Drifter

Eli was forced to brace himself as Jiraa slammed on the brakes and veered to one side, only just avoiding a collision with a packed passenger vehicle. He was, however, unable to avoid the tow truck that had rear-ended a cargo carrier. Another car blared its horn as it slammed into the back of Jiraa’s truck.

All around them, similar accidents played out as cars braked and tried to avoid collisions. Tires squealed and debris flew. People climbed out of their cars, started making their way away from the disaster.

The organic ship flew closer, moving with speed and grace. Eli pondered his next move. He wasn’t equipped to take on a starship. But the ship wasn’t going to bring its firepower to bear. The occupant was clearly after Aydem.

The driver’s door opened. Eli hunkered down low and watched the top of Jirra’s head as he stepped out of the wrecked vehicle. He moved to the rear and opened the enclosed bed. From it, he pulled out a long, thick metal tube that was painted in subdued colors. Eli immediately recognized it as a rocket launcher. Then he started to dig around, refreshing his bandoleers and rearming himself.

The organic ship came to rest on a patch of undeveloped land, crushing plants beneath its landing legs. A door opened and a ramp lowered. Light rolled off of something as it descended.

The thing that came out of the ship was a glossy black metal shell. It floated, the tops of the taller blades of grass brushing along the gravity manipulator that was attached to the underside. After studying it for several seconds he decided that it was roughly lozenge shaped, with protrusions or indentations in certain areas.

Eli was unsure if it was a vehicle or something closer to an encounter suit. There was nothing that resembled a face or cockpit. Eli was able to pick out a variety of optic systems and sensor modules, these dotted the surface of the thing. A pair of plasma cannons were mounted on the sides. A smaller pair of pulse weapons were positioned beneath those.

Jiraa stepped around the truck and strode forward, launcher at the ready. He shouted at the floating hunk of guns and armor, “They weren’t a part of this. You have no right to involve innocents in our game. I’ll make you pay!”

Jiraa fired, the warhead screamed toward the target, leaving a trail of black smoke. Just as it was about to reach the weird alien, it came to a sudden halt. Eli studied the event. He noticed that one of the spots on the armored thing glowed in the same way as the ship had when the overpass was destroyed.

Realizing what was about to happen, Eli jumped off of the truck. He went into a roll. Jiraa dropped the launcher and stepped behind one of the wrecked vehicles.

The newcomer used its tractor beam to turn the rocket completely around. Now that it faced back toward the attacker, he released his hold on it. It struck, going off in a blast that rattled Eli’s teeth.

The sound of the explosion echoed off of distant buildings. This was followed by heavy weapons fire as Jirra and the thing in the armor engaged in a firefight.

One of the truck’s rear doors opened. Aydem jumped out of it and bolted away. Jiraa must have not had time to bind him.

Eli tackled Aydem, knocking him onto the pavement. The fugitive let out a grunt of pain. Eli pulled a zip strip off of his vest and started tying his hands together at the wrists.

“Please let me go!” Aydem begged, shouting so that he could be heard over the weapons fire.

“You’re a murderer and I’m going to get paid when I turn you in on Ujita.”

“Please!” he begged again, struggling against Eli, “They’ll kill me!”

Eli finished the task, “It’ll be a lot better than what the syndicates will do to you!”

A motor revved. Eli hauled Aydem to his feet and drew his pistol. Gami idled the bike into view. Eli positioned his prisoner so that he was between him and her. Bracing the pistol on Aydem’s shoulder, Eli silently dared her to try it. During a brief lull in the gunfire sirens could be heard.

Jiraa let out a shout of agony. The gunfire stopped. Gami drove away.

“Come on, we’ve got to get out of here,” Eli growled at his captive.

Eli pushed Aydem along, applying pressure to places on the arm where it would be most painful, at least on a human being. Aydem let out sounds of pain and protest, which were capped by a gasp of fear when the glossy black thing floated into view.

Eli aimed at one of the optic systems and fired. Rounds struck around the camera, pinging off of the armor in showers of sparks. One found the target, smashing the lens.

Before he could pick another target, something smashed into him. It impacted his side, pulling his hand off of the prisoner and throwing him into the side of Jiraa’s truck. A piece of debris had been lifted up using the gravity manipulator and used as a projectile.

Aydem began to scream. Eli fought against the pain and disorientation. He caught a glimpse of the prisoner floating away. A pitiful crawl turned into a defiant shuffle as he worked his way around the truck. He watched helplessly as the bounty was loaded into the ship, the armored alien followed close behind. The ramp retracted and the craft took off.

Eli heard heavy footsteps. At first, he thought that it was emergency services. Then he saw that it was Jiraa. He had injected a nasty wound on his side with an Iredell. Void black blood covered the area around the injury, running down his leg. If he saw Eli, he chose to ignore him.

The big bounty hunter got what appeared to be a cannon from the back of his truck. With some effort, he hefted the gun. The shell screamed into the rear section of the craft, moving far too fast to see. Two of the engines went out. Then another began to smoke badly. The pilot shut it off. Now he was flying on only a single engine. And yet, he continued to climb, albeit at a greatly reduced rate.

Jiraa had bought himself enough time to get back to his ship and go after the bastard that had stolen his bounty. Unfortunately for him, he had done the same for Eli and Gami.