Clueless Vampire Hunters Pt. 2

Posted on 22 Nov 2016 @ 10:10pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Ensign Miraj Derani
Edited on on 02 Dec 2016 @ 4:35am

3,706 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo - The holodeck
Timeline: MD -1, 1900

Previously . .. .

"Great!" Miraj dodged around them, trying to get a shot in. After a second, the figure's back was right in front of her and she rammed the stake home. The cloth of its coat provided some resistance, and then the tip of the wood, already stained with vampire ooze slid into flesh that gave with curious ease, and she kept shovign until she had sunk at least ten inches of hawthorne wood between its shoulder blades.

The body that had been on top of Amaranai (and not in a good way) disappeared into ooze and ash.

"Thank you," Amaranai said as she brushed off the remains of the vampire and caught her breath.

"Time to go," she said and checked her weapon again and moved on down the path.

[CONTINUED]


There wasn't much more resistence as they walked through the town. There were a few more bodies of innocents that they found, but still hadn't found the other killer. As they turned a corner, Amaranai stopped as she spotted a group of vampires holding a woman down. One of the vampires was about to feast and Amaranai spoke up.

"Leave her alone," she said as she took her shot.

The vampire hit the ground, but only for a moment as it wasn't a kill shot. It jumped up and with its brethren, started at Amaranai and Miraj.

"Here's where the fun begins," she said with a smile and started firing, hoping for kill shots as she did.

Miraj stepped up beside the security officer, keeping her shots to vampires on the left. They were fast, far faster than should have been possible, but they still had to cover the distance to the two shooters and that left time for Miraj to shoot, and she fired repeatedly at the onrushing undead. The pistol jumped in her hand, dragging the muzzle all over the place, only the generous parameters of the game allowed to hit anything, knocking one back into the snow with four bullets in him, but the second covered the ground with only a scratch or two, and ploughed into her.

The momentum sent the vampire not just to the ground but on, head over heals beyond where Miraj landed. She rolled up on to one knee and started firing as it came at her again, unloading what was left of the clip, but hitting only limbs and lower torso, and it pounced on her again, flattening her into the snow, hands tearing at the catsuit to expose her pale throat.

A second later, it melted into ooze, Miraj's final shot managing to blow out its heart.

The vampires were quick to move on Amaranai and Miraj but the two young women began shooting almost immediately, which helped. Amaranai fired and took down two vampires as the others continued to rush. Amaranai tried to fire on the vampire rushing Miraj but missed wide as the vampire tackled Miraj. Amaranai was a little thrown off by the attack and didn't move for a moment, frozen in fear for her friend.

Suddenly, she heard a scream and she turned quickly to see another vampire rushing her to attack. Amaranai dropped her gun to the ground and pulled the katana from her scabbard. She didn't have time to swing at the vampire, though, as it toppled her to the ground. Amaranai, anticipating the hit, rolled with the vampire and tossed it aside. Quickly, she swung her katana and separated the head from its body.

Another scream, but when Amaranai looked, it was the vampire that had been attacking Miraj screaming in agony as it was destroyed. Amaranai looked around and didn't see any further signs of vampires. Sheathing her sword, Amaranai moved back to retrieve her handgun from where she had dropped it. As she reloaded her weapon, she looked at Miraj.

"Having fun?" she said with a smile.

Miraj wiped the goo from her face "Oh yes! Its nice being able to actually hit things." She got to her feet and used the flat of her hand to brush the rest of the goo down off her front. "Lets kill some more!"

>>tag if you want

The walk to the castle was about a mile up slippery frozen woodland road, little better than a track. The full moon hung low and speared the through the evergreens in pale shafts. And the forest was deathly silent. nothing was moving. The trees weren't even creaking.

Miraj opened her mouth to say, "I don't like this." but before she could a will o the wisp, a bright blue flaming ring leapt out of the ground in front of them in rush of brimstone.

The two were silent on the walk through the woods. What they had found in the village led them to a castle on the outskirts of the village. It was a long climb and the snow was not helping the trek at all. Suddenly, there was a blue flaming light on the ground.

Amaranai pulled her handgun and stared. The blue flame did nothing as Amaranai started a staring contest with it.

and then the will o the wisp flared brightly once more and when the afterimages cleared, a young woman, dressed in a white gown with gold embroidery that looked like something out to the middle ages, stood there. "Greetings travellers."

Amaranai kept the gun pointed at the new arrival. With all of the times that she had gone through this adventure, this had never happened. She was glad that she had randomized all of the encounters and made it easier for Miraj's sake. It was definitely making this a brand new story.

"Hello, stranger," Amaranai said quietly. "What brings you this way?"

"Would you like some advice?" the woman said.

Amaranai tilted her head. She didn't trust the person, if you could call it that, in front of her.

"I know what is causing this infestation," it said. It continued before Amaranai could speak. "There is an old vampire in the castle up ahead. If you kill it, the rest will run." It paused. "But be warned. Another has come before you and is on the same path with the same mission."

Amaranai recalled the other demon hunter and cursed.

"Okay, then we need to hurry, if we can."

She turned to Miraj.

"We need to take care of this other demon hunter before we can get rid of that lead vampire. He might turn on us if he feels threatened."

"Why do i get the feeling whoever this person is, they're going to be more dangerous than the actual vampire?" Miraj asked, fumbling a new clip into her pistol. Finally getting it into the butt of the gun with a satisfying click she turned back to the path. "What sort of other hunters are in this game?"

Amaranai took a deep breath.

"I can honestly tell you that I don't know," she said. "I've set up random encounters for the scenario, but I do know which ones are available."

She paused a moment.

"There's demon hunters from different eras and one demon hunter . . ." she stopped. "Uh oh," she said.

"That doesn't sound good." Miraj raised an alarmed eyebrow

"I had been practicing on programming a demon hunter that was basically a replica of myself, to challenge myself. See how good I really was. Strong, quick . . ." another pause. "Except ruthless and mean."

"Ruthless and mean?" Miraj looked doubtful then gave a wicked grin, "Don't you mean Meaner and Ruthlesser?"

"I think you're right. If it is a replica of me, we're in for a good fight."

"I think facing off against any security person is likely to be very painful." Miraj picked up the pace, "Lets hurry."

They walked, getting faster and faster until they broke out into a brisk jog, black boots crunching through the snow until they broke through the tree line fifty yards from a towering stone edifice. The castle loomed over them, its thin slitted windows like hooded eyes watching them suspiciously.

The castles entrance was two huge double doors, twenty feet hight, stone gargoyles leering over the portico, and the dark wood carved with scenes of violence and licentiousness. Miraj turned to Amarani. "Do we just knock?"


"The butler is unavailable," came a voice from behind them. "Permanantly."

Amaranai turned to see her clone staring at her, holding a katana similar to the one Amaranai had on her back, though the clone's was spilling with blood.

"Oh," Miraj said. Looking uncertainly from one amarani to the other. "Thanks?"

Amaranai turned fully to face the doppleganger and pulled her handgun up quickly and took a shot. The clone dodged quickly and rolled to the side. The virtual Amaranai rushed the living one and Amaranai quickly shoved Miraj out of the way and ducked to the other side just as the blade hit the door.

Amaranai rolled to her feet and pulled her own katana hoping to defend herself.

"Get inside!" Amaranai yelled.

The clone yelled and held her ground so as not to allow anyone to pass through the door.

"I'll keep her busy. You find the leader and get rid of him."

Amaranai took another shot at the fake, who, thankfully, was dressed entirely different than the real so as not to confuse Miraj as to who the fake really was. She got up and ran away from the door, hoping it would encourage the twin to follow. While the clone moved away from the shot, she also turned to chase Amaranai, but not before swinging her sword toward Miraj to remind her that she remembered she was still there.

MIraj jumped back, her body falling into the duck that Luke had drilled into her, and the katana missed her by several inches. Then she put her shoulder to the enormous door and shoved. it creaked open, a long tortured sound that contrasted with the sharp ring of the two katanas. She had to get ahead whilst amarani was buying her time. She dashed inside, boots ringing on the flagstones. She took three steps. And the floor vanished from under her, dropping her alone into the dark. The flagstone over the trapdoor closed back up with well oiled smoothness.

The fake Amarani took advantage of Miraj's scream of surprise to lunge forward, aiming to stab the real one straight into the heart.

Amaranai was caught off guard by Miraj's scream that she almost didn't see her clone coming in for an attack. She moved, but the weapon still sliced her arm, ripping through the leather and giving her a significant wound. Holodeck safties were in effect, of course, but it still hurt. She moved quickly and hoped that Miraj was okay while she thought about how to defeat herself. Amaranai pulled her weapon out again and started firing only to see her adversary dodge the bullets.

"You have no right to be here!" the evil clone said. "This is my hunt."

Amaranai was wondering why she had bothered to program herself into the adventure. Of course, she could cheat and simply ask the computer to remove the digital copy but that wouldn't be fair and it wouldn't be as fun.

Holstering her weapon again, Amaranai lunged forward and started attacking with her sword once more.

The clone batted the first two cuts away with contemptuous ease,knowing Amarani's timing literally as well as she did, and countered with a swing meant to cut her off at the ears.

Amaranai ducked quickly as the sword passed through the space she had just been standing. This was an even fight and neither of them were going to give up. It was going to take even the smallest of factors to win this fight and Amaranai had to hope that she could figure it out before her clone did.

As she stood, waiting for the next move, her thoughts went to Miraj, wondering what had caused her to scream and what had happened to the girl. She almost felt guilty for sending her into the castle by herself but Amaranai knew that she wouldn't have been able to handle the replica, even with Amaranai's help. Amaranai had to hope that Miraj was okay and not injured or dead (at least in the holodeck sense of the word).

The distraction nearly killed her. Clone Amarani feinted high and as Amarani shifted to block, the red clad version kicked out and swepte Amarani's feet out from under her. With her opponent down, Clone Amarani took a two handed grip of the katana, and the sword whistled down...

---

Miraj felt the flagstones go out from under her heels and only had time to scream once before she was plunged into darkeness. There was a long moment of stomach churning freefall, and then she hit water with a splash. The water was rancid and when she bobbed to the surface, she spat out the mouthful she had swallowed, with a loud sound of disgust.

Treading water she looked around. There was only the faintest line of light to her left, and only a couple of breast strokes towards it had her bumping into a step and she half swam half climbed until she emerged onto a thin ledge on the side of the oubliette.

She waited a moment for the stagnant water to cascade down the leather coat, and checked her pistol. It was soaking wet. She had no idea what era it was. In the period she was used to, wet gun normally equaled wet powder and wet powder was as much use as a weevil in hard tack. She patted herself down to see if the clips in her pocket might have survived the dunk. The clips were gone. They must have fallen out when she hit the surface. She now had just fifteen bullets.

She huffed a sigh and got on with inspecting the light line. It seemed to be seeping out of some sort of door. Her fingers fumbled the door handle. It was locked. "Arse." But she had played enough holodeck games to have an idea about alternatives. She felt across the door until she found. "Half- Barrel Hinges! Yes." She reversed the grip on her pistol, and bashed the bottom of the pin a couple of times to loosen the rust, and then hauled out the pins. The door fell out ward with a clang. Miraj stepped out. "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me."

The noise of the door caught the attention of a sentry. Not a vampire, but one of their followers. The sentry, armed with a single shot rifle, began to walk down the hallway.
She flattened herself into the nearest recess, hoping the darkness would mean he would walk straight by her. As he got ever closer, she held her breath.

Not seeing anything out of the ordinary but still thinking something was amiss, the sentry turned around and continued on his original path around the castle. Twenty feet later, he paused and turned around in time to see someone.

"You there!" he said. "Stop or die!"

Without waiting for an answer, the man fired his weapon but missed wide. He took a moment to reload his rifle and fired again, and again he missed. By now, the noise of shots ringing through the castle had brought two more sentries to help, leaving Miraj outnumbered and outgunned.

Miraj yelped as the bullets pinged off the wall and sent chips of stone flying everywhere, and started running. there was only one way she could go - away from the sentries. Unfortunately the hallway had no windows, just doors, she had no idea if she was heading towards and exit, or deeper into trouble.

Another bullet hit the wall a handswidth from her head. She had to get out of the corridor. She skidded to a halt outside the nearest door, tried the handle. It opened and she dashed inside, slamming the door shut. She grabbed the nearest piece of furniture, a heavy throne like chair and dragged in front of the door. A second later, there was the sound of hammering.

Miraj looked around. The room seemed to be some sort of drawing room, filled with chairs and chaise longues and... Windows? That was possible. she'd entered on the ground floor and falln at least 30 meters. She han't climbed any stairs, or felt the floor go up a slope. She hurridly crossed the room as the door shook, and opened the window. And looked out onto a huge chasm dropping deep down into the mountians.

The banging on the door was louder now. It seemed as if all three sentries were trying to get through. Good thing the castle was old and the doors were heavy oak. Miraj looked out the window again and saw a ledge just below the window. The door cracked as the men started pushing through further. It was now or never.

Miraj spun around, looking for an exit, but the only door was the one she came through. Another crack from the door. They were getting closer. The only option was the window, She threw the casement open and tried not to look down. You've been climbing rigging eighty meters above the deck without thinking about it. This is no different Sure, said another inner voice. Up amongst ropes, and things designed to be climbed. not on tiny little stone ledges with handholds you need to squint to see. Shut up

Miraj looked both directions trying to decide which way was safer, but she was out of time. The door cracked again and the face of one of the men was visible. Miraj could see that he was trying to aim his gun through the samll hole but couldn't fit the barrel through. Miraj took advantage and slowly started to move on the ledge, holding onto the wall as best as possible. She heard another crash and the men fumbled into the room. If they spotted her she would be dead. Luckily, there was a gargoyle statue close by

She reached for it. It was about three inches from being a comfortable distance. She took a breath, concentrated very firmly on the gargoyle's ear, and tried again. She grabbed the stone statue and held on for dear life until the momentry sense of unbalance passed and then she shuffled around it and hid against it. Miraj heard the men at the window and then heard laughing, most likely thinking that she fell to her death. That could work to her advantage.

She looked up and down. Above her was an arched opening. She couldnt' see if it was glazed or not. She put her foot on its twisted head and pushed herelf up. She could just about reach the ledge. she griped it with her finger tips and pulled herself up, muscles screaming even though the program wa assisting her. this is Luke's fault she thought to herself.

She got her elbows over the ledge, and her feet scrabbled to get enough grip to push herself up the rest of the way. Finally she belly flopped onto the stone ledge, found it was just an opening, like a doorway without a door. She had thrown off pursuit but now she was completely lost. She was in some sort of gallery that ran along the side of the castle.

"Okay," she told herself "if i was a vampire king or whatever, where would I be?" she looked to the left and right. there was no obvious difference between them. "Eeeny, meeany miney mo," she muttered wagging her finger at each option. "catcha pirate by his toe." Her finger pointed right. "I guess I'm going that way."

---

Clone Amarani screamed, and the point of her katana flashed down towards Amarani's face.

This was exhausting. Amaranai had just pulled her sword up in time to parry the other blade away. But she wasn't fast enough and the blade caught her shoulder, slicing through and causing Amaranai pain as she switched arms to recover a moment. In the same motion, Amaranai kicked her leg out to the belly of her clone, forcing the evil twin to fall back. Amaranai took that moment to strike at her clone, but not at her torso. Instead, Amaranai aimed for her neck. Knowing everything that the real Amaranai did, the clone took a defensive position, expecting a different attack, only to realize too late that the real Amaranai had gotten the advantage and swung through the neck, beheading the evil doppelganger.

Amaranai, bleeding and tired, dropped to her knees and prayed that there were no vampires or anyone else patrolling the grounds at the moment. If there were, she would most likely be dead. She took a few deep breaths and slowly stood up using the sword for leverage.

Looking at the castle in front of her, Amaranai wondered just how far Miraj had gotten or if she had been killed. All she could do was enter the castle and hope that they ran into each other. Pushing the door open, she entered and immediately stepped toward the wall to avoid the trapdoor. She knew, then, that that was why Miraj must have screamed. Amaranai reached the first intersection in the hallway and looked around. There was a sentry at the end of the hallway but he seemed distracted by something else so she snuck across the hallway and kept searching for Miraj.

Amaranai turned to check the hallway and realized that she was leaving a slight blood trail. She stepped into a room and found sheets available that she ripped to cover her wounds. It would have to do until the end of the scenario. There just wasn't any time left. She just had to hope that Miraj had found the vampire king and killed him.

A sudden sound came to her from ahead. Female voices, giggling and murmuring.


To be continued . . .


[OFF]

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control officer
USS Galileo

and

Lieutenant JG Amaranai Franklin
Assitant Chief Security and Tactical
USS Galileo

 

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