Blade. Scrapper. Part 6.

Another – stronger – nauseating wave sent her stumbling to her knees. Grasping at her helmet, the woman took a few breaths before hoisting Lindon onto her back again to get out of whatever lair they got into.

Fortunately, when she chose the tunnel the creature did not crawl into, no one followed.

Pushing through the dizziness and weakness, slowly washing over her, Serena walked for some time, making distance between them and whatever the cave dwellers were. For a bit it seemed like there was no end to the tunnel she took, but then, suddenly, it parted and Serena stepped into a much bigger cavern than before. Something caught her eye, and she slowly stepped forward, tensing up.

As soon as she approached the edge of a small cliff, she saw piles upon piles of bodies.

Among them were some of the smaller cave creatures, but when Serena descended the slope to this giant underground cemetery, the animals scattered, spooked by someone alive appearing among their feeding grounds.

The sight was horrid, filling Serena with a sense of dread. She tried not to think of the putrid air that couldn’t reach her nostrils through the helmet.

Serena looked at the piles and felt her breath becoming pained and shallow. She was shocked, without a doubt, but knew she would need to pass through this cavern.

Forcing herself to walk on, she couldn’t help but look at the bodies of children that weren’t even yet assigned their armour pins. Haphazardly thrown, the piles consisted, without a doubt, of children – not older than 14. Boys, girls, most of them clothed in typical Academy attire, they lay there – rotting, bloated and pale blue.

They were barely starting to learn the ways of war – too young to carry anything, except the shorter, kids’ versions of Veluthian blades. If at least one such weapon could be found among these corpses, then Serena would have means of identifying the group that perished.

Serena felt a shudder running down her spine and suddenly remembered that she was carrying Lindon. Swallowing a heavy lump in her throat, she saw a narrow path between the piles and headed through it, trying hard not to look at the faces of children that will never return home. But, however she tried, it was impossible not to.

Stepping over a mutilated boy, she noticed a few bodies stripped of their attire. Stopping for a moment, Serena studied the cuts that ran on their bodies. Someone deliberately dissected them, taking out organs and samples – only to drop the corpses in this cavern.

Passing a few more piles, she saw a wide space cleared of bodies, but when she approached the corner of this cavern, she saw neat rows of respectfully placed corpses. All of those were covered in body bags, and Serena walked over to take a look.

She counted almost three dozen body bags, and each of those had a label on the chest of the body inside. Name, rank, platoon.

The woman took a moment, looking at the Company Logo above those and understood exactly what was happening here.

Serena glanced aside and saw a passage leading out. Carrying Lindon there, she lay him down and returned to the corpses of Veluthian children. She needed to remember at least some faces.

She looked at those, who still had some semblance of their features being recognisable, and hoped this would be enough to identify these students to bring some solace to their families. She knew how little this meant, but they did, in fact, fight for their lives – some bodies exhibited signs of a struggle and others were shot several times at different angles, as if the children were moving when the shots were made. Serena even checked those who were shot down and noted that none of those hit the backs.

But that didn’t make her feel any better.

These children fought soldiers, though they were young, barely armed, unarmoured, overpowered…

Chapter 6. Scum

Serena walked on, feeling her head and heart hollowed out by the sights she saw back in the graveyard of a cavern. A few hours had passed, and she moved on only because she knew – Lindon needed aid as soon as possible.

Finally, she ascended a slope and noticed the ceiling of the cave give way to dim rays of light, bursting through the cracks and holes. Feeling her face already covered in sweat, she risked to take her helmet off and took a deep breath, feeling the chilly air inside the cavern surrounding her. Wiping her face, she lowered Lindon to check on him and noted no difference in his condition – he was still unconscious, though alive and breathing.

She took a short break, feeling strained and disoriented, but forced herself to get up again and raise Lindon on her back once more.

Her head swayed, adding to the difficulty of her trudging through the endless caves that surrounded her. She could have made a wrong turn at any time – the exit was nowhere to be seen.

Approaching the corner of yet another tunnel, she didn’t even look out to get an idea where it was leading.

Something hit her in the temple, throwing to the ground, and she tumbled, unsheathing her blades, but as soon as she tried to stand up, a few more blows descended on her, making her fall again.

«And don’t get up, you Veluthian scum!» a man spit at her.

One of the men rolled her over face-down, cuffing her wrists behind her back and when they were standing up, they deliberately stepped onto her lower back, making her growl from pain.

«Now which of you two did I shoot down from the sky?» a man approached.

Serena looked up at him, seeing a harsh, tanned man not older than thirty. He was muscular, with broad shoulders, and carried a sniper rifle. She immediately understood that it was his shot that sent her tumbling down.

«Matters not, you Veluthian whore.» the sniper cackled.

The men around him joined in, filling the tunnel with echoes of their laughter.

Someone grabbed her legs and before she could even kick, she was dragged out into a cavern than was brightly lit by the sun beaming through the cracks above. Serena saw two others drag Lindon in.

«Well, well, well…» the sniper smirked, when Serena could look at him again, gritting her teeth. «What should we do with the two of you?»

He glanced at Lindon and nodded to his men.

Serena saw them approaching the Veluthian and realised what was about to happen. She jolted to Lindon, shielding him with her body and receiving a couple of hits to her head that sent her into another dizzying wave.

«Why not just shoot them?» one of the soldiers asked, when they stepped away, cackling.

«Because we need information, you dim-wit!» the sniper growled at him.

«I know how to make any woman talk all kinds of things!» the youngest of the bunch cackled.

«Yeah, all we need is to get that armour off her body.» the other soldier joined in the laughter.

Serena tried hard to calm her breathing and force down the nauseating wave that was about to throw her into the darkness. Feeling her head pounding, she felt the ringing in her ears subsiding. Though, she could still hear distant thumping – so faint that it was barely noticeable.

«Lieutenant Wilder…» one of the soldiers addressed the sniper.

«What?» he replied, watching Serena closely.

«We only need one of them. The guy’s as good as dead.»

The sniper smirked, seeing Serena squinting with anger.

The woman suddenly closed her eyes and a chuckle escaped her throat, when she finally understood that the rhythmic, barely noticeable thumps were, in fact, footsteps she knew too well.

Lieutenant Wilder kicked her in the face, throwing her to the ground once again:

«You find this funny, Veluthian whore?»

Serena burst out laughing:

«Yes. This is hilarious!» she laughed, pushing herself up and shielding Lindon with her body again. «Because you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. You’ll have just about half a second to regret you’ve hit me even once.»

Before he kicked her again, he was thrown aside by an invisible force, making his teammates nervously raise their guns, aiming all around. Lieutenant Wilder crashed into the cave wall and crumpled to the ground like a ragdoll, no longer moving.

Serena continued laughing, watching how the soldiers began falling – either by a hardy punch, delivered by the invisible cyborg, or a swift blow made by Wolfin’s trusty blade.

«Leave the youngest alive!» Serena chuckled, slowly rising to her feet. «I’d like to interrogate the fucker.»

The youngest of the regiment whipped to her, aiming his gun, but it was suddenly thrown out of his grasp to the ground, and, finally, Wolfin appeared right in front of the young man, flinching to him and scaring him so much that the soldier tumbled backwards.

Serena felt Hunter approaching her and her cuffs screeched, being torn open. When the man deactivated his invisibility device, he caught her in his embrace as she swayed. Pressed against his chest, Serena felt her legs weakening.

«Shit…» she whispered. «Am I glad to see you…»

Hunter sighed heavily and caressed her hair.

«Are you alright?» the man asked quietly. «Did they beat you hard?»

«A Terran’s kick is nothing.» Serena raised her eyes and met his concerned gaze. «I’m more hurt from the tumble I had. And after the scuffle I’ve had with the encountered cave dwellers…»

She decided not to tell him about the underground cemetery she had seen.

Hunter glanced at Lindon:

«He caught you, didn’t he?»

«Yes. He took the brunt of it. We lost most of our stims during our tumble. I had only one and I gave it to him.»

Wolfin dragged the young man to them, shooting daggers with his eyes. Throwing the crying man onto the ground right at their feet, he caught Serena’s chin, studying her bruises.

«Give me permission to interrogate him as I see fit, Captain?» Wolfin asked, keeping the soldier in place with his boot on the Terran’s chest.

«First… I need…» Serena slowly shook her head, feeling another wave of dizziness hitting her. «Lindon needs stims.»

Wolfin took two syringes off his belt and gave her a shot of some painkillers into her neck:

«You too, Scorpi.» he said, handing her the second one. «And we have more if needed.»

Hunter cautiously freed her from his embrace and helped her stay up, even though she was still swaying.

«You wouldn’t happen to have a medical scanner with you?» Serena stepped to Lindon, kneeling next to him and checking his pulse, before administering him a shot.

Hunter handed her one from his backpack and kneeled next to the captured soldier, squinting.

«Please! I had nothing to do with her being beaten!» the young man cried out.

The cyborg tilted his head and caught his chin, studying his face:

«Ricks?» he breathed out.

The sound of his name made the young man freeze in panic for a second, but then he recognized the face before him and his eyes grew wide:

«Hunter?» the guy lowered his gaze at the metal cybernetic body of the Terran he knew from a very long time ago.

«Fuck, Ricks! How the fuck are you here? And why?» Hunter let go of his face.

The soldier frantically looked around, glancing to Wolfin with his hands in fists and boot still pressing him to the ground, and Serena, who was more interested in the unconscious man beside her.

«Classified…» Ricks replied shakily. «We came here on a classified mission. You don’t have clearance.»

Hunter gritted his teeth and raised his cybernetic hand, showing it to the man:

«Now, look here… Since you and I were acquaintances before, I am giving you a choice of a lifetime. You either talk on your own, or I can use this new cybernetic arm of mine to cause you pain beyond what you’ve caused to the woman I love while she was with you guys.»

Ricks threw a panicked glance at Serena.

«And trust me…» Wolfin leaned on his leg a little bit harder, pressing the man down. «You don’t want me joining in, as that is my named daughter.»

«Please! I have nothing to do with…»

«Talk, private.» Serena stood and stepped up. «Because I’m even worse than they are when it comes to interrogations. Either talk… or you’ll start losing limbs. And we’ll take turns causing you pain, until your little act fades and your true self comes out.»

«I never hit you! Not once!»

Serena lowered to him, baring her teeth:

«Should I tell them what you kept suggesting instead?»

Ricks looked at Hunter and Wolfin and noticed their eyes squinting in anger.

«Now that… in itself deserves a couple of broken bones.» Hunter said, gritting his teeth and placing his hand on the man’s kneecap, slowly tightening his grip and smiling maliciously at the scream that the soldier let out.

Chapter 7. Classified

Lindon opened his eyes and saw Serena sitting next to him, looking angrily in front of her. The man moved slightly and felt his chest bursting with pain, making him cough out a little blood. Serena immediately kneeled and helped him roll to his side to cough out some more blood, spitting it to the ground.

It took him a couple of long moments to begin hearing through the ringing in his ears something resembling pained screams.

«Serena…» he reached out to the woman, grasping weakly onto her arm.

«Easy, Lindon.» she replied, touching his face and looking into his eyes. «You’ve done something… stupid, when breaking my fall.»

«Stupid?» he smirked. «Or heroic?»

Serena chuckled, leaning in and planting a kiss to his bloodied lips:

«Both, Lindon. Thank you.» she sighed. «I’m just happy you’re alive, honestly.»

«Ah… hence the kiss.» the man smiled.

Serena squinted teasingly and leaned back:

«Don’t dare ask for more.»

«Not in this state, my lady…» he moved again, trying to push himself up, and bared his teeth in pain. «Where are we?»

«In a cave under the surface.»

«Ah… explains the injuries I’m feeling.» Lindon froze in surprize for a few long moments, seeing Wolfin and Hunter interrogating a soldier at the far wall. «What the fuck happened?»

«Uh… Well, a lot happened, my dear Lindon. As I came to, we were stranded in a deep cave. Neither my jetpack, nor yours were operational, so I had to carry you on my back out of there. Then we were surrounded by some cave dwellers that tried to eat us as a snack. I killed the creatures, all the while trying not to let them drag your pretty ass away. And later I had to carry you on my back again for… I don’t even know how long, before we were attacked by a regiment of Terran soldiers.»

«Terran soldiers? The fuck are they doing here?»

«That’s what the guys are trying to find out.» Serena tilted her head. «How are you feeling?»

«I’ll live.» Lindon felt his strength failing and slowly lowered himself back onto the ground. «But I definitely need a bit of rest.»

The woman unclasped a syringe and administered him some stimulants.

«To tell you the truth, I was afraid I’d get you back to the ship all mangled, as we lost all our meds during the fall…» she said.

Lindon met her gaze, surprized to hear that.

«We did?» he exhaled.

«I had one and had to give it to you, even though I’m quite beaten myself… If it weren’t for Hunter and Wolfin coming to my aid in a nick of time, I’d be in a… let’s say, in a worse condition.»

Lindon frowned:

«What?»

«The Terran soldiers… they caught me off-guard, because I didn’t hear them approaching from the ringing in my ears. They beat me a bit. And tried to beat your unconscious body, so I had to shield you as well, because I was already too weak and hurt to fight back. Plus, they cuffed my hands behind my back, so… that was fun.»

«Are you alright?»

«Better than you, that’s for sure.» Serena smirked, looking back at the interrogation. «But we’re both on their meds now. Let’s hope we won’t need more while we’ll be getting back.»

«If the Terran soldiers were here, that means they must have camp somewhere near…»

«My priority right now is getting you back to the ship. You definitely need medical attention. Everything else can wait.»

The woman felt his palm on her hand and looked at him again.

«Serena…» Lindon slowly shook his head. «This is more important than my well-being. We have to move quick, because people in camp might move when they won’t have their comrades return. You can contact Lyssa and they can pick me up, if…»

«We can’t, Lindon.» Serena gritted her teeth. «Our communication devices aren’t working. We suspect that the Terrans are using some sort of a scrambler. I’m almost certain it was one of those Falana sold to Elijah.»

Lindon fell silent for a few long moments, surprized to hear such news, but then took a cautious breath:

«Then it’s vital we find their camp!»

«We have no clue how many soldiers can be there.» Serena growled. «And if you hadn’t noticed, you and I are not in our best form to enter a scuffle.»

«A couple of broken ribs don’t make me useless, Serena. I can cover you from behind.»

«You’re underestimating our injuries…» Serena gritted her teeth again. «We have more than just a few broken ribs, Lindon…»

She grasped her head and winced, feeling the painful burst of her headache becoming stronger because of the anger she’s been experiencing.

«Serena…» Lindon heard Hunter walking up and glanced at the cyborg, seeing him covered in blood.

The man kneeled next to Serena and cupped her cheek, forcing her to open her eyes and concentrate her sight on his face.

«What?» she breathed out, looking even worse than she was even a few minutes ago.

«We found out where their camp is.» Hunter studied her face with a frown. «Are you alright?»

«No, I’m not. Neither I, nor Lindon are good enough in a fight right now. I can’t risk infiltrating a fucking Terran camp with just the two of you.» Serena growled.

Hunter’s frown grew deeper and he grasped the medical scanner that lay next to Lindon. When he scanned the woman, his eyes grew wide:

«Why didn’t you tell us?!» he exhaled.

«What didn’t she tell you?» Lindon tried hard to pull himself up and sit.

They heard a loud crack and Wolfin spit to the ground. Lindon glanced his way and saw the Veluthian stepping away from the dead man they were interrogating just a minute ago. As Wolfin approached with a heavy gaze, Lindon pointed at the scanner in Hunter’s hands.

The cyborg didn’t fight it when Wolfin grabbed the device from his hands to take a look. A moment later he took a deep breath and said:

«Alright… Listen up.» Wolfin gritted his teeth. «We have thirty Terrans in camp, awaiting their return…»

He gestured to the corpses lying around.

«Wolfin, tell me what’s wrong with Serena!» Lindon growled, finally forcing himself somewhat up.

«I’ll live!» Serena hissed at the Veluthian.

«We can’t wait and we can’t get back to the ship, unless we take care of the scrambler.» Wolfin looked angry. «So we have to get to the Terran encampment first.»

«Wolfin…»

«Shut up, Scorpi. I’m not asking you both to be in the front lines. Hunter and I will take upon the Terrans ourselves. You’ll stay back with Lindon to cover us.»

«I can’t even shoot right now, Wolfin. I won’t risk your lives by taking up a sniper role.» Serena growled. «I’m not seeing clearly.»

Lindon grasped her shoulder and pulled her closer to himself:

«What is wrong with you?»

He suddenly saw a spot of blood in the white of her right eye and frowned.

«I got my skull cracked, Lindon. One more hit to my head and I’ll be out.» the woman bared her teeth. «It didn’t help that those assholes kicked me in the head a couple of times while I was protecting your unconscious ass with my body. So now I’m seeing double and won’t be able to cover Wolfin and Hunter with fire if the need arises. That’s why I wanted to return to the ship, damn you…»

Wolfin shook his head and took another very deep breath:

«Look, the scrambler is interfering with our communication devices, so we can’t call up reinforcements. There’s only thirty Terrans in camp, we can take care of them with Hunter. All you two need to do is stay back and allow us to clear everything out.»

«What else did that asshole say?» Serena forced down her anger, fighting through the pain that hit her again with a heavy nauseating wave.

«They had a number of objectives, including stealing Veluthian scientific data and some tech. And, according to this Ricks guy they’ve killed everyone in our outpost, except for one. He didn’t say which one. But they are holding a Veluthian captive for interrogation.»

«This is a military mission.» Lindon growled. «Do you understand what this means?»

«Terra declared war on the Laithorian Empire.» Serena closed her face with her palm.

To her this was clear long ago, but now there was no more doubt that the Terrans made the biggest mistake of their lives.

Wolfin exchanged glances with Hunter and nodded to the man, then leaned in and offered his hand to Lindon:

«Alright…» he took a breath. «Let’s get you somewhere safe.»

Lindon got up, grimacing from pain, but managed to keep himself standing.

«If we are to stay back…» the Veluthian growled, feeling his body straining. «Get me that sniper rifle.»

Serena seemed to freeze for a few moments, before Hunter cautiously took her hand to help her up. When the woman stood, she glanced at the cyborg with a grateful nod, but said nothing.

Hunter realised she was worried about her being in a much worse condition than she wanted to seem, but didn’t say anything about that. Instead, he stepped to the dead Terran lieutenant and grabbed his rifle and a couple of additional clips for it from the utility belt the dead man carried on himself. Handing the weapon to Lindon, he noticed how the Veluthian winced at the sight of such a rifle.

«Could be better, could be worse…» Lindon sighed, hanging the rifle onto his shoulder.

They headed out, and Serena fell back, stepping slowly, but keeping herself near Hunter. Wolfin kept glancing at Lindon, wondering if he will be able to walk without aid, but for the time being the Veluthian seemed to hang on just fine. Still, Wolfin stepped closer, as he stumbled over a small rock on his path, and Lindon didn’t object, when his friend offered him his shoulder to lean on.

«How did you find us, anyways?» Lindon could barely walk, held up by Wolfin, but still wanted to know everything.

«We heard the scumbags laughing.» Hunter replied, growling.

«Though, your tracks were headed elsewhere, we decided to check out what was the reason for such cackle.» Wolfin sighed. «Good thing too…»

«Yeah, no shit.» Serena winced, grasping her head again.

«Are you alright?» Lindon asked her, looking at her with worry in his eyes.

«I’ll be alright when we get back to the ship and you’ll be treated from all your injuries.» the woman winced.

«Don’t think that you won’t be, Scorpi. I’ll drag your ass by force into the medical bay if I have to.» Wolfin smirked.

Serena didn’t reply, but the way she looked at her mentor was telling.

The rest of the way they walked in silence, and at some point Wolfin gestured to Hunter and the cyborg immediately activated his cloaking device and slipped away. Serena stopped for a split second, forcing down a nauseating wave, and when she stepped forward again, she noticed the frowning gaze Wolfin gave her.

A few moments passed and Hunter appeared again.

«When you step out of the tunnel up ahead, turn left. There’s a covered platform we can leave Lindon and Serena on.» he reported. «As for us…»

Wolfin raised his hand, stopping the man:

«First, we make sure they will be alright. Then we talk about everything else.»

Serena took a deep breath and activated her helmet.

«If we get there cloaked, no one will know we’re there at all. I’ll stay cloaked with Lindon. Don’t worry about us.» she said.

Lindon gritted his teeth and saw her stepping up to help him walk. The Veluthian glanced at Wolfin and nodded, allowing the woman help him further. Activating his helmet, Lindon flicked on the cloaking device. Serena activated hers and the two slowly headed to the platform Hunter mentioned.

«Alright…» Wolfin gritted his teeth. «Then let’s go…»

Hunter nodded and they activated their cloaking devices as well, passing Lindon and Serena and turning right when out of the tunnel.

Serena helped Lindon take a good vantage point on the platform between the rocks, and sat by the wall, feeling her body too strained. Lindon placed the newly obtained rifle and took a look at the Terran encampment that was located deeper in the cavern that opened to their glances from this place.