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Wheeee!
Finally!
For some reason, this chapter *kicked my ass*.
And i have the bestest flist in the whole wide world. Thank you for all the wonderful congratulations and best wishes on my anniversary post! We had a wonderful, low-key day that included a movie with Monstrous.
:)
Now the fic! Can't believe it took me so long. Thank you thank you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
reremouse, as usual!
*smooch*
Previous parts are here.
Enjoy!
*P.S. tosweptawaybayou - S/X!! :)*
"Fucking hell - no - to your right - Ferro -"
"Jesus, Xander." Ferro said, his voice thin through the suit-com. He shifted around in the cramped corridor and got his suit-light back where Xander needed it and Xander carefully clipped the last two leads to the portable keyboard he'd brought. The little power light came on and the screen set flush into the wall lit up, dull-grey on black, dog-alphabet in rows. H'ru pushed impatiently past both of them, bits of his armor scraping against Xander's suit - rank musk dog-smell and strength enough to knock Xander into the corridor wall.
"Watch it for fuck's sake," Xander snapped, but then he sneezed and sniffled morosely. "God damn dust."
"You'll live," Ferro muttered, watching H'ru activate the little holo cube that held the codes - stick it to the wall above the keyboard and start to type.
"This will - o'en all the dor-rrs. 'Urn on -" H'ru seemed to be groping for the word, his tongue licking at his mouth for a moment. "'Uters. All - com'uters."
"Is there even a system in place? This is like - bare bones," Xander said, glancing around. Skeleton of girders and conduits - unpolished metal decking and almost no gravity since the station's rotation was minimal. Life-support was up but the heat wasn't and Xander shut his visor so the heat from his suit wouldn't leak out. He'd have to open it again to talk to the dog - H'ru's cobbled armor didn't have a com set-up or if it did, he'd decided not to use it. It was annoying.
"Ssyss'em. Yess. For the - making," H'ru said, off-hand words rumbling through Xander's outside pick-up mic. Xander could hear H'ru's claws rattling on the plastic keys.
"Is he fucking done there or what? Bloody hell!" Static-ridden whisper from Spike who was about twenty feet up the corridor, keeping watch. They'd dodged three dog patrols already and resorted to the ventilation maintenance tunnels to move around.
"Yeah - almost there. H'ru says there's a comp-sys in place. We might be able to lock the ships out or close the section doors."
"Yeah? That'd be a break. 'Nother patrol - quiet." Spike's mic clicked off and Xander glanced over at Ferro, who was standing with his rifle raised, eyes alert behind his visor. H'ru's ears were up - swiveling and then pointing toward the patrol, presumably, even as his clawed fingers tippity-tapped faster than Xander would have thought possible.
Another moment and there was a sudden change in the screen. The whole thing blanked for a second and then something else came up - had to be the opening screen of the operating system. H'ru's mouth gaped open in a doggish grin and he looked over his shoulder at Xander.
"On. All on. We do - wha'?" H'ru's voice was tinny through the mic and Xander frowned and flipped his visor back up - moved in close, staring at the screen.
"We need to see where they're holding Angel - are there cameras? Can we look around? And we'll need a schematic - I don't wanna be like a rat in a maze." H'ru grunted - nodded - starting tapping keys, bringing up ovals and circles and lines of text and Xander shifted impatiently. It was beyond stupid that the dogs had docked and then off-loaded but they needed room for their - rituals. For their rites. They wouldn't sully their ships with the blood of their enemies. Xander swallowed bile - shoved old images away and concentrated on what H'ru was showing him. Empty corridors - darkness - work lights strung from the beams and snakes of light-tubing wound here and there. Finally he found the dock camera feeds.
"Bingo! Fucking bingo, Spike. Docks. Whole group of 'em," Xander said and Ferro pushed in close, flipping up his visor and squinting at the low-resolution picture. It was grainy and jumpy, oddly bracketed and a little fish-eyed and Xander reached to adjust - anything. H'ru slapped at his hand.
"Fuck, there's a lot of 'em - more than fifty. Plus the fucking patrols..." Ferro was scowling, his eyes darting over the screen as the image changed - one, two, three, one, two, three. Milling dogs and standing dogs and a lot of armor - a hell of a lot of rifles. Xander felt the first beads of sweat coming up cold along his spine and he took a deep breath, willing himself calm. "There's not a hundred but - fucking close. We need a plan."
"Good thing we brought some fire power along then." Spike materialized out of the gloom, making Xander jump just a little. The barrel of an out-dated weapon poked up over his shoulder, the strap dull olive across his chest. "C'mon H'ru - we're need to get this plan in motion and clear this station."
H'ru looked from Xander to Ferro to Spike - shook his head a little, his ears going flat and then pricking back up, lopsided. "You - 'ake them all? All?"
"Fuck yes," Ferro said. "If we can."
H'ru made a strange little whining sound - distress or excitement, it was hard to say. "Sss-ma'ic. Yess. Here." He turned back to the keyboard and started to type again and they all leaned in close.
*This is gonna be fucking insane. Hope you're grateful, Angel. Hope you're not dust.*
Ventilation systems were not meant for people as big as Ferro. Xander gave him a shove and Ferro came unstuck with a curse - ducked around the corner and cursed again. His hand appeared, fingers spread open. "Need the screwdriver again. Fucking hex-bolts, this time."
"Why can't they pick a fucking bolt and stick with it?" Xander muttered, groping in his belt for the electric screwdriver and fumbling the hex-bit onto the end. Ferro grunted as Xander slapped it into his palm and then there was a low whirring. A moment later a long, black hex-bolt drifted around the corner in a slow, downward arc. Xander batted it aside.
"Fuck - fuck -" Ferro shoved the screwdriver back toward Xander and then there was the groan and pop of metal as he unstuck the cover and shoved it out.
Hiss of static over the com and then Spike's voice, tight with tension. "I can hear you, for fuck's sake! Keep it quiet!" Spike and H'ru were in a plumbing conduit somewhere spin-ward, climbing up so they could get at the home world dogs from above.
"Doing our best," Xander muttered and slithered out of the tunnel feet-first - almost tripped over Ferro, who had crouched down and was going through the bag of ordinance he and Spike had split. *This is like some sort of fucking vaudeville routine,* Xander thought, steadying himself on the wall and being thankful he couldn't see the no-doubt venomous glare Ferro turned on him. "Sorry."
"Yeah. No problem. Okay - through that door is the observation deck. There's no plex or anything so we can do the grenades from there. But after Spike and H'ru get 'em out and shooting. Got it?" Xander nodded unenthusiastically. "You okay? 'Cause if you're not okay -"
"I'm okay! I'm not gonna say it again."
Ferro stood back up and slung his arm around Xander's shoulder. "Okay, yeah, you're fine. You're our geek - we don't want anything happening to you."
"Yeah, yeah." Xander took a long breath, wishing the air was warmer and that there weren't strange, black cobwebby things hanging off his suit. The Outsiders didn't use asbestos but some of the stuff they did use was toxic to humans and the guts of the station were all exposed - hell, they were crawling through the guts. *Don't think about guts. Jesus.* "We're gonna need full de-con when we get outta here. Fucking dust."
"We're almost there. Get into position, Ferro - Xander. Be bloody careful!"
"Yeah, got it."
"Aye, aye, Cap'n." Ferro gave him a punch on the shoulder and then they were jogging as silently as possible down the corridor, every step a floating sort of bound. Corridor, left turn, shorter corridor, door. Xander held up his arm and read off the override code he'd scribbled on his suit with marker. H'ru said it would open any door and Xander tapped it carefully in and then sighed with relief when the door hissed apart, letting them in. H'ru had managed to keep the dock out of the loop as far as the computers went - was set to lock the dock down right before the attack. The system would think there was a decompression - all the dock accesses would seal, including the ship-access so the home world dogs would be stranded and, if they were lucky, a couple of the patrols would be cut off from them. That was the plan in theory. In reality it was possible for them to override the override and they'd probably left crew on board who would be trying to do just that. But all they needed was about ten minutes and some damn good luck.
Xander pressed his fingers to his thigh so he could feel the lump the little toad made in his pocket. *Luck, please give us some luck. We don't need a lot, just enough.*
The observation deck was about twenty feet up from the dock itself and was built in a half-circle so that the dock accesses were plainly visible. Suit lights off, Ferro and Xander went to their bellies and crawled the last fifty feet or so, trying not to lose their hold in the too-light gravity. Spike and H'ru should be somewhere opposite them about one hundred feet higher where the plumbing conduit joined with the outflow lines from the docking bays. There was a service hatch there and that's where they'd be shooting from.
Xander and Ferro got up to the wall, the empty window space above them. Ferro pushed a handful of silver balls - about two inches across - into Xander's hands and Xander pressed the little switch on each of them in turn. Arming the grenades, which would go off on impact when they hit - anything. Ferro had his own handful to arm, plus a coil of military-spec cable in his hands, ready to sink the grapple in and get them down - and back up with Angel. *If it works. If the dogs take the bait. If - if - fuck! Do it, Spike, let's go, let's get started, let's -* There was a pop of static over the com and then three clicks. *Shit, that's it - here we go, go, go!*
There was a sudden crump audible even through the helmets and then a shuddering thump that shook the whole deck. One, two - three times, with flashes of light so bright they hurt even through the visor. Xander flicked his com to all-channels so he could hear the dogs, too, and got an earful of howling. Then there was a sort of buzz as stage two kicked in and the crack crack crack of hundreds of small explosions going off. Spike's favorite bombs - he called them Bouncing Betties. Stage one was the bomb flying to pieces, flash and heat. Stage two was a swarm of smaller bombs that 'bounced' up about four feet and exploded, sending out razor-edged shrapnel like a particulate scythe. Since dogs were taller than humans the shrapnel would catch most of them at about waist height. Which just happened to be the weakest point of Outsider armor, since they needed it to be extra-flexible. There would be lots of blood. Outsiders had banned Bouncing Betties. Chaddock, of course, happily supplied them.
"Now, Xander, let's move!" Ferro was up on his knees, hurling the grenades down as hard as he could and Xander copied him, aiming for the densest shadows in the mess of smoke and flame and debris down on the dock. A clutch of dogs were directly under what Xander knew was Spike and H'ru's position, trying to open a sealed access.
*Looks like H'ru got all the doors locked. Hope all the patrols are on the other side.* Ferro grabbed the cable and slammed the grapnel into the wall - hit the lock and tossed the coil of cable over the edge. Xander swallowed heavily and jumped to his feet, then had to take a wild grab at the edge of the window as he kept going, barely tethered by gravity at all.
"Shit!"
"Xander, move it!" Ferro was already over the edge - five feet down and moving fast and Xander swung his leg up and over - grabbed the cable and started pulling himself down. The rifle across his back caught for one heart-stopping moment on the edge and then he yanked free, sweat slicking his hands inside his suit gloves and stinging in his eyes. He tried not to see the ground - tried not to see the haze of blood and bits of dog that were scattered like obscene confetti.
*Maybe not enough confetti,* Xander thought as a chunk of wall exploded about a foot from his head, bits tumbling past him in slo-mo and sparks fountaining out of the hole left behind. He ducked wildly - nearly lost his hold on the cable. Apparently, there were live cables in the bulkhead. *Live cables that are now severed and dangling out of the hole. Jesus Christ, this sucks.*
Retaliatory fire was picking up - and being answered by the heavy boom boom boom of the anti-armor weapon Spike had gleefully unearthed from storage on the Dru. Something from one of the last Earth wars and apparently it could fire multiple, armor-piercing rounds. Ferro had practically drooled on it. The floor was suddenly under Xander's feet, jolting him hard and he let go of the cable and darted into the shadows under the deck, scanning the milling dogs for one pale, dark-haired vampire. He fumbled his rifle around and flicked the safety off, panting.
"Where is he, where is he, where the fuck is he! I don't see him! Ferro, you see him?"
"Not yet!" Ferro shoved Xander behind a support beam and fired five or six times in rapid succession, his panting breath loud through the com. "Spike, you know where Angel is?"
"Not a fuckin' clue, mate. There's about fifteen dogs on the other side of the docking access, down behind some cables and - bloody hell!" Xander jerked in surprise at a sudden wild harooing that crashed over the pic-ups. A deep, belling note that went on and on and he watched in stunned disbelief as H'ru shot out of the access door and plummeted - not too quickly - toward the deck. He was spraying the enemy dogs wildly with the energy weapon Outsiders favored. Xander called them phasers - dogs didn't talk about them. Everywhere the pulse of light and energy touched was an explosion of sparks and smoke. The scattered dogs regrouped and streamed toward H'ru, firing their own phasers. The air was rapidly becoming too dense to see through.
*Great. We'll be stumbling around in this fuckin' pea-soup mess trying to find a guy who's as white as the smoke. Maybe H'ru can get the ventilation fans going -*
"Spike, get down here! C'mon Xander, hustle!" Ferro pelted across the dock toward the clutch of dogs Spike had pointed out, hand fishing for and finding one of the flash-grenades he'd shoved in a pocket. Light and noise enough to knock even dogs down and in this kind of gravity, hauling Angel's dead weight would be no real chore.
"Geronimo!" Spike yelled, and Xander rolled his eyes.
"I cannot believe you said that!" Xander dashed after Ferro, rifle awkward in his arms, watching as Spike dove like a striking hawk down from the access. He plowed into a clutch of still-standing dogs and decked two of them with the barrel of his weapon. Then he was bounding across the dock in huge, springing leaps, shooting anything that moved and dodging corpses, the concussion of the gun making Xander's ears hurt even through the pick-up. Xander skidded through a smear of blood and smacked hard into the ramp that came down from the dock access, jolting his face into the plate of his visor hard enough to hurt. He squeezed off a volley of shots into the haze and moving shadows away over there and then sniffed in disbelief. "Damnit, I've got a bloody nose!" He shoved his visor up and pinched his nose, trying to staunch it.
"Put your bloody visor down, they could gas the place!" Spike hurled a grenade behind himself and then grabbed Xander's arm and they both ducked and covered a moment later when an explosion hurled debris and fire over their heads. But it was coming from the wrong direction.
"What in fuck was that?" Ferro yelled. Xander craned around the edge of the ramp, looking up toward the access - toward the ships that H'ru's code had sealed off from the dock. Angel stood there in the wreckage of the docking access, blood-streaked and dirty, a wild look on his vamped face and a phaser pointed straight at them. Xander couldn't help it - he started to laugh.
"Angel! Bloody hell!" Spike jerked his helmet off and the phaser wavered aside - pointed out over their heads as Angel leaped the few feet from access to deck.
"Should'a known it was you, Spike - you just can't do subtle."
"Sod that for a lark - who wants subtle when they can have bloody chaos?" Spike was grinning and Angel was and Xander tipped his head back and sniffed hard.
"So how'd you blow the door?"
"I wired it to another weapon and put it on overload - Xander Harris?"
"Long story, mate, and we don't -" Spike started and then the entire dock bucked like a temperamental horse, throwing them all to the deck. From somewhere there was the distinct and terrifying sound of atmosphere going away - fast. Xander slammed his visor back down.
"We need to get the fuck out of here! Station's breached!"
"Spike..." A sudden crackle of static and then someone - not Nia - was talking over the emergency channel. "...dogs at...station...Bud...access...two minutes..."
Spike locked his helmet back on and grabbed Angel by the arm just as Ferro appeared around the ramp-edge. "Billy Bud, was that you? Say again - all after station!" Squeal of static and feedback and Xander grabbed Angel's other arm and jerked him into motion, back toward the Rumplestiltskin and the Dru. The static got louder and then abruptly cleared.
"...Bud. Rumplestiltskin had to undock, the dogs were too close. Get to the secondary access at level five, right above the docked ships, we'll pick you up. And run, you motherfucker! Dogs are turnin' that station into Swiss cheese."
"Shit!"
"Let's go, let's go - there's stairs twenty feet spin ward, move it!" Ferro gave Xander a shove in the right direction and Xander ran, Angel pounding along beside him, Ferro darting ahead, rifle raised and ready. Spike sent a last volley of fire back toward the dog ships and whatever personnel had survived and then he was running too, cursing.
"God damnit, where's Rrahn? What the fuck's going on, Bud!"
"Rrahn and the rest got most of 'em! One of the docked ships is on fire - the other's trying to undock but we're gonna cook their fuckin' tail. Rumplestiltskin's gonna move zenith and meet us, she's got the Dru safe and sound."
The deck shuddered again and again and debris started to whirl - to fly backward as the atmosphere streamed into space. Xander could hear the distant whump of heavy artillery and he slammed through the stair door a step or two behind Ferro - bounded up and up, panting and sniffing and scowling at the blood that was making his neck sticky and fouling the inside of his visor. It tasted like salt and iron and it was making him faintly sick. The shot he'd had back on the Dru was wearing off fast and his legs were starting to feel like lead - his chest was aching as his lungs struggled for breath. Angel slipped on a turn and grabbed the rail - got his feet under him and then Spike was shoving him into motion again - turning to send another shot down the stairwell as a phaser beam lanced up past them, exploding a section of rail.
"Move - move - almost there - fuckin' Billy Bud better be at the fuckin' access -" Ferro leaned over the rail and hurled a handful of grenades down hard - snatched Xander up and over the last few stairs and through a door. Angel came flying through a moment later and then the whole stairwell rocked with the explosion, sending up a plume of black, oily smoke.
"Here - here's the access -" Xander stabbed in the override, hand shaking, hoping to god the Bud was on the other side. The station door slid aside and he all but fell in - snatched Angel through and watched Ferro haul Spike through the stair door and shove him onward. Spike's suit was shredded all down his left thigh and he was limping, blood spinning out in little drops from the wound. "Shit. Spike? You okay?"
"I'm good - Billy Bud - we're at the dock access -"
"Link-up in...five...four...three...two...one. Locked!" There was a thump and then the ready-light went on and Xander hit the override code and the outer door opened onto the Bud's battered hull and pressure door. It chirped a warning and slide aside. Xander pushed Angel onto the Bud and spun around, weapon coming up as something crashed into the station wall. Spike and Ferro had weapons up and ready, too but it was H'ru that came around the corner, muzzle and shoulder and belly bleeding, every light on his armor out.
"H'ru! They following you?"
"All dead, Ss'ike!" H'ru's lips wrinkled back and he snarled and Spike slapped him on the un-wounded shoulder, reeling a little.
"Bloody good timing - let's get the fuck off this wreck!"
"Get on board and seal us up! That fucking dog ship just tore lose - the whole dock's breached! Move, move!"
H'ru moved, and Spike did, crowding into the Bud's lock. Xander hit the switch and the door thumped down. Green light over the Bud's inner door and then it shot open just as the coupling came loose and the Billy Bud tilted over into a hard, fast burn. Xander reached wildly for the safety strap and Angel at the same time, his rifle hitting the floor with a clatter of plastic. Spike had Ferro and H'ru had Spike and a death-grip on another strap and Spike's bad leg buckled for a moment under the stress. The crewman who'd opened the door reeled and clutched at the edge, vamping.
"Everywhere you fucking go, Spike - shit happens," he snapped.
"Story of my life," Angel muttered.
"We could stick you in a life support pod and shoot you at the dogs," Xander offered, cautiously reaching for his nose again and Spike snapped his visor up and glared at him.
"Fuck's sake, Xander, how in fuck did you do that?"
"Fuck if I know." The Bud leveled and the pressure and drag eased off and they all cautiously relaxed their holds. Xander's knees felt too bendy and Ferro let out a harsh, coughing sigh and slumped against the wall, pushing his own visor up and showing a drawn, sweat-beaded face.
"Four minutes to the Rumplestiltskin - you guys need any first aid?" Captain's voice, with a little smirk in it and Spike transferred his glare to the overhead.
"No, we just need a damn report! What in fuck's going on?"
"Rrahn and her faction had the dogs pretty much done for and then a whole new set of 'em popped up outta skip-space about ten light-years off and started hammering the station. Rrahn's doing her best but there's too fucking many of 'em. We're gonna run for it, Spike."
"Run where?" Xander croaked, feeling shock go through him like a wave of cold water. The only place to run was back the way they'd come - debilitatingly long skips that lead to the Alamo and no help - or Earth, which was - *Not a fucking option. Not leading the goddamn dogs to Earth. Fuck, fucking hell -*
"You're out of your bloody minds, we can't run -"
"Holy shit, what's that?" New voice on the com and then a babble of voices and the vamp by the door turned on the little screen that was right there, displaying whatever the Bud was seeing. Which was a blossom of incoming ships, five - ten - twenty. Sickly yellow-orange that meant unidentified - unknown - probably hostile. They could see the station now, too - see the swarm of home world ships and the ragged remnants of Rrahn's army and Spike shoved between H'ru and Angel and hit a button.
"Nia, you copy? What the fuck is that - who the fuck is that?"
Pop and whine - hiss and crackle and then Nia's voice, smugly triumphant.
"Lost Boys, Cap'n. It's the Lost Boys from Neverland."
Part nine.
Finally!
For some reason, this chapter *kicked my ass*.
And i have the bestest flist in the whole wide world. Thank you for all the wonderful congratulations and best wishes on my anniversary post! We had a wonderful, low-key day that included a movie with Monstrous.
:)
Now the fic! Can't believe it took me so long. Thank you thank you,
reremouse, as usual!*smooch*
Previous parts are here.
Enjoy!
*P.S. to
sweptawaybayou - S/X!! :)*"Fucking hell - no - to your right - Ferro -"
"Jesus, Xander." Ferro said, his voice thin through the suit-com. He shifted around in the cramped corridor and got his suit-light back where Xander needed it and Xander carefully clipped the last two leads to the portable keyboard he'd brought. The little power light came on and the screen set flush into the wall lit up, dull-grey on black, dog-alphabet in rows. H'ru pushed impatiently past both of them, bits of his armor scraping against Xander's suit - rank musk dog-smell and strength enough to knock Xander into the corridor wall.
"Watch it for fuck's sake," Xander snapped, but then he sneezed and sniffled morosely. "God damn dust."
"You'll live," Ferro muttered, watching H'ru activate the little holo cube that held the codes - stick it to the wall above the keyboard and start to type.
"This will - o'en all the dor-rrs. 'Urn on -" H'ru seemed to be groping for the word, his tongue licking at his mouth for a moment. "'Uters. All - com'uters."
"Is there even a system in place? This is like - bare bones," Xander said, glancing around. Skeleton of girders and conduits - unpolished metal decking and almost no gravity since the station's rotation was minimal. Life-support was up but the heat wasn't and Xander shut his visor so the heat from his suit wouldn't leak out. He'd have to open it again to talk to the dog - H'ru's cobbled armor didn't have a com set-up or if it did, he'd decided not to use it. It was annoying.
"Ssyss'em. Yess. For the - making," H'ru said, off-hand words rumbling through Xander's outside pick-up mic. Xander could hear H'ru's claws rattling on the plastic keys.
"Is he fucking done there or what? Bloody hell!" Static-ridden whisper from Spike who was about twenty feet up the corridor, keeping watch. They'd dodged three dog patrols already and resorted to the ventilation maintenance tunnels to move around.
"Yeah - almost there. H'ru says there's a comp-sys in place. We might be able to lock the ships out or close the section doors."
"Yeah? That'd be a break. 'Nother patrol - quiet." Spike's mic clicked off and Xander glanced over at Ferro, who was standing with his rifle raised, eyes alert behind his visor. H'ru's ears were up - swiveling and then pointing toward the patrol, presumably, even as his clawed fingers tippity-tapped faster than Xander would have thought possible.
Another moment and there was a sudden change in the screen. The whole thing blanked for a second and then something else came up - had to be the opening screen of the operating system. H'ru's mouth gaped open in a doggish grin and he looked over his shoulder at Xander.
"On. All on. We do - wha'?" H'ru's voice was tinny through the mic and Xander frowned and flipped his visor back up - moved in close, staring at the screen.
"We need to see where they're holding Angel - are there cameras? Can we look around? And we'll need a schematic - I don't wanna be like a rat in a maze." H'ru grunted - nodded - starting tapping keys, bringing up ovals and circles and lines of text and Xander shifted impatiently. It was beyond stupid that the dogs had docked and then off-loaded but they needed room for their - rituals. For their rites. They wouldn't sully their ships with the blood of their enemies. Xander swallowed bile - shoved old images away and concentrated on what H'ru was showing him. Empty corridors - darkness - work lights strung from the beams and snakes of light-tubing wound here and there. Finally he found the dock camera feeds.
"Bingo! Fucking bingo, Spike. Docks. Whole group of 'em," Xander said and Ferro pushed in close, flipping up his visor and squinting at the low-resolution picture. It was grainy and jumpy, oddly bracketed and a little fish-eyed and Xander reached to adjust - anything. H'ru slapped at his hand.
"Fuck, there's a lot of 'em - more than fifty. Plus the fucking patrols..." Ferro was scowling, his eyes darting over the screen as the image changed - one, two, three, one, two, three. Milling dogs and standing dogs and a lot of armor - a hell of a lot of rifles. Xander felt the first beads of sweat coming up cold along his spine and he took a deep breath, willing himself calm. "There's not a hundred but - fucking close. We need a plan."
"Good thing we brought some fire power along then." Spike materialized out of the gloom, making Xander jump just a little. The barrel of an out-dated weapon poked up over his shoulder, the strap dull olive across his chest. "C'mon H'ru - we're need to get this plan in motion and clear this station."
H'ru looked from Xander to Ferro to Spike - shook his head a little, his ears going flat and then pricking back up, lopsided. "You - 'ake them all? All?"
"Fuck yes," Ferro said. "If we can."
H'ru made a strange little whining sound - distress or excitement, it was hard to say. "Sss-ma'ic. Yess. Here." He turned back to the keyboard and started to type again and they all leaned in close.
*This is gonna be fucking insane. Hope you're grateful, Angel. Hope you're not dust.*
Ventilation systems were not meant for people as big as Ferro. Xander gave him a shove and Ferro came unstuck with a curse - ducked around the corner and cursed again. His hand appeared, fingers spread open. "Need the screwdriver again. Fucking hex-bolts, this time."
"Why can't they pick a fucking bolt and stick with it?" Xander muttered, groping in his belt for the electric screwdriver and fumbling the hex-bit onto the end. Ferro grunted as Xander slapped it into his palm and then there was a low whirring. A moment later a long, black hex-bolt drifted around the corner in a slow, downward arc. Xander batted it aside.
"Fuck - fuck -" Ferro shoved the screwdriver back toward Xander and then there was the groan and pop of metal as he unstuck the cover and shoved it out.
Hiss of static over the com and then Spike's voice, tight with tension. "I can hear you, for fuck's sake! Keep it quiet!" Spike and H'ru were in a plumbing conduit somewhere spin-ward, climbing up so they could get at the home world dogs from above.
"Doing our best," Xander muttered and slithered out of the tunnel feet-first - almost tripped over Ferro, who had crouched down and was going through the bag of ordinance he and Spike had split. *This is like some sort of fucking vaudeville routine,* Xander thought, steadying himself on the wall and being thankful he couldn't see the no-doubt venomous glare Ferro turned on him. "Sorry."
"Yeah. No problem. Okay - through that door is the observation deck. There's no plex or anything so we can do the grenades from there. But after Spike and H'ru get 'em out and shooting. Got it?" Xander nodded unenthusiastically. "You okay? 'Cause if you're not okay -"
"I'm okay! I'm not gonna say it again."
Ferro stood back up and slung his arm around Xander's shoulder. "Okay, yeah, you're fine. You're our geek - we don't want anything happening to you."
"Yeah, yeah." Xander took a long breath, wishing the air was warmer and that there weren't strange, black cobwebby things hanging off his suit. The Outsiders didn't use asbestos but some of the stuff they did use was toxic to humans and the guts of the station were all exposed - hell, they were crawling through the guts. *Don't think about guts. Jesus.* "We're gonna need full de-con when we get outta here. Fucking dust."
"We're almost there. Get into position, Ferro - Xander. Be bloody careful!"
"Yeah, got it."
"Aye, aye, Cap'n." Ferro gave him a punch on the shoulder and then they were jogging as silently as possible down the corridor, every step a floating sort of bound. Corridor, left turn, shorter corridor, door. Xander held up his arm and read off the override code he'd scribbled on his suit with marker. H'ru said it would open any door and Xander tapped it carefully in and then sighed with relief when the door hissed apart, letting them in. H'ru had managed to keep the dock out of the loop as far as the computers went - was set to lock the dock down right before the attack. The system would think there was a decompression - all the dock accesses would seal, including the ship-access so the home world dogs would be stranded and, if they were lucky, a couple of the patrols would be cut off from them. That was the plan in theory. In reality it was possible for them to override the override and they'd probably left crew on board who would be trying to do just that. But all they needed was about ten minutes and some damn good luck.
Xander pressed his fingers to his thigh so he could feel the lump the little toad made in his pocket. *Luck, please give us some luck. We don't need a lot, just enough.*
The observation deck was about twenty feet up from the dock itself and was built in a half-circle so that the dock accesses were plainly visible. Suit lights off, Ferro and Xander went to their bellies and crawled the last fifty feet or so, trying not to lose their hold in the too-light gravity. Spike and H'ru should be somewhere opposite them about one hundred feet higher where the plumbing conduit joined with the outflow lines from the docking bays. There was a service hatch there and that's where they'd be shooting from.
Xander and Ferro got up to the wall, the empty window space above them. Ferro pushed a handful of silver balls - about two inches across - into Xander's hands and Xander pressed the little switch on each of them in turn. Arming the grenades, which would go off on impact when they hit - anything. Ferro had his own handful to arm, plus a coil of military-spec cable in his hands, ready to sink the grapple in and get them down - and back up with Angel. *If it works. If the dogs take the bait. If - if - fuck! Do it, Spike, let's go, let's get started, let's -* There was a pop of static over the com and then three clicks. *Shit, that's it - here we go, go, go!*
There was a sudden crump audible even through the helmets and then a shuddering thump that shook the whole deck. One, two - three times, with flashes of light so bright they hurt even through the visor. Xander flicked his com to all-channels so he could hear the dogs, too, and got an earful of howling. Then there was a sort of buzz as stage two kicked in and the crack crack crack of hundreds of small explosions going off. Spike's favorite bombs - he called them Bouncing Betties. Stage one was the bomb flying to pieces, flash and heat. Stage two was a swarm of smaller bombs that 'bounced' up about four feet and exploded, sending out razor-edged shrapnel like a particulate scythe. Since dogs were taller than humans the shrapnel would catch most of them at about waist height. Which just happened to be the weakest point of Outsider armor, since they needed it to be extra-flexible. There would be lots of blood. Outsiders had banned Bouncing Betties. Chaddock, of course, happily supplied them.
"Now, Xander, let's move!" Ferro was up on his knees, hurling the grenades down as hard as he could and Xander copied him, aiming for the densest shadows in the mess of smoke and flame and debris down on the dock. A clutch of dogs were directly under what Xander knew was Spike and H'ru's position, trying to open a sealed access.
*Looks like H'ru got all the doors locked. Hope all the patrols are on the other side.* Ferro grabbed the cable and slammed the grapnel into the wall - hit the lock and tossed the coil of cable over the edge. Xander swallowed heavily and jumped to his feet, then had to take a wild grab at the edge of the window as he kept going, barely tethered by gravity at all.
"Shit!"
"Xander, move it!" Ferro was already over the edge - five feet down and moving fast and Xander swung his leg up and over - grabbed the cable and started pulling himself down. The rifle across his back caught for one heart-stopping moment on the edge and then he yanked free, sweat slicking his hands inside his suit gloves and stinging in his eyes. He tried not to see the ground - tried not to see the haze of blood and bits of dog that were scattered like obscene confetti.
*Maybe not enough confetti,* Xander thought as a chunk of wall exploded about a foot from his head, bits tumbling past him in slo-mo and sparks fountaining out of the hole left behind. He ducked wildly - nearly lost his hold on the cable. Apparently, there were live cables in the bulkhead. *Live cables that are now severed and dangling out of the hole. Jesus Christ, this sucks.*
Retaliatory fire was picking up - and being answered by the heavy boom boom boom of the anti-armor weapon Spike had gleefully unearthed from storage on the Dru. Something from one of the last Earth wars and apparently it could fire multiple, armor-piercing rounds. Ferro had practically drooled on it. The floor was suddenly under Xander's feet, jolting him hard and he let go of the cable and darted into the shadows under the deck, scanning the milling dogs for one pale, dark-haired vampire. He fumbled his rifle around and flicked the safety off, panting.
"Where is he, where is he, where the fuck is he! I don't see him! Ferro, you see him?"
"Not yet!" Ferro shoved Xander behind a support beam and fired five or six times in rapid succession, his panting breath loud through the com. "Spike, you know where Angel is?"
"Not a fuckin' clue, mate. There's about fifteen dogs on the other side of the docking access, down behind some cables and - bloody hell!" Xander jerked in surprise at a sudden wild harooing that crashed over the pic-ups. A deep, belling note that went on and on and he watched in stunned disbelief as H'ru shot out of the access door and plummeted - not too quickly - toward the deck. He was spraying the enemy dogs wildly with the energy weapon Outsiders favored. Xander called them phasers - dogs didn't talk about them. Everywhere the pulse of light and energy touched was an explosion of sparks and smoke. The scattered dogs regrouped and streamed toward H'ru, firing their own phasers. The air was rapidly becoming too dense to see through.
*Great. We'll be stumbling around in this fuckin' pea-soup mess trying to find a guy who's as white as the smoke. Maybe H'ru can get the ventilation fans going -*
"Spike, get down here! C'mon Xander, hustle!" Ferro pelted across the dock toward the clutch of dogs Spike had pointed out, hand fishing for and finding one of the flash-grenades he'd shoved in a pocket. Light and noise enough to knock even dogs down and in this kind of gravity, hauling Angel's dead weight would be no real chore.
"Geronimo!" Spike yelled, and Xander rolled his eyes.
"I cannot believe you said that!" Xander dashed after Ferro, rifle awkward in his arms, watching as Spike dove like a striking hawk down from the access. He plowed into a clutch of still-standing dogs and decked two of them with the barrel of his weapon. Then he was bounding across the dock in huge, springing leaps, shooting anything that moved and dodging corpses, the concussion of the gun making Xander's ears hurt even through the pick-up. Xander skidded through a smear of blood and smacked hard into the ramp that came down from the dock access, jolting his face into the plate of his visor hard enough to hurt. He squeezed off a volley of shots into the haze and moving shadows away over there and then sniffed in disbelief. "Damnit, I've got a bloody nose!" He shoved his visor up and pinched his nose, trying to staunch it.
"Put your bloody visor down, they could gas the place!" Spike hurled a grenade behind himself and then grabbed Xander's arm and they both ducked and covered a moment later when an explosion hurled debris and fire over their heads. But it was coming from the wrong direction.
"What in fuck was that?" Ferro yelled. Xander craned around the edge of the ramp, looking up toward the access - toward the ships that H'ru's code had sealed off from the dock. Angel stood there in the wreckage of the docking access, blood-streaked and dirty, a wild look on his vamped face and a phaser pointed straight at them. Xander couldn't help it - he started to laugh.
"Angel! Bloody hell!" Spike jerked his helmet off and the phaser wavered aside - pointed out over their heads as Angel leaped the few feet from access to deck.
"Should'a known it was you, Spike - you just can't do subtle."
"Sod that for a lark - who wants subtle when they can have bloody chaos?" Spike was grinning and Angel was and Xander tipped his head back and sniffed hard.
"So how'd you blow the door?"
"I wired it to another weapon and put it on overload - Xander Harris?"
"Long story, mate, and we don't -" Spike started and then the entire dock bucked like a temperamental horse, throwing them all to the deck. From somewhere there was the distinct and terrifying sound of atmosphere going away - fast. Xander slammed his visor back down.
"We need to get the fuck out of here! Station's breached!"
"Spike..." A sudden crackle of static and then someone - not Nia - was talking over the emergency channel. "...dogs at...station...Bud...access...two minutes..."
Spike locked his helmet back on and grabbed Angel by the arm just as Ferro appeared around the ramp-edge. "Billy Bud, was that you? Say again - all after station!" Squeal of static and feedback and Xander grabbed Angel's other arm and jerked him into motion, back toward the Rumplestiltskin and the Dru. The static got louder and then abruptly cleared.
"...Bud. Rumplestiltskin had to undock, the dogs were too close. Get to the secondary access at level five, right above the docked ships, we'll pick you up. And run, you motherfucker! Dogs are turnin' that station into Swiss cheese."
"Shit!"
"Let's go, let's go - there's stairs twenty feet spin ward, move it!" Ferro gave Xander a shove in the right direction and Xander ran, Angel pounding along beside him, Ferro darting ahead, rifle raised and ready. Spike sent a last volley of fire back toward the dog ships and whatever personnel had survived and then he was running too, cursing.
"God damnit, where's Rrahn? What the fuck's going on, Bud!"
"Rrahn and the rest got most of 'em! One of the docked ships is on fire - the other's trying to undock but we're gonna cook their fuckin' tail. Rumplestiltskin's gonna move zenith and meet us, she's got the Dru safe and sound."
The deck shuddered again and again and debris started to whirl - to fly backward as the atmosphere streamed into space. Xander could hear the distant whump of heavy artillery and he slammed through the stair door a step or two behind Ferro - bounded up and up, panting and sniffing and scowling at the blood that was making his neck sticky and fouling the inside of his visor. It tasted like salt and iron and it was making him faintly sick. The shot he'd had back on the Dru was wearing off fast and his legs were starting to feel like lead - his chest was aching as his lungs struggled for breath. Angel slipped on a turn and grabbed the rail - got his feet under him and then Spike was shoving him into motion again - turning to send another shot down the stairwell as a phaser beam lanced up past them, exploding a section of rail.
"Move - move - almost there - fuckin' Billy Bud better be at the fuckin' access -" Ferro leaned over the rail and hurled a handful of grenades down hard - snatched Xander up and over the last few stairs and through a door. Angel came flying through a moment later and then the whole stairwell rocked with the explosion, sending up a plume of black, oily smoke.
"Here - here's the access -" Xander stabbed in the override, hand shaking, hoping to god the Bud was on the other side. The station door slid aside and he all but fell in - snatched Angel through and watched Ferro haul Spike through the stair door and shove him onward. Spike's suit was shredded all down his left thigh and he was limping, blood spinning out in little drops from the wound. "Shit. Spike? You okay?"
"I'm good - Billy Bud - we're at the dock access -"
"Link-up in...five...four...three...two...one. Locked!" There was a thump and then the ready-light went on and Xander hit the override code and the outer door opened onto the Bud's battered hull and pressure door. It chirped a warning and slide aside. Xander pushed Angel onto the Bud and spun around, weapon coming up as something crashed into the station wall. Spike and Ferro had weapons up and ready, too but it was H'ru that came around the corner, muzzle and shoulder and belly bleeding, every light on his armor out.
"H'ru! They following you?"
"All dead, Ss'ike!" H'ru's lips wrinkled back and he snarled and Spike slapped him on the un-wounded shoulder, reeling a little.
"Bloody good timing - let's get the fuck off this wreck!"
"Get on board and seal us up! That fucking dog ship just tore lose - the whole dock's breached! Move, move!"
H'ru moved, and Spike did, crowding into the Bud's lock. Xander hit the switch and the door thumped down. Green light over the Bud's inner door and then it shot open just as the coupling came loose and the Billy Bud tilted over into a hard, fast burn. Xander reached wildly for the safety strap and Angel at the same time, his rifle hitting the floor with a clatter of plastic. Spike had Ferro and H'ru had Spike and a death-grip on another strap and Spike's bad leg buckled for a moment under the stress. The crewman who'd opened the door reeled and clutched at the edge, vamping.
"Everywhere you fucking go, Spike - shit happens," he snapped.
"Story of my life," Angel muttered.
"We could stick you in a life support pod and shoot you at the dogs," Xander offered, cautiously reaching for his nose again and Spike snapped his visor up and glared at him.
"Fuck's sake, Xander, how in fuck did you do that?"
"Fuck if I know." The Bud leveled and the pressure and drag eased off and they all cautiously relaxed their holds. Xander's knees felt too bendy and Ferro let out a harsh, coughing sigh and slumped against the wall, pushing his own visor up and showing a drawn, sweat-beaded face.
"Four minutes to the Rumplestiltskin - you guys need any first aid?" Captain's voice, with a little smirk in it and Spike transferred his glare to the overhead.
"No, we just need a damn report! What in fuck's going on?"
"Rrahn and her faction had the dogs pretty much done for and then a whole new set of 'em popped up outta skip-space about ten light-years off and started hammering the station. Rrahn's doing her best but there's too fucking many of 'em. We're gonna run for it, Spike."
"Run where?" Xander croaked, feeling shock go through him like a wave of cold water. The only place to run was back the way they'd come - debilitatingly long skips that lead to the Alamo and no help - or Earth, which was - *Not a fucking option. Not leading the goddamn dogs to Earth. Fuck, fucking hell -*
"You're out of your bloody minds, we can't run -"
"Holy shit, what's that?" New voice on the com and then a babble of voices and the vamp by the door turned on the little screen that was right there, displaying whatever the Bud was seeing. Which was a blossom of incoming ships, five - ten - twenty. Sickly yellow-orange that meant unidentified - unknown - probably hostile. They could see the station now, too - see the swarm of home world ships and the ragged remnants of Rrahn's army and Spike shoved between H'ru and Angel and hit a button.
"Nia, you copy? What the fuck is that - who the fuck is that?"
Pop and whine - hiss and crackle and then Nia's voice, smugly triumphant.
"Lost Boys, Cap'n. It's the Lost Boys from Neverland."
Part nine.
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