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With darkness descending: The story of Triss Nighthunter. A furry fiction by Rocko Wallaby

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 4: Mission.

Two weeks later, with Travers nursing an aching head from the deep neural training equipment, the two sat in the comm centre and discussed their next move. Trav had called his own precinct, scoring several weeks leave to "recover" from the ordeal he had suffered earlier. While not happy, following a call from locals concerned at the sound of gunfire, his colleagues had attended the scene following their flight, and had been witness to the bodies present, as well as the pool of blood from his head wound. It wasn't especially difficult for him to arrange some time off as, with Triss' help and that of the cache computers, they had arranged for the appropriate medical records of his injuries to be "inserted" into the local hospitals files. When he attended the precinct, head bandaged appropriately, to report on both the incident and his current condition, the grilling out he received matched that received by Triss, for his stupidity in attending the scene alone and not calling for backup sooner. The gang members who weren't killed had escaped the scene, although the police had managed to confiscate the weapons which had not been relocated by the time they arrived. So, the partial win in Travers favour saved his bacon.

The marauders had kept their public activity quiet since the raid, giving Triss time to sort out the "human problem" in the cache. With Trav now filled in on the basics of the operation, they began discussing their next move.

"While my killing of the sector head may buy us some time, once they get their ruffles up, they're like a swarm of angry Kn'aak. They're going to be hunting me for months. So, you being on the team will give us a numbers advantage, as well as upping the element of surprise. Prior to my last target being eliminated, there was a marked increase in Marauder activity around the dock area, where HQ feels they have set up a local chemical manufacturing facility. It's believed their intention is to gain the equipment and materials needed to commence manufacture of the biological agents they plan to use to wipe out the planet prior to colonisation. As you can gather," he said, with a wry grin at Trav, "it will be crucial to stop them doing so"

Trav frowned, pointing at the blueprints scattered across the comm room table, singling out the waterfront building they were planning to stake out with a thick finger. "This place is pretty heavily secured. Look at the entry points. Not one, but two levels of entry. Gain access through the outer door, only to hit the second set."

He pointed to the rooms adjacent to the entries. "These are unusual, too. See how the walls between these rooms and the entry corridor are concrete reinforced? Why would they do that? Unless it's not actually a hallway, but a staging area to repel attackers? Hmm, imagine getting through the first set of doors, only to see them shut behind you, and then be ambushed by a bunch of Marauders rushing out from those rooms? Just like the concept of a barbican used in medieval castle design. Not pleasant."

Tris followed his finger as it traced the diagram, and pursed his lip in thought. Given it left his tongue hanging half out his mouth, Trav almost chuckled in amusement, but managed to hold back and keep the atmosphere appropriately sombre.

"So, how do you suggest we tackle this?" Trav asked. Triss pulled his gaze away from the maps for a moment, before pointing at the elevation view of the building. "Enter via the roof", he said. Trav looked puzzled. With no external stair case, and quiet entry the priority, how were they going to get up there without a helicopter?

Triss gestured for Trav to follow him, leaving the comm room and moving down the main hallway towards the armoury. Trav had explored the area earlier, with his new found knowledge of alien technology, gazing in awe at the equipment on display. While his electronic training had covered most critical areas, much of the gear on display was still unfathomable to him. When Triss lead him to some hard shelled backpacks hanging on the far wall, he wondered how they might be useful, until Triss activated one. Jet nozzles sprang from the sides, and the unit began hovering in front of them. This was the AG unit mentioned in his briefing, and was certainly one way to access the roof.

"Hope you're cool with heights" Triss asked him.

"Only from an aircraft" he replied.

Triss chuckled, and began pointing out the various controls. "Right joystick for direction; forward, backward, left, right. Left hand throttle grip for elevation and speed. Latest tech, light weight, and good for six hours continuous flight. A bit of practice in the simulator, and you'll be flying like a pro"

Trav looked at the gear doubtfully. "Just so long as I'm not a splattered, ground pancake pro"

His grin widening, Triss said "Well, no one has died using one of these units in years. They're almost foolproof!"

Almost, Trav thought to himself?

Oh well. It could have been worse.

Could have been twenty flights of stairs!

__________________________________________________________

They planned the raid on the Marauder facility for the following night. Trav came up to speed on the anti grav pack sim, crashing significantly less than he feared. As he had been told, the unit was relatively foolproof, and the internal stabilisers could only be overwritten by severe movements of the control yokes. As well as the backpacks, they hung various weapons from their harnesses, including several particle beam rifles not normally used outside the cache. As Triss had said to him earlier, "This is going to be no evening jaunt in the park. We need to scrub their operation in a single hit, or they'll be all over us like Synervian flu. We stick to the plan, and we're out of there in less than five minutes. If we don't, we're Ta'aka meat."

The plan was relatively straightforward. If they followed the same format they had in similar installations, the Marauders would have a central lab facility surrounded by multiple layers of security. To get to the heart of the complex would normally mean gaining entrance through the booby trapped front door, fighting through line after line of infantry, completing the mission, before shooting your way out. This would be impossible for just the two of them. Instead, they planned on a rooftop rendezvous, cutting through the ceiling, and dealing with the facility from above, before exiting the way they came. The warehouse had a double skinned roof for insulation, with a two meter gap between the layers. Enough space to move through judiciously to complete their objectives. A nice, simple plan requiring minimal preparation.

It was midnight when they converged on the river bank on the opposite shore from their goal. Pulling up his van in the empty lot of a riverside park, they donned their camo units, rigged their gear, and rose into the night sky towards their target. Thankfully, while the cloud cover was heavy and rain threatened, the sky above them remained clear of it. Tracking across the river thirty feet above the choppy water below, they approached the warehouse district in silence. Some areas in the docks were brightly lit, with the busy scurrying and bustle of cargo being unloaded and shipped out. However, their target remained shrouded in darkness.

The experience of near silent flight was inexplicably pleasurable for Trav, who overcame his height related nerves within a few minutes. While the training he'd undertaken had given him the skills needed to use the unit, the reality of actually being there and experiencing the cold air rushing past was exhilarating. From that point, it was pure enjoyment of the rush of cold air, and sounds reflecting from the water beneath.

Once they were within clear view of the far shoreline, they increased altitude to five hundred feet, before crossing the edge of the docks and rising over the warehouse complex. Their initial goal was a building around half a mile from their target, where they landed on the roof behind several cooling units. Divesting themselves of their unnecessary gear, including the bulk of their medical kits, they quickly set up a small area from which to conduct their raid. Triss assembled their combat equipment, passing a particle rifle to Trav, who then used the cover of the cooling tower to scope their target. While externally appearing no different from a normal rifle used by the local military, it contained several significant enhancements, including advanced scopes and significantly increased accuracy and range. In particular, the scope featured enhanced AI targeting systems, allowing a sniper to pick specific areas on a target, such as their head or neck, which normally could be too difficult to strike from a greater distance.

From his vantage point, using the scope to scan the rooftop opposite, Trav noted the position of several Marauders patrolling the area. He had been briefed by both Triss and the cache's systems of their combat abilities, both with and without weapons. His own personal training in the police force had covered many contingencies, but tackling something with claws and teeth was new for him. The cache had filled in the blanks, providing him with further training in the sim to hone up his skills.

Picking his first target, he waited for Triss to complete his preparation. Receiving a nod to begin, he took careful aim at one of the dark silhouettes on the adjacent rooftop, before squeezing the trigger. With the enhanced accuracy of the weapon, he shot the first Marauder in the head, then quickly took out the second and third. All three dropped silently, before having any opportunity to sound an alarm.

Trav and Triss spent several tense minutes in wait, before confirming that the coast was clear. Their hop across to the target building was uneventful, and they dropped to the rooftop silently, before checking the Marauders were permanently down.

Picking up a communications unit from one corpse, Triss plugged it into his comm system, where the inherent AI cracked the Marauders encryption, before encoding itself into their matrix. Within seconds, the harsh, guttural language of the Marauders could be heard across the comm. Translated for Trav's benefit, they began to form an understanding of the setup inside the warehouse, based on the information they were receiving.

While Trav had heard recordings of the language, the coarseness of the Marauders speech hit him hard. While still dulled in translation, it was clear they worked on a hierarchy system, with guttural orders being followed without question. Efficient in some ways, it still left the marauders open to covert attack, as their mindset found it difficult to handle such duplicity. Their very nature was to follow orders without question, regardless the source, and the common foot soldier could be duped into actions others would not consider, simply by passing on the appropriate commands in their language. In addition, while on patrol, it was the norm to only report back if suspicious activity was encountered, so Trav and Triss were unlikely to be disturbed until such time as the guards were due for changing.

With the three rooftop sentries dealt with, they confirmed that the cavity section beneath was not patrolled, although the stairwell leading down from the roof was heavily guarded. Not unsurprising, given their operations in the building. Trav left his rifle leaning against the railing at the roof edge, before assisting Triss in setting up the cutting equipment they were to use to enter the cavity proper. The compact laser emitted an energy wave beyond the visible spectrum that could be detected by the enemy. Flicking his visor sensors beyond the UV wavelength, Trav could just faintly make out the intense energy being released by the unit, and was grateful for the protective clothing he wore, that prevented his skin crisping under the onslaught of the cutter. It took only a few moments to cut a large enough opening through the sheeting to give them access.

During their mission planning, they had decided to keep the anti grav units on throughout the operation, as they may have been needed for a quick escape once their goal had been achieved. While bulky, they were surprisingly light, and offered little restriction of movement to the wearer. However, they operated poorly in confined spaces, receiving interference from close objects. Triss set up a lightweight, yet strong, pyramidal frame over the opening, attaching monofilament cables to the chest plate of both of their body armour. Lowering themselves into the opening, they descended to the inner roof trusses, careful to keep their weight solely on the structural support of the roof trusses, and off the roof lining itself. Bending down, Trav removed a self-drilling optic fibre camera from his belt clip, pressing it to the roof lining firmly. It began silently boring a small hole through the panel beneath, sucking the debris it produced into its internal holding tank and ensuring nothing dropped into the space below. Within seconds, high resolution images of the area beneath were being projected into their visor optical displays.

Their initial impression of the main floor setup was of organized chaos, with marauder workers scurrying throughout the mess of equipment below. Long conveyor belts transported various components throughout the area, stainless pipes relayed fluids from large tanks lining the walls, and an immense glass window on the far wall gave a view into the main laboratory itself, where scientists in sealed hazmat suits were busy breeding their lethal biological agents.

Triss had briefed Trav on the various bio weapons used by the Marauders. The most commonly used technique utilised a DNA specific pathogen, which mimicked the hosts own biology, replicating and spreading throughout the system before breaking down into toxic sub elements. The host had no inkling of any negative effects before their brief, and painful, demise through total internal systems failure. Not a pleasant way to go, Trav had thought, after wincing through videos showing the bloody processes such victims experienced.

These weapons needed careful handling, and Triss had repeatedly emphasised to Trav the importance of taking extreme care during the raid, in not accidentally releasing the pathogens into the environment prematurely. They tended to be robust organisms, able to spend considerable time outside a host before eventually dying. This made their raid somewhat risky. However, as a weapon, they had one significant flaw; even a relatively small elevation in ambient temperature would destroy them completely. Simply blowing up the facility was not an option, as it could disperse the deadly pathogens early, but immolating them with fire would contain and destroy them, even if the contagion had been spread nearby. It would also have the secondary effect of destroying all traces of the Marauder presence, ensuring local government agents did not find themselves with access to vital alien technology.

Their plan was to distribute incendiary bombs in a grid throughout the roof cavity area, before setting the devices off remotely. The internal ceiling would then be blown inwards, releasing a fireball throughout the warehouse, and destroying the bio weapons and alien tech in a controlled manner. All fine on paper, of course. However, without a detailed schematic of the warehouse modification, it carried a significant element of risk.

Triss beamed back the video feed of the factory floor to the cache's AI system, which quickly formulated a plan for placement of their available explosives in the most efficient manner. This was then forwarded to Trav and Triss, who silently began moving throughout the huge cavity area, locating the bombs where indicated.

They had a momentary scare when Trav slipped from a support frame, dropping one of the casings onto the cavity floor below. They froze, while Triss used the camera feed to scan the room below. One Marauder worker, more alert than the others, briefly raised a cowled gaze towards the ceiling in confusion. When no source of the disturbance was immediately found, he shifted his attention back to the equipment he was operating.

Triss gave a thumbs up, while Trav shakily retrieved the casing, securing it to the roof support where indicated on his monitor. It took a long thirty minutes to attach all the explosives, but they met no resistance, returning to the hole cut in the roof without encountering any further problems. Once on the roof, Trav breathed a huge sigh of relief, before being clapped on the shoulder by the grinning Krynn.

"Not out of the woods yet, buddy!", Triss said quietly, handing Trav back his rifle. "When we're home and safe, you can relax. Till then, let's get the flying fuck out of here!"

Trav nodded, clipping the rifle to his harness, before activating his anti grav unit, and following Triss to their original drop point half a mile away.

Triss solemnly handed Trav the triggering unit, giving the human a short bow in acknowledgement of their accomplishment. "I think you deserve the honour of this one", he said, before returning his intent gaze to the distant building. Trav hesitated a moment before flipping the protective guard from above the trigger.

"Fire in the hold, mother fuckers!" he whispered, and pressed the button.

Within the cavity of the ceiling, the red indicator lights on the incendiary charge casings blinked momentarily, before all turning green. Simultaneously releasing a cascade of fireballs through the roofing cavity, the internal ceiling collapsed violently into the work area below, filling the room with fiery death and killing those inside immediately. The workers in the hazard room had a few extra moments to ponder their fate, some running frantically towards the rear exit in a vain attempt to escape, before the glass containment walls shattered inwards, and they were immolated in the fireball. The temperature rose to a thousand degrees in the enclosed space within the factory walls, destroying all traces of the bio agent and turning the equipment inside into sludge, before the external warehouse walls could no longer contain the conflagration within, exploded outwards and showering debris across a huge area.

From their vantage point, Trav watched the drama unfold with troubled eyes, before receiving another clap on the shoulder from the Krynn, who was eyeing him curiously. He gave a shrug in reply, before returning his gaze to the fiery devastation he had helped cause. Some time later, when the roof finally collapsed into the structure, he turned away and began following Triss's retreating form across the water towards their waiting vehicle.

---

Trav took a long swig of his latest beer, after touching his bottle to Triss's. Once they had returned to the cache and returned their equipment to store, Trav made his way to the locker room, where he shrugged out of his clothes and turned on the water in the shower. Stepping into the flowing water, he lowered his head under the stream, supporting himself against the shower wall opposite, and considering his actions that day. He knew why they had had to do what they'd done. The Marauders were planning genocide of his species. That was incontrovertible. But the fact he'd been responsible for so many deaths still sat hard with him. He felt "unclean", and no amount of washing would help it. His entire life as a police officer had involved protecting people, including from the sorts of events he had just helped set in motion that evening. In doing so, his actions went against everything he believed in.

After nearly an hour had passed, Triss poked his head into the shower cubicle, eyeing the soaking, naked human with some concern.

"You OK?" he asked, worry written across his furred face.

"Yeah" Trav replied quietly, finally turning off the stream of water, and reaching for a towel.

Triss studied him for a few moments, before quietly closing the door and returning to the kitchen. He knew what the human was feeling, having experienced something similar himself after his first mission. Admittedly, in his case, the pain of losing everything dear to him made the adaption easier, but there was no dishonour in experiencing disquiet after such an operation. In a "civilised" universe, it wasn't always civilised action that kept the peace. Often someone had to take steps, however drastic, and then had to deal with the consequences.

He opened the pantry doors, removing several packets of food, which he placed on the bench top. These were followed by other items from the cold room. He began preparing something to eat, using the cooking facilities in the small kitchen to their best advantage. While the food was simmering, he returned to the pantry, returning with a carton of beer, which he opened and began to stack into the chiller. It could be a long night, he thought to himself. Best be prepared.

When Trav eventually made his entry, looking somewhat pale and wan in the artificial light of the dining area, Triss passed him the plate of chicken stir fry he'd prepared, along with a cold brew, before settling down to his own dinner. Trav downed the beer in one hit, gazing at the condensation dripping down the bottle, before tossing the empty into the recycling receptacle. Reaching for a second, he took another long pull, before returning to toy with his meal with a listless fork.

Unsurprisingly, he wasn't that hungry. If anything, the rich food smell made him feel nauseous.

The night passed almost silently, with the two sharing little in the way of conversation. Trav continued to drink heavily, matched by Triss, until the two were fairly well tanked.

"We had no choice, did we?" Trav slurred, before burying his face in his hands on the table.

Triss sighed, before moving drunkenly around the table, and sitting next to the human. Throwing an arm around his shoulders, he gave him a squeeze, before helping him to his feet, and guiding him from the room. Trav staggered down the short corridor under the Krynn's guiding hand, before pausing at the lavatory to throw up noisily into the receptacle. Triss drew him up again, wiping his face gently with a soft towel, and helping him into the bedroom. Trav dropped heavily onto the sheets, snoring loudly, while Triss removed his shoes and clothes, and drew the sheets over him.

"You did good work today, human" he whispered into the darkness, before turning from the bed. However, as he began to leave the room, pausing to turn off the light, a voice behind him murmured quietly.

"Stay", it slurred, "Stay here tonight..."

Triss gazed down at him from the door way, hand paused indecisively on the handle. He then dropped his head and sighed, shutting his eyes for a brief moment, before returning to the room and closing the door gently behind him.

Continued in Chapter 5: Aftermath.