Noomena Greyz had
worked her blood warrant in enough downhive settlements to know it
always pays to have a sense of how spirestraight the local enforcers
are. And from everything she'd heard since arriving in Foulnest a few
cycles back, Precinct 13 were as bribe-friendly as they come. Still,
the scrap in hand was different. Both Gunn's Guns and Precinct 13
were allied to the Coin Guild, and the prize at stake – running
protection of the caravan routes that cut through Foulnest – was
worth a lot. Even if the enforcers could be bought, Noomena figured
they'd expect payment in blood as well as credits.
With old man Gunn
recovering from his duel with Lady Glaw, Noomena was heading up the
Guns for the shift. She'd sketched out the plan to the boys as they
moved to meet the enforcers at a caravan waypoint on the settlement
outskirts: Ratbite, Snags and Brokeface would run along the high
levels and distract the cops; Noomena, Mumbles and scummer allies
Ashman and Dirty Frenk would stick to the domefloor and work their
way around to the waypoint itself. With their claim made clear, the
Guns would offer a bribe and, all going well, the greedy lawmen
wouldn't be able to resist.
As it scanned, the
caper started unravelling at the outset. Officer Angel had snuck on
ahead of his patrol and, accompanied by his trusty cyber-hound Rin,
sprung up on top of a chem-dive within spitting distance of Ratbite
and his boys. The enforcer lobbed a frag grenade that knocked Snags
down to the domefloor, and Brokeface scarpered away, straight towards
the enemy. Ratbite found himself alone, facing off with Angel and his
angry mutt.
To make matters worse,
Brokeface was playing a sly scheme of his own. Noomena hadn't liked
the ugly fragger from the moment she'd met him, even before the other
Guns had scoped her in on the creepy way he kept not dying. So she
was unsurprised when she saw him holster his autopistols and dart
along the mechways above, right up to one of the advancing patrolmen.
The scummer and copper shared a nod of recognition, and Brokeface
ducked on and away, towards the dome exit. The dirty skut had turned
rat and sold the Guns out to the cops.
Still, the plan was
still the plan. Noomena and the crew pressed on, weaving between
rusting support struts and ducking out of the way of the advancing
enforcers' bolterfire. Turned out that Snags getting toppled from the
walkways was a something of a boon – he chucked a couple of smoke
grenades ahead of the domefloor crew, covering their route as far as
the waypoint.
Ashman was on point,
but as he ghosted between the smoke clouds, he came under fire from
rookie officer Columbo – the scummer was taken down and out by the
green patrolman. And Dirty Frenk, thinking himself safe under cover
of the smoke, found himself charged by stimmed-up Captain Sipowicz.
The enforcers had got wise to the Guns' scheme and moved fast to cut
them off.
Back up on the
walkways, Angel growled a kill-command, and Rin charged straight at
Ratbite, jaws snapping. Close combat certainly wasn't the ratling's
strong suit, but he somehow dodged the dog's attacks and landed a
telling blow with his stiletto knife. The dog dropped unconscious. Angel opened fire at Ratbite, but the abhuman sniper shrugged off the
flesh wounds, levelled his longrifle and took a shot that put the
enforcer down, though not out. Giggling sadistically, Ratbite
scampered over and finished the job with his blade.
Down below, Mumbles
went to work with his shotgun and took out Columbo, then joined
Noomena in piling into the smoke to take on Sipowicz, whose
stimm-surge was wearing off. The fight was brief and brutal:
Noomena's plasma pistol flashed, so did her stiletto knife, and that
was that for Sipowicz. But a few metres away, Officer Riggs had got
the drop on Snags and felled him with her stub gun.
The scrap was on a
razor's edge. Both crews had sustained casualties, but even though
the coppers had the numbers, the venators had taken out the
enforcers' senior officers. Noomena figured it was now or never –
she called out for a ceasefire, offering a hefty bribe. And true to
form, the enforcers of Precinct 13 were only too willing to accept
the payoff.
So the caravan routes
came under the protection of Gunn's Guns, and Noomena had some good
news to bring back to the recuperating old man. Still, this wasn't
enough to persuade Guilder Van Scultis to lift the bounties off their
heads, and Brokeface would surely be singing like a sheenbird back at
the precinct house, so a change of hideouts was in order. Between
this, and the unresolved competition for favour with the Coin Guild,
it would only be a matter of time before Gunn's Guns threw down with
Precinct 13 again.