These guys were dressed in full body armor that had a skeletal motif to it. So did their vehicle. Lots of weapons. Everyone had one major weapon - mostly futuristic looking rifles. Everyone also had a pistol and something like a survival knife. Their vehicle had things that looked sort of like anti-aircraft guns and cannon.
Now that she had time to examine in a bit more detail she was noticing other things.
Not one suit of armor was pristine. All had scorch marks, pitted areas, or scratches. Thinking back she could remember areas in the vehicle which were the same.
Similar appearance and armament, so - a military or paramilitary force of some kind. The scars and rents meant that they'd been in battle. Probably a lot of them.
They weren't averse to killing. Not the usual battles from Nerima. Actual killing. Bang, you're dead. Don't do what they say and they'd kill you without a second glance.
The shackles holding them kept sending little electrical charges into Nabiki's wrists. Bulky looking things made of the same black material as almost everything else. Something like metal or hard plastic but Nabiki thought it likely wasn't either.
Akane was still unconscious. Nabiki hoped little sister had learned. These were not good guys. These were professional soldiers, and likely ones who had seen members of their units die. Nabiki counted twelve bunks and seven soldiers if she counted the driver. So they might have survived, but they hadn't done all that well.
"(I say kill 'em all. If they ain't d-bees then they're likely sympathizers for Tolkien. Best to make sure.)"
Nabiki's eyes flicked to identify the speaker. An "05" on the shoulder covering. That had been the guy who'd thrown the fire at Ranma's last known position.
"(No. You saw what happened to the one girl. She came apart. Human. Let 'em into the Burbs at least. We're champions of humanity, not like the d-bee filth we have to fight.)"
Nabiki's eyes flicked momentarily to the "12" arguing with "05". Sounded like a nerd. What was a D-Bee? Or for that matter "Tolkien" - Lord Of The Rings reference? That had been the second time she'd heard a reference to "Burbs" - wasn't that something to do with advertising?
"(How do we know that they ain't gonna start sprouting fanged tentacle mouths or something? After what we've seen in this war, I'm gonna have nightmares for a month,)" said 05.
"(We got some trophies for the spooks to look over, some specimens for the science types, and we've managed to waste the city,)" argued 12. "(We're heroes. You managed to find that family hiding in that basement, didn't you? D-bees are intrinsically inferior to humans in all ways that matter, Emperor Prosek said so just the other day. So we're going to have a heroes welcome.)"
"(Unless we're sent off to Free Quebec. Damn seperationists.)" said 05.
"(So we at least get a few days R&R, right? Hey, maybe we should drop these off at Madame LaRouche's Stables.)" 12 indicated.
"(Hey, that might work. If they're not D-bees then they're fairly young and still kinda pretty. Some of 'em at least.)"
Nabiki put the two statements together and suppressed a frown. That didn't sound at all good. She was pretty sure she'd bail from the rest of this group. Akane's temper would be a liability, while her friends were too "white bread" and unlikely to be able to cope. Break down in the wrong place and you could end up taking down your entire group. The other girls were unknown qualities. Nabiki couldn't even place the school uniforms.
P-chan had been picked up by Sayuri during the scuffle and had drawn the least attention. Nabiki met P-chan's eyes. So they only had one ace-in-the-hole, and how much good he would be was an open question.
"WE HAVE BOGIES!" yelled the female voice of the commander. "Marking two. Altitude 1000. Speed one twenty."
"Shit," said 05 as he started climbing up. "Too slow for missiles."
Yuka began to scream as the guns on the transport began firing. 05 stopped his upward climb, drew his sidearm, made some adjustment on the side, and quietly shot the girl before resuming his upward trek.
Nabiki waited for 05 to get up to his chair before checking on the girl. She was alive, but only because the blast had cauterized the wound it had made. One arm was almost certainly ruined. Some kind of laser?
Yuka AND Sayuri had fainted. One from pain, most likely. The other from reaction. Lucky them, they didn't smell burning flesh at the moment.
Rattling noises like from machine guns and various crackles and booms indicated that the vehicle's big damn guns were being fired, Nabiki wasn't sure she wanted to see what they were being used on but she realized this was likely her big chance to do something but what?
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(Posted Wed, 28 Jan 2004 12:35)
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