(Til Death Do Us Part) 2: Initial Contact
15 Jan 2023Silvia Sharpe
January 14, 3309"Incoming Message"
'Please play it to to me Verity. I am a bit preoccupied at the moment.'
Venus cranks her ship controls hard left and engages her boosters, narrowly avoiding an AX ship fighting Thargoids as she is esorting passengers away from the outpost in her Imperial Cutter. While she understood that things were hectic the Anti Xeno ships could afford to be more aware of their surroundings. Venus had already crashed into AX ships 4 other times previous to this close encounter. She grumbled to herself something about the Pilots Federation giving just about anyone who wants one a pilots license. The onboard ship A.I. responds delightfully as always and replays the message.
"Certainly Commander"
'Such a beautiful woman. It would be a shame if something were to happen to her. You have 48hrs to contact us. ---Raven'
Venus looks up at the message center and sees Silvia laying in a bed with a fresh cut on the side of her face and her flight suit is badly damaged. She is immediately infuriated and she slams her fist onto the ship controls accidentally diverting all power to systems causing the ship to slow slightly.
"WARNING! Incoming Caustic Missile"
"Hull breach attack! Taking internal damage."
'Shit!'
Venus quickly engages silent running and engages her boosters to burn off the caustic goo. She was used to this by now having taken part in evacuations for the last month or so in Thargoid invaded systems. She drops the passengers off at one of the rescue ships the pilots federation supplied to the superpowers to support evacuation and resupply of anti xeno fighters in the war against the Thargoids.
Once all the passengers are off her ship safely, Venus heads to Jameson Memorial in Shinrarta Dezhra. She arrives and storms off her ship and heads to the shipyard office. Venus' presence terrifies the shipyard officer quite a bit.
'Ma'am whatever it is please think about this. I have a family....'
'SHUT UP! I am not here to rob, kill, or maim you. I require a status update on a ship I own.'
The shipyard manager is relieved to hear that they are not about to be on the receiving end of yet another angry commanders wrath.
'Oh, oh yes. Ok ship make and model, identification number and name please.'
'Faulcon DeLacy, Krait Phantom, Longshot, LM-44L'
They hastily type in the information and pause a concerned look on their face as they read the incident report.
'Ma'am........ That ship was destroy nearly a week ago. Says here that it was in a stolen status, hauling illegal cargo. Also says that the individual piloting the ship was killed in the explosion. Here take a look at the photos from system security in Amenta.'
The shipyard officer turns the screen towards Venus, showing her several photos of her favorite exploration ship in pieces. One of the photos catches Venus' eye. A nameplate from her ship with scorch marks is seen covering the OT of Longshot.
*Amenta. Looks like am going to be making my way home*
'Please send these to my personal account thank you. Here take this. I'd also like to make an insurance claim for the ship if you would be so kind.'
Venus gives the person twenty thousand credits as a thank you and pays the insurance fee. She walks away and makes a call to Ava, the woman who against all odds believed in Venus during her murder trial. It doesn't take long for Ava to answer.
'Hello? Are you alright?'
'Yes and no. Physically I am unharmed but unfortunately the same cannot be said for Silvia.......'
Venus trails off the image of Silvia flashes in her mind as she recalls the message.
'Hello? Venus are you still there?'
'What? Sorry yes I'm here.'
'I asked what do you mean the same cannot be said for Silvia?'
'I'm pretty certain she was taken hostage. I need to get to Amenta but I am going to need some help.'
'Certainly. Amenta? Why there?'
'Longshot was reported to have been destroyed there. The incident report is suspicious and one of the photos shows scorch marks consistent with plasma weapons or something similar. I need to get the black box if it is still there.'
'Ok you know where I am located. I'll meet you there.'
Venus ends the call and opens the message from "Raven" and creates a holographic response.
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69 G. Carinae C 5 A Gardner point
Silvia stirs awake pain resonating throughout her body but mainly her face. She reaches up and feels the zip stiches and the bandage. She runs her hand up to her right eye and feels a patch over it. She takes a moment to look around her surroundings and has no recollection of where she is. The room is cold, the walls are bare. she looks around for a window but there are none. Silvia struggles to her feet her balance off drastically she falls back onto the bed. She attempts to stand once more and manages to find her balance enough to make her way to the door. She reaches up to the door activation panel as she touches the panel the door opens and Grenshaw is standing in front of her. He smiles when he sees she is awake. A disturbing hunger in his eyes.
'Oh good you're awake. This will make things much more interesting.'
He grabs her by the shoulder and places a hand over her mouth before she has a chance to scream. He makes his way into the room shoving Silvia back onto the bed. The back of her knees hits the edge of the bed causing her to collapse and fall backwards. As she falls Grenshaw grabs her flight suit tearing it open. The door closes behind them as Silvia lets out a cry for help.
'NO! PLEASE! HELP!!!!'
'Go ahead and scream all you want to. No one here will help you.'
Grenshaw's voice has a devilish tone to it. He seems to enjoy seeing the girl laying in front of him seeming soo helpless. He proceed to setup a camera in the corner of the room and as he does Silvia looks the strange man over. He is about 5'8 and 180lbs. He appears athletic but nothing too spectacular. Silvia can tell that this man is military, whether that be current or prior is indecipherable. He has a nasty scar on his left arm that spirals around from his shoulder down to his wrist. He has a square jaw and he has short stubbly facial hair. His hair is a dirty blond a scar is seen on the back of his head and his eyes are bright green. His skin a light tanned color and he is missing his right pinky finger. He is wearing desert kahaki military pants, desert brown military boots, and a green T-shirt.
Grenshaw turns around and begins to undo his belt as he walks towards Silvia. As he approaches the door suddenly opens. Jules sees Grenshaw undoing his belt and getting ready to drop his pants. She looks over and sees Silvia curled up in the corner of her bed hiding as much of her now exposed body as she can. Silvia is a small girl only about 5'5 and 120lbs. She is thin but curvy. She has silver hair with a single Cyan streak on the right side of her head. A gnarly scar is seen on her right shoulder from a run in she had with a particularly fiesty vulptex that had escaped from its enclosure while Silvia had been studying the creature. Cybernetics have taken place of a large portion of her shoulder and muscle due to the damage caused by the little creature. She has a cute almost elven appearance to her face. Her skin is pale with a slight olive tint. Jules runs in tackling Grenshaw screaming at him.
'YOU DISGUSTING CREATURE! I already told you that if you try any thing with this girl that I would put a bullet in you. Did you think I was bluffing?'
The two of them crash into the wall and Grenshaw shoves Jules off of him a delivers hard blow to her stomach. Jules recovers and rushes towards him grabbing him by the throat with her left arm. She has to restrain herself from using the full force of the cybernetics to avoid decapitating the man. Diaz hears the commotion and makes his way into the room to see what is happening.
'What the hell is going on here?'
Jules punches Grenshaw in the groin and throws him at Diaz.
'This one doesn't know how to keep his hands to himself. I found him trying...'
'Shut up! Both of you get the hell out!'
Diaz looks at Silvia and cuts Jules off after noticing that she is nearly naked.
'Jules bring the girl some clothes.'
'You got it boss'
Jules and Grenshaw leave the room and Diaz turns to Silvia. A serious look on his face.
'Now, you have two choices either comply or suffer and comply anyway.'
Silvia tries to put on as courageous of a voice as she can. She tries to impersonate how she thinks Venus would in this situation. She recognizes this man. Venus made it a point to ensure Silvia knew who he was and how dangerous he was. Venus explained why he hated her. She had turned them into their commanding officer when she found out that 6 of the people in her squadron were keeping and smuggling slaves on their ships from stations they were providing aid for.
'What? Who are you talking to? Why the hell should I do anything you say? When Venus finds out where you are and that you have me captive she will ensure your death is slow Diaz.'
'She will try. You are the key to her downfall. THAT is the only reason you are still alive. Once she is gone you will be given to Grenshaw as a prize. Now stay here and stay quiet. You are to do exactly as we say if not Grenshaw and I will have to make sure to make you pay. If you retaliate in any capacity or attempt to flee we will punish you and if Venus refuses to meet our demands you will pay the price and we will ensure she sees the pain she causes you. So go ahead and try to act tough, it will only worsen the punishment.'
Diaz walks out of the room laughing a little as he dissapears around the corner. Jules had been standing outside the room listening to what Diaz was saying. She felt terrible that she had any part in Silvias kidnapping. There was nothing that she could do to help Silvia for fear of Diaz and Grenshaw taking their anger out on the both of them.
'Here you go hun.'
She hands over a shirt and sweats. Silvia accepts the clothes and removes her torn flight suit. Jules can't help but stare as Silvia changes.
Up in the map room Diaz asks Grenshaw if Venus had replied yet. Grenshaw pulls up the message center and sees a message.
'Ya boss. And it looks like she is pissed. Here take a look.'
He throws the message up on the holo prejector and a holo version of Venus displays as her voice recording plays she is angry and concerned.
'Raven. What do you want? Let the girl go and we will forget that this ever happened. If you refuse I will ensure your death is long and slow.'