NORTHEAST CONTINENT--STARCOM SECTOR--SLUMS
TIME: 1600
DATE: 2142.06.23
The slums were an uninhabited area of five square blocks. Many, if not all,
of the buildings were unfit for anything but rats and roaches. The walls and
streets were covered in grime, garbage, and graffitti. The humid air was
still, except where the small black hovercar passed.
Kei and Yuri were incensed at the fact that they had to depend on Bruno the
Bald Wonder to drive them everywhere. Ordinarily, they would have ditched
Bruno and probably just taken the car. Unfortunately, Corix IX was a
corporate planet. As such, it was not a planet associated with United
Galactica and basically meant that their hands were well and truly tied. It
was either Bruno, or walking.
The interior of the car was cramped. There was barely enough room for the
two of them in the back of the hovercar, and they were separated from the
front by a sheet of blast-proof Plas-Steel. There was a small window made of
blast-proof glass in the separator, and a speaker was below it. The Angels
got the feeling they were as much prisoners as they were Trouble Consultants
here. Within a few moments, the hovercar came to a stop in front of a
building in a state of serious disrepair. Two cops were standing guard
outside the missing front doors. They wore standard riot gear: light nomex
vests, visored helmets, and kevlar-woven khakis. They clutched semi-auto
rifles to their chests as they stood at attention.
Kei and Yuri passed through the doorway unchallenged. Obviously, they were
expected. Bruno stayed with the hovercar, which was just as well. They
didn't want to put up with the bald Biodroid more than they had to. They
took the stairs up to the third floor, their footsteps echoing loudly in the
enclosed, dark stairwell. Once they reached the third floor, they caught the
unmistakable scent of death. The two grimaced, but didn't break stride. They
managed to ignore the growing stench until they saw the room where the
Stalkers met their end.
The Lovely Angels had seen death before. Both Kei and Yuri have had to kill
in the line of duty on many occaisions, and though it was never their fault,
have left huge trails of bodies. The sight of a corpse was nothing new. But
never had they faced such unspeakable carnage. The congealed blood was
everywhere on the floor and ceiling. The walls had been destroyed when
Forensics searched for the Bio-container. Kei walked to the other room,
where Danny and Mike were found. Yuri investigated the room where they entered.
Like the entry room, the floor was covered in blood. The walls and ceiling
had been stripped from the search for the Bio-container. One of the things
that jumped out at her immediately was the grapefruit-sized hole in the far
wall. Kei slowly walked to it, a low whistle escaping her lips. The wall
paneling had been removed, leaving only the struts. The edges of the hole
were completely charred. Kei ran a gloved finger along the jagged edge of
the hole, and pulled it back to see a black smudge on the tip. The struts
were made of a cheap composite alloy and looked to be well under code. Kei
stared through the hole, and saw another identical hole in the next wall,
and the next, and the next...
//Wonder what did this?\\ Kei thought. The paneling was as low-grade as the
alloy that made up the struts, and just about any weapon could pierce it.
After a few minutes, she decided that it had to have been a high-powered
weapon, due to the size and number of the holes. But a few things didn't
make sense...
Yuri felt the bile rise in her throat at the sight and smell. The humid air
did nothing to alleviate the stench. She found it hard to believe that six
men were slaughtered here. If the blood caked everywhere had been an
indicator, it was more like twenty. Fighting down her gag reflex, she called
out to Kei.
"Find anything?" Kei's response came quickly, her voice carrying a hint of
revulsion.
"No! You?" Yuri confirmed she hadn't found anything, and the two met by the
main door. "I don't think this was your typical hit, Yuri."
"No kidding. What the hell happened?" Yuri knew, as Kei did, that NO hitman
was THIS sloppy. It was usually a quick shot and little struggle, not the
slaughter that happened here. Add the fact that whoever was responsible took
out two TC's, and one got a serious problem. "Who could have done this?" The
Lovely Angels realized that they wouldn't find anything in the apartment. It
was a slim hope anyway, what with the Foensics team going over it with a
fine tooth comb. Kei gazed out into the dwindling light.
"Something else, why didn't anyone else fire their weapons?" Yuri looked at
Kei and realized she was right. There weren't any score marks from the
discharge of any other firearms. In fact, the hole in the wall of the other
room was the only evidence than an energy weapon had been in the building.
"Where to now?"
"Let's try CPD headquarters. Their forensics department might have
something." Yuri was only too happy to leave the place. The rising shadows
and splattered gore made her more than a little nervous, despite her
training. The Lovely Angels left the apartment and descended into the
rapidly growing shadows to the street below.
============================================================================
STARCOM SECTOR--EMPLOYEE/CIVILLIAN SPACEPORT
TIME: 1621
DATE: 2142.06.23
Ryozo Hibiki cast his gaze around the artificially lit spaceport.
Spacecraft of all shapes, sizes, and purposes were docked, taxiing, landing,
or taking off all around him. In truth, it looked rather chaotic. One
mistake could spell disaster for quite a few people. He always wondered how
anyone could stand having to run a show like this.
He was a young Asian man, roughly twenty-four. He was the youngest, though
he led the cleanup team. He wore a simple yellow tanktop with black jeans
and sneakers. In a sheath slung over his shoulder was a red baroque-style
Japanese umbrella, and a yellow tiger-striped bandana was wrapped around his
head. His brownish hair fell over it in the front, almost reaching his eyes.
Ryozo turned and looked over the other four members of his squad. One was a
huge, musclebound black man nicknamed Doc. He was the team's munitions man.
The next was a white man named Specs, due to his glasses. He was in charge
of the technological aspects of this run. He had already unloaded his
equipment, and was helping the next man, Ozzy, unload some more equipment.
Ozzy was a demolitions expert, often called on to sanitize buildings with
his highly explosive charges. He went by the motto, "Call me if it
absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight." The last man called
himself Twiggy, due to his slight stature. Though he was the smallest,
Twiggy was chromed to the hilt. All his cybernetic enhancements made him a
formidable ally, not to mention his skill with surveillance equipment. The
equipment was unloaded within moments, and placed in the van that was parked
in the hangar. The five then boarded, and the van sped off into the night.
============================================================================
CPD HEADQUARTERS--MORGUE
TIME: 1700
DATE: 2142.06.23
Kei and Yuri walked down the antiseptic hallways, and through a set of
white double-doors. Beyond the doors were a row of tables, each with a
corpse on them. Six of the tables were occupied by the people from the
apartment raid. The first four were the ones suspected of holding the
Bio-container. Kei and Yuri were stunned by the sight. One was missing an
arm, another a leg, the third was split from crown to crotch, while the last
was missing his head. They may have been low-lifes, but they deserved better
than this.
Danny was lying on the fifth slab down. His chest was little more than a
gaping hole, Yuri could see the table through it.
"What happened to him?" she whispered. A mortician walked up and said,
"Plasma blast through the chest. I guess we can rule out accidental death."
Yuri spun and slammed her fist into his jaw. The mortician flew backward a
few feet and slid on the floor a few more, coming to a hard stop by hitting
a metal cabinet.
Upon closer inspection, Yuri saw the edges of the hole were seared. This
meant whatever hit him would have been intensely hot...just like a plasma blast.
"Y'know, a plasma blaster THIS powerful isn't exactly concealable." said
Kei. "It'd be at least this long." she said, holding her hands apart nearly
four feet.
"Yeah. This keeps getting weirder and weirder. What've we got so far?"
"Not much. And what we DO have doesn't make sense."
"Whoever killed them could have been one of them." suggested Yuri.
"Maybe. That would explain how he got in and also explain the plasma blaster."
"Also the missing Bio-container. What that doesn't explain is how he got
out of the area." The whole area had been cordoned off by the CPD SWAT, and
every building, nook, and cranny checked thoroughly. Even the sewers had
been checked. The SWAT had the best equipment available, and the
Bio-container weighed at least sixty kilograms. "Maybe he wasn't alone."
"He couldn't have been. Either way, where to now?" Asked Kei.
"Where else? I say we pay a visit to ViralTech. Personally, I'd love to see
how they got it out of the facility, much less out of the slums."
============================================================================
STARCOM SECTOR--RESIDENTIAL/RECREATIONAL--DEEP SPACE INN
TIME: 1726
DATE: 2142.06.23
Ryozo, Doc, Ozzy, Twiggy, and Specs sat around the small motel room,
drinking beer and eating take-out. Most of the floor space was taken up by
the three beds and a desk. Most of the surveillance and containment
equipment was in the van. Some was in the room to warn them of uninvited
guests. Ryozo was getting a little tired of Doc's complaining about the room.
"Shit, ya'd think those suits woulda sprung for a better room." Doc said in
his rumbling voice.
"Yeah, with room service." added Ozzy.
"What, Chinese ain't your flavor?" teased Twiggy.
"Not when the Chow Mein is crunchy." Ozzy replied.
"Enough!" Ryozo barked suddenly. "You're giving me a headache." The other
four looked at him, at eachother, then back at him. As one, they grabbed
their empty rice boxes and hurled them at Ryozo. In a flash, he had his
umbrella open in front of him. The rice boxes bounced off the umbrella. Doc
shuddered, staring at the umbrella.
"M-m-man...g-g-get that thing away from me..." he stuttered. Ryozo withdrew
the parasol and re-sheathed it. Doc visibly relaxed then. "I HATE that damn
critter..."
"Now, let's get on with the briefing." Ryozo said matter-of-factly. "As I'm
sure you all know, our main objective is to retireve a stolen Bio-container
filled with one nasty little bug. Our secondary objective is to find the one
responsible for its theft."
"They're already dead." said Specs. Ryozo glared at him.
"Those punks rotting in the morgue? There's no way in hell they could have
pulled this off." said Twiggy.
"Yeah, this had to be an inside job." added Doc.
"Precisely. That's exactly what 3WA's thinking." They all stared at him.
"Whatchoo mean 3WA? What they got to do with this?" asked Doc, who was
suddenly very nervous.
"Whoever offed those four stooges also whacked a team of 3WA Trouble
Consultants." Ryozo explained. "Naturally, the 3WA wasn't too happy about
that, so they sent another team to find out what happened, as well as to
find the Bio-container."
"Uh...who did they send?" asked Specs.
"Kei and Yuri. The Lovely Angels." Everyone else in the room facefaulted.
"The DIRTY PAIR?!" they screamed in unison.
"Shit, let's just get outta the city and wait for them to blow it up." said
Ozzy.
"Damn, they busted me last time." said Doc.
"SILENCE!" shouted Ryozo. The rest of the team piped down. "Now, we are
not to interfere with their activities while on this planet."
"What if they find the Bio-container before we do?" asked Twiggy.
"Then they've done all the hard work for us. Who knows, maybe they'll lead
us to our leak." replied Ryozo.
"Yeah." said Doc. "Then we'll plug it." Doc patted the large Electro-Mag at
his side for emphasis.
============================================================================
STARCOM SECTOR--RESIDENTIAL/RECREATIONAL--OUTSIDE ALL NIGHT RAVE CLUB
TIME: 1745
DATE: 2142.06.23
The shadow stood in the darkness pulling on a cigarette. He looked at the
green LCD display on his wrist. They were five minutes late, and he didn't
like to wait.
He sold black chips, the kind you wouldn't find in any store. If it was
illegal, he could get it. Snuff jolts, APs, you name it. In his pocket were
two datajacks, containing one of the best snuff jolts he'd ever jacked. His
line of work had landed him smack in the middle of 3WA's bad side. Selling
black chips like this would get him ten-to-twenty for sure, but the money
was DAMN good. He looked up when he heard a soft scrabbling noise up in the
shadows of the fire escape. A few moments of staring into the inky blackness
offered no insights as to the nature of the noise, but did give him a
headache. He looked back at the entrance to the alley again, his anger
rising. Five more minutes, then he was gone. No sooner than the thought
formed in his head than a hovercar stopped at the mouth of the alley,
letting out three people. He smiled, it was finally payday.
|| The hunter froze when the prey looked up in its direction. The patterns
of reds and oranges that made up his thermal image stood stock still in the
sea of black and blue around it. The prey seemed to know on some instinctual
level that it was being hunted.
It hung motionless on its perch like a bird of prey. All the training it
had undergone in preparation for this hunt had enabled it to cling to nearly
any surface. The prey's breath was getting faster, the reds becoming
brighter and brighter as three more Oomans approached it. They mooed to
eachother in their primitive language. The hunter recorded samples of their
voices. They may come in handy. The reds of the other three Oomans became
brighter, and the words louder. They were becoming agitated, and when Oomans
got agitated, they drew weapons. They would make good trophies after all. ||
"Whadda you mean, this ain't from shit!" he yelled. One of the three had
plugged a Snuff jolt into his deck, a small tester much like a laptop, and
shook his head.
"It's snuff, alright, but it's crap." the man with the deck said. "I've
seen better stuff from a mindwiped junkie."
"That's the best shit you'll find on Corix IX!" he retorted. He readied
himself to let the gun pop from its spring clip up his sleeve to his waiting
hand. The three moved to block off the mouth of the alley. They reached into
their jackets, and he quickly assessed his options. He was in a narrow,
closed-off alley, and it was three guns against one. He was well and truly
fucked, but if he was going down, he wasn't going alone. The gun popped into
his hand just as the one in the middle jerked. Blood gushed from his stomach
as he was violently lifted into the air. The other two turned and gazed in
shock as he seemed to float in the air. Though they couldn't see it, his
shirt became red with the blood pouring from his stomach and mouth. He then
hit the ground and let out a low gurgle before dying. Coming to their
senses, the remaining three opened fire.
The yellow blasts streaked from the mouth of the alley, striking and
killing several passer-bys. Screams sounded from the shadows, mingling with
the screams on the streets. Several shots struck the side of a black
hovercar, scarring the armor. The car slammed to a halt, and from the back
sprung Kei and Yuri. They each took up positions on both sides of the alley
mouth. Yuri held her small pistol up in a ready position, and Kei did the
same with her large Electro-Mag. The shots stopped after a few seconds, and
the two charged in.
Being genetically enhanced Lucien models, Kei and Yuri had much better
night vision than others. They swept the narrow alley with their firearms
just in case. Yuri looked at the right wall and noticed the blood stains.
The stain went up into the darkness above.
"Kei! Look at this!" she shouted. Kei went over and looked up. "Y'know,
this is a lot like..."
"The apartment murders." she finished. The other three corpses were
visciously mutilated, just like the ones in the slums. Kei and Yuri looked
at each other and exchanged a knowing glance. They headed up the fire escape
toward the roof. Something bothered Kei, though. The bloodstain travelled up
the wall, suggesting that whoever he was, he was dragged straight up the
Plas-Crete.
Within moments, the Lovely Angels were on the small roof. Several large
pipes and fans from the building's archaic ventilation system reduced their
mobility significantly and obscured their visibility. Holding their weapons
at the ready, they split up and silently searched the rooftop.
|| It wasn't a totally disappointing hunt. This one in particular put up a
somewhat decent fight, nominating him for the honor of being a trophy. A
noise from behind caught the hunter's attention. Two more Oomans had come up
here, and were moving quietly along the pipes. The hunter's audio equipment
easily picked out the noises of their movements from the rest of the noise
on the roof. The Oomans split up, and the hunter slowly made its way to the
nearest Ooman. It was impressed, two Oomans that were trying to hunt the
Hunter. Two more trophies to add to its collection. ||
The noise was deafening on the shadowed rooftop. Yuri tried to look in
every direction at once. Places like this gave her the creeps. Despite the
upgrades to her eyes and ears, she couldn't make out much. The roaring of
the fans filled her ears and vibrated her very teeth. Yuri maintained her
control and kept moving along the pipes. Her light pistol held before her,
she stepped over a particularly fat pipe and her foot landed on something
softer than the roof's surface.
Yuri looked down and saw that her foot was planted square in the center of
a man's chest. His intestines spilled from a deep gouge in his stomach, his
face a frozen mask of terror and agony. Yuri stared at the mutilated corpse
for a few seconds, her mind temporarily frozen from having unexpectedly
stepped on a dead guy. Her mind began working with the thought //What the
hell DID this?\\
|| The Ooman was just standing there, staring at its trophy. It was frozen
in either shock, fear, or some other emotion. The Hunter didn't know, nor
did it really care. The opportunity had just presented itself to acquire
another trophy, and the Hunter was not about to pass it up. A small red
triangle formed on the back of the Ooman's thermal image as its
shoulder-mounted plasma cannon charged up a blast. ||
Kei swept the barell of the large Electro-Mag back and forth in smooth
motions as she looked around for any clue as to what the hell was going on.
Her eyes told her little and her ears told less, but one of her senses kept
saying that something just wasn't right. She just knew on an instinctual,
animalistic level that they weren't alone. Repeated sweeps of the roof
revealed nothing, but that nagging feeling still persisted. Trying her best
to shove her irrational fear aside, she started stepping over pipes of
various sizes toward Yuri.
"Yuri!" she shouted. She could hardly hear herself over all the noise on
the roof. "YURI!" she screamed, louder this time, but to no avail. Kei
picked up the pace, nearly leaping over the scattered pipes and ventilation
fans. The fear that something was seriously wrong began to get stronger. Her
instincs kept screaming "DANGER!", and as a 3WA Criminal TC, she had learned
to trust her instincts. She finally saw Yuri straddled over a pipe, looking
down in shock and revulsion. Kei immediately noticed the three red dots
above her heart.
In desperation, Kei did the only thing that made sense. She lifted her gun
and fired a volley of shots in a spread pattern, since she couldn't pinpoint
the assassin. All the shots vanished into space, so she didn't hit anything.
The shots had the desired effect, as Yuri hit the ground, spun, and pointed
her gun at Kei.
Yuri glared at Kei, wondering what the hell she was doing. Yuri instantly
noticed three red dots on her left breast. Allowing her training to take
over, and she dodged out of the way just as the bolt of white-hot plasma
streaked through where she once stood. The blast punched through several
pipes and the roof of the building. The building shook when a small
explosion ripped forth from the bottom floors of the building. Several
people on the ground were instantly incinerated. Yuri righted herself, and
rapidly swept her pistol across the roof. She couldn't see anyone other than
Kei. She looked back at the path the blast had taken moments earlier. Flames
were already approaching the gaping hole, reminding Yuri of a most
unpleasant place. When she looked back, Kei was gone.
"KEI!"
What felt like a battering ram slammed into Kei's stomach and caused all
the air in her lungs to leave in a rush. She doubled over in agony, her
lungs burning and her stomach sending throbbing waves of pain throughout her
body. The same battering ram then caught her in the chin. Her head snapped
back as she flipped backward, coming down hard on the unyeilding surface of
the roof. She came to with an enormous weight on her chest. The weight
pressed her into the roof, and wouldn't let her breathe. It also kept her
arms pinned down to the surface. Unable to move or breathe, Kei stared up
into what appeared to be just a distortion of what light was up here. In an
instant it lunged at something she couldn't see, but her oxygen-starved
brain identified as Yuri.
Yuri saw Kei lying on the ground, staring into a pocket of warped space.
For a brief moment, Yuri stared at it, too, wondering what the hell she was
seeing. Two brass-colored blades suddenly appeared from the distortion. She
levelled her small firearm at what might have been its head. Before she
could fire, though, it lunged at her. The gun was sent flying out of her
hands as a massive force impacted her face and a sharp pain lashed across
her stomach, sending her backward to the edge of the roof. She came to a
rest with her ass on the edge. Yuri shook her head, trying to straighten out
her vision. She vaguely noticed that her stomach was bleeding. What felt
like a vise clamped itself around her throat, cutting off all air to her
lungs. Yuri's eyes went wide in surprise and terror as she desperately
fought for breath. The distortion hoisted her into the air with no effort,
holding her over the edge of the roof. Her throat felt as though it had
collapsed, her vision beginning to grey out. She struggled to remove the
hand, but it wouldn't budge. Yuri kicked at the distortion, her boot
impacting solidly with what she hoped was its solar plexus. For all the
results, she may as well have attacked a Plascrete wall. The burning in her
chest and the pain in her throat became distant, and everything went
blessedly black...
Kei rose to her feet, still struggling for breath. Her torso hurt from
where whatever that thing was had rested on it. Her stomach was on the verge
of cramping, her recent meal threatening to do an instant replay. She looked
up, and saw an insanely warped image of Yuri suspended over the abyss to the
street below. Ice cold fear lanced Kei's heart as she saw her friend hanging
there, limp and unmoving above the blackness. Frantically, Kei dropped to
ehr knees and searched for her gun. Her eyes and hands darted in all
directions with no success. Kei discontinued the search, screwed up her
courage, and charged the shape, a hoarse cry splitting her lungs. She would
only have one chance at this, and her timing had to be perfect, but it was
her only shot.
|| The Hunter could feel the pulse of this Ooman's lifeblood slowing with
each passing second. The female was surprisingly strong, for an Ooman. Both
had taken a fair amount of punsihment, and were still in good condition.
These females would make excellent trophies.
It heard the cry of the other Ooman female as it charged. The Hunter was
amused. The Ooman thought it could physically overpower the Hunter? Well,
since it still wanted to play... ||
Kei barely saw the shape whirl and launch a yellow bikini-clad cannonball
at her. Yuri's limp body slammed into Kei, knocking her to the hard surface
of the roof. Kei immediately rolled Yuri off of her, and checked her friend
for a pulse, praying that Yuri still had one. She felt it immediately, rapid
and weak but still there. Yuri's stomach was bleeding, but not very badly.
She must have jumped back at the last second. She began coughing and
choking, but was still breathing. Yuri was hurt, and bad, but she'd live.
"C'mon, kid. Let's go." She knew the words were wasted, being drowned out
by the roar of the ventilation fans. Knowing Yuri was too weak to walk, Kei
grabbed her in a fireman's carry and proceeded to the nearest door that led
down below. She wanted to search for a weapon, but every moment spent on the
roof meant another moment that thing had to kill them. After a quick search,
Kei found one of Yuri's Bloody Cards. It wasn't of much use against a single
target, but it was beter than nothing. Kei's anger rose at the thought that
they had been jumped, and were now on the run. Remembering Yuri, Kei put her
anger aside and concentrated on escaping, much as it galled her.
|| The Hunter watched the two Ooman females slowly make their way to small,
rectanguar portal that would allow them to descend to the ground. The
patterns of reds and oranges indicated that the one still conscious was
highly agitated, even afraid. Good. Let the prey sweat. It made the kill
that much more satisfying. The triangle formed on the spot where the two
thermal images overlapped. This one shot would be more than sufficent. How
did the Oomans phrase it? Shooting fish in a barrel? The plasma-cannon would
take at least fifteen more seconds to charge up a shot. Plenty of time.
Besides, where could they go? The flames below would block off their escape.
The platforms on the side would leave them easy kills as well. It had the
two Ooman females cold.
The Hunter's audio sensors detected a soft noise from above. A bar
descended the right side of it's visual image, a white pattern denoting the
sound's frequency appearing within. It was steady, unmoving. Almost like...
The Hunter was surprised by the huge spotlight that bathed the roof
in a harsh white light. The Ooman looked up and shielded its eyes from the
glare. The Hunter's options were limited. In this light, the distortion from
the cloak would be much easier to spot. The prey was jumping up and down,
obviously trying to attract attention from whatever was above. Knowing that
more Oomans were on the way, the Hunter decided that discretion was the
better part of valor. Taking aim, it fired the cannon.||
Kei had never been so glad to see anything in her entire life. The light
banished the shadows from the roof, coating everything in it's harsh glow.
She jumped up and down, waving her free arm.
"HEY! DOWN HERE!" she screamed. The anti-grav engines made
practically no noise as the CPD Air Patrol Vehicle hovered over the roof.
Suddenly, the light was extinguished in a shower of sparks. //What the...\\
Sparks and flames poured from the wound in the APV, and Kei knew that
whatever was on the roof with them was responsible. She readied Yuri's
Bloody Card, knowing that it probably wouldn't do much good. Remembering the
direction and angle of the blast, Kei hurled the Bloody Card at the spot
where she though that thing was.
An inhuman roar of rage, surprise, and pain temporarily drowned out
the racket of the ventilation system. Kei felt a surge of savage triumph
rush through her with the realization that the managed to tag it with what
was likely a thousand to one shot. The pain in that monsterous voice was
evident. At least the damn thing could be hurt. Kei caught the Bloody Card
on its return trip, thankful that she didn't cut off her fingers or hand.
She had never really practiced that much with it. A green, glowing substance
on the card caught her eye. The glow was almost like that of neon gas.
//What the hell?\\ Could this have come from whatever that was?
Could it be blood?