Pixie Hazard Read online

  “It’s not bad. Hey, are you... are you crying? Cuz, it sounds like you’re crying.”

  Donnie scowled down at her, though the girl couldn’t see it.

  Sure she was stressed out, and yeah the stress was probably plain in her voice; the sight of the scrap-hawk tearing into the loving girl’s legs hadn’t been pleasant after all, but she was a marine dammit!

  “No I’m not crying!”

  The arm of the orange suit pointed accusingly just slightly to Donnie’s left.

  “You are! You thought I was dead and now you’re crying!”

  Billy and Eva were coming in fast at that point, the latter with her repeater in hand and scanning all around for more threats while the former un-shouldered her bag.

  “How you doing Bunny?” The experienced medic asked over the coms, her voice level and reassuring.

  “I’m okay, I think my legs got cut up a bit, but I can’t really feel it. Helmet is stinky, hit my head. DeeDee is crying.”

  “Oh? Not surprising, she is a pussy.” Eva’s tight voice commented while eyeing the number the captain pulled on the scrap-hawk’s sorry carcass.

  Billy knelt beside the wounded cat-girl and set to work.

  “You sound okay, but let’s check you out honey.”

  Even in the armoured gloves of her exo-suit the medic’s deft fingers were able to shift the tears in Bunny’s orange pants aside to see how bad the bleeding was, whatever she saw must not have worried her too much though as she turned back to her bag and started taking out her collapsible stretcher.

  “Hey.” Bunny slurred; “Now I’m kind of fuzzy and... and swirly.”

  Billy unfolded her stretcher and lay Bunny down on it when she started to slump.

  “That would be the nitrogen, her heart’s going too fast and the breather in her suit is toast, we gotta get her back to the ship before she asphyxiates herself. I could take her faceplate off and give her some oxygen now, but this place is so toxic I’d rather not risk it. She’s been exposed enough.”

  Donnie nodded, the ship was close: they could see the hulking mass of it just past a pile of deformed neocrete tiles.

  “Right, I’ll take the front of the stretcher, you take the back. Reeves! Prep the airlock for decon. Hooker, cover us.”

  “Copy Skip, just get moving already.” Eva replied gruffly, scanning their surroundings with the scope of her weapon.

  Together they hoisted the stretcher and sprinted back to the ship.

  Chapter 4:

  After Action

  Once they were in the airlock Donnie sent Eva back out to link up with Maria and Kyle, while Billy got Bunny’s helmet off and put an oxygen mask over her mouth.

  She came to right quick once her brain got what it needed from the hissing rubber mask and she almost immediately struggled to sit up to get back to accusing Donnie of crying.

  “I wasn’t crying!”

  “Yes you were, and that’s okay! I would cry too if I lost my Bunny!”

  Once they got her out of the suit and helped the woozy girl through a decontamination shower, they were both relieved to see that the worst of Bunny’s visible injuries were the cuts on her legs and a nasty gash across her forehead from her broken faceplate. None of them were particularly deep, just messy; the mesh of her suit had done a fairly good job of foiling the scrap-hawk’s dirty talons.

  Other than that she just had a bunch of nasty bruises from the brief ordeal and a mild concussion from when the beast caught up to her and she had face-planted beneath it.

  The doc cleaned her up and electro sutured her cuts, then strapped an EEG rig onto her head to monitor her concussion. She also gave her a pop for the pain in her legs that made her giggle non-stop.

  “You are one lucky Bunny, baby.” Donnie said with a smile as she stroked the girl’s fuzzy ears around the EEG helmet.

  “I’m not Bunny baby! I’m baby Bunny!” She slurred out and then laughed her ass off when Billy blew up a rubber glove to give her.

  Donnie shot her a frown but the doctor shrugged.

  “What? She’s high, it’s hilarious.”

  Bunny fumbled her grip on the glove and it made a sputtering noise as it shot away from her, causing her to laugh even louder as her eyes followed it.

  Davie slid down the steeply inclined ladder from the cockpit to poke her head into the infirmary.

  “Hey Skipper, how’s she doing?” The pilot didn’t try to hide the worry in her voice.

  Bunny gripped Billy’s hand and blew a raspberry against her palm, evidently mimicking the glove.

  Donnie snorted.

  “She’s being silly. It’s what happens when you give a local to a K’or-Macka, different physiology. She’ll be okay though, yeah Billy?”

  The medic had a holo-cam out and was recording Bunny’s antics with a slight smirk; not very professional but space got boring.

  “Yup. I’ll keep her hooked up to the EEG overnight to be safe, but she’ll be fine. She’ll need to take it easy for a few days for the concussion though.”

  “I guess I’m the cook again.” Donnie shrugged.

  Davie smiled in relief, but then grimaced at the thought of the captain’s culinary skills.

  “Good to know.” The pilot said sarcastically; “Anyways, the others want to come back in, Kyle’s worried about Bunny and his suit needs to be patched up. Whatever his sniffer picked up was a bust, just part of an old crucible or something.”

  The captain ran her hand through her hair, frustrated at how badly their first few hours on Kentis had turned out.

  “Right, get everyone onboard, looks like we might be spending the night. We’ll have to try again tomorrow. I had no illusions that this would be a day trip. But before we hunker down, I want to know everything about these Junkers that jumped Sledge and Kyle. I’d rather not bug out to orbit if we don’t have to, so let’s see what we’re up against.”

  Davie nodded.

  “Eniella’s all over the scopes, trying to figure out how they got past our sensors, I’ll send everyone to tac-ops once they’re back onboard.”

  Bunny suddenly shrieked with laughter again.

  “It’s because it looks like a TURKEY!”

  They turned to see Billy still wearing a smirk and holding another inflated glove in front of Bunny’s face. The medic wasn’t even doing anything with it, but nevertheless the cat-girl had tears streaming from both eyes as she howled with laughter.

  “Fucking hell I love that girl.” Davie smiled helplessly.

  The captain offered her a sly look.

  “Really, even when you have Kyle’s meaty cock down your gullet because Eniella is addicted to her magical tongue?”

  K’or-Macka weren’t shy about sharing the details of their sexual adventures, even when people want them to be.

  Davie’s cheeks turned pink and she rubbed at her sore throat.

  “Thanks for reminding me.” She said sourly; “Now if you’ll excuse me I suddenly feel the need to be a pissy princess in front of my girlfriend. Don’t worry, I’ll get mine out of her eventually.”

  Thirty minutes later and the rest of the crew were back onboard.

  Kyle had to go through a decon shower because of the ripped suit, but once he saw his wife high out of her mind and laughing her ass off, not to mention in one piece, he took the whole thing in stride, opting not to play the role of the over-protective husband.

  Donnie respected the hell out of him for that.

  The fact was, there was no way she was going to bring Bunny into a firefight, and the way back to the ship had already proven itself to be reasonably safe, so she knew she made the right call, just bad luck was all.

  Stupid chicken monster.

  Soon the others were all waiting on the captain in the tactical operations room directly below the cockpit, except Billy and Kyle who were still in with Bunny.

  While standing around the big tac-ops display table Maria was showing the others a familiar looking weapon she’d lifted from one of
the Junkers she’d fragged.

  “Check out the newest addition to my collection.” She said smugly.

  Eva shook her head in disgust.

  “I can’t believe people still use those ugly fucking things. Isn’t the design like seven hundred years old or something? I mean, it’s made of wood! Who makes guns out of wood?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Eniella exclaimed; “That thing is a masterpiece! A fucking classic work of art! Maria, how much do you want for it?”

  The towering blonde woman smirked as she worked the bolt of her new assault rifle, checking the action.

  “Not a chance! this baby is mine, chica.”

  “Oh come on! You can have Davie for a week!”

  “The fuck?! Stop trading my sister like she’s currency you cunt!” Eva snarled and Eniella at least had the decency to look a bit sheepish.

  Maria had a bemused look on her face.

  “Yeah, what the fuck? Do I look like Bunny to you? No offense Davie. But your dick is, well, non-existent.”

  “None taken.” She shrugged as she calmly put herself between her irate sister and her girlfriend.

  “Stow it marines!” Donnie barked as she ducked through the hatch and into the room; “Sledge! Put that ancient piece of shit away before I break it in half!”

  “Aye Skip.”

  She set the antiquated weapon on the corner seat next to the hatchway leading down into the drop-pod ready room, eager to spare it from the captain’s wrath.

  Meanwhile Donnie waved her hand over the table to bring up a topographical hologram of the terrain around the ship.

  “Now, what can you tell me about the Junkers?”

  Maria nodded and scrolled the hologram over to where she and Kyle were attacked so she could point out the particulars.

  “They came at us hard and fast from these two sides like they maybe sort of knew what they were doing. They were pretty good at using the trash as cover, but they didn’t have any kind of answer for my armour. It wasn’t fair really. Kyle would have bought it just from the ricochets though if he hadn’t had the sense to chuck himself into the junked remains of this air-car here, that’s how his suit got ripped.”

  “How many did you put down?”

  Maria poked the terrain in a number of places, leaving little red dots on the ground so the captain could see where the bodies were once the shooting stopped.

  “We found seven, but there were a few that I winged that got dragged off by their buddies. I don’t expect them to live long, unless they got a trauma ward hereabouts that I don’t know about. Ten or eleven came at us in all.”

  Donnie scratched at her short hair as she mulled over the information.

  “Okay, so call it a dozen, minus the dead and dying, of who knows how many that we don’t know about. What kind of hardware were they packing?”

  “Aside from my new collectible, their burners were shit. No energy weapons at all, just piddly little lead-chuckers. And their hazard suits looked more for show than anything, they were so dirty and worn out. Honestly Skipper, I think it could have just been the crew of a small transport, desperate and stupid. They saw a sexy target and thought they’d make a play for it.”

  Donnie sighed and ran her hair over her hair again, a sign of her agitation.

  She had linked Maria’s encounter with the image of Bunny on the ground and it was distracting her.

  “That’s the problem with Junkers. Maybe you wiped out most of their crew, or maybe you just killed off a raiding party from a whole clan of them. They could have a frigate in orbit for all we know, though judging by the state of their hardware it probably wouldn’t be a frigate the Pixie couldn’t take a good bite out of.”

  “I want to know how they got by our scopes.” Eva said with a frown.

  Kyle rapped his knuckles on the frame of the hatchway, having just come from the infirmary.

  “I think I might know Captain.”

  Donnie impatiently gestured with her head for him to come inside.

  “Kyle this is tac-ops, not the ladies changing room, just get in here.”

  The bearded man barked a laugh and stepped inside to join them in standing around the illuminated display table.

  “Sorry, it’s just so damn military in here.”

  He wasn’t wrong: the tactical operating room was as hardened as the cockpit.

  During a firefight non-bridge crew were meant to harness themselves in the emergency seats ringing the room after sealing the hatches. The idea being that they could bail into the drop-pod and abandon ship if things got dark.

  Once inside Kyle offered up what he knew to the expectant marines.

  “I’ve heard that a common tactic for Junkers on Kentis is to coat their suits in surface dirt. That shit is so loaded with toxic elements they supposedly confuse the sensors so they come back with a negative reading.”

  Eniella was scratching her jaw thoughtfully with metal fingers.

  “What do you think baby?” Davie asked her.

  “Might work, though it wouldn’t be very reliable. They could just as easily end up making themselves more visible if the dirt has the wrong composition of elements in it.”

  “Anything we can do to counter it?”

  Donnie was looking at both Eniella and Kyle now; the sensors were part of the weapon systems which was where the former marine lived, but the mechanic was a quick study and understood the moving parts just as well as she did, if not their tactical applications.

  “Maybe. If we amp up the power to the array, and broaden the spectrum so they’ll just show us anything that’s moving without any context. We’d get more than a few false flags, but better to jump at nothing than not see anything.”

  Kyle shook his head.

  “We’d need to filter out the airborne particles so it doesn’t look like white on white.”

  She dismissed his concern with a wave of her robotic hand.

  “That’s easy, we just need some air samples and to keep an eye on the weather.”

  “Sounds like you two nerds have a plan?” Donnie said pointedly.

  “I think we do Skip. Come on pretty boy, you and me gotta go outside and take a whiff, then take some shit apart.”

  The two of them ducked out and she turned to the others.

  “While they’re doing that, I want the Pixie buttoned up tight and someone in their rig on the roof for overwatch while the sensors are down.”

  “I’ll do it Skipper.” Davie volunteered; “Sounds like we’re here for the duration and I could use some fresh air.”

  Donnie nodded; like any captain she appreciated initiative from her crew, though with all the excitement she was feeling like a major again.

  “Good. Eva, Maria, Bunny’s down for the count and I don’t feel like getting into it with everybody over my cooking, so once you’ve secured the airlocks you two get to figure out chow for tonight.”

  “Happy to.”

  “Gladly.”

  They answered way too quickly.

  Her chili wasn’t that bad.

  After the two left the room she drew in a breath and closed her eyes.

  “You alright Donnie?” Billy’s voice sounded from behind her, the infirmary was off the corridor right outside tac-ops and she’d poked her head into the room at the captain’s sigh; “You look a mite shaky.”

  “I’m fine.” She bit back, but the medic just raised an eyebrow; “Okay maybe I’m not fine. We were on the razor’s edge when we got here. Barely a few hours dirtside and Sledge gets mugged by Junkers while Bunny gets her ass stomped by a giant chicken-horse.”

  “You think the Junkers and the scrap-hawk had an alliance in place? The one-two punch to take us down?”

  Donnie gave her a level look.

  “Don’t be a smartass. I just didn’t like seeing Bunny on the ground. I’ll shake it off.”

  Billy nodded slowly as if she had made a sudden discovery.

  “Of course, she does keep insisting that you were crying.”
>
  “Bitch.” She snorted, but smiled.

  The ship’s doctor was her oldest friend, and had always been her rock when shit got heavy.

  “Hey! I’m horny and lonely and this room tastes weird! Someone come and comfort me!” Bunny slurred out with a petulant whine that was still somehow adorable.

  Billy smiled and gave the captain a nod.

  “You go cuddle the Bunny, I’ll grab us some coffee?”

  “Deal.”

  Billy left first to head to the galley off the common room while Donnie took a moment to draw in another steadying breath, not wanting Bunny to worry about her.

  She ducked into the infirmary a few seconds later.

  “How we doing baby?”

  The cat-girl’s head wobbled around to face her as she came in, the EEG rig was still in place and made her look like a weird bug was attached to her head.

  “I’m okay, but nobody is having sex with me.”

  “You’re in the infirmary Bunny, remember?”

  “Of course I remember! I’m stupid not high!” Her face pinched together as her addled mind worked through her own words; “I mean, I’m high not stupid!”

  Donnie rubbed her arm and set her hand on her fuzzy naval for a good finger scratch that drew a slight purr out of her.

  “Okay great, and do you remember the one rule that Billy said you’re never allowed to break in here?”

  Bunny pouted, but eventually she answered in the sing song voice of a child repeating something she’d been told to remember.

  “No Bunny-sex in Billy’s infirmary.” Her eyes lit up right after she said it though, and her look turned cunning; “But if DeeDee wants to eat out Bunny, then it doesn’t count, she’s the captain!”

  Billy tapped Donnie on the shoulder and handed her a cup of coffee before squeezing past her into the room.

  “Not in here she isn’t. Now let’s get you settled in, you had a busy day, a short day, but busy. And I’m afraid no matter how bad this room tastes, you are in here for the night kiddo.”

  “I’m not kiddo I’m Bunny!” She raised her hands up and dropped them against the gurney in exasperation.

  Donnie’s lips had moved right along with the cat-girl’s, fully aware of what she was going to say.