Demise

[Boss]

"We broke into the gunboat and I told Johnson, well, asked, rather to please close the blast doors near where we broke in. Simple things like not evacuating the ship when we lifted and burned jets out. I made my clumsy way down a corridor that was entirely too small to the engineering bay to strip off my armor, which had decided to start shutting down systems in response to draining power and hydraulic oil. Systems I needed if I was going to keep wearing the monkey suit. I pulled the helmet off and set it on the bench, then got to work on the rest. Jones was securing the ship while Mathers took the bridge. Johnson took Mason to the med bay and stuck him in an autodoc, then took over comm.

"I'd just started on my left ankle when there was a rustle behind me. Very soft, but there. I quickly ducked and was rewarded with a shot that grazed the side of my head, hit the hull plating in front of me, and gave a small whumph with shrapnel. I swung my left arm around behind me, trying to swat whoever it was. I do remember wishing for the 360 vision and protection against just this sort of thing afforded by the helmet on the bench beside me. My wild swing, ineffective though it was, did inform me where my opponent was; about two feet out of my reach, having leaped back after the failed attack. I stood up, turned and groaned inwardly as two hydraulic lines servicing my legs popped out of their sockets. Short of falling over, I was pretty much rooted in place. I reached back with my right and pulled the assault rifle from its magnetized resting place while simultaneously moving my left arm up to block the shots I was sure to follow. Based on the sound, the weapon was a silenced Detroit Arms Enforcer 3 holdout pistol, and certainly containing illegal ammunition based on the furrow along my head and the explosion when it hit the bulkhead behind me."

The next shot punched through his arm plating and broke the radius in three places before detonating.

"My arm hung useless as pain ravaged my brain. I brought down the assault rifle and squeezed the trigger until the handgrip twisted, staccato bursts of rifle fire slamming into my attacker's arm, side, and leg. He stumbled forwards a few paces when my rifle ran dry and I flung it aside. My hand came up and gripped his throat, squeezed. His jaw dislocated, and I barely noticed a slight blue glow from his eyes through the redness in my own. I bore down, and before my suit gave out completely I heard a number of sharp cracks as three of his cervical vertebrae splintered.

"I just stood there. I didn't really have a choice, since just as his neck broke my armor failed entirely. One very expensive paperweight with an extremely damaged human inside. I thought to myself Well, ****. Can someone come down here and get me out of this!?"