The Red Moon Collection - 4 - Fragments and Ire
Chapter 36
Blue Suns base, Yalrek
"Ow! Fuck, that hurts," Kay hissed.
"Stop fidgeting," T'Lees lectured. "You are lucky you still have an arm at all."
The asari carefully applied a dose of pain relieving medi-gel to Kay's forearm as the latter rolled her eyes and kept herself still.
"Please. I saw the omniblade in time," Kay argued. "No way I could have lost an entire arm."
"This deep gash seems to say otherwise," T'Lees countered. "There, all set."
Kay sighed and dropped her arm while looking to the opposite side of the Kodiak's troop compartment. Will stared at the hatch with his hand grasping one of the stabilizing rails that lined the ceiling. Kay glanced back to T'Lees, who was clearly concerned as well, and held up a hand for her to stay on the troop bench. She rose to her feet and stepped past a couple of RMC soldiers from Captain Dissanayake's squad to stand beside him.
"You okay, Will?" She asked as sympathetically as she could manage.
He closed his eyes for a moment. He should have jumped in the other Kodiak with Eleena. If someone was going to console him, he wanted it to be her. But to quite honest, they didn't have time for that right now.
"I'll give you an answer later," he replied as he opened his eyes and shifted them to Kay. "Ralliston… did a lot of shitty things. But the last month or so he tried really, really damn hard to make up for them."
Kay lifted a hand, a little unsure of herself, and placed it on his shoulder. "Let's make sure he didn't die for nothing, okay? Then you can mourn."
Will nodded at the reasonable advice and turned away from her to make his way to the cockpit. He leaned in and looked through the forward viewport to the rapidly approaching space station.
"Yep, I see it," Kallux said over his comm system. "The big bay at the center."
"That's the one," Nellie's voice confirmed. "Let's bring it in hot and pop the hatches right away. Just in case we meet resistance."
"Just what I was thinking," Kallux agreed.
One of the krogan's eyes looked back to see Will standing behind him.
"We're hitting the LZ in twenty seconds!" He shouted loud enough for the entire cabin to hear. "Hume, get on the hatch. I want everyone ready to disembark immediately."
"Alright," Will answered.
He hurried back to the hatch and prepped it to open as he grabbed his rifle from his back.
"Everyone get ready to jump out as soon as we're inside the hangar," Will announced. "If we find opposition I want you to pick a target and focus on keeping them suppressed until everyone is out and ready to fight."
"Five seconds!" Kallux yelled.
Will lifted his hand and held a finger over the door's controls. He held his breath. He wasn't ready to jump into another firefight. Not yet.
"Hatch open, now!" Kallux ordered.
But it looked like he had to.
Will pressed his finger to the control pad and lifted the stock of his rifle into his shoulder. He aimed down the sights and steadied his breath as the side hatch of the Kodiak let out a few mechanical clunks from the locks disengaging before sliding open. Kallux was spinning the Kodiak to bring it to a stop near the center of the hangar they had entered and Will quickly spotted trouble: six Blue Suns soldiers positioned near the outside walls of the room already in cover and taking aim. With five or six Blue Suns Kodiaks already sitting idle on the deck below them Will lowered his rifle and jumped for cover.
"Let's go!" He shouted as he fell.
He rolled as he hit the ground and slid into cover behind the front of one of the Kodiaks. Gunfire from the Blue Suns who had been left to guard the shuttles began peppering the viewport in front of him. He looked back over his shoulder to see the Kay, T'Lees and the other RMC soldiers jumping out of their commandeered Kodiak while about a dozen meters away, Eleena, Fynnis and the other half of Nellie's squad disembarked from the second shuttle.
"Fayneer, singularity!" Kay called.
Will followed the asari's aim as she threw a biotic attack out toward a pair of Blue Suns soldiers attempting to skirt around the outside of the room to flank them. He spun and opened fire with Kay, forcing them down into cover behind a support column.
"Heavy, look out!" Called one of the RMC troopers.
A rocket streaked over the line of landed Kodiaks and slammed into the one hovering a few meters above Will. He ducked down from the explosion as Kallux cursed over the comm and guided the failing shuttle into a crash-landing near the edge of the hangar's atmospheric barrier. With his shields partially compromised from the explosion, Will slid as far into cover as possible while still firing at the flanking enemies.
"Got the heavy!" Eleena exclaimed. "One down!"
A harpoon struck one of Will's targets, dropping him to the floor. "Two," T'Lees corrected her.
"They're running!" One of the RMC soldiers warned.
With his shields beginning to recharge, Will peered out of cover to see three of the remaining Blue Suns soldiers retreating through a large door that led into the interior of the station. Will jumped up and held his gun on the column behind which the sixth and final enemy was hiding.
"You're surrounded, drop your weapon!" He ordered.
He slowly walked toward the hidden Blue Suns soldier with his finger on the trigger. Nellie's Kodiak came down to rest beside him as he continued to close the gap. Will came to a stop a few meters away.
"This is your only chance," he reiterated.
A gun clattered to the ground and a batarian with his hands raised slowly appeared from behind cover.
"I surrender!" He pleaded. "Don't kill me."
Will's aim dropped to the ground. "Someone lock him up," he ordered.
A couple of RMC soldiers ran past him and began detaining their captive as Will turned back to the main group. Eleena and Fynnis had run to the nearby wreckage of the first Kodiak and were helping Kallux as he climbed out. Captain Dissanayake jumped out of her dropship and onto the ground next to him with nod of acknowledgment before lifting her hand and shouting for her troops to round up.
"We've got one wounded!" Kay called.
She rounded the corner of a Kodiak with one of the RMC soldiers under her arm. Will stood to the side as they made their way to the rest of Nellie's squad where she was quickly taken up by her comrades and administered aid. The familiar stomping from Kallux thudded through the hangar as the krogan approached Will with Eleena and Fynnis on either of his flanks.
"Kodiaks are just dropping left and right today," Eleena lamented.
"And people. Glad you're so concerned about my safety," Kallux grumbled.
Fynnis snorted. "Please. You're a krogan. Maybe if you'd crash-landed into a star we would be concerned."
Will's eyes darted around the hangar. "Where's T'Lees?"
"Over here," she called from somewhere beyond the collection of parked Kodiaks. "I am watching our flank in case they launch a counterattack. Feel free to discuss our next movement without me. I trust you all to choose wisely."
Fynnis nodded appreciatively. "Alright. If everyone's accounted for, we need to move after the Blue Suns now. I'm monitoring the RMC channels as well now that…" He paused and dropped the comment short. "It sounds like the two Collective squads that landed up here are being hit by the reinforcements that Janson was rallying."
"Both squads?" Will asked.
"Yes. I suspect Janson has divided his troops," Fynnis continued.
Kallux let out a condescending laugh. "Idiot."
"Idiocy aside, we need to move out as soon as possible," Fynnis remarked.
Kay trotted up to the group and looked around curiously. "What'd I miss?"
"Blue Suns are attacking the RMC squads that landed up here on the orbital station," Eleena informed her. "But I don't think we know which squad Janson is with."
"So we pick one and help them," Kay said. "If he's not there, we go help the others. Seems simple enough."
"You're assuming the others can hold out that long," Kallux argued. "No, we should divide our forces as well. We can head toward one squad while Nellie takes her troops toward the other."
"Didn't you just call Janson stupid for dividing his forces?" Eleena inquired with a small smirk.
The krogan chuckled. "We're just reacting to his stupid decision."
Will raised a hand to draw their attention. "We're wasting time. Fynnis, get us in touch with the two squads and pick one. We'll go to them."
The turian nodded once and looked down to his omnitool. Movement just to his left caught Will's eye and prompted him to glance over his shoulder. Captain Dissanayake had come to a stop and given him a crisp nod. All he could see through her visor was that she was of dark complexion, though it was not surprising given her name and accent, with dark brown eyes sitting atop a pair of sharp, intimidating cheek bones.
"Captain," he acknowledged.
"Captain Hume, nice to see you again," she said quite professionally.
"We've met?" Will asked, slightly confused.
Nellie smiled coolly. "Once. In passing. You and your shipmate, the quarian, gave the officer candidates a talk about engaging in covert operations with gangs."
Will nodded slowly. "That's right, we did. That was over two years ago. Nice to see that someone who was there is still alive," he said bluntly.
She frowned softly. "There were plenty, before the Blue Suns attacked us."
Will looked to the side briefly and cleared his throat. "Well, uh, as I'm sure you overheard, we need to get moving and assist the two landing teams. By the sounds of it, Janson has divided his forces and is pursuing them now."
Nellie nodded curtly. "My team is ready to move whenever you give the order."
"I've got the locations of both squads," Fynnis interjected. "Which one do you want, A or B?"
"B," she said confidently.
Will raised his weapon. "Then we've got A. Let's go everyone!" He pointed to Nellie. "If you all run into serious trouble, let us know immediately."
She nodded once and turned to trot back to her squad. "Weapons ready! We're moving!"
The Trueshot squad formed up around Will as he set off toward the large door at the far end of the room. A few seconds later a waypoint appeared on his HUD.
"That's our target," Fynnis informed them. "We need to go up one level. Should be a stairwell at the end of the hallway if we turn left through this door."
"Are we to expect resistance?" T'Lees inquired.
"There's a lot of chatter on their network," Fynnis replied. "Can't get anything concrete."
Kallux stepped up beside Will as they approached the door. "Always expect resistance," he advised. "At least when you're attacking a gang's base of operations."
The door pinged and slid apart. The hallway in front of them was littered with signs of battle ranging from scorch marks to bullet holes to a few bodies, both of Blue Suns and RMC alike. Will proceeded forward with the others on his flank, all of them ready and expecting opposition. They took the first left, as Fynnis instructed, and was met with a short hallway that ended at another door. Through it was a stairwell that they took up to the third and highest level of the station.
"Where are we going from here?" Will asked as he reached forward to open the door.
"Let me see," Fynnis responded. "I need to overlay the position they sent me with that of-"
The turian was interrupted as the door slid open to a burst of gunfire. The squad jumped to the side on the landing as bullets filled the doorway and stairwell around them. Will pressed himself up against the wall and cursed at the level of his shields, both thankful they had saved his life and irritated that they were so low.
"I saw three of them!" Eleena called.
"We're a little boxed in here," Kay complained over the storm of bullets.
Eleena edged up to the doorway. "Everyone get ready to hit them! I'm drawing their attention!"
Before Will could object the asari slid into the doorway half-crouched and burst forward in a biotic charge. Will jumped through the door after her as the gunfire from their enemies stopped almost immediately. Eleena had charged into a barricade and impacted the Blue Suns soldier at the very center, throwing him back and off of his feet. The two others, however, were spinning to face her with the rifles leveled and ready to shoot. The RMC squad opened fire on the two Blue Suns soldiers as they did on Eleena. The asari gritted her teeth and held out her hands to erect a biotic barrier around her just as the first few shots impacted her shields. The Blue Suns were not so lucky. Gunfire tore down their shields as Will charged forward and jumped over the barricade to slam his weapon's stock into the helmet of the enemy on his right. As the other soldier turned to fire helplessly at the RMC squad, Eleena dropped her barrier and brought her SMG to bear on the first of the three that she had hit with her charge. Within a few seconds, all three were dead.
Will spun to face Eleena with wide eyes. "What is wrong with you? I thought matrons were supposed to be patient."
The asari placed her hands on her knees and leaned forward as she panted. "More patient," she correct with a deep breath. "More is relative."
"Good job," Kallux commended as he leapt over the barricade. "Fynnis, where to?"
The turian pointed down the hall. "Left at the next intersection and straight on until the end of the hallway. They're at one of the docking stations," he explained. "Area for loading and unloading cargo. And we should hurry. The Collective squad is barely holding out."
"Let's go!" Will shouted as he turned and broke out into a run.
He held his breath as they rounded their next corner. Will was half expecting another ambush, but was met with only a wide hallway that ended in a double-wide door and a sign above it reading "Bay 02" in red letters.
"This is it," Fynnis warned them.
"Patch me into the Blue Suns comm network, Fynnis." Will lifted his rifle into firing position as they slowed in front of the door. "Get ready!"
A new comm channel alert appeared on the side of his HUD. Will nodded to himself and stared ahead. The heavy airlock door slowly began to slide open as the sounds of gunshots and explosions started pouring through the tiny crack in the two halves of the door. After five seconds the door had split far enough for Will to slide through and into the fight. He stepped into a large, single-level room with a high ceiling. It was lined with rows of crates and shipping containers on pallets waiting to be loaded onto a ship. Through the large, floor-to-ceiling windows on the left side of the room was an enormous vessel that Will recognized as Janson's flagship, Prospect, where a long docking ramp extended out from the wall to the hull. He slid into the closest spot of cover, a crate marked "Fragile" and made a visual sweep of the room.
The RMC squad was on the far side of the room with their backs to the wall. Will could only see four or five Collective troops remaining and putting up a fight. Between them, however, in what would be the focal point of crossfire in mere seconds, were roughly a dozen Blue Suns soldiers. Fynnis had not been exaggerating about the RMC squad's dire situation. The Blue Suns were about fifteen meters away in the rows of crates with an intimidating roster of targets. Two engineers, a captain, two elites and another officer all surrounded by just as many Blue Suns grunts. Will took aim on the mass of blue and white at the center of the room and pulled his trigger. The rest of the Trueshot squad was sliding into cover around him as the Blue Suns recognized the danger.
"Enemies on the flank!" One of the Blue Suns shouted through their comm.
Then, the voice Will was hoping to hear.
"I told those worthless fucks to hold the stairs!" Janson yelled.
The officer in the group spun to face the newly arrived squad. Will could see his face through his visor. He gritted his teeth and continued to fire. On the opposite side of the room two more RMC soldiers were gone, having either gone down or taken cover. The Blue Suns soldiers turned to focus the majority of their fire on the Trueshot fireteam, only to duck instinctively as Kallux's cannon began tearing into the boxes and crates around them.
"Shit!" Kay shouted while dropping down to the ground. "Fuckers overloaded my shield!"
The shields faded on one of the Blue Suns soldiers. He would have surely moved for cover had a harpoon bolt not stricken him clean through the neck the instant he because vulnerable. Will turned his rifle to the officer at the center of the group: Janson. After only a few shots, however, he saw the familiar motion of a grenade being primed in the corner of his eye. One of the elites had cocked his arm back and was about to throw the explosive when a shot from Kallux's cannon ripped through the turian's arm. It fell to the ground with the grenade still clutched in the severed hand.
"Grenade!" Eleena shouted in warning.
The blast ripped through their ears, but was too far away to hurt them. It did, however, catch not only a few Blue Suns but a number of crates that had already been weakened by the gunfire. No more than a second after the first blast erupted, one of the weakened crates exploded as well. Then a second, and third.
"Get down, get down," Will urged. "It's a-"
He stopped yelling as the sound of the chain reaction explosions drowned out his voice. Will pressed his back against the crate beside him and glanced to the side. He felt a small sense of relief seeing no "Warning" or "Danger" labels. About ten seconds after the initial grenade had exploded, the explosions stopped and were replaced by the crackle and roar of flame. The ringing in Will's ears was almost unbearable. He pushed himself up and looked over the edge of his cover to see fire, smoke and debris filling the room as a consequence of the stray explosive. Considering the violent nature of the explosions, Will couldn't imagine more than half of the Blue Suns had survived.
"Fuck it, I'm getting the ship ready to go!" Janson coughed. "Hold them back until we're ready to blast out of here!"
"No!" Will yelled. "Everyone charge! Stop them!"
He jumped up and over the crate with the rest of the Trueshot squad following his lead up and down the room. Gunfire cut through the smoke and flames as Will ran toward the wall with the airlock that led out to the ship. A beeping rang out in his ears as his shields drew dangerously low.
"Will, wait!" Someone called.
He ignored them and darted through the debris and flames. Then, like a ghost from the smoke, the unmistakable shape of the man he sought to kill appeared before him. Janson stood at the airlock door leading out to his ship, waiting as it opened. The Blue Suns officer glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see Will come charging into him with a hefty punch to the side of his head. Janson stumbled back as his helmet absorbed the blow, allowing him to quickly recover and raise his weapon. Will swiped at the gun with his own rifle, knocking it to the side as he opened fire at point-blank range. Janson's shields flared, but held strong as he growled and swung a punch back at Will that hit him square in the neck. Will reeled back in shock from the hit. Janson paused for the slightest moment as he saw the face of his attacker through Will's visor.
"You?" He barked in disbelief. "You again? How are you still a pain in my ass!?" Janson screamed as he swung at Will again.
The second punch hit Will's armored torso as he drew his sidearm and fired off a few shots. Janson lunged forward to disarm him and delivered a swift kick to Will's leg, dropping him slightly, but not enough to force him down to the ground.
"I'm here to pay you back," Will growled, slightly out of breath.
Behind them, the airlock door to the docking ramp had opened. Will leapt forward and tackled them both to the ground in the doorway of the ramp as smoke began flowing in behind them. Janson slammed another punch into Will's neck and pushed him off to the side. They rolled and jumped up as Janson drew his own pistol and began firing into Will's diminished shields. Three shots made quick work of the remainder of his kinetic barrier as Will desperately dove toward Janson to knock the weapon out of his hands. Two more shots were absorbed by his armor. He grabbed Janson's wrist and twisted it unnaturally, forcing it to drop from his hand, but not before the final two bullets cut through Will's chest and bicep armor. He scream involuntarily in pain. Blood sprayed out from Will's left arm as his fingers wrapped around the grip of the pistol and his shoulder slammed into Janson's chest, forcing him stumbling back onto the ground. Will gritted his teeth to endure the pain in his chest and arm out of raw adrenaline and fervor as he lifted the gun with his right arm and began firing.
"You're a god damned fool!" Janson taunted as he rolled and pushed himself up.
Janson's shields absorbed most of the shots as he charged at Will and tackled him to the ground even further down the boarding ramp. The two of them let out a guttural groan as they hit the ground with enough force to stun Will, his head still ringing from when it he hit it in the initial Kodiak crash. He could hear yelling, both in his headset and in the room as it burned. He could hear words, both from his friends and their enemies, but he couldn't listen to them. Not yet. Will shook as Janson threw a punch into his helmet, then another. Will scrambled to kick him off and reached for the pistol that had fallen from his grip.
"Consequences... always catch up to people like you... eventually," Will spat as he grabbed the pistol and whipped it across Janson's visor to put a splitting crack through it.
They separated and pulled themselves to their feet as Will lifted the gun and held his sights on Janson's head.
"And you're going to die knowing it was me who finally caught up to you," Will said as he stared through hateful, narrowed eyes.
In that split second, Will thought it odd that Janson simply stood there. He was no more than three or so meters away, staring him down without an arrogant or insane taunt to throw out in his last moments. Then he saw the reason in his eyes and in the thuds of metal boots growing behind him. Janson was not staring at him. Will spun to look back toward the docking bay just in time see the Blue Suns elite slam a orange, glowing fist into his torso. The omniblade pierced clean through Will's abdomen and left him to crumble to the ground.
"The others are dead," the elite reported as he and another Blue Suns soldier ran by.
Will came to a stop on the deck of the station motionless and in shock.
"Let's get the hell out of here," Janson growled.
Will gasped for breath as his head lay on the ground staring toward the end of the boarding ramp. Janson and his two underlings were already sprinting toward the airlock of the ship.
"No," Will muttered as blood began leaking from his lips.
As the ship's airlock door opened a number of gunshots echoed through the hall while bullets whizzed toward the Blue Suns soldiers. With the airlock open, they easily slid into safety and ordered the door shut behind them. Just before the door closed, Janson looked back over his shoulder to where Will lay bleeding on the ground. He could have sworn he saw Janson laugh as his vision blurred.
"He's getting away!" He coughed through blood.
Will felt himself jostled and his head lifted up as his helmet was pulled off. Through his fading vision he could see Eleena's purple shape looking down at him, speaking words that he could not hear. A warm sensation of relief spread over the gaping wound in his torso as his eyes finally closed and his head sunk to the side.
The door to the bridge slid open for Janson to come marching in.
"Watch the door," he ordered to Septarus.
The elite nodded and halted in the hallway as he checked over his rifle. As the door shut, Janson ripped off his helmet and threw it onto the command console at the center of the room. His helmsman was already in position, ready to punch the ship into emergency power, push away from the station and jump to FTL.
"These little shits!" Janson growled.
"Where are we headed?" The helmsman asked, ignoring the routine outburst.
Janson shook his head. "Comm buoy. I need to get Dal'serah on the horn. We're gonna need another hundred bodies to retake the station if the fucking RMC plans on occupying."
"We'll have power in a little over a minute," the helmsman reported.
Janson muttered angrily and reached to activate the control panel at the center of his console. Nearly a hundred estimated dead. He gritted his teeth and slammed his fist down before swiping over to the fleet overview. There he saw the truly infuriating news.
"They've taken out half the fucking fleet!" He bellowed. "How the hell did they hit us this hard!"
"Took out a lot of ships when they were still docked," the helmsman replied. "Almost considered disobeying your hold order, but I think having all the systems powered down actually made us a low-pri target."
"Better be glad you didn't," Janson grumbled. "You'd have your fucking throat slit."
He reached forward to the comm controls and brought up a broadcast alert. Janson cleared his throat and leaned on his hands.
"This is Janson. I want all ships to jump to FTL now and regroup at the following coordinates in twenty hours." He tapped a button on the console to transmit the small coordinate package. "Janson, out."
He closed his eyes and took a long, slow breath. It was no coincidence that Will Hume had been there.
"I should have dumped that prick out the airlock the second I saw his face," Janson muttered to himself.
"You know what they say about hindsight," the helmsman quipped. "Alright, powering up major systems. Kinetic barriers are active. Security systems are active. Thrust control and FTL core are active. Pushing off."
A voice crackled from Janson's omnitool.
"Oh, shit! Janson, we've got-"
A few loud thump rang out behind them. Janson snapped his head back to look over his shoulder to the door at the back of the bridge. He slowly turned himself to face it and lifted his omnitool to his lips as he spoke.
"Septarus, report," he said.
The door opened to the body of the turian elite slumped against wall of the hallway and two figures standing in the door frame: a woman and a krogan. Janson reached down to his holster, only to find it empty. The pistol lay somewhere in the docking ramp where Will Hume lay bleeding out. He cursed to himself and ducked involuntarily as gunshots rang out from behind him. Janson dove to the side and looked to the helmsman as he sprayed SMG fire toward the two enemies as they came charging into the room. The woman leveled her rifle and sprayed it into the helmsman, ripping open his helmet and killed him almost instantly. Through the viewport Janson could see the ship floating away from the station at the last trajectory it had been given, now with no one at the controls.
"Stand up," the krogan ordered.
Janson's eyes darted toward the back wall. They two intruders were directly between him and the only weapon rack on the bridge. There was a handgun at the crew station beside him, but it would be completely obvious if he reached for it. He groaned irritably and rose up from behind the console with his eyes leveled on the two of them. He recognized the krogan.
"Kallux," he said. "Guess it was too much to hope that you'd died back in that pathetic 'home base?'"
"You did less damage than you thought," the woman taunted.
Janson didn't recognize her. She didn't wear RMC colors. Or any other notable colors.
"Who the fuck are you?" He asked.
"Name's Kay," she replied. "And sorry, that's the only question I'm going to answer."
Janson rolled his eyes. "Well aren't you edgy. So now what?" He put on a mocking frown. "You gonna take me to jail?"
Kallux laughed wickedly as he pulled a cylindrical demolition charge from his belt and placed it on the center console. "Na. You blew it up."
Janson glanced down to the massive cannon the krogan gripped in his offhand. He didn't fear many things. But he didn't want to be on the receiving end of that.
"So what's the plan then?" He asked. "I know you RMC pussies don't know how to-"
"Lemme stop you right there," Kay interrupted firmly. "I'm not with the Red Moon Collective." She lowered her rifle and took a few steps forward. "Don't even really given a shit about 'em, to be honest. I actually think they're more than a little naive."
"Then what are you doing here?" Janson asked, clearly short of patience.
"I'm here to hurt you," Kay answered very matter-of-factly.
Janson set his jaw firmly. "Come on, really? With Kallux, the king of playing nice right behind you?"
She laughed and slid her rifle onto her back. "He knows damn well why I'm here. Truth is, neither of us wanted to be the one to do this. That was supposed to be someone else's job."
Her tone had changed drastically. Instead of cool and collected, she was now very clearly angry.
"Let me guess: that prick, Hume? The one that got gutted out on the boarding ramp?" Janson let out a fake gasp and lifted a hand over his mouth. "Oh, oh my goodness. That was it, wasn't it? I hope I didn't touch on a sensitive subject," he said as condescendingly as possible.
Kay smirked and put a hand on his shoulder. "Ya know, even if Will didn't have a damn thing to do with this, I still wouldn't think twice before ending you. Wanna know why?" She leaned forward and lowered her voice. "Because you're a slaving piece of shit."
Janson saw his chance. He grabbed the pistol from the desk beside him and swung it up to point at the woman, only to have her intercept his arm with her left hand. She gripped his wrist tight and fast, holding it in place as she stared him down and grabbed the knife on her belt with the other hand.
"Stupid move," she spat.
In a quick, fluid motion her right hand pulled the knife from its sheath and sliced it clean across his throat. Janson's eyes went wide as he gasped for air and gripped at the blood pouring from his neck. He dropped to his knees as Kay shoved the knife back into its sheath and turned away without another look. Kallux gave her a grim nod as she stepped past him. Together, they readied their weapons and exited the bridge as Janson's hands fell to his sides and the gasps for breath stopped.