[h1][center]Fight to the Death[/center][/h1] [center]A collab between myself and [@Crossfire][/center] [hr] Arex groaned as he slowly came to. He and Amy had fallen into a cave deep below Sovereign's Valley. Without their armor, both of them would have been killed instantly. He pulled himself to his feet and walked over to Amy, nudging her with his foot. "Come on, get up. I'm not carryng you." "And I'm not asking you!" Amy snapped back, her mentality towards Arex at the moment was one of an annoying older brother. She eventually got to her feet, dusting herself off in the process as she ignored some of the aches caused by the fall. Nothing serious that a few painkillers couldn't help later on anyway. "I don't know what's worse, being up there or being down here stuck with you." Amy took a few steps forward before her foot hit her weapon. She crouched down to get it, glad she had it in her hands once more. The cave was dark and damp, if not for the cybernetics riddling his body, Arex would be just as blind as Amy. He glanced around for the rifle he had brought but it was nowhere to be seen. No matter, he still had his plasma sword strapped to his back and his wrist-guns were reading as fully operational. "You feel that breeze? We fell a long way, but we can't be far away from an exit. Let's get moving." As they wallked, he tried to let Stryker know that they were okay, but the comms just sputtered out static. "Your comms working? I'm just getting static." Amy tried calling out through her comms device, but she was met with the same fate. "Nothing on my end either. It must be some form of interference if we're both unable to get through." She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Something about being cut off from the rest of the team that was so unnerving. Not to mention she had no idea what could be five feet in front of her. "I hope we find the exit before something finds us, because if that's the case, then we'll have bigger things to worry about than being lost." They walked into a large, open cavern, their footsteps echoing in the vast emptiness. The air was freshening with each step and natural light was trickling in from the far side. They were close. "Almost there now, seems like a straight shot from he-" [i]WHOOSH[/i] Arex swung his head to the side as he felt something rush past his face. A knife was embedded in the archway they had just walked through, a grenade attached to the tip of the hilt. "MOVE!" Arex shouted, hauling Amy by the arm. The grenade erupted with a loud pop, the force of the blast knocking them off their feet. Stone crumbled and fell as the archway collapsed in on itself. A figure now stood in front of their only way out, cackling with a metallic-tinged feminine voice. Arex pulled himself back to his feet, groaning as the plates on his back separated, exposing a compartment holding his sword's sheath. "You had to jinx it didn't you?" Arex said to Amy as he pulled the blade out and engaged its Plasma edge. "Alright, cover me, and don't shoot me in the back." With the chaos that had erupted out of thin air, Amy pulled herself to her feet as quickly as she could. Despite the fact that her arms were shaking, she kept her weapon aimed at the woman, watching for any sudden movement that could potentially injure Arex as he moved forward with sword in hand. Arex finally got a good look at the woman. Immediately he recognized her from the briefing holos as Vendra Nekten, one of Sol's high-ranking lieutenants. Slim and slender, the purple-blue skinned woman was barely recognizable as an organic being, because her body had been heavily modified with a wide array of cybernetics. Most of them appeared to be fairly old-school, because there was an extremely faint noise in the air, the whir and whine of old parts. Even her voice sounded synthetic. "Give up now, and I'll make it quick." "Heh. That's funny," Arex chuckled, "I was about to say the same thing to you." Vendra held her right arm out horizontally. Almost immediately, segments of skin and metal began to shift and separate, her forearm splitting apart to reveal a broad black-bladed knife. It sprung into her hand and the hidden compartment began to seal itself up. With a flick of her wrist, the blade unfurled outward and collapsed in on itself, suddenly tripling in length to approximately the same size as Arex's sword. Silently, they began the dance, slowly circling one another on opposite sides of the gargantuan cavern. Arex's finger twitched, she was going to start by flinging another of her throwing knives before rushing in on him, he could see it in her eyes, well, the real one anyway. As soon as she moved, he'd counter with a burst from his wrist-gun, and parry her incoming attack. There it was, her free hand moved so quickly Arex almost missed it, The knife began to soar through the air, and Arex quickly countered it with a quick 4-shot burst of automatic fire. He turned wildly, looking for the angle that Vendra was ruhing in from. But she was nowhere to be seen. "What the fuck?" Arex wondered out loud as he shifted stance to hold the sword in both hands. "Rosseau, where'd she go?" "She's off to your right!" Amy took aim and shot off a couple of rounds, but the woman had managed to dodge both of them. She was incredibly fast, that much could be said about her. "Now she's behind you, moving to your left!" Amy tried to keep up, but the woman's silhouette was barely registering through her visor. There could also be a half-second delay given the fact that there was little to no incoming data for the software to interpret. Arex was in big trouble, and Amy couldn't just stand there. She quickly moved towards the two of them as she attempted to keep the woman within her sights. [i]'The bitch has cloaking'[/i] Arex thought as he rounded to parry another incoming strike. Without the enhanced reflexes in his cybernetics, she'd have cleaved him into bits by now. He tensed up as he anticipated another flurry coming, holding his blade in prime position to attack. [i]splish[/i] A puddle had been disturbed a few feet to Arex's left, the surface churning up small rings. In the relative quiet of the cave, it rang loud and clear. Arex took a few calming breaths. As his eyes darted around the arena, he strained his ears, listening for that still-present whir of Vendra's mods. [i]'Got ya'[/i] He spun suddenly, firing his weapon in a wide arc, the automatic ballistics rattling and screeching as he emptied his entire reserve. It worked, with a crackle of blue light, Vendra's cloaking shorted out and she reappeared, clutching her left shoulder. "Nice try," she said, "but it'll take more than that pea shooter to bring me down." She released the injured shoulder and rolled it, shaking out the tension. With her other hand, she held up the bullet, crumpled from the impact, and tossed it aside. With a sudden burst of speed, she dashed forward, her sword outstretched. Arex was just barely able to get his own weapon up to counter, and as the blades pinged together, Vendra cloaked again. this time she moved faster, more unpredictably, even as Amy began to call out directions, he couldn't keep up with the pace, and in his growing fatigue, overcommited to a parrying strike. A screech of metal-on-metal filled the room, the horrible ripping noise echoed off the walls and ceiling. Arex felt the overwhelming numbness and all sound and color bled out from the world as he looked down to see his left arm falling free. A deluge of blood, oil, and cybernetic conductor fluid spewed from the severed bicep as his knees crumpled underneath him. Vendra stood inches away, towering over him now, blade poised for a finishing blow. The numbness gave way to searing pain slowly, he was running out of time, mustering the last of his strength, Arex summoned a psionic wave to force Vendra back a few steps, then turned and flung his sword towards Amy. "It's on you now," he rasped as he collapsed. Her reaction time was impressionably quick. Amy caught the sword, calculating her move as she lunged toward Vendra. Her opponent unfortunately did not move as fast, having been stunned by Arex a second earlier. With the tip of the sword aimed at Vendra’s chest, Amy used her suit to thrust herself forward, both women instantly feeling the impact as they tumbled onto the ground. Amy didn’t wait for a reaction as she pushed herself up off the ground. Standing over Vendra, she noticed the bionic woman silently lying on her back, her outline not showing any signs of movement. Good, she was probably dead. Amy then rushed over to Arex, kneeling by his side as she herself felt some additional aches and pains throughout her body. “Okay, she’s dead, what do you need me to do?” Amy’s voice was breathless as she shook Arex, hoping that he was at least partly conscious to be able to respond to her. "Just help me up." Arex grunted as he clumsily pushed himself to a sitting position "I'm not gonna bleed out or anything, there's countermeasures in my bloodstream to prevent that. Still hurts like a son of a bitch though, gonna need a few minutes before I get my balance back, but we haven't exactly got time to wait. So just... hold onto my sword for a bit." Arex grasped Amy's shoulder as he stood, then kept a loose grip on it as they began to walk, the cave swam and spun in front of his eyes, his balance still completely off and his mind compromised by the intense pain. "Hope those idiots managed to shut down the AA guns, I'm useless down here now. When we get to the surface, radio the Revenant for an evac run. I'll grab a stim from medbay and help man the guns or someth-ACK!" Arex went limp as the tip of a blade burst through his chest, a multi-colored spray of blood, oil, and fluid splattering wildly across the cavern floor. He fell sharply and motionless as the blade retracted. Vendra was still alive. The cybernetic woman chuckled coldly as she flicked the viscera from the end of her sword. A mess of blood and cyber-fluids stained her front, leaking still through the gaping hole in her chest, gears and pumps were visible through it, churning away at a frenetic pace. The faint sound of her cybernetics had grown more audible. Her cloaking was malfunctioning, flickering on and off at inconsistent intervals. She didn't speak as she raised her sword, she just continued chuckling, completely deranged. "No no no no...y-you were supposed to be dead!" Amy was shaking as she turned to face Vendra before something within her snapped. Her and Arex weren't particularly close, but it was the cruel act itself that sent her over the edge. "You fucking evil sadistic piece of shit!" Once more, Amy lunged at Vendra, but this time it was her own balled-up fist that connected with Vendra's jaw. This time it was personal, and she wanted to finish off the already weakened alien woman with her own hands. The punch sent Vendra to the ground, and as Amy stood over her, she kicked her in the stomach a few times, making her opponent's already deadly injury worse. In response, Vendra coughed up some purple-colored blood before she continued to laugh in a bitter tone. "Oh, that's funny to you, isn't it?" Amy proceeded to drag Vendra onto her back before pinning her down, sitting on her stomach to make sure she couldn't move. "Let's see if you'll laugh about this now," Amy continued, wrapping her fingers around Vendra's throat, using all of her weight to push down on her neck. "Who's laughing now you stupid bitch!" The struggle was minimal, but within a few moments, Vendra was dead. Amy stood up, wanting to get away from all the bloodshed but knowing she had a responsibility to her deceased team member. "Can anyone up there read me? This is Amy, over." Amy tried communicating once more, kneeling next to Arex before she shut his eyes closed. "I repeat, this is Amy, can anyone hear me?" Grayson's voice crackled in on the comms, still crackling due to the interference. "I hear ya Ames, are you okay?"