“Pathfinders, SPECOps, even the fucking Core Worlds—that’s all fine and good. But the second you see a lancer, it’s over. They’re not like anything else you’ll ever face in our line of work.”
—The Pirate Lord Dilmlas Grezolt, in a collection of his personal writings
Zaina froze. The lancer stood before her. He pointed his hooked cipher at her and said, “Ah! But you’re no ordinary pirate. You’re something more, aren’t you? Don’t tell me Danjai hired the Condemned.”
She recoiled and said, “Hey—we’re not pirates, first of all! Second, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“You’re a heretic,” the lancer calmly replied. “Or is that a birthmark?”
“It’s not—don’t call me that!”
“You don’t want to be called a heretic, you don’t want to be called a pirate—” He shrugged. “But not calling something what it is doesn’t make it something else.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Zaina pulled out her scrapshot and aimed it, but the lancer didn’t move. “Why are you helping someone like Bilvane?”
The lancer scoffed. “You’re one to talk. You’re here with a known pirate. Reida Qarys, right? Danjai’s little apprentice?”
Zaina glanced over at her partner—Reida’s expression sent chills through her body. Her usually bright eyes were cold and murderous, her gaze locked on to the lancer—they were the eyes of a predator.
The lancer, on the other hand, was surprisingly jovial. “Let’s not come here under false pretenses, now. I’m assuming you two are here to kill me. The least you could do is be honest.”
Zaina frowned. “I’m not lying. I’ll have you know I’m going to be a lancer, too!”
His face brightened. “Is that so? Well, isn’t that something. We’ve already got one like you back on Kaado. Spirited, that woman. Me, though, I’m not so sure about the whole half-lancer, half-heretic thing. Inviting the enemy into your home—seems a bit dangerous, doesn’t it? Might be better for everyone that we met here of all places.”
“I’m not your enemy because I have this,” Zaina said, pointing at her eye. “I don’t know how much you were paid to be here, but—”
“Paid?” The lancer chuckled. “Please. I’m not getting paid to be anywhere. The Order sent me here to thwart some pirates—that’s all. I’d prefer to do it with as little violence as possible, but I don’t think your friend is in the same mindset.”
“Then why are you working for Bilvane?”
He sighed. “I’m not working for Bilvane. I’m here to stop the pirates who are targeting the Vahataman Crystal, which is why I’m here guarding it while her captain massacres civilians outside. Someone’s given you false infor—”
A sizzling shriek interrupted his sentence—a cold, green bolt rocketed past Zaina’s face and directly at the lancer’s head. He remained still—at the last moment, a tapestry of hexagonal-shaped energy links appeared around him. The bolt of energy exploded against the barrier, filling the air with black smoke. Zaina dashed to the side and smacked her lips—the taste of metal had latched onto her tongue. More shots rolled off the lancer’s shield as Zaina covered her eyes to avoid staring at the flashes of light.
The salvo stopped, and Zaina peeked over at Reida—there was still murder in her eyes. “He’s trying to get in your head, Zaina. Come on—you know what we have to do.”
“Zaina,” the lancer’s semi-distorted voice called from the smoke. “What a nice name. Well...” He rose into sight, now wearing a breathing mask. “I hate fighting, so let’s get this over with. Zaina—Reida—I’m very sorry we had to meet.” He pointed his cipher at Reida, then Zaina. “But that being said, I can’t let this crystal go missing, nor can I allow the Order of Riiva to be infested with heretics.”
Oh, fuck this guy. A surge of anger rushed through Zaina. This guy wasn’t like Gir at all.
Keeping her eyes trained on their enemy, Zaina leaned toward Reida and whispered, “You have a plan?”
“Split his attention,” she said, “and survive.”
Zaina nodded. Not very promising—but here we go.
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The lancer leaped forward, assisted by rocket-propelling boots. Zaina dashed to the side, dodging a horizontal swipe from his cipher; then she charged toward him. He looped toward Reida—his energy shield deflected another salvo of explosive bolts as he swooped in for the kill. Right before he bisected her she dropped prostrate on the floor to dodge his strike. He turned and doubled back—
Zaina leaped and tackled him out of midair. She grabbed the wrist of his cipher hand, using all her strength to keep that arm fully extended. The lancer turned again, smashing Zaina into one of the bookshelves lining the wall. It shattered on impact, showering Zaina’s face with wood splinters and knocking the breath out of her lungs.
The lancer dashed away, then zipped back in—a grappling hook wrapped around his leg, and he veered from his path and crashed to the ground with a grunt. Zaina glanced over—Reida had pulled the hook-gun’s cord around one of the statues, which were bolted in place, to get enough leverage to bring him down. She retracted the cord.
Without a word, the lancer stood and rocketed toward Reida. She aimed her hook-gun for one of the top bookshelves and pulled herself away seconds before his cipher would have run her through. Once she was up she swiftly put the hook-gun away, then fell to one knee and peppered the lancer’s shield with blasts from her phase cycler.
Zaina jumped to the ground and aimed her scrapshot. Her beads were ineffective against his shield, but they drew his attention away from Reida. He swooped back toward Zaina with a swing of his blade—she dove behind a statue and yelped as his cipher carved clean through it, cutting her cover in half.
Instead of staying airborne, he landed and charged at Zaina. She sidestepped a swing and leaped back to dodge another. She raised her scrapshot, then pulled her arm back—a deft stroke from the lancer’s blade sliced her gun in half and nearly took her hand off. She stumbled backward to get out of range and dropped the sizzling remains of her scrapshot.
Shit.
“Where’s your cipher?” he asked in a mocking tone. “Didn’t you say you were going to be a lancer?”
Zaina strafed to stay out of his range. “I don’t have that part down quite yet.”
He smiled. “You don’t say.”
He leaped forward, slicing through a desk as Zaina rolled aside. She unholstered the hook-gun and shot at the opposite end of the room to pull herself away. He gave chase, but more energy bolts halted his progress and forced him to raise his shield.
Zaina gathered herself—all she had was the phase cycler, which she didn’t know how to use, the hook-gun, and the resonedge. She pulled the blade out. Reida was pinning him down with suppressing fire, but his advance couldn’t be staved off forever.
The lancer shot upward and fired a hook-gun of his own at Reida. Eyes wide open, she barely stepped out of the way—and gasped as her foot slipped on the edge of the bookcase. Reida caught herself on the edge, emitting a pained growl.
The lancer launched toward her, cipher raised—Zaina aimed her hook-gun for his chest and struck him mid-flight. The cord retracted and she crashed into him again, pummeling his head with the hilt of her resonedge and cracking his mask; her momentum smashed him against the wall. He punched her face and grabbed her wrist, wrestling the blade from her hands; she replied with an elbow to his head.
The lancer growled and threw his hook-gun to the side, activating his rocket boots to take them both into the air. He tried to push Zaina off, but she latched onto his back and locked her legs into his. She ducked and dodged swipes from his cipher while they twisted in midair.
Zaina’s muscles ached as the lancer struggled. She smashed her hook-gun into the side of his head, then wrapped her arm around his neck. With a grunt, she threw her weight backward—they plunged toward the ground. He turned the rocket boots off, but their momentum was set; the floor furiously raced toward them.
The lancer tried to get one last swing in, but Zaina caught his wrist and kept his arm at bay—she then pushed his face downward so he crashed into the ground headfirst. The impact was deafening, and everything went dark for a second; Zaina bounced sideways and landed awkwardly on her bad shoulder, ripping a gasp from her lungs.
After taking a few deep breaths to see if the pain was going away—it wasn’t—she groaned and propped herself up. The lancer was unconscious—pieces of his shattered mask were scattered on the floor. His breaths were slow and labored. Blood streamed from his mouth and gushed from a nasty cut on his forehead. He wasn’t getting up anytime soon, but he wasn’t dead.
Zaina sighed in relief. Looks like no one has to die today.
A thump came from behind—Reida landed and retracted the coil on her hook-gun. Her face wore a playful smirk, but her eyes were still cold.
“Great job, Zaina!” she chirped. “Nice fast thinking there.”
Zaina struggled to her knees, breathing heavily—her heart was pumping fast after that. “It’s over then, right?” she asked, exasperated. “Now we get the crystal and leave?”
“Exactly.” Reida walked over and extended her good arm to help Zaina up—she gratefully accepted.
It’s finally over. But I bet it’ll be awkward if I ever see this guy at the Order.
Reida placed a thin, metal disc on the hyper-glass encasing the Vahataman Crystal. It beeped, and the glass disintegrated. She turned back to Zaina and said, “Would you like to do the honors?”
Zaina shrugged and grabbed the crystal—it was heavy, even with her strength; it was cold to the touch and came off the stand without any problem—it wasn’t even attached.
She stared at it. How do they even get power from this thing?
“Okay,” Reida said, “signal sent for extraction. Our ride will be here in ten minutes. We have to get to the fiftieth floor in that time, and then this whole thing is over and done with.”
“Right,” Zaina said, hoping Reida might move past the unconscious lancer without any bloodshed. “We should get a move on, then.”
Reida pulled out her phase cycler. “Uh-huh.” Her eyes were still icy and dark. Shards of his broken mask crunched under her feet as she walked next to the lancer and stared down at him.
“No—Reida, don’t!” Zaina stepped forward and reached out to intervene, but before she could, Reida pulled the trigger—a sizzling green bolt of energy burrowed into the lancer’s head. His skull popped open with a sickening crack, spewing its charred contents over the blackened strips of flesh falling off his face.