Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

All things being equal, the droid was able to do slightly more ‘work’ than the Utaysi base model. But things weren’t equal right now; Senjen had a solid floor to base his strength on. The droid was clinging to the outside of the cargo area by a handle. It tensed both legs against the wall to try to pull the gun back out of the gap, servos whining along its whole body.

All the while they struggled, it was firing the gun. Most of the wall on the opposite side of the hatch was painted with plasma, and two more people burst into flames. One of the last able bodied people grabbed Senjen’s fire extinguisher and used the last of it dousing the blue flames. The sound of panicked screaming and crackle of energy blended in with the whine of two machines battling for supremacy.

The droid considered going for a hail-mary and diving right into the cash compartment. But its primary objective wasn’t in there - it was in the driver’s cabin. After a few frantic seconds, it let go of the sidearm and savagely withdrew their arm. They clambered carefully up onto the roof of the cash compartment and headed for the front, holding onto whatever handholds it could find.

Senjen would be able to see behind their truck that the second vehicle was in grave danger. Two droids were setting charges on either cabin door. In the background, the armed flyer which had caused havoc firing through the restaurant had emerged from behind the building and was making its way over.

-

“Go out that way and shoot the fucker from up top!” The boss commanded his bodyguard, pointing to the other door to the driver’s cabin. The large bald man nodded seriously. Hefting the plasma repeater he’d taken from Senjen, he heaved the door open and stood on the seat to haul himself up on top. The boss placed his daughter down on the seat he’d just left and closed the door.

“Strap yourself in, sweetheart!” He turned away immediately to heave left on the steering wheel.

“Let go or we’re all going to die!”

The man’s voice, and seeing the great facades of buildings looming up ahead of them, Light finally let go of the steering column. With a hair-raising cry, he launched himself out of the cabin and enveloped the droid in his suit. The parts of it touching the outside of the vehicle adhered to the metal, trapping them together. Light felt the uncomfortable sensation of the droid’s body pressing up against him as they struggled wildly. He brought his tentacles and all of the gel to bear, managing to orient the plasma rifle against its thigh and pull the trigger. A sustained blast of energy tore straight through the metal as well as his gel, filling the air with a pungent odor of wet algae. Light howled in pain, for he was mentally attuned with the gel suit.

The boss hauled the wheel to the left but the truck didn’t have a great turning circle. The nose turned away from a shuttered metal shopfront to the reception area of an office building with huge plate glass windows at the front. Bright lights illuminated the sparse interior.

“Buckle up, everyone!” He shouted over comms.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

With the truck still swerving wildly from side to side, the grenade clanked against the edge of the door and spun around in a circle. With the door now open, in the background Senjen might have noticed the second truck crashing through the remains of the garage door and scraping against the deck just as they were. The whole building they’d just escaped from creaked and groaned as if under enormous pressure.

Without hesitation, the woman in the corner of the truck closest to it grabbed the grenade and threw it out the door. “Grenade out!” She called; a call that was echoed by the other able-bodied people in the compartment. It was scarcely out the door before it exploded, sending a plume of shrapnel in every direction including all over the droid clinging to the handrail just outside. Sparks flew from metal-on-metal contact, and arcs of electricity danced across a few deep rents in the droid’s armour.

It recovered quickly though, grabbing the menacing long sidearm from its thigh and releasing its disc-drone. The drone matched the truck’s speed and peeked into the compartment, sending crystal clear imagery to the droid as well as the droid’s handler. The droid wasted no time in sticking the pistol around the corner to open fire on the closest target.

-

“Get your fish food suit out of my way! I can’t see what I'm doing!” The boss yelled, kneading Light’s suit with his hand to make way to fiddle with buttons under the steering column.

“That's not how it works! Watch out!” Light enveloped the boss and his screaming child with the top part of his suit as the second explosive charge went off just on the other side of the driver’s door. To the truck manufacturer’s credit, the vehicle was tough. The door absorbed all of the impact. Unfortunately, it wasn’t built to withstand heavy ordnance. The hinges came loose, and the droid pulled it straight off.

Light slurped the stolen plasma rifle out of his suit on that side, pointed it through the open doorway and fired wildly on full auto. The droid ducked back out of the line of fire, so Light poked the gun out further, trying to shoot down the side of the truck. The droid caught the rifle in one hand and pulled, yanking Light half out of the cabin. He squealed and grabbed hold of anything his manipulars could find, including the steering wheel. The truck veered sharply off to the right, heading towards a row of buildings.

“Help!!”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen might have noticed droids clambering along the second truck towards the cabin as he closed the hatch.

The fire extinguisher did the trick, putting out the worst of the fires on the screaming man. One of his comrades rushed in afterwards and sprayed him with biofoam. This served as a painkiller and protective covering. Another woman grabbed him and pulled him against the wall, lashing him hastily to a handhold.

The cash truck hit the garage door just as the laser cutters were nearly finished. Light closed his dim eyes and braced his suit for impact. There was a horrendous sound of metal on metal mingled with plasma fire, and everything jolted forward sharply then backwards.

The boss swore next to him, then Light opened his senses back up and saw through a cracked windscreen there was a droid clinging to the bonnet of the truck. Behind it, he saw they were scraping furiously against the deckplate, back down the pedestrian way they’d used to enter the club in the first place. He swerved to the left to avoid a row of sturdy-looking bollards, then right to avoid the row of buildings lining the street.

“Jesus fuck, they’re everywhere!” The bodyguard exclaimed.

“Punch it, go!” The boss shouted.

Light gunned the thrusters again and they whirred forward. The droid on their bumper whooshed passed the bodyguard-side door and loud scraping could be heard as it kept in touch with the side of the truck. There was a clank on the back as it grabbed a handhold, then a more delicate touch as it placed an explosive charge on the rear hatch.

“Lift off! What are you doing!?”

“I can’t! Its stuck in some kind of deck-hugging mode!” Light complained, before shrieking as another droid tried to punch through the armoured glass on his door side. It looked through at him, then retrieved an explosive charge of its own.

“Let me see!” The boss leaned over, feeling below the manual pilot’s column for a button or switch. His daughter was screaming in his other arm.

The rear end of the truck exploded as the first charge went off, jolting them all violently forward. The droid began promptly tearing the door off its hinges.

“Senjen, whats going on back there?!” Light warbled.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The mess of covering fire slowed the droids approaching the dark star enough for Liu-Jien to reach up from behind cover and place her hand on its control panel while blind firing wildly with the other.

“Directional dark star rearmed. Please proceed to a safe distance.” The device began flashing again, faster and faster. The commander took her hand off to push off after the escaping trucks.

“Directional dark star disarmed.” It was as though she’d been punched in the stomach; a tear lifted out of her eye as the realisation hit her. Gulping as her main gun ran out of ammunition, Liu Jien let it drift out of her hand. She overrode the weapon’s counter to the final five seconds, drew her side arm and stood up while still holding the panel. She locked everything except her right arm solid and managed to get a few shots off before plasma fire battered her exosuit and burned her alive.

The droids rushed to pry her loose of the dark star but couldn’t budge her melted metal armour from the panel. The countdown reached zero and the floor began shifting, pulled into the underside of the pill-shaped object. The robots sprinted away from it towards the trucks except for one whose foot got stuck underneath. They struggled mightily but couldn’t free themselves, and they slowly slid underneath the object. A dusting of plaster fell from the pillars scattered around the garage.

-

“I guess we’ll find out!” Senjen replied before putting as much power into the thrusters as possible. The truck lurched forward, heading straight for the doors.

“Hang on!”

A plasma bolt struck the soldier on the other side of the hatch from Senjen, lighting them on fire. They yelled in terror and dropped their weapon and writhed around patting themselves as their flesh melted away. The other occupants either rushed to help or pushed themselves back against the walls to stop the fire from catching.

The other truck followed suit, though they may have been doing it to try and stop the pursuing droids from latching onto the sides. They were not successful, and the droids hopped aboard, making themselves an attractive target for shooters from the first truck.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen’s heroic rearguard action spurred the other troops to fight. Another soldier leaned out of the hatch with him and laid down cover fire. Others did the same off their own back in the second truck behind them, though they were at much higher risk of being overrun. The two droids chasing the trucks weaved between other parked cars, drawing their pistols to shoot back at the same time. They were only about twenty meters away now and gaining.

“My battery is dead!” One of the soldiers in Senjen’s truck announced.

“Don’t they keep armaments in here in case of hijacking?” Another replied, spurring a burst of searching for secret storage.

As she floated back to the dark star, Liu-Jien fired a stream of wafer-thin metal slivers at the advancing droids, shaved off one large block. Their shield coverage wasn’t total, and she scored multiple hits on limbs and bodies which created small rectangular holes in their armour. The droids shot back though, hitting her exosuit several times and singeing the flesh underneath. She yelped in pain but thankfully crashed into the side of the dark star opposite the enemy so she was covered for a moment. The droids didn’t shoot at the object but wordlessly began to flank around it.

Light took a corner hard and scraped a row of vehicles.

“There’s the exit!” The boss pointed; straight ahead a couple of hundred metres was a ramp with a large corrugated sliding door at the top. Two sparkling points of light were slowly working down either side.

“They’re outside!” The bodyguard growled.

Light cursed - this just got even more difficult.

“How do we open the door to get out?” He asked.

“By pressing this button.” The boss leaned forward and prodded a point on the dashboard. The door didn’t budge. He tapped it again a few more times, then swore.

“Those laser cutters must have severed the connection!”

“Oh, perfect!” Light warbled.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Ok, fall back! We are leaving!” The commander yelled, twirling a finger in the universal ‘Let us skedaddle’ motion. The remaining half dozen soldiers promptly began floating back to the two waiting cash trucks. Their leader waited until last, covering the door until no one else was left in her view before turning her back. She got almost to the door of the lead truck before a clear female voice sounded from the spiked pill object she’d been tinkering with by the kiosk.

“Directional dark star disarmed.”

The woman stopped at the door and looked back. The ominous flashing had ceased - she spat something utterly untranslatable.

“They’re jamming it!”

She looked back at Senjen.

“Get out of here, I’ll be right behind you!

“Erm, what did that thing say?!” Light spluttered, listening in on the Utaysi’s comms.

“Go, go, go!” The commander yelled, then kicked off from the back of the cash truck to sail back towards the object. The cutters were almost through the doors.

“You heard Liu-Jien- DRIVE!” The boss smacked the dashboard with his free hand, startling Light into action. He gunned the thrusters and the truck jerked slowly back into motion. They rounded a corner and the garage doors appeared a couple of hundred metres away. They started putting a few pillars, vehicles and storage crates between them and the doors just as they exploded out into the garage. Barely a second later, half a dozen droids spilled in on foot. Some of them shot at the commander as the most obvious target, some of them shot at the second truck as it pulled off. Two of them sprinted at an alarming rate towards the lead truck, weaving past obstacles.

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.