'Of Future Heroism' - Pt.8 - Bloodlines...

[silentWitness]

'Of Future Heroism' - Pt.8 - Bloodlines...

The moment I entered the cockpit I was in for a shock! Sitting in the pilots seat was my guardian... "I thought you were dead!!!" I squeaked, wrapping my arms around his neck... he smiled at me "Mighty split pilot not dead!!!" I kissed his cheek and slipped myself into the co-pilots seat... which was surprisingly comfy considering how Spartan it looked... The ship is so roomy... it has several small crew quarters, a very nice habitation area will all the mod cons like a biostorage unit in the galley... not forgetting the small but adequate cargobay atleast it looks reasonably large while is empty!!! Oh did I mention the turrets!!! Yes this ship has turrets!!!

From what I can gather my pilots name is T'Shmit, he talks endlessly about this and that... Much of what he says is incomprehensible... I almost wish he would go back to being the quiet patriarch guardsman... but he's a good man... a good friend... There could be worse people to spend time with...

Coming to terms with what has happened is still very difficult... It's like a part of me is dead... Missing... Every night I sleep... A dead sleep... No dreams come to me... I just lay there with my eyes closed.... Sometimes I will leave the door open so that I can listen to Shmit nattering endlessly to himself... It's quite comforting.

I awoke... It was morning and I was cold... my face wet from tears... The physical ordeal was over... I was safe onboard my very own Corvette... but in my mind I had never left that cell... haunted by the joy I had thought at dying. Looking back at it now is impossible... my mind is slowly erasing it from my memory... All I remember now is snap shots... such frightening imagery, it's like I'm looking at someone else's life... Some nights Shmit tries to comfort me in his arms... and for a while it works... but then something happens, I feel it under his skin, then he becomes one of them... the guards come to... hurt me. It has quickly become obvious that neither of us were attracted to the other, we tried it... but it was like kissing a close friend, the passion just wasn't there... He smiled at me... I smiled at him and that was it... our brief fling was over before it had even begun... I could see that he was visibly relieved, I have to feeling relieved too... but also a little confused considering that my father had said I was the most eligible Split in the Universe. I seemed to be just a little too Argon for his liking but the moment I checked the Split database I understood... My picture had been heavily edited... which is probably for the best considering that Ronkar's mercenaries aren't going to be able to identify me...

I looked into the Mirror... I looked the same as always... if a little thinner. No nothing that Shmit could fault... that is if he had been an Argon. One annoying fact is that we haven't been able to dock the ship anywhere... So we've has to use the Wolf to dock at stations. Shmit has a number of contacts in the Split intelligence service... He landed on the trading station in New Income... said he's only be a few mizura... but he came back next Tazura with a break through... and something he wanted me to wear. The diminutive dress... If you could even call it that!!! Well the dress that Shmit has bought me is... at best a little too revealing... No! I can't wear this!!! it's some kind of hybrid between a dress and a napkin I look like some kind of... Courtesan!!! There is little hiding my mixed-up heritage in this... It's strange all those things that I was so frightened just a few mazura ago don't feel so frightening... some would have called the feelings I'm having focus... but to me it was a dark vale over my consciousness. My face was smiling... I looked comfortable... dare I say happy but it was all an act. I looked at the contraption before me... 'Vanity Unit' the words were embossed into it's outer case... inside was filled with a rubbery substance... the menu came up... lets see... do I want to look like a super model, a harlot, business woman or have natural finish... I can't believe that people pay hundreds of thousands of credits for this machine... I slipped out of my jump suit and into the vanity unit... I felt it adjusting to the curves of my body... then I felt a soft tingly sensation all over my body... I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensations...

'Ping'... I couldn't help laughing at the thought of me as a stuffed cahoona... finished cooking I guess... stepping out of the machine was like stepping out of bed after a sensual massage. A new woman was reflected back at me... The machine had done amazingly, it hadn't tried to hide my alien side but celebrated it... I waved my hand over the console and the vanity unit packed itself neatly away into the wall satisfied that atleast I would look half good if not particularly well to do... we were heading to Ore Belt... the system that Argon children have nightmares about... I remember the stories of pirate ships in the mist... the horrors of being boarded by a blood thirsty band of pirates... Shmit let off a whistle as I entered the cockpit, I smiled knowing that he was just trying to make me feel good... I thought hard about how to react, but my hand responded without me coming to a decision. I screamed in pain as I pulled back... It was if I had just punched a brick wall... His sarcastic smile turned to one of worry... he desperately tried to wipe away my tears without smudging my eye shadow... I didn't have the heart to tell him it was so heavily engineered that it would probably protect me from biological weapons... He slipped me into the pilots seat and went off to get a bioregenerator... why had I done that???

I looked over the instrument panel... the sentient algorithm had automatically switched the control translations back to Paranid the moment I placed my hand on the controls... They felt sturdy... The reactor was stable... Turrets set to defence... All the information you could ever need all where you'd need it but then that's the Paranid way... Just what you need, no more no less... Unless of course you mean decoration! Much of the exposed Teladianium in the ship was hand carved with the word of the Emperor... Empress Xaar. I push the throttle forward but it did not respond... Shmit was still busy rummaging through the med locker... I'd left the bioregenerator on the side it would be a few mizura till he would look there... The Auto-Off button flashed invitingly... My hand moved out to fondle it... it was so close I could feel the glowing button under my fingers... I remembered the rush I had felt flying the Eel. The control system seemed simple enough, pretty much the same as for fighters... I flicked the switch and felt the steering column come to life... Unlike the Eel and the Scorpion, the Nemesis had a strange feedback sensation through the controls, I could feel the space around me... a transport is mining ore 32km to the east... An enforcement unit is making it's patrol... Now I know what it must feel like to have a slave chip...

The effect was hypnotic... The gate was moving up on me... I entered the event horizon. Everything was still... There was no noise, no vibration, nothing but the swirling colours and lights of the jump tunnel... I felt that the exit gate was near... The familiar blackness of space seemed to flood into the cockpit... The Asteroid belt twisted and turned chaotically around me... We were in Ore Belt... I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder... I has become so entranced by the controls that Shmit had begun to massage my shoulders without me realising... I didn't ask how long he had been watching me but it was comforting to knowing that he was not upset that I had taken control of the ship... This was the most like myself I had felt in a long time...

We speeded past the North gate and into the dense white nebula, passing silent asteroids as they slowly dance through space... The Nebula became like a fog... I could only just make out the asteroids... small lights seemed to dance among the mist... Suddenly a red blip appeared on the scanners... I felt it before I saw the Gravidar I hadn't even noticed that the nebula had been disrupting it... maybe they had been hiding in an asteroid... "Split look this way" whether that was a command or a statement I didn't know but it did look like there was something behind an asteroid... It was just outside the nebula... And there it was...

The base was small smaller than I had expected... It seemed almost laughable that traders avoid Ore Belt because of this tiny station. Shmit gave me a hand weapon before we disembarked the Nemesis but he'd needn't have worried the Pirate base itself seemed to be populated with middle aged Argon traders whom had taken a day out to play pirate... Shmit finally told me who we were looking for... A split slaver by the name of F'tik Unkaart... The promenade seemed like a good place to start our investigation. I felt eyes all over my body... It was difficult not to feel quite embarrassed I was practically naked!!! A young Argon pilot caught my eye... she seemed to compare her body to mine... then she turned to her friend "Look at her... doesn't she look stunning", her friend stood awe struck... "She must be a model or actress... I wish I looked like that..." her words left me feeling warm inside... no one had ever said I was beautiful and coming from them made it so much more poignant. Trying not to seem like I'd overhead them, I slowly walked their way... I could tell their excitement levels were rising with every step I took... I'd have to admit mine were too. They were bartering with a Paranid trader for their shipment of Spacefuel... He didn't understand much Argon... "No... 120 credits a ton is unacceptable" The trader looked at me stunned at my fluency "Bah! A linguist... Eeer's yer credits" The two pilots turned staring at the bulging bag of credits. "helping you thanks box" The two tried their best to speak to me in Paranid... "You're welcome" I smiled speaking back in Argon, "wow you speak Argon very well" I wondered if I should tell them I was born in Three Worlds but decided not to. "Glad to help out" I slowly wondered back to Shmit knowing full well that the two pilot were saying wonderful things about me...

As we entered the bar there were screeches of fear from some of the patrons... A quick scan of the room revealed that no one there was a real pirate... The bar was filled with young joy riders and tourists trying to play pirate. I remembered what the two young pilots had said and walked seductively up to the bar... The bartender did know whether to look at my chest or at my gun holster... "hu hello... loo.. look we don't want any trouble here... ju... just take what you want and go..." I leaned over the bar just enough to see the barkeeps eyes widen "We want information..." the barkeep was transfixed... enough for me to lift the savage looking pistol out of it's holster and place it against the mans wrinkled throat... he gulped... "Where's F'tik Unkaart???" the man fainted before he would even finish my sentence, I almost felt like shooting him... but before I could there was a scream from one of the booths in the corner... "Aaahh don't hurt split..." I looked at Shmit who was staring at me in awe and admiration. "Don't hurt split... here take ship..." He threw the access codes to his ship over..." I picked them up just in case we might be able to use it... "Where did you take the Slave called T'Chi'zaia" the moment I said her name the slaver gulped hard... "No... no split don't know that name... No.. No... Nooooo!" I moved slightly closer.... "Ok ok... Tkr... slave was bought by Tkr!!!" as we turned and left the bar... there was visible signs of relief...

As we launched out of the docking bay in our wolf the scanner registered several red blips... but before we could target them they were gone... But as we docked with the Nemesis but they were already upon us... We rushed into the cockpit just in time to see the Mamba's open fire... The turrets burst into life and the mamba's were gone... I felt a satisfied smile form on my face that had been a quick battle... suddenly they reappeared... the ships shields were buffeted again before they disappeared back into the nebula... I hit the booster and we rocketed to full speed... suddenly the rear turret burst into life... then everything went quiet... I looked up at the rear turret monitor they had disappeared... I squinted to trying hard to pick out the separate ships... I could feel them coming... Five Mambas suddenly appeared behind us their weapons blazing before turning back into the nebula before the turrets could do damage... there was no way that we could win against such odds... I searched the readouts for something that might give us an edge... I noticed a prototype weapon... the Psg... I selected it in the menu... the Paranid Symbol for Omega appeared... a warning of death but if we didn't use it then in the next pass the mambas were going to penetrate the shields... I had to act fast... I selected the weapon... and watched as the equipped Bhept seemed to get sucked into the turret... then a few moments later the Psg appeared... it looked very different what kind of weapon could this be... I tried to set the turret to attack them when they were in range but it seems this weapon could only be fired manually maybe something to do with it's prototype status... Shmit ran back into the turret... The Mambas streaked into view behind us... this pass would either be the end of them or the end of us... The weapon fired... Nothing seemed to be happened the Mambas were still coming their shots penetrating the shields... then the Mamba's seemed to shake themselves apart... We had won or atleast escaped... but then the shock wave hit us... I felt the hull tearing itself apart... Psg was Omega... Death... I blacked out.

And No... this is not the end.

[simonnance]

a good narative, flow is consistant and fluid.

NICE

[FourFingers]

Good to see you writting again!


its been awhile and i've nearly forgotten what happened in the last episode.. off to reread em again.

[silentWitness]

I must admit I'm not particularly pleased with the battle scene... I found myself obsessing about it!!!

[scritty]

I must admit I'm not particularly pleased with the battle scene... I found myself obsessing about it!!!

Flows pretty well. Battle scenes are easiest when you can divorce actions from people (in the way politicians do SOOOOO well) getting emotion and violence together in a way that isn't either too sanitised or just horribly numbing is areal balancing act. I think yours is rather fine.

Clarker

[GoateeCat]

Ohhh, nice. I think you made that space battle quite interesting, with the way those mambas used the nebula to hide from the fight. Very good.

And they paid a price for success. Very important. Well done.

[silentWitness]

Ohhh, nice. I think you made that space battle quite interesting, with the way those mambas used the nebula to hide from the fight. Very good.

And they paid a price for success. Very important. Well done.

I've got a 'Sydney Bristo' moment coming up and so will need to perfect the combat stuff...

[Mercenary]

Good read and the story is moving along well.

Only thing to note is there's a few more typo's than usual.


Keep going.

[KiwiNZ]

Good read and the story is moving along well.

Only thing to note is there's a few more typo's than usual.


Keep going.

what he said

good work!

[vader146]

took a while coming but worth the wait...nice job

speaking of which i really should post the next part of my story soon

[red assassin]

It's good. Kept me reading, which is high praise considering the length, I normally don't bother...