The crowd came together around Wraith to get ready to leave the station, as she was the most familiar with its layouts. The station was a huge connection of different facilities all together, connected with a bridge were individuals could walk through. All facilities had their own hangars were ships could leave, either for shipping, repairing, escort, or for combatants. "Alright so listen up. The only way we can all leave the station is with the escape pods. They are found close to each hangar. If we leave this room through those doors and go around the facility, we will get to it. But we need to take the guards and their weapons. 2 are at our only exit and 7 around the facility after we get through those doors. After taking the first 2, the alarm will go off so they will be sending reinforcements. But if everything goes smooth we won't have to deal with them. "
"However. I need someone who can shut off the defense system for us. We won't be able to deploy our pods without getting shot." "Ooh! I'll do it!", Pathfinder said excited. "Alright then. I'll cover you." "Great, you can count on me!" "Good. Then let's do this. Let's get out of here." Everyone made final preparations before they went through the door. "When we go, take cover behind the lab tables. After we take down those guards, we'll move quickly. Those with weapons will take point. Follow me and don't lose your way. Stick together and keep moving. Ready?" Everyone started cheering. Wraith and the others took their positions. The doors opened, and a mob of prisoners started running while the staff was utterly suprised. The guards began to fire to the escaping prisoners, but they were safe behind the tables. Scientists began leaving the large room, as the guards were distracted in protecting them. Their mistake.
Wraith appeared out of the void next to them. She immediately punched him in the jaw, grabbed their rifle and finished him. The other one was aiming right at her, "behind you!", the voice said. Wraith jumped out of the way behind one of the lab tables. Elliot saw this and jumped in. He got on to a long table behind the guard and began to run. Realizing this was a bad idea, he stumbles with equipment and loses his footing, falling on top of the guard. The guard doesn't hesitate however. He kicks Elliot out of the way, and takes aim. However, his arm is quickly snatched by some sort of grapple, and quickly is pulled towards Pathfinder. "I can't let you do that!" he says as the guard comes flying towards him to meet a punch that felt more like a train. He immediately goes out cold hitting the floor. The rest of the prisoners grab their weapons and stop the other staff from running away and alerting the others. "You alright?" Wraith asks Elliot as he gets up. "Yeahyeahyeah! A-all planned out! With, Pathfinder, ofcourse." Pathfinder waves in the background as he recovers his grapple.
"We still have the advantage," said Wraith. "We have not been noticed, so if we go through the hallway without creating a scene it will be a lot easier for us to get to those pods." Everyone nodded in agreement, as she began taking a peek through the door. As she expected. Two hallways, left and right. They go in a curve and their ends meet each other, creating a huge circle. In the middle is the main research and development facility that can be seen by the glass in the hallway. Guards take rounds around the hallway, but there are less than expected. "Better than a full patrol," said the voice. "Yeah, you right-" "What is it?" Elliot suddenly said from behind her as he heard her mutter. "...-i-it's nothing, look. You see the door on the other end? That's our way to the hangar. We'll go slow alright?" Everyone began following Wraith slowly on the left hallway. It was a good thing the hallway was elevated above the main floor, or else they would be easily spotted.
The first guard was making his roundabouts on the hallway back and forth but at the same time taking his time. Most of the time he would spend the hours looking at the staff work in their new inventions, whether it would be new weaponry or armaments. Someone tapped him on the shoulder, and in seconds all he could see were a bunch of people staring at him from his right, before he got jabbed by what it seemed a robot. "Oooooouuughh... that's gonna hurt," says Elliot. Pathfinder takes his weapon, "Ready to go, friend! Want me to take down the other one too?" "Actually," says Wraith, "let's head to the control room and work on those defense systems." "Right!" Wraith says to Elliot, "You and the others should keep going towards the hangar. Wait at the stairs after you go through those doors. I'll come back when we are ready. In the mean time stay low."
"Got it!" Elliot responds. He and the others start making their way. "Let's go," says Wraith while Pathfinder following her. They go through a side door leading into a short not so illuminated hallway with a door at the end. Wraith reached the door and started to use the ID card she stole. "I got your back, friend." She entered a command and swiped the key card. "Wait here...", said Wraith as Pathfinder gave her a thumbs up. She entered the room and the door closed. All Pathfinder could hear were the crashing of things and grunts of pain. In the end there was a moment of silence, before the door opened again. "Clear," said Wraith, with the guards all beaten in the floor. "Good work!", responded Pathfinder with enthusiasm. "Alright, I got you covered so do your thing," said Wraith while taking aim at the door. It was a small room only illuminated by multiple monitors of all sizes and 3 holographic keyboards at the table.
Pathfinder began typing in commands of all sorts, and inserted a small drive from his index finger into the computer. After a couple of seconds of pure coding and reprogramming, since he had permission of an administrator, all the screens turned off one by one. "Almost done!", said Pathfinder. Suddenly, everything was dark. Pathfinder's circuits were the only things illuminating the room. Then they booted up again. "Defense systems have been reset. We can leave now!" Pathfinder said excited. "Good job," said Wraith, "now let's meet up with the rest." They quickly made their way towards the outside hallway and the doors at the end leading to the hangar. Everone started looking at them coming their way. "Friends, we are going home!", said Pathfinder as everyone silently cheered. "Good work guys!" Elliot came by. "Honestly it was all Pathfinder. I just covered him" said Wraith. An exclamation point symbol appeared in Pathfinder's monitor in his chest. "Wow! Really? That's great!"
The stairs were not that long. They were going up crossing each other. The door opened and a huge hangar appeared. Ships of all classes were being stationed and some were even leaving. They were on an elevated floor. With a clear view of the main floor of the hangar. "This is going to be tuff. The place is too big. Almost impossible to make it unnoticed," said Wraith. "Leave it to us," one of the soilders said, and another handful came in too. "We all have weapons. If we focus our fire on the main threats while protecting the runners, we'll be fine." "Ok," Wraith agreed, "but keep in mind that reinforcements will come in so we'll have to do this quick." The floor they were at was connected to stairs leading to the first floor and a bridge to their ticket out of there. "Everyone listen up," Wraith said catching everyone's attention. "Our way out is through the other side of the bridge. When you make it there, there will be 3 columns with the escape pods. Each is a 4 seater, but there will be enough for everyone here. Once your inside, set your coordinates and the pod will do the rest. Once one is launched, it will take time for another one to be set up. We will give you the signal when it's time. Understand?" Everyone nodded, and the ones with weaponry began setting their weapons.
The place was a large rectangular hangar with large doors on either walls. Everyone was focused on either piloting an aircraft, repairing, or guarding the area. "8 units. 2 at the same floor. The rest in the main floor on the doors. Others are armed but distracted with their tasks," said the voice. "Got it." Then, it started. Wraith made the first move and the others followed with their aims at different directions. Everyone else was caught off guard, giving them a bad reaction time to the fire. Some guards took fire and were taken down, while others took cover and fought back. However they were pinned down since they had the high ground at the second floor. Once the alarms went off, the rest of the prisoners began running with their heads down as fast as they could. Only a few more and Wraith and the rest could go as well. "Wraith, the reinforcements are almost here!" the voice said.
Wraith stood up and said, "Keep going!" The rest nodded and started making their way. She stayed until the last one made it out, and then began to move. "Get down!" the voice said. Two shots were fired from behind her. One missed and hit the railing. The other got Wraith's arm, making her lose her footing and fall down. "Got ya," said a woman approaching Wraith. "Wow. Can't believe after all this time you would turn your back at us. And hey, you actually managed to escape with your new friends. Almost, though. They are probably just leaving without you by now. You seriously though YOU, out of all people would go AWOL? Not on my watch." The officer quickly took aim and a burst of fire came. Both were catched by surprise, but the officer caught the bullets as well. She was hit on her side, and lost her weapon. "C'mon get up!", Elliot said while trying to help Wraith and keeping aim on the officer.
They retracted and went through the doors. Pathfinder was at the hatch of one of the pods and began waving, "Over here friends!" After taking the first step inside, bursts of fire came from the entrance. Elliot and Wraith made it in while Pathfinder covered them firing back, forcing the enemy to take cover. Pathfinder took the hatch and locked it in place. The 3 quickly got to their seats and prepared for launch, as the enemy forces began running towards the escaping pod. Elliot quickly launched, and suddenly the pod was pushed at incredible strength, while they were pulled back in a bit of discomfort. Then, everthing stopped moving. They were covered in darkness. Yet some white dots could be seen at the distance. They were in space, finally free. "Huh, were actually out! I mean, yeah, I knew we were gonna escape. I'm just...happy that's all," said Elliot with a grin in his face. "We finally made it friends! And it's all thanks to me!," said Pathfinder with full confidence. "Yeah yeah, but I saved Wraith! And she's the one who got us out in the first place too". "Thanks for that," Wraith replied. "Oh. N-no problem. In all honesty we should be thanking you in the end. Why did you let us go anyway?"
This was going to be a long ride...