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| - "C'mon, Stray! Keep up!" Simon was running down a dusty, battered street. He could feel the warmth of his arms inside his tattered overcoat--both of them, each as whole and organic as the other. His worn-out shoes pounded against the dusty ground, tormenting his aching soles with each step forward. A bayonet-tipped assault rifle was in his hands. "Stray, keep up!" They were ahead of him, all of them. He could see them, a whole crowd of armed children running and stumbling through the rubble. They passed through blown-out buildings and dodged between abandoned cars, an unruly mob scampering in the midst of utter destruction. A few bodies lined the street. "You're gonna get left behind!" He saw her now, towards the back of the group. Emily grinned at him through her dirty bangs, her own assault rifle slung over her shoulder. She waved at him, gesturing for him to catch up. He duly ran faster, leaping over shattered concrete, passing slumped corpses and ruined war machines, his stride growing longer and faster with every painful step. But no matter how fast he ran, Emily and the others just ran faster. He could hear the younger ones laughing, enjoying their little joke. Machine guns clattered off in the distance. "C'mon Stray!" Emily yelled again. Someone else, off to the side, screamed: "Incoming!" An artillery shell's searing whine filled Simon's ears, and then the road just in front of the children erupted in a sea of flames. He opened his mouth to cry out as they vanished in the blinding light, but he was too tired to do anything but gasp for air. "Simon!" Emily turned, half of her caught up in the flames. She smiled, waved him onwards once more, and then the hungry fire consumed her. "Wake up, Simon!" His left arm was suddenly alive with pain. He dropped the assault rifle and fell to his knees amidst the rubble, grasping desperately at the spasming limb. The pale flesh stretched and tore, replaced by lifeless grey. He screamed as the skeletal prosthetic ripped its way free of the skin...
*
* "Get up, dumbass!" Simon was jolted awake by Diana's voice and a searing pain in his left shoulder. He shot up and grabbed at his arm, realizing that the couplings keeping his prosthetic attached to his body were being remotely tightened to rip him back into consciousness. "You bitch," he growled sleepily. "What's your problem?" "About time you woke up," Diana retorted. "You've been under for the past nine hours." The pain receded and he looked groggily around Ro'nin's common room. Everything looked just as it had been when he'd drifted off: the boxes with the computer equipment and his armor, the sparse, alien walls, and Zoey, who was a few feet away looking worried. "We can't be in the Sol system yet," Simon grumbled, sinking back down against the wall. "It's on the other side of the galaxy." "That's the problem, dumbass," Diana told him sharply "We just pulled out of Slipspace, and we aren't anywhere near Sol." Simon rubbed his head and winced at his aching shoulders. Sleeping in his armor was a discomfort he was used to, but it still ached to wake up in it. "Okay," he said. "Where are we?" "I busted into the ship's computer systems," Diana told him. "Wasn't hard, the security might as well have been programmed by a three year old." "And..." "And we're about to enter Sanghelios's atmosphere." Simon sat bolt upright, hands going instinctively for his sidearm. Zoey stood, her expression uncertain. "I don't understand," she said, steadying herself against the wall. "The Elite said they needed to make some stops along the way. Why can't he visit his home?" "Because Ro'nin wouldn't go near Sanghelios if his own mother was sick and he had the only cure," Simon snapped. "And right now, my head's in demand down there." Zoey's eyes widened. "You mean..." "He means our chauffeur just betrayed us, honey," Diana mocked. "And the dumbass shouldn't be surprised because..." "I'd do the same thing if I were Ro'nin." The admission stung his mouth. Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could he of all people have been so stupidly trusting? Greed and fear had gotten the better of him; his desperation to collect the reward for Zoey had sent him strolling into the arms of his enemies. And what really frightened him was the realization that Diana had been fooled for the same amateurish reasons he had. His hands clenched on the barrel of his pistol, but he forced himself to let go. Breathing deeply, he fought to get his mind in order. There was no way he could take Ro'nin and Kenpachus together, not in their own ship. The only advantage he had was that they didn't want him panicking and wrecking their shuttle, so they'd planned to keep him in the dark right up until they handed him over to the authorities. "Diana," he said with as much calm as he could muster. "What's their heading?" "Looks like they're bypassing any orbital stations," Diana reported. "Lucky for us, Ro'nin probably isn't too popular around here. He's got his shuttle registered as a civilian craft." "Our lucky break," Simon agreed. He turned to Zoey. "Can you shoot?" "Um, I can handle a pistol," she said uncertainly. "I've never fought with one before though..." "Fine." He pulled one of his small hold-out pistols from its pouch and handed it to her. "Keep it for emergencies. Ro'nin will dock in some city and call in the local governor to arrest me. We'll break out there and make a run into the city." "You want us running around a city full of aliens?" Zoey's eyes were wide as saucers, and Simon cursed himself for forgetting about her last experience in an environment like that. But he didn't have time to deal with her comfort zone right now. "Yeah, unless you want to wind up in an alien prison cell," he snapped. "Just stick close to me and keep your head down." Of course it was a lie, and a dirty lie at that. Ro'nin wouldn't be giving Zoey up after the money Simon had promised she'd bring. All Zoey had to do was stay put and she'd get the ride back to her family that she'd wanted from the beginning. But as low and twisted as it made Simon feel, he wasn't about to part with this meal ticket now. He still had four million from the last job; now was his chance to cash in and score more money than he'd ever need. Fighting to stay perfectly calm, Simon leaned back against the wall and counted down the minutes he had until they landed.
*
* "Terribly sorry we couldn't carry you all the way," Ro'nin told him as they waited beside the shuttle's curved ramp. The shuttle rumbled as it descended towards some sort of landing platform. "But business comes up unexpectedly, especially now there's a war on." "No worries." Simon planted a foot on top of his boxes, fumbling with his helmet. His assault rifle, energy swords, and other combat gear were strapped to his armor. "I'll see if I can't flash a few credits your way once we get to Earth." "I'd be forever in your debt," Ro'nin replied sardonically. "We do always seem to be short on funds." Simon shrugged and slid the helmet over his head. Immediately, Diana was in his ear, feeding him information as his HUD flashed on. "We're on a landing tower inside some sort of population center," she reported. "The ship's log says it's some place called Meru. And the welcoming committee is waiting to give us the red carpet treatment." A small window flashed open in the HUD, giving Simon a clear view of the landing pad. Sure enough, it was an exposed top of a tower amidst the ornate skyline of a Sangheili city. And waiting beside the idling shuttle were two lances of Sangheili warriors. Simon doubted they would be as merciful as Tuka had been back in the jungle. "Alright," he muttered, his voice concealed by the helmet. "The elevator at the end of the platform. Can you get it under control?" "I'm not going to even dignify that one with a witty comment," Diana told him harpishly. "If I were you, I'd get ready to run." Beside him, Zoey cringed. Her eyes were fixed on Ro'nin, though thankfully the Sangheili sell-sword seemed to put this down to rational fear than a discovery of his plan. Simon could only hope she could keep pace with him. Just to be sure, he wrapped his hand tightly around her wrist. "Kenpachus!" Ro'nin called. "Hurry down to say goodbye to our guests!" This was the moment of truth. Ro'nin would probably let this charade play out to the bitter end to make the most out of his spiteful satisfaction at Simon's shock as he was arrested and led away. But with Kenpachus in the picture as well, their escape would be even tougher. As the Jiralhanae lumbered down from the cockpit, Simon casually slid his prosthetic hand into one of his equipment pouches. "Well, I won't keep you waiting any longer," Ro'nin told him, punching in the code to open the ramp. "My encounters with you get more profitable every time, Mordred." "Yeah, I'll bet." The moment the ramp opening was wide enough to slip through, Simon dove for it, dragging Zoey behind him. As he heard Ro'nin's snarl of surprise, he drew two grenades from the pouch and triggered them. The explosives fell with a clatter back into the shuttle. Simon didn't look back as the explosions tore through the shuttle, but he allowed himself a grim smile all the same. Payback for Famul, you bastard." Keeping his hold on Zoey's arm, he barreled through the surprised warriors. Sanghelios's gravity--slightly heavier than Earth's--made the sudden sprint harder, but he pushed forwards all the same. They would need to get to the elevator before the warriors started shooting... Too late. Plasma bolts whipped past him as the quickest of the warriors opened fire. Zoey yelped in terror as they neared the elevator shaft, its purple-hued doors sliding open as Diana seized control. The plasma fire thickened, and then suddenly ceased. Simon threw Zoey unceremoniously into the elevator, then turned to see what was going on. A military Phantom was hovering over the landing platform, its heavy plasma cannons leveled at the assembled warriors. To Simon's astonishment, the dropship's side doors slid open to reveal a squad of dark-uniformed humans who promptly laid into the warriors with a merciless barrage of bullets and plasma. But there was no time to waste watching the strange firefight unfold. Simon leapt into the elevator, which closed behind him and began to descend. He had slipped away from capture once again. But now he was in the middle of a city on a planet where he was wanted for kicking off a galactic-scale war and where humans showed up in Phantoms to shoot at fully-armed Sangheili warriors. "Out of the friggin' frying pan," Simon muttered to himself, readying his assault rifle. And to top things off, he had left the computer equipment and MJOLNIR set back on Ro'nin's shuttle. It seemed his luck was never going to improve.
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