Fiction/Prose: And Now For...

this is really bad apologies. i wrote it in like an hour (also this is a crosspost -- if you see it on another site it's most likely from me)

For May Trope Mayhem hosted by Duck Prints Press - prompt day 4: space western

Title: And Now For 

Rating: PG-13 - one swear word, mild vehicular violence, the heights and peaks of melodrama

Original Work. No romantic relationships, gen. Wordcount: 834 words.

Sheriff Luci “The Scar” Belladonna was minding her own business, as usual, when a call came into her radio earpiece.

“Madam Belladonna!” a voice exclaimed from the other end. It was junior cadet Oso Hea. “We have a problem at Littleton!”

As it turned out, the problem was a notorious group of criminals known as the “Kashchei” who went around terrorizing civilians on Juno. The most infamous of them all was their don, Captain Jervis “The Innocent” Young. And yes, Captain was part of her name.

Today they had decided to strike Littleton. That town was poor as dirt, but there was still a reason for the Kashchei to terrorize them, as they always had a reason.

And Sheriff Luci Belladonna’s goal was to stop them from wrecking the havoc they so desired. After the transmission finished, Luci turned to her autonomous hovercraft nicknamed the Lucky Foot – just polished and right behind her, as it turns out – and hopped aboard.

The sands of Juno whipped around the Lucky Foot as it glided through the level plains. Soon, the town of Littleton appeared in the distance. Blurred though it might be through the lens of the hovercraft windows, Luci could make out the faint black outlines of the Kaschei hovercraft vehicles, parked just outside the town’s interior sector.

“They’ve already begun the burning!” Oso’s voice exclaimed from the earpiece. Poor Oso, who was definitely at the scene already way before Luci could even blink, was shouting other commands that were muffled by the sound of collapsing buildings. “Madam Belladonna, we’re gonna need a whole lot more reinforcements than this!”

“Don’t worry, I can handle this just fine,” Luci replied. If Oso heard her voice wavering, it was going to be all over for her.

The Lucky Foot soared through the opening in the walls that the Kaschei had left as they blazed a trail of destruction towards Littleton.

“Easy, now,” Luci said as the engines hummed. If she didn’t swerve now, the Lucky Foot would hit overdrive too soon. At the next corner, she swerved – and nearly hit an oversized tanker in the process.

“My bad,” Luci nearly said before realizing what the tanker was. It was the IronDome Fortress MK2000, in the case known as the Babushka – welded by none other than the big bad don Captain Jervis herself.

The Lucky Foot puttered down into a narrow street as the tanker’s engines roared behind it, engulfed only by the spongy walls around them. Suddenly a voice erupted through a separate channel on Luci’s earpiece.

“You bastard!” the voice said, and said a host of other vile things that shall not be written here. Luci heard it all. Her eyelid twitched as she led the Lucky Foot down the streets and through Littleton’s central courtyard. Just as she reached that space, Captain Jervis’ voice erupted from Luci’s earpiece again.

“I’ve got you cornered now, sheriff!” Captain Jervis said, laughing. There was the creaking of the Babushka’s guns as it began to aim towards the Lucky Foot.

“Oso!” Luci shouted into her earpiece, on the secured channel. “Send me your coordinates!”

They came immediately, blinking on the hovercraft lens in front of Luci. She pushed down a red lever and the Lucky Foot hit overdrive, flinging itself over the buildings around the courtyard and into an empty field where scrap metal was piled up like towers.

“Madam Belladonna, I see you,” Oso said, “Hold on, I’m coming!”

A long shadow was cast over the ground, blacking out the Lucky Foot’s lens for a moment. Just then, there was a gust of air that shoved the Lucky Foot backwards and into a short pile of scrap. Behind it was a tower of scrap, taller than the Babushka and swaying from the wind. Soon enough there was a buzzing noise in the air, and a burst of light radiated from the Babushka planted in front of the Lucky Foot.

“You’re surrounded, sheriff,” Captain Jervis said, “Nobody’s here to save you now.”

Luci gritted her teeth. She let the Lucky Foot creep forward, just enough that it was imperceptible to the Babushka monitors.

The Babushka’s guns lit up, and as the energy beams charged up, the Lucky Foot burst forward in one last effort to outwit the colossus. Overhead Luci watched through the lens as Oso’s hovercraft neared her location.

“Oso! Move to your 9 o’clock!” Luci shouted to the earpiece.

There was a great burst of light, a hollow sound, and then a dull thud.

Luci toggled the rear lens. The tower had come down around the Babushka, and the ship shuddered as it struggled to move out of the scrap all around it.

Through the filtered airwaves emanating from her earpiece like little pinpricks of fire, Luci could hear Captain Jervis hurling profanities.

The guns of the Babushka swung around, its barrels still smoking from the misfire.

Luci smirked. She laid her palm on the smooth holster at her hip.

“Bring it on!”

The end.