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.