Chapter Eight: Dying Suns
"Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look."
Both Martin and Velpia walked out of Afterlife and walked to the Skycar. "What the hell were you thinking?!" Velpia asked angrily.
Martin stopped walking as he knew this was going to happen. "What do you want me to say?" He paused for a moment looking at her and seeing the anger. "Yeah, I know, alright. Not the smartest thing to do, I get it..."
Velpia butted in, "Not the smartest? It was outright stupid, meeting some random person in Afterlife of all places? With no one to watch your back? Do you WANT to die?"
Martin took a deep breath, "I had a feeling, and I had to follow it." he replied calmly.
Velpia put her hand into her face. "What feeling could you possibly have that would compel you to go to Afterlife alone?"
Martin became quiet, he was insulted, but he knew she also had a point. The worst kind of feeling.
He got into the sky car and waited for her to get in. She hesitated for a moment out of frustration; she leaned on the car contemplating the argument but eventually got in. Martin then managed to get the sky car moving and set the autopilot. The car took off into the 'sky.' "At least you figured out the sky car." She backhandedly complimented.
Martin gave a smile and turned to her.
"I learned how to use the three seashells too."
Velpia gave a disgusted response.
They both got quiet for a while. Martin was hoping to get back to the apartment soon. His wound was hurting badly, and he didn't want Velpia to find out. In the quiet that filled the car, he was upset that he had to depend on her so much. He led men into countless firefights and sent them to their deaths; he was pretty independent and prideful and fought with and against the best, his time had to offer. He put cities to the flame, and now here he was, depending on an alien to feed and house him, afraid to disappoint her. What had he become?
"So are you gonna answer me? Who was that in There?" She asked calmly. He started to get annoyed at the questioning, but he relented.
"I knew him." He finally replied.
"You knew him? Like from your time?"
Martin stopped talking for a while as Memories began moving through his head. Velpia looked at him, waiting for a response. She noticed how his head moved lower; his eyes dropped to the dash of the car, Sadness? She thought
"He was my subordinate during the war." He replied in a somber tone. Velpia waited for him to continue.
"He said he was put in Cryo, I didn't ask when, but he got out a few years ago on Mars."
"Was he a super soldier too?" Velpia slipped, then suddenly put her hand up to her mouth.
"Super what? No! We were just soldiers."
Velpia tried to play it off as a joke. "What, no superpowers? No saving the day from evil?"
Martin remained fixated on the traffic passing by the car, completely ignoring her comment.
"If she only knew." He thought.
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They had made it back to the complex into the darkened hallway to her apartment. Something felt off; Martin's stomach became tense; his instincts were rarely wrong. He pushed past Velpia, drew his pistol from its holster, and kept it at his side. She followed his example, feeding off his defensive stance. As they approached the apartment door, they noticed it was open. He quickly looked back at her in acknowledgment, his back now against the wall, his pistol aimed at the doorway. The pain from his wound temporarily faded from concentration, and he slowly scanned the room while exposing himself. He pied the corners of the room before entering.
Velpia looked through a pile of her clothes and broken nicknacks when she noticed something among the debris.
"Should have seen this coming," Velpia said, exasperated as she stood holding a PDA.
Martin, who was busy flipping the couch back over to its original upright position. Stood up and gripped his side, trying to comfort his now painful wound.
"What did you find?" He said, slightly in pain.
"Mitchell, he left us a greeting card." She responded. "I should have seen this coming."
"You did say it was stupid of us to come back," Martin said while sitting on the couch. His wound seemed angry at him; he leaned over to lie down to relieve the pressure.
Velpia lightly tossed the PDA back into the mess of the apartment. She also found Martin's medication in the chaos and handed it off to him.
She closed the door to the apartment and attempted to jimmy the locking mechanism in a vain attempt to prevent someone from bursting in unannounced; she returned to the couch and took a seat.
The pair was quiet for a bit. Martin was focused on the agitating pain from his wound; he just wanted his medication to kick in, so he could sleep again. Velpia, on the other hand, Her mind was blaring loudly with thoughts of future survival. They might be able to stay in this place one more night. After, though, they'd have to leave.
"So what's the plan?" Martin asked while on his side, clinging to his wound, trying to fall asleep.
Velpia looked over, herself getting tired in the darkness that fell upon the room. "I'm not sure."
He didn't like that answer, it hadn't been three days on Omega, and he felt as if she was already at wit's end.
"We should find Mitchell," he responded.
"You've lost it, haven't you?" Velpia protested.
Martin laughed, trying not to hurt himself; the pain was finally retreating. "You have no idea, but trust me, we have to kill him."
Velpia, confused at his statement of pure lunacy. "What? What would that accomplish?"
Martin moved slightly to get more comfortable but twisted his wound slightly; he needed to stretch out.
"To send a message, make it so expensive for them to come after us, or anyone else for that matter, they are playing games with us. If we don't do something batshit crazy now, they won't stop."
Velpia had tilted her head back as if she had developed a headache.
"We don't have the resources for that, not to mention none of the merchants will deal with us." She added to her protest.
Martin rolled onto his back and tossed his legs over her lap to release the tension on his wound. It caught Velpia off guard, moving her arms out of the way. She thought about pushing his legs away, but he had already claimed the couch and looked to be in enough pain. She sat her arms on his shins. They talked for a bit longer.
They both soon fell asleep, completely exhausted. Martin had awoken a few hours later to find Velpia squeezed between him and the couch. Her head on his chest, he wondered why he was hanging off the side and this other leg propped up on the broken coffee table. He didn't give it any thought since he was the one that trapped her there. Strangely enough, his wound didn't hurt him as much as expected. He soon fell back to sleep.
Almost a week had passed since that night. They had collected what they needed from the apartment and set the rest on fire.
They were on the move for a few days, only napping where they could. Eventually, they found someone outside Blue Sun's territory to work for. Thankfully the Eclipse Mercenary group absolutely hated the Blue Suns. They were able to get a few small jobs done by the end of the week to pay for a hotel room.
Martin's wound also healed faster than expected, this surprised him, but he gave it no real thought. He had figured it had to do something with the green pills.
With credits in hand, they were able to eat better quality food; just a few days ago, they were getting by on nutrition paste, which Martin highly despised.
They were at a Volus-owned bar that Velpia knew. They enjoyed a few drinks; this was the first time they had gone out to an establishment without being on the job or homeless.
The two sat quietly for a while. They were tired but feeling somewhat accomplished; the last week's weight had finally lifted.
"I was hoping the future would be a bit easier." Martin took a drink from his glass.
"Well, it's Omega; what did you expect?" She smiled at his naivety.
"I expected clean cities with blue skylines, not anything close to this." At that moment, his Omni tool blinked. He opened it and saw that he had gotten a message from Dallas; he began reading it intently.
"What is it?" She asked while taking a drink from her glass.
"Dallas finally came through with a job, and it's a doozie." Martin kept reading. "Your target is a cargo depot in the Carrid district, controlled by the Blue Suns. They are holding scientists vital to my employer; see that they are released unharmed."
He didn't break his eyes from the screen; he started glancing at the maps of the area.
"Are you kidding me? We just spent the last week staying away from them!" Velpia protested, and Martin finally broke his concentration.
"Two hundred and fifty thousand credits."
They stared blankly at each other for a moment. Her face changed from frustration to excitement.
Velpia flipped one-eighty.
"Well, what are we waiting for?"
The two finished their drinks and headed for the sky car. They both quickly jumped in and took off to the district. Martin was still surfing through the message to see if there was any hint on how to proceed with the mission.
"Looks like they are waiting for a ship to show; it's called the 'Blue Miracle.' Must be a privately operated ship, no home port listed."
Velpia looked over at the information on his Omni tool. "Yeah, terminus ship. Probably stolen."
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After reviewing the information, they entered the dockyard from behind the warehouse unit. They found a large enough balcony to park the sky car cab and get out. They took an elevator down to the main floor and acted as if they were passing through. They noticed few guards on this side of the complex, so they shouldn't expect trouble. Soon they could see the dockyard and everything that stood in their way.
They counted almost fifty-seven Blue Suns guards set up at various points around the dock. They kept all visitors away from the dockyards, besides a few workers they needed to load the ship. They began walking towards the stairs down to the entrance to the dock.
"How do you want to do this?" Martin asked Velpia.
"We should probably trigger some kind of distraction to pull some of them away, then go in Hard." Martin nodded in agreement.
Within a few moments, they had come up with a plan. Explosives were placed on the north side of the warehouse area. Velpia managed to get next to the H3 tanks inside the warehouse without anyone noticing. She also locked the door behind her to prevent anyone from that side from venturing in. She headed back to Martin's position. When she finally met back up with him, she noticed Martin was sweating heavily, and his breathing was irregular.
"You alright?" She became very concerned as he didn't respond. He was hunched over, gripping his hair, with his back against the wall. Suddenly he snapped out of it and started running through the entrance like a madman.
"Wait!" She yelled at him. "What the hell is he doing?" She ran after him as fast as she could; she remembered the explosives and detonated them while running. The building was shaken by the massive explosion. She lost her footing quickly and had to push herself off the wall to get her back on track.
As she struggled to keep up, gunfire began to fill the hallways; she could hear his Viper DMR barking to life and the screams of the wounded. She kept running, attempting to stop Martin, but he was much faster than her. Soon she started coming across the bodies of his victims, but she paid them no mind as she sprinted to follow him. She eventually caught up with him in the dockyard, behind some cover, taking fire in every direction. He looked as if he was a machine, his movements were rigid, and he showed no expression on his face as he ducked and dodged the gunfire from behind his cover.
She eventually came out of the accessway and began to join him in the firefight. She covered his left side, taking out several targets on the walkway above them. She then took his grenade launcher off his back. She fired six rounds at the warehouse, where the others returned from investigating the explosion. The rounds exploded, and most of the soldiers fell to the ground.
Martin then slung his rifle over his back and drew his shotgun; he quickly darted out from behind cover. Velpia was forced back by the gunfire now aimed at her. She watched as he sprinted through the gunfire. He wasn't acting like himself; he always communicated with her about what he was doing in a gunfight, he was always responsive, and he always ensured they were covering each other; professional. This was unnatural like he could predict and robotically counteract their movements.
She couldn't reach him; too much fire was coming her way to follow him; she was out in the open behind a handful of chest-high crates. She tried to reach him on the radio, but he wouldn't respond. She watched as he threw concussion grenades and rushed to an enemy position, slam-firing his shotgun at the men behind their cover.
Velpia turned her attention back to her own situation. She quickly turned to her left and began firing at the men trying to flank her. She let off four quick bursts from her Avenger rifle in their direction. Once she got her range, she started firing in a steady progression. The Blue Suns behind the debris, taking turns trying to suppress her, began to fall one by one. She was cool under fire, calm aggression of a lifetime spent behind a weapon.
Soon, however, the Blue Suns began to fall back. She quickly peeked over her cover to Martin, beating a man to death with a steel rebar that had broken off the building during the explosion. He jammed it into the man's chest as he lay on the ground, pleading to be spared. Martin picked up his Viper DMR rifle again and started shooting toward the men, now slowly retreating.
Velpia noticed they were in disarray and lept out behind her cover. She ran down the front side of the building, hoping to get their right flank. As she hopped over a crate, a Blue Suns soldier noticed her and tried to charge her. She quickly turned to her right and used his momentum to toss the man to the ground and stomp on his throat. Within a few moments, the Blue Suns retreated out of the dockyard to escape the crazed Madman that pursued them.
As soon as the fighting stopped, Martin fell over onto his face. She holstered her weapon and ran to him. She rolled him over as he snapped back awake; he grabbed her as if waking from a nightmare.
"Are you alright? What the hell was that!?" She asked in a confused rage. Martin looked disoriented.
"Why am I on the ground, and why do I feel like I just ran a marathon?"
Velpia helped him to his feet. "You don't remember what just happened? You don't remember running through all of this?" She commented while turning and pointing at the now damaged dockyard, on fire. Another loud explosion rumbled through the dock as she remembered the scientists. In a panic, Velpia ran off to the corner where they were loading the ship and saw the three scientists hiding behind some crates.
The Scientists thanked her for saving them from the Blue Suns as Martin caught up with them. "I take it our mutual partner sent you for us?" The oldest human said. Martin spoke up, "Dallas, you mean?"
"Yes, good man. Not the first time he's had to bail me out, I'm afraid." As the man finished, a white shuttle came through the shuttle bay doors and landed on the dock. The door opened, and two men he didn't recognize began approaching. Martin and Velpia raised their weapons to them, but the two humans stopped but did not raise their weapons. From the pedestrian accessway, Dallas walked onto the dock and towards Martin.
"Mighty fine job, Captain. Best damn display I've seen you pull off since Kingsville." Martin and Velpia lowered their weapons, and Dallas moved in and shook Martin's hand. He looked at Dallas, perplexed. "Your partner isn't bad either." Dallas turned and nodded at her. Velpia stood upright with her hands on her rifle; she didn't trust him, and where did he come from? Dallas appeared to have sensed her distrust and quickly turned away from Martin.
Dallas put his arm over Martin's shoulder and pulled him away from Velpia. They exchanged words before Dallas gathered the scientists and entered the shuttle. Velpia was deeply suspicious of what was said, but she remained quiet. They had gotten their credits, but Velpia was starting to dislike this partnership.