TROTTING POINT

Maresa was walking point for the team. Trotting point was a more fitting description. The dark haired woman was moving fast. Southaven and another one of Carmen’s soldiers, another woman, were right behind her.

Further behind came Carmen and Angie. The rest of the team, both Angie’s team and Carmen’s troopers followed behind.

Too fast. Angie wasn’t comfortable. If she were the one in charge she would have had the team moving slower. Yes, there was a hurry. The TU’Con patrols could return at any time. Especially if a distress call had gone out. The last thing she wanted was to face a horde of angry Tu’COns. Her level 1 team would be toasted in a heartbeat. We got out of the Antonio Lopez, we could get out of this. But she knew they faced low level Tu’cons on the ship. These would probably not be mobs designed to teach players the rules of the game.

How much can I trust Carmen? They were at XMAN’s body before we were. What if…

As if on cue, Mike called her on the intercom. “Uh, Angie? The woman running point, not Maresa, the other one...”

A door opened and a human stepped out. He was wearing a black uniform and carrying a short-barreled accelerator. An instant check of properties said he was a mercenary. It was a quick draw test. Everybody, including the merc had weapons. The question who could fire first. As everybody reacted, players and NPCs alike, stats and skills came into play.

The merc won- he was fastest to fire. The burst he fired slammed into one of the point women. Carmen’s soldier was flung backwards, blood spurting from her chest. Reflexively she pulled the trigger as she died. The bullets fired from her flailing weapon manage to miss everybody, except Southaven.

The wound was minor, -6 hp. Southaven and Maresa leveled their weapons and fired at the same time. The sound of Southaven’s accelerator rifle was lost in the boom from Maresa’s shotgun. At point blank range, the merc had no chance at all.

Through the open door there was yelling, then shooting. Carmen’s soldiers, and Angie’s squad flattened themselves against the wall. Shots, a whole lot of shots, came through the open doorway. Heather. saw her chance. She stepped away from the wall and aimed the grenade launcher.

If she misses and it bounces around out here, we’re all dead, Angie thought. The walls will channel the blast up and down the hallway. She figured the walls wouldn’t just blow out. If this was a tunnel… she smiled. Nobody would be that stupid.

Heather, a private with no skills pulled the trigger. Somewhere deep in a computer, a random number spun out. The grenade flew through the air------- and into the room. It exploded. It worked out for Heather just the way it was supposed to.

One of Carmen’s people dashed into the room as soon as the blast ended. He was firing full auot as he went thrugh the door. Seconds later, the shooting stopped.

“Clear,” the guy yelled out.

“Go!” Carmen ordered. Maresa took off down the hall again. Southaven was a second behind her. Everybody started to move again. Angie stopped at the dead body. She knelt down and took the short-barreled accelerator rifle. He had several pouches on his gear belt. One was the universal “personal items” pouch, she smiled as she thought about Mark calling them “magic pouches”. She didn’t bother to look through it. She took the pouch and dropped it into her own “magic pouch.”

She started to run as she slung the short-barreled rifle.