Scouring the Stars
Sequel to Dark Side of the Moons.
~*Prologue*~
Off in the outskirts of the desert, right next to a small oasis was a tiny town. The cool night air invited people out of their homes and to enjoy nighttime festivities with friends and acquaintances. Such festivities include drinking in bars.
A pair of Stealth Vipers were off in the distance of the tiny town, hidden away in the large dunes of sand. A young woman with short jaw-length scarlet hairand a red semi circle Zi mark placed on her left cheek, wearing a white tube top shirt, with a red sleeveless over shirt and matching skirt and brown sandals, stood out beside one of the vipers with a pair of binoculars aimed at the town. She was scanning the town, and humming while she moved the binoculars. A slightly older looking man with shaggy brown hair and three blue streaks as a Zi mark on his right cheek, wearing a blue muscle shirt with black cargos sat beside her. Seemingly annoyed by her humming.
"Kama, will you stop with that infernal humming." The man said.
"What if I don't feel like it, huh Nirvan?" Kama, the young woman inquired. Nirvan scoffed and outstretched his legs.
"Why are women so difficult?" He muttered. Kama laughed loudly.
"That's our job, and it's a job that if were to be paid I would be a millionaire!" Kama fantasized.
"You'd probably be a trillion-naire at this rate." Nirvan scoffed again. Kama went back to her observation.
"Ooo, ooo I think I see it!" Kama shouted excitedly. "Yup I am pretty damn sure that's the Zoid boss described to us." She added.
"Describe it back Kama, I have her description written down." Nirvan requested.
"It is a desert camouflage colored Guysack, with small laser guns mounted on the top of each pincer." Kama described. Nirvan sat up and brushed himself off.
"Ok, time to call the boss and tell her we found him." Nirvan stated coolly.
"Oh yay." Kama replied turning around and jogging to her red and black Stealth viper. It sensed it's pilot coming back to it and lowered its cockpit for her to get in. Kama revved the Viper to life and hit picked up a headset installed into her radio communications. She placed them on her head and ear comfortably and clicked the button on the side. "Scarlet Snake to Black Butterfly." She started. A feminine voice on the other side of the radio responded somewhat unenthusiastically.
"Black butterfly in, did you spot the Guysack?" She asked.
"Yes'm we did. Recon complete. What do you want us to do?" Kama asked trying to spark some enthusiasm in her comrade.
"You and Blue Boa can burrow beneath his Zoid and wait for him to attempt an escape before you use any force. I'll handle him in the town." She instructed.
"Gotcha, Scarlet Snake over and out!" Kama replied taking the headsets off and putting her radio on a megaphone setting. "Hey Nirvan get in your Viper and let's go. We need to burrow and wait for his great escape. If she lets him get that far at least." Kama relayed. Nirvan shrugged and his Viper allowed him easy access to his cockpit.
"Hey job's a job." He replied. They both buried themselves into the sand and a wind carried the loose sand further out into the desert.
A deep burgundy Redler, with black wings with eyespots like on a butterfly's wings, landed half a kilometer away from the earlier elaborated Guysack. A young lady, not much older than 17, stepped out of the lowered cockpit. She had long, deep amethyst colored hair pulled back into a high-set ponytail with her bangs framing her face. She had a black butterfly clip pinning the bangs up out of her eyes right above her right temple. She had on a black halter cut pilot suit that cut off at the bikini line like a one piece bathing suit, and had a long flowing train coming off the hips. Part of the train resembled patterns found on butterflies once again, in streaks of emerald, warm gold, and violet. She had combat boots on laced up until three inches below the knee and then her matching stockings reached until the inner thigh. A belt hung loosely at waist with a gun holstered on her left and a magazine on the right.
She walked on into the town and crossed her arms, looking around for a place she would be able to find a dirty rotten scoundrel. She peered around and spotted a tavern that seemed to be buzzing with life and decided that this was where he was more than likely enjoying his current state of freedom.
The young lady decided to enter the tavern and some parts of the place went silent as she entered. Most townsfolk in here probably were not used to seeing a lady walk into this tavern let alone one her age. She went over to the bar and sat down. The bartender was facing the other direction as he was cleaning a glass. She coughed politely to grasp his attention. He swung his head around and noticed she had taken a seat and began to prop her hands up so she could lean her head on them.
"Hello there missy, what'll it be for ya?" He asked. The girl gave him a smirk.
"I am not much of one for drinking in public. But I have a couple of questions, if you do not mind answering them." She started of, sounding sweet and sincere with her not so normal conversation starter.
"Uh…ok. Whatcha' got to ask me?" The bartender said. She reached down and pulled a piece of folded paper out of a thin pouch on her belt and unfolded to reveal a picture to him. It was a sketch of an average looking man in his mid-thirties with a buzz trim.
"I am searching for this man; did he happen to come in here at any given point today?" She inquired. Bar tender looked at the picture long and hard.
"Eh…I see a ton of guys that come in looking like him…But uh I think that may be your man right over there at the corner table with those ones playing cards." The bar tender answered.
"Thank you." The girl said folding the paper up carefully and sliding it back into the pouch. She got up from the bar and went past other tables in the tavern. Along her way she had silently pulled the gun out of her holster, and loaded the magazine into it, and hid it at her waist. She reached the table and leaned behind the man she was looking for and looked over his shoulder and into his hand of cards.
"Huh, Otis with you having a hand like that means you have run out of luck." She said sounding sarcastically concerned. The man turned around shocked and saw that she had moved back quickly enough to have the gun aimed right at his head. "So you can either come quietly with me, or you can run and I will hunt you down like the rotten mongrel you are."
"What the hell? Who are you?" The man, named Otis asked frightened.
"I am your worst enemy, next to yourself of course. So come with me or we will have to continue this the hard way." She answered. Otis hopped out of his chair and nearly tripped trying to leave it. The young lady sighed. "They always choose the hard way." She didn't want to hit any innocents trying to track this one down, so she simply ran out the back door and around to meet him outside of the alley. Otis ran past her on the way to his Zoid which was not far from her own. She took aim with her gun and fired a single shot, unheard due to its silencer. It hit him in the left foot and he tumbled into the sandy street. She ran over to him as he struggled to get up. "I gave you your options and you chose the difficult one." She said to him coldly. He turned himself over onto his back and gazed up at her with fear stricken across his face. "You also chose the one that would make the biggest scene." She muttered as she heard people pouring into the streets.
Then suddenly the man put on a front. Otis looked right into her darkened jade eyes and manned up.
"Go ahead shoot me, I won't beg." He started. "I'm not afraid of you, and I'm not afraid of the bastards who hired you to come get me. I'm not afraid!" Otis shouted.
"I want to let you know, reverse psychology does not affect me." The young lady said. His eyes went wide. "They also told me to bring you back dead or alive, so long as their information was safe and the Zoid returned in one piece I still get paid. Besides that Otis…" she went on. Metallic sounds and mechanically hissing began to roar behind them next to his Guysack. "You would not have made it past my friends there." She finished. Otis turned his head around to see a midnight blue and white Stealth viper along with a red and black one. Otis whimpered a little as he saw all of this going on before him.
"Alright, we get to see the action this time." Nirvan said over his loud speaker.
"Oh goodie!" Kama agreed, their Zoids making their own cries.
"So Otis, any final words?" She asked. Otis turned back to her and shook his head. She smirked. "Say hello to Gunther Prozen for me when you get where you're going, just tell him Reika sent you." She said this, pulled the trigger, and he silently fell into the sandy blood pooling and clumping the sand together. The girl placed her middle finger and her thumb in her mouth and whistled. A beam of bright purple shot out of her Redler and a purple Organoid landed right there behind the man named Otis. "Luminescent, carry him over to the Guysack and throw him in the cockpit. Then fuse with it so we can take it back to the owners at the republican base nearby." She instructed. The Organoid did as told and picked him up with her mouth. The young lady left heading back to her Redler, and it let her back into the cockpit.
The Redler, two Stealth Vipers, and custom Guysack were making great haste to reach the Republican base not far from the town.
"Hey Reika," Nirvan started up a communication link with the young lady in the Redler. "How much was this guy worth anyways?" Reika sighed trying to recall. She was so focused upon finding the man that she forgot all about the payments in the end.
"I believe he was worth 10 or 15K. All because he stole the customized Guysack and top secret information dealing with the military was given to him at one point. Apparently the base by itself saw him as high risk outside of their control." She answered.
"Wow. Did they tell you what top secret stuff he knew about or what?" Kama asked.
"You really think they would let us know that Kama?" Nirvan replied to her.
"I'm sorry if I'm just curious is all. Geese what's shoved up your ass tonight Nirvan?" Kama retorted.
"Nothing's shoved up mine but you sound like there's something up your-," Nirvan got out before Reika butt in.
"Nirvan you finish that sentence and I might just shoot your Vulcan canon off." Reika said. "Now can you two get along until we get home? I really do not feel like listening to you two bicker like small children."
"Fine."
"Okay…" they both responded at the same time cutting off their communications. Reika shook her head and laughed a little. She admitted this much, they were entertaining at times.