The Beginning of the End of New Lork Part 12

“Just driving until the engine stops?” Kyriac had let the silence last for about five seconds; Deliah noted that he would be effectively useless for any kind of recon work because of this.

“If you don’t like the destination you can get out any time you want.”  Kyriac didn’t take her up on the offer.  The wasteland outside his window looked no more inviting then the warzone they were leaving, he was honestly confused what the hell anyone was fighting for on New Lork.

“Money.” Deliah’s word kind of startled Kyriac.

“You can read minds?”

“No I can read expressions, you had that listless ‘why is anyone fighting in this shithole’ look on your face.  The answer is money, Drydek funded this colony, and they’ll be damned if some upstarts get to claim it for their own, even if it means destroying the entire damn thing in spite, which they’ve basically done.”

“And you got involved here out of the kindness of your heart?”

“Oh ha ha, look I’ll be the first to admit it’s all about the money myself, well it was until I got screwed over, now seeing Riobeck’s stupid looking grin before I chop his knees off keeps me going, well that or getting off this hole alive.” Kyriac was about to ask another question about how Deliah became a mercenary in the first place when a loud noise thundered overhead.  It sounded like strike fighters to Kyriac, which was strange, Drydek had informed R.I.G. authority they couldn’t provide air support due to the nature of the urban environment.

“Strike fighters?” Kyriac stuck his head out the window and could only barely make out a profile before the fighters were beyond them and moving fast towards the city.

“That doesn’t make a damn lick of sense, Drydek stopped using air support after they knocked everything down worth blowing up, well that and they are cheap sons of bitches, providing air support was hurting the operations profit margin.” Deliah stopped the truck, Kyriac saw her punch some commands on her data assistant and slide the mask over her face.

“Aren’t you worried they’ll find you?” Deliah didn’t respond, from her head movements Kyriac assumed things had just gotten a lot worse.

“Well I would be worried if those were Drydek fighters, but they aren’t, looks like we got a new player at war here.”

“Good or bad?”

“Well they nuked the Drydek ship and look to be running bombing attacks on the corporate forces here, which could be good in a sense because it means there will be more chaos and more of an attempt to get off this planet.”

“Well that’s good.”

“And then there’s the bad news, you were working with the Drydek corporation as was I, it’s not like we can simply stick our hands in the air and go ‘woops our bad’.”

“Yeah that sounds not so good.”

“On top of that it’s Morlatech, you know that whole ‘Live forever, live morlatech’? Which means most likely conscripted cyborg psychos, even less of a chance for us to stick our hands up.” Deliah sighed audibly and punched the dash of the truck. She did a u-turn on the dirt road and started heading back to the city.

The Beginning of the End of New Lork Part 11

9

“Fasten your harness Mr. Riobeck shuttles don’t maintain gravity.” The pilot was trying to be helpful, but Riobeck wanted to smack him.  Riobeck really didn’t want to be on a shuttle at all, he wanted to be back in his cubicle in a dress shirt and pants.  Now he was in a shuttle, wearing a flight suit about to descend to New Lork to personally oversee Deliah Cashe’s capture. Riobeck had thought telling his superior about her shifting capabilities would be a good thing, there had been a bounty established intercompany for years for any live shifter caught. Instead of a thank you, or a good job, he was told to personally handle things on the ground! Riobeck suspected his superior was planning on trying to kill him off to claim the bounty himself.

The shuttle bay doors opened, Riobeck felt queasy as the shuttle maneuvered itself out of the bay and into the zero g environment.  Space travel always was unnerving to Riobeck, it was just too quiet.  He looked back at the Drydek ship with dread; he feared he wouldn’t be returning. While glancing back he noticed a dark shadow blotting out part of the sun, at first he thought his eyes may have been playing tricks, right until the Dydek ship exploded. The ship was hit almost dead center with some kind of energy weapon, the oxygen inside briefly causing a small flaring explosion. The two halves of the formerly intact ship twirled in silence.  Riobeck could hear klaxons flaring all around the pilot. The shadow came closer,  it was a much larger warship than the Drydek vessel it had just annihilated.

“What should I do sir?” The pilot’s voice had a tinge of panic in it.

“Get to the fucking planet you idiot!” Riobeck screamed at him.  The shuttle shot forward, Riobeck almost threw up with the sudden force of being rocked into his seat.  For thirty terrifying seconds the shuttle hung above the planet, and then they hit the atmosphere, gravity returned with a shock.  A new klaxon flared up on the pilot’s console.

“They’ve got a missile lock!” The pilot banked the ship hard to the right, Riobeck heard a deafening blast and then the world went silent.

The Beginning of the End of New Lork Part 10

“You’re a terrible shot Kyriac.” Deliah was picking over one of the bodies of the rebels; there had been three of them to add to the body count of the mercs earlier.  They had been driving a truck much like the mercs except theirs had a vehicle mounted machine gun and it still ran a major plus.

“Oh I’m sorry Ms. Professional Murderer I’ll try to get better in my first live combat experience!”

“Make sure that you do, I’m tired of picking up the slack here.” Kyriac hadn’t turned on her yet, which was a plus, but he was a terrible shot, which was a negative. Deliah snagged the keys from one of the dead rebels; she popped the hood on the truck and looked at the engine.  Nothing looked too eminent that something was wrong; it was a combustion engine like the mercs truck.  Everything on New Lork was garbage like that, as a colony it had been decidedly low tech even prior to the war.

“So do we have wheels or are we walking?” Kyriac carrying the merc rifle looked hilarious; it was almost as tall as he was.

“We have wheels, at least as long as the fuel lasts, I’d syphon some from the other truck but I don’t think we have that much time the mercs most certainly called in.” Deliah got into the driver’s seat, Kyriac slid into the passenger seat and she started the truck up. With a quick back up they were on the road and away from the site of the massacre. Deliah really didn’t have any idea where they were going, away was all she could think of, maybe she could find some run down forgotten transport field and from there a shuttle off this hell hole, but she knew that was so much of a pipe dream.

“I don’t mean to be all contradictory, but we are currently running from the side you are supposed to 

be on right?”

“I forgot to mention I’m wanted for treason against the Drydek corporation.”

“Are you guilty of it?” Kyriac kept his eyes facing forward, Deliah didn’t have her gun drawn but that didn’t mean she couldn’t kill him before he could fight back.

“Nope, I do recon work mostly, deep behind the lines stuff, which probably would make it easier to be a traitor, but I’m not one.  Not like I could really prove it though and I’m sure they have a nice story about some attack I was behind or so much bullshit.” Deliah had her mask up, it was the only way to really drive, the extra visual features were nice, but screwed with peripheral vision too badly.

“Well you saved my ass and seem equal opportunity as a murderer, good enough for me; I have no loyalty to Drydek.” Deliah smiled, she really didn’t want to have to murder Kyriac. They drove on, outside of the twisted city and into the empty dusty wasteland. Deliah hated New Lork, it was truly one big ass dust ball.

The Beginning of the End of New Lork Part 9

“Dorkins I’m glad you could see me right away.”Riobeck was seated across from Dorkins.  They were in a mostly empty conference room Riobeck had requested for the meeting.  Dorkins was standing; the commander was the head of the scouting operation Drydek had employed in the New Lork theater. Dorkins was twenty years Riobecks senior, his face was mostly unscarred only the wrinkles of age and he was wearing a dull grey armor camo painted for urban operations.  Riobeck could see he still had his sidearm, an old single action revolver; his other armaments had been confiscated upon arrival at the corporate office.

“Didn’t have much of a choice sir, you guys say jump, I say how high?” Dorkins had a scratchy throat voice, no doubt from years of smoking Riobeck thought to himself.

“I assume you’ve been briefed on the Cashe situation.”

“Enemy spy for the rebels, independent contractor, current death count of our forces sits at eight.”

“Four Commander.”

“Eight, she killed four mercs who had Id’ed her this morning.” Riobeck was flustered, he wasn’t aware of this new intel and he could tell the commander enjoyed knowing he was out of the cycle.

“Shit.”

“Look Riobeck I know you’re trying to be the big swinging dick here, but I know Cash, I knew she was going to be a problem when you guys brought her in and it’s no surprise she’s causing an issue, I believe I even filed a report to this effect at the start of the operation.” Riobeck knew of the report, it had been one of the reasons they chose Cashe to be the patsy to being with. “If you want me to track her down and terminate her personally rest assured I intended on doing that, if you want me to keep you informed of my movements you can go fuck yourself.”

“You sound you’re taking this personally Dorkins.”

“She killed my son Riobeck, so yeah I take this personally.”

“I wasn’t aware of that.” Riobeck was finding out a lot of things he wasn’t aware of.

“It wasn’t in this operation, and I was willing to wait to execute her until the job was done, I’m a professional Mr. Riobeck,” Riobeck felt really uncomfortable, he wondered briefly who else was on the execute after the mission list, “If you’ll excuse me Riobeck, I’ve got men to lead and a spy to put to death.” Dorkins left, Riobeck wiped the sweat from his brow, he forgot to mention that Cash was a shifter, but given Dorkins history with her, he probably already knew.

The Beginning of the End Of New Lork Part 8

Deliah was cut off, a beat up truck bounced around the corner.  Partially smoking and fleeing something Deliah dodged to the right of the road into a ditch, Kyriac following suit. Deliah noted that the marking and occupants looked more rebel than corporate, but they could have been mercs like her who had to scrounge. She had hoped they’d just keep driving, but unfortunately, their truck died.

“Stay,” Deliah told Kyriac as she dusted herself off and approached the broken down truck. She kept her rifle slung in front of her not wanting to show an outward sign of aggression. There were four of them, two that had been inside, and two that were riding in the trucks bed.  They reacted to her presence in the usual fashion of New Lork, by drawing their weapons.

“Back off bitch.”

“Easy there boys, I’m just seeing if I can potentially help you out.” Deliah had her hands up, she noted their weapons looked clean, more likely mercs than rebels.

“You some kind of mechanic?” Deliah was glad she was wearing her mask, because her eye roll would have just made them angrier.

“Yeah something like that, you guys Drydek?” She noted how they had fanned out, the two on the bed were now near the tailgate, and the two that had been in the cab had taken up positions on either side of the truck; which leaned more toward mercs over rebels.

“What’s it to you? Are you some kind of rebel?” Trigger fingers were hovered a bit too close to trigger guards for Deliah’s taste.  She moved towards the front of the still smoking truck and she could feel all their eyes upon her.

“Do I look like a rebel to you? Pop the hood unless you think I can magic it open.” The one near the driver’s side reached in and there was a click.  Deliah lifted the hood and could see the engine had taken weapons fire; she lifted her mask to get a better look at what was hit.  The mercs had moved up, now there were two per side, by the front wheels, their hands were still on their weapons. The fuel line looked like it had been hit, which meant the engine was pretty much screwed.

“Who’s the kid?” The merc to her right motioned back towards where Kyriac was waiting.

“My son, why you want him? He’s not very good at anything, but if you offer a good price I could entertain getting rid of the little bugger.” That elicited some chuckles.

“You’re kids green? Man lady I don’t want to get anywhere near your vagina.” The merc who seemed to be the leader of the band was the driver; he was standing closest to the truck on the driver’s side.

“Well his father had a mutation of his own, if a man with a double headed penis tells you he’ll pull out in time, don’t believe him.” They were laughing again, Deliah smiled.  Humor was her best weapon most of the time, she’d been able to talk her way out of a lot of situations just by having people laugh.  Well laugh until she shot them, sometimes talking your way out just means setting up your next attack.

“So Cash at what point are you going to try and kill us?” Deliah stopped smiling.  She had hoped that this group might not have been in contact with central command, but that appeared to be a wasted hope.

“Who?”

“Look bitch, just put your hands where I can see them and this will go easy, we might even use lubricant before we give you to command.” Deliah licked her lips; they had her in a bad position. She was leaning over an engine; Kyriac wasn’t really in ear shot nor was he armed, and she couldn’t even remember if she had chambered a round in the assault rifle.

“Ok let me just close the hood.”

“Sure I’d hate for you to try and blow up the engine or something.” Deliah got out from under the hood and let it slam shut; she held both hands in front of her. One of the mercs on the left came forward; he had some of that plastic crap they use to restrain normal people.  Deliah looked through the truck’s cab, she could see the bed behind it and in an instant she was standing in the bed.  The merc’s looked shocked; Deliah brought the assault rifle to bear and heard a disappointing click. 

“Fuck!” she racked the slide and tried again but it was jammed.  Her initial element of surprise gone it came down to a moment of reflexes.  She had the elevated position and the truck was partially blocking their sight lines; they had the numbers. She let the rifle fall and reached for the Hanlon, it was straight hip firing, four quick reports and the merc’s hit the ground around the truck.  She could see Kyriac to her left; the shooting had got him out of the ditch.  She had killed three of the mercenaries, and the last one was pretty much a goner.  The survivor looked like the round had taken hit him just below the neck, probably severed his spine. Deliah hopped down from the truck bed and made her way over, kicking away the assault rifle the Merc was using, she couldn’t be too careful.

“You broke my back whore.”

“Oh hush honey, don’t worry I’ll use lube.” She put the Hanlon underneath his chin, nodded her head, and pulled the trigger.  His brains coated the dirty pavement behind him.

“They weren’t very friendly I take it,” Kyriac was behind her, looking over the gear from one of the mercenaries.

“Not much for conversation really, shame about their truck though, it really is as dead as they are.” Deliah unslung the jammed assault rifle and dropped it on the ground, “Dead as this piece of shit rifle.”

“I wasn’t aware shifting was that harsh on equipment.” Kyriac had one of the merc rifles, Deliah didn’t drop her Hanlon, if he was going to try and turn on her, it was going to be now.

“I’m just glad it doesn’t mess with clothing, it’s bad enough when it’s my figurative pants falling down, I’d hate for it to be my actual pants.” Kyriac laughed, Deliah relaxed a bit and holstered the Hanlon.

“I just have to wonder, is there anyone who doesn’t want to kill you Deliah?”

“Oh this is nothing; you should see family dinners.” Deliah picked up the rifle she kicked away, it was better than her previous rifle, she hoped this one wouldn’t jam after one shift. In the distance she heard another truck.

“More mercs?” Kyriac took up a defensive position near the front of the trucks grill.

“Nope these are probably the rebels who chased these jack asses.”

“Payback time.” Kyriac smiled as he racked a round into the chamber.

Oh good I thought You all Just Abandoned Me

Therod walked into Rolando telling a story with diagrams and maps to Rem and Carut. She was beyond angry at the sight. Like she expected all kinds of things, an alternative rescue plan, or perhaps a negotiation with the head of the police, possible black mail, but three idiots sitting around discussing a war and a person's part in it from years gone by? Beyond her to expect. Therod was in so much rage she didn't say anything when she got back.

"So like this is where I believe she started this particular story, it lines up with what she was talking about with where she eventually ends up at the end of the conflict."

"I'm just kind of confused by the geography here." Carut was studying the map and not fully getting what Rolando was explaining.

"WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING!?" She shouted and caught them all off guard for a moment, and then mostly they returned to the map.

"Rolando is telling us a story about the woman you were accused of being."

"Oh that's what this was, for a second I thought you guys left me in prison so Rolando could tell you a story."

"Well we did that, but Rolando said he got it, and you are clearly out, so the story is what we have here." Rem answered so casually Therod wanted to kill him. She wanted to kill everyone, she couldn't believe how casually they just ignored her!

"So since this story is enthralling, what am I missing?"

"Well you see to properly tell it I have to explain the New Lork conflict..." Rolando started again and Therod against her better nature found herself drawn in like the other two had been.

How Did you Even? You're an Idiot Normally

Therod was a free woman. She didn't even know how it happened. One minute Trezlan was there in a dumb wig, and telling her the trial shouldn't be an issue and then she was released, charges dropped. To say she was confused was an understatement. Lorentino was quietly happy as they left the court room, his empty briefcase in hand. Empty he told her because it was only there for looks, which seemed idiotic, but that was Trezlan, always an idiot. Except this time he wasn't, he somehow managed to get the charges dropped and an apology from the police for the mistaken identity. It made no sense to Therod.

"Did you pay them off?" Lorentino looked at her with a mixture of annoyance and sadness.

"If I paid them off I would not have showed up in court. No, what I did was show them records of my wife's passing."

"You were married?"

"Not officially, but again you can't be someone who is dead, and the proof was absolute, you're welcome Therod by the way." She felt shame at accusing him of paying them off, he was apparently hurt by that, on top of Deliah, whoever she was, had apparently been his wife. Something Therod felt she should have known, but apparently it wasn't labeled in any of her former RIG files.

"See you around?"

"Doubtful, tell my son that's it for now." And with that the attorney that wasn't Trezlan Lorentino disappeared leaving Therod to wonder, just where in the gods were her mercenaries?

The Beginning of the End of New Lork Part 7

The night passed without incident.  Deliah managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before the light and noise was too hard to put up with. She broke down the camp with Kyriac; she didn’t tell him that she was more concerned with Drydek than the rebels. The conflict had kicked back up after yesterday’s lighter fighting.  Deliah heard the thump of heavy artillery and sustained weapons fire in the distance.  The conflict would help mask her and Kyriac’s movements if she could avoid the actual fighting.  She still had no clue how to get off the planet, or what to do with Kyriac, but that was a long term goal in a short term world.

“So…” They hadn’t really been talking since breaking up camp. Deliah was a bit unnerved by the silence in the face of all the sounds of fighting around them.

“So why is my skin green?”

“Oh thank you, yes why is your skin green?” Kyriac stopped and gave Deliah a glare.

“Why are you a woman?”

“Because being a man would make seducing men a lot harder.” Not that Deliah seduced anyone, but the joke seemed to disarm Kyriac’s anger a little bit.

“You ever seen an off world mining operation? Let’s just say crew safety is not high on the list of things corporations care about and some of birth defects are rather grotesque.  If you can believe it my skin color is one of the lesser problems I saw growing up as a kid.”

“I’d believe that, good to know it’s not because you’re some kind of radioactive monster.” Deliah resumed walking, her pace picked up a bit, the sounds of fighting had drawn closer than she wanted.

“Ok now that we are being honest again, you do know we are walking in the wrong direction right? We’re moving away from the corporate forces, I mean from your intervention I can only assume you aren’t a rebel.”

“Yeah umm about that…” 

The Beginning of the End of New Lork Part 6

“So you’re a shifter?” The R.I.G. was talking now, Deliah had helped him away from the shopping area massacre and into a bombed out basement.  He had been quiet since his initial amazement at her rescue and Deliah was thankful for the silence. She had set up a small fire and had the corporate thugs weapons disassembled in front of her. She had also taken apart her sub machine guns and the longshot; only her Hanlon which was too old to take parts from newer guns was left in a combat status, she also had the knife nearby should the need arise.

“Is that how they say thank you in the empire? I prefer the corporate territories way more, it’s a lot easier to understand, what if you had to say thank you to a group of people?”

“I’d say thank you, but I honestly don’t know if I’m next.” Deliah sighed, she had found the jam in one of her smgs and it had been as she had feared, melted from the shifting.

“I frequently save people and help them get to safety only to kill them later; it’s in the shifter handbook.” The R.I.G. shifted uncomfortably, sarcasm in a war zone never went over well Deliah thought to herself.

“What do you want?”

“I want to get off this damn rock R.I.G.” The other smg had the same issue, both were completely beyond repair. Deliah tossed them aside with disgust, her abilities had proven useful for surviving, but were hell on her equipment.  The only reliable weapon she owned was the Hanlon.

“No way you’re dangerous, even if I had a way off this planet, I’d never give it to you.”

“You’re usefulness is really becoming narrow R.I.G. you don’t really want that.” Deliah didn’t want to have to murder someone in cold blood, especially not after having saved him, but he wasn’t making a great case for himself.

“I have a name you know.” The R.I.G. was worried, in class he’d been taught that if someone doesn’t want to know your name it’s because they were dehumanizing you to make killing you easier.

“And I’m a person! But you don’t want to see that, you want to see me as a murderous magic user! So fuck your name.” Deliah ran a hand over her brow, in the background the R.I.G. adjusted himself uncomfortably. Deliah moved to look over her bag of goodies and winced in pain, the spot where the shotgun blast had hit hurt more than just a bruise would let on. “I’m going to unfasten my armor, if you even look at me funny I swear to whatever gods you believe in I’ll put one right between your eyes.”

“I’ll go one further and do the same those rebels messed me up bad and I would like to see how bad if that’s ok with you.” A tentative truce in place things seemed a bit lighter in the air.  Deliah and the R.I.G. unfastened their chest plates and surveyed the damage underneath. Deliah was wearing a white, now brown, tank top.  The R.I.G. had on an undershirt that had his unit logo on it, a hound of some kind; he took the shirt off and was busy inspecting a myriad of bruises over his green body. Deliah gingerly inspected her own wound, the armor had stopped the shot but the force had definitely done damage. She lifted her shirt up a bit and saw deep black bruising; as she touched it she sucked breath in from the pain.

Deliah heard snickering from her right and gave the R.I.G. a sour look, “You got a problem hearing R.I.G.?”

He stopped snickering and tried to go stone faced, “I’m sorry I wasn’t aware actual laughter wasn’t allowed with your funny looks.”

“You think it’s funny when someone gets shot saving your stupid ass?”

“No it’s just odd for a big bad ass like you to have a prominent butterfly tattoo.” The tattoo was on her right bicep, it was a large butterfly and a date underneath it. Deliah almost forgot it was there, she had the work originally done seven years ago, when she got out of her first tour in the merc groups

“It’s a metaphor do they teach you about those in the empire?”

“A little bit, between being bigots towards the magical and people who save our asses, so what was the transformation? Your first bare handed strangulation?” Deliah didn’t want to admit it, but she was starting to like the little runt of a R.I.G. He was unarmed and an asshole but there was some charm there.

“Lost my first fight and almost my life.”

“That follows.”

“Naturally, though in case you were wondering if magic wins over physics, it totally does.” Deliah reattached her armor, she couldn’t do shit about the injury to her side. She made a mental note that if she made it out of here she’d have to get medical assistance.

“I’m sorry.” The little guy looked like he had a red face as best he could manage between the bruises blood and green skin.

“What’s your name R.I.G.?” It was against her better judgment, but her better judgment had led her to this dirtball to begin with.

“Kyriac.”

“Well Kyriac, you didn’t do it, and you didn’t know about it, so you have nothing to be sorry for.” There was moment of blessed silence.  Deliah picked over her spoils.  The weapons were all brand new corporate issue pieces of shit.  They looked nice, but in the dirt and dust of New Lork they’d jam and be useless long before any shifting could mess them up.  She did her best to cobble together a working assault rifle out of the four she’d taken, it wasn’t optimal but it would work till she got something she felt more comfortable with. Kyriac was busy himself, he looked almost comically covered in bandages, the majority of his torso was now wrapped in some white tape. His job finished he put the shirt back on.

“That your unit?” The logo looked like some kind of grey wolf howling at an invisible moon.

“Yeah 5^th division out of Sanctuary, the blood hounds.”

“Mage hunters? Son of a bitch I should have figured with you even knowing what a shifter is.” Deliah was almost worried for a second, but if they were after her, he wouldn’t have been surprised by her ability.

“You got it, and you have nothing to worry about, I lost my shackles when our unit got ambushed.” Shackles were anti magical implements that inhibited ability, Deliah had seen some used before when a group she was with had been paid to back up a unit similar to Kyriacs.

“So what are R.I.G. mage hunters doing in a corporate war zone? I’ve seen a lot in this awful conflict but I don’t think either side is using magic, well not directly.”

Kyriac laughed and then immediately coughed in pain, “Aside from you of course, no we got intel that a target of high priority would be here, look like it was bad, or he’s long gone.  Maybe a bit of both. “ Mage hunters in Deliah’s experience were good at retrieval and shit at everything else, their unit composition was primarily designed against nullifying magical targets and taking them alive (either for study or in the case of Ronerawth sanctuary a kind of magical prison/actual sanctuary).

“And you guys got jumped by rebels?”

“Almost like we were set up right? The thought crosses my mind.” Kyriac reattached his armor and moved closer to the fire for warmth, “Though if you don’t mind, and this is not a comment on your lovely conversation skills, but I’m tired, mind if I sleep these bruises off?”

“Sure I’ll wake you up when it’s your turn to keep watch.”

“What am I going to keep watch with?”

“Those tiny fists look dangerous, might cause a light bruise to form.” Kyriac flipped her off, Deliah smiled back at him; she was starting to like the little guy.

The Beginning of the End of New Lork Part 5

Riobeck was alone in his cubical.  The head executive was not happy about Deliah surviving, but it actually worked in their favor.  Her escape was added to the PR story with the four dead being touted as heroes brutally cut down by an unrepentant murderer.  Now all they had to do was find her, kill her, and then display her face all over the planet as an example of how Drydek had defeated the last true leader of the rebellion. Riobeck had received the data feed from the corporate soldiers, they had been morons lured in by a dumb trap.  Deliah had simply just played dead and waited for them to walk up to her.  Riobeck was only watching the video to get a good display shot of Deliah’s brutality to give to the PR department.

“Your coffee sir.” Kyle was there now, Riobeck was one of the only people still working, despite being on a ship corporate policy still followed the normal day night cycle of the main office. Kyle watched as Deliah sprung up and stabbed the first guy who went to prod her, and then something weird happened, either the feed had a hiccup or she disappeared and reappeared somewhere else (the display was in a four screen set up with each soldiers hud taking up one corner).

“What the fuck?” Riobeck was stunned, that was impossible.

“She appears to be really fast sir.” Riobeck looked at Kyle with a glare.

“That’s not fast, that’s impossible, unless,” Riobeck backed the video feed up again to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, “Son of a bitch she’s a shifter.” Kyle looked on dumbly as Riobeck started making calls, Deliah was proving more an annoyance than even he had thought up.

The Beginning of the End for New Lork Part 4

Deliah smiled to herself. The four corporate stooges they’d sent after her were a great example why Drydek was losing this conflict.  Green self-important school fed babies; they’d never probably been in a live fire conflict, especially based on how they reacted to her little ambush. It was a shame she couldn’t have taken their armor, but none of them were her size, and the armor was probably bugged anyway. She’d have to make do with the weapons, ammo and assorted supplies. With the ill-gotten gains in a makeshift bag on her back she made good time getting away from the plasma cratered area.  Riobeck wouldn’t be dumb enough to fire another shot into the cloud or send more troops, but Deliah never ever counted on someone being not stupid when it came to her survival.

She made sure to stick to the rubble, they would have aligned satellite tracking by now and there was no point in painting a big target on her ass by walking in the street.  The gun fire from earlier had died down, Deliah figured the orbital had made everyone a bit more wary to be engaged in open conflict. Deliah didn’t run across anyone during the day, which wasn’t much of a surprise. Prior to her termination she’d been running scouting mission through these very ruins trying to track down loose elements of rebels; she hadn’t found shit and expected the trend to continue.

The Rebellion on New Lork had been a pretty dismal failure, even with the conflict still continuing the colony was pretty much annihilated. What had started over worker’s rights had spiraled out of control and both sides in the conflict really wished it would just come to a close. Most of the real refugees were already long gone, either dead or evacuated.  The only people who stuck around were the dead enders, criminals or the deeply impoverished, they were numerous enough to make killing them all difficult, but had no real leadership.  How killing Deliah fit into all of that was beyond her, but she figured she’d ask Riobeck that very question before she cut his heart of his chest.

Deliah was lost in her own thoughts of revenge when small weapons fire brought her back to her first immediate problems.  It was closer than before, but thankfully wasn’t directed at her.  She moved through the ruins of what appeared to have been a store and saw a group of rebels advancing on another shopping center across the street.  Night was setting in which reduced visibility, but she could make out four live rebels, with another couple dead nearby.  Their weapons looked worse than hers for condition, but clearly still worked from the sounds she’d heard earlier. Stashing her supplies near some rubble she tried to get a better vantage on what was going on. She cursed her broken rifle scope, if ever there was a time for long range solution, it was now. Creeping up to a ruined window she could see more bodies in the street, they weren’t rebels, from the armor they looked government based.  This was odd, Drydek had sole responsibility for the colony, Deliah was confused as to why government troops had been sent in let alone killed by Rebels. Shouts from inside the center startled her for a moment, two of the rebels were carrying out what at first appeared to be a small child in armor, but upon a second look was a shorty; meaning the government troops were Ronerawth Imperial Guard (R.I.G’s for short).  The surviving R.I.G. did not look like he was in good shape, outside of having odd skin color (green) his face was bloodied and the four rebels were taking turns kicking him on the ground.

Deliah cursed under her breath and checked her sub machine guns.  Normally she wouldn’t care if some dumb enlisted asshole got killed, but she needed a way off this rock, and if the R.I.G. was here someone must have dropped them off. She had the drop on the rebels, they all had their back to her, and she didn’t waste time firing warning shots. The subbies made short work of the two rebels on the left before they jammed. “Fuck,” Deliah spit out as she dropped the SMG’s and went for her Hanlon.  The two remaining rebels had turned to face her; one of them had some kind of triple barreled shotgun, the other a couple of revolvers. She was too slow on the draw, the shotgun roared to life and she felt the impact on her left side.  The armor held, but her attacker racked a new load in, revolvers had also brought both his pistols to bear and at the range they were in there was no way she’d be coming out of this one still breathing with her current tactic.

Deliah shifted, one second she was in front of both attackers, the next she was behind them. She grabbed shotgun and spun him towards revolvers who was now turning to face her, she reached down and fired, revolver’s armor was not as good as her own and the blast opened up his chest in a spray of red. With him dealt with Deliah snapped shotguns neck, his body hit the ground with a thud.  She was about to check in with the shorty when she heard a hammer hit back behind her. Her hand slid back on the combat knife and and drew the blade halfway, she turned around to see another rebel with a fairly large looking rifle with a nice scope on it.

“You really think you can slice my throat from ten feet away merc before I pull the trigger?” The R.I.G. was watching her; she could see that he looked like he was in a bad way.

“Now you see me…” Deliah shifted again, the rebel shot where she was, but it was too late for him, she’d decapitated him before the bullet even cleared the chamber, “Now you’re dead.”

The R.I.G. turned to her with amazement, “Who the hell are you?”

“Name’s Deliah Cash, and I just saved your ass.”

Thomas Lorzine Esquire

Trezlan kept feeling like the wig should itch. It was one of those things that always bothered him about wearing it as a disguise. Modern wigs don't itch, they don't even look like a wig, they attach to your head and blend in, you only know its not your hair because obviously you don't have it. But the desire to scratch is still there! Trezlan had seen other men with wigs do the same thing, it was really the only way to tell outside of really weird looking hair that couldn't be real, the scratching. He had been trying to resist the urge to scratch ever since he'd gotten the call to help Therod. He almost laughed at the irony of the descendant of the lady who threw him in jail a lot, winding up in jail because of someone Trezlan's former wife in some weird way.

The Deliah connection was alarming. He didn't know many of her former mercenary contacts, let alone one that would hold a grudge to seemingly kill herself and blame it on someone else entirely, but he was sure when he got to the jail he'd figure things out, why have a plan when you can just make one up on the fly?

The only other concern other than how he was going to actually prove that Deliah was dead. Was how his fake ID would hold up. He'd always had various different fake id's over the years, but using one was always a dangerous gambit. In a way up until it didn't work he'd just as likely wind up in a cell next to Therod. So with trepidation he approached the front desk of the police station and flashed his id.

"Thomas Lorzine, you're holding my client Deliah Cash?"

A Reprieve

"Not to say the story isn't riventing." Carut and Rem had been listening as Rolando went over one of his mothers old war journals. They both were intrigued but ultimately confused.

"I sense a but coming here." Rolando had been going over his mothers journal and notes and explaining the New Lork conflict as best he remembered it. Neither Rem or Carut had even really heard of the conflict or the planet.

"But shouldn't we be helping Therod out of prison for not being your mother?"

"Nah she's fine don't worry I took care of that." Carut and Rem looked at Rolando with doubt.

"You took care of the false charges while you've been her with us?"

"Well not me personally, but I have someone coming who can sort all of that out."

"Why do I suspect Therod will not like who you sent in there?"

"Because you worry too much." Rolando didn't mention he had sent his father because why spoil the surprise, Trezlan had also promised to wear a diguise and be subtle. Which scared Rolando to hear, but still he wanted to tell his story and he was sure Trezlan could get Therod out of jail, one way or another. Probably.

The Beginning of the End of New Lork Part 3

“Deliah Cash, perennial delinquent, I see convictions starting as far back as age sixteen, leading up to age twenty three when she was press ganged into corporate service by the court. Five years of mandatory soldiering and then at twenty eight with her service contract fulfilled she went independent, been that way for the past seven years.  Rap sheet lists gang activities, assault, vandalism a laundry list of violent destructive crime sir.” Riobeck held the flat panel display in front of himself as he read the dossier, the man sitting in front of him was dressed nicer than Riobeck, a full suit and tie to Riobeck’s white shirt and black pants.

“A history of criminal activity, what about family?”

“Three sisters, mother and father they all work for a rival corporation that’s another thing we can utilize.” The strike had gone off perfectly, Riobeck had watched on the monitor’s as Deliah had been vaporized.

“Perfect, bring the profile to PR, we’ll say she was a corporate spy and had hindered our effort to bring liberty to the colony.” The man behind the desk smiled, behind him was a view port showing the colony of New Lork, a miserable planet that had been mocking him for an entire year.  The operation was supposed to be already over; Riobeck was just one of several low level execs who’d been selected to run the recruitment and intelligence for this fuck up. It was actually supposed to be so short an operation he hadn’t even bothered to change his vacation plans with his family. A quick beep from his personal data assistant had him excuse himself and step out of the office to the outer office area.  Hundreds of cubicles and men working at him in a constant thrum was going on, the new offensive was keeping operators busy directing assets.

“Captain Saunders give me the good news.” Riobeck was happy, Deliah Cash had been a specifically bothersome pain in his ass, if not for her he might have been out of their months ago.

“Saunders? Oh that’s what he was screaming when I killed his dumb ass, I got to tell you Riobeck it was rather nice of you to give me a supply drop like this, you’re little plasma shit fucked up my rifles scope pretty badly, and I was running a little shy on ammo.” Riobeck balled his fist tightly, the bitch had somehow survived.

“Cashe!”

“Oh so formal, whatever happened to Deliah? Tell you what sport when I catch up to you, we’ll have plenty of time to get nice and polite.”

“You have no idea who you’re messing with Cashe, I swear you’re about to be in a world of shit.” Riobeck was flushed in the face and snapping at an assistant nearby, he may have missed her once but he’ll make damn sure he got her the second time.

“It’s a good thing I have my boots on Riobeck.” The signal was cut off.  Deliah would be too smart to have used her own signal, so another orbital volley wouldn’t even guarantee a kill, and now that she was aware of them sending more men to the same location would be advisable either.

“Problem sir?” The assistant was a narrow faced younger man, probably a Ken or Kyle, Riobeck couldn’t remember.

“Get me Commander Dorkins we have a loose asset.” The younger man disappeared and Riobeck entered back into the private office, “Sir we may have a problem with the Cash situation….”

The Beginning of the End for New Lork Part 2

“One year on this dirtball, it’s almost like I’m back home.” She muttered aloud, her throat dry despite recently drinking. With a sigh she pressed a couple buttons on her data assistant and the onboard display on her mask came to life, the radio crackled with her name.

“Deliah come in, can you hear me Deliah?” A high pitched corporate suits voice was in her ear, he sounded louder than usual today.

“This is Deliah over.”  She withdrew from the car and moved towards a burned out building nearby; the being out in the street chatting on the radio didn’t seem like a great idea even without there being visible enemies. The building was at least four stories though most of it had been holed from fighting; she heard a faint groaning from the girders when she got inside which was one of the reasons she chose to sleep on the street the night before.

“Where have you been Deliah? You just now switched on your onboard, we figured you were KIA.” Riobeck was the corporate suit in charge of the operation.  He wasn’t even on New Lork, instead he was in a ship high above the atmosphere with the rest of management.  They were supposed to be supplying intelligence and directing the conflict, but instead they’d mostly been squabbling with each other and getting people killed, a normal Op for the Drydek corporation from what Deliah had seen.

“Sleeping Riobeck I didn’t want your voice waking me up, tends to leave me angry.” It had been a day since she’d last gotten a night of rest, weeks for it being a full one on an actual bed and not just sacking out on the dirt.

“Are you near something tall? I need you to scout out a location for an Operation.” Scouting, that’s what she had been doing as of late, separated from the main force running around in bombed out buildings without support, and “scouting” always for some mysterious operation that never occurred.

“How tall? I’m in a building looks about four stories, what do you need scouted?”

“Get to the top and get me a feed Deliah and I’ll let you know.” Riobeck had been her handler since the start of the operation, he was the guy who recruited her and bunch of other mercenaries.  The others were already dead and buried, they had recruited for numbers not skills, it made Deliah smile to think it was her alone keeping Riobeck in his floating prison above New Lork.  She coughed a fuck you under her breath and found a way up the broken stair wells to get to the top of the building.  Deliah kept her head low, the rebels weren’t the best shots from what she’d seen, but that doesn’t mean you stick your head up like an idiot. Up top things didn’t look any better; the building she was in was the tallest remaining one still standing (and standing was kind of stretching it from the buildings condition), everything else was a collapsed or cratered.

“You getting this?” The mask had an onboard send and receive component, mostly used for the send part, as the only information she’d received for the last few months was payment delays.

“We receive you clearly, hold please while we analyze the data.” The building groaned, Deliah had a moment of panic as she considered how fast she could run down the broken stairs before getting crushed.

“Hold where asshole? This building isn’t exactly the most stable.” Anger mixed with anxiety colored Deliah’s voice.

“I understand that Deliah, but we’re paying you, so when I say hold princess, you fucking hold.” The radio cut indicating Riobeck was no longer on the line.

“Asshole,” Deliah unslung the sniper rifle and took up a position on the north part of the roof, she scanned the surrounding area more intently, if they wanted her to remain in position she was going to make damn sure she wasn’t about to become a tax write off. The gunfire from earlier was getting closer, its why she chose the north side of the building as that’s where it sounded like it was coming from. Deliah waited and heard nothing, a couple call signs into Riobeck got no answer, nor did her messages to any other operatives in the area. Something felt very wrong. Deliah killed the send uplink on her data assistant and shouldered the rifle, she started to make her way back down from the building.  Her radio sparked to life.

“You’ve killed your data uplink Deliah, everything all right?” Riobeck sounded different now, almost worried.

“I’m hunkered down on the roof Riobeck, I think the rebels hacked my feed, I’ve cut it and I’m trying to trap trace their location.” Total lie, but Riobeck had proven in the past quite idiotic so Deliah figured he wouldn’t catch on to that. She got to the bottom of the building and started running, she didn’t exactly know what was about to happen, but whatever it was she didn’t want to be there when it did.

“The Drydek corporation thanks you for your contribution contractor Deliah, but we regret to inform you that your services are no longer required.” The building behind her vanished in an explosion that threw Deliah forward into more rubble; the armor protected her from getting skewered, but did little to shield the impact of being tossed like that, nor did it prevent her sniper’s scope from getting broken.  Deliah did a quick pat check to make sure all her parts were accounted for, no obvious injuries. Deliah killed her com signal altogether hoping she did it in time so that they wouldn’t suspect she survived the orbital bombardment.  The building had been hit by what looked like a sustained plasma burst, probably from the flagship up above. The bastards had been making sure they didn’t have any splash casualties when they planned on taking her out. She had scouted her own orbital strike.

Deliah had to get moving, the strike was going to be followed up with a hit team, and she wanted to be damn sure to be ready for them.  The strike actually was helping her by obscuring her movements against her enemies, all the dust and debris made locating her by satellite or scan much more difficult.  It also made it hard to see amidst the swirling dirt cloud, even with her onboard vision assist Deliah was limited to an arm’s length in front of her. Stumbling around she bumped into the car, now overturned, where she’d started her day, figuring it was as good a place as any to stage her ambush she laid down and waited for the follow up team’s arrival. She still had no idea why she had been specifically targeted, and in such a showy fashion. Orbital strikes are expensive, messy, and tended to draw attention. Deliah must have pissed off someone up high to get that kind of attention, but for the life of her she could not recall what that was.

The Beginning of the End For New Lork Part 1

“And we are confident that this action will resolve the issues with the colony and finally bring freedom to the people of New Lork…” The corporate lackey droned on at the press conference, but the message was clear, the war was still on, the fighting would continue. Deliah closed the small data assistant and leaned back against the ruined car she’d been sitting behind. She continued with her morning routine: brushed her teeth, rinsed out the residue with her remaining bit of coffee spitting the mixture on the ground next to her, rubbed the remaining sleep out of her eyes and made ready for another round of fighting. Before she checked over her weapons she took out a busted a little pocket mirror she’d picked up along the way.  Her hair was a mess, even cut short it looked awful.  Standing up in the wrong places, matted in others, that was ignoring the color her natural blonde was so caked in dust from fighting and general grime of New Lork it looked more like mud than blonde. Her eyes were blackened with bags, she had been sleeping behind the car the night before, but it hadn’t been very restful.  Her lips were chapped and cracked from the dryness, even wearing a mask couldn’t keep that from happening, eventually you had to take it off. Beyond the chapped lips, dirty hair, baggy eyes her lighter skin was red all over from where the sun got through, even in full armor she still felt the burns soreness, in a way it almost looked like she was wearing blush from the way it reddened her cheeks.

Spread around her in the best condition she could make them was her weaponry:  a longshot sniper rifle, a pair of rapid fire submachine guns, and her old beaten up Hanlon pistol. The Hanlon was the oldest firing weapon she still used (she kept a combat knife from the old days at the small of her back, but rarely ever used it anymore, better to shoot and scoot than get up close and personal), she dropped the magazine out and pulled the slide back to eject the last cartridge in the chamber.  The dust had been hell on most of her gear necessitating more maintenance and proper checks.  The inside of the pistol looked fine to her; a quick look down the barrel didn’t see too much dust within.  She replaced the cartridge in the magazine and loaded it back into the bottom of the pistol, a quick knock back of the slide returned the weapon to ready status. She holstered the pistol on her right hip, and checked over the other three weapons.  The sniper was the least used, it had been all inner city urban fighting so far and not a lot of opportunity for opening up from a distance, the submachine guns were getting worn down, even with the cleaning without replacement parts they’d become too dangerous to fire soon, she made note to acquire a new weapon today if possible. Her armor looked no better, the padding was chaffing, the plating guarding her chest and vital regions were pock marked with hits from small arms, and the joints in the arms squeaked originally there was some urban camouflage sprayed on it, but that was gone too, now it was just a brown color like everything else. She picked up her armor mask and had to smile for a moment, she’d taken the time to paint on some exaggerated fangs and a message prior to this conflict (the message simply “Fuck off”) and now both were barely visible, the fangs were an outline, and the message read “off” the fuck having long worn away.

Deliah stood up and put on her mask, she slung the sniper rifle over her back and adjusted the shoulder straps on the submachine guns to make sure they were still at hand level, with those secure she scanned the area one final time before moving out.  There still wasn’t any recent activity; she could hear gun fire far off, but that was constant in this section of New Lork.  The policing action she was originally apart of was supposed to last a week, then that week stretched into a month, and now that month had grown to be almost a year. 

New Lork Old Problems

*The following is a historical record on the Lork Conflict, it is not known how accurate the representation is, as three corporations have a different view on the conflict

New Lork was a powder keg conflict. The kind of place that from its inception was bound to break out in open bloody murder. A desert world in the middle of three corporate territories. The idea was to create a sort of holiday destination where people could relax with looser rule enforcement on drug usage and prostitution. In retrospect it was obvious where the flaws were, but at the time it was considered a good idea.

The first open war took place three years into the provisional governments tenure on the planet. It was believed to be started by unionized casino workers who felt they were not being paid fairly. This has been disputed by historians claiming that this was instead a push by a corporation to control the entirety of the planet. Which corporation is again up for debate.

The war was thought to last no more than a year, lasted fifteen. By the time the conflict was over the entire planet's infrastructure was annihilated. The end came when the warring factions effectively gave up and left. New Lork now remains as a monument to corporate cooperation in the modern age.

Teenage Rebellion Taken Too Far

Deliah wasn't a mercenary out of desire. She had grown up in the corporate sector, a land of opportunity for middle managers to spend their days never really doing anything or seeing the results of any of their actions. Both of her parents were executives in a corporation and her sister was well on her way to being the accounting supervisor at the same place. Deliah didn't want to be a drone at an office. She wanted to see the world, which meant in the corporate sector signing up to be a mercenary.

It was surprisingly easy to get in as a licensed merc. Just a couple classes, physical registration, and then signing up with an outfit at a recruiter. Deliah chose a group that was bound for outer planetary duty, mainly to get away from her parents. She figured she'd do the mercenary thing for a couple years, and then settle down and be a corporate drone. Unfortunately the group she signed on with were on the rim when a war broke out, and the war lasted six years. By the time Deliah had finished her first tour, she was automatically signed up for another and could not stop it, nor would she want to, she had discovered she loved combat. And in the midst of that, she also discovered she was a shifter.

Deliah was not as strong as Rolando, her ability was only for short term shifts, but in the middle of combat it was a life saver. Unfortunately her ability also meant she couldn't hang around major commercial areas for long. Even in the corporate sector, shifters were listed as kill on sight dangerous absent a tracking chip being implanted in them. So she was a woman without a family, and without a future other than mercenary work, and in the middle of that she was still in a war on the rim.

So it was under all of this that Deliah found herself sitting in the ruins of a building one of the few remaining mercenaries in her company wondering if it was all worth it to rebel against her parents.

Sins of the Mother

Carut stared at the screen a little dumb founded. He figured that Therod would be bored by what looked like a crazy old woman, and then after a couple hours come back shamed and admit she was wrong. Now he was seeing reports that a woman named Deliah Cash had been arrested, but the physical description was more in line with Therod than whoever Deliah Cash was supposed to be. Carut wanted to hack in for more info, but was leery of the effort if only because it would look bad if it was a simple case of mistaken identity.

"Rolando, Rem get your asses up here." Carut was trying to formulate a plan, they could in theory just blast in there and get Therod back, but unlike the fake police they rescued Rem from, the real ones tended to be a lot less forgiving of breaking the law. On top of that maintaining their mercenary license required them to be mostly law abiding.

"What?" Rolando was the first one up to the office and his face told the story. He had gone from looking mildly upbeat to like he'd seen a ghost. Rem followed shortly after him and was surprised to see Rolando so stricken.

"I take it from that look, you know who Deliah Cash is?"

"Yes, but what I'm confused by is how she could be arrested."

"She wasn't, they've got Therod, but if you know who Cash is we'll just snag her and give her to the cops."

"Going to be a bit of a problem there Carut, Deliah is dead, she was my mom." Carut and Rem felt like Rolando did, taken back by everything that had taken place. And so Rolando told them a story about a mercenary named Deliah Cash, the best mother who never got to see her son live that long.

I Want to Cash Out

Therod cursed the luck. She had moved from one cell to another, and now she was being held as someone she wasn't. It was enough to make her scream at the situation. She almost suspected Carut had played a joke on her if not for the very real booking she had just gone through. The cell at the police station was a lot nicer, but she definitely felt a lot less safe there. Eventually after she'd been cooling her heels for a couple hours someone came and brought her to an interrogation room. It was the usual set up, table, chairs, sound proofing and a one way mirror, just like they did it in the military.

"Deliah Cash nice of you to show up again."

"I'm not Deliah Cash?" Therod seemed to think that was obvious, the two detectives did not seem to believe that.

"DNA match lines up, you look pretty good for pushing seventy, but medical procedures have hidden people's age before." Therod was completely confused now. She was searching any kind of previous record in her implant for Cash and was coming up with a very brief thing about a mercenary in the corporate sector believed to be an acquaintance of Trezlan Lorentino. Seeing his name there suddenly made her very angry.

"Cash was white, I'm black." It was the only thing she could think of based on the snippet she had.

"So you do know who you are. And yes you obviously got skin darkening done along with your other medical procedures. Ms. Cash, you're going away for a long time, I just want you to know that." The detective got up to leave.

"That's it, called me down here to claim I'm someone I'm not and then leave?"

"I just wanted to know what your defense would be, clearly insanity." Therod glared and both men left. Later she was taken back to her cell. With a sigh she realized she had to hope someone back at the office clued in things had gone wrong, which caused her to sigh again in the thought that none of them probably would.

Whoever Deliah Is, She's in Trouble

"I'm not Deliah?" It seemed to be the only thing Therod could say. Who Deliah was, or what she had to do with Therod was very confusing. The old lady had a moderately crazy look in her one functioning eye, the other one was scabbed over either from injury or illness Therod couldn't be sure. The old woman came down swinging her broken weapon in a way that made Therod really not feel safe.

"Of course you're Deliah, you took my eye, now its time for me to take everything about you." The old woman stuck the weapon through the bars and Therod jumped on it, she smashed it against the bars and the barrel broke. The old lady pulled the trigger anyway causing whatever round was in the chamber to explode in the breach wounding both women, though Therod looked like the old lady got the worse of it. She was wondering how easily the bars would dislodge when she heard boots tromping down and was surprised to see police. Especially that fast.

"Oh thank the gods this lady locked me up..."

"Deliah Cashe? You're under arrest." Therod thought maybe they meant the old lady, but it appeared they were talking to her.

"You've got to be kidding me." As they removed her from the cell and slapped the restraining shackles on, they did not appear to be kidding. Therod swore as they were dragging her off the old woman's corpse had a smile on her face.

Can't Ask For Help Out of Shame

Therod had been imprisoned for a couple hours. The lady that Carut had turned down had turned out to be as crazy as he had thought. When she had arrived at the ruined apartment building that the person had claimed to be her home Therod was hit with a stun gun and she awoke in a basement cell with a dish for water and a bucket which she assumed was to be used to go to the bathroom. So far there had been no demand, not even a question from her captor. She just got hit with a stun weapon and locked up in the crumbling building. It felt like she was missing a story here.

The worst part for Therod was not being able to ask for help. The very idea of contacting Carut and asking him or the rest of her squad to bail her out made her shiver. She had ignored his warning and now it had lead to her peril. No one to blame but herself, so in that regard she felt the only way out was her own guile. At its face the cell looked not too difficult to get out of. The bars were iron, but the building was falling apart, a good round of smashing into them would free her if given time, she just had to wait to see her captor to judge how much time she had left.

"Hello Deliah, been a long time." The old woman who came down wearing armor that was too tight and a weapon that looked prime for a misfire informed her, time to escape was already long past.

I'll Mark That In Things To Be Afraid Of

Rem had a look on his face Rolando did not like. It was a face he'd grown used to seeing when Rem had somehow tapped into Trezlan's thoughts and found out something awful. The last time Rem had it, his father was trapped in his own ship by his own robots. That made Rolando smile, but he knew his father would get out, and judging on Rem's smirk he had.

"He got free and he's back to building a battleship."

"Oh hi Rem, thanks I was having trouble sleeping at night, glad to see you brought me something new to fear."

"I just thought you'd want to know he's ok." Rem knew this not to be true. He'd only known Rolando a short time, but he knew the man did not like to know that his father was ok, or doing ill to the world. Optimally Trezlan imprisoned by robots was the best thing for the universe. Him being free and now once again working with the bots was bad for everyone.

"Rem, I kind of like you, but you know good gods damned well that's not what I wanted to know." Rem smiled and he walked off. Rolando was tempted to try the roping thing Rem had taught him on the man, but figured best to let it slide, for fear of what Therod would do when she got back from wherever she had gone. So instead he just fumed like his father was known to do when he was upset but felt he could do nothing about it.