Angry Jasper-Seventeen

Kate feigned to the right, drawing the predictable fusillade. Mercury rounds cracked past like white hot lightening and exploded against the wall in showers of dust and chunks of concrete. Kate instantly rolled left onto her belly, firing two shots from a prone position. Both rounds struck home. The first cleaved off the nearest gunman’s left arm at the shoulder. The hand of the disembodied arm still held the ARP, a finger still depressed on the trigger. As the arm spun away a half dozen rounds sprayed wildly across the market. The other round took off the top of his head in a great crimson halo of gore. The shot was so impressive Kate could swear the dying man smiled just before toppling backwards.

The second man disappeared in the sudden dissolution of his partner. There were just two left, and though Kate had no clue where they were at the moment, the odds now were a bit more to her liking. She rose cautiously, scanning the marketplace. Buzz was nearby, struggling to stand with those clunky and awkward little arms and legs. Kate pulled the fat little robot to his feet and drew him back to the relative cover of the support.

“Okay, little buddy?” she asked, her eyes warily scanning the market.


The market was still now, but it only felt like a pause and not an aftermath. Smoke hung in the air, drifting among battered market stalls and heaps of bodies. There was hardly a sound, but for the low moans of the wounded and sobs of the terrified. Somewhere among that languishing mayhem death still lurked.

Kate had a mind to take Buzz and retreat from this mess. With luck they could make it to the ship and, at the very least, make it to a rebel base on Earth. But Kate just wasn’t that kind of girl. She had this obstinate streak in her when it came to justice. When the Corporation did something this heinous she took it personally. It blinded her to any reason. Buzz looked up and could see that look in her eye and knew no amount of reason could keep Kate from finishing what the Corporation had started.

“Stay here,” she said low and resolute. He held her thigh, pulling her back as she started forward to finish off the last two Corporate men.

“See what they did here, Buzz?”

“Prudence is the better part of valor.”

“Prudence is for pussies,” she pulled away. “Someone needs to pay for this.”

Kate crept sideways, stepping over the dead where she could, and climbing over them where she had no other choice. She picked her way forward towards the first man sh had shot, hoping to double her firepower. Just as she bent to pick up the dead man's weapon Kate felt the muzzle of a weapon against the back of her neck.

“Drop the weapon,” the man grunted. The last man rose from the carnage, casually dispatching a wounded rebel fighter straining to reach a weapon.
.
“Killed two of my best men,” said the Corporate man, roughly turning her around.

“Buy me dinner,” Kate said smugly, “and I’ll squeeze you out a couple of replacements.”

Those were the last words she remembered. The guy cold-cocked her with a brutal upper cut that lifted her from the ground. Kate's world went bright white to black, and she dropped like a stone.