If I ever see him again, the mage will kill me/
For the resurrection, the healer says he'll bill me

But my willpower's stalling/
I know it will fail/
My stats are appalling/
His are off the scale

I sent him some flowers in stealth, it took me ages/
But I was found out, damn those high level mages

He has got no manners/
He drives me berserk/
When he throws the spanners/
Right into the works

You are to blame, still to blame/
I'll die in flames, in the flames/
I've lost this game, lost the game/
And you are to blame, still blame

The crowd went wild. They chanted the words along with him, the front
row dancing like maniacs and screaming at the tops of their voices.
Lionel Deguares' hands ran over his customised
guitar with exoert dexterity as he sang in his rich, surprisingly gentle
voice. He usually sang Game Over tunes but he wanted to play a popular
song on the Eternal Sphere, as he wasn't too sure what the unfamiliar
audience would like. So he played 'Mission To The Deep Space'. Everyone
knew 'Mission To The Deep Space'. It was one of those songs that had
some variant on every planet in the galaxy. This version was a love
song. Although it was originally dedicated to a man, he couldn't help
thinking about Marietta la Verne, with her perfect features and long
blue hair, her brilliant mind and the way she protected the entire
space station with such efficient ease. Although he pretended that he
was trying to make an intergalactic career for himself, the real reason
that he didn't go back to Elicoor was because he wanted to be by
Marietta's side.

Then he noticed the yelling and commotion from the crowd. Thirty
security guards, all armed with laser rifles and dressed in combat
armour, poured into the room. The crowd grudgingly parted for them. The
guards filed in, organised themselves into formation, pointed their
rifles at him and...

Two of them fell before their comrades even registered the presence of
the attacker - cut down in a flash of blue and a spray of blood. A
man, initially just another person in the crowd, had leapt from his
seat, drawn a cybernetic meta-blade and assaulted the nearest guard. He
was relatively slight of build, but heavily cybernetically augmented -he
wore black cybernetic armour with status lights that flickered blue in the
darkness. It was too close range to fire at him, so the remaining guards
drew electro-batons and rushed him. He casually disarmed two more and
thrust the blade into the chest of another. The other guards turned back
to Lionel.

Shouldering his guitar, Lionel grabbed his pager and punched the big red
emergency button. The signal was transmitted to the ship that orbitted
the planet, where Jan Orvue hit the switch on the teleporter. Just as
laser fire thudded into the stage, Lionel Deguares materialised in the
waiting ship.

"Leave orbit! Now!" he gasped.

"Are we under attack?"

"The security turned on me." explained Deguares. Just then, an alarm
sounded. Orvue turned to look at the navigation window. Five small blips
were now speeding towards the ship in an attack formation.

"They're pursuing us!" said Orvue, "Lionel, what did you do?"

"What the... this is NOT my fault!" yelled the musician, "Just pick up
speed and let's get out of here, okay?"

Sighing, Orvue typed in a command to set the ship's speed to maximum and
prepare evasive maneouvres. Then he sent an emergency signal to the
space station. A comm window flashed up and Marietta's face appeared.

"Is there a problem?" she asked, her voice like a recorded message.

"We're under attack!" he said, "Security ships. They're following us out
of orbit!"

"How many of them?"

Orvue looked at the screen again. Before there had been five ships. Now
there were ten more.

"I'll activate our defences." said the Director.

"Director... I think this is one of... you know... THOSE attacks."

She nodded, "Mr. Degaures is next on the list."

Deguares' face paled. So it was true. He was next. The staff of the Nede
Chronicle were being assassinated in alphabetical order. He remembered
the day when they found the corpse of Genevieve Adolkristin, her throat
cut, in a public internet booth in Tetragene. They never had found the
killers.

"You will have to be kept under heavy guard." she told him, "I will
monitor everyone from D through F."

"Do we have any information on why this is happening?" asked Deguares,
"Who do we know who has a grudge against us?"

"Only half the galaxy." said Orvue, laughing at his own grim humour,
"There's a down side to being the only honest press in the galaxy."

"Whoever is behind the attacks, their authority and influence is
superior to that of most planetary governments." Marietta told them,
"They have been able to consistantly hire the best assassins and even
bribe corporate security forces. They have contacts on every planet and
have evaded every attempt to track them down. We've lost A through C."

"Don't be so casual about it!" yelled Deguares, "Your surname begins
with L! You don't have that long!"

"I am perfectly capable of defending myself." she said without emotion.

Suddenly, a tremor rocked the ship and the shields flared bright green
as laser cannon fire strafed them. Orvue diverted power to the shields.

"They're gaining on us!" he yelled.

The Director's mouth opened to answer them, then she turned to look at
another display terminal. Her normally expressionless face looked
worried.

"An urgent matter has come up." she announced, "You are close to Nede
Chronicle airspace. The defense systems will activate soon, so you
should be out of danger. However, I'm afraid I can't help you. I must
attend to the emergency."

"But this is an emergency!" yelled Deguares.

"Lionel... if the Director says its more important, its more important."
Orvue laid a hand on his shoulder, "I'm worried about what's gone wrong.
Expect some trouble when we get home, okay?"

"Oh, great." sighed Deguares.

"If we get home." addended Orvue as laser fire hit the shields again.
--