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Wow. Your story telling just keeps getting better!
So he's just been killing random people? All this time Ive been thinking he was up to something :/
Ah well, still a good read.
Ah well, still a good read.
10. Catch O' the Day
Asteroth looked in the mirror again and didn't like what he saw. Now around 40 pounds overweight, slightly slack jawed and with a short black beard he couldn't recognise himself at all. He had even changed eye colour and was now officially Tufan Oreminer, specialist in Carbonic type ores. He had a set of official fake documents in hand proclaiming him to have the required licenses that he would need to apply to The Guild of Free Traders, his target. The easiest way to gain access would be to have a protégé and he knew just who he would get. He waited in the docking port area for one particular Behemoth, bright yellow with letters on the side. The ship arrived, docked and powered down. The pilot jumped out of the ship, green uniform shining like a newly minted coin and TGFT propeller cap on top of his head as per TGFT regulations. Asteroth smiled and started his move. He waited until his designated target was almost up to his own ship before letting the hydrospanner slip and hammer down on his fingers making him cry out in pain even though he had known it was coming. His target came running over, concern evident in his face.
"Sir, are you all right?"
Asteroth fired as many swearwords as he had learned during his military career, which was quite a lot, as a reply while holding his fingers. He may just have overdone it this once, he could see bone on his ring finger. He looked over at the pilot and grinned while licking the blood off his finger.
"Can't seem to unlodge the density de-combobulator from the non-aligned tweak-rods. And now it looks as if I broke the hydrospanner."
"Having problems with the high density beams?"
Asteroth grinned sheepishly.
"Yeah, they fire out of key and seem to heat point one degree more than per the guaranteed settings."
His target nodded and smiled broadly.
"You know, I had the same problem some time ago and it can actually be fixed without a hydrospanner. Mind if i try?"
Asteroth indicated with his head that his target should go ahead with the repairs. Asteroth knew very well what the problem was; after all he had made the problem himself by gently tapping the actuator rods with a twenty-pound sledgehammer. His target rummaged around a bit, used a tool from his own belt and eventually exclaimed a loud HA! before once more turning to Asteroth.
"There, should be fixed now. Most of the times a de-alignment come from bumping too fast into the docking cradle."
"Ah, yeah now you say it I had a hard landing yesterday. Pirate on my tail and all. Thanks for the help buddy."
Asteroth extended his hand.
"Tufan by the way, ore merchant by trade."
"Hortan, miner and proud member of TGFT."
"Nice to meet you. Say, can't I offer you a drink or something for the help? I really appreciate it."
Hortan was about to decline when Asteroth moved in for the kill.
"And maybe you can tell me about that guild of yours? I have only heard great things about it. Thought it might be something for me but I am not really sure, you know?"
With a smile and a nod, Hortan accepted. He had finished his daily schedule of heliocene mining anyway and was ready for a drink.
###
The line of empty shot glasses was getting very long very fast with the TGFT and PA members getting very drunk equally fast ,which nobody seemed to mind. Azumi was dancing all over the place with John Eldritch while somehow keeping away from the drinks even as she fed him with more shots. Retractile grinned while he sipped his strawberry daiquiri, how she was going to pay the last part of the bet was going to be interesting especially with the target she had chosen. It might even be profitable. They pair danced really close when suddenly Azumi took a step back and slapped John across the face. She turned and stomped over to the group of TGFT and PA members where her jacket was slung over a stool. She grabbed it and turned to one of the PA members, her designated target.
"You look like a decent fellow unlike old Wandering Hands over there. Can I ask you to walk me home?"
Flustered and not knowing what to say, the man nodded and put his glass down. Azumi leaned on his arm and put her head on his shoulder while looking coyly at John Eldritch who was standing with a small grin on his face, watching while trying to understand what just happened. As Azumi and her target walked slowly out of the bar John joined the others at the bar and immediately the other started teasing him. Retractile drank the last of his daiquiri and got up to follow Azumi outside, just as confused as John Eldritch. However he had promised to get Azumi out of it when she said so and leaving the club was the signal they had agreed upon. Once outside Azumi and her target turned towards the docking bay of the station and walked slowly down the corridor. Retractile had no problem in catching up to them. He stopped a couple of metres away and shouted.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing with my girlfriend?"
They turned, the trader with fear in his eyes, Azumi with immense mischief highlighted by a kittenish smile.
"I am terribly sorry Sir, I was not aware that the young Ms here is your girlfriend. I was merely following her home from the Pirate's Nest. No harm done."
"Says you. Get the hell away from her now."
Azumi merely held onto the trader's arm even more fiercely and looked up at the by now slightly sweating face, her eyes wide open in mock fear. The trader looked at Azumi, then over at Retractile then back at Azumi while considering the predicament he was in. On one hand he would like nothing better than to defend this young beautiful maiden against the apparently unwelcome boyfriend but said boyfriend consisted of a 1.93 metre tall muscular and bald person with twin tattoos of striking mongooses on his scalp, a flight suit covered with an old style leather jacket adorned with a prominent CLM badge and what looked like a stun gun in his hand. The decision was not really all that hard to take.
"I am sorry Ms, but you really should go with your boyfriend. I am sure he will take good care of you."
Azumi pushed herself away from the trader before snorting violently in his direction while looking at him from head to toe and back.
"You wouldn't be able to handle it anyway hun."
Looking at Retractile she tossed her head in the direction of the docks.
"C'mon baby, lets go."
Retractile followed her while fixing the trader with his glare, making a mock attack when he passed and walking backwards while continuing to stare. He pointed a finger at the trader and pulled an imaginary trigger before turning and walking after Azumi, following her around a bend in the corridor.
###
A flash of shining metal reflecting the barely functioning wall lights that so inefficiently lit the corridor, a spray of warm sticky liquid pulsing with the heartbeat of the victims filling the corridor with a fine red mist, a spreading smell of voided bowels, a soft sobbing mixed with sounds of tearing, slicing, slashing.
The two young men had been late for their appointment with the other employees of the second deck launch bay and had decided to take a short cut through the maintenance corridor sparing them the longer trip along the circumference of the outer docks. They shared a bottle of inexpensive wodka along the way and never really noticed the prone form that was waiting for them from a small hole where the bulkhead wall plates had rusted away. When they had walked past, the closest felt a sharp pain across his Achilles tendon that immediately resulted in him falling as he lost control of his foot. His friend, believing that he had fallen because of the alcohol, bent down to help him up when an arm appeared carrying a thin sliver of silver that cut several centimetres into his neck and severed the artery without slowing down at all. The prone figure got up as the two young men trashed around on the deck-plates and grabbed the hair of the first man, slicing cleanly from ear to ear and finishing what he set out to do. He had cut them, cut them good.
Twin argon projectors switched on and the corridor became bathed in high-intensity white light that illuminated the grizzly scene and especially the stained and hulking figure standing over his victims. He looked up at the source with incomprehension painted in his face, madness showing in his eyes.
"Get him."
The two strangle net guns fired at the same time and impacted directly on the chest of William, covering him in the synth-silk mesh and at the same time perforating his skin in several places with tiny needles that delivered small doses of muscle blockers. William started to fight the mesh but as he did more and more needles penetrated his skin and delivered a larger dose of the muscle blockers effectively turning his muscles off. He collapsed in an undignified heap on top of his last victims, not that he had much dignity left anyway.
The officer in charge stepped out into the light and walked over to the three persons on the ground. He looked down at the still struggling William and kicked him viciously in the chest before keying his perscom.
"Lex, we have him pacified in corridor 34-b-3-east. He is blocked and alive, as you want him. Oh, and send a medic team as well, we have a couple of skin jobs as well."
The officer smiled and waved at the rest of his crew. This catch was going to net him a nice bonus and let him pay the debts that would allow him to get out of this outfit. Maybe even join UPK as he had wanted to do for quite a while now. He kicked William again and smiled at his crew.
"Good job all, now let us ensure this particular piece of vermin gets to Lex in one piece, right?"
Asteroth looked in the mirror again and didn't like what he saw. Now around 40 pounds overweight, slightly slack jawed and with a short black beard he couldn't recognise himself at all. He had even changed eye colour and was now officially Tufan Oreminer, specialist in Carbonic type ores. He had a set of official fake documents in hand proclaiming him to have the required licenses that he would need to apply to The Guild of Free Traders, his target. The easiest way to gain access would be to have a protégé and he knew just who he would get. He waited in the docking port area for one particular Behemoth, bright yellow with letters on the side. The ship arrived, docked and powered down. The pilot jumped out of the ship, green uniform shining like a newly minted coin and TGFT propeller cap on top of his head as per TGFT regulations. Asteroth smiled and started his move. He waited until his designated target was almost up to his own ship before letting the hydrospanner slip and hammer down on his fingers making him cry out in pain even though he had known it was coming. His target came running over, concern evident in his face.
"Sir, are you all right?"
Asteroth fired as many swearwords as he had learned during his military career, which was quite a lot, as a reply while holding his fingers. He may just have overdone it this once, he could see bone on his ring finger. He looked over at the pilot and grinned while licking the blood off his finger.
"Can't seem to unlodge the density de-combobulator from the non-aligned tweak-rods. And now it looks as if I broke the hydrospanner."
"Having problems with the high density beams?"
Asteroth grinned sheepishly.
"Yeah, they fire out of key and seem to heat point one degree more than per the guaranteed settings."
His target nodded and smiled broadly.
"You know, I had the same problem some time ago and it can actually be fixed without a hydrospanner. Mind if i try?"
Asteroth indicated with his head that his target should go ahead with the repairs. Asteroth knew very well what the problem was; after all he had made the problem himself by gently tapping the actuator rods with a twenty-pound sledgehammer. His target rummaged around a bit, used a tool from his own belt and eventually exclaimed a loud HA! before once more turning to Asteroth.
"There, should be fixed now. Most of the times a de-alignment come from bumping too fast into the docking cradle."
"Ah, yeah now you say it I had a hard landing yesterday. Pirate on my tail and all. Thanks for the help buddy."
Asteroth extended his hand.
"Tufan by the way, ore merchant by trade."
"Hortan, miner and proud member of TGFT."
"Nice to meet you. Say, can't I offer you a drink or something for the help? I really appreciate it."
Hortan was about to decline when Asteroth moved in for the kill.
"And maybe you can tell me about that guild of yours? I have only heard great things about it. Thought it might be something for me but I am not really sure, you know?"
With a smile and a nod, Hortan accepted. He had finished his daily schedule of heliocene mining anyway and was ready for a drink.
###
The line of empty shot glasses was getting very long very fast with the TGFT and PA members getting very drunk equally fast ,which nobody seemed to mind. Azumi was dancing all over the place with John Eldritch while somehow keeping away from the drinks even as she fed him with more shots. Retractile grinned while he sipped his strawberry daiquiri, how she was going to pay the last part of the bet was going to be interesting especially with the target she had chosen. It might even be profitable. They pair danced really close when suddenly Azumi took a step back and slapped John across the face. She turned and stomped over to the group of TGFT and PA members where her jacket was slung over a stool. She grabbed it and turned to one of the PA members, her designated target.
"You look like a decent fellow unlike old Wandering Hands over there. Can I ask you to walk me home?"
Flustered and not knowing what to say, the man nodded and put his glass down. Azumi leaned on his arm and put her head on his shoulder while looking coyly at John Eldritch who was standing with a small grin on his face, watching while trying to understand what just happened. As Azumi and her target walked slowly out of the bar John joined the others at the bar and immediately the other started teasing him. Retractile drank the last of his daiquiri and got up to follow Azumi outside, just as confused as John Eldritch. However he had promised to get Azumi out of it when she said so and leaving the club was the signal they had agreed upon. Once outside Azumi and her target turned towards the docking bay of the station and walked slowly down the corridor. Retractile had no problem in catching up to them. He stopped a couple of metres away and shouted.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing with my girlfriend?"
They turned, the trader with fear in his eyes, Azumi with immense mischief highlighted by a kittenish smile.
"I am terribly sorry Sir, I was not aware that the young Ms here is your girlfriend. I was merely following her home from the Pirate's Nest. No harm done."
"Says you. Get the hell away from her now."
Azumi merely held onto the trader's arm even more fiercely and looked up at the by now slightly sweating face, her eyes wide open in mock fear. The trader looked at Azumi, then over at Retractile then back at Azumi while considering the predicament he was in. On one hand he would like nothing better than to defend this young beautiful maiden against the apparently unwelcome boyfriend but said boyfriend consisted of a 1.93 metre tall muscular and bald person with twin tattoos of striking mongooses on his scalp, a flight suit covered with an old style leather jacket adorned with a prominent CLM badge and what looked like a stun gun in his hand. The decision was not really all that hard to take.
"I am sorry Ms, but you really should go with your boyfriend. I am sure he will take good care of you."
Azumi pushed herself away from the trader before snorting violently in his direction while looking at him from head to toe and back.
"You wouldn't be able to handle it anyway hun."
Looking at Retractile she tossed her head in the direction of the docks.
"C'mon baby, lets go."
Retractile followed her while fixing the trader with his glare, making a mock attack when he passed and walking backwards while continuing to stare. He pointed a finger at the trader and pulled an imaginary trigger before turning and walking after Azumi, following her around a bend in the corridor.
###
A flash of shining metal reflecting the barely functioning wall lights that so inefficiently lit the corridor, a spray of warm sticky liquid pulsing with the heartbeat of the victims filling the corridor with a fine red mist, a spreading smell of voided bowels, a soft sobbing mixed with sounds of tearing, slicing, slashing.
The two young men had been late for their appointment with the other employees of the second deck launch bay and had decided to take a short cut through the maintenance corridor sparing them the longer trip along the circumference of the outer docks. They shared a bottle of inexpensive wodka along the way and never really noticed the prone form that was waiting for them from a small hole where the bulkhead wall plates had rusted away. When they had walked past, the closest felt a sharp pain across his Achilles tendon that immediately resulted in him falling as he lost control of his foot. His friend, believing that he had fallen because of the alcohol, bent down to help him up when an arm appeared carrying a thin sliver of silver that cut several centimetres into his neck and severed the artery without slowing down at all. The prone figure got up as the two young men trashed around on the deck-plates and grabbed the hair of the first man, slicing cleanly from ear to ear and finishing what he set out to do. He had cut them, cut them good.
Twin argon projectors switched on and the corridor became bathed in high-intensity white light that illuminated the grizzly scene and especially the stained and hulking figure standing over his victims. He looked up at the source with incomprehension painted in his face, madness showing in his eyes.
"Get him."
The two strangle net guns fired at the same time and impacted directly on the chest of William, covering him in the synth-silk mesh and at the same time perforating his skin in several places with tiny needles that delivered small doses of muscle blockers. William started to fight the mesh but as he did more and more needles penetrated his skin and delivered a larger dose of the muscle blockers effectively turning his muscles off. He collapsed in an undignified heap on top of his last victims, not that he had much dignity left anyway.
The officer in charge stepped out into the light and walked over to the three persons on the ground. He looked down at the still struggling William and kicked him viciously in the chest before keying his perscom.
"Lex, we have him pacified in corridor 34-b-3-east. He is blocked and alive, as you want him. Oh, and send a medic team as well, we have a couple of skin jobs as well."
The officer smiled and waved at the rest of his crew. This catch was going to net him a nice bonus and let him pay the debts that would allow him to get out of this outfit. Maybe even join UPK as he had wanted to do for quite a while now. He kicked William again and smiled at his crew.
"Good job all, now let us ensure this particular piece of vermin gets to Lex in one piece, right?"
11. Janice?
The two officers grabbed William under the arms and started dragging him towards the launch bay where the heavily modified Centaur they used for prisoner transport was ready. The manhandling woke William from the drug induced sleep and he started squirming underneath the strangleweb, tightening the net and impaling him with dozens of small syringes that sent him to sleepy land again but not before he had succeeded in smearing his captors with blood, vomit and offal. The large officer on the right, already disgusted by the filthy and blood caked person they were carrying and now soiled by him as well, dropped William abruptly so he smashed his head against the bulkhead before sliding down to the deck plates. The other officer looked up at his colleague before letting William go completely. William's nose had taken the brunt of the impact and blood started seeping onto the deck plates mixing with his victims.
"The hell you doing Urion? We's supposed to bring him to the Taur in one piece."
"I am not going to carry this filthy piece of shit. Why can't they bring a stretcher? I'm calling for one."
His facial expression went slack while he connected to the central via his brain Aug. An Aug was an expensive piece of equipment and naturally a thriving second hand market had emerged for those too poor to pay for the factory line models. Harvested among deceased traders, captured pirates and inmates in the Xang Xi prisons at Daltas Hold, the so called second Augs were an option for the commoners of grey. The less sophisticated aug versions primarily used by non-military security personnel were standard grey lumps of silicon wafers, unlike the sophisticated tailored brainpals of the Serco military that were grown to fit inside the skull of the user, and had the drawback that the interface was projected directly onto the retina and blocked the owners vision while auging. With some of the grizzly extraction methods it was inevitable, however, that the Augs would be damaged, have memory leaks or even worse. The commonest fault was, however, a complete loss of facial muscle control making the user relax his muscles and drool uncontrollably. Hence giving rise to the slang word for the second augs as Drool Boxes. Obviously the officer had a drool box. His face came alight again and he slurped the string of drool before it could make a wet splash on his uniform and looked over at the other officer.
"There, they are sending a stretcher team immediately. We just have to make sure he doesn't croak before they arrive."
His colleague nodded and spat at William's back before kneeling down against one side of the corridor. He whipped a hip flask with a nipple opening out and sipped at the fiery liquid, grimacing at the foul taste but didn't refrain from taking another drink. He handed it over to Urion who was looking expectantly at it and accepted with a grin and a nod.
"Thanks Sull, sorely needed there buddy."
Sull nodded while Urion drank deep from the flask. Urion handed the flask back and leaned against the wall as well.
"So, who is going to win the Death Fights?"
Sull grinned, Urion knew bloody well who Sull thought was going to win. And he knew that Urion was merely egging him on.
"Odia Wendigos, just like last year."
Urion laughed out loud.
"Yeah right, as if they can win the remaining matches by now. I keep telling you that this season belongs to the Nyrius Hippos."
"Well, as long as they don't lose to Daltas Cowboys."
They both guffawed at that. Not likely, not likely at all.
###
"Whoa whoa, wait up there Az. What was that all about?"
"What was about what?"
"Why did you slap John Eldritch? Did he do something to you?"
Azumi laughed out loud before she put one hand in her pocket and produced two small plastic cards, one green and one orange.
"I wish hun. But he was not drunk enough. I tried my best to lift his card but it was like he anticipated I would do something like that. The slap was merely a slight distraction. Besides baby, he was not my real target in there."
She flicked the two ID cards over to Retractile who caught them in a fluid motion and read the front of both.
"Ha, did you know John Eldritch has a middle name? And who is this NP?"
"What do I know? He seemed like the easiest target in there. What is the middle name?"
"He he, its XX--DELETED--XX, who would have known?"
Azumi shook her head in wonder.
"Amazing what parents will do to their children. Lets see what ship he has, or rather had."
Retractile chuckled and looked at Azumi expectantly while she accessed the card's data with her aug. Recent rentals, bay number 23b-D, rented by a J. Eldricth and containing one Axia Wraith. She did the same with NP's card and found a Corvus Vulturius in a bay on the same deck.
"Docking bay D Ret, looks like your lucky day baby."
They grinned at each other and turned off the main corridor towards bay D. About fifty metres along the corridor Azumi stopped and sniffed.
"Something bad happened here Ret."
Retractile grinned and extended his arms for protection while flexing his considerable bulk.
"Don't worry babe, I won't let anyone hurt you. Your pappy is in the house."
Azumi looked at him like a lioness would look at a pot of carrot stew. Slowly she shook her head while lifting one eyebrow.
"Sometimes you say the dumbest things Ret."
She turned and walked demonstratively down the corridor with a confused Retractile in tow. Another fifty metres revealed two uniformed persons along each side of the corridor and one shape lying between them on the floor. Azumi slowed down a bit and considered going back for a second before remembering Ret behind her. Whatever was down the corridor was not going to be enough to stop them. She walked down to the men seemingly without a care in the world.
"Sorry miss, you can't go this way. Police business."
None of the officers looked like they were going to get up anytime soon but the voice left no doubt as to their seriousness. Naturally Azumi ignored them completely and kept walking thus forcing the officers to stand. The bulk between them stirred slightly and one of the officers kicked him in the side.
"Miss, you have to turn back. Police business."
The two officers blocked her way and Azumi stopped immediately in front of them and looked up. She was just about to come with a cheeky reply when a sound came from the bulk on the floor.
"Janice?"
Azumi looked down and her eyes found the two pools of pain that were William's eyes.
"Janice!"
Azumi looked up at the officers who had looked down as well before looking back at Azumi. One of them reached for his sidearm while the other lost facial expression to an aug call. The bulk on the floor started thrashing around while screaming as loud as he could.
"Jaaaaniice!"
The two officers grabbed William under the arms and started dragging him towards the launch bay where the heavily modified Centaur they used for prisoner transport was ready. The manhandling woke William from the drug induced sleep and he started squirming underneath the strangleweb, tightening the net and impaling him with dozens of small syringes that sent him to sleepy land again but not before he had succeeded in smearing his captors with blood, vomit and offal. The large officer on the right, already disgusted by the filthy and blood caked person they were carrying and now soiled by him as well, dropped William abruptly so he smashed his head against the bulkhead before sliding down to the deck plates. The other officer looked up at his colleague before letting William go completely. William's nose had taken the brunt of the impact and blood started seeping onto the deck plates mixing with his victims.
"The hell you doing Urion? We's supposed to bring him to the Taur in one piece."
"I am not going to carry this filthy piece of shit. Why can't they bring a stretcher? I'm calling for one."
His facial expression went slack while he connected to the central via his brain Aug. An Aug was an expensive piece of equipment and naturally a thriving second hand market had emerged for those too poor to pay for the factory line models. Harvested among deceased traders, captured pirates and inmates in the Xang Xi prisons at Daltas Hold, the so called second Augs were an option for the commoners of grey. The less sophisticated aug versions primarily used by non-military security personnel were standard grey lumps of silicon wafers, unlike the sophisticated tailored brainpals of the Serco military that were grown to fit inside the skull of the user, and had the drawback that the interface was projected directly onto the retina and blocked the owners vision while auging. With some of the grizzly extraction methods it was inevitable, however, that the Augs would be damaged, have memory leaks or even worse. The commonest fault was, however, a complete loss of facial muscle control making the user relax his muscles and drool uncontrollably. Hence giving rise to the slang word for the second augs as Drool Boxes. Obviously the officer had a drool box. His face came alight again and he slurped the string of drool before it could make a wet splash on his uniform and looked over at the other officer.
"There, they are sending a stretcher team immediately. We just have to make sure he doesn't croak before they arrive."
His colleague nodded and spat at William's back before kneeling down against one side of the corridor. He whipped a hip flask with a nipple opening out and sipped at the fiery liquid, grimacing at the foul taste but didn't refrain from taking another drink. He handed it over to Urion who was looking expectantly at it and accepted with a grin and a nod.
"Thanks Sull, sorely needed there buddy."
Sull nodded while Urion drank deep from the flask. Urion handed the flask back and leaned against the wall as well.
"So, who is going to win the Death Fights?"
Sull grinned, Urion knew bloody well who Sull thought was going to win. And he knew that Urion was merely egging him on.
"Odia Wendigos, just like last year."
Urion laughed out loud.
"Yeah right, as if they can win the remaining matches by now. I keep telling you that this season belongs to the Nyrius Hippos."
"Well, as long as they don't lose to Daltas Cowboys."
They both guffawed at that. Not likely, not likely at all.
###
"Whoa whoa, wait up there Az. What was that all about?"
"What was about what?"
"Why did you slap John Eldritch? Did he do something to you?"
Azumi laughed out loud before she put one hand in her pocket and produced two small plastic cards, one green and one orange.
"I wish hun. But he was not drunk enough. I tried my best to lift his card but it was like he anticipated I would do something like that. The slap was merely a slight distraction. Besides baby, he was not my real target in there."
She flicked the two ID cards over to Retractile who caught them in a fluid motion and read the front of both.
"Ha, did you know John Eldritch has a middle name? And who is this NP?"
"What do I know? He seemed like the easiest target in there. What is the middle name?"
"He he, its XX--DELETED--XX, who would have known?"
Azumi shook her head in wonder.
"Amazing what parents will do to their children. Lets see what ship he has, or rather had."
Retractile chuckled and looked at Azumi expectantly while she accessed the card's data with her aug. Recent rentals, bay number 23b-D, rented by a J. Eldricth and containing one Axia Wraith. She did the same with NP's card and found a Corvus Vulturius in a bay on the same deck.
"Docking bay D Ret, looks like your lucky day baby."
They grinned at each other and turned off the main corridor towards bay D. About fifty metres along the corridor Azumi stopped and sniffed.
"Something bad happened here Ret."
Retractile grinned and extended his arms for protection while flexing his considerable bulk.
"Don't worry babe, I won't let anyone hurt you. Your pappy is in the house."
Azumi looked at him like a lioness would look at a pot of carrot stew. Slowly she shook her head while lifting one eyebrow.
"Sometimes you say the dumbest things Ret."
She turned and walked demonstratively down the corridor with a confused Retractile in tow. Another fifty metres revealed two uniformed persons along each side of the corridor and one shape lying between them on the floor. Azumi slowed down a bit and considered going back for a second before remembering Ret behind her. Whatever was down the corridor was not going to be enough to stop them. She walked down to the men seemingly without a care in the world.
"Sorry miss, you can't go this way. Police business."
None of the officers looked like they were going to get up anytime soon but the voice left no doubt as to their seriousness. Naturally Azumi ignored them completely and kept walking thus forcing the officers to stand. The bulk between them stirred slightly and one of the officers kicked him in the side.
"Miss, you have to turn back. Police business."
The two officers blocked her way and Azumi stopped immediately in front of them and looked up. She was just about to come with a cheeky reply when a sound came from the bulk on the floor.
"Janice?"
Azumi looked down and her eyes found the two pools of pain that were William's eyes.
"Janice!"
Azumi looked up at the officers who had looked down as well before looking back at Azumi. One of them reached for his sidearm while the other lost facial expression to an aug call. The bulk on the floor started thrashing around while screaming as loud as he could.
"Jaaaaniice!"
12. Who?
The officer extended his hand holding the heavy pistol and pointed it directly at Azumi's forehead. The other started drooling as the aug made connection to wherever he was calling. Retractile considered for less than a second before he shot the drooler with his stun gun dropping him immediately. The gun wielder looked at his buddy as he collapsed to the ground and then back across the sights to Azumi. He started to curl his finger to fire the gun when he suddenly opened his eyes wide in fear and looked down at his leg where William had reached over with his jaw and bit him in the Achilles tendon. With a wrenching motion of his head he tore through the tendon with the officer screaming in pain. He tried to point the gun at William while he fell and would have succeeded if Azumi hadn't kicked his wrist with her right foot making him drop the gun. The guard collapsed and William squirmed over to bite him further, grabbed a mouthful of belly flesh and tore a chunk out. The guard roared with pain and tried to punch William hard in the face to get him away. Retractile shot him with the stunner and he started convulsing while William slowly squirmed up to his neck and bit hard into his throat, chewing like a grinder through the windpipe and cartilage until he could get to the artery and tear it wide open. The blood splashed out in large pulsing streams bathing William and calming him. Azumi looked down at him and met his eyes that were pools of flaming madness in a sea of blood-spattered filth. He smiled a toothy smile displaying the bloody gristle between his teeth.
"Janice..."
"Strange friends you have there Az. Why'd he call you Janice?"
Azumi turned to Retractile and squinted for a second.
"Don't know baby. And I have never seen him before so I am just as surprised as you."
Retractile was used to people keeping secrets and using alternate names like sharingan, look...no hands, MysticRogue and even Retractile's own nickname. Most of the times people used the alternate names for a reason and it was considered extremely bad form to blow someone's cover and share the real name. He had not tagged Azumi as a Janice however and she usually kept better company than this particular sorry piece of filth on the floor.
"Wanna keep him? Cause then we gotta go soon. I am not sure that I stopped the guard from auging, which means the cavalry is on its way. And the way that your friend here acted kinda ensures that they come not only armed but pissed off as well."
"Listen, I don't know who he is right? And I don't know this Janice."
She looked quickly down to Retractile's chest before looking up again, defiance clear in her voice.
"But the pigs are after him and that is enough for me to take him home and find out why."
Retractile decided to play along. It was pretty clear to him that she was lying but she probably had a good reason for it. He shrugged and grabbed the net with one hand and hefted the bulk over his shoulder before turning to Azumi who was quickly running through the pockets of the policemen pocketing id cards and access keys.
"Lead the way. And be quick about it too, he stinks."
###
Cat had slept in a real bed, in a real room and had taken a real bath for the first time in what felt like forever. Her nightmare, she only dreamt the same one over and over, had even allowed her one night's rest without manifesting itself. Silia had set her up with everything and even had an assignment for he this morning. An escort to Odia together with other pilots from KAOS. She grabbed her helmet and slowly spun around checking that she hadn't forgotten anything. Satisfied, she went outside and turned towards the drop-chutes for the 3rd floor and the briefing rooms of KAOS. Just in front of the chutes was the reception for this level's hotel where a pretty loud argument was taking place. Cat recognised the voice and smiled in anticipation.
"How the hell do you expect me to pay for that? It was broken before we even entered the room. And the nozzles on the shower were mostly defect before as well."
"Sir I must inform you that you signed for a room on perfect working conditions when you received the pass-code. Also, you signed that you were liable for any and all damages to any of the room's installations. Whether or not there were defects in the room prior to your accepting is not interesting as you chose not to bring this to our attention within the agreed upon time. Thus you owe the full 143,754 standard UIT credits or the equivalent in Serco KC's which at the current exchange on this station comes to 77,823 KC's."
"I never signed anything you stupid robot. Why don't you get that into your dumb silicone brain before I smash it?"
"Sir, note that destruction of this robot will merely be added to your bill as were the damages to my predecessor. We have your digital signature in the form of one brainpal acknowledgement Sir."
Cat saw the reception bot that was lying to one side with a massive fist sized indentation in the central sensor part and grinned. Somehow the robot had managed to piss Riddik seriously off and had been forced to take the consequences.
"What up Rid?"
"Riddik turned and some of the anger faded away.
"Hey Cat. This machine wants me to pay a ton of money just because I broke a thing or two."
Cat tried to keep a straight face but failed. The grin forced its way upon her face with all the inevitability of a Teradon moving through a cardbox wall.
"Good time with the missus?"
The anger in Riddik's face disappeared completely and was replaced by a slight sheepish looking grin that broadened slowly.
"Yeah, it had been a while."
Cat accessed her KAOS file and instructed the file bot to transfer the money that was asked for to the hotel's account. It was the very least she could do to after he had saved her life twice. The bot gathered the papers on the table.
"Thank you sir. Feel free to book a room with Aeolus Hotel Services another time. Have a pleasant day."
The bot disappeared into the armoured compartment leaving Riddik somewhat puzzled. He turned to Cat again and frowned.
"Did you pay that?"
Cat smiled and shrugged.
"The least I could do. Listen, I have time for a cup of koffee if you care for some company?"
"Cat, I can't accept taking money from you. It would be.... wrong."
"Why? Cause I'm a girl? Listen, just let it slide and let’s go get some koffee."
Riddik slowly nodded and turned towards the chute.
"And maybe you can tell me how the two of you thrashed the hotel room for that amount of credits."
Riddik grinned widely.
"That would take more than a cup of koffee, but I can start, yeah?"
###
Hortan walked up to Naoko with some trepidation at what he was about to do. As usual she was busy working on the twin computer screen, focused to the point of singularity while at the same time acknowledging that he was waiting without giving him the slightest attention. Hortan waited until she had finished a furious attack upon her keyboard and looked up. He gulped some air at the undivided attention she brought to bear upon him, the effect being like a rabbit caught in headlights.
"Yes pilot Hortan?"
He knew what he needed to say, he knew how he wanted to say it and he had even rehearsed it before he entered the office where Surbius, the Dark Lord of Forms, Filer of TGFT, resided like an ancient black dragon on top of his filing cabinets. What he seemed to forget every time was that Naoko guarded the office in a way more efficient than Cerberus guarded the gates of Hades in ancient Greece.
"Mmwah Recruit, Burn.n.n.n to Sur-sur-sur..bius. Apply!"
Naoko smiled that particular loop-sided smile she reserved for when things became absurd. Like they had a tendency to become when Hortan was involved. Particularly around either herself or her sister Miharu. She stopped his ramblings with a single hand signal.
"Let me get this straight. You want to apply to burn a recruit to Surbius?"
Hortan looked down, counted to ten and then up again. He failed at once and looked down once more. Without looking at Naoko he managed to stammer forth his request as he had rehearsed it.
"I have a recruit that is burning to apply to the guild. Can you give the application to Surbius?"
He looked up again and handed the paper across to the by now broadly smiling Naoko who accepted with a small nod.
"Not a problem pilot. I'll make sure that Surbius gets it right away. Anything more pilot?"
Hortan shook his head and managed to look up again.
"Alright then. You can leave now."
She smiled as he left while managing to bump into the chair in front of him, push the door that had a very clear and large PULL sign and hit his shoulder on the frame as he exited. She loved teasing Hortan. He was such a bundle of nervous polite shyness that just about anything she did made him blush or worse. If it wasn't for his unlimited kindness he would have been intolerable, now he was just Hortan. She opened the application and read it through for errors, corrected the few that were and sent it through to Surbius. At least she could help Hortan without him knowing.
The officer extended his hand holding the heavy pistol and pointed it directly at Azumi's forehead. The other started drooling as the aug made connection to wherever he was calling. Retractile considered for less than a second before he shot the drooler with his stun gun dropping him immediately. The gun wielder looked at his buddy as he collapsed to the ground and then back across the sights to Azumi. He started to curl his finger to fire the gun when he suddenly opened his eyes wide in fear and looked down at his leg where William had reached over with his jaw and bit him in the Achilles tendon. With a wrenching motion of his head he tore through the tendon with the officer screaming in pain. He tried to point the gun at William while he fell and would have succeeded if Azumi hadn't kicked his wrist with her right foot making him drop the gun. The guard collapsed and William squirmed over to bite him further, grabbed a mouthful of belly flesh and tore a chunk out. The guard roared with pain and tried to punch William hard in the face to get him away. Retractile shot him with the stunner and he started convulsing while William slowly squirmed up to his neck and bit hard into his throat, chewing like a grinder through the windpipe and cartilage until he could get to the artery and tear it wide open. The blood splashed out in large pulsing streams bathing William and calming him. Azumi looked down at him and met his eyes that were pools of flaming madness in a sea of blood-spattered filth. He smiled a toothy smile displaying the bloody gristle between his teeth.
"Janice..."
"Strange friends you have there Az. Why'd he call you Janice?"
Azumi turned to Retractile and squinted for a second.
"Don't know baby. And I have never seen him before so I am just as surprised as you."
Retractile was used to people keeping secrets and using alternate names like sharingan, look...no hands, MysticRogue and even Retractile's own nickname. Most of the times people used the alternate names for a reason and it was considered extremely bad form to blow someone's cover and share the real name. He had not tagged Azumi as a Janice however and she usually kept better company than this particular sorry piece of filth on the floor.
"Wanna keep him? Cause then we gotta go soon. I am not sure that I stopped the guard from auging, which means the cavalry is on its way. And the way that your friend here acted kinda ensures that they come not only armed but pissed off as well."
"Listen, I don't know who he is right? And I don't know this Janice."
She looked quickly down to Retractile's chest before looking up again, defiance clear in her voice.
"But the pigs are after him and that is enough for me to take him home and find out why."
Retractile decided to play along. It was pretty clear to him that she was lying but she probably had a good reason for it. He shrugged and grabbed the net with one hand and hefted the bulk over his shoulder before turning to Azumi who was quickly running through the pockets of the policemen pocketing id cards and access keys.
"Lead the way. And be quick about it too, he stinks."
###
Cat had slept in a real bed, in a real room and had taken a real bath for the first time in what felt like forever. Her nightmare, she only dreamt the same one over and over, had even allowed her one night's rest without manifesting itself. Silia had set her up with everything and even had an assignment for he this morning. An escort to Odia together with other pilots from KAOS. She grabbed her helmet and slowly spun around checking that she hadn't forgotten anything. Satisfied, she went outside and turned towards the drop-chutes for the 3rd floor and the briefing rooms of KAOS. Just in front of the chutes was the reception for this level's hotel where a pretty loud argument was taking place. Cat recognised the voice and smiled in anticipation.
"How the hell do you expect me to pay for that? It was broken before we even entered the room. And the nozzles on the shower were mostly defect before as well."
"Sir I must inform you that you signed for a room on perfect working conditions when you received the pass-code. Also, you signed that you were liable for any and all damages to any of the room's installations. Whether or not there were defects in the room prior to your accepting is not interesting as you chose not to bring this to our attention within the agreed upon time. Thus you owe the full 143,754 standard UIT credits or the equivalent in Serco KC's which at the current exchange on this station comes to 77,823 KC's."
"I never signed anything you stupid robot. Why don't you get that into your dumb silicone brain before I smash it?"
"Sir, note that destruction of this robot will merely be added to your bill as were the damages to my predecessor. We have your digital signature in the form of one brainpal acknowledgement Sir."
Cat saw the reception bot that was lying to one side with a massive fist sized indentation in the central sensor part and grinned. Somehow the robot had managed to piss Riddik seriously off and had been forced to take the consequences.
"What up Rid?"
"Riddik turned and some of the anger faded away.
"Hey Cat. This machine wants me to pay a ton of money just because I broke a thing or two."
Cat tried to keep a straight face but failed. The grin forced its way upon her face with all the inevitability of a Teradon moving through a cardbox wall.
"Good time with the missus?"
The anger in Riddik's face disappeared completely and was replaced by a slight sheepish looking grin that broadened slowly.
"Yeah, it had been a while."
Cat accessed her KAOS file and instructed the file bot to transfer the money that was asked for to the hotel's account. It was the very least she could do to after he had saved her life twice. The bot gathered the papers on the table.
"Thank you sir. Feel free to book a room with Aeolus Hotel Services another time. Have a pleasant day."
The bot disappeared into the armoured compartment leaving Riddik somewhat puzzled. He turned to Cat again and frowned.
"Did you pay that?"
Cat smiled and shrugged.
"The least I could do. Listen, I have time for a cup of koffee if you care for some company?"
"Cat, I can't accept taking money from you. It would be.... wrong."
"Why? Cause I'm a girl? Listen, just let it slide and let’s go get some koffee."
Riddik slowly nodded and turned towards the chute.
"And maybe you can tell me how the two of you thrashed the hotel room for that amount of credits."
Riddik grinned widely.
"That would take more than a cup of koffee, but I can start, yeah?"
###
Hortan walked up to Naoko with some trepidation at what he was about to do. As usual she was busy working on the twin computer screen, focused to the point of singularity while at the same time acknowledging that he was waiting without giving him the slightest attention. Hortan waited until she had finished a furious attack upon her keyboard and looked up. He gulped some air at the undivided attention she brought to bear upon him, the effect being like a rabbit caught in headlights.
"Yes pilot Hortan?"
He knew what he needed to say, he knew how he wanted to say it and he had even rehearsed it before he entered the office where Surbius, the Dark Lord of Forms, Filer of TGFT, resided like an ancient black dragon on top of his filing cabinets. What he seemed to forget every time was that Naoko guarded the office in a way more efficient than Cerberus guarded the gates of Hades in ancient Greece.
"Mmwah Recruit, Burn.n.n.n to Sur-sur-sur..bius. Apply!"
Naoko smiled that particular loop-sided smile she reserved for when things became absurd. Like they had a tendency to become when Hortan was involved. Particularly around either herself or her sister Miharu. She stopped his ramblings with a single hand signal.
"Let me get this straight. You want to apply to burn a recruit to Surbius?"
Hortan looked down, counted to ten and then up again. He failed at once and looked down once more. Without looking at Naoko he managed to stammer forth his request as he had rehearsed it.
"I have a recruit that is burning to apply to the guild. Can you give the application to Surbius?"
He looked up again and handed the paper across to the by now broadly smiling Naoko who accepted with a small nod.
"Not a problem pilot. I'll make sure that Surbius gets it right away. Anything more pilot?"
Hortan shook his head and managed to look up again.
"Alright then. You can leave now."
She smiled as he left while managing to bump into the chair in front of him, push the door that had a very clear and large PULL sign and hit his shoulder on the frame as he exited. She loved teasing Hortan. He was such a bundle of nervous polite shyness that just about anything she did made him blush or worse. If it wasn't for his unlimited kindness he would have been intolerable, now he was just Hortan. She opened the application and read it through for errors, corrected the few that were and sent it through to Surbius. At least she could help Hortan without him knowing.
lol you have no idea how close to RL that really is :P
13. Incompetence.
Alex cursed internally, a very impressive string of blood curdling oaths that would have shocked his subordinates if they had ever heard it. However, the only word that managed to escape across his tightly sealed lips was an almost silent
"Bugger."
"Excuse me Sir?"
"Never mind. The operation was running smoothly, what went wrong?"
The security officer turned a dial, adjusted a camera and pressed a couple of insignificant buttons before answering; he didn't want to appear as if he was worthless after all.
"Well Sir, it appears that our stakeout was assaulted by at least two members of an elite strike team. We are looking into who it could be but bets are on members of the Corvus Vultures Warriors or even a strike team from the Itani Swift Wind team Six."
Alex sighed, again inward instead of letting his subordinates see the contempt with which he regarded them.
"Do we at the very least have a fix on the target?"
The security officer sat a bit straighter.
"Yes Sir, we have a standard tracer node in the strangle mesh. It appears that they are moving towards the B deck launch bays."
Lex looked at the smiling face of the security officer for another ten seconds until it was absolutely certain that nothing further was forthcoming. Alex quietly contemplated either shooting a bolt through his own or the security officer's head, whichever would be quicker, but managed to restrain himself.
"...and?"
The smile turned to insecurity and a frown.
"I am not sure I understand Sir?"
Lex sighed, this time audible and deeply with an immediate reaction among his staff. A severe shuffling of papers and removing of coffee cups ensued.
"And what have you done to catch them? Do we have anyone following them? What is the contingency plan?"
"Ah, well Sir the contingency plan never allowed for outside help. So right now the only thing we have is the tracer and team fourteen that is trying to intercept the assault team before they hit bay B."
"Team fourteen is the rookie team, right?"
"Yes Sir. They should be in place in less than a minute."
"And it never occurred to you that the rookie team is lightly armed, untrained for combat and most importantly dressed in drag for their surveillance mission?"
"Ah, no Sir. We assumed that they would have a standard complement of weapons and equipment Sir."
"Assume, makes an Ass of U and Me."
Lex snorted in disgust and tossed his half-eaten sandwich to the floor. Food would have to wait until he had salvaged this disaster.
"You really are about as useful as tits on a hive queen. Patch me through to launch bay B, alert our escort fighters to launch and be ready for interception on immediate notice, alert teams one through six that they are to haul ass down to bay B."
The officer punched buttons furiously as he tried to accomplish all the orders at one time. Lex looked on for another ten seconds before he grabbed his own Ineubis personal defence armour and weapon before moving towards bay B at a trot. If he hurried he might just be there to get some of the action.
###
The assistant dockmaster of launch bay B was watching a porn holo flick when his call button started blinking. Thinking that it was the other assistant who had left earlier to grab them a set of pizza's, he just received the incoming call without turning the holo flick off. The slightly sweating face of Alex Hartron appeared and the assistant dockmaster hurried to end the porn holo, managing to turn the volume way up before pausing it.
"Sir, what can we do for you?"
"I need to know who is docked at launch bay B immediately."
"Stand by Sir, I'll have to check the roster."
He started by turning the visual off on the holo player and then punched up schematics for the bay.
"Sir, I have the list here: One Tunguska Centaur, one Axia Wraith, One plain Revenant, two Behemoth bulk carriers and one Warthog Mk II."
"I said who, not what."
"Ah, sorry Sir. I cannot do that due to the non-disclosure agreement between Xang Xi and the customers."
"Initiate override directive nineteen. Codeword Fall Gelb. Who owns those ships?"
The assistant dockmaster punched the code in and checked the authorisation. The council level authorisation was more than enough.
"Right Sir, the list will be streamed now. Stand by for data."
The response was almost immediate.
"Empty bays three, nine, eleven and seventeen. Launch the Strike Force and make them stand by for my command. Alert the second watch Strike Force and contact my headquarters for more updates. Confirm."
The assistant dockmaster sent the full alert and patched through to APIG HQ. The dockmaster would be here in ten minutes or so, the standard response time for a major alert during down-time.
###
Azumi entered the empty launch bay on sector B with Retractile in tow. She checked the launch bays and smiled at the six ships that filled a third of the available bays. Now she only had to locate one of the two ships that.... The station tremored slightly as four of the six bays revolved and emptied their content to space. Azumi frowned and stopped while she considered what just happened.
"What the hell did we scrape up Az?"
Azumi turned around and grinned at Retractile, the grin widening even further as she saw the two badly dressed drag queens that were stumbling along on too high plateau shoes down the side corridor towards them.
"I don't know Ret but I have a feeling that this is about to be fun."
She tackled Ret just in time as a single bullet singed overhead and buried itself deep in a plastic sign that was over bay six. He landed face first with Azumi on top of him and grinned back.
"Never a boring moment with you around."
More bullets tore over their heads and they hugged the deck plates. This was untenable, but would have to do for now.
Alex cursed internally, a very impressive string of blood curdling oaths that would have shocked his subordinates if they had ever heard it. However, the only word that managed to escape across his tightly sealed lips was an almost silent
"Bugger."
"Excuse me Sir?"
"Never mind. The operation was running smoothly, what went wrong?"
The security officer turned a dial, adjusted a camera and pressed a couple of insignificant buttons before answering; he didn't want to appear as if he was worthless after all.
"Well Sir, it appears that our stakeout was assaulted by at least two members of an elite strike team. We are looking into who it could be but bets are on members of the Corvus Vultures Warriors or even a strike team from the Itani Swift Wind team Six."
Alex sighed, again inward instead of letting his subordinates see the contempt with which he regarded them.
"Do we at the very least have a fix on the target?"
The security officer sat a bit straighter.
"Yes Sir, we have a standard tracer node in the strangle mesh. It appears that they are moving towards the B deck launch bays."
Lex looked at the smiling face of the security officer for another ten seconds until it was absolutely certain that nothing further was forthcoming. Alex quietly contemplated either shooting a bolt through his own or the security officer's head, whichever would be quicker, but managed to restrain himself.
"...and?"
The smile turned to insecurity and a frown.
"I am not sure I understand Sir?"
Lex sighed, this time audible and deeply with an immediate reaction among his staff. A severe shuffling of papers and removing of coffee cups ensued.
"And what have you done to catch them? Do we have anyone following them? What is the contingency plan?"
"Ah, well Sir the contingency plan never allowed for outside help. So right now the only thing we have is the tracer and team fourteen that is trying to intercept the assault team before they hit bay B."
"Team fourteen is the rookie team, right?"
"Yes Sir. They should be in place in less than a minute."
"And it never occurred to you that the rookie team is lightly armed, untrained for combat and most importantly dressed in drag for their surveillance mission?"
"Ah, no Sir. We assumed that they would have a standard complement of weapons and equipment Sir."
"Assume, makes an Ass of U and Me."
Lex snorted in disgust and tossed his half-eaten sandwich to the floor. Food would have to wait until he had salvaged this disaster.
"You really are about as useful as tits on a hive queen. Patch me through to launch bay B, alert our escort fighters to launch and be ready for interception on immediate notice, alert teams one through six that they are to haul ass down to bay B."
The officer punched buttons furiously as he tried to accomplish all the orders at one time. Lex looked on for another ten seconds before he grabbed his own Ineubis personal defence armour and weapon before moving towards bay B at a trot. If he hurried he might just be there to get some of the action.
###
The assistant dockmaster of launch bay B was watching a porn holo flick when his call button started blinking. Thinking that it was the other assistant who had left earlier to grab them a set of pizza's, he just received the incoming call without turning the holo flick off. The slightly sweating face of Alex Hartron appeared and the assistant dockmaster hurried to end the porn holo, managing to turn the volume way up before pausing it.
"Sir, what can we do for you?"
"I need to know who is docked at launch bay B immediately."
"Stand by Sir, I'll have to check the roster."
He started by turning the visual off on the holo player and then punched up schematics for the bay.
"Sir, I have the list here: One Tunguska Centaur, one Axia Wraith, One plain Revenant, two Behemoth bulk carriers and one Warthog Mk II."
"I said who, not what."
"Ah, sorry Sir. I cannot do that due to the non-disclosure agreement between Xang Xi and the customers."
"Initiate override directive nineteen. Codeword Fall Gelb. Who owns those ships?"
The assistant dockmaster punched the code in and checked the authorisation. The council level authorisation was more than enough.
"Right Sir, the list will be streamed now. Stand by for data."
The response was almost immediate.
"Empty bays three, nine, eleven and seventeen. Launch the Strike Force and make them stand by for my command. Alert the second watch Strike Force and contact my headquarters for more updates. Confirm."
The assistant dockmaster sent the full alert and patched through to APIG HQ. The dockmaster would be here in ten minutes or so, the standard response time for a major alert during down-time.
###
Azumi entered the empty launch bay on sector B with Retractile in tow. She checked the launch bays and smiled at the six ships that filled a third of the available bays. Now she only had to locate one of the two ships that.... The station tremored slightly as four of the six bays revolved and emptied their content to space. Azumi frowned and stopped while she considered what just happened.
"What the hell did we scrape up Az?"
Azumi turned around and grinned at Retractile, the grin widening even further as she saw the two badly dressed drag queens that were stumbling along on too high plateau shoes down the side corridor towards them.
"I don't know Ret but I have a feeling that this is about to be fun."
She tackled Ret just in time as a single bullet singed overhead and buried itself deep in a plastic sign that was over bay six. He landed face first with Azumi on top of him and grinned back.
"Never a boring moment with you around."
More bullets tore over their heads and they hugged the deck plates. This was untenable, but would have to do for now.
N A O K O ! ! !
14. Evade and escape.
The bullet’s snapping overhead followed by the hard slap of impacting against the plastic bulkhead covering behind them ceased. Azumi looked over to the side where Retractile was lying with his eyes closed, frowned and pushed his shoulder.
"Don't tell me you are asleep."
A smile crossed his lips and he slowly shook his head, concentrating on something. Suddenly he rose quickly and sprinted towards the gunmen while shouting a mighty battle roar. Azumi peeked over the crate they had used for cover and saw two drag-clad young men that tried to run away as fast as they could with Retractile pursuing them. Easily catching them, especially since they were running on ten centimetre high plateau shoes, he launched into a running kick that hit the left drag between the shoulder blades and made him tackle his buddy. Retractile landed on top of them and instantly started punching, kicking and biting until only a low moaning was heard from the two agents. Azumi shook her head slowly as she grinned at the spectacle. Retractile rose from the pile huffing and puffing, completely red in the face from exertion. Azumi clapped slowly while he walked back to her.
"My hero. Why'd you lie with your eyes closed?"
Retractile took two deep breaths to stabilise his breathing before answering.
"I was listening for the sound of magazines being ejected. Fortunately for us they swapped at the same time. Damn newbs."
He tossed the two empty UPK standard issue 12 millimetre caseless hold out pistols to the floor and looked down at the still smiling, drooling and gently mumbling William. Sighing he grabbed the shoulder straps on his flight suit and dragged him over to the nearest launch bay.
"Only two ships left Ret, a Wraith and a Tung Centaur. I'll take the Wraith if it is okay with you?"
Retractile nodded and pointed to William.
"You are probably going to have to take him along. Not sure that he won't go nuts once you leave."
Azumi put the id card into the small reader on the side of the Wraith and held her breath while it cycled. It turned green and the lock disengaged allowing Azumi to open the heavily armoured cockpit canopy and peek inside. The cramped cockpit held numerous empty zero-g nipple bottles strewn around on the floor behind the jolly green giant coloured pilot seat. She picked one up, turned the empty container and read the label aloud.
"Cantus Breezers, finest White Russian mix."
She tossed the container to the ground and turned to Retractile.
"Can't you fit him in the rear behind the seat? As long as he is in the strangle net he and I will be okay I think."
Retractile grunted consent and lifted William into the tiny space where William kept quiet as long as Azumi was in sight. She grinned at Retractile and jumped into the seat and donned the helmet. The system activated with a female voice softly speaking from the helmet.
"Welcome back Councillor Eldritch. Please verify your identification."
A slot opened below the control stick and Azumi inserted the stolen card.
"Thank you. All systems are green, ready for launch."
Azumi waved to Retractile and closed the canopy. She launched the ship and was immediately hailed by the Strike Force that was waiting outside.
"Councillor Eldritch, we currently have a minor crisis at the station. Please follow the come-along-bot for a safe escort to jump distance."
A small bot with a double set of blinking triangles that acted like blinking arrows towards the centre of its rear, appeared in front of the Wraith and started boosting for the nearest 3k mark. Azumi followed the bot somewhat unsteady and over-compensating, as the Wraith was vastly heavier than her usual rig. No reaction from the guards, she flew to the jump point and disappeared from L-2.
###
Alex listened to the tactical communication as he was running down the corridor launch bay B. His teams were in position around the bay effectively cutting it off from the station. With only tens of metres to go Alex slowed to a walk to allow his breath to stabilise and digest all the tactical information that was relayed directly to his military grade tactical aug. While not quite as good as the fabled Serco brainpals or the Cort-hancers of the IDF, it was still helpful when you had to coordinate larger groups at once. His had been installed when he had worked in the UPK operations staff a long time ago. Even slightly outdated, it gave him the edge he needed.
Perfect, now they only needed to root the enemy strike team out and grab the Daltas Slasher. He adjusted the groin strap on his armour and sighed at the uncomfortable tightness around his belly. He should have paid more attention to the training scheme but there was always something to do. Nevermind, he signalled his personal team and followed them as they leapfrogged into launch bay B, submachine guns at the ready.
"Clear."
Alex stopped for a second. What the hell did they mean, clear?
"Wounded officers, need immediate evac. Multiple traumas. No trace on strangle net."
Alex noted the signal as it was being sent and the receipt as the medical standby unit received it. No reason to interfere, he kept monitoring. Any second now they would find the enemy and the killer. Maybe they had tried to escape down one of the corridors. He looked at the schematics for the bay and turned slowly to see if anything was wrong on his overlay. There, a single top plate was slightly ajar.
"Lead two, see that plate? Finish the sweep here and send your team up the shaft. It looks like ventilation or something. I am dispatching another team to seal it at the other end."
Alex smiled underneath his full-face helmet. The rats had trapped themselves in a dead end. Only time now. Suddenly he remembered something from an old flick he had seen on a boring watch one day and smiled wickedly. He opened a link to the chief of the medical team, Orderly Smielon and waited for the response. Smielon signalled that he was receiving; he was obviously busy.
"Smiel, I want a full fresh blood DNA scan on the casualties before they are moved out of the area. I'll downlink the files you are looking for in a second. Anything that does not match up is to be considered hostile and will be taken prisoner immediately."
Smielon sent a received signal back without commenting. Excellent, Alex could now concentrate on searching the dock and the tubes. He would not allow any team to stand down until he had found his target. He always got his target.
###
Retractile was doing his utmost not to laugh out loud. The situation had started out badly and gone to worse. All now hinged on an obscure detail in a likewise obscure film.
As soon as Azumi had launched he had run directly to the Centaur and swiped his card. A holographic scanner had activated and scanned him from top to bottom. A click had sounded from the side door and Retractile had grabbed the handle to twist it open. A powerful humming had warned Retractile enough that he opened his hand slightly and didn't have a full grab on the handle when the electricity surge tore through the metal and into his hand. He had withdrawn his hand and jumped back while the rest of the energy discharge crackled harmlessly into the ship's armour plates. He had looked at his singed palm and had sworn whoever owned this ship to the nether pits of Hell. This was not going to be an easy retreat.
He had started to run down the corridor to the main living area but stopped when he heard the sound of heavy boots on the steel mesh of the floor plates. He then turned back and tried another corridor with the same result. He was trapped with nowhere to go. That is when he had remembered that old movie he had seen with sharingan back in CLM HQ and he grinned fiercely. It was actually so stupid that it had a chance to work. He had opened a ceiling plate for the diversion and then did what they had done in the movie.
The bullet’s snapping overhead followed by the hard slap of impacting against the plastic bulkhead covering behind them ceased. Azumi looked over to the side where Retractile was lying with his eyes closed, frowned and pushed his shoulder.
"Don't tell me you are asleep."
A smile crossed his lips and he slowly shook his head, concentrating on something. Suddenly he rose quickly and sprinted towards the gunmen while shouting a mighty battle roar. Azumi peeked over the crate they had used for cover and saw two drag-clad young men that tried to run away as fast as they could with Retractile pursuing them. Easily catching them, especially since they were running on ten centimetre high plateau shoes, he launched into a running kick that hit the left drag between the shoulder blades and made him tackle his buddy. Retractile landed on top of them and instantly started punching, kicking and biting until only a low moaning was heard from the two agents. Azumi shook her head slowly as she grinned at the spectacle. Retractile rose from the pile huffing and puffing, completely red in the face from exertion. Azumi clapped slowly while he walked back to her.
"My hero. Why'd you lie with your eyes closed?"
Retractile took two deep breaths to stabilise his breathing before answering.
"I was listening for the sound of magazines being ejected. Fortunately for us they swapped at the same time. Damn newbs."
He tossed the two empty UPK standard issue 12 millimetre caseless hold out pistols to the floor and looked down at the still smiling, drooling and gently mumbling William. Sighing he grabbed the shoulder straps on his flight suit and dragged him over to the nearest launch bay.
"Only two ships left Ret, a Wraith and a Tung Centaur. I'll take the Wraith if it is okay with you?"
Retractile nodded and pointed to William.
"You are probably going to have to take him along. Not sure that he won't go nuts once you leave."
Azumi put the id card into the small reader on the side of the Wraith and held her breath while it cycled. It turned green and the lock disengaged allowing Azumi to open the heavily armoured cockpit canopy and peek inside. The cramped cockpit held numerous empty zero-g nipple bottles strewn around on the floor behind the jolly green giant coloured pilot seat. She picked one up, turned the empty container and read the label aloud.
"Cantus Breezers, finest White Russian mix."
She tossed the container to the ground and turned to Retractile.
"Can't you fit him in the rear behind the seat? As long as he is in the strangle net he and I will be okay I think."
Retractile grunted consent and lifted William into the tiny space where William kept quiet as long as Azumi was in sight. She grinned at Retractile and jumped into the seat and donned the helmet. The system activated with a female voice softly speaking from the helmet.
"Welcome back Councillor Eldritch. Please verify your identification."
A slot opened below the control stick and Azumi inserted the stolen card.
"Thank you. All systems are green, ready for launch."
Azumi waved to Retractile and closed the canopy. She launched the ship and was immediately hailed by the Strike Force that was waiting outside.
"Councillor Eldritch, we currently have a minor crisis at the station. Please follow the come-along-bot for a safe escort to jump distance."
A small bot with a double set of blinking triangles that acted like blinking arrows towards the centre of its rear, appeared in front of the Wraith and started boosting for the nearest 3k mark. Azumi followed the bot somewhat unsteady and over-compensating, as the Wraith was vastly heavier than her usual rig. No reaction from the guards, she flew to the jump point and disappeared from L-2.
###
Alex listened to the tactical communication as he was running down the corridor launch bay B. His teams were in position around the bay effectively cutting it off from the station. With only tens of metres to go Alex slowed to a walk to allow his breath to stabilise and digest all the tactical information that was relayed directly to his military grade tactical aug. While not quite as good as the fabled Serco brainpals or the Cort-hancers of the IDF, it was still helpful when you had to coordinate larger groups at once. His had been installed when he had worked in the UPK operations staff a long time ago. Even slightly outdated, it gave him the edge he needed.
Perfect, now they only needed to root the enemy strike team out and grab the Daltas Slasher. He adjusted the groin strap on his armour and sighed at the uncomfortable tightness around his belly. He should have paid more attention to the training scheme but there was always something to do. Nevermind, he signalled his personal team and followed them as they leapfrogged into launch bay B, submachine guns at the ready.
"Clear."
Alex stopped for a second. What the hell did they mean, clear?
"Wounded officers, need immediate evac. Multiple traumas. No trace on strangle net."
Alex noted the signal as it was being sent and the receipt as the medical standby unit received it. No reason to interfere, he kept monitoring. Any second now they would find the enemy and the killer. Maybe they had tried to escape down one of the corridors. He looked at the schematics for the bay and turned slowly to see if anything was wrong on his overlay. There, a single top plate was slightly ajar.
"Lead two, see that plate? Finish the sweep here and send your team up the shaft. It looks like ventilation or something. I am dispatching another team to seal it at the other end."
Alex smiled underneath his full-face helmet. The rats had trapped themselves in a dead end. Only time now. Suddenly he remembered something from an old flick he had seen on a boring watch one day and smiled wickedly. He opened a link to the chief of the medical team, Orderly Smielon and waited for the response. Smielon signalled that he was receiving; he was obviously busy.
"Smiel, I want a full fresh blood DNA scan on the casualties before they are moved out of the area. I'll downlink the files you are looking for in a second. Anything that does not match up is to be considered hostile and will be taken prisoner immediately."
Smielon sent a received signal back without commenting. Excellent, Alex could now concentrate on searching the dock and the tubes. He would not allow any team to stand down until he had found his target. He always got his target.
###
Retractile was doing his utmost not to laugh out loud. The situation had started out badly and gone to worse. All now hinged on an obscure detail in a likewise obscure film.
As soon as Azumi had launched he had run directly to the Centaur and swiped his card. A holographic scanner had activated and scanned him from top to bottom. A click had sounded from the side door and Retractile had grabbed the handle to twist it open. A powerful humming had warned Retractile enough that he opened his hand slightly and didn't have a full grab on the handle when the electricity surge tore through the metal and into his hand. He had withdrawn his hand and jumped back while the rest of the energy discharge crackled harmlessly into the ship's armour plates. He had looked at his singed palm and had sworn whoever owned this ship to the nether pits of Hell. This was not going to be an easy retreat.
He had started to run down the corridor to the main living area but stopped when he heard the sound of heavy boots on the steel mesh of the floor plates. He then turned back and tried another corridor with the same result. He was trapped with nowhere to go. That is when he had remembered that old movie he had seen with sharingan back in CLM HQ and he grinned fiercely. It was actually so stupid that it had a chance to work. He had opened a ceiling plate for the diversion and then did what they had done in the movie.
15. Home sweet home
The medical orderly pulled a small amount of blood from the two unconscious agents and dripped it into the ID sequencer. The machine clicked softly to itself while doing its arcane magic as the orderly continued to administer first aid. Even though the sequencer was not the latest model out of Betheshee, it was still leaps and bounds beyond what was generally available in UIT space. Within 5 minutes a suggested body form and face would appear in the display with a full DNA write-up. Then he would just have to check it against the twin profiles that the Boss had sent before. He winced at the bruises and damages on the agents; they both looked like they had been involved in a death match in Odia, complete with bite marks and all. The sequencer chimed softly and he turned to get the read-out. He immediately opened a link to Chief Investigator Alex.
###
Retractile kept low while the sounds of the footsteps faded outside. Only when it had been silent for a minute did he peek out from the crate he was in. Only one person was in the bay, heavily armoured but at least with his back to him. He lifted the lid ever so slowly, stopping three times when the armoured figure moved his body. Fortunately he never turned to face the crate that contained Retractile or he would have been caught immediately. After five nerve-wracking minutes Retractile had managed to remove the lid and like thawing carbon-dioxide ice he rose ever so slightly and silently. The only exit he hadn't tried yet was blocked by the armoured figure. Having no other options, Retractile slowly advanced on his almost motionless back. He was so focused on what the armoured person did that he missed the three pressure canisters on the floor and managed to kick one of them into the two others with an impressively loud noise. The armoured figure started to turn and Retractile charged him low, impacting with his shoulder in the low of his back and shoved his stun gun into the inner thigh of the armoured figure. With a loud crack the figure dropped heavily. Retractile kept the stun gun active until the battery gave up and the armoured figure was absolutely still.
Retractile turned onto his back lying on the top of the armoured figure, panting for a couple of seconds before he started to strip the armour off of the person. The man inside was completely white faced but slowly breathing, vomit slowly dripping from his mouth onto the floor. Retractile grabbed the armour and donned it, clicking the full-face helmet into place with some distaste as the smell of bile, koffee and semi-digested donuts hit his nostrils in full force. He almost gagged but managed to keep it down, rising and staggering slowly down the last corridor he hadn't tried yet. A group of three agents were positioned with two strangle net launchers and a single standard UPK assault rifle, covering the corridor. Retractile straightened and walked past the guards waving his hand as he passed. The guard with the rifle waved back but kept his attention in the direction of the bay. Retractile slowly grinned; he was going to get away.
###
The Warthog Mk II slowly drifted through the asteroids that surrounded Epsilon Hold, a major Xang Xi station and also the headquarters of the Cargo Liberation Movement, CLM. The Warthog had scrape marks in several places, evidence of impacts with a lot of the mainly ferrous asteroids that covered the station like slow snowflakes on a windless night. The Warthog was destined for yet another impact with a particularly bit asteroid in another ten seconds and surely enough, the ship scraped a long ten centimetre gash along the side of the asteroid before the impact sent the Warthog along a new vector. It could just as well have been without a pilot and only the heavily flashing lights from the cockpit betrayed that it was in fact piloted. If the ship had been in an air filled area instead of hard vacuum, any bystanders wouldn't have been in doubt for a second. The extremely loud music that had drums beating in concert with the flickering lights was high enough that they would easily penetrate the armoured canopy of both the Warthog and any bystanders ship. Just like Tramshed liked it. This was his weekly guard duty and he hated every second of it. He would rather be hunting all over grey but took his guard duty seriously. Well, as seriously as could be expected. A single contact appeared on his radar and he queried it for identification. John Eldritch, council member of TGFT, flying a heavily laden Axia Wraith.
"Satan's balls!"
Tramshed almost choked on the remaining decilitre of Pyronean Embers, the last remainder of a particularly nice cargo load he lifted off an Atlas some months ago as he pushed the throttle all the way to max. A twist and a tickle of the belly thrusters ensured that he would be on an intercept course as he engaged the turbo booster function. Accelerating to 220 m/s in almost no time, he switched attention to his targeting. There, acquired, the heavy gauss turret tracked effortlessly as the Wraith flew in a straight line towards the station's docking bay. With a small twitch of his right hand pinky, he sent a challenge to the Wraith.
"Arr, pay me 200,000 KC's or equivalent or I'll boom ya'rrrrrr"
He knew the almost inevitable reply and prepared for the dual set of flares that would be streaming towards him in milliseconds.
"Can the crap Trammie. This ship has been liberated already."
Tramshed was a bit confused about the female voice until his brain went out of targeting mode and into thinking mode.
"How the hell did you steal a TGFT ship Az?!"
"Skill hun. And wearing the right outfit. Listen, Retract is still at Daltas Hold without an exit. Maybe you wanna go get 'im?"
Tramshed considered for about a second before grinning firecely.
"Nah, he is a big boy. I'd rather see that outfit."
The Wraith did a victory roll above his ship as it passed him on the way to the dock. The hearty laughter from Azumi tickled his ears as they both docked.
###
The motley crew of KAOS were gathered in the briefing room as Silia outlined the day's duties. Cat glanced over at the two Itani pilots that were seated to her side. It had been harder for her to accept that she was now working with Itani pilots than she had realised but at least they had behaved civilly.
"So, flight schedules for today: Head Hunter and Bloody Mayhem, escort to Dau, Red Tide and Shenanigan, Sol II and Tomahawk and McMayhem take the Bractus escort. Questions?"
Cat raised her hand while frowning slightly.
"Ah, yes Cat. I forgot your assignment. You will prepare for training in boarding techniques. You should have a full Serco EVA marine training, right?"
Cat nodded but frowned even more.
"Yes ma'am, but I was promised that I could fly. I have my entire kit ready for an escort mission. If at all possible I would like to be allowed to fly."
One of the Itani, McMayhem turned to Cat and grinned. He opened his mouth and a deep almost growling tone emanated from his mouth. It took almost a whole second before Cat discovered that he was saying something.
"Doy yaouw understan' what I yam sayen? I said yaouw can tek me floight instead. I yah loads of stuff ter does."
"Okay McMayhem, you do whatever and Cat will fly with Tomahawk. But tomorrow I want you prepping for training the others in EVA tactics, okay Cat?"
Cat nodded. This was not really what she signed up for but as long as she got to fly and belong she could live with it. Besides, they seemed a nice enough bunch so far. She followed Tomahawk as he left for the launch bay and their respective escort fighters. This was going to be good.
The medical orderly pulled a small amount of blood from the two unconscious agents and dripped it into the ID sequencer. The machine clicked softly to itself while doing its arcane magic as the orderly continued to administer first aid. Even though the sequencer was not the latest model out of Betheshee, it was still leaps and bounds beyond what was generally available in UIT space. Within 5 minutes a suggested body form and face would appear in the display with a full DNA write-up. Then he would just have to check it against the twin profiles that the Boss had sent before. He winced at the bruises and damages on the agents; they both looked like they had been involved in a death match in Odia, complete with bite marks and all. The sequencer chimed softly and he turned to get the read-out. He immediately opened a link to Chief Investigator Alex.
###
Retractile kept low while the sounds of the footsteps faded outside. Only when it had been silent for a minute did he peek out from the crate he was in. Only one person was in the bay, heavily armoured but at least with his back to him. He lifted the lid ever so slowly, stopping three times when the armoured figure moved his body. Fortunately he never turned to face the crate that contained Retractile or he would have been caught immediately. After five nerve-wracking minutes Retractile had managed to remove the lid and like thawing carbon-dioxide ice he rose ever so slightly and silently. The only exit he hadn't tried yet was blocked by the armoured figure. Having no other options, Retractile slowly advanced on his almost motionless back. He was so focused on what the armoured person did that he missed the three pressure canisters on the floor and managed to kick one of them into the two others with an impressively loud noise. The armoured figure started to turn and Retractile charged him low, impacting with his shoulder in the low of his back and shoved his stun gun into the inner thigh of the armoured figure. With a loud crack the figure dropped heavily. Retractile kept the stun gun active until the battery gave up and the armoured figure was absolutely still.
Retractile turned onto his back lying on the top of the armoured figure, panting for a couple of seconds before he started to strip the armour off of the person. The man inside was completely white faced but slowly breathing, vomit slowly dripping from his mouth onto the floor. Retractile grabbed the armour and donned it, clicking the full-face helmet into place with some distaste as the smell of bile, koffee and semi-digested donuts hit his nostrils in full force. He almost gagged but managed to keep it down, rising and staggering slowly down the last corridor he hadn't tried yet. A group of three agents were positioned with two strangle net launchers and a single standard UPK assault rifle, covering the corridor. Retractile straightened and walked past the guards waving his hand as he passed. The guard with the rifle waved back but kept his attention in the direction of the bay. Retractile slowly grinned; he was going to get away.
###
The Warthog Mk II slowly drifted through the asteroids that surrounded Epsilon Hold, a major Xang Xi station and also the headquarters of the Cargo Liberation Movement, CLM. The Warthog had scrape marks in several places, evidence of impacts with a lot of the mainly ferrous asteroids that covered the station like slow snowflakes on a windless night. The Warthog was destined for yet another impact with a particularly bit asteroid in another ten seconds and surely enough, the ship scraped a long ten centimetre gash along the side of the asteroid before the impact sent the Warthog along a new vector. It could just as well have been without a pilot and only the heavily flashing lights from the cockpit betrayed that it was in fact piloted. If the ship had been in an air filled area instead of hard vacuum, any bystanders wouldn't have been in doubt for a second. The extremely loud music that had drums beating in concert with the flickering lights was high enough that they would easily penetrate the armoured canopy of both the Warthog and any bystanders ship. Just like Tramshed liked it. This was his weekly guard duty and he hated every second of it. He would rather be hunting all over grey but took his guard duty seriously. Well, as seriously as could be expected. A single contact appeared on his radar and he queried it for identification. John Eldritch, council member of TGFT, flying a heavily laden Axia Wraith.
"Satan's balls!"
Tramshed almost choked on the remaining decilitre of Pyronean Embers, the last remainder of a particularly nice cargo load he lifted off an Atlas some months ago as he pushed the throttle all the way to max. A twist and a tickle of the belly thrusters ensured that he would be on an intercept course as he engaged the turbo booster function. Accelerating to 220 m/s in almost no time, he switched attention to his targeting. There, acquired, the heavy gauss turret tracked effortlessly as the Wraith flew in a straight line towards the station's docking bay. With a small twitch of his right hand pinky, he sent a challenge to the Wraith.
"Arr, pay me 200,000 KC's or equivalent or I'll boom ya'rrrrrr"
He knew the almost inevitable reply and prepared for the dual set of flares that would be streaming towards him in milliseconds.
"Can the crap Trammie. This ship has been liberated already."
Tramshed was a bit confused about the female voice until his brain went out of targeting mode and into thinking mode.
"How the hell did you steal a TGFT ship Az?!"
"Skill hun. And wearing the right outfit. Listen, Retract is still at Daltas Hold without an exit. Maybe you wanna go get 'im?"
Tramshed considered for about a second before grinning firecely.
"Nah, he is a big boy. I'd rather see that outfit."
The Wraith did a victory roll above his ship as it passed him on the way to the dock. The hearty laughter from Azumi tickled his ears as they both docked.
###
The motley crew of KAOS were gathered in the briefing room as Silia outlined the day's duties. Cat glanced over at the two Itani pilots that were seated to her side. It had been harder for her to accept that she was now working with Itani pilots than she had realised but at least they had behaved civilly.
"So, flight schedules for today: Head Hunter and Bloody Mayhem, escort to Dau, Red Tide and Shenanigan, Sol II and Tomahawk and McMayhem take the Bractus escort. Questions?"
Cat raised her hand while frowning slightly.
"Ah, yes Cat. I forgot your assignment. You will prepare for training in boarding techniques. You should have a full Serco EVA marine training, right?"
Cat nodded but frowned even more.
"Yes ma'am, but I was promised that I could fly. I have my entire kit ready for an escort mission. If at all possible I would like to be allowed to fly."
One of the Itani, McMayhem turned to Cat and grinned. He opened his mouth and a deep almost growling tone emanated from his mouth. It took almost a whole second before Cat discovered that he was saying something.
"Doy yaouw understan' what I yam sayen? I said yaouw can tek me floight instead. I yah loads of stuff ter does."
"Okay McMayhem, you do whatever and Cat will fly with Tomahawk. But tomorrow I want you prepping for training the others in EVA tactics, okay Cat?"
Cat nodded. This was not really what she signed up for but as long as she got to fly and belong she could live with it. Besides, they seemed a nice enough bunch so far. She followed Tomahawk as he left for the launch bay and their respective escort fighters. This was going to be good.
16. Safe.
Azumi docked with too much speed as usual and applied the forward thrusters with full power to bring the ship to a halt. She had, however, forgotten that the Wraith handled slightly differently than her usual Centurion Rev C. Especially when said Wraith had a full cargo hold. The resulting crash crushed the nose of the Wraith completely and pushed Azumi hard against restraints while hammering her head into the chainglass HUD at roughly the same time William came flying through the cockpit and slammed against the cockpit visor before landing on Azumi's lap. She looked down at the widely grinning face.
"Janice."
"Listen hun, I don't know who this Janice is okay?"
A drop of her blood dripped onto his cheek. She raised a finger to the tip of her nose to see how badly she had been hurt. A gentle prodding off the nose told her that it wasn't broken. She tried to breathe deeply through her nose and immediately noticed the smell of unwashed body, alcohol, blood, vomit and worse coming from the person in her lap. Swallowing the bile that tried to force its way up through her neck she pushed William away and opened the canopy.
"..the fuck do you think you are crashing into my docking cradle like that? I'll have your hide for this, I'll rip your arms off and beat you over the head with the bleeding stumps.."
The dock master was in his usual cheerful mood outside and Azumi stuck her head out to let him know that now was probably a good time to shut up. He didn't recognise her and didn't.
"I should have known it was a woman flying in such a crappy way. I'll make sure your pilot's licence is revoked in all of known space you worthless piece of...."
He stopped his tirade. Azumi had lifted the heavy pistol that was holstered inside the Wraith's cockpit and aimed it at the dock master.
"What the hell do you think you are doing? Don't you know who I am? Don't you know this is a CLM protected station? Are you so fragging insane or just so lamely stupid that you have..."
A whip-like crack cut through the bay and silenced the stream of insults from the dock master. Azumi had lost her patience with the dock master and shot him with a single round in the belly. She crawled out of the Wraith, walked over to the dock master and placed a single high-heeled boot on his chest while aiming directly at his groin with the pistol.
"Yes little man-ling. I am perfectly aware of all this and more. Now, I need for you to decide something for me. Are you going to behave nicely from now on or are you going to be sitting down while peeing for the rest of your miserable short life?"
Azumi never got the answer. From the corridor that led directly to the CLM headquarters, noise in the form of boots running on deck plates could be heard and a single high pitched whine from a gauss rifle that powered up made her look in that direction. Physhi, in full impact vest although slightly too big and helmet was aiming at her with an Ineubis high-powered gauss assault rifle.
"Drop your weapon."
"Can it Physhi. I am not in the mood. Besides, I have a guest with me."
The whine of the compressor chamber's engine died as Physhi engaged the safety switch. He took his helmet off and grinned sheepishly.
"Azumi-chan. Didn't know it was you. You look good as a blonde."
The other docking bay received an incoming ship and they both turned to see Tramshed's Warthog nestle safely in the cradle. The force field around the cradle collapsed and along with the crack of rushing air, an extremely loud rhythmic noise assaulted their ears, worsening as Tramshed opened the canopy. Tramshed touched a single button and the music died, leaving naught but a ringing sound.
"Physhi, contact yoda and tell him I need him down here. In the meantime I'll get my passenger out of the Wraith with Trammie's help."
Physhi nodded and started back into CLM HQ, helmet under arm. Azumi turned to the approaching and wickedly grinning Tramshed.
"That was some landing. You know that ships have retro thrusters, right?"
"Shaddup. It must be full of something. I am not used to flying cargo ships, you know that."
"Whatever. Who is the passenger?"
###
Surbius Bondevo, second in command of TGFT, Dark Master of Forms, Epic level Puppeteer and extreme control aficionado wished the maker of the sandwich he was eating a slow and painful death. He decidedly remembered that he had asked for a sandwich without soy-gherkins and yet here the ineffable proof of their failure lay in his lap slowly soaking his tunic pants with it’s disgusting juices. Slowly he put the offending sandwich on the table, grabbed the soy-gherkin and placed it on the side of his plate with a disgusted look before he slowly unfolded his napkin and wiped his fingers and mouth. Only then did he answer the call that had made him drop the soy-gherkin.
"Lieutenant Bondevo."
The person in the other end was breathing very deeply and didn't respond. With the patience born of countless hours of filing paperwork according to The Masterplan Surbius once more responded.
"Hello, this is Lieutenant Bondevo."
The person in the other replied with something that was absolute gibberish. Surbius ticked the persons off that had this number and came up with three persons that had a history of being as drunk as to be incoherent. He put a tracer on the call and with no little mental effort concentrated on getting any information out of the caller. After another painful minute it became clear that the caller was John Eldritch. Which was incidentally Surbius' first guess anyway.
"Councillor Eldritch, you need to speak slower. Why did you call me?"
The trace came up with a location, Daltas hold. Once more Surbius was not surprised. The station was infamous as a place for partying with no holds barred and had been the favourite haunt for many TGFT pilots.
"Myeaw sjiep hraz bjen stjowen. Wij ajdi tju. Yai trued de giet haome"
Surbius let the babble run through his vodecoder, enabled the decryption function and waited with the infinite patience of a basalt statue for the result. Ah.
"Let me understand this correctly. Your ship has been stolen along with your id? What does the goat have to do with it? Never mind, I'll send someone to get you."
Surbius hung up and clasped his hands together, fingers lightly splayed out, and brought them up in front of his face. Who to send, who to send. Ah, yes.
###
Tomahawk and Cat went through the wormhole to Odia some two thousand metres before the convoy arrived at the jump zone. Their light fighters were better suited to scouting than the three Warthog TD's that brought up the rear of the convoy and together the five ships would provide security for their six Behemoth class transports against everything but the most dedicated and concentrated assault. A quick scan only showed a single Atlas class and Cat turned towards it to investigate. Tomahawk, being the leader of the flight, sent the all-clear and the Behemoths started traversing the flaw in space that allowed for near instantaneous movement between systems light-years apart. Cat came within effective range of her targeting radar and pinged the Atlas. It came up with a PA IFF. Cat almost sent a friendly signal when she noticed the heavy scarring on the side of the ship. She flew closer and hailed the ship.
"This is pilot Cat of the KAOS guild. Do not interfere with this convoy and fly safe."
The response was a flare hammered directly at her Vulture along with a string of energy bolts flung from a gauss turret. At the same time twelve rings of exotic matter heralded twelve fighters that had just exited from inter-system jumps. Cat stomped her left foot and rotated safely out of the cone of gauss bolts but was not fast enough to avoid the flare. The simple proximity fuse exploded and sent extremely hot shrapnel into her ship, damaging it slightly but more annoying, affected her controls. Cat immediately cut all flight assistance and started pushing her controls in semi-random movements to defeat the auto aim on the gauss turret. She managed to avoid most of the bolts and tried to get a targeting solution. Failing, she aimed dead-eye and fired a long string of neutrons at the Atlas hitting it several times. She used her vastly more manoeuvrable ship to stay inside the arming range of the flares while scoring hit after hit on the Atlas. With smoke streaming from its sides, the pilot of the Atlas started tossing flares around as fast as he could but it made no difference. Cat hammered through the remaining armour easily and was tossed away from the damaged ship by the resulting explosion like a child's toy. The damages to her ship were not too bad and she immediately turned to the other fighters that had assaulted them. This was not going to be easy.
Azumi docked with too much speed as usual and applied the forward thrusters with full power to bring the ship to a halt. She had, however, forgotten that the Wraith handled slightly differently than her usual Centurion Rev C. Especially when said Wraith had a full cargo hold. The resulting crash crushed the nose of the Wraith completely and pushed Azumi hard against restraints while hammering her head into the chainglass HUD at roughly the same time William came flying through the cockpit and slammed against the cockpit visor before landing on Azumi's lap. She looked down at the widely grinning face.
"Janice."
"Listen hun, I don't know who this Janice is okay?"
A drop of her blood dripped onto his cheek. She raised a finger to the tip of her nose to see how badly she had been hurt. A gentle prodding off the nose told her that it wasn't broken. She tried to breathe deeply through her nose and immediately noticed the smell of unwashed body, alcohol, blood, vomit and worse coming from the person in her lap. Swallowing the bile that tried to force its way up through her neck she pushed William away and opened the canopy.
"..the fuck do you think you are crashing into my docking cradle like that? I'll have your hide for this, I'll rip your arms off and beat you over the head with the bleeding stumps.."
The dock master was in his usual cheerful mood outside and Azumi stuck her head out to let him know that now was probably a good time to shut up. He didn't recognise her and didn't.
"I should have known it was a woman flying in such a crappy way. I'll make sure your pilot's licence is revoked in all of known space you worthless piece of...."
He stopped his tirade. Azumi had lifted the heavy pistol that was holstered inside the Wraith's cockpit and aimed it at the dock master.
"What the hell do you think you are doing? Don't you know who I am? Don't you know this is a CLM protected station? Are you so fragging insane or just so lamely stupid that you have..."
A whip-like crack cut through the bay and silenced the stream of insults from the dock master. Azumi had lost her patience with the dock master and shot him with a single round in the belly. She crawled out of the Wraith, walked over to the dock master and placed a single high-heeled boot on his chest while aiming directly at his groin with the pistol.
"Yes little man-ling. I am perfectly aware of all this and more. Now, I need for you to decide something for me. Are you going to behave nicely from now on or are you going to be sitting down while peeing for the rest of your miserable short life?"
Azumi never got the answer. From the corridor that led directly to the CLM headquarters, noise in the form of boots running on deck plates could be heard and a single high pitched whine from a gauss rifle that powered up made her look in that direction. Physhi, in full impact vest although slightly too big and helmet was aiming at her with an Ineubis high-powered gauss assault rifle.
"Drop your weapon."
"Can it Physhi. I am not in the mood. Besides, I have a guest with me."
The whine of the compressor chamber's engine died as Physhi engaged the safety switch. He took his helmet off and grinned sheepishly.
"Azumi-chan. Didn't know it was you. You look good as a blonde."
The other docking bay received an incoming ship and they both turned to see Tramshed's Warthog nestle safely in the cradle. The force field around the cradle collapsed and along with the crack of rushing air, an extremely loud rhythmic noise assaulted their ears, worsening as Tramshed opened the canopy. Tramshed touched a single button and the music died, leaving naught but a ringing sound.
"Physhi, contact yoda and tell him I need him down here. In the meantime I'll get my passenger out of the Wraith with Trammie's help."
Physhi nodded and started back into CLM HQ, helmet under arm. Azumi turned to the approaching and wickedly grinning Tramshed.
"That was some landing. You know that ships have retro thrusters, right?"
"Shaddup. It must be full of something. I am not used to flying cargo ships, you know that."
"Whatever. Who is the passenger?"
###
Surbius Bondevo, second in command of TGFT, Dark Master of Forms, Epic level Puppeteer and extreme control aficionado wished the maker of the sandwich he was eating a slow and painful death. He decidedly remembered that he had asked for a sandwich without soy-gherkins and yet here the ineffable proof of their failure lay in his lap slowly soaking his tunic pants with it’s disgusting juices. Slowly he put the offending sandwich on the table, grabbed the soy-gherkin and placed it on the side of his plate with a disgusted look before he slowly unfolded his napkin and wiped his fingers and mouth. Only then did he answer the call that had made him drop the soy-gherkin.
"Lieutenant Bondevo."
The person in the other end was breathing very deeply and didn't respond. With the patience born of countless hours of filing paperwork according to The Masterplan Surbius once more responded.
"Hello, this is Lieutenant Bondevo."
The person in the other replied with something that was absolute gibberish. Surbius ticked the persons off that had this number and came up with three persons that had a history of being as drunk as to be incoherent. He put a tracer on the call and with no little mental effort concentrated on getting any information out of the caller. After another painful minute it became clear that the caller was John Eldritch. Which was incidentally Surbius' first guess anyway.
"Councillor Eldritch, you need to speak slower. Why did you call me?"
The trace came up with a location, Daltas hold. Once more Surbius was not surprised. The station was infamous as a place for partying with no holds barred and had been the favourite haunt for many TGFT pilots.
"Myeaw sjiep hraz bjen stjowen. Wij ajdi tju. Yai trued de giet haome"
Surbius let the babble run through his vodecoder, enabled the decryption function and waited with the infinite patience of a basalt statue for the result. Ah.
"Let me understand this correctly. Your ship has been stolen along with your id? What does the goat have to do with it? Never mind, I'll send someone to get you."
Surbius hung up and clasped his hands together, fingers lightly splayed out, and brought them up in front of his face. Who to send, who to send. Ah, yes.
###
Tomahawk and Cat went through the wormhole to Odia some two thousand metres before the convoy arrived at the jump zone. Their light fighters were better suited to scouting than the three Warthog TD's that brought up the rear of the convoy and together the five ships would provide security for their six Behemoth class transports against everything but the most dedicated and concentrated assault. A quick scan only showed a single Atlas class and Cat turned towards it to investigate. Tomahawk, being the leader of the flight, sent the all-clear and the Behemoths started traversing the flaw in space that allowed for near instantaneous movement between systems light-years apart. Cat came within effective range of her targeting radar and pinged the Atlas. It came up with a PA IFF. Cat almost sent a friendly signal when she noticed the heavy scarring on the side of the ship. She flew closer and hailed the ship.
"This is pilot Cat of the KAOS guild. Do not interfere with this convoy and fly safe."
The response was a flare hammered directly at her Vulture along with a string of energy bolts flung from a gauss turret. At the same time twelve rings of exotic matter heralded twelve fighters that had just exited from inter-system jumps. Cat stomped her left foot and rotated safely out of the cone of gauss bolts but was not fast enough to avoid the flare. The simple proximity fuse exploded and sent extremely hot shrapnel into her ship, damaging it slightly but more annoying, affected her controls. Cat immediately cut all flight assistance and started pushing her controls in semi-random movements to defeat the auto aim on the gauss turret. She managed to avoid most of the bolts and tried to get a targeting solution. Failing, she aimed dead-eye and fired a long string of neutrons at the Atlas hitting it several times. She used her vastly more manoeuvrable ship to stay inside the arming range of the flares while scoring hit after hit on the Atlas. With smoke streaming from its sides, the pilot of the Atlas started tossing flares around as fast as he could but it made no difference. Cat hammered through the remaining armour easily and was tossed away from the damaged ship by the resulting explosion like a child's toy. The damages to her ship were not too bad and she immediately turned to the other fighters that had assaulted them. This was not going to be easy.
17. KAOS convoy
The Vulture twisted frantically to avoid the incoming flare and almost made it. The power of the flare explosion was enough to spin the light fighter around and with a series of precisely placed positrons shots through the wings forced the Vulture pilot to break off the engagement. Unfortunately for the pilot, the Behemoth that burned at maximum speed through space had a very active top gunner and the string of heavy gauss tore the remaining armour off and exploded the ship. Tomahawk twisted his ship to engage the next pirate ship, checking the onboard stores as he did so. Three flares left, after that he would be a sitting duck. The pirate Warthog immediately in front of him was pumping strings of gauss into the Behemoth while dodging the turrets' ineffective fire. Tomahawk fired a single flare at the Warthog and smiled when he saw the rocket impact directly on the ship and tear armour off in large strips. The concussion damage was enough to make the pirate lose his target but unfortunately made him point straight at Tomahawk. Twisting madly to get out of the gauss targeting-cone, Tomahawk fired another flare below the pirate followed by his last flare directly at the ship. The Warthog was tossed around like a feather in a tornado before succumbing to the combined fires of the Behemoth and Tomahawk's single AAP. Tomahawk checked his radar and cursed. Still six pirates and only him along with the rookie. He flicked his comms.
"Cat, break off. Or stay, I don't particularly care. I am leaving for Sedina again. T-hawk out."
Hearing no response he chuckled at the memory of being as young as the rookie, as idealistic and even naïve and left the sector.
###
The final carbon atom clicked into place and the buckyball sphere finished the process it had started around one billion years ago. Not that it had been an intelligent process in the least; the buckyball atoms had simply by chance and opportunity formed within the small speck of carbonic ore that was all that remained of a meteorite impact with Sedina II. In the buckyball configuration, which is even more stable than diamond, the carbon atoms could expect to stay together until the end of time. Or until they were smashed against Hortan's Behemoth, whichever came first. What could have been an artefact that displayed how random and beautiful nature is, instead ended as a black smear against the chainglass visor on "Ye Olde Sloth Moth II". Hortan frowned at the smear but there was nothing he could do about it now. He was late as it was, having received Surbius' summons while he was in the delicate process of distilling the very first batch of the newest Helio Mists. It had been a choice of ruining a whole batch of fermented liquid or letting Surbius hold for a minute. No choice really, he saved the Mists and called Surbius back as soon as he could. And now he was on his way to Daltas Hold of all places, all on his own to pick up John Eldritch who was in some kind of trouble. A single Valkyrie entered the sector immediately after Hortan and he started boosting to get away, just in case it was a pirate. His speaker crackled with an in-sector hail.
Atice-> "Hail trader. Have a safe flight. Remember to report any pirates to VPR on channel 4357."
He breathed easily again and sent his own reply in return.
"Peace, love and happiness be with you friend. Fly safe and prosper."
The Valkyrie disappeared before he himself could jump out of the sector, obviously hurrying somewhere. Hortan engaged his own jump engines and slid through underspace to Daltas Hold. Several ships were waiting outside the station as well as a group of semiautonomous Serco assault and defence bots. None were classified as enemies and Hortan pushed the throttle slowly forwards and aimed his ship at the main docking bay. He sent a request for permission to dock via the ships computer and received confirmation in the form of a trajectory, a velocity and a fee. He accepted and initiated the docking procedure. About 1500 metres from the bay his proximity sensor started softly chiming, increasing in volume and intensity as a ship was nearing his own. He looked in the direction of the radar echo and spotted a blue Centurion with shark's teeth painted under the nose of the canopy boost towards him. Hortan panicked and pushed the turbo function, practically kicking his ship forwards with mighty force since the Behemoth was empty. Apparently it was a major surprise to the Centurion pilot as well and a stream of otherwise well-aimed positrons intersected where his ship would have been. Before the Centurion pilot could adjust and fire again, Hortan entered the NFZ and the Centurion broke away from the engagement.
Retractile->"Remember to stop☺. I'll be waiting for you, next time 200,000 or I won't fire warning shots."
Hortan frowned. What did he mean, remember to stop... He looked up at the fast approaching armoured bulk of the station and applied the front thrusters at full power but forgetting to turn the turbo off. The Behemoth thundered into the docking bay at 150 m/s and jammed itself into the reception cradle. Fortunately for Hortan, the cradle was designed to take the larger XC version of the Behemoth carrying a full load of Xithricite and thus had vastly larger shock dampers than normal. The deceleration was violent but still safely contained. He did his usual post mission flight checks methodically as always before exiting through the small armoured door in the side of his ship. The smell of unwashed bodies, heavy spices and malfunctioning de-humidifiers assaulted his nose and reminded him why he hated going to new stations. He was somewhat used to the smells of Dau K-10, slightly clinical, a tinge of metal and cleaning fluids, and loved the pungent heavy oily smells mixed with the yeasty soy vats of Aeolus Outpost, his home. He was reminded of the old proverb, No place like home. Still, this was not a social call. He opened his PDA and queried for the station security location. Seeing it placed in the opposite end of the station he sighed and started moving.
###
Cat pushed on the right foot pedal as hard as she could to avoid the incoming neutron fire and succeeded only to fly directly at several gauss bolts from one of the pirates. Releasing the right foot, pressing the left foot while twisting the stick and engaging the bottom left rear thruster enabled her to skirt just outside the kill zone and allowed her to tumble to relative safety. If she had been that type of person, a full and very long string of curses would have been the next thing that came flying towards the chainglass visor. Instead she turned her Vulture and tried to spot a hole in the pirate formation that would allow her to re-engage the pirates on a less than four-on-one odds and thus continue to protect the trade ships but in vain. These pirates were very good. Four new radar echoes popped up on her screen. The radar echoes moved slowly towards the convoy and she bit her lower lip slightly in anger. No doubt that these ships were pirate salvage ships for when she had failed her mission. Again. The radar identified the four ships as a Valkyrie, a Centurion Rev C, a Warthog Mk II and a Marauder. Her radio crackled on the hail frequency.
"If you need any help with the convoy, let us know. Have a safe flight. Remember to report any pirates to VPR on channel 4357."
Cat frowned a bit before her brain connected the lines. Apparently they thought that she was the pirate and the pirates were protecting the convoy against her. She punched the sector channel frequency and pushed the message switch.
"This is pilot Cat from the guild KAOS. Pirates attacking convoy right now. They are keeping me away from escorting the trade ships. Please assist. Purple lead, confirm."
The leading trade ship confirmed her message immediately and she received a request for IFF ident from the new ships. Cat sent it immediately and smiled when the four ship's beacons started showing as green instead of yellow on her screen. The pirate ships in front of her had now been forced to shift their focus to cover the four new ships and that meant that she only faced two enemies now. Grinning from ear to ear she stopped backtracking and pushed the throttle to forward. The opposing Vulture dodged quickly downwards but too slow to cheat the auto-aim on Cat's gauss canons and a new set of holes appeared where the incandescent balls of blue plasma had struck xithricite armour. She followed the opposing Vulture and managed to score another hit before the weave of neutrons in front of her ship from the other enemy came too close and forced her to break off. Twin flashes of light painted her cockpit from the top left direction with a larger secondary explosion that was the telltale signature of a Vulture exploding. The neutron fire in front of her had stopped with the explosion and she twisted the Vulture to once more target her enemy, finding the rear end of the ship presenting itself as the enemy pilot tried to get away. A double shot of gauss plasma slammed into the light fighter and tore it apart in a gratifying explosion that made Cat scream out aloud in victory.
She scanned her surroundings and saw only three pirate ships remaining but running for jump distance with two of the Viper’s ships in hot pursuit. One Behemoth class ship had been destroyed with the others severely damaged but still space worthy. The pirates jumped out along with the pursuing Vipers and Cat relaxed slightly again. She queried the IFF of the two remaining Vipers. Strat and Niut'likatsin in their Rev C and Marauder respectively. She thumbed her comms button.
"Thanks for the help. It would have been a slaughter without you."
"No problem Cat. We are here to help. Do you need a further escort to your destination? We can scout ahead if you need it."
Cat counted the distance to their jump zone and shook her head while answering.
"No thank you, that will be fine. I am expecting that we will have station security at Corvus Hold. But thanks again."
"No problem Cat. Feel free to contact us again if you need assistance with pirates. That goes for your guild mates as well naturally."
Cat smiled as the two fighters broke off and moved on separate vectors towards jump distance. The integrity and friendliness they had shown was something worth striving for and she decided that she would try to follow the same path within KAOS. She only hoped that her guild mates would help her.
###
William slowly drooled onto the floor in complete happiness. Ever since he had been dragged out of the ship and placed on the deck plates he had only moved to keep Janice within his vision. He had no idea how she had survived but there was no doubt that he had re-found his reason for existing. So far she looked like she didn't know what to do with him and for some obscure reason she pretended not to recognise him. But he knew, he even recognised her accent and that delicious tingle in her voice when she spoke. Eventually she would have a plan for him and he was happy to play along as long as he could stay with her. Even if it meant lying on a bare floor and drool.
The Vulture twisted frantically to avoid the incoming flare and almost made it. The power of the flare explosion was enough to spin the light fighter around and with a series of precisely placed positrons shots through the wings forced the Vulture pilot to break off the engagement. Unfortunately for the pilot, the Behemoth that burned at maximum speed through space had a very active top gunner and the string of heavy gauss tore the remaining armour off and exploded the ship. Tomahawk twisted his ship to engage the next pirate ship, checking the onboard stores as he did so. Three flares left, after that he would be a sitting duck. The pirate Warthog immediately in front of him was pumping strings of gauss into the Behemoth while dodging the turrets' ineffective fire. Tomahawk fired a single flare at the Warthog and smiled when he saw the rocket impact directly on the ship and tear armour off in large strips. The concussion damage was enough to make the pirate lose his target but unfortunately made him point straight at Tomahawk. Twisting madly to get out of the gauss targeting-cone, Tomahawk fired another flare below the pirate followed by his last flare directly at the ship. The Warthog was tossed around like a feather in a tornado before succumbing to the combined fires of the Behemoth and Tomahawk's single AAP. Tomahawk checked his radar and cursed. Still six pirates and only him along with the rookie. He flicked his comms.
"Cat, break off. Or stay, I don't particularly care. I am leaving for Sedina again. T-hawk out."
Hearing no response he chuckled at the memory of being as young as the rookie, as idealistic and even naïve and left the sector.
###
The final carbon atom clicked into place and the buckyball sphere finished the process it had started around one billion years ago. Not that it had been an intelligent process in the least; the buckyball atoms had simply by chance and opportunity formed within the small speck of carbonic ore that was all that remained of a meteorite impact with Sedina II. In the buckyball configuration, which is even more stable than diamond, the carbon atoms could expect to stay together until the end of time. Or until they were smashed against Hortan's Behemoth, whichever came first. What could have been an artefact that displayed how random and beautiful nature is, instead ended as a black smear against the chainglass visor on "Ye Olde Sloth Moth II". Hortan frowned at the smear but there was nothing he could do about it now. He was late as it was, having received Surbius' summons while he was in the delicate process of distilling the very first batch of the newest Helio Mists. It had been a choice of ruining a whole batch of fermented liquid or letting Surbius hold for a minute. No choice really, he saved the Mists and called Surbius back as soon as he could. And now he was on his way to Daltas Hold of all places, all on his own to pick up John Eldritch who was in some kind of trouble. A single Valkyrie entered the sector immediately after Hortan and he started boosting to get away, just in case it was a pirate. His speaker crackled with an in-sector hail.
Atice-> "Hail trader. Have a safe flight. Remember to report any pirates to VPR on channel 4357."
He breathed easily again and sent his own reply in return.
"Peace, love and happiness be with you friend. Fly safe and prosper."
The Valkyrie disappeared before he himself could jump out of the sector, obviously hurrying somewhere. Hortan engaged his own jump engines and slid through underspace to Daltas Hold. Several ships were waiting outside the station as well as a group of semiautonomous Serco assault and defence bots. None were classified as enemies and Hortan pushed the throttle slowly forwards and aimed his ship at the main docking bay. He sent a request for permission to dock via the ships computer and received confirmation in the form of a trajectory, a velocity and a fee. He accepted and initiated the docking procedure. About 1500 metres from the bay his proximity sensor started softly chiming, increasing in volume and intensity as a ship was nearing his own. He looked in the direction of the radar echo and spotted a blue Centurion with shark's teeth painted under the nose of the canopy boost towards him. Hortan panicked and pushed the turbo function, practically kicking his ship forwards with mighty force since the Behemoth was empty. Apparently it was a major surprise to the Centurion pilot as well and a stream of otherwise well-aimed positrons intersected where his ship would have been. Before the Centurion pilot could adjust and fire again, Hortan entered the NFZ and the Centurion broke away from the engagement.
Retractile->"Remember to stop☺. I'll be waiting for you, next time 200,000 or I won't fire warning shots."
Hortan frowned. What did he mean, remember to stop... He looked up at the fast approaching armoured bulk of the station and applied the front thrusters at full power but forgetting to turn the turbo off. The Behemoth thundered into the docking bay at 150 m/s and jammed itself into the reception cradle. Fortunately for Hortan, the cradle was designed to take the larger XC version of the Behemoth carrying a full load of Xithricite and thus had vastly larger shock dampers than normal. The deceleration was violent but still safely contained. He did his usual post mission flight checks methodically as always before exiting through the small armoured door in the side of his ship. The smell of unwashed bodies, heavy spices and malfunctioning de-humidifiers assaulted his nose and reminded him why he hated going to new stations. He was somewhat used to the smells of Dau K-10, slightly clinical, a tinge of metal and cleaning fluids, and loved the pungent heavy oily smells mixed with the yeasty soy vats of Aeolus Outpost, his home. He was reminded of the old proverb, No place like home. Still, this was not a social call. He opened his PDA and queried for the station security location. Seeing it placed in the opposite end of the station he sighed and started moving.
###
Cat pushed on the right foot pedal as hard as she could to avoid the incoming neutron fire and succeeded only to fly directly at several gauss bolts from one of the pirates. Releasing the right foot, pressing the left foot while twisting the stick and engaging the bottom left rear thruster enabled her to skirt just outside the kill zone and allowed her to tumble to relative safety. If she had been that type of person, a full and very long string of curses would have been the next thing that came flying towards the chainglass visor. Instead she turned her Vulture and tried to spot a hole in the pirate formation that would allow her to re-engage the pirates on a less than four-on-one odds and thus continue to protect the trade ships but in vain. These pirates were very good. Four new radar echoes popped up on her screen. The radar echoes moved slowly towards the convoy and she bit her lower lip slightly in anger. No doubt that these ships were pirate salvage ships for when she had failed her mission. Again. The radar identified the four ships as a Valkyrie, a Centurion Rev C, a Warthog Mk II and a Marauder. Her radio crackled on the hail frequency.
"If you need any help with the convoy, let us know. Have a safe flight. Remember to report any pirates to VPR on channel 4357."
Cat frowned a bit before her brain connected the lines. Apparently they thought that she was the pirate and the pirates were protecting the convoy against her. She punched the sector channel frequency and pushed the message switch.
"This is pilot Cat from the guild KAOS. Pirates attacking convoy right now. They are keeping me away from escorting the trade ships. Please assist. Purple lead, confirm."
The leading trade ship confirmed her message immediately and she received a request for IFF ident from the new ships. Cat sent it immediately and smiled when the four ship's beacons started showing as green instead of yellow on her screen. The pirate ships in front of her had now been forced to shift their focus to cover the four new ships and that meant that she only faced two enemies now. Grinning from ear to ear she stopped backtracking and pushed the throttle to forward. The opposing Vulture dodged quickly downwards but too slow to cheat the auto-aim on Cat's gauss canons and a new set of holes appeared where the incandescent balls of blue plasma had struck xithricite armour. She followed the opposing Vulture and managed to score another hit before the weave of neutrons in front of her ship from the other enemy came too close and forced her to break off. Twin flashes of light painted her cockpit from the top left direction with a larger secondary explosion that was the telltale signature of a Vulture exploding. The neutron fire in front of her had stopped with the explosion and she twisted the Vulture to once more target her enemy, finding the rear end of the ship presenting itself as the enemy pilot tried to get away. A double shot of gauss plasma slammed into the light fighter and tore it apart in a gratifying explosion that made Cat scream out aloud in victory.
She scanned her surroundings and saw only three pirate ships remaining but running for jump distance with two of the Viper’s ships in hot pursuit. One Behemoth class ship had been destroyed with the others severely damaged but still space worthy. The pirates jumped out along with the pursuing Vipers and Cat relaxed slightly again. She queried the IFF of the two remaining Vipers. Strat and Niut'likatsin in their Rev C and Marauder respectively. She thumbed her comms button.
"Thanks for the help. It would have been a slaughter without you."
"No problem Cat. We are here to help. Do you need a further escort to your destination? We can scout ahead if you need it."
Cat counted the distance to their jump zone and shook her head while answering.
"No thank you, that will be fine. I am expecting that we will have station security at Corvus Hold. But thanks again."
"No problem Cat. Feel free to contact us again if you need assistance with pirates. That goes for your guild mates as well naturally."
Cat smiled as the two fighters broke off and moved on separate vectors towards jump distance. The integrity and friendliness they had shown was something worth striving for and she decided that she would try to follow the same path within KAOS. She only hoped that her guild mates would help her.
###
William slowly drooled onto the floor in complete happiness. Ever since he had been dragged out of the ship and placed on the deck plates he had only moved to keep Janice within his vision. He had no idea how she had survived but there was no doubt that he had re-found his reason for existing. So far she looked like she didn't know what to do with him and for some obscure reason she pretended not to recognise him. But he knew, he even recognised her accent and that delicious tingle in her voice when she spoke. Eventually she would have a plan for him and he was happy to play along as long as he could stay with her. Even if it meant lying on a bare floor and drool.
18. Cleanup
The security guard finished sweeping the air duct and hand-signalled the all-clear signal to his buddy. They had been as thorough as always, sweeping every nook and cranny in the air ventilation system before coming up to the large re-flux machine entrance. If the assault team had gone through there, they were probably better off than what the security team could handle anyway. The grills hadn't been tampered with anyway and so it seemed that his team had been sent on a wild goose chase.
On his hands and knees he started for the nearest exit and carefully unscrewed the safety bolts that kept the heavy grill in place. He made space for his buddy who dropped down into the corridor and immediately crouched down to provide perimeter security. The guard reached down through the hole and fastened his abseiling wire to the two hooks beneath the hole before letting himself drop through it. The wires arrested his fall and allowed him to put the grill back into position. He twisted upright and held the handhold on the grill while regaining his wires. He motioned for his buddy to move with him and together they moved towards the launch bay. The security guard thumbed his comms unit.
"APIG lead this is Lead two. Finished checking air vent. All clear, returning to bay."
No reply. He frowned at checked the cable running from his helmet to the radio and found it still attached. He switched to the intercom channel and thumbed the comms unit again.
"Chela, do you read?"
"Yeah, five by five."
Chela's deep voice boomed through ensuring him that his radio worked.
"Roger. I have some comms problems with APIG lead. Can you try to reach him?"
Chela showed a thumbs-up and pressed his radio. He sat still for 20 seconds and then pressed his radio again.
"No joy Hartog. I can get command though so no fault on our end."
Hartog stood still for a couple of seconds while thinking the situation through. The last time he had heard from the commander had been at the launch bay. Something must have happened in the bay that had silenced the commander’s comms. He switched to the command net and thumbed the unit.
"APIG central, this is Lead two. Requesting posit on APIG lead asap. Priority Zulu."
"Roger, stand by for location data."
Hartog's tactical map gained a single arrow to the left side of his display. Frowning he zoomed out on the schematic overlay and found the location behind them in the commercial area. Hartog frowned even more as he thought the situation through. The dot was unmoving which in itself was wrong. And why would Lex be in the commercial area without their captive? He reached a decision.
"APIG central, this is Lead two. Requesting voice ident to confirm message at end. New orders. I have reason to believe that APIG lead is incapacitated. Send immediate medical response team and assault teams two and three to the location of APIG lead now. Full alert on reserve teams nine and ten, to rendezvous with me in launch bay B. Until relieved I will take command. Awaiting voice ident."
A circle of red light appeared in his view with a green stripe that slowly and clockwise moved across the circle leaving green light in its wake. After three seconds the circle had turned green and the voice ident was complete.
"Roger that Lead two. I have tried reaching APIG lead but no joy on that. For now we'll go along with your plan."
Hartog grinned and motioned to Chela to follow him down the corridor.
###
Cat smiled at the sight of Corvus Hold and the destination of the convoy. The two Viper ships had apparently scouted ahead regardless of her assurances and they flew slowly past the guard Vultures. The trade ships of the convoy carefully approached the docking bays and one by one disappeared inside. Lastly, Cat docked her Vulture as well and relaxed for the first time since Helios. The impressive bulk of the lead trader appeared next to her ship with a bemused look on his face. She popped the cockpit and was immediately assailed by the loud noises of ships being unloaded, cargo being handled and people. Many people.
"You did skit-bra today."
Seeing Cat's puzzled look he grinned a toothy grin and shook his head.
"Good, I mean good. Sometimes I slip into my mothers tongue is all. I have your payment here along with a recommendation for you."
Cat grinned back and jumped out of the cockpit to accept the crystal memstore as well as a credstick.
"Thank you Captain Olsen. I couldn't have done it without the help of those Vipers though so I feel that at least some of the rewards should go to them."
"Already done skatter. They got the share of the other pilots. This is for you alone. By the way, if you fancy, I have a couple of young bucks flying as gunners that asked if you wanted to celebrate the safe travels with them later?"
Cat felt a blush start up and immediately killed it via her brainpal. The grin on her face was, however, harder to conceal.
"I am flattered Captain Olsen, but I am expected back in Helios as fast as possible. Some other time maybe."
He winked and nodded at her as farewell greeting and left for his battle scared Behemoth to supervise offloading. Cat pocketed the two crystals and got into the cockpit once more. She was due to report in back at KAOS HQ in about an hour from now so while it could be fun she was actually rather late. Ah well, maybe she would run into Riddik tonight, that would be fun.
###
Azumi rummaged around in the locker for a bit before finding what she had been looking for. With a yell of victory she grabbed the old flight suit and brought it to her face while smelling it. Ew, absolutely horrible. She tossed it back and gave up. She looked over at Tramshed who was slowly drinking a bottle of lukewarm ale that he had found a crate of somewhere inside his ship, one eye half closed and left foot stamping out some tune that he played out inside his head. The other hand cradled a stunner that pointed at the pathetic bunch of soiled rags on the ground. The single wide-open eye of the figure caught her attention, the raving madness showing like a beacon craving for help. Tramshed tossed the empty bottle at William who merely received the blow without noticing.
"Trammie, I wish you wouldn't do that."
"Oh yeah? Why? What makes him that interesting then, is he your newest kick or something?"
Azumi walked over to the crates next to Tramshed and accepted a lukewarm ale from the by now almost empty crate. She twisted her face by the horrible smell and taste of the ale but drank it anyway before dumping herself next to Tramshed.
"I don't know Trammie. But it is like he knows me or something. He keeps on calling me Janice although that is not my name."
"What is your name then?"
Azumi looked at Tramshed with mock horror painted in her face.
"You didn't!"
Tramshed smiled and sipped some more beer, eyes half-closed. Azumi punched his shoulder playfully and nestled back into the seat.
"Point is that I knew a Janice a long time ago."
Tramshed lifted his brow and looked sideways at Azumi but keeping the bottle at his lips, afraid at spoiling the moment.
"And while I thought I had left her along with the memories of her a long time ago, they just re-surfaced with a vengeance."
Tramshed waited patiently but Azumi said nothing more. He finished the bottle and almost tossed it at William but instead tossed it further and grabbed a new one.
"Wanna go see what's in the Wraith?"
Azumi grinned and got up.
"Yeah, let's see what I liberated."
###
Retractile saw the ass of Hortan's Behemoth as it docked with Daltas Hold, and tore past the station on a course for open space. He smiled inside the helmet at the last message he had sent to the hippie-miner and the effect it had had. He imagined what would have happened if Hortan had hammered his Behemoth into the fighter recovery bay. Now that would have been spectacular indeed. Besides tearing half of the bay apart it would undoubtedly have resulted in Hortan being put in prison by station security. That would have been excellent, two TGFT members in Xang Xi prison and all because of Retractile.
Earlier, Retractile had walked out of the corridor into the station's commercial centre without anyone challenging him. The armoured bulk of the assault suit had however been the definition of non-subtlety and he had dumped it near a noodle vendor. He had kept the ship ID chip he had found in one of the side pockets along with the sidearm. Now he just needed to find a cargo handler booth and get the cargo transferred to his own ship instead.
He had just finished transferring the six crates of Verasi Champagne that were in the cargo hold, when he saw John Eldritch stagger towards the launch bay that Retractile has just exited. Ret had grinned as he thought about what Azumi would have done and then decided to do it himself instead. He had walked over to John and timed his movements in such a way that John stumbled into Retractile who at that point dumped the stolen ship ID into John's pocket. Retractile had shoved John away and started shouting.
"Why did you walk into me like that? And without offering an apology? Who do you think you are, some kind of TGFT member?"
John had looked at him without comprehending what was being said and with a large smile on his face.
"Or did you bump into me on purpose? To steal my purse?"
Retractile had started searching elaborately for his non-existent purse while shouting at John. A set of guards had materialised and requested ID, which Retractile had promptly delivered. John, however, could not find his instead providing the guards with an ID that came up as Alex Hartron. Retractile had been hard pressed not to burst out laughing while the guards had taken John away for interrogation.
And now he just had to return to CLM HQ with this cargo of victory champagne to celebrate the best payment on a wager that he ever had received. A pirate’s life was good indeed!
The security guard finished sweeping the air duct and hand-signalled the all-clear signal to his buddy. They had been as thorough as always, sweeping every nook and cranny in the air ventilation system before coming up to the large re-flux machine entrance. If the assault team had gone through there, they were probably better off than what the security team could handle anyway. The grills hadn't been tampered with anyway and so it seemed that his team had been sent on a wild goose chase.
On his hands and knees he started for the nearest exit and carefully unscrewed the safety bolts that kept the heavy grill in place. He made space for his buddy who dropped down into the corridor and immediately crouched down to provide perimeter security. The guard reached down through the hole and fastened his abseiling wire to the two hooks beneath the hole before letting himself drop through it. The wires arrested his fall and allowed him to put the grill back into position. He twisted upright and held the handhold on the grill while regaining his wires. He motioned for his buddy to move with him and together they moved towards the launch bay. The security guard thumbed his comms unit.
"APIG lead this is Lead two. Finished checking air vent. All clear, returning to bay."
No reply. He frowned at checked the cable running from his helmet to the radio and found it still attached. He switched to the intercom channel and thumbed the comms unit again.
"Chela, do you read?"
"Yeah, five by five."
Chela's deep voice boomed through ensuring him that his radio worked.
"Roger. I have some comms problems with APIG lead. Can you try to reach him?"
Chela showed a thumbs-up and pressed his radio. He sat still for 20 seconds and then pressed his radio again.
"No joy Hartog. I can get command though so no fault on our end."
Hartog stood still for a couple of seconds while thinking the situation through. The last time he had heard from the commander had been at the launch bay. Something must have happened in the bay that had silenced the commander’s comms. He switched to the command net and thumbed the unit.
"APIG central, this is Lead two. Requesting posit on APIG lead asap. Priority Zulu."
"Roger, stand by for location data."
Hartog's tactical map gained a single arrow to the left side of his display. Frowning he zoomed out on the schematic overlay and found the location behind them in the commercial area. Hartog frowned even more as he thought the situation through. The dot was unmoving which in itself was wrong. And why would Lex be in the commercial area without their captive? He reached a decision.
"APIG central, this is Lead two. Requesting voice ident to confirm message at end. New orders. I have reason to believe that APIG lead is incapacitated. Send immediate medical response team and assault teams two and three to the location of APIG lead now. Full alert on reserve teams nine and ten, to rendezvous with me in launch bay B. Until relieved I will take command. Awaiting voice ident."
A circle of red light appeared in his view with a green stripe that slowly and clockwise moved across the circle leaving green light in its wake. After three seconds the circle had turned green and the voice ident was complete.
"Roger that Lead two. I have tried reaching APIG lead but no joy on that. For now we'll go along with your plan."
Hartog grinned and motioned to Chela to follow him down the corridor.
###
Cat smiled at the sight of Corvus Hold and the destination of the convoy. The two Viper ships had apparently scouted ahead regardless of her assurances and they flew slowly past the guard Vultures. The trade ships of the convoy carefully approached the docking bays and one by one disappeared inside. Lastly, Cat docked her Vulture as well and relaxed for the first time since Helios. The impressive bulk of the lead trader appeared next to her ship with a bemused look on his face. She popped the cockpit and was immediately assailed by the loud noises of ships being unloaded, cargo being handled and people. Many people.
"You did skit-bra today."
Seeing Cat's puzzled look he grinned a toothy grin and shook his head.
"Good, I mean good. Sometimes I slip into my mothers tongue is all. I have your payment here along with a recommendation for you."
Cat grinned back and jumped out of the cockpit to accept the crystal memstore as well as a credstick.
"Thank you Captain Olsen. I couldn't have done it without the help of those Vipers though so I feel that at least some of the rewards should go to them."
"Already done skatter. They got the share of the other pilots. This is for you alone. By the way, if you fancy, I have a couple of young bucks flying as gunners that asked if you wanted to celebrate the safe travels with them later?"
Cat felt a blush start up and immediately killed it via her brainpal. The grin on her face was, however, harder to conceal.
"I am flattered Captain Olsen, but I am expected back in Helios as fast as possible. Some other time maybe."
He winked and nodded at her as farewell greeting and left for his battle scared Behemoth to supervise offloading. Cat pocketed the two crystals and got into the cockpit once more. She was due to report in back at KAOS HQ in about an hour from now so while it could be fun she was actually rather late. Ah well, maybe she would run into Riddik tonight, that would be fun.
###
Azumi rummaged around in the locker for a bit before finding what she had been looking for. With a yell of victory she grabbed the old flight suit and brought it to her face while smelling it. Ew, absolutely horrible. She tossed it back and gave up. She looked over at Tramshed who was slowly drinking a bottle of lukewarm ale that he had found a crate of somewhere inside his ship, one eye half closed and left foot stamping out some tune that he played out inside his head. The other hand cradled a stunner that pointed at the pathetic bunch of soiled rags on the ground. The single wide-open eye of the figure caught her attention, the raving madness showing like a beacon craving for help. Tramshed tossed the empty bottle at William who merely received the blow without noticing.
"Trammie, I wish you wouldn't do that."
"Oh yeah? Why? What makes him that interesting then, is he your newest kick or something?"
Azumi walked over to the crates next to Tramshed and accepted a lukewarm ale from the by now almost empty crate. She twisted her face by the horrible smell and taste of the ale but drank it anyway before dumping herself next to Tramshed.
"I don't know Trammie. But it is like he knows me or something. He keeps on calling me Janice although that is not my name."
"What is your name then?"
Azumi looked at Tramshed with mock horror painted in her face.
"You didn't!"
Tramshed smiled and sipped some more beer, eyes half-closed. Azumi punched his shoulder playfully and nestled back into the seat.
"Point is that I knew a Janice a long time ago."
Tramshed lifted his brow and looked sideways at Azumi but keeping the bottle at his lips, afraid at spoiling the moment.
"And while I thought I had left her along with the memories of her a long time ago, they just re-surfaced with a vengeance."
Tramshed waited patiently but Azumi said nothing more. He finished the bottle and almost tossed it at William but instead tossed it further and grabbed a new one.
"Wanna go see what's in the Wraith?"
Azumi grinned and got up.
"Yeah, let's see what I liberated."
###
Retractile saw the ass of Hortan's Behemoth as it docked with Daltas Hold, and tore past the station on a course for open space. He smiled inside the helmet at the last message he had sent to the hippie-miner and the effect it had had. He imagined what would have happened if Hortan had hammered his Behemoth into the fighter recovery bay. Now that would have been spectacular indeed. Besides tearing half of the bay apart it would undoubtedly have resulted in Hortan being put in prison by station security. That would have been excellent, two TGFT members in Xang Xi prison and all because of Retractile.
Earlier, Retractile had walked out of the corridor into the station's commercial centre without anyone challenging him. The armoured bulk of the assault suit had however been the definition of non-subtlety and he had dumped it near a noodle vendor. He had kept the ship ID chip he had found in one of the side pockets along with the sidearm. Now he just needed to find a cargo handler booth and get the cargo transferred to his own ship instead.
He had just finished transferring the six crates of Verasi Champagne that were in the cargo hold, when he saw John Eldritch stagger towards the launch bay that Retractile has just exited. Ret had grinned as he thought about what Azumi would have done and then decided to do it himself instead. He had walked over to John and timed his movements in such a way that John stumbled into Retractile who at that point dumped the stolen ship ID into John's pocket. Retractile had shoved John away and started shouting.
"Why did you walk into me like that? And without offering an apology? Who do you think you are, some kind of TGFT member?"
John had looked at him without comprehending what was being said and with a large smile on his face.
"Or did you bump into me on purpose? To steal my purse?"
Retractile had started searching elaborately for his non-existent purse while shouting at John. A set of guards had materialised and requested ID, which Retractile had promptly delivered. John, however, could not find his instead providing the guards with an ID that came up as Alex Hartron. Retractile had been hard pressed not to burst out laughing while the guards had taken John away for interrogation.
And now he just had to return to CLM HQ with this cargo of victory champagne to celebrate the best payment on a wager that he ever had received. A pirate’s life was good indeed!
it just keeps getting better...keep it up
This is good, please continue!
-Mr. Chaos
-Mr. Chaos
19. Hangover time
In the deep dungeons of the lands of the dwarves, where the laborious stout fellows worked day and night by their foundries, bellows and anvils, where the hard ringing of metal against metal was the predominant sound, all was silent. What was at times a cacophony of metallic sounds was now at best replaced by the silent whisper of the wind and the occasional running water. At least that was what he thought, because they all seemed to have taken up residence inside his skull and had brought their tools along for the ride.
The hangover had started slowly with a slight pressure-headache right behind his right eye that slowly grew like some malignant beast to be a fully fledged massive pressing pain that made him want to dig his brains out in order to relieve the pressure. Slowly, ever so slowly the pain had settled into a rhythmic throbbing that pulsed with his heartbeat, which was almost bearable as long as he kept his eyes shut. The pain of searing light (from the night glow tube) when his eyes were open was like lances of fire. So he endured the spinning effect that closing his eyes had while occasionally using the floor as a bucket. John Eldritch had not felt so bad, ever. A new sound presented itself, a metallic noise that delivered yet more agony to his already hurting head followed by footsteps.
"Hello councillor Eldritch. I am here to take you home."
John risked opening one eye and saw the immaculately green-clad, beanie wearing smiling Hortan stand in the door. He almost turned and faced the wall but his survival instinct told him that he needed to get up. He slowly but surely managed to push himself into a sitting position although his stomach content seriously wanted to come up and visit his mouth. Barely containing it he responded with a voice think of misuse.
"You have better tell me that you have painkillers."
Hortan smiled and produced a first-aid kit from which he found a small purple pill that he handed to John. He rummaged around but only came up with a small hipflask.
"Sorry Sir, no water Sir."
John shook his head, immediately regretted it and threw some more bile up on the floor. He spat several times to clear his mouth and dry-swallowed the pill. Somehow it didn't want to go where it was supposed to and he shook a hand at the flask, which Hortan handed him. He took a large mouthful and swallowed it along with the pill. Helio Mists, why that stupid recruit could have warned him. John's face turned first red, then purple as the vomit started to rise again with him forcing it to stay down. He won the struggle and in spite of his own protesting body drank the remainder of the fiery liquid. He tossed the flask back and growled with a voice that sounded like a set of industrial stone grinders that were pushed together at high speed.
"Right, lets go."
Hortan handed a temporary TGFT ID card to him as he exited and he pocketed it without checking it. Hortan showed him the way past the guards and out into the corridor that connected to the commercial area.
"Hortan, I don't know what your orders are, but I need a large infusion of Koffee, eggs and beans. If we can scrounge some synth-bacon too it will be heaven."
Hortan looked uncomfortable at the prospect of staying on Daltas Station a second longer than needed but he could see that it was not up for discussion. They went to the commercial area in search of some fatty food, John in the lead.
###
They finally found him stuffed into a crate with a piece of tape over his mouth, tape around his wrists and tape around his ankles. The two security guards quickly helped him out of the crate and removed the silver foil that had been wrapped around his head. His brainpal instantly connected to the station net and a swarm of updates flooded his internal screen. He sorted them by timestamps and found his armour immediately along with three groups of his own officers that were located around it. He was furious at himself as well as at the unknown assailant that had stunned him. Another alert popped up on his screen. "He" himself had apparently emptied the hold of his own ship and the ship wanted to know if it should make an auto-purchase of more champagne. He felt rage rising and forced himself to breathe slowly until he had calmed down ever so slightly. If only he had implanted a real Serco brainpal that allowed him to control his hormones and emotions as well. Breathe in, relax, breathe in, relax. Another alert arrived, this time from the station police. Apparently they had caught the murderer and had him in their custody. Alex Hartron tried to keep a lid on his emotions but this time in vain. He punched his fist into the plastic bulkhead that surrounded the launch bay airlock door, with a sickening crack.
"FUCK THIS."
He looked down at his hand and noticed the wrong angle on three of his fingers before looking at the officers that were waiting for him to speak. He ignored them and activated the voice mode on his brainpal.
"APIG control, stand down all. Ready for relocation on my orders. The killer may have been apprehended. Good job all."
He didn't really mean the last sentence but he had a business to run. And there would be other killers, other jobs where he needed his men. Right now, however, he wished them all to hell and let him alone with his shame.
###
Yoda did not like being disturbed. He did not like being summoned. He particularly hated being disturbed because he was being summoned. Only one thing could actually annoy him more, and that was when someone summoned him while he had guests. Without knowing it Physhi had placed himself in that situation after running from the docking bay as fast as he could.
"Maybe your very important situation can wait for a few seconds more while I finish whatever for you insignificant and utter worthless business that I was in my own time attempting to do, mmh?"
Physhi had been in CLM long enough to know that whenever yoda spoke nicely to you, that you had better just be silent and wait for either the strike, the verbal overhauling or the endless nights of extra duty that inevitably followed. Saying anything would only make it worse. He stood as silent as if he had been made of marble.
"Mmh? In the light of your consent I shall finish my arrangements here and maybe only resort to remember your infringements on my personal space when next I assign patrol duties."
Physhi remained completely still and looked straight ahead. Form inside the room a deep voice could be heard, slightly mispronouncing the words almost as if the tongue of the person was slightly too large for his mouth.
"It is of no concern master yoda. I believe we are finished here anyway. Perhaps we can move that way to my ships berth and kill two birds with one stone?"
Physhi saw the twitch of yoda's face and braced for the shitstorm that was about to hit when yoda turned and bowed to the dark robed figure in the middle of the room.
"A wise suggestion Chief Inquisitor Ahriman. And I believe you are right."
He turned to the non-moving Physhi and frowned.
"Don't just stand there, lead the way pirate."
Physhi looked confused while the words were analysed for hidden meanings. There were none, they came up clean and he shrugged before turning towards the docking bay again, helmet under one arm and rifle slung on his back. He actually didn't think he had done half-bad at all. Maybe yoda would forget his intrusion; maybe he would even reward him for the swift message.
###
Cat exited the warp hole and saw Aeolus Trading Prefect lined up in front of her, the large iron asteroid to the right of the station dotted with mined ore and two miners that skittered around the surface and the large ringed gas giant behind it. She smiled at the picture perfect image and pushed for a docking vector with station security. She docked at a sedate pace at the single fighter class docking station without problems. Safe in the grasp of the grav-operated clamps she methodically went through her systems check-down before opening the cockpit chainglass.
"Welcome back Cat. We feared the worst when Tomahawk returned alone."
She looked out and saw Silia stand with a bottle of ice cold Serco Ale and a smile on her face. Cat grinned to her while she jumped out of the ship.
"Well, I couldn't just let the traders be killed. That was kinda why we were there right? I had some help from a flight of Vipers."
Silia continued smiling as she handed the ale over.
"You must tell us all about it Cat. Let's walk to the debriefing room and identify what can be done better next time, okay?"
Cat took a healthy swig of the ale and nodded. Silia started walking into the station and Cat followed.
"I tell you Silia, you should have seen the way they worked together. It was like they knew precisely what each other thought and who to attack. Kind of a space ballet really. And they were so nice, even scouted ahead even though I didn't ask for it and couldn't afford to pay them for anything..."
Silia smiled and nodded and let Cat explain about the escort while they wound their way into the station proper. It looked as if Cat had promoted KAOS in a very good way and Silia sent a reminder to her brainpal that Cat should be allowed to fly more escorts. After she had trained the others in EVA techniques. Those skills would come in handy in a rather short while....
In the deep dungeons of the lands of the dwarves, where the laborious stout fellows worked day and night by their foundries, bellows and anvils, where the hard ringing of metal against metal was the predominant sound, all was silent. What was at times a cacophony of metallic sounds was now at best replaced by the silent whisper of the wind and the occasional running water. At least that was what he thought, because they all seemed to have taken up residence inside his skull and had brought their tools along for the ride.
The hangover had started slowly with a slight pressure-headache right behind his right eye that slowly grew like some malignant beast to be a fully fledged massive pressing pain that made him want to dig his brains out in order to relieve the pressure. Slowly, ever so slowly the pain had settled into a rhythmic throbbing that pulsed with his heartbeat, which was almost bearable as long as he kept his eyes shut. The pain of searing light (from the night glow tube) when his eyes were open was like lances of fire. So he endured the spinning effect that closing his eyes had while occasionally using the floor as a bucket. John Eldritch had not felt so bad, ever. A new sound presented itself, a metallic noise that delivered yet more agony to his already hurting head followed by footsteps.
"Hello councillor Eldritch. I am here to take you home."
John risked opening one eye and saw the immaculately green-clad, beanie wearing smiling Hortan stand in the door. He almost turned and faced the wall but his survival instinct told him that he needed to get up. He slowly but surely managed to push himself into a sitting position although his stomach content seriously wanted to come up and visit his mouth. Barely containing it he responded with a voice think of misuse.
"You have better tell me that you have painkillers."
Hortan smiled and produced a first-aid kit from which he found a small purple pill that he handed to John. He rummaged around but only came up with a small hipflask.
"Sorry Sir, no water Sir."
John shook his head, immediately regretted it and threw some more bile up on the floor. He spat several times to clear his mouth and dry-swallowed the pill. Somehow it didn't want to go where it was supposed to and he shook a hand at the flask, which Hortan handed him. He took a large mouthful and swallowed it along with the pill. Helio Mists, why that stupid recruit could have warned him. John's face turned first red, then purple as the vomit started to rise again with him forcing it to stay down. He won the struggle and in spite of his own protesting body drank the remainder of the fiery liquid. He tossed the flask back and growled with a voice that sounded like a set of industrial stone grinders that were pushed together at high speed.
"Right, lets go."
Hortan handed a temporary TGFT ID card to him as he exited and he pocketed it without checking it. Hortan showed him the way past the guards and out into the corridor that connected to the commercial area.
"Hortan, I don't know what your orders are, but I need a large infusion of Koffee, eggs and beans. If we can scrounge some synth-bacon too it will be heaven."
Hortan looked uncomfortable at the prospect of staying on Daltas Station a second longer than needed but he could see that it was not up for discussion. They went to the commercial area in search of some fatty food, John in the lead.
###
They finally found him stuffed into a crate with a piece of tape over his mouth, tape around his wrists and tape around his ankles. The two security guards quickly helped him out of the crate and removed the silver foil that had been wrapped around his head. His brainpal instantly connected to the station net and a swarm of updates flooded his internal screen. He sorted them by timestamps and found his armour immediately along with three groups of his own officers that were located around it. He was furious at himself as well as at the unknown assailant that had stunned him. Another alert popped up on his screen. "He" himself had apparently emptied the hold of his own ship and the ship wanted to know if it should make an auto-purchase of more champagne. He felt rage rising and forced himself to breathe slowly until he had calmed down ever so slightly. If only he had implanted a real Serco brainpal that allowed him to control his hormones and emotions as well. Breathe in, relax, breathe in, relax. Another alert arrived, this time from the station police. Apparently they had caught the murderer and had him in their custody. Alex Hartron tried to keep a lid on his emotions but this time in vain. He punched his fist into the plastic bulkhead that surrounded the launch bay airlock door, with a sickening crack.
"FUCK THIS."
He looked down at his hand and noticed the wrong angle on three of his fingers before looking at the officers that were waiting for him to speak. He ignored them and activated the voice mode on his brainpal.
"APIG control, stand down all. Ready for relocation on my orders. The killer may have been apprehended. Good job all."
He didn't really mean the last sentence but he had a business to run. And there would be other killers, other jobs where he needed his men. Right now, however, he wished them all to hell and let him alone with his shame.
###
Yoda did not like being disturbed. He did not like being summoned. He particularly hated being disturbed because he was being summoned. Only one thing could actually annoy him more, and that was when someone summoned him while he had guests. Without knowing it Physhi had placed himself in that situation after running from the docking bay as fast as he could.
"Maybe your very important situation can wait for a few seconds more while I finish whatever for you insignificant and utter worthless business that I was in my own time attempting to do, mmh?"
Physhi had been in CLM long enough to know that whenever yoda spoke nicely to you, that you had better just be silent and wait for either the strike, the verbal overhauling or the endless nights of extra duty that inevitably followed. Saying anything would only make it worse. He stood as silent as if he had been made of marble.
"Mmh? In the light of your consent I shall finish my arrangements here and maybe only resort to remember your infringements on my personal space when next I assign patrol duties."
Physhi remained completely still and looked straight ahead. Form inside the room a deep voice could be heard, slightly mispronouncing the words almost as if the tongue of the person was slightly too large for his mouth.
"It is of no concern master yoda. I believe we are finished here anyway. Perhaps we can move that way to my ships berth and kill two birds with one stone?"
Physhi saw the twitch of yoda's face and braced for the shitstorm that was about to hit when yoda turned and bowed to the dark robed figure in the middle of the room.
"A wise suggestion Chief Inquisitor Ahriman. And I believe you are right."
He turned to the non-moving Physhi and frowned.
"Don't just stand there, lead the way pirate."
Physhi looked confused while the words were analysed for hidden meanings. There were none, they came up clean and he shrugged before turning towards the docking bay again, helmet under one arm and rifle slung on his back. He actually didn't think he had done half-bad at all. Maybe yoda would forget his intrusion; maybe he would even reward him for the swift message.
###
Cat exited the warp hole and saw Aeolus Trading Prefect lined up in front of her, the large iron asteroid to the right of the station dotted with mined ore and two miners that skittered around the surface and the large ringed gas giant behind it. She smiled at the picture perfect image and pushed for a docking vector with station security. She docked at a sedate pace at the single fighter class docking station without problems. Safe in the grasp of the grav-operated clamps she methodically went through her systems check-down before opening the cockpit chainglass.
"Welcome back Cat. We feared the worst when Tomahawk returned alone."
She looked out and saw Silia stand with a bottle of ice cold Serco Ale and a smile on her face. Cat grinned to her while she jumped out of the ship.
"Well, I couldn't just let the traders be killed. That was kinda why we were there right? I had some help from a flight of Vipers."
Silia continued smiling as she handed the ale over.
"You must tell us all about it Cat. Let's walk to the debriefing room and identify what can be done better next time, okay?"
Cat took a healthy swig of the ale and nodded. Silia started walking into the station and Cat followed.
"I tell you Silia, you should have seen the way they worked together. It was like they knew precisely what each other thought and who to attack. Kind of a space ballet really. And they were so nice, even scouted ahead even though I didn't ask for it and couldn't afford to pay them for anything..."
Silia smiled and nodded and let Cat explain about the escort while they wound their way into the station proper. It looked as if Cat had promoted KAOS in a very good way and Silia sent a reminder to her brainpal that Cat should be allowed to fly more escorts. After she had trained the others in EVA techniques. Those skills would come in handy in a rather short while....
20. Disembowelment of a Wraith
The hold of the slightly crushed TGFT green Axia Wraith had been emptied and the crates had been spread all over the docking bay floor in stacks wherever there was space. Several crates had been busted open and the ten litre containers inside had been scattered on the floor. Hammering noises emanated from the hold along with the unmistakable sounds of a cutting torch. Yoda stopped just inside the bay and frowned. He was used to the eccentricities of the pirates of CLM and mostly ignored whatever they did. After all, he was not the commander of the guild; he just helped Mystic while she was off on some secret mission or other. However, he did expect some kind of order, especially in the docking bays and not this complete mayhem of cargo and fluids. Another piece of metal came flying out of the cargo bay and landed on a crate, cracking it slightly before impacting on the deck plates with a loud clang. He turned and bowed to the accompanying guest.
"My apologies for this mess. I assure you that this is not an everyday situation."
Ahriman disregarded it with a simple hand shake which only annoyed yoda further. He turned away again and walked down to the gutted Wraith. A set of hi-volume propane flasks was outside of the hold with several high-pressure tubes leading into the ship. A bundle of clothes that at closer inspection contained a sorry excuse for a human being, lay just outside the bay with the person's face eagerly peering after the persons inside. Yoda looked inside, followed the direction of the high-pressure hoses and saw two persons bent over an inside hull panel with only their backsides showing, actinic light flaring around and casting deep black shadows on the opposite wall. Yoda cleared his throat and expected them to respond, nothing. He pouted slightly at the inattention they showed before he simply reached out to the flasks and turned the propane off.
"Aw shit. I think we are out of gas Az."
"You're a poet 'n know it?"
"Ha, good one Az. Lets go get another bottle."
Tramshed turned with a large grin on his face that faded quickly when he saw yoda. He reached over and pushed Azumi on the hip.
"Stop fondling me you git and hand me the hydrospanner, I think I can dislodge it without the torch."
Tramshed pushed Azumi's hip again. With a metallic tearing sound she managed to rip the invertron flux controller and stood up with it in one hand, immense victory grin on her face. She was about to say something triumphantly to Tramshed when she saw yoda. Her smile disappeared like a light fog before a supernova. She bowed.
"Yoda-sensei"
"Please tell me that you summoned me here for something else than the, although impressive, irrelevant display of how to extract 50 crates of coolant fluid from a Wraith."
Azumi cringed from the verbal attack and peeked to the left for support from Tramshed who wisely had assumed the thousand light year stare. She put the flux controller on a crate.
"No sensei; that is not why we humbly asked for your assistance."
Yoda cut her short with an angry hand movement.
"Cease the ass kissing Azumi. It does not suit you at all. Tell me why then."
Azumi was about to retort with a nasty reply but managed to moderate herself.
"Very well sensei. We brought you here because of him." She pointed at William. "He was on the run from the Xang Xi police back at Daltas Hold. We ran into them while they were busy catching him. They were naturally like all rent-a-cops and when they attacked me and Ret we freed him and brought him along. He seemed to recognise me sensei, he insists on calling me Janice."
"I see. And that is why you didn't shove him out the airlock I assume. I am not sure I can help you with that Azumi."
William drooled happily at Azumi's feet, the dried blood and filth covering him like a dehumanising layer that hid the person inside.
"I can help you. I have extensive knowledge in that particular line of work."
Yoda turned to Ahriman and crossed his hands on his back.
"For a price I am assuming?"
A dry chuckle emanated from the hooded figure.
"Very well, I can most certainly use him. I'll give you a discount on the.....items yoda."
Yoda looked over at Azumi before looking back at Ahriman.
"Deal I guess. But you take him from here. Azumi, I am expecting a full report from you and Ret tomorrow morning. Where is he anyway?"
The warning claxons started blaring a collision alarm and the remaining docking back activated, slightly braking the incoming Rev C that slammed into it at high speed.
“Forget I asked, tomorrow morning.”
Azumi bowed in acceptance.
###
Cat finished writing her report and filed it. She leaned back and stretched luxuriously, feeling each crack in her vertebrae with a sense of satisfaction. She really needed a hard workout after piloting so many hours and even worse, this much paperwork. It was not that her muscles needed it, they were after all genetically engineered by her creche to work at their peak no matter what; it was her mind that needed the work. Especially if she was to give lessons in zero-g combat tomorrow. She thought of who she knew on the station and came up short. Only Riddik and he was off with his wife on vacation to Betheshee. She thought of contacting her guild mates but somehow they didn't really appeal to her. When she had raised the issue of helping other pilots when they were escorting, like the Vipers did, they had all snickered and called her an idealist. She tried contacting Silia but only received a message saying that she was unavailable. Sighing deeply, Cat got up and walked alone to the gym. At least the training bots weren't busy.
###
"And I am telling you that, chomp chomp, they had to be at least, chomp chomp, two pro's to pull that stunt, chomp chomp."
John was scoffing down multitudes of synthetic pork bacon while explaining to Hortan why he had been apprehended earlier. The nine eggs and one-pound cheese omelette had disappeared earlier along with a mug of strong Koffee. Hortan sipped his cocoa politely while he waited for the councillor to finish. John pointed with his fork at the station.
"And while I am not sure I can almost guarantee you that the blond cheerleader earlier was one of them."
A couple of pretty young women in the latest fashion statement from Odia, spidersilk bodysuits with miniscule skirts, walked by and John winked at them with the expected giggling to follow. He followed them with his eyes and when they looked back at him they reddened significantly and giggled to each other. John turned back to his breakfast and grinned. He finished the last synth bacon and tossed the plastic cutlery onto the plate.
"Right, since I apparently have no ship and no money, you can ferry me home to Dau. I'll sleep in the back if you don't mind.
Hortan nodded in agreement and quickly drank the rest of his cocoa, scalding his tongue. If he boosted all the way he would be in his roidfields within three hours again, away from all these people, only surrounded by the girls that he understood.
The hold of the slightly crushed TGFT green Axia Wraith had been emptied and the crates had been spread all over the docking bay floor in stacks wherever there was space. Several crates had been busted open and the ten litre containers inside had been scattered on the floor. Hammering noises emanated from the hold along with the unmistakable sounds of a cutting torch. Yoda stopped just inside the bay and frowned. He was used to the eccentricities of the pirates of CLM and mostly ignored whatever they did. After all, he was not the commander of the guild; he just helped Mystic while she was off on some secret mission or other. However, he did expect some kind of order, especially in the docking bays and not this complete mayhem of cargo and fluids. Another piece of metal came flying out of the cargo bay and landed on a crate, cracking it slightly before impacting on the deck plates with a loud clang. He turned and bowed to the accompanying guest.
"My apologies for this mess. I assure you that this is not an everyday situation."
Ahriman disregarded it with a simple hand shake which only annoyed yoda further. He turned away again and walked down to the gutted Wraith. A set of hi-volume propane flasks was outside of the hold with several high-pressure tubes leading into the ship. A bundle of clothes that at closer inspection contained a sorry excuse for a human being, lay just outside the bay with the person's face eagerly peering after the persons inside. Yoda looked inside, followed the direction of the high-pressure hoses and saw two persons bent over an inside hull panel with only their backsides showing, actinic light flaring around and casting deep black shadows on the opposite wall. Yoda cleared his throat and expected them to respond, nothing. He pouted slightly at the inattention they showed before he simply reached out to the flasks and turned the propane off.
"Aw shit. I think we are out of gas Az."
"You're a poet 'n know it?"
"Ha, good one Az. Lets go get another bottle."
Tramshed turned with a large grin on his face that faded quickly when he saw yoda. He reached over and pushed Azumi on the hip.
"Stop fondling me you git and hand me the hydrospanner, I think I can dislodge it without the torch."
Tramshed pushed Azumi's hip again. With a metallic tearing sound she managed to rip the invertron flux controller and stood up with it in one hand, immense victory grin on her face. She was about to say something triumphantly to Tramshed when she saw yoda. Her smile disappeared like a light fog before a supernova. She bowed.
"Yoda-sensei"
"Please tell me that you summoned me here for something else than the, although impressive, irrelevant display of how to extract 50 crates of coolant fluid from a Wraith."
Azumi cringed from the verbal attack and peeked to the left for support from Tramshed who wisely had assumed the thousand light year stare. She put the flux controller on a crate.
"No sensei; that is not why we humbly asked for your assistance."
Yoda cut her short with an angry hand movement.
"Cease the ass kissing Azumi. It does not suit you at all. Tell me why then."
Azumi was about to retort with a nasty reply but managed to moderate herself.
"Very well sensei. We brought you here because of him." She pointed at William. "He was on the run from the Xang Xi police back at Daltas Hold. We ran into them while they were busy catching him. They were naturally like all rent-a-cops and when they attacked me and Ret we freed him and brought him along. He seemed to recognise me sensei, he insists on calling me Janice."
"I see. And that is why you didn't shove him out the airlock I assume. I am not sure I can help you with that Azumi."
William drooled happily at Azumi's feet, the dried blood and filth covering him like a dehumanising layer that hid the person inside.
"I can help you. I have extensive knowledge in that particular line of work."
Yoda turned to Ahriman and crossed his hands on his back.
"For a price I am assuming?"
A dry chuckle emanated from the hooded figure.
"Very well, I can most certainly use him. I'll give you a discount on the.....items yoda."
Yoda looked over at Azumi before looking back at Ahriman.
"Deal I guess. But you take him from here. Azumi, I am expecting a full report from you and Ret tomorrow morning. Where is he anyway?"
The warning claxons started blaring a collision alarm and the remaining docking back activated, slightly braking the incoming Rev C that slammed into it at high speed.
“Forget I asked, tomorrow morning.”
Azumi bowed in acceptance.
###
Cat finished writing her report and filed it. She leaned back and stretched luxuriously, feeling each crack in her vertebrae with a sense of satisfaction. She really needed a hard workout after piloting so many hours and even worse, this much paperwork. It was not that her muscles needed it, they were after all genetically engineered by her creche to work at their peak no matter what; it was her mind that needed the work. Especially if she was to give lessons in zero-g combat tomorrow. She thought of who she knew on the station and came up short. Only Riddik and he was off with his wife on vacation to Betheshee. She thought of contacting her guild mates but somehow they didn't really appeal to her. When she had raised the issue of helping other pilots when they were escorting, like the Vipers did, they had all snickered and called her an idealist. She tried contacting Silia but only received a message saying that she was unavailable. Sighing deeply, Cat got up and walked alone to the gym. At least the training bots weren't busy.
###
"And I am telling you that, chomp chomp, they had to be at least, chomp chomp, two pro's to pull that stunt, chomp chomp."
John was scoffing down multitudes of synthetic pork bacon while explaining to Hortan why he had been apprehended earlier. The nine eggs and one-pound cheese omelette had disappeared earlier along with a mug of strong Koffee. Hortan sipped his cocoa politely while he waited for the councillor to finish. John pointed with his fork at the station.
"And while I am not sure I can almost guarantee you that the blond cheerleader earlier was one of them."
A couple of pretty young women in the latest fashion statement from Odia, spidersilk bodysuits with miniscule skirts, walked by and John winked at them with the expected giggling to follow. He followed them with his eyes and when they looked back at him they reddened significantly and giggled to each other. John turned back to his breakfast and grinned. He finished the last synth bacon and tossed the plastic cutlery onto the plate.
"Right, since I apparently have no ship and no money, you can ferry me home to Dau. I'll sleep in the back if you don't mind.
Hortan nodded in agreement and quickly drank the rest of his cocoa, scalding his tongue. If he boosted all the way he would be in his roidfields within three hours again, away from all these people, only surrounded by the girls that he understood.
21. Brainwash
As long as she was close to him he was content with lying perfectly still. She seemed so intense, so vibrant, so full of everything precisely as he remembered her. He did not like the sounds of the men approaching her and he readied for action, the straight razor cold in his hand, comforting and deadly. But she didn't seem to mind them at all and so he kept observing her with all the adoration of a large dog. The robed person walked over to him and bent down making William twist to the side and look. The neural spike connected to his neck and his mind shut down with the picture of Janice solidly printed in the front of his brains.
.... light. A sense of dizziness threatened to overwhelm him and he felt a need to throw up. He moved a hand up in front of his face but nothing arrived. Puzzled he threw up without actually throwing up. He managed to control his dizziness and tried to move his limbs. Somehow he could control his them but nothing seemed to happen as if his own mind had been de-coupled from his body. The picture of a golden coloured hair appeared in his inner vision and he smiled.
"Janice"
A slight pain in his neck and darkness fell upon him again.
.... light. Through the haze of dizziness and discomfort the picture of a woman appeared in his inner vision and he smiled.
"Janice?"
Darkness.
.... light. The initial dizziness and sense of non-corporealness faded and something appeared in his inner vision. He smiled.
"............?"
Darkness.
Ahriman removed the neural spike, a highly illegal Serco mind-probing device. The spike had been originally designed to assist children that had suffered from extensive brain damage when they were introduced to their brainpal. On some children the connecting pathways to the brainpal found the wrong parts of the brain and caused seizures, epilepsy or worse. The spike could selectively sever these connections and the brainpal could then be removed safely and thus restore a life of semi-normality to the child. The child would not be counted as a full citizen obviously, since it would not be able to perform its civic duties later in life being unable to aug but they would be treated like any UIT living in Serco territory. The intelligence community and the Indoctrination centre especially had seized this new wonder toy like a birthday present. They were now able to remove information from people's minds and with the right auxiliary equipment install information to be unlocked at later times. Strangely enough it worked best on the non-treated minds of the UIT and only to some degree on members of the Itani defence force because they had received so much mental training when learning to fly. In this case Ahriman had encountered no problems and had erased the apparent obsession with a woman, focusing that obsession towards fighting instead. Not that he had to do all that much, it was merely the simple deletion of choice synapses that did the trick.
He flushed the patient's system with steroids and cortisone before disconnecting the brain-lock device. The patient woke up and blinked a few times, turned to one side and dry-retched before looking at Ahriman with slightly closed eyes. His voice, feeling the impact of three days of dryness and non-use, was hoarse and thick.
"Where am I?"
Ahriman moved back and motioned to Silia to come forward. She smiled down at William.
"Worry not, you are back among your friends. Welcome back to KAOS."
William, unsure of himself and the situation he was in, smiled back.
###
It had been lying dormant in the back of her mind ever since Ahriman had taken the person away. Somehow the name Janice had been floating around and touched upon this and that memory without making any real connections. She had finished moving the crates of coolant fluid, given the Wraith to Tramshed and left for her own quarters while her mind was processing away. Just as she had dumped herself on the bed, Retractile had called and invited her to a champagne party courtesy of the pigs at Daltas. Not really wanting to, she had agreed to join them in the command cubicle after Ret had pressured her for a bit. However, she was not going to arrive as a Daltas cheerleader and had taken a quick shower to get the dye out of the hair. She found a dress best described as a chaotic jumble of strings and beads, albeit a small jumble, donned it and started making her hair. Her eyes strayed to the picture of a happy family of five and that was when the name connected. She bent over as if a large Serco marine soldier had kicked her hard in the stomach with metal tipped boots. She felt nauseous and wanted to throw up badly but couldn't do much else than cry while moaning and writhing on the floor. She knew Janice, she knew Janice very well. And the memory block she had requested when she left the IDF had so very efficiently guarded her from that particular memory of herself, of her shame and of her sister until today. The memories flooded her and she succumbed to the power of remembrance.
Retractile found her an hour later sobbing on the floor, overwhelmed by the memory luggage she had carried from her youth and until now safely contained by selectively forgetting it. She was hugging her knees and repeating the same thing over and over;
"I know you, I know you."
A tranquilliser helped her to the oblivion of sleep and the party was postponed.
###
The three bots displayed an impressive array of blunt weapons that moved in semi-random circles in front of their armoured carapaces. The last bot was powered down since she was only EVA rated at level nine and she was training with her brainpal deactivated. The middle bot attacked her and she moved her left leg slightly back in anticipation of the two other bots’ attacks. The cudgel hammered towards her head and she intercepted the weapon sliding it along her lower left arm and jammed it under her arm. Using the forward momentum of the bot, she pressed the bot into the left following bot and released the cudgel. The bot on the right was now almost up to her back and she bent low before slamming her elbow up into the carapace of it. A red light turned on and the targeted bot withdrew, a sign that a real life enemy had been incapacitated or killed. The two other bots regained their attack pose and tried to rush her. She jabbed with her mock rifle at the chest of the left bot before intercepting the weapon of the other bot's weapon. She took a small step closer to the bot and hammered the stock of her weapon into the carapace following up with a shoulder into its centre. The red light turned on but the remaining bot slammed its cudgel into her leg freezing the endo-skeleton to simulate a broken leg. Stumbling backwards, she fought hard to keep the bot at bay eventually stumbling and landing hard on her back. The cudgel hammered towards her head and she dodged it narrowly while swinging the rifle as a club towards the bot's legs. The bot lost its balance and she managed to get halfway up before the bot started its attack again. Blocking the hammer blow with her rifle, she slammed the butt down on the bot's feet and forced it backwards. She regained her pose and attacked again, stabbed with the bayonet end before taking a small step forwards and slamming the rifle butt up into the face of the bot and shutting it down.
Heaving for air, she released the endo-skeleton's controls and stood swaying slightly in the middle of the room. Slowly she became aware that someone was clapping slowly behind her and she turned. A short slightly overweight man with a long thin beard clad in a green flight suit was standing near the entrance to the training hall. She narrowed her eyes and tried to place the person but failed. She activated her brainpal and set it to run a comparison study that came up with a couple of suggestions. She smiled.
"Asteroth."
"Bravo girl. I see you are keeping in shape as always."
"Just doing my bit Sir."
He waved his hand in dismissal and shook his head.
"Don't Sir me. I am but a mere ordinary member of TGFT now. For a while anyway. I won't take your time; I was just in the neighbourhood and wanted to see how you are doing. It is good to see you Cat."
"You too Sir. You too. Take care with whatever it is you are doing Sir."
Asteroth smiled at her deliberate disobedience and waved a hand in farewell.
Cat grinned and turned to the close combat bots. She had almost lost the last fight and that would not do. Not when Asteroth might need her soon. She took a deep breath and re-activated the bots.
As long as she was close to him he was content with lying perfectly still. She seemed so intense, so vibrant, so full of everything precisely as he remembered her. He did not like the sounds of the men approaching her and he readied for action, the straight razor cold in his hand, comforting and deadly. But she didn't seem to mind them at all and so he kept observing her with all the adoration of a large dog. The robed person walked over to him and bent down making William twist to the side and look. The neural spike connected to his neck and his mind shut down with the picture of Janice solidly printed in the front of his brains.
.... light. A sense of dizziness threatened to overwhelm him and he felt a need to throw up. He moved a hand up in front of his face but nothing arrived. Puzzled he threw up without actually throwing up. He managed to control his dizziness and tried to move his limbs. Somehow he could control his them but nothing seemed to happen as if his own mind had been de-coupled from his body. The picture of a golden coloured hair appeared in his inner vision and he smiled.
"Janice"
A slight pain in his neck and darkness fell upon him again.
.... light. Through the haze of dizziness and discomfort the picture of a woman appeared in his inner vision and he smiled.
"Janice?"
Darkness.
.... light. The initial dizziness and sense of non-corporealness faded and something appeared in his inner vision. He smiled.
"............?"
Darkness.
Ahriman removed the neural spike, a highly illegal Serco mind-probing device. The spike had been originally designed to assist children that had suffered from extensive brain damage when they were introduced to their brainpal. On some children the connecting pathways to the brainpal found the wrong parts of the brain and caused seizures, epilepsy or worse. The spike could selectively sever these connections and the brainpal could then be removed safely and thus restore a life of semi-normality to the child. The child would not be counted as a full citizen obviously, since it would not be able to perform its civic duties later in life being unable to aug but they would be treated like any UIT living in Serco territory. The intelligence community and the Indoctrination centre especially had seized this new wonder toy like a birthday present. They were now able to remove information from people's minds and with the right auxiliary equipment install information to be unlocked at later times. Strangely enough it worked best on the non-treated minds of the UIT and only to some degree on members of the Itani defence force because they had received so much mental training when learning to fly. In this case Ahriman had encountered no problems and had erased the apparent obsession with a woman, focusing that obsession towards fighting instead. Not that he had to do all that much, it was merely the simple deletion of choice synapses that did the trick.
He flushed the patient's system with steroids and cortisone before disconnecting the brain-lock device. The patient woke up and blinked a few times, turned to one side and dry-retched before looking at Ahriman with slightly closed eyes. His voice, feeling the impact of three days of dryness and non-use, was hoarse and thick.
"Where am I?"
Ahriman moved back and motioned to Silia to come forward. She smiled down at William.
"Worry not, you are back among your friends. Welcome back to KAOS."
William, unsure of himself and the situation he was in, smiled back.
###
It had been lying dormant in the back of her mind ever since Ahriman had taken the person away. Somehow the name Janice had been floating around and touched upon this and that memory without making any real connections. She had finished moving the crates of coolant fluid, given the Wraith to Tramshed and left for her own quarters while her mind was processing away. Just as she had dumped herself on the bed, Retractile had called and invited her to a champagne party courtesy of the pigs at Daltas. Not really wanting to, she had agreed to join them in the command cubicle after Ret had pressured her for a bit. However, she was not going to arrive as a Daltas cheerleader and had taken a quick shower to get the dye out of the hair. She found a dress best described as a chaotic jumble of strings and beads, albeit a small jumble, donned it and started making her hair. Her eyes strayed to the picture of a happy family of five and that was when the name connected. She bent over as if a large Serco marine soldier had kicked her hard in the stomach with metal tipped boots. She felt nauseous and wanted to throw up badly but couldn't do much else than cry while moaning and writhing on the floor. She knew Janice, she knew Janice very well. And the memory block she had requested when she left the IDF had so very efficiently guarded her from that particular memory of herself, of her shame and of her sister until today. The memories flooded her and she succumbed to the power of remembrance.
Retractile found her an hour later sobbing on the floor, overwhelmed by the memory luggage she had carried from her youth and until now safely contained by selectively forgetting it. She was hugging her knees and repeating the same thing over and over;
"I know you, I know you."
A tranquilliser helped her to the oblivion of sleep and the party was postponed.
###
The three bots displayed an impressive array of blunt weapons that moved in semi-random circles in front of their armoured carapaces. The last bot was powered down since she was only EVA rated at level nine and she was training with her brainpal deactivated. The middle bot attacked her and she moved her left leg slightly back in anticipation of the two other bots’ attacks. The cudgel hammered towards her head and she intercepted the weapon sliding it along her lower left arm and jammed it under her arm. Using the forward momentum of the bot, she pressed the bot into the left following bot and released the cudgel. The bot on the right was now almost up to her back and she bent low before slamming her elbow up into the carapace of it. A red light turned on and the targeted bot withdrew, a sign that a real life enemy had been incapacitated or killed. The two other bots regained their attack pose and tried to rush her. She jabbed with her mock rifle at the chest of the left bot before intercepting the weapon of the other bot's weapon. She took a small step closer to the bot and hammered the stock of her weapon into the carapace following up with a shoulder into its centre. The red light turned on but the remaining bot slammed its cudgel into her leg freezing the endo-skeleton to simulate a broken leg. Stumbling backwards, she fought hard to keep the bot at bay eventually stumbling and landing hard on her back. The cudgel hammered towards her head and she dodged it narrowly while swinging the rifle as a club towards the bot's legs. The bot lost its balance and she managed to get halfway up before the bot started its attack again. Blocking the hammer blow with her rifle, she slammed the butt down on the bot's feet and forced it backwards. She regained her pose and attacked again, stabbed with the bayonet end before taking a small step forwards and slamming the rifle butt up into the face of the bot and shutting it down.
Heaving for air, she released the endo-skeleton's controls and stood swaying slightly in the middle of the room. Slowly she became aware that someone was clapping slowly behind her and she turned. A short slightly overweight man with a long thin beard clad in a green flight suit was standing near the entrance to the training hall. She narrowed her eyes and tried to place the person but failed. She activated her brainpal and set it to run a comparison study that came up with a couple of suggestions. She smiled.
"Asteroth."
"Bravo girl. I see you are keeping in shape as always."
"Just doing my bit Sir."
He waved his hand in dismissal and shook his head.
"Don't Sir me. I am but a mere ordinary member of TGFT now. For a while anyway. I won't take your time; I was just in the neighbourhood and wanted to see how you are doing. It is good to see you Cat."
"You too Sir. You too. Take care with whatever it is you are doing Sir."
Asteroth smiled at her deliberate disobedience and waved a hand in farewell.
Cat grinned and turned to the close combat bots. She had almost lost the last fight and that would not do. Not when Asteroth might need her soon. She took a deep breath and re-activated the bots.
Neural Spike? Oh dear. I distinctly recall another spike of decidedly different origin causing no end of trouble some years ago. If this ends up in any way similar...well, I feel awful sorry for William.
I liked the idea of the neural spike. It makes perfect sense to me that someone from the centre of righteous thought would use such a device. Especially if he was as evil and depraved as Ahriman. So yes, poor William:)