by Dark Knight
Unbeknownst to all of them, Anit’za was actually pretty good an actor. A quality almost as natural to a dzenta’rii, as misdirection and deception. Boris struggled stumbling around, and the dzenta’rii switched his slave collar on, shaking him using its lowest setting. Then he pretended to kick the young man now rolling on the floor-plating, shouting the usual slaver drivel. Training for years on end how to imitate being falsely struck, Anit’za was a master of fake punching and kicking. The multiple sods who tried dueling against him back on his homeworld, he had to successfully deceive in his apparent weakness and in such a way that they’d leave Anit’za alone, assure of their own superiority over him. It was a skill that served him well now, as the stunned bunny watched him “viciously” kick Boris up on his feet and into the direction that she’d just linked to him. Their doctor was doing her part, trying to look like a weak damsel. Kera’s beauty greatly superseded whatever acting talent she had, as pirates and taz’arans alike showered her with all sorts calls sexually flattering her future owner. Kera could care less about this. Lilly knew her well enough now to understand, it wasn’t what you say that could actually hurt a woman, but what you did. It was the same with Terrans too and Lilly was well aware of this. She herself had heard some “bunny calls” while visiting the nearby colony of Applecrate together with a group of young females. It was not something that she’d taken as an insult, Lilly was well aware of her own worth as a person and her looks. Only a creature insecure or weak minded would wallow and cry after being complimented on how good they looked. Of course, if one tried doing something inappropriate, good luck living with a fist size hole in your face, because Lilly was a Terran female.
Always packing, she’d shoot the fool dead on the spot, as simple as that.
Changing their direction, Lilly had to leap on top of some carrier drone and then squeeze through another service tunnel. Thankfully those were built with creatures larger than her in mind, so even with all of the equipment that she carried and wearing exoskeleton augmented armor, Lilly managed to crawl through. Even had time to plant one of her cluster mines on the drone and another one next to the entrance of that tunnel. Hopefully that would be enough to create additional confusion amongst the guards and distract them long enough so that they would be able to reach their Exfil. As a matter of fact she had been planting micro mines and bobby trapping certain doors all the while her captain and crewmates were loitering around the base. Slowly Lilly’s special supplies were being used up. Whatever he did, Mack had somehow procured a number of crates full of explosives. Taz’aran explosives. In a certain poetic justicy kind-of way, Lilly was enjoying the very idea of using the invader’s own supplies against them. She spent time alone in the armory fashioning a multitude of IED’s and was now planting them all over the base. Not only that, but all the taz’aran grenades that she’d snatched from those commandos, Lilly was determined to use them here too.
“Site A3 seeded, captain.” – whispered the bunny over their coded link and again slid into the shadows, chameleo-cloak covering her, quieted steps following her captain and crew.
The dreaded location was soon in full view and she stilled her breath. It was every little bit as vile and disgusting as she’d imagined such a place to be. Her captain moved closer, waving friendlily at the two clanners standing on guard before its main gate. Next to them there was an unattended station data port and Lilly decided to complete one of her main mission objectives – upload the reprogrammed attack bots. Reaching a free and unlocked data port like that was probably a dumb stroke of luck. A little bit suspicious even. It was something unheard of for a port to be left open like that on any Terran station or colony. No matter. The idiots’ own carelessness would lead to their ultimate demise!
Captain Anit’za had somehow charmed one of those guards. An alien woman with disgusting attitude, nevertheless the captain beguiled her into letting them in without even scanning or checking with station records. Lilly’s eyes gleamed from behind her faceplate – she could see the rotting, congealed blood, oozing from under the main doors of that holding facility. Oh, how she wanted to start shooting! Step by step she closed the distance to that port and finally, a second after her captain stopped caressing the pirate’s dirty hair, her PDA successfully uploaded the payload. Giving Anit’za a sign, Lilly used the wall’s removed bulkhead to hide behind and then right before her captain, entered through the opened door.
A horrid picture unveiled before their eyes.
Comprised of multiple Fringe races, the small auction podium displayed a group of thirty, barely standing on their legs sentients. Shuddering and trembling, their tortured bodies were covered with blistering, bloody wounds. Wondering for how long those unfortunate people had to survive under the “gentle” mercy of pirate guards was all but useless. Anyone who dared resisting was convinced to stop, either by using a slave collar and shocking the poor creature into submission, or if that didn’t work – torture. Then the battered ones were either selectively killed to set an example for the rest to behave, or hobbled and sold for cheap.
She instantly noticed an Olian standing out from the rest of the group, and it seemed that he alone had some semblance of composure left. A race allied with Kil’ra, Olians were a minor power whose Star kingdom was located on the other side of Terran space. By virtue of them being in the same Star Alliance, Olians were of the star blood and therefore had to be rescued at all cost. Strangely enough, their striking resemblance to an animal living on planet Earth called an otter, had entertained both Kil’ra and the Olians themselves to no end. Lilly herself had never seen one such creature but was told that they were very cute. The bunny promised to herself that someday if she survived, a trip to her patrons’ homeworld had to occur. If their operation was successful, those slaves would be freed too and whisked away from this awful, horrid place. Seems that this one was some sort of a pilot, since he still had the mark on his neck left from the forced removal of a nerve-gear device.
The stench was horrid but that didn’t phase their armored guards who pushed one slave after another forward, made them turn around and then stumble back in line. Lilly pulled the Manlicher and aimed its barrel at the nearest slaver who wore the colors of clan Push’va. Specialist abductors and kidnappers, slavery was their “profession” of choice – these clanners were apparently considered low even by their own kind. She cared not for the debased hierarchy of pirates and aimed higher, the crosshairs of her holo-optics marking the slaver’s head.
If anyone was to be held responsible for her neighbors’ continuing suffering, those Push’va clanners had to be in the very center of it all. Her heart quickened. Eyes concentrated on the slaver’s moving helmet. Lilly almost pressed the trigger but the smile she received from Kera instantly woke her up. Somehow the avern’a knew precisely where she was and the sight of her chained, collared, and yet composed demeanor calmed Lilly. Coming back to herself, she realized her captain hadn’t sent any orders to attack, yet. Slowly, the enraged bunny lowered her railgun and thought of doing something better than ruining her captain’s entire Plan.
Lilly was a specialist, an operator. And a scout’s job was to gather intelligence first! Who knows what treasure trove of information was hiding inside the mainframe of this facility? How many hundreds – no, thousands of lives could be saved by securing it? Lilly lowered her body to the ground as much as bunny-possible and snuck behind the small group of aliens, while captain Anit’za openly greeted them.
“Hello there fellow slave owners! It is a nice day for buying, eh? Care to share whats the deal is on this here... merchandise?”
The indifferent group of aliens all wearing uniform spacesuits were lightly armed mercs. Lilly passed behind them unnoticed and full of seething rage, because she’d recognized the corp logo they were all wearing on their helmets. Those were enforcers in the employ of Star Diamond Cartel! The same scum who used bio-tech and created one of the worse narcotics in existence – star dust. Once you took it there was no sa
ving you. The neural pathways of your brain started to irreversibly degrade, and although it gave the recipient ability to relive past memories at will and as vividly as if you had traveled in the past, the end was always the same. One’s brain would rot from the inside out, turning you quickly into a “zombie”, organs to be harvested, or used as a flesh doll for the enjoyment of your drug dealer. Your end was always one and inevitable – death.
The cartel boss had a calm, calculating facial expression, and a suit almost cheap compared to the others. Instead of expensive jewelry, he wore one simple, yet beautifully engraved PDA. The brown skinned, scaly lizard like alien gave her captain a glance devoid of any emotion:
“What interesting is there to see? Those are the soon-to-expire slaves, and as always the cheapest ones. You, of course, can buy some of them. I am told your clan sometimes use the expired for weapons testing...”
The boss gestured with his hand towards one of the slave guards and the man got close to Anit’za.
“Those two that you have with you, are they for sale? They look like top quality merchandise.” – the Push’va guard scanned first Boris then Kera, swiping all scan-data back to the Cartel boss.
“Oh, and one of them is a telepath! You are very brave, Aleska star ranger, to have defeated and captured one such as him. Terran telepaths are known to be vicious and deadly beyond measure.” – he looked at something on his PDA holo-screen before checking Kera.
“And this Avern’a, my wife is need of a sex slave that she can use in her ploys, she will do nicely! I can give you three thousand decats for the both of them. Certainly a good profit for you and your clan, wouldn’t you say?”
If the man had thought Anit’za someone possessing no bargaining skills, or lesser such, he was sorely mistaken. The Dzenta’rii immediately began to appraise his “merchandise” in a somewhat disturbing, yet ingenious way. He made Boris hug and kiss his own wife, and while it wasn’t something that most would do with others present, it was not a big problem for the both of them either. That he did to demonstrate his complete “control” over the slaves and showcase their physical characteristics. They needed not undress. Both were wearing tightly fitting thin suits and could, for all intense and purpose be considered naked. Anit’za managed to manipulate the attention of his audience, masterfully depicting deadly feats of skill and the prowess that both “slaves” had displayed during the heroic battle. Instead of three, the cartel boss paid him ten thousand decats each. He also demanded being payed at once and in cash, that the boss instantly accepted. In his mind Anit’za sensed Boris’s confusion and awe, as this was nothing but a stunning success so far. Not only were the slavers beguiled in believing that they were hapless slaves, but their captain had wrestled from within their hands an exorbitant amount of money!
While fictitiously selling his crewmates, Anit’za was buying Lilly more time and perhaps saving the lives of the slaves on that podium. She quickly snuck undetected past three more guards without having to kill any of them. She located the slave facility server room without incident, unlocked the door bypassing the alarm, and used her PDA to rapidly copy all the encrypted data onto the empty crystals she’d prepared for that exact purpose. Lilly then left one of her own hack-bots as a present, and turned around intending to leave the room as quietly as she entered it.
She met the gaze of an alien guard.
Wearing a red colored, lightly armored spacesuit, he had his short sword unsheathed and eyes fixated on her despite the bunny still being stealth-ed. Lilly heard an evil whisper, and it wasn’t in her comms link:
“I don’t care how you’ve entered this place – to me it matters not. You are now mine defective client. One brand new flesh-toy and such that I will exclusively enjoy braking. Twisting your mind and body, as many times as I want, and for as long as I wish...”
The red armored alien waved with his other, free hand, and Lilly’s boiling blood rushed in filling her lungs almost drowning her alive.
Almost.
She felt somebody’s overpowering presence pushing the alien back. Through the painful haze inside her mind, Lilly sensed Boris’s thoughts and his maddening angry force enveloping her body in a protective psychic bubble. Suddenly Lilly’s lungs were no longer filling with liquid, and stumbling back after her back hit the server the bunny unsheathed her dagger. Blood spilled on the ground from her opened faceplate, while their blades crossed and screeching showered the ground with a multitude of sparks. Soon the server room became a scene of an intense, fast paced and brutal brawl. The alien was not the strongest of fighters, yet he was fast on his feet, probably as quick as the bunny and moderately skilled. And Lilly was staggering, still trying to recover from the devastating telepathic attack. The bunny needed another edge and she needed it quick. That edge was her integrated medical system which she activated quickly by shouting in her faceplate:
“Activate Stims!”
Lilly’s prospective red armored master and torturer soon saw the blade of her dagger up close. Sticking out from his left eye socket close. Then his neck. Multiple times over. Her movements had instantly turned into a phased blur from which came dozens of deadly accurate, pinpoint stabs. Each one of them was accompanied with sounds of displaced by her insanely fast moving limbs air. The wounded red warrior managed to block some of them with his sword. Even more glanced off his suit’s torso armorplating. Wounded as he was, the alien telepath somehow slashed a dozen times aiming at the hazy silhouette, landing only but one solid hit. The guard’s blade bounced back, deflected by Lilly’s upgraded armorplating, and using her enemy’s already disturbed combat stance, Lilly slashed so fast and precise that her dagger’s vibro-blade chopped half his neck off. His corpse slumped down, a fountain of thick, white blood bathing the walls around.
Counted seconds after the stim’s effects had passed, Lilly again slid in the shadows wrapped in her chameleo-cloak. Breathing heavily under her now closed faceplate, the scout snuck away unnoticed from the server room. Beforehand, she did not forget to pilfer what was in that vile alien telepath’s pockets and remove the data-crystal from his PDA.
Luckily for her nobody outside had noticed anything and while she was doing her job, Anit’za had successfully negotiated a later, follow up fictitious deal between himself and the cartel boss. That included a prepaid advance sum of twenty five thousand decats. Certainly those were taz’aran money and not as expensive as real Dzenta’rii dekats, whom the sods were trying to emulate. Unsuccessfully in his humble opinion.
All too willing to abuse the advantage he had already gained, the dzenta’rii decided to push his luck even further. He slid another command over his PDA while pointing at the slaves who were still trembling and bleeding on that podium. Lilly had had more than enough time to secure whatever data she could, and he felt really uneasy in the presence of those “people”. Moreover, the place invoked a most vivid memory from his recent past encounter with a slaver ship and so he spoke, quickly, before somebody noticed a “pirate’s” uneasiness in the presence of slaves. Otherwise in complete control of his thoughts and emotions, the dzenta’rii noble soon found himself getting angrier by the minute. The longer he spent here, under cover, and not filleting the obnoxious sods to tiny slices with his plasma saber, the worse it got. And so he, his very soul twisting and turning from the inside out, rolled the dice once more:
“How much for that pathetic, sorry bunch of useless rejects?”
The weary cartel boss looked at him almost angrily and exhaled the air he’d just taken in, hissing through his gills. On one hand unhappy, because he had to spend a lot of money, and yet on the other, content that he had won for his wife and himself two premium slaves. His enforcers were already holding them and Anit’za had swiped the codes for their slave collars. Star Diamond cartel was known for the great financial proficiency of its bosses. Also their guileful, and really painful to witness in action for a dzenta’rii greed:
“I want thirty thousand for the whole lot!”
The boss was obviously trying to get some of his decats back. Anit’za smirked from behind his faceplate – what childish foolishness was this?! Trying to take money away from a dzent’a who’d already pocketed them, was like volunteering for a casual stroll on the surface of a star. During a raging sun storm. Both men stood closely before each other, shouting in fringe speak and using signs from the galactic trade language each signifying exact sums of money.
The dance of appraisal had now begun in earnest!
“Wait, this group costs only twenty measly thousands? Say, I will give you fiften thousand. What? You don’t want them? Well, I could give you ten thousand for it. Why are you looking at me like that? Outrage? What outrage? Fine, fine – I will give you five thousand for the group and promise to sign many more future, lucrative deals for the both of us. Please close your mouth while you’re signing the holo-contract. I am told that things called space bugs can fly in if you are not watchful. Yes, that PDA of yours, very fashionable it looks, in exchange for it I will give you this veeery special, veeery valuable and only slightly craked precious stone I found on this distant planetoid. You, of course, have to agree that it does have an unique way of reflecting the light. One of a kind it is! Surely you can live without a fancy PDA, but without this unique gem? Never in a million years will you find a stone that precious and one that has focused within such an exquisite imperfection!”
It was a force of nature – dzent’a and their ability to bargain. Lilly was sure that IF he wished to be so, Anit’za would’ve stripped the narcos off their very clothes and bargain those away from them too. Her captain was absolutely destroying them and they couldn’t even grasp what was actually happening. She walked out of the main building and snuck behind the cartel enforcers just about when their boss, stupefied, was removing his own PDA offering it to her captain. So stunned they were in fact, that nobody had noticed how Anit’za replaced the data-crystal he’d removed from it with a blank one, before giving some cracked diamond the size of his fist in exchange of the posh electronic device.