Hell Hound Hole

[Tyranidlord]

Halfway to the exit out of the bar Alexi suddenly froze in place, his instincts lighting up warning lights all through his skull. Something was terribly wrong, and it wasn't just from the bleeding figure of the Merc that had gotten his attention. Several of the Bar's Patrons were staring curiously in his direction, but there was no overwhelming need or desire for them to move to the man's aid.
His eyes scanned the room, sifting through the shadows lining the walls and seeking out the faces of those seated in them. His mind was now screaming, almost filling his head with the wail of klaxons and he found himself lowering into a defensive position without consciously realising it.
A gleam of gunmetal sparked from the darkness, only a few meters away from his position near the door and he immediately threw himself to the ground behind the nearest table. With a roar of primeval fury the handgun discharged, its enormous barrel erupting in smoke and flame as it spat its payload into its soft target.
Surprisingly Alexi still found himself alive after the first burst from the automatic handgun, his combat attuned mind already realising that the gun wielding thug wasnt actually aiming for him. It seemed that he had just been caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that the blood streaked Merc was the target this time around.
Streaming rage and indignation in almost physical form the gunman stormed across the floor of the bar, his enormous autopistol spitting a furious stream of solid slugs into the booth that had once been occupied by the wounded Merc. Wood splintered, chair stuffing was blasted apart into clouds of white puff and the air was filled with the smell of split alcohol, burnt metal and cordite.
Within seconds, the bar had erupted into chaos, Pirates, Smugglers, Mercenaries and the other various Unlawfuls occupying it had immediately ducked into cover, drawing concealed weapons and firearms that they had smuggled in past the bars bouncer and drawing beads on whoever they deemed to be a threat, a source of the firing, or just whoever was closest at the time.
Within those long two seconds Alexi had found himself almost laying in between the armed gunman and the booth that he was almost casually shredding with his firepower. So far no one else had fired back or fired at anyone else and he knew that unless someone stopped this lunatic the entire place would turn into a slaughterhouse.
Without hesitation he rose to his feet, moving gracefully and in a blur to the eye drawing his own powerful Tomvase Pistol from its holster under his left arm. It was his own personal piece, taken from an Algeria Shipment from Detroit Munitions several months ago and he knew that there werent many like that in the open market, let alone in the hands of a pirate like himself. It was a massive calibre handgun, with enough stopping power to punch through armour plate, and would blow apart a man with a well placed shot.
With a roar that drowned out the gunmans own smaller autopistol the Tomvase bucked in his hand, launching its enormous round and blasting a fist sized hole through the mans chest. In a puff of pink mist the round punched through his opponent, tearing out of his back in a gout of blood and continuing on until it buried itself deep in the metal plating of the bar wall. A second shot followed, matching its twin only a few centimetres difference and causing the gunman to stagger slightly even with the twin craters in his chest.
For several seconds the entire bar was hushed into silence, and Alexi stood there staring in shock as the gunman turned and looked in his direction. Every person in the bar had been shocked into silence by the enormous bark of his Tomvase, but they all now positively remain shocked in their positions as the unknown gunman seemed to ignore the incapacitating wounds to his chest. Most normal men wouldve been thrown to the ground by the massive rounds from Alexis pistol, but instead it seemed like the shooter was completely immune to pain and injury.
With a glance Alexi saw that he mightve bitten off more than he could chew. The gunmans eyes were whirlpools of red, veins distended from his forehead and throat constricted; sure signs of a massive overdose of combat stimulants and enhancement drugs. Alexi knew that there was a lot on the market that could enhance the human body to superhuman levels, but on the black market He didnt want to think about how much punishment someone could take and dish out on such enhancements.
Roaring with hate the shooter turned his weapon away from the destroyed booth where the Junker and the Merc somehow remained miraculously alive under the table, and turned it right onto Alexi. Once more it roared, a single three round burst that totally missed the dodging pirate, the rounds sizzling through the air like angry hornets and blasting apart a shelf of liquor behind the cringing barman in a shower of mingling liquids and glass fragments.
Alexi knew that the only chance against such an adversary was to get in close, to get into arms reach of his attacker and finish him off. He had more than enough up his sleeve to win this fight, and provided that no one else in the bar decided to open up he had a chance to get out of this with his skin intact. So far no one else looked like they were willing to get caught up in this, so it looked like he might be in the clear in that respect.
Ducking under a clumsy punch from the drugged up shooter he lashed out like a snake, thudding his fist directly into the mans solar plexus with enough force to knock him back and smash the oxygen out of his lungs. A second blow followed that was a blur to the eye that struck with a machine like precision into the gunmans side, directly under the armpit and there was an audible crunch of bone splintering under the attack. Now, winded, bleeding from two massive craters in his chest that had obviously blown apart everything in the right side of his chest and with four ribs broken completely, the gunman started showing signs of tiring. With each strike, Alexi forced the man back, shattering bones and smashing organs with techniques that no pirate shouldve ever known. His history floated to the surface, and with each strike he brought up more of his past, of his training and of his previous life.
With a roar of hate and anguish he suddenly let it all out, lashing out with a savage combination of strikes that shattered the gunmans kneecap, broke his gun arm in two different places and punched his trachea in with a crunch of cartridge. Gurgling through a blocked windpipe the gunman dropped to the ground with a thud, his crippled limbs buckling under the damage and forcing his head down to the level of Alexis heavy jackboots.
Scowling, Alexi looked down on his defeated foe, seeing how the drug haze still burned fiercely in his eyes and made his body ignore the pain and the crippling injuries that had been dealt to it. Without even the slightest remorse he lifted his boot as he might over an insect, and crushed the gunmans skull with a sickening crunch.

Standing tall over the massive corpse Alexi turned and looked around the bar, seeing his image reflected in two dozen sets of eyes as every pirate and lowlife in the Bar struggled to understand what they had just witnessed. It had only taken less than four seconds for Alexi to draw his own weapon after the first burst, shoot the gunman twice and kill him with his bare hands in a series of lightning fast moves. None, even the most veteran of the hardened criminals and unlawfuls in the bar had ever seen such a thing, and even the Barkeeper seemed shocked at the speed and ruthlessness of the one sided fight.
Alexi ignored them, wiping his messy boot on the cleanest part of the corpses flight suit and glanced over to the wounded Merc and his Junker friend.
You blokes all right? he asked, holstering his Tomvase with a certain flourish as he regarded the shocked looks of the rest of the bar with empathy.

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