SILVER & GOLD
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Hello, and welcome to Rain City in Jal High Prefecture. It's near midnight here, high above the streets below. That's where this story really begins.
And it actually is raining, you know. Raining in Rain City tonight? It's coming down hard as a matter of fact.
Now in all fairness, you've probably never heard of Rain City in Jal High Prefecture before, have you? And why would you have? This isn't your world, this isn't your time, the people here are people you don't know who deal with things, some of them pretty damn rotten, which have no affect on your life at all. So why should you know? Why should you care? I can't answer that for certain of course, but really, shouldn't what happens to other people matter no matter what? Isn't there something about living a life that's not perfect and rarely fair that makes all of us family in a way?
For a woman named Yana Starling, and on a day like this, doing what she's about to try to do, she, at least, would really like to think that's true. She also has more than her share of reasons to want to hold the people who don't believe that accountable for what they do. One person in particular, she thinks she's been given every right to put to death for his crimes. Most people in her situation would probably feel the same way in fact. How many of them though would break into a high-rise penthouse in the dead of night in the pouring rain to actually exercise this right she believes in? I can't answer that for certain either, but I can tell you that Yana is one of them.
Cold rain water dripping from her metallic silver skin, stepping off a floating vehicle called a skim glider (it's about the size of a jet ski), Yana climbs in the window of the penthouse. The cold weather and the rain don't hurt her people at all, so she's only dressed in shorts, a tank-top, shoes, and a jacket, all black of course (hey, she's never had that much money, it was the best she could do). Her hair's short and kind of springy and she wipes some of the water from it as she looks around. There are soft glowing lights on very dim settings all around the room. "Wouldn't want you to trip and break something at night, now would we?" She mutters bitterly at seeing all the expensive art and things the man has, enough to lift a hundred of her people or more out of poverty, and he's just got it laying around in his living space? If she didn't already hate this man so very much, she'd probably hate him for that alone.
In any case, it wouldn't pay to waste time standing around looking at the decor. She'd managed to disable the security net for the top floor (a feat which had taken months of planning, several thefts, and one kidnapping of a government official to make happen), but the man's bedroom had an independent security system of it's own (it was his 'safe room'), one that she had no real idea how to get past. This man was a paranoid man, and, as it turned out, with good reason.
Yana pulled her pack from her back and tossed it out on the man's sofa, pulling out the largest of it's contents: A government restricted military grade 3rd level mass-scale current integration flux driver device (for all intents and purposes, a bomb, and a mean, nasty one at that for what it could do to a person). She hurriedly closed the backpack and slung it back over her shoulders, all the while looking around for what she would need: access. She found it down a hall, in an electrical outlet on the wall of the spa room next to the man's bedroom. The flux driver would have almost certainly killed him regardless of which power outlet she'd attached it to, but she wouldn't likely have a second chance at this if she failed to kill him the first time, so she was determined not to take any needless chances.
She set it to trigger in one minute and started running. It would take at least a minute or two after triggering to do it's deadly work and reduce everything within range, living or electronic, to worthless slag; and probably fry every live circuit in the whole building beyond repair as well... Some others who lived in the building might be hurt too, but probably not killed. People in this world weren't that easy to kill you see; when a race is made of living metal and all but impervious to any sort of kinetic bodily harm, it can take some real effort and ingenuity in fact. Something that the Silver's military had become very proficient at, as the man who lived here was soon to experience firsthand; she thought of this with grim satisfaction as she raced into the main room again, only to surprise someone.
A woman, Yana realized as she nervously came to a halt. A thief or a freedom fighter like herself from how she'd come in from a repelling line from the skylight. The woman was clad all in black, head to toe, even her eyes were covered with reconnaissance goggles. The only thing Yana recognized with certainty was the gold band on her left forearm, a Gold's family crest, this was one of her own people and she was going to die if Yana left her here!
"What are you doing here?!"
"Well, you see, I--" The other woman started to say, acting a little surprised and flustered for some reason.
"Never mind! We have to go. I've set a bomb!" Yana cried, grabbing the other woman's arm and pulling her along with her as she ran to the open window where she's left her skim glider in stealth mode.
"Right behind you." The woman said, not missing a beat as she climbed on the glider behind Yana, wrapped her arms around her and held on tight around her waste.
Yana spared a second's glance behind her into the penthouse and saw bolts of wild stormy electricity in shifting spectrums begin to tear at everything within. As she turned away, she'd expected to feel something more than she did, knowing Zriya's murderer had or was about to die in screaming pain... Zriya had her justice though, and that's what mattered to Yana. That's what mattered period, not her feelings about it.
Having gotten the glider pointed the right way, Yana increased her acceleration as much as she could while in the city with rain making it harder to see. The rain was, if anything, heavier. The city was noisy around her, but even through the din she could hear the crackling and concussions being set off in the building echoing behind her. The woman holding onto her back was thankfully silent, apparently willing to trust her without complaint for now, which suited Yana just fine. Of all the nights though, right? Of all the nights for another of her people to have maybe the same thought she had... There wasn't much more time for such thoughts however, as soon another sound distinctly made it's presence known through the city's din: sirens. Yana sped up more.
"Be reckless. You can do this." She heard a soft voice whisper in her ear over the noise.
For some reason, that really did help. She'd been feeling tense and on-edge just about then, but this ally by circumstance's words had a calming effect and helped her to focus. It wasn't just her life on the line, this other woman was counting on her to save them. She had to make good on her faith. Had to.
The sirens were getting closer though still, and she sped up again no matter how reckless it was in this weather. Rain was hitting her in the face, her eyes could handle it and not blink if she kept a tight reign on her natural tendency *to* blink. So she could actually see where she was going, if not nearly as well as was really at all safe.
There were two close together sky-scrapers to the left, a narrow gap between them. "PREFECTURE CIVIL GUARD! UNREGISTERED SKIM GLIDER, HALT EVASION AND SURRENDER NOW UNDER PENALTY OF LAW!" The words echoed in the air, carried by a directed sound transmitter.
"Don't worry, they won't open fire in the city." The calming voice spoke as Yana sped up even more. "You're doing great."
[I really could learn to love that voice.] Yana thought to herself with a little involuntary shiver of arousal as she grit her teeth and broke right between the buildings. The turn meant she had to slow down, but the jarring effects of the torsion and g-forces wouldn't do her or her passenger any harm as long as they kept a firm grip. The skim gilder she had was top of the line (and also stolen), so it could maneuver really well and was very responsive. There were two civil guard patrols coming in from below, so if she went forward or down, they'd have her almost for sure. She couldn't go back either obviously, the only thing left was up. So she jerked the controls and pulled up, flying right along the windowed surface of the office building she was close to. She kept climbing and planned to double back the way she came as soon as she had an opening. They had her boxed in though, they weren't giving her room to breathe, she had to keep going. Up, up. She ran out of building to climb all too fast and as soon as that happened a guard patroller crashed into them on a collision course out of it seemed like nowhere!
The world was just knocked out from under her and she, her passenger with the soft sexy voice, and the mangled skim glider itself crashed and tumbled across the roof. The whole mass of them hit an air cycling unit somewhere in the middle of the roof, the glider bursting into a ball of flame around them.
Yana crawled out of the wreckage and tried to get her bearings. Her pack was gone, her jacket wasn't it very good shape and she'd lost a shoe. Where was the woman who'd been with her? She looked around for her but only saw a nightmare scene unfolding around her. The roof they were on was a landing pad. Three civil guard patrollers were landing or already had landed around them. Looking up, she saw three more hovering in the air above them. Frantically she looked through the wreckage for the disruptor rod she'd had in her pack. She needed a weapon!
"WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED AND OUTNUMBERED! YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO RUN! SURRENDER NOW!" That same voice boomed out at her through the air. She grit her teeth and shut it out.
"Here they come." Yana heard that familiar and reassuringly welcome voice. She looked up and the woman was standing between her and an onrush of incoming civil guard enforcers. "Are you with me?" She asked, turning to Yana and catching her eyes.
Yana couldn't see her eyes, couldn't see her face at all, but somehow Yana knew she was being smiled to.
"Hell yeah." There was no more time, so Yana gave up on trying to find a weapon in the wreckage and the very next second they were set upon by seven civil guard troopers. Her ally had tackled one to the ground and knocked two others over in the process. Yana, long used to street fighting from as far back as when she was a little girl, knew to keep moving and fight strategically. She knocked the disruptor rod from the hands of one of her attackers and kicked another in the side of her knee so she fell to the ground. One, a big male, was swinging his rod in a downward arch at her head; she caught his arm and pulled down and back, toppling them both over. As her back hit the roof, she got her feet between her and her attacker and used them to launch him clear across the roof. Hopefully, he'd fall over the edge (it wouldn't hurt him much, but it would take him out of the fight). The woman she'd kicked to the ground before tackled her to the ground before she could get to her feet again, but Yana was able to elbow her in the eye and get out from under her. Another of the attacking civil guards took that opportunity to kick her hard in the face. The blow sent her tumbling for a few yards away from the fight. Frustrated, angry, and feeling kind of desperate, she got to her feet again. At least the hit had given her distance again. They'd be on her in no time again though. She spared a split second to look over at her ally, who was holding her own apparently. In that second though, she saw the woman turn in her direction. Her goggles had been knocked off, and what Yana saw distracted her at about the worst possible moment.
They were on her like a tidal wave, three of them. Tackling her, jamming a disruptor rod into her belly, pinning her to the ground. Hitting her, beating her viciously. Another blow came from a disruptor rod, this time to her head. She'd been able to keep ahead of them before mostly by her wits, but they had her now. She was helpless, moving sluggishly. The physical blows didn't do that much really, though they were jarring, but another disruption charge to her system and the energy in her body that kept her functioning would be too chaotic and broken up and she'd fall unconscious. As it was right now, it felt like her whole body was rebelling against her and it was all she could do to stay awake. Pain was searing through her everywhere and she could hardly even manage to think anymore.
She heard a shout though. "Stop! Get off of her!" She heard. And through bleary eyes saw one of her attackers being hit over the head with a disruptor. Another one was soon down. It was getting hard to see... was that smoke? It smelled bitterly. There were more shouts and the next thing she knew she was being yanked up by her arm, thrown over someone's shoulder, and carried at a run. She couldn't even lift her head, but she could hear the footsteps of whoever was carrying her, hear the shouts and footsteps behind them.
They were climbing onto something now, she felt he body jarred by it, and then was roughly tossed into a padded bucket chair. She blinked her eyes open and into focus and saw her, her ally with the silver skin visible around her eyes busily working at the controls of whatever they were in. "Don't worry, I've got everything under control." She told Yana, and again, Yana was somehow perfectly confident that the woman was smiling, even though she could only see her in profile and her face mask was still in place.
They were in a civic guard cruiser, weren't they? She realized this as she heard pounding on the sides of the cruiser. Others trying to get in? What was going on here? She wanted to ask that out loud, but her mouth wasn't working too well from the disruption to her system. With a lurching start, the cruiser jerked into motion and accelerated like crazy right off the mark. "Hang on over there. If you can I mean." The woman asked her and the next thing, there was a violent swerve and they were falling. What followed was like a thrill ride, and at some point Yana was almost glad she blacked out.
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| to be continued ||||||||||||| ..... see you then.
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