Post by Stardrifter on Sept 9, 2014 14:33:03 GMT -5
by
Stardrifter
#1 - A Simple Job
The tiny room is silent but for the beeping control panel. It's a steady beep. The kind that you start to not notice after a while, only to become enraged at later when it becomes all you can hear.
"Sensor Room to Command," a Shi'ar soldier says, not even bothering to hide his boredom. "All clear."
He rubs his face and runs his hands up the triangular crest of feathers atop his head before sitting back in his chair. His uniform bunches up around his waist so he struggles in his seat to adjust it.
"Thank you, Kar'di," a sarcastic male voice replies over the speaker. "Keep up the good work."
Kar'di leans forward and pounds his fist onto the button on his console to end communications. He leans back, slouching down in his chair, and turns to look at his comrade. "I hate Commander Driem. I really hate him." His comrade doesn't acknowledge him, instead reading from a tablet in his hands. "Shezar!"
Shezar looks up, confused. 'Hmm?"
"You know the shift might go by faster if you'd talk instead of burying your face in your book!"
Grinning, Shezar turns back to his tablet. "Perhaps the shift would go faster if you stopped complaining and read a good book?"
Kar'di sighs and turns to gaze out the window in front of them. "Unlikely. I never liked reading. I prefer action. Action is why I joined the Imperial Fleet to begin with. I wanted excitement! Not to do six hour shifts on monitor duty for a meaningless space station in the middle of nowhere."
"We live to serve the Imperium," Shezar says without looking up from his tablet.
Grumbling, Kar'di puts his feet up on his console. "We die of boredom to serve the Imperium."
Shezar offers a slight snicker but nothing more. They sit in silence for a few minutes, the steady beep of the station's sensors never wavering for an instant.
"Who would you rather have?" Kar'di finally breaks the silence. "Lilandra or Cal'syee?"
The randomness of the question causes Shezar to look up. He shakes his head in confusion "The Princesses?"
"Yeah who would you rather have?" Kar'di sits up and leans on the arm of his chair, excited for the conversation.
"Lilandra," Shezar quickly replies. "I'm not into genetic throwbacks." He turns back to his tablet for a moment before looking back up. "Why, would you pick Cal'syee?" Kar'di offers a guilty smile. "That's disgusting!"
"Disgusting? She's glorious!"
"She has wings!" Shezar says, outraged. "And talons."
"So did your ancestors!" Kar'di says in defense. "It was good enough for them!"
"Well I'm not them! And even if I was into it, she's a murderer!"
"Yeah," Kar'di turns away. "There is that. But nobody's perfect."
"I cannot believe you...hold on!" Shezar puts his tablet aside and looks at his console, a message flashing across his screen. "We have a ship coming into sensor range."
"Can you identify?" Kar'di sits up straight and checks his console.
"Not yet. It's still too far out. It's transmitting a Shi'ar transponder code."
"Sensor Room to Command, we have picked up an unidentified Shi'ar vessel coming into range in sector 21.5."
"This is Imperial Station Rekkisan to unidentified vessel," Commander Driem's voice can be heard over their system. "Identify yourself and state your business."
"I am Captain Arivar of the freighter Wingspan. My ship was hit by a meteor shower. We require assistance."
"Driem to Sensor Room, can you confirm?"
Kar'di checks his instruments. The vessel is just beginning to pass into full sensor range. He begins to make out the silhouette of a freighter and turns to Shezar for confirmation. He nods in agreement.
"Sensor Room to Command, the ship is still outside visual range, but we are detecting a class 3 freighter."
"Rekkisan to Wingspan, acknowledged. You may proceed to the docking bay."
"I have wounded. Permission to teleport them to your infirmary?" Captain Arivar asks.
"Permission granted."
"There you go," Shezar smiles. "You had a little excitement for a moment."
"Excitement?" Kar'di scoffs. "It's a freighter with a broken wing. There's no action there. It...wait a minute."
"What?" Shezar asks as Kar'di checks his console.
"Sensor readings are changing. It was a ghost! It's not a freighter, it's the Starjammer!"
"What?!"
"Sen-" Kar'di begins to contact Command when he feels a sharp point on the back of his neck. Shezar looks over at Kar'di's sudden silence to find a blaster pistol pointed at him.
"If you two would be so kind as to step away from the consoles," a man with amber colored skin asks. His head is bald save for an orange ponytail coming out of the top of his head. A cybernetic implant covers a large portion of the left side of his head, up to where his left eye used to be.
"Sure. Sure," Kar'di whispers, raising his hands and standing up slowly. "Just don't hurt us."
"How did you get in here?" Shezar asks, slowly standing up as well.
"How?" Kar'di asks, almost insulted at Shezar's ignorance. "It's Raza Longknife!" Kar'di tells him as if the name alone is answer to his question.
"Always nice to meet a fan," Raza smirks, moving the men to the corner of the room. Once the men are together, he lowers his blaster but keeps the sword raised. "Sorry to say you won't be seeing any of the action you wanted."
Before they can react, Raza lunges forward, thrusting his sword into Kar'di's neck. Shezar, showing better than average reaction time, throws a right hook toward Raza. Raza blocks the strike and thrusts his sword into Shezar's heart.
"Raza to Corsair," he whispers, raising a hand to his pointed ear. "Sensors taken."
"Nice work. Head to the infirmary. The others are teleporting over now."
"Aye, Captain."
****
"Everyone ready," the lead Shi'ar doctor tells his staff as they gather around the teleport pad. Two security officers stand close by, their hands on their sidearms, and he frowns but doesn't comment.
The teleport pad lights up with a brilliant flash. When the flash fades, they see a small device sitting in the center of the pad. The device is beeping steadily faster and faster.
"Get down!" one of the security officers shouts, but it's all he's able to do before the device goes off. A wave of energy goes out in all directions, knocking everyone in the room unconscious.
Another flash on the teleport pad reveals a nine foot tall, musclebound creature with green scales. He's dressed in only simple black pants. His feet are clawed and large, wide fins spread out from the sides of his head. He carries a rifle the size of a small man in his arms and a battle axe hangs at his side.
"Looks like we got them all, Hepzibah," the creature says to the woman beside him, his voice containing a slight lisp.
"Pity," she spits, kicking one of the officers as she walks by. Her entire body is covered in white fur, save for a streak of black that goes down the center of her back to the bottom of her tail. A large mane of white hair is held back by a red bandanna, the only color on her otherwise black and gray body armor.
"Don't worry too much," Raza says from behind them, waiting at the door. "There's plenty more to fight." Raza extends his cybernetic left arm to gesture down the hallway as he waits for his comrades.
Hepzibah offers only a low growl as she blows past, raising her large rifle to her shoulder. Raza smirks and says, "After you." He goes to follow and calls back, "Watch your head, Ch'od."
"Always do," Ch'od replies cheerfully, bending down low to fit under the door.
"How far to the target?" Hepzibah whispers, her back flat against the wall as she peers around a corner. She sniffs the air and, satisfied no one is coming, darts around with her weapon raised.
"Four decks down," Raza replies, lightly jogging to keep up. "I believe."
"You believe?" Hepzibah shouts, whipping around to scowl at him. "You've been here for almost twelve hours!"
"In a shipping container!" Raza shouts back, cracking his neck for emphasis. "I didn't gather much intel while curled up in a ball for a day and a half!"
"Friends! Friends!" Ch'od moves between them, trying to curtail the argument before it goes much father. "Now isn't the time to..."
As if in response, two security officers walk out of a door along the hallway. They turn to look at the unusual group, unsure what to make of them. Hepzibah reacts quickly and opens fire.
"Dammit!" Raza shouts, pushing Hepzibah's weapon down. It's too late, the guards fall down dead and alarms sound all around them. "I was only able to cut the weapons detector in the infirmary!"
"Useless!" Hepzibah growls, breaking into a run for the elevator. Raza and Ch'od follow quickly behind.
When they arrive at the correct floor, two security officers await them. The trio duck against the walls of the elevator to avoid the weapons fire. Ch'od is too big.
He shrugs off an energy blast or two before opening fire with his large rifle. The rapid fire blasts cause the officers to duck back into doorways. Hepzibah and Raza both run out, keeping low to the ground.
Hepzibah runs on all fours and rushes the first guard. He barely has time to scream before she grabs his helmet and wrenches his head back, raking her claws against his exposed neck.
Raza reaches the other guard, who raises his weapon to fire. Raza kicks it aside and thrusts his sword into the man's chest. It barely makes it into his body armor, but the impact knocks him off his feet. Raza raises his blaster and fires, killing him. He puts a boot on the dead man's chest and rips his sword out.
"We are behind schedule, friends," Ch'od says as he rubs the scorch mark on his shoulder.
"You all right?" Raza asks.
"Only a singe."
"Status report?" Corsair calls over their communicators.
"Compromised," Raza tells him. "Tripped the alarm, base is going into lockdown." He decides not to tell him how the alarm was tripped. He glances over to Hepzibah, who holds her head up and looks away.
"Plan B it is," Corsair says. "You got fifteen minutes."
Hepzibah groans. "I hate this plan."
The team heads back down the hallway and reaches the corner before the vault. Four guards stand in front of the door with weapons drawn and two automated turrets hang down from the ceiling.
"Are you far enough back?" Ch'od asks with concern as he watches Raza pull a small grenade from his belt.
"Well we'll find out in a moment," Raza shrugs. Pulling the pin, he tosses it around the corner. The guards barely have time to move when it goes off. To their surprise, rather than explode, it simply sizzles and flashes briefly.
"Go!" Raza shouts, raising his sword and charging down the hall. Hepzibah and Ch'od follow, Ch'od's battle axe in hand.
"Fire!" one of the guards orders. To their surprise, their weapons don't work. They look up to see the turrets sitting motionless as well.
The first guard has no time to react and is run through the throat with Raza's sword. The second raises his rifle in defense, only to have it shattered as Ch'od crushes both it and the guard with his axe.
Hepzibah leaps over Ch'od's shoulder and tackles the next guard, flipping over as they hit the floor and landing feet first into the final guard. She tears the guard's throat with her claws as Raza finishes the one off on the ground.
"Time till we're in?" Hepzibah asks, wiping the blood off her hands.
Raza rushes over to the panel beside the vault and raises his cybernetic arm. He pulls a wire out from his forearm and plugs it into an open port. "One minute."
"Cutting it close," Hepzibah sighs. "We still need to get dressed."
"We have time," Ch'od smiles, revealing his large mouth of pointed teeth. To anyone who didn't know him, they'd find the smile more menacing than friendly.
"I hate this plan," Hepzibah mumbles again.
"We're in!" Raza shouts, yanking the cord out of the panel.
The vault door opens and Ch'od rushes in. Shelves lined with all manner of valuables hang from the walls, but he ignores them all. Standing the back of the room is a long, thin black case over five feet long. There's no decoration or identification on the case. Ch'od grabs it with one arm, throws it under his shoulder, and rushes back out. "Got it!"
"To the cargo bay," Raza says, leading the way.
On the way there the team encounters three different groups of soldiers. They dispatch them as quickly as possible, never stopping longer than they have to. The only one that gives them trouble is the group they encounter in the elevator, as they're forced to toss their bodies out to make room for themselves.
Once they reach the cargo bay, Raza leads them through the winding paths of crates, boxes, and barrels to one large crate. He inputs a code into a keypad on the side and the top opens up.
"Suit up quick!" Raza says, frantically pulling a space suit out of the crate. The others grab theirs as well, wary to put their weapons down but with no time to argue.
"How much time?" Ch'od asks as he clamps his helmet into place.
"Four minutes," Raza says, grabbing his weapons. His gloved hand won't fit into the basket hilt of his sword, forcing him to sheath it and rely on his blaster alone.
"Let's go!" Hepzibah shouts.
Raza takes the lead again, heading out of the cargo bay. The three get the jump on two guards and then head down a large, curving hallway on the outer ring of the station. Tall windows every few feet reveal the icy blue planet below that the station is orbiting.
As the three round the curved hallway, they run into a group of a dozen soldiers lying in wait. The soldiers open fire with a volley of energy blasts. The three turn quickly and head back the way they came, only to see another dozen or so soldiers running up. Standing back to back, the three raise their weapons and prepare to attack.
"Hold your fire!" An older Shi'ar officer walks up behind the first group of soldiers. His crest is preened short in a fashion usually reserved for foot soldiers.
The two dozen soldiers do as they're ordered, keeping their weapons raised and staying at the ready. Raza, Ch'od, and Hepzibah hold their fire for the moment as well. Ch'od readjusts the case under his arm.
"I am Driem, Commander of this station," the officer says, his voice steely and confident. "From the looks of you, I'm guessing you are the Starjammers?" Raza, the only one facing Driem directly, nods his head. Driem sighs, "I was hoping I was wrong. I would have let you surrender. Now this can only end in bloodshed."
"You can surrender," Raza shouts, causing a ripple of laughter amongst the Shi'ar.
"Surrender?" Driem's eyes widen at the audacity. "To a bunch of pirates with an Imperial death sentence? We would be executed in your stead."
"Then we are at an impasse," Raza smirks. "You surrender to us and you die. We surrender to you and you die."
"Indeed," Driem shakes his head. "A pity. You...wait..."
Raza's words finally sink in when they hear a loud knock. The entire room looks over at the window next to them and sees a man in a space suit waving at them, a large smile on his face. He quickly places his boots on the window and kicks off, floating away from the station. Too late, Driem sees the blinking device attached to the window.
"RUN!"
The explosion is silent, any sound that may have entered from the vacuum of space is drowned out by the roar of the oxygen flooding from the hallway. The trio activate their magnetic boots and watch as the soldiers are all blown out into the void. Their convulsions as they gasp for nonexistent air is horrifying to watch. None of them can turn away.
"You guys all right?" Corsair asks over the radio. They can see him, floating outside the station, waiting for them.
"Wonderful," Hepzibah groans.
"Well lets get a move on. It won't be long before they scramble ships after us. And we got reinforcements on the way."
***
The team all sigh in relief as they reach the Starjammer. It's not a very large ship, only about three hundred feet long. The hull is orange, with a long main body and four large wings coming from the engine section, two horizontal and two vertical. The old Shi'ar cruiser has seen it's share of battle, much of it's parts in a state or repair or outright replaced.
Once they enter the ship, they all throw their helmets off and rush up towards the bridge. "They've started to release shuttles," Raza tells them, checking the sensors at his station.
"Any fighters?" Corsair asks, running his thumb and index finger over his mustache. It runs over his lip and down the sides of his mouth before stopping. Another small patch of hair sits right beneath his bottom lip.
"A squad," Raza tells him. "Coming straight for us."
"Hepzibah, get us out of here!" Corsair orders. She jumps into the pilot seat and activates the engines. "They won't be able to match us for long. Ch'od, lay down defensive fire until we're out of range."
The ship rocks slightly from the weapons fire, but it lasts less than a minute. As Corsair said, the Starjammer is too fast for the station's fighters. They shortly outrun them.
"Take us out of the system," Corsair orders. He turns to Raza. "Keep scanning for ships. We're clear for the moment but we aren't out of this yet."
Corsair walks behind his captain's chair and looks down at the case Ch'od dropped on the floor. He runs his gloved hand along the black surface, lost in thought.
"I hope that was worth it," Raza mumbles without looking over.
"Worth what?" Corsair asks.
"All this trouble. Me spending a week stuffed in a crate. Dealing with this buyer of yours."
"It'll be worth it," Corsair says, standing up and pulling the gloves off his hands. "We're going to make a fortune."
"Or get killed," Raza snarks.
"You got a problem?" Corsair asks, walking over to stand behind Raza.
"I don't like this job," Raza turns to look at his captain. "Since when are we mercenaries and thieves? We're pirates! We hit Shi'ar targets, take what we want, and move on. We don't take jobs from outsiders."
"We do when I say we do!" Corsair shouts. "I'm not a fan of it myself. We need the money for the engine overhaul. This job was too good to turn down."
"And you're putting us all at risk by doing it!"
"Friend, the Captain has never led us astray before," Ch'od interjects. "He has taken us through many difficult situations before."
"I'm not denying that," Raza says. "I just don't like putting ourselves at risk by working for others."
"We're not 'working' for anyone," Corsair explains. "We hit the Shi'ar. Our buyer wanted something they had. So we got it along the way and we'll make a profit. We need this money and once we pawn off the case we'll be done. No fuss, no muss."
"And we got to kill a lot of featherheads," Hepzibah says with satisfaction.
"See," Corsair points to her. "Everyone's happy. So lighten up," he says, slapping Raza on the arm. "We're smooth sailing from here." Suddenly the ship shakes, knocking Corsair onto his backside. Two more shakes and the unmistakable sound of weapons fire hitting the ship follow. "Report!"
Raza grabs his console and stands back up. "Shi'ar battle cruiser. It's..."
"This is Grand Admiral Lilandra Neranami. By the authority of the Shi'ar Imperium, stand down or be destroyed!"
-To Be Continued-