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Sins of the Father Ch63
🕑 Added 2024-01-11 22:15:31 +0000 UTC“HEY! Be careful with my microscopes, I have no idea where we’ll get more at this time.” Alwen snapped.
“Yes Sir,” A Marine from the Lucifer responded curtly.
“How far along are the floor tarps?” Alwen shouted.
“Almost done, ten more minutes.” Another Marine retorted.
Alwen was tempted to tell them to hurry up, but she knew that while the Hellworlder marines could be unrepentant meatheads, when it came to jobs they would never slack off.
The combat aspect of the mission was over, the Chimps fought back ferociously, but were less disciplined than Egh’ahds. Which was saying something. They were mowed down with precise fields of fire and a quick sweep of the facility ensured that those in hiding were flushed out.
Alwen had a hard time thinking about the chimps as real sapient beings, they were so wild and animalistic. Only intelligent enough to coordinate attacks and capitalize on weaknesses. But that was just the virus in their system. One of the Marines from the Lucifer told her of some Chimps he knew back home, they could be viscous little bastards, but no more than any other Terran. They mostly got a bad rep from the few Chimp gangs that went too far over the edge, a majority of them were just ordinary people.
Well, as ordinary as a forcibly uplifted species could be on a dying deathworld.
Now the plan was into phase two, they were securing the abandoned warehouse and were converting it into lab.
On top of that they were also turning the whole place into a veritable fortress.
Furniture and trash were cleared out, exits barricaded, choke points established, and escape routes were planned. They didn’t know how the SS would react to an armed force establishing itself in their poorest district, but they weren’t going to chance it.
Alwen was about to turn to check in on Vira when her helmet reported an incoming call.
“This is Bones.” Alwen answered.
“BONES, THIS IS GHOST, WE FOUND THEIR… UM, LARDER. I DON’T THINK THERES ACTULLY A WORD FOR WHAT I’M LOOKING AT. BUT WE NEED YOU TO CHECK IT OUT BEFORE WE TORCH THIS SHIT.”
Alwen frowned under her helmet, not from confusion, but from the grim idea of what Alice meant by ‘larder’. “Understood. Be there in five.”
“COPY”
Alwen held in her sigh as it would be unbecoming of the strategic commander to show her wariness like that. Instead she began to stride over to a figure in plainly adorned armor with two forward facing horns. “Vira, Ghost just finished sweeping the basement, and found what can only be described as a ‘larder’, which roughly translate to a place for storing meat. I take you understand what I mean by ‘meat’?”
Vira nodded. Alwen couldn’t see her expression under the helmet, but her friend’s body language was uncomfortable. “And what do you want from me?” she asked as evenly as she could.
Alwen thought about how to phrase this next part. “In Terran culture their stories follow a very similar order of event, its called the heroes journey, or monomyth. In this monomyth the hero always has a metaphorical ‘decent into hell’ where they are challenged and pushed to acknowledge some sort of weakness, then they come out stronger for it. I’m offering you a controlled environment for your ‘decent into hell’.”
“Let me get this straight, you want me to follow you into the ‘larder’ knowing it will likely scar me, because you think it’ll make me stronger?”
“I’m giving you the choice. Because in real life people in positions like ours must make that descent over, and over again. I know I have.”
The eyes in Vira’s helmet stared into Alwen for a long moment. “Fine, you’re right, I’ll have to face awful things sooner or later.”
Alwen nodded. “Good, follow me.” She said.
A piece of Alwen felt wretched for doing this, but another knew this was necessary. They weren’t conflicting emotions, not really. The desires to shelter her friend from the horrors of their life, and the desire to push her out of her comfort zone, both came from a place of empathy. Something like this was necessary, but that didn’t mean Alwen needed to like it.
~~~*~~~
“All teams have been deployed.” A bridge tech alerted Karega.
“The Medical team has reported a successful beach head.”
“A coded message from the Beelzebub has arrived. Message reads ‘The shark has emerged from the depths and lurks outside the reefs.’”
Karega pondered the message. Obviously the analogy of a shark emerging from the depths into the reefs implied that the Beelzebub and her escorts had arrived in local space from a position of stealth. Likely from a different Sector Gate. Now they wanted to know what to do.
“Reply. ‘bad waters, to many lifeguards, await the chum.” He ordered.
“Understood.” The tech paused. “The Beelzebub has confirmed your orders, it also sent along the personal ID numbers of nearly half the fleet, as well as the Asmodeus.”
That was a lot of fire power to have lurking in the dark, but even with all those ships they would need a miracle to make a dent in the patrol fleets around Unity, and even more luck to make it out before other nearby fleets could respond to any chaos.
The Union was a megalithic entity, with over a hundred different species (not counting the uplifted of Earth) thousands of settled worlds and a fleet of unimaginable size. The greatest advantage of the Hellworlder fleet was their highly trained ships and crews, as well as their isolation in Orion. Which was mute against vastly overwhelming numbers and being in the heart of the Union. Everyday Karega was reminded of just how risky this whole mission really was.
He was deep in contemplation when someone else needed his attention, “Sir, there seems to be an amassing of forces outside the Astaroth’s docking, Lucifer is reporting the same.”
Karega sighed, just one more thing to deal with. “How many, and what is their attitude.”
The tech told Karega, and Karega felt his head grow worse. “Fucking shit!” he cursed.
~~~*~~~
Halfway through the discussion Astarte’s mother returned. She had a strange look on her face, and if Aster didn’t know better, she would have called such a look contrition. But that couldn’t be right, her mother rarely apologized for anything.
She would have questioned Lucile about it, but the moment her mother sat all hell broke loose.
Bursting through the flaps of the shop’s door massive alien SS officers stormed in, they had their guns trained on the four humans sitting in the corner as they surrounded them.
Hanzo stood up, anger burning in his eyes “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded.
The lead officer, a particularly puggy Gelid, aimed his pulse rifle right at Hanzo. “Put your hands where I can see them Hellworlder!” it shouted.
The anger in Hanzo’s eyes only grew hotter. “I am Chief Gin of the CSP, you will lower your weapons and explain yourselves to me!”
“Former Chief of security.” A deep resonating voice said. A massive dark hooded figure stepped into the shop, and unlike all the other large aliens his hooves actually shook the floor.
“Inquisitor?” Rachel gasped.
The anger in Hanzo’s eyes faltered. “Ben, why?” he asked, his voice thick with emotions as the alien that was obviously a Trike betrayed him.
“That’s my line. We came to arrest these pirates, and here I find you consorting with them.” The deep modulated voice of the Kaydic made Aster’s chest rumble.
Astarte felt a smirk creep along her lips. “Allegedly.”
The Kaydic turned to her sharply. “Do not play games with me pirate. We are already seizing your ships as we speak, the navy even lent us their cruisers to prevent any escape.”
Astarte felt her eyes narrow. “With what evidence?” She asked sharply.
“We will find all the evidence we need once we seize your ships.” He retorted.
Rachel looked incensed “We have no right to seize those ships, I know because I tried every angle to get a warrant.”
Lucile snorted. “Like pigs actually need a reason. Kid, you’re the only one here who actually believes in crap like probable cause.”
“Succinctly, if crudely, put.” The Kaydic officer agreed. “We will find allthe evidence we need to justify the breach of protocol. And the public will over look the discrepancy when they here that a gang of Hellworlder pirates have been arrested in mass.”
Hanzo looked murderous. “You are making a mistake Ben.”
The hooded head of the Kaydic turned to Hanzo, “I believed in you, I thought you would finally clean up this station. I thought what we needed to curb Hellworld violence was a Hellworlder. But instead you sided with them once you became the chief.”
“Ben I-,” Hanzo began.
“-I really don’t care about your bullshit drama.” Astarte said with a groan. “Are we under arrest or not?”
The Kaydic glared her way, or least Astarte imagined him doing so since she couldn’t see under his hood. “Yes, you are.”
“Aight” She said putting her hands forward.
The Kaydic glared down at her. “You are not going to resist?” he asked in surprise.
Astarte shook her head. “We’re surrounded, and any resistance will get us killed.”
“You’re smart for a pirate.”
She smirked.
They cuffed her, Lucile, and the two outraged human officers and roughly dragged them out of the noodle shop.
Outside a veritable army of SS officers were arranged around a small windowless grey shuttle.
Just as they being led to the shuttle Astarte stopped, the Gelid officer tried prodding her forward but lacked the strength to make her move.
The massive, hooded figure turned to her. “Whats the problem?” he said in a low growl.
“I’m just curious, you absolutely sure that we’re guilty of space piracy. No doudts or anything?” she asked.
The Kaydic loomed over her. “I assure, evidence will be found.” Left unspoken was whether the evidence was real or not.
“I see, and remind me, whats the punishment for pirates.”
The Kaydic shifted, unease written all over his body language. “Life in prison, or death.” It growled.
Astarte nodded. “I see, and whats the punishment for killing SS officers?”
The whole group began to shift nervously.
The Kaydic pulled out a pulse pistol and centered it on her chest. “Death.” He said menacingly.
Astarte nodded again. “I see. Well, it looks like I don’t have much to lose then.”
As if waiting for those exact words a crack rang through the alleyway. The Kaydic’s pistol exploded in a burst of flames. And all hell broke lose.
