The Grey Chronicles Part One: New Declaration of An Old War

Chapter 5: An Old Ally...Probably.

The Jarl's palace, Calypso Four, March of 8096 AL.

Salem raised his weapon and pulled the trigger, only to realize he hadn't reloaded. He muttered a curse and grabbed Briarios' sidearm, emptying the magazine at the soldiers while shoving his children towards the door. They sprinted through the doorway towards the elevator, but Salem knew it wouldn't be fast enough. He came up with an idea after noticing the cables that operated the elevator were visible through a window above the elevator door. He reloaded his rifle and fired a dozen rounds at the cable holding the counterweight, sending the car crashing towards the bottom floor as the cable snapped with a sound like a forty-car-pileup. The giant metal box followed the weight, hitting the bottom of the shaft with a resounding crash. The cable jammed in the top of the shaft, providing a perfect rappel line. He turned and shot at the mahogany door to discourage the palace guards in pursuit.

"Rappel down, I'll cover you!" Salem shouted at his daughter, pushing her towards the elevator shaft. He kept firing at the door, and out of the corner of his eye he watched Soluna grab the cable and disappear down the shaft. Briarios followed her as Salem stepped closer to the door. He slung his rifle over his shoulder, leaped at the cable, and slid down to the top of the slightly-crumpled elevator car. Regardless of the gloves protecting his hands his palms grew uncomfortably hot from the friction, by the time he reached the bottom his hands stung like a bad sunburn. Soluna and Briarios had dropped through the maintenance hatch in the top of the pummeled lift and Salem went to follow them. He sat on the edge of the door and looked up; the guards were pointing something down the shaft...

...something that he recognized as a grenade launcher. His heart plummeted into his stomach as he heard the telltale thump of a grenade leaving the barrel. He grabbed the lid of the hatch and dropped into the elevator car, closing the door as he fell to the floor of the elevator on his back. An explosion rocked the metal box and dented the hatch several inches inward, while Salem laid on the floor and shook the dizziness from his head.

Briarios ran his hands up his father's torso and shoulders, checking him for wounds. He pursed his lips as he found the whiskey, but he was satisfied that his father wasn't injured. He dragged Salem out of the car and to his feet, then all three of them sprinted through the throne room towards the front doors, slamming them open and crashing onto the helipad. Salem looked over his shoulders and his heart plummeted further, to his knee? His thigh? Unimportant, wherever his heart was, it didn't change the thirty-odd guards chasing after them or the secretary screaming orders at them. The man in the lead suddenly buckled at the knees and collapsed, Salem was confused for a moment until he heard gunfire and his daughter shouting. He turned back towards the drop ship and saw Soluna manning the door gun, carefully firing several feet over her father and brother.

"THE CITY'S ENTIRE POLICE FORCE IS ON OUR TAIL, MOVE IT!"

They were sprinting towards the drop ship as Salem screamed the order to Briarios, shaking off the last of his daze and overtaking his son. He leaped up into the drop ship, which hovered six feet above the landing pad. He took his son's hand and dragged him into the ship, then rushed back into the cockpit. Augustus had been sitting with his feet up on the console taking sips from his flask when his niece had burst through the door into the ship. She had shouted something he couldn't quite hear, but he'd lowered his feet and dropped the flask the moment he heard gunfire, starting the Phantom's engine and getting a few feet above the pad so Soluna had a clear line of fire. He grinned as his brother practically dropped into the copilot's seat.

"I assume the Jarl didn't feel like talking?" Augustus chuckled, his cheeks rosy red.

"Not in the slightest. Well, not to us, at least; he was meeting with a Titanus," Salem replied, breathing hard from the sprint.