Hey everyone! Welcome back to part two of chapter 8 of Reduced Mass. Last time around, Tarvus and the team planned to break into a batarian merchant's warehouse to destroy a potent new strand of a psychoactive drug called 'Flex'. Turns out the warehouse is exponentially bigger than the team expected, but they sent David and Benji to infiltrate it anyway. Something rather fishy is in the air though, as it seems that the batarian merchant is funded by someone keeping to the shadows, and Tarvus wants to find out who it is.
The first part of the mission was fairly easy compared to what's about to come, as there were only a few guards in the maintenance tunnels, and now David and Benji need to sneak past dozens of guards, security mech's, snipers and varren. How will the mission go? You'll have to read to find out! The warehouse is huge, so anything could happen at any time. But the even bigger question still resides: Will they get out alive?
David is also having some issues with his sudden realization of his mortality. Chalkhos is taking a toll on his mind, and all the pressure that's being put on him isn't exactly healthy for a man's conscience. He wants nothing more than to leave this place, but he knows he can't for another couple of months. He doesn't like the path he is going down, but he's not stopping it either, so we'll see where it leads him.
Now, without further ado, let's get right back into the action!
"Harness is secure, you should be good to go."
Fucking hell, I'm not ready for this, not at all. It's bad enough that this elevator shaft is three hundred meters high, but what's even worse is what's waiting for Benji and I once we open the elevator doors. Dozens if not hundreds of armed guard that'll kill me on site, security mech's that'll kill me on site and varren that'll kill me on site. This is the epitome of an infiltration mission. One wrong move, I die, and that's making me uneasy. Hell, even the elevator shaft could kill me, what with it being three hundred meters deep.
Before actually putting on the harness, I looked to my side and saw a window into the warehouse and where we needed to go. It didn't make me feel any better about this. Every single person that I could see on the ground was just a small dot from where I was situated, but there were too many to count from here. I saw a bunch of larger things moving around, which turned out to be YMIR mech's upon closer inspection, and that made my heart skip a beat. And that wasn't even the half of it! The tower itself had snipers lined up on the top floor! As if sneaking by companies of people that are going to kill me weren't enough.
"What do you mean, should be?" I ask while looking at my harness. "That isn't making me feel any safer about it."
"Unforeseeable circumstances, remember?" Benji asks while tying his rope to the railing situated across from the elevator shaft.
"Whatever, I just hope I don't die," I wave a hand through the air, dismissing Benji's question, which I'm pretty sure was meant to be rhetorical. I'm in no mood to discuss whatever could go wrong right now.
Benji walks to my rope and checks to see if it's tied to the railing correctly. After a few seconds he turns back and walks to the elevator doors that he pried open a few minutes earlier.
"Drop your coil of rope down the shaft," Benji orders, and I walk up beside him where I set down my coil of rope and untie the part where it's wrapped around itself. Three hundred meters of rope are heavier than I thought, and the coil is fucking bulky. Once I've untied the knot holding the coil together, I set it on its side so I can just drop it down the shaft.
"You sure this won't make too much noise?" I ask Benji, who shakes his head.
"No, the sound won't be loud enough to make it past the elevator door, it'll just reverberate around the shaft," he answers.
"That reminds me, is the elevator door down there the only way into the warehouse?" I ask.
"Yes, why?" Benji tilts his head to the side slightly.
"What happens if there's guards in front of them?"
Benji chuckles. "Let's hope there's not."
I groan. "You know that doesn't answer my question."
"The power of improvisation," Benji does an over dramatic sweep with his left hand while speaking with a voice that one would usually find on an infomercial salesman.
I let the coil of rope drop down the shaft, and after waiting for at least sixty seconds to make sure it's properly uncoiled, I strap my harness onto the rope. Benji has done the same.
"Let's just go," I say monotonously. "The sooner we get down the shaft, the sooner we can get to the Flex."
"That's the spirit Frosty!" Benji says happily. "Now we're going to do this the old fashioned way. We get a good foothold on the part of the shaft we're on, I go first and you follow me. We're going to be moving down with small jumps."
I've done this before, so this shouldn't be that hard. Only difference is the height. I've never rappelled down three hundred meters before.
"The harness stops you from falling, as it locks up if you are, so you gotta move the 'descender' down each time you get a little further down." Benji explains further. "If you have all that down, we should be good."
I check the harness one last time to see if it's properly set up, which it is. "Ready when you are."
"Wait!" Benji exclaims, which makes me jump slightly. "I forgot something!"
Benji stands up and walks to his pack and starts cramming around in it. After a few moments, he protrudes two… pasta machines from the pack?
"The hell are those things?"
"A fast ticket out of here," Benji answers in a satisfied tone.
"Explain," I say whilst eyeing the contraption in front of me.
"They're high-speed rope retractors. We attach them to the ground and feed the rope through it, and with the press of a button, the machine pulls our ropes upwards at around forty kilometers an hour, getting slower as we reach the top."
He opens up the machine and sets it to the ground, and with a large clang, the machine is in place. Huh, so it's magnetic. Benji takes a part of his rope and sticks it in the machine, which has two metal cylinders that are indented for more grip and closes one of those cylinders on top of the other. They lock together and Benji does the same with my rope.
"Quickest way of escaping the warehouse back through the sewers," Benji says as he locks my rope retractor into place. "Now were ready to go."
"Lead the way."
And with that, Benji walks forward and stops at the beginning of the shaft, where he turns around and slowly leans back until he slowly begins to walk down the shaft with small steps.
"Your turn!" he shouts and I begin to do the same. To be honest, hanging in the air by a rope hasn't always been a hobby of mine, and it sure as hell isn't one now that I have a three hundred meter drop below me. I slowly begin to inch my way down the first part of the shaft after I started to lean back, and this is the part I hate the most. This one foot at a time business is too tedious for my liking. I look down to Benji and see that he's about three meters below me waiting for me to give him the go, which I do by sticking out my thumb after I'm not able to see the floor of the maintenance tunnels anymore.
"Good to go," I say and Benji nods.
"Alright, I don't know how fast you are at rappelling, but always stay at least three meters above me."
"Got it."
Benji pushes himself from the wall and the rope begins to move through the descender. After about six meters, the momentum of the push brings him back to the wall of the elevator shaft. Right, my turn.
I push myself off of the wall and begin to quickly slide down the rope that I'm letting slip through my gloved hand slowly. After a few meters, I tilt the descender in a way that the rope stops moving through it and the momentum brings me back to the wall… forcefully.
I smash against the wall legs first and my left leg twists in a painful way. I let out a painful groan. This is just fucking great.
"Everything alright up there Frosty? You made quite a crash landing there," Benji looks up and sees me dangling by my rope.
"I'm pretty sure I just sprained my ankle," I grunt. "We got any painkillers?"
"We do, but you'll have to make your way down the shaft like this. I can't reach my pack right now."
"Alright, I might be a little slower though," I sigh as I press my feet against the wall again. I wince the second I put pressure on my left leg. This is going to be painful.
"Don't slow us down too much, guard duty usually lasts six hours, so the guards we killed up top are going to be missed at some point in time," Benji says offhandedly.
I sigh. "I'll try my best, if I'm too slow, just shoot me."
"Noted."
Damn, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Benji will actually kill me if I slow him down too much. For a second there I forgot that I'm on Chalkhos, I gotta remind myself that I shouldn't do that.
Right it's time to try this again. I push off the wall again, albeit a little less forcefully now. I keep my descender at a tilt where I'm not sliding down the rope at high speeds, and when I stop my descent, my feet plant themselves on the wall again, this time a loft softer. Pain shoots up my left leg as it touches down.
"Ffffuck!" I yell. "This isn't fun anymore."
"Your fault Frosty, you gotta fight through it."
"I know, I know," I snap. "I didn't say I was giving up."
Benji rappels down a few meters again, and I follow suit once he's planted his feet on the shaft wall again. Pain shoots through my leg again as I touch down, and I internally curse my stupidity. This is what I get for rushing things.
My ears suddenly snap to attention.
"Benji. Stop," I say in a hushed tone. "I heard something from above."
Benji freezes and looks up at me. "Are you sure?" he says, and I nod.
I pull my gun and aim it upwards, straightening my legs in the process so I'm standing on the wall at a one hundred and eighty degree angle.
"Are you sure you're not imagining things?" Benji asks skeptically. "We got everyone up there."
"I thought so too," I say. "But the maintenance tunnels are huge, so we might've missed someone."
Benji grunts. "As much as I hate to admit it, you make a good point."
"Switch to helmet communications," I say while aiming upwards at the elevator door. I bring up my omni-tool and switch to our private channel.
"I have a really bad feeling about this," I say. "It sounds like footsteps up there."
"It's probably nothing," Benji mumbles, trying to calm me down. Actually, it sounded like he was mostly trying to calm himself down.
Benji and I descend into a strained silence and begin listening for any suspicious noise. Sure enough, I begin to hear a faint sound of someone walking through the maintenance tunnels… and the sound is getting louder.
"There's someone in the tunnels, and they're coming this way," I hiss. "We need to get back up top. Now."
Benji and I say nothing for at least thirty seconds, and in that time the sound stops. Benji lets out a sigh of relief, but I remain rigid, aiming at shaft entrance about twenty-five meters above me. Benji rappels down a few more meters before looking at me.
"Frosty, let's get going," he says in a commanding tone. "We don't have all day."
"Just give me another minute," I grumble.
"David," he says rigidly. "There's nothing up th-"
My heart skips a beat as I see a salarian peaking over the edge and into the shaft. He scans the area quickly before spotting us.
"They're here!" he shouts. "Sound the ala-"
Before he can finish his sentence, I pull the trigger. His unshielded head has no chance against the mass effect round that I've ejected from my gun, and within seconds, the bullet punches its way through his brain. A greenish cloud shoots from the back of his head and for a second, it looks like he's going to fall backwards.
He doesn't.
The dead salarian slowly tips forward… right into the shaft. Time slows down for a second time today as the shock of the situation grips me like a vice and adrenaline begins to rocket through my system. This time though, I don't freeze up.
"Benji, hug the wall!" I shout through the comm channel. I let my feet slide off the walk and my legs are pulled down by gravity. My harness stops my fall and I slam face first into the wall of the shaft. By face first, I mean face first. My helmet takes the brunt of my force and my legs follow soon after by slamming into the wall as well. I'm left in a slight daze and the force of the hit has made my visual receptor go somewhat fuzzy. Good thing I was wearing a helmet at all though, otherwise I'd have knocked myself out.
The salarian body sails by me and right as he does, I shoot my gaze down to Benji. He's down the same thing that I did, albeit a little less violently. I let out a sigh of relief. He's not dead.
"What the fuck was that?!" Benji yells.
"We need to get back up there. Now," I dodge the question with an order. "We need to stop them before they set off the alarm!"
Benji thinks for a few seconds. "Rope retractor! Activate your rope retractor!"
My mind is racing with all the possible negative outcomes and ways to die that are looming in this warehouse. My visual receptor is still out of focus and fuzzy and I'm scared out of my mind. I knew Tarvus was in over his head with this plan.
I bring up my omni-tool and begin to search through the programs to see where I can make my rope retractor activate. To no avail.
"I don't have a fucking program!" I shout in a frustrated tone. "They must both be linked to your omni-tool!"
Benji, with his omni-tool already open, begins to furiously type away on his keypad. "They are!" he says. "I just gotta activate them now!"
"Hurry the fuck up!" I shout and keep pointing my gun upwards. I can't see shit clearly that's further away than two meters from me, but I'm going to shoot at any and every outline and moving smudge that I see. Seconds pass as if they were years, and after ten excruciating seconds, I hear a conformation ping from below me.
"I got it! I just have to-"
I block out Benji's cry of success. Something up top has gotten my full attention, and it's making my body run absolutely cold with terror. What I heard was an order someone gave up top. This order may well be the death of me right now.
That order was "Cut the rope."
Before I can even blink, my rope stops supporting my weight. It seems like I'm floating in midair for a split second and that's when the realization hits me. I am going to die now. I instantly drop down and begin my rapid descent into the abyss. My life doesn't flash before my eyes, which I expected. I stopped being homesick for my universe weeks ago. I slam my gun onto my leg forcefully as I begin to fall and I close my eyes while I do. I can't believe this is the end of my journey already. I barely survived three months in this universe and I'm already done for. I can cross out any dream I had of joining Shepard in his or her endeavors. An elevator will be the death of me.
I shut my eyes. At least it'll be a quick death.
A death that will have to wait another day. I open my eyes to me being slammed into the elevator wall once again, and this time my left arm takes the brunt of the force. I'm greeted with a sickening snapping sound and I cry out in agony.
"Got you!" Benji shouts.
I look up to see Benji having a firm grip on my right arm. He just saved my life… he caught me mid fall and saved my life.
"Activate the retractor!" I practically shout into his face. I'll have time to thank him later.
Benji brings up his omni tool and holds it over to where I can see it.
"Hold on tight Frosty. Very tightly."
With a small movement of his index finger, he presses the button that activates the retractor above. My stomach gets pushed into my feet as the machine spins to life and launches us upwards at a dizzying speed. I don't think we're going to slow down in time.
The twenty five meters we slowly travelled down are chewed up in seconds and before we know it, we're launched over the edge of the elevator shaft and back into the maintenance tunnels. I'm sent flying across the hallway and into the wall across from the shaft, while Benji made a sudden acquaintance with the roof of the tunnel, leaving a large dent in the metal above.
My left arm takes the brunt of the impact a second time and my nerve endings in my arm begin to feel like they are being burned by a flamethrower. I grunt in pain and sprawl to the floor. Today is not my day.
I manage to take a look down the hall see the outline of a man standing there, completely still. Before I know it, he dashes to the left and disappears out of my line of sight. The adrenaline has completely cancelled out the pain in my left ankle and I try and stand up, only to be kicked smack in the ribs.
"You think you're going to get out of here?" A human voice says mockingly. "Well think again!"
Another kick is sent into my ribs and I fall to the floor again. I look up to see the blurred image of one of the engineers that I restrained in the control room. After that, my attention wanders to Benji, who's lying on the floor motionlessly. Either the force of the impact with the wall knocked him out, or killed him. Both is bad news right about now.
"You think you can just barge in here and tie me up like that?" he shouts "Well, I'll show you what happens when you mess with me!"
I'm picked up off the ground and a knee connects with my helmet, making my video feed completely cut out.
"Fuck. You," I mutter and if I didn't have the helmet on, I'd have tried to spit in his face.
"You'll be begging for your life when I'm done with you, you wait!"
One of the man's feet reels back and slams down on my left arm, which makes me cry out in pain again. My vision is beginning to turn blurry under my helmet. The helmet itself is useless right about now, as all I see is static, and that's not making this any better.
"Are you enjoying this as much as I am?" he jeers. "Cause there's plenty more where that came from!"
The man stomps down on my arm again and I go blind with pain. I let out a chocked cry of pain again and tears begin to form in my eyes. This has gone from bad to worse. Cold sweat is beginning to form on my forehead and my breathing is becoming faster and faster.
The man seemingly puts a hand to his ear to talk to someone.
"Don't sound the alarm, I have the situation under control," he says in a satisfied tone. He turns his attention back to me and claps his hands together.
"You are going to get me promoted!" he exclaims. "When I tell my boss that I took out two assassins by myself, he'll make me a rich man!"
I don't answer. It's taking every fiber of my being to not scream out in pain right now. Now I know what Velor felt like, being as helpless and at the complete mercy of someone else. It feels absolutely terrible.
"I'm going to make your life a living hell," he says evilly. "You'll want nothing more than to die!"
"You first," a voice says from behind the man. A voice that sounds like Benji's
I hear Benji pull the trigger two times and the man that was having fun causing me pain grunts out in pain and drops to the ground. I hear footsteps rush over to me and before I know it, Benji takes off my helmet and stabs a needle into my neck right after. I wince at the pain that the syringe released but seconds later, my body stops panicking and the pain in my arm dies down immediately. After a few seconds, my breathing is back at a normal rate. I look over to the man that was beating me, and he's on the ground moaning in pain with what seems to be two bullet holes in his right leg.
"You alright?" Benji asks.
"I've been better," I cough weakly. "But I'm alright."
Benji nods and takes my right arm and pulls me into a sitting position, after which he grabs me under my shoulder and helps me up.
I slowly begin to move my left arm around, and surprisingly enough, I feel no pain at all. I stomp my left foot into the ground as well and again, I register no pain.
"What the hell did you give me?" I ask while rolling my shoulders backwards.
"Alliance grade painkiller, modified to be stronger of course," he answers.
"How long does it take to wear off?"
Benji thinks for a second before speaking again. "With it being modified… around seven hours," he says while tossing my broken helmet down the elevator shaft.
I nod. "Good, so we can still complete our objective."
I look down at the man with the bullet in his leg and shake my head. "But first, I gotta deal with this goon. I pull my gun and shoot him in both arms, making him cry out in pain.
"Now who's got the upper hand, you cunt?" I ask mockingly. He doesn't answer.
"Come on, first you act all high and mighty and now you're scared?!" I exclaim. The man's eyes widen at the remark. "That's not worthy of a promotion!"
"You can't just kill me! I'm a civilian!" he shouts.
"I stopped caring about that the minute you started beating me," I begin. "Now get up."
Benji walks over and picks the wounded man and makes him get on his knees facing towards the elevator shaft.
"You know those flying lessons that you wanted to force on me and my friend?" I ask, but the man doesn't answer.
"I decided to return those to the sender."
I reel back my right foot and send it flying into the man's back. He tips forward and drops into the three hundred meter deep abyss with a wail of terror being his last words.
"That takes care of that," I say while rubbing my hands together. "Now, let's get back to business."
Benji looks at me and tilts his head. "Are you sure you're fine? You took a hell of a beating just now."
"I'm fine," I lie. I'm not fine at all. I might be jacked up on painkillers now, but that doesn't cancel out the fact that I'm scared out of my mind. Sure, I might not show it, but in a situation like this, I just feel like running away and not looking back. I'm in way over my head.
"Alright," Benji shrugs. "But you need something to cover your face with."
"I don't have anything in my pack that could do that job," I frown. "Maybe I'll find something in the tunnels."
"Alright, well let's go pay a visit to our friends then," Benji says. "The sooner we're done here, the better."
I sigh. I'm really not looking forward to this, and its times like these where I wish I was someplace else.
"By the way," Benji speaks up. "That return to sender line was absolute garbage."
"You ready for this?" Benji asks as we take up positions beside the door of the maintenance office a second time. We checked back the way we came before coming here, to see if any one of the engineers was walking about. We found nothing so Benji and I came to the conclusion that they were all in the maintenance office, and that's where we are now.
This time though, we're going in with lethal force. I'm not okay with it, but leaving the people up here alive will only cause more problems. My painkillers are now really starting to kick in. I don't know what's in them but it's making me feel really weird. Like I'm in a dream or something, yet I'm awake. I'm still fully aware mentally and physically, but this just feels unreal to me.
"Ready as I'll ever be," I reply. I picked up an assault rifle from one of the dead guards to make this easier for me, and it turns out my suppressor fits onto the barrel of the gun quite well. Maybe they invented universal suppressors in the time I jumped.
"On my mark," Benji says as he takes a stun grenade off of his belt. He begins to mouth out the countdown going from three and once he's done, he opens the door and tosses in the grenade. For a second time today, the grenade goes off in the room and I go in first with the assault rifle. Among the chaos that the grenade caused, I can see some of the engineers stumbling around aimlessly, while others are on the ground and unconscious.
One of the blinded engineers stumbles towards me and I squeeze the trigger of the assault rifle. The short burst punches through his body and he falls to the floor. Benji has come in behind me and has shot another engineer slumped against the wall right by the door. I scope in another engineer and drop him with a short burst as well.
"They're not all here," Benji says as he shoots the last of the stunned engineers. "They're not all here!" he exclaims in frustration and slams his right hand against the wall.
"This is bad," I mutter as I look around the room. We checked most of the maintenance tunnels for them, and I highly doubt that they just vanished into thin air. "This is really bad."
I walk up to a locker that's marked with the 'H' that one of the guards had on his armor. It's locked, but after a little persuasion with the butt of the assault rifle, it swings open. To be honest with you, the 'H' looks really familiar to me, but I can't place my finger on what or who it belongs to.
I begin to search through the locker and after some digging, I find something that looks like a mask. I begin to turn the fabric over in my hand and sure enough, it's a balaclava. I smile internally at what's imprinted on the front of the mask. On the piece of the balaclava where my mouth and nose are, the white features of a skull adorn the fabric. I put the mask on and it fits snugly in over my face. This should do the trick for now, but I still need something for the eyes.
"We need to find them. Now," I say while walking back to Benji. "Otherwise we can forget getting in to the warehouse at all."
Benji thinks for a few seconds before speaking. "We need another way down to the bottom floor," he mutters. "The elevators won't work."
"What about the engineers that aren't here?" I ask while raising an eyebrow. "We can't just have them run around up here, they'll sound the alarm."
Benji chuckles mirthlessly. "They're probably on the bottom floor now anyway. Besides, if they had the chance to sound the alarm, they would have already do-"
As if things could get any fucking worse!
Right as Benji dismissed the claim of the remaining engineers sounding the alarm, the light of the maintenance tunnels switches to a dark red. The blaring of an alarm begins to resonate in my ears as my facial expression droops and my eyes widen.
"We need to get down there," I say frantically.
Benji seemingly gives me a shocked expression from under the helmet. "Are you crazy, we need to leave!"
He's right, I am crazy, but this is our only chance.
'Initiating complex wide lockdown,' a robotic voice says over the speakers.
"Listen, we won't make it out now anyway," I begin to say. "This is our only chance to get to the Flex, otherwise we won't be able to reach it again."
Benji groans. "I hate it when you're right."
Maybe I'll keep the assault rifle for now, it might come in handy later on.
'Security to maintenance tunnels.'
"We need another way down," Benji says quickly. "And fast."
I don't have a clue on how to get down to the bottom floor. The way I see it, the only plausible way was through the elevator shaft, and that plan failed.
"The walkways," Benji says quietly. "We can use them to get down."
"How?" I ask.
"Explosives."
"We don't have time to explain, just lead the way!" I shout and Benji and I take off running. I don't know where's he going, but this is as good a plan as we've got right now, and I'm not letting myself get captured by these merc's or Ukathan's thugs.
We run by the working elevators and the door to one of them opens. I only catch a glimpse at the guards in jet-black armor before the ones in the front open fire with their assault rifles. The sound takes me completely off guard and I instinctively duck my head down while I sprint around the corner. Good thing the elevators were located at a T-junction, otherwise I'd be dead right now.
"We're almost there!" Benji shouts over his shoulder while sprinting down the hallway. I'm happy Torben tortured me with the training routines, cause if he didn't I'd be winded right about now.
We turn another corner as the guards begin firing down the hallway we're in and the bullets begin to impact just as I turn the corner itself. This isn't going too well. I haven't run this hard in my life before, and I'm doing it with a broken arm and sprained ankle no less. If I survive this, I'll have a story to tell.
"We're here!"
Benji makes a sharp stop and brings up his omni-tool.
"It's a level two, cover me while I open the door!"
I un-holster my assault rifle and clip a fragmentation grenade off my belt. "You want me to what?!"
"Hold them off!" he shouts as he begins frantically typing away on his omni-tool. "Just for a few seconds!"
"Fuck!" I yell angrily and pull the pin on the grenade in my hand. The guards should come around the corner any second now. I decide not to wait any longer and throw the grenade into the hallway that intersects with this one. Right on time too, as one of the clears the corner just as it explodes. The turian guard lets out a painful scream as the shrapnel of the grenade tears off one of his legs and launches him sideways into the wall.
"Hurry the fuck up!" I shout as I unclip another frag grenade off of my belt.
"I'm working on it!" Benji snaps back.
I throw my second and last frag grenade. I flies the same way like the first one, but this time it hits no one. I internally curse as I bring up the assault rifle in a firing position and right on cue, another guard clears the corner. I begin to fire at the guard before he gets a chance to aim at me, and I drop his shields after a few burst of AR fire. The next few shots that connect hit their mark and the guard drops dead to the floor.
Another two guards come running around the corner, but one of them finds cover behind a terminal before I can fire at him. The other isn't as lucky as I manage to drop his shields before he scrambles back behind the corner.
"Hurry. The. Fuck. Up!" I reiterate angrily as the guard behind the terminal pops out and begins firing at me. My shields take a few hits before I dive behind a small outcropping of the tunnel wall.
"Almost there!" comes the frantic reply from Benji.
I stand up and aim out from behind the outcropping, scoping in the guard behind the corner. He peeks out from cover and his shields seemingly haven't come back online yet. A stray shot from my burst hits the human right below his right eye and he drops dead. Benji's shield begins to take hits from the guard that's crouching behind the terminal. I jump forward and into the line of fire right as I activate my omni-tool and I quickly select 'Incinerate' and shoot it towards the batarian behind the terminal. It doesn't hit him but the ground beneath him, which isn't enough to set him alight.
He scrambles out from behind the terminal and dives behind the corner before I can drop him. It's at this moment that something I didn't expect rushes around the corner, and it makes me freeze in shock for a second. Three varren dash around the corner at a high speed and begin to charge towards Benji and me.
I squeeze the trigger and kill one instantly, making him roll over from his sudden loss of muscle support. The second one goes down as well and the dead varren does a front flip before landing on its back. I begin to aim at the third varren.
Then he lunges at me.
I'm knocked completely off my feet and the varren pins me under his paws. He snarls and the stink of his breath makes me want to gag. I throw a punch at the varren as he started to snap at my throat and he rears back before snarling again. He bites down hard on my right shoulder, but I don't feel a thing thanks to the painkillers coursing through my body. I'll feel it later on though.
"Got it!" Benji shouts and turns around, only to see me being mauled by a varren. He un-holsters his gun and sends a bullet into the varren's brain, and it goes limp on top of me. I push him off of me and scramble to my feet. Benji is already on the walkway built right under the roof of the warehouse and before I run in, I unclip my last stun grenade and throw it down the hallway. I'm surprised no guards were shooting at me while I was being mauled by the varren. They're making up for it now though as five of them round the corner and begin shooting. My shields drop and I see two bullets hit me in the stomach.
The stun grenade goes off and the guards reel back in shock, some dropping to the ground unconscious. I dive through the small doorway that Benji got open and immediately closes it behind me.
I activate my omni-tool and administer a load of medi-gel onto my fresh and bleeding bullet and bite wounds. These painkillers are saving my life right now. I still don't feel a thing.
"You alright?" Benji asks as he encrypts the door again.
"Two bullet wounds and a bite wound, I'm fine," I say offhandedly as I get back up. The armor by my right shoulder and stomach has red lines running down the holes. I must look absolutely terrible.
"We'll see when the painkillers wear off," Benji shrugs. "Now follow me."
He's right, I'm probably going to pass out the instant the painkillers wear off. Not to mention that I'm probably bleeding internally. This day just gets better and better. I need medical attention, and fast… but that'll have to wait until I'm back at the shop. If I make it there that is.
"What exactly are we going to do now?" I ask Benji as he calmly walks towards the center of the warehouse. The walkways themselves are set up symmetrically, with a circular platform in the middle of the warehouse. There's seven walkways that connect somewhat symmetrically with the platform in the middle, making it look like a spider web.
"We're taking a ride in the elevator," Benji replies.
"The elevator? What the hell are you talking about?"
"When Garrett and I scouted the warehouse, we did it with these pathways. We found out that that circular platform used to be a large elevator that carried all the platinum to the surface when this was a mine."
"So we ride it down and land on the roof of the tower below us?"
"Landing isn't quite exactly what I had planned," Benji says smugly. "I was thinking we ride it 'through' the tower roof."
I groan. "You know, I'm surprised that I didn't see this come earlier the way things are going."
Benji chuckles. "Glad you're beginning to think like I am."
"How do we go about doing this then?" I ask as we reach the platform in the middle.
"The walkways are holding up the platform in the middle, and if we sever them from the warehouse wall, we should drop right down."
I shrug. "Whatever, I'm desperate enough to do it. But how do we survive the over two hundred meter drop without breaking ourselves in the process?"
"I'll figure that out when the time comes," Benji says as he hands me four remote charges. "Now hurry up, the guards outside won't take forever in opening those doors. Plant the charges in the middle of the walkways, they're weakest there."
"Got it."
I get to work on planting the remote charges on the walkways. I'm surprised that I'm not doubting Benji's rather shite plan right now. Maybe it's desperation, maybe I'm just going insane or maybe I'm just stupid for going along with this suicidal plan.
I set down the last charge on the walkway that we came from, and I look up at the door to see sparks shooting out from it. Fuck, they're getting inside. I look at the other doors that the other walkways are connected to and sure enough, sparks start appearing almost simultaneously.
I sprint back to Benji, who's already on the platform waiting for me.
"Whatever your plan of getting us down there is, do it fast, we don't have much time."
Benji points over to the corner of the platform where there's no walkway and it's got what looks like a compartment of some sort.
"Are there seats in there?" I ask, causing Benji to nod.
"Can you believe it took four people to man this thing? And here I thought technology a couple of hundred years ago was advanced!"
Benji opens the door and I see four tilted and padded benches. They don't look like seats to me.
"You call those seats?" I ask skeptically. "These are slanted beds!"
"Slanted beds that'll save our lives!" Benji exclaims. "You wouldn't survive a two hundred meter drop ass first, your spine would shatter. There's enough shock absorbers in this thing to not feel a fifty megaton nuke go off!"
I raise up my hands. "Whatever, let's just go."
Just as I finish my sentence, the doors to five of the walkways open and guards begin to pour in, firing in our direction.
"Go, go, go!" Benji yells as we run for the compartment that holds the seats. I practically jump into the compartment back first as I twisted myself around when I leaped off of the ground. My landing is cushioned by the seats and as soon as Benji is inside, he closes the door.
"Buckle up Frosty, thing is going to be a bumpy ride."
I follow Benji's orders immediately and pull the large safety belt over my body and secure it on the other side of the seat. A nervous knot in my stomach begins to form as I see the guards moving onto the platform throw a small window in the door in front of me.
"Benji, please hurry," I plead as one of the guards mockingly taps on the window that's in front of me. I can't hear what he says but it looks like the human says something along the lines of 'time to die'. He and four other guards all point their guns at the compartment
"Got it," Benji says and he opens his omni-tool, but not before pressing a holographic button beside him. It's the intercom.
"Have a nice flight guys, I hope you'll enjoy the landing as much as we do."
The guard's expression's change to that of a confused one, but they soon realize that they made a mistake when Benji detonates the seven charges. They begin to scramble back towards the doors but it's too late for them, as it is for us. The explosion seemingly rips through the weak part of the walkway and we're left dangling by the tiny metal support beam at the top of the platform. The sound of metal bending and breaking under pressure is loud enough that it can be heard through the door and after a few seconds the sound stops and we're engulfed in silence.
I look to Benji. "Are you sure this is going to w-"
My stomach gets launched into my brain as the platform begins to plummet to the ground at a dizzying speed. I begin to yell and so does Benji. The adrenaline that is coursing through my body right now and the adrenaline that I used up today in general is enough to last me sixteen lifetimes. It feels like I'm on a drop tower all over again, but it's not over in two seconds.
After free falling for about ten seconds, the bottom of the platform makes contact with the metal tower in the middle of the warehouse and it immediately gives way to the multi ton heavy construct that's encasing us right now. Benji predicted that the platform would crash through the first few floors, but it did more than that… it crashes through all six.
With deafening sounds of metal faltering, cracking, bending and breaking under the force of the platform that's come crashing down on the tower, we cut through the tower like butter, but as soon as we hit the ground, we come to a dangerously abrupt stop. Benji and I are forcefully pressed into our seats and the shock absorbers under us seem to give out under the stress of it all before we can bounce back. The sudden rush of blood into my feet is making my vision all blurry and I begin to feel extremely light headed.
Holy shit, we did it. We destroyed the Flex in the most unconventional way possible. And we survived! I look to Benji but it looks like he's passed out again. We need to get out of here quickly before we're surrounded and this thing becomes out tomb.
"Benji, wake up," I say while nudging him, but he doesn't move.
"Benji come on man, wake up," I repeat, shaking him this time, but he doesn't respond.
I sigh and look out the window. Good, it seems like we fell right through and into the tunnels of the vehicle bay. That'll buy me some time. That and the fact that Benji and I plunged this place straight into a chaotic frenzy. The fire around me makes it look like we dropped straight into hell.
I pull the emergency release hatch of the door and it flies off its hinges. I unbuckle myself and then Benji, laying him on the ground carefully. I shake Benji one more time, but he still doesn't respond. This is not good.
This really isn't good.
Mission complete! Benji and David managed to destroy the Flex, now the only thing they have to do is escape. And trust me, escaping this place, even if it's in complete turmoil won't be an easy task. We'll find out more about it next chapter.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's a little different for a change. The missions thus far have gone pretty well for David and the team, but luck runs out eventually. While the Flex is destroyed, David and Benji are not out of trouble yet.
Feel free to leave a review telling me what you think about this chapter, I'd love to hear from you guys!
P.S: Now that my apprentice ship has started, I'll most likely revert back to my one chapter every week schedule, as I really only have time to squeeze in a major writing session on the weekends. I hope you understand and aren't too upset that the chapters aren't coming quicker. I'm writing as fast as I can with a full schedule!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Until next time!
Cheers!
David