Loyalty - a ganger's story
Chapter 1: Raid on the Widow
Parcivale Redford looked on his chrono. Although it looked battered and the thick glass viewscreen was covered in scratches, the stocky man knew it was precise to the second. He wasn't some stick-up-the-arse Administratum clerk who got a hard on for a correct time stamp, but in his line of work, knowning when to make your mark was just as important. The man pulled the sleave of his heavy black flak coat over the chrono and sighed. Still half an hour to go. He ached for a lho stick, but now was not the time. Instead, he checked his surroundings again. You couldn't be too sure down here.
Parcivale sat behind the tracks of a burned out truck, stranded on the sidewalk, its front half buried in what used to be a small grocery store. A whiff of smoke still came from the charred body of the driver, the driving column stuck in his blackened rib cage. Left and right of him, dirty and run down habblocks towered over him, creating a small hive canyon. Most were only six or seven stories high, but a bit further down the road a colossal support beam of Hive Kraskow had been the ideal foundation for a habblock that dwarfed those around him. Most of the windows around were broken, but Parcivale knew that the damage wasn't from today's fighting alone. Most of these habs were deserted. Only the most desperate found refuge here. Anyone who could spare a few thrones and had the brains to spend them, had moved out months ago. Which meant that in the darkness of the artificial night of Kraskow, only a handful of the dozens of windows showed some light. And most of those were decoys too. Those forced to live here, weren't stupid. Or they would have ended up dead long ago. After all, this was the domain of the Widow.
"Oy, Hammer. What are you looking for? Can't you relax?" Parcivale looked at the woman at his side angrily. She was smiling widely. Carefree. As if they weren't on the turf of the meanest gang of Kraskow's underhive. He had known from the start that it was a mistake to take her with. Even if she looked the part - cargopants under a pilfered Guard breastplate, a mean looking switchblade at her belt - Parcivale knew that she was in over her head. Janina. One of the new kids his chief, boss Nowak, had employed. She said she was 19 cycles old, but Parcivale only gave her sixteen. At best. But Nowak's gang, the Jesters, needed fresh blood. She was quite the opposite of the veteran with his wrinkled face and thick eyebrows over deep laying, dark brown eyes. Her face was still unscathed, whilst Parcivale's body, including his head, was covered in scars, although some were hidden beneath a neatly cut patch of black, spikey hair.
The girl kept smiling as she witstood his gaze. "There's no one around, Hammer. We could be having a tea party." She looked around, craning her neck, exagerating her movements, trying to bait him into another reaction. Just like any punk kid would do, Parcivale thought, but he also noticed that she didn't push it so far that she would leave their cover. Perhaps Nowak had had the right idea after all. To make it as a ganger on the sigma level of Kraskow, you needed to be able to keep your head down when necessary. But you also needed an attitude to remain standing among your peers.
"Just sit tight, Janina. Seems like that will be hard enough for you." the older ganger - they differed at least 15 cycles - said dismissively. The woman pinched her eyes and raised her left index and middle finger, an age old gesture telling Parcivale to flip off. The young woman hissed angrily. "I told you to call me Jay, Hammer." She seemed to take his refusal to call her by her self chosen callname as a sign that he didn't respect her. Which, Parcivale had to admit, was completely true. "Helluva name, Jay." Parcivale responded, grinning and shaking his head, his sarcasm confirming Janina's feelings. She didn't retort though and Parcivale took that as another sign that the kid was smarter than one would think at first glance. But he didn't doubt for a second that she would pester him to no end if she would know his real name.
Parcivale still didn't know what the hell his mother had been thinking. His name didn't fit in with anything that was used here in Kraskow. And it wasn't that the 'uppies' had such names and that he had just fallen from grace. No. But he never had gotten the chance to ask her about it, seeing as she died in a food riot and his father had left her before he was born. In fact, he knew almost nothing about his roots. If he had had to guess, he'd say he was from off world, but how would you explain his parents getting stuck in the underhive then. It didn't matter anyway. He'd been one of the few lucky ones that had made it on the harsh streets of Kraskow's underhive. It had earned him the reputation of a survivor. He was a tough as nails. Hence his nickname. And he was proud too of it.
Janina learned her lesson and remained quiet, while Parcivale continued his observation, every now and then looking at his chrono. Twenty minutes later, he spotted movement across the street. A gaunt face covered under an unkempt and dirty ginger beard came into view. Ripper. The last man of their little team had arrived. Parcivale gently stumped Janina on the shoulder to warn her of Ripper's presence. "He's here. Time to go." he whispered. Ripper disappeared in the alleyway he had appeared from and both Parcivale and Janina sprinted from their cover to his location. When they joined the man - Parcivale could smell the stench of grease and dirt on Ripper - Janina spoke up, once more forgetting her place. "So, what's going on? Did anyone see you Rip?" Ripper grinned so his crooked and yellow teeth showed. "Ya think I'd be seen by these losers? What do ya think? That they could teach me a trick? Glypyd girl." Parcivale could see how Ripper's eyes went over Janina's body, from head to toes and back. He didn't like the ganger. Even if he was also part of boss Nowak's inner circle. The guy got distracted... a lot... and for the wrong reasons.
Janina was just about to mouth back at the man when Parcivale raised his hands, silencing both of them. Nowak had put him in charge of this operation and he'd be damned if Janina's youth or Ripper's lack of attention would cause it to fail. "Shut up." he said. Janina immediately did so, but Ripper started to protest, perhaps believing that his position earned him the right to do so. "Both of you..." he said, "You're like frikking dzieci. Let's focus at the task at hand. Ripper, is our access route still secure?" The man seemed to get it together and took out the dirty piece of paper on which he had scribbled an improvised map. "Yeah. It's almost as if they're counting on their rep alone to be safe. Didn't see a single of their guards on their usual location. Even their sniper's nest is empty."
Parcivale slowly shook his head. This didn't really make sense. The Widowers had just fought off a wave of at least twenty Raptor gangers. The crashed truck probably was collateral from the fight. At least Parcivale thought even the Raptors weren't so stupid as to use unarmoured vehicles to storm the base of the Widow. They had been stupid enough to start a direct fight with the Widowers. Boss Nowak had caught the smell of the upcoming fight and had prepared appropriately. After a fight like that, even the Widowers would be recovering from the battle for a few hours. The ideal time for a strike team to hit their base and take out the leadership. But even if they had taken hits from the Raptors, they should still have some guards on patrol.
"Cherny, cherny, cherny!" Parcivale cursed softly. He didn't like this one bit. Janina on the other hand didn't see the problem. "What, Hammer? This is making it easier, right? Or do you think that Ripper has missed a few of their lookouts?" Ripper was already starting to protest at the slight, but Parcivale lashed out at Janina for him. "Stupid girl. You don't think this stinks?" "Yeah," added Ripper, a bit smug, "doesn't your intuition tell you that much? Frikking useless szeroki." Immediately Janina was at his throat, pulling her switchblade, ready to cut Ripper up. A direct right from Parcivale stopped her in her tracks. The girl took the hit to the temple and fell ass first on the ground, immediately rolling backwards to break her fall. Bleeding she scrambled back up, still holding the knife Parcival noticed, and took on a defensive stance. With a shrill voice, betraying her youth, she yelled. "You think you bastards will get away with that? Boss Nowak put me in this detail himself! Frikking scrap scavengers."
Ripper had pulled his chainblade and stood ready to rev it. Parcivale tried to calm down. The girl wasn't as important as she made out, but Nowak would ask a few pointed questions if he didn't bring her back. And he might still need her. Neither Parcivale nor Ripper were any good with locks or cogitators and they had no idea what they would find in the Widow's base. Without wasting another second, Parcivale stepped in between them. "Enough. Nowak put you on the team, but he also put on Ripper. Do you want to explain how his best scout didn't make it home?" Parcivale turned and looked at Ripper, pointing at the chainblade. "And you scout? You want to alert everyone of our presence by using that here?" Ripper scowled, but didn't offer a retort and Janina seemed to have calmed down as well, putting her blade back behind her belt. Parcivale, reevaluated the situation. "Ok... So if you can both act like the pro's you believe yourself to be." he said, "Let's head out."
Ripper turned around on his heels without a word and started making his way towards the south entrance of the large habblock where the Widowers were holed up. Janina and Parcivale followed suit, paying attention to the route Ripper pointed out with discrete hand signals. They hid between heaps of garbage, in the shadows of porches and behind crashed down fire ladders. The three gangers kept their eyes open for hostiles. Ripper pointed out a few booby traps left and right from their path and Parcivale noticed that Janina paid close attention to his pointers. Which only strengthened his ambiguous feelings towards her. She seemed like a hothead, but at the same time she seemed clever enough to follow orders. And to be completely honest with himself: he didn't blame her for pulling her knife on Ripper. Even though the man had been part of Jesters for the better part of a decade, Parcivale always thought the man had certain ratlike qualities he couldn't really stomach. Always sneaky, always trying to pull in more than his share. And always hiding in the shadow of a bigger, stronger man and taking cheap shots at those below him. A faint smile played around his lips. If they hadn't been on a mission, he would have sided with Janina wholeheartedly.
Ripper raised his hand in the air. They stood at the edge of the plaza before the south exit of the colossal hab tower. Janina peered around Ripper to get a better look at her destination and softly whissled between her teeth. She stepped back with her back agains the wall. "That's a lot of open space, Ripper." she whispered. The scout nodded and pointed at Parcivale's feet. "Move over Hammer." Janina said as she crouched down next to the manhole he had been standing on. The lid had been welded shut - no self respecting gang would leave such a backdoor open and the three of them knew they could expect more booby traps. 'And perhaps finally some guards.' thought Parcivale as Janina retrieved some sort of compact lascutter from her pack. "Shield me." she whispered as she gave a piece of thick black cloth to Parcivale. They set to work while Ripper remained on the lookout for trouble. The fact that they hadn't seen any guards, hadn't given them a false sense of security. Quite the contrary.
Five minutes later, they all stood hunched down in a sewer pipe, barely big enough for two grown men to pass each other. Parcivale put a finger in front of his mouth, looking at Janina. The girl nodded once, but seemed fine without the instruction. Once the three gangers had donned their photovisors, Ripper took the lead once more and led them through the pipe system. Ten minutes in, Janina tapped Ripper on the shoulder and stopped walking. Parcivale stopped as well. The girl pointed at the wall and Parcivale squinted his eyes to focus on whatever she was pointing at. Ripper went through his pack for a stablight. Seeing how her companions had trouble discerning what she had discovered, Janina stepped back. Parcivale took her place and Ripper activated the stablight covering most of the light with his hand. Immediately it became clear what Janina had found. A ornate red symbol had been painted on the side of the pipe, roughly resembling an eight on its side. Both Ripper and Parcivale wondered for a second why Janina had stopped them for this. After all, this was the symbol of the Widow. It only made sense that the gang painted their tag in their territory. Ripper scowled and was about to stow his stablight, when Parcivale halted him. He took another step closer to the symbol and gestured for Ripper's torch. Something was... off. The tag was far more intricate than anything he had seen on the surface. And, now he studied it with a bit more attention... He felt like he couldn't, perhaps didn't want to, tear his eyes of it. But at the same time, he felt a bit nauseated, as he tried to read, or perceive meaning in the symbol, which consisted of dozens of smaller red signs: circles, loops, high gothic script. With an effort he looked away from the symbol towards Ripper, but the man was looking further down the pipe. They were an easy target now. Even the limited light from the stablight was more than enough to stick out like a sore thumb.
Parcivale looked at Janina and noticed how the girl had turned white. She was breathing in and out fast and she seemed barely able to avoid panting. She mouthed a question. "What... the... warp... is... this... Hammer?" Parcivale only shook his head. He understood, no he felt, what the girl was talking about, but he had no explanation for it. He doused the light and gave the torch back to Ripper. An abrupt hand gesture was enough to send the man on his way. Five minutes later they stood under another pipe, this one even tighter than the one they were standing in. A thin stream of dirty, rust brown water leaked out of it and both Parcivale and Janina didn't feel comfortable at all with the prospect of having to slither through it. But Ripper had already pulled himself up and was crawling away. Parcivale bend the knee so Janina could follow suit. When the girl stood on his thigh, he gave her a comforting pad on the back. She looked back, gave him a confident nod and went after Ripper.
Finally, Parcivale jumped up towards the pipe and pressed himself forwards. Because of the confined space, he had to keep his broad shoulders tilted, his left arm stretched out, while his right arm remained pressed against his body. He could only move forwards by pushing his feet against the sides of the pipe. Two minutes later, he felt how his entire body was starting to cramp up. He had to arch his neck to be able to look forward, but that became harder and harder. Eventually, he had to take a break. He could hear how his two companions proceeded and thus left him behind. But Parcivale told himself that he just needed a moment. He laid down his head on the bottom of the pipe and breathed heavily. Immediately he started coughing, having taken in a bit of the dirty water at the bottom of the pipe. He banged his head against the ceiling and tried to control the fit. But the disgusting taste in his mouth was too much and seconds later he heaved. For a moment he imagined he had drunk watered down blood. He could still taste the iron tang on his tongue even after he had thrown up. After a minute or so, Parcivale was able to calm down. The taste must have come from the oxydation of the pipework. No sign came from his companions and even with his photovisor, now covered in droplets of the filthy water, he could no longer spot any trace of Janina or Ripper. For the first time in a long time, he felt alone and scared. This mission was becoming more freakish by the minute. Nevertheless, Novak would want results, so he got himself in motion again and went after his companions.