Behind the first rush one of the thugs went for the doctor's kit while another shoved past the poor bastard I'd stunned, with an ugly looking slug thrower leveled. He fired as I spun, grabbed the doc, and charged for the window in the back. I lowered my shoulder and busted through, heavy shutters and all. I'd forgotten how high up we were, though. Getting shot at tends to limit my concentration to the here-and-now.
We went down one story, bounced off someone's roof, rolled through a string of laundry with stains I didn't want to think about, and flew ten feet sideways through a patch of skewed gravity, then down again, landing in a tangle, in a pile of - I don't know what it was, and I'm not planning on thinking too hard about it. Didn't have much time to consider it, luckily, cause the joker with the slug thrower started firing down at us from the window. He winged me, high on the shoulder, and we took off for the compartment entrance, Cariot leading the way.
They'd left a guy guarding the door. He shoulda been paying more attention - he turned around just in time for the doctor to perform some groin surgery with her knee. I heard a couple of them dropping into the alley behind us, and the rest came pounding around the corner from the front, to our right. Nasty looking customer with one eye in the lead.
I'd realized why the guy I'd stun-sticked looked familiar. He was an enforcer for the Serps, and One-eye there was an under-lieutenant.
We ran left, right into a cul-de-sac, ad-hoc tenements leaning drunkenly against eachother and over the alley.
I picked a door at random, gave it a good kick. Inside: Right through a family sitting down for a meal, through a blanket serving as a door, down the hall, jumping to avoid a wizened, tiny old woman waving a huge cleaver and yelling curses in Amarrian at us, back out under the glaring lights of the station.
I skidded around the corner, dragged the doc with me. A ball of plasma slid through the spot we'd just occupied with a sound like a red-hot poker being swung through water. Some psycho was using a blaster indoors.
We kept running. I saw a sign I recognized, the Grinning Raven, "In here!"
I dove inside.
Inside the place was full of serious looking people - mostly Caldari - in serious looking suits, and two seconds after we came through the door most of them were suddenly holding serious looking weapons. The Raven was a favorite hangout for high ranking Guristas and their friends. I eased toward the back, the doc in tow. That's about when the Serps burst in. The first couple bounced off the doorman, who'd gotten up and taken an interest when we arrived, like BBs bouncing off an Apocalypse. There was a nasty murmur in the crowd when the newcomers were recognized, and we were promptly forgotten.
The bouncer turned and growled at One-eye, "Something you want, Snake-tyuui?"
I think 'tyuui' isn't a very nice thing to call someone, in Caldari. The Serp eyed the bouncer, who looked like about 130 kilos of muscle and cybernetics stuffed into a suit. Eyed the assorted hardware being pointed from the rest of the club. Got up. "No. We were just leaving."
One of his men started to protest, but the lead Serp cut him off, "Don't need this kinda trouble. Besides, we got what we needed. We can tie up loose ends later."
The Serps might be the biggest gang around, or at least on the station, but the Guristas are tricky, vicious, and have a sense of humor. Noone really wants to start a pissing contest with someone who might spike your drink with kerosene.
I bought everyone a round and tipped the bouncer, then inquired about the back door. One of the staff showed us to a store room, where a hatch in the floor let us into the back of a shop on the level below. The shop specialized in dried squid.
Like I said, a sense of humor.
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