Starship Armstrong - Season 3

Part 29 - Family Ties (VII)

Mitzner's first instinct was to split the seam of her skirt to increase her range of movement, but it wasn't really her dress and she didn't want to wreck it. It could have some weird sentimental value and she didn't want to make a bad first impression.

Unfortunately for these assholes that meant melee was out. So some of them were getting their heads popped like ripe tomatoes. She withdrew her ion pistol Lancelot from the folds of her dress.

Mitzner paused. She didn't know the whole socio-political history of what was going on, and she didn't really want to, but she sure wished she knew if she was in the clear to shoot these idiots. She kind of hoped she was. She was already thinking of them as 'idiots'.

She had promised herself she wasn't that person anymore. She wasn't going to just start shooting and ask questions later, no matter how much every part of her was screaming to do so. She was going to ask at least one question. Then she could start shooting.

Mitzner went through this lifetime of emotions in the time it took her to draw her pistol.

The first wave of attackers, the ones who physically smashed through the windows as they came in, were armed with personal memetic-cannons. They began to spray the crowd indiscriminately with 'panic'. Given the situation it didn't take much for this emotion to take hold.

People ran around like chickens with their heads cut off in blind, animal panic. Some fell and were trampled, others clawed at one another. The hall was filled with screams of terror.

Mitzner was functionally immune to such a weapon. She allowed herself to feel the emotion but didn't allow it to control her actions. 

The second wave of attackers to come flying in through the windows were armed with particle weapons, but they didn't fire them at anyone. Instead they fired at the ceiling, at the walls, anywhere they wouldn't accidentally hit anyone. They were just trying to cause some destruction, add to the panic. The sounds of gunfire began to drown out the screams.

What are these idiots up to? Mitzner wondered, a little pissed that she hadn't seen anything yet that would justify tomato-popping some heads.

Mitzner turned to see that directly beside her the Queen had produced a weapon of her own, a rather gruesome looking plasma carbine. She fired it at one of the particle-weapon-users and reduced them to a thick soup. Risky business, in a crowd like this one.

Atta girl, though Mitzner, although she was a little jealous of the Queen for getting to join the fight. She also noticed that she had split the seam on her dress.

The Queen ran to one of the panicking soldiers. She shook him.

"Get ahold of yourself," she yelled.

Mitzner began to dig through the crowd of frightened partiers, trying to find McAfree. The kid would likely have been completely overwhelmed by the memetic weapons. She was already kind of panicky.

A third wave of attackers came flying through the windows on their antigravity belts. These ones had weapons Mitzner hadn't seen before. This didn't bode well.

McAfree was still nowhere to be found. People were running back and forth, with no destination at all, completely in the grips of the meme that was still being fired into the room.

One of the new attackers flew straight at the Queen, aiming his unusual rifle-like weapon. Before he could fire it the Queen kicked it from his hand with such force the it sent him spinning. While he struggled to regain control she jumped back a minimum safe distance and liquefied him with her plasma carbine.

Mitzner heard a scream. Her genetically engineered hearing allowed her to pick it out of the screams of the rest of the crowd and through the gunfire. It was McAfree.

McAfree was being dragged through the air by a tractor beam, struggling and wailing the whole time. The beam was being emitted by one of the strange weapons. That's what they were! Miniature tractor beams.

The woman who had captured McAfree was already retreating through the open window.

There were so many people in the way it was hard to get a clean shot. Mitzner took a dirty shot and, as she guessed it would, it missed. The ion beam cut straight through the wall but missed the kidnapper entirely.

Mitzner started shoving the terrified idiots out of her way. She fired a few more times. It was no use.

McAfree disappeared out the window.