Through the Gate to the Dunes

[Stephan Donnel]

The scene was silent for a moment. No one could really believe the blasphemy that just happened. Mother defiled, twisted, broken by a prey, a sacrifice no less! Silence kept up for a second or two… and then everyone erupted into screams.

“MOMMA!” – veiled Johas

“KILL HIM! KILL HIM AND FEED HIM TO THE EXHAUST!” – screamed the psychotic madmen jumping from their cars to get to Stephan.

“Shit, that’s a Prime!” - huh, this must have come from one of the sane ones.

While Johas was still trying to pull his weapon from the, literally, steely grip of his opponent almost 8 psychotic bastards rushed Stephan from left and behind. ‘Almost’ because one of them was barely a meter tall. Aaaaaand yes, he was just trampled over. Damn, is he still giggling? What it takes to kill the devil?! Ah, no, there he goes. Still smiling, Captain yanked on the ruined chainsaw, causing Johas to tumble over and let go, and hurled it in the direction of his enemies. While the first ones were nimble enough to dodge it the ones further back didn’t have a chance as they only saw it coming when it flew past their dodging companions. The spinning chunk of metal hit one of them square in the chest, crushing the ribs with a wet sound, the tumbling bandit caught one of the others on the arm, and a few more actually stumbled in their blind rage. Oblivious, the ‘frontmen’ were still charging with zero-to-no support, eager to tear the interloper apart with their crude weapons. First one swung an axe, that looked like it once had been a saw, overhead, but it only just clanged fruitlessly over still-stainless surface of Captains arm. That, and the bandit suddenly realized that the limb is covered by nickel-sized holes. With a vicious grin on his face Stephan engaged the minor vents on his forearm. The boiling-hot vapour caught the assaulter right in the middle, causing him to stumble backwards, flailing and screaming wildly. Donnel lost no time and pulled his sabre from its sheath with his living limb, swatting the strike of a second bandit aside with his metal one and instantly following up with a slash of his own. To his surprise, instead of simply leaving a gashing wound on the shoulder, the sword came all the way through, crushing the bone underneath the flesh and going deeper into the body, only to be yanked backwards to deflect another overhead strike from the recovered, scalded, bandit. Taking it on a hard block with a sword Stephan momentarily proceeded to reward the man for his tenacity with an iron uppercut. Just as the psycho was hitting the ground with a shattered jaw, Johas stirred up on the ground. He pulled a knife from somewhere and drove it deep into Stephans thigh. The Captain flinched and swung the sabre to the side, cutting the hand holding the knife clean off. But the damage was done. He was distracted for long enough for the rest of the bandits to reach him. There was total of six, counting Johas, alive at this point. Well, not counting the midget. He was still crawling somewhere in the back. With a wave of deranged babble the madmen flung at the wounded man, only half of their attacks hit home, as they were pushing each other, trying to reach the “Meat” first, but that was still enough to stagger Stephan and cause him to almost tumble over. Almost, but not quite. Used to the raging winds, and sometimes waves, trying to knock both him, and his ship, whether in the sky or on the sea, over the Captain stood his ground, only losing his footing for but a moment. The bludgeoning attacks came on, like an avalanche of frenzied half-naked men, those hitting him on the torso had little effect, but those landing on the head dazed. Luckily, most of those came from either left or forward, and thus, Stephans left hand was free to land a retaliating blow, swinging heavily from the side in an arc. Most bandits dodged, but two were caught in the blow, and again, Captain was surprised, as one was bisected and the over received a nasty gaping wound across his chest. This was just like when he was using his left arm, except this time that was not the case. Two others weren’t taken aback even a little bit and just jumped back-and-forth to avoid the strike. As they tried to continue their assault they were met with the same treatment as they were trying to give. Outright ignoring one of the incoming blows and swatting the other aside Donnel rushed his opponents. His sword was posed for a penetrating blow, and it went right through the chest of one of his enemies, causing him to stare in disbelief for a moment. Still oblivious to impending doom the last enemy standing regained his footing and smashed his weapon into the Captain, yet, once again, it uselessly clanged off the armoured arm. Which had grasped psycho’s neck and spent no time crushing it with a hiss of discharged steam instantly after.

At that moment a roar of the engine and scratching of rubber on dry ground torn through the air. Jumping at the sound Stephan perked up, but could only watch as the vehicle, carrying the sane, and gun-wielding, bandits sped off into the distance.
The Captain turned to prone Johas, who was cradling the stump of his hand. The clockwork eye was glowing visibly.

“I guess we are all alone now, right?”