RavensDagger

  Chapter Thirty-Orust

  Trust was a two-way street.

  There weren't streets in space.

  Ivil was a little worried that her easy dismissal of Aurora's question about her own personal power would create something of a rift between them. It wasn't a well-pyed move, and she was silently chastising herself for it.

  Most of the time, on the rare occasion where she made a mistake, she had the option to cover it up by violently separating anyone who noticed it into their stituent atoms. That wasn't an option she wanted to take here, so she had to live with the sequences of her own failure.

  It was frustrating.

  Ivil pushed ahead, leading the other three through the corridor and to its end where Twenty-Six checked on the sole for the bulkhead. "It's good," she said.

  They had slowly repressurized the corridor they were in to the same level as the rest of the station. From here on, as long as they didn't poke holes through the walls, they'd be just fine. Ivil pressed a hand against the bulkhead. It was entirely for show. "There's going to be resistan the other side," she said.

  Missy tucked her purloined shotgun against her shoulder. "How many?"

  "I'll take them," Ivil said. "Just stay out of the line of sight. Twenty-Six, open the door whenever you're ready."

  The others moved to the side, though Ivil noticed Missy switg the gun from one shoulder to another and aiming it down into the doorway despite her warning.

  The bulkhead kxon honked a warning, then the door rumbled open.

  Ivil raised a hand, stopping a few slugs in midair as they raced towards them.

  The room over was a small spa two levels, with several corridors eg into it and a few doors leading out. The middle of the space had a terminal, and a table had been flipped onto its side to provide visual cover for a team of pirates in very light armour.

  A police force? They weren't armed or equipped for b as, and as Ivil batted aside the trailing wires of a taser, she found that they weren't armed for anything serious either. Even the shotgun shells were getin packs, desigo deform on impact to spread their kiiergy on a wide area without peily the kind of ons used on belligerents in a pce like this.

  After takiime sing things, and allowing Missy to rather foolishly peek her head out and take a shot at the temporary barricade the pirates had put up, Ivil reached out and snapped some necks.

  There was a great and sudden oise as a half-dozen women were killed in the same sed.

  The room went silent, at least until Twenty-Six started to lean in to look. "Is it safe?"

  "A moment," Ivil replied. She frowhen tugged a body closer. It floated up and over the barricade, then towards them. Her seold her that there was something nht about...

  An explosion rocked the entranceway, quickly blocked by a shield of Ivil's making.

  Small rounded pellets bounced across the entrahumping hard against the grated floor with enough force to snap some of the metal fittings, but not nearly enough to pee through.

  "What was that?" Aurora asked.

  "A trap," Ivil said. The body she'd pulled forwards was covered in small holes across their suit, the skih fyed and cut. "You'll see that sort of thing in some ships. They're anti-b ons."

  "Some high-sec ships will have that kind of thing," Missy said. "If you don't have the right IFF on, they go off."

  Ivil g her, but didn't ent. That was true, but most of the ships that took such a high degree of precaution were exactly the kind of vessels that civilians had no business being in, or sometimes knowing about.

  Martian warships had a few anti-b devices. They only cost twice as much as a greo manufacture, and in the few cases where a Martian ship was boarded during the st inter-system war, they had proved their worth.

  "Should be clear," Ivil said as she stepped in. She gnced up, then around, searg for cameras. Wheiced one, she crushed its interior. "Let's move quick."

  "Where are we moving to, exactly?" Aurora asked.

  "I think the tre of the station," Twenty-Six said. She very gingerly kicked off the ground and floated towards one of the corpses, then with one foot hooked on a rail, she came to a geop o a body. Twenty-Six pried a gun free and looked it over before looping the sling over her shoulder.

  "Do you know how to use that?" Ivil asked.

  "'t be harder than some power tools," Twenty-Six said. She grabbed a pair of magazines from the pirate's body and slipped them into her toolbelt.

  "Keep your finger off the trigger," Missy warned. "This isn't the pce to be learning how to use a gun. How about you?" The st was aimed at Aurora, who blinked.

  "Oh. No thank you," she said. "Actually, one of the few advantages of being from Phobos is the ck of obligatory service time. I do know how to use a firearm, but nothing quite so big."

  Missy slipped over to the pirates, then tugged a small handgun free from a belt holster, she pushed it towards Aurora, who caught it out of the air. "Take one anyway. Miss-C-Csser here is tough, but she might not be there the eime. You might want it."

  Ivil blinked. C-csser? She was almost insulted by the insinuation. Though she supposed that with how hard she ulling her punches, she was dispying about the level of power that could be expected from someoweeen and one-hundred core level.

  "Is everyone ready to move on?" she asked.

  Whe enough nods, Ivil took off towards one of the upper corridors. It actually forced her to kick off the ground and allow the ck of gravity to carry her upwards. This jun split off in multiple dires, and if she had done enough breaking the cameras, then from this point on, the pirates would have a hard time trag them.

  Which, she imagined, wouldn't be ideal for the pirate's peaind.

  "Is that an arm?" Twenty-Six asked.

  There was a faint wailing in the distance. A bring arm whose sound was carried through the metallic superstructure of the station. "Sounds like it," Missy said.

  "Is that because of us?" Aurora asked as she pulled herself along with some handrails. She was holding the pistol in her free hand, rather awkwardly, but not poiowards anyone.

  "If I had to guess, yeah," Missy replied. "Pirates like this won't be used to frontal attacks, but they will be ready for it. At least a little. They live by the sword, they think violently, which means that they'll want their home secured as well."

  "You know a fair bit about pirates," Ivil ented.

  "Just enough to piss them off," Missy muttered. "Look, they'll be mounting some resistaroance. A lot more than you'd expect from any civilians, but the moment they break, it'll get ugly."

  "Ugly how?" Aurora asked.

  "Ugly in the sehat they're not soldiers. They don't have allegiao a try or people. They're in this for themselves. These pirates might have started off with a bit more of an ideological bent, but you bet your st dolr that they've gone fully piratical. They probably only pay lip service to their traditions at this point because it gives them an edge when dealing with others. A rep."

  "It'll be every pirate for themselves," Twenty-Six said.

  "Something like that," Missy replied. "Might have bosses that rally people. That'll be dangerous, because they'll have people with more than just one spoon-bending core at their disposal. And bigger guns. And ships. If they decide that's enough, they could start shooting up the station."

  "We won't let it e to that," Ivil said. They reached the interse, and Ivil crushed the cameras she noticed before pointing to a sole against one wall. "Twenty-Six, you break into that? We need a map."

  "Let me see," Twenty-Six replied. She floated over to the wall-mounted puter and tapped on its s. It didn't take long that she had a basic map up. "Here you go!"

  "Good job," Ivil said as she walked over. The map was simple, with a few ses coloured in, and a few shops marked out. She wasirely surprised to discover that there was a shopping arm to the statioo the habitatioion. That wasn't a for the moment. "Here," she said, stabbing a fi a spot on the map.

  "That's the tral station," Missy said. "The biggest damned part of this pce."

  "And it's where we'll likely find what we're looking for. The mea, biggest ship we steal."

  ***

  RavensDagger

  Hmm.Okay, so hindsight aing is letting me know that this ar the pirate station is about 2 chapters lohan it o be. Which sucks. I'm not gone ae it, especially seeing as how we're still posting chapters really quickly. Maybe wheually get around to preparing Ivil Antagonist for wider publication, I'll chop some bits out. Oh well!~ Some of my stories are on TopWebFi!-amon Bun-Stray Cat Strut-Lever A-Dead Tired-Heart of Dorkness-SpeddonVoting makes Broccoli smile!

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