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Stories from the Verse
In Version
Chapter 136: Beam 195
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 247
With Captain Malacon leading the way, Dawn second, Emperor Beam third, Bob, Bron, and Sophia with Ashleigh behind them all skulking rapidly to keep up with the others, they jogged through the hallways to the elevator. Inside, everyone readied, and the white haired man considered a speech, but decided his crew knew what they were doing.
The elevator door opened, and they rushed past a delegation of civilians who called out his name as he passed, according to Bob. But there was no time to stop, and feeling urgency give wings to his feet, he began to jog. Captain Malacon broke out into a run to keep up with the longer-legged humans. Bob began to lag behind, but he spoke in Beam’s mind as they passed into a long hallway.
Norax is in the simulator room. He is--
A buzzing, grating alarm hammered the Human’s skulls, although the Captain was not as badly affected. Still, he spun about and shouted.
Get out. Fire suppression measures active.
But even as he ran back past the others, the white haired man heard a door slam shut behind him, and another in front of him. A great vibrating noise began, and Malacon shouted.
In two seconds, all the air will be removed from this hallway.
“Dawn, open the door behind us.” “Sir, yes, sir.” Everyone except for Beam stared even as the air pressure dropping caused ears to pop painfully, but quickly scrambled out of the way as Dawn pulled a rocket from the six legged walker. Slap, slam, swoosh, and it roared fainter than it should have due to the thin air. It hit the door to the hallway near the ceiling and blew it apart into a gaping hole. Air rushed back in with black smoke blowing in their faces, and the crackle of a genuine fire around the now open portal.
You could have splintered the floor, insane alien. That would have shredded us all.
“I aimed for six inches from the top of the door to maximize space separation from the cerametal floor.”
“Enough,” Beam snapped. “Bron, the door to the room.”
“Right.” Bron ran forward and began to whale on the sliding door. His second strike opened up a path enough for a repulsor bolt to fly by his face. He ducked to the side, and hit the door twice more. One door panel fell out into the hallway, another collapsing inward. Two small rosebud-like objects rolled out, one to the left and toward Dawn, and the other to the right toward Bron.
Even as the whine of Sophia’s flechette gun wound up, Bob snatched the objects telekinetically and threw them back into the simulation room. Nothing happened, and Dawn began to draw her weapons even as black vested and brown uniformed Commandos burst through the door. Her first three bullets sounded like rolling thunder, and three of them snapped their heads back, falling on their backs dead from head shots. Bron leapt forward, crashing into another commando exiting the room even as the white haired man saw a hand down near the floor pitch out another rosebud. He yanked on Sophia’s gun barrel, and told her to fire. The flechettes pierced the grenade smashing it, making its complicated inner structure inert. Then they ricocheted, tearing through Bron’s posterior. Dawn dove in over the top of the toppling Bron, and--
He shouts in his mind that he will not--Stop, Dawn!
A single gunshot came from Dawn at the same moment as the warning. And then the hum of dozens of what must have been antigravity grenades detonated, and the white haired man saw the floor below him fall away for him and all the others for just a second until the crushing force amplified even further.
Dead man’s trigger--he had just enough time to think before he versed out. Thus Emperor Beam ruled this Empire for just one day.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
