Voidhop - Chapter 7 - Punch it (Patreon)

Branx sauntered along the passageway. He was mentally patting himself on the back for that last play. Shirel’s squidy face had bulged with how he’d gotten the blast doors open. Shame about all the loot he’d lost but if he was lucky he’d get it all back soon enough.

At first glance, the hangar had only one entrance into the ship, however, Branx had found the seam in the middle that led to the fighter ship. That had been a section of the wall that had opened up for him with a few deft taps. Then all he’d needed to do was lay the bait with a recording of himself for Shirel.

His eyes flitted along the various doors that led to the important parts of the ship. When he focused hard on a few of them, he got a headache. He knew what they were, though.

He’d come from the vehicle bays that were considered non-essential at the back of the ship. Then he’d walked past the recreational area. Which was crazy to think about. What sort of ship actually had room for a recreation room? Damn, Dawn ships were classy!

Sadly, that had read as damaged, however. As had a room Branx couldn’t make out the purpose of. It had rows of those tower systems, but Branx couldn’t work out what they were as he cut through them. Somehow he knew he could take this path, and he’d be spat out near the entrance he’d come in through. He walked around the corner only to duck back.

Blaster fire followed him a moment later.

“Capt Branx!” called out an oily voice. “Reckon you could just lay down for us if you please?”

“Heh!” laughed another voice.

Branx clicked his tongue and leaned out slightly to get a better view of the entrance. There were two men standing in the doorway to what should have been his way to hail the crew on the other ship, let them know that Shirel had tried to kill him. She couldn’t have the loyalty of the entire crew.

He hadn’t dropped the ball that badly, surely?

He had a moment of doubt before he shook his head. Nah, he had a track record of getting their best scores. Sure, he rolled the dice, but it always proved worth it in the end. This ship alone should have put paid to any doubts.

He just hadn’t accounted for Shirel being scared of something too-good.

Branx whipped his blaster around the doorway and fired, causing a few shouts of panic.

“Shit! Shit! Got no cover!” shouted one of the traitors in the hall. Branx eyed a segment of the wall and felt the headache come back as a line in the blue pattern of the wall suddenly stood out all the more to him. He’d walked past it earlier without seeing anything out of the ordinary, but now he could tell that there was more to that wall than a shiny pattern. He glanced at his side and saw the same near the door. There was even a lip where you could…

He grabbed it and flicked his wrist, resulting in the wall sweeping out to fill half the hallway.

The traitors yelped at the shift, and more blaster fire rang out, only for it to not punch through the thin, transparent metal. Branx leaned out and looked down the hall, which was safe for all intents and purposes.

The traitors didn’t even twitch at his appearance. Hoh? One way vision? That was handy for any defence against boarding actions. His eyes lingered on the walls, now seeing lots of potential sites for men to hunker down and take cover. Any attackers would have a much harder time of it like this.

Branx grinned and dropped to the ground before whipping his blaster out to fire on the two traitors.

He dropped one and barely missed the other.

The bastard realised he was screwed and plucked a shockwave grenade from his belt. Branx gasped and plugged him just as the idiot pressed the button. As he fell he dropped the grenade in the entryway.

Branx rolled like his forefathers had to evade predators on their ancestral home world and made it back into the room with black towers that were cold to the touch. Branx was a good judge of these things when he slammed his face into one. Surprisingly, it didn’t even budge.

Outside a boom went off, and Branx tensed, only for nothing to enter the room. He straightened himself and leaned back out to find… quite the mess in the hallway. A wet drip made him grimace. The hall itself looked intact but there was a panel in the wall sparking that Branx just knew controlled the doorway itself.

“Alright, I’m not going out that way.” He then ticked off numbers on his fingers. When he reached a number he sucked on his teeth. “Guess that leaves just the rookie on board…”

Branx straightened up and sauntered into the command room. The rookie who’d been tapping away at a terminal was startled. “Branx! I wasn’t touching nothing sir! Wait!?” He whipped up his blaster. “Don’t you move! Shirel, that is Captain Shirel, was very clear about what you’d done!”

Branx levelled an unimpressed brow at the kid.

“Kid, Shirel’s a sack of crap I apparently can’t trust my back to despite having grown up in the same slum as her. You’ve seen her cheat at cards no?”

The Rookie licked his lips but slowly nodded. The blaster in his hands trembled a bit and Branx sighed. “Kid, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m here to re-establish communication with the other ship and tell them what happened. We can sort this all out simple like. I didn’t even kill Shirel, I shot her into the void. With her encap system on, she’ll be safe.”

More’s the pity, he thought to himself.

The rookie blinked and slowly nodded. “That… that sounds good. Alright,” said the far too trusting kid. He holstered his blaster. “Can’t believe I almost shot you sir.”

Branx snorted heavily and marched up. “You most certainly did not just almost shoot me kid.” He nudged the kid out of the captain’s seat. “Git out of that seat,” he said.

The rookie shot up, rubbing his backside like he’d been shocked. He shot a reproachful look at Branx. “I most certainly did sir! I had you dead to rights! Got the draw on you and everything!” he said firmly.

Branx snorted and started tapping at the terminal, a headache building as he squinted at oddly blurry symbols that almost made sense. “Sure, sure you did. Just like you forgot to turn off the safety on your blaster before you did.”

There was a moment of quiet before the noise of a blaster being drawn out, inspected, along with another soft click as the Rookie flicked a switch.

Branx put a hand on his face, massaging above the eye gap on his right side. “Kid… put the safety back on unless you think you won’t end up shooting yourself in the leg.”

There was another click. “Sorry sir.”

Branx grunted and waved the Rookie to a spot next to him. “Here just, stand here and watch what I do. We’ll see if we can make proper comm feed with the hunk of junk that used to be our ship.”

“Used to be?” questioned the Rookie.

Branx waved a hand about. “This ship is way, way nicer than our old one. Time for an upgrade I think!”

“Oh wow that’d—” the rookie started to say only for a few things to occur all at once. The first was that Branx found a symbol that blinked as he touched it. He felt good about this one stating in no uncertain terms that it would establish comms with the other ship. He pushed it.

While he did this, the door to the command deck opened. Branx had a moment to think nothing of it, only to stiffen.

“Kid get—” was as far as he got before two blaster shots rang out. The first blew a hole through the rookie making him crumple like a flimsy made Gosha product in space. The second bolt slammed into Branx’s shield. Branx grunted and rolled backwards.

The gunner was expecting that though and Branx took another shot before he could make it into cover. This time the shield didn’t flare up and a white-hot line of pain stabbed into Branx. He grunted before flopping behind a chair.

Just out of danger. For the moment.

On the ground, the rookie gasped horribly and Branx eyed him as the kid stared into the floor helplessly. Tears were in the kid’s eyes as he babbled something but the floor muffled his words.

“Branx!” shouted a familiar voice of Shirel’s second-in-command and partner in her betrayal. That Ranger damned Bosun!

Branx coughed, not liking how wet that had sounded, along with the way his vision swam for a moment. “Fuck! You? I nailed you in that hallway! You should be dead!”

“Ha! I might have been hit, but I wear armor. You shit for brains!” crowed the Bosun.

Branx grimaced before clenching his teeth and drawing his blaster, the draw and click of the safety a well-ingrained movement. His gun fired three times in furious succession. Silence filled the room.

“I get you?” asked Branx with a tinge of hope. This time he’d make sure to double-tap that Bosun.

His response came in a trio of blasts that slammed into and around the chair he was using for cover. Branx grimaced as one of the terminals cracked and began to spark. When some landed on his legs he blew at his pants to try and stop it from catching on fire. He shifted his legs, looking around for any tricks to this room he could use.

There weren’t any that he could see. And why would there be? This was the command deck. If boarders got this far, things had gone way, way up the sewage pipe.

Branx felt another twinge in body. Never a good sign that. He put a hand around his back and grimaced when his fingers came back wet. Branx shot a look to the rookie only to see that the kid was flopping around.

Shit, the kid was gonna croak if Branx didn’t do something and fast. He checked his shield only to grimace at the blinking red icon on his belt. It’d taken the one shot and now needed a recharge! Urgh!

He considered the room before nodding to himself as a plan formed. It wasn’t a good one.

Time to roll the dice!

Branx shifted and started firing a furious volley before he got his feet underneath himself to leap out and charge the much smaller man down. If he angled his body right he’d be able to take three hits to non vital spots on his body without dropping. And then… well he’d see what came next when he got to that.

Just as he was about to leap. Something soared up from where the Bosun was and Branx's brain had but a moment to realise that it was another grenade. He stood and grabbed it before tossing it back. Only to find the Bosun grinning at him.

The grenade thunked into the ground and notably didn’t go off. Branx grimaced.

“Damn, you didn’t activate it before you threw it… Clever,” he said, appreciating the play.

“It was,” said the Bosun with a smirk.

Branx shook his head. “Well congratulations, you did something no one else has managed and outfoxed me,” he gave a chuckle, “Heh! Twice even.”

“Please, don’t flatter yourself, you’re not that smart Branx!”

“Guess I’m not one of those prime thinkers like you and Shirel,” said Branx. He pointedly didn’t twitch his blaster up or shift in place. He had the other guy talking, and he was still alive. That was good. If he kept talking, a moment might appear, and he’d turn this around.

His body spasmed in pain, and he felt some blood trickling into his left eye, making him try and blink it out. When had he gotten tagged there? With all the blasting, he hadn’t noticed.

The Bosun continued to smirk. “Heh, you’re dead as it stands Branx.”

Branx nodded. It was somewhat true. Not the first time he’d danced with teeth or been taken into her sweet embrace before. You got used to flirting with death when you wanted to get out of the slums. Somewhere along the way, Shirel had forgotten that or gotten scared.

Branx found himself taking in everything. His heart beat, furiously, like it knew these last moments might be their last and they suddenly needed to beat a lifetime’s supply of blood. His mouth was filled with a horrible, cloying taste that sickened him. His left eyes kept needing to be blinked clear and his body ached. His arms were in the wrong position entirely to get a shot off fast. He was pretty well exposed.

Still, he was oh so alive at that moment.

He really wished he could punch the Bosun’s smirk off his face.

The man gestured with his gun, stepping closer, his eyes flicking to the terminal. Branx realised then and there that he’d already turned on the comms.

“Branx! Branx! What are you doing?” screeched Shirel.

“This ain’t Branx,” said the Bosun.

“Oh! Babe you’re still alive! That’s great!” gushed Shirel. “What happened to Branx?”

“Got him dead to rights right now.”

“Shoot him! Don’t let him talk any more!” screamed Shirel. Branx grimaced, wishing past him hadn’t been so keen to calm things down. Shirel was still pissed by her trip out into the void. It was a wonder she hadn’t passed out due to shock from being spacced like she had.

The Bosun grinned and lined up the shot on Branx.

“My pleasure,” he said, just as Branx heard a soft click. The Bosun’s and his eyes dropped to the side, where a trembling rookie had his blaster raised.

A shot rang out and Branx stared as the Bosun toppled to the ground, half his head blown off.

“Shit, Rookie that was a good shot,” said Branx. He grimaced as pain wracked his body. He  tried to ignore it as he lurched over to his saviour. The kid was now lying in a pool of blood. Branx didn’t need to do more than eyeball it to know it was too much. It was a marvel that the kid had been able to raise his blaster like he had.

“Rookie?” he said carefully.

“BRANX!” screamed Shirel. Branx shot the terminal a look and pressed a symbol, only to miss and stagger over the captain’s chair. He held himself there and looked down while the kid looked up.

“Damn you’re young ain’t you,” Branx said as he took in the boy’s smooth-faced features. The way his eyes were too large and watery. Branx felt old all of a sudden. Old and weak.

“Too y-young to duh-die?” choked out the kid.

Branx gave him a sad smile. “If only kid, if only.” The universe wasn’t that kind; Branx knew that much due to growing up in a slum. He levered himself up around the chair and knelt next to the kid.

“Why’d you sign on with us?” he said, unable to stop the bout of curiosity. “We had to be the roughest sort around.”

“Heh!” The kid's mouth dribbled blood now. “Want-wanted t-t-to go on an adventure?” he said.

Bran found himself smiling. “Knew I liked you kid. You’re a void hopper after my own heart!” He reached down only to stop. In the space of time that it had taken for Branx to reply. The kid was gone.

Branx’s hand hovered over dull eyes that had glimmered before, hadn’t they? Where had that spark gone?

Branx swallowed the taste of bile in his mouth. Then lips thinned, a tough task for a dulophant as he lifted the boy up to sit upright next to the captain’s chair. He tried to ignore the line of pain that was introduced in his own body but it was hard; damn, Bosun had gotten him good.

Branx collapsed into the captain’s seat, only to blink. He’d thought that he’d cut the line with Shirel but he could still see her glowering on the screen. Must have muted her. He grinned at her and she glowered before sneering as her eyes looked down at the growing blood stain on his shirt. Branx saw her lips move, but no sound came out.

He rather liked this version of Shirel.

Still, it wasn’t the last thing he wanted to see in this verse. He tapped on the screen, and a few boxes shot out.

[CAPT@#!! CRITI!@! STATE DETECTED!]

[Medi!@#! Limited! Ple@$3 remain seated!]

Branx dismissed those boxes, he didn’t need to see them; he wanted the hyperspace lock. He must have lost a lot more blood than he thought, as he was delirious enough to think he knew what they said.

He tapped on the icon he’d toyed with less than an hour ago and grinned as a prompt came up.

[Hyperspace jump selected]

[WARNING! No endpoint detected!]

[Maps not current!]

[Recommend disengage jump!]

“I chose the black of night,

“My soul’s curse is shown

“I want not the light

“Give me, the unknown”

He grabbed the hyperdrive yoke and clicked the safety off. On the screen, Shirel was frantically babbling at him, making this all the sweeter. Around him, red lights blared, and Branx could barely hear himself think due to how the sirens droned a warning for a crew no longer present.

At his side, the kid sat, a smile on his lips, his eyes glassy as though he were just daydreaming.

“One more adventure for us, kid.” He grasped the stick firmly and punched it forward.

It was time to roll the dice and see where his luck would take him.

A microsecond later, the ship’s engines, long dormant, sparked to life.

A heartbeat later, the ship vanished.