Helpless Hope

Katya stood in a dim-lit corridor, her dark outfit blending with the shadows.

Seconds earlier, she'd used the Sys-ID and fake prison guard credentials to enter the premises via its kitchens, the least surveilled section of the Royal ALMQ prison complex. Every step she took was a gamble, a potential exposure to the sentinel's watchful eyes.

The penal lock-up lay on the outskirts of LeCythi, a desolate landscape with views of the barren volcanic wilderness, where purple clouds of lightning-charged ions roiled above, adding an eerie touch to the already ominous atmosphere.

Hours earlier, Tachy's flyer had set Katya down in the hills above the facility. Guided by Mirage, she'd descended with great care towards the prison.

With the Sable AI whispering in her ear and a map projected in her HUD helmet, Katya had found her way to the rear of the cluster of buildings.

At Mirage's command, a tiny metanoid cloud had ejected from the helmet, hacking her entry at an unobtrusive service entry rear gate.

Striding with a swagger that belied her pounding heart, Katya moved fast within the building, eyes scanning the area for any deterrents to her plan.

It helped that with a guard helmet on, she was inconspicuous and just one of the staff. The headgear also transmitted the directions Mirage had provided in its modded HUD.

The cell where Xion was being held had blast shield doors that swung open for a few seconds, giving in to Mirage's quantum computing badass bypass.

Inside, it reeked of oppression mixed in with the musty odour of old stone walls and damp earth.

Katya stepped to discover the Rider lying on the floor.

She clapped a hand over her mouth in shock. He was unconscious, clothes ripped off and dirty, bruises covering his chest and arms from being manhandled.

He also sported a contused puncture wound on his thigh.

Katya slid to the ground, gazing at him through the internal security bars, guilt and sorrow jolting her.

His face was slack, pale and sweaty, his skin clammy.

The only sound in the enclosure was Xion's laboured breathing, his chest rising and falling in an uneven rhythm. Outside, other prisoners' muffled shouts and cries filtered through the walls, creating an eerie soundtrack to the charged scene beyond the blast doors.

Now, within the space, Katya found one more challenge to overcome. ‘Mirage, I see him, but it's a cell within a cell. He's behind electric shield bars.'

The crackling, energy-humming strobes were designed to be unforgiving. She had no handbook on how to bust a man from them.

‘You don't have to make it up. I'll guide you,' came Mirage's voice in her ear, a lifeline in this perilous mission.

‘Sante,' the Iccythrian woman whispered.

‘We need to take the shield out. Please reach the control pad at the entry and touch it. The metanoids from the suit you're wearing will do the rest. The facility's alarms will be activated when the barrier is down. There's nothing I can do about that in these few minutes. I'd require more time than we have to hack that system. Which means you've just a brief period to prep him to go. I'll try and buy you as much time as I can.'

With a tight ‘naam' to indicate she understood, Katya scanned the room and found the touch-pad. She moved to it and placed her hands on it as instructed.

The unseen noids vibrated over her suit towards the flashing panel.

In seconds, the keypad beeped.

The tiny bots had done their work.

The shield fell away.

As Mirage had predicted, klaxons sounded beyond the blast doors.

Katya had just a few moments before the ALMQ gendarmes were through them.

Sighing, she rushed into the cell where Xion lay on the floor.

Katya knelt beside the Rider, her fingers hovering over his pulse as she checked to see if he was out cold.

He was breathing, but it was shallow, and he was non-responsive to her touch.

The dim light flickered above, casting eerie shadows across the room as Mirage once more spoke into the Ccyth woman's ear.

Listening with intent, she reached out and touched Xion's lips.

Another quiver rushed over her suit, and this time she saw a silvery cloud of noids float over his mouth and vanish.

She pulled back, fascinated, eyes fixed on his chiselled jaw and sculpted features.

A stab of need and compassion went through her, and she clenched her fists, wanting to stroke his locks and smooth her hand over his still forehead.

She jolted when his eyes fluttered open, confusion clouding his mocha-jade gaze before recognition dawned.

‘Katya?' Xion rasped, his voice hoarse and ragged.

‘In the flesh,' Katya murmured, her eyes glinting. ‘Time to fokkin' light out of here.'

He tried to push himself up but fell back like his limbs were lead. ‘What happened?'

‘No time for that now,' she urged, helping him to stand. ‘We need to move fast before anyone realises you're gone.'

She hoisted him up and was moving his limp, heavy body onto the bench when a wild commotion erupted outside.

A syncopated boom of laser fire blasted from somewhere behind the reinforced door she'd walked in through, and Mirage had sealed it well.

It was thick and made of synth steel, fortified with plex.

It would take a reasonable effort to break through.

Regardless, the laser fire thundering from without sounded concentrated and fierce enough to break the barrier.

Katya jerked as if some of the energy weapons had hit her, choking back the panic that flooded her.

Xion swayed against her, still half incapacitated.

‘Freakin' hell!'

She pushed him onto the cell's solitary bench even as a renewed burst of rays and the edge of a flaming laser cutting a circle through the blast doors hurried her.

After scrambling through her backpack, she set a small pad on Xion's chest that latched onto his torn undershirt.

She tapped it, and it shimmered as a stream of metanoids flowed from it, creating a matte silver-grey combat body armour system as if from thin air.

It formed all over him in a tight fit, merging into a sleek helmet that slid over his locks.

‘He's now under my care,' Mirage said to Katya. ‘I'll begin with healing his wounds and infusing him with metanoids to replace the ones he lost. It'll take some time. Perhaps even twenty-four hours, but the suit will help drag him out of that hell hole.'

‘Damn, that's nothing like the suited armour systems I've seen in the past,' Katya whispered in awe.

‘Everything else but Sable gear is McShit, inferior in all their ways,' Mirage intoned.

With Mirage's guidance, Katya set charges along the outer wall.

Stepping back to Xion, she folded herself over him and used her wrist comm to set them off.

The muffled explosion rocked the space, causing debris to rain down and dirt to cascade from the cracks in the ceiling. The wall crumbled, creating a makeshift exit for the pair.

The blast wave passed, and a cold wind rushed in from the outside, blowing dust and particles around.

Katya moved, nabbing packs of provisions and repacking them, redistributing what they would carry.

By this time, Xion had somehow got to his feet. He now swayed in the middle of the cell, his shattered and wounded body only just standing due to the meta suit he now wore.

Katya thrust a heavy coat at him.

Xion stared at it as if unable to comprehend what she wanted him to do with it.

With a curse, Katya pushed his hands into it, slapped on a helmet, and tugged gloves on his injured palms.

Katya reinforced her suit and shrugged into a substantial cloak as well.

She turned to the man weaving on the small bench.

‘Xion, we have to move. Now.'

Grappling one of the consolidated packs onto her shoulders and the other over Xion's hunched back, she picked up a rifle and wrapped an arm around his waist.

Without hesitation, Katya half-dragged the burly, thicker, much taller man through the newly formed opening, leading the Rider into the night.

As they emerged into the cold air and shattered skies, sirens wailed in the distance, signalling the alarm raised by the cell break.

Katya scanned their surroundings, her mind already racing ahead to the next step of their escape plan. ‘Mirage, talk to me.'

The Sable consigliere replied with a sit rep. ‘Your path is clear, but you've got bogeys and the enemy to your backside, so move the fokk along. Remember, I can't land the Tachy; the volcanic disturbance where you're at makes it too risky. Also, once you're outside the facility, the ionic storm will disrupt our comms, so use the HUD in your helmet to guide you. You must ascend to higher ground a few hours from here and stay concealed until the storm breaks. I've sent you a map of the best exfil location. Hustle there and wait for me. Travel safe, and see you soon.'

A chart shimmered into view in Katya's heads-up display, guiding the way out of the treacherous valley.

‘Can you walk?' she asked Xion, her tone brisk but laced with concern.

‘Save yourself,' slurred the man in her arms. ‘I'll only slow you down.'

She glanced at him, ‘Don't underestimate Iccythrian strength, Rider. We're built to survive low-oxygen environments, and our muscles are ripped. So please shut up so we can leave here alive.'

He nodded, his weak head bobbing, leaning on her for support as they made their way through the darkness.

They made their way through the dark alleyways at the facility. The adrenaline pumping through Katya's veins kept her senses sharp.

Every sound and movement heightened as they dodged drones she was sure the ALMQ sentinels had sent.

Soon, they left the prison block behind and tackled the rugged volcanic terrain of the wilds of Iccythria.

Katya led Xion through the treacherous landscape, the harsh topography testing their endurance with every step. The barren ground crunched beneath their feet, the air thin and biting as they trudged onwards, the silhouettes of rock formations looming like sentinels in the moonlight.

Xion's breath came in ragged gasps, his weakened state evident as Katya supported him.

She was hit with guilt for putting him in this position, and a desire for redemption coursed through her veins, driving her forward.

At the crest of a jagged hill, Xion faltered, coming down to his knees.

Katya made him sip some water and let him rest, her eyes scanning the desolate landscape for any sign of pursuit. The only sound was the howling wind, carrying with it a chill that seeped into their bones. However, in the far distance, she spotted lights bobbing their way.

‘We need to keep moving,' she murmured. ‘We can't stay out in the open like this.'

Xion didn't reply.

She glanced with concern at him. He'd stumbled a few times during the three hours they had been moving like a broken marionette tripping over his feet until she had to keep her hand banded tight around his waist.

Yet, when he found his wind in short bursts, he moved fast for an injured man.

But now his eyes were dead, his face stricken, hollow, and she realised he couldn't go on much longer.

However, dawn would soon be breaking over the horizon.

If they didn't reach the Tachy by sunrise, they'd need to remain undercover to avoid detection if there was any pursuit and wait for the next nightfall to move again.

With a deep breath, she drew in all her strength and rushed them along.

It'd been hours of stumbling in the dark, hiding from the laser guns and drones glowing behind them and closing distance.

Xion fought back the shock and the sensation of his entire body falling apart. The bottom dropped out of his stomach, and his lungs seized, unable to pump air with any efficacy.

He was aware of pain, a great, clawing agony in his muscles. It felt like his body had been flayed within an inch of life.

‘Twas the truth, for he'd been drained of most of his metanoids.

He sensed them regenerating somewhere in the back of his mind, but getting back to full capacity would take hours, if not days.

He shivered as the woman beside him pulled him up the steep volcano.

‘Xion, we need to make it to the next hill. That's where the Tachy will land once this infernal storm ends.'

If the tempest didn't abate over the shattered skies, their pursuers would catch up, and they'd be worse off. He was clued on this; she was too.

‘I won't let anything happen to us,' she growled with fierceness as if reading his mind. He huffed, his respect for her growing.

Without warning, a silhouette materialised a few metres ahead, ghosting from over the range.

It was a weaponised drone, its lights pulsing and circling, searching for them.

Xion gave Katya a silent tug of her arm.

She ducked them both under the rock and peeked over the outcrop.

The drone hovered like a monstrous metal insect, its sleek body gleaming in the fading light. Armed to the teeth with deadly lasers and missiles, its presence was like a death knell, a harbinger of doom and destruction.

Its cameras whirred, radiating with malevolent energy.

It wasn't going anywhere fast.

She unclipped her laser pistol from her hip, aimed it at the bogey and fired.

The shot missed, and she cursed.

It whirled around and whizzed towards them, flashing with red strobes from its targeting system.

An arm reached out and snatched her weapon from Katya.

Xion gave her a grim look and targeted the approaching menace.

He squeezed off a shot and grunted with satisfaction when the appliance exploded in a ball of flames.

Smoke erupted from the blazing, falling mass, accompanied by the pungent odour of burnt electronics and oil.

Katya rose.

‘Wait,' Xion cautioned.

But it was too late.

From behind them came the whirring sound of a second device.

A spit of laser fire rang out, and Katya groaned as she staggered off balance, slipped, and landed on her right shoulder on the rocks.

She didn't cry out; her experience in high tension clusterfokks showed.

Xion whipped around so fast he was a blur as he impossibly jumped on the attacking drone and tore it apart with his bare hands.

There was the spit of torn electronics and components, the snap and crackle of electricity and the wild spin of its multiple propellers.

He tossed it aside, and it fell from his hands to the ground and writhed in an agonising electronic death.

‘Battle drones tend to fly in pairs,' Xion rasped.

Winded, he swayed, bending over to grab his knees.

After a few gasps of air, the Rider glanced up at the fallen Ccyth woman and swore. ‘Fokk! Are you all right?'

Katya nodded, sitting up, brushing at her clothes and her shoulder.

Xion's eyes tracked to her side. ‘You're hurt.'

He was beside her in seconds, lifting her from the rocks.

There was a tear in her cloak and suit, and blood was welling from her collarbone and lapel.

‘The drone got you,' he said.

‘Don't worry about me,' she murmured. ‘I'll take care of it. I've got this. You rest, you need it.'

‘My metanoids are coming back, regenerating and accelerating my natural healing. I'm not so helpless any more,' he countered. ‘And you require a second pair of eyes to dress that wound.'

He unzipped her Sable suit as he spoke.

She wasn't wearing a bra, so he only undid the zipper to the top swell of her breast, then peeled the high-tech synth material off her injured shoulder.

The puncture wound was purplish and already swelling, sullenly oozing blood. The laser fire had gone into and through the left of her external arm muscles, the worst of it glancing off her collarbone or absorbed by the toned curves.

He scrabbled for their bags and found a medi-laser. Katya stood motionless as he sprayed, cleaned and closed the injury.

Magenta-hued moonlight gleamed on her bare shoulder, turning her skin pearlescent.

Her honeyed complexion was pale from blood loss, and her eyes gazed at him with such vulnerability that his heart lurched.

He dragged his eyes from hers to where the elegant slant of her nape was exposed.

Even as he applied an antibiotic ointment to the laceration, Xion admired the lithe, graceful structure of the woman he'd made love to. His regard, even in his weakened state, got his desire rising.

In a Sable meta suit, she'd shed her feminine sensuous dresses.

It was also the first time he'd seen her without makeup and messy hair and, like him, needing a bath.

Yet she was still a queen in every sense of the word. Elegant and so fokkin' beautiful, he wanted to drag her to the ground and sink inside her.

He reminded himself that she was a dangerous equation, and he needed to steel his heart lest he find himself back in a compromised situation.

He wouldn't indulge his desire for her until he grasped the game her family and the King of Iccythria were playing.

That said, she'd rescued him, which went a long way in his books.

With an indecipherable snarl, Xion plastered an adhesive bandage over the wound, then drew her suit back onto her shoulder.

He would have zipped the garment for her, but she did it herself, her head bent over the task, her fingers slow.

While she did, he tried to wake his neural node to summon Mirage.

It was to no avail.

All he got was the buzz of static.

He needed more meta-power coursing through him to do so.

He had to wait a few more hours, taking them past dawn.

He cursed at the sight of sunrise peeking over the horizon.

‘We need to find shelter.'

Katya nodded in agreement, her movements stiff from the injury.

They set off once more, this time Xion supporting Katya.

He glanced around as they cautiously climbed, searching for a safe place to hide and regroup.

The adrenaline that had pumped through his veins from the drone attack began to ebb—leaving behind a dull ache and a growing sensation of nausea and fatigue that threatened to overwhelm him.

Despite his physical exhaustion, Xion scanned the area, his senses on high alert.

The terrain was rugged and unforgiving, offering little in the way of cover.

Finally, he spotted a small cave entrance nestled within the rocky outcrop nearby.

It was a tight fit, but it would have to do for now.

With a silent jerk of his chin, Xion led Katya to it.

Inside, the rough stone walls seemed to press in on them, the darkness enveloping them like a shroud.

Katya followed his lead, her steps cautious. She kept her hand in his and squeezed it, needing his reassurance through the pitch-blackness.

Deeper, they found a compact alcove providing enough space to sit.

The cave was damp and musty but offered some respite from the elements and potential pursuers.

Xion retrieved an LED light lamp from his back and turned it on, hanging it off a jutting rock ledge. It illuminated the tiny cave as they settled in a corner, their backs against the cold stone wall, listening for any sounds of danger outside.

The adrenaline that had kept them moving through the night faded, replaced by exhaustion and pain.

Every bruise and scrape on Xion's body throbbed as he leaned back on the hard surface behind him. At least the sand cover on the ground was thick enough to protect them from jagged stones.

He took out his water canteen and handed it to Katya.

She gave him a nod of thanks and took a lengthy sip before passing it back to him.

They sat in silence for a few moments, catching their breath.

‘We need to stay here until I can contact Mirage and the Tachy,' Xion rasped, stretching a leg out and wincing.

Katya jerked her chin in agreement. ‘How long do you think we'll have to wait?'

‘It depends on how much meta-power I can gather to punch through the storm cover.'

He fell silent, needing to conserve his energy.

Katya got the memo, and she, too, retreated into her thoughts.

The only sound remaining was the wind howling through the cave's entrance.

‘I'm so tired,' she muttered after a beat.

I'm full of questions, Xion thought in silence.

‘The ground is soft enough to bed down on for a few hours,' she continued. ‘I'm going to try to grab some kip.'

She slid into a horizontal position and lay her head on her provision pack, squirming on the sand until she found a comfortable posture.

He was too wired to sleep, so he listened to her until he perceived her breath fall into her steady rhythm.

Watching over her as she slumbered, Xion recalled the two nights they'd shared.

How it'd began as an intimate exchange of their hearts and souls.

How it'd then exploded in bliss on the second evening,

How she'd reacted to his bussin' and lovin'.

How tight and warm her clutch to his cock had been as his hips drove in her.

How they'd slept next to each other, with his limbs spooned around her and his big arm clasped her waist.

How she had nestled in, face pressed into his chest.

He clenched his jaw and bit down on his tongue, needing, wanting, yearning.

Yet fokkin' unable to act on his desire until he had the answers from her he needed.

With a suck of his teeth, he pulled their cloaks over her.

He then scooted close and lay down on the sand, not quite touching her but welcoming the heat from her body, enveloping them both like a third blanket.

A wave of exhaustion hit, and with a sigh, he let himself slip into unconsciousness.