Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Jeridan was sitting bored on the bridge of the Antikythera, his feet up on the console, when he got chirped by a private station-to-ship comm. The ID said it was Dean Solis.

"Whattup, Dean? We got the whiskey. It's going to be another—"

"WHY THE HELL ARE MANTIDS ATTACKING YOUR PEOPLE?"

Jeridan leapt to his feet. "What?"

"Mantids? Cacking Mantids! They just cornered your boss and your wingman."

Jeridan patched the comm into his personal communicator as he ran off the bridge, headed for the armory.

"When can your security people get there?" he asked.

"Never."

"What do you mean, never?"

"We're not taking on a group of Mantids!"

"But you have to! You're responsible for the safety of everyone on the station," Jeridan shouted, pelting down the hallway. Aurora peeked out a doorway and nearly got run over.

"Not against Mantids," Dean replied.

"Yeah, like your contract says they're an exception."

"Actually, it does."

"No way."

"Read it yourself."

"Then why did you let them on board?"

"This is the biggest mercenary hiring market in three sectors. You think we'd lose that business?"

"You illegitimate spawn of a Greeb and a Denebrian maggot. Help my friends!"

"No way. I'll send you their tracking coordinates so you can find them quicker. They're retreating through the market area trying to get back to the ship, but they're about to get cornered."

His communicator chirped as it received the data.

"Send me the tracking coordinates for the Mantids too. I can sneak up on them."

"I can't take sides. I'm bending my contract enough as it is."

Jeridan swore as he made it to the armory and grabbed a heavy slug rifle, hesitated at the box of grenades, and then grabbed a variety of them too. They were little things, barely larger than his two thumbs held side by side, but they packed a punch.

He sprinted for the airlock, nearly running over Aurora again.

"What's going on?" the girl asked.

"Your mom's Mantid buddies just showed up again. Go to the bridge and monitor the airlock. Lock it as soon as I go out and don't open it for anyone but us," he said without slowing down.

"Not even station security?" Aurora asked, running behind him.

"Especially not station security."

As soon as he got through the airlock and made sure Aurora locked it behind him, he hit his personal comm to bring up the coordinates. It projected a see-through holo in front of him with a basic schematic of this section of the station, showing two red dots in the market area that he hoped proved Negasi and Nova were still alive.

He didn't really need the holo. There was plenty of gunfire to tell him where to go.

The curving corridor of airlocks seemed to go on forever. Jeridan had to push aside various human and alien crews rushing back to their ships to secure their cargos and their lives. When Mantids got their blood up, the collateral damage could be massive.

Passing them, he cut left along another corridor that led to the marketplace, pressing up against the wall to keep from being flattened by a retreating Grun'hon. Those mountains of flesh and muscle could really move when they had the right motivation.

He got to the main marketplace arcade, a large room with shops on all four sides and three rows of stalls in the center. Several of the shops had already sealed up, and a few more doors slammed down just as he arrived. Huddled behind the stalls were a variety of humans and aliens, all with guns drawn, ready for a fight but hoping not to get pulled into it.

Where were Nova and Negasi? And where were the Mantids?

The second question got answered as an insectoid leapt out from behind an electronics stall covered in flashing advertisements and sailed through the air, firing an automatic weapon at a space between a food stand and an optics vendor.

Jeridan aimed and fired a burst of heavy slugs into the thing. It pirouetted in the air, gouting ichor, and smashed into a liquor display. Jeridan hoped it broke a bunch of bottles of Sagittan whiskey. Then he and Negasi could drive the price up.

They had to survive first. His little stunt earned Jeridan some unwanted attention. A pair of green heads popped up from behind the stalls, one to his left and the other in the far corner. The Mantids had obviously been trying to flank his friends.

Now they both aimed at him.

A hail of slugs flew his direction. Flaming slugs.

Jeridan dove for cover.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

He'd read of this ammo, but had never seen it in action. Firing a round caused a reaction that heated the chemically treated alloy to the temperature of lava within a microsecond. He heard a series of splats on the wall behind him, and when he looked up, saw a dozen molten spots in the metal. A wave of heat seared him.

Jeridan scrambled behind a beer stand, pulled a grenade from his pocket and tossed it at the nearest Mantid. He didn't have to worry about hitting any innocent bystanders, first off because there were no innocent bystanders on Latimer Station and secondly because no one would remain within biting range of those monsters.

The grenade thudded, blasting apart a display of tablets and sending bits of electronics in all directions. Ahead of the blast zone flew the Mantid, who had jumped clear at the last instant. A spray of flechettes bounced off its exoskeleton. The Mantid, apparently unhurt, landed out of sight behind another stall.

"Buddy, is that you?" Jeridan called through the ringing in his ears. He edged further away from the pitted burns on the wall, which still glowed with a terrible heat.

"Yeah!"

"Fire with your rifle."

"Out of ammo."

Crap.

"Work your way toward me. I'll cover you!"

Before Negasi could make a move, both Mantids popped up and fired at Jeridan. Flaming slugs smacked into the wall behind him, some hitting so close his jumpsuit scorched. He gritted his teeth as he felt like he had just gotten a bad sunburn in less than half a second.

Jeridan rolled to get out of the way and ended up behind a food stall. An Awaari hiding there chittered something and poked at him with a spindly leg. The burly human next to it growled,

"My friend says get the cack out of here, and I agree."

To prove his point, he aimed his pistol at Jeridan's head.

Jeridan scrambled on all fours to the left.

It was just as well, because one of the Mantids made a flying leap, sailing over the spot where Jeridan had just vacated and poured fire into it. The thug and his Awaari pal made it out just in time, the little sentient fur ball leaving a trail of smoke as his hair turned from white to black and caught fire. The thing tucked in its legs and rolled to get rid of the flames.

Jeridan had always wondered what a bald Awaari looked like. He didn't stick around to check. Firing a couple of shots to make the Mantid leap for a doorway, he sprang up, bolted down one of the aisles, and pulled out another grenade.

The second Mantid was trading fire with Negasi, both human and alien using stalls for cover. Jeridan tossed the grenade at the distracted Mantid and felt satisfied to see several insectoid body parts fly up in a geyser of whitish ichor.

There were half a dozen fires in the market area now. Suddenly, the fire dampeners in the ceiling let loose, covering everyone and everything in a fireproof white foam. Jeridan wondered why they had taken so long.

Then he realized why. As the foam mixed with the molten metal left by the flaming slugs, it released a noxious, oily gas that burned his nostrils and made him choke.

It made everyone choke. A cacophony of choking, ranging from staccato Awaari coughs to thunderous cannon fire from a Grun'hon, filled the air. Through the smoke he saw Negasi running fast and low for his position, Nova trailing behind, nursing an injured shoulder from which blood ran freely.

A burst of fire took out a display of power tools next to them, the molten bullets mingling with the fire-dampening foam to encloud his friend and his boss in a dense black cloud.

They stumbled out of it, Negasi falling to his knees and Nova, blinded by the smoke, tripping over him and falling.

That saved their lives.

The Mantid flew out of hiding, a viciously curved knife in one hand, and swept it just where their necks had been a moment before. This thing wasn't just making a hit, it was trying to take trophies.

Was it angry at the deaths of its comrades? Did Mantids even get angry? Jeridan didn't know. All he knew was that the insectoid had timed its leap precisely for when Negasi and Nova emerged from the smoke. The thing's battle sense was uncanny.

And it had disappeared again, ready to make another surprise attack.

Blinking and coughing, Jeridan worked his way toward his friends, looking all around him. That thing was going to leap out of nowhere if he stayed put or advanced, so he might as well advance.

A sound to his left. He jerked and swung around, only to see a Zenobian snap its wings and fly out from behind a display case, taking to the air and disappearing into the haze. A moment later, three humans burst out of cover and bolted for the nearest exit.

Negasi and Nova had recovered enough to stumble forward and meet him halfway.

"Let's get out of here!" Negasi coughed.

"Excellent idea. A rare flash of brilliance," Jeridan said, looking around. Where the hell had that Mantid gotten to?

Holding his pistol in one hand, he reached into his pocket for another grenade. Nova stumbled past him, nursing her wounded shoulder. Good thing she hadn't been hit by one of those molten bullets or she'd be nothing but a pile of cinders.

Just then the Mantid made a reappearance.

He hopped into the aisle where they stood, a short rifle in its hands. Before Jeridan could raise his gun, it fired.

In the blink of an eye, a wire net spread out, framed by small weights on its edges. It hit them hard, and in the next instant Jeridan and his friends found themselves in a heap on the floor, Jeridan on top of Negasi and Nova on top of him. The net constricted, and in a moment trussed them up tight.

The Mantid walked up to them. Its translator buzzed with a metallic voice.

"Give me the decrypted data chip and I will kill you quickly."

Nova shifted on top of him, and the pile of three helpless humans swayed from side to side.

"We don't have it," she said. "She wasn't able to break the code."

"If that were true, you wouldn't be leaving." It holstered its net launcher and drew that wicked blade. "I will start with your noses. One of the most tender parts of a human, with a tasty natural sauce on the inside canals."

Nova rocked back and forth more violently. Was she panicking? Jeridan was certainly panicking. If this thing talked any more about eating noses with snot as a special sauce, he was going to pee all over his best friend and his boss.

They'd never let him live that down, not that he was going to live anyway.

The Mantid approached, moving slowly for once in order to achieve maximum effect. It worked. Suddenly Jeridan felt like he had to go really, really badly. They rocked back and forth even more now, and Jeridan felt Nova's fingers move into his pocket.

The pocket where he kept his grenades.

Jeridan sighed. He didn't think he'd go out like this, but blowing up and taking the Mantid with them? Better than becoming dinner. He tried to look Nova in the eye, but the net had pressed her hard tight against his chest and all he could see was her hair.

And those fingers pulling out a grenade from his pocket.

Back and forth, Nova kept rocking them, and suddenly Jeridan understood. He shifted his weight as much as he could, trying to increase the momentum. Nova popped off the safety and flicked the little grenade through a gap in the net.

It didn't go far. He could hear it clatter on the floor right next to them.

And right in front of the Mantid.

The insectoid looked down. That was the last Jeridan saw of it, because Nova shouted. "Roll to the left!"

"What's happening?" Negasi asked. At the bottom of the heap, he was blind. He still helped, though. He was helpful that way. Sucked at chessboxing, but a good man in an emergency.

They rolled behind a counter. Just then, an explosion tore at Jeridan's eardrums and he felt the impact of something hard, followed by a wet splatter.

Oh my God. Nova got killed. That was her blood.

He opened his eyes, blinked, and looked around. What little he could see of himself and his surroundings was covered in Mantid fluid. The counter was crumpled and bent but had stopped the worst of the blast. He looked up and saw an antenna stuck to the ceiling. Slowly, it peeled off and fell on his face.

"Ugh. I'd rather be dead," Jeridan said, puffing his cheeks to push the antenna off his face.

"Speak for yourself," Negasi said.

"Quiet," Nova said. "There might be more of them."

They listened for a second but didn't hear anything approach.

Then suddenly there were running feet all around them.

Every thief, bandit, smuggler, and thug remaining in the market area was converging on them.

"Oh, cack," Jeridan said. "Maybe we should have settled for being eaten."