Balance in Ruin(Violence, Language, Blood, Gore)

Chapter 1

Terran Year: 3303

A Human of Middle Eastern descent looked around at the base that the group had been provided, "I have to say, Hideo, your father did give us a great location, though are you sure the Verbanans are alright with us having a base this close to the border?" Hideo walked past and nodded, "Of course, Tariq, they have one right over there." A dark skinned woman walked in carrying a box, a violet AI hologram next to her carrying one as well, "Say, Hideo, what's up with Svetlana and Ewan?" Hideo turned towards her, "Laurie, Svetlana was born in Verbanan territory, actually quite close to Verbana itself and Ewan was born on the border. They're just glad to be back home is all." Laurie nodded and the violet AI spoke, "Where do I put this box?" Hideo pointed to a corner, "Put it right over there, Melissa. Tariq, where's Sally?"

An orange AI hologram appeared suddenly next to Tariq, "Hello, Major Date." Hideo smiled, "You can call me, Hideo. I would prefer if we don't deal with ranking in this group." Sally nodded, "Okay, Hideo! Is there anything I can do to help, I can't move far from Tariq, thanks to the emitter being on his person, but I can do what I can to help!" Hideo smiled, "Well, we're currently furnishing the base that was just finished. Since we're an elite group, we can afford certain luxuries, though we are still a military unit, so don't expect silk bedspreads." Tariq laughed as a brown haired, blue eyed man walked into the room, wearing a suit, the man smiled, "Aye, me friends, it's good ta be back. I was born here and spent my time as a wee lad around here." Sally giggled, she liked Ewan's accent, but Hideo sighed, "Ewan, help with unpacking, please."

Before Ewan could speak up, the clinking of metal against metal was heard and a dark skinned man wearing a khaki sweater and khaki pants walked in carrying several boxes, "Hideo, where would you like me to put these." Hideo sighed, "In the other room, Olujmi, also please don't overwork yourself, just because you're a cyborg. You're still a person and we care about you." A white AI hologram suddenly appeared and spoke up, "Captain Dubazana is perfectly fine and the weight is within the operational limits of his cybernetics." Olujmi sighed, "Thank you, Paden." Hideo shook his head, "Regardless, I would hate for you to damage yourself, Encarnacion is the only one that can repair you at the moment until the facilities are properly set up. Speaking of Encarnacion, where is she?"

Paden spoke up, "Chief Warrant Officer Lopez is in the lab area, she is working with her AI, Johnny." Hideo nodded slightly, "I'll go check on her, Tariq, you're in charge while I'm out." Tariq nodded and Hideo walked out of the room and started to walk down the hallway when he walked into a black haired male of obvious southwestern descent, "Oof." The man looked at him, "Ese! Watch where you're... oh, Major Date." Hideo sighed, "Pleasant as always Victor, if you don't mind, I'm in a hurry, can you and Midge help with the unpacking?" Victor nodded, "Of course, commander." Hideo sighed, "That's a naval rank. We're Army Spec Ops." Victor sighed, "You are our commanding officer." Hideo nodded and continued towards the labs.

When he walked into the labs he saw a dark skinned woman sitting at a computer, "Mary, have you seen Encarnacion?" Mary looked up at him, "I could hack into the security system and try to find her." Hideo sighed, as hacking into military systems is how Mary wound up nearly going to military prison as a civilian. She was only saved by that fate by him intervening and giving her a specialist role. Mary sighed, "That was a joke, sir. Robert is currently with her in the other room in the Lab." Balthoron nodded and walked towards the door, which opened for him, allowing him to see an AI hologram based off of a dark skinned human, a yellow AI hologram and a woman of southwestern descent, "Hello Robert, Johnny and Encarnacion."

Encarnacion turned towards him, "Hello, Hideo." Hideo smiled slightly, "Is your work space adequate?" Encarnacion nodded slightly, she brushed hair out of her eyes, "This place is amazing, how old is this base?" Hideo smiled slightly, "It was just built." Encarnacion nodded slightly, "This is absolutely amazing." Johnny looked at him, "This work space has a ninety-eight point five percent efficiency rating for allowing Encarnacion and I to work." Hideo pointed to Robert, "What's he doing here then?" Robert turned towards him, "Simple, I'm here to help out, I can access many different things within the military database and pass them on to Encarnacion so that she can build and modify weapons and armor for us." Hideo nodded slightly and turned around, "Alright, good to see that this is going well."

He turned around and left the room to see a Red AI hologram standing there, "Shaelyn, but Vesna isn't anywhere around here..." Shaelyn sighed, "I'm sorry, Vesna decided to leave my emitter here." Hideo nodded, "It's alright, I don't have an AI of my own, would you like to accompany me?" Shaelyn nodded slightly, and Hideo picked up the emitter, "Hopefully in a few months, this place will be in tip top shape and be fully functional, what do you think?" Shaelyn sighed as she walked forward, forcing Hideo to do the same, "Well, it's a nice place, just I wish we AIs could explore this place on our own." Hideo nodded, "The military is working on allowing that to happen, Shaelyn. It's less a technological issue and more a legal one." Shaelyn sighed, "Do you consider us people?" Hideo nodded, "I do, that's why every one of you are unofficially Privates in rank." Shaelyn smiled slightly as she looked out the window, "That's good to hear."

Chapter 3

Laurie smiled as they finally rolled into town, "It's rather nice around here, wonder what my balance is looking like." She pulled out her wallet and grabbed a credit chip, she pressed her thumb against it and she saw that she had thirty thousand credits in the bank, "Alright, I got some time to kill, so let's get to that bar shall we!" Tariq laughed slightly, "You seem to be in a real hurry to get drunk." Laurie nodded, "Well, we can have a drink while we're on duty, can't we?" A voice spoke up, "Normally my boss doesn't let us drink while we're on duty." Laurie looked around and was confused when she didn't see anything. Olujmi was staring in a direction, "You cannot hide from me." A male Eekhoorn walked out of the shadows, becoming visible to the naked eye, Tariq smiled slightly, "A Verbanan Eekhoorn if I'm not mistaken, from the northwestern most continent?"

The Eekhoorn nodded slightly, "Yes. I'm Huibert, though most people find it easier to call me Hilbert. Don't worry, I've not been following you." Laurie nodded, "So, why are you here?" Huibert shrugged, "The boss wants me to be around here, I'm patrolling the area and helping out the detective that's in the Furicorn over there." Tariq nodded, "Ah, I'm Tariq, this is Laurie, and the other male is Olujmi." Huibert nodded, "He's got cybernetic eyes, Mom passed down her shadow magic to me, no unaugmented human could see me without any sort of assistance." Laurie looked at Olujmi, who looked at her, "I want to get away from this squirrel person, he's making me quite uncomfortable." Huibert nodded and leapt away before any of them could say anything, and Laurie shrugged, "So you guys want to check out the Furicorn?"
Tariq shrugged and walked towards the bar, Laurie and Olujmi following as well. Once inside, they noticed that the bar wasn't quite heavily populated, a half elf was manning the bar, he wore glasses and had reddish brown hair and a goatee, "Come on, don't be shy. We're not at peak hours right now, so feel free to have a seat." Olujmi sat down at the bar and looked at the bartender, "Barkeep, I can only have water." The bartender looked at him, "You don't seem underage, but if that's what you want." Laurie sat down, "Thin Wheel for me." The Bartender nodded, "Bottle or tap?" Laurie thought for a second, "Tap." Tariq smirked as he sat down, "I'd like a blue motherfucker please." Laurie looked at him, but the bartender spoke up, "One Blue Motherfucker, one Thin Wheel and one water coming up."

Laurie watched as the bartender poured a glass of water and slid it over to Olujmi, she then watched as he expertly poured her a beer and slid it over to her. She watched intently as the bartender mixed Citron Vodka, Curacao liqueur and sweet and sour mix into a small glass and slid it over to Tariq who smiled as he picked up the glass, "Love the color, Barkeep, I'll be sure to add it to your tip." Tariq placed the glass to his lips and knocked the drink back, "That hit the spot." Laurie nodded slight as she started to slowly sip her beer, the bartender looked at them, "Judging by the fact that you're packing heat, you're either here to stir up trouble or are with the local police force." Olujmi spoke up, "How do you know that we're armed." A voice from the corner spoke up, "I scanned all three of you when you entered. None of you are with the police force, but Leon, I don't think they're here to start any trouble."

Leon nodded, "So where are you guys from?" Tariq thumbed behind him, "We're from the recently built military base, this whole space station is a colony that's eventually going to be settled down on that planet when we're done terraforming it." The voice spoke up, "You guys are military, huh? I'm police, myself." Laurie watched as the person walked over to them, it was a half-elf just like Leon, except this person had green hair, "Detective Brian Aran, Verbanan Security Force." Brian flashed his badge at them to prove his identity, "We have similar goals around here, To protect this colony, but I'm not going to expect you guys to do this for free, where's your commanding officer." Laurie sipped at her beer, "He's back at base, and if you want to come with us, we promised Olujmi and Paden a trip to the local library."

Olujmi sipped at his water as Brian looked at them, "Paden?" Paden's Hologram appeared before them, "Hello, Brian, I'm Paden. I'm the AI belonging to Olujmi Dubazana, I help operate his cybernetics, because he..." Leon spoke up, "So you're a cyborg, huh?" Olujmi sighed and placed a gloved hand on his face, "Here we go." Brian spoke up, "Even better, someone with your abilities could be of great help solving this case." Olujmi blinked at Brian's tone, "Wait, you don't think I'm less than human?" Brian stroked his beard, "If I had to say, you're roughly ten, fifteen percent human, the rest of you is cybernetic, but what makes you human is still part of who you are." Olujmi blinked in disbelief and Tariq laughed, "See, Olujmi, Laurie and I were right about people treating you like you're human!"

Laurie passed her credit chip to Leon, but Brian placed his own on the table, "I'll pay for their drinks." Laurie blinked, "Wha?" Brian smiled at her, "Being part of the Verbanan Security Forces I make more money than you guys do. So, I figured that you guys will need your money more than I do. Anyhow, I'm going to head to your base and talk to your commanding officer." Leon grabbed the chip and charged it before tossing it to Brian who was leaving the bar. Brian caught the chip and turned around, "By the way, there's a Kilf in this city that you might want to get in contact with, he might be able to help you with base construction." Laurie started to ask what Brian meant by that, but watched as he left. Leon however spoke up, "I heard rumors about the Kilf, but only know about one of the people who come here that work for him." Tariq spoke up, "Who is the person that comes around here?" Leon looked at him, "Lieutenant Colonel Faerondalan."

Chapter 5

Hideo sat in his room at the base and was going through personnel files, when suddenly Mary walked in, "Sir, there's someone on base. Robert has told me that he has picked up another movement signature." Hideo nodded slightly, "Did he get a good look at the person in question?" Mary shook her head, "No, but they don't seem hostile, the movement patterns from what I've seen have more been trying to figure out where someone is and there's no weapon signatures." A female voice spoke up, "That's because I'm not stupid and won't bring a weapon onto a military base." Suddenly a female Eekhoorn appeared before their eyes and Mary instinctively reached for a weapon, but Hideo glared at her, "Mary, don't." He looked at the Eekhoorn, "Who are you?" The Eekhoorn looked at him, "Major Hideo Date, formerly Captain Hideo Date, was promoted two years ago."

Hideo blinked, "Yes, that's who I am, but who are you?" She looked at Mary and then back at Hideo, "I'm Hilda Nyenhuis. I work with the security forces of Verbana, I'm currently working alongside Detective Brian Aran, I'm just an officer though." Mary blinked, "Hilda Nyenhuis is the name of Klaartje Nyenhuis' daughter, that would mean that you're..." Hilda nodded, "One-quarter deity, just like my twin brother." Hideo nodded, "How much information do you have on the Verbanans, Mary?" Mary smirked, "I'm the greatest hacker and infiltration expert that the humans have." Hideo sighed, "You boast about that, but honestly I don't have any metric to measure you by. Anyhow, Hilda, what are you doing here?" Hilda looked around, "I'm looking for the base commander, can you help me find him?"

Hideo placed his hands on his desk, "Yes, how can I help you?" Hilda blinked, "You're the base commander?" Hideo nodded, "Yes, Officer Nyenhuis." Hilda opened her mouth, but suddenly Brian walked through the door to the office, "You're the base commander, that's good." Hideo blinked slightly, "Alright, what's it with people and just randomly entering my office, I mean I can understand Mary doing it, because she's one of my men, but the two of you..." Brian pulled out his badge, "I'm a detective, sir, and I was looking to get some military assistance for the case that I'm working on. I've been working closely with the mercenary force that has been here for a while, led by the Red Reaper himself, but without assistance from the human military we can't make a move on the threat that is posed to this colony."

Hideo blinked slightly, "Alright, slow down, Detective, what threat to the colony?" Hilda spoke up, "There is a cartel that is smuggling illegal items into the colony from Verbanan territory, it's why the Verbanan Security Forces have gotten involved. Detective Aran and I were working on the case when we found out that these people have military grade equipment and would make short work of the two of us." Hideo nodded slightly, "So there's some sort of cartel that's operating within the colony that has military grade equipment and what kind of things are they smuggling into the colony?" Hilda spoke up, "While my twin brother and I were sneaking around using the shadow cloaking that Mom gave us, we noticed some illegal materials which included military hardware and a new drug that they called Tod-Wasser."

Brian nodded, "Tod-Wasser was made illegal pretty much immediately because it had zero medicinal value and true to the name in the Lupine language, would kill those who took it fairly quickly. We had thought that all records of how to make it were destroyed, but somehow these people have crates of this stuff." Hideo sighed, "So wouldn't this be the problem of the police and not the military?" Brian sighed, "Major, if the police were to try to pull a raid off on this cartel, they would be sending the entire force back to Terra in boxes. This is why we need some military help, but the Red Reaper won't move unless he knows that he has human support." Hideo sighed and looked at Mary, "Who is the Red Reaper?"

Mary adjusted her glasses, "The nom de guerre of Red Reaper was given to Balthoron Miyamae by the Human Government during the Blitz of Lokono." Hideo nodded slightly, "In the Arawak System, Balthoron and the Raptors led the allied forces charge against the Thraxi stronghold in that area. After a bloody battle, it was revealed that he was the one that entered the occupied research station and killed around thirty percent of the Thraxi soldiers in it. But you're telling me that Balthoron is here on this station?" Brian nodded, "Yes, the reason he hasn't left even when his contract was over was because of this cartel." Hideo nodded, "Can you get in contact with him?" Hilda shook her head, "Huibert won't let me contact him, and Brian doesn't know where to look." Hideo looked at Mary, "Can you track Balthoron down?" Mary nodded, "I can do my best, I doubt even he can hide from me."

Hideo nodded slightly and stood up, "Hilda, Brian, while we search for Balthoron, why don't the two of you stay here at the base as our guests. Normally bursting into my office would get you a cell for the night, but since the two of you have come to me for help, I figured the least I can do is offer you a place to stay for a bit." Brian blinked, "So does this mean that you'll be helping us?" Hideo shook his head, "Unless I can get in contact with Balthoron, I won't be helping you at all. But if this cartel is bad as you say it is, if I can't get in contact with the Red Reaper, I'll call in for military reinforcements. Though I don't think this is a mere cartel that we're dealing with, Brian." Brian blinked, "What do you mean?" Hideo sighed and looked out his window at stars past the dome, "Brian, the only type of criminal that carries military grade equipment and trades it are Space Pirates..."

Chapter 7

The appointed time had arrived and both Tariq and Svetlana had been chosen to go to the Furicorn. Svetlana's AI spoke up, "I do not detect anyone around here other than us and the bartender." Svetlana frowned, "Elise, you know that they said that they'll be here within this hour." Elise's pink hologram appeared as Thulani walked in, a powder blue hologram behind him, "Hey guys, the Major thought Ewan and I should accompany you." Tariq nodded as he watched Thulani and Ewan walk over to the bar, "What do you two want to drink, and Ewan, don't think about trying to order alcohol, you're nineteen." Ewan frowned, "Oi! Ye be daft thinkin that I ain't had a bit of the ol' creature befer!" Elise giggled slightly, "Your accent is amusing, Ewan." Ewan nodded, "Thank ya kindly, lass." Tariq frowned, but Thulani looked at the bartender, "Barkeep, I'll have an Pina Colada."

Leon nodded and went to work making the drink, "Gonna have to see your ID." Thulani nodded and showed his ID, Leon took it and checked it, "Alright, good, otherwise, I'd have to give this to the customer that just walked in." Ewan looked back to see a man covered in a robe and hiding his face with a hat, he saw a glimpse of silver hair, "Ey, ya think that could be our man?" Svetlana looked at the man who sat down at a table on his own, "It could be, Tariq, do you think I should go talk to him?" Tariq shrugged, "Ewan, go with her." Ewan nodded, "Aye, sir." The two of them stood up and walked over to the figure, Svetlana speaking up, "Hello." The figure replied in a language neither of them understood, but Svetlana recognized, "Si mi tenpiswo ekess vulsh, sjek coi ui ti jathila, gethrisj mojka." Svetlana shook her head, "I'm sorry, I do not speak Draconic."

The figure looked up, revealing a face covered in silver scales, "Ai mar sar ais air air byr aistysal, kai eirdae, Ai ber shal sai pol." Ewan frowned, "Ey! Ye be off yer damn heid! The lady said she don't understand Draconic!" The figure sighed and spoke in a somewhat reptilian accent, "That time I was speaking elvish. So this time, I'll speak in a language that you can understand. I'm here to have a drink, if it's not important, piss off." Svetlana frowned, "That's rather rude, you know." The figure sighed, moving his hat off his face to reveal an elvish looking face if not for the draconic scales covering it, "I don't care, I got enough problems with the damn space pirates rolling around and my commanding officer is dragging his feet. If this keeps up, we'll all be killed." Ewan blinked, "Did ye say space pirates?"

The figure nodded and looked at the bartender, "Yo, Leon! Grab me a generic beer, will ya!" Leon nodded and grabbed a bottle, tossing it to the figure, who caught it in his hand, popping it open on the table and drinking the beer, "Yeah, I did, you guys have a problem with that?" Svetlana shook her head, "You wouldn't be Lieutenant Colonel Faerondalan, would you?" The figure looked at Svetlana, his dark blue reptilian eyes narrowed at her, "What are you looking for my great-grandfather for?" She sighed, but Tariq instead spoke up, "We're human military, we've recently moved in and are setting up a base near here." The figure put down his beer and smiled, revealing sharp teeth and creeping Svetlana out a bit, "No shit, you guys are my contacts, so you're on time and I happened to have been late. This makes things a lot easier."

Ewan nodded, "Aye, it does." The figure smirked, "I'm Lieutenant Arthon Faerondalan, of the Raptor Mercenary Forces. My great-grandfather has sparked an interest in speaking to you and has mentioned to one of his higher ups that working with the human military is the only way to solve this whole space pirate problem." Svetlana nodded and Elise spoke up, "Why do you hide your body like that?" Arthon took a drink of his beer, "Because, AI, Half-Dragons aren't exactly well liked by humans. Something to do with ancient animosity between the Dragons and the Humans, and furthermore, I'm one-quarter Human and one-quarter Elvish, so I got one hell of a short end of that particular stick. Fortunately my commanding officer is a half-elf from Verbanan, so he sort of has some sort of sympathy for me."

Tariq nodded, "I understand what you must feel like, being of both Draconic and Human blood, but we are taking steps to accept the fact that our races have been breeding with each other and taking steps to raise the offspring, despite the fact that we may not be able to live to see them reach full adulthood at times." Arthon nodded slightly, "That's good to hear." He looked at Thulani, "Hey, you in the orange shirt, can you come here for a moment?" Thulani looked up from his drink and nodded, "Sure thing." He walked over to Arthon who looked at him, "I thought I recognized your scent. You're Thulani Gamede, I was working with the Eidechse during that conflict. I apologize for what happened to your parents." Thulani shook his head, "I harbor no ill will towards you, nor the Eidechse for what they have done."

Arthon nodded slightly, "You're quite wise." The powder blue AI spoke up, "According to official records, you helped out in the refugee camps." Tariq looked at her, "Is this true, Alexandria?" Thulani grabbed his head as images flashed through his mind and Alexandria sighed and hugged him, "Sorry, Arthon, just seeing you has triggered a minor episode of PTSD." Arthon nodded slightly and placed a credit chip on the table, "If it's alright, I'll inform my commander that our forces should meet at your base." Tariq nodded slightly, "That seems okay with me, I'm sure Major Date won't have any issues with it. Do you know where the base is?" Arthon stood up and put his hat back on, "Of course I do, Huibert followed the red headed woman to the base." Tariq blinked, "Wait, Arthon, one of your men spied on us?" Arthon shook his head, "We were going to drop by to talk about the space pirates anyhow, making it official and knowing where to meet you guys just makes it easier." Tariq nodded and watched as the half-dragon left.

Chapter 9

Hideo sat in his office while Caladwen looked at him, "So, you're the commanding officer of the Raptors?" Caladwen shook his head, "I'm the Executive officer, the commanding officer is on this base, but he wasn't the one that was hired for this job." Hideo nodded, "Alright, who hired you?" Caladwen looked him in the eyes, "Your father did, he hired me to bring the raptors into the colony until this base was finished, we were supposed to pull out, until we noticed some unusual activity. We had Huibert check into it and to our surprise, it was space pirates. I personally made the decision to wait until we could find your base and arrange a meeting before we continued forth." Hideo sighed, "Unfortunately, I wish to speak to your commanding officer." Caladwen shook his head, "The commander is currently speaking with two humans who have lived near Verbanan territory."

Hideo sighed, "So, Caladwen, now that you have an accurate judge of our forces, what is your analysis of the situation?" Caladwen sighed, "I'm not a combatant, and I assume neither the hacker nor the quartermaster are combatants." Hideo shook his head, "Neither am I." Caladwen shook his head, "Altogether, we have twenty-three combatants, the odds are heavily in the favor of the space pirates. Reinforcements must arrive before we attack from either the Humans or the Raptors in order for us to stand a chance." Hideo looked down, "I was afraid you would say that. So how many soldiers do you think that we'll need?" Caladwen sighed, "Roughly a hundred to stand a chance down there." Hideo nodded and before he could respond, he heard something slam into his door and heard Victor speaking.

Hideo sighed and opened the door to see the Verbanans standing between his men and the combatants, one looked like an armored Kitsune, while Victor was the other one, "What the hell is going on in here!?" Victor sighed, "This is the Red Reaper, I'm going to pay him back for what he did to me, or I would, if the coward would remove his armor." The armored Verbanan looked at Victor, "Fine, you want a repeat of several years ago, that's alright with me." Hideo watched as the armored Verbanan removed his armor, revealing that underneath he was a kilf wearing a suit, but Hideo noticed an object on the Kilf's right hand, "What the..." Victor looked at him, "You're a Kilf!?" The Kilf smiled, "Yeah, got a problem with it?" Victor rushed at the Kilf who grabbed Victor's tackle and expertly twisted around the human.

Victor stumbled a bit and the Kilf spoke, "You're still just a boy who thinks that he's a man. You're fighting one of the most..." Victor turned around and rushed the Kilf, with a punch, the Kilf just moved around the punch and shoved Victor forward as he continued, "well-known mercenaries in the galaxy and you don't even have a plan." Victor growled and grabbed an object and swung it at the Kilf who moved out of the way and grabbed it with his hand, using the object as a fulcrum to continue Victor's momentum and throwing him off balance, causing him to stumble to the side, "Come on, child, you lost your composure and you're attacking me with weapons." Victor growled and rushed at the Kilf with the object, "YOU KILLED MY PARENTS!"

The Kilf ducked to the side as Victor brought the object down and shoved Victor into the wall, grabbing at the weapon arm and forcing it behind Victor's back, using his elbow to pin Victor to the wall, "Attack me again and I will temporarily paralyze you, am I clear." Victor didn't say anything and The Kilf dug his claws into the weapon arm, causing Victor enough pain to drop the weapon, "There, that's better. Listen here, I didn't go onto your damn ship to kill your parents or your crew, it was a straight up capture mission. Your family and friends were the ones to open the first round of shots and killed a couple of my men as we tried to capture them. The only reason you're still alive right now is that you weren't an adult yet. So despite the fact that you had a weapon, we spared you and took you prisoner."

The Kilf let go of Victor who spat at the ground near the Kilf's feet, "Fuck you and your lies, Reaper." Victor walked off and pushed past Tariq and Linda to do it. Tariq just started laughing at the spectacle, "So the stories they say about the Red Reaper are true, you are quite fast and agile, and quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat." The Kilf nodded, "I heard of you, Tariq Crawford, your parents came to hire the Raptors to track you down. The pay was nice, but it wasn't quite the kind of job suited for a mercenary group." Tariq nodded, "You have me at a disadvantage, friend, what's your name?" The Kilf looked at the humans, "Balthoron Miyamae, Commanding officer of the Raptor Forces and the leader of the Verbanan base."

Hideo nodded slightly, "So that's why you have Grandfather's wedding ring on your finger." Balthoron looked at Hideo, "So you're Shigeru's son. Hold on a second." Balthoron put a finger to an earpiece, "Hey, Shigeru, I didn't know you were sending your son over here. Yeah, he's doing a good job I must say. Nah, Victor wasn't too much trouble. Alright, see you soon." Hideo blinked, "You could've asked my father for reinforcements, you know!" Balthoron shook his head, "Major, that's your job, being part of the human military and all." Caladwen spoke behind him, "He's right, you know, Hideo. You need to inform your father about what's going on and request reinforcements." Hideo sighed slightly, "Alright, I'll get on that in a few minutes. I need to have a bite to eat, so I have a ration pack with my name on it."

Chapter 11

The day of the operation had arrived and Tariq noticed the human reinforcements immediately, but he could feel the tension within the air, he looked at Olujmi, "I guess the General really did bring out a lot of people." Sally appeared, "Wow, so I guess we're going to be going after the Space Pirates today." Tariq nodded and they heard Balthoron's voice speak up, "Come to the briefing room, I'm going to fill everyone in on this operation with the General's help." Tariq looked at Olujmi who nodded, "Let's go, I think it's time we figure out what we're going to do now." Tariq nodded slightly and the two of them walked into the briefing room where there was an image on the wall, they saw Shigeru standing at one side of the image while Balthoron stood at the other. Shigeru waited for a few moments, "Is everyone here? Good, let's get this briefing underway."

Balthoron spoke up, "Verbanan forces, you will be under the command of General Shigeru Date for the remainder of this operation." Shigeru nodded, "Thank you, Balthoron." Balthoron stepped back as Shigeru continued, "As you all know, there is a space pirate presence on this station. They have holed themselves up in a bunker that's below deck. Thanks to intel on the base that the Verbanans and Mary have gotten for us, we now know of the strength of their forces, they're mostly human, except with a single Kitsune enforcer. They total about two hundred strong, it will not be an easy fight and I don't think that all of us will make it out alive. Unfortunately because we don't know much about the layout of the place and don't have time to scout before they enact their plan, we're going to have to go through with a forced breach, that's where you come in Victor."

Victor laughed from the back, "Alright, about time you need me to do something!" Shigeru nodded slightly, "Calm down, anyhow, once that's done, throw in some smoke grenades to obscure vision so that we can enter into the base safely. Unfortunately the place will be put on alert, Olujmi, can you and Tariq provide cover with your heavy weapons?" Tariq spoke up, "I have no issue with doing so, but Olujmi's mechanized exoskeletal combat harness is a bit big to fit through the door." Olujmi smirked slightly, "That's why we're blasting our way in, Tariq. Anyhow, General, I have no issue." Shigeru smiled, "That's good, Linda, Ewan, you will be on point alongside the Verbanans, any issues with that?" Linda shrugged, "None, sir." Ewan blinked slightly, "Noo jist haud on!" Shigeru nodded slightly, "I see you have an issue, Private McIntyre."

Ewan nodded, "Whit's fur ye'll no go by ye, but I dinnae wanna be on the front line!" Shigeru spoke up, "You scored exceptionally well with a shotgun. You belong on the front line." Ewan sat down and grumbled, "Yer bum's oot the windae..." Shigeru sighed and Balthoron looked at him, "Wait, you understand what the hell that guy is saying?" Shigeru nodded, "It's not hard when you had to have dealt with him on a daily basis during his basic training." Shigeru went back to the briefing, "We are not here to capture prisoners, if any of the space pirates surrender, direct them to the back line which will capture them and bring them back to this base. Otherwise, kill every pirate you see, especially the Space Pirate leader. Does anyone have any questions?" A hand raised up and Shigeru nodded, "Yes, Thulani."

Thulani stood up, "What is Balthoron going to do?" Balthoron looked at him, "I'm going to set up plan B. Since both your military and my mercenaries all have pressurized gear and will be wearing airtight armor, if things start to go sufficiently south, I'm going to need to be able to have my gunship open a hole in the station's hull where the space pirates are located, fortunately, because of where they're located, all I'd be destroying is a docking bay door." Ewan spoke out, "Do yer dinger, yer aff yer heid!" Balthoron facepalmed, "Speak Common for the love of all you find holy and sacred!" A half-dragon AI appeared and spoke up, "He's saying that you are an idiot." Balthoron sighed and shook his head with his face still in his hand, "You guys are in the military and no one told you what would happen if hull integrity failed at any point in the room you were in." The AI shook his head, "None of us have been taught that."

Balthoron sighed and moved his hand from his face, "Alright, can someone other than the guy that speaks gibberish tell me what they think will happen?" Vesna spoke up, "You'll get sucked out into space." Balthoron shook his head, "That's a myth, gravity will keep you on the ground and the wind created by the pressure difference will not have enough power to throw you out of the station. Anyone else?" Svetlana spoke up, "Um, decompression will cause you to explode?" Balthoron shook his head, "No, that's another myth, surprising that they allowed you to think these myths, the truth is actually far, far worse than the myths. But since you're all going to be protected, you won't have to worry about a thing." Olujmi spoke up, "So then what's the truth about being exposed to a vacuum then."

Balthoron looked at the ceiling, "Well first you start to find it harder to breathe. Then bubbles start to form in your body fluids, basically what happens when you try to surface too quickly from diving. It's an incredibly painful experience, all the while, the temperature around you is dropping rapidly, so you're freezing to death rather quickly. However fortunately, the human body loses consciousness after roughly fourteen seconds, but a Kitsune could last a respectable fourteen point three. Air is also going to escape from your lungs during this process, and trying to hold your breath isn't a smart idea, it's going to kill you far faster. The last effect is the carbon dioxide content in your blood lowers and the pH gets altered, indirectly causing nervous system malfunctions. After 30 seconds, your blood stops flowing and you become paralyzed. One minute more, and they're dead. It's a terrible way to go..."

Balthoron sighed and took a breath, "Before anyone of you ask how I know this, this happened to a buddy of mine during the Galactic War. Any questions other than this?" No one spoke and Balthoron started walking towards the door as Shigeru spoke up, "The operation will commence at Eighteen Hundred Hours. Dismissed." Tariq stood up with Olujmi, "Looks like we're partners today, huh?" Olujmi nodded, "Yes, sounds good. I'm going to go to the lab and see how my suit is doing, you want to come with me?" Tariq shook his head, "Nah, I gotta go make sure the others are going to be doing alright, I mean for Ewan and Svetlana, this is their first actual operation. They've never killed a person before, so I want to make sure that they're at least steeled for the whole thing." Olujmi nodded, "You know where to find me." Tariq watched as Olujmi walked off as he himself walked towards the commons.

Chapter 13

The appointed time had arrived and everyone was geared up and outside of the space pirate base, they were all in position. Victor walked over to the door and placed a breaching charge on it, setting the timer, before backing away. When the device went off and blew the door off the frame, several people threw smoke grenades into the door, which immediately started spewing a thick smoke. Linda turned on her thermals and rushed into the building with Olujmi at her side, leaving Ewan behind. She heard Olujmi fire repeatedly and moved away as the Cyborg started to draw fire, but the large mechanical suit was capable of taking the punishment. She fired her shotgun at a few of the heat signatures, and hear the other soldiers fire their weapons into the the crowd of heat signatures. She watched as one by one the signatures fell to the ground.

She hid behind a wall as fire erupted towards their location and Tariq shouted out, "Fire in the hole!" She watched as Tariq pulled out a recoiless rifle and fired it at several heat signatures, the resulting flash of heat was bright, but she knew that the space pirates would be in disarray. Oddly enough, she heard several discharges of a Verbanan weapon and then felt something grab her by her helmet and pull her back into a room. She was face to face with a Kitsune, one that she recognized from images, "So you're Mamoru Misawa, eh?" James spoke up, "Linda, this is no time to be mocking your opponents! You need to concentrate!" Linda was thrown into a wall by the Kitsune and moved out of the way of a knife swipe, "Knives, eh?" Linda pulled out her own combat knife with a smile.

She pointed the knife at the Kitsune and lifted her shotgun at him, "Checkmate." The Kitsune grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and dug his knife into it, forcing Linda to discard it, removing the knife from the Kitsune. Linda's notion of having an advantage vanished when the Kitsune pulled out a sword, forcing her to move backwards, out of its range. James spoke up loudly, "You're not trained for sword combat, Linda! His stance suggests that he is!" The Kitsune moved to close the distance and grabbed the blade to start half-swording, a tactic that Linda thought was crazy, but she moved out of the way nonetheless, trying not to get hurt, "Shit!" Linda hissed through her teeth as the Kitsune moved towards her and tried to thrust his sword into the gaps between her armor again, "Dammit!" She moved out of the way again and grabbed at the sword, the Kitsune intelligently moving it away.

Linda looked at her combat knife and got an idea, James spoke up, "Linda! Heads up!" Linda looked and saw the sword thrust at her, she tried to move, but it caught her. She felt the sword punch through her underarmor and into her flesh, the medical implants sending off an alert. However, she smiled as this allowed her to grab the Kitsune by the arm and using her power armor's increased strength, pull him into range where she stabbed him in the neck with the knife, repeatedly, until she severed the spinal cord and paralyzed him. She threw the Kitsune to the ground and James spoke up, "Laurie is on her way, I suggest that you leave the sword within you until she gets here."

Linda looked at the sword lodged into her abdomen and started to pull on it, without much success. She sat down and sighed, the feeling of the metal in her was not only uncomfortable, but became painful as the adrenaline started to wear off. She sighed slightly as she heard the battle continue to rage on outside, when Laurie opened the door with a medkit, "I'm here, Linda." Linda nodded slightly, "I got a sword in me, can you remove it?" Laurie nodded, "It's going to be more painful, sure you don't want something to bite down on?" Linda sighed, "No time, besides, it's a battlefield out there." Laurie shrugged and started rocking the sword back and forth as she pulled on the hilt, Linda started grunting in sheer pain, she felt like something was being ripped up inside of her. Finally the sword was removed and Linda started breathing heavily, "Son of a bitch, I had no fucking idea that those things hurt so badly. Now I see why the Verbanans still use them!"

Laurie nodded slightly and opened her medkit, "Relax, I'm going to patch up the wound, it's deep, but the damage is minimal. He missed all of your vitals and only hit muscle, you're rather lucky." Linda nodded as Laurie went to work by first disinfecting the wound, the sting of the disinfectant was nothing compared to having the sword removed from her body, but it still hurt. After that, Laurie started to stitch up the wound in order to close it, "We're going to have to take you off the battlefield, but you're safest here for right now." Once she finished stitching up the wound, Linda sighed, "What do you mean by that." Laurie placed a bandage on the wound to protect it from being reopened and sighed, "Well, aside from the fact that you need rest so as to not aggravate that injury... well... you need to heal before you go back into combat, doctor's orders."

Linda sighed as she heard the fighting become more distant, and Laurie helped her up, "Don't argue with me, Linda, you know that when it comes to medicine, I'm allowed to order you around despite rank." Linda nodded, "I know, Laurie. Thank you." Laurie helped Linda out of the building and took her somewhere safe, "The Major will be here in a few minutes, look, I have to get back to the battlefield to see if any more of ours needs help." Linda nodded slightly and watched as Laurie ran back towards the battle, she was about to get up when she heard Hideo's voice speak up, "Lieutenant, sit there and rest, that's an order." Linda smiled weakly under her helmet and Hideo took it off. She looked into his eyes, "Alright then, sir." Hideo hugged her tightly, "Don't worry me like that again." Linda patted him on the back, "Don't worry, I won't. I promise you that much."

Chapter 15

Hideo looked outside as people came from the Space Pirate base, "Linda, you stay here." Linda spoke up, "As if I have a choice." Hideo walked over towards them to welcome them back, when suddenly, he saw a reporter run towards Balthoron, "Hi, Donna Burke with channel thirty news, may I speak to you?" Balthoron turned his head, "No." Donna frowned, "Well aren't you rude?" Balthoron sighed, "Listen, ma'am, I have no patience for reporters, you want to talk to someone, talk to my XO. He's the black skinned elf." Donna huffed, "You're racist too." Caladwen took off his helmet, "Ma'am, my skin is quite literally the color black. He's not referring to me as being dark skinned." Donna walked over to him and put her microphone up to his face, "May we speak with you?" Caladwen looked at the cameraman and then at Balthoron who shrugged and sighed, "Fine, but only long enough to tell you who to actually thank."

Donna nodded, "Thank you, people said that there were explosions. What did you see?" Caladwen pointed at the base, "You want to see all the Space Pirates in there, go ahead and look, you want to thank people for keeping this colony safe, thank the human military." Donna nodded, "And where do I find this human military leader." Hideo spoke up, "I'm right here." Donna looked at him, "Ah! Come on, Geoff." She walked over to Hideo who sighed slightly and prepared himself mentally, "What can I help you with, as you know civilians are not supposed to be on a site where a military operation had just taken place." Donna nodded, "I know, but when we got reports of explosions and weapons fire being heard around here, do you have an explanation?"

Hideo sighed, "Caladwen, our ally within the Verbanan forces and the Executive Officer of the Raptors, a Verbanan Mercenary Force and a well respected one at that, has told you exactly why. Space Pirates were there, as you know, the penalty for space piracy is death. We would've left them alone until they acted, but if you want to find out why we acted first, you can go in there and see that they had Tod-Wesser in there, a highly illegal substance." Donna blinked, "Tod-Wesser was made illegal because it kills people within twenty-four hours, right?" Hideo nodded, "Yes, there's no medicinal benefits to it. However an antidote was made in case it was accidentally ingested. According to intelligence reports, they were going to unleash the Tod-Wesser on the populace by injecting it into the water supply and then ransoming off the cure."

Donna sighed, "May I see this intelligence?" Hideo handed her a datapad, "Sure thing, I know how you reporters like to spin things, so here's the actual reports written by the Verbanans and us." Donna nodded, "Mind if I take a look in the base?" Hideo shook his head, "Go ahead, I'll go with you if you have more questions." Donna nodded, "Sure thing." Donna looked at the Camera, "The Major is going to let us go see the carnage in the base, it might get a bit graphic in here so parents, be advised." Hideo walked into the space pirate base first and Donna looked around, "There are bodies everywhere, both military and space pirate." Hideo nodded, "That's combat, people die in combat, unfortunately they held the advantage here, so we lost a lot of good men."

Donna nodded, "So where is this Tod-Wesser located." Hideo motioned towards a busted cargo bay door, "It should be right in there. We're going to take a lab sample and see just how pure the substance is, as for the rest of it, we're going to destroy it, we'll send the results directly to your studio." Donna nodded, "Now, tell me, you went in here without knowing if it was Tod-Wesser or not?" Hideo looked at her, "I trust my intelligence officer with my life, after all, she got the job by hacking into a military computer, which as you might know is an astoundingly difficult feat. Her other choice was to go to prison for the rest of her life. Anyhow, would you like to see anything else down here or are we good to go?"

Donna looked around, "Where's their leader?" Hideo shrugged, "I have no idea where their leader is. Though if I had to guess from what I heard from the comms system being on, he'd be down that hallway over there." Donna nodded slightly and walked into the hallway with her cameraman and Hideo following her, they walked for a while and Donna spoke into the Camera, "I have no idea what we're going to find down here, but I'm curious. Remember, the imagery will still be graphic." Soon they came across a corpse that had been dismembered and there was a pool of blood where the corpse was laying, Donna gasped slightly, "What the hell is that!? Who could've done such a thing to this man!?

Hideo smirked, "That's the telltale sign of the Red Reaper, now if you don't mind, I have to go and check on my wounded girlfriend." Donna turned around, "Wait, who is the Red Reaper!?" Hideo smiled as he turned away from her and started to walk away, "You let him slip past you, he's a Verbanan. Way I figured it, they're long gone. But Caladwen was right, humanity saved the day here, not the Verbanans." Hideo heard Donna sigh as he kept walking, he didn't care much for the press, he just wanted to act as a diversion for Balthoron and the others to get away. Hideo chuckled to himself as he walked towards the entrance of the base and put a finger on his earpiece, "You guys get Linda, I'll meet you back at the base. I'm going to take a roundabout way there to throw this reporter off of us."