24 Chapter 24 :
Planetside, EX-5429 III, 3rd of March 2119.
Lidaron, Surrounding Woodlands.
Time, 23:42
Commander Elysium Knight
He ran tangently from the city for a good twenty minutes before setting up a temporary camp. He then took only what he thought was necessary.
He took off his body armour, leaving only his black shock-absorbing fatigues. He took off his military shoes, replacing them with his dark combat boots. He double checked their four shock absorbing pistons each and slamed his foot into the ground. As expected, the shock he felt was a fraction of that recieved by the boot. He bouned on the balls of his feet. Again, as expected, he didn't feel the power he was putting into his feet as it was being assisted and amplified by the boots.
He left his backpack, taking only what was on him. Rifle, pistol, grenades, scanner, GPS tag, and so on. He made sure to attack a torch to both his rifle and pistol's underbarrel and a simple laser dot sight on both. He didn't expect to have to fire long range yet. He also switched off his GPS so the UNSF couldn't track him. He didn't want them knowing his wareabouts yet.
He was about to leave when he realised he would be infiltrating a city. So he returned and took his Anti-grav gloves and bootsers.
He clipped the bootsers to his combat boots. But he didn't activate them yet.
And so he set off at a quick run. It took him a quater of an hour to reach the city, which was shorter than he expected. He resolved to move his camp farther away when he returned.
The first thing he saw was opportunity. The streets were dark and unlit, and there was nobody in sight. He pulled out his scanner, screwed on the blood sampler, and stabbed himself in the arm. Data began flooding in. He set the scanner to detect 'species'. He would pick up traces of human DNA in the air and be able to follow them. He slowly, silently, crept into the city's deapths. Not five minutes of slinking later, he came across a trace amount of human residue. Between 5 and 7 individuals had been here. He followed their tracks to a large, still lit building. He could see movement inside, so he stuck to the shadows. Shape, Shine, Shadow, Silouhette, Spacing. The 5 S's of camouflage. Keep a vague outline, don't have shiny equippment (the americans don't think of that), stay in the shadows, don't skyline yourself, and stay a decent distance from your squadmates. The last was not very relevant at this point.
His tracker was now indicating two different directions. One led past the large, bright building towards a more commonly lit area, whereas the other led farther into the darkness. For the sake of ease, Elysium set off into the night.
He didn't have to go far before the trail led into a building. He hesitated. Should he go inside and risk the light and possible people awake this late, or should he risk the outside wall and look through windows, but should someone come outside he would be easily visible if they look up. He would also have no possible way of detecting where the humans were. Unless...
He quickly reconfigured his scanner. He went to the luminosity scanner. He turned the knob over and over again until it recieved in infrared spectrum. As expected, he recieved little energy signatures. He pointed it at the building, he recieved traces of infrared radiation, indicating presence. He walked up to the bottom of the building and switched on his Anti-grav footwear and gloves.
Like a super-sized lizard, he slowly crept up the smooth building.
He went up to the first window, he peered inside. Nothing. No one. Empty. Asleep. He moved laterally to the next window. Again, nothing.
Fortunately, he didn't have to search long. Through his fifth window, he saw a shape resting on one of the alien sofas. He peered closer, activating his filtrater's Night Vision Goggles and zoom option. Yes, he had studied that picture enough. Bentham Magnler. This was it.
He extracted his scanner from his belt and flipped it open, revealing a set of power tools, including the one he was looking for.
He attached the laser cutter and began sawing through the glass. It proved more resistant than he expected it, but eventually it began to have an effect. He carefully removed the slab of glass he had cut, being especially silent. He pushed it through and quickly caught it before it hit the ground, then gently lowered it to the floor. Silent as a mouse he slipped though, dexterously landing on his feet. But there was one this he didn't anticipate.
As he stood after landing, he felt the air change, and a breeze slip through the appartment, rustling the occasionnal plant's leaves and, indeed, Magnler's covers. The young engineer grunted and shifted.
Elysium froze. His breathing stopped.
Magnler's eyes flickered.
Elysium raised his silenced rifle slightly.
Magnler remained still for a minute.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Elysium relaxed...
Mangler's eyes shot open.
"Oh f..." began Elysium.
"Shit!" yelled Magnler.
From an adjacent room, came a muffled shout, coupled with a dull thunk followed with a loud curse. In english.
From another door came footsteps.
Elysium raised his rifle. He hesitated for a split second, which was very unlike him. To shoot or not to shoot, that was the question. He cursed his humanity. He spun on his heels and darted back to the hole in the window. His hole was too small to jump through quicly, so instead he put all his force into his right shoulder as he collided with the glass.
There was a loud thud as he bounced off the pane. It was reinforced to a certain degree. Surprised, he quickly turned back to his previous hole. He recieved an odd feeling, which was physically unfounded. He felt like some strange alien was brushing his innermost being. He remembered feeling this once before, shortly before the alien escaped from the Adjudicator and him falling unconcious.
As he turned, he saw a figure in a nightgown-like garb staring at him intently, unmoving.
Brushing the feeling aside with all his willpower he lept through his hole. As he thought, it wasn't quite large enough, catching his feet on it, sending him into an uncontrollable spin.
Thanks to his gyros, he was able to realign himself with the planet's surface just before impact.
His boots's shock absorbers strained as he hit the ground, but he didn't feel most of it. After all, these boots were designed for 20-30 meter drops, ten meters wasn't much.
Even so, he made an inadvertant three-point landing to stabilise himself before setting off in a sprint, ducking quickly into the cover of the shadows out of instinct. The pressure on his mind dissipated.
He risked looking behind him, he could only see the outlines of four people standing by the window, he assumed one female and three male. One human, Magnler, and three aliens.
From that window he heard one of them shout.
"Yeah, that's right! And don't come back!"
Make that two and two. The security officer was there two. The dumbass.
He stopped a couple of hundred meters later. An exhausting sprint, even for him in his peak physical condition. He chuckled to himself, he wasn't as young as he once was.
He considered taking a moment to reassess the situation.
He though.
Should I go back?
He heard footsteps.
He quickly faded from sight, behind a row of plants.
Two aliens, both wearing armor, bearing naked blades, and raised shields made of light.
The advanced steadily, staying a dozen meters from each other. Elysium lined up a shot on one.
He didn't want to shoot, for that would reveal his position. But if he had to.
He stuck to the shadows, his gear not giving off a single mote of light. The aliens were almost upon him. Still he didn't shoot.
The alien closest to him, his eyes flickered towards Elysium's position. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.
There was a flash of light and the shot flew out straight into the alien's head.
Or where it was, the creatures phased right at that moment, reapearing instantaneously half a meter to his right.
But the shot did startle him almost as much as the teleportation phased Elysium. But neither of them showed it.
The Commander quickly dashed away, letting off a burst behind him, forcing his enemies to either dive for cover or phase out of the way.
The next thing he did as he ran, was activate his transponder, revealing his location to the UNSF. He pulled up the Admiral's comm chanel, and opened it.
It read, Meeting in progress, Cmdr Knight, state your reasons...
"Admiral! Code Red!..."
