Prompt fill for "Surrender" - Skye Ryder and Evfra for wickedwitchofthewilds
Evfra stared at the screen. His knuckles ached, the skin across his hand broken and raw. His table had suffered the brunt of his frustration, fear and guilt. How did things go so wrong, so quickly?
"Give yourself up," the angara growled as she paced across the vid. "We have the human Pathfinder, Ryder."
The vid cut to show a shaky body cam footage of an explosion. Ryder was running ahead, her white and blue Initiative armour clearly marked her out. Gunfire peppered the background, blowing out the audio. Evfra winced at every one that impacted against her barrier. The shimmering blue shield fell and bullets slammed into her armour. She pitched forward, falling heavily, even then she twisted to fire back at her attacker. Her visor had shattered. Her gaze was fierce and hard through the broken shards that held on. Though her lips curled in defiance, she was overwhelmed. An arm whipped out and ripped her helmet off before smashing into her jaw.
Evfra jerked as if he could reach into the screen to defend Ryder. Anger burst out of his mouth in a wordless growl as he smashed his hand into the table again.
Taavos flinched but stayed where he was. Qivra, the Commander of Havarl's garrison forces, had no such compunction. "Enough," she growled, pausing the vid.
It froze with Ryder's face half twisted in pain, blood flowed from her nose. Evfra yanked his eyes away and glared at Qivra. She was not part of the Resistance and thus not under his command. It was an odd situation he had found himself in, so used to commanding, so used to giving orders and taking charge. But having Qivra's iron will to steady him was what he needed, his heart ached with a pain he couldn't attribute merely to worry. He had a bad feeling about this.
"Taavos," Evfra turned his attention to the former Roekaar turned Resistance soldier. "Do you recognise her?"
The soldier reached out and scrubbed the playhead forward to the bit where the Roekaar in question made her demands. "Come to the nav-point, give yourself up to us. We will spare the Pathfinder. You have 12 hours."
He nodded. "Avrek, she and a portion of the Roekaar broke off from Akkusul's leadership after what happened at Old Pelavv. She heads a more violent splinter cell of the Roekaar. And she's lying."
Qivra's brow ridge rose and directed a questioning look at him.
"They are Roekaar, they won't let the Pathfinder go. She will be made an example of. This is just a trap."
Evfra grunted, he figured as much. A flash of Ryder's cocky's smile flickered at the back of his mind and his brow tightened. He knew things went horribly wrong when Ryder's vitals spiked. The dread grew and grew even as the situation at Old Pelavv got under control. The three hour deadline came and went without a crackle of static from his ushataliin. The display that was supposed to show him Ryder's vitals remained dark red with the word "vitals offline" plastered across it. The last time Ryder was late, she almost died.
Despite the turmoil churning in his chest, the mask of the Resistance Leader settled back tighter in the face of fear. He held the rescue and fire fighting operation together until Qivra and her people got to the scene. She ordered him to rest, pointing out he was on duty for the better part of 15 hours with barely any rest. Knowing good advice when he heard it, he took himself out of the hastily set up command post. Stepping through a field of broken hopes, he snorted and cleared his throat against the ashes still drifting in the wind. Boots crunching burnt vegetation as he watched the last of the firefighters packed their gear up to leave. His eyes took in the smouldering pile of rubble. What started with so much promise was now reduced to waste and ashes. The sun was all the way up now. There was no hiding the destruction the collapse had wrought.
He glanced at his ushataliin. Everything still offline. And Ryder was three whole hours past the deadline. "Where are you?" he whispered. His question was taken by the wind and scattered.
"Commander!"
He spun, his chest already aching with hope. It was a soldier he didn't recognise.
"Sir, Garrison Leader Qivra requests your presence."
Evfra was led to the temporary med-bay. Damia and two others were there. They were being treated by the medics and doctors. He pushed passed the soldier and asked, "Where's Ryder?"
Damia, who was sitting her chest exposed, her leathers cut and gathering around her lap, shifted only to be pushed back onto the bed by the doctor. "Don't move," the doctor instructed.
Evfra rounded to the other side of the bed to keep out of the way. The doctor was treating the ugly deep purple bruise spiderwebbed across Damia's chest, the result of a concussive round if he had ever seen one. "What happened?"
Qivra came up to Evfra's side, but his attention was focused on Damia and her story. The more she spoke, the colder the dread became as all his worst fears were confirmed.
"It's a fake," Dals declared. "A good one but fake all the same."
Evfra straightened, cautioning himself against false hope. "What do you mean? Explain."
Qivra had sent people to scout out the way Ryder and the others had went, but it was sealed. The exit Damia and her team used was bound to be heavily defended. That left Evfra with little recourse but to consider the offer.
The nav-point provided by the Roekaar blinked bright on the screen. It pointed to a cave below Old Pelavv. But without access to ground penetrating scanners, they only had old survey data to rely on. What had the Roekaar done to the caves since nobody had a clue. But how did they missed this, how did he missed this? His jaw tightened. The Roekaar stuck them within and without, undermining their efforts against the kett. And this time they had struck the one person who actually helped them triumphed against the Archon himself.
Evfra closed his eyes. The nav-point continued to blink behind his eyelids. How he longed to just agree and give himself up for Ryder, but he could already hear her berating him. She expected better from him.
Kiiran Dals, the scientist turned forensic analyst stationed at daar Pelavv, jabbed her finger at the video. "Notice they never had Avrek in the same shot as the Pathfinder? If they had her, they would have used her."
Qivra nodded. "That's a good point."
"What if they just got her tied up somewhere else?" Evfra pressed.
Dals nodded. "Ahhh but see this?" Her fingers flew across a couple of keys on the terminal. The screen switched to an extranet site. She tapped at a video seemingly at random. A body cam footage was playing and she jerked the playhead back and forth till she found the section she was looking for. "Watch."
Evfra's eyes narrowed. This was a video when the Resistance were taking down Roekaar cells. And these were all classified videos. Anger was starting to build in his chest, but he ground his teeth together. The motions of the camera, the way the Roekaar being pursued reacted looked familiar. "It is almost similar to the video Avrek sent us," he pointed out.
"It's identical, they have replaced the angara on screen with the Pathfinder."
"But how did they get her image fitted so perfectly?" Qivra pressed.
"There are plenty of images of the Pathfinder on the extranet. Press vid from the Nexus, even some of her combat vids can be found. It's a matter of software and a good VI to fit both together."
"So they don't have her," Qivra said, shooting him a look.
His chest relaxed a notch, knowing helped. "That doesn't change the fact she is still missing." He turned to look at Andraknor, "What's your take on all this?"
The Heskaarl unfolded his arms and studied the map. His fingers manipulated the digital image, enlarging and shrinking it. Eventually, he glanced at all assembled. "As much as it is alarming that the Pathfinder is missing, our priority is to take out this Roekaar cell. Avrek and her methods is far more destructive and dangerous. She had sent people to infiltrate the reconstruction efforts and bombed Old Pelevv. This is an act of war. Today it's a daar still under construction, tomorrow it might be one filled with children and families."
Evfra's jaw tightened. He understood where Andraknor was coming from. Just a mere year ago, he would have said the same. But now with how intimately he was intertwined with Ryder, he was no longer the same man. Again Ryder's angry hisses rang in his head. He should know better than to underestimate her. It's been 24 hours and there was still no sign of Ryder, not a single blip of her vitals on his ushataliin. His chest tightened uncomfortably.
"So what do we do?" he asked, turning his attention to things he could fix, not ones he couldn't.
"We will proceed with the exchange," Evfra's voice came through tinny and hollow from her omni-tool.
Ryder's jaw tightened.
"Do not hurt her," he said.
To someone who didn't know Evfra, they'd think he sounded cold, but she caught how tightly controlled his voice was. This was an Evfra lashing himself to professionalism like it's his only anchor keeping him from being dashed against the rocks in a storm. She knew from experience the more emotional he felt, the colder he got. And here his voice was ice.
Pain shot through her arm, prompting her to unclench her fist. She was tired and dirty, to make matters worse she had worked up a hell of an appetite. Sighing, she sank to the ground wishing she could close her eyes and wake up in her bed with Evfra wrapped around her. Alas, that was not to be.
"SAM," she croaked, licking her dry lips. "Where is this exchange supposed to be taking place?"
"I am working on it," SAM replied. I am trying to keep them from detecting my intrusion into their system."
Leaning her head back against the hard stone wall, she sighed and let SAM do their thing. The fall didn't do her any favours. She couldn't say how long she was out but her right arm had swell by the time she woke. Wherever she had found herself in, it was a secluded area of the base, unfinished stone caves that were repurposed for storage. Half stumbling, half walking SAM hacked into one with a door. There, she found much needed medical supplies. Then and only then did that she allow herself to rest.
A sling was quickly fashioned and she lashed her wounded limb against her chest. The pain nearly made her black out again. Sweat collecting on her chin, she took shuddering breath after breath to cling onto consciousness. In the end, she fell into an uneasy doze after injecting herself with the angara's version of medi-gel. It wasn't as effective on human physiology but it had to do. She needed her strength if she was going to get the fuck out of this hellhole.
Now awake and armed with the knowledge Evfra was going to fucking give himself up in exchange for her, she couldn't sit still. She refused to. With a trench so deep between her brow, it looked permanent. She growled wordlessly as she ripped a fresh packet of nutrient paste apart with her teeth. She squeezed the contents into her mouth as best she could one handed. A grimace twisting her mouth, she swallowed it quickly to keep her tongue from curling away in horror at the odd combination of sour, salty and bitter. She tossed the empty pack onto the floor to open a fresh one. With all the troubles she had, littering was the least of her worries.
"Anything?"
"One moment, please."
Never had she realised it was near impossible to use her omni-tool one handed, not without pain blotting out her senses. But Ryder was infinitely thankful it wasn't her dominant arm that's broken. She brought up the map SAM had siphoned. Fingers swiping across the map, zooming in and out as she tried to memorise as much of it as she could, knowing it would come into use sooner rather than later.
Patrols were increasing outside. She could hear boots clomping up and down, voices muttering and yelling as Roekaar rushed to carry out whatever orders they had. Thankfully SAM's hacking hadn't raise any alarm and with their limited access to the Roekaar's network hopefully she'll be able to stop whatever foolish plans Evfra had.
"I will submit," Evfra's voice echoed in her head. She squeezed her eyes shut.
"You stupid, stupid man," she whispered, her chest ached with worry. It must have matched the anxiety he was feeling. Still, it didn't make her feel any better. He was being stupid, pure and simple. "It's a fucking trap and he is going to walk right into it."
There was no way she was going to let him do that, especially when the Roekaar hadn't even captured her. Irritation and anger were fuel to keep her going, without them she could barely function. She sighed and concentrated on consuming as many nutrient paste packs she could stomach. But her biotic metabolism worked against her, and hunger gnawed against the insides of her stomach. The nutrient paste weren't enough, her body wasn't made to absorb them effectively.
She glared at her left hand which was resting on her knee. It shook and trembled. She clenched it, nails biting into her palm. "It's fine, it's all going to be fine." It was a blatant lie, not even she could believe it. She ripped the next pack with more force, the dehydration induced headache wasn't making things any easier.
"Pathfinder, I have got it," SAM reported.
Her head snapped up, alert and focused instantly. "Report."
"The exchange is taking place in two hours at this nav-point," SAM replied, the map flickered and zipped to the new location.
Ryder stared at it, the blinking arrow seared into her retinas. Two hours to get to the nav-point without detection. Two hours to get a weapon that she could fire with one good arm. Two hours to get all that done. She gritted her teeth and stood up, ignoring how her body wailed against moving. "All right, we have a situation to unfuck."
"I shouldn't have listened to you," Ryder growled, inching her way along a tight passageway.
"It is safer this way," SAM pointed out, their voice clipped and curt as if their patience too was at an end.
But what SAM lacked was the wild slamming of her heart against her ribs. Every second wasted on this meandering and fucking impossible route was another second things could — and who was she kidding — would go catastrophically wrong.
Evfra, Evfra, Evfra. His name echoed at the back of her head. The ticking of a clock rang loud in her mind.
"At the end of this passageway, you will find a grate leading upwards. Once through there, you will exit into the main corridor, five metres from the nav-point."
She grunted in acknowledgement. Her armour scrapping against the rock. It's a miracle she didn't get stuck midway and had to go back the way she came to shed pieces of her armour. To fit, she had to move sideways like a crab. One foot sliding in front of the other, her face turned a full 90 degrees. She only paused when pieces of rock scrapped against her broken arm. White spots danced in her vision, she breathed through the pain in sharp hitching gasps, praying she wouldn't faint.
"Fucking finally," she snarled as she pulled free from the passageway, cold sweat coated her face.
This route was safe because it was narrow. No angara could have fitted through the path she took. And it bypassed patrols that would surely detected her. She sighed as she looked at the grate. It was a full ten metres above her head. And there was no ladder in sight.
"Biotics, it is."
Her amp flared hot as she guided herself upwards. The throbbing behind her eyes intensified the longer she held onto her biotics. "Just a little more," she growled through gritted teeth.
By the time Ryder was through the grate and couched behind a wall of crates, she lightheaded and woozy. Ripping into another nutrient pack, she swallowed the contents like it was water in a desert. Hand shaking, she drew the pistol she had stolen, eyes keen and casting about. With a little work, she shifted the crates so she'd be able to look between their seams.
The cave opened up to what looked like a shuttle bay. Shuttles stood inert in their berths, some were being resupplied, others were having a new paint job plastered on. She recognised some of them. They looked identical to the model Nexus outposts were assigned.
Are they stolen? Or merely fenced off on Kadara?
Ryder filed the information to the back of her mind, it's another thing to chase down when she got the hell out of here. But one thing was sure, despite Akkusul being ousted from the radical angara group, the Roekaar's hate for all Nexus species still burnt strong.
"Kneel!" a voice rang out.
A female angara armoured in all black caught her attention. Ryder cursed, the crates blocked most of her view of what's happening. The angara had a pistol drawn and pointed at a male angara before her. Her breath hitched. She would recognise that back from anywhere — Evfra.
Her finger twitched against the trigger. How she longed to rush out and grab Evfra, but she held still. It wouldn't do to be rash now.
"Avrek," Evfra called out. "You've got me. Where's Ryder? Let her go."
The black clad angara stepped towards Evfra, pistol gripped lightly against her side. "You vesagara fucker, you don't get to speak." The pistol flashed up and came down hard against his face.
Ryder's nostrils flared, biotics buzzing angrily in response. Evfra's head snapped back. Blue blood sprayed across the black armour. He fell to his knees. Avrek laughed. "You're a disgrace to all angaras."
Her heart thudded hard, but she forced herself to look away. Instead, she checked the map. Getting here was only half of the solution, the other half was to get them out of here. Going back the way she came would be impossible, Evfra wouldn't fit. That meant doing it the hard way.
"I need a distraction," she muttered.
The crates held nothing she could use. And suddenly she found herself wishing for another crate of explosives.
"I could take over their system," SAM offered. "But that means they will be alerted to my intrusion."
"Where's Ryder?" Evfra demanded, rising to his feet only to be clubbed in the head again. "You got me, let her go!"
Anger and white fury rose in her chest. Nobody treated him this way, nobody touched her man. "Do it!"
Ryder didn't wait. SAM would do what they were going to do. Blue flames leapt to her call. And she charged, breaking cover in the most spectacular way possible, scattering crates announcing her arrival. The pistol bucked in her hand as she took down Avrek's shields. An eye-searing blue lance sliced through the air, punching a hole into the Roekaar line. Alarms blared as the automated defence system turned on their owners. Bullets peppered the unprepared. Taking advantage of the chaos, she made straight for Evfra.
Ryder couldn't decide if she was angry or relieved. Furious at his stupidly noble sacrifice, but she also breathed a little easier knowing he fought by her side. In the end, she settled for amusement. Shock, surprise and relief flickered rapidly across his face. If their lives weren't hanging in the balance, she would have burst out in laughter. She snorted and charged again, grabbing him as she zoomed passed, rushing them out of the crossfire.
"Ryder!"
His grip tightened around her good wrist as his eyes met hers while they were hurtling thorough space. She took in his wounds with a flick of her eyes. A bloody cut ran down his cheek, matching the one he already had. Tension leaked from her shoulders as she realised he was relatively unharmed. But before she could speak, her biotics flickered and cut out at the wrong time. His hand shot out to steady her but her momentum was too strong. She landed heavily on her side, grunting at the impact. A yelp burst from her clenched teeth.
"Ryder!"
"Yes, yes," she hissed, her face ashen. "That's my name. I know how it sounds like."
Anger flashed across his face but not before he dragged her behind cover.
Bullets peppering the spot they occupied mere seconds before. Her back slammed against the barrier and she glared at him. Pain had frayed her temper, her anger building up to match his.
"What—" he growled, his attention split between the Roekaar and herself..
"No, fuck no. I get to speak first. What were you thinking? Did you have no intel? I wasn't even captured and you gave yourself up?" she snarled, good arm clutching the bad, shaking from a mixture of fury and agony.
Evfra eyed her critically. She knew how she must look. It was more than 24 hours since her mission went sideways. She had the ground opened up on her twice. Blown up once, albeit that was partly her fault, partly because she wouldn't have blown anything up if she wasn't being pursued. And to top it all off, broken her arm. She was a mess. Even then, she wasn't captured. Things got in the way like pain and hunger and some first aid, but she would make her escape eventually. That didn't mean she was so incompetent as to be captured. And she said as much.
"I know you're not captured," he hissed, pulling her pistol from her shaking hand. He popped up to fire off a couple of quick shots. "I was actually hoping you'd take advantage of this operation to escape. And not to come rescue me!"
Ryder blinked at him owlishly. "You knew?"
He glowered at her but his gaze remained gentle. She sighed. Twisting, she thrusted her arm out, unleashing a wave of blue energy. It dragged the Roekaar hidden behind cover up into the air. He fired, taking them down. They worked well together as a team despite their diminished state.
"What now?" she demanded when they got a breather.
Evfra wasn't a man who smiled often. She was one of the privileged few that had seen his smiles. She had learnt he had two types of smiles. One that was reserved for her, small and shy, barely there if she didn't look for it. Another was razor-edged and feral, all sharp teeth and it promised violence. It was this second smile that he levelled at her.
"Pathfinder has landed, I repeat the Pathfinder has landed," Evfra growled into his global tool.
Before Ryder could ask, Resistance soldiers burst in. Brother fought brother, sister attacked sister. They were all angara, they should all be united against the kett. But with the Milky Way species' arrival, it forced a rift within families, within the daar, among friends. Sometimes Ryder regreted how much change their arrival had wrought. Without them, this wouldn't have happened. The angara people would not have been splintered into a million broken shards, impossible to put back again.
She turned her attention to the business at hand. Even with reinforcements, they weren't home free. Pain lanced up her arm as she popped out of cover, flinging biotics at the Roekaar. It was beyond her ability right then to move and flank the enemy, but she could provide cover as the others forged ahead. Ignoring the electric burn that rode her nerves, she fought. With Evfra by her side, she was never more confident.
Avrek roared. "Pathfinder, you will end today!" The Roekaar renewed their fire.
Voices of pain filled the air as angara killed angara. She blinked angry tears away. This loss of life was such a fucking waste.
"Give up, Avrek!" Evfra called. "Nobody else has to die."
Avrek's answer was another hail of bullets. "The Roekaar do not give up! Kill one of us, another will take their place. All vesagara will leave or they die, starting with the Pathfinder!"
Despite Averk's defiance, bit by bit, step by step, the Resistance was pushing them back. Trapped between shuttles rendered useless in the battle and pinpoint precision gunfire aimed to disable rather than kill, the Roekaar had only two choices — turn tail and flee or stand, fight and die. They chose to stand with their leader.
"Don't throw your lives away! We can work together!" Ryder shouted, raising up to her feet, pulling her barrier tight around her.
Evfra yanked her back down when the first bullet slammed into her barrier. "What the fuck are you doing?"
Tears stood in her eyes as she threw a hand out, sending Roekaar floating helplessly in the air. "This is stupid, this is all stupid," she spat. "They don't need to die. Nobody need to die!"
His crystal blue eyes stared at her. In the middle of the battlefield where the slightest distraction determined life and death, he held her gaze. He grabbed her good shoulder, wincing when she grimaced at the contact, trying to offer comfort as the din of battle roared around them. "They don't need to," he paused, sighing heavily, grief filling his voice, "But it's impossible to reason with them. Not here, not now."
Avrek's people weren't like Akkusul's, filled with young angaras radicalised into an alternative school of thought and had resorted to violence. Hers were zealots. But that didn't make this battle any more meaningless, any more preventable.
"Pathfinder, I have lost the automated weapons," SAM reported.
Ryder forced herself to refocus. With the automated weapons out of play, it made getting out all the harder. Then it occured to her, if Evfra wasn't here to exchange himself for her, why was he here? Her eyes flashed towards Avrek, and the answer was plain.
"Do not force my hand," Avrek yelled, standing boldly from cover. Her black armour sparked bright yellow as bullets impacted her kinetic shields. "I have planned for just such an occasion. Retreat or die."
Evfra spoke into his comms. "Keep the pressure up, they have nowhere to go."
Ryder's jaw tightened. Her body protested at the sheer lengths she was pushing it, her arm throbbed, her head pounded. However, she couldn't bring herself to stop, if she could prevent one more futile death, it would have made it all worth it.
Then, a sniper rifle boomed. Avrek's head rocked backwards. Even as she fell, a smile graced her face. The small black object she had in her hand fell. Ryder gasped as she realised what it was, SAM's warning ringing in her ears.
Light came before the sound. A series of explosion bloomed across the roof. A noise was so loud it was made physical, slamming into her chest, jarring her heart, making it lurch wildly.
"No!" she shouted.
Her good arm thrusted outwards, she sent her will to shore up the crumpling roof.
"Direct your biotics here, Pathfinder," SAM said, instantly picking up on what she was trying to do. He highlighted an area of the roof. "If this part of the roof falls it will start a cascading effect, bringing the entire place down."
With a grunt, she re-directed her biotics. Her amp burnt hot, singeing her hair and probably burning her flesh but still she held on. She must.
"I can't hold this forever. Go!"
Evfra frowned, but his keen eye took in the situation and was quickly issuing orders. The Roekaar continued to pepper them with gunfire, they didn't care if they were going to be buried or not. Avrek, even in death, was keeping her promise. If the Resistance was to make it out before time ran out, someone had to lay down covering fire. He grabbed a rifle from a fallen fighter and reloaded.
"I'll cover you," he ordered his team. "Go!"
"But sir—"
If Ryder had breath, she would have laughed. Look how weel she kept the exact same promise to Damia.
"This is an order, I'll follow," he growled as he stood up to fire at the Roekaar.
Exhaling slowly, she fought to ignore the mounting pressure inside her head. Cries of pain rang out. Evfra was determined to see his people out first. She could do hold out for them. Her hand shook harder, her vision wavered in and out. "Just a little more."
Time ceased to have meaning. There was just the next moment, the next second. Her amp boiled under her skin, her biotics was stretched so thin, she could barely think.
"Ryder, we have to go."
She looked at Evfra, their eyes met. Blood mingling with sweat trickling down his face, his lips twisted in a grimace. Protective and proud, his eyes took on a strange sheen. In that moment, she felt it, a warmth to know Evfra was here with her.
Her biotics spluttered and flickered like a candle in the wind. Fear came flooding back. They had to go. But she couldn't run and keep her biotics up, not at the same time. "I… can't…" the words were forced through clenched teeth.
Evfra's eyes widened and closed the distance between them. He wrapped a gentle but firm arm around her waist, ready to pick her up in a firearm's carry. Resistance fighters were providing them firing cover as he concentrated on getting them out of here.
But as he approached, Ryder saw the dancing red dot of a sniper's laser sight. It was there and gone. For a split second she wondered if she was seeing things, exhaustion taking its toll. But it returned, moving across Evfra's chest towards his forehead.
"No," she gasped, head twisting to locate the sniper, but between trying to hold up the roof and her tunnelling vision, she could barely see clearly.
Surprise flared across Evfra's face when she lunged at him. The tendrils of her biotics shredding as she tacked him to the ground, leaving them exposed. A boom of a sniper's rifle. Pain tore through her shoulder. A gasp hissed through gritted teeth.
It was the final straw. The thread she been been unspooling from her core snapped. Her body gave out. A terrible groan rang out through the shuttle bay. It was collapsing.
"Ryder!" Evfra called, but his voice was so far away. His hands pressed against her shoulder and she barely had the strength to moan. "No, no… You can't do this."
The groan grew louder, like a giant crying in torment. "I'm sorry…" she rasped.
Evfra folded himself over her, lips pressed against her forehead as her eyes slid shut. Darkness descended upon them as he held her tight, wrapping his body over hers as the groans turned into an earsplitting crash.