The next day, the pirate awoke. When he first opened his eyes, he noticed that he had been stripped to his underwear and bound to a cold metal chair on a floor he didn’t recognise. Panicked he slowly raised his head to a massive vesk wearing metal armor that made him look like a large metal behemoth. The vesk raise his hands, lifting a large metal beam and placed the pirates head in between two spikes longer than his forearm. The vesk growled like an untamed beast, his rigid and spiky face twisting animalistically, freaking the pirate out who tried to escape from his binds. The doshko moved across his neck as he struggled, leave a small cut across his neck. The pirate froze from the idea of causing his own death by struggling like an idiot, stopping cold and looking in fear at the vesk. A soft voice came from behind him and four grey hands moved over his face, covering his eyes and causing him to panic again.

“Shh, let us talk, we can be friends, really.”

An oddly sadistic side emerged from Umana, who seemed to be enjoying the moment a little bit too much. She was probably taught torture methods when she was trained on her home planet. Her top two hands moved over his eyes, her nails and thin fingers moving into the gap between his eyeball and socket. Her other hands grasped his move shut, preventing him from screaming. The doshko moved from his neck, the topmost spike moving own his chest, shallowly cutting him down his chest and abdomen. Umana’s fingers moved around, her sharp nails scratching inside and behind his eyes. The pirate fainted, his senses overloaded from too much pain and information to take in. Vahl set down the doshko, looking surprised at Umana.

“Where did you learn that?”

“My father taught me.”

“…What kind of man was your father exactly?”

“He used to be a military general, he said that those kinds of skills kept him alive during wars.”

“I see.”

“What about your own dad?”

“Uh, well I don’t know much about him, just that other vesk thought he was an asshole.”

“Oh? What do you mean by that? Did he do something?”

“I’m not sure, but the people around him certainly didn’t like him. But they couldn’t take their anger out on him, so they targeted me. And he did nothing about it, only telling me to deal with it myself. I suppose he was some kind of warrior, though the stupid virtues of the vesk culture combined with the pride and lack of care from a father isn’t a good combination, I considered Korva my real family.”

“Is that why you are on this planet?”

“I am not sure; I was too young to remember too much, but I am also not sure if I want to figure that out. Lets just quickly get rid of this guy and go home.”

They got rid of the pirate, throwing his body far from the house for the streets to claim, not wanting to know the details of where it went. The two rested for a short while, trying to ignore the awkward conversation to have after torturing someone until they faint.

Inside the house, a certain bloody pirate was talking, spilling as much information as he can to make the pain stop. The eyes of the pirate were covered in a bandage saturated with blood; more blood ran down from the cloth as it couldn’t absorb any more. The pirates naked torso was a mess of cuts, not deep enough to kill but just enough to burn and itch like a papercut from hell. The information the pirate gave to Vahl and Umana wasn’t the most useful, it seems the lower end red skull pirates did not get told much and mostly had to infer information from what they observed. What the pirate did know was very little, but still a good start in order to get more information.

Every pirate commander was someone that could follow an adventurer class, meaning they were likely able to match either Umana or Vahl in a fight if they were alone. Additionally, the pirates usually patrolled in groups from two up to five, but the commanders never left their buildings unless to defend it. The pirate didn’t know the location of any of the commanders but knew that there was a building where the pirates frequented to rest, and it wouldn’t be heavily guarded. Vahl and Umana bet there was information on the commander locations there.

The two headed out of the house the next day, leaving the bound pirate behind, not even Umana trusted him enough to let him go. They headed down the side roads, walking a fair distance away from the house, far enough to avoid it being found if a group of pirates saw them and looked around for it. They arrived at a reasonably dense location that did not have much room to move in. There, they told every around them to clear out of the area. Most people did exactly as they said, not bothering to try starting a fight and wasting the energy to think about why they were told to do so. Umana climbed nimbly up the side of one of the nearby two-story houses, reaching the top and laying on her stomach out of sight from the ground. Vahl grabbed large amounts of discarded metal junk, tossing it over onto him and covering his body. If you were to look at the area without knowing they were there you would only notice the large and out of place heap of metal on the side of the road.

Five red skull pirates walked down the quiet street, they have been patrolling for quite a while and had merged with another patrol they met. They heard news from other pirates about a small patrol of three that was ambushed and disappeared, they found two dead bodies thrown away next to where the patrol was last spotted. The five felt confident walking down the empty street, nobody approached them, and they even managed to extort quite a fortune from others by threatening them. They felt it was a little unfortunate for the street to be so empty and dry, they wouldn’t be able to make much money while they walked.

The pirate patrol walked in two rows, one in the front with three people and one in the back with two. They walked steadily down the street, knocking things over to pass the boredom and keeping their eyes out for whatever killed that three man patrol a few days ago. One of the three in the front row kicked a ball of garbage along as he walked, trying to keep it in front of him for as long as possible, accidentally kicking it at a large pile of metal scrap that blocked a third of the street. Approaching the ball, he kicked, he tried to maneuver it around the pile in a weird show of poor foot handling skills that impressed nobody.

When all three of the pirates reached the pile of garbage, lining themselves up like bowling pins the pile of scrap metal exploded. From the pile a large amalgamation of metal tore out, ramming itself into the pirate, picking him up with its explosive momentum and carrying him crashing into the two others. The metal beast continued its charge into the alleyway across from it, disappearing and bringing the front three with it. The two awestruck pirates in the back row dropped their weapons and didn’t even bother looking into the alleyway where the beast carried their companions. One pirate fell on his ass, his legs weak from the shock. The other pirate turned and ran in full sprint, not bothering to look back.

Umana aimed and shot at the leg of the fallen pirate, crippling him. She jumped from the top of the roof top to the one next to her, following the path of the pirate which ran. Vahl followed her as best he could with the armor of the other pirates carried on his back, mushy blood and brain matter covered the front of his armor.

The pirate continued to run without looking back, taking tight roads and alleyways. When he arrived at his destination he gasped for breath, opening the door quickly and closing it behind him. The people inside were sitting around a table, playing cards and gambling using small metal pieces to make up for a lack of currency, their weapons out of reach and in another room. They all turned their head to stare at the dishevelled pirate who seemed like he had seen a ghost.

“Uh, what happened?”

One of the pirates seated at the table said, holding his cards tight to his body to avoid any peeping eyes.

“Monster, huge, killed three of them.”

The pirate was barely able to speak between breaths only letting out riddles.

“What the fuck are you talking about man? Sit down.”

Another pirate, clearly losing and aggravated, pulled back a chair.

The pirate sat down in it, catching his breath and trying to recover. After he regained his breath and his breathing became steady, he laughed from relief. The rest of the pirates looked at him in confusion and a little disgust.

“We were ambush by a monster, it crashed through the street and-“

The door behind the pirate exploded, part of the door frame bending inward and the door flinging open. The pirates seated in front of the door got pushed to the side, the table was flipped upward and kicked, crashing against the wall and dragging two pirates with in into the wall. Umana entered the building through a gap beside Vahl, walking in front of a pirate that fell on the floor, pissing himself in terror. She fired a shot between his legs, causing him to crawl backwards in fear of her trying again.

“Key please. Also, Vahl, what is with you and not using doors?”

The pirate reached into his pocket, taking out a plastic card and handing it to Umana, not bothering to care about her question to her companion. She took the card, looking at it and nodding, kicking the man and knocking him out. The pirates inside weren’t armed, but Umana is and with a few nimble and elegant smacks the rest of the pirates inside lay unconscious.

Vahl and Umana searched the room but couldn’t find anything of interest, it seemed like the building was mostly just used as an auxiliary base to rest in. What was of more interest was what was in the locked room located at the back of the building, which was opened with the key card Umana obtained from the pirate. In the room the contents were slightly disappointing, however they got what they came for, as among the food supplies and small weapons was a holopad. Umana picked the holopad up, turning it on and searching its contents, much to Vahl’s suspense.

“Well, is there a map?”

“Yeah, it seems there is, and even information on the commanders.”

“Really? What does it say?”

“Not much, it seems like it was written by someone who just saw them at a distance, not anyone who knows a lot about them.”

“Well is it useful?”

“Yeah, at least it seems useful, but the person doesn’t seem to know what they are talking about. The first thing it says is that they wear green armor instead of the usual grey ones.”

“They must be talking about golemforged plating Mk.2 armor.”

“Is it a lot better than what we have?”

“Not by much, its still better and more expensive though. It can probably withstand a lot more laser bolts than the Mk.1, but it will wear down and break eventually. I’m pretty sure my doshko swing can bust through it though.”

“Good. The holopad also says that there were around seven different commanders, and that feather hat guy seemed to be higher ranked than them.”

Vahl clenched his fists in remembrance of the nasty man. Umana continued,

“One of the commanders is close by and alone, he seems to be a soldier as well, he even uses a doshko just like you.”

Vahl thought it would be an interesting experience, fighting against another adventurer class soldier would give him lots of space to make improvements. That, and having a second doshko to wield in his other hand would be a good addition to his already impressive firepower.

“Let’s go there, I want to fight him.”

Umana nodded, noting that Vahl seemed to become more intone with vesk culture recently with all the battles going on. But she worried about his health,

“Don’t push yourself into battles we aren’t prepared for Vahl, I don’t want you getting killed.”

“I know my limits, don’t worry about me Umana.”

“But I do worry about you Vahl, really.”

“I… I’m touched, thank you Umana. Let’s go kill some pirates.”