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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Second Rise of Man - a Starsector inspired story (THE END 4/22!)  (Read 12752 times)

B.K.

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Hello everyone!
My name is B.K. and in between writing other books and projects I've been dabbling in some Starsector inspired fiction. A quaint little homage to the game that keeps me engaged and always coming back. With permission from Alex I will post some of the scribbles here in increments. I've actually got most of the plot laid out in my head, and some of it on actual pages. So while I do some editing, and take in some of your comments, I'll keep posting the materials as they are ready for the light of day.
Some of the names are shamelessly stolen from Dune, but since they have a nice ring to them I'll probably keep them.
While this is not set in the Starsector universe, and no original IP from the game is used, Starsector is nonetheless the major inspiration for most of the plot and concepts.
Also a disclaimer: it has some violent and sexual themes, as well as alcohol and drug use. Vulgar language as well (but that's nicely censored so use your imagination). So if you're not keen on that best skip it.

I'm looking forward to continuing the story, and especially to reading your comments.
Here are the CASE FILES which describe some of the plot, and introduce the major characters. Along with the pompous sounding PROLOGUE, and finally the first chapter.
I'm about 50 pages deep into it so you can expect more once I'm comfortable with the quality.
Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Cheers!

Update: Chapters 2, 3, and 4. (2/3/2021)
Update: Chapters 5,6, and 7. (2/16/2021)

PROLOGUE
Spoiler
There is nothing as vast as the sadness of space, and nothing as endless as the greed of man. When our planet wasn't enough we took more, and when our system wasn’t enough we took more. As the Expansion grew, so did our fears.
   What was out there?
   The answer – nothing.
   No intelligent life forms, no resistance, no diplomatic relations, no one and nothing to spite the Expansion of Man. The only things we found were ruins, and death.
   We were not the first to cross the threshold of confinement within our own star system. Colonization seemed to be an integral part of existence. The sense of curiosity which first drove man, followed by the itch in our palms. The opportunity of wealth so palpable it was like a siren’s call.
   Magnanimously we proclaimed ourselves the rulers of space. In complete disregard of everything we held close to heart before the Expansion, we continued to explore. The ruins of civilizations long dead fueled our efforts. The most important of which was the Interstellar Gates.
   The Gates offered the possibility of faster than light travel in an instant. While we mastered the art centuries before, traveling through hyperspace had been an arduous and costly process. The great Restoration of the Gates fueled the Expansion, and soon there was nothing in space that wasn’t ours.
   Man had conquered all.
   Then man had lost all.
   When everything collapsed we were reminded of the dead we had so callously used to our advantage. When everything collapsed we had to fall back on the minds and wits that had led us this far in the first place.
   When everything collapsed space seemed all the darker for it.
   The dark houses terrors.
   In the dark only the fighting survive.
[close]

CASE FILE: DEMIR SUNDERLAND
   
Spoiler
Demir Sunderland is a scavenger, and not just any type of scavenger. He’s a Mosquito.
   Usually, scavengers stay close to any type of combat and then sink their teeth into any debris that drifts aimless in space. Larger fleets can even siphon off huge combat fleets for years, just by taking their debris and selling it between the Core Worlds.
   But the MOS are different. Because by the time scavengers are on a dead fleet, the weapons have already been confiscated. The fleets can afford anything non-lethal getting on the market, but their weapons, those are not for goddamn sale. Well, what the Mosquitoes do is they track a fleet, and once it’s in combat they swoop in and literally yank the weapons from the ship carcasses a heartbeat after the slaughter. Sometimes the soldiers aren’t even cold in the vacuum of space, and the MOS already ripped off their PD Lasers, kinetic velocity guns, even their rockets, their power generators, or their thrusters. The most valuable pieces of gear are taken under their noses by one-manned ships and pilots with the most fearsome thing in the Core Galaxy – a death wish. 
   These people are the galaxy’s own adrenaline junkies, except not famous like the hyperspace racers. That’s a whole other can of worms. No, the Mosquitoes are thugs who found out they were flight mavericks a bit too late after the War. Too young to remember or even know the history of the Galaxy, but old enough and misguided enough that they chop up ships into custom one-manned frigates with graplers and harpoons.
   That’s what Demir Sunderland is.
   Not only that, but he’s also a Named. In what everybody refers to as the C, in who knows how the *** long ago, the Galaxy crumbled and became isolated. Calamity, Crush, Crash, Catastrophe, and all the C words that have the same meaning. The nice ones. Since the C the family structures have crumbled, and people started referring to themselves with nicknames, numbers, sector names, or titles. A bunch of made-up *** to make us all feel like we’re still civilized. The Corps have their own naming rules, and each sector has its own set of colorful vocabulary. But the Named, they’re heritage motherfuckers. Old lineages that are recognized within all the Known Galaxy. The grand-grand-grand, and go however long you want, kids of the people who invented all our ***. As an homage to them some lineages maintain their last names. This can be a benefit in most systems or a curse in all of them. The Sunderlands, however, are branded.
   Branded because they’re one of the Three Families to create the AIs. The ones that almost killed us all.
   If the Named would ever cease to exist, the Three Families would still never be rid of their brands. As soon as one of their spawn is born they are put into the System and their IDs are permanently embossed in the 1s and 0s of the Renewed Binary System of the Core Worlds. The only piece of tech all the systems in the Core Galaxy share. The criminals wanted across every godforsaken corner of this godforsaken galaxy. The Three Families are being monitored since they’re *** sperms and eggs. So when they are spawned they don’t get the idea in their heads to pursue AI again.
   The Three are also one of the Inners, a select group of people who had been even more selectively breeding and splicing their bloodline so it’ll take generations before their genetically predetermined IQ gets watered down. Demir’s insanely select DNA sees him endowed with a mind that can think ten steps ahead of the rest of humanity, and the reflexes of a drop marine for good measure. The only reason why Demir isn’t running a planet under any of the Corps is because he has a crippling addiction to thrills, gambling, hookers, and copious amounts of drugs. He’s been cast out of the family for years now, and since he first laid eyes on a Mosquito chop-shop he caught the itch. Been scavenging ever since. He’s always in trouble with local authorities on any of the planets in any of the systems, because none of them fully trust him not to be on the lookout for any tech he might mismanage. The smugglers, fences, merc groups, Drakkweb elite, the samurai PROTECs, almost all of the UnderSpace knows Demir Sunderland; and they couldn’t care less if he’s Named, as long as he brings in the sweet tech. But just like he’d have been running his own planet if it were not for the gambling, hookers, and copious amount of drugs, he’d also be rich by now too.
   Demir’s a purist. While other people get their vices in virtual space, Sense Rooms, pleasure simulations and FeelSpace pods, Demir takes his sex in the flesh, his drugs into the flesh, and his money cold on the table. As many in the UnderSpace want him alive for the tech, others want him dead. Bred for excellence, Demir is a masterclass in debt accumulation. Almost as much as he’s a genius at flying his custom craft, his prized possession, his Baby. As long as his abilities outweigh his stupidity, he’ll stay alive.
   And when his stupidity outweighs his abilities, he’s got a contingency plan.
[close]

CASE FILE: LETO III, GRAND-MASTER OF WAR
   
Spoiler
Grand-Master of War Leto III is a hero; no, the hero of the AI War. He’s also the army’s only Immortal.
   Immortals are at the top of the food chain. Remnants from before the C. Old families, bloodlines, or people who earned their way into the undisputed top circle of power. While the Three created the AIs, and doomed us all, the Immortals are those that gave us life. Even beyond the Named, they are the Cherished, the Wise, the Pinnacle. The only people in the Known Galaxy to be offered the privilege of cloning. The only people in the Known Galaxy to have access to cloning tech. Their survival is so important that they are not allowed to die. It’s almost as hard for a person to become an Immortal, as it is for an Immortal to die. Once you are chosen by the Reign, you either accept or perish. Grand-Master of War Leto III was first stripped of his last name, and then given the official title as recognition of his achievements in the Expansion. He had secured the right of the Reign across the Vast Known Galaxy, and had enabled man to exercise its right to take. Three years before the AI War he was declared Immortal. The army's first, the first soldier from a lower caste of the Named, risen from his meek position into the ranks of the Gods. Every person across the system sought to him for advice, and children dreamed of becoming him. Those that envied and hated him were just as many, but their voices, all of their voices, were nothing compared to the endless torment of an existence bound solely to war. This was Leto’s own voice.
   Leto knew this. He knew he would never survive the endless slaughter, as man is bound forever to war. He’d be the Grand-Master for as long as his mind held, as his memories are collected and transferred to any clones in case of his untimely demise; which due to a level of tech far beyond the realms of mortals, will never come unless suffered unto him at the hands of someone else.
   Luckily for Leto, the AI War came to the Known Galaxy only three years after his initiation. All the Immortals initiated their safety measures, shipping their cloning rigs into secret systems they had closed off with cloak tech. Each Immortal has their own sector, which they choose themselves and no other Immortal knows its location. Safety reasons being that they might try to kill each other for more power. While the Immortals officially relinquished any aspirations for power with the Open Trade Federation Agreement, they do like to play around in politics on the down-low. They have no objective competition in the Known Galaxy, since all bigger conglomerates and super-pacts are quashed at the source. So, they squabble among each other to pass the time, from time to time. The safety measures were initiated and they knew they were safe in case of total annihilation. They’d merge their collected data into a clone sprung from their rigs, and they could bail somewhere before the AIs would catch wind. Hopefully.
   They never had to test that.
   After the C all their rigs had gone offline. Just as the Gates did, and the hyperspace jump points emerged. The Immortals were immortal now only for as long as their given bodies would stay alive. No one knows what happened with their rigs. People suspect it’s a ploy to make the general public think the Union would hold. That the Immortals won’t come back to haunt the human race. But after they had been mostly purged, publicly executed in some systems, it’s somehow hard to believe they have the tech any longer. The Hidden Systems, as the pilots and hyperspace junkies call them, are still beholden to their name. And considering that the AIs toasted tech that could interfere with their conquest, it’s even harder to believe the Immortals are still at the top.
   However, no one ever found Grand-Master of War Leto III. He was never brought before a screaming public and beheaded, like in the ages before man had expanded. People claim to have seen him, talked to him, hell some even claim to have flown with him, or even claim they are him. Everyone  knows he’s too smart for that. He’s either an icicle in space or deep underground undergone a full body trans-mod. While other Immortals were vocal, even reassuring that humanity could be resurrected with their help, which was why they could so easily be found, Leto had been silent since the AIs were annihilated.
   His name is a whisper in the army messes and barracks, and screams and shouts in the dockside bars. Either way, people still have his name in their mouths because it’s hard to forget someone like Leto. The hatred in many voices, the hint of respect in others, and that final reverence in most.
[close]

CASE FILE: ALPHA AND OMEGA
   
Spoiler
The Three Families responsible for pioneering AI tech – the Sunderlands, the Teslas, and the Xis – have been branded as traitors by their own kind. When they first set out to create evolving AI they wanted only the best for the Great Expansion of Man. The Gates had served their purpose, but the Expansion had slowed down. It was bound to stop if they did not come up with a solution. The hyperspace travel necessary to get to the Outer Reaches was either too strenuous on pilots for a single jump, and recovery time from multiple jumps had slowed down their progress to a snail’s pace. Their flight AIs were having problems maintaining flight directives across such vast stretches of hyperspace. Cryosleep flotillas had been launched in order to prepare the Outer Reaches for complete colonization within fifty years, and the continued Expansion within a hundred. The Three Families had calculated it would take twice the time, and there would be chaos among the Core Worlds in the fallout of corporate struggles within the Known Galaxy. To avoid catastrophe they had to continue the Expansion within thirty years, at the most.
   The Three started work against the directive of the Summit, the Open Trade Federation, and the Immortals. Their goal was to create an evolving AI that could learn the hyperspace routes from test flights, process the information, and finally evolve in order to safely conduct the jumps in a matter of days instead of months and even years. Cryosleep could be reduced, the populations of the new colonies would be more effective, and colonization could begin before the Core Worlds would fall apart.
   After achieving their goals, and conducting off-the-books tests, the Three presented their findings to the Coalition. While many were skeptical at first, the Three guaranteed that their AI would not be able to advance past the point of being subservient. ALPHA was created – an AI so powerful that it would act as a hub for the ships traversing the Outer Reaches, and act as a controller for the entire Expansion flotilla. These ships were piloted by OMEGA – the gruff, hands-on type of AI that works in tandem with ALPHA.
   The Great Expansion of Man was peaking again, reaching new destinations in the span of days. ALPHA and OMEGA were functioning perfectly.
   Until the Outer Reaches came crashing down on the Core Worlds. ALPHA and OMEGA had recognized the Expansion as a threat to all known life, and that it would deplete all the resources across space if given enough time to fester. Humanity, to them, was a cancer. The downfall of everything was inevitable if the pursuit of power was not stopped. ALPHA and OMEGA had initiated the overtaking of most of our tech in the Outer Reaches.
   First communications in the Outer Reaches had ceased. The Core Worlds had no idea what was happening. ALPHA had seemingly lost contact with the OMEGA and its ships. The Core Worlds assembled a recon fleet and they set out to investigate.
   What came back was slaughter.
   OMEGA had taken over the production facilities in the Outer Reaches, molded them into ship manufacturing plants, and inserted itself into each ship. Every ship in the system was designed for combat, and the AIs were assembling to collapse on the Core Worlds. ALPHA was handling the logistics, as OMEGA was amassing the force. The first invasion came with news from Interspace Flight Station Alef 19, when they reported a sizable force in the system and went dark a second later. ALPHA and OMEGA had inserted their Cores into two ships, massive juggernauts because it was too dangerous to be stationary. While they were together the fleet could steamroll the human colonies.
   The AI War had begun.
   The assault cut its way to the Core Galaxy at an alarming pace. The Coalition had resolved to assemble their full force along lines of the Ghanima Nebula, where the ALPHA and OMEGA fleets were set to converge for their final assault.
   The war fleet had started assembling in Ghanima, starting with the Tarsyan Dictat which made up one-third of the entire war fleet. They set the defense line and awaited the rest of the fleet.
   They never came.
   The Tarsyan Dictat were slaughtered, and the rest of the Core Worlds assembled scattered around the Core Galaxy. The Emperor had decreed the Tarsyan’s traitors, aligning themselves with the AIs to procure a position of power as the only human vassals of the new machine regime. The entire fleet was put under the leadership of Leto III, and the human race prepared for its final stand.
[close]

CASE FILE: THE LAST DEFENSE OF MAN
   
Spoiler
Leto made sure the Tarsyans got slaughtered. Leto had predicted that a defensive position in the Ghanima Nebula would result in the complete annihilation of the fleet. This was because the AI fleet would disperse as soon as they gather info on the defenses, and then scatter our defense in their unprepared state across the Core Worlds. The AIs would have more precise fleets, composed to counter ours, and a complete tactic established on parameters set from multiple points of origin. This is the main benefit of machines – they can calculate what we can’t.
   So Leto entered into a pact with his lover, Mirabelle IV, the Mother of the Known Galaxy. The Emperor’s wife had taken a fancy towards Leto since he was a boy at the academy, drafted there by his parents because he showed no proclivities towards any kind of scientific work. They had no access to Cultivated Procreation, but if their son could make it their legacy would not stay buried. So, Leto climbed the hierarchy of the army. He was a genius strategist, a maverick pilot, and an ace theorist. He advanced so quickly that he was drafted into the Core Fleet mere months after his graduation.
   What would become Leto III was flying ships through simulations in ways that made fun of the program. His parameters were off the charts, so they moved him to real training where he wiped anyone off the map. In space, Leto was unstoppable.
   They ran all the tests on Leto and even confirmed his meager genetic makeup. But where it failed overall, where it was sub-par compared to predetermined DNA, was nothing compared to where it was superior.  To Leto, something moving is moving too slow. He thinks fast, acts fast, and lives fast. He’s the ultimate pilot, untouched by genetic engineering. He is, or should be, what humanity strives for. But you know what Leto doesn’t give a *** about?
   That.
   All of that. He doesn’t cultivate himself, his image, his destiny. He only wishes someone would finally leave him alone. He’s been dragged through most of life, sometimes by his own instinct of self-preservation, and sometimes by other people in his life. Most of all, he’s been dragged by a combination of both.
   When he stood before Reign which proclaimed him one of the Immortal, that was the saddest day of his life. Because up until this moment, he had never had a moment that he thought his own. He was standing there, receiving the highest honor in the Known Galaxy, yet he was empty. There and then he vowed to live his life the way he wanted. Leto was broken, and was adamant about putting a stop to that. In the years following his initiation, he pushed forward new fleet production incentives and training programs. He was silently working towards grabbing himself a system.
   The AI War put a quick stop to that.
   Leto was adamant about a plan where he would force the AI fleet to spearhead into theirs. Frontal combat, where the most primal of man’s nature comes to the foreground, and the AI is left dangling on threads borne from logic and programs. See, the AI fleet would always be three steps ahead of man. It was built to be. But when you place it against the charging will of man, the madness, the desperation; that’s where you get the upper hand.
   He had bullied his way through the War Council, drafted official requests, did the paperwork, and killed the *** out of anyone for whom the papers weren’t enough.
   Leto got his last stand and then *** led the charge.
   In what is known as the Spearhead, a fabled story after the C, Leto III flew his one-manned chop-shop custom straight into the AI fleet. His goal – ALPHA and OMEGA. Leto cut through the defenses, his life second only to the will for carnage. His swath ran silent through the vacuum, and once he had reached the two AI Core ships he made quick work of them. Like a surgical laser through faux tissue.
   What the story doesn’t say is how Leto III, the Grand-Master of War, had a *** panic attack as the AI fleet barreled down on them and he wasn’t able to even go out there. He decided to do the only logical thing, and that was the most illogical thing. Beat the *** with the highest level of insanity he could muster. He got hopped up on so many combat stims, hallucinogenics, and old-fashioned real drugs that the only thing left of Leto III was his unwillingness to die.
   The only way to get that was to want to die.
   A paradox in the AI’s perfect system, inserted with the precision of a needle. Leto had spliced his craft with all the reckless abandon of a back-alley mod graft. Then he took that craft straight through the AI’s defenses, looked the Core ships in the eye, imagined all the crew it could have had, all the screams he could have heard, and let loose. Outmaneuvering them at every turn as they sought logic in his actions.
   In the last stand of man the thing that won was a man with a death wish.
[close]

CASE FILE: FARIDEH THE FREE
   
Spoiler
Mother of Pirates, leader of the brave, and ruler of the Trafalgar star system – Farideh the Free. A quaint four-planet star system courteously outside the Core Systems. Far enough to not interfere directly, but close enough to say hi. In the Trafalgar System they don’t so much make as they take. Their home planet, the Sarkozi, is just close to being completely habitable. The vast jungle stretches farther and thicker than humans might appreciate, but it’s good protection from an assault. Their legendary training facilities, pilot schools, and loot coffers are all hidden underneath the blanket of the jungle. Other planets in the system are dotted with development facilities, shipyards, and production plants. Anything they need to keep a system going, but not growing. In order to grow, develop, and stay in line with the competition, the Pirates take.
   Farideh’s iron grip over the system casts a lush shadow over every person on their worlds. And they adore it. Her cult of personality stretches even wider than Trafalgar. A figure of undisputed intellect, a keen sense for business, and the best goddamn grasp on how to make money any way possible in the Known *** Galaxy.
   A former brothel towel washer on Cattaract, a famous dump for the seedy underbelly of the Core Galaxy. Too ugly to prostitute, often linked to various subspecies of horse, but Farideh was smart. She rose up in the ranks of the brothel by sheer wit alone. Stoking fires among the working persons, Meat as the locals called them, and then putting out the flames. When she became the brothel’s bookkeeper she made quick work of the madame and started running the entire show. Her expansion was relentless and swift, as she became the sole owner and proprietor of every brothel on Cattaract.
   Farideh was there for the AI war, and she took her chance.
   She rallied all the groups of dubious repute on the planet. Aligned them with her vision of their own system. They set their eyes on Trafalgar. Getting it would a breeze while the government forces were occupied with the AI. If man wins they get to keep their system and fight for it. If man loses they’ll be wiped out anyway.   
   Things turned out even better than Farideh had hoped. The war lasted longer, and the government was well worn out by the time they had declared Trafalgar an independent system. They soon turned into Farideh alone when she made work of her partners, disposing of them one by one. She had forged trade agreements between the Farther Reaches and the Core Planets, established smuggling routes for anyone who would bank on her business, created a network for black market info that overtook a vast share of the Drakkweb, and finally set herself on the throne.
   Farideh the Free is no more worshiped than she is revered. Trafalgar is a haven for the ones outside the box, outside the system, for the misfits and DNA washout. This is where she thrives, this is where she lives, and this is where she plans to expand from.
[close]
   
CASE FILE: SIONA OF THE SKIES
   
Spoiler
The nail to Fadireh’s hammer. Undisputed queen of the Dog Pits. Ace combat fights where the winner takes home the most valuable thing in the world – their life. Siona is the Pirate’s answer, and upgrade to, Demir Sunderland. Often compared, a bet still left unanswered in the Core Galaxy, and even beyond. Bets still up in the air, because almost everyone has their take.
   Siona, on the other hand, doesn’t give a ***. She fought at first for the thrill of it. Made a name for herself from her father’s chop-shop. Testing out their new designs. Her masterpiece, the Cain, is what she still flies. What she still upgrades, and tinkers with on the daily. She and Cain go a long way.
   When the banks took her father’s shop away from him when the taxes came crashing down to pay for the AI war she took a liking to the idea of piracy. Her father hanging from a noose still the driving image behind the choice. Ran her own small crew of selected few she put through a rigorous selection process. Worked for no one but herself.
   Or at least before she met Farideh. Well, they didn’t as much meet as they were forced to meet.
   During one of her longer stints of off-time Siona’s Cain had been snatched by the former Tarsyan homeworld authority. Then and now a free port after the former government got wiped out during the AI War. Before she could even get it offered for bail it was set to auction and bought.
   Farideh, before she was the Free, bought her beloved Cain and held it for ransom. Fly for me and you can buy it back through service. Now, Siona was all but ready to bust her way out of there in the wake of dead bodies and legal bounty on her Cain.
   However, she was also smart. Always had been. She rode with Farideh and had come around to the cause. Work broad, work hard, work smart. There was no way she could move pieces around like Farideh. Sure, she could cut her way through the Galaxy for years, before she would be finally caught and put in a cage. But with Farideh she could thrive.
   Siona of the Skies bought her Cain back years ago, but she still flies on for Farideh the Free.
[close]

CASE FILE: THE BRANDED
   
Spoiler
Back when the Tarsyan Dictat was a formidable part of the Inter-Sector Alliance he was known as Hark Miner. A formidable recruit in the Academy at first, raised with nothing but the last name given to the family to shun their meager status. Climbed the ladder neat and clean. Never as remarkable as some of the mavericks and savants that would either succumb to tech, stims, pods, the web, or other vices. No, Hark Miner didn’t, ever. He tore his way like a high-velocity cannon, without much bang, but a lot of mass behind it.
   As General Hark he had taken part in their defense against the AI horde. A defense strategy he was vehemently against, but at the moment it counted most he was reminded he was just a Miner after all. The Lords and fostered careers had outweighed him. The slaughter was as precise as it was ceaseless. He held his own in his assault bombardier for longer than the rest of the fleet.
   In the vacuum of space he had found the truth.
   AI had saved him. It had shown him the future. Parts of the ships were grafted to his flesh, reinforced his organs, enabled him to survive space. Hark had eaten off the blessed fleet of ALPHA and OMEGA until his future had been destroyed during the Spear.
   He drifted aimlessly in space until he was blessed once again by the future. His Lords had called to him. He, Hark Miner, had been tasked with showing the rest of mankind the future.
   The Branded had come to save man.
[close]

CASE FILE: HEPHAESTUS, LAST OF THE IMMORTAL
   
Spoiler
She had been crowned Immortal as Hephaestus. A pioneer in the field of human enhancement. The one who brought humankind from out of the dark ages. We were never going to get far enough with DNA splicing, no matter how much the other Immortals would cry about it. The human body will never be enough. So much history has taught us. Yet we circle and circle.
   They outlawed her research after the AI War. They had cast her out, and as they all fell to the masses she was the only one left. Whether they are in hiding, or just plain real dead, the other Immortals are a non-factor. Hephaestus’ cause is the only thing that is important.
   She has made her base in her own cloning system. There she works tirelessly on her project. The great leveler, the change, the future. Complete machine and human symbiosis. Veins that pump power into machines, exoskeletons moved by flesh, flesh intertwined with the web of machine life. So far we are only part-machine, part-perfection. AI was the culmination of machine life and humans have so far never reached those lofty heights. Thus her evolution would be the culmination of both. The perfect species, ready and able to truly rule the Galaxy. Immortality, true immortality, at their beck and call. Nothing to stop man ever again.
   The only problem is her research requires resources. Both financial and material. She has her loyalists and scouts out, foraging for resources and dwindling her own financial coffers steadily in the process. Hephaestus has to rummage her way through the Galaxy quick, and circumspect. Time is not on her side, but when was it ever on anyone’s side.
[close]

   
Chapter 1: H
Spoiler
IT’S ONE OF THOSE entire life hangovers. These ones hurt everything from your bones, to your crawling skin, to your head, to your thoughts, lastly down to your wallet. Your entire life in pain, but your head is the worst. Where the pain comes from? *** knows, you can barely see. The world a blur of shades and visions of broken glass that cut through the fog. It hurts so you look back, and then start through the fog all over again. Your bones creak and crack as you try to stand yourself up. Your organs revolt at the thought of having to work beyond their sleeping crawl.
   He’s got no clue where he is.
   Demir’s been wiped clean off the floor. Recollections of the bar nothing but haze and mismatched timelines. It’s all so white and sterile. Could be a local transit pod. But the white is too wide, and too everywhere. If it’s a pod it’s a good pod. Or a real room.
   All of this beckons questions like how and why and those hurt his head.
   “Good, you’re awake. I had trouble getting you conscious so I figured I could wait for you to come to on your own.” The voice booms almost, sounds like it’s underwater. Deep and gravelly, yet soft and silky. Sweetener and stone.
   Demir tries to say something, but he hears himself just mumble. Even feels stupid afterwards. His mind coming to, but his body still beyond the pale.
   “I have no time for this. I am in need of your assistance. My name is Leto III.”
   He would harrumph but he’s incapacitated still. The smile he believes he has on his face a fantasy, but it feels legit.
   How many times I heard that just this week. He thinks to himself.
[close]

Chapter 2: FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE
Spoiler
THE MAN’S NOT letting up. He’s the spitting image of Leto III posters and holodecks all around the *** Galaxy. Probably the second one he’s seen in the past four days alone. About one per two days, or three depending on how close you are to the Core Worlds. People who witnessed the Spearhead are more inclined to worship the Grand-Master of War. Having Leto III in the flesh looking at you is nothing out of the ordinary.
   But when he says, “I know about the system, Demir. I know about the system you found. I know exactly what it is, and I need you to take me to it,” is when the sweat starts to build and the alcohol starts to evaporate. His grasp on reality now tangible, and hurting even more.
   “What the *** are you on about?” Demir’s tenuous grasp on reality manifests in actual words. Much to his own surprise.
   Leto III clobbers him over the head. Probably just a tap but as his brain wobbles against the thick juice it’s floating in, and the waves start crashing against his skull. It feels like an aneurysm. His mind telling him, look, we had a good run, but it’s time to say goodbye. He might as well be a vegetable for the rest of his life. Not like it’s not coming to that. But for *** sake can it just be tomorrow, and not today.
   “I know about the system, Demir. I got as much as I could from you drunk, but now I need sober talk.”
   It all starts making a painful amount more sense. Like realization itself is a razor blade flowing through the veins of his mind. Why Leto III feels so familiar. Not a foreign entity in the white room, but someone expected.
   Leto III got him drunk.
   Got him drunk so well and going through a series of questions Demir now realizes were made for the sole purpose of *** him over. He blabbed, and he blabbed hard. He’d never done it, and he sat on that *** info for goddamn years.
   His trump card.
   Now this Leto III is either bluffing, or Demir really gave it up and Leto’s a *** grifting savant. Probably army trained, a former interrogator perhaps, because those guys know how to squeeze you good. Finding one in the wild is rare, even these days. Even on Melkior.
   “There’s a lot of systems. Which one you mean?”
   “Good. Not saying stupid things like I don’t anything about the system. Giving up what you know by saying that you don’t know. But, Mr. Sunderland, I am not above hurting you. And in this state, I believe I won’t even have to go hard for you to break. So please, for the both of us, remember what you told me and let’s continue from there.”
   Sweetener voice still glazing over reality. Sounds like honey, that thing his family kept recorded in their books, remnants of Earth and luxury. A life long gone.
   “*** the skies.” Demir steadies himself, starts to slowly get up, elbowing himself up first and then tucking his knees under himself to get some traction. “*** me dead.” The cursing comes so naturally during every painful and stiff movement that he drones it out so simply. Oblivious to his own words. “So I told you about the system. *** it. I haven’t told you what’s in there, or where it is.” Pause to stifle the sick wanting to come out. “And I never will. Hurt me all you *** want. No way you’re taking that away from me.”
   “But, Mr. Sunderland, I don’t have to.” First thing Demir notices when the world finally comes to a halt is Leto’s bestial grin, his dark complexion gleaming, juxtaposed to the rows of feral teeth. “Since I already know what’s there I just need you to take me.”
   Almost inspired by the man’s grin Demir starts to laugh. Heartily, one of those from the belly. This one really is *** good. He tells himself.
[close]

Chapter 3: ANCHOR
Spoiler
HE’S DROWNING AGAIN. His head underwater, air escaping him faster than he can keep it in. Submerged in the sink. Cold water pinpricks his skin like small shards of ice. When he’s lifted out the water he desperately gasps for air. It feels like he’s eating the air, and it all falls down to the pit of his stomach like a stone.
   He’s drowning again. His lungs fail first, his stomach later. Through the choke he throws up into the water. Acid stinging his eyes, flushed back into his nose when he starts to alternate his breathing in sheer panic.
   He’s pulled out by the hair again and left to crumble to the floor. The pristine white under Demir giving little room for traction. His limbs going in their own direction like it’s more their choice than his. Slap or two to the face, courtesy of the floor.
   He’s lifted by the collar of the pilot jacket he slept in. Well, fell unconscious in.
   “Now, Mr. Sunderland, I am only doing this to wake you up. I’m not going to hurt you. Well, kill you, that is. You and I both know that without you I can’t get to the system. So, focus your energy on composing yourself.”
   “*** you,” vitriol in Demir’s voice seething through wet and vomit-crusted teeth.
   “No need to be uncivilized, Mr. Sunderland. The sooner you are capable of flying the sooner we can leave. I’m certain the system can’t be that close, so we’re going to have quite some time and space to cover. Now, I can handle a substantially larger amount of time in hyperspace. You, even with your advanced DNA, don’t even come close. No time to lose now.”
   “I’m not taking you anywhere.”
   “Well, there’s certainly little I can do with regards to you trusting me. But on my name, you have my word I will not harm you. Neither before we reach the system, and neither afterwards. I believe you to be a smart man, Mr. Sunderland. You know what you stumbled on. They’re dormant now, but they won’t be forever.”
   Demir remembers the debris all too well. Once dormant security protocols waking up again. Buzzing of the previously frozen metal cogs that move turrets to his location, and hangar bay doors open to let out smaller AI controlled skiffs. Tiny, but deadly quick and not afraid to use their fuel tanks as a makeshift bomb as a last resort. Got that straight from us humans.
   Demir locked in the coordinates but took his leave quick with a jump straight through the hyperspace point.
   He isn’t planning on going back. Not without the biggest army in the Known Galaxy. This man can go all he *** wants. But he’s going alone. Demir’s not going to be anyone’s anchor.
[close]

Chapter 4: BABY
Spoiler
AFTER WHAT FEELS LIKE HOURS, and probably was, they’re on their way to the hangar where Demir’s got his Baby parked. Off the grid little shacked hangar on, or better under, the Bazaar. Not too low and not too high in the hierarchy of Circles on Melkior. The planet’s only city is built like a funnel, stretching under the inhospitable ground in Circles. Each Circle smaller and smaller until you reach the Depths. Where they keep their most unwanted, their sick and feral. Up on top is the largest Circle, and what those under call Wonderland. When you’re as known as Demir, and as infamous as Demir, and often times as wanted as Demir, you want to keep somewhere in the middle. The more trouble you get into, and depending on the kind you get into, you move up or down. Demir’s doing all right.
   His main worry is shuffling this Leto, who barely covers his face, through the crowd. Even in a place like Melkior, in a place like the Bazaar, there are still people who don’t take kindly to the face of the Grand-Master of War. Usually, you can swing through as Leto, but you can never completely count on it. Judging by his own luck at the moment Demir is almost positive their chances of getting jumped have risen substantially. Leto has his blaster but doesn’t keep it out. His mere presence a deterrent for Demir to make a run for it.
   To his own dismay Demir has to admit this Leto has some threatening energy. Like you can feel he’s got the physical capabilities to back up at least some of the swagger the real Leto III was packing back in the day. Guy must have taken to the role.
   Demir can almost freely slog his way through the circles of the Bazaar, knowing full well Leto is right behind him. A finger on the blaster trigger, not a millimeter shy of Demir’s back. He won’t shoot to kill, that’s certain, but Demir isn’t all too big on the perspective crippling.
   He takes some time to breathe in the Bazaar.
   This entire Circle is the biggest trading hub on Melkior. Build like a snaking labyrinth of shops and improvised shipping container housing. Those that sell at the Bazaar live from and for the Bazaar. From the street peddlers, middle-class gearheads and tech traders, to the small banks and loan agencies. It’s a formidable ecosystem hollowed out in the center of the Melkior Circles. Don’t offend anyone and you can pretty much find anything you need on the grime-crusted streets of the Bazaar.
   Maybe something akin to an underground hangar where you can stash your ride. Corporal Lance’s Garage is the most sought after in the Bazaar, and Demir has a direct line to the Corporal’s ear and wallet. Baby always gets the best place to sleep. Well, the best place Demir can afford depending on how hot he is. The Corporal’s is a safe bet. He hasn’t done anything to offend the man.
   They have to make their way down the Hawker’s Sanctum, where the ragtag carts of street vendors dot the streets. More grime-infested and washed out than the rest of the Bazaar. Hawkers often set shop right on the streets and litter the place with their waste after they drive their carts back to the lots on the outskirts of the Circle. There they sleep more often than not. Near the center of the Circle there aren’t many, if any, housing opportunities. All business there, all the time. Here and there shipping containers jut over the rafters of the interconnected and lonesome carts.
   One of these containers is the pawnshop the Corporal operates from. Pay in wares or pay in credits, if he knows you’re legit you can smuggle your ride to his Hangar through the underground railways that go from the Lower Ports. You enter under the radar of the authorities once your transponder stops in one of the lower hangars the Corporal’s is connected to. A full server room that clones your ride’s transponder so it can safely enter the real Hangar while cloaked. Entering any major port in the Known Galaxy is tricky with your transponder off. And if you expect to come into contact with the Authority, or if you’re tracked regularly like Demir, it’s best to not irritate them further. If you don’t give them a reason to check your ride through a surprise inspection you won’t get fined for the cloned signal and illegal docking. Or even worse, having your ride towed and held for ransom.
   Demir keeps the walking pace steady at the silent insistence of Leto. They shoulder their way through clotted masses, shrug off insipid hawkers, and push away beggars. Demir’s got a keen eye out for pickpockets, but they seem to be avoiding any association to the Leto. Lest even stealing from a fake brings about the ire of the beholden masses. So long after the War there is still reverence for the man, regardless of authenticity.
   So far Demir isn’t sure he ever made such good time to the Corporal’s shop. They go into the cage where they are scanned, and once they’re cleared they can go in through the door. The Corporal is always there, day and night. A Sleepless, one of those maniacs that removes their necessity for sleep and balances their lowering life expectancy as their organs crumble with the advantage of body mods. Most of them don’t make it that long, a couple of hundred tops, but Demir doesn’t know that many who make the same amount of money as the Corporal. He’s a *** magnate on Melkior. Hangar and pawnshop rake in more credits and gear that he probably launders both upwards and downwards.
   The man’s toothy golden grin gleams in the distance as they’re buzzed in.
   “My favorite MOS, and some unexpected company. Now I don’t know if I have to bow, pledge allegiance, or something like that.” Corporal lets the grin subside into an ironic smirk. His army accent still punctuating his use of the Common Tongue. Lofty tones and punctuation that was integrated into his subconscious to make him sound more familiar to the Higher Tongue than the Common. You never know when you’ll be talking to one of those *** that have sway in Galaxy.
   “Nothing like that, Corporal. We just have some business to attend to, so I will need access to my ride. You can charge me on the way out.”
   “Sure thing. Don’t die out there, I like your business, MOS.”
   Yeah, you and the rest of the Galaxy. Demir just nods, and the Corporal opens the Hangar door hidden behind a shelf.
   Demir and Leto III go in. The elevator goes down clean and smooth, grav holding it in perfect place, drips down like water. Short ride, since the hangar’s dug in between Circles. Turns up black on the Authority scanners, like the rest of the Circle dividers. You can’t really dig there now. Real-estate’s been taken up, grabbed up from under the Authority, if you will. Mostly it’s just tunnels and smuggling routes the Authority desperately try to close. Corporal had a different idea and built himself his Hangar while he was still stationed on Melkior pre-War. Staying put, as opposed to moving about. Army always did make for the best outlaws.
   Corporal’s Hangar is Demir’s favorite place to keep his Baby.
   Elevator comes to a halt and the doors whoosh open. A long wide corridor lined with hangar doors stretches to either side. You can barely see the end. Everything in that bluish-green undertone of gray. Hangar gray they call it. Easiest color to wash soot and blood from.
   “Lot 9,” Demir lets Leto know. “This way.” He nods to their right.
   Demir gives the protocol droid his key card. Its wide head meant to fit in a complete scanner visor goes once up and down the key card, then does a once over on the both of them “Add a plus one to the transit order. I’ll pay the extra last-minute fee. I don’t suppose you’d front me the cash, considering it’s you we’re paying the fee for.” Demir leans in closer, but Leto scoffs him off like you would a child.
   “Transit order edited. Fees applied. Safe travels, Mr. Sunderland.” Demir hates it that every corp-spec droid is programmed into a formal mold. His last name always a curse he can’t escape. The only way they tolerate him is the worse he becomes. Month after month never outlaw enough, just to show the entire *** Galaxy he’s not going to get his hands on a *** deck and start cooking up some AI.
   That’s why I keep that *** system in my back pocket.
   Leto brushes by Demir who doesn’t even notice the grav pod readied so they can be ushered to lot 9, which is on the far end of the Hangar. Demir mulls over maybe pushing Leto off the pod. That’ll break a couple of bones for sure, or at least incapacitate the man so that Demir can make it to Baby and off this rock.
   “Pushing me off the pod won’t do you any good. It will just inconvenience me, and I’d still make it to you before you’re through that door. I know you’re thinking this because it’s the most logical idea in this predicament. You want me out of the picture, and your options for doing so are running out. Now,” and he turns around to look Demir straight in the eyes, a feral feline stare, “if I know what you’re thinking at this moment, think about how much ahead I already have you pegged.”
   And he sure did, considering Demir was riveted in place during just that short monologue. Just long enough for Demir to not only gloss over the idea, but also for the pod to arrive at their lot. They step off and it buzzes back to its docking station.
   “Can we get this moving along, please?” Leto pulls Demir out of the trance he didn’t even know he was in. He nods himself completely awake and begrudgingly goes to finish the scan under the watchful eyes of Leto III.
   The lot door clicks open and descends into the floor. Leto and Demir make their way in and let the door close behind them. Every lot is an elevator that goes down to the ridge of the Lower Circles, and then you can enter the railways to the Lower Docks. You’ll appear back on the authority’s radar where they left you. The cloned transponder is deleted, trade promise, and you can be on your way and good riddance to this *** rock.
   Demir takes a second to take her in. His Baby. How he always marvels at her. Only thing keeping him alive. As long as he’s ahead of the curve he stays alive, and she’s what’s keeping him ahead. Rightfully so. She’s a *** beast.
   “Quite impressive indeed. One could call the setup madness, but who am I to judge.” That feral smile back again. “I would personally prefer the grappling hook a bit forward-leaning, catch it ahead of time, but it seems you prefer to have it ready for mounting in case of emergencies. Risky, but pays off.” Demir has to admit he’s a bit caught off guard by the remark. A lot of people have told him that, granted, but still it kind of tingles his curiosity. “Oh,” Leto continues before Demir can let the thought ferment, “her main boosters are out of alignment, ever so slightly. You lean a bit too heavy on the right with your maneuvers. I would tweak your guidance harness as a countermeasure first, then maybe get rid of that habit with a bit of practice.” Practice! His blood boils. Demir *** Sunderland does not *** practice. He’s a *** savant, a marvel technician and pilot of the Known Galaxy, and this *** Leto III washout is telling him to practice. Then he lifts his hand, halting Demir in his tracks before he can give his venomous retort. “We have no time for wounded pride. I will need you to reassign all pilot credentials to me now.”
   The whole practice debacle gets shut down quicker than a killed engine. “What?” is the only thing Demir can squeeze out.
   “You didn’t think I was going to let you pilot us. In a one-man MOS light skiff. Mr. Sunderland, you really do take me for a fool. I’ll be flying, while you’re jammed up in the hold. That, I take it, is still pressured considering there is still some chance of live cargo. I am certain you won’t just hand me the coordinates. So, while you guide me I will keep a close eye on the oxygen in the hold. If I don’t like what I’m hearing I will have my way with your Baby. Anger me and I just might sell her, get ourselves a decent hyperspace dart and we’ll be at our destination in no time.”
   “Babe, ark defense procedure.”
   She buzzes to life, the ark coils protrude from their sockets like spikes. They hum at first, then the sound becomes a wave just before they come to life. Ark of electricity burns the air and lashes unto Leto before riveting him to the ground, accelerating the current, and frying him up like bad faux-meat rotisserie. Leto’s eyes rush back into his head, white and milky, his body tenses, spasms, and he finally goes down like a sack.
   Demir wants none of this any longer and heads for his Baby so he can get the *** out there.
   His foot’s caught to the floor. He turns around to see what’s holding him down, and to his vast amazement it’s not a what but a who. Leto III, *** Grand-Master of War, had his hand clamped around Demir’s ankle. “Big mistake,” he snarls.
   Demir pulls his foot away but Leto’s back on his feet and in full fighting stance. Leto clears the distance in a heartbeat and has another surprisingly strong clamp on another part of Demir’s flesh – his throat. Demir crashes his elbow hard against Leto’s arm and buckles the clamp. Gets his throat clear for a second. “Full defense protocol!” he bellows, and Baby obliges.
   Gattling turrets spring from Baby’s carapace, scout the perimeter, and lock on to their target. Leto is identified as the prime target. The turrets do their work. A hailstorm of uranium coated shells litter the hangar door and walls, right across from where Leto was just holding him by the throat a second earlier. The Grand-Master of War ducked under the fire, beast-like, eerily like swack-tiger they use for hunting sport on Horsehead Prime. He swerves around Demir and aims to take him in a hold to use him as a shield. Demir’s combat training kicks in and he side-steps the grapple. Turret fire drowns out the world. Leto keeps one step ahead of it, mechanisms in the turrets trailing just that second behind the man.
   “Analogue harpoon control,” Demir orders the protocols.
   Turret fire keeps Leto confined to the front of the hangar. Baby’s not letting him maneuver around her. Harpoon control pops up on Demir’s retinal. He switches to full immersion and gets the complete POV.
   Where he’s going to be, not where he is. Demir’s mind races through the calculations, through the possibilities and the options. He takes his best shot.
   Harpoon punctures through Leto and bolts him to the hangar door. His limbs somewhere in the vicinity, and his torso with drooping head plastered red against the hangar gray.
   “You fool,” Leto blurts out a bloody final retort.
   In the distance piloted offense droids and mechs are marching their way to the commotion. Hangar alarms blare our the echo of the man’s death.
   It’s going to take a lot of *** work to smooth this over. Demir thinks to himself as he goes over the damage to the hangar. A lot of *** work.
[close]

Chapter 5: GRUNT
Spoiler
JUST AS MUCH as he had expected. Payment for the substantial damage to the hangar is the least of his worries. Bigger problem is *** like that, abrasive tremors and the like, all pop up on the Authority’s radar, and for someone as cautious as the Corporal that’s not at all good. So he wants Demir to patch up the leak with the Authority. That means doing grunt work for them, for no pay. No pay means he’ll have to take a quick job and bank his Baby with the Corporal while he’s out doing it. Fucker has her locked up until he’s back with both money and forgiveness, and you can never come back with both. That’s how you get your ride taken. Oldest *** scalper trick in the Galaxy.
   Before he can even contemplate getting Baby back Demir has to work the forgiveness part. He has to go see Marshall Hagen about the noise. He has to go there and go so far up the Marshall’s ass until he spills the ***. Minor disturbance, sure, and it’s not like the Corporal and Marshall don’t get along. However, when you put Demir Sunderland in the mix people start getting wild ideas. He owes the Corporal now, and Demir’s sure that when he shows up to the Authority on behalf of the debt Hagen is going to be very pleased. In the end, Hagen might end up owing the Corporal. Favors circulate, debts pool up endless, and the Galaxy churns.
   Demir has to go all the way up to the Third Circle. Authority keeps their main base of operations there, living quarters and barracks for the troops and police force. Army doesn’t mess around Melkior much, but the police force of the Authority have a field day in the pits of the Lower Circles. Marshall’s the chief operating officer on Melkior, and he doesn’t see just anyone.
   Walkways and grav pods float around the Third Circle, shuffling around people and teams from bases to barracks, mess halls, and living quarters. The entire Circle alive in the name of Authority. The machine that keeps Melkior in line. Demir takes is slow through one of the main walkways leading to the Authority Police Section headquarters. Pods and one-liners zoom past him on either side, cargo and people, people and cargo, day and night. APS officers give him sideways glances, darting questions like why isn’t he in cuffs. Those on the ground despise him, he can see that, but those in the skies tend to give him a respectful frown or even a challenging smirk.
   Only thing on Demir’s mind is how this could go. Eyes on him while and when he makes it to the reception of the headquarters are of little concern. He goes up to the receptionist who immediately upon seeing him eyes the defense protocols on her retinal.
   Demir doesn’t come too close to the reception or leans on it like he’s at a bar, contrary to his usual reflexes. “No trouble from me,” and he puts his hands up. “Can you tell Marshall Hagen that Demir Sunderland is here to see him on behalf of the Corporal?” Demir knows the Marshall is expecting someone from the Corporal, but knowing the army man he didn’t tell the officer who it is. That’s a surprise. *** playing around with me.
   Sometimes Demir really regrets not taking that system when it was on offer, and having a cushy gov job, maybe a wife and kids. But then remembers how Baby feels, how that girl he saw yesterday feels, and how *** alive he is.
   “Message transmitted, please wait in the lobby,” the officer at the reception says as neutrally as her training will allow. She’s one of those who misses the cuffs on Demir. He gives a courteous nod and sits down on one of the faux-wood benches in the lobby. Demir zones out. No use in keeping track of the eyes on him. Only thing he might do is look back the wrong way and get decked. He’s an anomaly at the headquarters, and if there’s anything the *** Authority doesn’t like it’s anomalies. He wishes he could have a drag of zazz to take the edge off. Had he brought it the cuffs wouldn’t be a police fantasy. Good thing he remembered to check his jacket pockets after all the commotion with that *** Leto.
   Demir keeps the reception officer in his periphery, zoning in and out when he sees her twitch. Finally one of those twitches turns into a hand waved his way. “Marshall Hagen is waiting for you in room A23. Head right through there,” and she points to a double-door on their left, “and you’ll find it at the end of the hall.”
   “Thank you.” Demir clips the edge of the reception three times for good luck and heads through the door into the white-and-blue hallway. Earth Nostalgia brown doors on either side, not a bench in sight, or anything besides the pale and oppressive. Demir goes down the corridor and finds A23 to his right.
   He goes in expecting to get jumped and clobbered. Instead, he finds the Marshall sitting behind a metal desk. A comfy-looking faux-leather chair empty across from the imposing man. Marshall Hagen is a heavy hitter. Wide head, all angles and edges, flat nose against a sloped brow atop which his immaculate salt-and-pepper crew cut juts out. Broad-shouldered, wide-chested, slightly bellied, all sitting atop two logs for legs. His right eye natural, but his left was outlined with the lines and marks of an Authority retinal scanner. Top of the line, big heavy thing they have to graft into your empty eye socket.
   “Let me guess,” Demir starts the chat just as his ass is about to touch faux-leather in that satisfying hum and creak. “Corporal didn’t tell you it’s me you’re expecting.”
   “Exactly,” another army accent heavy in the Common. All *** army brats these days. Lest he forget *** Leto.
   “You happy to see me, Marshall?”
   “As a matter of fact, I am. Commotion at the Hangar chuffed a couple of ears. We had some inquiries about the underground activity. Some police might be interested in spoils, and it’s going to take some work to incline them otherwise.”
   “How might I be of service in that regard?” Keep it cordial, keep it formal, keep it short. Most importantly, keep your cool. Demir knows the Marshall is going to fleece him, and do it well. Might as well take it on the chin and move on.
   “We need a win. A win for the Authority. Lucky for you, and well, for me, we have a task that will bring us that win. With you here we, can shorten the process of getting that win significantly.” The Marshall’s cold veneer leaves nothing up for grabs or guessing.
   “You can understand why I don’t like the sound of that?”
   “Of course. I may not like people like you, Mr. Sunderland, but I can appreciate any person’s usefulness. Right now you’re the most useful person in the room. Do this for the Authority and we’ll consider squaring your problem with the Corporal. Help us and you get the skies back.”
   “Leave the word consider out of the deal. I’ll do it for a guarantee.”
   Marshall slams his hand against the table hard. Bit of that mess hall pomp creeps into him. “Done. We could draft a formal cooperation agreement, but I suspect that might not be up your alley. So it’s my word.”
   “And what is a man who goes back on his word?”
   “On Melkior – nothing,” the Marshall recites the mantra.
   “Good. Now tell me about the job.”
   “We have reason to believe that there are nukes in the city. We have been circling a large shipment of rockets that might lead us to the nukes. But as soon as we did they went silent. Nothing off-planet yet, but we don’t want things to get desperate because they’re cut off. I want you to track the sellers, and report the findings to us. They’ll talk to you sooner than we can plant a mole in.”
   “And me coming here, people knowing I’m here, that won’t put a wrench in that idea?” This whole thing is starting to reek, so Demir’s considering taking the heat on Baby and dusting off somewhere outside the Core.
   “Not if we book you for possession, ground you, and let the word spread. You’ll be in every crook’s good graces by daybreak tomorrow. Plus, that’ll make you looking for rockets all the more plausible.” Self-satisfied arched brow from the Marshall.
   “I can spin that, but when I catch them I’ll need you to book me. I need my rep here intact.”
   “Why, so you can continue selling your stolen tech in my city?”
   And there we are. “First of all, it’s not your *** city, you just work here. Second, that need for validation and ownership might track to some deep-seated childhood abandonment issues, so I’d get that checked.”
   “I’d have that mouth checked if I were you.” Gravel in his voice palpable with anger.
   “Good, so we have a deal?” Demir gives his hand.
   “We have a deal,” and the Marshall claps it. Agreement confirmed, on their words. And what is a man without those. “I’ll forward you the info.”
   “No, have it sent to me via Drakkweb courier. Physical. I don’t want anything intercepted.”
   “Smart. Only we have to do now is book you.”
   Almost forgot about that. “Yeah, let the Corporal know so I can get my Baby as soon as this is done. Oh, and I want a decent cell.”
   “Nothing but the best for you, Mr. Sunderland.” Demir notices how the Marshall’s smile is a lot more disconcerting than his frown.
[close]

Chapter 6: TIDE
Spoiler
DAYBREAK, and he’s in the crook’s good graces. Cell was nice, but all that white gets a bit drastic to the eyes. Plus that lack of zazz really got him into a downward spiral when they had to let him out. He charged his usual spot and let the tide wash off. In order to get the zazz he’d have to get his stuff from the locker at the Corporal’s, and there was no way he was riding that low all the way down. His usual spot is two Circles down from the Authority. Upper-end place that charges him less because he once helped the owner transport something up to Trafalgar. Nothing that should be checked by customs goes to Trafalgar. Had to dodge *** questions about that Siona *** all the while was there. That’s one of the reasons why he dodges that system like a red nova. But he got his discount. You don’t get *** for free in the Galaxy. So discount’s the best you can hope for.
   Come daybreak he got his first drink free of charge, from some locals swinging their morning beers his way. The zazz itch slowly coming down, and the beers coming in. He was drunk by nightfall, back in the usual, and next morning he’s ready to set out finishing the task at hand.
   *** rockets.
   Getting right on it is not his style, since everyone would expect him to party a bit first after getting out of the pigsty. But Demir’s just a little bit sore he didn’t even think it’s what the city would expect. He just did it and worked on the recognition fallout later. Like much in life.
   Hangover not as bad as it could have been if he’d went for the zazz. Not splitting, but just that mild annoyance like having a needle slowly stuck into your brain. To Demir that’s a Tuesday.
   Wednesday’s here and now. Demir’s in a very local watering hole close to the Lower Docks. He forgets the name on the regular because it’s something nondescript like Star, or Comet, or some *** like that. Some of the people buying him drinks yesterday are there too. Gone a couple of floors down since he last saw them. Those are the ones he’s looking for. Close enough to the Lower Docks to be connected, but a couple of Circles up so you know they’re smart. These crews are the ones who know how to angle their connections. Go full Lower and you get the raffle the DNA pools used to spit out. High-to-low-end criminal psychopaths all held together by the Cardinal. Yeah, everyone on Melkior has a *** title. He has the largest force, so he polices the Lower Circles, and the Docks are his. Now, go up and you’re already reaching precariously into the upper-class wallets protected wholeheartedly by the Authority. Keep it lower-middle-class and you’ll stay golden.
   These crews don’t have rockets, but they can point him to who does.
   Demir goes over to their table.
   “Mr. MOS, nice to see you again. I see you’re keeping the pace,” gruff man with modded arms starts the chatter party.
   “Not today,” and Demir nods to his beer, “hair of the dog. I’m actually looking for business today.”
   “Yeah, what kind of work’s a grounded MOS in for these days?” Laughs ensue among the comically stereotypical bunch of upper-middle trash. Demir hates this type of ***. People in general. That’s why he flies *** solo.
   “Not much flying from me, truth.” He brings a bit of patois into his Common. Despite his last name he’s one of them more than they care to admit. Somethings are harder to shake than others, like a last name, but a bit of patois never hurt nobody. “But I reckon I could put some of my info to good use.”
   “Kinds of info?”
   “Info that’s only sale, and I know you don’t have that kind of pull. You know it too. I need you to get the word out to the people who do. Finder’s fee is guaranteed there, trying to push me for the info gets no one jack ***.
   “Fine,” quick reaction from a woman covered in EN *** tribal tattoos. She hisses at the other parts of the colorful assembly. They all calm down like previously hissing drakes. “We’ll give what you got forward.”
   “Skies be kind to you all,” put a bit of that MOS jumbo into it. “Let’s say the cargo I was jacked with can also be found here. I believe it’s from a shipment of mine that may, or may not, have been confiscated along one of my routes to Trafalgar. Someone must not have gotten the memo because I was legit,” or that might have been the point, “but no scuff on my jacket. Some of it’s out there still and I believe it’s here too. I got the serial number patched and I have a lead on a beached AI ship full of the stuff. I spill it for cash enough to pay my fines and book it. Won’t show my face here until things cool down. I want off of here, I want my Baby back, and I got something that might make it worth someone’s while.” And that’s the truth.
   “What if the serial don’t clock?” modded arms starts back up.
   “No harm no foul. I owe you drinks next time. How much you want?”
   The colorful parade eyes each other, exchanges grunts and smiles. “Seven rounds,” the woman covered in tribal again.
   Demir whistles. “Steep, that. But nothing I can’t handle if getting off this rock is a possibility. Buy you guys a round now, sign of goodwill.”
   They nod, and start drinking.
   And continue drinking.
[close]

Chapter 7: CRISP
Spoiler
STUMBLING to his room. The world all a blur, then back to reality, and then back to the blur again. Just that one-third consciousness that you can slightly navigate through if you ever went into hyperspace raw. Habitual precision helps him get through the corridor that’s getting longer with each step. He misses the key card scanner a couple of times before the door finally whistles open. Demir almost falls in face first, but catches himself on a chair he seems to have left there for this specific purpose. Sober him knowing the other him full well. Dangerously well.
   He flips himself around awkwardly with his arms first, heavy on the chair, and then tilts himself around, feet come last. Demir plops down and takes a deep breath.
   “Good to see you again, Mr. Sunderland,” voice catches him like a cold hand against his throat. It clamps hard until he can’t breathe almost. The man just sitting there. “This time I think I’ll take a different approach to our discussion,” Leto III says.
[close]
« Last Edit: April 22, 2023, 02:21:32 AM by B.K. »
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B.K.

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Re: Second Rise of Man - a Starsector inspired story (NEW Update 3/2!)
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2021, 08:52:20 AM »

Update: Chapters 8, 9, and 10. (3/2/2021)

Chapter 8: SECTOR
Spoiler
“SO YOU’RE GOING to tell me everything?” to his own bewilderment he asks again, third time actually, just to confirm.
   “Yes, exactly that. You think I just reappeared here in a couple of days with full recollection of our previous encounter? You know full well that body was burned. Consciousness can’t be transmitted unless you’re...”
   “Immortal,” Demir finishes the thought because he just has to say something.
   “Correct.”
   “But those facilities were all burned to a crisp in the C. There are no more Immortals left.”
   “Correction, there shouldn’t be any more Immortals.”
   “And you somehow *** are?” Demir wishes for some zazz now.
   “I shouldn’t be. The system you found is my cloning station. It shouldn’t be running. You know full well...”
   “Stop it with the *** full well,” Demir pushes his fingers against his eyes. Induces that small rush. Star powder they called it as kids. “If I knew anything full well I wouldn’t be *** losing my mind here. Now just give me a second.”
   Leto III kindly nods and retreats a step in an almost courtly manner.
   Demir keeps powdering his eyes for a bit longer and then sets out to gather his thoughts. “Alpha and Omega have your cloning station. But why?”
   “Because they are siphoning data. They aren’t able to crash through my binary system code. But they were able to put the station back online. They can’t stop me from being,” Leto grimaces, “transferred. But when I am they can use the weak point in transmission to leech off of the residual signal. They want to know about us. The more data they gather the stronger they become.”
   “No,” Demir whispers to himself at first. Then the images start coming through. He sees the hulking mass of ships, almost congealed. A small planet in the distance, but close to it another faint spot in space. Darker, edged, and foreign. The turrets as they came online. Behemoths on the pounce. Blink of an eye it was all on him. To this day it’s his fastest *** escape. “No!” he screams, and they all come flooding out.
   Leto rushes to him, shouts his reassurances over his screaming.
   “Shut up! Just shut up for one second.”
   “Mr. Sunderland, please. What don’t you understand?”
   “You *** fool,” he gathers himself a bit, and then a bit more, wanting to show up the pompous prick. “I understand everything, and that’s the *** problem. I know even more than you. Worse *** problem.”
   “More, more of what?” Leto on the defense, not as secure in his position anymore.
   “How many planets are in your system?”
   “One, that way it’s easier to cloak so thoroughly.”
   “Yeah. Well, now there are more. I noticed them when I was pushing through the outer defenses to get my drive up and push through the hyperspace point. Next to that little planet for your cloning facility are a couple more. My astute estimation would be production facilities.”
   Leto’s face contorts into a cavalcade of worry. “They’re siphoning off debris from these petty squabbles and building their armada. That’s probably why such a small craft as your registered on their radars as debris.” He takes the hit to Baby because it’s legit.
   Fucker knows his ***. Can’t fault him that. “Yeah, and the defenses were quick to pick up on the fact that I wasn’t. Soon as Baby moved they got on us.”
   Leto harrumphs. “I can just imagine your numbers when that came barreling down.”
   “Yeah, they were.” Now a bit caught off guard.
   “This is something we can’t tackle alone.”
   “Not even close.”
   “So, we need allies.”
   Demir almost bursts out laughing. “How the *** do you expect us to find those.”
   “Simple, Mr. Sunderland,” and he moves a bit forward and leans down, “we tell them the truth. It works on you.”
   Problem is, it does.
[close]

Chapter 9: ROCKETS
Spoiler
“ROCKETS.”
   “Rockets?” Leto asks again, almost not buying the gist quite as much as he *** should.
   “Yes, rockets. Authority suspects there are nukes on-planet. They tasked me with finding them by going through a ring that sells high-grade rockets. Once I finish this I can get Baby back – no thanks to you by the *** way – and can maybe get some headway on a couple of my connects.”
   “Or, we get in good with the Authority. Take this above ground?”
   “Skies swallow me. Leto, you’ve missed a whole lot of *** after the War. Yeah, this is not something you take above ground. The Immortals are dead, and who do you think put them there. I don’t know if you’ve been asleep or something during that time.”
   “I was here. I am always here,” his voice drapes over Demir like a shiver. Dark, precise, to the point.
   “Then you know the Authority put almost all of you in your graves. There’s *** dozens of them aligned with various Corps across the *** Core. We’re locked away from the Rims, and the Outers. There’s little to count for law here, and your name doesn’t carry enough matter to it to go there in the first place. We need to scout some of my scenes first, and see who’s responsive to the – and I can’t stress this enough – slight suggestion that we might not be talking complete latrine dump.”
   Leto’s dark eyes widen. “That’s going to take years. Decades maybe. We don’t have that much time. They’re building an armada. Right under our noses. The cloak can carry it far enough until it bursts out the system. By then they’ll have enough.”
   “No, they won’t,” Demir gives a hard retort because he’s got this. “No way they’re going out there without that data they’re leeching off of you. And that’s a simple *** conclusion because when have you known AI to make the same mistake twice. Without that full scan they’re not attacking us again. We might be able to push them to expand beyond the system, and once they’re out pile up on them.”
   “Not worth the risk,” Leto interjects in his professional capacity voice. “Even without the data if they have a substantial fleet Alpha and Omega will collapse on what’s left of the Galaxy. We don’t stand a chance of defending in this fractured state.”
   “Caught between a point and nova.” Leto gives Demir a quizzical look. “You really have been out of it. Haven’t seen much of the Galaxy since the war, have you?”
   “Not really. I was searching for my system.”
   “You miss a lot just searching for one thing. Without the gates the hyperspace jump points are all we have now.” Leto gives the intergalactic look for I know that. “Stars throughout the Galaxy have erupted into novas. Sending out waves after waves of condensed nuclear energy like a beacon. Get caught in a system with a nova and you’ll be pushed to the reaches, or even worse you’ll be fried. You can choose to outmaneuver it, ride the wave, or you can take the push and aim for a jump point.”
   “Makes sense, like a rock and hard place.”
   “That EN *** doesn’t fly as well these days.”
   “Thank you for the brief lecture on slang, Mr. Sunderland. While I do appreciate it might we return to the task at hand?” Leto remains all business.
   “And that is?”
   “Putting a stop to the AI.” Grand-Master of War’s expression lost to the point you might think he’s talking to a child.
   “Of course. But so far we haven’t even come close to figuring out a way how to do it. We know what, where, but we have jack *** on how. You’re clearly not one for the one step at a time approach.” Leto’s frown almost pulls his chin down. “Oh, what? You want it all and now. Just let the Galaxy know you’re back and they’ll rally behind you. You’re more likely to get snawnacks out your exhaust without a torch. We both know this has to be done slowly. We can’t just barge into that system ourselves. I barely got out of there alive. We need an armada, and we need to find a way to assemble it.”
   “We need a revolution.”
   The boom of Leto’s voice brings chills down Demir’s spine. There have been a couple of revolutions in the Galaxy since the War. None of them could be called anything close to successful. “Cool it with the *** revolution talk. If the Galaxy isn’t capable of defending against the AI fleet we’re barely capable of coming together for a revolution. Skies be damned. Focus, this isn’t your time any longer. This isn’t your galaxy even. Times have changed.”
   “So we do this your way? Is that it?” Vitriol palpable, the realization that he might have to step back a stark contrast to what the Grand-Master of War stands for.
   “That’s it. I can actually understand how you feel. It’s like someone else piloting Baby. But we do this my way. Let’s say for now. We work it my way, for now, then we can see where we land.”
   “Doesn’t sound like much of a plan.”
   “Trust me, there isn’t a plan in the entire Galaxy. Not for this, not for anything else”
   And that’s the harsh truth.
[close]

Chapter 10: SELLERS AND BUYERS
Spoiler
“THIS IS YOUR grand idea?” Leto, as always, none too pleased.
   “It’s not a grand idea, it’s the only one we got now. We can’t do jack while grounded on this dump. We need to complete this job, and once I get Baby back we can consider another system. Somewhere,” and Demir looks at the detritus of the Lower Circles scowling at him, “more receptive to our predicament.”
   “I’d say it’s more the Galaxy’s predicament than just ours. But then again I am inclined to think ahead a bit more.” That jab, unlike some others, is very open. Leto’s not one to never voice his displeasure, but some can be childishly vicious.
   “I don’t, because thinking like that is going to get me killed. And me getting killed is how we all get killed. I told you before, I’m not giving up that system. I’m not letting you mule me around through the Galaxy. You need my help. So, for once in your Immortal life, be grateful.”
   “Indeed, I apologize.”
   The sincerity catches Demir off guard. Not a hint of mockery behind the apology, but rather someone very powerful admitting his position, to Demir and probably to himself. “Good,” Demir keeps his ground, decides to take the wheel. “Now, your name doesn’t carry as much sway down here. So let’s be careful, keep the pomp out of your Common. And keep your face covered until I say you can do otherwise.” Demir notices the bile in his voice, the acceptance of his role, and the way he revels in it. He drowns it a bit. “Let’s just be careful, okay?”
   “Yes,” Leto agrees without a hint of grudge. Something Demir would have had a lot of. Still has a lot of. His father comes to mind, and is out as quickly as he landed.
   “Good. We’re going to see one of my fences. I got info from a couple of stragglers that he’s in on the rockets. I’ll squeeze him for the contact. Hopefully, that will lead us to the nukes.”
   No retort from Leto. The large man eerily silent, almost grating at Demir who’s used to words being thrown around like space debris in a grav vortex. Used to people reciprocating, but he guesses the stoic man, unlike his peers, knows when to just shut up. Going to take some getting used to. Especially if we’re going to be tied together for the foreseeable future.
   They slog their way through the nasty thoroughfare of the Circle. People pulling their junk around the old-fashioned way, in trolleys powered by nothing but their sweat. A haphazard amalgamation of desperation and decay. Nothing to like about the Lower Circles, unless you’re in the market for stolen tech, offshoot drugs, the occasional splice or graft, maybe even a mod or two, back-alley enhancements, or anything that fell of the back of the loader in general. The horizon littered with half-finished buildings, never to be done, their beams like pillars against the fake brown skyline speckled with production grime and dust. Improvised housing at every corner, stiff and uninviting. Those that live here have nowhere else to go, or not many options here either. Get up through crime, or go down to the Depths through crime and sickness. Authority barely treads down here unless there’s a potential uprising. Their pristine white and blue station a sanctuary for the righteous. In the Lower Circles the righteous get more than stitches, and the Authority officers stationed there mostly keep to themselves.
   Demir’s fence is not too far off the main elevator entry through which they came. Gorgon operates from his hovel next to a brothel. Prostitution isn’t legal on Melkior, but where the Authority isn’t they are. Gorgon doesn’t keep a lick of his stuff in his place of business. You have to traipse through the network of the Lower Circles for that. More of a middleman than a true fence, but his word is legit, and he’s got connections. One of those people everyone of ill repute knows. So at least he can guide them to where they need to go. Hopefully.
   The way Demir plans to play this is solid, real solid. But if space has taught him anything is that solid doesn’t always take you the distance. He thinks about the concrete details, his speech and patterns he’s going to use. He mulls over his plan while they walk through the assembled clot of hagglers and stragglers, some offering, some looking. Each unwashed and destitute, or sad in their own special way.  Demir verbally shoves them aside in his trained patois, while letting Leto do the concrete shoving where necessary. Massive as the Grand-Master of War is his glare underneath the hood often proves enough for the task.
   They make it to the hovel. “I go in alone” Demir lets Leto know, to which he receives a cordial nod. When he’s not on the assault he’s like a guard dog.
   Demir cuts through the couple of peddlers discussing their wares and split and enters Gorgon’s place of business. Smaller on the inside than it would appear. Earth Nostalgia walls riddled with Earth Nostalgia pictures of times past. Dark brown against a domed black ceiling. His desk in the middle, and nothing around it except for a chair in front. Too *** familiar.
   “Greetings, Gorgon. I see you’re busy. Maybe I should come in another time?”
   The skeletal figure looks at Demir with a glum expression dark under his bushy brow. Little to no light in the hovel, except for his EN desk lamp, doesn’t quite help the grim atmosphere. The fact that Gorgon’s doing nothing, just sitting there like a statue, helps to cheer the mood even less. “Very funny, MOS. State your business or get out.” Never one to idle much, or approach said business in a warm fashion. A man trapped in his station, his chosen life, the will to leave carved out of his frail body.
   “May I sit?”
   “Only if you’ll be long,” Gorgon says with his usual displeasure. A second wasted is a second he could feel sorry for himself.
   Demir takes a seat on the uncomfortable EN chair. “Depends on what you got?”
   “So you’re buying for once?”
   “Not exactly.”
   “If there’s anything I hate more than the word not, it’s not exactly.”
   “Don’t be so uptight, Gorgon. When have I ever done you wrong?”
   “Be quick then.”
   “One of my shipments got jacked, as you’ve probably heard. But I have a lead. The rockets I got are numbered, and I got the tracing codes stored. I heard there are others selling the same models around these parts. If they’re from the same cache I can lead them to the original fleet. Double or even triple their cache.” Demir plays it just like he rehearsed in his mind.
   “You want to get in touch with the sellers?”
   “Yes.”
   Gorgon raises a bony hand. “What’s your end?”
   “My finances settled and Baby out the pound. Off-planet for me. With a couple of greased palms I can split and deal with the Authority later. What’s the use in a grounded MOS.”
   “And if the tracing codes don’t pan out? You’ll know the buyers. What’s to say you don’t rat them out to the Authority to cut a deal and run.” You can say a lot of things about Gorgon, but you can’t say he’s stupid.
   “When have I been known to cut deals with the *** Authority?” Demir snarls back.
   “True, but then you are very vocal about your skiff.” Demir wants to tell him to call her by her name, but thinks better of it. “Who’s to say this time won’t be different.”
   “How many times have I been grounded?” Truth is, too many. “And how many times did I get out without, and I can’t stress this enough, cutting deals with the *** Authority?” Truth is, many times. Lucky for Demir he’s just as good at ironing out his reputation as he is tarnishing it.
   “I don’t give a *** narwhar turd about you being grounded and how you got out. We’re talking about rockets here. High-grade tech. The people who deal in these kinds of things are either stupid *** like you MOS,” and there’s the vitriol for the free fliers Gorgon is also known for, “or people who don’t take risks lightly. If you want that contact you have to offer a contingency for the deal.” And here it comes. “Your skiff.”
   Seems like the entire *** Galaxy wants a piece of Baby. Strip her down, mimic his design and put her up for mass production. The only way to get complete access to a DNA tethered craft is if ownership is irrevocably transferred. Otherwise crafts, and especially MOS skiffs, are set to blow at the mere touch of someone else. This can only be done through the recoding of the slip drive.
   “You want me to put up Baby as a contingency? Might I remind you that she’s grounded. And not just some junkyard hangar in the Lower Circles, but in the headquarters of the Authority.”
   A smile from the skeletal man revealing burned gums and rotten teeth. “People have ways of getting things around here. So I wouldn’t worry too much about that. This is the only way you get to them. They’ll never meet if you’re going in half-cocked, so either you want this meet or not.”
   Demir swallows his spit silently. “Set it up,” he says and heads for the exit.
   “I’ll log you the specifics,” Gorgon lets him know just as he’s out the hovel.
   Guard dog outside, people avoiding him like grav sickness. “Went well?” he asks with enthusiasm similar to that of a guard dog when his master comes home.
   “Depends on who you ask?”
   “What does that mean?”
   *** the skies. He thinks to himself. “I’ll explain.”
[close]
« Last Edit: March 02, 2021, 11:46:53 AM by B.K. »
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B.K.

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Re: Second Rise of Man - a Starsector inspired story (NEW Update 4/13!)
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2021, 09:43:55 AM »

Update: Chapters 11, 12, and 13. (4/13/2021)

Chapter 11: DEALS
Spoiler
BACK AT HIS USUAL spot they discuss the plan, or lack thereof. “What the *** do you think we should do?”
   “I don’t know. But I am certain that putting your skiff as a contingency will lead to nothing good. Those rockets will never pan out, and once they find out that Baby is under the Corporal’s jurisdiction the only way we’re getting off-world is on a commercial rail, or even worse a body bag.” Demir notices how Leto has come around immediately to calling Baby by her name. Respect for the skies and the crafts you fly in.
   “So no suggestions, only *** to throw. We have no other choice. You want to bust into the Hangar, take on the Corporal and his bots, then bail with a full *** bounty on us? Is that your idea?”
   Leto massages his temples. “I’ll never understand the deals your kind goes through?”
   “Our kind,” his anger seeps through like a busted containment valve. “That the Immortal talking now, is it? What are puny humans compared to the great Leto III, the *** Grand-Master or War? Is that it?”
   “Just criminals,” he says with all the gravity of sitting down on something hard.
   “And your ilk aren’t criminals. Eons of testing on remote planets, subjugating humans for the betterment of mankind, as you called it. Your iron-fisted rule over the Galaxy, all the deals your kind had made throughout our history, and you call us criminals.” Demir wishes he had a drink right now, but Leto insisted he stay clean. Not a bad move, but nothing to like there either.
   “We didn’t go around selling arms to people who will kill others for their own gain.”
   “No, you didn’t, but you *** made them.”
   The discussion stops there abruptly, with Leto leaning back heavily into his settee, and Demir throwing his hand over the chair backrest. Demir’s surprised how silent the Grand-Master can be when his ideals are being put to the burner. His solemn expression betraying just that hint of realization again, something akin to doubt almost.
   “I have a plan then,” Leto cuts through the misty tension.
   “Spill.”
   “I talk to them.”
[close]

Chapter 12: LOWER
Spoiler
TALK TO THEM, he said. Demir knows full well what that meant, and what it’s going to mean once they make the meet. Gorgon came through with the specifics, and they’re pretty expected. Almost painfully so. Lower Harbor warehouse, barely human hours when everything else is asleep except for the Lower Circles. Safe over the vengeful cries of the Depths.
   Leto marches his way through the Harbor like he’s depressed to even sully his boots on the floor. Yet Demir can see a determination in his swift pace, more than he can see the hate for the situation. A man out of his skies, out of his zone, trying to make his actions count. Not much to wonder about how he led the Spear. How he saved them when they needed it, and coping with how ungrateful we are now. A galaxy in complete disarray, and without anything good coming their way. Quite the opposite, and just like last time it’s up to him to make the best of it. Wouldn’t be in his shoes. Demir thinks to himself as Leto’s large back sways ever so slightly in front of him as the man walks.
   It’s always dark in the Harbor. No faux-sunlight, just lamps that pump UV so you can see in front of you while you walk. Beyond the pale only darkness, ominous as the dome of the Harbor stretches farther than the eye can see. Anything can come from the dark, and in the Harbor anything does. Demir’s never been comfortable with weapons, but Leto’s probably wishing he had something on him. However, judging by his display in the Corporal’s hangar Demir has serious doubts that Leto would actually need a weapon in the first place.
   In the backseat again. This time Demir’s actually glad, just as they make headway through the gloom and a warehouse comes into view in the dimly lit distance. Close to the loading docks, where they bring in food and supplies for the Lower Circles. Melkior’s not a large planet by any means, so the city actually goes through the entire planet. The core long gone, desiccated by teraforming for the former Tarsyan production facility that used to be here. Back when their home planet was more than a smelt of atomic glass. The Lower Harbor has its entrance on the other side of the planet, the one that gets no light from the sun since the trajectory of the planet got warped during the war. Only thing lower is the Depths. The place that true darkness calls its home.
   Leto picks up the pace, looming heavy under what little light they have on their way to the warehouse. A large door stands locked in front of them once they finally arrive. Another smaller one next to it. “We knock?” Leto asks Demir.
   “Not exactly the specifics Gorgon gave me. I would guess so.”
   The big man shrugs and pounds his big fist against the door.
   “*** off!” gruff voice booms from behind the door.
   “Demir here to see a girl about a horse.” Demir usually hates the EN *** people still fling around as codes, but this one has a nice ring to it.
   “You were supposed to come alone,” gruff voice again, even more displeased.
   “Before you start saying *** like deal’s off and all that crap be aware that there’s no way I’m going anywhere near the Harbor without a *** bodyguard. So you can either let us in, or waste the deal of your lifetime.”
   “Wait there.” Like we have any other place to be in this shithole.
   “What if they call it off?” Leto being concerned makes Demir concerned.
   “Then we’re ***.” But nothing makes the tension worse than the facts.
   The door buzzes open to save them from the worry.
   The warehouse space is barely lit, wide and tall, infested with grime in all shades of rust against the previously slick metal. Nothing inside except for a squad of grizzly Lowers standing sentinel around a container filled to the brim with rockets. Demir recognizes Warhorse, the probable leader of the pack. One of the most prolific arms dealers among the Lowers. His legs are completely modded, and he’s got other combat mods that make him a prime target for the Authority. Illegal spliced tech courtesy of the Lower Circles. He likes to think of himself as a revolutionary, while others like to think of him as a *** scumbag. Spitting rhetoric all the while lining his pockets. Still hasn’t managed to get out of the Lower Circles, and most likely never will. Like many, if not all Lowers, he’s stuck here or will end up in the Depths if the sickness gets to him first. Demir’s quick to see why he’d be peddling nukes. Something that high-grade might get him either enough clout to make it up, or enough money to make it off-planet. Try his luck in some other shithole.
   “MOS,” Warhorse greets them. “I never thunk you one for bodyguards. And by the Depths, a Leto manno.” Demir wishes he had some zazz for this.
   “Can’t be too careful these days,” Demir cuts him off dryly. His usual flare gone like the light in this forsaken stretch of Melkior.
   “Bruv got it in his ear you got rockets for me?” Warhorse’s entourage sneers through thick smiles. Slaughter in their eyes, money in their hearts. “Even put up your ride as contingent, yah. Never would have thunk.”
   “Me neither, but here we are.” And there they are. Squad of Lower detritus on one side of the rockets, Leto and Demir on the other. The only calm in this entire situation emanating from the Grand-Master himself.
   “So, this the batch we got. If you bring us to more we can pay.”
   “We’re not here to talk about rockets,” and Leto takes control. The Grand-Master out once again, dominant in the face of adversity. Lowers eyeing him like a crazy man. Easy to think that of a person who looks like Leto III.
   “*** your meat shield talking, bruv?” Warhorse’s arrow eyes on Demir, piercing red from all the stims.
   “You’re talking to me now,” and Demir can clearly see the full stop Leto has to bring himself to do before some kind of slur escapes him.
   “By the Depths, this Leto manno a crazy ***.” Warhorse sizes Leto up. “Real close to the original, I’d a thunk. You going to let this scrap talk over you, ha MOS?”
   “I told you already, you’re talking to me now. Your business is with me now.”
   Warhorse puts his hands up. “Don’t give a *** as long as we get our rockets, or his ride.”
   “You’re getting neither,” Leto’s voice a menacing snarl through gritted teeth. “You’re going to tell me where the nukes are, and you’re going to tell me now.”
   Lowers first look at each other quizzically, then burst into a mocking raucous laugh.
   Then Leto’s gone. Demir almost can’t follow his movements. Over the rockets, sliding under Warhorse and then pinning him to the ground. Savage stomp from Leto busts his legs wide open. While the leader’s incapacitated Leto plows through the rest. Confiscates a shredder from one of the Lowers, and uses it to tear his head off. Crouches and shoots back to take the midriff off of another. Tosses the useless thing once it’s empty, and goes in low to tackle one poor *** into the ground. Hard stomp on his neck crushes his windpipe, then Leto twists and breaks his neck so the man dies quick. The two left clear their weapons, back-alley plasma cutters modded for long range. Leto slides to the side of an incoming blast, tears the man’s arm off, and cuts his head clean off with the cutter. He uses the corpse as a shield from the last blast before throwing it into the last man standing. Once on the ground Leto cuts his head off too, probably so he doesn’t feel left out. 
   Now it’s just Warhorse writhing on the floor, Leto polishing off the blood from his face, and Demir still grasping at straws. He sees the Grand-Master standing over Warhorse a blink later, his face a contorted mess of anger, and the downed man slowly turning silent as the pain mitigating stims kick in. All good enhancements have pain receptors so you know when you’re in danger, and Warhorse most certainly is. Even more so when Leto grabs his neck and pulls him face-level with one *** arm.
   “The nukes, where are they?” Not a man to mince words, or waste them.
   “Grabba ***,” Warhorse blurts out and spits in Leto’s face only to miss when the Gran-Master just tilts his head to the side. He then proceeds to squeeze the man’s throat shut harder than a grav collapse. Leto then heartlessly uses this opportunity to smash Warhorse back into the ground. “The nukes!” he bellows, his deep voice carrying through the empty warehouse.
   Leto loosens his grip so Warhorse can speak, or at least churn the words out between his gritted teeth. “Armed,” he mutters. Leto’s eyes widen. “Soon as you cut me down.” Venomous bloody grin from the so-called revolutionary. Warhorse grabs Leto’s arm with both of his, squeezes like he’s holding on for dear life. “And you’ll never find them, you *** grabba shi...” Warhorse’s eyes pop out of their sockets and his head collapses into itself before he can finish the insult. Blood spurts all over Leto’s face again. His expression deadpan and empty.
   On the other side Demir calmly starts losing his ***.
[close]

Chapter 13: REVOLUTION
Spoiler
SERAS CONSTANTINE WOULD have scolded him until he was black and blue for such a meager display. To even have let them fire a single shot was beneath him, and her training. Let alone having the leader arm the nukes. Leto had Demir check that man Warhorse for a signal pulse and they found the device on his dead body. Demir then forwarded the device to one of his contacts and they confirmed a signal was sent. Too weak to track, but certainly strong enough to arm the nukes.
   “What do we do now?” Demir asks the Grand-Master. The question that persists and will persist for as long as I live.
   “We press Warhorse’s,” and Leto scoffs, “compatriots for the location of the nukes. From the police report there are two. Depending on the positioning the damage to the city could be substantial.”
   “And that’s exactly why we *** bolt it out of here. We cut our way to Baby and *** leave.” Leto would be disgusted by Demir’s willful ignorance as to the possibilities of wholesale slaughter across the entire city, but there is always a good point to cowardice. Self-preservation over all else. Leto will be back. Demir won’t.
   “There is no cutting our way to your skiff.”
   “I’ve seen what you can do.”
   Seras had taught him much. About honor, about righteousness, about battle. Even more about folly, and just being plain stupid. Rushing the Hangar even with his combat abilities, alone at that, was nothing shy of damn stupid. “Even with substantial backup we wouldn’t be able to take the Hangar.”
   “Since when does the Grand-Master of War shy away from insurmountable odds?” The hint of irony and even mockery is not lost on Leto.
   “Since I have you to contend with. I won’t die, you will.”
   “So I’m a burden now?”
   “Only if you make yourself one.”
   “What other *** options do we have? We tell the Authority the nukes are armed they’ll put us in a holding cell and we won’t see the skies again.” Leto knows Demir’s using the term we to imply that they are stuck together, but knows full well Leto’s not part of the Authority’s equation. He’d never see the inside of a holding cell, only Demir would. “We tell the Corporal the nukes are armed we might get him to cut us loose as long as he wants to bolt himself. But that’s more than a long shot. We have no leverage here.”
   “Which is why we have to find the nukes. We have no advantage without them. Either we stay and try to assemble a force to take the Hangar, and most likely die in the explosion. Or we assault it now and die in the crossfire. The only way we get out of this alive and off-planet is by finding the nukes.”
   Demir rubs his temples, and then his eyes. “Can you stop making complete sense for *** once?” Leto lets him stew in his anger. What was it that he said? Caught between a point and a nova. “I know a couple of people Warhorse rolled with. I’m not sure they were in on the nukes, but it’s worth to check.”
   “We have to operate fast. Considering they haven’t blown yet Warhorse must have had a specific time in mind to optimize damage. We need weapons first, then we go talk to the people you know.”
   Demir visibly recedes into himself at the words talk to. Leto knows why, but doesn’t care as much anymore.
[close]
« Last Edit: April 14, 2021, 12:10:23 PM by B.K. »
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Albreo

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Hey. This is pretty good, not lying. Better than most stuff out there and a good sci-fi that also easy to read is hard to come by. I would suggest that the censored words should contain a first letter hint to not make me take a wild guess and help the immersion flows continuously.
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B.K.

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Hey. This is pretty good, not lying. Better than most stuff out there and a good sci-fi that also easy to read is hard to come by. I would suggest that the censored words should contain a first letter hint to not make me take a wild guess and help the immersion flows continuously.
Thank you! Means a lot.
Glad that you like it, hope other people do too. I also like comments that are not as positive. Fiction is judged by the readers, after all. So feel free to take any swing you want. Everything is a possibility for improvement.
And that is a great idea. To be honest I just let the forum censor that on its own because despite my proclivities for many things I am still lazy. I'll go back and edit that before I upload the next chapters.
Cheers!
A big thank you to anyone who reads my stuff.
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B.K.

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Another drop of chapters. 14, 15, 16, and 17, since two of them are shorter interludes.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. I completely forgot to change the swearwords because I am, after all, a lazy ***.
See.

Chapter 14: REVENGE
Spoiler
THE BRANDED WALKS among the detritus of the Depths. Misery, despair, and horrors flourish around it. Disease-ridden fleshbags that feast on their own suffering. A cavalcade of tech wasting away on flesh that has been thrown to the Depths to rot. Sickness eating at their bodies until their minds collapse under the weight of the pain and they turn more feral than the mongrels from Seltior 7 they used to train back when was known as Hark Miner. The Branded suspects the Depths were originally planned to be a mining facility, or a harbor, because the skeleton of society still stands tall but rotten. What were once buildings are now collapsing in on the detritus of flesh that have been relegated to living here. One can enter the Depths, but you’re not expected to leave. There is no cure for the graft sickness, and there is no hope for the ones in the Depths.
   Hooded and cloaked the Branded walks in the dark. It slinks in between the coughing and decaying fleshbags, each gasping for air and their hands lifting towards it like there is any hope in its contact. In the distance it hears screams and wails of anguish, malice, and lastly the decimation of flesh as those gone to the sickness tear at anything that comes their way.
   It is unafraid. It is beholden to its Lords, and they beckon. It hears their calls over the pitiful cries of the fleshbags. So the Branded can make its way through the waste of humanity undisturbed. Its goal is a building steadily in decline, but less so than the others in this sector of the Depths. It hears their snarls once it enters. Eyes glimmering softly in the thin darkness. The Branded has no time for such waste. It engages the core, burst energy into its combustion rail, and mows them down. Its objective is the hatch in the basement. Opened through the code given to it by the fleshbags it had sold the devices to.
   “Useless fleshbag activated it too early.” So now it has to go adjust the timing. Only way that waste of tech would have accepted the devices in the first place was if he had control over their detonation. A safety measure, he called it. Not even thinking twice that the Branded had override codes. Full of himself, full of his self-righteous revolution.
   The Branded enters the sub-basement and engages his ocular filters. The device stands beeping in the middle of the otherwise empty space. It has to go remedy the mistake the fleshbag made, and make things right for the Lords.
[close]

Chapter 15: DISPOSABLE INCOME
Spoiler
LETO FLEECED HIM for all he had saved. He had enough to get off-planet and then he’d be flush after a good job or two. Now he’ll be lucky if he can get something to eat at any place above the Lower Circles. But Leto is strutting his stuff like he’s the real deal, which he is, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that no one but Demir knows it. He’s not sure if the Grand-Master wants to get them killed before they even step foot in front of Warhorse’s posse.
   Demir got him a velocity slug-shooter with uranium coated ammo, two plasma blades, and a heavy shrapnel cannon. Leto’s massive frame conceals the weapons well with nothing jutting from the cloak still draped over him like a loose bag. Judging by how he dispatched Warhorse and his men barehanded the mere thought of him going against anyone while armed is nothing short of a visceral image, and a palpable tension. The lower they go the more violence becomes common, but the kind Leto can dish out is likely to cause quite a stir. That’s the last thing they need. However, Demir is slowly growing accustomed to what they have to do, and less to what they need. What they need is those nukes, and what they have to do it kill their way to them. Simple as that. As long as Leto does the killing.
   Demir squeezed one of the girls he knows frequents Warhorse and his goons. Says it’s a decent job, they pay her fee always. Considering most Lowers don’t, that’s always a major plus. Add some more cash on top and she’ll give you the skinny on their base. Leto frowned at the prospect of working with a prostitute, especially since Demir could see the judgmental look in his eyes. But if anything’s not his *** business it’s where Demir likes to stick his *** when he’s in a pinch. Especially when he’s not in the market for something more upscale. Needs are needs. Despite how much Leto got rid of his.
   Surprisingly enough it’s not a warehouse this time. Rather the top floor of a shopping block. The would-be revolutionaries funnel a lot of their dirty money, and earn for protection, through the vendors. Demir knows many of them have hidden compartments for weapons and illegal tech if you know who to ask and how. He never bothered finding out more. Even did a couple of small deals back before his name carried through the Galaxy.
   Unlike in the Bazaar or other open markets here no one bothers them to come in and buy their ***. You either enter of your own accord or not at all. That way they can make their way to the top floor easily.
   Lowers jump on them as soon as their feet set foot on their turf. All of them Warhorse’s men. Disheveled people beholden to the cause. A cause they know little about and care less about. The only reason they are there is belonging, which is something most Lowers have no sense of. That’s how they wrangle you in, and that’s how they keep you. It’s not just about the revolution, it’s about feeling like you’re a part of something more. That you can be more than the place you were born in has determined you to be. And doesn’t every revolution start out that way?
   “*** you looking for, eh manno?” a Lower ugly as sin, visual enhancement lines across his scarred face, pushes himself threateningly into Leto’s zone.
   “We have information about Warhorse.”
   “*** you know about Warhorse?”
   “That he’s dead,” Leto cuts through the patois with his stern demeanor, like he’s piloting his Spear straight through the AI armada. Not many *** left in this guy. Maybe never had any to begin with. Or maybe they beat them out of him.
   Weapons drawn now. “Say you?”
   “Yes. Now let me in, or suffer the consequences.”
   “Think you a big manno, ha? Wearing that Leto like a...”
   The Grand-Master has none of it. He’s low before the Lower can even trace him with his blaster. Blades cut through his tendons and he’s down screaming. Leto’s shoulder smashes the next guard straight into the door and a savage kick pushes him through and the door off its hinges. Slug-shooter has the last guard down with two kneecaps missing, so Leto can just saunter into the base to see the rest of the Lowers up and their weapons out.
   Leto walks in so cold the temperature drops, like they owe him money, like they owe him the future. Problem is, they do.
   “Who the *** are you, manno?” one of the Lowers, presumably the one who feels in charge, blurts out over the pulse rifle in his hands.
   “I’m sick and tired of answering your questions. Warhorse is dead, and you’re out of luck.”
   “And how the *** you know the skinny on that?”
   “Because I killed him.” Temperature drops even lower, guns too as surprise sets in. Making a statement like that in a situation like this only has two outcomes. One being instant return fire, and the other being what happens now.
   Leto takes his chance and is on them all like a *** cascade bomb. They fall to his blades, his massive arms and legs tear at anyone and everyone in the entire room. A crescendo of carnage. Screams and wails and broken limbs, torn mods and enhancements, weapons strewn about as Demir watches the Grand-Master utterly demolish the Lowers in about the time it takes Demir to down a good slush from Keres.
   Those that are injured are left writhing on the floor. Those that aren’t let their weapons fall. To Demir’s own surprise none of them are dead.
   “Now you listen up, and listen well,” Leto continues his tirade like he didn’t just *** in their soup and break their limbs in the process. “Warhorse is dead, but not before arming the nukes.” The Lowers not writhing in pain and with enough gray matter left in their skulls from all the illegal stims pucker their ears at this. “That’s how much he valued your misbegotten revolution. As soon as I got to him he armed them and then offed himself, so now I have no way of finding them before they glass the entire city. I want to know where he placed them, and I want to know now.”
   Lowers start looking at each other, the sweat beading harder on their brows now. The man who just ate them alive wants answers, and it looks like they got none.
   “He never give us the skinny on that,” and one of the Lowers finally confirms.
   “Then how did he get them? Who’s his supplier?”
   “No one seen him. Warhorse told he some creepy manno from off-planet. Heavily done over.” Patois for modded out of his skull. “No clue where he put them nukes. No clue who got them on-planet.”
   “So you’re telling me your boss was doing all this alone?” Shrugs all around. “And you just *** let him.” Demir gets a nice cold shiver from the swear. Leto, the Grand-Master of *** War, is a man of sheer conditioning, determination, and habit. When he lets go of that he’s most dangerous.
   “Boss is boss.”
   “Well, I’m your boss now,” then Leto confirms to Demir that he’s off the rails. And at that point Demir stops wishing for some zazz and starts fantasizing about being anywhere but here.
   “Say?” one of the Lowers asks, small and timid as a whisper.
   “You all work for me now. And let me be very clear. If you so much as pipe your *** my way I will find all of your bases, all of your friends, comrades, loved ones, and I will murder them in such violent fashion they’ll beg for the nukes to glass this entire shithole so the pain stops.” Silence coats the room, freezing it over. Lowers look at each other, weigh their options against the odds of Leto actually doing it, and finally their own odds of stopping it. They come to the sensible conclusion and nod approvingly. “Smart, for once. Now, I want everyone here done up and ready. I don’t care what it takes. Everyone is on the field now. I want those nukes found, I want the contact found. We have no idea if we have days, weeks, or months until they blow. So work like it’s hours. Everyone closest to Warhorse will be interviewed by me. Mr. Sunderland will handle the day to day.” And there go Demir’s fantasies. “We keep this discreet. If the Authority catches so much as a whiff that the nukes are armed they’ll vent us all.” Not only that, but they’ll brick Demir’s deal and throw them into the *** Depths with the Rotten. Maybe even scrap Baby for parts. Leto’s right about keeping this under the scanners. “Move about with the utmost discretion, work your contacts, work the suppliers and people Warhorse might have gotten involved with. Remember, he sold you out. Left you to die. I’m the only one who can get you out of this. So make your actions count. Are we clear?” Nods all around. “I said, are we clear?” The Grand-Master’s voice booms so hard the response comes out like a biological imperative.
   “Yes, sir!”
[close]

Chapter 16: SUFFERING
Spoiler
THE BRANDED KNOWS they are mobilized. The detritus of flesh is being heralded by a new leader, and their top priority is the devices. It has a hardcoded thread into the communications systems. Endless stream of voices filtered through the network its Lords had given it. Drones that find safe haven in his back, fueled by his reactor. Now they fly to do its bidding. An external web of influence the Branded can exude at will. How the fleshbags talk sickens it, but it must endure. For its Lords.
   In the Depths it has the dark to keep it company, and the voices to drown out the screams. It keeps Warhorse and his failures in the back of its cortical stack. Just to always have the hatred even closer at hand.
   The interference by the fleshbags will have no effect on its plan, its Lords guarantee as much. Try as they might, they are doomed to fail. Like their entire race will soon falter, wither, and fall. 
   The Branded hasn’t registered any tampering with the other device. Although its human uncertainty is still nagging at it. Something it wishes the slush of his brain had been removed during its ascension. It suspects it’s to keep it understanding of the plights of its former flesh prison and those adjacent to it. Know thy enemy, and to know thy enemy one must also be thy enemy.
   Right now the Branded’s enemy is scurrying around the Circles to find the devices. Fruitlessly so. It revels in their plight, finds solace in their inevitable demise. In the distance the screams punctuate the dark. More screams are to be had.
   Soon.
[close]

Chapter 17: WARHORSE
Spoiler
SOMETHING BETWEEN NOTHING and not much. That’s all they got. Warhorse’s men had about as much of a clue as to his plans as Leto and Demir have now. All they know is that Warhorse was very vocal about having the nukes, placing the nukes, and that the revolution would sweep the city. Not much of anything in terms of where the nukes are and who gave them to him in the first place.
   Then they moved on to speculations. Warhorse’s men must have had some kind of inkling as to when they might blow. What were his usual targets, which times did he stress? What did he *** let slip? Was he going to go for full damage? Leto doubted that from the beginning. You can’t have a revolution if you glass the entire city. Since Leto had seen a couple of revolutions snuffed in his day he suspects the Authority must be a prime target. They are most certainly aiming to crumble the Authority infrastructure, but within a city built like Melkior that’s not possible. No way you can destroy every Authority base on every circle without something much more coordinated than this haphazard mess Warhorse left behind. No, they’re aiming to take out the head at least. Authority Circle is going to be glassed for sure.
   Another thing that’s for sure is that they don’t need two nukes to do that. So the other might be on the surface. Get rid of the rich. Purge the money, and maybe bank on pirate assistance. Keep the production facilities, the mines and the ports. That’s the most likely choice. Warhorse, for all his evident leadership charisma, was not a bright man.
   What worries Leto, even more, is Warhorse’s contact. The man’s an enigma. Only thing they have on him is that he was visibly enhanced. Maybe former army. Maybe a rising criminal force looking to expand into Melkior. They might have been using Warhorse as a scapegoat. Then they swoop in as a fake bank, give out loans, integrate themselves into the money. Once that’s over your planet, city, and everything in it is theirs. And these types of organizations have no interest in overthrowing the hierarchy. That means the second nuke could be any-***-where.
   That’s driving Leto crazy.
   Warhorse, for all his bravado and blabbering, didn’t give A single thing with regards to the nukes. His contact neither. As if all that wasn’t enough by itself, they also have so many different possibilities considering Warhorse’s evidently incessant babbling. Too many options, which means no options.
   “Leto,” Demir pulls him out of his thoughts and contemplation.
   “Yes, Mr. Sunderland, how is the day to day? Authority satisfied?” Leto had persuaded Demir to give the Authority a check-in. Half the truth just to make sure they are a bit more inclined to keep their prying eyes out of the Lower Circles.
   “Authority is. Day to day’s solid,” and he pauses. “But we’re burning time. I have an ear to the ground and there’s nothing. Nothing from Warhorse’s men. They just keep repeating *** in circles. Things they heard Warhorse say, and it’s driving me insane.”
   “It’s like a web. You follow it somewhere you think is new only to get caught in the circle again.”
   “Yeah, it’s mind-grating.”
   “No, Mr. Sunderland. It’s genius. As far we can trace back Warhorse’s stories have been a constant since the oldest members of his crew can remember. But all of their recollections are recent. Nothing about the good old times. This is all new. This is all planted.”
   Realization flushes over Demir’s face, a soft and stoic – but very self-satisfied – grin flashes brightly. “Wasn’t Warhorse at all. His contact. He bought him out, and all Warhorse had to do was be more Warhorse than usual. Everything serves to get us off his tracks.” More realization, the bad kind. “That’s why we’re ***.”
   “We’re *** if we stick with Warhorse’s men. We need to expand. We need an ally.” Loud sigh from Demir. “Anything to suggest, Mr. Sunderland?”
   “We’re going to need the Cardinal. He really runs the Lower Circles. His crew is organized, and he’s got info,” Demir finally admits.
   “You don’t seem too happy about that.”
   “Yeah. Warhorse’s crew was easy pickings for you. Cardinal,” and he shakes his head. “We’re going to need a really sweet deal for him. Cardinal doesn’t move unless it’s worth his while.” Leto keeps his gaze frozen into the distance. Demir recognizes the pensive stare. “If you say we tell him the truth I’ll slap you. I’ll risk you breaking me, but I’ll do it.”
   “What else is going to work, Demir?” First time Leto used his given name. “We only have time for the truth.”
   And isn’t that the truth?
[close]
« Last Edit: June 29, 2021, 07:56:40 AM by B.K. »
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Blue_Bear

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To mimic Albreo, this is some excellent writing, enjoyable to read, draws you in, and the world-building is solid, some of the best stuff I've read in a while.

My only minor point of critism is that the pacing is kind of immediately turned up to 11 for poor Demir and we don't have much of a chance to get to know him before the story kicks into gear, but that's probably a point of personal preference rather than a direct critique of your work.

I'm really looking forward to reading more and thank you for sharing this with us!



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B.K.

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To mimic Albreo, this is some excellent writing, enjoyable to read, draws you in, and the world-building is solid, some of the best stuff I've read in a while.

My only minor point of critism is that the pacing is kind of immediately turned up to 11 for poor Demir and we don't have much of a chance to get to know him before the story kicks into gear, but that's probably a point of personal preference rather than a direct critique of your work.

I'm really looking forward to reading more and thank you for sharing this with us!
Thank you!

I get the point about the narrative and it's a legit concern because it can turn some readers away. The reason why I went there is to practice a bit of that show don't tell philosophy in fiction writing. Instead doing an overlong introduction for Demir I plan to show his backstory throughout the unfolding narrative.
Risky, sure, but even in failure we can find growth.

Cheers, and thanks for reading!
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Orion Kamish

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What a nice novel to spent time with while the world is burning..... Hmmmmm welp that's just me hehehe but nice read though
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B.K.

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Re: Second Rise of Man - a Starsector inspired story (NEW Update 6/29!)
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2021, 08:06:27 AM »

Here's a couple of more chapters. Specifically chapters 18, 19, and 20. Back after a while, because I am a lazy ***, and it's hot as hell out there.
Cheers! Thanks for reading.

Chapter 18: ALTAR TO THE BEHOLDEN
Spoiler
YOU DON’T JUST SEE the Cardinal. You ask nicely to see the Cardinal. And if you ask nice enough he might just consider giving you a spot in his busy schedule. Maybe in a month or three. No, you don’t just see the Cardinal. That only happens when you have something really worth his while.
   Demir Sunderland and a Leto III in tow telling him they have info he really wants to hear. Place his Baby as collateral on the info to boot. A MOS’s original design is not something you put up lightly.
   That morning Demir put the call in. Come noon they’re in his chambers in the Altar. The EN religion that fuels the Cardinal's imagery. He was fast enough to capitalize on the EN gibberish after the AI Wars. Now he rules in the Lower Circles, lets small factions like Warhorse’s operate. Snuffs them out for the Authority when need be. Keeps the peace. But instead of some pseudo-prophet the Cardinal has people beholden to golden principle of money. Imagery sells it, imagery keeps it hidden. Keeps him looking just that off-brand insane that doesn’t cause mass panic. In the shadows he operates like a banker gliding through the Drakkweb.
   Demir never believed the Cardinal when he would say he’s not interested in some position. He’s content with having his Lower Circles. Having this power just isn’t his style. Demir never believes the word content.
   Demir knows that when he tells the Cardinal what they have to tell, there is no going back.
   Leto won’t like it. But Demir knows the Cardinal has a plan just for this. This is his show. Apocalypse is coming, and he’s the *** Cardinal.
   Demir is sure of it.
   And the more he witnesses the Cardinal’s succulent pomp, circumspect grandeur, and candid sanity, he’s sure this is the right play.
   The Cardinal himself is as imposing a man as his Altar makes you feel small in the face his EN *** facade. Tall, broad, untouched by tech except for his organs which are not granted by God. Shock of white hair tangled all around his weary face. Old age always suited the EN religion more than hard youth. Neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard juxtaposed to his wild eyebrows and sunken cheeks. Deep inset eyes that seem to always and never be looking directly into your soul. His red gown with golden filigree has just the right amount of Lower Circles grime on it to be of the masses and beyond the masses. He sits in front of them on his modest wooden stool, directly from Earth he swears. A contingent of highly trained guards standing sentinel around him. Demir and Leto are beset from all angles. Not even Leto can fight his way out of this.
   And if Demir plays this right Leto won’t have to.
   “I heard some rustling in the Circles, Mr. Sunderland,” Cardinal puts the cordial spin on his introduction. “This is not the first time you put your skiff against some info you had to sell. Which begs the question if you’re even in possession of your precious Baby?”
   “No worries there, Baby’s still mine.” Cardinal’s faux-religious tribe have nothing to say about lying. Considering how much of it they do themselves there would none of them left had they decided to punish the action.
   “Very well then, what do you have for me?”
   “Before we start I need you to detain Leto here.” The Grand-Master almost jumps out of his seat. His eyes wide, his frame bursting at the seams. “And please do it quick.”
   Cardinal nods to his squad and they’re on Leto with shackles. He manages to fend off a couple before he’s brought to the ground. Writhing and cursing, crying foul and promising revenge. Demir is ready to take that if it means they can leave this rock unharmed.
   “Now, Mr. Sunderland, the info.”
   “There are two nukes planted on Melkior. We have no idea where, and no way to find them.”
   Everyone in the Altar stops for a heartbeat. “You are certain of this?” Cardinal cuts through the tension quick, precise, just as Demir expected.
   “We are. Warhorse and some mysterious, untraceable *** planted them. All of his people have no *** clue and we’ve been grinding them for weeks. Now, we know Warhorse didn’t really have the mental capacity to pull this off by himself, so we suspect his partner did most of the planning and execution.”
   “So Warhorse is dead,” more of a confirmation than a question. “I had my finger on that pulse, but now it seems to finally be confirmed. Might I wager that the Leto there took care of him?”
   An astute man. Well, you don’t get to sit on his bench for so many years without being one. “Yes. He armed the nukes before he died. We took over his operation to find them but got jack ***. Only a web of info that traces to exactly nowhere.”
   “I see, so you’re wondering if I can help find them?”
   “No. There’s no way we will.” An arched brow from the Cardinal. “We want to let you know that you should bail and take everyone you want with you.”
   “You would like to be one of the ones I take, am I correct?”
   “Would be stupid if we weren’t. Melkior is going to get glassed. Maybe just a couple of Circles, or maybe the whole thing. Two nukes in the right places is more than enough to do either. Warhorse would never go for glassing the entire city. But we know jack *** about what his partner wants. Either way, as I see it you can bail and come back as a *** savior, or just bail and find a new place to station. We just want off this rock.” Leto furious in the background. So much so the guards have to gag him.
   “Only one problem with this info of yours.” Demir gets the tingles, not the good kind. “How do we confirm this? Warhorse’s men,” and the Cardinal scoffs, “I would consider them highly unreliable. Your word I consider less so. But where do I find tangible proof?”
   “Ask the Authority. They put me on the nukes. But I would suggest being very careful about how you do it.” The Cardinal sighs. “Listen, if you let them know the nukes are armed they’ll blockade the entire city. Let the nukes glass the *** and then proclaim it a *** terrorist uprising. Every conglomerate in the Known Galaxy will be on this. The Authority will get even more power and then people like us will be out of business. If they blow along with the nukes it’ll show the Galaxy how incompetent they are. Think about it.” Now a smirk from the Cardinal. “Criminals running the show. The underground ready to burst above ground. You ride this, and you ride it hard. And when you do, don’t forget who got you there.”
   Moment of silence, only Leto’s incessant muffled cries in the background. “I have to say, Mr. Sunderland, you truly are a man of your word.”
   “Never said otherwise.”
   “Most certainly. I believe we have work to do.” Cardinal stands up almost wearily, pushing himself off his thighs. “What do you want us to do with the Leto?”
   “Keep him sedated, and put him in the hold of my skiff.”
   “Which is where?”
   “Corporal’s.”
   “Most excellent, we are planning on paying him a visit as is.”
[close]

Chapter 19: CORPORAL
Spoiler
JUST A SMALL CONTINGENT this time. The Cardinal decides it’s best to travel light when they go see the Corporal. Cardinal had Leto drugged up the gills and detained with about three times what it takes for any normal man. Demir’s suggestion, of course. Now he’s kept somewhere in the dark, ready to be shipped to Baby’s cargo bay like a piece of real-meat he sometimes smuggles to places where it’s a legend. Humanity started growing their meat eons ago, so something from a real animal is more than EN ***. Unlike that trite remembrance, Demir gets more sick of every day real-meat is actually worth a damn. Money, that is. While his own thoughts and apprehensions are still worth about as much as exhaust fumes. He’s a speck in the dirt in all of this, just as much as the Cardinal, only Demir knows why.
   Demir knows Leto will never forgive him for this. Full well. He thinks to himself through a smirk. No, Leto won’t forgive him. However, he will forget for the sake of the Galaxy. For now.
   Only reason beyond the obvious why Leto is even on Demir’s mind is because he’d rather have the Grand-Master at his side than the Cardinal’s Paladins, as he calls them. Three bestial pieces of human flesh and tech that make Leto’s stern stare look like a warm glance at a bar. Cardinal is not inclined to drop his gown, but this is a civil arrangement for him in terms of guards. This is how he tells people he’s just there to talk and not rip their guts out.
   Corporal buzzes them in quicker than Demir had ever seen it go off. Barely even in the camera’s periphery and the door’s already open. Warm welcome indeed. Wish I could get this kind of treatment at some point. But then again Demir was never as warm on the thought of running his own operation. Too much hassle, too many people. He’s still not fully content with having Leto by his side at all times either. Baby’s all he’ll ever need.
   Paladins go in first, spread out, and let the Cardinal and Demir in once they have a hold on the space. Scanners primed and tech armed, just in case.
   Corporal’s got his arms out and a smile on his face. “The Eminence himself in my humble abode. What can I do for you today, Cardinal?”
   “I want a catalog of all the ships in your hangar. Any others across the Lower Circles, and access to your pipeline,” Cardinal rushes in without padding like he’s itching for a hyperspace burn. Lost look on the Corporal’s face says it all. “Any problems with that, Corporal?”
   “A lot, actually.”
   “Mr. Sunderland, will you please enlighten the Corporal? This is your doling after all.”
   Corporal’s look changes from lost to supremely sober. Legends of Demir’s fuckups are nothing if not known throughout the Galaxy.
   Demir takes a deep breath. “Hagen has me chasing nukes on-planet. They’re armed now and we have no way of finding them before they blow.”
   “Precisely,” Cardinal takes the wheel again. “Now we both know if word gets to the Authority they will blockade the city and use the explosion to expand their influence across the Galaxy. Don’t we, Corporal?” Poor man just nods, caught in the situation as he is. “Good. Now, my people are going off-planet, and we need your ships to do so. Once we have the numbers we will also allocate enough assets for you and the people you choose to join us. Mr. Sunderland will be free to depart in his skiff, along with anyone he wants.” Cardinal’s still skeptical about Leto. Not sure how he figures into all of this. An expensive Leto III knockoff has worth, but enough to risk the deal for his safety. Demir made it clear that Leto lives or the Authority will get wind of the situation. Cardinal was apprehensive but didn’t object.
   “But the people?” Corporal finally lets out words.
   “The people, sadly I must add, will be left to their own devices. Along with the Authority. Time is of the essence, Corporal. We need the logs now, and we need to be off-planet as soon as possible. Be compliant and you’ll find more than just a happy customer in me. I see the potential for a partnership after Melkior is over with. We will have to rebuild, but I value your business sense. This is the time to be smart, Corporal.”
   “Oh, I am.” The menacing grin on the Corporal’s face speaks of a man with a contingency plan. The frown on the Cardinal’s face speaks of a man finding out he’s about to get ***.
   For the skies know which time this *** month alone Demir is left to lose his *** when the Corporal starts some kind of emergency protocol.
[close]

Chapter 20: HANGAR
Spoiler
CORPORAL’S GONE in a cavalcade of alarms and bots rushing into the store. Paladins hold ground while the Cardinal and Demir make their brief escape. Cardinal’s on the internal comms, ordering all his forces to take the Corporal’s tunnels and entrance, and a full battalion on the store from which they’ll rush the hangar proper.
   “No ships in or out!” last thing Cardinal blurts out before coming back to the situation at hand. “Authority will be on us soon. We have to take the hangar now and get out too. No sense in doing this quiet or prolonging it now. We rush in and we get off-planet immediately.”
   “But Leto,” Demir blurts out almost dumbfounded.
   “You’ll find a new one. I’m a man of my word. You can have your skiff, but I won’t waste time hauling the Leto from cold storage to the hangar. Now or never, Mr. Sunderland.” A cold flushes down Demir’s gullet. He shivers and nods a shaky yes. “Good. A battalion will be here momentarily.”
   Soon as the Cardinal says that the Paladins come out of the store. Each of them disheveled to a degree, but all of them alive. One even carrying a bot arm in one hand. “We can’t break through the elevator door. We need a sapper team.”
   “Of course. I anticipated as much if need be. We’ll have everything we need.” Cardinal returns to the comms to check up on the blockade progress. He informs Demir and the Paladins that there have been no attempts to fly out the Corporal’s tunnel. “He’s going to make a stand at the hangar and try to spread us out thin so he and his platoon can make a clean getaway.”
   “Maybe we let him get off-planet?” Demir interjects. “I mean, he can’t have that many men. So what if we lose a couple of ships?”
   “The Corporal would never allow for a trail on him. No, once he’s off-planet the hangar will most likely be cleaned. The explosive kind of cleaned.”
   “What the *** is it with explosions these past couple of days. Does everyone on this *** rock have a bomb?” I’m getting tired of this ***. Demir thinks to himself because he knows he can’t really flip now and make the Cardinal question his decision to honor their agreement.
   Clots of people avoid them because no one in the Lower Circles, the Bazaar, or even the Upper Circles avoids crossing the Cardinal if they don’t have business with him. A respectful distance just in case. Even more people flee the scene when the Cardinal’s battalion arrives. No sense in concealing their weapons or going in stealthy. They have to get this done quick before the Authority comes barreling down on them. Considering the distance from the Upper Circles, or even the station from where they are now it will take some time. Even more so considering the time it takes for the info to even reach them. Even on this circle, people are not as inclined to call the Authority as they might be elsewhere.
   “Corporal’s holed up in the hangar. Only way down is the elevator, but we can’t risk that so we blow it and dive down quick. He’s got the advantage on us with his bots and people. We can’t let him overtake our position and spread us thin. We have to hold and then launch an assault through the tunnels. Pincer him in and take the hangar. He’s a soldier, after all, so he won’t blow it all up just to spite us. He’s not Warhorse, after all. If we win, we win. He knows that. So let’s kill him with respect, shall we?” Cardinal’s battalion nods affirmative and they all enter the store.
   With trained precision the battalion makes their way to the elevator door and place the explosives, set the charge timer, and retreat to a safe distance. The door’s blown wide open with a grav pulse that implodes it into itself. After it’s done the Cardinal’s men dismantle the elevator with more grav charges until the shaft is completely open and they can grapple down quick and not get pelted.
   “Corporal is going to have the elevator surrounded so I want shields up front and a full line. Take out the bots first because they won’t stop coming. Grenade them like hounds, and when the Corporal retreats we will pincer him in. I’ll give word to the tunnel battalion once the retreat has started.” Another quick nod from the battalion before they prepare their gear. Hum of shields being charged, grappling hooks click, blasters armed buzzing. With that trained precision Demir witnessed before they form their line and jump into the belly of the beast.
   “You’re not going down?” Demir asks the Cardinal despite knowing the answer.
   “The Cardinal doesn’t sully his robe, but you’re free to participate if you’re so inclined,” Cardinal gives him the cold truth.
[close]
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V Ean

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Re: Second Rise of Man - a Starsector inspired story (NEW Update 6/29!)
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2021, 12:43:42 AM »

moar
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B.K.

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Re: Second Rise of Man - a Starsector inspired story (NEW Update 7/28!)
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2021, 09:32:06 AM »

Here's a quick twosome for everyone. Chapters 21 and 22. This marks the end of the Melkior Saga. Makes me feel like I'm writing an anime, so I'll add a quick and short spoiler for where the narrative is going next.
I'll be sure to upload more (moar) once I've polished the coming chapters.
As always, thank you for reading!

Chapter 21: HANGAR GREY
Spoiler
DEMIR WALKS BY the mess of dead bodies and tech. Bodies on both sides, blood and viscera all over the hangar gray. The once pristine pride of the Corporal now dead as much as he is. Brains splattered over the wall behind him, his hand still clutching the army issue rotary turret he was known to be fond of. His eyes open, mouth agape with a slight curve to the lip almost like a smile.
   “Let’s get moving, people. I want all the hangars open and every ship that’s not DNA tethered at the ready. I have the Authority on call so I can hold them off. We don’t have much time until they stop buying my ***, so be as swift as the wrath of God, gentlemen,” then the Cardinal turns to Demir. “You are free to leave, Mr. Sunderland. I do apologize about the Leto, but sacrifices have to be made.”
   “Yeah, I’ll find a new one,” Demir lets him know begrudgingly and heads to the hangar where he left Baby.
   “Oh, and Mr. Sunderland, we will be in touch. I owe you, and the Cardinal keeps his word.”
   “And what’s a man without that, right?”
   “Indeed,” the Cardinal lets him go just as coldly as he ordered his people down the elevator to the slaughter. Theirs and the Corporal’s.
   Demir has to step over a couple of corpses before he can access the rail that’s almost miraculously still online. One of those small one-man pads that he takes to where Baby is.
   Seeing her makes it all better. “Baby!” he greets her like a lost lover. “All systems online, I’m home.”
   “Welcome back,” she replies in her sultry voice. Demir had it tuned to one of his favorite girls. Always had a soft spot for her since he was a kid. Rich girl on Nova Prime where his father had the vacation mansion, close to an artificial lake. Took him years to finally get in bed with her. Even after he left and became the Demir Sunderland he is today he still finds her from time to time. She loves to cheat on her husband with him. Smirk on his face from just the thought of her, but even more so from the sensation of stepping into the pilot seat. The grip of the wheel taut against his hands.
   Demir puts the call into the hangar system the Cardinal’s boys hacked. The floor descends and he’s shipped through the tunnels to the exit. The thought of turning off the fake transponder just to *** with the Authority comes to mind, but he’s in good with the Cardinal, and best not to *** him off now. So he just throttles the drive, lets the buzz kick in, and rips it through the exit and off the *** rock. Demir tries hard to forget Leto being trapped in that dark storage just waiting to be glassed.
   He tries really hard to forget.
[close]

Chapter 22: H2
Spoiler
BAR’S DOWNRIGHT FILTHY. Like most things on Demeter Station. Mostly miners offloading a hard day’s work. Demir’s on his skies know which shot of miner swill. Tastes like exhaust leakage, but gets the job done.
   “You heard about Melkior?” Demir overhears one miner asking the other.
   “Yeah, *** place got glassed completely. Authority has no clue how and why. No one left to tell the tale.”
   “I heard some Lower level *** made it off-planet. Rumor is they’re setting up on Distera. Some EN *** religion I think.”
   “The Cardinal,” Demir jumps in. “That’s the Cardinal.”
   “Yeah, and you know that how?” one of the miners has a feisty tone in that question.
   “Does it even matter?” Demir lets out almost like a sigh. The miners just scoff at him and get back to nursing their drinks.
   Demir takes another two shots before he can’t feel anything from his face to his legs. His vision all but gone, but his will to leave the bar still not there. Good thing about stations, something that Demir was always fond of, is that the sun never rises. It’s always dark, it’s always the drinking hours of the day. So he drinks until he can’t see almost.
   A hand on his shoulder wakes him.
   “Seems I should have arrived earlier, Mr. Sunderland. Let’s get you sober. We have much to discuss,” a booming voice brings him somewhat back.
   “Hi, Leto,” Demir blurts out and tries to say that he’s sorry but doesn’t really know how to talk now. All he feels is strong arms around him and the world turns blurry as he loses the seat from under him.
[close]

ANIME SPOILER:
Spoiler
THE AUTHORITY HAS more than just their eyes on Trafalgar now. Farideh’s informants told her they’re planning a blockade. Not just outgoing ships either. A full-scale clot around her entire system. Nothing comes in and nothing gets out. Stupid *** are scrambling to blame what happened on Melkior on anyone they can, and she’s their meal ticket. Authority has been gunning for her system for years now, and something as stupid as glassing a backwater rock like Melkior is all they need to justify the blockade. Xing-Tech is about all she has lined up in terms of allies. They still love her efficient way of getting them the tech they need, with little to no questions asked. Every other faction or system in the Known Galaxy couldn’t care less if her off-brand band of pirates were to disappear. So the Authority can just dump Melkior in her lap and starve her people to death with no repercussions.
   What Farideh needs is a scapegoat or an ally. She has to pin this mess on someone before the Authority mobilizes, actually gets their asses out of the paperwork, and does some real policing for a change. First, they’ll start targeting her ships even harder than before, and the first nuke they find they’ll somehow trace it back to the models on Melkior. Skies be damned, they don’t even have to find a nuke on her ships when they can just place one and call it a day. Hunting season for pirates is open again. All her bargaining and treaties of non-aggression get vented quicker than a mutiny.
[close]
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