{11}

I dropped into lockdown. Alvin threw down a globe shield. The falling repulsion pugil destroyed our blorp barrel, but bounced off of my hardened frame like a piece of wood striking rubber and sailed back in almost the same trajectory it had come, taking the stubborn mad scientist with it as he refused to let go. Alvin's globe shield expanded to full size and absorbed the blinding hellfire raining down on him. I stood up out of lockdown a little too fast and fell back-to-back with my squad leader, whose globe shield collapsed with the third fuel rod detonation. 

"Two on two, eh?" I heard him say though the haze. 

I focused on trying to clear my head, but nonetheless replied, "I'll take those odds." 

Craning my head around, I, over Alvin's shoulder, saw the Borris Kalvinov fling the depleted plasma ray off the roof in disgust. It self-destructed mid-air. Facing forward again, I was met with the snarling, livid Goron Feezmo striding towards me. I made the first move by raising my trusty Panther and emptying the entire cartridge into his face. Everything kicked off from there. 

From what he's told me, Alvin charged Kalvinov, who'd apparently unsheathed a thermo-shaqua and leapt off the roof. Meanwhile, four of my phaser beams were destroyed by Feezmo's anti-personnel mask. The whole time he kept coming at me, but I stood my ground and fired again. Luckily for me, the last beam made it past and burned a chunk of scales away just below his eye and probably continued to burn because Feezmo's murderous growl suddenly rose to an angry, bloodthirsty scream. He ripped the mask and hurled it in my direction, then took a lunging step forward as it erupted in an impossibly bright flash. I caught the slightest glimpse of him rearing back with the repulsion pugil. 

I'd used my last lockdown module at the very start of the fight, and I struggled to load another cartridge into the Panther. Feezmo's pugil missed by literal inches as I dove straight back and slid in a fresh mag. But I had to give my opponent his due. He knew what he was doing with that thing. Instead of wasting time and momentum rearing back for another swing, he followed all the way through with the first one, spun in a circle whilst stepping towards me, then brought the repulsion pugil down to smash me like a cockroach. 

I rolled to the side and back to my feet, although I nearly got knocked right back down by the gravitational shockwave. A small, desperate voice in my head pleaded for me to end this fight as quick as possible. Go for the headshot. The closer the better. It might have been wise for me not to listen to that voice, but I was helpless to its influence in the desperation of the moment. I leveled the barrel of the custom-chrome phaser pistol with Feezmo's scarred, spikeless head. 

Again, he surprised me by being smarter than the average space lizard. He brought the pugil back up in a rising, backhanded uppercut and knocked the gun right out of my hands before I could get a single shot off. The next swing went for decapitation. I quickly bobbed beneath it and plowed into Chieftain with all my weight. He cursed as I drove him to the ground and served him a hard, heavy right hook to the jaw. 

I meant to knock him out cold, but he only spit out a broken tooth and growled with burning, hate-filled rage. His lips were pulled back, showing me that he had more than enough teeth if he needed to use them. I was afraid he might. Reptilians routinely take chunks out of each other and make meals out of other species all the time. If we lost here no one would ever find our bodies. I punched him again. 

Just then, I heard Alvin call out, "In trouble! Switch!" 

I practically flew to my feet. Alvin backpedaled past me and away from the Kalvinov, who saw me step forward and pointed his thermo-shaqua at me. It seemed customary, so I pulled out Iktac's warsword and did the same to him. He spoke to me in his native tongue and my helmet's language translation software deciphered the message: "You are no match for me. Run away, little dog." 

We'll have to see about that. 

Again, I struck first. Unfortunately it wasn't a kill shot, just a glancing blow off his bronze armor that tore his officious red shoulder cape away in the process. In response, Kalvinov slashed at me with the thermo-shasqua. I turned my body to one side and barely leaned out of the way of the first slash, then hopped back to dodge the second. He was bringing the sword back up for another slash when I stepped forward and stung him with a powerful right cross. He wasn't ready for that. I doubted that anyone had ever stung him like that before. As his head rocked back, I swung as hard as I could to try and take it clean off, but I missed his neck and the warsword clanged hard off his helmet, making him stumble. 

"Sven!" 

I spun around just as Alvin shoved the battered mad scientist in my direction. I raised my knee and lashed out with a kick to the abdomen just to get a little room, then came around with the katana and sliced Feezmo horizontally across the torso. 

"Switch!" I called out, even though Alvin was already moving to deal with the dazed crime lord behind me. 

I passed him Iktac's warsword and prepared to finish off Feezmo, who was already out on his feet. Little did I know the sneaky bastard had a little more fight left in him than I'd anticipated. Luckily for me, he'd lost that repulsion pugil facing off against Alvin Roy. It was on the ground off to my left, about halfway between us. He stared at me for a moment, then glanced over to the hammer, and back to me. Behind my visor, my eyes narrowed. No way I was letting him get to that thing. 

He sprang for the pugil. I sprang at him. Like an animal. The instant he grabbed hold of the handle, I clocked him in the face with a wild, flying haymaker and it felt like punching a rock wall. But I'd done it. It was over. I walked over and picked up the repulsion pugil. Goron Feezmo was too bruised and beaten to even care about bracing for impact. Not that it would have helped. With one heroic golf -like swing, the pugils tip hit him square in the chest and launched him. His flailing body flipped through the air as it flew high and far over the metal gate and somewhere down the hill, probably off the cliff. 

I turned to assist my teammate well before Feezmo hit the ground. Alvin and Kalvinov were both struggling for control of the thermo-shasqua. Somehow, their fight had traveled all the way over to the base of the tower. I broke into a sprint, but never made it in time. I was still running towards them when, in one swift movement, Borris Kalvinov broke Alvin's grip on the weapon and lashed out with the sword. I watched in horror as my friend fell to the ground minus an arm.