Chereads / Space Shift Stories / Chapter 49 - IX. Nico's Resolve

Chapter 49 - IX. Nico's Resolve

I swiftly fired at the assassin, she gracefully dodged all my attacks, as then quickly rushed towards her guns. I saw her intention and I fired the guns further back, I then rushed in and gave her a little taste of my gun-fu skills. Which I could say is barely grazing her, as my swings and shots are dodged I then realized why Strife had a hard time subduing her.

The assassin managed to kick off both my guns, she then began to beat me up. She is faster and stronger than me, and it shows as I was barely able to keep up with her attacks.

It took Strife a full minute to regain his stance as he immediately charged at the assassin. It was a full on two v one fight with Strife as the main fighter and me as back up, yet even so the assassin still outmatched both of us. As she kicked out back on the ground, Strife looked at me, a signal to change fighting strategy.

Strife charged in first, and as predicted the assassin kicked his ass back to me. As Strife bumped into me I took it a cue to charge in. And like Strife I too got my ass handed to me. As me and Strife tried to stand up the assassin gave us a mocking smile, I gave her the same smile as I showed my finger twirling around a grenade pin.

I placed one of Strife's grenades on her body. She didn't understand at first but when she did, the assassin frisked her body for the grenade that I attached. She hastily removed it and pitched it back at us. My brain and my face were in shock as it flew midair. Strife slapped the grenade out of our face just a hairline of a second before it exploded. It sent the grenade to a safe distance but the recoil of the explosion knocked all of us down.

My ears still buzzed around and my vision foggy, I could still feel my inside writhe around in place. Strife was stuck in a fetal position with his hands behind his head. We both stopped and groaned as our vision became clear. The moment our senses came back in place the only thing we saw was a war torn rooftop and the assassin nowhere to be found.

"Are you two alright?" Celestine called through my holowatch.

"Yeah, a little beaten but still breathing." I replied as I caught my breath. "Both of you in the Swift?"

"Yes."

"Well be there in five." I told her as I ended the call.

I looked at Rover, who was leaning by the door. We both nodded in acknowledgement at each other then we dashed off. We made sure to find a discreet route, after we were the ones who trashed the entire market square and staying there is as good as being branded a terrorist by the locals. We alternated our path from walking to the roofs to squeezing into the alleyways all just to make sure the planets police could not ID us.

The sound of sirens gave us a rough idea of where we are as to the outside of the market. The violent marching made me note how far we are to the police's search radius. It took awhile but we got out of the market and immediately hailed a cab to bring us back to the port.

Like entering a portal, we did not notice how long the travel was as we stood in front of the Swift. Strife opened the door as it opened we could see Celestine standing by aiming her guns at us. The moment she saw us she held down her gun and peeked outside to check if we were followed. Confirming that we weren't she closed the door.

Without rest Strife headed straight to the cockpit and started the engines. Within a few steps in my body's adrenaline calmed and the pick drop kicked right in my face. I began to walk with a notice limp, I headed to the first aid kit and grabbed a few painkillers. I made another stop at the fridge to take two frozen ice packs and headed to the cockpit as well. I gave Strife his share of ice packs and painkillers.

We left Oasis and are now about five kilometers out of the colony. We ordered C.H.R.I.S. to cruise the ship to Kyatto. Strife and I went down to the lab where Celestine prepared the Cell Rescue, it looked like a pen 3D printer and works like so, but instead of filament it uses a person's blood. And instead of plastic it prints out duplicate cells, I could expand on it but the pain is really making me a little cranky. Nico was also there to assist her.

Celestine came towards me and used the Cell Rescue on me. Nico did the same to Strife. As the machine and pain killers worked their magic, we were back into a relatively good shape. Without even checking if I could walk properly I just went and told Nico about what Garner told us. As Nico listened her face turned mellow indicating that she's not fond of the idea of killing her own uncle.

"That's what we've been talking about. But if there's something else on your mind, we could take that into consideration." Celestine told Nico.

Nico fiddle with the Cell Rescue just to keep herself busy. It was obvious that what she said earlier is now empty and void. Her look is now that of an innocent child, the anger and passion for vengeance gone. She looked frustrated so Strife placed his hand on her head.

"If you want to arrest your uncle, we can do that too. If you don't want him dead we could do that." Strife assured Nico that there's another way.

"I want to see my uncle face to face." Nico told us. Her tone was that of a royalty.

All of us smiled and went back to the cockpit. As we sat there was a message from Garner, it was a chart for his trading routes on Kyatto. We quickly punched in the coordinates and warped our way into there.

As the warp jump ended, we exited almost 15 kilometers away from Kyatto. We simply followed the HUD's instructions. For the first kilometer we were in the clear, but as we got closer, something made us froze. We saw spaceships of the Kyatto's space and air defense. Our minds raced, after all Garner told us that the government just looked the other way in this section.

Celestine ordered us to halt the ship. We complied and now we're floating stationary.

"Now what?" Strife simply asked the question everyone was thinking.