Capítulo 31: Chapter 30. And again flight
Katari Arana is an industrial world in the Asari Republic sector. One year later.
Finishing off the remnants of the mercenaries, I could only chuckle at the desperate attempt of the female figure to escape in an aircar with a copy of the data. In principle, in a normal situation she had every chance, but...
With the usual mental effort, I gave a command to the suit's systems and, almost alive, feeling how the plasma flared up under my limbs, I rushed after the car. Yes, I did modify the armor with repulsor technology adapted for it, a system of compensators and inertia dampers for comfortable flight at sub-light speeds and safe braking. True, the armor turned out to be massive, heavy and not as mobile as what I'm used to. A sort of walking tank, for the comfortable use of which I even had to install synthetic muscles, turning the combat armor into a full-fledged combat exoskeleton, in which I could throw around multi-ton objects like cars and military equipment like toys. Well, he hung all sorts of guns on it, like a particle emitter or a mass accelerator hidden in folding slots on the arms, flashes hidden on the back, grenades and rockets. Well, the most powerful caliber is installed on a removable module on the back and shoots from behind the shoulder. I prepared several guns for him, from a rocket launcher, a large-caliber particle accelerator, to a plasma thrower. This is what I usually use in urban environments, an excellent combination of lethality, rate of fire and a small random damaging effect from which civilians may suffer.
In general, it was not difficult to catch up with the asari flying away at all times; I even flew for some time directly above her unnoticed, waiting for the right moment. Only when the empty roof of a skyscraper appeared above us did he activate the plasma launcher on his back and pierce the hood of the aircar in several places, leaving round through holes the size of my fist. The car did not survive such bullying and made a hard landing, drawing a line on the surface of the roof with its bottom.
The landing, of course, turned out to be hard, but judging by the readings of the armor sensors, the asari survived and is even conscious. The creator of the security system for the line of these cars does not get credits for pretty eyes.
However, I don't need her alive, so landing next to the car on the driver's side, without worrying about the asari's health, he simply tore out the door.
"N-no, please, I have d..." the asari bleated, holding onto her obviously broken arm, but I did not listen to her further excuses, grabbed her by the face, pulled her out of the car and pierced the heart with a rezotron blade, after which I threw away the fresh corpse.
—Each time it gets easier and easier.—.
We passed, we know. Some have children, others have sick relatives, others have other problems. What do I care why you sold your own race while working for the intelligence of foreign states? And over the past year, I have thoroughly cleaned the asari worlds of this abomination. On the other hand, of course, I feel sorry for the orphaned children or the sick left without help, but we can't help everyone. Now the philosophy of the justiciar has become more clear to me: it is better to live according to clear rules, knowing that you acted in accordance with your duty, than to plunge into other people's problems and be tormented by guilt.
"Ivon, how are you?" came a familiar voice over the internal communicator while I was taking the data storage unit out of the wrecked car.
-I finished. I'm sending the contents," he warned his partner, connecting the disk to the armor's computer and using it for the safe transit of information.
"I got it," the voice came to life again after a few seconds. -Ready. You can fly back and hurry up. The riots attracted the attention of the local Security Service.
-I'll be there in a few minutes. End of connection," answered, crushing the now unnecessary disk with data.
Having disconnected, I again activated the engines, this time rushing straight up, beyond the atmosphere to a frigate hidden in the darkness of space.
Alas, after Samara fell into a coma, there was no one to confirm my jurisdiction, as was the case when working with the justiciar. And in general, this jurisdiction was extremely informal; the justiciars simply do not have authorized assistants because in the overwhelming majority they work alone. So, in essence, I simply acted on behalf of Samara, and now...I have to work outside the law completely alone. Hence the creation of new equipment as soon as possible, since there is no one to cover me, it is better to take care of maximum protection myself.
Having reached the prudently open entrance to Victoria, overcoming the monstrous and already so familiar feeling of habit, as if I had been flying like this for decades on repulsors, I climbed inside and waited for the passage to close behind me, and the air to pump again along with the stabilization of the atmosphere, I allowed myself to take off my helmet. This time there was no need to remove it manually; it simply split into segments and folded inside the armor collar.
"Well, you made some noise there," my partner called out to me cheerfully. —Was it even worth it?—.
"You tell me," he answered, looking at the holointerface with running lines of data in front of which Erada was sitting, before turning his gaze to her.
Another innovation in my life. When I first started hunting for those who sent the killer, I didn't understand much about it. I had no experience in intelligence and anti-sabotage activities. Alas, Samara trained me as an excellent warrior and a strong biotic, as well as a good detective, but not a scout. From the toolkit, of course, I learned that this drell was the personal bodyguard and agent of a fanatically loyal hanar that I killed on Lucerne and came to us for revenge, but there were also hints that that hanar was far from the only hanar agent of influence in the Azarian sector . I was even able to partially decipher them, but it would still be difficult without help. And then I came across Erada, who knows a lot about this matter.
The Turian woman who served in the Turian Hierarchy as a scout served as an excellent teacher who gave the first impetus, and later I myself found out the secrets of the enemy, predicted his moves and easily opened other people's intelligence cells.
Yes, at first I didn't trust her, she appeared too timely, what should a turian with such specific experience do in the Azarian sector? And even now I don't completely trust her, and access to Samara, for example, is closed to her. However, over the past time, I managed to find out her story: she did her job too well and learned a little more than was due to her status, and therefore, in order to avoid being imprisoned or even wasted, she fled to the Azari Republic without waiting. She worked as a private detective, but missed more interesting work. That's how we met at one investigation.
"Are you tired?" Erada, who came up, put her fingers on my head and began to give me a light massage.
Well, I admit, it's quite nice, but we're dealing with business here. —Did you find anything?—.
In response, the turian lowered her hands and extended them to the holographic keyboard, pressing close to my back. And she did it, although casually, but with obvious eroticism in her movements. And it definitely caught my attention! This is how I find something attractive in this armored, hard, bony body? Apparently this is how abstinence affects me. For all this time, I was only able to see Liara a couple of times, and then not on Thessia, but outside of it. Abstinence is starting to take its toll and it's time to meet up with your girlfriend again.
— The messenger, whoever it was, flew away on this cruiser. I would tell you the name, but my mandibles would tie in knots before I could say it. You yourself know these hanars and what their names are," Erada drew an image of a ship somewhat similar to a fish.
- Great, determine your goal and plot the best route. When you finish, contact me, and I'll go check Samara." He stood up heavily, throwing off the turian's clawed hands, and finally once again examined the displayed image of the ship.
"How are you doing Samara?" he greeted the sleeping woman, habitually checking her indicators, from which he winced with hostility.
The level of element zero in the body dropped after the incident, too much of it leaked out, and I don't dare pump it in now, in her weakened state. It is better to wait for the asari to awaken and restore it with diet. The muscles, too, despite all the stimulating massages with massagers purchased for this purpose, become decrepit. In general, the justiciar loses his shape, and due to a long coma, his motor function will also have to be restored.
"Come on, get well, okay?" he squeezed the palm of the lying asari, but was interrupted.
"Captain, the task is completed!" came the cheerful voice of a turian woman from the speaker.
"Great, thank you Erada, I'll be right there," he answered before leaving Samara with regret.
Alas, things don't wait, and someone has to do them. And since I've taken on this burden, it's worth finishing what I started and putting the finishing touches on the Hanarian intelligence network in Azarian space. But there are also turians, elcors, and salarians. The latter actually makes the hair on your head move. I only once encountered their cell, so these psychos almost blew up a quarter of the city to cover their tracks, destroyed all the data carriers, and failed to take prisoners at all, each has explosives at the base of the skull, which they detonate without the slightest doubt in case of captivity. Oh, it's better to solve problems in order of priority.
***
Border of the Hanar sector of the galaxy.
As it turned out, our target left the asari territories, and if there had been a justiciar in my place, she would have calmed down, because justiciars do not leave the asari sector of space. But I'm not a justiciar. Therefore, by deactivating the passive heat release using external ceramic plates and transferring it to internal replaceable heat cells, due to which the ship became invisible on radar, we quietly penetrated into foreign territory.
Well, fortunately, we didn't have to look for the end point of the Hanar cruiser's route, information about this was among the obtained data, so we simply avoided patrols and got to a planet filled with 97% water on the internal borders of Hanar territory, on the satellite of which there was a base for training personal drell bodyguards. It was on the satellite, or rather above it, that we discovered our target. The ship was stuck in orbit and had no plans to fly anywhere yet.
Before getting into trouble, I got ready and went down to the armory where I put on my exoskeleton. Considering that the front and chest parts of the armor diverged, folding back in modular segments that immediately closed back as soon as I climbed inside, all this did not take much time, it was convenient. To put on and remove the first prototype of such armor, it was necessary to create specialized manipulators and write a program for them. Then they literally assembled and disassembled the prototype on me, which took up to twenty minutes and was not very convenient.
When I returned to the lower deck again, where there was a compartment with a lock for disembarking from the ship, I was extremely unpleasantly surprised. I don't know how the turian managed to make it in a matter of minutes, but she put on her armor and waited for my arrival.
"No." The unspoken question immediately answered.
"No what?" the turian asked innocently, checking the condition of her gun.
"You're not going with me, period." This is not discussed." He explained again and hurried to continue. "I won't be able to work with the same efficiency even if I'm covering for you." Especially when we are illegally on the territory of a foreign state.—.
"But you don't need to cover me!" Erada was indignant, and before the airlock closed behind me, she shouted after me. —Samara also dynamized you?—.
I didn't answer such a provocative question, I just said, "Stay in touch," and closed the airlock, cutting myself off from the rest of the ship.
While the air was being pumped out and the depressurization had calmed down a little, and when space opened up in front of me, with a cool head and a calm heart, I stepped into his arms, feeling the repulsors singing under my limbs and throughout my body. But initially a repulsor pack was planned, but Ultron's concept, when several main engines were supported by smaller ones located throughout the body, turned out to be more effective and convenient.
It is very difficult to navigate visually in space. Or rather, relatively close to the star, everything is clearly visible, but the hanar cruiser was too far from our location. Of course, we deliberately stopped at such a distance to eliminate the risk of visual detection, but now I had to check Victoria's heat sensors so as not to lose sight of the cruiser; the sensors on the armor did not work at such a great distance, alas.
During all this time, I never got used to flying independently in space, when you are a lonely grain of sand in the vast emptiness of space. Or rather, I'm not used to it, but very often there is a confusing feeling of duality, as if I've been doing this all my life. These...feelings, memories. After Samara fell into a coma and the start of my independent work, the attacks of "memories" intensified, and only after the appearance of company in the form of a turian did they calm down a little, which is partly why I decided to take her with me. But sometimes they make themselves known again.
When the sensors of my armor detected the appearance of an elegant cruiser in the sensitivity zone, I already saw it visually. I saw it, but no one even spotted me. All because I went into "invisibility" mode, when heat, instead of being passively released into the surrounding space, accumulates in replaceable thermal cells. But even this was more of a safety precaution, because even without camouflage, I most likely would not have even been detected by the ship's sensors, mistaking such a small object for space debris.
The airlock on the Khanar ship was located below, near the hangar due to the specific structure of the cruiser. But before opening it, I habitually cut out a small connector in the case, gaining access to hidden cables, through which I directly "connected" to the ship. Another unexpected feature discovered relatively recently is that I am able to connect directly to devices, information and electronic systems and thus take control over them. It took a couple of minutes to get used to the cruiser's systems, after which I got to work. Isolate the ship and cut off the crew from its control, close off the compartments, locking the crew in different parts of the cruiser, and then pump out all the air from all the compartments except the captain's deck, where he found the person he was looking for. So when I finally opened the airlock and flew inside the ship, I was greeted only by the corpses of jellyfish and drells.
Passing corpses and only occasionally killing the few survivors who managed to get to oxygen masks or were already dressed in suits with a closed breathing system, I quickly reached the captain's bridge, where they were expecting my appearance, and therefore they prepared and when the bulkhead opened, several singularities and shots flew in my direction rifles. My shield withstood the fire with honor, but the singularities had to be stopped in advance with precise deformation throws. It's worth taking care of creating a biotic cannon, especially since such an analogue already exists in FreeMan Armory.
Of course, I didn't stand on the sidelines and also attacked, in the shortest possible time frying the Hanar crew from drells to hanars, but I had to tinker with the asari paratroopers guarding the matriarch. Yes, who would have thought that the hanar agent who helped them deploy their agent network on the territory of the republics would turn out to be an entire matriarch?
The asari were good, no doubt about it. Powerful biotic blows, strong biotic barriers, accurate shooting and combat training with experience of tens or even hundreds of years made these women formidable opponents. But I'm not so simple, and the technical advantage is on my side. Yes, the exoskeleton did not allow you to jump and fight like asari in their light armor, but this is not necessary when you are your own walking arsenal. So the explosions of rockets filled with the zero element with a large spread turned out to be extremely effective against asari who were unable to hide in a closed room, destroying or extremely weakening their defense. And the destructive rays of the particle emitter completed the job, cutting the Marines into uneven pieces. Someone remained, a couple managed to jump back in a biotic jump, one even jumped at me from a jump, hoping to take me by surprise and pierce the heavy armor of the exoskeleton. But I withstood the first blow of the kinetic wave, compensating for it with the work of repulsors, and then I threw my hand forward, grabbed the girl by the throat and sharply pulled her to the side, feeling how the body of the now dead asari with a broken neck had become limp.
-What do you need? "Who hired you?" the only asari remaining on her feet, the matriarch, asked warily as I casually finished off a woman moaning on the floor with a volley of plasma from a repulsor. -How much did they pay you? I'll give more.—.
"Tell me, what is the price of betrayal?" he turned his gaze to the woman, at the same time putting the helmet into the grooves on the collar.
-Are you... Benezia's puppy? So this bitch decided to remove me?! Ah-haha-ah! — the matriarch neighed hysterically as soon as she recognized me, but the laughter was immediately replaced by a howl and whining of pain when I cut off her legs with the emitter, knocking her to the floor of the deck.
When I leaned towards the crippled woman, instead of superficial bravado and arrogance I saw something for which I did not strangle them all by asphyxia, like the rest of the ship's crew. Fear and despair in the face of inevitable death, which was replaced by all-consuming horror as soon as my helmet slammed on my face. It is with this expression that traitors should die.
But I didn't kill her, it was too easy, instead I simply took off the instrument and, moving away, flew up to the ceiling, where I placed grenades at a decent distance so that the explosion would create a round, three-meter passage. And only after that he went to the pilot's place, pushing over the corpse of the killed jellyfish.
While I was connecting to Victoria and transmitting data from the instrument of the matriarch who had fallen silent on the floor and information from the logbook of this ship, I managed to reactivate the engines and take control of the cruiser. By the time Erada announced that all the data had been received, the cruiser was flying at full speed towards the moon, straight towards the Drell training camp. Wow, the explosion from the collision of such a large ship and the surface of the moon will create a new crater on it. Hah, who knows, maybe the hanars will even like this picture?
-W-what are you doing? You'll kill us both!" the matriarch screamed hysterically, watching the picture of the rapidly approaching planetoid on the observation panel.
"You're wrong," he answered, activating the planted shells and breaking the control panel with a blow. -I will not die.-.
Before the cruiser reached the moon, I was able to fly into the resulting hole and headed towards Victoria hidden in space, not paying attention to the explosion behind me. After all, cool guys don't look at explosions, and I'm definitely cool. But the cameras in the back of the armor filmed everything from the best angles, just for memory. It's nice to give these bastards a shit on their territory.
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