Nef Anyo's Story

As the voice an image of GEHENNA flickered away into darkness, Nef smiled to himself. This whole situation simply reeked of profit.

He checked his watch and then rose from his seat within a dingy apartment and headed to the fridge a few paces away, which, to his dismay, was empty again. But no matter; it was time to leave anyways.

---

A few buildings away, Daedalus was tinkering in his workshop, and when he finally finished, he inspected his work: a modified SPADISDEV Spaceship Disassembly Device, with a modified external energy core and significantly increased plasma injection. The thing could cut the hull plating of a medium-class cruiser like a hot knife through butter. Not bad for its bulk.

And then, GEHENNA transmitted his signal, and Daedalus knew: a friend would be requiring the modified SPADISDEV.

---

Aboard the Liset, Durandal slept, his unconscious systems monitoring all of the ship's systems while his intelligence module slept.

Until GEHENNA awoke him.

A curious manifestation; one that, if he knew them correctly, Durandal knew his owners would be hunting after. He would simply have to wait until they arrived at the orbital docking station to collect the ship and be on their way.

Clockwork looks up slowly, scanning Byatis' entire size. "....You are one huge......thing.", he proclaims, unable to find better ways to express himself at the moment. He feels very strange...incapable of figuring out Byatis' genetic structure. That's no Beastmen....and it's too organic to be a synthetic...and he's definitely not human. Clockwork looks more human than he is, and he has pointy chin. There is only one word to describe him.....abomination.

Clockwork turns to Keeton, listening to him speak. "That seems like an agreeable course of action." He doesn't like what he's hearing above....


------

Above, in the libraries. The Dark S1de thugs run around, wearing casual leather jackets and styling their hair like greasers from a world and a time long gone. They are aware that they have a group of aggressors incoming, and are prepared to defend their orbital elevator. Carrying around looted and outdated Galactic War era rifles, pistols, and vibro knives, they should just be mere cannon fodders for the four intruders.

On a control room overlooking the library, through a bulletproof window, a woman stands, with her hands on a large control panel, grimacing. At first, she appears to be a human with long black hair, blue, dull-looking eyes, and a simple light blue cardigan with a long, dark blue skirt. On closer inspection, her glowing eyes and the tentacles on the side of her head marks her as an Ishkavi using a human host.

One of the Dark S1de thugs approach her. "Megahertz! We've got intruders! They took out many of our men already! What should we do?!"

Megahertz narrows her eyes, and poutily replies, in a deep, nasally, oddly mature and highly expressive voice. "Geeze, this is what happens when nobody can keep their mouth shut. This is supposed to be a secret Orbital Elevator. Seeee-cret. Y'know? As in, only WE should know. Damn it."

The Dark S1de thug blinks twice, unsure of what to say.

She lets out a long, exaggerated sigh. "I'll break out the museum pieces, while you guys hold them off. Gimme a minute. Nobody's stealin' MY orbital elevator!", she says, and punches the control panel. The Dark S1de thug nods, and runs away to join his comrades. A loud alarm begins blaring in the library, audible even in the sewers.


-------

Meanwhile, Nef's apartment. As he prepares himself to leave, a knocking can he heard outside his door. It's only been five minutes or so since GEHENNA did his transmission. Who in the world could it be?

Hearing the knock on his door immediately made Nef's blood run cold. He rarely recieved visitors.

Slowly yet decisively, he walked over to the front door of his apartment, unfortunately lacking a peephole, and opened it, staring out.

Standing in the doorway was Daedalus.

Nef knew him well; an old friend who he had encountered while hunting after some forgotten criminal's son that a rival gang wanted dead for whatever reason. Daedalus had been the gang's engineer and had provided Nef with the equipment, and the two had made some conversation before and after Nef actually hunted the kid. In time, Nef had to leave, but not before telling Daedalus to contact him should he find a good score; he was also getting interested in the bounty hunting business and needed a partner. Nef himself already had DURANDAL-1707, his stealth ship's AI control system, but another hand was always appreciated.

And now, Daedalus was holding the mightiest of all weapons Nef had ever seen.

"Nef, I have a proposition for our first little hunt."

(OH GOD I'm so sorry I didn't know I was so far behind jesus christ you guys work fast)

(Time for super-godmod because if not then I'll never be able to catch up)

Hours had passed since Daedalus and Nef had had their reunion, and now they stood in the rain together, waiting, Nef with his new favourite weapon in hand.

"You're sure it's coming?" Daedalus asked, concern in his voice. He knew they had already missed the first flight out by far, but Nef assured him he had a backup plan, even after the slow journey up to the Upper City.

"Yes. I've sent override codes to the Liset, letting it undock and track us."

Daedalus nodded and the two turned their eyes to the sky once again, until finally, a shimmer interrupted their thoughts. The shimmer grew closer and closer, until the low humming of stealth engines could be heard. The shimmer dissapeared, replaced by a ship.



The ship, still hovering, unfolded a ramp in the back, and Nef waved for Daedalus to board it as he stepped onto the ramp and trudged into the ship. Daedalus soon followed suit, and as he did, the ramp closed up behind him, and the ship flew up into the sky, dissapearing again into a shimmer.

Nef's ship easily caught up with the Realta Nua. The ship is quite fast for its size....but it's still....massive. After they exit Nebulon's orbit, they receive an email from a "Boris Kivorisch Drakov";

Greetings, Crew of the Cephalon

My name is Boris Kivorisch Drakov, of Drakov
industries. I am interested in hiring your services.
I have quite deep pockets and vast resources,
and I would be more than willing to compensate
you handsomely for your troubles. I need your help
in capturing GEHENNA, if you are interested, we can
negotiate more at the ship I'm currently traveling with,
the Realta Nua.

Until then,
Boris Kivorisch Drakov


------

"An ice elemental and a beastwoman, you say? I think I know who you mean...last I saw, they're arguing in the marketplace.", a random civilian answered Gelon's question, with a hesitant and subdued tone.

Sure enough...once he got to the marketplace, he saw them; a tall, lumbering ice elemental looking like a knight covered in crystalline spikes, facing down a slightly shorter, but quite statuesque beastwoman with orange, red, and black armor, holding a cat-like biker helmet under her left arm. Gelon can see the calm, yet deathly glare in her eyes, matching the intensity of the ice elemental's glowing red eye. Her bleached blonde hair is messily draped over her tanned skin.

"Say that again! I dare ya, I DOUBLE dare ya!", the ice elemental roared out. His voice brash, raspy, but loud.
The Beastwoman does not reply, merely keeping her intense glare. They've attracted a crowd of onlookers. It looks like they're going to break into a fight....


-----

Clockwork turned to his left, surprised at Byatis' nervousness.....the eldritch rogue was so intimidating and predatory in the lower cities....and yet now, in such a big place, he seems...fearful. However, he realized that even though Byatis is a powerful eldritch abomination and a skilled fighter, he is neither infallible nor invincible.

He then turned to his right, equally surprised by Sentinel's sudden display of anger as he crushed the ticket. This, combined with his act of mercy towards Megahertz, relieved him quite a bit, as he can see for sure now that Sentinel is no mere killer robot, but a synthetic being with feelings...just like Clockwork himself.

Suddenly, he reached out, feeling the air to grab at Byatis' shoulder, while also grabbing the plugged Sentinel's shoulder, pulling them closer. "Hey, now...", before putting his arms round their shoulders. "You guys worry too much. We're buddies now...we stick together, eh? ", his tone friendly and jovial, if synthesized, as always.

Sentinel finds that the entrance to the upper class quarters is right behind, and to their left. Besides the hatch they came in, in fact. From the schematics he can dig up, he found that they actually have a private little "house" for the five of them. It seems to be quite a large, two storey house with multiple bedrooms, located in the upper class living quarters alongside several other private houses. Megahertz spared no expenses.

Megahertz widened her eyes, and nearly shrieked as she hopped away from the whining K2. "H-h-h-h-ey now! Calm down!! I had a private vessel, but it was impounded, I had no choice!!....besides, I wanted to enjoy the facilities of this place....", her tone a mix of fear and annoyance...it's rather difficult to discerne which one is stronger. When K2 mentioned they should have left her to die though, the fear won over, and she was silenced.

At first, Clockwork was amused by K2's whining -and the stares of the people from around them- but when he mentioned the broken jolly roger and Megahertz, he became genuinely disturbed, glancing at Megahertz and worrying about her safety. He turned to look at K2 and grabbed the electronic device he threw, looking at it.

"....Right. Enjoy your booze, cap'n.", Clockwork simply said, looking at K2 as he walked away. So far, he seems to be the happiest one of the five, and that makes him feel a little bad. Clutching the device with his left hand, he pumps his right fist, determined to find a way and make his frie-....allies...happy.