Anali

“Look, we’re not corporate, and we’re here on a job. I already sent you the damn details!” I could hear shouting coming from the bridge as I approached. We should’ve landed over half an hour ago, but it seemed like Ja’kol was having issues getting us clearance.

“What’s going on?” I asked, as I walked in on him shouting at the console. Ja’kol was a modified silichi. Basically, an iron-age race of monkey people who had minor psychic tendencies. He was abducted as a child in an ill-advised attempt to produce a navigator who could shift without a beacon.

The experiments mostly failed, but they did massively increase his psychic abilities. Which made him perfect for finding people, if you could deal with the crazy.

Ja’kol muted the console before answering. “This asshole won’t let us land, says we’re corporate spies!”

“Alright, let me try,” I said, and Ja’kol stepped aside as I unmuted the console. “This is Captain Anali. What seems to be the issue?”

“I’m sorry, Captain Anali, but your ship is registered as corporate,” the little man responded. “We just can’t accommodate corporate travel. We don’t have the facilities for it. Trust me, I’m doing you a favor here.” That was bullshit for so many reasons. The asshat just wanted a bribe.

“I believe there must have been some sort of mistake,” I smiled sweetly. “Allow me to re-forward our credentials.” I sent a transfer request for 5,000 credits.

“Oh! I see it now, you’re registered with the Union,” the man’s face lit up. “Welcome to Drassun. I’ll forward your landing coordinates now.”

“Thank you, lieutenant.” I shut off the feed and turned to Ja’kol. “Next time don’t send him the details on a 250 million credit bounty. It makes landing expensive.”

“Whoops?” Ja’kol shrugged. “My bad.”

“It’s fine,” I sighed. “Just forward his account info to Castin and see if he can’t get us a refund.”

“Yeah, sure,” the monkey man laughed. “Who do you want going down there with you?”

“How are you feeling?” I asked. In the more social situations it usually paid to have Ja’kol with me, but that was only if he wasn’t going to lose it halfway through a conversation.

“Well enough for a quick jaunt,” he answered. “Especially if there’s beer involved.”

“Then lucky for us, our contact is meeting us at a bar,” I smirked. “Suit up and meet me at the ramp whenever you’re ready.”

~~~~

The bar we were meeting at was a syndicate hotspot. But when we arrived, the place was nearly empty. At least it made finding our contact really easy. Although it wasn’t like we would have missed her in a crowd.

The elf was covered in scars and was missing both an eye and an ear. The pattern of the scars was clearly deliberate, which instantly put me on edge. I don’t know what the woman had done, but whatever it was had seriously pissed off the wrong guy. Which was a problem, because a part of her payment was a ride off-world. I got the feeling we were about to take a side in a fight that wasn’t our own.

But 250 million was a lot of credits, and you don’t earn that kind of money without making a few enemies along the way.

“You Rossi?” I asked as I pulled up a stool beside the elf. Ja’kol grabbed the seat on the other side of her and flagged down the bartender to order a beer.

“That’s me.” Rossi took a drink from her mug, showing off a number of missing fingers.

“What’s left of you,” Ja’kol laughed. “You lose a fistfight with a bundle of razor-wire or something?”

“Or something,” Rossi deadpanned. “I’ll take it you’re the hunters looking for information on the kitsune siblings?”

“That’s us,” I confirmed. “But your information better be good, because your price was steep to begin with and now I’m starting to think there might be strings attached.”

“It’s good, and there are definitely strings attached,” Rossi replied. “During the recent regime change, I made a deal to survive. Turns out new management’s idea of letting me live involved dropping me off in the middle of the jungle to feed the local wildlife.”

“Didn’t expect you to live, eh?” Ja’kol asked. “And now they’re still not willing to kill you outright, but also not going to let you leave. That about the sum of things?”

“That’s about it,” Rossi nodded. She seemed to be pretty forthright, which was a positive, and when I looked to Ja’kol he nodded to confirm that she was telling the truth. So far, everything was checking out.

“Alright,” I conceded. “If your information checks out, then we’ll get you and your friend off-world.”

“And the credits?” Rossi asked. It was a lot of credits, and I didn’t know I’d be smuggling people when I originally negotiated the deal. I was about to renegotiate the deal when Ja’kol answered for me.

“The captain will pay what you’re asking, she just won’t like it.” he smirked. “But your information is worth it.”

“Fine.” I sighed. “Tell us what you have.”

“Your targets were here, at least the older one,” Rossi explained as she pulled up a holo-image. It looked like it was from her implants, and had been zoomed in on Sora. “But they weren’t alone.”

“Who were they with?” I asked.

“There were two others.” Rossi swiped at the hologram and the image changed to a pale blonde girl. “The first one was a powerful devil. I didn’t recognize her, but she was clearly dangerous.”

We hadn’t been prepared to deal with a devil, but it wasn’t outside our skill set, so I wasn’t that worried. It was valuable information, but not worth the asking price.

“And the other one?” Ja’kol asked.

“That’s the interesting part.” The elf smiled and brought a picture of a dark-skinned elven woman. “I didn’t recognize her at the time, but that’s Bryce Virra.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know her.”

“Nobody knew her until about 30 years ago,” Rossi explained. “When she killed every last person in a corporate owned system.”

“How’d she manage that?” I asked. Killing a lot of people was one thing, but killing everybody? That took a special kind of psychopath. The type corporations paid big money to bring in.

“Some sort of specialized spell.” She was getting excited for whatever reason. It definitely didn’t seem like the sort of thing a sane person got excited about. “There were a ton of rumors floating around when it happened, ranging from a benign spell mishap to a failed attempt at godhood.”

“Godhood? Seriously?” I scowled. People would believe anything these days.

“It sounds ridiculous,” Rossi shook her head. “But I could feel the amount of mana she had when I was sitting in the same room as her and she single-handedly destroyed two of our ships with our shields fully powered. We didn’t even have time to get a distress signal out.”

I looked to Ja’kol, and he nodded. Again confirming that the elf was telling the truth. Which was worrying. We could deal with a devil, and the siblings were basically harmless. But I wasn’t sure what we’d do with a homicidal elf who could shoot ships out of the sky.

“We’ll figure something out.” I sighed. “None of that really matters unless we can find them.”

“That’s where you get your money’s worth.” The bartender, of all people, interjected. She was a human woman who had somehow managed to avoid my attention this entire time. “Sora stopped by on their way to ruin Rossi’s life and my business. They managed to flirt their way into my contacts and forgot to delete me after they left.”

“You have their feed ID?” I asked. If that was true, then we’d have a way to track them.

“That’s right,” the bartender answered.

“Ja’kol, transfer them the credits.” I stood up from the counter. “How long do you two need to get ready?”

“Samantha and I are already packed,” Rossi answered. “We could leave now if you’re ready.”

“The locals would have seen us arrive, and they’ll report you leaving,” I explained. “The sooner we leave, the less time they’ll have to respond.”

“Let’s go then,” the bartender, Samantha, pulled a heavy looking pack out from under the bar.

“Ja’kol,” I commanded, and he nodded.

“Already on it,” the monkey man said. “We’ll be ready to leave the moment we get to the hangar.”

~~~~

We moved quickly across the city, but apparently not fast enough. Because there were already a half-dozen shifters waiting for us in the hangar. I had fought their kind before, and while they liked to pretend they were better than everyone else, I never found them to be particularly impressive.

“I’m not interested in a chat.” I stopped to explain just outside the hangar door. “Ja’kol, lower the ramp the moment we enter the hangar.” I pointed to our new clients. “You two don’t stop moving, no matter what happens.”

“What are you planning on doing?” Samantha asked.

“I’m going to leave them with something to remember me by.” I smiled as I pushed open the door. The ship’s ramp started to lower the moment I entered the large hangar. There was only about 50 meters between us and the ship. The shifters had positioned themselves half-way across the room.

They weren’t armed, but I knew they didn’t need to be.

“Hey Rossi, long time no see,” the lead shifter smiled. She was in her human form and was absolutely massive. Ja’kol whispered something to the two women he was leading, as I reached behind my back to activate the dimensional pocket in my belt.

The two grenades were already in the air by the time anybody had time to realize what was happening. My implants tinted my vision and muted my hearing right before the explosion, but the wolves weren’t nearly as prepared.

Each of them held their ears after the flash-bangs went off, and I followed up with an electrical grenade for good measure.

Shifters had enhanced senses, reflexes, and strength. Each of those were a weakness under the wrong circumstances, and while they would recover eventually, we didn’t need long to sprint across the remaining dozen or so meters.

I was the last to board right and still managed to do it before the first of the pack had regained enough of the senses to do anything about us leaving.

“Take off immediately.” I commanded, before moving to the nearby intercom to make a ship wide announcement. “Everybody make your way to the mess hall as soon as possible. We have a lot to discuss.”