[IC] Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

[POOHEAD189]

Neil deadpan looked upwards as the Draconic Xenos rose into the air in a glide due to the membranous flaps it had along its muscled arms. "Oh, it can fly now," Neil said to himself, knowing Sayeeda couldn't hear over the noise of the engines and the screaming roars of the beast trying to kill them. "That's... just neat." His voice was filled with mock, quaint fascination and amusement. He closed one eye and aimed down his ARC Rifle.

The beast screeched, and Neil whispered to himself. "Yeah yeah, keep talking bitch." He boasted, and pulled the trigger just as Sayeeda began her maneuvers as the thing closed in. Needless to say he missed, but he saw the gauss shell rip through a small tree, and the hotshot pilot began to rev up the gun again, glad this wasn't a traditional slug loader. It was just as he was trying to aim again that Sayeeda slammed on the breaks, sending Neil flying backwards (or forwards) into the driver seat next to Sayeeda, banging his head on the dashboard.

Now Neil was very durable for a guy his size. Thick headed too. But it still jarred him to his very core. "Ohw," he exclaimed, blinking and shaking his head. He pointed at her, drunkenly. "You're lucky you're so good lookin' or I'd get pissed." He said tiredly, before the roar of the beast brought him back to reality. (Somewhat.) "Yeah, whatever." He said to the Dragon, pulling himself up with one arm like a monkey and whipping the gun around. Just as the Dragon opened its maw and pounced, a slug from the ARC gun hit it directly in its maw, ripping open its throat and tearing the beast apart from the inside.

Bloody shrapnel fell onto Sayeeda and Neil as if it was a gruesome take of heaven's manna. "W-what was I saying?" He asked no one in particular, swallowing into his dry throat, before falling onto the seat limply, still dazed from the hit he took. In truth, his head killed him and he couldn't quite see straight. The sun blazed overhead, far too bright than it was not moments before.
@Penny

[Penny]

Blood and viscera showered Sayeeda, Neil and the vehicle as the corpse crashed to the ground behind them in a gory pile. In theory the static charge on Sayeeda's faceplate should have kept the fluid from touching it and obscuring her view but there were limits and gobets of bluish blood spattered across the front of her field of vision. Several louder thunks sounded from the back as piece of meat the size of apples pattered over the back of the jeep. Junebug made a half heated effort to sweep the blood from her face shield but it only served to smear the fluid further. Sighing she throttled down slowly before bringing the jeep to a halt and allowing it to settle to the moist sand of the riverbank.

"Well," she said judiciously, picking pices of meat off the passenger seat and tossing them over the side of the vehicle.

"Any one you walk away from I guess," she finished and took her helmet off to free her hair. The things blood already stank, although the smell was both different and more unpleasant than the familiar smell of human death. Whatever the native lifeforms where they clearly used some other substance for oxygen transport, perhaps cobalt or copper, but that apparently didn't stop it from smelling. Climbing out of the jeep she stretched her legs and looked around. They were parked on a broad sandy flat land that probably served as part of the river bed during flood. Here and there creeks, like the one that had come so close to ending thier little joy ride, snaked their way down to the main river, carrying run off from the walls of the valley. Patches of tough greenish yellow grass stuck up like hay in a half cut field and insects, small gnat like things with four sets of wings whirred around.

"Good shooting," she said, somewhat reluctantly, "I hope we dont have to deal with too many more of those things."

Using a shimmy cloth from her cleaning kit she managed to get the blood of her visor and fitted the helmet back onto her head, by chance the thermal overlay was still running.

"Weird..." she said as she caught a glimpse of an oddly dappled pattern at the end of one of the small feeder creeks. It wasn't anything unusual, just a grassy bend in a creek, but there was an odd cross hatching in infa red. Reaching up she toggled the helmet to millimetric radar, the distortion vanished.

"There is something weird at the end of the creek," she explained to a doubtlessly confused Neil.

"Lets check it out, we should probably let the engine cool down on this piece of shit, if we are going to keep it we need to talk about some serious overhalls," she said as they started walking away from the car, its engine still pining with differential cooling.

It was maybe fifty meters down the creek when it finally occured to Sayeeda what they were seeing. Camoflague netting. Not the at the market in millitary surplus stuff either, good stuff, not quite as good as they would have used in the armored but still of very high quality. It was pulled over something nestled in the corner of the creek. Junebug made a cover me gesture with her right arm and unslung her plasma rifle. Bringing the weapon up to her shoulder she moved low and fast across the sand flat to the netting, cranking up the thermal imaging gain just in case. She needn't have bothered.

"Son of a bitch," she said, straightening and relaxing as she looked down into the creek. Reaching down she tore back the netting, almost invisible even this close, to reveal a battered looking land-drifter much like their own. Whoever had left it had clearly taken pains to conceal the fact and he had gotten his hand on military grade disruption netting.

@Penny

[POOHEAD189]

Once Neil had his wits about him, he held his rifle at a hip fire stance, sitting behind the smoking vehicle and keeping an eye on Sayeeda's surroundings as she approached whatever the hell she was trying to go see. He had the tiniest feeling that he was about to see her explode from uncovering an old mine or trap, but he was relieved to see the new Captain had merely uncovered...netting? Good netting to be sure, but what was it covering? He couldn't exactly see from this distance.

It was at seconds later when Neil noticed a shape around the edge of the treeline. A lone humanoid figure on the bank behind Sayeeda. He was just about to take aim and fire when he noticed multiple forms now materializing out of the gloom of the forest, with weapons held at the ready but none who were actively firing at Sayeeda, even if they were in range. Neil was pretty certain if he open fired, he'd condemn Sayeeda and perhaps himself if he wasn't quick enough to get out of there, so with a sigh he lowered his ARC rifle.

A man with a similar skin tone to Sayeeda approached her, his gun pointed her way, but only as a precaution she would know (by the way he carried it). The man had on combat clothing, baggy pants and a brown tanktop, with rough boots toed with steel. He eyed her up and down, and then spoke up. "Why do you pass through these woods? This is our land. To live and move freely through here, you must pay the toll."

He openly admired her feminine form, citing she didn't need to pay him money per say to get out of this alive. Luckily, they had not yet seen Neil from across the creek at the vehicle, for he was on the other side of the land-drifter. Neil whispered to himself. "Well, the rebels seemed nice enough not to fire on the spot. If she doesn't think of something, I'll need to."
@Penny

[Penny]

Junebug cursed herself for a fool as the rebels emerged from the woods behind her. In her mind she had assumed it had been their target who had camouflaged the car, but even if that were true there was no reason for her to assume that others might not be watching it. Briefly she considered shooting it out, using the car as cover, but that was a losing battle against so many, even if they were as incompetent as she suspected they were the odds of one of them putting her down by accident were high. You could win against the odds if you had firepower, but one person, no matter how effective wouldn't be effective enough to overawe so many attackers. Glumly she raised her hands.

"My name is Sayeeda Cyckali," she said, keeping her voice calm. Panicing was what prey did, and it was important she not be considered as prey.

"I'm looking for someone," she went on and then she gave the leader a wink, "And sure we can talk about tolls." The rebel leader grinned broadly, his teeth surprisingly white against his dark skin. Members of his - squad? gang- snickered and stepped forward. They stripped her of her weapons, one man taking her rifle, another, a younger man barely older than a teenager unhooked her sub machinegun. By luck or ignorance they ignored the several grenades on her belt.

"Well lets talk about that back at camp," the leader leered, he stepped behind her and made a desultory attempt to grope her, the body armor didn't make that very practical and so he settled for tying her hands behind her back with plastic ties. All of the men smelled of jungle life and maybe some sort of local narcotic but they had a confusing mix of weapons which seemed too advanced for rebels but too poor for military. Surplus maybe. The leader lifted her helmet off her head and smiled with pleasure at her revealed face.

"Lets get her back to camp boys!"

@POOHEAD189

[POOHEAD189]

Neil supposed he was lucky. They were too busy checking out Sayeeda's weaponry and feminine charms to notice the wiry guy across the river. Granted, he'd been crouched and behind cover. But you would have thought they'd gone to check out her vehicle and maybe scavenge it for parts. He supposed they'd do it later, perhaps, but the lack of thoroughness did give him an indicator these were lesser trained rebels, if they were even rebels at all. They could just be outlaws.

"Well good news for me," he said to himself, though he had every intention of following them. Sayeeda had done ok by him so far. He waited until they were all out of sight, and then waited another two minutes before he was sure no stragglers had stuck around. Slinging his ARC rifle over his back, and taking out his high caliber sidearm, he vaulted over the vehicle and made his way across the river. Odd, snake-like organisms with frills slithered to and fro, but he took a bet they weren't dangerous and they kept their distance well enough.

---

It was less than an hour later when Sayeeda was brought to the rebel 'outpost' which was more like a glorified camp, with only twelve individuals, most of them appearing rough and ruthless but not particularly well trained. A fire pit was in the center of the clearing, with rocks and industrial supply crates used for places to sit. Three speeder bikes were parked near a larger boulder at the south western part of the clearing, next to a larger vehicle, a very worn and used hover-transport built for paramilitary operations.

Tied to a tree was a man close to Neil's age, maybe a few years younger. He had a desperate look to his eyes, with short cropped blonde hair and a slim body, clothed in a ripped (albeit initially expensive) civilian garb. He seemed a bit too scared for someone who had not been particularly roughed up.

To the north within the camp was a PAAC (personal arms & armor crate) standing man height, with rifles and ammo displayed within easy use. A large rodent-like beast was spit atop the fire and slowly roasting for the bands dinner. As the 'troops' marched Sayeeda into the clearing, she'd feel a sharp bump against her hip, courtesy of a small river-pebble from the southern edge of camp. If she looked, there would be three men there cleaning their weapons, but no one looking her way. Of course, if she gazed upwards and looked hard, her pilot would be planted there behind the canopy, giving only a slight movement to give himself away as her gaze swept over him.

"Who the hell is that?" the tied up man asked. He was slugged across the face by his guard. "I told you to shut up!" the guard cried, before pausing a moment. "...Who the hell is that?" In the trees, Neil mouthed in a mocking manner 'who the hell is that' with an exaggerated facial gestures as he did so.
@Penny

[Penny]

Junebug refrained from looking up as the pebble struck her and managed to cover her flinch by stumbling momentarily on the uneven ground. The rough hands of her captors arrested her progress instantly and held her firm for a moment in case it were a faint of some sort. Part of her was impressed that Neil had managed to follow so closely without being observed, another part of her was just glad he hadn't come charging in guns blazing, that had seemed to be his style and would have been a very poor percentage for Sayeeda remaining unshot.

"Well sweetie, welcome to our humble home," the leader said with a grand gesture at the meager squalor of the camp.

"Your knew home too if you know what I'm sayin..." he leered, giving her a slight shove down into the center of the camp. Her eyes didn't rest long on the figure tied to a tree. Another prisoner and of little current help in dealing with the situation. She wished that Neil had a subdermal radio like the small unit she had installed in her mastoid bone. While she was at it she might as well wish she had a combat skimmer with a full crew. That thought made her smile as in her mind the clearing blazed with cyan flame, the men currently man handling her exploding into clouds of steam and burning clothing as plasma super-heated their fluids. Whatever the expression looked like on the outside made her captor momentarily flinch back and she realized it didn't line up well with the somewhat clueless persona she needed to survive.

"I bet we can find a tree to tie her to right Jorge?!" one of the other rebels called, thrusting his hips obnoxiously. The leader, Jorge apparently, appeared to recover his bravado.

"Well you wont' be paying any tolls with that on," he said, the swagger returning to his voice as he began to fumble with the catches to her body armor. There was a sudden hiss of pressurised air and Sayeeda winced as the armor's integral medunit shot her full of... something, she couldn't tell which of the colored med tabs he had pulled in his fumbling.

"Please, let me do it, I wont be no trouble," she said forcing herself to smile sheepishly. Jorge struggled with the armor for a moment and then, taking in her words nodded. He pulled an impractically large knife from his belt and then yanked her close to him, licking the side of her face as he reached behind her and severed the bonds. Sayeeda didn't cringe. She had been spattered with blood and worse than blood more times than she could count, though the revulsion still registered in the back of her mind. The toughs hooted and cheered their leader. Smiling vapidly she reached back and touched the release studs that snapped the armor open and stepped clear of the heavy ceramic. Beneath it she wore only her tan cotton shirt, still smeared with the blood of the dragon like creature Neil had shot. She had no idea how the men found it attractive but the cheered and hollared none the less.

Jorge stepped towards her and grabbed a handful of her firm breast, his other arm looping around her waist to draw her close. He smelled even worse close up, but she couldn't imagine what she smelled like covered in a fine mixture of blood, sweat and dust. The rebel mashed his lips against hers and she returned the kiss unentusiastically.

"Not here," she breathed, "Is there somewhere private?"

"The girl wants some privacy!" Jorge boomed, with a wink towards his men, "Well maybe just this one time!" There was general laughter from the assembled goons and Jorge half lead half dragged her towards a series of tents that had been in place so long that moss was growing in uneven gray patches upon the camoflage fabric. He thrust her inside the tent and followed her in, already unbuckling his trousers. Sayeeda lay back in what she imagined to be an enticing position and the Rebel came towards her laying atop her as he pulled his trousers down and fumbled with her belt.

"Oh your going to be..." Sayeeda hit him, hard with her fist held with blade like rigidity. It was a killing stroke, practiced and perfected in viscous street fighting on more worlds than she cared to remember. All of her considerable strength went into a single well timed strike. The cartilage in his neck popped with a snap she feared might be heard out in the camp. By way of camouflage she prepared to moan in simulated passion, her dark eyes glinting viciously at Jorge as he choked for air, unable to breath, unable to breath through his collapsed airway. Continuing to moan theatrically she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him to her, rolling atop him with ease as she pinned his hands, preventing him from going for either the knife of the electromotive pistol he had in an impractical leather holster. His bulged for lack of air and she continue to moan atop him as she delivered a second blow, this time to his carotid artery, in a similarly brutal fashion. His body stilled quickly beneath her. Continuing to moan and rock for the benefit of any outside listeners she slipped the pistol from the holster and checked the load. It wasn't a model she was familiar with but it was simple enough in all truth. Next she slipped the knife from the sheath and, nothing if not thorough, thrust it under one of the ribs and up into the stricken rebels heart. The twitches ceased immediately. After wiping the blade on the dead mans tunic she cut a vertical slice in the side of the tent away from the others and began to tiger crawl out into the jungle.

Sayeeda saw Neil almost immediately, the glint of his rifle obvious to her from this angle, although apparently not to the rebel who seemed to be talking excitedly and drinking some sort of local liquor. They had only moments before they realized her simulated exstacy had ceased and there was no way she was leaving her gear and body armor in any event. She made a field signal to her pilot indicating he should open fire, realising only belatedly that he wouldn't understand the field signals current in Andor's Armored. Fortunately it was easy enough to point her stolen pistol back at the camp and pantomime opening fire.

@POOHEAD189

[POOHEAD189]

The pilot had nearly fired as he saw the groping unfolding before him. The only thing that kept his big gun from discharging and ripping through flesh was the fact that Sayeeda was acting very uncharacteristically from what he had expected. Granted, he hadn't known her too long. But any girl with any will would have hit the guy, but she took it and even encouraged it, albeit awkwardly. "Well well well," he breathed, keeping still and watching what was transpiring. This girl had a plan.

Then again, once the moaning started he wasn't entirely sure. It sounded a bit higher pitched than the rebel's voice, and Neil had to tell himself this was probably an act. Outside the tent, one of the men went off to take a piss on the opposite side of camp, and Neil made a quiet groan of his own. If he'd planted himself somewhere else he could pick them off one by one. He'd chosen the best vantage point to see without being seen, but that didn't mean it was the best spot for all scenarios.

Wait, had the moaning stopped? His dark eyed gaze switched to the tent again, and his brow raised when he saw her crawling through the jungle like a stalking cat from a small slit in the tent she had made. Goddamn, she actually did it. He was glad he'd checked, because her small signal was one for attack. He answered her with a wink and a grin, and hefted his rifle none too gently as he aimed.

One of the rebels had just ended with the punch line of a tasteless joke, and a voice from above laughed with them. "Oh man, that was great." Needless to say, their confused faces were the last expressions they ever made. The ARC rifle revved up, Neil fired into the three of them. One of the men's chest was sheared open, and the other lost a leg from the first shot. Small talk turned to screams and cries of alarm, as the pilot finished the other two off before he was getting bullets punching into his cover from the other eight men.

"Okay," said to himself, shifting his weight and falling off the tree. He hadn't even bothered climbing down, instead merely grabbing a lower branch with an outstretched arm below him to somewhat stop his fall, before he hit the ground with relative ease. His next shot was a blind fire through the bushes, but apparently it had caught someone, because another scream erupted.
@Penny

[Penny]

Junebug ducked behind the bowl of one of the larger trees as the forest crashed with the sounds of rifle fire. The rebels initial panic was passing. They might be backworld scum, but they had been in enough firefights to have learned the basics. The survivors ducked behind the cover of crates, stumps and their large hover vehicle and began to fire up into the trees where they, correctly, guessed Neil was located. Sayeeda inwardly winced. Trees were poor positions because the enemy had just as good a line on you as you had on him, they provided no real cover, and they were difficult to fall back from. Already bullets were wicking through the foliage, showering the lower levels with leaves, twigs and splinters.

Well, she couldn't exactly fault him for tactical choice. It wasn't as though he was the only combatant on the field. A smile tugged and her lips as she peeked out from behind the tree bohle. The rebels had clearly dismissed her from thier minds once the shooting started, and no one had yet had time to figure out that Jorge was missing. One of the rebels was fumbling with the plasma rifle she had bought from the Highlander, a foolish move over using his own, more familiar, weapon but an understandable one. She sighted on the small of his back and then took up the trigger pressure on her stolen pistol. The slugthrower kicked harder than she had imagined and the recoil lifted the barrel. Rather than a clean shot through center of mass the round lifted the back of the rebels skull in a spray of pinkish gray mist. She fired again, this time judging the recoil correctly, the second rebel slumped bonlessly forward onto the log he had been using to sight.

Attacked from two angles, leaderless and with half their number down the rebels broke, unfortunately they still hadn't correctly figured Sayeeda's position and they fled towards the trailhead beside which she was sheltering. Neil's rifle continued to crack, either because he didn't realise they were running or he didn't see any reason to not put the boot in when the enemy was down. Sayeeda approved of the second option also.

With deliberate care she stepped onto the trail in the path of the four remaining rebels, their eyes were wide and it was doubtful they saw her before the pistol cracked, dropping the lead fugitive in a tangled heap over which the second man sprawled in gawky disorganization. Sayeeda ignored the fallen man and shot the next rebel, a bulky man with a grease stained mowhawk, through the right eye. The third man pitched forward, struck, she presumed from another round from Neil. Her lips tightened into a grimace, no body liked incoming rounds no matter how well intentioned.

"Please," whimpered the man still trying to untangled himself from the corpse on the ground.

"I surr..." Crack. Sayeeda shot him through the top of the head before he could finish and he slumped with a gurgle over the other corpse. For a moment the forrest was silent save for an odd chuffing sound. It took her a moment to identify the hysterical weeping of the prisoners she had seen on the way in. The barrel of the pistol glowed white from the extended firing and the air danced and distorted around the irridium battle. The acrid taste of ozone and the stink of blood and the voided bowels of dead men, a familiar cocktail, filled the air.

"All Clear!" Junebug yelled, waggling the pistol slightly to help with cooling.

[POOHEAD189]

He'd only been able to fire six rounds from his ARC gun after the initial three shots, so when he exited the bushes, he had his high-caliber revolver in his hand, the barrel smoking somewhat like Sayeeda's. "I can tell working together is going to be a hell of an experience." He commented, looking down at the corpses. Just from walking through the camp, he saw his boots were covered in red muck, and he let out a comical "ew" as if he'd stepped in what the dog dropped.

His mild disgust was quickly replaced with interest once he saw all of the dropped weaponry and supplies, as well as the ammo boxes near the crates on the northern edge of camp. He picked up a rifle, weighing it in his hands. It was a slug thrower gun, old but still useful, and therefore liable to sell. The other firearms on the ground looked to be las-weaponry, as well as more slug thrower autoguns like the one in his hands. He tossed Sayeeda the autogun. "Looks like these guys won't be needing this shit anymore. Gun running does sound like a good idea."

He turned to look at the transports. "Or those. Not that I suggest we make two trips for the vehicles, but..."

"So, who are you two?" the tied up Prisoner asked, having strained against his bonds until he had given up any hopes of escape, now conceding he was at the mercy of these newcomers. "You some of Hatcher's guns or what?" Neil turned to look at him as if he'd forgotten he was even there. "Dude, we're in the middle of a conversation." Neil's matter of fact words had the prisoner hesitating, confused. Once the guy didn't continue to speak, Neil used the silence to add in something else. "The real question is, who are you. Because if you're someone important, we'll take you back to the city. But if not..."

"Drake Ferenhall." The man said quickly, which caused Neil to nod as if he had expected it all along. "Now how does that work?" the pilot asked, approaching Drake and gesturing with his gun. "Did you get Ferenhall from your mother? It's not the same name as Gorlan's." That statement drew any response from Ferenhall to a stop, fear in his eyes as he swallowed his dry throat. "You...work for my father?"

"Just this once. Now it's time to pack up your bags."

"Please. You don't understand." Drake began to explain. He shook his head, pleading. "This world has ancient technology like you wouldn't believe. I-..." His eyes flew wildly between Neil and Sayeeda. "I-I can share it with you. Escort me and we can go and become rich beyond your dreams!"

Neil glanced Sayeeda's way. He didn't exactly want to risk Drake's life without a good reason, because that could very well mean the Highlander would not be given to them. But it was Sayeeda's call. Neil was nothing, if not a risk taker.
@Penny

[Penny]

Junebug ignored the babbling prisoner as she poked around the camp until she found what she was looking for. Uncermoniously she turned her back to the men, stripped off her shirt and upended a 40 gallon canteen of water over her body, allowing the tepid water to sluice away the worst of the blood and vicera from the earlier encounter with the local wildlife. She let it gush down over her hair and body for long moment before taking a few mouthfuls to cleanse the ozone taste of EM discharge from her mouth. Feeling significantly better she toweled herself off with a mostly clean blanket and then slipped on a spare shirt that had been drying on an improvised clothes hoist made of optic fiber cabling, her camo pants were still soaking wet but the tropical heat would dry them sooner or later.

"Sure," she said contemptuously as she finished pulling on the shirt and walked towards the two men. The sleeveless shirt more completely displayed the owl tattoo on her shoulder than the exercise shirt she had started the day with. As she walked she slipped into her armor and started fastening the catches. The intergeral unit informed her that that the drug the rebels had accidentally injected into her was a cortisol plasminogen cocktail for burns. No sweat, at least she didnt have to worry about crashing.

"And this is the part where we go along with your cunning plan and then you bolt and ditch us in the jungle. Do you take us for idiots?" Sayeeda sneered. She tossed the pistol into the woods as she settled her sub machine gun into place. Drake's mouth worked like a landed fish for a moment.

"No no no, nothing like that," he bleated, "I swear I'm on the level!"

"Said every con man ever," Junebug rejoined, reaching into her pocket and drawing out a needle stunner. Drake yelped again when he saw the weapon and tried to put the tree between himself and the mercenary.

"Look it's worth big bucks to the Terrans I swear big money!" Sayeeda paused and cocked an eyebrow. What in the Goddess' name did the Terrans have to do with anything. Still the very fact that he made the statement gave some validity to Drake's claim though. He could still be bullshiting of course but that seemed a level of bullshit too good for the man.

"Are you working for the Terrans then?" she asked, lowering the stunner despite her own better judgement. Drake emerged from behind his tree though he still held his hands up defensively infront of him and maintained a half crouch. Junebug wondered why he thought that would help.

"Yes. No. Listen I was going to set up an auction once I knew that the Earth Heads were interested in it, nothing final yet."

"Uh huh," Sayeeda said skeptically. She cast a glance at Neil, predictably he looked like an eager puppy about to be taken for a walk. It woudn't cost them anything to check out Drake's story they were somewhat ahead of schedule... Sayeeda stiffened suddenly as something changed in the ambient noise around them. Judging from their puzzled looks neither Neil nor Drake had heard it yet. Drake opened his mouth but she raized the stunner again and he fell silent. She held up a hand for quiet.

"Fuck," she said and shoved the stunner into her pocket. In a singal motion she drew a knife from her belt and cut Drake's bonds. The man squealed as though she intended to cut him and then staggered as she shoved him down the hill towards the narrow creek bed at the base of the slight rise.

"Go go go!" she yelled and grabbed Neil and gave im a similar shrug. Both men must have thought she was insane but the started moving which was the important thing.

"Incoming!" she yelled as she ran past them down into the creekbed. Instinctively she turned inland away from the distant keen of oncoming engines, now faintly audible even to those who hadn't spent years in situations where your life depended on recognizing the sound. They raced along the rocky bed of the creek, making far better time than the would in the open jungle. A few moments later a supersonic aircraft tore the sky overhead. It was too fast for Sayeeda's naked eyes to identify it but her helmet video caught a few instants of it and identified it at 98% certainty as a Terran Karlov Class Dropship. According to the scematic the Karlov was a low altitude insertion vehicle for commando units.

Sayeeda dropped back to run beside Drake. He wasn't as fit as she was but he was certainly motivated to move.

"Anything else about the Terran's you want to to tell us before I kill you, you son of a bitch? Like maybe why they are sending commandoes out after you?" she rasped.

@POOHEAD189

[POOHEAD189]

Neil couldn't help but give Sayeeda's smooth caramel back a look, noticing more than a few scars as well. She's making the 'professional' part of the professional partnership harder with half the shit she's pulling, he thought to himself, shaking his head. He then glanced Drake's way, seeing the man giving a hungry look himself. Neil snapped his fingers, drawing his gaze away, guiltily. The pilot shook his head, and then turned back when Sayeeda had a shirt on. As she went over to verbally beat the tied up runaway, Neil had on a face and mumbled. "_{She didn't save me any water did she?}"

He decided to just take a swig of his canteen, blinking and clearing his throat. That felt much better, though he could use a shower on the ship once they got this guy off planet. Needless to say, Neil's eyes were widened when Sayeeda began to move like a panther on instinct, cutting bonds and shoving them forward. "Hey, what's the big de-" He started, even as he ran. That was when he heard the whistling up ahead. "Shit."

Behind them, the trees cracked as the drop pods sheared through them and into the ground. He'd seen Terran commandos before, but never in combat, much less when using the actual drop pods. Neil just thanked whatever being that watched over them that he had his equipment still strapped to him. Another earth shaking explosion occurred, and he was flung to the ground with the two of them as Sayeeda threatened Drake.

"I don't know!" Drake exclaimed, shaken. His mouth started moving rapidly when he saw the gun in Sayeeda's hand. "Look, the only other person who knows I'm out here is Val-kan Hatcher!"

"What in the fuck are you talking about?" Neil piped in, unholstering his rifle and jerking his body to shift his prone position, giving him more room to fire at the commandos once they realized there was no one at camp. Drake looked between the two heavily armored mercs and just spat it out. "He found out what I was doing here and he's been funding my research. He might have tipped off the Terrans if that meant they'd get off his back but...they're here for multiple reasons but one reason is that my research is legitimate."

"And what exactly is this you're looking for?"

"It's hard to explain! I can show you where to go but-"

Shouts were heard in the distance. Shouts coming closer, it seemed like. Neil wasn't going to fire yet, but he didn't know if they'd pass the three of them by or not. The ground was somewhat soft, even from the lack of water on this old creek. There were various holes in it, and little, strange mollusks with thirteen appendages and two sections of the body, scuttled between each hole, feelers rubbing against the merc's skins.
@Penny

[Penny]

Sayeeda rushed through the foliage, hoping against hope that none of it was actively poisonous. She took them on twists and turns around outcrops and gullies, but the integral compass in the helmet allowed her to keep a more or less easterly bearing while putting as much cover between her and an Terrans. It wasn't so much their weapons that she was worried about, although those certainly were a danger, it was the sophisticated optics their strike team would have. It would be the work of moment for them to realize that the rebels were dead and their intended target, Drake she assumed, was gone. If they weren't far enough away by that point they would be able to use infrared to track the trio through the forest far faster than they would be able to flee.

Fortunately, whether by luck, good judgement, or the simple mass of thermal signatures in a tropical rain forest the sounds of pursuit fell away quickly. Sayeeda kept them running for another ten minutes, at the end of which Drake was wheezing like he was going to die at any moment. Reluctantly she allowed them to halt by a small pond, clicking her own visor into thermal and scanning behind them before allowing herself to relax. Adrenaline still burned hot in her body from the earlier firefight and the pursuit.

"You are even dimmer than you seem if you think the Terrans don't know what Hatcher had for breakfast," she sneered. Sayeeda herself had only a vague knowledge of Intelligence work, she had done a semester at the academy and gotten a certain amount of insight on the job, but she didn't doubt the Signals Sections on the destroyers could crack any encryption on this dirt ball like an egg.

"Also you owe us a new land drifter," she added as an afterthought, doubtless the Terrans had overflown it on the way in and would waste little time in securing both vehicles. For a moment she just leaned back against a tree and let her racing heart steady.

"Alright, spill, whats so great about this research that it has everyone all hot and bothered?"

@POOHEAD189

[POOHEAD189]

Drake looked shaken to his core. Sure, he didn't seem like this was his first time in danger. There'd be wet trousers and a whole lot more screaming on his part. But being this close to danger unnerved him greatly, and he seemed far too keen on getting away from Sayeeda and Neil just as much as the commandos, constantly looking over his shoulder on when he could perhaps slip away. When he realized that wasn't going to happen, and Sayeeda asked him the direct question, he looked to her.

"I don't know what it is exactly." A simple statement, yet the shivering fear and awe in his eyes was damn near chilling. He cleared his throat, and hesitated, choosing his next words carefully. "The...The Aelahyne once used this world for study, and experimentation." Neil turned to Drake with a raised eyebrow. "The Forerunners?" The pilot said incredulously. Almost no one called them by their true name, Aelahyne, and they had died out a long time ago.

"Why do you think Savran City was built upon a ship like that?" Drake asked with excitement, letting his words sink in. The city's ship looked somewhat human in its make, but also oddly shaped, particularly the upper reaches of the city near its engines. "Why is Savran so hot and teeming with life when it's a bit too far from its star to sustain such an environment?" He tried to gauge the reactions of the two mercs, but knew they couldn't understand it like he could.

"The Aelahyne have facilities here. Underground facilities with technology we couldn't even dream of. And I know how to get there."
@Penny

[Penny]

Junebug leaned back against a large fungus with a vaguely purplish sheen, her skin prickled with adrenaline and she felt dry and detached despite the oppressive humidity.

“Ademahawhatnow?” she asked as she clipped the plasma rifle to her pack and shifted the submachine gun forward. They might or might not have shaken the terrans but the slug thrower was the better choice of weapon, both for the short sightlines and the heavy folliage. Plasma rifles put out an impressive amount of power but they vented their energy on the first solid object they encountered. It would be very impressive to blast a shrub to flaming cinders but it was of limited utility if the commando, or xeno monstrosity behind it would be unharmed.

Sayeeda was not an uneducated woman as such things went. She had been to military college on Croyden, a high tech world whose main export was soldiers, naval officers, and administrators, but the curriculum there had left little time for such abstract topics as history. A slight smile twitched the corners of her mouth, she doubted Drake could tell her much about the operations of a signals intercept detachment, but that wasn’t really germane to the discussion. Fortunately Drake needed no encouragement to enlighten her.

“The Aelahyne or the Forerunners as the less educated call them, were the first Xenos race that humans encountered. They had a mastery of the RIP that we can’t even begin to imagine. They were the original guardians of the Vault from which many of the advanced technologies that allowed the Golden Age of expansion were drawn from,” Drake said, his voice gaining strength and authority as he covered information which was at once familiar and allowed him appear superior to his rescuers/captors. It must have been a relief to him, after days of uncertain activity, to find himself in control of at least this information. Sayeeda blinked realizing she had tuned out for a moment.

“Valuable alien tech, got it,” she supplied filling the silence which clearly required some interjection from her.
“It is a find of incredible historical significance!” Drake half shouted. Sayeeda smacked him in the jaw with the butt of her submachine gun, dropping the younger man into a pile at her feet.

“Keep your fucking voice down,” she said in a quiet deadly tone. With practices swiftness she scanned the jungle, clicking through her helmets various enhancements. No sign of the Terrans.

“Last thing we need is a brick of Terran commandos, honing in on your whining.” Drake lifted his fingers from a bloodied lip, his face a mix of shock and anger. After a moment he nodded his head and pulled himself to his feet.

“Anyone ever tell you that you can be a bit of a bitch?”

@POOHEAD189

[POOHEAD189]

Relgayne Tallon waved to his four fellow commandos, giving them an intricate, albeit simple pattern of handsigns which indicated that Bravo 2 and Bravo 4 should look for the other two squads and bring them closer to their vicinity. Sergeant Tallon had initially ordered the others to fan out and search the brush, but an indicator on his helmet's HUD pinged in green, showing there was an audio anomaly less than a click north of them.

---

Neil watched the exchange between Drake and Sayeeda with a light look on his face, brow raised. He even snorted when Drake was struck. Not because he enjoyed the pain of others, but he almost saw him being struck mid -entence was a sort of punchline, or a comedic scene in a film on the planetary broadcast screen.

"She's not a bitch." Neil said as if the comment was absurd. Though within moments he spoke again. "Well... guess that's not entirely true. She could be. But not like, too big of one. More lik- she- she's the right amount of bitch to be effective in..." His eyes met Sayeeda's and he nodded and zipped his lips.

He was about to comment on the weather when a twig snap over the rise due south drew all of their attentions. It took a mere second before lasblasts began flying around them, punching into the dirt and charring the soil instantly with super-heated beams. Neil wasn't about to pop out of their cover just yet, so instead he unpinned one of the few fragmentation grenades he had, cooked it for a second, and then tossed it over.

"We should go." Neil deadpanned.

"Follow me," Drake told them while scrambling to his feet, dirt kicking up in the air during his haste. He had the energy of man needing to live. Must have some kind of girl waiting for him somewhere, Neil thought. Or he just wasn't used to life and death situations. As if on cue, the grenade went off and a short cry was heard from behind the rise in the dirt and passed two of the strange, alien trees.

It took them a relatively short amount of time (though it seemed hours) to make it to Drake's destination, which was a hatch buried in the side of a fern and vine covered cavern wall, towering trees abound around the immediate vicinity. The vines were so thickly intertwined together that when Drake shifted them to reveal the door, it was as if he was bending reality.

"The anomalies have always led to right here." He announced to them, sweat beading off his forehead and his look showing he regretted the circumstances that led to him sharing this moment with two mercs working for his father.
@Penny

[Penny]

"Great great, now if you can get the door open before the...," Junebug hissed as a plasma bolt blew a chunk of earth the size of a dinner plate into glowing fragments of magma. At the temperature of plasma everything burned and the earth sparkled as its trace elements burned off and cooled into slivers of volcanic glass.

"Terrans catch up," she concluded and raised her submachine gun to her shoulder. The slug thrower craked three times in quick succession and she dropped back into cover. The hatch seemed to be located in a floodway, a small tributary that fed one of the larger rivers only when it was swollen with fresh rain. The silvery surface of the hatch must have once been underground but the slow erosion of soil had revealed it to Drake. The same erosion gave Junebug a narrow trench to crouch in as the Terran return fire hissed over her head, treating her to fresh showers of burning debris.

Drake waved his hand in front of the panel and to his evident delight a series of flowing glyphs appeared in the air like holograms. The stuttered in and out of existence but were clearly visible.

"Hostile units, this is your one and only chance to surrender," a voice buzzed in Junebug's ear. They must be blasting a general frequency call and her mastoid was picking it up. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Drake touching the holograms in sequence. Another near miss dumped burning leaf mulch onto her smoke curling up from her ceramic body armor.

"Hold your fire, we are coming out," she responded. Neil looked at her in shock but she merely shook her head. Drake triumphantly hit the last rune in the sequence. Nothing happened and there was a moment of awkward silence as the Terran fire slackened. Drake's face fell like a puppy that has been kicked.

"Come out with your hands up!" called a voice, tinny and metallic through a helmet speaker. The door panel wavered and dissapeared. It didn't retract or open, it just simply wasn't there. Behind it stood a long tunnel plated in what looked like tarnished silver. It smelled like old antiseptics.

"In!" Sayeeda ordered and shoved Drake through the opening.

"Close the..." but the younger man was already on it mashing a similar sequence of rooms. A Terran in body armor burst over the rim of the ditch and pointed a military issue mob gun at them. In an instant he fired and the door wavered back into existance. The tunnel fell into darkness and there was a clanging noise like a rain of supersonic ball bearings.

"Really hoping they can't get that door open," Junebug observed dryly.

@POOHEAD189

[POOHEAD189]

"Glad I protected my head this time." Neil said to himself after the rough tumble he and Drake made down a mercifully small staircase. Oddly enough, the metal of the stairs were extremely malleable, as if it made itself softer so as not to harm whatever or whoever had been thrown down it. Neil blinked, but he couldn't see anything. He really hoped that it was an actual lack of light and not the fact that he might have hit his head despite feeling no pain, and lost his vision.

"Is it dark in here or is it just me?" Neil asked.

"Where'd you get your degree, genius?" Drake said back. It was meant to be cutting, but Neil was just glad it was dark for the others too. "I didn't have a rich daddy." Neil replied, trying to find his weapon. His hand patted the cold ground, unable to reach where he thought he heard his ARC rifle fall. That is, until he found a small bit of metal that he couldn't lift his hand off of. He blinked, and tried again. But the hand was stuck to it. Not just the skin, but he felt like the muscle of his right hand was stuck tight as well.

He was about to voice it when a searing pain ripped through his skin, hotter than any cooking stove or oven. The burning sensation and pain overwhelmed his senses, and he nearly fainted from the experience, gasping until the feeling suddenly vanished without a trace. The hallways lights bloomed above them, glowing as if every corner of the hall's surface area was a small source of light. Neil could see Sayeeda at the top of the small stairway and Drake beside him on his hands and knees.

The small oval shape his hand had rested on looked calm, and Neil took his hand off of it now. Only...his palm had a strange symbol on it. It looked like a gas planet's ring, set in an oval shape, with a curious starship image flying through it, all within a 7 sided shape.

"I think I got a tattoo..." Neil said aloud. Drake was, of course, confused at both the lights suddenly turning on, as well as Neil's statement. "What in the hell are you tal-" he began, until his eyes widened and he took hold of Neil's hand, examining it and reading the image as if he was reading a sacred scroll. Neil raised an eyebrow. "It's not that cool."

Drake shook his head, trying to form words. "This is one of the symbols I've read of. It has two separate meanings. Traveler and Chaos. One of the symbols they made to honor one of their Gods."

Before them, the metal of the hallway was smooth and light grew, with white lines framing every 5 feet that glowed brighter than the more grey metal. The hallway was not far, and it ended in an archway that led into a circular corridor, both left and right curving inwards to suggest it led to the same place.

"And what God was that?" Neil asked. Drakes next words were not promising. "Kharolek. The one that sets fire to the Galaxy."
@Penny

[Penny]

Sayeeda tapped experimentaly on the door they had entered through, her sub machine gun muzzle woke a soft metallic clang from the hatch. A moment later there was an answering clang from the otherside. Grinning maliciously she began to tap out a series of long and short clangs on the panel.

B Y E

A moment later came a series of bangs from the other side.

F U C K Y

chuckling to herself she stepped down the stair to where Neil and Drake were pulling themselves to their feet. She observed Neil's tattoo and resolved not to touch anything herself. It was unlikely but not impossible that the Terrans would be able to gain entry, somehow she doubted cutting bars or blasting charges were going to cut it. Now if they had time to bring up a plasma cannon...

"We should probably get moving," she said in a neutral voice and headed towards the circular corridor.

"And as much fun as anthropology class is, I don't see much to justify the effort so far," she said to Drake. The scholar coloured as though about to snap back at her but clearly though the better of it.

"You wont be dissapointed, it will all be worth it you will see," he said, striding forward. Maybe it would to Drake, but Sayeeda didn't have much use for a buried ruin she couldnt take with her, and the interest that people were showing in this place and in Drake was starting to make her a little uneasy. She wondered if his father had an idea of what he was doing and wanted him back for his knowledge. With a metallic rasp she stripped out her half empty magazine and fitted another tube of rounds. One problem at a time.

@POOHEAD189

[POOHEAD189]

The circular hall beyond, while obviously advanced and far beyond anything Neil had ever seen, was a bit less well preserved than the initial hallway. The lights above them had the same hue as the hall, but they came from a source that could be fathomed. Drake looked around in awe as he walked at the fore, running his hands over the curved metal of the hall. For some reason, every now and then the smooth surface of the metal was ripped as if something immensely strong had slashed at it. The ever so often flicker of the lights didn't help bring the mood up, either.

Once the three had made it full circle to the end of the hall, there was a doorway there. It looked like starship blast doors, only as per usual in the facility, far smoother and made of an alien material, and rimmed with ethereal lights. There was a raised panel on the left, somewhat higher off the ground than what would normally be for a human to comfortably put their hand on it. But Drake grabbed Neil's arm and lifted it towards it.

Neil yanked his hand back, raising an eyebrow. His other arm held his Arc gun across his shoulder nonchalantly as he regarded Garlon's son. "Hey!" he said. "touching me is for paying customers."

"We need to open the door." Drake told him. "Your hand can do that."

"Why would we need to open the door. Why can't I just blast through it anyway?"

"You want to get out of here, don't you?" Drake asked, trying to use logic that he hadn't initially thought, nor was he truly concerned for. Neil sighed, and with a nod from Sayeeda he placed his hand on the dias. It didn't hurt like a son of a bitch this time. It was only slightly warm, and the door opened before them.

Neil whistled at the unexpected sight.

Displayed before them was a moderately large room, also curved and circular in nature. With three 'floors' if one could call it that, made of balconies where strange, alien seats lined in a row on every one. Near the center, on the ground floor, was a dias that glowed a low blue. Above the blue was a floating metallic sphere that hovered mere feet off the dias. The lights above were red, giving the
room an eerie, purplish aura.

"The interface..." Drake said, his breath catching as he did his best to make his way down the slope of the side wall to get to the ground floor. Neil casually said aloud what he was certain both mercenaries were thinking.

"I don't like the look of this."
@Penny

[Penny]

Sayeedea scanned the room with her submachine gun briefly but found no targets of any kind. It was clear the place was a xenoarchaeolgical gold mine, but that didn't help her much because she had no way to carry it off, or to control access to the compound. It was likely that the Terrans would eventually succeed in forcing the doorway and would waste no time in taking them all into custody. That might mean imprisonment, arrest or a plasmabolt to the back of the neck and Junebug wasn't willing to bet on what choice a black ops team, far from home, would make.

"Yeah its great and all," she said impatiently, "but we really don't have all day." Drake snorted as he reached one of the consoles and slipped into the seat. A flickering field, not unlike the keypad blinked into existence before him.

"Relax Rambabe, it would take a plasma cannon to get through that door,” Drake replied loftily.

“They have plasma cannon’s idiot, the dropship certainly has some, worse they can certainly get thermobaric breaching charges if they don't have them.” Junebug hoped they weren’t carrying anything that heavy for dismounted operations on a jungle world, but hoping was a good way to get your ass blown off. Drake looked a little chagrined at that but his confident expression quickly returned.

“It wont take me long, we will be gone long before they get here,” he reassured her and began touching icons on the screen. A moment later there was a discordant hum and dust rained down from the roof. A dodecahedral shape of what appeared to be solid light coalesced over some kind of aperture in the center of the room and then, cooled was the only term Sayeeda could think of, into a silver object the size of her head.

“The Core,” Drake said reverently and turned in his chair to look back at Sayeeda and Neil. He touched another button and a shimmering blue tube appeared around Junebug, the back of her throat prickling with ozoone. A similar tube flashed into existence around Neil. Sayeeda reached out a hand and pressed against the strange blue energy. It crackled beneath her hand and was impenetrable as stone.

“Stasis tubes,” Drake explained as he collected the Core, “I’m sorry I couldn’t have you dragging me back to my father.” Sayeeda unslung her submachine gun. A difficult task in the confined quarters.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Drake simpered, “The ricochettes you know? They should deactivate once I leave the facility, and if not, well your Terran buddies will be along.”
@POOHEAD189