The sound of the shots woke Sayeeda from a dead sleep. Like most veterans she had the trick of sleeping in any situation. On Kay-Bisard she had only awoken once the water filling her fox hole had reached her nose. She rolled out of bed, snatching for a weapon that wasn’t there, present reality asserting itself a few heartbeats after instinct. Her fingers twitched uncomfortably for want of a weapon. She froze for a second as Neil slid across the stone floor to come to a stop. 

“Well you certainly know how to make an entrance,” she observed as he unlocked the cell and passed her the plasma pistol. Her fingers wrapped the grip gratefully as she stepped into the hallway. Two dead guards slumped at their stations. Well they got paid to take risks the same as her. It was a shame that Aiden had chosen to put them in this situation but then a great many things were a shame.

“Do you have a plan for getting out?” she enquired as they slipped out between two security doors. She had many questions about how he had gotten to her in the first place but none of that was tactically relevant at the moment. There was always plenty of time for explanations later. Assuming there as a later of course.

“We need to get to the roof balcony,” Neil breathed. He looked husky and muscular in his current outfit, an effect she realized of the body armor he was wearing beneath his fine clothes. 

“Right elevator then,” she decided. They ran along the hallway at a jog towards the large central shaft that housed the main elevator. They were about twenty meters from it when the doors rolled open to reveal Ranald and a dozen guardsmen. All of them carrying riot guns and shock batons.

“I knew it had to be…” Ranald began in a weary voice.

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” Junebug screamed and pantomimed throwing something. Guardsmen dived in all directions, fearing the devastating blast of even a small grenade in such a confined space. Neil snapped off a shot that blew the control console to flaming junk. Whether by luck or good judgement the short slammed the elevator doors closed in a shower of sparks. She grabbed Neil by the shirt and through her weight against him, pivoting him around a pillar a moment before a volley of riot shot. High density plastic sacks dispersed by shotguns, less lethal ammunition but nobody's friend, ricocheted wildly from the corridor walls with a curiously comic elastic ring.

“So uh not the elevator,” she corrected, pointing her pistol blindly around the corner and firing a pair of shots at random, just to keep their pursers honest.

“The stairs and vent access are on the other side of the elevator,” Neil began then a look of mischief filled his eyes.

“What are you…” but the pilot was already moving, springing lithely back down the hallway pursued by a storm of shots. One of the balls struck him in the back but even basic body armor was enough to soak the blow. She leaned out and put three bolts into the elevator door, spraying the crouching men with gobets of molten metal which sizzled and smoked against their fatigues.

“Captain Cykali,” Ranald yelled. His voice tinny an attenuated after the roar of the gun fire.

“Surrender is a perfectly reasonable option!” Junebug paused for a second glancing back down the hallway. Neil was doing something with the corpses at the security desk but she couldn’t see what.

“I’d be happy to accept your surrender. Standard terms,” she called back. Earning a snigger from Neil who was straightening and heading back towards her. A shotgun coughed but it was a jumpy guard twitching and not an aimed shot at a real.

“Captain be reasonable, we control the only exit and more men will be here in a moment, I don’t want to have to …”

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” Junebug yelled. The troopers didn’t react this time, which was a great pity because they were still crouched in a tight group when the two grenades Neil had salvaged from the security guards went off with a shattering concussion. One of the grenades must have been a flash bang and the second was either smoke or tear gas judging by the spurting stream of thick grayish smoke.

“Go! Go!” she yelled and broke cover running through the dazed men as the groped blindly, clutching bleeding ears and choking on the smoke. Neil and Sayeeda made it throuh before enough of the gas had spread to do more than make their eyes water. She paused to drive a heel into Ranald’s temple, dropping him unconscious to the floor. The old sergeant was just following orders and probably didn’t have anything personally against her, but she felt a sadistic rush of pleasure at the petty retaliation.

They climed into the vent without further pursuit, wiggling their way through the tight shafts till they reached the next level. They paused long enough to observe a dozen soldiers racing down the fire stairs to the floor below before opting to climb another. Sayeeda was sweating by the time they made it to an elevator shaft on the next level. The shaft was sealed to the public by luck or ill judgment Aiden had neglected to deactivate the VIP code he had given her. 

“Taya bring her in,” Neil was calling over a handheld radio. 

“Lonney I don’t think we should…” the message trailed off into a scream on Sayeeda’s mastoid implant as they finally got high enough for it to come into range. The elevator hit the top floor and the doors sprang open. Junebug stepped hastily from the enclosure, as concerned about being caught in a metal death trap as the unfortunate guardsmen below had been, but she needn’t have worried. Neil jerked the door to the penthouse open for her and she stepped inside clearing the door and sweeping the room.

“Put your hands on your head!” she yelled. The same woman she had shot the night before was sitting on the plush leather divan, this time in a stunning red evening dress, cut just highly enough to cover the wounds from the previous nights attack. Her dark eyes widened in shocked amazement at the appearance of the two mercenaries.

“Hands! Now!” Junebug snapped though the woman was not noncompliant so much as shocked and terrified. Reluctantly she raised her hands and placed them against the back of her head.

“Taya what is your ETA,” Junebug demanded as she finished sweeping the room. She lowered the pistol though she didn’t put it away. The girls reply came back at once breathy and gasping as though she had been running a race.

“Lonney says, two shakes of a ...something,” she reported. Sayeeda looked up out the balcony window and then tore her eyes away just in time to avoid being blinded by the full blast of the Highlanders thrusters kicking out giga joules of plasma to break a decent that must have been just short of a completely powerless dive. The concussion blew in the windows and swept the plants on the patio garden like a hurricane. The car they had used as a drop ship the night before, still parked where it had been left, flipped like a paper plate, bounced and went over the edge of the balcony. Sayeeda couldn’t actually see it but she mentally winced at the damage the thing would do sliding down the side of the building, let alone crashing to the compound below. Well she could live with it. The Highlander edged in close, the forward ramp beginning to deploy. Sayeeda took a step towards the ruined patio and then paused looking back at the richly appointed room.

“What?!” Neil yelled shouting to be heard over the rush of wind and the roar of thrusters.

“I was just thinking!” she shouted back cupping her hands. Her face split into a wide grin.

 “We really should steal something!”
[@POOHEAD189]