Catching Dragonflies
by Kakita Karasu/Nanashi and Kakita Kaori
A story of Mirumoto Nanashi and the Space Ronin, Shinwa, in an age of Space Travel
The Transport finally landed on the backwater Phoenix world. The ramp lowered, spraying red dust into the air. A group of peasants lead their animals out of the transport, their bleating echoing off the ship’s walls. A group of what could be Ashigaru lead a bound man into town. A tall lean samurai follows, dressed in a black duster but with hints of Dragon green seen beneath. He strides off the ramp and steps onto the red earth. And immediately turns and vomits next to the ramp.
That feels better. I hate reentry.
“You alright, Samurai-Sama?” comes a voice of woman from his side.
“I’m fine.” He says brushing past her. She looks annoyed at his briskness but goes about her day.
The sound of a powerful engine fills the transport hold. A beautiful bike slides off the ship like water. It makes its way through the small mining town. The town is relatively small and made up mostly of the peasant class. The buildings are made of the local wood and constructed in a way that placed the mine at one end and the landing pad and local shrine at the other. Not much to see, but for the locals it was home and a place to make an honest living.
The samurai makes his way to the local tavern. It was easy to find as it was one of the largest buildings in town. He places his bike outside and makes his way in. The tavern might have been lively in the evening, when the miners were done for the day, but currently it is almost empty.
Good. Maybe I can get a quite drink.
“Sake. Whatever you got.”
“Greetings, Samurai-sama. It’s rare for one of your stature to bother coming here.” Says the bartender. A balding man with strong arms and an apron pulled tight just under his pot belly.
“Not staying long. Just passing through.”
The bartender sets a cup down and fills it. “Doing some work for Agasha Hisojo-domo I take it?”
The Samurai removes his hat, his bald pate gleaming, and downs his Sake in a single draft.
“I hear he is hiring a bunch of men,” says the bartender conspiratorially as he refills the cup. “This town needs that mine and if you’re working with Agasha-domo then I would ask you to please just get back on the transport and leave. We can’t offer you much in the way of compensation but we can do something.”
The samurai watches as the bartender cleans a glass with his cloth in a very nervous fashion. “Exactly what is this Agasha doing?” asks the samurai, downing the next drink and motioning for another.
The bartender looks at the samurai, taking notice that he didn’t say he wasn’t working for the Agasha but not saying that he did. The bartender hesitates but after making sure that no one in the empty bar was listening in, he says in a hushed voice, “The town has only barely been able to make our taxes the last couple of years. But the miners pull a lot of metal from the mine. The towns supplies are drying up but Agasha-domo seems to be unaffected by this.”
So this Agasha is skimming off the top.
The samurai lays a koku credit down and leaves the bar without saying a word.
*****************************************************************************
The samurai pulls up to the gates of the Mayors estate. He leaves his bike there and hands his swords off to a servant, as tradition dictated. He is escorted into a lavish waiting area and served tea. The samurai sips it in deathly silence. Eventually a rather portly man dressed in the yellows and oranges of the Phoenix enters.
“I am Agasha Hisojo. I am the one in charge of this little town. I understand you are traveling and looking for a position in my little….Organization here,” says the rotund Phoenix through chubby cheeks.
This man could not be slimier unless he crawled through the mud.
“I’m looking for a girl. I understand you have connections that might be able to help,” says the Dragon Samurai. His On in place so securely he looks almost half asleep.
“I can pay you in information but it will cost you. I could see you as one of my foremen in the mines. Say for a year?” Hisojo says.
“I think it would be in your best interest to tell me what you know now. And when you’re finished I am going to encourage you to retire and leave this town. But I’m going to be nice and allow you to decide just how vigorously I encourage you,” says the samurai simply. He says it in the same way one would comment on the weather: more a statement of irrefutable fact then the grave threat it was.
The fat Agasha was slow on the uptake. “Who do you think you’re speaking to? Boy!”
The Samurai stands. A couple of ronin come into the room through hidden compartments in the corners. They are holding rifles and by their stance it was obvious that they knew what they were doing.
“I am Mirumoto Nanashi. And I am the Samurai that is going to get what he wants. And I’m the Samurai who is going to beat your men like the dogs they are unless you do as I say,” says Nanashi with subtle motions to the two ronin.
“These dogs, as you say, are the best mercenaries that money can buy. A pathetic excuse for a samurai without his swords doesn’t stand a chance. And you dare make threats?!”
There is a flap of cloth, a wicked crack and two flashes of light before the heavily armed Ronin slump to the floor. The Agasha is startled and reflexively jumps away. It’s only the touch of metal on his forehead that keeps him from backpedaling out of the room.
“Your money isn’t worth spit to me. Now what do you know about missing little girls?”
The Agasha turned white, his On discarded. “You won’t get away with this. There are other guards. They will be here soon.” He whimpers.
“Then I suggest you talk fast unless you would like me to continue to decorate your home with these dogs,” Nanashi says as he presses the gun even harder into the man’s temple.
“I don’t know anything. All I do is skim off the top of the profits here. I don’t deal in kids,” says the Agasha in total panic.
Nanashi pulls out a small device from his jacket. He presses a button on the screen and the Agasha hears his own voice played back to him. “I don’t know anything. All I do is skim off the top of the profits here. I don’t deal in kids.”
“And that is why you’re not dead already. Now I am going to make sure that your superiors get this so I would start making nice with the towns folk in case you have nowhere else to go.” Nanashi says with the smallest hint of a smile.
Nanashi holsters his pistol and turns to leave. The Agasha makes a motion for one of the rifles that had fallen to the floor. Before his had could get even half way a hole appears in the floor between him and the gun. Nanashi looks over his shoulder at the fat Agasha. “Don’t. You would only piss me off.”
Nanashi walks calmly out the estate. It was when he has reached his bike that a very dirty man comes running up to the gates.
“What’s wrong?” Nanashi asks.
“It’s the mines! There is a problem at the mines!” says the dirty man in utter panic.
“Climb on!”
Nanashi straps his swords to his back, revs the bike and disappeared down the road in a trail of red dust.
*****************************************************************************
The mine was on the far side of town. The construction equipment was rusty and well past acceptable by samurai standards but adequate by peasant standards. Nanashi arrives in time to witness a score of miners running for their lives from what could best be described as giant cicada.
These pony sized insects are scuttling up the mine shaft behind fleeing peasants, their mandibles clicking and clacking, dripping with drool or slime. They reach fresh air for the first time and begin to shake like large dogs. Bits of mud and slime and chitin go spraying off in all directions.
Nanashi jumps from his bike and whips his pistols from their rest. Light and thunder fly from his grip as he tries to blast the bugs nearest the minors. One of the insects jumps on top of a miner who was stumbling and rides him to the ground. Its mandibles dig into the peasant’s back with a wet crunch. The man lay there screaming for help. Nanashi puts the poor man out of his misery with a single shot.
“Get to town! Get everyone to the transport ship!” Nanashi yells between shoots.
The men go running for their lives as Nanashi stands his ground, blasting one bug then another. Bits of viscera splatter the bugs behind them.
By the Kami there are a lot of them.
The mouth of the cave explodes in rock and dirt as more of these disgusting things come climbing out of the ground. They climb on top of each other or anything that got in their way. Nanashi takes some quick steps back until he gets back to his Bike.
“Kiba! Engine start.” The powerful motor growls to life. Nanashi looks over his shoulder just in time to see the men running like the wind. One of them trips over a bit of cable and falls.
Really?!
Nanashi swings his leg over the bike as he puts away his pistols. He wheels the bike toward the exit and makes a break for it. As he passes the downed man, he reaches out and grabs the man by the collar. He does scrape across the ground slightly but Nanashi is able to lift the man up enough to get him onto the back of the bike.
Nanashi makes it back to town ahead of the men and begins yelling at anyone who will listen to make for the transport. A woman begins to argue with Nanashi until a bug bursts from the ground between them. Nanashi had just enough time to draw his sword and decapitate the thing before it chews on the woman’s leg.
The town busts in to a flurry of motion, people running hither and thither. Nanashi stands with a few men, his radiant pistols flashing with light and thunder. The men beside him wield shovels and post-hole diggers. They stand and fight valiantly, holding back the Chitin’s tide as best they can as the whole town floods toward the cargo ship.
When the majority of town is out of the way Nanashi turns to those beside him and yells. “Pull back. Guard the ship.” Nanashi turns to his bike and yells. “Kiba. Follow me!” Nanashi’s motorcycle follows beside him like a trained dog.
The men have pulled back to the landing pad and are trying to get everyone on board. An old man is having an argument with another about bringing his goat with them. Nanashi stands like the center of a hurricane, pistols firing left and right. Bugs die by the handful but it just isn’t enough. A woman’s cries break through his focus. Her adolescent son has rushed off the transport and is charging the things with a large knife.
Nanashi swings his bike around and kicks it into full gear. He drives through some of the things in order to get to the boy. Nanashi makes it to the boy in just enough time to blast the bug that was leaping at him out of the air. Nanashi strikes the boy in the back of the head with the butt of his gun knocking him out. Nanashi then grabs him and throws him over the bike. Nanashi tries to make it back to the transport but is cut off by the bugs. Nanashi has just enough momentum to throw the boy over the heads of the insects and into the arms of one of the men.
The man catches the boy with a most surprised look. Nanashi looks at the obviously terrified man and yells. “Get on and take off!” before turning the bike around and blasting a path through the bugs away from the ship. The man stands there stunned for half a second, watching this nameless samurai sacrifice himself for them.
*****************************************************************************
Nanashi could see the transport take off over his shoulder.
All right. They are safe. Now what?
Nanashi takes off at a breakneck pace, quickly leaving the town behind him. But the bugs were breaking through the surface everywhere now. Even larger bugs were starting to emerge, their transparent wings making a painfully loud buzzing noise. The ground is quaking from the millions of legs running on the ground and the air itself hums with insect wings. Nanashi pushes his bike to race along the red earth.
“Kiba. Activate auto pilot. Keep speeding up and hold steady.”
A voice comes through Nanashi’s ear bud. “Be advised. We are exceeding safe speeds for this environment.”
“I don’t care. Just keep going.” Nanashi spat as he activated the metal band around his neck. Layer after Layer of metal covers his head. With his helmet in place and the auto pilot on, Nanashi spins around in his seat so he is sitting backward on the speeding bike. He takes his pistols and lays down on his bike taking shot after shot. Alien bugs die one at a time, being shot and then trod under foot by his fellows. Another has its wings detached at the joint. Nanashi is actually starting to enjoy himself when Kiba’s voice broke through again.
“Nanashi?”
“Not now Kiba. Kind of busy”
“But Nanashi..”
“Trying to kill some murderous bugs here.”
“Very well. I shall not inform you about the large ravine we are currently hurtling toward at speed unsafe for the earlier mentioned environment.”
Nanashi has just enough time to look over his shoulder to see the quickly approaching gigantic hole in the ground before he reaches over his shoulder and caused the bike to go into a skid. Nanashi swings himself to stand on top of his now skidding bike as he slides toward gravity’s inevitable revenge. Nanashi stands atop his poor bike and decides to face the bugs one last time. Sparks fly from below him as his radiant pistols flash. If this is to be his last stand then he is going to make it one for the stories.
My only regret is that I couldn’t rescue her.
Images of a scared and lonely phoenix girl flash in the light of his pistol shots.
I’m sorry brothers. This is the best I could do.
*****************************************************************************
The burst of communication to the bridge from the rural planet could have been a distress call. It was on the correct frequency. But the communication was cut off so quickly it was hard to say.
The Shiba piloting the craft looked over at M’thack-ir and Shinwa. “What do you think? There looks to be a larger ship landed at the settlement. It could be nothing.”
There could be just the faintest crook of a smirk at the corner of Shinwa’s mouth. “No. For our story, it is never ‘nothing’.”
Kiru nodded. “The Warren should go go close. We shall see what we can see. But keep the cloaking device active.”
Small dust twisters spiraled upward from the ground in The Warren’s wake, marking her passage as she zooms across the dry landscape.
The three look intently at the figures on the screen, the drama beginning to play out before them. “Are those….insects?” Shinwa asks. “That’s…creative.”
Kiru’s eyes narrow as he looks more intently. “The transport there is departing…it looks like it has picked up the villagers. What are they chasing?"
Shiba Itsuki’s sharp eyes caught the glimpse of green trailed by hundreds of the giant bug-like creatures. “There. It looks like a motorcycle. It’s headed straight for the cliff.”
“We will catch him. I will turn us around and we will fly backwards. Itsuki …use your magic.” Kiru settled down into the copilot’s seat, throwing himself into the job of maintaining the controls of the ship so Itsuki can begin casting the spells necessary to stop the inertia and holding the ship steady to catch the motorbike rider. “Shinwa, go to the cargo bay and catch him.”
Sure. Catch him. Exactly how am I supposed to do that, Kiru-san?” Shinwa thinks as he raced towards the cargo bay. “Throw him a rope? He can feel the shift in the microgravities as the ship spins around and started flying backwards. There is not exactly much time to think about it. Shinwa enters the large empty space. Everything is securely strapped into place except for a few leaves that had managed to make it through to here from the ventilation system.
Even if Itsuki is able to hold the ship steady, the ship can hardly hover close enough to the cliff for the motorcycle to make the leap. At least not with a little help. If they tilt down for the catch, the rider and bike would be flattened. If only I could turn the cargo bay into a vacuum and suck him in…
Yes.
Shinwa slams his hand onto the control that depressurizes the cargobay, normally used to adjust for landing on planets or moons with contaminated atmospheres. The cargo bay doors remain sealed.
Compel the air kami to leave….
The air empties out of the room with a hiss. Shinwa will die of lack of oxygen and the lost pressure in a minute, but if this takes a full minute, the motorcyclist will be at the bottom of the ravine and Kiru will be able to peel the ronin off the floor of the Cargo Bay soon enough.
He can hear Kiru counting off, “Approaching the cliff….5…..4….” The sound trails to silence as the cargo bay lost pressure. Shinwa’s lungs scream and he feel his skin swelling, but he refuses to waver. Every sense strains. “There.” He can feel, there, just out of reach, the life boiling towards him at a rapid clip.
“Good fortune, Samurai,” he thinks as he slams his hand down on the control that opens the cargo bay doors, keeping the de-pressurization pumps at their maximum.
Compel the air kami to leave....and it creates a void. The kami will return with a vengeance at their first opportunity.
Shinwa is thrown back against the back wall of the cargo bay at the vast inrushing of air as the cargo bay acted as a giant vacuum, sucking in the air before it, pumping it out again through the depressurization pumps. Dust, sticks, a screeching green motorcycle and its flying rider, and a few of the giant insects are sucked into the cargo bay. The roar of the wind is incredible.
The Warren veers away from the cliff at the last moment, spiraling upwards into the sky. Groggy from the blow against the back wall and the lack of oxygen, it takes all of Shinwa’s strength to pull himself up and touch the control that would shut the cargo bay doors. A second control is touched, and the depressurization stops, letting sweet, gentle air fill the compartment again with the breath of life.
One of the insects has been bisected by the shutting cargo bay doors. The other is beginning to get up again, recovering from the difficult transit.
Head still reeling, trying to draw on what focus remained, Shinwa staggers upright.
Still one enemy left to face.
Shinwa suddenly feels a familiar tingle; but a half moment later, he feels refreshed, and does not even bear a single scratch or ounce of pain.
"Waiting for signal to leave atmosphere," Kiru's voice calls out over the ship's internal comms.
Bless the fortunes for Kiru-san, Shinwa thinks as the wave of relief washes over him. He hits the signal for the comm as the insect starts moving towards the motorcycle and the crumpled body of its rider. "Domo arigatou. Make sure there are none on the hull and give me a minute."
He focuses and springs into action, drawing his blade as he leaps into his attack, throwing himself between the creature and the motorcycle rider. His blade slashes down....
...and cleaves easily through the creature's tough carapace, Shinwa's sword is sharp as anything infused with the power of the tetsukami. The thing keeps moving, but Shinwa is fresh, now, and ready, and tougher than he looks. The battle ends with bug guts spewed across the cargo bay. The ronin cleans his blade on his sleeve and hurries to check on the unconscious Mirumoto motorcyclist.
Alive.
And...vaguely familiar.
Calling Kiru to bring assistance and healing, the ronin begins the process of saving the Mirumoto's life, his faith restored once more.
When Kiru does arrive, having left the ship in the capable hands of Shiba Itsuki, he is quick to draw his Radiant pistol and confirm the death of every insectoid with a laser in each head. Only then does he see to the man they had exerted effort to rescue, who is thankfully fairly stable.
"Will live. Tsukune smiles on this one, ne? Even as she consumes a world below."
A story of Mirumoto Nanashi and the Space Ronin, Shinwa, in an age of Space Travel
The Transport finally landed on the backwater Phoenix world. The ramp lowered, spraying red dust into the air. A group of peasants lead their animals out of the transport, their bleating echoing off the ship’s walls. A group of what could be Ashigaru lead a bound man into town. A tall lean samurai follows, dressed in a black duster but with hints of Dragon green seen beneath. He strides off the ramp and steps onto the red earth. And immediately turns and vomits next to the ramp.
That feels better. I hate reentry.
“You alright, Samurai-Sama?” comes a voice of woman from his side.
“I’m fine.” He says brushing past her. She looks annoyed at his briskness but goes about her day.
The sound of a powerful engine fills the transport hold. A beautiful bike slides off the ship like water. It makes its way through the small mining town. The town is relatively small and made up mostly of the peasant class. The buildings are made of the local wood and constructed in a way that placed the mine at one end and the landing pad and local shrine at the other. Not much to see, but for the locals it was home and a place to make an honest living.
The samurai makes his way to the local tavern. It was easy to find as it was one of the largest buildings in town. He places his bike outside and makes his way in. The tavern might have been lively in the evening, when the miners were done for the day, but currently it is almost empty.
Good. Maybe I can get a quite drink.
“Sake. Whatever you got.”
“Greetings, Samurai-sama. It’s rare for one of your stature to bother coming here.” Says the bartender. A balding man with strong arms and an apron pulled tight just under his pot belly.
“Not staying long. Just passing through.”
The bartender sets a cup down and fills it. “Doing some work for Agasha Hisojo-domo I take it?”
The Samurai removes his hat, his bald pate gleaming, and downs his Sake in a single draft.
“I hear he is hiring a bunch of men,” says the bartender conspiratorially as he refills the cup. “This town needs that mine and if you’re working with Agasha-domo then I would ask you to please just get back on the transport and leave. We can’t offer you much in the way of compensation but we can do something.”
The samurai watches as the bartender cleans a glass with his cloth in a very nervous fashion. “Exactly what is this Agasha doing?” asks the samurai, downing the next drink and motioning for another.
The bartender looks at the samurai, taking notice that he didn’t say he wasn’t working for the Agasha but not saying that he did. The bartender hesitates but after making sure that no one in the empty bar was listening in, he says in a hushed voice, “The town has only barely been able to make our taxes the last couple of years. But the miners pull a lot of metal from the mine. The towns supplies are drying up but Agasha-domo seems to be unaffected by this.”
So this Agasha is skimming off the top.
The samurai lays a koku credit down and leaves the bar without saying a word.
*****************************************************************************
The samurai pulls up to the gates of the Mayors estate. He leaves his bike there and hands his swords off to a servant, as tradition dictated. He is escorted into a lavish waiting area and served tea. The samurai sips it in deathly silence. Eventually a rather portly man dressed in the yellows and oranges of the Phoenix enters.
“I am Agasha Hisojo. I am the one in charge of this little town. I understand you are traveling and looking for a position in my little….Organization here,” says the rotund Phoenix through chubby cheeks.
This man could not be slimier unless he crawled through the mud.
“I’m looking for a girl. I understand you have connections that might be able to help,” says the Dragon Samurai. His On in place so securely he looks almost half asleep.
“I can pay you in information but it will cost you. I could see you as one of my foremen in the mines. Say for a year?” Hisojo says.
“I think it would be in your best interest to tell me what you know now. And when you’re finished I am going to encourage you to retire and leave this town. But I’m going to be nice and allow you to decide just how vigorously I encourage you,” says the samurai simply. He says it in the same way one would comment on the weather: more a statement of irrefutable fact then the grave threat it was.
The fat Agasha was slow on the uptake. “Who do you think you’re speaking to? Boy!”
The Samurai stands. A couple of ronin come into the room through hidden compartments in the corners. They are holding rifles and by their stance it was obvious that they knew what they were doing.
“I am Mirumoto Nanashi. And I am the Samurai that is going to get what he wants. And I’m the Samurai who is going to beat your men like the dogs they are unless you do as I say,” says Nanashi with subtle motions to the two ronin.
“These dogs, as you say, are the best mercenaries that money can buy. A pathetic excuse for a samurai without his swords doesn’t stand a chance. And you dare make threats?!”
There is a flap of cloth, a wicked crack and two flashes of light before the heavily armed Ronin slump to the floor. The Agasha is startled and reflexively jumps away. It’s only the touch of metal on his forehead that keeps him from backpedaling out of the room.
“Your money isn’t worth spit to me. Now what do you know about missing little girls?”
The Agasha turned white, his On discarded. “You won’t get away with this. There are other guards. They will be here soon.” He whimpers.
“Then I suggest you talk fast unless you would like me to continue to decorate your home with these dogs,” Nanashi says as he presses the gun even harder into the man’s temple.
“I don’t know anything. All I do is skim off the top of the profits here. I don’t deal in kids,” says the Agasha in total panic.
Nanashi pulls out a small device from his jacket. He presses a button on the screen and the Agasha hears his own voice played back to him. “I don’t know anything. All I do is skim off the top of the profits here. I don’t deal in kids.”
“And that is why you’re not dead already. Now I am going to make sure that your superiors get this so I would start making nice with the towns folk in case you have nowhere else to go.” Nanashi says with the smallest hint of a smile.
Nanashi holsters his pistol and turns to leave. The Agasha makes a motion for one of the rifles that had fallen to the floor. Before his had could get even half way a hole appears in the floor between him and the gun. Nanashi looks over his shoulder at the fat Agasha. “Don’t. You would only piss me off.”
Nanashi walks calmly out the estate. It was when he has reached his bike that a very dirty man comes running up to the gates.
“What’s wrong?” Nanashi asks.
“It’s the mines! There is a problem at the mines!” says the dirty man in utter panic.
“Climb on!”
Nanashi straps his swords to his back, revs the bike and disappeared down the road in a trail of red dust.
*****************************************************************************
The mine was on the far side of town. The construction equipment was rusty and well past acceptable by samurai standards but adequate by peasant standards. Nanashi arrives in time to witness a score of miners running for their lives from what could best be described as giant cicada.
These pony sized insects are scuttling up the mine shaft behind fleeing peasants, their mandibles clicking and clacking, dripping with drool or slime. They reach fresh air for the first time and begin to shake like large dogs. Bits of mud and slime and chitin go spraying off in all directions.
Nanashi jumps from his bike and whips his pistols from their rest. Light and thunder fly from his grip as he tries to blast the bugs nearest the minors. One of the insects jumps on top of a miner who was stumbling and rides him to the ground. Its mandibles dig into the peasant’s back with a wet crunch. The man lay there screaming for help. Nanashi puts the poor man out of his misery with a single shot.
“Get to town! Get everyone to the transport ship!” Nanashi yells between shoots.
The men go running for their lives as Nanashi stands his ground, blasting one bug then another. Bits of viscera splatter the bugs behind them.
By the Kami there are a lot of them.
The mouth of the cave explodes in rock and dirt as more of these disgusting things come climbing out of the ground. They climb on top of each other or anything that got in their way. Nanashi takes some quick steps back until he gets back to his Bike.
“Kiba! Engine start.” The powerful motor growls to life. Nanashi looks over his shoulder just in time to see the men running like the wind. One of them trips over a bit of cable and falls.
Really?!
Nanashi swings his leg over the bike as he puts away his pistols. He wheels the bike toward the exit and makes a break for it. As he passes the downed man, he reaches out and grabs the man by the collar. He does scrape across the ground slightly but Nanashi is able to lift the man up enough to get him onto the back of the bike.
Nanashi makes it back to town ahead of the men and begins yelling at anyone who will listen to make for the transport. A woman begins to argue with Nanashi until a bug bursts from the ground between them. Nanashi had just enough time to draw his sword and decapitate the thing before it chews on the woman’s leg.
The town busts in to a flurry of motion, people running hither and thither. Nanashi stands with a few men, his radiant pistols flashing with light and thunder. The men beside him wield shovels and post-hole diggers. They stand and fight valiantly, holding back the Chitin’s tide as best they can as the whole town floods toward the cargo ship.
When the majority of town is out of the way Nanashi turns to those beside him and yells. “Pull back. Guard the ship.” Nanashi turns to his bike and yells. “Kiba. Follow me!” Nanashi’s motorcycle follows beside him like a trained dog.
The men have pulled back to the landing pad and are trying to get everyone on board. An old man is having an argument with another about bringing his goat with them. Nanashi stands like the center of a hurricane, pistols firing left and right. Bugs die by the handful but it just isn’t enough. A woman’s cries break through his focus. Her adolescent son has rushed off the transport and is charging the things with a large knife.
Nanashi swings his bike around and kicks it into full gear. He drives through some of the things in order to get to the boy. Nanashi makes it to the boy in just enough time to blast the bug that was leaping at him out of the air. Nanashi strikes the boy in the back of the head with the butt of his gun knocking him out. Nanashi then grabs him and throws him over the bike. Nanashi tries to make it back to the transport but is cut off by the bugs. Nanashi has just enough momentum to throw the boy over the heads of the insects and into the arms of one of the men.
The man catches the boy with a most surprised look. Nanashi looks at the obviously terrified man and yells. “Get on and take off!” before turning the bike around and blasting a path through the bugs away from the ship. The man stands there stunned for half a second, watching this nameless samurai sacrifice himself for them.
*****************************************************************************
Nanashi could see the transport take off over his shoulder.
All right. They are safe. Now what?
Nanashi takes off at a breakneck pace, quickly leaving the town behind him. But the bugs were breaking through the surface everywhere now. Even larger bugs were starting to emerge, their transparent wings making a painfully loud buzzing noise. The ground is quaking from the millions of legs running on the ground and the air itself hums with insect wings. Nanashi pushes his bike to race along the red earth.
“Kiba. Activate auto pilot. Keep speeding up and hold steady.”
A voice comes through Nanashi’s ear bud. “Be advised. We are exceeding safe speeds for this environment.”
“I don’t care. Just keep going.” Nanashi spat as he activated the metal band around his neck. Layer after Layer of metal covers his head. With his helmet in place and the auto pilot on, Nanashi spins around in his seat so he is sitting backward on the speeding bike. He takes his pistols and lays down on his bike taking shot after shot. Alien bugs die one at a time, being shot and then trod under foot by his fellows. Another has its wings detached at the joint. Nanashi is actually starting to enjoy himself when Kiba’s voice broke through again.
“Nanashi?”
“Not now Kiba. Kind of busy”
“But Nanashi..”
“Trying to kill some murderous bugs here.”
“Very well. I shall not inform you about the large ravine we are currently hurtling toward at speed unsafe for the earlier mentioned environment.”
Nanashi has just enough time to look over his shoulder to see the quickly approaching gigantic hole in the ground before he reaches over his shoulder and caused the bike to go into a skid. Nanashi swings himself to stand on top of his now skidding bike as he slides toward gravity’s inevitable revenge. Nanashi stands atop his poor bike and decides to face the bugs one last time. Sparks fly from below him as his radiant pistols flash. If this is to be his last stand then he is going to make it one for the stories.
My only regret is that I couldn’t rescue her.
Images of a scared and lonely phoenix girl flash in the light of his pistol shots.
I’m sorry brothers. This is the best I could do.
*****************************************************************************
The burst of communication to the bridge from the rural planet could have been a distress call. It was on the correct frequency. But the communication was cut off so quickly it was hard to say.
The Shiba piloting the craft looked over at M’thack-ir and Shinwa. “What do you think? There looks to be a larger ship landed at the settlement. It could be nothing.”
There could be just the faintest crook of a smirk at the corner of Shinwa’s mouth. “No. For our story, it is never ‘nothing’.”
Kiru nodded. “The Warren should go go close. We shall see what we can see. But keep the cloaking device active.”
Small dust twisters spiraled upward from the ground in The Warren’s wake, marking her passage as she zooms across the dry landscape.
The three look intently at the figures on the screen, the drama beginning to play out before them. “Are those….insects?” Shinwa asks. “That’s…creative.”
Kiru’s eyes narrow as he looks more intently. “The transport there is departing…it looks like it has picked up the villagers. What are they chasing?"
Shiba Itsuki’s sharp eyes caught the glimpse of green trailed by hundreds of the giant bug-like creatures. “There. It looks like a motorcycle. It’s headed straight for the cliff.”
“We will catch him. I will turn us around and we will fly backwards. Itsuki …use your magic.” Kiru settled down into the copilot’s seat, throwing himself into the job of maintaining the controls of the ship so Itsuki can begin casting the spells necessary to stop the inertia and holding the ship steady to catch the motorbike rider. “Shinwa, go to the cargo bay and catch him.”
Sure. Catch him. Exactly how am I supposed to do that, Kiru-san?” Shinwa thinks as he raced towards the cargo bay. “Throw him a rope? He can feel the shift in the microgravities as the ship spins around and started flying backwards. There is not exactly much time to think about it. Shinwa enters the large empty space. Everything is securely strapped into place except for a few leaves that had managed to make it through to here from the ventilation system.
Even if Itsuki is able to hold the ship steady, the ship can hardly hover close enough to the cliff for the motorcycle to make the leap. At least not with a little help. If they tilt down for the catch, the rider and bike would be flattened. If only I could turn the cargo bay into a vacuum and suck him in…
Yes.
Shinwa slams his hand onto the control that depressurizes the cargobay, normally used to adjust for landing on planets or moons with contaminated atmospheres. The cargo bay doors remain sealed.
Compel the air kami to leave….
The air empties out of the room with a hiss. Shinwa will die of lack of oxygen and the lost pressure in a minute, but if this takes a full minute, the motorcyclist will be at the bottom of the ravine and Kiru will be able to peel the ronin off the floor of the Cargo Bay soon enough.
He can hear Kiru counting off, “Approaching the cliff….5…..4….” The sound trails to silence as the cargo bay lost pressure. Shinwa’s lungs scream and he feel his skin swelling, but he refuses to waver. Every sense strains. “There.” He can feel, there, just out of reach, the life boiling towards him at a rapid clip.
“Good fortune, Samurai,” he thinks as he slams his hand down on the control that opens the cargo bay doors, keeping the de-pressurization pumps at their maximum.
Compel the air kami to leave....and it creates a void. The kami will return with a vengeance at their first opportunity.
Shinwa is thrown back against the back wall of the cargo bay at the vast inrushing of air as the cargo bay acted as a giant vacuum, sucking in the air before it, pumping it out again through the depressurization pumps. Dust, sticks, a screeching green motorcycle and its flying rider, and a few of the giant insects are sucked into the cargo bay. The roar of the wind is incredible.
The Warren veers away from the cliff at the last moment, spiraling upwards into the sky. Groggy from the blow against the back wall and the lack of oxygen, it takes all of Shinwa’s strength to pull himself up and touch the control that would shut the cargo bay doors. A second control is touched, and the depressurization stops, letting sweet, gentle air fill the compartment again with the breath of life.
One of the insects has been bisected by the shutting cargo bay doors. The other is beginning to get up again, recovering from the difficult transit.
Head still reeling, trying to draw on what focus remained, Shinwa staggers upright.
Still one enemy left to face.
Shinwa suddenly feels a familiar tingle; but a half moment later, he feels refreshed, and does not even bear a single scratch or ounce of pain.
"Waiting for signal to leave atmosphere," Kiru's voice calls out over the ship's internal comms.
Bless the fortunes for Kiru-san, Shinwa thinks as the wave of relief washes over him. He hits the signal for the comm as the insect starts moving towards the motorcycle and the crumpled body of its rider. "Domo arigatou. Make sure there are none on the hull and give me a minute."
He focuses and springs into action, drawing his blade as he leaps into his attack, throwing himself between the creature and the motorcycle rider. His blade slashes down....
...and cleaves easily through the creature's tough carapace, Shinwa's sword is sharp as anything infused with the power of the tetsukami. The thing keeps moving, but Shinwa is fresh, now, and ready, and tougher than he looks. The battle ends with bug guts spewed across the cargo bay. The ronin cleans his blade on his sleeve and hurries to check on the unconscious Mirumoto motorcyclist.
Alive.
And...vaguely familiar.
Calling Kiru to bring assistance and healing, the ronin begins the process of saving the Mirumoto's life, his faith restored once more.
When Kiru does arrive, having left the ship in the capable hands of Shiba Itsuki, he is quick to draw his Radiant pistol and confirm the death of every insectoid with a laser in each head. Only then does he see to the man they had exerted effort to rescue, who is thankfully fairly stable.
"Will live. Tsukune smiles on this one, ne? Even as she consumes a world below."