RavensDagger

  Chapter Seventy-Seven - Terribly Normal

  The spacer bar wasn't as bad as Ivil might have feared. Certainly it wasn't a top-css establishment, and it could use some minor renovations, but it was mostly and its current patronage seemed rather reserved.

  Teically it was very, very early on Driftwood station. There was a twenty-four hour clock to divide most shifts, and they'd arrive at the station sometime in the early AM. Any rabble-rousers or after-shift partying would be over by the time they arrived.

  Ivil spotted Pixie waiting for them already. The petite woman had picked out a rger table in a back er of the bar and was nursing a drink all on her own. She perked up when she saw Ivil and the girls ing in.

  "Hey, good to see you," she said. "e on, pick a seat!"

  Ivil did just that, sitting across from Pixie in the middle of the table. It was a clever bit of pt. No matter where the others sat, they'd o be oher side of her, ensuring that she had someone on both sides.

  It did leave her back to the entrance, something which she generally disliked as a matter of principle, but it wasn't like she didn't have sehat could be extended beyond herself to s for trouble.

  Aurora adjusted her blouse, then carefully sat on Ivil's right. Twenty-Six spun the chair on her left around and straddled it, arms crossed over its bad a smug grin on full dispy. Ivil suspected that Twenty-Six thought she looked cool.

  "You seem to be in a good mood, Miss Starling," Aurora said.

  Pixie grinned from ear to ear and leaned way forwards. "You bet. Do you know how many of my missions end up seeing any amount of bat?"

  "Aren't you like, a super cool bounty hunter? And your ship is awesome. That kind of thing 't be cheap, so I bet you see a lot," Twenty-Six said.

  Pixie ughed. "Not nearly as much as you might think. Even the most dangerous esissions only see bat oime in ten."

  "And that's enough to make them the most dangerous?" Twenty-Six asked.

  "Yeah. You worked on a ercial ship, right?" Pixie asked her. "How often did you get wayid by pirates or the like?"

  "Uh, i four years? Maybe three times? And twice we just dumped and ran," Twenty-Six said.

  "Right. No pany worth their Oh-Two will try to take dangerous routes. A one-in-ten ce of being attacked is a huge liability, which is why even the most dangerous possible paths are avoided if at all possible. And when they 't be, they hire on escorts like me. Usually not just one or two either, but a small flight of fighters and support ships for longer haul missions. Iy, I get maybe one mission iy where I see any bat. And that bat is usually short and quick. Pirates are just as risk averse as panies."

  "Which is only logical," Aurora said. "They're a business of a sort as well."

  "Exactly. Half the time the moment they see that they're up against someoh teeth, they cut and run." Pixie grinned big. "And I have big teeth."

  She probably thought she looked threatening. Ivil thought she looked like someone who heir cheeks pinched.

  "Anyway, I'm mostly happy because nothis my blood boiling like a good dogfight. And bat pay too. You do remember the cuse in my tract about bat pay, right, Miss Sterlingworth?"

  Aurora nodded demurely. "There's nothing to worry about, you will receive your payment in full," she said. "Phobos does ne on deals. Not when you saved us out there."

  "Oh, speaking of saving us," Twenty-Six said. She tried to lean forwards, but couldn't on at of beied improperly, so she just ended up boung on the spot. "What were you fighting out there?"

  "Those weren't pirates, I tell you that much," Pixie said.

  "You tell so easily?" Ivil asked.

  Pixie nodded. "Pirates e in two fvours most of the time, with very few exceptions. The first are flying around in verted ships. Freighters and tugs and small shuttles verted to be armed and up-armoured. Some are evey det once properly verted. The sed fvour are ships made in and around Ceres. Vessels made by some of the rger pirate sortiums. Those tend to be used by the more professional crews. I suppose the third option is old military gear. Dated cast-me-downs from the st Inter-system war or bought off from military surplus, but those are less on than you'd think nowadays."

  Aurora nodded. "Several treaties have arisen, crag down orade of military goods. I 't imagihem beiirely successful, but it should make it harder to get that kind of equipment with ease."

  "So, if the attackers weren't mere pirates, who were they?" Ivil asked.

  Pixie shrugged. "I've beehe recs. Something... weird went down in that fight. Anyway, I looked at all the footage I had of the ships. I'm not a betting woman, but if I was, I'd put money down ohree being corporate security."

  Twenty-Six blinked. "Oh. There were four ships, right? I remember Evelyn showihem. Uh, three Titanian Pyrrole Mark sixes, or sevens! And a TMCC-6ht?"

  "That's it," Pixie said. "The Pyrroles are pretty damned on for corporate security around here. They're kinda trashy but cheap, aer than oorer pirates sp together. You'll see plenty of them flying patrols around stations."

  "And the TMC is just a modified shuttle-gunship," Twenty-Six said. "Anyone could have that."

  "Yes, but it was well modified," Pixie said. "My ship has good cameras. The job rofessional."

  Aurora hummed. "So, what you're saying is that whomever tried to kill us were professionals?"

  "Ah, that depends on what you mean by that," Pixie said. "Professionals in the sehat they're on a payroll? Then yes. Professional in the sehat they were good. Not so much."

  "Does that help us narroho to get retribution from?" Ivil asked.

  Actually, now that she thought about it, it might make for a fun date. Perhaps not with Twenty-Six or Aurora, uhe retribution was financial in which case the Phobian princess would certainly enjoy it, but with Pixie... it was an idea.

  Pixie shrugged. "You'll need a venn diagram of every corp and moon in the region that afford to hire security like that and who want you dead. All the numbers on the ships were stripped off. No IFF, ns. Which is only to be expected."

  "We won't be able to point to a single anisation, then," Aurora said.

  "Except that now a pany is missing four security ships," Pixie said. "For the bigger corps, that's nothing. For a smaller corp, that's a pretty hefty loss. A few million, at least."

  "Whoa," Twenty-Six said.

  Ivil shrugged, then gnced over to Pepper, catg the quiet young woman's eye. "I'm certain someone could do some digging and discover that. They've left a trail, after all."

  Pepper nodded subtly.

  MINT would be on the case soon enough, then. Which meant... Ivil would have to wait. Once she could pin down those responsible she could go out and stretch her legs a little.

  She listeo Pixie and Auro on for a little bit, until Twenty-Six took over with questions about the actual dogfight, with much gushing over how cool and awesome the Nightshade ixie seemed proud, though Ivil suspected that she was missing the fact that Twenty-Six was more plementary about the fightercraft than about the pilot.

  They ordered some food, and of course some drinks. Pixie had to be plimented for a job well done, after all, and Ivil soon rexed.

  She had been eager to move on, maybe take aep, maybe invite someone on a date, but this? Sitting around, chatting, trading gossip over warm food with plenty of ughter? That wasn't too bad.

  She imagihat ohe dating phase of a retionship was over, there would have to be a much loretch where the focus was on spending quality time together, and this seemed like exactly the kind of thing that would happen. So she allowed herself to luxuriate imosphere, prompted a few questions, and traded banter when appropriate.

  It was very nice, being so abjectly normal.

  Of course, she was also plotting to ruin the lives of the people responsible for that attao matter what happehey had to be made an example of. She found that people, govers and corporations especially, teo take fewer risks if there were clear and pressing examples of what would happen to them if their risk-taking didn't pan out.

  But that would be an issue for ter. For now, drinks and good food aer pany.

  ***

  AnnouNEW FIbsp; Linky Link: https:///fi/94107/queen-violenbsp;She was the world’s greatest assassin. A silent threat, an unknown khe cause of a hundred mysterious deaths, all to feed her cats and pay her rent.

  And then she died.

  The st thing she expected was to be reborn... as a harmless kitten in the hands of a very strange girl. Now tasked with ment the girl is of assassination, Caroline Daniels (Now known as the fearsome Queen Violence Vamuffin) has to figure out how to mother an idiot while weighing as much as half a loaf of soggy bread.

  What to Expect:

  - Cat shenanigans

  - Some found family stuff- Cute things- A cyberpunk dystopia that you wouldn’t want to live in- Levels going up? But it’s a super soft system- Magic?- Pushing things off of high pces- Naps

  Inspired by Ghost iy by my bestest friend Seras, Outrun by my bestest friend Lost Rain, and like 20 other cyberpunk fics that I’m stealing ideas from!

  Btw, I'll be travelling oh of Oct to the 20th of the same month! So... I don't know if I'll be able to write and post while on the move. I might just post one chapter of this that week? Sorry!