"Fucking hell, darklight stands already..." Whispered Ranger.
Being erected at regular intervals across the floor, there were dark floodlights on tripods, intended for security and convenience. Stationing them and a number of supply crates, were about a dozen Terran soldiers.
"There's the forest south of here. If that's our way out, we need to be on the east side of this building."
"We need the high ground, past the lift and two guards..."
"... I'll look..."
Echo leans forward to the edge of the crawl space, and rolls herself onto her back to look up at the high ground they needed to reach. Circular metal beams that ran from the Tech Plant's legs to the lifts, provided their only route past the guards outside of any darklight. Echo signals for Ranger to follow her along the nearest beam, which was within reach from their crawl space. She climbs on first; the beam is wide enough to move on all-fours.
"... The hell is Falkner's unit still doing down there? They said they had it secured..."
"Probably just leaving us to do the rest of the work, right quick."
"... Yeah, right?"
A conversation between two Terran guards could now be heard, with both Infiltrators now only a few metres away from a Light Assault and an Engineer. Suddenly, something riles the guards, prompting Echo and Ranger to duck, just as they were halfway across their route.
"Fuck, you see that?" Exclaimed the Light Assault.
"Yeah I see them..."
Something was pulling their attention towards the ground. Before very long, it became clear as to what it was, when sporadic gunfire began to echo through the air, before silence fell again within seconds.
"Yeah, yeah, fucking secure, huh?! Christ..."
Gauging the sound of the shots that travelled, Echo could only assume that more of her people were hunted down just now, somewhere to the north-west. Now however, was not the time to think of them.
Keep moving...
She lifted her head to peer across at the two guards again. Their backs were still turned, which provided the opening the Infiltrators needed to climb up and switch to the next beam. But just as the two Infiltrators were crossing over, three Heavies came floating down in the grav-lifts from the gun deck, all with darklights switched on! Skipping apart from one another, Echo and Ranger hid behind two separate blast barriers, as rays of darklight flickered past their high cover, at angles that were too close for comfort. Hovering past, two of the Heavies continued their way to the ground floor, leaving the third to join the other two guards.
"What's it look like down there?" Asked the Heavy.
"Falkner found a few strays. They've been taken down," answered the Engineer.
"Right... we're still checking up top for strays. Something tripped with a motion sensor..."
Shit!
"Yeah, I saw that. It definitely looked like it was on the top floor."
Echo and Ranger no doubt were the ones the TR were referring too. But no matter what their past disturbances were, they were now permissible to the fact that the Heavy who was holding a darklight, was currently shining it in the direction the Infiltrators needed to move in. They were stuck, with nerves that were continuing to build the longer they remained in the TR's midst.
That Heavy needs to leave! Someone below might spot us!
Realising that she may be forced to fight if they couldn't get clear quietly, Echo turns to her weapons. With their close proximity to the enemy, she opts to ready her Lumine knife in her right hand instead of her Cerberus, for a possible melee engagement. Ranger meanwhile could be seen with his Desperado in hand, who was now looking to Echo for an agreeable plan of attack. She raises a hand in response, telling him to wait first for the right moment to move if they moved, before filling him in on where she could go to get behind the TR.
By the time they settled on a plan, the TR trio could still be heard talking. Echo flexed her grip over the Lumine's handle, taking slow breaths as she continued to watch on for the next minute, ready to react at a moment's notice.
"... Yeah... how are things coming along over here?"
"Just about done..."
Suddenly, the critical moment came. The Heavy and the Engineer had begun to walk over to her side of the platform to look over at the floor below. Moving lightly on her feet, Echo repositions herself to keep her blast barrier in the way of the Heavy's moving darklight. Ranger immediately readies his Desperado to shoot from point blank range once they were on top of him. But before this could happen, Echo darts forward from behind her barrier, for the Light Assault who was still watching for ground movement. She uncloaks and activates her Lumine, bringing forth a superheated coil of nanites between the metal blades of her knife, which all hurtles towards the Light Assault in a downward stabbing motion. The knife pierces through his shield with little resistance, before carving its way into the man's jugular, giving him no chance to call for help.
He falls to his knees, gasping for air through his own blood, before Echo finishes him off by kicking him in the back, coursing him to fall to his death. The Heavy and the Engineer both stop in their tracks, turning back to see that their comrade had vanished. Only the sounds of a VS Cloaker gave them any indication of hostile action, as Echo hid behind another blast barrier. At which point, it was Ranger's turn to act while they were both distracted, by bringing his uncloaked gun up to shoot the Heavy in the back of the head. Several rounds are fired, to ensure that a killing blow would be made through the Heavy's shield and helmet. With a splatter, the Heavy falls into the Engineer, who had also taken some grazing shots from the Ranger's barrage of bullets. He collapses onto his back, stunted by a ricochet ring in his ear, before it is silenced altogether when Echo kneels in on the Engineer's chest, to slice open his throat.
"... Fuck..."
It was all Echo could breathe out, until it immediately dawned on both Infiltrators that the TR's lifesign trackers would now be alerting everyone to their position. They immediately cloak, upon hearing the first signs of commotion that echoed throughout the Tech Plant.
"Fuck!"
"The beam. Go!"
Darklights began to flick about from the floor below, as the Infiltrators raced for the next structural beam to reach the Tech Plant's eastern face. They balanced their way across, as quickly as they dared within seconds, before they kneeled down to make the drop to the floor below.
"Stay on me."
"I got it. Just go!" Urged Ranger.
While it made it difficult for the TR to find them, their cloaks also made it difficult for either Infiltrator to keep track of the other, even while they were in close proximity. They had to remain wary of where they were both headed as they ran, as well as where the TR were, who were now closing in on the Infiltrators that were preparing to slide down the last part of their descent.
"Contact! Danger close, elevators!"
The shear amount of darklights that were now in their vicinity, meant that it was almost impossible for them to have not been glimpsed by the enemy. EMP grenades landed around where the Infiltrators now leapt from. Their shields shuddered with static, all the while as they attempted to control their descent to the ground, with the aid of support arches that lined all along the Tech Plant's main body. They caught whatever grips they could, to stop themselves from gathering too much speed, until finally, they make one final leap for the ground.
Echo lands hard, performing an awkward tumble that leaves her on her back, aching, with no shields. She slowly rolls herself back onto her knees, to get a bearing on where she was, and where Ranger was. No one else was in the immediate area as far as Echo could tell, aside from Ranger who suddenly lands in view, with a small plume of dust to signal his arrival. Towards a nearby shield gate, she could make out the silhouette of parked Prowlers and Harassers, with a number of Engineers that were attending to the vehicles for repairs. It was only a matter of time.
"Ranger... we got to go..." said Echo, as she crouched over to him.
"... Shit... ahhh..."
Through the dirt that was partly sticking to Ranger's cloaked suit, she could see him clutching his left foot. He writhed with pain.
"Come on... get up..."
He attempts to get back on his feet, but falters when he puts too much pressure on his injured foot. Echo is checking all around her, with her focus mainly on tagging the TR vehicles and its Engineers, who were bound to be alerted at any moment!
"Get up!" Echo hissed, palming a hand into the ground.
If it weren't for their cloaks that were keeping them hidden, she would've reached out to help him. All she could do now was to keep her Cerberus ready, should the moment come to have to abandon the NC Infiltrator.
"... I'm going."
She hoped her threatening words would stir him into action, all the while as darklights by the shield gate started coming to life. But Ranger still continued to struggle, even when he finally got back on his feet. He appeared to be a lost cause, a limping casualty, unable to keep up with Echo who now was already sprinting for an outer storage building. She ran without even looking back, choosing instead to focus on her path along a wall, to pass a two story building opposite her. She advanced with her gun aimed for the nearest corner, but was forced to stop to let her cloaking recharge. Her eyes darted between the Stalker Cloak indicator, and the Targeting HUD that was tracking multiple hostiles, all closing in from behind.
Damn it! Did I stay back too long?
Time and energy were now in a critical balance, which Echo had to carefully gauge as she started off again at a much slower pace. She dared to push her cloaking unit to the limit, to make it around the next corner, which revealed no extra TR. She peeks through a nearby storage door; still nothing. It was just Echo and a road.
A straight shot. It's a lot of open ground, but I can make it through the defilades towards the forest!
She stayed put, buying even more time for her cloaking to properly charge back up. But beyond the tagged TR who were a distance away, there suddenly came someone else, someone who sounded much closer. Echo ducked into the archway of the nearby storage door, waiting for the rapidly approaching footsteps to round by. They stopped right next to her, with Echo only making out a silhouette; a cloaked Infiltrator! She trained her Cerberus' sights right on him, and uncloaked to afford herself a possible shot. The intruder froze.
"... Echo?"
What the...?! Ranger?!
Echo hesitates for a few seconds, trying to suppress the urge to just pull the trigger, before realising that she needed to remain cloaked if she wasn't going to kill him. Somehow, the NC Infiltrator had caught up with her, despite his recent injury. Lowering her Cerberus to allow Ranger to crouch next to her in the archway, Echo re-engaged her cloaking.
"Are you trying to get me shot?!"
"... I tore my foot."
And yet, Echo noted how easy it was now for Ranger to put pressure over his left leg. Surely, there was only one explanation for how he was able to return so quickly. But before she could even ask, there suddenly came a TR Harasser that was turning onto the road from the far south; its backseat passenger wielding a darklight that was streaming towards the Infiltrators.
"... Open the door. Get it open!" Ranger exclaimed.
"It's locked!"
While Echo could've attempted a lock override with probing tools that were laced into her gloves, they only had moments to figure out a hiding spot. Any further delay would surely get the Infiltrators killed, and as such, Echo immediately opts for the two story building that housed a power generator, with Ranger following close by on instinct. Darklight steadily closed in, as they bolted straight through the open door of the utilities floor without clearing their surroundings, to hide behind a server stack. The move pays off, with the Harasser sparing the Infiltrators by only a few seconds, as it drove on by to search elsewhere. Echo and Ranger stood side by side with one another, glancing at each other as they caught their breath as quietly as they could, before noting that they definitely weren't alone. There were people upstairs, their footsteps, however many there were, sounded softly against the metal floors.
We have to get out of here, as soon as my cloak charges back up. Did they hear us?
Echo continued to listen while her cloaking recharged again, trying to place more precisely where the footsteps were... which suddenly, all came to a standstill. The room went silent, with only the humming of the server she leant against to fill her ears.
... They must know.
They had to get out, before the TR came downstairs and before the others outside could cut them off. Echo signals for the exit; Ranger nods in agreement. They slowly start to shift around the server's corner, sighting that the night time outdoors were clear. But just as they were about to make a break for it, a sudden shuffle of footsteps came from the nearby staircase, which soon stopped to leave the server area lit up with darklights, with the Infiltrators barely out of sight from behind their slender piece of cover! Everything froze for a split second, before bullets began to probe their position, pinging away at the wall in front of Echo and Ranger.
"Vanu cocksuckers! Just die!"
In response, Ranger uncloaks to blindly fire off the remaining bullets in his pistol at the attackers.
"Come on! I ain't got all night! Come get it!"
Mag ejected, Ranger reloads again to fire another blind volley. The darklights abruptly pull away from the server when the shots seize, and in their place, a grenade is chucked from above to land at the Ranger's feet.
"Gooo!" yelled Echo.
They race for the exit. Ranger kicks away the grenade mid-run, leaving Echo to slam a hand over the closure mechanism for the exit's bulkhead. They both tumble outside to narrowly escape the frag's blast, with the door sealed behind them to contain the shrapnel. Ranger re-engages his cloak, as the Infiltrators scramble back to the storage building again. They had one last opportunity to escape, as the TR from the gate shield area finally closed in on the outer buildings.
"Wait wait wait! Echo!"
The Infiltrators stop in the storage building's doorway. Ranger is frantically pointing at something.
"We need cover! Shoot the tank mines!"
Echo looks back. She isn't able to immediately make out the outline of any tank mines through the darkness, until she quickly scans and tags several mines through her helmet. Targets gauged, Echo braces herself against the archway, uncloaks, and raises her Cerberus with one hand to fire three careful shots. They all miss, but just as the TR were about to approach the Infiltrators corner, the fourth shot hits, melting its way through a mine, coursing a chain detonation of several tank mines. The shockwaves generated perforate any nearby infantry shield. Echo is shunted into the storage door. A thick plume of dust is lifted into the air, all the while as screams of confusion could be heard, even through the ringing that was in the Echo's ears. They had achieved their intended cover.
"Come on!"
Ranger was kneeling, uncloaked in the doorway from the shock of the blasts, until Echo reaches out to nudge him in the head, shaking him out of his daze. They stumble their way into the dust, before sprinting directly south.
... Shit, my Cerberus.
Both Echo and Ranger had lost their pistols as well as their shields to the tank mine blasts, somewhere in the dust. But as they exited the plume and recloaked for the next leg of their run, Echo's attention quickly changed to the forest that was tantalisingly close. Their cloak energies last long enough for the Infiltrators to dive into a defilade alongside the main road, where they remain still for their active cloaks to recharge once more, within just one cloak run of the forest. By this time, Echo still felt quite capable of running for at least another hour, to find a place somewhere within the trees where she could hide and rest. She... not they, Echo thought.
I can find a spot for myself. But what do I do about my stalker?
It was a question that inevitably had to be answered. But suddenly, just as Echo was about to press her feelings further on the issue, footsteps travelling along the road brought her back to the now of her escape. The sounds stop around a sizeable rock opposite Echo and Ranger, before two TR Infiltrators reveal themselves from behind the rock's low cover. They appeared to be stalkers as well, acting as scouts, wielding only pistols to economise on the energy consumption of their suits. The pair of TR scouts were trying to cordon off the area, by deploying a motion spotter to monitor any hostile movement.
"... They're using a spotter," said Echo under her breath.
"Can't leave with that thing up..."
It was bad timing that the TR Infiltrators appeared as soon as they did. Now, they had to be dealt with if Echo and Ranger wanted to escape untracked. Echo unsheathed her Lumine once more, with Ranger unsheathing his own Carver in agreement. They look on at their targets, who were both about 20 metres away, peering down the road. It was as good a chance as any, with Ranger springing up first to lead the charge. Within seconds, he tackles the first TR infiltrator to the ground and attempts to bring his blade to the victim's chest. Echo comes in next to attack the second, but through the extra time the second TR Infiltrator had to watch her partner get jumped, she manages to raise a pistol on Echo. The VS Infiltrator reacts by raising her left arm to bat away the gun, before following up on the disarm with the Lumine in her right hand. It slices through the TR Infiltrator's shielded collarbone, missing her throat by centimetres; it isn't enough to kill. She is hardly phased by the strike, and in response, the wounded Infiltrator grabs for the knife arm and twists it back, leaving Echo open to a kick to the back of her knees. She falls onto her back, Lumine still in hand, and is forced to roll away to avoid a foot stomp.
Echo quickly reorients herself on her knees to face her opponent again, crouched and ready. But instead of being advanced upon, the opponent's attention shifts back to her partner, who by this time, had been stabbed repeatedly by Ranger. She turns away from Echo. Echo responds by moving to keep herself in the way, but suddenly, the TR Infiltrator folds on her shift in attention, with what was a deceptive bluff. She unsheathes and swings a Ripper knife in a single motion, in a wide arc to slice at Echo's waist. Next to no shielding to contend with, the motorized serrations on the blade cut through the VS Infiltrator's Nanoweave armour, to create a notable flesh wound.
Echo yelps in pain as she trips into the nearby rocks, with her Lumine sparking against them. An opening gained from Echo's intervention, Ranger then steps up to continue occupying the fight, with two knife swipes of his own. They miss the TR Infiltrator, as she takes a simple side step to avoid the wild swings. Then, making good on Ranger's distraction, Echo pushes herself off her rock, suppressing fresh spasms of pain as she went, to spring right at the TR Infiltrator's right side. This time, the Lumine finds its mark, stabbing its way into a lung. The punctured enemy flails hopelessly against Echo before crumbling to the ground with one last push, knife out of hand, writhing in pain. Echo remains standing, hunched over the Republican who was beginning to suffocate, before she kneels down to hold her beaten opponent still by the throat, to burrow the Lumine through her heart. Vaporous gases sizzle out from between the blades of the knife.
That's for Cailly...
The adrenaline rush from her charge leaves Echo panting for air. Her focus, which largely remained on gripping her Lumine, finally begins to waver, as her breathing brings forth more pain from around her belly. She groans, reaching for her wound with a spare hand to grasp at how much blood she was losing.
Not bad... it could've been much worse...
She wipes off droplets of blood which had already collected on the right side of her suit.
Get up...
Removing the steamed Lumine from the slain Infiltrator, Echo gets back on her feet, clutching her wound to slow the bleeding. Ranger by this time had already gone about destroying the TR motion sensor they had intended to disable. Its casing lay wrecked on the ground, sliced to pieces.
"Alright... we're good..." huffed Ranger.
Echo sheaths her knife and cloaks, but for a moment, her cloaking doesn't appear to be functioning properly. The open slash in Echo's suit was allowing light to reflect around the mesh of her cloaking in bizarre ways; straight streaks of colour contoured her silhouette. Fortunately, in the same way that her shielding could deform and reform, the Stalker Cloak was already on the mend. Like a zipper, the rip resealed itself within seconds, leaving only a few visible droplets of blood and some damaged armour around Echo's hip.
"... Let's go."
She takes a few tentative steps for the forest, testing her wound, before managing a jog for the trees. She looks behind to see Ranger cloaked, and the rest of the Terran Republic far behind, with only two dead Infiltrators for the enemy to go on. Against all the odds that came loudly through the night, through the combined skill of two opposing Infiltrators, Echo-7 and Ranger-3, had escaped Heyoka Tech Plant.