Sayeeda picked herself up out of the rubble. Powdered concrete clung to her perspiration giving her a diseased grey look. Irritable she wiped at her face and then pulled a pair of shooters goggles from one of the pockets cunningly sewn into the hip of her skin tight leather bodysuit. The pressed them to her face and fastened the strap before powering them on. The system was far inferior to her helmet but it was better than nothing. A low level static charge kept the drifting concrete dust from settling on the lenses and the googles were capable of providing basic targeting information. Unfortunately the device didn’t illuminate any hidden exit from the situation. They were trapped in a dead end alley behind a two story pile of rubble. Somewhere beneath that rubble was forty million credits worth of rare minerals. It was nearly physically painful for Sayeeda to think about it, but one of the first rules of mercenary life was that no payoff was worth dying for. With a reluctant sigh she turned away.

“Ok snake, do you have any breaching charges?” she asked the Hex. If they could cut through the building to either side of them there was a fair chance they could get free before their pursuers could get organised. Gnorlac’s goons certainly thought that the Hex’s attack was a doublecross and even if they could have convinced him otherwise  there wasn’t going to be a chance to clear things up.

“I am no snake, woman,” the Hex hissed in irritation. The whine of drive fans spinning up briefly overpowered the slackening gunfire. It appeared that even idiot gangsters could reach the right conclusion eventually.

“Uhhh… Captain, this is Saxon,” Neil said by way of introduction.

“Saxon, this is the Captain, err Sayeeda, or Junebug,” the pilot went on haltingly. Saxon looked around in confusion, nostrils flaring and contracting in what might have been an expression or might simply have been a reaction to the explosive residues in the air.

“Well which is it?” the Hex demanded. Sayeeda hissed irritation.

“Can we do the social thing some other time please?” Junebug shouted over the rising roar of the fans. Dust billowed around them though her goggles kept it out of her eyes. The charge kept the googles from clouding, but the air a millimeter beyond was opaque with dust. She tumbed a selector on the side of the googles and switched to millimetric radar. The simple processor in the googles through up a rough wireframe based on the radar returns.

“Breeching charges? Yes or no!” she shouted over the howl and the dust storm blowing down the alley from the back blast. Saxon barred his fangs and pulled a torn belt from his armor. Several smoke grenades dangled from the severed ends of the bandolier but nothing more substantial.

“Sssomeone blew it up,” the alien snarled.

“Ok, you really dont want to play the who fucked who the worst game today,” Sayeeda shouted. With a deafening roar an air cushioned jeep lifted above the rubble. The engines were redlining to carry the load of gunmen that had been crammed into it, far exceeding the safe lift capacity. Unless they had better optics tha Junebug credited them with the hired killers couldn’t actually see them through the smoke. They probably couldn’t even be certain that the trio had survived the blast. Sayeeda settled into a shooters stance and fired three rounds in quick succession. The car was above the rubble, exposing its underskirts to her fire. The first round sparked off the body work but the second and third rounds punched one of the nacelles to scrap. The sensitive mechanism seized for a moment and then blew one of the hydrogen cells in a flash of white fire visible even through the storm of grit. The concussion flipped the car like a tiddly wink, spilling gunmen and loose items a moment before the inertia of the blast drove it out of sight and into the ground with a rending boom that seemed unimpressive after the world ending crash of the fuel air charge.

“If we cant go through we will have to go up!” she shouted, shoving the pistol into her hip pocket. The leather smoked and charred from the waste heat of the barrel but the garment was already a write off.   Without waiting for any further discussion Junebug grabbed a hand ful of bundled cables that ran up the side of the building in a loose conduit and began to shimmy her way up. If they could get high enough they at least had a chance of getting out of this mess. The smoke still billowing from the rubble pile as well as the dust that hung in the air provided concealment if not cover. Unfortunately the force of the blast had snuffed any secondary fires before they could break out.

“What are you doing?!” Saxon demanded, “If they have optics they will pick you off like Sindaran flies!” Junebug already ten feet up the uncertain ladder, looked back over her shoulder.

“You’re right we should probably stay here were it is safe,” she said sarcastically before taking another handful of cable and hauling herself another few feet towards the roof.
[@POOHEAD189]