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Ok you must stop whatever you're doing and keep going this is one of the better stories I've read. Well done Whytee.
10. The Set
Surbius was munching on the last of his food as he entered Johns cubicle with the bulky secure SSCU under one arm. John lived in a double compartment together with Waldoze, both bachelors, and both rarely at home. The "apartment" had seen a lot of parties, the last one was the one they had held after the bar had closed at Mor Isils one. It showed. Surbius disregarded the blonde nurse as just another catch o' the day that was about to leave, and looked squarely at John.
"I brought the unit," he swallowed, "now, what was it you wanted to tell?"
John looked at the blonde girl and asked her to tell. Surbius looked confused at first, but when she started speaking he recognised her as councillor Chi.
"I only have a couple of observations really. I noticed two things that he said."
With a move of the hand Surbius stopped her "Wait, who?"
John broke in. "Hortan, she woke him up and questioned him." He lifted his hands palm out, defensively as Surbius was just about to explode with anger. "He is ok, and he was willing to talk. He knows Ms. Chi after all, and I think he trusts her more than most of the rest of us." He turned and nodded at Chi. "Go on, tell him."
Surbius crashed on a chair in preparation for more shocks.
"Good, the first thing is that the EVA marines were wearing obsolete suits. We changed the mark on them from the shoulder to the chest about two months ago. Now they are woven into the suits from side to side." Surbius nodded, he had seen the new suits, horribly flashy in his view.
"The second thing, and this is where I may be telling you stuff I am not supposed to, is that we knew about the EAPRS installed in Hortans ship. We are fully aware that the EAPRS triggers upon life support failure instead of catastrophic ship failure. What I am trying to say here is, if we wanted him dead, he would be dead." Suribius nodded, and looked thoughtfully at her. Little did she know that Ecka didn't fly with it. But he could see her point.
"Lastly, and this is maybe grasping at straws, but I am willing to do that. Hortan didn't recognise a single name of the PA pilots. Not one."
Surbius protested immediately. "Surely he recognised Mick, I mean it says so right there on the holo."
"No, it says [PA]Mick. Normally it would have been [PA] Mick. I am aware that is is a subtle difference, but somebody used the name [PA]Mick, and not the Mick affiliated with PA. Besides, Mick would rather die than pilot anything but his Vulture"
Surbius looked at Chi, then at John.
"Ok, we say that I buy it, then what?"
John pointed at the SSCU. "That is why you brought that one. We need confirmation of a couple of things, and for that we need NP"
Surbius nodded and opened the unit. He punched in his own code and initiated contact with NP.
Surbius, John and Chi entered the silent OPS room. Only Ecka was inside, and he was brooding, staring at one of the screens where the holo from Hortans XC ran on repeat. He looked at the trio as it entered.
"So, you figured something out. I can tell on Johns smug expression that you are about to spring a surprise." He poured a wee fourfinger dram and leant back. "Spill the beans"
Surbius opened the SSCU and activated NP's holo.
"As he has just as much credit for the solution, I brought him in via conference." The trio sat down and waited for the holo to stabilise. The PA chief of CIA looked slightly bored until the picture stabilised entirely, as if the reception on his side wasn't established. Surbius looked at Ecka, took a deep breath and started.
"Fact, PA is our allies. Fact, they would have nothing to gain from attacking us. Fact, someone did in fact attack and destroy that convoy. Fact, that same somebody did attempt to murder you, as it was supposed to have been you leading the convoy as a publicity stunt. Now, the rest is interpolation and reasoning. We have pretty good intel that it wasn't PA that attacked the convoy, and that they were being set up to take the blame." Ecka grunted in agreement. He had never really believed that PA would do something as that.
"The evidence points to something even worse. As far as we with NP's help have been able to establish, is that the false navpoint was inserted by a certain Cennoth Plabaru, the pilot that didn't show up if you remember. He has died by the way, somebody shot his head off and torched his place. What is interesting is, that he was paid one million credits in the form of one Corvus credstick. This is where NP comes into the picture. He has been able to trace the money back to an UIT government account. And what is even more interesting, is that the same account was used to buy another Corvus credstick that is in the possession of the PA. This credstick was used to buy some surplus EVA suits, nine in all. Now, we are trying to find out how many sticks were bought, and where they are. But the question is, why is the UIT paying to kill off a combined TGFT and TPG convoy, while hanging the blame on PA?"
"Assuming that the track stops there" the holofigure said. "I need to investigate further, and for that I need time and maybe some of the famous TGFT resources. I suggest that we keep this amongst ourselves for now and see what we can flush out. As I see it, a state of war exists in" he glanced at his watch "three hours and fourteen minutes. I suggest we honour this and play the cards that we have been given. And Ecka, if you could please stay in the OPS room and play dead?" NP smiled at the ancient miner.
Ecka grunted. As long as he had his whisky, he would be ok. So that would leave them with about, lets see, two crates of 18 bottles, some ten days. They better hurry.
Surbius was munching on the last of his food as he entered Johns cubicle with the bulky secure SSCU under one arm. John lived in a double compartment together with Waldoze, both bachelors, and both rarely at home. The "apartment" had seen a lot of parties, the last one was the one they had held after the bar had closed at Mor Isils one. It showed. Surbius disregarded the blonde nurse as just another catch o' the day that was about to leave, and looked squarely at John.
"I brought the unit," he swallowed, "now, what was it you wanted to tell?"
John looked at the blonde girl and asked her to tell. Surbius looked confused at first, but when she started speaking he recognised her as councillor Chi.
"I only have a couple of observations really. I noticed two things that he said."
With a move of the hand Surbius stopped her "Wait, who?"
John broke in. "Hortan, she woke him up and questioned him." He lifted his hands palm out, defensively as Surbius was just about to explode with anger. "He is ok, and he was willing to talk. He knows Ms. Chi after all, and I think he trusts her more than most of the rest of us." He turned and nodded at Chi. "Go on, tell him."
Surbius crashed on a chair in preparation for more shocks.
"Good, the first thing is that the EVA marines were wearing obsolete suits. We changed the mark on them from the shoulder to the chest about two months ago. Now they are woven into the suits from side to side." Surbius nodded, he had seen the new suits, horribly flashy in his view.
"The second thing, and this is where I may be telling you stuff I am not supposed to, is that we knew about the EAPRS installed in Hortans ship. We are fully aware that the EAPRS triggers upon life support failure instead of catastrophic ship failure. What I am trying to say here is, if we wanted him dead, he would be dead." Suribius nodded, and looked thoughtfully at her. Little did she know that Ecka didn't fly with it. But he could see her point.
"Lastly, and this is maybe grasping at straws, but I am willing to do that. Hortan didn't recognise a single name of the PA pilots. Not one."
Surbius protested immediately. "Surely he recognised Mick, I mean it says so right there on the holo."
"No, it says [PA]Mick. Normally it would have been [PA] Mick. I am aware that is is a subtle difference, but somebody used the name [PA]Mick, and not the Mick affiliated with PA. Besides, Mick would rather die than pilot anything but his Vulture"
Surbius looked at Chi, then at John.
"Ok, we say that I buy it, then what?"
John pointed at the SSCU. "That is why you brought that one. We need confirmation of a couple of things, and for that we need NP"
Surbius nodded and opened the unit. He punched in his own code and initiated contact with NP.
Surbius, John and Chi entered the silent OPS room. Only Ecka was inside, and he was brooding, staring at one of the screens where the holo from Hortans XC ran on repeat. He looked at the trio as it entered.
"So, you figured something out. I can tell on Johns smug expression that you are about to spring a surprise." He poured a wee fourfinger dram and leant back. "Spill the beans"
Surbius opened the SSCU and activated NP's holo.
"As he has just as much credit for the solution, I brought him in via conference." The trio sat down and waited for the holo to stabilise. The PA chief of CIA looked slightly bored until the picture stabilised entirely, as if the reception on his side wasn't established. Surbius looked at Ecka, took a deep breath and started.
"Fact, PA is our allies. Fact, they would have nothing to gain from attacking us. Fact, someone did in fact attack and destroy that convoy. Fact, that same somebody did attempt to murder you, as it was supposed to have been you leading the convoy as a publicity stunt. Now, the rest is interpolation and reasoning. We have pretty good intel that it wasn't PA that attacked the convoy, and that they were being set up to take the blame." Ecka grunted in agreement. He had never really believed that PA would do something as that.
"The evidence points to something even worse. As far as we with NP's help have been able to establish, is that the false navpoint was inserted by a certain Cennoth Plabaru, the pilot that didn't show up if you remember. He has died by the way, somebody shot his head off and torched his place. What is interesting is, that he was paid one million credits in the form of one Corvus credstick. This is where NP comes into the picture. He has been able to trace the money back to an UIT government account. And what is even more interesting, is that the same account was used to buy another Corvus credstick that is in the possession of the PA. This credstick was used to buy some surplus EVA suits, nine in all. Now, we are trying to find out how many sticks were bought, and where they are. But the question is, why is the UIT paying to kill off a combined TGFT and TPG convoy, while hanging the blame on PA?"
"Assuming that the track stops there" the holofigure said. "I need to investigate further, and for that I need time and maybe some of the famous TGFT resources. I suggest that we keep this amongst ourselves for now and see what we can flush out. As I see it, a state of war exists in" he glanced at his watch "three hours and fourteen minutes. I suggest we honour this and play the cards that we have been given. And Ecka, if you could please stay in the OPS room and play dead?" NP smiled at the ancient miner.
Ecka grunted. As long as he had his whisky, he would be ok. So that would leave them with about, lets see, two crates of 18 bottles, some ten days. They better hurry.
11. Remley Orbital
The explosion in the cargo bay at Remley Orbital was large enough to jolt the magnetic bearings, that allowed the central habitation module to rotate, and thus create 0.6 standard gravity, out of their safety parameters, which resulted in an emergency power shutdown to the ring. This ensured that the magnets didn't collide and smashed the delicate system, and further ensured that the rotating part of the station didn't hit the main part. No ruptures were detected in the habitation module, but it was still here they found most of the casualties. Fortunately few were fatal, but the supply of BoneGrid™ was soon exhausted. A lot of the lesser wounds were being set with improvised bandages.
The damage to the cargo bay was more severe. Apparently a Behemoth XC had been loaded with some kind of explosive and left to detonate inside the main bay. The cargo manifest had read luxury goods, and so a good portion of the TPG police had been present for off loading as per standard. None survived, and neither did the unloading crew. The entire lower level of the station was ripped open to space and none of the lower launch bays were even remotely functioning.Unfortunately, the blast caught the recycling facility and ruptured the tanks to the nano eaters. The cleanup from that alone would take at least a week. The pilot, a Marilyn Manson was recorded as belonging to UIT, and he was now the single most wanted man on the station. The remaining police was certain they would have the culprit in custody within the day.
The Anarchist wasn't sure they were right. After all, he had gone through quite a lot of trouble to make sure it didn't happen. When the explosion happened, he had been caught by a table across the leg as planned, and he was now proudly wearing a large bandage on his leg and one across his face. The last more for concealment. As a matter of fact, he was certain the police would have a lot of other more important things to do within this next day. He smiled. Sometimes it was good to be him, at other times it was absolutely marvellous.
""BREAK BREAK""
"CORVUS NEWS NETWORK with a special report"
Remley Orbital in Latos N-15 has been subjected to a vicious terrorist attack. Our on-site reporter tells of multiple deaths and many wounded. Sympathy has been offered from many factions, and emergency ships have been sent from Xang Xi and Corvus. TPG has blamed an unidentified male from UIT as the responsible. Until further notice, no UIT or PA ships are allowed to dock at Remley Orbital. CNN wonders how long time the station can afford to stay away from its usual business.
""BREAK BREAK""
NP looked at the pictures from the wreckage. Whomever did this knew exactly where and how to strike. He winced when he saw how many had been killed. Time for some more direct action. He grabbed the message capsule and went down to the launch bay where his Corvus Vulturius was parked. Looking at the sleek vessel, he focused on the job he had to do. Still, it was always a pleasure to fly such a fine craft. He launched and set course for Sedina B-8, better known as Sedina Bait, the favourite hideout of CLM.
As he was about to jump through the wormhole, a slightly burning Serco Axia bot with holes across the bow was passing the other way. The bot was one of the automatic convoys that freighted weapons grade Xithricite from Sedina to Pyronis, and a favourite target of the person he was about to meet. He engaged the jump engines.
He exited the wormhole with his hands firmly around the controls, and was rewarded by a hail almost immediately.
Azumi: Poor Lonely Maiden seeking economic assistance to purchase suspenders and exiting lingerie. Any amount will be accepted or I SHOOT.
He chuckled and sent his reply without hurry. "Greetings from the Phoenix Alliance." It would be some minutes before she would be free to engage him. The four Dentek Assault bots and the Orne Guardian that had survived this far from the CtC convoy was circling the pink Corvus Vulturius, each of them succumbing to well placed shots of accelerated proton beams. Eventually only the guardian was left, and despite its heavy armour, it too was doomed to become expanding plasma.
The pink vulture turned to NP and accelerated to meet him. He checked his readout. 52% armour, and she was still charging in. He would teach her a lesson this time. He twisted his vulture into a sideways rolling turn and was rewarded by scoring a direct hit on Azumi's vulture. 43%, he could do this he thought. Rolling out and stabilising for a long strafe across the front, he unleashed neutron fire only to miss badly. Azumi had roll/turned and boosted down, thus getting his belly across her front. Accelerated protons flashed out and reduced the armour to 51% almost immediately. In reflex he tumbled the vulture ass over head to avoid more shots to the belly, and thus aligned his top with Azumi's guns. Actinic flaring across the top of the ship, and the armour was reduced to 22%. Damn, he was getting hammered. He rolled and dodged randomly to shake loose from the deathlike hold she had on his ship, and he succeeded in moving 128 meters away from Azumi's vult. Calming his nerves, he pulled and pushed at the controls to make the ship fly in a random up and down wave pattern, and started closing while firing the neuts. Score, he hit the pink vulture right on the front across the CLM logo, 36%. Now if he could just follow the movement to the left and fi...
Azumi smiled. He had flown right into the beams as she had anticipated. The rewarding explosion hurt her small craft, but nothing critical. She scanned the wreckage as usual, and today there was a gift. The 0.3 cubic meter of Xithricite was designed to survive anything. The container inside would be safe, and nobody would have suspected that NP had in fact dropped a message for her. She scooped it up, just in time for her radar to ping. Chana Slan, in a Centaur Mk III. She immediately hailed him and engaged the turbo. At 1300+ meters she would need all the distraction she could get.
Azumi: Pay me 10k. You will probably just run, and then I will have to chase you down and kill you. Sometimes I wonder why I hail.
Sure enough, he ran. At the 2800 meter mark, she drew a targeting solution on him and fired. Multiple hits, but the armour on the Centaur was pretty thick she knew from past experience. She watched him jump to Sedina D-14 and jumped after him with no hesitation. She had been lucky. Only 670 meters away and inbound for docking, the Centaur had been hit for around a third of its armour. Azumi engaged and poured shot after shot into the trade vessel that was boosting like mad toward the dock. Any second now she thought, as the station dock master called for her to cease firing in the no-fire area. She lined up for the last burst when Chana dumped a set of Mines in her path. At the very low armour she was at, she had to attempt dodging, and so was unable to kill the Centaur that crash docked in the station. The Mines went off and scoured off most of the remaining layers of her armour, reducing it to 3%. She aligned for the docking bay Chana had entered and engaged the turbo.
The Centaur had made a controlled crash landing, resulting in burning hull plates scattering themselves all over the dock. And not more than six seconds later, the well known pink Corvus Vulturius crash landed even more spectacularly as it hit a support structure at 225 m/s, cartwheeling into the holding facility before stopping in front of the loadmasters office. The canopy popped open and a small person jumped out. Azumi removed her pilots helmet and looked around with a mischievous grin. There, the Centaur. She tossed the helmet into the cockpit and peeled the sweaty jumpsuit down to her waist and tied the empty flapping arms from it around her waist. This served a double purpose, first it allowed her to cool down after the intense combat, and secondly let her show the world her CLM tattoo on the left shoulder. The dockhands were moving towards her shouting, but stopped when they saw who it was. She barely noticed them as she walked over to Chana's Centaur.
Chana had just left the cockpit when he heard the click click of heels on metal behind him. Turning, he saw a raven haired young woman in a pink tank top and jumpsuit walking over to him. That would have to be Azumi he thought and smiled sheepishly while turning his hands out. Nothing she can do here, he thought, the station protects its traders. The intensity of her gaze was however a little unnerving.
Azumi walked over to Chana, slid in real close and grasped his buttocks firmly while she planted a violent kiss on his lips. As he was completely taken by surprise, he was just standing with his hands to his sides for several seconds before the male genes in him woke him up. He smiled and kissed back. Azumi stopped, took one step back and looked at him. "Well, hello Mr. tongue. Pervert" she said and slapped him on the cheek and walked off again. Tasting blood, and not from the slap, he knew it wasn't him that had been naughty.
Azumi left Chana with a dumb smile on his face, went over to the dock master and tossed him the newly liberated large credstick. Chana wouldn't miss it she was sure, besides, she was poor, she couldn't afford the repairs.
"Fix the Pink Lady, the rest goes to the dock and to you guys, ok? Make sure you get another ship out here pronto, I am leaving"
The dock master smiled and nodded when he saw the 100k credstick. He followed her as she walked over to the vulture and retrieved something from a large metal box inside the vulture's small cargo hold. He kept on following her until the protests and yells of theft from the other ship was becoming too loud to ignore. Damn traders.
The explosion in the cargo bay at Remley Orbital was large enough to jolt the magnetic bearings, that allowed the central habitation module to rotate, and thus create 0.6 standard gravity, out of their safety parameters, which resulted in an emergency power shutdown to the ring. This ensured that the magnets didn't collide and smashed the delicate system, and further ensured that the rotating part of the station didn't hit the main part. No ruptures were detected in the habitation module, but it was still here they found most of the casualties. Fortunately few were fatal, but the supply of BoneGrid™ was soon exhausted. A lot of the lesser wounds were being set with improvised bandages.
The damage to the cargo bay was more severe. Apparently a Behemoth XC had been loaded with some kind of explosive and left to detonate inside the main bay. The cargo manifest had read luxury goods, and so a good portion of the TPG police had been present for off loading as per standard. None survived, and neither did the unloading crew. The entire lower level of the station was ripped open to space and none of the lower launch bays were even remotely functioning.Unfortunately, the blast caught the recycling facility and ruptured the tanks to the nano eaters. The cleanup from that alone would take at least a week. The pilot, a Marilyn Manson was recorded as belonging to UIT, and he was now the single most wanted man on the station. The remaining police was certain they would have the culprit in custody within the day.
The Anarchist wasn't sure they were right. After all, he had gone through quite a lot of trouble to make sure it didn't happen. When the explosion happened, he had been caught by a table across the leg as planned, and he was now proudly wearing a large bandage on his leg and one across his face. The last more for concealment. As a matter of fact, he was certain the police would have a lot of other more important things to do within this next day. He smiled. Sometimes it was good to be him, at other times it was absolutely marvellous.
""BREAK BREAK""
"CORVUS NEWS NETWORK with a special report"
Remley Orbital in Latos N-15 has been subjected to a vicious terrorist attack. Our on-site reporter tells of multiple deaths and many wounded. Sympathy has been offered from many factions, and emergency ships have been sent from Xang Xi and Corvus. TPG has blamed an unidentified male from UIT as the responsible. Until further notice, no UIT or PA ships are allowed to dock at Remley Orbital. CNN wonders how long time the station can afford to stay away from its usual business.
""BREAK BREAK""
NP looked at the pictures from the wreckage. Whomever did this knew exactly where and how to strike. He winced when he saw how many had been killed. Time for some more direct action. He grabbed the message capsule and went down to the launch bay where his Corvus Vulturius was parked. Looking at the sleek vessel, he focused on the job he had to do. Still, it was always a pleasure to fly such a fine craft. He launched and set course for Sedina B-8, better known as Sedina Bait, the favourite hideout of CLM.
As he was about to jump through the wormhole, a slightly burning Serco Axia bot with holes across the bow was passing the other way. The bot was one of the automatic convoys that freighted weapons grade Xithricite from Sedina to Pyronis, and a favourite target of the person he was about to meet. He engaged the jump engines.
He exited the wormhole with his hands firmly around the controls, and was rewarded by a hail almost immediately.
Azumi: Poor Lonely Maiden seeking economic assistance to purchase suspenders and exiting lingerie. Any amount will be accepted or I SHOOT.
He chuckled and sent his reply without hurry. "Greetings from the Phoenix Alliance." It would be some minutes before she would be free to engage him. The four Dentek Assault bots and the Orne Guardian that had survived this far from the CtC convoy was circling the pink Corvus Vulturius, each of them succumbing to well placed shots of accelerated proton beams. Eventually only the guardian was left, and despite its heavy armour, it too was doomed to become expanding plasma.
The pink vulture turned to NP and accelerated to meet him. He checked his readout. 52% armour, and she was still charging in. He would teach her a lesson this time. He twisted his vulture into a sideways rolling turn and was rewarded by scoring a direct hit on Azumi's vulture. 43%, he could do this he thought. Rolling out and stabilising for a long strafe across the front, he unleashed neutron fire only to miss badly. Azumi had roll/turned and boosted down, thus getting his belly across her front. Accelerated protons flashed out and reduced the armour to 51% almost immediately. In reflex he tumbled the vulture ass over head to avoid more shots to the belly, and thus aligned his top with Azumi's guns. Actinic flaring across the top of the ship, and the armour was reduced to 22%. Damn, he was getting hammered. He rolled and dodged randomly to shake loose from the deathlike hold she had on his ship, and he succeeded in moving 128 meters away from Azumi's vult. Calming his nerves, he pulled and pushed at the controls to make the ship fly in a random up and down wave pattern, and started closing while firing the neuts. Score, he hit the pink vulture right on the front across the CLM logo, 36%. Now if he could just follow the movement to the left and fi...
Azumi smiled. He had flown right into the beams as she had anticipated. The rewarding explosion hurt her small craft, but nothing critical. She scanned the wreckage as usual, and today there was a gift. The 0.3 cubic meter of Xithricite was designed to survive anything. The container inside would be safe, and nobody would have suspected that NP had in fact dropped a message for her. She scooped it up, just in time for her radar to ping. Chana Slan, in a Centaur Mk III. She immediately hailed him and engaged the turbo. At 1300+ meters she would need all the distraction she could get.
Azumi: Pay me 10k. You will probably just run, and then I will have to chase you down and kill you. Sometimes I wonder why I hail.
Sure enough, he ran. At the 2800 meter mark, she drew a targeting solution on him and fired. Multiple hits, but the armour on the Centaur was pretty thick she knew from past experience. She watched him jump to Sedina D-14 and jumped after him with no hesitation. She had been lucky. Only 670 meters away and inbound for docking, the Centaur had been hit for around a third of its armour. Azumi engaged and poured shot after shot into the trade vessel that was boosting like mad toward the dock. Any second now she thought, as the station dock master called for her to cease firing in the no-fire area. She lined up for the last burst when Chana dumped a set of Mines in her path. At the very low armour she was at, she had to attempt dodging, and so was unable to kill the Centaur that crash docked in the station. The Mines went off and scoured off most of the remaining layers of her armour, reducing it to 3%. She aligned for the docking bay Chana had entered and engaged the turbo.
The Centaur had made a controlled crash landing, resulting in burning hull plates scattering themselves all over the dock. And not more than six seconds later, the well known pink Corvus Vulturius crash landed even more spectacularly as it hit a support structure at 225 m/s, cartwheeling into the holding facility before stopping in front of the loadmasters office. The canopy popped open and a small person jumped out. Azumi removed her pilots helmet and looked around with a mischievous grin. There, the Centaur. She tossed the helmet into the cockpit and peeled the sweaty jumpsuit down to her waist and tied the empty flapping arms from it around her waist. This served a double purpose, first it allowed her to cool down after the intense combat, and secondly let her show the world her CLM tattoo on the left shoulder. The dockhands were moving towards her shouting, but stopped when they saw who it was. She barely noticed them as she walked over to Chana's Centaur.
Chana had just left the cockpit when he heard the click click of heels on metal behind him. Turning, he saw a raven haired young woman in a pink tank top and jumpsuit walking over to him. That would have to be Azumi he thought and smiled sheepishly while turning his hands out. Nothing she can do here, he thought, the station protects its traders. The intensity of her gaze was however a little unnerving.
Azumi walked over to Chana, slid in real close and grasped his buttocks firmly while she planted a violent kiss on his lips. As he was completely taken by surprise, he was just standing with his hands to his sides for several seconds before the male genes in him woke him up. He smiled and kissed back. Azumi stopped, took one step back and looked at him. "Well, hello Mr. tongue. Pervert" she said and slapped him on the cheek and walked off again. Tasting blood, and not from the slap, he knew it wasn't him that had been naughty.
Azumi left Chana with a dumb smile on his face, went over to the dock master and tossed him the newly liberated large credstick. Chana wouldn't miss it she was sure, besides, she was poor, she couldn't afford the repairs.
"Fix the Pink Lady, the rest goes to the dock and to you guys, ok? Make sure you get another ship out here pronto, I am leaving"
The dock master smiled and nodded when he saw the 100k credstick. He followed her as she walked over to the vulture and retrieved something from a large metal box inside the vulture's small cargo hold. He kept on following her until the protests and yells of theft from the other ship was becoming too loud to ignore. Damn traders.
All caught up! But now you need to make your post for today. :(
For Smittens:)
12. yoda
Azumi landed the Pink Lady at CLM headquarters. The station was not as she had left it. Somehow, someone had used a lot of time and effort in drawing paintings all over the walls in, was that lipstick?, well, different colours. She recognised LNH and giggled. It was about as lifelike as a smiley, but she had no trouble discerning that the drawing, that more or less looked like a hippopotamus in a skirt with a German WW I pike helmet, was LNH. The shotgun and a can of beer was a dead give away. Well, that and the two crude prosthetic hands.
She went into her own room before going to yoda's, and changed from the sweaty flightsuit, and into a skirt, knee high socks and a white shirt. To finish it off, she made a set of pigtails. She looked i the mirror and decided that she was now officially irresistible. Too bad yoda doesn't fall for these things, she thought.
Yoda had his apartment in a little used part of the station, On the way there she heard the large noises of an industrial sized sandblaster going at full power in the OPS room. She ignored it, lots of stuff happened that she was not a part of, and it was better not to find out sometimes. The door to yoda's place had a very large "KEEP THE HELL OUT" sign, but that didn't stop her the least. With precision and speed she kicked the buzzer without triggering the sensor device that normally ensured that 5000 volts would hammer through whomever disturbed yoda.
The door opened, and the little man peered out. Initially he looked at the floor where a person that would have been stunned would fall, and then before looking up, he nodded his head slightly.
"Azumi"
Azumi bowed deeply and replied "yoda-sensei."
He motioned her inside, closed the door and led her across the tatami mats to a small table. He poured two glasses of water and motioned Azumi to drink first. He then drank deeply before seating himself on the mat.
"So, what brings you here? I know it is not for a hot date, so spill it." Yoda's voice was a stark contrast to the very tranquil surroundings. Hard and rasping and full to the brim with barely contained anger. Not at Azumi she knew, but at the whole world.
"I have a parcel for you sensei. From NP."
Yoda's interest was awoken. He looked at the sealed mem-crystal inside the small translucent container that Azumi produced from her backpack. "Very well, leave it on the table. Do you have more?" Azumi shook her head, knowing better than chattering unnecessarily in yoda's presence.
"You are dismissed. I will summon you if I need to leave an answer." With that Azumi got up and walked out of the room and down the corridor. She wondered what to do now. No option really, she ended up donning the flightsuit again and launching the Pink Lady. There was cargo to be liberated, traders to hassle and Serco to kill.
Yoda finished the holo. According to NP, whom he trusted as far as he could bowl a samoflange laden Behemoth XC, someone were whipping up a trade war. As mush as he liked the sound of that, he was enough of a realist to know that if the trade through Latos H-2 and Sedina B-8 were to stop, CLM would be in deep trouble. As in any prey/predator relationship, it was one of mutual interdependence. Yoda wondered who could possibly gain from this. For anybody looking at him, it looked as if he had gone into hibernation with his eyes open, but in reality he used all his energy for his implants. He would solve this.
Tohasandra Chi was not happy. Not only was she treated like the enemy of everyone on the station, but she was also prohibited to use the stations facilities to find out more on the terror attack. Well, almost everyone that is. She could make an appointment with her TGFT liaison, John Eldritch, or make an appointment with Surbius, but what she really wanted was to sit in the cafeteria and make small talk. And she desperately wanted to check up on Hortan, but the shrink had forbidden it. He would rather keep the young pilot sedated, kept on the shelf like some vegetable. She thought he was wrong, but nobody would listen. She started thinking of a plan to achieve all this. At least then she was occupied.
Surbius received an Ultra Secret report through the secure SSCU. Receiving it, he started decoding it with a onetime pad before sending it through a set of quantum decoder stand alone computers. The resulting twelve lines of text was enough to make him shiver all over. This just might be it. He erased the data twice by overwriting it with nonsense 64 times before taking the only copy now in existence with him as hardcopy to the TGFT OPS room. Once inside, he checked twice to make sure that Ecka and he were the only ones before he presented the document to the commander. If this paper was right, some very disturbing things would happen tomorrow. And that would necessitate that Ecka came out of hiding, if nothing else to calm things down.
The seven figures were once again gathered with Ardon in the middle. He had been left there for some ten minutes, which he considered a new record when one of the robed persons spoke.
"Status reports indicate that everything is moving according to schedule. Apart form the massive amount of damage wrought to the station."
Ardon winced, he was not proud of that. But The Anarchist only worked well with completely free hands. If the council was squeamish about the bomb, he was going to get some heavy critique for what The Anarchist was up to next. Too late to anything about it anyway, it was not as if he had regular communications with The Anarchist, and he surely did not follow orders.
"For now, we have confidence in you Ardon. No leads must lead back here on pain of death. Remember who you serve. Dismissed."
Ardon rose and bowed, turned and left to the chamber outside. He would soon be stop serving and start commanding. In a few days his plan would be complete and he would no longer be a servant but a master.
12. yoda
Azumi landed the Pink Lady at CLM headquarters. The station was not as she had left it. Somehow, someone had used a lot of time and effort in drawing paintings all over the walls in, was that lipstick?, well, different colours. She recognised LNH and giggled. It was about as lifelike as a smiley, but she had no trouble discerning that the drawing, that more or less looked like a hippopotamus in a skirt with a German WW I pike helmet, was LNH. The shotgun and a can of beer was a dead give away. Well, that and the two crude prosthetic hands.
She went into her own room before going to yoda's, and changed from the sweaty flightsuit, and into a skirt, knee high socks and a white shirt. To finish it off, she made a set of pigtails. She looked i the mirror and decided that she was now officially irresistible. Too bad yoda doesn't fall for these things, she thought.
Yoda had his apartment in a little used part of the station, On the way there she heard the large noises of an industrial sized sandblaster going at full power in the OPS room. She ignored it, lots of stuff happened that she was not a part of, and it was better not to find out sometimes. The door to yoda's place had a very large "KEEP THE HELL OUT" sign, but that didn't stop her the least. With precision and speed she kicked the buzzer without triggering the sensor device that normally ensured that 5000 volts would hammer through whomever disturbed yoda.
The door opened, and the little man peered out. Initially he looked at the floor where a person that would have been stunned would fall, and then before looking up, he nodded his head slightly.
"Azumi"
Azumi bowed deeply and replied "yoda-sensei."
He motioned her inside, closed the door and led her across the tatami mats to a small table. He poured two glasses of water and motioned Azumi to drink first. He then drank deeply before seating himself on the mat.
"So, what brings you here? I know it is not for a hot date, so spill it." Yoda's voice was a stark contrast to the very tranquil surroundings. Hard and rasping and full to the brim with barely contained anger. Not at Azumi she knew, but at the whole world.
"I have a parcel for you sensei. From NP."
Yoda's interest was awoken. He looked at the sealed mem-crystal inside the small translucent container that Azumi produced from her backpack. "Very well, leave it on the table. Do you have more?" Azumi shook her head, knowing better than chattering unnecessarily in yoda's presence.
"You are dismissed. I will summon you if I need to leave an answer." With that Azumi got up and walked out of the room and down the corridor. She wondered what to do now. No option really, she ended up donning the flightsuit again and launching the Pink Lady. There was cargo to be liberated, traders to hassle and Serco to kill.
Yoda finished the holo. According to NP, whom he trusted as far as he could bowl a samoflange laden Behemoth XC, someone were whipping up a trade war. As mush as he liked the sound of that, he was enough of a realist to know that if the trade through Latos H-2 and Sedina B-8 were to stop, CLM would be in deep trouble. As in any prey/predator relationship, it was one of mutual interdependence. Yoda wondered who could possibly gain from this. For anybody looking at him, it looked as if he had gone into hibernation with his eyes open, but in reality he used all his energy for his implants. He would solve this.
Tohasandra Chi was not happy. Not only was she treated like the enemy of everyone on the station, but she was also prohibited to use the stations facilities to find out more on the terror attack. Well, almost everyone that is. She could make an appointment with her TGFT liaison, John Eldritch, or make an appointment with Surbius, but what she really wanted was to sit in the cafeteria and make small talk. And she desperately wanted to check up on Hortan, but the shrink had forbidden it. He would rather keep the young pilot sedated, kept on the shelf like some vegetable. She thought he was wrong, but nobody would listen. She started thinking of a plan to achieve all this. At least then she was occupied.
Surbius received an Ultra Secret report through the secure SSCU. Receiving it, he started decoding it with a onetime pad before sending it through a set of quantum decoder stand alone computers. The resulting twelve lines of text was enough to make him shiver all over. This just might be it. He erased the data twice by overwriting it with nonsense 64 times before taking the only copy now in existence with him as hardcopy to the TGFT OPS room. Once inside, he checked twice to make sure that Ecka and he were the only ones before he presented the document to the commander. If this paper was right, some very disturbing things would happen tomorrow. And that would necessitate that Ecka came out of hiding, if nothing else to calm things down.
The seven figures were once again gathered with Ardon in the middle. He had been left there for some ten minutes, which he considered a new record when one of the robed persons spoke.
"Status reports indicate that everything is moving according to schedule. Apart form the massive amount of damage wrought to the station."
Ardon winced, he was not proud of that. But The Anarchist only worked well with completely free hands. If the council was squeamish about the bomb, he was going to get some heavy critique for what The Anarchist was up to next. Too late to anything about it anyway, it was not as if he had regular communications with The Anarchist, and he surely did not follow orders.
"For now, we have confidence in you Ardon. No leads must lead back here on pain of death. Remember who you serve. Dismissed."
Ardon rose and bowed, turned and left to the chamber outside. He would soon be stop serving and start commanding. In a few days his plan would be complete and he would no longer be a servant but a master.
Wow! I absolutely must start sacrificing more game time to keep up with you Whytee!
13. The Anarchist
Sedina chocolates, his only vice. Well, that an an occasional drink or two. Whomever had sent him the package, knew that. He checked the card again, the swirling text read "From your admirer. Thank you for the times to be." He wondered who it could be, maybe the girl from the noodle shop, or that one pretty girl down at the gym. Oh, or maybe even that sweet young new secretary that Surbius had hired, what was her name again, ah yes Naoko. He munched on the chocolates as he imagined going up to her and inviting her out.
A sudden stab of pain hit him in the stomach, like a cramp, or a.., oh god, he really had to go now. He waddled to the toilet as fast as he could, and almost got his pants down when his stomach released its contents. The cramps continued, and the honourable Dr. Lloyd Wyman M. D. completely missed The Anarchists biggest stunt ever.
The Anarchist was whistling to himself. "Happy feet, I got them happy feet." He had dressed in a janitors suit and was walking towards the air recycling plant, a bottle of O2 under one arm. He showed his ID to the TPG guards outside the plant and were allowed inside. He had studied the system for a long time, and he knew exactly where to go. The main feed channel for the air recycling had a valve that was used to feed fresh O2 into the system. He had a small present however. One of the more nasty inventions from the Serco-Itani ground war, DiCloetan was what could best be described as a kind of psychotropic nervegas. Like LSD on air. Rather short lived, dissipating in around an hour, it turned the inhaler into either a complete psychopath or a blubbering fool for some time. An antidote existed, and he had injected it hours ago.
He put the bottle into the valve and opened for the gas. He imagined the horrific scenes that would play out in the habitation module and chuckled. It was not really what he had been asked to do, but to create limited chaos sounded so immensely boring. He really hated the word limited. There, all done. He was going to stay inside the plant for the next few hours. Too dangerous outside now, the screams started sounding, like a serenade to the mad. He sat down, got his book from his pocket and his lunch from his small satchel. He looked at the cover, The Ranch Owners Daughter. He was a sucker for a good love story.
The messages form Remley Orbital were broken and distorted at best. The dock master had been outside with his repair crew when the air was poisoned, and so they were on independent air. The rest of the crew had no such luck, and as the psychosis spread among them, the casualties mounted. The dock master and his crew landed in their space suits, and when one of them disconnected the independent air and opened his helmet, he started going psychotic. Acting on a hunch, the dock master called to his crew to stay in the suits until they could get the scrubbers working. It was no problem to activate them, it was possible from the OPS room He asked his 2iC to take two dock hands and go activate it while he and the rest of the men were going to find and deactivate all the guns they could. After a grizzly walk through blood spattered corridors, they were able to enter the room and activate the scrubbers. In less than thirty minutes, the air was back to Sol II standard.
The dock master slowly unsuited and organised a cleanup group. The dock area was a mess, most of the personnel that had worn weapons had used them on either themselves or others. He had never seen anything like it, never. Two of his poker friends, now ex friends, were lying together. One had planted an axe in the chest of the other. He had in turn impaled his friend on a firehose and pumped CO2 into his belly, neatly inflating him like an oversized pink balloon until the innards had popped out. However, he feared that he would have a worse task ahead. He took his three most sturdy men and steadied himself for entering the living habitat. He opened the airlock and braced for the worst. A barricade was thrown across the corridor, with ten frightened women behind it wearing slings and knifes. Due to a mechanical error caused by the emergency breaking, the life support on the habitation module was disconnected on the main air recycler, and was working on the auxiliary system. The views on the telescreens and the poison detecters at the airlock had warned the women to seal off the corridor, undoubtedly saving many lives among the women and children living and working there. Exhaling heavily with relief, the dock master recognised his wife, and knew that the children would be safe too. No way that Hannah would abandon them if they were not secure.
Sooner than he wanted, the dock master found himself the not too willing master of Remley Orbital. The council that normally ran the station were all hospitalised, the TPG police force was either dead or wounded, and the only person he could ask was a council ranking pilot from Corvus that had docked due to a mechanical failure on his ship. They needed help, and they needed help fast. The Corvus pilot, Galders or something, suggested to get a group of Corvus medical personnel and police officers to the station, and within one hour they were in place. It was better than the other offers, with PA and a leaderless TGFT at war, and UIT and TPG not talking to each other. The grey uniforms of the Corvus police was now patrolling the station, something the dock master never would have believed even remotely possible just three days ago. He was considering calling a council meeting the following day to discuss the future of Remley, and he hoped that the majority of the council would be well enough at that time. After all, he was a dock master for pete's sake, not a politician.
Tohasandra Chi missed the stunt as well, but that was because she was waiting for an answer to a message she had sent to John some time ago. She had once again requested permission to see Hortan. John sent a message back to her, that he could not ask the psychologist, as he was currently hospitalised with suspected food poisoning. Chi smiled, she knew exactly what was wrong. He was not in any danger, but the drug she had put in the chocolates were very efficient in simulating botox poisoning. She sent back a request to be allowed to see Hortan as a trained psycho therapist in the absence of the doctor. It took a while before Surbius answered in person.
"You are a trained psycho therapist too?" he asked not really convinced. Chi showed him her diploma that she had received from NP along with the chocolates. It said she graduated six years ago. "Well, I guess you are better than anybody else we have now, so you go ahead. Take John along, will you?" She waited patiently until Surbius had left, and then practically ran out of her room and down to get John. Finally something was happening.
Yoda smiled. Well, in reality he stopped frowning, but that was as close as he was going to get. He needed some proof, and if the data NP had given him was true, he knew how to get it. He stayed still for a while, then turned and touched the button that summoned Azumi for an escort run. He thought briefly about calling Mystic and informing her, but disregarded it. She had enough trouble as it was with the orb and all. Besides, if he was right, it would solve itself. If he was wrong he wouldn't look like a complete idiot.
Ecka watched the reports from the Remley Orbital station with a frown. He had been letting whomever was behind this have too much to say in order to flush them out, but that was going to end now. No longer would he stand by while innocents were getting harmed. He sent a message to MiexonBionic. After that, he summoned Surbius. They had a lot of planning to do now.
Sedina chocolates, his only vice. Well, that an an occasional drink or two. Whomever had sent him the package, knew that. He checked the card again, the swirling text read "From your admirer. Thank you for the times to be." He wondered who it could be, maybe the girl from the noodle shop, or that one pretty girl down at the gym. Oh, or maybe even that sweet young new secretary that Surbius had hired, what was her name again, ah yes Naoko. He munched on the chocolates as he imagined going up to her and inviting her out.
A sudden stab of pain hit him in the stomach, like a cramp, or a.., oh god, he really had to go now. He waddled to the toilet as fast as he could, and almost got his pants down when his stomach released its contents. The cramps continued, and the honourable Dr. Lloyd Wyman M. D. completely missed The Anarchists biggest stunt ever.
The Anarchist was whistling to himself. "Happy feet, I got them happy feet." He had dressed in a janitors suit and was walking towards the air recycling plant, a bottle of O2 under one arm. He showed his ID to the TPG guards outside the plant and were allowed inside. He had studied the system for a long time, and he knew exactly where to go. The main feed channel for the air recycling had a valve that was used to feed fresh O2 into the system. He had a small present however. One of the more nasty inventions from the Serco-Itani ground war, DiCloetan was what could best be described as a kind of psychotropic nervegas. Like LSD on air. Rather short lived, dissipating in around an hour, it turned the inhaler into either a complete psychopath or a blubbering fool for some time. An antidote existed, and he had injected it hours ago.
He put the bottle into the valve and opened for the gas. He imagined the horrific scenes that would play out in the habitation module and chuckled. It was not really what he had been asked to do, but to create limited chaos sounded so immensely boring. He really hated the word limited. There, all done. He was going to stay inside the plant for the next few hours. Too dangerous outside now, the screams started sounding, like a serenade to the mad. He sat down, got his book from his pocket and his lunch from his small satchel. He looked at the cover, The Ranch Owners Daughter. He was a sucker for a good love story.
The messages form Remley Orbital were broken and distorted at best. The dock master had been outside with his repair crew when the air was poisoned, and so they were on independent air. The rest of the crew had no such luck, and as the psychosis spread among them, the casualties mounted. The dock master and his crew landed in their space suits, and when one of them disconnected the independent air and opened his helmet, he started going psychotic. Acting on a hunch, the dock master called to his crew to stay in the suits until they could get the scrubbers working. It was no problem to activate them, it was possible from the OPS room He asked his 2iC to take two dock hands and go activate it while he and the rest of the men were going to find and deactivate all the guns they could. After a grizzly walk through blood spattered corridors, they were able to enter the room and activate the scrubbers. In less than thirty minutes, the air was back to Sol II standard.
The dock master slowly unsuited and organised a cleanup group. The dock area was a mess, most of the personnel that had worn weapons had used them on either themselves or others. He had never seen anything like it, never. Two of his poker friends, now ex friends, were lying together. One had planted an axe in the chest of the other. He had in turn impaled his friend on a firehose and pumped CO2 into his belly, neatly inflating him like an oversized pink balloon until the innards had popped out. However, he feared that he would have a worse task ahead. He took his three most sturdy men and steadied himself for entering the living habitat. He opened the airlock and braced for the worst. A barricade was thrown across the corridor, with ten frightened women behind it wearing slings and knifes. Due to a mechanical error caused by the emergency breaking, the life support on the habitation module was disconnected on the main air recycler, and was working on the auxiliary system. The views on the telescreens and the poison detecters at the airlock had warned the women to seal off the corridor, undoubtedly saving many lives among the women and children living and working there. Exhaling heavily with relief, the dock master recognised his wife, and knew that the children would be safe too. No way that Hannah would abandon them if they were not secure.
Sooner than he wanted, the dock master found himself the not too willing master of Remley Orbital. The council that normally ran the station were all hospitalised, the TPG police force was either dead or wounded, and the only person he could ask was a council ranking pilot from Corvus that had docked due to a mechanical failure on his ship. They needed help, and they needed help fast. The Corvus pilot, Galders or something, suggested to get a group of Corvus medical personnel and police officers to the station, and within one hour they were in place. It was better than the other offers, with PA and a leaderless TGFT at war, and UIT and TPG not talking to each other. The grey uniforms of the Corvus police was now patrolling the station, something the dock master never would have believed even remotely possible just three days ago. He was considering calling a council meeting the following day to discuss the future of Remley, and he hoped that the majority of the council would be well enough at that time. After all, he was a dock master for pete's sake, not a politician.
Tohasandra Chi missed the stunt as well, but that was because she was waiting for an answer to a message she had sent to John some time ago. She had once again requested permission to see Hortan. John sent a message back to her, that he could not ask the psychologist, as he was currently hospitalised with suspected food poisoning. Chi smiled, she knew exactly what was wrong. He was not in any danger, but the drug she had put in the chocolates were very efficient in simulating botox poisoning. She sent back a request to be allowed to see Hortan as a trained psycho therapist in the absence of the doctor. It took a while before Surbius answered in person.
"You are a trained psycho therapist too?" he asked not really convinced. Chi showed him her diploma that she had received from NP along with the chocolates. It said she graduated six years ago. "Well, I guess you are better than anybody else we have now, so you go ahead. Take John along, will you?" She waited patiently until Surbius had left, and then practically ran out of her room and down to get John. Finally something was happening.
Yoda smiled. Well, in reality he stopped frowning, but that was as close as he was going to get. He needed some proof, and if the data NP had given him was true, he knew how to get it. He stayed still for a while, then turned and touched the button that summoned Azumi for an escort run. He thought briefly about calling Mystic and informing her, but disregarded it. She had enough trouble as it was with the orb and all. Besides, if he was right, it would solve itself. If he was wrong he wouldn't look like a complete idiot.
Ecka watched the reports from the Remley Orbital station with a frown. He had been letting whomever was behind this have too much to say in order to flush them out, but that was going to end now. No longer would he stand by while innocents were getting harmed. He sent a message to MiexonBionic. After that, he summoned Surbius. They had a lot of planning to do now.
14. Awake
Ardon was, well not satisfied, rather relieved. He had once more been summoned to the Council of Seven almost immediately after the Remley incident. He had heard what had happened from Galders, and he was shocked to hear about the massive damage that had occured. He counted himself fortunate that The Anarchist had chosen not to attack the habitat module. He was a bit surprised that he hadn't actually.
The council had congratulated him on the successful implementation so far. They had been interested in knowing when he was going to secure complete control and bring the plan to fruition. Days, merely days he told them. He had the papers and fake evidence planted already, and he was going to activate the last part of his plan tomorrow. After all, he had to make sure to get The Anarchist in place again before striking. They had sent him out again as another servant. No more, with the next strike he would have something on them, and then he could force them to admit him. The Council of Eight. It sounded pretty cool to him, he could definitely live with that.
He was going to celebrate, but for now there was work to do. He sent a message to Fadhe, telling him to initiate in 24 hours. There, it was set in motion. Nothing and nobody could stop him now, he had made sure of that with his very first move.
The door chimed, and he opened the door. "You are late" was the only comment yoda had. Azumi bowed deeply and said "I am sorry yoda-sensei." She was dressed in an indecently revealing slim fitting tank top and hotpants with lace-up stiletto-heeled boots.
Yoda ignored the outfit completely as usual. "Be on time next time Azumi. I need for this message to be delivered immediately. Now, go and do what is tasked for you." Azumi received the small holo crystal and remembered to bow deeply before leaving. She loved delivering, it was always very violent and intense. She walked down towards her room to change into her jumpsuit as she ran into LNH and sharingan. They nodded, and LNH smiled as he saw her tattoo on her shoulder.
In reality it was his fault that she had it made. He had told her on the first day she was initiated into CLM, that all female personnel got a CLM tattoo. Old tradition and all, for good luck and profitable hunting, even MysticRogue had one. New as she was, she had jumped at the chance to show that she was one of the crew. Maybe she was slightly intoxicated with it all, but at the end of the day she had the CLM logo superimposed on a Vulture on her shoulder. She had never regretted, but she had been mercilessly teased for it ever since.
"Hi Azumi, I hear they have a Warthog sale at sedina D-14. Maybe time to get a new tattoo?" sharingan winked at her, a half-empty beer keg under one arm. Used to the hazing, she smiled her prettiest innocent smile and extended her middle finger on the left hand and shoved it in his face as she walked past. She liked sharingan, but he needed to be treated like the pittbull he was. He laughed as she passed, and turned to look until she had swaggered around the corner. LNH punched him on the shoulder when she had left.
"Come on, you still need to paint those "Hello Mystic" drawings over," LNH slurred. Damn, he shouldn't eat before drinking so early, Or was it drink so early before eating? He couldn't remember and took a swig of the strong ale to help him. Nope, he definitely needed more. He would finish the keg while sharingan worked, yep that was a plan.
Chi had just entered Hortan's room together with John, when his PDA rang twice. Guild business he knew immediately. He received the summons from Surbius. MIck and Killdog Deathwad were inbound on fake pilot ID's. He was to escort them down to Moda's for help with the forensics.
"Chi, I have to go, and I am not authorised to leave you here alone with Hortan. So that means we have to go." He saw her start to protest but rose his left hand to stem off protests. "I don't like it either. I trust him with you, but orders are orders. We'll come back later, ok?"
"What if I stay here with her?" The soft melodic voice came from the door. "I am, I'm sorry. The door was open, and I thought that if he were up, I would see if there was something he needed, or .." She looked down. "Forget it, I am out of place here. I am sorry."
Chi looked at the young girl, and then back at John. Grab the moment, her teachers had always told her. "That is ok with me, please come in Ms?"
"Kanaka, Miharu Sena Kanaka" she answered almost in a whisper. "I am secretary to Mor Isil, and I saw Hortan there when he was first allowed to fly. He was so happy, and so sweet."
Chi looked at John and smiled her most innocent smile. "See John, I am not alone with him now. Please?"
He looked back at her. He started to tell her no, but something in her eyes made him waive and in the end relent. He rolled his eyes and put his hands up into the air. "Gah, what do I know. Stay for all that I care, but you stay with her. And that is not up for discussion!" He pointed at Miharu who nodded and followed him all the way out of the door.
"I am Tohasandra Chi, liaison from the PA," Chi presented herself. "Could you help me wake him up please. And maybe clean him up a bit?"
Hortan had been sedated for five days and looked the part. The wounds on his head and arms were now covered by pink synthskin, but he had not been washed at all. Tohasandra set up the medicines for waking him up while Miharu found some washing utensils. She started cleaning him as gently as she usually did her own baby back home. Having more time than last, Chi gave Hortan a smaller dosage of the antidote, thus ensuring that he would wake up as from sleep instead of with a jolt.
Miharu finished up and sat to wait beside Chi. She was fingering her necklace nervously. Chi noticed it looked very new.
"A gift?" Miharu looked confused. "The necklace, was it a gift?"
Miharu noticed she was fiddling with the necklace and stopped. "Yes, it was a gift from my boyfriend on Valentines day. He has one identical to this." She smiled shyly and looked down. "It says return to MIharu on his, and mine has his name."
Before Chi could ask who it was, Hortan stirred in his bed. Chi went over and sat on the edge immediately, softly calling his name. He folded his arms and legs in fetal position with his arms protecting his head. Chi had hoped she wouldn't need the MAO inhibitors, but she had brought them anyway. She walked over to her purse and started preparing the drug. In the meantime Miharu sat next to Hortan and started stroking his head and neck while talking to him in a low voice. When Chi turned back with the ready inhaler, Hortan was half sitting, with Miharu hugging his thin upper body and holding his head, still talking in that low voice. After some minutes had passed, he lifted his head and looked at Chi.
"Why would someone kill me? Would would anybody do that?"
"You were never the target Hortan" Chi replied. "It was supposed to be Ecka. Your presence saved his life actually. You saved his life."
The information sank in slowly in the drug-numbed mind, but eventually Hortan stammered. "But why did someone want to kill Ecka?"
"I think we are going to find out shortly. In the meantime, what about we get you dressed and go grab a bit to eat? I hear they make excellent pancakes in the mess hall." That brought a little smile out on his lips, and he nodded, slowly at first, but then with more enthusiasm. Hortan loved pancakes.
Ardon was, well not satisfied, rather relieved. He had once more been summoned to the Council of Seven almost immediately after the Remley incident. He had heard what had happened from Galders, and he was shocked to hear about the massive damage that had occured. He counted himself fortunate that The Anarchist had chosen not to attack the habitat module. He was a bit surprised that he hadn't actually.
The council had congratulated him on the successful implementation so far. They had been interested in knowing when he was going to secure complete control and bring the plan to fruition. Days, merely days he told them. He had the papers and fake evidence planted already, and he was going to activate the last part of his plan tomorrow. After all, he had to make sure to get The Anarchist in place again before striking. They had sent him out again as another servant. No more, with the next strike he would have something on them, and then he could force them to admit him. The Council of Eight. It sounded pretty cool to him, he could definitely live with that.
He was going to celebrate, but for now there was work to do. He sent a message to Fadhe, telling him to initiate in 24 hours. There, it was set in motion. Nothing and nobody could stop him now, he had made sure of that with his very first move.
The door chimed, and he opened the door. "You are late" was the only comment yoda had. Azumi bowed deeply and said "I am sorry yoda-sensei." She was dressed in an indecently revealing slim fitting tank top and hotpants with lace-up stiletto-heeled boots.
Yoda ignored the outfit completely as usual. "Be on time next time Azumi. I need for this message to be delivered immediately. Now, go and do what is tasked for you." Azumi received the small holo crystal and remembered to bow deeply before leaving. She loved delivering, it was always very violent and intense. She walked down towards her room to change into her jumpsuit as she ran into LNH and sharingan. They nodded, and LNH smiled as he saw her tattoo on her shoulder.
In reality it was his fault that she had it made. He had told her on the first day she was initiated into CLM, that all female personnel got a CLM tattoo. Old tradition and all, for good luck and profitable hunting, even MysticRogue had one. New as she was, she had jumped at the chance to show that she was one of the crew. Maybe she was slightly intoxicated with it all, but at the end of the day she had the CLM logo superimposed on a Vulture on her shoulder. She had never regretted, but she had been mercilessly teased for it ever since.
"Hi Azumi, I hear they have a Warthog sale at sedina D-14. Maybe time to get a new tattoo?" sharingan winked at her, a half-empty beer keg under one arm. Used to the hazing, she smiled her prettiest innocent smile and extended her middle finger on the left hand and shoved it in his face as she walked past. She liked sharingan, but he needed to be treated like the pittbull he was. He laughed as she passed, and turned to look until she had swaggered around the corner. LNH punched him on the shoulder when she had left.
"Come on, you still need to paint those "Hello Mystic" drawings over," LNH slurred. Damn, he shouldn't eat before drinking so early, Or was it drink so early before eating? He couldn't remember and took a swig of the strong ale to help him. Nope, he definitely needed more. He would finish the keg while sharingan worked, yep that was a plan.
Chi had just entered Hortan's room together with John, when his PDA rang twice. Guild business he knew immediately. He received the summons from Surbius. MIck and Killdog Deathwad were inbound on fake pilot ID's. He was to escort them down to Moda's for help with the forensics.
"Chi, I have to go, and I am not authorised to leave you here alone with Hortan. So that means we have to go." He saw her start to protest but rose his left hand to stem off protests. "I don't like it either. I trust him with you, but orders are orders. We'll come back later, ok?"
"What if I stay here with her?" The soft melodic voice came from the door. "I am, I'm sorry. The door was open, and I thought that if he were up, I would see if there was something he needed, or .." She looked down. "Forget it, I am out of place here. I am sorry."
Chi looked at the young girl, and then back at John. Grab the moment, her teachers had always told her. "That is ok with me, please come in Ms?"
"Kanaka, Miharu Sena Kanaka" she answered almost in a whisper. "I am secretary to Mor Isil, and I saw Hortan there when he was first allowed to fly. He was so happy, and so sweet."
Chi looked at John and smiled her most innocent smile. "See John, I am not alone with him now. Please?"
He looked back at her. He started to tell her no, but something in her eyes made him waive and in the end relent. He rolled his eyes and put his hands up into the air. "Gah, what do I know. Stay for all that I care, but you stay with her. And that is not up for discussion!" He pointed at Miharu who nodded and followed him all the way out of the door.
"I am Tohasandra Chi, liaison from the PA," Chi presented herself. "Could you help me wake him up please. And maybe clean him up a bit?"
Hortan had been sedated for five days and looked the part. The wounds on his head and arms were now covered by pink synthskin, but he had not been washed at all. Tohasandra set up the medicines for waking him up while Miharu found some washing utensils. She started cleaning him as gently as she usually did her own baby back home. Having more time than last, Chi gave Hortan a smaller dosage of the antidote, thus ensuring that he would wake up as from sleep instead of with a jolt.
Miharu finished up and sat to wait beside Chi. She was fingering her necklace nervously. Chi noticed it looked very new.
"A gift?" Miharu looked confused. "The necklace, was it a gift?"
Miharu noticed she was fiddling with the necklace and stopped. "Yes, it was a gift from my boyfriend on Valentines day. He has one identical to this." She smiled shyly and looked down. "It says return to MIharu on his, and mine has his name."
Before Chi could ask who it was, Hortan stirred in his bed. Chi went over and sat on the edge immediately, softly calling his name. He folded his arms and legs in fetal position with his arms protecting his head. Chi had hoped she wouldn't need the MAO inhibitors, but she had brought them anyway. She walked over to her purse and started preparing the drug. In the meantime Miharu sat next to Hortan and started stroking his head and neck while talking to him in a low voice. When Chi turned back with the ready inhaler, Hortan was half sitting, with Miharu hugging his thin upper body and holding his head, still talking in that low voice. After some minutes had passed, he lifted his head and looked at Chi.
"Why would someone kill me? Would would anybody do that?"
"You were never the target Hortan" Chi replied. "It was supposed to be Ecka. Your presence saved his life actually. You saved his life."
The information sank in slowly in the drug-numbed mind, but eventually Hortan stammered. "But why did someone want to kill Ecka?"
"I think we are going to find out shortly. In the meantime, what about we get you dressed and go grab a bit to eat? I hear they make excellent pancakes in the mess hall." That brought a little smile out on his lips, and he nodded, slowly at first, but then with more enthusiasm. Hortan loved pancakes.
/me volunteers to put all this in a nice PDF book when 'ol Whytee's done.
BTW Hortan you owe us an update for yesterday
it would make a good one I agree Leebs
Elbryon [ITAN]
Elbryon [ITAN]
Yeah, good idea leebs.
Btw, great work Hortan, I really enjoy reading the story.
Btw, great work Hortan, I really enjoy reading the story.
Thanks Leber. Sorry for the delay in the submissions, but I was flying yesterday. Won't happen again.
15. No more war
Azumi waited impatiently at Sedina B-8. She had attacked five convoys so far, but she was forced to let two of them run unhurt. She was not about to get her Vulture destroyed before time. And the one ton crate in her cargo room made her Vulture react like a full moth. A lone ship exited from the wormhole, right on time. She hailed it immediately,
"You wouldn't hit a girl, would you? Blink blink"
NP turned his Vulture towards her ship and hailed her back.
NP: You have been recognised as a type three radar echo. Authorisation for immediate destruction has been granted. Cease all movement and be destroyed.
She smiled a predatory smile and hailed back.
"So, are you gonna bite or are you only gonna bark little doggie". With that she fired her Itani Mk III Neutron Guns across his ship.
She destroyed his ship seven times before she stopped flying back to replace the lost armour. And even then it wasn't until his third ship had been boomed that he succeeded in firing that last neutron beam into her ship resulting in a most satisfying explosion. He searched immediately and found his Xithricite box. He scooped it up and set his navigation up for home. He entered the wormhole as Azumi jumped in again. Now the traders passing B-8 would get no more free passes. He passed the information on the VPR channel. Contacts may be contacts, but he was after all, a member of PA.
Killdog Deathwad was poking around the wreckage parts, measuring and comparing. The pipe in his mouth was emanating obnoxious fumes of smoke, but that did not seem to disturb him at all. He would close one eye from time to time when the smoke got too bad. At other times he would take the pipe out and point it at one or another thing while thinking. Moda was sitting in his chair with Mick, slowly drinking a beer and observed as his carefully laid evidence was examined.
"Hrumpf, now that IS interesting" Killdog said, "if that is not evidence, I don't know what is." He grabbed one particular piece of shrapnel and motioned to Moda and Mick to join him. Killdog showed them the barcode on the side.
"Unless I am much mistaken, this is a piece from a sunflare rocket launcher. And as far as I know, I recall that this particular barcode is from a production run made for the Corvus military branch. Find the recipient, and you find one fake PA pilot." Killdog looked at Moda. "Now, you were about to get us some of that famous Helio Mists young man?" He smiled, the gold tooth he had implanted instead of his left upper canine flashed as he inserted the pipe on its usual place.
NP had his confirmation. He hated owing anything to anyone, but it wouldn't be long before he could repay yoda. He sent a secure message to Surbius with the information he had received. He answered with the information they had found from the wreckage which made NP nod. It all made sense. He reported his findings to MiexonBionic.
"Good. Time to end this charade" Miexon said, "I'll contact Ecka immediately. About bloody time to act instead of react"
""BREAK BREAK""
"CORVUS NEWS NETWORK with a special report on the TGFT versus PA was"
Our reporter in Dau is right now at a press meeting in TGFT HQ, where the top of TGFT and PA is declaring that the war was a scam, to draw out criminal elements that had attacked and destroyed the TGFT protected TPG convoy to Remley Orbital. Whether this attack had anything to do with the two hideous attacks on said station, they have not informed the public. The head of state of UIT has offered his apologies to TPG for the misunderstanding that has happened.
What happens now? This reporter is at a loss. The criminal elements that did this are still at large. Maybe BLAK is still lurking in the depths of space.
""BREAK BREAK""
The Anarchist was whistling. He was setting up what was going to be his biggest show yet. And right under the noses of the powers involved. This time he had made certain that nothing would interfere with his work. The timings were worked out perfectly, and he had even found an agreeable place to activate it from. The Paddy's Pancakes. They even served a decent pancake menu. Catastrophes always made him so hungry, and here he could watch and eat at the same time.
Arton received the urgent message on the way down to his fighter. Only the Council of Seven had the authority to flash an Urgent message directly to his PDA. He was slightly puzzled, but opened it at once. The message made him loose his cool for a couple of seconds. They wanted him to abort the last attack. Abort and clean up, the euphemism for eliminating The Anarchist. They had to be joking, he was about to finish his work and fulfil his quest. Something must have gone wrong. He checked CNN and almost lost it there and then. How the H*** had Ecka survived? He had made sure himself, that the TGFT commander would be killed. He started running for his ship. Abort? No way he would, not even if he had been able to. He had to run and stay low for a long time now. He sent a message to Fadhe and informed him to meet him at the usual place. Somebody was going to have to explain all this.
15. No more war
Azumi waited impatiently at Sedina B-8. She had attacked five convoys so far, but she was forced to let two of them run unhurt. She was not about to get her Vulture destroyed before time. And the one ton crate in her cargo room made her Vulture react like a full moth. A lone ship exited from the wormhole, right on time. She hailed it immediately,
"You wouldn't hit a girl, would you? Blink blink"
NP turned his Vulture towards her ship and hailed her back.
NP: You have been recognised as a type three radar echo. Authorisation for immediate destruction has been granted. Cease all movement and be destroyed.
She smiled a predatory smile and hailed back.
"So, are you gonna bite or are you only gonna bark little doggie". With that she fired her Itani Mk III Neutron Guns across his ship.
She destroyed his ship seven times before she stopped flying back to replace the lost armour. And even then it wasn't until his third ship had been boomed that he succeeded in firing that last neutron beam into her ship resulting in a most satisfying explosion. He searched immediately and found his Xithricite box. He scooped it up and set his navigation up for home. He entered the wormhole as Azumi jumped in again. Now the traders passing B-8 would get no more free passes. He passed the information on the VPR channel. Contacts may be contacts, but he was after all, a member of PA.
Killdog Deathwad was poking around the wreckage parts, measuring and comparing. The pipe in his mouth was emanating obnoxious fumes of smoke, but that did not seem to disturb him at all. He would close one eye from time to time when the smoke got too bad. At other times he would take the pipe out and point it at one or another thing while thinking. Moda was sitting in his chair with Mick, slowly drinking a beer and observed as his carefully laid evidence was examined.
"Hrumpf, now that IS interesting" Killdog said, "if that is not evidence, I don't know what is." He grabbed one particular piece of shrapnel and motioned to Moda and Mick to join him. Killdog showed them the barcode on the side.
"Unless I am much mistaken, this is a piece from a sunflare rocket launcher. And as far as I know, I recall that this particular barcode is from a production run made for the Corvus military branch. Find the recipient, and you find one fake PA pilot." Killdog looked at Moda. "Now, you were about to get us some of that famous Helio Mists young man?" He smiled, the gold tooth he had implanted instead of his left upper canine flashed as he inserted the pipe on its usual place.
NP had his confirmation. He hated owing anything to anyone, but it wouldn't be long before he could repay yoda. He sent a secure message to Surbius with the information he had received. He answered with the information they had found from the wreckage which made NP nod. It all made sense. He reported his findings to MiexonBionic.
"Good. Time to end this charade" Miexon said, "I'll contact Ecka immediately. About bloody time to act instead of react"
""BREAK BREAK""
"CORVUS NEWS NETWORK with a special report on the TGFT versus PA was"
Our reporter in Dau is right now at a press meeting in TGFT HQ, where the top of TGFT and PA is declaring that the war was a scam, to draw out criminal elements that had attacked and destroyed the TGFT protected TPG convoy to Remley Orbital. Whether this attack had anything to do with the two hideous attacks on said station, they have not informed the public. The head of state of UIT has offered his apologies to TPG for the misunderstanding that has happened.
What happens now? This reporter is at a loss. The criminal elements that did this are still at large. Maybe BLAK is still lurking in the depths of space.
""BREAK BREAK""
The Anarchist was whistling. He was setting up what was going to be his biggest show yet. And right under the noses of the powers involved. This time he had made certain that nothing would interfere with his work. The timings were worked out perfectly, and he had even found an agreeable place to activate it from. The Paddy's Pancakes. They even served a decent pancake menu. Catastrophes always made him so hungry, and here he could watch and eat at the same time.
Arton received the urgent message on the way down to his fighter. Only the Council of Seven had the authority to flash an Urgent message directly to his PDA. He was slightly puzzled, but opened it at once. The message made him loose his cool for a couple of seconds. They wanted him to abort the last attack. Abort and clean up, the euphemism for eliminating The Anarchist. They had to be joking, he was about to finish his work and fulfil his quest. Something must have gone wrong. He checked CNN and almost lost it there and then. How the H*** had Ecka survived? He had made sure himself, that the TGFT commander would be killed. He started running for his ship. Abort? No way he would, not even if he had been able to. He had to run and stay low for a long time now. He sent a message to Fadhe and informed him to meet him at the usual place. Somebody was going to have to explain all this.
16. Pancakes
It became apparent to the council that the plan was now in effect officially FUBAR when Ecka's face appeared alongside the CNN reporter. Not ones to believe in throwing good money after bad, they voted and decided to end the plan immediately. When Ardon did not respond, they started investigating how they could cancel the last act that was supposed to push the ruling council of Remley Orbital to ask for permanent Corvus protection and status. However much they searched, they could find no contact information on the free agent known as The Anarchist, and so the hunt for Ardon intensified. All favours were being called to stop the most horrifying act yet.
The pancakes at the Soggy's Pancakes and Waffles house were the best thing Hortan had eaten in at least five days. They happened to be the only thing too, but that was a coincidence. Miharu were slowly getting Hortan to talk, mostly about the John Eldritch action figure, where he had bought it and the like.
Chi recognised what Miharu was doing, she was comforting him by speaking of things he felt secure about, and thus paving the way for Chi to ask some of the less pleasant questions. She had to admire the subtleness with which she was luring him further and further out into unknown territory. It would make Chi's work easier. They had turned to talk about ships, a topic Hortan was very interested in.
"I must admit that I like flying a Warthog Mk II once in a while, the continuous acceleration makes it very nice for fast moves" Miharu said innocently. Chi looked closely at Hortan to see if there would be a reaction. Not really.
"Sure, it is nice, but in reality you could do the same with an Atlas" he said, "and that is what I do the one or two rare times I need to hurry." He munched another pancake making it his number seventeen. Chi decided to risk it.
"Wasn't it a Warthog that was the main ship in destroying the convoy?" she asked causally.
Hortan swallowed and looked at her with while answering with unease in his voice. "Yes, it was. A black Hog Mk II actually." As his reaction had not been that severe, Chi decided to go all out.
"All black or did it have any markings or names or anything?" She made sure not to look too focused on Hortan's face and skimmed the surroundings while sipping her latte.
"All black," he grabbed another pancake, "with only the PA mark on the bow. It wasn't pretty made as on your craft Ms. Chi, but looked like it had been made hastily." He took a bite and chewed slowly a bit. "Come to think of it, when the craft turned, it had some spotty places that you couldn't see to start with" He ate the last of his pancake and smiled brightly as he took his mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows.
"And what colour was beneath? Or did you by any chance see a logo or anything?" A young couple was entering the place along with a single man. This place was quite popular.
"Now that you mention it, I do believe it was red, and there may have been a name or something like that. But I am not too sure of that." Chi was just about to find her 1000 watt lamp and turn it on, point it at Hortans head and pull the information out. She needed what he knew, and he was obviously completely oblivious to the fact that it was needed sooner than later.
"And that name was?" Chi asked with infinite patience. The young couple had gotten their waffles and were sharing at one of the rear tables. The lone man was sitting at the window observing the life outside while drinking coffee. He had unpacked an expensive looking laptop and was slowly typing.
"Mmh, the last of it was painted over, but I believe the first part was Elos Dreade." Chi sighed, at last something. She smiled to Hortan and padded his hand. She excused herself and went to the back of the room where she found her secure small PDA that linked directly to the secure SSCU she had in her room. She texted the information immediately to NP. She knew how significant this information would be, so she staid in the back waiting for an answer. While she was pacing, she observed the young couple that were completely lost amongst themselves, Miharu and Hortan, equally lost in some small talk, and the lone man that was working. She knew that it was terribly impolite to look at what other people were doing on their computers, but her covert ops training almost forced her. The structual drawing with of the Dau K-10 station was ringed at several junctions with green rings, and at two locations with yellow rings with counters set at 06:00. The man pointed at one of the green rings and clicked it. A password prompt came on, and he entered the password. It slowly turned yellow, and a counter appeared.. He then moved to another green ring. Her PDA beeped, and she opened the call.
"Chi, are you in a secure location?" NP's worried face peered at her.
"Somewhat, I am having pancakes" she replied not sure what to say.
"I have information from a most secure source that the K-10 station is the most likely target for the next attack. I want you to warn TGFT immediately and evacuate." Chi looked at the lone man with the PC. All the circles were now yellow. A central prompt were in the middle with the words INITIATE YES/NO.
"Make sure you..." She never heard what NP said. The lone man moved the mouse to YES and clicked just as Chi figured out what the schematics meant, and she shouted NO.
He turned and looked at her with a crooked smile. The counter was at 5:59 and counting. Chi did the only thing she could think of. She jumped him.
The Anarchist looked with amusement at the small brown haired slender girl. How she had guessed that he had just killed the station, he did not know, and neither did it matter. She could not do anything anyway. She started moving towards him, and he rose to meet her. His much larger size and strength would soon decide the outcome, and then he would have to leave. A shame, he had fancied seeing the destruction from in here. However, it had been a long time since he had fought with his fists, and with this girl it might even be fun.
Chi moved quickly towards him. A bit larger than John she thought, much less bulky though. She weighed her options and decided she had none. She moved into his range, and he swung his right arm at her. Parrying with her left arm in an up going parade, she moved in closely and hammered him in the face with the thick of her right fist three times, not enough to hurt him as such, but enough for him to loose concentration. He put his left arm up in front of his head, and Chi folded her arm and connected solidly with her elbow directly into his sternum at full force. She felt him loose his breath, and used the momentum to slide her left arm up and over his right arm, thus locking it against her chest. He tried to get her away by pushing at her head, but she ducked and swung her lower right arm forwards between his legs. Impact. A small grazing with a feather swung with tender care in that exact region, has about the same effect on a grown man as the Dinosaur killer of the Cretaceous had on Earth. Chi had swung her arm as hard as she could. The gasping man fell to the floor, and she dropped a knee with her full weight on his chest, making sure he was not going to run away anytime soon. Then she looked up at the stunned pancake and waffle restaurant. Hortan and Miharu were watching her with open mouths.
"Hortan, come over here and sit on him. Don't worry, he is a bad guy of the worst sort." Hortan did as he was told, and sat on the writhing man's legs. She got up and grapped the laptop. 5:18, it had taken her 41 seconds to get him down. John would be proud she thought irrationally. She clicked on one of the yellow rings. It opened a password prompt. Swearing internally, she tried another one, same. She kneeled down to the man.
"What is the password?" He didn't reply. Chi was a firm believer in not using torture, but if she couldn't get him to talk, the station and everyone on it, would die.
"What password?" Miharu had gotten up from her chair and was now standing in front of the laptop.
"We need the password to deactivate whatever it is he has planned. And we only have 4 and a half minute." Miharu looked at the man, and realising that they were never going to make him talk.
"Mind if I have a go?" Miharu asked, looking at Chi for permission. Chi looked sceptic, but nodded for her to go on.
"Mor Isil used to lock himself out all the time. And then he would need my help to reset the password for him. I was a bit slow at the beginning, until I realised he was doing it to make me be in his office." She frowned and pushed some more keys. "Not working. Ok, I will have to get the toys out." She took a memstick and pushed it into the interface. Chi looked out of the window at the station security that was running towards the restaurant. Great, the cavalry, and late as always. She got up and found he diplomatic credentials, knowing that they were going to be needed if she wanted to avoid the stun guns.
"Almost there...yes. Entering password. Disarmed. Next," Miharu frowned. "That rotten bastard, he has separate passwords for all. I hope I make it" she mumbled.
Chi looked at the rent-a-cops approaching the place, and then down at Hortan.
"Hort, I need for you to do me a favour." He looked up at her and nodded. "I need that you take credit for getting this guy down, ok? You recognised him as a terrorist and incapacitated him?"
Hortan looked confused. No way were these cops going to believe that he had put this guy on the floor. He looked up at the slender woman standing in front of him with the piercing eyes that always seemed to fix him in place. As if they were going to believe that it had been Ms. Chi. He nodded. Chi turned and looked over Miharu's shoulder. She only needed one now, and with more than a minute to go it could be done.
"Ha, the last code is Dau." Miharu entered the name, and it turned green. No counters were active. Chi allowed herself to sigh a deep breath of relief. She put her left trembling hand in her pocket and grasped her diplomatic credentials harder with the right . Miharu got up and looked at Chi, and then went and gave Hortan a hug, as much for his sake as for her own. She was shaking with the realisation that they had been seconds away from death. She saw Chi present her ID to the guards and be allowed to leave. She looked at Hortan that was sitting all flustered and decided to tell his story. He wasn't able to right now anyway.
It became apparent to the council that the plan was now in effect officially FUBAR when Ecka's face appeared alongside the CNN reporter. Not ones to believe in throwing good money after bad, they voted and decided to end the plan immediately. When Ardon did not respond, they started investigating how they could cancel the last act that was supposed to push the ruling council of Remley Orbital to ask for permanent Corvus protection and status. However much they searched, they could find no contact information on the free agent known as The Anarchist, and so the hunt for Ardon intensified. All favours were being called to stop the most horrifying act yet.
The pancakes at the Soggy's Pancakes and Waffles house were the best thing Hortan had eaten in at least five days. They happened to be the only thing too, but that was a coincidence. Miharu were slowly getting Hortan to talk, mostly about the John Eldritch action figure, where he had bought it and the like.
Chi recognised what Miharu was doing, she was comforting him by speaking of things he felt secure about, and thus paving the way for Chi to ask some of the less pleasant questions. She had to admire the subtleness with which she was luring him further and further out into unknown territory. It would make Chi's work easier. They had turned to talk about ships, a topic Hortan was very interested in.
"I must admit that I like flying a Warthog Mk II once in a while, the continuous acceleration makes it very nice for fast moves" Miharu said innocently. Chi looked closely at Hortan to see if there would be a reaction. Not really.
"Sure, it is nice, but in reality you could do the same with an Atlas" he said, "and that is what I do the one or two rare times I need to hurry." He munched another pancake making it his number seventeen. Chi decided to risk it.
"Wasn't it a Warthog that was the main ship in destroying the convoy?" she asked causally.
Hortan swallowed and looked at her with while answering with unease in his voice. "Yes, it was. A black Hog Mk II actually." As his reaction had not been that severe, Chi decided to go all out.
"All black or did it have any markings or names or anything?" She made sure not to look too focused on Hortan's face and skimmed the surroundings while sipping her latte.
"All black," he grabbed another pancake, "with only the PA mark on the bow. It wasn't pretty made as on your craft Ms. Chi, but looked like it had been made hastily." He took a bite and chewed slowly a bit. "Come to think of it, when the craft turned, it had some spotty places that you couldn't see to start with" He ate the last of his pancake and smiled brightly as he took his mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows.
"And what colour was beneath? Or did you by any chance see a logo or anything?" A young couple was entering the place along with a single man. This place was quite popular.
"Now that you mention it, I do believe it was red, and there may have been a name or something like that. But I am not too sure of that." Chi was just about to find her 1000 watt lamp and turn it on, point it at Hortans head and pull the information out. She needed what he knew, and he was obviously completely oblivious to the fact that it was needed sooner than later.
"And that name was?" Chi asked with infinite patience. The young couple had gotten their waffles and were sharing at one of the rear tables. The lone man was sitting at the window observing the life outside while drinking coffee. He had unpacked an expensive looking laptop and was slowly typing.
"Mmh, the last of it was painted over, but I believe the first part was Elos Dreade." Chi sighed, at last something. She smiled to Hortan and padded his hand. She excused herself and went to the back of the room where she found her secure small PDA that linked directly to the secure SSCU she had in her room. She texted the information immediately to NP. She knew how significant this information would be, so she staid in the back waiting for an answer. While she was pacing, she observed the young couple that were completely lost amongst themselves, Miharu and Hortan, equally lost in some small talk, and the lone man that was working. She knew that it was terribly impolite to look at what other people were doing on their computers, but her covert ops training almost forced her. The structual drawing with of the Dau K-10 station was ringed at several junctions with green rings, and at two locations with yellow rings with counters set at 06:00. The man pointed at one of the green rings and clicked it. A password prompt came on, and he entered the password. It slowly turned yellow, and a counter appeared.. He then moved to another green ring. Her PDA beeped, and she opened the call.
"Chi, are you in a secure location?" NP's worried face peered at her.
"Somewhat, I am having pancakes" she replied not sure what to say.
"I have information from a most secure source that the K-10 station is the most likely target for the next attack. I want you to warn TGFT immediately and evacuate." Chi looked at the lone man with the PC. All the circles were now yellow. A central prompt were in the middle with the words INITIATE YES/NO.
"Make sure you..." She never heard what NP said. The lone man moved the mouse to YES and clicked just as Chi figured out what the schematics meant, and she shouted NO.
He turned and looked at her with a crooked smile. The counter was at 5:59 and counting. Chi did the only thing she could think of. She jumped him.
The Anarchist looked with amusement at the small brown haired slender girl. How she had guessed that he had just killed the station, he did not know, and neither did it matter. She could not do anything anyway. She started moving towards him, and he rose to meet her. His much larger size and strength would soon decide the outcome, and then he would have to leave. A shame, he had fancied seeing the destruction from in here. However, it had been a long time since he had fought with his fists, and with this girl it might even be fun.
Chi moved quickly towards him. A bit larger than John she thought, much less bulky though. She weighed her options and decided she had none. She moved into his range, and he swung his right arm at her. Parrying with her left arm in an up going parade, she moved in closely and hammered him in the face with the thick of her right fist three times, not enough to hurt him as such, but enough for him to loose concentration. He put his left arm up in front of his head, and Chi folded her arm and connected solidly with her elbow directly into his sternum at full force. She felt him loose his breath, and used the momentum to slide her left arm up and over his right arm, thus locking it against her chest. He tried to get her away by pushing at her head, but she ducked and swung her lower right arm forwards between his legs. Impact. A small grazing with a feather swung with tender care in that exact region, has about the same effect on a grown man as the Dinosaur killer of the Cretaceous had on Earth. Chi had swung her arm as hard as she could. The gasping man fell to the floor, and she dropped a knee with her full weight on his chest, making sure he was not going to run away anytime soon. Then she looked up at the stunned pancake and waffle restaurant. Hortan and Miharu were watching her with open mouths.
"Hortan, come over here and sit on him. Don't worry, he is a bad guy of the worst sort." Hortan did as he was told, and sat on the writhing man's legs. She got up and grapped the laptop. 5:18, it had taken her 41 seconds to get him down. John would be proud she thought irrationally. She clicked on one of the yellow rings. It opened a password prompt. Swearing internally, she tried another one, same. She kneeled down to the man.
"What is the password?" He didn't reply. Chi was a firm believer in not using torture, but if she couldn't get him to talk, the station and everyone on it, would die.
"What password?" Miharu had gotten up from her chair and was now standing in front of the laptop.
"We need the password to deactivate whatever it is he has planned. And we only have 4 and a half minute." Miharu looked at the man, and realising that they were never going to make him talk.
"Mind if I have a go?" Miharu asked, looking at Chi for permission. Chi looked sceptic, but nodded for her to go on.
"Mor Isil used to lock himself out all the time. And then he would need my help to reset the password for him. I was a bit slow at the beginning, until I realised he was doing it to make me be in his office." She frowned and pushed some more keys. "Not working. Ok, I will have to get the toys out." She took a memstick and pushed it into the interface. Chi looked out of the window at the station security that was running towards the restaurant. Great, the cavalry, and late as always. She got up and found he diplomatic credentials, knowing that they were going to be needed if she wanted to avoid the stun guns.
"Almost there...yes. Entering password. Disarmed. Next," Miharu frowned. "That rotten bastard, he has separate passwords for all. I hope I make it" she mumbled.
Chi looked at the rent-a-cops approaching the place, and then down at Hortan.
"Hort, I need for you to do me a favour." He looked up at her and nodded. "I need that you take credit for getting this guy down, ok? You recognised him as a terrorist and incapacitated him?"
Hortan looked confused. No way were these cops going to believe that he had put this guy on the floor. He looked up at the slender woman standing in front of him with the piercing eyes that always seemed to fix him in place. As if they were going to believe that it had been Ms. Chi. He nodded. Chi turned and looked over Miharu's shoulder. She only needed one now, and with more than a minute to go it could be done.
"Ha, the last code is Dau." Miharu entered the name, and it turned green. No counters were active. Chi allowed herself to sigh a deep breath of relief. She put her left trembling hand in her pocket and grasped her diplomatic credentials harder with the right . Miharu got up and looked at Chi, and then went and gave Hortan a hug, as much for his sake as for her own. She was shaking with the realisation that they had been seconds away from death. She saw Chi present her ID to the guards and be allowed to leave. She looked at Hortan that was sitting all flustered and decided to tell his story. He wasn't able to right now anyway.
17. The usual suspects
Elos Drade was in reality Corvus pilot Elos Dradenak. NP had no problems finding him, he was still active in the Sedina D-14 station defence force. He waited for Chi to report that the terrorist had been apprehended, by none other than young Hortan, and then launched to Sedina B-8. He had coded the data and dropped it in his Vulture. Ready for another drop. He was getting tired of this, he had been dropped nine times yesterday to retrieve the emergency packet from yoda that allowed him to warn Chi. But in the end it was worth the effort. No contact could be seen between CLM and CIA/PA, no matter how expedient it was.
He exited the wormhole in the middle of a convoy going the other way. Azumi and sharingan were attacking it, each going for a Behemoth. One large explosion indicated that one of the behemoths never made it, and the rest of the convoy was through. Azumi and sharingan jumped after it, not willing to let their prey get away. NP shuddered slightly, he hated seeing trade vessels treated like shooting targets. Azumi exited back into B-8 and turboed towards the 3k mark. If she had seen him, she ignored him completely. He wondered if he had done something wrong, when she reappeared in a pink Behemoth. Ah, the cargo. He decided to let her get some of her own medicine, and flew the vulture over towards the front of the Behemoth and flared a couple of shots at her. Azumi ignored it, opened her cargohold and scooped 118 of the 120 crates of synthetic gems into the cavernous hold. NP was puzzled, why didn't she take them all? He moved closer to examine the two remaining crates. What was wrong with those?
Azumi: You are green
The front of the Behemoth erupted in a fusillade of missile fire as Azumi unloaded her chaos swarms at the vulture. NP never got to even try and avoid, before the explosions tore his ship apart, thus solving the fist part of the delivery mission.
Azumi laughed out loud. Even as she knew that NP was supposed to be exploded, she had wanted to make it spectacular. And this gave her a kill even on a boring cargo pick-up mission. She intercepted the Xithricite case. 119 crates in all, capacity full. Sharingan exited the wormhole in his vulture, having sold the cargo in Latos.
"Are you getting picky? What is wrong with those two crates left?"
"Had to get some scrap metal for a mission I am about to take" she replied, lying easily.
"More for me then." Sharingan scooped the crates into his vulture. "Ok, go and unload, lets set up for the next set of traders."
"On my way, this ship is as manoeuvrable as a 40 ton brick house with engines. Wait, it is a 40 ton house.."
Sharingan chuckled, "yeah, but get moving before I decide that you need to be pirated."
Azumi accelerated slowly to the 3k mark. She absolutely hated flying this thing, and she would only do it to pick up the cargo they had liberated. Once she had docked, she grabbed the crystal from the box and ran directly down to yoda's. As he opened the door, he was his usual pleasant self, and accepted the mem crystal. She was about to leave again when he called her back.
"Yes yoda-sensei?"
"Next time, make sure you change out of that horrible jumpsuit before you come down here. It looks horrible on you Azumi.
She had no idea what to say, so she merely bowed and left. Wow, he had actually noticed that she was dressing up for their meetings. She had just the right dress for next time. She smiled as she ran down the corridor. Well, dress may be stretching it a bit.
Yoda de-frowned for a brief moment as Azumi left. In reality he didn't care one iota what she wore or not, but he could see that she did. And he liked the relationship just as it was. He inserted the mem crystal and started working. Interesting and fascinating. So the pilot that survived against all odds and spoiled whatever plan had been set into motion, had apparently succeeded in apprehending the person responsible for the terror attacks on Remley Orbital. It seemed the young Hortan had a knack for being at the right location at the right time.
He started working on finding the pilot, and it didn't take him long to run the data to its conclusion. The issue here was, how was he going to turn the biggest profit on this for himself and CLM. Never one to be timid, he decided to play both horses.
Hortan was sitting with John Eldritch at the TPG security office. He had been asked to stay until they had checked that his story was actually true, and that there was in fact bombs placed at every critical junction on the station. John was grinning like a madman, finally the pacifist in Hortan had been replaced by a born again hard fighter. He had listened to Hortan as he described how he had incapacitated the man, and was surprised over the amount of Krav Maga Hortan had knowledge of. He was looking forward to sparring with him.
Hortan on the other hand, was slowly drinking a cup of hot chocolate to wash down two of the tranquillisers he had received from Ms. Chi. He knew that he had to protect Ms. Chi, and so he had agreed to take responsibility. But no matter what, he could not bring himself to lie. He had told the story from someone else's perspective, never mentioning himself, but never mentioning Ms. Chi either, and the rent-a-cops were only too happy to fill out the blanks. He was trying to keep from correcting them, and so far succeeding.
With a large "There you are", Vardonx came into the room. They both looked up and saw the full combat gear clad fighter pilot.
"Hortan, you are needed, and right now. Me and Lambin are to take you to Odia immediately. I have your suit here and a Warthog Mk II ready for you."
Hortan looked at the combat flight suit and swallowed hard.
"I don't, I mean, I really can't" he said.
"What do you mean you can't? You bloody well have to. Surbius received a message from an undisclosed source requesting your skinny butt in Odia. It was of the utmost importance to the TGFT, and that means we'll fly whether TPG likes it or not." Vardonx thought that Hortan was unable to leave because of the police matter.
"It is not that, I can't, no, I won't fly a combat ship under any circumstances, and I will not wear a combat suit."
Vardonx looked at him with disbelief. "Will an Atlas TPG do? And a regular jumpsuit?" Hortan nodded. "Then get moving, because we are leaving 10 minutes ago." Vardonx opened the door and started moving. John looked at Vardonx, and then at Hortan.
"I am going too."
"Nope, Surbius said only me and Lambin" Vardonx replied.
"You seem to have misunderstood. I said I am going. It was not a question." John rose slowly and purposefully, steadying Hortan at the same time.
Vardonx rolled his eyes, "right, right, can we go now then at least. By the profits of TPG, why can't it be simple just once?"
The council received notice that the terror attack had been stopped. Now they just had to find Ardon and let him account for his actions. They needed to find out where things had gone wrong, so they could ensure that the next plan would succeed.They needed to figure out what parts of the plan could be salvaged. And that aside, he was still holding a significant amount of credits.
Elos Drade was in reality Corvus pilot Elos Dradenak. NP had no problems finding him, he was still active in the Sedina D-14 station defence force. He waited for Chi to report that the terrorist had been apprehended, by none other than young Hortan, and then launched to Sedina B-8. He had coded the data and dropped it in his Vulture. Ready for another drop. He was getting tired of this, he had been dropped nine times yesterday to retrieve the emergency packet from yoda that allowed him to warn Chi. But in the end it was worth the effort. No contact could be seen between CLM and CIA/PA, no matter how expedient it was.
He exited the wormhole in the middle of a convoy going the other way. Azumi and sharingan were attacking it, each going for a Behemoth. One large explosion indicated that one of the behemoths never made it, and the rest of the convoy was through. Azumi and sharingan jumped after it, not willing to let their prey get away. NP shuddered slightly, he hated seeing trade vessels treated like shooting targets. Azumi exited back into B-8 and turboed towards the 3k mark. If she had seen him, she ignored him completely. He wondered if he had done something wrong, when she reappeared in a pink Behemoth. Ah, the cargo. He decided to let her get some of her own medicine, and flew the vulture over towards the front of the Behemoth and flared a couple of shots at her. Azumi ignored it, opened her cargohold and scooped 118 of the 120 crates of synthetic gems into the cavernous hold. NP was puzzled, why didn't she take them all? He moved closer to examine the two remaining crates. What was wrong with those?
Azumi: You are green
The front of the Behemoth erupted in a fusillade of missile fire as Azumi unloaded her chaos swarms at the vulture. NP never got to even try and avoid, before the explosions tore his ship apart, thus solving the fist part of the delivery mission.
Azumi laughed out loud. Even as she knew that NP was supposed to be exploded, she had wanted to make it spectacular. And this gave her a kill even on a boring cargo pick-up mission. She intercepted the Xithricite case. 119 crates in all, capacity full. Sharingan exited the wormhole in his vulture, having sold the cargo in Latos.
"Are you getting picky? What is wrong with those two crates left?"
"Had to get some scrap metal for a mission I am about to take" she replied, lying easily.
"More for me then." Sharingan scooped the crates into his vulture. "Ok, go and unload, lets set up for the next set of traders."
"On my way, this ship is as manoeuvrable as a 40 ton brick house with engines. Wait, it is a 40 ton house.."
Sharingan chuckled, "yeah, but get moving before I decide that you need to be pirated."
Azumi accelerated slowly to the 3k mark. She absolutely hated flying this thing, and she would only do it to pick up the cargo they had liberated. Once she had docked, she grabbed the crystal from the box and ran directly down to yoda's. As he opened the door, he was his usual pleasant self, and accepted the mem crystal. She was about to leave again when he called her back.
"Yes yoda-sensei?"
"Next time, make sure you change out of that horrible jumpsuit before you come down here. It looks horrible on you Azumi.
She had no idea what to say, so she merely bowed and left. Wow, he had actually noticed that she was dressing up for their meetings. She had just the right dress for next time. She smiled as she ran down the corridor. Well, dress may be stretching it a bit.
Yoda de-frowned for a brief moment as Azumi left. In reality he didn't care one iota what she wore or not, but he could see that she did. And he liked the relationship just as it was. He inserted the mem crystal and started working. Interesting and fascinating. So the pilot that survived against all odds and spoiled whatever plan had been set into motion, had apparently succeeded in apprehending the person responsible for the terror attacks on Remley Orbital. It seemed the young Hortan had a knack for being at the right location at the right time.
He started working on finding the pilot, and it didn't take him long to run the data to its conclusion. The issue here was, how was he going to turn the biggest profit on this for himself and CLM. Never one to be timid, he decided to play both horses.
Hortan was sitting with John Eldritch at the TPG security office. He had been asked to stay until they had checked that his story was actually true, and that there was in fact bombs placed at every critical junction on the station. John was grinning like a madman, finally the pacifist in Hortan had been replaced by a born again hard fighter. He had listened to Hortan as he described how he had incapacitated the man, and was surprised over the amount of Krav Maga Hortan had knowledge of. He was looking forward to sparring with him.
Hortan on the other hand, was slowly drinking a cup of hot chocolate to wash down two of the tranquillisers he had received from Ms. Chi. He knew that he had to protect Ms. Chi, and so he had agreed to take responsibility. But no matter what, he could not bring himself to lie. He had told the story from someone else's perspective, never mentioning himself, but never mentioning Ms. Chi either, and the rent-a-cops were only too happy to fill out the blanks. He was trying to keep from correcting them, and so far succeeding.
With a large "There you are", Vardonx came into the room. They both looked up and saw the full combat gear clad fighter pilot.
"Hortan, you are needed, and right now. Me and Lambin are to take you to Odia immediately. I have your suit here and a Warthog Mk II ready for you."
Hortan looked at the combat flight suit and swallowed hard.
"I don't, I mean, I really can't" he said.
"What do you mean you can't? You bloody well have to. Surbius received a message from an undisclosed source requesting your skinny butt in Odia. It was of the utmost importance to the TGFT, and that means we'll fly whether TPG likes it or not." Vardonx thought that Hortan was unable to leave because of the police matter.
"It is not that, I can't, no, I won't fly a combat ship under any circumstances, and I will not wear a combat suit."
Vardonx looked at him with disbelief. "Will an Atlas TPG do? And a regular jumpsuit?" Hortan nodded. "Then get moving, because we are leaving 10 minutes ago." Vardonx opened the door and started moving. John looked at Vardonx, and then at Hortan.
"I am going too."
"Nope, Surbius said only me and Lambin" Vardonx replied.
"You seem to have misunderstood. I said I am going. It was not a question." John rose slowly and purposefully, steadying Hortan at the same time.
Vardonx rolled his eyes, "right, right, can we go now then at least. By the profits of TPG, why can't it be simple just once?"
The council received notice that the terror attack had been stopped. Now they just had to find Ardon and let him account for his actions. They needed to find out where things had gone wrong, so they could ensure that the next plan would succeed.They needed to figure out what parts of the plan could be salvaged. And that aside, he was still holding a significant amount of credits.
18. Diplomacy 101
The bright yellow TPG Atlas was flanked by a trio of TGFT green combat ships, Vardonx and John Eldritch in Centaur III's, and Lambin in a Valkyrie X-1. Hortans ship was armed with a healing gun and a scanner. You never knew when you ran into some nice roids that needed to be logged. Lambin was scouting ahead to make sure the wormholes were secure. Finally they arrived at CLM headquarters in Latos, one of the few places that was out of bounds for TGFT. Lambin and Vardonx kept a respectfull distance, but John insisted on flying all the way with Hortan. When he came to the 3k mark from the station, a warning tone beeped and the CLM strikeforce, consisting of sharingan and Azumi this day, undocked and started their intercept course.
sharingan: You are trespassing. Go away or be plasma.
At the same time that John received the message from sharingan in his HUD, the radio crackled,
"Hortan can dock, he docks alone. Azumi, escort him to me." Yoda had spoken, and that was all there was to it. Hortan swallowed an extra time and boosted for the station with the pink vulture right behind him. He started sweating as he always did when he had a pie rat on his six.
The station disgorged two more fighters, tramshed and LNH. They boosted directly for John, and he drifted slowly towards Lambin and Vardonx. Three on three was ok odds if it was to be a fight, but he hoped that yoda would be true to his word and that it would not come to that.
The docking was quite uneventfull. As Hortan went through his post flight checks, something hammered on his canopy. Azumi, standing outside with what looked like a wrench in one hand, was trying to get his attention. He looked out at her and held three fingers up, letting her guess the meaning. It seemed to work, because she jumped down from the steps. He continued with his checks when an even larger noise came from his canopy. Startled he looked to the side of his ship and saw her standing with a sawn off shot gun that she was reloading. The lead hail had been smeared across the window and the side of his ship. Deciding against getting even more lead paint on his ship, he abandoned the remaining checks and opened the canopy.
"Yoda-sensei said to bring you at once, not when the trader felt like it. So get a move on, we have to go by my room first."
Hortan was rather scared already. He was easily scared to start with, but the prospect of going to this young woman's room alone, was almost enough for him to get inside his Atlas and launch, let mission be mission. She had a predatory sneer on her face that made her look a bit like a pale version of His Queen. And as he realised that, he knew how to handle her. With utmost patience, a little flattering, and complete submission. Maybe these pie rat vixens received a course in sneering and swaggering after joining a pie rat guild. The thought almost made him forget his fright.
"Was it Azumi they called you?" Seeing her nod, he continued, "I am very sorry that I have kept you waiting. Any bad standing you will get with yoda, I will naturally explain to him as being the fault of my lack of understanding of the issue of speed, with which I have been sorely misinformed, naturally not by yourself." He bowed deeply and looked up at the young woman again. She was smiling broadly, making her face much more pretty he thought, and much less dangerous.
"Shit, are you for real? Now, really, we have to go." She pointed in the direction with the shotgun and let him lead them down the corridor. Hortan noticed how clean looking the white walls were, they looked as if they had been painted within the last week maybe.
"Very well maintained here." Hortan noted, trying to ease his nerves with small talk.
"Yeah, well, tell that to sharingan. It is his doing. I liked the paint stick creatures better, but this is probably for the better" she laughed.
Hortan missed the joke completely, but at least he made her laugh. He felt slightly more at ease. She stopped him at non-distinct door, and he started to open it, believing that they had arrived.
"You wait here, it'll only take a minute for me to get ready," she said and slid the door shut in his face after entering.
He looked dumbfounded at the door. Now what? Why had they had to hurry up so much if he was going to stand and wait for her to get ready? Was this some kind of CLM ritual he was witnessing?
Just as he was about to become impatient, and that is not easy for a miner to become, the door clicked open and the room, that had served as chrysalis for this particular pie rat, revealed the butterfly emerging. Azumi had changed into a dress made of strings and beads, created so it did not reveal anything, but at the same time you could see she was not wearing... Hortan felt the familiar heat rise in his cheeks and instantly looked away. Too late, Azumi had seen that he blushed immensely and smiled coyly at him.
"So, you like it I can see. Shame it doesn't work like that on everyone. Follow me," she said and started walking towards the depths of the station. Hortan really didn't know where to keep his eyes, if only she had let him lead as before. He settled for her heels, and even that was a bit too much for him.
The large KEEP THE HELL OUT sign alerted Hortan to the fact that they might have arrived. Azumi showed Hortan the call button, and he pressed it. Apparently he had done something wrong, because she let out a snort of disappointment. He thought abut pressing it again, but the door opened before he had decided.Yoda was standing inside. Hortan was surprised, he had expected yoda to be at least three meters tall, not three feet. His surprise must have been obvious, and along with the still blushing cheeks, he was looking like a complete fool.
"Think of me as espresso," yoda said, catching Hortan completely off guard. "The most potent of caffeine shots comes in small cups. Just like skill and malice," he smiled a very unpleasant smile.
"And you are the Meatan that managed to survive the convoy attack, solved the TGFT-PA conflict and singlehandedly took out the terrorist that was responsible for the Remley atrocities. I guess looks can be deceiving, no?" He motioned them both inside.
"Ehm, the name is Hortan sir, and let me first say that Azumi was completely guiltless in us arriving late, she did her utmost to make me move faster, and it was not until she, at great risk to herself, made me open my canopy that I realised the need for haste."
Yoda looked at Azumi, then at Hortan and back again. He shook his head slowly, "testosterone, GHU knows you young folks have too much of it. You didn't make it easier for him Az, but then you don't like easy, hmm?"
"I have brought you here for a reason, and it is not merely to look at young female pirates. I need for you to deliver a message to your guild, and I want you to be my personal liaison. A diplomat of sorts if you need it spelled out. The first item is, that once you find the person that masterminded all this, I want him delivered. Let that be my payment for the help I have given you so far."
Hortan shivered with the thought of being CLM's prisoner, kept deep in some wet dungeon, and only taken out for torture or worse. Yoda handed him a mem crystal and looked him in the eyes.
"Here are the findings I have made so far. The name is for Surbius or Ecka only. Let them decide how, where and when. But make sure they understand that I want him." With that he waved his hand at Azumi, who bowed deep and led Hortan out of the door.
"So, do I call you Your Excellency from now on?" she asked Hortan, only halfway jesting.
"Just Hortan will do nicely," he responded. "I never asked for the position, I never asked for anything of this to happen."
"Well Just Hortan, it did, and now you have work to do." She moved in front of him and started walking towards the docking area, hips swaying and lips smiling as she could imagine him blushing once more.
Yoda sat down after they had left. He chuckled silently as he thought of the young man thrown to the lion, or rather lioness. He remembered that even he had once been that young and innocent, back before he flew with [CLM]Demon. Those were the days where yoda had terrorised all traders no matter where they were to be found. And now he was so mired in paperwork he rarely got time to fly. Getting older was not what he had envisioned. Maybe it was a time for a change. He would use this present situation to his utmost advantage, and then he would focus his attention elsewhere.
The bright yellow TPG Atlas was flanked by a trio of TGFT green combat ships, Vardonx and John Eldritch in Centaur III's, and Lambin in a Valkyrie X-1. Hortans ship was armed with a healing gun and a scanner. You never knew when you ran into some nice roids that needed to be logged. Lambin was scouting ahead to make sure the wormholes were secure. Finally they arrived at CLM headquarters in Latos, one of the few places that was out of bounds for TGFT. Lambin and Vardonx kept a respectfull distance, but John insisted on flying all the way with Hortan. When he came to the 3k mark from the station, a warning tone beeped and the CLM strikeforce, consisting of sharingan and Azumi this day, undocked and started their intercept course.
sharingan: You are trespassing. Go away or be plasma.
At the same time that John received the message from sharingan in his HUD, the radio crackled,
"Hortan can dock, he docks alone. Azumi, escort him to me." Yoda had spoken, and that was all there was to it. Hortan swallowed an extra time and boosted for the station with the pink vulture right behind him. He started sweating as he always did when he had a pie rat on his six.
The station disgorged two more fighters, tramshed and LNH. They boosted directly for John, and he drifted slowly towards Lambin and Vardonx. Three on three was ok odds if it was to be a fight, but he hoped that yoda would be true to his word and that it would not come to that.
The docking was quite uneventfull. As Hortan went through his post flight checks, something hammered on his canopy. Azumi, standing outside with what looked like a wrench in one hand, was trying to get his attention. He looked out at her and held three fingers up, letting her guess the meaning. It seemed to work, because she jumped down from the steps. He continued with his checks when an even larger noise came from his canopy. Startled he looked to the side of his ship and saw her standing with a sawn off shot gun that she was reloading. The lead hail had been smeared across the window and the side of his ship. Deciding against getting even more lead paint on his ship, he abandoned the remaining checks and opened the canopy.
"Yoda-sensei said to bring you at once, not when the trader felt like it. So get a move on, we have to go by my room first."
Hortan was rather scared already. He was easily scared to start with, but the prospect of going to this young woman's room alone, was almost enough for him to get inside his Atlas and launch, let mission be mission. She had a predatory sneer on her face that made her look a bit like a pale version of His Queen. And as he realised that, he knew how to handle her. With utmost patience, a little flattering, and complete submission. Maybe these pie rat vixens received a course in sneering and swaggering after joining a pie rat guild. The thought almost made him forget his fright.
"Was it Azumi they called you?" Seeing her nod, he continued, "I am very sorry that I have kept you waiting. Any bad standing you will get with yoda, I will naturally explain to him as being the fault of my lack of understanding of the issue of speed, with which I have been sorely misinformed, naturally not by yourself." He bowed deeply and looked up at the young woman again. She was smiling broadly, making her face much more pretty he thought, and much less dangerous.
"Shit, are you for real? Now, really, we have to go." She pointed in the direction with the shotgun and let him lead them down the corridor. Hortan noticed how clean looking the white walls were, they looked as if they had been painted within the last week maybe.
"Very well maintained here." Hortan noted, trying to ease his nerves with small talk.
"Yeah, well, tell that to sharingan. It is his doing. I liked the paint stick creatures better, but this is probably for the better" she laughed.
Hortan missed the joke completely, but at least he made her laugh. He felt slightly more at ease. She stopped him at non-distinct door, and he started to open it, believing that they had arrived.
"You wait here, it'll only take a minute for me to get ready," she said and slid the door shut in his face after entering.
He looked dumbfounded at the door. Now what? Why had they had to hurry up so much if he was going to stand and wait for her to get ready? Was this some kind of CLM ritual he was witnessing?
Just as he was about to become impatient, and that is not easy for a miner to become, the door clicked open and the room, that had served as chrysalis for this particular pie rat, revealed the butterfly emerging. Azumi had changed into a dress made of strings and beads, created so it did not reveal anything, but at the same time you could see she was not wearing... Hortan felt the familiar heat rise in his cheeks and instantly looked away. Too late, Azumi had seen that he blushed immensely and smiled coyly at him.
"So, you like it I can see. Shame it doesn't work like that on everyone. Follow me," she said and started walking towards the depths of the station. Hortan really didn't know where to keep his eyes, if only she had let him lead as before. He settled for her heels, and even that was a bit too much for him.
The large KEEP THE HELL OUT sign alerted Hortan to the fact that they might have arrived. Azumi showed Hortan the call button, and he pressed it. Apparently he had done something wrong, because she let out a snort of disappointment. He thought abut pressing it again, but the door opened before he had decided.Yoda was standing inside. Hortan was surprised, he had expected yoda to be at least three meters tall, not three feet. His surprise must have been obvious, and along with the still blushing cheeks, he was looking like a complete fool.
"Think of me as espresso," yoda said, catching Hortan completely off guard. "The most potent of caffeine shots comes in small cups. Just like skill and malice," he smiled a very unpleasant smile.
"And you are the Meatan that managed to survive the convoy attack, solved the TGFT-PA conflict and singlehandedly took out the terrorist that was responsible for the Remley atrocities. I guess looks can be deceiving, no?" He motioned them both inside.
"Ehm, the name is Hortan sir, and let me first say that Azumi was completely guiltless in us arriving late, she did her utmost to make me move faster, and it was not until she, at great risk to herself, made me open my canopy that I realised the need for haste."
Yoda looked at Azumi, then at Hortan and back again. He shook his head slowly, "testosterone, GHU knows you young folks have too much of it. You didn't make it easier for him Az, but then you don't like easy, hmm?"
"I have brought you here for a reason, and it is not merely to look at young female pirates. I need for you to deliver a message to your guild, and I want you to be my personal liaison. A diplomat of sorts if you need it spelled out. The first item is, that once you find the person that masterminded all this, I want him delivered. Let that be my payment for the help I have given you so far."
Hortan shivered with the thought of being CLM's prisoner, kept deep in some wet dungeon, and only taken out for torture or worse. Yoda handed him a mem crystal and looked him in the eyes.
"Here are the findings I have made so far. The name is for Surbius or Ecka only. Let them decide how, where and when. But make sure they understand that I want him." With that he waved his hand at Azumi, who bowed deep and led Hortan out of the door.
"So, do I call you Your Excellency from now on?" she asked Hortan, only halfway jesting.
"Just Hortan will do nicely," he responded. "I never asked for the position, I never asked for anything of this to happen."
"Well Just Hortan, it did, and now you have work to do." She moved in front of him and started walking towards the docking area, hips swaying and lips smiling as she could imagine him blushing once more.
Yoda sat down after they had left. He chuckled silently as he thought of the young man thrown to the lion, or rather lioness. He remembered that even he had once been that young and innocent, back before he flew with [CLM]Demon. Those were the days where yoda had terrorised all traders no matter where they were to be found. And now he was so mired in paperwork he rarely got time to fly. Getting older was not what he had envisioned. Maybe it was a time for a change. He would use this present situation to his utmost advantage, and then he would focus his attention elsewhere.
19. Preludium
Hortan was chaperoned into his Atlas by the energetic young woman. He had tried to make some small talk with her on the way to the bay. He figured that if she knew him better, she would not be as prone to shoot him, and besides small talk was soothing for his nerves. When they finally came to the launch bay, he was surprised to find himself sad to leave. Even though he would rather be anywhere else than in CLM HQ, well, SYN HQ would be just as bad, but that was about it, he really didn't want to leave the present company. She was in her own way a very interesting young woman with some fascinating stories. Not that she had told any, but he was certain of it. Alas, they had reached the open canopy, and he climbed wearily into the seat of his cockpit.
"Guess I'll be seeing you again soon. Take care, and safe flight." She extended her hand, and he stared at it. "You are supposed to shake it," she whispered amused. He cursed himself silently and took the offered hand in his own. So small, and yet so strong. He shook it quickly to disguise his nervousness, which off course showed exactly that. She smiled her predatory look at him and jumped down from the footrests, and swaggered behind the blast safes. He watched her all the way, only shaking out of his trance when she left his vision.
"...going to launch or what?" The dock master had been trying to contact Hortan for some time now, and he was getting mightily annoyed.
"Oh, sorry, I had some hardware problems" he blurted in reply, once more cursing himself, this time for the fantastically bad reply.
"Sure son, we can all get those from time to time" the dock master called back. Hortan was certain that he was right now the laughing stock of the entire launch bay.
He launched and joined the three waiting TGFT fighters where they had waited, the dark shadows of CLM fighters trailing them. They were escorted out of the sector and jumped for Dau K-10, TGFT HQ.
Once safely docked back at the station, Hortan went to the OPS room, directly to Surbius.
"I have something that is yours or Ecka's eyes only," he said to Surb.
"Ok, give it to me and I'll make sure we see it right away."
"No, first you have to make a promise." Surbius looked puzzled, he was not in habit of giving promises.
"I have this information from yoda, and he wants something for it. He wants the persons that he names. He wants him when we have captured him. And I promised him to ensure that."
Surbius though abut it for a second or two. When they apprehended the person, the maximum penalty they could give him in UIT space was a full memory wipe, just like the person Hortan had arrested in the pancake bakery was going to receive. The erasure of the person was considered a humane way of eliminating the ones that could not be expected to redeem themselves in any way, or that had done truly horrible things. The body was then used for a memory implant from a terminally sick person. He was certain that other rules were present in grey space.
"Sure, he can have him, but we want to be able to display him when he is captured."
Hortan gave the mem crystal to Surbius and turned and left. His work had been done, his first ever diplomatic mission. He checked his PDA, almost two hours to the meeting with the shrink. Maybe a load of pancakes would help fill the time. He texted Ms Chi and asked her to join him. Hopeful, he went to the pancake shop.
Surbius called Ecka immediately, and together they watched the data unfold. Yoda had dug very deep, but then again, for an ex member of the notorious BLAK, he had the contacts and the knowledge to find just about everyone. The secret UIT account had been used to pay off a set of warthogs on Latos B-2, and as far as yoda could trace it, a person named Fadhe had used it. When Surbius entered the name into his database, it came up flagged as a known contact of one person that was interesting. Ferrin Galders of Corvus Inteligence Service. The Sun Flare that had been used in the attack on the convoy showed up as having been purchased at Sedina L-2, at Daltas Hold. And the now familiar number of the Corvus credstick had been used for the purchase.
It turned out that the person that used the stick was named Paeko Leta, who yoda had discovered somehow, in reality was Ardon Rala, a person that showed up on the wanted list. Surbius tried a check list for Paeko Leta and came up with a location. Daltas Hold again. He looked at Ecka who merely nodded at Surbius, and went to alert people. This was their chance to snatch him before he went under again with another alias, and TGFT was not going to sit on their hands and let that happen.
Hortan was in luck. Not only did Ms. Chi join him, but John, Lambin, Vardonx and Rowan were already at Soggy's Pancakes and Waffles munching away. They made room around the table, and Hortan dug right in.
"Training today Chi?" John asked. "You can join in Hort, looks like you know some tricks yourself."
Ms. Chi almost choked on her waffle.
"I really shouldn't John, I have an appointment with Dr Wyman this afternoon."
"Your loss I guess, but if you feel up to it, come and join us later, ok?"
Hortan nodded and munched some more pancake. It wasn't a lie at all, maybe he didn't tell everything, but he hadn't lied. Ms. Chi looked at him over her cup and smiled behind it. Her secret smile, just for him. He blushed madly.
"Thinking about that pierat wench again are you?" Lambin was merciless
"Noes" Hortan replied, thought of her and blushed even more.
"Now you are" Vardonx laughed.
The laughs stopped when four PDA's started ringing. They looked at it, and John looked up at Ms. Chi.
"Going to have to postpone the training today Chi. Guild business and stuff. Cya Hort, say hi to the Doc for me, k?" He spun Hortans propeller before leaving, for good luck as he usually did
Chi's PDA started ringing too, and with a slight smile to Hortan, she had to leave as well, leaving Hortan alone. Not that he minded, because none of them had eaten all their pancakes. More for him.
The OPS room was full, almost all of TGFT was present. Two liaison from PA were there as well, Ms. Chi, and Mick. Ecka stood in front of the large holoprojector in full combat gear and waited until all were seated.
"Welcome all. The guild is about to undertake a mission that is quite unlike any mission we have ever done. We are about to cross from the realm of trade guild that only concerns itself with the members of the guild, into the realms normally inhabited by the armed forces of known space. We, as a non-national entity, can go where we please, and as such we can do justice where it was otherwise impossible. Pilots, we are going to find the person responsible for the station attacks, the convoy attack, and the attempted murder on my person. We are going to make a snatch attack on Daltas Hold and apprehend Ardon Rala, aka Paeko Lata and bring him to justice. Any pilot that is adhering to a code of non-violence, you stay here with Surbius and Toha for coordination. The rest of you, come with me for specific orders."
With that, Ecka walked to the pre launch briefing room, with the most of the active pilots in tow.
Hortan was chaperoned into his Atlas by the energetic young woman. He had tried to make some small talk with her on the way to the bay. He figured that if she knew him better, she would not be as prone to shoot him, and besides small talk was soothing for his nerves. When they finally came to the launch bay, he was surprised to find himself sad to leave. Even though he would rather be anywhere else than in CLM HQ, well, SYN HQ would be just as bad, but that was about it, he really didn't want to leave the present company. She was in her own way a very interesting young woman with some fascinating stories. Not that she had told any, but he was certain of it. Alas, they had reached the open canopy, and he climbed wearily into the seat of his cockpit.
"Guess I'll be seeing you again soon. Take care, and safe flight." She extended her hand, and he stared at it. "You are supposed to shake it," she whispered amused. He cursed himself silently and took the offered hand in his own. So small, and yet so strong. He shook it quickly to disguise his nervousness, which off course showed exactly that. She smiled her predatory look at him and jumped down from the footrests, and swaggered behind the blast safes. He watched her all the way, only shaking out of his trance when she left his vision.
"...going to launch or what?" The dock master had been trying to contact Hortan for some time now, and he was getting mightily annoyed.
"Oh, sorry, I had some hardware problems" he blurted in reply, once more cursing himself, this time for the fantastically bad reply.
"Sure son, we can all get those from time to time" the dock master called back. Hortan was certain that he was right now the laughing stock of the entire launch bay.
He launched and joined the three waiting TGFT fighters where they had waited, the dark shadows of CLM fighters trailing them. They were escorted out of the sector and jumped for Dau K-10, TGFT HQ.
Once safely docked back at the station, Hortan went to the OPS room, directly to Surbius.
"I have something that is yours or Ecka's eyes only," he said to Surb.
"Ok, give it to me and I'll make sure we see it right away."
"No, first you have to make a promise." Surbius looked puzzled, he was not in habit of giving promises.
"I have this information from yoda, and he wants something for it. He wants the persons that he names. He wants him when we have captured him. And I promised him to ensure that."
Surbius though abut it for a second or two. When they apprehended the person, the maximum penalty they could give him in UIT space was a full memory wipe, just like the person Hortan had arrested in the pancake bakery was going to receive. The erasure of the person was considered a humane way of eliminating the ones that could not be expected to redeem themselves in any way, or that had done truly horrible things. The body was then used for a memory implant from a terminally sick person. He was certain that other rules were present in grey space.
"Sure, he can have him, but we want to be able to display him when he is captured."
Hortan gave the mem crystal to Surbius and turned and left. His work had been done, his first ever diplomatic mission. He checked his PDA, almost two hours to the meeting with the shrink. Maybe a load of pancakes would help fill the time. He texted Ms Chi and asked her to join him. Hopeful, he went to the pancake shop.
Surbius called Ecka immediately, and together they watched the data unfold. Yoda had dug very deep, but then again, for an ex member of the notorious BLAK, he had the contacts and the knowledge to find just about everyone. The secret UIT account had been used to pay off a set of warthogs on Latos B-2, and as far as yoda could trace it, a person named Fadhe had used it. When Surbius entered the name into his database, it came up flagged as a known contact of one person that was interesting. Ferrin Galders of Corvus Inteligence Service. The Sun Flare that had been used in the attack on the convoy showed up as having been purchased at Sedina L-2, at Daltas Hold. And the now familiar number of the Corvus credstick had been used for the purchase.
It turned out that the person that used the stick was named Paeko Leta, who yoda had discovered somehow, in reality was Ardon Rala, a person that showed up on the wanted list. Surbius tried a check list for Paeko Leta and came up with a location. Daltas Hold again. He looked at Ecka who merely nodded at Surbius, and went to alert people. This was their chance to snatch him before he went under again with another alias, and TGFT was not going to sit on their hands and let that happen.
Hortan was in luck. Not only did Ms. Chi join him, but John, Lambin, Vardonx and Rowan were already at Soggy's Pancakes and Waffles munching away. They made room around the table, and Hortan dug right in.
"Training today Chi?" John asked. "You can join in Hort, looks like you know some tricks yourself."
Ms. Chi almost choked on her waffle.
"I really shouldn't John, I have an appointment with Dr Wyman this afternoon."
"Your loss I guess, but if you feel up to it, come and join us later, ok?"
Hortan nodded and munched some more pancake. It wasn't a lie at all, maybe he didn't tell everything, but he hadn't lied. Ms. Chi looked at him over her cup and smiled behind it. Her secret smile, just for him. He blushed madly.
"Thinking about that pierat wench again are you?" Lambin was merciless
"Noes" Hortan replied, thought of her and blushed even more.
"Now you are" Vardonx laughed.
The laughs stopped when four PDA's started ringing. They looked at it, and John looked up at Ms. Chi.
"Going to have to postpone the training today Chi. Guild business and stuff. Cya Hort, say hi to the Doc for me, k?" He spun Hortans propeller before leaving, for good luck as he usually did
Chi's PDA started ringing too, and with a slight smile to Hortan, she had to leave as well, leaving Hortan alone. Not that he minded, because none of them had eaten all their pancakes. More for him.
The OPS room was full, almost all of TGFT was present. Two liaison from PA were there as well, Ms. Chi, and Mick. Ecka stood in front of the large holoprojector in full combat gear and waited until all were seated.
"Welcome all. The guild is about to undertake a mission that is quite unlike any mission we have ever done. We are about to cross from the realm of trade guild that only concerns itself with the members of the guild, into the realms normally inhabited by the armed forces of known space. We, as a non-national entity, can go where we please, and as such we can do justice where it was otherwise impossible. Pilots, we are going to find the person responsible for the station attacks, the convoy attack, and the attempted murder on my person. We are going to make a snatch attack on Daltas Hold and apprehend Ardon Rala, aka Paeko Lata and bring him to justice. Any pilot that is adhering to a code of non-violence, you stay here with Surbius and Toha for coordination. The rest of you, come with me for specific orders."
With that, Ecka walked to the pre launch briefing room, with the most of the active pilots in tow.
Aye , a cracking yarn...
I tried with Scottish dialect, but it came up completely illegible... Maybe I did it right then, who knows?
Hort
Hort
/me smites smittens