Astarte and Lucile both sat in silence on the bullet train. Both had opted to wear their full armor, and as such every non-human on the train chose to give the two women a large bubble of breathing room.

Lucile was glaring daggers at anyone who made eye contact.

Astarte kept her hand on Tenken, her trusty sword.

“Just to reiterate.” Astarte said breaking their silence, “Gin Hanzo is not my father.”

“I heard you the first ten times.” Lucile muttered.

Astarte ignored her. “And he is offering to partner with us and give us everything we need.”

“I, Know” Lucile said, biting off each word with a growing frustration.

“And you’re not allowed to kill him on sight.” Astarte finished with a pointed stare.

Lucile glared. “I’m not a that impulsive.”

“Remind me, who was it that decided to attack a Union shipyard in Wrethren?”

“That was a calculated attack. When things go down, shipyards ,like that will be the staging ground for any fleets trying to reach Orion the long way.”

“Assuming we can get to the Femeri gate before reinforcements.”

“We will” Lucile said confidently. “We have no other choice.”

They lapsed into silence. “Just to confirm-” Astarte said again.

“NO I WONT KILL THE BASTARD!” Lucile barked. And the rest of the train’s passengers went quiet.

Before the passengers could piss themselves in sheer terror from having two clearly aggravated Hellworlders shouting at each other the train lurched to a stop. Astarte and Lucile stood up and got off.

The city district they found themselves in was the closest thing Unity had to a slums. The streets were still packed with the bodies of over a hundred different species, but unlike the rest of the station these people looked haggard, downtrodden, and otherwise miserable.

Also unlike the rest of the station there was a healthy spread of Terran species in the crowd. The people seemed wary of the Terran presence, but not terrified.

They were however terrified of Astarte and Lucile, even the other Terrans gave them a wide berth. In fact, the Terrans kept far away from the two, like they could sense better than anyone else that they were truly dangerous.

And to be fair, they were. Indirectly Astarte and Lucile were responsible for the death of thousands, and in one on one combat both had seen more than their fair share of blood.

The Devil himself must have been eager for their deaths. Astarte wondered if she would be able to kill the devil and take his place.

“Quit Daydreaming!” Lucile snapped.

Astarte was jolted out of the image of her on a throne of fire. “I wasn’t.” she protested.

“Uh-huh” Lucile said unconvinced.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

They both walked further into the city, slowly delving into dirtier and dirtier neighborhoods. Until they found a shop with a neon sign showing a bowl of noodles, along with a divine smell to go with it.

They both passed under the flaps of cloth of the too tall door and saw their quarry. Two dark hooded figures sitting in the corner of the little noodle bar, with gray staticky holograms covering their faces.

They strode over without pause.

“You’re late.” The shorter one growled through a voice modulator.

“Blame the crappy metro system.” Astarte said with a dismissive hand wave. “How’s your back, any tingles?” She asked Rachel.

It had only been a day since they met, but Astarte could already tell that Rachel was fully recovered. She made a mental note to give Bones a pay raise, and maybe a promotion for how well she handled the MBV situation.

As much as the doctors insisted on calling it Unity-79, Murder Boner Virus was just too popular. Hence the now official abbreviation of MBV, she couldn’t wait for Alwen to hear about it.

“No.” The Arbiter bit off shortly.

Before they could say anymore a young girl, human, with Asiatic features and a very timid expression approached. “Can I get something started for you?” she asked softly, obviously uncomfortable with the obviously dangerous strangers before her.

Judge/Hanzo put down the hood of his own cloak. “It is fine Himawari-chan. We’ll have my usual.”

Astarte smiled at the girl. “Himawari huh, Japanese for Sunflower right?”

The girl nodded.

Astarte extended a hand. “I’m Aster, named after the Asteraceae.”

The girl took Astarte’s hand and shook it before leaving.

“Asteraceae?” The Arbiter asked, pushing her hood back to reveal an accusatory glare.

“Its true, in a sense.” Aster said with a smirk.

Lucile glared at Hanzo, “She looked too young, are you sure that girl is really only four years younger than Astarte?”

Aster agreed the girl didn’t look to be twenty-four years old, but maybe that was down to a lack of presence and confidence.

Hanzo nodded. “Yes, learning about Himawari, and her mother, was what alerted me of my brother’s sins. I was investigating other potential victims in New Mombasa before the tower fell.”

Astarte watched her half sister walk to where a women was frying noodles. There a shorter plump women was frying noodles, obviously the girls mother. Unlike Astarte, Himawari was full blooded Japanese, and didn’t inherit their father’s sharp eyes.

Lucile also watched the two with a very complicated look in her eyes.

“Thank you for this.” Astarte said.

“You will have to thank her mother; she was the one who wanted you two to meet. Though, Himawari doesn’t know yet.” Hanzo explained.

Astarte turned back “Well then, down to business?”

Hanzo gave Rachel a nod and she pulled out a sleek gun metal grey rectangle. Astarte took and opened its digital contents. The Hologram flickered into place in front of her and she was able to flick through several different pages. Names, addresses, and even shipping records. All available to the SS as they were linked in with the station central records.

“Long list.” Astarte remarked.

“This is just a preliminary list. We can help to narrow things down once you’ve committed to helping us with Zera.” Judge said shortly.

They were assuming that the Hellworlders would be incapable of narrowing it down further, that they would need addition help to find their missing equipment. Little did they know that Astarte’s had started with a similar list and had her men check off over half the possible assets.

Of course she wouldn’t tell them that.

“What, you don’t trust us to help you deal with Zera?” She asked in mock hurt.

Rachel scowled “Why should we trust a pirate to keep her word?”

“Allegedly” Astarte and Lucile said at the same time.

Both of the SS spooks glared.

Rachel leaned forward “You’ve done nothing but lie since I met you.” she accused.

Astarte quirked her head to the side “I’m almost entirely sure I’ve never once lied to you. everything I said was more or less the truth.”

Rachel looked shocked and leaned back, taken aback both literally and figuratively by what Aster had just said.

Her statement may have set Rachel on the back foot, but Hanzo wouldn’t back down. “It is the ‘more or less’ that we worry about. You may not have lied, but your every action has been deceitful.”

Astarte met Rachels eyes “Not every action.” She said pointedly.

Her mother elbowed her. “Keep it in your pants daughter.” She scolded.

Astarte rolled her eyes, “Well trust or no trust Zera needs to be dealt with. My engineers are already drafting plans for acid throwers and thermite spikes.

Hanzo and Rachel turned to each other. “We were hoping for a more peaceful takedown.” Rachel said slowly.

Astarte shook her head, “I’ve failed to kill the bitch three different times. I snapped her goddamned neck, twice, and she still got up. Its all or nothing.”

“This is unacceptable!” Hanzo barked harshly.

“Too bad” Lucile growled back, “I’ve already promised not to burn this station to the ground to kill your brother. You don’t get to demand anything else from us.”

“Both of these monsters must be brought to face justice, otherwise its just more murder.” Hanzo retorted.

Lucile snorted “Maybe you could bring Zera to justice, but a powerful man like your brother wont ever see the inside of a jail cell. Face it pig, your precious justice is little more than the thin mask of tyrants imposing their will on the weak and helpless. The only true justice is an eye for an eye.” She then pointed to Astarte. “And blood for blood.”

“Uhm…” A timid voice said from their side. Himawari had returned with four bowls of noodles. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

Astarte gave the girl a broad smile “Even if you are you brought the perfect apology.” She said while reaching for one of the bowls.

As she leaned over Lucile, Astarte turned to whisper to her mother “calm down.” She hissed.

“I am calm” Lucile hissed back.

“No your not, take a fuckin smoke break and come back ready to talk.” Astarte said firmly as she sat back down.

Lucile glared at Astarte, but as soon as her half-sister stepped away Lucile stood up and stalked out of the noodle shop.

“She’ll be back, for now lets discuss how we’re going to deal with our mutual problems.” Astarte said as diplomatically as she could.

The two spooks exchanged glances, but held their peace.