Reclamation Postulation [IC]

[UserError404]

As Aleksandra sat up, the memories suddenly came back to her. Quickly reaching down to her abdomen, she was surprised to find there was no wound or pain. Had she been dreaming it? Vel asked if she could stand and she did so, taking a few steps just to prove she could. However, the mysterious forces that healed her wound did not clear her confusion. "Vel, Demos, what the hell is going on? Did they let us go? Where are the others?" she asked with concern, unsure if she would get an answer judging by the dumbfounded looks on their faces. It seemed her compatriots were as confused as she was.

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As Petras headed out the door, Vukani followed quickly in suit. "I take it the two of you have a history?" Petras asked.

"We are acquainted" Vukani replied.

"Well when the two of you meet up, you can blame him for your capture." Petras sighed. "I will admit, he baited me with his lies, and now I see to what end." he said with bitterness accompanying every word.

Vukani was quiet. It made sense now, why they were captured. It seemed Mirko was using them as pawns in his game of chess. But what was his goal, and more importantly, why was Mirko following him and his crew? If Mirko was here with his church lackeys, it likely meant that an artifact was involved. Perhaps he would ask Mirko when they caught him.

Ezpalli followed the general, happy to be out of that room of death. Many questions still lingered in her mind. She listened to the brief conversation between Petras and the general before turning to Zyanya, "I can't believe Mirko would do this. He seemed... I don't know... Not like this. I wonder how all this happened. This facility is so big, it's hard to believe one man could do so much damage. Do you think the whole facility was affected? Maybe an artifact was involved, but I don't know of any quite like this..." Ezpalli began rambling, somewhat talking to Zyanya, but more so attempting to deal with the stress of the past several hours, in her own way.

Once again, Zyanya began following Petras down the long winding hallways of the facility, this time with the general and Ezpalli by her side.

[abbiejlee95]

Fighting her rising anger, Zyanya followed the others back down the hallways. She pushed away murderous thoughts of Mirko and let Ezpallis words wash over her. Her soft voice soothing her just enough to come back to reality. She quietly let the nervous girl ramble as they walked and placed a comforting hand on the small of her back, leading her forward. The contact meant to sooth her friend did just as much to help her.

[Holocene]

Demos responded to Aleksandra curtly, "No, and I don't know."

He turned, facing Vel, "Vel, we need to go. Now. If the facility is back up, so will be the locals. We escape, then figure out what happened to the others. And if you see any of those religious assholes, shoot on sight. Try to avoid killing anyone else though, that will not make us friends."

The irony of what Demos said after what he had done earlier was lost on him, but Vel smiled at remembering Demos attacking the soldiers when they first arrived.

"Follow me. I remember the way out," Demos said, starting down the hallway trying to remember the path he had taken earlier.

[UserError404]

Aleksandra followed Demos as he led them down the corridor. She was impressed with his memory and navigational skills, though she probably shouldn't expect any less from someone of his background. Of course Demos was also right about the locals. As Aleksandra and the others made their way through the hallways, multiple footsteps were heard as guards and other emergency responders came up a nearby staircase and fanned out through the hallways, likely looking for any survivors. Luckily, Demos had led them into the narrow maintenance passageway before they were noticed by the responders.

As he did before, Demos took a right and the corridor was lined with several doors. He knew which one to take, but it seemed that someone else did as well. Just a few feet from the 5th door on the left, facing the group and coming from the opposite end of the corridor was Mirko and one of his armored lackeys from before. In Mirko's hands was a white cylindrical capsule roughly 16 inches tall and 10 inches in diameter. An artifact containment device. Mirko stopped in his tracks and his face distorted in confusion briefly before his eyes widened and he quickly jumped into the doorway along with his lackey. The door closed behind them.

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Petras fiercely watched his handheld tracking device and navigated the corridors seemingly on instinct alone. It was not long before the group came across several guards. Instinctively, the guards raised their guns but quickly lowered them when they saw their commander. They saluted and one of them stepped out in front of Petras. "Sir, I'm glad to see you are okay. The good news is that the facility seems to be stabilizing. However, one of the prisoners, the Brenan girl, was shot. We are still searching for the others, sir..." the guard looks over at Vukani, Ezaplli, and Zyanya. "Well except for those three. I guess you found them, huh sir?" the guard nervously chuckled.

Ezpalli's eyes widened. "Aleks..." she whispered under her breath. Ezpalli stopped with her rambling after this. Similarly, Vukani's fists clenched and his eyes narrowed with anger.

"Indeed. Thank you lieutenant. Take your men and some of the medical officers to the research sector. Several were wounded. Do you have any extra men to spare lieutenant?" Petras asked.

"Uhhhh, well most of my men are doing damage control. And the saboteurs are still at large..." The lieutenant said nervously.

Petras sighed. "I understand lieutenant. Send who you can to the maintenance sector on the 18th floor. Also, please retrieve the prisoner's belongings and meet me on the 18th floor, assuming their things have not been destroyed." Petras continued, moving towards a nearby flight of stairs. The lieutenant saluted, barked orders and began running the way Petras and the others had come from.

Under Vukani's silent facade, his blood was boiling. He was, of course, worried about Aleksandra's safety, but fear was not the feeling that was invoked. News of Aleksandra was fuel on the ever growing fire of rage. The embers crackled and reverberated the name Mirko. The scoundrel. The silver-tongued devil. The betrayer. Petras would soon face Vukani's furry for the treatment of his crew. But first would be Mirko.

[abbiejlee95]

Zyanya trudged along with the others, staying close to Ezpallis side for comfort. She was barely hanging onto her sanity.

"I need to get out of this place. I need to see the others. I need to see the sky. I need to sleep. My head is killing me." So many thoughts swam through her head as the commander talked to his men. But one sentence broke her.

"One of the prisoners, the Brenan girl, was shot." She didn't hear anything else after that. Her ears began to ring. Her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. Her barely contained anger shattering her fragile composure.

She left Ezpallis side and stormed up to Vukani, gripping his shirt sleeve. Her nails dug into the fabric and her hand shook with rage against his arm. "Vukani. I'm going to kill him, the commander, the soldiers, and fucking Mirko. If you don't calm me down, I'm going to kill them all." Her words came out in a low growl. Only Vukani could hear her. But as she looked into his eyes she knew he could see her losing herself.

[Holocene]

Vel admired Demos along with Aleksandra. Something about his calm, calculated expression made Vel realize that Demos lived for moments like these, although he would probably never admit it. Vel was just glad he had someone braver than himself along.

Demos froze upon seeing Mirko. He didn't bother to look, or care what he held. He simply burst into action. Without a gun, he needed to get to Mirko before he could shoot. But Mirko did something Demos did not expect. He ran.

Demos reached for Mirko's neck right as the door closed behind him, and Demos had to stop himself rapidly to avoid slamming into the hard metal door. "I'll kill that bastard!" he shouted, looking back at the others.

[UserError404]

As Demos ran for the door, Aleksandra followed, and stopped herself just before running into Demos. "Was that Mirko?" she asked. "From the van? Is he still following us?"

Aleksandra examined the door and found the opening mechanism had been disabled, likely by Mirko on the other side. "What the hell?" she asked after playing with the door terminal. "They locked it. I need an override." She looked over at the others.

After a moment of thought, she remembered. "There has to be some sort of manual override for the door, right?" Sure enough, after feeling around the lip of the door, she found a small lever hidden in a depression on the right. The latch clicked but the door wouldn't budge. "There should be another lever in roughly the same spot on the opposite side Demos. Once you pull it, we should be able to push open the door."

As Aleksandra prepared to push open the door, she added, "Just to make sure though, this guy isn't going to try to shoot us as soon as we bust in, right?"

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Petras continued to lead them through the facility. As the rage filled Vukani's head, he felt a tug on his sleeve, brining him back to reality.

"Vukani. I'm going to kill him, the commander, the soldiers, and fucking Mirko. If you don't calm me down, I'm going to kill them all." Zyanya said.

At first Vukani was shocked at her quiet outburst. But then again, he could empathize. "Zyanya, I..." Vukani thought about his words. "Mirko will get his punishment one way or another. Men like him always do. Actions have a way of catching up to us. Right now, the others need us. Aleksandra, Vel, Demos, and the people of Almanel. We can still make this right. The commander is our best chance at finding the others. Once we find them, he too will answer."

Vukani paused, unsure if there was even anything he could say that would be enough, "Stay with me Zyanya. We will find the others and we will get out of here."

He could feel Zyanya's anger, and it made him realize how his own anger was consuming his thoughts. Revenge was a luxury. Survival was a necessity. Survival for Vukani and his crew. As long as they kept their heads, they would make it out of here. Then, they could worry about the luxuries.

[abbiejlee95]

Zyanya tried to listen to Vukani's words. Really truly listen. But her anger kept bubbling over. She ran a hand through her hair and took a deep, but shaky breath. She wanted to answer Vukani back or argue with him but all she could do was nod her head and try and focus on a few of his words. She repeated them over and over again in her head to try and hold back her rage. "Right now, the others need us", "We will find the others and we will get out of here." She fought back angry and exhausted tears and prayed that Alek wasn't hurt too badly and that the others were alright. She released her death grip on Vukani's shirt and desperately reached for Ezpalli's hand to hold.

[Holocene]

Demos slowed his thoughts and watched as Alek worked to open the door. As instructed, he found the other release, and got ready to pull.

"Just to make sure though, this guy isn't going to try to shoot us as soon as we bust in, right?"

Demos replied, "He's a coward, and cowards run. I'm sure he's gained as much ground as he could while we were stuck. But I wouldn't leave yourself open, just in case."

Vel hid in around the corner, not as confident as Demos was that there wouldn't be shooting.

Demos pulled the release, and readied himself for what would come.

[UserError404]

With the sound of grinding metal, the door gave way. As Vel expected, the sound of gunfire followed. Taking cover behind the remaining skiff, Mirko took several pot shots at the doorway. The person accompanying him seemed to be working on the skiff as it faintly hummed to life before flickering out. It seemed that the remaining skiff was currently inoperable. Boxes and large shipping grates littered the room but their was a clear line of sight between Mirko and the door through which Aleksandra and Demos were coming through. Just outside the door was a metal staircase that led down to the main room. As Demos and Aleksandra took cover, Mirko called out, "You know it's a shame Demos!" taking another shot towards the doorway.

"You're a great a warrior and yet you help these backwards fools seeking the very things that destroyed our world. And for what? Money? Power? Glory? What good is any of that in a world that is dying." Mirko took several more shots at the door to make sure they stayed in place. There was then several seconds of silence as Mirko and his lackey seemed to be whispering something. Mirko then continued.

"And you Aleksandra. I would think you of all people would understand. The devastation your home has faced thanks to the power of these artifacts. Surely you can see how dangerous they are, even in the hands of your Xydrift scientists." Without looking, Mirko took three more shots towards the doorway before again whispering something to his lackey.

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Several agonizing minutes went by as Petras lead them through the facility. Ezpalli grabbed Zyanya's hand as they continued onward. They eventually came to a squadron of guards carrying boxes. It was all of their things. As they Vukani and Ezpalli began gathering their belongings, Petras spoke up. "Now I am giving you your weapons back. I hope I can trust you to help me apprehend this saboteur." He looked wearily at Vukani.

Vukani inspected his weapon and stared coldly at Petras. "Where to?" he responded.

Petras then gave the guards orders to lock down floors 15 through 21 and they began running off in varying directions. Two of the guards followed Petras as he lead them all through the halls to a service corridor. As they entered, the sounds of gunshots were heard.