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"Keep firing!" Jacoby yelled without looking at the Samalians. He used the rifle he'd picked up as a club and brought an armored woman down, only for her to be replaced by a man in the same kind of armor. The man blocked the club with an arm, then ripped it out of Jacoby's hands. "Have it your way," he growled, and punched the man in the face. Grabbed the man's arm when he tried to strike him and threw him over his shoulder and through a wall, when he fell, groaning as the rest of the building fell on him.

Jacoby looked around and, not seeing anyone approaching, he leaned against the wall. That was it. He was done letting himself grow old. He was finding himself a decent clinic and getting rejuved before going home, and then he was going to convince Cornelius to invest in the equipment needed so he could keep up with the treatment there.

He put his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath. He wasn't that fucking old. He smiled. Still, he had taken down six of those corporate kids. It felt good to know he could still do that.

He checked in on the eight armed Samalians using the building at the edge of the town to fire on the incoming... soldiers? Definitely not mercs. Not with that kind of equipment. And not just security, not with the ease with which they killed. Too many dead already. These were the people the corporations denied employing. The ones they used when talking with the opposition wasn't enough anymore, or when mercs had proved ineffective, or when they thought it was an organized rebellion.

Fuck, they weren't going to win this.

"All good?" He said with a smile at the closest Samalian.

"All good!" he replied, and the others echoed him. Only eight of them, but they were the ones who had taken learning how to shoot seriously, which was why they'd carried guns, and they were the best he had.

He looked at the dropship. No one was running out of it anymore, and the space between it and the town didn't have anyone standing. A surprising amount of dead, too many Samalian had rushed the soldiers, instead of running away, so now, even if they could get organized, they couldn't win this. The only soldiers left in the open were the ones keeping his little group busy while someone came around to take them by surprise.

He looked at the dead soldiers between the buildings.

Or tried to. He'd known what was coming, so he'd taken them by surprise. But he couldn't do this for long. He picked up a rifle, it was brand new, a design he wasn't familiar with, but it still had the trigger and a power pack, and that was all it needed for him to be able to make use of it. He slung it over his shoulder and made up his mind.

This wasn't his fight. He was finding Alex and Tristan, taking them to the hover, even if he had to knock both of them unconscious and drag them there, and they were leaving. Alex could complain all he wanted about ruining Tech's chance of getting better, but at least they'd be alive.

He took two steps away from the Samalians, they were too busy to notice him, when he saw movement on the other side of the group. Not his fight, he reminded himself, as he took another step away. He wasn't even getting paid to take these guys on.

Fuck this.

He spun, raised the rifle and fired three times at the join in the chest's armor. The soldier went down, and another took his place. Jacoby lined the shot, but the sound of a footstep behind him made him duck just in time to avoid getting clobbered, instead, the blow struck his arm hard enough to make it numb and he dropped the rifle.

He turned, pulling a knife with his other hand and faced four soldiers. They smiled at him as they put their rifles down and took their own knives. He should have left this place way before now. He should have packed Tech and Alex back the moment he'd found out the cure was some spiritual thing, he wouldn't be in this mess then.

The first soldier came at him, fast, but clumsy, They might be soldiers, Jacoby thought, as he deflected the knife arm and slid his knife in the joint, cutting it and the arm open, but they weren't the best. Either the new recruits, sent to a planet at the edge of civilization because nothing ever happened there, or the ones who'd pissed their superiors off and got sent off here to be forgotten.

He added his strength to the man's run and heard him crumble to the ground behind him. Jacoby didn't have the time to appreciate the smooth move he'd used, the other three were coming at him.

He blocked arms and parried knives and dodged as best as he could, but one against three were losing odds. He barely felt the myriads of cuts he was gaining. They were using mono-edge knives, and he wasn't armored. They were going to bleed him until he lost consciousness and then... not kill him, they could have done that already. They wanted him alive.

He tried to think of something to turn the fight in his favor. Back in his younger days, or if he'd had time and the equipment to set up the battlefield to his liking, he'd have explosives hidden all over the place he could remotely trigger. Or a flash-bang he could drop. All he had now was his knife, and his wits, to turn this around.

Yeah, he should have left when he still had the chance.

A flash of light and one of his attackers dropped. Jacoby froze, same as the other two, but he got over the surprised faster and had his knife in the woman's neck as there was another flash and the other soldier lost his head.

Jacoby turned to face the new person and saw black fur with a red tint to it. A gun raised and firing around Jacoby. Samalian, registered first, and relief stole the little strength he had left. He dropped to a knee. He didn't know this one, but at least they were on the same side.

The Samalian stopped next to him and Jacoby noticed the smell of blood, the way the fur was matted. The red tint was because he was covered with it. And he could just make out white speckling.

"Tech?"

The Samalian rummaged through the soldier's things, then something stung Jacoby's neck.

"The name is Tristan, but you know that, right? That was a dose of Heal, It's a good thing for you Corporations like to make sure their soldiers can deal with their injuries on the spot. I'm not sure the locals have anything that would work on you."

"They have this paste, smells horrible, but they've used it on Alex." He wasn't making sense, or was he? He couldn't tell, thinking was getting difficult. There was another sting and his mind cleared up.

"That was a stim, I don't know how you feel about them, but we don't have the time for you to take a nap." A small pack was pressed in his hand. "There should be a sealant in there. Take care of your cuts, I can't have you bleeding out on me until the job's done."

Tech started to stand, but Jacoby grabbed his arm. "Tech, did--did it work? Are you cured?" He couldn't believe that it might have, but this wasn't the Tech that had arrived here.

Hard brown eyes looked at him. "Jacoby, take care of your injuries, we have work to do."

"If you're better, we can get out of here. The hover's ready."

"Not yet. I need to take care of something first. Take care of yourself." He pulled his arm out of Jacoby's hand.

Jacoby searched through the pack for skin sealant while Tech spoke with the Samalian, first in Standgov, with mounting exasperation, then in Samalian and finally got a response from one of them. The conversation was interrupted with a few shots and Jacoby looked up from sealing his wounds to new dead soldiers.

By the time he was done, Tech was pointing to the town and the others were running, banging on doors.

"You all done?"

Jacoby nodded and got to his feet.

"Good, come on, I need your help." Tech headed for the edge of town.

"Tech?"

The Samalian stopped and turned, "What, Jack?"

Jacoby winced at the name. "Don't call me that."

"Then don't call me Tech." His eyes flicked up, and Jacoby spun, dropping to a knee to grab a rifle and had it to his shoulder as blaster fire shot over his head. He fired at the incoming soldiers downing three for the five Tech got. "Come on. We can't stay here."

"The hover is in the opposite direction."

"I want the dropship."

"Are you crazy?" Jacoby ran to catch up to Tech.

The Samalian's lips curled up, showing teeth. "I can finally say that no, I am not crazy."

"Their's got to be more soldiers in that ship."

"I certainly hope so. I'm nowhere near being satisfied with the amount of death I've inflicted on them." He fired twice and two soldiers who'd been lining up shots went down.

"Where's Alex?"

"In the House, being looked after."

Jacoby grabbed Tech's arm and forced him to stop. Part of him screamed at the stupidity of having this conversation in the open, where any of the seemingly dead soldiers could be acting, waiting for the perfect shot he was giving them, but he needed to make Tech see reason.

"Then let's go get him and let's get out of here! Going there is suicidal! If you're better, we have no reason to stay."

Tech looked at his hand on his arm with a calculating expression. When he moved his gaze to Jacoby, the expression was deadly. "If you don't take your hand off, I am going to cut it off."

Jacoby only now noticed the knife in Tech's other hand. He let go.

"Now, you need to understand something. I don't take orders, I give them. You want to leave, go ahead. Take the hover and fly away. There's another one me and Alex can use."

"I'm not abandoning you."

"Then stop trying to get me to do what you want. It isn't going to happen. These people are going to pay for coming after me and Alex, for hurting him. Are you going to help me, or not?"

"I'll help."

"Good." Tech turned and headed for the dropship.

By the time they reached it a handful of soldiers had come out, but died before they could fire at them.

"Take position here and shoot any humans that head this way except Alex."

"I think they're too busy killing the Samalians to notice we're here."

"That isn't going to last. If they haven't already called for support, whoever is still here will do so the moment I start killing inside the dropship."

"Tech--"

"Jack," Tech growled.

"Tristan, be careful, there's no way to know how many soldiers are still in there."

"I know exactly how many there are," Tech said with a ferocious grin. "Nowhere near enough to stop me." And he vanished inside the ship.

Jacoby grabbed the rifles off the dead and took position inside the hatch. Quicker than he thought it should be, screams rose up from deeper in the ship. Not long after that, the first soldier appeared at the edge of the town. Jacoby had the advantage of distance, so he took his time aiming. And the soldiers were in such a hurry that they were running in a straight line.

That ended after the third one he killed.

The others threw themselves down and crawled toward the ship. It made it harder to hit them, but it also gave him much more time to aim. At some point he noticed the lack of screams inside the ship and he worried about Tech being alive. Fortunately, he had more important things to keep his mind busy. The soldiers had managed to make it halfway to the ship.

Steps came from within the ship and Jacoby quickly glanced in that direction. Tech was coming toward him. "Time to go."

"There are still soldiers in the field, all of them I think."

"Good. Then this is going to be even more fun." Tech grabbed one of the rifles and began running, firing at anyone who moved.

"What's the hurry?" Jacoby yelled, trying to keep up, but Tech didn't reply.