07-20-2019, 05:58 PM
He was spooked.
The encounter came as a surprise, which in turn terrified him. He knew what the domovoi did. Of course he did. Active missions, weeks of conditioning and training: he knew what it felt like when you face your fears. What the hell was wrong with him that it came as a genuine surprise?
He lurched backwards, feeling the panic attack hitting him like a truck. He was aware of his own tongue, his own breathless wheezing.
It was airless. The stink of damp was nauseating. He took a breath, another, sucking hard, fighting panic. Head bowed Lih saw Nova.
“I don’t get scared,” he whispered to the dog. “I just don’t. Not ever. I get pumped. I get ready. Not scared. Never scared.”
Another breath.
“I didn’t break,” he said quietly, “I haven’t broken. I need to do my job.”
Right.
He switched around, gun gripped and aimed high. Nox was up ahead. Ivan wide to the right. He moved towards them and fired.
Lih stood blinking for a second, ears ringing.
His lens fixed on the humanoid shape, and the flag went white based on perceived threat intensity—none.
Lih’s shot had missed him because his target was already falling by the time he fired. He’d killed the tunnel ceiling instead. Nox’s shield protected them from the fallout.
His target’s head already pulped in a spray of pink meat and bone, like a watermelon smashing. His face disintegrated before the force of the blow threw him into Nox’s shield, broke his ribs, his collar bones, his neck. He rebounded and fell a few feet away from Lih, (what remained of his) face-down.
“Fuck,” said Lih.
Lih half expected the tumbling body to make a huge “ooofff” grunt as the ground struck him, like the comedy gasp of a winded cartoon character. His lens showed—
“Clear,” he told them.
He holstered his weapon cautiously and adjusted his lens. Review playback. Movement. Red flag turned white. Thud. Flash flash. What the hell was that anyway?
Slow it down. Flag alert. Thud. Flash flash. Back a little. That shadow blur, just before the flag changed. A second of movement. What was that? A rock projectile, moving on its own? Enhance. Nothing, something.
From the replay, Lih couldn’t see they did anything with their weapons at all. Unless you count the ability to throw a chunk of the tunnel and stone a guy to death. It was one of those things, just one of those damn things that happened sometimes when you’ve got the powers of a god. Best guess was that one of the two had blown his head off. There was a loose flap of skin, and blood everywhere, excessive amounts that had, at first, looked like a killshot to the skull. Only it wasn't, not with a gun anyway.
He looked at the two of them. The new look on their faces he liked less than the old one. It wasn’t even clear from their focused expressions how they felt. Meanwhile they could all feel how wired he is from their land warriors.
He didn’t know what to say. He went with, “which one of you killed him? You, ah… you brained him.”
It felt stupid.
Though it made his belly knot up, he took a step towards the corpse.
The rookie looked very pale, pale as death. His breathing was so shallow, you could hardly see it. The blue in his eyes had dimmed, and he looked like a crazy person.
He bent down beside the body. He could smell blood, tacky on the clothes, matted in the ground and along the walls. The smell was worse. Overpoweringly worse.
“The suit’s CCDPD,” he said, “he was one of ours.”
He pointed at the embossed leather wallet on the belt, “yeah, IA. See?”
Then he leaned in.
He indicated small, plastic window pocket on the breast of the police suit. “No ID tag,” he said, “no badge.”
And he looked in the pockets. “Nothing. I don’t even know who he is.”
Lih shook his head, frowning, “why would he take the badge out? Fuck’s going on? You think somebody’s brought down an IA officer here? What the fuck happened?”
And JUST what was that look on Ivan’s impassive face anyway? It made him want to scream.
Stop it! This has got to stop. He didn’t know what the fuck this was. Was he such a baby he’s infecting their search with his fear? He had no right to do this to Ivan, Nox and Nova. They’ve only just started. They haven’t even gone hot, and he was already fucked.Was he too fucking scared for this? Was that Lih?
He couldn’t think. He couldn’t center. He needed to get his fear out of him so he could do this. He had to sort himself out before he got one of them pulped.
He got up and walked away, balling his fists to stop them quivering. He banged his hand into the broken slabs of the wall where the rock came from.
The bad stink lingered.
The encounter came as a surprise, which in turn terrified him. He knew what the domovoi did. Of course he did. Active missions, weeks of conditioning and training: he knew what it felt like when you face your fears. What the hell was wrong with him that it came as a genuine surprise?
He lurched backwards, feeling the panic attack hitting him like a truck. He was aware of his own tongue, his own breathless wheezing.
It was airless. The stink of damp was nauseating. He took a breath, another, sucking hard, fighting panic. Head bowed Lih saw Nova.
“I don’t get scared,” he whispered to the dog. “I just don’t. Not ever. I get pumped. I get ready. Not scared. Never scared.”
Another breath.
“I didn’t break,” he said quietly, “I haven’t broken. I need to do my job.”
Right.
He switched around, gun gripped and aimed high. Nox was up ahead. Ivan wide to the right. He moved towards them and fired.
Lih stood blinking for a second, ears ringing.
His lens fixed on the humanoid shape, and the flag went white based on perceived threat intensity—none.
Lih’s shot had missed him because his target was already falling by the time he fired. He’d killed the tunnel ceiling instead. Nox’s shield protected them from the fallout.
His target’s head already pulped in a spray of pink meat and bone, like a watermelon smashing. His face disintegrated before the force of the blow threw him into Nox’s shield, broke his ribs, his collar bones, his neck. He rebounded and fell a few feet away from Lih, (what remained of his) face-down.
“Fuck,” said Lih.
Lih half expected the tumbling body to make a huge “ooofff” grunt as the ground struck him, like the comedy gasp of a winded cartoon character. His lens showed—
“Clear,” he told them.
He holstered his weapon cautiously and adjusted his lens. Review playback. Movement. Red flag turned white. Thud. Flash flash. What the hell was that anyway?
Slow it down. Flag alert. Thud. Flash flash. Back a little. That shadow blur, just before the flag changed. A second of movement. What was that? A rock projectile, moving on its own? Enhance. Nothing, something.
From the replay, Lih couldn’t see they did anything with their weapons at all. Unless you count the ability to throw a chunk of the tunnel and stone a guy to death. It was one of those things, just one of those damn things that happened sometimes when you’ve got the powers of a god. Best guess was that one of the two had blown his head off. There was a loose flap of skin, and blood everywhere, excessive amounts that had, at first, looked like a killshot to the skull. Only it wasn't, not with a gun anyway.
He looked at the two of them. The new look on their faces he liked less than the old one. It wasn’t even clear from their focused expressions how they felt. Meanwhile they could all feel how wired he is from their land warriors.
He didn’t know what to say. He went with, “which one of you killed him? You, ah… you brained him.”
It felt stupid.
Though it made his belly knot up, he took a step towards the corpse.
The rookie looked very pale, pale as death. His breathing was so shallow, you could hardly see it. The blue in his eyes had dimmed, and he looked like a crazy person.
He bent down beside the body. He could smell blood, tacky on the clothes, matted in the ground and along the walls. The smell was worse. Overpoweringly worse.
“The suit’s CCDPD,” he said, “he was one of ours.”
He pointed at the embossed leather wallet on the belt, “yeah, IA. See?”
Then he leaned in.
He indicated small, plastic window pocket on the breast of the police suit. “No ID tag,” he said, “no badge.”
And he looked in the pockets. “Nothing. I don’t even know who he is.”
Lih shook his head, frowning, “why would he take the badge out? Fuck’s going on? You think somebody’s brought down an IA officer here? What the fuck happened?”
And JUST what was that look on Ivan’s impassive face anyway? It made him want to scream.
Stop it! This has got to stop. He didn’t know what the fuck this was. Was he such a baby he’s infecting their search with his fear? He had no right to do this to Ivan, Nox and Nova. They’ve only just started. They haven’t even gone hot, and he was already fucked.Was he too fucking scared for this? Was that Lih?
He couldn’t think. He couldn’t center. He needed to get his fear out of him so he could do this. He had to sort himself out before he got one of them pulped.
He got up and walked away, balling his fists to stop them quivering. He banged his hand into the broken slabs of the wall where the rock came from.
The bad stink lingered.