Chapter 5: Field Trip on a Day Off

[Ray of Meep]

Co-authored by: Ray of Meep (GM), Acewing13, Ikate Keda Studios, TheCountryWarrior

23XX A.D, Three months after arrival at the Silbern system capital

Silbern System, Stahl Belt, Nikolaus Otto dwarf-planetary system, Magnuski Station

The simulated time was morning in the Hings ring, the newest section of the greater capital station. Joan yawned as she stepped out of the precinct. It was going to be her day off, with time to spend with her children... and Tyler.

She left her protective wear in the police armory, now just donning the regular light-blue and black uniform, when a shuttle rolled up in front of her, similar to the one Beatrix rented when she picked up Joan from the hospital. It was a sleek civillian design, silver, with ports lining the edges and faces as cold gas thrusters for low-gravity maneuvering. The front window, polarized glass, rolled down, revealing a familiar face in sunglasses.

"Get in." Eberhard ordered. Inside were Juan and Bee, presumably caught after their shifts as well. It was spacious, as expected. The driver's seat was fixed forward, but the shotgun could rotate around, and there was enough floor space for a small coffee table.

Once Joan obliged, Eberhard handed her a pair of glasses as well, which was fitted with a HUD and comms. He started driving off, then started speaking again. "Sorry for hijacking your days off, and sorry for being so secretive. You'll find business suits in the floor storage; better get changing now."

"You going to explain what's going on now?" Beatrix asked, poppin open the panels on the floor.

Joan looked a little uncomfortable at the idea of getting undressed, but let out a sigh and started at it. Though she still wore her chest binder, the team could see something was making Joan have a bad time. A large bruise on her arm as if someone had grabbed her rougly, and a couple bruises along her side. She didn't leave much time for anyone to get a real good look before pulling a dress shirt over and beginning to button it all up. "Ah would like more warnin nex' 'ime," Joan said, looking at Eberhard. "Ah 'ad plans fer me nippahs."

Juan saw it immediatly. He wasn't sure whether he was looking for a reason to talk or what, but he saw it. Maybe she just got roughed on the beat. It happens, people struggle while you clap them in cuffs and you take home a bruise. He hoped that's all it is. "Yeah Ebe, why did you kidnap us?"

"I've been spending down time going down the spider web with the intel we scraped togehter on our past missions." Eberhard replied. "The knock-off military grade weaponry and the armor we've been facing is coming from somewhere, and the bureacracy's refusing to look into it. So I decided we'd do some vigilante justice and find out where ourselves."

He then continued. "Leads point to a warehouse that's secretly stockpiling arms in the capital, near the spaceports. If we bust in quick, maybe we can find some information before they delete everything, hence the sudden kidnapping. Of course, what we're doing is pretty illegal; no warrant or anything. Ulrike didn't give the okay on this, so if you want to opt out, do it now, but I have a feeling you've been longing for some action after three months stuck doing work way below your caliber."

"Ah yes," Joan said, pulling off her work pants and putting on the dress pants that were provided, but the team was again met with the same thing. "Las' ah checked, gunfights dun 'appen in business formal Eber'ard. Ah 'ope dis stuff is bulle' proof."

"There better be a good reason I'm having to wear a pants suit instead of a dress," Bee muttered, her annoyance amplified by seeing the other woman's injuries.

Juan seemed uncomfortable in the fancy wear, adjusting his collar far too often. "Why are we going secret agent for this boss? What are we, the Men in Black?"

"Just be happy that you don't have to wear janitor clothes, or stripper outfits." Eberhard joked. "In all seriousness we have a pretty tight lock on armor, so I had to scrap together gear that Ulriike doesn't keep a close eye on. Those suits have Kevlar in them. As for weapons, unfortunatley we're stuck with handguns and the two flashbangs that didn't get microchipped. On the bright side, we'll be facing grunts with military grade weaponry, so we can loot them!" He chuckled.

"No wait, that's bad."

Joan remained quiet, getting herself ready. "Ah fink dis is gonna be a flustahcluck."

"So, upgrade our weaponry as we go?" Beatrix asked, adjusting her suit coat. "Sounds almost like a video game. Anyway, how are we getting in?"

"Echo." Eberhard spoke to his datapad's AI. "Open file, 'Warehouse Layout', and show to all connected users." A schematic popped up on everyone's HUD. "Our target is at the very South pole of the station where it meets its spaceports. All the storage bays are huddled around the main axial of the station. As usual, the arms are mixed with normal goods. Those civillian supplies will have to retain their serial numbers. If we can get a hold of those we can reliably locate where the whole shipment is coming from."

 

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There was a red dot highlighting a building closer to the outer walls of the station. "That's not all. There's an office complex that manages all the cargo coming in and out. If I can get to the databanks, then we can get information from there too."

"No gravi'y den?" Joan asked, looking at Juan and Beatrix. "Ah'm concerned bout our lack o' equipment," She said with a frown. "Are ya sure we kin do dis 'ow we are Eber'ard?"

"Not complete lack of gravity. The targetted floors are far enough away from the center that there'll still at least be half a g. Besides, all our footwear is equipped with maglocks by default." Eberhard replied.

"So, we show up like we know what we're doing and hopefully get into the warehouse before they raise an alarm?" Bee asked.

"You'll likely have to force yourself into that particular section." Eberhard replied.

"Den ah s'pose we'll 'ave tah keep our eyes opened," Joan sighed, looking at Eberhard. "Given dis plan isn't undah da perview 'o Ulrike, we are still gettin paid fer dis right? Doing good is doing good, but ah would ravvah git paid if ah'm s'posed tah git shot at."

"Of course. Out of my own pocket, actually." He smiled, fiegning pain on his face. "It'll have to be discrete though, a little bit at a time after all this. As you know, Ulrike keeps a close tab on our financial accounts."

"Oooh, we're sneaking around your wife's back?" Beatrix asked, rubbing her hands together.

"You're making it sound dirty." Eberhard continued faking dismay. "Though I suppose we're ready to get blood on our hands, and you're not wrong in the literal sense. So yes. I expect the wife to not be happy when she finds out."

"It doesn't help that you're planning to pay us like a husband afraid of his wife finding out he's having an affair," Bee replied with a smirk.

"Hey, I'm not the one buying BDSM gear." He smirked back.

"What? I'm stocking up," Beatrix said, shrugging. "By the way, assuming we don't get kicked out for illegal operations, we planning on staying here for much longer?"

Eberhard sighed sincerely this time. "Until the next election cycle, I'm afraid, which is another half year out. Our enemies bought out Ulrike's friends in parliament, so she's trying to push some other ones into the positions who'll be more favorable towards our cause."

"All right," Bee said, pulling out her PD. "Might be able to meet up with my boyfriend after all."

Joan's head snapped over to Beatrix when she mentioned her boyfriend. "Wait, 'es coming 'ere!? Ah still dun believe 'es yer boyfriend ya know."

"Guess you'll have to wait and see," Bee said, smiling as she sent her message.

"He's in for a surpise when he gets here, with all your purchases. Unless of course, that's his style." Juan chuckled, still adjusting his suit uncomfortably.

"Ah mean," Joan said with a smile. "Ah saw some pictures of dem, a dun fink big purchases scare 'im. Man must 'ave a wallet ta afford some of dem dates wif an army gal."

"You can say that," Beatrix said, looking uncomfortable when money was mentioned. "Anyway, anyone think of a plan to get into the warehouse?"

"We could do dat fire drill fing," Joan offered. "Confuse da guards inta letting us in," she added.

"That's certainly a way to go about it." Eberhard chimed in. "I just had a thought though. It'll be safer if we go on a buddy-system for this mission. I'd like someone to join me to sift through the databank. Any volunteers?"

 

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Bee looked at Juan and raised an eyebrow. "Any preference?" she asked.

Juan stammered, and fumbled on those words. "I am... fine with whoever I happen to be paired with."

"Alright," she replied, "Then I'll go with Eberhard. Let you two deal with anything else that comes up."

Joan was silent for a moment, then nodded her head. "Alright. Ah'm fine wif dat." She said, holstering her pistol. "Wha' are me in Juan gonna do?" She asked. "Dis'rac'ion?"

"Not quite." Eberhard thought, then replied. "We're going for a two-pronged attack here. Either you confirm the weaponry and get the serial numbers from the cargo, or we manage to get all that information from the databases. Either way is a win-condition for us."

"And of course, not dying would be nice as well," Beatrix said with a chuckle.

"Well that's a given, good job." Juan said, flatly. "Do we have an idea of where any of that would be?"

"A friend working there reported some suspicious people hanging out in one of the warehouses for rent." Eberhard replied, then another red dot popped up on the HUD. "It's a five minute run from the office going up a few floors, so we won't be immediatley available to each other."

After half an hour through the central spine of the station, the Lancers arrived at the South polar ring. Dubbed the Rontgen ring, it was the first constructed within the greater asteroid, and currently the most industrialized. Unlike the other rings that came later, with large airspaces, the Rontgen ring was filled to the brim with floor spaces. As Eberhard's car drove down ramps and moved through elevators, the Lancers could see a few homeless roaming about, living off the generous but still insufficient social welfare credits the GDW has been providing, trying to manage fried beans in the weak gravity of the upper floors while pouring cups of alcohol and water at an offset to deal with the Coriolis effect. The floors themselves were cramped, no more than two people high, roadways and living space carved out of ancient corridors that once had explorers and researchers passing through, now replaced by storage for both man and material alike.

Eberhard stopped the shuttle seemingly in the middle of nowhere of a concrete maze, with strips of light hanging over them. The walls were decorated with depictions of Earthly rivers, mountain ranges, and great grasslands, now in disrepair and graffited. "The schematics should guide you from here." He remarked to Joan and Juan. "If you're really in trouble, call Ulrike. We're actually not far from where Daheim One's docked right now." He then rode off with Beatrix.

"Oh dat's just fantastic," Joan sighed, looking at Juan. "Call Ulrike, not far from da ship. We're only five minutes off, but bring da one we're 'idin' dis 'ole fing from. Perfect!" She grumbled, looking at her HUD. "Le's go. Fastah we does dis, da fastah we kin 'ead 'ome," She sighed, starting to walk.

"Ordinarily we have more than a half hour to plan this shit out." Juan adjusted his outfit, not for the last time, and walked beside her. He had no idea what to say, and was secretly hoping that nothing would need to be said.

"Yeah," Joan said keeping an eye out as they walked to their location. "We git wha' we git sometimes" She said, looking at Juan. "Le's 'ope dis goes off wifout a 'itch, yeah?" She asked simply.

"I always hope they go off without a hitch, but this one especially could go badly. Half a team, barely as much equipment, and a vague idea of where to go." Juan sighed. "So, how are we getting in?"

After a few turns along the two-shuttle-wide concrete paths, Juan and Joan approached a rather large opening, enough to fit several cargo transport shuttles. At the end was a garage door with a smaller door next to it, strangely guarded by a thin and tall woman in a jump suit. On her belt were a baton and a holstered firearm of sorts that was larger than a pistol.

"Frough 'er," Joan said, going stone faced and picking up her pace a little. She sw the scanner and frowned a little "Dere goes plan A" she added continuing her approach. "Plan B den," She said as continued to walk. Once she got within reach, she exploded into action, grabbing her head and slamming it into the door as hard as she could.

She lowered the woman to the floor, before pulling out her pistol and ripping the lanyard off the guards neck, using the key on the scanner and opening the door. "Grab 'er so we kin 'ide 'er," Joan ordered, pulling out her gun slowly clearing the immediate area in the warehouse. "Take 'er gun."

Juan sighed, and picked up the woman, taking her gun. "We probably could have talked through that, but oh well."

Joan stopped, frowning visibly. "Sorry, you should take the lead," She said, her shoulders slumping a little as she continued to keep an eye out.

"Well who's in the lead isn't that important, I just thought it would have been batter not to have an assualt charge on us. Granted, that may have been the only way. We'll never know now." Once in the building, he set the woman behind some boxes, placing her weapon on his belt for now. "Well, we've gone full breaking in mode, lead the way."

"No, Ah'll follow yer lead," Joan said very quickly, her gun shaking in her hand now. It wasn't so much she couldn't shoot, but it was enough to notice. "Ah've bin a li'el light 'eaded. Not feeling meself," She added, not looking at Juan. "Be'ah if ya call da shots."

Juan was shocked, and he looked down at himself. "I never fucking lead, that's your job. are you feeling okay? Say the word and I'll evac you the fuck out of the bosses playtime."

"Please don't argya," Joan sighed, stepping backwards a bit. "Ah'm jus' not finking at da top of my game, yeah?" She said, finally looking at Juan. "Please? Ah'd ravvah follow yer lead den make a stupid mistake in git one o' us killed."

Joan must be ill or something, but he took his pistol in one hand, and held her shaking hands with his other. "You're not prone to stupid mistakes, the world is just happy to fuck with good plans. I've got this one for now, but don't hesitate to speak your mind, you're definitely the bigger brain of us both." He sighed, and began delving deeper into restricted territory.

 

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Office

It was another few floors down before Eberheard and Beatrix arrived at their destination. They stopped in a small parking lot that could host no more than a dozen other shuttles. In front of them was a simple door and a metal plaque with words hard-anodized in with black, in three different languages, "Gamma Storage Facilities Management Office".

"So, what's the story we're telling, boss?" Bee asked, getting out of the shuttle.

"Hopefully we don't have to tell a story at all." Eberhard stepped out, cocked his pistol and slid it under his suit. "Try to act innocuous, but back me up." He remarked as he approached the entrance.

"Young and innocent secretary it is," Beatrix said, pulling out her PD as she followed in his wake.

Eberhard carefully opened the door. The room inside was as simple as the outside presentation. Older paintings were mounted on the walls, a single couch for waiting, and a service counter directly facing them, behind which stood a thin and young pale man, a native of the station's less cared for areas, probably in his twenties.

"Tom?" Eberhard walked up to the counter.

The man's bored eyes moved from the monitor in front of him to meet Eberhard's then lit up. "Mr. Grau! I've been expecting you."

Eberheard lowered his sunglasses to reveal his own eyes. "Yes. I assume the server room's unlocked?"

"Yep! For section fifty-seven, right?" Tom confirmed, then thumbed the door behind him, to his left. "Second door to the right."

Eberhard smiled and nodded as he made his way in. "Thanks. I'm sorry my wife and I couldn't do more for you."

Tom shook his head. "You've done enough. I still owe you."

Bee nodded to Tom, before following Eberhard through the door. "Will all our encounters be that easy?" she asked.

"I hope so." Eberhard replied. "Lucky us that we have a friend here." He stopped at a sliding metal door and pushed it open. Inside were a couple of stacks of servers and a console next to them. He turned it on, only for an encryption wall to block him.

"Damn, knew it wouldn't be that easy." He remarked with slight annoyance as he drew a thumbdrive out of his pocket and plugged it in. "Keep an eye on the door."

"Yes, sir," Beatrix said, taking a look around the room. After finding little cover, she leaned against the server rack and held her PD in one hand, pretending to look at it, and kept her other hand behind her back, next to her pistol.

 

[Ray of Meep]

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Warehouse

The warehouse was large enough that the sounds of violence were dismissable by comparison. In fact, the space was pressed up right next to the vacuum of the void, the outer wall making uneasy sounds of buckling and unbuckling as pressurization and depressurization happened elsewhere in this ring. Tall racks of goods and stacked crates created a metal maze, making sizing the area difficult. However, painted arrows on the ground, green, blue, and red pointed to the personnel exit, a rack of emergency helmets, and a medbay respectively, while a long yellow arrow led the way to the few, large airlocks for moving cargo in and out.

Joan looked at Juan, then back around the cargo racks. "Wha' were we s'posed ta grab again?" She asked quietly.

"Serial cargo numbers, or the databanks. Howecer I think we're closer to the cargo space, so we're going that way." He looked at the goods around them, and sighed. "So, we should start looking."

"Alright," Joan said, looking around. "Section 57," she said, looking at her HUD. "S'pose if we see any folks wif guns, were 'eadin in da right direction," she said, looking around. "We're in section 32."

As they walked down the cold walkways, Juan was the first to spot two figures walk towards them, both in jumpsuits and carrying arms, chatting to each other, to which he immediatley pulled Joan behind a stack of crates.

"Look, the Castlers are going to win and you know it." One of them stopped a few steps away from Juan and Joan and pointed to his partner.

"Nonsense, I hear their coach got caught up in a scandal with the furries. If he gets kicked out for that they're in trouble."

"I think they'll do just---" The man's watch beeped, dragging his attention to it. He frowned and remarked, "Got a situation. Amy's gone silent. Let's go check it out."

Juan looked to Joan, and held a dagger in his palm. He gestured to the pommel, signaling to keep it non-lethal. When the targets started moving away, he would start his move, knowing Joan would be right behind him. He raised his dagger, and smashed it upon one of their heads, to silence their march. Joan followed suit, lowering the bodies slowly to the ground.

"We've taken out free guards," Joan whispered, clicking her COMs so Eberhard could hear her "All armed. None dead," She added, looking at Juan. "Le's 'urry dis up. Cases are dat way, yeah?" She asked, pulling the bodies behind some crates, but Juan could see she struggled with it much more than she really should have.

Juan nodded, and watched her. She clearly wasn't at her best self, and it worried him. He would try and catch her at some point to talk, at least that's what he planned. "Onwards then." He pushed the team on, towards their goal.

 

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Office

While Beatrix watched the entrance, Eberhard tapped his sunglasses. "Alright, roger that. Were the rest alerted? ... Affirmative. Good luck." He cursed to himself. "Fucking monkey fingers..." He worked at the console with a frustrated frown.

As Eberhard continued his toil for a few more minutes, Bee could hear shouting out at the front desk, then its backdoor pushed open, with footsteps growing louder by the moment.

"Son of a bitch." Eberhard glanced over and paused what he was working on, reaching for his pistol. "I thought they took care of the guards quietly." He mumbled with a suppressed anger.

"Shoot to kill?" Bee asked, putting her PD away and pulling out her own pistol.

"... Affirmative." Eberhard nodded after checking his HUD, then opened comms. "Bandit, Cowboy, be advised, we're engaging hostiles. You are now authorized to apply force with prejudice." He stepped up and hugged to the wall next to the door.

Beatrix followed suit and hugged the opposite side just as it was slided open. A barrel crossed the entrance first, but she was quick to react and fired at the head that followed. Eberhard shot the other two that were waiting in the wings. "Secure our ride out of here. I need a couple of more minutes with the computer." He commanded, then went back to the console. "Dammit!" He growled. "Cowboy, Bandit, I'm going to need those serial numbers afterall."

"Will do, boss," Beatrix said, running back through the door they'd come through, gun in hand.

Bee would find the clerk, Tom, huddled in a corner behind the counter, hands behind his head. "Sh-shit..." He remarked as he looked at her. "What do you want me to do?"

"Either stay there or get out of here," Beatrix replied as she headed to the front door. "Whichever makes you feel safer."

"O-Okay..." Tom muttered as Bee was greeted by a burst of fire that pierced the door, grazing her left arm and her back. Two goons were waiting outside next to a shuttle of their own, wielding submachine pistols of sorts.

 

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Warehouse

"... I'll need the serial numbers to get an origin on the shipments." Eberhard asked through the comms as Joan and Juan arrived at Section 57. There were three guards on high alert, carrying SMG's, patrolling around a stack of crates. It wasn't clear whether they were civillian goods or the illegal weaponry.

"Affirm." Juan nodded, and held his pistol at the ready. "We're silenced, and I really don't want to be killing random people, but they're well armed. We're probably better off ending them quickly." Juan readied his pistol, and breathed, before firing three quick shots to three living heads.

The marksmenship didn't fail Juan, and the guards fell to the ground accordingly without much struggle.

Joan had lifted her gun, but slowly lowered it as the job was swiftly taken care of. "Rog, wha' ya want me ta do?" She asked. Her tone wasn't snippy, or sarcastic. More, lost than anything. Like she wasn't sure what she was doing here.

Juan approched the boxes, and fired a lock into smithereens. "Let's check this shit, we should be able to tell if it's fake as hell. After all, we're badass soldier crew."

"Got it," Joan said, shooting the lock to another create, and entering.

After shooting open the third crate of the five present, Joan and Juan found strapped down, hard plastic cases. Opening one revealed military-grade rifles on par with those used by the Lancers themselves, but were clearly forged out of civillian fabricators, thanks to the two's experience with the real deal.

"Jobs done," Joan sighed, moving to the opening of the crate to get a look to see who was around. "Cobalt, we got da crate, documented da numbah, in 'eading out. Ya need a 'and?"

 

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Office

"Roger that, get ready for pick up in six minutes." Eberhard quickly typed the SN's provided into the console. "Got it! Downloading relavent data now." He plugged in another thumbdrive in, then pulled both of his devices out seconds after. But then a notification popped up on his HUD, and whatever smile he had on his face vanished. "Bee, what's the status on our ride?"

"KInda blocked off by two goons," Beatrix replied, grabbing one of the submachine guns off the dead guards and rifing through their pockets for extra magazines. "Gonna try to kill 'em, but its gonna be a pain in the rear."

"I'll help you." Eberhard handed Bee a flashbang as well, while readying his own pistol. "The police are on their way. I'd rather not have to explain our vigilante justice to them."

"Did you wipe the security cameras or whatever while you were in there?" she asked, standing by the door and preparing to throw the flashbang.

"Defenitley." He stacked up behind her and readied his pistol.

"Glad some plans went through well," Bee said, pulling the pin and tossing the grenade at the goons blocking their way. She then timed her pop-out to just after the flashbang going off, laying down suppressing fire as she ran for cover.

The goons fired blindly, spraying in the office's general direction, while Bee dashed behind an empty shuttle. By comparison, her shots were pinpoint accurate, and with the help of Eberhard, she gunned them down.

"Good work." Eberhard rushed into his own shuttle and started the motors. In the seat gap storage, his data pad buzzed furiously. He took a glance at it and frowned, but instead talked to Joan and Juan. "We're on our way now. Status?"

 

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Warehouse

Juan and Joan were now hiding behind crates again while four goons guarded the entrance out of the warehouse. They were all wearing helmets now. "Go open all the airlocks. They can't stay in here forever." Two of them nodded and went down a separate path. The remaining kept their guns up, their eyes leery. "Keep an eye on the side paths and crevasses. I bet that's how they got the jump on Donna and Rico."

"Ah've a bad feelin bout dis," Joan muttered, looking around. "Dey 'ad 'elmets back dere right?" Joan asked, looking up at Juan. "Ah'd ravvah not die in vacuum, so we eivvah shoot em dead, or, we git da 'elmets."

Juan looked at the situation and promptly decided people would have to die. He popped up quickly from cover and fired two near silent shots at the two before him. The plan is to kill the other two before they can do anything.

The goons opened fire as soon as the stark black suppressor emerged behind the crates. With Juan's marksmenship, they fell predictably, blood gushing out and spilling into the broken helmets. But their own marks landed as well, creating visible, bloody wounds on Juan's cheek and right shoulder, though not debilitating. Hurried footsteps grew louder as the pair that went off came running back.

"Fuck!" Joan shouted, ducking her head, moving away from Jaun. "Stay dere, ah've got an idea," She said, slipping into the darkness. She clicked her COMs in a rapid S.O.S so she could let Eberhard and Beatrix know they were having a bit of an issue without speaking as she maneuvered around so she was in a good spot to catch the guards running back. Hopefully with Juan making noise, when they did come round, they wouldn't see her as she shot them in turn.

Inexperienced and panicked, the goons dropped dead before they even heard the faint pops of Joan's pistol. Just as Joan reunited with Juan, Eberhard came through the comms. "Ready for pickup." A horn was heard honking outside the warehouse.

Joan ran over to Juan, helping him up. "Come on. Le's gtt outta 'ere," she said, keeping her eyes peeled for anyone else trying to shoot at then. "Bandit was shot, we're getting out as fast as we can," she said over COMs before looking at Juan. "Ah'm so sorry..." She added, choking up a little.

Juan hadn't fallen so much as shoved himself away from the bullets toward the ground, even if his cover wasn't as sufficient as it looked he wasn't in deep pain, or at risk of dying. He let her pull him up, and he steadied her. He spoke over comms to reasuure the others. "Just a graze, barely a wound. We're on our way." He clocked comms off, and held Jaon by the shoulders, looking at her worriedly, though trying to smile reassuringly. "I'm fine Joan, I'm okay! Nothing here is your fault, that's just the job. You have nothing to be sorry for. Let's blow this posicle stand." He let go, and held he pistol at the ready. "On me, we got the shit, so we're free." He began to lead the way out.

Joan nodded her head quickly. "Sorry, Ah jus'..." She said before she went silent. She just started following Juan, keeping her eye out for any further assailants.

Bee's own datapad buzzed as Eberhard finished his notification. There were a few unread text messages and half a dozen missed calls, all of them from Ulrike. "Don't bother. I'll explain to her later." Eberhard commented with a groan.

"Yeah, seems like a headache for you to deal with," Beatrix replied with a chuckle, leaning back in her seat.

Joan and Juan managed to swing the shuttle door open and slide in. Eberhard commented as he floored it, "Med kit's in that backseat cubbard." Meanwhile, Joan and Juan's datapads were also taking turns buzzing furiously in the floor storage.

Juan started applying bandages to himself, breathing heavily from adrenaline and the general atmoshpere of combat. "Oh we're in trouble. We're in so much trouble, Mom will know something crazy happened."

"You need any help back there?" Bee asked.

Joan just sat in her chair and remained silent, looking out the window.

The shuttle swerved and turned around corners. Eberhard had one eye on the concrete corridors ahead, the other eyeing his HUD. "I don't understand. How did they get here so quickly? How do they know where we are?" He grinded his teeth. Sirens could be heard echoing behind the Lancers, bouncing off the walls and growing louder and louder.

The shuttle zoomed up the ramps towards the central shaft of the station. Eberhard commented, "Alright, as soon as we--- oh... fuck." The Lancers were thrown forward as the shuttle came to as screaching halt, its forward air thrusters blowing out at maximum. In front of them were three police shuttles already waiting. Standing next to one of them was an all-too familiar, motherly figure, still in her jumpsuit, with her arms crossed and an awfully disappointed expression on her face. As she and Eberhard made eye contact she raised an eyebrow, pulled out a datapad, and tapped it twice.

Eberhard's arms slumped down to his sides. "Dammit."