EliteCommander

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Above all, in situations like this when every second mattered, it was important to be quick and decisive. The Human had already made the call to move through the trading floor, and it seemed as good of a plan as any. Neither Senjen nor Light knew the layout of this place, and he figured the Human at least should know how to get them to their destination. The bodyguard was going along with it, so it would probably at least get them closer to where they needed to go.

Once clear of the explosion, Senjen had unwound his tail from around Light. Outside of emergencies, it seemed to be better to let him move on his own. He had not expected the QV to be as maneuverable as he was, and it seemed like he had been underestimating what QV suits were capable of. It did not feel intuitive that they would be so capable out of the water, but he supposed the whole point of technology was to overcome natural limitations. Now that Senjen was out in the galaxy, it was a reminder of how dangerous assumptions could be.

First and foremost, Senjen still needed to keep Light protected, so he stuck close by him and gestured for him to follow through with the others onto the trading room floor. It was more open, but hopefully they could move more quickly through it. Still, he kept a lookout for any potentially quicker exits. If there were any damaged windows here that the gunship was not paying attention to, then they might be able to escape through some of the neighboring buildings. The attackers might be more hesitant to shoot up other buildings indiscriminately, especially if they belonged to other organizations.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen was understandably terse when he recognized what was happening. “Get back!” Was all he shouted before he kicked off the ceiling down to the floor just behind Light. He had transferred his repeater back to his mouth so he could at least have one free hand. If Light glanced down, he might notice Senjen’s tail wrapped around the middle of his suit.

The “boss” had already been hanging back to allow the others to take the lead, so he and his daughter would have an easier time getting away, though Senjen would grab them along the way if they were too sluggish to react. They all just needed to backtrack up the stairs a bit to get a wall or two between them and the droid. When Senjen pushed off the floor to launch himself back, Light was yanked back along with him. He could take full advantage of the zero-G environment to leap off the walls at the best speed possible, even if it did end up with Light getting smacked around a bit behind him. It was better than the alternative.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen might have been able to shoot immediately, but Light had been hugging a bit too close to the inside column, and moving a bit too far forward, so there was too much of a risk of friendly fire. In the few moments that followed, Senjen was frankly surprised by what he saw. Light had been close enough when he ran into the droid that grabbing the weapon was not too much of a stretch, but remarkably, his suit was even able to keep the weapon at bay as he struggled over it with a war droid. Granted, Light grabbing it by the barrel did give him an advantage in leverage, but still, he had no idea that QV suits could have so much power behind them. It certainly did not look like it from appearances.

In any case, while these thoughts were running through Senjen’s mind, he pushed off of the wall in Light’s direction to give himself an angle to shoot down on the droid from above, without Light in the way. It was unlikely to be especially armored from directly above, and the repeater was stronger than his pistol regardless. Since he still was having to shoot one-handed, he locked his elbow to keep the arm steady right before firing, then shot a burst right down the center line of the droid’s frame from straight above.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen was no longer rushing as quickly as possible, since the others behind him needed to keep pace with him. He was still responsible for carrying the old woman, despite not knowing what sort of a state she was in, nor did he have time to check. He did not actually use the stairs themselves, but rather moved up to walk high up on the outer wall of the staircase, with his weapon in his right hand and trained ahead as they moved down. With both together, his weapon would be ready and on-target at the earliest possible moment if they encountered any droids coming up from below. The more angles they took as they moved, the less of a chance they would get in each other’s way and block each other’s line of fire. In microgravity, any orientation was as easy as any other to reach, and Utaysi had no problem keeping their bearings regardless of how they were positioned.

There was a door ahead, along with a casualty, but he could not stop to think about that. In fact, it seemed like a poor idea for them to stop for any reason. It was less than ideal that he was trying to lead the way without knowing his way around this building, though at least their attackers would have the same disadvantage. “How many floors down to the garage?” Senjen asked the Human man.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

”Unbelievable.” Senjen thought. This Human was meant to be the boss, so why wasn’t he taking charge? Why would he look to Senjen for answers to anything? Whatever the reason, it was not like they could just stop to ponder. If the boss was not going to take the lead, then someone had to. They had a goal in mind, Senjen just had to keep a cool head and get them there. The Human asked about the soldiers, and he did not think it made sense to let them die for no reason.

“Yes, but we don’t linger.” Senjen answered. He quickly went back to the doorway, not quite revealing himself from cover, but shouting back to the soldiers. “Fall back!”

Immediately, Senjen pushed back towards the front to lead the way down the stairs. He was still responsible for carrying the old woman, so he had to take the repeater in one hand. It was a cumbersome weapon obviously designed to be held in two, but it was also designed for an organic. For limitations he did not have. He could point it forward and lock his arm at the elbow to manage the recoil. “They can catch up, watch our back. We move.”

With all the extra mass Senjen was carrying around with him, he decided to walk with magnetic locks rather than float for the moment, so it would be easier to shift his momentum quickly. For now, he started to push forward down the stairwell, towards the garage.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

For a brief few moments, it was hard to make sense of anything going on around Senjen. Shards of glass, metal, and other debris flew through the kitchen just over the counter above him while high energy blasts tore apart anything in their path. Senjen kept low to the floor behind the counters, out of sight of the droids or the gunships, but all it would take was a moment of bad luck to tear him apart too. Still, the shouting from the others around him gave him something to focus on.

The Human’s mother was hit, but the girl was awake and they were all ready to flee. Good, that was something he could do. The man gave orders this time that he had no hesitation in following. Senjen first grabbed Light next to him and maneuvered him around quickly so he could grab on to his back. If, at any point, Senjen needed to flee as fast as he could, he at least wanted to make sure Light was with him. From there, he grabbed the old woman and held her over his right shoulder while taking hold of the repeater in his opposite hand. There was a lot to weigh him down now, but it was much less of a burden for him than it would be for any of the others. He did not experience fatigue or muscle strain, and he was free to consistently operate at his limits. Carrying two people added mass and gave him more inertia, but the only thing that really slowed him was the fact that he could not run on all-fours. He could not be as quick on two legs, though he was still far from slow.

Senjen had a mind to launch them out the window and into the building across the street. He doubted their gunship would start shooting up buildings belonging to other, uninvolved organizations. However, the Human man looked like he was going for the back stairs, and Senjen did not want to separate from him. He moved along the floor of the kitchen, keeping below the counters to stay out of sight. For the moment, he carried the repeater in his mouth so he could at least have one free hand to help maneuver more quickly along the floor. He crawled out from the far exit of the kitchen, around the counter nearest to the back exit. Once the table was no longer blocking his path, he braced his feet against the counter behind him, disengaged his electromagnets, and kicked off of the counter to launch them at speed through the open door.

From the stairwell, he would turn back around to cover the Human man and his daughter while they caught up, though he would only shoot if the droids gave any attention to them. The soldiers were still fighting them at the moment, and he did not want to draw any attention to their escape.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen was catching only glimpses now that he was in cover behind the counter, but it seemed the fighting was going about as well as he had expected. Even with the surprise now having worn off, the patrons were still outgunned. One of the droids took a hit, but they were still working their way through the patrons alarmingly quickly.

The man remained stubborn, even to the old woman’s commands. Perhaps he had a reason, with the arrival of his soldiers. They were well-armed and equipped with exoskeletons that might bridge the gap to the droids...or they might just end up slowing them down somewhat more effectively. Senjen really had no way of knowing who would come out on top between them, just that it was a fight he was not close to being equipped for. The best he could hope for was to leverage what he could do...especially if it ended up pulling him out of the fire in the process.

Senjen had rushed over to the man and his daughter, his gaze darting to the spotlight just outside the windows. Instinct was telling him that the situation was about to get even more chaotic. Either they came with him now, or they probably wouldn’t get the chance. “Look, there’s no reason to keep her in the line of fire. Let me carry you both out of here, and you can get her help.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

It did not take all that much observation for Senjen to see which way the wind was blowing here. Buying time was the name of the game now, and he had one idea of how to do that. The disks the droids launched up towards the ceiling, he had seen them before, and he had a fairly good idea of their purpose. He had noticed the droid back in the shop had been able to track him through the ceiling, then the disk had revealed itself shortly afterwards. It did not take much to put two and two together. Any patrons that were still alive, Senjen contacted and marked the position of the disk he could see. “Those are sensors; take them out quick!”

At the same time, Senjen dashed across the floor quickly over to Light’s position. “Grab on tight!” He commanded, taking hold of the QV and helping him onto his back. From there, Senjen holstered and set out in a sprint on all fours that was rather startlingly quick. The pace he had floated them through along the passenger lines before was leisurely by comparison, and it would take all of Light’s effort, and probably some help from his suit, to hold on. Though, it was only a short distance he brought them for now, as he stopped them in the kitchen unit next to the man and his daughter.

Senjen could see what the man was occupied with, and could understand why, but it was not doing wonders for his judgment. “These things are serious military droids; this is not a fight we win. Escape, now!” He said as he started to speak more directly to the man’s mother. “I can get them out of here, lightning-fast. Which way do I take them?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The situation quickly devolved into nothing short of chaos. With the layout of this place and how everyone encircled the atrium, the old woman had nearly hit another group of “patrons” on the opposite side. Droids coming up through the center would not be able to take cover from all sides at once, but Senjen made a mental note to take care where he positioned himself, and to keep in mind the backdrop if he ended up shooting anywhere.

Senjen dropped down to all-fours to make himself a smaller, quicker target as he scurried along the floor. He moved to his right, around to the opposite side of light around one of the tables to take an angle on the droids that was closer to perpendicular to that of the old woman. He drew his pistol and took aim. If one of the droids floated up over the edge into view, he would have not hesitate, and he would have a flanking position to help her, but he wanted to prepare any way he could before trying anything aggressive. He guessed that these would be the same sort of droid that he had encountered back in the QV’s shop, so he took an image of that droid and tried to search for the model. Anything he could learn about it would be helpful.

Next, Senjen messaged Light. “Get down and get into cover. Can you sync up with me and give me access to your perspective? Visual, audio, anything you can share.” It had been helpful back in the shop to have access to the QV girl’s perspective, but the fact that she could not see too sharply had been limiting. That, of course, was why Senjen now had installed a software package to translate data from a QV’s echolocation sensors into a usable format.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“What was in that file?!” Senjen questioned aloud. At this point, it was a genuine question, because he had no idea what they could have loaded into that file that would have caused so much damage, so quickly. Did they have any sort of cybersecurity in this place? They had not even verified it yet, so surely the client had not let it execute any code outside of a quarantined environment? If they had, then Senjen could not help but to feel that the client was at least partially responsible for this disaster.

Regardless of how it had come to pass, what was important now was getting out of this situation alive. Nothing else mattered but the crisis in front of him, and just like before, that was something he could focus on. What could he see? What could he hear? There was screaming from below, and the man who had gone over to the edge to investigate...he looked to be dead or wounded. Potentially, someone was attacking the restaurant from the lower levels.

Whatever it was precisely that was happening, the last thing they needed to do was to freeze up. The client and a few others were checking on the girl, understandably, but this was not a place to linger. “Is she alright? We need to get you all out of here. Exits; is there another way out of the building from this floor?”