All DBZ characters portrayed are owned by Toei.
June 2nd, Age 771
The Independence was a day away from reaching Tyree. The ship could have reached the planet sooner at its maximum speed, but it was decided to go slower so the probes can gather as much intelligence before the rescue operation could proceed. As it was Cilan was in another mission briefing.
When Armun and Milla were transferred over to the Ark Royal, two other people were transferred over to the Independence. They weren't fighters, but personnel from the Galactic Federation Security Agency. Both were human, one being his handler and other being a tech adviser. They'd been going over the plan in various briefings, with Cilan ignoring much of it except for the important bits.
"Are you listening Lieutenant Cilan?" The question was asked by his operation handler, Mike Samson. Unlike the military officers Cilan had dealt with before, Samson was a civilian agent. Instead of wearing an issued uniform, he was in a gray business suit. He had never served in the military so his frame was on the chunkier side and his hair was thinning.
"Yeah," Cilan slouched in his seat twirling a pen in one hand. "Tyree is the third planet in orbit of the Lylic system. Its iron oxide surface gives it a red surface and its solar day is 30 standard hours; 14 being daylight, 16 being nighttime.
"Probes have detected 20 enemy forces with 1 being a mid-level ki user," he finished in a bored tone.
Samson wasn't amused, "This isn't a joke Lieutenant, the life of an innocent is at stake here."
Cilan bit back a retort, remembering the words Milla told him.
The agent continued with the briefing, "As for the insertion, we can't use the ship. The enemy has begun to scrutinize the skies when our cloaked ships enter the atmosphere. Instead you'll be making planetary entry by yourself."
"How will I be doing that exactly?"
Samson turned his attention to the tech adviser, Adam Taylor. Unlike Samson, Taylor was dressed in a light blue button shirt and black slacks. He was taller than the handler, but was lanky. He held up a gray spacesuit, with a big backpack. "You'll be using this. It's packed with an inflatable heat shield."
"Wait," Cilan sat-up straight and looked at both men incredulously. "You're telling me I'm going to make atmospheric entry in a space suit?"
Both men nodded at him, which only further stunned him, "Are you people insane?"
"Hear me out. If we tried to enter with this ship, it'll light us up too much to go undetected. If you make entry, you'll just appear as a shooting star," Samson tried to reassure Cilan.
"I understand that, but what's stopping me from being incinerated?"
Taylor spoke up, "As I said sir, the suit is packed with an inflatable heat shield. We've been using this on all of our probes and it can withstand the high heat."
"How many people have done it so far?"
"Well…" Taylor scratched at an imaginary itch on his arm. "You'll be the first."
"Perfect," Cilan muttered while he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Is this the only way I can get to the planet's surface?"
Both men nodded again, which made the saiyan grumble under his breath. Samson cleared his throat, "Moving on, you'll be making entry in the nighttime and you should land at an area that is 50 kilometers west of their base. Your main objective is to secure Ms. Winners. Once that is achieved, your second objective is to terminate all enemy hostiles. After that, the Independence will extract you both."
"What do I do in case she's dead?"
"Secure the remains until you're picked up. Though our analysts believe that Ms. Winners is still alive," Samson nodded to Taylor. "We also have new gear for your infiltration of the base."
Taylor handed Cilan a silver attaché case. When he opened it, he found three items packed inside the foam padding: A beam sword hilt, a rectangular display, and a small rectangular box that was the size of a deck of cards.
"The first item is a new beam sword; it's twice as powerful as your older model and three times as durable. The second item is a new field computer that can be strapped to your forearm. It'll link up wirelessly to your goggles, and features camera and radio jamming.
"The final item is a ki blocker. It can mask your ki signature from enemy scouters. However it can only mask it to a point. If you go into your golden mode, it'll overwhelm the device. It can clip onto your combat suit."
The last device fascinated Cilan the most. He held it up to inspect it, "Did Armun and Milla get ki blockers?"
Samson shook his head, "No, that's the only working prototype we have right now. Its development was rushed once we found out who kidnapped the Winners girl. We felt it'd serve best with your mission."
Cilan didn't like knowing that his comrades weren't getting the same gear, but couldn't do anything about it. He closed the case and set it aside.
"We'll adjourn this briefing for now. There'll be another in 12 hours for a final overview. Get yourself acquainted with the new items."
June 3rd, Age 771
Cilan stood in the cargo hold of the Independence. He was wearing the space suit he was shown yesterday. The Ark Royal sent word that Armun and Cilan had deployed hours earlier. Samson was with him, giving a final prep talk, "We're over your drop point. We've monitored communication from the enemy and they still don't know we're here. We've developed a new secure radio communication system, one the enemy hasn't cracked yet. But try to keep radio use down to a minimum anyway."
The saiyan nodded, before he rechecked his suit and the pack that contained the heat shield. He also re-secured another pack that was on his chest, it contained his combat suit and gear. Lastly, he made sure the latch in his space helmet was secured, "How much time will I have?"
"5 hours until sunrise. The planet's moon is in a new phase, so it'll be pitch black."
A force field activated, separating Cilan from Samson. The door to the cargo bay opened behind Cilan and he had to use his powers to not get sucked out.
"Good luck Lieutenant!" Samson shouted.
Cilan nodded and jumped into the vacuum of space. He floated away from the ship, which was cloaked, as the only visible part of it was the inside of the cargo hold that was slowly closing back up. It wasn't the first time Cilan was out in space, he'd been out there for training in zero gravity. As he floated slowly towards the planet, all he could hear was his own breathing.
There wasn't much time to enjoy the view as he was being pulled by the planets gravity. When he was entering the upper atmosphere, the heat shield automatically deployed from the backpack. It inflated to three times his size, its shape was reminiscent of an upside down umbrella. The shield began to glow as it picked up speed.
For Cilan he was facing outward to see the blackness of space change to an orange glow. It felt like he was on a roller coaster seated backwards. The suit was designed to withstand the 900 degree temperature of the reentry. He was on edge when everything began to shake for him.
After a minute he cleared the atmosphere and was rocketing towards the ground. He deactivated the heat shield and slowed down. Cilan touched down on the ground where he was supposed to, and took off the space suit. He was bemused to find the heat shield had scorch marks all over it. Once he was in his combat suit he buried the space suit then radioed in, "Uptown 1, this is Downtown 1. I've made landing. Over."
"Roger Downtown 1," Sampson's voice came over on the radio. "We have you on tracking; you are 47 klicks from main objective."
"Copy that," Cilan replied before he flew to the enemy base. It would take him a little under 6 minutes to get there, so he decided to go over his plan again. The ki blocker could only mask his normal base form, so he couldn't use powered up blasts without giving himself away. It also couldn't block his beam sword, so he'd have to get creative on the infiltration.
When he was 7 kilometers from the base he flew over hills when something in a valley caught his attention. He landed in front of the remains of what used to be a house. In the briefings, it was mentioned that Tyree wasn't densely populated as the conditions of it didn't allow much vegetation.
'Must have belonged to one of the few people that lived here,' he thought to himself when he walked around it. It was then he discovered whom it belonged to. On the ground not far from the home were two skeletal remains. Cilan wasn't an expert in identifying bones, but he could deduce that the first set was male, the bones were picked clean of meat, but its tattered clothes looked masculine. There was a gaping hole where the chest used to be. Curiously, it clutched onto a black rifle.
'Poor bastard tried firing at his attacker before he was killed,' he reasoned as he crouched down and removed the rifle from the skeletal grip. It was a Gauss rifle; it used electromagnets to fire projectiles at a high velocity. They used to be the standard issue rifle the Galactic Federation before they switched to beam rifles. He studied about them when he was in officer's school.
The rifle was still fully charged and nearly had a full magazine. He set it aside and walked over to the second set of remains. Instead of laying on its back like the first set, these were face down in the ground, and it looked like it clutched to something. The clothes it had looked feminine, and there was a hole in the back. Turning the remains over he found what it was clutching.
Wrapped in a bundle was the skeleton of a baby. It didn't take much to guess that it was the child of the female, who was likely its mother. From the lack of a blast hole on its body, it was left to starve to death after the mother died protecting it. He tried to detach himself from the scene and get back to the mission.
However his imagination replayed what was likely the last moments of this family. He also knew how his mother died saving his life. Cilan looked over the remains again, and made a decision; he entered the house and came out of it a few minutes later with a shovel in hand.
It took a few minutes, but he dug three graves for the remains and set each one in their final resting place; he used the rifle as a grave marker for the male's remains. He gave them a moment of silence before he flew back towards the base. It didn't take much to figure that one of the PTO soldiers were the murderer of the family, so he made himself a promise then, 'I'm going to kill all those fuckers.'
Cilan made his way to the compound minutes later and was laying prone on the ground on a hill a kilometer away from the compound. "This is Downtown 1 to Uptown 1. I'm one klick from the chicken coop. Over."
"Uptown 1 to Downtown 1, roger." Samson had seen what Cilan did, but said nothing about it. "Our scans show there are 21 hens in the roost. Over."
"Confirmed," Cilan's goggles showed the same count, which meant Dayana was alive and in the base. "I'm moving in now. Over."
"Copy. Good luck."
Cilan circled the base to find a lone sentry guarding a side entrance. The computer indicated there weren't any active cameras around the guard. He flew quietly over the guard, and drew his knife when he was overhead. Cilan flew straight down to tackle him and covered the guard's mouth before he could yell in surprise. They struggled, but the sentry stopped when the knife was jammed into his neck and was cut open.
There weren't many places to hide the body, so Cilan could only drag it to a dark spot. He sat him up against the wall and hoped the shadows could hide it enough. He wiped the blood off his gloves on the dead guard's suit and made his way to the door. Before he opened it, he looked through it with his x-ray vision and with his ki senses.
Behind the door was an empty corridor, there were a few cameras but no personnel. However, his goggles showed that were a number of ki sensors in the corridors. He could only conclude that they relied on ki detection than visual tools.
He turned up the camera jammer and made entry into the base. Walking down the corridors; his senses told him a very weak ki signature was down below in the base. The map projected on his goggles could only provide a rough outline of the bases interior, which was based on scans from the probes.
His senses also told him that where was heading now was clear, but there were a number of soldiers down below.
'Guarding the girl,' he thought the obvious. At the end of the corridor were a set of doors that his visor revealed to be an elevator. Cilan looked at it, 'If I use it, I might as well get on the PA and tell them I'm here.'
He looked to the side and found another door, but his visor showed it to be a stairway access. They were empty as well. As he made his way down the stairs, his radio picked up idle chatter but there was no mention of camera problems. Once he was closer to the bottom his scanner showed him there were 5 soldiers on the floor. Two were near the girl, another two were walking the halls, and one standing in front of the door to the stairway.
Cilan took out garrote wire and wrapped it around his hands as the door silently opened behind the hapless guard. In a flash the wire was wrapped around the neck, and the guard tried to remove the wire with his hands. He struggled but eventually he suffocated, and his body stilled. The saiyan kept the wire wrapped around the dead man's neck for another moment; just to be sure he wasn't faking.
After dragging the body into the stairway, he entered the hallway and made his way to the two patrolling soldiers. For them he would need to attack them fast. He set the radio jammer to its maximum as he neared his two targets. Drawing his knife again, he rushed them.
One moment the guards were talking amongst themselves when one of them was knocked to the floor. When he looked up he saw his partner held up by the throat by a figure in black that was stabbing the other man's stomach with a knife. Before he could raise his beam cannon to fire, the knife had flown into his chest piercing his heart. He looked at the knife in disbelief before he died himself.
Cilan tossed the body aside and picked up his knife, he didn't bother trying to hide them. His main concern was the last two guards. He found the door that led to them and the girl. He un-hooked a pair of flashbangs from his vest and pulled the pins before opening the door to toss them in.
The two sentries that stood guard were not aware of the deaths of the others, nor did they hear anything over their radios. Their attention was drawn to two cylinders that rolled along the floor which exploded seconds later.
The flashbangs did their job by temporary blinding the two. The real damage they did was the loud noise produced that threw off their balance. Both guards flailed blindly trying to regain their balance; their blindness would last for seconds.
It was enough time for Cilan to stroll in and grab the first guard in a headlock, while he used the guards beam cannon to shoot the second on in the head. Then he gave the first guard's neck a quick twist that made an audible snap. After dropping the guard, he went through the next door.
'Holding block,' was all he thought when he walked past the prison cells, until he reached the final one. Inside it he found one Dayan Winners. Unlike her picture, her face was smudged with dirt, her white shirt and blue jeans were in tatters, and her blonde hair was grimy.
Cilan's nose could detect that she hadn't been allowed to bathe since the kidnapping. Her legs were chained to the floor, and around her were dirty dishes that had the remnants of what he could only guess was gruel.
Dayana looked up to him and flinched, "Who are you?"
"Your rescuer," Cilan replied while he tore the cell door open.
"I don't trust you," she tried crawling away from him.
He only rolled his eyes before he lifted his goggles and lowered the balaclava to show his face. "I'm Lieutenant Cilan of the Federation Space Forces. Your favorite color is red, your teddy bears name is Casey, and you like eating strawberry cheesecake ice cream."
In his briefings, Cilan had asked if there was any personal information that only her family would know in case he needed to gain her trust.
Dayana widened her eyes at him, "How do you know that?"
"Your dad told us before we came here," Cilan broke the chain off her ankle. He helped her up, but before they left he put his goggles back on to give her a scan. As he suspected, there was a tiny bug planted on her right shoulder. He removed it and brought it closer to inspect it.
"What is it?"
"A tracking device," he thought about crushing it, but decided to toss it away instead. Destroying it would tip off the others. He raised the balaclava, "Can you walk?"
She nodded, so Cilan lead her away. He had turned down the radio jammer and listened in to see if the enemy was wise to him yet. There was talk of not being able to raise the cell block guards, and orders were given to investigate. 'Better hurry this up.'
Dayana looked at the dead guards before she looked back at Cilan, "Are you the Grim Reaper?"
"Why do you ask?"Cilan was leading her to the stairway access as he still didn't want to use the elevators.
"They talk about you. You're the only thing they're scared of."
He said nothing, while they entered the stairway. Not sure if she could walk the flights of stairs, he carried her and flew to the main floor. Once there, he found guards waiting for the elevator and stood close to the access door. Cilan debated on waiting until they leave or using his grenades and make a break for it.
'Fuck it,' he readied a pair of stun grenade and tossed them out into the hallway. After they exploded he hurried with Dayana in tow. Before making their exit, the alarms sounded. Cilan picked her up and flew towards the west where he originally landed.
"Downtown 1 to Uptown 1, I have VIP and am heading to rendezvous point."
"Roger Downtown 1, we'll begin atmospheric entry. Hostiles are scrambling at enemy base. Secure VIP and finish second objective. We'll extract you once enemy has been suppressed. You are free to engage all hostiles."
"Copy." Cilan couldn't leave her out in the open so he flew towards the home he found earlier. Touching down he led her towards the home, picking up the Gauss rifle he left planted along the way.
"What are we doing here?" Dayana asked as she viewed her surroundings.
"The ship won't land until all those assholes are dead," he handed her the rifle. "Hide in here and use this."
She nearly dropped it, "I don't know how to use this!"
"What?"
Dayana rolled her eyes, "I'm an heiress, not some special forces wonder girl."
Cilan grunted in response while she showed her how to properly hold it, "Point the business end at anything not me and pull the trigger."
He was about to leave again when he decided to clip the ki blocker on her, "Hang tight."
After leaving the house, he flew back towards the base and charged up his ki. It had the desired effect, as his scanner showed 12 of the low level guards moving to his position. He readied his beam sword and dove towards them. The soldiers didn't realize who they faced until it was too late.
In a matter of moments a black mass mowed through them leaving behind hacked pieces that fell towards the ground.
'Where's the mid level?' He asked himself when his scanner couldn't locate him. It was then a blast was fired his way, which he easily dodged.
When he looked at the originator of the blast he found a short fat green alien with four eyes starring him down. Unknown to Cilan was that this was a Bas-jin named Fotu. Guldo and he were the last of their race as Freeza wiped them out, as their time stopping and telekinetic powers were a threat to him.
Unfortunately for Cilan he wasn't aware of their powers as there wasn't any intel on them. When he found his ki was weak he shot a beam blast towards him.
However Cilan was surprised to find that Fotu disappeared before it hit. Fotu was meters away from the impact point breathing heavily. After another blast, the saiyan was again dumbfounded that he missed.
'No fucking way this is possible,' Cilan grumbled in his mind. He charged up his ki and decided to rush him with his beam sword. When he swung the sword, he found again that he sliced nothing but air. Fotu was again meters away breathing heavily. Frustrated, Cilan decided to charge up his ki again but to use it in a wide area blast.
He flew up over Fotu and was ready to unleash his ki, when every nerve in his body went numb and stood still in mid-air.
"What the fuck?" Cilan thrashed about to make his body move.
"So the scary Grim Reaper fell into my mind trap," boasted Fotu. "My mind freeze stopped you dead in your tracks!"
"Mind freeze?"
"Just one of my race's telekinetic techniques."
"Then how were you able to dodge my blasts?" Cilan still couldn't move his body.
"Our other technique, time freeze. I can stop time however long I can hold my breath."
"Should have known, there was no way you had the speed to dodge me."
"It'll be your last mistake," Fotu prepared a blast of his own." After I finish you off, I'll be famous."
Cilan had to think fast, he couldn't move his body at all. But he then thought about fighting fire with fire, or to be more accurate, mind versus mind. He found a rock not far from the Bas-jin; it moved and flew into his fourth eye.
Fotu cried out in pain and his concentration dropped, allowing Cilan to move. Before the saiyan could land, Fotu was about to stop time again. However he couldn't when a beam sword had implanted itself into his right lung.
He fell to the side as Cilan slowly walked up to him, "How did you do that?"
"Oh I have my own telekinetic powers," Cilan's sword twisted further into Fotu. "They're not as sophisticated as yours. But they work in a pinch."
"Impossible," Fotu coughed up blood. "You monkey's don't have the brain capacity for such powers."
The beam sword flew from Fotu's chest and into Cilan's right hand, where he deactivated it. He drew his left palm toward the Bas-Jin and a ball of ki formed on it, "Guess I was special."
The blast was released and vaporized Fotu.
While Cilan had fought with Fotu, the last guard flew unnoticed to the house where Cilan had left Dayana. He was given instructions by Fotu to drop his ki so he could go undetected. The guard recognized the home as he was there when one of the others killed the family. They had a good laugh about it afterward.
He noticed that the bodies that were left out in the open were missing. His scouter wasn't picking up any readings from the house, but went in to investigate. When he entered the home he found nothing but dust and rotted furniture. He was about to head into the kitchen when he heard a scream and then felt something slammed into his chest.
"Fuck," the guard muttered as he slowly got up. He looked at his armor and noticed that it was cracked but the slug didn't penetrate. It still knocked the wind out of him.
Dayana aimed the rifle at him again and fired another round, but he dodged it. "Drop the weapon bitch, or I'll kill you!"
She smiled at him, which confused him. It was then he noticed she was looking at something behind him. Turning his head he saw Cilan standing at the doorway. The guard turned and raised his beam cannon, but Cilan was before him in an instant. One hand was on guards arm directing the cannon away from him and the other was on the guard's throat squeezing it tightly.
It took a few moments but the guard stopped struggling and his body went limp. Cilan dropped his body and looked at Dayana, "You ok?"
She nodded and set the rifle aside, then looked at the guard, "Is he dead?"
"No," he turned the body around and tied the guard's hands with zip ties. "He'll be another POW."
Once the unconscious prisoner was secured he called in to the ship, "Downtown 1 to Uptown 1, all hostiles have been neutralized, with one capture. Over."
"Roger. Independence has cleared atmosphere and moving to your location for extraction. Over and out."
Cilan motioned for Dayana to follow him out while he carried the unconscious guard. They waited outside of the desolate house waiting for the ship. For her, she was looking forward to a hot shower and a change of clothes. For him, he wanted to get back in touch with Milla and impress her with his latest battle.
Armun and Milla were making their way to the research facility. They landed on the planet using inflatable heat shields like Cilan did. It was nighttime when they landed on the planet. The planet Nibia was a jungle planet; both fighters were jumping from tree to tree to not use much ki and go undetected.
"He's not good for you," Armun commented over their private radio channel.
Milla stopped on a tree branch as she turned to look back at him, "What are you talking about?"
"You and Cilan," Armun stood next to her.
"The Lieutenant and I are comrades," she began as she fidgeted.
"Stow it Milla. I know you two are involved."
Milla darted her eyes before she looked down and sighed, "Since when?"
"Three weeks ago, your ki flared in Cilan's room and I knew you weren't fighting him."
She shifted her legs, "Yeah, we've been together. Please don't report on us Armun."
"If I wanted to, I would have when I found out," he crossed his arms. "But you can do better Milla."
"What's wrong with Cilan?"
"What isn't wrong with him? He's pig-headed, openly disrespects authority, and gets away with it."
Milla smiled up at Armun, "It sounds like you're jealous of him."
"I'm not," he said before moving on into the jungle. "Hurry along, we're on a mission."
She only rolled her eyes and followed him. They moved along in silence, forgetting their previous conversation.
Both of them stopped at the edge of the jungle and saw the facility in the clearing. However unlike other enemy bases, it didn't have outside patrols. That set off a warning bell for Armun, as he scanned the facility again.
"I don't get it, the scanner says there are 50 people inside of there, but it looks empty."
"We should try our senses," Milla suggested. Armun nodded and concentrated using his ki senses. Instead of 50 people, he found one. His eyes opened wide in surprise when that single person's ki level was equal to Cilan's.
They both looked at each other, and said in unison, "Ambush."
That's when they decided to turn back and head to where they landed, while Armun was contacting the Ark Royal, "Magic Man to Mother Goose, we're scrubbing the mission and requesting emergency evac for me and the Witch. Over."
"Mother Goose to Magic Man, why are you scrubbing the mission? Over." The voice of their handler came over the line.
"Our senses shows there are no personnel at base, except for one high level ki user. We believe this is a trap. Over."
"Our scanners are showing 50 different enemy ki signatures, Magic Man."
"Ours does too, but trust us when we say they're being faked."
"We will need to…" The voice cut-off for a moment, "Our scanners are now showing a high level ki signature moving in your direction."
Armun and Milla had already known that and decided to quit jumping and fly away.
"Mother Goose to Magic Man, we'll begin entry, but we cannot land due to high level danger from the enemy. We can perform an aerial extraction but you'll only have a small window of opportunity."
"Copy that," Armun said while he moved up higher into the air; Milla followed suit. The commander was thinking his next steps; the ship would take at least 5 minutes to enter into the atmosphere. From the speed of their unknown enemy they would be lucky to have a minute, Armun came to a decision.
"Milla, go on ahead and rendezvous with the ship. I'll hold off the enemy."
"Are you crazy Armun?"
"The ship won't pick us up in time. If I fight this asshole, you can still save yourself."
"I can't leave you behind, we fight as a team."
"Not this time, I can't risk you throwing your life away. Not to say what Cilan would do if you died," Armun smirked as he stopped in mid-air.
Milla stopped as well, "But…"
"But nothing," he cut her off. "You have your orders, now follow them."
She was near tears as she realized what Armun was doing for her, "I'll have the ship wait for you, ok?"
"Sure, see you around Milla."
Milla paid him one last glance before she left him behind. Armun waited in mid-air for the other fighter.
As he thought, he met his enemy in under a minute. After a gust of wind, Armun faced a person that was as tall as he was. He was wearing gold and white armor with a purple cape, and his frame was wiry. His head was covered with a white helmet, but had a dark visor on it to hide his face.
"Commander Armun of Ghost Recon," hissed a voice before he looked at the direction Milla flew off to. "Lt. Commander Milla. Where's the Grim Reaper?"
"Who wants to know?" Armun clamped down on his nerves.
The masked fighter chuckled, "That's not important. I had this ambush set-up for Lieutenant Cilan, but they send the lesser forces."
"Lesser forces?" Armun was insulted.
"Unless Spiers sent him to rescue the girl," he ignored Armun. "I should have had that cunt killed."
He stared back at the Commander, "No matter, killing you will be enough to send a message to the Federation."
"We'll see about that," Armun charged up and rushed the enemy. The carian launched various punches but missed every one of them. He tried again but hit nothing but air. The masked enemy laughed before he disappeared and rammed a fist into Armun's stomach.
"You're strong Carian," he said to the Commander. "But you're an insect compared to me."
Armun couldn't respond as he clutched his mid-section, the enemy raised his fist and smashed the top of Armun's head causing him to tumble to the ground. He crashed into the ground and saw the enemy was flying in.
Raising his palms, Armun launched ki balls, but each one was deflected away. The fighter replied with his own ki attack, before they could hit him, Armun rolled out of the way.
When he finally got his breath back, he stood up and looked for his enemy. In an instant, he appeared before Armun and delivered his own punch and kicks. The speed of them caught him by surprise and Armun could only block some of them, but the ones that connected felt to him as if he was hit by anvils.
After the onslaught Armun's neck was held up by the enemy in a vise like grip, "Well Commander Armun of the 1st Special Operations Group, you were no match for me. On the bright side you'll get a nice funeral."
He charged up a ki blast and was ready to fire it into Armun's face. It was then a blast hit his back, unfazed, he turned to see Milla up in the air.
"Armun! Run!" She yelled while she threw out more blasts.
The masked fighter dropped Armun and regarded her, "Lt. Commander Milla."
Milla responded by firing off more blasts, and dodging his attacks. Armun got on his feet and rubbed a hand on his neck, his vocal cords were strained. He looked up to see Milla fighting, "Run Milla," he tried to yell. He cursed and went to help her out.
The fight for Milla was not much better for her; she could only dodge the enemy's attacks. What was worse for her was not just defending against such power, but not letting his insults get under her skin.
"I don't know why they let you on the team; you're the weakest one of them all," he taunted.
"Shut up!" she lunged at him. He moved out of the way and delivered a powerful kick into her ribs nearly breaking them. Before he could inflict further damage Armun tackled him with enough force to send him a few meters away.
"Why did you come back?" Armun held Milla.
She let out a series of coughs, "Couldn't let you die out here. I got an idea, you hold him off and I can hit him with my lightning attack. That'll knock him out long enough for us to make it to the ship."
Armun agreed and set her on the ground. He flew towards the enemy fighter and again tried another series of punches and kicks. As expected, his enemy easily dodged them, but he just needed enough time for Milla. However, the masked fighter broke off from him and let out a single beam shot of ki at him.
At first he thought it was meant for him, but found it missed him and went straight for Milla. It pierced her chest and she fell to the ground.
"Oops. There goes your little plan," he taunted Armun. "One down, one to go."
Armun was slack-jawed at her lifeless body, and something within him boiled over with anger. He looked back at his enemy and threw out his hands. He was surrounded by a blue aura of ki, as he gathered it all within his body. It then swirled around him as he threw his hands together, and it collected into a sphere on the palms.
"Flaming Flash!" he yelled out while a massive storm of flames erupted from his hands. It engulfed his enemy in red and yellow flames. Armun poured all of his ki into it. When he was nearly drained the attack dissipated and he landed on the ground exhausted.
He was about to go to Milla's body when he heard a laugh and turned in horror to the smoke. Out from the flames appeared the masked fighter; his cape was burned away and his armor and helmet were charred.
"Nice attack you have their Armun, you guys know how to entertain," he raised a palm and prepared another blast of ki.
Armun used up most of his ki in his attack and knew he wouldn't be able to dodge it. Before the enemy could launch it, a voice shouted out surprising both men.
"Lightning Storm!" Milla had her palms out and called forth her attack. Dark clouds formed over them and thunder cracked the sky. Moments later lighting began to rain down on the enemy fighter, who was able to dodge the first few but then one strike hit him, followed by others.
All the strikes poured millions upon millions of joules of energy into him. The attack lasted for a full minute; when it was over the fighter fell to the ground with his body emanating smoke. Armun walked to the body hoping it was dead, but unluckily it seemed all it did was knock him out.
He didn't have the energy to finish him off, and he cursed himself for not carrying a beam sword like Cilan did. Instead he turned back to Milla, where he picked her up and flew back up into the air with his remaining strength.
The radio in his ear came to life, "Mother Goose to Magic Man, come in!"
"Magic Man here, please tell me you can extract us. Enemy is down but not for long."
"Roger, we are in upper atmosphere with cargo hold open for you. We're sending our location to your field computer. Over."
Armun's goggles showed the location of the ship relative to where he was flying. "Roger Mother Goose, I have a fix on your location and will be there shortly. I'll need a medic team to meet us on the ship; the Witch is critically injured and needs immediate assistance."
"Roger," the handler replied before switching off.
"Armun," Milla choked out as her lips were covered in blood.
"Don't talk; we're almost at the ship."
"Tell Cilan…. Tell him I'm sorry," she coughed up more blood.
Armun looked down at her, "Tell him yourself, you're not dying on my watch."
"You've always been a good friend Armun."
He didn't respond as he caught sight of the ship, and flew towards it as fast as his ki would allow him. After flying into the cargo hold, the crews immediately closed the door and told the pilots to move the ship back out into space.
Armun collapsed on the ground after handing Milla over to the medics. He tried to stay awake to watch over her, but his exhaustion was getting the better of him as his eyelids became heavy. The last image he saw was of Milla being put on a stretcher and wheeled off to sickbay.
June 5th, Age 771
Cilan paced the lobby of the docking station waiting for the Ark Royal to show up. After rescuing Dayana, the Independence docked at a space station where the heiress was debriefed and sent back to be reunited with her family.
The day after the rescue was when he had gotten word about the ambush and wanted to intercept the Ark Royal, but he and the ship were ordered to say at the station while the Ark Royal would show up the next day. All he heard was that both Armun and Milla were in critical condition.
He had requested further updates, but none was provided; he suspected they kept information from him from the looks he received from the crew. All it did was add to his mental cursing for not being there on Nibia.
Cilan looked back out of the station windows and finally caught sight of the ship. 30 minutes later it had docked with the station and he pushed his way onto the ship making a beeline for the infirmary. When he entered he found Armun sitting on a bed with his body covered in bandages.
"Armun, what happened?"
The Carian looked at him with regret, "It was a set-up. They made up the story of the facility to get at you. We would have been killed, if it wasn't for Milla."
"Is she ok?" Cilan grabbed him by the shoulders looking him straight in the eye. Armun could only close his eyes and shake his head. "She fought hard to cling on, but…"
The color drained from Cilan's face and his voice lost all emotion, "Where is she?"
"Morgue," Armun choked out.
Cilan didn't say another word and walked towards back of the infirmary. The staff would have stopped him, but one look at his face had told them not get in his way. When he entered the morgue, the smell of formaldehyde hit his nostrils; he ignored it as he focused on the body of Milla on a solitary stretcher covered by a blue sheet.
He took slow steps as he neared her body, his mind couldn't process the fact that the corpse in front of him belonged to the same person that he had held in his bed. Cilan reached for her hand and nearly dropped it. He was so used to her hands being soft and warm, but were now cold and clammy.
As he held her hand, he prayed that this was all a bad dream and he would wake up next to her. But his mind was too logical for that and he let her hand go. He kissed her once on the forehead before he left the morgue and made his way silently to Independence.
Later on, when he was in his personal quarters, he realized how cold his room felt and how alone he truly was.
To Be Continued.