by E. A. James
Now, the only thing running through her was the uncomfortable feeling of being exposed and vulnerable.
The two groups moved, unnoticed, through the crowded streets of the market. After an hour of navigating the streets of Vandor without incident, they reached the district where Bron had docked the ship, Kira felt herself relax slightly. Bron and the others ahead of them took a quick turn down one of the side streets. Thor, Kira, and Alaria were just about to round the corner after them when a robotic voice burst through the air.
“Halt!” the voice demanded.
They turned quickly, and Kira had a hard time processing what she saw. Nearly twenty yards away stood a Rengar, who appeared as much machine as anything else that he was. The typically fur-covered body of the overgrown rodent was hardly fur-covered at all. Most of the surface of his skin was metallic, shining and reflecting the early morning sun, just breaking through the heavy layer of pollution that seemed to permanently shroud Vandor. The mechanized rat had his eyes fixed on Thor, and his hands were clutching tightly to the stock of a long-barreled plasma gun.
“Nico Rax,” Thor said under his breath, grabbing hold of Alaria and pushing her around the corner.
"The bounty hunter?" Kira asked in surprise as she reached under her cloak to retrieve her Phantom.
“The one and only,” Thor replied. Turning his focus to Alaria, he ordered, “run to the others. Do not come back for us—you understand? Tell them to get to the ship. No matter what happens, the plan to take down Grimm has to go forward.”
Alaria blinked hard and nodded. Just then, Nico Rax let a fury of plasma fire roar from his weapon in their direction. Thor sensed the attack before he could even pull the trigger, and quickly pushed himself forward, shoving Alaria down the street and spinning back around to face Kira.
“You can go, too,” he said as she ducked around the corner after him.
“Hell no,” she said firmly. “If we can kill this asshole, that’s one less problem we have staring us down. Plus, he’s almost a celebrity in the Bazaar; I’ll never pay for another drink in my life.”
“Not really the time to be thinking about your legacy,” Thor chided, as another bolt of plasma slammed into the building he was using as cover.
“Alright, time to move, I’ll cover and you fall back. Keep some distance between us, two targets are more difficult than one,” Thor instructed.
Kira fell back twenty yards and took up another firing position.
“Move!” Kira shouted to Thor.
Thor gracefully rolled from cover and moved with inhuman speed to Kira’s side.
Rax continued his pursuit, following their movement with precision and covering when they took up firing positions against him.
After a few repetitions, the bionic Rengar seemed to tire of their game. With a sudden burst, Rax thrust himself through the air and with two gigantic strides he propelled himself over Kira and Thor’s position, landing directly in front of them.
Kira spun quickly with her Phantom trained on the bounty hunter. She fired two quick shots. Rax leaped up, still clinging to his gun, the beam just missing him. As he came back down to the ground, he trained his weapon on Thor and released a pulsating string of plasma. Thor shifted to the side just in time and grabbed onto Kira's wrist, dragging her behind him as he ran down a less crowded side street.
Nico wasn't giving up. He continued to run after them, firing recklessly through the crowd, a few shots nearly finding their mark. Thor was about to turn down another street when out of the corner of her eye, Kira saw Nico leap high into the air, anticipating his targets move and ready to cut them off.
Just as Thor rounded the corner, Kira pulled back on his arm forcefully. “Stop!” she yelled.
In that instant, a red-hot blaze of energetic matter buzzed past them, falling in the exact place Thor would have been if she hadn’t stopped him.
“Thanks!” Thor muttered, leaning his weight forward and taking off running again.
The two of them continued down the street in a full out run now with Rax scaling the walls behind them, darting gracefully from one building to the next.
Rax began closing the distance again and Kira dared risk a glance to identify his position. She turned and looked, but saw no sign of him.
“Wait!” Kira shouted to Thor.
Thor stopped yards away from Kira and pivoted to Rax’s last position with his weapon at the ready.
“Where the hell did he go?” Thor asked.
In seconds they had their answer, as the bounty hunter crashed down on Kira from above, tackling her to the ground.
Landing on his feet, he kept his gun trained on her, his beady eyes glowing as they focused on her.
Just as he was about to squeezed the trigger, Thor threw himself forward, knocking the rodent back. Simultaneously, he reached under his robe and pulled out his sidearm. The blast he shot into the Rengar’s chest surged through him, causing him to tumble back to the ground and dive for cover in an alleyway.
“He won’t be down for long,” Thor said, reaching out and lifting Kira to her feet. “Let’s move!”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Kira replied, leaping to her feet uninjured.
Kira and Thor ran hard with Thor keeping a pace that Kira could duplicate. They were constantly checking over their shoulder for any sight of their potential assassin.
“Why didn’t he kill us?” Kira asked between breaths as they charged through the crowds.
“Bounty’s higher if we’re alive,” Thor replied, seeming to have infinite endurance. “For now, that’s working in our favor.”
Kira wanted to point out the irony of the situation, but she didn’t have the breath left to spare for a joke at this point.
Her heart still pounding in her ears, she felt a slight wave of ease wash over her when they rounded a corner and the dry docks became visible in the distance. Still searching the crowd, her eyes landed on their group.
Thor continued to lead the way, running up to them quickly, panting slightly as he said, “we should probably get on that ship.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Bron said, his eyes shooting over Thor’s shoulder.
Kira craned her neck around, expecting to see the demonic, robotic rodent running after them. Instead of Nico Rax, though, she saw the three Arcanum soldiers who were guarding Dario’s ship running quickly towards them. Her body once again pumped adrenaline through her system and she spun around, pushing the group forward.
“Hurry! Where’s the ship?” she demanded.
“Here,” Bron said, leading them towards a small, roughly constructed freighter.
Kira was slightly disillusioned when she saw the metallic mass in front of her. It was unlike any ship she had seen before, and not in a good way. The mismatched parts and worn metal hull had a sad, almost pathetic quality to them. Still, it was all they had.
Bron entered another set of codes into the control panel next to the retractable ramp and after an electronic beep of confirmation, the ramp lowered down to the platform. It shook and stuttered as it dropped, and Kira winced, afraid it might fall off.
As they began boarding the ship, the Arcanum soldiers began to fire on them. The particle beams buzzed in the air and Thor and Vinnie were returning fire from the ship’s ramp. Dario, Kira, Bron, and Alaria all made their way up the ramp one at a time.
“Bron! Which way to the flight deck?” Kira yelled.
“Straight down the main corridor, don’t turn, you’ll run right into it,” he shouted back in reply as Kira took off.
Weapon fire continued to fill the air, and Dario had started to return fire with Thor and Vinnie.
“Get in!” Bron shouted to the group and Thor instructed Dario and Vinnie to move first.
As they boarded, Thor continued to fire upon the foremost advancing Arcanum soldier and planted two shots on the man’s torso when he recklessly abandoned cover. He dropped to the ground in a heap and Thor used the opportunity to spin out of his own
cover and spring up the ramp.
Bron quickly hit the retract command on the control panel and the ramp shuddered and rumbled upwards and ended with a firm crunch of metal on metal.
“Is that sealed?!” Alaria asked Bron with a great deal of disbelief.
“Won’t know until we’re in space,” Bron shot back to Alaria’s dismay.
Thor sprinted off towards the bow of the ship, heading for Kira and the flight deck.
As he reached the flight deck he entered to find Kira sitting at the controls and cycling through a series of pre-flight checks.
“We have to move, we don’t have much time,” Thor said to Kira.
“Yeah, yeah, keep it together tough guy. This rig is a pile, and if I don’t ease it into space we’ll be killed just as we make our escape,” Kira quipped, her eyes glued to the control panels around her.
The sound of weapon fire impacting the hull rang out.
Kira paused, “Okay, you’re right, we need to move.”
She spun around and entered commands to bring the ship's engine systems online. Nothing. She entered them again. Still nothing. The weapon fire continued to pelt the hull.
“What the hell is going on, get us out of here,” Bron shouted as he rushed onto the flight deck.
“Your ship doesn’t want to fly!” she yelled over her shoulder at Bron.
“Damn it,” Bron said, reaching for the comm button and broadcasting ship wide - “Vinnie, get to the engine room and get this rig running!”
“Alaria too!” Kira added. “She’s an engineer.”
“You heard the captain!” Bron yelled. “Now, go!”
Kira continued to work at the controls, familiarizing herself with the odd collection of parts and making sure she was ready to pilot the ship when the time finally came.
After a minute, the sounds of plasma impacting their hull subsided.
“Why did they stop?” Bron asked aloud to the group.
“Probably went to get a bigger gun,” Thor replied.
“Shit,” Bron said.
Bron pressed the comm again and called down to the engine room. "Vinnie, Alaria, where are we at?"
“It’s a mess down here, Bron,” Alaria replied. “This place is filthy!”
“Are you cleaning or repairing?”
“Both,” Alaria replied. “It’s no wonder this thing isn’t working…”
Her words were cut short when a heavy cannon fire blasted into the side of the ship. The hull rocked back and forth and Kira had to grab hold of the side of her captain’s chair to remain upright.
“Looks like they found a bigger gun,” Kira yelled to no one in particular.
“We’re short on time!” Bron yelled into the receiver.
“We noticed you big idiot, how about you stay off the comm and let us do our jobs?” Vinnie chimed in, the sarcasm not lost in his anxious tone.
Kira continued to re-enter the ignition sequence, holding her breath each time, waiting to hear the hum of the engines firing up. "Thanks for the great ship, Bron," she said sarcastically over her shoulder.
“It’s a hell of a lot better than the non-existent one you have,” he countered.
Kira squeezed her fist in frustration and entered the command one more time, the control panels in front of her lit up.
“Yes! We have engines,” Kira said.
“Stay low on exit, that cannon fire will find a home easier if you take a high trajectory,” Thor interjected.
“Right, thanks,” Kira replied, thankful for Thor’s tactical expertise at that moment.
Kira throttled up and their ship lifted off the landing platform with surprising ease.
“At least she has some power Bron,” Kira said over her shoulder.
“I told you, it’s not pretty but it’s more than it looks,” Bron replied triumphantly.
The comm system beeped a call of attention and Alaria nearly shouted, “We’re getting somewhere, engines up and operating well, despite the dust. We should have the sensor array online in a few moments and Vinnie’s working on the weapon and defense arrays.”
Kira continued to pilot the ship low on the horizon, and as they maneuvered away from the dry docks she could see Nico Rax watching helplessly from the ground.
She directed Thor’s attention to the bounty hunter, “Persistent little asshole, isn’t he?”
“Yes, unfortunately, I highly doubt we’re done with him yet – he doesn’t take setbacks well” Thor responded.
Kira began to increase their speed and the market began to drift away below them and the polluted atmosphere of Vandor gave way to clearer and darker skies as they ascended towards space.
Just then, the sensor array beamed to life and Kira was greeted with more bad news.
“Two on our tail,” Kira said to the group.
“Don’t get too comfortable just yet, it appears they’re not ready to concede our escape,” Kira said, her eyes still locked on the sensor array.
Bron grunted as he pushed himself back up and rushed over to the comm. “Vinnie, Alaria, we need shields,” he ordered.
“I bet you do,” Alaria replied, “but we’re still working on the weapons and defense arrays.”
“Great, we’re unarmed and unprotected,” Kira bemoaned.
“I’m afraid so,” Alaria said.
“Damn it, what are you two doing down there?” Bron said.
“Drinking tea,” Alaria quipped. “What do you think we’re doing?”
“Whatever you’re doing, you’re not doing it fast enough. Get those arrays online!”
“I already told you to stay off the comm and let us work, so unless you’re planning to come down here and help we’d prefer it if you shut up for the time being,” Vinnie shot back.
“You let him talk to you like that?” Kira asked with a wry smile as she worked evasive maneuvers against their pursuers.
“Yes, unfortunately, he has no off switch, another quality of his that reminds me of you,” Bron replied, rolling his eyes.
Kira continued to maneuver the ship as best she could, but her lack of experience with this vessel was slowing her down. She barely had the basic controls identified and now she was in a high-speed chase.
“They’re closing on us,” Thor said as he watched the sensor array intently.
“I see it,” Kira replied, her tone conveying that she knew exactly what was happening.
Suddenly, one of the ships behind them opened fire. Kira tightened on the controls and drove the ship to the right, the beam rushing past them.
Both of their pursuers continued to close and after a few moments, both began to fire. This time, Kira sent the ship into a spiral, falling back down to the planet they had just escaped. As the unmarked vessels followed behind, she turned sharply to the left and drove the ship back up, towards space.
“I can’t keep this up all day!” she yelled.
Their pursuers were climbing quickly, gaining on them. Another beam of energy flew past them and the sensor array was pinging repeatedly, warning them of the danger.
Clenching her jaw, she attempted to pull all of her focus. "Shut those sensors off!" she ordered, the ringing was beginning to grate at her.
Thor rushed forward to switch the sensor array off and Kira sent the ship into another free fall dive. Thor was thrown forward, slightly, but regained his balance quickly. Bron, on the other hand, tumbled onto the ground behind her.
“Bet you’re thankful for those enhancements now,” Kira said, shooting Thor a playful smile.
“I can’t tell if you joking during combat is sadistic or stress management,” Thor said back.
“Can’t it be a little of both?” Kira retorted.
Bron continued to tumble around on the ground, cursing loudly behind them as she pulled the ship up again. Kira didn’t notice, but one of their pursuers didn’t follow them upwards this time.
The next dive she made put her directly in front of the vessel that didn’t make the climb.
�
��Shit, missed that,” Kira said, realizing her mistake.
“Shields are up!” Alaria’s voice came ringing over the comm.