XVIII. Shootouts And Shout Outs

Dhurnuth activated his bracelet blasters. Everyone saw this but no one was quick enough to stop him. He shot one of the locals in the chest. The rest went in a shock. Some of them raised their weapons to try and hit Dhurnuth. None of them gave a clean blow as Dhurnuth did his best to shoot two more. 

Strife reacted quick. He put Dhurnuth's hand up in the air to prevent him from shooting other locals. Dhurnuth  gave Strife a piercing gaze. 

"What are you doing?" Dhurnuth asked. 

"I should ask you the same thing" Strife replied as he kept Dhurnuth's hand in the air. 

A local approached the two of them carrying a knife. He tried to swing at them but Strife managed to stop him with one hand. Few more rushed in. Strife had left no choice but to fight. He didn't pick up his gun, opting to use his paws. He back hands a few of them. 

Celestine and Siltoin tried to fire at them. Celstine hitting only non lethal parts while Siltoin missing them altogether. As Celestine used a gunkata way of fighting she made sure that Siltoin was safe. As her wave of attackers were knocked out. She rushed over to Siltoin after she saw one trying to attack him. The man still shaking from his firefight, Celestine grabbed him by the collar forcing him to duck down. As he ducked Celestine shot at the would be assailants. 

"Stay down" Celestine ordered. 

"Okay" 

Dhurnuth attacked the locals with murderous intent. He stood victorious over the few that he killed. As he stayed in placed a blast scrapped the ground just inches away from him. He looked over and saw the locals with blasters. They kept firing as Dhurnuth assumed a hunched posed and evaded the blast as he closed the distance between him and his attackers. He took the blaster of the one on his left then doing a chokeslam. As his body lowered he fired two shots to the locals that were behind the man he attacked. The one standing on his right, he swept him off his feet then pointed his blaster and shooting his head clean off. 

Siltoin slowly lifted his head. Celestine examined the area. Everyone was safe only those who encountered Dhurnuth died. Siltoin approached Dhurnuth to ask him why he did that but as he took a step. A blast grazed his shoulder. The impact was strong enough to knock him down. 

Celestine quickly rushed to his aid. She applied pressure on the wound. She looked around, saw nothing ducked down as well. 

"Sniper" She called out. 

The other two ducked down. Strife surveyed the area. Dhurnuth did so too and saw the ones that shot Siltoin. He pulled out something from his pouch. It was some sort of extender barrel. He attached it to his arm blaster, it became long. He popped up a telescopic screen. The target was lying on the ground in a snipping pose. Without hesitation he fired. All of them saw as the blast incinerated the sniper. 

"Coast clear" Dhurnuth announced as he stowed away his barrel extension. 

They all stood up except Celestine who still applied pressure on Siltoin's wound. 

"We got a man down" She told everyone. 

"It's just a scratch" Siltoin replied as he helped himself up. "I think" 

"Can you stand up?" 

"Yes" 

"Good let's head out of here" Dhurnuth asked him. Dhurnuth assisted Siltoin they walked back to the ship. 

"Do you have a first aid kit?" Celestine asked. 

"We have a cell repair station"

Celestine nodded as they entered the ship. Celestine walked with Siltoin to the station and operated it to fix him. 

The two men left were tasked with the ship. Strife and Dhurnuth sat on the cockpit and operated the controls.

"We're heading back to Sima Gaia" Dhurnuth told Strife. 

"Understood" 

As they exited the planet they quickly punched in the coordinates and started the warp jump. Their ship entered the jump, Strife put the ship on auto pilot. He and Dhurnuth went back to where Celestine is. 

She was finishing up patching Siltoin's arm. 

"You're pretty good at this" Siltoin complemented Celestine. 

"Well you team up with a few reckless guys and you pretty much have a very steady practice schedule"

"Dhurnuth. What the hell was it back then?" Siltoin turned his attention to Dhurnuth. 

"We had the opportunity. And I don't think it was good to stay there any longer" 

"There was no need for murder" Siltoin still innocent of this part of the job scolded. 

"I thought you paid me to find the codex."

"I did. And that means finding the codex. I hired a scavenger not a hit man" 

Their exchange was about to get heated when Strife entered in. "Once we're at Sima Gaia, I'll call my partner. Once we met up we'll find a good deal between our parties… Deal" Strife said as he extended a hand on Siltoin. 

Siltoin finished with his shoulder stood up and shook Strife's hand. "Deal"

Their ship finished the warp. They proceed to enter the planet. As they do they asked for their ship to be granted access to the planet. It only took a few minutes until they were given access to enter. 

They hovered on the port preparing to land. Strife halted any process of landing. He opened his holowatch and called me, at first there was no response. It was only after few tries that the call patched in.

"Hey bud took you long enough." I greeted. 

"Where are you?"

"Well… Technically, we're… Underground" I said with awkward pauses. 

"Give me specifics" 

"Remember that temple slash ruins that I went in to take the tablet? Turns out there's a secret tunnel that leads to a secret lab. And if my guess is correct. We're inside the mountain. Eastbound of that tunnel" 

"Roger." Strife was about to end the call. But Siltoin chimed in. 

"Thank you for that information. We will provide rescue for you under one condition. You give us the codex…" 

"Excuse me?" I reacted as if I was not aware of them. "If you can provide rescue before we can exit this mountain… Then maybe I'll consider that." 

"Oh is that so? I'll see you in a minute" Siltoin ended the call for Strife. 

Siltoin ordered Dhurnuth to go to the mountain that I mentioned. Since their ship was fast they reached it in less than a minute. Dhurnuth moved in circles. Trying to find where we are inside the mountain. He pressed something on the console. The ship suddenly dropped what seemed to be hockey pucks. He dropped them like bombs as he made a pass around the mountain. 

"Sounding pucks release. Initiate sounding" Dhurnuth said as he pressed the radar with the pucks location.

The pucks sounded and gave a sort of an echo location. Although the pucks were tiny the power those things had were amazing. As they continued to echolocate us the pucks hit an interference waves from our holowatch. This was reflected on the screen. 

"Target located. Puck 17-A detonating" Dhurnuth announced. He pressed the puck with the number 17-A. As he did that said puck and location gave a loud boom. It created an explosion big enough to excavate the mountain. 

They decided to land the ship near the hole they just created. Dhurnuth went and got everyone harness and climbing gear. With extra two ropes for me and Julia. They went into the hole. Dhurnuth prepared something that will help them descend. He then was the first to go down. Next was Siltoin. As he prepared himself to descend he looked at the remaining two and said. 

"Let's go rescue your friend shall we?" Siltoin told both Celestine and Strife.