Shadow of a Freelancer Ch 20.) Desperate Actions
#21 of Shadow of a Freelancer
Ok here's the final chapter of Shadow of a Freelancer, Ch 20.) Desperate Actions. When you see "<Speech>" like this with < > on either side it's being translated to English for the readers. This is the end of Shadow of a Freelancer... but just like War tails of the white Wolf before this, there will be another series after this one with its own unique name yet still related to War tails and this, but it won't be out for quite some time I'm afraid.
Anyways enjoy, vote and comment please.
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Aurora's Room (1:15 AM Ship Time)
Rrahkarr could hear his heart beating in his ears as he stared at the knife in his paw. It was a new blade, sharp and deadly... having been freshly sharpened not long ago. His breathing was heavy as thoughts raced through his mind. He couldn't believe that he was contemplating doing it, to actually cut off his own arm. With another scream; accompanied by the word "Daddy!" that echoed through the ship, all was made clear. Rrahkarr only cared about one thing, saving Aurora at all costs and cast out all his doubts.
His pulse quickening with his heart rate; Rrahkarr looked at his pinned and crushed arm as he brought the knife to the edge of it. Rrahkarr didn't even have a single doubt pass through his mind as he took a deep breath and sliced into his arm; spilling his own blood onto the floor.
He had endured pain worse then what he was experiencing... but this was the first time the pain being caused to him was his own doing. Intentionally causing harm to one's self was completely different then being hurt by someone else. Every single millisecond that passed by, Rrahkarr wanted to pull the blade from his arm cause he was the one that could end the pain but he forced himself to keep cutting as his blood joined with the growing puddle of crimson blood around his arm.
The blade may have been very sharp but he still had to slice in a cutting motion to get through his flesh. More and more blood continued to pool around his arm as he cut and sliced through his own arm. He didn't allow himself to scream as he sliced; his mind was coming up with all sorts of scenarios. The one on his mind right now was that whoever shot them down was out there and had captured Aurora and if he screamed they'd know he was alive and in the ship. As he was cutting he suddenly stopped and yanked the blade out of his arm and dropped it from the pain that shot up his arm.
The blade had made contact with the nerve that runs up and down the arm. The moment the blade touched the nerve it was as if someone had taken hydrochloric acid and poured it over his entire arm and lit it on fire at the same time. Even though his arm was crushed his muscles started twitching after he touched the nerve causing even more pain. Fighting back tears caused by the agonizing pain Rrahkarr quickly picked up the blade again and forced it through the cut flesh and started cutting through the nerve itself.
It was so bad Rrahkarr couldn't help but scream out in pain; almost sounding as if he was dying as he sliced through the nerve. The pain from his muscles twitching and slicing through his flesh and nerve was the most painful thing combined he ever felt. Just after he started screaming another small explosion happened nearby and had masked the loudest part of his screaming as he sliced clean through the nerve.
He gasped for air after he cut through it and made it to part of the bone that was still intact. Not resting he pushed himself as far away from the replicator as he could with his feet; causing more blood to gush from his arm, and managed to get the knife past the bone where it shattered and cut through the rest of his arm. The moment the blade cut through the other side of his arm he rolled over a couple of times before stopping on his stomach. It took him only a minute and a half to cut through it but it seemed longer to him.
He was surprised, even though he knew his arm was no longer attached he swore he could still feel it. He looked to his right and noticed the blood coming out of the end of his arm. He knew he'd bleed out and be of no use whatsoever to Aurora so he tore off the plain white T-shirt he was wearing and wrapped it around the end of his arm. He then found one of the broken straps that usually held the replicator in place and took a good sized length of it and ripped it off the floor. He then quickly made a tourniquet out of it by wrapping it around the end of his arm and shirt and tightening it to cut the blood flow.
"I hope... that works." Rrahkarr thought as he stood up and stumbled out of the room and down the hall.
The ship had crashed in a way that made it tilt at an angle. He could easily walk down the halls but due to the blood loss he was stumbling and had to lean on the wall to walk. At the end of the hall there was a hole in the side of the ship and light was coming through it. Rrahkarr held onto what remained of his arm as he neared the hole. The surrounding area was blackened from when the ship went through reentry and from where a stray shot may have hit.
Before he got to the hole he heard Aurora scream "No... help!"
When he got to the hole his eyes widened from surprise and anger at what he saw.
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Just Outside the Ira - a few minutes prior
Aurora followed Nerah to the end of the hall where there was a hole from when the Ira was hit. Thanks to the humanoid model of robot Nerah was in, she was able to exit the hole and jump the few feet to the ground. Aurora followed after her and soon they were both outside and looking at the Ira's hull. The ship was in bad shape from taking a direct hit by whoever fired at them and then from being engulfed in flames as the ship entered the atmosphere.
Smoke rose from several places on the Ira and there was even a few fires near the ends of the ship. The front of the ship was the most damaged; the bridge being completely destroyed. There was also a very large hole in the center of the ship where whatever was fired at them had passed through entirely; destroying the energy stone power source without it blowing up.
Both Nerah and Aurora took the sight in and made Nerah wonder what kind of weapon was fired at them. Nerah didn't get to think long before Aurora asked her "Will d-daddy be alright?"
"Of course he will; he's pulled through worse situations."
"Ok..." Aurora sniffled as they waited for Rrahkarr to exit the ship... but little did they know something was closing in on their position.
Aurora suddenly felt a chill go up her spine. Then the feeling that told her were her daddy was on the ship earlier was telling her something was behind them. She could feel several... animals approaching them but they felt like people to her. She was startled when someone yelled in a strange language.
"<Attack!>"
Several large animal like people similar to furs in the A.T.W.F. charged them from multiple directions. These people had the upper torso of a person but where their legs would be was instead another animal like torso with four legs attached to it. These people looked like the old mythological creatures known as centaurs.
They charged Nerah and Aurora; who screamed and hid behind Nerah as she curled up to protect herself. A few shots were fired from weapons and a few of those shots managed to hit and disable Nerah's robotic body before she could do anything. One of these... taurs noticed Aurora however and yelled to the others "<Wait! Stop the Attack!>"
A few of them slowed or stopped when the one yelled that but a couple others kept charging. The one who yelled at them grew an angry look and drew a large gun and aimed it ahead of the few still charging and fired a couple warning shots; which looked like some sort of a plasma bolt, before yelling "<Stop>"
When the one fired the warning shots Aurora screamed again and yelled "Daddy!" from fear and tried to hide behind the nearly destroyed body that still held Nerah.
"Don't... worry Aurora, Rrahkarr will come soon." Nerah said; that being the only thing she could do.
"<Stop!? Why?>" the one who kept charging; who had brownish or cinnamon colored fur and looked like wolf... a red wolf to better explain what he was, who was closest to Nerah and Aurora yelled back.
"<Look!>" The one who fired the shots; who also looked like a wolf but had black fur, yelled and pointed towards Aurora as he and the others who stopped headed towards them.
The cinnamon colored one looked at who he was charging at and finally noticed that besides the robot there was a small person hiding behind it. "<A child? Wait... she's not one of those humans, what is she?>" he said once he saw she was a child and also that she was a fur.
"<She looks like us.>" the black furred one said as he walked up to her; slinging the plasma rifle over his shoulder.
Aurora looked up at this person who was walking up to her. She could tell that this person was indeed a person by the intellect in his eyes and the fact that all of them had communicated with each other and held advanced weapons. He looked like a black furred wolf just like her father but instead of having blue eyes he had golden colored eyes yet had no hair on his head and that the lower half of his body was that of an animals.
Unknown to her was that he was of the Toraani; a race of peoples that closely resemble the fur population of Earth and colonial worlds except for one major difference. All Toraani are similar to the old mythological creatures known as centaurs. Though a few minor differences of the Toraani include having unnatural; for humans and furs, eye colors as well as having two tails.
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The Toraani of the planet Toraan are technologically advanced peoples that were discovered one hundred and sixty years ago by human explorers when the A.T.W.F (Allied Trade Worlds Federation) was known as the U.S.E.D (United Species Earth Directorate). It was discovered that there were many species of Toraani each with a specific name that all talked in different languages and that they had created a translator that would translate what someone said into the language of the user; after hearing the other language in detail. Though members of different species closely related to another spoke very similar languages; an example of this would be wolves and foxes.
Talks went on with the Toraani on their vessel; that nearly collided with a deep space exploration vessel, for several months before it was decided that they would not trade or be a part of the U.S.E.D. They decided that it would be best to wait till they had advanced further in technology before venturing back out into what they believed to be human territory; only having encountered humans and not furs during the first contact they had with each other... all to the humans understanding. This was the first time the Toraani have been seen since then.
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The Toraani before her was a member of the species that resemble wolves in the fur population. The only clothing he wore was on his upper torso and it looked like a form of protective armor. Around his waist where his upper torso met with his lower torso was a belt with a few mechanical devices on it; including a sidearm of some kind. He had some sort of energy rifle; that fired the plasma bolts, slung across his back.
He was wearing some sort of shin guards on his front legs but nothing on the back legs. His lower torso seemed like it was nothing but muscle; but in fact held most of the major organs including the lungs, heart, stomach and intestines as well as others. All Toraani have two sets of lungs and hearts though; there was a second set of lungs used primarily for talking in the upper torso and another heart there as well that worked in time with the larger heart in the lower torso. All of the Toraani were dressed and built similarly to him except for one who wasn't entirely like the rest and mostly resembled a fox.
She was right behind the black wolf and walked up next to him. She was wearing a similar armor only it was white with a red cross on the shoulder (how universal). If anything her build was more athletic than muscular, her fur color was primarily red with white fur running down her chest, stomach and continued between both sets of her lower legs. Unlike the male wolftaurs she had short cut dark brown head hair with her irises being nearly white in color; but she was not blind, and was wearing a helmet over her head.
She looked at Aurora with curiosity as the wolftaurs; which the rest of the team here was made up of, talked. Just then they all heard someone scream out in agony and pain just before another small explosion happened on the crashed ship.
"<What was that?>" another wolftaur; a gray and white one, asked.
"<Probably another person who was still on board... most likely dead now.>" the red wolftaur said uncaringly as the others took a look at Aurora.
Aurora was shaking from fear. She had no idea who these people were let alone what they were. She couldn't understand what they were saying which scared her even more. For all she knew they were talking about ways to kill her and with them all staring at her she didn't feel safe.
"<She looks like us but stands like...>" another member of the team was saying before adding with noticeable disgust "<Like those humans.>"
"<Yes that's true, let's capture her.>" The red wolftaur said and reached out to grab her.
Aurora screamed "No... help!" as he grabbed her by the pajama top she was wearing and lifted her off the ground. She was kicking and trying to get him to let go of her but had no success. The black wolftaur looked at him and was about to say something when he was interrupted by someone.
"LET HER GO!" Rrahkarr yelled; with a fury that even Severo didn't possess, from the hole in the ship as he quickly jumped down and dashed towards the red wolftaur.
"<Look out!>" the vixentaur yelled and pointed to Rrahkarr as he jumped from the ship.
"<He's attacking!>" one of the other wolftaurs yelled as he charged them.
His speed surprised all of the taurs there but so did the fact that he was missing his right arm and that blood was dripping from where he had tried to cover the wound. Rrahkarr was already at the wolftaur holding Aurora before any of the others could do anything; his eyes emanating an eerie blue glow, and even though badly injured he still swung his left fist towards the wolftaur. He put all of his strength into that punch and landed it squarely on the side of the wolftaurs face.
The punch had so much power behind it that it caused the wolftaurs head to spin and twist so fast that his neck snapped as he dropped Aurora. Still moving at those incredible speeds Rrahkarr grabbed Aurora out of mid air before jumping back. He looked at the several taurs that had started moving and noticed one disappear completely.
He heard the black wolftaur yell "<Wait!>" in a language he didn't understand just before he felt an incredible pain come from the back of his head.
Rrahkarr dropped Aurora as he fell to his knees; his eyes wide and feeling like he lost control of his body. The moment he was hit his vision split and he saw double before it returned to normal but by then he had already fallen to his knees. The sun in the sky was behind him and he noticed the shadow of the person behind him as well. He couldn't comprehend what had just happened; one of them had managed to get behind him and attack him without him even knowing it.
He noticed the shadow's arm rise with something in it and was about to strike just as the black wolftaur materialized out of nowhere next to him; almost as if he had teleported to the spot, and stopped the one behind him as he said "<Stop! Don't kill him!>"
Rrahkarr lost balance and fell backwards onto his back as his vision started to fade. Aurora had quickly scrambled up to his side and was crying. She screamed "No d-daddy, don't d-die!" in between sobs.
Rrahkarr felt cold and couldn't move any part of his body, the back of his head felt wet as well. Though his vision was fading he still noticed several of these beings gathering near him. He noticed another who looked like a medic of some kind; judging by the color of her armor and the red cross on her shoulder, next to him but instead of looking like a wolf she looked like fox. They were talking but he couldn't understand a word of what they were saying.
"<He looks similar to me.>" the black wolftaur said and cocked his head to the side "<She looks a lot like him, maybe he's her father?>" the wolftaur added before asking the vixentaur "<Mel' Kilran... will he be alright?>"
She did a quick analysis of him "< I don't know Kiaar' Vyain, he's in bad shape and has lost a lot of blood and his head is split open...>" she said then felt his pulse and her eyes widened in surprise as she added "<His heart is failing!>"
His vision went black for a moment before returning, but everything looked fuzzy. By the feeling he got from the back of his head he figured his skull had been split open but he wasn't sure, he wasn't a doctor. Rrahkarr looked up into the eyes of his crying daughter; her amethyst colored eyes sparkling from the sunlight and the tears flowing down her cheeks.
"So... beautiful." Rrahkarr said incoherently about her eyes.
"<If you want him to have a chance, we need to get him to our ship and into one of the medical tanks!>" Mel' Kilran the vixentaur said.
"<Fine we take them with us.>" Kiaar' Vyain the black wolftaur said after sighing before signaling the others to get them.
"Don't you dare touch them!" Nerah yelled but couldn't do anything.
"<This things still alive! What do you want us to do with it Kiaar' Vyain?>" one of the other wolftaurs asked.
"<Take it as well... I guess. Maybe we can get some useful data out of it.>" he responded as a couple of them picked up the damaged robot that Nerah was in.
"Am... I really going to... to die? I find out you're really alive bro and... and I'm about to die... life is such a bitch..." was Rrahkarr's last coherent thought before everything went black as he slipped into a black void.
"<Hurry! We're not in range of the transporter, I hope we make it in time...>"
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March 23, 2342 - Planet Falora, Colony New Hope, Hospital (Five Months Ago (3:30PM))
Falora, a planet recently named and colonized about five years ago. It is one of the last colonial worlds that had yet to be ravaged by the war between the A.T.W.F and the I.F.H.W. Anyone who was lucky managed to flee the incoming Humanitist forces and fleets led by the Freelancer Outcasts and fled to Falora; causing it to grow exponentially, and other areas of space still held by the Federation forces of the A.T.W.F.
The Colony formed here was without a name for a year but was named New Hope; by those who fled the occupying Humanitists, and the military that survived that made it to Falora. It is now home to about one million colonists and about thirty million refugees.
The New Hope Hospital on Falora had been quickly built and changed into a military medical center to deal with injuries and survivors of away team missions from the planet Daminia; the only other habitable world in this solar system. It was the same world that the former I.S.F Darwin now C.S.F Darwin had lost one of its transports and its best team onboard at.
The wildlife and environment were so hostile that many people were badly injured just surveying the planet for a good area to build an advanced base of operations on for the war that the A.T.W.F was losing. The C.S.F Darwin was put in charge of overseeing all operations on the planet Daminia and defending this sector of A.T.W.F space. All those who were injured on Daminia and those injured in battle against the I.F.H.W who were close enough to Falora were brought to the New Hope Hospital for treatment.
Lucky for those who were building the Hospital that there were several well trained and highly experienced Doctors living on Falora. They were all roped into working there but they went willingly because they knew they had to do their part in this war. One of these Doctors previously served on the I.S.F Darwin several years ago before the war turned for the worse, her name was Sara Morris.
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"Why do I have t-t-to wait here mommy? I d-don't like waiting h-here." Aurora said to her mother Sara.
"Because baby, this is where mommy works... and I couldn't get aunt Maya to babysit you today." Sara said as she kneeled down to speak with Aurora in the daycare center.
Aurora crossed her arms and started pouting so Sara said "You know your birthday is coming up." which calmed Aurora down as Sara continued "If you can be a good girl for just a couple more weeks you'll get a big present."
Wide eyed Aurora said in an excited voice "Really!?"
Sara smiled and said "Yes really, but you have to be a good girl and don't complain until it's your birthday okay?"
"Okay!" Aurora said and Sara tousled her hair before kissing her on the cheek.
"Paging Doctor S. Morris, Doctor S. Morris to OR two stat!" someone said over the PA speakers.
"Great, I'm on break" Sara said before sighing "Well they wouldn't have called over the PA's if it wasn't an emergency... I have to go sweetie." Sara added and said to Aurora who looked sad at first then smiled.
"Okay mommy, I l-love you." She said as Sara kneeled down and hugged Aurora then looked at her with her emerald colored eyes.
"Love you too baby." Sara said and rushed off to OR two.
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Sara walked into Operating Room two after scrubbing down and asked "Is it another solder?"
Her answer was a nurse being thrown across the room and nearly colliding with her. She looked at where the nurse was thrown from and noticed several nurses and another doctor trying to restrain a patient who was on the operating table. She witnessed another nurse get grabbed by the shirt by a white furred arm before being easily thrown across the room.
"Doctor Morris!" another nurse said from behind her.
"What's going on?" She asked.
"This patient was brought in with an energy round chest wound. The only reason he's not dead was because the energy rifles energy pack level was low. When he was first brought in he seemed calm but then once we got him on the table he started throwing nurses like it was nothing." The nurse said.
"The sedatives aren't working!" one of the nurses near the patient yelled.
"That too, nothing seems to work on him." The nurse added.
"We've used enough to kill him! Why isn't he out?" A doctor yelled just before being grabbed by the scrubs he was wearing and brought down into the face of a white wolf as his head rose out of the pile trying to hold him down.
"I said get the hell off of ME!" the white wolf yelled before throwing the doctor through one of the walls. Several nurses went to help the doctor; including the one who was speaking with Sara, who went flying and helped him into another room. The wolf had long white hair that covered the most of his face but after throwing the man he spun his head; causing his hair to move out of the way, and looked right at Sara briefly before trying to push off more of the people around him.
Sara managed to get a good look at his face; considering he looked right at her after throwing the man. Her eyes went wide as she saw who it was on the table. His eyes were red meaning he was an albino but there was also a golden circle around his irises that glowed. With the strength he showed and the immunity to the sedatives and the fact that his face was almost the same Sara knew right away who he was and yelled out in surprise and confusion "Lliam!?" before rushing over to the table and pushing a couple nurses out of the way.
Upon hearing his name Lliam looked back at the black and white vixen as she ran up to and pushed a few of the nurse away from him before being able to get a good look at him. He had a hole the size of a tennis ball in his chest almost right on top of where his heart was. It had been properly covered and managed to keep him from bleeding out. Once he was brought in they removed the bandage that covered the wound which caused it to start bleeding right away. With the way he was keeping the doctors and nurses from helping him he only had a twenty percent chance of living.
Sara knew that he was in grave danger; even with his healing abilities, and started to yell and tell most of the nurses and doctors to leave because he was still in a feral like state and would only hurt everyone there trying to help him. Lliam was still wondering how this vixen knew his name until it finally clicked and his eyes lit up in recognition and lost the glow coming from his irises.
"...Sara?" Lliam asked; calming down and starting to get drowsy.
"Yes it's me Lliam... you have to let us operate, this wound is too close to your heart and you're losing too much blood." Sara said to him then quickly told a couple of the nurses who remained to get ready to operate.
"It's good to... see you... again." Lliam said; his eyes growing heavy.
"He's passing out! Get the other doctors in here stat; this is going to take a while." Sara said as Lliam passed out but now that he had his chances of survival shot up to eighty percent... all because now they could operate on him.
"How in the world is he alive, and how did he get here?" Sara thought as the operation began.