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.