Chapter Ten: "You blew up the back wall!"
"Get on the line with Intel," Captain Ski barked to Danya. "Tell them to hold their fire; we need everyone they can spare on the ground!
"Lead to Support," he called to the technical "Plan B" in the squad, "you're on. You're going into a hot situation. Assume hostiles in all sectors -"
"Sir, you may want to hear this." Danya re-looped the comm feed so that Kevin could hear what she had found. Nine clicks sounded through the feed, the last noise that was sent from the inside.
"Milan clicked his comm nine times before everything went dead," she continued, playing the sounds one more time. The feed was as much of a puzzle as anything else.
"Does 'nine' mean anything structurally? Nine sectors?" Ski put Support on hold. "Nine hostiles?"
"Nothing, sir," Danya replied, trying to simultaneously help her captain, read data from the system, and contact Intel at the same time. "It couldn't have been a glitch. I had those comms checked out three times before we left..."
Danya trailed off into silence and thought, then held back a gasp. "Holy shavitt, wait a second. The air defenses just went down!"
"Trika got through?" Rinin asked hopefully.
"Looks like," Danya replied, checking her figures once more. "The main power grid has been shut down and the auxiliary system is booting up. They're working at half-capacity for the air network and without support for their defense system. Trika's the only one who could have done it. She's tripped their signals."
The confusion only mounted when Quis spoke up. "Nine," she said flatly, as if they hadn't realized the word was a number. "Nine. Talon Nine. Milan means that Nine is our target."
Everyone turned to look at the engineer, their faces displaying different degrees of shock, disbelief, and skepticism.
"Lieutenant Muir?" Rinin snorted incredulously.
Kevin gave her an odd look. "I think that conclusion is a little premature. What makes you think that, Three?"
Quis shrugged. "I've always had a bad feeling about her anyway, sir, and plus, I can't imagine Milan signaling security issues when he could have the opportunity to kill them all by himself."
*****
Stone continued to look worriedly over Trika. The young slicer was still unconscious, and perhaps that was for the better. Her pale features signaled death was near, and her breathing had become very, very shallow. "Does this medical area of yours even exist?" he questioned with as much spite as he could.
Milan, despite his massive frame and light cargo, stumbled about like a drunken sailor. It seemed that he was not necessarily paying attention to where he was going, occasionally having to steady himself against the wall with his right hand to keep from jostling Trika too badly.
Muir, at the very least, was highly annoyed, keeping her prisoners at bay from the front of the pack, her blasters pointed in their direction. "I'm taking a round-about path unless, of course, you'd like to spend some time in a Black Fire detention cell." True, the base was minimally guarded, but she definitely knew her way around the place, which made it even more curious that she didn't want to reveal herself to any operatives that might have been about.
Their journey had brought them to the southernmost sector, and as they rounded the final corner in the maze that was the inner hallways, both a hangar exit and a medical service area appeared.
Muir stopped to motion the two intrusion team members into the facility, a sterile room with bright white walls and several cabinets hanging above three separate counters. There was also a lone table in the middle of the room for patients. "Feel free to use anything you'd like." She rolled her eyes before saying the next sentence with as much sarcasm as she could muster. "I'm sure you'll figure a way out before security finds you here."
Stone, still in his bonds, ran to the table and swept his forearms across its glossy surface to clear it of the spare medical supplies. Milan had rushed in as well, carefully laying the wounded Trika onto the table. He quickly took a set of wire cutters from Trika's bag and began to cut the connections between the strong, metal bonds holding Stone's hands. As soon as he was free, Stone grabbed for his bag and began to do what he could for the dying slicer.
Milan turned to face Jane Muir, who had paused long enough to give him a wink of arrogance. She aimed her blaster for the control panel to the medical facility and fired, sending the sliding door flying shut. The trained Kiffar took the same wire cutters he had just used on Stone's bonds and gave it a focused hurl in her direction, the newly christened weapon making it through the closing door and narrowly missing a dodging Muir. Her smile showed her obvious superiority, that is, until the knife that followed hit her just below her right clavicle.
Twelve strode the remaining distance to the medical facility's lone window and gazed hard at the faltering woman. Her firm confidence fell for just a moment before she stood erect, took the blade by the handle, and ripped it from her chest without so much as a cry. The blade dripped her blood, but as she stared back hard at her newfound enemy, she noticed that her blood was probably the least of her worries. Milan stood there in a ruined camouflaged uniform, Trika's red blood staining much of his chest. In all honesty, Muir found the sight quite frightening, but there was no time to think about any of that. With her shot to the control panel came a siren, and a lockdown in the sector became imminent. They may have just been able to sneak around the base, but that prospect was very doubtful now that everyone knew exactly where they were.
He watched her leave, walking out of his sight victorious. As Jane Muir approached the hangar door, she gave a final look his direction, then disappeared.
"Milan!" Stone yelled for the third time. The large Kiffar turned around to see his teammate handling bacta and several instruments that didn't appear as if they belonged anywhere in a medical facility. "You've got to help me or else she's not going to make it!"
He might have looked offended for Stone saying such a thing, but he complied, stepping up to the table and ignoring the sirens, the flickering lights of a lockdown, and the large explosions coming from down the hallway.
*****
The alarms had begun to sound as soon as Rubi Jais had punched in the final digits of the side door's code, a nice gift from Danya and the feed that Stone had taken of Trika's initial crack of the same door. It slid open anyway, but the once barren hallways were instead scattered with the gray-suited operatives of Black Fire. Jaren took aim at the first one and fired. The shot hit his upper torso and lifted him off the ground for a second, the power of Jaren's modified rifle nothing to doubt. From behind, Telia let fly another scarlet bolt of energy. The support team rushed into chaos, and by the time they had all entered the building completely and the door behind them closed, eight different bodies lay dead on the ground.
"Superior firepower," Rubi chuckled a bit too sadistically, reloading her weapon and securing her two side arms.
Mekial got the nod from Jaren that she had been waiting for. She took out what looked like a transmitter and pushed the obvious button on top. Several loud explosions erupted from outside, and the four shared a brief, knowing smile with one another.
Jaren moved forward and peered down the left hallway, making sure to step over the two bodies in his way. He almost missed it, but the little light in the facility had accented the smear just enough so that he caught the sharp difference. He hurried to the wall and motioned for his team to follow. What he saw disturbed him, but he had to look past that and use the evidence to proceed.
"Fingerprints. It's blood," he said, rather dumbfounded. The others gathered around more closely for a look, as if to make sure Lieutenant Kai had correctly identified the red substance. "The smear was made a while ago, but it is still somewhat wet."
"It continues." Mekial pointed down the hallway, and suddenly, the group had a definite direction. Someone had left clues to follow, but the fact that the clues were large handprints of blood made it more disturbing than amazing. Throwing all caution aside, Jaren gripped his rifle tightly and picked up his pace, following the cryptic message down the corridor.
The blood path never let up or became dull, and it never became less disturbing. Support had wound its way to the southern sector of the base, the beginnings of a lockdown in progress. The team rounded the last corner and came to an abrupt halt, seeing a sight that they had never hoped for in their wildest imaginations.
"Oh, no." Telia's heart sank upon seeing the remnants of the infiltration team in a bloodied mess. She was the first to try the door before realizing they were stuck.
Their entrance had grabbed at least Milan's attention, whose unusually sad eyes told the entire story of what had happened. He made sure Stone was all right for the moment before leaving Trika's side to meet Jaren at the wide window nearest the door. "It's Jane," he said flatly, pointing a bloody finger toward the hangar bay. "She's close to getting away."
Jaren gave one look at Telia and knew what they had to do. He turned to Rubi and Mekial, who were already working on the door. "Get them out of here as quickly as possible," he ordered, reaching into his tactical vest and pulling out a small homing beacon. "Set this for the Hawk and secure Intrusions. We'll rendezvous at the ship before giving the signal to lift. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." Both women nodded, making themselves busy with the work of opening the door. Mekial appeared to have found some suitable wiring to mess with and Rubi had the supplies from her bag already out and ready.
Jaren and Telia replaced large rifles with snub-nosed blasters more suitable for close quarters before taking off toward the hangar. With a nod, the duo burst through the door and covered each other's entrance. A shot from the far right nearly nicked Telia, who ducked behind a stockpile of crates to avoid becoming another Talon casualty. Jaren was quick enough to get a shot off before joining Telia behind the convenient wall of durasteel.
"Did you see her?" he asked quietly, trying to find a peeping hole somewhere between the crates.
Before she could answer, the telltale voice of Jane Muir called to the two snipers. "You're out of your league, Kai!" she yelled. "Don't get yourselves killed."
In response, Telia popped up from her position and let fly at least four good shots. The idea was not to necessarily hit Muir, but to better gauge her position and the situation. As she came back behind the crates, several shots followed her. "She has a group of three guards with her," she told her partner, who was also attempting to form a better plan than the almost crazy one they were currently employing. "They're loaded, too. We've got to figure something else out."
Jaren took out his comlink and gave a buzz to two unlikely players in their game. "Thirteen, Fourteen? Do you copy?" Hopefully, Kithera and Kaiba were awaiting instructions and not chatting about the finer points of men and weaponry.
It took a while for the two women to respond, more than likely a result of having been bored instead of chatting. "We're here, Five," Kaiba returned, perky as ever. "Need some assistance?"
"I'm setting off a homing beacon," he told the ladies piloting the Eagle before two more shots flew overhead. Apparently, Muir wasn't satisfied to keep the two pinned down. Telia jumped up briefly and fired away, causing the advancing mercenary officers to take cover behind a rather large transport. "I want you to check the signal and blow out the southernmost wall where we are."
He could hear the engines firing up in the background. "Are you sure that's safe, Five?" Kithera asked with a bit of hesitance.
Telia ducked behind the crates again and checked her charges. She was still good for the going. "Trust me," he said, hurriedly releasing the comm connection and giving another nod to Telia.
Telia took his nod and knew what Jaren had in mind. She turned slightly to her right and, as she heard Jaren stand and unload a dozen rapid-fire shots, she launched herself toward a dormant droid load lifter several meters away. She arrived at her new cover just as Jaren ducked back down and replaced his blaster's expended power pack.
Several shots scorched the other side of Jaren's hiding place. The Black Fire soldiers were acting more cautiously now, but they wouldn't sit still forever.
Jaren started edging his way toward one side of the crates, keeping low to hide his movements. Telia didn't need a signal to know that he would make a break for a large support beam against the far wall, using several smaller stacks of pallets for cover as he ran.
Both snipers moved as one. Jaren rose and fired twice, then slid around the stack of blackened crates that been protecting him. Telia laid down heavy suppressing fire as he ran. A small voice in the back of her mind marveled briefly at the coordination between them. No orders had been issued, no hand signals exchanged. She just knew what Jaren was going to do and had acted on that knowledge almost without thinking.
Jaren fired several shots as he ran, all of which spattered harmlessly against the shuttle's armor. As he reached the support pillar, he didn't even slow down. He crashed full-tilt into the wall, taking the impact against his left side and settled down with his back against the base of the pillar.
Even from this distance, Telia could see that he was suppressing a smirk. She felt a sudden heat of annoyance wash over her face. One unlucky soldier tentatively ventured out of cover before Telia had returned to hers, and he took the brunt of her anger as a blaster bolt vaporized the center of his helmet. He crumpled to a heap on the floor.
Jaren fired one more volley at the soldiers and then the two snipers took cover against unusually heavy return fire. Telia threw both of her blasters down. "Dead," she said, reaching back for her rifle. Jaren tossed his aside as well. At that moment, they could have used that backup... and more.
*****
"I can't merge the connection," Mekial growled, taking a series of wires and attempting to reconnect the split ends of what had previously been scorched by Jane Muir's blaster bolt. Rubi was having her own troubles with the control panel and the subsequent switches and wires. Finally, Mekial tossed the wires aside and reached for her comlink.
"Are you calling Four?" Rubi asked, thinking that Quis might have a better idea of how to extract the intrusions team.
Mekial halted Rubi in her tracks by throwing the communicator to the ground and smashing the equipment into pieces. The woman of many talents began picking through the remnants. "Can you find the relay coil?" she asked, still searching the mess.
Inside the medical room, Stone and Milan were yelling at each other. Rubi lifted her gaze just high enough to make sure that Trika was still alive. The odd-looking woman appeared to still be breathing, but Stone was continuing to care for her with the most meager of tools and equipment. Bloodied cloths and tools lay strewn across the counter behind him.
Above, the lights were flickering, still in lockdown mode. Down the hallway, voices could be heard.
"Shavitt. They're here. Rubi?" Mekial prompted her attention. Instead, the spy reached for her sidearm and crouched nearer to the wall. Mekial moved out of her way and began to piece together her own contraption. The pieces fit together rather poorly, but they would have to work.
The sounds down the hallway were getting closer, and Rubi pulled around the corner to fire. She pulled back quickly, yelling that she had seven or so to hold off. Mekial's eyes bulged a tad before the sparks began to fly from behind her, the energy bolts coming in heavily from the hallway.
"You've got to hold them!" Mekial called back, standing up to place her new contraption into the control panel. Rubi took the comment and returned back into the fray. A couple of satisfying yelps followed, but not enough to warrant a celebration. Mekial banged her fist loudly on the window to the medbay. "You guys need to back away!" she called to them, setting what looked like a charge and backing away herself.
Rubi had pulled back once more, but seeing the set charge, turned the corner one last time and disappeared, advancing on the remaining Black Fire operatives. The explosion behind her rocked her forward slightly, throwing her off balance just enough to give the one blaster bolt a chance at her left shoulder.
Mekial, fortunately, was right behind her, catching Rubi before she actually fell. Mekial shot the last three operatives square in the face and finished the job. All seven of the operatives lay strewn in the hallway. Mekial pulled Rubi back to the southern wall and made sure the shot was not serious.
Rubi clenched her jaw shut and attempted not to gasp at the pain shooting through her shoulder. "I'm fine." Gritting her teeth, Rubi pushed Mekial away and waved her hand, motioning for Mekial to leave her alone. Her partner could tell the wound was not serious, but it was definitely deep enough to need tending to once their ordeal was completed.
Mekial checked her homing beacon to make sure it was still working. The Hawk was more than likely ready for them through the hangar. It was still unclear, however, whether Jaren and Telia had encountered Jane Muir or not. She stepped over the wreckage from the sealed door and entered the medbay to the same troubling scene she had imagined. The whole of the intrusions team was covered in blood and they were a frenzy of emotions.
"How is she?" Mekial dared to ask Stone despite the mumblings of a particularly angry Milan Lirac. The medic appeared to be done with his work for the moment at least, for he was standing back and observing the patient from the counter.
He appeared distracted, worried, stressed, and upset, all at one time. Stone looked away from Trika to give Mekial his attention. "She's stable enough to move, but that patch is strictly last-ditch," he sighed, then turned around to tuck away his tools. "We're looking at serious blood loss, damage sustained to the lower internal organs, maybe even septicemia if I didn't patch that hole in the intestine fast enough. We've got to get her some steady bacta treatment or else she's going to die, slow and ugly."
Mekial put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, trying to put the gory thoughts of Trika's death out of her mind. "You've done what you can," she said with a light, but warm smile. "But if you've got a little more in you, Seven is in the hallway and could probably use a wrap for her arm."
Stone jumped suddenly, unaware that Rubi had been hurt. "Where is she?" he asked, rushing out of the med facility and finding the injured woman already at work on her own wound. It seemed that the medic was quite up to the task of doing his job. Mekial barely watched him leave before moving to grab Milan.
"Let's get her out of here," she implored him, grasping his colossal arm and pulling his attention to the present. The hulking Kiffar, whose massively larger frame easily outweighed her own by forty to fifty kilograms, looked down at her big blue eyes and nodded.
The two Talons gingerly lifted the unconscious Trika and made sure that Milan could keep her steady enough during the journey to the Hawk. Despite the gravity of the situation, Mekial couldn't help chuckling at the thought. Milan's hold on his partner was incredibly strong and she doubted he would need any help carrying the light cargo.
Mekial and Milan came out of the medbay just in time to see Stone helping Rubi to her feet. He had wrapped her shoulder and made sure, at her request, that she still had a blaster in her other hand.
"We should hurry." Rubi hid a grimace. "The Hawk should be on its way."
Mekial was already attempting to call Jaren. "Five, this is Eight. What's your status?"
The only response she received was a large explosion.
*****
"You blew up the back wall!" Kithera screamed, looking out the viewport of the Eagle at the smoldering destruction of the base.
"That's what Jaren told us to do!" Kaiba screamed back.
"But you took out three-fourths of the hangar!" Kithera slapped her forehead. "Do you see anybody?" If there was any sort of bonus points to be gained for her leadership capabilities, this little event certainly wasn't going to work in her favor.
The two women were apparently not the only ones trying to peer through the smoke and wreckage. The explosion from the modified transport's turbolasers had taken out a serious chunk of the southern section of the base. The rest of the infiltration team, along with Mekial and Rubi, stood amidst pieces of broken wall and roof. Deciding not to wait any longer for assistance or for the Hawk, Milan led the rest of the group out of the base and toward the awaiting transport. Kaiba put the craft down onto the ground and opened up the cargo bay.
"Look!" Kithera pointed to the hangar, where a steady shootout was taking place between Black Fire operatives and what appeared to be Jaren and Telia. The two were moving quickly toward their exit, but Black Fire wasn't letting them off easily. The two were pinned to a stack of crates, still deep in the hangar.
"I'm going out there," Kithera said, releasing her restraints and moving toward the back. "Keep this bird ready to go!"
Kaiba began to protest, but knew it would do no good. The best she could hope for right at that moment was for a quick end to the ongoing battle happening right outside her viewport.
*****
Mekial made sure Milan and Stone could handle their two wounded companions before heading back into the fray to find Jaren and Telia. She was surprised when a form began running out of the cargo bay.
"Lieutenant Rinani?"
"Yep. You got it," Kithera responded, charging two blasters and giving a nod Mekial's way. "Let's get them out of there so we can get out of here."
The two women charged ahead tactically, only shooting when spotted and drawing fire away from their teammates. Jaren and Telia took the opportunity for what it was and ran, dodging fire from all around and returning it when prudent. The air for a moment was abuzz with energy bolts and noise, much of the base alive with the sound of air support. Starfighters were beginning to make an appearance, and the distant sound of the Hawk could be heard.
Jaren knew they had to move fast. He knew they were in trouble from the sounds in the air. Behind their foes a dozen or so new operatives were filing in and ready to capture or kill both of them. "Get ready," he told Telia, firing one last shot before preparing to cover her. "You've got to run."
She nodded. On his signal, the two snipers jumped up and ran, with Jaren's coverage blowing small craters into the hangar floor and walls. Mekial and Kithera added their own chaos, and when Telia and Jaren reached the midway point, the quartet ran for all they were worth. The shots that flew past them were fluke shots in a fleeting attempt to score a mark. Never did anyone think someone would actually get hit.
That's why nobody noticed the shot that hit Jaren in the back of the knee.
He went down hard, and face first. Only when he was that close to the ground could he feel the speeder bikes approaching. He rolled onto his back and saw the massive surge in the base defenses, and the massive surge in Black Fire operatives. He twisted around slightly to see Telia, Kithera, and Mekial make it into the Eagle's cargo bay. The bulk of the transport was under heavy fire from various sources, and he then realized that if the craft didn't lift, it would be overtaken and destroyed.
"Eagle, this is Five, lift now!" he screamed into his comlink. "Let's get out of here!"
The cargo bay shut quickly and the repulsorlifts were already fired up for take off. In a roar of thrust, the Eagle rose into the air and took off toward the distant north, to where it would hopefully meet up with the Hawk. Jaren keenly felt the pain shooting up his left thigh, throbbing in his knee. He grabbed at the wound, aware of the small group of operatives surrounding him and leveling blaster rifles his way.
Without a word, the rough men in gray uniforms lifted him to his feet. The group parted slightly to make room for one more, and it was a face he was not happy to see.
The wound in his leg was now the least of his worries. "Lieutenant," Jane Muir addressed him in mock-formality. "I never really got to know you before this whole fiasco, and I'd like to have the opportunity to know everything about you and your involvement with the New Republic. Lieutenant Rinani would have been an added bonus, but I'm sure that we'll make up for whatever we would be missing."
If there was one thing Jaren knew, it was that enemy snipers were never very welcome guests in the company of interrogators.
*****
Mekial continued her sprint all the way into the cockpit where Kaiba was piloting them away from the base. Her eyes were wide and her expression even wider. "That was so incredibly nuts!"
Rubi was sitting with Kaiba in the copilot's seat, nursing a newly taped wound. "What, did you go and try to get yourself killed back there?" she asked with a smirk, understanding well the consequences of participating in a firefight.
The transport wound back to the original meet location. The mission, although twisted, was largely a success. Kaiba nodded out the viewport at the Hawk, which was running parallel to their course. "I sent a message that we got both groups. The Hawk picked up Ops instead. We should be able to wait out the New Republic backup and provide some minor air support."
"When are they due to arrive?" Mekial asked, seemingly calming down as the transport began to land. Even having cheated death, the spirited woman couldn't have been any more cheerful.
"Any minute now," Kaiba said, prepping the Eagle for a landing. "Captain Ski received their confirmation of our crack of the air defense system a few minutes ago, and they are in position to begin an attack sequence."
"Go back!" a voice from the back screamed. "We left him!"
Kaiba continued her landing procedure. The voice sounded like Telia's, and it was getting closer. "What did she just say?"
Telia burst through to the cockpit. "You've got to go back!" she was practically pleading. "Turn around! We left him!"
"Who?" Rubi asked.
"Jaren," she explained further, almost at the verge of tears. "He's not onboard. We left him behind!"
The Eagle safely landed before Kaiba made an effort to contact the Hawk. "Lead, this is Fourteen," she called to Captain Ski. "We've got a situation."