Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The cash truck burst back out into the pedestrian street in a most explosive fashion. Not only did they tear a dozen metres of safety glass off the wall, but most of the furniture and debris from the lobby followed them through the newly made hole. The bodyguard and dead droid who were still standing on top of the truck were cut clean in half, spraying blood everywhere.

A scream erupted from hundreds of bystanders using several transit lines on the street, and people scattered in every direction. Emergency services sirens were getting closer from a few directions, but no one had paid them any attention before now. On Korit, sirens were a near constant ambient background.

With his right hand being crushed to a pulp, the boss was in no position to be driving a ten tonne vehicle. In the chaos the ‘ground mode’ was still enabled, so the only directions available were left or right. He spun the wheel left with his free hand basically by accident, before having to take both hands off the wheel to grab at the pistol the droid was trying to shove in his face. Shots went off, melting the inside of the windscreen. Despite putting all of his paternal strength into it, the pistol was merely a few inches from his head when Senjen shot the droid in the back, bypassing the shield.

The droid spasmed wildly and made one last attempt to shoot the boss but its strength had already failed it. So it activated its self-destruct and switched back to civilian mode, wiping all memory of the operation.

“We are experiencing a traffic collision! Notifying emergency services...” It babbled before going dead, save the flashing red orb in its chest. Its grip loosened, and the boss pried his broken hand from its vice-like grip. He immediately had to use it to haul the wheel left and slam on the brakes, but there wasn’t enough time to avoid the other side of the street. The truck slammed straight into a solid wall and came to a juddering, smoking halt.

Mingled in with the sound of approaching sirens were thrusters. The flyer from back at the restaurant rounded the block of high rise buildings and approached the truck, cycling its forward cannons.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and 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.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and 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.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and 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.

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.