Prospect, Unfinished Mega City, On Board the Stormrunner

Domitia stares down the barrel of a gun, the aug unflinching as his finger rests on the trigger. Domitia knows that handcannon well and knows at this range, it could kill her. The Bellator weighs her options, the few she has. She could kill him; callous as the idea is, it’s the most simple. The other is to try and reason with him, something she isn’t sure he’s looking for. It’s hard to get a read on him with the black visor covering his eyes.

Domitia briefly scans the room, trying to get a count of how many scavengers made it in. She counts five able bodies, plus the wounded konii and the other aug. Her face is easy enough for Domitia to read, clearly afraid, clearly upset. The others are harder to judge, although she’s certain that they’d fight back if this turns south. After all, they’re backed into the same corner as her.

“You two fucked up my job, got some of my boys killed,” The aug curses at the two of them, “For what? The fucking mail?!”

“We had no ill will against you,” Domitia states.

“‘Sides,” Dell pops his head over Domitia’s shoulder, “Your boy over there was the one who fired the first shot.”

“Small comfort.” The aug bitterly replies. “Still, I can't exactly trust you.”

“My partner here helped keep the drones off your case as long as she could; shit, you just fought by her side--” Dell is cut off by the aug.

“Means little on Prospect. For all I know you’re working for the Reverends.”

“Do we look like book thumpers?!” Dell counters, showing his arms, “See any culty ink on these arms? I’ll answer for you, no!”

“Worth!” The aug called Lady speaks up at last, “Put the fucking gun down! Last thing we need is to kill the same people who helped us!”

Worth hesitates at first, before finally pointing the gun at the ground. Domitia still feels a glare coming from underneath his visor.

“Fine. Let’s say I trust you, tell me what the job is. All the deets, now!” Worth demands.

“Asset recovery,” Dell starts to explain, peeking a little more over Domitia’s shoulder, “That’s all we're here to do. On contract from some rich asshole from the mountains. He wants his pottery shards or whatever the fuck.”

“Pottery?” Worth’s confusion can be felt in just that word alone, “Who the fuck hires a bellator to get pottery?”

“Worth cut it!” Lady interjects, coming between Worth and the bounty hunters, “Look, how about this, we get our loot, you get yours, then we split. Deal?”

“Works for me,” Dell says with a thumbs up.

“Agreed.” Domitia then adds, “There’s still the matter of the drones.”

“They’ll piss off, eventually,” Worth says. “They have to power down, not much biomatter to go around.”

“But they know we’re here.” Domitia counters, “They’re single-minded. They’ll power down and wait for us to try and escape.”

“Then I’ll have to be quiet,” Worth says. He turns to one of the scavengers, an older human with a snow-white beard and a freshly shaved head, voidsmen tattoos running from his scalp and trailing down the back of his neck, “What do you think? Vault still viable?”

“If we have to be quiet that’ll make things... difficult.”

“Unless you can restore the ship’s Net,” Dell interjects. “Then you can just open the door.”

“That’ll require us to repair the genies, and if those ammonia fires were any indication the system might not have juice.”

“I didn’t say anything about restoring power,” Dell replies, “Cockpit oughta have its own power, same as the bulkheads. All we gotta do is get to the bridge and open the doors.”

“I’ll lead the way,” Lady says, motioning for Dell to follow her. “Been on these shitboxes too many times, this way oughta to lead us to the bridge.”

Domitia follows behind as Worth gets to work directing the remaining scavengers. The ship’s interior had held up better than the exterior. Domitia sees no breaches into the hull, with the bulkheads remaining intact. The doors are even open still, allowing the bounty hunters and their scavenger guide to march further in without issue.

The interior of the ship tells Domitia that the Stormrunner was as much a home as much as it was a place of work. Throughout the halls, the bellator can see the scattered remains of people’s lives - pics and keepsakes thrown about from the impact, the drab blue iron walls painted over with a vibrant green to give the narrow halls a taste of planetside life. And just as scattered among the keepsakes and touches of home, are the remains of the crew.

That’s when it hits Domitia - were there any survivors at all? She takes a moment to look over a fallen voidsmen, toothbrush still in mouth, body slumped against a bulkhead. She halts momentarily to take a closer look. His eyes are bloodshot, his mouth swollen, the toothbrush caught in between his teeth and swollen gums. The blue tint of his skin tells Domitia the rest of the story.

“Poisoned.” Domitia says, “We ought to be careful, it could've been gas.”

“Shit...” Dell pulls a cloth out of his pocket, making a bandana to put around his mouth, “The one fucking time I forgot a mask.”

Lady turns around, walking back to look over the corpse. Her cyber eyes flash for a moment before she reports, “Not picking up anything toxic in the air, trace amount of ammonia though.”

“Ammonia doesn’t cause soft tissues to swell up,” Domitia says.

“Still, something to keep your eye out for...” The aug looks up at the two bounty hunters, “Didn’t catch your names.”

“Domitia,”

“Dell Caliger.” Dell gives a salute.

“Huh,” There’s a pause, her eyes looking them up and down before introducing herself, “Call me Lady. Sorry about Worth back there,” She says as she carries on down the corridor, “He can be such an ass.”

“Combat stress can make some paranoid, it’s understandable,” Domitia replies.

“Still ain’t an excuse,” Lady says as they pass into the kitchen.

It’s there that most of the remaining crew can be found, bodies slammed against the bulkhead, all having that same blue tint and swollen mouths. Other signs of a struggle were apparent. Laser burns scorch some of the bulkheads, and some of the dead crew have weapons on their person. On the threshold to the bridge, they find another body, although this one looks quite different.

Unlike the others who wore the typical coveralls/undersuits you’d find on any long-haul voidsmen, this one wore something more combat-ordained. A black body glove, reinforced to give the wearer some protection against low-caliber weapons. The key was low caliber, as most of this one’s head had been clearly taken off by something much stronger.

“Looks like the captain put up a fight,” Lady says as she enters the bridge.

Domitia lets Dell in first and does her best to squeeze through the narrow entrance into the bridge. It’s small, cramped, and the worst place for two meters and change Bellator to be in. The pilot chairs flank the entrance, with one of the pilots lying in a pool of blood in the walkway. The old flat cap indicates he might’ve been the captain, a boarding shotgun still in his hands.

“Died hard.” Dell comments.

“Seems like it,” Lady moves the body, pulling a rag from a pocket and wiping the blood off the ports, “‘Kay, I’ll try and jack in first, see if I can get into its Undernet.”

“My cell can do a virtual console, like I said.” Dell offers.

“Thanks but I got paid to do this, I got a simple rule - always do what I’m paid to do. Nothing more,” Lady then slots into the console, “Nothing less.”

The aug kneels down, one of her cyber limbs extending to give her extra support. Domitia can’t see the front of her, but a glow from her face indicates she’s interfacing, or at least trying to interface, with the ship’s computer. As she works her magic the screens of the cockpit instruments light up, a gentle hum rising from the console until Lady pulls her data jack out, blinking a few times.

“Fuck.” She rubs her temples, “Gah. Terrible data-stacks. Thought I was going insane. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to code.”

“Is it... working?” Dell asks.

“More or less,” Lady says, “The subnet went into a shutdown mode after the main vault got hacked into.” She blinks a few more times. “Fuck.”

Before either bounty hunter can ask, Lady’s already sprinting out of the cockpit, through the mess hall. The two exchange glances, Dell shrugs, Domitia grunts, and they take off after the aug. They navigate through the narrow corridors of the freighter before they arrive at what must’ve been the main container. The great ferro-ceramic vault door is open, the locks having been thoroughly disintegrated.

Worth is already inside, kicking aside the trash left behind, “Fucking damn it!” The empty vault amplifies his curses tenfold.

“Worth, use your words!” Lady demands.

“Shit, we’re too late!” Dell curses, hopping into the vault.

Domitia carefully navigates in, her eyes following Dell’s own gaze. Along the wall containing numerous deposit draws carrying much more sensitive documents and parcels, one of them has been cut out. Dell looks it over thoroughly, before sighing.

“I’m gonna take a guess that’s ours,” Dell says.

“None of the others are bio-sealed,” Domitia observes.

“Can’t fucking believe it!” Worth says, “Not only are we late, a few men down, and trapped, we don’t even get any loot!”

“Couldn’t have gotten too far.” Domitia chimes in, “They would’ve needed a ride off this.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“No shit.” Worth barks as he paces back in forth, “How the fuck did they even pull this off?!”

As Worth paces his foot catches a loose panel - his augmented legs catch the imbalance before he’s even aware he tripped. He kicks the loose panel, finding a smuggler’s hold right on the floor. Dell steps over, peering down, nodding.

“Shit... Yeah, that’s how I’d do it.” He points down in there, “Get someone with the right augs and they can hide in here for weeks if needed. Probably also poisoned the crew.”

“Save for the captain,” Domitia adds.

“Fuck this,” Lady throws her hands up, “We leave. Job is fucked.”

“Boss! Boss!” One of the scavengers bursts into the vault, “We lost contact with the bird.”

Worth, beyond anger, just laughs, “Fucking great. And now they’re stealing my ship.” He gets real quiet, before he turns to Dell, “Please tell me you have a ship.”

“That we do.” Dell points to the bay doors they retreated through not an hour ago, “Just through all those murder bots.”

“Great.” Worth says with a sigh, “We’re stuck then. Guess we’ll have to fight our way out.”

“Not necessarily.” Domitia counters, “The thieves had to escape somehow. There must be another way off the ship.”

Lady snaps her fingers, “Bow access port. Usually blocked off for maintenance to get underneath the electronics, but I’m guessing if ‘that,’' She points to the smugglers hold, “Is there, chances are that our captain had that bow opened up.”

“We’ll need to figure out how it opens, if it opens.” Dell motions toward the bridge, “Cap had to have some sort of control for it.”

Dell and Lady make their way back up to the bridge, while Domitia takes a moment to remove her helm and scratch an itch along her scar. She catches a gaze from Worth, a look she matches with a raised eyebrow.

“Something you want to say?” The bellator asks.

Worth clears his throat, taking a moment to remove the visor, revealing amber eyes, he then steps closer to Domitia, “Listen, I’m not good at apologizing--”

“Then don’t.” Domitia dead-pans, a small smile playing on her lips.

Worth sighs, “Fuck. Got me there.” He looks her in the eye, “Still. Thanks. Smashed those drones good.”

“Not my first fight with Warpigs.” Domitia admits, “Probably won’t be the last.”

“Yeah... yeah probably. Knowing our luck.” Worth nods for the bellator to follow him out of the vault. He looks to his crew who’ve taken a moment to rest, leaning or sitting against the wall, “Okay everyone, do a weapon check, and let’s get set. Might have a way out.”

“Do this often?” Domitia asks.

“Huh? Oh, not too often,” Worth replies, “Don’t usually hire out a crew like this either. Came with the gig.”

“Gig?”

“Yeah,” Worth looks down to his pocket, pulling out a vapor and taking a drag, orange smoke coming out of his nose, “Short notice. Outstanding citizens wanted to make sure the mail didn’t all get lost in the wind. Reward for whatever we got back.”

“Hmm, real upstanding citizen,” Domitia sarcastically remarks.

“You know it.” Worth holds the vapor out to Domitia, “Brass?”

“No thanks,” Domitia says, shrugging, “Doesn’t do much for me.”

“Right. Guess all your augs are ‘ganic anyway.” Worth says.

He leans up against a wall, vapor still in hand as he looks Domitia over, “How long have you been working with that Grumlian?”

“You always this curious?” Domitia asks back.

“I mean you gotta admit, it’s an odd pairing, you two. So forgive me for wanting the deets,” Worth takes another drag.

Domitia hums, “We’ve been working together for a good part of a decade now. Basically married now.”

“Shit, sounds like me and Lady.” Worth replies, “Met her back on some backwater station, can’t remember which one. Helped me out of a jam, and I returned the favor. Now I can’t get rid of her.”

“Similar story I guess,” Domitia says, “Dell and I helped each other out. Been stuck together ever since,” She looks up the hall, “He’s my brother now. Annoying, loud, and a smart ass. Wouldn’t want him any other way.”

Worth puts his vapor away, looking at the wounded konii, “Slick. You holding up alright?”

“Bout as damn well as a guy with a hole in his leg can, boss.” The konii says, wincing a little.

Kade sits across from Slick, head hung low and hands subtly trembling. He looks up at Worth, “I’ll carry him, boss. My fuck up. I’ll bear it.”

“You better,” Worth says, and his tone holds a promise of violence. “Four. Ten came, and four won’t be coming back. Don’t make it five.”

“Yes sir.” The scavenger says with a nod.

A few moments pass as the scavengers, Worth, and Domitia go through weapon checks. Without her shotgun, Domitia is out of most of her tricks. She’s reduced to a heavy caliber pistol, which only makes her miss her hand cannon even more, and her maul. She can make do with what she has, but it won’t last too long. She has two ten-round mags left for the pistol. She has two frag grenades that’ll be useful, along with two EMP bombs that stun the drones. Although she knows Warpigs are made of sterner stuff, and recover from electrical disruptions quickly, she'll still need to end the iron beast with a kill blow. She also knows to be careful, the bellator keeping in mind their one-meter effect range; if she’s caught in the blast her armor might shut down. She hears the light tapping of rain coming over the ship when Dell pops his head into the hall.

“We found our way out.” He announces, “There’s a catch though.”

“That catch being?” Worth asks.

“Hydraulics are fucked, door opens upward.” Dell motions with his hand swinging up, “Probably a parting gift from our thieves. Dom, need your muscles.”

Domitia rolls her shoulders, “Right.”

Dell leads Domitia toward the mess hall, the scavengers following behind her, curious as to what they found. The mess hall floor is now open, revealing a narrow stairwell. Domitia turns sideways and as she follows Dell down, she feels her armor scraping up against the corridor as she finds herself in a bay underneath the cockpit. She keeps her head low as Dell motions to the bulkhead, pointing out the crease of a door.

“Think you can do it quietly?” Dell asks.

“They did,” Domitia states.

She gets herself as close as she can, feeling out the door with a few pushes before making her first attempt. Slowly, Domitia presses the door open, the steel groaning subtly as she pushes it. A wayward rock tumbles off and skips into what sounds like an empty room. The bellator pauses and the grumlian’s breathing stops as they both wait for the sound of drone activity. After hearing nothing but the pattering of rain Domitia pushes the door open further, hardly struggling beneath its weight. The door opens up into an empty apartment, the burns along the eggshell walls showing where the ship came to its final stop. Domitia judges that they’re on the ground level of the building, the first stroke of good luck they’ve had. She wagers that attempting to quietly navigate stairs in her armor may not work out all too well.

Domitia motions for Dell to go back up to get the others, and he quietly ascends the stairs. Soon after, the scavengers start filing down, with Lady and Worth right after. Dell comes last, giving Domitia the thumbs up. Domitia realizes the easy part was opening the door, now comes the hard part - closing it. Carefully, she steps into the apartment and begins to lower the door. She follows the swing of it the best she can and realizes that unless she wants to lose her fingers, which she’d regrow after a week or so, she’ll have to let it drop. Then the glint of wet stone catches her eye - the rock is about the size she needs. With a grunt, she holds the makeshift door open and places a rock right at its lip. Carefully, she sets the door on the rock. It cracks a little but holds.

With a sigh, she leaves the door and follows after the others. Dell hops back onto Domitia, finding a cozy spot as she follows after the scavengers. They make their way through the apartment as best they can. The complex being completely empty means any sound will be carried easily. Domitia moves as carefully as she can considering the weight of her armor she can only do so much. Luckily the storm outside has picked up, the pitter-patter of rain on the roof turning into a near-constant roaring as the deluge pounds the city.

As the rabble of scavengers and bounty hunters navigate through the sprawling complex they eventually find an exit out onto the street level - an iron bar gate, its lock intact and active. Wordlessly, Worth motions for Lady to take a look at it as the remaining scavengers take defensive positions. Dell and Domitia do as well, holding the rear of the column. Through the intense rain, Domitia can hear something moving in the apartment complex, and it’s growing closer.

She doesn’t have to alert Dell as whatever is making the noise rounds the corner. It’s a squat-looking robot, its legs replaced with gravity repulsors as it carries down the hall, its single blue eye scanning the ceiling above it. It pauses, about six meters away from Domitia and Dell, the scavengers training their guns on it. Domitia realizes what it is as it hovers up to the ceiling and begins to patch up a hole through which rainwater drips down - it’s a maintenance drone. Probably part of the reason why the city looks pristine despite being empty of any organic life: the Warpigs probably convert the bio-matter they consume into material that the maintenance drones can utilize. Although the bellator is confident that won’t last forever.

The drone carefully plugs the hole and applies a primer of paint to begin repainting the walls. In any other apartment complex, this would be utterly mundane, yet now it poses a major threat. Domitia knows that such machines are often connected to security networks; if it spots them, it’s over. Domitia gauges how quickly and quietly she can dispatch the drone. She can cover the six meters in less than two seconds, but she’ll make a lot of noise doing so. Guns are out of the question, too; this will require a melee solution. The bellator’s thoughts of stealth go out of the airlock with the sound of a blaring alarm. She turns, Lady recoiling from the now open door, the apartment’s security system activating in response.

“Fuck it! Book it!” Worth shouts.

The scavengers burst out of the apartment and onto the street, any chances of stealth are gone.

They need to escape, now!

“Where's the ship?!” Worth asks.

“Down this street! Move!” Domitia motions.

The scavengers take off, Kade and Slick hobbling along the best they can as they follow Lady and Worth down the street. Through the rain storm, Domitia can see Warpigs leaving the Stormrunner behind and begin the chase. Domitia holds fire with her pistol and instead primes an EMP grenade. She needs to make it count, so she waits.

“Dom?!” Dell asks, arming his SMG, “Remember! I’m the pilot! I need to--”

“Go!” Domitia tosses Dell back, “Get the engine warmed up!”

Dell rolls and bounces onto his feet, sprinting down the street, “Fair warning would be nice!” He shouts back.

Domitia steps back, two Warpigs closing in like heat-seeking missiles, drawn to her various energy signatures, she knows she’s the brightest contact they can see. She also knows that Warpigs aren’t the brightest, and just as they’re about to slam into one another in their attempt to snack on the bellator she tosses the EMP grenade. It detonates right between them, the two drones smacking into one another before falling to the ground, limp. Domitia dashes forward, putting a pistol round directly into their cortexes before their systems have time to reboot.

It’s a small victory, one immediately overshadowed as two more Warpigs come charging through the rain, maws already loudly grinding. Domitia primes her last EMP grenade as she starts falling back, waiting for the right moment to toss it. A sixth sense cries out and she just barely dodges the Warpig that drops from a building next to her. She tosses the last EMP grenade at its feet. The bomb bounces before detonating dangerously close. Domitia’s armor shuts down, its full weight causing her to stumble for a moment as her enhanced physiology struggles under it. She pulls back her visor as her lenses power off.

The bellator’s legacy pumps into overdrive, detecting the real danger she is facing. Strength-enhancing hormones pump through her, along with pain inhibitors to numb her to the sensation of her muscle fibers tearing and reassembling as Domitia’s body is pushed past its limits. Her kinetic maul, while unpowered due to the EMP, still smashes the cortex of the downed Warpig. She evades another Warpig, her knees almost buckling under the weight of the armor. Domitia sidesteps the other Warpig, smashing it in the back with her maul, the strike alone plows the drone into the ground, giving her much-needed space between her and the last one. She then falls back, and the last standing Warpig stomps over its comrade, still hot on Domitia’s heels.

She begins to feel herself slip away, her consciousness melding with the Legacy - the battle unfolding before her becoming more and more distant as the combat stimulates become overwhelming. The bellator empties her pistol into the Warpig, destroying one of its arms in the process. The drone grows closer, and as it does Domitia feels herself sink deeper into that trance, the feeling of a shaggy carpet enveloping her as everything seems to become far more distant.

“ARMOR SYSTEMS - ONLINE! POWER RESTORED!” Domitia’s HUD lights up, and suddenly she is in control again.

Her armor surges with power as she moves far more fluidly and quickly than before. The stimulates begin to fade as her armor picks up the pace. She uses her jump jets to fall back, tossing one last grenade into the maw of the Warpig, detonating it in its mouth. The drone slows and then slumps down, smoke filling the air around it as it combusts.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Worth’s voice comes audible as Domitia turns, seeing the ship, Warpigs rushing toward it.

Domitia dashes toward it, using her suit jump jets to make bounding leaps toward the corpo vessel. Worth dashing onto the ship as well. Domitia gets on just as Dell hits the ignition and takes off. The door shuts, and Domitia stands tall despite the pain coursing through her body.

She definitely overexerted herself and would be paying dearly for it, yet she’s alive, which counts for something.

Then she remembers that the mail, the entire reason she went on this mission, is gone. Missing.

She sighs.

“Fuck."