[Mars, 148 years after first contact]
The sound of dripping liquid echoed across the silent chamber, breaking the perfect stillness with each repetitious drop. It was a cold, damp room, built beneath the surface of Mars when humanity first began to claim the planet. Since then, it was a perfect location for smuggling goods and people, so long as the authorities had forgotten its existence. High above the wet concrete sat a skinny human, her body lying perfectly still on top of a broken fan blade.
Across her cheek and covered legs was a splatter of blood, still moist from its previous owner. But there was no life left in the body it came from, nor could any be seen within the eyes of the girl who lay still. Her name was Sonera, and she was still alive. Beneath her rested the body of her victim, whose corpse still contained the shard of rusted metal from the killer.
"Her dress," Sonera spoke with an emotionless tone. "Do I need it?"
A voice replied from a small chip deep inside her ear.
"They're only expecting one girl, that was all. The rest of the details don't matter."
"She wore white," Sonera replied, her eyes shifting downwards towards the dead girl, whose blonde hair shimmered in the light coming from above. "They might expect that."
"Just...try to smile and they'll overlook it."
"No."
Sonera then balanced her way across the rusted ceiling with ease, before leaping down onto the floor of the chamber, her bare feet scraping against the floor.
"Oh, and clean the blood off you."
"Yes." Sonera nodded, wiping her cheek with a nakpin she had stolen before tossing it aside. "Good luck on your end, Five."
"Hah," the man chuckled on the other side of the intercom, his voice garbled by static. "She's calling me by my codename now. How sweet. Good luck to you, too, Sonera."
The frail girl then stared down at her feet, tilting her head with an animistic curiosity before moving on. Sonera had always been observant, even when she was merely a child. Since then, she hadn't grown a whole lot, making her perfectly unassuming. What she had gained in that time was a sense of cunning, allowing her to identify the nature of the tunnel she had begun to traverse.
The old ruins were used quite often, as seen by the sticky particulate of its trailing water being unable to settle properly. But more importantly, Sonera could tell that no form of heavy equipment had been brought in for ages, meaning her prey was under-equipped. At most, a few combat frames had been dragged through, and she was more than confident handling those.
"State your business," a rough voice came booming through the other side of the tunnel as Sonera continued to step through the tunnel, her footsteps becoming increasingly easy to detect.
She knew who the guard was and how untrusting he had become over the last few weeks. Such information was deliberately passed on to her by her family, whose piercing gaze had fixated on the surrounding area for some time. As long as she remained on task, there would be no surprises for Sonera.
A light then flashed onto her body, causing her left finger to twitch for a brief second. In response, Sonera raised a small jeweled necklace, a token stolen from her previous victim. Having recognized the girl as an invited guest, the man lowered his rifle, gesturing for Sonera to hurry along.
"They sent you alone?" The man scoffed, checking that his service rifle was still loaded. "Wearing that?"
Sonera didn't respond, as if waiting for her cue. She stepped closer to the man, looking up at him with her cold gaze. In her experience, it was smarter to let others speak first, a minimum of two times.
"Orange eyes, huh, like Mars. Nevermind, I get why they wanted you." The man nodded, waiting for a response from Sonera. "You can talk, you know. God, these girls keep getting younger and younger."
"That rifle isn't getting any younger," Sonera quipped, changing her tone in an instant. "You get that from Earth?"
"Hah! You're funny," the man laughed. "But I wouldn't do that around the buyer, he's got an ego."
For the briefest of moments, Sonera felt pity for the tunnel worker. He was clearly a pawn in the operation. And his chances of surviving the rest of her family were approximately zero. Or at the very least, the young girl had grown a habit of sympathizing with the more gentle of soldiers. Killing them was no fun.
"Come along now," the man opened a rusty door as he spoke, leading Sonera out of the tunnels and into a dusty basement. "He's waiting."
The girl soon found herself in a much warmer parlor of sorts, its old, earthy tiles and leather chairs reminding her of a museum. Across a large table, covered in glasses of nearly every variety, sat the buyer she had heard of. He was a fat old man with balding black hair, like something she would see out of a comic book. And despite the abundance of armed gaurds surrounding him, Sonera felt it difficult to contain her excitement.
"Five will like this." Sonera thought to herself, feeling content with the notion. "I'll show him."
"Not bad," the large man coughed, pulling a brown cigar out of his mouth. "I haven't seen the street sweepers do this good in months. What ya do? Kidnap her from the big city?"
Sonera had no response, as always, waiting for a second comment.
"Ah...that can't be it. She's a quiet one. Let's get on with it then."
The large man then grabbed Sonera by her skinny wrist, pulling her into a nearby room before slamming the door. She had counted nearly a dozen gaurds by that point, all lounging around the parlor like they had nothing better to do. Inside the smaller room, which was left for private affairs, was a round decorum of picture frames, containing images from Earth. In the center lay one cushioned bench, which Sonera found herself sitting on after being lifted off the ground.
"Is it natural?" The man asked with a squint as he ran his fingers through Sonera's silver hair, inspecting the orange hues that could be seen glistening along its surface.
"Yes." Sonera nodded, unbuttoning her own brown vest as she nonchalantly began to undress
The man stopped her halfway, insisting on removing the left strap of Sonera's bra himself. Throughout the entire process, she remained unfazed, allowing the act to continue as if waiting eagerly for her cue. And just as she had predicted, a loud thud rocked the dusty room, causing a cloud of dirt to fall onto the man.
"Who the hell-." The large man complained, unaware that Sonera's eyes had been lit up with fervent energy.
Without mercy or hesitation, Sonera shattered a nearby picture frame with her bare hand, grasping at a broken shard of glass before assaulting the man with all her feral might. It didn't really matter how badly the improvised weapon cut into her own palm; she had become entirely focused on her prey. As if judging herself for every moment she left the target alive, Sonera increased the ferocity of her attack, grunting like a wild animal as she slammed the shard deeper and deeper into the man's neck.
"Sloppy." Sonera cursed at herself. "The jugular is so easy, yet he's so fat."
Ultimately, the victim hadn't even gained the chance to scream, his blood drowning out his own voice as he slumped onto the ground. Sonera was known for many things at that stage of her life. But clean kills were evidently not one of them. Covered in blood, she climbed over the corpse before rushing into the parlor room. There she found Five and four more of her uncles, their black armor obscuring their masculine features as a blinding streak of bullets shot out from their rifles.
"Can't let them do it all," Sonera complained as she muttered in her own mind again. "Not again."
Rushing forward, she grabbed a firearm from a nearby corpse before picking one of the last remaining targets. It was a rather quick shootout, with the parlor's inhabitants being utterly outmatched in both prep and gear. But at the very least, before her magazine was spent, Sonera managed to gun down one man before angrily tossing her weapon to the ground.
She had a habit of doing that, from what her uncles knew. Sonera was so incredibly composed during a mission, yet when she found herself victorious, she would lose control and rage at herself. It was almost as if she were expecting herself to do better.
"All clear?" Five signaled with his right hand, his black visor covered in blood. "Good."
"What about the target?" Another masked man asked, shrugging with a playful demeanor as he swung his SMG across his shoulder. "Anything left of him?"
"My guy, Three, it's Sonera. He's sushi." Five laughed.
The squad leader then walked over to Sonera carefully, stepping over broken glass with his heavy boots. He knew it wasn't wise to set the girl off, given her unstable nature. But when he finally reached his little niece, she looked up and gave a tender smile.
"You good, Sonera?" Five asked as he knelt down. "Your uhh...your shirt is loose."
The operative then carefully placed Sonera's bra strap back onto her shoulder before fixing her vest, knowing full well she didn't care one way or the other. At that time, all Sonera could do was stare at the operative, envying his tinted drop-trooper mask and black Kevlar vest. She thought it was the most handsome look in the world.
"Did...I do well?" Sonera tilted her head with wide eyes.
"Well? Girl, you're the best. Your sisters would be proud."
"No, they wouldn't. They're busy with a dance routine. Sucking up to Grandmamma."
"Oh, now she gets talkative." Three chuckled, sitting himself down on a table after brushing aside a bloody corpse. "Here we go."
"Listen, Sonera...she let you on the team, Grandmother is proud of you." Five reassured her.
"They hate me."
"Yeah, cause you're better than them."
"True enough," Three pointed at another squad member who nodded in approval. "We saw you a while back. Made those other ballerinas look like novices."
"Did you see me?" Sonera smiled longingly at Five.
"I...did yea. But I was in a different group. For both age and gender. That's why Grandmamma is doing you such a kindness here. She's so much stricter with the girls."
"She has plenty of spies."
"Yeah, yeah, girls who can wear skirts and pretend to be street whores. But you're not all that. You're with us. A clean-up crew."
Sonera opened her arms for a hug before stopping herself. Years of conditioning had taught her not to show warmth. Ironically, when it came to the Bratva on Mars, they had a tradition of letting the men roam free with their emotions, whereas the girls were caged dolls. Sonera could practically still feel her daily routine, always being watched by her mother as the prized jewel of the family, always receiving the same answer when she asked to change positions. She didn't hate the pain in her heels or the way she would be treated by men. In fact, Sonera was rather content being a tool. But in the end, she always struggled to become the honed edge her brothers and uncles had been destined to be.
"Five." Sonera looked up at the operative longingly. "Thank you."
Five knew how ironic it was for the men of the Bravta to be given new names and tinted helmets to hide their humanity, all the while receiving more freedom and opportunity than their sisters. And if he were still a young boy, he likely would have found Sonera to be the girl of his dreams. He remembered their first meeting like it had happened just the other night, when he had been called in to protect the church from a supposed assault. But in that brief moment of panic, all he found was a false alarm and a changing room full of blood. Sonera was there, beating her sisters to a pulp after one of them tried to cut her hair.
As always, the young girl only ever grew frustrated after she emerged victorious. Her silent tirades were bloody and excessive, even back then. But the one thing that could calm her, ever since they first met, was Five.
"Remember what you used?" Five laughed.
"A comb." Sonera blushed.
"A fukin comb."
"I shouldn't have killed her. I wanted her to feel that pain forever."
"I still can't beleive that was over hair."
"It wasn't. I just...needed to do that."
"You would have made one hell of an operative, do you know that, Sonera?"
"I'd rather be-."
A call began to buzz in Sonera's ear, causing her to flinch and shudder. Five got the same message as he turned to his team. They all suddenly began to ready their weapons, ignoring Sonera as if she had just left the room.
"It's the church." Sonera frowned.
"Stay here." Five ordered, moving away from her.
"You know I won't. I can protect myself."
"Everyone knows you can fight Sonera, but you weren't trained for everything."
"I won't stay!" Sonera cried out, showing an unusual amount of emotion.
Five replied by pulling out his sidearm, switching its munitions to stun before firing it into Sonera's chest. Realizing that wouldn't stop her, he fired two more, silently looking down at the girl as she slumped to the ground. The fireteam then departed with great haste, leaving Sonera behind.
"Five..." Sonera whimpered as she crawled across broken glass. "I won't...leave you."
Driven by her love and rage, the young girl managed to rouse herself by clutching the sharp glass on the floor, forcing adrenaline into her system through both pain and loss of blood. Under no circumstances would she let her family fight alone. It was no longer about her pride or her sense of duty. She just wanted to be with him.
The church was merely three clicks away, nestled deep in the slums of old Mars. From what she had heard from the communications device, her home was under attack, the intensity of which had already silenced the report mere moments after it came through. The perpetrator could be another crime family, or the authorities; the possibilities were frankly endless. But Sonera didn't care; all she wanted was to find her family.
When she finally hobbled her way across the slums, what she found was worse than she could have imagined. Every glass pane on the Russian church had been shattered, as the staircase leading towards the main chapel was seen littered with the dead. Some unknowable force had plowed through the crime family, slaughtering both men and women without remorse. Sonera knew there couldn't have been an army, nor could she prescribe such brutal efficiency to another assassin. There were no bullet holes to be seen on the walls, no stab wounds on the bodies of the fallen, only broken bones and disfigured faces.
A monster had found her home.
Stumbling inside, Sonera came face to face with a looming figure, its singular eye staring at her with anticipation.
"Sonera," the tall alien whispered into the girl's mind, its sleek armor scraping against the wooden pews as it walked towards her. "Isn't that your name?"
The alien was feminine in nature, wearing heels and a two-pronged helmet atop its head. Slung across its waist was a sidearm nearly the side of Sonera's body, its barrel suspiciously cold and unused. The hands of the creature were thin and spindly, with only three fingers pointed at the girl as it raised its arm. But most noticeable of all was the alien's face, blank and unmeutable, with only one gleaming eye in its center.
"I am Yrix. A Psion of the Consortium. I have come to-."
Just then, a hail of bullets erupted from behind the alien, stopping dead in their tracks as an invisible barrier smashed them into pieces.
"Five!" Sonera screamed, realizing her family was the one to emerge from the ruins. "Run!"
"How curious," Yrix scoffed, her voice still booming in Sonera's head, causing the girl to fall to her knees. "Humans are braver than I thought."
"I didn't hear a bell." Five coughed, his voice barely escaping through the gash in his visor.
The operative then retrieved a grenade from his front pouch before pulling its pin with his thumb, hurling it at the alien with a surprising amount of force. Predicting its countermeasures, he managed to shoot the explosive midair, changing its payload into a cloud of black dust that disguised his movement. Yrix seemed visibly amused, relaxing her posture as she watched for the human's next move. A steel beam then levitated beside her, its sharpest edge pointed at Five as he emerged from the shadows.
"The Consortium rewards bravery. I'll make this painless."
But to Yrix's surprise, Five had managed to duck under the metal beam just as it passed over his head. Unholstering his sidearm, he pivoted away from a second barrage, this time coming from under the pews. Such a display of skill had genuinely impressed Yrix, convincing her she had come to the right place.
"That's quite enough." Yrix waved her hand, pulling Five towards her with a visible aura of Psionic energy surrounding him. "Die honorably."
Before Sonera could scream, Yyrix squeezed her hand, turning her beloved into a red mist in an instant. It was indeed a painless death, just as she promised. Enraged, Sonera pulled a knife from a nearby corpse, hurling it at Yrix.
"Such wrath. I know you'll make a good student." Yrix boasted, plucking the knife out of the air before bringing it up close for inspection.
Posing her fingers, Yrix flicked her wrist, sending an entire pew barreling towards Sonera. It crashed into the girl, knocking her down completely. To ensure the job was done, Yrix lifted another pew, casually letting it fall onto Sonera as she stared intently at the knife.
"Sleep now, child," the alien whispered to Sonera, the girl's eyes closing shut as she spoke. "You'll have plenty of chances to prove yourself."