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Skidding down the staircase, Danika heard the feet of the pirates above her and loaded the armour piercing rounds she’d taken off one of the dead men into the TAR-21 she’d policed off of one of Anders lieutenants and opened fire, the rounds boring through the floor above her, the sound of ricochets joined by screams of pain from the borders. Without hesitating Danika headed lower into the bowls of the ship into the engineering section, the engines inside had been stalled and the room itself had been abandoned save for the bodies of the dead crew and the spider like maintenance drones already attending to the matter of draining the corpses of all their fat and muscle.
“She went down here!” A voice called from the hallway, one that forced Danika to postpone lamenting the dead and instead hurried her into the salvage storage bay. The few times she’d been on ships like the Proteus before, this area had usually been full of salvage liberated from the wrecks of doomed vessels ready to be returned to their owners. Today however, there was nothing aboard, no cover save for the magnetic cradles used to store vehicles and other items prone to slipping about when the ship was tossed by the rolling waves. Checking her ammunition, Danika realised that this phased retreat wasn’t going to leave her with either the time or bullets to liberate the remaining crew tethered to the bomb in the rear salvage bay. Ducking into one of the cradles, she pulled out her knife and her remaining white phosphorus grenade and waited, her hands wrapping the pull trigger of the explosive round the blade of the driving knife.
“Next room is empty.” A voice with a native accent called as four men entered the room, three of them were locals, most likely hired from Haiti to act as guns for hire for Anders full time crew. Their poor state of dress and scavenged weapons were in sharp contrast to the fourth man dressed in urban camouflage and holding a state of the art assault rifle linked to the same headset Danika had taken from the man she’d lured outside.
“It’s empty when I say it’s empty.” The professional soldier replied in a South African accent. “Go back into engineering and cover the exits, I don’t want that little b***h flanking me from behind.” He added as the Haitian muscle returned to the next room. Cautiously the man walked to the first cradle, unaware that Danika was hiding inside the structure, knife poised ready to strike. Reaching the edge of the structure, the man had second to strike before his prey struck, the knife stabbing into his chest before he had a chance to let off a shot or shout a warning. Quietly Danika levered the man back towards the door and dropped the corpse thrrough into the other side before slamming the door shut, the knife clenched in her hand with the pin, minus the grenade, still wrapped around the blade.
As she did screams in French and Creole could be heard on the other side, followed by a sharp hissing sound and a muffled explosion as the bomb went off, dousing the men in the other side with a cloud of thick smoke that burnt the throats and eyes of the men trapped inside with their leaders body. Turning to the dropped rifle, Danika removed the ammo clip and counted twelve bullets contained inside. “This will have to do.”
Stalking over to the Danika activated the ‘Sync’ function on the helmet she was wearing and flicked through the feed from the three remaining active headsets until she linked with the one being worn by the soldier inside the room. Besides him there were at least twelve living members of crew and three Haitians, all patrolling the upper gantries of the storage bay as their boss locked the timer panel of the bomb with a key looped on a chain around his neck. Leaving the synced helmet stuck on the ‘active’ function, Danika placed it on the floor and knocked three times before slipping to one side. Seconds later a barked order could just be heard and one of the Haitians opened the door and looked round before starting to swear in Creole as the knife stabbed into his chest.
Darting into the room, Danika fired a single shot into another Haitian guard, the man caught midway between raising his rifle and firing so that, as he fell to the floor his gun fired a salvo of shots into the ceiling. The remaining two pirates were not caught as unaware, with the last Haitian firing a burst of panicky shots from the antique sub-machine gun he was armed with, his targeting vaulting over the side to avoid his wild shots. Turning he fired down into the pit, the hostages and the gunmen taking cover against the sides of the pit. “Stop it you fool!” The gunmen barked at the man on top in a Ukrainian accent, as he poked his head out. Seconds later a pair of shots sounded, followed by the thud of two bodies hitting the floor.
“Is every one okay?” Danika asked as she walked over to the dead gunmen and removed the key from his neck.
“They killed the rest of the crew.” One of the sailors replied as Danika unlocked the timer panel and turned the counter off. “And they took Captain Webber away to get information on you.”
“Webber is dead.” Danika sighed just as the helmet on the dead Ukrainian’s head buzzed. Walking over, Danika bent down and looked into the lens, before slotting it onto her own head. As she did she saw Andreas standing on the deck, his wide barrelled rifle slung over his shoulders as some of his men worked in the background.
“Can you hear me?” Andreas asked. “See these,” he hissed as he pulled a tarp off one of the flying wing drones Danika had encountered on the wreck of the King of the Orinoco, “you may have disarmed my scuttling charges but as soon as I toss these over the side, this ship and everyone else on-board.” Not even bothering to reply Danika picked up the dead gunmen’s assault rifle and sidearm.
“Does anyone have firearms experience?” Danika asked, to be greeted by a show of hands. “Okay take what you can find and head to the panic room. Don’t come out until you hear the fire alarm, when you come out, come out armed and head for the deck, I’ll meet you there.” She added, as she removed the ammo-clip out of the weapon she had taken from the dead mercenary and counted the remaining shots, before slotting it back in, and heading towards the deck. After a few minutes she arrived up there and peeked out of an ajar door to count how many guards Andreas had with him. Besides the pirate captain there were at least two of his own crew and about six Haitian’s he had hired as disposable muscle.
Gritting her teeth, Danika kicked the door open and fired a few shots at Andreas and the mercenary nearest to him, the later taking the shots as the pirate captain spun round and fired back at her, the multiple barrels chewing holes in the ship structure as Danika leapt out the way. Cursing and spitting, he lowered his weapon and ran his hands along the trackpad attached to his weapon, just as Danika recovered from her dodge and sprinted towards one of the drones sitting on a hard-case. She reached cover just in time, as Andreas fired, the shots whizzing over her head. Seeking an opening Danika popped out from behind cover only for a pair of Haitians to open fire on her, forcing her back behind the case.
“Men get ready, in a few seconds she won’t have anywhere to fire!” Andreas spat as he dragged his finger across the trackpad again, this time activating the lower barrels of his weapon to vaporise the cover Danika was hiding behind. Opening fire, Andreas watched as the case was blow apart only to see his target ready to open fire, Danika’s shots slashing into the wide flat micro-barrel array of his weapon and deforming it.
Throwing his weapon away in disgrace Andreas watched as Danika spun round and fired at the remaining mercenaries, the shots scattering them until her weapon clicked, the ammo spent. Dropping the weapon, Danika charged Andreas just as he unsheathed a large curved knife attached to his leg, his reactions fast as he stabbed his weapon into her shoulder. With a grunt he grabbed her by the neck and slammed her face first into the deck of the boat before dragging her over to one of the flying wing drones.
“Get the machines ready and get back to the boat!” Andreas yelled as he activated the drilling apparatus on the drone, the revolving hydraulic drill spinning up to speed within seconds. With a sneer he pushed the concussed woman towards the revolving blades, only for his victim to slam her fist into his groin, the blow staggering the pirate and forcing him to release her from his grasp. With a hiss like an angry viper Danika grabbed Andreas’s hand and slammed it into the drill, the machinery shredding flesh, muscle and bone until it got jammed in the drone’s inner workings. Getting to her feet Danika pulled the sidearm out of the Andreas’s holster and pushed the weapon against the injured man’s skull.
“Tell them to surrender.” Danika snarled.
“Never!” Andreas growled. “You won’t pull the trigger. Even if you do, you’ll be dead in seconds.”
“I don’t think so.” Danika replied, as the remaining mercenary and thugs advanced on Danika and their leader. “Leave, or get arrested alongside your leader.” She told the remaining men. “It’s your choice.” She added. Twitching slightly, the Haitian muscle looked at each other and threw down their weapons and headed for their boat leaving only one man of Andreas’s crew left on deck. Raising his rifle he kept the weapon trained on Danika in a deadly stalemate.
“Shoot her you idiot!” Andreas yelled, only for his man to lower his own weapon.
“You’ll let me go yes?” The man asked.
“Yes, if you drop your weapon.” Danika replied. Seconds later the man dropped his weapon and headed for the boat, only to spin around, his hand reaching for his sidearm. Rolling her eyes Danika fired, her shot taking the man down before he could open fire. “Now you stay here, I have questions for you, like who hired you and what were you doing here.”
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