"Li, you had enough for one day. Take break, go to your room. You can call me Tavo."
"Thanks, Tavo, my… wife is still with the others. I'll go bring her up."
"Wow married! Congradulations?"
"Thanks Tavo, it's 'congratulations', by the way."
…
Departure from the Central Terminal was set at 7:50:00 Standard, but three of the Guardians were running late. There had been some issue deep in the station and takeoff was postponed indefinitely.
Li had offered to go back and find them, with renewed confidence in his previous rank, to which Aoki surprisingly agreed. Another B+ tier Guardian joined them, Saritha, who supposedly specialized in pressure combat.
"Aah shit… Let's get this over with. They aren't responding. They were last at… where again?"
"Inter Corridor 6"
"Up there then!"
The three broke into a sprint, moving through the growing crowd. Aoki and Saritha seemed to know their way around and Li figured he'd just trail behind. That soon proved to be harder than he thought. Aoki and Sarita moved extremely fast and their agility was far beyond average. Soon, Li found himself lagging behind, masses of other commuters between them.
Getting desperate, he began pushing, to the annoyance of many passengers, not wanting to tell more people of his crazy forgetfulness situation.
Interestingly enough, the Central Terminal soon grew somewhat familiar. If I was an A-tier before, I must have traversed this place countless times, just like Aoki and Saritha!
The "Inter Corridor 6" suddenly became clear in his mind. It was a risk but he counted on his past to guide him to the right place. Breaking off from the others, he ran into a less populated holding chamber, turning into an empty maintenance lift which, after fumbling around stupidly, managed to get working.
The lift shot up unexpectedly, causing Li to fall on his back. Little did he know that a few of the security guards who were watching through the cameras had a small chuckle.
Dim light slowly filled the lift as Li exited into a drab hallway marked in multiple languages "6". A large weighted door was left somewhat open on the right and Li exited, onto the roaring tunnel that he assumed was the inter corridor. Nothing seemed out of place here so he followed the crowd into the major transportation route.
Everyone here seemed to be shouting over something and the sheer amount of movement and activity was enough to make Li nearly unconscious. Scanning the crowd, he tried to apply something he had learned back in computer science class; to look at a jumble and look for what objectively stuck out. It had been particularly helpful for him when reading over the hundreds of lines of code.
In the far end, near a large update board, a large crowd had gathered. The three heroes that went missing were in the center, a hostile mob within the inner circle, surrounding them. It was obvious that they were overpowered by their oppressors and Li hesitated to step in. Feeling his sides, he felt a small gun that had been standard equipped to every Guardian.
The smoothness of the barrel gave him confidence, though his heart pounded, his mind looking for every other excuse not to make a move. The memory of Kryne darted back and forth. What if the Guardians really were just disrupting everyday life.
Then, Li's mind went back to Xiao Shu. Something evil in this universe had taken his best friend's life and pushed him down from where he worked his ass off to get. He fidgeted with the trigger for a moment, his heart beats making him unsteady and shouted:
"Covenant of the Guardians! Make way! Make way!!"
The noise toned down significantly as Li pushed his way through the crowd with fake confidence, his legs ready to give out at any moment. At last, he had reached the mob and saw the large beasts that had surrounded the heroes.
It was all of one species, large, almost bullish, but being covered in armor, their true build was undetermined. Drawing his gun, Li fired two shots at the nearby wall.
"Make way for the Guardians! What is the issue here?!"
From afar, it would appear that Li was in control of the situation, but anyone near him could see the desire in his eyes to stop his hands from shaking.
A small robotic bug hovered over to Li's face, beeping and whirring as the largest of the beasts began growling in a low voice.
"The Honorary Magistrate of Bos Taurus inquires the reason behind the sudden COG occupation on his home planet. He has been dismissed from the regional council and has faced threats. The three Guardians here were just transferred off his planet. He is demanding an immediate explanation."
"W-well… Tell him I don't know; he can inquire with the Overseer later! We're busy right now."
The small critter began translating, only to be nearly crushed by the large fist of the magistrate who began to roar and point at Li.
"The Honorary Magistrate demands you provide an explanation now. His people do not want any occupation on their cultural sites and the COG have been causing a chain reaction of negative events that threaten the current regime's authority. He believes that the COG is trying to suppress the development of his species."
Li was at a loss of words. How was he supposed to know what was going on?
"I am telling you, I don't know! I am not part of the system command! I am sure that if he was patient enough, there would have been a clear answer!"
The critter was destroyed before it got halfway through the translation of the reply. The bull roared, slamming a fist onto the wall near Li's head, bits of the artificial surface scratching his skin.
"Hey! Hey! What's happening!"
Turning his head, Li saw Aoki running towards them, glaives unsheathed, still gleaming in the dim lighting. He tried to locate the Saritha lady but she revealed herself, knocking the magistrate back while swiftly disarming his henchmen, their weapons clattering uselessly to the ground.
Moments later, Aoki dived in, holding the necks of the beasts at the edge of his glaives; ready to slice deep at any moment.
"Honorary Magistrate, I will have to if you do not comply. Li, take the Guardian's to the ship, we'll deal with this."
Li nodded, swallowing hard. His hands were still shaking and as he led the others down the path he had taken, he nearly stumbled twice. The gun never left his hand.