The Last Atonian

Chapter 15:

Flames shot out of Flint, covering the entirety of the landing bay. However, they passed over Veerna and her companions without harming them, although Yulia screamed like she was really getting burned. The men in front of them who weren't burned immediately swiftly dove for cover.

In the meantime, Chris grabbed Melody's hand, pulling her behind a stack of crates. Veerna and Yulia dove behind the ship, while Don and Suzan took cover behind Flint. Flint didn't exactly seem keen on hiding, even with the injured Xander in his arms. "Flint, dear, you do have a passenger," Veerna called as a reminder to him.

Flint muttered under his breath and joined Chris and Melody. Don and Suzan just barely made it to where Yulia and Veerna were concealed. "This is not what I expected when we got here!" Don complained.

"Quit whining, Donny," Veerna said off-handedly. She had her two pistols in her hands, still crouched behind the crates. "We've still got about ten of 'em. Letting your flame die down, Flin?"

"You know me too well for that, Vee," he responded, totally deadpan.

"True, true," Veerna agreed, chuckling. The flames were now dying down, and the Federation officers were peeking over their protection in a way that seriously reminded Veerna of the Earth prairie dogs. Glancing around her own protection, she saw five of them lying dead on the ground—toasted like marshmallows. She prepped her gun. "Yulia? Donny?"

"Yes?" Don said. Yulia responded only with a whimper and hid her face.

"Stay here." Veerna shot to her feet, crossing her arms over each other, firing at the men who had come up. None of them were expecting such a suicidal move, and they dropped like flies before even thinking about returning her fire. By the time she ducked back into cover a moment later, five of them had been shot. Whether it was fatally or not, it didn't matter. Even a minor wound was enough to take someone out of action.

"Nice shooting, Vee!" Flint called.

Veerna flashed him a grin. "Do you expect any less from me?" she answered.

"Can we focus?" Chris shouted, popping up and firing at one of the braver men. He'd never be brave again, Veerna thought with amusement. The captain was a surprisingly good shot.

"I'm multi-tasking," Veerna replied. "It's relatively easy, if you try."

"I ... I just ..." Don didn't seem to know a response to that.

Veerna wasn't looking for a response anyway. She peeked around her cover and crinkled her nose. "Little cowards," she said dispassionately. "If they wanted to arrest me, why didn't they send people with spines?"

"But ... don't they have to have spines?" Yulia asked tentatively.

"Figure of speech, Yulia," Veerna told her. Raising her voice, she yelled, "Come on out, you yellow-bellied, lily-livered cowards! You can't hide from me forever!"

"How can they have—" Yulia began.

"Figures of speech, kiddo," Veerna interrupted. "Here. Hold these." She shoved her guns into Yulia's hands. She pushed Don next to Yulia, a situation that neither of them were particularly comfortable with, and leaned towards Flint's hiding spot. "Flin! Throw me a ball, eh?"

"Veerna, I really don't think a ball is going to help," Don began.

However, the metal object that flew the air and landed squarely in Veerna's hands was most definitely not a toy ball. It was made of metal, had a red button on it, and was blinking menacingly. "On three, Flint, dear," Veerna said. "One ..."

"Two," Flint said dully.

"Three!" Both Veerna and Flint stepped clear of cover, lobbing the "balls" at the remaining Federation soldiers. In the two seconds that Veerna instinctively counted, the bombs exploded, the Federation men's screams of pain cut off abruptly.