The rest of the pursuit team were already filing into the shuttle by the time Vaughn staggered into Bay 2 two dead ends and ten minutes later. Deks threw her a quick smile from the hatch as she jogged up to the shuttle’s boarding ramp.
“Oversleep?” He asked lightly and laughed out loud at the grimace she threw him on the way by.
Once inside she quickly found a spot and sat down. Unfortunately the only open slot was with the handful of Teserin on the team, each favoring her with a hard, unrelenting stare. To see such a look from such beautiful and handsome faces, made strangely more so by the shocks of white hair each had, was chilling. Only Brin, having discovered some commonality with Vaughn the day before, showed her kindness, flashing a quick smile in her direction before settling in herself.
Returning the smile, Vaughn pushed her unease aside and shoved her gear under her seat as the others had done and sat back. At least she had one ally here. Then she was being pushed down into her chair as the shuttle activated its maneuvering thrusters and lifted off the ground.
As rapidly as the shuttle brought Vaughn and Deks to Viper Island, this one left, pushing rapidly through the variable density bay roof and into the air beyond, thrusters smoothly lifting them to 500 metres before racing off towards distant Ven Cor’brin. Thankfully it was only a heartbeat’s hesitation between the shuttle’s shift in flight path and its gravitational compensators and inertial dampeners coming online, the battering ram pressure pushing Vaughn back into her seat instantly easing. And she thought the Naval Arm pilots were bad!
Now a little more comfortable in the loose fitting tunic, dark leather jacket and baggy pants she found waiting for her upon stepping out of the sonic shower, skin tingling, Vaughn took a quick moment to examine the mission package that had sat on top of the clothing. It wasn’t much larger than the wallet Brin had passed her the day before. But, as she discovered with the Kesinoa’s unfolding, appearances were often deceiving in this world. She wasn’t going to take anything for granted.
Intently she watched her fingers quickly examine the package, wrapped in a material much like the leather in her coat and her gun holster, now snuggled up under her left arm, the Kesinoa a rather comforting presence against her body. Hmmm, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Momentarily satisfied that nothing was going to blow up in her face, Vaughn undid the simple tie holding the package closed and reached inside. She took hold of what her fingertips found there and, after a slight hesitation, pulled it out.
And felt her eyebrow rise at what was pulled into sight. Like she had told herself before, appearances were deceiving in this world. The material inside the package proved it once more; several folded sheets of a dense, plastic-like material and a flattened disk just larger than a coin stuck in their midst. Definitely not what she had expected as a mission brief.
Not wanting to appear amateur in front of the Teserin operatives, Vaughn quashed the urge to open the plastic sheets, choosing instead to focus on the coin-like disk. A quick turn over in her hands gave her the impression it was much like the compressed Kesinoa in its dormant lozenge mode. Hopefully that meant it was activated in the same way. She gave the disk a squeeze to test her hypothesis and felt a tingle of satisfaction when the edge of the disk flared and several holographic sheets of information appeared. The tingle quickly disappeared when she realized the sheets were not in front of her, but inside her eye!
Somehow the disk had tapped into her visual cortex or was projecting a holographic image either into the fluid-filled space behind her lens, or just on top of the lens to create the illusion she was looking at several pages of information. Regardless of how it was happening, Vaughn swiftly learned it was indeed the mission brief she was looking at. It also told her what the plastic sheets were for: hard copy maps in the case of electronic failure. Satisfied with that, she returned her attention to the disk and its wondrous intrusion into her brain.
By moving her thumb on the disk’s warm surface, Vaughn swiftly discovered how to flip from page to page, each accompanied by Deks’ voice in her ear explaining salient points from the text. She quickly leafed through the material she and the Juresil operative had covered on the Indurin and into information she hadn’t seen before.
First to dart past her eyes was a curt entry detailing where they were going now. Based on the discussion she and Deks had in the conference room, the team was flying to the archive in Ven Cor’brin to reexamine the druidic text containing the reference to the talisman gleaned from the captured Viseith operative. With a fresh set of eyes, human eyes to be exact, Isivir Command hoped additional information would be recovered in a review of what they already had.
There also was the suggestion that Vaughn may be able to see connections where the Sidhe had not, using the original druidic text as a starting point to identifying other salient works in the archive dealing with the talisman. The lean marine officer frowned at that point. How could she identify anything, since she was totally unfamiliar with Sidhe archives and documentation?
The matter was pulled to the forefront when the shuttle banked, drawing Vaughn away from the brief and to the transparent walls through which she saw the city unrolling beneath them. Damn! They were already here!
“I hope the human knows what she’s doing.” One of the Teserin rasped, his words carrying a translator echo. Vaughn looked over at him and found a handsome Sidhe with brilliant, purple eyes, staring hard back at her. She returned the unrelenting gaze unflinchingly, intimidated not one iota by the powerful looking alien, sheathed head to toe in unremitting black.
“Or this is going to be a waste of our valuable time.” He finished, his lips moving slightly out of synch with his words.
It was Brin that leapt to Vaughn’s defense, before the human could herself speak.
“We’re instructed to examine every avenue, Var Ixim.” The male Teserin swung his hard eyes onto the determined weapons master, who matched him glare for glare.
“If we have to search every document, every text in that archive for clues, we will. And if Colonel Vaughn can render any assistance, she will.”
For a long moment the two Teserin exchanged stares, neither relenting. Then the one Brin named Ixim threw a quick look back at Vaughn, eyes suddenly measuring and calculating. Brin’s defense had given him pause and now he was reconsidering his initial impression. At least, for the moment.
“We shall see, weapons master.” He rasped before settling back into his place, arms folded over his chest.
As with many human cities, the city of Ven Cor’brin was divided into sectors. Most definitive were the commercial and industrial sectors, skirting the city’s perimeter in energy-shielded seclusion, prevented from impacting the surrounding environment by the strongest of technologies. Next was the downtown core, the obvious heart of the sprawling urban complex, with its impossible skyscrapers and stunning architecture, the forest reaching deep to cloak each structure in a sheath of green.
It was in the core the archive was located, one of the largest in the Pax. A sprawling compound covering nearly a full square kilometre, its massive libraries were blocks of stone reaching twenty stories into the air, and twenty more below ground. A stand-alone Thota-class AI by the name of Damatakrice governed the well being of the libraries and long-term archives, monitoring security perimeters and internal conditions for optimal storage. Through him they would access the archive’s massive storage vaults; here they would begin their search.
“The archive.” One of the other Teserin rasped and Vaughn found her eyes falling on the jumble of stone blocks that appeared in the northeastern shadow of the central cluster of skyscrapers. ‘Damn!’ She found herself thinking as she stared at the leviathan complex, nearly a city unto itself with skyscrapers, sprawling parks and lush waterways of its own, sprawling parks and lush. ‘I didn’t think it’d be that big!’
Guided by Ven Cor’brin traffic control, the shuttle slipped beneath the main aerial arteries flowing in and out of the core and into airspace directly over the archive. Landing beacons activated and, with a subtle shift in the omni-field that propelled the shuttle through planetary EM fields with silent ease, the silver teardrop slowed and began descending toward a raised series of platforms resembling the upturned petals of a flower. The beacons illuminated one of the outer pads and unerringly the shuttle slid through the air towards it.
A heartbeat later it was down, poised on the pad via its spindly landing legs, the outer door opening even before the shuttle’s power plant was fully wound down. First out was Deks, quickly followed by Vaughn and the Teserin. Their destination: the tube lift cluster, a metal and plastic stamen rising from the landing pads’ center.
Large enough to accommodate the entire team, the tube car, balanced on a smooth omni-field cushion, descended like a falling stone almost the instant the doors irised closed. Standing beside Brin, Vaughn uneasily shifted from foot to foot, eyes darting from one grim Sidhe face to the next. She could feel the tension climb with every metre they dropped into the archive’s heart until, when the platform finally slowed to a halt and the doors irised open, it was thick enough to cut.
And it didn’t ease as the team stepped out the doors and into the broad space stretching out before them. Vaughn frowned at the backs of the team members striding into the space in front of her. ‘What’s going on here? Why is everybody so tense? It’s just a library. Or am I missing something here?’
It wasn’t until the team had advanced a considerable distance into the broad, open space of this particular archive, massive rectangular columns rising at regular intervals occupying the space’s greater part, that Vaughn realized why. The Viseith had managed to penetrate this very archive in their attempt to take the se’Benite no e’Soacele text. The encounter brief reported several people were killed in the attempt, along with most of the Viseith insertion team and a good number of the security personnel protecting the archival block. Four Isivir agents and a handful of Internal Security Division agents also died in the subsequent shoot out.
Vaughn let a quick sigh whistle through her teeth. No wonder the team was nervous. Lots of people died in this place over the document they were coming to look at. Spilled blood always cried the loudest to comrades of the fallen.
Putting aside her recollection for a moment, the lean marine officer concentrated instead on the space they had entered. According to the mission brief, each archival block, the massive granite leviathans jutting from the archive complex’s heart, was further divided into floors, much like a human building’s stories. Each held a segment of the titanic database covering the entire history of the Pax and the Sidhe in space. With their open architecture, three metre high ceilings and rectangular, two metre, by eight metre by two metre columns containing the archival files themselves set at one metre intervals, soft lighting and floral-scented air, the segment chambers were a quiet reflection of the Sidhe themselves.
Two metre wide passages ran between the dark, polished, stone-like columns beyond the main corridors that were four metres, passing at regular intervals in a grid pattern covering the entire chamber. They were created for ease of movement for the archivists, dedicated personnel hailing from the druidic ranks, according to the mission brief. Vaughn found herself looking for them as they continued their progression into the chamber, hoping to catch a glimpse of a living, breathing Sidhe druid.
Unfortunately she remained unsatisfied as they drew to a halt before a particular column near the back wall without seeing one of the quiet, almost invisible archivists in the great, pastel-colored chamber. Then she was forced to push her search aside by Deks when he marched up to the column and began speaking to it.
“Damatakrice, this is Agent Deks Rountree, requesting permission to access archival files concerning the se’Benite no e’Soacele document I spoke about with you last night.”
A sinuous shape came alive close to the dark column’s top edge, a beautiful thing that glowed a soft blue in the chamber’s diffuse illumination.
“Voice ident and nizuhr profile confirmed, Agent Rountree. Access is granted.” A soft, cultured masculine voice replied from the air all around them a moment later. No identifiable source was visible.
“I’m drawing the se’Benite no e’Soacele from security holding now.”
Deks bowed solemnly to the column.
“Thank you, Damatakrice.” He smoothly replied, straightening once again.
He and the rest of the team folded their hands quietly in front of them, patiently waiting for the archive’s AI to physically retrieve the ancient document from the secured holding area deep in the complex’s belly. Damatakrice chose not to use a site-to-site teleport out of respect for the document’s ancient power, the text fragile and worn.
In the momentary pause, something suddenly occurred to Vaughn, with nearly the same strange insertion into her mind that she experienced on the Indurin. She had heard the name ‘Oberon’ before; before the Sidhe, and definitely before the Pax.
Taking a step around the corner of the column the team was standing in front of, she slid a hand into a pocket and drew out her link.
“Access primary database and cross reference the name ‘Oberon’.” She murmured into the tiny computer, a valuable resource since discovering the relation between Sidhe druids and ancient human druids. It took the small, but powerful processor only a moment to sift through its comprehensive store of human-related data.
“Oberon.” She read on the tiny holographic screen the link projected. “A fictional character in the William Shakespeare play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream. King of the Fairies, husband to Titania, queen of the Fairies and master to Puck, a roguish servant.”
Vaughn frowned as she let the link go idle, the holographic screen vanishing in a wink of light. Could this be some sort of bizarre coincidence? First she remembered hearing the word ‘druid’ during her briefing with Deks, leading to a possible connection between ancient Humanity and the Sidhe. Then recalling the name ‘Oberon’ and finding it in old English literature, a play by the famous Shakespeare; the two recollections and the discoveries were enough to send a chill down her spine.
Hurriedly she quashed the sensation. Odd as it may be, it would remain a coincidence until she had further proof otherwise. Stuffing the link back into her pocket, Vaughn looked at the column beside her. Could she access it like Deks had?
“Uh, Damatakrice, this is Colonel Vaughn.” She murmured softly.
“I hear you, Agent Vaughn.” The AI replied, just as softly. “But I don’t understand: why are you speaking so quietly?”
Vaughn stifled the urge to laugh out loud at the AI’s question. Yes, it was strange that she was whispering. Maybe she just couldn’t get over the whispering in a library thing.
“Could you run a text search for me while the team is waiting for the se’Benite text to arrive?”
“Certainly, Agent Vaughn. What would you like me to look for?”
“Two things, actually. First of all, any reference to ancient Pax or Sidhe exploration of Directorate space.”
“And the second?”
“Any cross-reference to the name ‘Titania’ in your database.”
This was the test. If Damatakrice found Titania in the massive and comprehensive Pax archives, then the connection between Humanity and the Pax was certain. Vaughn frowned as she waited for Damatakrice to finish his search, another thought percolating to the surface.
Connections aside, the lean officer couldn’t help but wonder: why did these ‘recollections’ occur? And why didn’t they occur earlier? Connecting the dots between Oberon and Titania should’ve happened when she first heard the name. But she ended up waiting nearly a week before finally putting the two together. Thankfully the druid connection worked much faster, popping up almost in the same sentence as the translation for the se’Benite text that Deks gave her.
Then she was forced to put her musings aside as Damatakrice returned with the results of his search.
“I have those results you requested, Agent Vaughn.” The archive AI stated softly, keeping their conversation sotto voce. “According to my records, the Pax hasn’t made any official forays into Directorate space for the period of time they kept records of space travel and exploration. I have no mention of private expeditions either. So, I’m sorry it appears this is the first time our two peoples have met.”
Vaughn pursed her lips in disappointment. Damn, it would’ve been useful to have physical and/or recorded evidence of the Pax running into humans in the past. It could’ve gone a long way towards explaining some of the coincidences she was running into.
“However, I found multiple references to the name you gave me, Titania.”
Vaughn’s head popped up, her eyes wide. Multiple references?
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense, Damatakrice. What do the archives say?”
“First, that it wasn’t a person. Rather it was an object, a scepter of ancient origin that had the power to channel magical energy, mentioned almost 200 times in various texts and documents.”
‘Magic’, Vaughn mouthed. To her, much of the technology the Sidhe utilized on a day-to-day basis was magical, so far above her understanding it stood. Interpreted by an ancient sage’s eyes, magical energy could be just about anything, ranging from the omni-fields the Pax used to propel their vessels through energy fields to the pulse molecular power sources that ran most of their technology.
“Considering what the Isivir team is here for, I also ran a cross-reference to the Scepter of Titania with the Crown of Oberon to see if we could find a connection. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any direct correlation, only insinuations and vague mentions in the various Titania texts, which, if you examine them closely and make certain assumptions, could be referring to the Crown. Counting such references did amount to quite a significant number, however, nearly 95, if my math is correct.”
Vaughn nodded, mind working hard.
“Does the Pax currently have the Scepter of Titania in their possession, Damatakrice?” The AI’s answer was swift.
“Another thing I checked, actually. And the answer would be no. Though the number of ancient artifacts and talismans the Pax has stored in various repositories, museums and in private collections is indeed extensive, no record of the scepter in Pax space exists. The texts I looked at though, spoke at length towards the scepter’s final resting place. The bulk of those documents originate in the period following the final shift by the Sidhe from their original home world to the planetary clusters of what would become the Pax. These documents describe the resting place as being on the third planet in a nine-planet system with a D class yellow star, fifth placement on the Vos Gojda scale for size.”
Though she didn’t understand Sidhe scaling, that sounded suspiciously to Vaughn like the Sol System.
“Is that an old scale, or a new one, Damatakrice?”
“Old, harkening back to the early days of the Pax, Colonel. Why? Is it stirring something in your mind?”
“Yeah, you could say that.” Vaughn tapped her leg with nervous energy as her mind worked over what the archive AI had revealed so far. “Can you translate the old scale measurements to current and run a comparative analysis of known star systems, matching the describe parameters against any system charted by the Pax?”
There was a slight pause. Then:
“Done and done. We have five possible matches; three inside Pax space, which I’ve immediately dismissed since the third planet in all three cases, are gas giants. One is outside Pax space in a region known as the Tivorti Rift, explored well over five hundred years ago. It’s now under Fad’Adwar control, a race of sentient reptiles that are methane-breathers, the primary component of that planet’s atmosphere. And finally your Directorate’s central system, Sol.”
Vaughn snapped her fingers sharply with a grin. She knew it! The connection she was looking for.
“Excellent work, Damatakrice! Now, could you compile a list of documents in which the Crown is mentioned in conjunction with the Scepter? They may contain a description of the actual hiding place for one or both talismans, giving us something to look for.”
“Making that list now.” Damatakrice reported. “Along with a compilation of the various passages that mention both talismans.”
“Sounds like you’ve been busy.” Brin noted as she stepped around the corner and up beside Vaughn.
Glancing up at the sultry Teserin beauty, Vaughn grinned.
“I couldn’t just sit on my hands and wait for the se’Benite text to arrive.” She rasped, half apologetically. Brin smiled, hands clasped behind her back.
“How Teserin of you.” She said. “We don’t enjoy waiting for things either.” Then she was all business. “What have you discovered?”
Vaughn pulled her link out of her pocket and gazed at it for a long moment before speaking.
“Well, I’m not sure what got me thinking about it, but I remembered hearing the name ‘Oberon’ before.” She looked at Brin. “You see, Oberon is a fictional character in an old human piece of literature.” She said, lifting her link to show how she had made her discovery.
Brin’s eyes narrowed with curiosity as they darted between the link and Vaughn’s face.
“Human literature talks about one of the most powerful talismans in Sidhe history?” She rasped and Vaughn jerked her head through a quick nod of confirmation.
“He was the king of the Fairies in a story called ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.”
“Fairies.” Brin repeated, her face growing more and more thoughtful.
Again Vaughn nodded.
“Right. And, according to the story, Oberon had a queen, Titania. On a hunch, I had Damatakrice search the Sidhe archives for any mention of Titania.”
“By the fact that you’re smiling like a dragon that’s caught a unicorn, I’d say he found some.”
Blinking away the strange buzz in her ear generated when her translator struggled to find human translations for the words it finally called ‘dragon’ and ‘unicorn’, Vaughn nodded a third time.
“Over 200 references in a broad variety of documents. With several references to what could be the Crown of Oberon, if you make certain assumptions.”
She leaned forward, her face intent.
“It’s another talisman, Brin; one that focuses magical energy. Combined with the Crown’s ability to gather energy, . . .”
“It would appear we’ve found the corresponding talisman to be used with the Crown!” Brin finished, eyes wide in realization. “Maker bless me, Vaughn, you did it! You not only found additional references to the original talisman we were looking for, but you uncovered a second talisman’s existence as well. Burn that drax Var Ixim for doubting you.”
It was Vaughn’s turn to have her eyes narrow in curiosity, her find momentarily forgotten.
“Drax? Are you saying Var Ixim isn’t Teserin?”
Brin softly snorted after taking a quick look to see where the aforementioned Ixim was standing. The proud-looking male was just behind Deks, arms folded over his muscular chest and a frown chiseled onto his handsome face.
“Thank the Shadow, no. He mocks us in taking Teserin form. The Drax have a long history of hatred between they and us.”
Vaughn’s eyebrow climbed towards her hairline. Shape shifters that hate the Teserin? That doesn’t sound too good.
“Are the Drax Alisar then?”
Brin shook her head.
“No. At least, not one of the original Races of the Light. As far as I know, the Drax have carried hatred for the Teserin for far longer than the conflict between Senisar and Alisar, giving birth to it some time lost in the distant mist of the past. A hatred they brought with them when they joined the Pax shortly after its conception, though they’ve little chance to fulfill their dislike for us under the Pax’s covenant of peace.”
A slight smile touched her full and sensuous lips.
“On the other hand, they’ve little love for the Juresil and Halinor as well. Makes one wonder why they bothered to join the Pax at all.”
Vaughn frowned as she turned her gaze to the powerful looking alien Brin called a Drax masquerading as a Teserin. It was a good question; if the Drax hated the Sidhe races as much as Brin said they did, what was the point? Unless they knew they’d find themselves on the short end of a war started against the Pax, dominated by the Sidhe.
“Numbers.” She said quietly, returning her gaze to Brin. “They didn’t have the numbers to fight all three of you at the same time.”
Realization that Vaughn had hit upon the reason with her first stroke was a light flaring to brilliance in Brin’s luminescent eyes. She smacked a clenched fist against her thigh, the impact’s sound muffled by her clothing but enough to draw curious looks from those close enough to hear it. Ignoring them, Brin hissed.
“Of course! Just as we fear the fall of the Pax would bring the Juresil and Halinor against their old Senisar foe, the Drax fear the Sidhe would destroy them if they weren’t part of the Pax.” She grimaced.
“Unfortunately that also refutes the theory most Teserin hold that the Drax are directly responsible for the Praetors and their rebellion against the Pax. By your observation, we can see that the Drax stand to lose even more than we Senisar Sidhe, if the Pax were to fall. Despite their strength and adeptness in the Extraspacial arts, the unified Alisar Sidhe would easily overwhelm them. Not to mention they’d be fighting a two-front war if the Teserin decided to destroy them first as well.”
Again Vaughn’s eyebrow went up.
“There you go again, using more terms I don’t know. What are the Extraspacial arts?”
Brin smiled.
“My apologies, Colonel. Sometimes I forget how little you know of the Pax, the Sidhe and the galaxy beyond your Directorate. No offense meant.”
“None taken.” Vaughn quickly reassured the beautiful Teserin weapons master.
“Good. The Extraspacial arts, brought with the Sidhe when they originally fled their home world millennia ago, cover a broad range of skills and powers surrounding the ability to summon energy from extraspacial planes and use them to alter matter, energy, even Reality itself here, in our sphere of existence.”
The lean marine officer couldn’t help her low whistle of amazement. Never mind the Sidhe’s technology; that sounded like magic!
“Do you mean, powers of the mind? Like telekinesis and telepathy?”
Brin quickly shook her head in the contrary.
“We call those gifted with the power to manipulate matter with their minds ‘Psionics’ and they stand outside the geas of the adepts, those with the gift to summon extraspacial energies we name ‘mana’ or ‘ether’. Those are quite common amongst some of the Pax species, including the Teserin. The power to summon mana is something completely different, though also passed on from family to family.”
The beautiful weapons master sighed, a sad look fleeting across her features for a brief moment.
“Unfortunately Adepts amongst the races and species within the Pax are rare, in great part because of our great dependency on technology. Once they were more common, the ability to summon the power highly prized amongst all races and species, so efforts were made to insure adept nizuhr was passed from generation to generation, great houses and guilds established to assist gifted families. Now, only a handful remain. Fearful the talent may pass all together out of the Pax, the governing council has established the Ministry of Extraspacial Affairs to promote, maintain and rebuild the talent within our combined peoples.”
She paused once again to look at Ixim.
“The only exception to that rule are the Drax. Every member of that ancient race is an adept, and often some of the most powerful ones. It’s been said the Drax were born in the extraspacial planes, that they are flesh wrapped around pure mana. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know. But I’ve seen an enraged drax summon mana and twist reality in such a manner it was hard to deny they have ether flowing in their veins. The Drax are wondrous creatures. They’d do considerable damage before we destroyed them.”
“Then let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Vaughn said and Brin nodded in quick agreement.
A soft chime from the column beside them brought the two women back to Vaughn’s search for references to Titania. Looking at the column, Vaughn watched a small drawer appear out of what had seemed solid stone, a shallow shelf that held a flattened disk of silver. After a slight hesitation, she reached out and picked it up.
“I’ve taken all the reference material with regards to Titania, the Scepter of Titania and related matter to the Crown of Oberon and stored it on this data disk, colonel.” Damatakrice explained as Vaughn turned the disk over in her hands.
“It should give you a place to start your search.”
The lean officer nodded and handed the disk over to Brin. The Teserin immediately gave it a squeeze and watched page after page of information quickly scroll over the softly glowing blue holographic page that appeared on the disk’s right side. The disk served as both holder and marker to the page’s left, just off its center.
After a brief perusal, Brin looked up and gave a curt nod in confirmation and Vaughn turned back to the column.
“Good work, Damatakrice.” She said, Brin handing the disk back to her. “And thanks for all your help. We couldn’t have, . . .”
Vaughn’s voice trailed off as she caught a furtive movement further down the row they were standing in. Almost immediately Brin had a hand on her holstered weapon upon catching sight of Vaughn’s curious look towards something behind the gray skinned Teserin. Then she was jerking it free when the human’s eyes suddenly flew wide in alarm.
“Everybody down!” The veteran soldier snarled, reaching out and pulling Brin roughly to the side in a surge of strength and speed. In the same motion she pulled her Kesinoa free and snapped it up to take aim. Only to get hammered backwards by a searing blast of energy that crashed heavily into her.
Already spinning around to face their attackers, Brin fired twice before being forced to roll behind the nearest column, which immediately flared as its security shielding absorbed several energy discharges.
“Vaughn!” She cried as the passageways filled with weapon fire, both from their attackers and from the Isivir team, returning fire after being alerted by Vaughn’s cry. She stared hard at the human’s unmoving form, her jumpsuit shoulder seared and blackened.
The human she had so openly ridiculed five days before, only to find common ground with her only a few hours ago, had taken the hit for her. If she hadn’t pulled Brin aside at the last moment, she would’ve been shot in the back.
“C’mon, human.” She hissed, anger surging through her at such a cowardly attack. “You can’t die on us now. Not after what you’ve found.” She bent around the corner and, upon espying the dark cloaked figures of the enemy, she opened fire. Then the world dissolved into a fury of fire and light.