It sounded like the end of the world. Even muffled by out helmets, the noise was ear-splitting. Klaxons whooped and roared. Then it all got a whole lot worse. A slew of trucks flew round a warehouse near the impact crater and raced towards us, their headlights stabbing the gloom. There must have been eight or nine trucks but as they weaved in and out, overtaking each other, it was hard to be sure. Pirates packed the flatbeds or stood precariously on running boards. The more aggressive of them started firing the second they saw us.
Hi-energy bolts sizzled by us, boiling puddles as they hit. More dangerously, metal and plastic flechettes whistled by. In our rear cameras I saw one pirate standing in the bed of his truck, leaning on the cab roof, firing an M-88 Mettallist Hi-Ripper. That's one of my favourite weapons, excellent for close-quarters work when you want to shred your enemy but the range was too long for accurate shooting.
One pirate even had a bassoonka – it looks like a primitive musical instrument but it fires high explosive shells instead of songs. An explosion lit up the night sky about three metres to our right. That was a little close for comfort and our anti-gravity truck wobbled with the force of the blast.
Julianna clung to the console. Touching helmets, I reassured her that we'd be alright. I just wished somebody would come and reassure me. Swerving and swooping the truck about the air threw the pirates' aim off but slowed us down.
Nothing to lose now as the pirates had spotted us. I pressed the truck's radio button. "Shuttle! Calling the shuttle! Calling Captain Nanisha. Come in!"
There was a slight pause – which felt much longer than it really was – then a burst of static. "This is Captain Nanisha Paranavithana. What's going on out there? We can hear firing."
Enemy fire was incoming. More bolts sizzled all around us and there was a rattle of flechettes against the truck's side. But the pirates weren't having it all their own way. Crouched behind Sava's crate, making himself as small a target as possible, Çrámerr was blazing away. Even as I watched, I saw the guy with the bassoonka's head explode. The driver of that truck swerved to the right and sideswiped the one next to him before crashing into the ground.
"Good shooting, hotshot. But stop showing off," I called through our intercom. Then, switching channels I said to Nanisha, "We're coming up to the hangars; come on out with your cargo ramp down and prepare for blast-off."
Somebody else had a bassoonka – or some sort of rocket launcher – because another explosion buffeted our truck. Fragments hit the side and Sava's crate. I took our truck rapidly up to fifty metres and then dived back down. Anything to throw off the pirates' aim.
Meanwhile Çrámerr was still firing away – "Play hardball with me? Used to be Economou's hatchet-man," he was muttering to himself. Even now, he was still talking business-speak. "This is a real work-spasm." Another pirate flung up his hands and crashed to the ground. I didn't see if he was missing his head or not.
Unbelievable – the man was enjoying himself. I guess fighting pirates is a little more exciting than sitting behind a desk, but all the same... I turned my thoughts from Çrámerr as two explosions close together almost crashed us into the ground.
All the same, the pirates were gaining on us. Where was that shuttle? No, Nanisha wouldn't run out on us – not with her boss here? Then, from out of the final hangar, emerged the sleek hull of the shuttle. It was best thing I'd seen in ages – and I'm not excluding Julianna from that. As it came out, its wings automatically extended into their optimal launch position.
"Almost there!" I yelled, twisting the joystick to find that last kilometre of speed.
"Pure gravy," Çrámerr responded. Whatever that means.
I aimed the truck so it was directly in line with the shuttle's cargo ramp. One hundred metres, eighty, seventy. Then the wheels came off, as Çrámerr would put it. From out of the bunch of anti-grav trucks behind us shot a two-man speeder. The driver accelerated until he was right by our side. Even though the gunner wore a brown protective suit like everyone else, with that massive bulk and those freakishly long ape-like arms it couldn't be anyone else but Knofahgginarebagz himself.
Contemptuously, he turned in his seat and looked me in the eye. The weapon he held had a wide bore which looked like the mouth of a MAG-lev tunnel. He fired and a white hot ball of energy slammed into our truck's side. I guessed he'd fired an Augmented Flux-Blaster. Nasty piece of kit, that. Desperately, I wrestled with the joystick trying to keep us afloat until we made the shuttle.
No such luck.
A second shot punched us into the ground, our truck's side just a tangled wreckage of metal. We scraped along the rocky ground, sparks mixing with sprays of water as we rapidly slowed down. I fought the truck, trying to raise it again but a third shot destroyed the anti-gravity unit and we juddered to a stop. Çrámerr tumbled from the flatbed, as did Sava's crate.
The speeder shot past but wheeled around for a return run. Meanwhile, the shuttle hovered above us all, its delta wings partly shielding us from the rainfall. Sensibly, Nanisha had taken it above small-arms range – especially that deadly Augmented Flux-Blaster.
"Sell our products dear," said Çrámerr as he picked himself up and resumed firing. Another decapitated pirate fell. I pulled myself out of the shattered ruins of the cab and helped Julianna to her feet. More shots zinged around us. The pirates' trucks were almost on us now and some leaped to the ground. The first ape-man who did so died, as did the second.
Keeping low, Julianna switched on the crate's anti-gravity unit and it hovered weightlessly a few centimetres above the ground. She started pushing it away. Had to give the woman a hundred per cent for loyalty. Unless she was merely programmed that way. Not that it mattered now.
Another loyal woman was Nanisha Suna Paranavithana, Under Captain of the President Perseus P Porter, herself. Seeing what was going on below, she lowered the shuttle to give us all a chance to board.
"Run for it," I shouted above the mayhem.
Çrámerr squeezed off a final shot and started running after myself and Julianna, who was still pushing the crate. Some pirates flew after us while others made the night lively by still blazing away at us. Bad mistake that, as a stray shot took out one of their own. One down – about forty or fifty to go.
And still the near-boiling rain sluiced down, distorting the scene and making it seem like some outpost of hell. Which Sepharvaim is. Even aided by state of the art computers aboard the shuttle, Nanisha's piloting skills were superb. She lowered the shuttle until it was hovering just above our heads with the cargo ramp scraping the ground.
"Hurry up," she called through the radio. Her voice was still calm and collected. Some of the pirates were now diverting their fire from us to the shuttle. I hoped they didn't hit anything vital.
One bit of good news. Some of the shuttle's crew crouched at the top of the cargo ramp and were firing at any pirate they could see. High-energy bolts criss-crossed back and forth like directed lightning strikes in this storm. They weren't military and in this poor visibility and with the pirates dodging the blasts I'm not sure if they hit much. All the same, it tilted the odds slightly in our favour. Any rip or tear in their suits meant an agonising death in this poisonous, near-boiling atmosphere and I guess the pirates were reluctant to die for their leader.
"C'mon," I shouted back over my shoulder at Çrámerr who was still providing what he thought was covering fire. Some pirates were firing while others were running forwards to recapture us. Then that speeder shot back towards us. Knofahgginarebagz leaned out over the side. Beneath his reflective helmet, I made out his ugly face grimacing in triumph. He raised the wide-bored Augmented Flux-Blaster. The first shot missed but not by much, melting a crater into the rocky ground. Adjusting his aim, his second didn't miss. Basically, he blew Çrámerr's legs off. Literally. Çrámerr's torso toppled to the ground and twitched. He was a goner and we all knew it.
"Not again," I moaned. Çrámerr had died beneath a Krilla's claws during our hunting trip on Hancox 1 but I'd saved the day by removing his memory chip so it could be re-implanted into his clone. Looks like I'd have to do it again. Not that I wanted to as the pirates and Knofahgginarebagz were almost on top of me. On the other hand, the bonus I'd picked up from Economou had made it more than worth while. Of course, the risks today were worse than I'd faced on Hancox 1.
Wildly, I looked around. Çrámerr's body – what was left of it – was only a few metres behind me and most of the pirates were further back. With a slice of luck, it might still be possible.
Giving the crate a shove, I shouted, "Keep pushing," to Julianna. I doubled back and knelt by Çrámerr's ruined body. His blood was being rapidly washed away but he still lay in a large pink puddle of his own blood and gore.
He was still alive. Only just, but he was hanging in there. I patted his shoulder. What else could I do? Not caring about the agony of his last breaths, I pulled off his protective helmet and threw it away. Çrámerr looked up, choking in poisonous air and with his skin reddening and blistering as eighty-five degree temperature rain scalded him. Summoning the last of his ebbing strength he raised his pistol and aimed it at my face. For one horrified second, I thought Çrámerr was delirious and was about to shoot me. Instead he moved the barrel a couple of centimetres past my helmet and squeezed the trigger. Involuntarily, I jerked my head and saw a pirate who had been standing just behind me. No longer.
Çrámerr gave a twisted, dying grin. The last he'd ever make. His terribly blistered lips formed one last word. "Headshot."
He'd saved my life and I owed him for that. Rolling what was left of his body onto its front, I drew my knife, dug its tip into the hollow at the base of his skull and pried out his memory chip. If I made it out, it could be implanted into his next clone. The techies at the clone-lab would take care to delete any bad memories relating to his death. After all, they'd done it before. Dropping the bloody tangle of wires and neurons into a suit's pocket, I stood.
Too late. Knofahgginarebagz himself stepped out of the speeder. Looking around, I saw other pirates had encircled Julianna and Sava's crate. At the very edge of success, we'd failed. Seeing that, Captain Nanisha levitated the shuttle up out of weapon's range but still didn't fly off. I wondered if she'd seen what I'd done for her boss and wanted to see if she could somehow escape with the memory chip.
No time to wonder about that. Knofahgginarebagz stepped towards me. In one gauntleted hand he held a Mettallist Hi-Ripper which was aimed straight at me. In the other, my prized diamond blade. Me, I was helpless, kneeling by Çrámerr's corpse with only a knife in my hand. For one insane moment, I thought about reaching for my Maz-Blazter but that would be a short-cut to suicide. When you can't fight and you can't run and you can't hide, you have only one option.
Talk.
So I dropped my knife and held my hands away from my sides. "Hey, monkey-man, you think you're king, don't you, with the rest of your inbred tribe backing you up."
Knofahgginarebagz growled in his throat. "You can't get to me, hi-man. I've got what I want now..."
"Yeah, except looks, brains, talent, charisma. Hey, you ever had a female you didn't have to club into submission first?"
I could just make out his fanged maw twisting with rage. However, through the radio channel, I heard the rest of the pirate tribe tittering as I ranked out their leader.
"Thought not. Bet you think you're rock hard don't you? Bet you think you could kill me easy?"
"You know I could, hi-man. You know I could rip your arm off and beat you to death with it."
"Yeah – with your whole clan holding me down, maybe. But mano a mano – or mano a monkeyo, bet you couldn't."
"That's a bet you'd lose, hi-man. Not that you'd be alive to pay up."
Got him. Easy as taking a banana from a baby monkey. "You want to make a wager? Single combat with knives? I win then me and my friends go free. You win then I'll tell the shuttle's Captain to land – don't forget, I've got Çrámerr's memory chip here and she'll not want to leave without that. Economou will pay big money for that." With that I took out the chip, holding it up to view. They're quite robust but I could destroy it before I got killed.
Knofahgginarebagz scowled. He knew he'd been suckered but he couldn't back out now without losing mega amounts of face. Refuse, and his authority would be badly weakened and it wouldn't be long before his position was challenged. However, he was built like a mountain and you don't get to be a pirate leader without being able to handle yourself. He outweighed me by about a hundred kilos and his reach was much longer than mine.
"Okay – you want to die, I'll kill you now. I'll slit your suit and you'll choke and boil to death."
"No!" Julianna cried as she ran away from the crate and stood by my side. "Don't do this, Vic. It's not worth it. Let them take us as prisoners. Sava'll pay any ransom – I know he will."
I never knew she cared so much.