"Careful Loser," Zer-Dasht warned.
Cewi-Bano pushed Lus to the side before she furiously typed on the keys, flashing through various screens.
"Maybe this thing has an updated map," she muttered. "Wsr, Dasht, each of you choose a door and do some preliminary scouting. Lus, watch the back and make sure we don't get surprised," she commanded.
Wsr and Zer-Dasht moved to do as she said while Lus tugged his old blaster out and trained it on the blockaded door. At least they would have a bottleneck to make their final stand, but if the security guards got COPS involved, the Runners were dead meat.
Soon the Kremel and Nemarian were back, each reporting long hallways with branching corridors and a variety of rooms.
Cewi called their attention to the screen. "According to this map, if we take the right door, then the second hall on the left, we should come to a room with windows that will let us back outside."
"How big are these windows?" Wsr questioned, flexing her meaty arms. At over two meters tall and three times the width of either Nemarian or Lus, she wasn't going to easily fit through the same gaps as the rest of the team.
"Large enough for your Kremel butt," Cewi-Bano assured her.
They all chuckled as Cewi shut down the old computer system, but before they could go to the next door, green laser bolts shot into the room.
Lus dove behind one of the shelving units and glanced up to see that in the few moments he'd been watching Cewi's screens, the security forces caught up to them. Several blasters poked through the various holes in the blockade, releasing every bolt they could and preventing the team from safely making their escape.
"Lusac!" Cewi-Bano yelled in anger. "What happened to watching the door?"
"S-sorry," he stammered as he aimed his own weapon. Unfortunately the mishmashed wall of furniture also served to protect the mercs from the Runners' guns.
The book shelf he hid behind took one too many bolts and the top half exploded, raining paper and other articles on Lus. He yelped and dipped lower to the ground to stay behind what remained of the shelf. As his eyes scanned the ground, he caught sight of an old style USB stick with two words written on it. Levi Athan, one of the most famous chefs in the galaxy at the moment. It appeared whoever put this strange vintage set up together was also a fan of the culinary arts, and Suns knew Lus could use whatever help he could get in the kitchen. Before he could think too much on it, he pocketed the small data stick and stood up to return fire against the blockade.
Finally the barrage of enemy fire stopped for a few precious seconds, but whether it was the accuracy of Cewi-Bano with her scoped rifle or simply the need for their weapons to cool down, Lus wasn't sure. All he knew was that this was their one moment to get to the door and their only chance of possible escape.
Dasht went first, followed by Lus, then Wsr, with Cewi-Bano taking up the rear to keep some kind of pressure on the security forces as they left the computer room behind. Once the door was safely shut, they all took a moment to breathe. Luckily the threat was near enough that Cewi-Bano kept moving instead of taking the time to chew Lusac out for failing in his one job.
They followed Cewi's directions exactly and were pleasantly surprised by the windows letting in soft red sunlight. Apparently that ancient computer setup had a use.
"I think you either underestimated my size, or overestimated those window measurements." Wsr stared dubiously at the thick glass separating them from escape.
"I didn't say it was a comfortable fit," Cewi-Bano smirked. "Now come on. Break the glass, Wsr, and then it's smooth sailing home."
The Kremel grumbled as she punched into the pane. The glass was heavily reinforced, but it still didn't last more than a couple of blows from Wsr. Then, ignoring the tools at her belt, Wsr used her hands to clear away all the glass shards and make the way safe for the rest of the team. Thanks to the insane durability of Kremel skin, she wore only a few small black cuts on her green skin.
Zer-Dasht once again went first, his frog-like legs easily springing up to the height of the window two meters above the floor. The orange scaled Nemarian disappeared before radioing back that it was all clear.
Wsr to nodded Lus, her hands held together as a stepping stone. He pulled himself up to the window sill with the assistance of the Kremel's boost and then dropped to the dirt below where Zer-Dasht waited with his blaster at the ready.
Wsr came next, her landing shaking the nearby ground enough that Lus thought he might lose his footing as he stood with his pistol out, scanning for enemies. Cewi-Bano joined them last of all, warning that the security forces had finally broken through the last blockage, givingthem limited time to escape the perimeter of the warehouse facility and return to the shuttle.
Dust swirled in the air as the four of them ran through the desolate basin towards the rocky wall of the valley. A few lazy clouds floated above them, but they offered little relief from the giant red sun beating down on them. Lus was already sweating through his black, unmarked uniform, and the Nemarians were starting to lag behind without their personal humidifiers to stave off the dryness.
"Come on," Wsr called back from several meters ahead. Of course the heat hardly affected her physical aptitude. A green laser streaked past Lus's ear, and he looked over his shoulder to see a patrol of security guards chasing them.
Cewi slowed further, but Wsr doubled back and charged past her before she could get even one of her pistols out.
"Lus and I will handle this. You two get back to the shuttle and prepare for takeoff," the Kremel ordered.
Cewi-Bano's black eyes looked ready to pop out of her purple head in anger, but Zer-Dasht grabbed her arm and pulled her along before she could argue. As he passed Lus, he tossed his rifle to the boy.
"I want that back, Loser," Dasht cried with a warning edge. The Nemarians continued their sprint as Wsr started to lay down cover fire and Lus moved to join her. They had the advantage of a few stray boulders to hide behind, but the mercs had nothing, making them easy pickings. The sleek rifle in Lus's hands increased the number of targets he hit, but that arguably had more to do with the massive amount of shots he could get off before needing to cool down and less to do with actually improving his accuracy.
When the last guard dropped, Wsr was on her feet in a flash, dashing towards the canyon where they hid the shuttle as if her life depended on it.
Lus realized it probably did, and he would be left behind if he couldn't manage to stay close to her. His chest heaved against the weight of the alunitanium infused suit, and he couldn't exactly feel his legs anymore, but still Lus ran. The sight of the shuttle with engines prepped was enough to make a grown man cry as he jumped through the closing doors after Wsr.
Zer-Dasht was at the helm of the small vehicle which had been designed for stealth. The interior barely fit all four occupants, and the close quarters made Lusac far too aware of Wsr's body odor. Apparently the heat had affected the Kremel, if in a less visible fashion than the others.
Once Wsr and Lus were strapped in, the shuttle jolted from the ground and they were on their way back to their ship, the Argo. It was a bit of a rough ride given Dasht's mediocre piloting skills, but it was enough to get them back to the ship in one piece.
Upon landing in Hangar Alpha, the entire ship jolted to the side, throwing everyone against their seatbelts. A voice came over the shipwide intercom.
"Enemy ships incoming. Prepare to make the jump into the Astral Highway," their pilot said.
The Highway was a galaxy-spanning mass of wormholes that made is possible to travel from one end of Cinder Rock to the other in a matter of days. All the proper entrances were guarded, but Runners like the Argo crew relied on 'breaches' or secret entrances to pop in and out undetected. It was fortunate that one of those breaches was right by this planet.
After another lurch forward, the pilot announced they were safely in the Highway and away from the mercs (or COPS) who had tried to chase them down.
Wsr was the first one out the door, offering strong complaints to the pilot and grumbling about always being the hero.
Zer-Dasht chuckled as he followed behind. Cewi-Bano scooped up the bag with their prize and smiled at Lus.
"Good work today, kid," she said before exiting the craft.
Lusac sighed in relief as he swung the Dasht's rifle to his back. It was nice to not get chewed out for his mistake immediately after. Who knew? Maybe Cewi would forget all about it. He put his hands in his pockets as he walked to the shuttle door and rediscovered the USB drive. As desperately as he wanted to shower, getting the recipe book downloaded into the kitchen computer would put him in a good place for making dinner that night. Watcher knew how long it would take, so he figured it was better to start the process and then go clean up.
The ship's kitchen was clean, a sign the lunch cook had done her part to keep the mess at bay until the cleaning golem could make its usual stop during the night to do a proper cleaning.
Lus approached the intermediate nitro box which held any food that needed to be kept moderately cold, but also served as the focal point of the kitchen, housing the recipe computer. All his other attempts to track down recipe books had been unsuccessful, so how lucky was he to have one literally fall into his hands on a completely unrelated mission?
After leaning the loaned gun against a nearby counter, Lus tugged the small data stick from his pocket, popped the cap off, and plugged into his adapter designed for any kind of plug, before putting the whole thing into the appropriate socket on the side of the interbox. A holoscreen displayed the loading screen which went shockingly fast, but just as it reached 100%, the screen went dark.
That was strange. If there was an issue with the circuitry, the screen would have turned off, not gone black.
A maniacal laugh filled the kitchen, nearly stopping Lus's heart.
"Foolish mortal, you have opened the floodgates of the apocalypse. You, dimwitted imbecile, have unleashed the full power of Leviathan onto the galaxy!"
Glossary
Runners: space pirates
Intermediate nitro box: also called interbox; a high-tech, computer fridge
Argo: a Runner's ship under the command of Captain Boni Tave
USB: a historic and inefficient way of storing data from a millenia ago