EliteCommander

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen was in the middle of climbing up when he saw what was just ahead. As fast as he could, he dropped back down, hanging off the back of the truck as it crashed through into the building. Being behind the truck, he was able to avoid the impact and debris, and when he climbed back up, he was witness to the droid with the boss’ bodyguard in its grasp. Fortune, it seemed, was favoring Senjen here, and maybe the bodyguard as well. He had an angle on it from behind, and both it and the shield drone were occupied. With a bit of luck and the element of surprise, Senjen could still make an impact. He did not even finish climbing up; as soon as he had his upper body over the edge, he took aim with his stolen pistol, steadied his arm, and fired three consecutive shots into the droid’s center mass.

It was only a moment longer before Senjen was finally able to climb up to the roof, and it was then that he spotted Light and had a brief pause of understandable confusion. Why was he even up here? Wasn’t he meant to be driving the truck? Regardless, he saw the shot, and he saw Light start to float away from the truck. As startling as it might have been, it was a moment that gave him a laser focus. Light was his client, and his client was hurt, so there was only one real option in front of him.

“Light!” Senjen shouted. He took a few shots at the droid at the front as he rushed forward, but his focus was Light. He leaped from the edge of the truck towards Light, intent on trying to catch him and use his thrusters to help guide him to safety.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen did not entirely expect to disarm the droid. In truth, he was not sure what he was expecting out of anything he did. For the most part, there was precious little time to think about much of what he did; just act and hope his instincts were right. He had the droid’s sidearm now, so he holstered his own and kept it for himself. Aside from preserving ammunition, these alien weapons were overall stronger than his.

The moment he saw them, Senjen braced himself against the edge of the hatch and fired on the droids on the truck trailing them. The trucks were armored, so they could handle hits from small arms. Clearing off the droids was a much greater concern than whether or not he melted the paint. However, this was not what he needed to be doing right now. The other droid was still out there, and there was nothing he could do about it from in here. Letting the droids on their own truck go unchecked could end up dooming them all.

Senjen turned towards the other soldiers. At least one of them was uninjured, and they were all armed. They were better suited for this. “Give them some cover!” He shouted to them, pointing out the back to the other truck. There was no time for doubt or debate; Senjen just had to steel himself, then climb out the hatch to cling to the outside as the droid had been. From there, he had to crawl around the exterior to see if he could find an angle on the droids. At speed, the wind rushing by across the hole in his frame did at least give some much-needed air cooling to his components, at least.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Fortunately and unfortunately, shrapnel bombs were not terribly effective against droids. Senjen could not duck around the corner from the hatch quickly enough to avoid catching some shrapnel, but at that distance, it did not do much more than scratch his frame. However, the droid outside, despite being closer to the blast, was also still perfectly-well intact.

Being that he was just around the corner from the hatch, Senjen was not directly visible to the drone. Perhaps the droid had not expected any of the occupants to be so close to the opening immediately after the detonation, but Senjen was close enough when he saw the sidearm reach around the corner to quickly grab a hold of it. Out of anyone in the truck, he was the one who could actually be capable of wrestling it away...hopefully. The strength of organics could be trained; it could grow or diminish, and exceptional circumstances could push them beyond their usual limits. A physical contest between them was not always decided by who was bigger and stronger. With machines, though, their contests were more straightforward. If one droid’s hardware was superior to the other’s, then it was more physically capable, and that was that. Senjen had no idea what the specifications on these droids were, and if they were stronger, he just had to hope that the leverage he had from this position would be the difference-maker.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen did not have too much difficulty bracing. Even with the force of the truck crashing its way out of the garage, he could wedge himself in place quite nicely. However, that meant he could not be doing anything else but waiting for the truck to straighten out. Some of the other soldiers had to struggle to keep their wounded comrade stable through all the jostling, but none of the rest of them were hurt, at least. Still, the enemy was not going to give up for a moment. He could not stop, could not rest. At least not yet.

Once the truck was stable again, Senjen was already heading right back to the hatch. Initially, it was to help out the truck behind them, as he had saw some of the droids climb onto it. However, he had more immediate concerns when an explosion shook the whole truck and the hatch was ripped off of its hinges. Senjen was stood front-and-center, pistol raised, when he saw the quick flash of a metal hand at the edge of the hatch as something was thrown inside. With where he was positioned, there was immediately a loud clunk when the small object struck Senjen right in the face.

Senjen was capable of feeling pain, but mostly he was just startled. The impact canceled the object’s forward momentum, so it floated for just a moment in front of his gaze before he swatted it directly away from himself in a mild panic.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Seeing as the ride was about to get a whole lot rougher in short order, Senjen pulled the hatch shut for the moment, only to have to move on immediately to the next part of this crisis. He still had the extinguisher close at hand, and now he wasn’t the only one who needed it. As he recalled, not all types of extinguishers were entirely harmless to use on an organic, but there was no handheld extinguisher in use that would be more harmful than actually being on fire. As such, he did not hesitate to spray down the burning soldier.

Senjen locked one hand in a vice grip around the best handhold he could find, holstered his pistol, then took his other hand and pressed against the ceiling while his feet were pushing into the floor. Even moreso than the rest of the compartment’s inhabitants, he needed to make sure he did not go flying around uncontrollably. He would make for too heavy of a projectile for the rest of these soldiers.

In that moment of waiting for the truck to break through, Senjen did have just a brief time to think. What had gone wrong? They had covered the commander well enough from what he had been able to see. They must have if she had started to move to them, so why had she turned back? Why couldn’t it have just gone right for once? Why did more people have to die from all this?

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

It had not even been a minute and their great escape had already been ground to a halt. Just one complication after another, it seemed. Senjen leaned out of the truck just enough that he could get an angle to keep firing on the droids, and keep up the pressure to help the commander. He did not know how much he could help, but he could at least empty his magazine on them. His pistol did not have as much ammunition capacity as “standard” projectile weapons. Flesh would cavitate when struck at high speed, so weapons used against it could get away with tiny, plentiful projectiles. It was not ideal for anti-droid projectiles to be so small, though. His pistol used ammo with an armor-piercing shell surrounding a small explosive core meant to burst after penetrating a hard target. They had a better chance of damaging internal components, but a magazine could not hold near as many.

As soon as his weapon ran dry, Senjen ducked back inside to reload. He brought up Light’s perspective from the corner of his field-of-view to try to make sense of what was holding them up. Apparently the door was not responding to the controls, and there was probably no way to quickly fix that particular problem. “Does it have a manual release, or…” Senjen began to ask, though he hesitated as more ideas started to come to mind. “Is that door more sturdy than this truck? If not, maybe we can use that...and maybe we should all brace?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Right now, there were a few questions Senjen wished he had the answer to. What was a “directional dark star’”, why had it been disarmed, what what did it mean for it to be jammed?. There was no time to ask, and he doubted he would get an answer regardless. Light got them moving, and they were heading to the garage’s exit.

The commander had said she would be right behind them. Honestly, Senjen did not know whether to believe her, but he couldn’t just leave her behind, could he? He had to at least give her a chance. He did not lock the hatch immediately, but instead drew his pistol and leaned out to try and give her cover. She had that exoskeleton, and they could not move too quickly underground, so there was some possibility she might be able to catch up...as long as that was her intention. He put some shots towards the droids shooting at the commander. His weapon was made for killing machines, at least.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Okay, I guess it was a trick.” Senjen remarked, looking warily up at the cutter trying to make its way through the door. “In that case, I think we’re done here. Get in and let’s go while we still have a shot at getting out of this!”

Senjen offered a hand to the commander to pull her in quickly, but beyond that, it would mostly be up to Light to get them all out in one piece. The truck had enough space to hold them and was tough enough to protect them, but it would be a bit like flying a brick through the city. Of course, Light’s freighter was like an even bigger brick, so hopefully his experience would give him an edge. If not, Senjen was not sure he would have any more clever ideas to salvage the situation.

While he was waiting, Senjen made sure he still had a connection to Light’s implants. There was not much Senjen could do himself from the back, but if he could stay informed, then maybe he could be of some use.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen was having an easier time thinking straight without all the heat warnings to distract him. Light brought them to a stop, so Senjen quickly pulled open the hatch. He stood just off to the side of the opening inside, so as to keep himself out of the way of anyone climbing inside. “Come on, we’ve got to hurry!” He shouted to the others just outside the truck. He offered a hand to help pull anyone inside as quickly as possible. In times like this, there was really no luxury of being gentle.

Thinking about it, the chance that these attackers were not waiting outside for them felt slim to none. Maybe it really would be too risky for them to give chase; side roads or no, a high speed chase with gunships would have to be a risk for an organization on Korit. It was just a matter of whether or not they viewed the reward of catching them to be worth said risk.

Aside from whatever might be ahead of them, Senjen heard the voices from the other side of the door. He did not want to leave anyone to die if he could help it, but there was good reason to be wary. “You recognize those voices? Are they your people, or could it be some sort of trick?” He asked, though there was not time to linger and debate. With everything they did, they needed to be quick and decisive. “What’s the name of your commander?” Senjen shouted through the door. If they responded back with a name the boss or his guards recognized, they could let them in.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Progress, at least. Since they had avoided being at one another’s throats for now, they still had a chance to get out alive. Senjen caught the extinguisher from Light and took just a moment to check the label and make sure it was safe for him. The hole in his back provided enough access for him to reach back and angle the nozzle up towards his frame’s chest cavity. The small fires themselves had already been taken care of, but the first burst of the extinguisher into him did wonders to cool his core temperature. Some parts of his body were more or less susceptible to heat than others, but it was most important to keep his data storage and processor cooled. Fortunately, storage did not generate much heat on its own, but his processor certainly did. His power cells could handle higher temperatures, though the consequences of them staying overheated for too long could be...dangerous. The extinguisher would cool him down for a while, and since he had not needed to use all of its contents, he kept a hold of it for now.

The front seats of the cash truck were already taken by the time Senjen was done, so he sprinted for the hatch into the back instead. He could at least still keep on on a call with Light, so they could keep in contact, but Senjen wanted to keep his body and mind as still as he could for now. The less he was doing, the less heat he produced, and the easier his bottlenecked cooling system could keep up. Senjen was the first in, so he picked a corner where he could find something to grab onto and help keep himself still.

Senjen messaged both Light and the boss. “You think going on public transitways would help? I know the Korit government tends to stay out of private ‘business’, but they get involved if that starts spilling out into the public, right? We’re in cash trucks, so if they follow, station security might take it for an attempted robbery and intervene in our favor.”