Gabatrix: The Pirates of Palora

Chapter 7: The Decadent Floor

Twenty minutes passed....

Shira, Ioren, Stone, and English stood by the main elevator. They were back on the 1st floor of the space station. A stretcher carrying a dead body wrapped in hard plastic was being ferried by two EMS personnel.

A pair of guards nodded to Shira before they walked away, seemingly satisfied with the report. Stone stood at a distance from Shira. His back turned to her as he watched the stretcher being pushed to the distant morgue.

Ioren wasn't that far from him. She watched as Shira pulled out a small disk-shaped device before tapping a small button. In seconds, the communication signal was established. Javier's face was displayed on the 3d projection of the device.

"Captain," Javier said. "I got the word from Valradena's security agency and was just about to call you. Everything alright?"

"No casualties," Shira calmly replied. "As almost expected, the mission to secure our target has proven a failure. Most likely, the pirates have eliminated the person we were meant to secure, or it was an ambush planned before it ever happened."

"Damn," Javier replied. "I'm beginning to wonder if Palora's intelligence are plain fools or the pirates just like luring operatives to their doom."

"Most likely a little bit of everything," she explained. "These rogues know us better than we thought. They know the UHN is desperate to have some sort of foothold in eliminating them and are utilizing it to their fullest extent. We are in their territory, and they have held this advantage for some time."

"What was the name of this agent?"

"Millaray."

"And she knew the codeword?"

"Yes, she did. I suspect that they either extracted it from the former defector or that the pirates simply created this event to attack us."

"And unfortunately, it appears that this 'Millaray' didn't exactly live through this."

"I doubt that she would have carried much information," Shira explained. "The pirates have long ensured that their secrecy remains intact. Their operatives are those that are given a strict 'need to know' basis. We are left with following the most basic of trails."

Javier shook his head. "It's why they've been flourishing for all this time. I saw in the early report about a turret you shot. What happened?"

"Yes. When we were approaching the restaurant, I noticed that there were two small roadside pillars, most likely basic vehicle barricades, located by the adjacent hotel. As we were questioning Millaray, Stone and Ioren were distracted by one of the restaurant's customers. During that time, I noticed that another pillar was present. There was no other way for it to appear unless it was placed there intentionally."

"What?"

"I was quickly able to conclude that the pillar's presence was a disguised emplacement, an assassin's tool which has been verified to be a UHN sentry turret, wrapped in a metal alloy and painted in the same colors as the other barricade pillars. As we remained distracted, the sentry turret would deploy and terminate us. From there, I made two shots. The first shot was to break the glass where the bullet would be diverted off course and into the street. The second shot, no longer hindered by the glass, successfully damaged and disabled it before it could pose a danger to us."

Javier sighed and remained aghast. "Incredible. Good observation on you. And here I almost thought you were going to boast about it."

"Boasting has no point in this current discourse."