Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

What do you say?”
    “I don’t have time for this,” said Finlay, and shot Valentine Wolfe through the chest with his disrupter.
    The energy beam punched through Valentine’s chest and exploded out his back, throwing the Wolfe to the floor. Finlay sniffed once and turned to Gregor, who snarled soundlessly at him. Finlay strode forward, putting away his sword and gun, and grabbed Gregor by the shirt front with both hands. He hauled the huge distended body out of bed and threw Gregor on the floor. Flames from Valentine’s burning clothes had set alight some of the surrounding furnishings, and the flames were spreading. The heat and flickering light and shadows added a suitably hellish touch to the proceedings. Finlay looked down at Gregor.
    “You hurt Evangeline. You’re a murderer, and a traitor, and a symbol of everything that’s corrupt in the Families and in the Empire. The world will smell better when you’re gone. Don’t waste my time with threats or warnings. Your guards aren’t coming, and I don’t care what happens after I’m through with you. All that matters is that you suffer as you made my Evie suffer. I’m going to make you hurt so bad that when you finally die and get to Hell, the fires of the Pit will seem like a release.”
    He reached around his back and pulled the projectile weapon out from under his belt. He’d saved it especially for this moment. It was a simple handgun, with eight bullets. He took aim at Gregor’s left knee and pulled the trigger. The kneecap shattered immediately under the bullet’s impact, and Gregor screamed shrilly, clutching his bloody leg with both fat hands, as though they could force the kneecap back together. Finlay aimed carefully and shot out the other kneecap with his second bullet. Gregor screamed again, flailing his arms as though appealing for help that wasn’t there. Finlay raised the gun and shot out Gregor’s left elbow. Blood and splintered bone flew on the air, and the forearm swung back and forth at an unnatural angle. Finlay fired again, taking out the right elbow, and the right forearm was almost torn away by the impact. Gregor was screaming steadily now, barely stopping to suck in new breath between each scream. His eyes bulged, and his mouth stretched impossibly wide. Finlay took his time aiming, and shot Gregor in his grossly distended stomach, just above the navel. This time the impact had a soft, muffled sound. Gregor howled like an animal. Finlay shot him in the groin, and blood spurted high up into the air. Gregor screamed and howled his sanity away, and still couldn’t hide from the awful, horrible pain.
    Finlay stood and listened for a while, smiling his death’s-head grin. Half the chamber was on fire now.
    He looked around for Valentine, but there was no sign of the body anywhere. The Wolfe must have crawled away to die. He wouldn’t get far with half his chest shot away. Finlay turned back to Gergor, still screaming like a soul newly damned to Hell.
    “This is for you, Evie,” Finlay murmured, and put a bullet through each of Gregor’s eyes, blowing the back of his head away. Finlay Campbell lowered the empty gun and looked down on the dead body of his enemy. It comforted him. The flames were all around him, and no doubt sweeping through all the floors below. There were no windows in Gregor’s private quarters, no way out. He could hear explosions everywhere. The Tower wouldn’t last much longer. Finlay looked calmly around him. And wondered what he would do next.

Chapter 6
    Cry Havoc
    The Empire, dangerously weakened in its transitional state between the new and old orders, found itself under attack from all sides at once. And everything went to hell in a handcart. Old enemies came howling out of the dark, falling like wolves on undefended colonies out on the Rim. A massive fleet of Shub starships burst out of the Forbidden Sector, brushing aside the quarantining starcruiser, and laid waste to every inhabited planet in its path. Powered by the new alien-derived stardrive, they were effectively unstoppable by anything save the few remaining E-class starcruisers in the Imperial Fleet. The great golden ships of the Hadenmen appeared out of nowhere, striking viciously at unsuspecting planets all along the Rim in The Second Great Crusade of the Genetic Church. It soon become clear they were emerging from hidden bases deep beneath the surfaces of uninhabited worlds. The Hadenmen had recently established secret Nests all