SWNOVELS Chapter The unmentioned acronym
“Were the buyers satisfied?” asked Oriana in the betting office. She was a dark-skinned person and her features looked stiff and showed a considerable amount of scruff. “Or did they cause any trouble?”
“Paid in full and happy again,” replied one of six Scyth in the bar. “They’ll want twice as many next time.”
“Is that what they want? Well that means demand is up and so the price triples.”
“But why?” the Scyth asked fatuously as he counted off on his hands and calculated. “Twice as much, means twice the price?”
Oriana waved it off arrogantly. “Let me worry about that and now get out of here .... Celebrate the successful deal with the others.”
“Oh yes!” the Scyth replied. With that, his misgivings were forgotten. “We deserve that!”
But the parasitic creatures were not alone in their celebratory mood and fun in this betting den of Sector Seven, here in the larger city of Capon. Another dozen figures were cavorting in this place and they were all working for the same man - Vincent Luan. The petty crime boss was not among his minions, but he was the go-to man for a new guest whom everyone saw enter with mixed reactions.
“What are you staring at?!” asked Vorrn through bare teeth. He was one of the more imposing Hishek, with a harness full of weapons wrapped around his stomach and back, which certainly helped to intimidate most of the people in the bar directly. “Yeah, I thought so.”
“Who’are you?” inquired Oriana, placing a handy magnet submachine gun directly on the table. She was less intimidated. “What do you want?”
“My name is none of your damn business,” Vorrn replied. The hishek was here for one reason only. “I’m a hunter and I want my bounty so I can get out of this rancid hole again.”
“Whose bounty?”
Vorrn fell silent and instead stomped heavily towards Oriana’s table. His back was bare and a jagged black skin mark ran from his head down his spine, almost to the end of his tail. The hishek had attached a spiked attachment to it and when swinging, the tail had something of a barbed morning star. Further down, above the legs, he wore tough protectors and a dark, mechanical armour was stretched over the long belly, which ended at the base of the neck. Vorrn’s upper neck and powerful jaws were exposed, while a metal, blackened face shield perched on his muzzle and head, and his yellow lizard eyes flashed through the viewing slits of half his helmet. “This bounty,” he said, helping himself to his folded harness, a mobile aid. The synthetic straps rotated, pushing everything that hung on them around until two bloody ID cards were within reach of Vorrn’s too-short Hishek arms and he tossed them onto the table. “I heard your boss had some trouble with some heroes from Capona. Nira and Pusha, Asha and Nisha? Whatever their names were.”
“Were? They’re dead?” gaped Oriana, wide-eyed, comparing the cards. “But their names were Nora and Pashalia and yes - they did badly to Vincent.”
“Nira, Nora, Nura, I don’t care about that. Dead is dead and I want to see foreign currency.”
“Eh, yes ... I’m sure Vincent will show great appreciation for that,” Oriana said with conviction as she made her way with the IDs to a long flight of stairs. “I’ll talk to him. In the meantime, why don’t you treat yourself to a good drink or two, on the house?”
“If you must,” Vorrn said dismissively, kneeling down to sit at the bar. He didn’t need a chair, like any normal Hishek, and he was handed a glass of blue juice and straw by the human barman. “What is this supposed to be? Did you squeeze that out of an insect?”
“It’s our variation of Gamma. We added a few new ingredients.”
“The woman said good drinks and you give me Gamma that isn’t even Gamma?” questioned Vorrn, as if he was about to eat the barman. “It smells like piss and it’s stretched, guaranteed. New ingredients my ass.”
The barman swallowed and reached for the glass, trembling. “After all, you don’t have to drink it and I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“Oh no, no,” Vorrn shook his head. “Don’t you dare touch that glass and if that’s stretched stuff I’ll bite your head off.” He kept the glass, but he didn’t need the straw and certainly no one to press it into his hands. There was, in fact, a mechanical arm attached to his harness. At least it looked like an arm at first, and he simply slipped his right claw into it and promptly had a long, reliable helper with which Vorrn could even have effortlessly scratched his head or back. However, it was more of a weapon with multiple functions and the first thing that stood out about it was the multiple muzzles at the end, a mini-gun, but instead of using those, a two-sided grappling hook popped out of the side socket and closed around the glass. “And don’t you think you’ll be saved by your friends - is that all of them?”
“Most of them.”
“Nhrrr, good, good,” Vorrn said, finishing his drink in one go, but it didn’t taste that bad to him. “Ahh, smells like piss and looks like it’s been thrown up, but there’s something about it. Good swill.”
The barman smiled narrowly, genuinely relieved. “Another?”
“No, no. I’ve got some work to do and I need to be sober for it. At least halfway.”
" ...well as long as it’s nothing to do with me.”
“The drink was good, so we don’t have any problems because of that,” Vorrn said callously before a blade suddenly clicked out of his mechanical helper. “I’ll kill you anyway, though.” The Hishek rammed the sharp steel nefariously under the surprised barman’s chin and flung it around playfully, like a wrecking ball, effectively sweeping the Nahen minions off their feet! Vorrn raged purposefully and destructively before he even thought of resorting to his firepower and it wasn’t just the arm cannon. He grabbed a clunky handgun from his harness that fired grenades and let out a warlike animal scream from his throat. The bloody chaos was perfect.
“It’s time!” said Kysaek. She had been tracking Vorrn’s appearance through his equipment’s sensors and was sitting outside the bar with Thais, completely unmolested, in a flying hover wheel. “Give fire.”
“I was just waiting for it,” Tavis replied, lurking on the roof of the building, opposite the betting shop, which was on the upper floors of a small tower block. The Palanians part was to prevent an escape across the higher, open garage and he did that by perforating every Hover Wheel parked there with his plasma assault rifle.
“Good, he’s dodging,” Kysaek reported after a while. She could track every move of her opponent, Vincent Luan, because the ID cards brought forward were equipped with tracking chips and everything went according to plan.
The card carrier fled to the roof, because where else could he go? Vorrn slowly worked his way up, blocking the way out through the entrance. All the vehicles were gone and on the betting shop roof was the last two-seater hover wheel. It was too tempting a means of escape and Luan was one of four fugitives.
The old bald man, with a large, prominent burn behind his right ear, was with Oriana and two Scyth, but Kysaek didn’t even give them the opportunity for the argument about who was now allowed into the vehicle and who was not. Thais flew her closer and from her hover wheel rained down a long volley on the roof with her Magnet assault rifle, categorically working her way through the ranks until only Vincent Luan was left. The gangster boss crouched behind the badly damaged vehicle, but that didn’t save him from Kysaek and Thais as they landed and surrounded the criminal.
Vincent didn’t even have a gun. “Hey, hey! We can talk about anything!” he begged from the ground. When the going got tough and came to an end, a lot of people sounded the same and he was no exception. “I have lots of foreign currency!”
Talking, however, had not been an option since Re’Lis’ abduction and even less so now that Kysaek had learned what Vincent’s new business model was. “No talking and certainly not your foreign currency!” she complained angrily, grabbing the older man. By way of greeting, she gave him a good punch on the chin before Kysaek verbally unloaded. “You dirty bastard! Children?! CHILDREN?! Wasn’t it enough to bleed people dry?! Did it have to be their children now too?!”
The hands around Vincent’s neck temporarily cut off his air. “Dargh-this is just business!” he retorted, frantically tapping the choking wrists at his neck. “Urgh, and you let it come to this! Urgh, you destroyed my previous business!”
“And I’d do it again!” said Kysaek, beside herself, urging the man to the edge of the roof where she pushed half his torso over the edge - there it was a good hundred yards down to the street. “But you are right! I’m to blame too and it was my mistake for not finishing it after Jason died and all I can do now is correct that mistake!”
“I will never do it again! I swear!”
“Too late! You played dirty and high and now you’re falling low!”
“No, wait! Stop! Please! Stop!” shuddered Vincent in the open air. “You can’t just kill me! This is cold-blooded murder!”
Briefly, Kysaek hesitated and slowly lowered the man. “No,” she suddenly spoke in an unusually calm voice. “This is not murder. This is a spark of justice,,,for all those you have robbed and broken!”
Desperately Vincent tried to hold on to his executioner’s arms. ” So what!” he shook his head unconvinced. His fight was long lost and the commotion, Vorrn’s fight in the tower block, died away. “What do you think you’ll achieve! I am one of millions, more like billions! By my death, nothing would change!”
“I’m not so naive as to believe that either,” Kysaek sighed sadly, gradually catching up with the old man. He came back to an upright stance and exhaled in relief at the mercy, but Kysaek didn’t have it for him. “But it can be a start!” she said with conviction and pushed the now terrified criminal mercilessly into the abyss. The impact was hard and even from this height, Kysaek could clearly see the bloody stain Vincent’s impact had left on the empty backyard and just as she experienced a deep pacification, she sank to her knees guiltily. “How many do you think there were?”
“When you start thinking about it, it just makes it harder,” Thais said understandingly. Counting the children was futile for Talin, but jaded she was not. “You’d better think of the good we’ve done ... that’s more than many in these slums ever get.”
“Not thinking about it is so easy to say,” Kysaek breathed heavily and closed her eyes. She was close to tears and yet she couldn’t shed any out of self-reproach, though her contorted face and regretful voice would have matched. “Is there any point at all in doing something good if only worse will come of it?”
“I’d like to say yes, and I would Kysaek, but that’s a question you’ll have to answer for yourself,” Thais admitted, sitting down with her feet dangling on the edge of the roof, next to her leader. “You wanted to make something better, so you have to put up with the bad. If you can’t and won’t, you must ignore it and merely look after yourself and all of us - we have a battle of our own to fight.”
Weak and anguished, Kysaek smiled. “Is this going to be another one of those Talin philosophy lessons? Won’t I be just as bad if I look the other way at bad things?”
“No philosophy,” Thais denied experiencedly. “The galaxy is complicated. There is not such a thing as the answer. There is only your answer. Find it.”
“One more answer for me to find? Great and what do I tell people about their children?”
“The truth. Luan got his punishment and I’m sure a lot can be traced with his business records. But doing that is the responsibility of the parents, without whom we wouldn’t have got on Vincent’s trail. They are their children and we have given them another chance, something good.”
That was a moderate consolation for Kysaek and it was the only one, apart from Luan’s death. “Yes ... the truth,” she murmured, because there was something else about the truth, but she didn’t want to say it just yet.
“And now that it’s just us ... I can deal with it and I can understand your pain and I’m sure some others can as well, but a leader doesn’t let himself go like that towards his people. You have to show strength.”
“Another dark side to this existence, eh?”
“One of the biggest,” Thais said weightily. “The heaviest, even.”
The wind whistled softly but strongly and the nightlife of Capon just went on as if that lightning and fatal attack had never happened, and the way things were in the nether regions, I’m sure it was everyday life for a lot of people: ignored, forgotten and never happened.
Kysaek had remembered, however, the foul rumours and plea of a mother and she was relieved that she had still been able to settle this nasty business, despite the thin window of escape and although the parents had not fought the battle themselves, they had put Kysaek on Vincent’s trail. A comforting victory, by all accounts.
What came next, however, was not a fight by all, but only by Kysaek’s group. Although it had taken a good deal longer than Tavis had estimated, Roskor Reed eventually found the trail to Central and Capona and had sent out more than a few of his henchmen. They were only his, though, without PGI and thanks to Dorvan’s digital capabilities, there was nearly twenty-four hours’ warning and preparation time. Cipi’s nasty surprise, would not be repeated on Central and all were grateful for more time of rest, except for Kysaek’s new ally. He was growing increasingly indisposed as the hour of confrontation approached.“Waiting, waiting - I had actually expected more of this,” Vorrn said uneasily. He braced one foot against the steel wall and as the lizard dragged its claws across the surface there was a squeak as sickening as if someone were scraping fingernails across glass.
“Then it is our good fortune that you promised it to yourself and not us to you,” said Tavis, who was sitting in the same room with Kysaek and the Hishek. The three were alone.
“Yes, that was your good fortune, that you are who you are. I did not save you out of charity.”
“We have not forgotten,” Kysaek affirmed, and like the men, she was prepared for battle and even had her helmet on already. “But your complaints don’t change the fact that it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Yes, and even if it does, nothing will happen. I want a fight, not to play hide and seek.”
“You took Vincent Luan’s pack apart by yourself just the other day,” , Tavis noted, and he hadn’t been a fan of Vorrn’s conflict-seeking since his admission. “Wasn’t that enough for you for now?”
“Smoking a few criminal genra out of their nest is not a challenge. At best, it was training.”
“Training? Then why are you grumbling about us waiting for Reed’s goons? How is that different from Vincent’s people?”
“Number and experience. It takes me time to deal with them, challenges me more and becomes magnificent,” Vorrn grinned broadly, yearning for blood.
“Trust me,” Kysaek said crisply. “Soon you won’t have a moment’s peace and you’ll have more fight than you can handle.”
“We’ll see, ehehehe,” Vorrn laughed, sounding more creepy than reassuring. He was quiet again for the moment, but the first time they’d met him and the dead stone wranglers, it had been different.
Kysaek had called it luck , Tavis coincidence, Thais consistent and Vorrn, brutish as he appeared, spoke cryptically, taking it as a gift from the ancestors. The Hishek had been approached by Nuka in the bar about the supposed job, but he hadn’t cared and had told the barmaid how he chased Kysaek away. Nuka had guessed this and mentioned who else she recommended for the job and that was the crux of the matter. Vorrn had overheard part of what the mercenaries were planning while passing the brawlers’ table and it disgusted him so much that he simply decided to kill the brawlers. However, the Hishek had no noble motives in mind and he did not care whether he was late or on time. He just wanted to kill the brawlers and after Vorrn had done that and wondered what to do with the rest, Kysaek applied what she had told Tavis before the bar visit - blank honesty, including taking off her bio-mask. So one thing led to another and swiftly, for as Nuka had said, Vorrn was not a man of many words and before Kysaek knew it, the Hishek was giving her no choice if she wanted to survive. He literally forced himself on the group. He didn’t care about the recruitment, the mission, or Kysaek’s conditions. Vorrn was only interested in one fact and that was the immense challenge that awaited him. A fight that would not bore him. That was what he had called it, before the gift of the ancestors, and Kysaek was left here and now with one question: what had happened? Was it luck that she had come across such a man, a warrior of all people, who was rather indifferent to foreign currency and who saw the fight itself as a reward? Was it coincidence that her saviour passed by the brawlers’ table at the very moment when the mercenaries spoke of betrayal? Was it consistent that Tavis and Kysaek spoke to Nuka and she questioned the Hishek about it, who was then disgusted? Or was it what Vorrn said: a gift from the ancestors - fate? However one answered that question for oneself, one answer was certain and that concerned Kysaek’s unmasking. After the brawlers were dead and Vorrn had imposed himself, Tavis found a DNA scanner on the dead Talin and in the scanner had been a sample of Kysaek’s DNA. Vorrn had noted that this was a standard tool for good mercenaries and bounty hunters who liked to do routine checks and Kysaek remembered that the Talin had once been at the bar counter and must have somehow got a sample from her in passing. At least that was the only explanation for her as to how and when the brawlers had got hold of her DNA and thus exposed her.
Crazy galaxy, Kysaek thought. That was all she could think of. Crazy and twisted. But whichever of the reasons applied, or even all of them together, one thing was certain for her. I’m not saying no to such an eager soldier after all. She did not believe, however, that he would soon be put to full use. At least not if Kysaek’s present plan worked out and it was long in the making .She, Tavis and Vorrn were the back up and distraction. While the rest took care of stealing the ship, the three of them had to present an obvious and daring target and the red warning signal finally lighting up on one of the monitors was their cue to finally do it.
“Another two hours or so and Reed’s people will be there,” Tavis said .It was no great act, but he got the transmission ready, which was essential to the plan and which Kysaek would have insisted on either way, Tavis speaking in praise. “Dorvan did really well. I’ve got signals in Capon, Capona and from all the places and grids in the vicinity. I’m launching it now.”
“Yes,” Kysaek nodded. She would have liked to give everyone more warning on this, but that would have been too risky for her group, and even now, so close to escape, her plan was a risk. “Let’s give the people what they deserve.”
Everywhere it began. Whether holoscreens in markets, the streets, homes or shops, as well as thousands and thousands of vortex cuffs - they all received Kysaek’s signal, a recorded video message. “Whoever is receiving this message, please do not switch off!” she urged. “My name is Nora Faith and I don’t have much time left, but I want to use it to issue a warning, because I am a liar. I’m sure some people know my name. I came to Capona, like many seeking help, and I wanted to hide,” she said, taking off her helmet. She was no longer wearing her bio mask “For in truth my name is Elaine Kysaek and I am a fugitive, but that is not important now, not to all of you. Especially those who live and have been near me - you should flee, for at this very moment hundreds of assassins and mercenaries of a man named Roskor Reed are on their way to Capona to kill my companions and me. I’m sure they won’t hesitate to destroy anyone else who doesn’t leave here either, and I know that’s not fair. However, me telling the truth and warning everyone was the least I could do before getting ready. Everyone who is in Capona should get out of there because my group will be waiting there and will rise up against these criminals and it will be a bloody affair. Please, flee.”
Kysaek’s speech could have attracted other riffraff, like bounty hunters or even the authorities, like Central’s security forces, but none of them came. In these days of modern and rapid information dissemination, it was debatable whether that was a good sign or a bad sign, or Sector Seven was truly abandoned by all law and order, but the situation was what it was and Kysaek’s warning had not been understated, for soon unidentified vans were driving every which way to Capona and the much-manned vehicles, blocking the entrances to the village with roadblocks and well-equipped guards, while several hover wheels filled the otherwise empty airspace of Sector Seven and the village. Even Kyaek’s company, which she had closed for the day anyway, was besieged and a land cruiser, with no clear affiliation, even appeared in the sky, scanning the work area with its bright spotlights.
Most of the uninvited guests marched briskly and purposefully through the largely deserted Capona. They knew exactly where to go and wasted no time. One half launched a brief but brutal barrage on the façade of Kysaek’s residence and the remaining criminals charged haughtily into the building, firing wildly despite the lack of targets.
Room after room and the second floor was stormed, searched and looted, but Kysaek persevered, focused and largely calm. “They’ll be here soon.”
“At last!“, Vorrn bared his teeth and readied his mechanical arm. “At least I’ll get that!”
“We’ll leave it entirely up to you,” Kysaek replied composedly. She stood up with Tavis and stood with him behind the Hishek.
“This won’t take long,” Vorrn grinned, readying his weapon. Yes, he liked that and the wait had been somewhat worthwhile after all.
Meanwhile, Reed’s thugs were running out of rooms to search and not many alternatives remained, except for the small warehouse. “They must be in there!” said a bad-tempered Galig, kicking open the door. But the manageable warehouse was completely dark and filled to the roof with packages and boxes. Even the beam of his weapon lamp was of little help. “Come out! You’re finished!” the man demanded. Hoping to find some valuable goods, some of his companions opened a few packages and he himself set about checking the goods and every nook and cranny in the room.
“WAIT! DON’T!“; startled one Talin, but it was too late! The criminals had fallen into the trap and before a single shot had been fired, a massive number of explosive charges hidden in the crates exploded, tearing apart not only the entire house. The force and range of the bombs was so strong that surrounding houses also burst apart in the flames and Reed’s henchmen were swallowed up by the ravenous fire. Even the parked trucks turned into flying scrap metal.
The trap had snapped shut perfectly and Kysaek had the best view there could be. She had been far above for hours, almost directly below the middle level, on an outer platform of the Sector Seven partition, and could see the fading stinging flame. “I wonder if that scared Reed off for the future.”
“Certainly not him,” agreed Vorrn, who had pressed the ignition button. There had been no other way to reassure him before. “For this, his goons will tremble when they hunt us down, and yet that was just a little firework now, hehehe.”
“I don’t share our new friend’s joy in battle, but I agree with him,” Tavis said guardedly. “It will earn us respect.”
“Perhaps,” Kysaek murmured indecisively. Now all she had to do was wait here for the stolen ship and get away from Central, but her feint was already drawing trouble.
The attacks were far less fierce and conspicuous, but the projectile guns of the land cruiser that had appeared earlier echoed noisily and set parts of the company ablaze.
“Looks like they don’t want to take any chances,” said Tavis, who had predicted such a reaction.
Kysaek, on the other hand, had believed that it would happen anyway, trap or no trap, though she had secretly hoped that people would stay on the job. “When we’re gone, it can be rebuilt,” she said.
“Well, our visitors don’t know that, but at least the residents and workers are all safe. It was very honourable of you to warn them,” Tavis praised gratefully. He was a rogue and went about his work conscientiously, but the innocent were not his equal.
It didn’t make Kysaek feel much better though, and he watched as the land cruiser continued to bombard the company until suddenly he was hit by something! “What was that?!” she asked excitedly. A new impact ripped through the hull of the big machine, which meant that someone was firing a penetrating weapon at the damaged ship, but Kysaek could not make out the source. As the lumbering land cruiser veered away from the work area, however, it was easy for her to see the rockets rising from different directions. They took the defenceless command ship out of the sky after several hits, which now plunged towards the company, missing the compound by a hair’s breadth on impact.
“Look at that!“; shouted Tavis. He had gone back into the surveillance room unnoticed in the heat of the moment and was quickly joined by Kysaek and Vorrn. Despite the explosion, most of the systems were still tapped and all three could not believe their eyes.
Vorrn even laughed. “Well, well,” he noted gleefully at the spectacle.
The militia of the villages was on the advance, all in all perhaps about a hundred strong and outnumbered by the enemy, despite their losses. However, they clearly had the advantage on their side and knew how to use it. Many militia soldiers were located on the eastern edge of Capona, under and on top of one of the firmer and higher rubbish hills, the ideal place for ranged attacks. A well-equipped high tech army they certainly were not, but they offered the will, the necessary weapons and even a modified small truck. The vehicle had been converted into an armoured half-track and had a real plasma turret on the back. It swept away the annoying and protective roadblocks on the eastern edge of the village from the hill like nothing. So what choice did Reed’s crooks have there but to flee between the houses? They had Capona surrounded and prepared for a lightning storm attack on the village, but not to have to defend themselves in their rear against half-organised troops. No, the criminal gang was definitely not PGI. Their plan and tactics were blunt and except for the land cruiser they had shot down, they had advanced without a heavy arsenal. For the time being, they thought they were safe among the houses and cheered their hover wheels in the air, but the flying vehicles were no fighting machines. Armed passengers or not - for the militia’s simple gunmen, the Hover Wheels were nothing more than target practice. A shot in the driver’s head, a hit engine or the complete perforation of the weak bodywork was enough. For a successful advance, however, the militia needed more than remote fire support and brought mobile, improvised protective measures to bear. Excavators drove at walking pace towards Capona and acted as moving walls. Instead of the shovel, however, massive steel plates hung on the front attachment and spread out like arms to the sides. No bullet penetrated the steel, no plasma melted through the thick layers fast enough and pressure weapons did no more than slow the vehicles down for a hundredth of a second. Under cover of the excavators, which were reinforced by capable prismatics, the militia could approach the village without danger and that made Reed’s pack panic. They were more and yet not superior. Their weapons were better, but they were the wrong ones. They thought this would be easy and instead faced brave fighters - enough reasons for the paid assassins to run away in turn like cowards and a similar scenario played out at the company.
In small units of two and three, the militias attacked from ambush. They simply knew the area better and dispersed any gathering. One of Reed’s Palanian criminals wanted to play it smarter and stayed at the work site. It even worked and he was safe and relieved until he felt a commotion and heard the touchdown of a solid, colossal foot behind him. Preferably, the Palanian would certainly not have turned around, but he did and came face to face with a Void Body. “Only I do business here!“; growled Prax. The little Hishek sat in the big machine and crushed the yelping Palanian with the foot of the Body. “Come on! What am I paying you for?!” He was not alone.
His brothers stood by him, loyal and ready to shoot. “You don’t pay us at all.”
“And now you know why!” opined Prax, and he couldn’t just kick it with the Void Body. Like lanky dolls to play with, he grabbed departing marauders and broke or tore them apart.
The once weak had risen against the strong and when the first digger entered Capona, it was truly over. “I’m not going to die here so miserably!” one of Reed’s Hishek shouted and sprinted off in a hurry. “Forget the mission and this pile of rubbish! Get out of here!” He and the rushing remnant had concentrated too much on the east, giving part of the militia enough time to manoeuvre undetected from the north. The frontal fight became a pincer attack and the two-sided charge decided the conflict. Reed’s remaining men retreated for good and the militia had won.
“And I’m standing useless up here!“; Vorrn complained, fixing Kysaek sharply. “Why didn’t you say anything about it?!”
The man would certainly not like her answer and would probably believe it even less, but that was not part of Kysaek’s plan. “Because I didn’t know!” she threw back just as firmly. “I don’t know why people fight and I didn’t ask for it!”
“And why not! That clearly promised more success.”
“Because it was neither the residents’ nor the militia’s fight.”
Tavis intervened. “Enough of this discussion!” he said urgently, hurrying outside. “Here comes our taxi!”
And what a ride it was! White stripes on the wingtips and the snout dipped in a dark blue, while the rest of the ship was a metallic grey. Colours and a get-up Kysaek knew all too well. “Oh shit,” she cursed in bewilderment. Her remaining companions had actually stolen a Luna Alliance scout frigate after all. A ship that measured a good eighty metres in width and was not quite half that long. The surface was smooth and the front hull had a slightly curved shape, right up to the ends of the wingtips. The wings and hull were one, a necessary use of space on such a slender ship, while the stern went absolutely straight from one side of the wing to the other. Only the belly in the middle of the aft part of the ship was curved halfway and contained the door to its hold. “Now get in!” demanded Kuren over the rather deafening intercom when the ship was close enough to the platform.
It was too late for objections and a rethink now, Kysaek was aware of that. She boarded with Tavis and Vorrn and the ship immediately set course for one of the wide flight tunnels. It took off at a tremendous speed, so much faster than the fastest hover wheel and on the bridge Kysaek was reunited with her team. “When exactly were you going to tell me we were stealing from the Alliance military?!” she chided the Sororanian twins in particular.
“You didn’t ask!” defended Dios. She had been separated from her sister and shrunk like her. Her place was co-pilot and Kuren was right next to her, in the helmsman’s pilot’s seat. “Besides, we’re outlaws. As if that would make things worse.”
“Yeah, but we’re in enough trouble already!” retorted Kysaek, but it was true - she hadn’t asked, after all, because she herself thought things couldn’t get any worse anyway, and a military ship hadn’t been on her radar as a possibility. “How did the theft go?”
Kuren felt the question was obvious. “We’re here, aren’t we?”
“I don’t like that answer at all!”
“Dorvan bought us a few minutes when he jammed the bay’s communications, but they were really pissed when we flew away!”
“I can relate.”
“Yes, and now we have to be quick!” underlined Kuren, increasing the speed of the ship bit by bit. “If we’re not out in the open before they locate us and seal off the tunnels, it’s going to be a very short escape!” She was still a long way from space or terminal velocity, but the Sororanian was getting what she could out of the craft in this environment, despite the dangerous tunnel narrowness, wingspan and close quarters traffic. However, the predominantly flat surface of the ship provided one option and that was to circulate steadily and a lot. Kuren slipped through every gap, though she did occasionally grind along the wall and demolish a traffic signal. “Oops!”
Actually, Kysaek didn’t want to look. It was too hectic for her, but she couldn’t look away from the screens either, because there were no windows on the bridge. The only thing that prevented her from being flung wildly across the bridge, landing on the ceiling or crashing into the walls during all the manoeuvres were the ship’s internal gravity generators, but the externally acting vibrations could not compensate for the generators.
Kuren became indignant. “Sit down and buckle up!”
“Ah, right! Buckle up, there was something!” agreed Dios and everyone secured themselves in the remaining seats of the bridge before heading steeply upwards.
The ship had reached an access vector, a hole a kilometre wide and much deeper still that connected countless levels and tunnels, while freedom and daylight waited at the top. The generous space in the vector made flying so much easier, but blaring bright alarm sirens and red warning lights were not good harbingers. The upper end of the vector was secured by an energy shield and above it huge, heavy shutters slid together in slow motion.
“We’re flying towards a shield!” complained Tavis sceptically. “Turn around!”
“Oh, we can still handle that,” Dios said boldly. She and her sister had the steely nerves of real pilots, with Dios as co-pilot giving the inputs “Minimum power on the mass gun! Fire at will!”
“Fired!” replied Kuren, activating the light twin mass gun, the scout frigate’s main weapon. The bulky energy field could not withstand even the gun’s minimised firepower and collapsed instantly. “These shields are not meant for such calibres! Just for ordinary hoodlums in a chase and we’re exceptional!“, Kuren mentioned enthusiastically as she moved fully towards the closing shutters. The path to freedom became narrower and narrower and almost closed, but the ship slid through a meagre gap to freedom before the vector closed thunderously.
Tavis was relieved at that. “I don’t necessarily want to complain now, but the communication in this team leaves a lot to be desired!”
“Then I guess I should remind you that it’s not over yet!” retorted Kuren. Now, in clear airspace, she was able to bring the thrusters up to full power and briefly ignited the extra flaming afterburners. It was a completely different experience from the flight with Cipi’s bolt droppers, because the scout ship’s power was in other dimensions and it was designed for speed anyway. Nevertheless, Kuren did not choose the most used routes and especially nothing that was directly in orbit above Central. Too many space stations and civilian and military ships. The rest of space was more suitable and Kuren soon made a wide detour to the more remote side of the planet.
But this region was not entirely free of patrols either. “Stolen ship SIM Jupiter 33!” contacted an irascible Hishek. “Shut down your thrusters immediately and surrender or we will open fire!” He broadcast the warning from a lone Hishek cruiser, a 650-metre war machine that resembled a thick, flying obelisk.
“No you won’t!” replied Dios slyly. “Galactic conventions forbid the firing of such manoeuvrable vessels with battleships, in densely populated space.”
“Grrrr, have it your way!” growled the pursuer. Indeed, he did not attack, but he sent out ten automatic attack drones.
The oval auxiliaries were nimble and fast enough to catch up to the stolen ship, discharging focused laser beams from their round central lenses. The seemingly endless, heated lines flashed for only a second at a time, but they were extremely difficult to dodge and a few consecutive hits would have been enough. Two double Hyper MGs could be countered by the scout frigate as a defence, heating up the drones with their glowing bright blue bullets.
“Route about to be calculated!” announced Dios. “Twenty seconds to interval phase flight!” Rescue was near, but before that the SIM Jupiter 33 had to make a 180 degree turn and head straight for the Hishek cruiser again. This gave the drones the opportunity to split up and attack from multiple sides. They nearly collapsed the frigate’s sensitive shields as the SIM Jupiter 33 dived beneath the Hishek cruiser. A slight red haze settled over her entire surface and a clear reflective water-like liquid gathered as a sphere in front of her front “IPF done!” said Dios. The veil suddenly became more distinct, a dark red, and the sphere took on the same colour. Suddenly the liquid merged with the SIM Jupiter 33 and as if sucked in by space, the frigate disappeared in a bright, blinding red light to every eye.