Beginnings and Ends
They were in trouble. Rayn could tell Brian knew it before the thruster engines blew, and Allysa knew it when the aft end of the cargo hold had to be sealed off. Bandit's face was stone cold, his eyes fixed on the blackness before him, ignoring the worried faces of his crewmembers. Things had never been this bad, but Brian was sure they would survive, as they always did. He was not human, as Rayn was, but he still understood enough of humanity to know that Ryan would not give up without a fight. Even after the other members of the crew jumped ship, Allysa and Brian had stayed, knowing that Rayn "Bandit" Deorin would get them home in one piece; now it was looking more unlikely.
Davion's bounty hunters were gaining on them. They had manned fighters this time, and as much as Bandit's auto-guns tried, they couldn't keep up with the expertise of the enemy pilots. Rayn realised too late that the hunters no longer cared about capturing him alive; the thought sunk in when they took out his movators and crippled his secondary engines with a series of expertly placed proton torpedoes. Brian tried his best to activate the auxilery power shields, but it was just too much strain for the old ship to handle.
"Brian, man the cannons," Rayn barked, his eyes still fixed on the forward view screen.
"Rayn..." Allysa said calmly, placing a hand on Bandit's fist.
Rayn turned from the screen and locked eyes with his female navigator; he knew what she wanted him to do. Bandit looked to Brian, who nodded in approval, his eyelids sliding down slowly. Suddenly, the lights in the cabin switched off, plunging the crew in darkness. Complete silence except for the sound of lasers outside the small frieghter engulfed the cockpit until the secondary power generator kicked in. At this rate, The Messiah wouldn't hold together long enough to reach lightspeed.
***
Gendon grinned as a white flag appeared on his fighter's view screen. He flicked his head, feeling the helmet slide slightly over his head tenticles. His three fingered hand balled into a fist momentarily before keying the intercom.
"He's surrendering..." The Predor croaked, "Let's give him a warm welcome"
***
"So, if it isn't the infamous Rayn Deorin, in the flesh" Gendon barked with a slight chuckle as he paced before the trio who kneeled before him. "I'll be taking your beautiful ship in exchange for the lives of two of my men, which you saw fit to end when they attempted to apprehend you and your crew. I've got to hand it to you, human, you are a fiesty one"
"Get it over with goldilocks, the stench of this ship is making he gag" Bandit retorted, spitting on Gendon's armored boot.
The Predor back-handed Rayn across the face with the back of his guantlet, watching as the human spat blood on the floor in front of him. The spine-like tenticles that flowed from the back of Gendon's head twitched at the sight of the red substance, as if it revulsed him to gaze upon it.
"Disgusting race, humans. I will enjoy watching you die" Gendon said with a frin, his pointed teeth poking past his thin black lips.
The Predor spouted something in thier hideous language to a nearby guard, who drew a strange looking pistol from a compartment on his back. It marched toward Brian, who had also killed one of the soliders upon thier capture. Before Rayn knew it, Brian slumped forward, blood pooling on the floor and soaking into his clothes.
"No! You b*****d!" Alyssa screamed, tears forming in her eyes.
Gendon's face remained stone-cold as he crouched in front of Rayn, lifting his chin with the back of his scaly hand, the one that he did not protect with a guantlet.
"You can save her from the same fate, human" The Predor said, forcing Rayn to look at him as the human attempted to turn away. "Tell us where you hid your cargo"
The alien's breath was putrid, and it took everything Rayn had to prevent himself from being sick. If he told the reptilian monster anything, he would have them killed anyway. Alyssa knew this as well as Bandit did, and she would accept it, as Bandit did. Suddenly, something inside Rayn snapped. Gendon opned his mouth to ask again, and was greeted by the hard part of Bandit's forehead.
The Predor reeled back in pain, black blood seeping from his gaping maw. Rayn wasted no time. He rolled forward, gaining his footing quickly before the Predor had the chance to give the command to open fire. Gendon's eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand to signal his men to hold thier fire.
"You've made a big mistake" The Predor spouted, pulling a jagged-bladed sword from the scabbard on his back. "It's too bad the female will have to watch me gut you"
Not bounding Rayn's hands would prove to be a huge mistake on Gendon's part, his overconfidence in his men and his fighting would be his undoing. The alien charged, and as he brought the blade down on a verticle slash, Bandit rolled to his left and kicked out, smashing the side of the Predor's knee with his heavy boot. The satisfying sound of shattered bone and Gendon's howl was like music the Bandit's ears. The large alien fell forward on one knee, giving Rayn the opportunity he needed. As the Predor slowly climbed to his feet, Rayn grabbed Alyssa and puleld her to her feet, taking off toward The Messiah as bullets flew past them.
Rayn supposed that in Gendon's haste to extract the information from his prisoners, he had forgot to mention to his men to make curtain that the exit ramp to Rayn's ship was secured; Bandit grinned as he felt the ramp agianst his boots. Just has he reached the interior door, he heard Alyssa cry out. She had taken a round in the back, and Rayn managed to drag her inside fast before more Predors caught up with them. He propped his wounded partner against a wall and sprinted for the cockpit, engaging the engines and firing up the thrusters. The Messiah's auto-cannons made short work of the shield generator that made up the hanger door, and in the blink of an eye he was free, dodging and weaving away from incoming torpedoes lauched from the space station's anti-spacecraft defence grid.
Rayn had no idea how to punch in proper lightspeed co-ordinates, so he engaged one of Alyssa's defualt escape routes, and made a blind jump into space. Anywhere was better than where they were, and Rayn didn't give a s**t where they were headed. Suddenly, Bandit remembeded Alyssa, and rushed to her side.
She was in bad shape, the round had punctured a vital organ or two, and Bandit knew right away she wasn't going to make it. He held her pale face against his chest, tears welling in his eyes. They didn't speak as Alyssa's life escaped her, but Rayn remembered her smile more vividly than his own mother's face. He could tell she was proud to die with honor and dignity, and he would want no other end to her life. Suddenly, Alyssa's eyes looked up to Bandit's face.
"Carry on, Rayn," she said, "Carry on for Brian"
She died in Rayn's arms then, as thier ship hurled through hyperspace, leaving Bandit alone in a cruiser that was no longer familiar to him. Leaving him to his beginnings, and to his ends.
