Jak covered the women as they moved from the wall of cannons toward the front door of the somber fortress, when without warning, a strident explosion ripped the structure apart, tongues of flame extending from every window and doorway. The concussion brutally slammed the companions to the paved street, and as they watched with ringing ears, a growing fireball lifted the building and split it apart, throwing the broken debris and flaming corpses far and wide across the turbulent sky.
“Mother Gaia, no,” Krysty whispered, staring in horror at the wide expanse of smoky destruction.
Suddenly, a machine gun stuttered from behind, and the three spun in time to see the missing men gun down a group of pirates taking aim at them from behind the low wall. Krysty and Mildred burst into grins as Ryan and the others joined them, brief smiles playing across their dirty faces.
“Glad to see you alive, lover,” Ryan said, taking the redhead in his arms. They fiercely hugged, savoring the sheer existence of each other, then reluctantly parted.
“Same here,” Krysty replied, her animated hair relaxing around her shoulders.
“Here, compliments of Baron Withers,” he said, passing over her gun belt, blaster and a heavy box of ammo.
“Thanks,” she said, tossing away the flintlock pistol and quickly checking the load in her revolver.
Meanwhile, Mildred pulled J.B. close and nearly suffocated the wiry man with a long fierce kiss.
“You okay?” he asked in concern over the unusual display. The woman was normally much more reserved. Something was wrong.
“Tell you later,” she replied softly, accepting her ZKR target pistol and a full box of live rounds.
Gratefully, Dean dropped his load of backpacks to the road, and they all took their bundles of possessions without checking the contents. There was no time for that now. Even with his ankle throbbing, Jak felt better with the pack in place. He always seemed slightly off balance with the backpack missing.
“What happened to the fort?” Krysty asked.
“Thought we could use a diversion,” J.B. explained, shifting his grip on the heavy rapidfire. “After the alarm sounded, the guards rushed out to man the walls, so we raided the armory and lit a couple of fuses.”
“Chaos is the shield of the lost,” Doc rumbled, passing out grens. Each companion got four of the AP charges, and shoved them away into pockets and backpacks.
Just then, a crackle of blasterfire peppered the stone wall, and J.B. answered with a barrage of lead from the Thompson, the rounds punching a line of holes along the side of a house. Then Doc emptied his Webley, and a pirate appeared in a second-floor window to fall to his death.
“Nice shot,” Dean complimented him.
“A necessity,” Doc rumbled, cracking open the top of the Webley and flipping it over to pour out the shells. Tossing them away, the spent brass musically rang on the cobblestoned street as he started thumbing in fresh bullets. As much as the old man hated to admit it, the Webley was a better blaster in every way to the LeMat. More accurate, loaded faster, lighter, less recoil, hit harder, everything. Perhaps his adamantine decision to keep the ancient weapon was due for some serious thought.
Through the scope of the Steyr, Ryan swept the ville below them, checking the combat encircling the wall. Hummers raked the defenders with machine guns, the pirates replying with flintlocks, cannons and crossbows. But every time the sailors formed a group to concentrate their weapons fire, the sec men launched a Firebird and dozens of sailors were aced.
“Glassman and Mitchum,” Krysty said, scowling at the faraway combat. Then she noticed the granite bridge was gone, and past the valley PT boats patrolled in the shallows off the beach.
“This is no recce or raid,” she stated, “but a full invasion.”
“With enough weapons to get the job done,” Ryan agreed grimly, lowering the Steyr. “They came to get us, and found the pirates instead.”
“Prob think we pirates,” Jak stated, checking his Colt Python. The revolver was in fine shape, clean and oiled. The cartridges looked old, but there was no sign of corrosion. And for the first time in months, he had a full complement of ammo.