DJ's Mission (16 page)

It was very cryptic and simply said:
‘If you
are looking for an unbelievable story…be at Washington and Jefferson Street at
a quarter till one am, local time. – PM’

Neither of them could find any reference to this
mysterious ‘PM’ even after doing numerous searches and queries. However, their
curiosity was aroused and they couldn’t resist checking out the lead. Grabbing
their gear, they headed out.

Arriving early, they had found a nice vantage
point on the first floor fire escape which overlooked the intersection. It was
old and rusty but seemed stable enough. Even as they debated its strength, a
wiry kid with greasy hair walked up. Not having any other choices, they
squatted down and Ryan began filming.

It wasn’t long before a black limo style skimmer
pulled up. When the doors opened, six thugs in black with blasters stepped out
and looked around. They must not have seen anything that caused them concern
because when their boss slithered out, Jennifer and Ryan knew that they truly
did have an unbelievable story.

Up to this point, the general populace only
believed that there were four intelligent species in the universe, the Terrans
and the Sylvans were similar enough that they were easily accepted. During the
war, the military had fought against the mantis-like Mantodeas and the lizard
Lemurians enough times to be recognized. However, there had always been rumors
of other species but no definitive proof…until now.

Jennifer guessed that the bug was twelve feet long
and purple. She noted that it had eight legs and four arms which it used like
hands, each with three very articulate fingers. The purple caterpillar-like
creature began conversing with the greasy haired man. As she shifted positions
slightly to get a better angle with the laser mic, Murphy decided it was time
to join the party.

Murphy’s Law states, that whatever can go
wrong…will go wrong. It has been the bane of combat personnel for centuries.

As Jennifer shifted her weight, the rusted bolts
that were holding the fire escape to the side of the building gave way and the
news crew found themselves falling. Several curse words and lots of bumps
later; they found themselves surrounded by the six thugs with blasters pointing
at them.

All Jennifer could manage to say was, “Aw shit!”

*   *   *   *   *

 When DJ and Jax saw the two civilians fall into
the circle of thugs, they knew they would have to act. They didn’t know who
they were or why they had been on the fire escape but they both knew they the
drug dealers wouldn’t let them live.

DJ silently berated himself for not setting up a
secure tac-channel with Jax but it was too late for that now. He had to hope
that the ex-pirate was as quick-thinking on his feet as he hoped he would be.
Tapping him once on the back, DJ used the powerful CSA armor to climb the side
of the old building; hoping beyond hope that the drug dealers wouldn’t kill the
civilians quickly.

*   *   *   *   *

The purple-hued Geometrid scuttled over on its back
eight legs and stood tall over the stunned civilians. When it spoke, its speech
pattern was odd and the voice was deep and gravelly but it was English.

“Ho…ho…a spy for Absolem do we have?”

It took Jennifer a second to realize it was
addressing her. “No, no, we were just…”and she paused. She instinctively knew
that if she used her normal explanation as reporters, they were as good as
dead. However, she was at a loss to explain why they were on the fire escape.

Ryan’s quick mind came to the rescue. “We were
making out.”

The purple caterpillar thing looked at them as if
it didn’t understand which it didn’t. Turning its attention to the greasy
haired it asked, “Talking about what are they?”

Needles leered at Jennifer’s ample breasts which
were barely contained in her shirt at the moment. “Sex. The kid and the bimbo
were about to have sex.”

“Your season it is? Location strange.”

“How many times must I explain it to you overgrown
bug, humans don’t have a season. And we don’t do it only to mate, we do it for
fun.”

In a very human-like way, the Geometrid shook his head
from side to side. “Understand I do not, demonstrate.”

“With pleasure,” said Needles as he grinned and
moved toward Jennifer. Grabbing her leg he added, “Come here, bitch.”

Ryan intended on preventing his partner’s rape and
lunged at the dealer. He didn’t make it, as the butt of one of the thugs’ rifle
connected with the base of his skull. For him, the fight was over as darkness
consumed his consciousness.

Jennifer tried to struggle but the greasy haired
Needles was stronger than he looked. When he ripped open her blouse, she was
able to break free for all of about eight seconds until the caterpillar-looking
thing grabbed her. His grip was iron. Feeling her bra ripped from her body, she
steeled herself to resist to her last breath. If she was going to be raped, the
son-of-a-bitch was going to have to work hard for it.

Even as she closed her eyes to spare herself the
sight, she saw blinding flash of red and felt a wave of heat as Needles’ hands
fell away from her body.

*   *   *   *   *

DJ had expected the smuggler and the dealer to
question the civilians and do their deal before their execution. Rape had never
even been a consideration. Even though he wasn’t in the most tactical position
at the moment, he couldn’t stand by and let her be raped, not in this lifetime.

Looking down from the roof, it was at least a
twelve story drop. Granted, the gravity on Titan was one-third less than that
of Earth’s but still a fall from this height would be painful, if not deadly.
Luckily for him, his CSA armor had those jump jets in his boots. Aiming his
jump to place him dead center of the thugs, he jumped and only fired his boots
enough to keep him below terminal velocity. Knowing that his first attack
needed to be one of shock and awe, he fired off his flame thrower just as he
landed.

Just as he’d hoped, the combined hard landing and
fire knocked everyone aside, except the caterpillar thingy. Drawing his twin
gladii, he powered them up with a flick of a switch and went on the attack. In
close quarters, knives and swords were more effective weapons. Iaido and
experience had taught him that. He cut and moved. Spun and slashed. Ducked and
stabbed. Kicked and dodged even as the thugs fired their weapons blindly.
Several other shots rang out from down the street as Jagger Jax entered the
fray. In the chaos that followed, all thirty seconds of it, all the thugs and
Needles lay bleeding or dying on the street. Only the purple hued Geometrid was
still standing and that was because he was holding the female as a shield.

“Defy me, who are you?” it asked.

Without lowering his weapons, DJ slowly circled
the giant caterpillar as his spoke. “I’m the Red Falcon. Who the hell are you?”

“Barney am I called in your tongue. No right you
have to defy my will.”

DJ couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at the
purple bug’s name. Someone had played a joke on the beast and he didn’t even
know it. DJ decided to play a hunch. “Right? So Absolem doesn’t mind you doing
business in his backyard?”

 Even though the creature wasn’t human, his facial
expressions reflected an emotion that could only be called rage. As it screamed
its frustration, it happened to let go of one of Jennifer’s hands and she
dangled out of the way still several feet off the street. But that was enough
of an opening for him.

Firing his boot jets, DJ jumped and stabbed
upwards. The combined force of his actions and the awesome cutting power of his
swords allowed both gladii to cut through the hard carapace of the Geometrid
and deep into the beast’s midsection. Neither blow was enough to stop the
creature but it was enough to cause him to drop the reporter. Shots rang out
again from somewhere behind him and fist sized holes began to appear in the
creature’s carapace. Angered and injured, Barney lunged at the Red Falcon with
its four arms.

Diving out of the way, DJ used his flame thrower
to scorch the beast right in the face. More shots rang out but now one of the
shooters was the brunette. DJ had to give her credit. Even with nearly getting
raped she hadn’t shut down, she was fighting back. Having lost his blades in
the belly of the beast, he drew his dual Graver Mk7s and began blasting away.
It wasn’t long before the mammoth creature fell over dead.

Jagger Jax casually stepped over the fallen thugs.
Any of them that moved, he fired a kill shot to the brain. “That was fun.”

Out of habit, DJ checked the power levels of his
pistols before holstering them. “Strangely enough, you’re right.” He leaned
down to check the condition of the young man and felt a strong pulse. Turning
his attention to the brunette he asked, “You okay?”

Jennifer did her best of cover her breasts with
her ruined shirt but said, “Yes…thanks to you two.”

“No problem ma’am, we just happened to be in the
neighborhood.”

Jennifer shook her head. “I’m not going to ask why
the Red Falcon and Jagger Jax are in Titan City, nor am I going to ask why they
would be lurking in an alleyway. At this moment I don’t care. I’m just grateful
that you two were nearby and stepped in to help.” Looking over at her partner
she asked, “How’s Ryan?”

DJ shrugged. “Probably a concussion but I would
guess no lasting damage. I’d get him to a doctor just to be safe.”

Before Jennifer could respond, Jax interrupted.
“Needles is still alive. Want me to remedy that?”

DJ stood up and started to walk over to the drug
dealer but Jennifer stepped in front of him. “Do you mind if I handle him?”

“Nope. Be my guest.”

Jennifer calmly checked the energy levels in her
confiscated gun. It still had three-quarters of a charge, which was plenty of
power for what she had in mind. When she reached the whining reprobate, she
placed the barrel of the gun to his forehead. “How does it feel now? How does
it feel to be completely helpless and at the mercy of someone else?”

Needles began pleading and begging. He began
offering her money, spice, gems, anything and everything if she would spare
him. One phrase was repeated time and time again. “Please don’t kill me.”

“I’m not going to kill you but I won’t let you do
to some other girl what you almost did to me.” Jennifer shifted her aim
lower…chest…abdomen and still she went lower until the barrel was hovering
inches over his groin. Even as Needles tried to shift his body and get his
manhood out of the line of fire, Jennifer squeezed the trigger. One round went
through his privates and exploded out the back. Needles howled for all of about
a half a second and curled up into the fetal position before the pain actually
registered to his body and he passed out.

Jennifer tucked the pistol into her belt and
turned to face the bounty hunter. “I think I’ll keep this gun as a token of my
experience.”

DJ nodded. “A Rapier X-5, a good blaster…a bit old
but very reliable. Take care of it and it will serve you well.”

Jennifer nodded and moved over to her partner.
Helping him to his feet, Ryan was still groggy but able to kind of walk. She
paused, looked back at the two hunters and flashed them her award winning
smile. “Words cannot express my gratitude for what you have done here but it’s
all I have to offer.”

Jax nodded his head and mimicked the action of
tipping a non-existent hat. “Our pleasure ma’am.”

Jennifer smiled once more and disappeared into the
night.

Jax watched them leave before turning back to his
partner. “She’s wrong, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Her words do mean a lot. I’ve never done what
needed to be done just for that purpose. It feels good.”

“Yes it does, doesn’t it.”

Jax looked down at the corpses all around them.
“What a mess!”

“Yep. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

“Does this happen a lot around you?”

“Nope but if we live through this, I’ll introduce
you to a friend of mine. Where ever he goes, trouble follows and soon after
that the bodies begin to pile up.”

“Sounds like an interesting friend.”

“He’s the best.”

Jax nodded. “Okay, what’s next?”

DJ looked at the corpse of the geometrid and back
at the black skimmer and an idea began to form. “Here what we’re going to do…”

Chapter 13

Absolem sat in his throne room and puffed on his
qalyan.

His throne room was actually nothing more than a
dilapidated warehouse nearby the closed down Titan City starport. It really
didn’t matter to Absolem what the building once was. Now it was his abode and
it suited his needs. The crime lord wasn’t happy at this very moment. Someone
had stolen his supply of his favorite spice and no one in his organization
would own up to it or to their failures. It was the latter which made him the
maddest. Everyone makes mistakes and no one is above being robbed, as a master
criminal he knew this better than most. But to think that no one would admit
their short comings was unacceptable.

Since he was out of spice, he was smoking the
dredges of his waterpipe.  He’d had a slave drain the sacred water slowly
through paper to catch the residue of the spice and then refilled. Once the
paper was dried, it was ground up and placed in the fire bowl of the qalyan. It
didn’t nearly have the flavor or effect of the spice but it was better than
nothing. And to top all of that, he was listening to a message from a Cartel
brother with potentially bad news for the both of them. Evidently, the bounty
hunter they had contracted for a job in Confederate space was an imposter. The
real Red Falcon was on his way to meet him now.

All and all, it was not a good day to run out of
spice.

Absolem finished reading the report and looked
back at the monitor. “Are you sure the Red Falcon which is on his way to meet
me is the real one and not the imposter?”