¶ Sean makes a friend (and tortures him)
Characters: Unnamed Terran Lieutenant, Captain Sean Krimm, Selene, Unnamed Terran Officers
- Someone is murdering the population of a Terran outpost
- That someone, Sean, is doing it in a very loud and bloody way
- He's left one person alive, a terrified Lieutenant who has hidden in the armory.
- The Lt. remembers how things went sideways:
- A shuttle landed with a Terran Captain and his concubine.
- Lt. doesn't approve of the concubine tradition.
- The Captain (Sean) asks for a meeting with the statoin commander, and Lt. thought that would be the end of this.
- This was not the first time someone had randomly shown up, had a meeting, and left.
- Thirty minutes later, thought, there's a call for security and all hell breaks loose.
- He hates guns and being shot at; this is why he's in Intelligence.
- The most chilling thing about this was the fact that the enemies weren't shooting back.
- They weren't even defending themselves... just slowly and deliberately walking from room to room and killing everyone.
- The screaming was terrifying.
- He ran from the attackers, locked himself in the armory, and refused to let anyone else in.
- His crewmates pounded on the door, and called him a coward.
- He readies himself for whatever's comming.
- He had a shoulder mounted plasma cannon. It was for use against boarding craft, and if he wasn't careful, could put a hole in the hull.
- He'd thought of that; he'd put on an emergency decompression suit. He would blow a hole in either the enemy, or the hull, and either eay kill it.
- Sean tears the door apart like it's thick paper, forcing his way inside.
- He tells the Lt. to put that canon away before he kills himself.
- The Lt. is stunned at just how normal the command is, how normal Sean is; it makes the whole scene surreal.
- Lt. Tries to fire it, but fails, and Sean has Selene remove it from him.
- Selen pins Lt. against a wall, and se find out she's a real mess right now.
- Her face is all fucked up, lower lip half bitten off, deep gouges in her neck, her eye is all fucked up.
- She tells the Lt. "It's rude not to stare."
- Also she mentions she's healing rather well; she'll be back to normal in a few weeks.
- Selene pins him even harder, then starts grinding against him.
- Sean orders him to open his eyes, and then inform him that he's the one they've come for.
- "You were part of an operation a year ago attempting to find the location of a very special League facility. This facility has the ability to change locations, but for the last year, it’s been staying put, for reasons we wanted to know. While I can access a shockingly large amount of information, the exact coordinates were never published; they are only known to those involved, memorized for operational security."
- Lt. responds with a shakey, "But we're trained..."
- Sean cuts him off with: "Yes, trained to forget such things on command. I know, I myself took the entrance exams. I’ve known and fucked a large number of intelligence operatives, from both sides. And one thing an operative never does, is forget. It’s implicit in the mental fabric of those people who seek out such things. I’ve never known a single one to comply with such orders."
- (Not in novel) What they're referencing is a training technique to allow them to forcibly forget facts. Useful if you know you're going to be drugged, or otherwise cooerced.
- Lt. counters with, "we can't recall top secret information under duress."
- Sean says he knows a way around that: just a standard sedative.
- Another training technique; mental blocks to prevent recalling classified information while under duress.
- Sean gives him two choices: Cooperate and die, or don't and live.
- The Lt. is confused by this.
- Sean tells Selene to bring in one of the survivors.
- Lt. is horrified, and doesn't want to see.
- Sean promises that if he gives those coordinates to Sean, and unlocks the encrypted database on the station, Lt. will be able to die.
- Lt. makes the mistake of thinking the DB was Sean's target. He convinces himself this is a League trick.
- Lt. goes for a gun, Sean is too fast, and stops him. Says there will be consiquences.
- Lt. says this is all a ruse, and the Articles of War state...
- Sean cuts him off and says he's a loose cannon, and independant actor.
- Sean never would have abided by the Articles of War anyway.
- Lt. says Sean is a League spy who wants acess to the db.
- Sean says it's an opportunistic prize at best.
- Sean punishes the Lt. for talking back.
- He uses his superior force to make the Lt. make a fist, and stick one fingrr out.
- Asks the Lt. if he thinks this has all been a hoax.
- Lt. says yes, there's no way this is real.
- Seans says it is, and he wants to drive that point home.
- Sean shoves the man's own finger through his eye.
- He pulls his finger out of his own skull and screams.
- Selene sedates him.
- Lt. is dazed, wants to scream, but can't.
- The pain is still there, though.
- "There was a sharper wave of pain at his neck, and he stopped screaming. He couldn’t scream, actually. The pain was still there, the horror, but he felt like he was seeing it behind a frosted glass. All that was left was the cold, diamond sharp reality that they had just maimed him with his own hand. And they would continue to maim him until he gave them what they wanted. If he did so, they would kill him. If he did not, they would do worse things than this, and leave him a broken husk, trapped in his own horror. He needed to cooperate. He needed to die."
- Sean asks the Lt. how he feels.
- The Lt. thinks this strange; he felt nothing, emotionally.
- Sean tells him to be respectful, Lt. calls him sir.
- Selen starts draping on Lt., running her hands under his uniform.
- She asks for the coordinates, he gives them up without a fight. (He's completely docile.)
- “Look at your hand, Lieutenant! Please, let’s clean it off first.” With that, she took his gore soaked hand and started licking his fingers clean, moaning as she did so. He watched with his one good eye, unsure if he was supposed to be aroused or not. Inside his mind, part of his was screaming, pounding on the walls of its drug induced prison. Finally, she finished, and let him put the coordinates in the pad. He also gave them the access codes for the station’s database, since there didn’t seem to be any reason for him to continue living while they downloaded whatever they wanted. He needed to die, after all.
- Sean says he's glad they're now seeing eye to eye.
- Sean renigs on their deal, has Selene take him to the shuttle.
- Lt. is confused, asks why Sean isn't killing him.
- Sean informs him that he said he'd kill him, just not when. For now he's too useful.
Characters: Captain Emelyn Acheson (Freelance), Executive Officer Brown Clover, Unnamed Freelance crew
- Emelyn has planned a very precise hit and run raid.
- She is reminded that 'No battleplan ever survives first contact with the enemy.'
- Or, as she prefers, 'the best laid plans of mice, men, and starship captains.'
- The Terrans are very far out of position.
- She'd bribed traffic control to delay them long enough for her ships to arrive.
- They should be bunched up together, but they're spred all over the place.
- In fact, they almost look like they're randomly around the planet...
- Em decides to be cautious.
- Em decides to read while they make there way in system, slowly, with very little power output.
- She reads a book to pass the time.
- The convoy hadn't moved in that entire time, and neither had the other ships around the colony.
- This makes her suspect an attack.
- Sensors confirm that everything's been attacked.
- There's distress signals everywhere, and the colony is under attack.
- They encounter a mysterious ship, unknown configuration.
- This is a Grey Battlecruiser, but they don't know it yet.
- Em orders a full retreat, maximum acceleration (780 gravities.)
- Since her main ship, Spring's Endeavour is an Archigos class, she should be able to outpace a battlecruiser easily.
- The Battlecruiser keeps up, and asks for idetification.
- The moment they send a response, the Battlecruiser stops following them.
- Em thinks this is super suspicious.
- That's when the missiles show up on the sensors, 30s out.
- Spring's Endeavour get pummeled by missiles
- They tried to take them out, but several got through, ripping through critical systems with pinpoint precision.
- The ship was damaged, but not destroyed. The attacker didn't even bother to make sure they were dead.
- Em sends Liz a message, and settles in to wait.
Characters: Captain Miranda Collins, Commander Hugh Daniels, Lieutenant Junior Grade Louis Capelle, Unnamed League Tactical Officer, Lizbeth Locke, Rekonin, Captain Emelyn Acheson (Freelance)
- Mir shows up with Liz in the Rekonin.
- This is Rekonin's first potential combat; the crew has been drilling for months.
- Those drills have been going very well, with the AI and crew learning to work together, and blowing the doors off other ship's scores.
- They are looking for the Spring's Endeavour, and Liz it pretty bitch about finding Em.
- Mir about throws down, before realizing what's really going on.
- They find Em and crew
- Em was hiding her ship in the debris of the ruined cargo ships.
- Em hails them, and they chat about the situation
- The Endeavour seems to have taken a hell of a beating.
- Em confirms; they've had several encounters with the enemy, and always came away the loser.
- Their forward subspace engines are a mess, making leaving the system impossible.
- The ship is mostly open to vaccuum, and running very low on missiles.
- Ganymede has been playing cat and mouse with the enemy, who has seemed reluctant to engage.
- Ganymede is out of missiles, and her crew has been at this for thirty hours, straight, just 10 people.
- The enemy has taken light damage, and will neither run, nor engage them. They do seem willing to let them leave, however, as Skylark has no trouble escaping.
- Em meeds Daniels, and they discuss Freelancer things
- Danielle says he's willing to replace Ganymede's Captain, and he's a Freelancer.
- Em tests him, and he passes.
- Liz says she's taking her ship, and the missiles Mir isn't allowed to give Em.
- The transfers of crew take place, and Skylark heads to relieve Ganymede.
- Rekonin and Skylark plot an intercept course, and there appears to be no reaction from the enemy.
- As soon as they entered real time communication range, the enemy attacked.
- The missiles are hard for even Rekonin to track; she has to work on new profiles while manually directing point defenses.
- Rekonin manages to take out the first volley, and sends the new profile to their allies.
- Delta squadron is launched in remote, to help cover point defense.
- As soon as Skylark flushes the enemy out, it heads straight for Rekonin.
- It launches 200 missiles, and Mir orders a full reverse, accellerating away at the limit of her fighter defense screen.
- The enemy and the missiles keep up, matching the maneuver with ease.
- Skylark offers to stay behind, allowing Rekonin to pour the acceleration on.
- Mir heads deep in system, opening her flank up to attack, and enticing the enemy to take a shorter arc to reach her.
- The enemy takes the bate, geting withing Rekonin's missile range.
- Both ships exchange missile fire
- The enemy seems able to deal with her missiles, while Rekonin starts taking minor hits.
- Mir realizes this is a losing battle already, and decides to stop playing to the enemy's strengths.
- Mir decides to do a 'samurai strike'.
- This is when both ships accellerate at each other, holding off firing until the last second. Each side only gets one shot, and most of the time it's luck who wins.
- Mir points out, really, it's all about who has the better computer. And Mir bets they do.
- Louis has a suggestion; what if Rekonin took over guidance of the missiles? It would greatly improve their ability to land on target.
- The downside is, they'll have to get to 500 kilometers, which is super, crazy close.
- Mir says do it.
- Both ships closed to within 1000 kilometers before firing.
- Rekonin put out more missiles, faster than the enemy
- At 500 kilometers, both sides start controling missiles more directly.
- Rekonin's missiles doing this seem to confuse the enemy; the enemy attempted to change course, but the laws of physics say no.
- The wild movements of the enemy ship allowed Rekonin to score more hits.
- Both ships enter energy weapons range.
- Rekonin fires it's super secret 'spinal quantum lance'. It starts tearing up the enemy.
- The enemy returns fire with it's own lance, which shouldn't be possible, since the Rekonin is the only ship to have one.
- Rekonin scored a direct hit, killing the enemy ship
¶ Simon and Abby Collect a Debt
Characters: Abby, Simon, Liz
- Abby and Simon are heading somewhere.
- We learn that Abby hates Sylvia, and that Simon killed her and her sister, before bringing them back.
- We also learn that Abby wants her sister to be with Simon, not Sylvia.
- When Simon "wishes Abby to not exist anymore", she goes to a place where she remembers all the murders she's done, but instead of being fun, it hurts. And she doesn't like hurting.
- Simon told her they would be dealing with nobility, so she had to be on her best behavior.
- Abby isn't too impressed; they seem to break just as easily as everyone else, despite looking funny.
- They arrive at an impressive throne room, with Liz sitting in the chair.
- Abby is excited to see Liz, and runs up to sit on her lap.
- Liz asks how her sister is, and Abby says she hasn't seen her. She thinks Simon erased her.
- Liz assures her Simon can't do that, otherwise she'd be long gone.
- Abby calls Sylvia a bitch, and Simon scolds her.
- She joins Simon who takes a defensive stance against Liz. A tense second passes before Liz makes it clear she's not here for a fight.
- Liz says she isn't here for a fight, and starts making her way carefully to the door.
- Simon doesn't trust her, because when hasn't she tried to hunt him down? Or stop him?
- She plays coy, making it to the door, and then making a run for it.
- Confused, Simon takes Abby further into the house. Everyone is already dead, or dying.
- Simon found a security recording, with footage from all over Terrans space.
- It had the assasinations of every noble house on it.
- At the end, Liz's voice said that every noble house was killed, and that the leaders of both the League and Terrans had been killed. The galaxy was on fire, and it was probably the same people who'd released him. She wants his help, so come find her.
- Simon is in shock, unsure what to do.
- Abby says she just wants to go home.
- Simon points out they don't have one, anymore.
- Abby says they should take someone else's.
- Simon comes back to himself at that, and agrees.