Iktac and I found ourselves in the stolen civilian space vessel's enormous hangar bay, where Alvin and Sithandra had stayed put to delay our hosts until we got back. It seemed as if we had come back just in the nick of time. I spotted an enemy support drone practically butting up against the wide arched ceiling, floating way, way high up above us. Every few seconds a luminescent pulse emanated from its core, casting radiant yellow energy barriers around every henchman I could see.
This included, but was not limited to: the group of Reptilians and Terrans manning the mounted phaser turrets on the upper tiers across from us; a handful of Tronkans protecting the group with carbines and rifles; and of course, the deadly Gruvoldian duo down on the ground level with us. One of the Gruvoldians was wearing the distinguished forest green armor of a Gruvoldian Champion. Both of them were gigantic. All of these enemy responders were heavily bearing down on just two bounty hunters.
Even odds, I figured, but what the hell.
The smaller foes had trouble tracking Sithandra as she flapped her way up to them. She flew with grace and style, fierce like a hawk with precise Model 5 PF-32 Phaser fire, yet swift as a hummingbird as she maneuvered naturally through the air. Meanwhile, the Gruvoldians fired at Alvin, who was launching flak canisters from behind a rectangular energy barrier via M814. The first of the Gruvoldian's scarlet rays impacted the barrier and turned it from translucent blue to a strained purple. The second ray obliterated it.
Alvin dove away from the collapsed barrier and, mid-air, launched a second canister that skipped like a river stone off the floor and exploded just inches from the subordinate Gruvoldian. It must have been his last grenade because instead of launching a third one, he tossed the M814 aside and threw something hard on the ground directly in front of him like he was spiking a football. The Gruvoldian pair groaned and fired at him simultaneously. Just before Alvin was melted to a pool of flesh on the ground, an aquamarine domed energy shield expanded completely around him and denied their weapons.
I felt tapping on my shoulder and turned. Iktac silently pointed at himself, then jabbed a thumb somewhere off to the right. I nodded in agreement. Bread and butter. A classic maneuver, and it always works on big, slow, hulking targets like these. One person goes one way, the other goes the other way, like spreading butter on bread with a knife. In this case, I would simply have to get their attention and he would slip in behind them for the flank. Iktac disappeared into thin air and I jumped into my act. Reaching back, I equipped my own Model 5 and began alternately peppering both Gruvoldians. Phaser beams deflected uselessly off their thick tungsten armor and both roared in irritation as they faced me.
"Hey yo!" I shouted. "You need summa this?!"
Their plasma rays glowed a deep red as they charged up. Not one to back down, I shook my hands and rolled my shoulders to loosen up a bit before pulling a piece of equipment out of the metal container strapped to my thigh. Unlike Sithandra's wings and Iktac's adaptive camouflage, my signature combat ability came in the form of four disposable, pill shaped modules that were each one time use. These allowed their user to reach nearly invincible levels of shielding. However, there were several drawbacks to the modules that at times made me reconsider my application of them in the first place.
One thing that could be a problem was, similar to Alvin's globe shield modules, the casing around the armor locking equipment was an incredibly tough coat of steel and polymer, and had to be cracked open with pure blunt force. I basically have to smash them against something in order for the damned things to work. A second drawback was that the shielding would only last up to five seconds max, for the entirety of which I had to remain immobile. Yet those five seconds had saved my life more times than I cared to admit.
The Gruvoldian Champion fired. I bounced readily from foot to foot as the stream of lava grew larger and larger. I had to wait for just the right moment. Too soon and I'd waste precious seconds, too late and no more me.
C'mon...almost...
"Yaaaauugh!" I screamed and slammed my fist into the ground for all I was worth.
I felt the coating of the module I was gripping crack just as the boiling plasma washed over me like a tidal wave. Burned like a sonofabitch, but the energy shield held, absorbing most of the heat. Truly a stone in a hellish river, my armor stayed firmly locked in place. I couldn't see anything, and everything sounded incredibly distant whenever I was in my armor energy shell, but I could feel the thumping vibrations of dual explosions rocking the hangar. I knew I'd done my part, now I was trusting Iktac to do his.