Out of Space 254 Article 75

Raman stormed hurriedly into the Great Hall where the rest of his cadre sat around with worried looks on their face. Ivan waved the Orc guards away and ordered them to guard the main doors before closing and bolting the doors.

Raman grabbed a pitcher of watered wine and poured himself a goblet, shooing the slave away who offered to do the work. He slumped down on the chair at the head of the table and said, "How? HOW?!"

Nicolas De Vos standing by the windows watching the destruction of the inner city turned back and looked at the Raman was in a state of panic and sighed. "You are too greedy!"

"I warned you that we shall stay low for the time being, but no... you want to expand your powers and control of the area," Nicolas spat. "Now look at what you have done! They have found us!"

Raman paused in his fidgeting and glared at Nicolas by the window, "Didn't you enjoy the spoils too? Now it's all my fault?"

"Enough guys!" Ramu stood up and smacked the table hard. "ENOUGH!"

Raman and Nicolas turned away from glaring at each other and looked at Ramu who said, "Now the important thing is, is there an army outside the gates? Or is this just a strategic bombing?"

"I have confirmed earlier that three places are hit, Tony said from his seat on the table. He took a large gulp of the goblet of wine before him and said. "The factory, the Administration, and the Barracks are hit by the bombs."

"Leung... " Tony took another gulp of the wine, "Is most likely buried under the Administraction building..."

"Shit..." The rest looked at each other. Every one of the original eight was here except Aaron who was leading an expedition to find what the snake wants. Now one of them was dead.

"If this was just a strategic strike, they just destroyed half of what we have built up!" Kumar who was running the production department cried out. "All the time and effort... Gone! Just like that!"

"Calm down!" Raman snapped, his nerves returning. "We knew that they will find us sooner or later, and we made some plans for that! They must have sneaked some spies in and they found out which buildings and areas are a high priority."

"I doubt they have the capability to launch a ground attack, we will be able to see them coming miles away," Raman said. "But I underestimated that they have some kind of bombers! I assumed they will attack with those converted cargo haulers!"

"We prepared those AA guns as a surprise for those low lying gunships, now we need to rethink how to rebuild our production base!" Raman said. "We can't have the slaves nor the Orcs think we are weak! We need to be able to better protect ourselves and show those pretentious assholes that there are consequences if they fuck with us!"

"Wait," Nicolas cut in, "What are you going to do? Upgrade the weapons we have to the Orcs?"

"No, we sell weapons to the Empire and get them to wipe those fuckers off the face of this planet!" Raman cried out with a crazed light in his eyes. "We will show those fuckers!"

"Are you crazy?!" Nicolas cursed just as the rest looked among themselves uneasily, "You know what consequences there will b-?!"

The double doors suddenly blew inwards and several splinters the length of a man's hands sliced through Nicolas as he bent over the table glaring at Raman, sending him gaggling on to the floor.

The shock wave knocked the rest over their chairs and they stood up on their feet in confusing with blood caused by the cuts from the splinters. Raman wiped the flecks of Nicolas's blood off his face as he sat dumbly on the floor with his ears ringing when he sat several dark tubes rolled in. His armorer knowledge kicked in and he recognized the tubes as flashbangs.

He quickly threw his large bulk behind the upturned table and plugged his ears with his fingers and opening his mouth just as the flashbangs detonated. He screamed as his ear ringed painfully and he quickly crawled his way to the back entrance of the hall.

-----

"GO! GO! GO!"

They rushed into the room, finding an upturned table and five bodies in rolling about on the ground from the effects of the flashbang. "Tag and bag them!" Tyrier ordered coldly as he swept the area.

Tavel dragged the closest hooman to the side and wrenched the crying man's arm behind before cuffing him by the thumbs. The rest did the same while Hitsu called out, "We got a door here!"

"Go check it out!" Tyrier ordered and Hitsu and Loke disappeared through it.

Tyrier turned and looked down at the five men, one of them laid squirming by the table in a pool of his own blood, choking on his blood while Wolf crouched next to him.

Wolf looked up at Tyrier who shook his head slightly and Wolf nodded and stood up, denying the man any medical assistance as the choking man with a splinter in his throat gasped and reached out to try to grab Wolf's arm who stepped out of reach.

Tavel using his tablet, verified each person's facial features and names, followed by fingerprinting each of the arrested persons.

Wolf walked among the hoomans are using a video camera, he carefully video and record each person's facial features properly before zooming out to the capture the four kneeling men.

"Who the fuck are you!"

Tyrier stood before them and pulled out a small notepad, flipping pages till he found the correct page. "By the authority granted to me by the highest level of command, Captain Richard Blake, United Nations Naval Command, You five have committed the most serious crime of Desertion in time of war. Under UN Article 75, the crime is punishable by death or other such punishment as a court-martial."

He paused and looked at the kneeling men who were recovering from the effects of the flashbang. "Do you understand your crimes?"

The four looked at each other in fear and nodded hurriedly. "Y-yes..."

"Good, then it will be simple," Tyrier gave a cold smile. "And together for the crime of Murder One of two fellow UNNC servicemen during your desertion, also the crime of stealing properties of the UN and selling weapons to the enemies of the UN, the Captain has judged and declared your punishment by death!"

"W-wait?" The four eyes turned wide as they look up in horror. "W- We demand a trial! W- We have rights you damn savages!"

Tavel and Wolf each took up positions behind the condemned men who screamed, plead, and begged for their lives. "Make ready!" Tyrier's expression remained impassive as the men of Claymore One drew out their service revolvers as one and pointed at the back of the condemned human skulls.

"Take aim!"

"NOOO YOU BAST!!"

"Spaceman Apprentice Ramu Garcia, Spaceman Siddarth Kumar, both found guilty of desertion under combat and accomplices to the murder of Spaceman Ryan Lim and Spaceman Apprentice Hio Aoi. You are hereby sentenced to death by firing squad without trial!" Tyrier declared and nodded to Tavel and Wolf who stood behind the two. "FIRE!"

"FUC-!"

BAAAM! BAAAM!

"Spaceman Senior Tony Petrynec found guilty of desertion under combat and accomplices to the murder of Spaceman Ryan Lim and Spaceman Apprentice Hio Aoi. And Petty Officer 2nd Class Ivan Pavlo, found guilty of desertion under combat and to the cold blooded murder of Spaceman Ryan Lim and Spaceman Apprentice Hio Aoi. You are hereby sentenced to death by firing squad without trial!" Tyrier snapped his booklet shut and nodded to Tavel and Wolf who had step over the lifeless bodies and stood behind the two.

"I GOT RIGHTS! I AM A DAMN HUMAN! YOU ARE JUST FUCKING MONKEYS WHO WE BROUGHT UP! YOU FUCKIN-!"

"FIRE!" BAAM! BAAM!

Four bodies laid face down with the back of their skulls blown away, blood and brain matter scattered across the rich carpets. Tyrier turned and drew his revolver and stood over the last dying hooman in his own blood and said formally. "Spaceman Senior Nicolas De Vos found guilty of desertion under combat and accomplices to the murder of Spaceman Ryan Lim and Spaceman Apprentice Hio Aoi. You are hereby sentenced to death by firing squad without trial!"

And he fired, hitting the forehead of the hooman whos eyes remained open.

"Pack it up! We only got five confirmed kills here! We still got three more to find!" Tyrier ordered. Wolf retrieved the video camera from the table where he recorded the whole proceedings and carefully packed it away.

"Two, this is One, location?" Tyrier asked.

"Two, chasing one of the hoomans, we appeared to be in the north wing of the Palace!" Hitsu voice replied.

"Roger, we are on the way," Tyrier replied as the men reloaded their weapons. "Wait..."

He felt a strange tingling sensation of magical energy and he turned and cursed. "Fark this shit..."

The bodies of the executed appeared to be smoking. The GSW on the backs of the dead had tendrils of smoke rising and before their very eyes, the wound closed up and the dead coughed and cursed.

"Mother fuckers! I fucking kill you fucking monkeys!" One of the supposed dead pushed himself up to a kneeling position. "You hear! I fucking kill you!"

Without a word, the three Claymore One soldiers flipped their carbines up and fired. The suppressed weapons tearing chunks of flesh off the half kneeling men with their arms still bound behind their backs.

They jerked and danced as bullets slapping into their bodies, throw flecks of blood and gore all over the Great Hall before the ammunition ran out and the bodies slammed face down again in their own pool of blood.

Tyrier and the rest quickly reloaded their weapons. "What was that!?" Wolf whispered as he kept his eye on the bodies while slapping in a new mag into his M2 carbine.

"Farkers must have signed some pact with the Oerkin Shamans!" Tavel spat over the side as he stepped to the side to cover the bodies. "Farking dark magic!"

"-hahahhah! ack! ahhaha!" One of the bodies laughed and coughed wetly. "Orcs shamans? Those savage weaklings? No!"

The speaking body pushed himself to a sitting position before grunting and ripping his thumbs off the restraints, sending more blood splattering across the room. He looked at the exposed bones of his thumbs and winced. "It hurts like fuck you know?"

Tyrier fired again, aiming for the head. His shots blew half the head away of the laughing hooman and the others following his lead, firing again and emptied their magazines into the reviving bodies of the hoomans.

Black smoke tendrils coiled around the wounds of the hoomans and the wounds slowly closed up again. The hooman known as Tony laughed and coughed again as he sat there watching the Claymore One troops stepping back while reloading to put some distance between them.

"You.. ack! Can't kill us!" He grinned and wiped the blood from his face which dissipated into black smoke. Even the blood in the room was slowly vaporizing into black smoke. "The Great Serpent is our patron!" His eyes glowed with madness as he yelled. "WE CAN'T DIE! HAHAHAHAHA"

"Shut the fark up!" Tyrier yelled as he suddenly accelerated forward while drawing his sword bayonet and slashing down. Tony's laughing head flew off from his body and Tyrier continuously fired his M2 into the rest, forcing them to keep reviving.

"Cut off their heads! Salt and burn them!" He quickly ordered. Tavel and Wolf charged forward and hacked at the reviving hoomans with their blades, turning the whole room into a charnel house.

Tyrier pulled out a bottle of salt and quickly poured it over the bodies. The tendrils of smoke appeared to avoid the salt while seeming appeared to coiled around angrily before dissipating away.

"Looks like its working!" Tyrier grinned as he saw the wounds of the hoomans appeared to be struggling to recover. He nodded to Tavel and Wolf who each held a thermite grenade in each hand.

"Burn mutherfarkers... burn!"

Chapter end