Two days later.
Hunter's men had been none too gentle in throwing them into the brig on the ship they'd been hauled onto after they'd broken up the bar fight. Word had obviously gotten around fast that they had a prime target to collect however, so despite some additional roughing up, the only sticky moment had been when someone suggested they didn't need the blue prisoner or the girl. Silviana's quick thinking to point one of the intellectually challenged henchthings into suggesting using them as a way to keep their two known heroically inclined captives in line at least gave them some breathing room. So the group had been unceremoniously dumped into the none-too clean brig on board a ship that rattled so badly the moment it began to move all four had images of being splattered against a bulkhead going through their minds. Boots had been taken off them, and they'd all been searched from top to toe before their clothes had been returned to them.
That had been close to two days ago, as best Harlock could judge. In that time they'd been fed twice - MREs of dubious provenance and probably out of date, plus brackish water ™. There were no bunks in the brig so he sat next to Blaze with his back to the wall, with cold feet, an understandably unhappy stomach and a headache, in addition to numerous bruises. And unlike Blaze, whose head currently rested on his right shoulder, he couldn't even snatch a nap. Across the small cell, Silviana sat huddled in a corner, shivering with her arms wrapped around her knees, trying to look as though she had this under control and failing miserably. When Ben tried asking her to snuggle in for warmth she snapped at him. The Gamilan bit back a sharp retort, and made his way back to Harlock's side of the cell, but didn't sit down. Instead he prowled the few feet along the bars, occasionally glaring down the corridor outside.
'You, sit down, you're wasting energy and you're making me tired just watching you,' Blaze told him. 'And you…' he jabbed a finger at Silviana. 'Stop being ridiculously prickly. Your body mass is smaller than ours, you lose heat faster, and all you're doing is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Come over here and stop being an idiot. If nothing else, assuming all we want to do is ravish you is both over-estimating your charms and incredibly insulting to the men in this room.' When all she did was glare mulishly at him he sighed. 'Ben - make yourself useful.' He slumped back after this activity, yawned, and rested his head on Harlock's shoulder, ignoring his friend's half-hearted but pithy suggestion that he use someone else as a pillow.
With a smirk, the Gamilan walked over to the little bounty hunter, picked her up, then made his way to his companions. He dumped the girl surprisingly gently next to Harlock, then sat down next to her, sandwiching her between them. 'I prefer my ravishments to be unilaterally consensual, and even in the short time I've known them, I noticed that Kei would likely geld Harlock here with a blunt knife if he tried anything like that…' he drawled. 'I think you're safe with us.'
'My mother would also make short work of both of us for making improper advances to a lady….' Blaze drawled sleepily from Harlock's other side.
'Pussy-whipped…' Silviana sniffed disdainfully, and nudged Harlock in the ribs with a sharp elbow. 'The pair of you. Some pirate you are. But I take it Kei has no objection to Karyu here using you as a pillow?'
'Since they didn't provide us with any,' Blaze replied for him, still from somewhere near his friend's collarbone, 'I take my comforts where I can find them.' He sat up, stretched, and yawned. 'How long do you think they'll let us stew like this before hauling us out to stand in front of the boss?'
'Not long,' Harlock told him grimly. 'The ship came to a stop a few minutes ago.'
'How can you be so sure,' Ben asked, drawing out the question, 'that we will be taken to where he's got those Bolarian ships stashed?'
'Because,' Blaze replied through another yawn, 'if you had your hands on the Galaxy's Most Wanted, who had access to the most powerful battleship ever built, what part of your fleet would you put up against it to have a chance of catching the Arcadia with its pants down?'
Harlock snorted. 'Good luck with that one. I'd put any fleet up against my ship and crew and bet on my people.' He paused, frowned, and continued, 'any ships not running on a dark matter engine, that is.'
'Nice to know you're not too over-confident,' Blaze quipped. He caught Ben's eye. 'No nasty surprises in that department from those dicks from your neck of the woods I hope?'
'Not that I know of. I'd think Nibelung rebels would stand out even more in our galaxy than they do here.'
'Unless they've infiltrated and are lurking in the heads of some of your enemies,' Blaze pointed out.
'Hard to pull off,' Harlock said, thoughtfully. 'I mean, Hagan needed that mask to control Yamori, and those would stand out - unless the Bolar Empire/Illumidas are spectacularly feeble minded?'
'I'd love to say yes,' Ben replied with a wry grin, 'But sadly, not so much. I…' Whatever he was about to say he cut short. 'Bootsteps…'
The familiar clang of metallic soles on the deck echoed down the long, narrow corridor to their cell. Harlock tipped his head to one side. 'One for each of us, I think. And one of them has a limp…' He smirked.
'The one you kicked in the kneecap?' Blaze hazarded. Their captors drew level with the buzzing bars of their cell and scowled in at them. 'Oh look, Harlock - there's the one you elbowed in the face!' A piggy-eyed individual glared at him and spat - with difficulty, since he had a split lip, two missing teeth and a broken nose.
'I see the one I got in the jewels didn't get off his sick bed,' Silviana sniggered. Ben tutted at her. 'There are some things, young lady, that are totally beyond the pale…'
'She's neither, and since when?' Harlock asked as he got to his feet, not bothering to wait to be prodded. 'I wouldn't be nursing a stiff elbow if I could have delivered a good hard blow to that neanderthal's joy department - as well as doing the gene pool a favour…' He offered Blaze a hand up, and hid a wince as Blaze's weight dragged on a stiff, bruised shoulder. Neither man moved fast enough to suit their captors, and the one with the facial bruising moved in on Harlock, the butt of his pistol aimed at the pirate's face, only to be called back to order by one of his colleagues. With a growl and a sneer he jabbed the pistol grip at Harlock's face, and mouthed "later" at him. Harlock didn't so much as flinch - which would have been more impressive, Ben thought, if the jab had been aimed at the left side of his face. Clearly, without the eyepatch as a reminder, they'd forgotten he was blind in one eye.
'Think yer so damn funny, don't ya, Harlock?' One of the men sneered. He jabbed the butt of his rifle hard into Harlock's stomach and sniggered when the pirate gasped in pain. 'Not laughing now, are ya, pretty boy?'
'Think yer so tough walking into our territory?' A piggy eyed individual snorted and sniggered through a snotty nose, pausing to wipe it on the back of his hand before deliberately wiping it on Harlock's sweater. He squealed like a piglet when Harlock slammed his forehead into the bridge of his nose, breaking it with an audible crack. '...'kin bastard!' he yelped, his hand over the damaged protuberance. One of his pals waded into the fray, lunging at the pirate, to be met by a hard, blue fist to the balls which left their owner doubled up clutching the offended articles.
In the ensuing brawl, Silviana stayed clear of the mess, leaning up against the wall, inspecting her nails. When the reinforcements arrived and subdued the three men she sighed as she was placed in restraints, her hands behind her back, and forced to walk alongside the battered threesome. 'Well that was a bit pointless,' she told Harlock as they were pushed and prodded through the ship's dilapidated corridors. When he didn't bother to reply she sniffed and settled for ignoring him.
Ben took the opportunity afforded by stumbling into Harlock's back to make a similar remark.
'Really?' Harlock smirked and let him see the tip of the knife he'd taken from one of his attackers. 'Because I'm pretty sure you grabbed something other than a handful of that slimy bastard's testicles, and I know damn well Blaze didn't come away empty handed…'
'All very well… but we still have to get out of here,' Ben pointed out quietly.
'In a short while, I'll have them exactly where I want them,' Harlock whispered back. 'Patience, little princeling. Watch and learn.'
This subdued chatting earned them both the butt end of a rifle in the back. As he stumbled again, Ben muttered 'Oh, I'm learning… I'm just not sure what…' But the opportunity for further discussion was curtailed by their arrival onto the bridge.
Most battleships followed a similar design - partly because outside of the SDF or the Alliance, most of the vessels currently in use dated back to the Homecoming War or earlier. The bridges were open-plan, banks of consoles arrayed in a line under the main viewscreen, with the navigation, comms and main sensor stations behind, and the captain's chair at the rear. This last was currently occupied by a corpulent man of around forty or so, with lank, thinning dark hair and an unkempt, bushy beard which reached below his multiple chins. They were unceremoniously pushed towards this figure, and then forced to their knees in front of him - an awkward position to attain with both hands tied behind your back.
'Hunter,' Harlock greeted their captor with steely contempt. 'I wish I could say it was a pleasure…'
Ben stared at their captor, and shivered inwardly. Hunter leaned back in his chair, gnawing on a chicken leg or similar, ignoring the bits of food which dropped into his beard or onto the broad expanse of flabby chest barely covered by an open red vest. And if the eyes were the windows to the soul, Hunter's were false windows - either that, or there was no soul behind them. "Dead eyed" was a phrase often used to describe a man, but to be dead, something must have at least had the semblance of life at some point. There was no light in Hunter's dark eyes, either from within or reflected from without. They seemed to swallow the light, and gave nothing back. But not in hunger… Hunger would have filled the empty void wrapped in a human shell. It stood upright like a man… it moved like a man, but gave the impression of a hollow skin, empty and cold…His full, fleshy lips curled into a look of bored contempt, and he had the complexion common to spacers who rarely walked in the open air, but that pallor had the soft, pallid, fleshy consistency of flesh left too long in water.
'Fuyakatte…' Ben muttered under his breath, the whisper loaded with unconcealed contempt.
'Lar Alcaeus Karyu… Captain Harlock… you two annoying little fleas I recognise. And even the delightful Re Silviana… You, however, amigo…' Hunter eyed Ben up and down and a lascivious smirk spread across his wide, fleshy jowls. 'I'm not sure I've had the pleasure….'
'Nor will you,' Ben replied amiably, plastering an equally fake smile across his own face. Despite the warning noises coming from Harlock at his side, he refused to look away from the cold eyes that tried to outstare him, and in the end it was Hunter who looked away, stepping back with an attempt to look unfazed which surprised Harlock and Blaze, the former of whom shot an inquisitive look at his new - and up to now apparently effete crewman.
Hunter however had decided to let it lie it seemed. He turned his attention back to his bigger prey. 'You two… I'm not sure what you were attempting to prove by wandering into my station, but regardless, I'm more than happy to take the bait.'
'I was counting on it,' Harlock said smoothly. 'You always were greedy, stupid and predictable.' One of Hunter's men's fists connected with his jaw and his head snapped back. He glared at the thug and spat out a mouthful of blood. 'As I said. Predictable,' he said calmly, his voice dripping with contempt.
'Quite an attitude you've got for a little man hiding behind such a big name,' Hunter replied dryly. He hauled himself out of his chair and walked over to his captives. 'You made quite a lot of noise during the Machine Wars, boy, but…' and to punctuate his point he grabbed Harlock's long hair and forced his head back so that he was staring up into Hunter's fleshy face. 'You're soft. Weak. You might fight well enough against those pathetic dial-heads, but they're led by a woman and a couple of pompous martinets with no real imagination. You're in my world now, boy. And I'm tired of you interfering in my business - both you and Prince Karyu here sticking your self-important, aristocratic little noses where they don't belong and bleating about right and wrong. Sending your flayed, emasculated corpses back to that pompous old has-been Hannibal and that self-righteous bitch Princess Selenium will send a message they won't soon forget. And if you're expecting a rescue…' He nodded to one of his henchmen, who forced Blaze to his feet and turned him to face the viewscreen, whilst Hunter did the same to an unresisting Harlock, 'Take a good, hard look, boys.' He sniggered wetly. 'Take a real, good hard look at what's waiting for mommy dearest and your bitch-whore…'
Arrayed outside the ship were at least a dozen vessels - Harlock counted at least three dreadnought class, and the rest were easily, by comparison to the battered Oceanos class ship moored alongside, battleship class. The configurations were unknown to him, but behind him, he heard Ben whistle through his teeth.
Hunter hauled him in closer and licked his ear with a thick wet tongue, and Harlock had to fight hard not to just slam his head into the bastard's face. 'I made sure to send an invitation to your little whore, Harlock. And to the Thieves. If they want to charge in to the rescue, let them. I'll have the pair of you flogged, fucked and mutilated on a live warp feed - let's see just how strategically his mommy or brother, or your little bitch, are thinking with those images burned into their brains, shall we?'
'You're deluded, Hunter,' Blaze told him. He sneered. 'I can't believe I'm saying this - but wait until my mother catches you. She'll tear you a new one without even breaking a sweat. And as for what his wife will do to you? I'd start running now.'
'Hiding behind your women?' Hunter laughed out loud. 'The pair of you are pathetic.'
'Funny,' Harlock drawled, 'I was thinking the same thing…'
Hunter hauled on his hair again, and pulled him close in so his foul breath almost made the pirate gag. 'Such a smart mouth on you, pretty boy. Maybe I should shut you up by giving you something to do with it, eh, amigo?'
'Bring your cock anywhere near me, Hunter, and I guarantee I'll bite the shrivelled pathetic little thing off.'
Hunter pulled him even closer. 'Not,' he said into Harlock's ear, 'If I break all your teeth first.'
Harlock's reply was to spit in his face, and it earned him a vicious backhand that sent him sprawling, leaving a handful of hair in Hunter's fist. One of the nearest thugs stuck the boot in to his side for good measure, and he grunted in pain as he curled up to minimise the damage.
'Back off, Hunter,' Blaze growled. 'You have us - and if you want to talk about a trade, leaving us undamaged is a far better survival tactic.'
'Trade implies I plan on making an exchange,' Hunter replied dryly. 'I already have you two - your mommy and girlfriend will be along regardless. And when they do they'll be up against my new fleet - I doubt even the Arcadia can handle those, and that little tugboat you're fond of piloting won't stand a chance.'
Blaze laughed harshly. 'Are you for real? You do remember how much of the Gaia Fleet the Arcadia took out back when it went through the Pluto defence line as though it wasn't there? Or the Battle of Rugiana during the War?'
Hunter waved a fleshy hand. 'No ship could be that good. Fake news and fairy tales. And against Zone Industries ships? Those things might as well be made of paper!' He tapped Blaze's cheek with the knife he pulled from its sheath. 'As for the Millennial Thieves? Your fleet's scattered across half the galaxy doing the job the Alliance won't and Destiny can't. And led by what? A doddering old man long past his prime who won't show his face, a clone-queen who runs from responsibility and your hot-head of a brother?' He smirked. 'Losers, all of you.' He had to jerk back suddenly as Blaze attempted to headbutt him on the nose. 'Oh… you're just as full of piss and vinegar as Young Harlock here, aren't you?' He sniggered as Blaze took in a sharp intake of breath. 'I've had men screaming about now… but you just glare at me as though you want to stick the knife into me yourself, don't you?' He pulled his blade out of Blaze's upper thigh, twisting the blade as he did so. He brought it up to his face and licked the blood off the blade. 'Tasty.'
'You don't have any taste,' Blaze snarled at him. He staggered and almost fell as Hunter pushed him away, blood trickling down his leg to drip onto the deck. Hunter bent down to leer into his face. 'I might just start with you, amigo… I hear you and the Young Harlock here are as thick as Thieves - pun intended. Blood-sworn brothers… it'll drive him insane to watch me do things to you he'll be seeing in his nightmares…'
'Boss!' One of Hunter's men squealed over the hoarsely stage whispered threats.
'What?' Hunter snapped at him, without taking his eyes off his prey. He ran the edge of the knife he still held down the front of Blaze's sweater like a lover might run a finger. 'It had better be important…'
'Incoming signals from several ships. Boss - it's the Arcadia!'
'Well don't just stand around like little mammals in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle!' Hunter snapped at his crew. 'Jump to it, you witless morons! We've got more than enough firepower to take them!'
'It takes more than firepower to win a battle,' Harlock said quietly, barely audible over the noise of the crew yelling orders at each other. 'Especially when you forget the first law of a battle in space…'
'Oh? And just what would that be, eh, amigo?'
Harlock smirked. 'You can only have a fight when both sides agree to engage…'
'The second law being that you need to be absolutely certain the fight you're in is the same one your enemy is in…' Blaze added, as he raised a pistol to Hunter's head. 'Ah-ah… drop the knife, amigo. And tell your men to do the same.'
Hunter stared at the ties which now littered the floor next to both Harlock and Blaze, the former busy quickly freeing Ben, and then the two of them helped themselves to weapons from the nearest crew. 'I think not, amigo. Don't just stand there, shoot them!' he screamed at his men. Who hesitated to a man before opening fire at random, forcing the three men to take cover, though not before Blaze winged Hunter, who to his chagrin moved far faster than a man of his bulk should have been able to.
'Can't get a decent calibre of witless minions can you, Hunter?' Harlock called out as he ducked behind a console. He pulled an overly enthusiastic Ben down beside him. 'Down boy. They might be slow to get going but there's enough of them to ruin our day.'
'Oh good… for a moment there I thought we were in real trouble,' Ben drawled with studied sarcasm. He waited for a brief lull in the shooting, popped up and let off a couple of well aimed bursts before dropping back down behind their cover. 'Is this all part of your plan?'
'I was kind of winging it from the point we got captured…'
'Really? It doesn't show…'
Harlock blasted away at a couple of opportunists who tried to get the drop on them by sneaking around behind them. 'Less sarcasm, more action. Can you get the girl free?'
One of the nearby consoles exploded into a shower of sparks and hot metal. 'I think she's way ahead of you!' Ben shouted into Harlock's ear since his own were ringing.
The bounty hunter dived across the bridge decking to be fielded by Ben, Blaze close behind her. She held up one hand to show off her razor sharp nails. 'A lady always keeps her nails in good order…'
'I know,' Blaze replied grimly. 'I still have the scars…'
'Now who has no taste?' Harlock murmured near his friend's ear as they arranged themselves to best cover their audience.
Blaze shrugged. 'It was ten years ago… I was young, drunk and it seemed like a good idea at the time…'
'Hah!' Silviana slapped Ben's hand away from her left breast, although to be fair she'd practically thrown herself onto it in her slide for cover. 'I heard that!'
'Harlock!' Hunter called out. 'You're outnumbered and outgunned! Surrender now…'
'Stop stealing my lines, Hunter!' Harlock shouted back.
'Is there a point to this?' Silviana hissed to Blaze. 'The two of you look like hammered shit, the blue guy doesn't look much better, and he's got reinforcements coming… I mean, you couldn't think of a better plan than to get captured, beaten to a pulp and publicly humiliated? Or are you just really into pain… Because I have some great tricks with a bullwhip and handcuffs…'
'So we hear,' Harlock muttered. 'Call it "playing to your audience…" If you give them what they want, they're less likely to notice they're being played…'
Silviana smirked at him. 'Great plan. Seems to be working just fine…'
'Oh… it is,' Harlock assured her. He spared a glance at the screen, where Hunter's fleet had moved to engage the Arcadia, which kept dodging their blasts with contemptuous ease. 'That's my girl…Get them away from those transport ships…' He ducked another shot and checked his own weapon. 'Now I'm remembering why I hate using other people's weapons. Cheap and badly maintained is a terrible combination…'
'Could we maybe keep the critique for later?' Blaze said frostily. 'I've got a hole in my leg and I think they just called for reinforcements…'
'Oh well… there's a way to put a stop to that,' Silviana said brightly. Before any of them could figure out what she meant, the bounty hunter popped up from behind their cover, took aim at one of the consoles and blew the innards right out of it. Then, since Hunter's men were busy dodging white hot shrapnel, took the time to do the same to several other stations. When the ship lurched alarmingly after she hit the third, she made a break for it, almost skipping across the bridge towards the exit.
'Silviana!' Blaze bellowed after her. She just waved back without turning, her hand over her head.
'You'll have to make your own way off, handsome! Sayonara!'
Blaze swore under his breath. 'The little cow blew the main manoeuvring controls!'
'Worse,' Harlock growled. 'That first hit was comms… and we needed that to send a signal.' He checked the charge on his borrowed pistol. 'Can you two keep them pinned down whilst I make for one of the turrets?' Blaze nodded, and Harlock slapped his shoulder. 'I'm counting on you. ' He made a run for the exit, dodging fire form Hunter, who was sheltering behind the captain's chair, and sending two men easily twice his weight flying, one lifted up by a hard shoulder charge that left him floundering on the floor like a landed fish.
'That was quite a move, if unorthodox…' Ben said admiringly. Blaze grinned at him in between shots. 'Never get in that man's way on the rugby pitch,' he replied.
'What the hell can he do in the firing turret? Send up smoke signals?'
'Old school telegraphy…'
'Hardly got the range…'
'Doesn't need it. He just needs to get Kei's attention…' In between shots over their barricade he kept a weather eye on the main viewscreen, and grinned when he saw several rounds light up the darkness from one of the ship's batteries, managing to take out one of Hunter's smaller vessels along the way since Harlock never let a chance go by to show off. 'Attaboy.' He looked at the charge on his borrowed pistol. 'Cover me - I need some more firepower,' he said to Ben.
'I'll go.' The Gamilan handed his pistol to Blaze. 'There are three guys lying in easy reach my side. But we can't keep this up for long…'
'Don't need to !' Blaze pointed at the viewscreen. 'I think the cavalry arrived!'
Emerging from IN-SKIP, several ships were appearing on the screen as they rezzed into real space. Ben kept his head down as he scuttled over to the corpses and back, the distracting fire from Blaze keeping their foes otherwise occupied. But after sliding back into place beside the other man, he did spare a glance at the screen. Most of the ship designs were unknown to him, although he rather liked the little orca-shaped one in the lead - it would make a nice little runabout, he thought, as he zapped yet another of Hunter's men between the eyes. But the ship he did recognise… Thank you, Erich… Domel and Talan had sent Admiral Rükner… He couldn't resist a smile.
'Friend of yours?' Blaze drawled as he reloaded. 'I hope he leaves those Imperial Bolar Fleet ships in one piece… Hannibal's always on the lookout for any lost property we can re-task.'
'Taking your illustrious founder's name in vain?' Harlock slid into the space beside Blaze, having to haul his long legs out of the way as someone took a shot at them, narrowly missing his booted foot. 'Boots and gun belts, boys. I thought we'd all like to have our kit back…'
'Took the time to grab your socks then?' Blaze twitted him. But he pulled his pistol out of its holster with a sigh of relief. 'Finally… now I can do some real damage…'
'Hunter was trying to round up some additional help when I took his head off his shoulders,' Harlock said. 'But there's another copy on board, sadly. That saying, it's about time we stopped playing with these boys…'
'Playing, he says…' Ben muttered as he tugged his second boot on. 'You need a better hobby.'
'It's always a game,' Harlock replied calmly, taking his time to let his generically issued but still overpowered cosmo gun make a statement across the barricades. 'The trick is to be the one in control of the board, the pieces…'
'...and the rules.' Blaze added his own firepower to the mix. 'Yama my friend - have you been talking to the Old Man behind my back?'
'Chance would be a fine thing. He avoids me like the plague…' Two shots in quick succession took out two bolder chancers trying their luck by rushing them from the side from behind the still smoking comms console. The ship shuddered three times in quick succession and rocked. 'That'll be our reinforcements,' he added chirpily. Catching Ben's puzzled eyebrow he elaborated: 'boarding tubes.'
'Which is our cue to get the hell back to our own ships,' Blaze added. 'Gentlemen?'
'Don't mind if I do,' Harlock quipped.
'You two are a bad influence,' Ben muttered. But even he couldn't resist a grin as they emerged from cover to surgically take out the remnant of Hunter's crew that hadn't already made a beeline for the nearest escape pod.
