Finishing What's Left
~Time served on the Earth doesn't mean we grow in mind~ Creed
Night. It can be as cold as death itself. It can be death. The land is changed from a land of sunny glory to the void of unending terror. Unseen things tend to lurk only a few feet away in the shadows. Things that only appear at night, when no one can see any of them. Voices float in and out from nowhere, and they tend to mess with your head.
The city is a busy place, especially when it's light. The crusiers floating all arround, the engines filling the air with thier noise. The factories wich assemble these crusiers, the robotic machines putting them together. The noise from any other distraction iminent in the hot air. It is like a smog, the dust and grime floating in the air seems to get inside your lungs and asphixiate them.
At night the city is different. The hot arid air is replaced by the cool night weather. The only noise is from the occasional ship leaving and entering the ports. The small creatures in the alleyways knocking over trash cans to get what tiny morsels of food are in there. The soft breezes flowing through the buildings and into the open windows. Sometimes in the ghetto you can hear the crescendo of the blaster rounds from the gang wars. And on rare occasions you can hear the local gang's bombs detonating. This night was a quiet night.
Over the city flew the Ops transport. It cut through the air and sped furiously to the secret bunker where it was at home. It was a sillouhette against the dark sky, the smooth body glistened in the moonlight. The turbines under the two stubby wings and under the cockpit seemed to whine. On the underside of the ship was a hitch-hiker. A four armed, blue one at that.
The cold night air whipped arround him as he watched the city speed by. His ears, antena and barbs moved in the wind. The only thing he could do was hold on, to move would be suicide. He was worried about three things. How would he get back? Would Jumba thing he deserted him? What am I going to do about this base where I'm headed? These thoughts raced in his mind, he had the answer to only one of them. He would destroy the base, and every one inside. He was sure it would be better that way. He yawned, it was late and he needed something ot eat, his stomach growled constantly.
626 noticed as the black cruiser hovered above a tall building, he though it looked like a Gothic Cathedral, with all the gargoyles and the windows that were leafed. The ship paused for a second, for a reason he did not know. There was a flash from the roof, alight or beacon. The black Ops ship blinked a light on the under belly of the plane. 626 thought he would be spotted, he held his breath. The plane hovered off, into the forest outside the city.
He watched the trees below him, the faint smell of pine reached his sensitive nose. He thought the thing on the roof of the building had seen him and now the pilot was going to get rid of him by running the cruiser really low over the tree tops. He was looking for a place to ditch. The hoverer stopped too soon. It floated over a clearing in the forest. He twisted his head arround to see the ground. He was just about ready to drop when the ground moved. A seam appeared in the grass, it widened to reveal a blackness. The transport ship lowered into the hole. He felt the cold change. The cruiser turned on the headlights. He saw a long underground path. The ship lurched as it took off.
He shivered at the coldness of the sub-terrainian passageway. He felt his ears pop. There was a noticeable change in the pressure. The craft continued to fly through the void. He felt this would go on forever. Suddenly the dark hallway gave way to a spaceous hangar with ample light. He blinked at the excessive light. The smell of oil and fuel reached his nose. The ship slipped onto one of many landing pads that wasn't occupied. The landing gear hissed as it deployed. It touched down on the concrete floor of the docking port.
The rear access door slowly went down. A dissappionted Skeff and crew slowly walked out from the interior of the stuffy ship. They heared toward the tall grey door at the end of the long narrow walk.
* * *
Darfinis Maurader sat at the console, staring blankly at it.He was watching the Council over the A/V feed that was put dirrectly into his small palm computer. He knew he was taking a risk when he brought it here, they could treck him with it. He sighed at the verdict. The Council sent so many convicts to maximium security asteroids. They would have to put in funding for more out-of-the-way deserted asteroids so they could erect more prisons. The United Mining Federation wouldn't like this, the Council was always purging thier asteroids for things like this. He sighed and slunk into the chair.
There was a sharp tap on the door. "Come in." Maurader huffed. General Skeff slid indide and quietly shut the door. He seemed to stare at Darfinis, which made him uneasy. "Have a seat." Darfinis motioned. He pulled up a black chair from the desk and sat down. Skeff was waiting untill he had Maurader's full attention. Now he was looking at his small screen, apaprrently absorbed in it. He pulled a cigar from a case he carried inside his jacket and lit it. He blew rings into the air while he waited for him to finish up what ever he was doing. After a few more minutes and six cigars Darfinis shut the monitor off.
Both men stared into eachother's eyes. Darfinis gave a 'well?' look, Skeff under stood. "Sir, about the mission, uh, we encountered some, uh, hang- ups." He stated unsurely. "How many did we lose?" Darfinis asked. "Sir, I regret to say this, but. All of them. Never stood a chance. We stared losing contact when they neared the controll room." Skeff said shakily. "Were the bodies distroyed?" Skeff nodded. Darfinis stood up and walked to an aquarium in the corner of the room and stared into it. He sighed. "We have only two more options." He said, apparently to thin air. "Sir?" Skeff asked. Darfinis sighed again. "The only one I am willing to reveal is this. We offer Dr. Jookiba a large sum of money. More than he has ever seen. In exchange for either his services or everything he has on this 'Experiment 626' He will not refuse." "And if he does?" "Then I initiate my other plan." "And that would be..." Skeff asked. "It will give us '626' and it might create the upheval in the system we need." An evil grin crossed Maurader's face. Skeff smiled too.
* * *
He didn't know exactly what he would do, except kill and destroy everthing that looked important. After the occupants from the ship left he dropped onto the cold concrete floor. He surveyed the area. There were six landing pads and a door on the end of the long walkways that went into grey doors. He looked down onto the floor low below. It was a long way down, about ten meters. There was a ship, half dismantled. Obvoiusly they were fixing it. The pieces lay all arround the floor, in neat rows. No definsible position if he was attacked. He hoped that beyond the grey door there was a better place for battle.
While walking up to the door he imagined huge open rooms and seemingly roofless areas where he could reak havoc. He only had two of his yellow Federation blasters, practically useless against heavy armor. But then again the soldiers didn't have any armor over their heads, he was so low to the ground it didn't matter. He could though, shoot up throught the groinal area and into the chest cavity. He grinned at this thought.
The door slid open when he approached. Either they wanted to lure him in, or any body who had gotten this far deserved to go in. When he entered there were no cavernous areas or roofless voids. There were narrow halls and small offices. Even better than the huge idea.
While walking down the long main hall he realized there were two things he needed. A map and a bite to eat. He didn't know where to get either. He soon made a map in his head. He'd passed nine offices then ran into a dead end. He re-traced his steps and started all over. He was getting frustrated when he found that the whole level he was on was a perfectly square. With nine by nine offices. He decided to head for the middle of the area.
So far he'd not seen any cameras, or any one for that matter. He realized that it was the dead of night and everyone was probably home. His stomach churned when he thought that word, home. To his relief he found an elevator in the dead center of the square. He triead pressing the button on the side of the door way. Nothing. He then looked higher, there was a keycard scanner above the button. He cursed. Where would he get a keycard. He headed for the nearest office.
He pushed open the nearest office door he could find. A smell of familliarity washed over him. The office was strewn with papers and other objects. The bookcases had been tipped over and at the desk sat a small alien who was hunched over, a bottle of blue liquid in one hand and a cup in the other. Although the room smelled clean it wasn't. He noisily made his way over to where the strange alien lay. He crawled between the legs and looked up, he saw a blue keycard. He reached up and tore it from the white shirt. Before he left, 626 grabbed the bottle that the man was holding.
He spat at the sour taste, it wasn't wine or any brew, it was window cleaner, the man inside had comitted suicide. Probaly over the loss of his job, or he was being downsized instead of moved up. Or maybe he had gotten in to far, into something that killed him. Although the cleaner wouldn't harm, him he dispised the taste. He threw the bottle against the nearest wall. He swiped the keycard and the elevator beeped. While he waited he stuck the keycard into his pocket. He heard the elevator hum into the port. He feared for the worse, he took out his blasters and put them on stun, then he pointed his blasters toward the door.
The doors slowly slid open. Inside were two gaurds talking to each other. They didn't notice 626, they continued to talk. 626 on the other hand saw them. He waited for them to see him. They still didn't. He put a round into each of their heads. The two life less bodies slumped to the floor. He pocketed his guins and pulled them out of the elevator, leaving a trail of blood. He went into the elevator and examined the buttons on the wall. They were all labeled according to floor. Floor 1 - Offices, Floor 2 - Controll, Floor 3 - Barracks, Floor 4 - Archives, Floor 5 - Intell. He chose the most suiting, he pressed 2, controll. The elevator doors closed and it hummed off.
* * *
Darfinis Maurader exited the elevator. He had been in there way too long, he hoped his hologram worked. Now all he had to do was get inside the range of the generator and shut it off and act like he went to the cafeteria for a drink or something. The Illegal Federation he'd raised from the dust had come along way from the decrepid old house on the out skirts of Tirivis (The city where they are, also the capital of the planet.) He'd secretly funneled several hundred dollars into a new, temporary base. Then he got together the greatest Drug lords of Turo, trained them militarily and started his empire. He dealt in Drug trafficking and the production and distribution of illegal armnaments. They were now a multi-billion dollar Empire that owned half of the Council, money could pursuede the hardest of men. Business was good.
He breathed the fresh air of the night before he stepped into his pritvate cruiser. He told the driver to head for the Council Senate. The huge building dirrectly in the center of the city. The green ship sped off and got into the traffic high above the ground.
* * *
The elevator was almost to the destination. He readied his blasters and waited. He knew the controll center would be filled with computer geeks and other types, and there would be alot of them, most likely armed. He really didn't want to ring off the general alarm yet, but he had no choice. He'd spotted fire doors that closed whenever the fire alarms rung off. all he had to do to end this was close the fire doors and create a huge explosion. He could also justify his actions. This was the drug lord's main lodge, they also produced weapons of mass destrucion. There fore they should be put out. But then Jumba was also manufacturing weapons of mass desrtucion."What the heck." he mumbled.
The elevator doors burst open. 626 peered into the barrels of eight Ops- men, all wearing heavy armor. In the back of the room filled with computers and printers were the technitians, they were huddled in a corner. He had two blasters and they had assault riffles. He cursed himself for not grabbing the soldier's guns. They shouted for him to put the weapons down, but he was off and thinking, not paying attention to them. He could either put his weapons down and live to see the sun again. Or errupt in a hail of rounds, there was a good chance the Ops were expecting this, they seemed tense. Both of the side knew that all it took was a shot to blow this thing. He furiosly looked arround for a better weapon. The tension was growing, 626 wouldn't budge and the Ops were getting restless. 626 yawned, revealing a set of nice sharp teeth, he could stay here all night. Then his stomach rumbled.
The situation got worse. The Ops got touchy, they moved in closer. 626 was now really looking for another way out of this. He stared at the Ops. He looked over their armnaments. Riffle, extra rounds, plasma grenades, flashlight, gas grenades. Gas grenades! They were filled with a hazy like substance under pressure. He noticed they were three on their vests. He though hard. He could fire at two of them, kill the Opsmen and release the cloaking clouds of cover. He grinned.
He braced himself, getting ready to do this. He jumped into the air, towards the Opsmen. His timing had to be right. He shot two rounds. He still continued to float through the air when he heard a hiss then the sound of the rounds going into them. He was about to reach the ground when the air exploded into a grey haze. He rolled when he touched the floor and spun in a 180 degree circle and opened fire. The Ops men did the same. There were green riffle rounds flying everywhere and there were yellow blaster rounds hitting from where the riffle rounds came from.
It was all over in a matter of seconds. There was a groan of a wounded man somewhere. The smoke still hung in the air, thicker from the gunfire. 626 couldn't see but a few figures and the outlines of the Opsmen and the controll consoles. The Ops men, in panic, had shot the other soldiers arround them, between their rounds and 626's rounds they were decimated.
He waited for a few seconds to confirm they were all out. When he was sure they were he headed for the controll panels. When he reached them, to his surprize, they were all shot up. The soldiers had fired in everywhich dirrection, and now they ruined them. There were three operational monitors though. He looked into them, on them he saw soldiers and Opsmen running about the place. They were obviously comming to the controll room. He turned arround and went to find the soldiers weapons, the ammount of armed men he'd seen told him there would be one heck of a fire fight.
He thought he'd done enough dammage to the corporation, now he had to get outta here. He stole a quick glace at the map of the facility on the wall and memorized it. He headed for the narrow hallway in the middle of the current floor. After that there would be an elevator, straight out of here. He saw the doors, only fifty feet away. He han hard, as fast as his small legs could carry him. The nearer he got it seemed so far away. He was three feet from the door. He dived into the closed doors. Safe.
He pressed the up button and waited. 626 heard the grinding from the old elevator as it came down. He sighed in relief. A huge explosion rocked the ground where he was. He was thrown off his feet and slid away from the doors as the ground continued to shake. He rolled over to see what had happened after the grounds stopped. He didn't see anything amiss on the first sweep of the room. He turned to the elevator, smoke was comming from the crack in the closed doors. He gave a frustrated yell and began to pry the doors open. Inside he found the walls of the shaft bent and red hot. The elevator was an inferno at the bottom. He guessed the only thing that could do this was some form of napalm bomb. They'd laid in in the elevator to try and kill him.
626's attention was turned from the elevator to the sound from arround the corner. He'd been occupied with the explosion he didn't notice the Ops creep up onto him. They now stood arround the corner, waiting. He jumped behind a plant by the elevator doors which now hung agape. He watched as a mirror was poked from arround the corner. He raised the riffle and put a round into the center of the mirror. He sneered as the soldier holding the mirror cursed. He heard them talking quietly, he listened in. "I didn't see him." he heard. "We go on three." "One." pause. "Two." .... "Three!".
Instead of one team behind the left corner, there were two, one behind the right corner. The line of troops sped up the long hallway. 626 waited, better to have surprize then to show yourself and get shot. He was hiding behind the pot, estimating the time when they'd be where he wanted. They moved so silently he couldn't hear them. 'Ok, they should be there...... Now!' 626 whipped from behind the pot and hurled himself into the air.
The same creepy thing happened as it had two times before. Time seemed to slow down. He looked at the soldiers, a few more steps and they would have found 626. This threw things off, now they were too close. He saw the helmet grow big. Then he smacked into it. He tried grabbing for it with his free paws.
The soldiers just saw something jump into the air. They fired where it was. 626 was clutched onto the soldier's helmet, triying to hold on and get to the ground. He turned arround to see the soldier's firing. The deadly laser rounds were comming close. He leapt off and into the air. The shots hit the soldier's helmet and went into his head. 626 watched in slow motion, the shot went into the head, slowly emmerged out the otherside, brains and blood with it. Then the whole skull seemed to suck in. Then it expanded and exploded, sending blood every where.
He hit the ground and things returned to normal time. The fragments and blood that hung in the air flew fast and hit the wall. The soldier fell over. The soldiers realized their errors, and started shooting at the orange and blue thing on the floor. 626 was faster, he answered with a hail of blaster rounds. He heard the armor crack at such a close range. Tiny spurts of blood came from under the black suits. He continued to fire. He grunted as something hit his stomach. He ignored it and fired into the crowd of soldiers.
The last black body armored soldier fell into the ever growing pool of blood from the acidental shot to the soldier's head. 626 stop shooting. The soldiers were all gone. "Ha! No man is taller than the last man standing." he sneered. That was out of the way, now all he had to do was leave. He peered up the elevator shaft. The smoke had cleared and now he could see the light from the open doors at the top. He knew what he had to do. He pocketed his blasters and jumped to the wall on the inside of the shaft and started his climb up.
* * *
The comm rang, the insistent sound of the annoying buzzer. 'Who the heck would be calling now?' Darfinis thought. He opened his lead weights for eyelids and stared at the red numbers on the clock. "Holy Shit!, It's 2200 hours." (remember the 38 hour Turian day) "This had better be good." He removed the covers from his body and felt the cold night air. He reached over to his nightstand and picked up the reciever. "Hello?" he said. "Mr. Darfinis, sir, this is Birf, the Security gaurd at the Grevold." he stopped. "Yes? and what impells you to call me at this time of night?" Dafrinis snapped. "Uh... sir, something has happened... uh. I'll call you later." the gaurd said hesitantly. "No, no. Tell me." Darfinis reassured him. "Ok, here goes. There has been a level one security breach. Three squads tried to get it under controll. Now there all dead. All vital systems distroyed and a good portion of the base is on fire." Darfinis stopped dead. The center of the operations was gone. He'd just been there a few hours ago. He was furious. "Find out who was responcible and inform me when you do." He slammed down the reciever on the base. He got up and headed for the shower.
He thought about the cover up at first. They would definately send out an investigation team. Then they would discover the base. There would be a drastic decrease in the illegal smuggling. The Galactic police would claim responcibility, and that would spook all the low competitors into stopping. He'd have to issue the order of destroying the building, and blame the explosion on the planetary rights activists. He'd have to contact all his major ascociates and inform them. Get help for the rebuilding of the new base and maybe get some new smuggling friends. But he still would have to deal with Dr. Jumba and his experiments, to try and pursuede him into selling one, or two. Today would be a long day.
* * *
He was three feet from the top when his stomach growled. He stopped and waited from the pain to go away. 626's breathing got shallow, the pain increased. He slowly looked down. He saw what had hit him. He winced as he touched where the round had hit him, dirrectly in the stomach. "This shouldn't have happened" he mumbled. He wondered why the round had any effect on him. He though for a few seconds. The pain went away, for now. He heaved up the last feet, and rolled onto the floor gasping. He watched the ceiling spin. He closed his eyes. A few seconds later he recovered and shakily got to his feet. He pulled out a blaster and headed for the front door.
He walked across the huge lobby that was strewn with various plants and designer couches. He smelled the air and coughed, on the air was a foul smell of plastic burning. The wound on his chest started to bleed, very slightly though. He slowed his pace when he heard a vehicle outside, it hovered in the air then left. The fresh cool air from the night felt good. He'd been breathing in the same musty, smokey air in the base for several hours. He hadn't realized he'd been down there for a long time. He looked down the street and into the sky. The night was dissappearing and the red disk was not far from comming up. There were already the telltale signs of the dawn. He limped down the steps and into the street.
* * *
He was having a nice dream. He had won the award for the farthest advancement in geneological enhancement, and was now sitting on the shore of the great Turian Ocean. His experiments were there too, except they were doing something in the back of him. He watched as 327 approached him. She then started shaking him violently arround.
He awoke to find 327 was shaking him, well his bed actually. He sat up and looked down at her. There was an expression of concern and worry on he face. "What is it now?" Jumba said sleepily. He rubbed his eyes with his large hands. "I found something you should see." 327 said, and pointed out the door. "I'll see it in a minute." he yawned. "No, you have to come now." there was a dead look of seriousness upon her face. Jumba got out of bed, didn't bother to take off his pajamas and went to se whan all the fuss was about.
"It was here this morning when we woke up." 625 said, clutching a sandwich in one paw. Jumba looked down at the piles of restrained soldiers. "Was there anything else? Or just this." he asked. "There were several riffles, but I put them into the armory." 625 said, staring into his sandwich. "What model?" Jumba asked. 327 spoke up, "There were three Viktov 7's and two other dammaged riffles that I couldn't make out." Jumba sighed. He knew that those riflles were commonly used by Special Ops forces. Jumba then looked at the computers, there was a slimy coating on all of them. "What about the computers?" "Haven't tried them yet." 327 said. "Oh yea Doc," 625 blurted out, "Guess what. 6-" 327 whacked him. Jumba sighed. "Let me guess, 626 is gone right?" 625 said nothing, fearing he'd get hit again. "Yes." 327 said. He sighed again, "Let's get this cleaned up." "I've kept the soldiers under with tranquilizers." 327 informed Jumba. "We'll find a nice spot to dump them later."
* * *
He didn't know how long he'd walked, the only thing he knew was the growing pain on the outside and on the inside of his stomach. The sun was nearly up now. There was the ever constant smell of food in the air. He didn't stop, he pressed on. He'd seen three cruisers already, that meant the shops were opening up. Thee had been a few aliens on the street, but they gave him no indication that he was there.
He was getting weak and weary, he had to stop and rest or get something to eat. He didn't have any credits, nor did he want a meal he'd killed for. He looked for a hideout. An alley. 626 walked inside the small narrow space filled with old couches and other furniture. He flopped down onto a mattress hidden under a table. He breathed heavily for a few seconds, then fell asleep.
~Time served on the Earth doesn't mean we grow in mind~ Creed
Night. It can be as cold as death itself. It can be death. The land is changed from a land of sunny glory to the void of unending terror. Unseen things tend to lurk only a few feet away in the shadows. Things that only appear at night, when no one can see any of them. Voices float in and out from nowhere, and they tend to mess with your head.
The city is a busy place, especially when it's light. The crusiers floating all arround, the engines filling the air with thier noise. The factories wich assemble these crusiers, the robotic machines putting them together. The noise from any other distraction iminent in the hot air. It is like a smog, the dust and grime floating in the air seems to get inside your lungs and asphixiate them.
At night the city is different. The hot arid air is replaced by the cool night weather. The only noise is from the occasional ship leaving and entering the ports. The small creatures in the alleyways knocking over trash cans to get what tiny morsels of food are in there. The soft breezes flowing through the buildings and into the open windows. Sometimes in the ghetto you can hear the crescendo of the blaster rounds from the gang wars. And on rare occasions you can hear the local gang's bombs detonating. This night was a quiet night.
Over the city flew the Ops transport. It cut through the air and sped furiously to the secret bunker where it was at home. It was a sillouhette against the dark sky, the smooth body glistened in the moonlight. The turbines under the two stubby wings and under the cockpit seemed to whine. On the underside of the ship was a hitch-hiker. A four armed, blue one at that.
The cold night air whipped arround him as he watched the city speed by. His ears, antena and barbs moved in the wind. The only thing he could do was hold on, to move would be suicide. He was worried about three things. How would he get back? Would Jumba thing he deserted him? What am I going to do about this base where I'm headed? These thoughts raced in his mind, he had the answer to only one of them. He would destroy the base, and every one inside. He was sure it would be better that way. He yawned, it was late and he needed something ot eat, his stomach growled constantly.
626 noticed as the black cruiser hovered above a tall building, he though it looked like a Gothic Cathedral, with all the gargoyles and the windows that were leafed. The ship paused for a second, for a reason he did not know. There was a flash from the roof, alight or beacon. The black Ops ship blinked a light on the under belly of the plane. 626 thought he would be spotted, he held his breath. The plane hovered off, into the forest outside the city.
He watched the trees below him, the faint smell of pine reached his sensitive nose. He thought the thing on the roof of the building had seen him and now the pilot was going to get rid of him by running the cruiser really low over the tree tops. He was looking for a place to ditch. The hoverer stopped too soon. It floated over a clearing in the forest. He twisted his head arround to see the ground. He was just about ready to drop when the ground moved. A seam appeared in the grass, it widened to reveal a blackness. The transport ship lowered into the hole. He felt the cold change. The cruiser turned on the headlights. He saw a long underground path. The ship lurched as it took off.
He shivered at the coldness of the sub-terrainian passageway. He felt his ears pop. There was a noticeable change in the pressure. The craft continued to fly through the void. He felt this would go on forever. Suddenly the dark hallway gave way to a spaceous hangar with ample light. He blinked at the excessive light. The smell of oil and fuel reached his nose. The ship slipped onto one of many landing pads that wasn't occupied. The landing gear hissed as it deployed. It touched down on the concrete floor of the docking port.
The rear access door slowly went down. A dissappionted Skeff and crew slowly walked out from the interior of the stuffy ship. They heared toward the tall grey door at the end of the long narrow walk.
* * *
Darfinis Maurader sat at the console, staring blankly at it.He was watching the Council over the A/V feed that was put dirrectly into his small palm computer. He knew he was taking a risk when he brought it here, they could treck him with it. He sighed at the verdict. The Council sent so many convicts to maximium security asteroids. They would have to put in funding for more out-of-the-way deserted asteroids so they could erect more prisons. The United Mining Federation wouldn't like this, the Council was always purging thier asteroids for things like this. He sighed and slunk into the chair.
There was a sharp tap on the door. "Come in." Maurader huffed. General Skeff slid indide and quietly shut the door. He seemed to stare at Darfinis, which made him uneasy. "Have a seat." Darfinis motioned. He pulled up a black chair from the desk and sat down. Skeff was waiting untill he had Maurader's full attention. Now he was looking at his small screen, apaprrently absorbed in it. He pulled a cigar from a case he carried inside his jacket and lit it. He blew rings into the air while he waited for him to finish up what ever he was doing. After a few more minutes and six cigars Darfinis shut the monitor off.
Both men stared into eachother's eyes. Darfinis gave a 'well?' look, Skeff under stood. "Sir, about the mission, uh, we encountered some, uh, hang- ups." He stated unsurely. "How many did we lose?" Darfinis asked. "Sir, I regret to say this, but. All of them. Never stood a chance. We stared losing contact when they neared the controll room." Skeff said shakily. "Were the bodies distroyed?" Skeff nodded. Darfinis stood up and walked to an aquarium in the corner of the room and stared into it. He sighed. "We have only two more options." He said, apparently to thin air. "Sir?" Skeff asked. Darfinis sighed again. "The only one I am willing to reveal is this. We offer Dr. Jookiba a large sum of money. More than he has ever seen. In exchange for either his services or everything he has on this 'Experiment 626' He will not refuse." "And if he does?" "Then I initiate my other plan." "And that would be..." Skeff asked. "It will give us '626' and it might create the upheval in the system we need." An evil grin crossed Maurader's face. Skeff smiled too.
* * *
He didn't know exactly what he would do, except kill and destroy everthing that looked important. After the occupants from the ship left he dropped onto the cold concrete floor. He surveyed the area. There were six landing pads and a door on the end of the long walkways that went into grey doors. He looked down onto the floor low below. It was a long way down, about ten meters. There was a ship, half dismantled. Obvoiusly they were fixing it. The pieces lay all arround the floor, in neat rows. No definsible position if he was attacked. He hoped that beyond the grey door there was a better place for battle.
While walking up to the door he imagined huge open rooms and seemingly roofless areas where he could reak havoc. He only had two of his yellow Federation blasters, practically useless against heavy armor. But then again the soldiers didn't have any armor over their heads, he was so low to the ground it didn't matter. He could though, shoot up throught the groinal area and into the chest cavity. He grinned at this thought.
The door slid open when he approached. Either they wanted to lure him in, or any body who had gotten this far deserved to go in. When he entered there were no cavernous areas or roofless voids. There were narrow halls and small offices. Even better than the huge idea.
While walking down the long main hall he realized there were two things he needed. A map and a bite to eat. He didn't know where to get either. He soon made a map in his head. He'd passed nine offices then ran into a dead end. He re-traced his steps and started all over. He was getting frustrated when he found that the whole level he was on was a perfectly square. With nine by nine offices. He decided to head for the middle of the area.
So far he'd not seen any cameras, or any one for that matter. He realized that it was the dead of night and everyone was probably home. His stomach churned when he thought that word, home. To his relief he found an elevator in the dead center of the square. He triead pressing the button on the side of the door way. Nothing. He then looked higher, there was a keycard scanner above the button. He cursed. Where would he get a keycard. He headed for the nearest office.
He pushed open the nearest office door he could find. A smell of familliarity washed over him. The office was strewn with papers and other objects. The bookcases had been tipped over and at the desk sat a small alien who was hunched over, a bottle of blue liquid in one hand and a cup in the other. Although the room smelled clean it wasn't. He noisily made his way over to where the strange alien lay. He crawled between the legs and looked up, he saw a blue keycard. He reached up and tore it from the white shirt. Before he left, 626 grabbed the bottle that the man was holding.
He spat at the sour taste, it wasn't wine or any brew, it was window cleaner, the man inside had comitted suicide. Probaly over the loss of his job, or he was being downsized instead of moved up. Or maybe he had gotten in to far, into something that killed him. Although the cleaner wouldn't harm, him he dispised the taste. He threw the bottle against the nearest wall. He swiped the keycard and the elevator beeped. While he waited he stuck the keycard into his pocket. He heard the elevator hum into the port. He feared for the worse, he took out his blasters and put them on stun, then he pointed his blasters toward the door.
The doors slowly slid open. Inside were two gaurds talking to each other. They didn't notice 626, they continued to talk. 626 on the other hand saw them. He waited for them to see him. They still didn't. He put a round into each of their heads. The two life less bodies slumped to the floor. He pocketed his guins and pulled them out of the elevator, leaving a trail of blood. He went into the elevator and examined the buttons on the wall. They were all labeled according to floor. Floor 1 - Offices, Floor 2 - Controll, Floor 3 - Barracks, Floor 4 - Archives, Floor 5 - Intell. He chose the most suiting, he pressed 2, controll. The elevator doors closed and it hummed off.
* * *
Darfinis Maurader exited the elevator. He had been in there way too long, he hoped his hologram worked. Now all he had to do was get inside the range of the generator and shut it off and act like he went to the cafeteria for a drink or something. The Illegal Federation he'd raised from the dust had come along way from the decrepid old house on the out skirts of Tirivis (The city where they are, also the capital of the planet.) He'd secretly funneled several hundred dollars into a new, temporary base. Then he got together the greatest Drug lords of Turo, trained them militarily and started his empire. He dealt in Drug trafficking and the production and distribution of illegal armnaments. They were now a multi-billion dollar Empire that owned half of the Council, money could pursuede the hardest of men. Business was good.
He breathed the fresh air of the night before he stepped into his pritvate cruiser. He told the driver to head for the Council Senate. The huge building dirrectly in the center of the city. The green ship sped off and got into the traffic high above the ground.
* * *
The elevator was almost to the destination. He readied his blasters and waited. He knew the controll center would be filled with computer geeks and other types, and there would be alot of them, most likely armed. He really didn't want to ring off the general alarm yet, but he had no choice. He'd spotted fire doors that closed whenever the fire alarms rung off. all he had to do to end this was close the fire doors and create a huge explosion. He could also justify his actions. This was the drug lord's main lodge, they also produced weapons of mass destrucion. There fore they should be put out. But then Jumba was also manufacturing weapons of mass desrtucion."What the heck." he mumbled.
The elevator doors burst open. 626 peered into the barrels of eight Ops- men, all wearing heavy armor. In the back of the room filled with computers and printers were the technitians, they were huddled in a corner. He had two blasters and they had assault riffles. He cursed himself for not grabbing the soldier's guns. They shouted for him to put the weapons down, but he was off and thinking, not paying attention to them. He could either put his weapons down and live to see the sun again. Or errupt in a hail of rounds, there was a good chance the Ops were expecting this, they seemed tense. Both of the side knew that all it took was a shot to blow this thing. He furiosly looked arround for a better weapon. The tension was growing, 626 wouldn't budge and the Ops were getting restless. 626 yawned, revealing a set of nice sharp teeth, he could stay here all night. Then his stomach rumbled.
The situation got worse. The Ops got touchy, they moved in closer. 626 was now really looking for another way out of this. He stared at the Ops. He looked over their armnaments. Riffle, extra rounds, plasma grenades, flashlight, gas grenades. Gas grenades! They were filled with a hazy like substance under pressure. He noticed they were three on their vests. He though hard. He could fire at two of them, kill the Opsmen and release the cloaking clouds of cover. He grinned.
He braced himself, getting ready to do this. He jumped into the air, towards the Opsmen. His timing had to be right. He shot two rounds. He still continued to float through the air when he heard a hiss then the sound of the rounds going into them. He was about to reach the ground when the air exploded into a grey haze. He rolled when he touched the floor and spun in a 180 degree circle and opened fire. The Ops men did the same. There were green riffle rounds flying everywhere and there were yellow blaster rounds hitting from where the riffle rounds came from.
It was all over in a matter of seconds. There was a groan of a wounded man somewhere. The smoke still hung in the air, thicker from the gunfire. 626 couldn't see but a few figures and the outlines of the Opsmen and the controll consoles. The Ops men, in panic, had shot the other soldiers arround them, between their rounds and 626's rounds they were decimated.
He waited for a few seconds to confirm they were all out. When he was sure they were he headed for the controll panels. When he reached them, to his surprize, they were all shot up. The soldiers had fired in everywhich dirrection, and now they ruined them. There were three operational monitors though. He looked into them, on them he saw soldiers and Opsmen running about the place. They were obviously comming to the controll room. He turned arround and went to find the soldiers weapons, the ammount of armed men he'd seen told him there would be one heck of a fire fight.
He thought he'd done enough dammage to the corporation, now he had to get outta here. He stole a quick glace at the map of the facility on the wall and memorized it. He headed for the narrow hallway in the middle of the current floor. After that there would be an elevator, straight out of here. He saw the doors, only fifty feet away. He han hard, as fast as his small legs could carry him. The nearer he got it seemed so far away. He was three feet from the door. He dived into the closed doors. Safe.
He pressed the up button and waited. 626 heard the grinding from the old elevator as it came down. He sighed in relief. A huge explosion rocked the ground where he was. He was thrown off his feet and slid away from the doors as the ground continued to shake. He rolled over to see what had happened after the grounds stopped. He didn't see anything amiss on the first sweep of the room. He turned to the elevator, smoke was comming from the crack in the closed doors. He gave a frustrated yell and began to pry the doors open. Inside he found the walls of the shaft bent and red hot. The elevator was an inferno at the bottom. He guessed the only thing that could do this was some form of napalm bomb. They'd laid in in the elevator to try and kill him.
626's attention was turned from the elevator to the sound from arround the corner. He'd been occupied with the explosion he didn't notice the Ops creep up onto him. They now stood arround the corner, waiting. He jumped behind a plant by the elevator doors which now hung agape. He watched as a mirror was poked from arround the corner. He raised the riffle and put a round into the center of the mirror. He sneered as the soldier holding the mirror cursed. He heard them talking quietly, he listened in. "I didn't see him." he heard. "We go on three." "One." pause. "Two." .... "Three!".
Instead of one team behind the left corner, there were two, one behind the right corner. The line of troops sped up the long hallway. 626 waited, better to have surprize then to show yourself and get shot. He was hiding behind the pot, estimating the time when they'd be where he wanted. They moved so silently he couldn't hear them. 'Ok, they should be there...... Now!' 626 whipped from behind the pot and hurled himself into the air.
The same creepy thing happened as it had two times before. Time seemed to slow down. He looked at the soldiers, a few more steps and they would have found 626. This threw things off, now they were too close. He saw the helmet grow big. Then he smacked into it. He tried grabbing for it with his free paws.
The soldiers just saw something jump into the air. They fired where it was. 626 was clutched onto the soldier's helmet, triying to hold on and get to the ground. He turned arround to see the soldier's firing. The deadly laser rounds were comming close. He leapt off and into the air. The shots hit the soldier's helmet and went into his head. 626 watched in slow motion, the shot went into the head, slowly emmerged out the otherside, brains and blood with it. Then the whole skull seemed to suck in. Then it expanded and exploded, sending blood every where.
He hit the ground and things returned to normal time. The fragments and blood that hung in the air flew fast and hit the wall. The soldier fell over. The soldiers realized their errors, and started shooting at the orange and blue thing on the floor. 626 was faster, he answered with a hail of blaster rounds. He heard the armor crack at such a close range. Tiny spurts of blood came from under the black suits. He continued to fire. He grunted as something hit his stomach. He ignored it and fired into the crowd of soldiers.
The last black body armored soldier fell into the ever growing pool of blood from the acidental shot to the soldier's head. 626 stop shooting. The soldiers were all gone. "Ha! No man is taller than the last man standing." he sneered. That was out of the way, now all he had to do was leave. He peered up the elevator shaft. The smoke had cleared and now he could see the light from the open doors at the top. He knew what he had to do. He pocketed his blasters and jumped to the wall on the inside of the shaft and started his climb up.
* * *
The comm rang, the insistent sound of the annoying buzzer. 'Who the heck would be calling now?' Darfinis thought. He opened his lead weights for eyelids and stared at the red numbers on the clock. "Holy Shit!, It's 2200 hours." (remember the 38 hour Turian day) "This had better be good." He removed the covers from his body and felt the cold night air. He reached over to his nightstand and picked up the reciever. "Hello?" he said. "Mr. Darfinis, sir, this is Birf, the Security gaurd at the Grevold." he stopped. "Yes? and what impells you to call me at this time of night?" Dafrinis snapped. "Uh... sir, something has happened... uh. I'll call you later." the gaurd said hesitantly. "No, no. Tell me." Darfinis reassured him. "Ok, here goes. There has been a level one security breach. Three squads tried to get it under controll. Now there all dead. All vital systems distroyed and a good portion of the base is on fire." Darfinis stopped dead. The center of the operations was gone. He'd just been there a few hours ago. He was furious. "Find out who was responcible and inform me when you do." He slammed down the reciever on the base. He got up and headed for the shower.
He thought about the cover up at first. They would definately send out an investigation team. Then they would discover the base. There would be a drastic decrease in the illegal smuggling. The Galactic police would claim responcibility, and that would spook all the low competitors into stopping. He'd have to issue the order of destroying the building, and blame the explosion on the planetary rights activists. He'd have to contact all his major ascociates and inform them. Get help for the rebuilding of the new base and maybe get some new smuggling friends. But he still would have to deal with Dr. Jumba and his experiments, to try and pursuede him into selling one, or two. Today would be a long day.
* * *
He was three feet from the top when his stomach growled. He stopped and waited from the pain to go away. 626's breathing got shallow, the pain increased. He slowly looked down. He saw what had hit him. He winced as he touched where the round had hit him, dirrectly in the stomach. "This shouldn't have happened" he mumbled. He wondered why the round had any effect on him. He though for a few seconds. The pain went away, for now. He heaved up the last feet, and rolled onto the floor gasping. He watched the ceiling spin. He closed his eyes. A few seconds later he recovered and shakily got to his feet. He pulled out a blaster and headed for the front door.
He walked across the huge lobby that was strewn with various plants and designer couches. He smelled the air and coughed, on the air was a foul smell of plastic burning. The wound on his chest started to bleed, very slightly though. He slowed his pace when he heard a vehicle outside, it hovered in the air then left. The fresh cool air from the night felt good. He'd been breathing in the same musty, smokey air in the base for several hours. He hadn't realized he'd been down there for a long time. He looked down the street and into the sky. The night was dissappearing and the red disk was not far from comming up. There were already the telltale signs of the dawn. He limped down the steps and into the street.
* * *
He was having a nice dream. He had won the award for the farthest advancement in geneological enhancement, and was now sitting on the shore of the great Turian Ocean. His experiments were there too, except they were doing something in the back of him. He watched as 327 approached him. She then started shaking him violently arround.
He awoke to find 327 was shaking him, well his bed actually. He sat up and looked down at her. There was an expression of concern and worry on he face. "What is it now?" Jumba said sleepily. He rubbed his eyes with his large hands. "I found something you should see." 327 said, and pointed out the door. "I'll see it in a minute." he yawned. "No, you have to come now." there was a dead look of seriousness upon her face. Jumba got out of bed, didn't bother to take off his pajamas and went to se whan all the fuss was about.
"It was here this morning when we woke up." 625 said, clutching a sandwich in one paw. Jumba looked down at the piles of restrained soldiers. "Was there anything else? Or just this." he asked. "There were several riffles, but I put them into the armory." 625 said, staring into his sandwich. "What model?" Jumba asked. 327 spoke up, "There were three Viktov 7's and two other dammaged riffles that I couldn't make out." Jumba sighed. He knew that those riflles were commonly used by Special Ops forces. Jumba then looked at the computers, there was a slimy coating on all of them. "What about the computers?" "Haven't tried them yet." 327 said. "Oh yea Doc," 625 blurted out, "Guess what. 6-" 327 whacked him. Jumba sighed. "Let me guess, 626 is gone right?" 625 said nothing, fearing he'd get hit again. "Yes." 327 said. He sighed again, "Let's get this cleaned up." "I've kept the soldiers under with tranquilizers." 327 informed Jumba. "We'll find a nice spot to dump them later."
* * *
He didn't know how long he'd walked, the only thing he knew was the growing pain on the outside and on the inside of his stomach. The sun was nearly up now. There was the ever constant smell of food in the air. He didn't stop, he pressed on. He'd seen three cruisers already, that meant the shops were opening up. Thee had been a few aliens on the street, but they gave him no indication that he was there.
He was getting weak and weary, he had to stop and rest or get something to eat. He didn't have any credits, nor did he want a meal he'd killed for. He looked for a hideout. An alley. 626 walked inside the small narrow space filled with old couches and other furniture. He flopped down onto a mattress hidden under a table. He breathed heavily for a few seconds, then fell asleep.