Planet Leviathan

^{Chapter 15} Final Showdowns Are Always Inevitable

“Final showdowns are always inevitable,” Lexton said. She had four Shellheads at strategic points on the ground below Stacia and on the hills, while Lexton herself stood on an upside down wing about twenty meters from Stacia. “I’ve actually had quite a few over the years, both before and after I was sentenced to Leviathan. In case you haven’t guessed, I’ve won them all.”

“Did you monologue before each time?” Stacia asked. “Because I would think that would get a bit tedious.”

“You know, it really does,” Lexton said. “Sometimes I wish I could just skip it, but it’s kind of expected.”

“So what are you expecting to happen here?” Stacia asked. “I’m already thinking that you’re not going to just shoot me outright, because the smart thing would have been to do that already.” She surreptitiously cast her eyes back down through the hatch for just a second as she heard something moving beneath her. Skin was there, the 808 in her hand, and she was staring up at Stacia with a look that was equal parts terror and confusion. Neither Lexton nor any of her people could see Skin from their angle, which Stacia could use to her advantage, but Stacia didn’t know any way to communicate commands to the young woman without Lexton noticing.

Lexton shrugged. “Eh. I don’t know. Torture maybe. Or I suppose I could torture Borealis and the Skin while you watch. But to be honest, that’s getting kind of old by now.”

“You could let us go. That would be a new one.” Stacia moved the tip of her toe to the edge of the hatch, slowly enough that no one noticed. She wiggled the toe, hoping Skin would understand what Stacia wanted her to do.

She ran off deeper into the ship. That was not what Stacia had intended.

Yeah, if we survive today, we’re going to need to work out some signals, Stacia thought.

“You know something? That would be a new one. I should try letting someone go sometime, just to see what it’s like. But not today.”

Stacia felt a vibration growing under her feet. Oh, so that’s what Skin went to do instead. I guess that’ll work, too.

She wasn’t the only one who felt the thrumming beneath them. Lexton looked down at the ship. “No. There’s no way. This ship can’t…”

Stacia herself didn’t know how Stanton had got the ship up and running so quickly, but she took advantage of the momentary distraction to make a dash for the side. She didn’t get very far before the bullets started flying, but she didn’t need to. The ship was already moving, rocking beneath them, and very obviously getting ready to flip with the two of them still standing on the underside. The back thrusters fired, the heat burning the side of the hill and flowing up directly into the face of one of the Shellheads. He covered his face and ducked down the other side of the hill, dropping his 808 as he rolled.

Three Shellheads left, plus Lexton, Stacia thought. Before she could do anything with that information, though, Daddy’s Adult Toy flipped.

It was as though someone had grabbed it by one wing and flicked it with a single mighty finger. The force of the maneuver was more than Stacia had expected, and even though she thought she’d been prepared, she still found herself spinning head over heels, going so far that she was unable to get any tactical data before she hit the ground head first. Her vision flashed bright blue, not just from the force of the impact on her head but from her neural implants going into emergency shutdown mode.

Uh-oh. That wasn’t good at all.

She struggled to get to her feet for a second, flicking her head violently to the side in an effort to get her implants booted up again. Stacia was so concerned with this that she almost forgot there was a huge ship spinning in the air over her head, and it was about to come down right where she was sitting. She scrambled out of the way just as one wing came down into the ground, crushing one of the Shellheads beneath it. Two down.

Daddy’s Adult Toy shuddered and settled, now on its belly. Stanton hadn’t had a chance to deploy the landing gear, so the main hatch in was now hidden beneath the bulk of the ship. Stacia had no way of getting in at the moment for a quick escape, and neither Stanton nor Skin could come out to help her. Stacia did a quick inventory of herself and realized that she’d lost her plasma pistols, probably when she’d been flying through the air. She could try looking for them, but it seemed most likely that they were now smashed into the dirt beneath the ship. That left her only with the sonic blade, which she thought would be enough under other circumstances. But she was dazed and without her implants. If one of the two remaining Shellheads came around the ship for her, or even Lexton herself if she hadn’t been crushed right along with her lackey, then Stacia probably wouldn’t survive the attack.

Sure enough, just as she thought that, first one Shellhead, then the other, came around the ship into view.

Stacia’s heart sank when she saw the first one.

It leaped for joy, however, when she saw the second.

Both of them pointed their 808s at Stacia from close range. From here, there was no way they would miss her head, and even if they did, the bullets would be concentrated enough to wear down her armor rather quickly and then rip her apart. Stacia thought she heard a scream or a shout from just over the hill that was abruptly cut off, but that was not the problem immediately in front of her face.

“Hands up,” the first Shellhead said.

Stacia did nothing of the sort. She didn’t even look at the first. All her concentration was on the second, who had her weapon not quite trained on Stacia at all. Instead, it was pointed roughly halfway between her and the other Shellhead.

“I said hands up, or I’ll blow your head off!”

Stacia again ignored him, instead speaking to the one off to his side.

“Do you remember what we said to each other on the cliff?”

The first Shellhead looked confused. He didn’t even seem to understand that Stacia wasn’t addressing him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You said thanks for not shooting you in the head. And you remember what I said.”

The first Shellhead raised his weapon. “Okay. That’s enough of this. You know…”

Stacia never found out what she was supposed to know, because that was when Kendara shifted her aim and blew the Shellhead’s brain clear out of his body. As bits of skull and gray matter showered down around them, Kendara lowered her weapon.

“You said maybe I could return the favor someday,” Kendara said.

“So I guess that makes us even.”

“Not the way I see it.”

“Oh?” Stacia asked.

“The deal was that I not shoot you when I had the chance. Shooting Lucifer here, though, I figure that means you still owe me something.”

“And what would that be?”

“Take me with you. I want off of this gods-forsaken hellhole of a planet.”

Even though Kendara still could have shot her at any moment, Stacia hesitated. Her mission all along had been to rescue Stanton, and taking Skin was a no-brainer, considering she was an innocent that had never done anything to deserve being her. Kendara, however, was here for a reason.

“What were you sentenced to Leviathan for?” Stacia asked.

Kendara tensed before answering. “That doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does.”

“I’m here for murder.”

Before Stacia could say that no, she wouldn’t take her under any circumstances, Kendara sheepishly added, “I’d take it back, if I could. A guy in a market tried to sell me something, and I just snapped. Completely lost it.”

“What did he try to sell you?”

Kendara paused, then mumbled something incoherent.

“What was that?”

“A banana, all right? Some poor schmuck of a fruit salesman in the market got too aggressive in trying to sell me a banana, and I snapped, okay?”

It wasn’t funny. It really wasn’t. But Stacia couldn’t keep a smile from her face.

“I swear,” Kendara said, “if I ever get a hold of that implant programmer…”

“Drop your weapon and you can come with,” Stacia said. “I can’t guarantee what might and might not happen to you after we leave, but…”

Lexton jumped out from a hiding place alongside the ship and slammed Kendara in the head with both hands balled into one fist. Kendara dropped to the side, unconscious but still breathing, leaving Lexton to stand over Stacia. Lexton might not have been armed while Stacia was, but Lexton’s implants were probably still working. That made the two of them about evenly matched.

That wasn’t good enough for Stacia.

“You know, after careful consideration, I have definitely decided not to let you go,” Lexton said. Stacia barely listened. Instead, she looked up to the top of the hill where the Shellhead had vanished when the engines started. Now that she thought about it, that was the direction that random scream had come from.

Just over the edge of the hill, several stalks of grass disappeared from view.

“Okay then,” Stacia said as she stood up. “Let’s finish this.”

Lexton took a defensive stance, ready to defend herself against Stacia’s initial attack. Stacia rushed, but instead of going right toward Lexton with her knife, she dashed around the confused woman and ran up the hill.

“Wha… You’re not supposed to run!” Lexton called after her. “That’s not how these things work!” Then, in a quieter voice as she gave chase, “Damn it.”

Stacia didn’t go far. She stopped just short of the top of the hill, where she saw more grass vanishing. She didn’t want Lexton to see that, though. If she even so much as glanced in that direction, her tactical implants, as old as they were, would still pick it up and alert her to what Stacia had planned. So instead, Stacia lunged at Lexton, knife aimed right for the woman’s throat. Lexton parried the attack easily, and without the benefit of her implants, Stacia couldn’t quite make the next decision quick enough to avoid Lexton grabbing her by the wrist. They locked in an embrace as Stacia tried to get the sonic blade close enough to stab Lexton, while Lexton did her best to twist Stacia’s wrist and turn the blade back on its owner.

“Your implants are malfunctioning, aren’t they?” Lexton asked. “You want to know something? They always do, at some point. That’s why I always win. Because eventually, whoever I’m up against, they reach this point and don’t know what to do. It’s a crutch that I don’t have.”

Stacia, straining against Lexton’s strength, couldn’t help smiling through her grimace. “You don’t have tactical neural implants?”

“Mine permanently failed long ago. I don’t need them.”

“That’s actually good to know. It means you can’t predict when I do this!”

Stacia used Lexton’s own strength against her, letting the sonic blade come down to nick her own armor but using the momentum to throw them both off balance. They hit the ground, and Stacia felt the sonic blade slice through her armor and into her abdomen. Lexton was so surprised by the maneuver that she let go as Stacia rolled the two of them over the edge of the hill.

And right into the Wet Lisa that had been waiting on the other side.

They both splashed into the slimy green puddle, but Lexton’s removable armor proved less capable of preventing the ooze from getting in the cracks of the armor’s plates. Lexton screamed as the tender flesh in her joints dissolved in the Wet Lisa’s acid, but she regained control long enough to keep rolling until she was on top and Stacia was beneath her. Stacia held her head up, keeping it from falling back into the slime, but she was sure her hair was dissolving as it hung in the goop.

“This was your plan?” Lexton asked as she held Stacia down, trying to shove her head back into the Wet Lisa. “It doesn’t seem to be working out very well for you.”

“Actually, I just needed to get you into a good position to do this.” She yanked her head to the side, again letting Lexton’s own force work against her as her hand slipped from Stacia’s face and plunged right into the Wet Lisa. Her glove kept most of the corrosive substance out, but the sudden shift allowed Stacia to get out from under her, grab the woman by the back of her head, and shove with all her might.

Half of Lexton’s face, the side that hadn’t long ago been a Wet Lisa’s meal, plunged right into the creature. Lexton didn’t even get a chance to scream as the right side of her face became a sizzling ruin to match the left.