The walk home seemed like the longest in Baroth's life. He wasn't used to seeing something like that. Few people knew about his past brothers, and even fewer had projections for them. But sadly, this wasn't the first time this had happened. A few years back, Krag had used a personal projection of Simus to lure Baroth from his ship and onto Starflare. He never thought it would happen again but, as per usual, he was wrong. His mind still reeled over the idea of Marius still being alive. And older, more ancient memories surfaced, reminding him of his past. His obsession. His..failure. But he quickly shook those off and contacted Rex as he neared the safehouse. He needed something to distract himself.
"Rex? Rex, can you hear me?"
"Yes sir. What do you require?"
"Are you almost done with that search?"
"Not quite sir. Do you have an alternate task for me?"
"No, no. Just get done and head back to the ship. I don't want anyone knowing about you just yet. Oh, and be on the alert. Someone may be following you."
"Copy that, sir. I will complete the analysis in approximately Thirty-minutes. When it's complete, i'll send you the report, sir."
"Alright. Just get it done." He finished, cutting the line with Rex and opening a line to Oracle as he entered the safehouse.
"I'm picking up a few sensor nodes in the area. I can't poke around them for too long."
"Good. Someone's watching us. Take note of that, will you?"
"Already did." Oracle said, sighing shortly after. "Are you sure you're ok? I mean...what happened back there.."
"It's nothing. I'll be fine. You just need to-"
"Are you sure? If there's something wrong, you can tell me. You know that, right?"
"Look, right now i need Oracle, not some damn therapist. Now, run a scan over the area and report whatever you find without being detected. I don't need you to be found. Ok?"
She sighed quietly and nodded. "Alright. On it." She said, fading off his visor.
Baroth sighed and looked back at the fading day of Eregin. There was much work to be done, and even more blood bound to be shed. Whoever this Ataro fellow was, she must be stupid or important to be worth fifty-million credits. But questions raised in his mind, questions that outran the reward credits. Who was she really? Why was she worth fifty million credits? What did she do? Steal the emperor's apple? Trip his son? Something told Baroth there was something else deeper behind her. But no. All that mattered was the money. he could give a damn less about the whys and whats. Like everybody else, he was in it for the money. Nothing else.
Arriving at the second floor of the safehouse, Baroth nearly ran smack into Jessica and Derek. Stopping in his tracks, he carefully snuck around behind her while she talked with Derek, and into his room. The door closed behind him with a silent click, locking. Finally alone. He raised a line with Oracle.
"Oracle, set a video code wrap on the room. See if that blocks the sensors."
"Ok, gimme a second."
There was a short silence.
"Gah! Damn it! No, i cant. What ever those sensors are powered on is too strong. Wait....wait wait wait. let me try something else."
Another short pause.
"There we go! I stacked up the VCWs so the sensor would bounce off of them. Basically, this room will look like a blur to whoever is watching those cameras. Though, i doubt it'll take them long to notice. That it? Or did you need something else?"
"No, that's it. Go ahead and continue on your scans. Oh, and while you;re at it, use the footage from my helmet to see that..thing's face. Cross-reference it with purchases, police records, and news stories. Let me know what you find."
"Alright, see you in an hour or so." She said, fading from his screen and entering the digital world without a trace.
Baroth looked around the small room again before reaching his hands up, grabbing the base of his helmet, and twisting his hands to the left, earning a light hiss of air. He pulled up slightly, raising his helmet from his head to reveal his ragged short beard and shaved head. He set his helmet on the bed beside him and stood, pulling a chip from the fourth slot in his helmet and holding it out infront of himself, pressing down on it. A set of holographic, light blue figures appeared side by side, motionless. From left to right, Simus stood by Marius, Marius by Baroth, Baroth by Hale, and Hale by Marek, who looked off somewhere else. Baroth studied the picture intently and closely, looking over everyone. He brought his hand up to his face, as he let the holigram fizz away. He was surprised to feel his hand come away wet. He sighed, putting the chip back in it's slot as he sat back down.
"Forgive me, Simus." He mumbled, before hearing a knock on his door. He pulled a V8 from his right thigh in one swift motion, aiming at the door. He spoke aloud. "Who is it?"
"It's Jessica. Open the damn door." She transmitted through the door. Baroth sighed and slapped his V8 back on his thigh, standing and walking over to the door as it slid open. He pulled Jessica in and closed the door. She sat on the bead and Baroth leaned on the wall, looking away from her slightly.
"What do you want, kid?"
.......
Meanwhile, across the market from safe house, on one of the makeshift buildings, Binsk stood . He watched the bounty hunter return back to a large house door, looking back for a few moments before heading inside. He grinned to himself as the doors slid closed with a faint hiss. Whoever this 'Baroth' guy was, he was breaking. Bnsk could almost feel it. It was just a matter of testing him. Breaking him. But Baroth wasn't his concern, for the most part. He just needed to deliver the information he collected to whoever this 'Kraguul' contact was. He raised a manual line to the mysterious link and spoke. "Yea, this is Binsk. He's active on Eregin."
There was a pause. Then the computer-generated voice replied to him.
"General Kraguul requests to see you in person."
"And why is this?"
"He wishes to see you for himself. He says there maybe more to this than you so believe. He also says he has some valuable information for you. Do you accept his offer?"
Binsk looked down at the crowd endlessly, contemplating over the offer. He barely knew the man, or whatever he was. But on the other hand, he was the only lead Binsk had on his brother's death. So, sliding on his helmet and beginning his descent towards the hanger bay, he replied.
"Alright. I need the coordinates."
"We are located in Sector 5 of the Eregin flight space. The ship should not be hard to find, i assure you."
"Alright, i'll be there within the next fifteen minutes."
A long walk and flight later, Binsk sat in the cockpit of Fury, staring face to face with a massive Warship that far over towered his own ship. The engines themselves were big enough to stuff entire moons in, let alone the rest of the monstrosity. He reminded himself to keep his temper and tone low. As expected, the Docking General invaded the comm system and asked for the name and destination of his ship.
"Unidentified spacecraft, this is Warship 'Titan'. State your ship's name and destination or we will use lethal force."
"Titan, this is Attack Ship 'Fury'. I am expected by General Kraguul of your ship. Requesting permission to dock, over."
Silence and slight static filled the comms for a few minutes before the robotic voice returned.
"Roget that, Fury. Permission to dock is granted. One of the Captain's droids will be there to assist and escort you to the General. See you soon."
Increasing the Fury's altitude above Titan, Binsk spotted the large, 1 mile square highlighted with Crimson. He carefully and slowly lowered down to it, passing the light red shield that housed the pad itself. pulling off the seatbelt straps to his swivel pilot's chair and stood, sliding on his helmet and taking the left corridor out of the cockpit. Opening the hatch door and walking down the ramp, Binsk was surprised to find that he wasn't floating off the ground. An Artificial Gravity alert popped up on the right hand corner of his visor, just as his radar showed a robotic life form approaching from the bridge. The droid stopped a few feet short of Binsk and bowed respectively, speaking in a surprisingly human tone.
"AI Droid 'Hyperion' at your service. It is requested by Captain and General Kraguul that i escort you to his quarters for a debriefing."
"Debriefing? He said he just wanted to see me and tell me something. He never said anything about a fluffing mission."
"It is reported you accepted his offer to come here, correct?"
"Well, yea.."
"Then follow me." The droid finished, smoothly turning on his heel and swiftly walking the long space of the bridge connecting the landing pad to the ship.
"God damn droids.." Binsk huffed in irritation, jogging to catch up with the Droid as he neared the entrance to the ship.
The massive doors slid open to reveal a large wall of red shielding that represented the airlock. He and Hyperion entered through the shielding and entered the ship itself. He glanced about the massive, cavernous room filled with elevators, catwalks, other droids, corridors, and doorways. There were also to very large cylinders that represented the two lifts to the different level of the ship. He had little time to analyze the room, however, as Hyperion headed for the middle lift. A tall cylinder connected to the high ceiling and the floor, the slanted door sliding open as they approached it, walking into the wide circle shaped space as the door closed behind them. Hyperion tapped a few small squares on a keypad by the door and lift gave a light sound of movement, taking them to the Captain's level. On the way up, Hyperion contacted somebody.
"Yea, this is Hyperion. Wake him."
A few minutes later, Binsk and Hyperion walked through the automatic doors to the Captain's Room. The room was as big as an arena in width and length, and at the front, a small staircase led to a black metal throne/commanding chair. And to the left of that, a hyper sleep chamber was open with a little bit of smoke leaking out. And finally, from the right corner of the room, what looked like a muscular orc with braided and weaved hair walked forward, popping his knuckles and opening his arms as Binsk approached.
"And so the past Druglord approaches..."
"How the hell do you know about-"
"It's been awhile, Binsk. A long, suffocated while. We need to make up for lost time, hm? But first, a little scrap of what you want to hear."
"Which is?"
"Your brother's death, of course."
Binsk' eyes widened as he stepped towards Kraguul. "Tell me what you know."
"In time, Binsk. But first, a little test, hm?"
"A test for what?"
"To see what you can do and if i can trust you, of course." He said, nodding to the door behind Binsk. Binsk turned to see at least fifteen droids armed with rifles approaching. He sighed and popped his neck, walking towards the crowd slowly.
"Son of bitch."
A few things. First, yes, i will start uncensoring the cuss words from now on. Second, yes, Kraguul has his own Warship. Third, i'm sorry for the lack of detail. I'm on a tight schedule at the moment but i'll be sure to edit it in later.
Titan, Kraguul's Warship.
General Risar Kraguul. Yes, the same General from Fading Hope. Think of his voice as Hades, from God Of War 3. Binsk' voice would be a lighter and less grizzled version of that.
