Junebug hurled her spear into one of the shaman who was rising with a wicked looking bone kris, the heavy wooden shaft lodging deep in his stomach but failing to kill him instantly. The man fell to the ground screaming and pawing at the shaft as she snatched the thrown sub machine gun from the air. With no time to unhook the shield she clicked the safety off with her thumb and fired one handed into one of the warriors, on whose 'side' she had no idea, hurling him back with a neat hole above his breast bone.

Wetumpkah lunged at her and she leveled her weapon and pulled the trigger by instinct. There was a metallic click and an audible crunch as the weapon misfired. The shaman was fat and even had he been thin would have outweighed Junebug by a considerable margin and the tackle sent her sprawling down the stone steps. By instinct and training she held onto her weapon and managed to curl herself into a ball, transforming a falls worth of broken bones into an equivalent amount of bruises and scrapes. Dizzily, she pushed herself to her feet when she hit the next tier a moment before Wetumpkah could manage the feet.

"We are friends damn it," she shouted at the shaman as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, drawing a long metallic blade from his belt and grinning through his stained teeth at her. He snarled something at her in his own tongue, too rapidly for her to translate it, it seemed to have something to do with regretting not sacrificing Neil to Rakeeri when he had the chance. Sighing she pointed her weapon and pulled the trigger again. It clicked a misfire a second time. Screaming a curse to the goddess she worked the action to eject the stuck round and pulled the trigger again. A third misfire. Wetumpkah rushed her with his knife and she batted him away with her shield, ducking under his arcing knife. The shaman laughed an ugly laugh as he squared off again.

"Rakeeri protects me from your magic starman!" he sneered triumphantly, sneering at the weapon in her hand. Sayeeda flipped the gun in her hand, caught it by the barrel and then smashed it down into the shaman's grinning face. Wetumpkah went down like a sack of carbohydrate mix and Junebug felt teeth crunch under the blow. For good measure, it was never a mistake to put the boot in when you had the advantage, she delivered two more overhand blows into the supine Shaman and then sprang over his mewling body and down the steps.

Below her was a scene of utter chaos. Hundreds of natives were engaged in brutal hand to hand fighting. From her elevated position Junebug could pick out at least three distinct factions, although why there should be so many she could guess. Shields splintered and spears arched in the afternoon light. Here and there fires were springing up and some of the larger groups were gathering into crude phalanx. Sayeeda even saw children, some who must have been under then throwing stones and hurling projectiles from small leather slings.

Neil and the two women he was apparently carrying had reached the bottom step. There were natives all around, though the sound of his pistol firing seemed to have cleared a space around them. She vaulted two wrestling men and raced down the stairs after them.

"I don't know what the fuck is going on," she said as she reached the trio, "But I'm quietly confident that its well after time we got the hell out of here." The well endowed native girl pulled at Neils arm and gestured wildly, spewing forth a liquid stream of the native babble. The woman was clearly have hysterical so Sayeeda tucked her submachine gun into the waist band of her ridiculous cape and grabbed her by both shoulders.

"SLOW. DOWN. BREATHE," she ordered sternly but calmly. The woman continued to babble for a second longer but then her words slowed, her ample chest heaving.

"Know...safe way..noo mubanta," she managed gesturing towards a small stone structure a few dozen meters from the base of the pyramid. Junebug had no idea who or what a mubanta was, but it didn't seem a time for linguistic lessons.

"Great, lead the way!" Junebug yelled, combat trained voice clear even over the cacophony of the clan war or whatever the hell it was. She shoved the girl physically in the direction she indicated. With a hesitant step the girl stumbled across the square and, after making sure they were following, ran into the building. Junebug followed without hesitation, figuring the place was at least defensible if not a fortress. Neil fired his pistol into an onrushing native and dropped Taya, now apparently willing to move under her own power and followed.

The interior of the building was dark and cool and dominated by what looked to be a large stone well, circular and about four feet wide. The girl hopped up onto the wall and slipped over the side with a splash. The three companions exchanged looks ranging from puzzlement to horror and rushed to peer down. The native girl stood knee deep in dark water waving frantically to them and pointing away to the west.

"Its an aqueduct...," Junebug realized, remembering the large stonework she had seen in the hills on the way in.

"They must bring water in from the mountain streams," she explained even as she climbed into the well and dropped with a splash. The water was shockingly cold for a tropical environment but it wasn't as though she hadn't worked up a sweat. Taya splashed down next losing her balance and sprawling in the water, completely submerging for a moment before popping back up gasping. Neil came last and managed to land more gracefully. Now they were of a level Junebug could see the native girl was pointing at a series of stone arches that ran at a slight upward angle, water trickled down and the stone footing looked slick but manageable.

"Guess we are going this way," Sayeeda commented and flicked on the intergral flashlight in her submachine gun. The beam splashed illumination up the aqueducts tunnel.

"At least something on this damned thing is working," she grumbled.

[@POOHEAD189]