Steampunk Harlots Ch. 06

Dropping to the ground, Hannah dashed over to where the body had fallen behind Emma and picked up the rifle. Down the starboard side hall to the back of the ship, Hannah sighted her aim firing the moment she saw a grey figure move. The massive boom from the rifle resonated throughout the ship as it sent a round down the corridor. The shot hit the corner blasting into a small cloud of fire. The rifle had been loaded with Ember 'immolator' rounds. Skipping any inklings of being impressed by the expensive ammunition, Hannah rapidly worked the bolt action to chamber another round. Movement and the sound of a door opening behind her, Hannah whipped around to aim, mindful that Easy may have decided to come in. Instead, Ving stood covering in the doorway, holding a pistol of her own.

"Cover this hallway," Hannah ordered in a clipped tone.

Hannah grabbed the bayonet from the dead soldier and affixed it to her rifle. Moving to the port side hallway, she spared a glance through the bridge window, not seeing any grey form standing. Arriving just in time to see a grey soldier running down the hall, Hannah had him without cover and fired. The round slid between his teeth to hit the back of his throat. The round burned away the flesh on his head in an instant, causing him to tumble forward and land with his charred skull twisted at an odd angle. Hannah dashed up the hallway, jumping over the smoking corpse, working the bolt action again. Two more rounds sounded behind her from Ving in response to a rifle round sent at her. Another soldier appeared at the end of the hallway, and Hannah shouldered into the working room closest to her shattering the latch. Recovering, she ducked out to fire again but missed the rough shot. Another round chased her as she ducked back into cover and was followed up by a third.

However, Hannah wasn't taking cover by the door. She had opened the wall panel Liddy had installed for the mirror system she planned on having. Hannah slid down the small space and kicked open the panel in the bedroom below her. Fitting the rifle down was tricky but Hannah gauged the angles well enough to do so quickly. She knew for sure that no well-muscled man would be following her. Silently she exited the bedroom and checked the lower hall, thankful for it being empty. Moving softly to the aft staircase, she sighted up the stairs, getting spotted by the soldier smart enough to check all the angles. Yet not smart enough to always be aiming the direction you are checking. Hannah sent a round into his torso, causing it to burst into flames from the inside before he could bring his rifle to bear. Working the fifth round into the action of her rifle, Hannah stormed up the stairs to see the soldier who had been trading rounds with Ving stare in surprise at her sudden appearance. Wounded in the leg, he tripped as Hannah fired, causing the round to immolate his shoulder. Still a fatal wound eventually, Hannah worked the action again on her rifle, having decided she didn't want to wait for him to die. The click of an empty chamber told her she was empty. Suddenly the doors to Liddy's bedroom opened to a confused soldier, who was even more surprised at the redhead holding the rifle with a bayonet who somehow lodged it in his left eye socket.

Hannah dropped the rifle, letting its weight carry down the man it impaled as she went for the pistol at his hip. She brought it up in time to see an older well-muscled man sitting on the edge of Liddy's bed. Hannah would have fired but the reason he wasn't moving was because blood was pouring down his chest from his throat. Puncture wounds appeared at his chest as metal protruded before disappearing inside him only to emerge elsewhere. A small woman's hand was on his shoulder and once his body fell forward onto the floor, Hannah could see Liddy with a long stiletto in hand.

Naked save for the blood spattered on her pale skin, Liddy looked up to see Hannah crouched at the door with the pistol in her hand slowly lowering. "Oh. Hannah. And here they thought their boys had gotten drunk again," Liddy smiled.

"And here I thought you needed a rescue," Hannah responded.

Liddy laughed. More to relieve the stress of what had almost happened than because anything was really funny.

Hannah stood up and walked over the body near the stairs with the blasted shoulder. Still alive, Hannah levelled the pistol to his skull and fired one final shot.