http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAtYPnCsWzo[/b][/u]
PLANET LILLIPA: KAI-OS OCCUPIED QUARRY
Sometimes the waiting was the hardest part.
Unfortunately, that’s all Kira and Akasha could do at the moment. They were hunkered down in a corner of a warehouse filled with large wooden crates. Those crates, in turn, were filled with a number of black market goods: photon weapons, ammunition, stolen medical supplies, and various illegal substances, among other things. The warehouse was devoid of people—aside from the two concealed ARKS—and lit only by a series of regularly-spaced lamps near the ceiling of the vast, three-story room.
Kira’s team—that is, Kira, Akasha, and Aster—were tasked with downloading as much information as possible from the computer servers KAI-OS kept in their heavily-guarded data center. It was Aster’s job to retrieve the files, which left Kira and Akasha to play the role of decoys. They would wait for the signal that Aster was in place, then cause a commotion to draw the guards’ attention away from the ARKS’ real target. Aster would sneak in, download the data, and get out. Simple.
That brought Kira back to the part with the waiting. It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t so terribly, uncomfortably awkward. She wanted desperately to talk to Akasha. Something was troubling her friend, that much was certain, but every time she brought it up Akasha just shrugged it off or changed the subject. That had to change… and it couldn’t wait any longer.
Kira opted to start with some idle conversation. “Last night I dreamt I was the tall one and you were the short one.”
“Mm, that’s nice,” Akasha replied absentmindedly, hardly paying attention.
“I spent the whole dream putting things on high shelves just out of your reach,” Kira continued.
She received no reply.
“Look, I don’t know if you’re just focused on the mission or what, but it feels like you’ve been distracted a lot lately. Is something wrong?”
“I told you before, it’s nothing,” Akasha responded curtly, peering over the top of a crate to scan their surroundings.
“Kasha… Hey! Look at me, will you?”
The copper-skinned Newearl finally turned to acknowledge her friend. There was something missing from her dark-eyed gaze, Kira thought. A liveliness she hadn’t seen in Akasha’s eyes these past few weeks.
“What?”
“What’s your problem, huh? You’ve been so distant lately. Even when you’re right here next to me it feels like you’re a million kilometers away. I can tell something’s troubling you. You think I don’t see it all over your face?” Kira took a deep breath. She hated confronting her friend like this, but it had to be done… for both their sakes. “If that’s all it was I might’ve been willing to let it go. But what happened back there with Sahara… Kasha, you were about ready to
murder her! Not saying she wasn’t being a total ass, but still, I thought you’d moved past this.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you don’t know me as well as you think.”
“It’s clear to me you’re in pain, and it hurts that you won’t tell me what’s wrong. I’m your
friend, I want to help you! Tell me what it is so I can help.”
Akasha averted her eyes. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You can’t help me with this...”
“If not me, then who?”
“
No one! No one can help me!” the Newearl practically spat out, her steely resolve beginning to crack. “Leave me alone! I don’t want sympathy, especially not from you!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFWp7yKcmbg[/b][/u]
Kira’s demeanor turned sullen. “Your friendship means the world to me, you know that. We’re the unstoppable duo, the team that can’t be beat, remember? But lately it feels like you’re slipping away and I don’t know what to do. I can’t save this friendship by myself, I need you to meet me halfway. We
are still friends, aren’t we?” Her eyes were pleading. “Aren’t we, Kasha…?”
“I…,” Akasha began. There was a lump in her throat that wouldn’t go away. When she spoke again her voice was strained and hoarse. “Yeah, of course... of course we’re friends…”
“If that friendship means anything you, then please, tell me what’s going on. Give me something,
anything, to work with here.”
Her eyes rimmed with bitter tears, Akasha choked out an anguished cry as she slammed a fist into the nearest crate. A flash of lightning energy dissipated against the wood. “I… I
can’t! I have nothing left of myself to give. You’ve taken so much from me already, I guess you might as well take our friendship too!”
Kira was completely taken aback. “W-What…? Kasha, what are you… talking about…?”
Akasha remained silent, her eyes fixed on the ground.
“No… No, you don’t get to do that. Not this time.” Kira shook her head slowly from side to side. Despite her best efforts, her anger at her friend was steadily rising. One thing was for sure—she was done taking the gentle approach. “You don’t get to say something like that without telling me why… If I’ve done something wrong, tell me what it is so I can make it right!”
Akasha gritted her teeth. Her patience had been stripped away, piece by piece, until at last nothing remained. Nothing, except a cold fury in the pit of her stomach. “That’s it, I’ve had it! I thought I could endure this, but you know what? Screw it. Screw
everything. I’m done with this mission, I’m done with the ARKS, and I’m done with
YOU!”
She turned away, intending to storm out of the building, when Kira grabbed her arm. “Don’t you
dare walk out on me, you selfish idiot!”
Akasha growled and swung the back of her arm into Kira’s midsection. The girl let out a surprised
oomph and went sprawling to the stone floor.
“Leave… me… ALONE!!” Once more, Akasha turned her back on her friend and started to leave. It was better this way, she thought. Better to sever her ties now than drag it out.
She’d only taken a few steps when Kira let out a ferocious yell and tackled her from behind. Both women tumbled to the ground, Kira on top and Akasha below. “I’m not letting you off the hook that easily!” Kira grabbed Akasha’s shoulder with one hand and slapped her across the face with the other. “You don’t walk out of here until I say you do, got it?!”
The pint-sized Gunner was stronger than she looked… but still no match for Akasha physically. The Newearl pushed Kira backwards and jumped to her feet. “You wanna do it this way? Fine, I don’t even care anymore.”
She lunged forward, her fist on a collision course with Kira’s face. Kira tried to sidestep but Akasha managed to grab hold of her jacket and the two fell to the floor once again. They wrestled back and forth, each trying to pin the other but failing to do so. Akasha was too big and heavy to pin down, Kira too nimble and squirmy. Together they rolled across the hard stone until a crate abruptly stopped them. Once again it was Kira who ended up on top. “What did I do to you that was so damn terrible, huh?!” she shouted. “What’s worth throwing away our friendship for? Tell me!”
Growling, Akasha shoved Kira to the side. She attempted to stand but Kira yanked her foot out from under her and the big Newearl toppled forward with a crash. Kira pulled herself onto Akasha’s prone body, wrapping an arm around the larger woman’s neck. “Did I forget your birthday or something? Maybe I called you a bad name in my sleep, is that it?”
Akasha refused to give in. Despite Kira pressing down on her, and despite being caught in a chokehold, she managed to rise to her feet. Kira hung on, also refusing to give up. Akasha felt her head growing lighter. Her vision began to blur. If she didn’t get free soon she was going to pass out. She slammed Kira into the nearest crate—once, twice, until finally the third impact knocked the girl loose. Kira staggered backward, steadying herself against the crate. Her hair was disheveled; her eyes blazed with intensity. “Did I eat the last chocolate bar in the fridge? Use your toothbrush without realizing it? Or did I take your favorite spot on the couch? Huh?!”
It was too much. The last of Akasha’s defenses fell away, the mask of civility she’d tried so hard to hold in place finally broken beyond repair. “You took away my happiness, my future!” she screamed, tears streaming down her face. “You took
HIM!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O9q0NB2HL0[/b][/u]
Kira froze. Her scowl melted away as realization dawned.
Ivan. Her best friend was in love with Ivan. “How long have you…?”
Click! Their radios clicked once—Aster’s signal to begin. That meant she was in place and ready to begin the operation.
Akasha ignored it. “Since our mission to Vopar,” she admitted at last.
Kira was silent for a few seconds. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I… I don’t know. Too embarrassed, I guess. Then you told me you two were dating and… it just got awkward after that.”
“I had no idea… All this time, I never knew…” It was a lot to process. The Gunner put a hand to her temple as she took it all in. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Kasha. That’s the last thing I wanted to do. But you have to understand, I didn’t
take Ivan from you. He chose
me, Kasha… Me, not you.”
“You think I don’t already know that?!” There was a twinge of despair in the woman’s voice.
“I’m not sure you do. The way you were talking before, it sounds like you blame me for what happened.”
“Maybe I do, a little…,” she mumbled, looking away.
“You’re blaming me for something I didn’t know about, on a decision that wasn’t mine to make? Do you realize how crazy that sounds?”
Click! The radio again. Aster was getting impatient.
“So now I’m crazy, am I? Crazy, lovesick Akasha acting out and making wild accusations?” Fire had returned to the Newearl’s eyes—a cold, angry fire. Tendrils of red-hot photon energy crackled around her fists every time she squeezed them tighter. In the back of her mind, that tiny voice was whispering to her again, urging her to settle things with Kira once and for all. “Maybe I should show you just how crazy I can get!”
Kira removed a green, egg-shaped object from her pack—a hand grenade. She calmly depressed the safety lever and removed the pin. “Now’s really not the best time.”
Then she threw it.
But her throw wasn’t aimed at Akasha, it was aimed at the far corner of the room. The grenade soared across the warehouse, bounced against the wall, and came to rest rather unceremoniously behind a stack of crates. A long second later, it exploded. The blast was amplified by the ammunition stored in the crates, vaporizing a section of wall and sending a powerful shockwave reverberating through the compound. There was no chance the KAI-OS guards hadn’t heard it. None at all.
But then, that was the point. Akasha and Kira were the decoys in this operation. The job of a decoy is to draw attention, and draw attention they did. Guards from the surrounding buildings—including the data center Aster planned to infiltrate—were shaken up like a hive of wasps, all of them lured to the pillar of dark smoke rising from the ruined side of the warehouse. The two ARKS inside waited silently, with bated breath, for the first of the guards to arrive.
It didn’t take long.
A solitary man wearing a blue guard uniform stepped into the smoke-filled haze. His rifle was drawn. The man scanned the warehouse, searching for the source of the explosion. Kira mowed him down with a spray of machinegun fire before he even spotted her.
“I know things seem bleak right now,” the Gunner told her friend as she continued watching the hole in the wall. “You’re in a lot of pain. I understand that, but it’s going to get better. You may not be able to see it now, but you’re going to get past this. You’re going to move on. And you
will find your happiness someday, I promise you that.”
Akasha scowled. “Why do you keep assuming I’ve given up? What makes you think I won’t try and steal Ivan away from you?”
“Because that’s not what friends do, Kasha. And I know you’re still my friend—despite what you said earlier.”
“Yeah, well maybe I don’t feel like being very
friendly at the moment.”
A pair of guards burst in through one of the side doors. They’d heard Kira’s gunfire and were ready for a fight. Unfortunately for them, they weren’t quite fast enough. Akasha raised an open palm in their direction and a bolt of Zonde lightning crossed the warehouse in an instant, electrocuting them both.
A third guard rushed in on the heels of the other two, weapon blazing. Akasha and Kira dove for cover. Two more guards entered through the broken wall and another barged in from a door on the opposite side. Now there were four guards closing in on the embattled ARKS. Kira popped up and shot the closest one in the chest, then immediately ducked down before the retaliatory hailstorm could hit her.
During the scattered moments of silence between shots she continued her conversation with Akasha. “You actually think you
deserve him more than I do, don’t you? That somehow, because you had feelings for him first, he belongs with you instead of me. Is that it?”
“What if I said I do?!” Akasha peeked around the side of a crate. One of the remaining guards was approaching—and he hadn’t seen her yet. She unleashed an icy blast of Barta that froze the man solid almost instantly. That left two.
“Love isn’t a fair game! It doesn’t have rules… and it certainly doesn’t operate on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.” Kira dive-rolled to the left to dodge incoming fire. She winced as a bullet ricocheted off the ground mere centimeters from her face. “You’ve been nothing but selfish about this whole thing, Kasha. I’ll cut you some slack because you’re my friend and you’re hurting, but enough is enough! Honestly, what do you want from me? Do you expect me to leave him now that I know about your feelings?!”
“No, that’s not…” Akasha jerked backwards as a guard suddenly came charging around the corner. The man swung the butt of his gun at her; she caught it with one hand, then delivered a left hook that sent him sprawling. “I wasn’t planning on telling you in the first place, it’s only because you wouldn’t stop meddling!”
“
Meddling?! I asked you to tell me because something was clearly bothering you, and I wanted to help my friend. I
care about you, you big doofus! Can’t you see that?!”
More guards poured into the warehouse from all sides. Photon bullets were expended by the hundreds, turning the area into a veritable war zone. It took all of Akasha and Kira’s skill and concentration to stay out of harm’s way. They ducked and dodged, rolled and spun, returning fire whenever possible. One guard went down, then two, then three. Out of the corner of her eye, Kira spotted a series of colorful flashes that could only be Akasha’s Techniques.
Good, she thought wryly,
at least she still remembers who the real
enemy is. As a Foie blast exploded uncomfortably close to her head, she added,
I hope.
Kira laid down cover fire before making a run for a pile of used mining equipment. She skidded behind a massive, mechanized drill that looked like it hadn’t been touched in a hundred years. Checking behind her to make sure no guards were on her tail, Kira nearly collided with the figure coming around the corner from the opposite direction. A figure who also happened to be glancing in the other direction. Kira brought up her twin machineguns, ready to fire. The other figure brought up her… double saber? That’s when Kira realized it was Akasha.
Both women froze as they recognized each other. For the briefest of moments Kira wondered if her friend might actually attack her—she hadn’t exactly been a model of rational thinking lately—but no, Akasha lowered her blade after all. Kira followed suit. “We can fight to the death later if you want,” said the Gunner, pulling out a smoke grenade. “Right now it’s time we ditched this party.”
* * * * * * * * *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7AT0exOiqc[/b][/u]
One frenzied escape later, Akasha and Kira lay panting on the roof of the warehouse. They’d managed to elude the guards, at least for the moment.
“Let’s not do that again anytime soon,” Kira gasped, completely out of breath.
“Seconded.” Lying on her back, Akasha stared up at the vast cloudless expanse. Her head, like the sapphire sky above, was finally clear. “Kira, I have to know… Do you love him?”
“That idiot?! I… I mean yeah, I guess I do. Sorry, Kasha, but I really do.”
“Darn,” Akasha huffed, still panting on the floor, “I think it was easier to resent you when I didn’t know that. But you know what? It’s strange… I can’t explain it, but I think I feel a little better. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not giving up on Ivan. I’m just… letting you hang onto him for now.”
Kira’s laugh came out as a wheeze. “Oh, is that so? I suppose I should be grateful then.”
“Just remember, I get him next.”
“Sounds like a plan. When I don’t want him anymore, he’s all yours.”
“And Kira?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry about what I said earlier. Sorry about everything, really. It’s all been so confusing lately, I don’t know what to think anymore. But there is one thing I
do know: I don’t want to lose you as a friend.”
“I know. I don’t want to lose you, either. I can’t believe we almost threw our friendship away over… well, over
him. How stupid is that?! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
A melancholy smile spread over Akasha’s face. “It hurts because it’s you.”
“Where do we go from here? You and me, I mean.”
“I have no idea.” Akasha stood up and stretched, as if waking from a long slumber. She offered Kira a helping hand. “But first things first. We have a mission to finish, and teammates who are counting on us.”
Kira let her friend pull her up. “Then let’s get to it.”
* * * * * * * * *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycYHrDTnH2M[/b][/u]
Elsewhere, Sahara and Levia were dealing with their own set of problems. The first order of business was infiltrating a building they’d nicknamed “the tower.” It was the tallest structure in the quarry and the location of Solomondi’s private residence. After that, their job was to locate the KAI-OS King himself and apprehend or, in the worst case, eliminate him.
Step one: get inside. From their vantage point they could see a lone guard protecting the entrance. The man looked bored, but not bored enough for them to slip past unnoticed.
In that case, time for plan B, Sahara decided as she reached for her rifle.
Levia placed a hand on the sniper’s shoulder. “Wait,” she whispered. “Please, let me try another way.”
She picked up a fist-sized rock and hurled it over the guard’s head. It struck a metal drainage pipe and let out a tremendous
clang. Startled, the man headed towards the pipe to investigate, leaving the entrance temporarily unguarded.
Sahara gave her teammate a sly grin. “Nice. Okay, let’s go.”
Staying close to the outer wall, they swiftly reached the open doorway. Inside was a spacious lobby lined with ornately-carved marble pillars. Extravagant tapestries decorated the walls, crystal chandeliers dangled precariously from the ceiling, and a plush scarlet and gold carpet ran the length of the room, leading to an elevator at the far end. The opulence of the lobby was a stark contrast to the faded, industrial palette just outside.
“Looks like we’re in the right place.” Sahara and Levia didn’t spend much time admiring the view. They sprinted down the center of the room, hoping to find a stairwell access, but were suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted by a case of unfortunate timing.
Ding!
The elevator doors opened before the ARKS could locate a suitable hiding spot. Inside the elevator car were half a dozen blue-uniformed security guards. Unlike the mostly male guards outside, however, every guard in the tower appeared to be female. They noticed the intruders at once and produced a variety of weapons—mainly pistols and rifles, though one woman brandished a newly-polished scimitar.
Sahara and Levia scrambled behind the nearest pillar just before the first barrage hit. Photon bullets struck the pillar like a tidal wave hitting a levee, their force and sheer numbers eroding the solid stone with alarming speed. Dust and debris coated the formerly-pristine carpet.
The guards spread out as they kept up their relentless assault. From a hidden wall panel next to the elevator, another six security guards emerged and joined the first group in attacking the ARKS. The roar of gunfire escalated into a cacophony of impending death.
“We’ve gotta get the hell outta here!” Sahara shouted over the deluge of bullets.
Levia immediately, and calmly, raised both hands above her head. “I surrender.”
“…Or, we could do that.” Reluctantly, Sahara dropped her weapon and followed suit.
The guards surrounded them in a flash. Their weapons were confiscated, their bodies searched. A cadre of the toughest-looking women pushed them into the elevator, no questions asked.
Sahara and Levia were now prisoners of Mala’din Ashra Solomondi.
TO BE CONTINUED