Riddik frowned as the last drops exited the bottle and entered his mouth. He was sure that he had bought an entire litre of Betheshee Musk beer, the somewhat pungent and slightly metallic tasting stout mixed with pure ethanol from his home system, and he was very sure that he had only walked for a couple of minutes. He must have been thirsty then, time to grab another one at the plaza or something else if they didn't have his brand. He dropped the bottle into the recycling bin and walked slightly unsteady into the main plaza. The bottle shop was over towards the exit to the main repairs deck and he headed over there without hurry. A couple of punks were gang-walking a drunken girl and a single man was sitting on a bench outside the shop staring at the trio intently. Riddik chuckled at remembering when he had been a young punk at Domino’s Hold and they had been partying for days on end, sniffing everything, smoking what could not be sniffed and using the spare time for drinking. He stopped dead in his tracks while considering his options. He knew that Keria would have his hide if he did what he was contemplating but she was not due on the station until tomorrow. That was actually the only consideration he had to make and thus he decided to go join the punks in drinking the universe dry.
"Hey wait up son. Ahem, Y'all beatta wait homes."
He grinned, once you had learned gangsta talk it remained, like flying an EC. One of the punks glanced back and wrinkled his brows.
"The fuck ya wanna ole man?"
He almost spat the words out and Riddik stopped grinning, remembering how he had been when he was that age. He was about to wave them off and leave when he recognised the girl between them from somewhere. He activated his face recognition software and checked her profile through; a match he didn't expect.
"Cat? Is that you"
A knife appeared in the hand of the punk closest to him and Riddik activated his combat implants; not that he had to activate a lot, they were always just dormant instead of active.
"Fark aof ya git. Non-ya bisniss."
Cat turned her head and looked Riddik straight in the eye, the desperation clear in her face. Riddik tried to keep his outward appearance calm but slowly, with inevitable force like a glacier moving to the sea, a very large grin forced its way to his face. He tried to come with a cocky remark to the punks but failed; instead he closed his fist and swung it from his hip up towards and impacting on the punk's chin with devastating force. The crack of his jaw disintegrating was loud enough to be heard over the general chatter at the plaza and the thump of the punk's body that hit the floor was almost as loud. The punk on the other side of Cat drew his hold-out pistol pointing it at Riddik's belly; at the same time Riddik felt and anticipated rather than heard or saw the third punk from behind. No factor, he was ready for the attack when it came. Riddik twisted his body slightly and grabbed for the hold-out when a barrage of noise assaulted his brainpal and almost made him faint with nausea. The knife that entered his back between the lower ribs didn't help at all and would have neatly sliced his right kidney in half if he still had any kidneys that is. The gun roared and belched forth an old-fashioned brass covered lead bullet that smashed through Riddik's hand and lodged itself in his hip. Riddik ignored the knife, grabbed for the hold-out and tried to focus on shutting his brainpal off. The three items at once were too many and he missed the gun and could only stare as the gun started to point upwards to the area over his upper lip. As if time had slowed down to tease him and let him see how his life was going to end, he saw in pain-wracking detail how the index finger contracted, squeezing the trigger with it. The gun roared again but missed Riddik by inches as the punk had lost his balance to a knee tackle delivered by Cat.
Cat had regained the control of her brainpal when Riddik hit the first of the punks and immediately accessed the combat programme and flooded her system with adrenaline. She did not have the same implants or the same training as the regular Serco Marines but were still a dangerous opponent for mere hu-norm scum as these. The roaring of the gun focused her attention on the closest punk and she delivered a very precise and hard kick to the side of his knee, causing him to collapse to the ground. The second shot hit somewhere on the ceiling but Cat was not finished. Using her advantage in height she stomped her boot directly into the throat of the punk several times making him drop the hold-out and use his hands and arms to protect his head. Cat changed focus and kicked him hard several times in the groin until he was still. She turned and saw the big bloody pool where the last punk was lying, his own dagger buried in the chest. From the blood pool a set of footprints led directly towards the other side of the plaza where Riddik dressed in a torn green jump suit, was storming at a man carrying what looked to be a holo-corder. She stomped her opponent an extra time in the face to be sure and ran over towards Riddik.
Riddik had almost been overwhelmed by the electronic cacophony but managed to engage his military grade filter and take most of it away. He felt the knife start to move in his back and flexed his considerable bulk, locking it in place. He turned quickly and tore it out of the hand of the punk. He reached back and grabbed the knife and stabbed it directly into the heart of the previous owner almost without effort. He saw that Cat was dancing the tango on top of the gunslinger and turned his attention to his brainpal instead, especially the special tracking hardware he had inserted for a mission back in the old days. He slowly turned until he had the best signal and identified a person with a small box about fifteen metres away. He smiled a predatory grin and set off to intercept his target. Not slowing down the least he tackled the man with his shoulder first, crouching slightly before applying all his considerable bulk and speed to the chest of the man tossing him a metre away before impacting violently with the floor mesh with all of Riddik's 340 pounds on top of him. The box was crushed between them and the attack on Riddik's brainpal stopped immediately. He grinned even wider, grabbed the man's throat between his teeth and closed his jaw, feeling the larynx being crushed before releasing. He grabbed the ID papers from the inner pocket before standing. Someone was rushing from behind but his brainpal was in contact with that person's brainpal and informed him that it was Cat. He turned and smiled while wiping the small drops of blood away from his mouth.
"We can't go on meeting like this Cat."
She stopped and grinned in return at the jolly green giant in the hulk outfit, the adrenaline flushing from her system now it wasn't needed and allowing the serotonin to take over.
"I think I owe you again. I am not sure it is going to be that healthy for us to stay here though. Drink?"
Riddik nodded and followed her away from the plaza. At least he had found someone to drink with now. Maybe this day was not going to be a complete write-off after all.
###
Retractile activated the small fly camera and released it letting it fly slightly behind and over his head. He stripped off the flight suit and underwear standing in the docking bay only wearing a yellow combined G-string-bathing suit (Borat..) and his boots. He grabbed a bottle of tanning oil and rubbed it on his torso making it gleam in the light of the bay. When he was finished, he looked up at the camera and grinned while doing a thumbs-up.
"One bet getting paid Az."
He found the box he had brought, took a deep breath and opened the bay door to the station. Several members of the VPR guild were milling around their light fighters, readying them for patrol or the like. All were deeply concentrated on their tasks and didn't notice Retractile's grand entry. He walked over to the person next to the gold coloured Rev C and cleared his throat.
"Ehm, mi mi mi miiiiiii. O sole meowrrrr."
Strat turned and almost jumped up into the cockpit from the surprise but managed instead to draw his gyrock pistol in a fluid motion and point it at the almost naked Retractile. That didn't seem to faze the pirate the least and he showed Strat an empty hand to indicate that he should wait. The small fly cam started playing a tune heavy on trumpets and horns, and at the same time Retractile started doing his version of the white man's shuffle.
"Dear Strat, there's no need to feel down
I said, Dear Strat, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, Dear Strat, cause you're the new in town
There's no need to be unsexy.
Dear Strat, there's a place for your ills
I said, Dear Strat, when your short on them kills
You can come there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to get some rats dead.
It's fun to fight in the La Tos O 12
It's fun to fight in the La Tos O 12."
They never found out if Retractile had prepared a third verse or not. The pirate alarm went off, as welcome as a sneaked fart in a lover's embrace. Strat fired the gyrock out of reflex and buried a gyrock round into the deck before looking sheepishly down at the hole and then back up at Retractile who had moved much much closer. Only a box of donuts separated them. Retractile handed them to Strat who grabbed them with both hands, stepped back and did a mock salute with the wrong hand.
"Congrats with the position of Lieutenant of the snakes Strat. From all of CLM with love."
Strat looked down at the assorted donuts bewildered before realising that Retractile was bolting for the exit.
"Halt scum rat."
Retractile kept running, he knew that Strat was too honour bound to shoot a very obviously unarmed man in the back and he really didn't have a choice if he wanted to avoid prison only clad in a small g-string. The auto-door opened and he ran directly to the dock and his clothes followed by the fly camera. The unmarked Warthog Mk II that waited for him would hopefully be sufficient to let him avoid the guards that remained near the station. At least Azumi had drawn most of the VPR pilots away by ratting a voy just as it was about to dock. He dressed very quickly and jumped into his cockpit, slamming his hand on the launch button as soon as his cockpit had sealed. Strat hailed him immediately and the golden Rev C accelerated under maximum force towards his Warthog.
"Stop scum rat and face prosecution."
Retractile immediately hit the turbo button and dropped a lightning mine at the same time forcing Strat to offset.
"Sorry snake but I have prior engagements."
The distance to Strat diminished slowly to below 100 metres and the flares that were Strat's weapon of choice belched forth from the opening in the left side of the front and tore across vacuum towards Retractile's Warthog. Unfortunately for Strat, Retractile had waited for exactly that and dodged to one side, dropped another lightning mine and re-engaged the turbo in less than a second. The distance was now only 60 metres and streams of neutrons hammered into the rear of the Warthog, gouging fist-sized holes in the armour protecting the engine. Strat disengaged and had to dodge away from the lightning mine. That was enough time for Retractile to gain 200 metres and effectively secure his safe get-away. At the 3k mark Retractile engaged the warp engine and punched through to CLM HQ and safety where a pink Rev C was waiting for him and any VPR that followed. Two circles of exotic particles indicated a set of fighters inbound and Azumi boosted to intercept them. Strat and Phaserlight scanned the system and decided not to pursue, instead jumping out and leaving the pirate's nest alone.
"I did it Az, I did it!"
He could almost sense the immense grin on her face as the radio crackled a reply.
"Never doubted you would baby. Wanna go for a drink?"
"Always. Let me find a rocket ship and I'll race you there."
"Up for a wager?"
Retractile grinned; the last wager had been kinda scary. But he had no intentions of losing this one.
"You bet. I know just what you have to do if you lose Az."
He told her. Her laughter punched through the vacuum and impacted deliciously on his ears like champagne bubbles on his palate.
