Vengeance is a game best not played (A Short Story #5)
23 Aug 2021Isabella Levine
[August 11th, 3307][Time: 00:12]
[System: HIP 16813]
Isabella groaned quietly to the pain in her left shoulder after taking the bullet nearly an hour ago. The constant adjusting and perpetual movement of her wrist to saw at the restraints didn't help much with pain management either. It was hell to put it lightly. The one good thing was that Luna lady had stupidly fallen asleep while watching her. Face in her arms at the bar table, she was completely incapacitated. Made the job of sawing and being inconspicuous about it so much easier. "Come on, come on." She whispered to herself as she continued trying. By the way, it felt, she was almost through. Good timing because the entire room grew incredibly dark. Isabella glanced out the lounge's windows to look and saw that the massive blue Gas Giant was there had moved and eclipsed the sun plunging the whole settlement into complete darkness. With the power center offline, no lights inside turned on. Isabella now sat in complete darkness so she sawed harder at the restraints until her arms suddenly snapped free and she could move.
"Yes!"
She unintentionally said out loud. The excitement of actually being free made her completely forget to keep quiet. It was too late. Luna groaned then snapped to attention. "Huh? Whoa! Shit." She said, turning on her light attached to her pack. Half the room illuminated and the light came Isabella's way blinding her. She instinctively wanted to put her hands up to block it but resisted the temptation keeping her arms behind her as if she was still restrained. She squinted at the blinding light.
"Wakey wakey, sunshine. You enjoy your beauty sleep?"
She couldn't tell, but Isabella imagined her grimacing face to that. Getting under her skin was just too much fun but it served a purpose.
"Hey, Luna. I'm starving. Could I get some food? Please? I know, I know. You have to feed me like I'm some toddler but my stomach is hurting with hunger right now."
Luna kept the light in her face so Isabella couldn't see her but she replied.
"Awe, you poor thing. Your tummy hurts because you're hungry? I'm so sorry for you. That's too bad."
"You're really going to patronize me? Okay. Didn't your boss tell you to make sure I was fed so this deal with my father and him could go clean? You should probably do what he says otherwise...could get in serious trouble. Just saying."
"I don't give a rat's ass about the deal. I don't give a shit about you or what Erik says right now. I work because I'm good at my job. That's why I'm here. Also, you don't even need food. You're not going to starve to death in a day. So suck it up, little lady."
Isabella arched a brow to her first retort. Not that loyal to the cause, she thought. Interesting. She pushed further trying to get her upset.
"Good at your job? Your job right now is to make sure I don't do anything and babysit me, right. So you could do your job and pass me one of those packets. Or continue to be whiny and act like a bitch."
There was a moment of silence as Isabella awaited a retort, a strike, or at the absolute worst a bullet but neither came. Instead, the light that was Luna moved in closer and squatted down in front of her. Isabella politely smiled and then a hand tightly pressed her shoulder. Immediately pain shot through her arm, a fiery burning sensation that hurt too much to keep still. Instinctively, she shot her left hand up and grabbed the forearm of Luna. Now committed to this act, she tried but couldn't see her face so guessed and brought a quick fist in the direction she figured it would be and made that positive connection. Her fist collided and hit Luna square on the nose sending her doubling back. Isabella took the moment to pounce forward, throwing Luna to the ground back first. Now on top in a dominant position, Isabella landed one more blow to Luna's face before positioning her knees on both arms, keeping them from coming up and striking. "Guah! You tricky little cunt! Get off me!" Isabella frowned at the name-calling and struck her even harder, knocking Luna out completely. "Shit..." She didn't mean to knock her unconscious. That punch was a little too hard, she admitted to herself. A body shield could've been useful but oh well.
"Little lady my ass. Didn't expect that, did you?"
Still in complete darkness, Isabella couldn't see very well so she felt along Luna's side reaching her upper thigh where her pistol was magnetically connected and took it for herself. She even took her jump-pack and equipped it to herself before finding her waist pouches and opening them to see what was inside. The small one had a Shield Disruptor which would've worked wonders for a body shield if Luna was conscious and had the smart idea of turning on shields to fight. But since that wasn't happening, she'd use it if she got in trouble.
"Perfect."
Isabella said to herself just before she heard the telltale swoosh of...rockets? It was only seconds until a thunderous explosion rocked the ground she stood on. She was puzzled for a second before recalling what her father said about James and a small retrieval team. She stood up, activated her pack-mounted light, grabbed Luna's helmet on the bar table, and quickly moved to the pressured door to leave. Once the pressure doors sensed her and opened, she was met with the view of streaks of orange lasers firing up into the air followed by bullets from kinetic weaponry. She traced their fire and recognized the ship right away as James. A combat-fitted Mamba. It was an odd ship to see in combat to the average person but one she remembered he engineered for heavy fighting. Regardless of looks, it didn't stop them from shooting at it so a secondary volley of dumb fire rockets slammed into the ground once more before the ship peeled off and allowed a...Fed Dropship? She could see a drop bay opened beneath with 6 people ready to deploy. This really was a rescue operation they were pulling off. "My ship. Where are you, girl?" She looked just off from her left and saw only the top half of her Cobra Mk III as a HAB building blocked the rest. My baby is still there, she thought, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders. All she needed to do was to make it there.
"Hey! Luna? We need your-"
Isabella was caught off guard and glanced at her sensor seeing a blip to her right. She turned to face whoever spoke into helmet comms and noticed it was a man standing with a Laser Rifle against his chest. Everything changed within seconds when he identified her and raised the rifle her way to fire. Three laser projectiles flew past her as she bolted while activating her shields. Another laser projectile found its way into her back thankfully absorbed by her shields as she propelled herself into the air using the jump-pack. Using the trust capability of the pack, she rotated 180° and fired 10 consecutive quick shots into her assailant doing little to his shields. Her head up display flashed, indicating her pack used all its thrust as she slowly floated to the ground. Another burst of bright orange laser-like projectiles found their way into Isabella's chest being absorbed only by her shields. 32% strength remained, she noted hitting the ground. Maverick suits weren't built for sustained combat, she needed to avoid fights and run and so she did.
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Less than 300 meters, she noted looking at her nav bar at the top of her HUD. Close yet so far. Ground combat seemed to pick up now and whoever was deployed was now putting up a sustained and effective firefight against Erik's hired guns. Isabella approached the edge of a building and rounded it bumping into someone with a much larger frame than hers. Panicked, she attempted to level her pistol to shoot but was pulled into the man's chest then spun to be thrown behind him. Her footing was lost and she tumbled backward landing on her rear. The man fired at something or someone quickly dispatching them. Frantically, Isabella equipped the Shield Disrupter and was ready to throw it but stopped when the scanner in her helmet identified the man in front of her as James Malconus. She lowered her pistol and deactivated the disruptor grenade standing up as he turned to face her. She smiled feeling joy wash over her. "James! Thank god!" She was more than ecstatic to see him. Impulsively she jumped into him for a hug, even wanting to steal a quick kiss but helmets stopped that so she didn't. His voice came over her helmet comms.
"Bella, get to your ship and get out of here! I've notified the others that you're out. Go!"
She nodded and turned to where her ship was and began bounding in a hard sprint. She glanced back to see where James was but didn't find him where he just was so she continued forward until reaching her ship. She approached the front landing gear with the built-in staircase and ran up it reaching the ship's pressured door. She put in a 4 digit code on a number pad and the doors hissed opening for her. She stepped inside letting the door behind her close before another pressured door in front of her opened. She entered then squeezed through a tight catwalk that took her over the cargo scoop and cargo hold. It was a quick few steps before she reached a ladder that took her up into another small cabin. Through the second last set of doors, she entered her HAB cabin and passed through the last pressured doors to where her two seated flight deck was and sat. She took off her helmet and immediately brought up comms to James.
"James! I'm on my ship. Where are you? Are you alright? Do you need help?"
She sat at the edge of her chair, anxiously tapping at the yoke stick of her Cobra awaiting his response. She noticed how aggressive her heartbeat was and remembered she needed to take a breathe in. All this adrenaline and anxiety built up quickly in tense situations. She was ready to go back out there and help. But at last, his voice came in and she relaxed a bit.
"I'm fine, Bella. Go. Take off and head to the Carrier, Levinean Star. Heh, you can't miss it. It's ours."
The comms cut out and she sat back in her chair a bit perplexed until she recalled what her father said mentioning a Carrier. Holy shit, he really did get a bloody Carrier. Isabella laughed out loud to herself at that. She remembered James talking about a Carrier some time ago but didn't expect him to name it after her. That was a pleasantly sweet surprise. She had an effect on him, she thought with a smile. Isabella activated her drives letting them slowly spin up before coming online and pushing the ship off the ground. Snowy dust exploded around her ship as she applied more thrust to lift the ship up over the settlement. The firefights had calmed considerably and she only assumed the mercenaries went down fighting or surrendered. The Federal Dropship rolling in and touching down on the east side of the settlement only confirmed their success to her. Everything, surprisingly, went well and now all she had to worry about was securing her father and taking out the bastard Erik so he couldn't harm it go after her family ever again. The Carrier could most definitely help with that, she figured. She just had to be sure that Erik believed that only her father knew where her mother was. He wouldn't kill him if so, so she planned on using that to her advantage. This was going to end here, she thought to herself. She dug herself into this mess by pursuing it and now that she was deep into this, she needed to find the best way out. So Isabella pitched her nose up and applied full throttle quickly accelerating away from the settlement. In this moment a true sensation of freedom washed over her as she reached for the stars ahead. Like she was a bird that finally got let out of its cage to roam free. It was a surreal feeling when your freedom was taken away from you and then you get it back. She could fly away and never look back.
She engaged supercruise and awaited her FSD to charge fully. While she awaited the transition from normal space, she thought about the pain and mental exhaustion from all that she had bared. Not just her but the fools that were dragged into this for really only pay. People like that woman Luna. She might not have been dead but to be dragged into someone else's vendetta? That's a bad deal. Violence feeds violence, fire fuels fire, blood spills more blood. If there was something to pull from all of this, she thought, it would be that vengeance is a game best not played.
Okay. Thanks to all who read. This one is the last one. I swear. lol. I did this for fun and on the fly because it popped into my head so yeah. I ran with it.
