Continued From E3:P2

Daryon finally let go of Balinski’s hand and he flexed it gratefully. She had been treading a deathgrip on it the whole time they had been in the club. She looked around to make sure they wouldn't be overheard and then slipped up and onto the booth’s long bench-like seat. She made room for Balinski and so he sat next to her, a little wary of her lower body that was occupying some of the space under the table.

She leaned forwards towards the old drone and hissed loudly, “How did you know?

The skorp seemed to wheeze terribly and for a moment Balinski thought they might be in some manner of medical stress. But after a moment he realised that they were just laughing. “How did one know? Look at this big hunk you walked in with. The poor boy is practically screaming military man or law enforcement. His stiff posture and the shifty way he has been checking the surroundings constantly.” He shook his head slightly, he thought he had been incredibly subtle. This old bug knew their stuff, clearly not somebody to be trifled with.

He leaned forwards and made a quick gesture of apology towards the bug. “And here I was thinking I was the epitome of stealth, you are a shrewd one I’ll give you that.” He glanced at Daryon, “I don’t think we have been properly introduced. Who is your friend?”

Before she could answer the skorp leaned forwards and reached out towards him. “Let me show you who one is. This one hears certain things, knows others. And one thing it does know is that the second precinct was attacked by a Pit Viper kill team late last month, and one also knows that the attack was beaten off at a heavy cost to the station.” Balinski nodded slightly, that much was now public knowledge. It had been impossible to keep the news of such a heinous act from slipping to the ravenous, predatory media.

“Yes, that’s not much of a case for you.” He started to say but the skorp raised a hand.

They shook it slightly as if rebuking him for his lack of attention. “That’s just the setup for the other things this one was going to share.” They cleared their throat and took a swallow out of the cup next to them. It was full of a jet-black liquid that seemed to stain the glass. “It is also known that the kill team was stopped in its tracks by the actions of a single man, not a police officer. But a void warden.”

Now it was Balinski’s turn to try and remain stoic. Anything he said or did could give things away that may still be vital insider knowledge in the investigation. But it didn't matter as they dropped the bombshell a moment later.

“It knows that this one man managed to kill most of the death squad by himself with the help of some manner of cybernetic animal. One also knows this person’s basic description and name. So tell me.. Balinski Katars… What is it that you need from us? Ask the right questions and you may just receive the answers you seek.” With that final declaration the aged insectoid leaned back. Their legs creaked slightly as they shifted their position to get comfortable once more.

Daryon was looking at him now, her version of a smile showing in her cracked faceplates and raised antennae. “Sso, do you believe me about the ssource now?”

He waved a hand. “Yeah.. yeah. I believe you now, I only have one question, I don't have my cyberhound with me. So without that as confirmation how did you know it was me?”

They leaned back a little and replied coolly, “That is not the right question. Try again.”

Daryon gave him what looked to be the beginnings of an apologetic shrug and so he leaned into the table and spoke, “Ok then, my turn. I haven’t been dicking around. I pay attention too, I have contacts in the information services and they funnel information I need to me. You are old, far too old to be here for the carnal proclivities. So it must be something else. You seemed to know Daryon and spoke of her field work.” He gave her an apologetic glance and mouthed ‘sorry’ before he continued.

“From what I know of Daryon, she joined the force young and was originally recruited to the undercover operations field by a certain commander who I won't name. She worked in some of the hardest places in the city, she must have done some manner of deep undercover which is where I'm guessing she met you. Now you don’t strike me as the dirty work type, your earlier analysis makes me think that you were a counter-spook. Maybe even a disgraced UIA operative or something like that.” He finished with a nod and leaned back into the padded bench, proud of his own admittedly frayed deductive logic.

Something pressed up against him and he looked over to see Daryon huddling against him slightly, not out of fear though. She seemed to be watching him intently, her expression unreadable as her antennae twitched.

The old skorp drone looked around slightly, their compound eyes doing most of the work for free. They spoke, that same slightly wheezing voice now less derisive. A hint of respect in their tone as they folded their upper two arms while the lower two lay palm flat across the table on either side of their drink. “Well, well. Perceptive and powerful, no wonder Siyel chose to confide in you.” he jerked, now how in Luck’s name could the old bug possibly know that? They continued unabated, “You were right about one thing at least, this one did meet Daryon in the field. She was at a low point and we helped her out of it out of some misguided sense of pity. One has been paying for it ever since. She’s a good girl, but she can be a little too open with her feelings at times.” they raised their voice slightly as if chiding the larger woman.

Daryon dipped her head and looked around conspicuously. “I told you that I would make it up to you. And in my own opinion I have, you did what needed to be done. He was a bad man, too bad to let go any longer…” She trailed off as she shivered. Balinsky gave her a bump with his shoulder and a small smile, the gesture working to cheer the woman up slightly.

“Remember what I promised. Nobody, not even yourself.” She nodded gratefully, her arms folding once more as she quickly regained her composure. He turned back to the woman and asked her again, “So, you know who we are. Can you tell me your name now?”

She chittered and then coughed before downing another glug of the thick black liquid. “Oh you poor young soul. You don't understand yet, but names hold power. Be careful what names you so carelessly sling around. You never know who may be listening.”

He frowned and looked around. Suddenly acutely aware of just how exposed they were should a fight break out. “Alrighty then, we are looking for information on the Pit Vipers and who is funding them.” He pulled out a small vial he had checked out of the evidence wing earlier in the week in preparation for this meeting. He rolled it across the table to her where she deftly snatched it. Her movements were much faster than her earlier show of frailty would have led him to believe. It would be a folly to underestimate this woman, his respect for her climbed another notch higher as she examined the contents of the small vial with a practiced eye.

After a moment of scrutiny she rolled it back to him. “Occusmite. And some of the purest this one has seen in a while. Are you aware of the street value of that single vial?” He nodded and she made a small shrugging motion.

He glanced at Daryon and gave her another nudge. She swallowed and then began, “Well, what you may not know iss the connectionss that this vial provesss. We know for a fact that it was in the kill ssquad’s posssession before the attack. We also know that it was provided to them through an intermediary.”

“The Golden Boys, that’s why you captured Slake.” the skorp said, piecing it together from the scraps of information they must have already heard.

She made an affirmative gesture to the older alien. “What you may not have known for ssure iss where they got it.” The skorp cocked her head and Daryon answered with a hissing whisper. “Thisss ockie was manufactured by the Psychossisss Divission and likely disstributed to the Golden Boys directly.” This got them to lean forwards, obviously news to the old skorp.

They sat still for a moment, gears turning in their head as they seemed to mull it over.

After a moment they spoke up, this time directly to Daryon. “Well that doesn't make much sense. The Psyches usually only deal with the Sunstarters, and you know how much they hate the Golden Boys for encroaching on their market. Are you sure that this came from the Psychosis Division?”

Balinski interjected. “One hundred percent. It has been tested against other known sources and isn’t a match to either the Golden Boys own supply or that synthetic shit cropping up over by the flyway. No, this has their distinct signature.”

A distinct signature that he had only been able to identify because of the Psychosis Divisions seeming compulsory need to be held accountable for their work. To be fair, they did some of the best chemical engineering of various narcotics and substances in the entire city, but it was still an exploitable weakness to those who knew what to look for.

Daryon spoke up again, the chitinous plates of her face moving animatedly as she talked in rapid fashion. Her constant exhale gave her a slightly hissing accent that was indicative of her people. “Sso what is it that connectss the Pit Vipersss to the Psychossisss Division then? There iss no way those rabble roussersss were able to get a sseat at the big table like that. There had to have been an intermediary, what do you know?” She asked firmly, expecting an answer.

Balinski watched as the grizzled bug looked around and then lowered their voice. In the thumping musical atmosphere of the club it became difficult to hear them as they spoke softly, “One will tell you this but nothing more. People have been killed for knowing even a fraction of what we are about to tell you.” They paused again and Balinski leaned in closer to hear them better. “What this one has been hearing whispers of in the streets is that something big is going on. There are echoes of truces between rivals that have never been at peace, new alliances forged between former rivals and old hatreds put to rest for the sake of this upcoming wave. As to what the wave is, one knows not and cares not to know. We are only on the edge of this and already this one is far too scared to dig any deeper. There have been.. disappearances and one is not keen to be next. But there is one thing we can tell you for sure, there is much fresh psychosis occusmite on the streets. Follow the trail to the source and you will find what you seek in good time.”

With this last declaration the old skorp pushed themselves back upright and grabbed the glass that was still half full on the table. They slammed the thick honey-like liquid back and used their long lapping tongue to quickly clean out the rest of the glass. They set the glass back down with a loud snap and nodded their large head. “This one must now bid you farewell, we hope that you are able to figure it out without tipping your hand.”

Without another word they scuttled off, their six legged walk deceptively quick for their advanced age. Balinski sat back into the couch and reached up to rub his face with a polymer and alloy hand. “Great, so what in the deep dark do we do now?”

Daryon didn’t answer, instead she seemed to settle herself ever so slightly closer to him.

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Before he had the opportunity to ask what was wrong he heard approaching footsteps, a lot of them. He turned and saw a small group of men approaching. Slaaveth, humans and even a surly looking atraxses following behind a large and heavily muscled yeown male. The man was tall for a male of his species and almost as muscular as Terri the bouncer had been.

Daryon seemed to shrink even more, her jacketed torso now noticeably pressing into him as she made an attempt to hide herself. The man was walking directly towards them and he hissed, “What is it Daryon? Is it trouble?”

She didn’t answer him though, just a small almost whimpering hiss issuing from her lips. The furred alien was now pretty much on top of them as the muscular yeown stopped at the edge of their table and took a deep sniff. The conspicuous nature of it seemed intended to either rile him up or set him on edge.

He could smell the trouble brewing almost immediately as the man’s goons seemed to fan out behind him in a wall formation, blocking off the rest of the club and acting as a physical barrier to any potential onlookers. The yeown himself extended an idle claw and it took Balinski only a second to notice it had osmiridium gilding along the back of it.

He seemed to ignore Balinski entirely and instead spoke in a manner directed at Daryon, the vinarfelien woman had now fully slumped down as far as she could. Fully cowering behind him. Balinski bristled automatically, who was this asshole and what did he want with his friend?

The man on the other hand had continued to speak. Balinski started to pay more attention to his words as he chuckled in an insidious manner, “..like that. Oh come on, I can see you remember me Talluni. It's me, Humble Bob. Surely you remember all the.. good times we shared together?”

Humble Bob, as the man put it, was nothing of the sort. It was almost immediately obvious that this grey furred alien was a top tier asshole and likely a criminal to boot. He longed to just stand up and put the impudent fuzzer in his proper place, but he didn’t want to cause a ruckus if they could avoid it.

The man who called himself humble slapped the surface of the table causing Daryon to make a small exclamation of fear as he practically roared, “Talluni, I know it’s you. I would recognise that pretty little tail of yours anywhere. Are you sure you don't want to talk? What’s the worst that could happen, I can give you a lot more excitement than your new toy here possibly could. Come on and bite off a piece.” he stood and flexed his admittedly impressive muscles.

That was it, the man was going to leave them alone one way or the other. He would try diplomacy first, and then when that inevitably failed he would switch to more aggressive negotiations.

Balinski stood, with some difficulty as Daryon was still attempting to crawl inside of his trench coat. Facing the man he met him eye to eye and spoke with a firm but fair tone. Far more polite than the man deserved, “I am sorry friend, I think you may have the wrong table. My friend and I were simply here to relax and knock back a few drinks. I would politely ask that you leave us in peace.”

Humble Bob just stared at him for a second before he threw his head back and laughed, a growling, yowling laugh that sounded almost forced. It was if the man were playing a character of himself, his brash nature completely at odds with his clean pressed suit. He looked back towards his assorted cronies and they began to chuckle along with him, classic yes-man style. It was obvious they were simply on the man’s payroll and likely though he was as much of an insufferable cock as he did.

The yeown turned back to him and asked, “And what do you think you are going to do about it, you dumb clawless meatbag.” He punctuated the last insult by jabbing his clawed hand into Balinski’s chest. He might have been expecting to draw blood, maybe even scare him off. The last thing he seemed to have expected was his claw almost immediately getting tangled in Balinski’s soft body armour layer.

“What is this.. huh?” Humble Bob tried to withdraw their hand but it was stuck fast, their claw having snagged on the nanoweave fibers of his armour.

Balinski just smiled at the man, his knuckles cracking as he grabbed the man’s wrist with his left hand. “You look a little stuck there, here let me help. With a twisting yank he pulled the man’s claw free.

The insufferable asswipe screeched in pain as there was a snapping sound. Likely their finger breaking as he dragged it from his hidden chest rig. The man’s goons stepped closer but the man waved them back. “NO!” he shouted while cradling his injured hand. “I will deal with this one myself.” He growled.

‘He could try.’ Balinski thought to himself with a silent chuckle. He glanced over his shoulder and was alarmed to see that Daryon had covered her face with her hands and was entirely withdrawn it seemed. It was a shock to see the normally self confident alien like that, she was generally the first one in the door when it came to any dangerous situation. First in, last out, she liked to quip.

The big man lashed out at Balinski’s face without warning and he was forced to duck under the clumsy swing. No doubt it would have taken his face off if it had connected, but the man was clumsy and slow. He was relying entirely too much on power and not enough on movement and agility. In order to show him the error of his ways Balinski reached out and grabbed ahold of their elbow as they were still recovering from their missed swing.

With a simple twist and shove he knocked the aggressive yeown backwards onto his ass. Once more the ring of henchmen surrounding them and blocking off any escape closed in a little more. Balinski got the feeling that if he wasn’t careful one or more of these guys was likely to put a bullet in him. Or at least try to, he was still wearing his body armour after all.

Balinski spoke in a level voice, keeping his cool even through the haze of red anger that was misting his vision. “Are you done now? Leave us alone, final warning.” He knew it would antagonise the man, maybe that is what he had been wanting to do anyways.

The man climbed back to his feet and gave a cruel smile. He took a single step forwards and reached into his suit with a large furred hand. Balinski tensed as the man grabbed something, was it a weapon? Before he got the chance to find out the man spoke quickly and two of his goons rushed Balinski. A slaaveth man and human grabbed his arms and tried to drag him to his knees but Balinski locked his legs. The cybernetics made a rather conspicuous whine as their servos were stressed, but he held his ground as the two thugs looked back towards their master in confusion.

Humble Bob snarled, “Fucking cybe!” With that he pulled out a wicked looking diamonomolecular gut knife, the blade was so razor sharp that its edge seemed to be nearly transparent. The ultra-hard hyperdiamond edge would carve through his body armour like it didn't exist if he let the man touch him with that thing. So he did the only thing he could think of, he swung his arms together with the two henchmen still attached. The two of them cracked together, their heads rebounding off each other with an audible clunk as they fell to the ground in front of him stunned.

He took a ready stance as the man lunged at him with another snarl of fury, his slavering predatory teeth flashing a dull yellow in the flickering neon lighting of the club. Balinski dodged, well, mostly. The edge of the blade caught his inner arm and sheared through his sleeve to cut into the buckyweave of the cybernetics beneath. He didn’t feel pain in the conventional sense with his cybernetics, but the feedback from the damage was enough to make him wince slightly. Something that the enraged yeown clearly picked up on as his eyes widened.

“Military grade cybernetics? Who the fuck are you and what are you doing with my Talluni!” Balinski didn't want to answer the first question and didn't have a good answer for the second.

He dodged again and had to somersault over the edge of the table as the knife carved a large furrow out of its surface. “I don't know what the hell you are saying, I was just trying to enjoy an evening and you had to come over like a giant grinskal shit and stink it all up.” he spat back to the knife wielding yeown.

Another henchman stepped forwards out of the corner of his vision and tried to smack him over the head with some sort of cudgel, but he threw up his right arm and blocked it. He felt his whole body shudder from the blow, damn that atraxses was strong. It was time to let go of the niceties, he extended his wrist blade with a snap and counter swung at the cudgel wielding thug. He wasn't trying to kill him, just entice him to back off. It was successful as the swing cut through the large furred man’s sash and sent his various belongings clattering to the floor.

Amongst the mess he saw at least one gun and knew that he had to leave now before things escalated more. He jumped the bench and kicked another of the thugs in the chest, causing them to crash to the carpeted floor wheezing and clutching their chest.

Another swing from another thug was narrowly avoided when something caused the table to fall with a snap and sent him tumbling to the floor. He landed hard, the air getting completely knocked from his biological lung. He stood quickly with a wheeze just in time to have Bob swing at his face again. This time he only narrowly pulled back, the knife cutting a slit out of the brim of his hat.

He swore, “Damnit, okay.. I’m done playing.” Balinski rushed straight for the suddenly very surprised looking gangster and punched him in the muzzle hard. The sound of snapping teeth was as loud as gunshots to his ears as the man smashed into the stairs that led to the lowered middle area. His limp body rolled to a stop in a heap, his bloody face wheezing as the unconscious man blew blood bubbled from his fractured nose.

He heard a shout as the remaining henchmen paused to observe their boss, several of them rushing to his aid while Balinski dashed to Daryon.

He gripped her torso under her second pair of arms and housed her upright, her antennae were pressed as hard into her back as they could go and she still had her face covered. She made a sort of hissing noise as he dragged her upright and several of her lower arms lashed out at him.

Balinski grunted as several of them made solid connection to his lower torso, “Ouuf, Daryon.. Daryon stop! It’s me!” He said as quickly as he could.

To her credit she stopped hitting him immediately and peeked between her fingers at him. “Balinsski?” He nodded and then was knocked back half a step as she threw all ten arms around him in a ferocious hug that nearly squeezed the life out of him. Her people’s evolutionary background as ambush constrictors was well known, their primitive hunting strategy had always been to wrap around their potential prey and crush the life from their bodies like some manner of huge armoured snakes.

He patted her back in response but said, “That’s nice, but we don’t have time. We need to go now!” She pushed back and observed their surroundings. The broken table and groaning thugs that were starting to get back up. The ones that had run to Humble Bob’s aide were now gesturing back up at them angrily with one of them seeming to direct the others back their way.

She seemed to hunch again and Balinski took hold of her head, his hands cradling the insectoid woman’s face just below her brilliant blue eyes. “Look at me, trust me. I won't let them hurt you, I promised remember?”

He saw her nod, the antennae on her back rising slightly as she regained some of the courage that seemed to have fled from her earlier. “Okay.” She hissed.

He stood and was forced to dodge around the downed bodies of the still groggy looking henchmen he had already put down. “Come on, we need to get out of here before the rest of them..” He didn’t get to finish his statement.

A deep voice from behind him yelled out suddenly, “Don’t let that freak get away with the whore! Get them!” That wasn't good.

He abandoned all decorum and picked up speed, he was fast on his cybernetics. Much faster than a man his size had any right to be, but Daryon was like a blur as she tore towards the exit on her multitude of legs. She was like a bolt of living lightning as she crossed the gap in seconds and stopped at the doors. He knew that vinarfel could move quickly when they wanted too, but he was floored by the agility she had displayed. He had seen them move before, but not like that.

He picked up the pace as best he could, vaulting over the edge of the stage and running across the raised portion. The startled slaaveth auquadancers vocalised ultrasonically under the water as their carefully choreographed formations broke. He ignored the screeching aliens as he jumped from the stage over the heads of several screaming patrons.

From behind him he heard the crash of something attempting his move much less gracefully. He sprinted for the exit and saw Daryon had removed the traumawand from her jacket and had it powered and ready to use. “Fuck that! Go!” He shouted as he swung his arm towards her in a gesture to leave.

She complied but remained behind to hold the door open. He realised that it was a manual door, of course! He looked around and snatched at the raised metal railing around the edge of the stage and tore off a section of the metal piping. He wasn't planning to use it as a weapon though, instead he skidded through the doors and used his cybernetic strength to jam it into the door handles before bending it into a U.

He panted, thoroughly out of breath as he struggled back to his feet and grunted, “That should hold ‘em for a minute. Come on, Daryon.” He gestured towards the empty hall and turned towards it. They needed to put some distance between them and the men trying to end them.

Continued in E3:P4