The explosion in the cargo bay at Remley Orbital was large enough to jolt the magnetic bearings, that allowed the central habitation module to rotate, and thus create 0.6 standard gravity, out of their safety parameters, which resulted in an emergency power shutdown to the ring. This ensured that the magnets didn't collide and smashed the delicate system, and further ensured that the rotating part of the station didn't hit the main part. No ruptures were detected in the habitation module, but it was still here they found most of the casualties. Fortunately few were fatal, but the supply of BoneGrid™ was soon exhausted. A lot of the lesser wounds were being set with improvised bandages.
The damage to the cargo bay was more severe. Apparently a Behemoth XC had been loaded with some kind of explosive and left to detonate inside the main bay. The cargo manifest had read luxury goods, and so a good portion of the TPG police had been present for off loading as per standard. None survived, and neither did the unloading crew. The entire lower level of the station was ripped open to space and none of the lower launch bays were even remotely functioning.Unfortunately, the blast caught the recycling facility and ruptured the tanks to the nano eaters. The cleanup from that alone would take at least a week. The pilot, a Marilyn Manson was recorded as belonging to UIT, and he was now the single most wanted man on the station. The remaining police was certain they would have the culprit in custody within the day.
The Anarchist wasn't sure they were right. After all, he had gone through quite a lot of trouble to make sure it didn't happen. When the explosion happened, he had been caught by a table across the leg as planned, and he was now proudly wearing a large bandage on his leg and one across his face. The last more for concealment. As a matter of fact, he was certain the police would have a lot of other more important things to do within this next day. He smiled. Sometimes it was good to be him, at other times it was absolutely marvellous.
""BREAK BREAK""
"CORVUS NEWS NETWORK with a special report"
Remley Orbital in Latos N-15 has been subjected to a vicious terrorist attack. Our on-site reporter tells of multiple deaths and many wounded. Sympathy has been offered from many factions, and emergency ships have been sent from Xang Xi and Corvus. TPG has blamed an unidentified male from UIT as the responsible. Until further notice, no UIT or PA ships are allowed to dock at Remley Orbital. CNN wonders how long time the station can afford to stay away from its usual business.
""BREAK BREAK""
NP looked at the pictures from the wreckage. Whomever did this knew exactly where and how to strike. He winced when he saw how many had been killed. Time for some more direct action. He grabbed the message capsule and went down to the launch bay where his Corvus Vulturius was parked. Looking at the sleek vessel, he focused on the job he had to do. Still, it was always a pleasure to fly such a fine craft. He launched and set course for Sedina B-8, better known as Sedina Bait, the favourite hideout of CLM.
As he was about to jump through the wormhole, a slightly burning Serco Axia bot with holes across the bow was passing the other way. The bot was one of the automatic convoys that freighted weapons grade Xithricite from Sedina to Pyronis, and a favourite target of the person he was about to meet. He engaged the jump engines.
He exited the wormhole with his hands firmly around the controls, and was rewarded by a hail almost immediately.
Azumi: Poor Lonely Maiden seeking economic assistance to purchase suspenders and exiting lingerie. Any amount will be accepted or I SHOOT.
He chuckled and sent his reply without hurry. "Greetings from the Phoenix Alliance." It would be some minutes before she would be free to engage him. The four Dentek Assault bots and the Orne Guardian that had survived this far from the CtC convoy was circling the pink Corvus Vulture, each of them succumbing to well placed shots of accelerated proton beams. Eventually only the guardian was left, and despite its heavy armour, it too was doomed to become expanding plasma.
The pink vulture turned to NP and accelerated to meet him. He checked his readout. 52% armour, and she was still charging in. He would teach her a lesson this time. He twisted his vulture into a sideways rolling turn and was rewarded by scoring a direct hit on Azumi's vulture. 43%, he could do this he thought. Rolling out and stabilising for a long strafe across the front, he unleashed neutron fire only to miss badly. Azumi had roll/turned and boosted down, thus getting his belly across her front. Accelerated protons flashed out and reduced the armour to 51% almost immediately. In reflex he tumbled the vulture ass over head to avoid more shots to the belly, and thus aligned his top with Azumi's guns. Actinic flaring across the top of the ship, and the armour was reduced to 22%. Damn, he was getting hammered. He rolled and dodged randomly to shake loose from the deathlike hold she had on his ship, and he succeeded in moving 128 meters away from Azumi's vult. Calming his nerves, he pulled and pushed at the controls to make the ship fly in a random up and down wave pattern, and started closing while firing the neuts. Score, he hit the pink vulture right on the front across the CLM logo, 36%. Now if he could just follow the movement to the left and fi...
Azumi smiled. He had flown right into the beams as she had anticipated. The rewarding explosion hurt her small craft, but nothing critical. She scanned the wreckage as usual, and today there was a gift. The 0.3 cubic meter of Xithricite was designed to survive anything. The container inside would be safe, and nobody would have suspected that NP had in fact dropped a message for her. She scooped it up, just in time for her radar to ping. Chana Slan, in a Centaur Mk III. She immediately hailed him and engaged the turbo. At 1300+ meters she would need all the distraction she could get.
Azumi: Pay me 10k. You will probably just run, and then I will have to chase you down and kill you. Sometimes I wonder why I hail.
Sure enough, he ran. At the 2800 meter mark, she drew a targeting solution on him and fired. Multiple hits, but the armour on the Centaur was pretty thick she knew from past experience. She watched him jump to Sedina D-14 and jumped after him with no hesitation. She had been lucky. Only 670 meters away and inbound for docking, the Centaur had been hit for around a third of its armour. Azumi engaged and poured shot after shot into the trade vessel that was boosting like mad toward the dock. Any second now she thought, as the station dock master called for her to cease firing in the no-fire area. She lined up for the last burst when Chana dumped a set of Mines in her path. At the very low armour she was at, she had to attempt dodging, and so was unable to kill the Centaur that crash docked in the station. The Mines went off and scoured off most of the remaining layers of her armour, reducing it to 3%. She aligned for the docking bay Chana had entered and engaged the turbo.
The Centaur had made a controlled crash landing, resulting in burning hull plates scattering themselves all over the dock. And not more than six seconds later, the well known pink Corvus Vulturius crash landed even more spectacularly as it hit a support structure at 225 m/s, cartwheeling into the holding facility before stopping in front of the loadmasters office. The canopy popped open and a small person jumped out. Azumi removed her pilots helmet and looked around with a mischievous grin. There, the Centaur. She tossed the helmet into the cockpit and peeled the sweaty jumpsuit down to her waist and tied the empty flapping arms from it around her waist. This served a double purpose, first it allowed her to cool down after the intense combat, and secondly let her show the world her CLM tattoo on the left shoulder. The dockhands were moving towards her shouting, but stopped when they saw who it was. She barely noticed them as she walked over to Chana's Centaur.
Chana had just left the cockpit when he heard the click click of heels on metal behind him. Turning, he saw a raven haired young woman in a pink tank top and jumpsuit walking over to him. That would have to be Azumi he thought and smiled sheepishly while turning his hands out. Nothing she can do here, he thought, the station protects its traders. The intensity of her gaze was however a little unnerving.
Azumi walked over to Chana, slid in real close and grasped his buttocks firmly while she planted a violent kiss on his lips. As he was completely taken by surprise, he was just standing with his hands to his sides for several seconds before the male genes in him woke him up. He smiled and kissed back. Azumi stopped, took one step back and looked at him. "Well, hello Mr. tongue. Pervert" she said and slapped him on the cheek and walked off again. Tasting blood, and not from the slap, he knew it wasn't him that had been naughty.
Azumi left Chana with a dumb smile on his face, went over to the dock master and tossed him the newly liberated large credstick. Chana wouldn't miss it she was sure, besides, she was poor, she couldn't afford the repairs.
"Fix the Pink Lady, the rest goes to the dock and to you guys, ok? Make sure you get another ship out here pronto, I am leaving"
The dock master smiled and nodded when he saw the 100k credstick. He followed her as she walked over to the vulture and retrieved something from a large metal box inside the vulture's small cargo hold. He kept on following her until the protests and yells of theft from the other ship was becoming too loud to ignore. Damn traders.
