Gauntlet - Episode 11.

Episode 11 – First Breaks, Tough Breaks

As they shuddered to a halt against the ruined remains of the buildings exterior wall, Eris cursed the decision of having ever even listened to Crash. Crash was one of the three bot-brothers and each one was little more than an irritating nuisance if you asked her. And no this scrap-for-brains had just rammed them through the wall of the only bank in Redemption.

“Crash, you blundering bag of bolts,” Eris exclaimed. “Get this mess free from this debris and fast, we’ll see to that vault.” The unusual Uraor stepped for the door her rust colored form already seeing sunlight as she ducked her head to clear the portal. A growl grew from deep within her gut that rolled its way upwards to make the short tusks that only just protruded out from her lips tremble and quake. Every muscle in her fearsome frame flexed and rippled as what little of what had been a plan escaped her.

“I’ll rip those two defective dimwits to pieces! What do they think they are doing?” As Eris ranted with rage another member of their roster of rogues approached her from behind. Even standing at seven feet tall there was few Eris had to look up at when they spoke to her, but Trapper was definitely an exception. The eternally unhappy Ursian maintained almost a full foot in height on Eris, and stayed in as sullen a mood as anyone she had ever met.

Typically it was well-known that Ursian’s were fairly friendly and somewhat passive folk by their nature. But something had happened to Trapper long ago to mold her into the melancholy marauder she had become. Even though marked by a large furry form, often people misjudged Trapper’s small eyes and rounded ears as a reminder of a childhood cuddle-cub. And she was anything but.

“I’d offer to let you guess,” Trapper commented coarsely. “But we both already know, don’t we?” Eris couldn’t resist the thought that as usual, Trapper was just a ray of sunshine. “Smash will be trying to apply his less than capable mental faculties to the vault, and Bash will be looking for a fight or making one.”

True to form, as Eris rushed out into the bank she found Smash hard at work ramming his head repeatedly into the vault as he attempted to breach it with brute force. And just as predictable Bash had a security guard’s limp body in one hand while his other was busy pounding his prey with punches. “Told you,” Trapper confirmed as she followed Eris out of the vehicle.

“Alright, nobody is going to move,” Eris snarled. “No pretty words or fancy nonsense, just know that if you don’t do as I say Bash and Smash here are going to give you a personal demonstration of how they were named. And that is only if you’re lucky enough that we don’t get our hands on you!” She could hear Trapper huff a little in irritation at the notion beside her, probably already bored with the job at hand.

“Trapper, see if you can’t spare Smash a bit and tinker with those vault controls.” “Yeah, yeah,” Trapper complained with a groan. “Bash, drop that sorry sack and keep your eyes peeled for any trouble makers. What did he do anyways, try to stop you?” The body dropped down to the floor with a thud, still without even a twitch. “Asleep,” Bash admitted automatically and as Eris scanned the room she found herself unable to question the fact.

Nobody moved a muscle. Every single helpless soul still inside the building was frozen in fear. In fact, Eris wasn’t even sure anyone had even heard her little threatening tirade. It was enough to aggravate an Altain – which to be fair didn’t truly take all that much she had to confess. But still, Dyzon probably didn’t have to deal with this kind of headache. Just the thought of that man was maddening.

Taurus himself had sent word for her crew to handle that Titan Train this time, Bloody Bachelor or no, he was playing with fire. But this little job ought to even out the score. Let them have the slim pickings of those passengers, she would lay hands on the bigger prize stored here in town. Rumor was the next scheduled shipment back off-world would be delayed by a storm surge. Which meant that Redemption’s share would be stashed here in the vault before it could be sent out. Nobody was willing to risk sending their share back down the line to wait where they couldn’t keep an eye on it. Anything might happen to it. Including it being stolen or accidentally added to someone else’s yield.

It was precisely the kind of thing people figured couldn’t happen if they locked it up safely in the town’s bank. Eris had to chuckle at that, the idea that anything was safe from them. “How is it coming Trap,” she asked, still feeling more than a little angry about everything.

“Hammer head here triggered a code recalibration so it’ll take another minute to crack the combination,” Trapper explained. “Or we could just blow the thing if you’re in a hurry.” Eris wasn’t about to waste time standing around thinking about it; she wanted some loot in hand and to be clear of this headache. “Blow it then,” she answered.

“Been nice knowing you folks,” Trapper told those trembling faces nearest to her. Reaching into her pack she paused only briefly to ask one thing. “So how much of what is in there do you want to still be there?” Yup, Eris decided, she is just one big ball of happy. And somehow she had been cursed with this whole crazy crew. It was no wonder they kept getting shown up by the Bull-Boys.