UNSC Ballista over Gilgamesh

August 5, 2558

"So is there more to the pirates than what we've been let on?" Drew asked as they entered the mess. It was nearly breakfast time so the mess hall was serving their specialty of French toast. Both the Blades commander and his partner helped themselves to food and sat down at one of the tables.

"From what our passenger described, the rune etched on the weapon was triangular on the outside and another series of delta shapes that connect into a split X shape. I'm not sure why she had encountered uniformed pirates with their own equivalent of ODST armor."

"Could Prith have any connection to all of this? Did she expose fewer secrets because she knew who we were?"

"Sofia was quick and got a towel over her face as the pelican touched down so that anything sensitive wasn't discovered. I talked to Adamant an hour ago. After he used the right medicine, Prith sang like a bird. Turns out that he's part of an even larger syndicate with more than just his group. ONI's been hunting this particular network ever since the war was even thought about ending. They've only been out of sight until recently, when pirate vessels under their operation were beginning to step up attacks on civilian ships. The shady group is headed by Nex Fel. Adamant had confirmed that his affiliation when we had scanned the symbols with Fel's group and the ones that Miss Adrian had matched."

"If I remember right," Drew inquired through a mouthful of toast. "Nex Fel is the younger brother of skirmisher terrorist Sav Fel."

"Correct. Sav Fel is the one currently in possession of the cruiser Pious Inquisitor. Which the UNSC Navy has been searching for since its disappearance in 2552."

"So then how do the pirates connect to all of the dead found inside the shipping container?"

"Simple really." Trip answered, discarding his plate in the dishrack. "My money's on a bunch of refugees. After the war on unglassed, but worlds that were torn apart by Covenant had multiple survivors on them. Now with the end of the war, many of these colonies cut off all ties with the UNSC and declared independence. Now some of the leaders in place aren't the nicest people. Refugees then go to a place where they make a deal with human traffickers.

"So kind of like smuggling in the nineteenth century."

"Exactly. Most of the dead were in their twenties, but ran over all ages and races."

Simply refugees of all kinds on the short end of the new independent colonies sought to get out of the clutches. The fee done by smuggler recruiters was tens of thousands of credits. Even the more wealthy people were not able to cough up that amount of money, so then they agreed to work off the debt by working for years. At first, many thought it would be worth it in the long run, but then the years would drag by and the smugglers deliberately kept the pay low enough to keep them inside their ring. The men would go into difficult labor tasks, especially when building on expanding colonies while the women were kept in prostitution. It was rare to see an entire debt paid off and those that managed to get out by working for years did not have pleasant memories.

Aegis and the Blades had likely just come across a shipment en route to a connecting port then on to distribution within the Inner Colonies. Although the pirates had likely boarded and were planning on selling the refugees back to their smugglers or another group. Either way, they had walked into the activities of a human trafficking echelon.

"Commander, it's Sofia. Can you come down to the medical wing?"

"On my way." Both Trip and Drew went separate ways, with the former to the medical area and the latter to command the ship from the bridge.

The door to Meredith Adrian's room was closed, but unlocked, so he took a second to peer inside. She was fast asleep on her side with her back turned to him. Shutting the door again, he arrived at Sofia's lab, with the doctor beside the latest and most advanced medical gear. On the table was a body covered in a white sheet. Vents had lessened the stench coming from the corpse, yet Trip still smelled the decay to be very strong.

"One of the dead humans?"

"No." Sofia reached over, grasping the sheet and removing it. "It's a pirate."

Death looked so natural for something so ugly. His eyes were bright yellow and frightening to look at even when dead. His teeth were razor sharp, able to cut through the flesh of its enemies and its muscular legs allowed it to run faster than even a sprinting Spartan. She had stripped him of whatever of the shredded armor remained and had made incisions in multiple places, the arm, torso, head, and legs. He had been killed by Aegis' SMG with six bullets passing through his stomach and two more that had entered his shoulder. Sofia had a petri dish that had two circular cones inside, most likely the bullets that did not exit his body.

"What have you learned so far?" Trip asked.

"What? That he's dead." She covered the body again.

"Well I'd consider that a fact given that you just did your dissection."

"My analysis diagnostics," She walked over to a four thousand dollar machine that resembled a large tube going upwards. In the center was a study sample area where the machine would analyze samples and give data findings in just minutes. Not only was it for medical purposes, but forensics as well. Aegis and the Blades had used it as a key to find a missing plasma stockpile a year ago by analyzing a plasma pistol dropped by one of their target's unggoy henchmen in an attempt to flee.

"The results had come back just a minute before you arrived. The pirate's own blood is highly acidic, something most jackals and skirmishers don't have. In addition to that, his gums are heavily rotted and his brain was on the verge of shutting down."

"That might explain why his aim was so bad." Aegis recalled, "During the raid, I was only shot a few times and most of the firing directed at me missed by feet. So what does this conclude?"

"The pirate had been exposed to extremely high levels of mercury. Humans often exhibit traits that I had described when exposed and I think that jackals might have a same diagnostic in the same condition."

"Who else did you check? How about the victim's orignis?"

"I gave a look at three other pirates who displayed similar, but varying levels of toxicity and I examined one of the immigrants, but she was clean of any poisoning. As for the other origins of the smuggled, they were like a mini college cultural club. Four of them were Asian, three African, Five of them Caucasian, one of them Pacific Islander and I haven't examined the rest yet."

Aegis had a glimmer of light stirring in his eyes, "Great. We just stumbled onto pirates who cherish diversity in their own ranks and smuggled goods. Well maybe we can track the mercury source and find the pirate's lair."

"Logic." Sofia smiled, stripping off her gloves and disposing of them. "I assume our patient is doing well seeing how you checked up on her?" She had emphasized the last part of the sentence.

Aegis' eyes hardened, but it wasn't enough to keep a slight red tint on his face. "Or rather that she doesn't want to talk. Either way, I think she wants off this rust bucket."

"Okay, so what's the ETA on the charter shuttle?"

"We're going to drop her off in Fort Liberty," That was Gilgamesh's second largest city with over five million people. "Then we'll restock and hopefully Dan's cracked something in the ship's black box and Dan's decrypting of our mystery ship so that we can finally put a stop to this operation." Just thinking about it made his blood boil and he felt like erupting his anger like a composite volcano.

"Putting this on the gamers huh?" Sofia always knew when the two of them were playing online games.

"Everyone's gotta do their part." Aegis took his departure, leaving Sofia to clean up her autopsy. He headed towards the hangar in preparation when he saw Vaal Talam with other crew members also waiting. He held a bucket of some sort and was trying to get the small spoon inside his mouth. He couldn't help but smile as the small utensil slipped out of his fingers and hit the floor, splattering a pale liquid all over. He growled in frustration, trying to use his fingertips to grasp the handle.

"Vaal, what the hell?" Trip jogged over to him when the sangheili wordlessly tossed him another tub with a spoon. He had been eating premium vanilla ice cream. Looking around, he saw even more of the crew with their own frozen delights. There was no need to wonder why; Sofia needed room in the freezer for all the pirates and victims.

I think Vaal needs some lessons on how to eat soup or things with a spoon. Now that the Blades know who they're after, all they have to figure out how they're going to conduct it! Please review.