Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The droid stopped for a moment at that, before kicking open the door of the last fitting room. As predicted, RIDA Jr was curled up in there with another control pad. She screamed when they reached in to grab her and hit a button.

Light found that the pressure on his body relaxed, and he could move his own suit! He pushed off towards the front door and then hid behind an aisle-end next to RIDA Sr. Poking out onto the adjacent aisle so the droid wouldn’t see, he signed up to Senjen.

“I’m free! Let's get out of here!”

“I’ll offer you a deal right now.” The droid called as he punched the writhing QV suit and pulled RIDA Jr out into the area bordering the garage. They struggled to hold both their hostage and their gun, but managed to get a secure platform then looked up at the ceiling above.

The black disc, which appeared to have successfully hidden near Senjen on the mezzanine, surveyed the area and relayed his position back to the droid. They aimed their gun up above them.

“I’ll swap you the girl for what's in your head. If I don't get it, or I don’t like what I see, she’s dead. Then the rest of my team and I will kill you all. Don't bother calling for help, comms are jammed.”

Light swore. RIDA Sr grabbed him and shook him.

“You have to rescue her, please! This is your fault!”

“Clock’s ticking. Do we have a deal?”

Light looked up at Senjen again, and didn't know what to say or do.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen’s first shot hit the target. The droid’s pistol was pulled from their hand and onto the floor in two pieces. They let go of Light and stepped back under cover of the mezzanine since they had only just emerged from under it.

Undeterred, the droid reached behind them and grabbed a much larger assault weapon which clicked out from inside its back.

“Senjen watch out!” Light warbled out loud, struggling to break his suit free of the control pad’s vice-like grip.

The droid aimed straight up and fired a spray of thirty thin, high velocity tungsten slivers into the mezzanine floor where they thought Senjen had been. It produced a sound like hail landing on a tin roof. Several suits on a chain at the front of the mezzanine pulled free and floated towards the roof. In the chaos, the black disc floated quickly up and went to hide with a translucent suit between it and the Utaysi.

Rida Sr scrambled for cover. RIDA Jr floated away from the droid to the furthest fitting room while they weren’t looking.

“You still alive, Senjen? I just need that file!” The droid called, looking around quickly only to discover RIDA Jr had disappeared. They stalked towards the back of the warehouse, eyes on a swivel.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Rewrite

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

RIDA Sr understood Senjen was playing for time and played along beautifully out loud.

“It sometimes takes ten to fifteen minutes to calibrate properly. Can I help you to some refreshments? H-herbal tea, perhaps?”

Meanwhile, her frontal light display said something very different.

”There is a big gun hidden in the white suit directly behind me. There are more weapons for sale on the mezzanine.”

The droid listened to this exchange and studied the partial view they had of Senjen through the aisles of suits. There wasn’t much time left before the rest of their fireteam arrived and they did this the hard way. They locked eyes with RIDA Jr and put a finger to their face in the way Humans did sometimes.

Shhh.

Then they turned back to Light and hauled him back up.
“Last chance, pal. Tell me what your friend is carrying or I kill the girl. Their blood will be on your hands, is that what you want?”

Light shook violently. “Don’t kill her, please! Kill me instead, just please don’t hurt an innocent, she has nothing to do with it please…”

It was at this moment that the droid realised this blubbering QV actually didn’t know what they were carrying. That did make sense; if they were simple couriers, there was no point in giving them potentially dangerous intelligence on their cargo.

The droid sighed, as much as was possible, then pulled Light to the fitting room doorway.

“We’re going to go out and convince your friend to stand down. If they don’t, the girl dies. If you say something stupid or try anything at all, the girl also dies. Got it?”

Light didn’t say anything, and the droid took that for compliance. They maneuvered the reddish QV suit so they were in front of them, stuck the gun into Light’s back and walked out of the room. They turned left and started down the aisle in front towards where Rida Sr was. The floating black disc took up the rear. Rida Jr watched them go.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The aisles of gel suits filling the entire front half of the warehouse were held together with chains bolted to the floor, ceiling and in some instances the walls too. They clinked gently in the microgravity any time someone touched a suit or a strong breeze came in. Each suit in the chain was spaced about a foot apart to minimise damage, so small gaps between the aisles existed at regular intervals all over the shop.
RIDA junior had been subtly looking through one of the gaps at Senjen when the combat droid wasn’t paying attention. One of the many great things about QV suits was that the occupant could float around to survey any direction without moving the outside gel one inch. You could also glaze the skin to make it very difficult to see what was happening within. When Senjen noticed her and began signing, she thought the robot must have good eyesight, as they were over thirty metres away.

She was scared, but determined not to let this thing kill the kind older QV in the dressing room. Careful symbols beamed through the foot wide gap. “We may see things very differently, but we can try! Please be quick, they are killing someone!” RIDA Jr sent Senjen a request to access her sensory implants; a very unusual request to send a total stranger, but these were not normal circumstances.

If Senjen accepted the request, they’d unlock a blurry fisheye view from RIDA’s perspective. Colours danced in all directions as they swirled to look towards the fitting room.

Inside, the droid looked back at RIDA Jr. Or more specifically, they listened for noise. The conversation between RIDA Sr and the Utaysi had gone quiet. The young QV had also gone suspiciously still. They dropped Light’s quivering blob of a suit to the floor where it convulsed violently. Magnetising the control pad to their left thigh, they gripped the pistol firmly in both hands close to their chest and moved quietly to the door. A black disc the size of the droid’s clenched fist detached from its back and hovered up to float just in front of their head. Together, they both poked out and they took a look out into the warehouse.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Yes, he is perfectly fine. My daughter is with h-him. What you heard must have been some interference caused during the suit handover. It is very common.” RIDA assured Senjen out loud.

When he asked her what was really going on, RIDA hesitated. She looked back towards the fitting rooms, as if trying to spot someone watching. Then she signed using just a small patch across her midriff.

“Someone is here. They are holding my offspring and your friend hostage. They said they’d kill my sweet daughter if you go back there, please help me!”

-

“They’re called the Vermillion Consortium, that's all I know! Please, just let me go!” Light cough, his suit struggling to drink in enough oxygen when the droid released their grip via the control pad.

“What has this Vermillion Consortium given your Utaysi friend? You must have some idea, tell me!” The robot hissed. It dropped the control pad then picked Light’s suit up with him inside and slammed him against the wall. They pushed their large handgun through the pliant gel and shoved it into Light’s face.

“If you prefer, I can shoot your head off, then tear the Utaysi apart to find out what it is. They’ve just entered the shop now; I can hear them. Is that what you want? Don’t even think about calling for help; they’ll never get here in time to save you.”

“I swear, I have no idea! Our only instructions were to drop it at a restaurant a few segments away!” Light spluttered. The robot had made a mistake talking specifically about Senjen. This focused the QV’s mind enough to allow him to send a short text message directly to his assistant via his body implant.

HELP DROID WITH GUN FITTING ROOM

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“G-greetings, to-be-friend. I am Resplendent-In-Divine-Apostasy.” The elder QV said to Senjen, glancing back down the shop. The words came from speakers positioned nearby, as was common in QV establishments when dealing with other biologicals. But her colours were not warm and welcoming, in fact there were tinges of black, green and yellow in there.

“Into-The-Abyss-In-Search-Of-Light is currently having their new suit fitted. If you’d like to wait here, they will be out shortly.” RIDA glanced back up the shop towards the fitting rooms, where hidden by aisles of gel suit packs her daughter tried to make herself as small as possible. The droid kept their gun trained on her from through the open fitting room door while they questioned Light.

“Tell me who you’re working for, I can make all this stop.” They soothed as the QV writhed pathetically on the bed. Light felt as if his lungs were about to explode. The droid released their grip momentarily. “So?”

“Torture is forbidden on the Fourteen Factories!” Light cried, using little speakers embedded within the suit to speak out loud.

“Be quiet! Use your colours, I can understand you. Who do you work for? What are you carrying for them?” The robot asked again, smacking the top of Light’s suit with the fist that carried the control pad.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Double post

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

When the door to his fitting room opened, it wasn’t Resplendent-In-Divine-Apostasy senior or junior who came to Light’s aid. It was a large bipedal combat droid with black armour. It held the room’s control panel in one hand and a pistol in the other. Light’s suit wasn’t scanning the environment properly, but he got enough of the picture to realise he was in really, really deep trouble.

Senjen! In his panic he’d forgotten about his assistant. Light tried to message him via his implant but then his respiratory system suddenly stopped being able to access oxygen. In the blind chaos of his mind, Light found he couldn’t even compose a message, let alone talk directly. So he just sent a load of nonsensical signals to the Utaysi. Much like slamming one's appendages on an old keyboard. The QV prayed he would get the idea.

“Into-The-Abyss-In-Search-Of-Light, what is in the package you are carrying today?” The droid asked gruffly. For a moment, Light could do nothing at all to respond. Every sinew of his body was in agony, he couldn’t breathe and he couldn’t move. Eventually the droid realised this, and released the chokehold. Light spluttered, lapping up the new supply of oxygen, before saying “I don’t know what you’re talking about! Let me go!”

The droid tapped a few options on the pad, and Light was pushed hard into the bed as if being strangled inside his own suit.

“Don’t hurt him!” The young QV female pleaded. Both her and her mother were floating side by side just outside the room, holding onto an aisle as if they’d been ordered to stay put.

“Silence!” The robot snapped, visor spinning nearly 180 degrees to face her. It then looked at the elder QV.

“Go tend to the shop front. If a Utaysi robot enters, keep them distracted there. If you fail or give me away, I'll shoot your daughter. Go!”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The adult QV closest to Senjen turned to look briefly at the Utaysi, before flashing up to the children on the second storey.

“My offspring will give you a quote.” They said distractedly, then drew their attention back to the newscaster.

The juvenile QV came down together and unabashedly took the list from Senjen. One of them plugged it into their inventory and pricing system while the youngest looked him up and down.

“Are you a droid? Wanna live here with us?”

“Enough, they are Utaysi. Echoes of extinction…These [untranslatable] Tindrel, I swear..” The adult QV turned to stare at the boisterous insectoid beings, aggressive colours flaring across their suits.

“The Tkclakytor Remnants destroy an entire planet with gridfire and these [untranslatable] Tindrel act like nothing is happening.” The other adult complains to Senjen, gesturing to the holo.

The elder child shoves a paper-thin gel parchment with a quote for about three quarters of the list into Senjen’s face. It's about 20% higher in total than Light had secured before.

“Are you going to fight in the war?” The youngest asks Senjen.
-

It would be unacceptably dangerous for Light’s old suit to decouple before the new suit has assumed control of his vital functions. The gel was the only thing that enabled him to breathe, or move out of water with his boneless anatomy. So the reddish suit mixed into his existing blue-grey gel and for a moment Light had the disorienting feeling of being connected to both. It felt like having double the amount of limbs, double the amount of thoughts and double the mass. One side felt old, familiar and safe, the other was new, sprightly and unpredictable. They fought each other despite this being a willing transfer, gel swirling around inside the bubble with Light at the centre.

Light cried out at a sharp pain in his head as an untidy handover took place. Then gradually, the warm and comfortable embrace fell away, and his new suit pushed out the old. The blue-grey gel slopped onto the floor and lay still. Light tried to move, and found that he could. He could move quickly in fact; this nomadic frame handled well, despite feeling draughty and sterile. Perhaps a little too well, for being unused to it, he fell right off the bed. Light got up quickly. His breathing felt clearer too, which was an unexpected relief.

There was a voice outside. Light figured the fitting must be over, and moved for the door.

Then his breathing choked, and his movement became laboured and stiff before paralysing completely. Light tried to reach for his old suit, but his new home wouldn’t obey him. Instead he hopped back onto the bed and lay flat.

“Help!” He called feebly, colours disjointed and blurry across the surface of his suit.