A City's Sirens Call

[Carmelita]

“Mierda!”

Carmelita swore in shock as she stepped through the portal. She’d been expecting more machines, plenty of scanners, several additional guards. What she hadn’t expected was the legion of security cameras that lined the open area, a fully armed patrol on the parade ground nearby and a dozen dog-like droids which she would hazard all had scent-sensors. The difference in the level of security was as stark as it was alarming, and swearing out loud hadn’t made it any easier to avoid detection.

Almost instantly the dog-bots perked their heads up as one. The big, clearly read sign that spelled out ‘Welcome To Coruscant’ began flashing with the red of an intruder alert, a siren slowly building in volume nearby. The platoon scattered frantically into firing positions, shoving civilians to the ground as they moved with purpose.

Carmelita took the quick and dirty route out of the situation: she ran. She couldn’t retreat the way she came since the portal was now blocked by several white-armoured guards, so she took a different direction, sprinting past the pack of cyber-dogs as quietly as she could. As she ran across the squeaky clean road, the dogs began sniffing around behind her. Barricades were being quickly assembled on the street exits to the plaza, and the situation was looking increasingly grim. Fortunately the troopers were still holding their fire, waiting for something to indicate where their target was, but unless she could lose the robotic hounds they’d soon draw a bead on her position.

The vixen who’d been as much on the run as she had been the tracker had no intention of giving them that chance. If the dog-droids had detected her scent even slightly, chances are there would be something capable of detecting Bentley’s gizmo, which in turn meant she had a limited window in which to escape the net that had been cast by the security forces. Looking around, there were no gutters, unfortunately, which meant no easy to climb drainpipes that Sly had taught her to scale, but there was a truck parked nearby whose tailgate and cab provided the perfect opportunity to jump onto that balcony nearby. She grinned at her good fortune.

Taking precious seconds to avoid causing the truck’s suspension to sway, Carmelita leapt from the truck roof and scrambled over the lip of the balcony, sighing in relief as she saw no immediate threats. The hounds below found themselves wandering around, unable to locate the source of the intruder’s scent, and with the confused beeps of the dog-droids and the general hubbub of the portal security behind her, she crept away to find a blind spot in the network of security cameras.

[Carmelita]

There were way too many security cameras in Coruscant, Carmelita decided. There were cameras in the back alleys, cameras on the roofs, cameras in the shops and even cameras in the public restrooms. She’d been running on empty for the past five hours, including the two the other side of the portal, and the majority of that time had been spent in the slightly roasted scent of Bentley’s cloaking device. Even the impressive scale of the city and its shining bright aesthetic was dulled by her frustration, leaving her in no mood to appreciate the flying cars or the elegant public gardens.

She found herself approaching a large elevator that protruded from the surroundings, its utility barely hidden by its elegant facade. The size of the construction, coupled with the small posting of the Storm Troopers, made her hope it was a cargo lift, or maybe even a vehicle lift of some description. Maybe there would be less security underground, in whatever shifty operations this Empire might be conducting.

Strolling into the still nearly empty elevator was laughably easy compared to the close calls she’d had earlier in the day. Despite the security alarm, she hadn’t seen signs of an organised sweep of the city, and she hoped the whole thing had been swept aside as a security bug or a lost cause. Maybe they’d discount the dozen dog-droids and any unfounded correlation with the event with that Rebel smuggler…

She sighed and leant against the wall of the elevator tiredly. A couple of young adults drove their hover bikes into the lift and pressed the button for the next floor down, labelled Tier 2. Maybe this was for a parking garage, Carmelita mused. Hopefully there’d be a blind spot there, or she might have to resort to disabling cameras as a last resort.

The elevator hummed quietly as it descended at a sedate pace. With the lengthy time it took, Carmelita phased out the conversation of the two young adults, who were talking about music, and instead focused on the bikes. The sleek chrome and plastic vehicles were impressive, especially given that they appeared to float unsupported by some vastly different method to that she’d seen of the Cooper Gang’s van. A memory surfaced of Sly missing the tailgate as he fell-

She gripped the stock of her Shock Pistol, forcibly pushing the memory out of her mind. The red weapon might be the only thing she carried that could defend herself in this precarious situation, but it was also giving her the small amount of comfort she’d allow herself to need. As the elevator slowed to a halt, she daren’t loosen her grip. She stared straight ahead at the opening doors, bringing her focus back to the present to properly see a brand new city skyline.

Carmelita walked out of the elevator in a daze. Like the first tier of the city, this second tier was massive. Sure, she could see the structural supports hidden within skyscrapers, and the elevator she had used was one of many that dropped from what must be an artificial sky, but aside from that she would have sworn that the city was on the surface. In a way, this was more amazing than the more polished Tier 1. In her awe, Carmelita wandered over to a bus stop nearby and sat down. Her cloak still provided her with the scent of freshly singed air, but that wasn’t what she was focusing on right now. The sheer scale, the near indistinguishable similarities between this level and the level above… it was of a scale she’d never expected to see in her wildest dreams. 

After a good five minutes spent contemplating the sheer size of the city, Carmelita got back to her feet. The differences she’d spotted so far were minor, but there were slightly fewer storm troopers around and there was a chance that the same might apply to the cameras. Finding a public restroom, she passed the spotless paw-washing area and slipped inside one of the stalls. As far as she could tell, there weren’t any cameras in here, and she took the opportunity to take a deep breath of fresh air.

With the cloak finally off, the fox pondered what her next move was. She needed to find a hideout, or at least somewhere safe to rest between finding intel on the Omniverse, and judging by how the security had become more lax on the lower tier, the best direction to go was down.

She took a moment to contemplate her attire. Still dressed in her maroon trenchcoat, it did nothing to help hide her face, and given that she’d already had one narrow brush with what passed as the law she didn’t fancy another. She focused on that strange feeling of Omnilium, forming a rainbow-bubble from which she summoned a canine motorcycle helmet. Three minutes of work, and she had something to cover her face. The rest of her identifying features were carefully tucked beneath the trench coat, and as she left the stall she allowed herself to look in the mirror at the mysterious figure she’d become. Her tail did make her look as though she was wearing a bustle, but fashion wasn’t at the top of her priority list.

“Well, Foxtrot,” she said, “Time to hit the road.”

---

Carmelita walked through the streets, looking for a way down. There were public terminals she could use, but she wanted to descend one more tier before using them, a conversation she’d overheard about the differences between the top three tiers forefront in her mind. If she wanted to use a public terminal and not be tagged as a potential suspect for the portal scare, she’d need to use one in the more crowded middle-class districts of Tier Three.

Some form of public transport, a bus or a tram Carmelita couldn’t tell, trundled past, it’s antenna bobbing with the vibrations of its hoverplates against the road. The destination displayed in yellow neon read ‘Bow Street, Tier Three’, and she followed it as quickly as she could, breaking into a jog to keep up with the slow moving vehicle. She garnered a few strange looks as she went, her attire not entirely in keeping with the main aesthetic of those on the street, but the skybox was darkening and she couldn’t wait to get to somewhere she’d feel safe to use the public services and obtain food, water and sleep.

The trambus took a circuitous route to another elevator, and she squeezed into a pedestrian spot just as the elevator doors were closing. A few passengers peered curiously out of the trambus at her helmet, but she ignored them in favour of fingering her Shock Pistol beneath her trenchcoat. It was an iconic weapon: not many gun manufacturers make bright red electricity stun-guns, at least as far as Carmelita knew, and if she was forced to use it during her stay in Coruscant, then it’d be that much easier for the Empire to pin down that she’d snuck past the portal security. It would be better, she decided, to flee than to stick around if she was attacked.

The elevator opened to reveal another tier. This time Carmelita wasn’t quite as impressed: the roof here was painted, not decorated with whatever technology had been utilised to design the artificial skybox of Tier Two, and instead of an artificial sun there were great globes of fluorescent lights that shone dazzling bright light down into the city streets. There were still troopers, but they were few and far between, and only the occasional camera poked its way out of a lamppost or the side of a busy thoroughfare. Carmelita wandered the streets, finding a cyber cafe nearby that had public terminals, and began what would turn into a five hour period trawling the Dataverse for the information she needed to know.

[Carmelita]

After her info binge, Carmelita sat back on her stool and pondered the information she’d learnt. Neither Coruscant nor Camelot sounded like the ideal place to set up camp, in her mind. A quick analysis of the law enforcement of both major factions had left her somewhat disappointed, though at the same time a little relieved that there was something to focus on besides her past. So far, she’d been operating off ingrained instinct, and it had been a welcome break from her grief over Sly’s death, but now that she was coming down off the urgency that had gripped her she couldn’t help but feel that it was time to move on to something else distracting.

She’d have to make one more trip from Coruscant under the cloak of her collar, since she didn’t fancy being painted with a bounty by the Empire just yet: she’d save that for when she started showing up their law enforcement. The choice, it seemed was to either make her way back to the Nexus and go from there, or head straight to the Dunes or the Deeps. Carmelita’s tail twitched in amusement as she made her choice.

‘Mami always said we had a bit of Fennec blood. Guess I’m headed for the desert.’

It was a logical decision on Carmelita’s part. Of the realms, there were only four initially suitable for her to engage in her lone woman policing and thieving roles. Camelot was out, as she had no intentions of joining a self-absorbed force like their guard, and Coruscant would brand her as a vigilante or try and control her future actions. That left the Deeps and the Dunes, and whilst she had been to several islands and deserts during her adventures chasing or working with Sly, she’d never been happy with the wet or the cold. On top of that, the Dunes also had a town with an interesting sheriff, the Town With No Name, which looked like the kind of place where a helping hand would be appreciated properly. Combined with the large number of abandoned facilities she could potentially hole up in, it became the obvious choice.

She reached a gloved claw up under her helmet and scratched an ear, shifting her blue hair around a little to make it more comfortable. She took one final look at the forum she had been browsing before posting a final message and closing the page. Time to leave the city behind.

---

It was relatively easy to find somewhere to reactivate her cloak on Tier 3, and she dissolved the helmet into omnilium once again, happy to breathe properly even with the scent of singed air that the cloak provided. The streets were quieter, the darkening flourescant spheres high above replaced with the soft cones of lamplight.

It was also fairly easy to ascend the lifts, now that she knew what to look for. In under an hour, she had returned to Tier One, a fresh sky over her head whose stars were partially smothered by clouds and light pollution. Carmelita followed the signposts towards the Endless Dunes portal station, her boots padding quietly as she slunk through the shadows with confidence in her cloak.

She turned a corner to see the courtyard that the portal was situated in, several dozen stormtroopers standing guard while the dog-mechs (she’d learnt these were called FENRIS mechs by their manufacturer, one Hahne-Kedar) were spaced evenly around the square. There were floodlights all around the courtyard, the shadows nearly pitch black in relief. The portal itself was still being used, though compared to the Nexus portal station the foot traffic was nothing to write home about. Most of the traffic consisted of pallets of crates, loaded slowly onto a nearby delivery truck.

As Carmelita was pondering how to sneak in, she saw a hint of movement in the shadows on the balcony. She dived backwards out of instinct, a woman wearing some kind of ninja suit passing through the location she had just been standing without any indication that she’d seen her. The woman paused, and lifted a hand to an ear, presumably messaging someone. Carmelita held her breath, listening intently from the wall she was plastered against.

“This is Shadow Two, no hostiles spotted. I think we were fed bad intel, I haven’t seem even a hair out of place and the rebels aren’t sneaky enough to try and smuggle stuff through the portal without the help of a prime.”

There was a brief pause, before the woman gave a brief confirmation and slipped back into the shadows.

Carmelita waited five minutes before she'd calmed down enough to move. Apparently she’d timed this exactly wrong: if the Empire were expecting trouble from known malcontents, no doubt they had a much improved plan to deal with intruders. It looked like she’d have to improvise a distraction.

She doubled back on the route she had come from, and looked for something, anything, that would work as a distraction. A hoverbike, left unattended outside a pizza joint with the keys still in the shiny ignition system, gave her an idea. It was the work of a moment to find something suitable, but an abandoned newspaper gave her the opportunity. She lifted it in her hands, tumbling it over to look like it had been caught in a gust of wind to the cameras, and brought it down softly on the accelerator. The bike began moving forwards slowly, and Carmelita kept tugging the paper as though it was caught in the wind. She guided the bike down the street, slowly increasing the speed it was going at. When she couldn’t keep up anymore, she removed the paper, and as the bike drifted into the courtyard ducked into an alleyway and ran around the side alleys.

There was a lot of confused shouting as she hauled herself onto a balcony to overlook the courtyard properly. Below, the stormtroopers and FENRIS mechs were reacting as though they expected the bike to explode, several small groups branching off to cover the entrances or investigate where it came from. Several men and women, similarly dressed to Shadow Two, emerged from their hiding places, pulling out scanners and giving the bike a quick overview.

The perfect opportunity came when the owner of the bike turned up to retrieve it. The alien boy was quite clearly a pretentious heir of some business group, making a big scene with plenty of frantic posturing and indignant cries after one of the FENRIS mechs scraped against the side of the bike. Carmelita cautiously dropped from the balcony and began slowly making her way towards the portal. Thirty meters turned to ten meters, and she was carefully bypassing the machines when there was a soft snap.

She looked down in shock to see a tripwire, no thicker than a hair, broken by her footsteps. Laser sights flicked onto the green light that bathed her location. Carmelita swore in Spanish and dived away. Seconds later marksmen opened up on her location, blaster shots raining down from the nearby roofs and quickly scorching her previous location. FENRIS mechs immediately made their way to cordon her, chemical samplers twisting back and forth to try and find her scent. She leapt through a gap in between a few of the mechs, focusing mentally on the notice-me-not enchantment on her belt. There was a moment’s pause in the mechs’ steps, but that pause was enough for Carmelita to reach the portal and dive through, the sound of chaos behind her.