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Krystla and Chase: Hidden Threat

Part two: Ghosts

The station was dark. Light occasionally made its way inside the blackness, but not enough to help the two who were now exploring. Luckily, the two had flashlights. As Chase looked around, the flashlight built into the shoulder of his armor illuminated the walls. Beside him, Krystal kept her gun trained on where her light was pointed.

"I don't like this." Krystal said nervously as she spun around, "I don't like this one bit."

"Tactically, the enemy does have the advantage right now." Chase stated calmly, "I'm sure the Sev`fel gave their bots night vision and advanced tracking tech."

"That doesn't help Chase." Krystal replied, looking back at him over her shoulder.

"Relax Krystal." Chase smirked, "We're in an orbital outpost far above the planet below. I doubt there's anything to be scared of."

"Sure, it's easy for you to say." Krystal thought to herself as she turned and followed her partner, "You don't have bad memories of dark places."

Ever since she was young, Krystal hadn't liked the darkness. The lack of vision always seemed to make her think more about her fears than about anything else. But the only thing that made things worse was her memories from the Sauria incident. The feelings of confusion and despair from first waking up in a dark, cold cell before her imprisonment in the device Fox had found her in haunted her now as the two walked.

"Well, at least there's nothing to lock me into around here." The vixen thought as she kept close to her partner, "That's always a plus."

Suddenly, Chase stopped. His ears twitched and turned as Krystal glanced to him.

"Hear that?" Chase asked.

"Hear what?" Krystal asked in reply.

Chase put up a hand for her to be silent. As she listened as well, the vixen's ears picked up a soft whirring noise. And it was close.

"Jen?" Chase asked.

The vixen wondered who Chase was talking about for a second, then heard a new voice. She'd only heard it once before, when Chase was unconscious after their first confrontation with the Sev`fel.

"The sensors in your armor also picked it up." The female voice replied from the communications channel in his armor, "I have run it through the motion tracker. Whatever is inside the station with us is close."

"Location?"

"I do not know. It is too faint to pin point."

"That's just super..."

Chase looked around quickly. Slowly, he glanced to the right, spotting something in the corner of his eye. But as he looked, whatever it was had vanished.

"I suggest that we continue towards our objective." Jennifer stated bluntly, "Time is of the essence in our current situation."

Chase nodded slowly, "Alright. But first, there's something I'd like to check."

Before Krystal's eyes could track the movement, Chase drew his pistol and fired off a single round. For a second, there was nothing but the echo of the shot. Then, a glowing robot materialized before them, its head gone as sparks shot from where it had been. Chase's flashlight illuminated an oily, black substance that was spattered on the wall behind it as the bot slumped to the ground.

"Now we can go." Chase said, holstering his pistol once more.

His bewildered partner seemed rooted to the spot, staring at the headless bot before her. Chase patted her shoulder gently.

"Come on, Krystal, there's probably more where it came from." The fox commented.

The vixen shook her head quickly before following him again.

* * *

"How'd you know that thing was there?" Krystal asked.

"Truthfully, I didn't." Chase replied, checking around a corner carefully, "I just fired where I guessed something was. Besides, you know I trained with those cloaked security robots we had for a long time."

It had been just over an hour since the two had entered the orbital platform. Having reached a service elevator the AI had recommended they use, Chase knew what else had to be done. Without power to the lower floor, the elevator didn't work. To restart the power, there had to be an electrical grid control system somewhere on the lower floor.

Oddly enough, they hadn't run into anymore of the robots. But Chase wasn't satisfied with Krystal's idea that the one they had shot was the only one.

"Come on, you had-" Krystal began when Chase put his hand over her mouth.

She tried to protest but saw Chase put a finger to his mouth in a 'be quiet' gesture. He peeked back around the corner, his ears perked. Then, he motioned for her to look.

As Krystal peeked around the corner as well, she saw two glowing white robots floating near, what looked like, a circuit breaker. The bots looked almost like the Reaper units the two had faced off with on their last mission. They had the same human-ish upper body with the flattened head. But the tail section below that was oddly shorter. The stubby tail that kept the bots thrusters moving wagged slowly back and forth, the engines on their backs only generating enough thrust to keep them almost silently in the air, the distortion caused by the heat of the thrusters nearly invisible in the darkness.

Then, Krystal noticed their weaponry. Instead of the claw and gun combo the Reapers had for their weaponry, these two bots had the two foot long claws on each hand. The gleaming claws appeared to be sharper, almost as if they had been made from a completely different material. But they also were able to retract into the hand, protecting them from damage outside of combat.

As one examined the box between them, the other was looking over its claws. With a satisfied sounding metallic whir, it lowered the claws and looked to the first one.

"Is it just me, or do they look like ghosts?" Krystal asked quietly.

"If they are ghosts, they're not exactly bright." Chase whispered back, "One EMP grenade and then we get that thing working again."

"I do not recommend that course of action." Jen said from inside his armor, using the com link so the robots didn't hear her.

"Why not?" Chase asked.

Krystal looked around the corner, careful to turn off her shoulder flashlight, "I see...If you hit the box, you could cut the power completely. Everything electronic inside it would be fried. Even if we got the power back on in another area, the elevator would still be down."

"She is right." The AI stated roughly, "An electromagnetic pulse will take out anything electronic within its range. And if I am correct, if you used the grenade from where we are currently positioned, we will be in the radius of its effect. Not only would it disable those robots, but it would disable the circuit breakers systems as well. Not to mention that I too will, for a lack of better words, be 'killed' by it."

Chase sighed and thought, "Well that figures..." but his mouth asked, "So what do you recommend we do?"

"I believe that few well placed shots will do nicely." Jen said.

Chase felt that if she had been on his HUD, the wolf AI would be smirking. He took a quick look at the two again, evaluated his options, and drew his Stinger handguns. It would only take two shots each. One to the chest, one to the head. He couldn't allow any hesitation between.

"Wait here." Chase said softly, "I'll take care of them."

As he got up, he felt a hand on his shoulder, "Oh no, we do this together."

"Alright, I'll take the one on the left," Chase said as Krystal pulled up her rifle, "you take the right."

Krystal nodded and made sure she was loaded.

* * *

The two bots floated quietly, completely unaware of what was about to happen. Then they spotted two intruders! The first fox ran out from around a corner, his weapon drawn and already firing! Two shots penetrated the first bots armor, one entering the lightly armored chest plating before blowing a hole out the back. The second shot took out its head, punching a hole through it like paper!

The second fox wasn't quite as accurate, but every bit as deadly. As the first bot fell, the second had no time to react as a vixen spun around the same corner, firing off a three shot burst that hit the second bot in a text book shot. All three went up the unit's chest, blowing out any important circuitry to keep it online. As its world darkened, the next three shots hit the neck and head of the bot. It crumpled to the ground, its engine whirring before it sputtered and died.

Once it had, Chase smiled, "Nice shot. A little too text book for me, but you did well."

"Thanks." Krystal returned, "I think..."

Chase examined the box, his hand running across the plastic covers over the wires, "I guess we could follow this until we reach the systems. Jen, do you have a map of the station anywhere?"

There was a brief silence, followed by "Sorry, I never received one. And until you are able to restore the power, I cannot download one from any terminal on this level."

Chase sighed, "That's just perfect...we're basically running blind then?"

"If by 'blind' you mean 'without information' then yes." The AI replied.

Krystal remained silent, her mind racing as she looked over the box and the wiring. Something was bothering her about it. The two bots had gone down too easy. No calls for backup, no attack, completely unlike the Reapers they had encountered last time.

Then, she heard it. The soft whirring they had heard when Chase had shot the cloaked robot. But the noise grew louder quickly, multiplying rapidly.

"Chase?" She asked slowly turning towards the sound.

Chase's ears perks quickly as the sound reached him "uh oh."

The fox turned, his handguns up and loaded once more. But as he looked, there was nothing! His flashlights shone against the wall opposite them, the pale yellow beams uninterrupted in their path. Then, something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. The air was distorted, almost as if heat was rising from the steel floor.

Krystal fired the first shot. As gunfire shattered the silence inside the outpost, six robots suddenly appeared from thin air! Krystal's shots struck the wall behind the bots as the first one attacked, lashing out with the two foot claws. Both foxes dodged the incoming attack, Chase shooting the bot as it passed them, its claws barely nicking his armor. It fell with two holes in its chest and tail.

The others simply watched, learning from what they had seen. As their fellow bot lay on the ground between the two foxes, they had learned their speed and assessed their weaponry. This time, they knew what to do. With a metallic howl, the glowing robots attacked, their claws fully extended as they raced forward.

With their backs to the wall, the two foxes opened fire. Flashes of gunfire lit up the corridor as the noise echoed through the lower section of the outpost. Slowly, the bots were cut down, their bodies riddled with armor piercing rounds as they tried to weave past the combined fire of Chase and Krystal.

The remaining two bots tried to move around their gunfire as their comrades were shot. But instead, Chase simply led the bots back into Krystal's line of fire, distracting them with decoy shots to move them. Within seconds, it was over.

Spent bullet casings lay on the ground, glistening silver in the light of the flashlights. Chase reloaded quickly, letting the spent magazine fall to the ground as his other was already driving the new one home. As he repeated the action with the second pistol, Krystal had loaded a fresh magazine into her rifle, the spent one sitting in a second pouch on her side.

"So they can cloak now." Chase muttered as he examined one of the bots, "That's just our luck isn't it?"

"Look on the bright side." Krystal said, patting his shoulder, "At least they have to drop their cloak to attack."

Chase nodded and stood up, "Don't give them any ideas. Once we get to the power back, we'll need to inform Hiigan of these things. Maybe the techs can make something to counter their cloaking ability somehow."

Krystal nodded and followed Chase back into the hallway the bots had attacked from. After the fox checked both directions for any signs of more attackers, he nodded once and Krystal took the lead, her gun slowly sweeping across the hall. Without any intel, the two were still blind, but Krystal had an idea.

"Jennifer, did you receive any sort of data that could be used to map out the floor we're on?" the vixen asked.

"Nothing that could be used for that." The AI replied, "Until you are able to restore the power and upload me into a terminal, I do not know anymore about this area than you do."

"Then we'd better turn it back on." Chase stated, "And fast. With any luck, the light should weaken those cloaks."

Krystal simply nodded, unsure of anything right now. The last time she'd gone up against an enemy that had the cloaking technology, she had found herself against a rock with a rifle to her chest. While she had been in this line of work for some time now, the vixen still had a lot to learn and to relearn.

* * *

It took them another ten minutes to find the security room, but the two foxes hadn't run into anymore of the invisible threats. While the station was supposed to be filled with the bots, they hadn't seen enough of them to begin to consider them a true threat. But now they had run across a new problem.

As Krystal tried the door, she found that it was locked.

"Great." The vixen stated with a slight huff, "And of course this thing's locked."

Chase smiled slightly, cracking his knuckles, "Ok, let me at it."

Krystal stepped aside, waving to the door, "All yours Chase."

The fox examined the door quietly, his flashlight running up and down its frame.

"Jen, how much firepower would it take to break this door down?" Chase asked.

"Not a great amount." The AI replied, "Just a high explosive device or a small rocket maybe. Why?"

Chase took a grenade off his side, tossed it up and caught it. Krystal shook her head with doubt.

"Didn't Hiigan say not to destroy anything?" the vixen asked.

"He said not to destroy the outpost." Chase replied, placing the grenade against the door, "He didn't say that I couldn't open a door with some excessive force."

The vixen smiled. Chase hadn't changed much in the time she'd been with Fox and the others.

"Ok, let's get back." Chase ordered, "Get back behind that wall over there. Once we're safely behind it, I'll fire the shot."

"Will a bullet detonate a grenade?" Krystal asked.

"Sure it will. I just have to hit it in the right spot." Chase replied, "Let's go."

Chase followed Krystal back behind the wall. As she watched, the fox checked that he was mostly behind it. Then, carefully, he aimed his pistol at the grenade around the corner, keeping his gun steady as he pulled back.

"This might alert the bots, so get ready." Chase stated.

Krystal nodded and unslung her rifle. Once she had, the fox pulled the trigger slowly.

The resulting gunshot was canceled out almost instantly. A thunderous explosion echoed through the lower floor of the outpost, amplified by the enclosed space it was in. As the echoing died down, another started up. A loud, metallic cry began to echo from the darkness. Krystal looked up, startled, as Chase quietly cursed and reloaded.

"Here they come!" the fox grunted.