Star Crossed

1: Mission

Evelyn

Evelyn only had two things on her mind: tacos, and wondering how the hell they were going to pull this off.

Keeping her left to the cool, steel wall, she readied her sniper beside her head, keeping her view open for anyone who happened to walk past. Beside her, Lizzy was doing much the same, only with a bit less nervous breathing. She couldn't mess this up. Not this time. Lizzy noticed the shallow breaths, and looked away, turning her back on Evelyn, only to push up against her and keep her secure. If anyone snuck up on them from any direction, they would know.

Elsewhere, Lauren was watching their progress through her monitors, patiently biding her time with orders on the tip of her tongue. 

"Door 048. Just above it should be the main electro-line. Hit it, and it's game over for the externals. Our insiders have already placed the explosives."

Evelyn could hear Lauren's curt voice ring sharply through her head via her earpiece. There was a time when that voice sounded warm and excited to get things done to help the resistance. Now it was a dignified order, a tone that meant business.

'Come on, Evelyn. Just one shot is all you need,' Evelyn took deep, slow breaths. Trying to keep herself calm in the dangerous predicament she was in. 'One shot is all you're gonna get.' She lined up the scope with her target, eyeing the door - and above it - what she supposed was the steel wall covering the electro-lines she was meant to shoot.

"Target locked. Firing now." Evelyn clenched her finger on the trigger. With nothing but a tiny puff of air, a small laser shot out of the barrel, making its way cleanly through the steel wall. Evelyn let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Just as she did, an external walked into her sight. Quietly shifting, she pushed herself as far back as possible towards the wall. The alien turned his head, and coughed. 

"I could've sworn I heard something, Aster." He said, his otherworldly voice echoing unnaturally through the hall, before he turned and walked away. 

Lizzy grabbed Evelyn's wrist, giving her a small nod to let her know he was gone. Sighing in relief, a crackle sounded from her earpiece once again.

"5 minutes until overload. You two need to get out of there before they notice you." Lauren would never admit that she was biting her nails in terror at the prospect of this mission going south. It was by far one of the most risky she had sent her crew on in a while.

"Roger that," Evelyn whispered, packing her weapon away into her suit and turning towards Lizzy, "Ready to disappear, Liz?" Her nerves were gone now, what with pure adrenaline running through her veins at this point.

"I'm already gone, Eve." Lizzy stuck out her tongue, holding up a smaller hand-gun and getting ready to take off from their secluded hiding location. This mission had gone extremely smoothly.

Too smoothly.

When the alarms flashed red, Evelyn should've known not to jinx anything until they were back at base. For Lauren, well... she was a little shocked.

Jumping right into action with practiced ease, Lauren launched into action by typing furiously on her keyboard. Other agents in the room doing the same to try and bring back the two girls safely.

"You're compromised, get out of there, now!" Evelyn thought she could hear fear in Lauren's voice, but she couldn't fathom the cold woman ever being scared. Turning to Lizzy, she noticed the other girl's wide eyes as she stared at the flashing red alarm lights.

"How the fuck did they know we were here?" Eve asked, her attention on Lizzy.

"Doesn't matter, we've got a problem." Lizzy didn't even turn to look at Eve, instead readying her gun to shoot at the two aliens that now stood in their way of exiting the building.

"Shit." Eve cursed, taking out her own gun from her suit.

Before either of the two aliens could react, the two girls took off with practiced precision. Lizzy went left, and Eve went right. Both used the wall as leverage to get behind their targets as quick as possible, before engaging in physical contact.

Eve threw a punch at the external, her fist colliding with his nose as it started bleeding silver. She was caught by surprise by a blow to her gut, knocking the wind out of her before the alien swept his feet under her, catching her off guard and sending her tumbling to the ground. Seeing an opportunity, she grabbed his ankles - if she was going down, so was he! Pulling with a firm grip, he collapsed on top of her with a cry or pain, and she elbowed him in the nose again. This time, she didn't hesitate to locate the pressure point on his neck to knock him out. What was only a minute or so felt like an hour with the pain shooting through her gut right now. Heaving a wretched breath, Evelyn didn't rest even a second when she heard a gunshot.

Lizzy stumbled back, bringing her gun down on her opponent's head before clutching her shoulder in pain. "This is going to leave one hell of a scar." She said, before being caught stumbling by Eve. Her hand was covering a hole in her shoulder, red liquid spilling out over her hands.

"Liz, you good?" Eve asked. It was a stupid question - she'd just been shot for christ's sake! But as she hurried her friend out of the building while supporting her body, she couldn't help the concern filling her face.

"I'm fine. Let's just get out of here before I get another hole in my body." Lizzy rolled her eyes at the concern, hurrying towards the exit as fast as she could while leaning on Eve for support. Letting out a soft groan as she was pushed against the wall to hide, Lizzy's eyes started to roll into the back of her head.

"Hey, Liz, stay with me okay?" Eve tapped her on the cheek, wishing to all that was good that she had been wearing something she could tear and at least cover Lizzy's wound. Eyeing the exit, Evelyn let out a short huff before setting towards it with determination, not caring if any more of the externals - aliens - whatever you want to call them - saw them as they ran/hobbled. 

"Evelyn, Lizzy, can you hear me?" Evelyn almost forgot about Lauren with her mind being occupied with getting Lizzy out of that building as quick as possible. 

"Lizzy's been shot." Screw formalities, Eve thought. The quicker someone could help them, the safer they would be. 

If only Evelyn had been more stealthy, she wouldn't be facing the sound of a lot of guns behind her. 

Turning slowly, she saw what seemed to be at least 20 different aliens surrounding her and Lizzy with steely eyes. They almost looked human if it weren't for the unnatural glow of their eyes and the shimmering silver that lurked beneath their skin.

"I've got company." Evelyn told Lauren, resigned to her fate. There was no way she'd be able to survive this. Not with an injured partner and help god knows how far away.

Whilst Evelyn was thinking about how her death would be at that minute, Lauren was arguing over getting the two home as soon as possible.

"Fuck. Kyle, bring them home now!" She yelled at the young man working furiously at a large computer. 

"The teleport isn't-"

"Now, Kyle!" Kyle took one look at Lauren's icy gaze and typed in a different code.

Evelyn felt the tingling sensation before she knew what was happening. She hadn't been shot, that's for sure. So, it must be something else that Kyle had built into the suits. Looking down at a now unconscious Lizzy, Evelyn pressed her own hand against the wound.

"Hold tight, Liz." She whispered, as the tingling sensation became a painful buzz and everything turned white.