Through the fleet’s scans, I watched Tony and the client as they sat in the middle between piles of delivery pods. Tony held up two belts of pulse rifle ammo as he slid one bullet out of the clip-links, held two ends of the belts together, and pushed the bullet back into the links, turning the two belts into one longer belt. Another pod arrived with an open parachute above it and two small propellers guiding it towards Tony. Tony rolled up the belt of bullets and dropped it into the pulse rifle’s ammo drum. The client caught the pod with two hands and handed the recently arrived pod to Tony. As he opened the pod he called me, and I disconnected from the fleet.
“Jhess? Why did you send me the Cloak I can’t use?”, Tony asked me.
“Good condition, high quality, never used, I don’t see a problem with it. Every other cloak you own has more burns, cuts, and bullet holes than what you have right now.”, I replied, and I disconnected the call and reconnected to the fleet.
“What’s the problem?”, the client asked Tony.
“Look at what my crew sent.”, Tony replied, as he pulled out of the pod an embroidered tunic of crimson and gold.
“It’s embroidery is gold threaded? That’s not something meant for battle is it?”, the client asked.
“It better work in battle for as much as I paid for it.”, Tony replied.
“Can I try it?”, the client asked.
“You can keep it.”, Tony said to the client as he handed over the red cloak. The client wrapped the stylish cloak around the shoulders of the Tri-tech armor and seemed to merge into a slight distortion. The client activated the cloak and completely vanished into a distortion, the illusion was so perfect it almost appeared as the exact shape of the client, through the scans of the fleet. The client deactivated the cloak and only appeared slightly distorted.
“It fits really good. Did you buy this for one of your crew?”, the client asked.
“Not one of my current crew. I would have made them buy their own. But the red cloak was actually meant as a gift for someone I never got the chance to give to. You’re about the same size as her.”, Tony replied as he picked up another pod, opened it, and examined his new gauss rifle bullets.
“What happened to her?”, the client asked, as Tony reached into a spare ammo compartment on his armor, then removed and uncapped a bottle.
“I’d rather not discuss her while the fleet is watching us.”, Tony replied as he dipped the tip of a gauss rifle bullet into the bottle, and then placing the contaminated bullet into a spare ammo compartment on his shoulder.
“Are you adding poison to your bullets?”, the client asked, as Tony dipped and loaded another bullet.
“Short answer is yes. But poison is something put into food, drink, or spray into the air. This is a synthetic neurotoxin. A kind of venom that doesn’t wear off when fired from a gun.”, Tony replied as he dipped and loaded another bullet.
“Ugians haven’t resorted to methods like contaminated weapons since the Island Wars. We’ve forgotten so much about warfare. Makes sense if the Tri-tech armor allows a warrior to survive attacks that pierce or slash.”, The client said, as Tony dipped and loaded another bullet.
“Most people think with abilities like mine, methods like this can be considered as cheating.”, Tony replied as he dipped and loaded another bullet.
“I think throwing away years of peace, invites exactly this behavior. Do you think the Ugians can achieve peace again?”, the client asked Tony, as another delivery pod arrived.
The client caught the pod with both hands.
“I don’t know, I’m not Ugian, so I’ll let the Ugians decide that. This better be that chicken bucket.”, Tony said towards the sky, dipped and loaded the last bullet into the gauss rifle, and capped the bottle back and returned it into it’s compartment.
“So I have have to answer five questions, and none of them are personal?”, the client asked.
“The fleet is going to create five non-offensive questions, that I will read. You are are not required to verbally respond to anything, but the fleet gets to watch.”, Tony replied, and then he turned his head in the direction of the ship.
“Are the fleet’s question’s ready?”, Tony said towards the ship.
“He can see us?”, Ylisaya asked me.
“His eyes are just scaled down targeting scanners. Yes he can see the blockade fleet and identify individual ships, it’s not an achievement, now answer the captain’s question.”, I instructed Ylisaya.
Ylisaya linked her mind with the chair and disconnected from the fleet. I watched in my dome-shaped mirror as she took a deep breath. I could see her body strain as she linked her mind to Tony’s. Her eyes shifted from side to side. I saw her relax as her mind adapted to the flow of information. Her breathing slowed to normal and she reconnected her mind to the fleet.
“I got the questions let’s begin.”, Tony said to the client, as he opened the delivery pod and revealed the chicken bucket, potato sticks, gravy cans, two bowl shaped plastic plates, plastic utensils, and two bottles of fizzy cola.
The client removed the white mask. Even though the fleet could detect a human face, the scans were distorted by the effects of a cloaking device.
Tony removed his mask as he activated a hologram around his head. The client removed the Tri-tech helmet, but the cloak distorted the effectiveness of the fleet’s scans. The fleet was only able to determine that the client was Human and Ugian.
“Is your voice going to stay altered or will it change back without the mask?”, Tony asked the client. The client tapped the panels on the arm of the Tri-tech armor.
“How’s this?”, the client said in a slightly altered and distorted voice.
“Okay, first question…Where did you get your weapons and armor?”, Tony asked.
“Gifts from my father, as well as the training to use them.”, the client replied.
“Okay we can skip to question three…What and where is your ideal career, job, or occupation?”, Tony asked.
“Helping keep peace and order, wherever I’m needed.”, the client replied.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?”, Tony asked.
“Hopefully not on a planet with a government that allows people to die for no good reason.”, the client replied.
“Okay, last question, if you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?”, Tony asked the client.
“I would have tried to make the most important people in my life today, more important to me when I was younger…or I would give myself more time and give myself a chance to say goodbye to people I will never get back….What was the second question, anyways?”, the client asked.
“Who had the greatest impact on your life?”, Tony informed the client.
“That’s not my father…My father is a great and important man, but I would have to say Vivica Vi. I can listen to her all day.”, the client replied.
“Really? I also listen to Vivica Vi. I think she’s broadcasting right now…Wanna listen while we eat?”, Tony asked.
“I’m listening right now… her how starts in three minutes.”, the client replied
“Who’s Vivica Vi?”, Ylisaya asked me.
“Host of an interplanetary broadcast, they play music, tell stories, and talk to guests. She makes people think she’s their best friend, and once in a while she even reads a message from a fan.”, I replied.
Fleet command contacted our ship, and I disconnected from the fleet and accessed the communications array to respond.
“This is the crew of the Something Clever, how can I help you?”, I replied.
“Switch to cyber-link.”, a Rylkonian woman’s voice said to me.
I thought this was unusual because cyber-link suggested a few odd situations, but one thing was certain the Fleet was concerned with that was going on board the Something Clever, and they wanted to keep that private. I sensed the mind of the Fleet Commander.
“Are you planning on sending another re-supply pod to your captain?”, the fleet commander’s thoughts were made clear to me.
“No, but why do you wanna to know?”, I focused my thoughts to be clear to the fleet commander.
“We detected a cloaking system near the fleet, we were concerned smugglers might be using the approved supply drop for your captain as a window of opportunity. The distortion is the size of an individual cloaking device and isn’t moving towards the planet, it’s on board the Something Clever.”, The fleet commander’s thought were clear to me.
I realized the prisoner escaped again, and the fleet commander disconnected. I reached out to Tony through cyber-link, and I sensed his mind connect to mine.
“Tony, the prisoner got out, stole a cloaking device, and is loose on the ship.”, I made my thoughts clear.
“You have any Flash Pulse shot?”, was the only question in Tony’s mind.
“Four.”, I thought as I focused my mind.
“We’ll have to use the internal sensor.”, Tony’s mind made clear.
“That’s too slow and he might figure out we know.”, I made my thoughts clear.
“Do you need me to take control?”, Tony’s mind asked the question.
“Do it.”, I said in my mind.
My eyes looked side to side, then up and down, but I didn’t control them. My fingers and toes twitched as Tony tested his control over them. I felt the pilot’s chair disconnect and I floated away from the seat. Tony moved me to the exit of the bridge. I sensed Tony activate the internal sensor in only bridge and the only people in there were Ylisaya and myself.
“Why did you activate the internal sensor?”, Ylisaya asked, as I slipped on my jacket to keep my cybernetic connectors clean.
“I need to check on the prisoner, but let’s not take any risks, so lock the hatch behind me.”, I said to Ylisaya, but I wasn’t sure if I said that or if Tony said that.
As soon as I floated through the bridge exit, I sensed Ylisaya lock the door. Tony activated the internal sensor of the corridor through my cybernetics, and when the sensor indicated that I was the only one in the corridor I sensed he activated the sensor in the adjacent sections of the ship. I determined Tony’s plan was to systemically scan the ship starting from the bridge, the process would be slow but if the Dread Pirate wasn’t expecting this method, he might just go right where we want him to and end up right back at the brig. While Tony waited for the scans to move to the adjacent sections, my hands drew my revolver and Flash Pulse ammo from the holster under my jacket. Through my eyes Tony examined the ammo and saw no degradation of the exterior casings, but then he smelled the ammo with my nose. Through my hand, Tony pressed the release lever, and opened the revolver. The barrel and cylinder slowly tilted forward, revealing the six empty chambers. My fingers loaded the four Flash Pulse shots into next four of the six chambers, while Tony watched the internal sensor through my cybernetics. My wrist flicked and my revolver slammed closed, and my hand returned my revolver to the holster under my jacket.
I floated into the next section to scan, cargo bay four. I sensed the scanner move from corner to corner and the room was empty. I floated to cargo bay two and it was also empty. I floated to cargo bay one, and the scan did not complete, there was a distortion between the stored warheads. I felt a panic of fear compel me to reach for revolver, but my hand stayed, and so did the distortion. I felt a disturbance from Tony’s influence as his mind reached out to me.
“Fear makes the connection more difficult. He doesn’t know what’s going on. Don’t worry I have a plan.”, Tony’s mind instructed me.
The internal scanner finished cargo bay three, and everything that was supposed to be in there was where it should be except Tony took all of his guns. Luckily that meant the Dread Pirate only had a cloaking device and should not have a weapon better than my revolver. I could still see the scan of cargo bay one and the distortion through my cybernetics. I floated back to cargo bay one, I felt a twitch in my arms, as I sensed Tony was planning to shoot. As I reached the door, I felt my feet magnetically lock to the frame of the ship, and before I realized, my hands lifted open the door of cargo bay one, reached for my revolver, drew, aimed, and fired a Flash Pulse shot at the distortion. As soon as I realized my free hand slammed the door shut and my cybernetics locked the door. The Flash Pulse shot impacted in the direct center of the distortion and ejected burning submunitions emitting bright light as they burned. The distortion faded away, as the intense light and energy overloaded the cloaking technology, revealing the Dread Pirate. The Dread Pirate was now free of the brig and able to use his own cybernetic systems, he activated his deflector shields and I could see the energy engulf his body. I didn’t know what he was planning but my own shields activated.
Ryfez the dread pirate had a new cuts on his face and around his arms, that were covered in Bio-Gel. He appeared as if he struggled significantly inside the stasis field, and he applied bio-gel to avoid bleeding to death. I wondered how much of his energy he had to divert to repairing cybernetics or sustaining a deflector shield. I sensed the door complete it’s locking sequence, but something was wrong. An intense blast of heat and energy ripped the door open. I now realized the Dread Pirate had sabotaged the door. The blast knocked my revolver out of my hand, and before I realized it, the dread pirate kicked off the opposite wall and was flying through the cargo bay towards the door. Only one foot of mine kept a magnetic hold on the ship’s frame. My muscles relaxed, and my other foot immediately found a magnetic lock on the door. I felt my foot kick down with force, I realized Tony was still trying to close the door to contain the dread pirate. The moments of being stunned worked to my disadvantage, Ryfez had enough time to get his arms through the doorway. Trying to close was door would become a direct contest of leverage. Ryfez forced his way through the door and as he pushed against the ship’s frame, but I was surprised when I felt all my magnetic holds deactivate. I found myself escaping the fight in the direction of my revolver still floating. The revolver was almost within my reach, but I suddenly found myself changing direction. Ryfez pulled me backwards and the zero gravity caused me to reverse, while Ryfez was now moving faster than I towards the revolver.
“The revolver is still loaded with Flash Pulse-shot. As a weapon, it’s pretty much worthless against deflector shields.”, was the thought echoing in my mind.
“He doesn’t know that.”, Tony’s mind made clear to me.
Ryfez reached the revolver, aimed it at me, and my eyes widened. The revolver fired a Flash Pulse shot and I sensed my deflector shields reconfigured for reverse cycle. That’s when I realized Tony’s trick. Flash Pulse shot is effective at overloading a cloaking device, but catastrophic when fired at deflector shields, and the current configuration of my shield would absorb no impact but maximized deflection to the point where it’s almost reflective of light. All that light and energy was reflected back at the shooter. The Flash Pulse shot might not harm our cybernetic bodies, but Ryfez would not have pulled the trigger if he thought that, and he might have examined the ammo or test fired the revolver, if he wasn’t acting out of urgency. Ryfez was stunned as the Flash Pulse shot overloaded his vision, and I felt my body straighten, my arms crossed over my chest, my feet crossed with my heels out, and I felt my body redirect all available quantum power to my deflector shields. There was one one reason I could think of diverting full power to deflector shields, Tony was expecting a significant impact, but I had not yet determined from what or where.
“Full pulse drive now!”, Tony’s mind seemed to yell at me.
I didn’t have full control over my body, but I did have some control over the ship and now I understood Tony’s plan of attack. Tony was using the ship’s engines as a gun, I was the bullet, and I my feet were aimed right at Ryfez. I don’t think my nervous system had time to process how fast the impact was, but as I regained awareness the ship moved eighteen micro radians off course. I luckily regained control of myself before Ryfez had even regained consciousness, he was lucky to still be alive to survive being hit by full pulse drive speed. I floated and pushed the unconscious and floating Ryfez back into the brig and left the internal scanner on so I would know when he regains consciousness or if he escaped again. I returned to the bridge and Tony disconnected from our cyber-link.
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“That was incredible! Did the Captain train you to fight like that?”, Ylisaya asked me when I entered the Bridge. I removed my jacket, dropped my jacket in the captain’s chair, took my seat, and I suspected that Ylisaya was connected to the internal sensor through the flight engineer’s seat.
“I wouldn’t say training was involved, but what you saw was the result of hunting down space pirates. Did the ship hit anything?”, I asked.
“We’re just a little off course, but the fleet thought it was still impressive.”, Ylisaya replied.
I realized Ylisaya was still linked to the fleet, and watching Tony with the client eating a bucket of chicken was probably boring.
“Did the fleet just watch me hit the Dread Pirate with a gunship?”, I asked Ylisaya.
“Well what were we supposed to watch? It’s too dark in Rhetonis for the Earth born to do anything.”, Ylisaya protested.
I connected to the fleet and they were either slowly turning their focus back towards the city of Rhetonis. Inside their hideout within sight of the Black Dragon Clan’s mansion, Tony and the client quietly ate the grilled chicken while listening to an interstellar broadcast.
“Again please donate to the relief of the refugees and victims of the senseless war in Rhetonis on Mars. All proceeds and donations from today’s show are going to that very cause. If anyone other than me says otherwise, you’re hearing it from me now. We are a non-profit, and if anyone finds profit, what they’re seeing is false profit. It’s your girl, Vivica Vi, and I’ll talk to you again soon.”, said the voice in the broadcast, as music slowly gained volume and played.
The client switched off the speaker device, and turned towards Tony.
“You’ve been staring at the sky for a while.”, the client said to Tony.
“The sky?…I was thinking about my crew, my ship, and the gang war.”, Tony replied as he turned his focus back to the client.
“It’s too dark, our best chances are still if we attack at dawn.”, the client said to Tony.
“Can we attack after breakfast? It will be here just before the sunrise so it won’t get spotted in sunlight.”, Tony asked the client.
“Which restaurant is breakfast from?”, the client asked Tony.
“MacAndy’s Senior and includes coffee.”, Tony replied.
“Well I already completed their interview, I might as well enjoy the reward. It might be my last meal.”, the client replied.
As the client began moving deeper into the ruble, Tony began moving towards the roof.
“Where are you going?”, the client asked Tony.
“I’m gonna stay on the roof, spy on the Black Dragon Clan.”, Tony replied.
When Tony reached the roof he drew the gauss rifle and began slowly scanning the mansion. When the low power scanner determined that no cyborgs could detect the scan, Tony activated the higher power scan.
“Go pick a pod, get some sleep, I’ll wake you in four deka-cycles, and then you’ll wake me later. We’ll keep watch in shifts.”, I said to Ylisaya.
I sensed through the ship as she disconnected from the systems, the prisoner was alive in the brig, and the fleet quietly watched the city of Rhetonis as we waited for the Martian sunrise. I activated my Tri-tech display magnetically locked onto my navigation console and resumed my watching of “Contest of Crowns.” Some of the fleet was wondering if this was my first time watching season one. I was watching because my favorite character is Princess Nyreeda of House Meridian, sister of the High King, I don’t care what happens in later seasons, because she’s not in any of those other seasons.
The next morning, Ylisaya woke me, I connected to the fleet, and Tony was still waiting for the client to begin the attack.
“I’m sorry, I used your Tri-tech display.”, Ylisaya confessed to me.
“What did you do with it?”, I asked.
“I saw you left that television show on, Contest of Crowns. So I watched season one. It’s pretty good, but the fleet says later seasons are very different from the source material.”, Ylisaya said about the show.
“It’s fine, I don’t really need or use it for anything else anyways.”, I said to Ylisaya.
“Do you have season two?”, Ylisaya asked.
“Ask the captain. He’s read all the books, watched every season, played all the video games, and even won tournaments. Me…I just like season one.”, I said to Ylisaya.
I sensed her thoughts and she was relieved another on the ship might provide the rest of the show. The fleet focused on Tony and the client, as soon as Tony and the client finished breakfast, the client put on the white mask, carried the Red-Rotono-Blade, wore the Red Cloak and departed towards the Black Dragon Clan’s mansion. Tony remained on the roof continuing his spying on the mansion, and occasionally watching the client. The client reached the mansion’s gates, as two Black Dragon warriors with black armor, clan markings, and black steel Rotono-blades moved to become visible to the client. One of the guards spoke in an unknown dialect, the client replied, but the fleet didn’t understand. I sensed some in the fleet wondered if translating would upset the Confederacy, although we were only looking at translation now that were focused on the headquarters of the Black Dragon Clan. The client walked into the first gate and approached the mansion. The fleet had reached consensus and what might be learned here is worth finding the ability to translate. I knew someone who knows the language. I disconnected from the fleet and initiated a cyber-link to Tony.
“The fleet is looking to translate the Ugian dialect. You want me to bid?”, my mind made my thought clear to Tony.
“Fine, but we’re not cancelling a prioritized contract.”, Tony’s thought became clear in my mind, and disconnected.
“One of the crew of the something clever can speak the Ugian dialect and is using those skills to navigate the city of Rhetonis for a client. Translation for the fleet is offered as long as it does not endanger the crew, their current contract, or their client. The crew-mate on the surface is in a hostile area and may need to disconnect to deal with threats. We bill at the market rate per micro-cycle.”, I made my thoughts clear to the fleet command.
“Credits just got added to the ship’s account”, Ylisaya said, as soon as I disconnected.
“Looks like our bid was accepted.”, I replied as I reconnected to the fleet scan.
Without any delay, the fleet initiated a cyber-link to Tony, and the fleet focused on the client. The Black Dragon guards stood on both sides of the client and they approached the main entrance of the mansion. A dozen black dragon warriors in similar armor and clan markings stepped out around the mansion and another dozen stepped out onto the roof the of the mansion. A tall warrior in black armor, with a gold clan marking, a golden sword and a dragon mask walked out of the mansion’s main entrance speaking Ugian.
“Welcome home princess. I’m sorry that your return is when the city is not at it’s best.”, the warrior said to the client.
“Is this your idea of a joke, Zokoro?”, the client said to the warlord.
“The joke is you turned against your father’s organization, while I stayed loyal, you hired the Phantom to hunt us down. We know you’re just trying to distract us while he’s going to sneak in. He’s not going to surprise us.”, Zokoro said to the client.
“Where’s my father?”, the client demanded.
The warlord nodded to a warrior behind him and the warrior returned to inside the mansion. A moment later the warrior returned with a helmet under his arm. As the fleet scanned the helmet, they suspected a head was still inside the helmet. The warrior handed the helmet to the warlord, and the warlord tossed the helmet to the feet of the client.
“What the fuck, Zokoro? He loved you like a son, you were his best student. Why?”, The client protested, as the client picked up the helmet and glared back at the warlord.
“He didn’t share our vision, but his legacy lives on. Join me.”, the warlord said to the client.
“I will never fight for the man who betrayed my family, stole my house, and endangers everything my father did to protect our people.”, the client protested.
“You misunderstand. I have warriors, I don’t need you to join the Black Dragons. I’m offering for you to join my harem.”, the warlord said, as the client seemed insulted by the mere suggestion.
“You think I would whore myself to you? For what should be my birth right?”, the client said spitefully.
“I think you fail to see just like your father failed. The Black Dragons are winning. I planned to keep your father as warning, but seeing him might give the Lahnthanos the wrong idea.”, the warlord said, however the fleets scans didn’t indicate either faction was close to victory.
The client dropped the severed head and pointed a finger at one of the warriors on roof of the mansion. Tony aimed the gauss rifle at the warrior marked by the client. The fleet scanned the Warrior’s Rotono-Blade and observed it was missing a metal wheel.
“This is your warning.”, the client said and gestured as if firing a gun.
Tony fired the gauss rifle and the gauss rifle bullet pierced through the warrior’s armor. The fleet’s scan revealed the warrior’s armor functioned as intended, as the warrior fell to the ground. A significant portion of his body had just been liquified, but the armor maintained his shape and attempted to keep the warrior alive. As the venom flowed through his blood, everything it touched began to die. The warrior choked and gasped for air, but his lungs were shutting down as the venom did its work. In the next instant, the venom reached the brain and the other warriors stood in disbelief as they realized their armor wouldn’t protect them.
The client drew the Red-Rotono-blade, and all the warriors drew theirs. The Warlord and four other warriors all attacked the client. The client parried the closest attack and evaded the others only pausing to resume a ready stance with the sword held near the sword arm’s shoulder. Tony fired again at enemies attempting to enter the fight but were not near the client. Another warrior was liquified in his armor. Tony fired five more times and another five warriors were liquified.
The warlord raised his Rotono-blade and yelled out a roar, but Tony didn’t know the word and wasn’t able to translate. All the warriors halted their attack on the client and stepped away. The client raised a hand gesturing for Tony to also cease fire, and Tony used the time to reload the gauss rifle.
“I see why you hired the Phantom, I’ve never seen anything so efficient. But I wonder why he hasn’t taken a shot at me?”, the warlord said as he faced outward as if he was looking for Tony.
The warlord swung at the client as the client deflected the sloppy attack. The warlord stepped away from the client, making himself a clear target to gunfire, and the warlord turned his attention again towards the far horizon, as though he was still uncertain of the Tony’s location.
“I see… The Phantom isn’t here to wipe out the Black Dragon Clan.”, the warlord said as he turned towards the client.
“The Phantom is just here as a hired gun, so you could get close to me.”, the warlord continued in common speech as he turned towards the horizon and removed his helmet.
The Black Dragon clan’s warrior were shocked at the audacity of their warlord. However the Fleet could now see that the warlord wasn’t a Ugian, the warlord was an Aurovean. The warlord smiled as he walked backwards into the Mansion placing his helmet back on his head and the client slowly followed. The other warriors stepped away, as the fleet presumed the fight would only involve the client and the warlord.
“What’s the problem?”, Ylisaya asked.
“The target of assassination is the wrong race, we took the contract thinking the Warlord leading the Ugians, was also going to be Ugian, but he’s not. Now we know he’s worth more to the Protectorate, but they won’t pay unless we cancel the contract.”, I told Ylisaya.
“How much more?”, Ylisaya asked.
“Ten times more than what the client is paying.”, I replied to Ylisaya.
“Why can’t we just get paid for both.”, Ylisaya asked.
“That’s double dipping.”, was the consensus from the fleet.
“If we double dip, with the fleet watching, we lose the broker’s retainer fee and we forfeit the Protectorate Bounty.”, I replied.
“Can another crew go after him, and get the higher bounty?”, Ylisaya asked
“At this distance, they’d have to fire a fusion cannon at the planet, but the fleet would know, and their client is the Confederacy. The only one with a chance of collecting that bounty is Tony, but here’s the process. Tony has to reach the client alive, because the client declared a posthumous contingency. If he can do that, he can give any reason, and still keep the retainer fee, because he did partial work. Then he just needs to kill the Warlord, and Tony needs to be the one who executes the killing strike….This is why we say fighting space pirates is easier than merc-work…It’s just simpler when there’s no process.”, I said to Ylisaya.
“Send the bid for cancelation.”, I sensed Tony’s thoughts through the cyber-link.
I transmitted the bid for cancellation to the broker, and then waited.
“You think you can get to the client without getting into another fight?”, I sent my question to Tony through the cyber link.
“Nope. Not fast enough, and no benefit to staying in Stealth Mode. Not anymore.”, I sensed from Tony’s thoughts, as he returned his folded up his gauss rifle, placed it on his back and switched to his Battle Axe.
Tony flipped his cloaking device over his shoulder decreasing the amount of distortion. Tony activated both ends of the Battle Axe in high power mode. The Axe-blade extended over the handle, the energy blade behind it took a serrated shape, and the opposite end extended into a spear like energy blade with all three blades glowing like lava.
“If the shockwave kills the client, you can’t give cancellation notice, and the client’s posthumous contingency takes effect.” I sent my thought to Tony through the cyber-link.
“I’ll aim for the gates, not the mansion, and I’ll still get there in ten seconds. Slower speed means a smaller shock-wave.”, Tony’s thoughts reached me through the link.
“Ten seconds? What’s he going to do?”, Ylisaya asked.
“Battle Mode!”, Tony yelled out, as the fleet detected an exponential increase in power coming from Tony. Tony’s stealth technology couldn’t suppress any of the energy and his power armor had been reinforced by a layer of deflector shields that seemed to glow like lava at the edge of every black panel. Tony started running, and moved faster and faster, until the fleet could no longer detect individual foot steps, and then Tony was in the air.
“Running Super Jump…or a Super Running Jump.”, I said as I attempted to answer Ylisaya’s question.
“So why did he yell out battle mode? No one else needs to do that to use a mode.”, Ylisaya asked.
“He’s the only one with a battle mode, and I know he doesn’t need to. I think he just wants to. If he wanted to sneak in and catch them by surprise, he has a stealth mode. You can ask him about it when he gets back to the ship.”, I replied to Ylisaya.
As Tony crashed into the mansion’s gates a shockwave reduced the walls to ruble and knocked over all the warriors in front of the mansion. In the center of the impact crater, Tony slowly stood up with an fully power battle axe in hand.
“Sorry I’m crashing your party, but I saw a lot of Lahnthanos headed this way.”, Tony said to any warriors alert enough to hear him.
The fleet’s scan detected a large enemy force approaching the mansion, not large enough to be all the Lahnthanos in Rhetonis, but still large enough to be a threat. A dozen warriors surrounded Tony preparing to attack. The Rotono-blades held in striking stances, showed the warriors had no expectation to survive. Tony activated his motion sensors and raised the battle-axe into a defensive hold, with one hand in the center of the grip and the other hand closer to the spear-end.
“I’m only gonna say this once.”, Tony said as warriors continued to surround him.
“I wanna see the manager.” ,Tony continued, and the three closest warriors attacked with Rotono blades with full mechanical slashing power.
As soon as their blades hit the deflector shields, each blade changed direction with as much force as their attacks. One warrior lost grip on the Rotono-blade and the other two struggled to keep their balance.
“I’m glad I got your attention. I’m looking an Ugian dressed in red and pink, red sword, white mask.”, Tony said as he shifted the battle-axe to one hand and raised the other hand to shoulder level with his palm facing the ground.
“About this tall, I’m pretty sure they’re here, and I think you saw…”, Tony continued saying as he gestured towards the three closest warriors.
Three more warriors joined the attack on Tony and their attacks just bounced off his deflector shields.
“You know…I’m starting to think I’m not welcome here.”, Tony said as more warriors surrounded him.
“Are you guys gonna help me find…anything?”, Tony asked but was interrupted as more warriors attacked him. Tony looked to one side and then his other side, and Tony moved faster than the fleet could scan. Tony seemed to crash into the closest warrior, then he used the spear end of the battle-axe to strike at the legs of the warrior. As the warrior fell to the ground Tony swung the chopping blade.
“For the Auro Blade!”, Tony yelled out as he decapitated the fallen warrior. Then Tony moved faster than the fleets’ scan again, crashing into the next closest warrior. Then he used the spear end of the battle-axe to strike at the legs of the warrior. As the warrior fell to the ground Tony swung the chopping blade.
“For the Auro Blade!”, Tony yelled out as he decapitated another fallen warrior, again. I reached out to Tony’s mind through the cyber-link.
“Tony, I don’t know if you’re having fun right now…but I’m gonna be honest it looks like you’re cheating and we’re not getting paid for any of this!”, I sent my thoughts through the cyber-link.
“Well only a few kinds of methods can defeat their Tri-tech armor, and gauss rifle ammo is expensive. They’re just in the way.”, Tony’s thoughts reached me through the cyber-link, as he used the three hit attack to decapitate another enemy. The fleet detected the client emerge on the roof of the mansion. The client stumbled as if thrown through a window. The warlord stepped through the window as the client gripped the Red Rotono-blade and regained a sword stance. The warlord and the client clashed swords, the client was nearly knocked off the roof, and Tony saw them through his motion sensors. Tony turned and used a super jump to reach the roof, landing between the warlord and the client.
“Good! I can talk to the manager and owner at the same time.”, Tony seemed to chuckle.
“What are you doing here?”, the client asked Tony.
“Deal’s off. You lied to me! We didn’t need to track down Warlord Zokoro, you knew he was here the whole time. You only paid for an assassination not a war, but now I’m fighting an enemy of the Confederacy. Your family drama might shift political power and create an enemy I don’t need. So, I’m cancelling our contract. Keep your money!”, Tony said casually to the client. As Tony turned his focus towards the warlord. Tony moved faster than the fleet’s scan, crashing into the warlord. Tony swung the spear end to strike at the warlord’s legs. As the warlord fell to the ground, Tony raised the chopping blade.
“For the Auro…” Tony started yelling as the fleet detected a cyber-link connection to Tony.
Tony stepped on the sword arm of the warlord and pointed the spear end of the battle-axe at the Warlord’s head. The warlord stayed motionless as the energy blade scratched his armored dragon mask.
“I’m getting a call from my broker. I need to take this.”, Tony said to the client.
“Hello Phantom, the Protectorate just saw you cancelled on a client contract, and we got in touch with the Confederacy as soon as we found out you were going to be a free agent and also very close to the critical leadership of an enemy faction. Now you’re gonna want to take this contract, because their plan was to wait for one faction to die, weakening the other, and then sending in the cavalry. Your actions potentially resulted in the remaining faction will be stronger than expected. Worst case-scenario they might even team up against the Confederacy. The Protectorate will offer you full compensation for killing the Aurovean warlord, and the Confederacy will verify you killed the warlord, regardless of how he dies.”, The broker spoke in a normal voice, so none of the fleet could sense which minds were cyber-linked to the broker. The choice to make the call in spoken voice could only mean the broker wanted the fleet to hear them.
“So what does the Confederacy want? And why should I care? The warlord is worth ten million dead, so I can just cash out now.”, Tony said to the broker, as the fleet realized the warlord and client could only hear Tony’s side of the call.
“The Confederacy is making a list of Ugians and Lahnthanos of concern, their individual bounties range from one million to two hundred thousand, depending on level of threat, influence, or importance to their faction, as the fleet can verify they pose a threat. Easiest way to tell is if they point a weapon at you, or if they are leading followers against you. One other thing, can you make your venom kill slowly? How slow do you think?”, the broker asked.
“A small enough dose might take three Martian days to kill an adult, if they can’t make it to a hospital. Why?”, Tony asked the broker.
“You might want the warlord to take care of something for you, before he expires…The girl is the daughter of the previous faction leader. The Confederacy might put her on the list. However she has gained a few fans in the fleet ever since she was spotted with you. While the fleet will do their job, you are also seeking promotion to first class citizen. Popularity is also a factor. Neither of them need to know that.”, the broker said.
“Do we have a contract?”, Tony asked the broker.
“Just sent to your ship. The list is being worked on.”, the broker said and the contract arrived at my communications system.
“I’ll get started.”, Tony said as the broker disconnected the call. Tony shifted the battle-axe to one hand and with the other hand he reached for the bottle of venom, and poured a drop onto the warlord’s armor. Tony closed and returned the bottle to its compartment, gripped the battle-axe with both hands, and with the spear end he stabbed through the drop of venom, through the warlord’s armor, and quickly lifted the spear away.
“You’ve lost. The Lahnthanos are coming, your clan won’t survive.”, Tony said to the warlord, as he stepped away from the warlord.
“You fool. The Lanthanos aren’t here to fight me…They’re here join me. They invited an alliance after you attacked them. I already told you, the Black dragon clan is winning.”, The warlord said as he stood up.
“Good! That makes finding my new client’s enemies easier. I’ll be paid per head.” Tony admitted to the warlord.
“When he says per head, does he mean…” Ylisaya started asking, but I interrupted her.
“Yes, because his Battle-Axe uses up no ammo. Too many body guards makes assassinations risky. Unless he switches to stealth mode, then the Lahnthanos are the first target.”, I replied to Ylisaya’s incomplete question.
“Stealth Mode.”, Tony said as he folded up his battle-axe, stowed it next to the pulse rifle, and vanished into a distortion.
“Why would he go after the Lahnthanos first?”, Ylisaya asked.
“They least expect an attack, slow down their alliance, and they have ammo.”, I replied.