Futuristic Starpath X: Shadow Contingency

[Breadman]

As much as Lana wanted to help Vance with the two brutes downstairs, she had to go with Natasha. She was right, they had the bastard in their grasp and letting him get away was out of the question. She continued to push up the stairs, barely slowing down to take a shot at the goons that were coming down the stairs. She needed to reload and that opened her up to one of them. He raised a knife and tried to slash her, only for the mercenary to stop the downwards arc with the gun. He pulled back and tried to stab at her. He managed to embed the blade right in her shoulder, only for Lana to shove the butt of the gun in his face. He could only muster a yelp as she grabbed him by the tie and pull him closer for another hit. She tripped him down the stairs and let his body roll down to the bottom. With a pained expression, she pulled the blade out of her body. Lucky. He didn't hit anything important. The mercenary tossed it aside and tried to ignore the pain as best as she could. The healing was kicking in, but it was slowing down.

She finished reloading and continued to move upwards to the level the Rhino was at. At least she hoped he was.

 

[joshuadim]

Lana and Natasha both continued pushing to intercept the Rhino before he could flee the scene, and managed to down a few more men before reaching the main office space of the building. Positioning themselves at the frame, they could hear yelling from the other side as the Rhino was speaking to someone on a line. Listening in a bit closer, they could make out some of the words: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY FUCKING RIDE IS TOAST!? I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!! A BUNCH OF GOD-DAMN PSYCHOS ARE TEARING MY JOINT DOWN!" A moment of silence passes before the Rhino shouts again: "SO FIND ANOTHER FUCKING RIDE! I FUCKING PAY YOU MORE THAN YOU EVER WOULD AT THAT GOD-DAMN SPACEPORT AND YOU CAN'T EVEN DO YOUR FUCKING JOB!" A furious slamming could then be heard as the man was likely taking his fury out on both the comm-link as well as his desk.

"You can thank me later for disabling his getaway." Mooles then spoke in into their comm channel, "For now, secure the target."

Natasha then looked over to Lana, nodding before placing a small charge on the door. Given that they wanted the man alive, they had to be restrained in order to make sure he was available for questioning. It was a small sticky charge, around the size of a golf ball, that the ghost put at the door's central mechanism before turning away. A small explosion disabled the door, and in turn allowed both ladies to march on inside with weapons drawn. Inside was a relatively lavish office with various ornaments and antiques lining the walls and shelves. At a desk, with a crushed communicator unit, sat a somewhat short but wide and muscular man who caressed a cigar in between two fingers. He seemed resigned to dealing with whatever this was in his eyes and he took a puff.

"Yeah, yeah, I get the memo." he muttered, looking between Lana and Natasha with an arrogance that could only remain if he was very comfortable in his line of work. "The fuck you want?"

"Information." Natasha replied bluntly, only lowering her weapon slightly as she looked around the room for any sort of tricks that this man might have up his sleeve.

"Everyone wants some fuckin' information. You gotta be more specific." the Rhino responded with a grunt, before taking another puff from his cigar.

"Your dealings with a man named Kane." Vance then spoke, trodding into the room no worse for wear. A bit of blood trickled from his forehead, along with some bruises across his face as he walked into the room. He held a serious gaze as he made his way over towards a man who had rarely saw need to fight, which made the Rhino laugh. "Ho ho, so you made it past both a Khergian AND an Ursataari? I'm impressed. Maybe should should consider working for me-"

A hand grabbed at his throat before quickly throwing him against one of the nearby shelves; a few of the antiques rattled and one - an ornate vase - even fell and broke on the ground, as the Rhino coughed from the impact. "Fuck! Can you watch the merch-" A swift jab to his face caused him to exert a quick yelp as Vance showed little patience for any small talk. Natasha looked on with crossed arms, letting the big man relieve some steam in the aftermath of all this.

"Fuck! Do you know nothing about hospitality!?" the Rhino then yelled angrily, clutching at his bleeding nose.

Breadman

 

[Breadman]

The last shot from Lana's rifle rang out and the last few mooks dropped dead. The two had steadily mowed down any resistance between them and the Rhino. Now all they had to do was secure their man. She stood in her position as Natasha planted the charge. Three...two...one. BOOM!

Lana entered in the room, weapon drawn only to find no immediate danger to her or Natasha. In fact the Rhino seemed content to wait for them to have a look around. He obviously thought he could negotiate his way out of it, like they were some two bit assassins sent from a rival mob boss. Vance entered the room and soon made him regret it. While they had their talk man to man, the mercenary would have a look around the room just in case. Like before, no signs of danger save for some cameras that were around the room. Mooles was probably scrambling the facial recognition on those cheap things.

She kept scanning the room and the antiques. One thing caught her eye. A knife was placed on display in a case, proudly presented as a trophy with a pair of dogtags under it in the same case. She approached it to get a better look of the make. The hilt was adorned with initial carved into. The blade seemed to be made from a material that was familiar to her. The dogtags confirmed its origin. Captain S, Steiner, Boomer Marines. This belonged to one of her brothers. How did this sleezy bastard get a hold of it? She'd have to check with Seth, or maybe the idiot would reveal it himself. He seems dumb enough to brag.

Lana clenched her fist and broke the glass to grab both the knife and the tags. The blade was made from a metal that was unique to Boome called sarkonite. Seth and the commanders before him would give these out to their clone brothers who earned them or proven friends of their family. She doubted she had earned it just yet, but it would be safer with her than in this shithole. She turned around to join Vance and Natasha. If they were wondering why she had procured the artifact, she only had a simple anser as she held it up with the dogtags 'Brother.' The merc looked at the Rhino next and pointed at him 'Lucky, I don't..." Her thumb made a slicing motion around her neck. 'Talk.'