One Hell of a Trip

"Vosh!" Triple Shot shouted in frustration. "Who the hell keeps eating all of the klumnta fruit?"

"Sorry, Trip, that would be us. Well, my wife, mainly," said Ace's voice over the comlink.

"She does know those aren't meant for human consumption, right?" came Mort's soft, silky purr a second later.

"Doesn't she know those are mine?!" Triple Shot bellowed. His deep bass voice reverberated around the tiny galley and through the ship. His reptilian tail swished angrily about behind him until he smashed it into the nearby hull. Triple Shot, or Trip as the crew had taken to calling him, was working on his anger management. Slowly.

"Someone has just volunteered for a market run before we ship out," said a calm, feminine voice directly behind Trip.

With a snarl, Trip whirled around, unholstering his laser pistol from his side. Too bad the captain already had her needle-point rapier out and leveled at the hollow of Trip's throat. He found himself staring down the length of her molecular-edged sword. He gulped very, very slowly so as to not be cut.

The captain was a lean middle-aged cat woman with a grey coat, black stripes, and splotches of orange around the center of her face and on the tips of her ears. Trip never thought she was beautiful, but he had to admit she had an etheral grace about her. The lean, sharp sword helped with her commanding presence. He had seen more than one enemy cut to ribbons by her.

"First, that's not a request," she purred, her blue cat's eyes narrowing. "And second, mine's bigger."

Trip grumbled. "You gotta stop sneaking up on me, Cap. One of these days, I'm gonna get the drop on you."

There was the barest hint of a smile on the captain's furry face and her cat ears twitched. "The day you get the drop on me, Trip, is the day I retire. Now, I have a list that needs getting. Take Ace. He's aggravating me too and Mara needs a break from all the hovering."

"Humans and their offspring," Trip muttered as he reholstered his gun. "And I thought they were weird before."

The captain shrugged. "Maybe, but she's the best mechanic I've ever had and he's a top-rate pilot. So, suck it up, and get our stuff. List has already been sent to your data pad. Ace has buying authorization."

With that, the captain backed out of the galley and walked away without a sound, confident in her orders being obeyed. Trip grumbled, then lumbered toward his cabin to gather his things.

Twenty minutes later, the pair finally arrived at a bustling marketplace. Aliens of many kinds walked, floated, skittered, slithered, and slimed their way through the place. Hawkers called left and right for customers to come look at their goods. Scents of spiced meats and other things wafted through the air. Trip noted that being within a kilometer of the spaceport, it was a tight area with lots of blind spots and cover.

"Thank the void this place is an open air market," Ace said to Trip's right. "This place reeks."

Trip looked down at his human partner. Ace was slightly above average height with lean, wiry muscle hidden beneath his long coat and sleek flight suit armor. He had his trusty cryo pistol holstered at his side and his shock batons hidden away somewhere in the folds of his coat. He had short black hair and a data jack in his right temple. His dark eyes kept glancing every which way as he tried to track the movements of the throng before him.

At least, so he said. Trip found the pilot irritating, his movements fidgety and without reason. It aggravated Trip's reptilian senses. He had no idea how a calm, intelligent person like Mara could tolerate someone like Ace.

"Let's just get our things and go," Trip said gruffly. "Let's get the ammo and minor ship parts first, then you can get the perishables."

"You just don't want to talk to that one lady at the fruit stand," Ace said mockingly.

Trip bristled at that and his reptilian skin flushed a paler blue. "You don't know what you're talking about." Then he broke away from Ace and headed for the arms section. The human cackled as he raced to catch up with Trip's long strides.

The acrid smell of gunpowder and laser fire hit Trip's senses as they neared the store front. Trip had his two-handed laser halberd out in an instant, the weapon thrumming to life as he charged forward and rounded the corner.

"Wait, Trip!" Ace called as he pulled his pistol out and caught up. He did not have the reptile's more advanced senses, but Trip was a fairly easy read when it came to body language.

Around the corner, Shizzk's Ammo Surplus was on fire. A quick note of the damage revealed a decent-sized explosive had gone off inside the store. There were several pedestrians strewn about. Trip's nose was too overloaded on smoke and blood to know if any of them were dead.

However, the guys looting the building were very much alive. They were in make-shift red armor and face coverings that Trip recognized as a local gang.

"Shit! It's the Rojo Devils," Ace whispered at Trip's back. "We need to stop them."

Trip wanted to disagree, but before he could, Ace took off at sprint. He closed the distance quickly between himself and the guy who had his back to him. The man died without a sound, his half-frozen head smashing into the ground with finality.

Of course, that got the attention of the other four members very quickly. A big, four-armed bruiser moved up and took a flurry of swings at Ace, but the wily man dodged with a level of grace Trip had only seen on the battlefield. One of his shock batons simply appeared in his hand and smashed into the red faceplate of the bruiser. There was a bright flash as the charge went off. Ace then bounded away as the four-armed alien attempted to recover from the stunning blow.

"Damnit, Ace," Trip growled as he charged into the gap Ace had created. He planted his laser halberd into the upper left part of the bruiser's chest and cleaved downward. Armor cracked, flesh burned, and the bruiser gave a death howl as he was cut in twain. 

A pair of Rojos, small ratfolk with needlers, darted to either side of Trip and shot him as he killed the big alien. With his heavy armor and thick hide, the needles bounced off of him. Ace moved like greased lightning and put an ice spike through the chest of the one on Trip's right, dropping him like so much dead meat.

That was when their luck changed. The two remaining Rojos, the ratkin and an unknown female humanoid, started screaming incoherently. The woman lifted her palms up and a summoning circle appeared before her, while the rat began glowing with a hellish orange aura.

Trip swore as he grabbed Ace and leaped over the counter of a nearby stand. An instant later, hellfire scorched the air over their heads as the hell-powered rat let loose his attack.

"Not your average thugs!" Ace yelled over the din, a daredevil's smile on his lips.

There was a heavy thud as whatever the summoner brought came into their plane. Both men peeked out over the scoured wooden counter to see a young adult blue dragon staring back at them. It let loose a roar that shook both of them to their cores.

"Run," Ace whispered, panic in his voice. "We need to run!"

Trip was recovering his own wits and could not stop Ace from taking off. The dragon opened its mouth, built up a charge of electricity, and released it into Ace's back. The man stumbled and fell. Trip could see a hole in his long coat between his shoulder blades and melted armor.

Trip's HUD told him that Ace was critically wounded. It was all thanks to an upgrade Mort had purchased for the crew. The medical upgrade had helped in countless fights before and would be invaluable here.

"All I wanted was some fruit," Trip grumbled as he pulled his namesake out of a hidden compartment in his armor. He had paid a lot of credits for this upgrade, but having his power armor ready to go in his pocket had gotten them all out of numerous scraps.

"Get out here and die!" screamed the summoner. "Gert, get over that wooden stand!"

Trip knew he only had seconds. With a whispered word in his native tongue, the six-inch suit of armor began growing. Trip set it on the ground and readied his defenses. Not a second later, the tiny ratfolk bounded over the charred wood and into Trip's space.

"Got ya!" he snarled as he unleashed a bolt of flame from his hand. Trip tried to dodge and took the blow in his side. The armor held, but he felt the heat. That would be a nice burn later.

At that moment, the power armor was ready. Trip dropped his laser halberd and launched himseld into his waiting suit.

"Welcome back, Trip," the computer said. Trip had named it Slytch after his departed sister. "It appears we have multiple hostiles and Ace is down. What do you want to do?"

"Level this place to bedrock," Trip said without a hint of sarcasm. He kicked the rat aside, sending the furball head over tail into the far side. He then picked up and put away his halberd.

"As you wish," Slytch replied.

With a burst of power from his rockets, Trip blasted out of the stand, scattering all kinds of junk. Trip could see blood trails leading out of the narrow alley. He assumed that the bodies remaining were corpses. Or soon would be.

Center of the alley was the dragon and its summoner. Trip could read her lips as she began cursing and smiled to himself.

"Light'em up." Slytch brought the heavy minigun over Trip's right shoulder to bear down on the dragon. The sound of the gun barrel whirling to life was music to Trip's ears. Meanwhile, Trip aimed his right arm at the summoner, activating the underslung grenade launcher. Installed into his left arm was a phase shield, which kicked on. Trip dived down on the two, unloading hell on them.

The summoner did not stand a chance. Multiple frags exploded at her feet, shredding her into bloody pulp. The dragon unleashed another electrical attack, but the phase shield absorbed it in total. Trip's minigun perforated the dragon's left foreleg and shoulder as an unknown number of bullets blew chunks out of it.

The tiny rat came out of hiding and hurled another bolt into Trip's back. It barely blackened the power armor as Trip raced by the dragon.

"Trip, it appears Ace's vitals are slipping. We need to leave, now," Slytch's robotic voice told him.

Inwardly, Trip cursed. He had gotten caught up the action, the joy of fighting. Though he had never particularly liked Ace, the man was about to be a father. And Mara would never forgive Trip if he let Ace die.

"Ready the big one and plot me a flight path back to Ace," Trip said. "We're blowin' our way outta here."

Trip spun around and flew back at the dragon as the computer readied the IBC anti-tank missile on his back. Without a summoner to direct its will, the dragon had snatched up the last Rojos member in its mouth. A tiny arm went flying out from between its fangs.

"There may be some blow back from this," Slytch said calmly.

"Understatement of the year there," Trip thought as he lauched the missile directly into the side of the dragon as he passed under a wing.

Smoke, fire, meat, and bone exploded in a bloom behind the armored reptile. He readied his phase shield and dove down to grab Ace. The shockwave caught Trip just as his gloved hand grabbed Ace's coat. In the narrow confines of the alley, Trip became a bullet and was launched out.

But he had Ace. And Ace was still breathing, according to the readout.

"Captain!" Trip screamed into his comlink. "Get Mort to ready the medbay! Ace has been badly electrocuted and burned!"

A scream behind him alerted Trip to an incoming attack. A stream of electrical energy went passed him. The filters in his helmet were almost overloaded by the scent of ozone and heated air.

"It appears the dragon is still alive," Slytch said. "And very angry."

"Vosh!" Trip cursed. "And ready the ships guns! We're comin' in hot!"

"What in the hell did you do?!?" the captain yelled back over the com.

"Found some freaking Devils burning down the surplus place. Goody-two shoes here decided to get involved," Trip grumbled.

"How is he?" It was Mara's soft voice.

Trip carefully considered his next words. "Help Mort get the medbay going."

There was another roar behind him. Trip glanced back to see the blasted dragon taking flight and coming after him. His missile had not done as much damage as he had hoped. Hurried as he had been, the blast had been lower on the dragon's body. The wings were still in working order.

"That's right, ugly. Come get some," Trip thought savagely. He could see their ship, The Kelp-Na, still in its bay. Below him, panic was evident as everyone heard the dragon's roar. It had been a very long time since a wild dragon had been seen in an industrialized place.

"Incoming!" came Slytch's computerized voice.

Trip banked hard to the right, allowing another blast to go past him.

"Cap? Tell me you got the guns going!" he shouted. "I'm running outta moves here!"

"The captain is helping Mort," said Mara fiercely. "I have a flying lizard to pay back in full!"

The ship powered up and started hovering on its dock. The HUD told him Mara was powering up the forward lasers.

"Get that sucker lined up for me, Trip, then dodge on my mark. Three!"

Trip's reptilian eyes went wide behind the face plate of his power armor.

"Slytch, put everything into the boosters!" he commanded.

"The dragon is powering up another attack. The authorities have yet to engage with it," Slytch responded.

"Two!" thundered Mara's voice.

Trip had an awful thought that he was going to get roasted by either a heavily pregnant human or an angry dragon very, very soon. Neither thought made him happy.

"One!"

"Incoming!" screeched Slytch.

"Mark!"

Trip pulled Ace's limp body as close to him as he could and barrel-rolled to the left.

The world went white as the ship's guns met the dragon's breath. Trip lost all audio as the sound dampeners blew and nearly lost visual as well. Somehow, Trip was blasted towards the ship. Keeping his body between the blast and Ace, he could feel the heat through both layers of armor. The visuals he was getting read that there was a significant amount of damage to his back and the thrusters. He was in freefall.

With the last burst of energy from his power core, Trip got the phase shield back up before he slammed hard into the dock and two more warning lights came on. One was for his destroyed shield, the other for Ace's vitals as they started taking a dive on his HUD.

"There, you twitchy pain the ass," Trip thought as pain lanced through his own body. "I got you here. Don't you... die on me... now."

Then the world collapsed into darkness.

Trip blinked groggily as he started to come around. He was in the medbay, sans all of his armor. He was on his stomach. He tried to sit up, but then his back screamed at him and he stayed down. His balance felt wrong and he tried to swish his tail. Only...

"Oh, vosh!" he snarled to nobody. "Does anybody have any idea how long it takes to grow back a tail?"

"No," said a feminine voice to his left. "But it beats finding a new husband."

Trip twisted his head around to see Mara sitting between his bed and Ace's. Ace looked comfortable and at ease, though he too was on his stomach. Burn bandages wrapped the thin man' chest. Mara appeared as if she had not slept in days. Her long brown hair, normally pulled back into a ponytail, was a mess. Her round belly and lower body appeared to be uncomfortably packed into her mechanic's jumpsuit.

"Did we get it?" Trip asked.

Mara's slightly round, pale face broke out into a fierce smile. "Hell yeah we did. Got enough meat off of it to feed us for weeks out in the black. And we got paid handsomely for taking out the Devils. The captain is out buying the rest of the goods."

Trip turned his head back to the right and closed his eyes. "Good," he said tersely, as if to end the conversation.

After a few moments of silence, Mara said softly, "Thank you, Trip. Thank you for bringing him home. I don't know how I'll ever repay you."

With a sigh, Trip turned his head back around to look at her. He gave a half-hearted grumble as an acknowledgment. "Quit eating my fruit and we'll call it even."

Mara smiled and tears glittered in her green eyes. She chuckled a little as she took Ace's hand lovingly.

"Sure thing, Trip," she said quietly.