily-raised shield, the impact of the seven-foot-tall-plus monster flinging her off her feet. I had no time to see what happened to her next, as the second orc was almost on top of me, an axe in each meaty hand.
BOOM! click-click BOOM! click-click
I fired the first shot entirely on reflex, taking the creature in the gut and punching through its barrier. It staggered for a moment and I let the recoil lift my barrel until the red dot of my sight was over the thing’s ugly, snarling face. My second shot snapped its head back at the same time as an Earth Spike appeared directly in front of me, causing me to leap back in alarm.
The dying orc’s momentum carried it into the spike, which caught its collapsing body in the upper thigh, the corpse twisting around from the impact as it crashed to the ground. I whirled around to see Raylan trying to roll an even-larger-than-average orc off of the prone form of Elin. To make matters worse, the huge creature was wearing a thick metal cuirass that added to its weight. The armor hadn’t saved it from the dagger driven into its spine just below the skull, but it was making it impossible for Raylan to move.
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WARGH! WA-A-ARGH!
More orcish screams echoed out of the torch-lit tunnel ahead. Zaire and I dashed to help Raylan, but even as we bent down to grab the orc’s body, several more sprinted into sight. Shit, we can’t get this thing off of her until we deal with them! We have no choice!
I grabbed a startled Zaire and yanked him back, thrusting him towards the entrance tunnel, then yanked on Raylan’s shoulder.
BOOM! click-click
We retreated back the way we’d come in as I emptied my magazine, putting each shot into the head of a different orc. They didn’t all stay down, but several were blinded as my shots pierced their barriers and punctured their eyes, while one took the blast in the throat and collapsed.
Zaire’s spikes struck again and again, tearing through attackers as I frantically shoved shells into my magazine. Raylan’s blades were bloody to the hilt as he danced between the bigger, slower monsters, striking vital points left and right.
THUD THUD THUD THUD
Beyond the wild melee I spotted a towering orc, much larger than the others, dressed in full plate. It was stomping towards us behind two other massive brutes, each of which was wearing a breastplate and helm and carrying a massive two-handed axe. The last of the ordinary orcs fell beneath Raylan’s blades and Zaire’s spikes as the menacing trio advanced into the room.
I fired two quick shots into the head of the one on the right, but its barrier ate the first. The second snapped its head back momentarily, and I saw dents appear in the metal helm, but the beast just shook its head roughly and resumed advancing with a bone-chilling roar. Raylan blurred as he Quick-Stepped into the left-hand orc, but his strike was deflected by its barrier before a meaty leg lashed out with surprising speed, slamming into him and hurling him back.
The ceiling of the tunnel was low enough that my target couldn’t raise its axe overhead, instead drawing it back, clearly intending to thrust with the wicked spike on the top. I dropped my aim down, past the armored chest, and put two shots into its massive thigh. Protected only by furs, my shots tore chucks of flesh out of the limb, and the orc stumbled but somehow stayed upright. As I backed up, I fired another round into its other leg.
Why won’t this piece of shit go down?!
The enormous, fully-armored orc had grabbed my target by the neck and was using the badly-wounded orc as a massive meat shield. Instead of slowing down, it was actually accelerating towards me. An Earth Wall erupted from the ground in front of me, then exploded into shrapnel as the orc demolished it like a battering ram. I tripped over something and stumbled, nearly falling.
My jaw dropped in astonishment as the orc knight, or whatever it was, lifted the dying orc entirely off the ground and thrust it explosively forward, turning it into a three-hundred-plus pound projectile. My last shot went off, but I had no idea where it landed. I was hit hard enough to feel my barrier shatter, my body flying back as I lost my grip on my shotgun and it went spinning away.
I went down hard, my armored back slamming into the rocky ground before my head bounced off of it, my vision going black for a moment even with my helmet absorbing most of the impact. My body scraped along the ground as I slid for several feet before coming to a stop. Gasping for breath, I tried to get my bearings as I forced myself to sit up.
Before I could move, an enormous green hand slammed down onto my calf, pinning me in place. The crippled orc was somehow still alive. It had stretched out and grabbed me with one hand, and its grip tightened painfully as it started to pull me back towards it. I could hear my leather armor creaking under the strain as the orc started to crush my leg.
I screamed, ripping the sword from the sheath strapped to my thigh and hacking awkwardly at the creature’s hand. It bellowed in agony as I sliced deep across the back of its hand and the pressure on my leg eased. The orc drew its injured arm back, rising up on its forearm as it tried to lever itself forward towards me.
Fucking DIE already!
I scrambled to my feet, dodged an attempted grab, and kicked it hard in the head with my heavy boot. I yelled in pain as the shock went through my injured leg, but it didn’t feel like I’d broken anything. The blow briefly stunned the orc, and more importantly, it knocked the creature’s already dented helm off. I brought my sword down hard on its head once, and then again, before it finally stilled.
I heard a shriek of pain, and my vision, which had been so focused on the orc in front of me that everything else had faded into a blur, snapped back to sharpness. I saw Zaire staggering back, one arm clutched to his chest, the other futilely holding up – Wasted hells, did it cut his staff in half?! - a shattered piece of wood as the armored orc raised an axe in one hand, preparing to chop down.
Raylan appeared behind it, driving forward in a desperate lunge with both daggers extended, but they clanged off the creature’s armor and it spun, axe flashing in a wicked arc that almost took Raylan’s head off as he ducked. Zaire stumbled back into the wall, broken staff falling from his hand as he cradled his other arm to his chest.
I looked around frantically for my gun, finally spotting it behind me. I dropped the sword and dashed to my gun, plucking the slugs from the bottom loops of my bandolier and feeding them into the magazine as fast as I could, praying that Raylan could stay out of reach long enough.
click-click BOOM! click-click
My shot smashed into the orc’s broad back, leaving a deep, fist-sized dent in its thick armor, but not penetrating. The orc snarled, but otherwise ignored me, axe flashing towards Raylan as he dodged aside. There was a ringing ping sound and one of Raylan’s knives went flying.
Let’s see if your helmet is as strong as your plate, you fucker.
I lifted my aim towards its head, but the huge creature was moving surprisingly fast as it tried to keep up with Raylan’s frantic movements. I fired again and missed, cursing. Only two more slugs before I have to fumble more out of my pouch…
His movement slowed briefly, and I had a sudden, horrible premonition, recalling the drill Mason had made us do together. I opened my mouth to scream out, to tell him to stop, when he shouted “NOW!”.
Taking the opening, the huge orc’s movement suddenly slowed, its axe raised. As the red dot from my sight crossed the back of its helm, the axe chopped down. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as I fired once, twice – my shots slamming into the back of the helmet. The first shot deflected off the heavy metal, but it cracked from the force, and the second shot punched through cleanly as Raylan cried out in pain.
The axe finished its downward arc and bounced off the rocky ground, skittering away from the slowly-toppling giant as it slumped first to its knees, then crashed to the floor, unmoving.
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