The scent of blood filled the night as bright arterial spurts pumped the man's life from him in the space of a half dozen, very obvious heartbeats. Kyra snatched the blade from the floorboard, thumbed the power and severed the loop that bound her to the truck with a quick slash. The monokife, atom thick teeth of synthetic diamond whired at several thousand revolutions a second, slicing the tether is cleanly as a laser could have done. Releasing the shackles themselves would have been extremely difficult. It was impressive that the stranger had managed it without cutting his wrists open, nearly as impressive as taking out the guards the way he had. Rather than risking it she close her eyes for a moment and focused her mind. The human body was a remarkable instrument in many ways but it was the product of blind channels of evolution. If one had the right training and the right mindset… Kyra forced her tendons to relax, her hand popped unpleasantly and she was aware of a sharp spike of pain as her hand deformed. With a sharp tug she pulled the limp hand through the restraint, it scraped her skin raw but it was cheap at the price. As she relaxed the mental technique her biology reasserted itself, painfully wrenching her hand back into its original form.

With the restrain still dangling from her wrist she scooped up the carbine and hoped off the back of the truck, yanking the door open before the driver was able to do anything but gawp. He fell to the roadside and she kicked the fallen man in the temple dropping him into unconsciousness. With long strides she moved around the engine block to the man her rescuer was covering with his pistol. She struck him a sharp blow to the back of the head with the stock of her weapon. Dropping the man with a groan to the hard packed road. The stranger was still pointing his weapon but if he were going to shoot her he would have done so already.

“Alright,” she said as placeholder.

Down in the mine the freighter was setting down on a landing pad. That shouldn’t be here. Stabilized uranium was a bulk commodity, according to her information it should be shipped overland to a collection port before being lifted out. Why were freighters landing here? Did it matter at this point? Her cover was blown and she needed to get off planet before one of these yokels got lucky. She glanced up at her apparent rescuer.

“I’m Kyra Ren,” she said by way of introduction. 

“I’m looking to get off world.”