The bullet’s snapping overhead followed by the hard slap of impacting against the plastic bulkhead covering behind them ceased. Azumi looked over to the side where Retractile was lying with his eyes closed, frowned and pushed his shoulder.
"Don't tell me you are asleep."
A smile crossed his lips and he slowly shook his head, concentrating on something. Suddenly he rose quickly and sprinted towards the gunmen while shouting a mighty battle roar. Azumi peeked over the crate they had used for cover and saw two drag-clad young men that tried to run away as fast as they could with Retractile pursuing them. Easily catching them, especially since they were running on ten centimetre high plateau shoes, he launched into a running kick that hit the left drag between the shoulder blades and made him tackle his buddy. Retractile landed on top of them and instantly started punching, kicking and biting until only a low moaning was heard from the two agents. Azumi shook her head slowly as she grinned at the spectacle. Retractile rose from the pile huffing and puffing, completely red in the face from exertion. Azumi clapped slowly while he walked back to her.
"My hero. Why'd you lie with your eyes closed?"
Retractile took two deep breaths to stabilise his breathing before answering.
"I was listening for the sound of magazines being ejected. Fortunately for us they swapped at the same time. Damn newbs."
He tossed the two empty UPK standard issue 12 millimetre caseless hold out pistols to the floor and looked down at the still smiling, drooling and gently mumbling William. Sighing he grabbed the shoulder straps on his flight suit and dragged him over to the nearest launch bay.
"Only two ships left Ret, a Wraith and a Tung Centaur. I'll take the Wraith if it is okay with you?"
Retractile nodded and pointed to William.
"You are probably going to have to take him along. Not sure that he won't go nuts once you leave."
Azumi put the id card into the small reader on the side of the Wraith and held her breath while it cycled. It turned green and the lock disengaged allowing Azumi to open the heavily armoured cockpit canopy and peek inside. The cramped cockpit held numerous empty zero-g nipple bottles strewn around on the floor behind the jolly green giant coloured pilot seat. She picked one up, turned the empty container and read the label aloud.
"Cantus Breezers, finest White Russian mix."
She tossed the container to the ground and turned to Retractile.
"Can't you fit him in the rear behind the seat? As long as he is in the strangle net he and I will be okay I think."
Retractile grunted consent and lifted William into the tiny space where William kept quiet as long as Azumi was in sight. She grinned at Retractile and jumped into the seat and donned the helmet. The system activated with a female voice softly speaking from the helmet.
"Welcome back Councillor Eldritch. Please verify your identification."
A slot opened below the control stick and Azumi inserted the stolen card.
"Thank you. All systems are green, ready for launch."
Azumi waved to Retractile and closed the canopy. She launched the ship and was immediately hailed by the Strike Force that was waiting outside.
"Councillor Eldritch, we currently have a minor crisis at the station. Please follow the come-along-bot for a safe escort to jump distance."
A small bot with a double set of blinking triangles that acted like blinking arrows towards the centre of its rear, appeared in front of the Wraith and started boosting for the nearest 3k mark. Azumi followed the bot somewhat unsteady and over-compensating, as the Wraith was vastly heavier than her usual rig. No reaction from the guards, she flew to the jump point and disappeared from L-2.
###
Alex listened to the tactical communication as he was running down the corridor launch bay B. His teams were in position around the bay effectively cutting it off from the station. With only tens of metres to go Alex slowed to a walk to allow his breath to stabilise and digest all the tactical information that was relayed directly to his military grade tactical aug. While not quite as good as the fabled Serco brainpals or the Cort-hancers of the IDF, it was still helpful when you had to coordinate larger groups at once. His had been installed when he had worked in the UPK operations staff a long time ago. Even slightly outdated, it gave him the edge he needed.
Perfect, now they only needed to root the enemy strike team out and grab the Daltas Slasher. He adjusted the groin strap on his armour and sighed at the uncomfortable tightness around his belly. He should have paid more attention to the training scheme but there was always something to do. Nevermind, he signalled his personal team and followed them as they leapfrogged into launch bay B, submachine guns at the ready.
"Clear."
Alex stopped for a second. What the hell did they mean, clear?
"Wounded officers, need immediate evac. Multiple traumas. No trace on strangle net."
Alex noted the signal as it was being sent and the receipt as the medical standby unit received it. No reason to interfere, he kept monitoring. Any second now they would find the enemy and the killer. Maybe they had tried to escape down one of the corridors. He looked at the schematics for the bay and turned slowly to see if anything was wrong on his overlay. There, a single top plate was slightly ajar.
"Lead two, see that plate? Finish the sweep here and send your team up the shaft. It looks like ventilation or something. I am dispatching another team to seal it at the other end."
Alex smiled underneath his full-face helmet. The rats had trapped themselves in a dead end. Only time now. Suddenly he remembered something from an old flick he had seen on a boring watch one day and smiled wickedly. He opened a link to the chief of the medical team, Orderly Smielon and waited for the response. Smielon signalled that he was receiving; he was obviously busy.
"Smiel, I want a full fresh blood DNA scan on the casualties before they are moved out of the area. I'll downlink the files you are looking for in a second. Anything that does not match up is to be considered hostile and will be taken prisoner immediately."
Smielon sent a received signal back without commenting. Excellent, Alex could now concentrate on searching the dock and the tubes. He would not allow any team to stand down until he had found his target. He always got his target.
###
Retractile was doing his utmost not to laugh out loud. The situation had started out badly and gone to worse. All now hinged on an obscure detail in a likewise obscure film.
As soon as Azumi had launched he had run directly to the Centaur and swiped his card. A holographic scanner had activated and scanned him from top to bottom. A click had sounded from the side door and Retractile had grabbed the handle to twist it open. A powerful humming had warned Retractile enough that he opened his hand slightly and didn't have a full grab on the handle when the electricity surge tore through the metal and into his hand. He had withdrawn his hand and jumped back while the rest of the energy discharge crackled harmlessly into the ship's armour plates. He had looked at his singed palm and had sworn whoever owned this ship to the nether pits of Hell. This was not going to be an easy retreat.
He had started to run down the corridor to the main living area but stopped when he heard the sound of heavy boots on the steel mesh of the floor plates. He then turned back and tried another corridor with the same result. He was trapped with nowhere to go. That is when he had remembered that old movie he had seen with sharingan back in CLM HQ and he grinned fiercely. It was actually so stupid that it had a chance to work. He had opened a ceiling plate for the diversion and then did what they had done in the movie.
