Shadows of the Catalyst
Sonya adjusted her mask as the dropship punched out of hyperspace, the cabin lights flickering red. This was their third op together, and to maintain her double-agent cover, Lieutenant Katherine “Kat” Kerrigan was in command despite Sonya’s rank. She’d fought beside Alex on multiple occasions—the fellow traitor who’d become her closest confidant, one of the few besides Greg who wanted to socialize with her outside of duty. Gunnery Sergeant James Hunter, Greg’s old war buddy and heavy-weapons specialist, rounded out the squad. They had worked well on their previous missions; she hoped that it would continue.
Kat watched Sonya, then the others, wondering if they’d follow her lead. She’d run plenty of infiltration-sabotage ops; good teams and good intel let them slip in and out like ghosts. This one? A rushed twenty-minute brief, plus Thrawn’s private warning: “Blade’s working for intelligence as a double agent. To facilitate the illusion that I do not trust her, I am placing you in command. Trust her skills, and her loyalty.”
She couldn’t help wondering how Sonya truly felt about her being in charge, but Sonya showed no resentment. Kat’s head snapped up as the dropship shuddered.
“Entering atmo,” the pilot called. “Five minutes to drop.”
Kat tapped her helmet. “Acknowledged.”
The craft rattled harder. Alex and Hunter tightened straps; Kat and Sonya leaned back as if they were used to it. The high-angle reentry minimized exposure but risked burn-up or control lock. Night cloaked the planet, yet their fiery streak would light the sky like a beacon. G-forces crushed them as the pilot pulled out of the dive. Alex looked like he was going into G-LOC; Sonya shot him a concerned glance.
“I’m ok,” he muttered as he recovered.
“One minute!”
They unstrapped, crowding the drop bay as wind howled around the hull. The drop master’s voice cut through: “High winds over DZ! Check repulsor packs!”
They inspected each other’s rigs—charged, secured, altitude set. “Four OK!”
“Three OK!”
“Two OK!”
“One OK!”
The drop master checked his safety strap. “All OK! Ramp opening!”
The bay doors yawned. Energy bolts whipped past—flak explosions blooming as base defenses woke. Kat gripped a strap to stay upright as the dropship bucked. “Cloak up!”
Experimental cloaking fields shimmered. “On the green!”
Kat keyed her mic. “Give us ten, then bug out.”
“Acknowledged!”
The dropship lurched. The red light flashed green. “Go, go, GO!”
They leapt into the night, bolts streaking around them. The dropship banked hard, ramp sealing as it fled. Sonya’s HUD tracked the team—altitude, speed, positions. She frowned as Kat called out. “We’re off target.”
“Bit of a hike, lass,” Hunter grunted. “Shouldn’t delay us.”
“Just a stroll through the jungle,” Sonya added.
Kat watched her altimeter. At two hundred meters the repulsor packs should fire. Hers kicked in on the mark—gyro spinning her upright. Alex and Hunter followed, but Sonya kept falling.
“Sonya, manual override!” Kat shouted.
Sonya hammered the button three times—stutter, then nothing. “No go—100 meters…”
“Lass!” Hunter roared.
Another three hard and rapid taps—the repulsor stuttered, then whined to life. She flipped upright just as she crashed through the canopy into a tangle of vines.
“Status, Two?” Kat asked, with concern.
A groan crackled through their headsets. “Frack, that hurt. Two down. Area clear… banged up, but good to go.”
Alex shook his head as his HUD warned him about the canopy. “Yeah, I’ve seen your version of ‘banged up.’ I’ll check you over the second I’m down.”
Kat crashed through branches before she finally landed. “One down.”
Hunter smashed through like a meteor, landing with a grunt. “Three down. Hit every damn branch.”
Alex touched down smoothly. “Four down.”
Kat quickly checked the readings of her scanner, “No sign of active scanners, we can decloak.”
Their cloaking fields dropped as Alex knelt by Sonya, scanner humming. “Banged up my ass, you’ve got multiple fractured ribs, a hairline right humerus fracture, and a hairline fractured right femur.”
“That all?” Sonya winced. “Doesn’t feel that bad.”
Alex quickly put the scanner away and just as quickly began casting a healing spell on her. “That’s because you’re a masochist when on a mission. Stay still, this will take a moment.”
Kat inspected Sonya’s repulsor pack while Alex was healing her. “Receiver connection is cracked, altitude connector is fracked, and the manual starter has a short. You got lucky, don’t know how this passed muster.”
Sonya shook her head, “I suppose not splattering on the jungle floor would count as lucky.”
Kat nodded as she checked her HUD and then pointed toward their objective. “Hunter will take point, Blade, you’re the rearguard. We move when Alex clears her.”
Alex pulled out his medical scanner and ran another check of Sonya. “I would have thought you would have been in worse shape with that landing, so yes, you were very lucky. I’m guessing someone who wasn’t enhanced would have been a mess. We’re good to move ma’am.”
The group started carefully picking their way through the jungle in combat spacing. Kat noticed Sonya kept glancing around as they got closer to the objective. “Something wrong Two?”
“It’s quiet, which is bothering me. No patrols, probes or other surveillance. We woke up the neighborhood when the dropship came down and took fire.”
Kat grimaced as she became even more aware of her surroundings, Sonya was right, they hadn’t run into anything. The base commander should have at least sent out a few patrols. “Ok everyone cloak up. Three, switch places with Two. I want fresh eyes up.”
The group quickly activated their cloaking devices, their HUDs now the only thing showing the general position of each team member as Sonya and James changed positions. While the experimental cloaking devices made them practically invisible anything they moved or distorted with their mass would still give away their position. They started carefully moving again and after a few tense minutes Sonya, well ahead of the rest quickly moved off the trail, her voice low. “Movement ahead with lights, possible patrol.”
Out of habit Kat gestured to the sides, “Off the trail, find cover.”
They quickly melted into foliage. Four troopers with headlamps and a scanner paused near Sonya’s position, sweeping around. Kat slowly brought her rifle to her shoulder, ready to fire if they detected Sonya’s malfunctioning repluser pack. After what seemed like an eternity, they turned around and headed back.
“Clear,” Sonya whispered. “They took some readings before heading back down the trail.”
“Give it five minutes, then we move.”
Five minutes later, they advanced. Hunter broke the silence. “They say anything, lass?”
“They were grumbling about checking for probes… shit!”
The group stopped in their tracks, “What?” Kat quietly asked.
“Two, report!” Kat quietly hissed.
Sonya’s voice was barely a whisper “Get off the trail—now!”
They quickly ducked into the thick jungle just off the trail. Two Enhanced in tight Imperial PT uniforms sprinted past them at 30kmh.
Kat breathed a sigh of relief, “We’re clear here.”
Sonya’s sigh of relief could be heard in their headsets. “Came around so fast I barely had time to sidestep them, stood practically right next to me. Enhanced personnel on site wasn’t in the briefing.
“No, it wasn’t. Keep to the sides, let’s get moving.”
It took another twenty minutes of carefully dodging increasing patrols and two more groups of enhanced beings before they got to the clearing around the two-story research facility with what looked like a barracks building. Sonya pulled up her binoculars and scanned the structures with the night vision feature, “This isn’t just a catalyst manufacturing facility they’re making Enhanced Beings here.” She whispered over the com.
Kat reflexively nodded as she carefully moved up beside Sonya taking out her binoculars scanning as well, “That explains the regular interval of them running on that trail. Must be a loop. I’m seeing guards at the entrances as well as security droids. Looks like they’re still on alert by their numbers.”
“Going to make it hard to get into quietly.” Alex added.
“Roof access? Seems like that’s guarded by only a single guard.” Kat mused.
Sonya grimaced, “The ladder is retracted, they’d definitely hear the repulsers at that range if mine even still works.”
“We could wait for a shift change, go in with the guards.” Alex added.
“Risky lad but it could work.”
“Two, any thoughts on when they would change shifts?” Kat grimaced right after she said it expecting a defensive remark. Sonya was silent for a second before responding. “If they’re on alert, they’ll rotate every 15 minutes checking in at random intervals instead of the normal 20min check in. At least that’s what they did when they had me on a leash. Been a while so they could have changed it up.”
Kat sighed, “Our drop wasn’t supposed to put the base on constant alert it was supposed to look like an aborted attempt to drop probes. We should have been able to sneak in a lot easier.”
Sonya reflexively nodded and then focused on the other side of the manufacturing and research building. “Wait, see that path at the forty-five mark?”
Kat scanned where Sonya indicated and nodded, “Yeah. You think it’s the return path for the enhanced we saw out there?”
“Probably, good chance there’s a door on that side of the facility as well. We might be able to sneak in over there.”
Kat shrugged, “Ok let’s scout it out. You’re on point.”
The group carefully and quietly made their way through the edge of the jungle to the other side of the compound and once again set up observation. “One guard at the door, the path splits and heads to the barracks.”
Sonya looked over at the barracks, “I can take out the guard easily and prop him up but I’m worried about both the security’s visual sensors and the Enhanced.”
Alex reflexively nodded, “I’ve got an illusion spell that will last a few minutes, enough for us to get in.”
Kat tilted her head slightly, “Can you make an illusion that can draw off the guard?”
“Yeah, but I can’t then create the illusion at the door until I drop the other one.”
Kat started laying out a plan in her head, “How much time do you need to cast the illusion for the door if we just need it for getting through?”
“About ten seconds.”
“Ok here’s the plan. We’re going to move up close to that door; Alex will distract the guard with an illusion to get him to move away from the door. Once he’s distracted, I’ll bypass the lock, once I signal it’s unlocked Alex switches to the door illusion and we all breach quickly and quietly so we can get that door closed before the guard gets back.”
The team ghosted along the jungle’s edge to the northeast corner, cloaks shimmering like heat haze in the humid night. Sonya took point, her SMG raised, every rustle of leaves amplifying the knot in her gut. The facility loomed ahead—harsh floodlights carving white cones across the clearing, security cameras on the walls like watchful eyes. The single guard at the side door paced lazily, rifle slung, bored but alert.
Kat signaled halt behind a cluster of ferns. “Positions.”
They fanned out. Alex knelt, murmuring an incantation under his breath, his hands glowing faintly. A phantom figure materialized twenty meters down the path—a flickering silhouette of an intruder stumbling from the jungle, clutching a wounded arm. The guard snapped to attention, rifle up. “Intruder! Sector four!”
He charged toward the illusion, boots crunching gravel as the illusion stumbled back into the jungle as if trying to get away. Kat was already moving, low and fast, her lockpick tool interfacing with the door panel. Sonya covered her, SMG trained on the guard’s back, finger hovering over the trigger. One wrong move and this goes loud, she thought, heart pounding.
The guard nearly reached the illusion, Kat’s tool chirped softly—green light. She signaled.
Alex dropped the distraction illusion and quickly recast, the door now shrouded in a perfect replica of itself, guard post empty. The guard looked around the jungle confused as to where the intruder went. “False alarm. Returning to my post.”
They slipped through the open door like shadows. Kat eased it shut behind them, the magnetic seal clicking with agonizing slowness. The guard’s footsteps receded outside, none the wiser.
Inside, the corridor hummed with sterile white light, the air cold and chemical. Sonya decloaked first, SMG sweeping. “Clear.”
The others followed. Hunter grunted approval. “Smooth. Almost too smooth.”
Kat motioned forward. “Catalyst storage should be sublevel two. Let’s move.”
They advanced, boots silent on the grated floor. Alex’s ward shimmered faintly, masking their heat signatures. At the first junction, Kat hacked the security door—fingers flying over the panel. The lock disengaged with a soft beep. They slipped through.
The second door was heavier, reinforced. Kat knelt again, using her tools to hack it. “Biometric lock. Give me thirty seconds.”
Sonya covered the corridor, SMG ready. Hunter watched their six, repeater humming. Alex monitoring his wards.
The door hissed open. They stepped into a vast chamber—and froze.
Rows of containment cells lined the walls, force fields humming. Inside, prisoners—mix of military uniforms and civilian clothes—huddled or lay motionless. Some bore the telltale signs: bulging muscles, sagging skin, glowing veins, eyes flickering with unnatural light. Failed catalyst experiments. A few were still human, wide-eyed and terrified, wrists raw from the restraints.
One cell held a Ta’charin soldier, pleading silently through the field. Another—a human woman in tattered civilian garb—pressed against the barrier, mouthing “Help.”
Kat’s voice was a whisper. “Frack. This isn’t just production. They’re testing on live subjects.”
Sonya’s jaw tightened, her SMG lowering slightly. “Civilians. Military. They’re using POWs as lab rats.”
Hunter’s growl was low, trying to steel himself. “Mission was sabotage and recovery. Not rescue.”
Alex’s face paled. “Intel didn’t know about the prisoners, we can’t leave them. Not like this.”
Kat stared at the cells, her mind racing. In the center, massive vats bubbled with sickly red fluid; crystalline structures grew inside like fermented coral, fed by dark tubes that looked disturbingly like blood lines. Technicians in hazmat suits moved between them, filling containers with the finished catalyst crystals and then sealing the containers. The sabotage charges in their packs felt suddenly heavy.
Sonya’s voice was quiet, but steel edged it. “If we blow the facility, we kill them all. We try to save them; we risk the mission—and our lives.”
Kat met her gaze, the weight of command pressing down. “Clock’s ticking. We have twenty minutes before exfil window closes.”
The prisoners watched them through the fields, hope flickering in their eyes. The vats hummed, innocent and deadly.
Sonya’s hand tightened on her SMG; this was the hard call no one wants to make. The one that keeps you up at night and eats at part of your soul. “It’s your call Kat. I’ll back your play, but if you’re asking my opinion? We complete our objectives and then possibly try to save who we can.”
Sonya stepped closer to Kat whispering, “As the ranking officer, I can make the call and take responsibility. Everyone sees me as a traitor anyway.”
Kat patted Sonya’s arm, exhaling. “I agree with Sonya’s opinion, we complete our objectives and then we improvise.” Kat’s mind raced, mapping the facility from the schematics they’d memorized. “To pull this off—to save even some of them—we need control. Security center and main control room. Disable the alarms and the control center, unlock the cell doors so we can deactivate the fields. Quiet and fast.”
Sonya’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll need to split up.”
“Two and two,” Kat said. “You and Hunter take security—override internal defenses, kill the alarms. Alex and I hit control. We grab the finished catalyst, while you and Hunter plant charges on the vats. We meet there, free who we can, then blow the place.”
Alex swallowed. “And the Enhanced?”
Sonya’s voice was low. “It looks like they’re in their rest cycle. We don’t wake them.”
Hunter grunted. “Those three look like they’re close to or fully activated. Sonya and my weapons aren’t surpassed, if they wake up…”
“They won’t wake,” Sonya cut in. “Not if we’re fast. Kat and Alex use suppressed pistols. I use my halo.”
Kat’s head snapped toward her looking concerned. “Sonya, you’ve only had two activations. It could…”
“I’m stable at two,” Sonya interrupted, her tone flat. “No muzzle flash, and quieter than the suppressed pistols. I can drop guards with just a look without giving us away.”
She was lying—just a little. The surge inside her felt different now, deeper, like it had woven itself into her bones. She didn’t know if pushing it this hard would tear her apart. But the prisoners’ eyes… she couldn’t leave them.
Kat searched her face, then nodded once. “Okay. Halo for your takedowns. We move in three.”
They split. Sonya and Hunter ghosted toward security, cloaks shimmering. Two Nathal troopers patrolled the corridor to the security center, rifles at the low ready. Sonya placed a hand on James to get him to wait. They turned and casually walked back down the corridor. She stepped out, eyes flaring with energy that gave the Tank Man’s molecular distortion power the term ‘halo effect’. The molecular distortion orbs silently and violently appeared enveloping parts of the two guards, the orbs either silently exploding or ripping apart armor, flesh, organs, and bones where they appeared in a gory mess. The remains of the troopers dropped almost silently in the now blood and gore-spattered corridor.
Hunter silently gagged for a moment at what he just witnessed as Sonya continued down the corridor to the security center and opened the door while still cloaked. Inside four techs and one officer looked in confusion at the open door. The last thing they saw was Sonya’s halo effect appearing—five silent but gory kills. Sonya and James quickly entered the center with military precision making sure the room was clear. Hunter grimaced as he brushed some remains off of the port on the main console and inserted an override spike into it. Seconds later the consoles flickered and unlocked. They quickly went to work locking internal doors, unlocking and setting the cells to local control, then disabling the alarm system. “Security’s down, proceeding to phase two.” Hunter quietly reported over comms.
Kat and Alex reached the control room on the third floor. Kat and Alex shouldered their rifles and unholstered their suppressed pistols as they peeked in through the observation window. Two techs at consoles, one guard. Alex quickly cast an illusion of a phantom guard suddenly collapsing at the far door. Kat and Alex quickly slipped in as the guard raised his rifle and approached the phantom, three precise, suppressed shots and it was over.
They moved fast. Kat jammed a disrupter spike into the main console’s jack and was rewarded with it shorting out along with the other consoles, thin tendrils of smoke rising from parts of them. Kat and Alex quickly grabbed the datapads and datasheets laying around as Kat reported, “Control center knocked out, gathering intel then proceeding to phase two.”
They carefully started heading down to the vats spotting the flashes of Sonya’s distortion orbs as she took out the remaining techs around the vats before they could sound the alarm.
Kat and Alex quietly took out two more patrolling guards before making down to the vats. They quickly loaded the sealed canisters into their satchel bags—heavy, but manageable. James’s voice crackled: “Charges planted on vats. Timer set for twenty if the remote fails.”
Kat responded, “Good work. Come over here and grab a couple canisters.”
Sonya and James made their way over grabbing a couple of canisters and stuffing them in their empty satchel bags. Kat nodded to them, “Ok, let’s see what condition the prisoners are in…”
A Nathal guard stepping out onto the second-floor walkway on patrol spotted them. His eyes widened. He raised his rifle and fired, the plasma bolt screaming toward Kat.
Sonya spun to the sound, halo flaring—but too late.
The bolt grazed Kat’s shoulder guard, spinning her to the ground. The guard’s hand flew to his headset. “Intru…”
Sonya’s distortion orbs hit him, silent, gory, and lethal. His remains dropped onto the walkway.
The three fully activated Tank Men stirred in their resting pods.
“Frack,” Sonya whispered. “They’re waking up.”
Kat clutched her shoulder, blood seeping through the graze as she quickly grabbed her pistol and got to her feet. “We have to move—now!”
“To late!” Sonya replied as the first Tank Man’s pod hissed open, and he stepped out, locking eyes on them and smiled sinisterly, eight feet of pale, gold-veined muscle, eyes glowing, ready to release the deadly distortion orbs like what Sonya had been using. He rolled his neck once, cracked his knuckles, and smiled, slow and sinister.
The other two pods hissed open behind him.
“Remember,” Sonya said, voice low, “eyes are the weak point. Pierce one and their heads pop.”
Kat’s eyes narrowed, psychic pressure already building behind them as she quickly switched to her rifle. “Got it. Two, the lead one is yours. I’ll take the middle one. Three, Four, the third one’s yours.”
Hunter was already moving, his light repeater up. “Copy that, lass.”
The lead Tank Man charged.
Sonya met him head-on.
She ducked under a hammer-fist that cratered the wall, driving her shoulder into his gut, and unleashed a halo orb point-blank. The distortion sphere detonated inside his torso, shredding organs and spine. He roared, still standing, blood pouring from the gaping wound. Sonya pivoted, grabbing his head and driving him into her rising knee into his jaw, shattering it as she fired a second orb into the back of his head; his skull exploded in a spray of gold-flecked gore. The rush coming back to her.
One down.
The second Tank Man lunged at Kat. She didn’t flinch as she glared at him, psychic force slamming into his mind like a freight train. His eyes rolled white, veins bursting across his temples as he tried to fight it. Kat’s nose started bleeding, but she held him frozen long enough to take aim with her rifle. A single precise shot to the eye and she dropped the psychic hold. He grabbed his head for a second before his head detonated with a distortion burst, body toppling like a cut tree.
The third charged Alex and James ignoring Jame’s repeater fire.
Alex’s hands glowed violet. Ethereal chains erupted from the deck, wrapping the Tank Man’s limbs, coiling over his eyes. The monster thrashed, ripping floor plates free, but the chains held—for now. Alex’s knees buckled, sweat pouring. “I can’t hold him!”
Hunter was already there. He slapped a plasma shaped charge to the Tank Man’s abdomen, armed it, and dove clear. “Fire in the hole!”
The charge went off with a muffled whump and a burst of intense heat from the plasma. The Tank Man’s abdomen vanished in a bloom of superheated plasma, ribs and spine vaporized. The chains shattered as Alex dropped to his knees exhausted. The body hit the ground in two smoking pieces of flesh. To their horror he pulled himself up as his eyes began to glow.
Sonya’s distortion orbs materialized around him ripping the Tank man apart. Sonya’s halo flickered out. Blood trickled from her nose, her vision swimming, sweat dripping down her face. She’d pushed harder than ever before, but she was still standing.
Kat wiped the blood from her nose, breathing hard. “Clear. No more pods cycling.”
Alex wearily got to his feet as James reloaded, eyes on the cells. “We have to get the prisoners free quickly. We’ve got maybe five minutes before the whole base wakes up from that noise.”
They quickly moved up to the cells and began dropping the forcefields. Sonya looked at the terrified faces as the force fields came down—some already moving out into the walkway. Some of them looked in rough shape, Alex grimaced, “Some of them can barely hobble.”
“Then we carry who we can,” Sonya said, voice raw. “And we burn this place to the ground.”
One of the prisoners, a Ta’charin soldier stepped out, fists clenched, eyes burning with something between gratitude and vengeance. Kat gestured to one of the rifles lying on the ground. “Those of you who can fight, pick up a rifle. We’re going to have to fight our way out.”
Sonya stood in the doorway of the failed experiments cell, the acrid stench of ruined flesh and chemical decay hitting her like a physical blow. Three figures lay on the floor—twisted, broken things that had once been people. Their bodies were failing in real time. Skin sagged and split, muscles writhed beneath it like something alive and angry, tendons snapping with wet, sickening pops. One man’s arm had stretched grotesquely, the bone visible through torn flesh. Another woman’s eyes were wide and lucid, full of unbearable awareness.
They were still conscious. Still feeling everything.
The one closest to her—a young man whose uniform had once marked him as URF—reached out with a hand that was no longer quite human. His voice was a wet rasp.
“Please…Dying… unbearable pain… Kill us!” A sickening snap came from its arm, and it fell uselessly to the deck”
Sonya’s stomach turned. The smell, the sounds, the sheer wrongness of it slammed into her like a memory she couldn’t outrun. For one terrible second she was back in that resistance cell—chained, violated, begging for an end that never came. Her hands shook. She forced them still.
Alex’s footsteps approached behind her. She backed out into the catwalk blocking his access to the cell so he couldn’t see what was inside.
“Sonya—”
She didn’t turn. Couldn’t. If she looked at him, she might break.
“They’re gone,” she said, voice flat. “There was nothing you could do.”
Alex hesitated. She could feel him wanting to argue, wanting to see for himself. She cut it off before he could speak.
“Go. The others need you. I’ll see if they have any personal effects.”
A long pause. Then he turned and headed back to the others, so she stepped back in, only then did she let herself really look.
The one who had spoken was still watching her. His eyes were clear. He knew exactly what was happening to him. He knew there was no coming back.
Sonya’s throat tightened until it hurt.
She had done terrible things in her life. She had made hard calls. But this… this was different. This was mercy dressed up as murder, and she was the only one here who could do it.
She stepped inside. The door hissed shut behind her.
The first one—the one who had begged—tried to smile. It came out as a grimace of agony.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Sonya’s vision blurred. She blinked hard, once.
“I’m sorry,” she said, so quietly she wasn’t sure he heard it.
Her eyes flared.
The distortion orb appeared inside his chest with no sound at all. His body jerked once, violently, then went still. The second one made a broken, grateful sound before Sonya ended it the same way. The third—the woman—reached for her with what was left of her hand.
Sonya took it. Held it while she did what needed to be done.
When it was over, she stayed kneeling for a long moment, her forehead pressed to the cold deck plating, breathing through the nausea and the shaking. Blood—hers and theirs—dripped from her nose onto the floor. She didn’t wipe it away.
She had told herself she was shielding the others. That Alex shouldn’t have to carry the burden of being helpless to save them. That Kat had enough weight already. That James would never forgive himself.
But the truth was simpler, and uglier.
She didn’t want anyone else to know what it felt like to look someone in the eyes and give them the only mercy left.
When she finally stood, her legs were steady. Her face was empty. She wiped the blood from her nose with the back of her hand, tucked the small personal items she’d taken from their bodies into a belt pouch, and stepped out of the cell like nothing had happened.
Outside, Kat was waiting.
Sonya met her eyes for half a second—long enough for Kat to see the hollow look in her eyes—and then looked away.
“They’re gone,” she said, voice steady. “Let’s move.”
She didn’t wait for an answer. She just started walking, shoulders straight, the weight of three more ghosts settling quietly into the spaces between her ribs.
Sonya keyed the final cell door open and the last of the prisoners spilled out. By her count they had freed forty-five prisoners; some running, some limping, a few carried by stronger survivors. The Ta’charin soldier who’d taken a rifle barked orders in his own language, herding some of the civilians towards the exit as freed URF troopers scavenged rifles and power packs.
Kat’s voice cut through the chaos. “Alex and those prisoners with weapons, rear guard! Keep them moving and on the route. James, take point. Sonya, with me; center column. Protect the civvies.”
Alex dropped back, hands glowing as he cast a soft ward over the stumbling prisoners. “Go, go, go! Stay tight!”
They moved quickly towards the first junction, Kat still trying to figure out the best route out of the building, calling out directions for James to take.
First contact came thirty meters down from the junction: Nathal troopers and four spider-like security droids rounding the corner, plasma rifles already spitting red fire.
James’s repeater roared as he ducked back and took cover. The lead droid exploded in a shower of legs and sparks. “Contact front!”
Sonya pushed through the panicking prisoners to get to James as her halo flared. She poked her head around the corner and let loose multiple orbs that materialized on and around the droids and most of the troopers turning the corridor into carnage.
Kat had also worked her way forward and dropped to one knee, rifle barking precise semi-auto fire. Two troopers fell, chest plates melted. A plasma bolt grazed her already-wounded shoulder; she hissed but kept firing, downing the last trooper.
Prisoners screamed as fire stitched the wall behind them. Alex, the Ta’charin soldier, and the rescued URF troopers returned fire with their scavenged rifles, dropping the guards that were trying to move up behind the prisoners.
Behind them, heavy footfalls echoed. Metal on metal.
The first fully-activated Tank Man rounded the far corner, eight feet of death. His eyes already starting to glow.
Sonya’s blood ran cold, there was no way she could get back through the prisoners to help. “Tank Man rear! Alex, chains—now!”
Alex spun, violet light erupting. Ethereal chains lashed out, wrapping the Tank Man’s arms and torso. He roared, ripping forward, dragging Alex off his feet. Prisoners scattered around them.
James pivoted, unable to get a clear shot as the armed rescued prisoners opened fire, the plasma showing no effect.
Kat slapped a fresh magazine home shouting. “The eyes! Go for the eyes!” She concentrated, and as before the Tank Man eyes rolled white, veins bursting across his temples as he tried to fight it and the chains. “I’m giving you an opening!”
The former prisoners quickly opened fire directly at the Tank Man’s head, it was volume over accuracy, but it worked and the Tank Man’s head exploded, he fell to the ground as if his strings had been cut.
A second and third Tank Men charged down the corridor where the troopers had been cut down as Sonya called out. “Tank Men front!”
James pivoted back and opened fire, his light repeater howling. The plasma rounds just sparked off the Tank Men’s skin. “Not even scratching him!”
Sonya stepped into the open, halo blazing. She fired orb after orb; one Tank Man’s knee exploded, temporarily dropping him; another took a hit to the shoulder and kept coming. Blood streamed from her nose, vision tunneling, but she planted herself between the monsters and the prisoners.
“Get them out!” she shouted, voice raw. “I’ll hold them off!”
Kat grabbed a limping civilian, hauling him forward. “Not leaving you! Everyone move straight through the junction, go, go, GO!”
Sonya met the wounded Tank Man head-on, deflecting his wild swing with her right as she felt an energy building in her left forearm. She swung with it at the Tank Man’s head and thought about releasing the energy on impact. Her arm and hand glowed blue, crackling with energy and as her fist connected with his cheek, a beam shot out of her fist that looked like the Avenger’s lance cutting beam. The beam cut through the Tank Man’s head, blowing it apart and carving into the wall. Sonya’s eyes widened in shock as the beam continued flowing from her hand. The Tank Man on the ground started to pull himself up but Sonya whipped her hand in his direction cutting across his face. The distance seemed to affect the beam’s strength, but it still burned across his face and connected with one of his eyes and as with the others his head exploded. Sonya shook off the shock as the beam continued. She concentrated on turning off the beam and disappeared as if nothing had happened. Hunter looked at her in shock as Kat led the prisoners past him. “Lass, what the frack was that?”
Sonya dropped to her knees breathing heavily, sweat running off of her. She ripped open one of the packets of nutrient paste as she glanced back to him, “I have no clue! I’ll figure it out later.” She quickly downed its contents trying to stave off the overexertion that would cause her head to explode, but that rush was increasing.
They were out of time, the entire base was descending on them, but the prisoners were moving, and the team wasn’t stopping.
Not until every survivor was clear… or none of them were.
The corridor shook with boots and klaxons. Forty-three freed prisoners spilled toward the side exit. James took point, repeater sweeping.
“Move, move! Single file, keep low!”
Sonya staggered at the center, blood dripping from her nose, vision pulsing. The cutting beam had saved them, but she wasn’t sure what price her body would pay.
Hunter glanced back as she stumbled. “Lass, you’re about to drop. We need you vertical for exfil.”
Kat skidded to a stop, shoulder wound hastily bandaged. She took one look at Sonya, then at the prisoners moving too slowly.
“We’re out of time. New plan.”
She grabbed Sonya’s arm, steadying her. “Alex! Can you make a fake column of prisoners?”
Alex, pale and shaking from the chain spell, grimaced. “It’ll empty the tank. I won’t be able to cast more spells after.”
“Do it.”
Kat keyed her mic, voice iron. “Three, Four—take the real group hard left through the drainage culvert to the LZ. Full speed after you blow the charges. Don’t stop for anything.”
Alex raised trembling hands. A ripple of light—two columns now, one real, one perfect duplicate—heading opposite directions.
James’s eyes widened. “And you?”
“Sonya and I sell the decoy. We draw them off.”
James opened his mouth to protest, but Kat was already dragging Sonya toward the main corridor. “Alex, can you make the illusion noisy? Gunfire, screams, the works.”
The phantom column erupted with muzzle flashes and shouts.
Nathal troopers and droids quickly chased after the illusion, shouting orders to recapture them. The real prisoners vanished into the drainage tunnel as Sonya and Kat opened fire to keep the enemy’s attention.
Kat and Sonya sprinted the opposite way, selling it like they were the rear guard.
A squad chased after them. Plasma bolts screamed.
Kat dove left, rifle barking. Sonya slid right, SMG chattering.
“Suppressing!”
“Moving!” Sonya dashed into the foliage, vision tunneling. The energy in her forearm begged release. She clamped it down. Not yet. She quickly laid down suppressing fire as Kat moved past her, counting a couple of seconds before she stopped firing and followed, plasma rounds chasing them into the night. Two Tank Men sprinted after the illusion, distortion orbs flaring.
Somewhere behind the tree line, James’s group was almost clear. Alex staggered, struggling to keep the illusion alive. James pulled out the detonator and clicked it three times. The resulting explosions echoed for miles as the remains of the facility collapsed on itself.
Thirty seconds, maybe less, before the pursuers realized they’d been played.
Thirty seconds for his group to vanish into the jungle and head for the real extraction and hope that Sonya and Kat could evade any further pursuit.
They didn’t look back.
The jungle swallowed them: thick, wet, black as pitch. Kat and Sonya ran hard, boots splashing through mud, vines whipping their faces. Behind them, the two Tank Men crashed through the undergrowth like freight trains, trees snapping, distortion orbs flickering in the darkness.
Kat’s breath came in sharp bursts. “They’re almost on us. We split them, take them one at a time.”
Sonya nodded, tasting blood. “I’ll be bait. You flank.”
“No arguments.”
They veered hard right, then Sonya veered left trying to make a little more noise as Kat continued right. The first Tank Man took the bait, charging straight after Sonya’s heavier footfalls.
Sonya burst into a small clearing, spun, and waited.
He burst through the tree line, eight feet of muscle and murder, halo already flaring.
Sonya’s eyes answered in kind, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.
She let him close to five meters—close enough. Her left arm snapped up. The cutting beam lanced out, blue-white and focused to be razor-thin. It carved across his chest at point-blank range, parting flesh and bone like paper. He roared, stumbled, but kept coming.
Sonya sidestepped, beam sweeping. The second cut took his leg at the knee. He crashed forward.
As he began to rise, Kat stepped from the shadows, rifle raised. One precise shot—straight through the eye. His head detonated in a wet distortion burst.
One down.
The second Tank Man’s roar echoed somewhere to their left—too close.
Kat slapped Sonya’s shoulder. “Move!”
They started running again.
Thirty seconds later the jungle erupted behind them. The surviving Tank Man had found his buddy and was furious.
Sonya’s vision blurred, legs like lead. The beam had taken more than she expected, but it felt… different from the orbs. Not lethal, just tiering.
Kat saw her stumble. “Lean on me.”
Sonya recovered and kept running. “No time. We have to move before he gets our trail.”
“LZ is about two hundred meters away can…”
Sonya was breathing heavy, “We’ll make it!”
They ran out of the jungle to the LZ: a tiny clearing barely big enough for the stealth dropship that had slipped in under the chaos. Its ramp was down, running lights dark, drop master waving more people on board frantically.
Prisoners were crammed aboard, bodies pressed tight. James and Alex were covering them at the bottom of the ramp, faces grim.
The Tank Man burst from the tree line thirty meters behind them, distortion orbs starting to appear but were being countered by Sonya’s distortion orbs, she could feel pressure forming in her head, her stomach churned, she was redlining, and because of that less orbs were appearing.
Sonya dropped to a knee, left arm raised as energy crackled around it. “Kat—go!”
Kat took aim, “Not happening.”
The cutting beam lanced out of Sonya’s hand—longer range this time, weaker, but still lethal. It carved a burning line diagonally across the Tank Man’s face. He screamed, clutching his face, the cutting beam had just missed his eyes, but the blood pouring out of the wound streamed into his eyes blinding him.
Kat emptied her magazine trying to hit an eye as the Tank Man staggered forward, not daring to unleash any more distortion orbs for fear of any side effects of creating them blind.
James’s repeater roared from the ramp, rapid bolts hammering the Tank Man’s legs throwing off his balance causing him to stumble.
Alex, half-conscious, raised a trembling hand. One last ethereal chain whipped out, wrapping the Tank Man’s ankle and yanking him off balance.
Sonya forced herself upright, charging forward she drove her glowing fist straight into the Tank Man’s chin. The cutting beam punched clean through his skull and out the other side.
He fell backward, finally still as Sonya collapsed to her knees vomiting the contents of her stomach.
The LZ fell eerily silent for a moment—The only sound being the dropship’s idling engines.
Kat grabbed Sonya before she completely collapsed, the jungle tilting and swimming. “Come on, hero.”
Sonya grimaced, spitting blood as she shakily rose, leaning on Kat. “I’m no hero. I got the job done.”
They stumbled up the ramp. The pilot yelled, “Triple capacity—this is going to be a rough liftoff!”
The ramp sealed as the dropship took off clawing for altitude, jungle exploding beneath them as the enemy fired uselessly at them.
Sonya collapsed against the bulkhead, prisoners packed around her like sardines. Someone pressed a canteen into her hand; she drank, passed it along.
Kat gave her a weak, exhausted smile. “Mission accomplished and then some.”
Sonya didn’t return the smile. Her thoughts flashed to that cell, to the flashes of her halo, to the promises she’d made with light.
There would have to be an accounting for what she did.
She would make sure of it.
An hour later the dropship touched down on the Avenger’s main hangar deck and the ramp opened. Sonya and the others were swept up by the flow of prisoners scrambling to escape the cramped, suffocating space. Dr. Richardson stood off to the side with several medics, calling out, “Everyone this way, please. We’ll check you out and treat any injuries you have.”
Kat glanced at her team. Sonya looked like death warmed over; Alex wasn’t much better. Her own wounded shoulder was killing her now that the adrenaline had drained away. “Come on, let’s get to a med bay.”
They started toward a hatch. Dr. Richardson’s voice boomed behind them. “Where do you four think you’re going?”
Kat gestured to the hatch without turning. “Closest med bay while you triage the prisoners. You’re going to send the three of us there anyway.”
Richardson gave her a stern look. Kat pointed to her bandaged shoulder, blood starting to seep through. He nodded grudgingly. “Fine. But you’ll get hell if you’re lying to me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Thirty minutes later the team sat in the main briefing room, now in duty uniforms. Kat wore a sling and a medigel patch on her shoulder. Alex looked a little better; Sonya was still pale. Greg and Stephanie sat opposite them. Stephanie’s eyes lingered on Sonya with open concern.
Grand Admiral Thrawn’s hologram materialized from the central projector. Even expressionless, her red eyes felt like they were judging. “I am very interested in hearing your report.”
Kat cleared her throat. “Ma’am, we haven’t had—”
Thrawn cut in smoothly. “I want to hear it while it is fresh in your mind, Lieutenant. The others may add when appropriate.”
Kat nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We disembarked as planned but were off our insertion point…”
Sonya tried to focus as Kat recounted the repulsor failure, the discovery of Tank Men, and the prisoners being used as living test subjects. “…We managed to free forty-five prisoners, but three others who had been experimented on had expired before Lt. Merrow could render aid…”
Sonya lowered her head in shame and interrupted, voice barely above a whisper. “That is not correct ma’am. I waved Lt. Merrow off, telling him the prisoners had expired. They were actually still alive—if you can call it that. They begged me to end their suffering, and I… I used distortion orbs to do just that.”
She couldn’t look up; couldn’t bear the revulsion she expected. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
Silence stretched, heavy and suffocating as she waited for the call to take her away.
Then Stephanie spoke, soft but steady. “Lt. Blade, what exactly did they look like when you waved Lt. Merrow off?”
Sonya closed her eyes. Her photographic memory was a curse for what she saw. She described every grotesque detail—the snapping tendons, the writhing muscles, the pus-oozing skin, the elongating arm, the rasping plea of “Kill us!” She heard sharp intakes of breath around the table. Stephanie turned to Thrawn, expression sympathetic. “Grand Admiral, what Sonya did was mercy. I’ve seen similar outcomes. They were beyond saving. They would have died within minutes outside that facility, in unbearable pain the whole time but never losing consciousness.”
Thrawn regarded them for a long moment. “Lt. Blade.”
Sonya looked up, bracing herself. “Ma’am?”
“From your statements you are aware of the rules of engagement you violated. Such a violation can lead to imprisonment and dishonorable discharge.” Protests erupted; Thrawn raised one hand and silence fell. “Since you have admitted the violation, a court-martial is unnecessary. I sentence you to forty-eight hours confinement—restricted to your quarters, medical, and Agent Stephanie’s labs. After this briefing you will report to the labs for evaluation for overexertion.”
She paused, then added, almost gently, “For the record, I will request the relevant regulation be amended for situations such as this. I believe you acted with appropriate judgment in an impossible circumstance.”
Sonya exhaled shakily; she felt like she was getting off way too easily for her actions.
Thrawn inclined her head to Kat. “Lieutenant, please continue.”
Sonya forced herself to look at the others. Alex looked hurt that she lied to him and James looked like he was slowly recovering from the shock. To her surprise, Kat, Stephanie, and Greg looked sympathetic.
Kat finished the report—matter of fact, ending with: “I don’t think any other team without powered individuals could have pulled off both the mission and the rescue.”
Thrawn nodded once. “Thank you. The intel and catalyst canisters will be invaluable. I commend your initiative and the rescue of the prisoners. Captain Westner, return to Ta’charin to deliver the prisoners and the majority of the canisters. Agent Stephanie will advise the exact number.”
Greg nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll depart as soon as possible.”
“Very good. I require a few minutes with Agent Stephanie. The rest of you are dismissed.”
They rose, saluted, and filed out. When the door closed, Thrawn turned to Stephanie, who was rubbing the bridge of her nose. “If Lt. Kerrigan’s report is accurate, Sonya should be dead, ma’am. Not looking like the walking dead.”
Thrawn inclined her head. “Explain.”
Stephanie exhaled. “It takes a month to make a Tank Man, with severe limits early on. Sonya’s had only two activations—enough to stabilize her for field work, nothing more. She used the molecular distortion almost as much as fully activated Tank Men can, fought them hand-to-hand, and now manifests some kind of cutting beam that sounds completely different. By all accounts her head should have exploded in the first fight.”
“These new developments lend credence to the Cartyr scanner results,” Thrawn mused.
Stephanie nodded. “I wanted to point out that when I retrieved the translation program from the Far Talon 2 it seemed like the command crew were very interested in Lt. Blade.”
Thrawn’s eyes gleamed. “Fascinating. With the new catalyst supply, proceed immediately to widen the testing pool aboard the Avenger. Lt. Blade’s development remains priority. Keep me updated.”
The hologram winked out. Stephanie stared at the empty air, mind racing. Sonya was definitely not Terran, but what was she? It was a mystery she had to figure out.
Shadows of the Catalyst
Sonya adjusted her mask as the dropship punched out of hyperspace, the cabin lights flickering red. This was their third op together, and to maintain her double-agent cover, Lieutenant Katherine “Kat” Kerrigan was in command despite Sonya’s rank. She’d fought beside Alex on multiple occasions—the fellow traitor who’d become her closest confidant, one of the few besides Greg who wanted to socialize with her outside of duty. Gunnery Sergeant James Hunter, Greg’s old war buddy and heavy-weapons specialist, rounded out the squad. They had worked well on their previous missions; she hoped that it would continue.
Kat watched Sonya, then the others, wondering if they’d follow her lead. She’d run plenty of infiltration-sabotage ops; good teams and good intel let them slip in and out like ghosts. This one? A rushed twenty-minute brief, plus Thrawn’s private warning: “Blade’s working for intelligence as a double agent. To facilitate the illusion that I do not trust her, I am placing you in command. Trust her skills, and her loyalty.”
She couldn’t help wondering how Sonya truly felt about her being in charge, but Sonya showed no resentment. Kat’s head snapped up as the dropship shuddered.
“Entering atmo,” the pilot called. “Five minutes to drop.”
Kat tapped her helmet. “Acknowledged.”
The craft rattled harder. Alex and Hunter tightened straps; Kat and Sonya leaned back as if they were used to it. The high-angle reentry minimized exposure but risked burn-up or control lock. Night cloaked the planet, yet their fiery streak would light the sky like a beacon. G-forces crushed them as the pilot pulled out of the dive. Alex looked like he was going into G-LOC; Sonya shot him a concerned glance.
“I’m ok,” he muttered as he recovered.
“One minute!”
They unstrapped, crowding the drop bay as wind howled around the hull. The drop master’s voice cut through: “High winds over DZ! Check repulsor packs!”
They inspected each other’s rigs—charged, secured, altitude set. “Four OK!”
“Three OK!”
“Two OK!”
“One OK!”
The drop master checked his safety strap. “All OK! Ramp opening!”
The bay doors yawned. Energy bolts whipped past—flak explosions blooming as base defenses woke. Kat gripped a strap to stay upright as the dropship bucked. “Cloak up!”
Experimental cloaking fields shimmered. “On the green!”
Kat keyed her mic. “Give us ten, then bug out.”
“Acknowledged!”
The dropship lurched. The red light flashed green. “Go, go, GO!”
They leapt into the night, bolts streaking around them. The dropship banked hard, ramp sealing as it fled. Sonya’s HUD tracked the team—altitude, speed, positions. She frowned as Kat called out. “We’re off target.”
“Bit of a hike, lass,” Hunter grunted. “Shouldn’t delay us.”
“Just a stroll through the jungle,” Sonya added.
Kat watched her altimeter. At two hundred meters the repulsor packs should fire. Hers kicked in on the mark—gyro spinning her upright. Alex and Hunter followed, but Sonya kept falling.
“Sonya, manual override!” Kat shouted.
Sonya hammered the button three times—stutter, then nothing. “No go—100 meters…”
“Lass!” Hunter roared.
Another three hard and rapid taps—the repulsor stuttered, then whined to life. She flipped upright just as she crashed through the canopy into a tangle of vines.
“Status, Two?” Kat asked, with concern.
A groan crackled through their headsets. “Frack, that hurt. Two down. Area clear… banged up, but good to go.”
Alex shook his head as his HUD warned him about the canopy. “Yeah, I’ve seen your version of ‘banged up.’ I’ll check you over the second I’m down.”
Kat crashed through branches before she finally landed. “One down.”
Hunter smashed through like a meteor, landing with a grunt. “Three down. Hit every damn branch.”
Alex touched down smoothly. “Four down.”
Kat quickly checked the readings of her scanner, “No sign of active scanners, we can decloak.”
Their cloaking fields dropped as Alex knelt by Sonya, scanner humming. “Banged up my ass, you’ve got multiple fractured ribs, a hairline right humerus fracture, and a hairline fractured right femur.”
“That all?” Sonya winced. “Doesn’t feel that bad.”
Alex quickly put the scanner away and just as quickly began casting a healing spell on her. “That’s because you’re a masochist when on a mission. Stay still, this will take a moment.”
Kat inspected Sonya’s repulsor pack while Alex was healing her. “Receiver connection is cracked, altitude connector is fracked, and the manual starter has a short. You got lucky, don’t know how this passed muster.”
Sonya shook her head, “I suppose not splattering on the jungle floor would count as lucky.”
Kat nodded as she checked her HUD and then pointed toward their objective. “Hunter will take point, Blade, you’re the rearguard. We move when Alex clears her.”
Alex pulled out his medical scanner and ran another check of Sonya. “I would have thought you would have been in worse shape with that landing, so yes, you were very lucky. I’m guessing someone who wasn’t enhanced would have been a mess. We’re good to move ma’am.”
The group started carefully picking their way through the jungle in combat spacing. Kat noticed Sonya kept glancing around as they got closer to the objective. “Something wrong Two?”
“It’s quiet, which is bothering me. No patrols, probes or other surveillance. We woke up the neighborhood when the dropship came down and took fire.”
Kat grimaced as she became even more aware of her surroundings, Sonya was right, they hadn’t run into anything. The base commander should have at least sent out a few patrols. “Ok everyone cloak up. Three, switch places with Two. I want fresh eyes up.”
The group quickly activated their cloaking devices, their HUDs now the only thing showing the general position of each team member as Sonya and James changed positions. While the experimental cloaking devices made them practically invisible anything they moved or distorted with their mass would still give away their position. They started carefully moving again and after a few tense minutes Sonya, well ahead of the rest quickly moved off the trail, her voice low. “Movement ahead with lights, possible patrol.”
Out of habit Kat gestured to the sides, “Off the trail, find cover.”
They quickly melted into foliage. Four troopers with headlamps and a scanner paused near Sonya’s position, sweeping around. Kat slowly brought her rifle to her shoulder, ready to fire if they detected Sonya’s malfunctioning repluser pack. After what seemed like an eternity, they turned around and headed back.
“Clear,” Sonya whispered. “They took some readings before heading back down the trail.”
“Give it five minutes, then we move.”
Five minutes later, they advanced. Hunter broke the silence. “They say anything, lass?”
“They were grumbling about checking for probes… shit!”
The group stopped in their tracks, “What?” Kat quietly asked.
“Two, report!” Kat quietly hissed.
Sonya’s voice was barely a whisper “Get off the trail—now!”
They quickly ducked into the thick jungle just off the trail. Two Enhanced in tight Imperial PT uniforms sprinted past them at 30kmh.
Kat breathed a sigh of relief, “We’re clear here.”
Sonya’s sigh of relief could be heard in their headsets. “Came around so fast I barely had time to sidestep them, stood practically right next to me. Enhanced personnel on site wasn’t in the briefing.
“No, it wasn’t. Keep to the sides, let’s get moving.”
It took another twenty minutes of carefully dodging increasing patrols and two more groups of enhanced beings before they got to the clearing around the two-story research facility with what looked like a barracks building. Sonya pulled up her binoculars and scanned the structures with the night vision feature, “This isn’t just a catalyst manufacturing facility they’re making Enhanced Beings here.” She whispered over the com.
Kat reflexively nodded as she carefully moved up beside Sonya taking out her binoculars scanning as well, “That explains the regular interval of them running on that trail. Must be a loop. I’m seeing guards at the entrances as well as security droids. Looks like they’re still on alert by their numbers.”
“Going to make it hard to get into quietly.” Alex added.
“Roof access? Seems like that’s guarded by only a single guard.” Kat mused.
Sonya grimaced, “The ladder is retracted, they’d definitely hear the repulsers at that range if mine even still works.”
“We could wait for a shift change, go in with the guards.” Alex added.
“Risky lad but it could work.”
“Two, any thoughts on when they would change shifts?” Kat grimaced right after she said it expecting a defensive remark. Sonya was silent for a second before responding. “If they’re on alert, they’ll rotate every 15 minutes checking in at random intervals instead of the normal 20min check in. At least that’s what they did when they had me on a leash. Been a while so they could have changed it up.”
Kat sighed, “Our drop wasn’t supposed to put the base on constant alert it was supposed to look like an aborted attempt to drop probes. We should have been able to sneak in a lot easier.”
Sonya reflexively nodded and then focused on the other side of the manufacturing and research building. “Wait, see that path at the forty-five mark?”
Kat scanned where Sonya indicated and nodded, “Yeah. You think it’s the return path for the enhanced we saw out there?”
“Probably, good chance there’s a door on that side of the facility as well. We might be able to sneak in over there.”
Kat shrugged, “Ok let’s scout it out. You’re on point.”
The group carefully and quietly made their way through the edge of the jungle to the other side of the compound and once again set up observation. “One guard at the door, the path splits and heads to the barracks.”
Sonya looked over at the barracks, “I can take out the guard easily and prop him up but I’m worried about both the security’s visual sensors and the Enhanced.”
Alex reflexively nodded, “I’ve got an illusion spell that will last a few minutes, enough for us to get in.”
Kat tilted her head slightly, “Can you make an illusion that can draw off the guard?”
“Yeah, but I can’t then create the illusion at the door until I drop the other one.”
Kat started laying out a plan in her head, “How much time do you need to cast the illusion for the door if we just need it for getting through?”
“About ten seconds.”
“Ok here’s the plan. We’re going to move up close to that door; Alex will distract the guard with an illusion to get him to move away from the door. Once he’s distracted, I’ll bypass the lock, once I signal it’s unlocked Alex switches to the door illusion and we all breach quickly and quietly so we can get that door closed before the guard gets back.”
The team ghosted along the jungle’s edge to the northeast corner, cloaks shimmering like heat haze in the humid night. Sonya took point, her SMG raised, every rustle of leaves amplifying the knot in her gut. The facility loomed ahead—harsh floodlights carving white cones across the clearing, security cameras on the walls like watchful eyes. The single guard at the side door paced lazily, rifle slung, bored but alert.
Kat signaled halt behind a cluster of ferns. “Positions.”
They fanned out. Alex knelt, murmuring an incantation under his breath, his hands glowing faintly. A phantom figure materialized twenty meters down the path—a flickering silhouette of an intruder stumbling from the jungle, clutching a wounded arm. The guard snapped to attention, rifle up. “Intruder! Sector four!”
He charged toward the illusion, boots crunching gravel as the illusion stumbled back into the jungle as if trying to get away. Kat was already moving, low and fast, her lockpick tool interfacing with the door panel. Sonya covered her, SMG trained on the guard’s back, finger hovering over the trigger. One wrong move and this goes loud, she thought, heart pounding.
The guard nearly reached the illusion, Kat’s tool chirped softly—green light. She signaled.
Alex dropped the distraction illusion and quickly recast, the door now shrouded in a perfect replica of itself, guard post empty. The guard looked around the jungle confused as to where the intruder went. “False alarm. Returning to my post.”
They slipped through the open door like shadows. Kat eased it shut behind them, the magnetic seal clicking with agonizing slowness. The guard’s footsteps receded outside, none the wiser.
Inside, the corridor hummed with sterile white light, the air cold and chemical. Sonya decloaked first, SMG sweeping. “Clear.”
The others followed. Hunter grunted approval. “Smooth. Almost too smooth.”
Kat motioned forward. “Catalyst storage should be sublevel two. Let’s move.”
They advanced, boots silent on the grated floor. Alex’s ward shimmered faintly, masking their heat signatures. At the first junction, Kat hacked the security door—fingers flying over the panel. The lock disengaged with a soft beep. They slipped through.
The second door was heavier, reinforced. Kat knelt again, using her tools to hack it. “Biometric lock. Give me thirty seconds.”
Sonya covered the corridor, SMG ready. Hunter watched their six, repeater humming. Alex monitoring his wards.
The door hissed open. They stepped into a vast chamber—and froze.
Rows of containment cells lined the walls, force fields humming. Inside, prisoners—mix of military uniforms and civilian clothes—huddled or lay motionless. Some bore the telltale signs: bulging muscles, sagging skin, glowing veins, eyes flickering with unnatural light. Failed catalyst experiments. A few were still human, wide-eyed and terrified, wrists raw from the restraints.
One cell held a Ta’charin soldier, pleading silently through the field. Another—a human woman in tattered civilian garb—pressed against the barrier, mouthing “Help.”
Kat’s voice was a whisper. “Frack. This isn’t just production. They’re testing on live subjects.”
Sonya’s jaw tightened, her SMG lowering slightly. “Civilians. Military. They’re using POWs as lab rats.”
Hunter’s growl was low, trying to steel himself. “Mission was sabotage and recovery. Not rescue.”
Alex’s face paled. “Intel didn’t know about the prisoners, we can’t leave them. Not like this.”
Kat stared at the cells, her mind racing. In the center, massive vats bubbled with sickly red fluid; crystalline structures grew inside like fermented coral, fed by dark tubes that looked disturbingly like blood lines. Technicians in hazmat suits moved between them, filling containers with the finished catalyst crystals and then sealing the containers. The sabotage charges in their packs felt suddenly heavy.
Sonya’s voice was quiet, but steel edged it. “If we blow the facility, we kill them all. We try to save them; we risk the mission—and our lives.”
Kat met her gaze, the weight of command pressing down. “Clock’s ticking. We have twenty minutes before exfil window closes.”
The prisoners watched them through the fields, hope flickering in their eyes. The vats hummed, innocent and deadly.
Sonya’s hand tightened on her SMG; this was the hard call no one wants to make. The one that keeps you up at night and eats at part of your soul. “It’s your call Kat. I’ll back your play, but if you’re asking my opinion? We complete our objectives and then possibly try to save who we can.”
Sonya stepped closer to Kat whispering, “As the ranking officer, I can make the call and take responsibility. Everyone sees me as a traitor anyway.”
Kat patted Sonya’s arm, exhaling. “I agree with Sonya’s opinion, we complete our objectives and then we improvise.” Kat’s mind raced, mapping the facility from the schematics they’d memorized. “To pull this off—to save even some of them—we need control. Security center and main control room. Disable the alarms and the control center, unlock the cell doors so we can deactivate the fields. Quiet and fast.”
Sonya’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll need to split up.”
“Two and two,” Kat said. “You and Hunter take security—override internal defenses, kill the alarms. Alex and I hit control. We grab the finished catalyst, while you and Hunter plant charges on the vats. We meet there, free who we can, then blow the place.”
Alex swallowed. “And the Enhanced?”
Sonya’s voice was low. “It looks like they’re in their rest cycle. We don’t wake them.”
Hunter grunted. “Those three look like they’re close to or fully activated. Sonya and my weapons aren’t surpassed, if they wake up…”
“They won’t wake,” Sonya cut in. “Not if we’re fast. Kat and Alex use suppressed pistols. I use my halo.”
Kat’s head snapped toward her looking concerned. “Sonya, you’ve only had two activations. It could…”
“I’m stable at two,” Sonya interrupted, her tone flat. “No muzzle flash, and quieter than the suppressed pistols. I can drop guards with just a look without giving us away.”
She was lying—just a little. The surge inside her felt different now, deeper, like it had woven itself into her bones. She didn’t know if pushing it this hard would tear her apart. But the prisoners’ eyes… she couldn’t leave them.
Kat searched her face, then nodded once. “Okay. Halo for your takedowns. We move in three.”
They split. Sonya and Hunter ghosted toward security, cloaks shimmering. Two Nathal troopers patrolled the corridor to the security center, rifles at the low ready. Sonya placed a hand on James to get him to wait. They turned and casually walked back down the corridor. She stepped out, eyes flaring with energy that gave the Tank Man’s molecular distortion power the term ‘halo effect’. The molecular distortion orbs silently and violently appeared enveloping parts of the two guards, the orbs either silently exploding or ripping apart armor, flesh, organs, and bones where they appeared in a gory mess. The remains of the troopers dropped almost silently in the now blood and gore-spattered corridor.
Hunter silently gagged for a moment at what he just witnessed as Sonya continued down the corridor to the security center and opened the door while still cloaked. Inside four techs and one officer looked in confusion at the open door. The last thing they saw was Sonya’s halo effect appearing—five silent but gory kills. Sonya and James quickly entered the center with military precision making sure the room was clear. Hunter grimaced as he brushed some remains off of the port on the main console and inserted an override spike into it. Seconds later the consoles flickered and unlocked. They quickly went to work locking internal doors, unlocking and setting the cells to local control, then disabling the alarm system. “Security’s down, proceeding to phase two.” Hunter quietly reported over comms.
Kat and Alex reached the control room on the third floor. Kat and Alex shouldered their rifles and unholstered their suppressed pistols as they peeked in through the observation window. Two techs at consoles, one guard. Alex quickly cast an illusion of a phantom guard suddenly collapsing at the far door. Kat and Alex quickly slipped in as the guard raised his rifle and approached the phantom, three precise, suppressed shots and it was over.
They moved fast. Kat jammed a disrupter spike into the main console’s jack and was rewarded with it shorting out along with the other consoles, thin tendrils of smoke rising from parts of them. Kat and Alex quickly grabbed the datapads and datasheets laying around as Kat reported, “Control center knocked out, gathering intel then proceeding to phase two.”
They carefully started heading down to the vats spotting the flashes of Sonya’s distortion orbs as she took out the remaining techs around the vats before they could sound the alarm.
Kat and Alex quietly took out two more patrolling guards before making down to the vats. They quickly loaded the sealed canisters into their satchel bags—heavy, but manageable. James’s voice crackled: “Charges planted on vats. Timer set for twenty if the remote fails.”
Kat responded, “Good work. Come over here and grab a couple canisters.”
Sonya and James made their way over grabbing a couple of canisters and stuffing them in their empty satchel bags. Kat nodded to them, “Ok, let’s see what condition the prisoners are in…”
A Nathal guard stepping out onto the second-floor walkway on patrol spotted them. His eyes widened. He raised his rifle and fired, the plasma bolt screaming toward Kat.
Sonya spun to the sound, halo flaring—but too late.
The bolt grazed Kat’s shoulder guard, spinning her to the ground. The guard’s hand flew to his headset. “Intru…”
Sonya’s distortion orbs hit him, silent, gory, and lethal. His remains dropped onto the walkway.
The three fully activated Tank Men stirred in their resting pods.
“Frack,” Sonya whispered. “They’re waking up.”
Kat clutched her shoulder, blood seeping through the graze as she quickly grabbed her pistol and got to her feet. “We have to move—now!”
“To late!” Sonya replied as the first Tank Man’s pod hissed open, and he stepped out, locking eyes on them and smiled sinisterly, eight feet of pale, gold-veined muscle, eyes glowing, ready to release the deadly distortion orbs like what Sonya had been using. He rolled his neck once, cracked his knuckles, and smiled, slow and sinister.
The other two pods hissed open behind him.
“Remember,” Sonya said, voice low, “eyes are the weak point. Pierce one and their heads pop.”
Kat’s eyes narrowed, psychic pressure already building behind them as she quickly switched to her rifle. “Got it. Two, the lead one is yours. I’ll take the middle one. Three, Four, the third one’s yours.”
Hunter was already moving, his light repeater up. “Copy that, lass.”
The lead Tank Man charged.
Sonya met him head-on.
She ducked under a hammer-fist that cratered the wall, driving her shoulder into his gut, and unleashed a halo orb point-blank. The distortion sphere detonated inside his torso, shredding organs and spine. He roared, still standing, blood pouring from the gaping wound. Sonya pivoted, grabbing his head and driving him into her rising knee into his jaw, shattering it as she fired a second orb into the back of his head; his skull exploded in a spray of gold-flecked gore. The rush coming back to her.
One down.
The second Tank Man lunged at Kat. She didn’t flinch as she glared at him, psychic force slamming into his mind like a freight train. His eyes rolled white, veins bursting across his temples as he tried to fight it. Kat’s nose started bleeding, but she held him frozen long enough to take aim with her rifle. A single precise shot to the eye and she dropped the psychic hold. He grabbed his head for a second before his head detonated with a distortion burst, body toppling like a cut tree.
The third charged Alex and James ignoring Jame’s repeater fire.
Alex’s hands glowed violet. Ethereal chains erupted from the deck, wrapping the Tank Man’s limbs, coiling over his eyes. The monster thrashed, ripping floor plates free, but the chains held—for now. Alex’s knees buckled, sweat pouring. “I can’t hold him!”
Hunter was already there. He slapped a plasma shaped charge to the Tank Man’s abdomen, armed it, and dove clear. “Fire in the hole!”
The charge went off with a muffled whump and a burst of intense heat from the plasma. The Tank Man’s abdomen vanished in a bloom of superheated plasma, ribs and spine vaporized. The chains shattered as Alex dropped to his knees exhausted. The body hit the ground in two smoking pieces of flesh. To their horror he pulled himself up as his eyes began to glow.
Sonya’s distortion orbs materialized around him ripping the Tank man apart. Sonya’s halo flickered out. Blood trickled from her nose, her vision swimming, sweat dripping down her face. She’d pushed harder than ever before, but she was still standing.
Kat wiped the blood from her nose, breathing hard. “Clear. No more pods cycling.”
Alex wearily got to his feet as James reloaded, eyes on the cells. “We have to get the prisoners free quickly. We’ve got maybe five minutes before the whole base wakes up from that noise.”
They quickly moved up to the cells and began dropping the forcefields. Sonya looked at the terrified faces as the force fields came down—some already moving out into the walkway. Some of them looked in rough shape, Alex grimaced, “Some of them can barely hobble.”
“Then we carry who we can,” Sonya said, voice raw. “And we burn this place to the ground.”
One of the prisoners, a Ta’charin soldier stepped out, fists clenched, eyes burning with something between gratitude and vengeance. Kat gestured to one of the rifles lying on the ground. “Those of you who can fight, pick up a rifle. We’re going to have to fight our way out.”
Sonya stood in the doorway of the failed experiments cell, the acrid stench of ruined flesh and chemical decay hitting her like a physical blow. Three figures lay on the floor—twisted, broken things that had once been people. Their bodies were failing in real time. Skin sagged and split, muscles writhed beneath it like something alive and angry, tendons snapping with wet, sickening pops. One man’s arm had stretched grotesquely, the bone visible through torn flesh. Another woman’s eyes were wide and lucid, full of unbearable awareness.
They were still conscious. Still feeling everything.
The one closest to her—a young man whose uniform had once marked him as URF—reached out with a hand that was no longer quite human. His voice was a wet rasp.
“Please…Dying… unbearable pain… Kill us!” A sickening snap came from its arm, and it fell uselessly to the deck”
Sonya’s stomach turned. The smell, the sounds, the sheer wrongness of it slammed into her like a memory she couldn’t outrun. For one terrible second she was back in that resistance cell—chained, violated, begging for an end that never came. Her hands shook. She forced them still.
Alex’s footsteps approached behind her. She backed out into the catwalk blocking his access to the cell so he couldn’t see what was inside.
“Sonya—”
She didn’t turn. Couldn’t. If she looked at him, she might break.
“They’re gone,” she said, voice flat. “There was nothing you could do.”
Alex hesitated. She could feel him wanting to argue, wanting to see for himself. She cut it off before he could speak.
“Go. The others need you. I’ll see if they have any personal effects.”
A long pause. Then he turned and headed back to the others, so she stepped back in, only then did she let herself really look.
The one who had spoken was still watching her. His eyes were clear. He knew exactly what was happening to him. He knew there was no coming back.
Sonya’s throat tightened until it hurt.
She had done terrible things in her life. She had made hard calls. But this… this was different. This was mercy dressed up as murder, and she was the only one here who could do it.
She stepped inside. The door hissed shut behind her.
The first one—the one who had begged—tried to smile. It came out as a grimace of agony.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Sonya’s vision blurred. She blinked hard, once.
“I’m sorry,” she said, so quietly she wasn’t sure he heard it.
Her eyes flared.
The distortion orb appeared inside his chest with no sound at all. His body jerked once, violently, then went still. The second one made a broken, grateful sound before Sonya ended it the same way. The third—the woman—reached for her with what was left of her hand.
Sonya took it. Held it while she did what needed to be done.
When it was over, she stayed kneeling for a long moment, her forehead pressed to the cold deck plating, breathing through the nausea and the shaking. Blood—hers and theirs—dripped from her nose onto the floor. She didn’t wipe it away.
She had told herself she was shielding the others. That Alex shouldn’t have to carry the burden of being helpless to save them. That Kat had enough weight already. That James would never forgive himself.
But the truth was simpler, and uglier.
She didn’t want anyone else to know what it felt like to look someone in the eyes and give them the only mercy left.
When she finally stood, her legs were steady. Her face was empty. She wiped the blood from her nose with the back of her hand, tucked the small personal items she’d taken from their bodies into a belt pouch, and stepped out of the cell like nothing had happened.
Outside, Kat was waiting.
Sonya met her eyes for half a second—long enough for Kat to see the hollow look in her eyes—and then looked away.
“They’re gone,” she said, voice steady. “Let’s move.”
She didn’t wait for an answer. She just started walking, shoulders straight, the weight of three more ghosts settling quietly into the spaces between her ribs.
Sonya keyed the final cell door open and the last of the prisoners spilled out. By her count they had freed forty-five prisoners; some running, some limping, a few carried by stronger survivors. The Ta’charin soldier who’d taken a rifle barked orders in his own language, herding some of the civilians towards the exit as freed URF troopers scavenged rifles and power packs.
Kat’s voice cut through the chaos. “Alex and those prisoners with weapons, rear guard! Keep them moving and on the route. James, take point. Sonya, with me; center column. Protect the civvies.”
Alex dropped back, hands glowing as he cast a soft ward over the stumbling prisoners. “Go, go, go! Stay tight!”
They moved quickly towards the first junction, Kat still trying to figure out the best route out of the building, calling out directions for James to take.
First contact came thirty meters down from the junction: Nathal troopers and four spider-like security droids rounding the corner, plasma rifles already spitting red fire.
James’s repeater roared as he ducked back and took cover. The lead droid exploded in a shower of legs and sparks. “Contact front!”
Sonya pushed through the panicking prisoners to get to James as her halo flared. She poked her head around the corner and let loose multiple orbs that materialized on and around the droids and most of the troopers turning the corridor into carnage.
Kat had also worked her way forward and dropped to one knee, rifle barking precise semi-auto fire. Two troopers fell, chest plates melted. A plasma bolt grazed her already-wounded shoulder; she hissed but kept firing, downing the last trooper.
Prisoners screamed as fire stitched the wall behind them. Alex, the Ta’charin soldier, and the rescued URF troopers returned fire with their scavenged rifles, dropping the guards that were trying to move up behind the prisoners.
Behind them, heavy footfalls echoed. Metal on metal.
The first fully-activated Tank Man rounded the far corner, eight feet of death. His eyes already starting to glow.
Sonya’s blood ran cold, there was no way she could get back through the prisoners to help. “Tank Man rear! Alex, chains—now!”
Alex spun, violet light erupting. Ethereal chains lashed out, wrapping the Tank Man’s arms and torso. He roared, ripping forward, dragging Alex off his feet. Prisoners scattered around them.
James pivoted, unable to get a clear shot as the armed rescued prisoners opened fire, the plasma showing no effect.
Kat slapped a fresh magazine home shouting. “The eyes! Go for the eyes!” She concentrated, and as before the Tank Man eyes rolled white, veins bursting across his temples as he tried to fight it and the chains. “I’m giving you an opening!”
The former prisoners quickly opened fire directly at the Tank Man’s head, it was volume over accuracy, but it worked and the Tank Man’s head exploded, he fell to the ground as if his strings had been cut.
A second and third Tank Men charged down the corridor where the troopers had been cut down as Sonya called out. “Tank Men front!”
James pivoted back and opened fire, his light repeater howling. The plasma rounds just sparked off the Tank Men’s skin. “Not even scratching him!”
Sonya stepped into the open, halo blazing. She fired orb after orb; one Tank Man’s knee exploded, temporarily dropping him; another took a hit to the shoulder and kept coming. Blood streamed from her nose, vision tunneling, but she planted herself between the monsters and the prisoners.
“Get them out!” she shouted, voice raw. “I’ll hold them off!”
Kat grabbed a limping civilian, hauling him forward. “Not leaving you! Everyone move straight through the junction, go, go, GO!”
Sonya met the wounded Tank Man head-on, deflecting his wild swing with her right as she felt an energy building in her left forearm. She swung with it at the Tank Man’s head and thought about releasing the energy on impact. Her arm and hand glowed blue, crackling with energy and as her fist connected with his cheek, a beam shot out of her fist that looked like the Avenger’s lance cutting beam. The beam cut through the Tank Man’s head, blowing it apart and carving into the wall. Sonya’s eyes widened in shock as the beam continued flowing from her hand. The Tank Man on the ground started to pull himself up but Sonya whipped her hand in his direction cutting across his face. The distance seemed to affect the beam’s strength, but it still burned across his face and connected with one of his eyes and as with the others his head exploded. Sonya shook off the shock as the beam continued. She concentrated on turning off the beam and disappeared as if nothing had happened. Hunter looked at her in shock as Kat led the prisoners past him. “Lass, what the frack was that?”
Sonya dropped to her knees breathing heavily, sweat running off of her. She ripped open one of the packets of nutrient paste as she glanced back to him, “I have no clue! I’ll figure it out later.” She quickly downed its contents trying to stave off the overexertion that would cause her head to explode, but that rush was increasing.
They were out of time, the entire base was descending on them, but the prisoners were moving, and the team wasn’t stopping.
Not until every survivor was clear… or none of them were.
The corridor shook with boots and klaxons. Forty-three freed prisoners spilled toward the side exit. James took point, repeater sweeping.
“Move, move! Single file, keep low!”
Sonya staggered at the center, blood dripping from her nose, vision pulsing. The cutting beam had saved them, but she wasn’t sure what price her body would pay.
Hunter glanced back as she stumbled. “Lass, you’re about to drop. We need you vertical for exfil.”
Kat skidded to a stop, shoulder wound hastily bandaged. She took one look at Sonya, then at the prisoners moving too slowly.
“We’re out of time. New plan.”
She grabbed Sonya’s arm, steadying her. “Alex! Can you make a fake column of prisoners?”
Alex, pale and shaking from the chain spell, grimaced. “It’ll empty the tank. I won’t be able to cast more spells after.”
“Do it.”
Kat keyed her mic, voice iron. “Three, Four—take the real group hard left through the drainage culvert to the LZ. Full speed after you blow the charges. Don’t stop for anything.”
Alex raised trembling hands. A ripple of light—two columns now, one real, one perfect duplicate—heading opposite directions.
James’s eyes widened. “And you?”
“Sonya and I sell the decoy. We draw them off.”
James opened his mouth to protest, but Kat was already dragging Sonya toward the main corridor. “Alex, can you make the illusion noisy? Gunfire, screams, the works.”
The phantom column erupted with muzzle flashes and shouts.
Nathal troopers and droids quickly chased after the illusion, shouting orders to recapture them. The real prisoners vanished into the drainage tunnel as Sonya and Kat opened fire to keep the enemy’s attention.
Kat and Sonya sprinted the opposite way, selling it like they were the rear guard.
A squad chased after them. Plasma bolts screamed.
Kat dove left, rifle barking. Sonya slid right, SMG chattering.
“Suppressing!”
“Moving!” Sonya dashed into the foliage, vision tunneling. The energy in her forearm begged release. She clamped it down. Not yet. She quickly laid down suppressing fire as Kat moved past her, counting a couple of seconds before she stopped firing and followed, plasma rounds chasing them into the night. Two Tank Men sprinted after the illusion, distortion orbs flaring.
Somewhere behind the tree line, James’s group was almost clear. Alex staggered, struggling to keep the illusion alive. James pulled out the detonator and clicked it three times. The resulting explosions echoed for miles as the remains of the facility collapsed on itself.
Thirty seconds, maybe less, before the pursuers realized they’d been played.
Thirty seconds for his group to vanish into the jungle and head for the real extraction and hope that Sonya and Kat could evade any further pursuit.
They didn’t look back.
The jungle swallowed them: thick, wet, black as pitch. Kat and Sonya ran hard, boots splashing through mud, vines whipping their faces. Behind them, the two Tank Men crashed through the undergrowth like freight trains, trees snapping, distortion orbs flickering in the darkness.
Kat’s breath came in sharp bursts. “They’re almost on us. We split them, take them one at a time.”
Sonya nodded, tasting blood. “I’ll be bait. You flank.”
“No arguments.”
They veered hard right, then Sonya veered left trying to make a little more noise as Kat continued right. The first Tank Man took the bait, charging straight after Sonya’s heavier footfalls.
Sonya burst into a small clearing, spun, and waited.
He burst through the tree line, eight feet of muscle and murder, halo already flaring.
Sonya’s eyes answered in kind, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.
She let him close to five meters—close enough. Her left arm snapped up. The cutting beam lanced out, blue-white and focused to be razor-thin. It carved across his chest at point-blank range, parting flesh and bone like paper. He roared, stumbled, but kept coming.
Sonya sidestepped, beam sweeping. The second cut took his leg at the knee. He crashed forward.
As he began to rise, Kat stepped from the shadows, rifle raised. One precise shot—straight through the eye. His head detonated in a wet distortion burst.
One down.
The second Tank Man’s roar echoed somewhere to their left—too close.
Kat slapped Sonya’s shoulder. “Move!”
They started running again.
Thirty seconds later the jungle erupted behind them. The surviving Tank Man had found his buddy and was furious.
Sonya’s vision blurred, legs like lead. The beam had taken more than she expected, but it felt… different from the orbs. Not lethal, just tiering.
Kat saw her stumble. “Lean on me.”
Sonya recovered and kept running. “No time. We have to move before he gets our trail.”
“LZ is about two hundred meters away can…”
Sonya was breathing heavy, “We’ll make it!”
They ran out of the jungle to the LZ: a tiny clearing barely big enough for the stealth dropship that had slipped in under the chaos. Its ramp was down, running lights dark, drop master waving more people on board frantically.
Prisoners were crammed aboard, bodies pressed tight. James and Alex were covering them at the bottom of the ramp, faces grim.
The Tank Man burst from the tree line thirty meters behind them, distortion orbs starting to appear but were being countered by Sonya’s distortion orbs, she could feel pressure forming in her head, her stomach churned, she was redlining, and because of that less orbs were appearing.
Sonya dropped to a knee, left arm raised as energy crackled around it. “Kat—go!”
Kat took aim, “Not happening.”
The cutting beam lanced out of Sonya’s hand—longer range this time, weaker, but still lethal. It carved a burning line diagonally across the Tank Man’s face. He screamed, clutching his face, the cutting beam had just missed his eyes, but the blood pouring out of the wound streamed into his eyes blinding him.
Kat emptied her magazine trying to hit an eye as the Tank Man staggered forward, not daring to unleash any more distortion orbs for fear of any side effects of creating them blind.
James’s repeater roared from the ramp, rapid bolts hammering the Tank Man’s legs throwing off his balance causing him to stumble.
Alex, half-conscious, raised a trembling hand. One last ethereal chain whipped out, wrapping the Tank Man’s ankle and yanking him off balance.
Sonya forced herself upright, charging forward she drove her glowing fist straight into the Tank Man’s chin. The cutting beam punched clean through his skull and out the other side.
He fell backward, finally still as Sonya collapsed to her knees vomiting the contents of her stomach.
The LZ fell eerily silent for a moment—The only sound being the dropship’s idling engines.
Kat grabbed Sonya before she completely collapsed, the jungle tilting and swimming. “Come on, hero.”
Sonya grimaced, spitting blood as she shakily rose, leaning on Kat. “I’m no hero. I got the job done.”
They stumbled up the ramp. The pilot yelled, “Triple capacity—this is going to be a rough liftoff!”
The ramp sealed as the dropship took off clawing for altitude, jungle exploding beneath them as the enemy fired uselessly at them.
Sonya collapsed against the bulkhead, prisoners packed around her like sardines. Someone pressed a canteen into her hand; she drank, passed it along.
Kat gave her a weak, exhausted smile. “Mission accomplished and then some.”
Sonya didn’t return the smile. Her thoughts flashed to that cell, to the flashes of her halo, to the promises she’d made with light.
There would have to be an accounting for what she did.
She would make sure of it.
An hour later the dropship touched down on the Avenger’s main hangar deck and the ramp opened. Sonya and the others were swept up by the flow of prisoners scrambling to escape the cramped, suffocating space. Dr. Richardson stood off to the side with several medics, calling out, “Everyone this way, please. We’ll check you out and treat any injuries you have.”
Kat glanced at her team. Sonya looked like death warmed over; Alex wasn’t much better. Her own wounded shoulder was killing her now that the adrenaline had drained away. “Come on, let’s get to a med bay.”
They started toward a hatch. Dr. Richardson’s voice boomed behind them. “Where do you four think you’re going?”
Kat gestured to the hatch without turning. “Closest med bay while you triage the prisoners. You’re going to send the three of us there anyway.”
Richardson gave her a stern look. Kat pointed to her bandaged shoulder, blood starting to seep through. He nodded grudgingly. “Fine. But you’ll get hell if you’re lying to me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Thirty minutes later the team sat in the main briefing room, now in duty uniforms. Kat wore a sling and a medigel patch on her shoulder. Alex looked a little better; Sonya was still pale. Greg and Stephanie sat opposite them. Stephanie’s eyes lingered on Sonya with open concern.
Grand Admiral Thrawn’s hologram materialized from the central projector. Even expressionless, her red eyes felt like they were judging. “I am very interested in hearing your report.”
Kat cleared her throat. “Ma’am, we haven’t had—”
Thrawn cut in smoothly. “I want to hear it while it is fresh in your mind, Lieutenant. The others may add when appropriate.”
Kat nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We disembarked as planned but were off our insertion point…”
Sonya tried to focus as Kat recounted the repulsor failure, the discovery of Tank Men, and the prisoners being used as living test subjects. “…We managed to free forty-five prisoners, but three others who had been experimented on had expired before Lt. Merrow could render aid…”
Sonya lowered her head in shame and interrupted, voice barely above a whisper. “That is not correct ma’am. I waved Lt. Merrow off, telling him the prisoners had expired. They were actually still alive—if you can call it that. They begged me to end their suffering, and I… I used distortion orbs to do just that.”
She couldn’t look up; couldn’t bear the revulsion she expected. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
Silence stretched, heavy and suffocating as she waited for the call to take her away.
Then Stephanie spoke, soft but steady. “Lt. Blade, what exactly did they look like when you waved Lt. Merrow off?”
Sonya closed her eyes. Her photographic memory was a curse for what she saw. She described every grotesque detail—the snapping tendons, the writhing muscles, the pus-oozing skin, the elongating arm, the rasping plea of “Kill us!” She heard sharp intakes of breath around the table. Stephanie turned to Thrawn, expression sympathetic. “Grand Admiral, what Sonya did was mercy. I’ve seen similar outcomes. They were beyond saving. They would have died within minutes outside that facility, in unbearable pain the whole time but never losing consciousness.”
Thrawn regarded them for a long moment. “Lt. Blade.”
Sonya looked up, bracing herself. “Ma’am?”
“From your statements you are aware of the rules of engagement you violated. Such a violation can lead to imprisonment and dishonorable discharge.” Protests erupted; Thrawn raised one hand and silence fell. “Since you have admitted the violation, a court-martial is unnecessary. I sentence you to forty-eight hours confinement—restricted to your quarters, medical, and Agent Stephanie’s labs. After this briefing you will report to the labs for evaluation for overexertion.”
She paused, then added, almost gently, “For the record, I will request the relevant regulation be amended for situations such as this. I believe you acted with appropriate judgment in an impossible circumstance.”
Sonya exhaled shakily; she felt like she was getting off way too easily for her actions.
Thrawn inclined her head to Kat. “Lieutenant, please continue.”
Sonya forced herself to look at the others. Alex looked hurt that she lied to him and James looked like he was slowly recovering from the shock. To her surprise, Kat, Stephanie, and Greg looked sympathetic.
Kat finished the report—matter of fact, ending with: “I don’t think any other team without powered individuals could have pulled off both the mission and the rescue.”
Thrawn nodded once. “Thank you. The intel and catalyst canisters will be invaluable. I commend your initiative and the rescue of the prisoners. Captain Westner, return to Ta’charin to deliver the prisoners and the majority of the canisters. Agent Stephanie will advise the exact number.”
Greg nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll depart as soon as possible.”
“Very good. I require a few minutes with Agent Stephanie. The rest of you are dismissed.”
They rose, saluted, and filed out. When the door closed, Thrawn turned to Stephanie, who was rubbing the bridge of her nose. “If Lt. Kerrigan’s report is accurate, Sonya should be dead, ma’am. Not looking like the walking dead.”
Thrawn inclined her head. “Explain.”
Stephanie exhaled. “It takes a month to make a Tank Man, with severe limits early on. Sonya’s had only two activations—enough to stabilize her for field work, nothing more. She used the molecular distortion almost as much as fully activated Tank Men can, fought them hand-to-hand, and now manifests some kind of cutting beam that sounds completely different. By all accounts her head should have exploded in the first fight.”
“These new developments lend credence to the Cartyr scanner results,” Thrawn mused.
Stephanie nodded. “I wanted to point out that when I retrieved the translation program from the Far Talon 2 it seemed like the command crew were very interested in Lt. Blade.”
Thrawn’s eyes gleamed. “Fascinating. With the new catalyst supply, proceed immediately to widen the testing pool aboard the Avenger. Lt. Blade’s development remains priority. Keep me updated.”
The hologram winked out. Stephanie stared at the empty air, mind racing. Sonya was definitely not Terran, but what was she? It was a mystery she had to figure out.
