To everyone that's reading: Thank you! :) I'm sorry I've been such a slacker about posting lately. I just have not been writing much at all.

To the guest that left a review on Chapter 10: Don't worry, Corso will be back!

Rian's contacts had been good enough that they had managed to get deep into Black Sun territory without being stopped. The two helmeted soldiers with their enormous guns were an excellent deterrent to any stray gangsters that might otherwise have been tempted by a lone woman. Even the larger groups that loitered on the corners didn't bother them. Rian was a big believer in the idea that if you looked like you belonged, no one would question you.

The warehouse where Kixi was supposedly being held was just up ahead. It was tucked away down a dead-end street, with only one entrance that she could see. There were a pair of guards on the door and a security camera blinking above it. Rian hid a scowl as she kept walking past the entrance to the street.

She found a quiet corner and leaned back against the wall, trying to look casual. "What do you guys think?" she asked the soldiers quietly. "I don't like the looks of that. Frontal assaults aren't really my thing."

Viggota's helmet bobbed as he nodded. "We should try to keep this quiet anyways. They might move her before we can get to her if we're not careful." The speaker on the helmet gave his voice a mechanical quality.

"Or kill her," Rian pointed out. The two soldiers were silent, and she couldn't read their expressions through their helmets, but it was true. She knew how the Black Sun operated. They'd sooner kill the slicer than let her be taken. She knew too many secrets. "Let's circle around. My intel didn't show any other entrances, but I want to have a look for myself." She got a pair of nods in response and pushed herself off the wall again.

It didn't look promising. Most of the exterior walls were blank slabs of durasteel. There were a pair of loading docks at the back, but the doors had been welded shut. She didn't see any other doors, though there was evidence that they had been blocked off by more durasteel panels welded into place. She swore softly in frustration. It looked like they only had one option.

Jorgan tapped her elbow lightly to get her attention. "What about up there?" He jerked a thumb casually towards the roof of the building.

"I guess it depends how thorough they were," she said, surveying the edge of the roof. "Worth a look, though."

It took a bit of searching, but they finally found a way up. One of the neighbouring buildings had a fire escape, and it was only a couple of feet away from Kixi's warehouse. Rian eyed the jump and then the two heavily-armoured soldiers. "Do you think you can make that?" she asked.

Viggota tilted his head to survey the gap. "I think so," he said, glancing at Jorgan for confirmation. The Cathar was nodding, so she shrugged and backed up a few paces to get a running start. She checked to make sure her pistols were securely holstered, then went for it.

She took a half-dozen running strides and then leaped over the gap, letting herself roll with the impact on the other side. She pushed herself to her feet and brushed herself off, then signalled for the two soldiers to wait. "Let me check it out first," she murmured into her communicator. "There's no sense in you guys coming over if you don't have to." She cut the connection quickly and saw Viggota jerk in surprise out of the corner of her eye. She was sure he didn't agree with her plan, but there wasn't much he could do about it now.

The rooftop was a maze of ventilation shafts and access hatches. Most of them were small, too small for the two soldiers to fit into, though she probably could have managed. She saw a couple of promising ones, but found them to be tightly sealed.

She ducked around a shaft holding a massive, whirring fan and then threw herself quickly back into cover at the sight of a repair droid bent over a partially disassembled fan. The droid didn't seem to have noticed her, so she risked another peek.

The spindly creature had the fan casing open and three of the four fan blades detached so it could reach the motor underneath. Rian grinned as she noted the size of the shaft. Even Viggota could easily fit through this one.

The droid had its back to her and had some noisy tool running. It would be child's play to get close enough to disable it without it noticing her. She had her vibroblade out and was almost close enough to spring when footsteps from behind her alerted the droid. It swivelled towards her and beeped in alarm. She swore creatively and flicked the switch to set the blade humming. She ducked under the droid's clumsy swing and drove her knife into the side of its neck. By luck, she managed to hit the main processing core and the thing collapsed. She whirled around before it had even hit the ground, both blasters clearing their holsters almost faster than the eye could follow. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she turned to face the new threat.

Viggota and Jorgan stood opposite her. Both soldiers had their assault cannons out but had the barrels pointed downwards. She swore again and slammed her blasters into their holsters. "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed angrily, just barely remembering to keep her voice down.

Viggota straightened and flipped his faceplate up. "What do you mean, what are we doing? What were Iyou/I doing?"

"Finding us a way in!" she snapped, turning her back on him and dropping to a knee to retrieve her knife. She inspected the blade for damage before sliding it back into the top of her boot.

"That wasn't the plan!" He sounded furious, and she pushed herself back to her feet and turned to look at him again. "You agreed to work with us," he snapped at her, advancing on her with a glare. "Stop trying to prove you can do it all yourself. This is a team, and you need to learn that!"

Rian took a step back so she didn't have to crane her neck up as much to meet his eyes. "First of all, I didn't agree - I was coerced. Second of all, I was the best choice to scout this out. I'm not one of your dumb grunts, Viggota. Don't treat me like one."

Viggota bit down on his anger with some effort. "No heroics," he said, jabbing a finger towards her. "You're part of my team now, and I'm responsible for you. You're not on your own." He sighed and stepped back, softening his voice. "Work with us," he said. "Let us help you. You don't have to prove yourself to us; we know you're resourceful. But we're here to help each other, so why won't you let us?"

She backed up a couple of quick paces, rubbing nervously at her upper arms. She was too unsettled to think of something flip to say, so she said nothing. She wasn't sure what the problem was anyways. She had been the best person for the job, and would have gotten it done easily if he and Jorgan hadn't interfered. She was the one who had nearly gotten killed, after all.

Viggota sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. "Rian, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just… what if there were guards up here? I know you can handle yourself, but what if you got ambushed, or swarmed? We wouldn't have known anything was wrong, and you would have just vanished."

She looked up at him in surprise. She thought he had been annoyed that she was showing him up, or ignored the chain of command or something like that. She hadn't realized he was worried. She had to cough to clear her throat so her voice would come out sounding normal. She wasn't used to people worrying about her. "Sorry. I didn't think of it that way."

The big soldier looked down at her in silence for a few moments, and then nodded. "Just... try to remember you're not on your own here, okay?" He waited for her to nod in return and then reached up to slide his faceplate back into place. "Show us what you found."

She was glad to turn away so she could get her thoughts back under control. She had gotten so used to being on her own since Joro and Lia had left that she had forgotten what it felt like to have backup.

Jorgan had rigged up a line and a pulley system to lower the three of them into the air vent. Rian was against leaving the line there, but it wasn't much more of a red flag than the destroyed droid was. And it wasn't like she was going to volunteer to stay behind to guard their exit anyways.

Viggota had insisted on going first, and she could see the lamp on his helmet panning across the walls as Jorgan lowered him down. He descended about ten metres before his boots struck bottom and he unclipped the harness. "You next," Jorgan said, reeling the cable back in. Rian just nodded, and let the Cathar buckle the harness around her hips.

She braced one gloved hand against the wall as Jorgan lowered her down but the cable unwound smoothly and it was only a few minutes before her boots touched down. Viggota was crouched awkwardly at the bottom, trying to fit himself into the duct that ran off from the vertical shaft. It wasn't even tall enough for him to crawl through.

"You're never going to be able to fit through there," Rian said, crouching down next to him and unclipping her harness.

Viggota pulled off his helmet with a grimace. "Not quickly, or quietly."

Rian sat back on her heels, looking around. The space at the bottom of the shaft was about four feet square, with a pair of horizontal ducts running off from it. She flattened herself down and peered down the one opposite Viggota, her headlamp drawing stark shadows in the gloom. She squinted against the glare and then reached up and shut it off. After a moment to let her eyes adjust she could see it - light shining up through a grille in the duct.

"I might have something," she told Viggota. "There's a grille down this way. Let me go have a look, make sure we're even in the right spot. If not, there's no sense in trying to get you guys through here."

Viggota chewed on his lip for a moment and nodded reluctantly. "Okay, but keep your comm line open. And no heroics!"

She nodded, his rebuke from the roof still fresh in her mind. She too a moment to rearrange her gear, sliding her pistols around to rest against her spine. She couldn't quite crawl through the duct either, but she could stay a lot more upright than Viggota could. It was still a difficult slither-slide, especially since she was trying to do it as quietly as possible. The warehouse had been lightly guarded from the outside, but none of her sources had had any information on how much activity there might be inside.

The grille wasn't far away, but it took her the better part of five heart-pounding minutes to make her way to it and her knees and elbows were feeling the strain when she finally stretched out flat beside it. She gave herself a moment to catch her breath and then inched forwards to look down.

The cavernous space beneath her looked like it was mostly used for storage. Crates were piled nearly to the ceiling, in places only stacked a few feet below the ducts. She couldn't see any guards from where she lay, but neither could she see an exit, though she knew there had to be at least one.

She thumbed her communicator and murmured quietly into it. Just because she couldn't see any guards didn't mean there weren't any. "Looks pretty good. I think it's a storeroom. I don't see anyone from where I am."

"Do you think we can get through there?" Viggota asked, his voice quiet too.

"I think so," she replied, examining the edges of the grating. "It might be a tight squeeze, though. But I should be able to get this off without too much trouble." She squirmed around to pat at her pockets and soon found her utility tool. She could hear movement from behind her as Jorgan climbed down the shaft. She crawled over the grate to work on the far bolts first.

She winced with every thump and muffled curse coming from behind her. As she had suspected, neither Viggota nor Jorgan were able to crawl properly through the ducts and had to resort to wiggling along on their stomachs. Their durasteel armour grated against the metal of the ducts and their knees and elbows banged against the sides as they moved. Their luck held, though, because no alarm was raised.

By the time Viggota's hand closed around her ankle, she had most of the bolts loose. "Almost done," she told him. "Just two more." She reached back along her body and handed him the end of the cord she was using to keep the grille from falling into the warehouse below. "Hold this, and don't let go."

She felt his fingers close around it and turned back to her task. It was easier now that she didn't have to worry about holding the grating in place and it wasn't long before it came loose. She tucked her tools and the bolts away in a pocket and reached out to carefully wiggle the grate cover in through the hole. She set it down on the floor of the duct on the other side of the opening and stuck her head through the hole.

Now that she could see the entire room she could confirm that there weren't any guards. There were two exits that she could see - a loading bay that looked to have been welded shut, and a pair of broad doors that she hoped led into the rest of the building. They were currently closed, but she could see lights blinking on the door controls so they shouldn't be hard to open.

"Looks clear," she said to Viggota. "I'm going in."

The big man made a sound of assent behind her and she wiggled forward over the opening until she could lower herself down feet-first. Her toes didn't quite reach the stacked crates but the drop was only a couple of inches. She landed as softly as she could and dropped into a crouch. The lights by the doors continued to blink serenely and she cautiously straightened. No motion sensors. They obviously weren't expecting trouble to come in this way.

"Clear?" Viggota asked from above her and she nodded. "Good. Take this."

She looked up and grinned to see him handing down his assault cannon. "Can't fit?" She imagined the glare he must be giving her behind his faceplate and grinned wider as she reached up for it. It was heavy, but not so much that she couldn't handle it. She climbed down a level of crates and propped it up carefully so it wouldn't fall.

Rian could hear Viggota grunting and cursing above her as he tried to squeeze his armoured bulk through the hole, and she bit back a grin. It took a lot of willpower not to look up, but she knew she would probably start laughing if she did. And besides, someone had to keep an eye out for trouble. It wasn't like Viggota was particularly stealthy, and she didn't want to be caught unawares if his attempts at acrobatics attracted any attention.

Finally, she heard his boots thump down onto the crates above her. He reached down for his assault cannon, hefting it easily in one hand and clipping into place on his back. His armour bore some fresh scratches from squeezing his way through the opening and she was sure he was scowling beneath his faceplate. "We're going to have to see if we can find another way out. I'm not sure I could do that again, especially with gravity working against me."

Rian made a face. "Good point. Okay, I'll keep an eye out for a Plan B."

She hopped down the stack of crates while Viggota helped Jorgan through the opening. The Cathar was slightly smaller and more nimble, but he still needed to hand his assault cannon down first. Viggota helped him to wrestle the grille back mostly into place after he was through. It looked okay for a casual inspection, Rian mused from the ground level, though it was slightly crooked. Hopefully the Black Sun guards didn't spend a lot of time looking up.

Rian was already at the door, tapping curiously at the computer panel, when the soldiers joined her. "I thought you weren't any good at slicing," Jorgan said as he watched her navigate through the screens.

"I never said I wasn't any good at it," she said casually. "I can do it, if I have to. But there are lots of people who are better at it than me." She ran a finger down the list on the screen. "But I didn't even have to do anything. Half the system is unlocked. I just wanted access to the internal scanners."

The Cathar grunted from behind her. "This feels like a trap."

"It does a little bit, doesn't it?" Rian mused, tapping her gloved fingers on the edge of the terminal. "I don't see anything suspicious, though. If it is a trap, it's very subtle. They haven't even got cameras hooked into the system."

"How would they even know to expect us?" Viggota asked, angling his assault cannon up to rest on his shoulder.

"They shouldn't," Rian replied. "Kri-Sek is the only person who knows I'm looking for Kixi, and I trust him not to sell me out. Kyven knew we were coming into Black Sun territory, but he would never have dealings with them. He wouldn't have told anyone else. There's always the chance that someone overheard something and contacted the Black Sun, but I would have thought we'd have hit resistance by now." She shrugged, clearing the screen and turning to face the two soldiers. "It's your call, Vig. As far as I can tell, they don't know we're here."

Viggota glanced at Jorgan, but his expression was unreadable under his visor. "I say we keep going. We don't have the luxury of time to retreat and plan another assault. If we encounter resistance, we'll deal with it then."

Rian and Jorgan both nodded, and Viggota gestured for Rian to open the door, lifting his assault cannon to cover her. She checked her blasters in their thigh holsters and reached for the door controls. "Ready?"

Viggota tightened his grip on his assault cannon and nodded. "Hit it."

The doors slid open, revealing a short hallway that split into a T-junction. Rian pointed towards the left fork and let the two soldiers lead the way. They paused at the intersection, each of them taking one side of the hallway but there was no one there. The building was quiet save for the faint hum of the air circulation machinery.

They took the right fork at the next intersection. Rian could hear faint voices down the left fork, but it didn't sound like a patrol. She could hear laughter and the clatter of dice. As long as the three of them kept a low profile, they shouldn't attract any attention from that quarter.

"Through here," Rian said, pointing at a reinforced door at the end of the hallway. "It's locked from the outside, but data logs show a delivery of a high-end computer system a few months ago." She shrugged when Jorgan tilted his head at her. "Best guess. It's the only delivery of that type to this warehouse."

"It's all we've got to go on," Viggota said, checking the charge on his assault cannon. "Do you think you can get the door open?"

Rian slipped her hand into one of the pouches on her belt and pulled out a data spike. "Pretty confident."

The big soldier chuckled. "Good. Let's move."

Viggota and Jorgan took up positions behind her in the hallway, looking back the way they came. Rian tried the door controls but wasn't surprised when she wasn't able to open it on her own. It was passcode locked, as she had expected. Fortunately, she had come prepared.

There was a faint beep when the data spike sliced the lock and the doors hissed open. Rian looked up to meet the startled gaze of a young Mirialan woman. Her black hair was cut into a flattering bob around her green-skinned face, and she was backed up against a very expensive-looking bank of computer equipment. "Who are you?" she asked, casting about as if she was looking for a weapon but the room was bare other than the computer and a low cot tucked into a corner.

"I'm Rian. I assume you want out of here?" She heard the soldiers shifting behind her, but thankfully they stayed put. Kixi looked nervous enough without two enormous men barging in to her space.

The young woman's face lit up and Rian found herself grinning too. "Absolutely. Can you give me a minute? I've had a special surprise ready for this."

Rian chuckled. "Something nasty, I assume?"

"As nasty as the Black Sun themselves." The two women shared a grin and Rian nodded. Anything that would make life more difficult for the gangsters was a plus in her books. "Awesome." Kixi's black hair spun around her cheekbones as she whirled back towards the computer.

True to her word, it only took a few minutes before she was done planting her surprise. "Ready?" Rian asked and the young Mirialan nodded. "Let's go."