Episode 415: Entanglements, Part Three
Someone hands him a rifle. Joshua slings it on. Kiera holds out her shotgun.
Kiera: I’m better with rifles than I am the shotgun.
Rina: The Salsa-nator?
Kiera: Yeah. Hey Joshua, take a trip through the meadows of my brain.
Joshua: No, I can do it without that. (nods to Rina) She just wanted to do it quick, but I can do it without that. You can just show me how to do it. Just show me the technique and in ten minutes, I’m just as good as you are.
They swap. Kiera shows. Joshua learns.
Kiera: You’re strange that way. Gonna lose my job. If you learned operating yourself, I’m in trouble.
Joshua: I actually could do that if I needed to.
As for the others, Dean puts one of his people on the machine gun and we assign others to act as support and back-up to the gunner. We’ve set the gun nest at our end of the narrow walkway and debate sending someone in our party to the far end to act as advance look-out. Joshua volunteers and Nika balks.
Joshua: I’m the best observer.
Kiera: (snaps) Don’t lose my gun.
Nika: (hating this!) I know.
Joshua: Look, Captain. It’s—
Nika: Do the job.
Joshua: Yes, ma’am.
Joshua turns to leave.
Kiera: Don’t lose my damn gun.
Nika: If you get dead, I’m gonna have to shove your girlfriend off the catwalk.
Joshua: Excuse me?
Kiera: If you aren’t dead and you lose my gun, you might as well be.
Joshua: I’ll keep that in mind.
Dean positions his people and arranges cover for everyone out of boxes, girders, debris and the like. Nika advises assigning high-low shooting positions to maximize our area of fire. We check our ammo supply for our rifles: five extra clips between us. We’ll have to make every bullet count. In the middle of this, Arden hails us from the Gift. Nika keys her comm and answers.
Nika: What?
Arden: It looks like there’s a small ship, maybe a shuttle, heading towards the deck of the ship?
Kiera: A shuttle?
Arden: I’m not sure where it can go. There’s no airlocks over that way but, um …
Nika relays the news to the rest of us. We pull out our map of the place and consider the options.
Joshua: Captain?
Dean: I can take some of my men, head down there.
Nika: What the hell’s down there? Can they dock down there anywhere?
Dean: Reavers don’t necessarily go by normal procedures concerning docks.
From general experience we all know that Reavers aren’t picky as to docking conditions. They’ll simply blast or bore a hole through the hull if they wanna. That’s how they boarded the Gift.
Joshua: Take however many of them you need.
Dean: (to his people) Half of you come with me.
We watch as Dean and nine of his people move off. Joshua goes with them as far as the far side of the walkway before taking up position there. All of a sudden it’s feeling a mite lonelier and uncertain when half our party gone.
Arden:' (over the comms) It’s off behind the other side of the ship, so it won’t be long.
Rina: (to the rest of us) We can still play with the grav plating.
Joshua hears a clanging sound, metal on metal, sonorous booms that carry the length of the derelict … coming ever harder and faster and louder.
Joshua: Beating the drums of war.
The banging and the booming comes really close and then it just … stops. Hinked, Nika raps out an order to Joshua at the far end of the walkway.
Nika: Fall back.
Joshua: Yes, Captain.
Nika: Fall back now.
Joshua turns to follow his Captain’s order just as the bulkhead at Joshua’s end explodes.
BOOM!
Joshua’s hit by some of the debris but he’s still conscious and he scrambles to his feet.
Joshua: I believe they’re here!
Nika: Fall back, fall back! Fall back now!
Joshua runs for the rest of the party. Reavers start pouring in through the hole they’ve made in the bulkhead. We take aim and brace ourselves.
The Reavers are every bit as horrific as they’re reputed to be. This batch seems to favor edged weapons and as Reavers are wont to do, they’re wicked sharp and jagged. They pour onto the far end of the walkway and seeing us, start heading en masse in our direction.
Back at our hold point, we ready ourselves to fire. We can’t shoot because Joshua’s in front of a mess of Reavers and both parties are running as fast as they can for us. As Joshua runs, he screams:
Joshua: I’m good! Fire! Fire!
Rina: (to Joshua) Hit the deck!
Kiera: (Ditto) No! You got my gun!
Joshua: You’ve got a gun! It’s good enough! Fire!
Kiera: No! Cuz I might hit my gun!
Joshua: Also, you might hit me! (still running) I mean, I know that’s second on your list…!
Kiera: No, baby, that’s about fourth! But that’s okay!
Joshua: What’s the second and third?!
Kiera: Oh, a Reaver. And it might ricochet on us…!
Joshua keeps running. The Reavers keep coming. We keep aiming. Joshua kicks into a mad sprint and blazes past us and we fire with everything we’ve got. Nika’s standing behind Kiera, who’s kneeling and together the women fire a double salvo at the advancing Reavers. Rina’s off to the side with her assault rifle, braced against the bulkhead with her rifle strap wrapped around her arm for extra stability.
Kiera notices that a few Reavers at the rear of the boarding party have fallen back and are kneeling on the deck fiddling with something. Whatever they’re doing requires both their hands. Hmmm. Kiera risks a glance downward where Nika is crouching at her feet with her rifle ready.
Kiera: Nika, they’re doin’ somethin’. The back row’s doing somethin’ with both hands.
Nika: Short words.
Kiera: Back row’s doin’ somethin’ weird.
And then there’s no time to talk. Joshua finally makes it back to our party and the way is clear for us to shoot. Nika fires the first shot. She hits. The Reaver soaks the damage and keeps on coming. Above her head, Kiera shoots in turn. She just manages to hit a Reaver. Rina shoots and hits. The Reaver front line is taking damage, but it’s not enough to slow them down.
And that group that Kiera saw in the back? We find out what they’re fiddling with the hard way. There’s a crump and whoosh and in seconds the level we’re on is filled with thick pale smoke. We can’t see a gorram thing. Which kinda begs the question—how and why are the Reavers are suddenly fighting smart? Despite the dire circumstances, Rina can’t help commenting.
Rina: Awesome.
Joshua: No. Not awesome.
Rina: Finally somebody used that tactic. You can’t shoot what you can’t see.
Joshua: (incredulous) Are you—?
Kiera: Can you kill her?
Joshua: (to Rina) Are you hěn chīxiàn (very insane)?
Rina: Just shoot through the smoke, dear.
Joshua: With a shotgun?
Joshua needn’t worry. With a narrow walkway funneling the Reavers toward us, hitting anything with a shotgun shouldn’t be too difficult. And our assault rifles do have an automatic weapons fire setting, allowing us to spray an area down with bullets with a single pull of the trigger. And of course, we also have our machine gunner parked behind us.
Kiera: Captain. Time to fill the hallway with lead?
We all fire into the smoke. We have no way of knowing if our bullets hit anything but Reavers are still running for us and they’re still screaming and this entire scenario is creepy as hell. We fire into the smoke again. More screaming. More creepiness. More shots fired from our side, more guesswork as to hits. The screams from the Reavers offer us no clue. Kiera fires a ten-round burst, then we step aside to give our machine gunner a round to fire … and again with the same results. Knowing our ammo is limited, we decide to wait to make each bullet count. Kiera trades her rifle with Joshua to get her shotgun back. We reposition and cover the area in front of us that’s clear of the smoke, our fingers on the trigger and ready to shoot anything that emerges from it.
Our machine gunner fires another burst into the smoke. We hear stuff whizzing around in there but no real clue as to what’s happening in the thick of it. And all the while the screaming and the snarling gets closer.
And then we see them as the Reavers rush out of the smoke. These aren’t the Reavers that were leading the party, so we know we’ve scored some hits. Nika fires and misses, despite having the time to aim. Kiera fires and hits. Rina fires and hits. Joshua fires and hits. They all aim for different targets. Joshua fires again at the one he’s hit, adding to the damage. Kiera’s Salsanator in his hands dishes out the hurt.
Standing and kneeling together, Nika’s and Kiera’s ears are ringing from the shots fired in close proximity but even so, they don’t miss the whirring sound of our machine gun spinning on empty. We lay down the covering fire to allow him to reload. Nika and Kiera are down to under 20 rounds each and will have to reload soon.
And now two Reavers are on top of us. One of them rushes Nika, armed with a wicked nasty looking long knife. She’s on her knees in front of Kiera and can’t dodge out of the way in time. The Reaver falls on Nika and manages to render some damage on her, but she shoves him back with her rifle before he can deliver the killing stroke. She cut and she’s bleeding but she’s still conscious and still fighting. In fact, she shoots him and tries to hold him off with her rifle.
Standing a touch back and higher, Kiera lines up her shotgun on the Reaver attacking Nika. If she misses … Nika shoves the Reaver clear of her.
Nika: (to Kiera) Take the shot!
Kiera fires. Rina fires at the Reaver as well. The Reaver soaks the damage and keeps going. Joshua shoots at the Reaver on Nika and the Reaver finally goes down. There is still one Reaver amongst us and he goes for Nika. She tries to dodge and then grapples. She manages not to get bitten to death and actually deals some damage to the Reaver.
The rest of the Reavers are closing in and one of them grapples with Rina. She’s got experience in brawling and dodges, but the Reaver manages to catch her anyway. He stuns her and she staggers and fights back. There’s no getting out from under him, she’s got to brawl and punch her way free.
Nika’s still fighting back her Reaver and she takes a little more damage.
Joshua, Kiera, and our gunner are still either trying to line up shots without hitting our own crew or reloading the machine gun. The gunner is trying his best, but it is as Dean said—most if not all of his people aren’t combat veterans and trying to load an ammo belt into a machine gun with Reavers screaming down on you is a tough job. There is further delay on our covering fire as a result.
Rina tries to disengage her Reaver long enough to put some distance between them so as to shoot him. Nika tries for the same. Kiera finally gets a clear shot and hits one of the Reavers grappling with our crew. That Reaver is still up but fighting with wounds now—better than nothing.
Joshua puts the Salsanator down and engages the Reaver on Rina hand-to-hand. He successfully avoids getting ripped by the Reaver and Rina manages to slam the Reaver with the stock of her rifle.
Kiera rushes over to the Salsanator to keep it from Reaver hands. She runs and lunges and grabs successfully. Nika gives her Reaver a big damn shove toward the machine gunner’s position but the Reaver hangs on and deals more damage. Kiera swings her gun toward Nika and the Reaver, lining up a shot. She aims high, hoping to get the Reaver in the head and miss Nika entirely.
BLAM!
The Reaver’s head explodes in a red mist. The Reaver thrashes and falls clear. Nika staggers back. She’s covered in blood and Reaver brains and her ears are ringing hard. But she’s alive.
Thanks, Kiera!
Rina’s still brawling and punching and grappling the Reaver on her, even with Joshua’s assist. She’s using her rifle, her fists, everything she’s got. She manages by a miracle to grab the Reaver and push him over the side of the crater, and by another miracle she doesn’t go over the side with him. The Reaver falls down two decks onto the debris below.
Rina: Sayonara, you sonuvabitch.
More Reavers advance on our position. They’ve gotten past us now and two of them have just ripped apart two of Dean’s men. Joshua, Kiera, Nika and Rina are clear of opponents for the moment and they’re free to bring up their rifles and fire. Each of their shots find targets and none of their hits kill the Reavers outright.
Joshua grabs his rifle and shoots one of the Reavers and take it out. Reavers advance on both Nika and Rina. Nika shoots and kills her Reaver at point blank with a head shot. Rina shoots and manages a head shot on hers as well. Both Reavers drop to the deck and thrash their last.
Dean and three of his men come running up from their trip into the depths of the ship, just as we hear the clack! of the belt feeder on our machine gun engaging. We dive out of the way, the machine gunner cuts loose and the immediate threat of the Reavers is neutralized as they get hosed down with lead. There are still some Reavers climbing through the debris of the crater, but they are still too far away to have at us. Rina checks the progress of the refueling and finds that we’ve got about 300 hours of fuel in the Gift. It’s enough to get us to Miranda and leave some room to maneuver.
It’s time to go, people. Move!
We disengage the fuel line, shut everything down and make it out of that section of the ship before the remaining Reavers can get to our position. We gather our crew and our passengers and get aboard and peel out of there. Dean is down to just 10 of his people. We’re all of us ripped and bleeding from grappling with Reavers.
That’s the downside. On the upside—we’re still alive, we’ve got the fuel we need, and at the moment, no one is chasing us. We were incredibly lucky in our encounter with the Reavers. They outnumbered us and it would have been easy to overrun us and rip us to pieces. Somehow we managed to avoid that fate long enough for our machine gun to take them out. It’s not something we agonize overmuch on. We’re alive. At the moment, that’s all that matters. Nika flies us clear of the debris and punches us into pulse.
Next stop—Miranda, and whatever surprises she holds for us there.
Season 04 DVD Extra, Deleted Scenes
Episode 415, Part 3
Some off-the-cuff snarking as Joshua’s running from the Reavers in the opening salvo:
Rina: Now don’t you wish I’d made twenty feet of that decking microwave active?
Joshua: No. Because bad things happen when you start microwaving the deck. Like our gravity goes because, oh! some wires got crossed and the heavy gravity happens over here. (points at our feet) Instead of over there. And suddenly the Reavers are running at us full speed and we’re like— (mimes slogging through molassas). The rule of thumb when you have a really good idea is to think of all the possible ways it could go hideously wrong.
Rina: I thought you told me not to do that?
Joshua: Well, that’s my job. And then it’s my job to tell you it’s wrong this way.
Rina: You know, if you want our relationship to survive, Joshua, you have to stop stifling my creativity.
Joshua: Well, let’s channel the creativity into other directions and other places.
Nika: Can we shoot now?!
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