Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge

I need to work on my menace, that’s my problem.

Whatever. I slapped the control that runs through my suit. It helps with both protection and weight. I looked up.

>>Achronyx, reduce weight eighty-percent.<<

I jumped up and slammed my hands into the stone before I shot past the top of the wall. I had to put one up, one down so my legs didn’t keep going. Sometimes I forget the basics.

I pulled myself up and looked over to see everything as it should be. Which is to say deserted between the main building and the outer gate. One of the snipers on the ground, one hanging ass up over on the wall at the other corner.

I noticed a window open and a big ass barrel getting stuck through, followed by a shield attached to the barrel. A thermal bloom protector.

Damned de damn damn. This is a bit of a harsh welcome and completely uncalled for.

>>Achronyx, target the window with the crew served laser sticking out. Make this a one-pound Puck as well, thirty-five percent power. See if you’re good enough to slam between the thermal bloom protector and the window.<<

>>Tabitha, you know this will kill anyone in the room unless they are in personal armor, correct?<<

I hate when E.I.’s lecture me on shit I knew before they were created.

>>Yes. Half of my attacks are calculated to cause the results you always warn me about.<<

>>That is because half of your efforts have spectacularly unique results.<<

Smartass. Even when he’s proper, I know he’s laughing in his cybernetic mind.

>>Just do it!<<

>>Incoming.<< A moment later I got a ‘duck’ command, and I dropped beneath the top of the wall.

I heard the first slam, then felt the concussive BOOM and smirked.

Right up until the point when I forgot the concussive boom might affect me. My spikes lost their grip in the rock, and I was falling.

>>ACHRONYX!<< That was how much I got out before my 18lbs hit the ground. I rolled with the landing and was up in a second, but it’s damned embarrassing, frankly.

>>Yes?<<

I swear to God that damned computer knew what was going to happen and just failed to warn me.

>>Achronyx, how about the next time something like this comes up, make sure to actually warn me about the SHIT I might not be thinking about? Let’s see, oh, for example, like fucking falling from twenty feet in the air, you asshole!<<

>>Tabitha, there is a substantial hole in the building. Three micro-drones have gone in, and there are no combatants in the top level at this time.<<

>>Did.You.Hear.My.Command!<<

>>Yes.<<

>>Fine. Remember what I said. Now put my weight back to normal for this shithole.<<

After pulling my pistols, I walked back to the front and went through the damaged front gate and then to the massive hole in the building. I saw what remained of the laser barrel laying off to one side, smoking. The rocks and debris from the hole were strewn all over the courtyard. More rocks and debris, including body parts, cluttered the room I poked my head in.

Damn, that was a mess. The wooden walls had blood and unwanted meat by-products everywhere.

I stepped through the hole in the wall, over a couple of large chunks of rocks and... other stuff. I wrinkled my nose. It isn’t like this stuff is new, and thank god I don’t throw up, but it isn’t ever pleasant.

I put my left pistol back in its holster and walked down a hallway. The drones ahead swept right around a corner.

Then I had no feedback, they stopped working.

Dammit. I yanked my pistol back out and dialed up the power. I kept the right pistol about as powerful as a .45 back on Earth. I aimed the left one at the end of the hallway then moved it a little right. Jacking up the gravitic offset, I let loose a barrage of shots, each one inching right. The wood and other building materials used in this building wasn’t going to stop these rounds. I fired about thirty. I did all of this shooting in the space of five seconds. You have to love Jean Duke’s rail-guns.

I kept the left pistol, holstered my right and reached in the duster to pull out two one-inch round eye-drones and tossed them into the air. They quickly went down and to the right to see what was in the hallway. Ouch, three dead, one wounded in the leg and stomach, still aiming a gun at me and then a large door at the end of the hall behind them.

I pulled my right gun and sent the command to impose a dot on the picture as I aimed. When I had my dot on his head, I switched the power up to seventy percent and kicked in the gravitic support. I fired once, and the round slammed into his mouth and out the back of his head.

None left alive.

I sent the drones through the other way to make sure nothing was waiting for me when I turned the corner. I was good. I walked down and did a quick peek before turning. Damn, what a mess.

>>Tabitha, there is a vehicular heat signature that is rapidly leaving to the Southwest from your location.<<

“That fucker left!” I screamed and started running past those on the ground who had given up their lives for that shithead. I gave the commands for the drones to check the door. Nothing on it, and I opened it an inch and a half to let them go in.

It was this building’s version of a garage. There were a handful of hover-bikes, and a space where a small two person jet-car would have been.

>>Achronyx, I’m going to open the small micro-bots. I want you to command them to check out this place, now. I don’t have anyone alive to question so far.<<

And I didn’t. Have anyone to question. It seemed the place either didn’t need them, or they were gone. It took another hour before the little micro-bots found a hidden door in a wall. I jerked around until a quarter hour later I found the mechanism to open it. Although tempted to blow it, I could have killed anyone inside. The door would have blasted into two cages that were ten feet back.

I pulled out my badge and let it hang on my duster, to make sure those inside who knew it would know help arrived.

I opened the door and the smell of unwashed bodies and horrible sanitation hit my nose. My eyes started watering.

>>Achronyx, call Billet and see if he will allow me to hire his people to help clean these ladies up. I count five different species, including one human. I need three rooms for them, and food, water and robes brought here. I’ll get Frank to let me know if we have a mercenary company trustworthy enough to help out here. Then, call Hirotoshi and let him know I want Ryu and half the Tontos to get off their lazy asses and find a fast packet ride over here.<<

I looked around the room and considered my next steps.

>>Let Hirotoshi know I’ve found a playground and a base of operations. The previous owner can kiss my ass, he isn’t getting it back.<<

>>Understood. Billet is willing to support you, but wants assurances that B-ehrunethinee is dead.<<

>>Send him pictures of the front gate, the front room from outside and inside, the hallway with the dead and now this one with the slaves. Next, tell him not to make me enforce laws about offering support. If he wants to argue? Tell him I’ll do the same to his home when I come knocking, I’m not in the mood. He can pee down his leg telling Barney I forced him to deal with me and what a bitch I am.<<

I confirmed no one but the slaves and I were alive in the building and holstered my weapons and started walking into the room with the kidnapped, those that could see me staring at me and my badge.