"Eisen! It's ready!"
A frantic call over the ship's intercom beckoning the small, blue, wheeled, robot (with a built in Friendly Face Display -FFD- for ease of emotional communication) to finally come to see what Seraph had been so excited about. Deep in Eisen's programming, there was a pang of hesitation, but curiosity smothered it out.
Seraph's queltaqore, The Obelisk, is a small, blocky, spacecraft named after its Queltaqore-Heimdall Repulsion System. The craft isn't very large but did have two, small, private rooms and a common area with a small kitchen. Qasmarquada crystal light strips along the walls illuminate the interior with a soft diffused warm white light. Eisen found it cozy. The two rooms were separated by the common area, allowing for quite a bit of privacy were one to need it. Eisen wheeled on down through to Seraph's door. As he was preparing to knock, the door slides open.
Darkness.
A darkness so powerful it could rival that of the void itself. That is, until a screen clicks on.
The absolute mess of the room is revealed in the light.
Tools, wires and scrap littered the ground, spiralling toward the centre of her room, where Seraph, a thirty-two year old bounty hunter, sat excited and impatient. Her rust coloured skin, hair and eyes now pale in the light of the activated display, wild eyed with a manic grin upon her face complemented by rosacea like facial scaring and a the remnants of a gash from her nose down to her neck. Her black top and undergarments, frayed and torn, loose on her body, revealed stains of sweat and oil and scratches from her face down her legs. The right side of her body, mechanical from shoulder to hip, clad in a matte chrome. The flesh connecting to the prosthetic is dark and swollen, probably irritated from the sweat, but much to Eisen’s surprise, her mechanical arm appeared to be clean.
She's finally lost it...
Eisen lets out a frustrated, mechanical sigh.
Seraph begins to let out a low, maniacal, giggle.
"I've been waiting for you."
The words came out slow and breathy. It sent chills deep within Eisen's circuits. She had locked herself in her room for days, explicitly telling Eisen not to bother her until she called for him. At this moment, with the horrors that lay in front of him, he began to think that maybe, just maybe, he should have checked on her.
"Come in already.” She beckoned him forward with her hand, palm down, waving it toward her.
The slowness of her speech had him worried of what he was in store for. Her manic states always left him exhausted and she always finds ways to reach new highs.
He realizes that his stalling is only going to make her more and more impatient, so he wheels himself throughout the threshold.
Slam!
The door behind him closes, leaving him in the endless darkness with a bright screen and his scary best friend.
Anxiety begins to fill the robot's mind.
"So... What is the surprise..?" Eisen sheepishly tries to break the tension, a smile upon his FFD. Since he had come in, Seraph's eyes had been glued to him, so perhaps she was waiting for him to speak.
She was.
Her eyes light up with a revived energy.
Eisen, was dumbfounded, his FFD is simply an exclaimation mark.
Interfering with Royal Fleet signals in any way was a serious crime, and copying transmissions, especially those of sensitive natures could result in permanent confinement. Seraph had done dumb things in the past but to Eisen, this was about as stupid as it got.
"How!? aren't those messages encrypted? What if you get caught? And from Serrano?"
Seraph brushed off his concerns with a wave of her hand and a light chuckle.
"It doesn't matter." She leans forward and reaches toward a set of controls just under the screen.
Eisen, about to protest her dismissal of the situation, instead just acquiesced to the raw mania that is Seraph. Not that she would heed his concern.
"So anyway, it's a distress call, and, well, I'll just show you. It's our meal ticket for sure."
Her voice is breathy, monotone and still somehow the excitement is palpable. Eisen watches as she presses play and the transmission begins.
Static and white noise. The transmission crackles as if something is trying its best to work its way through. The cracking becomes rhythmic, like voices speaking, but other sounds were forming as well. But it was the screaming that brought the whole video to clarity.
A frantic looking man, covered in blood, staring into the wide angle lens of the ComTran. His face is of of pure terror, accented by the sounds of laser fire in the background, muffled behind some thick door. Wet sounds of bodies being sliced apart can be heard far off, but here it seems isolated; Just him and his men manning the door.
"This is shipper number 54678332, Geirela Bell, of the Djerba to Earth shipping route. We were carrying royal freight for the Emperor, but we're now under attack by pirates!"
“We were ambushed as we exited the Space Gate! They've been slaughtering our men! We're backed into a corner, but we're holding as long as we can! I'm sending this signal on all Royal channels in hopes of immediate assistance!"
A slight buzz and a fainter tinnier voice breaks in.
“Fleet Admiral Serrano here, We read you loud and clear Mr. Bell. A Royal Corps Fighter Fleet is headed to your coordinates. Arrival is expected to be roughly 6 Earth minutes, Can you hold out?"
A look of surprise and faint relief comes over Bell's face.
"Serrano? Thank Haræ! And yes... I think we can hold them off."
Bell catches his breath. He's clearly been through a lot. But the sounds of chaos draw closer, and his men are shaking where they stand.
"Now Mr. Bell, do you have any ID on the pirates?"
Bell thinks for a moment. The chaos in the background continues to grow.
"I know I've seen him before. He's got enhancements."
"Enhancements?" Serrano's words come out with an air of concern. “Could you please describe them to the best of your abilities.”
"He had what looked like... rabbit ears…? coming out of his head."
"Shit!" Serrano sounded panicked.
"W-what's wrong!?" Bell is now on edge. But it's too late. The blast door had been reached, and something large had just pounded against it. Bell's head shoots toward the door.
"Get out of there! Find a way out!" Serrano screams into the ComTran.
The door explodes open, filling the room with smoke and fire, disrupting the signal. Bell and his crew begin firing laser rifles at the smoke screaming words only scrambled by the broken signal and the chaos. A blade shrouded in smoke and static rips through Bell's men effortlessly as more of the room is obscured in smoke. Bell can be heard screaming, firing his blaster, until suddenly, a gut wrenching wet sound ends all life from Bell.
The smoke begins to clear as the form of a man in with rabbit ears begins to take shape. The video barely able to hold itself together as if the static would retake it at any moment. The man stands amidst the bodies of Bell and his remaining crew, alone. This single man had caused this carnage.
The man takes in a deep breath before erupting a powerful laugh.
Seraph pauses the feed just as the man lurches himself back in a hearty maniacal roar of laughter, searing this most terrifying moment in Eisen's electric brain.
Eisen can feel this man's presence through the screen. He had seen just how ruthless he is, and somehow, Seraph expects to take him out?
Oh no. Thought Eisen.
"Yep yep!" Seraph exclaims as she thrusts on the lights in her room.
Suddenly the extent of the mess is revealed. Busted scrap exploding out of the spiral up the very walls of her chamber. Eisen, who in a previous life was a maid droid, had the sudden urge to clean up the mess. That feeling however passes as he realizes just how bad this situation is, because Eisen knew who that man was. Eisen had access to the Royal Neural Network, an open galactic wide network, and had seen his bounty before. It was-
"Brown Bunny Jude!?" Eisen yelps, his shell panels creaking in a way that simulated shaking in fear.
The name however has no effect on Seraph, so Eisen attempts to talk some sense into her.
"But Brown Bunny Jude is one of the most notorious pirates throughout eastern space!"
Seraph's grin just widens.
"Oh, I know. But up until now we've been catching small fries and I'm gettin' mighty bored!"
How could she be so dense?
"Yeah but this is way more than a step up!" Eisen's FFD lights up into a complete display. A set of different pirate faces begin to appear. Bounties in Fig(ℱ) hover above their portraits.
"Our last targets hardly qualified as even a blip on the Royal Corps radar, let alone for a Threat Rank, and clearly not Titled!" Eisen is trying.
Seraph stares right through Eisen.
Eisen beams out a 3D holographic bust of an odd looking man with half a robotic face to get her attention.
"This is our last catch, Mauve Rogue aka Vientes Cascabel! He was worth ℱ3,000, and he gave us quite a lot of difficulty!"
Seraph scoffed, shooting a glare Eisen.
"The only reason he gave us any difficulty at all is because he stole the Beam Canon from our ship." Bitterness hangs in her voice.
"The point is that Brown Bunny Jude has a Threat Rank of X1, a rank only held by 5 pirates, and a Title, Pirate Duke. He's eluded the Royal Corps for 20 years, and his bounty-"
"Eisen, don't you think I know all of this already?"
Eisen knows she's right. There isn't much she doesn't know, aside from of course when to call it quits.
"Eisen, this is our chance at more than just a decent meal, this is our chance at being Galaxy-wide renowned bounty hunters!" Her eyes seem to sparkle like binary suns as she spreads her arms and looks upon her non-existent crowd of loyal followers.
"I'm pretty sure we're already renowned as a nuisance" quipped Eisen.
"Oh come on, it's our shot at ℱ300,000! Think of the potential upgrades both of us could enjoy!"
A fantasy of new outer plating and a memory upgrade begins to grow inside Eisen's mind, before snapping quickly back to reality.
He knows the real reason why she's so insistent. He knows why she's so impatient.
"Seraph! This isn't some shortcut to Red Gr-" Eisen stops as Seraph loudly slams her metal fist into the panel flooring.
A pause.
The hum of the ship and electronics within the room become an unbearable orchestra.
Seraph takes a deep breath, snapping Eisen back to the now.
Realizing that there is nothing that he can say to sway her he lets out a long mechanical groan, before looking her in the eyes, his normal face back where the display was.
"Fine.. what's your plan."
"My sources tell me that he likes to hang out at the Gastium, you know that fancy alien restaurant on Titan. huh... Always wanted to go there, never could afford it... I wonder if they'll give me a free meal for capturing him. I mean three-hundered thousand fig is a hell of a lot, but still..."
"FOCUS!" shouts Eisen.
"Fine, yeesh!" Seraph gives a look like a wounded dog before continuing.
"So yeah, He'll be at the Gastium in a post raid celebration, and from what I understand, since he likes to get his hands dirty, his raider posse aren't very much of a threat both in strength and number."
"So how do you plan to get to him?"
"Simple! I've got an infiltration plan!"
Eisen lets out a long, pained, mechanical groan.
Why do I still travel with you again?
"So what do you say Eisen? Let's bag ourselves a Pirate Duke!"
Eisen hesitates but ultimately decides that it wouldn't be fun without a little danger, not that he'd let her know that aspect of himself.
"Fine... we'll go after him, but-"
"Woo hoo! Gastium here we come!"
Seraph grabs Eisen and drags him from her room, through the common area and up to the pilot's bay, before strapping him in and landing herself at the controls. She pulls a lever which activates the ships main thrusters.
A mighty grin upon her face as she preps the ship for war before shouting at the top of her lungs. "Time to set sail for Titan!"
She presses the warp button.
The Queltaqore-Heimdall Repulsion System charges up before reaching peak and finally firing off. A vibrant blue, electric field, begins to warp the visual fabric of space. The Obelisk begins to bob, as if on a choppy sea, before dipping, distorting space, like water.
The torrent of distorted space begins to wrap itself around the ship, as the ship appears to sink into a spherical pool of light, formed from the distorted light of stars behind them, the brightness building to a peak.
A final flash, rapidly returns the affected space to normal, however no trace of The Pharaoh remains in this sector of space.
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