Forums » Role Playing
24. Through these walls
NP opened his eyes, the semi-conscious entity that was PA's de-centralised mainframe had been rebooted and he had been kicked from his own skull. Smiling a real life smile, he opened a good old-fashioned terminal window on his pda and started a search programme. He knew what to look for, and it was only a matter of seconds before he detected the node that had controlled his assets so efficiently. He followed the data stream and saw what was going on as Dau K-10. He opened a link to Naoko and sent her a message about what had happened, and what he was about to do. Grinning fiercely, he started entering commands the old fashioned way with a keyboard and in raw code.
###
Gramps walked into TGFT command, nodded politely around and stepped up to Ecka's chair. Ecka looked at Gramps who nodded in return. Ecka sighed a breath of relief, reached behind his chair and grabbed the bottle of Phylatis Delicht from which he poured two drams, handing one of them to Gramps. They looked each other in the eyes before drinking the fiery liquid that balmed the soul all the way down while raising the temperature several degrees. Gramps held the cup out gain for a refill, one dram was hardly enough.
"Sir, it has been solved. The dockhand has agreed to a compensation of one point three million credits and all expenses paid regarding his hospital stay. He then drops all charges and claims it was an accident"
"Tis nae as bad as feared Gramps, wiel done."
"I wish. There is another small item, but I hope I can work that out as well. He wants Buzz to apologise, and you know how Buzz is"
"Aye, Ah kenn Buzz, It cannae be done. Unless ye can git Waldoze o Fluffy tae blether im into it."
"I'll see what I can do Sir. I'll get on it right away."
Gramps held his hand out for another dram, he had deserved it.
###
The corridor was cloaked in black, which was precisely what the strike team wanted. So far Cat had located all the roaming guards before they had detected the team, dispatching them with taser shots and letting Skull tie them up and gag them. Two corridors down and they would be able to enter the unmarked centaur that psych0cobra was waiting in. Cat turned the corner, taser at the ready when the light turned on. The safety filter in her goggles turned them off, blinding her for half a second before the override enabled her to see in light conditions. She saw the blast door close in front of her, and heard the warning claxons start up.
"INTRUDER ALERT INTRUDER ALERT, SECTOR A-29-G."
Not slowing a second, she switched weapons to her preferred heavy calibre gyro stabilised rocket gun, or gyrock, dropping the taser unceremoniously on the floor.
"Corridor closed, need alternative exit." She kept watch towards the blast door, nobody would come through and live to tell.
Red Tide sent a query to the jacker and came up blank. Calling up a virtual map, he found a possible route to the centaur.
"Chainsaw, cut the wall here and here."
He sent a tactical overlay to Chainsaw's HUD showing an outline on the bulkhead. The blast doors were made to resist most things, and were made of xithricite alloy. The bulkheads on the other hand, were made of plasteel. Chainsaw turned his xith toothed saw on and started cutting a hole in the wall. Once more the corridor filled with the infernal noise from the super charged engine as the one centimetre wide blade shredded the wall. After cutting the three sides, he stepped back and let Skull smash the wall in. An empty cubicle. Chainsaw stepped through and set the blade to the next wall. This was going to take longer time, but it would still be faster than going through the blast doors.
###
The claxons were sounding on all levels, even in the TGFT autonomous part of the station. Vardonx and Neagoth looked at each other before grabbing their weapons and body armour. If there were intruders, they wanted to be part of the tag team. They ran outside and into Fluffy who was standing with his pda, rapidly punching up data.
"Fluffy, you coming or what?"
Fluffy looked up at the two pumped traders in full kit with something like fear in his eyes.
"They are punching through the walls. This way."
Vardonx and Neagoth exchanged looks.
"What, where? Show us where they are." Vardonx was demanding from Fluffy, who pointed at the nearest door. "Right, lets move then."
Vardonx drew his two large bore slug throwers and walked over to the door. He nodded to Neagoth who swiped his special security all access card and open the door. Inside was a bewildered Plissken caught in the middle of filing a 251-D Request for Purchase of Non-Standard Sleeping Gown form.
"Recruit, get out and report to headquarters. This is no place for a young ensign."
Plissken looked confused around; just what in his issued cubicle was deemed unsuitable for him? He could see that Vardonx meant business with the implied threat of the two guns, so after grabbing his form, he ran to TGFT operations to report. Being new in TGFT was sometimes very strange.
Vardonx stood still and listened closely. That bulkhead, the noise came from that bulkhead. He braced himself and pointed both guns, motioning for Fluffy and Neagoth to be ready. Not carrying a gun, Neagoth drew a four foot long slightly curved blade and positioned himself to be able to attack the first person through the bulkhead. A large crash from the cubicle next wall over, followed by several "Boom-swoosh-Crack" that punched holes in the wall immediately in front of them. The high pitched whine of an auto needler played second fiddle, followed by a man's scream. Vardonx bit his teeth together, they were NOT coming through him, not alive. "Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung", and silence from the room.
"Fuck, they have a gyrock gun."
Vardonx slowly nodded and replied with clenched teeth.
"It appears you are correct. What fun we are having."
###
It didn't cost him much to gain access to the forensics file from the Divinia station cops. He had found that with the low salary of most cops, asking to see relatively harmless information for a "donut contribution", was really no problem. He sifted through the names and DNA tags, fearing to find the one that matched. It took him half an hour, but in the end he didn't find his match. Sighing with relief, he looked down at the German Shepherd that had been at his side all the time, scratching it behind its ears.
"Looks like the assholes missed her buddy. What do you say, should we get back at them?"
The dog closed its mouth and turned its head sideways, its ears standing.
"I'll take that as a yes boy."
The dog started wagging its tail. He got up and walked out to his vulture, the dog at his side. He had been in hiding long enough. He had actually believed that if he disappeared from active duty, his enemies would stop the efforts to hit him via his family. He should have known better, after all they had no inhibitions when it came to making a profit. They had shown before that they would kill off an entire population and destroy a planet to gain wealth, so the torching of an orphanage to get to him was nothing. He was going to come back, he was going to find the ones responsible and make them suffer.
NP opened his eyes, the semi-conscious entity that was PA's de-centralised mainframe had been rebooted and he had been kicked from his own skull. Smiling a real life smile, he opened a good old-fashioned terminal window on his pda and started a search programme. He knew what to look for, and it was only a matter of seconds before he detected the node that had controlled his assets so efficiently. He followed the data stream and saw what was going on as Dau K-10. He opened a link to Naoko and sent her a message about what had happened, and what he was about to do. Grinning fiercely, he started entering commands the old fashioned way with a keyboard and in raw code.
###
Gramps walked into TGFT command, nodded politely around and stepped up to Ecka's chair. Ecka looked at Gramps who nodded in return. Ecka sighed a breath of relief, reached behind his chair and grabbed the bottle of Phylatis Delicht from which he poured two drams, handing one of them to Gramps. They looked each other in the eyes before drinking the fiery liquid that balmed the soul all the way down while raising the temperature several degrees. Gramps held the cup out gain for a refill, one dram was hardly enough.
"Sir, it has been solved. The dockhand has agreed to a compensation of one point three million credits and all expenses paid regarding his hospital stay. He then drops all charges and claims it was an accident"
"Tis nae as bad as feared Gramps, wiel done."
"I wish. There is another small item, but I hope I can work that out as well. He wants Buzz to apologise, and you know how Buzz is"
"Aye, Ah kenn Buzz, It cannae be done. Unless ye can git Waldoze o Fluffy tae blether im into it."
"I'll see what I can do Sir. I'll get on it right away."
Gramps held his hand out for another dram, he had deserved it.
###
The corridor was cloaked in black, which was precisely what the strike team wanted. So far Cat had located all the roaming guards before they had detected the team, dispatching them with taser shots and letting Skull tie them up and gag them. Two corridors down and they would be able to enter the unmarked centaur that psych0cobra was waiting in. Cat turned the corner, taser at the ready when the light turned on. The safety filter in her goggles turned them off, blinding her for half a second before the override enabled her to see in light conditions. She saw the blast door close in front of her, and heard the warning claxons start up.
"INTRUDER ALERT INTRUDER ALERT, SECTOR A-29-G."
Not slowing a second, she switched weapons to her preferred heavy calibre gyro stabilised rocket gun, or gyrock, dropping the taser unceremoniously on the floor.
"Corridor closed, need alternative exit." She kept watch towards the blast door, nobody would come through and live to tell.
Red Tide sent a query to the jacker and came up blank. Calling up a virtual map, he found a possible route to the centaur.
"Chainsaw, cut the wall here and here."
He sent a tactical overlay to Chainsaw's HUD showing an outline on the bulkhead. The blast doors were made to resist most things, and were made of xithricite alloy. The bulkheads on the other hand, were made of plasteel. Chainsaw turned his xith toothed saw on and started cutting a hole in the wall. Once more the corridor filled with the infernal noise from the super charged engine as the one centimetre wide blade shredded the wall. After cutting the three sides, he stepped back and let Skull smash the wall in. An empty cubicle. Chainsaw stepped through and set the blade to the next wall. This was going to take longer time, but it would still be faster than going through the blast doors.
###
The claxons were sounding on all levels, even in the TGFT autonomous part of the station. Vardonx and Neagoth looked at each other before grabbing their weapons and body armour. If there were intruders, they wanted to be part of the tag team. They ran outside and into Fluffy who was standing with his pda, rapidly punching up data.
"Fluffy, you coming or what?"
Fluffy looked up at the two pumped traders in full kit with something like fear in his eyes.
"They are punching through the walls. This way."
Vardonx and Neagoth exchanged looks.
"What, where? Show us where they are." Vardonx was demanding from Fluffy, who pointed at the nearest door. "Right, lets move then."
Vardonx drew his two large bore slug throwers and walked over to the door. He nodded to Neagoth who swiped his special security all access card and open the door. Inside was a bewildered Plissken caught in the middle of filing a 251-D Request for Purchase of Non-Standard Sleeping Gown form.
"Recruit, get out and report to headquarters. This is no place for a young ensign."
Plissken looked confused around; just what in his issued cubicle was deemed unsuitable for him? He could see that Vardonx meant business with the implied threat of the two guns, so after grabbing his form, he ran to TGFT operations to report. Being new in TGFT was sometimes very strange.
Vardonx stood still and listened closely. That bulkhead, the noise came from that bulkhead. He braced himself and pointed both guns, motioning for Fluffy and Neagoth to be ready. Not carrying a gun, Neagoth drew a four foot long slightly curved blade and positioned himself to be able to attack the first person through the bulkhead. A large crash from the cubicle next wall over, followed by several "Boom-swoosh-Crack" that punched holes in the wall immediately in front of them. The high pitched whine of an auto needler played second fiddle, followed by a man's scream. Vardonx bit his teeth together, they were NOT coming through him, not alive. "Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung", and silence from the room.
"Fuck, they have a gyrock gun."
Vardonx slowly nodded and replied with clenched teeth.
"It appears you are correct. What fun we are having."
###
It didn't cost him much to gain access to the forensics file from the Divinia station cops. He had found that with the low salary of most cops, asking to see relatively harmless information for a "donut contribution", was really no problem. He sifted through the names and DNA tags, fearing to find the one that matched. It took him half an hour, but in the end he didn't find his match. Sighing with relief, he looked down at the German Shepherd that had been at his side all the time, scratching it behind its ears.
"Looks like the assholes missed her buddy. What do you say, should we get back at them?"
The dog closed its mouth and turned its head sideways, its ears standing.
"I'll take that as a yes boy."
The dog started wagging its tail. He got up and walked out to his vulture, the dog at his side. He had been in hiding long enough. He had actually believed that if he disappeared from active duty, his enemies would stop the efforts to hit him via his family. He should have known better, after all they had no inhibitions when it came to making a profit. They had shown before that they would kill off an entire population and destroy a planet to gain wealth, so the torching of an orphanage to get to him was nothing. He was going to come back, he was going to find the ones responsible and make them suffer.
Are those guys nuts?
Even a well prepared amateur would get his clock cleaned by these belligerent KAOS knuckleheads. You need some Marines... or angry Serco infantry.. SOMEthing.
Even a well prepared amateur would get his clock cleaned by these belligerent KAOS knuckleheads. You need some Marines... or angry Serco infantry.. SOMEthing.
I'd go for nuts:)
25. If it can go wrong...
The pink Rev C docked at a sedate 70 m/s in the docking cradle of Remley Orbital. A faction rating that was just a smidgeon above hated ensured a welcoming committee to Azumi when she vaulted out of her ship, the knee length tartan skirt with calf high white socks and white shirt not quite what the guards expected. She ignored the bruises on them as efficiently as she ignored them, turning her back to rummage through the hold. Finding what she needed and calling a high pitched "Golly" when she did so, she turned and stared directly into the eyes of the largest of the guards. She took the lollipop she had found and inserted it between her black lipstick coloured lips, twirling one pigtail at the same time.
"Did I do anything wrong Mr Officer?"
The guards hesitated, they had been told to expect a vicious pirate with a lot of innocent traders on her conscience, not a schoolgirl. The guard in charge managed to move a step forward.
"I am sorry Ms, I am going to have to see some identification please."
Azumi looked at him over her lollipop and popped it out of her mouth slowly. The guards never knew what hit them. After they woke up they could watch the surveillance camera feed and see the slender bald man with a tattoo of twin snakes that twisted from his neck up and over his bald head calmly walk over to them and put a stunner to each of them in quick succession. They could also see the man smile at the young girl and extend his palms to her so they could touch palms in traditional Itani greeting. She smiled a crooked smile to him, placed the lollipop in her mouth and did a pirouette.
"Do you like my outfit?"
"You knock 'em dead babe. I especially like the Hello Kitty bands in your hair, immensely cute, yet deadly."
He knew what she hid in her hair-band, and he knew very well that she was as skilled with that monofilament wire as with her Rev C.
She feigned innocence and smiled broadly. Motioning for him to follow, Retractile and Azumi walked together into the station.
###
The noise from a chainsaw revving to high sounded very loud in the cubicle, and Vardonx flinched as the first series of plasteel splinters cascaded onto him and the rest of the room. The chainsaw cut a line five feet high, then extracted and did the same on the other side, turning near the top and connecting to the other cut. The chainsaw was retracted and silence followed. Neagoth looked to Vardonx for support but he was immensely focused on the wall. A large boom, and a single figure crushed through the wall, quickly followed by a series of high cracks as Vardonx shot several large calibre soft-nosed bullets into the first person, following him as he tried to roll away. A string of grenades were popped from Fluffy's 40 mm automatic grenade launcher, impacting in the room behind the hole in the wall. A mix of tear gas and flash-bangs, they were mainly for nuisance and confusion, not deadly. He didn't know it the civilians were alive after all. Vardonx only stopped firing when the figure was near Neagoth, and that was enough for Neagoth to take a step forward and swing his blade. A non-trained person would cut against the main mass of the target, and a non-trained person would then smash the sword on the armour plating covering the intruder. Neagoth had trained for this for many years, and he chose to strike at where most persons are vulnerable; the ankles. Cleanly separating the Achilles tendon from the foot, the target dropped like a sack of flour unceremoniously to the floor, not a sound emanating from the man. Neagoth was about to swing once more, taking the other foot out, and perhaps do the same to the knees.
Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Vardonx threw himself out of the room to get in cover from the gyrock gun, taking Fluffy down with him. Neagoth tried to blend in with the wall, and crawled behind a table that had overturned, covering up to it like a turtle to its shield. A noise like an angry swarm of bees clashed into the table as he dropped behind it, protecting him from the thousands of needles that would have reduced him to a bloody pulp had he not reached cover in time. He hugged the floor, any second fearing the stinging pain from the needler. Boom-swoosh-Crack, a hole the size of a fist appeared in the table just about his head. Boom-swoosh-Crack, another just to the side of his head. Neagoth froze, he was actually going to die now, and by someone he had never even seen.
###
The plan had worked okay so far; they had cut themselves through the plasteel walls easy enough, not meeting anyone until that last room. The man and woman had been surprised, but not enough. The man had been holding a gun in his hand when the wall crashed in, enough of a threat that Cat hadn't hesitated a second, stitching a pattern of bolts across the wall towards him. The woman in the bed had risen and taken a bolt as a direct hit in her left leg, blowing it clean off and showering the room in meat, blood and bones. That was enough for the man to loose focus and stand still for half a second, which was his undoing. The shot of needles from Skull hit him on the chest and left arm, turning it into a bleeding raw wound and dropping him fast.
Chainsaw had entered the room with the saw and started cutting once more, allowing Skull to crash open the section. Several bullets hit his chest immediately and would have been deadly if they hadn't impacted on his armour. At the same time, several grenades flew past him and impacted on the back wall, covering the room in smoke and debris. Even though the armour took the brunt of the damage, Skull still reeled from the force of the impacts and tried to get out of the line of fire to the left of the room when someone or something cut his foot in half.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, they are three. Cat, pepper it. Ah, Lady Serco this hurts."
Cat heard Skull over the team radio and replied with a string of bolts that hit the far wall, making holes in the plasteel as neatly as a sewing machine through fabric. She moved up to Skull who was lying on the ground shooting deadly canisters of needles into a tabletop that covered most of one side. Unable to see the target behind, she flicked through her vision modes until she had a vague blob behind the cover. Smiling inside the helmet, she aimed at what she felt was the head or feet and shot one single rocket. Boom-swoosh-Crack. The target moved slightly. Boom-swoosh-Crack. Once more the target moved, this time away from the hole in the tabletop. She had him now. She aimed at the head of the man and slowly depressed her finger.
###
Most of the systems had been restored to normal, and NP slowed a smidgeon. He had delegated internal systems to Naoko and continued to lock the outer systems from the attacker. Finally he had the surplus of time to begin a counterattack, or maybe just a detection probe to find out who it was. He sent a query to Naoko to see how she was handling the defence and chuckled. He had to remember to take her out to dinner one day; that was one devious lady. And she had saved him as well not to forget.
The pink Rev C docked at a sedate 70 m/s in the docking cradle of Remley Orbital. A faction rating that was just a smidgeon above hated ensured a welcoming committee to Azumi when she vaulted out of her ship, the knee length tartan skirt with calf high white socks and white shirt not quite what the guards expected. She ignored the bruises on them as efficiently as she ignored them, turning her back to rummage through the hold. Finding what she needed and calling a high pitched "Golly" when she did so, she turned and stared directly into the eyes of the largest of the guards. She took the lollipop she had found and inserted it between her black lipstick coloured lips, twirling one pigtail at the same time.
"Did I do anything wrong Mr Officer?"
The guards hesitated, they had been told to expect a vicious pirate with a lot of innocent traders on her conscience, not a schoolgirl. The guard in charge managed to move a step forward.
"I am sorry Ms, I am going to have to see some identification please."
Azumi looked at him over her lollipop and popped it out of her mouth slowly. The guards never knew what hit them. After they woke up they could watch the surveillance camera feed and see the slender bald man with a tattoo of twin snakes that twisted from his neck up and over his bald head calmly walk over to them and put a stunner to each of them in quick succession. They could also see the man smile at the young girl and extend his palms to her so they could touch palms in traditional Itani greeting. She smiled a crooked smile to him, placed the lollipop in her mouth and did a pirouette.
"Do you like my outfit?"
"You knock 'em dead babe. I especially like the Hello Kitty bands in your hair, immensely cute, yet deadly."
He knew what she hid in her hair-band, and he knew very well that she was as skilled with that monofilament wire as with her Rev C.
She feigned innocence and smiled broadly. Motioning for him to follow, Retractile and Azumi walked together into the station.
###
The noise from a chainsaw revving to high sounded very loud in the cubicle, and Vardonx flinched as the first series of plasteel splinters cascaded onto him and the rest of the room. The chainsaw cut a line five feet high, then extracted and did the same on the other side, turning near the top and connecting to the other cut. The chainsaw was retracted and silence followed. Neagoth looked to Vardonx for support but he was immensely focused on the wall. A large boom, and a single figure crushed through the wall, quickly followed by a series of high cracks as Vardonx shot several large calibre soft-nosed bullets into the first person, following him as he tried to roll away. A string of grenades were popped from Fluffy's 40 mm automatic grenade launcher, impacting in the room behind the hole in the wall. A mix of tear gas and flash-bangs, they were mainly for nuisance and confusion, not deadly. He didn't know it the civilians were alive after all. Vardonx only stopped firing when the figure was near Neagoth, and that was enough for Neagoth to take a step forward and swing his blade. A non-trained person would cut against the main mass of the target, and a non-trained person would then smash the sword on the armour plating covering the intruder. Neagoth had trained for this for many years, and he chose to strike at where most persons are vulnerable; the ankles. Cleanly separating the Achilles tendon from the foot, the target dropped like a sack of flour unceremoniously to the floor, not a sound emanating from the man. Neagoth was about to swing once more, taking the other foot out, and perhaps do the same to the knees.
Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Vardonx threw himself out of the room to get in cover from the gyrock gun, taking Fluffy down with him. Neagoth tried to blend in with the wall, and crawled behind a table that had overturned, covering up to it like a turtle to its shield. A noise like an angry swarm of bees clashed into the table as he dropped behind it, protecting him from the thousands of needles that would have reduced him to a bloody pulp had he not reached cover in time. He hugged the floor, any second fearing the stinging pain from the needler. Boom-swoosh-Crack, a hole the size of a fist appeared in the table just about his head. Boom-swoosh-Crack, another just to the side of his head. Neagoth froze, he was actually going to die now, and by someone he had never even seen.
###
The plan had worked okay so far; they had cut themselves through the plasteel walls easy enough, not meeting anyone until that last room. The man and woman had been surprised, but not enough. The man had been holding a gun in his hand when the wall crashed in, enough of a threat that Cat hadn't hesitated a second, stitching a pattern of bolts across the wall towards him. The woman in the bed had risen and taken a bolt as a direct hit in her left leg, blowing it clean off and showering the room in meat, blood and bones. That was enough for the man to loose focus and stand still for half a second, which was his undoing. The shot of needles from Skull hit him on the chest and left arm, turning it into a bleeding raw wound and dropping him fast.
Chainsaw had entered the room with the saw and started cutting once more, allowing Skull to crash open the section. Several bullets hit his chest immediately and would have been deadly if they hadn't impacted on his armour. At the same time, several grenades flew past him and impacted on the back wall, covering the room in smoke and debris. Even though the armour took the brunt of the damage, Skull still reeled from the force of the impacts and tried to get out of the line of fire to the left of the room when someone or something cut his foot in half.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, they are three. Cat, pepper it. Ah, Lady Serco this hurts."
Cat heard Skull over the team radio and replied with a string of bolts that hit the far wall, making holes in the plasteel as neatly as a sewing machine through fabric. She moved up to Skull who was lying on the ground shooting deadly canisters of needles into a tabletop that covered most of one side. Unable to see the target behind, she flicked through her vision modes until she had a vague blob behind the cover. Smiling inside the helmet, she aimed at what she felt was the head or feet and shot one single rocket. Boom-swoosh-Crack. The target moved slightly. Boom-swoosh-Crack. Once more the target moved, this time away from the hole in the tabletop. She had him now. She aimed at the head of the man and slowly depressed her finger.
###
Most of the systems had been restored to normal, and NP slowed a smidgeon. He had delegated internal systems to Naoko and continued to lock the outer systems from the attacker. Finally he had the surplus of time to begin a counterattack, or maybe just a detection probe to find out who it was. He sent a query to Naoko to see how she was handling the defence and chuckled. He had to remember to take her out to dinner one day; that was one devious lady. And she had saved him as well not to forget.
26. ...it will
There, the final command was given, and Naoko enabled the programme. The security forces were in complete disarray and split up, only the blast doors and one or two TGFT members stood between the raiding party and freedom. There was only so much she could do, open the doors when security forces wanted to come through, close them at strategic point or this little trick she was about to do.
###
The index finger was just about to depress the trigger on the gyrock rifle when the lights started blinking on and off, complete darkness and blinding light. At the same time the sprinklers turned on, spreading a non-toxic flame retardant all over the room, and a siren started wailing very loud. All transmitters started spitting out random noise across the spectrum. Cat was blinded, but pressed the trigger nonetheless. Boom-swoosh-Crack, a miss. Blind and deaf, she switched to full auto and sprinkled the area with the rest of the magazine, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung. There, a hit. She had at least hit the person she had been shooting at. She ducked back behind the wall, her back against the false safety and started switching magazine. She disengaged the vision aids and stared at the blinking lights through her visor. Something punched her shoulder and she grabbed after her combat knife on her left boot. The person put his helmet near her own.
"Cat, status."
"I am on half ammo chief, and I think Skull is hurt bad. I got one of the two next door, but I do not know how many they are."
"Cover Mayhem, he will get Skull. I'll take the other side. Chain will open another wall. On my shot, unleash hell."
"Aye aye chief."
She got ready and saw Red move among the rubble of the room and give commands in the blinks of light that allowed her to see. A stream of tracer bullets from the adjacent room told her that the cavalry had arrived on the other side. Time to play. She drew a small thermobaric grenade and readied it for when they would leave this room. No way was she going to run with a group in her rear.
###
Vardonx cursed slowly and methodically while he changed magazine. The soft nosed bullets had been replaced with Teflon coated accelerator projectiles instead, better known as armour piercers. He had heard the softer secondary explosion from the gyrock and knew that Neagoth was dead or dying. No way they were going to walk away from that, no way. He kept up his litany of curses and hatred, waiting for the right moment to ambush the filthy murderers. He saw three guards come running in full combat gear, their movements jerky and twisted in the almost stroboscopic light. He held up his badge and pointed at the prone Fluffy, giving him the thumbs up. Fluffy looked up and nodded, reloading his grenade launcher as they waited.
One of the guards knelt at the door and fired a long burst of tracer fire into the hole, staying erect to change magazine after offloading all of it in one burst. His lack of training was rewarded by a single shot from a sliver gun. Named for its thin wide beam of accelerated aluminium powder, it was extremely lethal against un-armoured targets, cutting right through flesh and bone without slowing. Like the upper face of a guard. The other guards looked in horror at the headless corpse as it slid to the floor and was himself hit by a gyrock. Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung, a hit directly in the chest of one guard, penetrating the armour and exploding him from the inside spreading him all over the corridor, the other gyrock hitting the guard in the leg almost dismembering him before exploding his hip off. Several new holes joined the rest on the back wall, proof of the extreme lethality these murderers were willing to take in use.
Vardonx cursed even more, this time about the bloody idiots that allowed complete novices to join the station security force. Fluffy shot a group of grenades in retaliation, and the gyrocks stopped. This was great, just great, outnumbered, outgunned, what could be more fun. The chainsaw started again, they were going another way. Vardonx crawled over to Fluffy and looked at the digital map and motioned to Fluffy to follow him. When they were clear of the doorway, they ran towards the next room. Four guards came running, and Vardonx motioned for them to cover the open door and smashed room. Vardonx and Fluffy had a fifty fifty chance of choosing the right room, it depended on whether the chainsaw had burst through the left or right bulkhead. They opened the door and saw the telltale line of the chainsaw track. They took as much cover as they could in the doorway and waited for the wall to collapse inwards. They were not disappointed, and a single person stepped in through, his weapon at the ready. Vardonx aimed and fired at the figure, twin tap. The figure stopped dead in his tracks and collapsed to his knees. Fluffy unleashed the entire content of the grenade launcher straight at the chest of the person who disappeared in an immense cloud of gas and debris and light. They both pulled back and grinned at each other when the air was sucked from the room and used for the explosion of the thermobaric charge that Cat had dumped in the room they had just left. Consciousness left them, and mercifully so. The pain associated with first negative and then extreme positive pressure on the eyes and lungs was enough to kill an unprotected person.
###
Surbius watched the carnage unfold and did the mental calculations in his head. This would become very bloody, and he was not sure that he would be able to catch them. He sent a query along to Ecka, and received the answer he expected and hoped for. He went out to Naoko and asked her to stop with the countermeasures and give him control of the comms system.
"All security forces pull back and regroup around sectors A-13 to A-19. No offensive action is authorised. We are letting them out."
He nodded at Naoko, and let her unleash electronic hell. He may be letting them out of the station to save the civilians from more deaths, but no way in any of the circle of Hell was he going to let them go. He needed to know who they were and where they were going. He wanted to find the ones responsible for this and submit them to precisely what they had done here.
###
Space around Dau K-10 was empty apart from two ships that bore the marks of KAOS. The ships were pitted with holes, signs of several engagements, but they had come out of it relatively well. It had helped that only one set of fighters had emerged from the station, the rest blocked by the electronic attack, but close space was still full of combat debris. William Cutting hummed tunelessly as he turned his ship in a long slow circle, scanning for incoming ships. Suddenly the lights on the launch bays activated, and it started to disgorge fighters, three vults and two seekers. He smiled, finally something to do. With the lightning mines activating and hammering the light xithricite armour of the ships, he had no problems in killing the survivors with a well placed double flare shot. He signalled to fagious who came in and dumped a new set of mines. This was almost too easy.
There, the final command was given, and Naoko enabled the programme. The security forces were in complete disarray and split up, only the blast doors and one or two TGFT members stood between the raiding party and freedom. There was only so much she could do, open the doors when security forces wanted to come through, close them at strategic point or this little trick she was about to do.
###
The index finger was just about to depress the trigger on the gyrock rifle when the lights started blinking on and off, complete darkness and blinding light. At the same time the sprinklers turned on, spreading a non-toxic flame retardant all over the room, and a siren started wailing very loud. All transmitters started spitting out random noise across the spectrum. Cat was blinded, but pressed the trigger nonetheless. Boom-swoosh-Crack, a miss. Blind and deaf, she switched to full auto and sprinkled the area with the rest of the magazine, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung. There, a hit. She had at least hit the person she had been shooting at. She ducked back behind the wall, her back against the false safety and started switching magazine. She disengaged the vision aids and stared at the blinking lights through her visor. Something punched her shoulder and she grabbed after her combat knife on her left boot. The person put his helmet near her own.
"Cat, status."
"I am on half ammo chief, and I think Skull is hurt bad. I got one of the two next door, but I do not know how many they are."
"Cover Mayhem, he will get Skull. I'll take the other side. Chain will open another wall. On my shot, unleash hell."
"Aye aye chief."
She got ready and saw Red move among the rubble of the room and give commands in the blinks of light that allowed her to see. A stream of tracer bullets from the adjacent room told her that the cavalry had arrived on the other side. Time to play. She drew a small thermobaric grenade and readied it for when they would leave this room. No way was she going to run with a group in her rear.
###
Vardonx cursed slowly and methodically while he changed magazine. The soft nosed bullets had been replaced with Teflon coated accelerator projectiles instead, better known as armour piercers. He had heard the softer secondary explosion from the gyrock and knew that Neagoth was dead or dying. No way they were going to walk away from that, no way. He kept up his litany of curses and hatred, waiting for the right moment to ambush the filthy murderers. He saw three guards come running in full combat gear, their movements jerky and twisted in the almost stroboscopic light. He held up his badge and pointed at the prone Fluffy, giving him the thumbs up. Fluffy looked up and nodded, reloading his grenade launcher as they waited.
One of the guards knelt at the door and fired a long burst of tracer fire into the hole, staying erect to change magazine after offloading all of it in one burst. His lack of training was rewarded by a single shot from a sliver gun. Named for its thin wide beam of accelerated aluminium powder, it was extremely lethal against un-armoured targets, cutting right through flesh and bone without slowing. Like the upper face of a guard. The other guards looked in horror at the headless corpse as it slid to the floor and was himself hit by a gyrock. Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung, a hit directly in the chest of one guard, penetrating the armour and exploding him from the inside spreading him all over the corridor, the other gyrock hitting the guard in the leg almost dismembering him before exploding his hip off. Several new holes joined the rest on the back wall, proof of the extreme lethality these murderers were willing to take in use.
Vardonx cursed even more, this time about the bloody idiots that allowed complete novices to join the station security force. Fluffy shot a group of grenades in retaliation, and the gyrocks stopped. This was great, just great, outnumbered, outgunned, what could be more fun. The chainsaw started again, they were going another way. Vardonx crawled over to Fluffy and looked at the digital map and motioned to Fluffy to follow him. When they were clear of the doorway, they ran towards the next room. Four guards came running, and Vardonx motioned for them to cover the open door and smashed room. Vardonx and Fluffy had a fifty fifty chance of choosing the right room, it depended on whether the chainsaw had burst through the left or right bulkhead. They opened the door and saw the telltale line of the chainsaw track. They took as much cover as they could in the doorway and waited for the wall to collapse inwards. They were not disappointed, and a single person stepped in through, his weapon at the ready. Vardonx aimed and fired at the figure, twin tap. The figure stopped dead in his tracks and collapsed to his knees. Fluffy unleashed the entire content of the grenade launcher straight at the chest of the person who disappeared in an immense cloud of gas and debris and light. They both pulled back and grinned at each other when the air was sucked from the room and used for the explosion of the thermobaric charge that Cat had dumped in the room they had just left. Consciousness left them, and mercifully so. The pain associated with first negative and then extreme positive pressure on the eyes and lungs was enough to kill an unprotected person.
###
Surbius watched the carnage unfold and did the mental calculations in his head. This would become very bloody, and he was not sure that he would be able to catch them. He sent a query along to Ecka, and received the answer he expected and hoped for. He went out to Naoko and asked her to stop with the countermeasures and give him control of the comms system.
"All security forces pull back and regroup around sectors A-13 to A-19. No offensive action is authorised. We are letting them out."
He nodded at Naoko, and let her unleash electronic hell. He may be letting them out of the station to save the civilians from more deaths, but no way in any of the circle of Hell was he going to let them go. He needed to know who they were and where they were going. He wanted to find the ones responsible for this and submit them to precisely what they had done here.
###
Space around Dau K-10 was empty apart from two ships that bore the marks of KAOS. The ships were pitted with holes, signs of several engagements, but they had come out of it relatively well. It had helped that only one set of fighters had emerged from the station, the rest blocked by the electronic attack, but close space was still full of combat debris. William Cutting hummed tunelessly as he turned his ship in a long slow circle, scanning for incoming ships. Suddenly the lights on the launch bays activated, and it started to disgorge fighters, three vults and two seekers. He smiled, finally something to do. With the lightning mines activating and hammering the light xithricite armour of the ships, he had no problems in killing the survivors with a well placed double flare shot. He signalled to fagious who came in and dumped a new set of mines. This was almost too easy.
Unconsciousness left them, and mercifully so
Close Whytee, so close. Nobody's perfect, I still reread some of my stuff and find crap like that. Keep up the good work though :)
Close Whytee, so close. Nobody's perfect, I still reread some of my stuff and find crap like that. Keep up the good work though :)
thanks. Corrected.
I blaim my lack of English as first language:) Or BLAK!
I blaim my lack of English as first language:) Or BLAK!
27. Escape and recover
Cat looked down at her chest at the two pinprick holes in her armour. She remembered getting hit, remembered the grenade onslaught, but she didn't remember getting into this room. A large dark figure was standing over her with a large syringe.
"There, that should wake you up Cat. You were hit with penetrators, shot your heart to bits. Good thing you don't use it or you would have been dead."
Cat got up and looked down at her chest, noticing a deep brown stain from the two holes along with three one centimetre deep impact craters from the grenades. She looked for her gyrock rifle and saw Mayhem play with it.
"If you drop this again, it is mine."
She looked at him, or rather at his helmeted face.
"If you take my rifle again, you better make sure I am in no condition to come and get it."
He chuckled and handed her the rifle, going back to secure the rear.
"Right troops, this is what we are gonna do. Cat you take point, Mayhem you take rear. Chainsaw, you help Skull limp out, and I'll protect Asteroth. We are going through the last bulkhead now, so expect heavy fighting on the other side. Cat, when you are ready."
She stood up, feeling as fresh as ever. That meant the Chief had pumped her full of happy juice, and that her suit was still in working order. She braced herself for the fire and pounded the wall down. A single target running to the left shooting ineffective pellets of full metal jacket shot at her armour, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung, one person sitting in the cockpit of a Vulture ready to launch, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung. She walked in and scanned the room.
"Clear, we are go."
The rest of the team moved in with all the grace they could muster and rushed across the bay to the waiting unmarked centaur in perfect unison. Once inside, the ship launched with no haste and accelerated for the jump point, William and fagious riding security. The whole insertion had taken 27 minutes.
###
Vardonx woke up to a world that was dark and slow. Something covered his eyes, and he could hardly feel himself. He sensed that something was over his nose and mouth, but it was not unpleasant. He could only hear a single tone very loud inside his ear. So, he had survived, and somehow they had won. He tried to move his hands but could not. Someone moved the blindfold and he could see a shadow that was between him and the red lamp on the wall.
"Fluffy?"
A deep voice full of concern and grief answered from the shadow.
"Fluffy is hurt pretty bad, he took a fragment in his buttocks, neatly shaved of half his ass."
Vardonx almost smiled at that, but he needed to ask one more question.
"Neagoth?"
"Hurt pretty bad, but mostly blast injury. He needs some new eyes and lungs, but apart from that he'll be fine."
"How, how can that be? I heard the tertiary explosion from the gyrock."
John actually smiled this time as he answered.
"Well, it seems that our new recruit Plissken had just recently acquired the cubicle from a well known TGFT pilot, and said pilot had forgotten a, well let's call it a life size doll that was freed from the locker with one of the shots, and as it fell out it took a direct hit to the torso, a hit meant for Neagoth's head. It exploded most of the doll, but created a kind of bubble that landed on top of Neagoth's upper torso and head, effectively shielding him from most of the blast. He survived by being inserted into a sex-toy really."
Vardonx smiled briefly and stopped again. That hurt badly.
"Waldoze?"
"You got it, Waldoze's toy saved Neagoth's life. And just to be absolutely graphic, you can guess which end covered his head."
Vardonx started chuckling, but that hurt too much as well and the medicines shut him down for a bit.
John got up and sent a message to Ecka. All TGFT members were going to be okay, even if it was going to take some time. He sat in the chair next to the trio of beds and leant back. He would stay until they were awake.
###
He launched his vulture towards Sedina, the wormhole nexus to grey. Taking the long route through grey space in order to avoid the UIT police forces, he encountered several traders and miners. No pirates were seen along the way, peace had arrived in deep grey. He kept his calm even as he wanted to kill them all, attack their ships and spread their ill-begotten wealth all over vacuum. He entered his old hunting grounds and saw the first pirate, a CLM member called Swag Man in a bright green Vult III. The ship turned towards him and moved slowly in his direction.
Swag Man: Gavan, is that you? Long time no see.
->Swag Man: Yeah, I am back. Call yoda, I need to talk to him.
Swag Man: Good to have you back man. Will do.
Gavan Ardgall slowly smiled his predatory smile that made regular Rent-a Cops duck even deeper in their on-station security details, and made the traders dump their cargo several jumps over. The rightful commander of the so called terrorist organisation named SYN was back. And this time he was not going away before the bastards that controlled UIT would admit to their money grabbing evil ways and pay for the damaged they had wrought. Until then, he was going to create mayhem in grey and UIT space.
###
It wasn't Retractile or Azumi that found Ahriman, eventually they were found. As they were walking down the corridor to the main residential area, he seemed to appear out of thin air. The cloaking field that had shielded him from detection faded to grey and revealed the very tall man clad in a long dark flowing robe, obscuring his face in a rolling veil of darkness.
"You have been seeking Ahriman."
His voice was almost metallic and hoarse, like someone that had trouble speaking or was forming the vowels with a mouth that was unfamiliar to speech.
Azumi stepped back away from the figure, and let Retractile do the talking.
"Yeah, I have a note from yoda."
He presented the pouch that the robed figure took with a gloved hand, opening it and discarding of the pouch by tossing it into the nearest nano disposal unit. He opened the message and handed it back.
"Yes, I have what he wants. You can deliver it. But I would like her to stay."
He pointed at Azumi while giving Retractile a small container.
"Well, she doesn't stay bubba. She leaves with me. Is that a problem?"
The robed figure seemed to consider for a second before turning and leaving. Retractile pocketed the container and turned to Azumi.
"Let's beat this joint, we did what we had to babe. Sushi in Odia?"
Azumi smiled at him and nodded.
"Sushi sounds delicious. And may I suggest a trader or two for desert?"
Retractile grinned as they started walking to the launch bay.
"You've read my mind babe. A course of sushi and traders is just what we need."
Cat looked down at her chest at the two pinprick holes in her armour. She remembered getting hit, remembered the grenade onslaught, but she didn't remember getting into this room. A large dark figure was standing over her with a large syringe.
"There, that should wake you up Cat. You were hit with penetrators, shot your heart to bits. Good thing you don't use it or you would have been dead."
Cat got up and looked down at her chest, noticing a deep brown stain from the two holes along with three one centimetre deep impact craters from the grenades. She looked for her gyrock rifle and saw Mayhem play with it.
"If you drop this again, it is mine."
She looked at him, or rather at his helmeted face.
"If you take my rifle again, you better make sure I am in no condition to come and get it."
He chuckled and handed her the rifle, going back to secure the rear.
"Right troops, this is what we are gonna do. Cat you take point, Mayhem you take rear. Chainsaw, you help Skull limp out, and I'll protect Asteroth. We are going through the last bulkhead now, so expect heavy fighting on the other side. Cat, when you are ready."
She stood up, feeling as fresh as ever. That meant the Chief had pumped her full of happy juice, and that her suit was still in working order. She braced herself for the fire and pounded the wall down. A single target running to the left shooting ineffective pellets of full metal jacket shot at her armour, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung, one person sitting in the cockpit of a Vulture ready to launch, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung. She walked in and scanned the room.
"Clear, we are go."
The rest of the team moved in with all the grace they could muster and rushed across the bay to the waiting unmarked centaur in perfect unison. Once inside, the ship launched with no haste and accelerated for the jump point, William and fagious riding security. The whole insertion had taken 27 minutes.
###
Vardonx woke up to a world that was dark and slow. Something covered his eyes, and he could hardly feel himself. He sensed that something was over his nose and mouth, but it was not unpleasant. He could only hear a single tone very loud inside his ear. So, he had survived, and somehow they had won. He tried to move his hands but could not. Someone moved the blindfold and he could see a shadow that was between him and the red lamp on the wall.
"Fluffy?"
A deep voice full of concern and grief answered from the shadow.
"Fluffy is hurt pretty bad, he took a fragment in his buttocks, neatly shaved of half his ass."
Vardonx almost smiled at that, but he needed to ask one more question.
"Neagoth?"
"Hurt pretty bad, but mostly blast injury. He needs some new eyes and lungs, but apart from that he'll be fine."
"How, how can that be? I heard the tertiary explosion from the gyrock."
John actually smiled this time as he answered.
"Well, it seems that our new recruit Plissken had just recently acquired the cubicle from a well known TGFT pilot, and said pilot had forgotten a, well let's call it a life size doll that was freed from the locker with one of the shots, and as it fell out it took a direct hit to the torso, a hit meant for Neagoth's head. It exploded most of the doll, but created a kind of bubble that landed on top of Neagoth's upper torso and head, effectively shielding him from most of the blast. He survived by being inserted into a sex-toy really."
Vardonx smiled briefly and stopped again. That hurt badly.
"Waldoze?"
"You got it, Waldoze's toy saved Neagoth's life. And just to be absolutely graphic, you can guess which end covered his head."
Vardonx started chuckling, but that hurt too much as well and the medicines shut him down for a bit.
John got up and sent a message to Ecka. All TGFT members were going to be okay, even if it was going to take some time. He sat in the chair next to the trio of beds and leant back. He would stay until they were awake.
###
He launched his vulture towards Sedina, the wormhole nexus to grey. Taking the long route through grey space in order to avoid the UIT police forces, he encountered several traders and miners. No pirates were seen along the way, peace had arrived in deep grey. He kept his calm even as he wanted to kill them all, attack their ships and spread their ill-begotten wealth all over vacuum. He entered his old hunting grounds and saw the first pirate, a CLM member called Swag Man in a bright green Vult III. The ship turned towards him and moved slowly in his direction.
Swag Man: Gavan, is that you? Long time no see.
->Swag Man: Yeah, I am back. Call yoda, I need to talk to him.
Swag Man: Good to have you back man. Will do.
Gavan Ardgall slowly smiled his predatory smile that made regular Rent-a Cops duck even deeper in their on-station security details, and made the traders dump their cargo several jumps over. The rightful commander of the so called terrorist organisation named SYN was back. And this time he was not going away before the bastards that controlled UIT would admit to their money grabbing evil ways and pay for the damaged they had wrought. Until then, he was going to create mayhem in grey and UIT space.
###
It wasn't Retractile or Azumi that found Ahriman, eventually they were found. As they were walking down the corridor to the main residential area, he seemed to appear out of thin air. The cloaking field that had shielded him from detection faded to grey and revealed the very tall man clad in a long dark flowing robe, obscuring his face in a rolling veil of darkness.
"You have been seeking Ahriman."
His voice was almost metallic and hoarse, like someone that had trouble speaking or was forming the vowels with a mouth that was unfamiliar to speech.
Azumi stepped back away from the figure, and let Retractile do the talking.
"Yeah, I have a note from yoda."
He presented the pouch that the robed figure took with a gloved hand, opening it and discarding of the pouch by tossing it into the nearest nano disposal unit. He opened the message and handed it back.
"Yes, I have what he wants. You can deliver it. But I would like her to stay."
He pointed at Azumi while giving Retractile a small container.
"Well, she doesn't stay bubba. She leaves with me. Is that a problem?"
The robed figure seemed to consider for a second before turning and leaving. Retractile pocketed the container and turned to Azumi.
"Let's beat this joint, we did what we had to babe. Sushi in Odia?"
Azumi smiled at him and nodded.
"Sushi sounds delicious. And may I suggest a trader or two for desert?"
Retractile grinned as they started walking to the launch bay.
"You've read my mind babe. A course of sushi and traders is just what we need."
28. New tasks
The assault force assembled in a non-descript room in Remley Orbital. The kit used for the mission had previously been stashed in a common carbonic roid in a Latos minefield, and only the tired look on all and a slight limp on one of the members gave away that they had just returned from Dau K-10. The chitchat was kept to a minimum, most just wanted to go sleep. A plethora of folded robes and shadows entered the room; their elusive commander had arrived. Known to most of known space as Ahriman, commander of KAOS, the crew knew better than that. To them he was Master Inquisitor Ahriman. Each and every one of them owed their life, sanity or more to him, either by his personal intervention or by present team members. He moved up to the front of the room and removed his hood, leaving the flowing robes. A bald head completely covered in tattoos with piercing eyes that seemed to glow on top of a hawkish nose that was underlined by a well-trimmed beard.
"We have succeeded in two out of three objectives, and for this our employer has paid his fee as was agreed upon. Furthermore we have paid our debts and KAOS is now again completely without ties to anyone be it person or guild. To each of your accounts I have entered 5 million credits, and put the same amount in the collective account. Before we take on a new assignment, I have a task that I need you to fulfil for me. For this I have enrolled a new team member, Temmin Shard. Pay attention, we need to move swiftly."
###
Naoko almost jumped through the roof when the hand touched her shoulder ever so lightly, her pulse briefly accelerating to above 200.
"Relax Naoko. You need to take a break."
She looked up at a very concerned looking Surbius.
"Sir, I am fine. I almost have it now, the data is converging around this single piece of information..."
"I am sure you are Naoko, and I have no doubt in my mind that you will eventually find it. But I am telling you hat now is not the time. You have been at it for more than a full day."
He glanced at the empty stimulant containers that were in the waste bin next to her desk.
"But we need to nail these murderers Sir. And I am almost there."
"I am sure Naoko. But I need you to go and get some rest now before you collapse here. You did so very very well, and I need your skills up at full in eight hours. Now go rest, I have NP working on it as well.
"But Sir I....Yes Sir."
The act of taking responsibility of her shoulders had the effect of all the fatigue hitting her like a twenty-pound sledgehammer. She yawned and felt dizzy and had to rest one hand on the table when she stood.
"I have arranged an escort for you Naoko."
She looked up at Surbius all blurry eyed and then to the other person behind.
"Hi Ms Naoko, it is me Hortan. Let me take you to your cubicle."
Surbius looked at Naoko and then at Hortan.
"You better be ready to carry her Hort, I am not sure she is going to last the whole way."
Hortan nodded and lifted the surprisingly light young woman up in his arms.
"Let's go get you some sleep Ms Naoko."
She didn't hear him; she was already sleeping, her arms around his neck and head buried on his shoulder.
###
NP had left only slept for a couple of hours; his reactivated brain-plant flushed the fatigue from his system as fast as his tired brain could make it. The counterattack or counter probe had found some very nice details about his attacker, details that Naoko until now had been very efficient in tracking. Apparently the attack had not taken place from Remley as first thought, but from Dau Senate instead. The security around that particular station was awesome, and he really had to probe gently so as not to draw attention to himself. He used a couple of seconds to check up on the status of his TGFT friends in hospital, and seeing they were stable he refocused on his task. He would get the assholes that had done this, and he would preserve a special place in his own personal vengeful hell for the person that had attacked him directly.
###
Buzz had received the summons from Zathras and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Arriving in the Skunk Works, he saw Moda and Zath sit in their reclining chairs slowly sipping beers. He slowed to a walk and smiled and waved to the pair. Zathras looked at Buzz and indicated the third chair with a facial expression that fitted best in a morgue. Moda put an open Dark Lady in front of him and lifted his own beer in greeting. Buzz took the beer and waved it in return before drinking deep from the bottle; it would be impolite not to.
"So Zath, you had news for me?"
"This one calls you here to say that nothing more can now be done whirr, click"
Buzz looked at Zathras and slowly it dawned upon him what he just said.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me? Are you telling me that these, these abominations cannot be removed?" Buzz rose and looked down at his chest.
"We shall repeat, we have done what we can, we can do nothing more brr."
Buzz was about to blow a fuse and stalk out of there when Moda put a calming hand forward.
"Rest easy buddy, what Zath is trying to say is that he has now dosed you and all we can do is wait and see."
Buzz looked at Moda without comprehension, until he followed Moda's gaze and looked at his beer.
"You put it in the beer?"
"Well, there may be some side effects that you may or may not be interested in knowing, so we just dosed it and let you drink."
"Side effects?"
"Let's see what happens, shall we? They are maybes, not for sures. Oh, and you may want to find a toilet soon. Real soon."
Buzz allowed Moda to lead him out of the hangar and close the door with the happy skunk painting. He stood for a couple of seconds feeling something strange happening to his stomach. A gurgling, then a protracted movement followed by another gurgling. Stomach cramps hit him like a Samo laden moth XC on turbo for eighteen days, and he felt a serious, nay a life or death need to empty his bowels. He ran/crawled/staggered to the nearest toilet.
###
The capsule that Retractile brought back from Remley contained precisely what yoda had wanted for such a long time. His implants had originally been installed by the Serco department of R&D as part of a test of how much hardware could be cramped into a single person. They had nearly killed yoda as well as their other test subjects, but some dark force had kept it's malicious hand over him and spared him alone. That was a long time ago and yoda had since then removed himself from the Serco military, indeed anything Serco. Everything had worked fine until last year when one of his implants stopped working, cascading to the other implants as well until only his most essential ones functioned. Cause of failure? Simple lack of power. He needed to change his batteries. It had taken him quite some time to figure out where he could obtain a new power source, and even more to find out how to liberate one from the depths of Serco Necrose Thought Police. He had trawled for information and come up with this Ahriman character that could obtain one for a favour. Nuff said, he had scanned the power source several times, it came out clean. He inserted it into his power cradle and started to turn his systems on. Oh sweet merciful crap, it felt SO good to be fully himself again. He actually smiled and started humming an old Serco military song from the academy.
Swag Man: Boss, somebody you wanna meet is in the Sedina/Latos wormhole
->Swag Man: And just who might that be?
Swag Man: Gavan Ardgall. He seems mightily interested in talking to you
Yoda smiled even more. How good was this day going to get?
The assault force assembled in a non-descript room in Remley Orbital. The kit used for the mission had previously been stashed in a common carbonic roid in a Latos minefield, and only the tired look on all and a slight limp on one of the members gave away that they had just returned from Dau K-10. The chitchat was kept to a minimum, most just wanted to go sleep. A plethora of folded robes and shadows entered the room; their elusive commander had arrived. Known to most of known space as Ahriman, commander of KAOS, the crew knew better than that. To them he was Master Inquisitor Ahriman. Each and every one of them owed their life, sanity or more to him, either by his personal intervention or by present team members. He moved up to the front of the room and removed his hood, leaving the flowing robes. A bald head completely covered in tattoos with piercing eyes that seemed to glow on top of a hawkish nose that was underlined by a well-trimmed beard.
"We have succeeded in two out of three objectives, and for this our employer has paid his fee as was agreed upon. Furthermore we have paid our debts and KAOS is now again completely without ties to anyone be it person or guild. To each of your accounts I have entered 5 million credits, and put the same amount in the collective account. Before we take on a new assignment, I have a task that I need you to fulfil for me. For this I have enrolled a new team member, Temmin Shard. Pay attention, we need to move swiftly."
###
Naoko almost jumped through the roof when the hand touched her shoulder ever so lightly, her pulse briefly accelerating to above 200.
"Relax Naoko. You need to take a break."
She looked up at a very concerned looking Surbius.
"Sir, I am fine. I almost have it now, the data is converging around this single piece of information..."
"I am sure you are Naoko, and I have no doubt in my mind that you will eventually find it. But I am telling you hat now is not the time. You have been at it for more than a full day."
He glanced at the empty stimulant containers that were in the waste bin next to her desk.
"But we need to nail these murderers Sir. And I am almost there."
"I am sure Naoko. But I need you to go and get some rest now before you collapse here. You did so very very well, and I need your skills up at full in eight hours. Now go rest, I have NP working on it as well.
"But Sir I....Yes Sir."
The act of taking responsibility of her shoulders had the effect of all the fatigue hitting her like a twenty-pound sledgehammer. She yawned and felt dizzy and had to rest one hand on the table when she stood.
"I have arranged an escort for you Naoko."
She looked up at Surbius all blurry eyed and then to the other person behind.
"Hi Ms Naoko, it is me Hortan. Let me take you to your cubicle."
Surbius looked at Naoko and then at Hortan.
"You better be ready to carry her Hort, I am not sure she is going to last the whole way."
Hortan nodded and lifted the surprisingly light young woman up in his arms.
"Let's go get you some sleep Ms Naoko."
She didn't hear him; she was already sleeping, her arms around his neck and head buried on his shoulder.
###
NP had left only slept for a couple of hours; his reactivated brain-plant flushed the fatigue from his system as fast as his tired brain could make it. The counterattack or counter probe had found some very nice details about his attacker, details that Naoko until now had been very efficient in tracking. Apparently the attack had not taken place from Remley as first thought, but from Dau Senate instead. The security around that particular station was awesome, and he really had to probe gently so as not to draw attention to himself. He used a couple of seconds to check up on the status of his TGFT friends in hospital, and seeing they were stable he refocused on his task. He would get the assholes that had done this, and he would preserve a special place in his own personal vengeful hell for the person that had attacked him directly.
###
Buzz had received the summons from Zathras and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Arriving in the Skunk Works, he saw Moda and Zath sit in their reclining chairs slowly sipping beers. He slowed to a walk and smiled and waved to the pair. Zathras looked at Buzz and indicated the third chair with a facial expression that fitted best in a morgue. Moda put an open Dark Lady in front of him and lifted his own beer in greeting. Buzz took the beer and waved it in return before drinking deep from the bottle; it would be impolite not to.
"So Zath, you had news for me?"
"This one calls you here to say that nothing more can now be done whirr, click"
Buzz looked at Zathras and slowly it dawned upon him what he just said.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me? Are you telling me that these, these abominations cannot be removed?" Buzz rose and looked down at his chest.
"We shall repeat, we have done what we can, we can do nothing more brr."
Buzz was about to blow a fuse and stalk out of there when Moda put a calming hand forward.
"Rest easy buddy, what Zath is trying to say is that he has now dosed you and all we can do is wait and see."
Buzz looked at Moda without comprehension, until he followed Moda's gaze and looked at his beer.
"You put it in the beer?"
"Well, there may be some side effects that you may or may not be interested in knowing, so we just dosed it and let you drink."
"Side effects?"
"Let's see what happens, shall we? They are maybes, not for sures. Oh, and you may want to find a toilet soon. Real soon."
Buzz allowed Moda to lead him out of the hangar and close the door with the happy skunk painting. He stood for a couple of seconds feeling something strange happening to his stomach. A gurgling, then a protracted movement followed by another gurgling. Stomach cramps hit him like a Samo laden moth XC on turbo for eighteen days, and he felt a serious, nay a life or death need to empty his bowels. He ran/crawled/staggered to the nearest toilet.
###
The capsule that Retractile brought back from Remley contained precisely what yoda had wanted for such a long time. His implants had originally been installed by the Serco department of R&D as part of a test of how much hardware could be cramped into a single person. They had nearly killed yoda as well as their other test subjects, but some dark force had kept it's malicious hand over him and spared him alone. That was a long time ago and yoda had since then removed himself from the Serco military, indeed anything Serco. Everything had worked fine until last year when one of his implants stopped working, cascading to the other implants as well until only his most essential ones functioned. Cause of failure? Simple lack of power. He needed to change his batteries. It had taken him quite some time to figure out where he could obtain a new power source, and even more to find out how to liberate one from the depths of Serco Necrose Thought Police. He had trawled for information and come up with this Ahriman character that could obtain one for a favour. Nuff said, he had scanned the power source several times, it came out clean. He inserted it into his power cradle and started to turn his systems on. Oh sweet merciful crap, it felt SO good to be fully himself again. He actually smiled and started humming an old Serco military song from the academy.
Swag Man: Boss, somebody you wanna meet is in the Sedina/Latos wormhole
->Swag Man: And just who might that be?
Swag Man: Gavan Ardgall. He seems mightily interested in talking to you
Yoda smiled even more. How good was this day going to get?
29. Out on a limb
Waldoze padded Fluffy on the shoulder and got up to leave. He had visited Neagoth and Vardonx as well, bringing some illicit Helio Mists and bad company. The two girls from The Priggly Pear had achieved complete success with the show, and even Neagoth who was blinded while waiting for the implants had enjoyed himself. Waldoze ushered the two scantily clad and immensely giggling women out of the hospital ward and towards the dock area. Waldoze took the girls down through the large commercial plaza; that was the reward he had promised them for doing a show so far away. It was just like good old days, one giggling beauty on each arm. He nodded to Rowan, Ifor and Pasquel who were standing at a coffee stand, enjoying something hot and powerful. He strutted over towards them full of attitude, living life to the maximum. Well, not quite.
"Waldoze! Honeybunny!"
Something was not like good old day, he had forgotten Melody.
"What are you doing with those two, those..tramps?"
Waldoze looked over to the redheaded beauty that was standing opposite the plaza, a tiny armless summer dress matching perfectly to the small bag with an even tinier dog inside the bag. Her two equally picture perfect friends were staring at Waldoze like he was a paedophile or worse. Waldoze looked at himself and at the two dancing girls and smiled at the crazy coincidence. For once, just this once, he was actually innocent.
"Dear, it is not what it looks like. These girls are from The Priggly Pear, I brought them here to perform for Fluffy, Neagoth and Vardonx."
"And what does that make you, a pimp?"
The two friends nodded righteously at Melody and stared back at Waldoze. He was now officially worse than a paedophile pimp.
"No dear, it is nothing of the sort. I was merely offering my special transport services, they never had to pay at all."
This seemed to enrage the redhead even more, and she looked around for something to throw, found some vegetables and tossed them at Waldoze.
"Honey, honey what did I do?" Waldoze was ducking and weaving to avoid getting hit with some success.
Melody turned, her friends turning with her and stomped out of the plaza. Waldoze stood with his hands out from his sides, a surprised look on his face. He turned to Ifor and Pasquel who were laughing their heads off.
"What did I do?"
Rowan walked over to Waldoze.
"Perhaps the Grove can help? Let me escort these pretty young women back home. May I suggest that you run after your female companion and may I also suggest flowers and jewellery? In massive amounts?"
Waldoze looked at Rowan without comprehension until Rowan nodded at the direction Melody with friends had left. Waldoze left the two girls and ran after her.
"Sisters, may I suggest an evening in the company of The Grove? We have the best stimulants in known space."
He took a girl on each arm and walked off with them towards the launch bay, the trio merrily chatting and giggling all the way.
###
Ifor looked after the running Waldoze and laughed along Pasquel. It took them about three minutes to stop laughing, and in the end Pasquel had to wipe a tear away from his eye. He slowly raised the Helio Toddy to his lips and sipped slowly while smiling. Ifor waited until he had some of the liquid in his mouth.
"Well, even the biggest ship can be brought down by the smallest weapon it seems. Guess that is what they are talking about when they say that someone is getting Neut-ered"
Lambin sputtered his Toddy all over himself and joined Ifor in laughing at Waldoze's expense. This time they laughed even more.
###
Hortan made sure that Naoko reached her bed safely. Once inside, he called her sister to come and tug her in properly. It would be frightfully indecent of him if he were to do something like that. He waited outside for Miharu to arrive.
"Ms. Miharu, I am sorry to inconvenience you so, but your sister needs tucking in. She has been working for some 35 hours straight."
Miharu walked over to Hortan, put her hands on his shoulders, stood on her toe tips and gave him a light kiss on the cheek.
"You are a darling Hort. I wish there were more like you."
With that, she walked into her sister’s cabin and closed the door. Hortan never knew what hit him, but immediately after he felt the effects. He felt a sudden urge to buy luxuries, chocolates, fashion clothes and gemstones and spread said items across Sedina B-8 with a certain person in the sector. He sent a query and got an order placed, one moth full. He practically ran to his quarters and changed to a flight suit. She should be up and patrolling at this hour.
###
Buzz was in pain, major pain. He had been on the toilet non-stop for more that three hours right now, and there were no letting it up. When he was almost finished and thought it was over, his stomach cramped and growled again, explosively voiding his bowels. But no amount of pain could remove the smile on his face as he saw the breasts become smaller and smaller, eventually hitting the size that was just about right for a grown male of his age.
After five hours of non-stop toilet sitting with several in-between flushes, he finished and tried to stand. No such luck, his legs were absolutely bloodless and could not sustain his weight. He hit the floor hard and crashed the door open, falling out into the corridor while laughing hard. Nobody saw him crawl away laughing all the way, but he couldn't have cared less. The boobs were gone, he was himself again.
###
The battered Vult made a controlled crash into the docking cradle, quite an amazing feat considering that only the port side thrusters worked, and those only at about ten percent. The main engine was fluttering and leaking power, catching fire as it docked in the atmosphere of the station. A non-conducting flame retardant dosed the ship, covering it in a fine sheet of white and smothering the fire. The chainglass cockpit opened and a German Shepherd jumped out followed by a man with a huge fierce beard and shining eyes, his body covered by a filthy flight suit. The small green man that had waited for ten minutes, incidentally the longest ten minutes of the dockhands present, walked over towards the man and greeted the dog that came running.
"Hi boy."
He looked up at the man and smiled broadly.
"Gav, you look like shit. And I am not just saying it to strike up conversation. You really look like shit."
"Good to see you too yoda. I need some of my stuff, a place for some days, and I need for our guilds to do something together."
"Our guilds? SYN is hardly your guild anymore."
"Oh I think it is yoda, I think it is. They just don't know it yet."
Yoda chuckled and showed the way into the station. Yeah, the day just got even better.
Waldoze padded Fluffy on the shoulder and got up to leave. He had visited Neagoth and Vardonx as well, bringing some illicit Helio Mists and bad company. The two girls from The Priggly Pear had achieved complete success with the show, and even Neagoth who was blinded while waiting for the implants had enjoyed himself. Waldoze ushered the two scantily clad and immensely giggling women out of the hospital ward and towards the dock area. Waldoze took the girls down through the large commercial plaza; that was the reward he had promised them for doing a show so far away. It was just like good old days, one giggling beauty on each arm. He nodded to Rowan, Ifor and Pasquel who were standing at a coffee stand, enjoying something hot and powerful. He strutted over towards them full of attitude, living life to the maximum. Well, not quite.
"Waldoze! Honeybunny!"
Something was not like good old day, he had forgotten Melody.
"What are you doing with those two, those..tramps?"
Waldoze looked over to the redheaded beauty that was standing opposite the plaza, a tiny armless summer dress matching perfectly to the small bag with an even tinier dog inside the bag. Her two equally picture perfect friends were staring at Waldoze like he was a paedophile or worse. Waldoze looked at himself and at the two dancing girls and smiled at the crazy coincidence. For once, just this once, he was actually innocent.
"Dear, it is not what it looks like. These girls are from The Priggly Pear, I brought them here to perform for Fluffy, Neagoth and Vardonx."
"And what does that make you, a pimp?"
The two friends nodded righteously at Melody and stared back at Waldoze. He was now officially worse than a paedophile pimp.
"No dear, it is nothing of the sort. I was merely offering my special transport services, they never had to pay at all."
This seemed to enrage the redhead even more, and she looked around for something to throw, found some vegetables and tossed them at Waldoze.
"Honey, honey what did I do?" Waldoze was ducking and weaving to avoid getting hit with some success.
Melody turned, her friends turning with her and stomped out of the plaza. Waldoze stood with his hands out from his sides, a surprised look on his face. He turned to Ifor and Pasquel who were laughing their heads off.
"What did I do?"
Rowan walked over to Waldoze.
"Perhaps the Grove can help? Let me escort these pretty young women back home. May I suggest that you run after your female companion and may I also suggest flowers and jewellery? In massive amounts?"
Waldoze looked at Rowan without comprehension until Rowan nodded at the direction Melody with friends had left. Waldoze left the two girls and ran after her.
"Sisters, may I suggest an evening in the company of The Grove? We have the best stimulants in known space."
He took a girl on each arm and walked off with them towards the launch bay, the trio merrily chatting and giggling all the way.
###
Ifor looked after the running Waldoze and laughed along Pasquel. It took them about three minutes to stop laughing, and in the end Pasquel had to wipe a tear away from his eye. He slowly raised the Helio Toddy to his lips and sipped slowly while smiling. Ifor waited until he had some of the liquid in his mouth.
"Well, even the biggest ship can be brought down by the smallest weapon it seems. Guess that is what they are talking about when they say that someone is getting Neut-ered"
Lambin sputtered his Toddy all over himself and joined Ifor in laughing at Waldoze's expense. This time they laughed even more.
###
Hortan made sure that Naoko reached her bed safely. Once inside, he called her sister to come and tug her in properly. It would be frightfully indecent of him if he were to do something like that. He waited outside for Miharu to arrive.
"Ms. Miharu, I am sorry to inconvenience you so, but your sister needs tucking in. She has been working for some 35 hours straight."
Miharu walked over to Hortan, put her hands on his shoulders, stood on her toe tips and gave him a light kiss on the cheek.
"You are a darling Hort. I wish there were more like you."
With that, she walked into her sister’s cabin and closed the door. Hortan never knew what hit him, but immediately after he felt the effects. He felt a sudden urge to buy luxuries, chocolates, fashion clothes and gemstones and spread said items across Sedina B-8 with a certain person in the sector. He sent a query and got an order placed, one moth full. He practically ran to his quarters and changed to a flight suit. She should be up and patrolling at this hour.
###
Buzz was in pain, major pain. He had been on the toilet non-stop for more that three hours right now, and there were no letting it up. When he was almost finished and thought it was over, his stomach cramped and growled again, explosively voiding his bowels. But no amount of pain could remove the smile on his face as he saw the breasts become smaller and smaller, eventually hitting the size that was just about right for a grown male of his age.
After five hours of non-stop toilet sitting with several in-between flushes, he finished and tried to stand. No such luck, his legs were absolutely bloodless and could not sustain his weight. He hit the floor hard and crashed the door open, falling out into the corridor while laughing hard. Nobody saw him crawl away laughing all the way, but he couldn't have cared less. The boobs were gone, he was himself again.
###
The battered Vult made a controlled crash into the docking cradle, quite an amazing feat considering that only the port side thrusters worked, and those only at about ten percent. The main engine was fluttering and leaking power, catching fire as it docked in the atmosphere of the station. A non-conducting flame retardant dosed the ship, covering it in a fine sheet of white and smothering the fire. The chainglass cockpit opened and a German Shepherd jumped out followed by a man with a huge fierce beard and shining eyes, his body covered by a filthy flight suit. The small green man that had waited for ten minutes, incidentally the longest ten minutes of the dockhands present, walked over towards the man and greeted the dog that came running.
"Hi boy."
He looked up at the man and smiled broadly.
"Gav, you look like shit. And I am not just saying it to strike up conversation. You really look like shit."
"Good to see you too yoda. I need some of my stuff, a place for some days, and I need for our guilds to do something together."
"Our guilds? SYN is hardly your guild anymore."
"Oh I think it is yoda, I think it is. They just don't know it yet."
Yoda chuckled and showed the way into the station. Yeah, the day just got even better.
30. Alliances
The liberated Helio Mists balmed Gavan's parched throat and he relaxed a smidgeon more than before.
"This is some good stuff you have here yoda."
The little man grunted in agreement. He never drank himself, the cybernetic implants had removed his sense of small and taste. Well, to put it correctly it had changed the way that smell and taste was used. Technically yoda could taste the difference between more than 200 different explosives and smell the fear hormones in his prey.
Gavan had dressed in a clean flight suit, had a shave and was looking his old self. Maybe a bit leaner, a bit more haggard looking; a bit more dangerous. The dog was lying at his masters feet, the ears moving and pointing towards the different sounds in yoda's room, its eyes fixed on the aquarium that yoda was attending to. Or maybe the dog could smell the large piece of prime beef that yoda fed to the Piranha in the tank. The slab of real meat was quickly gobbled up and yoda turned around and faced Gavan.
"So a complete embargo of UIT, slash their pilot inside their own protected territory and neuter the worthless rent-a-cops. Push the free traders out of grey and UIT?"
"Yep, that's the idea."
"Do you have any idea how much disruption you would cause in UIT space, how many people would be affected, how much Grey would suffer? And that is not even mentioning the trade to Serco and Itani space, which would shut down as well. I mean, we would piss everyone off seriously."
Gavan took another swallow and nodded.
"Sure, what the hell. It's not like we have anything else to do. Besides, your granny would be bursting with pride."
Gavan put the glass down.
"That is not what this is about yoda. This is about getting to those that exploit the little man, the ones that thrive off the misery of everyday hardship. The ones that carelessly would kill of a planetary population and demolish the planet for nothing more than filling their own pockets."
"Bravo, I like it. I should have taped it for posterity. A bit of that dude Che something in it."
Gavan half rose in anger, he would not be mocked like that. The dog sensing the sudden hostility as well lifted its head and stared at yoda.
"Don't get your panties in a knot there. You know that doesn't work on me. I was plying the trade lanes pirating when your granny herself, bless her sweet memory, was in diapers. So you just stay in that seat and calm yourself down. Jeez, what the hell is wrong with you kids today?"
Yoda stared at Gavan until he sat down again, his expression full of impotent rage and ignominy.
"Damn yoda, they tried to kill my girl to get to me!"
"Is she safe?" Gav nodded. "Do you know who did it?"
"No, but I am looking into it. I know who is responsible though, and that is who I am trying to hit back now."
"Right, okay. I expect we'll rise a decent profit from this anyway so I can't see why not. But we do it for as long as CLM pleases, and for our own sake. Any time we feel that it is no longer in our interest, we pull out. That is the deal."
Gavan rose and walked over to yoda extending his hand.
"Deal. I knew I could count on you."
"Right."
###
The strike plan was a simple one and as such it had probably the best chances of succeeding. The assembled KAOS force entered Latos O-12 inbound for Sedina, four heavy fighters, three light fighters and two pursuit ships. Ahriman himself was flying in the front, his blue and yellow EC-107 leading the lights. It would be an in-snatch-and-out mission, their specialty. The guild was actually busy, it had already been asked to undertake another mission. They had one agent that was deep undercover in Divinia on a most secret mission for their former employer, but him aside they were all ready. Well, once this business had been taken care of.
###
NP leant back and folded his hands behind his head. This was it, the last barrier before the unknown assailant. He had crossed so many boundaries, broken so many laws and regulations, misused so many accounts that there was no way he could stop now. Something held him back, a sense of.....loneliness was probably the right feeling. Who would he share his triumph with? Who could he tell of all these different things he had done to get to the man that was responsible for all this? He needed to share this with someone he trusted completely. He punched a number, not really expecting an answer. A drowsy voice on the other side answered.
###
John was sitting in his room, feet on his table, slowly swirling a White Russian in his glass, looking at old holos. Mostly pictures from when Waldoze still lived in the double bachelor's room, one or two of pretty girls and some that he really should have had removed a long time ago. Low blues music was playing, fitting with the mood. A low rasp was at the door, picking up to a real knock when John didn't answer right away. He got up, looked down at himself and decided that only wearing a pair of almost closed jeans was good enough and opened. Fortunately it wasn't girl scouts on the other side or he would have been fined immensely, not to mention haunted forever. Instead a large man with bushy eyebrows, deep set eyes and a large moustache that would look good on a walrus filled the corridor.
"What up Dozer?"
"Need a place."
"You got the bad bed."
"Okay, got beer?"
"Yeah, and pizza from yesterday in the fridge."
Dozer walked in and tossed his clothes on the floor among John's, grabbed a beer from the fridge along with a piece of cold pizza, crashed on the sofa and took one of the game controllers for the screen. John crashed next to him and took the other controller. And that is how Dozer moved in with John again after being dumped badly by Melody. Somewhere a trio of girls were crying and discussing what a pig he was, but Dozer was actually rather pleased to be with his buddy again.
The liberated Helio Mists balmed Gavan's parched throat and he relaxed a smidgeon more than before.
"This is some good stuff you have here yoda."
The little man grunted in agreement. He never drank himself, the cybernetic implants had removed his sense of small and taste. Well, to put it correctly it had changed the way that smell and taste was used. Technically yoda could taste the difference between more than 200 different explosives and smell the fear hormones in his prey.
Gavan had dressed in a clean flight suit, had a shave and was looking his old self. Maybe a bit leaner, a bit more haggard looking; a bit more dangerous. The dog was lying at his masters feet, the ears moving and pointing towards the different sounds in yoda's room, its eyes fixed on the aquarium that yoda was attending to. Or maybe the dog could smell the large piece of prime beef that yoda fed to the Piranha in the tank. The slab of real meat was quickly gobbled up and yoda turned around and faced Gavan.
"So a complete embargo of UIT, slash their pilot inside their own protected territory and neuter the worthless rent-a-cops. Push the free traders out of grey and UIT?"
"Yep, that's the idea."
"Do you have any idea how much disruption you would cause in UIT space, how many people would be affected, how much Grey would suffer? And that is not even mentioning the trade to Serco and Itani space, which would shut down as well. I mean, we would piss everyone off seriously."
Gavan took another swallow and nodded.
"Sure, what the hell. It's not like we have anything else to do. Besides, your granny would be bursting with pride."
Gavan put the glass down.
"That is not what this is about yoda. This is about getting to those that exploit the little man, the ones that thrive off the misery of everyday hardship. The ones that carelessly would kill of a planetary population and demolish the planet for nothing more than filling their own pockets."
"Bravo, I like it. I should have taped it for posterity. A bit of that dude Che something in it."
Gavan half rose in anger, he would not be mocked like that. The dog sensing the sudden hostility as well lifted its head and stared at yoda.
"Don't get your panties in a knot there. You know that doesn't work on me. I was plying the trade lanes pirating when your granny herself, bless her sweet memory, was in diapers. So you just stay in that seat and calm yourself down. Jeez, what the hell is wrong with you kids today?"
Yoda stared at Gavan until he sat down again, his expression full of impotent rage and ignominy.
"Damn yoda, they tried to kill my girl to get to me!"
"Is she safe?" Gav nodded. "Do you know who did it?"
"No, but I am looking into it. I know who is responsible though, and that is who I am trying to hit back now."
"Right, okay. I expect we'll rise a decent profit from this anyway so I can't see why not. But we do it for as long as CLM pleases, and for our own sake. Any time we feel that it is no longer in our interest, we pull out. That is the deal."
Gavan rose and walked over to yoda extending his hand.
"Deal. I knew I could count on you."
"Right."
###
The strike plan was a simple one and as such it had probably the best chances of succeeding. The assembled KAOS force entered Latos O-12 inbound for Sedina, four heavy fighters, three light fighters and two pursuit ships. Ahriman himself was flying in the front, his blue and yellow EC-107 leading the lights. It would be an in-snatch-and-out mission, their specialty. The guild was actually busy, it had already been asked to undertake another mission. They had one agent that was deep undercover in Divinia on a most secret mission for their former employer, but him aside they were all ready. Well, once this business had been taken care of.
###
NP leant back and folded his hands behind his head. This was it, the last barrier before the unknown assailant. He had crossed so many boundaries, broken so many laws and regulations, misused so many accounts that there was no way he could stop now. Something held him back, a sense of.....loneliness was probably the right feeling. Who would he share his triumph with? Who could he tell of all these different things he had done to get to the man that was responsible for all this? He needed to share this with someone he trusted completely. He punched a number, not really expecting an answer. A drowsy voice on the other side answered.
###
John was sitting in his room, feet on his table, slowly swirling a White Russian in his glass, looking at old holos. Mostly pictures from when Waldoze still lived in the double bachelor's room, one or two of pretty girls and some that he really should have had removed a long time ago. Low blues music was playing, fitting with the mood. A low rasp was at the door, picking up to a real knock when John didn't answer right away. He got up, looked down at himself and decided that only wearing a pair of almost closed jeans was good enough and opened. Fortunately it wasn't girl scouts on the other side or he would have been fined immensely, not to mention haunted forever. Instead a large man with bushy eyebrows, deep set eyes and a large moustache that would look good on a walrus filled the corridor.
"What up Dozer?"
"Need a place."
"You got the bad bed."
"Okay, got beer?"
"Yeah, and pizza from yesterday in the fridge."
Dozer walked in and tossed his clothes on the floor among John's, grabbed a beer from the fridge along with a piece of cold pizza, crashed on the sofa and took one of the game controllers for the screen. John crashed next to him and took the other controller. And that is how Dozer moved in with John again after being dumped badly by Melody. Somewhere a trio of girls were crying and discussing what a pig he was, but Dozer was actually rather pleased to be with his buddy again.
31. Activate
The stomach cramps had finally given in and Buzz was in an extremely good mood, cramming down pancake upon pancake as fast as they could make them in Soggy's Pancakes and Waffles house. Still, Gramps approached him warily as the bearer of bad news. Buzz smiled a toothy and pancake'ie smile at him.
"Mwhlo Gramps."
"Hi Buzz, how are the pancakes?"
Buzz didn't answer but merely gave a thumbs-up in reply before attacking a new one like a cash strapped pirate attacking a moth XC. Gramps sat down next to him and ordered coffee, extra black and caffeine enriched. He would supply the shot of Mists from his hip flask, half and half the way he liked it.
"Buzz, I need you to do something for me."
"Shure, chomp chomp, whatever I can do to help."
Gramps cringed, waited a bit while the coffee was put on the table, remembered to smile at the waitress as she left before spiking it. He tasted it, ah Verasi Blue, and perfectly roasted. Buzz had fininshed his pancakes and was slowly wiping his mouth, his appearance somewhat puzzled. Gramps decided that now was a good time as ever.
"I need you to go apologise to the dock hand that you shot in the knee, and do it publicly. Then he dumps all charges."
Gramps quickly lifted his cup and sipped the elixir, as good an excuse as any to avoid Buzz's glare.
"Sure, I mean it would only be appropriate. After all, I did shoot him, right?"
Gramps swallowed slowly, surely this was too easy.
"So, shall we go?"
"Ehm, right, sure, let me finish this."
###
NP hit enter, and the programme started to crack down the last barrier of his opponent. There, a series of 0's and 1's that held the information he needed. He looked at his companion and entered the data into his database as a query. A name popped up, and NP looked in surprise at it. Now there was a person he didn't expect. He exchanged a shocked look with his partner, and sent the information to Surbius and Miexon. This was...well interesting.
Now he had the original name of their attacker he could make his own attack on the person that had raped his mind. No longer would he have to be subtle, now he could attack with everything he had. He made a package and sent it forth.
###
Tokash Oricu was nervous. He had checked and double checked the feed cables to his heavy gatling canon, he had run preliminary target packages on it, he had co-ordinated a battle plan with the pilot, everything checked out. Still, he was always nervous when the heavy moth he was a gunner on was crossing the Latos/Sedina wormhole, the single most pirate infested transit point in space. This was his nineteenth crossing, and after the next one his contract was over. Twenty runs, and the bonus of 35.000 credits would allow him to marry Tirina. The moth transited the space anomaly, the usual five seconds of dead time passing too slowly.
"Tok, multiple bogeys. Lead has been destroyed. Quadrant 4-2 distance 283 metres. Single fighter, Centurion."
Tokash turned his gatling towards the centurion and started hosing the sky with plasma bolts. His actions were rewarded with a stream of blue, accelerated positrons and green neutrons that tore xithricite armour plating off like a polar bear through a cardboard building. He tried to track the centurion as it spun and twisted, gave it the lead he knew that type of ship needed to have to be hit, and depressed the firing stud. The ship exploded, but unfortunately for Tokash, it was his ship. The other centurion, bright pink in colour had arrived from the belly side and torn all the armour away before hitting the power cells and rupturing the ship. The twin life support bubbles slowly spun as they were exited from the ship, carrying the pilot and gunner. Retractile ignored them as he scanned the cargo. 120 gyroscopes, valued at 191 credits a pop.
"What a crap load Az, these aren't even worth the effort of transporting them."
"Nah, but at least we got some kills."
They flew back to over-watch with Swag Man and Tramshed, and kept an eye out for the XX salvage service that would be here shortly to pick up the rescue bubbles. They were not going to kill those ships, but they were going o make sure that all the pilots and gunners were taken back. They were after all pirates second, but pilots first.
The wormhole lit up like a candle once more, indicating multiple inbound ships. The pirates got ready to intercept the convoy and destroy it, but the ships that arrived were all combat ships, all with the label [KAOS]. The pirates relaxed slightly, KAOS were not friends, but not exactly enemies either.
Ahriman opened a radio link to local space.
"We have come for the pilot named Azumi. Come peacefully and nobody gets hurt."
The CLM members s one turned their engines to full power and started evasive patterns.
"I told you before asshole, it is not gonna happen."
Retractile fired a long string of positrons and neutrons at the EC-107 carrying the commander of KAOS, impacting and reducing the armour to 30%. And with that, the furball was started.
###
Hortan dropped into his command seat, checking everything was in place as it should be. He counted out his pills and dry-swallowed them, taking two extra happy pills. He checked the cargo, yep he was sure this was what was on the most wanted list of Dau Womans Weekly, and in copious amounts. He touched his magic furry dices that were suspended from the manual ejection handle. He checked the EAPRS and ensured that its control lamp glowed a calm green. He saw the note blink on his screen and saw that it was from Moda. Probably another fine tune to some system or other. It could wait, he was in a hurry. He ignored the message. The usual fluttering in his stomach had arrived, but he felt good with them right now. Actually he felt very good with everything right now. After the drop, he would go to Daltas Hold and find that shop that sold the extremely rare John Eldritch action figure where he stands with a blaster in each hand a woman at his feet looking adoringly at him, even though it was expensive. And then he would ask Ms. Chi for pancakes at Soggy's. Yeah, and apply for council in TGFT. Nothing in the World he couldn't handle now!
He was ejected from the station and immediately boosted at max speed towards the 3k mark. Why was this ship so slow?
The stomach cramps had finally given in and Buzz was in an extremely good mood, cramming down pancake upon pancake as fast as they could make them in Soggy's Pancakes and Waffles house. Still, Gramps approached him warily as the bearer of bad news. Buzz smiled a toothy and pancake'ie smile at him.
"Mwhlo Gramps."
"Hi Buzz, how are the pancakes?"
Buzz didn't answer but merely gave a thumbs-up in reply before attacking a new one like a cash strapped pirate attacking a moth XC. Gramps sat down next to him and ordered coffee, extra black and caffeine enriched. He would supply the shot of Mists from his hip flask, half and half the way he liked it.
"Buzz, I need you to do something for me."
"Shure, chomp chomp, whatever I can do to help."
Gramps cringed, waited a bit while the coffee was put on the table, remembered to smile at the waitress as she left before spiking it. He tasted it, ah Verasi Blue, and perfectly roasted. Buzz had fininshed his pancakes and was slowly wiping his mouth, his appearance somewhat puzzled. Gramps decided that now was a good time as ever.
"I need you to go apologise to the dock hand that you shot in the knee, and do it publicly. Then he dumps all charges."
Gramps quickly lifted his cup and sipped the elixir, as good an excuse as any to avoid Buzz's glare.
"Sure, I mean it would only be appropriate. After all, I did shoot him, right?"
Gramps swallowed slowly, surely this was too easy.
"So, shall we go?"
"Ehm, right, sure, let me finish this."
###
NP hit enter, and the programme started to crack down the last barrier of his opponent. There, a series of 0's and 1's that held the information he needed. He looked at his companion and entered the data into his database as a query. A name popped up, and NP looked in surprise at it. Now there was a person he didn't expect. He exchanged a shocked look with his partner, and sent the information to Surbius and Miexon. This was...well interesting.
Now he had the original name of their attacker he could make his own attack on the person that had raped his mind. No longer would he have to be subtle, now he could attack with everything he had. He made a package and sent it forth.
###
Tokash Oricu was nervous. He had checked and double checked the feed cables to his heavy gatling canon, he had run preliminary target packages on it, he had co-ordinated a battle plan with the pilot, everything checked out. Still, he was always nervous when the heavy moth he was a gunner on was crossing the Latos/Sedina wormhole, the single most pirate infested transit point in space. This was his nineteenth crossing, and after the next one his contract was over. Twenty runs, and the bonus of 35.000 credits would allow him to marry Tirina. The moth transited the space anomaly, the usual five seconds of dead time passing too slowly.
"Tok, multiple bogeys. Lead has been destroyed. Quadrant 4-2 distance 283 metres. Single fighter, Centurion."
Tokash turned his gatling towards the centurion and started hosing the sky with plasma bolts. His actions were rewarded with a stream of blue, accelerated positrons and green neutrons that tore xithricite armour plating off like a polar bear through a cardboard building. He tried to track the centurion as it spun and twisted, gave it the lead he knew that type of ship needed to have to be hit, and depressed the firing stud. The ship exploded, but unfortunately for Tokash, it was his ship. The other centurion, bright pink in colour had arrived from the belly side and torn all the armour away before hitting the power cells and rupturing the ship. The twin life support bubbles slowly spun as they were exited from the ship, carrying the pilot and gunner. Retractile ignored them as he scanned the cargo. 120 gyroscopes, valued at 191 credits a pop.
"What a crap load Az, these aren't even worth the effort of transporting them."
"Nah, but at least we got some kills."
They flew back to over-watch with Swag Man and Tramshed, and kept an eye out for the XX salvage service that would be here shortly to pick up the rescue bubbles. They were not going to kill those ships, but they were going o make sure that all the pilots and gunners were taken back. They were after all pirates second, but pilots first.
The wormhole lit up like a candle once more, indicating multiple inbound ships. The pirates got ready to intercept the convoy and destroy it, but the ships that arrived were all combat ships, all with the label [KAOS]. The pirates relaxed slightly, KAOS were not friends, but not exactly enemies either.
Ahriman opened a radio link to local space.
"We have come for the pilot named Azumi. Come peacefully and nobody gets hurt."
The CLM members s one turned their engines to full power and started evasive patterns.
"I told you before asshole, it is not gonna happen."
Retractile fired a long string of positrons and neutrons at the EC-107 carrying the commander of KAOS, impacting and reducing the armour to 30%. And with that, the furball was started.
###
Hortan dropped into his command seat, checking everything was in place as it should be. He counted out his pills and dry-swallowed them, taking two extra happy pills. He checked the cargo, yep he was sure this was what was on the most wanted list of Dau Womans Weekly, and in copious amounts. He touched his magic furry dices that were suspended from the manual ejection handle. He checked the EAPRS and ensured that its control lamp glowed a calm green. He saw the note blink on his screen and saw that it was from Moda. Probably another fine tune to some system or other. It could wait, he was in a hurry. He ignored the message. The usual fluttering in his stomach had arrived, but he felt good with them right now. Actually he felt very good with everything right now. After the drop, he would go to Daltas Hold and find that shop that sold the extremely rare John Eldritch action figure where he stands with a blaster in each hand a woman at his feet looking adoringly at him, even though it was expensive. And then he would ask Ms. Chi for pancakes at Soggy's. Yeah, and apply for council in TGFT. Nothing in the World he couldn't handle now!
He was ejected from the station and immediately boosted at max speed towards the 3k mark. Why was this ship so slow?
32. Furball
Swag Man turned his Vult III towards the Centaur that carried the tag "Temmin Shard", unleashing neuts in a long burst, scoring a pattern of damage across the ship. He rolled out and re-engaged, going in for the kill. He missed the twin lightning mines that Temmin had dropped, and spun directly into the left of them, getting his own ship smashed in return. Swag Man cursed hard and turboed out of the kill zone. He was now at 8%, and he had a Warthog approaching fast. Knowing that the likely loadout was going to be flares and turret, he spun his ships while dodging left and down, firing neuts like they were free. Scoring a pattern of hits across the ship, he disengaged as fast as he could, ready for another fly-by.
Tramshed in the meantime had engaged one of the two proms with his own Warthog, easily outmanoeuvring the larger ship and peppering it with gatling bolts. Dodge-spinning his own ship, he managed to avoid his opponents flares and turret, only slightly grazing his own armour as the larger ship exploded. He twisted for a new target and found William Cutting in a Valkyrie approaching fast.
Retractile continued to chase the EC-107, dodging several flares and energy shots, but not landing any hits of his own. Azumi spun her own rev c in an aggressive flight pattern above his, attempting to take out the twin vultures that pumped shots after her wingman. Retractile opened a radio link to Az.
"Seven"
With that, he turned the reverse thrusters to full on, spun toward four o-clock, turboing straight up under one of the vultures and fired directly at the winglets. The Vulture pilot had anticipated this move and so turned and twisted to avoid getting hit, alas directly into the stream of positrons from Azumi's rev c, turning the ship into an expanding ball of fire.
"Right on Az, next one twelve."
He turboed towards the EC again, and then turned and did an Immelman. Well, not quite, since he moved sideways at the same time and an Immelman needs atmosphere and wings and a lot of things that the rev c wasn't able to provide, but close enough. Azumi had at the same time boosted down and turned her ship, pointing the deadly end at the second vulture that was now forced to choose. He chose to stay on his previous target and so continued for Azumi. By doing that presented his top to Retractile who tore the armour plating off and destroyed the light fighter.
"All Right!"
They turned the attention once more to the EC that was turning up towards the Centaur. A Warthog was trying to avoid the hits from the Vult III, but took most of it head on. Reduced to almost no armour, it twisted and tried to avoid more damage by hiding behind the Centaur, but it was too little too late. The last stream of neuts tore through the medium fighter, exploding it and scattering Swag Man with debris. 3% armour left now. He turned and tried to bear once more on the centaur that had dropped more lightning mines but in the process showed the belly to the oncoming EC. A flash of positrons and Swag Man's pod was violently ejected from the ensuing explosion.
Tramshed and William Cutting were dancing around each other, hardly scoring any hits when the second prometheus sent a pair of flares up into his belly armour, spinning his warthog and enabling William Cutting to slash his armour to 12%. Disengaging, he called for help.
The odds were now more even, with the CLM pilot flying two rev c's and one damaged warthog, and KAOS flying a prom, a valk, a cent and a 107. Tramshed growled,
"That valk is mine, cover me."
He engaged his turbo and got ready for evasive action. Retractile and Azumi engaged the centaur and prom respectively. Tramshed dodged to the right, and straight into the flank of the valk. Aligning, he stiched a string of holes into the thick xith armour around the left side weapon pod. Twisting and rolling, he managed to outspin the valk and drew a targeting solution once more. More damage wrought to the valk, once more twisting and turning, but this time William was ready for him. With a cry of "Fuck me", Tramshed took a flare shot head on, exploding his ship and ejecting his life support pod.
Retractile moved towards the centaur that kept on dropping mines. Like a dancer, he twisted, ducked and weaved in and out of the radius of the mines while trying to get an opportunity to shoot. There, at 487 metres, very long range for his weapons, he fired a long stream of neuts and positrons. Scoring multiple hits, Retractle smiled as Temmin started doing evasive manoeuvres, a fatal mistake. Retractile boosted close and unleashed everything in a slow roll strafe, hitting with every shot, and unfortunately missing the mine that Temmin dropped as his ship exploded. The entire front of Retractile's ship fused solid as the extreme voltages of the lightning mine savaged his ship, dropping him to 0% in armour, but by some miracle not exploding it. His weapons were slag however, now he was reduced to flying an unarmed rocket. He moved out and away from the expanding cloud of debris and looked back at the fight.
Azumi had dropped on the prom, evading the first volley of flares and managing to get away from the lethal cone of the advanced gauss turret. She spun her ship for all it was worth while pumping accelerated protons into the side of the prom to little effect. The ship was so massively armoured that even six direct hits failed to make a colour change in her damage scheme. She kept on twisting, this was as much for survival as for sheer joy of killing. Her ship was rocked upwards by a flare shot, delivered by the valk that had killed Trammie, and she appeared once more in the lethal cone of the AGT. Taking three quick hits, she spun out and placed the prom between her and the valk. Three more shots and the armour was in the red. The valk pilot tried to squeeze a flare in between the prom and azumi, but managed to miscalculate and hit the prom dropping its armour even further. Azumi sent a string of shots into the doomed ship and shouted with joy as it exploded.
"Az, run. They are two and you are hurt bad. It is you they want."
Azumi reacted to Retractiles warning with look on her armour status, 21%, not enough to a valk that was halfway there and a 107 at 30%. She started boosting out for the safety of the 3k mark.
###
Surbius cursed inwardly, he would never have guessed that someone this high in UIT would do such an attack on a friendly guild, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. After all, the killing of the markets was nothing if not regular trade war, and this was something that TGFT could counter. As far as NP had been able to see, there was no linkage between the Senator and the attack to extricate Asteroth. Which meant that it was probably KAOS acting on its own. He put down a note to classify KAOS as a terrorist organisation, KOS with TGFT and its allies. Surbius wondered how he could get back to the Senator without showing that TGFT knew his dirty secret. Maybe Miexon or NP had an idea.
###
Slowly he managed to align the moth towards the wormhole while the fast charge battery trickled power into the jump core. Aligned and at 250 power he initiated the turbo switch and thundered towards the Latos/Sedina wormhole. His auto jump switch engaged and fed the entire content of the battery into the jump engines that surged and propelled the 47 ton ship through the unreal of the wormhole and exited him to Sedina in a shower of Tachyons. Hortan had arrived in sector B-8. And in the middle of the remains of a fight.
Swag Man turned his Vult III towards the Centaur that carried the tag "Temmin Shard", unleashing neuts in a long burst, scoring a pattern of damage across the ship. He rolled out and re-engaged, going in for the kill. He missed the twin lightning mines that Temmin had dropped, and spun directly into the left of them, getting his own ship smashed in return. Swag Man cursed hard and turboed out of the kill zone. He was now at 8%, and he had a Warthog approaching fast. Knowing that the likely loadout was going to be flares and turret, he spun his ships while dodging left and down, firing neuts like they were free. Scoring a pattern of hits across the ship, he disengaged as fast as he could, ready for another fly-by.
Tramshed in the meantime had engaged one of the two proms with his own Warthog, easily outmanoeuvring the larger ship and peppering it with gatling bolts. Dodge-spinning his own ship, he managed to avoid his opponents flares and turret, only slightly grazing his own armour as the larger ship exploded. He twisted for a new target and found William Cutting in a Valkyrie approaching fast.
Retractile continued to chase the EC-107, dodging several flares and energy shots, but not landing any hits of his own. Azumi spun her own rev c in an aggressive flight pattern above his, attempting to take out the twin vultures that pumped shots after her wingman. Retractile opened a radio link to Az.
"Seven"
With that, he turned the reverse thrusters to full on, spun toward four o-clock, turboing straight up under one of the vultures and fired directly at the winglets. The Vulture pilot had anticipated this move and so turned and twisted to avoid getting hit, alas directly into the stream of positrons from Azumi's rev c, turning the ship into an expanding ball of fire.
"Right on Az, next one twelve."
He turboed towards the EC again, and then turned and did an Immelman. Well, not quite, since he moved sideways at the same time and an Immelman needs atmosphere and wings and a lot of things that the rev c wasn't able to provide, but close enough. Azumi had at the same time boosted down and turned her ship, pointing the deadly end at the second vulture that was now forced to choose. He chose to stay on his previous target and so continued for Azumi. By doing that presented his top to Retractile who tore the armour plating off and destroyed the light fighter.
"All Right!"
They turned the attention once more to the EC that was turning up towards the Centaur. A Warthog was trying to avoid the hits from the Vult III, but took most of it head on. Reduced to almost no armour, it twisted and tried to avoid more damage by hiding behind the Centaur, but it was too little too late. The last stream of neuts tore through the medium fighter, exploding it and scattering Swag Man with debris. 3% armour left now. He turned and tried to bear once more on the centaur that had dropped more lightning mines but in the process showed the belly to the oncoming EC. A flash of positrons and Swag Man's pod was violently ejected from the ensuing explosion.
Tramshed and William Cutting were dancing around each other, hardly scoring any hits when the second prometheus sent a pair of flares up into his belly armour, spinning his warthog and enabling William Cutting to slash his armour to 12%. Disengaging, he called for help.
The odds were now more even, with the CLM pilot flying two rev c's and one damaged warthog, and KAOS flying a prom, a valk, a cent and a 107. Tramshed growled,
"That valk is mine, cover me."
He engaged his turbo and got ready for evasive action. Retractile and Azumi engaged the centaur and prom respectively. Tramshed dodged to the right, and straight into the flank of the valk. Aligning, he stiched a string of holes into the thick xith armour around the left side weapon pod. Twisting and rolling, he managed to outspin the valk and drew a targeting solution once more. More damage wrought to the valk, once more twisting and turning, but this time William was ready for him. With a cry of "Fuck me", Tramshed took a flare shot head on, exploding his ship and ejecting his life support pod.
Retractile moved towards the centaur that kept on dropping mines. Like a dancer, he twisted, ducked and weaved in and out of the radius of the mines while trying to get an opportunity to shoot. There, at 487 metres, very long range for his weapons, he fired a long stream of neuts and positrons. Scoring multiple hits, Retractle smiled as Temmin started doing evasive manoeuvres, a fatal mistake. Retractile boosted close and unleashed everything in a slow roll strafe, hitting with every shot, and unfortunately missing the mine that Temmin dropped as his ship exploded. The entire front of Retractile's ship fused solid as the extreme voltages of the lightning mine savaged his ship, dropping him to 0% in armour, but by some miracle not exploding it. His weapons were slag however, now he was reduced to flying an unarmed rocket. He moved out and away from the expanding cloud of debris and looked back at the fight.
Azumi had dropped on the prom, evading the first volley of flares and managing to get away from the lethal cone of the advanced gauss turret. She spun her ship for all it was worth while pumping accelerated protons into the side of the prom to little effect. The ship was so massively armoured that even six direct hits failed to make a colour change in her damage scheme. She kept on twisting, this was as much for survival as for sheer joy of killing. Her ship was rocked upwards by a flare shot, delivered by the valk that had killed Trammie, and she appeared once more in the lethal cone of the AGT. Taking three quick hits, she spun out and placed the prom between her and the valk. Three more shots and the armour was in the red. The valk pilot tried to squeeze a flare in between the prom and azumi, but managed to miscalculate and hit the prom dropping its armour even further. Azumi sent a string of shots into the doomed ship and shouted with joy as it exploded.
"Az, run. They are two and you are hurt bad. It is you they want."
Azumi reacted to Retractiles warning with look on her armour status, 21%, not enough to a valk that was halfway there and a 107 at 30%. She started boosting out for the safety of the 3k mark.
###
Surbius cursed inwardly, he would never have guessed that someone this high in UIT would do such an attack on a friendly guild, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. After all, the killing of the markets was nothing if not regular trade war, and this was something that TGFT could counter. As far as NP had been able to see, there was no linkage between the Senator and the attack to extricate Asteroth. Which meant that it was probably KAOS acting on its own. He put down a note to classify KAOS as a terrorist organisation, KOS with TGFT and its allies. Surbius wondered how he could get back to the Senator without showing that TGFT knew his dirty secret. Maybe Miexon or NP had an idea.
###
Slowly he managed to align the moth towards the wormhole while the fast charge battery trickled power into the jump core. Aligned and at 250 power he initiated the turbo switch and thundered towards the Latos/Sedina wormhole. His auto jump switch engaged and fed the entire content of the battery into the jump engines that surged and propelled the 47 ton ship through the unreal of the wormhole and exited him to Sedina in a shower of Tachyons. Hortan had arrived in sector B-8. And in the middle of the remains of a fight.
ouch, I feel bad for you Hort, lol
this is very good reading Whytee.
Don't worry Hort, I live near by I can hurry over for a quick escort.
Don't worry Hort, I live near by I can hurry over for a quick escort.
33. Under Cover
Chi had received the mission from NP. An undercover mission with 00 privileges and under no circumstances was she to leave traces back to PA or TGFT. She packed her kit and dressed in a non-descript blue jump utility suit and walked down to the launch bay ready for the next shuttle to Dau Senate. This was going to be a challenge, but also very fun. She checked in under the name of Paltor Chissen, the ID being one of her get-away’s if she ever messed up.
###
William Cutting kept on boosting towards Azumi, never quite reaching her, but keeping the distance so small that if she were to slow for a jump, she would be shot to bits. Ahriman turned to the bright yellow moth that had just entered through the wormhole and boosted over to the ship. He quickly and expertly shot a string of positrons into the ship, forcing it to slow.
"Azumi, I shall kill this trader if you do not move along peacefully."
Azumi knew that all of the traders in TGFT were covered under the Automated Pilot Recovery System, APRS, and as such the worst that would happen for Hortan was the loss of his ship, which wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, and a good long sleep. She decided to call Ahriman's bluff.
"Go ahead swine, he is covered."
Ahriman complied and sent a torrent of fire into the mining vessel, resulting in a single life support unit being ejected to one side and the ship exploding around the armoured cargo hold, scattering the precious content all over space. He immediately boosted after the life support pod that accelerated slowly toward the 3k mark, matching speed with it easily.
"Lets try again, turn back and I won't kill the trader."
Azumi had seen with horror how the APRS on Hortan's ship had malfunctioned and how the strange looking escape pod that was an integral part of all ships had instead activated and by launching violently was protecting its valuable human cargo. She knew what it would do, it would slowly run towards the jump point and jump to the nearest station unless scooped up by a ship.... or killed by an unscrupulous person like Ahriman. The pod was slowly turning, something leaking out of it, some fluid or such. She slowly turned her ship around and started twisting and dodging to avoid the flare shot she knew was coming from the valk.
"Let him go you bastard."
She moved towards the valk at 70 m/s, and at the optimum firing distance for the flares, she activated her turbo instead of dodging, hoping to get under the arming envelope. The gamble paid off, only a single neut hit her ship sending it to 14% armour. As she came to ten metres from the valk, she activated her belly boosters at maximum for half a second and started turning her ship ass over head. The top of the valk appeared and she poured positrons in a double pattern across the top of the valk, one of the shots penetrating to the power coupler and exploding the ship. Her own small ship was rocked by the explosion that was large enough to further reduce her armour. She was now at 3% effective armour and Ahriman was closing fast. She resumed her avoidance pattern, dodging, spinning and boosting in all directions seemingly without pattern. She could not afford getting hit once. Ahriman was equally a very good pilot, and for about twenty seconds the two ships exchanged shots with none of them landing hits. Azumi noted that Ahriman always dodged down after a left dodge, and so she waited for the next left and put a torrent of positrons under his ship at that time. Hits, reducing Ahriman to 7% armour, effectively in the one shot to kill range like herself. She smiled, she had him now, he once more dodged left, and she steadied her fighter and unleashed under the EC expecting the victorious blast. Ahriman had anticipated this and lured her into a trap. The millisecond she steadied her ship, he dodged up and managed to glance her ship with a single dose of positron fire. Her ship ejected the life support pod and duly exploded, the damage finally ending its proud life.
Ahriman aligned his ship toward the pod and opened his cargo bay. He was going to get his cargo even if it had been expensive. He engaged the turbo to close the 780 metres that the pod had moved from the burning wreck.
###
Captain Burn was slowly and methodically sifting through the data logs of the attack he had orchestrated on PA, TGFT and TPG. As far a he could see, nothing had gone wrong, all his programmes had done what they were supposed to, even the data lock he had thrown on NP's headware. He really couldn't blame himself for not anticipating how paranoid his target had been, or how skilled the tracking person in TGFT had been either. Now he merely had to take these factors into account if he was to make another attack another time. Which was rather likely considering the nature of his guild's work. He noted a small dissonance in the data around the time that the reset occurred, what you could call a speed bump. He took the data and unfolded it, how had this been achieved? He had taken his precautions, the programme he used for these tasks was on a separate system, and if anything violent were to happen here, the system semi-conscious AI would just shut it and him down. After that the AI would restart his own internal headware after un-jacking him manually from the separate system allowing him to choose to online the headware or not. It was fool proof. Interesting, the bump unfolded to a very complex search algorithm that had been sent from TGFT HQ. He would see if it could be used for his own purposes and maybe shove it up their backsides.
###
The semi-self-aware AI attack programme that NP had sent forth did not care about bumps in the data. It looked specifically for software to hardware integration interfaces and located these while noting their function. After three milliseconds, the AI had noted all these and started infesting them. The AI was best likened to a fungus, with mycelia spreading along opportune venues and maturing where the parameters were fulfilled. Once it had infiltrated a location completely, it took over all processing power and used it for further mutation of the data mycelia and spread it along all connections the location had. The central node cut all connection with the infestation and settled in to watch for its real target. The digital fungal infestation continued to spread and blossom in every interface, data mycelia from different locations trying to infest each other with a resulting infiltrationwar collapsing the control points switching hardware off-line in the process. The central computing centre that Burn was the proud owner of, was failing rapidly.
###
Burn was alerted by his brainplant that the temperature of the main server cluster was uncomfortably hot, more than 19K. He connected to the main system and sent a query down to the coolant control. It came up empty. Strange, he sent a query down to the secondary unit, expecting it to be online if the primary had for some reason failed; no reply. He frowned and sent a wide-ranging query for systems readiness across the board. Half his critical systems and nearly all his non-criticals came up dead; something was blocking his queries and shutting the systems down. He cursed just like everything he did, slowly and methodically while working on a counter measure. He tried to subvert the data mycelia that had infested his subsystems, but managed to spread it even more, even crashing two of his life support systems. Crap, that had been a mistake. He was down to single systems across the board and needed some raw power now to flush the fungal infestation. He opened his brainplant connection to the main cluster. That was the last mistake he was going to do for a long time. Something large and bad with a multitude of long hairy legs, that went bump in the night swarmed into his brainplant. The last message he received before tottering into insanity on shaky legs was from the owner of the virus.
"We all float down here."
Chi had received the mission from NP. An undercover mission with 00 privileges and under no circumstances was she to leave traces back to PA or TGFT. She packed her kit and dressed in a non-descript blue jump utility suit and walked down to the launch bay ready for the next shuttle to Dau Senate. This was going to be a challenge, but also very fun. She checked in under the name of Paltor Chissen, the ID being one of her get-away’s if she ever messed up.
###
William Cutting kept on boosting towards Azumi, never quite reaching her, but keeping the distance so small that if she were to slow for a jump, she would be shot to bits. Ahriman turned to the bright yellow moth that had just entered through the wormhole and boosted over to the ship. He quickly and expertly shot a string of positrons into the ship, forcing it to slow.
"Azumi, I shall kill this trader if you do not move along peacefully."
Azumi knew that all of the traders in TGFT were covered under the Automated Pilot Recovery System, APRS, and as such the worst that would happen for Hortan was the loss of his ship, which wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, and a good long sleep. She decided to call Ahriman's bluff.
"Go ahead swine, he is covered."
Ahriman complied and sent a torrent of fire into the mining vessel, resulting in a single life support unit being ejected to one side and the ship exploding around the armoured cargo hold, scattering the precious content all over space. He immediately boosted after the life support pod that accelerated slowly toward the 3k mark, matching speed with it easily.
"Lets try again, turn back and I won't kill the trader."
Azumi had seen with horror how the APRS on Hortan's ship had malfunctioned and how the strange looking escape pod that was an integral part of all ships had instead activated and by launching violently was protecting its valuable human cargo. She knew what it would do, it would slowly run towards the jump point and jump to the nearest station unless scooped up by a ship.... or killed by an unscrupulous person like Ahriman. The pod was slowly turning, something leaking out of it, some fluid or such. She slowly turned her ship around and started twisting and dodging to avoid the flare shot she knew was coming from the valk.
"Let him go you bastard."
She moved towards the valk at 70 m/s, and at the optimum firing distance for the flares, she activated her turbo instead of dodging, hoping to get under the arming envelope. The gamble paid off, only a single neut hit her ship sending it to 14% armour. As she came to ten metres from the valk, she activated her belly boosters at maximum for half a second and started turning her ship ass over head. The top of the valk appeared and she poured positrons in a double pattern across the top of the valk, one of the shots penetrating to the power coupler and exploding the ship. Her own small ship was rocked by the explosion that was large enough to further reduce her armour. She was now at 3% effective armour and Ahriman was closing fast. She resumed her avoidance pattern, dodging, spinning and boosting in all directions seemingly without pattern. She could not afford getting hit once. Ahriman was equally a very good pilot, and for about twenty seconds the two ships exchanged shots with none of them landing hits. Azumi noted that Ahriman always dodged down after a left dodge, and so she waited for the next left and put a torrent of positrons under his ship at that time. Hits, reducing Ahriman to 7% armour, effectively in the one shot to kill range like herself. She smiled, she had him now, he once more dodged left, and she steadied her fighter and unleashed under the EC expecting the victorious blast. Ahriman had anticipated this and lured her into a trap. The millisecond she steadied her ship, he dodged up and managed to glance her ship with a single dose of positron fire. Her ship ejected the life support pod and duly exploded, the damage finally ending its proud life.
Ahriman aligned his ship toward the pod and opened his cargo bay. He was going to get his cargo even if it had been expensive. He engaged the turbo to close the 780 metres that the pod had moved from the burning wreck.
###
Captain Burn was slowly and methodically sifting through the data logs of the attack he had orchestrated on PA, TGFT and TPG. As far a he could see, nothing had gone wrong, all his programmes had done what they were supposed to, even the data lock he had thrown on NP's headware. He really couldn't blame himself for not anticipating how paranoid his target had been, or how skilled the tracking person in TGFT had been either. Now he merely had to take these factors into account if he was to make another attack another time. Which was rather likely considering the nature of his guild's work. He noted a small dissonance in the data around the time that the reset occurred, what you could call a speed bump. He took the data and unfolded it, how had this been achieved? He had taken his precautions, the programme he used for these tasks was on a separate system, and if anything violent were to happen here, the system semi-conscious AI would just shut it and him down. After that the AI would restart his own internal headware after un-jacking him manually from the separate system allowing him to choose to online the headware or not. It was fool proof. Interesting, the bump unfolded to a very complex search algorithm that had been sent from TGFT HQ. He would see if it could be used for his own purposes and maybe shove it up their backsides.
###
The semi-self-aware AI attack programme that NP had sent forth did not care about bumps in the data. It looked specifically for software to hardware integration interfaces and located these while noting their function. After three milliseconds, the AI had noted all these and started infesting them. The AI was best likened to a fungus, with mycelia spreading along opportune venues and maturing where the parameters were fulfilled. Once it had infiltrated a location completely, it took over all processing power and used it for further mutation of the data mycelia and spread it along all connections the location had. The central node cut all connection with the infestation and settled in to watch for its real target. The digital fungal infestation continued to spread and blossom in every interface, data mycelia from different locations trying to infest each other with a resulting infiltrationwar collapsing the control points switching hardware off-line in the process. The central computing centre that Burn was the proud owner of, was failing rapidly.
###
Burn was alerted by his brainplant that the temperature of the main server cluster was uncomfortably hot, more than 19K. He connected to the main system and sent a query down to the coolant control. It came up empty. Strange, he sent a query down to the secondary unit, expecting it to be online if the primary had for some reason failed; no reply. He frowned and sent a wide-ranging query for systems readiness across the board. Half his critical systems and nearly all his non-criticals came up dead; something was blocking his queries and shutting the systems down. He cursed just like everything he did, slowly and methodically while working on a counter measure. He tried to subvert the data mycelia that had infested his subsystems, but managed to spread it even more, even crashing two of his life support systems. Crap, that had been a mistake. He was down to single systems across the board and needed some raw power now to flush the fungal infestation. He opened his brainplant connection to the main cluster. That was the last mistake he was going to do for a long time. Something large and bad with a multitude of long hairy legs, that went bump in the night swarmed into his brainplant. The last message he received before tottering into insanity on shaky legs was from the owner of the virus.
"We all float down here."
He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the KAOS...
Excellent stuff as usual, Whytee, looking forward to the rest!
Excellent stuff as usual, Whytee, looking forward to the rest!
34. No F***ing way
The open dock bay was ready to take the rescue pod into the EC-107, the ample cargo space was empty save a large auto doc. Ahriman was satisfied, he was going to get what he came for, the female Itani born CLM pilot. He briefly considered taking some of the other pilots as well but decided against it. He needed that one and after her, he needed the twin sister too. Then he could carry the research done by the honourable Dr. Lecter even further. He was dead certain that he had the key to unlocking the mental powers that the Itani people by some accounts possessed. There, a mere 128 metres to go, he tapped the thruster slightly to align the ship perfectly. His radio crackled, the shock of an incoming signal enough to make Ahriman pull the joystick slightly and push him to the left.
"I told you scum, ain't no fucking way she is leaving with you."
Ahriman looked down at his radar and the cracked screen. Not getting the information he wanted he looked out of the viewport and saw a Centurion Rev C with a completely fused front that boosted directly towards his ship.
"Lady Serco, save me."
The rev c collided with the EC-107 at 225m/s slightly below the viewport of the hunter bus like a penetrator missile hitting a five metre thick brick wall. Both ships detonated in a common fireball that disintegrated the two ships, leaving no piece larger than could pass through a chickenwire fence. The ejection pod that Retractile had engaged immediately prior to hitting the KAOS ship passed through the debris at full speed, effectively peppering the un-armoured rescue pod with what could best be likened to multiple large calibre shotgun shots. The pod started leaking air from several holes but continued its flight along the trajectory it had started on, the leaking air merely making it tumble randomly.
###
The rescue service in CLM HQ received a single hail and the officer on duty noted the location and status. He alerted the venerable Revenant Hospital ship and sent a report to the commander. Another hail, and then another. He frowned, he hadn't been asked to provide extensive service for today's shift, but the revenant should still be enough to handle up to eight pods. The screen started flashing in red and white, a pod had been launched and then breached. The pilot was in danger of asphyxiation within minutes. He pressed the alert button, launching a specially modified warthog Mk II towards the damaged pod He just hoped they would be there in time. He alerted the commanding officer in the operational part of CLM, leant back and poured a cup of coffee. Nothing more he could do now anyway.
###
The warthog moved at maximum speed across Latos and moved through the wormhole to the scene of the battle. Quickly scanning for the location of the damaged pod, the pilot boosted at full power towards the last known location. There, moving along at a sedate pace, the damaged pod. The bay on the warthog opened and swallowed the pod. Inside the compartment was quickly re-pressurised and the medical officer opened the pod to get to the human cargo inside. In the meantime the warthog had started its acceleration towards CLM HQ again. The other pods would be recovered by the regular medical ship, all three glowed a steady green across the monitors. As the warthog exited the wormhole to Latos, it sent an updated situation map to the revenant inbound along with vitals on the pilots.
The revenant entered Sedina and started picking up the CLM members. It only took about five minutes, long enough to get the first pilot out of her pod and check the vitals. She was healthy even if she was a bit pale. The autodoc injected her with a stimulant and she woke with a violent intake of air, like a drowning person that reached the surface. The autodoc moved on to the next pod. Azumi looked around and got up, moving across to the pilot of the revenant.
"Pilot, status on the CLM pods?"
"One is unknown, the emergency warthog has taken that one directly to CLM HQ. Possibility of vacuum trauma. Name, Retractile. The rest are collected and green."
Azumi swore, he had done this to protect her. She looked at the radar and came up blank, no other rescue ships were inbound.
"Pilot, you need to take that pod along as well."
She pointed, indicating Hortan's strange looking pod that was slowly leaking fluid.
"No can do Ma'am, I am only under contract to take CLM members."
Azumi looked at him as if he had just dropped from the moon. She leant over close.
"I see. Well, it was not a question. You will take him if you like those worthless pieces of meat you have dangling between your legs."
The large combat knife she always wore on her left thigh was now resting easily along the belly of the pilot, the engine's vibrations making it tap occasionally on his groin.The pilot started sweating heavily and turned the ship towards the damaged pod.
"I will report this you know."
"See if I care. You will not work for us again. We do NOT leave damaged pods in space to themselves. We are pirates, not murderers."
Not like KAOS, she thought. At least there was no pod containing Ahriman, so maybe Retractile had killed him.
The revenant scooped Hortan's leaking pod up and headed for CLM HQ.
###
Chi cleared the arrivals personnel without incident and moved to her safe house in the lower quarters of the station. She switched into something less comfortable that included a blonde wig and heavy make-up, and walked on her high heels up towards the senatorial quarters. She made sure that the data collection device in one high heel was switched on, and that the the other contained her small leech. The usual request that the senator had sent had been intercepted and re-routed by NP. The girls from Tanaka's escort service would not be working this particular senator tonight.
###
Dark, but not dark so you couldn't see. Dark in a way that you can't see directly at things. Only the peripheral vision was able to detect movement of...... of something. Sounds of metal scraping slowly across sheets of metal, clanking of chains, dripping of a liquid that sounded thicker that water, all of it coming from nowhere and ever present. A tingling sensation in the back of the neck, something is watching, something malevolent, ancient and dark. Every move associated with fear and uncertainty. A slow chant from unnaturally large beings present but not seen nor heard, merely felt in the bones, not on the skin; ia ngai ygg ntain. Only one solution to this continuing bombardment of sensory failure, one solution that would give meaning to the nightmare. Insanity.
NP noted the fungal virus take hold in his opponent's brainplant and knew that this particular foe would not surface anytime soon. He remembered when he had bought this piece of software from a small company that had tried to make a full immersion sim of a Lovecraftian story, the Haunter of the Dark. The sim had never been any good, too difficult to play and the fact that it was impossible to win made the company discard it shortly after the launch. NP had taken the game and fed it to a semi-cognient AI, creating a horror setting that was mind boggling in its complexity and no longer a game. He was very careful to keep it away from himself; even though he knew it was a sim, he was not sure he could withstand it. NP was no longer afraid of the dark, after all he knew what went bump in the night. He left the former adversary to his own lethal thoughts and focused on supporting Chi. This was going to be interesting.
The open dock bay was ready to take the rescue pod into the EC-107, the ample cargo space was empty save a large auto doc. Ahriman was satisfied, he was going to get what he came for, the female Itani born CLM pilot. He briefly considered taking some of the other pilots as well but decided against it. He needed that one and after her, he needed the twin sister too. Then he could carry the research done by the honourable Dr. Lecter even further. He was dead certain that he had the key to unlocking the mental powers that the Itani people by some accounts possessed. There, a mere 128 metres to go, he tapped the thruster slightly to align the ship perfectly. His radio crackled, the shock of an incoming signal enough to make Ahriman pull the joystick slightly and push him to the left.
"I told you scum, ain't no fucking way she is leaving with you."
Ahriman looked down at his radar and the cracked screen. Not getting the information he wanted he looked out of the viewport and saw a Centurion Rev C with a completely fused front that boosted directly towards his ship.
"Lady Serco, save me."
The rev c collided with the EC-107 at 225m/s slightly below the viewport of the hunter bus like a penetrator missile hitting a five metre thick brick wall. Both ships detonated in a common fireball that disintegrated the two ships, leaving no piece larger than could pass through a chickenwire fence. The ejection pod that Retractile had engaged immediately prior to hitting the KAOS ship passed through the debris at full speed, effectively peppering the un-armoured rescue pod with what could best be likened to multiple large calibre shotgun shots. The pod started leaking air from several holes but continued its flight along the trajectory it had started on, the leaking air merely making it tumble randomly.
###
The rescue service in CLM HQ received a single hail and the officer on duty noted the location and status. He alerted the venerable Revenant Hospital ship and sent a report to the commander. Another hail, and then another. He frowned, he hadn't been asked to provide extensive service for today's shift, but the revenant should still be enough to handle up to eight pods. The screen started flashing in red and white, a pod had been launched and then breached. The pilot was in danger of asphyxiation within minutes. He pressed the alert button, launching a specially modified warthog Mk II towards the damaged pod He just hoped they would be there in time. He alerted the commanding officer in the operational part of CLM, leant back and poured a cup of coffee. Nothing more he could do now anyway.
###
The warthog moved at maximum speed across Latos and moved through the wormhole to the scene of the battle. Quickly scanning for the location of the damaged pod, the pilot boosted at full power towards the last known location. There, moving along at a sedate pace, the damaged pod. The bay on the warthog opened and swallowed the pod. Inside the compartment was quickly re-pressurised and the medical officer opened the pod to get to the human cargo inside. In the meantime the warthog had started its acceleration towards CLM HQ again. The other pods would be recovered by the regular medical ship, all three glowed a steady green across the monitors. As the warthog exited the wormhole to Latos, it sent an updated situation map to the revenant inbound along with vitals on the pilots.
The revenant entered Sedina and started picking up the CLM members. It only took about five minutes, long enough to get the first pilot out of her pod and check the vitals. She was healthy even if she was a bit pale. The autodoc injected her with a stimulant and she woke with a violent intake of air, like a drowning person that reached the surface. The autodoc moved on to the next pod. Azumi looked around and got up, moving across to the pilot of the revenant.
"Pilot, status on the CLM pods?"
"One is unknown, the emergency warthog has taken that one directly to CLM HQ. Possibility of vacuum trauma. Name, Retractile. The rest are collected and green."
Azumi swore, he had done this to protect her. She looked at the radar and came up blank, no other rescue ships were inbound.
"Pilot, you need to take that pod along as well."
She pointed, indicating Hortan's strange looking pod that was slowly leaking fluid.
"No can do Ma'am, I am only under contract to take CLM members."
Azumi looked at him as if he had just dropped from the moon. She leant over close.
"I see. Well, it was not a question. You will take him if you like those worthless pieces of meat you have dangling between your legs."
The large combat knife she always wore on her left thigh was now resting easily along the belly of the pilot, the engine's vibrations making it tap occasionally on his groin.The pilot started sweating heavily and turned the ship towards the damaged pod.
"I will report this you know."
"See if I care. You will not work for us again. We do NOT leave damaged pods in space to themselves. We are pirates, not murderers."
Not like KAOS, she thought. At least there was no pod containing Ahriman, so maybe Retractile had killed him.
The revenant scooped Hortan's leaking pod up and headed for CLM HQ.
###
Chi cleared the arrivals personnel without incident and moved to her safe house in the lower quarters of the station. She switched into something less comfortable that included a blonde wig and heavy make-up, and walked on her high heels up towards the senatorial quarters. She made sure that the data collection device in one high heel was switched on, and that the the other contained her small leech. The usual request that the senator had sent had been intercepted and re-routed by NP. The girls from Tanaka's escort service would not be working this particular senator tonight.
###
Dark, but not dark so you couldn't see. Dark in a way that you can't see directly at things. Only the peripheral vision was able to detect movement of...... of something. Sounds of metal scraping slowly across sheets of metal, clanking of chains, dripping of a liquid that sounded thicker that water, all of it coming from nowhere and ever present. A tingling sensation in the back of the neck, something is watching, something malevolent, ancient and dark. Every move associated with fear and uncertainty. A slow chant from unnaturally large beings present but not seen nor heard, merely felt in the bones, not on the skin; ia ngai ygg ntain. Only one solution to this continuing bombardment of sensory failure, one solution that would give meaning to the nightmare. Insanity.
NP noted the fungal virus take hold in his opponent's brainplant and knew that this particular foe would not surface anytime soon. He remembered when he had bought this piece of software from a small company that had tried to make a full immersion sim of a Lovecraftian story, the Haunter of the Dark. The sim had never been any good, too difficult to play and the fact that it was impossible to win made the company discard it shortly after the launch. NP had taken the game and fed it to a semi-cognient AI, creating a horror setting that was mind boggling in its complexity and no longer a game. He was very careful to keep it away from himself; even though he knew it was a sim, he was not sure he could withstand it. NP was no longer afraid of the dark, after all he knew what went bump in the night. He left the former adversary to his own lethal thoughts and focused on supporting Chi. This was going to be interesting.
35. The Senator
The decor would best be described as immensely garish, yet also completely without style. Everything was very expensive, but placed to show off their monetary value instead of adding to the rooms natural style that had apparently given up hope and crawled off into some corner to die in peace. Chi looked around in fake awe and exclaimed a round mouthed "Oh" at the monument to the man that lived here. The guards had allowed her to enter after running her through a metal detector and checking her miniscule handbag. They confiscated the small bottle of mace, just as she had expected. Her petite gold paillette strop dress, little girls smile, giggle and explanation that she had to take care of herself, being self-employed and all, had calmed the guards and they had led her through. They never checked the false bottom of her lipstick, the make-up box or even the handbag.
The Senator was polite enough. He offered champagne, imported directly from Sol II and a delicacy even Chi had not had for some time. She accepted and drank while eying the Senator over the top of the fizzy, smiling in response to his broad grin. He was not disappointed by the looks of him. Chi refrained from using her higher mental faculties; somehow she knew that the Senator had not asked for a girl to discuss the policies regarding CLM or the newest ships design. Instead she smiled, laughed and giggled a lot when he said things where such a response was expected; otherwise she just looked sufficiently impressed. After about an hour of mindless talk, the Senator got up and excused himself to the bathroom. To become ready as he said. Chi smiled and waited until he had closed the door before taking her lipstick from the purse. She moved so her body shielded the drinks from the hidden camera she had noticed in the ceiling light and dropped a single pill into the Senators drink. When he came out, wearing a robe and nothing else, she stood, lifted the glasses and drank the content of her own glass in one go, waiting for him to do the same. He did and tossed the glass away, the crash of crystal against marble making him grin widely. He opened his robes; it was time for business. She dragged him over to the bed and made him lie down on the belly. She told him to get comfortable and relax. She took the large tube of oil and started to spread it on his back. Within a minute he was asleep as planned, snoring slightly. Chi wiped her hands and pulled the sheets over him. Not because she was afraid he was getting cold, but because she really didn't want to look at him. She wondered for about half a second where NP had found the rape drug, but pushed it out of her mind; it had worked after all. She walked over to the camera in the ceiling and smiled up to it. If somebody was looking, she was toast. But the odds of the Senator allowing someone to view his escapades were minimal. He would be taping it for his own enjoyment.
Chi took her high heels off and opened the secret compartment in each. She opened a connection via her headware to NP, coded and scrambled.
"I am in position. Target is... well incapacitated is the best description. Am opening the leech and accessing his mains."
"Roger, I am standby with all systems. Let me know when you have access to the mains."
The voice in her head was soft and full of confidence. She chuckled, well he could be, he was in a cosy office in Nyrius and she was here inside a most secure location in UIT space. Finding the main frame in the room was a question of searching for the nearest holoscreen. A very large one was hidden behind a real painting on one wall. Chi moved the painting to get access and entered the leech.
"Engaged. Am waiting for your go."
"Roger, activating the system. Expect two or three minutes."
She walked over and helped herself to the last of the champagne. She walked over to the large paintings on the far wall and allowed herself to be impressed by the skill of the painter. She enjoyed the brief moment of peace that was so rare these days. She also missed the fights with John, but he had been so busy with that KAOS thing. Maybe he would have time when she came back to K-10. Her system chimed and she sighed. The calm was over and she walked over to her equipment and disconnected it. She placed it in the same containers that they had arrived in, took the glass and placed it in her handbag. She then left the room and walked out to the guards. She smiled at them, received her mace and was cheered on. She walked directly down to her safe house and disappeared from UIT security. Hours later a young black haired woman with a hideous scar named Silia Katrie jumped on the shuttle to K-10.
###
The warthog had docked and Retractile had been moved with all haste to the emergency reception room. Three surgeons were waiting for him. They immediately disconnected his comatose brain from the damaged body and set about to repair whatever they could. No use, the body was destroyed beyond repair and even with limb grafts it would fail catastrophically within minutes of disconnecting from the machines that circulated and oxygenated the blood. The doctor in charge looked up over his mask at the sad looking green man outside and shook his head. Yoda was used to violence and massive trauma, but it was fortunately rare that he was confronted with deaths. He nodded and turned to walk down to the other pilots. He was going to find out what had happened.
###
The hold slowly filled with a smell of very good whisky, a smell emanating from Hortan's ungainly looking rescue pod. The autodoc was perplexed as how to open the pod, but after a bit of human intervention the collected pirates managed to pry it open. Hortan was inside, safe and sound. The autodoc injected a stimulant and came up without result. It injected him again and he slowly woke up. Swag man dropped to his knee and looked closer at the pool of liquid under Hortan's pod, sniffed a bit and then put his finger into the amber fluid. He tasted it slowly and smiled.
"Either this boy pisses Helio Mists, or he had a bottle in here that broke."
Tramshed started looking around the pod and found the small copper tube that slowly dripped.
"Found it, it is right here buddy."
He squatted behind the pod, put his cup under the tube and collected the liquid. Swag man moved over to him and waited for his turn, after all this was free Helio Mists.
###
The meeting in Dau K-10 was held in utmost secrecy. Only the highest ranking members of TGFT were present and after the meeting they were all sworn to secrecy. They only had one item unresolved, how to snatch the person. John and Waldoze thought of enrolling Hortan in the plan and thus it was agreed upon. As soon as he came home from his fool's errand they would contact him. Two days from now the mission would be initiated.
###
Buzz walked over to the dockhand as he was standing among his friends. He smiled and extended his hand. The dockhand, unsure what to do, shook the offered hand.
"I wish to express my sincere apologies."
The dockhand grinned and turned to his buddies.
"Yah, accepted man, don't think of it."
Buzz nodded to the workers and turned to Gramps, indicating with a nod of his head that they should leave. Gramps followed and waited until they were in the corridors again before talking to Buzz.
"I must say, a powerful show of restraint on your side Buzz. I am impressed."
"Yeah, well I didn't say what I was sorry for now did I?"
Gramps stopped and looked at the grinning Buzz.
"I guess he will develop a nasty skin rash within the next day or so. The only thing I am sorry for is that I won't be there to see it. Well, that and the fact that I didn't hit him in the head to start with."
Gramps shook his head slowly. Youth, he would never understand them. It didn't matter, his task was over.
The decor would best be described as immensely garish, yet also completely without style. Everything was very expensive, but placed to show off their monetary value instead of adding to the rooms natural style that had apparently given up hope and crawled off into some corner to die in peace. Chi looked around in fake awe and exclaimed a round mouthed "Oh" at the monument to the man that lived here. The guards had allowed her to enter after running her through a metal detector and checking her miniscule handbag. They confiscated the small bottle of mace, just as she had expected. Her petite gold paillette strop dress, little girls smile, giggle and explanation that she had to take care of herself, being self-employed and all, had calmed the guards and they had led her through. They never checked the false bottom of her lipstick, the make-up box or even the handbag.
The Senator was polite enough. He offered champagne, imported directly from Sol II and a delicacy even Chi had not had for some time. She accepted and drank while eying the Senator over the top of the fizzy, smiling in response to his broad grin. He was not disappointed by the looks of him. Chi refrained from using her higher mental faculties; somehow she knew that the Senator had not asked for a girl to discuss the policies regarding CLM or the newest ships design. Instead she smiled, laughed and giggled a lot when he said things where such a response was expected; otherwise she just looked sufficiently impressed. After about an hour of mindless talk, the Senator got up and excused himself to the bathroom. To become ready as he said. Chi smiled and waited until he had closed the door before taking her lipstick from the purse. She moved so her body shielded the drinks from the hidden camera she had noticed in the ceiling light and dropped a single pill into the Senators drink. When he came out, wearing a robe and nothing else, she stood, lifted the glasses and drank the content of her own glass in one go, waiting for him to do the same. He did and tossed the glass away, the crash of crystal against marble making him grin widely. He opened his robes; it was time for business. She dragged him over to the bed and made him lie down on the belly. She told him to get comfortable and relax. She took the large tube of oil and started to spread it on his back. Within a minute he was asleep as planned, snoring slightly. Chi wiped her hands and pulled the sheets over him. Not because she was afraid he was getting cold, but because she really didn't want to look at him. She wondered for about half a second where NP had found the rape drug, but pushed it out of her mind; it had worked after all. She walked over to the camera in the ceiling and smiled up to it. If somebody was looking, she was toast. But the odds of the Senator allowing someone to view his escapades were minimal. He would be taping it for his own enjoyment.
Chi took her high heels off and opened the secret compartment in each. She opened a connection via her headware to NP, coded and scrambled.
"I am in position. Target is... well incapacitated is the best description. Am opening the leech and accessing his mains."
"Roger, I am standby with all systems. Let me know when you have access to the mains."
The voice in her head was soft and full of confidence. She chuckled, well he could be, he was in a cosy office in Nyrius and she was here inside a most secure location in UIT space. Finding the main frame in the room was a question of searching for the nearest holoscreen. A very large one was hidden behind a real painting on one wall. Chi moved the painting to get access and entered the leech.
"Engaged. Am waiting for your go."
"Roger, activating the system. Expect two or three minutes."
She walked over and helped herself to the last of the champagne. She walked over to the large paintings on the far wall and allowed herself to be impressed by the skill of the painter. She enjoyed the brief moment of peace that was so rare these days. She also missed the fights with John, but he had been so busy with that KAOS thing. Maybe he would have time when she came back to K-10. Her system chimed and she sighed. The calm was over and she walked over to her equipment and disconnected it. She placed it in the same containers that they had arrived in, took the glass and placed it in her handbag. She then left the room and walked out to the guards. She smiled at them, received her mace and was cheered on. She walked directly down to her safe house and disappeared from UIT security. Hours later a young black haired woman with a hideous scar named Silia Katrie jumped on the shuttle to K-10.
###
The warthog had docked and Retractile had been moved with all haste to the emergency reception room. Three surgeons were waiting for him. They immediately disconnected his comatose brain from the damaged body and set about to repair whatever they could. No use, the body was destroyed beyond repair and even with limb grafts it would fail catastrophically within minutes of disconnecting from the machines that circulated and oxygenated the blood. The doctor in charge looked up over his mask at the sad looking green man outside and shook his head. Yoda was used to violence and massive trauma, but it was fortunately rare that he was confronted with deaths. He nodded and turned to walk down to the other pilots. He was going to find out what had happened.
###
The hold slowly filled with a smell of very good whisky, a smell emanating from Hortan's ungainly looking rescue pod. The autodoc was perplexed as how to open the pod, but after a bit of human intervention the collected pirates managed to pry it open. Hortan was inside, safe and sound. The autodoc injected a stimulant and came up without result. It injected him again and he slowly woke up. Swag man dropped to his knee and looked closer at the pool of liquid under Hortan's pod, sniffed a bit and then put his finger into the amber fluid. He tasted it slowly and smiled.
"Either this boy pisses Helio Mists, or he had a bottle in here that broke."
Tramshed started looking around the pod and found the small copper tube that slowly dripped.
"Found it, it is right here buddy."
He squatted behind the pod, put his cup under the tube and collected the liquid. Swag man moved over to him and waited for his turn, after all this was free Helio Mists.
###
The meeting in Dau K-10 was held in utmost secrecy. Only the highest ranking members of TGFT were present and after the meeting they were all sworn to secrecy. They only had one item unresolved, how to snatch the person. John and Waldoze thought of enrolling Hortan in the plan and thus it was agreed upon. As soon as he came home from his fool's errand they would contact him. Two days from now the mission would be initiated.
###
Buzz walked over to the dockhand as he was standing among his friends. He smiled and extended his hand. The dockhand, unsure what to do, shook the offered hand.
"I wish to express my sincere apologies."
The dockhand grinned and turned to his buddies.
"Yah, accepted man, don't think of it."
Buzz nodded to the workers and turned to Gramps, indicating with a nod of his head that they should leave. Gramps followed and waited until they were in the corridors again before talking to Buzz.
"I must say, a powerful show of restraint on your side Buzz. I am impressed."
"Yeah, well I didn't say what I was sorry for now did I?"
Gramps stopped and looked at the grinning Buzz.
"I guess he will develop a nasty skin rash within the next day or so. The only thing I am sorry for is that I won't be there to see it. Well, that and the fact that I didn't hit him in the head to start with."
Gramps shook his head slowly. Youth, he would never understand them. It didn't matter, his task was over.
wow ret just 'died' for azumi. beat that hortan!