Fiction Friday! Escape pod if you're not into that is here to a competition from the The Angle Project with some nice prizes to be won..... if you are a newb (aka less than one year old). As I turn five on the 29th, I am excluded. Boo! Ageism! ;)
This is part two of the three 'parter' of Jacked. Part 1 is here.
Jacked - Part 2
Slowly Krar started to come around. He could hear muffled voices and his head hurt. A slap to his face brought him round fully. The 'monks' were clearly Amarrian soldiers. Their robes lay discarded on the floor and they stood in light armour battle uniforms. He was still in the passenger quarters, they hadn't moved him whilst he'd been out, and one of them was missing. A bald-headed man, who he assumed was the leader, turned to him.
"Look, we've not got much time so I'll make this simple. We are currently taking care of that battleship stuck to the outside of your ship. Once that is done we need you to continue on course and get us to the destination station on time."
Krar rubbed his head where he had been struck. He knew they were in trouble. These men had just murdered three Gallente customs officers in cold blood. They surely would kill any witnesses which included him and his family.
"Why the frack should I?" he growled still thinking of a way out.
The soldier who had spoken to him squatted down on his haunches to face Krar who was now slumped against the wall.
"Because me and my men have been posing as monks for six weeks. If you don't help us we're going to very violently break our vow of celibacy on your wife and that hot little daughter of yours!"
Krar slowly nodded. He needed to play along until he could work out what to do.
-o0o-
On-board the Gallente customs ship the bridge was quiet. They were waiting confirmation although they didn't expect to get it. They had sketchy reports of the weapons scanners being tampered with on the nearby station. It was likely someone was smuggling something deadly. However, this tramp industrial had been apparently chartered by the Quaffe Corporation. It was unlikely the suspect. However, three officers had gone on board to check as the orders where to investigate all ships leaving the system.
"Sir, I'm getting some strange internal readings, from our own inernal sensor arrays."
The captain in the command chair spun around to the ensign who was in charge of monitoring the ships internal systems.
"Explain Ensign."
"Well I'm getting minor alarms and warnings on systems that should be manned. But I'm not reading anyone stationed at the critical consoles. In fact I think the scanners are malfunctioning. I'm not getting any crew life-signals on decks 11 to 34. I thought it must be an error, but I'm not able to raise anyone on the comms."
"Nonsense!" declared the captain "23 decks of my crew would not simply abandon their posts! Rescan!"
"I have sir, now I'm not getting anything on 35 to 41 either."
The Captain tapped a button on his comm panel. There was no response.
"Ensign Rimmah. Put the security camera from the mess hall on the main viewer."
There were gasps of horror as the view of deep space was replaced by the mess hall. Twenty or so crew were slumped over the tables or laying on the floor.
"Give me corridor cameras on 41." the captain said urgently.
"Which one sir?"
"ANY!" the captain snapped.
The view screen swapped to the view of a corridor. Two people lay prone on the floor.
"45! Show deck 45!" he ordered with urgency in his voice.
The view switched again. An officer was walking down the corridor towards the camera with a datapad in his hand. He stopped and rubbed his throat looking concerned. Then he staggered and started gasping for air. Large sores appeared on his exposed skin of his face and hands. He started to bleed from his eyes and mouth which was still wide open gasping for air. The sores opened and started leaking yellow pus and blood. The officer collapsed face down on the deck and convulsed for a few seconds before going still.
"Shut down the ventilation system!" the captain screamed as he turned to the officer below him manning the life support station.
She slowly looked up at him in terror.
Her face was already erupting in sores. She clutched her neck unable to breath. Then the captain on his elevated platform felt a spasm in his back. He then knew all was lost. 10 seconds later everyone one on the bridge was dead, as was everyone else on the ship.
-o0o-
Krar was sat in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit. His wife was sat opposite. The two Amarrians stood waiting. The hatch opened and a third walked in.
"All done?" asked the leader.
"Yes. I seriously do not recommend visiting that battleship. Everyone on board caught a nasty case of death." he chuckled. "Gas works fine. 100% mortality rate." he looked around "Where is Four?"
"He went to get the daughter. He should have been back by now." replied the leader with some concern in his voice.
A second later the hatch to the cockpit opened again and the daughter flew in and fell to the ground. An Amarrian solder stomped in after her with his hand to his cheek. On seeing this her father rose angrily from his seat but the barrel of a gun in his face promptly made his sit back down. The guard who had thrown the daughter into the cockpit removed his hand to show a row of three bleeding gashes on his cheek. The others laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, fracking funny. But she's a wildcat. Watch her, she'll claw your eyes out if you give her chance."
"You have no idea!" the daughter spat from where she had propped herself on the floor "Want round two pussie? I'll kick your ass again whilst your friends are watching!".
The other soldiers laughed but the one with the clawed face just scowled.
The leader stepped forward and picked the daughter up by the hair. Krar leapt from his seat but was punched back to a sat position by a soldier. The leader dumped the daughter in a chair next to her mother. The leader pulled up a chair and sat down opposite Krar.
"Look, this doesn't have to be difficult. All we need you to do is complete your run. Travel to the station. Dock. Pretend all is OK. Let them unload your cargo and head back here. We'll have a ship meet us and we'll transfer off and you can go on your merry way."
The husband was getting his breath back.
"That simple eh. And you'll let us go?"
"Yes."
"But we know you have shot dead three customs officers and sounds like you gassed a few thousand more."
"Yes. Not an issue as far as I can see. In fact we want you alive ideally."
"And if I say no?"
"Your wife and daughter will regret that you did."
The leader let the words hang ominously in the air before turning to two of his men.
"Two and Three. Take the women back down to their quarters and stay with them. Do not harm them, yet. I'll let you know if the good captain here does not co-operate."
-o0o-
The daughter stumbled into her quarters from the hefty push the Amarrian gave her. He took a step inside and looked around. The girls quarters looked like something from a Matari museum. The walls were decorated with tribal art, the furniture was a mix of standard fittings and wood which was highly unusual to find on a ship. He closed the door and leant back against it as the girl flopped onto her bed.
The soldier crossed his arms, the three scratches in his cheek still glowed red.
"I'd offer you a drink." sneered the girl "But my mouth is a bit dry and I'm not sure I could get enough spit to do it justice."
The soldier just stood there.
"Wow you are a real stiff" she said rising to face him. "You going to play statues for the entire trip?"
The soldier didn't blink. He just stared at her.
"Oh the strong silent type eh? You are pathetic. Even your commander thinks so. Look at the job he gave you, guard the little girl! He must think you are one of his crack troops."
Still no reaction.
"Ah! I've got it. No, its because he can trust you right. Girls not your thing? You prefer boys?"
A reaction. A subtle glint in the eyes. Anger?
"Oh I seeeeee! So if I do this....." Inga pulled her top over her head and stood there in her bra "......I still get no reaction?"
Although he tried his hardest to hide it, the daughter knew he was getting mad. She casually kicked her shoes off and slowly unfastened her jeans before slipping out of them. She stood against the back wall in just her underwear.
"That's why he chose you. I can do this..." she squeezed her breasts together "... and you don't care!"
She turned around and bent over slightly placing her palms against the wall. She shrugged out of her bra and looked coyly over her shoulder. "Now is this better?" she asked as she wiggled her ass.
"If you want I could put on one of my dads zero-G football jerseys, and I could wear a cap to hide the hair. We could pretend I'm a boy. You'd like that wouldn't you. Pretend I'm a pretty boy with a soft ass and you'll...."
The soldier finally lost it and charged at her. His face was twisted in a look that was somewhere between lust and rage. The girl span round to meet him as he charged into her pinning her against the wall. She jumped slightly as they connected, her legs wrapping around his waist as he grabbed her wrists pinning her against the wall. Several thick canvas paintings rattled as he held his face an inch from hers breathing heavily.
Inga smiled and rubbed herself against him, her legs wrapped tightly around him.
"See! I don't feel a thing! Nothing's happening down there! You've got a hot girl rubbing herself on you and there is less life down there than on a class 6 plasma planet. You sure you don't want me dress up like a boy?"
The soldier grabbed her shoulders and backed away from the wall before throwing her backwards. She slammed against the wall and giggled.
"I'm going to fracking ruin you! When I'm finished with you no man will ever want you." he snarled as he removed his uniform. The garments dropped to the floor with a slight thud due to the lightweight armour plates that covered vital areas. He stood there in his underwear, a significant bulge straining against the material.
"Now you are going to feel something bitch. I'm going to split you in half and I'll fracking enjoy your screams." he leared as he grabbed himself.
Inga looked afraid as he advanced quickly. Her arms were still outstretched against the wall. He ran at her. As he collided with her she pulled her right arm in quickly against her body. There was a flash of something, he saw it at the last moment. His mouth opened wide in a silent scream. His eyes wide in shock. He staggered back two steps and looked down. In the centre of his chest an ancient knife hilt protruded. He looked back up at the girl in disbelief. The fear he had seen for a second before was nowhere to be seen. A ruse. A deception.
"My father doesn't like me having weapons. So I have to hide my antique Matari knives behind these paintings so he doesn't find them. I keep them sharp, but I guess you can tell that. Obviously they are not sharp enough to penetrate modern armour, but if the idiot I want to kill strips off for me they work fine."
The soldier grabbed the hilt and pulled it free. A arc of crimson blood shot from the wound.
"As I said, idiot. Last thing you do if something penetrates your chest is pull it out!"
The soldier fell backwards. His life blood pumped from the wound between his fingers that tried in vain to stem the flow. His head lolled to the side. The daughter crouched over and looked into his eyes. He stared back for a few seconds before dying.
-o0o-
Krar was sat at the flight controls pondering how to get out of this mess when the master alarm went off. The constant drone of the engines vanished and the view out of the cockpit windows showed the ship was drifting.
"What did you do?" the leader of the soldiers snarled.
Krar was back at the controls "Nothing. Something’s wrong. I don't know I'm trying to find out."
"If this is intentional, if you have sabotaged this ship I'll make sure your daughter and wife are screaming for the next two days! Four! Take a look."
One of the other soldiers pushed the husband out of the way and studied the console.
"Its a mechanical breakdown sir. The secondary cooling system is jammed. The engines have shut-down automatically. The captain couldn't have done it from here. We'll need to repair it before we can get under way again."
"Take him down to the engine room and get it fixed now. We are behind schedule already."
-o0o-
Krar opened the access panel and isolated the section of the engine where the fault had developed. Breakdowns were hardly unknown on his ship. It was Matari after all. But whilst it wasn't unusual for things to breakdown, he'd never had problems with the secondary cooling systems. He walked over to the faulty machinery and opened the access hatch. He stuck his head in and could smell burning. He looked back and saw the soldier leaning against the wall disinterested. Krar worked his shoulders into the cramped access space and removed a second cover that accessed the pump mechanisms. Some material was jamming the rotary mechanism. He started to pull it clear. It was some sort of black material. Lace! Krar was puzzled. What was a strange black lace material doing in the secondary cooling system? He recovered more material and a pair of straps. It was a bra! Too small to be his wife’s and there was only one way it could have got into this sealed section. He smiled. She was loose.
A armoured boot kicked his foot.
"Come on. We've not got forever."
Krar pulled his torso out of the tight access and looked at the soldier.
"Look, do you want to crawl in there? Its a mess and its going to take a good twenty minutes for me to fix the malfunction. Now are you going to leave me to fix it or do I have to tell your boss its taking so long as a certain asshat is stopping me from working every other minute?"
The soldier looked down at him.
"Just fix the problem."
He crawled back to work with a smile on his face.
...to conclude next week...
This is part two of the three 'parter' of Jacked. Part 1 is here.
Jacked - Part 2
Slowly Krar started to come around. He could hear muffled voices and his head hurt. A slap to his face brought him round fully. The 'monks' were clearly Amarrian soldiers. Their robes lay discarded on the floor and they stood in light armour battle uniforms. He was still in the passenger quarters, they hadn't moved him whilst he'd been out, and one of them was missing. A bald-headed man, who he assumed was the leader, turned to him.
"Look, we've not got much time so I'll make this simple. We are currently taking care of that battleship stuck to the outside of your ship. Once that is done we need you to continue on course and get us to the destination station on time."
Krar rubbed his head where he had been struck. He knew they were in trouble. These men had just murdered three Gallente customs officers in cold blood. They surely would kill any witnesses which included him and his family.
"Why the frack should I?" he growled still thinking of a way out.
The soldier who had spoken to him squatted down on his haunches to face Krar who was now slumped against the wall.
"Because me and my men have been posing as monks for six weeks. If you don't help us we're going to very violently break our vow of celibacy on your wife and that hot little daughter of yours!"
Krar slowly nodded. He needed to play along until he could work out what to do.
-o0o-
On-board the Gallente customs ship the bridge was quiet. They were waiting confirmation although they didn't expect to get it. They had sketchy reports of the weapons scanners being tampered with on the nearby station. It was likely someone was smuggling something deadly. However, this tramp industrial had been apparently chartered by the Quaffe Corporation. It was unlikely the suspect. However, three officers had gone on board to check as the orders where to investigate all ships leaving the system.
The captain in the command chair spun around to the ensign who was in charge of monitoring the ships internal systems.
"Explain Ensign."
"Well I'm getting minor alarms and warnings on systems that should be manned. But I'm not reading anyone stationed at the critical consoles. In fact I think the scanners are malfunctioning. I'm not getting any crew life-signals on decks 11 to 34. I thought it must be an error, but I'm not able to raise anyone on the comms."
"Nonsense!" declared the captain "23 decks of my crew would not simply abandon their posts! Rescan!"
"I have sir, now I'm not getting anything on 35 to 41 either."
The Captain tapped a button on his comm panel. There was no response.
"Ensign Rimmah. Put the security camera from the mess hall on the main viewer."
There were gasps of horror as the view of deep space was replaced by the mess hall. Twenty or so crew were slumped over the tables or laying on the floor.
"Give me corridor cameras on 41." the captain said urgently.
"Which one sir?"
"ANY!" the captain snapped.
The view screen swapped to the view of a corridor. Two people lay prone on the floor.
"45! Show deck 45!" he ordered with urgency in his voice.
The view switched again. An officer was walking down the corridor towards the camera with a datapad in his hand. He stopped and rubbed his throat looking concerned. Then he staggered and started gasping for air. Large sores appeared on his exposed skin of his face and hands. He started to bleed from his eyes and mouth which was still wide open gasping for air. The sores opened and started leaking yellow pus and blood. The officer collapsed face down on the deck and convulsed for a few seconds before going still.
"Shut down the ventilation system!" the captain screamed as he turned to the officer below him manning the life support station.
She slowly looked up at him in terror.
-o0o-
Krar was sat in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit. His wife was sat opposite. The two Amarrians stood waiting. The hatch opened and a third walked in.
"All done?" asked the leader.
"Yes. I seriously do not recommend visiting that battleship. Everyone on board caught a nasty case of death." he chuckled. "Gas works fine. 100% mortality rate." he looked around "Where is Four?"
"He went to get the daughter. He should have been back by now." replied the leader with some concern in his voice.
A second later the hatch to the cockpit opened again and the daughter flew in and fell to the ground. An Amarrian solder stomped in after her with his hand to his cheek. On seeing this her father rose angrily from his seat but the barrel of a gun in his face promptly made his sit back down. The guard who had thrown the daughter into the cockpit removed his hand to show a row of three bleeding gashes on his cheek. The others laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, fracking funny. But she's a wildcat. Watch her, she'll claw your eyes out if you give her chance."
"You have no idea!" the daughter spat from where she had propped herself on the floor "Want round two pussie? I'll kick your ass again whilst your friends are watching!".
The other soldiers laughed but the one with the clawed face just scowled.
The leader stepped forward and picked the daughter up by the hair. Krar leapt from his seat but was punched back to a sat position by a soldier. The leader dumped the daughter in a chair next to her mother. The leader pulled up a chair and sat down opposite Krar.
"Look, this doesn't have to be difficult. All we need you to do is complete your run. Travel to the station. Dock. Pretend all is OK. Let them unload your cargo and head back here. We'll have a ship meet us and we'll transfer off and you can go on your merry way."
The husband was getting his breath back.
"That simple eh. And you'll let us go?"
"Yes."
"But we know you have shot dead three customs officers and sounds like you gassed a few thousand more."
"Yes. Not an issue as far as I can see. In fact we want you alive ideally."
"And if I say no?"
"Your wife and daughter will regret that you did."
"Two and Three. Take the women back down to their quarters and stay with them. Do not harm them, yet. I'll let you know if the good captain here does not co-operate."
-o0o-
The daughter stumbled into her quarters from the hefty push the Amarrian gave her. He took a step inside and looked around. The girls quarters looked like something from a Matari museum. The walls were decorated with tribal art, the furniture was a mix of standard fittings and wood which was highly unusual to find on a ship. He closed the door and leant back against it as the girl flopped onto her bed.
The soldier crossed his arms, the three scratches in his cheek still glowed red.
"I'd offer you a drink." sneered the girl "But my mouth is a bit dry and I'm not sure I could get enough spit to do it justice."
The soldier just stood there.
"Wow you are a real stiff" she said rising to face him. "You going to play statues for the entire trip?"
The soldier didn't blink. He just stared at her.
"Oh the strong silent type eh? You are pathetic. Even your commander thinks so. Look at the job he gave you, guard the little girl! He must think you are one of his crack troops."
Still no reaction.
"Ah! I've got it. No, its because he can trust you right. Girls not your thing? You prefer boys?"
A reaction. A subtle glint in the eyes. Anger?
"Oh I seeeeee! So if I do this....." Inga pulled her top over her head and stood there in her bra "......I still get no reaction?"
Although he tried his hardest to hide it, the daughter knew he was getting mad. She casually kicked her shoes off and slowly unfastened her jeans before slipping out of them. She stood against the back wall in just her underwear.
"That's why he chose you. I can do this..." she squeezed her breasts together "... and you don't care!"
She turned around and bent over slightly placing her palms against the wall. She shrugged out of her bra and looked coyly over her shoulder. "Now is this better?" she asked as she wiggled her ass.
The soldier finally lost it and charged at her. His face was twisted in a look that was somewhere between lust and rage. The girl span round to meet him as he charged into her pinning her against the wall. She jumped slightly as they connected, her legs wrapping around his waist as he grabbed her wrists pinning her against the wall. Several thick canvas paintings rattled as he held his face an inch from hers breathing heavily.
Inga smiled and rubbed herself against him, her legs wrapped tightly around him.
"See! I don't feel a thing! Nothing's happening down there! You've got a hot girl rubbing herself on you and there is less life down there than on a class 6 plasma planet. You sure you don't want me dress up like a boy?"
The soldier grabbed her shoulders and backed away from the wall before throwing her backwards. She slammed against the wall and giggled.
"I'm going to fracking ruin you! When I'm finished with you no man will ever want you." he snarled as he removed his uniform. The garments dropped to the floor with a slight thud due to the lightweight armour plates that covered vital areas. He stood there in his underwear, a significant bulge straining against the material.
"Now you are going to feel something bitch. I'm going to split you in half and I'll fracking enjoy your screams." he leared as he grabbed himself.
Inga looked afraid as he advanced quickly. Her arms were still outstretched against the wall. He ran at her. As he collided with her she pulled her right arm in quickly against her body. There was a flash of something, he saw it at the last moment. His mouth opened wide in a silent scream. His eyes wide in shock. He staggered back two steps and looked down. In the centre of his chest an ancient knife hilt protruded. He looked back up at the girl in disbelief. The fear he had seen for a second before was nowhere to be seen. A ruse. A deception.
"My father doesn't like me having weapons. So I have to hide my antique Matari knives behind these paintings so he doesn't find them. I keep them sharp, but I guess you can tell that. Obviously they are not sharp enough to penetrate modern armour, but if the idiot I want to kill strips off for me they work fine."
The soldier grabbed the hilt and pulled it free. A arc of crimson blood shot from the wound.
"As I said, idiot. Last thing you do if something penetrates your chest is pull it out!"
The soldier fell backwards. His life blood pumped from the wound between his fingers that tried in vain to stem the flow. His head lolled to the side. The daughter crouched over and looked into his eyes. He stared back for a few seconds before dying.
-o0o-
Krar was sat at the flight controls pondering how to get out of this mess when the master alarm went off. The constant drone of the engines vanished and the view out of the cockpit windows showed the ship was drifting.
"What did you do?" the leader of the soldiers snarled.
Krar was back at the controls "Nothing. Something’s wrong. I don't know I'm trying to find out."
"If this is intentional, if you have sabotaged this ship I'll make sure your daughter and wife are screaming for the next two days! Four! Take a look."
One of the other soldiers pushed the husband out of the way and studied the console.
"Its a mechanical breakdown sir. The secondary cooling system is jammed. The engines have shut-down automatically. The captain couldn't have done it from here. We'll need to repair it before we can get under way again."
"Take him down to the engine room and get it fixed now. We are behind schedule already."
-o0o-
Krar opened the access panel and isolated the section of the engine where the fault had developed. Breakdowns were hardly unknown on his ship. It was Matari after all. But whilst it wasn't unusual for things to breakdown, he'd never had problems with the secondary cooling systems. He walked over to the faulty machinery and opened the access hatch. He stuck his head in and could smell burning. He looked back and saw the soldier leaning against the wall disinterested. Krar worked his shoulders into the cramped access space and removed a second cover that accessed the pump mechanisms. Some material was jamming the rotary mechanism. He started to pull it clear. It was some sort of black material. Lace! Krar was puzzled. What was a strange black lace material doing in the secondary cooling system? He recovered more material and a pair of straps. It was a bra! Too small to be his wife’s and there was only one way it could have got into this sealed section. He smiled. She was loose.
"Come on. We've not got forever."
Krar pulled his torso out of the tight access and looked at the soldier.
"Look, do you want to crawl in there? Its a mess and its going to take a good twenty minutes for me to fix the malfunction. Now are you going to leave me to fix it or do I have to tell your boss its taking so long as a certain asshat is stopping me from working every other minute?"
The soldier looked down at him.
"Just fix the problem."
He crawled back to work with a smile on his face.
...to conclude next week...
I have to wait another week now, argh!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome fiction as always! But maybe add a link to the previous in the series incase one would stumble upon them in the middle? :)
ReplyDelete