As the connection faded, Jace opened his mouth to speak but was immediately quieted as B’roka turned his head to look squarely at the complaining human.

“Not a word,” B’roka snapped sharply.

Jace’s mouth remained open for a few moments, flexing slightly like a fish out of water. After some deliberation, he finally closed his mouth as his features shifted into a displeased look. He turned his head downwards to look at his arm as Alex finished bandaging the wounds from the bottle.

Silence lingered in the clinic, no one daring to speak for the moment. The doctor continued to work on Mackenzie in the corner, hooking up a series of devices to her body and the wound as he wheeled several machines and devices to the side of her bed. The only sound in the room was the quiet creaking of unoiled wheels and the shuffling of uncovered paws on stone floors.

In the silence, Octavia could hear the sounds of a crowd through the stonework. Hundreds of voices in an uproar as they stomped their feet, clapped their hands and slammed things to create a moving cacophony of deafening noise. It didn’t sound like they were camped outside of the clinic, but it definitely sounded like the streets were decidedly unsafe. Octavia’s ears twitched slightly as she glanced towards the barred door where the storefront lay beyond. Without a word she crossed the room to the door and placed her helmet to the peephole, peering through into the darkened storefront beyond.

Predictably it was a small pharmacy, complete with herbal remedies and easily-accessible medicines that could be acquired and sold on alari worlds. The lights were off and the front door was shuttered, but she could see through the display windows into the street beyond. A crowd of alari youth were marching past, screaming about Federation dogs and waving their fists in the air. She immediately recognized that some of them were carrying knives, truncheons and even lit torches as they paraded through the street, their cries for blood going unanswered as they searched for their query.

“What do you see?” B’roka asked, his head following Octavia’s movement as she settled by the door.

“We’ve kicked the hornet’s nest,” Octavia remarked quietly as she turned her head to look over at B’roka, “They’re armed now, and actively looking for us,” she added, stepping to the side and gesturing to the door. The Lieutenant crossed the room swiftly and bent over to look through the hole as well, staying silent for the moment.

Peering through the hole for a few moments, B’roka slowly pulled away from the door and shook his head in annoyance, “This is going to be a problem.”

“So what are we going to do?” Octavia asked quietly.

“We’re going to have to get back to the outer wall and wait for the drop pod,” B’roka replied, the discontent audible in his tone, “And then we’re going to have to find this data cache before the Scales sets off the device.”

“We’ve tracked the signals to a distribution warehouse near the middle of the level you landed on - we were supposed to meet up and proceed to the warehouse together, but evidently that didn’t work out as we planned,” Remiel remarked dryly with an unimpressed expression.

“Were you ever going to tell us about this mystery data?” Jace remarked snidely.

“No,” Remiel answered simply.

Jace gave an annoyed huff and turned his head, glancing at the back door where Merith was still visible with her foot propping the door open from outside. He was silent for a moment before he gestured, “Guess we should head out the back?”

“Obviously,” Remiel snapped, the tone of disgust barely contained as she turned towards the door and strode over with a confident gait. She came to a stop and called out quietly, “Is the coast clear?”

“Crystal,” Merith replied gruffly, her face appearing in the crack of the door for a moment before disappearing once again.

“Then let us be off,” Remiel declared, turning to look at the rest of the occupants of the room, “Get your gear, we are leaving.”

No one moved for a moment, faces turning towards one another in hesitation as everyone waited for someone else to move first. A loud bang from the street drew their attention as something shattered at the hands of the rioting alari. The resounding cheer shook the masonry enough that they could all feel it through their feet, the man-made earthquake rattling loose objects within the clinic dangerously.

“Now,” Remiel added expectantly as her eyes flicked over each face present.

B’roka was the first to move as he picked up his rifle and crossed the room, the steady sound of his rocky feet impacting the stonework of the floor beneath him filling the room with a loud rhythm. He shouldered through the door and joined Merith outside, propping the door open as he leaned against it within the alley and watched through the darkness for any approachers.

“This is bullshit,” Jace grumbled as he stood up, picking his rifle up by the carrying rail. He glanced back at the clinic one last time with a longing glance before sighing and making his way to the door with his head lowered, refusing to look at Remiel on the way out. Octavia watched as he too disappeared into the darkness of the alley beyond the door.

“Sorry, ma’am,” Alex reported quietly as she stood up, fingering the leather strap around her shoulders to ensure the rifle was still hanging where she had left it. Satisfied, she slunk past Remiel into the alley beyond, shadow encompassing her as she passed back into the darkness.

Remiel watched as they all left the room before she turned to regard Octavia with her stormy eyes, the piercing gaze flicking up and down Octavia’s form for a moment. With a distasteful look, she gave a quiet grunt before speaking out, “You have thirty seconds,” and with that she rounded on her heels and stepped out into the alley, leaving Octavia alone with the amaranthian doctor and Mackenzie.

Without wasting a moment, Octavia quickly crossed the room as she gripped her helmet in both hands. She immediately twisted it, filling the room with a pneumatic hiss as the pressure seal was broken, and without hesitation, she slipped it off of her head and tucked the helmet into the crook of her arm. Slipping past the pink DI standing near the bed, she came to a stop by Mackenzie’s head and gripped the human’s hand with her own free one.

“Hey,” she whispered softly as she bent closer to Mackenzie’s face.

“Hey yourself,” Mackenzie whispered back with a weary smile, “Going back out there to kick some ass?” she asked tiredly.

“You know it,” Octavia replied with a smile, “You going to be okay without me?”

“The doc’s got me, don’t worry,” Mackenzie dismissed with a small scoff, “Doesn’t have any more of that fancy amaranthian stuff you’ve got, but a hospital’s a hospital.”

Octavia glanced across the bed at the doctor for confirmation, one of her eyebrows raised in curiosity. The doctor simply nodded and replied quietly, “Imperial tech policy.”

The answer brought a frown to Octavia’s lips, but she nodded once in understanding before turning her gaze back down to Mackenzie, putting on a brave face for her lover, “That’s okay, I know you’re in good hands, even without ultratech meds,” she reassured hopefully. She leaned down and pressed her forehead against Mackenzie’s, breathing in the faintly floral scent as a wave of relaxation rushed through her from her forehead to her spine.

“Don’t do that, you’ll never leave,” Mackenzie complained halfheartedly as she gave a tired chuckle and pressed her forehead up against Octavia’s in turn, her eyes closing as she slowly rubbed her forehead back and forth against Octavia’s, ruffling the coarse fur there.

“I don’t want to,” Octavia admitted with a lopsided smile, “I’d rather just stay here with you.”

“I know,” Mackenzie whispered, “But if you don’t get your pretty butt back out there and kick some ass for me, I’m gonna bend you over and take it out on your ass,” she threatened playfully, despite the fatigue making itself present on her face.

Octavia couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped her, her lips curling up at the corners as she pressed her forehead down against Mackenzie’s, “Is that a promise?”

“Shut up,” Mackenzie teased, tilting her head slowly until their lips pressed together. A weight fell off of Octavia’s body as her mind melted into a single point of focus where their lips met, the rest of the world narrowing into a darkened tunnel that led to Mackenzie’s lips. They held the kiss for an eternity, neither party moving to take it further as their chaste touch said everything they needed to say without a single word. Octavia would be happy to spend the rest of her life frozen in that single moment.

Octavia wasn’t sure who pulled away first, but she found herself looking down at Mackenzie’s pale visage with the tips of their noses touching and their eyes locked on one another in silence. She tightened her grip on Mackenzie’s hand for a moment as she gazed down at her lover, the only sounds filtering through the building coming from the riot outside. One of her ears twitched slightly from the sound of the screaming and hollering, the conflict outside not enough to deter her from taking as much time with Mackenzie as she could.

“Octavia,” Remiel’s voice caused Octavia to start in surprise, her head turning towards the door where Remiel’s unimpressed face had emerged, “Now.”

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“Sorry,” Octavia grumbled, watching as Remiel withdrew her head. She turned down towards Mackenzie with an awkward look and mumbled, “I gotta go.”

“Yeah,” Mackenzie remarked tiredly with a lazy smile, “And I gotta sleep. Who would have guessed getting shot makes you tired?” she wondered with a playful tone.

“Get some sleep,” she agreed with a small nod. She leaned in and placed a gentle peck on Mackenzie’s lips before she forced herself to stand up, keeping her gaze locked on Mackenzie’s for a few more moments. She finally managed to tear her gaze away as she looked meaningfully across the bed at the doctor.

“She will be okay, Guardian,” the doctor reassured with a small nod, “I’ve hooked her up to the necessary devices - she will be stable until you can take her to your cruiser.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Octavia replied with a grateful nod.

“And you’ve already covered your bases,” he added, gesturing to the green light emanating from the patch on the side of Mackenzie’s head, “I’ve run the diagnostics, everything is up to date just in case.”

A wave of guilt shot through Octavia’s chest, filling her with a cold sensation as she glanced down at the ultratech patch and confirmed that the light was green. She swallowed through the sensation and nodded, her gaze shifting back towards the doctor, “Thank you. I promised her I would save her,” she added with an awkward smile.

“I don’t judge, Guardian. She’s here now. That’s what matters,” he replied with a knowing look before gesturing, “Now, you should join your comrades. There is much work to be done if you plan on stopping the machines here.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Octavia remarked with a nod. She looked down at Mackenzie and felt her heart melt at the sight of her tired smile, her eyes locked firmly on Octavia’s features as she spoke.

“You saved me,” Mackenzie remarked tiredly, “My own personal guardian angel.”

Riding the wave of guilt that lingered in her chest, Octavia leaned down and pressed her lips to Mackenzie’s forehead with a sigh, squeezing her hand tightly in silence. After a moment she slowly pulled away and gazed down at her, “Stay safe Mack,” she urged quietly. With one final squeeze, she slipped her hand out of Mackenzie’s and offered a departing smile before she slipped her helmet on over her head, twisting the seal back in place.

“You too, foxy,” Mackenzie teased with a grin.

Shaking her head in amusement, Octavia turned and made her way over to the door, leaving the doctor to tend to Mackenzie as she prepared to leave. In the doorway she glanced over her shoulder one last time, taking in the sight of Mackenzie in her hospital bed for a second before she finally turned and slipped out of the door. Her view was shrouded in darkness the moment she stepped into the alley with the rest of the Federation soldiers, her retinal display working overtime to adjust to the change in brightness.

“About time,” Remiel remarked dryly as she shot Octavia with a displeased look.

“I’ll take as much time as I want with my mate, thank you very much,” Octavia remarked sharply, “Don’t forget, I’m not Federation. You have no jurisdiction over me,” she warned, raising a finger in front of Remiel’s face as her own visage contorted into a scowl.

“Ah, of course, I am so sorry,” the intelligence agent replied with an unphased expression, “I will be sure to let the angry mob know that you’re not Federation when they start breaking down doors to find us,” Remiel remarked boredly, “I’m sure they will agree and will happily spare you and your lover.”

Octavia fumed silently for a moment before lowering her hand, grumbling within the confines of her helmet. She said nothing, simply glaring at the intelligence officer in the darkness of the alley. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a sympathetic glance from Alex and Jace, but the looks of sympathy only served to fuel her growing anger at Remiel’s attitude.

“Good, now that that’s settled, shall we?” Remiel asked as she glanced between the collected faces in front of her. Satisfied, she turned and gestured to B’roka, “Lieutenant, take point. Lead us to the drop site.”

“Yes, Agent Remiel,” B’roka snapped back sharply, raising his hand in a salute before gripping his rifle in both hands and starting off down the alley towards the northern edge of the city.

The distinct sound of stone being shattered by metal drew all of their attention forward, causing B’roka to stop in his tracks and raise his rifle. The masonwork around them shuddered and rocked under the force of the impact, but nothing around them gave way. Somewhere to their north something large had just impacted the city, and by the rising wave of shouts and jeers, the mob were heading straight for the impact site.

“We need to move,” B’roka insisted over his shoulder before taking off once again, this time at a much quicker pace.

“What’s in the drop pod?” Octavia called out as she fell into step with the rest of the team, racing her way through the winding alleys, “Are we going to have to protect it from the mob?”

“No!” B’roka replied loudly over his shoulder as he ran, “We need to protect the mob from it!” he explained hastily as he rounded a corner out of Octavia’s sight.

The shouting of the mob gave way to a sudden rise of terrified screams and shouts of outrage, causing Octavia’s helmet to compensate as the voices from the crowd began to spread out and filter in from multiple directions. Pushing through the faint wave of vertigo that pulsed through her mind at the changing directions of the sound, Octavia rounded the corner and burst out into the rain, once again cast in the sickly neon light of the alari entertainment district. In the center of the nearest intersection, a Federation orbital drop pod had created a crater in the cement, jutting out of the pavement like a monolith of steel on the rainy night.

The mob, or what was left of them, were running in every direction away from the drop pod as fast as their legs could carry them, screaming in terror all the while. Some of them were clutching deep wounds or severed limbs, while others dragged wounded and dead across the street towards relative safety. The chaos could easily be traced back to the center of the intersection where a cluster of rioters had been dismembered and disembowelled, their entrails scattered across the wet pavement as blood diluted in the puddles of rainwater in the cratered cement.

Standing in the center of the intersection on its hind legs was Zuur, its scales drenched in a combination of water and blood as it let loose a tremendous bellow of primal rage that drowned out the thunder in the distance and the screams in the street. The tone of Zuur’s call sent a spike of horror racing through Octavia’s spine like a bolt of lightning, her hackles standing within her armour as the sensation of gooseflesh spread under her fur like wildfire. Her ears instinctively tried to pin against the back of her head at the sound, only to be constricted by the limitations of her helmet.

“Holy shit,” Merith muttered, stopping dead on the sidewalk as she surveyed the scene.

“Zuur! Goddamnit!” Jace exclaimed as he came to a stomping halt outside of the alley, his eyes widening to the size of dinner plates at the brutal display.

“Oh no,” Alex muttered as she came to a halt, bringing her prosthetic hand up to her forehead as she watched in horror.

“This is going to be problematic,” Remiel noted boredly, watching as the crowd parted in every direction away from Zuur, leaving bloody trails in their wake as they vacated the area.

Octavia couldn’t form any words as she watched Zuur land on all fours, its clawed paws slamming heavily onto the wet cement beneath it. An eviscerated body laid directly next to one of Zuur’s front paws, a gaping hole in his stomach roughly the size of Zuur’s entire paw. As the rain began to collect amidst the blood and viscera, the last of the alari in the immediate area disappeared into alleyways, other streets and buildings. Within every window Octavia could see a multitude of faces and cameras peering out at the scene, the flashes coming from within the buildings outpacing the flashes of lightning.

“Zuur, man, what the fuck?” Jace exclaimed, letting his hand fall until it slapped against his thigh with a dull smack.

The xaxar was evidently uninterested in the human’s complaints, instead, it lowered its head towards the nearest body where it began to sniff, the sound of its inhalation carrying over the sound of the rain. The resounding crunch that snapped out through the night air immediately caused Octavia to wince as a wave of nausea crashed into her. She had to turn her head away as Zuur began to eat the skull of the body, but she couldn’t escape the spine-tingling sound.

“Lieutenant, you’re going to have Faithkeepers on your hands after that,” Merith warned with a nervous expression, “Killing untrained civilians and sexbots is one thing, but the Faithkeepers aren’t going to keel over without taking us with them.”

“We need to move, now,” B’roka insisted, his baritone breaking the brief silence as the rain continued to pour into the street, the steady rhythm blending within the suddenly quiet streets.

“Follow me,” Remiel replied firmly. She spun on her heels and quickly powered away from the scene, making her way down one of the side streets connected to the outer rim of the city.

“Zuur!” B’roka snapped, causing Zuur to instantly raise its bloody head as it regarded the Lieutenant. A huff of steam escaped its nostrils before it lurched forward, bounding after B’roka without a word. Each step sent a splash of rain off of the pavement beneath it as it raced towards the entrance of the tunnel - as it approached, Octavia could see the blood and shards of flesh hanging from the blade-like protrusion on its face.

“They’re going to lynch us for that,” Vita remarked dryly.

“You can say that again,” Octavia muttered with a shake of her head as she followed the group, falling in step behind the humans as they escaped from the rain and entered the neon-lit hell of the entertainment district.

“Boss, are we going to talk about this?” Jace asked insistently, glancing toward Zuur with a nervous expression.

“No, Minuteman Kelly,” B’roka remarked sharply, “What’s done is done. Keep your head in the game,” he ordered, snapping his head to the side to regard Jace with his featureless visage before returning his gaze forward as they rushed through the streets.

Silence hung over the street with all the subtlety of an executioner’s axe, the tension rising with every step as the innumerable eyes watched them from the safety of their stone buildings. Though no one was in the street with them, they were far from alone, and Octavia suspected the only reason they weren’t currently swimming in a lynch mob was the presence of the xaxar directly in front of her. As much as the beast terrified her, she was grateful to have it present for the moment.

“Where are we even going?” Alex asked nervously, her eyes flicking between windows as her grip on her rifle tightened in front of her.

“Service elevator,” Remiel remarked as she suddenly pulled a hard left and slipped off of the street, disappearing down a side alley.

“Service elevator? This place is on lockdown, those elevators don’t work,” Jace remarked with a frown, glancing over his shoulder briefly before following Remiel into the darkness of the alley.

“They don’t work unless you have clearance to override the elevator,” Remiel corrected boredly, turning a corner before coming to a stop directly in front of a simple metal door with a featureless metal panel directly next to it.

“And you have clearance?” Jace assumed with a raised eyebrow, coming to a stop behind her as he peered at the locked elevator.

“No,” Remiel replied, gesturing offhandedly to Merith with an expectant look, “She does.”

Merith awkwardly cleared her throat as she shuffled her way past the two into the small alcove in front of the door. Jace watched with a curious look before nodding at her, “What’s so special about you?”

“Not a damn thing,” Merith replied bluntly. She turned and focused on the panel beside the door, her eyes narrowing briefly before the already bright purple irises suddenly illuminated from within. Octavia’s helmet warned her of a rising presence of Alarium in the atmosphere, the numbers instantly rocketing from the base levels she’d expect from a city full of alari to a scale she had never seen firsthand before, the sight taking her by surprise.

The air in front of Merith’s head shifted and fluctuated briefly, a warping distortion that bent the light in awkward and confusing patterns. As quickly as it had begun, the effect faded and the numbers dropped back to normal as the doors opened, revealing a small elevator tucked behind the metal door.

“Damn, our girl can open doors with her mind,” Jace remarked with a smirk, “Most useful skill I’ve ever seen,” he teased playfully. Octavia’s helmet suddenly warned of another spike in the psionic material as Jace’s face contorted into shock, his left hand quickly reaching up to his throat as his eyes bulged horrifically in their sockets.

“I’m going to open your skull with my mind next,” Merith replied flatly, looking over her shoulder with bioluminescent purple eyes, “Don’t fuck with me,” she warned. With that, she stepped into the elevator and Jace gasped for breath as the readings in Octavia’s helmet dropped back to normal, leaving the human gasping for breath.

“You fucking psycho,” Jace remarked breathlessly, eyeing the alari with abject terror.

“Now that we have wasted even more time, are we ready to assault the command center? By my estimations this elevator will lead us straight there,” Remiel remarked boredly as she looked around at the rest of the team surrounding her, her visage remaining impassive as she searched for any signs of dissent.

Without a word, Alex grabbed Jace by the shoulder and dragged him into the elevator, both of them sticking to one side as they gave Merith plenty of room. They didn’t have to space themselves out for long though, as soon as Zuur stepped into the elevator it created an organic wall of scale and muscle as it placed itself between Merith and the two humans without so much as a sound.

“Will this elevator hold all of us?” B’roka asked with concern, watching as the elevator buckled slightly on its cords as Zuur stepped within.

“And then some,” Remiel asserted with a single glance at the Lieutenant before she stepped into the elevator and tucked off to the side, leaving plenty of room in the center for B’roka and Octavia.

The two looked at each other briefly in silence before they shared a shrug and stepped into the elevator one after the other. Octavia tucked herself as far against the back wall as she could while B’roka stood in the center, the steel cables groaning under the additional weight of his massive form. Though the cables buckled, the elevator didn’t give way, instead holding them all as promised.

“Next stop; the AI’s command center,” Remiel announced as she reached forward and pressed one of the buttons on the panel next to the door. With a metallic ring, the doors slammed shut, closing them off from the rest of the world as it began its descent into the darkness below.