I very rarely go on IRC, can't really see the point. However, I used to be a lot online. These days I am not of two reasons, one of the personal and the other that they made that 10k limit. I have way and above that in Helio, so I cannot unload. And that is kinda the only thing I do.....

wooohoooo i shant starve lol great story

Sorry for the slight delay.

11. Unreasonable demands

Riddik docked his Marauder with all the care he could, which was a lot. After all, he carried the most valuable cargo he could imagine, his wife. The emergency life support units were ready when he landed and he along with the dockhands started unloading the valuable cargo from his hold. When the medical recovery crew had taken the other pilots away, he found a stretcher and readied it for Keria. He was bent over her, unstrapping her gently when someone started to shout over at the entrance. Not used to shouting in a Serco military installation Riddik looked up and saw two small black clad officers that had stopped the stretchers. They were using a handheld DNA scanner to identify the pilots but didn't seem to find what they were looking for. Riddik shook his head slightly; he absolutely hated the secret police. They always seemed to carry themselves with an air of self-importance that didn't measure up to their effectiveness. However, what they lacked in efficiency they made up for amply in ruthlessness. Riddik lifted his wife gently; the fact that he outweighed her four times and the fact that was cybernetically enhanced to the maximum ensured that he didn't tremble the slightest while lifting her out of the prone position. He turned to put her on the stretcher but was interrupted by one of the GESTEBO agents.

"You must submit to a DNA scan at once. And the unconscious pilot."

Riddik slowly ground his teeth; these guys were incredible. He started smiling, unsettling the GESTEBO agent and rightly so; Riddik imagined the untold mental horrors that would be unleashed upon the manling if he ever were to say please and it probably showed on Riddik's face. He nodded; after all it was probably not worth calling for SCAR immunity right now. He extended his right hand to the man, keeping Keria to his chest comfortably resting on his left arm. The machine swiped across his hand and the manling nodded. He took the scanner and pressed it against Keria's arm and let it do its work. He looked up at Riddik.

"We need this female for questioning. Hand her over immediately."

The manling looked up at Riddik, pointed to the stretcher with one hand and put his hand on the ornate needlegun at his side for emphasis. Riddik didn't know why the GESTEBO wanted her but this would be a good time to call in the guild.

"No. We are SCAR; you have no jurisdiction over us. Take it to my commander."

"If you will stay there one second, I will."

The GESTEBO agent's eyes glazed over as he initiated a secure call to his command. The other agent placed himself behind and to the left of Riddik, the place where it would be hardest for him to see and thus attack the agent if trouble was to arrive.The first agent blinked and smiled, the effect chilling on Riddik.

"I have received an extradition order countersigned by SCAR. I will send the form over now. Hand her over citizen."

Riddik received the signal, but chose to upload it in his auxiliary brainplant, using a rather illegal programme he had purchased in Aeolus Trading Prefect in Helios by one of his trading associates. The extradition order was in order, complete with SCAR digital signatures and all, but it was the small black ice programme that was uploaded at the same time that decided for Riddik. The black ice programme was designed to shut all of his implants down, effectively rendering him defenseless. Riddik dropped Keria, drawing the small thin-gun from her waist, the small one-shot holdout pistol that she kept for extreme situations, with his left hand and extended it towards the agent behind him. At the same time Riddik bent in his knees, allowing the right hand to grasp the large caliber flechette pistol that he had strapped on his thigh and point it towards the agent to the front. Simultaneously he depressed the triggers of the two weapons, firing the single shot from the thin-gun through the left eye exiting in the back of the skull of the agent behind him and six hundred hyper velocity fourteen gramme samoflange darts that turned the agent in front into a bleeding hulk. Riddik dropped his left gun and caught his wife; the entire sequence had taken less than 0.3 seconds. He looked down at the quivering mass of bleeding flesh that was the sorry remains of the agent. The man was going into shock, but in itself the wound was not lethal; he was Serco after all.

"I said no."

Riddik raised the gun and fired another set of darts into the neck of the agent, messily separating the head from the body. He then turned and put Keria back in her crash seat, strapping her down methodically but fast. He launched his Marauder and set the course for Helios. He was not sure that he would be welcome in Serco space the next many months.

###

"If he dies, the entire programme will have been set back for a long time, it may even stop here unless we find out why it happens. We need to think out of the box, we need Captain Taerow up and about. Gentlemen, ladies, I need your ideas and I need the right solution within the next hour or we are deep inside Arklan land with no turbo."

Raewon looked around the table for any takers but nobody had any ideas. He fixed his gaze on the senior medtech.

"Tell me again why we can't just put his brains and vitals inside a clone?"

The medtech looked down to the table and then up at Raewon.

"We would love to Sir, but a far as we can see the body is doing fine. It is the mind that seems to be slipping away slowly. We can keep the body alive for an indefinite amount of time but according to Itani law, a body that has no mind is legally dead and can be reused or destroyed as per the last wishes of the previous inhabitant. We expect that with the current decline, the body will be uninhabited in less than four hours."

"Anybody have anything?"

Nobody had any clues and they adjourned to their respective departments for an hour. Yarina Oselasis decided to pay a visit to the captain in the vain hope that she would be inspired to a solution. His appearance shocked even her but still she didn't let it show on her face. The technician inside looked at her and decided that she should just keep focus on her readouts instead of talking. Yarina walked over to the comatose grey-skinned man and grasped his hand. It showed no sign of life except for a feeble pulsing at the wrist, the fingers feeling very cold in her own hand. She squeezed his hand slightly for support, stroking it slightly with her thumb. She felt a small quiver in the hand she held and almost dropped it in surprise. She got an idea and turned to the medtech.

"Leave us."

The medtech frowned and looked into her screen, deciding that she could use a break anyway. The patient was not going to move any time soon.

"All right, but I'll stay outside if ya'll need me."

Yarina nodded and waited until the medtech had left before testing her idea.

###

Fletholm was briefing the UIT high command on the recent developments regarding several pirate incursions into the Azek system and the connections and implications regarding the low scale war between the trade guild named Sigma Shipping Company (SSC) and the Cargo Liberation Movement (CLM) when his beeper went off in his pocket. Ignoring it he continued to show in what intervals the attacks happened when the beeper went off again. He finished his part and nodded to the Chief Security Officer of Azek and walked outside to see who had called. It was not one but two persons, both with priority ASAP-Z signals. He sighed and informed the military policeman that was standing guard that he had to go and left for the secret facility nicknamed Hobbitrup but he called work. He entered to a flurry of activity in almost all his departments with several calling for him as soon as he entered the room. He sighed once more and walked over to his office with the lead expert on the Itani and Serco military following with Eggert in tow. He sat and immediately punched a message to his wife Camille explaining that he would once more not be home for dinner before looking up at the impatient men.

"So, what happened?"

###

Cat docked the by now rather battered Warthog in Aeolus Trading Prefect and exited the ship warily. It was the first time she was in a grey sector station, and the first time she was outside of Serco space alone. She walked over to the dockhand and haggled a good price for storage of her ship before heading deeper into the station. She was probably ripped off but she was satisfied with the agreement. She had to find the Hands of Kali, and if this station was anything like the standard Serco barracks it would be in the commercial sector on level 42a. She found an elevator and entered it along with some of the human wreckage that space always seemed to wash up in grey. One of them was an amputee, and without a prosthetic arm too. She had never seen anything like it and found it hard not to stare, Serco space might not be perfect but was at least rich enough that nobody went without medical aid if so needed. The elevator stopped at 42a and she walked out expecting to smell the usual powerful spices and heavy tangy smelling drinks that were on all Serco commercial levels. Instead it was pungent as hell in the corridor she entered and she was immediately aware that she was in the wrong place. The many crates of unidentified gunk emanated a smell that was sweet and yeasty but at the same time oppressively pungent. It was immensely hot and moist in the corridor and her skin started to gleam of sweat as her body responded. She checked the crates and saw that they were connected by brass pipes with openings in the top. She was curious enough to peer into one of them and was hit by a solid dose of the smell and moisture of the liquid below. She pulled her head back and would have gagged if her body hadn't been modified to such an extent that she did not own that reflex. She moved back to the other side of the corridor and looked at the crates. All 23 of them had the same label on them, "Property of Hortan". Someone had a sick sense of humor, or just a very weird and obscure hobby. The elevator pinged and she turned ready for anything.

"I should have known. Good thing that the boss is so prescient as to the behaviour of you military folks."

Cat frowned, who the hell was this human norm talking to her as if he knew her.

"Who are you, and what do you want?"

"Beria, at your service. I believe that we should meet up at The Arms of Kali? How about I show you where it is and let you meet the boss?"

Cat merely nodded and entered the elevator with the small man. This was going to take some getting used to.

12. Hobbitrup

The Serco expert, Major Timisoara went first, walking up to a model of Serco space to illustrate his points.

"Sir, we have what looks like a crushing defeat of the Skycommand forces in Deneb with the complete annihilation of the rapid response force including the SMV Nemesis. The Serco forces have regrouped in Geira Rutilus with everything they have in the area, which is actually much less than we had thought available. A large force looks to be assembling around Sol II with several capitol ships and a lot of Prometheus's. The border defences has been upped to DEFCON 2 with all Monitor class turrets manned and active. Also, we have Strike Forces launching in all systems from Geira Rutilus towards Helios, chasing a Marauder that has its IFF turned off but managed to escape seemingly functional to grey space. We do not have any information as to whom, why or what the Marauder was hunted for but we are investigating. Conclusion, the Serco Defence Forces are preparing for invasion and may have been compromised by an inside traitor that has escaped."

The Serco expert returned to his seat and sat down. Fletholm squinted at the map before nodding to the Itani expert.

"Sir, we have several indications that the Itani is about to launch a full scale assault on the Deneb/Geira Rutilus wormhole perhaps with the intent to destroy the Serco command nexus on the GR side of the wormhole. He have three Heavy Assault Cruisers, the IDV Pride of Eo, the IDV Sword of Eo and the IDV Sola gathering around the barracks station in Deneb along more than hundred and fifty heavy fighters and bombers, seven Trident class frigates and around thirty Atlas class troop transports. On top of that, the Jallik border has been striped of the reserve contingent of heavy bombers, nine squadrons in all and there are some indications that they are also moving to Deneb. However, we have run the simulations and there is no way that it would be enough to destroy the station as long as the fighter cover and the Monitor class mobile defensive turrets are still intact. To sum it up, we have no clue what is happening."

"Hmm, I see. Timi, if the Serco forces are chasing a traitor, especially an Itani traitor, why didn't that person leave to Deneb? As I recall, the wormhole is less than 3000 metres away."

"Ah, yes Sir. You are probably right. We'll look into it further Sir."

"Right, but apart from that is looks like something has upset the MAD doctrine."

The MAD doctrine, or the Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine was the not-quite agreed upon doctrine that allowed the Itani-Serco conflict to huddle along as a mere border skirmish instead of escalating to full scale war. Neither side used nuclear weapons, neither side killed the other sides rescue pods, nor did any side allow the conflict to escalate to civilian targets aside from the odd convoy now and again. It was also the doctrine that allowed UIT to work both sides at the same time, profiting on both sides while keeping the war out of the core systems. If something had upset the balance it could mean the end of the UIT as they knew it.

"Sir, I think I have an idea as to what it is."

"Go Eggert, let's see if you have come up with something plausible."

Fletholm started massaging his temples, he could feel the usual headache and nausea associated with crisis-long nights already presenting themselves like a crew of over hyped cheerleaders; irresistible and not really caring whether he had asked for it or not.

"You remember the phantom Valkyrie?" Fletholm nodded and Eggert continued. "We have looked through our data and it looks like the phantom Valkyrie was taken along the Itani battle line to Deneb where it was used in combat. I have reason to believe that it was actually instrumental in stripping the SMV Nemesis of its fighter defences, thus leaving her open to attack and destruction. That the Serco managed to damage the IDV Sword of Eo so badly is actually a bit baffling to us, at that time only a frigate and a single Serco fighter remained but somehow the frigate managed to skirt the fighter cover and while firing all guns forward rammed the SoE right below the primary command nexus, effectively crippling the ship and taking it out of the battle for at least six months. How the Serco managed to avoid the fighters is anybody's guess. That is beside the point really. It seems that the phantom Valkyrie can freely engage a complete battle force flight of fighters and come out of it unscathed. That means that we can expect the phantom Valkyrie can engage the wormhole defences and take them out alone."

Fletholm had been massaging his temples slowly with his eyes closed; now he opened them and looked at Eggert.

"'Scuse me?"

"Yes Sir, I believe that the Itani forces can with no difficulty engage and kill the entire Serco defensive force on the Geira Rutilus side of the wormhole with that single Valkyrie. None of the Monitor class gun turrets have shields neither does the fighters. I am not sure how the Valkyrie would fare against the heavier ships that have shield generators but at the moment the Itani heavies outnumber the Serco by two to one. If the fighters have been taken out it is more like five to one in comparative power. Sir, the balance has been grossly upset by that thing."

Fletholm nodded slowly while string into the table. He could feel his pet ulcer wake up in malevolent glee and expectation of the soon to be misery it would cause him. He grabbed the bottle of anti-acid and put it on the table, mentally noting to buy a whole crate of these. It sounded like it would be necessary.

"Gents, that is all. As much information as you can possible get me please, now leave me. I have several calls to make."

###

The Serco high command was a silent as always, the communication taking place in an entirely different forum. The virtual reality where the commanders lived most of their time ensured almost instantaneous and fail proof communications across large distances making it possible for the Serco commanders to actually be in their designated ships and still have a common command nexus. They had discussed the scenarios many times already, they had war gamed the different options and arrived at a conclusion. If they could not contain the IDF at the GR wormhole, they would have to resort to escalation through targeting Eo. The transfer of several very old and very large nuclear warheads had been transferred to a group of six heavily modified Atlas' from the Serco Death Squad Penal Legion. The group would have to run the gauntlet along with a fighter/bomber cover but it would only take one that got through to smash into the surface of Eo to make the Itani to break off. Or as some scenarios indicated, press the attack. The best thing was a tilting of the balance, back to how it used to be. Right now the High Command had no clue as to how this could be re-established but the Diplomatic Corps was working on it with all resources. Operation URANUS was launched with the target still to be decided.

###

The almost still cold body that lay in the bed was much like that belonging to a dead person, and Yarina shuddered slightly at what she was about to do. Undressing to her underwear, she slipped under the covers and pressed her body against Taerow's, embracing him and ignoring the coldness of his body that leached her body warmth. She started singing a nursery rhyme in a low soft melodic voice while rubbing his chest with her left arm. It only took about a minute before she started shaking with cold, but she could sense that something was happening. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, like a drowning man being brought back to life. The confusion on his face was partly waking in the medical ward and mostly waking with Yarina wrapped around him.

"Don't you get any ideas Ut. But welcome back to the land of the living."

He grinned, it was too late about the ideas; he was a man after all and they popped into his head like starbursts during a meteor shower. How could he not? He closed his eyes again and relished in the sensation of having her against him.

"How long time was I out?"

"Nine hours and dying slowly. We had no idea what to do to you until I tried this."

He swallowed dryly but made sure he didn't move his muscles apart from that. He seriously did not want to accidentally give the impression that he wanted her to leave. He never wanted her to leave, he could stay here forever and never again use the Omega, never again be confined to his own head with only the sounds of nails sliding down glass, the incoherent screeching and babbling of utter fear emanating from his own voice, never again be confined to the darkness of...

He awoke to Yarina's alarmed voice.

"You are slipping away again. Stay with me Ut, stay with me until we can get the psychologists down here and help you."

Ne noted that she had left his side and that there were a lot of people in the room. A familiar face appeared in front of him, Raewon.

"Good to have you back son. The doctors here need to do some tests on you, but you'll be back in no time. We are moving back to Tellus as we speak. Dammit son, you gave us a real fright there. We thought we had lost you for a second there. Well, we'll leave you in the hands of the doctors, get better soon, you hear?"

He saw the scientists walk out of the room with Yarina as the last one. She turned, as she was about to exit as if to say something but didn't, looked down and waved a small wave before leaving. He was left to the medical staff.

13. Allies

Riddik docked his Marauder in Aeolus Trading Prefect and purchased a stretcher to move Keria into the station to get some medical assistance. The dockhands raised an eyebrow when they saw him pull a Serco female out of his hold, but them not noticing anything was what they got paid for. Riddik moved as fast as he could and only narrowly avoided the two groups of six black uniformed persons that exited a set of Centaurs. They immediately spotted the Marauder and after leaving three men to guard it the others moved into the station. Riddik thought about finding the local SCAR representative but didn't want to have even the slightest chance of them turning Keria over to GESTEBO. He mentally thumbed through his contacts in Grey and disregarded the Serco ones. That left him with one person, Lebermac from the Cargo Liberation Movement. He sent a query asking where Lebermac was. Within seconds a link opened.

"Riddik you ole swinger, how's it hanging?"

"Pretty bad my friend. I need help and I need help bad."

"Not really all that welcome up the Ladies way buddy. But I can probably send someone if ya need it."

"Not necessary, I am in Grey."

There was a moment’s silence on the other end before Lebermac answered.

"This is going to land me in a lot of trouble isn't it?"

"Probably, but I have nowhere else to go mate. I need medical help for Keria."

"Roger, send me your posit and I'll be there in a jiffy."

"Leebs, I owe you one."

"Yarr, don't think of it. Think Tequila instead."

Riddik sent his position and the link closed. Now all he had to do was hide Keria until help arrived. He checked his heavy needlegun and the two liberated thin guns. He didn't really like the thin guns. Propelling a charge of xithricite powder that was lethal to a Serco at ten metres range or less, it was rather inefficient at more than 30 metres. A secret police weapon, but beggars can't be choosers. He moved along the grease stained, well he hoped it was grease and dirt filled corridors, to a coffin motel and checked in with only a slightly raised eyebrow from the clerk at the unconscious person on the stretcher. A small extra donation to the clerk guaranteed their privacy for at least a day. Riddik ensured that Keria was as comfortable as she could be and placed himself in front of the door with the needle gun ready. What the hell was he to do now...

###

The UIT Counterinsurgency Team Alfa was all kitted out for heavy combat, with two members carrying the heavy neural laces that was the only known way of restraining Serco soldiers. Some would argue that shooting the arms and legs off would make the Serco incapable of resisting but that was because they had never seen a Serco use his teeth and body to kill a man. Which they had been known to do. The team hoped that the Serco would follow willingly, otherwise it could get really nasty; the team was eight highly trained and extensively boosted soldiers but that was not going to be enough if the two Serco decided to slug it out. And why the team leader had decided to use nerve gas pre-emptively.

The team leader received a message that the nerve gas had been pumped in and nodded to his security man. He inserted the code breaker and cracked the door code, withdrawing his gear immediately upon getting a green light. The two gyrock-equipped point men smashed the door open, their weapons at the ready and moved fast into the room, the two soldiers with neural laces following. They were surprised by the two Serco persons that were deeply concentrated on a game of Go, ignoring the soldiers completely.

"Don't move" one of the soldiers shouted nervously.

One of the Serco raised one finger as if to indicate that they should wait before exclaiming a victorious cry.

"Ha, I believe I have won. If I put the stone here I win, correct?"

He put a stone onto the board and looked up at the other Serco who nodded slowly and methodically.

"I believe you are right. Congratulations. Now, what do we do to the intruders?"

The two Serco turned their heads and looked at the two point men completely unafraid.

"Don't move" the soldier shouted again.

"Yes, yes we have heard you. We heard you fifteen minutes ago and we hear you now. Silent please, the Serco are speaking."

The two Serco exchanged information fast and agreed.

"So officers, where are we going?"

With the prospect of the Serco surrendering peacefully the UIT team relaxed slightly, ever so slightly. The troopers never noticed the heavy blade that spun through the air as if appearing out of pure vacuum, impacting with the heavy xithricite enforced point upon the full face mask of the left soldier with a neural lace, ignoring the plastic and rubber of the mask and slicing clean through the skin, muscles and bones of his face before stopping when the point hit the inside of the skull in the back of his head severing the central nerve routing and removing muscle control immediately. The other Serco moved up and towards the two gyrock-equipped soldiers and managed to push them both aside as they started firing, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack, Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwomp-Gung. One of the small deadly rockets impacted on the left shoulder of the Serco that threw the knife, severing the upper arm by exploding inside it. The Serco didn't even notice it, instead twisting his body backwards and grab his needle gun from behind the seat. The other Serco pushed the two point men into the last standing UIT trooper with a neural lace, toppling the three of them and jumped on top of them with a blood-curdling cry. One UIT trooper looked into the room over his pulse rifle and was rewarded for his efforts with a full set of twenty millimetres long and two wide samoflange darts that had been accelerated to more than 350m/s from the needle gun of the wounded Serco. The trooper's head made no resistance to the darts whatsoever, the helmet flying into the corridor empty except for the remains. The team leader swore and decided to escalate. He found his thermal grenade and primed it.

The Serco with the needle gun walked into the door entrance and looked into the corridor left and right. He shot the security man in the lower neck neatly severing the head from the body and changed aim to the petrified soldier that was pointing at the floor with his pulse rifle. The thermal grenade flew into the room and the Serco in the corridor grinned fiercely. He dropped the gun and grabbed the soldier, yanking him inside and put him on top of the grenade pinning him with his bulk. The soldier's eyes widened in fear, as he was eye-to-eye with the one armed berserker and even more when he realised what he was lying on. The grenade went off, scattering the trooper all over the room and taking a sizeable chunk out of the Serco as well. The UIT team leader peeked in and drew a clean bead upon he neck of the unscathed Serco. He fired a maximum charge pulse burst that impacted on the Serco's neck, blowing a fist-sized hole in his head. The Serco finished dismembering the soldier he was working on before turning around to face the leader. Another shot rang out, this time slightly under the nose and removing another fist-sized chunk of Serco. The Serco staggered slightly but kept advancing. The troop leader aimed carefully and fired the remaining charge into the same hole under the nose and succeeded in toppling the berserker. The team leader sank to the floor in exhaustion, dropping his rifle to the floor. He keyed the command centre and gave the all clear. The second team was just in the next corridor ready to move in. The team leader looked around at the remains of his men and crawled over to the group of three mangled bodies in the corner.

"Almost UIT, almost. Pretty good for human norms."

He turned and saw the one armed Serco with a large hole in his stomach and chest swing the rifle down upon his head, impacting with terrible force. Darkness.

###

The room was empty of personal belongings, empty of any signs of the inhabitant, devoid of atmosphere. The eight standard uniforms in the closet, the meticulously clean desk and the neatly folded bed could have been found in any cubicle. Nothing indicated who or what she was. Precisely as the circumstances dictated her but not necessarily as she wanted it. Yarina called her cubicle home nonetheless; after all she was going to live here until her assignment was finished. And so far she had liked it, relished in the opportunity to do her part for the Itani people, enjoyed the challenges. But now it was getting personal, the one factor she could not control. She needed to get out, and soon too. She opened the secret compartment in her desk and activated the small beacon inside, telling her case officer that she needed to be contacted. Nothing to do but wait now.

Oh man... I guess Timex was one of the original members of the Serco movement back in the day. Nice one Whytee. Keep 'em coming!

14. Grey space station

Cat frowned, this dump was even worse than the spartan quarters inside the roid in Itani space. It was slightly larger than the cubicle she used to have, but at least that had been clean. She tossed the linen on the covers and dumped her knapsack on the chair. She took the covers off and was disgusted by the large stains on the mattress; obviously it had been used by a self-employed liberal businesswoman. Cat threw the covers back on and went out into the washroom. At least it had been scoured clean, the metal surfaces discoloured and rusty but apparently clean. There was a harsh antiseptic smell in the air and Cat shut her olfactory senses off. So, this was home for now. She sighed mentally and wished that she was back at the hot steam bath in the barracks around Pyronis with her friends but it looked like she inadvertently had become an enemy of the state, or at least a part of the state. Her brainpal activated with an incoming signal. She acknowledged it and a small holographic image of a grim reaper with a caption that said BERIA was projected on her retina.

"Are you comfortable yet? I know it is not the best, but it is secure."

She ordered her brainpal to switch the image into a sunflower with a big smile. That made her a bit more comfortable at least. Her own avatar was that of a small bald cat but she assumed that Beria translated the icon into something he wanted as she had done to his avatar.

"What do you want?"

"Straight and to the point. Well, it is not a social call anyway. I need you to join us in the briefing room in an hour. Your skills are needed. I'll send a station map with location for you. Remember your weapons, we are in Grey after all."

"I'll be there."

In her brainpal the image of the sunflower got burned by an immense flamethrower, thus ending the link with Beria. An evil looking bat flew towards her until it reached her brainpal's translator-sphere that turned it into a fat grey pigeon. The data package from Beria. She acknowledged the data package with a message of her own and walked in to find her guns. She had a hard time imagining who could harm her but Beria had been right so far.

###

Brix Servan tried to control his temper, which was pretty hard; he was furious at the UIT SWAT member that had just turned him away again. What the hell was he to do, he had to deliver the data pad he had received from his employer to the research facility on the BioCom station within an hour or the data was worthless. He had a reputation for always delivering on time, no matter what. Always on time. Apparently something major had happened since they had locked down access to the launch bay. He couldn't let that stop him, not with this kind of money at stake. He tried to dial his buddy in the police but didn't get a connection before his third try. Which was strange, usually it worked extremely well inside the station.

"Brix, kinda busy right now buddy."

"I know but I need a favour. I need a favour badly and I need it now."

"I can't man, I am pulling guard. Some terrorist is on the run or something. Can't really talk about it either."

"I figured as much. I need to launch my X within the next twenty or lose a ton of cash."

"Can't help you Brix. I am stuck here and if I leave I am toast."

"Remember last month? I covered for you with that girl you picked up. And who paid for your room update?"

"Screw you Brix. Okay, but then we are even you hear? Bay sixteen passage Delta 4 in fifteen minutes. If you are not there at that time we are still even mate."

"Yada yada. You know we are, I'll even sweeten it for you with a bit of creds buddy."

"Fifteen."

"I'll be there."

###

Taerow walked in a daze from his room to the food plaza intent on finding some sugary foods. He had always had a sweet tooth but the last couple of days he had felt a craving that was almost impossible to satisfy. It had started around the same time that he woke up after the mission, along with the constant feeling of being watched, a constant feeling of something scraping on the inside of his skull. He grabbed a bowl of "Sugar-Coated-Honey-Bombs" and poured sugar and chocolate milk on top of it.

"Are you sure you have enough calories in that bowl?"

He whirled in surprise and shock when he heard the familiar voice.

"Bill, I thought you were dead?"

"Nah, the rumours of my death were vastly exaggerated. Although I had my doubts some times. How are you these days?"

"Tired. Dead tired."

"You certainly look tired mate. What have you been up to, still that research programme?"

"Can't really discuss it but yeah I am still on it. Even though I wish they would find someone else. And you?"

"I have been running a search and destroy mission in Metana for a week now. We believe that the Serco have a deep penetration team in place somewhere for raiding traders. I sure would like to get my neuts on one of them."

William smiled in anticipation of the kill. He grimaced as if remembering something unpleasant.

"Before that we were test rabbits on some nutcase project. Some social science idiot with an ear in High Command wanted us to do combat simulations with the whole squadron and then rigged the scenario to see what our responses would be when we realised that we couldn't damage the opponent but only be damaged ourselves. I hear that he has a hard time walking these days, something with a kneecap and a piece of metal piping."

He grinned like a schoolboy that just paint bombed the teacher’s house after final exams. He looked down at the extreme sugary breakfast that Taerow was standing with and then down at his own very rare steak.

"Maybe if you ate something healthier you would be less tired."

Taerow looked at the steak and felt his stomach do a couple of flips.

"You still prefer to have the meat directly from the tenderiser I see. You ever heard about cooking food?"

William gasped in mock horror.

'What, and risk burning this fine meat? Never. Listen I need to go to my squad. I'll see you around, hear?"

Taerow nodded in agreement, let William clap him on the shoulder and poured some koffee into his sugar before walking over to sit alone as usual. Seemed that the secrecy surrounding the Omega was still as tight as ever.

###

The guard on duty in the most secret facility in Pyronis received the signal from the distress beacon and logged it as he was instructed. The beacon was from one of their teams in UIT space and it meant that the team was detected and on the run. The guard alerted a snatch team to launch a set of Warthog Mk II’s with special recovery equipment and set course for Dau Senate. He then sent a coded signal to the two operatives’ brainpals that the mission specific data should self-erase in case of capture. They were on their own if they were caught as they knew prior to the mission, but if they could just get outside of the station they would be picked up. Lady Serco was not known to toss resources away needlessly.

15. Escape

Brix walked into the corridor and found his buddy waiting for him as planned. He smiled a big smile in greeting and spread his arms away from the sides to show that he was very happy to see him.

"Ha, I knew you could help me my friend, you always can."

The guard scowled at him for a second but his serious visage cracked into a smile instead.

"Damn you Brix, I can't be mad at you."

Brix did some slight of hand and produced a non-traceable cred stick that he held between two fingers.

"Good for me I think. I brought you a little something mate. Now, let us get to my ship, I am in a bit of a hurry."

The two men walked over to the sealed pressure door that unlocked when Brix's pall entered the security override. That was the last thing he ever did. The almost invisible bulge in the wall animated and an arm emerged carrying a heavy-duty xithricite combat knife that impacted on the back of his neck burying it to the hilt. Brix followed the arm to its logical conclusion and found that it was attached to the wall. He stared in fear as the wall illusion turned off and revealed a one-armed Serco.

"You will take me to your ship. Then you will fly me to my destination. Once there I will get off and you will live. Or I can just kill you here and do it myself. Choose norm."

Brix used around a quarter of a second to decide before croaking.

"Live, I want to live."

"Wise choice norm. Move out as you usually would, I will be right behind you. Do not try anything if you cannot see me, I assure you that you will at all times be within my lethal zone."

Brix nodded and shook with fear as the Serco once more disappeared into thin air. If he looked carefully he could see a slight blur outlining the Serco but decided that he didn't want to test the patience of someone obviously on the run. He opened the door and at the same time tried to open a line to the UIT internal security via his communications implant. No connection. He tried again with the same result. A message appeared in his implant.

"Stop trying to contact the authorities. I have complete control of your implant."

Brix stopped immediately, so that was how he had found them. They walked out into the launch bay towards the black and silver Atlas X that was ready for leaving. Brix entered the sixteen-digit code and the door slid open without a sound. The two UIT SWAT team members inside the Atlas fired their neural laces as soon as the door had opened, one catching Brix and instantly overloading his neural pathways, forcing all his muscles to instantly contract and then relax in half second intervals. The other lace partially hit the Serco, short-circuiting his skin's Guise invisibility and overloading his left side. He sneered at the two UIT troopers and brought the stolen plasma rifle up to bear on them when another set of laces impacted on him, covering him completely. He dropped the weapon and started bleeding massively from the fist-sized hole in his stomach and from the stump that indicated where his other arm had been. The remainder of the SWAT team de-cloaked before walking over to the Serco to treat his wounds and take him prisoner. One of the troopers showed him an explosive collar before putting it on around his neck and locking it. They then turned the neural laces off on both the Serco and Brix. The wounds on the Serco stopped bleeding immediately when he once more assumed control of his body and he stood up completely unaffected by the effect of the nets. Brix didn't have toughened neural pathways and remained lying in a foetal position, moaning softly with his bowels voided.

The Serco stood with his head high, pride shining in his eyes.

"You norms can torture me all you want, it will not help you at all. I demand to be set free."

"Listen freak, we would rather just have shot you so full of holes that nothing remained. Someone wants to see you and that is why you are still alive. So do everyone a favour and grab a nice warm cup of Shut the Fuck up or I'll make you."

The Serco smiled warmly at the enraged trooper before punching him straight across the room into the side of the Atlas, cracking several ribs and landing him in a not very flattering position. The Serco immediately thereafter stopped and stuffed his remaining hand in his pocket to show that he was not going to fight on.

"I shut up when I feel like it norm."

###

Cat was completely lost. Even though she followed the suggested route she couldn't guess what was on the next level at all. She hoped that the Grey stations in general were better organised than the complete anarchy of Aeolus Trading Prefect. She hadn't seen any police or other signs of authority so far and she began to think that the side arm that Beria had told her to wear was a good idea. She moved into the elevator as it arrived, keying sub-level 66a and waited impatiently until it arrived. At sub-level 48 a pair of black clad men entered the elevator and positioned themselves opposite her. She ignored them but couldn't help noticing that one kept staring at her. She turned and faced him, her hand on the gun.

"What?"

He smiled at her.

"Catherine Plissensky, currently working for the Diplomatic Service. How funny, we were just discussing what to do if we met you."

"What, how do... You are GESTEBO."

The realisation hit her like a ton of bricks and she immediately opened a link to Beria.

"Indeed we are. If you will just follow nice and quietly to our ship and we can get the questioning finished and let you resume your obviously important duties?"

The lift arrived at sub-level 66a and the doors opened. She remembered her commander's last words, nobody walked away from a GESTEBO questioning. She drew her gun and pointed it at the agent that had stared at her.

"Sorry, I don't think so."

She backed out of the elevator while keeping the agent covered. She squinted in wonder, why was he smiling like that? He moved towards her and she pressed the trigger. Nothing happened. She looked at the gun and saw the finger depressing the firing stud all the way down but no firing emanated from the muzzle. She ran a quick diagnostic and found out that she had no access to the weapon; as a matter of fact her implants were failing at an alarming rate. She turned to run. The other agent lifted a strange looking gun and fired at her back, hitting her between her shoulder blades. The two needles bit deep and the electricity fired long the wires to her naked flesh shorting her muscles. She hit the floor hard, convulsing in tact with the electricity, absolutely helpless.

###

The engineer rose from his desk and shouted in victory. He looked sheepishly around at the faces that had turned towards him before sitting down again.

"What happened?"

He looked up at the beautiful aide to Raewon that was leaning over his chair to see what he was doing. He blushed as she was bent exactly so far that he could see... He looked away quickly and focused on the screen, which was pretty hard with the smell of her perfume teasing him and making him remember what he saw seconds ago.

"I have found a solution to at least some of the problem miss. If the brain scans of Captain Taerow are correct I believe that we can employ a filter directly to his brain and shield him from the damaging effects of the Omega shield. But I m not sure it is easily duplicated or if it can be implanted on Captain Taerow only."

"You did good Alfred, now send the results to Raewon please. Then we can act on it."

She padded him on the shoulder. He blushed even more, she used his first name. He was going to show her that he was up to the task.

###

Yarina smiled internally even as she kept her outwards appearance calm and detached. Men, they were so easy to motivate if you knew your tricks. Maybe this would solve Utia's problem and allow him to relax again. Captain Taerow, she corrected herself. She was loosing her detachment from the subject and the assignment, a sign that she needed to be moved away from the case. She hoped her case officer would contact her soon before she did something stupid.

16. Favours

Riddik was slowly turning the situation over inside his head and came up with a blank every time. He did not see how he could ever come back to SCAR, and he couldn't see how Keria could either. How he was supposed to keep them both happy in grey he had no clue, but he was willing to do whatever it took. He just hoped that Keria would accept not being a part of the Serco people anymore but he knew that it would be a hard one to swallow for his wife. She had always been the patriotic of the couple, the one that was willing to defend the honours of Lady Serco against any and all injustices. He would put money on her surrendering to GESTEBO the second she awoke actually, and he would do just about anything to avoid that. His personal brainpal received a message from an unknown source. He received it in his auxiliary memory.

"Serco, we know you are hiding. Why does not matter right now, we need your help badly."

Riddik considered ignoring it for a second before realising that whomever called him had the resources to find out where he was.

"Who are you and what do you need?"

"I am working for the Serco Diplomatic Corps and I need you to help one of my agents."

"Why would I help you?"

"Because I can help you and your wife. Please Riddik, the clock is ticking."

Riddik didn't consider the implications too much. He had heard about the Diplomatic Corps before, and the fact that they knew that he was here with Keria and hadn't done anything about it made him listen at least.

"I am kinda stuck here, but tell me what it is."

"On the level below yours, 66a, two GESTEBO agents have taken one of our agents prisoner against our will. I am sending you the posit date now. We need you to take them out and set her free. She goes by the name of Catherine or Cat. Please hurry."

Riddik received the position, closed the link and hefted his guns; maybe help was coming form an unlikely source after all. He closed his outside connections to his brainpal and exited the coffin motel ready and alert. This was going to deepen the hole he had dug for himself but hopefully he could still reach up and lift Keria out of it.

###

Brix was shaking, from fear, from cold and from the shocks he had be subjected to since he ran into the Serco. This tribunal that was facing him didn't put him the least at ease either; the three persons in uniforms with no rank markers had grilled him as he kept repeating his story again and again. The middle man turned to his fellows.

"I don't think we can get more out of this human offal. Citizen Brix Servan, this tribunal has found you guilty in malicious interference with state business, disregarding safety regulations, obstruction of police business and smuggling. Any of which are very serious crimes. We have however found you innocent of aiding a known terrorist, the murder of police constable Roin Bleave and the attempted bribery of said constable. This tribunal does not believe that you acted like you did out of desire to harm either the UIT or any specific persons in UIT. This precludes the death sentence for you but this tribunal does not believe that it has to be lenient in the punishment regardless. Citizen Brix Servan, you are hereby sentenced to permanent exile from UIT space. Furthermore you will be sold to a lifetime of hard labour with the Xang Xi penal station in Sedina where you will work the Xithricite mines for the rest of your wretched life. Officers, take him away."

Brix swallowed hard but only heard "no death" and 'take him away". He let the two giant military policemen drag him out of the room and over to the Xang Xi guards. Only then did he realise that he was about to be joining a pitiable group of lowlifes in one of the most unforgiving prisons in space. He started mumbling his innocence, that he had not done anything bad, that he could pay for it, that he had connections. In the end they just gagged him for some silence on the long flight.

###

"Uncle Kassad, so nice to see you after such a long time."

Yarina bowed deep to show her respect for the black haired gaunt man with the prominent beaked nose that sat in a privacy booth inside "Clogging of the Arteries", the famous Verasi specialty restaurant on Tellus station. He half raised and showed her where to sit with a sweep of his arm before seating himself again. He leaned back and allowed the waitress to take Yarina's order, looking slightly bored with half closed eyes that nonetheless seemed to look in all directions at once. As soon as the waitress had left he pulled a small holodisc player out of his pocket and placed it on the table. He activated it and a rose showed above the device, spinning slowly while being sprinkled with droplets that were bathed in golden yellow light.

"Yarina, we are clear. You have a problem?"

"Thank you for arriving so swiftly uncle."

He waved his hand and shook his head in denial.

"No, you needed me and so I naturally came as fast as I could. We care a lot for you. After all, you are one of our most reliable assets."

She waited for some seconds before answering. She knew that she was an asset, she had even agreed to it but she didn't like him reducing her to a thing like that. It was probably his way of distancing himself from becoming too personal with his "assets" even though it hurt a bit.

"Yes uncle. I want to either be taken off the current case or have some slightly changed rules of observation."

"What happened my dear?"

"I have found myself becoming emotionally involved with a part taker in the test set-up. I cannot distance myself from said person anymore and either need to be allowed to continue with the slightly changed rules of observation that I am allowed to care for the test subject or be taken off the case."

"Care, that is a large word. Are you in love with this person?"

"No uncle, I do not love him. However I no longer feel that I can be completely ignorant to the damages he is causing himself to continue the experiment even though it is of vital importance to the people."

"I am assuming that we are talking about the test pilot here. Will you be able to liquidate him if need be? That is basically all I need to be certain of."

"Uncle, I am fully able to liquidate him if absolutely needed. I am not sure that I can safely distinguish when that time has arrived."

Kassad leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands, his elbows on the table. He smiled a predatory smile that never quite reached his eyes.

"I think that we can continue with the slightly changed rules. The mere fact that you ask for guidance in this matter shows that you have been taught well and that your judgement is still fully intact. Personally I think that you can get more information out of the project by being closer. Remember the old proverb; keep your friends close and your enemies closer. You can use that here as long as you do not become too involved with him. Make him love you, be careful that you keep your feelings to your self. Do we have an agreement sister?"

"Yes uncle, I shall continue to serve as I have so far."

"Very well, I trust you then. I assume that you want to run along now instead of having a boring meal with me. You are dismissed Yarina. Service to the state."

"Glory to the race Uncle. Akan guide us."

Yarina got up and left for the station main deck. She felt horrible, she had actually thought she would be pulled from the case but he could see why she hadn't been. This did not make her tasks any easier but she had always known that protecting the Itani people against the will of themselves would be harder than anything she had ever thought off.

###

Fletholm nodded to the twin security guards inside the room and sent them outside. He looked with no little fear at the heavily battle damaged Serco that was locked in place with several neural restraining devices. The almost feral viciousness was painted as a primitive snarl that showed that the Serco would and could still kill you in this state. Fletholm shook his head in awe and wonder, awe that it had taken them three full squads to get this one Serco soldier into custody, wonder that it had only taken three squads.

"Vaso Nulfheim, you have perpetrated several crimes that each are serious enough to destroy your current form and banish you from UIT space forever. That goes for your buddy as well although we can only destroy his brainplant with the recent memories; we can certainly ban him forever. I recognise that you have been working for the Serco Diplomatic Corps but so far we have received no extradition requests even though we have informed the Serco state that we have you boys in our custody. As a matter of fact they say you do not exist as citizens."

Vaso grinned fiercely at the slightly corpulent UIT officer before spitting on the floor in front of him.

"If you have come to gloat you have come to the wrong place norm. I told the interrogators and I tell you the same. Let me go and I will spare your life. If you do not I will be back and kill you and your family all the way to third cousin."

Fletholm didn't even flinch. Instead he grabbed a chair and seated himself with the back in front of him.

"Listen oversized toaster, you do not scare me the least. So cut the crap and let us talk about how you can help me helping you. Capiche? Or did they remove your intelligence when they punched extra muscles into that dumb head of yours?"

Vaso looked at the man and considered.

"Speak your business norm."

Fletholm steeled himself mentally; this was going to be tricky to say the least.

<<Right, I am not going to post again before saturday since I am not going to be around the Internet before. Enjoy>>

thanks Whytee it's getting really good! will look forward to reading when you get back.

17. Target acquired

Riddik had taken the emergency access to the level below to avoid the lift, the level where he assumed that the GESTEBO agents were right now handling their prisoner. He opened the door as silently as he could, cursing the maintenance crew for not oiling the hinges when they creaked ever so slightly. He moved out into the corridor, needlegun and thin gun at the ready, moving as silently as the metal grille floor and his heavy pilot's boots allowed. He resisted the temptation to peek around the corner. His opponents were Serco after all, they would spot him immediately and he could not afford that. He heard the clacking of metal in the corridor; the sound of heavy handcuffs and knew that the GESTEBO agents were getting ready to move. He triggered a reflex booster and flooded his system with adrenaline, feeling his heartbeat accelerate and his focus narrow. He took a deep breath and swung himself out into the corridor both weapons up and actively targeting. Riddik counted four; this was going to be interesting. One of the dark clad agents was facing him with a thin gun readied with another moving towards a side corridor for cover.

"Do not interfere, this is.."

The deep boom of the needlegun and the sharp crack of the thin gun interrupted the agent who tried to get his gun onto Riddik even as the accelerated xithricite dust punched a fist sized hole clean through the head of the agent right below his nose. The shot from the needlegun hit the agent that was going for cover in the chest, throwing him to the floor. Riddik dropped the thin gun and pulled the other while firing once more with the needlegun at the same target. This time the Serco agent didn't move making him an easier target and Riddik placed the swarm of lethal darts in the face of the agent, slicing the skin and muscles off before crushing the skull beneath. The two other agents were now going after their guns and Riddik started moving evasively towards them while aiming for another agent. The sharp crack of thin guns rang out, one agent getting hit in the abdomen and bending over from the damages while both agents missed Riddik by inches. The other agent re-aligned and fired once more, this time hitting Riddik on the left shoulder, fracturing his arm and making him drop the thin gun. Riddik charged, shouting a combat roar and ignoring the thin gun in the agent's hand. The gamble almost paid off with the agent taking a single step back while steadying his gun. Riddik looked directly into the barrel and as time slowed to a veritable standstill, he could see the agent curl his finger to fire. "I am dead. Keria, I love you, I tried" went through his head as the thin gun belched forth its deadly load. He did not feel but noticed the charge rip through his cheek and tear his ear off before he impacted upon the smaller man with all of his mass. Riddik hit him elbow first and immediately started punching and kicking the agent with all his force. Suddenly the agent went down, his legs removed under him and Riddik followed impacting on his chest with his knee, feeling the crack of splintered ribs in the chest of the agent reverberate through his legs. The agent flailed at Riddik with his arms inefficiently and Riddik moved blocked the hits with his destroyed left arm while going for the twelve-inch combat knife in his boot. The woman on the floor delivered a massive kick to the side of the agent's head, stunning him enough that Riddik could grab the knife and punch it up through the chin of the agent and sever his nerve connections from his brain to his body. The agent stopped flailing.

"Look out behind you."

Riddik rolled to the left and threw the knife reflexively as he saw the shadow behind him. The wounded agent he had shot before was standing with his thin gun pointing at Riddik and the knife hit him through that hand and equally through the gun rendering it worthless. The agent tried pulling the trigger several times wondering at the lack of effect while Riddik grabbed for his own needlegun and pointed it at the agent's stomach where the thin gun had already made a hole. With no remorse whatsoever he pulled the trigger firing a full burst at less than two metres distance ripping the agent in half. Riddik got up and walked over to the remaining agent alive and shot him in the neck.

"Who are you?"

Riddik considered giving a clever answer but couldn't come up with one with all the combat juices running through his head.

"I am Riddik, former member of SCAR, former member of the Serco Skycommand. Someone named Beria sent me."

The woman got up on her feet and shoved her hands towards him.

"Care to remove these please?"

He nodded and started taking the handcuffs off. They were the new bioprint type and required a live agent to remove. He would have to smash them to get them off. He was just about to grab his combat knife again when he received an incoming signal.

"Riddik, send me a posit. I am on the way."

Riddik smiled at the way Fate seemed to make everything happen at the same time and sent a position to Lebermac.

"I can't get them off painlessly, but someone is on his way that can. You just sit tight miss."

"Cat, I am Cat. Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Hey, thanks for helping out there. I thought I would be dead for sure."

He grinned while remembering the surprise on the agent’s face as he missed from less than a metre and even more when Riddik impacted on him.

"You know you have a hole right through your left side of the skull right?"

"I've had worse. Given time it will heal, it always does."

Riddik sat down; he needed a bit of a rest. The combat drugs were slowly being used up and his body started sending damage status to his brainpal. He smiled broadly, he was most certainly messed up but he would live.

###

"I do not see how that would work Alfred, how can we persuade his brain to ignore his body?"

The engineer looked down at his feet before looking up at the medical staff officer that was sitting leaned back in his chair.

"As I see it there are two ways of doing it. But I may be mistaken; I am merely a neuro-interface specialist. One is to use a Serco specially enhanced cyborg body, the other is to have the mind essentials disconnected from the body. There are pro's and con's to both solutions with the con's to the cyborg body primarily being the lack of available subjects, and the con's to the other being fairly obvious."

"Can't we just install him in another clone when he is finished fighting?"

"And when might that be Sir? A month? A year? As far as I have read from the most up-to-date journals from Miracle Outpost, the mind essential become adjusted to not having a host within a month and even rejects own-gene clones afterwards. Essentially we would then have a mind that would be unable to have a body Sir."

"I see, so two weeks would perhaps be a limit we could work with? How about continued replacements, have they shown any signs of damage?"

The medical staff officer cleared his throat.

"Sir, we have some experience with re-grafting minds in clones, even gene different clones. However it shows that a lot of neural damage is created every time. We estimate that even with the best surgical techniques we lose around 0.2% capacity and that is before any other damage to the brain and brain stem. That is good enough for the brain to rewire and effectively only affects a very few. With the current operator of the Omega we have however neural loss of 2-4% before transplanting and we fear that it will double during the transplant."

"Why is that?"

"Well, from the brain scans it looks like some new growths inside the brain are taking all the spare repair capacity."

"What? Are you telling me he has a tumour?"

"Not quite, we expect it is the Omega that needs the space. Thus the test person is adjusting to the needs of the Omega at the expense of his own neural hardware so to speak."

Raewon nodded and scribbled a note on his pad.

"To sum it, the subject has adjusted to the Omega. The subject has suffered brain damage as a consequence of the trials. The subject needs to be physically removed from his own failing body with more brain damage to follow. Gentlemen, these options are not very good but I see no alarm bells ringing, I see no reason to stop. Alfred, see if we can get a Serco cyborg body in working condition, the medical crew will clone a number of bodies and prepare a brain swap. The test pilot flies again in three days. Dismissed."

###

Vaso entered the plain grey Atlas, nodding to the fat human norm that had escorted him out to it.

"Commander, I'll make sure my superiors get the information. On behalf of the Lady, I thank you."

"Well Vaso, if it wasn't for that permanent look of distaste on your face at looking at me I would almost believe that you could be counted for a human."

Fletholm nodded in return and turned to walk into the station. Inside his head there was a small voice that shouted for the extraction of the Serco's spleen by the most unpleasant means possible, that is if he even had a spleen, but the harsh realities of life dictated otherwise. He needed to get the information to the Serco and he needed them to get it fast. Extradition of the agent with a small extra package from himself to the head of the Diplomatic Service could cover the trails from leading back to UIT and maybe to a restoring of the MAD doctrine. Back to making dollops of money, back to him having time to sleep and see his wife now and again. Now he only had one particular nasty piece of work left before letting the ball roll and lean back to see others do the dirty work.

18. The enemy?

Aeolus Trading Prefect resonated like a giant bell from the impact of Lebermac's Orion Convoy Guardian. He had aimed for the docking bay but missed by only a couple of feet. Okay, so he had missed by almost two hundred metres but at least he had hit the station, which was a wonder in his current stage of inebriety. He had moved towards Helios as fast as he could even finding his escort ship to be a bit faster but that had proven to be a bad decision. After launching from Bractus Stronghold he had found the stashed bottle of Teh Killa but recognising the importance of his mission he had put the bottle back untouched. Until he hit Odia and the bottle had somehow re-appeared in his hand, the top un-screwed and a quarter of it disappeared. He had looked for the capsule in vain for at least three seconds and decided that it would be a shame to toss the liquid now he couldn't store it, gulping it down instead. He grimaced as the oily taste of the synthetic liquid covered his mouth and grabbed his hip flask to rinse the evil taste away. Three healthy gulps later he had finished the flask of Helio Mists and the oily unpleasant taste had disappeared unfortunately along with his depth perception. That was the reason his ship was now a metallic smear along the side of the station and why the recovery service had to retrieve him in his pod. Fortunately he had tried it before and was quickly sent on his way. He rummaged around in his pockets and found a "Sobr-M-Up" pill that he downed along with a swig from a bottle of "Aeolus Finest Rhum" that he had appropriated from one of the rescue crew somehow. He requested a position from Riddik and got it, sub-level 66a. Why the hell did he want to meet up down there, the armpit of the station? Lebermac sauntered over to the lift; after all he was in no hurry at all. Wouldn't do to arrive before the bottle was empty.

The lift was a bit too fast and he had only just emptied the bottle when the doors opened. A familiar stench filled his nostrils but the pill had not yet flushed the ethanol from his body and so he couldn't place it. He walked out into the corridor and turned left towards Riddik's position. A lot of red liquid was smeared along one wall and it slowly dawned upon Lebermac that it was blood he could smell. Cautious now he turned the corner and saw the three black clad persons in various degrees of deadness, Riddik against one wall and a single person on the floor that aimed something right at him. He reacted and pulled back instantly, avoiding getting his head blown off by the shot of darts that instead impacted on the wall on the opposite side. Lebermac cursed and shouted.

'Riddik, what the hell is this for a welcome? I have crossed oceans of boring space to be here and then I get shot? I could understand a shot of tequila but not a shot of darts."

###

Riddik opened his eyes again when the gun went off and heard Lebermac shout. He had been dozing slightly, his brainpal deciding that it would be best for him with the damages he had sustained. He saw Cat with his heavy needlegun in her hands pointing it towards the lifts.

"Hey Cat, belay that shooting."

"It was an Itani Riddik."

"Yes, I know. I asked him to come here."

The shock was almost palpable when Cat replied.

"But he is Itani Riddik. He is the enemy, they torture our kind to death, they destroy our sanity with their mind tricks."

"Cat, don't believe everything the Bureau of Righteous Thoughts tells you. Most Itani are decent people and this particular one is my friend even though he is a bit rough around the edges. Besides, your own kind was just about to interrogate you which would probably end with a plasma bolt in the back of your head, no?"

Cat looked at Riddik in amazement, she had never considered that the Itani were people and as such capable of all the same emotions and feelings that she had. She nodded and put the gun down.

"Leebs, it is okay. Just had to convince this young lady that not all Itani are child eating monsters."

Lebermac peered around the corner and smiled at Cat.

"Where I am from, we are taught that all Serco suck the brains of living humans for sustenance. Took me a while to figure out otherwise. Hi, I am Lebermac."

Cat nodded and moved a bit to the side; apparently she was not entirely convinced.

"Crap Riddik, I thought it was Keria that needed help?"

Riddik smiled and grimaced from the pain that particular movement caused.

"It was when I was asked to help the young lady here."

"They were only three of them, you must have lost your edge."

Riddik pointed to the side corridor where the remaining corpse was sitting against the wall, headless. Lebermac nodded and produced a hip flask that he took a large gulp from before kneeling down to the handcuffs around Cat's hands.

"Right, I'll get these off and then we get Riddik to one of my pals. I need a location for Keria too mate, then I can send someone to get her there too, okay? I am pretty sure he can fix you and the missus even though he never graduated from med school. On the other hand, he is cheap."

The handcuffs released their grip on her hands as if by magic and Cat got up to collect the weapons and ID tags from the agents. She finished and turned to Lebermac.

"So, where are we going? I need to inform my boss."

Lebermac looked at Riddik who merely nodded.

"Tell your boss we are going to Dr. Nick Esquicilante, he can meet us there."

###

Kassad slipped away from the station as unnoticed as he had arrived boosting for the 3k-jump mark immediately. He needed to find someone to replace Yarina fast and he was not really all that sure he had anyone that could. At least her schooling had been good enough for her to realise when she became a liability instead of an asset and warn him in advance. He jumped to an unmarked location and from there jumped randomly seven times before powering his ship down to passive sensors only. He waited the full thirty minutes that the manual demanded before jumping a new set of three random jumps that ended with him jumping to the wormhole that was the closest guarded secret of the Brotherhood of Akan. The wormhole led into a cull de sack or at least they had not yet found another wormhole in the system. That enabled the brotherhood to keep their presence a secret not only for the Serco, but also for the Itani. Not all Itani were of the same radical opinions as the brotherhood after all, and the brotherhood did not hold evil will against them for that. In the end they would be saved from the Serco whether they wanted to or not.

###

Vaso was ejected into space and abandoned by the ship that immediately burned hard for the 3k-mark and jumped back to the safety of monitored space. The intense cold of nothing bit hard on the skin causing extreme discomfort but not as bad as the pain he felt on the raw ends of his wounds. He had his eyes closed; they were the only part of him that could not take direct vacuum for prolonged periods but was scanning in the entire electromagnetic spectrum for his new ride. After five minutes he began doubting whether or not the bloody UIT had dumped him in the wrong sector displaying their incompetence in a new and for him lethal way. He could feel his core temperature sink to below thirty degrees and activated the small emergency power source that would heat his vitals for around twenty minutes. After that it was a losing game for him and he would slowly become a large meatcicle ending with his brain freezing after about thirty minutes of exposure. He stopped the blood flowing through his lower extremities and wiggled his toes for the last time. They were not essential after all, but he kinda liked them. The radar energy that hit him after a further five minutes almost made him open his eyes and shout with joy but survival ensured he kept as still as before. He felt the jolt of the ship scooping him up like a crate of Aquean ore and waited for the hold to re-pressurize be fore opening his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"You failed Vaso. You were caught."

Vaso searched for the voice in vain and realised that the person speaking was not present.

"I have something that needs to go directly to Diplomatic Services immediately."

The door to the inside of the ship opened and two heavily armoured and armed marines stepped in followed by Asteroth himself.

"This better be good if you expect it to save your skin son."

"Not only my skin Sir, but that of Arhem too."

Vaso opened his prisoner coverall and drew out two packages, one with a bio-contamination label on it.

"This is the brainpal of Arhem Sir, complete with his last memories. It appears that it is only slightly damaged but accessible. The other package is to you from commander Fletholm himself. He was adamant that only you were allowed to get the package."

Asteroth ignored the bio-labelled package and took the other. He opened it and shook the single mem-crystal out.

"When was your latest mem-storage that we have Vaso?"

"I believe it was two weeks ago Sir. We submitted one to Silia and I am assuming that she sent it to you."

Asteroth nodded and smiled.

"Perfect, that allows us to clean up this mess completely."

He turned and walked out of the door with Vaso following him with his eyes all the way. The two marines levelled their heavy plasma beams at Vaso.

"I see. So be it, Hail Lady Serco."

The marines fired the heavy plasma bolts into the torso of Vaso, vaporising the man from the neck down. One of them then used the stock to crack the skull open and extract Vaso's brainpal before firing a plasma shot into the remains vaporising that too. The two brainpals were handed over to Asteroth who smiled at the marines before heading up on the flight deck. If the data was as good as the late Vaso had said it was he would ensure that the two boys were given a new chance but without the trauma of having been defeated and captured. The two-week memory loss was not too much to sacrifice for operational security after all. He would get all the data stored in their brainpals and then destroy them. They would never know and neither would anybody else but him. Well maybe Fletholm but he would also know what had happened to Vaso and Arhem. Otherwise he would not have sent the brainpal along.

19. Beria

Asteroth finished uploading the brainpals to his own system and stored their memories for further interrogation. He then took the mem-crystal from commander Fletholm and inserted it in the small data port behind his left ear alert for any forms for attack programs. Instead a simple rundown of the facts regarding the Phantom ship appeared with a position of the assumed command centre. Asteroth realised the importance of the data and switched into command mode opening a direct interface with the commander of the joint Serco intelligence services, Marshal Tuttle. The immense black egg that crackled with lightning energy appeared on the horizon inside Asteroth's brainpal and the translator software immediately replaced it with the fat spider it was programmed to.

"Speak"

"I have the target for Operation Uranus."

"I see. Send the data and I shall immediately take action."

"Slight problem boss, I am in kinda a fix here."

"What do you want this time Asteroth?"

Asteroth sent a picture of mock horror from his own slug like avatar.

"What, as if I always want something? Well, now that you ask I have a couple of things really. I'll send them with the data."

"Agreed. Ready your teams and standby for orders to go."

Asteroth severed the link and alerted his strike teams to be ready within five minutes. They had been ready for a week now except for the last pilot. The favour he just asked should take care of that as well as a couple of other things. He sent a message to Beria and informed him of the situation expecting him to work his usual magic.

###

Taerow got up from the chair slowly and stood on uneasy legs.

"And you are saying that it will only get worse doc?

"Yes Utia, the necrotic patches on your internal organs are slowly but steadily growing. We expect that your body will fail within a month with minor fallouts along the way. As a matter of fact I would like for you to start dialysis tomorrow to take some load off your kidneys and liver. We can ready a gene clone for you and insert your self into it along the way but I really believe that we need to work with your mind as well. The new growths inside your brain seems to impact massively on your parasympathetic nervous system with the body suffering as a consequence."

"So basically I am going to be swapped again and again as long as I work the Omega?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact I think it would be in your interest for as long as you work with the Omega that you do not have a host body but rather just work it as a mind."

"That is why you are you and I am me, doc. I'll hold on to a host body for now thank you. I am flying again in two days, can you make the swap after the flight?"

"Not a gene clone, but we have a generic clone or even a foreign host body for you. Only temporarily off course."

Taerow sighed, this was not how he had envisioned his career in the Itani Defence Force when he signed up but he had also signed a pact that said he would do whatever was needed.

"Very well, I expect I can just as well go on a drinking binge since this body will be dumped in a week. And here I was getting attached to it."

He tried a smile but didn't succeed, instead getting hit even harder by the sinking feeling that he was about to submit himself to yet another bout of combat with the Omega in the back of his mind. Maybe death would not be as bad in comparison.

###

Beria entered the consultancy with two very large Serco that were carrying a stretcher between them with Keria on top of it. The consultancy was sparsely inhabited with almost half of it containing stacks of paper and books in a glorious chaos. The single glass door that lead further into the office was closed with a sign proclaiming "Surjery In Progrez" written in bad handwriting fastened with tape to the handle. Beria shook his head, of all the quacks they could have gone to this one was particularly inept. He walked over and opened the door not really expecting anything. He was still surprised when he saw Dr. Nick and Lebermac sit in two chairs side by side each with a bottle of Teh Killa playing "Roid Bumpers 4" on the large medical diagnostics screen on the end wall quite ignoring Riddik who was slowly being stitched up by Cat using what skill she retained from boot camp. She saw Beria enter and rose.

"Sir, you have no idea how glad I am that you are here. I think Riddik here has some neurological damage that I am not skilled enough to repair."

Beria ignored her plea and walked over in front of Riddik. He extended his hand and they clasped wrist in the warriors greeting.

"I have your wife here along with a medical team. I owe you my thanks for rescuing Cat here and I am willing to pull some strings to allow you back in the embrace of Our Lady again."

"You can have her, I am done with Serco. My wife on the other hand will probably want to go back to join Our Ladies military but I am out of it."

"That is a sad thing to hear but I hope you will come back to the people after you have tried not to be a member. The orders for Keria's immunity from GESTEBO are moving through as we speak but I am afraid we can nothing to the SCAR command in that regard."

Riddik nodded slowly as if he was considering a reply but didn't. Beria turned to Cat and handed her a mem-crystal.

"Your orders Cat. You are in a hurry so leave Riddik and move along. We have the remaining GESTEBO members under observation and they should pose no problem. Dismissed."

Cat received the crystal and inserted it in her brainpal before nodding to Riddik and leaving. Beria turned to the two very drunk persons in the comfy chairs.

"If any of you break my station-wide record I am going to let my bodyguards break all of your bones starting with the pelvis."

He nodded to Riddik and walked out of the room. He had business to do.

###

Ruteli Vielio docked his Vulture Mk III towards Tellus Research with the usual care. The computer logged the time since he had last docked for work and alerted the head of security while asking for a DNA scan. Ruteli put his hands into the machine and allowed it to take the skin sample that was needed to determine his identity. It came up clean and welcomed him back to work before releasing his arms again. Ruteli received a summons immediately after he entered the station but ignored it instead moving directly over to the launch bay where he knew a special Valkyrie was held. The two guards on duty greeted him, they knew him well, and allowed him to pass into the area. He considered his options and decided for the easiest solution. He turned and shot the two guards in the back of the head with his silenced handgun before walking over to the two cowering technicians at the Valkyrie.

"Give me the launch codes."

He pointed his gun at the head of the youngest technician and looked at the elder. Not getting a response he fired, blowing the rear portion of the man's head away. He pointed to the other technician.

"Choose now."

The man closed his eyes and Ruteli acknowledged the choice with another slug. A klaxon went off in the bay and the blast door behind him closed.

"Intruder, put down your weapon and surrender peacefully. We wish you no harm."

Ruteli smiled and decided for option two. He took the large thermal device he had in his backpack and tossed it into the cockpit while activating it with a ten second delay. He then looked up at the camera that was observing him.

"We, the Movement for Rights for the Deceased protest about the misuse of government funds. Long live the revolution, long live MRD."

Ruteli jumped up into the pilot's seat, took the gun up to his head and pulled the trigger. Mere seconds after that the thermal charge went off inside the cockpit reducing it to melted plastic and fused wires in seconds with the fire burning everything organic inside including the remains of the corpse that had been Ruteli once.

###

William Cutting tossed his Valkyrie-X in yet another ever-expanding search spiral searching for the Serco presence in the nearby roid field. His squadron had been searching for them the last two weeks but so far had come up short. The extended range ship scanner that was equipped instead of the middle flare launcher made the job possible but did nothing to make it less boring. A set of hive bots appeared and he mentally wrote the sector off as a dead end. No matter how crazy the Serco were, he didn't think that they would make a base within a system with Hive activity. Bored beyond comprehension he turned his Valkyrie around to engage the two Hive bots, one Dentek and one Kannik miner. Approaching in a slow barrel roll designed to foil the bot's targeting computer he noticed the sluggishness of the bots before slagging them with a torrent of accelerated neutrons. The Kannik dropped a CPU and he scooped it up into the cargo hold. You never knew if it might come in handy. He frowned at his mission but realising the importance he soldiered on and jumped to the next sector.

20. MRD

Alhambra, the second largest city on Eo was a rather rich city with only the parts on the eastern side of the river Granada in various states of disrepair. Originally created as a factory area to fabricate concrete for the growing population on Eo, it had been rendered obsolete by the advent of nano bot building and was abandoned until it would be useful to use the city again. That time was not close and the buildings were mostly allowed to decompose and rust. Some of them had been taken over by people who could not afford to live in the city proper, people who distrusted the government and people who wanted to stay away from the attention of the city police.

Within an hour of the attack on the specially modified Valkyrie the Special Weapons Anti Terror team of Alhambra, surrounded the building that had been originally built for the manufacturing of steel girders and now taken over by a small group of people that called themselves the Movement for Rights for the Deceased. The SWAT team had called on everyone since they didn't know how much opposition they would meet and had moved in with extreme force. The six confused and vomiting people that they pulled out of the teargas-filled building provided no resistance at all and the team leader handed the prisoners over to the Itani State Police. At least that was what they called themselves; in reality it was a specialised branch of the counter-intelligence service that dealt with extraction of mental information. It was not a popular department, the process was guaranteed deadly to the subject and was only used in matters of utmost State importance. Like how the hell MRD had found information on the Omega project, especially how they had found information that allowed them to sabotage the project and set it on hold for two weeks.

###

Green text on black background.

“.... noinput.parameterlocked.contactextern.override"

Silence.

"Init.Entit.Keria.Default"

"Enter.Code"

"Init.Entit.Keria.Full"

Light, dim as seen through closed eyelids with the small flashes of light that was provided by synapses firing erroneously or hard radiation impacting on the nerve endings. But light, different from the complete darkness of unawareness that was just moments before her brainpal was told to wake her gently. The slow rhythmic sound that was halfway felt as well as heard slowly manifested itself as her own breathing. She opened her eyes to the sight she wanted to see more that anything else; Riddik.

"Hi babe."

She smiled and reached her arms up towards him and received a fierce hug in return. She pushed him back after some seconds and touched his face with her fingertips as gently as she could tracing the stitches on his cheek.

"What happened baby?"

"Long story. It ends with us being here and me no longer welcome in Serco space at least for a while."

Keria noticed the torn and flossed fabric where his SCAR rank insignia had been and looked at him questioningly.

"Not important, you are back with us now and that is all that matters."

Riddik turned to the neural interface technician and nodded a curt awkward nod in thanks. The lock that Keria had on her brainpal could only be unlocked by the commander of SCAR and herself. It was installed to prevent vital information to fall into the hands of the Itani in case of capture but it had kept her in a state of coma that had resisted all normal revival techniques. The interface technician had used some special Diplomatic Service program that didn't exist officially and after some work with the brainpal he had persuaded it to wake in default mode to allow Keria to enter the code and wake up. Riddik took the binder on he table next to Keria and handed it to the technician.

"I believe you have your orders here. Thank you buddy, I owe you one."

The technician took the binder and after nodding to Keria as well, he left the room.

Keria noticed the noise in the room and sat up to identify where the roaring came from. The left person looked back over his shoulder and winked to her before returning his attention to the large screen. He took a large swig from a bottle and grabbed the controls to play on. She rolled her eyes and looked back at Riddik.

"Baby, you brought Leebs? You better tell me how we got into so much trouble."

###

The Itani ship jumped out and Lothion turned to the duty officer.

"Sir, we have clear space again. Do you want to retrieve the bot shells?"

The Serco marine lieutenant shook his head slowly and grabbed another piece of jerky that he scoffed like a starving man.

"Nah, maybe it is a trap. We'll stay low and get some other shells. The only thing that matters is that the Itani missed us completely even after snooping for hours and hours."

He emptied the bag into his mouth and tossed the empty remains into the recycle bin wiping his hands on his uniform. He grinned a meaty grin to the passive sensor operator.

"Time for lunch, don't you think? I'll send some down to you. Good job Loth."

Lothion smiled and returned to his duties, closing his eyes once more to concentrate on the information fed directly into his visual centre. Food could wait; after all he did not have the immense bulk that the EVA marine lieutenant had to provide fuel for.

###

Beria finished the brief and looked around at the soldiers. Even though they were all clad in identical brown flight suits Beria could identify what their jobs were just by looking at them. The massive EVA marines, the slender fighter pilots, the stout pathfinders and the ones that passed as human norms. Soon a lot of them would be dead but with typical youthful self-delusion, they all expected that to happen to the mate next to them. Beria remembered vaguely how that had felt and grimaced remembering the times he had been one of them. Especially remembering all his buddies that had been the ones next to him and hadn't made it back.

"Soldiers of Our Lady. Tonight we embark on a mission of utmost importance to the Serco nation and people. Some of you will not survive and that is why you have all been backed up last week. I am aware, as are you that it may mean True death to some of you if the back-up fails but that is a chance we are all going to have to face. Some of you will work alone, some of you will work in groups. None of you will get any thanks for what you are about to do. But all of you can go forth knowing that you fulfil your duties to Lady Serco and take comfort therein. Dismissed."

The soldiers walked out to their assignments without a word among them but Beria knew that their brainpals were exchanging data at a rapid rate. The exchanges were coded and it was considered bad form among Serco to try and intercept other group's communications. Beria was in a business where bad form was the norm and opened his de-cryption centre to take a sample of what the troopers felt.

"Ole Man pompous face... How hard can it be? They are only Tani's after all... We better grab lunch first"

The last remark made him smile; it must have been from one of the EVA marines. They were ready and morale was high for sure. And they had called him names, just as he had called his instructors names. He gathered his papers and sighed. He wished he was going too.

###

Fletholm was busy solving the game of solitaire he had on his screen when the door opened. Not even bothering to hide the game he looked up and saw the worried face of Eggert.

"Good news or go away."

Eggert grinned and moved into the room, closing the door behind him. Fletholm sighed and grabbed his cup of now cold koffee, sipping a bit from it before putting it on the table again in disgust. He leaned back and folded his hands behind his head.

"Sir, we have had an incident on Tellus."

Eggert sat on the chair opposite the table and waited. Fletholm closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

"Why do I have to drag it out of you Eggert? You have something to say, say it please."

"Right Sir. There was an explosion on Tellus station yesterday with three dead at least. It has been covered up as an accident with flare loading but I do not buy that. Today the Alhambra SWAT team detained a splinter group called the Movement for the Rights of the Deceased. At the same time the defence around Tellus has been beefed up quite a bit."

"And this means?"

"I believe that the Serco have made an attack on the phantom Valkyrie somehow. And I spoke to the Serco analyst who agrees."

"I see. Very well, continue and keep me informed."

Eggert got up and practically stormed out to his desk to find more information.

Fletholm continued his game of solitaire. The analysts were probably right; after all he had delivered the information to the Serco including the use of MRD as scapegoats. They had been involved in killing one of his agents last year and while he was not a petty man, he liked getting even sometimes. He looked at the koffee and decided he could do without. They say that cold coffee made you beautiful but cold koffee just made him hurt inside.

Sorry for the delays, but my job is taking a crapload of my time atm. Patience:)

21. Insertion team

The old battered green and yellow matted moth was carrying a cargo of Carbonic ore, 120 crates of roughly 300 kilos each. Hailing from Azek originally and running under UIT government license, it had moved with no incidents at all to the border post at Jallik Watch. The customs officer had lifted one eyebrow in disbelief at why anyone would move carbonic ore any distance, but the manifest fitted with the actual cargo. He had scanned two random crates and come up with correct weight and content.

“Something about a special roid that would allow Eo roses to attain those fantastic colours” the pilot had said.

Sometimes he wished he were stationed in Deneb instead where once in a while a trader tried to smuggle contraband in the form of Serco items across the border, but his luck had guaranteed that he would be stationed here in the ass-end of Space. If he did well in this posting he could ask for a transfer maybe next year or something. Bah, and his lunch was getting cold too. Sighing deeply, he signed the customs document electronically and sent the trader away on his way to the home of the Itani people, Eo.

The pilot fired the twin engines on the moth and boosted to 160 m/s, the maximum for the ship. The pilot anticipated the 1,3 G forces as the ship accelerated and leaned back in his seat to let it take the brunt of the force. He smiled broadly; phase one was now complete and the team had infiltrated Itani space with no problems. The team had discussed whether to take the direct route to Cantus and thus transgress the border in Deneb, but the risks of getting discovered had been deemed too high. This route would take three days to insert the team but the risks of discovery were pretty low. Besides, with the team in suspended animation inside the crates time was not really a factor and someone was supposed to have stalled the Itani program a bit. Bored at flying the large cargo vessel, he twisted it slowly doing a large barrel roll while engaging the jump engines.

###

The cancer inside Utia's head had decided to manifest itself in one of the most embarrassing ways that he could think of; he had lost bladder control. The doctor had been very understanding and had provided him with a small implant that could be controlled with a remote and ensured that he did not wet himself all the time, but that was beside the point. He had finally managed to gather the courage to ask Yarina out for dinner and she had against all his expectations accepted. However, the luck he had been receiving lately would naturally ensure that the device, so unflatteringly named an Incontinence Manager, would fail during the evening. Well, he could always hope that the good Lady Faith had forgotten about him for tonight and left him alone. He dressed in his uniform and made sure that his medals shone like they should. Especially the 100 kills starburst he had received three months ago. He grinned, all girls he knew off liked a man in uniform and he hoped that Yarina would too. He hefted the ceremonial dagger and placed it on his hip making sure the safety was on. Satisfied he turned and walked out of his room to go pick up his date whistling an old song slightly off-key.

###

Keria let her fingers caress Riddik's face in farewell and left him to board the Vulture that was standing by in the launch bay. While she acknowledged the decision that her husband had taken, it was not one she could take herself. She could not leave the Serco people no matter what cost and she knew that Riddik would never have it any other way. She closed the canopy and launched following the STC's commands for a safe jump vector to Serco space. She was going back to see if what Riddik had told her was really true. If SCAR had indeed allowed her to be delivered to GESTEBO it had lost its value for her and she would be forced to take drastic measures. At least the extradition order had been rescinded and she was allowed to pass the boundary turrets with no problems with only a friendly hail from the border strike force to welcome her back into the realm of Lady Serco. She clenched her jaw and set course for Skycommand for the headquarters of SCAR.

###

The single photon canon attached to his helmet provided the only light in the otherwise pitch-black tunnel he was working in. One could be excused to assume that the depths of space would be cold, harsh and unforgiving especially when that particular piece of real-estate was so far from the nearest sun as to reduce it to a mere quarter-inch point, that is, when he was lucky enough to actually see it. They would be right too, well almost right. He had never sweated so much as after he started here, he had never been so tired and never had so little hope as the last week and he had no idea how he would last the next one. If there was a hell this was surely purgatory. Brix cursed the day he had called his friend to ensure the speedy delivery of a package that would have given him so little. Actually he cursed the Serco that had killed his friend and effectively himself as well that horrible day. Why the hell had he singled him out? He would give just about anything to get even with that accursed people. Her realised that had been inactive for too long again and the light inside his helmet flashed angrily red twice. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the punishment that was about to arrive and was not disappointed when the inducer implanted in his cortex fired and destroyed all the nerve endings in his entire body as if he had been power-hosed in sodium hydroxide. Well at least it felt like that; in reality he knew that the damage inflicted was purely imaginary but that did not make it hurt less. He awoke again, soiled and tired with little choice but getting up and heft the heavy mining drill. He would like most of all to get back at the Serco but in reality he just wanted this to end.

###

William twisted his Valkyrie slowly while moving on the most efficient vector toward Tellus and a well-deserved break. He had been on search patrol for almost twelve hours with his wingman Janice Parsons. Wingman, he grinned, Janice would take offence to that and probably beat whoever called her a man in whatever context it was delivered. She had been right about this assignment, it had been a wild goose chase with nothing but a couple of bot CPU's to show for it. Unfortunately he had thought that they would find something and had agreed to her wager meaning that he would have to use some of his hard earned money on a set of real steaks from real live cattle on Eo and prepare them in their home.

"Bet you are sorry we made that bet now Bill."

He laughed aloud at the message from the other Valkyrie; only Janice could manage to pack so much schadenfreude into one sentence.

"Nah, at least I am sure we are going to get some tasty well prepared food tonight."

"Don't tell me you are going to make raw meat again."

"What, raw? It was heated to several degrees above ambient. I wouldn't want to spoil the taste of the meat by charring it."

"There better be salad too. The little one needs her vitamins"

William laughed out aloud once more. Life was truly great and going to be better in five months time. He docked the ship and vaulted out of the cockpit, running to the other Valk docked next to him. He grabbed his fiancée around the waist to carry her into the station to mock protests about her not being made of glass and that he should put her down.

###

The special operative finished with the last memory reading and terminated the life of the subject he had worked on. In accordance with Itani law the bodies had been cleansed of their hosts and would be used again for a mind that needed it, most often the military. He smiled a wry smile when he considered that this exact mind/person had in fact been opposed to the military and especially the reuse of bodies. Being convicted as an enemy of the state naturally removed any choice the person had had in the matter and allowed the state to use it as it saw fit. Sometimes life gave some unanticipated twists and this was one of them. As far as he could see the victims had all been guilty of crimes against the state in various degrees but none of it anyhow related to the project he had been asked to look for. He reckoned that the group would have been the recipient of maximum three years of suspension at the most for their collected crimes but that was second-guessing. Seemed like someone had needed a scapegoat. He sent the information on to the high secretariat and terminated his part of the case.

###

"All pilots power down and await my command. Do not acknowledge signal."

Cat received the signal from the leader of her squadron, Kalimenshae Kael, and did as ordered. The silence inside her SVG was deafening and when she closed her eyes she could just as well not have existed. She hated waiting like this but understood the necessity of extreme secrecy. If the Itani knew that two Serco strike teams were now floating through space no more than a jump away from the most secret research station in Itani space, they would undoubtedly be launching everything that could fly towards them. They had infiltrated Itani space in singles, forming up inside Cantus space a day or so before the attack was about to commence. Soon they would be given their flight orders and the wait would be over. Cat powered her internals down and slaved her awareness level to the threat indicator on the SVG. If something hostile arrived her ship would wake her.

It pains me that you are such an itani-sympathizer, Whytee...

wtf? Have patience Aramath. You should know that I take no sides!

edit: Darn, I suck:) Sorry Aramarth

Ouch, I've been misspelled!
D:

22. Getting ready

It didn't take long for the Itani intelligence service known as State Secret Intelligence, aka STASI to find the connection between the MRD and the UIT intelligence branch. How UIT had discovered the Omega project was anybody's guess but the secret was bound to be out sooner or later. Why they would choose to sabotage it was however anybody's guess. Torstein Slainthel, the case officer for UIT, had investigated the case and come up with nothing. The only ones that would gain from this was the Serco and so it was assumed that they were behind this in reality, making UIT take the blame for the attack. That did not mean that the Itani would just let this slide and a plan was slowly formulated that would get back at the UIT. And while they were at it, they would get back at the Serco as well.

###

Beating Beria's record had been easy even if Lebermac was slightly intoxicated while doing it. It was Roid Bumpers, not Roid Avoiders after all, just the kind of action that he excelled in naturally. Riddik had placed himself on the table and were following the action, a beer in hand while Lebermac set yet another new record.

"Pah, this gets boring."

Lebermac finished bumping the last roid into place and scored yet another unbelievable new high score while reaching for his bottle again. He half turned to Riddik.

"It really painsh you that she'sh gone doesn't it?"

Riddik tossed his can at the wall and buried the aluminium container three inches deep in the wall plastic.

"What the fuck do you care?"

Lebermac looked at his buddy and tried desperately to make the few remaining sober brain cells function long enough to deliver a coherent answer. He hiccupped and swallowed the tiny amount of Teh Killah that tried to make an attempt at freedom. He grimaced at the foul taste and lifted his bottle to wash it down before discovering that it was miserably empty.

"Rats. We arshe out offff drinksies."

Riddik shot him a glare that could tear paint off a ship fifteen metres distant before shaking his head slowly and grab a new beer he tossed to the Itani.

"Thanks mate. Owe youse one for shure. Tell youse what, why don't I tiptoe shilently and shtealthily into Sherco shpace and hear a little bitty about Keria? And youse can go do my drinking for me in the mean time?"

Riddik nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I would appreciate that a lot. I just hate when she is not around, when I can't.... protect her!"

Lebermac tossed a new set of Sobr-Me-Up's and washed it down with a Lady's Ale. He got up and walked over to the hulking Serco and put an arm around his shoulder.

"Mate, you need to let her live a bit. You cannot protect her from everything you know? She knows where you are and that you will always be there. And that is enough."

Riddik looked at Lebermac with wonder before pushing him away.

"True words from a drunk man. Doesn't make it hurt any less my friend."

Riddik got up and left for the commercial area of Aeolus Trading Prefect, his head down and mood even lower.

###

Utia entered the restaurant with the same feeling in his stomach as he had had the first time he was out to fly a real fighter. The complete body tingling with an especially large tingling in his stomach that felt like he had a whole colony of army ants inside it. He only hoped that Yarina was as interested in going out with him as he was in going out with her. He looked from the left towards the right but his gaze never wandered past the bar. Seated on a high chair, dressed in a long golden dress that looked like liquid gold had been poured down her shoulders and solidified inches from the ground without leaving the slightest on her back, was Yarina, looking more beautiful than ever. She was focused on the holo screen behind the bar where a sitcom was mindlessly churning jokes out with metronomic precision and charm. She laughed at one of the one-liners and Utia stopped dead in his approach almost overcome with a desperate urge to conserve this moment forever. She became aware of a presence and looked slightly to his side before noticing him and rising from the stool.

"Utia; I was just watching "The Munktards" on the holo."

".."

"What, cat got your tongue?"

Utia realised that he had been able to say absolutely nothing in the presence of this beautiful woman and what was worse; he was standing with his mouth open. Checking fast that he had not embarrassed himself completely by drooling as well, he managed to regain control over his vocal cords and especially his language centre inside his brain.

"Yarina, you look absolutely astounding."

He was about to say something immensely clever when his mouth started working without brain guidance.

"Not that it is anything special for you. I mean you always look beautiful even when you are not wearing that dress. I mean when you are wearing other clothes, I haven't seen you without after all. Not that I want to naturally, don’t take me wrong or anything."

Yarina looked down to hide the smile before hearing the last sentence.

"Oh you don't, do you?"

"No, off course not."

"What a shame."

"..."

"Your mouth is open again Utia. Food?"

He managed to nod and allowed her to let him lead her to the table.

###

The order came in from central command that the following numbers had been killed in duty and were to be revived with the last available memory stored. The technician found the correct files and sent them to the central data storage for control. The procedures were pretty strict on this matter; before the new procedures they had actually revived someone who were alive. Now, when the data control centre had declared that a new body was to be revived, the old body was declared finally dead. He waited about five minutes before they came back with a correct mark on them. He cracked his fingers and started feeding the machine with data, requesting nine new full body clones and thirty-three de-icings. The de-icings weren't that bad, basically it was a stored body that just had to be jump-started with some memories and awareness. They would be up and running in a week or so. The full body clones would take at least a month to mature with the minds growing inside to assist the body in growing correctly. Oh well, at least with the war looking to heat up he was not going to be out of a job any time soon.

###
Keria entered the SCAR headquarter just as a new set of recruit pilots left through the door. They were in a hurry too by the looks of it never even stopping to let her enter as were customary among the Serco. She frowned at the lack of etiquette among the recruits but put it aside, she was after all here on rather important business. She walked up to the male receptionist, yet another new face, turned the charm on full speed and asked for a meeting with the CO.

“Sorry ma’am, that is not possible at this moment. The commander is not present.”

“Then one of the lieutenants please. It is rather urgent.”

“Not possible ma’am. I can leave a message. May I have your identification papers please?”

Keria beamed her avatar over complete with advanced status as a fighter ace of the Serco military. The young man merely frowned and looked at his screen. He pushed a series of buttons and looked up.

“Mrs. Willenium?”

She nodded.

“I have here on record that you were cleared for GESTEBO questioning, that you fled from that questioning and that you are married to the traitor of the Serco people Riddik Willenium. Please remain in place while I call the guards.”

“For what?”

“You will be moved to a secure facility where you will be questioned for the whereabouts of Riddik Willenium, a traitor to SCAR.”

“And who wants to do this, the Serco command or SCAR?”

“That is by a decision of the SCAR council ma’am.”

Keria smiled at the young man, who was still wet enough behind his ears to believe that was a good sign and relax.

“And is it the Serco command or SCAR that has decided that my darling husband is a traitor?”

The warning klaxons should be sounding by now inside the receptionist’s head but gullibly he went on.

“The Council of SCAR. He put his personal life before that of the guild. He is to be apprehended and punished as the traitor he is.”

Keria took something from her pocket and leaned in over the receptionist.

“Do me a favour kid. Take this to the council.”

The young man looked at her hand as she hammered the guild insignia into his palm burying the needles all the way through the flesh.

“That personal life he put in front of this miserable excuse for a guild was me. Tell the bastards I quit!”

Keria turned on her heel and walked out of the office, her head held high and her focus re-discovered. The screams from the office didn’t affect her at all.

23. Getting even pt 1

Riddik had his hands in his pockets and was walking unhurriedly along the access corridor kicking at the small things he encountered along the way. His mood was terrible and his urge to fight, to hurt or maybe even kill something was pretty intense. He had only been away from Keria for about a day but he was unable to go to her and that was what hurt him the most. He kicked a can that had until now been a part of the local scenery and sent it flying down towards a side corridor where it bounced off the bulkhead and disappeared from his view. The can-kicking had an effect, a shuffling of feet could be heard from the corridor and Riddik took his hands out of his pockets. He looked down the side corridor and spotted the two young punks that were bent low over a prone figure. Riddik shook his head and was about to walk on, not his business, when a little voice inside his head reminded him that Keria would scald him for walking on. He sighed and turned towards the youngsters.

"Boys, leave him alone and go home."

The larger of the two youngsters stood to his full size, almost as big as Riddik and spat at his feet.

"Yousa wanna besa de next?"

Riddik smiled at the youngster's feeble attempt at emulating the slang spoken around the self-declared gangsta community at Corvus. The next thing they would do was flick out a pocket vibro blade for sure. The click and slight humming confirmed his theory.

"I shall give you one last warning. You can choose to walk away now or crawl away in exactly one minute."

"Fock yoo drillhead."

The young men moved towards Riddik, switchblades in hand with one of them releasing a short chain that he swung in his other hand. Riddik turned his combat program on and set it to non-lethal. The left punk stabbed out at Riddik who deflected the knife out to the left side with his right hand, stepping one step forwards and punched his left fist directly into the punk's nose and sending him to the floor screaming in pain. The other punk tried to move to Riddik's left side and swung the chain for Riddik's head. Riddik bent low, folded his arm over his head for protection and took the chain harmlessly across his back before slamming his left elbow into the chest of the other punk. The impact was enough to make the youngster grab his chest in pain and that was the time needed for Riddik to turn and kick his right heel directly on the youngster's knee. The cracking sound told Riddik that the knee was shattered and that this particular punk was out of it. He turned and looked at the other prone punk deciding against an incapacitating kick to the head. Instead he slammed his heel down on the hand that still held the blade, crushing fingers and making him release the blade to the ground.

"It has now been one minute. You may crawl away now."

The punk with the broken nose started rising but got down again when Riddik pointed to the ground.

"I said crawl and I meant crawl. Or do I have to make you?"

The two punks started moving away on hands and knees moaning and sobbing in a very un-gangsta like fashion. Riddik chuckled, that had actually helped a bit on his mood. Now he had to see if their previous target was still alive.

###

The green amniotic fluid blurred his vision but it was still possible to see the room outside his storage tank. Vaso was not happy, if he were in a cloning tank he would have to have died and so failed in his mission whatever that was. In going with standard Serco doctrine he would now have at least one failed check on his papers. Getting three failed checks on his papers meant permanent deletion unless he had been redeemed for his actions. And Asteroth had made it pretty clear that redeeming themselves would not be an option as long as he and Arhem were in the Diplomatic Service. He didn't want to think about it but it was pretty hard not to inside the tank with nothing else to do. He didn't know who had framed him with the pills in boot camp but if he found out he would subject that person to as much pain as Vaso had been receiving himself these last months. The light turned from amber to red and he closed his eyes in anticipation of the sleeping drug that relaxed him for the next learning session.

###

Brix was shaking with cold on the hard metal bed, the single synth wool sheet not enough to let him keep warm. His muscles hurt by this small effort with an intensity that he had thought he could never endure. He wished for this to end, any way that it could. He suspected that he would last maybe two weeks more if he was forced to stay on the xithricite mining detail. Two weeks more of absolute hell. He closed his eyes and tried to rest while his muscles kept spasming.

"Get up scum."

Someone pounded Brix on the legs with a rubber hose adding to the pain that was already present. He considered staying in the bed but knew that the only thing he would gain from it was an activation of the cortical inducer. He opened his eyes and got up to sit on the edge of the metal sheet bed and squinted at his assailant. A quick blow across his face with the rubber tube ensured that he looked down into the floor again.

"Keep you eyes down scum. You have a visitor."

The guard left the small cubicle and slammed the door. Another voice cultured and controlled unlike that of the guard.

"Mr. Brix. I have an offer for you. It will involve you getting out of here and getting a new start."

Brix looked up at the man. Tall, slender but with the light, what little there was, coming from behind his head and thus masking his features.

"Who do I have to kill?"

The man smiled and moved his face slightly forward into the reflected light displaying a very gaunt almost death like visage.

"The question is not who Mr. Brix, it is how many. Be ready on your next watch."

The man left Brix to his misery and walked out to pay the guards. The low pay of the guards ensured that he could get anyone he needed for next to nothing and the barbaric conditions of Xang-Xi ensured that the recruited person wanted to do whatever to get out of it.

###

The evening had been perfect with Utia managing to make Yarina laugh several times, The food had, as always, been fantastic in quality as well as in price and it had taken some considerable argumentation to persuade Yarina not to pay for her half. He paid the exorbitant price and got up to leave.

"Will you follow me home?"

Utia blushed and looked up at her.

"It would be an honour."

He took her arm and escorted her out to the area where the living departments were placed. They found her door and she opened it, stopping in the door. She turned and looked at him standing outside like a lost puppy in uniform.

"Utia, we are not supposed to, but do you want to come in?"

He tried to respond but failed, managing to nod instead.

###

"All pilots stand to. Be ready to engage the strike force in thirty minutes. We have five minutes to sweep the area clean of Tani fighters before our own assault force arrives. The assault force will be three modified Atlas class assault ships. They will NOT show up on the IFF. Pod'ed pilots will be gathered by The Lurkers' medic boat. That is another Atlas; that one will show on IFF. A group of Proms and SVGs will arrive with the Atlas's and escort them in."

Cat smiled inside her SVG at the mention of her old unit. She knew who would be flying the assault ships and the medic ship. She knew that the assault ships would arrive safely and she was confident that they would succeed in their mission. This was going to be a walkover.

###

William finished his cider and disentangled himself from Janice who had fallen asleep against his side on the couch. He chuckled at the slight snoring and got up to dump the trash in the recycling bin. He would just leave her on the couch when he left on combat patrol later. Now he wanted to play with those collector CPU's he had scooped up, see if he could figure out where the hive queen that had made them was nesting. He put a blanket over Janice and walked into his small workroom that could best be described as the stuff hive bot nightmares were made off. Disassembled bot parts were laying all over with schematics on the walls of the most common bot CPU's. And in the middle was the Kannik and Dentek collector CPU's he had found. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes, loads of time to make it to the squadron as well. He started humming an old tune while disassembling the CPU's.