It's your face's fault
25 Mar 2024Lambast Mercy
A Fer-De-Lance dropped in, instantly popping a heat sink to stay off any watcher's scope. The yellow light from Inara’s star lit the worn grey paint of the ship's name and registry against its scarred black paintwork. It slowly left the influence of the star so as not to heat up too much while checking any returns the pilot saw on her own scope. “Ok Lamb, it’s safe to drop in. No ships nearby we can’t deal with”
A flash behind her let Kaisla know Lamb had arrived in the system. Now her ship, Dracul, was far enough from the star, she quit supercruise and waited for her adoptive sister to catch up. Soon, another FDL approached slowly, drifting closer bringing the ship's cockpit to cockpit. Golden light glinted off super polished chrome and satin-black paint. The name Angry Badger stood out proudly in brilliant white.
“Jeez Lamb, I said low profile” said Kai looking up at her sister with a friendly wave “You know these guys don’t like Imps right? I mean, really don't like Imps”
“I had all the Imperial decals removed and re-registered the Badger in an independent system. They may dislike imperials here, but I’m sure they still know how to take pride in their ride, do you not think darling?”
Kaisla looked at the Angry Badger. Its custom body work wasn't her style, but it had style, just like Lambast.
“Lamb, you're going to stick out like a saw thumb. I hope you got a change of clothes. We can’t go for a face to face with you looking like the emperor’s personal chauffeur. It is good to see you again, by the way”
“I too am delighted to be in your company Kai” answered Lamb with genuine warmth, by her standards. She was still as cold as dead flesh, but that was a step up from frosty. “You are looking .. well, a little thin, but I like your new hair”
Kai tried to straighten out her clothes and push the floating cups and wrappers out of view. Lamb always made her feel like a total mess, (that she usually was), by comparison.
“Wow, thanks for noticing. So, I had it cut a bit shorter a while ago, and it's mostly grown out now. You can get a better look when we land. I don’t want to hang around up here coz we’ll attract attention from the locals, right? Hard to bargain with raiders when you’ve just had to plasma the fuck out of their friends”
“Agreed. These are your kind of people, and you know best. Well, lead on Kai, you know where the settlement is"
Lambast didn't like Inara one bit, and that was all thanks to Citigateway. She couldn’t help letting out a disappointed sigh when she realized they were heading towards the second stars planetary system.
Under the Dome
The gravity on the moon was pretty light, but there was enough pull to keep everything on the ground where it should be. A great dome covered the settlement, and giant, outdated processors filtered and converted what it could from the moon's thin atmosphere into something breathable. To Kai, the air tasted like it had been through the locals' lungs about fifty times already, and she’d be willing to bet all the water had been recycled fifty times more.
Leaning against an old poster for an even older holo-flick, Kaisla waited for Lamb. Weapons were being openly worn along with ‘Don’t fuck with me’ expressions, and no one was alone. She was getting looks. A pretty woman on her own by the arrivals elevators was a tempting target for the chancers that were probably hanging around looking for an easy mark. The local security had uniforms that made them look like a privet army, because that's what they were, and most of them had a shiny axe on their belt. The 'guards' all looked like, providing they got a cut; they would look the other way. Such was life in a system the Thargoids had invaded.
For her own peace of mind, Kaisla unzipped her old over-sized battered brown leather pilots' jacket and rested her thumbs on her pair of plasma over-charger pistols. There was a government of a sort here, and there were rules too, but generally, if you had the balls to try it, and the back-up to get away with it, anything goes in a place like this. Kai had made a good living using ports where the system was ruled by the guy with the biggest stick to enforce his rules, but somehow it felt wrong to be here with Lambast.
A man with an expression that wouldn’t be out of place on some sort of long muzzled animal gave Kai a long dangerous look as he walked by, so Kai smiled and gave him a hearty “Howdy” in return. Now she wished she had put on her cowboy hat so she could have said ‘howdy partner’ in an old west accent and tip her hat with one finger, while giving the guy some serious side eye as he moseyed on by.
A double take was needed to recognize the women leaning, Kaisla-style, by the elevator bank opposite. If it wasn’t for the white hair and bob-cut with bangs Lamb had worn since her teens, Kai wouldn't have recognized her sister. Dull brown toecaps peered out of scuffed leather boots-wraps. Red and black pants were tucked in to the dirty footwear, and red webbing held them low on Lamb’s hips. A short black sleeveless tee with a grungie yellow smiley face grinned at Kai from under a sleeveless dirty red-black body warmer.
Kai wandered over to Lamb with a fly-catching mouth, causing her sister a small amount of amusement.
“Da fuck you wearing Lamb? This has to be the first time your tum-tum has been out on the town for like, years” said Kai poking Lamb in the belly button.
“Get off me you ridiculous creature” scoffed Lambast, slapping Kaisla’s hands way from her naked skin.
After a short slap-fight, the estranged sisters hugged. Although she looked like gutter trash, Lamb smelled of flowers and oral hygiene. Kai on the other hand noticed she smelled of body odour, last night's dinner and the half bottle of whatever it was she found in her locker.
"So um, we got a local guy that knows a guy that knows your guy, right? It's the normal, we turn up, they give us the once over, and then we get to see Mr.Big, deal. Same old shit"
Kai lifted Lambs body warmer and looked around her hips
"I don't see any weapon Lamb, not even your stupid sword. What's up? You can't go in there unarmed. Shit"
Snatching her clothes from Kaisla’s questing hands, Lambast did her best to look presentable in the outfit she kept around to disguise herself in lower places. Inhaling through her nose, Lambast dove into the explanation.
"I sent ten people ahead once you gave me the meeting location, and I have ten more guarding our ships. Five on each. There is a wing of bombers, a wing of precision strike craft, and two wings of escort ships circling the settlement at high altitude as we speak. Should things go really pear shaped, I have two drop-ships with two squads of commandos each, in low orbit. They can penetrate the dome, and deliver us troops in under two minutes. Oh, and I have a carrier arriving ten minutes after the meeting is supposed to start, in case we really have to make a point" Lambast informed her little sister as if reading off her shopping list.
Putting her nose in the air, Lamb gave Kaisla a condensing side-glance as she put on a pair of red gloves.
"What did you bring for our protection, may I ask, Kai?"
Tapping her pistols with her nails, Kai pursed her lips and shrugged.
"These and my good old federation can-do attitude" Putting her arm around Lambs shoulders, Kai lead her sister towards the meet-up. "Say, have I told you how great it is to have a stinking rich sister. .. .. Got any creds on you? I'm a lil light right now"
Boxed In
Near the air-bike track, Kai noticed the man with the long-muzzled animal expression had followed them. There were a few more people keeping an eye on the white-haired sisters too. The ones in red and black had to be Lambs protection, but the rest were probably checking them out for the contact. The sound of overcharged turbine engines came from within the open-air stadium, along with the occasional gun shot. The smell of nasty street vendor food mingled with exhaust and burnt oil, making the air thick and heavy. The extra weight seemed to be filtering the scant light that managed to penetrate the grimy dome.
Getting a little close to make eye contact with Lamb through the neon tinted smoke, Kai shouted to help her voice break through the din.
"This is the place. I know you dig air bikes too, so I thought you'd get a kick out this, yeah? Ok, so the guy we’re looking for is.." Kai checked her wrist computer. "Jan Handsdotter, Hasdotter.. Oh, we're meeting a girl. I was sure it was a dude"
Twisting Kai arm so she could read the screen, Lamb helped out.
"It's pronounced Yan. Yan Hansdotter. Sounds Swedish to me, but one never can tell. It says we must give his name at the kiosk and buy a privet box ticket. I suppose I'm buying the tickets?"
"Yeah.. Oh, and can I have some pocket money Lamb-Bam? I really wanna try whatever the fuck that is" said Kai pointing to one of the trailers frying unidentified biomass in possibly batter. “Onna stick”
Two men wearing extra shiny bearded axes met the girls at the VIP entrance and escorted them to a privet box. Kai was crunching her way through a bunch of things on sticks. She'd got some for her sister, but Lamb had made vomiting noises after getting too close to the apparently edible concoction and allowed Kai to have them.
Holding her skewer-mounted selection between the fingers of her fist, Kai thoughtfully chewed while studying the runes on the axe of the guy in front of her.
“So, do those characters mean anything?” she asked through a mouth full of something spicy in a crispy shell.
“<If you spit that crap on my axe, you find out what they mean. Personally. Stay quiet and follow, woman>” answered the axe-man in his native language.
“Wow, that's a pretty sexy accent you got there dude. Are you Australian? What did he say Lamb?”
“He said don’t talk with your mouth full, and the runes have meaning to him” said Lambast wondering if she could laser paint his face for a quick air-strike.
The axe man looked back at Lambast and caught a face full of the blessing of death she was grinding into him with cold eyes. Even knowing that woman was unarmed didn’t help him feel safe. The language barrier had been taken away. It wasn’t physical protection, but any barrier between him and the girls would feel good now both women were quietly concentrating on him.
He was glad they arrived at the privet box so he could hand off the women to someone else. Unlike most of the security in the stadium, the guys on the door didn’t have axes and guns, they just had good old guns. Kai knew where she was when the bad guys had guns.
“Thats them huh? Ok, thanks Jan, we’ll take it from here” said the bigger one of the two men on the door.
Don’t I Know You?
Lamb and Kai had to step aside for Jan to walk back to the escalators, and he didn’t bother looking back, nor did the other axe man that had stayed behind the girls. Everyone got into a lift after the big guy relived Kaisla of her plasma chargers.
“Chargers huh? Not many people get on with chargers” he said leaning closer to Kai with a ‘Hi, I’m into you’ smile “I was in a shootout with someone that used chargers. Not many shots, but they fuck hard when they hit”
Kai gave the guy a once over and didn’t mind what she was seeing “Keeping track of the shots is a problem, but I link mine to my suit and syphon power from that. That means I have change the barrels more than the cells”
Lamb folded her arms and hoped this lift was an express. Watching Kai flirt with a man so far below her worth, always vexed Lambast. Still, when in Roam she thought, and checked out the other man in the lift. She decided to concentrate on the wall for the remainder of the journey.
Sliding doors opened right into the privet box. It was nice enough, well-lit with a staffed bar and the smell of something Lamb may actually eat came from beyond the racks of bottles. A few men were lounging around on sofas and plush chairs watching the race. Only one guy bothered to look up to see who they were meeting. He stood up and straightened his jacket and strolled towards the women ready to greet people that had paid a lot of money for a meeting.
The woman at the back had a look on her face that said she hated everyone in the lounge. She looked like she was deciding who she was going to attack first on a kill spree. The other woman looked much more approachable and somewhat familiar. He decided that Kai was at least safe to talk to, Lambast he’d keep an eye on.
“The names Thade” he said walking over to the girls as door guards got back in the elevator. “Have we met before? I’m not hitting on you; I really think we’ve..“
Kai remembered Thade just as he recalled where they had crossed paths. Her plasma chargers had been involved, and so had a few hundred tons of weapons she’d sold, and then stolen back.
“You’re that bitch that ripped me off”
“Yee, but I gave the weapons back and..” said Kai trying to look sorry, meek and friendly at the same time. She was pretty good at it.
“I got so much shit for that, and now you turn up here and expect to see the captain?”
“I did pay..”
Kai didn’t get any further, because Thade was drawing his pistol. Lamb, who had been looking out the large windows, using a laser-painter concealed in her glove to mark targets for an air strike, grabbed the barrel of the weapon and did her best to break Thade’s nose. Kai, who was a dirty fighter kicked him in the stones, flinging what was left of her food-on-a-stick everywhere. Grabbing Lamb, Kai dove for cover behind a sturdy looking platter with some lovely long leafed shrubs.
The air was filled with the sound of swearing, pertinent questions, and demands for the woman to show themselves, hands raised. All that was underlined by the noise of guns having their safety disengaged.
“I paid the captain. I paid your captain twice over man, fuck! You think I’d be dumb enough to come here if it wasn't straightened out? Dude, chill” begged Kai from her now not so safe feeling cover. Lamb giving her the evil eye didn’t help either.
Shrugging, Kai silently mouthed ‘Sorry’ to her sister.
“Everyone chill the fuck out” came a deep commanding voice used to giving orders and having them obeyed “That is Falcon, but we’re cool now. Put the fuckin guns away”
Kai and Lamb stood up slowly. A tall-ish guy in a long coat was holstering a pair of old world sawn-off shotguns. He looked done with the whole situation already.
“And you two would do better if she didn’t look like a momma bear coming for revenge” said the bearded dark-haired man pointing at Lambast.
“You see Lamb, he said it's your face's fault” explained Kai wagging her finger at Lambast.
“Wha.. It's your face that's the problem” Lamb snapped back "They started pulling guns the moment they recognized you"
“Yee, but you do have a pretty murdery face Lamb" said Kai turning with a flounce. "I look like the sweet but mischievous one from a sit-com. It's mostly you sis"
Thade got Kai’s attention and slowly stood up from behind the planter he was using as cover. Lambast’s punch had connected, but it didn’t do much to him, and everyone on the Ananis wore a cup in their flight suit. It was amazing how many people wanted to settle a dispute with a kick in the nuts these days.
“You're the one I remembered, but it kind of was your friend that put me on guard” he was being careful to keep Kai between himself and Lambast, even at this distance “She does have a mean face”
“You better shut up about my face right now” snapped Lamb taking a step towards the raider. Kai held her back.
“Alright alright. Let's just sit, drink and talk. You've paid a lot for a sit down with me, so sit” said Vodan, captain of the Anansi pirates taking a seat at a large white stone table.
The girls joined him. Kai picked up a menu and Lambast adjusted her rags as if she was in her usual immaculate clothes. After giving Vodan an inquisitive stare, she rested her wrists on the table and linter locked her fingers.
“I would like to talk about Lord Charles Goodness the Eighth; otherwise known as Creamy Goodness the Third”
She was somewhat pleased to see that Vodan looked just as pissed off to hear that name as she usually was.
TBC in Off-Station RP