Who the hell is this Juan guy anyway? Rob wondered, as he had been for quite some time, when he dropped down from the Sabre and onto the cold metal deck of Freeport 2. He left Tanya in the cockpit doing the final post-landing checks.

Could Tanya be thinking about the same person? That question had a potentially devastating answer.

When he heard Tanya hop out onto the deck, Rob looked up from retrieving his things from the hold. He raised his shades and scrutinized the young woman. Who are you really? What aren't you telling me? There was much about Tanya that was still mystery to Rob, and this latest incident served to drive that point home.

“Is there something you want to say?” Tanya asked, catching Rob's gaze with her green eyes and holding it fast.

“I'm going to get a room and clean up. I suggest you do the same.” Rob said shortly. He shouldered a small pack and strode out of the hangar.

- - - -

After quickly arranging for some short-term accommodation with the quartermaster, a rather decrepit-looking old man, Rob headed to his assigned room for a much needed wash and rest.

Unfortunately for Rob, those luxuries were not to be immediately attainable. As he walked down the corridor, Rob began to get the feeling that he was being followed. Rob pulled his shades off and pretended to wipe some dust off with his poor excuse for a shirt. By angling the lenses properly Rob was able to catch a glimpse of two grey-and-brown suited Xenos walking behind him. They didn't seem interested in Rob though; it looked like they were just looking for a room. Rob sighed softly, relieved.

The relief quickly dissolved as Rob and the two Xenos found themselves stopped at the same door.

“Uh, fellas?” Rob turned to the two men, “This is my room.”

“No it isn't.” One of the Xenos said.

“Yeah, see?” The other Xeno pulled a key out of his pocket. On it was the number that matched the one on the door.

Rob pulled out his own key, looked at it, and held it up to the Xenos. It bore the same number. “Looks like the geriatric wonder back there messed something up.”

“Looks like it,” said the one Xeno.

“Too bad for you,” said the other.

“Oh, come on guys.” Rob said, feeling rather dejected. “Can't you tell I've had a rough time? Cut me a break already.”

“No, I don't think so.”

Rob scowled. “I was here first.”

The Xenos looked at each other briefly, then at Rob. “There are two of us,” one said.

“And we're bigger than you,” added the second.

Rob's scowl deepened. “You boys don't want to be fighting me.”

“We don't?”

“We want our room though.

“And you are in our way.”

“You don't look so hot either.”

“Just cut your losses now, buddy.

“We won't tell anybody.”

“Oh, for f*cks sake! Do you really think I'm going to let myself be pushed around by a bunch of two-bit pirates like you? No way. No f*cking way. Not after all I've been through.” Rob dropped his pack to the floor and raised his fists. His injured body protested the sudden motion, and Rob winced.

The Xenos laughed. “Last mistake you'll ever make. I hope you didn't come alone, 'cause somebody'll have to clean up once we've smeared you all over the deck.”

Rob smiled grimly. “Shut up and bring it.”

The Xenos smiled and moved in, one aiming high, while the other launched himself at Rob's midsection. Rob leapt forward, directly into the path of the Xeno trying to tackle him. He reached over the man's back and grabbed the Xeno by the waist of his pants. Using the pirate's own momentum, Rob swung the man into the air and, rolling backwards, sent him flying into the wall. He hit with a crunch and fell to the floor.

The other Xeno, having expected Rob to dodge his counterpart, ended up hitting nothing but air with his first punch. Rob rolled sideways and flung his arms around the bewildered pirate's legs. The man swayed and tried to keep his balance. Rob tightened his grip on the man's legs and pulled them into his chest and surged forward again. With a yelp the Xeno toppled to the floor. Rob was on him in a second, raining punishing blows onto his face and chest. The Xeno tried in vain to fight back and defend himself, but it was no use.

“Stop, please!” The pirate cried out, covering his face as best he could.

Rob ceased his assault and stood. The whimpering man curled into fetal position. “I told you that you didn't want to fight me. Go on, get outta here.”

Rob's victims groaned and struggled to get to their feet.

“Oh. One thing before you go,” Rob said as he scooped up his pack. “I'll take that other key you have.”

The Xeno Rob had thrown into the wall grimaced as he reached into his pocket. Quick as a flash, Rob drew his two pistols and pointed them at his foes. With a flick of his thumb, he set the energy levels to “stun” and pumped a few rounds into the pirates.

“Nice try boys.” Rob leaned down and saw that, sure enough, the Xeno had been holding a crude slugthrower. He fished around in the unconscious man's other pockets until his fingers closed around the key. “That's better.”

Rob stood once more, glanced up and down the corridor and opened the door to his room. He stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and locked it. The room was by no means luxurious. The walls were bare metal, and other than the bed, the room was empty. Nevertheless, Rob was happy. The room appeared to be clean, and the bed wasn't obviously damaged.

The events of the past few days had ruined a number of the devices on Rob's toolbelt, including his bug jammer. Rob rummaged through his pack momentarily and withdrew a replacement. He jacked it in to the proper slot and activated it. Before anything else, there was a lot of information to review.

Rob figured he might as well get comfortable. He quickly slipped out of his dirty clothes and shoved them into the station's garbage chute. Propping himself up against some pillows, and stretching out on the bed - it was firm, not hard, and Rob was pleased that no springs dug into his back - Rob set about going over the new information he had been given.

First came the information from the Ta'Gue'Led about the artifact. Rob and Tanya had looked it over in detail on their trip from the Omicrons to Bering, but Rob wanted to skim it one more time just to ensure that he hadn't missed anything important. There wasn't much to look through. The mysterious faction had given the location of the artifact. Once again, it was housed in a massive pyramid. Unlike on Primus, however, this pyramid was located deep at the bottom of a massive trench that ran for hundreds of kilometers under the surface of the ocean that covered nearly all of Planet Los Angeles.

There was little in the way of information about the obstacles that the retrieval team would end up facing. The Ta's speculated that there would be another guardian to be faced by anyone attempting to reach the artifact, but there was no indication as to what form it might take.

Finally, Rob had been provided with a contact number for once the artifact was secured. The Ta's would relay more instructions to him at that point.

Rob sighed. It really wasn't much to work with.

Konn's debriefing of Nikolai, on the other hand, was extremely thorough. Rob noted the rather large audio file and was quite surprised to see it had a total runtime of just under two hours. Looks like Konn was plenty meticulous. Wonder if he was ever trained in counterintel techniques?

Rob listened intently to the conversation between his trader friend and the man they had rescued from the secret Outcast installation. To say that Nikolai had been given a rough time was an understatement. Listening to the Rheinlander tell the tale of multiple beatings made Rob see his last few days in an entirely different light.

Unfortunately Nikolai's story, while rich in detail, didn't offer Rob many insights into Mason, The Covenant, or Juan. Mason was mentioned at the beginning, and Rob heard Nikolai's version of Damien's tale. The Liberty Governor soon faded into the background as the Outcasts took custody of Nikolai. The still mysterious Juan popped up from time to time but Rob couldn't tell exactly what his place in the tale was. The constant reminders of how Tanya had drifted away at the mention of the name made it difficult for Rob to concentrate. Eventually, unable to clear his mind, Rob shut the recording off.

What the hell was up with Tanya anyway? Who is Juan? How does Tanya know him? What did he mean to her? The questions came fast and unrelenting. Rob had no answers, only wild guesses. None were satisfying.

Rob rose from the bed and began to pace back and forth, brooding over what had happened in the Sabre. He tried to think of other things, to push the questions aside through rigorous physical exercise, but nothing worked. And the more he thought about it, the worse he felt. Eventually Rob couldn't take not knowing anymore. Frustrated, he threw his hands in the hair and shouted “What the HELL!?”

Okay, that's it. I'm going to ask Tanya. Rob thought. I mean, she can't keep blanking out like that. What if it hadn't just been Xeno punks on us? What if there had been four Outcast Sabres? It's dangerous. Too dangerous.

Rob sighed. Deep down he knew that wasn't the only reason he felt the need to ask. Pushing those thoughts aside, Rob stepped into the attached bathroom. If he was going to confront Tanya, he thought it best to do so looking presentable. Rob turned the shower on and waited for the stream of water to warm up.

Steam soon began to rise and Rob stepped under the hot spray. His muscles, tense from so much action, began to loosen. He scrubbed down vigorously, relishing the feeling of finally being clean.

A few minutes later, after Rob had begun to towel himself off, there came a knock at the door. Rob wrapped the towel around his waist and went to the door. He peered through the peephole and saw that it was Tanya standing in the hall. Despite his state of relative undress, Rob disengaged the door's locks and opened it partway.

“Yeah?” Rob asked, sticking his head into the hall. It looked like Tanya had taken his advice. She was clean, and had replaced her dirty jumpsuit with a plain white tank top and dark grey pants.

Tanya took that as an invitation to come in. Pushing the door wide open, she stepped into Rob's room and turned to face the freelancer. “We need to talk.”

Summary: Rob kicks the crap out of a couple Xenos, reviews some info, and gets all worked up over Tanya's episode in the Sabre.

OOC: NB: adult and emotionally charged scenes follow, you have been warned!


***

A few minutes later, after Rob had begun to towel himself off, there came a knock at the door. Rob wrapped the towel around his waist and went to the door. He peered through the peephole and saw that it was Tanya standing in the hall. Despite his state of relative undress, Rob disengaged the door's locks and opened it partway.

It looked like Tanya had taken his advice. She was clean, and had replaced her dirty jumpsuit with a plain white tank top and dark grey pants. Her blonde hair was still wet and hung loosely over her shoulders, a single dark headband prevented the locks from falling over her face.

“Yeah?” Rob asked, sticking his head into the hall.

Tanya took that as an invitation to come in. Pushing the door wide open, she stepped into Rob's room and turned to face the freelancer. “We need to talk, Rob.”

The freelancer glanced at her impassively before shoving the door closed. He still felt somewhat uncomfortable and try as hard as he could, he felt a coldness to the young woman that wasn't there before. What was she hiding? he thought, still struggling to get this Juan out of his head.

Tanya sat on the edge of the bed and watched as Rob shrugged and walked past her back into the bathroom. He towelled himself dry with a frown and without any hurry dressed in a pair of simple dark track pants. As the room was still warm from the heat of the shower, Rob decided against wearing a top and returned to the room where Tanya was waiting patiently, though the slightest hint of annoyance shone in her green eyes.

The freelancer walked ponderously to the table where a flask and several glasses stood atop a tray and poured himself a drink. He glanced up at Tanya who returned the gesture with the slightest of movements indicating polite refusal. Although Rob was older than her by several years, he was still in good physical shape in the prime of his years. She saw a myriad of scars all over his upper torso, signifying that his, and her, line of work was not for the faint-hearted.

"Okay," Rob said without looking at Tanya. "I'm listening."

Tanya looked up at Rob and gestured with her right hand. "Come here. Sit down."

For a moment it seemed that Rob would refuse but he downed his drink, sighed and sat beside her.

"So. You knew a Juan?" he asked pretending not to care.

"No, Rob." Tanya said. "Not a Juan. The Juan."

Rob shot her a glance.

"Okay. First things first. Who is he?"

"He's an Outcast Don. The last surviving male in a family which has been a powerful force on Malta ever since the Hispania arrived in Sirius."

"And you knew him, how?" Rob asked.

"That's... complicated." Tanya answered. "He was my last target. Back when I worked for Mason. Although I didn't know Mason was in charge at the time," she added.

"And something went wrong." Rob said.

Tanya took a breath and looked away from him out of the portal of his cabin and beyond into the blinking stars and floating rocks that passed by occasionally.

"Yes. Something went very wrong," she admitted at last. Rob wanted to press her with more questions, but understood her need for time to gather her thoughts. "I was sent to assassinate him, his entire bloodline in fact," Tanya said matter-of-factly.

She didn't notice Rob blink a few times at her cold-hearted ruthlessness and ability to state filial homicide so easily.

"Go on," he whispered.

"The mission had been planned for months and was arranged to be executed over a period of months," said Tanya, still gazing out into space. "I was to secure a position initially as a medical researcher from Cambridge, Mason's group had spent a lot of resources trying to obtain," she paused. "Bribe a friendly enough reputation with the reclusive pirates before they would permit me to enter."

"What were you meant to do there?" asked Rob, enthralled.

"To help seek a cure for the Cardamine dependence," Tanya replied, looking at him for the first time in a while. Then she looked away again. "But my priority was to kill Juan and his family. They were a leading group, although, as I discovered not the leading group within the Outcasts."

"And I presume, because Mason and Juan were both connected to the Covenant, that's how Mason knew so much about Juan and his operations?"

Tanya nodded.

"Yes," she replied. "It seems clear now. Juan and Mason were both members of the Covenant. We suspect both work for the Abbot. Yet both also hate each other enough to want their counterpart dead."

"Which is where you come into it," said Rob softly. He hadn't realised but shortly after his reply noticed his hand had enclosed Tanya's who hadn't noticed either or had noticed and was comfortable with it. Either way, he said nothing enjoying the contact.

Tanya looked down at the floor.

"It wasn't supposed to happen. I was conditioned to be cold and merciless. A machine, that's what I was. That's what they made me. A killing machine. I wasn't supposed to be able to care for anyone, to be compassionate. Show mercy or remorse. To kill without conscience. Not to enjoy it. But embrace it. Love was impossible. Emotions were locked away in some deep cerebral recess never to surface again. Or so everyone thought." The words came swifter now.

Rob suddenly was glad to be sitting.

"What happened?" Rob asked.

"I don't know. Something." Tanya said, while trying to collect her thoughts. "I was supposed to use my position as a key researcher to get close to him. That would be enough. But it seemed obvious he wasn't interested in the research aspect at all. Juan argued that Cardamine was as basic ingredient for Outcast life as a breathable atmosphere. So I took the initiative and changed tactics."

"To seduce him," said Rob with a grimace. This was almost too much to bear listening to.

Tanya didn't reply for a long time and Rob didn't want to break the silence. He knew what he'd hear next would hurt them both.

"Somehow, Juan awoke my feelings, my dormant humanity," admitted Tanya eventually. She recalled the Kusari doctor after Travis had captured her and his words echoed in her mind. "You have re-discovered, love."

"And you loved him?" The words left a bitter taste in Rob's mouth.

"Yes. I did love him. And we made love. I thought it was love. For a while, I thought I could live amongst them," Tanya said, each word bitter and vile as she spoke it. "And perhaps he knew what I was there to do. My inner feelings tell me this is true, yet he continued our relationship."

Tanya's face hardened.

"But I had my mission. I had to kill him, and his entire family."

"But you didn't." Rob said. "He's still alive."

"I killed his family," Tanya said. "The killing ground had been set up perfectly. An area effect stun bomb followed up several well-placed neural disruptors. The deaths would be quick due to the sensory overload. Of course I was armed in the traditional sense," Tanya trailed off. "There were some who were still alive at the first blast, but I ensured a second wave as a precaution. At least the young ones would have gone swiftly."

Tanya pulled her hand from Rob's grip and buried her face in her hands.

"Oh no! The children, those poor children," she whispered.

Rob was silent. It was a lot to take in, and everything Tanya had said raised new questions.

"What about Juan?" he asked, forcing the break in silence. Tanya looked at him, tears forming in her eyes.

"I timed the bombs to detonate at a certain time, but Juan was late. He was never late, but that day he was late."

Rob nodded.

"Yes. I made him late. But the mission directive was heavily imprinted on my mind. I dressed swiftly and ran to catch up. I knew that once he'd seen what happened there'd be a moment of vulnerability where I could ensure a killing shot."

Tanya's eyes glistened.

"But when I turned the gun on him, I couldn't pull the trigger. Something inside me couldn't allow it. Even without my feelings for him, I'd taken everything he had, his family, everything in one second. How could I take him too? I saw his face, it was ghostly pale, grief-stricken. I couldn't do it. So I ran. And he let me go. He knew what I had done."

Tanya looked at Rob now fervently.

"For a while, I managed to hide, but eventually Mason – and my past – caught up with me. You know the rest," she said softly.

Rob shook his head in disbelief. He got up from the bed and paced over to the portal where he gripped the window's edge until his knuckles went white. After a few thumping heartbeats he strode over to the bed and knelt down in front of Tanya who held his gaze.

One question above all others gnawed at Rob's psyche. "You still love him, don't you?"

"I...." Tanya hesitated and that was enough. Rob's heart sank. He closed his eyes and dropped his head.

"That's it then," he said defeated.

"No!" Tanya replied emphatically. "Oh, Rob. Yes, of course I still have feelings for Juan. How could I not? I spent so long with him and his Outcasts I was virtually one of them." She reached forwards to take Rob's head in her hands and cradled it, kissing the top of his head gently. "But you're the one I love. I know that now," she said and placed her hands each side of his face to lift his head up.

Rob opened his eyes and turned to the young woman beside him. Her green eyes were wide and glistened with barely suppressed tears.

"What?" he said bewildered.

"I'm here, Rob," she leaned down and kissed him on the lips tenderly. "For you," another kiss. "With you," yet another kiss. "If you want me," she didn't kiss him and he could only look up at her green eyes, almost glimmering with surpressed tears.

They held each other's gaze for a long, long time.

Rob groaned with longing and within moments had pulled her top from her and began to run his hands over her body starting from her flat, toned stomach, along and around her waist, then up to caress her chest and neck forcing an involuntary shudder. She kissed him again feeling her damp hair fall over their faces, harder, gasping for breath and as one they lay back on the bed in their own Sirius, with the rest of the universe forgotten in a blaze of heat and passion.


***

ttfn

x


Edited by - athena on 10/3/2005 3:58:06 AM

Edited by - athena on 10/4/2005 1:40:16 AM

Tanya and Rob cried out in ecstasy one last time before finally collapsing onto the mattress, their bodies utterly spent. In between his own ragged gasps for breath, Rob could feel Tanya's chest rise and fall heavily against his own. Rob caressed Tanya's back, slowly running a hand down her spine and Tanya sighed happily. She lowered her own head to Rob's and strands of blond hair tickled Rob's cheeks as they shared a tender kiss.

Words failed Rob. All he could think to do was to wrap his arms around Tanya and hold her. So he did. Rob searched for a way to express himself properly but the sensation of her breathing, and the rhythmic beat of her heart, lulled Rob to sleep in moments.

Rob woke to the familiar sensation of Tanya running her one hand softly through is hair, the other hand slid slowly, almost hypnotically, along the ridges of Rob's stomach. While he had been dozing Tanya had moved from above him and now lay on her side. Rob felt the warmth of her body nestled against his own and the light weight of her head resting on his chest.

Opening his eyes, Rob looked at Tanya as she lay there. She seemed to him to be glowing. Rob tightened the sleepy grip he had around her waist. Tanya didn't react but to instinctively rub her leg against Rob's. Her mind seemed... elsewhere.

Rob decided against interrupting whatever thoughts Tanya was having and simply basked in her glow. It did not take long before she fully occupied his mind. Rob thought of her strength, speed, and grace. Her loyalty and indomitable spirit. Her playfulness. Her beauty. In that moment it dawned on Rob just how truly lucky he was.

Rob reached with his free hand and held Tanya's chin between his thumb and forefinger. He shifted his body slightly, and turned Tanya's head towards his own so their eyes met.

"I love you." Rob whispered. It wasn't the first time he had said those words. It wasn't even the first time he had meant them. But somehow Rob knew that with Tanya it was different. There were probably hundreds of women throughout Sirius who Rob would gladly have spent his life with. But there was only one Tanya. And she was his one.

Tanya didn't respond immediately and for one terrible moment Rob feared he had somehow misstepped. He relaxed when she merely smiled and rested her head on his chest once more.

After a long while Tanya turned to Rob and asked, "What's the plan now?"

Rob closed his eyes for a few seconds and gathered thoughts which had drifted far from his consciousness. He relayed all the relevant information from Nikolai's debriefing to Tanya. Each mention of Juan briefly created some feelings of discomfort, but they were soon forgotten as the story continued. Tanya was silent for some time after Rob finished as she considered the new information. She sighed. "We should get going, Rob. Time to save the universe."

Rob felt a chill as Tanya rolled away from him and sat up on the bed. The freelancer looked out the viewport at the myriad stars and sighed. Yeah. Time to save the universe. His gaze then drifted to Tanya's naked back and Rob was gripped by a sudden, burning desire. Just as the young woman was about to stand, Rob flicked his arm out and grabbed Tanya's wrist. Tanya turned to look at Rob.

"The universe can wait." He said.

And it did.

- - - -

The trip to LA was short and sweet. Rob had called Travis and Dr. Tomsons - who had been waiting for contact on Planet Curacao - and told them to wait in orbit above the oceanic Liberty planet. Travis was disappointed and Rob knew why. The roguish ex-bounty hunter surely had been enjoying the company and attention of many a bored rich woman during his stay on the resort planet.

After that, Rob and Tanya discussed what they would do once they arrived on LA. Eventually they decided that Dr. Tomsons would be given the weapons from Omega-5 to analyze, while a team would descend to uncover and retrieve the artifact.

Tanya and Rob found Travis and Dr. Tomsons waiting at the docking ring.

"Been waiting long?" Rob asked.

"No. We only just arrived, actually." Dr. Tomsons replied.

"Good." Tanya said. "Go on and dock. Rob and I will meet you on the surface."

"Look forward to it, babe." Travis drawled as he passed into the planet's atmosphere.

"See you soon." Dr. Tomsons said.

Then it was Tanya's turn. She engaged the autodock and the Sabre was guided slowly into Planet Los Angeles' atmosphere.

Rob had one final call to make. He dialed up Hahukum Konn's neural net.

"Hello?" Came the trader's distinctively accented voice.

"Hey, Konn. It's Rob. Meet us in the LA bar." Rob said as Tanya aimed the fighter at a nearby landing platform.

Summary: Post-passion cuddles, and Rob and Tanya finally reach LA.

After having contacted Major Warren and Gabriel Urran, Nikolai and Konn entered the bar. Travis was there already at a large empty table, and he greeted the group. He looked a bit unhappy, and Konn heard him grouse under his breath about getting taken off Curacao. Just as Hahukum was about to do the introductions, Rob and Tanya swept through the bar entryway, followed by a man with swirly blond hair, a slightly bulbous nose, and the skin color of a man who never saw the sun.

Hmm. Rob and Tanya look different, somehow. Less tense, maybe. Well, who knows.

Rob waved at the group, then sat down, plunking an object on the table. He said, “Hey there. First off, I see several strangers around here, so let’s get some introductions out of the way. I’m Rob Schaefer, and this is Tanya Ramirez. Her friend Travis Carter’s also here. This gentleman here is Dr. Tomsons, and he’s a researcher with the Hammer Institute. We’ll need him to look at that loot from the Junkers, Konn.”

Konn nodded and said, “With me is Nikolai van Haalein, the man Rob and I rescued off an Outcast base in Omicron Alpha. We have with us a Major from the BAF, Nick Warren, and the freelancer who tipped us off about the attacks in Omega-5, Gabriel Urran. I think that covers everyone.”

Nods all around the table.

Konn began the meeting. “Let’s get down to business and update each other on what’s up. Rob, I’m going to have to hit you up for three hundred and fifty K to cover a deal I made with the Junkers to get the loot.”

Rob whistled.

“Yes, it’s a lot, but I paid three-fifty out of my own accounts as an advance payment, plus a minor bribe to the Junker I negotiated with.”

“Ok, we’ll talk about it later. Continue.”

“The BAF research people on Sprague didn’t get much out of the tractored-in loot we brought them – except for the unusual ship hull construction, but your Dr. Tomsons should coordinate with them to see if there’s anything they’ve overlooked. The Outcasts are very keen on obtaining what we’ve got, and took over Trafalgar to try and get their hands on the equipment and wreckage the Junkers took out of Omega-5. We were just ahead of them in getting to Rochester.

“I believe that pretty well covers what we’ve been up to.” Konn rubbed Nikolai’s leg under the table subtly. The Rheinlander smiled ever so slightly at the soft touch.

Rob took his cue and stood. He clasped his hands behind his back. “It all started when I got a call from Doc Tomsons there. In a nutshell, he put us on the trail of an expedition to a previously undiscovered system linked to Omicron Gamma. We had reason to believe that Mason might have been involved.

“Turns out we were right. The group Mason is working with had sent a large contingent of researchers from the Hammer Institute to one of two planets in the system. It's designated Primus, and for good reason. The dominant species on the planet is some sort of ape-man. They don't like visitors though.

“The natives killed almost all of the Hammer expedition members. They almost got me and Tanya as well, but we managed to take cover in a giant pyramid thing. That was what the Hammer scientists were supposed to be investigating.

“We think some did try as well, but were killed by a guardian of sorts. I'm still not sure what that thing was, but it was mean as hell and killed any members of the Hammer team that the apes didn't get. Fortunately Tanya and I managed to take it out.”

“What was it guarding?” Gabriel asked.

Rob looked at Tanya for a moment before speaking. “Nothing. At one point there must have been some sort of very powerful artifact, but it has either been destroyed or taken by some other group already. The main chamber was empty when Tanya and I got there.

“So. Tanya and I leave the pyramid thing and, keeping out of sight of those monkeys, make our way to the remains of the Hammer outpost. You know, to snoop around there for any leads on other things that Mason might be after.

“The place is pretty well trashed. But we do manage to find one or two useful bits of info. Apparently there's more than one of those big pyramids in Sirius, and it looks like one is here on LA. It's a safe bet that Mason and his allies will be here soon, so if there's anything of use to be found here. I'd like to get to it first.

“That covers what’s happened and what we need to do. Take a break and order some drinks, then we’ll get back to what’s got to happen.”

Nikolai got up to go to the washroom, and whispered in Rob's ear. Hahukum, puzzled at the encounter, got up and ordered a tea for himself and a hot chocolate for Nikolai. The others drifted back to the table with various beverages, alcoholic or non, as preference dictated. As he sipped his tea, he thought something was missing. It wasn't anything definite, but having been told about Rob's encounters with a splinter group from the Nomads, it sounded as though Rob had left something out.

Once everybody was seated, Nick said, “All right. What do we need to do?”

“Right now, Tanya and I will go on underwater reconnaissance. Dr. Tomsons will begin analysis of the material Konn brought back, so if all of you help unload the stuff and secure it, we can find out what’s so special about it, and fast.”

Gabriel said, “I would like to go with Rob and Tanya, as well.”

Rob said, “Do you have underwater diving experience?”

“Some. I used to do some deep-lake diving on Denver to get trained on scuba gear.”

“Works for me. Let’s go.”

Murmurs of acknowledgement swept the table, and the group slowly broke up into smaller conversational units as Rob, Tanya and Gabriel left to get started.

---

Just as Konn was about to open the Humpback for Nikolai et al to begin unloading, Major Warren came into the docking bay. He looked disappointed, but spoke crisply. “Hello, all. I’ve just been ordered back to Bretonia with my crew. Seems we’re ready to squash some more Mollys in Dublin. I can stay to unload your ship, then I’ve got to leave.”

Hahukum said, “Sorry to hear that, Major. You’ve been helpful. Good luck.”

With that, the group rapidly began relocating the mass of equipment, hulls and junk into a nearly research facility Dr. Tomsons had set up in an empty warehouse. The man actually began looking humanly excited as he peered at the weaponry and noted some unusual characteristics of the material.

---

Some hours later, In their room, Nikolai said, “Konn, Rob's hiding something.”

“You're right. Is that what you told him when you went to the washroom?”

“Yeah. I let him know I wasn't fooled. He found something when he and Tanya were on that planet and he's not telling us. Why?”

“Gabriel.”

“What does he have to do with this?” Nikolai asked.

“You weren't in the ship's cockpit when I finally managed to get a hold of Rob.” Hahukum began. “Before he told me to bring everyone here, he told a very short tale of what he had been up to. But some of what he said over the comm never appeared in his little speech at the bar. He mentioned being captured by a secret society – I think he called them the Tau-somethings – and that this secret society has an agent named Gabriel.

“Rob is rather a suspicious fellow. I'm sure that when he found out Gabriel's name, he automatically assumed that our man is the Tau agent.”

“Well, Rob better come clean or he'll get some embarrassing questions in front of Gabriel. I don't like it when people hide things from me.”

A light tug on his shoulder brought Nikolai around to face Konn, who smiled slightly and said, “Forget that. Your chest is a nice pillow, and I’m tired from lugging all that stuff two city blocks.”

-----

Summary: Not much, just debriefing and prepping for nailin' ol' Mason.

OOC: MInor revisions to incorporate suggested dialog change.

Edited by - Hahukum Konn on 10/10/2005 8:14:27 PM

On the fringes of Colorado, a Liberty Defender with a unique design was tossed out of a jumphole. Its pilot, a man named Jake Talon, ran a quick systems check before powering up the ship’s engines and starting charging his cruise engine for the short flight to Planet Denver.

The cruise engines activated, and he was pushed back into the soft leather of his pilot’s seat as the ship accelerated rapidly. The ship burst from the cloud, and Jake looked out the front viewport and saw the enormous shape of Planet Denver before him.

Liberty. It’s my home.

Then, a warning sounded, bringing him out of his reverie. In virtually no time at all, a cruise disruptor missile hit his ship and rapidly slowed him. He would have had a concussion if his straps hadn’t saved him.

He powered up his normal engines, and his weapons, and pulled up his sensor readings.

Wow, I’ve stumbled into a battleground.

Space boiled with laser discharges from the Xenos and the Rogues. The Rogue Bloodhounds and Wolfhounds were dueling the Xeno Hawks and Startrackers. There were at least seven pilots on either side.

Jake targeted a pair of Xenos and fired his new Death’s Hands. The rapid, white pulses cut through the enemy ships like nothing. One spun out and detonated, and the other blasted past him, with its shield depleted. Jake hit his engine kill and slid around, targeting the fleeing ship and dispatching it with a well-placed burst.

He then spun onto his right wing and pulled a tight turn to target a lone Rogue. He dispatched that ship with ease as well.

After a few minutes of fighting, Jake had taken care of the rest of the pirates. He activated his tractor beam and grinned with satisfaction as many beams shot out to snag salvageable bits of ship, as well as several escape pods. Jake activated his cruise engines again, satisfied that he had done his bit of cleaning up the pirate trash in Liberty for the day.

He smoothly rounded the dark side of the planet and then pulled up to the docking ring. The two opposing pylons opened and Jake guided his ship in between them, and descended to the planet surface.

He set the Defender down on a pad near his favorite bar on Denver, the White Lance. He pulled the pirate laptop out of storage and took it with him into the bar.

The bar was virtually empty; only a pair of Liberty Policemen chatting lightly in a corner. Jake took a booth for himself in the back, and pulled out the laptop. He powered it up, and as it loaded, he ordered a high-quality dark beer, brewed up in the Denver mountains.

He then pulled up his control program, designed himself to manages the networks he was accessing, as well as concealing his presence. He pulled up the police records first. He scanned the latest reports for anything worthwhile.

Nothing… nothing… there! A man named Travis Carter had been arrested in California for unruly drunkenness and attempting to pilot a ship while under the influence. The LPI had done the normal thing, just take him in until he was sober, charge him a hundred credits plus damages, and let him go. However, the interesting bit was that he had been saying odd things while in custody. Several mentions of a “Tanya” were included by the officer as being said by Travis. This was it! Jake pinpointed the bar, and pulled up the security cameras. Sure enough, there was a man fitting the description of Travis Carter sitting there.

Now, he knew that the name Travis Carter had struck something. He quickly ran a background check on all networks. Travis was a bounty hunter with a few impressive bounties made. No record of any criminal activity.

On a hunch, however, Jake ran a general check on Travis. Over five hundred random reports showed up, most were routine reports of travel through a jumpgate in one house or another, as well as a few more reports of unruly drunkenness.

Jake scanned the entries. Man, this guy really gets around! Jake thought to himself when he saw reports in Liberty, Rheinland, Kusari, Bretonia, The border and edge worlds. He decided to narrow them down to only hits in Liberty. He then eliminated all times that Travis was alone.

There, an entry of Travis entering Liberty with another person, who LPI had named “Tanya” after intercepted communication traffic. That was it!

Now Jake knew where he had heard that name before! Travis Carter was a companion of Tanya and Rob, when he saw them at Cali!

Suddenly, everything came clear to Jake. Travis must be waiting for something, if he still hung around after getting arrested! That meant that he was waiting to meet up with some of his friends.

Jake smiled, he had them.

Next, he made a quick scan over the networks for any other LSF operatives working nearby. Nothing…. Nothing…. There was one! A signal from the Battleship Rio Grande.

He checked the signal.

No way, this is impossible. It can’t be.

It was.

Back when Jake was Liberty Diplomat to Bretonia, he had a young officer under him. A man named Mackenzie, he had risen quickly through the ranks of the LSF, until he was Jake’s security advisor. Mackenzie, or Mac as he was known, was a very intelligent man, who knew a lot about fighting and strategy. Jake had actually learned a lot of his hand to hand fighting skills with Mac, and Mac had taught him a lot of other things while they were sitting in Jake’s office in the Liberty Embassy on New London.

Mac had followed Jake as his assistant when he was moved to serve as Chief Advisor to President Jacobi. They knew each other very well, but when Jake was forced to flee Liberty because of Jack Mason’s death threats, he chose to leave Mac in the dark to protect him. Last that he’d heard of Mac was several years ago when rumor had it that he was deep undercover as an intel agent in one of the pirate organizations.

If Mac was at the Rio Grande, that meant he either was busted and had to run, or he succeeded. What it definitely meant was that Mac was no longer working as a pirate, so Jake could safely approach him again.

There was only one problem. Before Jake was forced to flee and join the Order, he was known as Jake Edwards. Now, because of Mason, Jake Edwards was a wanted man in Liberty. Because of this, Jake had switched his last name to Talon when he joined the Order, and Orillion had set him up as a Lt. Colonel in the Intelligence Branch of the Liberty Security Force. Also, Jake had gotten his appearance changed so he could travel safely, and that meant that Mac probably would recognize him. Knowing Mac, if he saw a man posing as Jake Edwards, he would shoot him.

However, due to the secrecy of Jake’s identity, there was no way he could tell Mac what was going on ahead of time. There was no way he could risk tight beaming a transmission to Mac, because even if it was barely noticeable, he was shooting it right at a Liberty battleship, after all, so it was bound to be intercepted.

So, Jake decided to simply fly above the radar and send Mac a simple, uncoded message. If it didn’t seem like he had anything to hide, the battleship’s crew wouldn’t suspect anything. Also, Jake Edwards’ bounty and attempted arrest were old and minor enough that people wouldn’t remember them now, anyway.

He opened up the channel, and pressed the talk button on his headset.

“Mac, this is Jake Edwards. Meet me on the deck in five.”

He received an acknowledgement from Mac and proceeded to dock.

All of a sudden, his neural net beeped. He stopped the ship and activated it.

Kress popped up.

“Colonel Talon, you are to eliminate Ramirez and Schaefer immediately, do you copy?”

Jake opened his mouth to reply, but then paused. He looked into the background of the shot, behind Kress’s head. People walked back and forth behind him, but they weren’t Order members… Outcasts! One of them had a Cardamine breather on!

“General, where are you? I thought you were on Toledo.”

“Kress’s eyes widened. “None of your business! I am on assignment! Kill them now!”

The screen snapped off.

Kress was lying. He wasn’t on assignment; generals NEVER went on assignment. That meant he was hiding something.

Suddenly, it all popped together. The video, the briefing, the Outcasts. Kress was one of them! One of the Covenant! I need to go and get Schaefer and Ramirez out of here! Kress knows they are here, and if I don’t kill them soon, he’ll send someone else.

Jake re-activated the docking sequence and shuddered as the implications of what he had just discovered meant.

He set the ship down on the deck, popped open the canopy and hopped out. He had time to hit his remote to close the hatch when Mac walked onto the pad with two other men.

Jake smiled when he saw Mac, and grinned even bigger when he saw who was with him.

That has to be Linus. No way!

Linus was Mac’s assistant when he worked for Jake. Mac and Linus had been great friends, and it seemed that they still were.

Mac got closer, and then directed a searching look at Jake’s face.

Here it comes. This is where things work out or I die.

“Hold it!” Mac shouted, “put your hands up where I can see them!”

Mac had drawn his sidearm, so Jake, not looking for trouble with Mac, raised his arms.

“Now, tell me why you are pretending to be Jake Edwards! You aren’t him, so tell me! Is this some sort of trap to lure me out and kill me? Are you a Xeno?”

“My name is Lt. Colonel Jake Talon. I used to be known as Jake Edwards, but I do not go by that name or identity any longer.”

“I don’t believe you! Captain Palmer,” he turned to the other man, “do you know this man?”

Palmer frowned up at Jake and then shook his head.

Dark venom shown in Mac’s eyes as he shouted, “If you are really Jake Edwards, you had better prove it and prove it fast. I don’t think I can stand you staining his memory any longer!”

“Well, let’s see. Your name is Mac, and you were my security advisor when I was in Bretonia as a diplomat. You are not married, your assistant’s name was Linus, and he is standing to your left, and you received the Medal of Valor for saving my life from Corsair assassins in Bretonia.”

“You’re a good one all right. But that stuff can all be found in my file, which your people would have cracked open before you came. Give me something not on my file.”

“Your favorite drink is a good, dark Rheinland Skadi beer, just like me. Oh, and you had a secret heartache for Queen Carina for a time while we were working in Bretonia. It took me two years to convince you that it would never work for you.”

Mac stared up at him for a moment.

“That’s exactly right, and only the real Jake Edwards would know that. It really is you. I can’t believe it, it IS you! What happened to you? Why did you disappear?”

“I’m glad you believe me. At least that’s one person. What about you other two? Can I entrust some top secret information to you?”

Linus nodded vigorously. “If Mac believes you, then I do, sir.”

John Palmer, captain of the Rio Grande, looked at the other two, then at Jake.

“These two know what they’re doing, so I trust you as well.”

“Good, now for some answers. Well, back when I was working as an advisor, I received a priority message from President Jacobi, who I knew quite well. She told me that I was about to be promoted to the status of Governor of the Colorado System, the one we’re in now. However… wait.”

Jake pulled a small datapad out of his pocket and hit a few buttons.

“There, just needed to jam any prying eyes or ears around us. Okay, so when I got this message, I replied to Jacobi, telling her I would be honored to take the job. Moments later, I received another message from Jack Mason, Governor of California. He told me that I should not accept the job, else I would be killed. I still have no idea how he found out about the promotion so quickly, but needless to say, he did. I was not about to be scared by the threat, so I told him that I would not back down. Five minutes later, I had a five million credit bounty on my head, put out by the BHG, rather than the Navy. That was when I am sure you, Mac, and you, Linus, saw me running out of my office like a madman. I reached the pad safely, got in my Defender, and headed to the Badlands. I was chased out of the system by tons of Bounty Hunters and Police forces, but I made it to the Texas Jumphole, and eventually made it to Rheinland. Anyway, I contacted a man there. This man had contacted me over a year before, inviting me into a secret organization. I had thought it was a trap, but he ended up sending me information that blew my mind. Unfortunately, I had been very busy at the time and had declined. I contacted him and he met me on New Berlin. The organization was the Order, and I am sure you have all heard of it. The Order, contrary to popular belief, is not a criminal organization. They are misunderstood, but they protect us from things that I don’t have the time to explain. Those high up in Liberty’s government know about their true mission, but all that is ultra-secret. Anyway, I joined them, and they changed my identity to Jake Talon. I’ve been working with them, as well as in the Liberty Military, for a long time now. And, now I have a very important mission, one that could very well bring about Mason’s downfall, and I’m gonna need help.”

Jake stood there and waited for them to respond. Each man looked pretty stunned, and they were slow to respond.

“Jake, I’m gonna trust you on this. I’ll follow you,” Mac said.

“I’m coming,” Linus said.

“Count me in too,” said John.

“Great, well, I need to get to Los Angeles, and I need to make a very public arrest of two individuals. They are working against Mason, and I need them.”

“But why arrest them?” Mac asked.

“Because Mason’s on them and I need to throw him off the scent. These people are named Rob and Tanya, and they are going to be meeting together with several others on LA very soon. I need to get onto the planet, and grab just the two of them before they escape. Then, I’ll announce their arrest, and we’ll get them out of Liberty. The arrest needs to be clean, so I’ll need a lot of help, as they are both highly skilled and dangerous.”

“How dangerous are we talking?” John asked.

“You know about the destruction of Cali Base?”

“Yes.”

“That was them.”

“Oh, dear goodness.”

“Yeah, this won’t be easy. Here’s the plan. I want you, Captain Palmer, to stay here and get some men ready for the arrest. I need the best.”

“Will do, sir.”

“Mac, Linus, what are you guys flying these days?”

“I’m in a Startracker, unfortunately,” Mac said.

“I have a Falcon,” Linus said.

“Captain, do you have any spare ships I can buy?”

“Let’s see. I have a few Patriots and Defenders, two Rhinos, and a beat-up Falcon on board that I recovered in a recent battle.”

“How much for the Falcon?”

“I’ll sell it to you for fifty grand, and you can get it fixed up at the mechanic’s for cheap. I’ll tell him to expect you.”

“Done.” Jake pulled out a cred-stick and made the transaction.

“Sir, what’s the Falcon for?” Mac asked.

“That’s for you. Enjoy.”

“Oh my. Thank you sir.”

“Alright, now that both of you have decent ships, we need to acquire a small capital ship or transport of some kind to make the arrest.”

“Colonel, we have just received a new Liberty Gunboat from the government for use against the Xenos. However, we don’t start operations with her for four more weeks, so I could lend her to you for a while. She has a full crew and everything, so you can use her well, I’m sure.”

“Wow, you’re our savior today, Captain. We would be happy to use her.”

“Good. Well, I’ll just go and make the necessary transfer orders, and you guys can be off for LA.”

“Great, thank you very much, Captain.”

*****

An hour later, the Falcon was repaired and the three of them were ready to go. Captain Palmer called and informed them that the gunboat Cold Fury was waiting for them.

They launched and met up with the gunboat. The ship’s commander was named William Sanford.

The three fighters, and the Cold Fury departed the Rio Grande and headed for LA.

Summary: Jake returns home. He pops some pirates. We learn more about his background. He finds Travis on LA, and deduces that there will be a meeting there. He meets up with Mac, an old friend, and then he, Mac, and some other companions head to LA to arrest Rob and Tanya.

Edited by - ww2jacob on 10/13/2005 4:55:37 PM

Edited by - ww2jacob on 10/13/2005 5:13:13 PM

OOC: Well, my update has been delayed thanks to school. However I finally got it up n' working.

Stefan found himself just outside the Omega-7 jumphole in Omega-5. He noticed no difference; barren rocks still filled the barren system.

‘’No contacts yet’’ he said to himself, ‘‘well, lets see if there lies any truth in that rumour.’’

He powered up his cruise engines and headed for Ronneburg Base. Rocks, stones and pebbles swept by the ship. After a few minutes pieces scrap metal started to appear here and there, but that could just be a result of another larger battle. But that assumption didn’t last long, as his fears were confirmed as he entered as small debris field.

‘’Oh dear Lord! This can’t be true! Please don’t let it!’’

Ronneburg base locked like a torn apart Swiss cheese. Large hole filled chunks of stone and metal that were connected to each other was all that remained of the former Hessian outpost. The airlocks were blown open and the interiors filled with corpses of soldiers young and old. The metal skeleton of the station was divided into large pieces floating around in the open vacuum of space. But the place was clearly clean of any useful scrap metal. Junkers, no one else would be interested in such useless pieces of crap.

He set his course for Cadiz, to see if the densely populated station had met the same fate. He left the dark ruins of Ronneburg behind himself. A sorrow feeling now permeated his body. Even after all horrifying, psychotic experiments he had witnessed in Alaska he had never seen the sight of hundreds of dead human bodies at one place. So much death, so much destruction. Who could possibly want to kill on a scale this large? The same sentence repeated itself in his brain over and over again. Creating a kind of inner psychological pain he felt unable to deal with. He had always felt weak at the sight of death. He could only hope that there souls were in a better place than in this hellish universe.

As he entered the Hammen Hole he noticed an unusual absence of mines. Usually the edge was almost covered with mines, but not this time. He also picked up several Junker contacts, only confirming the dreaded rumour even more. Now mines were seen here and there, but they seemed to keep a strangely long distance from each other. He remembered the one time he had passed through the Hammen Hole. He was barely able to avoid the mines. Lucky for him he had a Hawk that time so that the only one mine that detonated on him was reflected away by his shield. But now all he had to do was to avoid the rocks.

Sooner or later he began to approach the centre of the Hammen Hole. What he saw shocked him. The ships that usually lie scattered in the Hole were either totally gone or ‘’excavated’’, opened up and cleaned of anything that could have lied within (except the half naked body of the pilot), possibly done by Junkers. Junkers never hold any higher respect for other people than those of their own, especially not dead people. Stefan always disliked people who desecrated the corpse of another human.

‘’When one as been laid to eternal sleep he should be left to rest in peace unless his testament states otherwise.’’ was his saying to people who performed these unmoral acts. But his train of thought came to a halt immediately as a base appeared in front of him. It held the usual tube like characteristics of a Junker base. Even his neural net picked up the base. He examined the base using the ships electronics and found out that the base was still under construction, but docking was permitted nonetheless. The station seemed to be dubbed ‘’Fairbanks’’. He assumed that it must be the point from where the Junkers are conducting their mining operations within Omega-5.

He opened a COM-channel with the station to dock but hesitated, and remained silent. In the end he decided not to, and continued towards his designated point, Cadiz. He ignored the Junkers and he was a bit angered. His view of them changed. In past times he had looked on them as unofficial cleaners, but from this day on he would always look down on them and class them as scumbags. As filthy, greedy, heartless scumbags. Any person with emotional and moral senses would not do that, or at least shouldn’t. To empty ones resting place for personal gain is a totally disrespectful act. People should be punished for doing such things , Stefan thought.

A large grey rock appeared from afar. It looked unchanged for the first 30 seconds, but then some places started to look darker, almost black. He left the now calm the Hammen Hole to find neither mines nor any weapon platforms. And metallic debris littered the place that under normal circumstances is filled with rocks. As the enormous asteroid began to look clearer Stefan seemed to make out giant holes in the former base. He decided to examine on of the holes a little closer. He flew into it and was shocked to see that it went right through the whole station. He looked to the side, of the hole. Huge cracks went from one hole to another. The entire station seemed to be crackled and full of hole filled. He flew inside the gigantic asteroid city, what he found in sent a cold, horrifying chill through his spine that would make even the most hardened soldier to shake of pure horrification. Bodies were floating around in the vacuum. Some were completely intact, others frozen, some heavily burnt, a bunch of them were torn apart and a lot had their bodies teared up in various places. Intestines and vital organs were sweeping by the cockpit of Stefan’s hunk of junk.

Tears began to flow from Stefan’s eyes. He had never witnessed genocide like this. The thought of how many people have lost their lives in one place at one time was unable to comprehend. The saddened feeling that this place gave one felt like a dagger in the stomach for Stefan. At this horrid place he decided to make himself a promise. He would change the way he lived, and felt.

Whenever he killed anyone, no matter for what reasons, he would count that as a wrongdoing. He would grieve for every mammal that he directly or accidentally took the life of. He would make the grief into a burden, a burden that he would carry to his death. A burden that would grow larger for every person that died by his hand, by his guns. No matter how evil, or how good, he would grieve for them. Then his burden would grow.

Therefore, to keep this burden at a minimum, he would kill as little as he was able too. If he would kill every man or woman that attacks him at open space, his burden would grow so heavy that in the end, his life would be nothing more but an agony.

At this moment he considered himself not to be carrying on any burden. He didn’t count the lives he took before this moment. But every life he took from here on would add a little to the burden. He considered it a perfect plan to keep humans alive, he hated violence, he hated killing. What others did didn’t matter to him; it was his, and only his, actions that would burden him.

If he was to compensate for the lives he took he should instead save lives. That would easy his burden and gives him resolve to continue living in this universe of hate. A feeling of relief. He dubbed his way of living ’’Vågen’’ or ‘’The Scale’’ to signify the weight of the burden coming from ones wrongdoings and the weight of living strength coming from ones good deeds.

With this newfound resolve he flew towards an exit in the wall of this hollow base, heading for the Omega-41 system. But something unusual caught his attention and made him stop. It was an object gleaming in the light it reflected from the ships lights. He went a little closer to it, and examined the brown object from inside his cockpit. He tractored it in and quickly filled the cargo hold with Oxygen to make it hospitable. He set the ship on standby power and disconnected himself from it. He quickly went back into his small cargo hold with the size of a wardrobe. As the door slid open he rushed inside to see what he had found. It was brown like and contained a strange pattern on an intact smooth side that was flat, it somehow resembled to flint stone. It was very cold to touch. Stefan, in his excitement, did something he wouldn’t usually do with a newfound object. He pulled a blaster hid in his boot and unsecured it. Trained it at the flat side and shot, he didn’t know why he did it. The stone somehow quickly absorbed it and shot it away at the direction it was coming from. Stefan let go of his balance on purpose to fall to the ground to avoid the blast. The shot hit the metal ceiling of the ship. He stood up and once again trained it at the rock. But this time at the other side. It seemed to have been broken of something, so the other side was the exact opposite of the flat one. It contained no pattern and was coarse. He fired a second shot and it made some damage. Pebbles flew from the large object, he fired another one and the same thing happened. He decided it would be the smartest to take this piece of rock to the Cambridge Chemical Institute where it could be examined. But right now he set course for Omega-41 system.

Stefan went back to his cockpit and plugged back the wire into his arm, engaged his cruise engines and flew directly towards the Omega-41 jumphole. He shook as he left the station. It would be a sight he would never forget. While inside the station he had noted the absence of Junkers in the area, looks like even they didn’t dare to go into that place. He arrived at the jumphole a few minutes later and flew into it. The ship began shaking and he leaned back into his chair. Taking a brief rest to gather his thoughts. He felt himself to be in some sort of disarray.



The first thing that Stefan did when he exited the jumptunnel was to cruise towards Leon, a Corsair base. He quickly made use of the pharmaceuticals in his cargo hold, they would last till he reached Leon. There he would take a drink and give a hint to the bartender about what have happened in Omega-5. Also he would load his cargo hold with a load of pharmaceuticals. The strong radiation in within Omega-41 requires constant medication. It didn’t take long for Stefan to get a visual of Leon. Even though it looked exactly like any other fragment in this boring, devilish system it wasn’t so hard to recognize if one had been here before.

‘’This is Zoners Zeta 9-4 to Leon I’m requesting to dock’’ Stefan called to the station. He found it strange that wherever he went nowadays it looked dead and abandoned. Oh well, this is Omega-41 after all. What can I expect? He asked to himself in a sarcastic manner.

‘’Roger that Zoners Zeta 9-4, your request to dock is granted. Please proceed to dock 2.’’

The door to the airlock opened up for Stefan as he flew inside the safety of the base. The second door leading to the hangar opened up and Stefan repeated the procedure. Finally outside his ship he stretched himself and went directly to the bar. Normally he would load up the commodities before going to the bar, but he wouldn’t risk taking any chances with that strange rock in the ship. The bar didn’t look very interesting. Boring structure, but Leon is just a small military outpost in the middle of nowhere, so it’s actually no wonder that they only have such a simple bar.

‘’Well, at least they have wine.’’ he murmured and ordered a glass of the red liquid. It is said that one bottle of wine a day prevents dementia at old age. It also tastes good.

‘’Wine has been around since long before man started counting the ages. Walter had right, it is interesting how these old beverages have survived time and change.’’ he said to himself. ‘’And of course the Hispanian ones always taste the best.’’ He smiled and drank from the bittersweet drink.

Once finished he gave the bartender a hint of what he had seen in Omega-5. Then he quickly left the bar. In the hangar he loaded up his ship with pharmaceuticals discreetly so that the commodity trader wouldn’t notice anything, then he left.

Out in space he planned his route to Cambridge. First, he would enter the jumphole to Omega-5 where he would try avoiding the derelict Corsair base and jump to the Cambridge system. On planet Cambridge, he would donate his find to the Chemical Research Institute of Cambridge. Then, he would rent a room and get a days rest where after he would journey back to New Berlin. He calculated out the route and let the ships inbuilt computer take care of the rest. He would take a nap till then, and take a look at the black neutron star of Omega-41, dead as the rest of the system. We will all die one day… we are all destined to. My time will come soon enough, I’ll just have to wait a little more , he thought as he tried to sleep.

Summary: Stefan goes to se if the rumours of the Omega-5 slaughter held any thruth. He finds out that they do, he also finds a strange piece o' rock which he's planning to donate to Cambridge researchers. He also tries to inform the Corsairs about the happenings. Whether this has a good or bad effect, is up to you guys to decide.

Edited by - Nederbörd on 10/17/2005 10:30:35 AM

"Hey!" yelled Rob with some annoyance, swiftly hiding his palmtop behind his body to avoid getting it wet. "Watch where you're splashing!"

He glared in mock anger then laughed while ducking a rubber ball used for water sports that was thrown his way. Rob grinned as Tanya dove under the water and emerged just before his lounger by the side of the pool. Her blonde hair hung back over her neck and shoulders as she returned his grin with a broad smile, green eyes sparkling.

"Why don't you dive in?" she asked with an impish expression. "Or is your shoulder troubling you still, old man?" Tanya added with a slight pout.

Rob grunted something incomprehensible and returned to his neural net. The experienced freelancer had left a number of messages with the rest of the team, mostly instructions, rendezvous co-ordinates and timings for future meetings. He glanced over the top of it quickly and saw Gabriel looking straight back at him. Rob stifled a response, held the man's eyes for a moment then returned his attention to his neural net once more. Rob didn't trust the Ta'Gua'Led agent anymore than he could throw him. The newcomer had a silent, almost ethereal presence that was quite uncomfortable at the best of times.

"Don't worry about Gabriel. If Konn trusts him, we should too," advised Tanya, when he confided in her about his feelings.

The freelancer watched intensely as Tanya stepped out from the pool. The young woman wore a black, single-piece swimsuit, her tanned and toned limbs glistened under the rays of California's medium white sun. Several bathers turned their attention to her as she padded along the edge of the pool to Rob. An attendant stopped her and they exchanged words briefly before Tanya gave him a dazzling smile. Rob couldn't help but feel a spike of jealousy enter his thoughts as he watched his lover speak to the handsome, sun-darkened waiter. No matter what she did Tanya drew attention and worse, she never searched for it, choosing to laugh away the point whenever Rob raised it. She eventually made her way to Rob kissing him briefly, then lay down on a lounger besides his own, stretched out her arms above her head and smiled clearing enjoying the sun.

Planet Los Angeles was ninety-six percent water, the remainder a single landmass anchored permanently to the ocean floor that was over five miles below sea level. The main habitat was a huge, sprawling metropolis consisting of several bio domes, hangars, ship construction sites, recreation areas and of course, the largest aquarium in Liberty. Tourists that visited L.A. were also struck by the unique 'canal'-like design of the city, watercraft was the transportation of choice and newcomers always marvelled at the modern elegance the artificial canals provided the landscape. Small craft buzzed along the waterways and where they met larger tributaries, buzzed around larger fishing vessels, private yachts and occasionally the massive pleasure cruisers that sailed long trips out into the deep water.

"Rob?" said Tanya looking up at the dark blue sky overhead. The pool was located atop their hotel and the perfect climate provided hot, but not unbearably hot weather all year long. She turned to face him. "What happens when we find the artefacts? What happens when we stop Mason? Juan? The Abbot? The Covenant?" Her face was impassive as she waited for Rob to respond, which he did after some thought.

"Retire on Gaia," he said wistfully. Tanya punched him lightly on the shoulder and he yelped. "Not that one, dammit!"

Tanya laughed, leaned over and placed her lips gently on his wounded shoulder and looked up at him briefly before moving to lay back again.

"Ok. That worked," Rob growled.

"You're getting grumpy in your old age," chuckled Tanya. She watched a group of ships fly by overhead, noting their tight formation as they landed at the spaceport a few miles away, then closed her eyes and smiled basking in the warmth of the sun once more. "Seriously. I have no idea how to find The Abbot. Surely, it all ends when he," she paused. "Is dealt with?"

Rob looked thoughtful. Tanya didn't miss the freelancer grimace as she mentioned Juan's name.

"Agreed. When he's dead, it's over. But I think before we can get to him, the perps you mentioned before need to be taken down first," Rob said with some venom. Tanya opened her eyes and watched him surprised at his tone.

"It's personal now, isn't it?" she asked softly. Rob hadn't been the same since she phased out before and Tanya was certain it was related to Juan somehow. To her, Juan was just a ghost from the past, to Rob he was very much a phantom of the present.

Rob didn't reply, but returned his attention to the palmtop.

"Rob? Are you ok?" Tanya asked again.

"No! I'm not ok!" hissed Rob. "I have a billion and one things to do as we prepare for another ridiculous treasure hunt against an unknown defence mechanism constructed by an alien race aeons ago, and you're asking me stupid questions!" he barked. "Of course it's bloody personal. Our lives are in perpetual danger until Mason, Juan and especially this Abbot cat are six feet under," he said glaring at Tanya, baring his teeth.

She held his eyes and for a long while, neither of them spoke until at last Tanya nodded once, then rose slowly from the lounger.

"I'm going shopping," she said coldly, reached down to gather her bag and towel, then walked away towards the hotel. Rob wanted to say something but the words stuck in his throat as he watched her disappear inside. Moments later, an attendant appeared carrying a tray with two large drinks.

"Sir. Madame?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

Rob stifled a reaction and pointed to a spot on the ground next to him, grumbling under his breath. He didn't want any of the words he said to be spoken out in the open and instantly wished he could pull them right back into his mouth, but he loved Tanya so much, it hurt. Did she realise this? he thought.

He turned his attention to Gabriel sat at the far side of the pool, still fully clothed in a dark jumpsuit. The heat and humidity didn't seem to bother him and his pale skin and long blonde hair seemed fresh and unaffected. Rob narrowed his eyes as Gabriel smiled, though it never reached his eyes.


***

Tanya took the lift up to their room where she promptly shed her swimsuit, showered and dressed. She couldn't wait to get out of the hotel and be alone. As much as she loved Rob, sometimes their relationship was too intense at times. A result of their personalities and passion for life, she guessed.

"Hah. Life," she said aloud. "What would you know about enjoying life, woman?" she asked herself in the mirror as she pulled a white shirt on and tied her hair up above her head.

She sighed and moved to the dresser where a large black case lay atop unopened. She lifted the lid and studied the contents, several handguns, knives, stun batons and a pair of blasters were neatly secreted into dark-grey foam bedding, ammunition for the weapons were strapped to the lid's underside and Tanya pulled out a small stun baton that would fit into a boot sheath. She hesitated before closing the lid, then decided that Planet Los Angeles was about as safe a colony in Liberty as Manhattan and shut it.

Tanya grabbed her bag from the bed and walked out of the room.


***

"Is that her?" asked Mac, he squinted his eyes as the sun shone almost directly at them.

Beside him stood Linus and three other hunters they had hired through local bar bulletin boards. Jake had heard that both Schaefer and Ramirez were unlikely to be easy arrests and decided that sheer force of numbers would be enough to bring them in without conflict. They were positioned above street level on one of the many pedestrian walkways that cut across and over the canals.

Linus nodded.

"That's her," confirmed Jake.

The woman was unmistakably attractive. She was tall, her long legs bound by a simple but elegant blue-green sarong, a white shirt unbuttoned mostly hung loosely. The bohemian look was complete with a pair of brown boots and she strolled slowly stopping occasionally as something in a shop window caught her eye. The five men had followed her for almost two hours, fortunately it was the middle of the day and most of the L.A populace were out in some form of business or another. Tracking her unseen would be a simple task.

"She's a beauty," said one of the hunters with a grin, Mac grinned back and was promptly thumped on the arm.

"Do not underestimate her. Keep that in your minds. And don't forget, we want her alive. Just bring her in. Stun if you need to, and make it public." Mac stopped short of telling them what Jake had told him earlier. Governor Mason needed to know they were both in custody, he couldn't trust the hunters fully with all the information. Not yet, at least.

The men nodded as a group and they set off in separate directions. Before Linus could leave, Mac grabbed his arm holding him back.

"Wait a while buddy. Three of them should be able to handle her, especially if she's alone and distracted."

Linus stood for a while then nodded.

"Sure, buddy. You're in command. Just what's so special about these two anyways?"

Mac didn't reply, he was watching the young woman walk nonchalantly into a boutique.

"Wait fifteen. If she's still inside, you are clear to go!" he hissed over the comm.


***

"This is beautiful!" said Tanya. She lifted her arm up and gazed upon her wrist that was now adorned with a bracelet made of silver links, each link bearing a bright, yet deep aquamarine stone. "How much is it?"

"It's one of our best pieces, miss," said the man before her. He was in his late thirties, dressed in a tight-fitting tailor made suit. "I'm afraid I cannot sell it for less than ten thousand credits," he added looking down at the ground humbly.

Tanya looked shocked.

"I could buy a freighter for that sort of money!" she said.

"Yes. Yes. But the freighter would pale insignificantly when compared with the bracelet upon your wrist," said the man smoothly. "Only your natural beauty would match the item's countenance. Ten thousand for lifelong treasure, would be a small price to pay," he continued with a smile.

She looked thoughtful and was about to reply when she saw the shopkeeper look up over her shoulder and a worried expression appeared on his face. Tanya heard the door behind open and she turned round slowly to see three grim-faced men stride inside with guns drawn. They were stun blasters though and not deadly unless fired repeatedly at close range.

"Miss. You're under arrest," said one as they stopped from her about ten feet away. Tanya glanced left and right. There was a door leading into the back of the shop but it might lead nowhere, besides, there could be more assailants waiting for her there too. "Please raise your hands above your head and kneel on the ground. Come quietly and you won't get hurt," he added almost as an after-thought.

One of the men whispered something to the speaker and he responded curtly, though not quietly enough for Tanya to hear.

"Men. Always the same," she replied coldly. "Am I so desirable to lose your life over?" she asked narrowing her eyes. The atmosphere in the shop changed instantly and the shopkeeper stammered something then backed away into a corner where he huddled up into a ball.

"Lady. Just come with us. There's no escape. We have this shop surrounded and if you attempt to escape, you will be hurt," said the first, emphasising the word 'will'. "We heard you're good, but I doubt you can dodge three stun blasts at point blank range."

The men hefted their weapons in unison.

"You're right," said Tanya. "I can't dodge three of you," and she slowly knelt down to one knee.

The men visibly relaxed and one of them stepped forwards cautiously producing a pair of cuffs from behind him. "But I can dodge two of you!" she yelled and darted directly towards one man impeding the view of the two behind him. His stunner shot her full in the chest and Tanya nearly froze in pain as a thousand needle stabs of energy penetrated her at once. Through sheer force of will she forced herself on towards him and felt him twitch and shudder as the men behind panicked and shot him in the back.

Tanya plucked the stunner the man carried as it fell through the air and using one arm to hold the limp body up she fired two quick shots at the men still standing behind. They each gritted their teeth as the shocks earthed themselves in their bodies, one of them fired blindly hitting the shopkeeper in the head who promptly fell over unconscious. Tanya shot the hunter again and he fell to the ground, leg twitching. The last man managed to fire on target, striking his companion a third time in the back, Tanya felt her left arm buzz uncontrollably as the stun blast reverberated and fired again striking him unerringly in the chest. He fell backwards against the door and was flung out into the street.

She stepped back allowing the body to fall and placed the stunner on a glass cabinet beside her, before furiously rubbing her left arm that was now numb. A few moments later she began to flex the fingers in her left hand and kept rubbing until satisfied she could manipulate it properly. Tanya ran to her bag now on the ground and grabbed a small device she hooked over her right ear.

"Rob. Are you there? Honey? Someone knows we're here. Three men tried to arrest me. Rob. Are you there? Answer me!" she hissed into the mic that stretched down over her cheek. Tanya picked up the stunner she left on the cabinet and shoved it into her bag, then ran over to the shopkeeper rifling through his jacket pockets. She found a cred-stick and swiped it with hers, transferring credits to him.

"I'll take the bracelet. But it's not worth ten thousand!" she said aloud, then darted out of the shop and started running along one of the canals.

"Rob. I'm on my way to the spaceport. Rob! Talk to me! We need to leave, now!"


***


"Jake Talon. Why am I not surprised to see you here on L.A?" said Rob, as he opened the door to his hotel room. A blaster was shoved into his belt behind him, the scanners Rob had placed in the corridor indicated Talon was alone. Rob felt confident he could handle Talon by himself.

The freelancer backed away from the door placing his back to the hallway wall, allowing Talon to walk inside and closed the door with a prod of his boot.

"Where's the fine lady?" asked Talon, walking over to the mini bar. He seemed relaxed.

Something isn't right thought Rob. Talon shouldn't be here. I need to get Konn and co off-world. His heart missed a beat. I hope Tanya's alright . Rob grinned. She's probably kicked seven-shades-of-hell out of whoever it is out there. The freelancer turned his attention to Talon who had poured himself a drink and was now sat on the balcony over-looking the huge expanse of ocean. Rob's room was fifty storey's above sea level, although he had a means of getting down to ground quickly if necessary.

"She's out. Shopping," replied Rob cautiously. "What do you want, Talon. The last time we met, I told you to stay out of my way. I don't like Liberty brass poking its nose into my business."

Talon downed his drink.

"Great view. Rob, you really live in style, buddy," replied Jake.

"To hell with this," said Rob drawing his blaster with lightning quick speed. He pointed the weapon at Talon and flicked the switch on the side, the weapon hummed swiftly increasing in pitch, indicating full power. Killing power. "Quit pissing around and tell me what you want. Or die where you stand. I'd actually prefer the latter, but I'm curious about your story."

Jake laughed.

"Shoot me, and this room. The rooms above, below and inside it will get hit with volley of Lancer missiles. Don't be so hasty. Put the gun down and let's talk." Jake stood to one side slowly and Rob saw a glint of metal behind several hundred feet away. It was the unmistakeable shape of a Falcon in hover mode.

Rob stood for a moment, then lowered the gun but still stood glaring balefully at the Liberty officer.

"Better. Now. I know you want to know why I'm here, but let me tell you first that Tanya Ramirez is safe. In custody, but safe. So relax. She won't be harmed."

"You bastard. If you've done anything to her I'll- " Rob lifted the gun again, pointing it at Talon's head.

"Like I said," interrupted Jake. "She's safe. Now listen. I'll keep it brief. A hit has been ordered by a senior official within The Order. A hit on both you and your woman."

"You?" said Rob without hiding a smirk.

"Yeah. Me. However, I'm not here to kill you. In fact, I want to help you."

"Really. Help us. How?"

"By arresting you. And then taking you out of the game."

Rob frowned, his finger rested on the trigger stud, an ounce more pressure and Talon's head would be a melted lump of goo.

"Taking us out of the game, sounds distinctly unattractive. You could just leave us alone, Talon," suggested Rob, his frown deepened when Jake shook his head in response.

"Can't do that. Been ordered to kill you both."

Rob did nothing for a while, wrestling through the various scenarios in his mind.

"I'm presuming that you could have done this anytime?"

Jake laughed genuinely.

"It's possible. Very possible."

Tanya's voice echoed into Rob's earpiece.

"Rob. Are you there? Honey? Someone knows we're here. Three men tried to arrest me. Rob. Are you there? Answer me!" she yelled over the comm. "Rob. I'm on my way to the spaceport. Rob! Talk to me! We need to leave, now!"

Rob snarled. Tanya's voice was hurried, distressed, clearly she'd dealt with her assailants but the tone and phrasing of her words concerned him.

"Tanya is safe is she? Unharmed is she?" growled Rob at the Liberty officer. Jake blinked. Rob's tone had become much more dangerous. Something has gone wrong. He hoped the woman had been captured safely.

Jake's radio crackled into life, the speaker was active and the radio was tuned into a local police channel.

"Attention all units! Alert-One to Valley Shopping Centre. Armed robbery occurred, suspect Caucasian female, IC-2, blonde hair, suspect in possession of energy weapon and must be treated as extremely dangerous. One hunter DoA, two others being treated by medical on site."

Rob's face paled with rage.

"Talon. You're a freaking idiot! You realise your Liberty goons will shoot-to-kill? Your stupid attempt at a 'gentle' public arrest has gone completely wrong and now my," Rob was lost for words for a heartbeat, "Tanya's life in danger!"

Talon was at a loss. The mission was simple. Apprehend, escort off-world, take them stealthily to a hidden location.

"Rob. I can explain, I'm only trying to help."

"Forget it!" yelled Rob furiously. He reached up to his commset and pressed a button. "HK. Go White Rabbit." He waited for a moment before responding with an even sharper tone. "Yes. Just do it now!"

Rob ripped off the commset throwing it to the ground and stalked towards Talon.

"What made you think you could whisk off two highly trained and experienced freelancers to some secret hideaway aggressively? Surely you'd know what our reaction would be, don't you?"

Talon said nothing, staring into Rob's cold pits for eyes.

"I'm not going to kill you," began Rob. "Not yet. Now here. Not now. But I swear, if you cross me again, you're a dead man. Hear me?" hissed Rob. "Now get out. Before I change my mind."

Jake put the drink down and without saying a word, strode towards the door. He could feel Rob's eyes boring into his back and didn't turn around when he next spoke.

"If I can't arrest you. I have to kill you."

Rob smiled without emotion.

"You can try."

Jake opened the door and paused again for the last time before he walked out.

"I already have."

And stepped out into the corridor closing the door behind him.

Rob became a blur of motion. He sheathed his gun, glanced out the window and ran to the dresser where their weapon's case lay. He grabbed it and threw it along with another smaller bag into a large black backpack that he swiftly strapped around his chest.

Without doing anything else, Rob ran towards the balcony with several giant strides..

..and threw himself over it, arms stretched out wide.

Rob had time to glance up briefly and saw a long line of smoke etch a path towards his balcony, missiles launched from the Falcon, they screamed past him overhead and slammed into his room exploding into a huge ball of fire and brickwork. The concussive wave shook him briefly and his eyes were forced shut for a moment as he bore out the pain, then forced them open and began counting as the ground loomed closer and the freelancer's body whistled through the air. About five seconds later, Rob reached across his chest taking hold of a ring-pull attached near to his left shoulder and pulled it sharply. He winced as the parachute opened jolting his body almost to a standstill, but felt instantly relieved his escape plan had worked thus far. Rob had studied the surroundings in great detail during the few days they had stayed at the hotel. What with Tanya's love for shopping and sunbathing, he'd spent most of his spare time downloading street plans and building schematics on his palmtop. Rob knew instinctively where to guide his parachute and the shortest, inconspicuous path to the spaceport.

Rob floated closer to the roof of a three-storey building that was open enough for him to avoid any structures that might impede his landing. He'd also chosen it as the roof was very dark and would help conceal his presence to any airborne observer.

The freelancer touched down with a bump, bunched up his legs rolling over and sideways in a classic landing. In one smooth movement, he rose to his feet and unclipped the parachute from his backpack before making his way towards the fire exit. Rob reached into a pocket and pulled out an earpiece and jammed it into his left ear.

"Tanya, you there?"

There was a slight pause, making Rob sweat just a little bit more.

"Yes. I'm here. Are you alright?" Tanya whispered in reply.

"Fine. You? Are you hurt?"

"No. There were three of them. I think one might be dead though, he took three full power stun blasts point blank, I doubt he'd survive the first two at that range, let alone the third," Tanya sounded slightly remorseful.

"Main thing is you're alright. Konn, Travis and the Doctor should be lifting off anytime soon."

"Good. Who are they working for?" Tanya asked, meaning her assailants.

"Talon. Jake Talon, LPI," replied Rob coldly.

"I see," said Tanya. Rob thought he heard the sound of bells chiming in the distance.

"Where are you, Tanya?" he asked.

"About two klicks from the harbour," she replied. "Don't worry, I'm not walking," Tanya added. "One last thing, Rob. What about Gabriel?"

A pause.

"What about him?" retorted Rob.

"Nothing, I guess. So what now? The artefact is still out there? We need to find it. Before they do. Covenanters."

"Yep. The hydrofoil I arranged for should be ready now. If we can get out of the city they'll never find us. It's a big planet."

"Our ship is probably impounded now. I doubt we'll be able to get it back," said Tanya. She thought she heard Rob sigh.

"I know. Another ship. But don't worry, Konn will be in orbit waiting for a signal to fly atmospheric and pick us up."

"Once we have the artefact."

"Right."

"And what about Gabriel?" Tanya asked again, she definitely heard Rob sigh this time.

"What about him?" asked Rob exasperated now.

"Rob."

Another pause.

"Rob ," insisted Tanya.

"Alright, alright. Dammit. I'll go back and get him. Go to the docks. Find a guy called Lehmann. He'll have our boat ready. I'll meet you there in two hours. By the way. You're marked now and the LPI are on your trail. You might want to do something about your appearance."

"I already have," replied Tanya. Rob thought she was smiling at the other end of the comm. "Take care, Rob. I love you."

"Well, I hate me. But love you right back. Now get going. Stay sharp."


***

Summary: Some sunbathing, an ethereal Gabriel (OOC: why do I think Johnny Depp?) watching R&T with some amusement when they argue, Jake's men move in to arrest Tanya, it goes wrong and Tanya escapes, Jake meets face-to-face with a well-prepared Rob, neither men like each other much, Rob warns HK, Nikolai, Travis and Doctor T to get off-world, Jake wants to help Rob but the attempt fails, Rob escapes his hotel death-trap with a dramatic leap from his balcony window, Rob agrees to find Gabriel and both plan to meet Tanya at the harbour where they will eventually search for the water artefact...

OOC: Please check the OOC thread too!

ttfn

x

Edited by - athena on 10/19/2005 2:13:59 AM

Rob cut the comm connection to Tanya and considered his position. If he was lucky, Talon would assume he hadn't made it out of the building alive and he could sneak his way to the docks without too much trouble. If he was unlucky, he could expect a large contingent of planetary security forces to come after him.

By the looks of things, Rob had been lucky. He couldn't hear any sirens approaching, or the pounding feet of an assault team climbing the stairs to the roof.

Rob shrugged his backpack off one shoulder and rooted through it quickly before pulling out a small scanner. He passed it over and around the fire exit door, looking for an alarms that might be set off if he opened it. The scanner revealed that there was one, but it was a simple magnetic loop, and Rob quickly bypassed it by placing a small but powerful magnet of his own over the sensor.

It didn't take Rob long to make his way into, and then out of the building. By using the IR pickups on his shades, Rob was able to avoid all but the most fleeting human contact. He stepped from the building's rear exit into a small alley.

Guess I better go fetch Mr. Oddball. Rob thought. Just as he was about to step out of the alley and into on of the main pedestrian walkways that stretched over the canals and connected various plazas, it occurred to Rob that going back to the hotel might not be such a good idea. It was very possible that Talon, or his men might still be hanging around, looking for accomplices. Rob hoped Gabriel had been smart enough to get out when he saw the explosion.

Only one way to find out... Rob began to punch in the code to contact Gabriel's Neural Net on a secure channel. In the interests of added security Rob made sure to bounce his own signal through a few unsuspecting passers-by. There was no way of knowing if Net transmissions were being monitored and Rob wasn't about to take the chance of being connected to anybody so overtly.

The connection took a few seconds to go through but Rob soon heard a gruff voice ask “Who is this?”

“It's Rob.”

“Not from where I'm sitting.” Gabriel said.

“I had to bounce the signal,” Rob explained. “Don't know who might be snooping.”

“I see.”

“Shouldn't you be a bit more surprised that I'm, you know, alive?” Rob asked.

“Who says I'm not? That was quite an explosion you allegedly survived.” Gabriel said.

“I don't have time to play games, Urran. Tanya's on the run and we need to get moving. Meet me,” Rob checked his map, “at the northeast corner of Rodeo Plaza. And hurry up. I'm not in the mood for waiting.”

Gabriel didn't say anything.

“Look, buddy. Either you show up or you don't. Personally, I'd be just as happy if you didn't. I'm only even contacting you because Tanya asked me to. Oh, and if you do decide to stick with us, bring guns. I think we're going to need them.” Rob cut the connection before Gabriel had a chance to reply.

Before stepping out of the alley, Rob rolled the sleeves of his black shirt up past his elbows and pulled a beach shirt with an eye-hurting pattern out of his backpack. He threw it over his shirt and buttoned up the front. Bending, Rob fiddled for a moment with the zippers that encircled his pant legs just below the knee. A moment later, two tubes of black fabric fell around Rob's ankles and Rob scooped them up, putting them into the backpack.

When Rob finally emerged from the alley he looked enough like the thousands of other tourists that he could walk around LA without attracting too much attention.

Rob walked briskly, deftly avoiding collisions with the throngs of people who crammed the walkways, and arrived at the rendezvous point he arranged. A quick look around, and Rob didn't see any sign of Gabriel. Rob was about to leave when he considered what Tanya might do if he came to her without Gabriel in tow. Wincing at the thought Rob took a second look.

This time he caught a flicker of movement from inside one of the cafés. It looked suspiciously like the movement of a long blond braid swinging behind someone. Gotcha.

Rob strode towards the café and met Gabriel as the large man exited. In the open he stuck out like a sore thumb; his height, pale skin and insistence on wearing a dark jumpsuit all attracted far more attention that Rob was pleased with..

“I've got to hand it to you, you hide pretty well for a big guy.” Rob said.

“You weren't even really looking for me.” Gabriel replied, matter-of-factly.

“Fine, be that way.” Rob said, glowering slightly. “Let's get a move on.”

“Where are we going?” Gabriel asked.

“The docks. I've arranged some transport for us. We're still going for the artifact.”

“Very good.” Gabriel said. Something about his tone of voice made Rob uneasy.

Rob began to walk, Gabriel stayed close behind. “Keep your eyes open. We want to avoid security forces as much as possible. I'm going to check in with Tanya.”

Again Rob bounced the signal around a bit before letting it go off to Tanya's Neural Net. “Hey, Tanya? You there? How're you holding up?”

“I've been better, hon.” Tanya replied after a few tense moments of silence. “I think I've managed to throw the forces that were on my tail, but I can feel the net closing in around me. It's like the whole damn planetary garrison is after me.”

“I wouldn't be surprised.” Rob said. “Listen, I have an idea. I need you to head to the tunnel that runs underneath Rodeo Plaza. Gabriel is with me. We'll set up a way out. Do you have a rebreather? Anything that will give you air underwater for a while? And low-light goggles? You'll need those too.”

“Yes. Why?” Tanya asked.

“You're going to have to go for a swim. Gabriel and I are going to provide a distraction so you can ditch whatever transport you have and escape via one of the tunnel's drainage pipes. Let's say the one on your left hand side. We'll meet you at the exit.”

“Let me make sure I follow,” Tanya said. “I go into the tunnel underneath Rodeo Plaza. Urran cuts the lights and so I can ditch my skimmer and you stun the pursuers. Then we rendezvous at the drainage exit.”

“Oh, you are so good.” Rob said in a low voice.

“Damn!” Tanya swore suddenly. “They're getting close. I have to move. See you soon.”

“Hurry over. We'll be ready.” Rob said.

“I don't doubt it. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Rob said just before the connection cut out.

Turning to Gabriel Rob said, “It's time for you to prove your worth.”

- - - -

Rob hung upside-down from one of the bundles of cables that ran the length of the tunnel. He had discarded his beach shirt and reverted back to his typical clothes. The tunnel itself was a light shade of grey though, so he didn't exactly blend in well either way. To combat this, Rob had positioned himself right by one of the large light that illuminated the tunnel. He hoped the halo would hide him long enough for Tanya to get into position.

The major unknown for Rob was Gabriel, however. Rob still didn't trust the Ta'Gue'Led agent but had to hope that he'd pull through all the same. The effectiveness of Rob's flashbang hinged on the lights being out. And there just wasn't enough time for Rob to set things up so he could do everything himself. So it was up to Gabriel.

Rob's worrying was interrupted by a call from the Gabriel. “I'm in position. There were two guards and three technicians that I needed to subdue.”

“You didn't kill them, did you?” Rob asked. He better not have killed anybody, I told him not to kill anybody, if he killed anybody I'm going to...

“No.” Gabriel answered. There was a touch of anger in his voice “Why would I have? I am no murderer.”

“Good to know.” Rob said. “Have you found the power controls?”

“Yes. Everything is ready here.”

“Okay. Wait for my word.” Rob cut the connection and watched the tunnel entrance.

He heard the sirens before anything else. There were so many that that varying pitches blended into a uniform whine. Then came the flashing red and blue lights against the concrete walls of the tunnel. Then Tanya, riding a very sporty-looking waterskimmer, burst around the corner and into the tunnel.

“Get ready.” Rob said to Gabriel over the comm.

Rob narrowed his eyes and watched as waves of security forces poured into the tunnel after Tanya. She passed underneath Rob at a terrific speed. Rob counted at least fifty police skimmers and three patrol boats on her tail. It also looked like a cutter had turned away from the tunnel and was going to try to cut Tanya off at the exit. Every so often a brilliant bolt of energy aimed at Tanya would fly through the air. Rob brutally squashed the urge to shoot down each and every person who took a shot at Tanya and waited for the entire pursuing force to enter the tunnel. As the last patrol boats and the three skimmers which flanked it passed over the threshold, Rob once again opened a connection to Gabriel.

“Do it.”

The tunnel immediately fell dark. Engines went from flank speed to all stop almost immediately and a chorus of confused cries rang through the tunnel. Rob waited two seconds – he wanted to give Tanya enough time to get clear and underwater – before releasing his hold on the cable and dropping feet-first towards the veritable armada beneath him. As he fell, it occurred to Rob that if one of the pursuing craft had stopped underneath him, his role in this operation would be short-lived indeed.

Quickly dismissing the thought, Rob activated his flashbang. LA was not Cali however, and Rob didn't want to kill anyone if he could avoid it, so despite the larger area he had chosen lower power settings. One thing that Rob hadn't accounted for, but which worked in his favour was the reflectivity of the water. The tunnel lit up brilliantly, blinding the pursuing forces instantly. Then came the bang. It echoed up and down the tunnel, stupefying everyone unprepared for the sudden overwhelming noise.

Toes pointed, and hands at his sides, Rob plunged into the briny LA waters. He had a few things to get before leaving. Three Liberty uniforms, one each for himself, Gabriel and Tanya. And two skimmers. The skimmers were easy to pick up. Most of the pursuers had fallen off their craft and bobbed up and down in the water, supported by their life-vests.

The uniforms were harder to find, given the dark and how little time Rob had. He grabbed the biggest guy he could find and hoped Gabriel would be able to squeeze into the jumpsuit okay. A smaller man provided Rob with his disguise. All that Rob had to do was find a woman. The prospect did not make Rob feel happy.

Nevertheless, it had to be done. Rob grabbed the nearest female Liberty agent and, averting his eyes as best he could, peeled the jumpsuit off her. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Sh*t. I'm sorry.

Having collected everything he needed, Rob was about to leave when he had an idea. It would take time, and might well get him caught, but he had to do it. Rob pulled the beach chirt from his bacpack once more and slipped into the water. He swam over to the woman whose uniform he had stolen and carefully covered her with the top.

His guilt somewhat relieved, Rob hurried back to the skimmers, gunned their engines and roared out of the tunnel just ahead of the backup that had raced to the scene.

- - - -

Rob found Tanya and Gabriel waiting at the assigned rendezvous point. Gabriel stood watch while Tanya wrung out her wet hair. She wore a simple grey top and matching shorts. A small traveling backpack lay beside her.

“Glad you both made it out okay,” Rob said. He threw Tanya and Gabriel their respective uniforms “Here, put these on.”

Tanya deftly caught the jumpsuit Rob had tossed at her. She looked at it a moment before looking at Rob. “Where... how did you get this?”

Rob looked away, down at the waterskimmer's console. “I had to take it. We need to be able to get past any checks, avoid scrutiny. There was no other way.”

Tanya's eyes narrowed and Rob tensed. He fully expected Tanya to chew him out. Surprisingly, she just nodded curtly. Rob realized that Tanya was all business now. There was little that could faze her.

Rob felt compelled for some reason to add, “I had an extra shirt, so I put that on her. I know it's not much, but what else could I have done? Look, would you please just put the thing on so we can get out of here?”

Tanya quickly pulled the jumpsuit over her clothes and zipped it up.

“What now?” Gabriel asked.

“You take the other skimmer. Tanya's with me.” Rob said. “We'll make for the docks.”

“Right.” Gabriel walked over to the other skimmer and got on. Rob noticed that the big man was moving rather stiffly. Looking closer, he saw that Gabriel's uniform was at least two sizes too small. Rob couldn't help but chuckle under his breath as Tanya climbed onto the skimmer. She wrapped her arms around his waist, rubbing his stomach softly and kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"Let's go." Tanya said.

Mmmm. That's better.

Rob gunned the skimmer's engine and headed for the docks.

Summary: Rob links up with Gabriel. Rob cooks up a scheme to help Tanya vanish. Rob and Gabe execute the plan. Rob gathers some supplies and heads off to meet the troops. Then, it's off to the docks.

OOC: Edited for character consistency. May be edited again.

Edited by - Codename on 10/28/2005 7:40:39 AM

OOC: RAAAAAAAAAAARGH. Wildum postum now.
Oh yes, and I apologize to FA for the blatant mistreatment of his character for the sake of drama.
________________________________________________________

Nikolai sniffed, breathing in the air of whisky that clouded the bar. He wrinkled his nose at the strong fumes of smoke covering it, a veritable fog of tobacco. That was an addiction he had overcome…perhaps the only one. Lifting his glass, he allowed the icy liquid to burn his tongue, and allowed his eyes to search the room. He fingered the blade in his pocket, and his right hand brushed the gun in another holster.

Outside, in the bright Los Angeles sun, Gabriel sat wearing only a small swimsuit, his bared chest glistening. Nikolai licked his lips. Not as hot as me, of course…but damn sexy. The taste of alcohol and of lust formed a brew more potent than any drug he forced upon himself. Oh yes. And the taste of hatred.

Traitor.

Ever since he had first laid eyes on the Adonis he had known there was something else there. Some aura about him, something that wasn’t human. I don’t know how I know that, he whispered. But he did. That aspect was ever there, hovering around him like a demon possessing his body. Or a nomad, for that matter. And Rob said that there was an organization operating in Sirius with an agent named Gabriel…No matter how well he hid it beneath his tight, toned, youthful body, he was not human. There was a nomad controlling him.

Nikolai had indeed come to this conclusion ever since arriving at Los Angeles.

Now Gabriel opened the sliding glass doors, slipping into the bar and its stench of decadence as he headed for the bathroom. Nikolai stood, passion—anger, he corrected himself—rising in him. He, too, slipped across the mist of smoke, walking silently in past Gabriel. He laid his hand upon the other’s tender neck as, with a shout of surprise that was muffled by Nikolai’s hand, he fell to the ground, Gabriel’s vulnerable body underneath him.

“What the hell?” his victim choked out.

“Oh, sad that we struck first? Am I ruining your fun of spreading your possession throughout all of us?” Nikolai gasped as the body writhed beneath him. He forced his hands down, pressing against the other’s naked chest. His right drifted down the smooth body. “God, you are so young, you know that?”

“Get off me!” Gabriel writhed again. Icy shivers ran through Nikolai’s spine.

“You’re a good fighter, nomad.” The Rhinelander smiled. “And you’re very secretive. But you can’t hide your identity from us.” He delivered a blow to Gabriel’s kidney—but Gabriel had punched up and struck him in the jaw, knocking him backwards. He fell onto the floor, rising again, before he was pinned by his opponent’s mass on the marble floor.

“I’m not a nomad!”

A storm of blows hammered on Nikolai’s ribcage. He still bore the same smile, though blood spattered his face. Gabriel was angry. Angry that we know.

Nikolai lifted his mass up, throwing the smaller man to the ground, withdrawing his laser and hammering three stun shots into his chest. He wavered as he saw the man beneath him remain conscious, though he could not move. Nikolai smiled again as he bent over the man, his lips closing down on his mouth, his hands stroking his chest.

“Nikolai! Go white rabbit!” The sound came from his comm link.

Dammit.

“I’ll leave you here for someone else to rescue, Nomad.” Nikolai slipped silently from the room.

Travis no sooner heard Konn’s warning than he bolted out into the Los Angeles sun, dashing towards the Hanger bay. Years as a bounty hunter had taught him to leave what valuables he had stowed away, and all his necessities aboard his vessel.

“Travis. What’s going on?” Dr. Thompson’s voice rang out from his commlink.

“I don’t know! Something happened to Tanya and Rob. We need to get out of here.”

“Well then.” The Doctor audibly sighed. “I’m at the Hanger, getting into my ship now. We’ll head to Bretonia.”

“Fine.”

His ship was located half a kilometre from his suite. Travis pounded across the green earth as fast as possible, legs straining.

….

“Wait….” Travis’ eyes opened with shock as his ship exited Los Angeles’s atmosphere, joining Dr. T.

A barrier of ships stood before them. The lights of the docking bay glinted off the sleek noses and guns of the fearsome birds of prey blocking their path. Six Falcons.

“Cut your engines and stand down!”

“Doctor, get out of here!”

“No—“

“Just go!” Slamming down his thrusters, the steed of steel shot forward, throwing its massive body against the plethora of attackers. As he rushed into their clutching arms he released a flock of missiles, rushing towards them as fast as he was, each spelling death in their name. He did not see the gunship uncloaking behind him, nor Dr. Tomson’s ship chased and hammered with a barrage of fire.

Sparrows against a bird of prey.

No sooner had he let go his arsenal than he released a second wave, and then a third, cutting his engines and waiting for them to strike. In the moment that he did this, a falcon on the far left, who had sustained no damage, crept from view. One in the centre did the same. The sudden, violent light of the explosions blinded Travis’ eyes, and he activated his thrusters again, shooting beneath them and then rising again, perpendicular to their standing shapes. One shifted, turning as plasma rammed its hull to face Travis, and respond with its own guns. He dashed away, the ship following in a deadly chase across the stars. Rhineland plasma smashed his engines, and they cut.

Travis roared, slamming down on his thrusters again, spinning around and unleashing a wave of missiles into the falcon. It exploded before his eyes, the brilliant light blinding him once again. Exhilarated, he looked around for his attackers.

They had not shifted an inch in space.

The bounty hunter’s eyes widened in shock. He pressed down on his guns, and destroyed one of the ships that was near-dead from his missile barrage.

Nothing.

“There’s no one inside them,” said a Bretonian voice from his intercom.

“Travis wheeled his ship around, faced with a sudden new enemy. A gunship uncloaked before him, its guns pointed directly towards his hull. It released a simple five seconds worth of fire, enough to destroy Travis’ shield and bring his hull integrity to nearly nothing.

“Sorry about that,” the voice wheedled on. “We didn’t have the numbers, and so forth, so we just decided to bring along a couple of ships do distract your fire. If you’re wondering about your friend, by the way, he’s on board with me—in his escape pod, of course—and quite safe.”

Travis panted maliciously into his comm. “Let him go!”

“I don’t think that’s such a wise idea…” A sudden jolt through space sent Travis’ ship forward a metre, even as his hand moved towards the thrusters. His head hit the windshield as the power cut entirely.

“Stand down, or we will destroy you.”

A feeling of dread washed over him as he muttered, “Fine.” He dressed himself in a vacsuit, and ejected into space.

The two LSF skimmers glided along the canals and waterways of Los Angeles' capital city heading towards the huge Angelus Harbour, a sprawling area west of the main habitat.

A multitude of watercraft ranging from the smallest unpowered vessels to huge supercruisers the size of battleships, filled the city's arteries sharing the primary transportation system.

Rob comfortably powered his skimmer at near enough top speed. Initially he kept his speed low as it had been a while since the freelancer had ridden a skimmer, having a passenger complicating weight and balance wasn't helping. Still, Rob grew in confidence as time passed and almost began to enjoy himself, a fact not unnoticed by Tanya.

"Hey, cowboy! I doubt the usual LSF skimmer rider would consider your last few manoeuvres as standard operating procedure. What do you think?" she called out from behind him, ducking as the skimmer cut through some choppy water causing it to spray upwards.

Rob turned round and grinned briefly. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed Gabriel was still right behind him. He didn't know they taught water skimmer riding skills at Ta'Gua'Led school, especially when the stranger had seemed untrained at first. Tanya turned round too and letting go with one arm, gave the agent a wave.

"We're nearly at the docks" yelled Rob and pointed several times to a small quay where they could leave their skimmers. He guided his craft in a wide arc towards the quay and cut the power, allowing the skimmer to slowly drift sideways towards a mooring point. Tanya deftly leapt from the skimmer to the wide berth, Rob waited for the skimmer to thud gently against it then jumped off too and looped a rope around one of the skimmer's handles. He nodded as he saw Gabriel doing the same.

The trio swiftly climbed a ladder and strode purposefully along the causeway. They had moored about three-quarters of the way along a series of docks and moorings for small craft. The harbour for larger vessels was just the other side of a central administration complex. From overhead, the area would appear like a giant letter 'H'.

After a few minutes of silent walking at a fairly sedate pace Rob broke out into a jog, Tanya and Gabriel followed suit.

"Bored?" asked Tanya with a smile.

"Aye," Rob replied.


***

Thirty minutes later the group were aboard the Tunis, a capable twin-engine hydrofoil with room to board six, but easily pilotable by one. It's sleek form cut through the harbour water and after waiting for clearance from the Harbourmaster, they set off on a westerly direction.

"We have a lot of provisions," said Gabriel in his usual dry manner. "We planning to be out here for a while, Mr Schaefer?"

Rob was at the steering wheel, wearing only his shorts, a pair of shades and a scowl. He pressed a few buttons and a soft albeit metallic, female voice echoed from the control panel.

"Auto-pilot activated. Course set per last programmed co-ordinates. Tropical weather formation alert - activated."

"Yes, Gabriel. I have no idea how long we'll be out here. For all we know, it could be months before we locate this thing," said Rob angrily as he moved towards a cooler box. He flipped up the lid, grabbed a bottle from within, then withdrew his hand and booty before gravity forced the lid to shut. He twisted the top off and threw the metal cap overboard, hearing a 'tsk' from behind.

"Oops. Next one goes in the trash, sorry babe," grunted Rob.

"You sound like a certain bounty hunter we know. Stop," remarked the woman with a smile. Tanya was enjoying the weather once more, wearing an orange bikini and sunning herself at the rear of the pilot's area.

Gabriel chuckled, causing Rob to face him once more.

"We have some of the most sophisticated sonar and echo relay scanning technology aboard the Tunis," the freelancer continued with a frown, as though the method of locating the artefact was obvious and he was talking to a small child. "And before we left, Dr Tomson sent me his estimates on possible locations for the artefact's whereabouts. I had some questions but he hasn't replied yet. Odd. He's usually very timely with his responses."

Tanya, who was listening, said nothing but raised an eyebrow. Gabriel, dressed again in a black silk-like shirt and trousers looked out across the ocean. L.A. was famed for its calm seas over the majority of the planetary surface, but even he begun to understand the enormity of the scale of their task.

"I hope the doctor has guessed correctly. There is a lot of ocean to explore. More than one lifetime, anyway," he mused.

Rob grunted in irritation.

"You're welcome to go back anytime," he growled.

"Oh no," exclaimed Gabriel with a sly grin. "I wouldn't miss this for the world!" he added with a chuckle. Gabriel stood up, bowed his head slightly at Tanya. "My lady, if you would excuse me," he said finally, then walked into the ship's bowels.

Rob watched him walk away, then moved over to stand by the prone Tanya, who lay stretched out with her toned and now quite tanned arms slightly away from her body by her sides. He appraised her in silence and nearly jumped when she spoke.

"That's not drool I see there, my love?" she asked huskily with a provocative smile. Tanya wore shades also, but Rob could almost guess the shape of her eyes as she spoke.

"I wish the freak wasn't here. We could use a holiday, don't you think?" said Rob sitting next to her, stroking her auburn hair.

"Now, don't be nasty. Gabriel has been a gentleman. And he's been useful."

Rob didn't reply.

"Come on, Rob. He's been useful. And my instincts tell me he'll continue to be useful in the future," she added. Tanya lowered her shades and looked straight at Rob's eyes holding his gaze.

"Okay, fine," replied Rob. "He did good back in the sewers. But there's something I just don't like about him. He's so. Calm. It's almost like he's constantly appraising us, studying us. And where did he learn to ride that skimmer? I swear. He's an unnatural creature. And I don't trust him at all," said Rob taking a large gulp from his bottle.

Tanya sighed, replaced her shades and lay back again. A few minutes passed without either of them saying anything.

"You know," she began, breaking the silence. "Gabriel might be exactly what you say he is. He might be working with us for now, only to betray us at the end. But what are our chances without him? I tell you, Rob, Gabriel knows more about these artefacts than he's let on but until he betrays us, me, we have no choice but to trust him."

Rob looked pensive.

"Alright. I'll work with him a bit more. I just hope if he does betray us, it's not when we're most vulnerable or too late for us to stop him."

Tanya smiled and pouted.

"I'll watch your back. You watch mine," she said.

The freelancer bent down and kissed Tanya deeply who returned it with a passion, then stood up and walked over to a large table where a laptop and various charts were pinned to the surface.


***

More tomorrow.

ttfn

x

The Tunis rode the waves as swiftly and surely as an ocean nymph of mythology might, the sun shone hard and unyielding above the hydrofoil, shimmering over the sea's surface. Rob, Tanya and Gabriel sailed directly westwards for two weeks, before turning north.

On one brisk morning, Rob addressed his two companions. The day was chilly and getting colder as they had sailed closer to the polar regions of Los Angeles.

"Dr Tomsons research indicates the site of the next artefact is here," began Rob with a sweep of his arm. Neither Gabriel or Tanya failed to notice the sweep was rather expansive. "The good doctor suggests the position we're at is the outer-most point of an area approximately two hundred kilometres in diameter."

Gabriel went pale, even paler than his usual complexion. Tanya sighed gently.

"You're right. This could take months," said Gabriel evenly. "I take it we start moving in a concentric circle?" asked the Ta'Gua'Led agent. Rob nodded.

"Yes. We'll begin our search moving anti-clockwise. If anything is beneath the surface we'll find it," Rob said, before a slight pause. "There is a problem though."

"What is it?" asked Tanya. She tugged the lapels of her waterproof tighter around her neck, trying to block out the chill wind.

"Prolonged use of the sonar tech will soon emit massive amounts of energy. This energy, although I've tried to configure the output as best I could, might be detected should anyone in atmospheric orbit be tracking us. Assuming they have good enough tech."

"Damned if we do, damned if we don't," said Tanya softly.

"Quite," agreed Gabriel.

Rob snorted.

"Well, when you two are done being all doom and gloom, how about I explain exactly why this ship cost me so much?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow.

Rob theatrically stepped over to the control dashboard with a theatrical flourish and held out his right index finger over a button Tanya hadn't noticed before.

"I present to you both, ye olde submersible transformation button," said Rob then stabbed it once with his finger. Almost immediately, the sound of metal whirring, grating and hydraulic pumps emanated throughout the Tunis. "Best keep your hands inside, folks," added Rob with a wink.

Tanya could hardly believe it. Within a minute, they were fully enclosed in an airtight canopy, the two foils at each side of the Tunis were folded in and tucked tightly against the craft's sides.

"A submarine!" exclaimed Tanya. "Clever. Not just a pretty face, then," she said with teasing smile. Tanya stood up and ran her fingers along the smooth transparent canopy. "What sort of depth?" she asked.

"A mile. Not massively deep. But enough," replied Rob. "Strap in, we should take her under and activate the sonar."

"Aye aye, captain," laughed Tanya.

Gabriel smiled and looked around him almost impressed.


***

Life under the waves was one of constant thrill and amazement. Tanya marvelled at the undersea life and resisted the urge to point and squeal whenever a brightly coloured fish or evil looking crustacean swam past their submerged craft.

The silent thrumming of the Tunis' engines propelled them at a relatively brisk pace. A soft "blip-blip" from the sonar control panel was the only other noise.

"I could get used to this," mused Rob. He carefully typed in several new co-ordinates and turned on the autopilot. "No giant squids. No giant fish. No corals," he said before leaning back in his chair.


***

A shrill beep woke Gabriel from his sleep. The Ta'Gua'Led agent hardly needed as much rest as a normal Sirius human, requiring only three hours sleep at most, but even he was worn down by constantly studying the sonar panel. He glanced over at Tanya who had nodded off during her watch, then yawned sleepily before getting up from his sleeping bag and walked over to the control panel.

He pressed a button and the high-pitched beeping stopped, then focused his eyes on the screen before him. They opened wide and he shrugged off his blanket and started to press more buttons, frowning as the image on the screen pitched and blurred, zooming in and our of focus.

"Rob! Rob!" he hissed. "Get up!"

Rob moaned and rolled over with a snort. The Ta'Gua'Led agent kicked him, and after getting no response kicked him again much harder. Rob suddenly erupted like a cobra, blaster drawn, eyes fierce.

"That hurt," he said icily. Gabriel shrugged and continued on with his work. Rob put the gun down and stretched once before getting up and walking over to Tanya. He blew in her ear and grinned when she began to smile.

"Tickles," she murmured sleepily. He blew again and she laughed opening her eyes. "Found something?" she asked.

"Yes," replied Gabriel. "The sonar has at least. Come and take a look. We're half a mile under sea level," he said then pointed at the laptop's screen. "See this small red dot? That's us."

"And that large, dark blue one?" asked Rob. Tanya grabbed her blanket and wrapped it tightly around her, then came to stand nearby.

"That, my erstwhile friend, is a building."

"A what?" asked Rob.

"A building. A temple!" said Gabriel reverently.

The hairs on the back of Rob's neck stood on end and Tanya shivered.

"Hope whichever gods that temple is built for don't mind us taking a look around," said Rob seriously. "Take us closer Gabriel. Come on, Tanya. Let's get suited up."


***

Rob and Tanya left the Tunis via a portal similar in design to a spacecraft's airlock. After closing the inner door, they stood waiting for the water to fill. At these depths the water was very cold indeed, both gasped into their full helmets as the water rose to their chests and instinctively they held their breath as their heads became submerged.

"I'm ready," said Tanya over the comm. She switched a light on over her helm and nodded once as Rob pushed a button that would open the outer door.

The ocean before them was a dark blue mass, occasionally the glimpse of a darting sea creature reflected from the lights of their helmets, else everything was shadowy menace. Rob pushed himself out into the sea and using a small thruster mechanism attached to his waist propelled himself away from the Tunis and towards the temple. Tanya followed the action and was soon just behind him.

Over the last two days, the trio had spent their waking hours studying the temple with every mode of analysis they could find. It appeared as though Gabriel had only found a small part of it, the majority of the temple lay underground, there was no telling just how large the structure could be.

"We'll make for the temple entrance and see if there's a way inside," said Rob. His voice hissed over the comm, Tanya thought he sounded much farther than the five yards ahead of her he actually was.

"Sounds good," she replied.

They swam for a few minutes in silence, allowing their propulsion systems to push them through the dim water. All around them, the sea life watched the two figures float towards the temple entrance.

"You get the feeling we're being watched?" asked Tanya. Rob didn't answer straight away.

"By Gabriel? I hope so," he replied, keeping an eye on the entrance looming ever larger ahead of them.

"No. I mean. Just generally."

"Uh-oh. It's that female intuition again, huh? Can you turn that thing off?" asked Rob dryly. The pair swam under the shadow of the huge plinth covering an archway that had remained in place for millennia, untouched, unsullied and undamaged by time.


***


OOC: Ok! Who's next? Code?

Btw all, I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks, somewhere sunny. Take care and keep writing!

ttfn

x

Rob and Tanya floated a meter away from the doorway into the ancient temple. Entrance was prevented by a large, featureless, black door that showed no signs of moving on its own, and had no obvious mechanism by which it could be opened from the outside.

“Now what?” Rob asked over the comms. “Any ideas?”

“Knock?” Tanya swam up to the door and tapped it once with a gloved hand. Nothing happened.

“Well, it was worth a shot.” Rob said. “Can you think of anything else? Explosives are not a good idea down here. And there's no guarantee those'll work either.”

Tanya sighed. “There has to be some way in.”

“Yeah.” Rob said. “Hey, wait a second.”

“What?” Tanya turned to look at Rob.

Rob swam up to the black slab. “Maybe this,” he tapped the slab three times in quick succession, “isn't actually - ”

“Rob!” Tanya gasped, eyes wide in horror.

“What? What?” Rob asked, looking around to see what had caused Tanya's outburst. He tried to swim away from the door and then realized that his arm was stuck.

“Oh. Oh sh*t.” The seemingly solid door was slowly but surely engulfing Rob's arm. Rob frantically tried to pull his arm away, and hold back the creeping blackness, but nothing worked.

“Grab my hand!” Tanya said. Rob reached out with his free arm and grabbed a hold of Tanya. With a flick of her finger she gave full power to her own thruster, and Rob felt his body lurch away from the door.

For a moment, Rob thought he might have been freed from whatever it was that held him but then his body was yanked backwards by some unknown force. He held fast to Tanya's arm and she was pulled back with him. They crashed into the black door with bone-jarring force and Tanya lost her grip on the thruster. It shot off into the distance, disappearing into the murky, dark waters.

Rob was stuck fast. The same blackness that was surrounding his arm had begun to creep around his torso, legs, and Rob assumed his helmet as well.

Looking over at Tanya, Rob could see that she was now in the same predicament.

“This is bad.” Rob said, sounding more calm than he felt. Having been fully immobilized by the black thing – whatever the hell it is – Rob felt as though he was being absorbed into the material somehow.

“Looks like it.” Tanya replied evenly.

Rob saw blackness slide up and around his helmet's visor. Whatever was happening, it would all be over soon. The it hit him. “Unless...”

“Unless what?” Tanya asked.

“Maybe this is the way in after all!” Rob said.

Tanya laughed. “How can you be sure?”

“I can't.” Rob answered. “But I'll be damned if I give up hope now.”

Tanya squeezed Rob's hand as they continued to be pulled slowly into blackness. “Right or wrong, it won't be much longer.”

“No.” Rob said. His visor was almost completely black. Only a small circle of ocean still remained visible. “Tanya?”

“Yes?” Surprisingly, despite the fact that their radio equipment was surely completely covered, Tanya's voice came over the comm without any interference.

“I'll see you on the other side.”

OOC: I kept my word. Up this week, even though it's in the middle of the night.

***

Stefan woke up and found himself outside Planet Cambridge. Traffic was high, but the spaceships computer had already initiated the docking sequence, it was only two ships left before he would land. That would take about 3 minutes. He took a look at the system around him, finding it beautiful. Cambridge was one of the few systems in Bretonia space that hasn’t experienced any pollution… yet. For who knows what the future will bring, he wouldn’t be surprised if a giant smog cloud would cover the trade lane from Planet Cambridge to the New London jumpgate. But one can always hope that fate has something else in mind for this system.

Stefan watched as he entered the atmosphere of Planet Cambridge, and looked at the wonderful green grass fields as he touched down. He unplugged the wire from his ship and hopped out, then taking a deep breath. He walked down from the platform and onto the streets. Traffic was febrile even here, but fast enough for him to consider taking the trolley bus to the institute. Then he would see something of the city. He sat down between and elderly lady and a man dressed as some businessman. Trolleybus number 66 stopped in front of them, but he didn’t board it. He knew the lines in Cambridge well, as he frequently used them during the period he studied at the university. It was mostly here he learned to speak English, something he now speaks fluently. As the 66th drove of came the 87th. He stepped aboard and sat down close to the doors, at the window. He’d always preferred using collective traffic instead of driving himself. He could then put more focus on the surrounding than when he drives, where he must focus on the road. Memories from his twenties were slowly coming back. Memories he had before being kidnapped, those he had forgotten, but they came back as soon as he did the same thing again.

Now, with all the trinkets on his brain, it’s hard for him to for him to forget anything, nearly impossible. But it happens, though very rarely. He looked through the window, looking at the tall skyscrapers with the characteristic Bretonian architecture, frowning. Stefan had never been any fond of the large cities. He rather preferred the calm countryside, where he could chill out. The cities were always stressful, polluted and noisy. On the country one could bask in nature’s beauty, take it easy and listen to the birds singing. The institute is on the outskirts of the main city, where the buildings are far lower. He started to remember… the time when he studied at the Cambridge Institute of Linguistics, all the friends he had, the simple life, unaware of all the pain and misery in this universe. For him, life was like “En dans på rosor” as he used to say. Now it is different, completely different. The horrible memories from Alaska constantly haunt him. The sights, the screams, the smells, the stories, the thoughts just keep nibbling.

The bus stopped and Stefan looked up at the information panel, which read “Chemical Institute”. He stood up and walked out of the trolley bus. It drove away and he looked around. It was a large open are, with a park next to the institute. He looked up into the blue sky were reptiles were flying around in the air and emitting their strange noises. It was late spring on Planet Cambridge, and mating season for most of the Cambridge wildlife. The institute itself was a large building with an exterior of glass. However it wasn’t that tall, only about 4-6 stories high. He walked up on the marble stairs, the doors slid open and he walked inside. It wasn’t much activity in the all white hall, only a few scientists going to and from their job, and a receptionist at the disk. Stefan walked up to the reception disk but the receptionist didn’t notice him. A woman in her mid-thirties, white skin, dyed red hair and black eyeglasses dressed like a businesswoman.

“Excuse me?” came Stefan calm voice.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t notice. Can I help you?” the woman asked.

“Yes, I would like to make a donation.”

“Ok, how much?”

“No, it’s not money. I found some interesting rock piece that my ships computer doesn’t recognize, and neither do I. So I thought it was something new and came here to donate it.“

“Oh… well if that’s the case then you should take that with Dr. Clarke. He usually handles these things.”

“Ok, where do I find him?” Stefan asked.

“Floor 2, Room 125. Take the lift. I’ll inform him that you will be coming.”

“Ok, thank you.”

“Your welcome.” the receptionist returned to her duties. Stefan took the lift to floor 2 and started searching. But after a few minutes he was lost in the labyrinth of corridors. He was lucky enough to meet a scientist who could show him to the doctor’s room. He stood outside the door for a few minutes before he was let in.

“Good day!” the doctor stood up from and stretched out his hand.

“Good day, Stefan Quist.” He replied and shook the doctors hand.

“Nice to meet you Mr. Quist, I am Dr. Edmund Clarke and I handle the study of newly discovered materials here in Cambridge. I was told you wish do make a donation to the scientific community.” Came the doctor’s reply.

“Yes indeed.”

“Do you have it with you for the moment?”

“No, it’s to large to bring with me and I weren’t sure if there was a landing pad here.”

“Okay, can you describe it then?”

“Well, it seems to be broken off of something. Cause one side is flat while the other is coarse. The flat side has a somewhat light brown colour while the coarse side ha a darker one. The flat side contains a strange pattern of sorts I haven’t seen before. I shot at the flat side of the rock, why I did that I don’t know. However, the laser beam was somehow reflected and shot back at me, but I was lucky enough to avoid it. Have you ever heard about something like this before doctor?”

“No I haven’t. And I get the feeling that you just made this all up.”

“Made it up? Doctor, if you don’t believe my words then come and look for yourself! I am speaking the truth, I promise you that!”

“Well… do you any picture of it?”

“Not currently.”

“Then I must consider that a waste of time. A rock that fires back a laser beam? You must either be joking or just seeking credit for something you’ve not even discovered. I’ve seen your likes.” The doctor said coldly.

“Well then I could take it with me to the rest of the houses so that they will be credited for a startling discovery. Who knows, maybe Rheinland could use this to boost up their military forces?”

“Haha, go on rambling you. I find it rather amusing.”

“By Mother Earth I’ll even pay you if you just will examine it! Have any of the con artists suggested that you actually come and take a look at “their discovery”?” Stefan said with a louder and irritated tone in his voice.

“Well, actually no.” the doctor sighed, “But-“ he was disrupted by Stefan.

“What bad can come out of it? Will it hurt?”

“A waste of time!”

“Well do you have any more important matters to tend to tomorrow?”

“I don’t think so. Oh well I’ll come. When tomorrow?” Stefan regained his smile.

“At three PM”.

“All right I’ll come.”

“It will be worth it Dr. Clarke, I can insure that.”

“Okay. Well then, thanks for visiting.” he smiled and again stretching out his hand.

“Thank you for the time, have a nice day.” Stefan shook his hand am smiled.

“You too.” the doctor smiled back.

Stefan left the room and soon after that (after getting lost and shown around again) the building. He took the trolley bus back to the spaceport and checked into a hotel not far away from hit. He moved his ship there too. He decided to take a shower before going to bed. He turned on the shower before taking his clothes off, just to warm it up a bit. When he entered the shower was already filled with steam. The hot water did well for him. After the shower he read the newspaper for a while and then going to sleep, even if it just was 5.30 PM.



Stefan woke up with the Cambridge sun shining right into his face. He closed his eyes as hard as he could but the tears made him wake up. He took a shower, dressed himself, ate a breakfast and went out to go for a walk on the city’s streets. He ate dinner at a local restaurant and walked till 14.00, then he took a bus back to the spaceport and walked back to the hotel. He put on the television and watched a documentary named “Neutrality, only on paper?” that dealt with Bretonia’s actions in times where war raged in the Sirius sector, most notable the “Battle of Sigma-19”.

After an hour he received a message on his neural net:

“This is Barbara Meyers at the reception disk, there are few men who would like to see you Mr. Quist, should I send them away?” the receptionist asked.

“Who are they?” Stefan questioned.

“A moment please.” there was a brief pause. “They are led by some Dr. Edmund Clarke.”

“Very well, send them up.”

“Okay.” Stefan broke the contact.

“Finally.” he said to himself.

There was a knocking at the door and Stefan went to open it.

“Hello!” Stefan greeted them, with his usual smile.

“Good day Mr. Quist, you said we should “examine” your piece of rock now, wasn’t it so?”

“Yes that’s correct. Good that you’re punctual. Oh and, here’s the money for the “waste of time”.”

“We always are,” the doctor smiled. “Let me introduce you to my colleagues Dr. Wallace Davies and Dr. Mary Thompson.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Stefan Quist.” he shook their hands and smiled even more. “Now you are to the rock aye? Then please follow me.”

Stefan led them out to the corridor and into the lift. They took it upwards to the ship garage and he they walked over to his ship. Dr. Davies couldn’t stop himself from letting out a small laugh.

“May I ask you Sir, what is that !” he laughed and pointed at the ship.

“Oh, that’s my ship “Rebirth”. It’s merely a hunk o’ junk built with parts of metal from scrap yards, Junker bases and destroyed ships. It doesn’t look much for the world but I’ve been having that in almost thirty years now and I’ve survived. Not everybody does that, especially not in ship like this. Anyway, here it is.” He showed them the strange rock he had found within Cadiz.

“Good, it looks much like I thought it would, which means you’ve described it right. Now, didn’t you say that this thing reflects laser?” he chuckled as he finished the sentence.

“Oh yes I almost forgot. Stand back my friends.”

He pulled the blaster fro his boot and trained it at the flat side again. He pulled the trigger and jumped to the side as the laser beam shot back at him. The scientists wore a surprised look on their faces.

“Would you mind to do that again Sir?” Dr. Thompson asked.

“If you want I’ll do it.” Stefan replied.

He repeated what he did earlier and the same thing happened. The scientists were astonished.

“See, I told you it would happen.”

“But what happens if you fire at the coarse side?”

“Then it damages the rock, not that much though.”

He shot at the coarse side and a piece of rock flew up in the air then hit the ground.

“See?”

“Mhmm…” Davies murmured something incomprehensible with a puzzled look on his face.

“Well Mr. Quist I must apologize. It seems that you were right after all. You were completely right convincing me to come here. I believe that this will open up new ways for ship construction, maybe an age of peace, seeing as this rock reflects energy beams it could very well spell the end of all wars.”

“But how was it broken off?”

“I don’t know, we’ll run some tests on it and see what happens. You’ve done a great deed to the scientific community Mr. Quist, a deed worth remembering. Oh and, you should have your money back, now realizing that this wasn’t a waste of time at all.”

“No keep the money, see it as a donation. All I want is a little crediting, knowing that I have done something good.”

“You’re a good man Mr Quist. I’ll make sure that every child in school will know about you.” Clarke chuckled. “However I must go now, I can’t wait till we can run the test on this rock.”

“Thank you and good luck with you tests.”

“It’s really I who should thank you. Oh and one last question, where did you get this from?”

“Cadiz base, Omega-5. That system it completely ruined, both Hessians and Corsairs have been cleaned away. Junkers have made the system to their new home. They’re setting up a base their called “Fairbanks”, they’ve almost emptied the system of these rocks. However they do not dare to travel in to the ruins of Cadiz. That place seems to be full of rocks, and something more… horrid.”

“What horrid?”

“That you will have to find out for yourself, I do not wish to speak of it. I’ll only get nightmares of it.”

“I see, well good bye Mr. Quist. I’ll hope we’ll meet each other again.” The doctor smiled.

“Good bye Dr. Clarke.”

The doctors walked away, leaving behind Stefan behind them. He felt good, better than he had felt in a long time.

***

Summary: Stefan donates the strange piece of rock to the Chemical Institute of Cambridge. Next post will reveal Stefans Outcast connection. But I'll have a little break for now.

OOC- Here we go, sorry it's late!

* * *

Jake Talon swore to himself as the lift roared down towards the bottom floor of the LA hotel.

I didn’t say that right, and now he thinks I want to kill him. Hopefully he’s still as intelligent as he was years ago.

Jake looked at the golden chronometer on his arm. It’s been two minutes. That’s enough time.

He then glanced up at the display at the top of the lift car. Almost to the bottom. Perfect.

He pulled out his comm and spoke into it. “Fire at will, Linus!”

Five seconds later, everything happened at once. First, the lift began to slow. Then, there was a huge thud from somewhere above him, which sounded like a safe crashing onto the top of the lift car. Then, the doors hissed open, revealing the beautiful and huge lobby of the hotel. Dozens of people stood still, staring confused up at the ceiling. If things had gone correctly, then they would be safe, but there were no guarantees in his business.

Which was why he had to act.

He jogged out into the lobby, but stopped as a man clad in the attire of a hotel manager ran up to him.

“Sir, were you just upstairs? What happened? Please, we must know!”

Jake Talon reached into his pocket and pulled out his ID badge, flipping it open and shoving it under the man’s nose.

“Colonel Jake Talon, LSF. That information is currently classified. Never fear, for the Liberty government will pay for the damages. Now, what I am about to tell you is paramount to the survival of everyone here. You are to evacuate the building and get everyone into the parking garage two blocks over. Do it NOW!”

Without another word, Jake turned away from the bewildered man and sprinted to the main doors of the hotel. He thrust the door open and continued into the street. As he ran, he was pretty certain that he caught a glimpse of a piece of what seemed to be a parachute disappear onto the roof of a nearby low-rise building.

He turned to his side and ran onto a covered walkway designed for pedestrians, which led to the main hanger building where he had left his Defender. He needed to get into the air and begin the search for Rob and his companions.

He continued to sprint down the walkway until he reached the hanger. He burst inside and ran to his ship. As he was about to get in and fly off, when something caught his eye.

Two men were climbing into ships nearby. However, one was a person he recognized. Travis Carter.

Travis and the other man, a guy who looked like a doctor, were in a hurry, and they were gone before Jake had a chance to do anything.

However, Jake jumped in the Defender, ran a very short check, and then blasted off after them. If I can’t have Rob or Tanya, then these two will do nicely.

He sighted them, outbound towards the docking ring. He keyed the radio. “Cold Fury, this is Jake Talon. I have two ships outbound towards you. Transmitting their profiles now. Initiate the planned pickup.”

“Roger, Colonel. Initiating the pickup.”

At least I can nab two here and now. It’s better than nothing.

With that, he veered his ship back around and descended towards the surface. Towards that building where he had sighted the parachute.

The Defender swooped low over the building, and Jake visually scanned the rooftop.

Nothing! Damn, Rob is fast.

He veered off, and then his commlink crackled to life.

“Jake, Jake Talon, come in!”

“Talon here.”

“Jake, this is Mac. I’ve pinpointed the location of one of Schaefer’s accomplices. His name is Hahukum Konn. He’s approaching the main starport via a closed tunnel. From my position, I could snipe him fairly easily when he enters the spaceport, but you want him alive, correct?”

“Yeah, we need him alive. He isn’t to be harmed. Do you have a pinpoint on his ship?”

“Yes, he will be going to hanger TRV-394, Block C.”

“Okay, here’s what we do. You and your three operatives plant yourselves in that hanger. I’ll fly down and position my ship to block their escape. We get him, and then get Cold Fury to send down a shuttle to pick us up.”

“Excellent, sir. We’re getting in position now. See you there.”

“Talon out.”

Jake banked his ship towards the spaceport, and pulled up the schematic.

Two floors down, eleventh opening to the right, then the third port from the left.


* * *

Mac ran full-bore through the spaceport. He had to beat that guy to the hanger, but they had a huge starting advantage. The two LSF agents, two he’d trained himself, actually, were following him.

He dodged several pedestrians, leaped over a table, and then proceeded to sprint down a flight of stairs. The stairwell ended into a long hallway, and he glanced at the signs over the doors as he ran past.

TRV-394! There it was! He went up to the door, and motioned for his men to cover his flanks and rear.

They proceeded through the traditional door breach method, and entered the room, guns at the ready. A Humpback freighter sat on the pad, and no one was around.

Excellent. We beat him here.

He motioned for his team to find hiding spots. He chose to hide behind some crates in a dark corner of the hanger.

He pulled out his commlink and said, “Jake, we’re in position. I’ll give you a double-click when we need you to fly in.”

“Roger.”

Just then, the door opened, and two men walked in. Mac immediately identified the first as Hahukum Konn, but the second was a man he didn’t know.

He looks like a Rheinlander to me.

Mac pulled his gun out of its holster.

It was an interesting weapon, larger than a pistol, but smaller than a rifle; it fit comfortably into a thigh holster. It was matte black, with a handle and stock like a large pistol, but it had a long barrel. It used kinetic rounds, and had a fairly small clip, but fired huge rounds: .58 caliber. The best part was, though, that it was versatile. You could remove the long barrel to shorten the range but decrease the weight and space. You could set it to single shot, burst fire, and automatic fire.

He set the weapon to three shot burst and got a bearing on his other men, across the hangar. All three of them wore LSF Uniforms, but the hanger was dim enough that they wouldn’t be seen.

A map quickly formed in Mac’s mind, pinpointing his own location, the locations of his men, and the targets’ location. Just as he was about to give the signal, a crate toppled and fell, on his side, and he ducked behind a crate right before the two men looked over.

Damn, that just made this a lot harder.

Konn and the other man moved on after deciding that the crate was nothing to worry about. Mac quietly slipped a clip of stun rounds into his weapon and waited. The best choice at this point was to wait until the men entered the ship and ambush them there.

Mac waited, and then gave the signal, sticking his hand into his pocket to double-click his commlink. He leaped out within a millisecond of his men, and sprinted the short fifty feet between him and the targets’ ship. The three of them ran into the open hatch, and spotted the targets easily.

“Put your hands in the air! Put them up now! Stop moving or we’ll shoot!”

Both men whirled, and pulled their weapons. The Rheinlander had a very quick draw, and he forced Mac and his men to duck around a corner. Mac signaled for one of his agents to attempt to cut them off, as Konn had been running for the cockpit.

Mac leveled his weapon, and leaned around the corner to snap of a few shots at the Rheinlander, who was hunkered down behind an upturned table, obviously with full intent to hold them off until Konn could get them into space. Mac’s shots missed slightly, and he ducked back into safety. While the other agent fired, Mac yanked out his comm and pinged Jake.

“Jake, be aware that they are attempting to take off, but we are on board. Try to delay or disable the ship, but don’t get us killed!”

“Don’t worry, you’re safe,” Jake replied in a confident manner.

Mac clicked off the comm and continued firing on the target. One of the Rheinlander’s blasts managed to clip his friend, and he dove back into cover. Using the movement as a distraction, Mac squeezed off a good shot, nailing the man in the shoulder and dropping him cold.

Mac ran up to take custody, as the man sent to capture Konn returned with the Bretonian man in cuffs as well.


* * *


Five minutes later, the shuttle from the Cold Fury swooped in to take the two prisoners to the gunboat, while Mac and his men took the Humpback up to the Yukon for impoundment.

Jake followed the shuttle up to the gunboat in orbit around the planet. Once they had rendezvoused with the Cold Fury, the ship went to meet up with the Battleship Yukon on station near the planet, where the prisoners would be transferred to for more permanent accommodations.

He watched as the gunboat came into view, and then as it set course for the battleship, only a klick away. The shuttle followed, and promptly docked with the battleship. Jake followed the shuttle.

Once his ship was on the deck, he went to the shuttle, where the two bound captives were waiting for him, along with a Naval officer.

“Can I help you, Colonel?”

“I believe you can. I need to use some of your facilities. Can I get five staterooms, an interrogation chamber, and four holding cells for, say… a week?”

“Certainly, I’ll just need to see some ID first.”

Jake showed him his ID card.

“Okay, you have these rooms ready for you,” he said, circling a few spots on his datapad. If you need anything else sir, just let us know.”

“Of course.”

He turned and led the two prisoners to their cells, and made arrangements with the Cold Fury to have the other two prisoners transferred as well.

As they were walking towards the cells, Jake found a hand on his shoulder.

“Excellent job, Colonel Talon. I am impressed. I assume Schafer and Ramirez are taken care of as well?”

Jake turned to find General Kress standing behind him.

Kress guided Jake into a corner.

“Yes,” Jake sighed, “Ramirez and Schafer are dead. I blew up the entire level in which Schafer was staying, and the LPI reports that Ramirez is presumed dead by drowning. We won’t know for sure, but they should be out of our way.”

“That’s good. And why did you take these prisoners?”

“They were working with Schafer and I thought you might like some additional information on his recent activites, plus I assume you don’t want them going around and continuing his work.”

“Most excellent. I will be around for a while, so I’d like to sit in on the interrogation sessions.”

”Certainly, sir. I was going to start now.”

“Good, let’s take Mr. Konn to start. Don’t worry; I’ll let you do your thing with him. I just want to see what he admits to.”

Jake turned to the prisoners, who were being led into their cells.

“Hold on! I need Mr. Konn with me, please!” he shouted to the guards.

As the other man, was led into his cell, Jake, followed by Kress, took Konn to the interrogation room. The room was a dull gray, with a single light hanging from the ceiling and a chair with bindings on the armrests in the center of the room.

Jake motioned for Konn to sit down, and then motioned for a guard to get the materials he needed as he bound Konn to the chair. Kress stood in the corner, absorbing everything.

The guard returned shortly, pushing a metal cart with a variety of large, sharp needles and tools on it. Konn grimaced as Jake took the cart and pushed it in front of his face.

“Now, Hahukum Konn, you will tell me everything I want to know about the recent activities of Rob Schaefer and Tanya Ramirez, or you will suffer the consequences.”

However, Hahukum was a brave man, having been in the BAF, so his gut-wrenching screams were heard coming from the room for a long time afterwards.