"HALT! YOU ARE NOW PROPERTY OF THE NEMESIS CARTEL. LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND SUBMIT TO CONDITIONING." The strange machine difected its warbling electronic voice at the two women. Meanwhile it finished administering its nanite fluid to the downed Trok. "DO NOT RESIST. THERE IS NO ESCAPE."

The alien cyborg readied its pusle-wave generators to stun the human women. It's cyber-enhanced brain began calculating multiple firing solutions based on their positions and approximate capabilities. Agent Crimson's scrambler system prevented a perfect lock-on, however, giving the girls a chance to run. More loud, screeching voices could be heard coming from other parts of the compound, demanding surrender and occasionally declaring "ASSIMILATE!"

****

On the bridge of the lead Nemesis destroyer, information continued to flow in from the units below. A holographic map of the compound with the position of each detected life form and military asset floated in the middle of the deck. Color coding marked the various assets as friendly (white), enemy (red), captured (blue), or non-combatant (green). Suddenly two yellow dots appeared, flickering in and out.

"HUMANS MATCHING DESCRIPTIONS OF AGENT CRIMSON AND SUBJECT N1K0 SIGHTED NEAR MAIN HALL. ELECTRONIC COUNTERMEASURES DETECTED, QDD LOCK UNRELIABLE. COMPENSATING." A metallic voice intoned.

"EXCELLENT. DIRECT ANOTHER UNIT TO INTERCEPT. AGENT CRIMSON AND SUBJECT N1K0 ARE PRIORITY ALPHA TARGETS."

"I OBEY."

Niko shouted her question twords the creature floating in the hallway, her gun trained on its shell like body as she waved her off hand in its direction to show she was trying to communicate. There were numerous alien creatures in the galaxy, many different kinds that even she didn't recognize and to her this could just be a strange first personal encounter with an alien race she hasn't met yet and it would only take a moment for her translators to register is speech pattern and discern its language for her to vaguely understand it, however for now she was questioning whether it was friend or foe... it was attacking the troks? so was it part of the strange benefactors supporting her mission? If only Niko knew how right she was.

"Hey! Listen I-I" Niko would shout before sudden her motion proximity sensor went off as her cybernetic brain implants sensed a disturbance behind her, a stealth field droping as she suddenly turned her hips to point her rifle directly at the infiltrator. Nikos eyes narrowed with caution afther spotting the red haired women in a tight form fitting black bodysuit, clade in light armored plates and holding a assault rifle similar to her own.

"Who the hell are you?" Niko said with a glare twords the women before flicking her eyes back to the shelled creature who was still slowly hovering in the corridor. The LED lights in Nikos eyes would flicker as she looked at the shelled monster, something about it was messing with vision, her sensors trying to see something it was doing, whatever was causing the damage to the walls when it first appeared, Niko wasnt sure as her eyes flicking back to the red haired women as Niko quickly looked her over head to toe as she warned of the glaring threat the other women seemed hell bent on keeping her weapon trained on.

"Yeah Im here for the prisoners.... I was sopost to help with extraction..... are you with the ADD?" Niko asked before she accepted that this stranger was not hostile as Niko would follow suit and turn her rifle back on the floating shelled machine as once agin Niko winced as her vision distorted at the sight of the strange floating thing. "Me too... some kind of field.... its messing with my optics....." Niko would say before doing the same as the agent and backed away. "Do you have any idea what it i-is arghh!?" Niko would ask before the agent would see Niko suddenly wience painful, her cybnernetic hand reaching up to cupp her head at the exact same time the strange machine down the hall let out a horrible electronic warbling voice that to her sounded like nails on a chalkboard.... Loud, scratchy, and left an annoying ring as her cyberbrain in a struggle tried to translate the words that echoed it. The words instantly made senses but Nikos head was spinning as she staggered backwards and shout. "RUN!"

Niko would turn with the agent and quickly run twords the corner the agent covered that lead down deeper into the ground floor of the complex as Niko would quickly sping into a run down the hallway with the agent that likely did the same.

Crimson's voice drew the Cyborgs attention who turned to aim at her in return. Crimson kept her gun trained on the machine. "Agent Crimson of the ADD." Crimson answered swiftly to Niko before hearing the girl mention her own optics going weird. Crimson's scrambler helping in keeping the machine being able to lock onto her. "Let's go!" Crimson said as she gestures to the left path as she fired a quick round onto the machine before she dashed to the left, helping Niko if she needed it as the pair fled the machine.

"I sadly don't have any idea what that thing is from...but I have a feeling we might be caught in the midst of something..." Crimson said with a grimace as the pair ran together. Crimson's gun kept at the ready. "No doubt whatever those machines were, they're going to do what almost anything else in this damn galaxy does." She muttered in annoyance. "Let's secure the main group of slaves first and then plan an escape." She said as they continued moving towards the Ground Floor.

"HALT!" The hovering cyborg called as the two women retreated out of view. Agent Crimson's round disintegrated agaisnt an unseen barrier, causing no damage to the machine. In response it fired off a volley of pulse-wave fire, but it's targeting systems were still scrambled. The stun blasts impacted harmlessly with the walls, causing little more than minor scratches, despite the distinct sounds of impact. Receiving priority alpha orders, the Nemesis machine followed after the two women.

Rounding the corner, it snapped off several more shots, bolts still off-target, but the inteference was stabilizing. The large turtle-like cyborg was quite fast, despite it's bulk. It could easily catch up to the fleeing humans on a straight-away, but it had to slow considerably to take corners. The women could stay ahead of it if they could keep ducking into side corridors.

Still, other units were converging on their location. The Nemesis hadn't yet penetrated Crimson's scrambler, but they were working on it. The unit that had spotted them also relayed their last position and vector to the others. It took but a few seconds for their cyber-enhanced brains to determine that they were headed for the main cell block. A poor decision on their part.

Though the strange cyber-machines kept up the pressure on the agent and her new acquaintance, They did not move to entrap them just yet. The two were about to crash into the lion's den.

Rounding a final bend, Niko and Agent Crimson caught sight of the Ebon Triangle's main slave pen. Much like a prison block on Earth, a central courtyard was lined with cell after cell. In the center of the courtyard, four of the shell-shaped cyborgs were directing both the slaves and a group of Trok captives. The Troks received injections in their necks, after which they seemed to become somewhat blank-eyed and listless. Meanwhile, the girls were being forced to drink something from decidedly phallic looking tentacle tips. Afterword, they seemed more inclined to obey orders screeched at them by their new masters.

As the two took in this scene, Agent Crimson's scrambler pulsed a tactile warning to her. It's effectiveness had been circumvented. Behind them, three more Nemesis were silently approaching. They were still out of sight, but the machines had a definitive lock on them now, it was only a matter of time before they were surrounded.

"Understood." Niko said in reply to this Agent Crimson, not having time for introductions as she turned and ran as Niko would do her best to ignore the interference scrambling her sense from the machine's strange energy. The pair quickly rushing to the hallway as Niko would hear the gunshots discharge from agents weapon covering their tactical retreat, Niko's sensors hearing the subsonic echo of those rounds collide with the high energy particles of the hovering cyborgs energy shield, disintegrating the bullets that once threatened it as it hovered along safely before discharging a weapon of its own. Niko would twist around the corner of the hall way to cover the agent just in time for her cybernetic eyes to see the energy discharge pulse erupt from its body as the hall wal would sudden erupt in sparks and debri. Niko had no idea what kind of weapon that was, but her cybernetically enhanced vision would flicker and static, not meant to see something beyond the visible spectrum as she would wiece in a sharp pain that stabbed her eyes before she hurried down the corridor with the agent and their pursuer not far behind.

"Quick!!! This way!" Niko would shouted as she sprinted as quickly as her enhanced legs could carry her as she was at least several paces ahead of Agent Crimson who could hear the soft whine of motors and the metallic tapping of the girls cybernetic feet against the ground as they both quickly rounded corners and took sharp turns so that their pursuer could not get a clean shot until they both reached the final bend that lead to the main prisoner holding area.

"Hurry! In side!!" Niko would shout as she would reach the entrance first where Niko would flip her rifle over her shoulder and grasp the corner of the holding area's large dure plate doors as Niko would wait for agent Crimson to come charging through before she would slam it shut behind her, locking it shortly afther as Niko twisted the bar down. "This wont hold it long..." Niko said to the agent before she would turn to put her back to the door they entered as she would quickly try to take in the surroundings of the prisoner central cell block as Niko would quickly look around for a exit before she turned and pause to notice the four similarly hostile hovering cyborgs in the center of the chamber seemingly directing the prisoners as well as a group of captive Troks. Niko would quickly unsling her rifle and raise it in their direction before she would hear the sound of other machine on the other side of the door collide with the heavy steel plated gate.

"Shit! Not good.." Niko said with alarm as she raised her rifle and aimed at the four hovering cyborgs, her eyes flickering as her sensors were in the middle of struggling to even see the invisible fields surrounding the floating husks. Niko glaring at the the scene as she watched Troks getting jabbed in the neck by their cyborg wardens while the prisoners she and the agent were her to save were being forced to rest on their knees and endure the torture of a long thick tendril being shoved down their throats.

Niko cared nothing for the Troks, but the sight of the women being assaulted and left at the mercy of these machines caused her cybernetic brain to irrationally slip into anger as Nikos would grit her teeth as her eyes flicker an enraged red as she would raise her rifle ready to open fire on the cyborgs in the center of chamber. All the while Niko unaware of the silent assailants sneaking up on her and the agent.

Crimson grits her teeth as her shots did nothing to the machine but she quickly followed after Niko. Moving with sharp turns to avoid the machine having a clear sight line as her scramblers affect was starting to wane plus it was still causing a small drain on her suit, so she finally had no choice but to turn it off. Crimson moved with speed before she quickly leaped with her legs across the door and into the room as Niko slammed the doors shut and sealed it.

Crimson widened her eyes behind her helmet as she saw the four other machines in the room her own eyes flared up with anger but she noticed the compliance both the Troks and the slaves were having as she narrowed her eyes. "Strange...it's just like what that other machine did...are they controlling them with whatever they inject or ingest into others?" Crimson whispered as her suit's scrambler had been circumvented but her suit still had it's own sensors at the ready and she picked up three approaching signals behind them. Her eyes widened as she grimaced. "We got trouble.." She whispered as she aimed her gun in the other direction to silently let Niko know about the danger...they were trapped...she looked around quickly scanning the room for any kind of access or escape route.

On board the Nemesis cruiser, a cacophany of metallic voices sounded. Among the various reports were the following:

"AGENT CRIMSON AND SUBJECT N1K0 HAVE ENTERED THE SLAVE HOLDING AREA. FOUR NEMESIS UNITS ARE PRESENT; THREE MORE CLOSING FROM REAR AND FLANKS. THEY ARE TRAPPED," said one cyborg.

"ELECTRONIC COUNTERMEASURES CIRCUMVENTED. INITIAL SCANS CONFIRM SUBJECT N1K0'S IMPLANTS ARE VULNERABLE TO OUTSIDE INFLUENCE," added another.

"EXCELLENT. PREPARE A TROJAN MATRIX. HAVE THE ENGAGED UNITS FORCE THE SUBJECTS TOWARD THE TOP OF THE BUILDING. I WILL OVERSEE THEIR CAPTURE PERSONALLY," The Overlord directed.

"WE OBEY." The golden cyborg floated off the bridge after its orders were acknowledged, headed for the hangar bay.

*****

In the compound, Two of the lumpy cyborgs turned toward the two humans that had just entered the room. Reality rippled as pulse-waves streaked toward Agent Crimson and Niko. The firing pattern was not meant to connect so much as harry. The two infiltrators were forced to dive for cover. An electric hissing sounded on the other side of the door behind them as the Nemesis there formed one of its tentacles into a plasma cutter that it applied to the portal's hinges. It would be through in but a few scant seconds. Meanwhile, the two flanking units came into view around corners to left and right. All exits were blocked, save a grimy metal staircase that lead to the unused second floor of the holding pen. All the approaching Nemesis kept up a withering barrage of fire that inexorably drove the women toward that dubious path of escape.

The L.E.D glow of Nikos eyes would shine a dark red as she raise her rifle. Her mind overflowing with rage at the sight of the prisoners being assaulted by who or whatever these things were, she wanted to help them, save them, she came her to do rescue them from these slavers! She came her to learn about her past! but all of that was falling apart now as Niko grit her teeth and raised her rifle to shoot at the floating machines. Niko was blinded by rage but the agent voice reached her through the flashing warnings on her internal H.U.D as Niko's eyes would dull before flicking to Crimon's just as a streak of strange energy rippled past them both in a arche. Niko ducking with Crimson as the too moved for cover behind one of the compounds supporting beams...

Niko would pant heavily out of breath, the physical exertion taking its toll already, however according to her H.U.D she had well over 91% power left in her reserves as Niko would flinch as the weird energy pulses licked past the pair in their cover, striking the ground, the cover, the walls and ceiling before Nikos eyes would flash at the sudden intense light that began at the door they first came in through. The pursuing creatures on the other side were cutting through..... Niko grit her teeth and looked first to the agent, then around for and escape before Crimson raised her own rife and aimed at enemies coming to flank them for each side.

"I see them!" Niko replied as she covered Crimsons flank while the agent covered hers as they fired back to back, shooting rounds at and into the flanking enemy as Niko's enhanced vision noted the bullet velocity, density, and other factors as the armor sparked off the machines shelled armor having no effect. "Our bullets are punching through their shells!?!" Niko said to Crimson in alarm before Niko would wience as a sharp pain pricked the back of her head in a moment of hesitation as her eyes would widen and follow an invisible line to an escape route through a grimy metal staircase that lead further up into the complex. Niko didn't think, her mind in the moment thing her thoughts were her own as she pointed at the stair caise. "There! Go! Go!! I'll cover you!" Niko shouted to the agent as she stepped out from behind cover and sprayed her rifle on full auto at both flanks, her body moving inhumanly fast and actuate as she planned to cover Crimsons path to the stairs before following in behind her as Niko's compromised cyberbrain told her the path was safe as she was unknowingly leading the agent and her self to a trap.

Crimson quickly ducked behind cover as the blasts kept them pinned down as she frowned. "Something is wrong here...I know we're not as big as those Troks...but they can't be missing on purpose?" Crimson muttered to herself as she kept firing rounds but she noticed the shells didn't even dent the armor or having no effect. She heard the call and nods her head. "Got it!" She said as she dashed towards the stairs quickly turning around to fire a few rounds at the machines. Crimson moving quickly up the stairs but she made sure Niko was still following her as she wasn't letting someone be left behind if she could help it...firing a few covering rounds for Niko's retreat. "Come on!" She called leading her ally up to the second floor of the holding cells.

Crimson kept her gun trained on the stairs making while letting Niko keep an eye ahead incase of more of those machines. Crimson tried to tap her helmet and link up with her ship or at least send a distress signal to the ADD. Not knowing they were already compromised and basically corralled into a trap.

"TROJAN MATRIX SUCCESSFULLY TRANSMITTED." A warbling voice informed the Overloard as it and it's two standard Nemesis escort descended from the hanger of the hovering cruisier. "SUBJECT N1K0 RESPONDING TO FALSE INPUT. NEMESIS UNITS CONTINUING PURSUIT."

"EXCELLENT. CONTINUE PUSHING SUBJECT N1K0 AND AGENT CRIMSON UPWARD. I WILL INTERCEPT ON THE TOP LEVEL."

"AGENT CRIMSON ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE WITH STEATH SHIP."

"ALLOW CONTACT. DIRECT SHIP'S AI TO CONFIRM RENDEZVOUS ON COMPLEX ROOF." The Overloard and its escort dropped silently onto the top of the compound.

*****

One of the shell-like machines followed Niko and Crimson up the stairs, hovering along slowly. Though it could easily have overtaken them, it's orders were to keep them moving. It's low-powered pulse-wave blasts flashed repeatedly up at them, accurate enough to make the women duck and dodge, but never quite hitting the mark. Two more of the mechanoid menaces rose straight up the center of the shaft, keeping the agent and mercenary flanked and cutting off alternate routes. Between their shields and armor, the cyborgs repelled return fire with limited damage. The women were left with the choice of facing the overwhelming firepower of their pusuers or climbing the increasingly decrepit stairs.

Amidst the cacophany, Crimson received a message from her ship's AI indicating it would arrive shortly for emergency evac. The closest pick-up zone was the top of the building she was climbing. Of course she couldn't know that her ship was still safely tucked away in the hangar of the Nemesis cruiser overheard, or that she would be met by an entirely different extraction unit.

The upper levels were grimy and unkempt. Rubble from the current assault joined other less recognizable debris in the darkened space. Rounding a last landing, the two humans could see the roof access doors laying on the stairs, blasted from their hinges. A yawning hole slightly less black than the surroundings promised escape into the night air.

*****

Outside, the hovering Nemesis cruiser loomed large over the compound, its nearly invisible hull blotting out the stars above. Only the wan light of the few surviving emergency lights lit the roof of the building. The Nemesis Overlord, its golden ovoid carapace glimmering slightly in the near darkness waited with its two escorting shell-like units. The plan was coming to fruition.

Niko wasn't sure why the strange machines were missing, she only knew that they were and that was all that mattered to her right now as she rushed to the stair well with Agent Crimson thankful the women was covering her as she dashed twords the door just as an arc of strange energy arced passed her and lashed the wall scattering debris and rubble everywhere. Niko didn't wait as she followed Agent Crimson inside and up to the second floor as Niko covered the corridor of the upper floor while Crimson covered their flank and aimed down the stairs with her rifle.

"That way!" Niko said, nodding her head to the next flight of stairs leading further up into the complex as she quicked turned to fire a barrage of fire into the stairwell they both just escaped from. Niko turning just into time to fire as one of those strange floating machines was tearing its way through the concrete as it if were wet tissue paper. Niko's eyes unknowingly trying to register the strange field surrounding it as the cyborgs eyes would flicker, her head would ache as her bullets collided with an invisible barrier that turned the rounds into molten slag. What ever that field was Niko wanted nothing to do with it as she quickly flipped on her heels and made a dash up the next flight of stairs behind crimson just as another volley of strange energy lashed out from the corridor and arced out in streams against the cell blocks walls and ceiling, leaving behind molten metal and stone in its wake of destruction.

"Hurry!! to the roof!!" Niko said to Crimson as she was following closely behind her as Niko's cybernetic eyes flicked to night vision and were telling her the exact path she needed to take to the roof access doors that lead outside as she hurried beside Crimson as the pair made a mad dash up the next flight of stairs and eventually through the landing that took them to the final bend as Niko would leap over the blasted open door and to the outside before she turned to cover the door for Agent Crimson to pour of to what Niko's cyberbrain made her believe was safety.

Crimson quickly fired bursts of fire from her gun down towards any approaching machine while letting Niko take the lead before following the Cyborg down the path firing a few bursts during the retreat as they just avoided the blasts from the machines. Crimson hearing Niko's words while she also got the info from her A.I. "My ship should be coming in for an extraction soon!" Crimson informed while moving with Niko up the stairs and seeing the exit.

Niko got through first before Crimson followed behind and slips through the door as the pair were finally on the roof. Crimson's eyes looking around quickly for her stealth ships approach. "Where is it.." She said...her eyes glancing around before she'd notice something briefly in the sky...she noticed the large mass blocking the star filled sky and gasps. "Oh no.." She whispered as she primed her weapon.