Chapter 3: To The Depths

  The briefing was fairly short, which wasn't surprising given the sparse amount of data they had, and there were only a handful of questions from the duo who would be taking on the mission. Which again, wasn't surprising.

  "I'm sure I'd have more questions if there was any more information to actually give me something to question," Vera observed dryly, though not actually appearing to be bothered by the fact that they were going in almost blind.

  Kayora crossed her arms, staring at the map of the facility they had pulled up as if it would give her answers if she just believed. "Outside of narrowing it down to this facility, we really don't know anything else? What they're doing in there, who is funding it, nothing?"

  "Unfortunately, no." Theron ran a hand through his fauxhawk, looking fairly apologetic. "We know it's a lot to ask of you, to go in based on our instincts and a scant offering of evidence, but that's where we're at." There was a moment of silence where Kayora and Vera made eye contact, apparently having an entire conversation without speaking.

  "We'll go. How are we getting there?"

  Though Theron may have been a little taken aback at how quickly the two had agreed, Lana was not. She had gone over Kayora's file quickly while Theron had been explaining the plan, and knew that both of their prospective agents would agree to go. "Exit through the rear entrance of this building and head down the street. About 400 meters away, there's a side street that will lead you to a pair of doors. Take the right door and follow the hallway until you get to an elevator marked with this symbol." She pointed to a symbol on one of the documents they had managed to acquire. "That will take you down to the lab."

  "Once you're in there, we need you to scour the entire area for anything that might be of use. Plans, equipment, any personnel who are willing to talk." Theron leaned forward, hands on the table. "Anything to give us an idea of what might be going on."

  Lana handed each of them a small communicator. "We'll be monitoring the situation from here and be able to contact you as necessary. Be prepared to lose signal though, we can't be sure of any interference or jammers in the lab itself. Once you've swept the facility, return through the same elevator and meet back here." Tucking the comm device into her wrist wraps, Kayora gave Vera another look and a smile, then turned to Theron.

  "Theron, can you show me where the back entrance is? I've got a couple unrelated questions I want to ask you as well." Letting out a groan, Theron waved Kayora to follow as he moved through a doorway that led farther back into the building.

  "This better not have anything to do with my mother." Lana heard the man say as both he and the Twi'lek disappeared from view, leaving her alone with Vera.

  She turned to the Chiss, who looked rather pleased with herself. "What was that all about?" inquired Lana, raising a sculpted eyebrow.

  Her question was met with a wide grin from Vera. "I may not agree much with Jedi, but that Twi'lek certainly knows how to read a room." Before she could delve further, Lana was silenced by Vera's lips on her own, backed by an intensity that caused Lana's mind to go blank. She reached out with the Force and felt the edge of Vera's emotions, an asynchronous mix of calm and urgency, swirling around each other like leaves in a hurricane. She barely noticed Vera's hands on her waist, all her attention being drawn to the soft, cracked lips that were interlocked with her own. Unconsciously, one of her hands slid up and cupped Vera's cheek, her thumb running along the scar that marred the skin there. Vera withdrew, but not before catching Lana's bottom lip between her teeth, drawing it out before letting it pop back. Turning her head, she pressed a kiss into the palm of Lana's hand before stepping back, creating some distance between them.

  "Just in case things go terribly down there, I wanted to make sure I at least got to do that before I end my story." Lana noticed that Vera had let go of her waist and picked her helmet back up, getting ready to head to the back of the building to meet up with Kayora.

  "Now that I know you kiss like that, you better not die down there," Lana breathed, her lips curling up into a smile as her mind finally settled itself.

  Vera gave her a wink before she slipped her helmet on. "Anything for you, beautiful."

—

  The incursion into the lab had gone according to plan. They easily sliced the elevator controls, and were lucky enough that there wasn't any further security past that. Well, any further technological security. Once the elevator doors had opened, Vera and Kayora had been set upon by a number of security guards, all of whom were dispatched quickly. Lana stood in front of her monitors while Theron paced behind her.

  "You're going to need to get the key card from the security chief to get through the next door. I can't hack it from here," Lana informed the two in the lab.

  "I take it we're not going to be able to ask nicely," Kayora responded, a hint of humor in her voice.

  "I'll ask nicely," Vera countered. "I just do my best asking from a distance."

  Lana shot a look of amusement at Theron as the other two continued to chatter back and forth. They reached the security chief, who was supported by two security droids that had an annoying habit of powering up a shield on whoever was getting attacked the most. Luckily, each droid could only power one shield, and after a little bit of strategy Kayora and Vera were able to quickly pivot their attacks, always focusing on the enemy that wasn't shielded. Eventually all three were defeated, and the duo moved on through the lab.

  "I'm detecting a surprising amount of force users ahead of you," Lana warned them. "You might want to be cautious."

  "It's sweet how you're worried." Vera's flirty response was punctuated by a series of gunshots, as well as a bit of screaming in the background. The screaming cut out as Vera stopped transmitting, and Lana assumed it cut out in reality fairly soon after.

  Turning to face the SIS agent still pacing behind her, Lana leaned back against the desk. "I'm surprised to see you so anxious."

  Theron stopped his pacing. "What makes you think I'm anxious? Maybe I just like pacing?"

  "Theron, you literally go out of your way to lean against walls when there are chairs in the room," Lana deadpanned.

  Letting out a sigh, Theron threw up his hands. "Fine, yes, I'm anxious. I've been hearing whispers of a cult and am concerned that this conspiracy we're investigating is part of those whispers. Which, if those whispers are true, we're going to have a lot of shit to deal with in the immediate future."

  "Good thing we found these two then," Lana said, sparing a glance back at one of the screens that she had managed to pull up a few of the lab security cameras on. Kayora and Vera were currently facing off against a Selkath who had an unhealthy obsession with lightning, and Lana smiled as she watched their two agents work in sync flawlessly, as if they'd been a team for years and not just hours. Vera fired a shot into one of the other enemies that was charging them as Kayora struck a blow against the Selkath, interrupting his storm attack and sending him stumbling backward.

  "Yeah, though I'm still not convinced with the hunter," Theron mused. Lana whipped around, narrowing her eyes at the man.

  "You don’t trust my judgment?" she accused.

  "I'm just worried that that judgment might be a little clouded by a certain attraction that is going on." Theron crossed his arms as he leaned against the wall, his favorite pose. "Yeah, I saw what happened after Kayora and I left the room."

  Lana scoffed. "Attraction or not, I'll have you know I chose Vera solely based on her capabilities. I didn't even have a physical description of her in the files I used."

  Theron held up his hands in surrender. "Fine, sorry, you're right.” He let out a sigh. “It's just a new situation for all of us."

  The radio crackled and Kayora's voice came through. "We found a Wookiee that's been the subject of some experiments down here. We've released him and he's going to help us find the scientist who's been running the experiments, hopefully to get some answers from him."

  Pulling up one of the cameras she had access to, Lana and Theron were able to see the Wookiee in question, who also had the head of a protocol droid strapped around his chest. They looked at each other and shrugged, then turned back to the screen.

  "Things have gone well so far, let's see if our luck holds."

—

  Their luck didn't exactly hold. While Kayora and Vera did find the scientist, and found out that he was working on creating an army of immensely powerful cyborgs, they were also informed that this army was being made for the Cult of Revan, a group of fanatics that worshiped a powerful Force-user who had died several centuries ago. Colonel Rian Davok and Darth Arkous, the Republic and Sith individuals who had been in charge of the Korriban and Tython attacks, also made an appearance, monologuing rather annoyingly before setting the self-destruct alarms blaring, apparently content at sending their lab to the bottom of the ocean just to see Vera and Kayora dead..

  Overall, a little good luck and a bit of bad luck.

  As Kayora and Vera dashed through the hallways that were slowly filling with water, Lana pulled up the controls of the submersible that she'd acquired as a backup plan. "I need you to head through the next room. I have an escape for you, but I also have to warn you there's a large energy spike in that room, mirroring the cyborg that was being worked on by the scientist."

  A loud yell of rage echoed through the comms. "You were right about the cyborg," Kayora shouted, trying to be heard over the sounds of combat as well as the noise of the lab tearing itself apart.

  Fingers flying over the keyboard, Lana looked to see if there was anything she could do to help. "You've got about five minutes before the lab drops to crush depth and everything gets really compact," warned Theron, who was on a datapad of his own.

  "You need to finish before that," Lana said, still looking for something to do on her end.

  "I'll do what you ask, but I usually like to draw it out." Lana could hear the innuendo dripping from Vera's reply, and felt the tips of her ears got slightly warm. This woman was incorrigible, and honestly, it was pretty hot.

  "One of the gas lines just burst loose from the ceiling," called out Theron. "It should be just a raging spout of flame. Lure the cyborg over there, it should short out his shielding." Lana and Theron waited with bated breath, listening to the sound of combat and labored breathing over the radio. Finally a thundering yell was heard, followed by silence.

  "One angry cyborg down," Vera informed them. Both Lana and Theron let out a sigh of relief.

  "Now, where's that escape route you mentioned?"