Freelancers

Freedom

Veriss rushed through the opening to the stationary hoverbed Jag was strapped to. Emergency sirens and fire suppressors were deployed around her. The blackened shell of a room was littered with broken consoles and stray papers. Debris and equipment strewn across its floor, and the sounds of shouting and armored boots were not too far away.

"We're getting you out of here. Can you walk?" shouted Veriss over the loud hissing of punctured air tanks.

Jag grunted, "Yeah, my feet work. Not so sure about my arms."

Veriss primed her micro-torch and burned through the clamps restraining Jag to the bed. She noticed the bruising on his upper torso. His left arm had been wrapped and set with ferrocast. She struggled to lift the heavier man up from the bed, but he pushed her arm to the side.

"It's fine. I can do it," he said as he swung his feet over the edge and carefully stood up.

Jag's legs wobbled under his weight and he nearly collapsed onto the floor if Veriss had not caught him. A fiery blast erupted at the far corner of the room and knocked a hoverbed four feet into the air. Veriss looked towards the noise with a sense of urgency immediately washing over her.

"Come on, we need to get out of here before the whole ward goes up in flames."

Veriss shouldered most of Jag's weight and helped straighten his posture. The pair turned to find the entrance and headed towards it. They hurried across the blackened and charred floor to the opening. Veriss ducked her head, and guided Jag under a fallen support beam. Once out in the hallway, blaring klaxons and pulsating crimson emergency lighting threatened to disorient the pair, but resolve strengthened their senses. They continued down the hallway towards the next junction.

"The prison guards will be here any moment. I'm sure the garrison has been alerted as well," said Jag through clenched teeth.

Veriss shrugged Jag higher up onto her shoulder as she glanced quickly at the holo-display on her left arm.

This way.

She led Jag down a haggard hall as the faint echoes of the garrison troops grew louder.

"Here, rest up for a bit while I do a quick system check."

"They'll be here soon, I hope you know what you're doing," hissed Jag as he painfully slumped off from Veriss's shoulder.

With a few firm tugs, Veriss removed the grate and uncovered a ceiling intake port nested against a hallway pillar. Her micro-torch ignited with a hiss and she made quick work of the hard metal covering.

"This connects with the central cooling ducts. Every two hundred yards is an intake port; I studied the blueprints," grunted Veriss as she pulled the metal covering free from its posts.

"I'll secure you to my grapple and head up to the next level. The Vengeance is not too far from the detention level, so we'll have to escape quickly," added Veriss.

She primed her vambrace launcher with the grapple, aimed carefully upwards, and fired. The grapple connected with the hard durasteel of the cooling duct, and with a few tugs she was satisfied with the connection.

The sound of soldiers' commlinks were growing more audible as they approached the pair's location. The rigid clank of armored boots against the cold, bare metal floor grew louder, and the blaring klaxons were starting to annoy Jag further.

"Hurry, connect me up so we can get out of here. My head is about to explode."

Jag grimaced in pain as he rose from his seated position, and turned his back towards Veriss so that she could attach the micro winch to the back of his armor. A pull assured Jag that he was well connected. They shared a nod, and Jag looked upwards as the winch raised him effortlessly along the grapple line. Jag's feet had barely cleared the duct opening when Veriss turned and made eye contact with the faceless masks of garrison soldiers entering the dim hallway.