The door opens slowly, quietly. A bit too quiet actually, as the halls were baren and empty. Unlike the rest of the room, the hall had no pictures, or desks, or anything for that matter. Clara heads down the hall, I follow behind. Voices start calling out on the radio as everyone starts clearing rooms.
"Section 10, clear." It would say.
"Section 4, clear." says another.
Clara opens the door to the next room which is empty.
"Section 16, clear." She says.
We continue down the halls, clearing each room of hostiles until we reach a junction point. The space in the center is tall and wide. What looked to be an information center sat in the middle, and a massive statue towered through the open staircase in the back. It was a large open space in the back of the tower. Upon closer inspection, the statue was at least 20 stories tall and made of a bronze-colored material. It points in the direction of north, noted by the cardinal sign written against the wall in the same direction. The statue was of a woman. She had a long military suit and skirt, and her face was proud and tall. Her face was actually quiet pretty, something I would absolutely go after. Clara walks up to the statue and nearly gags at the sight of it.
"Who is that?" I ask.
"Queen Adarla."
"The crazy-ass queen?"
"Thats her."
"Wow."
"You look almost amazed by it."
"I mean, she is cute, for a crazy person."
Clara looks me in the eyes before walking up to the staircase and spits down the opening. She looks up to the head of the statue and says, "Fuck you," before walking away. To be honest, I didn't expect this reaction from her. I take one final glance down the long drop before rejoining Clara back in the hall on the other side of the room.
We continue clearing rooms to finding our target.
"So." I say, trying to break the monotony of this repeating process, "Do we know what we are after? I don't even know what we are looking for. Is it a man? A woman?"
"I don't know."
"I mean, the boss was very keen on this mission. You think he is hiding something?"
She immediately turns around and grabs me by the shirt. She's not as strong as me so I can very easily break free from her grip, but something tells me she's not doing this out of any hostility.
"I think you need to shut up and trust the boss!"
"We are walking into this blind." I yell, "With not much information to go on! We are on an abandoned planet, clearly no one has been here in years!"
In almost comedic timing, a loud bang is heard further down the hall. The both of us turn our attention in the same direction.
"You were saying." She says.
We pull out our rifles and start walking toward the source of the noise. Clara calls on the radio.
"Oniv, do you copy?" She whispers.
"Go ahead Clara."
"We have a disturbance near section 23. We are going to check it out."
"Understood. Do you need backup?"
"Possibly."
"We are on our way to you, stand by."
The bank is heard again. It's much closer this time. As we turn the corner, we notice a light pouring out of a single door ahead of us. Clara signals to me and I put away my rifle, dismounting my hammer instead. It fully deploys at the press of a button, activating the fuel at a slow burn to be ignited at the press of a button, carrying the weight of the weapon with it.
We mount against the door, and I ready the hammer. Clara nods she's ready. I press the button. The weight of the hammer shifts from left to right as the hammer is wrong at the door with full force. The door shatters as Clara follows behind the explosion. I remount the hammer and pull out my rifle then follow her in.
As soon as I turn the corner, I notice something odd about her. She doesn't move, she's almost frozen in place. I run to her to check if she's ok, but she doesn't say anything to me.
"Clara? Are you ok? What is it?"
She turns to me for a quick moment, then motions with her head toward the wall. Upon checking to see what she is looking at, I see it. There in the corner of the room, sat a child, cowering in the corner. She was a little girl, no more than four or five form what it looked like. Her skin was dark but on the lighter side from us, similar to Angel. She was covered in dirt from head to toe, like she had been here for hours, or days.
"Is that our target?" I ask Clara.
"Good question."