A NEW BEGINNING

Chapter Thirteen

"The Heart of a Lombax"

05:25 - Planet Siberius, Megacorp Munitions Factory, Bogon Galaxy

"Visual," said the expressionless voice of a computerized pilot that constantly navigated a transporter within the wintery skies of planet Siberius for quite some time. "Approaching the Megacorp Munitions Factory in thirty seconds."

The long trip was unorthodox for a general flight that took hours to reach its destination--in a transporter that was meant to carry large shipments of foodstuffs, and nothing more. It was massive and wide enough to house a small fighter and a crew of six. The ship's hull was built with reinforced steel to provide extra strength should it inevitably find its way into a skirmish, but even then it wasn't exactly designed for combat, but only for the transportation of comestible goods that required heavy lifting. Among the robotic members aboard the ship, the person in charge of this costly expedition was a tall, anurous lombax.

Appareled in a tight-fitting, lightweight combat suit that was heavy enough for external protection and light enough for maneuverability, the lombax stood heavy and expressionless. He wore a long, brown cloak. The chest plate of his armor covered his upper body and tied around to his back. And on it, there was an archaic engraving that told a story of its own of where he came from; it shone the impression of a lombax species, armed with his sword drawn ready. On the broad shoulders of the lombax, and on his knees, plates of armor added to his overall look of a warrior. Lastly, a masked helmet concealed his identity, but only the dark--crimson--nefarious glow of his eyes brought the mask to life, and his somewhat long, pointed, and striped ears which extended from the back of the mask, through the round openings, was the only feature about him that truly disclosed his species. It seemed he was dressed for battle.

"Ten seconds," the voice of the pilot droned again just as the ship veered past a mountainous landscape riddled with snow, taking a treacherous route within a gorge, and then flying into a more secluded area where the Megacorp factory lied hidden.

The lombax motioned toward the side of the ship, gripping the handle of the door and forcibly pulling it open. Crystals of snow and ice hailed and pinged against his masked face and body, but he ignored the chill they brought to his ears. Behind him, his cloak fluttered wildly as the wind blew hard into the cabin. His robotic guards, like bipedal troopers, mechanically swiveled their heads to see their target--their violet eyes brightened.

Megacorp's frozen factory suddenly came into view more clearly. Its massive compound and guard towers were the first of many things that welcomed the lombax's eyes. The transporter slowed to a steady hover when it came into the vicinity of a towering wall, but remained several feet high above it and its unoccupied watchtower. It flew to the back of the factory where it looked more of a derelict. And with the wave of a gloved hand his battle bots rose on their metallic feet and walked toward the opened door. Three of them, each armed with an arm-mounted laser cannon, leapt from the ship, descending like wraiths in the dark, cloudy morning sky.

When they landed in the courtyard of the factory grounds, they rushed toward the back shutters of the munitions depot. They readied their arm-mounted weaponry as they moved as if to obliterate anything that moved into their field of vision. Stopping just in front of the rear entrance, they halted and waited for another order before continuing.

The transporter turned and hovered to the front of the middle facility where--the one just before a large courtyard full of transport containers--the rest of the robot guards jumped off the ship, followed by their lombax commander.

He landed on top of a massive metal container just a few meters away from his guards, who made their landing in the snow by the entrance of the factory. He kneeled to examine the surrounding area further, trying to note any potential booby traps that may have been placed nearby. Gesturing for the bots in front of him to commence with their job, he brought up a forearm to his mask where his lips would be, and gave the order for the others waiting in the back to proceed with their mission.

The machines in front of him charged up their arm-mounted cannons and fired a barrage of explosive rounds powerful enough to destroy the shutter that impeded their progress. The sounds of their weapons were heavy and intense, and sure enough they tripped a security system. The remains of the shutter were nothing more than smoking, contorted metal. From overheard, sirens blared and warning lights flushed over the compound and colored it red. The lombax, unfazed by the alarms, reached in under his cloak at his side and brought forward a deadly rifle. Slowly, he rose to his feet as his small, robotic force stormed into the factory, disappearing inside.

Suddenly, side doors on both sides of the center compound rushed open, and some of Megacorp's robotic sentinels charged the scene of the theft in progress. They were armed with small but deadly blasters. They spotted the thief atop the container and took aim. In rapid succession, several blasts came his way. He reached down at his belt bucket and pressed a button, activating a cloaking device; and then his form disappeared. The bullets passed by without finding their mark.

The guards remained as they were, battle ready, their round eyes still fixed on top of the container were the intruder had been. Off to their side, the thief reappeared and cocked his weapon ready. With a pull of the trigger, he shot a fierce, electrical pulse of energy that split the guards asunder, one by one, into hundreds of bolts. The might of his Pulse Rifle was unmatched by their mediocre weaponry.

Moments later, a message greeted his left ear. It was from the team that had entered from the back of the factory.

"Objective completed," said one of his guards, its voice accompanied by the sounds of blaster reports being exchanged in the background. It seemed his first team had encountered some resistance as well.

"Good! Then you must have the weapons?" he responded in a serious tone.

From the front of the compound where he stood, his second team of guards had finally returned, carrying a large stockpile of weapons that had been bundled into a convenient shipping box. They carried three of these--to each his own. They held the boxes in front of them with the greatest of ease as they exited the factory, waiting for their next order to be given. The lombax looked up to the awaiting transporter above the compound, bringing his forearm up to his mask again. The mission was over.

Without warning, new sounds of explosion, a miniature battleground could be heard at the back of the factory. It wasn't the same as what he had heard over the communicator in his helmet, so he knew something had gone wrong. And when he looked away from the transporter, a thick, red beam, followed by a burst of a rifle, resounded in the immediate area. The pilot of the transporter had been struck, reducing him to simple bits of metal and bolts.

"What!" he growled, looking around frantically to see where the sniper originated. He spun around, looking at all four watchtowers, but he was too low at ground level to make out any conspicuous form.

The ship began to fall, slowly, and crashed into the westward wall of the courtyard, bursting into instant flames. From these flames, they produced enough of a flare to brighten the courtyard orange. Behind the wake of fire and rumble, a part of the concrete wall laid out in waste.

From the explosion which shook the entire area, it activated an orgy of mines that had been littered about--seismic charges, that shot up from the surface, exploded, and sent a wave of electricity through and in between the containers and passageways of the courtyard. In response to the pulses, the motion sensors in front of the compound triggered yet another security system. Where small, round orbs were hidden in four strategic points in the yard, they pushed over the heap of snow on top of their machine guns, and began to rotate a metal chamber. These chain guns began to twirl and roar viciously. They fired an endless, aimless stream of bullets--creating a type of deadly shield around the courtyard, cutting off all entrances and exits.

The masked lombax stood in the way of one of these lethal lines of gun fire. He whirled around in a flash and destroyed the two turrets that fired at him. The guns erupted in a small ball of fire, the last of their rounds narrowly missing him and penetrating a row of containers to his side. There were just two more machine guns from a great distance, but they weren't of any concern to him. The sounds of their frantic shooting made him smirk behind his mask.

An infrared beam appeared and quickly motioned onto one of his guards beside him. Another report of a sniper rifle stretched across the yard and echoed in the mountainous region--another one of robots decimated. He finally realized where the beam originated and readied his rifle. Taking aim, he prepared to fire his rifle when the sight of someone else appearing atop the container he had been on moments before made him pause. The sight of a masked female bounty hunter surprised him, really, because she looked to be of his kind. It was during this short period that he stared transfixed, he watched as she threw a grenade at his feet.

The grenade erupted at his feet and blinded him, coating his battle suit with a green phosphorescent solution--the substance, incredibly viscous. He growled and changed targets, preparing to fire at her out of rage. The sole infrared beam returned and rested onto the rifle in his hands. Boom! He immediately dropped his weapon in the snow, looked down at his gloved hands, and clutched them; they agonized from the powerful shake of his weapon, which was now destroyed.

When he looked up again, the female was nowhere to be seen. He reached down and activated the cloaking device at his belt, blending in with the background of the factory. Only a barely visible outline of his body could be discerned, but he had forgotten about the phosphorous grenade that tagged him, giving away his position by the bright trail of its solution as he stalked silently in the snow.

He leapt atop a container and hid behind the surrounding ones. He could hear her footsteps as she drew close to him. He knew she was following him, so he quietly crept through the container he was in, formulating a trap in his mind. He waited, listened for her position, and when it sounded like she had jumped down to where he had seconds before, he climbed on top of another box.

He looked back where he had been waiting in the dark and saw the green trail that followed him. Using this to his advantage, he jumped from one container to the next to lure her, and then hid again in another empty one. When the huntress came to him once more, he waited for her to emerge from a box below and, when she walked by in a cautious manner, he pounced her.

Together, they rolled onto the surface of the box below, into a defensive stance thereafter, and faced each other. She could see a part of him clearly with the aid of the solution from the grenade, but she still needed to find a way make him appear fully and deceive him into coming within the range of her fellow hunter--sniper; that was her best bet in trapping the thief.

The thief's combat suit dripped green as he said in a nerveless, young voice, "Who are you? You are of my kind by the looks of it."

The female cocked her head to the side. "We are nothing alike. Larceny doesn't suit my tastes," came his icy reply. "You're coming with me, back to Snivelak."

The lombax deactivated his cloak for a moment to show himself. He tried to wipe away the sticky substance on his armor, but ended up smudging it. "Ah, I see why you're here. You're a thug bounty hunter that I'm willing to bet Megacorp has hired to capture me," he said through the mask, laughing. "I'm flattered."

"You could say that." The huntress stood in a combat pose.

"Hm. I'm afraid I won't let you take me in so easily," he motioned with a finger. "If it's a fight you want, then I'll give you one." He reached down to his belt bucket again, about to enable his cloaking gadget, but noticed that his adversary reached for something on the side of her waist too. In one fluid maneuver, he disappeared and strafed just moments after she had activated her plasma sword and slashed at him, stealing a good portion of his cape.

His voice came again, "Let's continue this somewhere with more room. Climb to the highest box and we shall...dance."

She heard his laughter again, followed by his loud footsteps as he leapt from box to box above her. Dashing, rolling, and climbing toward the highest container at the center of the courtyard, he was incredibly fast and fluid in his moves, and soon he was on top of the highest box. He turned back to see the huntress in pursuit just as equally fast as he was.

As he waited for her, he brought up his forearm again, and gave a new order for his remaining machines. "Robots...abort the mission and destroy whatever intruders you find," he said. Afterward, laser fire was being directed toward a far back tower opposite of the one where he knew a sniper was--seeking him.

So there were three bounty hunters, all waiting for him: one on the ground and two up in the watchtowers. Amazing! They had finally learned how he was targeting planets, specific Megacorp facilities and armories, across the galaxy. It had to have been because of the lost unit he left behind in Jakata--the only explanation.

He followed the bright rays of two more rounds from the sniper in the watchtower, probably destroying his machines at the factory entrance, but he didn't let that notion dissuade the possibilities of his escape. He wanted to escape, but with his transporter destroyed, right along with his space fighter, burning in the yard westward from where he stood, he knew he would have to bargain a deal with the hunters to get off this tundra, or be captured by them.

The top of the crate on which he stood and waited vibrated when his assailant jumped on top at last. For a minute, she too, stood at her end, pressing a finger against one of her ears. She whispered something in secrecy, it seemed, but he ignored whatever she was plotting against him. This was an exciting development--to have been taken by surprise by thugs and their organization, and the fact that they had even managed to enlist one of his own.

When she was ready, she approached him, making a note on the top of the box where the green trail ended. Not waiting for her to get any closer, he lunged with a surprise punch--knocking her back. The female stumbled back a couple of feet, but she returned with a similar attack after she caught her balance. She tackled and attempted to pin him, raising her gloved hands high above her head and trying to come down on him with them. He put up his hands and stopped her, and then flipped her over him with a knee.

She landed on her back. Scrambling to his feet, he rushed at her once more, but she brought up both of her boots and kicked him hard as she could, knocking him back down. He fell on his back with a growl. When he rose, he turned in time to parry one of her attacks, using her arm to bring her forward and then push her back, and down to her knees when the hold was complete. Seeing that he was going to strike her with his other fist, she leaned back and made him miss, and then swept him. Again, he fell on his back for a third time.

He seethed. "You're becoming a pain!"

He quickly rose and rushed as she had done, and came with a straight kick. Together, they exchanged boots, heel-to-face, and reared back in pain. The sound of his mask being knocked off of his face and clanking along the metal containers below reassured the huntress that he was now vulnerable to facial attacks, if she could see him.

He grew a little weary from the battle, feeling the numbness of his face where her boot met. Not waiting for her to rise again, he performed a series of forward flips, stopped in front of her, and swung a crescent kick. As if anticipating the attack, and judging by the sounds he made in his advance, the huntress ducked, balled a fist, and buried it as hard as she could into his abdomen. There was a deep, extended groan from him, followed by the ignition of sparks, where the cloaking device was attached. She had smashed it. Frozen in the moment of the heavy blow, his chin met with another one of her fists, and a large string of spittle escaped from his mouth.

The uppercut hadn't been strong enough to send him into the air, but he however stumbled back and took it like the lombax he was. In a flicker, his form and identity came into view, and he was no longer able to hide in obscurity. He looked down at the broken device, and then at her. He reached out to her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and slammed his head against hers. While she was dazed, he swung her by the arm and released her off the container.

He turned to take off in a sprint in hopes to escape the sight of the sniper, leaping off the container and onto a neighboring one in great strides. He was heading for the front entrance of the compound. And just when he thought he had escaped the vigilant eye from up in the watchtower, with all the jumping, climbing, and rolling, the tactics of a free runner, one last explosion rang in the courtyard. Amid a jump, he cried out in pain, as the sniper round penetrated the side of his suit before he could manage to land on the next container. Once he landed on the container, he stumbled a couple of steps forward, examined his injured side, and faced the horizon, where the sun was beginning to rise. He fell slowly onto his knees and then over onto his side, slipping into unconsciousness.