The Red War Part 6

Twists and turns are the highlight of starship navigation. Every ship has these little high rises and low rises to make sure you bang your foot and smash your head on everything. I'm told they are useful to section of damaged sections, but all they really seem to do for me is to injure and annoy. The Followers ship was no different, and their aesthetic of having everything rust red made navigating it all the worse. By the time I found where I was staying, I had banged my shin, bruised my head, and just wanted to sleep. The room I was staying in was bare. Just a mattress and a dresser to store clothes in. I hate that the followers never ever give you creature comforts, there is more to life than war you assholes!

"Comfortable?" The leader of the Followers was a decent enough person named Claire. Well decent enough meaning she was a horrible killer, and she was a Mordere from the missing eye which was all the more frightening, but she treated me nicely.

"Not at all, this is intolerable, my accommodations with Trenk were crap, but this is worse."

"You get your own room, this should satisfy your needs."

"It does not, nor do I know what you want with me, I was ripping Trenk off, I don't know shit about how to stop this war, or even what caused it." Claire smiled it reminded me of Hanlon in a way I wasn't sure of, probably the falseness of it.

"But you do know the Fire God, you have been equated to her avatar."

"If you think she'll help you are sorely mistaken, believe me, she was the first person I wanted to speak with when this happened."

"So you did speak with her."

"Sort of."

"Explain." I sighed and then recounted my tale, yes this is a story with a story I was telling you anyway journal. Look you know my tendencies you can't be surprised.

The Red War Part 5

"I'll shoot him before you have a chance to take him." Trenk opened up his negotiation tactic with a disappointing display. It was patently ridiculous I'd kill Trenk before he could kill me, but I guess when you don't believe the man you have is the man he claims to be you make stupid rash decisions.

There was silence to Trenk's statement, which scared me, perhaps the followers were weighing whether to kill me themselves if that was their intent. I didn't know much about where they'd been since the Damned had emerged, their religion was blamed for it despite not being the ones who breached the five fires. So the people who believed in conflict as a way of life were ostracized and eliminated, at the time I thought it was completely fair the universe go out with such stupidity. I was not aware there were any of them still around, let alone enough to the small fleet we'd encountered.

"You will not." The voice sounded like a woman, but I could not be sure, when people talk through speakers its hard to make out sex. Trenk did not like the simple refusal.

"Not much of a negotiation." I could see the sweat on Trenk's face he knew we were in the losing position but he was a corporate stooge, they generally didn't like to be on the losing end of anything.

"Because we're not negotiating." The woman who stepped on board between B&B was missing an eye and only had one pistol in a shoulder clutch with the dull red silk clothing she wore. I was even more worried than I was before. Not only were they followers they were being lead by a Mordere, or worse, they were all Morderes.

"You're on my ship, I think you are obligated to negotiate, I mean I can kill you now too." He pointed towards B & B and the Mordere showed remarkable restraint in not killing either one, she just disarmed them in quick vicious motion that left both men sucking for air on the ground.

"My ship now Mr. Trenk, and you should be thanking me, we're saving you and your team along with Trezlan, you want to stop the war? We will help you get there, but you have to trust us, or piss me off and die right here, it's your choice." It wasn't much of a choice, but Trenk acquiesced and the dispute was over. Later I'm sure Trenk wishes she had shot him dead there, but hindsight is something only the victors really get to experience.

The Red War Part 4

"Friendly?" Trenk was up in the pilot area. I slinked into my seat hoping by just becoming more invisible on the ship I'd actually become invisible.

"Can't tell, they are masking our sensors which is not usually a move of the damned, but they do learn." Barnes was smashing buttons on his panel, I'm sure they were specific buttons, but it just looked like hitting things to me. Brooks was powering up the limited weaponry on our ship. I had been told all it could really do is blast space junk in case we needed to make a fast get away, but when people are faced with annihilation they do silly things.

"Communications?"

"I don't know if they see us yet, and I'd rather not open up comm..."

"Power down your weapons." The command boomed through the small ship it almost hurt my ears.

"Well shit." Barnes looked to Brooks who did as he was ordered.

"What are you idiots doing?"

"We can't fight those ships, but the damned don't usually issue orders, so this ain't them." Trenk looked at his security guards and slumped. He didn't want what was coming next, but no one would raise a finger to help him. The ships got closer and I could see they weren't Ronerawth either, nor were they corporate, they were some other as of yet unknown faction. The largest among them took a position over our ship and then shot a tow cable and brought us on board. I felt myself flexing my magical ability, getting ready to at least save myself in what would come next. There was a hissing as the docking bay around our ship depressurized and then a knock at the crafts exit door. I saw B&B had suited up in armor and weaponry not like it would do much but again people love their futility. When the door opened we were greeted by guns being pointed at us. It was a mix of men in women all wearing the dull red of the followers of Fire. I knew immediately that things had turned for the worse, but my companions did not seem to understand that at all.

"We're here for Lorentino, you can give him to us, or die where you stand." And that was a lovely introduction let me tell you.

The Red War Part 3

"Did you really open that door or was it just some magical trick for all of our benefit?" Bianca was the other archeologist. She acted like a magical groupie, someone without magical ability, but who was intrigued/allured by it. She pretended to have fantastical notions of what I could do with magic like conjuring up illusions, which was more of a dime store hack magician than an actual flesh and blood magic user like myself.

"If I did would I tell you and give away the illusion?" I humored her seeing as she was the only none asshole on the whole crew. We were back on our little transport ship. I remember at the time being worried that such a small craft would be screwed should the damned catch up to us, but everyone else seemed to not worry about that, so I let it not get to me either.

"You're so mysterious, but I have to wonder would you tell any of us if we found what we were looking for?" It was at this point I realized Bianca was playing me. She was acting like she knew nothing of magic or its properties, but she was using her golly gee wiz Trezlan act to ask questions of me that Trenk didn't want to/was scared to ask. I cursed myself for not noticing this earlier, but I admit for the first couple trips I was still hung over from the bar stool tour I was on. I hadn't responded super well to the potential end of the universe is what I'm saying.

"Of course not, I'd tell you it wasn't what we were looking for and then come back later to hog all the glory for myself." She laughed and I looked away, I should have known the whole group here was snakes. Even B&B (Brooks and Barnes) our security guards seemed shady. Though to be fair I'm a hundreds year old necromancer, so maybe personal judgments of others is not something I should involve myself in. Bianca left me to go sit with Trenk and I looked out the window to the vast gulf of space, I did notice ships out there, and my stomach sank to the floor, where we were shouldn't have had anyone let alone what appeared to be a fleet.

"We got a problem." Barnes who was the pilot between B&B called it out and I felt even worse.

The Red War Part 2

Runes and Sigils are universal. Or at least it seems that way to me after all these years. I don't know how or why magic seems to be like math, one of those things every species and creature in this world interprets and can understand. But looking at the sigils and spells on this particular door I knew it was not the right one. If there was such a thing as a right one. I honestly had no idea what we were even looking for. Like in theory we were trying to find something to lock all the damned souls from the five fires away, but in reality? Yeah I don't know how they exactly expected to do that. I think they believed if we found the Fire God or a way to talk to her she'd fix everything. I never had the heart to tell them she wasn't really up to doing that at the precise moment for various reasons.

"I don't think you know how to read these at all." Trenk did not like my methods, he also did not like that I kept telling him we hadn't found anything useful, he seemingly was under the impression I was lying to protect a secret, when in reality I wasn't lying to protect anything. It made me entirely suspicious of him, because he almost wanted us to find something without in theory knowing we would find anything.

"Oh really?" I hate when people challenge me, I hate it more when they think they know more than I do. I invoked the sigils on the door and they lit up one by one until the door itself went from solid to a more translucent, behind it was a horrifying image of people and things being torn apart by various creatures I'd rather not describe. The expedition looked on in horror as one of the creatures came lumbering towards the door. I triggered the sigils again and it closed.

"What was that?" Trenk was scared as was everyone else. I was satisfied having shown them that yes I do kind of know what I'm doing (kind of I wasn't exactly sure how to shut the door but I managed because I'm amazing).

"Exactly what the sigils warned me of, there are many doors to many places Mr. Trenk and not all of them should be opened as these people found out, now do you question my ability to read the sigils?" I smiled and he shook his head. I heard one of the security people with us say asshole as I walked by, but I felt vindicated at least for now. I did actually know what I was doing. Of course I was about to prove that several times over, but every once in a while you have to remind people of that in a horrific and dangerous way. The Trezlan way...

The Red War

"Trezlan!" I was dreaming, I had been dreaming. Of drifting among the stars, just floating. It was one of those pleasant things I thought of when I wasn't grounded to the reality of everything I disliked in the galaxy, of which there had been and continued to be thousands of things.

"Trezlan!" The voices seemed distant, like from a far away place. I tried to ignore them, focus on the drifting, but it was fading, like all dreams light and noise and disrupted it and I was brought back to the dirt. I don't remember the day or time, it's never my strong suit. I just remember it was after the corporate split, after the five fires was unleashed. It was the middle of the red war, or I should say beginning, again time not my strong suit.

"Sorry I was just dreaming of a better place." The people I was with, a couple archeologists and two security personnel, were waiting for me. The planet was one I don't remember the name of (doing a bang up job of repeating this story, can't remember the time or place, if I forget the peoples names might as well be just a timeless tale of whatever), we were standing in a door covered in runes. My least favorite kind of door. My favorite kind is the one to my bedroom where a comfy bed and some booze is waiting.

"Get off your ass Lorentino, you aren't being paid to day dream." That was Trenk the leader of the expedition a young executive who thought if he solved the Red War he could make a lot of money. At this point the Red War had been going on for about a decade. Ronerawth's solution to it was to bomb and destroy, hoping to cut off the infection before it spread, that wasn't working naturally. The corporate strategy was to negotiate/find a way to return to the damned to the five fires, that wasn't working either. Which is what brought Trenk and the rest of his small corporation to me in a dive bar on the edge of the galaxy where I'd been hoping to drink away the troubles of the galaxy. It hadn't exactly worked, somehow my name had come up in some record as someone who had dealt with the fire god and so I was pestered once again to save the universe. Though this was the first time it was the universe, in the past it had been the world or the city.

"Right sorry forgot sleep is for the weak or whatever." This planet was the fifth planet we had visited, all had remnants of things on them. Various dead civilizations or abandoned colonies. Trenk had a whole list of them to visit, I always wondered where he got that list, but figured some things were best left unsaid.

"If you need to take a stimulant take one, we don't have much time Lorentino, now get to it." I looked at the other three people and they all seemed to share Trenk's desire to get things moving.

"Right where was I?"

Battle Report on the Thirty Second War

The official time of the thirty second war is actually 28.9 seconds. That's how long it took for the forward batteries to open fire on the corporate line and for the corporate line to respond. Ordinarily the fifth fleet would not have had any difficulty punching through the corporate line, but the issue with the biomechanicals and with Morlatech ignoring basic corporate policy it was decided to upgrade the line. Which lead to a vastly upgraded and devastating arsenal.

Complicating matters was how the fifth fleet was traveling. Instead of being separate and not easily hit in one volley, they were traveling basically on top of each other. Which meant the salvo's from the line hit multiple ships which caused those ships to smash into other ships. Roth's folly as the maneuver came to be known later in history books is studied for its complete and utter failure at several precautions admirals are supposed to take.

Ultimately the thirty second war lead to increased hostilities between the corporate and royal sectors of space, but the real reason for the battle is forgotten. Lost to time was the attempt to annihilate one group of mercenaries or that not every ship in the fleet was annihilated. But that is a story for another history book, one that deals with all the awful things the Lorentino's are involved with, an ongoing novel.

Yeah We Can't Authorize That

Admiral Roth did not like the mission he had been assigned. An entire warfleet to wipe out four people was the height of wasted resources. Roth had received his orders and immediately filed a grievance. He saw no benefit to what they were about to do, and certainly saw no reason to send an entire fleet to get it done. Roth was ultimately a patriot so over his own concerns he moved the Fifth fleet towards corporate space and prepared to bombard the planet of origin.

"Sir Captain Chalm..."

"Can kiss my ass, that little toad will not take up anymore of my time with his petty bullshit." Chalm had been trying to deal with Roth ever since he'd come on board. Roth could see what kind of snake asshole he was and recognized him from a report about his previous failing up status. This entire operation was his fault and so Chalm wanted nothing to do with him at all. He was content for the little toad to sit in his room and communicate with Roth's superiors as his communications person claimed he'd been doing since he arrived on the ship. Roth was pondering shoving him out an airlock when all of a sudden the ship dropped out of space cut.

"Sir we've hit the corporate line." It was jarring and unexpected. The corporate line was a ring of satelites that used magic and traditional counter measures to prevent unwelcome ships from crossing. Roth had never heard of a Ronerawth ship let alone a fleet being subject to it and had in fact expected to pass by it without issue.

"I can see that, why are we out of cut space?"

"The line is active."

"Again I'm aware of that, get those damned idiots on comms, what is this bullshit?" Roth was annoyed, he didn't want to do his mission, but that the corporations would keep their defenses up preventing him from doing it pissed him off more.

"This is corporate security what is the nature of your problem?"The corporate security officer looked like the lowest of rungs, Roth in his full uniform felt beneath it to even discuss the issue.

"Admiral Roth Fifth fleet, your stupid line is up preventing us from accessing." The security officer yawned and Roth almost leapt out of his seat.

"Right, we can't allow a hostile fleet through the barrier right now."

"Hostile? Are you shitting me with this?"

"Sir if you are going to keep up the attitude I'm going to end this conversation."

"HOSTILE? I'LL SHOW YOU HOSTILE YOU STUPID ASSHOLE!" The line went dead and Roth lost his temper, and smashed his little display screen on his command chair. "ARM THE BATTERIES!"

"Sir the line is more than capable of annihilating..."

"ARM THE GODS DAMNED BATTERIES!" The order went out across the fleet, and so Ronerawth and the corporate sector went to war for twenty eight point five seconds.

Not the Worst, But It's Up There

"It's a warfleet, coming from Ronerawth with all the colors." Rolando had found a way to a quiet place at the complex. He intended on calling his father, but Hanlon had arrived to make that unnecessary.

"All the colors? That term is not one I recall."

"Means they are bringing a full compliment of soldiers and ships."

"Ahh I'll have to update my vocabulary, this is what happens when you retreat to god hood and don't keep up appearences. Reminds me of the time that the Fire God..." Hanlon enjoyed that the younger Lorentino was welcoming to him. He would never admit it of course, but the Lorentino's were his only true friends in the universe, being a god while great, was fairly lonely.

"Please Hanlon I'm worried." The death god laughed, it was long and hard, Trezlan had always told Rolando when Hanlon laughed it unsettled him, and Rolando actually understood why now.

"Oh you lessers always so worried about annihilation when there are much worse things that can happen to you, much worse."

"That is not heartening."

"Most things are not heartening as you would call it, your father understands that the only way to survive is to be willing to let others die."

"I can't let my friends die."

"Then prepare to face annihilation, as I said its not the worst thing that can happen." Hanlon disappeared and Rolando was almost concerned that he was merely speaking to himself like he'd seen his father do from time to time. Still he had his answer, either help his friends and potentially die, or run away and most likely live. Seemed like a shitty decision on a shitty day in a shitty week.

A Gross Overreaction

Chalm looked at the video he had recieved with dismay. His strike team was all shackled up and being held by the still alive members of the shit squad. Chalm did not like where it was going. Along with the video he had been forwarded the real records of his service and a threat that they will be released along with the strike team to the proper authorities in corporate territory. There wasn't a threat, there wasn't an or else. It was simply a video telling him he was screwed and that was that. That was not that for Chalm, he would not take this lying down. He started calling favors on favors, he wasn't going to be the one going down for this. He was going to kill the Shit Squad and do it with a big grin on his face.

It was simple really, he just had to rely on Ronerawth doing the thing they do best. Cover shit up. He just had to imply that Lorentino and Therod had some embarrassing information about the emperor from Lorentino's brief liaison with him. What Chalm did not suspect was the level of embarrassment this caused. What he hoped to get was another strike team. What he actually got was a war fleet ready to annihilate the "lorentino" menace once and for all. Chalm was beside himself with glee. He figured this would be just the career opportunity he needed to become an admiral himself. All he had to do was kill three people, and with a war fleet how hard could that be?

***

"A warfleet." Carut read the screen in disbelief

"You have got to be shitting me." Therod could believe it, if only the stupidity of it.

"I blame this on Rolando its totally his fault as a Lorentino."

It was An Asshole Rodeo

"Scarily efficient Rolando." They were all captured now. Rolando was icing his knuckles, but they had the squad all six of them. Rolando while efficient was not kind to them, each had an injury of sorts. Therod wondered if that was necessary considering the sedative Rolando brought, but he claimed it worked better when they were in physical distress, something she did not want to question. The squad was all chained up across from each other, as of late the sedative was still applied, for how much longer Therod did not know.

"It's what I do."

"What's the next step here?" Rem wanted revenge, but he wasn't really up on what they should do, let alone what kind of violence they'd inflict. He was an investigator, this shooting at people stuff was all new to him.

"Carve them up, mail them to Chalm piece by piece." Rolando was getting creepy. Both Therod and Rem had noticed it. He was violent before, he was getting worse now.

"No I'm not carving them up."

"How about a foot we can take a foot from each one and..."

"Rolando I swear to the gods."

"Fine fine, what are we going to do with them?"

"Leverage, get me Carut, Chalm is about to have a brown Trouser day." Therod wanted revenge, wanted it more than anything, but she know you had to be measured. You had to take things slow, then you killed everyone, that was the better way of going about things.

Bad People Worse Things

Lieutenant Rio never thought of himself as an evil man. Nothing he ever was involved with had been super bad. Sure he'd killed women and kids while they begged, but those were terrorists, so its not a bad thing. That's how Rio justified working for a guy like Chalm. Someone he knew was a bad man, but he was doing the work, what had to be done, and that made Rio happy. The rest of his squad were all killers, unrepentant murderers, but not Rio. He considered himself a patriot, and the things he did he did for the good of everyone. It was how he slept like a baby every night.

"Evening Lieutenant." A man sat down next to Rio, light brown skin, shaved blonde hair, he looked familiar to Rio, but he couldn't place him.

"Evening, sorry I don't recall who you are/were." Rio was never one to do the social dance of pretending to know someone when he didn't.

"Quick, we served together on Zias, you were unit A, I was B." Rio remembered Zias, but not quick, he looked around the bar suddenly cognizant that it seemed it was just him and Quick there.

"Don't remember you Quick, and you look like the kind of guy I should remember." Rio found himself reaching for a weapon, but he was unarmed.

"Shame Rio we could have done this the easy way with drugs." Rio watched as the man shifted from in front of him to out of his vision and then suddenly felt his head slam into the side of the bar. His eyes swam from the blow, he swung backwards and missed Quick had shifted again and brought a blow down on Rio's knee that broke it. Rio was about to fight back when he felt the needle inject behind his neck and the world went black.

****

"Got him he's coming in a little rough." Rolando wanted to do things the easy way, but having read up on Rio didn't feel too bad about hurting him either. Especially since they weren't going to be polite to him anyway.

Man's a Ponce Among Ponces

"Chalm's an asshole basically." Carut had finished his first deep dive on Chalm and the results were encouraging and made Carut sad.

"Need more to go on than just an asshole Carut."

"Basically Chalm is the exact person you'd expect running an off the books operation for the RIG's, he's part screw up, part morally lacking toadie. Like how he got his cybernetics was putting down a riot at a station. He ordered his men to open fire on people who were protesting with signs because one of them through shit at one of his people. They flat out murdered people. The survivors planted a bomb in his room and almost got him. The sad part is, he was specifically following orders and he got promoted out of the whole thing." Carut and Therod were alone in the office. Rem and Rolando were blowing off steam, Therod wouldn't feel like doing that until Chalm was dead.

"I don't recall any incident like that."

"You wouldn't, it was called an insurrection, but the use of force had video, if that's an insurrection than the local government has one every weekend."

"Still I can't imagine they'd cover up something like that. I met Chalm before he didn't seem too awful."

"You're thinking of it like the corporate sector is full of assholes. RIG's are just as bad if not worse, that for the empire shit they raise you guys on leads to some awful things being covered up." Therod just stared for a bit, she hadn't thought of it like that, but ever since being banished to the corporate side she had felt freer than when she was in the empire.

"All that aside we can nail him right?"

"To the wall. It's funny he doesn't even have a full staff its just him and an attack squad and the attack squad that is even more of a screw up than even Chalm."

"That's dissapointing I suspected he was worth more than just a one off hit squad." Carut smiled.

"He's one piece, but your in luck there are others." Therod smiled, as well. Revenge just felt better when it more than just one guy. Trezlan drifting in the far reaches of space felt a tinge of extra zip in his step.

Chalm Waters Brood Deeply

Captain Chalm read the displays, he'd seen the results of what happened at Drydek and he was pleased with himself. He didn't even necessarily know what they had been doing with the ghosts, and didn't care. He just knew it needed to be taken care of and now it was. That it cost that asshole Riobeck his life was just frosting on the cake. Chalm was mildly concerned that Therod's group was not listed among the dead, but he figured that was just a result of all the things that had happened and not that they actually survived. The report also included that Trezlan Lorentino was involved and apparently he had fled the incident for deep space, something else he can point to a success with his supervisors.

Chalm's outfit was a recent expansion of the RIG. Not technically sanctioned by the higher ups, but as long as results were had like the recent op everyone was happy. The RIG was full of outfit's like Chalms, a result of the how the guard saw itself as doing what the Emperor would not fully authorize. His unit was so new he didn't really have a staff. Just a commando unit under his command and the office, no real identifying marks on anything. Chalm himself didn't wear his uniform, technically he was on a leave of absence following a disciplinary action, but that was just to throw people off the real story.

Still Chalm missed an actual office, and real underlings to report to. The commando's he were given were all screw ups of one type or another. Which told him exactly what his superior's thought of him. He showed them though. He would show them, eventually Chalm would be back in the formal military and an Admiral. He smiled at that, even if he had to kill everyone ahead of him, he'd be in charge and then there would be so many murders, the RIG would be strong again. And that brought a smile to Chalm's half face.

Payback Big Time

Carut didn't bother to ask where the team had been. The rest of the squad showed up and started packing up gear. He could tell from the looks he got that someone was due an ass kicking, and he was waiting to hear who that might be. Carut did know where they had been, and he saw the reports of the aftermath at the station after Drydek's director was suddenly listed as killed in a corporate battle. He also felt partially responsible for that, since he had leaked the meeting between Trezlan and Drydek to the web and he figured that's how the Operators knew to attack it. Still he figured the shit squad could win the day and it looked like they had, and so he didn't want to tell them he indirectly made life difficult for them.

"Thanks for the save Carut." Rolando of course did not appreciate the efforts he'd gone through.

"Look man my leg is still..."

"Save it, look up an asshole named Chalm for me, I need to know everything about him down to when he has breakfast." Therod was not going to let petty bullshit between team members screw up her revenge. Ronerawth had screwed her, and it was time for her to screw them back.

"So what's the plan kill him, cook him, eat him?"

"No Rem, what we are going to do is destroy him as a person so much that he'll wish we killed him. And then we'll kill him."

"I like this plan, I think things are going to go good with this plan." Carut was just happy the team was all on board with being bad, he worried they'd go soft following imprisonment and gods knew a mercenary group that was soft would be boring as all get out.

Deathly Funny

"Didn't want to let him get away?" Trezlan was sipping tea and eating muffins, not the supernatural kind, just the regular kind after he had the awful recipe he developed a hankering for them. It took him a while to find a recipe he liked much to the ship AI's sadness as he ruined the kitchen several times over to create his muffins. Trezlan joked he'd write the recipe down in a book and bury it somewhere just to screw with the next Riobeck.

"You can't let new gods just be allowed to potentially spring up, otherwise we'll have the situation we did with that shit god."

"With the what god?" Hanlon smiled he liked how Trezlan despite being old and having knowledge, was still young and lacking most of the concrete ideas.

"Shit god, some idiot got it into his head since creatures all have to shit, if it controlled shit it could be super powerful."

"Why am I suddenly terrified of my next bowel movement."

"You shouldn't be, it was way early on in the development of the world, but still when the shit god emerged he realized his powers were exceptionally limited, mainly he overflowed shit holes and was a filthy nuisance." Trezlan did not like this story, he worried about its conclusion.

"So what happened to him?"

"We killed him of course, he wasn't necessary for people to shit, and was if anything a nuisance. The point of the story is that murdering a god is a pain in the ass and should only be done as required, so its best to control the supply of new gods."

"I'm not sure that logically flows from what you just told me."

"Trezlan please don't make me destroy you." Hanlon smiled as Trezlan recoiled mid bite of his muffin. "That was a joke by the way."

"I don't feel it was funny."

"You never do, humans are so scared of death, and yet you know me we're friends, why am I scary?" Hanlon smiled again and then just walked off. He would disappear mid ship instead of right in front of Trezlan a contrivance Trezlan had wrangled from Hanlon before. Still it was mildly upsetting how Hanlon was with regard to destroying things, if only because the Death God relished the fear more than the death, Trezlan began to wonder if he had become the god of Fear somewhere along the way as well.

A Brand New Day Full of New Mistakes to Make

Shillers sat despondent looking at the screen. All the operators were dead. He had received a message from Operator 5 who now for some reason went by Eli. It showed the wreckage of their bodies and a simple message "you're next." He didn't need to know how the Operator had discovered he was behind it all. Didn't even need to know when this Eli would be swinging in. He had always assumed this day would come, one day he would have to leave Morlatech in a hurry to avoid being executed and it happened.

Shillers went through his preparations. He sent a message to his family about his death. He always liked the story of being annihilated in a gravity experiment, if only because no one would want to see the body on that one. Shillers didn't feel bad, his wife would get a stipend from the company, and he never really got along with her. Still he didn't mind his two children and would be sad to not see them grow up. Surviving was more important than family to Shillers.

He made his way out of his office and down the hall saying nothing to people as he went. He was wearing a hat now to slip by security cameras better. By the time he was out of the building he didn't think anyone even noticed he wasn't there. Ten minutes after he left the bomb in his office went off. Along with it was a virus to delete any of his previous personal information. If he had time he'd have arranged for the deaths of his whole staff, but he didn't. He knew the operator would get him if it didn't think he was already dead.

When he got on a transport ship bound for the Rim Shillers felt confident that his new life would better than his last life. At the very least it couldn't be worse, that was the comforting thought he was left with.

Who Wants Muffins?

No one was talking in the escape shuttle. Therod was piloting while Rem and Rolando kept their guns on Riobeck for fear he had been lying and there was some hidden compartment or some other secret for him to unleash on them. Riobeck was bemused at how things turned out, but he was still in charge of Drydek and so he knew things would be ok. Therod enjoyed the silence especially after all the combat. But she knew that Rolando or Rem would ruin it, and she was not wrong.

"So a recipe book?" Rolando had a smile on his face like a cat who ate a small bird. Riobeck changed his expression from bemusement to a bit more concern.

"How would you know about it?"

"Trezlan is my father." Riobeck shook his head. He hadn't seen it, but now he did.

"So here to taunt me about that book is that your end game?"

"I'm just wondering what it's worth to you." Rolando pulled it from underneath his prisoner garb, it looked fairly ordinary absent all the weird writing on top of it. Riobeck practically salivated at the sight of it.

"What is that Rolando?" Therod did not like how this was going, she didn't know what the book was, but she definitely knew with the people involved it was bad times.

"Recipe book Therod, I heard it makes a killer muffin recipe." Rolando winked at Riobeck who tried not to register what he said at all.

"I could go for a muffin right now." Rem had no idea what he suggested but Rolando let it hang there.

"So your father let you know about what's in the book, what do you want for it?"

"I don't know exactly, Dad just said to let you have it." Rolando turned it over, Riobeck could barely contain his glee. He flipped through the pages greedily looking for the one he knew should be there, worried perhaps Trezlan in an act of fuck you had taken it out, but he found it where the ghosts said it would be and his face lit up.

"Thank you Mr. Quick in the coming future I might not annihilate you." Therod and Rem did not like the sound of that but Rolando remained smiling.

"You think you have a future Mr. Riobeck that's cute." The voice startled everyone but Rolando, Hanlon's emergence from no where was a terrifying thing for most people, but Rolando had been prepared for it, if only because his Dad told him it was the most likely outcome.

"What ar..." Riobeck was cut off, a pall fell over his face.

"I am what you sough to become, and I don't like competition." The older executive suddenly aged rapidly until he was nothing but a skull and bones. The book fell limply from his hand to the deck, no one on the ship dared touch it.

"Anyone else have delusions of godhood?" They all shook their head and Hanlon picked up the book and then it was gone. And then Hanlon was gone.

"Rolando one day I'd like to know what just happened, but that day is not today." They all agreed and the silence returned.

A Burning Day

The Operators were failing. It was a surprising thing for them to be confronted with. Not only had they been surprised by one of the people at the meeting being Trezlan Lorentino a long kill target in their minds, but Operator 5 had also found a way to annihilate them. Not simply destroy their bodies, but purge their minds. The battle had been going decently for them initially, the corporate security they encountered wasn't really an issue, and when they realized Lorentino was there it was extra fire in their blood. And then it fell apart.

Some kind of magic user was being held prisoner and in the shooting he got free. He was a shifter and managed to jump from operator to operator, unable to kill them on his own, but he was very damaging and almost impossible to catch and destroy. Then Lorentino himself started using a mixture of fire and necromancy that not only could harm the operator mechanical bodies, but somehow tapped into their souls and wounded them there as well. And then Operator 5 emerged and started actually killing the operators. Some kind of mind erasing spike it injected wiped them out.

Operator 1 was alone now. The rest were destroyed and dead. It had chosen to flee, better to live a failure than die like the rest of the idiots. It was almost to its ship when a force gripped it's chest and it saw Lorentino waiting there for it. A mad smile on his face. Operator 1 raised up his rocket launcher in defiance and then a prick of something hit its back and the world disappeared, the empty husk of the body crashed to the floor.

"So that's that?" Trezlan had a smile on his face that Eli didn't understand, all the death and destruction and Trezlan didn't seem to mind.

"That's that."

"Hardy little buggers, but not particularly very bright, you must have been the brains of the operation Eli."

"I am now alone in the universe."

"You get used to it." Eli looked at Trezlan strangely for a moment and then walked off to go back to its ship, job was completed next task up for grabs, it was a strange feeling. Trezlan chuckled to himself knowing what he had set in motion would at least be amusing to him. He connected to the AI and told them it was time to go, he wanted to explore some things.

Leaving So Early Rio?

Riobeck was down to two guards, but he felt ok. Everyone else was dead or dying. Lorentino had set an even bigger trap than he had anticipated and Riobeck had walked right into it like an idiot. He cursed himself for not taking better effort to protect his goal. The recipe was probably lost to him forever now, Lorentino would never agree to another meeting no matter how much money was offered the opportunity was lost. The security personnel loss was regrettable, but they knew what they had signed up for. Or at the very least they had all signed non sue agreements so nothing really too terrible can come from that for Riobeck or his corporation. Riobeck was already writing the response to the tragedy as a terrorist attack on him personally when his last security personnel were killed and Therod and Rem swung out of hiding.

"Oh Rio you're killing me by jetting out of here early." Therod shoved Riobeck to the ground and trained her rifle on him. Rem quickly rummaged through the security people's uniforms to come up with access codes to the ship docked nearby.

"You're a mecenary we can work this out."

"All about working things out now are we? No need for executions or extortions?"

"The market has changed in your favor." Therod smiled and nodded to Rem, who spoke into a device Riobeck assumed was connected to Rolando.

"Nice to see you see it that way, any little trips or set ups on your end of things inside?"

"Not that I'm aware of, had to make sure the getaway shuttle wouldn't trip us up in the getaway." Rolando emerged from a shift standing next to Therod he was covered in ashes.

"Don't ask." Was all Rolando said and Therod nodded. And the Shit Squad with Riobeck along with them left the battle. Leaving Trezlan and Eli to face off against the remaining operators. Hanlon had already disappeared as Trezlan always knew he would.

One of Those Days

Trezlan sighed. The world was exploding around him, the deal shattered, Hanlon gone wherever Hanlon goes, and there he was left holding the bag on another double cross/coincidental massacre. He had expected bad things to happen, but this was beyond his expectations. It was enough to make him think that it would be best to just point his ship towards deep space and leave the regular crappy universe behind him. But before he did that he had to burn some people and kill them with necromancy.

It was like a dance he was well acquainted with. Side stepping men with guns and knives and robot death machines and countering with fire, and ancient curses not spoken in hundreds of years. It was one reason he got seperated from Hanlon. He didn't need the Death god really, though it was nice to know he was out there causing problems or solving them, depending on how you looked at things. The battle was not going well for Riobeck's crew. The operators who had sprung the attack had mostly finished them off, leaving Rolando and his mercenary friends and Trezlan to deal with the remaining operators. Trezlan didn't think Hanlon would care that much about the machines, but he had been surprised in the past by what bothered the Death god.

"Dad!"

"Rolando, nice to see you." The boy had shifted from behind one of the operators to Trezlan, Trezlan was just happy his son was still alive for the moment.

"Do I want to know father?"

"Want to know what? Why these machines are attacking us or why you and your crew were inexplicably brought here as some failed leverage scheme against me?"

"Either dad."

"Nope you don't." Just then a rather large explosion erupted from the docking behind a couple of the war machines and Eli came bursting through with large sniper rifle looking weapon in tow.

"Tell me that ones at least with us."

"It is, for now anyway." Rolando kind of felt better, even if it meant his father had some how corrupted a death machine into following him.

Target Unidentified

Operator 3 had broken off from the assault. It saw a curious man with long hair who seemingly slipped in between people without so much as a second glance from anyone. All scans came back with Target unidentified. He appeared to be a male, with long hair and was using one single ballistic pistol, but outside of that Operator 3 had nothing. He was so wrapped up in what Target Unidentified meant, he didn't even care about the carnage the other operators were causing. The target dipped down a hallway and Operator 3 sensed it's chance was present and followed spinning up its minigun as it prepared to destroy the target. And then there was nothing, the target wasn't there.

"Curious, you followed me and only decided to assault when you felt you had the upper hand." The voice was regular, a smile on his face despite Operator 3's minigun. It opened fire, point blank the bullets slammed into nothing, Target unidentified wasn't there anymore.

"I could have let you hit me, but it wouldn't have really mattered little tin man." Target Unidentified shot its own weapon, it didn't appear all that powerful, certainly not enough to destroy and Operator's armor, and yet It's arms and legs were blown off like it had been hit by an armor piercing missile.

"Now the question is how exactly do you animate?" It was the last thing Operator 3 processed before it's feed went dark, Unidentifed Target's information was passed on to the others, but they had problems all of their own.