Editing Episode 111. Part 2

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*[[Episode 111. Part 1|Part 1]]
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Arden dives out and turns the corner of the stair shack, and glues himself to the side of it, using it for scant cover while he pulls his gun from his doctor’s bag.  It’s the best he can do—there is nothing else on the roof to hide behind.  Not a ventilation shaft or a HVAC unit in sight.  Nothing but the stair shack and the shallow platform of the helipad. 

Nika is right behind Arden.  She has even less cover than Arden, opting to go prone on the roof instead of standing next to Arden and risk shooting him by accident.  She fires off a quick shot and it bounces off the graveled roof.  Damn. And being no dummies, the armored guards return fire.  More damn.

Two of the Feds have sonic rifles—no rounds, but able to put a severe hurt on you nonetheless—and one of them is decked out in higher-tech armor than the other two, and has an assault rifle.  No matter which way you slice it, it’s going to be tough getting past these guys, much less taking them down.

Inside the stair shack, Rina pulls her mini blow torch from her tool bag, yanks the fuel cartridge and hands it to Christian.

'''Rina:''' You toss.  I’ll shoot.

And she draws her gun, nodding at the open door and the advancing Feds.   Christian throws it and it flies through the air in a beautiful arc, landing in the sweet spot in the middle of the enemy grouping. One of the Feds notices the thing and edges away nervously—if it looks like a grenade, it might be a grenade.  Either way—bad news if it goes off.

Nika scrambles backward toward the stairs shack, hoping to find more cover at its side.  Arden shoots, hits and the bullet bounces off the Fed’s armor with a big spark.  

Arden and Nika are dreadfully exposed where they are on the roof and the corner of the stairs shack can’t offer its scant cover to more than one person.  There’s no other place for them to hold, however, so they hunker down as best they can.

Rina’s taken aim on the cartridge Christian’s thrown and squeezes off a shot.  She misses.  It’s up to the others in the team to shoot it now.  

Outside, Arden and Nika and Christian are taking fire from the sonic rifles and taking damage.  They are also scoring hits on the Feds.  Gunfire volleys back and forth and it’s rapidly becoming apparent that our rounds are not going to pierce the armor our opponents are wearing.  Unless we can target the vulnerable points of the neck and the joints, lacking anything heavier, it’s all about distraction and delay til Mike can arrive.

''Where the hell is our ride?''

Christian lays down suppression fire.  Nika aims for the Fed with the assault rifle.  Even though there is only one of those to the two sonic rifles, it’s the more deadly, and Nika’s looking to neutralize the bigger threats first.  Arden shoots for the fuel cartridge.  He hits.  It explodes.  It makes the armored shuttle rock a little.  Some of the fuel splatters the interior through the open hatch…but nothing critical is damaged.  The Feds stand fast, and then continue their assault.

Damn.

The first possible opportunity, Rina’s stocking up on some frikkin’ grenades.  They sure would have come in handy.  For the moment, she turns her attention to the Feds coming up the stairs.  She can’t use fire as a weapon—in the enclosed space, she and her friends run the risk of burning up with the enemy.  But there is a fire extinguisher in the stairwell and she grabs it.  ABC class—perfect for her needs.  She goes down the stairs as far as she is able and sprays the stairs with the CO2.  The CO2 starts icing up the treads, making them hard to negotiate.  She advances upwards, keeping the ice between her and the Feds, and joins the others at the top when she’s emptied the extinguisher.  She remains as rear guard, her gun held at the ready to start shooting anyone who makes it past the ice.

Arden and Christian start yelling for Martha over their headsets.  Mike’s still under the Chempliance.  One can hope he will obey our direct order and ''come pick us the hell up!''

One of our shots gets lucky.  It connects and takes one of the plain-armored Feds down.  Finally!  The odds edge a little more towards even.  We outnumber the Feds two to one to their out-firepowering us two to one.  Not much, but we’ll take what we can get.

Nika takes a hit from a sonic rifle, and the stun hits her hard.  She wobbles but manages to stay up and conscious.  Sharing the scant cover of the stair shack corner isn’t working.  Nika and Arden both have to expose themselves to shoot around each other.  There has to be another option.  Arden looks around and spots a ladder going to the roof of the shack.  Even if there’s no parapet on the thing, the height off the roof will give him some measure of cover.  He scrambles up, leaving the corner to Nika.  She edges back farther from the corner’s edge—safe.  For now, anyway.

Christian resumes suppression fire.  The hatch of the shuttle closes.   Arden tries shooting at the shuttle, hoping to hit something vital.  It’s unlikely he’ll succeed, but it counts toward suppression fire anyway.  Nika takes another sonic hit and stays up by sheer force of will.  We’ve got to get off this damned rooftop.

The shuttle takes off, leaving the two remaining armored Feds behind to mop the floor with us.

Company starts coming up the stairs, plain hospital security, and Rina fires down the stairwell in suppression pattern.  She’s not out to hit anyone, given the civilian status of the guards.  She’s just interested in delaying them as long as possible.

Outside, another set of lights approach the roof.  It’s another shuttle, different from the first, sporting a Blue Sun logo.  Nika informs everyone of the news over our headsets.

'''Nika:''' Incoming!

Rina leaves off firing down the stairs and calls Mike:

'''Rina:''' ''Misha'', come pick us up. ''Now!''

Out on the roof, Arden, Christian and Nika are still taking fire from the two remaining Feds, and over her headset, Rina gets a response back from Mike.

'''Mike:''' There’s a lot of traffic up there, but I’m on my way. ''Stay off the channel.''

The incoming shuttle lands.  We take aim on the shuttle door, to shoot down anyone coming out. Christian gets clipped.  His vest takes most of the damage, but he’s still hurt. Nika manages a difficult shot on one of the Feds, but his armor is still blunting the damage.  He’s still up and shooting and Nika ducks back for cover again.

The shuttle door opens.  The reinforcements have arrived.  Someone in armor comes down the ramp, with the Blue Sun logo clearly blazoned on him, carrying a weapon we’ve never seen before.  Despite the distance we can hear it humming.

Crap!

We keep shooting, reloading as needed.  The Feds advance.  It’s easier for us to hit them, and it’s easier for them to hit us.  

A man and a woman exit the shuttle.  They are in civilian suits, wearing odd blue gloves, carrying no visible weapons or wearing any visible armor and they’re walking right down the middle of the firefight like they’re walking in the park.

Anyone walks like that, you know they’ve got to be bad asses.

Christian gets hit again, this time by a laser from the armored newcomer.  At least we know what the unknown weapon does.  Christian’s vest is ruined, but Christian himself is still up…thank God.

'''Nika:''' Concentrate fire!

We take aim on the laser-toting guy and before we can squeeze off a shot, a shiny black hovercar blazes across the roof and mows down two of the three armored Feds, missing the suited civilians by a cat’s whisker.  The car screams to a halt thirty feet aslant of the stair shack and the passenger door pops open.

'''Mike:''' Get in!

Looks like our ride has finally arrived.  Christian yells through the stair shack door.

'''Christian:''' Time to go!

Rina hauls ass up the stairs from her covering position.  Arden is stunned by Mike’s unconventional arrival, and Nika lays down fire to cover our retreat.  

'''Nika:''' Move, move, move!

The foremost civilian, a blonde woman, rises from her defensive crouch and looks us over.  There is no shock in her expression, only calculation.  Her partner, a man, seems content to wait for her move, and you get the sense they’ve worked together as a team before.  She reaches into her jacket and pulls out what looks like a double-ended screwdriver.

Nika aims for her and her shot hits the woman square.  The blonde steps back from the impact, the bullet ripping through her designer suit.

'''Nika:''' Move, move, move people!

Nika starts running like hell for the car.  Or at least as fast as she’s able.  She’s pretty beat up.  Arden leaps off the top of the stair shack, hits the roof and falls.  Nika turns to cover him, giving him time to pick himself up.  Rina gains the stair shack door, plants herself and starts laying down covering fire.  Nika grabs Arden and hauls ass for the car. 

The blonde pushes a button on her screwdriver and in an instant, our teeth start to hurt and ''our hearts start to feel weird.''  

Rina’s got the most cover, by virtue of the stair shack, and she’s currently the least affected.  Christian, Arden and Nika have no cover at all, and Nika wavers hard on the edge of blacking out.  Arden is stunned badly as well and they both cling together, somehow keeping themselves upright.

'''Christian:'''Get in the car, now!<br>
'''Arden:''' Workin’ on it!

Rina shoots at the blonde bitch with the Screwdriver of Doom. It’s hard to aim on her, the sonics making the air around her waver like a heat mirage.  Rina grits her teeth, uses the pain to focus, and squeezes off a shot.  She hits, the blonde flinches, and gives Rina an annoyed look: there’s no recognition of Rina’s humanity in it, rather like the way one glares at a malfunctioning toaster when one is late for work.

Arden and Nika have made it to the car.  Christian piles on top of them and Rina brings up the rear.  The car door automatically shuts behind her and the odd not-heard vibration off the sonic device dampens, muted by the body of the car.  But some of it’s still getting through.  The second the door’s closed, Mike hits the gas and sends the car shooting off the edge of the roof.  It plummets like a stone, then rises hard, missing the ground by a margin that really doesn’t bear thinking about.  

Mike flies.  Nika passes out.  Arden tends to her.  She’s alive, she’s breathing, but she’s going to be out for a while.  Christian puts an arm over the front seat and hauls up behind Mike.

'''Christian:'''  Don’t go directly to the ship.  They might be following us.  Just get us someplace safe, Mike.

We take stock.  We’re all alive.  We’re pretty beaten up, but alive.  Our chests hurt as if from incipient heart attacks. We’re all bleeding from our eyes, ears, noses, from under our nails, basically from every orifice we own and in various levels of severity.  Christian does a quick check inside his trousers….yep, ''every'' orifice.  

'''Christian:''' We need to work on our exit strategy.  What the ''hell'' was that?
'''Arden:''' Sonic attack.

Mike flies as Christian’s ordered, gauging the traffic behind us for tails.  After a while, he lands our car and shuts it down.

'''Mike:''' I don’t think we’re being followed anywhere. <br>
'''Christian:''' I guess we should ditch the car.  It’s a shame…

It’s a nice car.

'''Mike:''' Well, how long are you planning on staying on Osiris?<br>
'''Christian:''' I plan on leaving now.<br>
'''Mike:''' Then, let’s just take it with us. <br>
Christian: You don’t think they’ll be watching for it?

It’s got a few dents and dings from Mike running down the armored guards, to say nothing of stray bullet marks.

'''Christian:''' They have an alert on it.  Do you think you can get it back on our ship without anyone noticing?<br>
'''Mike:''' Trying to walk home, I don’t think is a good idea.<br>
'''Christian:''' And we are parked at a private yacht club….let’s go.

Mike fires the car up and drives us slowly home.  We stick to the ground, rather than flying.  Nothing to see, just another car going along its business.  We make it to our ship without further incident.  

We haul inside and lick our wounds.  Nika gets carried into our make-shift med bay and Arden gets to work seeing what he can do for her.  Christian gets on the horn to his parents:

'''Christian:''' (blearily) Hey, Mom…Dad.  Why don’t you come visit us for dinner—tomorrow!—and if you wanna bring some stuff…you know, whatever’s lying around and …well, it’s good.  I’m going to sleep now.  Love you both…Goodbye.

And he shuts down the channel and goes to his quarters to collapse.

'''Rina:''' (to Mike) We ''definitely'' need to work on our exit strategy.  ''My God…'' 

After all, getting ''in'' is never the problem.  Getting ''out'' is the bitch.

Nika revives and we get her off to her quarters, Arden patches the rest of us up as best he can.  No one is dying.  We’re out of the woods, now, and we simply crash out to mend.  Rina and Mike are the least affected.  Mike stays up most of the night, keeping an eye out for anyone who might have followed us and other nasty repercussions from our venture.  Rina sits with him and spells him when he finally turns in.  


'''Friday, 04 Nov 2518'''<br>
'''Kuiper II Class, ''Summer’s Gift'' '''<br>
'''09:30 hrs, local time'''<br>

Once Arden wakes and is more functional, he retrieves the blue vial we’d stolen and finds Mike.  Arden warns Mike that the cure is untested, there is no guarantee that it will do anything.  It may even be dangerous.  Arden cannot in good conscience administer the drug without telling Mike of the hazards beforehand.  Is Mike willing to risk it?  

'''Mike:''' Hit me.

One quick injection and it’s done.  Cure delivered.  Only time will tell if it takes, and if everything we’ve just done was worth it.

Now that we’re able to stand up without falling down, everyone cleans up as they are able, washing off the effects of the sonic weapon and in some cases, hair dye.  Nika suffered the most, but nothing actually in the way of bullet wounds, thanks to the sonic rifles.  So despite the amount of damage she’s taken, she’s healing up fairly quickly.  Fairly.  Christian’s laser wound has been cauterized shut in the manner of laser wounds and Arden’s treated him for the attendant trauma.  Our bodies continue to heal but now that the shock has worn off, the rebound has everyone suffering excruciating hangover symptoms—including migraines—and we’re all dragging around feeling like a thousand flavors of crap.

Arden reviews what he knows of our situation and our symptoms, but suspects we’re all suffering the aftereffects of hyper-accelerated heart rate.  Basically, our hearts were sent into overdrive and just like a ship’s engine forced to run in the red for too long, the resulting rise in blood pressure caused us to bleed.  Had we lingered longer inside the range of that sonic weapon, the internal pressures would have blown out our organs.

We’re lucky we’re still alive.  Very lucky.

That’s not to say our hearts didn’t sustain lasting damage.  For all we know, our insides are damaged and we’re all walking around on borrowed time.  Minus a full scan, there’s no way to be certain.  What is certain is we’re not going to expose ourselves to capture by visiting any hospital on Osiris.  

'''Christian:''' I’m going to be a little paranoid here—just a little bit—Blue Sun supplies medical equipment to everybody and if Blue Sun were the ones who did this, they might be looking out for these symptoms. <br>
'''Nika:''' Right, but that means we go to the hospital after most of the symptoms are gone and just do a routine physical.  We don’t all go to the same hospital or go on the same planet.<br>
'''Christian:''' Is there someplace not the Core where they’ll have hospitals that could deal with something like this?

Well, Hera.  But that’s right out, for obvious reasons.  Beaumonde would have something suitable.  Persephone.

'''Arden:''' Persephone I can deal with.<br>
'''Christian:''' Why don’t we go to Persephone?  Oh, the girls…we were going to take them to Summer.  

Persephone is a good stopping point between Osiris and Angel.  We’ll need to pick up cargo in any case and Persephone is a good place to pick some up.  Given the amount of fuel we have in the tank, Persephone is about as far as we’ll be able to go, anyway. 

Later that evening, Manuel and Delilah Edge arrive with the girls and whatever of our belongings we’d left behind.  Sean Donovan is not with them, having definitely decided to cut his losses of us.  Can’t say the feeling isn’t mutual, despite the four thousand-credit favor he did us back on Sampson’s Array.  As for the Camden family, there’s nothing to be done but to stay out of their way.  There’s no reasoning with an angry rhinoceros, after all.  We’ll just keep a close eye out and avoid them.  Of more immediate concern, however, is Christian’s parents’ understandable shock at our condition and we carefully edit what we tell them.

'''Christian:''' We’re okay, but I’ll be honest.  I’m not really sure what happened but the important thing is we were able to do what we needed to do. 

Christian’s parents not only brought us our bags back, they’ve brought dinner, too, sparing us the chore of cooking.  Like anything the Edges do, it’s exquisitely prepared and delicious.  Gratitude is expressed all around, Mike especially so.  Rina takes Delilah aside after dinner to thank her personally for what she’s done for Mike.  The Edges do not linger long once dinner is over, however, but say their goodbyes and leave.

Arden asks Mike how he’s feeling physically, since he’s not as bad off as everyone else, having been sheltered by the car the entire time.

Mike: I gotta tell you, it doesn’t feel good.  I’m not sure how it’s supposed to feel—do you know how it’s supposed to feel?
Arden: No.
Mike: It feels…hmm.  Did you ever as a kid get sunburned and peel it off and then realize that it’s a bad idea?  It’s like that.  But on the inside.  It’s hard to explain.

Dude.  Ow.  We all cringe in sympathy.   Hell, we all cringe, period.  We’re still healing and feeling crappy.  We should mend up normally, provided we don’t exert ourselves unduly, and right now, that undue threshold is pretty low.  It will take roughly four days to get to Persephone and by the time we arrive, we should be over the worst of it.

There being nothing left to keep us dirtside, we batten down everything and haul anchor for Persephone.

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*[[Episode 111. Part 1|Part 1]]<br>
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