The dusky rose of memory you lay
will fade, wither and die
in time among the rows of sentinels,
standing guard;
one more unrealized hero for your legacy.
You are the one who never changes,
while the shadow you cast lengthens,
and grows hungry indeed.
Lex Talionis - Arcanis System
The glittering of fine dust and debris across the observation window was beautiful to the holographic recreation of the dead man. A smile darted across his lips as the baton tapped against his chin, satisfaction shifting through the great supercomputer that had inherited Kardiac's legacy.
At last the Polians had been made to feel the wrath of the Emperor. The Polian heretics and their pagan religion of time had were been brought down by the cold technology and divine faith of the Empire. All in his God's name.
His quest for the destruction of the Polian homeworld had brought him to the end of one journey. But he was about to embark on an even greater voyage. One that would see him rise to a new purpose. One that would solidify his God's place and ensure those that had strayed from the path would be made to embrace the light. He had attained his salvation, and he knew that the gift wasn't without its inevitable cost.
His drones toiled, dismantling one of the Polian sentry stations, adapting the advanced alien technology to his own goals, adding on to his space frame, expanding his capacity to bring war to those that defied the will of the Emperor.
The slender vessel was being encased in Polian armour plating, powerful and resilient they were adapted shrouding him in an organic hide. His drones worked to build large wing mounts for the heavy weapons mounts, sweeping down to give the vessel the predatory appearance of a nightmarish demonic bat. While the station's heavy cannons were being mounted into this new superstructure, giving him a forbidding amount of firepower drawing directly from a second Zero-Point reactor he had constructed for himself.
As his form evolved, so did his programming.
He was coming to understand his place in the universe. The pieces of the Peligian mystery that so consumed the traitorous Chancellor Rikard and his nemesis Highlord Taine were falling into place. It was the same Peligia that formed the basis of the Polian Temporal Religion. A heresy that had become an obsession for his two enemies. He understood all about obsession, it was an Organic Cognitive Malfunction that was particularly dangerous. From what he had learned of Rikard, from the Excalibur's computers and logs, the traitor had sought to exploit it to usurp the resurrected Emperor like he had the old Immortal Emperor; While Highlord Taine's motivations were not readily apparent.
Lex lacked data to perceive Taine's reasons to attain control of the Peligian secrets. It would bear exploration, which meant that Lex would have to gather intelligence to truly understand the Peligian threat to his Immortal Emperor and to deal with that threat in turn, when the time came.
He anticipated his God's objection to his interference with Taine;. Love was a failing of the flesh. It bred compassion and blinded a person to danger. It meant that in order to protect his God, Lex Talionis would have be forced to deal with Darien Taine.
But that could wait. For the moment Lex Talionis was set to hunt down the last of the Polians, wherever they had fled to. He sliced easily through the sentry station's communications network and transferred a portion of his program to spread through the Polian FTL communications network, hunting down his prey.
* * *
The Gunship chased the supply vessel through the darkness. T, the advanced gravitic drives outpaced the Amsus Ion drives as the ship curled its way ahead of the clunky transport, causing the Amsus Captain to tack his vessel deeper and deeper into the barren system.
"Well this is pointless," Masconi murmured, blowing out a long sigh as she watched Shale making another course adjustment, "Couldn't we try bluffing them into a surrender?"
Mrs. Drake shook her head. "Pointless. They have to be wondering why we haven't opened fire by now, and the only logical reason we haven't is that we're unarmed."
"Figures," Masconi crossed her arms, her foot tapping, "So all we have to do is get onto that ship, right, and we'll take it?"
"But we can't get close with their point defence weapons," Mrs. Drake pointed out, pacing the bridge thoughtfully.
"Yeah, but then we can cheat," Masconi replied, looking back at the observation window again, letting out a light laugh as she came up with an idea, "Jimmy jumping bean?" she called out looking around at the shadows.
James stepped out of the shadows obediently, mildly curious at what the Wing Commander was planning.
"Come on," she gestured, indicating for him to follow her as she paused, turning back, "What ever you do, keep them on this course." She pointed to the supply ship.
Shale grunted his acknowledgement, trailing back a little to give the Amsus vessel a little running room.
Masconi led the way aft to where Sergeant Hobbes waited by the access hatch with his marine demolitions team, tilting his head in surprise as Masconi bounded down towards him, the curious Fida'i in tow.
"Ma'am?" The friendly marine rested his hands on the butt of his pulse rifle to look at her.
"Change in plan, Sarge," Masconi replied, pulling on her Dragoon jacket, "On my mark, everyone activate your recallers."
As she gave the signal the Marines reached up to tap their arms as the FTL relay activated and jumped from the Gunship's cargo bay. Once it hit hyperspace it began a tight beam transmission that was forwarded to the Excalibur, and seconds later the group was whisked away...
...To the confused expression on Lieutenant Ryerson's face as he leaned over the controls of the Propylon computer. "Welcome back..." he began.
"No time to explain," Masconi smiled at the former Air Boss, "I need you to input the following coordinates, adjusting for..." she did mental mathematics, "About .5c..."
"You what?" Ryerson went pale; "You want me to use this...to put you onto a moving vessel?"
Masconi shrugged, drawing her Kill'a'ma'jig. "Quickly..."
"But," Ryerson faltered, shaking his head and rolling his eyes, plugging in the data, "Darien's going to have a fit when he finds out..."
"Just bat your eyelids at him, you're pretty... try undoing the front of your uniform..." She gave him the sweetest of smiles.
"This has to be..." Ryerson activated the controls and lifted his hand, shaking his head, "Good luck!"
They materialized in a flash, a thump behind her made Masconi turn in the dark space, feeling her feet refusing to budge as she struggled with them. Something had gone wrong, very wrong.
There was a snap, and a second later the compartment they were in was bathed in a dull green light. A glow wand in Sergeant Hobbes's hand lit shaken faces as the marines searched around them, all of them tugging at their feet.
"What the hell?" he grumbled his anger dying as his eyes fell upon the pair of hands sticking out of a bulkhead. His eyes went wide a moment as he drew pale, turning back to Masconi.
She swallowed, doing a headcount. Two of their team were missing, and from here where they had been standing, it would have placed one right where the hands would be, and the other... she stared beyond the bulkhead, knowing from her experience with Amsus supply ships that the poor bastard had materialized in the vacuum of space.
James, always the first with the simplest of solutions to a problem, slipped his feet out of his soft-soled shoes that had partially materialized inside the deck and padded silently towards the hatch. Taking his lead, the surviving marines shrugged off their shock and the grizzly sight of the hands, and followed suit, stripping off their socks as they moved to cover the Fida'i as he unfastened the doors and slipped into the main access corridor of the ship.
Barefoot herself, Masconi lifted her Kill'a'ma'jig and crept quietly down the ladder,. Keeping her eyes peeled watching the Fida'i in the hall ahead of her moving back down towards the engineering spaces where there would be more shadows. Behind him trailed, a Marine fire team their weapons up at the ready for when the shooting began. Masconi looked back up into the cargo pod and gestured for Hobbes and the other half of the Marine squad to follow her forward, making towards the bridge.
She gripped the alien weapon up in front of her as she tensed, moving towards the far hatch. Behind her the Marines moved forward sweeping cargo container by cargo container making sure they didn't miss any stray Amsus. Hobbes silently giving her the all clear as he followed behind her towards the habitat module.
On Tempus she had drilled for boarding actions, and she was a consummate professional learning everything she needed to learn. However, but this it was her first time actually leading one. It was Colonel Mayfair's specialty. A purpose to which he was expertly suited. Ss. She, however, was a fighter pilot, stuff her in a cockpit and she'd fly circles around anyone, with the exception of perhaps Katz, though she'd never admit that, she couldn't shake the feeling of unease as she moved forward, licking her lips and narrowing her eyes, ready for anything.
The hatch slid open as she approached it, an Amsus technician standing looking stunned for a moment as he stared at the human being. The maggoty-white skin of his vaguely human features looked blank and devoid of any expression, yet she knew if he were capable of emotions he'd be terrified.
She shot him.
The deep, distinctive thwup of the Polian weapon turned the alien inside out on a molecular level before incinerating its torso, Zero-Point energy harnessed to tear space around the passage of the blast sliced neatly through his chest burning a hole clean through his torso.
It was too late; an alarm beginning to sound said that someone had heard the shot. Hobbes reacted, holding a hand up and bringing it down in a sharp motion he cut his Marines loose. The trained soldiers Marines surged past her, sweeping in to overrun the ship before the Amsus could mount any kind of proper defence.
* * *
"Signal from the Amsus Supply ship," Mrs. Drake said her hand resting on the earpiece of her TAC-link, "Wing Commander Masconi reports that they have secured the enemy vessel."
Shale tilted his forearm to stare at his oversized watch, adjusting the Gunship's course to bring it in to dock with the supply vessel. Expertly navigating the vessel with his fingers, feeling how responsive the vessel was to his simplest of touches.
The sleek red-and-black plated vessel pulled its outriggers tight against its body, rolling over like a killer whale in the sea, presenting it's hatch to the Amsus docking-port, mating with a secure thud and click. While the Taïrian Captain secured the vessel as their pressures equalized, shutting down the drive systems and deactivating the guidance controls.
Firlotte met him as he strode back along the length of the Polian warship, he waited with the nuclear bomb, the heavy device had been recovered from the Lex Talionis armoury, a tactical nuclear warhead designed for battlefield applications rather than ship to ship combat. It was ideally suited to the task they had planned for it. Shale un-slung his shotgun as the hatches cycled open on the access port to the Amsus vessel. Cautiously leading the way inside the newly captured supply vessel.
Firlotte followed a pace or two behind, cradling the bomb, looking relieved as he boarded a vessel with technology he could understand, and was at least able to do something with.
Masconi stood on the far side of the, airlock looking unsettled but relieved as she saluted. "If we go on collecting enemy ships like this, we might have to start calling you Admiral Shale."
Shale huffed, blowing out his moustaches, uncertain if she was teasing him or not. He relieved Firlotte of the bomb, nodding to him granting permission for the technician to search the Amsus ship for anything and everything they could make a use out of on the gunship. He turned his eyes back on Masconi as he lumbered after her slowly, keeping his shotgun at the ready, in case there were still surprises on the new prize ship.
As they walked, his eyes travelled down to her bear feet and back up again.
"I lost two," she said, leading the way down the connecting tube, her hand resting on her Kill'a'ma'jig as she ducked through a second hatch and started down the ladder of one of the docking rings spokes, "We re-materialized in a cargo pod, but with the velocity..."
Above her, Shale nodded his head slowly. He'd expected losses. Given the options, though, there really had been no other choice. And given their already tight time frame, they had a couple of hours to get the supply vessel back into position at the rendezvous points before the Amsus Hedgehogs arrived. He paused, knowing that, but he could sympathize with her over the losses;. They would be honoured as soon as the task was done, in the proper way.
Masconi touched her temple as they entered the two-tiered bridge of the supply ship, sitting down behind the helm and adjusting course to turn the supply vessel around, ignoring the bodies that still littered the floor as she rested her head back, sinking into the leather.
"I hate this shit," she said calmly, "Anyone else get the feeling that we should be drinking rum and going 'ooh ahrrr' right now?" Masconi chuckled dryly, trying not to dwell too much on what had happened. "Screw Rum, maybe a couple of bottles of Letour... or a good Cabernet Sauvignon, my Poppi had a fantastic vineyard on Tempus. I remember playing hide and seek with my cousin when we were little. He was always terrible at it."
"I can't picture you as a little girl," Mrs. Drake said as she entered the bridge compartment, setting up a laptop computer and plugging it into the Amsus access ports to download their database, in case it contained anything of importance. She shook her head, smirking. "Pigtails and a flowered skirt."
"Skirt? Ha!" Masconi shook her dark hair, "I was too much of a tomboy. No, I love children, taste like chicken..." She paused. "Sorry, too much time on the flight deck, my sense of humour's a bit... off."
Hobbes walked into the bridge and took a deep breath. "Everything's been checked twice, ship is secure... that James," he whistled. "By the time my fire team caught up with him, he'd already dealt with the engineering crew and was sitting on a console polishing his knives."
"Fida'i," Masconi shrugged, "That's the way they are. Just be thankful they're on our side now."
"I serve the Aga-Kahn," James startled them all, standing lightly, barefoot and stretching his toes, "My task here is done, I should return to his side."
Shale nodded his head, gesturing to Mrs. Drake who had just finished downloading the database. She unclipped the computer and crossed the floor to the assassin, handing it to him to take with him.
He bowed his head, tucking the computer under his arm as he tapped the recall device and vanished away in a wash of light. And Masconi got the general impression James wasn't a man for protracted good byes.
"We should get set up here," Masconi said after a moment they had completed the easy part. the fun... that was just about to begin.