Hi it took little loner, but it's longer chapter then usual. If you find some mistakes or have tips write me or post them in the comments.
Thanks for the reading. Enjoy.
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I looked through the sensors at the building as I was flying above it. I was just making flyby so sensors shouldn’t ping me as enemy, which was good as I wanted to take them by surprise. For that I would need decoy.
The Auction hall was big. I would guess they used old city hall or mansion. Whole building was in a U shape with three floors above the ground and another two underground. There was two landing pads behind the hall which were already full.
At the front side was long road which was lined with statues. There were giant windows on the side of the building which were strictly decorative as they used artificial light. There was garden or something like garden but all trees and flowers were made from the metal.
From information Strike gave me all three rooms where they stashed items were located underground. I would have to either take her from down there or try to take her from podium before all the people gathered here.
I was inclined more towards the first choice as according to Strike, every guest could get one bodyguard with him. That would mean that auction room would be full of armed people.
“So what did you decided?” asked Lany from behind me.
“I’ll try to get to Eleanor before they could auction her. That’s my best chance at getting her back without blowing half of the hall.” I said.
“Yeah and we wouldn’t want that. They’re all such nice people.” Said Lany with smirk.
“I know, but there are innocent people working around the hall who didn’t do anything to anyone. They just work there to feed their families.” I said.
“I know, I didn’t mean it like that.” She look down embarrassed.
“Don’t worry I know what you meant. When I go down there you are temporary captain of this ship until I return. This means you are responsible for your actions. I want you to think carefully about what you want to do before starting anything. Ok?”
She looked at me with wide eyes. “I don’t think I’m prepared for such responsibility. What if I screw up and do something wrong?”
I went to her and look her in the eyes. “Lany I think I know you little by now and I have confidence you’ll do me proud. Just do what you think is right and you’ll do good.”
She had eyes in her eyes. “Why are you telling it like you don’t plan to return?”
“I plan to return, but this is dangerous mission and anything can happen. I want you to be prepared and continue without me in case something happen.” I said.
“I can’t pilot this ship alone. I can’t connect to it like you do.” Her voice trembled.
“You’ll do fine. I used the training exercises to teach you how fly this ship. You already know everything you need to know. Everything else is just experience and that you’ll get with time.” I said.
She sniffed and I could see tears in her eyes, but stood strait and looked me in the eyes with resolve. “I’ll make you proud and I’ll wait for your return.”
“Don’t think too much about it. I plan to return to you.” I said and hugged her one last time before I opened cargo door and jumped down.
I reworked one drone to one time jetpack. I would use it to slow down my fall. My plan looked simple when I was on the ship, but now that I was falling down and air rushed around me I wasn’t so sure. I’ll have to use jetpack almost on roof or they would spot me on radar or sensors.
I counted on my ability to change my skin to almost invisible. Because of this I had to ditch my armor and use my coat as it would change with me. I also had to prioritize and take only pistols without Fist and my sword.
The sword was made from different material then my weapon and it wouldn’t change with my skin. As for the fits it was just too bulky to sneak with it.
As I was falling I zoomed my eyes on the auction hall and looked for guards placed on the outside. I saw about ten walking around the garden and another three on rooftop. My biggest problem would be three men on the rooftop as they would definitely see me landing there.
Even others could see me descent, but I wanted to land in the middle of the roof as it was most covered place and it would offer me best cover. I would have to quickly change my place and sneak away.
I could kill them all, but I didn’t know them. They could be just working to feed their family and even though it would be easier for me, I didn’t have it in me to kill them in cold blood.
I focused on my landing and sent signal to my jetpack to start at fifty meters above the roof. I rotated myself so my feet pointed downwards and waited for the signal. As soon as I went over the fifty meters line I felt kick as jetpack started to pour plasma from both ends. I was quickly slowing down and preparing myself for lading.
About three meters above the rood I slipped out of the jetpack and let it fly away. It would provide distraction while I sneaked myself away from the roof.
As soon as I was on ground I changed my skin and run towards the door heading down to hall. Slipping around three guards was pretty simple. I had to just wait until they all came to my lending spot and then slip towards the door downstairs.
As I went around them I heard them talking between themselves. “What the hell was that?”
“Don’t know. Do you think we should report it?” said one of youngest of them.
“Of course we have to report it. Whatever or whoever was that is somewhere around so be careful and start sweeping the roof for intruder.” Said oldest of them.
I didn’t listen to them anymore and moved towards the door. I went downstairs without the problems. I know layout of the hall so it wasn’t problem to get to the ground floor without anyone noticing me. I had to get past couple of guards, but it wasn’t problem.
As soon as I get on ground floor I found first obstacle. Stairs heading down were guarded by two man. Both of them were in armor and wielding laser rifles. They constantly scanned small hall before them.
As soon as I enter the room they would see, even with my skin, and start the alarm. That I couldn’t risk, as my only advantage was in surprise. They knew someone entered the building but as long as they didn’t know my location it was even to my advantage. They had to cover larger space than normal and they had to divide their forces.
I opened map of the auction hall and looked at another entrance to the underground. From what I could see there was one more entrance, but it was through the kitchen and that would be even more crowded.
Although I knew it wasn’t good decision I started to move towards the kitchen. I found out that I could maybe slip past them with right disguise or distraction as the entrance was near the entrance to the kitchen.
I waited for the waiter or the chef to come out and look at his clothes. No sooner had I started than waiter come out. It was young woman wearing the suit that was completely black without any embroidery.
I waited until she was away and changed my skin tone and clothes to something resembling hers. It was only slightly similar, but I counted on the chaos of the kitchen. That should help me sneak past them before they found out who I was.
I waited and looked at the people going out and in the kitchen. I tried to remember how they pushed the door and how they walked inside. I wanted to copy their movement, so I would blend as much as I could. I heard somewhere that if you look confident and do what others do no one should ask you too much questions. At least I hope so.
As soon as someone came out and was out of my sight I went towards the door and opened them. Immediately I almost slammed into another waiter, but I managed to steadied his tray and push him out before he could look too much on me.
As I thought this was typical kitchen with all the controlled chaos which belonged to it. I went straight towards the stairs down. I was almost there when I heard someone call behind me.
“Where do you think you are going?” someone shouted behind me.
I didn’t turn and continued onwards, but I called behind me. “Just checking something for the boss.”
“He would tell me something about it and what could you check there? We don’t have permission to go down there.” He said.
I tried to come up with good lie, but I was saved by someone crashing something in the kitchen. As soon as I saw him turn towards the noise I went quickly down the stairs and changed my skin to invisible.
As I walked downstairs I listen for someone coming down after me, but no one came. He probably forgot about me already with all the things happening in the kitchen. I sighed with relief when I was sure no one would come and continued down. I went straight to the second level and listen for someone outside the door.
When I could hear no one I slowly crept forward and opened the door slightly. I could see long corridor cut into the bedrock. This wasn’t precise work like on upper floors. Here they just cut into the bedrock and left it like that. There was two doors in this corridor.
I went slowly forward and moved towards the first door behind which should be small warehouse for auction items. I placed my hands on the door and used the sensors to find out what was behind.
Behind the door was room about fifteen by fifteen. There were couple of shelfs going around the room and more than one item placed on them. I looked for heat signature but I couldn’t see anyone inside.
I tried the door but they were locked. I hoped they didn’t have alarm placed on the door, because what I wanted to do would definitely trigger it. I pulled the punch and change settings to cutter. Twenty minutes later I was slowly entering the room.
As soon as I walked inside I scanned the room for traps or alarms. As I couldn’t see anything I focused on metal ball that was placed on the pedestal in the middle of the room. I walked towards it and placed my hand on it. I immediately felt connection snapping between me and the ball. I felt something transferring into my body.
As soon as the transfer ended I knew it was Eleanor. What I didn’t count on was that she immediately started to take over and plug out my systems. I fall on my knee and placed my hands on ground to steady myself.
I tried to contact her, but I couldn’t do anything. She almost took over and destroyed me, but at last second she stopped.
“Leya?” was last thing I heard before I blacked out.
● ● ●
“How did it go? Did you capture her?” asked the man over the COM.
“Yes it wasn’t problem? We found her unconsciousness in the room with the AI. Don’t know what really happened, but don’t care really. Only thing that could prove unpleasant is that she managed to snatch the AI. We looked through the whole room, but we can’t find it anywhere.” Said woman voice.
“Doesn’t matter I’ll make it right with Guslak. Now transfer my guest to my house. I already prepared everything for her transport.” Said man.
“We know were already on our way. Just make it right with Guslak. We don’t want to make bad name for our Lotus clan.” Said woman.
“I’ll go talk to him immediately. Nothing will tarnish your name so deliver her and our deal is done.” He said.
“Ok, we’ll deliver her to your place. Just make sure to transfer all the money.”
“They’ll be on your account as soon as you deliver her. If you want to continue our business in the future, I have proposal for you. Just stay in the house and we’ll talk more.”
“Thanks, I’ll probably wait for you then.” She said and hung up.
● ● ●
When I woke up I was blinded by bright light shining into my face. I turned my head and I felt my eyes adjusting to the brightness.
“Leya?” asked Eleanor silently.
“Hi El. How are you doing?” I asked smiling.
“How? How are you alive?” she asked and I felt her happiness at finding me and at the same time I felt past sadness of all the years without me.
“Virtua saved me. I’m not sure how, but I woke up not long ago in a cave on planet Shatar. I …” I then told her about how I protected the councilmen and how I found out about her. I told her about everything that happened from the moment I woke up.
At the end of my story I felt her crying. “I thought you were dead. I tried to go on, but without you it was hard. You were my one and only captain.”
I tried to encompass her with my consciousness in my body and I had to manage it somehow because I felt her curl next to me. “I’m here now and I don’t plan on leaving you.”
She sniffed. “Thank you and sorry for attacking you before. I thought they wanted to use me and I lashed out to make as much damage as I could.”
“Don’t worry about it. Now we should think some escape plan.” I said.
“I tried to contact someone outside, but they are jamming us. Also our hands and feet are bound to bed. I think we could tear them out, but we’ll still be in a hostile area. It would be better to gather more information first and based on the information plan our next steps.” She said.
“For now we’ll pretend that you are not in my body and that I’m alone. When I get out of here I’ll contact the Paladin and we’ll go away.” I said.
“Ok, I’ll stay silent.” She said.
We talked little more, but in about a minute two people entered the room.
First was man about two meters tall with muscles rippling on his body. He was built like bulldozer and with his bald head he reminded me of soldier. He wore black elegant tuxedo with boots made from some reptile which placed him more towards rich business man then soldier. I looked at his face and he was smiling at me which revealed strait white teeth.
Behind him walked slender woman with long blond hairs and arrogant expression. As soon as she entered she sneered at me. I didn’t know why she didn’t like me so much, but I got bigger problem than that.
“Good day miss Leya. You can call me Baron and this lovely lady next to me is Sheila. She is head of the Lotus clan and she would like to know where you hid the AI, but we’ll return to that later. Now I would like to speak more to you.” Said the man.
The woman turned to him with frown. “I’m here to find out where she hid the AI. You promised me that you would help me with that.”
Baron smiled at her, but it was smile of predator looking at his prey. “Sheila my dear I’ll give you your AI, but don’t interrupt me like that. I don’t like it and people who do it tend to have fatal accident.”
She gulped and looked at the ground. “Sorry. I’ll wait till you’re finished.”
“Good.” He said and turned back to me. “Now where were we? Yes I wanted to talk to you about things you did to organization I’m representing and consequences of you action.”
“You foiled more than one of our plan and this is something that can’t continue. There were people in my organization who wanted to kill you, but in the end they sent me to give you message and make you an offer.” He said.
I looked at him and then at Sheila. “Why should I listen to someone who bound me to the bed?”
“Ohh, but you won’t be. I’ll just place this collar on your neck so I don’t have to worry about you running away.” He said and placed collar on my neck.
I felt El use quick scan. “It’s just electro collar. I poked around your body and it won’t do anything to you. If they use it they would be up for surprise. It should power you up instead of knocking you out. I’d love to see their expression.”
I tried not to smile and let him place the collar on my neck while I constantly frowned at him. I was pretty sure that he knew I scanned it, but at the same time I didn’t have much of a choice in refusing it.
“You don’t have to be angry. It’s just precaution against you running.” He said with smile. I was really starting to hate his smiling face.
After he placed the collar he undid the claps on my body. I slowly sit up and when no one stopped me I stand up. I wasn’t wearing my coat and I was wearing white shirt and white pants. I also couldn’t see my weapons anywhere.
“If you are looking for your things then rest assured they’re in capable hands. Our scientist are going over them. They are really nice pieces of technology.” He said.
“Don’t worry I’ll get them back and then we’ll have different conversation.” I said.
“Hahaha, we’ll see. I too would like to try myself against you. You’re sort of legend in my organization.” He said while walking outside of the room. I could see Sheila studying me while Baron talked about me. I liked her more when she underestimated me.
I followed him out of my cell and looked around. I was in metal corridor and from all the marks on the wall I could tell we were in some sort of military base or something like that.
“As you can see we’re currently on space station that my organization build. It’s located one jump from the rock that they call Qunar.” He said and continued down the corridor.
I followed him and Sheila was going behind me. I could feel her staring at my back. After a while we walked into room that was probably observatory as there were just couple of seats and big window revealing the universe behind.
I walked towards the window and looked outside. I always loved the universe, but in all the hurry I didn’t have time to just look at the stars.
“Nice isn’t it? I like to sit here and looked outside. It’s one of the biggest dangers out there and we’re cut from it by just think window.” He said.
I nodded, but I thought that it was beautiful for what it was not because of dangers it represented. “Yes it is.”
Baron looked outside, but shook his head in a while. “But that’s not why we’re here. I came to give you opportunity to join our cause.”
“I saw what you do. I will never join group like yours.” I said.
“Don’t be so hasty. You only saw what we did not what it represented. We want peace in this universe and everything we did was in the name of this dream.”
He said and started to pace around. “Did you heard about the empire that conquered half the known world on their planet? In doing so they brought peace and stability to these other countries. Of course there had to be sacrifices, but what great dream can be made without them?”
He turned towards me. “Me and organization I’m representing are trying to do something similar. We’re going to take over all the planets we can and place them under one rule. When that happens there would be no more wars as everyone would be citizen of one federation, kingdom or whatever someone more versed in this things thought up.”
“That is the reason we would like to invite you into our organization. You as the Paladin” I could see Sheila flinch when she heard my title. “would be able to protect more than couple of people on one or two planets. You would be able to protect them all.”
I felt Eleanor stir in me and listen attentively to Baron and waiting for my reaction. “Everything is true at least partially, but you’re forgetting what happened afterwards. I knew about what empire you’re talking about and in the end government became corrupted and all these countries rebelled against them and that was fall of your big empire.”
“Also if you know what the Paladins stand for then you know that I won’t join you. You think that no matter what means you use, you can claim it’s just for the end result. But we Paladins know that means are important. It’s important to try and change society, by being greater than others, by showing them that they could be better.”
I looked at the Sheila who I saw nodding while Baron was talking. “You think that if you build your empire on blood of innocent that you could just wash it off and start anew? No you would became same as the ones you tried to defeat.”
Baron looked at me obviously not happy with what I told him. “Shame. I told them you wouldn’t join us. Same as other Paladins you won’t let go of your way.”
“All in all it doesn’t matter. You are the last Paladin and if we can’t have you then we’ll have to dispose of you.” He said and pulled out the small device with button on it. I felt sadness wash over me when I heard him spoke about me being last Paladin.
“Is it true?” I asked Eleanor.
“Yes, it’s true.” She said after a while.
In a meanwhile Baron turned to Sheila. “What about you? Do you want to join our cause?”
Before she could say anything whole space station shuddered. Baron cursed as he tried to stay on his leg and I use this opportunity to run towards him.
Before I could get to him I was tossed sideways by unseen force. I landed on my legs and braced myself with my hands. I looked at the source and I saw Sheila looking at me with surprised expression.
I frowned and shook my finger at her. Once more I was interrupted and this time it was collar which poured electricity into me. I felt it going through my body and then enter my power source. I turned at Baron and smiled then I looked back at Sheila still smiling.
She didn’t need more and went for the nearest exit. With that done I turned to Baron who rolled up sleeves.
“Finally we can fight it out between ourselves. I wanted to do this from the first time I heard about you.”
I didn’t say anything. I just focused on him and tried to find some weakness in his defense just like Liray thought me.
We started to circle one another. No matter how I looked I couldn’t find a weakness in his stance. He had perfect form and I knew I was in deep trouble. I would have to do something to even his experience.
I waited for him to make his move. He too waited for me and in a mean time I tried to find pattern in his moves. I could see him studying me and he was too trying find a pattern in my style.
In the end I needed to find more about his moves and only thing left was to start the fight. I made three quick steps towards him and thrown a punch in his face. He deflected it and tried to lock my arm. I used counter move that Liray thought me and instinctively jumped back as he tried to kick me away.
I looked at him and he was smiling. I couldn’t help it but I too was smiling. I went after him and we exchanged flurry of blows. I dodge most of them, but I took two or three hits and it was like someone hit me with metal pipe. He had to have done some upgrades to his body.
I staggered back after this exchange, but I could see that one or two my blows hit him too. He shook his head and took a step back.
“You are stronger than you look.” He said and looked back at me. “And you can evidently take more damage than I would tell.”
“You too. I would guess some modification.” I said.
“Nothing extraordinary. Just some changes to DNA.” He said.
Too late I saw that he was stalling to regenerate damage I did to him in our brief exchange. As soon as he was right he went after me. With strong push of his legs we jumped towards me and tried to tackle me.
I sidestepped him and went for his arm. He slapped my hands away and hit me strait in the chest with palm of his hand. It was even worse than before and I was tossed across the room and hit the window.
As soon as I landed on the ground I was forced to roll to my right as leg landed with laud bang on a space I occupied before. I strengthen myself and blocked three quick trusts from Baron. I tried to do more but I was forced back.
I tried to counter attack, but he didn’t gave me a chance.
“Leya if you want I can help you. I can pour more energy into your body which should increase your strength and speed.” Said Eleanor.
“Then do so. I’m getting pretty good beating.” I said.
Instantly I felt power surge through my body. I smiled when I felt the world around me slow even more. I blocked punch going towards my face and went to offensive. I punched him in the gut and when he doubled over I kneed him in the face.
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I followed with quick swept of my leg and as he felt down on the ground I followed with to kick into his head. I jumped back and waited for him to move. As nothing happened I slowly moved towards him and checked his pulse.
It was steady, but I could see he was out. I quickly went through his pockets. I found key to my collar which I used to unlock it and with smile I placed it on Baron’s neck. Besides the key I picked entry card and remote control for the collar. I pocketed them and looked around me. There were three doors going from this room and I could see name plates above them.
Above the door I came from, I could see jail wrote on the plate. Next to it was another door that Sheila used and there were three names. Dock, Crew quarters and mess hall. At the last plate was sign Laboratory.
Without hesitation I moved towards the Laboratory. I needed to take back my weapons and coat as they could reverse engineer their parts and that could prove unpleasant later. Maybe I should have killed Baron, but I didn’t want to kill someone who was essentially helpless.
I went through the corridor and looked through the windows where I could see scientist running around and packing their projects. There were no doors in this corridor. It was probably used to control work of the scientist in the rooms.
I stopped before third window as I saw couple of scientist pack my weapons into create. I looked for the door but I could see them on the other side of the room. I sighed and pulled back my fist and brought it down on the window.
As my fist landed, cracks went through the window and all the scientist jumped up in fright. I pulled my hand once more and in two more hits I was through. They tried to run away but in their fright they couldn’t punch the code to unlock the door.
As I jumped down into the room they turned towards me. “Don’t hurt us. We’re just working for them.” Said one of them.
“Give me back my things and I’ll let you go.” I said.
They looked at the crates they were carrying and back at me. I could see their eyes widen as it downed on them who I was. They trembled as they gave them to me. I opened them and found there all my things. From my weapons to my clothes.
I let them out and changed my clothes and placed weapons into the holsters. I sigh in relief when I felt familiar weight settle on me. As I looked around I felt the station shuddered. I had to get out of here before someone would blow it up.
I jumped up and started to run back, but after couple of steps I stopped. I was in laboratory where they were researching one of their best technology.
“What do say El, should I first look at the new tech they’re making here or should we scram?” I asked.
“I think we should look at it first. It could help us anticipate their potential moves in the future. Also it can help us in upgrading our things.” She said.
“Ok, we’ll go and get a look at them.” I said and turned around. I walked through the corridor and look at the rooms that they used for their experiments. I could see weapons, armor and a lot of gadgets laying in every room. There were always scientist walking around the room and packing their research.
When I found out something interesting I placed my hand at the window and Eleanor scanned the items. We were going like this for about a minute or two when I found room that was bigger than the others.
I look down and I was horrified by what I found. There were humans, aliens and even androids cut open and connected to computers. From what I saw they were all still consciousness and by the look in their eyes they were suffering.
“Who could do something like this?” asked El.
“I don’t know, but I’m planning on stopping them.” I said.
I saw someone going between the beds and checking on them. Behind him I could saw technicians connecting the beds to batteries. They evidently were preparing for transporting of they’re experiments.
I never saw something so horrifying as this. There were streams of tears going from species that could cry. I felt tear going from my eye as I looked at them. I pulled my fist back and punched with all the might I could gather.
I felt Eleanor giving a boost and I punched right through the window.
“How dare you do something like this?” I shouted at the scientist as I jumped down.
He didn’t even looked ashamed of what he did and evidently he knew what I was talking about. He looked proudly around him. “I made something extraordinary. By sacrificing these creatures I can make us better. I can make almost anyone stronger, faster and even more intelligent. Don’t you think it’s small price to pay for something like that. I’m able to cure most sicknesses without much effort.”
He was going on about how what he did was justifiable and what he managed to invent through all of them. I looked at the nearby specimen and I could see him looking at me and mumbling something quietly.
“He’s begging you to kill him.” Said Eleanor silently.
I stared at the alien that look at me with hope in the eyes. Without looking I pulled Punch and shot the scientist in the head. All the technicians that didn’t run away looked me fearfully and tried to get away from me.
I picked one and held him up. He tried to wriggle out of my hold, but I was too strong for him.
“D..D…Don’t kill me. I just do what they tell me.” He said.
“I should have killed you all, but that wouldn’t help them. Just tell me how to put them to rest without pain and I’ll let you go.” I said.
“Y..y.. you just pu..u.ll them of and they won’t fe..e..ll anything.” He said.
“Are there more laboratories like this?”
“Y…yes there are four more. They are slightly different but they too have live specimen in them.” He said trembling
I studied him and when I was pretty sure he was telling the truth I let him go. He immediately run away without looking back. I looked at all the species lying there and slowly one by one I put them to rest.
I talked to them and tried to calm them down. Some of them thanked me, while others weren’t even able to talk, but their eyes told me everything. When I pulled last one of them out, I made silent prayer for their souls. Wherever they were I hope they were happy there.
I felt sadness and anger coming from Eleanor and she curled even more to me. I mentally patted her. “Don’t worry, we’re tear this place down.”
“I just can’t stand being trapped and I don’t even know how they must felt.” Said Eleanor.
“Can you hack this place and release others?” I asked.
There was silence and I could only faintly hear Eleanor. “I can’t, at least not right now. I can’t stand going out right now.”
Something had to happen to her while I was away. She completely lost her confidence. I can’t do anything right now about it but as soon as we return in the Paladin, I’ll find out what happened to her. For now I’ll let her be.
“Ok, I’ll come up with something.” I said.
I felt another tremor going through the station and to my surprise I felt that jamming stopped. I activated my COM and I instantly heard Lany talking.
“Leya are you there? Say something, I don’t think I would be able to dodge their fire for much longer.”
“This is Leya. Where are you?” I asked.
“Haha, I told you she would be alright.” She said to someone on the bridge. “I’m outside. I attacked the station where they took you, but there are ships approaching. I had max thirty minutes before I’ll have to go away.”
I thought about what to do. I have to shut down their experiments, but at the same time I’d like to get away from this station. It’s a shame that I couldn’t build singularity missiles. I could just run and blow up the station with them.
“But you can build them.” Said Eleanor.
“No I can’t. I don’t have rank high enough to build them.” I said.
“Your rank is General. After you destroyed the blackhole you were given rank of the general. You are now highest ranking Paladin as they managed to hunt others down. I’ll transfer codes and all other information for you general.” Said Eleanor.
I gasped as new stream of data were transferring inside me. There were additional codes for all the station Paladins own as location of safe houses and space installation. There were many more, but I didn’t have time.
“I’ll use escape pod so be prepared to catch me.” I said to Lany.
“How would I know which one should I pick? There are several already going from the station.” Said Lany.
“You’ll be homing on my signal. I have to go for now and find myself some escape pod.” I said.
“Ok, take care of yourself.” She said and I terminated the call.
Now, where could they placed the escape pods? I jumped back up in the corridor and looked around. There should be pods in each section of the station if it was built like others. I’ll just have to find someone to tell me the way or download plans from some computer panel somehow.
I run forward and tried to find someone or at least some computer. I looked through the windows, but these rooms were already cleared out. I thought back and tried to remember which way were all the scientist running.
“They were running this way. Based on slight curve of the corridor, you should be able to find someone soon.” Said Eleanor.
“Thanks El.” I said and continued to run forward.
It didn’t take me long to enter another room. It was giant warehouse where I could see all the scientist placing their equipment and experiments into the ships. None of them saw me so I looked around.
I almost stepped inside when I saw couple of security guys stationed around the room. I stepped back and used shadow near the wall to conceal myself.
“What do you think El? Should we try it?” I said.
“Hmm, it should be easier than finding the escape pod. Which one do you want to take?”
“We should take something fast and armored. Even better would be something small that we could park in the Paladin.” Said Eleanor and I felt her looking through my eyes. “That one should do.” She said and highlighted small spaceship with huge engine compared to its size.
“Yes that one should do and I can give it to Lany when she decides to go her own way.” I said.
I changed my coat to that of the scientist and walked towards the ship. It looked like more like small fighter with pilot seat at the front and giant engine behind it. On the sides were wings that could be deployed when going on the planet. All in all it was made to save as much as space as could be possible.
After first step towards the ship I felt that my appearance changed slightly. “Here let me take care of that.” Said Eleanor and when I could see that my coat changed on some places. Even my face was changed. I couldn’t see how much, but I trusted Eleanor to do better job than I. This was how it was supposed to be, two making one.
I walked up towards the ship and no one stopped me. Just as I was before the ramp into the ship I saw one of the bodyguards walking towards me. I quickly ducked inside and closed the door.
“El I know you don’t want to go out right now, but I need you to hack this ship and change the codes for it. Please help me. You can return to me immediately.” I said to her as I went and sat in the pilot seat.
I felt Eleanor moving inside me. “I don’t know if I can. I fear that I you would disappear as soon as I go away.”
“I told I would be there as long as you need me, but I need you to help with this. It shouldn’t take you more than a minute.” I said.
“I’ll try. Place your hand to some panel.” She said.
As soon as I placed my hand to panel before me I felt her transfer into the ship. No sooner than she left she was back and I felt the codes enter into my mind.
“There you go. I changed them so they can’t enter this ship or control it remotely. Now you just have to contact Lany and tell her you won’t be going with escape pod plan.”
“Thanks I almost forgot to call her.” I said.
“I know, that’s why I told you.” She said and chuckled.
I was glad that at least some of her humor was coming back. I smiled and called Lany on COM.
“Lany change of plans. I managed to acquire a ship. I’ll dock into the cargo hold. It should be big enough to take this ship in.” I said.
“Just hurry, I don’t know how long will the shield hold. It’s getting rather weak.” She said and I heard exhaustion in her voice.
“I’ll be there in a minute.” I said and as I started the ship. I felt the hum of the engine behind me. I smiled and pulled at the thrusters.
Even with this little push I was flying across the hold and out of the shielded barrier to the outside. I sent ping to the Paladin and speed up towards it. People of the station won’t probably know that I stole this ship for about couple of minutes so I should be able to get into Paladin before they started to shoot at me.
When I finally saw the Paladin it was dodging fire from two ships that were pursuing it. Lany was doing good job, but I could see that her shield was getting rather thin.
This ship didn’t have any weapons so I would have to improvise. I pulled the thrusters to maximum. I was kicked in the back and I shot towards the ship.
I got COM from one of the ship that was going after Paladin. “Boss what are you doing? We didn’t install any weapons on your ship.”
I didn’t reply and I prepared for the maneuver that should surprise them. I let El calculated it and she placed lines before me that I should follow. They tried to contact me two more times before I was on them.
I aimed at one of them and before I was going to impact him I rolled the ship and placed my thrusters towards his shield. I shut the thrusters down and waited until I was near him. At Eleanor’s signal I fired them to full.
I felt whole ship tremble as it had to go through the giant strain. I looked through the sensors and I saw shield broke on other ship and I managed to melt giant hole into it.
Second ship changed their trajectory and went after me and that was mistake. As soon as it turned its back to Lany, she poured laser and plasma fire into it. Before they could even dodge their shields collapsed and whole ship was almost disintegrated.
I didn’t have time to celebrate as more ships were coming and I needed to take down this station before it would be too late. I went to Paladin and when Lany opened the cargo bay door I landed the ship inside. It was just so. I hoped that I would be able to open ramp so I could go out.
In the end I managed to open it just wide enough to get through it. I run towards the bridge but stopped as soon as I entered it. There was Strike behind one of the consoles.
“What is she doing here?” I asked Lany.
“I’m helping her save your life.” Said Strike without turning to me. “Lany we should get out of here. Shield is only on twenty percent and we can’t use missiles.”
I almost forgot that no one, but me can use this ship in full specs. I went towards the Lany and connected myself to the ship. “Let me take over. I have some job still to do.” I said and sat in the pilot seat that Lany left. She went to tactical station and strapped herself in.
“What do you mean you have something to do? We don’t have firepower and shields to do something like that.” Said Strike.
“We have now.” I said and entered codes for full access to the ship.
I heard surprised gasp behind me going from Strike and Lany.
“What is this? Shield just jumped to fifty percent and I see that we have missiles.” Said Strike.
“And more than one. There’s around twenty missiles.” Said Lany.
“I’ll explain later. Now I have couple of ships that I need to destroy and I need to do it before all other ships arrive.” I said.
“El can you scan ships and find me ones I’m looking for.” I said.
“I’ll try. If they are shielded it would be problem.” She said and I felt her going alongside me into the Paladin. I was glad that she didn’t mind being in ship as long as I was with her. I’ll have to ask her what happened after we finish this.
I went towards the ships running from the station. I was still confused why they run from the station as it was their best defense. I thought about it on my way towards them and then it downed on me.
These ships coming towards us weren’t friendlies. They came to attack the station and that mean they could be my allies. I let Eleanor send them COM request. After about two minutes I got the reply. It would be difficult conversation thanks to time lag.
“Who is this?” said man with catlike ears and eyes. I immediately knew that he was Gorian. I didn’t know why he didn’t covered his face like others. It would mean his excommunication.
“My name is Leya and I would like your purpose for this station.” I said and waited another two minutes for the response.
“I represent Mr. Guslak and he’s taking this station for himself. If you want to make some money I would like you to stop the ships you are pursuing and let them surrender to us.” He said.
“I don’t care what you want to do with this station, but research on this ships can’t fall into wrong hands. Because of that I’m forced to destroy them.” I said and disconnected.
I saw Lany turned to me with incredulous look. “What do you mean destroy? There are innocent people on these ships.”
“I’ll give them a chance. Destroy your research and you won’t be destroyed. Refuse and you have five minutes to get out of the ships before I start to blow them up.” I said.
“But why do you want them to destroy so much?” asked Lany.
“They experimented on humans and aliens. They are still holding a lot of them no these ships.” I said and I felt tear going down my cheek as I remembered their eyes. “I have to put them to rest.”
She looked me in the eyes and when she saw my tears, she nodded. “Ok, I’m behind you.”
“Just like that you let her destroy all these ships?“ asked Strike.
“Yes, she wouldn’t do it without the reason.” Said Lany.
Strike shook her head. “I won’t interfere, but I would like explanation after this.”
I turned to her and nodded. I looked back at the convoy and I saw about five fighters depart from the convoy made by scientist fleeing the station. I let Eleanor mark four of them and I fired one missile for each of them. Last one I’ll engage myself.
From what I saw of Lany’s fight my lasers had about double the effective range then they had. As soon as I came into the range Eleanor fired from the cannons. Shield on the fighter held and his companions managed to knock down three of the four missiles.
Their luck ended with this last missile as I didn’t plan on hitting them at all. I just needed to get one near them which I did. Eleanor sent the signal to the last missile.
There was bright flash as one of my anti-matter missiles exploded near them. All five ships had their outer hulls totally singed and I could see their power source shutting down. I cracked up my forward shields and with only ten percent loss I was continuing on my way towards the ships.
I got COM request from the convoy. “Who are you and why are you attacking us?”
“My name is Leya and I want you to jettison all your research. Your alternative is that I destroy you all.” I said.
“Why would you want to destroy this research? It could help tremendous amount of people.” Someone else said.
“I saw how you do your research. All these wasted lives for your greed. I think you know why I want to do it.” I said.
“That is only small part of the research. There are more and it could help people.” Said first voice.
“Then transfer it to me and I’ll give it to the right people.” I said.
“So you’re just pirate who wants our research.” Said woman’s voice.
I knew that this was getting me nowhere. “I know, what is your organization doing? I don’t plan letting it hold your research. I gave you my conditions. Pick and decide.”
“Why would you be better option then this organization that hired us.” Said same woman.
“Because I’m General Paladin Leya and I swore that I would protect those who can’t protect themselves. You are using innocent in your research and torturing them in the process. I won’t let you continue so either sent me the data and delete them or delete them or go away from the ships and I’ll destroy them.”
No one sent me anything so I went and asked Eleanor thing I needed most. “El I would need you to go through their ship and delete everything.”
“You know, I can’t do it.” She said silently.
“I’ll be there with you. I don’t know how, but if you help me I’ll go with you.” I said.
“I… I’ll do it, but you have to go with me.” Said Eleanor.
“I’ll be there.” I said and I felt Eleanor taking me to other ships. One by one we prepared all the data on research for deleting. I’ll give them their chance, but I didn’t trust them enough. They could try to copy it on medium not connected to network.
When we ended I felt myself slipping back into the ship. We were lucky that we managed to infiltrate on ship without good protection and through it we infected others. Now I just needed to send signal and all the data would delete itself.
“So what is your decision?” I asked scientist.
“We won’t give you your data. That our decision.” Said first man.
“Ok then evacuate this four ships. I’ll be destroying them.” I said and deleted all the data.
“What did you do? Where are all the data?” asked the woman.
“I gave you the chance to do right thing, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t prepared for this eventuality. Now evacuate them, but let all the patients on these ships. I know what happened to them. I’ll be releasing them from their suffering.” I said.
“Who gave you right to kill them in cold blood?“ asked the woman.
“They gave me the right.” I said. “El sent them their last words of their last patients.”
There was silence then I heard crying of the woman. “I didn’t know. They told us that they didn’t feel anything.”
“It doesn’t matter. We did great things thanks to them.” Said another voice.
“I gave you chance. You have five minutes to get out of the ships before I destroy them.” I said.
“I won’t leave my work.” Said one of them and his ship started to move away. I sighted on him and started to hit him with laser fire. With help of Eleanor who was doing the targeting I saw his shield flare in a while and collapse.
I stopped, but when I saw that he didn’t slowed himself I finished him with plasma and laser fire. When I stopped there just parts of the ship flying around the space where the ship once was.
“Anyone else trying to do something stupid?” I asked.
“No we’ll start transferring the crew.” Said the woman with sadness in her voice.
I saw that remaining three ships docked with another three and transferred crew over to them. After that they disengaged and let them flout there.
With shields down it was easy to tear them apart. With that done I pointed the ship to wormhole for Qunar and flew towards it.
I saw one message from the convoy. I opened it and listened to recording. “I’m sorry. I truly didn’t know about it. If you need something in future look me up and I’ll help you. My name is Doctor Filden’er Gul. I’m in your debt for helping me put myself on way of redemption for my mistakes.”
I composed short message for him where I sent him name of people who suffered under their experiments and their last known location. As I sent it, I activated the wormhole drive and jumped towards the Qunar.