Real Pirates
Blood coated Alwen’s hands, Wraith’s blood. By the goddess she didn’t even know his real name. She had tried to save him but he died in her hands and there was logically nothing she could have done differently. But logic didn’t hold back her tears, nor could it drown out the pounding sound in her ears as her heart thundered in her chest, harder than it had that day on Parox or when she learned that she was on a pirate ship.
A roared “Alwen” snapped her out of her shock and panic. Sean had taken cover behind a table and was looking for her in the fracas, he caught sight of her and tried to run over.
“Stay down you mor-“Alice roared as a rogue shot vaporized his head, Alice stopped short as she realized Sean Douglas was dead. Alwen felt another wave if dread as she realized that the man she had been about to dump had died risking his life her, she knew even then that the image of his head exploding would forever haunt her. Alice peaked around one edge of the table and muttered under her breath. “Fuckin thirty of them.”
“Who are they?” Alwen cried.
“Other pirates, asshole slavers!”
“I thought pirates wouldn’t attack other pirates?”
“Well that sure as shit aint stopping them. Fuckin shit, they’ve got us boxed in!” she then cupped her paws to her jaw and roared “MARINES HOLD YOUR GROUND!”
Fires began to bloom and burn around the room from the pulse fire, the other patrons who had been chatting and drinking happily were either dead or cowering. The enemy pirates didn’t seem like they cared much for the safety of unarmed civilians. There was a large rumbling sound of shredded metal as a massive explosion went off outside. The SS would likely be too busy to help them, they were on their own. Alwen fell into another daze and only snapped out of it when she realized that Alice was strapping something to her waist. Alwen looked down and with horror realized that it was Wraith’s sword belt. She tried push Alice’s hands away weakly “I can’t, I’m sworn to nonvio-“
“I don’t give a shit!” Alice snapped. “Pacifism is great until your under fire, then it’s just cowardice. You see someone coming for your head, you take out this blade!” she put her hand on the big one, the Uchigatana “and you cut them with the sharp side, you got me?” Alwen shook her head in dismay, Alice slapped her with the back of her hand “You listen to me! Someone comes to kill you, you fight, you got that? I don’t want to lose you to some stupid superstitious vow.” Alwen wanted to protest but Limey jumped over the barrier and joined them.
“Thirty odd Egh’ahds out there, heavy repeating cannons and combat harnesses. They aren’t letting us in, buggers are just saturating everything in heavy fire and sweeping forward!” there was a sudden woosh as the bar exploded in a ball of fiery liquor.
Alice saw the attacking pirates back up from the flames, some catching fire, and realized that was their only chance even though they had only just assembled “Rush them, NOW!” she roared and dragged Alwen over with her. Alwen let go of Alice’s hand so as not to hold her back and charged forward, suddenly she was thankful for all the intense training sessions with the Virtues. Alice didn’t look back and dropped to all fours and rushed ahead with leaps and bounds. Alice blindsided a large lizard like creature with a neck three times longer than its body, like the Oroptith from her home world’s oceans. Once thought to only be mariner’s legends and myth until people began hunting them for their blubber.
Alice clamped around it’s neck with her jaw and tore its throat out with a savage ripping sound. She grabbed its cannon and lifted herself back up to a two-legged stance and hammered iridescent blue bolts into the other lizards who were only now trying to turn. Similar scenes played out around Alwen as skilled and pissed off marines and armorless deck apes flanked the enemy and stole their weapons, seeming to emerge from the inferno of the burning bar like mad demons. Alwen moved to the center of their formation and tried her best not be a hindrance, pain bloomed in her arm as she realized that one of the Oroptith looking pirates had bitten into her shoulder. Without conscious thought Alwen slashed at it the knife Wraith had put into her hands as he died.
It surprised her just how easy it was! Was the blade just that sharp or was it’s flesh just that weak? Now lacking a body, the head fell out of her shoulder and green blood spurted out from the stump and stained her shirt. Before Alwen had a chance to check her shoulder another enemy pirate ran underneath the flames spewing forth from the bar, its body seeming to slither over the ground. Alwen gritted her teeth, drew the long blade of the katana, and roared as she skewered it into the ground, it writhed under the blade, still alive. Alwen pulled the blade free and stabbed it again and again.
Something smacked her shoulder, and she swung the oversized blade towards whoever it was. Limey, with disturbing ease, caught her wrist and held back her attack “Good instincts Bones, but aways check for allies. Come, we’re going.” He didn’t wait for her response and began to drag her by her wrist.
She stumbled out of the pub and stared in horror at the situation outside. Chaos and mayhem ruled the world; tides of panicked people trampled any who didn’t move fast enough as they fled from the indiscriminate attacks of the enemy pirates. Huge jets of fire clawed their way across the shop fronts, slowly filling the top of the crossroads with black smoke. she looked down through the glass dome above the port facilities and watched as ravenous packs of pirates seized several ships. The SS tried to establish order, but they were either overwhelmed by the panicked mob of stampeding aliens, or ambushed by the pirates. She noted with passing interest that not all of them were then Oroptith looking aliens, some were different species she didn’t have the time or mental presence to really piece out their appearance. Everything around her spun with a violent motion as she stared in horror.
These were real pirates; Alwen had never had the chance or inclination to denote a difference between her own pirate friends and other pirates. But now as she watched the station that had been a beacon of peace burn, she now understood the difference. She knew the Hellworlders were killers and robbers, but try as she might Alwen couldn’t imagine any of them doing something as senseless and brutal as this. They chose their targets with care, executed the plan with absolute efficiency, and then left whoever had chosen not to fight alone. It was a tamer version of piracy than what she saw before her. These pirates killed anyone because they could, and because it was easy. They attacked a station in broad sight because they didn’t care about repercussions, and they seemed to delight in all of it. They represented everything Alwen had assumed a pirate to be, what she had feared the Hellworlders were. She was now coming to understand why the Hellworlders insisted they weren’t ‘pillage and rape’ pirates, it had seemed a silly distinction to her at the time, but now she understood why it was important. To the Hellworlders they weren’t evil, just people in a rough line of work. But these pirates, they were truly evil.
~~~*~~~
They now had a hard choice before them. Make their way to the ship, through panicking people, SS, and pirates. Find somewhere to hide, which meant they still had to move. Or join the fray, which seemed like a stupid idea to Alice. Something niggled at the edge of her memory. The other day when the captain had gone to parlay with the captain of the Coiled Strike she had the Virtues move unseen through expansive maintenance tunnels, large enough for car sized drones to move through. She turned to the alley next to the pub, dark twisting passages that led into the unknown and hopefully past a maintenance hatch. “Follow me!” Alice ordered to her small party. They were all wary and beleaguered. Alwen especially! The poor doctor was covered in alien blood, bleeding a purplish blood of her own out of her shoulder, and looked on the verge of a mental break down. Poor girl, she didn’t deserve the hell this would play on her mind.
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Alice, Ghost, captain of the Virtues, and veteran of many pitched battles, led the party into the alley, running at full speed, kicking, and pushing off walls to maintain momentum. They bounded ahead in great leaps under the station’s galactic standard gravity, and desperately tried not to overreach with each step and lose their balance under the low gravity. Her senses now fully aware of her surroundings picked up hundreds of scents, trash, sweat, smoke, blood, several different kinds of alien piss, and a group of pirates that had just passed through this area. Her ears picked out signs of them still nearby. Better to deal with them head on rather than wait for them to cause more trouble, plus after what they did to Wraith she felt like venting her anger.
Wraith was one of her oldest friends from when she was old enough to do her ‘tour’, a cross country trek to every American compound left over from the old armed forces. She and the twins had sailed a trihulled vessel from the beaches of the new San Diego Bay, and made their way to Samoa sailing like Wraith’s ancestors once had, picking him up as they made their way to Pearl Harbor. They had bonded deeply over their time at sea, he was as much a part of her family to her as Isabela, Gabriel, or Wendy, her actual sister. He had been their solid anchor as violent storms threatened to tear them apart, he had been by her side through every engagement and battle. But now like Wendy, he was gone.
Alice gritted her teeth, rose easily to a two-legged jog, and readied her blade. The others noticed her movements and readied their own. She rounded the corner ready to kill, only to see it was filled with slashed apart Egh’ahd cadavers, leaking their foul blood over the streets. In the center stood the huffing figure of a demon, a long black blade dripping green blood, long black hair falling past its shoulders in rigid spines, red human blood dripping out of its left ruined eye, and a fierce murderous rage in its remaining eye. Captain Astarte Maidens-daughter stood in the center of twelve dead Egh’ahds pirates, having dealt with them all by herself.
For a second it looked like the Captain might charge at Alice and bring the same fierce blade work down on her, but then Astarte’s single remaining eye focused on Alice and settled back on her feet “Good, follow me.” she ordered in a tone so cold it made Alice shiver. Alice had only seen the captain like this after the ambush from a rival group of Terran that had cost Wendy her life, a rival faction that Astarte had eradicated. Back then she brought her wrath down on their base, and painted the stone bricks of Pandemonium’s Great Temple red. Outnumbered and lacking the home field advantage the Captain had led them through what could only be called a slaughter.
The captain led them down the alleys like she had some sort of map in her head. Knowing the captain, she had probably memorized the streets and levels of Femeri long ago. “Report.” Astarte said, not even turning her back.
“Ambushed at the pub, most of us are somewhat inebriated, we lost eight back there, Wraith is gone. No major injuries.” Alice repoted sharply.
The captain paused for a second at hearing that Wraith was gone, he had been on the ship as long as Alice. The only reason he hadn’t been promoted onto other ships was because he wasn’t suited for command. They didn’t have an enlisted/commissioned soldier divide like the old branches of the US military used to have. There wasn’t even a constitution to defend, or a commander in chief to serve. But Wraith had embodied everything an enlisted man used to represent, and balked at the idea of command and getting good people killed. Losing him obviously effected the captain because she gripped her blade handle even tighter.
“We’re going to meet up with some other stragglers, then we’re going to bring down divine retribution on these nasty deranged fucks!” Astarte growled. It was a double sort of pun, the name of her blade Tenken, meant divine punishment, and when her sister had asked the captain about it she had said “it was a devils job to bring about holy judgement and divine retribution”. Alice didn’t think that was ever said in the old bible, but Astarte was a Toolist, and they had a different view on devil and Satan than normal Christians, followers of the new saints or otherwise. “The Coiled Strike is still in its berth and that’s where their captain will be” Astarte said as she marched forward.
They kept running until the thrown body of an enemy pirate splatted against the wall, and a shirtless black Jaguar with bulging blood-soaked muscles emerged with two other Hellworlder behind him, Kathrine, and Kavic. They had walked with them to the pub but had split off when they saw Gato, Crossroads, and Bull, on their way to a different bar. Rather than join up they had split ways, things were still very strained between Alice and Gato.
He made eye contact with the captain and silently fell into rank along with Alice and the others. Alice wanted to ask about what happened to Crossroads and Bull, but she knew their fates could be discussed later.
Astarte led them to a maintenance hatch and then into a large open section of catwalks that overlooked a yawning chasm. “We’ll wait here for a few others to come to us. Piss, drink, sober up, and have Bones examine your wounds. We’re going to be storming the enemy’s ship to take out their captain. There will be no other reinforcements, the enemy is currently bleeding themselves on the Astaroth which locks down a majority of our forces.”
“And what about me?” Alwen had asked forcibly, directly challenging the captain.
~~~*~~~
Aster narrowed her eye, at the purple skinned girl, absently remarking on how much blood had dyed her silky white hair a sickly shade of green. The blood was now congealing into a mucus like consistency rather than drying out like proper blood should have. “What about you?” she growled.
The girl stood her ground “I am a doctor, not a marine, my job is to keep the crew safe, not board an enemy ship to commit murder.”
Astarte looked pointedly at the blood covering the girl “You’ve already broken your vow today, what’s stopping you now?” She challenged icily. She knew that Alwen was just scared and trying desperately to process what she had done. Aster knew that Alwen wasn’t her enemy, but right now her blood was boiling, and Alwen had just openly challenged her in front of everyone. “And don’t give me any self-defense bullshit! Killing is killing! What’s a little more when they threatening your life? And as I see it, it’s your Job!” she stressed the symbols on that word to add emphasis “To protect the crew, whether that’s helping them recover from wounds, killing people who want us dead, or telling two-meter-tall Scotsman to piss off!” She growled.
Alwen looked like she had been physically slapped by the venom in Astarte’s words. She took in a deep breath “I meant that I don’t know the first thing about fighting. All this blood is from blind panic, not skill!” She shot back, matching Astarte for venom and fire.
Astarte was stunned for a second, she had thought Alwen was objecting to being brought into a violent situation, but the girl was only pointing out that she had zero combat experience. Astarte noticed with a start that Alwen was wearing Wraith’s blades, obviously too big for her “Anyone got a pistol on them?” she asked the assembled marines. Kat slid her other handgun out from behind her back and passed it over, keeping her larger one in hand. “This is the safety.” Pointing to the switch on the pistol “leave it up until were in the thick of it. These are your sights, look down them to aim. This is the trigger, pull it after you take aim. Make sure to aim and not fire randomly, these laser guns overheat and explode. You’ll be on my left during the whole raid, covering my blind spot.” She instructed bruskly.
She blinked as Aster forced the gun into her hand “Blindspot?” she asked blankly.
“Grenade, lost my eye to shrapnel.” She answered before turning around.
“Sir” Alwen’s voice challenged behind her “It’s my job to keep crew safe and healthy, I can’t let you go in there with shrapnel in your eye.”
“There’s no way in Hell I’m staying behind.”
A hand gripped her by her shoulders and turned her around, the short Torweni girl glared at her “Then sit down and let me treat it.”
“Help the others first.”
“You need it more, they can wait.” she shot back, her glare penetrating Astarte. Aster felt a black rage rise within her, but she quelled it with a force of will. The doctor was right, and she should let her do the job she was hired to do. She let out a sigh that sounded more like a growl and slid down to the ground to let Alwen do her job.
Everyone else went about their needs, some openly pissing off the side of the catwalk into the void below. Alwen drew from a bulky pack at her side filled with emergency aid supplies and efficiently cleaned the blood off the wound with sharp alcoholic smelling wipes. Aster didn’t flinch from the disinfectant, Highland had used to rub salt and lime juice into her cuts and scrapes, not to disinfect, but to make it hurt worse.
It wasn’t malicious, he was just teaching her how to deal with pain. That pain tolerance translated into the ability to take a beating from neighborhood thugs who thought the whore’s daughter was an easy mark. That ability to take pain allowed her to mess up one of the thugs while the others continued to kick her. They soon learned that jumping her meant a hospital visit for one of them, while she just brushed off whatever they dished out and charged at the others. It had earned her reprieve from daily beatings and the fear of the bigger kids.
“Good news is that there isn’t any shrapnel left in the wound, but you’ve lost the eye, and your going to have a deep scar across your face. Your lucky it only grazed you rather than piercing your skull, could have killed you with that much force.” She mumbled softly so only Aster could hear, some form of medical confidentiality, even though everyone could see the damage.
“Will it slow me down?” Aster grunted.
“If it hasn’t yet then you should be fine, but when I can we’ll really need to clean it up better. Right now I’m just going to stitch your face back together, try not to pull on the stitches.” She softly instructed as she drew needle and thread.
“Do what you can, and prepare yourself, I’ll be leading the charge and you’ll need to be at my side.” She said grimly as the first sharp poke of the needle pierced her skin.