I raised my eyes from the terminal to the Merc’s face and
said, “What do you mean he isn’t here?” He slid his fingers across the large
screen with a delicate touch that seemed so out of place on such a large brutal
looking individual. “No Ma’am, he isn’t
here according to the active data stream.”
He sighed as he closed the connection.
“One more thing I can try .. but damn ..” he added.
“But damn what .. what does that mean?” I asked getting a little edgy from
being exposed like this hanging out the long corridor for almost 4 minutes
now. “Gimme a sec Cap .. checking
transfers, deaths, missing .. e t c” The Merc had a frown on his face as his
fingers poked and slid along the surface of the screen. “Crap this is taking too long .. best back
out and try another terminal.” With that
he unplugged his slicing tool from the jack on the terminal and spun on his
heel. As he did he armed his handgun and
nudged me along down the corridor.
“Check the doors on the right as we pass” he
instructed. “Locked .. locked .. locked
.. ok ok this one is open.” I said as I
pushed the door open to reveal a plush office.
The placard on the desk said Assistant Director A. Balin. “I need a minute to get attached and connected
to the local grid.” He said as he
rounded the desk to access Assistant Director Balin’s terminal. “What is the difference between this one and
the one out in the corridor?” “For one
we aren’t standing out there with our asses hanging out, second our buddy Balin
might have access to a more up to date data stream. The core computer does subjective filtering
for various levels of security. Hope ole
Balin here has at least level 4.” He
said getting logged in.
“Anything yet?” I asked as I looked around the room. Pretty stark place here no window not many
personal items on display. There was a
picture of an older woman and a couple teenaged kids, another little holo of a
sports team mascot, a groove where his stylus would lay and that was about it
for Balin’s desk. Definitely nothing
laying out that would give a hint about A. Balin’s profession. I tried the
drawers on the synthwood file cabinet.
Locked of course, then I tried the credenza behind the desk. One door opened with a smallish squeak
revealing a crystal decanter and some short wide glasses cut in the same
style. I pulled the big crystal topped stopper
out of the decanter and sniffed. “Trise
Brandy .. must be Banu or have Banu connections.” I said rubbing my nose to get rid of the
toxic smelling fumes. “Hmm .. What would
a Banu be doing here .. damn odd I’d say.” He grunted still flipping through
multiple screens. “OK got him.” He said with a look I didn’t quite read on
his face. “Well where the fuck is he?” I
almost shouted. “Not Mitch, A. Balin,
Ares Balin.”
“Seems he is or rather was an adjunct to a Banu delegation,
some kind of polyglot that has a knack for Banu.” He said.
“Anything on Mitch?” I said, rubbing my sweat coated palm on my flight
suit. “We have a very narrow window to locate
him you know.” I added. “Yeah yeah I hear you but ya never know when
a tidbit of info will come in handy.”
The Merc paused and flipped back a couple screens and then abruptly
closed the terminal. “We gotta get out
of here now.” He said cramming the tool
back on his belt and nearly vaulting over the desk. “What in Messer’s name is going on?” I
pleaded as we ran down the corridor. “The
Major is being transferred right now .. stick close this will get messy.” He said as his distance from me increased.
As I reached the lift I heard the Merc say “Molise you still
with the ship?” “That’s a-firm” his
colleague replied. “OK, grab your gear
and meet us on level 7 docks in 5”. “Roger”
Molise responded.
As soon as the lift stopped I pushed myself upright hands
sliding up my thighs as I gasped for breath.
“c’mon Cap this way.” The Merc
put his large hand on my lower back and pushed me a long down the ever widening
corridor. We were in an area now that was
occupied all hours of the day.
At the intersection leading to the landing pad the Merc
stopped waiting for me to catchup. I
drew in a couple large gulps of air and looked down the corridor to the right that
led to the pad. Molise was just exiting
the lift at the blast doors near the pad.
Turning to the left I looked down the corridor that came from the other
direction. There was a group of people
heading our way. I slapped at the Merc’s
arm and pointed as discreetly as possible.
There in the middle of a pod of Marines was Mitch. He was wearing a set of hospital scrubs with
his hands shackled in front.
The Merc I was with turned to face me and said, “Back up and
turn towards Molise. I have your
back.” I turned and walked towards the
other Merc. As I approached Molise I
heard the sound of a large weapon charging.
My hand went to my pistol. Suddenly,
it was in my hand clutched tightly to my chest.
As soon as the Marines rounded the corner to the Level 7 pad the Mercs
in unison pushed me into the alcove near the lift and started firing in the
direction of the Marines.
The Marines spread out with one hanging back pushing their
prisoner to the deck his knee in Mitch’s back forcing his face to the deck
plating. I peeked around the corner
watching the firefight getting a fix on the Marine holding Mitch firmly to the
deck. Several of the Marines were down
and the Merc that lead me to this point was down on one knee laying down a
barrage of fire that was taking chunks out of the passage way and the Marines
that entered his field of fire. Molise
was also on one knee, his left arm hanging limp at his side. In his right hand was a concussion grenade. I saw the device light up just before he threw
it toward the intersection of the corridors.
I leaned out again in what felt like slow motion and put a one of the
high velocity Beryllium slivers from my hand gun into the face plate of the
Marine guarding Mitch. The spent super
conducting coil ejected from the pistol causing the sideways twitch typical of
this sort of weapon. In my peripheral
vision I saw the coil spiral towards the deck.
Then I fell backwards as a heavily armored body covered me effectively protecting
me from flying debris the exploding grenade produced.
There was a blinding light and a forceful thrum that made my
insides quake. Everyone was down
now. The only person moving in the
corridor was Mitch. He had his Marine
guards hand gun between manacled hands and was shooting the downed Marines as
he passed. Molise regained his footing
and moved towards Mitch, his rifle at his hip laying down streamers of destructive
energy. Mitch slid to the floor next to
me and grabbed my arm.
He said, “What in Messer’s name are you doing here!” I just looked at him not totally
comprehending what he had just said. Finding my voice, I looked into his eyes as I
pointed towards the blast doors, “We found you.
Level 3 Docking Port.”
Mitch turned to the Merc holding up his manacled hands and
said, “Riggs you got something to cut these?”
A few seconds later we were all up and heading for the pad. Mitch was leading at a brisk pace. Riggs and Molise were on either side of
me. Even though he was wounded, Molise
was moving as fast as the rest of us.
From behind we collectively heard a series of shouts and alarms being
sounded. Then there was an eruption of
weapons fire. Both Mercs were hit and
grunted from the impacts on the dense armor they wore. I felt a huge fist hit me between the
shoulder blades and burning stabbing pain bloomed in my chest. I put a hand up
to see what it was but before I could reach my chest my face hit the deck
plating. My head bounced once and all
went black. I vaguely heard male voices
shouting and the sound of armor sliding and scraping on the metal deck.
The universe blinked in and out of the dark void I found
myself, until the bright lights, the sound of powerful engines thrumming and
Mitch’s strained voice brought me back to consciousness. He looked anxious as he held a medical a
device to my chest. Everything seemed
sideways until I realized I was lying across a large armored arm. In front of Mitch were the remains of a
flight armor vest.
Lisbeth couldn’t make out what was being said. She looked up at the man leaning over her and
whispered, “It doesn’t hurt now …”
_-o-_
Disclaimer:
I do not work for nor represent Star Citizen, Roberts Space
Industries, Cloud Imperium Games or any other Star Citizen related entity in
any form or fashion with the possible exception that I am a Backer and have a
huge passion for this game already.
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