Incipience

Chapter 10

The glass doors slide open at our approach. The sight before us is saddening, but far from a surprise. There's only a hand full of Quinzentenians in the room, but the few of them were able to able to cut down the Beta squad with apparent ease. There are no scorch marks in the room which leads me to believe that the intruders were able to take all of my teammates out before they could even fire their blasters. The litter of bodies on the floor is a concerning sight, but the only comfort I have in the situation is that there's no blood soaking the pristine floors. Whatever happened to the Betas, I at least know they might have a chance of survival.

My attention quickly shifts from my floored comrades to the Quinzentenians. There are a total of five in the room: two at the medical beds, two at the computers and one with the two hostages. The two at the medical beds look like they're collecting data from the wires and vials they have plugged into three of my teammates while the other two seem to be hacking away at Xiomoazi's computers. 

The Quinzentenian in the middle of the room stands behind the only two they bothered tying up: Xiomoazi and N'vizwei. Dread curls my stomach into a tight ball when I see N'vizwei's shattered helmet. I hope that the inner lining absorbed the brunt of the impact; if not, my instructor is probably suffering from a concussion or much worse. Xiomoazi sits beside N'vizwei looking relatively unharmed, save for the gauze wrapped around her mouth as a makeshift gag. Her magenta eyes are opened wide, her expression visibly begging for help.

I push my concerns for my commanders and colleagues aside and tune back into the situation at hand. I'll be able to help them once the immediate threat is resolved.

I can tell that the almost bored looking Quinzentenian standing before me is the leader of this mission based on her dress alone. While the Quinzentenians don't seem to have standardized uniforms like the Inovarians do, they all stick to the same purple, silver and white color scheme. The extent of most of the Quinzentenians' accessories is silver forearm cuffs, but the individual before me has a beautiful pink and blue collared bib necklace that makes her stand out from the others. Between her embellishment and the air of authority surrounding her, I have no doubt that she's the one to blame for tonight's chaos.

"Let them go and surrender," Rombag commands. "All units are converging on our location as we speak. You will soon be surrounded. If you do not surrender, we will not hesitate to use deadly force."

The woman gives a quick blink of surprise before giving a small, bemused hum.

"Odd," she comments softly, "I was not expecting you to address me in their tongue."

This time it's my turn to do a double-take. How the hell does she know English?

Rombag, however, is unphased by this development and continues on as per usual. "Surrender, or I will kill you."

The woman simply shrugs at Rombag before turning her back to us. Rombag instantly goes for a kill shot. I don't know whether I should be relieved or disappointed that the laser dissolves before it can make contact with her skull. 

Based on the ripple of energy around the Quinzentenian, I'm guessing that she has some sort of forcefield protecting her. I quickly draw my weapon and fire off a few shots of my own at the other Quinzentenians. Similarly, the lasers are nullified before they can do any damage.

I scoff; how typical, the leaders and the bigwigs are the ones who get the best armor and weapons while the common soldiers get the bare minimum. I can only imagine how much the ailing Quinzentenians in the hallway wish that they had the armor she's sporting right now.

The leader laughs, "Now that we've established that your guns have no effect on us, you might as well put them away."

I slowly do as I am told while Rombag keeps a blaster trained at her head. I try to keep my glances around the room discrete. I know there has to be something in the room that could get through the energy field to incapacitate them. Unfortunately, Xiomoazi is known for her immaculate workspace, so there's nothing lying around that could be used as a weapon.