"Kalashi..."
"Kalashi...Can you hear me?"
"Kalashi...Are you still with us?"
Those words... They rang throughout her mind like an echo through an iron cage. All senses were robbed and every part of her body felt numb, stiff as if it was a lifeless piece of steel.
They were nothing but darkness all around, no sight nor sound to relieve her of this void... this emptiness.
Except for those few words... The ones that seemly brought her here...
*Kalashi...That's my...my name...* She thought to herself, she tried harder and found not just that but other memories...
It all started to come back, and with all of her might, she pushed further; slowly forcing her eyes open...Finally, after what seemed to be an endless plane of oblivion, she could just barely see enough to bring herself back from the edge of the abyss.
Extremely blurred and hazy, all that could be seen was a thick haze that had seemly encompassed all around her. She tried to reach out with her hand at first but could feel nothing but a dull pain throughout her spine as she pushed more and more.
Then, what could only be described as a blob of a silhouette appeared before her... All completely indistinguishable behind the fog... They all stood there, seemly getting closer to her yet all still so far away...
She tried again and again... Pushing harder and harder each time to reach out... to grab... to touch them.
But she felt nothing more than that persistent feeling of pain, each time feeling worse as she tried harder and harder, spreading throughout her upper spine and head. Finally, she tried to look at her hand...
She found out she'd been reduced to nothing more than a series of bones and synthetic organs, all of which were ghastly interlaced with what little actual flesh remained of her. It's all tied to a skeletal metal frame that messily held everything together in a haphazard fashion.
Suddenly, her mind raced into a frenzied panic, desperately trying to comprehend what she was in. What she even was... That blast, that blinding flash upon the battlefield of Sirgas... That was the end... She was no more at this point... She was dead...
Her body and mind went into total, instantaneous shock. Flashes flooded her mind, flashes of her childhood, of her parents, of her first crush, of academy graduation, of basic training, of the trenches of Sirgas... of her death...
Then as sight left her yet again, so too did that dull feeling of pain... The emptiness soon returned and it all faded away once more...
Yet, even as the oblivion once again sought to reclaim her to the endless abyss. That same voice rang out yet again... Bringing her back to the land of the living.
"Kalashi..."
In a sudden flash, her sight and senses returned to her. She glanced at her body, made of Composite armor and high-impact plastics while her biological, Kanad body was reduced to nothing more than a skull with an accompanying brain and spinal cord that was encased within this walking husk of metal and wire.
What quickly captured her attention the most was the still sizzling hole within her breastplate, covered in a hastily applied mix of drying liquid-steel and medical-gel.
Nonetheless, after a second of looking over herself, Kalashi's synthetic eyes quickly focused on the figure that stood prominently above her... it was her fellow bounty hunter and part-time partner, Vicc.
Vicc, like Kalashi, was a Kanad. A rather diminutive yet dexterous species with highly developed mental capabilities thanks to extensive genetic refinement.
While Vicc armor bore several scratches, burns, and dents. It was merely superficial damage. His green, weary eyes under his red angular, ballistic mask revealed his panic over Kalashi's condition.
Yet, as Kalashi regained conciseness over her surroundings. She would hastily push him aside, throwing back-first onto the solid steel grating as she swiftly realized that she was within an active combat zone as Plasma bolts rained overhead. Energy blasts began to roar all around them, echoing throughout the lumbering cruiser's halls.
She bounced back into action. Shoving her metallic body up close against the scorched bulkhead with her trusty handgun at the ready. Glancing over it for a second, it was a heavily cut-down, cast-off model of an OBN rifle rebuilt to function as a revolver-loaded hand cannon.
Vicc quickly threw himself at the other side of the bulkhead as tracers and plasma bolts flare past them with a few glancing at his armor's pauldrons.
"Ahh...Thank god, You're not dead after all!" Vicc remarked. While Kanad Culture was mostly atheistic and non-spiritual. Vicc's low-blood upbringing had raised him to follow one of the very few still-surviving religions within the more remote parts of Kanad society.
Nevertheless, Vicc grunted a muffled curse under his breath as he readied his Sub-machinegun, popping out the empty magazine with a fresh mag of Hand-Loaded Hyper-Velocity slugs. After cocking the bolt on his highly customized M2A1, he let loose with a blindly fired volley of Nano-Sharpen Tungsten down the hall towards their welcoming party. "Was getting pretty worried about ya, friend!"
Kalashi remained quiet for a moment, taking a second to breathe and regain her composure. Another near-death experience was not part of her plan today in this operation. Then again, nothing goes exactly to plan in this kind of gig.
After taking a few deep breaths, Kalashi quickly reached down into her satchel; taking a long glass capsule filled with a dark, murky blue gas.
"God damn it," Vicc furiously commented as he cleared his Sub-Machinegun's breach from an abrupt misfire with a good slap on the charging bolt. "You're fucking crazy as hell to be doing a shot in a time like this friend..."
Kalashi simply rose her metallic index finger to him to hush as she carefully popped open the side respirator and jabbed it into her mask's port. She deeply inhaled what she nicknamed her "cognitive stabilizer", a potent narcotic generally known as 'Tox'. She takes a moment to enjoy the dose in its entirety, closing her eyes and tightening her posture as bullets and plasma bolts cracked and flew past the duo.
"You fucking done yet!?" Vicc violently barked as he peeked out and lined up a quick salvo on some poor rushing Olympian Front sod, ripping their chest in half from just one solid burst into their center-mass. All that's left is a big bloody mess over the blackened plating of the half-destroyed corridor.
"Come on!" Vicc shouted, just narrowing dodging a volley of retaliating fire from the poor bastard's buddies; madly screaming in horror and rage at their fallen comrade's grisly fate.
"Kalashi!?" Vicc screeched, covering his head as plasma bolts begun to turn his cover in molten slag, he slid down the wall towards the floor as sparks and blasts splashed overhead just a hair above his helmet.
Kalashi's eyes flash with her handgun locked tightly in her hand with a harder-than-steel grip, and she swiftly dashed out from behind the bulkhead. The wheels built into heels siding across the metal floor, sending sparks high into the air as Kalashi's visor lined up her targets perfectly faster than their reflexes could even react.
Kalashi quickly unleashes six blasts from her plasma-driven magnum into the heads of the attacking squad. Each blast hitting true and blasting apart their helmets with skull fragments and brain matter splashing out from the back of their heads.
Their bodies made a loud thud as they all fell lifelessly to the floor.
"Goddamn..." Vicc muttered, breathing heavily as he sat under the melting wall, bits of slag dripping onto his dented and even partly-charred armor.
"You're fucking insane, friend," he said, completely exhausted from the combat just a second ago. "You know that, right?"
"Fucking crazy? Yes." Kalashi coldly remarks as she pop-out her revolver's chamber looking over the spent cartridges "Insane?.. Insane is using HV Bullets in your tiny SMG."
Kalashi simply throws the spent shells over her shoulder and starts to load each round by hand while walking past the splattered corpses, giving them only a swift glance for anything good.
Vicc lets out a long sigh and starts to slowly pick himself off the ground. He quickly rushed up to trail behind Kalashi, while constantly looking over his shoulder and corners. He also tried not to look at his many fallen enemies, particularly out of a modicum of respect that lingers within him still.
They soon come across a sealed maintenance shaft access at the end of the hall, turning her glare over to Vicc.
"Emergency access, can you open it?" Kalashi said quickly to Vicc.
"We'll be fish in a barrel if they find us in there, friend. We gotta keep moving through the side halls." He complains while gesturing towards the side door.
Suddenly, that very door opened up to reveal another combat team ready to fight them. Kalashi swiftly responded with a hyper-active thermite grenade; engulfing the doorway in bright white flames for a just few moments.
"Hurry! Get it open before they try and rush us from the crew quarters!" Kalashi said while pointing her gun down the ways they came in. Vicc simply got to work with his implants, able to quickly override the simple security and open up the shaft after connecting his ship's maintenance port.
The duo quickly donned their camo-cloaks before jumping down the shaft just as flames began to fade, with Vicc leaving a worm in their system along with an explosive of his own behind for them.
They soon found themselves way down within the lower halls of the cruiser as alarms blare with troops marching on the decks above them.
Kalashi decided to abruptly stop as she and Vicc found themselves within the bowels of the engineering deck.
"God damn it! We're fucked if they catch us in here! Where the hell are those corpo fucks anyway?! They said they'd be coming once we gave them these fuckers coordinates!" Vicc hushed hurriedly under his breath, his gun held close to his chest.
Kalashi gives him no attention. Instead, she meticulously looks over the various pipes and vents surrounding them, trying to figure out where each of them goes as Vicc frantically scanned the area.
Vicc tried to get Kalashi's attention as he hears the marching around them getting louder. She simply gave him a raised hand gesture in response.
Out of nowhere, a massive thumb shook the ship which threw Vicc flat on his ass. Fortunately, Kalashi remained still as her feet were locked in place.
"What the fuck was that!?" Vicc yelled loudly, looking all over the room with Gun drawn as the vessel's hull yawned and creaked.
"That's them, dickhead" Kalashi bluntly replied. She turned around to look at Vicc, her eyes meeting with his for a split-second before weakly lending Vicc a hand.
"Oww, Fuck." Vicc cried out in pain "Guess we don't gotta worry about being on the top of these assholes shitlist at the moment!"
"Come on!" Kalashi relayed to him, gesturing at him with her open hand. "We can still catch our target if we're fast enough and make sure they're already secure for transport so we can get that bonus!"
Vicc was taken aback for a moment before he nodded and took Kalashi's hand. The cyborg was easily able to get the pint-sized, tin-canned bounty hunter back on his feet despite his armor and relatively large build for a Kanad.
"Thanks... I guess." Vicc said to Kalashi in a claimer tone. "I guess this is for saving your life earlier?"
Kalashi simply nodded, breaking eye contact, "Yeah..."
"Well, you can pay me back later after we get out of this shit, friend." He answered Kalashi while scanning the vent crawl space along their right-side.
Kalashi saw the same vent, and without further delay, the duo made their way up and made preparations to quietly engage their target. They don't need to get caught in any more firefights for the time being.
As the two slowly trek through the crawlspace and slip under security forces, the sounds of metal warping and breaking could be heard throughout the entire cruiser. Even harsher were the noises of blasts that shook and twisted the cruiser further.
"Goddamn, they are really tearing this thing apart..." Vicc commented to Kalashi.
Curiously, Vicc looked out of a nearby vent overlooking one of the main halls of the cruiser. He saw the crewmen and marines fighting hopelessly against the invading SATYR-class robots. These heavy machines assembled with heavy armor and weapons, and their chassis towering two and a half meter tall, it made them impervious to the crewmen's weapons. While some of the marines were able to down and even destroy a number of them with accurate and sustained fire, it would prove fruitless to halting their advance.
"HOLD POSITIONS DAMNIT!" The Cruiser's Captain yelled, fighting to keep her lines strong against the oncoming steel tide. A massive khergian with a loud, thunderous voice to boot. Yet her posture and face betrayed her old age, a sign of Olympian's struggle for manpower in these waning years for their cause.
"YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR! DON"T LET THEM TAKE IT!" She kept chanting, Her barks becoming more and more desperate as sores of her fellow defenders fell to these soulless machines. Her calls to battle echoing throughout the main halls of the Cruiser as battles raged throughout the vessel, all now starting to focus all around the shielded hanger of the vessel.
"DON'T LET THEM TAKE IT!" Her commanding barks turned into frantic cries as the rest of her command staff's shots glanced off the machines' hardened titanium shells. Firey Hyper-Thermal Flashes and Phased-Plasma Bolts sundered their armor, blasting apart their body into scorched chunks of flesh and clouds of hot ash.
It was a brutal sight that loomed over Vicc thoughts as he and Kalashi continued their way towards the destination, yet it was an effective microcosm of the entire YsCom situation regarding those attempting to stop their expansion into the fringes of the southwestern quadrant.
"Come on Friend, we got a job to do..." Kalashi told Vicc, quietly accepting that there was nothing that could be done now and that they needed to move on as they made their way towards their target.
"DON'T LET THEM-" Was the last thing Kalashi and Vic heard that was yell out in the halls as the duo made their way into their inner pathway into their target's location. A cry cut off by the piercing, droning sound of Chain-Laser fire.
"What a waste..." Vicc muttered as he pulls himself through the shaft, he had taken lives plenty of times. Yet, at the age of 31, the physiological strain of the constant bloodshed was starting to crack through his snide demeanor.
"What a shame..." He spoke again to himself, it was one thing to fight for your nation, for your people...There was something of an honor or at least a reasoning to it then when you fought them personally on the battlefield.
Yet, these Elysians, this "Odysseus Combine" or whatever all-consuming monster of a corporate conglomerate this is, had reduced it to such a soulless matter. For them, there's no grand objective or series of surgical attacks to bring the end to their conflict with the Olympian Front; this collection of rebels who sought independence for their besieged sector from the greater Elysain Commonwealth.
No, their mission was simple as it was bloody. To keep murdering them until they would surrender to Commonwealth and its corporate puppet masters. Replacing the remaining dissents with waves of colonial settlers and with it, the inhabiting culture and people of the Olympian Sector.
These thoughts and more were something that Kalashi was well-aware of, she knew that he was once again deep in his head about them. It was something that he constantly struggled to tolerate while working for Odysseus. He's been through this train of thought time and time again, something that Kalashi had told him before to simply push out and focus on the job.
Kalashi did not dare to remind him that the B.C.B would essentially revoke his status since the Olympian Front was officially classified as a rogue state by the Galatic Trade and Legislative Union; a hollow shadow of the Commonwealth's and others' attempt at rebuilding the UGC. Though without any of the political or military backbone, they were left less an overarching peacekeeping organization and more as a market guild with light political power.
Though, at times like this, it did yet again cross his mind to join the little guy... But the Interstellar Liberation Army was low pay and high risk with the Olympian Front paying even less. The Frontier Militia was... inconsistent, to say the least for freelancers. All of their benefits were also much less than stellar with the GTLU member states being less than kind to those working with these supposedly "Terrorist Powers".
Kalashi was partially able to see Vicc's thoughts, their implants allowing them to see each other vitals and impulses to an extent. Kalashi years-long history with Vicc allowed her to get a good of what he was thinking after such a sight.
Nevertheless, a job is a job, and this one was paying a massive sum of credits for bringing in this target. The bounty to get him alive and ready for capture were substantial; nearly double the credits as usual, and something that could mostly take away the sour taste for working with Odysseus... mostly.
As they kept making their way towards the end of the crawl space, Vicc muttered a few more curses and was getting stressed out from all of this.
"Hey Vicc," Kalashi said quietly after letting out a long sign. "A job is a job, let's just get this bastard bagged and tagged then we can get the fuck out with a big paycheck in our pockets..."
Vicc simply shrugged and shook his head, remaining silent for the last few moments until they exited the crawl space to find the access port to their target's location. They both stood there for a moment in silence before their eyes meet each other.
"Did your hack work?" Kalashi asked bluntly in a low, quiet voice to Vicc.
"Yeah... I was able to keep the hanger doors and pods sealed. Jump-Dive is crippled too... He had no chance of getting away from us...Couldn't see what's in here though... So be ready for anything friend." Vicc answered in a similar tone.
"Alright," Kalashi replied while she readied her weapon and activated her cloak while Vicc followed suit. The lights on the access port that laid under them turned green.
"On my mark, we go together. Understood?" Kalashi told Vicc.
"Yeah... Right, understood..." Vicc answered with a distant stare.
"We go in 3... 2... 1.... "
The two jumped into a sea of darkness, both dropping down from port onto the hard metal floor. Once they reoriented themselves, they turned their sights to the center of the room.
"Oh my god..." Vicc Muttered under his breath.
"I-I thought this...that these bastards... that they were smugglers..." He said in a dumbstruck fashion.
"They are..." Kalashi answered softly as she steps closer to Vicc. "Smuggling these refugees out of Elysian space..."
Both were staring at the center of the cargo bay that was nearly flooding the entirety of the hangar bay from the center to back.
Men, Women, children, old and young, sick and ill... All huddled together in a crowded group, all terrified of what laid for them outside...
Before either Kalashi or Vicc could even react, the massive doors that led to this hangar were swiftly pried open. Two colossal assault robots stood at the bent doors; their towering shadows silhouetted against the frightened crowd.
"NO!" Vicc shouted as rushed forward the crowd, Kalashi threw herself out desperately to stop him.
Yet, it was too late as two assault robots opened fired onto everything alive that was within the hanger, murdering without thought nor reason.
Kalashi would only see the only flash of it all. Her vision clouded in a white haze while felt her body fall hard upon the solid steel floor of the hanger.
...
"Vicc?"
Kalashi was fortunately able to regain consciousness, though with a blurry sight she saw dozens lay dead along the floor with those damned machines marching about the place, identifying the bodies individually.
Those who still had a pulse were given a quick and clean shot to the back of the head.
Regardless of their size or age...
Kalashi then turned her attention to her close surroundings, she saw that her body was further mangled with blood all over her ending in a small splat on the floor.
But... Vicc was nowhere to be found...
Her vision was also fading with her sensory severely impaired, unable to detect any presence of Vicc anywhere. She was even unable to tell if the blood on her crippled body was his or hers.
As she attempted to pull herself off the steel floor, two of those terrible machines apprehended her.
Grabbing both of her arms. Her body was too far damaged to pull herself out of their iron grip.
"Let go of me you bastard machines, I'm B.C.B! I'm B.C.B you fucking clankers!" Kalashi screamed towards them to no avail.
"KALASHI VOR'PANGN, ID 921135762!" Kalashi continued to loudly protest "I'M FUCKING WORKING FOR YOU, CONTRACT 1072-B9! DON'T YOU FUCKING THINGS LISTEN!?"
The machines stood in place for several seconds, letting her take in all of their cold, mechanical logic as more were extemporaneously executed in her view...
"Bring... Bring me to whoever is in... In charge here..." Kalashi weakly asked, exhausted from both the blast damage inflicted to her mechanical frame and the sight of so much wanton death.
Soon, the machines began to stiffly move, simply dragging Kalashi in their grip towards the massive door while those two murderous titans stood coldly; their arm cannons still smoking from earlier.
Her sight was nothing more than a blur. She couldn't make any detail out of anything, and she felt her synthetic organs getting weaker and her faculties fading. She could barely breathe as one of her artificial lungs had been compromised from the blast.
She could make out that the two silhouetted titans had begun to march forward; leaving a group of six standing in their place at the entryway of the hangar door.
Each of the figures kept their distance from her; shuffling in a cold, organized fashion to the side of the door. Kalashi was too tired to even bring her gaze towards them, simply keeping her head barely hanging to see what laid ahead for her.
What was in the middle of the hallway just beyond the hangar doorway was a towering and lean figure with two more of those lumbering titans standing beside it. Yet this figure stood just a head above even them.
Once Kalashi had mustered enough strength to focus her sight, her eyes widen and her artificial heart nearly stopped as to who she had just come across.
There stood the one and only.
Aenora Tanaka-Euryphaessa, Grand Mistress of the Odysseus itself.
Kalashi was dumbstruck at the sight of one most powerful individuals within all of the Elysium who stood just a few feet away from her.
Wearing a maroon-red cloak that clovered her lean, towering figure, and even standing a foot taller over two massive MINOTAUR-Class Machines. They stood guard beside her with the blood of their victims staining their sliver frame.
Her cloak was what one would expect: regal and extremely refined with diamond-lanced golden trim, and under the long, flowing cloth was a jet-black undersuit beneath it. The only part of her skin not covered under the artisan weaved cloth was her sharply built face with an unnaturally bright white skin. Her eyes and the rest of her face past her nose were covered by a short, deep-red Veil.
Euryphaessa stood in place with her hands behind her back as her robots dragged Kalashi over to her, releasing her from their grip after a moment of standing across her.
Kalashi stumbled as they let her go before catching herself from falling; mustering enough strength to stand with her chest leaning inwards towards the massive and commanding figure. She weakly lifted her glaze towards Euryphaessa; seeing no emotions in her pale white face.
Euryphaessa simply stood still, arms crossed behind her back as she waited for her agent to deliver her words.
Anxiously, Kalashi tries to think and to give somewhat of a report to the one who was behind all of this terrible, terrible bloodshed; indifferent to the dozens of mangled bodies lying all around them.
"Euryphaessa-" Kalashi grumbled before being forcibly pushed down to her knees as a gigantic hand violently grabbed the maimed cyborg by the shoulder.
Kalash groaned in pain as her weakened body was forced to kneel to Euryphaessa.
"Madam Aenora Tanaka-Euryphaessa." A deep, loud voice spoke.
Kalash turned to see a huge, bulky figure standing behind her. His grip crushing the very steel under his fingers.
An enormous man wearing a thick, heavy black coat with a cold, stern face with no sign of hair on his featureless face.
"Another petty degenerate?" A new voice said, a sense of curious amusement rising in her tone.
"Negative," Another voice sharply remarked "Seems to be one of the scoundrels that were hired to find Mr. Torgrim and the rest of these undeserving miscreants."
The two voices were soon given faces as they walked past the seemingly static hulk holding Kalashi down. The former was a young woman in light combat armor casually walking down the scorched and bloody corridor, blood slashed along her upper armor with some dripping from her deep cyan lips that complemented her similarly colored, straight hair. Her fanciable yet aloof face holding a sense of vexatious spite towards those the latter figure walking beside her at the other side of the hall.
The latter was a lean, toned figure wearing full battle armor. Unlike the other individual, she carried herself much more professionally and was loaded with combat gear with a full-covering visor covering all but a bright magenta pony-tail sticking from the back of her helmet.
"Speaking of which..." Yet another voice bombastically commented from across the hall. Followed by the appearance of three other figures of varying heights. The tallest was a sharply dressed man that marched with a powerful presence, slashes of blood staining across his broad chest. His refined, muscular face carried a look of sophisticated arrogance, and he was dragging what seemed to be an old, massive, yet bloodied Khergian behind him as he wiped the blood off of his elegant suit.
"Found him hiding among deep within the underbelly of this disgusting rat's nest. Among all the other pitiful roaches hiding down in that shit pile." The figure brashly seethed, they were androgynous in their appearance with a deep carmine bang cut covering the side of their slim face. Wearing a simple yet elegant jet-black suit.
"The rest were easily disposed of..." The last man, flicking the blood off of his claws before adjusting his glasses. They were a slender almost snake-like body with a maniacal look on his long, sharp face. His long black cloak dragging along the ground. "Would have like to have taken some back for...further examinations."
"The guards didn't even provide a worthy challenge. Insignificant vermin." The central figure brashly boasted before throwing the Khergian down before Miss Euryphaessa as the Kalashi was then dragged back to let Euryphaessa look down upon the defeated man.
"Well done Mr. Torgrim..." Euryphaessa finally spoke as Torgrim, the beaten Khergian slowly picked himself off the hard floor, clenching his chest in pain.
"Evading my judgment for the better part of seven years..." Euryphaessa said as she walked around him, looking over his bloody frame. "Very impressive indeed."
Torgrim grunted and cursed in his native tongue towards her; spitting out his bloodied tooth at her feet as he raised his grizzled face to face her. His buzzed head was covered in battle scars and looked just as beaten as the rest of him did. Despite the circumstances, he didn't fear her nor his fate at her hands.
"Yet, your failing was that like many of your kind." She turned her sight to the dead cruiser captain; her torso ripped apart by Pulse-Laser fire.
"Your inability to evolve past the most basic of primitive instincts..." She said before using her foot to push the thrashed about body towards him, allowing him to get a clear sight of the Captain's lifeless body.
Torgrim looked at the body in total despair, his furious face turning to one of sorrow before he moved himself up to the corpse. Holding the dead captain close, gripping her hand with his as he grieved.
Euryphaessa would let out a sight smile at the sight before turning her attention towards Kalashi once more.
The Hand on Kalashi shoulder would let go of her, drawing her to speak once more.
"A...Madam Aenora Tanaka-Euryphaessa, I've...I've held up my part of my contact...Now, Now may I..." Kalashi cautiously explained, articulating each word very carefully.
Euryphaessa rose her hand, causing Kalashi to stop dead in her words.
"Now Miss Vor'Pangn. I would suggest you should instead take the time to appreciate the moment." She with a smile. "I truly was fortunate to see that the chance I took on you two was very well placed, very well placed indeed. For while others had failed, you have succeeded with flying colors. A sign that my wonderful luck has truly shined down onto you and your partner."
"For if you and Mister Karada hadn't tracked down this vessel and confirmed Mr. Torgrim and company were aboard, I would have never gotten to...enjoy such an occasion. In-person no less." Euryphaessa explained with a sense of delight in her voice.
"Besides..."
Torgrim let out a blood-curdling roar as he rose.
"You would have missed out on the show..."
The two gigantic MINOTAUR guards quickly began to stomp over towards him, rising their weapons up with their barrels meeting Torgrim at eye level.
Meanwhile, the individuals swiftly dodged a volley of gunfire flashing out of nowhere which was followed by a grenade rolling down softly. Kalashi mustered what strength she had left to throw herself back, arms covering her head as the grenade detonated. A wide EMP pulse was sent out as the grenade detonated. A cloud of dense chaff smoke quickly filled the corridor as plasma and laser blasts coming from all around them pierced it.
Kalashi could only drag herself towards to lean up against the wall as she watched all this unfold.
A dozen figures marched through the cloud towards Torgrim's position, quickly disregarding their spent camo cloaks to reveal their heavy battle armor, bearing the insignia of the Olympian Commandos. They quickly blasted apart the disorganized Odysseus STAYR combat robots with precise and accurate shots from their high-powered rifles before rushing in with Vibroswords and Transoinc daggers at the ready.
As the commandos attacked, the towering hulks of steel leverage their weapons against Torgrim. Yet the blood raging Khergian, an expert of a dozen battles, was able to overwhelm one of the MINOTAUR war machines as it began to fire its chain-laser cannons. He used its arm cannon to fire into the accompanying MINOTAUR, causing it to stumble hard back against the corridor wall with a loud crash and break through a section of plating.
The rest of the SATYR robots were quickly taken aback by their ferocity. They mindless threw themselves between the striking attackers and their masters. While these robots could easily crush any of the Commando's skulls with their iron grip, the Commandos knew their enemies like the back of their hand and were able to exploit the chaos with their lightning reflexes.
After stunning the first MINOTAUR, Torgrim used his strength to try and tear off its right arm cannon with a massive twist and pull. The MINOTAUR attempted to use its left chain-laser to fire, however, Torgrim was able to kick the cannon as it charged up, causing it to shoot wide and blast apart the ceiling.
The Commandos got the drop on the SATYRs, using fast and hard strikes with Vibroblades; launching devastating strikes at their joints and gaps between their armor, sending many to the ground hard.
Torgrim pulled again on the MINOTAUR's arm, this time letting out a roar as he ripped apart the cabling and shattering pistons. Causing the towering MINOTAUR robot to stagger as it kept firing its weapons in panic. Torgrim used this to his advantage by aiming the dislocated chain-laser at the MINOTAUR at the other side of the room. Bombarding the weaker, interlocking plating with heavy pulse-laser fire, and blasting the warbot into two.
As SATYRs attempted to fight back against the Commandos, the battle-hardened veterans were able to dodge and weave their way past the robot's heavy punches and point-blank snapshots.. Knowing their combat programming too well from previous experiences.
After disabling the other MINOTAUR momentarily, Torgrim let out one last roar as he pulled with all his strength. He ripped the arm-cannon clean off with a good chunk of the machine's shoulder. He kicked the other arm again as it tried to swat at him. After his fierce kick, he quickly got up on top of its chest, wrapped his arms around its head, and after a moment of hard tugging, ripped it straight off before repeatedly stomping down its neck-hole; crushing its internals under his mightly boot.
After dispatching the machines, the furthermost Commandos soon found themselves face to face with the tall, sharply dressed man, seemly appearing like a ghost out of the mist. His face baring a wide smirk as he held his left arm on his side with his right arm gesturing for them to come forth.
Before they could even react. He had moved in an instant, his long-saber was already dawn towards to his side. Covered completely in blood, he muttered a short chuckle after he was done.
As the Commandos tried to move, they found only themselves remaining still in place for a second. Blood dripping from their midsections, as the other commandos arrived. They saw the upward most commandos stand with their rifles drawn at the man.
But before they could even think of what was going on, the Commandos up front fell apart into bloody pieces.
Yet, they soon turned their attention towards their right as another had gotten behind, flashes of laser and plasma flew widely through the air as the woman within full body armor slaughtered her way through the Commandos left flank. She was crushing and breaking their bones and skulls with her a series of rapid, coordinated strikes from her fists and legs; always hitting them in weakest point while they couldn't even land a hit on her.
The Right flank faced something even worse. The dense grey smoke turned into a dark, red mist as screams and cries rang out before being drowned out by maniacal laughter.
The rest of the commandos that tried to fall back soon found themselves up gunned down one by one; meticulously blasted into bloody chunks by the cyan-haired woman quick on the draw with a rifle.
After shattering the spinal section of the disabled MINOTAUR, putting it down for good, Torgrim slowly marched through the fading fog to find Madam Euryphaessa standing frim among gore. She had her arms crossed behind her back with a slight smirk on her pale, snowy white face.
Torgrim looked at her with a pure, burning hatred while she simply saw him as another insect to be squashed. His bulging biceps ripping through his fatigues as blood pumped intensely throughout his veins.
By a mere second, Torgrim dodged a sudden punch from behind. A massive hulk of man dashed straight forward past him, catching a quick glare at him as he coldly stared back, no sign of emotion on his face. Nothing besides a pair of thick, round, black-tinned glasses was there.
As Torgrim's feet landed onto the cold steel of the corridor, he let out another thunderous roar towards him. The man blankly stood unfazed, only the glass on his glasses cracked.
Torgrim yelled at the top of his lungs as he furiously charged him in an all-out attack. Tears rained from his eyes as he leaped into the air, pouring everything he had into this punch straight into this lumbering, pale, bald brute.
The man coldly caught his fist in hand, his feet sending a wave of dust up into the air as Torgrim's punch landed.
Torgrim quickly raised his other arm into the air, only for the man to grab it. Holding both in his gasp, Torgrim pushed against him, leaning in with all of his mass into his push against this giant to no avail. Even as his muscles strained and pulled, Torgrim pushing himself through all of the pain as he tried with all of his strength to move him.
A slow clap could be heard as Madam Euryphaessa slowly walked up towards Torgrim.
"Bravo Mr. Torgrim," She snidely remarked. "Quite the display..."
Torgrim's eyes bounced between this brute and Euryphaessa as he stood locked in place. The others now standing aside her, covered in the blood of their victims.
"What a wonderful attempt! I must say it's quite exciting to see such an endeavor unfold all around me. It brings me back to my younger years, oh I haven't had an attempt on my life that landed this close for so, so long now...I must applaud you again for all the effort here. Bravo."
Madam Euryphaessa gave Mr. Torgrim a bow, the others following suit after her.
"Now, my son, oh fair Atlas, would you please give Mr. Torgrim a worthly send-off?" Euryphaessa asked of the enormous brute. His tight grip on Torgrim's skin had dug deep into the skin with blood dripping all over the floor between them.
Atlas would soon start to crush Torgrim's hand and arm, causing Torgrim to whale out in agony as his flesh and bone were slowly crushed under Atlas's iron grip.
As Kalashi watched this slow and horrific execution unfold before them. Kalashi soon felt a similar presence nearby, slowly stepping right behind Euryphaessa unnoticed.
Vicc, tearing off his cloak and brandishing his sub-machinegun readied his weapon to unload into Euryphaessa. Catching everyone by surprise with his sudden appearance, the Madam could only gasp as she turned to gaze into his eyes as he prepared to open fire on her.
Sights lined-up, freshly loaded, and fringer pressing down on the trigger.
*Click*
It would appear that lady luck had decided otherwise.
For Vicc's Sub-machinegun had jammed.
Vicc hastily slapped the bolt in order to clear it, but he was already too late. The figure with a deep carmine bang cut swiftly drew their handguns from within their suit and aimed them at Vicc. They gave him one last grin as they unloaded everything from their chambers into him, violently cutting him down. Kalashi could only watch in horror as her long-time partner was killed by these monsters.
"NOOO!" Kalashi screamed, she desperately tried to draw her magnum, only to have her hand be suddenly shattered into pieces. Blow apart by a well-placed shot from the Cyan-hair Woman.
The weakened Cyborg tried hopelessly to move before Euryphaessa had walked up to her, flanked by the others.
Two of them placed their boots against Kalashi's shoulders, pinning her in place as the wounded Vicc was dragged beside her by the cyan-haired woman.
"Damnit Vicc.." Kalashi weakly muttered as she saw Vicc moaning in pain, his armor shattered by a dozen holes.
Kalashi soon turned her attention to the one who stood by her, Madam Euryphaessa. Her expression turned sour as she stood before her. Looking over the two with her arms crossed for a moment, she soon lowered herself down to Kalashi's eye level.
"You have to forgive my children, they can get lost in the show sometimes..." Euryphaessa coldly stated before motioning over to the bleeding-out Vicc.
"Like my sweetest youngest, the dazzling Enyo Lubis-Euryphaessa..." She said, pointing to the Cyan-Hair woman that now stood over the bloodied Vicc. Her eyes fixated on his wounds, dropping her rifle onto the ground as she leaned over him.
"Her blood... Her beautiful blood..." Euryphaessa coldly noted to Kalashi as Enyo's obsessive stare turn to the bleeding Kanad's neck. "A rare condition, it must be to suffer through... Even my absolute perfect blending of the genes couldn't stop it..."
"No..." Kalashi muttered while Euryphaessa continued watching Enyo rip off Vicc's mask to get a good sight of his neck while he helplessly gasped out for air. "Yet, my wonderful Enyo. She persists..."
Enyo grabbed his neck, holding him in place while Kalashi could only watch in terror what she was about to do.
"Nah persist..."
Enyo opened her mouth, revealing her set of sharp fangs.
"She thrives..."
Vicc let out a piercing shriek as Enyo latches onto his neck. Kalashi was forced to watch one of her only friends die a horrible, slow death in its entirely.
Yet, after dealing with Vicc and Torgrim. Euryphaessa looked over the damaged cyborg with a sense of curiousness. Looking over her managed breastplate, Kalashi weakly following her Euryphaessa's hand as she begins to stick her finger slowly into Kalashi's internals.
"How deep is the hole..." Euryphaessa murmured as she reached inside.
Kalashi, feeling the debilitating pain of someone touching the very insides of you. Playing with it like a cat with a mouse. It brought about a pain Kalashi had not felt for decades but one that she knew of every time she closed her eyes.
"Deeper than the one you're going into bitch..." Kalashi angrily said, seething in agony.
"You got a lot to learn about matters..." Euryphaessa said as she cut cable leading to Kalashi heart, causing Kalashi vision and senses to fade to white briefly...
Passing in and out of oblivion.
Once again, trapped between the borders...
The sight of those monsters playing with her lifeless body like a doll while passing in and out...
"Kalashi..."
The sight of Euryphaessa rubbing her blood-stained finger on her visor-glass...marking it with her own blood...
"Kalashi..."
The other one, Enyo, with an almost childlike stare on her bloody face did the same; marking her visor with the blood of Vicc.
"Kalashi..."
Soon the haze comes back... the sights... the senses... the memories... they all fade away...
"Kalashi...Can you hear me?"
Leaving only...
"Kalashi! You still with-"
The sight of a large man who grabbed her by the shoulder the second he appeared before her.
Kalashi instinctively drawn her handgun, pointed at his stomach with her finger on the trigger. All this is done in less than a second.
The man stood dumbstruck, eyes wide open like a deer in the headlights, and unable to do anything as he was frozen in fear.
Once Kalashi realized what was going on, she quickly glanced around the area to see she's in a dropship hanger with a bunch of Frontier Militia troops around her; seemingly stuck in the same state with their hands tight on their rifles.
"Shit.." Kalashi murmured before hastily holstering her handgun.
After putting away her gun, the rest quietly watched her as the Man slowly walked back to his seat.
Kalashi glanced at them frantically before nervously bowing her head and wrapping her arms over her legs.
The rest of them simply nodded and kept to themselves for a few minutes.
"Attention assholes... We are now docking at hanger #11...umm..Statch that...Make that Hanger #099... Oh and pleasure working with ya... Freelancer... " The Intercom in the troop spoke. Militiamen quickly undid their belts and staps, some still hugging their rifles and gear as the ship creaked and shook during its landing.
"Now... Get the hell out..."
The Troop-bay door unlocked, the door slamming down onto the hanger floor to act as a drop ramp. The men hastily shuffled out, though Kalashi waited a moment for them all to clear up before heading out herself.
She looked out to see a massive hanger filled with dozens of old, outdated, and worn Gunships and Dropships of varying models and designs from all over the quadrants now painted under Frontier Colors.
Kalashi simply shook her head as made her way through the station towards her Frontier Paymaster, passing by the several Gorehounds, Adaptors, and Marauders ships that made up the bulk of this rag-tag military force.
Many of the members here were constantly repairing these old things. Vak' Shan have been getting bolder and bolder as of late, and the Naval Haylcon, the Fleet of Elysian commonwealth. The latter of which has been highly aggressive in their colonial expansion, leaving Frontier Militia in a sorry state.
*At least the pay's better than Interstellar Liberation Army...* Kalashi thought to herself as she walked towards the Frontier office in the marketplace.
Now...Where to find them among all this riff-raff?
----
"Yes..." Pearl said while taping the side of their visor, "I understand but don't you think I should be..."
"No Pearl," Taur said bluntly over the comm-channel. "It's solely a Blackwell Family... It's very personal to them..."
"Not to say that we aren't family to them... But by the time he left... You were still just a simple rock worm!" He stated, working over a table of dozens of burnt-out and damaged machines of varying sizes and functions.
"Dad..." Pearl said, crossing their arms as they waited for the merchant to finish looking in the back for Pearl's item. "You forget how close I am to them! If it wasn't for me, Lauren wouldn't figure out how to even walk forward in Mech!"
"Pearl..." Taur signed, "Please... Just give them some time, I'm sure your get to met him soon enough. Now I need to get these old engine parts fixed up now for the Mordred or else I won't hear the end of it!."
Taur let out a loud, muffled breath under his respirator as he turned his attention back to his workload. "Hope they find some good savage on that derelict..."
Pearl frowns, giving up on their protests. "Oh alright... Thanks again anyways Dad, I'll be done soon... Love you."
"...love you too," Taur said before logging off the comms.
Pearl pouts for a few moments before the merchant returned with what exactly they were looking for.
"Oh Thank you so much!" Pearl says as they took it and put it into their satchel.
"Now... Let's find something for Damien..." Pearl says while walking down the busy market square. "Oh! Try to keep up Corg!" Pearl says to the lumbering Torgg, carrying a massive backpack filled with dozens of starship parts.
Corg simply nods and sluggishly follows behind the Pearl.
