"Angel! I've got two tangos in the alleyway I ducked into. One's hurt and the other just shot me with our own stuff! Take out the guy you're shadowing, we can't let any of them get the word out!" shouts Max through his earpiece, taking cover and returning fire on the 9-Milli-slinging Apprehender.
Inside the gravsled, Max's radio chatter catches Semo's attention immediately. He instinctively turns back the way they came, suddenly on alert for any threat. He can only assume that the other team has run into some kind of trouble.
"I understand," Bello replies to Hugh's explanation of their ploy. "When our Jang-xur cell contacted us and explained the plan, we were not yet aware of the bounties."
Hugh feels fairly confident this Bello character doesn't mean his team any harm. The cloak-and-dagger, as it were, feels pretty thrown together but between Ngawai's license, sheer luck, and a speedy departure everything seems to be going fairly well. Until Max's urgent message crackles across the team's earpieces, that is.
"Fuck. Eyes on that guy" Angel points out the shop keeper "He's coordinating this shit."
Angel moves to quickly to try and cover Max, since he did expressly request 'Delta shit'. If the path presents itself, he's going to try and get himself around Max's yet unknown assailants and take them from behind.
"Something wrong?" Bello asks, concern in his face. Not concern for Max, but more concern for the integrity of his people's still-obscure plans.
---
Angel sidles away from Fourth Claw and Arketta as the crowd's chatter returns to normal. A moment later more shots send the concourse into a panic. Riviera sidesteps around panicking bystanders as he moves down the street ringing the concourse crater. He should be flanking Max's foes if he heard the shots right-
Yes! A covered maintenance alley, a tiny version of the mazes on Botane. Angel spots a sleek blue gravcar hastily parked in an orange/black caution zone. The vehicle is powered and hovers steadily, with no visible driver or passengers. Those would likely be the two men taking cover inside the narrow alley, well-lit by sunlight streaming into the dingy space.
---
Max hardly takes time to aim as he blasts two more rounds downrange. Two 9mm ricochets answer his Colt's thunder. No hits. The wounded man is finally getting his wind back and unsteadily gets to his feet, unleashing a flurry of pwips and pops towards Max's meager cover as he tries to withdraw. His partner, still unmarred by .45 slugs, backpedals while firing wildly. They might have your weapons, but recoil is clearly a new concept for them.
Angel steps into the alley - no need to make it easy for bystanders to spot what's about to happen - and places his HK45 against the backpedaling gunman's skull.
Max hears a BANG and pops up to see the talkative apprehender's face rupture like a curbstomped Cadbury egg. The dead man's bleeding partner turns to face Angel and catches a slug in the back courtesy of Max. The man staggers forward onto his face and lies still.
---
*Tailing shopkeeper,* Arketta reports in English before ducking into the shop. Fourth Claw lopes around the shop and up the street while people part around the big hairy alien.
---
Max's Toughbook, still set to passively capture what transmissions it can, comes alive with partials of Kansat vox traffic.
*Confirm loud pops are weapons fire. Moving in.*
*Control, Apprehender Holoni no longer in area. Need a license check on the beast-hunter.*
*The Whiirr's lost prisoner control. They're scattering!*
*Recon units to sector 1 mark 5, Landing Site and Monument. Offenders are Highest Priority. Offenders are marked by silver collars, offenders are unarmed and wanted alive. Repeat, offenders wanted alive.*
*Uh, that is a negative on the Whiirr's license. Take it out.*
---
And finally, far, far from the trouble brewing on Aikoro:
"Rav-Whetu, the Narsai'i were scanned arriving on Aikoro. They have been captured by an Apprehender... Ngawai Lea Holoni."
The voice that responds is baritone, metallic, ruined by damage. "Set our local network to prioritize Aikoran datastreams. Get me there yesterday."
"Shall we order a system-wide lockdown?"
"No, I want to know what they're doing there. Maintain surveillance on Holoni but have interceptors standing by. I want Khiraba on the ground."
Max looks at Angel's handywork for a second before relaying the Kansatai message across his own network.
"Thanks for the backup!"
*keys radio*
"The local lawdogs have made us! They're moving in to investigate the gunshots. (in Whirr) Swims, you've also been made. Take cover!..... Angel, Arketta ditch your collars..."
Max motions for Angel to relieve the two Apprehenders of their Terran tech as he discards his collar.
"...The good news is that, for some reason, we're still wanted alive...so take advantage of that should the situation present itself. Orders, Captain?"
"Roger on sitrep, Kilgore. Gather your men and escape from the area, we'll arrange for a pickup later."
Hugh turns to Bello.
"If you have someone for us to talk to, I highly recommend we pick him up and discuss things on the move. Some of my men have been made and we need to disappear, quickly."
"We should still be safe. This vehicle is one of a hundred like it in Gran's Hope and the surrounding area. I was told to bring you to a safe meeting spot. If it turns out we are being followed, we will adapt, but for now my mission is to get you to the rendezvous. I had men ready to drop the Apprehender and the Whiirr" - Bello gives Ngawai a sheepish look - "but they will give their lives to cover the Narsai'is' escape if necessary. If your men can get to a vehicle without being scanned by Kansat or drone, they may have a chance."
---
The two Kansatai who were casually observing Fourth Claw's group snap into action, running into the shop after Arketta. At the same time, at least a dozen of the smaller surveillance drones rise up from their sconces in nearby buildings. The Kansat skimmer circling Gran's Hope tightens its pattern, tracking Fourth Claw and coordinating the drones' search for Max and Angel.
The nebbish bursts out the back of the shop into an alley similar to the bloody tunnel where Max and Angel are dropping their collars and scooping up the dead gunmen's silenced Russian handguns. Arketta's hot on his heels; she careens off the far alley wall but is gaining slowly. The small man's quick for a guy with a doughy midsection, and to top it off he produces a ridiculous handgun. He doesn't fire it, instead focusing on losing Arketta in the concourse's web of maintenance passageways.
Out on the street, Fourth Claw reaches the alley and ducks down it just in time to intercept the two Kansatai on Arketta's trail. The first officer wasn't expecting the Whiirr - Fourth Claw's sword leaves his hand and spins once before impaling the Kansatai right through the left shoulder blade. The impact takes the man off his feet and the fact that he doesn't protect his face from the impact with the ground is a telling indicator of his condition.
Claw forgoes drawing a second blade or lancer, instead tackling the second pig as he turns to fire. The Whiirr body-slams his victim into the rubberized cobblestone. Ribs crack, the cop screams, and the Kansatai's longrifle skitters out of reach. Wounded but disciplined, the officer returns fire with a frantic flurry of punches. The strikes do little more than rattle Fourth Claw's Alef-ka breastplate. Arketta and her prey are just footsteps echoing in the alley now, but Fourth Claw can't let the Kansatai alert his comrades. He clamps one paw over the man's mouth and manages to rip off the crested helmet. With no head protection, the cop's dazed by a haymaker. Fourth Claw drags the man to a nearby recycler and cracks the man's skull on the edge like an egg.
"Just get out of there," Davis adds. "If you get made now, the Kansat will probably get to you before we will."
Realizing that One-Ton and the shipboy are sitting back at the spaceport waiting to get bushwhacked, he turns to Bello. "Do you have some way of contacting a ship back at port? I'd like to give our team back at our ship a heads up to bail out."
"How come it never goes smooth?" Angel ditches his collar, tossing it near the ruin of the dead man's head.
"We seem to be batting a thousand in that department. Let's move before the Turai decide to just start shooting everyone." replies Max, shoving the Russkie pistol in his belt.
It's hard for Semo to listen to others in the midst of battle and not be able to do anything to help them. His hands reflexively close and open as though feeling some of the tension of the fight. Hopefully they will find a way out of this mess. For now, all he can do is his job, which mostly consists of being watchful at this point.
*Running!* Arketta's unhelpful answer crackles in Max's ear. *Moving towards monument through alleys!* A sharp thunder near Arketta covers the ex-Turai's transmission with static. *skkkzzt-awed-off!*
---
"One moment." Bello barks orders in the same unfamiliar language as the faux-Kansatai before handing his vox to Davis. "It's an open channel to get to an unfamiliar vessel, so don't use names or give up our position."
---
Max's laptop interceptor continues to catch partial vox traffic.
*I have confirmed weapons fire in sector 1 mark 2!*
*Unit seven is unresponsive! Need Osadai on scene!*
*Dropteams enroute, ETA 45 seconds.*
---
The first jagged lightning bolt arcs over Arketta and tears through a power conduit. Sparks strobe across the dark alley as the little man with the cut-down beam rifle pours on the speed. Arketta reaches for her stinger instinctively before realizing Fourth Claw was carrying all the Imperial-issue sidearms and she doesn't have time to reassemble the weapon in her backpack. She pulls her knife and gains little by little on her target as they duck and weave through narrow alleys, conduits and refuse piles.
---
Fourth Claw slides one of his beam rifles off his back and flicks the gun to life with a sharp whine. He's not going to catch Arketta's target and he can't get to Max and Angel. He's a Whiirr in a golden breastplate draped with weaponry - he's not disappearing into any crowds.
Fourth Claw/Swims-the-Black runs down the maintenance alley and soon bursts into the concourse, not too far from the gargantuan Gateship monument. The Kansat skimmer easily drifts to cover the beast-captain.
*We have a shot on the Whiirr.*
The ball turret on the skimmer's nose pulses blue-white fire. The concourse floor geysers and burns. Claw sidesteps a terrified bystander; she's hit with the skimmer's gunfire and hits the ground in a ten foot radius.
The crowd was already a whirlwind of panic. Now, the pulsebeams from on high start emptying the concourse in record time. Claw fires the beamer one-handed as he runs but his shots do little more than give the Kansatai an excuse to continue their pursuit.
Davis takes the ship-linked vox. "Freighter Morningstar, we need a pick-up. Please take off as soon as possible and meet at coordinates to be sent soon. Freighter Morningstar, please respond."
While he's waiting for One-Ton to respond, he turns back to Bello. "We need to head back and provide fire support for the rest of our team. If we don't get them picked up right now, the Kansat will have that area locked down and there's no way they'll be getting out. So unless your men have a vehicle hidden in the area somewhere, we need to pick them up."
"Heading back now won't help them," Bello replies. "Their actions have allowed us to escape; don't waste their sacrifice."
*I read ya,* comes One-Ton's reply. *But this is an open channel and I need ta know you are who ya say you are. What letter did our last pilot's name start with?*
"That'd be a Y, Morningstar," Davis says, and puts the vox down.
He reaches into one of the bags and pulls out a hand grenade, finger in the ring, ready to pull. He looks Bello right in the eyes. "This is a bomb. If you don't turn back right now, I'll blow it, and not only will you have nothing, you'll be dead. Now turn the fuck around, they're not dead yet."
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