"Did you hear that?" Dan turned to his companions in confusion.

  "Yes," Marcus said seriously, his hand going to the gun hidden under his arm.

  "She's getting closer," Leonard said as he kept his eyes focused on the end of the street, taking a step to stand in front of Dan and Fleta.

  "Follow me," Marcus walked to a nearby alley, the others following a few steps behind him without asking any questions.

  They waited for a few minutes like that, all while the voice was getting closer and closer, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps. Marcus stood at the mouth of the street, keeping an eye on who might be searching for them. Dan on the other hand, kept on having this feeling that the voice was kinda familiar, but he couldn't put a face on it.

  Just when the voice got a few meters away from the alley, Dan finally could hear something more than the voice calling his name.

  "...you sure that this is a good idea?" A young man's voice asked. And weirdly enough, Dan found this one familiar too.

  "What else could we do?" The young woman's voice replied in annoyance and distress, "I thought we would find them at the restaurant or the bar, but they aren't there. Do you have a better idea than this? If they are in town, they are going to hear us."

  Stopping there, the young woman shouted for Dan again. Dan could hear the young man grumble,

  "Not if the guards have something to say about it."

  "Nulara!" Dan and Fleta whispered at almost the same time. It seems that the doctor also managed to link a name to the voice.

  "Why are they here though," Marcus said with a rare confused tone. If Dan wasn't wrong, then the male's voice belonged to the guy who kept on annoying him on the Voyager.

  "So... What are we going to do?" Leonard whispered. Just for no one to answer, it seemed that everyone was just as confused.

  The pair passed them, still arguing and with Nulara shouting Dan's name from time to time. Dan and the gang just watched that in confused silence.

  "Let me go and take a look," Marcus said after a while, "I'm going to see if there's anything off about this. Only show yourselves if I call for you."

  Marcus waited till they were a few meters away from the alley before following them. Marcus kept his eyes on them as he got closer and closer to the pair, all while remaining vigilant, looking for any signs that this might be a trap. It seemed that he noticed no such thing as he finally made it to Nulara and the young man. They were quite a distance away so Dan couldn't hear what was said, but he could see Nulara jump when Marcus called for them.

  Dan watched as the more they talked the more serious Marcus seemed to become. Finally, he said something to the two and made his way back, clearly in a hurry.

  "We need to leave, Leonard, keep the back." Marcus didn't even wait till he was in the alley to say that. He half shouted his order and continued on his way, his vigilance doubled and his hand as close to his holster as possible.

  "Captain Dan! Doctor Fleta!" Nulara exclaimed in pleasant surprise.

  "Nulara," Dan smiled at her, "What are you two doing here? Did something happen to you?"

  "We came to warn you!" She said while pushing herself to keep up with the fast pace that Marcus was setting. "Baron Hickens put a tracking spell on the Voyager. The Empire's Knights already know that you're anchored around these waters. We came here to tell you that."

  Dan felt his heart skip a beat as he finally understood why Marcus was in such a hurry to leave, they were compromised. Who knew, there might even be a fleet of ships making their way towards them.

  "When did they find out about that?" Marcus's voice came from the front.

  "Ar-around 11 to 12 hours ago?" Nulara stuttered, she seemed to be quite apprehensive of Marcus.

  "Hmm," Marcus grumbled before suddenly turning and entering a small alley. Once away from the eyes of the public, he turned his walkie-talkie on and connected to George, "Marcus here, over."

  "Hear you, over," came George's reply, it was a bit faint, but clear enough to be distinguished.

  "Be careful, we and the Voyager might be compromised..." Here he stopped, looked at everyone before saying, "In 20 minutes start the tender. 20 minutes after that, if we are not there, you must leave for the Voyager. Have them go as far as possible from here. Repeat what I said to you, over."

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  "In 20 minutes, start the tender and 20 minutes after that, if you aren't here I should retreat to the Voyager and get them to change their location. Over." George didn't try to argue or ask any questions, he just replied to what Marcus said without missing a beat.

  "Good, be careful out there, over." Marcus cut the line. He then turned to Dan and the others, "It took us around 20 minutes to get to the village from the tender, if it takes us longer than double that, I think it's safe to expect the worst and put the Voyager and everyone else first."

  Dan would be lying to say that fear didn't grip his heart when he heard Marcus tell George to leave without them if they weren't back in 40 minutes. But he could understand, everyone else's safety was more important than just the four of them.

  "Well, damn. We'd better get moving then!" Leonard said.

  "Okay, let's move."

  With Marcus leading the way, they retraced their footsteps till they made it to the small alley they hid in when they sneaked into the village.

  Like before, Marcus was the first to climb the wall. Once he gave the signal for them to join him, Fleta ran too. Watching her go, Dan turned to the pair with them and asked,

  "What about you? What are you going to do, are you joining us?"

  Honestly, he didn't know what they should do about the two. They couldn't just leave them be, but dragging them into the Voyager didn't seem right too, so he asked them about their opinions.

  "I will join you," The young man said excitedly, before adding hesitantly, "If you would accept me I mean..."

  "I-I don't know..." Dan turned his eyes to Nulara awaiting her answer, but the young lady seemed hesitant.

  Dan was about to say something to assure her when he heard hurried footsteps heading their way. He didn't even have the time to consider what it was before he was pushed by Leonard who was behind him.

  "We need to go, now!" Leonard also pushed Nulara and the boy towards the wall.

  Dan helped the boy jump to the other side and he turned to look at Nulara just to hear, "Prepare yourself," And see her being thrown to the other side by Leonard. Not wanting to be the next to try Leonard's gentle toss, Dan hurried to climb the wall, doing much better at it this time.

  Once on the other side, Dan saw Nulara massaging her backside with a wince on her face. Fleta soon put a glowing hand on the girl who relaxed her eyebrows.

  "Move, move!" Marcus said. Dan listened and he could hear the hurried footsteps even closer this time.

  Not needing to be told a second time, the gang started making their way towards the tender, to Dan's apprehension he noticed that the sound of footsteps behind them was getting closer and closer, showing no signs of disappearing or being left behind. What added to his alarm was how silent the pursuers were, no other sound but the footsteps.

  "They are gaining on us," Marcus's voice suddenly sounded from next to him. It seemed that his chief security officer had fallen right next to them, "They most likely aren't catching up on purpose. Let's play that to our advantage. We will get as close as possible to the tender before Leonard and I drop some cover fire. Hopefully, that will slow them enough for you to get on the tender. From there, use your guns and have George use the AKM to give us some cover fire so we can get in. Understood?"

  "Yes," Dan and the others said between breaths.

  Marcus's words seemed to come true, as the footsteps didn't fall back nor did they catch up, they were just like a spectre on their backs, always there. To say that it was stressful would be putting it lightly. Dan felt like his heart was about to leave his body.

  Finally, they made it to the location where they left the tender, and Dan started anticipating the command from Marcus. When the tender was just a few tens of meters away from them, he saw the short man hold his gun in one hand and his small flashlight in the other.

  "Now!" That was the only word said. What followed was Marcus jumping into a stop as he turned, lifted his flashlight and aimed it at their pursuers, his gun ready too.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Dan didn't know what happened after, as he focused on what was expected of him. He ran as fast as possible to the tender. The sound of shots ringing behind him. He didn't know how he made it to the boat, but as soon as he did and saw the others right next to him, he turned around and shouted back at Marcus and Leonard,

  "WE MADE IT!" Right on the heels of that, he turned to George and said, "Cover fire, use the AKM!"

  He then turned to Nulara and the young man, who seemed shell-shocked and frozen, threw the closest of them, Nulara, his flashlight and told her to keep it aimed right ahead. His instructions seemed to have brought the two back to the land of the living, as he saw the young man search his pockets with trembling hands before bringing up another flashlight and turning it on.

  Dan had just turned around to help with the suppression fire, when he heard a curse from next to him,

  "The fuck is that?"

  Looking at the shore, he was met by the figures of Marcus and Leonard who were at that time only focusing on running towards the boat, and just a few meters behind the two, what seemed to be an almost blindingly shining golden armoured knight was pushing on without a care for the bullets raining on him. He was like a tank.

  BaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBa!

  Just as Dan could feel the blood beginning to drain from his face, he heard the unmistakable sound of continuous fire from a full-auto rifle. Seeing the sparks blooming from the golden knight who finally showed a reaction, stopping in his place and bringing his arms to his head in defence, with his golden armour showing signs of cracking, Dan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  With Marcus and Leonard finally on the boat, and George still keeping the fire on the golden knight, Dan ran to the front of the tender and put the already running boat on full speed, leaving the shore behind them.

  "Cease fire!" Marcus finally shouted. The short guy still seemed to be as he always was, poker-faced and with no expression, "Don't let your guard down. Reload and be ready in case we get hit by any of those monsters."

  After saying that, he turned around to the shore, Dan followed his gaze and saw the golden knight still standing there like a beacon amidst the deep darkness. Finally, with what felt like a poof, the golden armour exploded into specks of golden light, drifting into the night.

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