Continued From E2:P3

Balinski moved out into the hall, not in any particular rush but moving with purpose towards an uncertain goal. Balinski held his large revolver low and to his side, ready to fire should danger present itself but trying not to appear overly threatening. Given the laser burned state of the black trench coat he was wearing it might be a lost cause however, but nobody could fault him for trying.

Caesar and Siyel padded softly alongside him, the two exchanging furtive looks with their surroundings as they moved through the darkened hallway. They hadn’t gone more than fifty meters before all at once the sounds of gunfire erupted once again. This time it sounded quite close by and Balinski pushed down the urge to rush headlong into the fight.

He had Siyel with him, he couldn't leave her alone. Not even with Caesar to protect her. Instead, he hunched down and signaled to proceed with caution. These insurgents had already demonstrated a willingness for extreme violence so he didn't want to take any chances. If he could get the drop on them then he would.

The rubble strewn floor was dark, the lights in that section of the hall were still out. Up ahead there was a large hole in the wall, broken pieces of carbcrete spread outwards in a fan from the hole. It must have been the reason for the hallway’s current state of disorder. He was curious as to the reason for the blast, but they passed it by without stopping.

Siyel cursed shortly after they were by, “That’s one of the evidence lockups. There are millions of osmir worth of drugs and controlled substances in there, I guess they decided it would be easier to punch through the wall than to crawl through the other security measures.”

Balinski shook his head. The dust seemed to have settled for the most part and there were no sounds from the darkness beyond the blast. They had likely taken what they could carry and split. Say what you will about these gangsters, but they were intelligent. Too intelligent.

How had they known precisely where to hit to do the most damage? He piled that suspicious line of reasoning into the corner of his mind, he would come back to that he was sure. But at the moment there were more pressing matters to attend too.

Balinski and Siyel crept along the hallway, the light levels slowly returning to normal as they got farther away from the breached section of wall. Caesar trotted alongside them, her head on a constant swivel as she scanned for threats with all her senses. Balinski wasn’t sure where they were heading, he had never been inside this part of the precinct before, but as he glanced back towards Siyel she gave him a confident nod. They must still be on the right track.

Siyel seemed to pause suddenly, he stopped as she put a hand to her ear. She smiled and spoke excitedly, “Just now? That’s great news. Alright, start getting it concrete, I want you to route all calls through your interface and try to isolate enemy chatter.” She turned to him, her gloomy expression replaced by one a little more hopeful. “Daryon and the others have managed to return some functionality to our communications network. They used one of the dead guys’ radios to find the jamming frequency. Now all they have to do is isolate our communications from it and we will have our radios back.”

This was indeed great news. He gestured to her and asked, “So, the plan?”

She thought for a moment, her black eyebrows pinching in thought. “I’ll check..” She activated her wrist worn assistant device and tapped out a series of short messages. After another second she seemed to get a response. “Alright, so things are still rough, but the resistance is improving. It looks like the other officers have managed to push them back in three out of five key areas. We are still losing the habitation and detention blocks. Damn, I hope they don't figure out how to deactivate the cell blocks.”

Balinski frowned as they rounded another tunnel corner in the warren-like maze of the precinct's interior, luckily he had downloaded a schematic of the interior to his cyberport a few weeks ago. He drew from this mental image now as he led them to another large room. This time instead of finding officers hunkering behind cover he saw a full troop of tunnel trawlers in their heavy HAVOC gear. They looked to have cut the offending gangsters apart in close combat, bright purple gore dripped from their unsheathed vibro-swords and smoke curled from slowly cooling thermo-maces as they holstered them. As he entered the room the Havoc’s tensed before one of them recognised him and called out his name with a raised arm.

“Oh it’s you! Balinski, just in time to miss the party!” Officer Tanya said cheerfully, her helmet speakers making her indelicate tone easy to hear as she stomped towards them in her power armour. She reached up and removed her helmet with a click and a hiss before hanging it on the magnetic holder on her waist. She looked him up and down and asked, “Feeling better?”

Balinski frowned slightly and shook his head. “I feel as well as can be expected given the current state of the world.” His nonanswer seemed to satisfy her though as she turned to Siyel with a crisp salute.

Siyel noted the woman's gore splattered frame and elected to keep her distance as she returned the salute and gestured towards the remains of the invaders. Their corpses scattered across a full dozen meters of the floor and walls. “Well, you certainly dealt with them.. unequivocally.”

Tanya smiled, her bright white teeth flashing at him as she responded. “Hell yeah, kicked their unlucking asses we did.”

Her face fell as one of her squadmates walked up to them and gave her a nod before pointing to their ear in the universal signal for listening. Tanya walked a pace away with a muttered apology and replaced her helmet. Siyel shook her horned head as she looked about the room and Balinski had to agree. The tunnel trawlers were some of the roughest and most uncouth of the CPD officer corps. But they certainly got the job done.

He looked down and noticed that Caesar’s ears were still flattened back. “What is it girl? Something wrong?” She seemed to be staring at the bodies, or what remained of them. Did she smell something off about them? Before he could investigate farther, Tanya rushed back and exclaimed loudly.

“Slake’s cell is under assault!”

Siyel jolted and then gave Balinski a look that told him everything he needed to know. He gestured to Tanya, “How fast can the rest of your squad get ready to move out?” He was sure he knew the answer already though.

She seemed to pause, her external speaker buzzing slightly as she relayed commands over her internal comms. The other three officers present immediately stopped what they were doing and made their way over. Siyel gestured to them, “We need to get back to the interrogation wing. Double time!”

With that she took off at a dead sprint, Balinski followed after her. His cybernetics allowed him to easily keep pace, the Havoc troopers lagging only a little behind in their bulky armour. The thuds of their heavy footsteps echoing through the nearby halls as they rocketed past. The walls were all the same and without his internal map to guide him he would have had no way of knowing the right direction to travel.

After another minute of this pace he noticed Siyel starting to flag slightly, the lean nerivith panting hard as she tried to maintain pace with him. Tanya and the Havoc troopers slowly surpassed them as he slowed to keep pace with her and Caesar. She nodded to him and motioned for him to follow them but he couldn’t leave her alone with active shooters still occupying the building.

He thought of an idea, not a great one. But one that caused both a small flutter in his chest and a stinging dread of what she would do should he impose such a thought. He decided to just do it, better to ask for forgiveness than permission. With a shout of, “Here, I got you!” He sped up right behind her.

She seemed to get the gist of his plan and he saw her eye’s widen as she started to pant out, “Don’t you dare..” But he ignored her as he scooped the tall woman up in his arms and redoubled his pace. Siyel exclaimed in surprise and a little frustration as she was forced to cling to his neck as he thundered down the passage after Tanya and her troopers.

He held her close, acutely aware of the pressure of her arms around his neck. He tried to remain as professional a demeanour as possible as he skidded around a corner and had to rebound off the wall in order to keep up the pace. His foot left an impact crater in the carbcrete, a spiderweb of cracks forming from the damage as he ran on.

Siyel didn’t say a word, he hoped that she wasn’t too mad. They needed to get there quickly and he wasn’t going to leave her on her own. Caesar or no, the station was still crawling with dangerous criminals and he would be damned to the depths of the void if he let her get hurt. He realised that he was grimacing and smoothed out his features again and he was forced once more to take a sharp corner.

This time he managed to avoid damaging the station’s infrastructure but he did hear a small gasp of either shock or surprise from Siyel as he had to readjust his grip on her. He felt her long tail coil around one of his arms as they neared the interrogation wing. It was probably just for stability reasons, he mused. He chanced a quick glance down at her with his biological eye and was surprised to see that she was staring up into his face. What really caught him off guard was the look on the alien woman’s pink face.

She didn’t look angry or afraid, not that had expected a woman like her to be afraid of him. No, instead of that she seemed to be.. riveted? Her violet eyes locked with his own and for that brief instant he felt as though the universe had fallen away from around him. His breath caught in his remaining biological lung and time seemed to slow.

For all the eternity of an instant her eyes remained fixed to his own. Like a moment frozen in time, he felt as though he could stay there forever. But it was only an instant and as he flicked his own gaze away he caught sight of the others turning the corner in front of him. The first one around the corner looked like a human, by the design of the armour at least.

The Havoc trooper stepped around the corner, and then vanished in an explosion of fire and wicked shrapnel as something flashed through the air and impacted them directly on their armoured chestplate. Balinski’s right eye was blinded and he skidded to a stop while turning his back towards the danger.

He grunted in pain as something heavy smashed into the middle of his back and knocked him to one knee. His armour had stopped it though, if he hadn’t turned around... He looked at Siyel, the police commander still clutched close to his chest in his protective stance. Whatever magic she had entranced him with seemed to be gone as she was back to her usual stoic self. She struggled slightly, “Well? Let me down already, you big metal lump!” her tail uncoiled from his arm as he stood.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He did as she asked and smiled slightly as she dusted herself off before straightening her uniform slowly. She turned to him and scolded, “Next time I say leave me, leave me.”

He shook his head and motioned to Caesar, “No can do. You sign my paychecks, can't let anything happen to you.” Before she could respond he turned and strode towards the three standing Havoc troopers.

Tanya and the others were taking cover in the hall adjoining the one their target was still situated in. “What’s the status?” He asked, glancing towards the downed officer. The man was unmoving, the large smoking crater in the center of his chestplate telling Balinski that he likely wasn’t getting back up..

Tanya’s voice was livid as it boomed from her external speakers. “Those motherfuckers just killed Jayne! What do you think the status is?! I can’t contact Daniel or Olive either!” She seemed to be emotionally compromised, and he could well understand the bone deep rage that accompanied losing a battle brother.

He slapped her on the shoulder, her head whipping towards him. The deep blue glow of her helmet’s eyes seemed to bore into him as he nodded towards the ceiling. “I have an idea. Caesar, come over here.” He waited as the cyber-husky zipped over, her eyes betraying her intelligence as she looked from him to Tanya boldly.

Tanya cocked her helmeted head. “The dog? That’s your plan?”

Balinski smiled, the shattered part of his face twisting as he nodded. “Yes, Caesar has neural implants that make her much more capable than one might assume. Right girl?” He asked her. Caesar gave a small growl and nodded her head once. Tanya seemed a bit taken aback, but not being able to see the woman’s face it was hard to tell. “The plan is to put Caesar up into the ceiling. She should be light and small enough to cross over the panels without falling through. She will then go and disable the heavy weapon operator and give you the opening your troopers will need to reach the target.”

The idea sounded insane, but it might just be crazy enough to work. Tanya seemed to think so as well as the woman looked at Caesar and asked, “You really think she can pull it off?”

Balinski looked at his erstwhile companion. Her bright blue eyes full of intelligence as she deliberately lolled her tongue out of her mouth like an idiot. He chuckled, “Yea. I do. Caesar, boost off me.” He told her. She did as he ordered, using his hand as a springboard as he pushed up. She used her cybernetic front legs to simultaneously push off his shoulders as he catapulted her into the roof. She lowered her wedge-shaped head, blasting through the roof tiles like cardboard and landing somewhere out of sight.

She stuck her head out of the hole a moment later and gave him a doggie grin. “Go, now. Take out the man holding the rocket launcher, I will designate him for you. Go!” He made a shooing motion and she disappeared again. He took a deep breath and then moved towards the intersection of the hall. He felt a hand on his shoulder, it was one of the other officers.

“Careful.” Was all the armoured figure said, their voice slightly feminine despite their impressive bulk.

He inched closer and then peaked around the gap. He took only a second to record the hall with his cybernetics and then popped back into cover as a burst of gunfire chased him. The crooks had placed a rudimentary barricade in the middle of the hall. Not enough to stop any serious firepower, but enough to give visual cover and obscure them. He thought hard, an idea forming in his mind.

He used his direct neural link to Caesar and sent, “Caesar, get behind them and give me a ping in thirty seconds. Don’t worry about getting seen, As soon as you send it I want you to move in. Trust me.” He didn't get anything back, but he didn't need to. He trusted the cyberhound to do as he asked. They had been friends and partners for their whole lives, and luck willing they would continue to for many more.

He looked to the others, “I am going to handle it, hold your fire please. We have friendlies downrange.”

Tanya seemed to trust him, but the woman that had given him luck’s wishes was a little less enthused. Regardless, she settled down as Siyel motioned for her to follow his directive. Balinski unslung the GR74F-8 from his back and checked it. It was locked and loaded, he would only be able to get off one or two shots before they returned fire. He would have to make them count.

The seconds reached zero and his overlaid cybernetic vision received an active ping from a marked source ahead. With the knowledge of exactly where each and every thug was he stepped around the corner with the powerful electromagnetic gun raised. He fired a shot that whipped out at nearly eighteen hundred meters per second and ripped through the barrier and the man hunched behind it without slowing. The bright blue line of ionised air along its path showing like a line of blue fire that connected the two as the molten remains of the slug tumbled away into the background.

He saw a flash of grey fur behind the enemy position as Caesar burst from the ceiling right behind them, her body like a seeking missile as she ripped into the other man that was standing with a rocket launcher aimed in his direction. He turned to the next target, he knew there was another man behind the barricade and he fired again in short order as the capacitors of his weapon cycled with loud snaps. This shot was of considerably lower power as the weapon was not fully charged yet so soon after his previous shot, but the tungsten alloy slug still screamed from the barrel at over seven hundred meters per second regardless and tore a fist sized hole out of the slaaveth he was aiming for.

They went spiraling to the ground, their choking noises lost in the screeches of the thug that Caesar had savaged with her titansteel jaws. He yelled to her, “Caesar, heel!” She did so, releasing the man as Balinski shouted to the others. “It’s clear Tanya, friendlies accounted for!”

Presently the sound of heavy booted feet marched up behind him and he gestured to the moaning figure who had shot Jayne. “I don’t think he’s going to make it.” His tone was colder than the look on her steel helm as she nodded and pointed the barrel of her ordinance launcher at the suddenly shocked criminal’s face.

“No.. they won’t” She pulled the trigger, erasing the injured man’s head from existence and satisfying her need for vengeance.

Siyel ran up and Balinski immediately went on higher alert. If bullet’s started flying she didn't have any heavy armour to protect her. Just the lightweight bullet resistant vest she was wearing over the top of her uniform. He wanted to protect her, but he also knew that she would resent him for not doing his job. And the job he had been hired for by her was to take down bad guys, so that’s just what he would have to keep doing until she was no longer in immediate danger.

“The prisoner!” Tanya perked up as Siyel shouted suddenly, the nerivith woman darting towards the interrogation room’s outer doorway. The door itself was laying on the floor, seemingly smashed from its hinges. Something about it struck him as off but he ignored it as he bolted after the madwoman. She was going to get herself killed pulling stunts like this, it wasn’t his job to look after her he knew but a part of him didn't care. He.. respected her. Far too much to let her get hurt doing what she thought was right.

He shook his head as he saw the mutilated corpse of one of the Havoc troopers, he didn't know if it was the Daniel or Olive that Tanya had mentioned. The body looked to have been shot from point-blank range by some manner of high calibre rifle, though not hypersonics. An anti-material rifle perhaps?

Siyel had gone past the gruesome scene and once more Balinski noted that something about it felt off. As if there was something missing that his brain was trying to tell him. Once more he ignored this inkling as he followed Siel into the interrogation room proper. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

As soon as he entered he could smell the scent of spilled blood. The faint iron tang of it filling his nose as he looked at the mess that was left of Slake. It was splashed across the table and the wall behind the chair where the man had sat. The manacles that had once restrained the crime boss were now left broken and dripping gore from the repugnant scene. Siyel herself looked distraught, and he knew it wasn’t sadness for the death of Slake. But instead frustration at the loss of intelligence the man represented in her investigation.

She seemed to deflate as she leaned against the blood-spattered table. “I had him, I was so close.” She hung her horned head, her tail drooping nearly to the floor as she leaned heavily on its surface.

Balinski felt a little awkward, seeing this side of the normally unflappable woman. He cleared his throat and saw her twitch. “It isn't all lost, if we can apprehend the person responsible for this then we can figure out who Slake was afraid of.” He wanted to reach out and comfort her in some way, but he didn't want to jeopardize the tentative relationship they seemed to be developing. So instead he stood ramrod straight as she turned around, Caesar giving him a strange look as she sat by his side neatly.

Siyel took a deep breath and nodded, rubbing one of her pink-skinned horns with an idle hand. “Okay, I want you to go and get me another prisoner. Not one of the rabble, but somebody who knows what they are doing. Can you do that for me, Balinski?” She asked him earnestly. Her hard violet stare penetrated deep into his very soul.

He cracked a small smile. “I thought you would never ask. C’mon Caesar, we have a bad guy to bag.” Siyel whispered something as he walked out of the room but he didn’t catch it. He saw Tanya standing by the corpse of the dead trooper by the door and she motioned for him to approach. He did so confidently, she seemed to have some important insight she wanted to share.

She pointed to the man and asked him, “Look. Anything seem odd to you?”

Balinski had noted that something about the scene seemed off the first time he went by, and now as he cocked his head and looked again he saw it. He gestured to the body and then turned to look at the damaged door to the hall outside. “Yeah, he looks like he was taken by surprise. And shot in the side, not the front. I noticed that the door wasn’t broken down from the outside either.”

Tanya took off her helmet and swore. “Yea, I noticed that too. I also couldn't fail to notice that Daniel isn’t here either. There is no blood or body, and as much as it pains me to say it I think there might have been some foul play here.”

Bainski’s eyes widened. “Wait, you think this was an inside job?” He had a hard time believing that, the Havoc’s were some of the most rigorously tested units in the whole of the CPD. What could possibly have convinced the man to turncoat?

He asked her and she simply shook her head. “I have no idea how they might have broken him. But I wasn't the first to notice he had been acting strange lately. In fact it was Olive that had first pointed it out..” She gestured to the fallen trooper solemnly. “That’s why they agreed to stick around and keep an eye on them while we went out to fight the threat. I am such an idiot for leaving them alone, Olive probably confronted him on it. See how she had her sidearm unclipped, she might have been about to arrest him for treason when Daniel cut her down in cold blood.”

She covered her face with a gauntleted hand, he watched her silently as she stayed like that for another second. She stood and nodded to him, “I want you to take him down for me Balinski. If anyone can get that traitorous bastard the death he deserves then it would be you. Can you do that for me?” he shrugged and then frowned as she shook her head. “I appreciate the honesty, but I am counting on you to get revenge. I… can't. I have lost so many already, I can’t lose another. Please..”

Balinski looked down as he felt something butt into his leg. It was Caesar, the pup whined softly and then looked pointedly at the broken figure slumped against the wall. “I will do it. But please don’t give up, I know the feeling of losing battle brothers. The anger and shame will pass, remember the good things.” he placed a hand on her armoured shoulder. His own black cybernetics mismatched against the dark navy blue of her armoured shoulder.

Caesar hopped a few times and gave a pointed sniff. She was detecting some manner of scent trail, possibly Slake’s as they had taken the man’s body instead of leaving it here to rot. Balinski rushed out into the hall as Caesar started to follow the scent. The remaining two Havoc troopers gave him a nod as he exited the interrogation rooms. “Stay with Tanya and Siyel. I am going after them.”

The one on the right nodded their armoured helmet. “Yes sir!”

And then he was gone. Running after the trail that Caesar was following.

Continued In E2:P5