“Ballsy’s dead after this shit show is under control. Can’t break the codes of that twat’s ship, and can’t find the prick who’s painting the floors with blood.”
“Maybe... But Juke doesn’t have another to take his place.”
“Hah! Any one of us could take his place. How fucking hard is it to maintain the ship feeds? All you gotta do is watch the fucking holograms for blips and send the androids to investigate.”
“I heard the ship has a virus.”
“Ships can’t get fucking viruses, Ghet. If anything, Ballsy’s the murderer and a damn piss poor one at that!”
The men drew nearer and Gunner lowered himself into a crouch, eyes glazed, his jeans shredding ever-so-slowly as his claws sprang forth.
The jackal panted, excited. Territorial.
“Don’t know. But the systems could corrupt, I’ve heard stories. Whatever the fuck is happening, if Juke doesn’t gut Ballsy, I will. We were supposed to be on Elyria but now we’re headed off to fuck-knows where and I can’t stand the sight of you guys anymore. I need some fucking women. Damnit, I need some fucking sunlight.”
The men cackled and they came into view. His spine bowed, his canines pushed out, his long-pointed ears shot out.
His eyes bled neon red.
The men weren’t getting any closer to what washis.
“The captain’s locked himself in the bridge and hasn’t come out since the fourth body was found. Makes you wonder,” one of them said.
“Wonder what? He’s losing control. He keeps wanting to replace his men with prisoner scum.”
“Wonder if he’s afraid.”
A burst of sadistic laughter. “Cunt should be! Any day now, he’s gonna have a knife in his back.”
Gunner grew and his shape distorted, his fingers stretching apart and sharpening. His legs and arms broke and straightened, and his malleable skin pulled into his beast, now hidden behind his metal mainframe. His nose and jaw lengthened into a snout, and a low, hungry growl brewed deep in his throat. The pain was delicious, soothing, euphoric.
And then his nanocells made him numb.
At the corner, the men stopped, one of them holding out a hand for him to see. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“That!”
The snarl deepened, lengthened, vibrated and spread out from his vocals in low, piercing waves. A monster in the dark. Gunner drew his lips back as his tail dragged out of his spine to thump against the metal, ringing throughout the passageway.
“What the fuck is that sound?”
Gunner scraped his claws across the floor, slinking out of the darkness like Anubis from the bowels of the underworld. All three men drew their guns.
His nostrils flared at the smell of piss and he pounced on the first click of gunfire.
“Sound the alarms!” one of them screamed. The bullets ricocheted off his outer metal frame. He dropped the closest man to the floor, tearing out his throat and cleansing his beast’s mouth with blood.
The next second his teeth were ripping through the cloth, skin, and tendons of the next guard, slamming him to the ground. The guard screamed as Gunner tore off his leg. The third man—the smartest of the group—turned away and ran toward the elevator.
Gunner dropped the half-severed leg with a hiss and crushed the remaining wails out from the man under his paws, walking over him and killing him with his weight.
The third died on a lunge, hitting the open shaft just as Gunner brought him down.
A shudder. Gone. The jackal stretched, grinned, and receded.
He rose up as a man, taking the guns off his kill with him, and kicking the corpse out of the elevator’s way.If Ballsy was a dead man, then he’smydead man.
