The Star-Bitch: "Wasteland Warrior"

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By day 13, she was counting her charges to make sure she had enough energy to flash her own head if it came to it. At least it would be instantaneous, a painless death. But the one thing that kept her going was preoccupying herself with all the imaginative, terrible ways she would make Mars pay for what he'd done. The sad truth, though, was that he had probably already collected the entire bounty and was long gone, living it up with his traitorous mates and boasting about how easily he'd offed the infamous "Star-Bitch".

And the other sad truth was that she was probably going to die on this sun-seared shithole of a planet.

But when she looked up from her flashgun as she came over the dune, she saw the unmistakable silhouette of the Tyrannosaurus.

She dropped instantly, flattening herself against the sandy dune, hiding behind it and only peeking over it. She knew if anyone looked this way, her green skin and purple hair would stand out like a sore thumb against the orange-yellow dunes.

The ship was still a ways off. It would be about a 100 metron run to cover the distance between the dune and the ship, with absolutely no cover in between. She would use the flashgun to burrow, but she'd discovered early on, when trying to dig out some shelter from the sun, that the sand was too deep and loose and would collapse in on any tunnel almost immediately. Plus she had only enough charges left for two, maybe three flashes.

There was no movement around the ship or the small structure it was parked at. That must have been the outpost that they'd been told to go to. According to Proctor Kanan, there was only one occupant there, and one who Kanan would prefer to see dead. Why he felt that called for both Vonda and a whole team of mercs, she didn't know. But the fact that the Tyrannosaurus was still there after nearly 2 weeks didn't bode well for the fates of Mars and his crew. Whoever this hermit was, he was probably dangerous enough to have merited the extra attention, and then some.

The hunger, dehydration, heat and exhaustion made Vonda consider just running for the ship and taking it. Really, seriously consider it. But Vonda's value as a bounty hunter was based on her reputation as a woman who always completed the job, no matter the difficulty, no matter the circumstances, no matter the odds.

Waiting for the third sun to set, Vonda had a modicum of relative shade she could use for cover as she dashed to the Tyrannosaurus. It was intact, and appeared completely abandoned. The boarding ramp was down, but the hatch was sealed shut. There were some claw marks on the hatch and what could have been blood on the ramp. Not good signs, but not really telling. In any case, it was locked up tight, so she wouldn't be getting any supplies or weapons from it. And if she wanted off this planet, she was going to have to follow Mars and his crew into the outpost.

Checking her flashgun once more and cursing her luck, Vonda opened the outpost's main door and stepped inside....

It was much cooler inside, she immediately noted appreciatively. And a bit dank, actually. And dark. Her goggles, unfortunately, weren't the ones with the infravision mode. But it was precisely for times like this that she had gotten the enhanced senses genemods. Hypersensitive hearing alerted her to every little creak and groan of the station. Low light vision helped her find her way. Even high pressure sensitivity in the nerves in her skin allowed her to sense micro changes in pressure through the movement of the fine hairs on her limbs and body, giving her an almost preternatural ability to sense things right before they happened if she was focusing on it.

Vonda brought all these senses to bear, bringing the stimuli around her into sharp relief. At first it seemed like the barren station had no secrets to give up, but then she heard... something. Cracking sounds? Wet sounds? And vocal tones... All coming from down the stairwell to her left... Deeper into the dank darkness of the outpost.

Vonda steeled her nerves and crept as slowly and quietly as she could down the steps. Fortunately, they were some sort of hard composite mineral, not unlike concrete, and therefore didn't creak or groan as she descended them silently. Vonda had abandoned her stilettos at the planetfall site, another thing Mars was going to have to pay for. She loved those boots!

Coming down a hallway, she saw signs of a battle. Well, more like a slaughter. There were blood stains from a few different species of merc on the wall, and blast marks to match. Bloody trails led down the hallway where the wounded and dead had been dragged. Vonda was not surprised by the scene, but still unsettled by it. As she continued on, the sounds became clearer. Ahead of her on the left side of the hallway was a wide opening into which all the blood trails disappeared. It sounded like whatever was happening was happening in there.

"Please.... no..." came the weak plea of a voice she barely recognized as belonging to Mars Harkin. There was no response. Just... guttural sounds and that sickening sound... Vonda had a sudden lizard brain fear response. She wanted to run, run as fast and as hard as she could and get as far away from that room as possible.

But she knew the only way off this planet was through that room, one way or another.

Preferably another Vonda thought to herself as she looked back the way she came and saw another doorway behind where she had come down the steps.

Opting for the back route, Vonda found herself in a sort of kitchen. Beyond the kitchen, through some plastic flaps, she found a gruesome scene of carnage and offal. The floor was strewn with the chewed and gnawed-on remains of dozens of sentients. Bones with chew marks... Torn and tattered, blood-stained clothes. Rotting and decaying heads... Some had been there for a while... Others were much fresher. Like less than 2 weeks old...

As Vonda approached the room at the end of the chamber, and the sounds she now clearly identified as chewing got louder, she recognized the clothing of a few of the corpses. Mars' men. She wondered which one was Mars, or if he was still alive. She thought of Jana, laying somewhere in this pile.

What a waste, Vonda thought with morbid humor, I wanted to eat that ass myself...

As she rounded the corner, she knew what she was going to see but it still revolted her.

Mars was lying on a table, held down by... something. Something big and ugly and foul.

And that something was currently eating Mars' leg.

Mars was groaning in pain and shock, barely conscious. The vaguely humanoid, but monstrous thing was busy chowing down and noisily munching. It didn't hear Vonda sneaking up behind it, stepping over the discarded remains of the last couple meals it had made out of Mars' crew. Vonda stopped about two metrons from the thing and leveled her flashgun straight at the back of its head.

But a groan from Mars caught her attention. Not wanting to take her eyes off of the feeding horror, she glanced quickly at Mars, surprised to see him looking right at her with half-lidded eyes. He weakly shook his head at her and glanced at her flashgun.

Vonda got the message. Mars' crew had been well-armed with all kinds of different weapons. Surely one of them had had a flashgun and found it useless against the beast. Likely none of their weapons had been effective. Only magshielded objects and those made of a carbonium casing could withstand being flashed and not react. Sure enough, the thing's thick, scaly skin had the hard black sheen of carbonium.

She lowered the flashgun hesitantly. Her only advantage right now was the element of surprise and wasting it on an ineffective attack would be stupid.

The thing finished stripping the meat from Mars's dismembered leg and dropped the bloody bone to the floor.

"Mmm, leg's not bad... but time for a wing!" it grumbled in perfect colloquial Standard.

It grabbed Mars' arm, ready to rend it from the captive merc's socket. Mars moaned in pathetic, helpless despair, unable to stop this enormous ghoul from feasting on him.

Suddenly a crash from the chamber behind the beast rang out, catching his attention and making him look back. He sniffed the air.

"Hmm, another friend of yours?" He snarled at Mars as he rose from his feasting table. His 3 metrons of beefy, scaly, hairy bulk rose from the table and plodded off to check out the noise.

"Hey!" He suddenly spun and said to Mars, "stick around!" Then he stabbed Mars through the shoulder with a large metal pick he used as a meat sticker and toothpick.

"AAAIIGGHH!!!" Mars screamed, despite having lost the energy to do much more than moan, much less free himself from his straps and escape.

The creature slumped off and as soon as it was out of sight, Vonda came in through the front entrance and went straight to Mars. Mars looked at her with a mixture of relief and despair. He knew he was done for, but it was at least nice to see a friendly face before he died. Of course, he'd forgotten that he'd tried to kill her two weeks ago, before his gruesome nightmare had begun.

Mars began to open his lips to say something to Vonda, but she put her hand over his mouth and her finger to her lips to tell him to stay quiet. She shot a furtive glance to the rear chamber where the beast had gone to investigate her distraction and started feeling around Mars and the table. Mars wondered what she was doing - was she going to try to save him? Even after he tried to kill her? She walked around the table and had her back to the offal chamber when Mars saw It coming back.

A hiss of reptilian terror was all Mars could muster as warning and Vonda spun to see the enormous creature standing not more than 3 metrons from her. She held up her hands, both empty and spoke to it.

"Hey, uh... handsome..." She started, nervously, "look, I didn't mean to interrupt your dinner and all, uh... I just was looking for something..."

The thing sneered, "oh, really," it licked its blood-stained lips with a fat, bumpy tongue as it ogled Vonda's impressive body lustily, "and what might that be, sweet cheeks?"

Vonda stayed there, backed up against the table Mars laid on, hands up. She attempted to reason with the thing. It clearly was sentient, and anything sentient has things it wants. And if it wanted something, it could be dealt with.

"Well, funny story," she laughed nervously as the beast slowly crept closer, "this dirtball here stole my ride and left me to die."

"Wow," the thing said regarding Mars in mock disapproval, "what an asshole."

"So, I just need my keys and I'll be out of your hair," Vonda offered, then noticed the thing was bald, "or, uh... you get the picture."

"Uh-huh," the horror uttered as he stepped closer, "sure. But just one thing: why would I let you go?"

"Well," Vonda shrugged, forcing a smile, "I don't know what your... er... beef is with these fine gentlemen, but it's none of my concern. In fact, you'd be saving me the trouble of offing this bastard myself, so you can have him! Bon appetit!"

"And what are you gonna do for me?" The foul creature snarled, again sizing up Vonda's considerable assets lasciviously, "other than be tasty, I mean."

The thing had gotten too close for comfort now and Vonda backed away around the table, standing on the other side so that Mars was between her and It.

"Well... It looks like your cupboard is looking kinda bare," Vonda gestured grandly, "I could take my ship and bring you back a whole flock of savory, er, 'dinner guests'..."

Vonda used the creature's momentary consideration of her offer to glance down quickly and grab the passkey for Mars' ship from his belt. Mars moaned in protest, but was in no shape to put up any more resistance than that.

"See? I'll just be on my way and you can finish up your lizard lunch here..." Vonda slowly backed away from the table towards the wide opening. She wondered... if she had to make a break for it, could she outrun him?

"Mmm...." The thing licked his lips looking down at Mars, who looked completely lost and resigned now, "lizard meat IS good..." He looked back up at Vonda and quipped, "tastes like chicken!" He laughed raucously, spittle flying everywhere.

Vonda suddenly felt sick to her stomach. How was she really any different from this disgusting monster, having been forced to eat Korbo to survive? She had the sudden urge to vomit violently, to give back all that she had eaten of the once living, breathing, sentient Korbo. But what bothered her the most was that she knew if she had to do it all over again, she would.

"Okay, uh, enjoy!" She said as she backed up to the doorway.

But the monster pressed a button behind the table and the doorway was suddenly sealed shut with a thick carbonium-plated door.

"Sorry, lambchop," the creature chuckled, "but I already have a supplier."

Vonda bumped into the door, trapped, and gulped. There was no way out now.

The monster guffawed obnoxiously and settled in at his table, ready to finish his gruesome meal.

"After I'm finished with your boyfriend, here," he said as he lifted Mars' arm to take a big bite, undressing Vonda with his beady black eyes, "you're gonna make a nice, sweet dessert!"

Then the inside of his head exploded in a flash of heat and light that made his carbonium skull buckle, but not break. Bits of goo and liquefied insides came gushing out of his mouth.

Mars screamed as he pulled his now-seared arm out of the creature's hollowed-out head, still clutching the flashgun, now only slag, melted into his burning hand.

Moments earlier, when Vonda had her back to the creature and was making a deal with it, Mars had felt something cold against his left hand. He had looked down to see that Vonda had shoved her flashgun between her ample, muscular green buttcheeks and was trying to push it into his hand. Realizing her ploy, he took it from between her cheeks and hid it under his leg until the foul beast had tried to pick up his terrible feast where he'd left off.

The one thing you're never supposed to do with a flashgun is use it at close range. The thermal energy released when its target's molecular bonds are all suddenly broken at once reach temperatures that will melt the gun, and any hand holding it. Which is exactly what had happened to Mars' left hand when he'd fired the flashgun right inside the giant ghoul's mouth.

But it had worked. The thing was dead and Mars was still (at least marginally) alive. And for the horror it had inflicted on him and his crew, it was satisfying to know that, at least, Mars had lived longer than it.

Mars suddenly found himself being lifted off the table, his straps having been undone and the pick in his shoulder having been removed. Vonda was carrying him.

"What are you doing?" He groaned, "I'm finished, just let me die."

"Uh-uh," Vonda grunted as she hauled him up, hit the button to open the carbonium door and started carrying him out, "you're not getting off that easy."

"This is easy?!" He groaned. He couldn't imagine that Vonda could do anything worse to him than had already been done these past two weeks.

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When Vonda had dragged Mars to the Tyrannosaurus, she set him down by the boarding ramp to use the passkey.

"Star-Bitch..." He moaned.

Vonda didn't bother correcting him, "yeah."

"Thank you..."

"Don't thank me yet, lizardbrain."

Mars tried to straighten up to look at her, "you didn't need to-"

"Yeah I did," Vonda picked him up and carried him up the ramp to the control panel, "I need your boarding code to disable the anti-intruder countermeasures."

"Oh," Mars half-smiled through his agony, "you noticed those."

"Yeah, asshole," Vonda smiled back, "I noticed those."

Mars entered the code without hesitation. The boarding hatch opened and green lights showed the code had been correct and the anti-intruder countermeasures had been disarmed. This was confirmed when Vonda and Mars passed through the hatch without being sliced to ribbons by anti-intruder lasers.

Vonda carried him inside the ship and set him down in the medical bay. She activated the medbot and it went to work stabilizing him.

"This is a pretty cheap model you got here, Mars," she assessed the medbot, "but it should be able to stabilize you until we can get you some real medical attention."

"You're a fucking saint," Mars sighed as he felt the painkillers surge into his bloodstream, "a fucking angel, Star-Bitch. Everything everyone says about you is dead wrong."

"Bullshit," Vonda sneered, "and if you tell anyone that, I'll come back for your other leg."

Mars winced as he laughed and coughed up blood.

"Sorry for trying to kill you," he offered, "nothing personal. Just business, you know the deal."

"Uh-huh," Vonda muttered, not looking at Mars.

"Look," Mars said as he started to get groggy from the painkillers, "I'm done. My crew is dead... And look at me, I'm a mess. I'm ruined for this line of work. I'm getting out of this business for good."

"Yeah," Vonda said looking at him with some pity, "might be better for your health to retire."

"Take the whole bounty," Mars muttered as he started to succumb to the painkillers, "you earned it..."

Then he slipped into an anesthetic coma, induced by the medbot at Vonda's input.

"Thanks," Vonda acknowledged the unconscious Herpetian's offer, "but something tells me there won't be any bounty to collect."

Vonda looked at the medbot's display.

"Doc," she called, activating its voice command interface.

"Affirmative" is chimed back metallically.

"Make sure the patient stays under for 7 days, then instruct the nav computer to set course for the nearest medbase."

"The patient's injuries are extensive," the medbot advised dispassionately, "More immediate care is advised."

"He'll live."

"Affirmative," the medbot chirped and followed her commands. Its ethical compulsory subroutines had long since been disabled, as was common with all black market medbots.

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Vonda stopped in the galley on the way to the cockpit and grabbed enough food for three meals and two large flagons of the most alcoholic-looking liquids she could find. She was surprised to find there was less there than she had expected. These mercs must have eaten like pigs. Pigs to the slaughter, Vonda mused morbidly.

Stepping into the cockpit, she wished she had ERGO with her. As annoying as her servobot could be, he knew how to talk to just about any nav computer. Vonda knew nothing about Herpetian language or their user interface standards. This was going to be a bit of trial and error.

Suddenly, Vonda was hit over the head with something hard and metal.

But the blow was more a nuisance than a danger, causing her to drop a drumstick and spill her drink, but that's about it. Whirling around to face her attacker, she saw a visibly shaking female humanoid cowering in the corner by the cockpit door.

"Oh my god!" the frightened assailant squealed, "it's YOU!"

The female merc jumped up and wrapped her arms around Vonda, burying her head in her bountiful green bosom.

"Jana?!" Vonda sputtered in shock, "what the fuck?!"

"Jana?!" The female merc spat back indignantly, "my name's Boquie! Who the FUCK is Jana?!" She looked much more jealous than she had any right to be, considering she had set Vonda up to be killed.

"Oh, Boquie, right... close enough," Vonda gently pushed the jittery merc back into a passenger seat and set down her food and drink.

"Thank Orbos you're alive!" Boquie gushed, "I thought I was the only one!"

"Yeah," Vonda sat down across from Boquie in the pilot's seat, "and how, exactly, did you manage to be the lone survivor?"