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The two men had just passed by the security desk when Aki stopped short and rushed back to the passed out guard. He frisked the guy quickly and came back with a standard issue 9mm pistol.

Handing it to Bernard he said, “I should have done this before coming to get you, but heat of the moment and all.”

“Relax, man. I'm just happy to have a chance out of here. I'll cover you,” he said allowing Aki to take point again.

“Holster it for now,” Akihiro directed calmly. “We don't want to set off any alarms if we don't have to. I'd rather walk out of here quietly.”

“Whatever you say,” Bernard seemed like a pretty agreeable man. He had bronze colored skin with a close-cut hairstyle and what was really wild was that his hair was bleached brightly blond. Considering they were now in the Matsudan area of space, it made the guy look pretty exotic. When they were all safe, he'd love to hear where he came from and what brought him to the Legion. For now, they had to get out of the building and back to Misaki though.

They made their way down the narrow hall without seeing anyone. When they exited through the wooden double doors, they were suddenly face to face with a large brute of a man. He must have been at least six foot four with shoulders like a linebacker.

“Who the fuck are you!?” he shouted with alarm looking at Akihiro before his eyes shifted to Bernard and grew wide. “Where the fuck you think you're going, Blondie!?” he growled as he drew a firearm from his side holster.

Aki didn't have much time to react given they were stuck in such close quarters. He moved quickly to disarm the man's gun, grabbing the slide and shoving it upwards until a shot fired. He then wrapped his other hand around the back of gun and twisted it from his enemy's hands. The big guy groaned sharply as he let the weapon go and Aki stepped back holding the gun.

As he raised the weapon to shoot, he didn't expect the man to recover so quickly from the pain of the disarm. Most would have gone to their knees in an effort to beg for their lives, but not this guy. The hulking man rushed him head on, ramming him into the doors behind roughly and knocking the gun clear out of his hands.

“Fuck!” Aki cried with disbelief. He was completely pinned against the door and even with his respectable strength, he couldn't move forward against this wall of a man. “Bernard! Shoot him!”

Aki watched with anxiety as Bernard fumbled with his pistol. He definitely didn't have any kind of real firearms training and it showed. The ogre instantly let Akihiro go and threw a haymaker punch straight at Bernard's face. It was enough time for Aki to get out from beneath his massive chest and slip away with a forward shoulder roll.

Now behind the behemoth, he got to his knee and drew his original gun. Lining the shot up quickly, he sunk a round right into the base of the guy's neck. The bullet made contact, landing right where he had intended it to and instantly he shot twice more to ensure the man's quick death. The immense foe fell to his knees before flopping over sideways and Aki didn't hesitate to urge Bernard out of his stupor.

“C'mon!” he ordered him along. Thankfully, the pilot didn't look too worse for the wear and had only suffered a couple punches. It was mild compared to the abuse he had already been put through during interrogations.

The men rushed down the hallway and to the elevator without running into anyone else. The ride down felt like an eternity as Aki hoped that nobody had heard their gunshots. Thinking better of leaving through the lobby, he swiftly hit the button for the second floor.

“What are you doing,” Bernard asked confused.

“We'll go out a side entrance. Less likely to draw attention that way,” Aki advised wanting nothing more than to make it outside to his mecha without any further confrontation. He needed the pilot alive and if they ran into another brute like that guy in the hallway, they might be in trouble.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Blessedly, there was nobody around on the second floor and Aki exited into the hall to check for the stairway entrance. It was literally right next to the elevator and opening the door, he signaled for Bernard to follow him.

The stairwell was wide with gray rubber steps that had deep ridges embedded within to keep people from tripping. Aki leapt down the stairs moving as fast as he could until they reached the bottom floor. He opened the door to the main level and took a quick glance out to the right. There he could see the main hall where the front desk was with a few people passing through the lobby. To the left there was a side exit like the one he had seen by the dumpster earlier.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Aki gestured his hand back and then forward hoping Bernard would figure it out. Slipping out from the stairwell, he headed left walking at a brisk pace and the pilot followed close behind him. The exit doors were only thirty feet away and they were still getting lucky with nobody noticing them. Reaching the glass doors, Akihiro pushed the big metal bar running across the frame and they were both outside in the clear. For now.

“Now what?” Bernard asked having no idea how his savior had even entered the base let alone how they were going to leave it.

“Keep moving. Someone could find those bodies any second and this place will be on high alert. My Serval is parked not far from here. We get to it, meet with Misaki, blow this place to shit and then we get to your ship and leave. Got it?” Akihiro spoke low, but clearly so that nobody could overhear the plan in case they were actually listening. There wasn't much foot traffic anymore as though most people had either left or settled in to work somewhere. Many people still clustered out towards the docking bays though, busily loading ships as if they were getting ready to take off soon.

“Who's Misaki?” his new friend asked curiously.

“She's my partner,” he had answered without even thinking about it. “She's risking her life right now to make this rescue operation possible, but it will be worth it to all of us if we can get off this planet alive.”

“How do you know they haven't hacked the controls to my ship?” Bernard asked with concern building on his brow. “I might be locked out.”

“I don't know how up to date the information is, but I have it on good account that they haven't been able to override your security permissions just yet. Hopefully, that's still the case.” Aki's voice was terse, cutting through the meat of it and getting right to the point. He was in the zone right now and things were going better than he could have imagined. He picked up a light jog and hurried back to the Serval with Bernard following behind him.

Back on the street, Aki was relieved to see his mecha was still parked right where he had left it and nobody seemed to have noticed that it was out of place there. The Serval's silver paint job shined bright in the sun as it hung low in the sky. Night time wasn't far off and it had been a really long fucking day so far.

Aki climbed the ladder up the Serval's midsection and opened the hatch. After climbing in, he helped Bernard up the last part of the way and closed the door behind them. The small cockpit was cramped enough as it was, but he had to find a place to secure the pilot safely in case there were any more altercations. At this point, he expected there to be.

“Well, pick a spot,” Akihiro said motioning his hand around the room. “We could strap you to the fold out bed or you could hold onto the safety bar by the hatch.”

“I think I'll stick with the bar,” Bernard shot back quickly as though the idea of getting stuck to a dinky bed really didn't appeal to him.

“Just be sure you're ready to react. I don't know what's going to happen out there so be prepared. Stay low, and whatever you do, don't fuck with my console.” Aki had to make sure he didn't turn into a liability while keeping him safe.

Bernard nodded and grabbed onto the metal bar that ran along the top of the exit hatch. “I'm ready. Let's do this,” he said sounding confident.

Akihiro could definitely use some of that confidence about now. He was worried about Misaki and knew that it was only a matter of time before the shit hit the fan. He jumped into the command chair and began the initiation sequence.

He heard Bernard scoff at the horrible passphrase he had to utter and shrugged his shoulders in knowing acknowledgment. “Not my mecha,” Aki defended himself casually as he focused on the startup routine. “I stole it from them back at the slave holding facility before I came here. But, I know, man. These guys are sick fucks.”

“Shit,” Bernard said sounding astonished. “Are you guys some kind of counterespionage commandos or some shit?”

“Nope. Just Legion grunts,” Aki answered matter of factly as the Serval finished coming online.

As he took a couple steps forward and out into the clearing of the roadway, a massive explosion shook the earth below his mecha. Aki twisted towards the sound and saw Misaki's Kuroma in his sights. She was knocking over a load of cargo sending barrels spilling out on to the concrete.

“Shit,” Akihiro said more calmly than most probably would. He flicked on the comms channel and could a hear hostile voice sounding the alarm.

“Unknown pilot in Kuroma currently situated at the docking platforms. Send reinforcements to take it down now!” rattled over the line in a male's uptight voice.

Then he heard Corin's old buddy piping in, “You're gonna fucking pay for this, you bitch!”

He could just imagine what had gone down between them all, but Aki knew she had dragged it out for as long as she possibly could. Misaki had bought them the time that they needed and now he would come to her aid at just the right moment.

“Hey Misaki! How you holding up?” his voice kicked in over the comms.

“Aki!?” her voice was filled with relief in hearing him speak . “Are you alright?”

“Affirmative. We're on target. Remember the parameters,” he said purposefully, making sure to keep the words vague so that only the two of them would understand what it meant.

“I'll be waiting,” she said sounding hopeful as the channel erupted into more voices shouting about the obvious breach of security.

The Iron Badgers wouldn't be able to do much against two mechas in pristine condition with just a bunch of footmen, but he wouldn't put it past them to have other weapons up their sleeves. They might even have more mecha stored where they couldn't see. If they were really unlucky, they'd have power armor units available on standby. Anything was possible, so they needed to move fast.

“Hold on tight!” he cried out over the loud sound of the engine to Bernard.