[V]10.2: Mr. Adventurer/Chef/Idiot pt 2

Only four of them. Varyna pulled her blaster out and crouched lower to the ground as she kept moving. Patrol-issued guns weren't made for long range combat, and she was still too far to get a good shot at the Runners. Judging by their speed, she wouldn't be able to head them off, either. 

Bang!

A handful of Purple Suits flew out the backdoor, firing wildly at the group of Runners. The two Nemarians continued their sprint toward the canyon—probably where their shuttle was—but the Human and Kremel turned back to fight.

"We have to pick up the pace!" Varyna shouted over her shoulder. Nelian was breathing heavily and lagging. The dry heat was too much for her, even with her mistter desperately sputtering out the last of its frezon. The Nemarian swore and waved Varyna on.

"Go! Hurry! Those mercenaries are dropping like flies!" 

Varyna nodded to her partner and kept running. Her own lungs were burning now. The Runner Human and Kremel had hid behind some boulders to take shots at the Purple Suits. Their accuracy was impressive. Soon, there were only a few mercenaries left charging toward them. Then there was one. Then there were none.

"No!" Varyna came to a halt and raised her blaster as the two Runners made a break for the canyon. She focused on the Human. He seemed the weaker of the two. Her finger tightened on the trigger, but the Human suddenly looked back. Varyna's mouth gaped. She recognized him. "... Mr. Adventurer/Chef/Idiot?!"

Nelian took deep gasps as she finally reached Varyna. "You gasp let him haah get away?" 

Varyna lowered her blaster. "I hesitated. And then he was gone." It wasn't just that she'd let the criminals escape. She knew in her gut that something had gone horribly wrong. Something about that Human—that chef idiot—gave her a bad feeling she couldn't quite place.

"I guess wheeze we should go cough back to work." Nelian bent over, her hands on her knees as she sucked in breaths of the stinging hot air.

Varyna pulled a spare frezon cartridge out of her belt and tossed it to her partner. The Nemarian's eyes lit up as she caught it and eagerly began screwing it into her mistter.

"Let's go help with cleanup here," Varyna sighed, holstering her blaster and offering a hand to Nelian. A few pumps of the cold mist had brought her scaly friend back to life. 

"Right. Let's get to it," Nelian scowled, watching as the Runner shuttle flew out of sight into the clouds.

A mercenary pod and two COP pods soon followed the path of the Runner's shuttle into the clouds. 

"Think they'll catch them?" Varyna asked absently, shielding her eyes as she watched.

"Nah, they'll slip into The Highway before that," Nelian answered.

The two partners trekked back to the front of the warehouse, where COPS and mercenaries were glaring at each other while their superiors discussed the next course of action. As they approached a group of COPS, a familiar voice called out.

"Varyna! You were here too?" A female Kremel bounded toward her. Her leg muscles bulged against her once-white uniform pants with each step, threatening to tear through. It was no wonder Kremel uniforms had to be reinforced with double the alunitanium as everyone else's. (Though, their tough skin didn't really require the extra protection.) Varyna had the same thought when she had witnessed the female Kremel trying to tug her uniform shirt over her big head and beefy arms the first morning of patrol. The two had been assigned as bunkmates, and it was Varyna's first time being in such close quarters with a Kremel.

"Hey Plwrg," Varyna waved at her Kremel bunkmate. "We saw some Runners sneaking out the back. We weren't able to catch them."

"I'm not surprised. Those nasty little dichens even got the best of this army of mercenaries," Plwrg shook her head, gesturing to the worn-looking group of Purple Suits glaring at the COPS from behind their leader. The ones not standing around were treating injuries and carrying corpses. Due to their late arrival, the COPS' casualties were far less.

Nelian whistled behind Varyna. "The owner of this warehouse must have something pretty important to protect in there. Why else would they hire all these guys?"

"All I know is that the owner collects retro objects and stores them here," Plwrg shrugged. "I guess he's pretty eccentric. But he did get targeted by Runners, so maybe he was hiding something valuable after all."

"Did the Runners take anything?" Varyna frowned. She couldn't imagine what anyone would want with some old tech.

"You'll have to wait for the report to figure that out." Plwrg shrugged again. It was clear she wasn't at all interested in the warehouse full of strange collections and the Runners who had robbed it.

Varyna wanted to ask more, but the Captain had finished his discussion with the mercenaries' leader and turned to give orders.

"Patrol Unit 7 will work with the mercenaries to make a report. Everyone else, return to your posts. You still got two more *time units* on your shift."

"I guess that's that." Nelian snorted and clapped Varyna on the back. "Let's get back to our whiny shopkeepers."

"You guys too?" Plwrg shook her head. "I swear this planet has been the worst so far." 

The Kremel and Nemarian soon found camaraderie in their woes of whining shopkeepers and began chattering happily as the COPS began to disperse. Varyna was only half listening to their discussion. Her eyes kept darting back toward the warehouse. Her heart thumped when she saw a flash of orange scales mixed with the group lucky enough to get to stay behind and make the report.

"That's right…" she whispered. "Quoppi is on Patrol Unit 7."

As soon as she returned to the ship two hours later, she wasted no time tracking her squadmate down. She found him in the cafeteria, sipping kixi juice and scrolling through a holo. He hadn't even changed out of his uniform yet.

"Quoppi!" Varyna dropped into the chair next to him. "How did things go at the warehouse?"

The Nemarian continued reading quietly for a few seconds and then deactivated the holo and turned to Varyna. "Hello, Officer Rhine. The warehouse was quite a mess," he explained, adjusting his glasses. "Many things were broken."

"I see," Varyna frowned. "But everything was accounted for?"

Quoppi adjusted his glasses again. "We can't be sure. There are many things there and it will take a lot of time to comb through them all. For now, there are two items that no trace has been found of."

Varyna's chest tightened. It couldn't be. It wouldn't be. Nobody was interested in some old USB. More likely it got damaged in the attack, right? But she couldn't shake the anxiety gripping her. The image of that self-proclaimed chef guy standing in front of the 'Rare Demons' section wouldn't leave her mind.

The Nemarian cleared his throat and lowered his voice as if he was divulging a secret.

"The missing items were a carved pottery shard and.." 

A screen popped up in front of Varyna, finishing Quoppi's sentence for him.

[New Quest Unlocked!]

[Steal the Stolen]

[Description: retrieve Leviathan from the hands of the Runners]

[Time limit: None]

[Reward: 500 XP]

Varyna grimaced at the screen while the Nemarian finished,

"..and a single black USB."