Chapter 14: Interview from Hell
Jiles Station
Jiles Station shuddered as it never had before. The fighting within its walls had become so fierce and brutal, that parts of the station were beginning to break apart as wanton weapons fire and explosions ripped its way through the station's interior. The station groaned like a wounded animal whose innards were being torn to pieces by flesh eating insects.
Meanwhile, Governor Roland Jiles watched everything from his secure office with a mix of both frustration and fascination. As a businessman and landlord, he saw huge monetary and economic losses taking place every second. Every person killed was lost revenue, and every rail round fired was causing damage that cost resources to repair. On the other hand, it was interesting to see how upon the first opportunity, people would tear each other apart just because they could.
"Sir, the fighting is intensifying in all sectors." Captain Warren said solemnly. "I'm afraid containing the violence is out of the question."
"Any suggestions then, Captain?" Jiles sighed as he poured himself another drink.
"Well, I suggest we consolidate our security forces around the vital areas of the station, like the power generators and life support systems." Warren said, his voice shouting over the gunfire in the background. "We can at least keep the core of the station intact. The outer portions and wings we can always rebuild."
"I'm afraid I have to agree with you." Jiles sighed. "What's the situation?"
"Well, we're not sure what exactly started the fight, but we can confirm at least seven major parties are involved." Warren explained. "Five are from the local gangs and syndicates that have taken up shop here, and the other two we believe are from Exile Fleets."
Jiles nearly dropped his glass in surprise. "What?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm not exactly sure how they got into the station, but we've pretty much confirmed their presence. They're pretty easy to spot, after all."
"Well, which fleet are they from?" Jiles said, sweating. He was wanted by several fleets, and many of them would like nothing more than to see him shoved out of the airlock and into the nearest black hole.
"Well, we pretty much confirmed that one of the factions are the Templars. We're not quite sure what the second faction is, but we're guessing their Fleet Earth or some other highly advanced, heavily militarized fleet." Warren said.
Jiles nodded, slightly relieved. As far as he knew, he wasn't marked for death in either faction. However, the fact that they were both here and shooting up his station was still rather unsettling.
"Captain, if you must, shift target priority to the Exile forces. We can always rein in the local groups when all of this blows over."
"Yes sir!" Warren complied.
Again, Jiles leaned back in his seat and refilled his glass, but not before making sure that his sidearm was loaded and armed.
Cargo Hold 3
Fortunately for the Nietzche crew, most of the fighting was taking place in the more heavily populated areas of the station. With the rebellion to deal with, most of the guards that normally patrolled the cargo holds were called off to protect the vital areas of the station. However, that didn't mean the holds were completely empty. Many thieves and looters had taken advantage of the chaos to break into the holds and steal whatever they could. Unfortunately, none of them took into account that other groups may have had the same idea, and it didn't take long for the competition to heat up into full scale gang war. Oddly enough, there were even squads of Templars milling about, contributing to the overall confusion.
"What the hell can they be doing here?" Kay whispered as she saw a squad of Templars trying to break open a cargo container.
"Probably looking for the stuff Laron stole from them." Kyle sighed. "Just leave them. No point in drawing attention to ourselves."
"Good idea." Sanah nodded. "We can't let ourselves get caught up in all this fighting."
"Lead the way, Laron." Kyle said.
According to Laron, Jiles had a secret freight elevator installed in Cargo Hold 1 so that he could get first dibs on any valuable goods that made their way into the station. The existence of the elevator was not public knowledge, so Jiles didn't want to risk any unwanted attention by filling the hold with guards. If they could find and break into the elevator, then Kyle and Lynn would have a straight shot at Jiles himself.
Of course, actually getting to Cargo Hold 1 was a challenge in itself. Templar squads were ruthlessly sweeping the containers for their stolen property and other factions were squabbling over their rights to loot it. Fortunately, Laron knew the path through the maze of cargo containers and Lynn was able to help them avoid any potential firefights. However, that didn't mean they were immune from the occasional skirmish or two. They had left about a dozen bodies of individuals unfortunate to cross their path lying behind them, and they were still running into more in the tightly packed space.
"Okay, here's the entrance to Hold 1." Laron pointed to the security door in front of them. "Once we get through, it's a straight shot to the elevator."
"You forgot to mention the fact that the door's locked." Kyle growled.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Hold 1 is supposed to be secure cargo, and Jiles just added in extra security pretty recently after several thefts."
"Damn, this just gives us more complications than we need." Kyle sighed.
"Don't worry, I'll open it." Sanah said. "I assume the door has SRX universal wireless controls?"
"Uh, I'm just going to save time and just say yes." Laron said.
"This is going take a while." Sanah grimaced, her electronic eyes flashing. "The control systems here are older model and are using a surprisingly tricky encryption."
"How long is a 'while' going to take?" John asked, keeping an eye out for any hostiles.
"About three seconds."
"That's pretty long for an android." Lynn grinned as she felt John's confusion.
"I wish Guilty Spark was that efficient." John grumbled, the memory of that terrible gauntlet in the Library on the Halo still fresh in his mind.
"Right. We'll need some of us to stay behind and hold the entrance in case we need it." Kyle said. He briefly considered the options. He needed Laron and Lynn to guide them to Jiles, John for his muscle, and Sanah for her ability to hack electronics. That left Kay, Williams, and Melissa as the only candidates to stay behind.
"I suppose you want me to stay behind to keep an eye on the newbies." Kay sighed. "Don't worry, I'll make sure we hold the fort till you come back."
"Always have to beat me to the punch, do you?" Kyle shook his head. "Just don't screw it up, like everything else you try."
"Ha ha." Kay said sarcastically.
Main Promenade
Ackerson hated complications. Complications meant wasted time and resources, which in turn meant reduced efficiency, and the last thing anybody wanted was an inefficient military unit. Finally, inefficiency led to mission failure, and Ackerson simply could not tolerate that idea. He had taken part in and led hundreds of battles ranging from small unit skirmishes to full scale land wars involving battalions of Marines. Never once did Ackerson lose, and god forbid that his first and only failure would be because of an annoying little girl. Granted, she was a little girl with unimaginable psychic powers, but the thought still frustrated him to no end.
"Our advance has been stalled, sir." Sergeant Fokker said. "The Templars are putting up a stiff resistance, and their defense lines are forcing my men to advance cautiously."
"What about squad two?" Ackerson said, annoyed.
"They're also advancing slowly. They're bogged down in heavy fighting and Sergeant Doyle is afraid to advance too far ahead. There are still a good number of rogue hostiles out there, and he doesn't want to risk getting flanked."
Ackerson growled as he fired another rail round burst at the entrenched Templars, knocking one of the defenders over. However, if the Templars were good at one thing, it was not knowing when to give up. Even when horribly outgunned and outnumbered, the Templars stood their ground and kept fighting.
"It looks like we'll need to use the heavy ordinance." Ackerson said, setting his rifle aside and reaching for a large, locked case.
"Sir, I don't have to remind you of the dangers of using heavy weaponry in a space station." Fokker said worriedly.
"I'm personally authorizing the use of these weapons." Ackerson said, inputting his override code on the case's security lock. "Our suits are rated to survive in vacuum."
"Yes sir." Fokker said as Ackerson lifted the particle laser cannon out of its case and handed the weapon to him. Fokker slapped the battery pack into the weapon and double checked to make sure it was fully charged. He then yelled to warn the rest of the Marines, "Power on, weapon live!"
The Marines around Fokker instinctively took cover and looked away from the weapon. Fokker then pulled the trigger and watched as his visor darkened to protect his eyes from the burst of light. A crimson shaft of energy speared straight through the flimsy barricade of tables and chairs the Templars had erected, burning clean trough several ranks of the fanatics as well. The laser also served to disorient and confuse the Templars as well, and it wasn't long when rail rounds began hitting their flanks and rear, tearing the entire formation to pieces.
"Doyle, good to see you finally made it." Ackerson saw Doyle's squad disengaging their optical camouflage and materializing in the middle of the promenade.
"Sorry for the wait, sir!" Doyle saluted. "We had to fight our way through some determined opposition!"
"You came just in time." Ackerson said. "Did you find any intel on the location of the target?"
"No sir!" Doyle shook his head. "We have confirmed that the target is on the station, though!"
"Really now?" Ackerson raised an eyebrow.
"We managed to obtain a prisoner. He didn't say much, but we managed to get him to tell us that he saw the White Devil on the station." Doyle said, pointing to a cuffed and badly beaten Templar who was flanked by a pair of Marines.
"Good work, sergeant." Ackerson said proudly. He knew of that "White Devil" was the moniker that the Templars used to refer to Lynn. By far, she likely had the highest Templar body count in the entire Fleet since the Templars were so intent in eliminating her due to her "unnatural" abilities. Though keeping them at bay was often a chore, Ackerson sometimes let a few of them slip through his nets just to give Lynn something to do. He couldn't let all that psychic talent go to waste, after all.
"Should we comb the station?" Fokker asked.
"No." Ackerson said. "We don't have the time or the manpower, but I've got a different idea." He grinned, "Search all of the docks. All we have to do is find their ship and then wait for them to come to us.
Cargo Hold 1
It wasn't much effort to reach the "secret" elevator in the hold. The door was only guarded by two squads of heavily armed security personnel with a fortified heavy emplacement sporting a 30mm autocannon. Of course, the guards were on edge, since they were aware of the fighting and rioting taking place on the station. However, they were still rather relaxed, since none of the violence had reached their post yet, and didn't bother trying to keep a secure perimeter around their position.
None of the guards noticed when three of the compatriots were suddenly yanked into the shadows, unable to do anything before their necks were snapped or throats slashed. The guard manning the autocannon suddenly felt incredibly dizzy and lightheaded, but shook off the feeling, thinking it was just nervousness.
"You okay?" One of the guards, Ranken was his name, asked.
"Yeah." The gunner, Mick, responded hastily. "Just a bit tired."
Mick sighed and leaned on his gun. He had only been hired as station security only recently. The pay was decent, but he sometimes grew tired of dealing with all the constant fighting on board. He knew today was particularly nasty and was incredibly glad that he wasn't caught up in it. However, everything would have been very nice if the whispers in his head would just stop.
The silent assault continued. Kyle, John, and Sanah used their optic camouflage to great effect, sneaking in and silently dispatching three more guards. It was a simple task for John and Sanah, who could use their enhanced strength to easily break the necks of their captors. Kyle however, had to do it much more cautiously, using his monomolecular knife to slit the small gap in armor between the target's chin and collar. So far, the guards didn't seem to notice that a quarter of their number were missing, but Kyle knew that they'd eventually catch on if the plan didn't work out the way they intended.
Mick was now incredibly irritated. The whispers had grown louder to the point where they were more troublesome, but not noisy enough to be considered normal speech. He took his helmet off in order to get some fresh air and relieve his stress, but it only seemed to make the whispers worse, as they now fluttered about the room and echoed off the walls. Mick growled in annoyance. He'd show those whispers. He'll do what they were telling him, just to shut them up once and for all. He casually disengaged the safety on his autocannon and aimed, pulling the trigger as he did so.
At first, the room was filled with an odd, metallic clanking sound as the autocannon revved up, but it was immediately drowned out by hundreds of rounds being fired per second. At first, the guards took cover and aimed their weapons outward, rightly believing they were under attack. However, it didn't immediately occur to them that the attacker was one of the own comrades, who was firing his autocannon with reckless abandon. Most of them, however, didn't get the chance to retaliate, as they were suddenly cut down by rail rounds as they attempted to take cover. John, Sanah, and Kyle positions themselves so that their interlocking lines of fire were guaranteed to catch some of the guards in the open. By the time the whispers stopped floating around in Mick's head, his twenty three comrades were already dead and a rail round was buried about two inches into his skull.
"That took a lot longer than usual." Kyle frowned as he checked the bodies. "Are you sure you've been practicing enough?"
"It's not an exact science, you know." Lynn said, glancing at Mick's body sadly. "It varies from person to person, kinda like soylent green."
"Ugh, don't remind me."
"Is this it?" John pointed to the security door the guards had been watching over.
"No, that's just the freezer. You know, for the meats and stuff." Laron shuffled past and motioned for the others to follow. "It's this way."
They followed Laron as he weaved his way through the cargo containers, carefully examining their ID numbers as he passed by them. They passed several rows until Laron stopped in front of a rather large but still inconspicuous container sitting against one of the hold's far walls. It didn't take much effort for John and Sanah to pry the doors open, only to reveal a pile of crates.
"Ummm, don't tell me you're here to steal even more merchandise." Kyle sighed.
"Don't be so impatient." Laron grunted as he grabbed one of the crates. "Help me pull this out."
John laid his hands on the crate and realized that something wasn't right. It felt as if the crate was connected to the others in the pile, and just pulling at it made the entire pile move as a single mass.
"It's a façade, a fake obstacle." John said.
"That's right. Can't have somebody peeking in and seeing something he shouldn't." Laron grunted as he pulled the fake crates out of the container and pointed at the far end to reveal a freight elevator. "That, my friends, is our ticket in."
Nietzsche
Hal dutifully kept watch over the ship, as he always did when Kyle and Kay were away. He was well aware that there were many opportunists on Jiles Station that would sneak into the docking areas and try to steal whatever they could, from cargo to entire ships. However, Hal had gotten quite adept at repelling would be robbers via the ship's automated systems. It was business as usual except for the fact that Halsey was still here, messing around with the system that he had worked so hard to order and organize.
"You call this ordered and organized?" Halsey said incredulously as she viewed the lines of coding that made up the ship systems. "It's a mess."
"Please be quiet." Hal said sternly.
"What?" Halsey hooked into Hal's visual feed and then saw what he was observing. "Oh."
Via the ship's external cameras, Hal had a good view of the approach to the ship. What he saw was a large mass of individuals moving towards them.
"Can you zoom in to get a closer view?" Halsey asked.
"Of course I can." Hal said proudly. The image then enlarged to reveal a squad of Marines closing with the ship. "Uh oh."
"I think it's a good idea to get the ship out of here." Halsey pointed out.
For once, Hal agreed with his female counterpart.
Governor's Office
"They did WHAT?" Jiles sputtered as he heard the news.
"I don't know how they did it, or how they even knew about it, but somebody breached the secret freight elevator." Warren said sullenly. "I've tried to contact the security detail I posted there, but they aren't responding."
"Pull everybody back." Jiles said.
"Sir?" Warren said, puzzled. "That means we'll risk having the station's vital areas-"
"Do it now!" Jiles screamed, now panicked at the thought that his life was in genuine danger.
"Yes sir."
"Pity that they won't get here in time." A bright, oddly cheerful voice said from behind. Jiles whipped around and began to draw his pistol, only to have it be yanked out of his hands. He looked on in horror as the pistol floated gently in the air until the source of the voice casually snatched it and said cheerfully, "Now now, we don't want you hurting yourself or anything."
Jiles was horrified to see five individuals standing in the room in front of him. He instantly recognized two of them and scowled. "Well well, if it isn't Laron and Kyle. You've come to finally put an end to my 'tyrannical' rule, have you?"
Jiles definitely knew about Kyle and Laron. Kyle had the nasty habit of attracting all sorts of trouble and attention, and his accursed sister Kay was responsible for a lot of wanton destruction on the station, costing a great deal of money. Laron, on the other hand, was a constant nuisance, continually stealing his goods and evading the taxes and tributes that Jiles demanded of all station inhabitants. Though there was a mutual dislike, Jiles had never imagined that these two individuals would to so such lengths to settle the score.
"Don't flatter yourself." Kyle said, keeping his rail rifle trained on Jiles. "You've got something we want, and you're giving it to us."
"I don't have to listen to your demands." Jiles scoffed. "You can't kill me because then you'll never get what you want, so all I have to do is stall you until the rest of my security can arrive."
"That's true." Kyle grinned. "That's why we brought some insurance."
"What?" Jiles frowned nervously at the sight of Kyle looking so confident.
"Hello, Governor." The small blonde girl that had taken his weapon cheerfully made her way over to Jiles. "I'd really appreciate it if you'd be cooperative."
"You don't scare me, you psychic freak." Jiles scowled. "I've dealt with your kind before, and I've taken precautions."
"Oh, I know all about those nasty little implants you've got to counter attempts to psychically probe or control you." The girl said, instantly and seamlessly transforming from a seemingly cheerfully, bubbly girl to a rather serious and menacing interrogator. "But then again, whoever said I was going to try and read your mind?"
"What are you talking about?" Jiles gulped, feeling his confidence slowly slipping away.
"People seem to forget that telekinesis and mind reading are fundamentally different abilities." The girl explained casually. "Those implants of yours don't protect you from physical attacks, and that's precisely what telekinesis does. Do you feel that strange feeling in your head?"
Sure enough, Jiles could feel a rather stinging presence in his head. It soon upgraded to a raging, burning sensation to all out pain.
"What did you do?" He groaned.
"Right now? I'm pinching one of the arteries in the brain. Any more pressure, and I can completely cut off the blood flow to your brain, making you suffer a stroke or even have your brain explode. That's just your brain, too. Just wait until you see what I can do with your other bodily functions."
Jiles always liked information, as well as hoarding it for himself. He always believed that information was valuable, and that anything juicy would be kept secret until he could find some way to gain from it. From the looks of it though, what he had to gain was his life.
"What do you want?" Jiles asked, seething at his inability to do anything.
"Earth."
Jiles started laughing. He couldn't help it after hearing such a ridiculous request. Earth? Earth was nothing but a myth passed down from the past generations. While he had no doubt that the homeworld of the human race was out there, he really didn't care about its existence nor was he really concerned about finding it.
"She's not joking." Kyle said, greatly annoyed. "Even if you don't know where it is, you know the place where we can find out for ourselves."
"You mean the central data core?" Jiles laughed. "It won't be in there, I've checked it myself."
"Yeah, well I seriously doubt you had three class-A AIs with you at the time." Kyle said. "Last I checked, they're very good at data mining old systems."
"I still won't tell you where it is." Jiles said adamantly.
"Well, we can always do this the messy way." The girl said. "I'll just yank what I need out of that head of yours."
"You can't do that. You even pointed out I had psi-blockers." Jiles said.
"Well, yeah, but that won't stop me from using my telekinesis to just rip those implants straight out of your head. Even if you die, your brain will still be technically alive for a few minutes, which is more than enough time for me to pry through what's left of it to find what I need."
"You… you can't do that!" Jiles said, panicking.
"Oh yeah, she'll definitely do it." Kyle grinned. "She's freaking insane. She wouldn't bat an eye at taking your head off and using it as a soccer ball."
Jiles gulped and visibly paled. "Maybe I do have an idea where the central data core is." He said weakly.
"Damn, we've got trouble." One of the other strangers, a blue haired girl, stepped forward. "My motion detectors have picked up a lot of contacts closing in."
"That would be my security detail." Jiles said, slightly hopeful that Warren and his men could get him out of this mess."
"Well, then that just makes things slightly more complicated." Kyle grabbed Jiles by the collar. "Now show us the way."
"John, you stay here and hold the fort." The psychic told the final stranger, who was clad in foreign looking green armor. "Keep them back by any means necessary."
"Right." John nodded.
"Laron, you stay here and back him up. He could always use an extra pair of hands." Kyle tossed a rail rifle to Laron.
"Can't I just tag along with you?" Laron asked.
One glare from Kyle was enough to shut Laron up.
"Okay, let's do this." Kyle glanced at Jiles. "Show us the way."
Jiles briefly considered just staying put and stalling them, but a sharp pain in the back of his skull, and the terrifyingly enthusiastic look on the psychic's face convinced him start shuffling towards the entrance to the central data core.
"You know I can't do the things you told him." Lynn whispered to Kyle, slightly hurt that he painted her to be the monster that everybody thought she was.
"Yeah, well he doesn't know that." Kyle quietly responded. "Besides, why are you so worried about what he thinks about you?"
"Point."
Meanwhile, back in Jile's office, John and Laron took positions at the front door, ready to meet whatever help that might try to come to Jile's aid.
"So… you've ever done anything like this before?" Laron asked.
John just took one look at Laron, sighed, and focused his attention on the door.