There And Back Again. An Ark Hunter's Holiday

As Taffer and the main group of the team went through the office areas on the first floor, they were attacked by numerous red armored Inquisitors wielding various weapons, who swarmed from the offices and over office partitions.

"No one expects the Inquisition! You are judged race traitors! You and your human animals will now die!" Yelled one of them, although it was hard to tell which one as they all wore helmets. At that point Erika Widowmaker shot an Inquisitor dead who entered from the stairway with a huge mini-gun, as Belle engaged two others in a charge blade fight. The rest of the team was then moved to action.

Meanwhile, Atticus and Volodja climbed the stairway to the entrance of the second floor of the secret VBI installation. The door had been removed, so the entryway opened into a huge dark room about the size of a football field. In the middle of the room was a dais lit up by a single spotlight, and upon that dais was Lady Christianna dressed in a short red silk robe, her chalk white legs splayed out as she groggily rose to a sitting position, a chain and collar clearly seen around her neck. Above and behind Lady, steps led up high to an ornate wooden throne, also spotlighted. On the throne sat a female, completely armored in red, with a helmet that resembled a Kabuki mask, made to resemble ivory with huge curved horns. To her right, a large crystal pyramid sat on a golden pedestal, containing a small necklace with a heart pendant. To her left, a lumpy burlap sack sat at her feet.

Far to Lady's right and in a spotlight all its own sat a Dark Matter portal, from which emerged a man carrying a sniper rifle and that Atticus saw was wearing an exact relic of the armor Kabule wore during the Pale Wars, who reported to the woman on the throne, "Your judgment was executed Mistress, although she was not there to see it."

The Lady on the throne sighed, then answered, "Unfortunate, but the effect will be the same and she will still be devastated! Humans are wild animals, unpredictable at times. That was a side quest to avenge Nim anyway," Then she turned to the entryway to the staircase, and said, "Ah, our guest of honor has arrived! Welcome Atticus Batmen! Welcome to your judgment!"

Lady's head moved like pre-Pale Wars bobble-head doll as she slowly turned her drug glazed pink eyes to Atticus, saying with slurred words, "Hi Atticus. Hi Teach! Atticus - Mama. Mama - Atticus. Play nice."

The woman high on the throne introduced herself, the voice obviously synthesized but sounding ancient, "I am the Mistress Of Judgment and I believe you know my daughter, Lady Christianna. I have judged you, the Harbinger of Death, worthy to be the mate of the future Mistress of Judgment, although I still have questions!"

"Don't want to be..." Muttered Lady as she her slight shoulders weaved in a drunken stupor as she sat on the dais.

"Hush child, you have no choice in the matter! Why do you think I and my Inquisitors chased your idiot father so far and for so long? It is your destiny!" Exclaimed the Mistress of Judgment with zealousness, then she turned her attention back to Atticus, "You are as deadly and as ruthless as I was led to believe, and have passed my tests of judgment with flying colors! I particularly enjoyed how you dispatched with ease the shark-gators below us! Don't look so surprised! I have flying nano-cameras throughout this installation, immune to your EGO's radar and wired directly to my helm! As the Mistress of Judgment, I multi-task well, and am even now watching your team mates fight for their lives on the floor above us!"

She cackled an old crone's laugh, raspy and wicked, before continuing with an upraised forefinger, "I have but one question, Harbinger of death!"

The Mistress of Judgment kicked the burlap bag at her feet over, three oblong objects rolling out and down the steps, making a dull thumping sound as they did so. When they arrived at the bottom, Atticus and Volodga recognized the three human heads of the mugger, the painter, and the young man that Volodja had given his flask to in N'Awlins.

The Mistress of Judgment than asked in a curious one, "Harbinger of Death, why did you spare these three dogs?"

"Aw, your pet moves to protect you, Harbinger! How... quaint!" Said the Mistress of Judgment in a condescending tone.

When Volodja mentioned her name and the words "mental control," Lady's small alabaster hand unconsciously moved to the back of her neck, moving her hair there and revealing a device there identical to the one that disabled Erika's EGO implant.

The Mistress of Judgment ignored Voldja as beneath her notice, but not his words, as she addressed Atticus, "Lady will recover in due time, with no lasting ill effects. She ate food laced with a natural Votan intoxicating drug, which her EGO will dissipate quickly once it is reactivated. In fact Harbinger, after you answer my question, you and she may leave in peace! You may even take your human pet, and with whatever members of your team survive. Even though they HAVE committed numerous crimes against the Votan, I will gladly reserve judgment of them for another time. But please, why oh why did you spare these animals from your righteous wrath, Harbinger?"

As fight started Raizar felt a relief. This was something clear at last. He always preferred clearly visible enemies to some mystery places. And this time he was not restrained with 'no kill' option which made him feel even more tranquil if this word could be used in the middle of the fight. Office areas held plethora of covers and hiding places so well-equipped and reasonably cautious fighers could hold on the fight quite a long time. So Raizar just started to do his work, without anger or sorrows.

Suddenly something caught his attention. This was a communication device dropped by a freshly killed Inquisitor and this device was still working mumbling something. Raizar's EGO picked the mumblings and amplified it allowing Raizar to hear part of Mistress's words though part of signal was lost. "I am the Mistress Of Judgment and I believe you ... the Harbinger of ... worthy to be ... questions... child... no choice in the matter... Inquisitors ... deadly and as ruthless as I was ... flying colors! I particularly enjoyed how you dispatched ... below us! ...so surprised! ...flying nano-cameras throughout this ... immune to your EGO's radar and wired directly ... watching your team mates fight..." Rest of the speech was drown in hisses and noises. Occasional bullet hit the wall near Raizar, it made him roll back and when he inspected the device again it was broken and dead. Raizar asked his EGO to translate this new information to Taffer and added: "Did you hear this Taff? Can you work a solution against those cameras? If you can I'll cover your ass while you are working. Of course I can shoot them down with homing invisible nano-shurikens which I just have found in my pocket but I'd prefer something more wide-reaching. Just kidding. About shurikens I mean. But those cameras is serious thing."

"Cameras are nasty, but we'll handle them after Volodya finishes his diplomacy", Taffer replied to Raizar. "Remember, we're still a decoy and are still playing along to make that hag think she's in control. And while we are at it, see that minigun? Try to get it working on our side, but check it for traps first".

"Erika, Raizar is after the minigun. He needs his back covered once he picks it up. So go with him, I'll cover you when you move".

He took cover behind on of the corners to see the place where minigun was dropped by their enemies. He started to shoot burst after burst from his Heavy Carbine to the groups close it, scoring headshots from his scope. After his magazine got empty, he changed in and changed his cover, picking up another magazine from the Inquisitor's body. Now he watched Raizar and Erika and shot enemies who were marked by his EGO were aiming at them.

"Erika, Raizar is after the minigun. He needs his back covered once he picks it up. So go with him, I'll cover you when you move".

"Hey, hey, minigun! Tired of waiting me?!" Raizar ran to the spot. He noticed two inquisitors aiming at him but they dropped down before he started to shoot and now he knew his mates are covering him. He jumped close to the minigun making his EGO check it for traps but there was not any. So he just lifted the heavy weapon and started to warm it up shouting: "Don't cross me babies!" This immediately made him very popular among the enemies which had some side effects like heavy rain of bullets but his shield absorbed damage long enough to give him time to move to a slightly safer position near the office wall and then the said rain of bullets started to fall upon the enemies. The gun was too heavy to move freely and Raizar could not run or roll but while his teammates was watching his back everything should be all right. But he was ready to change his tactics if things go bad... simply put, to drop the minigun and roll back to cover.