Hot Box
Dawn had barely broken when desperate calls for assistance filled the emergency line. Ketna monitored the activity and soon-to-be-flooding news reports. She was still recovering from injuries sustained from the evening before and was in no rush to strain herself unless it was absolutely necessary. She wasn't completely reckless, most days. When big events like this happened she would give it some time to see if something or someone managed to handle it first, but when it seemed to be more than the local peacekeepers could handle, she felt compelled to do something about it herself. It was a significant distance from her current location, but nothing she couldn't make in a reasonable amount of time.
It was the kind of thing that seemed both strange and completely mundane, either some very augmented person or some experimental weapon let loose on a population. Granted, were it the latter, there would have been some operation to retrieve it but that had not happened by the time she made it to the point of interest. According to the reports, whatever it was had not spoken in the entire rampage. For the most part it seemed to be close combat oriented, no mention of explosive or long range attacks beyond some sort of grapple hook of some sort to take out cars and pull itself onto buildings. At least it wasn't in a dense city. Though the more rural local did make her wonder where it even came from, a question she'd have to answer after she brought it down.
The thing was easily twice her height and built like a deer, triangular shapes on all fours with bolted vinyl covering the joints. Getting close now, it didn't appear to be any sort of augmented person, but a drone of some sort, but somehow completely autonomous and completely alone. And word was they had already attempted an EMP suppression which it shook off, which meant she would have to get a bit more personal to take it down. It was really too bad this was all in the open, she always had to restrict her arsenal when she was anywhere that could be seen or recorded.
In the midst of it winding up an attack to slap a car into a building, Ketna used her own grappling hook she had brought with her. A wrap around the neck and raised leg turned it into a less stable tripod by way of holding the raised leg fast to the chest. It adapted to the attack, pulling backward at the cord that restricted its movements, and Ketna pulled back to match. With the tug of war not budging for either, the drone lunged forward to give the cord some slack then raised on its haunches, twisting in a sharp opposite direction to whip the cord. Ketna saw the whiplash coming and matched its momentum, rolling in the direction it most wanted to go so that when it reached her she worked with it and was able to keep her hold. The moment she had her stability back she yanked back with significant strength to which the drone only barely budged.
Well that was unfortunate.
It looked light but after the tug of war and her attempt to yank it, it seemed to be much denser than units of its type were typically constructed as. In normal circumstances she'd just scale it and strike down into the back of the neck, but with her lower back injury she didn't trust her left leg to have the footing she would need to scale it cleanly. She didn't have long till it would no longer be a tripod so the next plan was to see if its balance was flimsy enough to topple it, though with the surprising density of the legs that was not going to be easy. From all perspectives, the direct approach seemed the most effective, she'd deal with the aggravated injury later.
Just as she was about to prepare to grapple it again, this time for the climb, when a figure atop a nearby building jumped off landing on the back of the quad drone. It wasn't anyone or anything she could recognize, but from all she could tell it looked like some plain clothes teenager trying to be a hero. The drone, aware of the new weight on its back lurched and bucked. Ketna watched the person on its back prepared to take off if she saw them fall but they held on much to her relief.
"Hey hold on, I'm coming up!" Ketna used the amplifier in her helmet to make her announcement loud enough for the civilian to hear.
Seeing no other choice, she released the wire that she had been using to wrestle with the machine. But instead of remaining in place it launched into a run the moment it was free before she could ready another line in the grapple.
"Shit."
Dashing to where she had stashed her motorcycle Ketna sped off after it, its large frame still barely in sight. While in transit she took time to fill her partner in on the changes.
"You know that rampaging machine I went off to take care of?" She announced without need for greeting. "Well, someone tried to help and that machine has gone and ran off with a civilian on its back. I just barely have a visual but if you could try to keep an eye on it that'd be great."
A few beats of silence went by before Munin's voice could be heard. "You do not appear far behind, but I have a canvas of security in the general area if you lose sight of it."
"Thanks."
For its weight it was impressively swift on its feet, but not so much that she couldn't keep up with it. It sped down roads, making what appeared to be chaotic turns and bucks trying to get the unwanted passenger off its back. While she was none too happy about a civilian getting involved with this fight, she was glad to see the drone run further away from the residential buildings and toward the industrial zone. It could have been a coincidence but if it were this civilian's doing, she'd have to thank them after this was all over and they were safe.
It finally slowed in front of the entrance of. Workers and guards ran in directions opposite of the rampaging drone and its rider, who appeared to be attempting to cause some problems on the back of the drone. Ketna hopped off her bike not bringing it to a full stop letting it skid against the ground. Body work could be repaired; it was not the most important element in this scenario. Readying the grapple to potentially join the stranger on the back of the drone, when she closed in it finally managed to buck off its unwanted passenger. Right down into the open doors of one of the nearby warehouses. It as well followed down inside.
"Aaand now our good samaritan has been launched into one of the open warehouses with that drone behind it." Ketna updated with a note of exasperation over the comm. "At least if I can keep it inside I can keep injuries to anyone else to a minimum."
"I'll do some research on the area." Munin affirmed.
Ketna ran past the broken guard rail, running through the large warehouse opening into a metal corridor. Inside she found the civilian still alive, dodging attacks from the machine. They could move, they could get to safety on their own and from what she could tell, there didn't look to be anyone else trapped by it. Not the worst course this series of events could have taken.
Again she used the grapple hook to seize one of the machine's legs, preventing it from attempting to crush the civilian. They turned their head sharply toward the direction of the grapple behind them. They looked about as young as she suspected them to be, she was glad they were alright.
"Get out of here! Go!" Ketna shouted, wrestling to keep the machine in place.
Not needing any more instruction, the civilian scrambled to their feet running for the door while Ketna wrestled with the drone. The civilian had only just barely crossed the threshold when a door erupted from a slit in the ground and collided with the top, sealing Ketna in. The good news was that the civilian was likely safe, the bad news was with these very suspiciously timed developments, that 'civilian' was likely a plant and this was a trap.
Frustrated at her own letting down of her guard, her yank of the quadruped this time was more anger fueled than the last, making it more effective in ruining its balance than she had the first time. In the time it spent falling forward, Ketna dropped the grapple, rushing forward to leap on its head and jab a knife into the soft covered portion of its neck. It sparked and lurched but now that Ketna was here, there was little it could do. She found the marked panel that covered its CPU, retching it open and thrusting the same knife down in it, robbing it of its ability to function, freezing to a stop in place. In the end it was nothing more than a mobile nuisance and that only served to annoy her further.
With nothing else pressing to resolve right there, she took time to walk back to the entrance and inspect what exactly had sealed her in. The door was heavy, thick metal, too thick to bend on her own. There wasn't any panel on her side of the door, either it had been designed explicitly to only be opened from the outside or if there was one, it had been removed. She felt along the walls searching for cracks, tapping the walls only to find the sounds of the wall to be solid. Heavy poured concrete by the look of it, and she didn't have the tools or the time to break through it to potentially get at the door's controls. Might as well test her reception to see if she could still communicate with Munin.
"Hey Munin, you there?"
Something didn't sound right when she opened up the channel to speak and as she waited, no response was heard. Once more she attempted to hale her compatriot.
"Munin?"
Nothing but static answered her call.
That seemed clear enough indication there was some very strong interference, it was unlikely she would be receiving any outside help from her own line. A cursory scan of the area didn't bring up any other networks so wherever she was, was deliberately closed circuit. If there had been cameras she could have used their line to hack into whatever wired network there was but there didn't seem to be any cameras that she could find.
Ketna gave herself a stretch before walking down the hall to whatever it was she was being funneled to and get it over with. This wasn't the first time someone attempted to lead her to her death and it certainly wouldn't be the last. She had to give credit, they seemed to know what they were doing, most wouldn't have bothered to take out the cameras but it was always possible they got careless and put a camera somewhere else. Just one hardwired device was all she needed to get into the network and unravel whatever well-laid plan they had.
The quadruped that had led her here was meant for mobility and to be physically cumbersome, and not much else, whatever was intended for her was wherever this 'warehouse' led to. The hall itself declined downward, ensuring the whole structure was well below the surface. Strolling leisurely down the hall she began making idle bets on what could be down there. A larger, more advanced version of the drone she tracked, perhaps? Or some other experimental automaton. It could even be some person stupid enough to think they could take her in a closed fight. Or just a good old-fashioned tank. No, it couldn't possibly be something that simple if whoever was behind this had the foresight to go to the lengths that they already had.
While she placed her personal bets, she visually scanned the walls and ceilings for anything that could prove important. But all she found were uniformly dispersed small vents. None of them were anywhere near big enough for her to get into so that wasn't going to be very helpful. Possibly a small drone could make their way through one of them, not that she had one on her. Though it was odd that there were so many vents, ventilation for underground structures was important but this almost appeared to be overkill.
She continued on the length of the corridor toward the bright light that emanated from the open archway at the very bottom. She had not yet arrived at the entrance when she could hear idle motor whirling and other familiar ambient noises of idle robotics. Ah, how clever, apparently this elaborate setup was to railroad her into an enclosure with multiple combat drones. Slowing her steps she made her approach to the archway, hugging the wall to sneak a look into the room to get a count of just how many there were. When reaching its edge, she slowly peered around through the open entry way into the room.
There were an assortment of mechs and robotics in the room, stacked in tiers, all facing the entrance. Agile units in front, mid-range and heavy combat units in the middle, and heavy artillery in the back, specifically two walking quad tanks that she could see by the look of it. The room itself was mostly barren, nothing but pillars to support the underground structure, and a high vaulted ceiling and bright fluorescent lights. It was without a doubt, an arena specifically intended for this. The upside was, if all communications were cut for her, the drones wouldn't be sending any active communications either. Which meant they wouldn't be transmitting any video, it might even be a chance to finally go all out. It would be a difficult fight but still within the means of what she was capable of overcoming.
In her assessment her helmet leaned out enough to alert some of the forward guard, and all at once they began to stir. The overwhelming sound of mechanical movement echoed about the walls of the large room. Bullets and lasers ricocheted off the wall and floor edge, trying to take a shot at her in the brief window of time they had before Ketna pulled her head back. No sooner had she done so then she heard the faint whistling of a very familiar sound. She put distance between herself and the entrance before the missile hit the wall, spraying shrapnel indiscriminately from its impact point.
Oh good, explosive ordinances in close quarters, this should be fun.
Not wanting to waltz right into an alert group of drones, all targeted on a single entrance, Ketna hung back and waited for them to come to her. But despite the movement she heard in the room beyond, none of them set foot through the entryway. Whoever programmed them made them smart enough to not path through the room into the corridor where they could be picked off by her. Instead they began to stack up near the entrance, attempting to find line of sight from that one spot.
Slowly, bullet and laser fire spewed out from the entryway in her general direction. At the angle she was, she wasn't at risk of taking a direct hit and they remained at a stalemate. Awkward as it was to sit there, she could theoretically just wait it out till munitions depleted and batteries ran low. But the sound of the heavy tanks that made their way through the sea of drones closer to the entrance indicated this would not be an option.
An explosive in the small corridor would be especially dangerous in this setting. Limited mobility and the tight space meant that shrapnel damage was almost guaranteed for any impact she wasn't 30-40 feet away from. This was likely a deliberate choice to flush her out of the corridor and into the room and it was working. New plan, dash into the room, past as many units as possible, before the walking tanks start taking pot shots into the corridor.
Still safe in the spot hugging the wall, Ketna waited for the heavy units to get as close as they possibly could. When she saw the edge of what was likely the weapon used for the rockets, she made her dash. The most difficult part about the maneuver was compensating for the lower back injury from the night before. Her speed and size was her advantage, even with the swift units they couldn't keep up with her in her first launch over the tops of some of the medium units that had taken to the front of the ranks. Over the head of one and then the other shoulder to shoulder until she landed on the arm of the unit with the heavy artillery. Heated blades were a simple and effective weapon against constructs, even with the reinforced joints, the right stab severed the connection from the arm to the launcher, a jump to the next launcher and it was disabled in the same simple movement.
In the time she had disabled one of the heavy units, the other had taken aim at her position on it. Whoever had constructed their AI did not seem to give them the most rudimentary form of friendly fire detection, which would prove to be much in her favor. Other smaller units attempted to climb the large one to get to her, others firing at her as well, but she remained, barely staying out of range until she caught sight of the heavy unit letting off another explosive ordinance. A timed jump and she was out of dodge of the initial impact but the combined force of the explosion from the fired rocket and the remaining artillery launched her through the air to the other side of the large room.
Ketna managed to reduce the force of the impact through a roll as she hit the ground but it was nonetheless a rough landing. The upside was that the majority of the units were all still piled around the entrance and this explosion had not only taken out a chunk of those units but also given her substantial distance between them and her. The heavy unit was slow to reposition itself but the medium units had already turned to fire in her direction, and the fast units were already scrambling to close the distance between them.
Taking cover against the nearest support column provided Ketna protection against the ramping volley of bullets in her direction. There she waited for the fast units to close in before she made her move, their bodies would provide all the cover she needed when she made her way to the remaining tank. Things were going well, far as she was concerned.
The helmet hid the grin beneath it when she heard the mechanically swift motion to land an attack on her. This was what she had been waiting for. She always felt she did her best work surrounded. Moving from target to target, working on pure instinct, the rush at its height sated that innate craving to hunt, to kill. A dodged jab, rolling into an uppercut ripping the 'head' off its body. Another lunge deftly dodged to the side, grasping the arm to her side using strength, weight and momentum to spin it into the attack from another, letting it go to roll under the fire from behind that she heard and felt the moment she moved. Always moving, from metal body to metal body, keeping them in between her and the advancing medium and heavy artillery that closed in.
In seconds mechanical bodies dropped too damaged to keep up with her, and she had danced her way from one side of the room to the other. The injury to her back ached and throbbed, stitches long since torn in the process of combat, warmth of the blood against her back served as motivation to take out all her latent anger about the night before on the automated army in front of her. The units had closed in enough that she could make her move again against the remaining tank.
This time the medium units she had used as involuntary ladders before were more keen to her intentions, putting effort into shaking her off, one attempting to slam her to the ground the moment she jumped to its shoulder. Ketna dodged being pinned to the ground by way of reaching around the top of the unit to the shoulder on the way down, another nearby threw a metal arm down to slam against her, which she leapt out of the way of for it to collide with the unit beneath her. The tank had pivoted enough to aim its center mounted machine gun in her direction, careless of whatever else got in its way as it chased her down.
Ketna weaved herself between units utilizing the indiscriminate fire to take out as many enemies as she could on her way to the tank's legs. Speed and agility made it easy for her to use the back of another striking machine to jump up and onto one of the leg segments of the tank. Units below fired at her, bullet spray bouncing off the tank's metal, just missing her or glancing off her own armor if they hit at all, but it was far too late to stop her from what she had set out to do. Much like with the other tank, a well placed jab where the 'arm' met the body and the first set of rockets were disabled. Wasting no time, Ketna ran to the other side of the top of the tank to disable the other set of rockets, putting an end to one of the more pressing threats in this trap she found herself in.
She spent no time lingering on the back of the tank, its height and her proximity to the disabled units still full of live ammunition wasn't as safe as being down on the ground with the units that gathered below. On the ground use those bodies as shields. Sliding off the top toward the back of the tank landing on one of the mobile heavy units. Even designed for close combat it could not keep up with her swift movements, legs locked around one of its arms, a swing down to the ground disrupted its balance, a further yank and release made it fall and stagger while Ketna rolled out of the way. On the ground the smaller, faster units jabbed at her, missing only by centimeters.
This far into the fight, Ketna noticed something peculiar about the fast units - all their movements have been in the form of swarm or attacking for the head. Very few of them tried for body shots which was strategically a more important impact to make. Did they really think they had a higher probability in taking her out by headshots? All that would do is give her more predictable patterns in where and how to expect the attacks. Confident she'd take care of this army soon enough, she kept her eyes open for a means of escape after the fact.
Paying glances to the walls around her in between strikes and dodges she searched for any means to make contact. A control panel, a camera, anything that could potentially give her access to security, the door, or any kind of network.
And then she spotted one, a camera, dead center at the highest point of the vaulted ceiling. Thank goodness someone's hubris insisted on having a means in which to watch her theoretically die. It was only one camera but that was enough, if she could reach it that would be her ticket to get a message out. Unfortunately the momentary distraction was enough to give one of the fast units an opening to strike, landing one of its sharp limbs on the side of her helmet.
Ketna was no worse for wear, the helmet did it's job in absorbing the impact and she had moved just enough that only a small amount of the visor was cracked. The machine that got the lucky strike didn't last long as close proximity to the vigilante had permitted her reach to plunge her blade into its core. And then on it was again to the dance. Now that she knew what her next step was she could focus on the remaining machines that continued to chase her about the room. It was a good thing one of the tanks was still moving, now that she knew her goal she could maneuver it under the camera's position and to give her some height to reach it.
Moving from one machine to the next taking it down or using it as a shield she maneuvered the group, and by extension the tank, to a spot below the solitary camera that remained in the center of the ceiling, watching everything. The moment it was in the optimal position she had to move fast, retrieving her grappling hook again, finding it useful to close the distance between herself and the tank and pull herself back atop it without relying on the placement of the other machines. On its back once again, it didn't stray far from the needed spot, remaining still for the other smaller units to climb it and deal with the pest on its back, a tactic she was happy to use in her favor.
In the few moments she had alone atop the tank, she took a cursory glance at the panels and labels, spotting what was likely the most vulnerable places to access by labels that adorned it. Recalling their tendency to aim for her head, Ketna opted to lay on her back, not the most efficient means of fighting in any normal circumstance but one that she hoped would be in her favor. As she had observed, they made strikes for her head, not her body, a simple shift and roll out of the way and their strikes landed on the body of the tank below her. The first few strikes did considerable damage, movements became uncoordinated, and one last strike caused joints to freeze, powering down in place. No longer requiring their assistance, Ketna leapt back up, dispatching the closest machines swiftly. Slowly their numbers were dwindling to an amount she could potentially count, all she had to do now was immobilize the remainder.
As the fight went on, Ketna felt some of her equilibrium was not what it used to be. She had long since adapted the injury on her back, but this impediment was not caused by any sustained injury, old or new. She recalled the vents she saw in the beginning, it was possible maybe they cut off the air but even in that event she had an emergency CO2 filter that would have compensated for dropping oxygen levels even with a cracked helmet and the door wasn't even vacuum sealed so that approach was unlikely. A sanity check on her HUD confirmed that this was not the problem. Oxygen levels were normal, but something else was wrong. She let the small onboard system analyze the air it was filtering to its work while she continued to whittle down the remaining machines that were after her.
In the midst of dispatching another close range heavy unit that closed in on her, her HUD presented the important findings of its analysis. What she saw confused her at first, she thought there was some error, the levels of some substance she couldn't identify by name were astronomically high. Without a doubt, they were pumping something down here with the intent to poison her, but the numbers didn't make sense. If their intent was to poison a human, even a human using a helmet with an integrated rebreather, they would need a high potency to be certain, but this was exceptionally potent. They would have no reason to use a gas with a saturation level this intense, unless-
She felt angry and sick when the realization clicked. The only way they'd know to use this kind of potency against anything they thought to be human, was if they knew she had an abnormally high tolerance for poisons; and the only person that knew that for certain in this instance, was Xerxes. But feelings of betrayal and bitter acceptance would have to be dealt with later, she had a predicament to get herself out of. If Xerxes was involved in this, that meant those that orchestrated this trap knew far more about the threshold of her skill and she would need to change her approach. Some part of her always suspected Xerxes would eventually use the knowledge he obtained from getting close to her in some manner like this, it was why she made careful choices to ensure he wouldn't learn everything.
Her helmet obscured any expression she held, such as the gritted teeth as she glanced over her cover at the camera she was determined to reach. A couple remaining swift units attempted to take advantage of her momentary distraction, Ketna only evaded one wholly, but the effects of the poison did not make her fast enough with the other strike that bashed her upside the helmet, damaging it further exposing her further to the particles that saturated the air. In a rush of rage she launched herself off the ground at the machine that caught her, landing a punch where its primary optical unit was. Grasping its arm in her hand and foot at its chest, she wretched the arm off its body, swinging it around to catch the other that closed in. As it topped over she turned back to shove the arm she still held into the center of the medium unit that was circling its way behind them.
Much like she had done to the previous machine, she wretched the arm off this one as well, kicking over the malfunctioning body. Inspecting the arm in her hands, the room grew silent apart from her tinkering. She was both relieved and frustrated that she no longer had any functional machines left to take out her building rage on.
Ketna's habit of bringing a rudimentary set of tools with her had always paid off in the past, and this time it would be the very thing that saved her life. Wire strippers, emergency soldering tools, useful for making intrusive network connections or to help cross a few wires to forcibly launch the artillery on the machine gun she had removed from its host. Aimed at the camera in the center of the ceiling, a few rounds took out the camera that had been observing her the entire time. If he was watching, if anyone was watching, she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her slow decline.
Immediate dangers dealt with and cables to the now destroyed camera exposed, the only thing left to do was make it to the ceiling itself. The ceiling was metal lined, the grappling hook she knew wouldn't be able to puncture and latch on, dropping the tank where she had at least got her half the way there. The rest she may be able to make if she piled on more of the machines. All around her she gathered what she could, ripping off arms and legs of the heavier units, using the whole of the lighter units, launching them all up one by one onto the back of the broken tank. Some fell off, but more than enough stayed where they were long enough to make a ladder of busted parts. But with every inch gained, the effects of feeling poison were very distinctly settling in.
It was very clear now why the mobile units were only concerned with her head, the cracks in her helmet had sped up the amount of poison she was breathing in with every passing second, and the exhaustion of running around the room dealing with an army of machine had her breathing heavy breaths she couldn't avoid. If they had been administering the level of poison needed for a normal human she'd be confident she would survive with no problems. But this, this was the closest she had ever felt to being near death's door in a very long time.
Shaking off exhaustion she was not used to she made the climb up the mess she had made, slow and careful, favoring accuracy over speed. As anxious as she was to get this finished as quickly as possible she did not give in to the panicked impulse to rush. Experience taught her that slow and careful always saved more time than rushing it out of fear. Eventually she reached her goal in front of the hole she bore into the wall and the remains of the camera.
It was in doing these fine motor functions she caught the manifestation of tremors in her hands. The cable was cleaned and trimmed without too much of a fight, but the more delicate task of arranging the wires into the socket proved troublesome.
Twice, the wires fell out of alignment, thrice, four times more. She was frustrated, exhausted, and slightly more emotionally unhinged, and every miss made her feel closer to unraveling. Deep breaths were the only thing she could do to quell the panic and that came with a price, but as long as she could make this cable work, that was a price worth paying. With centered and renewed focus, a careful but shaky hand guided the wires appropriately into socket.
Trying not to lose herself too much in the elation of success, Ketna kept every movement measured and focused to not drop her hack box, excitement could be just as fatal as fear. At least this was a far more easy task than threading a new cable socket. And to her relief, there was a network to get into and this wasn't some decoy to give her false hope.
Ketna searched the network for any other computers that held the controls for the facility, the air pumps, the doors, something. But even this was accounted for, the network the cameras were attached to only served the purpose of transmitting a feed to a cloud elsewhere for retrieval and viewing. Whatever was controlling the door and the air pumps was either controlled from another network entirely or were both manual and external. Munin was really her only means of getting out, and she trusted him and his skill, without question.
A message was composed and encrypted, sent off the line, short and simple. 'Locked in, door only exit. Closed Network, no access to controls. Poisoned, fatal in hour.' along with details about the network she was hooked into, so he would know exactly where this was and the cloud the camera was originally transmitting to. Maybe he could find remote controls where she could not. Sending it to a third party service they used for emergencies which considering how long she had been inside with no contact, she had no doubt Munin would be keeping an eye on. So even if they noticed and traced the transmission, it wouldn't be giving away any location. Now there was nothing left to do, but wait.
Sluggishly detaching the hackbox from the makeshift cable, she half climb/slid down the pile of metal and carbon that helped her reach her goal. Upon hitting the ground the nausea that had been eating at her became unbearable, finally prompting rip the remains of the vizor off her helmet to hurl what contents she had in her stomach. The act provided her no lasting relief. At least the message was out, now the only thing left to do, was survive.
Remembering the medical kit she brought with her, she rummaged through the pouches she had on her. Munin had provided her with some emergency nanties with special tasks, like ones designed for quick repairs of internal damage and another to counter any foreign nanties. One that she brought with her, was intended to be used for assessing and scrubbing foreign bodies specifically for her unique genetic makeup. It wasn't an antidote and it wouldn't prevent new poisoning once they ran their course but maybe it would slow down something. Jamming the syringe into her thigh she let it administer its contents, she had no idea if it would help but it couldn't make things worse; whatever happened, happened.
After returning the syringe back to its case, she moved to get up only to have the leg she went to put her weight on collapse in a muscle spasm. The limb shaking was getting worse, increasing waves of tremors shooting through random muscle groups. Here was hoping what she put in her would help because the effects of the poison were progressing rapidly. She almost wished she hadn't dispatched everything the bunker had to offer her, a fight would have had the adrenaline running again.
Remembering to pick up the vizor off the ground, her next attempt to stand was more successful than the last. On her feet she re-attached the visor, cracked as it was, it was better than nothing. Careful, steady steps brought her to the entrance of the room resting her back against the wall, waiting. If the door was going to open there was no guarantee it would be safe, here was the best place to wait for her freedom, or death. That was a weird thought, the real possibility of death if she didn't get out in time. Scattered thoughts rummaged through the potential fallout, socially, politically, not personally however. Apart from Munin she hardly had any personal ties to speak of.
A soft laugh escaped, sad that her mind wandered to the loneliness of her existence at the thought of death in this moment. Not instead, of all the work that needed to be done as often occupied her mind before. But that all served to pile onto the exhaustion that she felt from the poison.
Sounds of heavy metal dropping through to the ground could be heard far from the hall above where she had entered, interrupting her thoughts, awakening vigor that cut through. The door had opened. There was a rush of relief when Ketna turned around the corner of the opening, looking up the hall to confirm it wasn't just some auditory hallucination. She tempered her desire to dash, which proved to be wise on her part when voices from above caught her attention.
"She wasn't at the entrance, we're going in after." Was the only phrase she could make out.
She peered as discreetly as she could up the hall, catching 3 figures at the entrance, crossing the threshold of the door.
And then the power cut out. Sounds of surprised exclamations and annoyance indicated this wasn't supposed to happen.
Munin you brilliant fucker.
She would do just fine without the light, it would even work in her favor, and no more air pumping meant at least she wouldn't continue to be more poisoned than she already was, but most importantly, they wouldn't be able to shut the door. She just had to fight however many were in her way to get out. There would be no warnings, absolutely anything and anyone that got in her way, was going to die. Even if she slipped into a fugue state, at this point she didn't care. Her goal was to get out and survive, by any means necessary.
Waiting patiently at the entrance, she listened out for the footsteps of those that came to check on her, potentially dispatch her. The strides were quick until they were a few feet from the inner-chamber's entrance. A light clicked on, surveying the room.
"You still need a flashlight?" One voice questioned.
"Yeah? Why."
"Could get Nightvision integrated, you know, so you aren't waving around a fucking target."
"Ugh always hated night vision, that's more confusing than just staring into the dark. Besides, there's no way she cou-"
Almost as though she had been waiting for an arrogant assumption to make her entrance, Ketna leapt from her corner, lodging her blade through the neck of her first victim. The other two were quick to engage. Lashing out, one went for a stab with a knife that emerged from their arm, the other swung around fast with the goal of flanking Ketna. Working on instinct and what reserves of strength she had, Ketna dodged the incoming lunge and whipped the body that still clung to her blade behind her as a shield to the incoming attacker.
The limp body was just enough to throw off the attack at her flank, buying her just enough time to deal with the attacker in front of her. Already still close to Ketna from the first lunge, the attacker in the front went to knee Ketna in the chest, just as another hidden blade exposed itself. Ketna whipped the blade out from the neck of the first fallen enforcer, adjusting her body to take the blade in a less-fatal location, pretending to fall with dead weight against it. She was not in the state for taking on any more injuries but it was a feint that would get her out. The instant the attacker in front relaxed, she shoved the knife onto their own midsection in and up, which slid back out in a flash into the attacker behind her. The first jab did not hit the spot she needed to ensure they would no longer be a threat, but another quick jab and they went down as heavy as the other two.
The blade that had embedded itself in Ketna's torso, fell out of place, leaving her to bleed out if she wasn't quick. Running on the fumes from the adrenaline acquired from that altercation, she used the focus to retrieve another vile from her pack. Cracking it open she applied it to the wound, which foamed up on the spot. The foam provided the transport needed for nanites to provide a rough patch job of the open wound they were applied to, giving Ketna some much needed time.
No more footsteps were heard down the hall, there could very well be more outside but outside had a higher chance of survival than inside. Relieving the dead bodies of their remaining arms, Ketna made the journey to the door of the trap she had been sealed in, suppressing her desire to run out. Half-way down the hall she heard movement and a voice.
"You guys done in there? She's not still alive is she?"
Ketna kept her steady pace, readying the gun in her hands, bracing herself against the wall of the hall to provide some amount of stability. The convenient remains of the quadruped in the hall provided some cover. With no voice to answer the question, another body came into view to peer down the hall.
Ketna took shots at the figure who ducked out of dodge, her compromised state did not provide her any lucky hits. With the rest of the cleanup team alerted to her presence, she broke out into a full run. Even if they were behind cover, waiting to fire at the first sign of movement, that was preferable to power being restored and being trapped again for good.
"Shit, she's still alive??!?" Beyond the voice, other indiscernible chatter and movement could be heard.
Knowing they would be expecting her to appear on the ground, Ketna took a more disruptive approach. Gathering up speed enough to run up the wall, a combination of the grip of her soles and the right momentum she launched herself off the wall, higher to the other side, one more jump out the mouth of the entrance and far higher than any of them had been prepared to aim. Some shots fired in reflex, but none of them landed even close.
Despite her impairment, her movements were a blur, the launch from the air caught the huddled thugs off guard, the first she made contact with died to a blade in the neck before they could react, their neighbor could not turn in time to retaliate, Ketna's foot catching their upper torso knocking them back as she fell to the ground. The third in the party turned to face her in time to pull off a few rounds before the knife in her companion's throat was wretched out to seek home in her side. The shots she made did damage to the remainder of armor at Ketna's thigh but made no impact.
The one she had only kicked but had not killed was back on their feet again, this time shots made contact with her chest armor and shoulder, the second piercing through. They had no more lucky shots to give and the knife she carried found its place in them as well. In the struggle they withdrew their own knife, catching her side before their life left them.
Across the way, the other group fired rounds over the cover they had, a few left cover to attempt to deal with Ketna directly. Between the new wounds and second wind from the rising adrenaline, Ketna's behavior appeared more beast than human. Leaping from the ground to the large figure that sought to take her on personally. From there it was a blur. Not the coordinated dance she had exhibited earlier, but vicious mauling of anyone that appeared within 5 feet of her, anything that moved that seemed even remotely like a threat. Hands and blades ripped flesh and metal alike, violent and relentless, she did not stop until all sense of danger had been eliminated from her sight.
Ketna was not sure how many she felled or how long it had lasted. Her sense of self slowly began to return to her when she recognized her true name being called to her by her only friend through earpiece.
"Munin-" Ketna cut him off. "I'm here." She took a deep breath of the open, untainted air. "I'm here."
"That is a relief." It was rare that Munin made any emotive inflections in his voice, the hint of worry meant he was more concerned than he let on. "I was uncertain if your state was due to the poison or your- usual loss of self."
"Column A, Column B.." Ketna muttered, taking inventory of the new injuries on her body. Slowing down from all that caused the nausea to catch up with her again. Unable to stop herself, she tore off the remains of the visor and hurled on the ground again.
"When you entered the bunker I lost contact with you." Munin explained without prompting, possibly due to his usual pragmatic nature, possibly to help provide Ketna grounding. "While I did not doubt your resourcefulness, I had begun work on my own means to assist you, your contact was all I needed to know how to direct the next stage of events. I'd say my prep work paid off."
"I'll fucking say." Ketna agreed, worn over the comm. "Thank you. I'd be dead without you."
"More times than this. Are you fit to drive?"
"No, but-" She paused, considering her surroundings. "I think I know how to throw them off- Cut off any security cameras in the area, would you?"
"Done."
With Munin's verbal confirmation, Ketna hefted one of the corpses off the ground that was close enough to her build, lack of noticeable cybernetics, not to mention species, she began relieving it of its clothes. While not as fine work as the wire stripping earlier, occasional spasms and tremors continued to impede her movements.
"How, exactly." Munin asked over the earpiece.
"They want me dead, I'm going to make them think I died." Ketna answered while she began to strip herself of the suit.
"If you are planning to leave a corpse in your place, I doubt that will convince them for long."
"I only need to throw them off long enough to make it out by foot."
Her words were strained by the growing exhaustion while she struggled to slide the body into the suit, followed by the balaclava, and what armor pieces that remained. After which she dressed herself with the clothes she stole from the body and transferred what remaining tools and gear she had on her into the pockets and bags of the stolen clothes.
Even with the injuries, poison, and general exhaustion, hoisting the re-clothed body was the easy part. Identifying one of the cars that still had a gas tank, she made about setting the corpse in the driver's seat. A few more touches to the body, such as stabbing it in places that had clear gashes on the body suit, and crude removal of HUD's hardware in the helmet before affixing it to the corpse's head and her decoy was ready to go.
"If the movement I've caught is headed in your direction, you don't have much time." Munin warned over the earpiece.
"Just- One thing." Ketna huffed while hoisting a discarded RPG.
Five rounds on the body next to it was more than enough for what she needed. First, she aimed at the car she had left behind. The gas tank provided a fantastic explosion of fire, engulfing the whole thing in flame, with any luck it'd engulf the body and melt it into a very difficult-to-identify mess. The next round, she begrudgingly, but without hesitation, took out her own bike.
"Decoy is in a flaming car and my bike is scrap, heading out on foot, got a suggestion."
"If you can make it here." A set of coordinates were transferred to her phone. "I'll have a transport arranged." Munin offered.
"Sounds good, I should be able to make that."
One cursory glance across the field and she spotted one body with a hat, which she stole swiftly on her way out. Without any hood or makeup she was limited on methods of which to obscure her real identity and she needed every prevention she could muster while she was vulnerable. From here on out she had to pretend she was not any person of interest, if she was lucky most would just overlook her for being homeless or high, enough to be background noise, but not enough to attract cops.
She managed to get some distance stumbling through sidewalks and alleys without too much trouble. Some people seemed to stare at her too long. A loud but suppressed heave made her a less desirable subject to watch. It was only a 4 mile walk but it was the longest 4 miles she had ever walked, exhausted, injured, poisoned, and on high alert she managed to make it to the cab stopped at the corner.
"Pickup for Sophia." She confirmed the name Munin had provided her to give to the driver.
The cabby glanced her over but didn't linger long, she probably had picked up worse in the past, the door to the passenger seat swung open and Ketna all but collapsed inside.
"I got your drop-off point, but sure you don't need a hospital?" The woman glanced back for a moment at the light, trying to get a better look at her passenger.
"Naww." Ketna waved her off. "Just need a fix, I'll be fine." Just another druggie in the back of your cab, pay it no mind.
"Suit yourself." The driver muttered under her breath but refrained from making any additional suggestions.
Riding in the back of the car, her mind fought with the desire to shut down. She desperately wanted to sleep, but the fight to keep her cognition had left her with too much anxiety to know if it was truly sleep or slipping loss of consciousness.
The cab dropped her off at the location Munin had arranged for their remote-driven car to retrieve her and finally Ketna felt as though she was in the clear, but her guard refused to drop. It wasn't until she was on the operating table, safe in her home and in Munin's presence did she finally permit herself to pass out.
---------
Ketna hated losing consciousness, she avoided it any way possible, so much so to the point she rarely permitted herself to be put under anesthesia if she had to be operated on. In the rare times she did permit it, regaining consciousness meant wrestling with a panic attack, if she was lucky it only stuck around in the form of a panic spike she could ground her way out of. Munin was well-practiced in the procedures required for when she woke from unconsciousness, both voluntary and involuntary. He remained in her line of sight as her eyes flickered open.
Ketna sat up fast, wincing at the injuries, breathing hard and slow while Munin calmly provided information of what had happened while she was out.
"You're stable and safe." Munin announced first. "Nothing unusual or particularly interesting occurred while you were out. You are, however, significantly poisoned."
Ketna didn't respond with words, breathing slowly, nodding her head in acknowledgement. That much, she expected.
"And by significantly poisoned, I mean it exceeds the limits of what even you are capable of surviving."
"It was.." Ketna worked through the fog. "A lot more than what would have been appropriate for any human, it was deliberate."
"Deliberate and concerningly aware of what specifically to poison you, with." Munin emphasized a bit more pointedly.
Ketna paused, looking at Munin directly. "Concerning in what way."
"They picked a poison that, of its many effects, is known for targeting the metabolism." Munin passed Ketna a piece of paper, which she held weakly. "Either it was a lucky guess, or they deliberately targeted your metabolism with specific knowledge of your recovery rate."
Ketna closed her eyes and exhaled heavily, knowing exactly what Munin was implying before he inferred it. "I suspected it while I was there. Xerxes must have boasted in a way that revealed my tolerance, possibly even my recovery rate. Expected he would at some point, didn't expect this as the result, though." She glanced back over the paper in her hand, checking the list of effects.
"Not to bring shame to a difficult situation, however-"
"Okay I know where you're going with this." Ketna cut off Munin before he could continue his lecture. "Fucking him wasn't what caused this, it was because I had to be cheeky and show off how I can't really get drunk."
Munin said nothing but held a long, vacant stare. Ketna waved him off.
"Yeah yeah I know. Wouldn't have been this bad had I not done that. But like I said, that's completely unrelated to me fucking him."
"Do you suspect he had a hand in this?"
"Directly? I don't think so. Those weren't his men and it wasn't his territory so I doubt it. If he really wanted to kill me he'd do it himself, not something passive like locking me in a hot box."
"I suppose you will have to investigate that further to find the answer to that."
"Guess I will." Ketna responded, bitterly. She was looking at the paper but she wasn't reading it. Her mind had wandered off to the events of the day before. He was behaving erratically, even for him, was it because he knew what was going to happen? Her head hurt too much to focus, all of her ached too much to focus.
"For now, you need bedrest. There is no effective cure for the poison you have. Using nanites to scrub foreign bodies did work for a time but once it's bonded there isn't much that can be done. Your natural restoration will work it out of your system in time, but with metabolism being impeded as it is, it may take significantly more time than most other poisons. I'll see what I can do to ease any lingering side effects you may have but for now," Munin pointed to the IV in Ketna's arm. "Intravenous fluids until your nausea passes."
Ketna, nodded in acknowledgement, not knowing what more to say then dragged a hand over her face before she fell heavy back onto the bed. Difficult as it was to think, her mind set to work figuring out who or what orchestrated the trap, along with what potential involvement Xerxes may have had in it, deliberate or unintentional. She felt as though the anxiety of those thoughts would keep her up, but the physical exhaustion won out and she found herself asleep before too long.
---------
Munin warned that the poison would last longer than other poisons, but she still wasn't entirely prepared for how it lingered. More often than not, when she was no longer actively being poisoned, it could take anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour for the poison left to run its course. A full day had passed and she was still feeling the after-effects. Also as Munin had warned, her healing wasn't nearly as quick as she expected it to be. Still faster than the average human but she had to take more care not to disrupt the delicately sutured wounds as they had not fused in the amount of time they would have, normally. Munin was right, they really picked the perfect poison to slow her down. She hoped they would never learn how dangerously close they had been to actually killing her.
This meant she was effectively 'off duty' until she healed both from the physical wounds and the poison in her system. Which also meant she was spending way too much time longing for intimacy to contrast the discomfort she was in. It was frustrating to think that the most intimate sexual exchange she had in the last few years had been Xerxes. And that wasn't even genuine, it was borne out of manipulation. He was the last person she should be getting close to and not at all a person she should be occupying her mind. Especially not after what happened the other night.
In restless, idle thought, she flipped through a listing of escorts scanning for any that might suit her preferences and also have the augments to handle her. She had thought about contacting R'Vindr but his detachment wasn't something she wanted to deal with right now, it also wasn't what she was really looking for. She wasn't even sure if she was looking for sex, what she wanted most was someone to hold her for a few hours. Anything to make her feel more like a person.
Why was it so difficult to find someone that could keep up with her, that could be aggressive, pushy, rough, teasing, but also be affectionate, warm, and care about her well-being. It shouldn't be that difficult, right? But it was, it always was.
Ketna sat the slate back down in resignation, she was still too injured to be thinking about getting railed, anyway. With any luck, maybe the book she had been working through would serve as a barrier to keep those thoughts at bay. And that it did, for a few blissful hours, until something awakened in the back of her mind.
It was Xerxes' intel that made the whole situation deadly but it absolutely wasn't Xerxes' assets that were used to pull the whole thing off. Those drones were Charotech, which now that she was thinking about it, the owner of which had been there for the meeting. The territory it happened in belonged to another member that was present. She mentally ran through her knowledge of the meeting she had crashed just weeks ago who had been in attendance, what they controlled. Bits and pieces of what made the death trap what it was, could clearly be traced back to all that was in attendance that day. Was that it? Did they plan her death that very day? Was that the reason they had that meeting in the first place? If so, then Xerxes had freely given her up not a few mere meters away from her, only falling short of announcing her presence out-right, most likely that was for his benefit, not hers.
So then what was that afterward? A pity fuck? That he then expected her to thank him for? She wasn't especially surprised at the later part, that was completely on brand for him. It absolutely made sense that he would make a point to give her the best sex he'd ever given her after planning her death then expected her to thank him for it, like some sort of Last Meal before an execution. And everything else after that was just making use of her before she potentially died. He probably thought nothing of clawing up her back because he knew he would never have to answer for it. His potential fugue state might not have even been real.
God Fucking Damnit.
Tossing off the blanket, Ketna hefted herself out of bed, too angry to be halted by her injuries. She didn't care if something tore, adrenaline was making her antsy, craving. She needed to hunt, to kill, and not doing something about it would be worse than dealing with the consequence of a few ripped sutures. Maybe she would pay R'Vindr a visit, she was too pissed for any kind of intimacy now and getting fucked out of her mind with no strings attached would at least quell the carnal need to rend flesh from bone.