Chapter 2

The ship they had been tracking was the one the Plasma cannons had been transported in. It was suddenly more urgent because of the IA investigation that they find this ship, and maybe find out what' s going on.

IA had become interested in this particular mission during a raid on the Space Pirates, in which two soldiers had been killed by one of the Elite Pirates. They discovered some evidence that it may have been an inside job. All the statements given by the three soldiers that they were rendered unconscious before they got a chance to fight back are consistent, but the new evidence was that only two were unconscious, and one was simply restrained after the fact to cover it up. They were unable to determine which one, probably because the Pirates cleaned up all evidence so as to protect their inside man.

Nick and two of his squad leaders boarded the ship. The first squad leader was Lt. Scott Iverson, who was up for promotion, and the second Lt. Steven Bauer, who had been investigated by IA too many times to count for illegal interrogation methods, however his brave service meant he was reprimanded but not punished each time.

Ten minutes later, the three were on the bridge and the ship took off.

"Sir, we've got the signal stronger. It looks like they've stopped at a planet in the Talon system," said one of the techies on the bridge.

"Can you determine which one?" asked Nick.

"Not yet," replied the technician, "we need to get closer."

Upon entering the Talon star system, the technician was able to ascertain the planet on which the ship had landed. It was Talon V. Nick gave the order to land the ship and find the Space Pirates on the ground.

"Iverson, you're going to come with me. We're going to find this ship and find out what's going on. Bauer, I want you waiting here with a fleet ready to take off in case the Space Pirates leave," said Nick.

They each went to the armory, loaded their guns, and went to their respective vehicles. A hatch on the back of the ship opened up, and Nick drove a truck out the back with Iverson and a few soldiers. Following the signal closely, they came to an abandoned warehouse. There was a ship outside.

Iverson went to the door of the warehouse and peered inside the window. He motioned for his squad to move up. He then held up three fingers to indicate the number of hostiles in the building. One of Iverson's men got out a charge and moved up to the door, careful to stay invisible to the Pirates inside. He planted the charge on the door, backed up, and the whole squad covered their heads with their arms during the explosion, then moved in on the Pirates. The Pirates opened fire, and took out two of Iverson's men. Iverson and the remaining squad members returned fire, and managed to kill one Pirate. Suddenly there was an explosion at the back door. Nick appeared through the smoke and shot the remaining two Pirates, careful to leave them alive.

After the hostiles had been restrained, Nick walked up to one of them, and pointed the gun at his head.

"Who within the ranks of the GF were you collaborating with?" he asked, fiercely.

"I'll never tell you!"

The pirate spat on the ground. Nick asked one more time.

"Go to hell."

Nick pulled the trigger. You could see the whole right through the Pirate's head. He moved on to the other one.

"Who were you working with?"

"I won't tell you."

"You see how your friend died? He was lucky. He felt no pain. He died so quick he didn't even hear the 'am' in 'blam'. There are much slower and more painful ways for the same thing to happen to you."

"No! You'll never break me!"

Nick pulled out a vial. Inside was a greenish liquid.

"I'm sure you've seen this before. It's a concentrated corrosive chemical that melts your species. I'm sure you wouldn't want to get any on you," said Nick.

"I'll never tell you."

Nick unscrewed the top of the vial. He held it over the Space Pirate, who continued to state his resolute position, however anyone looking at him could tell he was contemplating giving up.

"I'll...I'll never tell you. If you kill me, it goes with me to the grave."

Nick tilted the vial so much that had he tilted it any more, it would have spilled its entire contents.

"I'll...I'll...SEELY! IT WAS SEELY! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"

Nick put away the vial. He radioed back to the ship to inform them of this information and then told the squad to go back to the vehicle with the prisoner and the body of their comrade.

As they walked back, Iverson pointed out that the interrogation was harsh.

"The vial was full of food-coloured water. Nothing of harm in it at all."

Yes, I like fake torture scenes even more than real torture scenes.