EliteCommander

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

With his thrusters boosting him, Senjen came in quickly back to the floor with the others. He did not have time to look around and watch the results of the explosion. All he could really tell from what he could hear was that it had not gone off exactly where he had wanted, but that was not his focus. He hit the ground on all fours, holding his repeater in his mouth, and set off running the moment his feet found purchase.

There were shots around Senjen, maybe from the droid that had been flying up from below, but it did not matter as much as avoiding them. He was essentially skittering along the floor, dashing in zig-zags between the tables and seats. He felt heat, but whether from a hit or just proximity he was not sure. Much like organics, his frame’s onboard programming suppressed most pain signals during dangerous situations. He could do a diagnostic later; all of his limbs were working and he could still run. At running, at least, he was a natural.

Senjen heard the shout someone made to follow her. Whoever she was, he imagined anyone in range was going to do precisely that, and he was going to do just the same. Being that it was a restaurant in close to zero-G, the furniture was all bolted to the floor, so as he launched himself past one of the tables, he was able to hook his tail around one of the chairs to let him redirect most of his momentum and change direction towards the source of the voice. He would be flying in quickly, but even if his tactics had not gone quite to plan, he was still impressively agile, if nothing else.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen did not try to face the oncoming droid head-on. Surprise hit-and-run attacks were the only way he felt he could get an advantage against these war machines. The droid was floating up from below, so it had been easy enough for him to back off and scurry along the floor to a different position. Although, he saw what was happening with the droid the boss and his bodyguard were struggling against, and it was just what he had been waiting for. He knew what happened when these droids died, and he was ready for it this time.

Having seen it before, Senjen had a good idea of the timer on the explosion, so he knew he had to be quick. By the time the droid had thrown off the Humans it was struggling with, Senjen had already launched himself as fast as he could towards the dying droid. He had originally intended to grab and throw it, but the fact that its spasms had pushed away the Humans gave him another option, and he made the snap decision to turn himself around in the air kick away the droid as hard as he could, transferring his own considerable momentum into it to send it flying quite quickly. Senjen aimed it towards the already-broken windows on the other side of the room, straight towards the gunship just outside. The reaction of the kick sent Senjen floating back in the opposite direction, and he used his RCS to try and boost himself back into cover.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen could absolutely recognize that they were in a bad situation. If only the Human had not rushed ahead like that, but there was nothing that would change that now. The explosion had blocked the stairwell heading downwards, so that was not much of an escape route anymore. Still, Light was right: they needed a path out. “Okay, maybe there’s a quick exit? See if you can find us one. Any of those windows damaged enough to break through? I’ll see if I can help them.”

As he had expected, there were more droids coming. At least one that he could see. There was still nothing he could do directly for the Humans struggling with the droid; with them all grappling with one another, there was no way he could get a clear shot. He just had to hope that the bodyguard could do his job, and give them cover so they could have a fighting chance.

Senjen did not shoot immediately, but rather ducked behind the railing and scurried to a different point along the edge to take a different position. One of the droids had been floating up from below, and he needed to keep it from interfering. As quickly as he could, Senjen stood up, reacquired his target, and fired a burst from his repeater at the approaching droid. Then, just as quickly, he ducked back behind cover and dashed along the edge, out of sight, to take a different position.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Honestly, Senjen was wishing that the Human would go back to being a passive follower at this point. The man was pushing far too quickly into the open for his liking, but he had to keep his focus, especially once he inevitably ran into one of the droids. Senjen too took aim, but it was pretty much impossible to get an angle from his position on the droid that would not just penetrate straight through to the Human.

Senjen got down low and dashed over to Light. The old woman in his arms was still moving, still alive, but he needed both hands for this. As quickly as he could, he pushed her up against Light’s suit. “Keep to cover and hold on to her. She’s still alive.” He messaged the QV. With his hands free, Senjen could be much more maneuverable, and besides which, Light had more limbs to use.

In the moment, Senjen could not afford to wait for a response. He did not skip a beat to rush over towards the edge of the atrium. The bodyguard had already leaped off towards the boss, but Senjen could not just blindly do the same. Or rather, he shouldn’t. He had to trust that the bodyguard was a competent professional. Instead, Senjen first scanned the area looking for any other droids that were paying attention to the boss or his bodyguard, as they were out in the open. His repeater was powerful enough to destroy these things, and he could give them cover to stop the bodyguard from being shot dead before he could even reach the pair to help.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Above all, in situations like this when every second mattered, it was important to be quick and decisive. The Human had already made the call to move through the trading floor, and it seemed as good of a plan as any. Neither Senjen nor Light knew the layout of this place, and he figured the Human at least should know how to get them to their destination. The bodyguard was going along with it, so it would probably at least get them closer to where they needed to go.

Once clear of the explosion, Senjen had unwound his tail from around Light. Outside of emergencies, it seemed to be better to let him move on his own. He had not expected the QV to be as maneuverable as he was, and it seemed like he had been underestimating what QV suits were capable of. It did not feel intuitive that they would be so capable out of the water, but he supposed the whole point of technology was to overcome natural limitations. Now that Senjen was out in the galaxy, it was a reminder of how dangerous assumptions could be.

First and foremost, Senjen still needed to keep Light protected, so he stuck close by him and gestured for him to follow through with the others onto the trading room floor. It was more open, but hopefully they could move more quickly through it. Still, he kept a lookout for any potentially quicker exits. If there were any damaged windows here that the gunship was not paying attention to, then they might be able to escape through some of the neighboring buildings. The attackers might be more hesitant to shoot up other buildings indiscriminately, especially if they belonged to other organizations.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen was understandably terse when he recognized what was happening. “Get back!” Was all he shouted before he kicked off the ceiling down to the floor just behind Light. He had transferred his repeater back to his mouth so he could at least have one free hand. If Light glanced down, he might notice Senjen’s tail wrapped around the middle of his suit.

The “boss” had already been hanging back to allow the others to take the lead, so he and his daughter would have an easier time getting away, though Senjen would grab them along the way if they were too sluggish to react. They all just needed to backtrack up the stairs a bit to get a wall or two between them and the droid. When Senjen pushed off the floor to launch himself back, Light was yanked back along with him. He could take full advantage of the zero-G environment to leap off the walls at the best speed possible, even if it did end up with Light getting smacked around a bit behind him. It was better than the alternative.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen might have been able to shoot immediately, but Light had been hugging a bit too close to the inside column, and moving a bit too far forward, so there was too much of a risk of friendly fire. In the few moments that followed, Senjen was frankly surprised by what he saw. Light had been close enough when he ran into the droid that grabbing the weapon was not too much of a stretch, but remarkably, his suit was even able to keep the weapon at bay as he struggled over it with a war droid. Granted, Light grabbing it by the barrel did give him an advantage in leverage, but still, he had no idea that QV suits could have so much power behind them. It certainly did not look like it from appearances.

In any case, while these thoughts were running through Senjen’s mind, he pushed off of the wall in Light’s direction to give himself an angle to shoot down on the droid from above, without Light in the way. It was unlikely to be especially armored from directly above, and the repeater was stronger than his pistol regardless. Since he still was having to shoot one-handed, he locked his elbow to keep the arm steady right before firing, then shot a burst right down the center line of the droid’s frame from straight above.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen was no longer rushing as quickly as possible, since the others behind him needed to keep pace with him. He was still responsible for carrying the old woman, despite not knowing what sort of a state she was in, nor did he have time to check. He did not actually use the stairs themselves, but rather moved up to walk high up on the outer wall of the staircase, with his weapon in his right hand and trained ahead as they moved down. With both together, his weapon would be ready and on-target at the earliest possible moment if they encountered any droids coming up from below. The more angles they took as they moved, the less of a chance they would get in each other’s way and block each other’s line of fire. In microgravity, any orientation was as easy as any other to reach, and Utaysi had no problem keeping their bearings regardless of how they were positioned.

There was a door ahead, along with a casualty, but he could not stop to think about that. In fact, it seemed like a poor idea for them to stop for any reason. It was less than ideal that he was trying to lead the way without knowing his way around this building, though at least their attackers would have the same disadvantage. “How many floors down to the garage?” Senjen asked the Human man.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

”Unbelievable.” Senjen thought. This Human was meant to be the boss, so why wasn’t he taking charge? Why would he look to Senjen for answers to anything? Whatever the reason, it was not like they could just stop to ponder. If the boss was not going to take the lead, then someone had to. They had a goal in mind, Senjen just had to keep a cool head and get them there. The Human asked about the soldiers, and he did not think it made sense to let them die for no reason.

“Yes, but we don’t linger.” Senjen answered. He quickly went back to the doorway, not quite revealing himself from cover, but shouting back to the soldiers. “Fall back!”

Immediately, Senjen pushed back towards the front to lead the way down the stairs. He was still responsible for carrying the old woman, so he had to take the repeater in one hand. It was a cumbersome weapon obviously designed to be held in two, but it was also designed for an organic. For limitations he did not have. He could point it forward and lock his arm at the elbow to manage the recoil. “They can catch up, watch our back. We move.”

With all the extra mass Senjen was carrying around with him, he decided to walk with magnetic locks rather than float for the moment, so it would be easier to shift his momentum quickly. For now, he started to push forward down the stairwell, towards the garage.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

For a brief few moments, it was hard to make sense of anything going on around Senjen. Shards of glass, metal, and other debris flew through the kitchen just over the counter above him while high energy blasts tore apart anything in their path. Senjen kept low to the floor behind the counters, out of sight of the droids or the gunships, but all it would take was a moment of bad luck to tear him apart too. Still, the shouting from the others around him gave him something to focus on.

The Human’s mother was hit, but the girl was awake and they were all ready to flee. Good, that was something he could do. The man gave orders this time that he had no hesitation in following. Senjen first grabbed Light next to him and maneuvered him around quickly so he could grab on to his back. If, at any point, Senjen needed to flee as fast as he could, he at least wanted to make sure Light was with him. From there, he grabbed the old woman and held her over his right shoulder while taking hold of the repeater in his opposite hand. There was a lot to weigh him down now, but it was much less of a burden for him than it would be for any of the others. He did not experience fatigue or muscle strain, and he was free to consistently operate at his limits. Carrying two people added mass and gave him more inertia, but the only thing that really slowed him was the fact that he could not run on all-fours. He could not be as quick on two legs, though he was still far from slow.

Senjen had a mind to launch them out the window and into the building across the street. He doubted their gunship would start shooting up buildings belonging to other, uninvolved organizations. However, the Human man looked like he was going for the back stairs, and Senjen did not want to separate from him. He moved along the floor of the kitchen, keeping below the counters to stay out of sight. For the moment, he carried the repeater in his mouth so he could at least have one free hand to help maneuver more quickly along the floor. He crawled out from the far exit of the kitchen, around the counter nearest to the back exit. Once the table was no longer blocking his path, he braced his feet against the counter behind him, disengaged his electromagnets, and kicked off of the counter to launch them at speed through the open door.

From the stairwell, he would turn back around to cover the Human man and his daughter while they caught up, though he would only shoot if the droids gave any attention to them. The soldiers were still fighting them at the moment, and he did not want to draw any attention to their escape.