"They
don't look too impressive," Tricia commented over the comm.
George
saw around a dozen men and women hiding among the rocks. They were
armed with makeshift rifles and their armor were composed of
mismatched pieces of material of various quality. One of them at the
back had a launcher of some sort, probably the one who had fired the
grenade at the transport.
"A
waster gang," Mabel added, "They've got the mark of a
land-shark. I'll keep them off you so you can get close."
"Okay,"
Tricia agreed, "But let's see if we can talk them out of it
first."
"Talk?
You're surprisingly charitable today," Mabel teased.
"We've
got Squirt to keep safe."
"Oh,
he can take care of himself."
George
was not sure if he should feel encouraged by Mabel's confidence in
him or horrified at the Vixen's callousness concerning his safety.
The
turret camera zoomed in on a man who stood up among the rocks with a
patchwork hailer. Behind him, a woman also came up with a smaller
hailer of her own.
"Madboy
Keith's Tower belongs to the Blue Landsharks," the man claimed,
"You lasses better clear out."
"Yeah,
you'd better clear out," the woman chimed through her own
hailer.
"I
don't think so," Tricia told him through the loudspeaker of her
armor.
"What's two girls going to do against the lot of us?" the man sneered,
"You can't stop us!"
"Yeah,
you can't stop us," the woman behind him echoed.
"That
girl in the back's starting to irritate me," Mabel whispered
over the radio.
"My
power armor's worth the dozen of you," Tricia replied aloud,
"And if you're that confident of winning, you'd have attacked
already."
The man
took a relaxed pose. "Well, my momma always told me not to hit
girls."
"Your
momma said that so you don't hit her!" Tricia threw back at him.
Mabel
groaned over the radio. "Oh, Trish, I'm sure you can come up
with a better insult than that!"
"Are
you insulting my momma?" the man demanded.
"I'm
saying you'd hit your own momma," Tricia accused.
"Oh,
that's it!" the man shouted through his hailer.
"You're
in for it now!" the woman behind the man added, "You're
going to"-
She
never finished her sentence. There was a sharp crack and her hailer
exploded in her face.
"Take
that, you noisy wench!" Mabel gloated over the radio.
The gang
leader had more sense and jumped for safety behind a rock.
Then
the turret came to life and started firing its machinegun in short
bursts at the people among the rocks. Bullets chipped pieces of stone
around the men without actually hitting anyone. Still, the men hid
behind their cover in response.
At the
edge of the camera's view, George could see Tricia running up with a
massive hammer. A gang member stood up for a shot at her. However,
there was that crack again and the waster's rifle was knocked out of
his hands. He dove back into cover.
Mabel
chuckled delightedly over the radio.
Another
two wasters tried to aim their weapons at Tricia from behind a rock.
The transport's turret sprayed bullets at them, forcing both gang
members back down.
Once, a
man had stood up without either the turret or a crack greeting him.
As he aimed his rifle at Tricia, a shadow flew into his back,
knocking him down out of sight.
George
was not sure what the shadow was. The camera only showed where the
gun turret was aimed at so he had not gotten a clear look. He was
missing a lot of the battle details. But he did catch Tricia when she
reached the wasters hiding among the rocks.
Bodies
literally started flying as the power-armored Vixen grabbed bandits,
tossed them up and smacked them away with her hammer. There were
shouts of confusion.
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