Page 6 of True As Steel
I launched another rock at him while diving into a roll. I hadn’t hoped for a kill shot, only to cause enough pain to make him miss. But my lucky throw struck his Adam’s apple. He fired wide, not coming even remotely close to hitting me. His free hand flew to his throat as he coughed and emitted choking sounds. Flowing with the momentum of my roll, I jumped back to my feet, broke his fingers while ripping the blaster out of his hand, and snapped his neck.
“You bastard! You bas—”
The words died in the pup’s throat as I blew off his face. In his panic, he never even managed to get his blaster out of its holster.
First order of business, I walked to their leader’s speeder, pleased to find the snitch’s controller and camera display hooked on the vehicle’s control panel. His speeder wasn’t as big as the brawny guy’s, but it would do. To my relief, the snitch was on a closed circuit. Therefore, no remote goons would have witnessed these idiots’ demise. I appropriated the three men’s weapons, the credit chips on them, and whatever else I deemed of interest, namely water. Although the brawny man’s clothes stank, they would fit me. With much reluctance, I stripped him and wrapped his pants in his shirt. As my Cyborg Rebel brand on my cheek would give me away regardless—but not as much as my uniform—I would keep these clothes as a last resort.
Sitting on the leader’s speeder, I sent the snitch ahead and retraced my steps back to the escape pod. An hour and a half had elapsed since I’d parted ways with Tamryn. But it took less than seven minutes to backtrack the 12 km I had walked.
I flew even faster over the last kilometer when the snitch revealed Tamryn had company. A dune buggy had pulled up near the landing site, and two men were cornering her. They were having a tense conversation while one of them closed in on her. The second man, standing slightly behind, was first to notice my approach. He shouted something, drawing the attention of his partner.
Tamryn seized that moment of distraction to roundhouse kick the face of the man closest to her, sending him tumbling to the ground. She flowed into a roll towards him while throwing the care package knife at the second man, who was raising his blaster towards her. To my surprise, the blade met its mark, hitting the man on the left side of his stomach. He doubled over, shouting as his free hand flew to his bleeding wound. Tamryn, only halfway out of her roll forward, used her momentum to viciously strike the face of the first man who was trying to get back up. That she managed such a solid blow with her left hand—when she was clearly right-handed—genuinely impressed me.
She’s no civilian…
Blood exploded from the man’s nose, and he fell back onto his back. Tamryn half straddled him, her knee resting on his chest as she snapped his neck. She barely managed to dodge the clumsy shot of the second man, clearly severely wounded by the knife. Yanking the blaster from the first man’s holster, she shot his wounded partner in the face. He collapsed with a thud.
Breathing heavily, more from adrenalin and tension than from actual exertion, Tamryn rose to her feet, weapon raised in my direction. With me still being 200 meters away, it took her a second to recognize me. Although she quickly controlled her emotions, I didn’t miss the way her eyes widened. She lowered her weapon but kept eyeing me warily.
I stopped the speeder and dismounted.
“Impressive,” I said, assessing her work. “And here I thought you needed me to rescue you.”
“Rescue me?” she asked, raising a dubious eyebrow as she crouched to search the first man she had killed. “What happened? Did those gears in your head manage to generate a spark of conscience?”
I shook my head. As a Cyborg, I often received that kind of remark. However, coming from her, for some irrational reason, it stung.
“No more than they normally do,” I deadpanned. “My reasoning for leaving you earlier was rational. Your chances of survival if you’d accompanied me were nil. As you can see, the parameters have changed,” I added, gesturing at my speeder. “I am now able to take you to safety. Therefore, I returned.”
Although still upset that I had left her, Tamryn’s features softened.
“Right… Thanks, I guess,” she said begrudgingly. “But, as you can see, I’ve secured a sweet ride of my own.”
She gestured with her head at the dune buggy. I casually strolled towards it under Tamryn’s watchful eye. Like my speeder, it wasn’t state-of-the-art or the newest model, but it looked sturdy and reliable.
“I would advise against it,” I said after giving it a summary glance.
“Oh?” Tamryn said, crossing her arms over her chest in a defiant stance.
I smiled, something I rarely did. For some reason, that woman stirred illogical responses from me.
“It is a great vehicle for this desert, but it is not ideal for the other terrains we’ll travel through,” I explained.
“We?” she challenged. “First, I’m not going to Kuryn—that’s just suicide. Second, I’m not sure I want to travel with you if you’re going to ditch my ass the minute a challenge arises. Whatever happened to the ‘leave no man behind’ ethos?”
I sighed, starting to feel irritated.
“I’ve already given you my logic for my earlier actions. I stand by them. I will not waste my time rehashing the same things,” I said in a cold voice. “Leave no man behind doesn’t mean sacrifice the entire crew when one member will clearly not make it or cause the entire unit’s demise. It means that the able-bodied ones do what they must so they can live to fight another day. And as soon as the situation allows it, they go back for those who couldn’t follow the first time, be they dead or alive. Which is what I did. Now, this matter is settled. Get over it.”
She pursed her lips, looking as if she was pondering my words for a second and then gave me a stiff nod in concession. I realized then that she hadn’t actually questioned my reasons for leaving, but my ‘abandoning her’ had personally wounded her.
“You are clearly not helpless, and neither am I. We can manage on our own, but we should fare better watching each other’s backs,” I continued, matter-of-factly. “As for our destination, you mentioned having a contact in Satos. I’ll be happy to go there instead.”
The tension that had started bleeding out of her shoulders came back with a vengeance, and she narrowed her eyes at me. I snorted, feeling amused instead of annoyed, as I normally would be in a similar circumstance.
“You have an excessively expressive face, Tamryn,” I said, teasingly. “I can literally read your thoughts on your features.”
“Can you, now?” she replied, her voice dripping with suspicion.