Untold Stories of a Galaxy - Kysaek: The Beginning

Things were relaxed among the Brawlers, even after the minor incident, and they played 21 Lies. “And now you may draw two cards and place them on the field,” a Palanian lady rejoiced.

Trembling, the nostrils of her Davoc teammate flared as he drew two cards and placed them on the board, bringing his hand above the number 21. “Lost again!” he huffed, banging the table briskly, causing the glasses and cards to bounce briefly. “I was so close!”

“Too soon,” the Palanian retorted, using her vortex cuff to call off the entire amount of the foreign currency plaque that lay in the centre of the table. “Sweet, sweet foreign currecnyian.”

This goaded the sore loser even more, but the second man in the round, a human with half his face bristling with synthetic implants, played the no-nonsense mediator. “Now you’re getting upset. You know what she’s like. Her anger is only making her victory more palatable and I don’t want to listen to her boasts for days again.”

Like a giant baby, the Davoc sat there grumbling to himself, but he kept quiet, allowing Tavis to make his entrance. “Really skilfully played,” the Palanian praised the winner.

“Isn’t it?” laughed the fellow. “With 21 Lies, you have to keep an eye on everyone.”

“Yes. It’s just a game that requires good strategies. The friend you had a moment ago can be your next opponent.”

“Simple rules, yet challenging,” nodded the Palanian woman. Her two, male partners stayed out of the chatter, while the fourth member of the Stone Brawlers, a scrawny Talin, at least gave the two strangers at the table a glance and let her fellow Palanian continue talking. “Do you fancy a round?”

“Normally I wouldn’t say no, but I’m not here for pleasure,” Tavis mentioned seriously, but not too loftily. “I’m possibly much more interested in the skills of the Stone Brawlers.”

“We’re just coming off an assignment,” the synthetically modified human said. “I’m not in the mood for a new one.”

“What did I say about negotiating?” the Palanian woman asked sharply.

“Negotiate all you want. I want to relax, like this, for a week or two.”

With her pointed clawed fingers, the Palanian woman pawed across the metal table, but she didn’t pick a fight and, with an irritated undertone, smartly acquiesced. “Just ignore him. He’s always like that after jobs, but we’re allways up for more - if the price is right.”

Tavis grabbed a chair from the empty neighbouring table and sat down unbidden with the round. “I’ve heard of the notorious staying power of the brawlers. That’s why you’re eligible for me, and I’m prepared for high prices.”

“And what is it about?”

“You’ll find out if you answer a few more questions for me, because you can hear a lot from others, but it’s still best to learn things from the actual source.”

“So you are not a bungler, a good start. But before we go any further, be a little generous. We are thirsty.”

“A little advance,” Tavis said, raising a hand in the air. “Coming right up.”

Actually, Kysaek had said she would stay with Tavis, but at the moment she felt redundant and she saw no danger that necessitated backing her up. Besides, with all the talk and after the incoming load of gamma, the brawlers paid her little attention, as did Tavis. He is quite in his element. With that conclusion, it was easy for Kysaek to gain distance and become productive herself. When her Palanian companion was working on the stone brawlers, she could take a look at this man. What could go wrong? After all, the lizard had just been princely cared for and continued to lie there peacefully while the vibrating, guttural clacking sounds of the scaly man reached Kysaek’s ear as she addressed him “Excuse me. Vorrn, right?”

“Not just now,” Vorrn brought out in his vibrating voice. “Get lost.”

The warning dismissal was clearly let and Kysaek, who usually went for confrontation or used her eloquence, silently turned back. She wanted to stay away from the conversation at the brawlers’ table, however, and sat back at the bar, where she drank her Gamma in small sips after all. After Sector Seven, after Themis, after all the trouble in the last few months, she suddenly found herself in a moment of normality. A glass in her hand, chatter around her and, albeit slightly more exotic, music in her ear. She let herself go with it and drifted away. Far too rarely had she thought about anything else lately that had nothing to do with hiding or finding, or if she was honest, nothing else at all. I wonder how her mother was doing. Every now and then over the last few weeks her finger had been circling the interface, whether that of her vortex cuff or any kit. A call with her, just to know if she was still alright or just to hear her voice, but Kysaek couldn’t do that. It was too dangerous, unfortunately, for her mother, for the group and herself. Others had already paid the price for their actions. The disciples on Cipi, good Jim and his family, all a bad nightmare that wasn’t one after all.

“You all right, sweetheart?“, Nuka’s voice rang out again.

Kysaek looked up. “Huh?”

“I know that look. Seen it here thousands of times and there’s always a story to go with it.”

“Don’t the stories there get repetitive at some point?” retorted Kysaek guardedly as she rocked her glass back and forth on the pedestal.

“Often, yes,” Nuka nodded. She leaned forward and propped herself up on her elbows on the counter. “Places and names are different, but a lot is the same. Sometimes there are still surprises and I like to have a good story to tell others.”

“So this is just about your job? So you can entertain others?”

“Also and personal interest. After all, it is always good when one’s work harmonises with one’s preferences,” Nuka said. She looked patient and did not let up. “I mean, how else could I tell my guests who’s good or not or give you advice for life? You don’t know the power of someone behind the bar sometimes.”

“In a mercenary establishment, sure,” Kysaek agreed as she looked around scrutinisingly. “That’s different from the worker off the street who can’t pay the next bill or when there’s a row in the marriage.”

“Quite the opposite. Normal worries abound here too. Have you seen the Davoc from the brawlers? His name is Nodag”

“Yes, a bad loser.”

“More like a bad gambler,” Nuka corrected, amused. She did not, however, devalue the Davoc. In fact, it was a little admiration on her part. “Only why do you think he keeps playing with his leader anyway?”

“Stubbornness?”

Nuka laughed. “You’d think,” she nodded, “But no, no. A big man, with a big heart. He secretly loves her, but she wants no one solid. Only adventure and sex on her mind.”

“So he wants to spend time with her,” Kysaek understood. She emptied her glass and put it down.

Promptly Nuka took it and refilled it. “Normal time. They’re together day in and day out, but shooting other people’s asses off is just less private, and Nodag’s poured his heart out to me a few times, asked me what to do.”

“And what was your advice?”

“Get what he can,” Nuka said frankly. You could tell she had experience in these matters as far as her guests were concerned. “Sex may not be love, but if he gets it right, there is intimacy in bed. That’s worth something too, because the galaxy gives you nothing and sometimes you just need closeness to make it through another day.”

“Good advice, I think,” Kysaek replied. The little story made her smile briefly, but it didn’t last long. She was left only with the freshly filled glass, from which she sipped. “I’m afraid I can’t do anything with that, though.”

“That’s why I’m here. Why are you so lost? Is there much attached to this salvage?”

Kysaek exhaled once, more deeply. “Everything.”

“No salvage then,” Nuka assessed. She couldn’t be fooled anytime soon, it seemed. “Do they know your name?”

“Nora is my name.”

“I mean your real name.”

“I beg your pardon?” blinked Kysaek in surprise. “My name is Nora. That’s my real name.”

“All right, Nora. What’s this about? Debts? Revenge? What’s the point of a bunch of mercenaries? You have the Palanian, after all.”

“Born out of a purpose and we both agreed that’s not enough.”

“Ah, sounds like something big,” Nuka remarked. For this story, she even ignored a Calanian guest who raised his hand at the counter. “Not now.”

“Huge is more like it,” Kysaek sighed. Like a bad movie, she was talking to the person behind the counter in a bar. Or was life always like that? A bad film? Or pure reality after all? “I have to leave Central soon. If I don’t, it’ll be getting nasty for me and my people.”

“Always on the move is good when there’s trouble,” Nuka said, looking towards the entrance of her bar and back again. “The bang doesn’t start here though, does it?”

“No, otherwise we wouldn’t have come and would have left long ago.”

“Smart woman. Will I hear about it when it happens?”

“Maybe. It’s definitely going to be tough.”

“Well, hopefully you’ll survive,” Nuka said. Gradually the patrons who wanted something from her multiplied and she pushed herself off the counter, unhappy about it. “Because then I’ll have a better story to tell everyone here. When someone dies, stories are just too short and you seem to be quite all right.”

“Nice of you to say so,” Kysaek replied. She also looked to the waiting patrons and nodded to the barmaid. “Hopefully I’ll be able to give you more to tell sometime.”

“I hope so too, but now I have work to do. Have a good trip.”

“Goodbye,” Kysaek said goodbye, watching Nuka walk down the bar and attend to her guests. Back to herself, Kysaek indulged in a cigarette and waited, as did Talin the brawler. The woman hadn’t noticed Kysaek, but she was standing just two chairs away and was served a whole load of gamma on a tray, which she took to the group at the table, from which Tavis got up and returned.

“I think the four of them are a good choice,” the Palanian said with conviction. “And even though I normally consider every option, I don’t think we need to bother with this Hishek any more.”

The fact that Kysaek had been with Vorrn for a moment had probably escaped the man’s notice and she left it at that. “Are the brawlers that good?”

“If what they told me is true, all of them, and we don’t have to worry about the treaty renegotiation dilemma. They said if we pay them generously right away, it’s not even an issue ... they just don’t like to be fooled about work and effort.”

“And the price is what?”

“Well that’s yet to be decided,” Tavis said. The actual thing, the truth about it, was still open. “They want to drink in peace first and I felt we should discuss the final details in private anyway, so they suggested a meeting for later, near their hotel.”

“Wasn’t the plan to use the security of the bar for our revelation? You know: honor of the Davoc or that the mercenaries would all take each other down if we refused?”

“You left the negotiation to me, and I figured it was better to have the venue more in our favour.”

“Mhh, yeah. Sounds good to me. Then we can stretch our legs a bit more until the time comes.”

“Yes, that’s always good after a few glasses,” Tavis murmured warmly when he saw Kysaek’s half-empty glass. “And you seem to have found your thirst after all.”

“In a way, yes. The atmosphere is good and I haven’t felt this normal in a long time,” Kysaek confessed, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air nonchalantly. “I’m totally enjoying this.”

“Well, if you buy me another drink, you can enjoy it a little longer,” Tavis suggested, sitting down next to the woman. “We’ll have plenty of time to stretch our legs after this.”

“I’ve had two, so you can have another,” Kysaek agreed, raising her hand for another order.

Tavis was delighted. “Wonderful. Negotiating makes one thirsty.”

A little later, after they had left the bar, Kysaek and Tavis explored the Davoc section for a while. Quiet and pretty it was, and soon a message from the Stone Brawlers reached Tavis via his vortex cuff. “Apparently the mercenaries are in agreement,” he said, explaining the contents of the message. “They accept the assignment and want to discuss the details. I suggested a park slot for Hover Wheels for this purpose.”

“A parking slot? Hmm,” Kyaek replied thoughtfully. “Sounds secluded. A little too much so, I think.”

“Ideal for our business,” Tavis argued, but he didn’t do so on good faith. “And should the mercenaries react differently to our revelation than we’d hoped, the area gives us enough cover and escape routes. I’d like to go in alone, though.”

““Again? And where do I stay in this Us?”

“You stay hidden in the background,” Tavis said, raising his hand with the sleeve of his jacket. “I’ve got enough tricks up my sleeve to survive a direct confrontation until I signal you and you cover me. You don’t have many tricks to be in my place.”

Kysaek raised her finger, demonstratively making it glow with energy. “I have my prismatics.”

“Yes, which makes you all the better back-up. Besides, I’m sure the mercenaries expect me to keep negotiating for the well-heeled damsel,” the Palanian said, checking his weapons and concealed accessories. Safe was safe for him. “Don’t you think?”

“Better well-heeled patroness than half-naked stripper,” Kysaek smirked and did the same to the Palanese, checking her mag pistol.

This elicited a short laugh from Tavis. “A real step up. Let’s go.”

The park lot wasn’t too far. A good twenty minutes’ walk and a few lifts later, Kysaek and Tavis were almost there. Just before that, however, they parted company and the Palanian went ahead alone, heading for a flight tunnel.

In retrospect, Kysaek followed in the same direction and came to one of many bridges under and over which hover wheels whizzed in an aero zone in said flight tunnel. The park slot was integrated there on the other side, but despite the traffic, there were hardly any people on foot. Despite this, Kysaek chose a route that did not take her over the same bridge as her Palanese companion before. She took one of the crossings two floors below and entered the park lot from there, where all she had to do was follow Tavis’ homing signal. She found a place to watch, between two levels, on a ramp and spied out the Palanian’s position.

He was still waiting, propped up on his elbows on the edge of an open space in the parking lot. Tavis was looking at a junction where half a dozen flight tunnels came together and there was traffic accordingly. The Palanian had to wait longer than expected, perhaps too long, but he remained calm and, belatedly, two of the brawlers approached alongside a row of standing hover wheels.

“Sorry we’re late,” the Palanian leader said, looking to her Davoc companion, Nodag. He nodded silently and she looked ahead. “We had to sort something out.”

“I haven’t been here too long,” Tavis replied, taking his distance from the view to turn to the new arrivals. “What about the rest?”

“They’re still in the bar. Negotiating business details doesn’t require all of us and there’s less talking in”

Tavis understood, but he stuck a finger in the air. “Still, there’s one.”

“Standard,” the Palanian brawler placated. “Backup is always good, and you have no idea how many times we’ve ... had difficult negotiations or underhanded attacks. The competition and opponents of a mercenary are numerous.”

“It’s no different for me,” Tavis admitted, pacing a little, near a heavy-looking hover wheel. “One doesn’t make friends everywhere, after all.”

“Indeed,” the Palanian leader assessed as her eyes slowly scanned the surroundings. “But speaking of friends - where is your client?”

“Shopping? At her hotel? I don’t know,” Tavis lied unconcernedly. “She’s putting up the foreign currency. Don’t expect too much from her.”

The Palanian mercenary did the same as Tavis. She walked around, having second thoughts. “Sounds a little naïve. You strike me as someone who is very professional, though.”

“I am.”

“Then... do you know more about your client? She’s not going to be looking for people to burn at will, is she?”

“Not at all, not at all,” Tavis shook his head. He took a few steps towards the mercenaries in what must have been a gesture of trust. “That the job will be hard and dangerous, however, I did not keep from you in the bar, and we should now discuss the details.”

“With pleasure,” the Palanian brawler agreed, but she remained defensive. Did she suspect something, of the secret observer? Was it general suspicion? Something was wrong with her and she grew harsher. “However, if you don’t mind, call your patroness in. I want to talk eye to eye with my clients and not just their lackeys.”

“All in good time,” Tavis countered. He was iron-fisted, but he remained matter-of-fact. “You’ll get to know her better soon enough. In fact, I’m doing you a favour right now, haha.”

“And why is that?”

“My patron has a, let’s call it, brash personality.”

“I’ve heard of that,” the mercenary replied more seriously. “Destructive, you might even say.”

Bright-eyed, Tavis stopped in one place. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t know, do you?”

“I don’t know what?”

The Palanian woman laughed teasingly, drawing a light machine pistol without pointing it at Tavis. “Your client’s real name is Elaine Kysaek and she’s a wanted felon,” the mercenary said, taking aim at the negotiator. “Where is she?”

What the!!!, went through Kysaek’s mind in her hiding place. How do they know!!!

Tavis had not seen the sudden, new situation coming. “Who?” he cautiously raised his hands in front of him. “Please. Her name is Nora Faith.”

“I’ll have to disappoint you on that,” the Palanian mercenary denied. Her Davoc companion, who took a heavy plasma assault rifle from his back, also placed it on Tavis as his leader continued to speak. “This is Elaine Kysaek, worth millions. Bring her here and we’ll share with you.”

“You are using our meeting for an ambush,” Tavis noted in frustration. “If I do as you say, my value will be extinguished and I will die.”

“I knew you were properly professional and for that we will truly share with you.”

After Tavis curled his right raised hand, something fell out of his jacket onto the floor in front of him within the blink of an eye. “Not interested,” he replied, and the puck in front of him turned out to be a stun grenade.

Kysaek shielded her eyesight and after the explosion saw the mercenaries firing around disoriented and blind, while Tavis hastily took cover behind the heavy hover wheel.

However, the Palanian could not do so for long. Too quickly the plasma assault rifle melted too many holes in the hull, forcing Tavis to move directly behind the nearest flying vehicle, and he made strange, growling lizard-like sounds as he ran.

“Son of a bitch!” cursed the Palanian mercenary whose eyesight was returning and a guess at that. “Are you working with her?! Good! That’s sure to give us a bonus!”

Kysaek crept forward in focus, unseen by the attackers. She waited for the Palanian to finally give her the signal to intervene.

Tavis, however, moved under cover of the vehicles towards an emergency exit and threw another stun grenade and something else.

This time the mercenaries protected themselves from the glare, but the second object turned out to be a smoke bomb and obscured the field of fire enormously.

It was Tavis’s chance and he rushed towards the emergency exit when it suddenly opened!

There was the half cybernetic mercenary of the wranglers and he drove the Palanian away from the exit with a magnetic shotgun, along the vehicle track in the parking lot, while his fellow soldiers emerged from the smoke to support him, making it extremely close for Tavis.

Shots were flying everywhere around the her Palanian Ally and Kysaek was fed up. Fuck the sign!, she thought to herself, and took several well-aimed shots at Nodag.

Unfortunately, his body shield caught the pistol’s attacks effortlessly and his three eyes reacted quickly to the new direction. “Look, there!” he shouted, jerking his assault rifle around. “THAT’S HER!”

The Palanian brawler leader also refocused. “Finish her off!” the mercenary ordered, firing away with the Davoc.

Kysaek had far less hover wheels as cover and ran at Tavis. Only a few pillars of steel gave her additional protection, but those and a few well-placed, short-lived prismatic barriers gave her the opportunity to make it to her ally in one piece. “How long were you going to wait with that sign?!”

“Long?! Haven’t you been paying attention?!” asked Tavis, repeating the strange growling sounds. “How many times was I supposed to do that?”

“That was your sign?! I thought it was some kind of panting or swearing!” retorted Kysaek. The mercenaries followed her and the Palanian, so the two took turns covering each other. “Where to go now?!”

“We have to follow the flight path! It’s our only way!”

“Or just to the nearest emergency exit!”

“Or that!” nodded Tavis, leaving some of his sticky bombs on the ground and on the hover wheels as he steadily retreated. Unfortunately, the mercenaries didn’t follow in the direct path, but the Palanian’s detonations at least kept the pursuers well at bay.

“Up ahead is the next emergency exit!” said Kysaek, but her joy was short-lived.

Out of nowhere and with tremendous force, a small vehicle was pushed onto the road as a roadblock with no one in sight.

“They’ve got more help!” said Tavis, faltering in his retreat. In the midst of this dicey situation, he tried to get the lay of the land.

Simultaneously, and accompanied by dazzling prismatics, another vehicle was suddenly thrown over the roadblock. It flew with pinpoint accuracy towards the fugitives.

“Look out!” shouted Kysaek, creating a prismatic barrier above her at the last second. The thrown hover wheel bounced off it, though Kysaek winced quite a bit, but hrr shield held. “It’s all four here!”

Over the roadblock climbed the last member of the brawlers, the skinny Talin from the bar. “Nice try,” she grinned bitterly, shimmering with prismatic energy. “But that was nothing!” Furiously, she hurled several energy bombs towards her targets.

Kysaek just about managed to deflect each one, but the last one unleashed a shockwave beside her, sending her and Tavis flying across a couple of parked vehicles. She quickly recovered, however, and with her prismatics, Kysaek used debris lying around as projectiles.

This was nothing for the Talin mercenary’s prismatics, however, as she was top fit and much better trained.

Moreover, her comrades from the other side were closing the circle and circling their prey more and more in the closed corner of the park. There was no more room for evasion!

“Nodag!” the Palanian leader raised her hand and stopped firing herself. “Drive them out with a missile!”

“Gladly!” puffed Nodag, putting a handy missile on the lower attachment of his assault rifle.

“We need a new barrier!” opined Tavis. He tried to provide cover for the project, firing his plasma shotgun indiscriminately in all directions.

“I’m trying!” replied Kysaek strained, trying to focus her remaining powers. In a small area, she created a barrier, but she knew the field would barely hold against a heavy blast.

The sight of the prismatic shield made the Palanian mercenary spiteful. “Ha! Nodag, fire at will!” she said. The sound of pierced flesh rang out, however, and the Palanian spun around hastily. “Nodag?!”

A broad blade tip protruded from the Davoc’s bloody breastplate and he was lifted, still firing the missile shot.

The projectile flew beside its intended target and instead of killing the hunted, they were merely knocked to the ground by the pressure of the blast.

“NODAG!” the Palanian woman cried out hysterically and drew her pistol.

The remaining brawlers turned to their stabbed comrade as he was thrown from the blade and the multiple barrels of a Gatling gun appeared behind the body. A deafening drumfire echoed through the park lot and the bullets swept like a storm over the heads of Kysaek and Tavis as the brawlers were utterly maltreated. Shields and armour stood no chance, a veritable slaughter, and only when the shots died away did the smoking, hundred-holed and blood-streaked bodies of the brawlers collapse.

Fear, like the force of the previous blast, kept the Kysaek and Tavis on the ground, for who would have been so reckless as to rise now? “Was that Dorvan?!“; Kysaek hoped quietly, squinting along the ground to a pair of feet, but that belonged neither to the Davoc hacker nor to his bot - they were large, heavy and claw-laden Hishek feet. Kysaek swallowed hard, and she dared to stretch her neck further up, where she was looking directly into the multiple mouths of the hot steaming mini-gun, which continued to spin feebly.

“What have we here?” the unknown Hishek creaked in the voice of a hunter, a predator, baring his teeth. Who it was was unclear, for only the lizard’s chin was uncovered and over its long snout, it wore a blackened, metal face shield under which yellow eyes, with vertical, thinning pupils, lurked. “Prey.”