A golden skinned, blonde haired Nihn with a long slender tail and a well toned muscular body was hurriedly making his way through the streets, helping passerbyers into more safe locations if they were unable to move quickly enough on their own. Although this delayed him in reaching the Exeralune, as he heard the order on his communication device, there was no way he was going to run past innocent people who needed his help.
"This is Executive Officer Randa Neeus reporting in," he said into his device, which transmitted to other crewmembers on the ship, including the captain, other officers, and certain security personnel. "I'm on my way but am providing some much needed assistance for the populace. If I don't arrive by the time you're ready to go, leave me here and I'll find my own way to rendezvous with you. Over and out."
He put his device away in order to focus once again on his current duty.
"There's a basement in that building. Hurry!" He shouted, directing a Furzai couple who seemed scared out of their wits, causing them to just stand there shivering in the middle of the street as the bombardment drew closer and closer. This seemed to snap them into their senses long enough for them to make a mad dash through the doors and vanish out of sight, hopefully to safety.
Good. It looked like everyone in this area managed to reach a relatively safe location...no wait, some girl was moving his way now from around the corner, passing up a few possible safe havens along the way. What was she thinking?! Well, a disaster situation that came out of nowhere would tend to limit the ability for untrained individuals to think properly and she was just a kid, so maybe she lost her family and was searching for any adult that she could find to help her out. Whatever the reason, he had to act quickly or else this street may be obliterated at any second, taking both him and her with it. As he got closer to her he could see more of the details, revealing that she was of a race he had never seen before. White skin and bald, with what looked like natural plate armor in place of hair. Her left eye was silver and the right was gold. She appeared to be around 13 if she followed the normal growth of humanoid kids. She looked adorable and helpless in her little black dress, in desperate need of someone like him to assist her, if her expression was to be believed.
"Hurry, let's go back the way you came! There's a safe house just that-a-way, so if you lost your family in the chaos then you can always look for them after you're all safe," he explained, moving closer in order to aid her.
"Thank you so much," she said rushing up and hugging him tightly.
"Alright, let's get going-" he began to say, but he felt a sudden sharp pain in his back erupt through his back, something tearing through his DefenseWeave military jacket. Debris from an explosion?! The girl took a step back, smiling as she held onto a bloodied dagger.
"Mission complete," she said to something hidden within her dress.
"Wha-" he thought, his vision becoming blurry as he fell to his knees. "A...kid..." he slumped to the ground, fatally wounded. Melee weapons were able to cut through DefenseWeave easier than bullets, so what better way to kill a high ranking and defended individual than with a sneak attack from a child? She confirmed her kill before rushing down the street in search for her next victim, in no worry of the bombardment due to being in on it from the beginning.
She got a call before she could find anyone else of note.
"Maa Yu, it appears like the crewmembers of the Exeralune are almost all at the hanger sooner than expected, and the ones who aren't are being dealt with accordingly. Your work here is done. Good job."
Although slightly disappointed, she did manage to take out someone of incredibly high rank, so that would have to be good enough for her. She gave her affirmative and changed course to leave the battlefield. Although she, like a lot of her race, were trained from birth for combat and could carry her own in battle well enough despite her young age, she was best at subterfuge so there wasn't as much point in her joining the actual combat as of right now. That would have to wait.
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(Meanwhile, while all this was going on)
The squad clad in silver made their way through the streets, gunning down anyone foolish enough to be out in the open still and get in their way. They almost made it to the hanger now, finding a Gurran leaning against the building's wall, smoking a humungous cigar, apparently on his break, only now instead of it being relaxing he was standing in surprise at the scene taking place before him. His military uniform designated him as the security chief. What luck to catch him like this out in the open. He could have been trouble later on, especially upon seeing the massive weaponry that was slung over his back. In a fair fight he could have torn through their armor like butter and been a real challenge. They didn't give him a fair fight.
While he was distracted, one of them fired a single shot of a long range assault rifle, piercing him right in the forehead and killing him instantly. The cigar fell out of his gapping mouth as he collapse to the ground with a thud.
"That puts me in the lead," the man who fired that shot remarked with a fierce grin, although that was not seen underneath his helmet.
"What?! Come on, that doesn't count," another one complained as they made their way up to the doors. "Besides, we haven't even had a chance to start yet."
"You just got to be quicker to the punch, that's all."
The doors opened and a bunch of surprised people turned to look at the heavily armed group enter the facility.
"Nice day we're having, ain't it?" The leader exclaimed in the Anolo language as he raised his machinegun and began firing. These security forces were weak and didn't stand much of a chance even if not taken by complete surprise, leaving the battle over within a minute, the invaders the only ones left standing when the dust cleared. Hopefully the security team working for the Exeralune were better or else they might get bored to death by the time this mission was complete. As for now his 6 year old child could literally have done the job for him. Knowing that they might have heard the shots and were preparing, however, they couldn't idle around for much longer so rushed further into the building to the area outside of the Exeralune, seeing the ship and it's crew for the first time.
They were acting like purtulan with their heads cut off, a lot of the engineers, technicians, and other crew members apparently on board but the security forces seemed to be split between also going on board or standing around to greet the invaders head on. Only around 10 of them remained right now, leaving then outnumbered 2 to 1. Heh. This would be a slaughter after all. Not only were the security personnel worse armed, they were also outnumbered and disorganized.
"You villain! Stop!" A chaehtinn named Reeker shouted in a robotic voice that served as his translator. He fired his machinegun wildly at them, charging forward at top speed. He was quick and thin, making him a difficult target to hit, but he was out in the open and drew the attention of the entire squad. A hail of bullets reduced his body to green mush before he managed to do any serious damage to their armor, most of the shots missing and a few glancing off them.
The other crewmembers learned their lesson and found things to hide behind, attacking more as a team. This forced the attackers to react accordingly, slowing down their progress for the first time. However, as for now they still held the advantage and would slowly push their way closer and closer to the ship.
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Arma wanted to keep going, but there was a major slowdown as their other companion fell to his knees in anguish. He didn't know what was going on all of a sudden but it looked bad. Still, they couldn't afford to stop like this or else be huge targets.
"Go on ahead. The hanger is just past this alleyway. I'll be a little while longer," Ahn said to Arma, probably noticing how antsy he was looking. Arma nodded his head shakily in agreement and continued forward.
Ahn knelt down tenderly next to the kneeling man, placing a hand lightly on his shoulder.
"I'm so sorry for your loss, but in order to help stop any more from suffering through the feelings that you are experiencing now, we must stand up tall and press onward, using every ounce of courage that we have to combat this threat, making their brave sacrifices not be in vain."
The enemy sniper made his way around the corner, halting in surprise to see that his foes were stopped in a crouching position in the middle of the alleyway. When the shock wore off in about a second he began to take aim at the pair, only to be stopped as Ahn scooped up a jagged piece of fallen crystal in his free hand and flung it forward, the crystal sailing through the air for a brief moment before jousting into his shoulder and forcing him to drop his hold on the sniper rifle as he let out a surprised yelp. Ahn continued to only wait patiently, keeping his eyes on his new companion to make sure that he was still alright. He'd carry him to safety if he had to, but it would be much easier of he would begin to walk again on his own initiative.
LeeRoy