“Found her,” Zephyr says. She has crawled further into the egg-sack shaped dwelling than she’d prefer. “There are three of them with her.”
“I like those odds,” Maxim says, lifting his armored wristcomm. “Ready?”
“Let’s do this,” his companion says, her armored faceplate hiding her sly grin.
Maxim taps a control on his wristcomm, and a second later they hear the muffled whump of the charges he has planted near the other chamber. Without a word, he rushes forward after Zephyr.
Pushing her way along the web material into the chamber, Zephyr immediately levels her pulse rifle at the nearest Xelurian kidnapper and opens fire. Red hot plasma rounds burn through the hulking creature’s body. “One down,” she says. The multi-limbed creature twitches as it hits the ground.
“Two,” Maxim adds stepping over the body of a smaller—possibly juvenile— Xelurian, its body similarly smoking. He kicks a large and mean-looking rifle away from the corpse.
The third and final kidnapper is pressed against the back wall of the round chamber, the much smaller Len-Lu held in one of its massive clawed hands, bound tightly in webbing. “Stop!” it screams. In its free hand, it is carrying a large pistol.
Both ex-Peacekeepers deactivate their armor, retracting their face-shields, and step towards the remaining kidnapper. “You have one chance,” Zephyr says. “Let the Brailack go, and we’ll let you live.”
“How did you—”
“We’re not here to talk,” Zephyr interrupts. “Your friends, the ones who went to the exchange location, they’re dead. We killed them. We’ll kill you too.”
“You—you’re Peacekeepers!” the kidnapper stammers.
“Ex-Peacekeepers,” Maxim corrects.
Zephyr tuts without bothering to take her eyes from the kidnapper. “Choose. Now.”
From somewhere inside the structure, she can hear roaring and the scuttling of many, many legs. The Xelurian tosses its hostage toward Maxim. Len-Lu is bound from her neck down to her toes in sticky webbing, looking like a ridiculously large maggot with a green face. Maxim catches her as gently as he can and tucks her under one arm. “Time to go.” He looks back the way they came. “Gabe,” he says into his wristcomm, “what’s going on?”
* * *
Wil stirs. “What..?”
“I had to give you a mild sedative, Captain,” Gabe explains. “I apologize. You appeared to be in the middle of a panic attack. Your armor was very cooperative.”
Standing up, Wil nods. “Thanks, pal. I’m glad you’ve got my back.” He looks around. “Where are the others?”
“I have your back too,” Wil’s armor chimes in. He ignores it.
“They departed seven centocks ago,” Gabe says.
Wil swears. “Okay, no sense trying to catch up now—we’d likely cause more trouble than it’d be worth.”
Gabe nods. “I concur. I have bypassed the tower’s control system so that other residents may not summon the lift. However, that will likely draw attention eventually.”
“Yeah, hopefully it’s not moving day.” Wil looks down the passage, just as a whump rumbles down its length, causing the small spider creatures to scatter. “Gross.” He glances back at Gabe just as the sound of pulse-rifle fire echoes down the passage. “Get ready.”
Gabe’s eyes turn red, and each forearm starts to transform. His hands morph back into his arms as twin pulse-blaster barrels rise from his forearms and slide forward to where his hands had been. “The trapped Xelurians will clear the rubble shortly.”
Wil whistles appreciatively at Gabe’s modifications. He nods towards a section of wall. “There anything on the other side of that?”
“Besides the outside? No.”
Wil turns to the webbing-turned-construction material, and fires. The material resists his pulse-rifle fire.
“As hard as Fendurrium, remember?” the bot says, then turns and opens fire with his much more powerful cannons. At first, the structure seems to be resisting the weapons fire, just as it had with Wil’s rifle—but slowly cracks appear, and a slight reddish glow begins to form. A few blasts later the material loses all integrity and crumbles, falling to the ground outside with a loud crash.
Wil leans out the hole. “Well, that’ll attract attention.” He reaches behind him to the armored pack hidden under his brown leather duster. His hand emerges with what looks like a suction cup, which he affixes to the outside of the structure just beyond the hole Gabe has made.
From down the corridor, there’s a low rumble, followed by lots of roaring. Gabe turns to Wil. “The other five Xelurians have escaped the chamber they were trapped in.”
Over the comms Maxim asks, “Gabe, what’s going on?”
“The spider-bears you trapped are free and on their way,” Wil says. “Gotta find a different exit.” He leans out the hole again. “There a window you can jump out of?”
Maxim groans at the news, then replies, “Actually, yes.”
“Okay, I’ve got a line secured to the building. I can swing out and catch one of you.”
“Uh, there are two of us.” Some muffled noise comes over the comm. “Technically three,” Zephyr adds.
“I can catch Zephyr. My thrusters can support her weight. The captain’s repelling line is rated sufficiently to support both himself and Maxim.”
Wil turns to Gabe. “Wait. You can fly?”