Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“No, go through to the trading floor!” The boss gestured back down the stairs and to the right with his free hand. The able-bodied droid from the floor above was pressing them heavily, having already dispatched one of the soldiers.

Then there was a deafening crack from below, and the stairs crumbled beneath them. Masonry dust coated Light’s suit as he bounced off the ceiling then into the debris cloud. The stairwell below was completely blocked by rubble, but the half-landing with the two other doors was partially intact.

“Let's move! Fall back!” The boss said, grabbing onto his bodyguard who kicked off the wall and propelled them towards the right-hand door.

Light looked morosely at the blockage, thinking quickly whether they may be able to dig their way out. But with desperate fighting going on merely a few metres away on the upper level there just wasn’t time.

“We can take the atrium or try those offices perhaps?! I don't think going back is an option!” He shouted, still stunned by the cacophony of loud noises around them lately.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The droid released a black disc that produced a shield above, but couldn’t get it into position before a few beams from the repeater carved straight through it. Its grip on its own weapon weakened slightly, and Light took the opportunity. Holding onto the weapon with one part of his suit, he took back control of his pistol poking through the front of his suit. His own little manipular flaps pulled the trigger six times, pumping the droid’s abdomen full of .44 rounds.

The droid stumbled backwards then fell down the flight of stairs, leaving Light clutching its assault weapon. A small panel slid open in the middle of its chest and a small flashing red orb emerged.

“I will not be captured. I may not be captured. I shall not be capturrrr-” The droid blared in a slurred voice as sparks flew from its wounds.

“Uh oh.” Light said, looking at Senjen.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Four more floors!” The man hissed over the sound of gunfire above them.

Light hadn’t opted to scale the walls with Senjen, so he felt rather exposed near the front. The double doors in front of them were pinned open and there were two further sets of double doors in the lobby, left and right. It sounded like they were continuing down the staircase to the garage, so Light hugged the central stairwell column round to the left as he headed to the next flight of steps.

He crashed right into a stationary droid, who had been lying in wait on the top step. The robot raised their gun to shoot right through him but Light adhered to the weapon and used all his suit’s strength to push the barrel away from him. A laser blast chipped masonry from the wall to their right.

“Help!” He squawked.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The soldiers currently holding down the kitchen were high quality; loyal to a fault, brave and well trained. If no order had come for them to fall back, they would have held their positions either until they’d emerged victorious or been wiped out.

When the order did come, they retreated in good order, covering each other as the droids crept forward. The leader reached the door last, covered from the doorway. One of the patrons tried to run for it too but was shot twice in the back.

The droid across the way floated back into atrium-space, heading over to the booths occupied by some of the last patrons on the top floor. With the deafening sounds of battle below them, they were blissfully aware of the heavily armed killer wafting towards them.

The staircase descended anti-clockwise around a solid central pillar like ancient fortifications, so Senjen’s right side was opened up. Unlike castles, it was wide enough for four humans to pass each other at the same time. The boss shouted “Follow us!” as they began descending. Perhaps he was sheepish for not taking the initiative before. Though it wasn’t like the soldiers could easily disengage; the droids were right behind them.

Light stuck close to Senjen, pistol at the ready as they hurried downwards. After six turns they could see an identical lobby to the one they’d just been in. Except this time there was blood smeared all over the floor and the left hand door into the offices was propped open by a dead woman.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

In normal circumstances, Light wouldn’t be at all happy with being bundled around like a sack of algae. But looking back on the events of this night years later, he could humbly admit to being mentally unprepared for doing whatever it took to survive. He was just an old freighter pilot, after all. So he let Senjen grab him up and obediently adhered to his back. Part of him desperately needed to look around and try to locate the droids attacking them. The other part kept him staring at the Utaysi’s back.

The man bundled up his daughter in his right arm and used the other to pull himself weightlessly along the floor until he too could push off towards the back office doors. He wasn’t as strong as Senjen, but had clearly been in microgravity for a long time as he managed to flex around any obstacles and arrive unscathed. His body man followed closely behind with a hand grasping his suit jacket. He looked back occasionally and shot vaguely with a large ballistic revolver.

The soldiers who’d taken up defensive positions laid down blistering cover, but didn’t manage to decisively kill either of the advancing droids. Both had their shields cracked again, upon which time they made intelligent use of cover and advanced to the opposite end of the kitchen complex. One of them had opened up an angle to shoot at the man and his daughter during their escape, but had elected not to do so.

Off on the opposite side of the floor, another droid floated up and devastated the three patrons shooting from their elevated position.

“Ok, down to the garage! Wait! Do we bring those guys with us?” The boss asked, peeking back through the doors at the firefight once they were in the small lobby behind the restaurant. Some more doors in front of them opened out into the staff area, and the stairwell wound down anti-clockwise through some more doors to the left. peeking back through the doors at the firefight.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The first droid emerged from the row of booths and immediately took a stream of plasma to the shield, cracking it. They retreated back behind cover. The old lady laughed triumphantly. “I have them trapped!” Then an even larger energy bolt knocked her off her feet. The plate glass windows on the back left side of the building shattered as an ugly black aircraft fired through with two undercarriage cannons. The entire kitchen they were hiding in was drummed by energy fire, with crockery, utensils and shards of metal flying everywhere. Two of the soldiers coming up to the kitchen area were hit bad before the rest took cover.

Light squawked in surprise and squeezed himself into a tight cubby under one of the solid counters.

“MA!” The man shouted, scrabbling along the floor to grab his floating mother.

“What happened to ma-ma?” The little girl whimpered, sitting back up. The guy immediately forgot about his mother and scrambled back to her. He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her forehead.

“Oh sweetheart, you’re alive! Thank the Seven Signs of the Cosmos! Don’t worry about ma-ma, she’ll be fine. Just look at me, ok princess?”

The heavy weapons fire moved on, targeting another floor, and the man looked up at Senjen.

“Ok, lets get the fuck out of here. Grab the repeater and my mother and let's hustle!”

“Yes, that sounds like a good plan, no offense but I hate this place!” Light croaked, popping out from his cubby just as the droids re-emerged from the aisle. One of them was missing an arm, so had ditched their bulky assault weapon for a pistol. Both their fronts were covered by shield drones, and they put suppressive fire on the position the grandma had been firing from before. This was essentially right next to where they were right now. Several of the soldiers also popped out from behind cover and began firing back for some distance away.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The patrons took a moment to understand who was painting targets for them, but regardless it was fairly obvious that this difficult-to-spot disc was something important. They aimed up and opened fire on it, scoring the ceiling with a dozen plasma burns. The disc exploded in a shower of sparks that rained down on the droids below.

This distraction meant the patrons didn’t have enough time to escape the flashbang, which exploded in the middle of them. Sensory implants were temporarily disabled, including regular sight and sound. They hunkered down and clutched at their heads in disarray.

The two droids were now without one monitor drone, but they did each have a shield drone. These popped out of their backs and activated a shimmering oval kinetic barrier which stopped plasma coming from one direction. The droids exited their cover-booths into the gangway as soon as the flashbang went off, one looking forward and another looking back. The shields covered back and front.

A patron shot at them from behind and was swiftly dispatched. Then the grandmother’s heavy repeater finally found a gap between the partially melted booths. A bolt hit the lead droid in the shoulder, narrowly missing the front shield. The droid crashed into a booth on the other side of the aisle, right arm and weapon floating free. The shield drones quickly moved to protect both droids from further laser repeater fire and the second droid took the lead. Reaching the end of the aisle, it quickly dispatched two of the patrons in their hiding places before the third leapt at it, pushing the gun away.

Light had meant to shoot at the droids as they ran away, but Senjen was so fast he couldn’t even bring his weapon to bear. Instead he set up behind the kitchen counter next to the bald bodyguard and waited for the droid to appear.

“We’re not going anywhere! Where the fuck are my soldiers?!” The man shouted. As if on cue, the back doors opened and six heavily armed waiters wearing powered exoskeletons emerged.

“Secure the boss, go!” One of them said as they moved in.

“Get down the stairs to the basement, take the armoured cash car out of here! I’m right behind you!” The woman yelled croakily.

“I’m not leaving, ma!”

“Uhh, what's that?” Light asked, pointing. A white spotlight had appeared outside the plate glass windows near where Senjen and he had just been standing. It was moving quickly, then slowed and hovered in mid-air.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

It seemed the white-hatted man apparently had no designs on leaving their fortress. He moved his daughter behind the relative safety of the commercial kitchen units and laid her back on the floor. Grabbing a small holopad with physical connectors from inside his suit, he felt around the back of her head for the port then plugged a wire in.

“Get out of here!” His mother shouted over the deafening racket of her plasma repeater.

“Not until I bring her back!” The man shouted back.

Light protested as Senjen skittered off, but he wasn’t listening right at that second. So he grabbed the pistol from the bald-headed bodyguard and sucked it into his suit til only an inch of the barrel poked out. It was harder for anyone to grab it off him that way.

Then the QV compacted close to the floor, changing from a vertical to horizontal orientation. He warbled behind the Utaysi and hid in a nearby booth. He sent a pairing request so they could share sensory data, then stared at the plate glass windows adjoined to one end of it. He could see other buildings lit up through it and the street far below

“Maybe we can smash this glass and escape out of it?” He asked. He fired his plasma gun at the window; it made ugly black mark about a foot wide on it but otherwise had no discernible effect.

“Wow, strong stuff.”

The droids were the epitome of efficient warfighting. They didn’t even need to poke their heads or bodies out from behind cover to fire. They just ejected one flying disc that floated to the ceiling, then poked their guns out and fired with pinpoint accuracy. A few of the patrons scored some near misses on their guns but not before one person on each end was propelled backwards with a plasma bolt in their chests. Then one of them threw a flashbang around the corner of their booth towards the three remaining patrons closest to Senjen.

Patrons from around their level had mostly moved to the edge of the atrium space and were firing down to lower levels. Two women from the opposite side of the kitchen area were floating quickly towards the old woman, her son and the bodyguard.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“It's none of your business!” The man snapped back, slapping his daughter lightly on the cheek.

“Wake up sweetheart, it's time to go.” He said sweetly to the prone girl as plasma fire ricocheted somewhere out of sight. There was a constant tinkle of broken glass from below them. A dull sanguine light clicked on all across the restaurant. That must be the emergency power supply kicking in, Light thought. He could see multiple groups of diners rising from their booths with guns and suspected very few people in this restaurant were actually civilians.

“Get to the back stairs!” The old woman boomed, gesturing to a set of double doors at the back of floor furthest from the atrium. She then reached under the kitchen counter and hauled out a heavy plasma repeater that was almost as big as her. She plonked it on the counter and just in time, because a large black droid floated up to their level along one of the side dining areas. The old woman could barely see over the top of the gun but fired anyway, sending a stream of hot plasma down range. It narrowly missed a group of four women who also opened fire on the attacker. The droid took cover as another one floated up.

Light wanted to run for his life. He still hadn’t recovered from their ordeal in the suit shop, and now this was all proving too much.

“We have to go!” He quailed, pushing the white hatted man towards the exit as soon as he’d scooped up the little girl into his arms.

“You two aren’t going anywhere! Stand and fight like men!” He shouted back over the growing din of gunfire. The one remaining large bald man had pulled out a second pistol and offered it butt-first to Light.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light wobbled forward as the girl collapsed, concerned for her wellbeing. Then he realised what may have happened and wobbled back again, looking at Senjen. Then suddenly the strain lights put on his vision receded. Colours remained, and he could clearly see movement as a few people got up from their booths across the atrium. A spike of adrenaline flushed through his system and his suit’s skin automatically thickened. He looked for exits and spotted a staff door on the opposite side of the kitchen.

“Princess!” The man wailed, kneeling over his inert daughter and clumsily feeling her face.

“Talk to me baby, what's wrong?”

The old woman was barking orders in the kitchen. Two large bald men got up from a booth by the edge of the atrium, one of them went to the edge and looked down towards the entryway and the other jogged over to help the man they’d met. His eyes glowed blue; Light guessed he had some kind of eye implant.

“What did you do?!” The man turned and shouted in their direction.

“Nothing! Right?” Light protested, holding manipulators out to either side of his body in a gesture he was pretty sure looked innocent to Humans. He looked at Senjen for backup.

Then a loud crash and tinkle of glass sounded in the atrium. Then another. The man standing at the edge drifted backwards, feet disengaging from the mag-floor and arms limp. A spray of blood glinted in the half light. Screams and shouts wafted up from the lobby.