S1E1; End Game

Dawn’s first light was a harbinger of climate shift for Salvator IV, as the long night’s cold would rapidly evolve into the scorching heat that the summer days would bring. As a moon of the gas giant Salvator, Salvator IV went through abnormal cycles of night and day, causing the world to be effectively barren. A few life forms managed to adapt to the long periods of cold night the moon experienced from being behind Salvator, but this caused the oxygen levels in the atmosphere to fluctuate with the seasons. Such a harsh climate made the perfect location for those trying to remain undetected.

              Salvator IV had a fast rotation, but a slow revolution around the gas giant, so daybreak was rapidly approaching. Hovering just under half a meter above the ground and travelling at dangerously high speeds, a jet bike transporting a lone figure was scurrying its way over the desert wasteland and through the many chasms. The passenger was human, although hardly identifiable as she wore a tan coloured cloak, large, silver-reflecting goggles, and a rebreather. The jet bike was, of course, stolen from a nearby village, however, the human who stole it did not consider ‘stealing from thieves’ morally questionable. Not that it would matter, as the human was a Justiciar, and that meant she was above the law, able to do whatever was necessary for the good of humanity. The fact that she stole the bike from xenos made it less of a questionable decision in her mind.

              Xenos, a word meaning stranger, and given as label for those of a different species; after all, they were no longer alien, despite the two words being used interchangeably. The level of xenophobia differed from person to person, and sometimes even whole planets or systems would express a general hatred or love of the xenos. Some chose to embrace and learn from those who were different than us, while others had that trust betrayed, rooting hatred of all things alien into culture. After all, it is easy to sell an “us vs them” mandate to cover-up the faults of one’s own self. This Justiciar hated the alien, not because she was told to, but because she learned to. Then again, hunting down the vile and scum of society would certainly sour one’s trust in anyone, human or alien. But no, she always hated the alien, ever since she could remember.

              The daylight increased slightly, so the Justiciar decided it was safe to pick up speed. The sudden increase in velocity cause the cloak to move aside, revealing that she was wearing what appeared to be a full suit of black armour underneath. It appeared black at first, but if light hit it at the right angle, a green sheen could be witnessed passing over the armour. A light flashed in her heads-up display (HUD), informing the Justiciar that her destination was rapidly approaching. This information caused her gradually slow down until she was at the base of a small cliff where the bike shuddered to a halt, uncouthly returning to the ground. As the Justiciar dismounted, she gazed around the cliff face studying it for a way up. Her HUD flashed red stripes over an outcropping, and the Justiciar responded by outstretching her left arm and firing a grappling hook at the highlighted area. The line quickly pulled the Justiciar up to the top of the cliff facing.

              As she pulled herself up, the Justiciar maintained a low profile by moving in a crouching position. Hunkering down behind a set of rocks, she decided to pull out a rangefinder to get a better look at her targeted location. The location was just a silhouette on the horizon, but it was clearly a fortress. As she played around with a few of the dials on the rangefinder, the contrast was adjusted, and details of the fortress could be made out. Furthermore, the rangefinder began to identify living beings and potential threats.

              After getting an unobstructed view of the fortress and the potential guards, the Justiciar looked down at a holographic interface on her left forearm. It identified that there was no traces of scanning technology or radar in the area. Too easy she thought to herself.

              “Shore party from Ameranta, come in,” chimed a voice in her right ear.

              “Go ahead,” the Justiciar responded.

              “Yeah commander,” Ameranta changed to a less serious tone, “be advised that long range scanners have picked up multiple contacts on intercept trajectory to Salvator IV.”

              “IFF status?”

              “Unknown.” The Justiciar hesitated as she thought about what to do next.

              “Alright, head out of sight and out of mind for the time being,” she ordered. “I doubt we’ll find many friendlies out here in non-Unity space. Do not engage unless engaged. Understood?”

              “Understood,” responded the Ameranta.

              “Airbender copies all,” said another male voice over the radio. “Need us to come pick you up, commander?”

              “Negative,” she answered. “We only got one shot at this.” The Justiciar looked over at the fortress and let out a sigh. Never is it ever allowed to be too easy she thought to herself. Not that she would like it any other way. Removing her cloak and retrieving her pistol from her hip, she checked the graphical indicator for rounds left and status, and made one last look at the horizon.

              “Here we go,” she muttered to herself as she undid the cloak and jumped down the ledge facing towards the fortress. As she neared the ground, thrusters located in the calves and soles of her feet activated to break the fall. Her black hair, done up in a ponytail, fluttered in the wind, and the moment she hit the ground, she broke out into a sprint. As she neared the fortress, the HUD flashed and directed her attention to the being standing in the lookout tower to the left. If this person had raised the alarm instead of taking the time to look over the wall at the Justiciar, he may have lived. A quick round from the pistol, assisted by the Justiciar’s HUD, quickly and silently ended his life.

              The pistol made almost no noise as it fired; one of the many benefits of rail technology. There was no ignition, no moving parts or contraptions, just magnetism and a metal projectile launched with greater precision and high velocity. The Justiciar’s model of handgun was specially made to have a mode where noise was reduced in exchanged for decrease bullet penetration. Since most of her targets were soft, fleshy beings, this trade-off was more than acceptable.

              The Justiciar then hopped down another ledge and noticed two guards enjoying a chat just a few meters in front of her. Not being accustomed to actual break in attempts, the two guards didn’t even have time to react and mount a proper counter to the Justiciar as she shot one and leapt at the other. As she jumped, her thrusters in her lower legs activated, taking them both through a window, where the guard was used to break the Justiciar’s fall. The crash through the window interrupted the breakfast of three other fortress inhabitants, but two fell victims to the Justiciar’s pistol before anyone could react. The third reached for his rifle on the table, but the Justiciar rolled off to the side to get a better angle, popping a round into the man’s head. Man, if you’d even call these things that.

              Despite having human features, these creatures were indeed alien. Those who document first contact with this species called them “elves” for their elongated ears and sylvan faces. They prefer to call themselves Kelphatesh, after their goddess Kelphas, but most humans call them elves or other derogatory terms. Relations between the Kelphatesh and the Unity have been complicated at best. They are a race known for their arrogance, and that did not sit well on intergalactic politics. Contradictorily to their arrogant nature, the Kelphatesh used ideas and weapons mostly taken from other races, including low-grade body armour. This made it easier for the Justiciar to neutralize them and to interface her equipment with theirs. It took her a mere second to figure out how to open the door.

              Once the door was open, the Justiciar released a small bot that travelled along the ceiling of the corridor. Within seconds, she had a detailed map appear in the holographic interface on her left arm. Where are you? She thought to herself. Just then, noises could be heard down the hall, so the Justiciar quickly ducked back into the room and shut off the lights; she was afraid it was too late to close the door and not draw attention.

Two Kelphatesh drew closer, a male and a female, eventually stopping at the open door. They halted their conversation and went to investigate, barely getting too far into the room before being assaulted. The male was elbowed in the diaphragm, and the female was grabbed and pushed down to the floor by the back of the neck. She took a knee to the face from the Justiciar, enhanced by the thruster, knocking her out instantly. Then the Justiciar returned her attention to the male, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him against the wall. She leaned in with all her force behind the shove, crushing his windpipe and dropping him to the ground. As the male was scratching at this throat, gasping for air, the Justiciar’s HUD chimed in with a path her location of interest. There you are! As she left the room, she gave the male an elbow to the top of the head, knocking him out, and closed the door.

Thanks to the nanotechnology implanted in her target, the Justiciar knew where her target was, but needed the support from her bot to get her there. While the bot reported that the fortress was incredibly large, the Justiciar was more intrigued that the fact that her little bot went through most of the compound without raising suspicion. She knew it was designed to be inconspicuous, but she couldn’t comprehend just how little people payed attention to their surroundings. Of course, it was only a matter of time before someone discovered the dead bodies and broken window, so the Justiciar was trying to move as fast as caution would allow her. Ducking in and out of rooms and crevices as she moved, she could slip past droves of Kelphatesh like a ghost among them. They really need to install sensors here.

The Justiciar managed to make it to the corridor just outside the room where her person of interest was being held. She took a quick glance down to hallway and saw that there was no one there. Cautiously, she approached the next door she needed to enter, using her HUD to examine the security protocol. That is, if one could count a protocol that was easily cracked with a simple four-digit spike program ‘security’. The door opened with ease, revealing two Kelphatesh guards on the other side.

“I apologize, this isn’t the bathroom,” she said, her statement catching the guards in a reign of confusion. Their hesitation was their downfall, as it gave the Justiciar enough time to punch the guard on the left in the face, breaking his nose, and kneeing the other in the groin, dropping him to the ground. She then elbowed the guard that had dropped in the head, taking him out, and then placed her pistol under the jaw of the other one, ending his life with the pull of the trigger. Taking a quick glance back to check if she had drawn attention, she closed the door behind her.

As she approached the next door, her HUD informer her that this door wanted to be taken more seriously. It had several redundant systems in place, and required two-part authentication to get through. Despite that, it was still primitive compared to Unity security and it only took her hacking program a few minutes to bypass the system and open the door.

Instantly, she could hear two voices talking, which caused her to slip into the shadows of the dimly lit room. As she moved along the wall, slowly approaching the two, she noticed they were interrogating someone; they were interrogating her target.

“I won’t ask again,” said one of the Kelphatesh interrogators, “what were you doing in this base?”

“I’m glad you’re finally going to stop asking,” responded the male human being interrogated. “Your voice is too shrill for my liking. I can only take so much of it.” This was followed by an electric jolt, which the human resisted the urge to cry out in pain. The human was bloodied and only wearing pants, showing clear signs that the interrogation had been going on for quite some time.

“You are really testing our patience, human,” said the other interrogator. “Tell us what you were doing here and your pain will end.” The two interrogators were so caught up in their session that they didn’t even noticed the door had been opened.

“I thought it was time for a vacation,” replied the human, in an exhausted tone. “But if you let me go now, I’ll plea for your lives so you can take your own vacation.” The two Kelphatesh laughed.

“Do you really think you are going to be able to harm us in your position?” said one of them. “What could you possibly do while tied up?”

“Not me,” said the human. “Her.” The Kelphatesh had a split second of shock before the Justiciar covered the one on the left’s mouth and shot the other Kelphatesh interrogator from the midback up to the head. She then kneed the one she had her hand on in the back, then pulled back on his head as he fell, snapping his neck and killing him instantly.

“Did you get lost?” asked the human.

“I thought it was time for a vacation,” responded the Justiciar as she began untying the human from.

“You don’t take vacations,” responded the human. “I’m not even sure you sleep” He started stretching and rotating his arms and legs as he stood up.

“Did you find it?” asked the Justiciar.

“Of course,” replied the human. “I’m a Ralakai, not a Rameria.” Milo Ralakai was one of the Justiciar’s crew, originally a Specialized Tactical Assault Trooper (STAT) that she had come across in her travels. He had been with the Ameranta crew for just over ten years, proving his mettle, although his sarcastic approach to serious situations sometimes got on the rest of crew’s nerves. The Justiciar knew exactly how to handle it; ignoring it.

“Take me to it,” she commanded.

“Not even concerned about my safety,” Milo retorted as he put on a shirt, and reached for one of the Kelphatesh guns on the wall.

“Unknown contacts are on their way here right now,” stated the Justiciar. “I am sure they will be concerned about your safety.”

“Who could it be?” asked Milo.

“Well given that we are in Starfang territory,” she started but Milo acknowledged the seriousness of the situation.

“Out of the frying pan…” he mumbled to himself as he headed for the door. “It’s actually not far, assuming there’s no guards.”

“You’d be surprised.”

*            *            *

“You weren’t kidding,” Milo stated as they approached a room only three floors up and a hallway down from the interrogation room. While the two had cautiously made their way to the destination, the place was seemingly empty.

“I am starting to think our unknown friends have something to do with this,” said the Justiciar. Before she could say anything else, a fortress-wide alarm started sounding.

“It appears they miss me already,” Milo commented. “I feel so loved here.”

“I think there is a friend or two they miss a little more right now,” the Justiciar remarked as she opened the door. This door led into an office, large and spacious, but naturally lit from the large window overlooking much of the fortress. The room was various hues of mahogany, attempting to keep up a wooden façade.

“It’s in there,” Milo pointed at a safe that would have been hidden if the painting that was blocking it hadn’t been set aside. “or at least it was.”

“I will check it out,” the Justiciar motioned towards the safe, “You fall back to the rendezvous point and tell the Airbender to come get me in the courtyard.”

“Radio’s aren’t working,” Milo just noticed based on the Justiciar’s odd request. “Do you think it’s a trap?” He took cover by the door, checking the hallway.

“I think our unknown friends have arrived,” the Justiciar said. “You need to get back to the Airbender before our location is discovered.” She opened the holographic data pad on her left forearm and pressed a few buttons. As she did, the bot she had sent out earlier entered the room. “Follow this, it should lead you through a path that has the least resistance.”

“What about you?”

“I’m a big girl; I think I can handle myself. Just get the Airbender to the courtyard as fast as you can.” Milo nodded, took a quick look down the hall before moving out. The Justiciar went to safe, her suit’s scanning system already identifying that the safe utilized voice recognition and hand print security. Her systems were already disassembling the acceptable parameters that the safe was looking for to bypass the security. She placed her hand on the reader, where the suit mimicked the accepted palm print, and a synthetic audio clip played, revealing the password,

“Lost Star’s Glory.” The safe popped open, revealing that it was empty. The Justiciar cursed under her breath and walked towards the window. In the distant courtyard, located just at the end of the narrow, glass covered hallway that led to the window she was standing at, she could see what looked like a gathering of Kelphatesh. What a coincidence would it be that they would be handing off the item she needed on the day she showed up. Had they already disposed of it? She wondered to herself. How was she going to get to the courtyard without being noticed?

“Halt!” a female voice commanded behind her. Too late. The Justiciar could see three Kelphatesh figures in the reflection of the window.

“Turn around slowly with your hands up,” the same female Kelphatesh voice commanded. The Justiciar noticed they all had guns pointed at her.

“Let me see your hands!” the female Kelphatesh ordered. Clearly, she was the leader of the bunch. Looking down, the justiciar closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Focus. Then, in a single, quick motion, the justiciar turned around, grabbing her second pistol from her hip, opened fire and leapt backwards through the window. The Kelphatesh fire shattered the glass for her, however they also managed to deplete her kinetic barriers. That would be the last thing they did, as the justiciar made each of her shots, ending their lives.

Crashing through the glass ceiling covering the hallway below, the justiciar landed on her back. She only managed a second to sit up before she saw more Kelphatesh up in the office above and coming down the hallway. Without too much thought, she activated her calf and foot thrusters to full power, propelling her down the hallway, and started returning fire with her pistols. While the Kelphatesh were firing frantically, the justiciar was firing each shot from both of her handguns with intent, guided by her HUD to reach their mark. Her constant barrage of accurate shots brought down the soldiers that were up above her and forced the remaining Kelphatesh into cover.

A warning flashed on the justiciar’s HUD informing her that the hallway was coming to an end, so she looked ahead to see that it was another large window that went from the floor to the celling. Without hesitation, she fired several rounds into the window to break its structural integrity, followed by bracing her head with her arms for impact. Smashing through the window, the justiciar used her momentum to summersault in mid-air to land on her feet. Her intrusion was met with a hail of gunfire, which she responded by dodging behind some nearby crates and utilizing the burst mode on her right pistol to unload the remainder of the clip. This spray of bullets was meant to suppress more than it was meant to neutralize any targets; it was highly inaccurate and fired with decreased velocity as the gun vomited its remaining ammo in one quick burst.

The justiciar took the moment to holster the now empty pistol and revaluate her situation. Stealth was gone, her position was now known, and she was pinned down. She had no idea where the item she was looking for was, and couldn’t communicate with any of her team for back up. A grenade would be helpful right now.

“Throw your weapons out,” commanded a male voice, “and slowly come out with your hands up.” The justiciar recognized the voice was Rashif Veltzeiv, someone that was known to the Unity as head of one of the Kelphatesh coteries. His base of operations was unknown prior to this moment, but the justiciar now understood how he had come in possession of the item. He was a crime lord after all. But why did he want it?

“You cannot win this, human.” Rashif taunted. “You are outgunned, out matched and out classed. It is okay to admit defeat at the hands of a Kelphatesh. I can assure you that you are not the first and that no one will know.” He laughed. The justiciar responded by quickly shifting out of cover to fire one shot before ducking behind some crates across the way.

“See!” Rashif laughed, “the bastard human can’t even hit a simple target that is barely ten meters away. Pathetic.” There was a small chorus of laughter from the Kelphatesh.

“You should know something, Rashif,” the justiciar yelled over the crates.

“What is that?” Rashif responded. While he was enjoying his banter, he failed to notice a sound that was becoming more apparent to his troops around him; a whistling sound that was getting louder. Some of the Kelphatesh began to precariously look around, trying to identify what the sound was.

“I’m not a bastard,” the justiciar said as she stepped out with her pistol drawn. The Kelphatesh, who were now too preoccupied with trying to figure out what the high pitch whistling was, failed to pay full attention to the justiciar.

“… I’m a bitch.” The justiciar finished her sentence, switched her pistol’s mode to incendiary rounds, and fired a single shot. As she did this, some of the Kelphatesh soldiers near the gas pipes in the back realized what was causing the whistling, but they were too late; the justiciar’s incendiary round contacted the gas leak emanating from the hole she shot in pipe. In a beautiful crescendo, a large fiery explosion engulfed the courtyard, incinerating those nearest to the pipe and sending the rest flying through the air, some now on fire. The justiciar instantly kneeled and covered her head, letting her energy shields protect her from the flames. The initial blast was then followed by a series of explosions as the entire pipeline started to ignite, and the segregated chambers succumbed to combustion.

After the energy from the blast in the courtyard dissipated, the justiciar peaked through her arms to see Rashif sprawled out on the ground, unharmed. Just as she had predicted, Rashif had energy barriers that would protect him from the fire. Walking through the flaming inferno, and ignoring the screaming Kelphatesh, the justiciar got to Rashif and knelt on him. He grunted in response, enabling the justiciar to realize he was merely dazed.

“On behalf of the Unity,” the justiciar started, “I, Justiciar Melody Melcoskey, herby take you, Rashif Veltziev into custody. If you have anything to say…” the justiciar noticed a nearby Kelphatesh stumbling towards her with his gun drawn. She halted getting her restraints out and shot the intruder in the chest.

“If you have anything to say,” she continued to place the restraints on his arms, “well I don’t want to hear it.” As she finished up, she noticed a few more Kelphatesh stumbling around. With a few squeezes of the trigger, they were neutralized. Just as she was about to shoot another, a heavy wind from above overtook her focus and removed the smoke from the surrounding fire. The Aribender had arrived.

Despite being a Victory class gunship, a midsized troop transport and support, the Airbender was too large to effectively land in the courtyard. Instead, one of the two parallel doors that ran the length along the bottom of the transport hold opened and a human descended along a tether tied to her back. This human was in STAT gear, which was black and grey combat clothing, with dark blue armour covering the torso, the shoulders, the backs of the wrists, the butt, the groin, and the quadriceps. The head was protected with a fully enclosed black helmet, that had a rebreather over the mouth, and two glowing blue slits where the eyes should be. A second rope had dropped down next to her for the justiciar to attach to.

“Take him!” ordered the justiciar as she attached Rashif to the open tether.

“What about you?” asked the soldier.

“I need to find what I came here for,” the justiciar responded.

“Contacts have already entered atmo,” stated the soldier. “We don’t have time.”

“Noted,” said the justiciar as she turned around to scan the courtyard. “And promptly ignored.” As she scanned the courtyard, Rashif and the soldier ascended into the Airbender. Just as the justiciar’s HUD flashed over a nearby opened crate, three consecutive explosions hit the ground near her and sent her flying. The unknown enemy had arrived.

Quickly shaking off the shock and looking up, the justiciar saw the Airbender banking off to the left as it dodged a barrage of bright green plasma rounds passed it by. Two black, dart shaped aircraft screamed overhead. Their design made them out to look like jagged spear tips cutting through the air, with spiked retrograded to the overall aerodynamic shape of the aircraft. There was a toxic pink hue noticeable under the folds in the hull, accenting the flat black.

“Go!” ordered the justiciar to the Airbender. Just to make matters more complicated, more Kalphetesh soldiers showed up and opened fire on the justiciar. She fell to one knee and returned fire, however the attention of the Kalphetesh was quickly occupied by four large, black spikey ships descending upon the fortress’s courtyard. Several side doors opened on these ships as armoured figures leapt out onto the ground below.

These new invaders were entirely covered in plated armour that was black at the centre of each plate, but faded to the toxic pink at the edges. It was as if the armour was originally black, and the edges that would be faded from wear and tear were now pink. The motif of the armour was jagged and filled with protrusions, fitting for space pirates. Their weapons, while long and barbaric looking, fired either plasma bolts or stun spikes. Stun spikes were large splinters that would incapacitate the motor nerves of their prey, keeping them immobile but alive for capture. Many the pirates also pulled out large, jagged blades dipped in a neurotoxin, demonstrating their desire to take prisoners. Pirates, slavers, brigands, whatever anyone wanted to call them, they made a living preying on the weak and selling to the rich.

Responding to the need for close quarters combat, the justiciar reached with her right hand for one of the two tubes attached to her waist. As she flicked it outwards, little rectangles of metal began to unfold, stacking up to form a katana. As one of the pirates swung their sword in a downward motion, the justiciar stepped aside, then thrust her sword into the assailant’s throat. The justiciar made it three steps before another pirate interrupted her with a horizontal slice from her left; she blocked it with her sword, kneed the assailant in the groin, then slashed her sword across his throat. The courtyard was absolute chaos, with the Kalphetish trying to hold their own against the space pirates that were assaulting from all angles, dropping in from craft above.

In the reign of confusion, the justiciar managed to make it to the metal crate highlighted by her HUD and opened it. Her heart fluttered as she saw the object she was looking for; an intricate brass pyramid, just a little larger than her hand. It had several glyphs along the sides that looked ancient in origin, and it was as if it was glowing multiple different colours from its core. Her admiration of the object’s mysticism was interrupted by a pirate approaching the justiciar from behind and swinging a large cleaver down at her. Her situational awareness enabled the justiciar to dodge off to the side just in time, taking the object with her. The crate was split in two, demonstrating the cleaver’s power.

Quickly reacting to its prey, the assailant pulled its cleaver up and swung down at the justiciar again. The justiciar responded by rolling to the side and reaching for her pistol, only to realize it was still at the crate. The assailant then dragged the cleaver along the sand, aiming to slice the justiciar while she was on the ground, however the justiciar was able us her katana to stop the sword. This was swiftly followed by a kick to the torso of the assailant and a quick dash for her pistol. The assailant lunged at the justiciar, swinging its cleaver horizontally, but the justiciar managed to get two shots off, one to the chest and one to the head, dropping the assailant before it could finish its swing. The justiciar merely jumped back to avoid the cleaver’s momentum. Quickly, the justiciar checked her belt to make sure the pyramidal object was still there, securely fastened with a locking mechanism.

Out of the corner of her eye, the justiciar noticed two Kelphatesh had caught her without enough time to react. They were about to fire their rifles, ending the justiciar’s life, when they were met with a volley of plasma bolts from nearby space pirates. The justiciar took the moment as a chance to get out of the courtyard and began heading for the fortress wall opposite of where she initially descended from. Her run was filled with dodging nearby explosions coming from strafing space pirate aircraft, ducking in to cover when a space pirate lined up a shot on her, only to be cut down by Kelphatesh fire, and a relinquishing a few shots from her pistol at stragglers that took note of her.

Upon getting within proper distance from the ledge of the wall, the justiciar used her grappling hook to draw her up. As he ascended through the air, she felt a sharp pain in the back her knee, and a short impulse of panic tried to overtake her. Climbing up the ledge and dragging herself to a relatively safe position, the justiciar took a moment to assess what was causing her pain; she had been shot with a splinter in the back of the knee and it was releasing the neurotoxin into her system. Lucky for her, the splinter managed to go all the way through her knee, as the tip was where most of the venom was released. Bracing herself as she placed her hand on either side of her knee, the justiciar pushed the splinter up with one hand, and pulled from the top with the other. At first, she moved slowly, as the widest part of the splinter began passing through the knee, but once that was through, she yanked with incredible force, pulling the splinter out in one quick motion. She looked to the sky as she fought to contain herself.

Administering first aid foam to her knee brought a wave of relief as it killed the nerves and stimulated the nanobots in her blood stream to begin the repair process. She quickly returned the foam dispenser to her belt, and was in the middle of folding up her sword when two Kelphatesh stepped out onto the wall with their guns pointed at her. Instinctively, the justiciar fired two shots at them, however only one actually fired, while the other was just a simple clicking noise; out of ammo. Thinking quickly before the surviving Kelphatesh could line up a good shot, the justiciar tilted her pistol hand to the side and fired her grappling hook. The hook wrapped around the Kelphatesh’s leg and dragged him in, stabbing him in the back with the splinter she removed from her knee. While her suit had utilized counter toxins to battle the neurotoxic effects, the Kelphatesh wasn’t so lucky. It writhed in agony as it began to lose the ability to control itself; it wasn’t going to die, but it would remain there paralyzed, trapped in its own body for the pirates to take.

The Justiciar got to her feet, adjusting her movement and walking her injury off, before evaluating the surroundings. Thick black smoke was everywhere, dotted with pulses from plasma fire and muzzle flashes, and accompanied by the sounds of combat; screams, gunfire and explosions. What was once a quiet morning, was now a full-blown cacophony of violence. The justiciar needed to find a way out of this mess, if only because she finally had what she was looking for. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an aircraft in hover behind her, an aircraft that could easily be lining up a shot and there was nothing she could do about it. Her mind was put at ease, nevertheless, once she turned around and realized it was the Airbender.

The Airbender slowly approached the justiciar, gaining altitude so that she could enter from the bottom, but this was violently interrupted by a strafing shot coming from a space pirate aircraft. Fortunately, the Airbender was equipped with warning systems and could get out of way before the attacker unleashed its volley. The shots that missed the Airbender made impact with one of the towers next to the justiciar, forcing it to come crashing down. The justiciar braced her head, but managed to avoid the crumbling structure. Once the dust settled, she could see a clear path along the top of the wall, riddled with a few blast impacts, all the way to an elevated end. She knew that this would be her only chance to exfiltrate on the Airbender while the pirates controlled the skies, so she started running for it.

At first the run was awkward, as she had to get used to the injured knee, but before long she managed to get into a full sprint. She had to vault over a few short obstacles, and dodge the odd fire coming from below, but she continued to pick up speed. seven Kelphatesh came out from behind the justiciar and began firing at her, while the Airbender was trying to catch on what she was doing as it flew beside her, maintaining a slow pace until the pilot realized what was at the end of the road. It had to lower its altitude to use the wall as cover as another space pirate fighter craft made a strafing run from the direction of the base. Fortune favoured the justiciar over the Kelphatesh, as the strafing volley killed three of the pursuing Kelphatesh, and incapacitated another two.

Seeing the end of the path she was on made the justiciar push herself to pick up more speed; when she saw the Airbender ascend from below the wall at the end of the path with its back-ramp open, the justiciar pushed herself even more. As she ran, a bulled from the Kelphatesh behind her grazed her shoulder, forcing her to respond to the impact with a tilt of the shoulder, but the surging adrenaline kept her from losing focus on the goal. Run, and then she jumped in the air, activating her boosters as she did; they didn’t fire. They were still recharging from their overuse earlier, which meant the justiciar’s jump was going to be a bit short, maybe not even enough.

For once, getting the wind knocked out of her was actually a sign of relief for the justiciar, as it meant her chest made impact with the back ramp of the Airbender. She dug her fingers into groves of the ramp as Milo reached out to grab her hand. The other STAT, the female from earlier, was providing covering fire so the Airbender could continue its getaway with as little risk as possible.

“Did you get lost?” the justiciar remarked as Milo pulled her up. The few bullets bouncing off the hull reminded the justiciar of the urgency, so she made her way to the cockpit. The back ramp of the Airbender closed as it picked up speed. Feeling a sense of relief, the justiciar pressed a button near her ear that caused her rebreather to retract into the ear coverings of her visor. This also dimmed her visor from the chrome to a transparent holographic blue. Before they even enjoy a moment of celebration, the sensors picked up three hostiles were in pursuit, which was reaffirmed to be space pirates as flashes of plasma bolts passed them.

The pilot, who was a tall, bulky male in STAT armour, wasn’t wearing his helmet, revealing his long blonde hair, beard and fair skin. Barristan, ‘Barry’ Kyvämäkki was the justiciar’s second in command, and one of the best sword fighters her crew had ever encountered. The justiciar recruited him from a backwater world, where he was a former gang member that was condemned to death in the arena, but managed to survive for half a decade. He maintained that he did what he did for his sister, but all of that went to waste when his sister was murdered by a rival gang. It was then that he turned himself in for his crimes, which is how he ended up in the arena. At least he could bring some joy to some while delivering justice to others.

“We’ve taken a hit,” Barry said, “starboard side.” He reached for a leaver that would cut energy to the starboard VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) thruster.

“Don’t!” commanded the justiciar. Barry raised an eyebrow.

“We are bleeding power unnecessarily,” Barry questioned the justiciar’s motives.

“Let me take control,” she commanded. “And get comfy.”

“What did she say?” asked Milo from the back.

“I’d fasten your seatbelt and prepare for a nap,” responded Barry.

“I hate it when she does this,” Milo mumbled under his breath as he walked over to Rashif. “Sit still buddy, trust me on this: you want to be buckled in for what we are about to experience.” Rashif struggled, but the female STAT smacked him with the butt of her rifle, knocking him out.

“That’s better,” Milo smiled, bucking in Rashif before doing so to himself, across from the two. The Airbender violently jolted left, then right, as the justiciar brought it into a canyon with the three vessels hot on their tail. She kept the Airbender swaying back and forth as it weaved its way through the canyon, to spread the smoke screen as far behind her as she could. The pursuers kept up their relentless chase, firing almost indiscriminately, trying to score that hit through the smoke. Noticing one had banked off to the right to take an alternate route, the justiciar readjusted her path to bring the all three back in line behind the Airbender. Then she brought the Airbender on a straight away, straight into a tall, steep cliff, and picked up speed.

Right before the Airbender reached the cliff, the justiciar engaged the retro thrusters and pushed the Airbender to make a sharp 90 degrees turn upward, instantly pushing the propulsion thrusters to max and cutting power to the retro thrusters. This not only made the Airbender effectively turn on the spot, but enabled it to get a sharp boost in velocity, driving the craft straight up. Such a manoeuvre incited an abysmal amount of G-force on the passengers, triggering the blood to drain from the body towards their feet. While the justiciar had the physiology to withstand such stress as she grunted and squeezed her core to maintain consciousness, the other members on board all passed out. Her vision was going black, but she managed to just barely hang on, letting out a deep breath once the force on her body returned to manageable levels. Two of the pursuers crashed straight into the cliffside, but the third had broken off too soon and avoided the fate.

The surviving space pirate craft reobtained its chase trajectory on the Airbender and started opening fire more strategically, as the justiciar was forced to fix the smoke problem while pulling off the stunt she just did. Being forced into evasive manoeuvres was making it hard for the Airbender to increase acceleration so that it could reach escape velocity. As she kept it swaying back and forth, her HUD chimed in with a calculated path for her to take if she wanted to pull off what she was thinking.

That was one of the most peculiar things about humanity and its integration with technology through the injected nanobots; it enabled interacting with technology to take on a whole new definition, unprecedented before the Age of Reasoning. In this instance, the justiciar was considering options, and her computer detected her thoughts and suggested the best course of action to take if she wanted to pull off her thoughts. It could react to a thought that she quickly entertained, however, in this instance, would serve as one of the best ways to escape her predicament. The gap between her and the pursuing ship, the design of its intake, and her lack of care for the xenos all made this solution that was just a thought, seem all too perfect. So, she acted on it, starting with opening the back ramp.

Following the instructions the HUD was telling her, ascertained by evaluating the firing and flight patterns of the pursuer, the justiciar waited patiently for the right moment. As she fine tuned her flight path and witnessed the effect it had on the space pirate’s trajectory, she could stabilize the recommended flight vector and increase chances of success. Once the HUD gave her the green, the justiciar engaged the retro thrusters for a split second, followed by simultaneously activating the trans atmospheric thrusters and releasing the harness holding Rashif in place. The jerking motion induced by the altering of thrusters gave Rashif increased momentum with respect to the pursuing ship. When his momentum, coupled with his barriers attempting to protect him, met the left intake on the pursing fighter, it managed to damage the engine and force the enemy ship to spiral out of control back towards the planet. It wasn’t going to be enough to permanently cripple the enemy ship, but it was going to be enough for the Airbender to close its rear ramp and make a getaway.

Rapidly, the blue sky of Salvator IV faded into the black background of space. Once it was safe to do so, the transatmo thrusters were turned off, halting acceleration, but maintaining velocity through the final set of thrusters; void thrusters. One by one, the crew members started to regain consciousness.

“Remind me to get Raiden to fix the inertial dampening systems before I join you on a mission again” remarked Barry.

“Wait, where is Rashif?” asked the female STAT. The justiciar let out a slight chuckle under her breath.

“What is so funny?” asked Barry.

“Nothing,” the justiciar returned to a serious tone, “I’ll explain later. Right now, we have one more obstacle to overcome.” Straight ahead was the Starfang fleet, consisting of five corvettes, three cruisers, and a capital ship. 

(To be updated...)