Chapter Three: Resisting Arrest

Kiyone spent the next few minutes taking pictures of everything she had seen. She was careful to get the machines at multiple angles. In addition, she got a data dump of the computer systems she could. Just in case it needed analysis.

As she did, she could not help but feel a sort of tension in the air. Tenchi stood out of the way and sort of observed. Which was probably all he could do in the situation. As Kiyone snapped pictures of the machines and weapons. Not to mention everything else, she realized they were all alone down here.

Everyone here was dead.

They'd died, and they'd been aware that they'd probably be killed. All of them had known on some level.

A sort of presence in her mind kept pressing Kiyone, and she hated it. Finally, she could bear it no longer and turned to Tenchi, brushing aside her blue hair. "Well, I've taken all the pictures I can. Now we need to get out of here fast. I go see if I can make contact with Mihoshi."

"Right, that sounds good," said Tenchi.

Kiyone and Tenchi hurried back to the communications array. Taking a moment, Kiyone opened the shutters on the windows to let the light in. As they did so, Kiyone wished her armor hadn't gotten wrecked. She hoped it wouldn't be taken out of her wages. No, no, this was a nonstandard situation. Still, she wished Tenchi would show some real concern; he seemed... passive, somehow.

Like he was completely calm no matter what happened. It was kind of eerie.

Even so, Kiyone got to the communications array and opened a channel. "Mihoshi, Mihoshi, are you there?"

Then to Kiyone's relief, Mihoshi appeared. The buxom blonde smiled on the screen before her. They'd finally gotten through. "Oh, Kiyone, you're here. I'm so glad I finally got through to you; I've had some major problems. I mean, I had all these malfunctions. Things kept going wrong, and I didn't spill any soda or anything. When I finally was able to contact the Galaxy Police, I kept picking up weird readings."

"Fine, fine, stay calm and stand by to beam us up," said Kiyone.

"Right," said Mihoshi. "I'll be in range pretty soon. Am I doing a good job, Kiyone?"

"Yes, you're doing fine," said Kiyone.

Then Mihoshi paused. "Um... Kiyone, we have a problem."

Kiyone blinked. "What is it?"

"Well, there is kind of sort of a group of people heading toward the base," said Mihoshi. "The scanners say they are Earthlings."

Kiyone blinked and looked out the window. Out it, she saw what looked like a landrover driving toward the facility. They were heavily armed and had more of those blasters. Only they were checking their corners as well.

"Oh darn," said Kiyone. "Can you get us out of here Mihoshi?"

"Um, give me a moment here-" began Mihoshi before the viewscreen shook, and she fell backward. Contact was lost for a moment. Only the sound of an explosion and a scream could be heard on the other side.

"Mihoshi!" said Kiyone. "Mihoshi, what is going on?"

The viewscreen appeared, and Mihoshi was panicking. ""Earthling Vessels have shown up, Kiyone! They're weird and square, and they're attacking me! One of them crashed into the Yagami and... there are lots of lights flickering red and... what do I do!"

"Focus!" said Kiyone. "Just call for help and make a run for it. The Galaxy Police should be able to handle this."

"What about you?" asked Mihoshi.

"Just go, okay!" said Kiyone.

The screen cut out.

Kiyone drew out her pistol and wished she still had her power armor. Pointing it down at the stair, she waited, praying they wouldn't climb up this way. Looking to Tenchi, she paused. "Tenchi, do you have any training in combat?"

"Well, I guess I was trained in hand to hand by my grandpa," said Tenchi. "But I've never used a gun."

"Fine," said Kiyone. "Just stay behind me and stay pit. We're about to come under siege."

"Who's attacking us?" asked Tenchi. "Why would the Earth government do this?"

"I don't know," said Kiyone. "They'd have to have a base here, though.

"Did you know about any of these?"

"No," said Tenchi. "I didn't even think there was another base on Mars. How did they set it up without Jurai knowing about it?"

"Well, it doesn't matter," said Kiyone.

They waited and waited, and a group of men came to the base of the staircase. Kiyone trailed her gun down at them. "Freeze!

"I am Kiyone Makibi of the Galaxy Police. You are under arrest on suspicion of illegal activity. As of right now-"

The men fired at her, and beams of energy smashed into the wall. She hardly got out of the way before they hit the ceiling. Firing her pistol in response, she forced them to back off. Then one of them hurled a grenade. It exploded, but into a reddish smoke. Kiyone leaped back, but some of it got into her eyes. Pain filled her as she fell, and through the smoke, she saw the soldiers come up the stair. Tenchi, however, was out of the way, and they trailed their guns on him.

At this point, Kiyone expected him to die in moments.

However, Tenchi moved rapidly, knocking the guns away. They moved after him in hand to hand, but he moved fast. Far faster, knocking them flat. Forcing herself through the disorientation and pain, Kiyone kicked one flat. Falling low, she kicked the legs out of another. Even so, as they fell, the men caught themselves. Then they recovered before attacking together.

Kiyone quickly came to realize that these men were good.

Far better at martial arts than her, in fact. They attacked, trying to come at her from all sides, and it was all she could do to fend them off. One sliced as her with a knife, and it narrowly missed her through, clipping the edge of her hair. Another drew a sidearm and fired at her repeatedly. It was all she could do to evade, and she saw Tenchi backed up against a wall.

These men didn't fight like anyone Kiyone had faced.

They were trying to kill her, and they didn't care how it happened. There was not an ounce of hesitation in them. They weren't going to knock her flat.

Nor would they comment on their superiority or gradually escalate their attacks.

They wouldn't scream her name while announcing their attacks.

These... things wanted her dead. And they'd turned martial arts into a factory for killing people.

It was sick and unnatural in a way. How could you try to kill someone, to end their life? How could you do that and not have it be personal? Taking a life was one of the most serious things a person could do. To do it without reaction or emotional duress was...

It should not be possible.

But Earthlings had managed to do it. And Kiyone had read enough history that to them, making it personal was an affront.

It would have been easier if they were mocking her.

Only the fact that Kiyone was faster and stronger than her was allowing her to survive this. And that was all there was. Her emotions didn't matter; her ideology didn't matter. None of these men were real anymore and neither from her. They were just robots, using muscles as tools to break one another. These men didn't think of her as a person.

Just a target.

They'd break her, destroy her and forget she ever existed five minutes later. What kind of relationship was this?

One of the bolts grazed her shoulder, and she felt the heat on her uniform. And then Kiyone realized she hadn't been fighting nearly as hard as she could have. On some level, she'd been holding back all this time. Because normal people didn't think anything of putting a bolt through a person's lungs.

Normal people didn't kill, period. Maybe at the end of an intense and tragic rivalry. But you had to make some sort of lament for your rival if you hadn't become friends with them. You were only supposed to kill the most outright evil people who had become monsters.

But that wasn't going to happen here. And being normal wouldn't cut it. These men would kill her and Tenchi and Mihoshi. She had to take them out now, or all of them would die.

This was not a relationship.

It wasn't a rivalry.

It was a job. An unpleasant duty where you got it done and forgot about it over drinks.

Kiyone attacked, striking hard and fast and knowing one away. Drawing out one of her secondary weapons, similar to an Earthling Yoyo, she unleashed it. Striking hard and fast, she knocked them away.

Except they got some distance and drew their guns.

At that moment, the windows shattered, and GP officers descended clad for war. The men reacted, raising weapons and forming a defensive perimeter. At that moment, a beautiful, red-haired woman landed. She was posing in the standard seductive manner female officers often did. And somehow, something so normal seemed insane to Kiyone.

It was wasted on these men. It meant nothing to them.

They'd turned themselves into machines.

"Well, I don't know what group of space pirates you're from," said the redhead, spinning a gun. "But you'd be wise not to test the GP's patience. If you can't even take out a couple of basic officers, you don't stand a chance against us.

"I'd say you'd better get on the ground now."

"Mizuki?" asked Kiyone.

"Hey, Kiyone," said Mizuki. "I guess you found new ways to wreck your career.

"Mitsuki," said Kiyone. "You can't take this lightly! These guys want to kill us!"

"Oh, come on," said Mizuki. "We've only just met. Now, I don't know who your little space pirate gang is, but it's over. The Galaxy Police will be taking you into custody and learning all your little secrets."

And then the men collapsed. One by one, they fell to the ground limp like puppets. For a moment, Kiyone thought they were some kind of robot but then...

"What just happened?" asked Mizuki. "Medical crew, get up here."

Kiyone moved forward and drew off a mask. She saw an earthling, very fit, and his mouth was foaming. His pulse was dead.

"...They're..." said Tenchi. "They're dead."

Mizuki stopped being smug instantly. People got hurt during arrests sometimes, but...

Twelve people had just killed themselves rather than be taken alive. "I've read that some Earthling operations take poison to avoid being captured, but... I didn't think they'd actually do it."

"Lieutenant Mitsuki!" said over the com.

"What is it?" asked Mizuki.

"The vessels we pinned down earlier, they..." said the man. "Once we disabled their weapon systems, they tried to ram us. One of our vessels got knocked out of commission. When we knocked out one of the ships, it blew itself up rather than be boarded."

Mizuki paused. "...Get me a team to identify how many people were on every ship, please. Also, scan for holograms and illusions. Check the bodies to be certain they are real people.

"They've got to be like... puppets or something. No way could twelve people just... just kill themselves."

Silence.

The officers went about checking the bodies, but Kiyone knew they'd find them to be real. Mizuki gave orders but seemed to be on the verge of panic. What had happened here was probably the bloodiest mission Mizuki had been on. And she'd been on a lot of them.

"Kiyone... what is going on here?" asked Mizuki.

"This facility it... I think it was doing some sort of illegal experiment to let the Earthlings compete with us," said Kiyone. 'Everyone here seemed to know it was suicide, and they came here anyway.

"I think everyone is dead.

"And this isn't the first time this has happened."

Mizuki shifted, trying to comprehend what had just happened. It had taken Kiyone a while to figure it out. "...Earthlings are nuts."

"Well, we're not all like that," said Tenchi.

This was going to be a nightmare in terms of paperwork. There were so many bodies, all of them dead in an instant.

They could all lose their jobs? No, no, they'd never encountered anything like this. No one had been trained to deal with mass suicides.

Not suicides like this.

These... these people hadn't wanted to die at all. They didn't have some deep-seated issues to work out. Nor did they want to talk. They had come here to kill Kiyone and Tenchi, and when they couldn't do that...

Poison it was.

These people had reduced themselves to mere machines. And it was the most horrific thing Kiyone had ever heard. So, she decided to try and forget it.

If only for a little while.

At least Tenchi was still alive. Actually, he'd handled himself far better than he ought to have. He had to have some kind of special bloodline. Maybe Kiyone could write a report to Jurai about it; it could salvage this.

Yeah, she'd do that.

Right after, she drank herself into forgetting today.