Breath

[Lillianne Crasse]

A figure lay prostrate on hill 20 clicks to the west of the Boone estate, macro-binoculars to her face as she studied the layout of the back entrance and what security she could see from this distance. Hearing a rustle coming from behind her, she turned her head and took a glance only to find that Josy had returned with her datapad in hand.

Josy, making sure she was out of eye and scope-sight, smiled as she turned on the datapad and began to scan through the schematics of the estate. It's funny how bureacrats seemed to build such elaborate buildings but use several different contractors, leaving behind tons of paper trail for an interested party to find.

"How's it look?" Boann asked her.

"Not quite candy from a baby, but nothing we can't handle," Josy answered with a smirk on her face. "How about your end?"

Boann turned back to the estate pulling up her binoculars again and zooming in as she saw them changing guard for the day. "Not too terrible. It's still a shame we don't have a bomb to drop on them, though. I want this one to cry for his mommy."

Josy laughed at that, raising an eyebrow at her sister's remark. "You know, I didn't think you'd ever have it in you, sis."

"I don't take kindly to being played a fool. He deserves everything that's coming to him," she answered with clenched teeth. "Let's head out."

Crawling down the hillside, they grabbed their packs and made their way in the cover of night toward the estate.

 

[The Agriculturist]

Days. Or was it weeks? It did not matter. This was the job he should not have taken. Boone was notrious for taking matters into his own hands, and he made no exception with Asturias. And now, the freelancer was sitting in a darkened, claustrophobic chamber, knowing nothing of the outside galaxy, and breathing through a device around his head. Boone had done this before.

After a certain while, one stops planning one's escape, and focuses on surviving. This machine would keep him alive, yet every breath brought a sedative into his lungs, keeping him contained. Not a happy situation.

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

Picking their way across the landscape, both sisters were careful to make no sound and not alert the guards on the rooftops to the activity below. Boann and Josy both knew the man would not be so daft to have all of his security inside. Any man who believed himself important enough had sentry droids outside the entrances as well as perimeter safeguards.

Before Boann took another step forward, Josy reached out and grabbed her sleeve, stopping her quickly. A couple more steps and Boann would have tripped the first alarm. Boann turned her face back to her sister thanking her with her glance as she knelt down and began to investigate the trip device. It was a relatively simple design, similar to the common land mines. Yet, she dared not touch them, remembering what her sister had told her previously.

Josy pulled up her datapad and began to go over the schematics again. Along this perimeter there was an access point to the system. It seemed ever since the master had his best hounds killed by his safety devices he instead had several failsafes. There wasn't always time to run inside and shut down the "trips" and save his replacement hounds, another problem the girls knew they'd have to be watchful for.

How did the girls come upon such information? Well, after his hounds had been killed by the "trips" surrounding the estate in a foiled robbery attempt, Mr. Boone had been quick to ensure such an accident never happened again. News of the attempted break in had been splattered all over the local news. Shortly afterwards, a well known security company had been hired to install a failsafe on the grounds in several locations and tied to the main security system. The only problem with the system was that in order for it to be effective, one had to disable the system before the "trips" had been..well, triggered.

There was a good news and a bad news scenario on the trips, though. You could only disable the "trips" from one of the access points on the grounds. There was no way to disable one without tripping the whole system and setting off the alarms. Hence the reason for the acrobatics.

Pulling her macrobinoculars out again, she checked the guard on his rounds and waited for him to turn his back upon them. It was now or never. The two sisters had been practicing this act since they first decided to blow the estate. Boann gave the go ahead and quickly braced herself, cupping her hands together as Josy climbed up on top of her shoulders. Feet braced on her shoulders and Boann struggling beneath the weight of her sister, she looked up and gave Josy the go ahead again. Josy, taking her cue, jumped off her sister's shoulders and over the "trip" line, tumbling on the other side with a slight ouff.

Once Boann was sure Josy was okay, she knelt back down on the ground and watched the guard as he turned back in their direction and began to patrol as usual. It seemed as if he hadn't heard or seen anything, as was the plan. Wiping a bead of sweat off her brow, she smiled victoriously. Josy, however, was already on her way toward the security access panel.

OOC: If you don't want to post again just pm me and I'll go on with the next post.

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

Josy crept low to the ground, keeping an eye out for the hounds that would be out on patrol. As she approached the console, she pulled out her security tunneler and began to access the security system. Shutting down the cameras on the west side of the building, far from the side she and Boann would be entering, Josy waited for the security to take the bait and then let the "trips" down.

Checking the other cameras, she made a few terminals on the northwest side of the complex overload, frying the men nearby. Hearing her sister coming up behind her, she turned and riffled through her bag, pulling out the haunches of meat. The hounds would be sent loose on the grounds next.

Sure enough, she began to hear the barking and immediately threw the haunches of meat toward the dogs. It would keep them occupied only for a short time. Meanwhile, Boann ran for a window on the lower floor. Pulling out her tools, she applied the reactive compound to the window seal, thin trails of noxious fumes were released as the compound ate through the window. Kicking the window inward, she quickly slipped inside and waved for Josy to do the same.

Once both were safely inside, they pulled their blasters and made their way toward the lower levels. It was time to set this baby up for a dramatic implosion.

 

[The Agriculturist]

His eyes tried once more to see through the compound through which he was floating. His lungs once more inhaled the sedative, his sense becoming blurry, and heart rate slowing. He was sure of it now....the sedative would eventually kill him. The process would be slow. He had been dying since he was imprisoned here, and this was his torture.

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

With the cameras successfully taken on out the west side of the building, the security was going floor by floor systematically. Only one patrol was left on the first floor as the others had moved on to the higher floor. The perimeter hadn't been set off so they were thinking, wrongly, that the perpetrator had to have come in from above.

Ducking in a closest before the patrol rounded the corner, the twins waited for them to pass. There was no need to signal their location to them now. A blaster fight would do just that too. Once the footsteps grew distant, Boann peeked outside and then quietly stood guard as Josy checked her datapad. Pointing in the direction in which the lift was located to take them below, the two hurried toward the lift. Slicing into the panel and tricking it to believe the passcard had been entered, they watched as the doors shut, closing them off from the guards. The easy part was done, now came the hard part.

As the lift doors opened, Boann and Josy pulled up their blasters, looking for any signs of trouble. It looked like the basement wasn't used as a pantry/storage. Instead, it looked like they had just come into some strange torture room.

"What is this place?" Josy whispered, as she looked at the strange torture devices hanging on a nearby wall. There also was a blood splattered table standing upright, blood somewhat fresh on it. It seemed Mr. Boone had been engaging in his "hobby" an hour or two prior to their arrival.

Boann didn't bother to respond as she continued to check out the room, making sure it was clear. Once she was satisfied, she stuck her blaster back into her holster and began to pull the charges and fuses out of Josy's bag. Josy's eye, though, seemed to have caught something more interesting.

"Well well well. Will you look at this. I wonder what he did?" she said, looking over his naked torso with a smirk on her face. "Get a load of this, sis," she called.

 

[The Agriculturist]

He sensed more then saw the two...figures, in the room. He had little energy left, the sedative was doing its job very, very well.

Summoning all the strength he possible could, he raised his hand up through the liquid, and banged on the tank, although lightly due to lack of ability at the given moment. If they did not notice him, he was as good as dead.

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

As the man raised a hand and banged against the glass, Boann and Josy both jumped with at the unexpected noise.

"Boann! He moved! Come here and help me," Josy said as she pulled out the compound Boann had used on the window and began to apply it to the tank.

Boann was helpless to ignore her sister's request as the compound began to eat away the tank and the liquid began to pour from it. Wrapping the explosives up and putting them back in her bag, quickly so they did not get wet, she began to help her sister pry the loose glass away. As they ripped off the piece of glass, the liquid gushed everwhere, soaking them to the bone. Along with the water, the man floated out, landing upon poor Josy, pushing her head down into the liquid. Josy's hands flayed around, knocking the mask off of the man as she clasped to his wet body, trying to push him off of her.

Boann waded through the liquid and grabbed her sister's tunic with one hand pulling her out of the water and attempting to pull her out from under the man. Coughing and sputtering twice, Josy got to her feet and knelt down beside the man, trying to catch her own breath. Poking him with her fingers a couple of times, she tried to get a response out of him.

Yet, as he made no move, Josy shrugged and bent over him, giving him a lengthy kiss.

"What are you doing, Josy?" Boann cried out in shock. "That's not how you give mouth to mouth."

 

[The Agriculturist]

Instinct kicked in. He pushed the woman off of him, inhaling deeply the clean air of the room, the sedative now bieng diluted in the oxygen that he has been craving for his entire imprisonment.

Slowly, he rose to his feet, giving his head a shake so that his long hair would rid itself of the liquid in which he was floating. Finally his eyes came to rest on the two women standing before him...His would be rescuers.

"You wouldn't happen to have a towel, would you?"

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

Josy fell back in the water making a splash as she watched the man she had thought dead stand and talk to them. His words went in one ear and out the other as she began to let her eyes wonder down his figure. My, was he a specimen.

Boann seemed to be just as caught up as she looked at his sculpted chest. "Umm...a...a what?" she asked, forcing her eyes back up to his face and those...eyes.

 

[The Agriculturist]

He did not have the energy nor time to smile, although that would have been his natural choice of action. His release would surely be announced to boone, and security would arrive shortly. They had to leave.

"We need to leave. Gun?"

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

Boann's eyebrows furrowed as he began to tell them that they had to leave. "No!" she cried at him. "We can't leave until we rig this place."

Pulling her pack out again, careful to keep it out of the liquid, she began to pull out the explosives and fuses again. Boann was as stubborn as they came.

"Let me rig it, sis. I can do it in half the time. We don't need a careful explosion this time. You and handsome here can handle the guards, right?" she asked, turning her gaze back to the man.

"You rig it?!" Boann cried. "You'll blow us all to kingdom come if you rig it."

"Have you got a better idea?"

"Well....no," Boann finally admitted.

"Good," Josy said, taking her blaster out and tossing it to the man. "Keep me covered and I'll have us out of here in no time."

 

[The Agriculturist]

"And now I am bieng ordered around by little girls. Great improvement" He said, as he loaded and primed the blaster, taking cover behind a medium sized crate that rested a few paces ahead of Boann.

A minute had barely passed before the sound of metal clanks came ringing down the hall. The droids were here.

"Get ready...."

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

"Little girls? Little girls? This little girl just saved your sorry butt. We could have just left you to blow with the rest of the building," Boann shot back at him as she primed her own blaster and aimed.

As the first droid entered the room, Boann fired a flurry of shots toward the droids. Accuracy was always nice, but when you were faced with multiple targets a few stray shots could always hit another target.

Josy seemed oblivious to the danger, keeping low to the ground and continuing to set the charges. One fifth of the job was already done. They only had to hold out for another...oh, twenty minutes or so...easy as pie, right?

 

[The Agriculturist]

If pie was easy, this pie had metal sharpnel and a few explosives in the batter. But it was nothing Asturias could not handle. When it came to blasters, his accuracy had never failed, and he was well known for that.

Each shot whisped through the distance, cackling as it burned the air between the blaster and the droids, and than a pang was heard as it hit home, leaving a no longer functioning droids slopped down on the floor with a smuldering breast plate.

"Why don't you take a break and have a drink?" He yelled sarcastically to Josy. These droids were jokes, and came with the alarm system. But Boone's men would soon show up, and they were more trained than these droids...

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

The remark was mostly ignored by Josy as she continued wiring the explosives. Half of the foundation was now wired to explode. If she could just get a few more minutes...

Yet, as she moved to another area of the torture room, the lift sounded. It seemed Boone's men were right on schedule. Boann turned her eyes upward as she heard the scurrying coming through the ductwork. Running toward the man, she grabbed him, and pulled him back further as the pink of a grenade hitting the floor near where he had been crouched was heard. Laying flat on the ground and covering her head, she closed her eyes waiting for the boom of the grenade to go off.

Josy had looked up just as the sound of the grenade hitting the floor resounded through the room. The force of the blast sent her backwards as she felt blinding pain. The sound of blaster fire then ripped through the underground facility. Josy whimpered as she blindly grasped for the last block of explosives and plunged the fuse inside. This was the best they were going to get if they wanted to make it out alive.

 

[The Agriculturist]

In the little time he had been with the two girls, he had learned much about them. And with that came the latest discovery; they had no knowledge of combat. But combat was where he excelled, it was his work, and his life. The rushing girl should have not removed him from his position. He had seen the grenade, and was going to simply return it to its sender, and secure them a getaway. But now, plans have changed. The grenade did luckily create some debris between them and the guards.

"No time for that now" he said as he pushed Boann off of him, making an obvious sexual remark. She was young, but she couldn't have been that young. Staying low, he ran to Josy, lifting her kicking the detonator to Boann.

"Time to go."

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

Boann scurried back to her feet, glancing back behind them to see the men trying to clear the way and get them before they fled. Turning back around, she watched as he picked Josy up, kicking.

Had the circumstances been different and her eyes not blinded, Josy would have enjoyed it. Yet, unsure of who had grabbed her at first, she began to beat against his back, only then realizing it was bare. It was then and only then she knew the man they had saved was not running out of there with her.

Boann bent down and picked up the detonator, quickly running after the man and a now content Josy who was laughing. "We should do missions like this more often," she said as her eyesight started slowly returning.

Josy's datapad had been lost in the shuffle, meaning Boann had no inkling of how to get out of this room. The only way in and out that she had known was the one in which they had taken. Still, there had to be some kind of emergency exit should the lift stop working. Boone wouldn't allow himself to be trapped below...

 

[The Agriculturist]

They didn't have much time. As Josy came too, he felt that she was well enough to walk, and let her down, keeping his quick pace as he headed through the hallways looking for a way out.

Coming to a door, he made several motions to the sensor, but it did not respond. A counsol and screen next to the door flashed, "Please Present Identification".

"Oh, how could I have forgotten?" He said, using the blaster to destroy the counsol, forcing the door to open. He ran through and outside, just as the guards rounded the corner, tossing a grenade to where he and the girls were standing. He really hoped those girls would follow him out, it would be a shame for them to die now.

 

[Lillianne Crasse]

OOC: I'm assuming when you say outside, we're outside the facility now? I need the clarification before I post, dear. Sheesh, get pissy in the pm why don't you...lol. I've alot on my plate at work so be patient. :P


Josy and Boann didn't waste time as Boann wrapped her arm around her sister and rushed her out the doorway as the grenade hit the ground. The concussion of the blast pushed them forward, knocking them to the ground briefly. Immediately, Boann and Josy were back on their feet and hurrying out of the facility. The cold night air felt good on their flushed faces, yet caused the girls to shiver as a light breeze began blowing, striking their soaked clothing.

Boann's eyes began searching the grounds, knowing the hounds would be on the loose and the hunt. The meat was enough to keep them occupied only long enough for them to enter the facility. Not long after they had exited the building, deep growling could be heard followed by the sound of barking as the kath hounds charged for them. Boann used her free hand to fire off blaster bolts as she ran with Josy. It still was too early to blow the compound. They needed more distance between them and the building before she hit the trigger; yet, if worse came to worse, she'd hit it early, taking the chance that the blast wouldn't burn them in the process.