The last time the water bandits had hit Frank Kabrosky and Jose Ferrera's claim, they were unprepared. Five anonymous figures with shiny faceplates, three wicked looking clubs with sharp spikes on the ends, and they had to flee in awkward hopping bounds, to preserve suit integrity, leaving the bandits to transfer six-thousand gallons of water they had toiled the past four months to refine from the unforgiving hard rock extraction mine. There are no guns on the moon. Just five months earlier, Jose and Frank had cashiered out of their five year contract with the Corp., and set out to become independant water miners. They staked a good claim in the wilds of darkside, out of sightline from earth, and settled down to lonely toil. Then those bastard bandits had taken all their gains, and they had to go into hock for food and supplys. They could crack the water for air and fuel, using the solar plates, sure- but Damn, they were pissed off, and they woud be ready next time. The bandits were too clever to take any of their equiptment, as it was all indelibily marked, and valueless for resale in the small lunar community, and their tracks got lost in the jumble of fifty years of traffic as soon as they hit the main road, but if they tried it again ... Frank smiled grimly to himself.

Six grueling months later, they came back, hoping for another easy haul. They figured they outnumbered Frank and Jose. Jose shook the sleeping container sharply in the pre-arranged signal, waking Frank from a weary sleep of just two hours after a 16 hour shift. There wasn't much else to do, except sleep and work. That, and figure out what to do the next time those bastard bandits tried to steal from them. He had his suit on in two minutes, and had the air cycled and was outside in three, patiently going over the checklist in spite of his haste. Pressing his helmet against Jose's, he got the update. "The Bassers are four miles out, comming at 35 miles an hour. We hit them as soon as we see their sharp clubs, No?"

"Yeah, you sling your whirly, and punch up the dust right in front of their buggy, maybe knock it on it's side. If they don't take the hint, and come at us, I will take them out."

The two men spread out to give themselves room, and waited, prepared to kill or die to protect their hard earned resources. At 250 yards they could see it wasn't the welcome wagon, there were five of them, with the same three sharp clubs. Jose muttered a prayer to the Virgin, placed the nitro pellet in the pocket of his David's sling, and gently whirled it around his head, faster and faster. The force wasn't ever jolting enough to set off the nitro, except for when it landed right between the front wheels of the oncomming buggy and its empty trailer, hopeful for stolen water. The silent power of the explosion raised the dust in a billowing cloud, and lifted the buggy's front up, letting it settle gently onto its side. The bastard bandits hadn't noticed, or connected Jose's movements with the explosion, they thought it had been a road-mine, and they figured on taking care of the two miners first, then getting on with their looting. They came on, walking abreast in an irregular skirmish line. Frank plucked the first inch and a half ball bearing from his spring loaded sleeve dispenser, placed it in the pocket of his all metal wrist rocket, and drew back the tight spring coils. He drew bead on the one farthest back, and starred a hole right through his faceplate. The man's emergency training kicked in, and he had a huge sticky patch slapped against his faceplate in no time, but ended up with his right hand glued to his face, and his vision obscured. Before the rest of them noticed any of this, Frank had another bearing flying, and another one went down, to fumble at a glue patch. When the third one had glued their hand to their face, the remaining two dropped their clubs and raised their hands over their heads- Clubs just don't do very much good at a hundred yards. Jose stayed a wary distance, and used a bolo to tangle up the upstretched arms of the last two, and then it was time to go into town. They hooked all the bandits air hoses to a central tank, and took their suit tanks, to discourage any excape attempts, then parked them on top of the tank they had brought. They needed that tank to take their water back to base, as they had 15,000 gallons, and their mobile tank only carried 8,000. With this haul, they would be out of debt, and have made more for themselves than a year of working for the Corp ... Frank drove the bandit's buggy, and Jose drove the miner's, and followed the others for the 14 hour drive. At the tribunal, the jury was more interested in how Frank had turned a piece of bent steel, some flexible springs, and a ball bearing into a defensive weapon than in the bandits. Frank had to take them all outside, and demonstrate. The Nitro Pellet and David's sling never came out, as the bandits never knew what had hit them. As Jose explained to Frank later, "Weel jus save that to ourselves, Okay, Amigo? That and the hydrogen powered 'potato' gun we never had to use..."