Four hardened metal footsteps clanked down a long steel hallway. The surrounding alloy-tiled walls shivered with their combined force while sending shockwaves of winds as they took a sharp turn.

Leading the charge was a tall, muscular individual wearing a bulky dark-gray exoskeleton with white outlines. Their smoky white skin, only revealed by the top portion of their face, was almost covered by their holo mask, mimicking a beast with several sharp red fangs. Though they were carrying two young women in both arms, it didn't seem to weigh or slow them down.

"Saradona! Where's the evac tunnel located?" They barked, then stopped midstep with an abrupt turnaround.

The individual behind her wore a slender jet-black exosuit wrapped around their seemingly curvaceous figure. A shiny glass holo mask hid their face while their limbs and spine were riddled with outward poking gray spikes. After performing an abrupt skid across the floor, V903 threw an ESC-9 soldier twice her size onto the floor, its lower half cut from its body and leaking purple fluids through its severed tubes.

A pair of padded footsteps come from past the corner, with an amphibian-like creature running on its hind legs. They halted before the two mechanical beings, clasping onto their knees while trying to catch their breath. Their body was dark turquoise, while their eyes were a clear sky blue.

"Why'd we have to bring the Krais along with us? We would've been more than capable on our own without stopping for this… Organic lifeform."

"Enough V903," The brawny combat-suited individual silenced, "We can't use any of our sensors or they'll detect our biometric systems. Saradona is a key asset to this mission."

Saradona wiped a stream of sweat from her brow and nodded. She then approached the ESC-9 soldier and touched their holo mask. After a brief moment, she stood as the soldier coughed up a pool of plum-colored blood.

"According to their comms, they're rushing toward the other side of the ship. The ground reinforcements are moving to a sub-level as well, making both our main and backup escape routes clear."

"Ha!" The brawny cyborg cackled while adjusting the living cargo onto their shoulders. "And you said that they wouldn't fall for it!"

"Hm." V903 sighed, then dipped their head. "I was accounting for security measures of the late Zhaun-era along with protocols that reinforced-"

"Who cares! All that matters is that my plan worked, and you owe me a drink and cleanser after this is all over!"

V903 grumbled under their breath and continued down the rest of the corridor. After another turn, they venture through a small tunnel and turn into an upholstered room with the entirety of its interior covered with white pads. The long bulbs of white light flickered blue, seemingly synced with the several tube-like escape pods powering up on the second-floor balcony. The main floor had a large cube-shaped pod that danced with an undulate pattern. Its black inky surface then sunk into the wall on the far side of the room, opening several windows and basking the room in the luminous night sky.

After the hatch door closed behind them, V903 balled their hand into a fist and struck the blue control panel, causing it to spark before powering down. Their hand then morphed into a small tube before spraying the wall's sides and inner creases with a black cryo-foam, hardening its exterior.

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Saradona ran across the room to the main escape pod, now contorted into a white sphere with bubbling blue lumps on its outer wall. The brawny cyborg walked over to her side, setting down both Orimi and the sesnir near the access terminal, their arms and legs constrained with alloy braces.

Saradona squinted her eyes but shook her head as if disappointed. "I've lost connection with that guard from before. He's most likely deceased. However, according to their last transmission, they're still unknowing of our location."

"The flesh bag served its purpose." V903's hand created several clinks as their cryo-gun morphed back into a set of five fingers. "We've retrieved both packages and are getting away without any confrontation. One being's death is merely collateral damage."

The brawny cyborg moved their smoky low-cut bobbed hair to the side, their mouth mask releasing a puff of smoke. They then crashed their hand into the access terminal. Several small wires wiggled like worms from their arm as they stuck into the machine, causing its holographic interface to fade. The terminal then blinks several times as if it's re-configuring before the panel next to the central pod blinks green.

"They shouldn't have been alerted to the terminal breach due to my nanode implants, but they'll know we're here once we open the pod door. We have about fifteen mekts, but we'll be long gone before that time.

Saradona nodded while reaching for the blinking green pod panel. "Understo-"

—BRUUUUM SHING

Like a rocket taking off, a loud rumble pierced the room with a deafening boom. Saradona looked down at the panel, now punctured with a long yet slender obsidian blade with a straight line down its middle. The handle was represented by a transparent chassis that beheld a swirling nova-blue energy signature, while the pommel was replaced with a rocket thruster emitting a midnight blue glow.

V903 walked over and reached for the blade, but a pair of crimson-red eyes that gleamed in the darkness of a corner across the room caught their attention. The eyes walked forward, with Miya appearing from the shadows.

"I understand now. Misdirection, a common strategy in the art of war. You set two different signals to occupy the ground and officers on board to obscure them from the sesnir's and mid-civ's biometric scans as you carried them around the ship. Then, once you got here it would've been too late for both teams as this is one of the only places on the ship, other than the quarter's area, where biometric and behavioral metrics can't be traced. And I'm assuming the former is where you hid and both of them as you waited for the groups to fall for your decoy."

The brawny cyborg's eyes widened, and they laughed before crossing their arms. "Ha! Very perceptive anabavy! What's your name?"

"Irrelevant." Miya objects with a scowl. "You've trespassed on hegemonized soil, and abducted both a high and mid-civ. It should be obvious you're breaking federal law, but moreover that you're in deep shit."

Saradona's long tail whisked back and forth with angst as she took a few steps back. She looked down at the malfunctioning pod panel with lowered eyelids.

"What do we do? The panel didn't activate so they won't be alerted, but I'm sure they'll do a full sweep once they notice the areas we rigged were bait."

The brawny cyborg looked down at Orimi and the sesnir, once asleep on sedatives but now wide-eyed and awake.

"Just keep those two close to you. V903 and I will handle the vaba. During this, you're going to force a reset for the restrictions on the escape pod to open the doors. We've got fifteen mekts as previously stated, but either way, if we aren't out by ten then we're going to have to force another jump."

V903's head whipped to the side, looking up at the brawny cyborg. "The client said that no more than three can jump at once! And if one of us is left we only got one charge, and that was for emergencies!"

"My mind is made up." The brawny cyborg walked past them while cracking their neck to the side. "In fact help with the restrictions reset V903, because now that I get a better look at her… This won't take more than 5 mekts."

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- Mekts are similar to minutes or seconds but more of a military term used between groups with synchronized times. Times are usually conducted by looking at the moon or sun cycles around the specified planet.

- Anabavy / vaba are terms similar to sister or friend between females.