-Starcraft
--Dead on Delivery
---Chapter 8: Payday
I walked into Anchor Rock. It took me half a day to trudge through the sands and reach the road that led to the city limits. I bet it struck people odd, to see someone walk in from the desert, covered from head to toe with sand and blood. Covered in bruises and looking so calm and collected. I think some people asked if I was alright. There were some Marines hanging around too, but all they did was stare at me. They might have said something, but I didn't hear them, and even if I did. I wouldn't have answered. I had an asshole to kill and wasn't up for waiting
Anchor Rock was everything I thought it was from the stories I heard. There was a Kel-Morian army in town. I could see the Barracks and the Command Center and the Factory. There was also plenty of civilian buildings like bars and shopping centers and used car dealerships. On a normal day, it would have been eye candy. I would have been all over that place. It was so big, and so lively. I've never seen so many people before. But today was not a normal day. My week, had not been a normal week. I was not having a good life.
I figured if Derringer was as high class as he struck me on the first day we met. He'd be living it up in The Scraper. It was a big multistory hotel with a signature bar most everyone knew off the top of their head. Even from a distance, anyone could see the cheap neon sign flashing "The Defiler Lounge". I wouldn't think anything of it. But I had seen real Defilers. Even though the owners meant to say sleazy people hang out there sometimes, I don't think they realized the gravity of a real Defiler. Anyway, the lounge was some addition to the left of the main entrance of The Scraper. Normally when visiting new places, I'd hit the bar first thing. But not today.
My feet were already smarting from the walk into town, so the soft carpeting of The Scraper made entering the hotel all the more impressive. Like I said before, those bar stories did not disappoint. When you think "Rich an Famous", think The Scraper. Chandeliers and scarlet couches and... God man. Everything. But that's the Kel-Morian Combine for you. They spend a lot of time ripping up worlds to get rich. And this is how they spend it. I bet half the residents in this place were Kel-Morian grunts or commanders. And I bet Derringer knew them all. I had never asked who he worked for, but it was easy to see now.
The front desk was pretty far back. I had to pass a lot of onlookers who were pretty surprised to see such a guy looking like myself enter. All of them got quiet as I moved toward the front. I also had to pass elevators and staircases that took up most of the lobby. Along with those fancy waiting areas and snack dispensers. The guy at the desk was this tall dude in a red uniform acting like he owned the place. He kind of shuttered when he caught a look at me in my shabby and conspicuous shape.
"Hello..." He said slowly, still trying to make a judgement call on me. "Can I... help you?"
He looked me up in down in a sickened expression. I could already tell this guy probably never leaves the hotel.
"Derringer." I said flatly.
"Excuse me?"
"Samuel. Derringer. Where is he?"
"I don't know... who you are sir... but I can say that Mr. Derringer won't be interested in seeing you."
I cracked a small grin.
"Oh, I think he would."
"I'm sorry. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
I figured he didn't know my week. So I didn't feel to bad about educating him.
"Listen to me, and you listen good. I have been... hunted by the Protoss. Chased down by the Zerg and got shot at by other Terrans who don't know what they're talking about. I had to walk through a desert of shit to get to this colony. So if you think that your attitude, and your little red suit is going to keep me from finding out which room Samuel Derringer is in... you gotta another thing coming."
When I finished my little speech, I was an inch from his face and leaning forward on the desk. I had thought it silent when I entered? Oh boy, it wasn't silent until I stopped talking. Now that... that was silence. Mr. Red Suit here... I think he pissed his pants. I really did. Because before I knew it, he had told me which room Derringer was in, and even gave me a duplicate key card. No doubt he'd suck it up later and call some sort of security. But the initial shock of going off on him, that should keep him grounded for awhile. All I know is that I wouldn't be here for long.
Derringer was at some suite in the middle of the hotel. He could probably afford top level, but then he wouldn't be across from the Starport in the back of The Scraper. What a wily bastard. Too bad he didn't expect me to show up. The hallways had the same nice look, except you could notice the hallways looked a lot like a ship or something. A lot of red and gold coloring. Even in the elevators. But enough about The Scraper. Derringer... it was time to... pay up, as they say. And I wasn't really interested in money anymore.
Room 500. That was funny. He probably used his own room number to decide how much credits would rope someone in for his death march. They keycard worked fine, and I drew my revolver before going into the room. It was a nice room. Probably the nicest living area I'd ever been in throughout my entire life. It was quiet too, and for a second, I thought that the front desk man had given me a bogus room. Then Derringer entered from some kitchen room with a glass of scotch.
"Thank you, you can leave the tray on the-"
Click, I readied my revolver. I could see the color drain out of his face. Any chances of BSing me on the death sentence was gone now. He had deliberately sent us out into that desert to die.
"Why so surprised Derringer? You did hire me to drive the truck here, right? 500,000 credits?"
He didn't say anything, only looked me up and down and blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. It felt good. Yes, it felt good to see him so stunned. I was alive, that crooked bastard wanted me to die but I was alive. His silence was like fine wine and I couldn't get enough of it. Eventually, he downed the whole glass and seemed to straighten up. He looked a little bit more relaxed and collected. I think he almost grinned, but soon bit his lip.
"Why were we hunted by the Toss and Zerg? What the #$% were we carrying you smug son of a bitch!" I demanded.
"There is something you have to understand Mr. Raleigh, when the Zerg attacked Moria, it was a brutal wake up call. Before, we counted on the Confederates, and the so-called Emperor Arcturus to allow us to go about our business. And we thought it would work that way. But the Zerg are too dangerous to count on someone else for protection. Our armies were pretty much crushed by the time the Queen of Blades was done with us."
Moria... heh. That's the Combine base of operations. When I thought about it, that story about Zerg raiding their home planet became all the more sweeter. These bastards deserved every bit of it.
"Commander Gen Mah Sakai began to demand countermeasures for these Zerg creatures. Usually, we would rely on an assortment of prototype Nuclear Weapons but...
"But what?" I pressed, squeezing him for all he was worth.
"But we had heard a story. A story about a Protoss weapon that wiped every single Zerg unit from the face a planet. We investigated and found out that every word of it was true. They had found crystals that generated so much power, it was enough to cause an explosion that enveloped an entire planet and the only thing that died was Zerg. Do you know what kind of advantage we'd have if this weapon was in our hands?"
"Oh, I could imagine. I could imagine you guys going around wiping a planet clean of inhabitants, then wiping it clean of minerals. What do you think you are? Some sort of guardian? You guys are first class assholes. The only thing you guys care about is how many minerals you have in the bank."
"A crude statement, but not too far from the truth." Derringer laughed. "Anyway, I headed the special research team involved in finding this power source and figuring out how to use it for our own means. For all intensive purposes, we were successful."
"You mean you sent your Ghost agents down to the planet for a little hit and run."
"Pretty close Mr. Raleigh. We utilized a couple of nuclear missiles to get them away from the places they were keeping the crystals. It was some gigantic temple-"
"What the hell did you just say?" I was stunned. "You nuked the Protoss? Are you guys #$%ing nuts!?"
He must have realized the gravity of what his guys had done... but he didn't seem to care at all. I mean... judging from the stories I've heard. If you even thought about launching any sort of missile in the direction of a Protoss world, you might as well take care of your funeral arrangements because you were as good as dead.
"We couldn't take the original source. But we got something that would work just as well. Those crystals in the back of the truck, were more or less ones that had absorbed the energies of the ones inside the temple." He paused to crack a smile about something. "We got them off the planet and began to conduct our experiments. It lasted for about a week, when members of our research team began to turn up dead. Dark Templar had begun to pay visits to our facilities. Next thing we knew, the same Zerg that had raided Moria was on the move. We had stirred up a hornet's nest as they used to say."
I stopped him and began to smile, unable to suppress my anger. Have you ever done that before? You were so angry you smiled? It's weird as hell, but it was happening to me now.
"So let me get this straight. You got the genius idea, to pay someone to get caught with their hands in the cookie jar... Why me? Why all of Fahren's men?"
"You should know Mr. Raleigh. The Protoss are a punitive race. Even if we left their crystals in some far off location for them to find, they'd still hunt for the ones responsible. But what if we framed some random mercenary group and some nobody civilian. The Protoss don't keep up on current events. We could easily churn out some story about you being the leader of a pirate group or whatnot. It wouldn't be hard with you dead, since you wouldn't be able to say anything otherwise."
"You are one loony bastard." I laughed.
"And it would have worked... if it weren't for the Zerg. We were surprised to learn those crystals could change their normal strains into advanced ones. It only takes causal exposure to trigger the transformation. We found this out by accident when three Hydralisks entered one of our labs and came out Hunter Killers. Tell me, how many times did those slippery bastards save you from the Protoss?"
"None." I spat at him. "We were too busy running for our lives to get caught by them. Or the Zerg for that matter. Too busy crawling through a desert of shit to deliver shit that you set us up with!"
Our talk was over. I pointed my revolver at his forehead and pulled the hammer back. Never really killed anyone before, but I didn't feel like I had to think about it for long. This was going to be messy... Bam! Someone kicked the door open, I spun around to see a Marine enter with his Gauss Rifle ready to go. Oh shit! It's the security crew! I wasted way too much time chatting it up with Derringer. God damn it! I gotta make everything such a big scene...
"See that man?" Derringer shouted hysterically. "Shoot him!"
I didn't even try to shoot first and dove behind a nearby couch. The Marine opened up on the room and began to shoot the hell out of everything. I covered my head, and my ears as things began to burst into crap as the bullets tore them up. When the gunfire stopped, I looked up to see Derringer retreat into his bedroom. There was a thud as the Marine dropped his empty clip to the floor, and I took that moment to get up and dove for the bedroom door. Once inside, I knew those walls wouldn't be enough to stop 8mm spikes from getting through and frantically looked for cover. What I found, was Derringer making the slip through some second door to his room.
Without thinking, I followed after him. Now we were doing the 100 yard dash though the hotel corridors. That Marine and whoever else was with him would be along shortly, so it made me run like I never ran before. The doors flew past and suddenly I felt like I was in a cartoon. It was only when we reached some emergency exit did I realize just how far we had run. Derringer and I had just run the width of The Scraper and were now heading down an old-as-dirt fire escape. You could see the whole colony from that floor and hell, we were really high up. I mean... really high up.
Since the fire escape went straight down in a corkscrew shape, I paused to take a shot at Derringer and let one fly. It hit the railing he had his hand on and bounced off somewhere.
"Oh god! Holy shit! Raleigh!" Derringer roared. "No one #$%s with the Combine!"
Had I not been hunted by the Zerg and Protoss, I would have agreed whole heartedly. Most people who tried to mess with the Kel-Morian Combine ended up in very small pieces at the bottom of a very empty mine. They had some Ghost agents that were rejected from the Confederates. Even rejected Ghosts were deadly Ghosts. I just hoped they didn't have any in Anchor Rock at the time. I hoped to God they didn't have in Anchor Rock. Or this would be one short revenge.
I didn't take any more shots at him as we ran down the escape. Mostly because a quartet of Marines were above me with weapons set on overkill. Holy shit, what was I doing out here? Unfortunately for me, logic was on sleep mode, while anger had been shot through the roof. As of that moment, I was going to kill him if it was the last thing I did. And I believed in every word of that statement... At least, I believed in it until I reached the bottom of the fire escape and found Derringer running past a Kel-Morian Goliath unit. Oh God!
"Freeze intruder!" The almost robotic voice of the pilot shouted.
You guys know this is the Koprulu Sector right? So you should know that whenever someone yells "freeze", they aren't doing it so they can take you alive. They're doing it in hopes you're stupid enough to comply so they can blow you the hell away that much easier. I knew the drill, and kept running while the Twin Autocannons on the Goliath lit up and began to blow holes in the ground. I could only yell "shit shit shit!" all the way to the Spaceport entrance where Derringer was running. God! I feel so stupid looking back on this! Running past Goliaths? Screwing with the Combine? Only a mental case would do this!
Anyway, I made it into the Spaceport without taking a bullet the size of a watermelon in the face. The Marines after me stopped at the entrance, probably to block it off and prepare to encircle it with backup. Man, I was going to be so trapped at the end of this... But for now, I kept running. Derringer was going to die no matter what. Even if it was going to be short. I owed him that much for the fun out in the middle of the Burnside desert. That bastard... I followed him past all sorts of waiting rooms with people trying to get a shuttle either off the planet or to another colony on Arid Col. They seemed to enjoy the frantic chase that ripped through their areas and only watched.
The Spaceport officials didn't know what to make of our little escapade and simply looked on dumbfounded. Therefore, it was easy to make it to the tarmac of the Spaceport. This is where Derringer was going, he was going to try and get the first Dropship out of here, even if it meant commandeering it. Damn! If he got off the planet and reached some of his Kel-Morian buddies, I'd be so screwed, so screwed that all the times I was screwed before would look pleasant. I had to stop him.
We got to the lifts in the place, where he took right and I took left. Man, I swear, I must have broken that button. If that elevator went as fast as I pressed that button, I would have been in space by then. I took the time to reload my revolver and looked at the little lights that showed where you were. Soon as we got to the tarmac I was going to blast him. He wouldn't have anywhere to run so long as it was clear. Oh god, I hope there aren't any Dropships en route or on the tarmac...
-To be continued...
--Next Chapter: Signed and Sealed
