Slowly across the field she moved, her feet barely brushing the grass as she made her way from shadow to shadow. Her rifle was slung across her back, its comfortable weight sitting confidently on her shoulders from the long leather strap. Stars lit the sky, but Crawler stopped for a moment as a streak of unexpected lighting went across the sky, illuminating the field.
She pressed her body against the trunk of the tree she stood by, hoping the flash did not show her to anyone who might be watching out their window at the coming thunderstorm. Where the storm had suddenly come from she didn't know. There were no clouds in the sky for her to see. If it weren't the middle of winter, she would have passed it off as heat lightning.
Then the thunder sounded, and Crawler took off running to the doorway. She let the rumbling sound cover any noise that she might have made in her mad dash. She reached it just before another streak of lightning lit the sky, and the metal canisters that blocked the doorway from view safely hid her as well.
She knelt in front of the door and examined the lock. A smile came to her face as she reached into her pocket. Soon her fingers grasped the tool she wanted, a slender metal pick. She placed the pick into the door keyhold, then looked up at the sky. She waited, silently counting to herself as she waited for…
Thunder. She pressed the button on the pick and it hummed in her hand. The fading rumble blocked the noise, quiet as it was, from any listening devices. It also covered the low -click- as the door opened slightly. With haste, she slid inside and shut the door behind her. As it closed, another streak of lightning lit the interior of the factory, letting Crawler get her first view of the shield component before getting lost in the darkness.
Her eyes adjusted to the darkness rather quickly. Still, as she replaced the pick in her pocket, she grabbed a tiny glow rod and turned it on. Playing the light over the component, she found herself shocked at the size of it.
Thinking that the component had to be a large item, the tiny device sitting on the table made her take a step back for a moment. They needed a train to transport this tiny thing? Crawler thought to herself. She approached it slowly, the lightning and now the sound of tiny raindrops on the metal roof accompanying her as she walked.
It was maybe as long as her arm and only a foot or so high. It had a matte black color, blending as well into the shadows as Crawler could. Walking around the table, she examined it from all sides, looking for a trap, something that would prevent her from picking the component up and walking out the door with it.
Seeing nothing, she reached out and lifted the object. As she did so, another streak of lightning lit the room, and Crawler set the object down. Not only had the light blinded her for a moment, but the device was way too heavy for her to carry. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny comlink and held it to her mouth. "Crawler calling Professor. Acknowledge."
Cim woke up to a tiny buzzing noise from the desk in which he sat at. Looking up, he saw that the pressure sensor under the shield component was blinking, indicating that the object had been moved. Another sensor showed that it was still present, its weight measurement matching the component's weight exactly.
Sitting back in his seat, Cim figured that there might have been a stray animal in the room and had bumped into the table. After all, squirrels and stray cats were in abundance in this forest. However, something clicked in his mind, and he punched up the camera display. He scanned the camera around the room but didn't see anything.
Lightning flashed across the screen, and a tiny reflection caught Cim's eye. Curious, he zoomed the camera in on the reflection, then sat back with a satisfied grin on his face.
There, on camera, was Crawler talking into a tiny white cylinder, the faint light from the glow rod highlighting the curves of her face.
Lonsse walked into the room, two cups of coffee in his hands. <What's wrong?> He asked in Arabic, seeing that Cim was agitated.
Cim pointed to the screen with a sneer on his face. <I warned Rouddim not to be fooled. Now look. >
<Want me to wake him? Let him deal with this? >
<Wake him, but I will go down and deal with her first. > Cim reached into the desk drawer and pulled out a handgun. He stood and left Lonsse in the room, his cup of coffee left untouched on the desk.
"Open the control panel. Tell me what you see."
Crawler hooked the comlink to her collar and opened the tiny panel in front of her. Two computer circuit trays waited there, green flat surfaces with silver solder holding crisscrossing wires in place. "Two trays. Which one?"
"Top first. Remove it."
Crawler did as she was told by the voice on the other end of the comlink. Carefully she jiggled the tray out of place and pulled it from the device. "Got it."
"There should be a tiny microchip towards the center. Detach it and hide it on yourself."
Crawler stuck her glow rod in her mouth and used her free hand to remove the chip. Unzipping her flightsuit a bit, she hid the chip in her hidden inner pocket.
"What was that?" the voice asked.
"Ziffer," Crawler said around the glow rod still in her mouth.
"Pardon?"
Crawler zipped her flightsuit up and took the glow rod from her mouth. "Zipper. Ok, it's secure. What next?"
"Replace the first tray and pull out the second." Crawler did so. "Now, you have to do a little bit of work on this. Look around for a blue wire that is connected to two red ones."
Crawler held the glow rod to the tray and flipped it around in her hands. "I'm not seeing anything like that," she muttered, then stopped. Her eyes darted around the room. "Someone's here."
"What?"
Before Crawler could reply, a gunshot sounded in the room, and the bullet tinged off a metal support rod near her head. "Sith!" she shouted and instantly ducked, dropping the computer tray. She did a backwards shoulder roll across the floor until she was hidden behind a pile of crates. She pulled the rifle from her back and lined it up to shoot into the room.
"Crawler, report!" the voice on the comlink ordered. However, the comlink was still near the component. Before she could figure out how to get back there and get it, the heel of a black combat boot crushed down onto it, smashing the device into a pile of electronic scrap and sparks.
"I knew you were not right," Cim spoke in his rough English. "I told Rouddim not to trust you."
"Good to know at least not all of you are fools then," Crawler spoke from behind her rifle.
"Come out from back there and I will not kill you," Cim said.
"Make me."
The two of them stared at each other from over their guns. Neither moved, both fingers on the triggers of their respected weapons. A bead of sweat went slowly down Crawler's face, starting from her hairline to the tip of her nose. She ignored it though, her blue eyes locked on Cim's brown. Not blinking, not turning their gaze off one another for even a second. The first one to act would be the only one if the other's attention were diverted. Waiting for the right moment to act, to move… the right moment to shoot.
Thunder. Cim squeezed the trigger and in an instant Crawler was on the move. Even as the bullet tore harmlessly through the sleeve of her flightsuit, she jumped over the crates and at Cim, knocking him to the floor. His gun was knocked away as Crawler sat on top of Cim, slamming her fist down at his face. He, however, kicked her aside, rolled out of the way and jumped to his feet.
Her rifle forgotten on the floor, Crawler got into a fighting stance across from Cim. Lightning filled the room and the downpour of the rain was the background for their fight. Crawler's fist lashed out, being blocked by Cim as he twisted away, bringing his left foot up to kick at her stomach. Before it could connect, though, Crawler grabbed his leg, twisted it around, and pushed, making Cim hop back a few steps.
"Kalb!" Cim cursed in Arabic, then he charged at Crawler, his arms in a whirl of motion. He feinted at her stomach, and as Crawler went to block it, he reversed his direction and let his fist go straight across her face. Crawler stumbled back, a hand going to her nose. She pulled it back, and another flash of lightning revealed the red blood on her hand.
"Is that the best you could do?" Crawler sneered. She ducked as Cim swung again, and instead of retreating, she stepped into his movement and brought a fist up into his gut. The Arab bent over, and Crawler leaned over into his ear. "This is how you hurt someone."
She stepped away and brought her knee up into Cim's face. His head snapped backwards and the sound of jaw bones cracking was heard barely over the rain. He shook his head and focused on Crawler, hatred filling his eyes.
As another rumble of thunder filled the room, Cim shouted in anger and rushed at Crawler. Crawler sidestepped out of the way, but Cim spun on his heal and lashed out with his foot, catching her across her back. Crawler took a stumbling step forward. She heard Cim moving towards her and kicked out backwards. Cim jumped to the side, then swung his fist across the air. Crawler ducked and rolled across the floor, getting distance away from him.
"Why don't you just stand still!" Cim shouted.
"That'd be too easy." Crawler replied, taking a step forward. She did a quick roundhouse kick and snapped Cim's head to the side as her heel connected to his already broken jaw. Cim fell to the floor, and Crawler walked over to where he was coughing, held up on his hands and knees. Crinkling her nose, Crawler kicked him in his ribs, and the man fell to his side, curled up in a ball.
She stared down at him for only a moment, then ran and grabbed her rifle off the floor. She didn't move back to the component, nor the broken comlink. Instead, she ran to the door and threw it open, preparing for a long run to the next town.
She stopped short as something hard connected to her stomach, making her double over in pain. She looked up and saw Rouddim standing there, snarling. A flash of lightning streaked through the sky behind him, the loud crackle of thunder following almost instantaneously. The storm was at its peak.
"You lying kalb," Rouddim growled, and he slapped Crawler straight across her face. Out of breath and pained from the rib Rouddim had broken, Crawler tried to turn and run, but Lonsse stood behind her and grabbed her arm. He wrapped his arms around hers, binding her body to his, making her face Rouddim again.
Quickly, she kicked backwards at Lonsse, and the man growled in pain as she connected to his thigh. He twisted her around, grabbed her arm and tossed her back into the factory. Unable to control her flight, Crawler flew into the pile of crates that had been her protection just moments ago. A few of them broke from the contact, and she felt splinters dig into her back and side.
A bit woozy, Crawler struggled to her feet. Then pain went through her body as Lonsse grabbed her by her hair and pulled her head back hard. A blade was pressed against her throat. "What did you think you were doing?" Rouddim asked as he watched Lonsse press the blade into her flesh. When she didn't answer, he pressed it in harder, and a trickle of blood rolled down the side of her neck.
Rouddim walked to the shield component. He picked the computer tray off the floor and examined it carefully with her forgotten glow rod. He then walked back to Crawler and held it in front of her face. "What's on this tray that you want?" he asked, his voice a step away from shouting.
Crawler still didn't answer. Rouddim waved Lonsse away and he grabbed her around the neck, picked her up, and pressed her against the wall to the point where her feet didn't touch the ground. "ANSWER ME!" he shouted, banging her head against the wall.
In response, Crawler spat in his face. Rouddim closed his eyes a moment, his hand squeezing harder around Crawler's throat. She tried to bring her feet up to push herself off the wall, but suddenly she found herself being flung across the room like a rag doll. This time her body connected to a metal support pipe in the center of the room, her body wrapping around it awkwardly with a thud, and then she slipped to the floor.
Shaking her head, Crawler tried to rise once more, but a foot kicked into her ribs. She fell back down, then looked up to see a bloody Cim standing over her. He kicked her again in the ribs once, twice, three times. He then aimed his foot at her face, and she closed her eyes to block the sight.
But the impact never came. She opened her eyes to see Rouddim kneeling down beside her, a knife in his hand. "Father warned me that women were nothing but evil snakes laying in the grass, waiting to strike. You prove my father right, and I hate being wrong." With that, he slashed the knife at her, a slash cutting across her cheek. Crawler winced, then stared back defiantly at Rouddim. He chuckled low under his throat.
"You truly are a warrior, are you not? But even the best of warriors must fall."
"Not without a fight they don't," Crawler snarled. With her last bit of energy, she reached out and grabbed the knife handle that Rouddim held. They struggled for a moment, and then Rouddim pinned her to the floor. He grabbed the knife and plunged it into the hand that had grabbed onto the handle moments ago. Crawler let out a scream of pain that echoed throughout the room, rising even above the thunder.
Withdrawing the knife, Rouddim then brought it to lay across Crawler's unmarked cheek. "Your beauty is what deceived me, threw me off guard, and almost cost me my fortune. I will not let that happen again." With that, he dragged the knife across her face slowly, curving towards her nose, then straight down across her lips, around her chin and to the center of her neck. Crawler suppressed her scream, and Rouddim growled at that.
"You will not show pain, that is good. I will break you, kalb. Break you, then destroy you." With that, he took the knife and used it to cut open the top of her flightsuit, exposing the top half of her body. He then slashed the knife across her chest, bloody lines rising to make his mark. He stared at his work, and a sinister smile grew to his face. Putting the knife down, he traces the bloody lines with his finger, then brought it to his lips, tasting her blood.
Crawler saw a new kind of hunger grow in his eyes, and she tried to get the energy to struggle away, only to feel Rouddim's weight upon her body, holding her in place. "Don't worry, my little one. First I will get from you what I need, and then I will end your misery." She tried to scream again, but Rouddim's lips locked onto her own.