“Go! Go! Go!” Abroht screeches as he blindly launches himself into the new shuttle right after the Thakmaw henchman dragging the tall dino hostage with ‘em.
“No you don’t!” Simone shouts as she dashes around the shielding shuttle and straight through the Mikks still fresh in their discombobulations.
Wrenching a rifle from the closest combatant and bashing their cranium just hard enough to throw them to the ground. Seeing the shuttle door seal and begin to lift, Simone takes aim trying to fire at the launching stuttle’s thrusters. Peppering direct hits, it becomes immediately clear it will not be nearly enough to take the thing down in time. So the Terran backpedals into the original shuttle and practically throws herself into the pilot’s seat.
Taking liftoff herself, she hears weapons fire clattering at her from the remaining recovering Mikks. But she gives them no attention as she yanks the craft around in hot pursuit before the target can gain too much of a distance as it flees.
Watching it recklessly swerve in the air as it attempts to decide a path to take, the redhead hammers the thrust towards it. Seemingly taking notice of its pursuer the kidnappers carve a harsh turn into a wall tunnel.
Nearly overshooting it, Simone tilts her shuttle a full forty five degrees and blasts the thrusters at full. She hears a screeching and thump in her craft’s passenger section as she pulls the maneuver.
The bottom of her shuttle scrapes briefly against the tunnel wall as it makes it in. Leveling it out she glances back for a fraction of a second to see a Lizard-monkey sprawling on the window, having been thrown against it via G-forces.
“The fuck are you doing in here!?” the Terran shouts as she focuses on the chase and grips the rifle in her lap.
“Hiding!” the Vorook replies in a panicked squeal.
“Couldn’t have picked a worse place! Buckle up!” Simone orders as she behind to weave around the thankfully light traffic within this tunnel system, matching the speed of the one’s she hunts.
Struggling against the turns and jostling, Sonla claws her way to the co-pilot seat and begins to strap herself in.
“Not up here!” Simone says in frustration, not liking that the only weapon in the shuttle was now in arms reach of both of the inhabitants.
“Best place! Best protection with the best view!” Sonla defends herself in a chuckle, completely disregarding the demand.
Having no way to deal with the questionable passenger and focus on the perilous polioting, Simone just lets out a frustrated sigh as she banks around a gravual rounded turn.
“Try anything and it’ll be the last thing you- shit!” she starts to say before dropping her craft in a gut-lifting maneuver as by the skin of her teeth misses an incoming freight vehicle lost control over something that the kidnappers pulled.
Sparking along the floor she pulls the shuttle back upward and tilts to avoid another damaged vehicle listing in recovery.
“We’re gonna die…” Sonla utters as the Terran reorientates the craft and slams the thrusters at max, “But you fly really good!” she encourages as her old boss’s shuttle comes back into view.
“I had a brief stint in illegal racing.” the redhead informs as she gets at a higher elevation.
“Really!?” Sonla inquires in awe, “You win a lot?”
“Not even once!” Simone replies before swerving after the kidnappers’ craft as it does another hasty turn into a narrower travel-tunnel clearly signed ‘do not enter’ and ‘under construction’.
At least traffic will be far less of an issue. However the sight of a Mikk manually aiming a rifle out of the forward shuttle’s side window certainly was.
“Get down!” the Terran directs before the her craft’s frontal viewport begins to crack from a multitude of impacts.
Having no real room in this passageway to maneuver as shots spay at them, Simone decides to gun for the opposing rear corner of the shuttle ahead.
In a successful thunderous jolt, the kidnappers' craft overcompensates as the thrusters attempt to keep it going straight. While the Mikk still hangs partially out, the craft impacts and grinds along the wall for only a fraction of a second, but at their speed it's more than long enough to leave a long streak of a new Mikk-toned paint job along the wall and craft.
After the shuttle recovers, whatever remains of the reduced gunman is forced out to clatter among lower exposed scaffolding.
“Ew…” Sonla comments seeing the gore still attached to the craft in front of them.
Tempted to hit them again, but also not wanting to risk the life of the Z’ah’tuck aboard, Simone begins to consider other ways to bring the other craft down.
“Do you know where they’re supposed to be heading if I wasn’t chasing them?” she asks the Vorook.
“I do not. Only pilots and Abroht knows.” Sonla answers earnestly.
“Alright…. You a good shot?” the redhead redirects the questioning
“Uhhhhh… I’m okay…” Sonla replies nervously, not liking where this was going.
“Good enough.” Simone says as she holds the rifle over. “Just target their main thrusters.” she instructs.
“WHAT!?” Sonla screeches in offended bewilderment, “Fuck that! Don’t want to become paste like tentacle face!” she protests.
“Then what’s your price to risk it?” Simone proposes, “How does ten thousand credits sound?”
The Vorook pauses for a moment in consideration, her claws already twitching at the presented weapon.
“Make it fifteen thousand and you take me to a fancy meat buffet after this! It has to be really fancy!” Sonla counters.
“Deal-” Simone starts to agree before the Vorook speaks up again.
“And you protect me from being arrested!” Sonla added in a squirming demand that bordered on outright begging.
Simone takes a moment to think about that stipulation.
“Fair enough I suppose.” she nods.
“Do you promise upon your hatchlings!?” Sonla presses as she begins to reach for the weapon.
“You bet.” the Terran nods again, allowing the small creature to take the rifle that’s admittedly a bit too large for the Vorook.
Then after an awkward silence filled with quite a bit of tension, Sonla hisses in contemplation as she clicks something on the weapon.
“FOR THE MEAT!” she cheers as she wraps her tail securely around her seat belting and lowers the small side window. Leaning out she immediately opens fire upon the craft ahead in a fully automatic barrage, “HAHAHHAHHHAAHAHA!” She continuously laughs against the blistering wind whipping against her.
Her shots are a fair bit clumsily placed, but through sheer quantity enough find their mark causing the rear of the accosted shuttle to rupture sparks and zaps in chugging explosions of blue electrical flames and guzzling black smoke.
Descending down against their own attempts otherwise the kidnappers begin to bank and lower towards the closest opportunity to flee. Which turns out to be through the incomplete entrance to what looks like the construction site of a business space.
“Did I do good!?” Sonla asks giddily.
“You did great.” Simone confirms as she steers more cautiously towards the open entrance and holds her hand up, “Rifle please.”
Hissing in pride, the Vorook passed along the weapon without protest.
“Thanks. Now you’re gonna take this shuttle and find somewhere to bunker down until the smoke is clear.” Simone informs as she passes over the pilot controls and stands up.
“You don’t need more help?” the Vorook inquires in surprise, scrambling to assume the position of pilot.
“I got things from here. If authorities come, point them in the right direction and say you’re with me.” the redhead instructs.
“Okay! Uhm…. who are you?” the reptilian questions further.
“Simone Thatch. Chief of security for the Cali Princess.” the Terran answers as she checks over the weapon before manually opening the shuttle side door, exposing the floor to the entrance a few feet below her.
Vorook’s dark eyes expanded in… a wide array of thoughts and feelings.
“Oh… okay. My name is Sonla… I’m an…. Uhhhhmmm… well Abroht hired me as an ‘infiltration specialist’. But I’m just really good at breaking into places!”
“Nice to meet ya Sonla. You wouldn’t happen to have more flashbangs?” the Terran asks.
“Oh… yes! Yes-yes! I have one more.” Sonla responds as she hurriedly grabs for one of the many explosives she kept hidden on her person. She freezes for a moment, a look of confusion and uncertainty crossing her face. But eventually she pulls out a spherical device and tosses it over to be swiftly caught.
“Appreciated. Now make yourself scarce.” Simone salutes before jumping down and hitting the ground running.
She hears the shuttle all too happily drift away to get distance from the scene as she enters the site. Inside is a loose maze of incomplete walls, scaffolding and supportive columns. Thankfully no workers seem to be here to get caught in the conflict.
The landing location of the kidnappers is child’s play to find, having landed in the middle of a main lobby. However Simone notices that it’s already abandoned and a nearby doorway’s fogged drapery sheeting is still moving from recent disturbance. Being sure to remain out of sight, the redhead quickly moves from cover to cover with her eyes glancing for any possible place of ambush. By the way the landed craft is oriented, her gut tells her that someone was most likely laying in wait for her to come charging through.
So she gets herself to an optimal angle, pulls out the flashbang and decides to take the risk.
Doing what Terrans do best, she threw the thing high, bounced it off the back wall and before it collided to the ground behind the shuttle it exploded.
Problem.
It wasn’t a flashbang.
Ignited flame-gel blanketed the entire area, and almost immediately two screaming Mikks ran out from their cover in blazing agony. One collapses in frantic rolls to smother the flames in vain while the other grabs a sheet to wrap around themself… only to have the material melt and adhere to their skin…
Seeing the carnage, Simone is quick to run out and merifully pop their heads one after the other to end their needless suffering at her fastest capability. Her own heart was racing from the mutual surprise and she can only hope that Sonla handed the wrong device to her by mistake. At least the hostage isn’t there, otherwise this mess would have been far worse off.
Not being able to recover anything for her own use due to the long-term burning gel, she sighs and makes her way to the door that she suspected the final three individuals used. Through it is a long ‘hallway’ with almost no solid walls with open offices running along both sides.
Making her way in, she keeps her weapon raised and moves through an open wall into an office to at least not get funneled into a narrow unprotected space. At least in the offices there is scaffolding and equipment to utilize as light cover.
“You are quite the fearsome hunter.” a projected Thakmaw voice booms, “Brutal, relentless, unyielding. Either you’ve been hired by Ambassador Zrreak to protect his son, or you’re looking for any excuse to hunt and slaughter.”
The volume and echoing makes it difficult for Simone to triangulate where the exact source of the speaker is, but she presses on to comb through in silence not taking the obvious bait.
“I’ve heard the stories about your people. You crave violence. It’s in your blood to raise conflict in your wake. Your very nature demands it.”
Simone rolls her eyes at the Thakmaw’s dramatic theatrics.
“I suppose your actions here have confirmed as much to me. You injure your prey and simply follow until it drops for you to finish off. Well, Terran… I will not be going down so easily. I don’t care how proficient you are, because now your prey isn’t running… no… it’s turning to face you in the corner you chased it to. And in this corner…” Suddenly the lights black out, freezing Simone in a world of pitch black, “...favors me…”
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Feeling her heart rate pick up, Simone levels herself with slow deliberate breathing.
Lifting her rifle up she checks to see if the optics have a night vision feature. No dice.
The sensation of being completely exposed comes over her, so she pulls her thick hood out from her jacket over her head to feel that little bit more secure.
Her opponent's sight, hearing and smell all outclasses her own in this environment. Perhaps not to a great extent, but certainly enough to make a significant difference. What’s worse is although Thakmaws have powerful lumbering legs, their thick foot patting allows them to be as silent as a breeze if need be.
Slinking even more slowly, Simone ventures on while taking extra care to not ram into anything. However her confidence in doing that successfully is minimal, considering she can’t even see the weapon in her hands.
Funnily enough the ignited gel grenade would have been of some use here for illumination, but then again she would have risked hitting the very individual she was trying to rescue. Her eyes might be able to adjust to the dark, but at best that would require her to avoid this bastard for fifteen to twenty minutes. Not ideal in many scenarios, but perhaps if it comes down to it she can keep them from leaving until authorities arrive. Though playing a disadvantaged game of marco-polo is far from a good plan.
The tip of her shoe touches something solid, thankfully not a Thakmaw but whatever it is rolls and scrapes the floor ever so slightly.
“Shit…” she internally scolds while trying to maintain a leveled head.
Leaning over she grabs at it and feels it out to determine what it is. A piece of mobile equipment? The bulk is knee height with tubes, grips and gauging switches. A cleaning device maybe? Her hands travels along what feels like a main tube until it reaches a levered endpoint.
“Jackpot!” she realizes while also thanking the neglectful construction company.
Fitting the end bit in its usual holster, but upside down she locks the activation in place before cranking up all the switches and engaging the power after a bit of groping around. But as she does so, a blinking puff and flash of blue palma fires diagonally up from the plasma cutter’s nozzle. Although blinding to look at it without eye protection, it casts a blue tint of light over most of the extended area.
Just as Simone processed the ignition she turns to hopefully get to better cover as she resumes her hunt, but instead she comes face-to-face with a blue snarling furless bear-like face of a Thakmaw who was taken by surprise by the sudden eruption of light.
Simone draws her rifle up, but just before she lets loose a tentacle whips around the end and yanks it to the side. Following it up a powerful kick thunders against Simone’s core, sending her back into a structure of scaffolding, causing it to buckle and shift as she grabs onto it to prevent falling over.
With the rifle in his arm whips, the Thakmaw takes aim at the Terran with a smug flick of his pointed ears.
“Pity. I was hoping for a more interesting fight.” he comments before firing three rapid shots, impacting the Terran’s chest on target.
Simone staggers forward with her eyes wide open, before harshly collapsing down to the ground motionless.
The victorious foe snarled in a scoff as he set the rifle against his shoulder and turned to a far corner of the space.
“Terran’s taken care of, Tell our recovery team we are in the clear for extraction.” he says before starting to walk that direction.
“Good work!” Abroht squawks back as he peeks out of his hiding place where he held their hostage at gunpoint to prevent him from getting any ideas.
“Hope the heftier shares is worth all this nonsen-HURK!!!” The Thakmaw begins to respond before his neck is wrapped from behind by the arms of a royally pissed off redhead.
“MY FIANCE JUST GOT ME THIS JACKET YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” the Terran bellowed in rage as she kicked a leg around and up at the rifle, sending it up into the air.
Fortunately for the Thakmaw, his neck is so thick and shallow that even the impressively strong Terran can’t seal away air. Unfortunately for him, the Terran proves very adept at using her body weight to drag him to the ground where Thakmaws don’t excel.
Releasing one of her arms Simone starts hammering a first into the side of the enemies cranium over and over aiming for the softer spot between his ears and thick brow bone. Thoroughly discombobulating her foe she separates and crawls to her feet in a sprint towards where the rifle flung towards. But a lucky whip catches her ankle, tripping her up back to the floor.
“How by the grace of the stars are you still alive!?” the dazed Thakmaw demands in a roar.
“By the power of a stupidly rich lesbian, that’s how!” Simone roars back as she tugs against the whip in an attempt to pull free, but the Thakmaw manages to recover enough to begin to stand and yank the Terran along the floor underneath him.
“What does that even mean!?” he bellows as he looks at the redhead’s chest wounds, seeing that the jacket was scuffed up bad, but the damage somehow had not penetrated to the wearer. Growling in frustration he lifts a leg to stomp down directly on the Terran’s face. Knowing that crushing the head would be more than sufficient to finish this stubborn ape off.
Nearly meeting her demise, Simone barely manages to twist out of the way of the cascading limb. Then with her free leg she sweeps against the single supporting limb when the Thakmaw attempts to do it again.
Crashing down to his side the Thakmaw is barely able to grunt before his face experiences several pummeling of a Terran’s sole. Blood gushes out of his nose large wet nose at the third strike and he is sent into a brief black out of consciousness. It’s long enough for the redhead to finally pull free and make another dash for the rifle. Only she doesn’t spot where it landed fast enough before her opponent staggers back up to charge her from behind.
Just before she is set upon again, Simone acts on reflex. She reaches over and yanks the end of the plasma cutter free and swipes it against the Thakmaw’s face as she dodges to the side.
With only the briefest of contact, Thakmaw skin blisters and bubbles back while flesh reveals bone that chars into a blackened scorched mess. Eyes burn and collapse as the liquid within is turned to steam and a whole ear disappears into ash as the blue might travels upward.
He doesn't scream as he hits the floor, he just holds his mouth open in shock as his mutilated face simmers and releases steam.
Still holding the cutter, Simone can’t help but feel terrible for what just happened. Despite the fact that he’s been trying to kill her, the visage of what he was going through tugs at her mercy-strings. Almost reacting to help him, she ultimately decides against it. There was still one armed enemy around, and very likely more inbound soon.
Placing the cutter end back into position she gets low. Searching around the redhead finally finds the rifle much further than she initially suspected it to have traveled.
“Ted?” the Kreeka voices out for his comrade in terror once the silence gets to him, “Did you get them? Ted?”
Simone moves in with quick stealth, seeing that the hiding place is just behind a small lifter vehicle. The Kreeka sits across from the glaring Z’ah’tuck, aiming a pulse pistol at the hostage's face with trembling graspers.
By the time he notices the Terran bolting at him he’s far too late to stop her from grabbing his pistol and cracking the side of his beaked skull with it, sending him crumpling to the floor unconscious.
The ambassador’s son tilts his head with a readable expression of being rather impressed, his mane of feathers even flick in a display that suggests he’s also rather… Well, he was deeply impressed.
“Hey. Simone Thatch, Princess Chakalata’s fiance and chief of security. Let me get that for ya.” She introduces as she reaches for the large dino’s muzzle to unstrap a belt that had been wrapped around his maw at some point in the chase.
Releasing a relieved hiss while heartily snapping his naturally armored face.
“You have my thanks, Terran. So my father didn’t hire you to overwatch my night out? Then… why?” he asks as the redhead pulls out a keycard from the Kreeka’s pocket and maneuvers around him to unlock his cuffs.
“You weren’t the only horny fuck who had their night disturbed by these assholes. Also, after the jumping onto the shuttle… I was kinda committed at that point.” Simone replies as the dino’s limbs are set free. Patting his shoulder she holds the pulse pistol up to him, “We might have more company, so we should get a move on.”
The massive dino accepts the comparably puny pistol and nod towards the bird-brain on the floor.
“What of him? My father and I are so very curious if there’s any involvement from our rivals.” he says.
“You’re free to take him. But we gotta-” the redhead starts to urge before sounds begin to erupt in the burning lobby. There’s a few shots of various weapons fire, but for the most part there’s a wild torrent of ferocious roars mixing with multi-species screams.
“The fuck…” Simone utters as she starts to move, with the ambassador’s son trailing behind her.
“That would be my wife…” he hisses in a knowing chuckle.
Hurrying back down the central hallway and towards the door, the two witness the sight of absolute carnage.
Seven Z’ah’Tuck female’s were in brutal melee with numerous Carvvv, a Dillo and a Borkon. The Carvvv didn’t have any hope of survival in claw-to-claw combat, but any who attempts to use a pulse weapon gets immediately sniped by a Cali perched in the side of a hovering shuttle by the open office entrance.
The Dillo and Borkon worked together with their superior strength and armor to fend off dinos attempting shredding leaps. One of the females is skewered through her gut from the Brokon’s horn and thrown aside, causing another female to move to defensive position over the wounded while the other continue the fight. Simone lifts her rifle, but a mighty clawed hand pushes it back down.
“You’ve done your part, Simone Thatch. It’s time for me to regain my honor. This is our way.” the ambassador’s son insists.
Giving him a hesitant nod, Simone skims around the lobby royale to head towards the entrance in a sprint.
Eyeing the Borkon and Dillo, the nine foot tall Z’ah’Tuck looks down at the tiny but powerful pistol in his grasp, before throwing it to the ground as if it’s a useless twig. Then snapping his muzzle to make a hollow echo sound he charges first for the Borkon.
The centaur rhino-like Deathworlder turns in horror just fast enough to claws clasp down on either side of their face, but their vision does not last long enough to view the flesh being carved off their skull as the Alpha Z’ah’Tuck drags his arms back to him. The Dillo charges to defend his face-gored ally, but as they smash their armored head fringe into the beast with enough force to shatter a usual Z’ah’Tuck’s hollow bones into fragments… they find the hard way that the larger variant’s bones are far denser… and his bite force is exponentially higher. Biting down on the armored fringe, the massive dino crunched through the thick plate and twisted the Dillo to the ground. His prey exposed, he digs his long foot talons into the Dillo’s gut and wraps his jaws around their thick venting neck. Clasping his teeth down with immense strength he pulls and tears free the poor bastard’s bloody esophagus and surrounding muscle.
Spitting it out he drags his foot to completely disembowel his already near-death enemy.
Turning he saw that his wife and two other females were in the process of dragging down the Borkon, carving them to death.
Looking around he saw that no more opponents stood alive.
“I am Vrreak! Son of Zrreak! I bear the shame of defeat, but reclaim my honor as I stand over my dead and defeated enemies!” he roars, spraying blood from his thundering maw.
The other Z’ah’Tucks, injured or not roar wordlessly in prideful response.
In turn, Vrreak raises his head into the air in his own primal cry of victory.
Meanwhile, Chak directs the shuttle she rides on to fully land. As it does so she is swept into the welcoming arms of her Terran.
“Simone! What were you thinking… jumping onto that shuttle like that!?” she scolds in a whispered laugh.
“I asked myself the same thing. You alright?” Simone replies as she starts checking over the Princess.
“Perfectly fin- Oh no… your jacket…” Chak says as her lowers begin to prod the damage, “Well I’m glad it did its job, and that there’s more waiting for you.” she adds.
“Ah, right. Uhm, I’m fine but I need an emergency medkit right now.” Simone insists with sudden urgency.
“Oh, right, some of the Z’ah’Tuck were hurt.” Chak agrees as she opens a compartment and pulls out a kit.
“You can tend to that. I just need one thing from it.” Simone clarifies.
-
Whimpering in shocked gasps, Ted hasn’t moved an inch from his defeated position on the floor.
Simone kneels down next to him.
“Hey Ted, I’m not here to hurt’cha. I got something that can help you, alright? I just need you to be cool for a moment. Tap a whip on the floor if you understand.” she says.
It takes a moment, as the Thakmaw processes the Terran’s words. Though not in much position to argue, he taps a whip to the floor.
“Alright. This should help with the pain and keep you alive until responders get here.” Simone informs as she brings a metal nozzle canister to the man’s large gruesomely burned face. From it, a blue foam expands out and spreads into every nook and cranny of the Thakmaws face. Despite an initial jostle of surprise, true to the redhead’s words the severe pain numbs away to a tolerable level.
“Don’t worry, you may not fully recover and will probably go to a prison for a long time, but you’ll live. Even convinced the ambassador’s son to spare your life. Luckily he’s in a good mood at the moment.” Simone informs as she pats Ted’s shoulder and stands. But before she can walk too far away she hears him release a single guttural whimper of a word.
“Why…?”
Stopping, the Terran looks back with a shrug.
“Cuz I want to. I’ve done some fucked up things. I once forced a rich Truba to chug enough hot sauce to break several Central cruelty laws. But she was eating newborn children alive so… no regrets there. And I butchered an entire cell of traffickers selling said children, without mercy, again no regrets. But I don’t know if you're the same caliber of monster as them… still wouldn't cry over your grave, but… some people have to live to face the consequences of their actions, and maybe given another chance to make a positive change afterwards. Not holding my breath in your case but… it’s up to you how you live the rest of your life. I hope the chance I’ve given will mean something. Good luck, Ted.” she explains before leaving the Thakmaw in his prone position to stew on that.
Meeting back up with the ambassador’s son, first responders have finally arrived on the scene. They began securing the perimeter, giving medical and gathering statements.
“Simone.” the large dino urges her over after an officer parts from him, “I do appreciate your valor and efforts. They’ve saved more than just my life and reputation. But I must ask that you minimize your involvement in any questioning. You saw me get kidnapped and gave a ride to my wife and her harem. If some… rivals came to know that I didn’t save myself it would cause my father and family… grave problems. But rest assured. My father will know the full truth of what transpired, I swear by my honor.”
Simone nods.
“Yeah I get it. I’ll update the Princess.” she says, “Catch ya later, big guy.”
“She has already been informed.” he nodded in farewell.
The redhead made her way to her Cali casually talking to a blood-coated female being worked on by medical personnel.
“Excuse me! Miss.Thatch?” A Tromple officer intercepted, “Apologies to bother you with this… but we have a Vorook in our custody claiming that she works directly for you and the Princess. Is that really true?” he inquires, seeming to already expect an answer in the negative.
Simone bit at her cheek for a moment.
“No, yeah. She’s with us. Recent hire. Things got messy but she has nothing to do with all this nonsense.” she lies.
“Oh?” both the Tromple and Princess say in unison as the Cali overhears the conversation.
The Tromple gazes over the Princess quizzically.
“Of course, yes, she’s a lovely lady. It has been a poor first job experience for her I must admit, but she’s certainly free to resume her position if she desires.” Chak saves, putting her trust in Simone with this.
“I… see… Very well, we’ll release her and escort her to your shuttle after we are finished with questions.
“Sounds good to me.” Simone agrees.
-
After managing to peel away from the scene, the three women share an awkward flight back towards the hotel.
“So… I understand how things went down now, and will uphold the agreement Simone made with you Sonla… but Simone… What further work do you have for her?” Chak inquires.
Simone leans back, stretching her arms out.
“I think she will be very helpful with a certain impending… presidential business.”