Alrighty, Chapter 9 is a go!

"What I want to know is how a dozen infantry, one Minotaur, and an attack craft were all neutralized by a middle-aged man and a bunch of teenagers, FUCKING TEENAGERS!"

The Minotaurian warlord known as Kyran Illenius found his armored fist dug deep into the holo-display table, shattering the glass-metal alloy and crushing the steel that made up its surface and sides, his armored suit's servos emitting a low whine from the strain. The man who had been in charge of the boarding operations looked around nervously, the fear of his boss clearly depicted not only in his face but his posture. The warlord was no small man by any means, standing at 6'4" and muscular in build, the fact that he was wearing his Minotaurian exo-suit/battle armor, however, added another foot to his height, making an already intimidating leader look like a true demon among them. His exposed face did not make him any less terrifying, half of his face scarred from burns he suffered from battles and fights many years before, ranging from small cuts to gashes. A small amount of hair still visible on his head was paired with a dark untamed goatee that ran across his face. Yet his eyes were where the true monster lurked, dark enough that they seemed to want to swallow everything that they fell upon.

"We - we are not sure yet sir." The commander stuttered, well aware of his boss's infamous temper and how aggressively he frequently vented it. "We were told there was a high-value cargo on this ship, and when we boarded we initially encountered only normal resistance."

By normal, Illinus knew he meant, typical Fienar Empire Remnant boarding repulsion forces. These typically included infantry, heavy weapon emplacements along key junctions, and the occasional Autonomous Combat Unit or ACU.

The command recovered from the brief flash of fear quickly, and continued to explain with his tone and demeanor now under control. "Sargent Ledger of the Minotaurs caught a short glimpse of them when he was mowing through some infantry that seemed distracted by something. However, given his mental state we only confirmed this after shifting through some of the combat footage since at the time he was more interested in the soldiers that were shooting at him."

Kyran's expression did not change visibly, but he felt a short burst of annoyance boil up before sinking back into the depths of his mind. From a realistic standpoint, however, the deliberate recruitment of psychopaths and those who were mentally unstable provided more benefits than it did hindrance in most fights. Humans, by evolution, were creatures that relied on their ability to use basic logic to conclude on a matter and base their actions off of those conclusions. In other terms, when someone was outgunned in a fight, a logical choice would be to retreat. In the same sense, if you had a weapon and your enemy did not, you would attempt to press that advantage if you desired to harm or kill them.

For some of the mentally insane, reason was of no relevance to them, to them being nothing more than optional or a hindrance. Consequently, their unpredictability was perhaps the greatest threat to people hunting them down for crimes they might have committed. Or, for those who can take the lump of metal that is a mentally unstable being and hammer it out into a usable weapon, said weapon can be just as if not even more lethal than if it was any sane individual.

The commander's voice continued on. "That was until a squad of borders that had gotten cocky decided to go looting, and encountered five unidentified individuals, their emblems and clothing not matching any knowing military factions."

This was unsurprising, as within the Conflicted Regions hundreds of factions fought, vying for control of the entire region of space through either forming alliances, backstabbing said alliances, and fighting tooth and nail to gain more territory. Plus, many other small independent factions existed elsewhere, and although any man would go insane trying to memorize them all Kyran knew of all the significant ones.

"They paid heavily for it though." The commander continued, his arms moving into a crossed position. "They shot as well as if not better than some of the ex-soldiers in the fleet, forcing the entire squad to withdraw after taking heavy casualties. The next time they were encountered was by a trio of boarders investigating the ship's research facilities, one of them getting shot while the second being sent hurling through a solid metal wall. Minotaur Hylend found them after that, who engaged them in close quarters before being decapitated. After that, we lost track of them until they were found by one of our aircraft, but it was destroyed, and we haven't seen or heard of them since."

Kyran remained quiet for a moment mentally sifting through this information before giving out an order. "Give me all the footage you were able to acquire, I want to see all of this myself."

The commander straightened up, and with a "Yes Sir." walked off to gather the information he desired.

The warlord was ever so slightly tempted to smash the commander's skull in for failing to retrieve the cargo, but he knew it would be a waste of resources considering there was a reason he kept him around as long as he did. Besides, it was just another good reason to keep slaves and prisoners on hand besides profit and virtually free labor that they kept in the brigs.

The commander returned a moment later, a data pad clutched in his hands. Without a word, he handed the device over to Kyran, his armored hands almost as large as the device itself.

The video provided to him was from a body camera of one of the pirates that had escaped when they had attempted to loot the ship, with the clip starting when the armored shuttle that said border was on touched down within one of the Fienar cruiser's hangar bays.

The first two minutes of the scene were filled with blurs of movement, screams of pain, and weapons fire that came from every direction. As with most of their attacks, the pirates were only somewhat coordinated, lacking the same professionalism as the ship's defenders. Yet through sheer numbers and ferocity they blasted the aliens apart, the hanger being taken regardless of any losses.

"God forsaken aliens." voice spoke, causing the camera - and thus the head of the pirate to look towards one of his squamates, who was kicking a fallen alien corpse that had several blast marks across its body with his foot. "Stupid things just can't die quickly enough."

A commanding voice that held some authority behind it called out for the unit to move further into the ship, and as far as Kyran could tell, they all obeyed. He skipped ahead ten minutes before observing the group arriving at one of the ship's cargo holds.

"Not sure if this is a good idea." A female voice spoke. "We are still in the process of fighting, so shouldn't we focus on that and loot later?"

Another pirate, this time in view of the camera, did not seem to agree with her assessment. "This ship should be a breeze to take. Besides, these guys might have something actually worth keeping that we might be able to get first dibs on before the rest of the guys do."

"Don't get too confident, next thing you know someone or something is going to come along and shove those words right back up your ass."

The same voice that had given them the order to advance ten minutes beforehand interjected. "Fine, but make it quick, the longer we stand around here the more likely that those son-of-a-god aliens are going to show up." The warlord made a mental note to remind squad commanders to keep their priorities straight, and maybe throw in a demonstration involving the airlock and an unlucky "volunteer."

The camera moved around as the group entered the room, which had two sets of massive shelves running along both sides horizontal to the door. In the middle sat a mixture of small vehicles, crates, and weapons that could be moved to and from the shelves via the two cranes that were attached to the ceiling.

The pirates immediately dispersed, digging through crates and investigating anything of interest. The pirate that Kyran was watching began to dig through a crate of what he recognized as Fienar T-11 Incineration grenades. Incineration grenades were a favorite among boarding units as well as boarding repulsion forces that needed to fight within a compact environment while at the same time causing as little damage as possible. They functioned by using highly flammable and dense liquids that when ignited, would generate high pressures within the grenade before blowing it open. The resulting ball of fire could leak through even the tiniest gaps in armor, or cook the unfortunate wearer from the inside out, whichever came first.

The pirate obviously was interested in the weapons, and pocketed three of them before moving over towards another crate and opened it to find it filled with rifles of various sizes.

It was at that moment that hasty footsteps were heard in the distance, and rapidly growing louder and closer. The pirate with the body camera looked away from his newly-claimed loot to see four teenagers and an adult man barge into the room wearing various apparel, four of which being blue and white jumpsuits and one of them in more casual clothing.

Kyran's eyes drifted immediately towards the short, purple-haired girl with a shotgun that was clearly caught off guard by the pirate's presence. A taller and much thinner boy with abnormally tall, dark hair stood a short distance away, almost as if some divine or strange balance was being placed upon them. Another female was behind these two, this one taller than the previous and wearing a headdress that shared some similarities to some human subcultures he had raided in the past. The darkest skinned of the group was a short-yet-well-built teenager male with dark hair just like his skinner teammate. What remained was a large and at first glance seemingly overweight adult in his thirties or forties, but upon further inspection he just noted it was his particular body type. His face was a trimmed array of orange hair both on his head and face, Kyran picking up an aura of authority from him and thus highlighting him as likely being the leader. The last of the group was a floating robot that at first glance seemed little different that most other flight-based androids he had seen, however, was said to be more dangerous that its slightly disturbing smile would indicate at first glance.

For about three seconds the pirate just stared at them, rifle clutched in his free hand as towards the edge of the screen Kyran could see a few other pirates in a similar state of shock. That was, until the short girl said something that would probably have been more appropriate for a comedy show than a potentially lethal situation.

"Oh, umm, hi?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, chaos erupted as the pirates, including the one that Kyran was watching now, recovered from their brief shock and leveled all of their rifles before unleashing a savage barrage of fire onto the group. It only took a fraction of a second after the shooting to start for the unusual party to bolt to the nearest cover, be it crates, shelves, or anything else that might stop the energy-based projectiles. Yelling from both sides mixed with the sounds of weapons going off created a scene of absolute chaos, with the pirate right in the middle of it.

The pirate from which he was seeing from immediate ducked behind the crate he had opened, peeking his head out to see if could get a clear shot at one of the strangers. That was, until the first casualty was taken, the pirate's head turning to see one of his own collapse with a scorch mark through his heart. Enraged, he raised his pulse rifle and unleashed a brief burst of fire onto one of the odd teenagers. What left even Kyran alarmed was the speed at which the male, the tall and thin one not only dodged the orange bolts but sent retaliating fire back at the shooter, forcing him into cover while the rounds ripped into the crate. Another pained scream a second pirate fell dead, this time the front half of her face reduced to a smelting mess.

This back-and forth exchange continued for the better part of three minutes, more pirates dying while being completely unable to make any noticeable hits with their own weapons. Kyran heard some of the exchange between both sides' combatants, mixtures of insults, profanity, and yelling at their respective allies in an attempt to coordinate their actions. The pirate that was mounting the camera reached into his pocket and retrieved one of the incineration grenades he took from the crate. Without a moment's hesitation, he armed the grenade by pressing down the two buttons that upon release would explode within a few seconds. A voice belonging to said pirate yelled out a warning to his allies before hurling it towards where the purple-haired girl was hiding, and watched as she moved clear of the grenade's proximity as it ignited. A seven-meter wide fireball erupted from the point of impact, incinerating anything that was not made of metal within the raging inferno's path. It failed to kill, however, and as the pirate raised his rifle to shoot, one of his squamate's took a full volley of energized pellets to the chest as said teenager threw herself over one of the crates - a painful mistake judging by the expression that crossed her face.

"So, the indirect effect from a grenade did more harm than a full squad of pirates." Kyran's thought was full of contempt. "Pathetic."

One of the pirates yelled to retreat, and the pirate with the camera did not hesitate as he sprinted towards the door they came from along with two others, their angry curses and yelling audible over the sprinting and slowly-growing more distant gunfire.

The footage ended there, leaving Kyran to think about everything he had seen. While he had hoped that the footage would have helped bring the situation to light, it only left more questions without answers. For one thing, how did they get off the ship, how were they so lethal, and most bothersome, why did he have an odd gut feeling about the purple-haired girl?

High-priority prisoners, by Fienar doctrine, were usually stored in stasis pods to ensure they could not escape, even if the power was cut to the pods, the heavy-duty door that was on the pod should have been more than heavy enough to prevent them from exiting. Even if they managed to get out of the pods, they would still have to get past the ships security systems as well as the tens of thousands of soldiers aboard. They would have to be fluent in Fienar language in order to interact with their technology, and to top it all off, they would need to have a layout of the ships, as the dozens of miles of passages, corridors, and hallways could leave anyone not familiar with the ship lost with no chance of escape. In other words, either they were incredibly lucky beyond reason or some unseen god was watching over them.

The second question was no less clear. Warrior cultures such as his own were not as uncommon as some might suspect. Many of said cultures put heavy emphasis on raising their children as fighters from a young age, teaching them how to use weapons such as guns or melee weapons, their history, and tactical knowledge. Many of the most famous and infamous fighters in galactic history stemmed from warrior cultures, be it backwater worlds that had yet to even discover electricity or modern civilizations with roots tied to said times. Regardless, he did not feel as if these people were any of those types of fighters. He had fought enough battles to know a life-long warrior when he saw one, and while these people certainly had skills that were equivalent if not outright superior to most fighters of this type, their immature and undisciplined behavior indicated otherwise.

The third question was by far the most bothersome, however. Multi-colored hair was a common trait among humans regardless of subspecies, many of them the result of genetics or biological adaptations. Purple of all colors, though, he felt like he had seen it somewhere before, but much to his own frustration, he could not pin a name or place to it.

Kyran set down the data pad on the fractured holo-display table, without a word heading towards one of the bridge's doors. He needed peace of mind, the brigs being the best place to fulfill such a desire. To many other beings, the screams of tortured souls would be gut-wrenching, unpleasant, and painful to listen too. Many of the rookie or soft-stomached crewmen tried to steer clear of areas where the screams echoed throughout the hallways and rooms, unwilling to listen to the pained screams of the pirate's victims.

To him, it was like music, unique to each person, and best when heard in reality rather than from some device or recording. Torture was an art, and he thoroughly enjoyed every second of the picture it painted.

Elsewhere... In another plain of existence and time...

This had to be the last way Miko thought she would be spending New Years a few months before, cooped up with the other techs in the Hinobi store. It wasn't bad by any means, in fact, It was by far the best thing she could have asked for.

"New Years in less than a minute." BITT informed, wearing a party hat reading "2021," while displaying a timer on his screen.

The last year was by far the most chaotic she had ever been through in her life, starting with COVID-19 coming to the states from oversees that forced them to wear masks that she absolutely hated. She had hoped it would have gotten better from there, but god seemed to have had other ideas in mind. The next thing she knew, George Floyd was killed, and protests erupted nationwide, some of them turning violent enough that the government got involved. As if this wasn't enough, it was presidential election year, and supporters of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden viscously fought on social media with aggression that Miko had never seen. Going back to when she watched the Infographic Show's video "Why 2020 Will Be a Horrible Year," On YouTube, she was quite frankly terrified by how accurate it had been.

"Sure hope 2021 is better than this year." She said to Five, stretching out her arms as her head turned towards him. "Frankly I'm tired of all of this BS and just want to be able to watch YouTube without getting 2020 slapped in my face from advertisements about masks and politics and BML and-"

"I get the point." Fives rested his hand on her shoulder, causing her to tense slightly. "My uncle and aunt are looking forward to moving forward, business was rough during the lockdown."

Miko shot a glance towards the rest of the party, the shelfs of goods having been moved off to the side of the building to allow for enough space to fit the folding tables that were choke full of food and drinks. Zahra sat by the punch bowl, her mask lowered to allow herself a drink while Mitch was minding his own business, doing whatever. Phil stood behind the counter with BITT, wearing his Hinobi-themed mask and party hat while holding a paper plate with a crepe on it. Haneesh, Nix, Bergy, and everyone else mingled and chatted and interacted with each other, moving around like a sea of clothing and people.

"Okay, lets try to put 2020 behind us." Five walked around to her front, looking down at her face. "Instead lets try make sure 2021 goes great, sound like a good plan?"

"Ten!" BITT abruptly said, his screen entering a ten-second timer that by the time he reached nine had all the techs counting along with. "Eight! Seven! Six! Five!"

With inhuman speed, Miko wrapped her arms around Five and brought him into a hug, causing him to lean down awkwardly by the time the timer reached Four.

"Three!"

"Sounds like a plan Fivers." She replied with a grin, with him returning the embrace.

"Two!"

Miko shut her eyes as she heard him respond. "Yeah, it does..."

"ONE! HAPPY NEW YEARS!"

The entire room erupted in multi-colored lights as a disco ball lowered from the ceil and party music began playing. Miko pulled away from the hug as she turned to look at him.

"Now, let PARTY!" She yelled while she sprinted towards the center of the room.

There were the bad things about 2020, yet it was at moments like these where she could think about everything good that had come from it.

HAPPY NEW YEARS GUYS!