Rough Writing

Halibach leaned in towards Rafenizor and with a twisted grin began thumbing his ear lobe. Rafenizor’s clenched beak and twirling feathered eyebrows were indication enough that Halibach had sealed yet another favorable contract. Halibach had found his scarred face almost always aided in having customers take his demands seriously. Combined with his larger enhanced human bulk and a swagger that said he knew how to use his blaster at his side gave him an almost irresistibly dangerous charm.

“I will need half now and half on completion of the job” Halibach said in a deep guttural voice. The cornered and desperate client grudgingly sighed while shaking his head back and forth, the affirmative for his species. “Yes, we’ll have the consortium transfer the money to your accounts in the morning.” “Perfect, we’ll begin work as soon as we see the transfer come through”. “Mr. Halibach, are you confident you can complete this mission”. Rafenizor hesitantly asked as he began tapping out the transfer on his portable tablet. “Of course, I expect your competitors will begin feeling the affects of our work very soon.”Halibach confidently replied. Tanzien defense technology was good but their routes through this system were vulnerable in ways that Halibach’s small corp would be able to take advantage of. They may lose someone but that wouldn’t be the first or the last time and everyone was paid for their efforts, even the fallen. Halibach’s mercenaries knew they could always trust they would get paid and likely survive with Halibach in command.

As Halibach exited the dreary dive and stepped out into the darkened streets of Los Dielda. He paused as a rail thin cowled man moved from the shadow of the doorway and behind him. Quietly Halibach said “Diedrich, follow him and make sure he makes it back to the higher levels then join me at the docks and we’ll shuttle out to the command carrier”. Diedrich backed up against the wall and blended back into the shadows. As a cyborg Diedrich knew how to be inconspicuous. Flagrant or belligerent behavior regarding modification usually ended up with someone in a chop shop sooner or later. Halibach made his way through the aging infrastructure to a public tube that would transport him to the edge of the city and the outer docking rings of the station. His mind was already planning how he would help cripple the efforts of the Shangzee Corporation’s trading efforts in this system.

—

Sarah and her squad of snub nosed short range attack frigates floated mere inches above the rocky asteroid in perfect tandem with its slow orbit around the gas giant behind them. They had all moved into position and powered down awaiting the signal to rush out from behind the asteroid and pounce on the incoming freighter’s escorts. Twitch and Jasper were on her six and three while Frankie was resting gently on her nine. Her respirator hissed air into the freezing cabin. They’d have to activate their internal heating if the signal didn’t come soon. They were getting paid well, but not enough to freeze to death just to keep them from being discovered.

Sarah’s passive radio crackled to life with a sharp raised tone. She and her squad fired up their engines and lunged in a graceful arch above and around the asteroid. As they cleared the rocky surface below they saw their prey. Four small freighters with two out flight escorts were only a hundred clicks and down about 20 degrees. Maintaining silence and a star formation her squad rushed down at the convoy. Adrenaline pumped into Sarah but her hands remained steady on her controls.

Their aged but deadly fighters screamed into the void and swept down towards the approaching escorts. The silent but deadly struggle began with flashes of tracers filling the sky as both small squads opened fire. She and Jasper merged to take on one frigate while Twitch and Frankie tangled with the other. Her cabin hummed along with the discharge of explosive flechette rounds from multiple mini turrets. The gentle vibrations were punctuated by the staccato of missiles bursting from her undercarriage and streaking towards the enemy. As she and her squad danced in the night the freighters increased thrust to get clear of the asteroid belt and make their next FTL jump to the next gravity well. Sarah watched them with a small grin. Halibach always knew how lead his prey where he wanted them. With Jasper on her wing she pulled into a steep dive to line up a crippling shot on their small escort frigate. Her scanners showed Twitch and Frankie had almost finished up with their frigate so she pulled down to harass the freighters on their way.

Subtly attached to each of their hulls were hi-gain scanners tracking the freighters movements. When they accelerated to their next drop out point Halibach and several small cruisers and boarding ships would be waiting for them. On their firing run Sarah and Jasper carefully hit the freighters everywhere but the engines and the comand cock pit. As they pulled away the freighters rippled and then streaked away. Twitch and Frankie pulled into formation having turned the frigates into burning balls of plasma and Sarah broke comms to transmit the calculated landing coordinates to Halibach’s command cruiser. Their job done they cruised towards their scoop point. Sarah’s small grin grew wider. They would all get a hefty bonus for this job.