Dekker's Dozen: The Last Watchmen

Dead Planet

Vesuvius grabbed the foot of his broken leg and pulled. Corgan's eyes rolled back in his head as his muffled scream punctuated by sobs. She pulled the bone back inside where it rested against the other broken end and reset.

Corgan's ragged breaths came in painful snorts, like an angry bull, about to charge. "Thanks," he spat out with a wince. "There's no way I'm missing the big show."

While she wrapped his leg with a makeshift splint, Rock crawled down a ladder from the gunnery and bandaged the front and back of his shoulder with a spray-on adhesive bandage. He didn't say anything, but something had obviously punctured his torso.

As if nothing had happened, Rock picked up the heavy chain-gun with his good arm and slung the ammo canister over the other, along with a spare canister for backup. The others slowly crawled from the wreckage in various states of damage.

"Are you all ready for this?" Vesuvius challenged. The agonizing pain of the crash-landing still reverberated through their bones making the passing seconds feel like ages. "Push onward until we get to Austicon. Stick together and don't worry about the fallen—no time for that now. I'll see you all on the other side."

They rattled their guns to the ready, the most appropriate form of salute for this team. "Let's do this!" Juice yelled, ducking under the crumpled shell of the Crusader's armor; the damaged exit ramp couldn't fully open.

Rock lowered his chain-gun and opened fire, providing cover for his teammates as they escaped behind him, darting for the defensible ruins on the far side of the wreckage. The rotating gatling barrels sloughed off the heat and shook between his usually steady hands.

Bullets zipped by and ricocheted off the distant gravel, cutting down mechnar units that as they converged on the broken vessel. Rock sprayed deadly projectiles across the landscape. His last teammate escaped behind him as his hands faltered under the vibrations and his bandages ripped free. A laser blast struck him in the other shoulder, knocking him to his side. He staggered to his feet and whirled a drunken circle; the gunner tried to maintain his balance while firing wounded. His cover fire mowed down another group of cyborgs; he took three more shots to his midsection. Rock howled with rage and pain as he toppled again, maintaining fire until the bitter end.

Behind their valiant friend, the Watchmen skirted the edge of the ship, firing their weapons at the onslaught of mechnar warriors, using the broken terrain for cover. The noise of blaster and firearm reports were deafening. Vesuvius, Shaw, Nathan, Britton, and Juice each hopped over the crumbling wall. Corgan struggled to get over with his broken leg. He'd almost gotten over when he yelped like a kicked dog.

Corgan slumped and went limp; a hole smoldered in his back. His eyes rolled back in his head, this time permanently.

His friends howled with rage. Leaning around their cover, they poured hell and fire into their oncoming enemy even as a dark cloud overtook them.

The darkness rolled in like a sandstorm. Haze and ash blew all around them—the detritus and fallout from the death of Osix. Portions of the shattered moon hailed across the distance, falling through the horizon like massive meteors. Colossal chunks dashed themselves against the crust of the eastern continent, spewing dirt and debris across the planet in the aftermath: ripples of damage and darkness.

In the darkness, they fired blindly, aiming for the source of the blaster fire that targeted them. "Brit!" Vesuvius screamed as the warrior fell over, rocked backwards with a jolt, his neck torn wide by a disruptor beam. She screamed with righteous fury.

A bright light shone behind them, obscured by the blowing haze. It glowed crimson in the center of the Jerusalem crater behind them, shooting vertical like a powerful beacon and flinging lightning off its center like a malfunctioning reactor core.