As soon as the flash had gone off, Nita had popped her canopy and scrambled to the deck. Her goggles had darkened with the flash, protecting her from the major effects but she still had black spots dancing in her vision. She hurriedly popped the toe of her mech and pulled out her guns. She needed to move as fast as she possibly could to have any chance of tricking the carcha. They would eventually see her on security feeds no matter what but even a few minutes could prove crucial. Her time as a bounty hunter had taught her to look for and exploit any advantage, no matter how marginal the gain.
The arms, a mixture of weapons looted from the carcha compound and the surprising armory stored in the right foot of the Angra Mainyu, consisted of two pistols strapped to either thigh, a bandoleer of various bombs, a wide knife worn at the small of her back and a big assault rifle with an underslung grenade launcher. She also had the goggles, from the Angra Mainyu, which not only automatically adjusted for light sources but interfaced with the assault rifle for targeting. They also interfaced with the small terminal she clipped to the bandoleer. The terminal had a map of the prison as well as the locations of the various prisoners.
As soon as she was ready, Nita sprinted from the hangar. She skidded through the exit, swung her rifle from side to side and found no one waiting for her. Nita took a breath and then checked her map. 'Okay, first one.' Nita had a plan, which she hadn't really wanted to share with Callum and the others. The fact was, they needed help. Getting Yemoramato out so she could contact her friends was definitely the primary goal but she wasn't Nita's only target. They needed pilots. Real pilots. She was under no illusions about how well she and Callum would hold up fighting against veteran carcha without the element of surprise.
It wasn't long until Nita ran across the first of the carcha security guards. He jumped when he saw her but didn't even have time to yell before she cut him down. Nita waited for a moment to see if any more came to investigate but heard nothing. The rifle was carcha tech so it only produced a quiet whine as it spat its slugs. As soon as she thought she was safe, she moved to the corpse. She set down her rifle and drew her knife. A few whacks later she decapitated him. Nita picked up the head and used its long, black hair to tie it to the underslung grenade rifle. 'Perfect.' Now she had a carcha face with very little fuss. Things were going surprisingly well so far. It made her nervous.
As Nita had expected, there was a security door separating her from the first bank of prison cells. That was what the head was for. She held it up in front of a small black panel and manipulated the muscles of the head so that it bared its teeth. It was a tricky bit of business but she'd been shown how to do it by some scum in the city she'd grown up in. Carcha used dental patterns to confirm identity. They had more teeth than humans and apparently the growth pattern was random enough that it worked. The small panel chimed and the door slid up. With a satisfied smile, she stepped through.
A carcha guard, sitting at his desk, leapt up in surprise but she managed to pulp his head before he got a word out. No other carcha seemed to be in the vicinity. Nita double-checked her map to confirm she was in the right place and walked to one of the cells. Every door was the same dull white with no obvious identifier or even a window. Nita took a long, slow breath. If this wasn't the cell she thought it was, she needed to be ready to pull the trigger in an instant. If it was, she needed to be ready to pull the trigger even faster. Nita held up the head of the carcha and made it smile. The moment she heard a small buzz indicating a successful check, she let go of the head, took a long step back and leveled her rifle.
The cell beyond was the same white-wash as the rest of the prison. It was small, with a narrow mattress on the floor and a combination toilet and shower. That seemed to be it. Nita was a little shocked. The carcha were harsh but she couldn't imagine being locked up in a tiny room with nothing to do. Casually resting on the top of the mattress, with her back against the wall and her hands behind her head, was the woman Nita had come for. Chajin Mikui Goeanu.
Nita had grown up in a majority carcha city so she had seen more than her fair share of the aliens but Chajin took the frightful appearance of the carcha to the extreme. She was tall and thin as a rail, her long black hair seemed to drink in the light and her bright red eyes were exceptionally vivid. Worst of all was the smile. It was full of razor sharp teeth like all carcha but somehow, even in this situation, it was supremely confident and predatory.
The carcha exploded into motion so suddenly that Nita accidentally tightened her finger on the trigger of her rifle. A spray of slugs tore through the bed but Chajin was no longer on it. She had leapt sideways and came at Nita diagonally, avoiding the line of fire completely. The carcha crashed into the human, sending both of them sprawling. Chajin ended up on top of Nita, straddling her with her hands on Nita's shoulders. The carcha woman leaned forward, her face centimeters from Nita's and her smile seeming to split her face in half. "Torpedo Ray. You don't know how happy I am to see you." Her voice was a cool, crackling whisper. "Am I being rewarded for all the birthday and roano gifts I've missed locked up in here?"
Nita tried to keep her cool. "Hello, Chajin. You're looking well." That wasn't meant to be a joke--Chajin did look surprisingly good for having spent the last six years in a max security prison--but the way Chajin's long fingers tightened on Nita's shoulders told the human woman that it had been taken as such. "I know you must be pretty angry at me but that was just business, you know? You killed a lot of my friends, too."
Chajin's tongue played over her needle-like teeth. "Do you know how many times I've imagined getting my hands on you? The things I imagined doing to you?"
"Honestly, I'd prefer not to try and imagine what goes on in that fucked up mind of yours."
Chajin giggled. It sent a chill down Nita's spine. "I guess it will just be a fun surprise for you then."
"Hear me out, Chajin. I just sprung you from the cell where you were supposed to spend the rest of your life so I think you can do me that favor." Chajin didn't respond but Nita took that as assent to continue. "I'm not really your enemy. I was just a bounty hunter. The Empire put that bounty on you. It was never personal between us. The Empire is your real enemy. Join me and you'll get to kill a whole lot of them."
Chajin leaned forward and abruptly nipped at the tip of Nita's nose, hard enough to draw blood. Nita hissed in pain and Chajin began to laugh. Then the carcha rolled off Nita so that she was sitting beside her. "Sounds like fun!"
Nita slowly sat up, wary of the sudden mood change. It was a good reminder of what Chajin actually was. A psychotic killer with moods as changeable as the wind. 'Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to break her out of here.' Chajin was a demon. She had been a Blue Ring, one of the elite agents and assassins of the carcha's empire. Always unstable, she'd finally gone too far for even the carcha, slaughtering an entire family of aristocrats instead of the one man she'd actually been sent to kill. After killing three of Blue Rings sent to put her down, the Empire had been forced to put a huge bounty on her. Nita had joined with an entire possy of hunters to take down the maniac. It had been pure luck that she lived when so many of her compatriots died. And the extensive bounty money had ended up all going to hospital bills and money for new widows and widowers.
Nita got to her feet and glanced down at Chajin, who was looking up at her with a wide smile on her face. Nita suppressed a shudder. "Come on. There are a couple other prisoners I want to get before we leave."
Chajin stood up so fluidly she seemed boneless. She made an exaggerated gesture for Nita to go ahead. "Lead on, Torpedo."
"I'd rather you didn't call me that," Nita muttered, passing by Chajin. Torpedo Ray had been her nickname as a bounty hunter. She'd been proud of it at one point but now it just reminded her of things she didn't want to think about.
Back out in the main area of the bank of prison cells, they ran into five carcha guards. The fact that they weren't in lockdown gear testified to the fact that the carcha hadn't figured out what was happening yet. They'd grown slow and careless, thinking their prison was inpeneraturable. Nita brought her gun up before they could react and pulled the trigger. She had to stop a second later as Chajin sprinted forward, threatening to get in her line of fire. Nita had killed three of the carcha. Chajin killed another by crushing his throat with a chop of her hand. The last guard Chajin grabbed by the wrist. She wrenched it up and around, breaking his arm with a sickening crunch. The carcha guard howled in pain and Chajin threw him to the ground.
"Torpedo," she hissed. "I'll meet you in the bay." She was staring at the downed guard with a hungry smile. Her long fingers were wiggling in anticipation.
The guard looked at Nita with terror in his eyes. "How could you let her out, human? Don't you know what she is?"
Nita swallowed against rising bile. She didn't want to know what Chajin planned for this guard. Then again, he probably had it coming. "Don't waste too much time," she said, happy with how steady her voice was. "We won't wait for you." Then she quickly left the room, ignoring the guard's pleas.
In the main hallway, Nita took a moment to gather her bearings and set off for the next prisoner. Alarms finally started wailing in the prison but didn't encounter anyone on her way to the next bank of cells. They were probably all going after Chajin. Poor bastards. There was a single guard behind a desk in the cell bank but Nita killed him before he could draw his sidearm. She used her carcha head to open a cell.
The prisoner beyond was another carcha female but she was very different from Chajin. She did have the same blue-gray skin, ink black hair and even the same bright red eyes. But where Chajin's eyes shone with madness, Dahri Sahei Matakara's eyes had a sheen of suspicion and intelligence. She was also much shorter than Chajin, with a softer body and softer features. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed and peered at Nita curiously. "Are you the one causing such a ruckus?"
"Pretty much. My name is Nita Ray. I've come to bust you out of here, if you want to get your revenge on the Empire."
Dahri cocked her head. "I don't know you. What makes you think I want to get revenge on the Empire?"
"I knew a friend of yours. Babs. She was exiled to Ragrun."
"Babs." Dahri's expression softened. "How is she?"
Nita shook her head sadly. "Dead. She was too fragile to survive long in hole like Ragrun." Dahri's face fell. Nita understood. She'd only known Babs for a few months but she had liked the sickly young woman. It had been nice to talk to another person from a real city. "I know you two worked together to expose and humiliate some carcha aristocrats. We're fighting the empire, so we could use the help of a master hacker."
Dahri stood up. "Yeah, alright."
Nita blinked in surprise. "Just like that?"
Dahri looked at like she was stupid. "My other choice is spending the rest of my life in this cell. Yeah, I'm coming."
"Well...good. Great. Come on. We have one more person to get before we get out of this place."
Dahri held up a hand. "Wait. If you're going up against the empire, there is something here that might really help. Follow me." Dahri sprinted past Nita a lot faster than her slight frame suggested she was capable of and Nita had no choice but to follow. Luckily, they only went to the next bank of cells. There was no carcha manning the desk here and according to the records there were no prisoners here. Dahri wasn't phased, heading right to one of the cells. She gestured impatiently for Nita to open it. "Come on, come on. You're really going to like this. This is really cool."
Nita gave her a skeptical look but used her carcha head to open the cell. She cocked her head at the occupant of the room. Nita wasn't sure what she had been expecting but this certainly wasn't it. It was a girl, maybe around eleven or twelve, with very long silver hair and pale skin. She wore a white leotard of unfamiliar design. The girl was asleep in the middle of the room and didn't stir when Dahri scooped her up.
"I suppose I can't fault you for wanting to save a little girl from this place but I thought you said we were freeing someone who could help us…"
Dahri smiled and Nita finally saw some resemblance to Chajin. "Oh, she'll help us. This is an android from Zalm. If I can get her working…"
Dahri didn't need to continue. Nita had heard rumors of the Zalm androids but had never seen one before. She didn't know if she believed it but the rumors painted them as essentially unkillable murder-bots. Nita supposed there must be something to the story, considering Zalm had been able to withstand the might of the carcha empire where so many others had fallen. It was nicknamed the Fortress Planet because nothing ever got in or out of it. Except, of course, the androids they used as their agents. "Do you really think you can get it working?"
"Maybe!" Dahri said brightly. "Better than leaving it here." She studied the small figure in her arms. "She's so light. I wonder what she's made out of it. Her hair is so soft and fluffy even though she's been here for months. How crazy is that? We carcha can't make something like this. Most powerful empire in the galaxy and we can't even match an out of the way planet like Zalm. I've always said we were too content with our current achievements. Always resting on past success. Stupid. Stupid."
She seemed like she was going to continue her rant, so Nita cut in. "Dahri, can we get going? I want to get out of here as quickly as possible."
Dahri glanced up. "Sure, lead on." She continued to talk as they walked on, complaining about various aspects of carcha society. Nita really couldn't have cared less so she tuned her out and swiftly made her way to her last target. No guards intercepted her. 'This place really does have a skeleton crew.' She hoped the missing guards were going after Chajin and not Callum. She couldn't really think of anything they could do to Callum when he was in his selachii but she worried all the same.
In a cell in the last bank they came to was the person they'd really come for. Yemoramato. Lieutenant to the leader of the fie resistance. Nita had gotten a dossier on the woman when she was a bounty hunter and was surprised they had even bothered to incarcerate her. The fie resistors were called terrorists by the carcha and not without reason. Nita supposed they were planning on using her to try and lure in Tsyirinsaku. She wondered if such a thing would work. Scuttlebut suggested Last Princess was a hardcore bitch. Not that Nita judged. A person pretty much had to be ruthless if they were fighting the carcha.
Nita manipulated her head and opened the door to the cell. Yemoramato was seated on the edge of the bed. She glanced up with a sneer. "Who the hell are you?" Even speaking the carcha's harsh and rasping tongue, her voice had a melodious quality to it. Her accent was worse than most human's, however.
Nita resisted the urge to close the door in Yemoramato's face. The fie were stereotyped as being haughty and rude and Yemoramato had instantly reinforced that bias in Nita's mind. But the whole point of coming here had been to collect the woman. "My name is Nita Ray. I've come here to free you."
Yemoramato's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
Nita supposed she couldn't blame her for being suspicious. "We need Princess Tsyirinsaku's help. The carcha are going to come after us and we have nowhere to run."
"Hmm." Yemoramato stood. Nita couldn't help admiring the sight of her. Fie were famously beautiful, attractive to carcha, humans and many other species. Yemoramato was no exception, with her fine-boned face, flawless pink skin, shimmering aquamarine hair down past shoulders and smoldering blue and gold eyes. Even the prison robe couldn't hide her buxom, curvy body. Nita found herself really wanting to unwrap that robe. She usually trended toward men in her appetites but there was something so sexual about Yemoramato. Nita wondered if all fie were like this. "You're human, aren't you?" Yemoramato said, one hand on her hip. "I thought all your kind were slaves for the carcha."
"We're not all slaves," Nita said, swallowing her anger. "Though I suppose I can't deny that me and my compatriots were. We killed our carcha masters, though."
Yemoramato snorted. "I didn't know humans were capable of such a thing." She waved a hand. "I always assumed you were like those annoying dobed. Happy to lick the carchas' scaly feet."
Nita was really starting to dislike the fie woman and yet found her sexier than ever. It was a strange feeling. "Are you coming or not?" Nita snapped. "If you can't stand to be freed by a human, I'm more than happy to leave here."
Yemoramato ran a hand through her bangs and sighed. "I've been here too long, simmering in anger. Thank you for freeing me. I'll help you if I can, though I can't promise Tsyirinsaku will. She's likely quite furious with me." That wasn't what Nita wanted to hear but even Yemoramato alone would help their fight. The fie had developed mech technology of their own derived from carcha selachi and Yemoramato had been regarded as the best pilot in the fie resistance.
"Let's go then." Nita led Yemoramato back out into the main room.
The fie woman cried out, "Carcha!" and fell into a fighting stance. Nita looked around, swinging her gun wildly until she realized Yemoramato was talking about Dahri.
She breathed a sigh of relief. "She's with me. Don't worry about it."
Yemoramato glared at her. "You're working with a carcha?"
"She was a prisoner here, like you. She has no love for the empire. She'll tell you all about it if you let her.
"I see." Yemoramato's voice was laced with skepticism. Nita sighed. She was beginning to wonder if this whole idea hadn't been one big mistake.