Clearing The Way

Posted on Apr 12, 2015 @ 10:07pm by Commander Jacob Crichton
Edited on on Apr 12, 2015 @ 10:07pm

Mission: Limbo

= Clearing The Way =

(cont'd from "Intersection Eight")



LOCATION: LIMBO

SCENE: Fighting Pits

STARDATE: [2.15] 0412.1650



From across the arena, Jake watched as Kass climbed out of the ring, rushing to confront the man that had to be Rawyvin Seth. He also watched as Kalenda the Black gave chase. Seeing what was going to happen before it did, Jake tried to push his way through the crowd, tried to close the impossible distance, tried to shout a warning--



He didn't get far. Something was agitating the crowd, and Jake found himself pushing against them. He lost sight of Kass even as he heard Thomas asking, "Where's Sedna?"



Then Jake's view cleared, and he saw Kass, hunched and bleeding from a hideous gash in her back. He caught sight of a black shadow disappearing through a nearby exit- Seth, probably- and saw Kalenda shoving her way through the crowd.



"They're killing everyone!" someone shouted.



The panic was spreading fast now. The crowd's attention had shifted away from the fight to the platoons of Black Stars that were stalking their way down the aisles, gunning down anyone and everyone stupid enough to cross their path. Men, women, even kids... the Black Stars showed no hesitation, no mercy.



"What the *hell*?!" Russ shouted over the increasing din of the crowd.



"Thytos is still alive!" Eve shouted at the same time.



The crowd was fighting back. You had to hand it to LIMBO- its denizen would go down swinging. Smuggled sidearms and improvised weapons weren't enough to turn the tide against the well-armored Black Stars, but it was at least enough to bloody their lip. A few unlucky troops, cut off from their squad, were swarmed and pulled down to be stomped and beaten by the angry spectators. Disruptor fire and phaser beams criss-crossed the arena now, carving their way through the just and unjust with equal, lethal efficiency. A fire had started, and had grown large enough that LIMBO's automatic fire safety systems kicked in, filling that section of the stands with a thick fog of suppressant gas that occasionally pulsed orange or green from the weapons fire of those enveloped by it.



It was chaos.



"We need to get to Kass!" Jake shouted. "Thomas, can you fly to her?"



Thomas looked like he was about to take off, but Russ grabbed his arm. "Look!"



It was hard to see through the smoke and the crowd, but Jake saw a figure lifting Kass up over his shoulder. The man was huge, a giant even at this distance. He hoisted Kass up with ease, looking around quickly. Then the man leapt down into the Pit and made a break for one of the tunnels that lead down into the arena's bloodworks.



"He's taking Kass!" Russ shouted.



"No," Thomas said quietly.



Without hesitation, Thomas stepped onto the railing and dove out over the Pit. His wings extended, slowing his fall as he angled himself in for a landing. A twitched to the left, then the right, evading pulses of disruptor fire, and landed. He wasted no time dashing into the tunnel after Kass and the gigantic stranger.



"He's going to get himself killed," Russ said.



"Worry about that later," Jake said, pointing at a squad of Black Stars that were making their way through the stands towards them.



"Run!" Eve cried. They turned and dashed through the stands, leaping over fallen bodies. The Black Stars took aim and fired, but Jake was able to dive under a row of seats. The beam ripped through the seating, missing Jake by inches. He quickly scrambled to his feet and kept moving as more disruptor fire blasted away flaming chunks of metal from the stands behind him.



Jake made it to one of the arena exits just in time to see Eve and Russ struggling with a Black Star for control of the soldier's disruptor rifle. While Russ kept the soldier's arms pinned, Eve kicked the Black Star in the stomach, then brought her knee up savagely into the soldier's face. The faceplate of the Black Star's helmet cracked, and his disruptor slipped from his grasp. Eve snatched it and brought the butt of the rifle down against the base of the Black Star's head. The black-garbed soldier collapsed in a heap to the floor, and Eve looked up at Jake.



"Look out!" she cried. Jake instinctively dropped as Eve brought the rifle to her shoulder and fired. She didn't strike any of the squad of Black Star troopers that had been behind Jake, but instead hit the fire suppression unit mounted in the ceiling directly above them. The unit exploded in a rush of thick suppressant, dousing the Black Stars in the stuff before they had time to level their shots.



"Move!" Russ shouted, and then they were dashing through the exit.



=[/\]=



SCENE: Tunnel



After hotwiring a maintenance access panel, Raxl had found himself in the tunnels beneath the Pit. He had no way of knowing where Selyara was now, but he didn't think Seth was following him anymore. At least he had that going for him.



Even down here, Rax could hear the screams from the arena. These weren't intoxicated shouts for blood, or the roars of adoration for a favored champion... to Rax, they sounded like desperation, terror, punctuated by the occasional low hum of disruptor fire. The Black Stars were shooting up the place, killing everyone. It was Tella Yavin's final sanction against the Shadow Master: the total extermination of all possible suspects.



Of course, that didn't leave Rax in a particularly good position. The Black Stars probably had orders to kill every single person in Pits who wasn't wearing a Black Stars uniform. With the exits likely sealed and Tella Yavin's men everywhere, there was only so long Rax could stay out of sight. Never mind sneaking Selyara out of here... Rax would be lucky enough just to get out on his own.



Unfortunately, Rax wasn't in a position to give up the payday. Selyara was *close*... not out of his grasp yet, even with everything that was going on. He had to press on, look for a chance to get the drop on her. And if along the way he got himself a little payback against Rawyvin Seth, well, sometimes the job came with perks.



Rax heard noises from up ahead, and flattened himself against the side of the tunnel. He cursed himself for the hundredth time for not looking for his phaser after escaping from Seth. If those were Black Stars up ahead, his only chance was to take them by surprise, and even then Rax didn't much like his odds. He held his breath, balling his fists, ready to leap out at the first sign of black armor...



But it wasn't Black Stars. Instead, silhouetted against the tunnel ahead, Rax saw a huge human male with a smaller female draped over his shoulder. There was blood all over their clothes, dripping steadily from what Rax guessed was a very bad cut in the woman's back. The man had long unkempt hair and beard, and a sleeve of warped and puckered skin running the length of a thickly muscled arm. Rax guessed he was one of Daheel's gladiators- he certainly looked the part- and decided against tangling with him here in the dark. Instead, Rax stepped out, hands spread apart before him to show he was unarmed, and smiled.



"Hey big fella," he said. "Don't suppose you know the way out of here?"



The man stopped, swept his eyes up and down Rax, assessing possible threat. Rax was unarmed, but the man didn't seem satisfied; he kept his distance, and the tension in his muscles never eased, as if he was a bomb looking for an excuse to detonate.



"I know you," the man said. "You fought those Gorn. Outside Snek's place."



"You saw that, huh?" Rax said.



"You work for Snek?"



"Not on purpose," Rax said. "Who's your friend?"



It was hard to tell in the dim light, but to Rax the woman looked like Kassandra Thytos, the Butcher of Barbossa, the very woman all these people had turned out to watch die. A long time ago, she'd been a friend to Rax- more than a friend, once or twice- and while Rax didn't have the first clue what she'd done in the subsequent years to earn a galaxy's worth of hate, he wasn't comfortable with the idea of a walking rockpile spiriting her off into the darkness either.



"Not a friend," the man said. "Just someone who needed help."



"So where are you taking her?"



"Out," the man said. "What's your interest?"



"She's someone I used to know," Rax said.



"I see," the man nodded. "You want to know if she's safe."



"It would be a weight off my mind," Rax nodded.



"She's dying," the man said. "What's safe?"



The two men stood, several yards apart, staring each other down. Rax wasn't sure what was going to happen next- he didn't like his odds against this behemoth any more than he did against a squad of Black Stars- but the guy didn't look like he wanted any trouble. Thytos' wound looked bad, no question, and unless she found her way to an operating table soon, she wasn't going to make it.



There was sound from somewhere up the tunnel ahead. It sounded like footsteps. The man turned in the direction of the sound, then back to Rax.



"Black Stars," he whispered. "They're killing everyone."



"Okay," Rax said. "Get her some help."



"What about you?" the man asked, as Rax stepped past him.



"I'm looking for someone," said Rax.



"If they're in that direction, they're dead."



"Then I'll slow down whoever's after you," Rax said. "Pay it forward, friend."



"Think I already am," the man muttered, shouldering his burden again and disappearing around the bend.



The footsteps were getting closer. Rax could see a shadow spilling across the wall of the corridor ahead of him, backlit from the floodlights in the Pit. Rax blinked; the shadow looked like a humanoid, but were those... *wings*?



"It couldn't be," Rax whispered.



But it was. Thomas Varn came dashing around the corridor, nearly plowing over Raxl as he went. The winged man skidded to a halt, confusion clouding his features as he looked at Rax, then down the tunnel ahead of him, then back to Rax.



"Mr. Dreyton?" Varn blinked.



"Small goddamn galaxy!" Rax grinned. "What the hell are you doing here?"



Varn looked down the tunnel again, then back to Rax.



"He took one of my crew," Thomas said. "I have to stop him!"



"Who, that sasquatch back there?" Rax asked. "He's getting her out, to a doctor."



"How do you know?" Thomas demanded. "She's *bleeding* to death, Dreyton--"



"And so the last thing she needs is to lay in some dingy corridor while you have it out with King Kong," Rax said. "He's getting her to a doctor, Varn. Trust me."



"So who is he?" Varn frowned.



"That..." Rax said, glancing up the tunnel in the direction the man had gone, "...is a very good question."



=[/\]=



SCENE: Outside the arena



The space was less confined outside the stands, with more opportunities for cover, but the result outside the arena was much the same as inside of it: dead bodies, panicked crowds, black-armored soldiers moving with sickening efficiency through it all, spraying green fire...



Jake, Russ, and Eve were huddled behind the twisted remains of an exploded betting kiosk. The attendant had been aside when it was hit, and his still-smoldering remains lay tangled up with the rest of the wreckage, skin melted off his face to reveal grinning bone beneath. Somehow, Jake tore his eyes away from it and looked around at the chaos all around him instead.



"We need to open the gates!" Jake said. "None of these people are going to get out of here alive if we don't!"



"Where do we need to go?" Russ asked. He'd found a disruptor rifle of his own, and was using it to lay down some covering fire for a group of panicked civilians as they picked their way to a better position, further away from the nearest roaming squad of Black Stars.



"Get me to a power relay," Jake said. "If I kill the power, the seals should automatically disengage!"



"Along with the lights, the air, and the heat!" Russ said.



"At least they'll have a chance," Eve said. "Come on!"



She peeked around cover, ducked back just in time to avoid a disruptor blast. It exploded against the blackened chassis of the betting kiosk, showering Eve with a curtain of stinging sparks. Russ popped quickly up with his own rifle and dispatched Eve's attacker, and then they were clear to move.



They went, keeping low and behind cover. Most of the Black Stars attention seemed to be on a collection of gang members at the other end of the betting platform, mostly Klingons and Nausicaans who'd probably smuggled their own firearms into the arena. They seemed to be giving as good as they got, and all the nearby Black Stars were headed in that direction to reinforce their comrades position.



This gave Jake and the others a clear shot to the door at the rear of the betting platform, marked NO ENTRY in yellow lettering from at least six different galactic alphabets. It was sealed, but Jake quickly popped open the access panel and began pulling out the wiring, while Eve and Russ stood sentry behind him.



"You think Selyara could have survived all of this?" Russ asked.



"She'd better," Jake said. "I'll be pissed if this was all for nothing."



The door seals disengaged in a protracted hydraulic hiss and then Jake was forcing it open with his hands. Russ pitched in, then Eve, and between the three of them they made a wide enough opening to jump through even as a new group of Black Stars started closing on their position. With cover from the door, Eve and Russ were able to hold them off while Jake entered the control room. Local access had been overridden by LIMBO's master control - Tella Yavin hadn't left anything to chance, it seemed- but Jake ignored the system's controls and instead kicked in the access panel underneath.



Even though local control had been overridden, Jake was willing to bet all the power distribution was still handled by the Pit's local relays. If Jake could disable those relays, he could cut power to the entire Pit, shutting down every system including the forcefields and locks at each of the exits. The people inside would still have to fight their way through the Black Stars to make it out, but they'd have the cover and darkness and the element of surprise. A lot more of them would live than if Jake did *nothing*, anyway, and so he decided to go with the best plan that was available.



A few more solid kicks was enough to bend the grate, enough for Jake to get his fingers in and yank the paneling aside. He stared at the array of blinking isolinear chips and tangles of quantum-fiber cabling nestled behind the access panel.



"Jake," Eve called over her shoulder. "We can't do this forever!"



"I'm going as fast as I can!" Jake called back. Behind him, he heard Russ and Eve, their weapons blazing, and he heard the shouts of Black Stars, trading orders, coordinating their position. It was only a matter of time before one of them wised up and tossed a grenade in here.



Jake tried not to think about that. Instead, he bent down, took up one of the quantum-fiber cables in his hands, and breathed.



"Fast as I can," he repeated quietly.



=[/\]=



Shawn Putnam

a.k.a.

Jake Crichton

Chief Engineering Officer

USS PHOENIX