“I’m on you, Captain. We’re approaching via the roof, west–side.” Commander Perez answered.
“I’ve taken up position outside of the building, Marquise Glassworks Incorporated, south–side. Will maintain watch.” Ca’rrakk reported.
“I’m entering the lower level of the building.” Came Hadarr’s update.
“Acknowledged.”
Narrowing her eyes, Captain Serros took off down the metal floor–way of the scaffold she was on and then, with fierce focus, bounded forward some seventy feet or so to the scaffolding thirty feet directly above her quarry. Though the Shield’s aim was true, she still slammed with jarring force against the scaffold railing, then actually tumbled over its side, catching herself just enough to swing in a more or less controlled manner downward and away from the panel–stack. Avara touched down upon the ground heavily, barely missing smashing the opposite stack.
Startled out of her run, the Vosaia paused a moment as Captain Serros landed on the scaffold and then watched her mostly controlled fall. With Z’arr shaking her head in obvious disbelief, Serros was able to catch the muttered “Insane; absolutely insane!” comment right as Z’arr tossed another, more numerous batch of hand–drones in the Captain’s direction. Then the target started her run again, this time while frantically keying–in commands on her CPA.
“Damn.” Serros swore dryly, realizing her position in the walkways between the steep glass towers was vulnerable, to say the least.
Then a familiar voice informed her that relief had arrived. “We got this, Captain.”
“Copy, and thanks, Marcus.” Serros answered, barely looking up to see Perez, Rygel, and Naxos arrive directly through the sun–roof of the ceiling above, instinctively trusting the person that had been at her back since childhood. Not having to worry about going undercover, they were all equipped in their armor and much better armed than she, a fact testified to by the serious spray of assault rifle and SMG fire that swept through the drones, eliminating the threat in seconds.
Captain Serros didn’t wait to see the end, however, instead once again taking up the chase. For several minutes the two ran madly through the rows, around lifts, stacks, and workers alike until suddenly, a lift–driver with a full stack of glass ingots unknowingly pulled right in front of Agent Z’arr. Startled by the speeding Vosaia who smashed into his vehicle, the driver instinctively swerved his cart, slamming directly against a stack of panels.
To Captain Avara Serros, it appeared as if time ceased its natural flow. With a strange, bell–like screech, several glass panels escaped their durexium clamps and began to free–fall down onto the flooring and into the stack directly behind. The six–armed, dazed Zirgesh lift–driver was tossed out of his seat to the ground next to a groaning Z’arr, even as several tons of glass ingots came hurtling down from directly above them.
The Captain, caught on the opposite side of the cart, watched as Z’arr’s violet eyes widened in shock and fear at the freefalling glass coming her way, then readied to lunge to safety just as she caught a whimper of terror from the prone Zirgesh next to her. Serros clearly recognized the instant of hesitation on Z’arr’s countenance, then her decision as she clenched her hands into fists and squeezed her eyes closed.
Time snapped back into place as some eight–thousand pounds worth of glass ingots crashed directly atop the two and the immediate surrounding area. Yet amazingly, the Vosaia and the Zirgesh were utterly unharmed. A rich, dark blue field of energy set into a covering dome enveloped them, the glass having shattered upon impact and then slid off the dome like water tumbling down a deep canyon fall.
Arms uplifted in a position reminiscent of Atlas holding the Heavens and lilac eyes submerged into pools of indigo light, K’llan Z’arr turned to the panicked worker and in a ragged voice ordered, “Go… now!”
The Zirgesh turned his double–heart shaped head towards the Vosaia, rapidly blinking six obsidian eyes, then scrambled to his feet while yelping in a reedy voice, “Uh… yes, yes! Gratitude!”
As soon as the Zirgesh factory–worker reached safety, Z’arr seemed to increase her concentration, then at her command, the dome–shaped K–Shield angled itself and several hundred pounds of shattered glass pieces slid down to the ground between the Vosaia and Human. Within the passage of a heartbeat, the blue light of the kobalt infused barrier abruptly winked out of existence.
Exhaling deeply, K’llan Z’arr briefly met Avara Serros’s eyes, then turned and sprinted down a pathway to her right between two untouched panel scaffolds. Yet again, Captain Serros took off after her, scrambling over crystal and durexium, joined a moment later by Perez, Naxos, and Rygel.
“Well, this is very exciting.” Lieutenant Rygel commented as he climbed over the large heap of glass next to Serros, blond head bright in the warehouse’s glass–reflected light.
“Of course, it is a hunt, but we must hurry before our prey escapes.” Lieutenant Belgrum Naxos chimed in, saurian form leaping over the pile with almost frightening ease.
“It looks like that’s exactly what may happen.” Commander Perez added as the four Nova Squad members watched while Z’arr once again caused a localized explosion with a hand grenade to take out a portion of the manufacturing building’s wall and jumped through the self–created doorway.
“Double–time, people!” Serros yelled, again pouring on the speed, this time outdistancing her Squadmates to reach the opening just as she caught site of Z’arr slipping into a matte–green, glass roofed sky–car that she’d dropped to. Now the commands she issued earlier on her CPA made observable sense.
“Gonna lose her!” Marcus Perez called.
With a yell of defiance, Avara reached the edge and leaped towards the closed sky transport, landing with a heavy thud and frantically scrambling to catch hold of the roof. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the rest of the Squad slide to a halt at the splintered building wall and could hear Perez comming Major Ca’rrakk for a fast pick up.
Z’arr immediately started swerving in wild yet fully controlled maneuvers designed to drop her unwanted passenger, causing the Captain to lose her grip for a moment and slip to the passenger side of the two person sky–car. She barely caught herself before she tumbled into the night–cradled street below. Traffic ripped the atmosphere next to her as the Vosaia driver plotted the vehicle’s path perilously close to oncoming sky–lane traffic.
Holding on for dear life and beginning to have serious doubts as to the merits of her plan, Captain Serros discarded the idea of trying to use her pistol to break into the STV’s glass side–roof for fear of harming the rogue Agent she now fully intended to capture alive. Gripping the sky–car’s roof bar with her left hand while her feet locked onto the boarding rim and, once again wishing she was wearing her armor, the Shield Operative resolved herself to having to do this the hardest, rather than just the hard way.
Serros drew her MA knife–hilt from her side, thumbed the activation button, and a split second later the hilt’s micro–assembler had flash–crafted a durexium bowie–knife blade. With all of the Arca–infused force at her command, Serros thrust the nine inch steel–hued knife blade down, slicing into the glass side–roof with ease and ripping a full section away.
With a startled yell, Lieutenant Z’arr pulled the green transport into a dizzying climb, running the vehicle far beyond its build specifications in an attempt to dislodge the Human Captain. Almost losing her grip on the knife, Serros grabbed the STV’s roof–lip, slicing her hand for the effort but maintaining her hold. Once more she thrust her knife through the flexible glass, taking out another large section like peeling skin from an overripe orange. In answer, the Vosaia pilot pushed her controls down and to the right, the grim determination flashing across her features causing Serros to take a quick survey.
Maybe not my best day cracked into Avara’s mind as she spotted a weather–scarred advert strut closing in at a breathtaking rate.
Gripping the boarding bar with both hands, Capta
in Serros deliberately swung herself out and then into the half–torn, flexible side–glass. She made the vehicle’s interior in a spray of glass just before the strut would have diced her in half. Upon entry, Serros’s booted feet struck Z’arr, causing a suppressed groan and a slip on the sky–car’s choke. The result was an ear–rending screech as the side of their transport scraped another STV in the adjacent sky–lane.
An instant later, K’llan Z’arr’s right elbow struck out even as her left hand stabilized their trajectory, only to be caught, deflected, and the blow returned by Serros. The next thirty seconds or so became a dizzy, vomit–inducing exchange of speed–defying blows, parries, half–kicks, and attempts by both women to keep the vehicle stable.
“Captain Serros, we’re closing in. Situation?” Lieutenant Dane Rygel’s voice came in over full audio through her CPA rather than her ear piece, which had evidently been lost at some point during the evening’s gymnastic endeavors.
“A little… uh… occupied right now.” Serros answered as one of Z’arr’s blow’s slipped past her guard to smash into her solar plexus.
“Any time you wish to join your friends… is fine with me.” Z’arr commented acidly, attempting four more strikes before her sentence was completed.
Catching each effort, Avara grinned wolfishly. “But we seem to be getting along so very well.”
Before the Vosaia had a chance to retort, something large slammed into the side of their transport, causing the vehicle to careen down and out of the appropriate sky–lane and rake its already damaged side against a light azure and steel colored glass building. The result was yet more shattering sheets of glass, the glittering shards tumbling from view into the traffic lanes below like falling stars.
Turning her head, Avara spied a gold and red colored transport vehicle at three o’clock and a stony–faced Major Goyan Hadarr behind the controls. Serros also noted Excalibur’s ES2 shuttle was visible, currently maintaining a nine o’ clock position.
Z’arr swore and wrestled with the choke to regain control, Captain Serros instinctively reaching out to help her to ensure their mutual survival.
For the span of a slow heartbeat, the two worked in concert then, just as the transport leveled some, once more Hadarr’s gold STV slammed into their battered green vehicle. The impact smacked loose Serros’s half–grip on the choke as she was hurled bodily to the rear–interior of the transport, then half out of the busted glass siding she’d originally entered in through.
Reacting quickly, Z’arr floored the STV straight down, swerving the transport to avoid the other Vosaia who was so close to her tail that the two sky–cars were practically kissing. With another twist Avara, who’d literally been clutching with all of her might onto the battered doorway and, lying flat against the STV’s side due to the very real constraints of gravity, finally lost her grip entirely. Despite her best efforts, she slid across the plane of the transport and then out into open air.
*
As the night and lights enveloped her like a swimmer caught and swept under the languidly warm yet potentially lethal waves of her childhood home on Kylos, Captain Avara Serros was struck by the momentary thought that the failure of her mission would be ‘
“One Hell of A Mess” for Marcus to explain in a report to the Quorum and Naval HQ. Then suddenly, she could see him, really see him. He was directly below and balancing in an almost hysterically funny and certainly ridiculously precarious position.
Both Ca’rrakk and Belgrum Naxos were holding onto the side of their shuttle port doorway with one hand, and gripping Marcus’s holster–harness with the other. Half suspended out of the shuttle’s entry, Commander Marcus Perez had both arms outstretched towards her. The hilarity of the situation really lay in the fact that the shuttle itself was practically hovering on its starboard side, gradually de’celling to match her fall speed.
“Avara. To me; grab on!” Marcus’s golden–brown eyes were dark with worry, the muscles of his neck popping as he stretched steel and sapphire armored arms towards her.
Getting her darting emotions under control, the Captain inhaled and, exerting effort, focused much as Z’arr had done earlier but in a different variant, causing her entire body to be sheathed skin–close in the dark blue colored energy of a K–Shield. Serros stretched out her fingers and felt them almost painfully crushed by Perez’s life–or–death grip. With a jarring thud, Avara smacked into his body, causing both of them as well Lieutenant Naxos and Major Ca’rrakk to all crash into the port side of the shuttle.
“You guys okay?” Serros spat out a second later, pushing herself into an upright position and stamping out the black–threatening pain of her lacerated hands.
“Tolerable.” Ca’rrakk answered with a grunt, fur flat in anxiety and irritation.
“Yeah, great. Let’s not do that again, okay?” Perez remarked, rubbing a bruised jaw.
“No promises, buddy.” Serros answered with a shaky grin.
“So not surprised.” Her EXO retorted.
“Major Hadarr, status?” Serros asked after having Commed her CPA.
A crashing sound could be heard over the channel, followed by several moments of silence and then another crashing sound reminiscent of a stack of steel crates filled with seashells tumbling down the side of a cliff, smashing into the rock face again and again before finally hitting turf.
“Lost her, Captain Serros. And my STV.” Major Hadarr’s strained voice echoed throughout the shuttle, her tone frustrated and slightly embarrassed.
“All right; we’ll pick you up and regroup. It’s not over yet, people.” Serros replied.
*
“According to Odass, the meeting between Lieutenant K’llan Z’arr and our unknowns will take place tomorrow night at the Adrenix Factory at two in the morning, local time. That was all he knew.”
“Do we trust his information?” Lieutenant Commander Diana Adeline asked over the Comm, worry etched in her voice.
“Yes. He’s proven a valuable resource to Quorum Strategic High Risk, Intelligence and Enforcement.” Hadarr answered the Ops and Intel Officer’s query.
“Just like that?” Commander Marcus Perez asked, surprise evident as he paced around the hotel room Nova Squad had rented for the day, the team having decided it was better to not draw too much attention to themselves by ferrying back and forth from Ophere to Excalibur. As accommodations went, their quarters and the Harmunn Hotel were anything but impressive.
“Ha. Just like that with a promise to not look too closely into some shady business dealings and a generous fee for his information services.” Avara added dryly, issuing her signature, crooked half–smile.
“Did the fence have any intel regarding what kind of forces we can expect at the meet?” Lieutenant Naxos asked, his vibrato gently rolling through the room.
“Unfortunately not.” Major Hadarr answered. “And setting up recon tech may very well give the game away.”
“Captain, please hold still.” Major Ca’rrakk admonished, his large, fur–covered, four–fingered hands surprisingly gentle as he adroitly treated first Serros’s ear then lacerated hands.
“Sorry.” Avara answered the Excalibur’s Senior Science Officer and Nova Squad’s prime Field Medic. “Rygel, any hits confirming Z’arr’s whereabouts?”
“Mm. None so far, Captain.” The Lieutenant responded, fingering the bridge of his nose as he scanned data feeds coming in over his CPA, river–water hued eyes flicking at a rapid rate over reports. “I’ve hacked into Ophere’s local Peace Keeping network; a lot of chatter and effort to ascertain who tore through a certain glass production company a couple of hours ago,” Rygel said the last with a short chuckle. “But the PK has little that’s helpful. Also, nothing useful as far as unusual transactions from Voss’s finance centers.”
“Okay, Dane. Keep at it. There’s something… off about Lieutenant Z’arr.” The Captain stated, trying place a mental finger on the reasons for her instinct.
“If you mean ‘of
f’ as in our target slipped away from us, I agree.” Belgrum Naxos commented, the trained, professional hunter and scout in him irritated at the escape of their prey.
“No, I mean off in the sense that K’llan Z’arr doesn’t fit the template of willing betrayer.”
“And why is that, Captain Serros?” Major Hadarr asked, a skeptical cast to her voice.
“Because she could have let the glass–factory worker be crushed and in doing so, have had a much better chance at securing her escape. She didn’t.” Captain Serros said flatly, confidence growing as her thoughts aligned with instinct.
“Many people commit crimes because they think their actions are correct, or because they feel situation has compelled them to do so.” Major Hadarr remarked, her sincerity of belief unusually easy to read, turquoise stare challenging.
“Perhaps.” Avara replied with a shrug. But in her mind, she replayed Z’arr’s actions and enacting of the K–Shield. “Either way, I want it clear that our mission is to capture, not kill Lieutenant Z’arr.”
“If possible. No promises.” The Vosaia Major responded.
“If the Captain says capture, we capture.” Marcus Perez declared, tone flat.
“If possible.” Hadarr repeated, non–committal.
“All set, Serros.” Ca’rrakk announced, interrupting the tension between Perez and Hadarr before it could escalate.
The Captain cast a grateful nod at her Gorath crewmember, flexing her fingers as the green Salu–Salve and her Arca PV did their work. Sliced skin was already beginning to mend even as the Shield Operative fought the very strong impulse to scratch her fiercely itching hands while the wounds visibly knitted. “For now, the best we can do is prep our gear, eat, and grab some sleep. It’s going to be a long night.”
“Aye, aye, Captain. I’m thinking bok–ten noodles and hyron steak. I’ll do the run.” Perez declared, an almost boyish look of expectant satisfaction on his rugged features.
CHAPTER 5
Nova Page 5