Scene 5: Crossfire

Aaron leads Kanon and Ellan down some stone steps from the city streets to the interior of the skyscraper.  There they discover narrow tunnels flanked on each side by three stories of entrances to apartment buildings (where there are catwalks placed along the front of these doors almost as an afterthought).  Scaly humanoids lounge out on the third tier beneath the incandescent lamps that have to light all three levels of the tunnel.  Their eyes rest droopy against the weak light source.

Then, Ellan notices blinking red eyes beneath her feet.  There are more levels further down, which are plunged into darkness with only dim red lanterns next to apartment doors.  The nearest lanterns are difficult to see and so the levels beneath them appear bottomless.

They cross this long bridge of apartment complexes and step out of the tunnel into a common area of restaurants, which are walled off but lack ceilings as they are already inside.  Ellan lingers over the aroma of some of the food.  She wanders near a takeout serving window.  Kanon catches a whiff of something from a neighboring vendor and twists his face in disgust before joining Ellan. 
A rotund alien in an apron waddles over.  Kanon indicates one of the dishes on display.

KANON:  How much?

COOK:  No humans allowed.

KANON:  What's that supposed to mean?

AARON:  It means he doesn't want his 

food to burn a hole through your

intestines and get him closed down.

COOK:  It's nothing personal, kid.  It's just business.

AARON:  Sorry about my friend there, Nitch.

COOK:  No worries, Miles.

Bring'em around sometime when

I'm serving something mild.

AARON:  So long, Nitch.

COOK: (calling after) You keep those

other bounty hunters out of here.

You're the only one who

doesn't cause trouble.

Aaron leads them down another tunnel,
which is much shorter and leads back outside.

Here, there is a market place in full midday activity.  Cars and other small vehicles pass overhead as this is actually a thoroughfare between buildings (the city being so tall) and loitering is tolerated at their own risk.  Nearly all the drivers fly high, but one suddenly elects to circumvent the line of traffic and dips low near the mouth of the tunnel.  Aaron raises a halting hand to keep the other two from stepping out and leads the way again once the car passes.

ELLAN:  Wasn't that illegal?

AARON:  No.  We're the pedestrians.

So keep an eye out.

KANON:  That's Janriel for you.

ELLAN:  And you wanted to 

come back here?

KANON:  Want...
is a strong word.

AARON: (calling over) Stand closer to the
venders. They're more trouble to
get in a collision with.

Kanon and Elan have to catch up to him and browse a couple of stations back from each one that he inspects.  Kanon picks up several samples of jewelry for Ellan to see, but she glances over at Aaron.
He carries on a conversation with the vendor and ignores her, but she is torn between the desire to move on and yet would rather not catch up with Aaron.  She catches his eye the next time she glances at him.  He smiles meekly, uncertain of what could be prompting her interest, and turns to hand money over to the vendor in exchange for a small sack of something before he moves on.

She breaks from Kanon's side, who is now deep in conversation with their own vendor, and she marches passed Aaron while headed to the other side of the street.  There is another woman there with dark red hair and a leather jacket.  On her left hand she wears a tool glove where her various small instruments rest on the back of her hand.

TULIA:  Where are you 

going in such a hurry?

Tulia is flanked by two aliens.  One has a large head, bald all over, and large eyes without pupils.
This one wears the underlayer of a flight suit.  The other is reptilian, like the ones at the top floor of the apartment complex.  It wears tight-fitting overalls and no shirt or shoes.  Both companions brandish laser rifles.

Ellan draws first.  Kanon starts to run over, but stops short when Tulia draws.  And his attention quickly turns on three more bounty hunters walking up the street.  Aaron immediately turns in the opposite direction of these adversaries and correctly predicts the threat coming up from behind them: two more.  Both humans in raggedy attire wielding one pistol each.

Aaron points one blaster in their direction and the other at the head of the vendor nearest to him who drops his own laser gun on the cart.  He allows the vendor to bow and back away a couple steps and then trains both barrels on his two bounty hunters.

Two guns in each hand, all three withdraw from
their respective opponents to end up back to back.
The eight mercenaries stay where they are.

AARON:  What kind of trouble

are you mixed up in?

KANON:  I really wish I knew.

ELLAN:  Do you have a plan?

AARON:  Can't say as I planned on this.

ELLAN:  I wasn't talking to you.

TULIA:  Aaron Miles... you trying
to cut us out of our bounty?

AARON:  I don't know you.

TULIA:  We should rectify that.

AARON:  And I don't owe
you any bounty.

TULIA:  Now, be reasonable.
The Republic wants these
fugitives for breaking through
the blockade.  And I figure such
singular notoriety deserves a
special reward for bringing them in.
Such as a one-way ticket off of Janriel.

KANON:  And what happens to us?

TULIA:  That's not my concern.

AARON:  Do you really think the
Republic will agree to that?

TULIA:  Why not?

ELLAN:  You're not seriously
thinking about taking them
up on their offer?

TULIA:  Why are you helping them,
Mr. Miles?  It sure didn't look like
you were leading them to
the bounty office just now.

AARON:  New people are easy to spot on
Janriel nowadays.  You don't need to be an
expert to notice these two.  I didn't see the
value in a couple of cheap bounties in
exchange for what they could offer.
I was going to make them partners.
I see your plans are a little more
ambitious than mine.

TULIA:  You just need to learn
how to think big, Mr. Miles.

AARON:  And if I was skeptical
that the Republic would make an
exchange for me over two bounties
how do you think the eight of you
will fair?

BOUNTY HUNTER: (alien language)
Who said there was only eight of us?

Two dozen robots (all copies of the same design) either drop the goods they were carrying or march out from the tunnels with weapons drawn.  Those that come from the tunnels arm those that were hiding in the crowd.  They all appear brand new with an assembly line grey paint job.  The war machines encircle the pre-existing standoff.

DRONE 1:  Indeed.  There are many of us

who would like to collect on the bounty.

Come quietly.  And we may see to it

that no harm comes to you.

TULIA:  Since when do machines

need the money?

DRONE 1:  I confess, the bounty is a mere

matter of convenience for appearances.

We would much rather have the

ship that the bounties came in on.

DRONE 2:  Though, the cash bonus would be nice.

DRONE 3:  We receive so little recognition for our work.

DRONE 1:  Inform us where we can locate the

ship that you arrived in, the Shadow's Heart,

and we promise to not collect on your bounties.

ELLAN:  Rescue us first.  Then we'll talk.

DRONE 1:  This is not a negotiation.

The alternative is we dispatch all 

parties involved and then sort out 

on whom a bounty may be collected.

AARON: (aside) No, really. 

Tell me.  What kind of trouble 

are you mixed up in?

KANON:  We surrender!

ELLAN:  That's your plan?

KANON:  Yep. Yep. No arguing with

the battle bots.  Take us to your

boss and we'll be happy to tell

him where the Shadow's Heart is.

DRONE 2:  We have no superior.

ELLAN:  You don't?

DRONE 2:  Correct. 

We are freelance automatons.

TULIA:  You're not stealing our bounties.

DRONE 3:  Perhaps we should eliminate

the competition.  If the bounties prove

uncooperative we could always

dispose of them afterwards.

DRONE 1:  Very well.  Proceed.

The drones fire into the bounty hunters.

Of the three bounty hunters who had walked up the street to confront Kanon, one pushes another forward in the midst of diving to the ground and the other two are blown away while returning fire.  The two facing off with Aaron are killed before they have the chance to put up a fight. 

The overall-wearing reptilian absorbs much of the laser fire on his side of things and remains standing.  His remaining two companions duck behind the nearest cover of some thinly built food stands and shoot back from there.

Aaron grabs Ellan and ducks to the side of the nearest stand.  The vender who had surrendered his laser gun before now rushes for it and is shot in the back just short of reaching it.  Aaron leans out and shoots the drone under the chin that murdered the vender.  Another drone to Aaron's right takes notice and its rifle audibly hums with powering up a charge.  Suddenly it is peppered by a barrage from Ellan.  The armor protects it, but Tulia delivers a killing shot to the eye before ducking back down behind cover again.

The big-headed alien draws a cluster of grenades from a satchel at his side and clutches them with his long spindly fingers.  He flings them in an underhanded fashion so that they skip and skid across the concrete toward a cluster of drones standing out in the open further up the street.  Just before the explosion he turns into Tulia, bows his head, and closes his eyes desperately tight.  She in turn immediately raps herself around his cranium and rests a cheek on his head.

When the shockwave hits the breath is knocked out of him worse than anyone.  Tulia reclines him back against the base of the food stand and a minor streak of blood appears from a nose slit and ears.  His eyes drop weakly, hardly aware of himself.

From the opposite direction that the grenades were thrown another drone rounds the food stand to loom over Tulia and her shaken friend.  She sits frozen.  And then a single shot flares underneath its left cheek.  She looks out and sees Aaron still pointing one of his pistols.

But then Aaron and Ellan become surrounded at point-blank.  Ellan lays her two pistols down on the ground and Aaron palms his with his thumbs and places them on the stand next to the vender's gun.  Now they have the opportunity to glance over and notice Kanon lying flat on his back.  He is shaking terribly and Ellan rushes over to him.  Seeing this, one drone marches up to the other for a report.

DRONE 1:  What happened?

DRONE 3:  One of the bounty hunters

dove in front of him.  He was not

my intended target.

Kanon tries to speak, but can't.  Ellan
strokes back his hair and cries terribly.

DRONE 1:  Unfortunate.  It would have

been more useful to pit one bounty 

against the other for interrogation

purposes.  Very well.

So long as we have one 

bounty to lead us to 

the Shadow's Heart.

DRONE 3:  I can begin immediately.

DRONE 1:  You will not be rewarded

for your failure.  You will report

for reprogramming when we

return to base.

DRONE 3:  Understood.

The reptilian bounty hunter gasps
from where he lies a couple feet away.

DRONE 1:  Curious.  Is he not dead yet?

BOUNTRY HUTNER: (alien language)

You think you've won?

DRONE 2:  Well, yes.

DRONE 1:  Handily, I might add.

Our losses were negligible.

The damaged will be repaired.

BOUNTY HUNTER: (alien language)

I already told you.  

We are not alone here.

Grenades rain down, skip across the ground and sit silently a moment where they come to rest. 
Then they explode.  Shots ring out from the rooftop and each beam from the sniper rifle rips through the drones' armor in one shot. 

Aaron jumps up to grab the vender's weapon and it lets out one concentrated blast through the chest of the nearest unsuspecting drone.  He turns it on another and pulls the trigger to a harmless "click."  And he dives back down and shields Ellan and Kanon as best he can.

Tulia blasts away with her friend's rifle and the one other surviving bounty hunter shoots prone on the ground.  With the help of the sniper soon none of the drones are left standing.  Tulia breaks from cover and kneels over the reptilian.  She turns and shouts at the rooftop.

TULIA:  Rune, get down here!

A young man gets up, waves his acknowledgement, and runs to the small shuttle parked on the roof several feet behind him.  Tulia turns back to the reptilian who struggles to breathe and the only other bounty hunter still standing comes to her side.

Meanwhile, Kanon lies completely motionless.








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