EliteCommander

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Progress, at least. Since they had avoided being at one another’s throats for now, they still had a chance to get out alive. Senjen caught the extinguisher from Light and took just a moment to check the label and make sure it was safe for him. The hole in his back provided enough access for him to reach back and angle the nozzle up towards his frame’s chest cavity. The small fires themselves had already been taken care of, but the first burst of the extinguisher into him did wonders to cool his core temperature. Some parts of his body were more or less susceptible to heat than others, but it was most important to keep his data storage and processor cooled. Fortunately, storage did not generate much heat on its own, but his processor certainly did. His power cells could handle higher temperatures, though the consequences of them staying overheated for too long could be...dangerous. The extinguisher would cool him down for a while, and since he had not needed to use all of its contents, he kept a hold of it for now.

The front seats of the cash truck were already taken by the time Senjen was done, so he sprinted for the hatch into the back instead. He could at least still keep on on a call with Light, so they could keep in contact, but Senjen wanted to keep his body and mind as still as he could for now. The less he was doing, the less heat he produced, and the easier his bottlenecked cooling system could keep up. Senjen was the first in, so he picked a corner where he could find something to grab onto and help keep himself still.

Senjen messaged both Light and the boss. “You think going on public transitways would help? I know the Korit government tends to stay out of private ‘business’, but they get involved if that starts spilling out into the public, right? We’re in cash trucks, so if they follow, station security might take it for an attempted robbery and intervene in our favor.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Between the alarms for his internal temperature and the pressure of a rapidly approaching enemy, Senjen had his mind only on survival. Even if he wanted to share what had happened between them at the store, there literally was not time at this point. Regardless of what had happened before or in the future, escape needed to be the only thing on their mind at the moment. “Look, if you have a hideout or something, you don’t need to take us there, and I don’t even want to know where it is. If you’re that worried about us, then we don’t even have to work together again after today. We can just go our separate ways after we get out of here.”

The sounds at the other side of the door prompted Senjen to draw his pistol. It couldn’t be long before the enemy was on top of them. “We are right at the edge of escaping here, but every second we waste is another they have to breach this room, or maybe set up an ambush outside. You know we would have had the chance to kill you by now if we were traitors. Let’s just get out of here alive.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“If I was working with them, I can think of at least two occasions where I could have just let them have you instead of doing everything I could to save you.” Senjen answered, staring back at the boss. “In the stairwell, or when you got grabbed out in the atrium, my guns were on the droids on both accounts. Not to mention all the chances I would have had by now to split off in the chaos and join them, if I was with them. Whatever they did to prepare this attack, it should be apparent we’re not with them.”

Senjen stayed rather still. The less his system was doing, the less heat it produced. Though, he had no choice but to stay very alert to every little twitch the others made. “Now there really isn’t time for this. They can’t be far behind, and if we waste any time doing this, then none of us are going to end up getting out.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Wait, what?” Senjen answered back, startled. Normally he might have wanted to take a defensive position, but since the bodyguard was offering, Senjen handed over the repeater and leaped into cover near the truck to deal with self-repairs. He opened up the alerts he had suppressed and ran a quick diagnostic. “SHIT!”

Senjen had to scramble to do something but it took some moments of thought to figure out what. He was running hot, though not for the reasons Light might have thought. The fires were small and mostly under control. Auto-repair could take care of them. It was the actual damage that was driving his core temperature through the roof, as his cooling system had been compromised. Actual coolant loss had been minimal since auto-repair re-routed and plugged the leak quickly, but now his coolant was getting bottlenecked through just a few remaining routes. The whole system was running inefficiently, so it couldn’t keep him cooled effectively.

The thought of fire did at least put one thought in his mind. “I need to grab an extinguisher from the truck!” He shouted. A cash truck would definitely have at least one, probably a few. Even if he didn’t need it for the fire, those sorts of extinguishers were frigid, and usually electronics-safe. One of them could bring down his core temperature, for a while.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

At this point, it felt like the only way for Senjen to maintain his sanity was to focus on what was in front of him. Gunfights, executions, it would have been so easy to panic, but he still had his goal. He still had a path. The soldier had a path in mind, and Senjen was willing to follow it. He was good at keeping low, so he could stay out of sight following her. She was at the front, so he guarded the rear, just behind Light.

The soldier mentioned the attackers were Outreman, which was a word that barely meant anything to him. If he recalled correctly, it was a planet, but he had not been interested in visiting there, so he had not read up much about it. Though, the fact that a shady group from another planet was shooting up the building did sound odd. He had expected they would be some other corporation or gang from Korit, not what were basically foreign invaders.

Even once they managed to make it downstairs, even once they had the garage in sight, Senjen could not let himself slow down. These maniacs could still descend upon them at any time. They found the boss and his bodyguard, which was good. All the effort they had made to keep them alive had at least paid off. There were plenty of vehicles as well, so as long as they hurried, an escape was actually in sight.

Now that they were standing around in a well-lit area, while not being shot, Light might notice the hole burned across a portion of Senjen’s back plate and a glimpse of burned components underneath, which Senjen himself had not yet seemed to have noticed.

“Is that truck armored? If so, I say we take that. We just need to get out of here. Hard to imagine they could give much chase; surely Korit security isn’t going to just let them shoot up a public transitway. That can’t be good for business. We just need to hurry; I heard them say they were coming down this way.” Senjen suggested.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen suppressed some flashing warnings in his field of view while they were on the move. Whatever it was, surviving this crisis here and now took precedence. They had gotten one more level down, with still far too many to go, and this one was just as chaotic as the last. There were too many of these droids pretty much everywhere, and it did not seem like fighting was going to be the way out. He fell in behind the soldier holding the repeater, though not firing on anything just yet to avoid calling immediate attention to them.

“Any other ways out, or at least down to the garage? Side routes, maintenance pathways, anything?” Senjen asked the soldier. He figured that the people who worked here would have a better idea of the building’s layout than himself, Light, or any of the attackers. There had to be some other way to get out of this place than the front door. Fire exits, maybe? Whether this place was meant to be more of a restaurant, casino, or fortress, it felt more like a giant coffin, to use a Human analogy.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

With his thrusters boosting him, Senjen came in quickly back to the floor with the others. He did not have time to look around and watch the results of the explosion. All he could really tell from what he could hear was that it had not gone off exactly where he had wanted, but that was not his focus. He hit the ground on all fours, holding his repeater in his mouth, and set off running the moment his feet found purchase.

There were shots around Senjen, maybe from the droid that had been flying up from below, but it did not matter as much as avoiding them. He was essentially skittering along the floor, dashing in zig-zags between the tables and seats. He felt heat, but whether from a hit or just proximity he was not sure. Much like organics, his frame’s onboard programming suppressed most pain signals during dangerous situations. He could do a diagnostic later; all of his limbs were working and he could still run. At running, at least, he was a natural.

Senjen heard the shout someone made to follow her. Whoever she was, he imagined anyone in range was going to do precisely that, and he was going to do just the same. Being that it was a restaurant in close to zero-G, the furniture was all bolted to the floor, so as he launched himself past one of the tables, he was able to hook his tail around one of the chairs to let him redirect most of his momentum and change direction towards the source of the voice. He would be flying in quickly, but even if his tactics had not gone quite to plan, he was still impressively agile, if nothing else.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen did not try to face the oncoming droid head-on. Surprise hit-and-run attacks were the only way he felt he could get an advantage against these war machines. The droid was floating up from below, so it had been easy enough for him to back off and scurry along the floor to a different position. Although, he saw what was happening with the droid the boss and his bodyguard were struggling against, and it was just what he had been waiting for. He knew what happened when these droids died, and he was ready for it this time.

Having seen it before, Senjen had a good idea of the timer on the explosion, so he knew he had to be quick. By the time the droid had thrown off the Humans it was struggling with, Senjen had already launched himself as fast as he could towards the dying droid. He had originally intended to grab and throw it, but the fact that its spasms had pushed away the Humans gave him another option, and he made the snap decision to turn himself around in the air kick away the droid as hard as he could, transferring his own considerable momentum into it to send it flying quite quickly. Senjen aimed it towards the already-broken windows on the other side of the room, straight towards the gunship just outside. The reaction of the kick sent Senjen floating back in the opposite direction, and he used his RCS to try and boost himself back into cover.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen could absolutely recognize that they were in a bad situation. If only the Human had not rushed ahead like that, but there was nothing that would change that now. The explosion had blocked the stairwell heading downwards, so that was not much of an escape route anymore. Still, Light was right: they needed a path out. “Okay, maybe there’s a quick exit? See if you can find us one. Any of those windows damaged enough to break through? I’ll see if I can help them.”

As he had expected, there were more droids coming. At least one that he could see. There was still nothing he could do directly for the Humans struggling with the droid; with them all grappling with one another, there was no way he could get a clear shot. He just had to hope that the bodyguard could do his job, and give them cover so they could have a fighting chance.

Senjen did not shoot immediately, but rather ducked behind the railing and scurried to a different point along the edge to take a different position. One of the droids had been floating up from below, and he needed to keep it from interfering. As quickly as he could, Senjen stood up, reacquired his target, and fired a burst from his repeater at the approaching droid. Then, just as quickly, he ducked back behind cover and dashed along the edge, out of sight, to take a different position.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Honestly, Senjen was wishing that the Human would go back to being a passive follower at this point. The man was pushing far too quickly into the open for his liking, but he had to keep his focus, especially once he inevitably ran into one of the droids. Senjen too took aim, but it was pretty much impossible to get an angle from his position on the droid that would not just penetrate straight through to the Human.

Senjen got down low and dashed over to Light. The old woman in his arms was still moving, still alive, but he needed both hands for this. As quickly as he could, he pushed her up against Light’s suit. “Keep to cover and hold on to her. She’s still alive.” He messaged the QV. With his hands free, Senjen could be much more maneuverable, and besides which, Light had more limbs to use.

In the moment, Senjen could not afford to wait for a response. He did not skip a beat to rush over towards the edge of the atrium. The bodyguard had already leaped off towards the boss, but Senjen could not just blindly do the same. Or rather, he shouldn’t. He had to trust that the bodyguard was a competent professional. Instead, Senjen first scanned the area looking for any other droids that were paying attention to the boss or his bodyguard, as they were out in the open. His repeater was powerful enough to destroy these things, and he could give them cover to stop the bodyguard from being shot dead before he could even reach the pair to help.