7/20/3030
The door to the Booze Bullet opens, and several members of the Dawn Voyager crew walk in, waving at the bartender, who waves over a waitress. "Cassi," the bartender says, "Your regulars are here."
Cassi walks up to the Dawn Voyager crew, smiling. "The range again?"
"Yeah. Don't want our skills to die out," Yorke replies.
"Hope Oeh-Wje comes with that job soon," Roar-Ree mutters, "I hate waiting."
"Less complaining, more shooting," BOB-5 says, "Har-Bak's down for the count, so we need at least one more guy who can shoot worth a damn."
The group walks towards the range, ribbing each other. Cassi blows Stefan a kiss as she gets back to working.
The sounds of gunfire echo in the range, followed by the sounds of shells hitting the floor.
"You're getting better, Basta," BOB-5 says, "You hit most of the time now, and usually in a lethal area."
"Good. I'm moving better physically now, too."
"You don't pass out while breathing too fast anymore?"
"Nope."
At that, the door to the range opens.
"Yo. Job's on," Oeh-Wje says, walking in, followed by Cassi, who had several glasses of water on a tray.
"Best news I've heard all week," Yorke says, smiling, "What's the job?"
"We hit Terra Prima," Oeh-Wje says. "We've found the location of one of their main heads on this planet - guy named Imran Banks. Even if he's not there, we should get a lot of information from his hideout."
"Nice. Can't wait to shoot those warmongering bastards," Stefan says.
"Little strong there, buddy," BOB-5 says.
"They're the ones who took his arm, Bob. Can't fault him for wanting some revenge. Let's head out. Where is it?"
"'Bout a mile and a half east of the spaceport. You're in charge of the raid, Yorke."
Terra Prima Hideout
Imran Banks sits at his desk, poring over several propaganda poster designs, when his aide comes in.
"Professor Banks! One of our agents has important information for us."
"University's a bombed-out husk. I'm no longer a professor. And which agent?"
"Cassi. Works at the Booze Bullet, in a relationship with Stefan Kanoff."
Imran laughs. "I still can't believe we got her to join. What's her news?"
"The Bliss government has tracked us here. A group of six, including her boyfriend, is headed this way to raid the compound."
"Motherfuck. Evacuate, purge all files. I'll co-ordinate."
"Not sure that's a good idea, sir."
"What? Don't think I can hold my own in a fight?"
"It's not that, sir. Remember the Distress Terracide?"
"Aye. Fuckin' rats got what they deserved."
"Rumor has it that a good chunk of that team is responsible for it."
Imran pales. "Well shit. I'll co-ordinate from the primary safe house, then. Fight well, die hard."
"Humanity is Strength, sir."
So, is this it?" Yorke asks over his comms unit to Oeh-Whe. The large building sticking out between the several other small ones surrounding it. The wind began whipping up once more, slightly obscuring the view.
"If my info is right and trust me. It usually is, then you should be looking at the big ass building." Oeh-Wje spoke over comms, "For the most part, you should have the advantage here, just so long as you don't decide to try and kill everyone in there."
"Good to hear. Yorke out." Cutting off his communications, the captain motioned for Basta to come to his side, "I need you to scan the premises, see what we're up against and if you can. Take out some of the guards. Got it?"
"On it." Basta replied getting her rifle in place and began taking a quick view of the compound.
• Scoping out, she controlled her breathing as she'd gotten much better at, "Stef, you've dealt with these guys before, what exactly should we be expecting from them?" Scanning, she kept a lookout for anything that'd potentially pose a great threat. At this point, avoiding the lethal stuff outranks finding the weak points.
"This guys are human supremacists," said Stefan. "Never let your guard down around these guys." He does a last minute weapons check and ammo count on his gear. "A majority of them are either former military or police, so be prepared for a fight. They might not be as difficult as the Skeavers, but nonetheless they know what they're doing."
BOB chuckles a bit, "Well that makes my job a little easier then."
Basta continues to scan the area. Guard house, sniper towers, a few patrols." She tries to get a glimpse of the entrance area.
"Any idea what we're up against?" asked Roar-Ree
"Couple guards at the gate, they're escorting some armored jeep inside." The Altaic took one last look through her scope and answered Roar-Ree before stepping back to join Yorke and Oeh-Wje.
"We could take 'em out from here, could be risky though." BOB remarked.
"Wouldn't that give away our position?" Stefan asked.
"Exactly why I said it was risky. We could split the team up and have a distraction team and a stealth team, but last time that didn't work so well. What's the plan, Yorke?"
"I think your best bet may be to concentrate a front al assault. I've seen how you guys work; a cohesive unit with Yorke present is likely your best chance for success," Oeh-Wje says, "Now can we stop talking and start shooting while we still have the element of surprise?"
"Oeh-Wje has a point," Yorke says, "Two, actually. We stick together, open fire in three, two,"
"INCOMING HOSTILES!" a Terra Prima man yells, "GET TO YOUR POSITIONS!"
"Shit. Well, guess we start shooting," Roar-Ree says, ducking under cover as a small canister reaches the same spot. "Oh, fuck m-"
The canister explodes in a blinding flash of light and sound, sending Roar-Ree into a fetal position to try and protect his senses.
"Shit, that's military-issue," Oeh-Wje says, shooting her Shitslicer in a suppression pattern, "And specifically made to counter species with sharp hearing and vision. We might have a leak, Yorke."
"Let's get out of this jam first."
"Good idea."
Firing a burst towards the group of hostiles and managing to hit two, one lethal the other one injured before a piercing round ripped through frontal lobe. Yorke looked towards Basta who was busy trying to adjust her next shot before giving her captain a weak thumbs up.
"BOB, switch to your launcher and line up the shot. You know what to do from there." He spoke into his radio as he and Oeh-Wje began moving a bit closer to the group with Basta beginning to trail behind by a couple of meters.
The robot began lining up his shot and if he had a mouth it'd be grinning. Slamming the trigger as the grenade flew and hit the entrance. Shredding several of the guards with debris and shrapnel from the door. The remaining ones attempting to get back up before either being picked off by rifle fire or Oeh-Wje's Shitslicer.
"Move up!" Yorke shouted as he Oeh-Wje took aim at the opposite watch towers forcing the guards above to take cover. "I need you guys to breach the door. We'll keep 'em busy. And for the love of God, don't get shot."
Basta managing to get close enough and lining up her shots, although this time only skimming the area around her targets. Struggling to adjust her aim as a new series of rounds impacted the small rock she was hiding behind.
Focus dammit! Basta thought as she waited for a gap in the gun fire, Pretend it's the range. If BOB thinks I'm getting better, I can deviate from that.
Switching her aim to the tower that Oeh-Wje wasn't blasting at with her Shitslicer, she got a bead on the one of the guards and fired, sending him backwards as the bullet hit center mass. Finding her rhythm, she picked of the other guards either greatly wounding them or getting a kill shot. Ducking back in to evade gunfire and reload she smiled, I'm sure that Oeh can take the other tower.
"Yorke, I think I might be best staying with Roar." Basta called out over the comms, "Last thing we need is for him to get captured."
"Not going to happen." Yorke replies, "Chances are that you'll get overwhelmed if you stay out there alone if reinforcements come. We'll clear the front of the base out first. After that we'll find a place to bunker down."
She nods despite knowing he can't see her, "Let me know when it's safe to move up then. I'll get to work on the turret gunners." To make her point he squeezes off a round, narrowly missing the human arming the turret.
Oeh-Wje fires her Shitslicer in two short arcs, slicing up a couple turrets. "You sure that's a good idea, Yorke?"
"You put me in charge, you know," Yorke says, firing his Rail Rifle at more foes trying to flank them.
"Because I thought you were a better field commander than this. I'm a bloody Eurypt, Yorke. I can carry a runt Lupinus on my back and fight. I'm still sure this was leaked, so they had time to prepare. I carry the dog and fire, we can give them less of that time."
The group fires at the fortification while Yorke thinks.
"Yeah. We're at a disadvantage charging a fortified position with one disabled member, but it would be worse if they dug in more. Grab him. Basta, cover us. Stefan, Bob, try to make a breach point. Let's go."
"On it!" replied Stefan over the comms. BOB and Stefan made their way near one of the defensive points. Stefan glances around the cover, and manages to dodge an incoming projectile.
"Son of a-!" Stefan hides behind cover for a bit, and glances around the corner again.
"BOB, aim for that door over there!" said Stefan. "I'll take care of any of the stragglers!" He aims his MK near the wall and starts giving suppressive fire, making the guards along the wall take cover.
"You don' have to tell me twice!" BOB quickly loads another grenade, and fires it into the direction of the door. A few unlucky guards weren't quick enough to run, and got caught in the blast. Debris flew from the blast, and an entry point was created.
"Yorke, entry point made, ready when you are!" Stefan and BOB quickly loaded up their weapons and began firing at the stragglers.
"Let's get in, then," Yorke says, "Basta, cover Oeh-Wje as she moves in with Roar-Ree."
"Let me down, damnit!" the Lupinus says, "I can go on my own."
Oeh-Wje unceremoniously dumps the Lupinus on the ground and moves up, careful to move only when Basta was shooting. Roar-Ree picks himself up and starts to follow.
Roar-Ree moved cautiously alongside Oeh-Wje, somewhat dazed. He was still largely disoriented after...whatever the hell it was that took him out. Ducking through the newly made entrance, Roar-Ree turned and began to lay down covering fire for the rest of the team.
"We've cleared the door, Yorke, move in!" Oeh-Wje shouted as the rest of the crew moved forward.
“Oeh-Wje, me and you are leading the way. BOB-5 stay behind us and ready your launcher for any turrets that might get in the way." Yorke announces to the team. The group cut into two as they took opposite ends of the entrance. Yorke readying a Needler grenade and tossing the object in. "BOB, fire off a grenade as soon as we head in."
Moments later, the Needler went off followed by a few screams of those unfortunate enough to fall victim to it. BOB-5 pointing his launcher into the chaos and firing off a grenade, causing more of the supremacists to fall back or simply die. "We're clear, boss."
Yorke and Oeh-Wje took their positions in front of the group and began releasing a hail of rounds towards the nearest guard towers or clusters of scattered resistance.
"Keep away from their line of sight and find some cover. We'll move into one of the huts when the area is secure!"
Stefan fires a couple bursts at a few Terra Prima snipers, trying to keep the heat off of the crew. Oeh-Wje fires her Shitslicer, and the pressurized fluid cuts through the support beams. The guard tower collapses, killing the snipers and several more foes who were underneath. BOB-5 launched a grenade through a hut, and Yorke rolled a Needler into the one across from it.
Basta and Roar-Ree moved in to clear the respective huts while Yorke and BOB-5 covered them, Roar-Ree putting a few wounded Terra Prima members out of their misery. Oeh-Wje tossed a stun grenade into a third house, while Stefan moves in and guns down the disoriented foes within.
"Like the bloody Insurrection all over again," Oeh-Wje says, taking cover in the hut.
"Why the flashbangs?" Stefan says, sliding under the opposite window, "You've fought these guys before. They won't hesitate to kill."
"Did a raid much like this one," Oeh-Wje says, slicing open the Terra Prima members' cover, "During the Ilsegrad defense."
"Shit," Stefan says, shooting the now-exposed foes, "Some of the hardest fighting on the planet there, I heard."
"Aye," Oeh-Wje says, slicing some more supports to create a bottleneck, "Threw a frag in a house, killed a kid by accident. Didn't want to repeat that, so now I use flashbangs."
Oeh-Wje and Stefan pour fire into the bottleneck, trying to force the Terra Prima members to retreat.
A severely wounded Terra Prima member saw a pistol and started to crawl to it. "You done talkin about the past?" asked BOB as he loaded his launcher. "Keep your minds on the job at hand!"
Ohe notices the Terra Prima member nearing the pistol. The Prima member attempts to reach it with his hand. Ohe walks near him and steps on his hand "Nice try," said Ohe. She shoots point blank at the Prima member.
"Yorke, we're clear at the third house," said Stefan. "We’ve managed to make some of the Prima members fall back. The area is secure for now. How is it going on your end?"
"We're all doin fine here Doc!" replied BOB as he continued to take on stragglers. He sees a couple move near a sniper position. He aims his launcher near the area and fires. "...and about 3 more for me!"
Basta keeps her finger at the ready as she constantly scans for anyone trying to sneak up on them, "Oeh, we ready to re-join the others?" She didn't have any doubt that Roar was still in fighting condition. The mutt could take a beating.
The female Eurypt nodded, "We're done here. Let's see if we can't help them out though. You been getting better with that gun cat?"
Basta raised an eyebrow and showed a bit of fang, "Yes, the 'cat' has gotten much better than when she started."
"Good, see if there are any snipers looking for the others."
Giving a huff, Basta took cover by the exit and scanned the area where the others were fighting, looking for any snipers. Spotting one up on tower, she waits for a clear shot before firing a round, tearing it into his neck.
"Got one, let's move before they return fire." Basta said getting up and ready to move, "And don't call me 'cat'."
"If you want me to call you what you want to be called, Cat," Oeh-Wje says, "You've got to get better than mediocre." She fires her Shitslicer, scything through a few more Terra Prima thugs filtering through the bottleneck. "Think that's it for these guys, Yorke."
"Okay then. Let's move up. Your sources tell us where their command center is?"
"See that tower in the center?"
"That's a guard tower," Basta says scathingly.
"It's the small building attached to the north side," Oeh-Wje says, ignoring the interruption.
"I don't see an entrance from here," Basta says, looking through her scope.
"Entrance to the compound is from a tunnel in the southeast," Roar-Ree says, typing on a computer in one of the huts, "That's on the other side of the compound."
"Could always ask Oeh-Wje to slice open a door for us," Yorke says.
"I can do that. Mutt, can you get me a blueprint of the tower?"
"On it."
"Wouldn't going directly inside be faster? They could be erasing files as we speak," Basta says.
"Going directly in would risk her slicing those same files," Yorke replies.
"If you're done blabbing, the Cat did have one point," BOB-5 says, "We need to move fast. Can't give them time to prepare. Let's go."
The team moves out, disgruntled Basta trailing behind with Oeh-Wje, who reviewed the blueprints as she moves through the demolished compound. "You won't get better by trying to belittle me, Cat," she says to the Altaic, "You'll get better by actually doing stuff rather than getting carried through this by your teammates. Yorke says you volunteered for this. So start doing what you signed up for."
As the team moved towards the southeast, picking off any Terra Prima members they located, Roar-Ree looked around nervously. Last thing he wanted was to be taken out of the action again. "So, once we're inside this place, you think the defense will be as bad in there as it was out here?" Oeh-Wje nodded. "These Terra Prime thugs are tough defenders. I doubt they'll go down easy."
Roar-Ree nodded. Alright. As the group neared the entrance, Oeh-Wje prepared the Shitslicer and turned towards Yorke. "Alright, it's gonna get chaotic in there, so is there any specific formation you want your team in?"
"Stefan, on me." Yorke motioned for the medic to come over and stay behind the Eurypt. "Hope that shell of yours can take a few rounds, Oeh. As soon as we open this door, we stick behind her and take out any guards."
"Just tell me when." Stefan announced as reached for the Bower and prepped the weapon.
"Alright. We're ready, Oeh."
Tapping the Eurypt's back, Oeh-Wje fired her Shitslicer, destroying the entrance. Entering the room, the large insect fired it to the first target directly in front of her. Catching the attention of several guards, who released a small torrent of bullets in hopes of downing the massive alien.
Appearing from behind her, Yorke and Stefan pointed on their firearms and fired into the nearest targets. The Bower's 12 gauge shell catching the nearest guard in his chest. The Eurypt stood strong as the rounds smacked into her and she herself returned fire into the groups of enemies. Within moments the room was clear of hostiles and all that was left were the scattered remains of those tasked with defending the place.
Moving forward, Oeh-Wje poked at the couple of guards who lied on the ground surrounded by bits of their own blood. "Next time, give me a little warning before you use me as a shield."
"It worked didn't it? Besides drinks are on me once we get back." Yorke responded as he grabbed a couple of scattered bits of gear off the dead guards. "How well-funded are this assholes?" Lifting the supremacists arm and grabbing the sidearm and checking it over.
"You guys can come on in. Just don't pay mind to the smell."
The group walks into the control room and starts downloading every file they can find and stuffing every bit of paper they can find into a sack. Oeh-Wje picks up a small recorder and presses play, listening to it while the rest of the team gathers intel.
"Yorke," she says, sadly, "I was right. We had a leak."
"What? Who?"
In lieu of an answer, Oeh-Wje turns up the volume on the recorder and presses play.
"Yes, I have information for you," Cassi's voice says, coming out of the speaker, "My boyfriend - Stefan - and the crew he works with are coming to raid your compound."
Stefan's face goes blank.
"I see," A baritone says, "Thank you for that information. You can consider your dues paid this month. Humanity is Strength, Cassi."
"Humanity is Strength."
A metallic click comes out of the recorder, followed by the baritone man again, "Professor Banks will want to know this."
Oeh-Wje stops the recorder and stows it in her bag.
"That traitorous bitch..." Stefan growls.
"We'll deal with that when we see her next," Oeh-Wje says, "Bigger news is that name at the end. Only one person referred to as Professor Banks by these folks."
"Imran Banks. Had the bugger for my Sociology elective before the Insurrection," Stefan says.
"Professor Imran Banks... rings a bell, for some reason," Yorke says.
"Leads the entire Terra Prima faction. You were on Centur, right? The civil war was supported by the group. Probably heard his name there. If he's on planet..." Oeh-Wje picks up her Shitslicer and moves towards the door, pulling several large chunks of rubble she had sliced off in the earlier firefight to create a barricade. "Get everything. I'll cover the entrance."
The group continued to gather what intel they could get their hands on. Basta finished clearing up one area and saw Stefan still in a furious state. 'Stefan...' she thought. She wanted to comfort him, but now wasn't the time.
Roar-Ree was busy downloading several files off a terminal. "Yorke, come over here you're not going to believe this," he said looking at the data. Yorke grabbed what he could and ran over to Roar-Ree's area. "What do you got?" asked Yorke. "It's like a gold mine here, there's a lot of valuable data they didn't get to wipe out: supplies, weapons, plans, everything." Roar-Ree types a couple of commands on the keyboard.
"All right, get as much you can," said Yorke. Oeh looked past her barricade and saw a couple of Terra Prima members coming. "You guys have less than a minute to go!" she yelled. "I'd suggest you start finishing up!" She starts to fire her weapon to suppress them.
"You heard her let's move!" yelled Yorke. Roar-Ree completed the downloading sequence, while BOB and Basta finished clearing out their areas. Yorke and Stefan prepped their weapons for another firefight.
At the sound of Oeh firing the Shitslicer, Basta ran to join her, picking off a few of the Terra Prima soldier attempting to take back their base.
So glad that we didn't have to stay behind and babysit Roar, she thinks, Doubt that we could've handled the back-up.
Ducking into cover to reload, she shouted to Stefan and Yorke, "You guys have any idea on how we're getting out? Personally, I'd rather not have to shoot our way out of this place."
"Oeh, you able to pull the same trick that got us in here?" Yorke asks, sliding into cover next to the pair.
"Only if you can provide a few hundred Newtons of force," Oeh-Wje replies, firing her Shitslicer while Basta fires her pistol.
"Got my grenades," BOB-5 says.
"In this small a room? You want to kill us, Tin Can?"
"Right. You fleshies die to blast."
"Could we do it in sections?" Roar-Ree asks.
"That could be possible... good thinking, Mutt. Cat, how much force does that rifle of yours have?"
"No idea."
"Wonderful. Worth a shot, anyway. Yorke, Cat, duck." Oeh-Wje fires her Shitslicer in several lines at the ceiling of the guard tower, bringing it crashing down. "Now that we have some quiet..." She slices a small wedge out of the wall. "Shoot it, Cat."
"Give me another thirty seconds," Roar-Ree says, "There's a couple more things for me to get before I wipe their servers."
"You might want to hack a little faster." Stefan said as he started messing around with the papers on the desk. Only in particular catching his eye before putting it in pocket.
Taking notice of this, Yorke approached the medic putting hand on his shoulder, "What have you got there?"
'It’s nothing. Just some info, it seemed to be interesting."
Before he could continue, questioning the young man, Roar-Ree shouted that data was done being transferred and took aside Yorke. "We have all the info that they didn't manage to scorch and burn before we got here. It’s still plenty, but we might've lost some files during the process."
Finishing cutting the last section of wall, Oeh-Wje loosened her grip on the trigger and ordered the feline to take aim, "Just aim for the centers, Basta. If you can do that at least."
The sniper obeying the order although grumbling as she did so, lining up the first one, then second before finally hitting the fourth. "Was that up to standard?" she asked as her rifle clicked empty and she went around for more ammo.
"Yes," Oeh-Wje says distractedly as the Dawn Voyager crew spills out the hole while she fires several streams of ferrofluid at the computers, shredding them. "Up and out, Cat."
Basta finishes reloading and clambers out of the building. Oeh-Wje vaults over the ledge and fires her Shitslicer at the ceiling, bringing it crashing down. Using her other two hands, she grabs the empty mag and stores it in a pouch while bringing another out to reload.
"Let's head back to the original breach," Yorke says, and the team moves out.
BOB and Stefan took the lead, and scouted the area a bit. "Just follow the bodies...” said BOB as they moved through the alleyways.”...they'll lead us out...” All of a sudden more footsteps are heard coming from the opposite end of the hallway.
"Or more Prima Members," said Stefan. The two aimed their weapons down the pathway. BOB fired a couple of rounds, as Stefan through a grenade. Oeh and Basta brought up the middle and took aim to take down any stragglers.
Yorke and Roar-Ree covered the rear as the crew engaged in another firefight. "We need to get this data back to the Dawn ASAP, Yorke!" said Roar-Ree. "One step at a time Roar-Ree, let's just get out of here first," replied Yorke.
BOB, Stefan, and Oeh walked near bodies of the Prima Members. "All right we're clear to move up!" said Oeh.
Staying closer to the back of the group, Basta kept an eye out just in case of an ambush from behind, "Roar, I'm no computer expert, but can't you just send the data to the ship's mainframe or something?"
The Lupinus didn't even glance back as they kept going, "Won't matter if the ship doesn't get airborne. Bliss government doesn't have access to the ship's logs, so we have deliver it to them."
Biting her tongue at her stupid question, she kept up with the others.
Reaching a corner of the alley, Yorke motioned for her to come up. Once by him, Yorke hushed, "Scope ahead, tell us what we're up against."
Nodding, Basta runs to cover, sighing in relief as bullets hadn't been flying at her. Pulling her rifle, out she scanned what was ahead, begging that they didn't see her.
"Six," She quietly radioed back, "Three assault rifles, two shotguns, and a guy in extra padding. I can snipe one of them, tell me who you want."
"The one armored up." Yorke replies, "Aim for the neck. As soon as we hear you shoot, we'll back you up."
Nodding, Basta lined up her rife, training the cross hairs at a small exposed neck area. Spine, jugular, or carotid; I'm bound to hit one. Taking a deep breath in, she makes sure she's still trained on it and fires. The round tears as it grazes the armor, causing it to tumble as it goes through the neck.
Almost immediately, gunfire rings out as she ducks back into cover. Looking over, she sees the others coming out from their side, returning fire. She watched cautiously as the others pressed forward to other, taking cover when needed as they took out a few of the men.
Waiting for a break in the fire, Basta quickly got up, pointed the gun at the remaining shotgun soldier and fired before ducking back down before a slug could catch her. While the round ricocheted off his helmet, it was enough of a stun for Yorke to put several rounds in the shotgun slugger's chest.
Hearing the gunfire cease, Basta gets up to see the six on the ground, bloody and holes tearing them up. Was it wrong that this was something she was getting used to seeing?
"How close are we to the breech?" She asked as she still stared at the bodies.
"We'll be there soon," Yorke replied, "Move out."
BOB and Oeh-Wje took the lead again while the rest of the crew followed close behind. The crew walked past all the carnage they had brought throughout the compound, crimson-blood stains on the floors, walls, and ceiling, mutilated bodies of supremacists, bullet holes, and the stench of fresh smoke out of a heated barrel.
"Job well done, boys." BOB commented, gaining stares from Oeh and Basta. "And girls."
As Basta trailed behind the rest of the group, she felt something grab her leg from the shadows of the hallway, shrieking and attempting to jolt away, she fell and looked behind to see the mangled face of a Terra Prima member, drenched in his own blood and that of his dead comrades, his legs missing. His jaw opened, but no sound except the gargling of blood came out as he attempted to communicate.
"That's what the Shitslicer'll do to you." Oeh-Wje chuckled and commented as she looked behind with the rest of the group.
"Jesus Christ, some of these motherfuckers just insist on staying alive." BOB commented and raised his rifle at the zombie-like terrorist, but before he could pull the trigger, Stefan quickly riddled him with bullets and went to Basta to help her up.
"Let's keep moving, breach is up ahead." Yorke ordered, demanding the group's attention with his voice.
"Aye aye, Captain."
As the group looked back ahead, another squad of Terra-Prima members quickly assembled, guns raised. Before they could even fire, BOB and Oeh mowed them down without hesitation with blasts from the Shitslicer and grenades.
"Fuckin' retards didn't even bothering firing first. What morons."
The team climbs out of the breech point, firing at the human supremacists funneling out until they got far away enough that resistance peters out.
"Well," Oeh-Wje says, "Time to turn the info over to the government. Stefan, do you want to..."
"Yeah," Stefan says, "I'll do it."
Oeh-Wje nods, and the group splits up.
Booze Bullet
Stefan walks into the empty Booze Bullet, furious. Seeing his mood, Cassi starts to walk over to him, only to be stopped by a glare. He slams an audio recorder down on the bar, as the other staff crowds around to watch. "You traitorous bitch," he says, glaring at his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend.
"Stefan?" the manager asks, "What the hell are you talking about?"
As an explanation, Stefan presses play on the recorder.
Bliss Government Office
Oeh-Wje and Yorke sit outside the office, having turned in their intel. The former is checking her account, making sure she was paid, while the latter takes a drink of coffee.
"Say, Yorke," Oeh-Wje says, "You got any openings on that team of yours?"
"One," Yorke replies, "Why?"
"I'd like to apply to join. Getting tired of this planet and Terra fucking Prima."
"Wait. Are you actually serious about this? Like, you're not pulling my leg or the rest of my crew comes out and laughs right?" Yorke asked looking at the Eurypt for confirmation, his eyes met with her usual serious stare. "Good point."
"Trust me, Yorke. If I wasn't so sure about taking this job up, then I would not have even asked in the first place." Oeh-Wje responded returning her eyes to the account and seeing that all the money had been deposited. "Besides, I figured out by now that you could use someone like me with you."
"Well, then. Welcome to the crew. If you have any belongings then you should bring them along the ship. We have a spare room that never got much mileage." Yorke began walking with Oeh-Wje to nearby sandwich stand. One of the nearby tables sat Basta who was stirring her lemonade before noticing the two and giving a slight wave.
"Shouldn't you kind of, you know tell Lloyd about this though?" The Eurypt saw the Human slow his pace, but only slightly.
"First rule of working for me and by extension my own employer. Lloyd already knows. He always knows."
"That sounds... unsettling."
"Everything about Lloyd is unsettling," Yorke says as they reach the sandwich stand, "You get used to it."
Booze Bullet
The recorder winds down, ending with the entire staff of the bar glaring at Cassi. "You sold me out," Stefan says, seething, "They took my arm, they took my leg, and now you tried to get them to take my life, too?"
"I needed protection, Stefan. I'm a waitress. I can't fight off the thugs roaming the streets."
"And so you join Terra fucking Prima?"
"They promised to leave you unharmed!"
"And you believed that enough to sell me out? We're through, Cassi."
"And you're now unemployed, woman," the manager says, "We don't play politics here, nor do we tolerate human supremacy. Get your things and get out." Cassi flees to the back, eager to escape the gaze of her former co-workers. "If you want a drink, Stefan, it's on the house," the manager says.
"Thanks, but I'll pass. If you know of any good pawn shops, though, I've got a ring to sell."