Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

As the cash trucks pulled up by the blast doors, some of the injured and less-armed staff began pulling back. They piled untidily into the back of the vehicles, accepting a hand up and in from the Utaysi.

The others continued to provide cover, listening intently as Senjen issued his challenge to those on the other side of the barriers. The commander who had escorted the pair of them down to the garage floated over to the large flashing object by the kiosk. She checked the display screen before giving a thumbs up to the boss who was still in the cabin with Light.

The clamour of desperate voices stopped for a moment. After a pregnant pause, it sounded like someone tried to answer but was cut off. The voice sounded different, strained. Then after five more long seconds, a burst of crackling energy appeared in the top right corner of the door from a laser cutter. Another sparked into life on the other side. Together they quickly ate away at the door, weakening the strong clamps holding it shut.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“No, the last thing we need is a public spectacle on the news! Take the side roads to this rendezvous. People will be waiting.” The boss sent a pin to Light’s map of the station.

“Well, what we do kind of depends on who is waiting for us outside that door. Do you have any signal?” Light was talking about the large armoured roller door up a ramp from the basement to the surface level.

“No, it's still jammed.” The bodyguard spoke up in an unexpectedly delicate voice given his large stature.

“Super.” Light grunted, turning the engines on. The truck roared to life on reliable thrusters and he reversed sluggishly out into the passage that wound through the garage. The inside of the cash compartment would be alive with vibrations. Popping it back into drive, he maneuvered it around the corner to where most of the staff were guarding the doors. The door was in the right-hand corner and the passage out of the garage snaked away to the left. Light made the turn then stopped so the hatch roughly faced the blast doors. The other truck followed closely behind.

“Senjen, can you get these people into the back?” Light called.

“Boss, there are more people waiting behind these doors, should we open it?” One of the waiters shouted over.

“Please! We’ve got wounded! Let us in and we can help you fight!” Muffled voices wailed from the other side.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The boss weighed them up silently, eyes roving between Senjen, Light and his mother. Then he finally looked down at his daughter and smiled sadly.

“Alright. Let's get out of here.” He pressed a button on one of the secure fobs in his hand. Two sets of blips and flashing its lights caught Light’s attention from around the corner of the L-shaped garage.

Still holding the dead woman’s corpse, Light floated towards the sound and flashing lights. The Humans squabbled on either side of the blast doors behind him. Something about not opening the doors. He wasn’t listening - he was only focused on getting out of here now.

As they turned the corner he saw two large, boxy cash trucks parked up next to a small freight elevator that presumably transported cash straight down from the casino area. They had four omni-directional thrusters on the corners but in his experience they looked under-powered for the size of the vehicle. They were well protected, but wouldn’t be able to move fast.

There were doors to the driving cabin and one door on the side plus a hatch on the back for the cash compartment. Light rushed to the driving cabin, threw open the door and looked around for a fire extinguisher. Humans coloured them a helpful bright red, so he spotted it quickly in between the three seats, grabbed it and chucked it at Senjen.

Light then hopped inside and shuffled over until he was in the driver’s seat. The boss and his bodyguard hopped in to take over the other seats. One of the other Humans took the driver’s seat of the second truck.

“Swap places with me, let me drive.” The boss insisted.

“No, I pilot freighters - I can do this.”

“You don’t know where you’re going!”

“I will learn as I go!”

The boss swore heartily.

“Fine! Go back to the blast doors and pick my people up.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“The droids are expendable. We are not.” The boss growled, motioning vaguely to the assembled Humans.

"Perhaps your mission is to gain our trust to wreak more havoc later. Yes?"

Afterwards he looked at Light, floated softly closer. His bodyguard followed close by now, holding the plasma repeater.

“Who is really the boss here, huh? You’ve been very quiet. What do they have on you?”

Light quivered, avoided looking directly at the man. The dappled red of his suit flashed with violet tones of guilt, shame.

“I am very sorry, but your mother has just passed away. My suit is not picking up any vital signs. Would you like me to try to resuscitate her?”

The man’s face crumpled slightly. He cast an eye over the limp corpse on Light’s back and a single tear detached from the corner of his eye and floated into space.

“No. She had a long, full life.” He said finally.

“She loved her family, and would do anything to protect us. Some more than others perhaps.” He chuckled sadly, repositioning his daughter across his chest and looking down into her curious face. He then looked back up at Light.

“Will you help me protect my family now she is gone? Tell me who you’re really working for.”

Light exhaled deeply, looked at Senjen then back at the boss. He was about to tell them about their encounter at the suit shop when there was a loud clunk from the locked blast doors. As if someone had tried to open them manually. Then there was a series of three knocks and someone calling from the other side in Cantonese, the language Light now knew the other Humans were using.

“Let us in! They’re coming!!”

"Show me the camera feed." The soldier who'd brought Light and Senjen downstairs called. She'd taken up a defensive position behind one of the closest pillars.

"Feed is down, like all the others." Someone replied from the kiosk.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Ah, you’ll need this then.” The boss jangled the keys from inside the kiosk.

“I did it!” The little girl burbled with delight.

“Well done, princess! Now we have to go. Come along.” The man collected up his daughter like a tiny-tree dwelling animal clasping his chest and floated from the little room. He trained his eyes on the pair.

“But first, I think you need to explain yourselves.”

Light, who was holding supportively onto Senjen, looked up at him.

“W-what? What do you mean?”

“You thought I’d forgotten that all this happened when you gave me that file? That they show up minutes after you?” He chuckled through gritted teeth. He looked at Senjen.

“You had the file in your head. Are you working with them, synth?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Slow and steady wins the race, huh? Alright. Hand that repeater and my mother over.” He ordered, before unlocking a cabinet inside the kiosk to reveal three rows of keys. He winced from the pain in his leg.

“I’ll take that.” The bodyguard intoned. Satisfied with the flashing pill he’d been configuring, he floated over to Senjen and pointed to the repeater. A few of the assembled Humans had rallied themselves at his suggestion that more synths were coming. They took cover behind pillars and cars, pointing their jumbled assortment of weaponry at the doors.

“Oh my, you’re injured!” Light exclaimed, coming over to examine the Utaysi’s back.

“There are small fires currently burning inside you. That is not good. Do you have any repair foam to spray in here?”

“I can’t do it!” The little girl cried, letting go of the control panel.

“It's too hard.”

“Please try again, my sweet. You must wipe as much as you can.” The boss urged.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“There is a loader door on the side of the vault to extract the chips. Doesn’t look viable!” The soldier breathed, holding Light down behind the cover of a games table while she poked her head out. It appeared she was scanning for the boss and his bodyguard while formulating an escape plan.

“They blocked off the roof hatch and destroyed the side stairs too. Only other ways out are down there.” She pointed to the hole in the floor.

“Or down there, if it's not blocked by the bomb that went off.” She gestured to the stairwell.

"I've made contact! They're heading down to the garage. Follow me."

Light poked his head out and saw the woman in black armour execute a prisoner. The others raised their hands and looked like they were yelling rapidly to her. Bargaining for their life, perhaps?

The soldier began floating low around the games tables, grabbing hold of chairs and tables to stay out of sight as she went across to the stairwell. It was clear they knew how to remain undetected in this place. Light followed, making sure the old woman was fastly secured once more.

They made it to the stairwell intact, and were relieved to find that on this level, the stairs weren't destroyed. The soldier led the way swiftly down to the basement.

“Who are these people? They are vicious!” Light quailed.

“Their armour looks Outreman. They’ve done something to the AI guarding this place. They can’t leave with it.” The soldier growled.

They descended into the basement and got to the doors of the garage without further issue. The blast doors opened into a large open space filled with two dozen vehicles between stone support pillars. Bright halogen lights lit the space from the low ceilings.

The boss and his bodyguard were here, along with a ragtag collection of survivors. The boss was talking to his daughter and motioning to a control panel in a little kiosk by the door. The bodyguard was crouched over a flashing pill-shaped object about two metres long.

“Ah, you’re here!” The boss said absently as his daughter interfaced with the control panel.

“Choose our vehicle. Cash in transit truck, or my sports car?” He laughed and gestured out to the variety of different vehicles, looking slightly deranged.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

In the chaos, Light, Senjen & the exo-suit soldier made it down to the casino floor. Senjen momentarily lost the droid tracking him, but it wouldn’t be long before they figured out his little stunt.

This room was full of games tables. Roughly in front of them were the familiar double doors back into the stairwell. Now they’d descended a level, it looked relatively clear, except for the jagged hole in the floor about three metres across halfway in between. There was no kitchen on this floor; instead the wall to the left of the stairwell doors was occupied by a formidable bank vault behind a long bar.

Half a dozen count room clerks were holed up behind the bar, fighting four droids who had taken cover throughout the room. One of the clerks was blind firing a plasma repeater, the others popped out to shoot before ducking back. As Light watched, a droid threw a grenade that was reflected by a force field around the bar. It had to dive out of the way of the explosion.

To the right of the blistering firefight, the stairwell and the hole in the floor, a woman in black armour and two droids were in the process of handcuffing a clutch of terrified non-combatants. For the moment, they had their backs turned.

There was no sign of the boss and his bodyguard in this chaotic sea of tables and plasma bolts.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The boss, his daughter and his bodyguard crashed untidily into a blackjack table and set of chairs on the level below. Chips sprayed everywhere. Energy bolts of different colours whizzed in every directions; it would be clear to Senjen that there was a major firefight on every floor. The three of them recovered their footing and stumbled towards the stairwell on the third floor, out of sight.

The robot Senjen kicked was down, but not out. In fact, after this, it was pissed. Nearly torn in two by the plasma baton, it tried to invert its trajectory to fly straight back at the Utaysi. But the thrusters on one side of its body sputtered and died. So instead it identified the closest targets to its current course - the kitchen - and sluggishly careened right into them.

The resulting fireball filled the area all around it. The soldier who’d emerged from the stairwell only just made it into Light’s booth before a wall of flames rushed past. Light shoved him to the floor and covered both him and the wounded lady with his suit. It screeched a shrill temperature warning at him.

The second droid meanwhile was about three seconds behind Senjen. They had chosen a fast ascent over a controlled one, and so when they raised their weapon and fired a continuous stream of energy it wasn’t pinpoint accurate. But it would still raise serious problems if it made a connection. The droid was locked onto a collision course.

Once the fireball receded, the soldier pushed Light off and clambered to his feet.

“FOLLOW. ME.” She instructed loudly and clearly through the deafening racket. Light grabbed hold of her exosuit so he wouldn’t lose her as she strode to the railing. Holding onto it, she vaulted over and accurately swung down and onto the floor below. Light saw Senjen and the droid approaching, fired at it but couldn’t make contact

“Senjen watch out!” He shouted, before practising as the soldier had done, swinging off the rail and onto the lower floor.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The droid floating up from the ground floor activated their shield drone, which absorbed the burst of Senjen’s repeater fire before cracking. They quickly fired thrusters attached to its limbs and weaved rapidly through the air in a winding route to avoid being hit again. At that velocity they might overshoot the right floor entirely, or they might hit the Utaysi like a tonne of bricks.

Light poked his head out of the booth and spotted a droid approaching the kitchen on the opposite side. It was equipped with a similar weapon to Senjen, and was laying down a devastating curtain of plasma fire which was keeping the kitchen staff well and truly pinned. He fired at it, with limited success. He then turned the gun around and fired at the windows opposite where the gunship was wreaking havoc. The energy bolts still sloughed off without breaking through. Perhaps a heavier armament would do the trick…

The last exosuit soldier from before, the leader, staggered out from the doors leading back to the stairwell. Their body was covered in blood, though it wasn’t clear whether it belonged to them or not. The soldier pushed off towards the booth, spotting the boss and his bodyguard grappling with a droid towards the middle of the atrium.

Then all at once, three things happened. The bodyguard managed to plant his pistol square against the droid’s face, pushing the floating shield drone out of the way. He fired, putting a big hole in it. The droid then fired its own sidearm, putting an energy bolt clean through the boss’ thigh. He screamed like his daughter, white hat floating off his head to reveal a mat of greasy black hair. Then the boss flicked out the plasma baton he’d managed to extricate from his coat. It shimmered dark red and was instantly plunged straight into the droid’s chest. It jerked manically around, throwing them all downwards and back toward the side of the atrium Senjen & Light stood at. The red orb flashed, damaged within its chest.