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((This is a continuation of the Feyde storyline. Earlier sections can be located as follows:
- Feyde to Black (Part 1)
- Bravo Unit (Part 2)
So as not to confuse you immediately, I should say that this thread begins days prior to part 2 ending. You can look at the dates within the story as a point of reference. Feel free to leave your comments at any point and enjoy the read!))
February 6, 29481
3rd Floor, Room 348A
Omni-Med Facilities, Rome
An attractive yet somehow dark, woman lay in one of the two beds. A rather large tattoo covered half of her face, and her long hair stood standing up in the back, looking almost like horns as it came up over the height of her head.
Nurse Skerrit tucked the woman in as she made her rounds. Skerrit was young, fresh out of school and doing her residency in Rome. She had big aspirations of one day becoming a great doctor or maybe even a surgeon, but for now was fighting the immaturity that youth often brings with it. On the one side, she was very analytical about things, but also naive enough not to understand that some people work with an agenda in mind. On the other hand, with her youth she had a lot of spunk and energy and was ready to change the world by telling people about the problems with the current way of doing things. Obviously, if people just understood what the problems were then they would want to change it... right? A heart monitor beat slowly and rhythmically, and it helped to pacify her energy level at least in this brief moment. When the doctor came in to check on her and her work though, her mind raced again. "Doctor, I don't understand. How can we have no record of who this person is?", the nurse inquired, switching off the room lights as they headed towards the door.
"She was found here on the Omni-Med doorstep, unconscious. We suspect that someone placed her there, but no leads have surfaced on that for Omni-Pol so far. In the meantime, she is a Jane Doe." The doctor said quietly, escorting the nurse out of the dimly lit room. "Her injuries indicate that she may have been attacked by any one... or even possibly a small group... of the creatures known to live in the Shadowlands. I find it odd that someone with her extensive injuries wasn't killed, if only to show up again at one of the insurance terminals somewhere. I'm afraid that until she wakes up, we may not know what exactly happened to her."
"A 'Jane Doe' though... the idea is absurd with all the tracking records that are in OT databases now. I mean… somebody must know who she is. Would you like me to do some asking around, Doctor?" she said inquisitively.
"Nurse Skerrit...", he grabbed her lightly at the elbow to stress his point. "I suggest you not ask too many questions. All you need to know is that Omni-Admin is taking care of her bill. The rest is not for us to question."
"Yes, doctor." She hung her head a bit as she excused herself, and went back to her duties. Obviously her mentor had already lost his fire and fallen victim to the status quo. Why would anyone just want to follow the status quo? What about making new improvements in medicine? Granted, OT had long ago made the largest discovery with the invention of the insurance terminals… essentially overcoming death, for a fee. Surely there were still things left to learn though… or was there nothing more left to do? Had Skerrit been born too late to make any difference? She didn’t want to think like that, and promptly found more work to occupy her mind.
February 10, 29481
Stret West Bank, Reet's Retreat
"Honestly, Selincia... I don't understand what it is you like about this place. All the dancing is going on in the other room. The only thing going on in here is drinking around a bunch of boxes." Tawane noted.
Selincia smiled and pushed a drink to the corner of the bar where Tawane was standing, then picked up her own and began to dance a little. She closed her eyes and listened to the music from down the hall, which you could still hear despite their distance from it. She began to take a swig of her beer.
"Oh, I see. Similar atmosphere without the audience. I don't know how you expect to ever find a man for yourself when you only dance for me as your audience." Tawane remarked with a smirk. Selincia nearly choked as she spewed out her beer in response, and Tawane began laughing. "I was only kidding."
Selincia wiped the beer from her mouth and nose, and then looked up to notice the opifex bartender standing on the opposite side of the bar. He was looking at his clothes in half-disgust, as he had been in direct fire of her spray. She tried to smirk as she shrugged. The bartender ignored her half-attempt at an apology. He sighed and left the room in search of a cleaner set of clothes... or at least drier.
Little bits of laughter were heard from above them, somewhere in the rafters above. Slowly, several shadows began to appear coming down from the rafters and using the crates as steps towards floor level. In all Tawane counted seven... two atrox, two solitus, a couple of opifex and a nanomage. They were dressed in various mismatched pieces of armor, and a couple of them sported scars on their arms and faces. Something told Tawane this was not part of the regular help here.
"Help you... gentlemen?" Tawane paused before actually using the word "gentlemen" to describe this motley crew of characters. She moved over, almost directly in front of Selincia by a few feet, who was finishing cleaning herself up. Tawane's hand moved behind her back and under her shirt to the handle of one of her throwing knives.
One of the opifex responded, "Oh c'mon, Tawane. We both know that you couldn't hit the broad side of a crate with your knives... and it's a little bit too tight in these quarters for you to have brought your rifle in with you."
"Interesting you should say that, since you're standing in front of such a crate. Care to find out if that assessment is accurate?" she said, pulling the knife from its cradle.
"Enough." The nanomage made a couple of movements with his hands and Tawane and Selincia found themselves unable to move. "We didn't come to have any disagreement with you. We came to speak with your friend... Selincia." Selincia showed a little confusion in her face as to what these Clan intended for her.
"We understand you've had some recent dealings against one of our clients.", one of the solitus said as he circled around Selincia, noticing the Katana only slightly visible underneath the edge of her trench coat. "We've come to... let's say... repay the debt. Somebody give this girl a hug!"
A rather large atrox chuckled, and walked up in front of her, wrapping his huge arms around her and picking her up off the floor. Tawane struggled to react, but was still immobile due to the root, and unable to see what was happening behind her. The trox began to squeeze more tightly, and Selincia began breathing more shallow. As his grip continued, her face began turning red and then a snap... and another snap. Tawane's face showed worry, and her eyes began to well up with tears. “You see… “, the solitus continued, “we may not have the weaponry that allowed you to do what you did to Mr. Black… but we have some intelligent engineers. They’ve made arrangements for your insurance claim to be… shall we say… misplaced.”
Selincia began to turn purple, and Tawane could no longer hear her shallow breaths. Tears began to flow down Tawane's cheeks, as she was no longer able to hide her concern. With the next snap, Selincia’s eyes rolled back in her head and her body became limp, at which point the atrox let go and dropped her to the floor. The men chuckled a little and made their way out a back exit. Tawane stood there still unable to move for what seemed an eternity before the root wore off. Selincia wasn’t breathing.
(welcome back, and keep up the good work!)
Feb 17, 29481
Early Morning
She squinted as she woke, blinking a few times as she struggled to focus. Everything seemed to spin, so she tried to single out an object and make sense of just that one thing. She noticed the screen and the light that moved across it, bouncing as it crossed. As the frame of the jumping light came into focus, she finally decided it must be a heart rate monitor. That didn't make sense. What would a heart rate monitor be doing sitting out on the cliffs of Elysium? But the cliffs soon turned into another bed, and things became slightly clearer.
Her head pounded as she tried to sit upright. That must've been some fight. There... was a fight, somewhere... public... if you even want to call it a fight... in Elysium? Nothing was making any sense. As the fogginess in her head dissipated, it became clear she wasn't currently in the same place as then... and probably not even in Elysium by the looks of things. Whoever it was that provided the comfortable surroundings wasn't in the room, and sticking around to answer twenty questions was probably not the best idea.
She turned to face the empty bed, her feet dangling off the side of her own bed and toes just brushing the floor. Looking down at her arm, she took hold of the needles coming out of her forearm and dislodged them as well as other connections on her chest. The jumpy light of the heart rate monitor steadied and now just went in a straight line. Propping herself up with her arms, she pushed herself onto her feet until her balance returned. Her muscles ached and cried as she made her way slowly across the floor to the door and she peered outside into the hallway. It was only slightly more lit in the hallway than it was outside the window. A nurse there at her desk, across the hall and a couple of doors down, seemed immersed in her work.
She closed the door once more and gave the window another look. Moving to the window sill she could see the street... four floors below. She opened the window and a light cool breeze came flowing into the room, reminding her of some of the tall cliffs of the Shadowlands. Many people would not find the Shadowlands very inviting, but it was home. Her eyes reflected the predators she had hunted in the Shadowlands... inviting and yet intimidating at the same time. A life of shadows and the hunt. Not appealing to the typical city type person, but then again she never really cared for the cold, man-made, synthetic feel of city life. The Shadowlands were more organic, and full of life... and death. It was simple. It was mere survival, skill and adaptation to the changing surroundings or situation.
Yet despite her efforts to stay out of the city, it appears that was exactly were she found herself. She could see the little bit of traffic below, although there weren't many passing vehicles for whatever time of night this might be. It was better off that way. Better to go unnoticed. Better to stick to the shadows. Other than the four story drop to the street below, there wasn't much to see outside. The window's ledge ended with barely enough space to put the palms of her hands as she peered out. She leaned back inside and stretched her legs... a little wobbly, but not without capability. Surely not of a four story drop mind you, but capable enough for what she may need at the moment. She leaned out the window and looked down... but there had always been more than one solution to a problem. Taking a deep breath, she stepped out onto the small ledge using some nearby pipes outside to steady her balance... and looked up.
May 22, 29481
Shadowlands
She was home. It was something different now, although she couldn't place it specifically. She had come to these cliffs to watch the sunrise every morning since her return. There was nothing like the early morning training to get the blood pumping for the day. The sunrise here would give her a sense of serenity. It was mostly a time to clear her head and regain some focus... which came in handy now, since she seemed to be rather scatterbrained these days. After that, she would do her training.
Her muscles had begun to cooperate once again over the past couple of months since her homecoming. They no longer ached when she moved. Rather she became more agile and regained her stamina. Slowly she had regained her strength, and soon she would be back to the hunt.
There would soon be a new hunt. She remembered their faces vividly. It was one of the few things that was clear in her mind. Her thoughts were still mostly cluttered these days, like trying to listen to two people talk at the same time. Those faces she remembered were the reason why she had to deal with these setbacks to begin with. They were probably the reason why she woke up in the city those months ago too, although she couldn't remember for sure. The wind picked up over the cliff where she sat, and wrapped around her for a moment. It was like a warm blanket on a cool day. Despite the chaos of the very terrain in the Shadowlands, this was her place of peace.
Some movement caught her attention at the bottom of the cliff. It was a small animal of some sort. It might serve as breakfast at least today. She pushed off and away from the cliff side, bringing her arms above her as her body rotated forward and down to aim at the waters far below. Breakfast would soon be served. Training could wait at least that long.
June 16, 29481
That night. That bar. The memories were unreal, but not a dream. More accurately, not a nightmare. It was more vivid than that, but more like a story she had heard from a friend.
Her name was Crisralla. She was attractive, with a flawless opifex complexion. A bit on the petite side. But there was an air of intimidation about her as well. There were the obvious physical features, like the tattoo that covered half of her face... and the hair that came up like horns behind her head. More than that, it was the look in her eyes. They could draw you in, but make you want to run at the same time. Knowing you shouldn't be there, but remaining anyway. Her shorter stature was more than accommodated for by her mere presence.
The occasional lights of the street below did little to illuminate the area. Then again, most Clanners would have little to fear here in the heart of Tir. The city was a haven for Clan militants, both organized and rogue, for the notorious armies and for those individuals who worked silently in the shadows. Thieves. She would watch them steal from their own mothers if they saw opportunity to get ahead. Rebels. After this long, it was in their blood to question authority and to fight against it if it served their whims of purpose. She didn't bother to look for purpose or reason "why?" anymore. After a while, the "whys" became irrelevant and it was only a matter of whether it did or did not happen. Perhaps a length of time after that, it didn't even matter if it did happen; if it didn't happen this time it was merely because the mongrels didn't think they had the right opportunity... this time.
...and there he was. The nanomage wasn't much to look at. A small excuse for a man, but she knew where his talent did lie. It was in the manipulation of the nanobots themselves. A nanotechnician. A weakling slave if he even could go to another planet, but on this one nearly a god as he could manipulate large quantities of nano capabilities out of the very air itself on Rubi-ka. It took her a while to track him down to this city... to this particular area. It'd been days since her arrival here, but she was able to hide adequately on the rooftops during the days and find the food she needed under cover of night. It was merely a matter of finding the right opportunity to catch her prey. She wouldn't let him get the drop on her this time. She had been taken by surprise before. It wouldn't happen again.
As he drew closer in the street below, she pulled back into the shadow that the roof ledge provided. She heard his footsteps come closer... and stop. Was she somehow discovered? What detail hadn't she thought to conceal? True, she was tired but she couldn't think of anything she had forgotten. The footsteps shuffled briefly, paused... and then she heard a door open across the street. More footsteps... the door closed ...and silence. She waited briefly before peering over the ledge of the rooftop. Across the street in the window she could see a small sign that read "Implants".
After determining that her target was not simply there for a short visit, she pulled herself over the roof side ledge and dropped down to the street below. A quick survey of the street before crossing and she was back into the shadows. Normally, she might be a bit concerned of leaving a footprint in the sand of the quiet streets here... but the cool evening breeze coming down the path covered them within seconds. It made her miss her home. True it had only been a few days, but it seemed like it had been weeks since her morning sunrises on the Shadowland cliffs. So she waited with her thoughts of home. She waited for her sweet revenge. She waited... and waited... and waited. She might have fallen asleep there behind those alley crates had it not been for the sound of water pipes.
The good doctor would have the old implants cleaned, sterilized and ready to use for the next paying customer. Partial payment for his customer's upgrade. Of course the replacement implants would not be ready for a few days. Doc would check the old implants for any defects or modifications that had been made, so as to customize the new set accordingly. Customizing implants took time. In the meantime, the good doctor's customer would have to get a little extra bed rest as he recovered from the surgery over the next couple of hours as the nanobots did their work. It was perfect. This was the bed her prey had made, so this is the bed he must now lie in.
July 6, 29481
Every once in a while, a person can sleep so deeply that they lose their bearings on any point of reference. It's those days when you wake up thinking "What time is it?"... "What DAY is it?"... or sometimes even "Where the hell am I?" Sometimes the feeling comes as a result of binge drinking, but other times it could just as easily be that the person was only drunk on sleep. For the nanotechnician, it was for a different reason.
Obviously his body was tired from the surgery to remove his implants. He brought his arm up in front of him to examine the area where the implant had been removed, but there was neither trace of healing nor any surgery at all. How long had he slept? The doc obviously took care of him, because normally implant changes are outpatient surgery but this was not the nanotechnician's bed... or even his room. He paused as he looked for the memory. His brow scrunched, a confused look on his face as he glanced around the room for another reference point to jog his memory. He had left the doctor's office... he was sure of it.
He picked up his jacket from the chair and headed to the only door to the room, which obliged by opening with a slight hiss. He walked into the hallway, which was about the same size as any average hallway in commercial buildings... roughly fifty feet in its entirety. His listened carefully, but didn't hear any sounds. No people shuffling around doing work. No conversations of chatter and laughter of people discussing current events over a cup of coffee. It was just quiet. He walked down the hallway in front of several other doors, but they didn't respond.
Feeling a little weak still, he tried to gather some of the nano energy from the air around him. But instead of the normal ball of light that normally resulted, he only got a couple of fizzles and sparks... and failure. Probably after-effects of the surgery, but it seemed a little strange.
At the end of the hallway, he did finally find a door that opened and he entered a comfortable lounge area. It all seemed very well kept with the occasional piece of art decorating an end table or otherwise bare wall. He noticed a sofa facing a smaller window across the room and he could see the darkness outside. Maybe that was why there was no one in the building, because the workday was over and most of them had gone home. But as he moved closer to the window, he began to see his situation more clearly. Below that starlit sky and the waiting outside world was the vast emptiness of space... only met with the orange glow of the Rubi-ka surface many miles below. His shock almost completely drowned out his subconscious awareness that he had just heard the door open behind him again. As he turned to face his companion of this unusual situation, he was met with a woman's right hook that hit him squarely in the jaw and then everything went to darkness.
August 17, 29481
Shadowlands
It was just another trip to northern Elysium. There wasn't anything special about it really. Feyde had made the trip countless times before in an effort to talk more with the enigmatic being named Ergo. The problem wasn't in getting to Ergo; the problem was that Ergo liked to talk... and talk... and talk some more. He could be quite informative, but when a soldier tends to pick up stragglers that don't like him in the area... sitting down with a nice ale to chat in depth about the history of the Shadowlands is not high priority in that particular moment. Ergo didn't seem to grasp that concept.
So Feyde had attempted the forward advance through the direct approach, using the cliffs to get him a little farther before the stragglers noticed him. When that didn't work, he even tried coming around through the far west beaches and ravines dealing with the beasts that come up through the sand, and then heading through the Redeemed territory. That didn't work. No, what seemed to work best was to use the garden to get to Port Five through the old abandoned buildings of yester-year and take a fast-paced easterly approach. Every once in a while the stragglers chased someone else away in a different direction, leaving an opportunity to slip in Ergo's cave unnoticed. After many attempts, Feyde had managed to get in to see Ergo... listen to his llloooooonnnnggg drawn out stories of the history of the whole history, and then finally persuaded Ergo to open the portal into Scheol.
It seemed Scheol was even more desolate than Elysium. There were many cliffs and jagged rocks in the area. Paths wound aimlessly through ravines and mountain-sides, leading back to themselves or to ends that lead nowhere. The farther into the Shadowlands Feyde had traveled, the more the very fabric that held the world together seemed to dissipate. How much farther could this continue? For now, it didn't matter. The Unredeemed had given him a task, and as a reward for completing the task they would teach him more about their ways and hopefully a way to finally gain an upper hand over the Clan.
Stepping out from the portal and into Scheol, Feyde found himself on a cliff. The ground was angled up as if he were on a hill, but then dropped deathly far to the jagged rocks below. He looked around a bit behind him, seeing only a rocky path leading down a more gradual slope... and then took a step forward to peer over the rocky cliff. Who could ever get used to this place? Why did the Redeemed and Unredeemed choose to live in this kind of environment? Surely there were better places than this to call home. He listened for any kind of noises that may alert him to what lay ahead, but at that altitude there was little to hear but the wind.
As he often did at the end of his journey, he would use the gardens to transport from one garden to the previous until he had finally made it home back to Rome. There was still a little bit of a hike between Stormshelter and Port Seven that led back to Jobe, but it was a good cardio workout at the end of a long day and he usually enjoyed the jog. The Unredeemed of the area already knew him by name by that point. They didn't particularly show him any respect, but they didn't look down on him anymore like they used to when he first arrived in Elysium.
As he began up the ramp to the portal that led back to Jobe, he saw something out of the corner of his eye that caught his attention. He looked off to his right towards what was left of the bustling town of Port Seven, towards what were now merely ruins, and noticed a woman crouched on the edge of one of the buildings watching the people pass by. People generally stayed out of Port Seven due to the infestation, so it was a little unusual that this opifex had chosen that particular spot to perch from. She looked a bit familiar, but Feyde couldn't place where he might have seen her before. He mentioned it to one of the guards in the area in case the guards found it su****ious as well, and then continued his way back to the more civilized streets of Rome. Today wouldn't be his day to die from the Shadowland's threats. Today, there was just a good meal and a hot shower at home. Today was a good day.
September 3, 29481
Rome Green, Highrise 3
"Good morning, Major. My name is Sergeant Smith and there's some information we received for you here in Jobe." The soldier held up a datapad in front of the view screen. "It came through our channels here in the Shadowlands."
"Is the information marked as classified?” Feyde inquired.
"Negative, sir."
"Then just upload the info through to my video screen, soldier."
"Yes, sir!"
A video came on Feyde's view screen. "Sir, the information is regarding an opifex woman that you had pointed out to one of our guards in Elysium. The boys tell me that they had seen her there fairly frequently around that time period, and then just recently approached them with some drawings." A copy of the drawings came up on-screen. "Apparently, she's been looking for these individuals but really didn't say much. Do you have any idea who they are, sir?"
Feyde shook his head. "Should I?"
"No, sir. Not necessarily. We ran our copy of the drawings through some facial recognition software, and it brought up some basic information. Apparently, these men are Clanners but there's not really anything that stood out based on the information we have."
"So you're calling me to tell me you don't have information. Is that all, Sergeant?"
"No, sir. With your permission, we could run this woman's image through the facial recognition software as well... but we wanted to clear it with..."
Feyde interrupted him, "Do it."
"Yes, sir. Information should be coming up momentarily."
"It's Crisra!" Feyde exclaimed, unaware his show of surprise was out loud.Quote:
Breed: Opifex
Sex: Female
Age: Unknown
First Name: Unknown
Last Name: Crisralla
Handle: Unknown
Affiliation: Omni-Tek
Assignment: Unknown
"Sir?" Smith looked at him, puzzled.
"Hmm? Oh... nevermind, Sergeant. Keep an eye on the woman and let me know if you hear anymore."
"Yes, sir! Sergeant Smith signing off." Feyde's video screen went dark as he leaned back in his office chair and absorbed the information.
September 9, 29481
Rome Green, Highrise 3
"...and she was seen just yesterday boarding one of the flights headed to the Morning Star, sir." Sergeant Smith showed him some security footage of Crisra at the terminal to the space station.
"Good work, Sergeant. I won't be requiring any further investigation into this matter. You done a good job, and if anyone comes asking it was under my authorization, is that clear?" Feyde seemed to be all business this morning.
"Yes, sir! Smith out."
Feyde paused for a moment at his desk, and then picked up his datapad containing the daily reports from his superiors. He read the note again...
"Due to misappropriation of Omni-Tek resources including personnel and surveillance equipment to investigate employees of Omni-Tek without cause for su****ion..." yadda yadda "You are hereby demoted from your position to be replaced by Saoirse Jaiden aka 'Xaris' immediately upon receipt of this notice, and no later than..." blah blah blah "...shall no longer continue on this course of investigative action..." yadda yadda.
Demoted. Who the hell do these people think they are? Yeah, so investigating other OT employees without showing any reasonable reason for concern was not normal practice. Normally they would not have even noticed he was bending the rules. Either the bean counters at HQ were getting anal about overtime hours down in Jobe, or Feyde had stumbled onto something that had started raising some flags. At this point it didn't matter which it was, the result would be the same. His office door hissed open, and Xaris came up to his desk and saluted. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"At ease, Xaris." He paused. "Well it appears that I've trained you pretty well, cause you caught the attention of the boys on high."
She looked at him a bit confused, not sure whether to take that as a compliment or if it would lead to bordering sexual harassment. "Sir?"
"Congratulations soldier, you've just been offered an increase in pay grade."
She smirked. "When do I leave for my new unit, sir?"
He paused for a moment. "Xaris, I'm telling you this now as your current C.O. I have an investigation of a personal nature that I have been conducting, and it may require my absence for a while. During this investigation I may require use of other limited number of personnel. If for some reason, you do not hear back from me within a reasonable amount of time... well, you know what to do." He took a deep breath. "That being said, HQ is putting you in charge of Bravo Unit from this day forward and I expect you to give it your all. I'm sure OT will see to it to find the appropriate location for me when I return."
"Yes, sir. I'll do my best sir." She raised her hand to salute him, and then second-guessed whether that was still appropriate. She smirked a little and shrugged.
"I'm sure you will, Xaris." He smiled.
Late September 29481
Morning Star Space Station
The collective sounds of the immigrant conversations created a constant level of ambient noise in the hall. There was always an influx of people coming through the Morning Star on their way to a new life on Rubi-ka. Some people were just looking for a fresh start. Others were looking for a fight. Feyde tried not to pay much attention to the group of protestors near the shuttle departure area, who were chanting anti-OT slogans and holding up picket signs. They hadn't even made it to Rubi-ka yet, and they already had preconceived ideas about what OT was about on Rubi-ka. Leave it to the media to show only the bad side of things, and never the good. Unfortunately, good news doesn't make for good ratings... and the ratings were more important to the media than an unbiased report. Controversy created ratings.
Feyde sat down on the nearby sofa, and continued to take a swig out of the bottle he held. The only person that seemed to notice that Feyde had been working on that same bottle for the past two hours was the bartender, who would occasionally look over at Feyde and just shake his head in disgust. The waitress had already come by a few times trying to get him to buy another drink, but he kept shoo-ing her away. His attention was somewhere else.
Across the room, in front of a very large window stood Crisra. She had been staring out that window for a while now, as if expecting to see the world change while she was gone. In a shallower orbit and miles away, you could see a battlestation perched and ready to strike. For now, the beast was quiet but she couldn't help but wonder who or what the monstrosity was aimed at. There seemed to be no middle ground between these battlestations being the savior of life, or being your own personal hell. Somewhere beyond the battlestation and the view of daylight on the planet's surface, there was a mere shadow of another ship near the horizon of the planet. The aliens always lay in waiting, strategically moving their pawns into position before a strike. Life and death... laid right here in front of her with its technological corresponding symbols. There was life... or the absence of it. Simplicity.
"The ship to Tera Four will be docking in 15 minutes. Please make your way to the terminal and have your boarding passes ready. As a reminder, please keep your bags with you at all times and report any su****ious activity to the nearest ICC representative. Thank you, and have a pleasant trip." The automated voice did its unfailing duty to report ships docking and leaving. Crisra sighed as she broke her view from the window, picked up her small bag, and headed down one of the corridors.
Feyde grabbed his duffle bag and followed her from a distance, being careful not to get too close or attract any unwanted attention. Instead of making their way to the docks, Crisra went down a service corridor and through a narrow door. Feyde cautiously followed her through the door marked "Maintenance", being sure not to step into a room where he could be ambushed if she suspected anything. The door led into one of the maintenance rooms that housed water and air temperature controls. As he cautiously surveyed the area, he saw Crisra through the pipes as she picked up a couple of knives and exited another door on the far end.
As Feyde made his way through the labyrinth of pipes, he nearly tripped on something lying on the grate floor. He looked down, to see a leg connected to the lifeless, emaciated body of some poor nanomage. His arms and his face had deep cuts in them, never tended to. His hands were shackled to some of the nearby pipes, and it appeared that he'd been there for a while. All of the paint had been scraped from the top of the pipes, as the nanomage had apparently tried relentlessly to break or otherwise free himself from his unusual predicament... obviously without success. Feyde took mental note of it, and continued on to follow Crisra through the concourse and eventually onto a ship headed to Tera Four.
Mid October 29481
Tera Four, Sekhmet
Tera Four was basically a junk heap in the neighboring solar system. Much of the terrain was too rocky and jagged to support any kind of fruitful plant life, and almost as hard to support any kind of humanoid life. The planet itself really wasn't all that big; it may have been a third of the size of Rubi-ka. The only semi-redeeming value of Tera Four was Sekhmet. It was the one and only city on the small planet, and home to most any criminal element you could think of. The benefit to this city was that it held a large quantity of hard to find and black market items, so people from all around would gamble their safety to find the illegal items they wanted. People here weren't exactly fans of Omni-Tek.
The two were dressed in civilian work clothes. "Beer?" Feyde said, holding a sweating bottle out to Crisra. She looked up for a moment and took the bottle. "So these people you're looking for... they're involved with what put you in the hospital?"
She shrugged and went back to looking at the drawings of the people she was pursuing. The sun was beating down here at mid-afternoon, and the dust would occasionally blow by and sting the eyes.
"No joy." Feyde thought out loud for a moment. "...but they do have to do with you?"
She nodded.
"...and you're not here to bring them a birthday present, are you?"
She smiled and shook her head.
"So how did you know I was following you? How did you know I wasn't going to put you in the hospital too?" He leaned back in his chair, relaxed and took a swig of his beer.
She pulled one of her knives from its sheath and stuck it into the table top.
He paused for a moment, attempting to translate the meaning. "Okay, so I got another question for you..." He leaned forward in his chair and pulled a photo from his jacket. It was an OT surveillance photo that Feyde had pulled from Selincia's file. He laid it on the table and slid it towards Crisra. "You know this woman, don't you?"
She looked at the photo, raised her eyes to him and nodded slowly.
He leaned back in his chair again. "That's what I thought." He took another swig, eyes still fixed on Crisra. "How the hell... I mean... Vandrico said... but I..." It was too much. Unprecedented... at least no written record of it that he knew of.
She looked at him with a slight confused look on her face.
"I need another beer. You?"
She shook her head.
He walked over to the bar and signaled the bartender to give him another. Opening the inside pocket of his jacket, he pulled his comm out and placed it in his ear. He tapped the side of it and waited for an answer. "Hey... it's me. What... stop yelling at me woman and just listen to me for a minute!... I've got news."
November 15, 29481
Tera Four, Sekhmet
Feyde sat in one of the room's few chairs, reading his datapad of more recent events on Rubi-ka. "Hmm... it says here that Phasefront has started shipping recreational vehicles to Rubi-ka. I might have to test one of those bikes."
Crisra was unimpressed, nearly ignoring Feyde completely as she stood looking out the window to the street below. They'd been on Tera Four for a while now, but hadn't yet been able to locate the other men they were looking for. At the moment, they were waiting on reinforcements.
"You're really not much of a conversationalist. You know that?"
Crisra paid him no attention.
"Selin." Tawane was standing at the door, just having arrived with her companion to meet with Feyde and Crisra. Crisra turned to Tawane in reaction, and smiled broadly. Tawane tried to keep her shock from being too obvious, closing her mouth after realizing her jaw was dropped open. "It is true, then.” she said with tears welling up in her eyes. The two met midway and hugged.
Behind Tawane, a large atrox ducked his head under the doorsill as he entered the room. Crisra backed away and prepared to draw her knife. The atrox paid no attention as he scratched his head and looked around. "Kuvasz hungry. Where's da food?"
"Kuvasz!" Feyde pushed himself up from his chair to greet him. "Glad you two could make it. Relax Crisra, he's one of the good guys." She removed her hand from her blade and cautiously returned her focus back to Tawane.
Tawane scowled at Feyde. "You could have told us where you were going! People are starting to think you're dead!" Feyde brushed off the comment, which didn't make her any happier. She crossed her arms and pouted for a moment before regaining her purpose. "So tell me where we're at."
November 22, 29481
Tera Four, Sekhmet
"Everyone in place?" Feyde spoke quietly through his comm. Kuvasz and Crisra nodded to him from the opposite side of the empty back street.
"Ready." Tawane chimed back. She was prone on a rooftop about four buildings back from the rest of them, watching the street through the scope of her rifle.
A group of pedestrians started to come around the corner, an atrox leading the way followed by two opifex, another atrox and two solitus. "Okay, here they come. Nobody do anything until I..."
As he was talking, Tawane saw the first atrox come around the corner of the building through her scope. "Son of a..." It was too late for Feyde to finish his sentence. The damage was already done. Tawane fired her rifle without hesitation, hitting the atrox in the head and killing him instantly. Feyde provided covering fire. The other five targets ducked for cover and began to return fire. One of the solitus drew his sword and prepared himself to advance from his point of cover as soon as there was a break in the gunfire.
"Damn it, Tawane! You were supposed to wait for my signal!" Feyde yelled into his comm, trying to talk over the gunfire. "Insurance doesn't work the same here, and if I die today I'm never talking to you again!" Crisra looked at him quizzically. A couple of bullets went whizzing past Feyde's head, and he pivoted behind the building's edge for cover.
Kuvasz jumped out from the other side of the street and began charging the targets. Another solitus poked his head up from behind some boxes and leveled a shotgun at Kuvasz. Kuvasz grimaced in a mix of anger and pain as the buckshot hit him in the left hip, spinning him to the ground near some crates. He was out cold. Crisra advanced to Kuvasz position at the crates while the target reloaded his shotgun. She tried to pull the heavy atrox behind the cover of the crates, but wasn't having any luck pulling the giant anywhere.
Feyde fired a barrage from his blaster, attempting to provide suppression fire while Crisra was trying to help Kuvasz. "Reloading!" Feyde pivoted around the corner of the building again to reload his weapon.
The sword wielding solitus used the opportunity to spring forward. The other solitus poked his head up from behind his box to level another shotgun blast towards Crisra, but was met with a bullet in the head from Tawane. "Second target down!" Tawane shouted.
But the swordsman had made it past her rifle and was now almost on top of Crisra. Feyde's unloaded a clip into the enemy atrox soldier, laying him flat on his back, dead. "Third down!" The swordsman came over the crates and in a downward slice put a deep cut in Crisra's arm. She returned the favor in the same motion with her other arm as he landed, but she didn't hit him as badly in his leg as it deflected off a wide, gold ankle bracelet he was wearing.
"Get out of here!" The solitus yelled to his two remaining opifex companions, and ducked into an alley headed back to the main road. The opifex didn't hesitate and followed suit in the same direction they had originally come from.
Tawane no longer had a shot, and stood herself up to find a better location. "Let 'em go." Feyde called in over the comm. "We've got to tend to our wounded." Tawane sighed and dropped her head.
.................
Rubi-ka
Bravo Unit HQ
Late November 29481
She hated this. This was always the worst part of the job. It was always difficult to see someone leave the Unit, but when it happened and wasn't by choice it was always harder.
Xaris flipped through the personnel files of Tawane and Feyde. She hadn't heard from either one of them since Tawane left several weeks ago. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then dutifully went back to the task at hand. She entered her authorization code into the datapad. Feyde and Tawane were now marked as MIA and removed from the roster.
.
Late January 29482
Tera Four, Sekhmet
It took a while to locate them. Apparently, when someone gets shot at they tend to get a little skittish about their safety. This is especially true when the insurance on the planet was less than reliable, failing more often than not. Nanotechnology simply didn't work as well on Tera Four as it did in the nano-rich environment of Rubi-Ka. The same was the problem in regards to healing wounds; it just didn't happen within minutes like it did on Rubi-Ka. Depending on the nature of the wound, it could take weeks.
So their targets, now smaller in number and aware that someone was after them, had been hiding out again and harder to find than before. Tawane had apologized profusely for endangering the entire operation, sighting that the atrox that she first saw in her scope was the enforcer that killed Selincia nearly a year before. Crisra and Kuvasz were, in fact, still recovering from their wounds. If they could just go back to Rubi-Ka, the nanobots there could have them good as new within a couple of hours, but it wasn’t exactly a quick trip down the block. In the meantime, they had to be more cautious.
The solitus and two opifex that had escaped on the day of fighting were a bit luckier. The opifex had left without as much as a scratch and the solitus with a fairly minor wound on his lower leg from Crisra's blade. It was mostly healed by the time the meeting took place.
Apparently, the solitus who was now leading the small band of rabble-rousers had regained his confidence and was now trying to outsmart the OT in pursuit of them. They wanted to be back on Rubi-Ka, where they could either be killed to go to a reclaim or captured and live to find some means of escape. Tera Four couldn't promise that, and Crisra's companions had been watching the space terminal too closely for them to chance a firefight once again.
The solitus arranged to meet Feyde on a public street near a well-known bar of the area. His opifex companions would join him, as Tawane joined Feyde. "Your numbers are a little smaller it seems." he said, looking at Feyde and Tawane with a grin. He held his hand on the hilt of his sword in case his plan went awry, but they talked with each other from a distance.
"As are yours." Feyde returned.
His grin disappeared in a brief moment that brought him back to earth. "Regardless..." he said waving his hand, "we are here to surrender peacefully to your arrest, on the condition that we will be returned back to Rubi-Ka in good health for trial proceedings."
Tawane let out a huff of disbelief that they should even get a trial, but to her surprise Feyde only nodded silently. "First you would need to lay down your arms." Tawane tried to protest at the idea of merely arresting these three, but Feyde stopped her short with his hand and a shake of his head before she could get a word out. She was fuming.
They began to lay down their weapons on the ground in front of them carefully and slowly. The solitus' confidence in his manipulation took its hold as he spoke to his comrades. "Relax. We all know that OTAF would not harm anyone peacefully surrendering and unarmed." The phrase hit its intended mark. The passers-by overheard him talking about the atrox and his female companion being OTAF, and had begun to collect themselves for a lynching.
Feyde was undeterred. "What you may not have heard..." he paused while shifting the weight of his perennium in his hands, "...is that we don't work for AF anymore." He leveled his weapon at one of the opifex and shot a burst through his torso, then went full auto on the solitus, killing them both. The other opifex attempted to pick his weapon up and duck for cover during the gunfire, but Tawane had already reacted with a throwing knife tucked in her boot. It hit its mark, and the opifex fell dead to the dusty street. Feyde walked up to the solitus lying on the ground. "Hasn't anyone ever told you..." he kicked the body "‘those who live by the sword, get shot by those that don't.'"
Some of the local crowd had scattered ducking for cover, but most just went back to their business once they decided that the solitus had in fact been right. If Feyde and Tawane had been OTAF, they would not have attacked the surrendering unarmed enemies. So they must not be AF. Death here in Sekhmet was a daily occurrence, so the confrontation was no different than yesterday or the day before that. Callousness is one of the side effects of a society run by outlaws... and this city was full of them.
.........................................
When they arrived back at their abode, Crisra was in the process of changing the bandages on Kuvasz' hip. The wound was gonna leave a nice scar, but at least the joint was still functional. Tawane came inside behind Feyde, wiping the blood spray from her face. "I've got a souvenir for you." She reached in a bag and tossed a wide, gold ankle bracelet to Crisra.
"Kuvasz, how are you holding up?" Feyde looked at the wound as Crisra redressed it.
"Kuvasz hungry." he griped.
"Yeah, yeah. Kuvasz is always hungry."
"Did you really mean what you said?" Tawane's attention turned away from her bag and she looked squarely at Feyde. "Did you mean what you said about us not working for AF anymore?"
"Well, let's just hope Xaris did her job like she was trained. She would've treated us like any other soldiers, and by this time we're probably off the official roster as MIA since she hasn't heard from us." Feyde shrugged.
"You don't know?!? You're just taking a guess that maybe somebody somewhere might have done something?!?" Tawane shook her head, but she smiled at Feyde's methods of justification.
"The alternative is that we're still in AF and we're gonna have a whole lot to answer for if they ever get a hold of us. Don't let that crowd out there fool you..." he said pointing to the window. "They don't like OT, and as such they have no problem using OT rules against OT. Mark my words, somebody in an office somewhere is gonna hear a little report about a skirmish in Sekhmet. Our job is to dodge the bullet." He paused. "Our job is always to dodge the bullet." He looked at his comrades with pride that he had such people he could rely on, and they on him in return. "So..." he looked at the group with a shrug, "...what now?"
"Let's eat." Kuvasz said.
Crisra tapped the bracelet on the table, seemingly in her own little world. "Let's go home," she said.
Tawane's jaw dropped.
Crisra raised her eyes to Tawane and smirked.
"You heard the lady!" Feyde chuckled, waving his arms in big motions to get his comrades moving "Pack your bags, we're goin' home! Kuvasz, we'll get us all something to eat along the way. How's that sound?" …and with that, they began to prepare for their journey back home to Rubi-ka.
((~End of Thread~))