Venture at Barabor

The trio had started their search of the city early in the morning, hoping to get a good start of the day. Charnel had gone back to the ship to get some equipment, while Anarak and Detranis started asking around about any organizations and gangs that had arrived recently.

Their search didn’t take long. A bartender informed them of a group whose members called themselves ‘Angels’. The members of the Angels had holed themselves up at a warehouse in the edge of town.

At least the trio had located where the cartel’s cell was hiding. Charnel even made a pointed remark that the alias ‘Angel’, if it could be called that, didn’t exactly conceal the cell’s true nature.

As night began to descend, the group decided to make its move.


-+-


Clad in the battle armor he usually reserved for large-scale confrontations, Charnel crouched low behind a stack of craters, watching a couple of guards talking casually with one another, unaware that they were being watched.

Beside him, Detranis was having a discussion with Anarak, who was prowling around the warehouse making assessments. “Four here at the south, four more at the east, four again in the left, and four at the north entrance. I have to admit, these guys are professionals”.

[If they were professionals, Detranis, then they would have spotted me with ease] Anarak reproved wryly. [Compared to the other foes we faced, these guys are as perceptive as rocks].

“Doesn’t that statement sound a bit familiar? I think you said that behind the backs of a couple of Gargite merchants at Sartosa”. Detranis countered with a sly remark of his own.

Charnel suppressed the urge to laugh, but it didn’t stop him from letting out a muffled chortle from behind his hands-covered mouth. From the other end of the comlink, Anarak groaned with dismay and embarrassment. [Not another word].

Several hours passed non-eventfully, with the exception of the guard detail changing twice. Charnel and Detranis continued to wait for Anarak to return as they carried on with their observations. The guards went on chatting with one another.

Finally, a slight change in air currents signaled the arachna’s return, and both Charnel and Detranis turned their heads to see the spider-humanoid assassin approach.

“Well, that was clever of them” Anarak remarked. “The inside has a lot more guards than on the outside, dozens of them in fact. They’ve got a good deal of hi-tech weapons evenly distributed amongst them”.

“How hi-tech” Detranis asked.

“As in definitely going to pack a punch hi-tech” the arachna replied with a bit of dismay. “When you said that these guys are professionals, you were right”.

“Thinking of quitting, Anarak?” Charnel said in a half-insult and half-joke tone.

“Not a chance” was the grim riposte.

“If you two don’t mind, you two, it’s time we got ourselves busy” Detranis pointed out as he pulled out a couple of senbon from one of his pockets. “Here’s how we’re going to do this…”


-+-


“Very impressive” the Minmatar said, admiring the weapon that his group had ‘procured’ from the Caldari corporations. It was bound to cause considerable damage to the Jove Directorate, maybe even give the State the chance it needs to subvert the Jovians….

Or in this case, give the Angel Cartel both a bargaining chip and a new weapon to use. That was only if the cell found its way back to the sector, past the territories of an empire with more zealotry and fanaticism than that of the Amarr. The captain never expected the tycoons of the state to respond so quickly to the theft, nor did he anticipate the huge fleet that they had sent out.

For weeks, the cartel fleet was closely pursued by the Caldari vessels, taken out bit by bit as the militantly persistent fools flushed them out consecutively and mercilessly. Then, just as the Caldari fleet was close to catching them, a tear in normal space opened up and sent both groups across the other side of the galaxy, far from the regions of the Eve Sector and into the Segmentum Tempestus of the Imperium.

The little game of cat-and-mouse continued then, but this time the Caldari had to take precautions. Unlike the cartel, the State had a bigger matter to concern with, upholding a state of neutrality with the Eve Sector’s larger neighbor, the Imperium of Man. Would it become known to the Imperials that ships of the State Navy were active in their territory, they would automatically consider it as trespassing.

And no power, be it alien or human, did not want to draw unwanted attention from the people of Terra.

  “We should be on the move” Brutos heard the detested voice of an Amarrian. Turning, he regarded the half-man, half-machine creature whose kind had enslaved, and continue to enslave, his kinsmen.

The Amarrian’s right arm had been replaced with a crude metal appendage ending with a pincer-like hand and a couple of built-in concealable railguns. An eyepiece covered over the spot of his right eye, replacing the long-lost organ and granting him enhanced sight. The rest of his exterior retained a fleshy appearance, but that hid the fact that he had replaced his heart and a good deal of his interior organs with cybernetic substitutes. His vocal chords had been exchanged for a neural-voice converter.

“I’m the one in charge here, and I know what I’m doing” Brutos sneered at the cyborg with undisguised hate. A free Minmatar could never forget the oppression given to them.

“No slave has the right to be a leader” the Amarrian countered with a half-smile. “They lack the competence and the bearing to perform the purpose”.

“You’re just saying that because the empire’s favorite ‘servants’ rebelled against you” another cartel member, a Khanid from Dark Amarr, piped in, “not to mention my people decided to ‘adopt’ ideals from other races”.

The faint chinking of grooves and shifting of joints could be heard from the Amarrian’s metal arm as the Khanid’s insult struck true. “Alright, that’s enough!” Brutos cut in, standing between the two in an attempt to prevent a confrontation.

It was bad luck that his cell had to include members of human races that were directly opposed to one another. There were fifteen other Minmatar, ten Amarrians, five Khanid from Dark Amarr, four rogue Caldari Civire, three Ammatar, two men of unknown descent (although Brutos suspected they might have Jovian lineage), and Brutos himself. All in all, his cell numbered forty in manpower.

“I agree with the Amarrian” one of the Civire stated calmly. “Knowing my kind and the Deteis, our pursuers have probably discovered our hiding place and are making their move”.

“You heard the boss” it was a Minmatar that piped up. “He knows what he’s doing. You think your Deteis paymasters would have caught us if he wasn’t deciding for us?”

“I still think we should get going”.

“We’re an easier target on the move!” a Khanid argued. “Out in space, the Caldari have enough guns to blast us out of the sky”.

“But they don’t intend to” Brutos stated, “not if they want their weapon to go up in flames. The Caldari are not the ones I’m worried about; it’s the Imperium”.

“And there are also the other empires that the Imperium is facing” an Ammatar added.

“Who asked for your insight, Amarr pet?”

“We are free to comment as we please, savage”.

“Who are you calling a savage, savage?!”

“Unless you guys want to get hurt so badly, knock it off!” Brutos’ words boomed through the chamber, but something else happened soon after. The south doors suddenly broke apart as one of the Khanid flew in and landed on several crates.

Stunned, Brutos watched as a large and heavily armored lizard humanoid strode into the warehouse, brandishing a claymore in one hand as it roared out in challenge. Behind it, a pair of wings spread out, framing the beast in a glorious representation of fury.

Out of fear, the rest of the group rushed to grab their weapons, but a couple of their number suddenly collapsed to the ground, dead. Looking closely, Brutos could see a needle protruding from each individual’s neck.

A scream erupted from the Minmatar’s right, and he turned to see one of the Khanid get mauled by several dark-clad figures. The man continued to scream in pain as the assassins cut him up like an animal.

The remaining cell members were now opening fire on the armored lizard. Viridian beams of energy peppered the protective shell, but to no affect. The pincer-armed Amarrian now had his railguns out and blazing. The linear accelerated bullets managed to push Charnel back a bit, but it did not bring him down.

Meanwhile, another figure in an assassin’s garb and wielding a sword swooped down from above the east entrance, falling upon two Minmatar without mercy. A six-armed spider-humanoid appeared from the west, holding a sword in each of its hands.

The alien warrior targeted one of the Civire, who promptly pulled out a combat knife as he prepared to fight. Sadly, the man was quickly disarmed before five other knives punctured him in the heart, the lungs, and his ribs. As soon as the blades were pulled out, the Civire fell back a bloody corpse.

The engagement lasted for a few more seconds, but by then the group had been reduced to five Minmatar, two Khanid, three Amarrians, two Civire, and one of the alleged half-Jovians. Brutos, plasma shotgun in hand, was firing his weapon again and again at the armored lizard, but still it did not fall.

A fellow Minmatar let out a cry as he fell clutching his bleeding shoulder. Another followed as a victim of Anarak’s blades. The Amarrian with the cybernetic pincer-arm tried to open fire on the six-armed alien, but three needles struck critical points in the metal appendage. The result was inevitable, and the Amarrian screamed in pain as his arm violently exploded into a flurry of shrapnel, sending the cyborg onto the floor.

Seeing only the chaos around him, Brutos continued to let loose with his autocannon, firing repeating hails of slugs at the heavily armored lizard advancing fast towards him.


-+-


Charnel was breathing hard and fast as he covered the distance between him and his foe. The draconian could feel his blood boiling inside him; feel the adrenaline rushing throughout him like wildfire.

The human continued to rain solid slugs on him as he charged. With a raised hand, Charnel shielded his vulnerable eyes from any potential lucky shots. Bullets continued to bounce harmlessly off his armor, with not a single one putting so much as a dent.

Finally, the moment he had been waiting for, the draconian’s opponent had used up his weapon’s ammunition, and he was fumbling about on his pockets for a new cartridge. Not wasting any time, Charnel raised his claymore for a strike, swinging it just as the human finally pulled out a new cartridge.


-+-


The lizard’s blade sliced the autocannon in half, and the resulting explosion that followed sent Brutos flying backwards. The Minmatar landed on the floor with a hard thud. Before he could get off, his body was suddenly wracked with pain as thin metal needles struck several points of his body, immobilizing him.

Before Brutos could even put up a struggle, a needle struck a nerve in his neck, sending a neural shock that rendered him comatose in an instant. The last thing he heard were the screams of his fellow angels before everything became black and silent.


-+-


“Good job with the illusions, Detranis” Charnel praised his human compatriot as he took in the site of the comatose fugitives sprawled on the floor. The one thing the draconian respected about the assassin was his skill with conjuring hallucinations to scare, break, and sometimes kill opponents. It was a skill he picked up in his time on the assassin’s guild he was a part of, and as far as he was concerned, that’s all he needed to know.

“Well, if you ask me, it would have been better if no one got hurt” the illusionist remarked, eying both Charnel and Anarak with stern looks. “You got a little carried away”.

“It happens” the arachna replied, sheathing his blades as he did so. “At least this time, no one was killed. Even in a place like this, mercenaries have to make sure there’s no evidence pointing to them”.

“Better to attract little attention than give explanation” Charnel finished. “That’s the mark of a true warrior-for-hire”.

“If you don’t mind, gentlemen, I believe it’s time we resumed our business” Detranis stated as he dragged one of the men to his fellows. “First off is getting answers”.

“Good idea” Anarak replied, and he moved to wrap webbing around their temporary acquaintance in case he’d try to escape. He then moved back a few steps. “Care to tell us about your top loot?”

The human didn’t answer; merely stared back at the arachna with his hypnotic eyes.

Anarak drew one of his swords as he clicked his mandibles. “I won’t ask nicely on the third, buddy. Tell me what we need to know”.

“What does it matter” the criminal finally spoke. “Either way, the consequences will be the same. The Caldari will push through with their offensive and massacre my people”.

“Your people” Detranis was taken by surprise. “Tell me, are you a Jovian?”

“Half-Jovian to be precise” the fugitive replied, “My ‘boss’ suspected my heritage, but you three are the only ones who are truly aware of my true identity”. He bent his head low then. “Now put an end to my life. Kill me”.

“Not without answers” Detranis said. “When it comes to our missions, we like to know what we’re dealing with. Now tell us”.

“This changes nothing” the Halfling muttered before finally acquiescing. “If you must know, it’s known as the Caldari Genebreaker. The cannon fires irradiated shells containing a specially concocted mutagen that targets the Jovian gene”.

At that, Charnel and Anarak turned to Detranis for an explanation, which he gave. “Because of tampering with their bodies, the Jovians had unwittingly made their genome unstable, bringing about a number of defects that continue to plague them today”.

“That’s right” the half-Jovian took over. “However, the Genebreaker mutagen has the capability to further deteriorate and shatter our genetic strands, which in turn will cause my people to devolve. Such an event will cause them to degenerate into lifeless blobs of ooze, ooze that can do nothing to stop the State’s plundering of the Directorate”.

As the information sank deep into the trio’s minds, the Halfling pleaded out to them. “If any of you have hearts, please listen to me. That weapon must not be used. This is the genocide of the Jovian people that I speak of, and if you give the Caldari their weapon, you will be causing it”.

The three mercenaries exchanged looks with one another as each thought what they should do next.