The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.
Travel lodge - Port Trinity - Mars
"They were here," Kyr picked himself up from all fours, glaring again at Edward as he tried to brush the dirt from the knees of his tweed suit.
Edward leaned against the wall, his arms crossed looking distant. "There's something going on..." He murmured.
Kyr looked about him and back at his friend. "What do you mean?" He fumbled through his pockets and tugged out a thermometer that he carried 'just in case'.
Edward opened a blue eye and looked at the thermometer and up at Kyr, "You're not sticking that thing into me. Didn't you give me enough tests back on the ship?"
Kyr scratched behind his ear, looking boyish. "I'm just worried is all. But you were saying?" Kyr pressed hoping to nudge Edward back on track.
Edward pushed off of the wall and wandered to the window, the beautiful sunshine streaming down over the cold Martian streets, children playing with a ball, dodging the occasional car. it was a typical Saturday afternoon on Mars, business as usual...
"There's something happening," Edward fiddled with the cuffs of Darien's jacket, "But someone's stopping me from seeing it. It's important though."
"Well, they were here," Masconi confirmed as she jogged up the worn stairs. She paused when she saw Edward's face scrunched up in that way it got whenever he was thinking too hard. "What's wrong?"
"Don't know," Kyr answered, catching a whiff of another scent, one mingled with Katz's distinctive pheromones. The boy was in heat. At least it made it easier to track him. But the other scent it was familiar... "Darien?" he took a couple of steps to the room door, then back again, dropping to his knees and leaning close to the carpet.
"Darien?" Edward blinked, "He's not on Mars. I don't think anyways..."
Masconi frowned, reaching into her pocket for the Propylon recaller, cut from a spare jacket they each had one, just in case. The FTL relay they'd buried in the park would ensure they reached home, she looked at Edward again.
"It's Darien," Kyr commented, rolling up to sit cross-legged on the floor, huffing his dark hair from his eyes. "He, Katz and the other boy went that way," he pointed, "About two hours ago."
The trio exited the motel, Kyr pausing every few minutes to regain the scent, cursing as he got back up again. "This isn't easy," he reminded the others, "I'm not that good at it. I was the smart one..."
"The runt of the litter," Edward grinned.
"That was supposed to be a secret," Kyr snapped back. "You know, like the time you roller bladed through the access corridors of the Excalibur."
Edward turned a shade of pink, "Kyr!"
"Or the time you wrote 'The Forbidden zone' on the doors of the junior head..." Kyr chuckled.
Masconi raised an eyebrow. "That was you?" she asked looking at Edward, meaningfully.
Edward shuffled, dodging around to keep Kyr between him and Masconi, who'd had to wait eight hours for a shower because of that particular incident. "Shut up!" he begged Kyr.
Kyr was enjoying himself too much. He stood again, "And then, of course, there was the time you replaced Darien's coffee with decaf..."
"But that was your idea!" Edward protested.
"Yes, but you did it," Kyr replied, flashing his teeth.
Edward shook his head, "You're just trying to get me back for making you into a sniffer!"
"I told you, it's the most demeaning thing you can ask a member of my species to do," Kyr shot back. "Getting down on my hands and knees and stick my nose into the gutter, all to find someone through smell." He paused and pointed up the street, "That way by the way."
* * *
Thalak stood in the monorail station, the breeze stirring his black trench coat as he turned his eyes to look out over the city. The two TER-SEC officers were delivering their statements to Inspector MacKay, but Thalak already knew what they would say.
Two young men caught them unprepared, rendered them unconscious and stole their weapons, getting off in that station and disappearing into the streets below. The Latin Quarter.
New San Lucas had originally been its own city, before the expansion of Port Trinity and the amalgamation of the surrounding urban centres into one super-city. It had always been the home of the under class of Mars, miners that commuted daily to the strip mines, or lower class city workers that scraped out a living working menial labour jobs.
Thalak unfolded a set of dark sunglasses, slipping them on as he walked past the two officers, descending the stairs to the street below. The citizens, drawn by the flashing lights atop the TER-SEC interceptors, quickly began to disperse upon spotting the Inquisitor, hurrying so as not to be associated with whatever crime had been important enough to draw a member of the Hegemony secret police.
He turned, surveying the street, the corner store with its Teal and White scales, Nicholas Denver's trademark, gaudily decorating the storefront. Like a cancerous disease spreading throughout known space, flogging second rate goods at discount prices like any good Orion company.
They would run. He checked the flow of traffic; it was a wide-open three-lane street, feeding into one of the various parkways that alleviated congestion on the city streets. It was too open for anyone trying to escape. He turned back and looked to the nearest side streets, lined with ramshackle apartment buildings. It was the kind of place people on the run would head towards.
He crossed the street, observing everything around him. Stepping onto the sidewalk on the far side and walking to the opening.
Behind him MacKay jogged up. "What?" the overweight inspector asked, panting.
"Cordon off this area," Thalak commanded,."Five blocks that way, and two that way," he gestured.
"That's a sizable section of this quarter," MacKay warned.
"I do not repeat my orders," Thalak replied, watching a TER-SEC officer crossing the far side of the side street, a bloodhound dropping to his knees every once in awhile to find the scent.
MacKay walked off issuing orders into his radio as Thalak watched the TER-SEC officer across the road, armed with the submachine PKD and marching with a rigidity that looked uncomfortable on a TER-SEC officer, especially a female one.
"I don't remember ordering a bloodhound," Thalak turned his head.
MacKay looked over his shoulder at the Inquisitor. "You didn't," he replied.
* * *
"The Quiz's spotted you," Edward said calmly.
Masconi didn't look. "I know," she replied. "Keep looking natural, and..." She stopped and considered who she was speaking to. "Just stay out of sight," she murmured.
Edward smiled, jumping up and down a couple of times and waving his arms, "He can't see me." He looked back at Masconi. "I'm going to listen to what they're saying..."
"Matt!" Masconi hissed through clenched teeth, "behave."
Edward shrugged and fell in, kicking a can...
* * *
Thalak watched a can skitter across the pavement, feeling the wind blowing in the opposite direction, the Inquisitor processed that a moment as he slipped his hand to his rod weapon.
It wasn't right, but the investigator in him dictated that he follow her. After all, she had the bloodhound, and that would find his quarry faster. He turned and marched back towards the interceptors, MacKay again hurrying to keep up with him.
"What is it?" he demanded, reading something in the way Thalak took long, purposeful strides.
"That report you received," Thalak climbed in behind the wheel of the interceptor and tapped into the computer.
"The one about Matthew Elias?" Mackay asked. "What about it? Jorten was high, he gets like that..."
"The Immortal Emperor is not a drug induced hallucination," Thalak said evenly. "Order all units to tighten their cordon, but to hold back. Once that woman and her Sniffer find the two boys, we'll close in."
"Immortal Emperor?" MacKay shook his head. "I thought that was just propaganda from the Imperials and the Resistance. There isn't actually a reincarnated I.E., is there?"
Thalak gauged the Inspector, weighing how much he needed to inform MacKay in order for him to do the job required. "There is an aberrant being, within the Imperial Empire who displays abnormal telekinetic powers. This is nothing more than a pitiful attempt by the Imperial Empire to validate their cause and to incite those weak enough within our own territories to lay aside their loyalties. I will demonstrate, once this situation has been appropriately contained..."
"That's what happened to the Vengeance isn't it?" MacKay said drawing his own conclusions. "This I.E. blew it up..."
"The destruction of the Vengeance was the result of sabotage, and had nothing to do with..."
"Right," MacKay winked lifting the radio to issue orders. "I believe you."
* * *
Behind them the interceptors lifted off of the ground, their sirens beginning to wail as they screamed away. Masconi breathed a tight sigh of relief as she looked down at Kyr, "I didn't expect to walk around a corner and into the inquisition."
Kyr shifted, "They have to be tracking our lads," he said nipping his bottom lip with a sharp incisor. "We need to hurry."
Edward hopped onto a stoop and looked up into the sky again, distracted. He ducked down again and shifted restlessly. "There's something very wrong," he murmured again, "I feel it..."
"You did have two burritos from that street vendor," Kyr reminded, "And in my medical opinion they probably weren't that fit for consumption."
Edward looked distant, "I have to go..." he said, suddenly.
"Now?" Masconi frowned.
"Now," Edward replied taking two steps and vanishing from sight.
"Great. Reliable as ever," Masconi grumbled. "What was that about?" She stopped as she looked up towards the sky, where the bright lights should have still been visible, but the assault fleet was no longer in the sky.
"They went this way," Kyr gestured.
Masconi brought herself back into the present and looked at the ramshackle apartment building across the street, condemned signs all over it. She shrugged and advanced slowly, lifting an edge of the chain link fence as Kyr slipped through.
The building was dark and forbidding, the heavy boards on the windows covered with graffiti, and down to one side, a window had been kicked in. Masconi looked back at the empty street and knelt beside it.
"Ark-Leader to Paladin-one?" she called into the hole.
"Wing Commander?" the voice called back. The sound of a PKD whining up to charge greeted her ears.
"The one and only," Masconi responded, slipping down and pulling herself through the window to drop with a thump into the basement room. Reaching to pull the flashlight from her uniform belt, she turned it on and looked into Katz's face, his PKD drawn while he stood protectively in front of Alessandro, who had braced his PKD on Katz's shoulder.
Kyr landed behind her with a thump. The doctor irritably picked himself off of the ground and trying to get rid of the mud that smeared his suit, he looked up. "Oh!"
Masconi slung her submachine gun and embraced Katz, tugging at the blue ball cap on his head as she looked over at Alessandro grinning, in no hurry to move from his close proximity to Katz.
"I've had to chase you two all over Mars," Masconi smiled.
"I'm Darien Taine..." Masconi spun a moment to look at the Skipper standing back behind a boiler.
"Warlord..." She started.
"Not quite," Katz admitted, sounding a little embarrassed. "I'll...explain...when..."
The sound of sirens was growing deafening, and Kyr stepped back to peer up and out of the window. "That looks unfriendly," he offered, stepping away again. "There look to be a few of them out there."
"The Inquisitor," Masconi lifted her weapon and dodged back to the window. "This is going to be a problem."
"Yes," Kyr nodded, "But Propylon express delivery is set up for this kind of situation." He fumbled through his pockets and pulled out his recaller.
Masconi smiled as she fished out her own, "I take it you two don't object to taking the express?"
"The sooner we're out of here, the better." Katz nodded firmly, as the group drew closer together, "What do we do with him?" he nodded to the Construct.
Alessandro rolled his eyes, dodged over, grabbed the aggravating thing and pulled it into the huddle as Kyr and Masconi activated their recallers.
* * *
Lex Talionis detected the inbound FTL transmission directed towards the Excalibur's Propylon chamber, not that it really mattered with the devices no longer in place. He contemplated the desperation of the situation, and coldly he redirected the transmission to the Black Tower's Propylon control room, sure that things were about to become complicated for Enarbrem Sul'Rikard.
* * *
The Propylon chambers windows retracted, sliding down as its computer processed that the incomers were not a part of the Orbital fleet. The great panels slid back on the cold Karin day as the Propylons mounted around the building reflected their energies in towards to the central platform within the core of the tower, coalescing into the Martina team.
Katz and Masconi moved first. Realizing they weren't where they were supposed to be, their weapons came up, as the double ranks of greymen lifted assault rifles to cover them, cocking their weapons in almost perfect time.
"Uh, we're on your side?" Katz offered, putting up his hands as he again tried to put himself between the danger and Alessandro.
The greymen didn't seem so willing to agree on that point, as out in the city an Amsus Predator, chased by an F-150 screamed past the open windows, the din of battle intensifying.
"Mister Director," an officer lifted his TAC-link and placed a call high above him, "We have a situation down here."
"I am wing Commander Masconi, HMS Excalibur, Highlady Kardiac!" Masconi put her most commanding look on her face, but stopped when the rifles never wavered.
"I am Darien Taine," the construct piped up, "Leader or the Fifth Column Resistance, I have a plan..."
* * *
Caldone interrupted Rikard's spectator view of the death of the Empire; he coughed nervously as he approached. "Master, our security in the Propylon chamber have apprehended Darien Taine attempting to use the Propylons to enter with a strike team. A woman claiming to be the Highlady Kardiac is with him."
"Taine," Rikard glanced up towards the Excalibur, valiantly fighting off the angry swarm of Raptors and Predators. "Part of me was hoping he would attempt something so direct. It is his standard Modus of Operendi."
"Should I have him shot Master?" Caldone inquired.
"Have him brought up here under heavy guard." Rikard nodded. "As for the others, take them outside and shoot them..." He ducked as the Predator he had been watching be chased by the Imperial fighter pulled a vertical manoeuvre and roared up past the balcony, the F-150 flashing past a few moments later. The jet wash bowled both men over.
Rikard was laughing as he picked himself up and examined the tear in his new suit, sweeping the jacket off as he tossed it aside, revelling in his moment. The Imperial fighters were outnumbered and giving ground, and as soon as he had Taine safely in his hands he would order his ships to begin the orbital bombardment of that damnable ship. Once the Amsus controlled the skies of Karin the rest would be easy.
He gripped onto the rail, remembering the last time he had been in the thick of such a battle. The fall of Earth had been much bloodier, more ships raining fire down upon the world, eradicating and purifying it.
He'd failed that day; VonGrippen hadn't reappeared, leaving Rikard to pick up the pieces of a shattered world, to restore order. Three hundred accursed years of waiting, biding his time while he searched for Peligia. Three hundred years of administrating order, imposing sanity upon the chaos the Empire had wrought.
Well, it was about to end at last. He had Taine, Taine would tell him where Peligia was, and three hundred years of misery would be over. Taine's death would bring him Edward, and the last piece, the final piece, would be his and it would all be over.
The doors to the office opened and they dragged Taine between them. Rikard turned his back on the end, walking through the glass doors that slid closed, silencing the noise, leaving him at last, face-to-face with his nemesis.
"Taine," Rikard smiled coldly.
"I am Darien Taine," Taine bit out defiantly. "Leader of the Fifth Column Resistance..."
"Defiant, even in the face of defeat," Rikard replied walking closer, reaching out with his mind, squeezing Taine and raising him off of the ground. "There is no escaping this time, there is no last minute reprieve, or divine intervention to save you. This time, Taine, you are going to die, and I am going to make certain of it!"
Taine struggled in the invisible grip. "Torture me all you want, I'll never...talk..."
Rikard loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar, "Oh I doubt sincerely that cliché lines and false bravado will save you this time." He began to roll up his sleeves. "You will tell me everything I need to know, of that I am quite certain."
"I am Detective Inspector Darien Taine..." Taine winced as Rikard tightened his grip, "My badge number is three-three-four-two..."
"Where is Peligia!" Rikard asked calmly.
"I-I don't know!" Taine replied writhing in pain.
"The co-ordinates in your logs, you list it as being the site of a Polian Sanctuary. Is this where you hoped to find a map to Peligia?" Rikard applied more pressure.
"I don't know!" Taine's eyes rolled back as he panted.
"You're reactions tell me all I need to know," Rikard paced, waving his hand as Taine flew into the stone lined wall of the office, cracking the decorative façade with the force of the impact. "All I need to know is if the co-ordinates are what I am seeking. Are they the next step on the road to Peligia?"
"I don't know..." Taine coughed, choking up blood as he fought to his feet. "You are hurting me..."
Rikard's eyes blazed, "Oh, I haven't even began to hurt you yet!" He reached out and dragged Taine across the floor, hurling him bodily through the desk, breaking bones with the force. "I am going to make you suffer for every moment of aggravation you have caused me over the past three years. I am going to exact my vengeance upon House VonGrippen by stripping every shred of flesh from your body piece by piece..."
"Master," Caldone interrupted him, stepping forward, "perhaps it would be wiser to simply kill him here and now, before we have a chance to be interrupted?"
Rikard looked back at Caldone, then over at his battered Nemesis, thinking of each and every time the man had cheated a carefully designed plan to kill him. The man had more lives than a cat. Caldone was right, there was no need to take any chances.
"Kill him," he looked at the greymen guards who had witnessed Rikard's rage, lifting their assault Rifles as Taine struggled to get to his feet, opening up with fire and riddling him with bullets.
Rikard walked over and knelt down beside the corpse, smiling, "I told you 'Hector', you were going to die."