The Silver Fox's Guile: A Story of Uprising

Chapter 42

We made short work exploring the floor we were currently on: since the facility around us was vacant for the most part, there was nothing to impede our progress. However, we did encounter a few more squadrons of roughed up Federation troops trying to find a way off the fourth floor. Whenever we happened upon a group of white-armored shitheads, my crew gunned them down with minimal effort.

Boreas continually referred to the map he had been able to liberate, and he led us through the winding hallways. We ran past several doors that appeared to lead to a variety of offices and other chambers. Since we were on the hunt for Jinx, we made an effort to search the rooms we passed by. Considering the fact the building around us wasn't in the best of shape, we couldn't stay put for long.

"Something tells me this place has a few labs in it," Boreas mused after about an hour of searching, "We need to be care–."

He was cut off without warning when a deafening explosion could be heard.

"What the fuck!" Alannah snapped, staggering away from us, "I thought Phaerex said he was holding off on the bombardment?"

"That explosion wasn't above us. Rather, it was below," Boreas mused, taking a few tentative steps forward, "How–?"

With a collective scream, we all fell when the floor below us gave out. Quickly, I grabbed Alannah and held her close to me. The instant we hit the third floor, I closed my eyes and waited for the rubble to fall on me. When nothing of the sort happened, I slowly opened my eyes. I caught sight of the rest of my team laying on the ground, and I quickly took note of the fact we appeared to be in a ruined laboratory. A pile of concrete, steel, and other materials had been thrown off to the side, and a miniature fire was currently ravaging the lab before us.

"That was close," Vi'karac mused, turning to flash me a wink, "Please do be careful, Cylus."

"How did you do that?" Boreas inquired.

"A Darka'ash does not give away such secrets," he replied.

"U-Um, we should probably move," I stammered, stumbling to my feet and helping Alannah up, "Come on, you lot!" 

Wasting no time at all, we left the devastated room and entered the hall beyond. This time around, our luck wasn't with us: not only were there more guards to contend with, the condition of this floor appeared to be deteriorating with each passing moment.

"Our odds aren't looking too hot right now," Boreas mused, gunning down a guard that attempted to charge at him, "We need to hurry before the ceiling falls on us."

"Agreed," I breathed, jamming my hidden blade into another soldier's throat, "Come on! Cut these bastards down so we can get moving!"

Thankfully, we wiped out our hostiles in little time. When we were sure no one else was going to attack us, we resumed our mad dash down the hall. Unfortunately, the corridor caved in before us. Given the smoke that started to amass above us, it looked like the third floor was about to join the same fate as the two floors below it.

Turning around, we ran back to a cross-intersection we had ran straight through several moments ago. Taking a right at this intersection, we dashed through the damaged white hallway. We continued running along until the sounds of conflict could be heard.

"Well, sounds like something's going down," Boreas mused, "Let's go find where the party's taking place."

Following the sounds of gunshots and screams, we found ourselves running into a waiting room that was partially on fire. Within said-waiting room was a large group of about ten soldiers and a lone figure. Given the blood that covered the walls and the bodies that laid on the ground, this person was no pushover.