Chapter 6
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Only few people get what they deserve, good or bad. – Thane Krios, 2185 CE
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Through the treeline, the two could see the shape of the corvette. It wasn’t difficult to spot. Hard lines contrasted well against the smooth curves that made up the landscape here.
They’d been hiking through the forest for about 30 minutes, before deciding it was safe to re-approach their vessel. Riana had reasoned that Celestia would have left for the capital, along with Sev, leaving behind a squad to apprehend the two. After all, the two of them hadn’t shown much aggression on first contact.
Levin had noticed that the locals seemed afraid of the forest, and they wouldn’t chase more than 10 meters in before turning back. That meant the wildlife had a nasty reputation, but Levin was confident in his skill with the Avenger. Luckily, they’d not run across any particularly dangerous wildlife.
“What was that about? Just now?” Riana asked as they crept through the forest.
“Hmm?” Levin replied. He felt a cold trickle run down his spine. This is not going to be a fun conversation.
“Why did you shout?”
“I…had a moment. That’s all.”
Riana arched an 'eyebrow', but she focused her attention on the vessel in the field in front of her. Levin did as well.
He could see a semicircle of 10 figures around the area of the airlock. Sunlight glinted off their golden armor. Troops.
Riana realized that they had a choice to make. They could easily overpower the guards stationed around the airlock, and in minutes the corvette would be in orbit. But that entailed leaving Sev behind. They could wait for him, but then they would be at risk of retribution.
“Should we save him?” Levin asked suddenly.
Riana turned his head to look at him, frowning.
“He’s a mercenary,” Levin continued. “He got himself caught.”
Riana continued to frown, but looked away. Usually, she would agree. She rubbed her hip and side. Adrenaline had dulled the pain of being thrown 3 meters, but that area remained sore. “Let’s get control of the ship first, and then we can talk about this.”
Levin spent a few minutes formulating a plan. His rifle fire could easily kill, or at least suppress, the guards. There was a plantation of trees to the left of the ship, about 50 meters away from the guards, while there was no cover from their position all the way to the ship. That meant that some speedy guards could take cover, and while they ran to the ship, attack them with biotics.
Levin considered relocating to the plantation area. They’d have the option of cover, but the element of surprise would be blown if they ran into any farm labour. And he really didn’t want to kill innocents.
My survival or theirs.
“We could attempt diplomacy,” Riana’s voice interjected, disrupting Levin’s mental planning.
Levin sighed. “You know what they did with Sev. Do you trust them that much?”
“I don’t want to exacerbate an already delicate situation.”
“Fine. But I’ll stay up here. Overwatch.”
Riana nodded, indicating that she understood, and then switched on her armor’s speakers. She walked approximately 10 meters to the side before changing direction, intending to meet the guards head on. Levin, meanwhile, went prone and looked down the sight of his rifle.
Riana immediately started to feel exposed without the cover of the trees nearby. She was the tallest thing on that field, minus the ship, and she was sure that the guards could see her easily. That was the point – to show that she meant no subterfuge. She could see the some of the guards turn to her and regard her with what seemed to be cold indifference. Well, they haven’t attacked me yet. That’s good.
She was 10 meters away from the guards before they yelled out. “Halt!”
“This is my vessel,” Riana replied. “And where did you take my companion?”
Levin heard her through the radio. “Mine, actually,” he muttered.
Riana’s face twitched in irritation, and as she spoke 5 of the guards started to surround her. The other 5 stayed in their position, but Riana could see that they made glances over to her. Well trained, Levin noted from 150 meters away.
“Your team attacked my guard. As for the attacker, it’s being interrogated. Princess has taken it back to Canterlot Castle for detention,” one of the guards said. He’d flown to match Riana’s head-level. Riana noted that his wings were seemingly too small to support lift – there was some sort of mass effect occurring. Probably controlled by the wing muscles. His helmet plume was green, whilst the other guards wore blue helmet plumes. Senior officer, Riana concluded.
“Your guard attacked my team first,” Riana countered, whilst backing away, trying to keep all of the guards in her sights. Her voice was still cold.
The senior officer snorted, but his expression did not change. Riana started to feel a pit in her stomach – there seemed to be no way out of this but a fight. One that wasn’t going to last long, she knew. She tapped out a few instructions on her omni-tool to switch on the stun program.
The senior officer and his troops jumped backwards at the orange light covering Riana’s forearms, and then prepared to charge. For all they knew, the alien was preparing an attack. The horned ones – identified as unicorns by her armor VI – lit their horns.
“Attempt to stop me from entering my ship, and you will regret it,” Riana said.
The troops laughed in response. “Is that a threat?” the senior officer snarled. He was smirking.
Bastard. Riana sighed. “So be it.”
-&-
The alien’s response left Frost somewhat confused. She – according to the tone of her voice – did not attempt to attack them after that. Frost felt a cold feeling down his spine – something was very, very wrong…
He saw a flash of light from the Everfree’s treeline.
Milliseconds later Sword and Hammer slumped over to the ground. The unicorns seemed to have small, red blotches on their otherwise spotless golden armor…
He pumped his wings to gain altitude – in a panic, he’d abandoned all reason and rode the pegasus instinct to escape into flight. Then he remembered the flash from the forest. There it was –
– agony. Frost fell from the sky. He couldn’t think – the pain, the redness around everything he could see – and when he hit the ground, he just groaned. The pain seemed to magnify, so he tried to keep quiet. There were spots of black in his vision – through the haze of blood and pain he could see the alien over him, pointing some black thing at him – and then –
-&-
Sev saw himself being levitated into the cell.
It was a tiny cell, by krogan standards; the height of the room barely cleared his hump, and he could take two steps to go from the cell bars to the back wall. They hadn’t removed his armor yet – from what he’d heard, they thought it was his skin.
The bars looked to be pig iron, placed such that there was approximately half a foot of distance between each bar. They looked rusted and disused – apparently, there wasn’t a lot of need for dungeons on this world.
The cell contained some hay, presumably to sleep on, and a bucket. Sev didn’t want to think about what that could be used for.
The white field surrounding him disappeared, and Sev fell unceremoniously onto the hard grey stone. There was a thick layer of dust on the walls and floor. He lay there for a while, moving his limbs about and hearing satisfying pops, and watched the dust fly up into the air. He sat up with his hump to the back wall and rolled his head about. According to his helmet VI, his captor, Celestia, was still nearby. There was no point in trying to escape when he would quickly be put back into jail.
He checked what he still possessed. They’d taken the Striker from him; pulled it out of his hands before entering the dungeon. He still had the knife strapped to his forearm, though. That should be enough. It would be quieter.
Outside the cell bars, a pair of horned guards stood, staring at him. Sev looked back at them.
After a minute of nothing happening, he rolled his eyes and summoned his omni-tool, switching to the holo function, and started to watch a bootleg film.
-&-
“How did it feel?” Levin asked, all the while tapping into his omni-tool.
“How did what feel?” Riana replied, shifting her weight from one foot to another. She looked down and grimaced upon seeing red splatters on her boots. She heard the durasteel doors sliding open with a loud, deep hum.
“Taking a life. The pony’s.” Levin walked into the airlock and Riana followed, boots clanking on the metal flooring.
Levin closed the airlock door and went into decontamination, Riana following behind. She frowned for a moment and glanced aside. “I felt … I don’t know. I wanted him to stop suffering. He was full of holes, bleeding out, the works … he would have died anyways.”
Levin nodded in acknowledgement, making the reflections of light on his visor move weirdly about. “Come on,” he said, moving into the main cargo bay. They’d moved the artifacts and relics from the shuttle to the right side of the cargo bay. Due to the small size of the corvette, there was only one deck, and both of the men walked past the door separating the cargo area from the living quarters.
Both of them sat down on the chairs once they’d reached the table. “Well, this is a right fuck-up,” Riana groaned, planting her face onto the tabletop. “We’ve killed off some of the locals, Sev is captured, and now we can’t even go outside without fear of being attacked by biotics.”
Levin had gone to the nearby refrigerator to pick up some ration bars; he chuckled in response. “Damn right. Speaking of Sev; should we save him?”
Riana looked up from the table, her head propped in her arms. “I’d say yes, we should.”
Levin cocked an eye-plate. The movement was tiny, but that he had even bothered surprised her. “You trust Sev that much? He’s a merc. He could kill us all if he wanted.”
Riana looked away, towards the cockpit. Her face remained blank. Levin pushed a levo ration bar across the table, and chewed away at his own food.
Riana turned her face towards him. “I thought you hired a reputable merc?” She picked up the ration bar and made an attempt to unwrap it.
“I did. My contacts said he was good. Reliable, too. He was also the cheapest one I could find,” Levin said between bites. “Mm, this is good. For rations.”
Riana rolled her eyes. “If we can gain his trust, we can work with him at cheaper rates. Rescue him to gain his trust.”
“He’s a krogan. They don’t feel gratitude. I’m not sure it’s even wired in their brains.” Levin had finished his bar and was in the process of dumping the wrapper into the incinerator.
Riana sighed. “Regardless, we need him for the trip back. We sell the relics on Invictus, and pirates will be near. A lone military corvette is as dangerous as a luxury cruiser to them. Besides, a big krogan is a good way of ensuring you get your money’s worth. And hiring another merc will be risky in the Terminus.”
“Fine.”
Riana nodded and smiled. “I’ll stay in the ship. I can’t fight.”
Levin checked his Avenger. It was an older model, so it relied on a radiator system rather than thermal clips, unlike the newer guns. “I’ll take the Predator too, then. And the flamethrower. Just in case.”
Riana had walked over to the cockpit by now. “OK. The VI will help me fly, right?”
Levin nodded an affirmative, then started slightly. “Wait…where are you off to?”
“Canterlot. We’re going to have to find out where exactly that is, but after that, I’ll get as close to the place as possible in this and you can take the shuttle closer.”
“How, exactly, are you going to find out?”
“We ask the locals.”
“After putting holes in some of them?”
“We can’t do anything else.”