CHAPTER TWENTY◄CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE►CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Gun fights, stabbings, muggings, and brawls weren’t an uncommon occurrence in this district of Sarat. What didn’t happen was full on assaults by troops of the Crown; they’d only dreamed of penetrating this far into the city and hadn’t even come close in their attack against the province. This time, a contingent had somehow slipped through and was assaulting Umbrafall. A deep crimson light soon bathed the entirety of the club above and below, the emergency power systems kicking in to light the way in the event of a crisis. A various gaggle of security personnel and bouncers rushed to and fro in a vain attempt to stave off what was coming, knowing that it was in their contracts to protect the establishment and provide order, but ultimately knowing there was little they could do in the grand scheme of things.

“They’ve come for me!” Talitha said in terror, her voice raised as loud as it could over the blaring alarms. “They weren’t going to just stop hunting for me in the deserts! They’ve followed us here now too!”

“Somebody must have tipped them off that you were here,” Doctor Daloh said, quickly gathering her things and ushering everybody out of the booth. “Didn’t you come here alone?”

“Brother Rehu,” Elkanah said, clenching his fists at having been so easily duped. Both he and Talitha had been so head over heels to proceed with the next steps in their journey that they’d taken the first offer of help that had come their way to take them to Umbrafall. Who else could have known about Talitha or ratted her out, especially since he’d been the one to process them at the Temple of Rays? “He brought us here and he was the only other one who had a confirmation of her identity outside of our small circle. Damn it all! How could we have been so blind to that?”

“It can’t be helped,” Yanat said, withdrawing a tiny plasma pistol from under the folds of his cloak and arming himself with the thing, prepared to fight his way out of here if needed. He’d seldom found the need to draw a weapon in his times as a politician after having abandoned his soldier’s life, but considering all he knew about the High King’s sin, he could never be too careful and had always carried it. Now, he was using it for the first time in years. “If it truly was him, there’s no way you could have known he was spying on behalf of the Crown. Nonetheless, the Temple of Rays should be alerted that their own ranks are potentially compromised.”

“And suns know what else the Crown has infiltrated,” Doctor Daloh said in dismay. “But we’ll have to dwell on that later. We can’t stick around down here, Yanat!”

“Is there any other way out of the club from down here?” Talitha asked, her eyes darting to and fro in an attempt to find some sort of exit. She saw the other patrons that had been down in these private booths vacating their spaces, all heading for the opposite direction from the staircase that descended back up to Umbrafall’s ground floor.

All eyes then settled to the service doors at the far end of the basement, where supplies, food, and drink were often brought in through. Dozens of Sivathi had already clambered there, some trying to squeeze through the doors in a panic as the red emergency lights illuminated everything in a sanguine shade. Yanat made a motion as if to direct everybody in that direction, knowing that despite that situation looking like it was going to devolve into a crowd-crushing event or stampede, their odds of survival would be greater there than trying to get through the blazing gauss and plasma of the lifeguards upstairs.

At least, that’s what he had thought. No sooner had Yanat taken a step towards the service doors, the doors swung backward as a pair of lifeguards dropped down into the exit, as if they’d been dropped from an aircraft above and came landing with a thud, their heavy power armor making the ground rumble like an earthquake from the impact. The patrons trying to flee screamed in terror upon catching sight of the pair of elite soldiers, flailing their arms and running around like confused Zuthari and bumping into each other. A few continued to dash back outwards through the exit door and up the ramp that led back outside proper, and even more tried to turn tail and run back into the club’s basement to make a dash for the staircase, but the majority could only squirm helplessly as they were trapped in the close confines of a frantic escape.

“By order of Phaziah Ishigar and the Crown of Siva!” came the static voice of one of the lifeguards through his voice modulator, lifting his plasma rifle in the direction of the scrambling civilians. “All patrons are to get down on the ground, with handpaws on your heads! Comply, and you shall not be harmed! Resist, and you will be shot! This is your only warning!”
It wasn’t like the patrons could do anything. A few of the stragglers who were too frightened did as they were told, but the majority continued pushing and shoving in a vain attempt at getting to safety. There was little they could do to effectively follow the commands of the attackers, and Yanat knew this as well.

“They’ll cut us down if we try to flee out that way,” he said, pushing his handpaw backward in a motion for them to retreat back up towards the staircase. “It’ll be like a shooting gallery for them. We need to exit topside. I don’t like our chances, but it’s certain death to go at it in a confined space like this! Let’s go!”

“You heard Yanat!” Elkanah shouted, grabbing Talitha by her paw and taking off as fast as his legs would carry him in the direction of the spiral stairs, following behind Yanat and Doctor Daloh. Only seconds after they’d taken flight, the shrieking of the crowd at the service doors reached a crescendo as those that were incapable of complying with the orders of the lifeguards began to be gunned down in cold blood by plasma fire, the rapid pulsing of their energy weapons cutting down swathes of the innocent like a scythe against grain.

The massacre was appalling to Talitha as she looked back in spite of Elkanah dragging her up the stairs. It was one thing to see the cruelties dished out towards her and others on a daily basis, but it was another to see it done so systematically. As she finally felt herself pulled upward, a new sickening sight met her as the head of the staircase was choked with dead and wounded. Having thought that those who had tried to flee from the basement and to the ground had already been incapacitated, the lifeguards that had stormed in through the front door had already begun combing through the interior of Umbrafall, their sights set on snatching up Talitha at the first sight of her and dealing harshly with anybody that got in their way.

Yanat had to carefully but quickly ascend the uneven floor that was littered with the wounded, hurriedly herding those behind him to the disc jockey’s podium that had been vacated, its elevated point hopefully giving them a better idea of avenues for escape. Luckily, none of the lifeguards—even the ones who were still guarding the only entry in on the ground floor—had spotted them, but Yanat knew that their hiding place wouldn’t last for long. If they were lucky, maybe they’d have a minute or two to find a way out before they were found. That, or if Phaziah’s men were feeling trigger-happy, they’d shred the podium with their weapons.

It seemed that space was already at a premium as Jala—the same girl that had escorted Talitha and Elkanah down to meet Yanat and the Doctor—was cowering in fear behind the podium, hogging the space. “Yanat!” she cried out as the percussive plasma and gauss fire continued all around. “They killed Rothak! They killed him! And all the other bouncers too! Only a few of us got out; everybody else is hiding but they’ll be found out for sure! The Confederate garrison will be here shortly, I’m sure, but we don’t have time to wait, for our own sake!”

“We can’t stick around for the bloodbath,” Yanat said, gritting his teeth in frustration that he lacked any means to stay and fight and defend everybody that was now at the mercy of the lifeguards. “But we need to find a way out of here. Surely there’s some other way out; somewhere that not even I know about as a patron?”

“W-well…” Jala stammered. “There is, but I only was ever told to use it in case of emergencies!”

“This is an emergency!” Talitha said in disbelief, stupefied that the girl would still think to keep that information concealed during a time such as this. “Where’s the other way out? Downstairs is no good; there are two of them down there that cut off the service doors!”

Jala pointed with her thumb back behind her shoulder, in the direction of where the majority of the lifeguards were now probing the establishment and gunning down everybody that hadn’t complied with their orders to get down on the ground. “There’s a ladder at the end of the storage hallway at the other end of the club that leads to the roof” she said. “But there’s no way down the roof once you’re on top! It’s only meant for service technicians to go up with their tools and work on climate regulators and electrical plans!”

“Better out there than here,” Yanat said, peering his head just barely over the disc jockey’s podium before narrowly dodging the flashing pulse of a plasma burst that soared overhead, singing off a bit of fur at the crown of his head. “I can lay down some suppressive fire to draw their attention away from the rest of you all while you make a dash for the storage hallway and to the ladder.”

“What?” Doctor Daloh said in shock, the sheer thought of having Yanat left behind to put his life on the line unsettling her greatly. “Are you mad? You can’t risk yourself like that!”

“I can take care of myself,” Yanat said with a wink. “Don’t forget that I was once part of these very same household troops. I know their tactics, and I know their weaknesses. They’re after Talitha, but when they see an immediate threat to their operation, they’ll be inclined to take it out first before proceeding any further. Once you’re out, I can hold out here until the garrison arrives to deal with these vermin.”

“And if they kill you first?” Elkanah asked, planting his footpaws as he prepared to make a mad dash for whenever Yanat gave them the green light.

“They won’t,” he smirked in response, tightly gripping his fingers around the plasma pistol in his handpaw and preparing to reveal himself and draw the attention of the household troops to him. “Jala, take them! Go on!”

“Bu-but…!” the girl said frightfully, feeling glued in place and not wanting to relinquish her safety behind the podium. She soon found herself having little choice in the matter as she felt Yanat make her decision for her, shoving her shoulder and pushing her out into the open and feeling herself take off as fast as her legs would carry her, with Doctor Daloh, Elkanah, and Talitha following close behind.

No sooner had several of the lifeguards caught sight of the fleeing group and fired off several pot shots at them before they dove behind the bar space, their attention was soon drawn in the direction of the disc jockey’s podium as several smaller blasts from Yanat’s plasma pistol spewed forth towards the enemy. Greenish waves of the superheated energy arced across the dance floor and towards the advancing lifeguards, a few shots that connected harmlessly crackling against their power armor as it bore the brunt of the weapon’s attack.

“Over here, bastards!” Yanat shouted out, crazily waving his arms this way and that to draw attention to himself before diving back down behind the podium. “You might think it easy to terrorize civilians, but come see how it is to fight one of your own fellow household soldiers!”

Gauss rounds chewed through the podium in a spray of splintered composite and sparks, forcing Yanat to roll hard to his left as a plasma bolt detonated where his head had been only a second prior. The music and bass from above had been ebbing away slowly with the disc jockey long gone, and finally died out as another blast of plasma shot out the speakers overhead, plunging the ground floor into the chaos of gunfire, muzzle flashes, and the red glow of the emergency lights which had replaced the artificial eclipses.

Jala looked back behind her after she’d ducked down behind the bar space, making sure that everybody was accounted for. Taking a quick peek and seeing that Talitha, Elkanah, and Doctor Daloh were still there, she hurriedly scurried back up to her footpaws to continue their escape, covering her head with her arms as another blast of incoming fire shattered bottles and drinkware on the countertop and on the shelves behind it, shards of glass raining down upon their heads as they quickly ran off into the storage proper and disappeared from view of the lifeguards. If Phaziah’s men wanted to get them now, they’d have to give chase, and that’s exactly what several of them began to do as they knew they’d finally caught sight of the Sivathi matching the description they’d been given before deploying into the nightclub.

“All troops!” the leader said that was still hovering near the entrance. “Our target is making an escape to the rooftop! Flush them upward and give them the only option of coming back down the way they came! Our gunship won’t let them get far; they’ll be forced to turn around or give themselves up! The rest of you, hold your positions and make sure nobody we’ve subdued gets any ideas about resisting!”

No sooner had he issued his command and gathered his nearest men to pursue Talitha and the others down the storage hallway, several small plasma blasts raked across the shoulder area of his power armor from Yanat’s firearm. Having seen his objective cross his eyes in plain sight and letting loose a reckless blast of fire at them, he’d taken his sight off of Yanat for the briefest of moments and given him an opportunity to strike back. That had been the only opportunity his friends had needed, delaying the pursuit of the lifeguards further by laying down additional cover fire.

The small caliber of plasma did little more than diminish the deflector shield of the shoulder plates and knock him back a pace or two, but he was nonetheless caught off guard, and enraged. Yanat had known that he’d draw his ire and anger in targeting him; that was how leaders of the household troops often reacted to being singled out by fire. And rageful, he was. Deciding to take matters into his own two paws, he gave his two underlings a quick flick of his paw to continue the pursuit of Talitha and her friends while he closed in on Yanat. Now that the disc jockey’s podium had basically been destroyed, he’d found himself darting behind the pillars that supported the central dance floor, weaving in and out of them to keep the enemy on their toes and not lingering in one place too long to give them a chance to saturate his cover with excessive fire. Even then, Yanat had little hope of stopping the approaching leader of the lifeguards with just his plasma pistol alone. He could only aspire to draw off their commander and make their coordination in their pursuit of the others more difficult, and simply hope and pray that the Confederate garrison would make their way into the club and handle the situation before he was killed.

But if that meant giving Talitha her chance, then so be it. He was doing this for her. For Shiphra.

And that was a chance Talitha and the others were taking. Peering back for the slightest of moments, she could see Yanat drawing the fire of many of the lifeguards as he valiantly tried to respond with his measly sidearm in the face of their onslaught. The diversion had worked, for now only two of the intruders into the club were now seemingly pursuing them, their slow and bulky power armor clanking heavily as they tried to give pursuit towards the group that had fled into the hallway and towards the ladder. Even with the group’s advantage of mobility, the space was cramped, as a disheveled mess of boxes and littered the tight corridor. Jala was doing her best to shove many of them out of the way in order to get at the ladder at the end, throwing them haphazardly aside.

“Get a move on!” she beckoned the others as they scrambled behind her, all eyes peeled on the ladder at the end of the hall. In short order, but not without having spent precious seconds plowing their way through the mess, they had made it there, only needing to ascend it now and get to the rooftop to try and make an escape.

Elkanah motioned for Talitha to go first, and she needed no further instructions. The open air of the hatchway at the top already showed the aurora of the night sky, though it was coupled with the flashing strobe of a nearby craft. Not wanting to dwell on the possibility that it could very well be a Crown gunship waiting for her, it was preferable to seeing her friends gunned down in the hallway and holding up the line, and thus she hurriedly made her way up the ladder, with Elkanah and Doctor Daloh following next. In the hustle, Doctor Daloh found herself slip near the top rung of the ladder, with Elkanah quickly reacting and grasping her by the handpaw, pulling her to the rooftop as she collapsed on her belly in the process.

Talitha saw the origin of the strobe light, and low and behold, a Crown gunship had descended low over the streets of the red-light district, thought its cockpit was turned facing away from their location on the rooftop at present. In a matter of seconds, it could be turning back to face them head on, and once Jala was topside they could waste no further time in making an escape attempt off the rooftop and making a high jump down to the street.

At least, that had been the hope. No sooner had Jala’s head popped up through the hatch, a hail of plasma gunfire rang out from back down below the hallway, greenish energy splashing over her legs where she was hit as she lost her footing on the ladder. The two lifeguards that had given chase were back at the far end of the hallway and had opened fire on her. She let out a howl of pain as she lost her footing and her fur was singed by the blasts of energy, barely able to hold on to the ladder with the burning sensation that was now emanating over her legs.

“Sh-shut the door!” Jala stammered as she began to lose her grip on the ladder, the pain overtaking her. “It’ll buy you a few seconds more—”

The poor girl didn’t have time to finish what she had intended to say as the cruelty of the lifeguards knew no bounds, and another wave of plasma hit her in the side of her torso. Her lifeless body finally let go of the ladder and she came crashing back down into the storage hallway atop the clutter of boxes.

“Elkanah, we have to get her!” Talitha cried out, feeling the same energy that had come over her when she’d seen Jophia in trouble rise up again at seeing the girl fall. In a headstrong manner, she made a mad dash to try and head back down the ladder and help her, but Elkanah was fast to pull her away, knowing that the gunship wouldn’t wait for them, nor would the lifeguards show any mercy towards her upon trying to help Jala.

“There’s nothing to be done!” Elkanah cried out as he pulled his companion back. Doctor Daloh was quick to slam the hatch door shut behind them, locking it from the outside so that it would complicate the chase for their pursuers and give them a bit more time to try and escape off the roof. In spite of their bulky nature, the following lifeguards made a hasty chase down the hallway to ascend the ladder and get the hatch door open as quickly as they could, uncaringly shoving Jala’s body aside and out of the way. Only a sheer fifteen seconds or so after they’d shut it, the group could just barely hear the pounding of rifle butts against the hatch in a vain attempt to force it open. Surely, they’d have to do more than just that to get it open, but if they were equipped with some breaching charges or the like…

There was little time to dwell on that possibility as the Crown gunship that was hovering over Umbrafall soon began to about face, its repulsor-turbofans swiveling in opposite directions from one another to spin it around swiftly. The whole group could feel the blast of heat jetting against their fur as they stood there in the exhaust of the engines, backing away a few paces like a party of ancient heroes about to do battle with a great desert beast. With no arms or means to defend themselves, and no grenades to chuck into the engines like last time, there was little choice but to flee.

“Elkanah!” Talitha shrieked as she began to see the chaingun pod underneath the cockpit begin to whirr with electricity and take aim at them all. “Run! Run!”

It would only be sheer seconds before the craft opened fire and oblitereated all except Talitha into mincemeat. The line between safe escape and suicide became as blurred as ever as Elkanah looked behind him at the edge of the rooftop, any drop down having to be at least thirty-five or more feet into the street below, which was crawling with all manner of civilians trying to flee for safety. The only remotely safe means of getting to the road was the cloth awning of a market stall that had been set up against the side of the club, selling all manner of decadent merchandise in the red-light district. It looked like it may at least cushion the fall somewhat before it gave way completely, and that was preferable to getting blown apart by the Crown ship’s chaingun.

“Go!” he commanded the group together, quickly turning around and running as fast as his legs would take him. As the whirring of the chaingun’s electrical motor began to reach a crescendo, the whole party teetered at the edge of the roof, looking down at the awning and only hoping that it would brace them somewhat.

“Jump now! All together!” Elkanah ordered them, knowing there was no time to individually take turns.

Talitha closed her eyes tight as she leapt forward, the others doing so in concert with one another, just as the chaingun opened fire and blasted the edge of the rooftop where they’d only been standing moments before. Shards of rubble and stone exploded above them, with little pebbles raining down on top of their heads as the projectiles raced above their heads, narrowly missing them. The explosive force that raged on the rooftop deafened everybody as they landed atop the awning of the market stall, the cloth roof bowing instantly at taking the weight of three adult Sivathi all at once, threatening to rebound and throw them back upwards. With their timed jump, however, the cloth held them just long enough to slow their fall enough to where the supports holding it up finally snapped and gave way when their speed was at its lowest, and they only fell a sheer ten feet more into the stall proper, awash in a sea of pungent incense, hallucinogenic mixtures, and extinguished candles that were put out by the sudden impact.

Hacking and coughing from the air encompassing him, coupled with the wind knocked out of him from the drop, Elkanah could waste no time picking himself up. Talitha and Doctor Daloh found themselves entangled in a mess of cloth drapery, awkwardly trying their best to get themselves out of the mess they now found themselves in. As they did so, another few residual chunks of the roof edge that had been destroyed by the chaingun rained down upon their heads.

In spite of that, the scurrying crowds in the street, fleeing wildly in all directions to try and get to safety, could possibly give them the coverage they needed to slip away. “Up, up!” Elkanah urged the others on, squinting his eyes to see through the dusty vapors and fumes that had kicked up from their fall. “Keep sight of me no matter what! We’ll slip away into the crowds and into one of the other alleys into safety!”

“That won’t stop them from gunning down anybody else in their path if they catch just one sight of us!” Doctor Daloh answered as she helped Talitha up, both now finally free from the entanglement. She was the last one who wanted to see any more collateral damage; enough blood had been spilled inside Umbrafall.

“They won’t have to if they can’t catch a view of us in the first place!” he said, taking off running as fast as his he could go.

Just as soon as the others took off behind him, the gunship came hovering overhead once more, its engines kicking up dirt and sand in a cloudy mess that made it all that much more difficult to keep an eye on Elkanah as he led the retreat through the crowds. He already had his eyes set on a shady looking alleyway about fifty yards away, with overhanging floors of the various buildings apparent that would hide them away from the Crown vessel that was pursuing them.

The lifeguards knew this as well. Back inside Umbrafall, as Yanat desperately tried to fend off the onslaught of the
approaching officer, he was just able to hear his commlink echo out above the gunfire as the ship outside contacted the commander. “They’re off the roof and outside! They’re fleeing into the crowd!” the static voice of the gunship’s pilot echoed out.

Not sure how they’d managed to get to the ground without breaking any bones or killing themselves outright, the lifeguard officer chose not to dwell on the fact. “Keep those targets painted! I don’t care how many people are in the way. Shoot to kill, but make sure you don’t hit the girl!” he ordered, continuing to lay down suppressive fire towards Yanat as he looked back out the entrance to the nightclub. “All units, regroup outside and support the pursuit! Basement team, get upstairs and continue holding the club and those who’ve surrendered.”

With the officer’s gaze turned away for just the slightest moment to look back towards the doorway, Yanat seized his chance to exact a killing blow that his tiny plasma pistol otherwise would not have allowed him. Squinting with one eye to aim and hoping to cut off the coordination of the lifeguards by taking out their leader, he pointed his weapon at massive climate control unit under which he was situated. The thing had to weigh at least half a ton, and the sheer weight alone would be enough to crush him. He just needed on lucky shot to do away with one of the four supports that was holding it in place to the ceiling.

One lucky shot was all he needed.

Yanat pulled the trigger, knowing that without any kind of shielding like the power armor of the lifeguards, the superheated plasma would vaporize and melt the metal support in one corner, and the rest would collapse and bring the whole unit down. That was exactly what happened as the officer took his attention away for the briefest moment.

In a split second, the massive, boxy unit found itself dangling from only three of the four supports once the shot had been fired. No more than a blink of an eye later, the entire thing had slipped from its hinges and came plummeting downward on top of where the lifeguard officer stood. Looking back again, he saw Yanat standing there with his plasma pistol aimed at the space above him, thinking he would soon have an easy shot with him standing there in the open, no longer concealed by the pillars, but gravity had other ideas. As soon as he was about to fire, his life was utterly extinguished as the climate control unit smashed square atop his head and then into his body, breaking his neck and crunching the soft flesh beneath his power armor into pulp.

The massive drop of such a weight and the resonating boom that it caused within the club—gunfire and alarms notwithstanding—suddenly attracted the attention of all the other lifeguards on the floor and those that were coming upward from the basement. Yanat didn’t have any time to hesitate, and he took off sprinting towards the doorway that led back out onto the street, eager to get out into the open and away from the confined quarters of Umbrafall.

Now without their commanding officer, the lifeguards began to act slightly more panicked, although doing their best to maintain their sense of discipline and regrouping upstairs to continue the pursuit outside. Those already on the ground floor began to slowly ebb their way towards the doorway and make their way outside, continuing to fire at Yanat as he started fleeing.

Unburdened by any sort of armor that he might have worn in a past assignment as one of the household troops, Yanat was quick and dove for the doorway, crashing down upon his chest in a heap as several of the gauss and plasma rounds that had been meant for him sped through the doorway and impacted the running crowd outside, slaying several innocents. He quickly scurried back up to his footpaws, looking upward at the skies to see the gunship that had deployed the lifeguard detachment hovering overhead and laying fire with its weaponry into the crowd of civilians in an attempt to down Talitha and her companions.

Knowing it would do next to nothing against the hulking beast, Yanat prepared to do the unthinkable with his weapon. He had to attack the gunship with little more than a pea shooter. He could just catch sight of Talitha and the others scurrying away in the direction of one of the alleyways where they would at least be safe from the gunship, but there was little chance that they would last much longer against the chaingun of the vessel. Until the Confederate garrison arrived to turn away the assault—which should have been any minute, now—Yanat was the only one with a weapon, and he needed to do his part to continue providing ample distraction for Talitha to get to safety. That, and he also knew that the massive caliber of the chaingun would be the only thing capable of doing any immediate damage to the lifeguards in pursuit of him.

Pushing and shoving through the crowd to get closer towards the entrance of Umbrafall again, but taking care so as not to expose himself to the lifeguards that were sure to emerge in only a few seconds, Yanat lifted his plasma pistol again and aimed it at the gunship overhead, its energy cells within nearly out of power from its extended use within Umbrafall. With the last few shots it could muster, he aimed towards the cockpit of its pilot, dead set on getting the operator’s attention so as to pull his fire away from Talitha and the civilians and towards him instead. With luck, he’d get trigger happy and lay down several more volleys from the chaingun into Umbrafall’s entrance and take out many of the pursuing lifeguards in the process.

The last projectiles of plasma that his weapon could muster flew forward from his weapon as he pulled the trigger again, and two of the shots splashed against the deflector shields nearest the bulbous double cockpit of pilot and gunner. Yanat was just able to see the gunner’s head turn in his direction, the pivot of the chaingun moving with his sight in coordination with his helmet mounted display. Soon enough, he was staring down the barrel of the gun that could snuff his life out in an instant.

The diversion had seemingly worked. As the gunship began to turn back in the direction of Umbrafall, the gunners at the doors of the vehicle continued their fire towards Talitha and the others as they neared the alleyway, the smaller caliber not as dangerous as the full on main weapon, but still deadly in its own right. At least now he’d pulled the vehicle’s attention away from her and innocent civilians, and to keep it painted on him, he continued holding the plasma pistol up in the direction of the cockpit to show that he was still intent on threatening them, even if he was now out of ammunition.

He could just begin to hear the stomping of the lifeguards in their power armor coming forward towards the entryway of Umbrafall, knowing that once they emerged, they’d gun him down in an instant. He was betting on having timed things just right, already hearing the chaingun audibly wind back up its power after having paused to change targets onto him. He would have to play it with extreme caution, however, and as soon as it had opened fire, he’d need to break away into the crowd. Even so, if he stayed in front of the entrance just long enough to lay down several shots into the path of the lifeguards, he’d see enough of them killed or injured so as not to be able to pursue Talitha, Elkanah, and the others any further.

With reflexes afforded to him only by years of experience as a member of the household troops—far more than those he was up against—Yanat hurriedly dashed forward as the chaingun on the gunship opened fire again, several rounds spewing forth from the cannon and into the entryway of Umbrafall as he continued to stay one step ahead of the vehicle’s targeting and tracking. The few shots that flew forward into the building’s door completely obliterated the entry, pulverizing several of the soldiers that had come forward to get out onto the street and continue the pursuit by their commander’s orders. No doubt the remaining lifeguards in side were dazed and shocked from the sudden incident of friendly fire, and they were now cut off from exiting out the front door with the rubble in the way. With the destruction behind him, Yanat had succeeded in affording Talitha and the others ample time to escape, looking afar as the group began nearing the alleyway to where neither the gunship, its main weapon, nor the door gunners could get at them.

But now he’d thrown his own life on the line, he had to hang on and get to safety as well if he wanted to survive. He’d done all he could do and gotten Talitha to safety; only now could he worry about his own hide. Turning his gaze away from where his friends had disappeared into the security of the alleyway farther away, on the opposite end of the avenue he took in the sight of the approaching Confederate garrison that had come to repulse the assault, a squadron of foot soldiers and a self-propelled antiaircraft gun rumbling along its tracks down the center of the red-light district. The fleeing civilians ran amongst each other like confused ants, trying to get away from the incoming fire that was sure to happen soon—that was, if the gunship didn’t take flight first at the sight of such a deadly counter to its own presence.

Yanat knew that it wouldn’t flee. Knowing the lifeguards, he knew the gunship was going to stay and fight, and so were the remaining troops inside Umbrafall, knowing they would rather die than accept the failure of nabbing Talitha. However, instead of turning its chaingun onto the approaching Confederate force, it continued firing at him, and he found it harder and harder to make headway into the safety of one of the alleyways like Talitha had done.

The crowd soon swallowed him up completely as he tried to flee, and Yanat was soon caught in a crush of bodies that was running opposite of his direction, threatening to push him over. The gunship didn’t differentiate between civilians and an armed enemy, and as Yanat was finally stationary and unable to flee where he wanted, the gunner took his shot before turning his gaze in the direction of the oncoming Confederates.

The chaingun round smashed into a cluster of Sivathi in front of Yanat, the shrapnel exploding alongside bone, sinew, and flesh as several innocents were cut down and took the brunt of the impact. The explosive force didn’t stop with them, however. The former captain of the household troops suddenly felt a gush of red smother his sight and stinging pain engulf the entire right side of his face as shrapnel from the high explosive shell raked across his face, burying itself deep in his eye socket and tearing away skin and fur alike before knocking him to the road.

It had been a long while since he’d taken such an impact, and when it had happened before, his power armor had been there to protect him. Now, in plainclothes and with nothing to guard him, the reality of what had just happened set in as his ears rang from the explosion. Only one eye was even properly working anymore as the muffled echoes of the incoming antiaircraft gun’s opening fire sounded like nothing more than percussive ringing, its tracers zipping overhead in a field of red haze as the blood began pouring over his one good field of vision.

Panicking for a moment, he reached up to the wounded side of his face, half worried that there’d be one whole portion of his skull missing. It was still in one piece, thankfully, but as he pulled his handpaw away and saw the red streaked over his fingers and oozing down his cheek and neck, he knew that if he survived this, he was going to pay deeply in flesh and blood for having given Talitha another chance at life. All he could do was press it back again to his face, feebly holding his handpaw to his wounded eye socket to try and stave off the bleeding. Gingerly, he began crawling forth towards the oncoming Confederate troops to get some kind of medical attention before he bled out completely.

At the sign of attack, only then did the Crown gunship begin to try and take an evasive action, adjusting its engines to dart back behind Umbrafall and out of the sight of the tracked vehicle that had begun to fire on it. By then, however, it was far too late. The rapid firing cannons of the Confederate vehicle were designed to shred aerial targets like paper, and that was exactly what it did as shells raked one entire side, disabling systems of every kind and killing many of the crew inside. It lazily began to careen off to the side in the direction it had tried to flee towards, now out of control and smashing cockpit-first into the side of a nearby building.

Yanat could hardly hear the impact over his shattered eardrums, nor could he hear his own voice calling out for help from the oncoming detachment of soldiers. The entire world had begun to spin as the infantry began pouring in to Umbrafall to clear away the remaining lifeguards that were holed up inside, along with a separate wing that had begun to secure the perimeter around where the gunship had just come down. Even though he was struggling to hear anything, Yanat knew that there were many more wounded—many more seriously than he was. He could make out the rising crescendos of the wounded and dying, even if their voices weren’t truly audible. The sights and sounds of the battlefields he’d once known all too well as a member of the household troops had begun to wash over him again, only now instead of having been the instigator of Phaziah Ishigar’s horrid actions, he had been on the receiving end of an atrocity. And even as one of the medics from the oncoming team descended over him, he knew even then that he might not make it.

Only now, he’d made good on his promise to Shiphra and Talitha once and for all. He hoped he would be there to see it bear fruit, but behind a bloody smile he knew that he may have finally set things right now that Talitha intended to tread the path that had been swept out from under her so long ago.

*

Talitha, Elkanah, and Doctor Daloh could only look behind them at carnage that had been unleashed in the span of just a few minutes. The entry into the alleyway continued to grow smaller and smaller as they fled deeper into the red-light district’s most notorious corridors, the aurora of the polar night disappearing as the overhang of densely packed structures and lighting swallowed them up.

“Yanat, that damned fool!” Doctor Daloh sobbed aloud at knowing what her comrade had likely gotten himself into. “Hadn’t he had enough of playing heroics from his days as one of the lifeguards? Damn it all!”

“If he’s as good of a soldier as the lifeguards are known to be, then he’ll know how to handle himself,” Elkanah said hopefully. “We can only hope for the best for him now. We can regroup when the dust settles. Keep moving; we don’t want any of those lifeguards following us!”

“Elkanah, if they can find me here, then Sarat isn’t even safe!” Talitha said in dismay as they continued scurrying through the alleyway, many of the Sivathi dregs of society—whose attention hadn’t been drawn away by the commotion near Umbrafall—eyeing them dully. “Where are we to go, especially if Brother Rehu was the one who sold us out? Even the Temple of Rays may not be safe!”

“It’s why it will be of the utmost importance to get you an audience with the members of quadrumvirate, and then on to the Confederate Congress,” Doctor Daloh said. “If we can go through with what Yanat proposed, then it may be possible to get you off Siva completely and to our colonial allies, where we can convince them to come to our aid once and for all.”

As if out of thin air, traffic suddenly emerged in the middle of the alleyway as a painted Zuthari bull stamped forward, barring the way forward. “Not if I have anything to say about it!” came the voice of Brother Rehu from atop the beast, cocking the slide back on a small kinetic pistol and pointing it down in the direction of the party. “You think the true acolytes of the Zaket suns will ever see a bastard child encroach upon the sovereignty of our High King? Never! If Phaziah’s men can’t finish the job, then it falls on me to see it through! You two are going to die by my paw, and the girl is coming with me!”

“You!” Elkanah shouted out in anger as the sheer suspicion that Brother Rehu had been the one to betray them was now a clear cut reality. Something in him snapped as the cutthroat nature of a seemingly holy man made itself known, having endangered the one he cared deeply for and had sought to help through thick and thin. Just as Yanat had put himself in the line of fire to protect Talitha, now Elkanah was going to do the same. Without thinking, he forcefully shoved both Doctor Daloh and Talitha in the direction of a flung open doorway in the wall, the shot that had been meant for the Ekta ricocheting off the ground where she’d stood only moments ago.

Both of them fell on top of each other as they were flung into the corridor, looking back up behind them to see Elkanah throwing himself forward with reflexes that only his military training could have afforded him. The monk was no match for a member of the Crown army—deserter or uniformed soldier alike—and he wildly began shooting at him as he saw the white furred Sivathi flying forward through the air with a giant leap. Nothing he could have done would have prevented him from completing the tackling maneuver that knocked him from atop the Zuthari, his throat completely exposed as Elkanah slashed out with his claws across his neck, intending to kill him outright.

That simple attack had been taught to Elkanah in basic training; to rely upon the most primal instincts of the Sivathi species when all other options were out. Devoid of any kind of weaponry and in such a tight space, he had seen no other choice than to go at his unarmed and undertrained opponent—as he’d been taught to do—and swipe with all the fury he could muster.

Brother Rehu could only let out a sickening gurgle as he felt Elkanah’s claw slash clean across his throat, his attempt to cry out doing nothing more than choking himself on his own blood as he fell straight onto his back, Elkanah standing over him with his white fur stained red. The Zuthari, now without its rider, was running off in fear down the tight street in the direction of Umbrafall. Even as he felt his own handpaws upon his throat, trying in vain to stop the inevitable, the disgraced monk smiled at Elkanah with an unmatched sense of villainy spread across his cheeks. Almost as if to say that no matter what Talitha, her protector, and her friends did, that nothing would stop the High King’s inevitable drive to erase his past mistake and bring this civil war to a swift end. As he died, the sanguine fluids pooling on the ground of the alleyway, he took solace in knowing that Phaziah Ishigar would ultimately prevail. He, and all the rulers before him, had always prevailed.

But no monarch before had dared to create life out of something forbidden before. And in that, Talitha, her friends, and soon the whole of the Confederacy, would know that her very being—an amalgamation of the impossible—would upend thousands of years of tyrants. Even Elkanah knew this to be true, the blood of a monk on his handpaws and having turned his back on an entire life built around privilege and the oppression of others.

“No more,” he said as he turned his gaze back behind him, Doctor Daloh and Talitha slowly bringing themselves up from the corridor. He looked directly at Talitha as he spoke his next words. “I will see you—an Ishigar worthy of ruling—ascend before I take my last breath. I swear it!”