[IC] Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

[EliteCommander]

Senjen did not entirely expect to disarm the droid. In truth, he was not sure what he was expecting out of anything he did. For the most part, there was precious little time to think about much of what he did; just act and hope his instincts were right. He had the droid’s sidearm now, so he holstered his own and kept it for himself. Aside from preserving ammunition, these alien weapons were overall stronger than his.

The moment he saw them, Senjen braced himself against the edge of the hatch and fired on the droids on the truck trailing them. The trucks were armored, so they could handle hits from small arms. Clearing off the droids was a much greater concern than whether or not he melted the paint. However, this was not what he needed to be doing right now. The other droid was still out there, and there was nothing he could do about it from in here. Letting the droids on their own truck go unchecked could end up dooming them all.

Senjen turned towards the other soldiers. At least one of them was uninjured, and they were all armed. They were better suited for this. “Give them some cover!” He shouted to them, pointing out the back to the other truck. There was no time for doubt or debate; Senjen just had to steel himself, then climb out the hatch to cling to the outside as the droid had been. From there, he had to crawl around the exterior to see if he could find an angle on the droids. At speed, the wind rushing by across the hole in his frame did at least give some much-needed air cooling to his components, at least.

[Cath]

The droids on the truck behind barely stopped to register Senjen’s opening salvo. Their shield drones quickly swung around to cover them as the door charges blew, sending another plume of smoke sideways out onto the road. Surprisingly, the droids didn’t press their attack on the occupants of the cabin. Both droids jumped off and fled as Senjen clambered out of the hatch to climb up.

With a whoosh, a sleek missile uncoupled from the flyer gaining on their position and flew into the back of the second truck. It exploded in a ball of fire, a shockwave rocking the first truck. Their pursuers must have been desperate to prevent anyone from escaping. In the background, the restaurant collapsed suddenly inwards, pulled towards the station’s deckplate.

-

The bodyguard had clipped the repeater to the front of his waistcoat so it wouldn’t float away. It hung at his side now as he climbed up onto the roof of the truck before Senjen. When he glanced down the length of the truck, nothing was there. He then hurried across the roof to the other side and saw Light enveloping the droid before the boss alerted the group over comms about the rapidly approaching wall. He dropped flat to the roof as they made impact.

The truck crashed through into the lobby at high speed, shattering the plate glass facade into a million pieces that travelled with it in a maelstrom of debris. The boss swerved left to avoid a heavy reception desk, and sent the truck careering past a block of elevators towards the glass wall on the other side of the building.

The bodyguard got up, face cut up by shards of glass. There was a clunking on the roof next to him - he turned to find the droid scampering towards him on all fours. Bringing the repeater to bear, he held the trigger down but it's shield drone absorbed the shots. The droid closed the distance, pushed the repeater to the sky with one hand and grabbed his throat with the other.

“WHERE IS THE CHILD?” The droid blared.

“Kiss my ass!” The bodyguard spat.

-

Faced with death at the hands of a desperate QV, the droid deployed a last-resort defense mechanism. Frying its own internal machinery, it generated a massive electric shock. Light’s suit caught it and dissipated it away from his body, but it took enough attention away that struggle over the gun that the droid could push it away. Using its free hand, it unholstered its side arm and shot Light in the abdomen.

The QV grunted in pain, lights swirling as his senses blurred. His suit peeled away from the side of the truck and he floated in the same direction as the truck, towards the other side of the building as they smashed through expensive zero-g furniture.

[EliteCommander]

Senjen was in the middle of climbing up when he saw what was just ahead. As fast as he could, he dropped back down, hanging off the back of the truck as it crashed through into the building. Being behind the truck, he was able to avoid the impact and debris, and when he climbed back up, he was witness to the droid with the boss’ bodyguard in its grasp. Fortune, it seemed, was favoring Senjen here, and maybe the bodyguard as well. He had an angle on it from behind, and both it and the shield drone were occupied. With a bit of luck and the element of surprise, Senjen could still make an impact. He did not even finish climbing up; as soon as he had his upper body over the edge, he took aim with his stolen pistol, steadied his arm, and fired three consecutive shots into the droid’s center mass.

It was only a moment longer before Senjen was finally able to climb up to the roof, and it was then that he spotted Light and had a brief pause of understandable confusion. Why was he even up here? Wasn’t he meant to be driving the truck? Regardless, he saw the shot, and he saw Light start to float away from the truck. As startling as it might have been, it was a moment that gave him a laser focus. Light was his client, and his client was hurt, so there was only one real option in front of him.

“Light!” Senjen shouted. He took a few shots at the droid at the front as he rushed forward, but his focus was Light. He leaped from the edge of the truck towards Light, intent on trying to catch him and use his thrusters to help guide him to safety.

[Cath]

The droid on top of the truck had absolutely banked on Senjen following them outside. Their shield drone had been positioned as a rearguard specifically for that eventuality. What they had not expected was a man with a heavy weapon to be on top of the truck already. Their shield took most of the damage but then had to recharge on the droid’s body. This meant they were totally exposed when Senjen shot them three times in the chest.

Sparks flew as the energy weapon burned through its internals. It didn’t even get a chance to activate its self-destruct failsafe. With its last ounce of power, instead it closed its fist tight around the bodyguard’s throat, choking him. He dropped the repeater, eyes bulging and cheeks turning blue as he scrabbled at the droid’s inert hand.

The droid on the side briefly watched Light’s gel suit as it peeled away from them and the truck. Just to make sure it wasn’t some kind of trick. The electrical pulse had destroyed a lot of its more delicate systems, but the link to its shield drone was still active. As it crawled slowly along the side of the truck back towards the gaping hole into the cabin, the drone popped out of its back just in time to protect against the shots directed at it by Senjen.

~Cardiac arrest warning! Requesting immediate medical attention.~ Light’s suit blared directly into his mind. He coughed up a wad of bloody bile. He felt his suit’s cooling touch on a searing pain in his abdomen. He felt it inject him with a powerful cocktail of drugs that temporarily revived him. He was floating next to the truck as it crashed through a white, open, brightly lit room. They were halfway now, just approaching an elevator block which filled the middle third. They were swaddled in a cloud of broken glass and metal. He saw Senjen floating towards him. He was saying something. His name! He looked past him and spotted the droid he’d shot hauling themselves into the cabin. He could hear that man and his daughter’s voice. The truck began to swerve towards them.

These people couldn’t win. Not now.

“Save the child!” Light spluttered to Senjen, more blood mixing in with his gelsuit.

[EliteCommander]

Senjen was already on a collision course with Light, but he heard what he said. He was responsible for his client, but also responsible to follow his orders. Still, the two were not mutually exclusive. Rather than use his thrusters to slow down, he used them to speed up and guide them as soon as he grabbed Light. As they were floating through the air, Senjen tried to maneuver Light around to his back. “Come on, get those tentacles around me and hold on tight.” He messaged Light directly.

Senjen kicked off of one of the interior walls of the lobby to send them back on a course towards the truck. By this point, he was back to seeing alerts in the periphery of his vision that he was silencing one after another. The extinguisher had delayed the heat issue, but he had not been able to keep calm and still, so he was back on a path to overheating. The gel suit, though, it was cool to the touch, and grabbing it sparked an idea in his mind. QV gel suits could distribute and diffuse heat.

“Focus, Light, stay with me. I’m overheating. The hole in my back, you can use your suit to cool me down.” Senjen messaged him again.

With his thrusters, Senjen aimed them for the nearest opening into the truck’s cabin. He had his gun at the ready, hoping this droid would also be distracted enough when he got an angle on it.

[Cath]

Even though Light didn’t currently have the faculties to coordinate his suit properly, the gel itself was listening to Senjen and knew what to do. In theory, any activity outside of maintaining its host’s vital signs was a bad use of its limited resources. But it could tell from Light’s brain chemistry that it wasn’t an optional course of action. The suit bonded to the Utaysi and pressed against the damaged components, dispersing excess heat.

The lobby was an absolute mess now, with a giant cloud of fast-moving wreckage hurtling towards the plate glass at the opposite end. The boss could barely see out of the wind screen; they didn’t build wipers on vehicles designed for Korit.

“Hey, fish food! What's happening out there?” He called out when he heard the shots ring out. He looked in the half-smashed wing mirror and saw a distorted black shape crawling towards them from outside. It didn’t look like the QV

“Daddy, we’re going to crash!” The girl squealed.

“Don’t worry sweetheart, it’s only a window! Just strap in!” He leant down awkwardly around the steering column to grab the emergency pistol tucked from his ankle holster. Pulling it out, he whirled towards the empty door frame to see the droid’s head appear. Behind it was its shield drone. The boss shot right at it’s head but the shot deflected off the metal. It grabbed the hand holding the pistol and crushed it. The man bellowed out and swerved the truck towards Light and Senjen’s side of the room just as the truck smashed through the second wall of plate glass onto a busy pedestrian street.

[EliteCommander]

Senjen and Light were moving quickly to keep up with the truck. He could see the droid hanging on to this side of the cabin, and he could see its drone was watching him. He could not sneak up on it to gain the surprise he had been relying on, though even at a quick glance he could see it was damaged. Flying in from behind, Senjen had to think on his feet. It was struggling with the Human up front for the girl and might have been prioritizing getting its hostage as the best way to ensure its success. That would have to be enough.

Senjen had time to fire a shot before reaching the truck, but the shield easily absorbed it. With his feet, he grabbed a hold of the side of the truck just before it crashed through the window. The droid was just in front of him, so it took most of the glass shards and debris in his stead, not that it would have done much to affect either of them. Senjen had been relying on stealth and cleverness to get an edge on these droids this whole time, and he had one last trick that came to mind: a bit of misdirection and sleight of hand to deceive its threat assessment. While it was struggling over the girl, he fired another shot that the shield absorbed, then bashed the shield with the pistol grip in a vain attempt to break through. And while the drone watched his seemingly desperate attempt to force his way through up high, his other hand drew his own pistol from its holster down low. He pushed it slow enough to pass through the shield, intent on firing at the droid from within.