This occurs around the same time as FFM 2026 3: Dreaming Guilt.
This one is my first FFM 2026 story that went over the limit in the first draft (by 9 words). It’s also been the most difficult to name so far lol.
The firefight on the platform below was incredibly loud. Beyari would have to thank the Zomok crew for the new exploit on the α-CX-2049 Mechs next time she saw them, maybe buy them drinks if their timetables aligned (and hope that they would not drink her under the table again).
But first, she had to finish scaling this damn shiny building without getting shot, grab the prototype weapon she was here for and exfiltrate with the weapon without getting shot.
At least the shiny facade was not see-through from the other side. She knew she looked utterly ridiculous lifting the climbing gear and thus herself with telekinesis (not to mention the fact that a firefight now would force her to use her jetpack and make it a beacon for her position).
She managed to make it to the maintenance hatch at the top without incident and slipped inside. From there, it was fairly easy to navigate to the R&D section of the building, what with most of the personnel having been sent to deal with the “malfunctioning” security Mechs.
She knew the moment she got the last door open too fast that things were about to go south. She did not even as much as peek through the doorway, just waited a bit to see if the certain trap awaiting her would reveal its presence.
“Come in, little saboteur,” a creepy voice trilled in Koltonese from within the room, “I won’t bite you…” A pause while Beyari tried to map the room with Echolocation. There were multiple barriers inside that interfered with that. Likely forcefields. “…Although, I would certainly like to try this new weapon we’ve been working on on you.” The enemy — likely a high-ranking IRS Enforcer — was probably concealed by one of the barriers.
“Fun,” Beyari responded in Earth-Common. “What does it do?”
The likely-Enforcer replied in heavily accented Earth-Common, “Excruciating pain.“
“Oh joy.” Beyari knew she was on borrowed time; the likely-Enforcer had to have already alerted security. If only she could get a fix on their position; then she could use telekinesis on them and the weapon.
She had to think fast… The intel had nothing about the weapon’s capabilities of breaking or passing through forcefields… She could not tell if there was any purely physical cover inside… She did know that she could not allow herself to be hit by the weapon; it would be all over for her if she got even grazed.
“Come on now,” the creepy voice purred, “you’re not scared, are you?”
“Oh fuck off,” Beyari responded, making sure to put a hint of an underworld accent into her voice.
The creepy voice giggled. “Well, come in then. I’m not authorized to exit this room with this weapon just yet, so I have to wait for you.”
Her HUD notified Beyari that the last of the security Mechs she had exploited was down. She had to move now or else this mission would fail for sure. She could only hope that Foresight would guide her movements well enough to make it.
She slapped a sticky grenade through the doorway onto the other side of the wall and lunged away. The likely-Enforcer shot as she flew past the doorway but missed. Beyari stayed prone until the grenade went off, then rushed into the smoke, rubble and a maze of opaque forcefields. The likely-Enforcer started firing sooner after the distraction than she expected, the shots passing through the forcefields, but Beyari still could not get a fix on their location. She had to run and hope for the best.
A lunged roll to the left. A Movement-augmented dash forward. Two consecutive right turns. Shit.
A very close call right before she found physical cover to roll behind maybe at the other side of the maze.
Now Echolocation revealed the likely-Enforcer’s location. Beyari grabbed them, pulled the weapon to herself and moved in to stun them.
The sound of running steps came from the doorway. She was out of time.
It did not matter. She secured the weapon onto her back and stole the easiest-to-grab pieces of equipment from the Enforcer — it was an IRS Enforcer all right, a Major — and hoped that she would not have to use the experimental weapon on the personnel.
“Surrender, intruder! We have blocked your only exit!” someone called out from the doorway.
Beyari checked the forcefields. They reached the ceiling. She could not get a stun grenade past them.
She looked around — the forcefields’ controls! As long as she stayed in cover and had enough stun grenades, she should be able to fight her way out of this room.
She hunkered down and connected to the controls with the gift of Environment. The system did not seem to be designed to resist it, so she could easily… just lower the forcefields enough to get a stun grenade over them rather than turn them off altogether?
Let’s see if that actually works.
It took all five of her stun grenades to down everyone outside — she hoped that no one (undeserving) got grave injuries from multiple stuns — but soon the way was clear. Once she turned the forcefields off, she rushed back the way she had come from, pinging QWERTY while on the way, and jumped off the building the moment she had a visual on the Afterglow, right as turrets started to fire at it.
QWERTY rolled the ship so that she half fell, half levitated straight into the cargo hold, skidding to a stop on the floor when the ship’s artificial gravity took hold of her. The ship sped away before the cargo bay door even started closing.
“A success?” QWERTY asked via the intercom.
“Got the weapon.” Beyari allowed herself to remain prone on the floor as her adrenaline levels crashed. “Stole some stuff from an Enforcer. No idea if it’s anything useful but stole stuff anyway.”
“Excellent.”
Beyari closed her eyes, evened her breathing and let her partner get them both out of there.
WindySilver 