Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

"Well alright then, thank you! Would anyone else like some? No? OK, your loss.” Light only gave a cursory amount of time for intervention before shoving almost the whole cake into his mouth. What followed next was an unpleasant show of teeth and half masticated fish. QV were not tidy or hygienic eaters, and often saved bits of flesh inside their suits for later.

“I saw adverts for a horticulture speed run tournament on the way over here. That could be a fun, non-destructive pasttime?” Ruknar offered from a conposed sitting position on the floor. Her voice was croakier today.

“I am happy to do whatever is most appealing to the group.” Light slurped.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light reacted with genuine surprise, drawing into himself. But he quickly recovered quickly upon smelling the eclectic whiff emanating from the cake Jess held, approaching and investigating it with a manipular.

“What a pleasant surprise. Hello…greetings! What a delicious treat.” He patted the Human affectionately on the top of her head. Ruknar the Tekeri approached, and they ‘fist’ bumped warmly. She produced a gold conical party hat and a coiled party blower from the folds of her feathers and offered it to him. Light accepted with a whimsical shiver, sticking the hat on top of his gel and sticking the blower in near his eye. It unfurled with a comical noise before recurling.

“This is very kind of you to come. Thank you. I didn’t want to be a bother; I know how much I’ve asked of you already.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light returned the embrace. Delicately at first, then vigorously as a fresh wave of relief washed over him. Senjen was a rare exception to his hard-learned suspicion of strangers, tempered through their exploits over the last two years. Light was naturally more tactile with the robot now, which was a relief for him. QV had little regard for personal space on account of their vestigial instinct to shoal in defense against predators.

He patted Senjen’s head and shivered by way of bashful laughter. “That won’t be necessary. There is much work waiting for us.” When the Utaysi insisted, he pondered it for a moment, drifting free.

“Well…It's been a long time since I’ve gone on a proper hunt.” QV had a strong prey drive when it came to smaller sea creatures. When they began to depopulate the oceans on their homeworlds, conservation areas were established in rich ecological zones to maintain food stocks. The concept had transferred to wherever significant QV populations settled. Groups or individuals could pay for a certain amount of time within the enclosure, keeping or eating whatever they could catch.

“But it is so expensive here, and I still tire easier than before...” They began moving together out of the hospital.

“We could go for Sthrirad and talk about old times just as readily. What do you think?” Sthrirad was a gaseous entity that produced psychedelic effects when inhaled. The Tindrel had a more permanent symbiosis with it, but were happy to introduce it to the other species as a temporary mood enhancer.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light didn’t reply directly for a few moments. But his skin told an experienced interpreter the story of dumbfounded shock mixed with a complex palette of relief and excitement running through the QV’s head.

“The doctors say it is no longer detectable in the last place it could be found - my arm. They say I am in remission…and, uh…need to send samples every few weeks for a year before my next check up.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The medics floated over with two of the hover-stretchers. The young brown one took Light gently out of Senjen’s grasp and secured him to a stretcher while calling for a healing vat. The vehicle they’d arrived in was an all-rounder designed to give first aid to every known species as well as mechanoids. But in order to save Light’s life, they’d need a specialised QV ambulance. It contained a large mass of gel that had miraculous healing capabilities and not much else. It couldn’t even move by itself. Thankfully one was nearby, so they just needed to keep him alive for a few minutes. The young medic plugged three nodes into the pliant gel and connected them to a medical sac which another small droid had dropped off.

The senior medic deftly examined Senjen wearing a pair of thick AR goggles, spraying conductive foam in a few spots throughout his midsection. After a short time, security personnel sidled over to ask some questions. They were polite but insistent. Firstly, were they both alright? Secondly, would Senjen be alright to surrender his firearms temporarily? Then they began asking about where they’d been, who they interacted with and who that man was who fled the scene. Many units of the security forces had to buy and maintain their own equipment, so no two individuals looked the same in uniform. The only unifying feature was the symbol of Korit’s civilian administration which adorned their headpieces and breastplates.

Eventually, the medic shooed them back a little and took Senjen to the ambulance, where they plugged him into the vehicle’s power plant to keep him stable and connected him up to further diagnostic tools. The grey-feathered Tekeri gently asked whether they might have both of their credit chips on file. The security forces also wanted to see their identification and ship's log.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The dead droid sailed inertly away from the truck at some pace before engulfing the street in a fiery explosion. A Korit security vehicle with a blazing siren and flashing red and blue lights which rounded the corner just before had to swerve to avoid it.

The gunship had the all clear now - there were no operators left on the scene. They were all that remained. But before they could fire, a large metal bolt thudded into the top of their craft. Four claws clamped down on the roof, and strobing waves of energy crackled across its hull. Its headlights flickered and died, as did the thrusters. The cannon stopped spinning as it tilted to one side while floating towards them at speed.

Two figures fled from the cockpit, zooming away with help from thruster packs. The flyer promptly exploded, bathing Light’s suit and Senjen’s protruding parts in a second of raging heat.

“Heat warning! Suit integrity critical!”

And then it subsided, and the attack was finally over.

More emergency vehicles began showing up out of the sky in every direction. An ambulance wailed to a stop a safe distance from the truck. Light was barely conscious, but could sense the logo on the side of the vehicle as it was in relief. Four interlinking sets of Tekeri talons in the shape of a cross, above the slogan ‘For Good Cause’. The cabin doors opened and two Tekeri in the yellow scrubs of paramedics emerged; one young and one old. Hover-stretchers began unfurling from the back to follow as they approached the truck.

“Let go, I’ve got to get her out of here! This will be all over the news, best I disappear!” The boss pushed away from Senjen, making to grab his daughter and head for the closest shop front. The cabin, and Light's suit covering most of the doorway had thankfully sheltered them from the worst of the fire.

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.