Daggit reeled as Ryst's heel slammed into his face as she completed her back spin kick. Ryst was faster and more agile. She landed a dozen blows to every one of Daggit's.
Unfortunately for Ryst, she was 5'4" to his 6'4". This meant she had to work twice as hard to land many of her blows. As things stood, Daggit was getting punchy but Ryst was starting to get winded. He blinked and shook his head to clear the mental cobwebs.
Ryst surged forward and delivered two more left jabs to his heads followed by a vicious right cross. Daggit went down onto one knee. Gathering all of his strength he threw a massive roundhouse blow. Ryst was knocked off of her feet but she nimbly got back up. Daggit's head fell and his shoulders slumped.
Ryst stood over him, "I told you Rab. You can't beat me. Just let me go. I swear I won't ever come after Macen or any member of his crew again."
Daggit lifted his head, "Not good enough."
The walls, ceiling, and floor shook. The lights winked off and then came back on. Ryst grimaced, "Time to decide Rab. I'm leaving whether you try to stop me or not."
"No, you're not." Daggit started to rise. Ryst removed a small ball from her belt, closed her eyes and dropped it. The flashbomb went off with a blinding intensity. Daggit cried out and tried to shield his eyes with his hands.
Ryst delivered a powerful kick to his head, toppling him. She then grabbed his grenade launcher and her own phaser and ran out of the command centre. Daggit lolled on the floor desperately trying to recover his vision. Ryst ran for all she was worth and never looked back.
Macen bounced off of the wall and back into Sindis' waiting fist. Macen went to the floor but he was still conscious. Moving with unfocused deliberation he rose to his feet and turned to face Sindis. The Iridian smiled.
"Vaughn is a better fighter but I think you are more tenacious." Sindis chuckled, "I shall enjoying breaking you."
Sindis struck Macen in the head almost felling the El-Aurian again, "You and your Federation are to blame for my endeavors. Your collective goal is to take things. Oh, you're far too benighted and evolved to covet crass material gains. Instead, you suffer from intellectual greed. You want to know everything." Sindis declared, "Don't you know there's a limit to mortal knowledge? You pursue meaningless abstracts like truth, justice, and harmony. Let me reify these for you: I am those things! I will make them a reality for you…all of you. All you have to do is submit."
The building shook and the lights flickered. Sindis was annoyed, "It seems you've recruited help. I must cut our meeting short, Captain. Stand aside."
"No." Macen slurred, "I can't let you leave."
Sindis tried to step around him. Macen unloaded a right cross, followed by another. A left roundhouse pummelled Sindis followed by another tremendous right. Sindis stepped back and wiped his nose and mouth. Cerulean blood pooled on his hand.
"Foolish, Captain." Sindis snarled and snapped off a vicious kick into Macen's chest.
Macen sailed over the desk and into the wall. He fell to the floor. Sindis shook his head and started around the desk. Chuckling, Macen rose to his feet. In his hand was his long lost phaser.
"Do you know how long it's taken me to get you to throw me over that desk?" Macen said in mocking tones.
Sindis was outraged, "How dare you pull a gun on me!"
"You're twice as strong, twice as fast, and twice the fighter that I am and you expect me to fist fight with you?" Macen scornfully asked.
Sindis' face twisted with hate but he fell silent. Macen warned him, "This phaser is set on maximum disrupt. That would even kill an Angosian."
Sindis lunged forward and Macen shot him. Sindis fell to the floor with a gurgle. Macen shrugged, "You shouldn't have tested me."
Just then, Daggit stumbled in. Macen shifted his aim from the Angosian to the floor, "Are you all right?"
Daggit nodded, "Mostly. She used a flashbomb to get passed me. I'm still seeing spots."
"Any word on the others?" Macen moved away from the desk and leaned up against the wall next to the door.
"T'Kir is on her way with Starfleet reinforcements." Daggit's vision began to clear, "Are you all right? You look like you've been beaten half to death."
"You have no idea." Macen sighed, "Why don't you greet T'Kir. I think I'll just stay here and hold up this wall."
"You couldn't hold up dried paint." Daggit commented.
"Just go." Macen tiredly requested, "I'll be fine."
Daggit reluctantly exited the office space. Macen turned and noticed there was something odd about Sindis' corpse. The odd thing was that it was standing behind the desk and grinning.
"Farewell, Captain." Sindis said as he took his seat, "Better luck next time."
Macen raised his pistol but his vision was so blurry and his grip was so shaky he couldn't properly aim. Sindis keyed a sequence into the comp/comm and a portal opened up beneath Sindis' feet. The chair's seat dropped and Sindis found himself sliding into the tunnel revealed by the portal. Once inside he slid into an egg shaped jetpod that rocketed away to a safehouse hundreds of kilometres away.
Meanwhile, Macen's vision began to tunnel and he struggled to exit Sindis' office. As he cleared the doorway he heard T'Kir call out to him. He could sense, and hear, the concern emanating from her. He smiled wanly and tried to be chipper.
"How're you doing?" he enquired.
"Elements!" T'Kir exclaimed, "Brin! What happened to you?"
"Oh, m'fine." Macen was delirious, "Just havin' trouble focusing. I'll b'fine inna minute." With that, Macen collapsed.
"Brin!" T'Kir shrieked, "Elements! Somebody help!"
Guthrie and Forthright rushed to their side. Forthright, who was cross-trained as a medic, scanned Macen's still form, "He has a severe concussion, massive internal haemorrhaging. Most of his bones are fractured…several are acute breaks." She looked up at Guthrie, "He's going into shock. We need to evac him to medical facilities."
"Break out the stretcher." Guthrie ordered and then he tapped his comm badge, "Guthrie to T'Kris."
The Vulcan's cool voice came back a few minutes later, "T'Kris here, Commander. How may I be of assistance?"
"I need a sitrep." Guthrie informed her, marvelling at the serenity in her voice.
T'Kris' voice did not change one iota as she delivered the requested situation report, "We have met Covert Two. They have pursued the bulk of the facility's security forces as they fled to our present location. We now have the opposition caught in a crossfire."
"How're our two SID agents?" Guthrie asked.
"They seem satisfied with the turn of events." T'Kris replied.
That, Guthrie mused, was typical T'Kris. Succinct bordering on cryptic. After all, which of the pair seemed satisfied with what events? A little personal information would be nice.
Stop it. Guthrie chided himself; You're only doing this because Joachim's down there. Realising the truth of his observation, he subsided, "Good work T'Kris. Carry on. By the by, our team is bugging out. Captain Macen requires immediate medical attention. Are you certain Level One is clear?"
"Covert Two seemed confidant of their declaration." T'Kris answered.
"We'll trust their judgement." He decided, "Guthrie out."
He turned to see that Forthright and Seemus had extended and adjusted the stretcher. They gingerly lifted Macen and placed him atop of it. Daggit intervened at that point.
"I'll take that Master Chief." He said, "It sounds as though we may need an extra gunhand. My vision is still too spotty to be reliable. I can carry my Captain though. More to the point, my duty lies with him."
Seemus approved of this sentiment and acceded to the request. Daggit took the rear of the stretcher, carrying Macen's chest and upper torso, and lifted as Forthright did the same. With T'Kir leading the way they hustled Macen out of the centre and off towards the Citadel's main entrance.
After fleeing from the command bunker, Ryst went to a nearby stairwell. She crept the door open and discreetly listened. Echoing down the well came T'Kir's voice. Joining it were other voices, presumably Starfleet officers. After all, Macen's group couldn't have destroyed the phaser banks on their own.
Ryst slowly closed the door. She'd meant what she said to Daggit. She'd no longer try to kill Macen or his team. That included fighting with them.
Ryst had failed the last wishes of Robhurt B'nner and through him his son Daveed. She decided she didn't care. The path of vengeance led to her own early grave. She had her life and she had a bright new future to explore. She was determined to enjoy it.
Now, she just had to disappear. Starfleet wouldn't remain on Mityr forever. Once they were gone, and before Sindis could reassert control, she'd board her runabout and be away from here.
She slipped further down the corridor and entered an adjoining stairwell. She then climbed the stairs to the floor with the entrance to the executive landing platform. Between fighting Daggit and taking the stairs two at a time, she was feeling quite tired.
As she passed the pirate corpses, she realized her fatigue ran deeper than her joints and marrow. Her very soul ached. She fought the urge to laugh at herself. It had been years since she had believed in anything as ethereal as a soul. Maybe she was in for more drastic changes within herself then she'd initially expected.
Ryst crossed the landing platform and reached her runabout. Her voice recognition system coupled with her biosignature reader recognized her and granted her access to the runabout's interior. She sealed and locked the door behind her.
She moved to the cockpit and brought up auxiliary power. The ship had been resting on standby. This move would bring up all of the power systems. She placed the warp core on standby and moved out of the cockpit.
Slipping out of her clothes, she took a shower. Next she applied a dermal regenerator to her bruised and battered body. She simply dressed in a terrycloth robe and proceeded to her multimedia suite. She wasn't normally a fan of fictional distractions but the complimentary selections included several documentaries and textbooks. She engrossed herself in them and forgot about the world outside.