Firestorm Protocol: Queenmaker

A Star Fox story

Subject is an Omega-class psionic, though at a Level C discipline in regards to training. Wasted potential, but can be remedied. Last of her kind, and extremely independent and dangerous. Last known residence is Corneria of the Lylat System, located in the northern quadrant of the galaxy. Current occupation is unknown, has long since fled the system after the end of a conflict. Location estimation puts subject at the Perseus Transit region, near human-controlled space. Other than that, information is scant. We will continue to search and track.

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Chapter 1

*

She moaned in pleasure, her hands gripping the sheets. He groaned and grunted as he reached climax. The hard thrusting stopped, replaced by slow and gentle prods while she purred sexily as she felt his warmth flow into her. His throbbing felt nice, and it was such a shame she liked it too. When he was spent, both of them were panting softly and looked at each other in the eyes. The dim lighting in the hotel room certainly helped with the mood.

He wanted to kiss her to finish things up, but she smiled and stopped him by placing a finger in front of his lips. Not wanting to give up, he decided to suck on her neck, causing her to squeal with delight and surprise. Despite having a furry body, no strands of fur got into his mouth. They stayed firmly in their place, something he was very much thankful for.

After pulling out of her, he went for a quick shower while she laid in bed. Fortunately for her, there was a roll of tissue on the end table for her to clean herself up with. Getting out of bed, she disposed of the used tissue and went to the bathroom to get herself a glass of water. While she drank, she glanced over at the showers. He was whistling happily, definitely sounded a lot more refreshed than a couple of hours earlier.

Walking back to the bed, she rummaged her bag and pulled out a blaster. She went back into the bathroom, took aim at the shadow on the curtain where his head was, and pulled the trigger. An energy discharge burned a hole through the curtain and struck the man right in the forehead. There was a loud snap as the beam ionised the air and hit the shower mist. A cauterised hole left it bloodless, but the air was filled with the stench of cooked flesh mixed with fragrant soap.

His body slumped down into the tub wordlessly, and when she pulled the curtains aside, she saw that his was limp and his eyes were glazed anchit containing a few thousand Terran credits.

"Money buys you everything but caution, senator," she said in a rather refined accent that Terrans associated with an English person.

Going back to her bag, she pulled out a blue-coloured bodysuit. Slipping into it, she zipped it up and adjusted it slightly by the hips. Despite having not worn it for years, her suit still fitted her rather well albeit being a little tight at the hips and thighs. The colour had not faded and it still matched the colour of her fur.

After getting dressed and pocketing the credit chit, the assassin pressed a communications bead that was in her ear. A click sounded followed by a beep that indicated an open channel with her intended recipient.

"Espada, we're done here. Meet me at the rooftops," she said with slight urgency in her voice.

"Affirmative, Kursed, on my way to rendezvous with you, ETA 10 minutes."

Someone knocked on the room door in an aggressive manner, causing her to turn her attention towards it. There was shouting in a language she did not understand, and she did not have the time to turn on the built-in translator. However, reading the thoughts of those outside the door told her enough. They knew she was in there, and they were out for her blood.

"Make that 5 minutes," she corrected. "I've got about 20 armed Terrans outside my door."

"Making it over there at best speed. Stay safe."

With her comm channel cut, Kursed looked towards the balcony and ran towards it. Upon opening the balcony door, a rush of cold wind greeted her. The suit was thermo-regulating, but her face took the full brunt of the chill. However, the adrenaline that was rushing through her helped her ignore the otherwise biting cold wind. She looked up. There were about 5 floors between her and the roof, and luckily for her, all the other rooms with balconies were within jumping distance. She could climb up, but a misstep meant a 200-metre fall to the valley below.

"What's life without a few risks?" she asked herself.

She had one hand on the balcony railing when a hail of bullets punched through the hotel door. Gunfire echoed throughout the immediate area, causing some other occupants to turn on their room lights. There were cries of panic as well as angry shouts coming from her attackers. One bullet struck near her hand and ricocheted off it and lodged itself into the ceiling. Kursed gave a gasp of surprise and quickly retracted her hand.

Pulling out her blaster, Kursed fired a shot back at the now bullet-ridden door. It failed to hit anything, but it did cause some of the humans to stop shooting when they saw an energy discharge burn a hole through the wood. Using this moment of halted gunfire, she quickly leapt onto the railing and leapt for a balcony that was one floor above without a second thought.

Pulling herself up, she noticed a scared couple huddling in their bed. The guy was comforting his lover when he saw the blue vixen perched on the balcony. He gave a cry of surprise, which also caused the girl to cry out too. Not wanting to attract more unwanted attention, Kursed continued her climb to the top. Had it been a less messy affair, she would have taken the elevator and be on her merry way. Someone must have tipped off the local law enforcers, but no suspects came to mind.

It did not take her long to reach the rooftops, and the police did not attempt a climb to pursue her. However, she could sense that they knew where she was headed. A quick telepathic ping gave her a rough estimate of the number of officers on the roof, and thankfully, there were only 5 at the moment. By some stroke of luck, the only elevator that had access to the roof was out of order, and the only way up was via a service access at the other end.

Kursed grabbed onto the ledge just in time for a police officer to pass by. At first, he did not see her hands, and she was too busy trying to pull herself up. When he turned around though, his eyes immediately came into contact with hers. His mouth was agape, but before he could alert the rest, Kursed launched forward and took hold of his vest. She pulled, causing the man to lose balance and fall forward before he could react. He fell screaming to his demise.

"Anytime now, Espada," Kursed said while climbing up.

"I've just passed Reinhardt Plaza, local defence force has mobilised an interceptor. Attempting to shake off before rendezvous," Espada replied.

"Fuck me," Kursed muttered. She hid behind an air-conditioning unit to avoid a nearby policewoman armed with an assault rifle. "Do you have the missile launcher in the drop bay?"

"Affirmative."

"Get over here and drop it to me. I'll keep it off your back."

"Affirmative, taking evasive action while headed for target destination. ETA, 5 minutes."

Had it not been for the howling winds, the officer would certainly have heard her. It began picking up speed, and dark clouds began to obscure the twin moons in the sky. A thick fog began to roll in as well, and visibility dwindled within a minute. Kursed read the mind of the nearest officer and found out they were not issued with night vision goggles or scanners. That made sneaking past them a lot easier, but if she was not careful, she could bump into them too.

Silently, she went from one hiding spot to the next, crouching and tiptoeing whenever necessary. The rooftop was cluttered with vents, water tanks, AC units, and a lot of dark nooks and crannies. While it provided ample opportunities for her to hide, it also hampered her movements. Some of the vents creaked loud enough that it alerted the police officers. One of them even managed to come close enough that Kursed could smell his cologne.

At about 4 minutes in, more officers flooded the rooftop armed with high-powered flashlights that pierced through the fog. The winds kept howling and a thunderous boom filled the sky. Some of the policemen shielded their faces with ski masks while others pulled up the collars of their great coats. Kursed had a harder time with the cold as it started to overcome her bodysuit's thermo-regulating properties. She was shivering hard and her teeth were chattering. Kursed looked at her PDA but saw no signs of her ride being in the vicinity.

Just then, a beam of light caused her to raise her hand to shield her eyes. She let her guard down, and one of the officers spotted her. He shouted into his communicator to alert the rest, and was promptly shot in the shoulder. The bullet-proof vest did little to save him from the energy bolt, but the fog had dissipated much of its killing power. Instead, it caused him to fall down and writhe in pain. Kursed growled in anger at her own carelessness, but there was nothing much she could do.

She ran towards on of the water tanks with a pistol that she stole from the wounded officer. Several other policemen managed to see her and opened fire. Bullets whizzed past her head and torso, but none of them found their mark. Kursed took cover by the water tank and returned fire. Her shots missed one of them and the bullet bounced off a vent with an audible pinging noise.

As more police officers were alerted to her position, she contacted her ride again. "Espada, where the fuck are you?!"

"Keep your head down," came the reply.

Without thinking much, Kursed crouched as low as she could. Around the same time, a stream of energy bolts shot past her head. It continued forward and caught two policemen in the attack, vaporising their bodies into glowing hot ash. The roar of G-Diffusers sounded like music to her ears, but the sound of another jet engine told her that Espada was still being pursued.

"I have dropped the missile launcher nearby. Help keep this interceptor off me," Espada said.

The launcher was hidden by the fog, but at least Espada's strafe kept the officers hiding for a bit. She looked around for the weapon, and eventually found it by the body of an unconscious policewoman. Her head was bleeding, and it began to pool around her hair. Kursed shouldered the launcher and peered into the target finder. It had thermal vision on, allowing her to see through the fog.

"Come towards me," she commanded while thumbing the lock-on system.

"Affirmative. Keeping targets away from you."

She heard several death cries as Espada went for another strafing run while flying towards her. The interceptor was in hot pursuit and it fired a missile at Espada. A barrel roll knocked the missile off course and caused it to careen into the water tower. It blew a hole in the side, and water poured out by the gallons. Kursed caught sight of the pursuer and aimed.

A circle began forming over the targeting reticle as the lock-on system kept track of the offending interceptor. Within 3 seconds, the circle was fully formed and glowed red. Kursed pulled the trigger and sent her own missile flying. The interceptor immediately broke off to avoid the missile, and it disappeared into the fog. Without wasting a beat, Espada quickly landed near Kursed and opened the cockpit canopy.

"You know it's not good to keep a lady waiting, right?" she joked while hauling the launcher into the fighter and hopped in.

"Could have been worse," replied the fighter's A.I. "Shall I hand controls over to you?"

Kursed shook her head. "You fly. I need to catch my breath for a bit."

"Affirmative. Setting course for mothership."

As the Cloud Runner took off, the police poured gunfire at it in an attempt to bring it down. However, the bullets bounced harmlessly off its shields, and they could only watch in frustration as the fighter speed off towards the stormy skies. Despite the Cloud Runner looking decrepit and dirty, it still held together quite well. Transitioning into space was no smooth affair, but it was at least tolerable enough that Kursed could lay back onto her seat and relax. The shuddering, however, made drinking water a bit hard.

Once they cleared the planet's atmosphere and gravity, Kursed felt lightness overcome her body. Were it not for her seat buckles, she would be floating around in the cockpit. She unscrewed the water bottle and let its contents float out in formless globules. She ate each globule, taking pleasure in the feeling of warm water soothing her parched mouth and throat.

"Miss Kursed, incoming transmission over a secured channel. Caller identifies as Echo," Espada announced over the beeping coming from the ship's comms.

Kursed nodded her head, and a holoscreen popped up in front of the heads-up display. It showed a ragged human man in his mid-30s with light moustache and stubble around his face. He wore a hoodie and a bullet belt, and he was in smiles. While Kursed never met him personally, she heard that he had made quite a name for himself on Ascension. Details about his fame were scant but it did not matter much to her.

All she wanted was her pay.

"News spreads fast on Ascension, Miss Kursed. Colour me impressed. Many of our previous attempts failed, yet you managed to get close enough to put Senator Craig down. How'd you do it?" he asked amidst cheering and shouts of celebration in the background.

"I have my ways, Echo," Kursed replied cryptically while she felt her lower abdomen subconsciously. "But I don't believe the details are what you're after."

Echo cleared his throat. "Yes, no doubt. We've managed to hack in his account, and there should be enough to cover your expenses. At least his ill-gotten gains can be put to good use."

A separate beep from the ship's communicator alerted her, and she brought it up to see what it was about. It was a simple note notifying her that her credit reserve was updated, a total of 20 million Terran credits banked into her account courtesy of the recently deceased senator. Kursed merely nodded and turned her attention back to Echo, who gave her a look as if waiting for her confirmation.

"I'll definitely make good use of it," she said.

"Try not to spend it all in one day, eh," Echo joked. With a nod, he said, "The revolution thanks you for your help. It's time to take back our world."

The video link cut off, and the darkness of space filled the view once more. Kursed sat in silence, pondering on the vast expanse that laid before her. Her fighter was pointed towards the galactic north according to the compass, and beyond the dark veil was a place that had used to be her home. She growled. Memories of the past served no purpose in her line of work, and it only hindered her thoughts. Her hand had clutched her chest at the sudden pain, but it went away rather quickly.

The Cloud Runner made contact with a spaceship barely half the size of a corvette. It was rather unassuming and quite rusty too, its name had long since sloughed away from the hull. She had little money to pay for refurbishments, and the exchange rate between Terran and Lylatian credits favoured the former. The latter's exchange rate suffered due to the wars that plagued the system time and again. Even the mothership she bought had cost her almost all her initial money reserves, and the damn junk was barely functional (except the kitchen sink) when she first got it. If it were not for one generous 'freelance' mechanic, there was no way she could travel beyond the Pelagia System.

Speaking of said mechanic…

"Espada, set a course for PL-424. It's time we repay the favour."

*

End of Chapter 1