The Valkyrie Initiative- Red Winds

Extraction

Maevrin stared at her face for a moment as his mind rebooted.

"Herah?"

She chuckled. "Yes. Now, we need to be leaving."

She grabbed his arm and pulled him away. As he stumbled towards her he glanced back at hotdog face. He was lying on the ground, with frighteningly more meat and smears of red on his face. He estimated that it wasn't from his hotdog.

Maevrin felt a yank on his arm again as Herah pulled him away from the corpse. He turned fully towards her now. Herah glanced down at the pistol in her hand, a large weapon with a large caliber for a handgun. She glanced back at Maevrin.

"You know how to use one of these, right?

Maevrin narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow. "Of course."

"Good," she handed him to pistol. He saw a strange tattoo on her hand, some symbol he didn't quite recognize, inked in a subtle blue.

Maevrin quickly inspected it. A 9-97 Bishop, standard sidearm for the Redwein military. Was she an agent from Redwein? Here?

It didn't matter much now. He felt much safer with her than in the hands of hotdog face. Especially after she pulled out the compact bullpup rifle that was strapped to her back.

"We need to get going," she said, preforming a quick check on her rifle. "We've got an extraction chopper a few klicks north of here."

Maevrin stopped for a moment. "Hold on. Why? Why are you taking such an interest in me? Hold on, why are they chasing me?"

Herah stopped and turned fully towards him. "You're... Important. Not because of anything you've done, or anything you are, but your potential. Its... I can't explain it. I don't really understand myself. But my bosses would love to see you, for far more benign reasons than the Syndicate."

Maevrin stared at her, clearly not understanding anything she was talking about. She sighed, clearly short of patience.

"Listen, I could grab you by the throat and drag you there just like your other friend, but we'd prefer to not do it that way. I'm the one trying to save you here. So if you'd please just go along with it for now. Please."

Maevrin closed his eyes and nodded. "Alright. I guess you're better than hotdog face."

"Who?'

"Nevermind, let's get going."

The pair moved through the streets, from the more sparse streets into the taller, more tightly packed buildings. Maevrin moved closely behind Herah. Though Maevrin had his fair share of military training, the professionalism and skill that Herah displayed shocked him.

As they stopped in an alley corner, Herah turned to him.

"We have a chopper parked on the top of Menzine Pharmaceuticals, just a few blocks away from here. We have a sniper providing overwatch, we should be covered soon."

Maevrin nodded. "Understood. So, uh, what's the plan? We got a chopper, but after that?"

"Don't worry. We got a safe place where the Syndicate won't find you."

"I guess I'll take your word for it."

They moved down the alleyway together, and into the open street. It was deep into the night, and the streets were sparse. In the distance, Maevrin saw an old neon sign, "Menzine Drugs and co."

"Bingo," Herah said as she spotted the sign. She glanced back at Maevrin. "C'mon, we're nearly there. "

Herah moved forward from cover to cover, from behind raised planetbeds to cars. Maevrin quickly followed behind her, keeping an eye on his surroundings. He glanced around. The streets were pretty sparse, even for this late at night...