When a large piece of durasteel came flying past her and into some thugs, she nearly cried.
Her relief at Simon's arrival was short-lived however as most of the blasters that had been trained on her, turned towards where he was, albeit out of her sight. Fear gripped hold of her heart completely knowing full well that his men would still need to follow - he was alone for now.
Then a wave of Darkness swept through the cavern.
It chilled her to the bone as criminals closest to the entrance were all briefly lifted into the air before being choked to death. A new kind of fear gripped hold of her, causing her to disengage her saber. She slid down against the wall, weariness and a bone chilling cold wracking through her. She barely saw the wave of white armour sweep into cavern to secure everything.
Then another white armour was in front of her.
"Ma'am, can you try and sit up for me?" asked the helmet and Zhea registered the Medi kit he was rummaging through. The combat medic - what was his name? The cold fog made it hard to remember, her brow furrowing. Then a jab into her thigh had the fog and cold clearing.
"Just a stim, ma'am."
Finally his name registered in her mind as the fog cleared.
"Thank you, Markram." came her raspy reply as she sat up straighter while he rummaged further. Then he was at her shoulder, cleaning it before placing a patch onto it.
"Any time, ma'am." he said as he grabbed another patch from the kit.
Then Simon was there next to her.
The fear for his soul was briefly placed on the backburner as his touch soothed the rest of her pain. The relief that he was here, outweighed her worries for the moment. They could discuss it later. A small, tired smile spread on her face as she looked at him.
He and Markram conversed quickly regarding her injuries. Exhaustion had her silent, otherwise she would have said something about them talking as if she wasn't there. But Markram was right - the blaster holes weren't critical. The real damage was emotionally and spiritually. The stim had helped for the worst of the cold and fog, but she still had a slight chill from the Dark wave that had wiped out many of the criminals.
Simon's voice interrupted her thoughts.
“I knew I shouldn’t have let you go by yourself…”
She smiled at him again. Later. They'll discuss it later.
"I was fine - we just need to replace your watch. I think it's broken." she joked softly. With the adrenaline gone, fatigue had truly set in. She needed to sleep. Everything else can be handled later.
Blue eyes scanned the cavern. The criminals have surrendered. Everyone was being rounded up into the middle of the cavern, hands in the air. Miraculously, her old colleague was still alive. But for how long?
She cleared her throat.
"What's going to happen to them?" she asked Simon, motioning toward the corralled syndicate survivors.