My ribs feel like they're about to pop beneath the machine-man's weight, but my hands are free at my sides. As Bot-Nathan winds up for the death strike, I draw the particle pistol strapped to my calf.
I fire twice before he can react. Two red-hot blasts of concentrated radiation streak into him. The first hits his wrist and burns straight through it. I see the glint of the knife pinwheeling through the air, leaving him brandishing nothing but a handless forearm. The second blast burns a hole through his neck.
He kicks my weapon-hand before I can fire a third shot, and it's like getting hit with a sledgehammer. As the pistol flies from my grasp, I'm shouting in agony. He's just broken the fingers of my good hand. All of them. At once.
He bends down to grab me, but his head flops unnatura
