"What do you mean you won't go and fight him? You're a Shaktar!"
"What has that to do with it?"
"Well he's out there alone, you're a Shaktar, you guys fight one on one hand to hand, it's, well, it's honourable, with a capital haicht. This way, up here, trust me, that's a vent pipe, it has to vent to somewhere."
"But he is not fighting hand to hand, he has a Warcraft Thermacannon, and furthermore I lack access to a close combat weapon that could penetrate the WarWorld armour that he is entirely encased in, if indeed such a weapon exists. His Electro-nucks however would have no such problem in return. How is your ammo?"
"HESH and HEAP run dry, down to standards only. Yeah but it would be an honourable death wouldn't it, the sort you guys dream o ....Shit! Thumpers gone death, he's killed it, there goes our evac. He's in the building, too close, we've got to move. Yeah, that's right, an honourable death...."
"It would be a stupid death, there is no honour in being stupid. To attack knowing that I would die, that I could not kill him in return, and that my death would serve no purpose would be a fool's death. To judge yourself so highly, to overreach your ability so far is the act of a fool. A fool dishonours himself and his family."
"So you consider Sleazy's death stupid? Wait a minute, this is following a standard autofactory template, I know this one. It's this way."
"This is back the way we come I feel it unwise."
"Trust me"
"That is what Gunmetal said. His death was stupid but then he was a half-breed idiot. .Sue however believed her tactic would work, it has succeeded before...mind the cables....the use of her physical assets to calm a foe, the offer to "Love him long time, sucky, sucky" was a valid stratagem against a military man and would have resulted in disarming and disarmouring him. Private Mulhollands reaction was sudden and extreme. At first I believe that he reacted to her offer to supply "pie", whatever deviant act that may be, but from the rant that followed as he widely separated her body it appears that the medical records we accessed were not complete."
"Man, might explain his mood, that is one piece of me I would not like to leave on a battlefield. Anyway you guys do it all the time, tanks, bunkers, Thresher....er, single combat I mean."
"You should watch more than the highlights, these instances most often result from an order from a superior, they form part of a greater plan. Or they are the result of a challenge."
"A challenge that's right he challenged you, he insulted your family, your race.... damn! Where the hell is the elevator it should be here, it's always here."
"No he did not, he believes my race to be a lie anyway, he seems to be under the impression that we are all shape-changing Thresher spies who have replaced his former squad and superior officers in order to kill him. Which way? Also that we seek to eat small children, although from the deserted campfire we found I believe that we have solved that misconception. The only insults he directed at me were not family or race specific, they were disturbing and I suspect anatomically impossible but that does not constitute a challenge. The only person coming close to insulting my race is you....move now"
As Sirocco crashed through glass of the window propelled by Rc'kst'ns' body blow he caught a brief glimpse of the Shaktar drawing himself up and gripping his scythe in the manner he always referred to as "Silent Greeting". Then his fall stopped, suddenly, as he crashed onto something solid and sent water spattering about him.
Comments / questions to Martin Wheeler