Space Shift Stories: McGuffin 46

XVII. Look What We Found

"Bitch" I said out loud.

As the glass tubes began to print out the dogs that chased us earlier. As the first batch finished printing. We saw the dogs fumble around, after a short while they begin to find their footing. They looked up and was smelling for something. They keep at it until they smelled something weird. They stopped and turned their heads towards us. They slowly walked towards the entrance of the command center. Julia looked worried so did I.

The dogs slowly walked towards us. They began to growl. We both looked at them. One of the dogs started to crouch down, it prepared to pounce on us. As it jumped I quickly shot it dead. As the body slumped over the floor the other five rushed in as well. We both shot at them killing all. But we have one thing that we did not take into account. The codex and command center continued printing the dogs. Another batch of dogs came rushing our way. We killed them down easy, but unlike the previous wave of six dogs. This time it's about twelve. They kept coming to the point that it was almost continuous. 

I looked back at the pile of bodies  falling down. I gave Julia a quick glance.

"Give me your gun now" 

"Why" 

"I need you to find a way to shut that thing down" I pointed at the codex. 

Julia without any hesitation gave me her gun. She went to the computers and tried to turn it off. I continued fending off the dogs. I fired and shot down one after the other.

"Julia, any moment now!" 

Julia, frantically typed in some commands on the computer. But it always lead to one result, an error message. 

"I don't think I can shut this down" She looked back and shouted. 

Glanced over her to see if there's something I can do. As I looked back at the dogs again. One of them pounced at me. The force of his body landing at me was enough to knock out my guns. It was on top of me trying to maul me. I use my hand to prevent it from coming close to my face and neck. I could consider myself lucky, due to the fact that the dog wasn't using its paws to claw at me. 

I grabbed the dog's neck and used my free arm to knock it square in the jaw. The dog yanked its body back. It gave me enough space to pick up the nearest gun and shot it through the chest. I picked myself up and looked at the incoming dogs. I fumbled around my pockets and found a sonic grenade. I threw it at them. The explosion stunned the dogs temporarily giving me an opportunity to shoot them dead as well. 

There was still an ample amount of time before the next wave comes in. I looked at Julia, who kept receiving error messages. I picked up her gun. I shot the glass case where the codex is housed. I dragged one of the dead dogs and used its hand to grab the codex. It was a good thing that I did it because it burned the dog's hand to a crisp. With the charred hand I used it to swat the codex away from the housing. 

The codex flew out and into the ground. We both looked at it smoking. We waited for the codex cooled to a room temperature.

"Problem solved." I said as I picked up the codex. 

፠፠፠

Celestine and Strife tensed. The fact that not only do you have to work with their kidnappers, but also you have to find a way to make sure the locals of the planet they just entered are friendly.

The locals kept shouting at them.

"Does any one understand jack of what they're shouting?" Siltoin asked all of them. 

"I have no idea" Celestine replied. 

"So do I" Strife also replied. 

"What do we do now Sir?" Dhurnuth asked his employer. 

Siltoin having no idea of what the locals are screaming, decided to approach them. But it was a bad idea as one of the locals wacked him in the nose. Siltoin yanked a few paces back, shocked that he got hit. Dhurnuth became aggressive. He pulled a blaster out of Siltoin's hip and aimed at the one who hit his employer. 

Suddenly the entire local became defensive. Aiming their gun at Dhurnuth alone. 

"Calm down" Celestine shouted at Dhurnuth while she guided his hand to lower the blaster. 

Celestine gave Strife a look. Strife nodded. He disarmed himself. Celstine followed, then the rest did so as well.

The reptilians began to assess the situation. They started to lower their guns. The leader raised his hands. Then the rest paved a way for one of their members who was carrying what looked like a handcuff made of wood and rope. 

Strife cast a worried look. He looked at Celestine, she mouthed that it'll be okay. Celstine showed her hand in submission. The rest followed.

They started to cuff Celestine. Next was Siltoin. As they were about to put a cuff on Strife. His holowatch rang. It was a call from me. The locals stopped for a moment. They started to turn rowdy again. Strife raised his hand. 

"Talk. This is talk" Strife said as he tried to convince the people that he needs to take the call. He raised his hand and activated the holowatch. My image appeared. "See" 

The entire locals gleed in awe. Celestine was thinking of what I might say. Siltoin was in turn curious seeing me. Strife position his holowatch to catch only himself. Despite the restrictions of the cuff it gave him no problem. 

"Hey bud. Where are you?" I asked him smiling. 

Strife looked at Celstine, then to Siltoin. He wanted to ask for  help but he was concerned for Celestine’s safety.

"I'm someplace. Picking up parts. You? " He lied then asked. 

"Well I'm with Julia… We got bored waiting for you, and I tried to look for clues to lead us to the codex and well guess what?" 

"You found a clue?" 

"Better." I raised the codex to reveal it to the camera.

Strife looked shocked. He looked back to see Celestine’s expression who was shocked as well. Siltoin was in awe. Dhurnuth clenched both is jaw and fist.