“I knew I recognized the scent.”

  “Huh, don’t know much about your kind but that you must have a good nose is kinda obvious.” Alena scoffed.

  “‘Tsk!” the Zulbano snorted.

  “I thought, back in the forest, you wanted to… you know?” She said and ran her finger over her throat.

  “That was my intention… my duty, yes.” The young wolf nodded and his shoulders slumped even further, “What do you want, human?”

  “You couldn’t do it? You feel ashamed for not killing yourself? Wow, they must have messed up your head quite a bit.”

  “You know nothing about the rules of the pack!” He spat.

  “No, I don’t and to be honest I’m not interested to learn more about another cult of lunatics. Our encounter with the Cetro was exciting enough for the time being.”

  “And yet you gave me your knife.”

  “You did?” Happy chimed in and threw Alena an accusatory glare.

  “He seemed determined and lost at the same time. I just gave him the tools necessary if he decided to pull through. But obviously, he didn’t.”

  They stared at each other for a moment, trying to peek behind the facades they both wore.

  “You are both crazy, but whatever. It’s great that you are still alive. Suicide is never the answer. Sometimes life is hard, unfair and unforgiving but there always come better days after that. It’s worth working towards those!” Niu said and tried to break the heavy mood, “So, can you help us? We’re looking for our friend who was in the cell next to you.”

  “He won’t help us.” Alena said and turned to leave.

  “I would.” The Zulbano disagreed.

  “Why? That doesn’t align with what I know about the wolf folk.”

  “I thought we already agreed that you know nothing about us.” The alien growled challengingly, but then his posture immediately broke again.

  “I owe you.” He muttered and Alena skeptically raised an eyebrow.

  “Great, so do you know where they took him?” Niu happily jumped at her chance.

  “No, unfortunately not. As you see, I’m a prisoner as well. I said I would help, not that I could…”

  “‘Tsk!” Alena scoffed again and stepped out of the cell. In the hallway, she immediately froze.

  “You should leave.” the Zulbano said, “You’re running out of time.”

  “What?”

  “He is right!” Alena hissed, “Hurry up, we have to go. The guards are coming.”

  “But… what about him? And we still don’t know where Robin is!” Niu complained.

  “Leave him be! We have to go, NOW!”

  Alena unceremoniously grabbed Niu’s arm and pulled her along as she hurried down the corridor.

  “The cell doors are still open..”

  “We can’t close them from here and don’t have the time to-” Again Alena stopped dead in her tracks. Then, she grabbed the rifle they had found earlier and took it from her back.

  “There are people ahead, too. We’ll have to fight our way out and pull back for now.”

  Hesitantly, Happy also took out a rifle and warily looked for cover.

  “Put that away.” Alena whispered and pointed at the ballistic weapon in her hand as she slowly crept forward, “If you start shooting that thing in here, the noise will alert the whole base. Let me start. We try to take them out as quickly and quietly as possible, okay?”

  “Alright.” Niu nodded, “I’ll try to sneak past and get them from behind while you distract them.”

  By now they reached the door to a community room that had a few more doors further ahead. Before Niu rushed inside, she turned around again and motioned at the rifle in Alena’s hands.

  “That thing has a stun-mode, right?”

  “Yeah, of course.” Alena nodded and shooed her away, “Now go!”

  When Happy had left, Alena took cover behind a small shelf, readied her gun and waited for the guards to arrive.

  “I’m sorry Niu,” she muttered as she checked the switch for stun- or lethal-mode, “but right now all odds are against us and I can’t afford to take risks that would allow them to catch us.”

  When the first soldier came around the corner at the end of the hallway, Alena waited until he was closer and his comrade also was in sight, then she took aim and pulled the trigger without hesitation. A high pitched buzz echoed through the otherwise silent corridor and the man in UAS attire fell down like a log. Since the high temperature of the energy projectile had a cauterizing effect, only very little blood flooded out of the hole in his head.

  Alena immediately switched targets and aimed at the second soldier. Her sensitive ears twitched when she heard more people approaching from the corridor behind her and while that didn’t distract her for longer than a heartbeat, it bought the soldier enough time to raise his hands and protect his face just as she fired her second shot. The projectile’s impact slammed his hands back into his face but, either due to a mutation or the gloves he was wearing, the bolt didn’t go through.

  She heard the man groan in pain and quickly threw a glance over her shoulder.

  Two more soldiers, a man and a woman, stood at the far end of the corridor and argued about something. Even with her enhanced senses, Alena couldn’t make out if they had noticed the commotion so she briefly activated her skill and overloaded her five senses even further.

  Immediately her mind was flooded with information.

  She heard the duo discussing some incident with the Keeper, smelled the blood of the broken nose from her enemy and felt the silent closing of a door behind the man.

  ‘That must be Niu!’

  Immediately she shut off her skill and braced for the backlash. A wave of weakness washed over her and made her dizzy. With gritted teeth she tried to ignore it and turned her focus to the new arrivals behind her. She had to take them out before they noticed anything and alarmed the base.

  Alena took aim, steadied her shaking hands, breathed in and let out half of it.

  Then, another buzz echoed through the corridor and the man fell to the ground. He too had a hole in his head and would never stand up again. His comrade, the female soldier he had been talking to, reacted quickly and pointed her finger at Alena while she began to call for help at the same time.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Before Alena had the chance to fire another shot, the rifle in her hand began to heat up rapidly. Knowing the risk of using tampered energy weapons thanks to Robin, she threw it away with a curse.

  A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Happy had entered the fight and was engaging the man with the broken nose. Trusting her friend, she sprinted towards the woman and pulled out her sword. Moments later it too began to heat up. Alena tried to keep it in her hand but even with the protection of her suit the hot metal burned her flesh painfully. In moments like this she hated her mutation that also enhanced her pain perception. She had to sheath her sword and engaged the woman in hand to hand combat.

  “Who are you? You dare to attack the UAS?” The soldier yelled while they circled each other.

  Alena didn’t answer and instead kept one eye on Happy’s fight in the distance and another to spot weak points in her enemy’s defense.

  Niu did well, she was completely dominating the fight. Even if the man hadn’t been already wounded, she would eventually win. Alena saw that her friend used the technique she had learned from Ang’Tue and was slowly but surely paralyzing her enemy. The man was already limping and just about to lose control over his right arm. In his reduced state and with Niu’s enhanced reflexes, there was no chance for him to retaliate.

  Concentrating back on the angry woman in front of her, Alena finally managed to shake off the last effects from her mutation’s backlash.

  “You killed him, you fucking lunatic!” The woman screamed and tears streamed down her face.

  “Sorry about that.” Alena apologized with a flat face, “You left us no choice.”

  “There is always a choice!”

  With a sudden jump the soldier attacked and went for a low kick. Alena smoothly caught the leg mid air and slammed her palm down on the knee. With a sickening crack, bones broke. For a second, the woman’s eyes went wide, then the feedback from her neural system reached her brain and pain hit her like a ship.

  Alena lunged forward and grabbed her enemy’s throat before the mind-numbing pain would make her scream through the whole facility.

  Without hesitation, Alena changed her stance and grabbed her head to break the neck. However, something poked her back.

  “Stop! Let her go and turn around!”

  ‘Damnit!’

  During the short fight Alena was distracted and as such hadn’t noticed a third soldier who entered the corridor after hearing the woman’s call for help. Now the man was pressing his gun on her back.

  While she hesitated to think over her options, the woman in her grip went limp. The pain or the fear for her life must have been enough to knock her out. Alena dropped the woman and slowly turned around.

  “Good!”

  The man was still pointing his gun at her but slightly relaxed. With his foot he nudged the dead soldier.

  “Oi, Sullo! How bad is it?”

  However, Sullo couldn’t answer anymore. Instead his head rolled to the side and the man immediately noticed the hole in the forehead.

  “Fuck!” He cursed and pointed his gun at Alena’s head, “Are you crazy? What the fuck is going on here?”

  She didn’t answer but closely observed the man who continued to curse in panic. She was waiting for distraction, a slip-up or anything. However, she could hear that Niu was still far away and realized that the man slowly lost it. She knew that she couldn’t walk away from this.

  The man began to scream incomprehensibly and madness gleamed in his eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry, Sevastian. I hope you will find happiness with your new life!’ She silently prayed as her mind began to wander. Her time had come, but she hoped that at least Happy would get away.

  “Oh damn it, you killed Sullo! You fuckin’ bitch!”

  ‘Coming here may have been a mistake…’ Alena thought and a contented smile flickered over her face, ‘I knew this crew was batshit crazy. But I don’t regret it. It has been fun while it lasted.’

  “I’m going to fucking kill you!” The man yelled in mindless rage but then a ripping sound interrupted him and he began to gurgle and cough blood.

  A large, furred claw was sticking out of his chest where his heart should have been. Behind the man the Zulbano was standing up from his crouched position. He yanked back his hand and the dead man fell to the ground.

  Alena needed a moment to realize that she had been saved, looking from the Zulbano to the dead man and back.

  “Thanks!” she finally said and a wave of relief washed over her.

  “Hmpf!” The alien growled.

  Just then, another buzz was heard and his eyes opened wide. He fell forward and Alena quickly caught him before he hit the ground. Behind him in the hallway two more soldiers had appeared. Both had their weapons at the ready.

  “Freeze!” one of them shouted but Alena jumped to the side, the bulky Zulbano still in her arms. Somewhere to her left should be the gun that had been dropped earlier.

  Two shots were fired. One missed her head by a hair’s breadth and the other hit her shoulder. She was flung around and even though the suit protected her from the worst, pain still flooded her system.

  Suddenly many gunshots were fired in rapid succession. The loud bangs from the automatic rifle hurt her ears and probably alerted the whole base, but when Alena looked up, she saw that both soldiers lay dead on the floor.

  “Come on, we have to leave!” Niu called with a raspy voice as she hurried over, “Can you walk?”

  “Yeah, no wounds. I’m just in a world of pain.” Alena groaned, “Thanks, you saved my ass.”

  “Yeah, yeah, let’s go!” Niu said and helped her up.

  “Which way?” Alena asked groggily and as if to answer her question, the lights in one part of the corridor began to flicker.

  “There!” Niu shouted and sprinted ahead.

  “Wait!” Alena said and turned to the Zulbano. He was lying on the ground and had a nasty wound in his back. However, he was still breathing.

  “We need to take him with us.”

  “What?”

  ***

  Even long after the Keeper had left with Robin in tow, Franny Bolster was still sitting on the edge of her desk, boiling with rage. She absentmindedly swirled a pen between her fingers.

  “I knew he was playing a double game with us, I always knew it.” she muttered, “Eston will pay dearly for this. It was his pet and now the Keeper took him, shit!”

  Her hand clenched and the pen groaned under the pressure.

  “What do they even want with him? If he was just a nuisance, they could have easily killed him, but it didn’t seem to be their plan. Fuck, he must have even more secrets we don’t know about. And what did he steal from them?”

  She clenched her hand again, hard enough for her knuckles to turn white. With a crack, the pen finally gave in and split in half.

  “Damn!” She cursed and threw the pieces at the wall, “Also, what’s with Wickham? Why isn’t he reporting? The Eschaton isn’t a paper tiger, so why did they let the Keeper pass just like that?”

  She had too many questions and no one with answers. Just then however, there was a knock at the door and Bolster quickly gave permission to enter.

  “Ma’am! There was–” The soldier began even before giving a proper salute.

  “What? Any words from Wickham and the Eschaton?” She interrupted the flustered man.

  “Uhm, no, Ma’am. Not that I’m aware of. All scans suggest that the Destroyer has left our region.”

  “That’s bullshit!” Bolster shouted, “Why would they just leave like that? We are in the middle of a crisis here!”

  “I don’t know, Ma’am. But there are more important things right now.” The man tried to get back to his topic.

  “More important than some snobbish aliens coming to our doorstep, threatening me and the UAS and then taking one of our most valuable prisoners?”

  “Uhm… maybe?” The soldier hesitantly said while he tried to make himself as small as possible, “There was a jailbreak…”

  “...”

  “...”

  “What? You must be kidding!”

  “Ma’am, we just learned that someone used the Keepers’ arrival as a distraction, sneaked into the facility and freed the prisoner from C11.” He reported and when he saw the clueless look on his superior’s face, he quickly added, “The Zulbano, Ma’am. They took the Zulbano.”

  “Status?” She asked with a stern face.

  “We lost five people, the two survivors from the initial attack have reported that it was a small unit of only two people, either human or Ommih. Hard to tell since they wore a black armored suit with an opaque helmet…” The man said and then hesitated.

  “You have more to report?” Bolster asked, her face now a stony mask.

  “They may or may not have left the facility by now.” He said and winced, “We have lost partial control over our surveillance system and can’t track the group. As for the getaway ship, our scanners didn’t find anything at all. We have no idea how they got here or how they are planning to get off the moon.”

  “Close all exits. Mobilize each man and woman in the base, teams of four. They shall check every nook and cranny. Find them if they are still here!” Franny Bolster spat and sent the man out of her office.

  She had to make some calls.