(Til Death Do Us Part) 17: Cavanaugh's End (Epilogue)
10 Jun 2023Silvia Sharpe
After leaving the hospital when Silvia had told her to leave, Jules proceeded to the docks on Citi Gateway and made her way to the dock master. As she approached the office she pulled out the bounty placard for Diaz and James Elias. She replaces the bounty card for Diaz in the pouch on her hip. Jules enters the office and places the bounty card on the counter.'I'm looking for this man here. My sources say he is currently employed on one of the hangar crews.'
The dock master looks at the card and pulls out his employee logs. He flips through the pages skimming briefly to find the man in question. He pauses once he finds the name.
'Hmmm looks like he is assigned to pad 02. Shall I escort you to....'
'No I can mange on my own. Thank you.'
Jules cuts the stout man off before he finishes and heads off towards hangar 02. As she approaches pad 02 she pulls out her pistol and makes her way to the hangar. Looking around the there is a badly burned cutter with several missing panels and corrosion burns all over the hull an AX logo is painted on the side near an indecipherable ship name. Running around the hangar are a few ship techs and Elias is seen inspecting the landing gear of the cutter. Jules approaches cautiously. When she reaches James she places her plasma pistol firmly against his back.
'James you really should pay closer attention.'
'Jules? You should be dead..... damn I knew I shouldn't have hired some random bounty hunter. Well what is it you want?'
'Where is he hiding?'
'Who are you talking about?'
'You know damn well who I am talking about!'
'Oh him. Ha! Why the hell should I tell you?'
Jules not wanting to play games, aims her pistol at James' leg and fires. The plasma round tears through his leg and he screams out in pain and drops to the floor. The screams and gunfire causes the other dock workers to panic and run. Jules kneels down and places a knee directly on the gunshot wound.
'Because if you don't, you'll never see your kids again.'
'Fuck y...….'
'You were a dead or alive bounty so death it is.'
bang, bang, bang
Jules shoots James in the head not having the patience to deal with him any further. She stands up holstering her pistol after grabbing the ID tag from his body. Departing the hangar, she heads to the dock master. The man looks concerned but when Jules tosses him the ID tag and bounty chip his look of concern dissipates. She walks over to the shipyard computer and orders a ship she hasn't seen in years.
'Antimatter it's time to come out of retirement Ole girl.'
****
It only takes about an hour for the ship to arrive. Jules walks out into the hangar and inspects the ship. The Fer De Lance in its Razor Cobalt color scheme is a fully engineered Combat ship. She steps on board and opens up the target tracker. Jules pulls out the bounty card and inputs the target details.
'Eden, track Marcus Diaz. We have a bounty.'
"Welcome back commander. Beginning bounty tracking. Target is in 69 G Carinae currently. Reports say location C 5 A Gardner point."
'Thank you.'
Jules makes her way to the cockpit and begins her departure routine.
'Citi Gateway this is Juliet Uniform Lima, Zorgon Peterson Heavy, requesting permission to depart station.'
'Zorgon Peterson Heavy, Juliet Uniform Lima, cleared for departure. Safe travels commander.'
Jules lifts off from the landing pad and lines up to the station entrance. After verifying there are no ships in line Jules pushes full power to engines and boosts out pulling up hard as soon as she clears the alignment rails. Streams of brilliant blue trail behind her as she corkscrews. Antimatter is not as nimble as Pit Viper but still handles like a dream. She aligns with her target system and engages her FSD. Jules wastes no time getting back back to 69 G Carinae. She hoped to arrive before Diaz had a chance to flee. Jules runs through different scenarios in her head as to how thing are going to play out. Upon entry into the target system she calls over to Eden.
'Eden, is the target still in system?'
'Yes, target is still present. No logs for designation, Diaz, Marcus, leaving system are present.'
'Good. Thank you Eden.'
Antimatter drops into the airspace above Gardner Point after a short trip in system. Jules check her contacts panel and sees no ships bearing Diaz's callsign. She touches down on one of the landing pads and heads to her quarters where she dons her Imperial Navy armor. After a final check of systems power and ensuring she has enough ammo, she grabs her military issued rifle and places it on her back, the mag locks securely fastening it to her armor. She looks over everything and departs the hangar in an attempt to locate Diaz.
Inside the old outpost Diaz watches the cameras and spots Jules. He knew why she would be willing to be seen and he made preparations for her arrival.
'All available members of Chaos stand down I want her to make it to me alive.'
Jules looks around at the members of Diaz's crew. Her hand hovers over her pistol waiting for someone to make a move. The crew only sat and stared as she made her way inside. As she approached the door to Diaz's map room she paused and took a deep breath her hand on her pistol grip.
The door slides open with a hiss and Diaz stands looking at the door. A devilish grin on his face. He was expecting Jules to honor the code and fight fairly. He was wrong.
'Jules.....'
bang, bang, bang, bang
'Die you miserable old fool. And this time stay dead.'
Jules fires four rounds each of the striking Diaz in critical locations. He lets out a gasp of air, a gurgling sound is heard due to blood filling his lungs and he collapses to the floor. Jules walks over and stands loomingly over top of him.
'And so ends your reign of terror. You made a mistake letting me in here unhindered. You should have ordered them to kill me. Pathetic! You don't deserve death. You deserved to be tortured and mutilated. I can't afford to let you live though, so death it is.'
bang, bang, bang
She fires three more rounds directly into his head to ensure nothing is left of his neural network. Jules had a massive level of resentment for this man, but killing him didn't seem to fix the hole in her heart. She lost everything because of him and now, with Diaz dead, she had nothing but an empty void inside of her that she desperately wanted to fill. Jules knelt down and grabbed the ID tag for Diaz and placed it into the same pouch as the bounty chip. She left the station with haste and made her way back to Citi Gateway to deliver the bounty chip and ID tag to Silvia.
****
1 jump out from Inara, Adrian Vasquez sends Jules a message.
Jules, Jules, Jules. You really don't know how to keep your nose out of things do you? Diaz may be gone but I will hunt you to the end of the Galaxy.
Jules responds in an taunting manor. She was ready for war at this stage and wanted a chance to shut down the last major player in Diaz's crew.
Ha. You can certainly try. Just know I'm not some scared little girl. Bring it on.
The Interdiction begins and Jules, wanting the dog fight, submits. As soon as she drops from super cruise she is greeted by Adrian in a black mamba unoriginally named Black Mamba. Jules deploys her weapons and aligns to her target. She fires off a volley of rounds which all strike their target. An emerald green hue can be seen from the mambas shields. The mamba fires off its main weapon as it boosts towards Jules, spiraling in an attempt to avoid any rounds Jules may fire. Jules realizes what Adrian is attempting to do and flips off flight assist and quickly drops the nose of Antimatter while tapping the boost button. She turns Flight assist back on after she quickly flips her ship over to align to her target again, which being faster than her had already lined up for a ramming run. Jules fires another volley while being struck herself by the mambas weapons. Before she has a chance to perform evasive maneuvers Black Mamba rams into Antimatter at full speed. Jules checks her shields and sees they are taking some damage but holding strong. Black Mamba on the other hand is suffering as if its shields just cant keep up with the damage output. The fight drags out for several minutes as both pilots do everything in their power to destroy their opponent, red and blue weapons streaks tearing through the conflict zone. Adrian at one point manages to break Antimatter's prismatic shields causing Jules to have to fly evasively for a short while narrowly avoiding ramming runs and taking damage from Black Mambas rounds. Jules manages to catch a break as one volley of her rounds manages to rip through Black Mamba's main thruster assembly rendering the ship immobile.
Jules takes a look at the module health of Black Mamba's power plant and sees that it only needs 1 more volley to end it. She takes the opportunity to send a message to Adrian.
You put up a good fight but it just wasn't enough. I commend your spirit. Good bye Vasquez
With one final perfectly lined up volley of brilliantly blue rounds, Black Mamba explodes in a nova like color display. Jules stores her weapons and lines up with Inara. Her FSD engages and the remains of Adrian Vasquez and his ship Black Mamba are left to float endlessly in the void. Jules makes it to Citi Gateway without further incident and docks her ship. She looks it over and asks the docks manager to begin repairs on Antimatter. Jules walks into the bar looking as though she had been through hell. Fresh scorch marks and acid burns are visible on her cybernetic limbs and armor. Strapped to her hip is her old war pistol and on her back a milspec plasma rifle. She sees Silvia and some other woman in the back corner having a conversation and decides to steer clear of the duo. She does however listen in on the conversation between the two.
****
'You have mentioned that individual twice. Who are they and what importance or rather significance do they hold? I only know about Aegis because of well.... *Silvia motions over to an advertisement, then goes pale and rigid at the sight of Jules.*….. I uh..... I....'
Silvia shifts nervously and loses her train of thought.
“Seo? Oh, she’s like… how to put this… in the months before Azimuth decided to build the Proteus Wave - that Guardian-based superweapon supposed to take most of them out - it kinda became known they tried to connect a human pilot to a Thargoid ship.”
Kira pointed at her head then continued the explanation.
“And well, apparently it worked for her without killing her. So now she’s apparently connected to the hive mind and hears their voices in some way, through a thing in her head, not that I can explain it very well. All I can say is it probably isn’t very pleasant.”
'Oh soo that's what they were doing in that lab. Monsters the lot of em. There is a fine line between.... experimentation and..... scientific research when it comes to this sort of thing.'
As Silvia finishes her statement an angered and emotionally pained look spreads across her face.
Kira glanced over to Jules
“An old… friend of yours?”, she asked Silvia.
The sight of Jules after what she had found out, was nearly enough to send her into a frenzy.
'I wouldn't exactly call her a friend.... not after....... what she is responsible for. *turns towards Jules and continues, an angered tone growing in her voice* you'd do well to avoid her. Someone you love might end up dead.'
Clenching her jaw and fist she turned away from Jules. Silvia takes a few deep breaths to tries and calm herself and just sat staring at the wall trying to think of anything but Jules.
Kira held both her hands up, almost as a defensive gesture.
“Alright, alright. I get it. You don’t want to talk about it. I think there’s more to it, but it’s not really my business to go poking around in someone else’s matters. So just leave it there.”
She withheld a remark that she didn’t really have anyone significant left to lose… other than Seo, but it wasn’t in her interest to openly reveal that she knew her, at least not in a place like this.
“But anyway, yeah, Azimuth are not a very pleasant kind. Abducting people for their horrible experiments, attempted genocide of another species… twice, actually. I have some logs from an abandoned facility in my ship’s databank that suggest they also worked on that stupid mycoid thingy. The fact that anyone believes they’re worth working for either says a lot about those people, or how they’ve been propagating lies about their true nature.”
“Oh, that reminds me… Seo uncovered some… rather interesting information about Nemesis - I mean, Salvation, two or three months ago. Apparently he had plans for a failsafe made out of Guardian tech that basically holds his mind, or a copy thereof, for the event of his death. Called it the Nemesis Failsafe, because of course he did.”
“Now we don’t really have any evidence if it was ever built, but knowing that bastard, he did. Azimuth of course immediately claims it’s all complete nonsense made up by a delusional individual - like trying to wipe out a species that’s been spacefaring for millions of years isn’t - and that they have ‘nothing to hide’.”
She took a moment to breathe.
“Don’t think it needs to be said that what they’re saying is complete bullshit. Guess what also happened when that Nemesis stuff came out? Some mercenaries just so randomly happened to try getting the jump on Seo… not very successfully, thanks to some outside assistance from the Far God cult. Never found out who sent those mercs, but I’d bet you a billion credits that those assholes over at Azimuth wanted their ‘precious subject’ back.”
Kira practically spat those last words out, and realized she was getting a little carried away, so she reeled it back in.
“Sorry. Just something I’m a little passionate about for… personal reasons. That guy who’s in charge, Torben Rademaker, is just full of it. Keeps claiming they shouldn’t be held responsible for what happened in Project Seraph - that thing where Seo comes from -, the Proteus Wave, and so on. They left an entire megaship’s crew to die for its cargo of Guardian artifacts, but apparently, because Salvation’s ‘dead’ no one needs to be held responsible?”
“My ass. You say you didn’t approve of it but where were you when it mattered? Right there helping the bastard out.” I shook my head. “So yeah, there’s my rant about why I hate Azimuth and still refuse to provide even the slightest bit of trust to them. Aegis might not be perfect, but they’re at least not literal monsters, and have someone sensible in charge.”
Having heard them talking about her, Jules stood from her seat, walked over to the table they were sitting at, and placed down the bounty chip and ID tag.
'He is gone and so am I.'
With that Jules departed the bar and headed towards the docks.
Silvia watched her, leave wide eyed and a tear forming in her eye. She knew what Jules meant and just knowing he had been dealt with was enough for her to have closure. A small smile formed on her face as a solitary tear streamed down her cheek.
****
As Jules returned to her ship she thought about how Silvia had talked about her and decided at that moment she was done with her for good. She boarded the ship ready for some rest before job hunting in the morning. Eden greeted her as she made it to her quarters alerting her to a new message.
'Good Evening Commander. One new message available. Shall I read it to you?'
'Sure go ahead.'
Greetings Miss Cavanaugh.
We have a business opportunity for you that will pay 20mil Cr for partial completion or 40mil Cr for full completion. We cannot tell you exactly what your target is in but we can tell you, you will know it when you see it. The target item is onboard a ship called Memento Mori, a research and exploration Krait Phantom with heavy encryption programming. The target is a specialty Neural implant that we could use to assist in the ongoing Thargoid war. Our reports state that there are two implants. One is in a human Handler, name unknown, and the second is in an unknown specimen. Its exact purpose is to allow communication between alien species. This could help accelerate our research by several months and could potentially allow us to turn the tide of the war. This mission is strictly off the books, so if you get caught we will deny any and all ties to you. We hope you accept our offer and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Azimuth research group
This message will corrupt itself, once confirmation has been given for acceptance or denial of job offer.
The message ends as Jules makes it to the messaging console. She sits and stares at the message for a moment and presses accept on the screen. The message disappears and Eden chimes in.
"Message corrupted. Unable to read contents removing message from ship systems."
Jules creates a new email to an old buddy of hers that she used to run theft missions with.
Hey Knucklehead, you still in the asset acquisition business? If so I got a nice gig for us its going to pay 20-40mil Cr per person. Some form of secrecy required can't really delve into too much detail through here. Job's on Citi Gateway in Inara. Let me know if you want in.
She sends the message out and waits for a reply. In the meantime Jules finds a decent Japanese curry joint and orders some chicken cutlet curry with na'an bread and cheese on top. As she is eating Eden calls over the communications link.
"Incoming message"
'Thank you Eden.'
Jules opens the message and sees that it is a reply from her old acquisition buddy.
Jules! Long time no chat eh? Am I not good enough for you anymore what with you getting accepted into the Naval academy? It's been what 4 years now. You mentioned a job in Inara, ain't that the place that's rebuilding after the Thargoids ransacked it? I'll meet you there i could use an extra job. Plus if what you say is true that pay ain't half bad for an asset recovery, though with a reward like that the task cant be easy. I'll meet you there shortly.
Leo
Jules closes the message and finishes eating her meal. She heads back to the hangar her ship is in and gets ready for bed. She knew Leo and when he says be there soon he definitely means within the next day or so.
****
The next morning to Jules surprise she is woken up by Eden alerting her to Leo's presence on board her ship.
'Greetings Commander Leo.'
Jules looks at the time seeing that it is just past noon station time. She rolls out of bed and puts on some comfortable loose fitting clothes. She walks out of her quarters, her hair still a mess. Leo rounds the corner and Jules smiles.
'You're much earlier than I had expected you to be'
'Ya well ya know like I said I could use an extra job.'
'Riiigghhht. So that means your well has dried up, and you are needing this money. I'm not judging, just know you better than you think.'
Jules smirks when she says the last part. The two of them walk into the briefing room and Jules explains the job to Leo.
'I knew it wasn't a simple asset acquisition job. 40mil Cr for full completion for anyone involved is not something you pay for a quick smash and grab. Also why the hell would Azimuth contact you directly? Who do you know over there?'
'Don't think its who I know over there. Something tells me they chose me because I know the target. I think they hope it gives me an advantage.'
'Do you know the Target?'
'I couldn't find anything regarding the ship name. It's almost like that ship is a ghost. No flight Logs, no purchase history, nothing. All I know is that it is currently docked in Hangar 12.'
Jules taps into the station security camera feed and pulls up the live feed from Hangar 12. As she is cycling through the hangar cameras she spots Kira and Silvia entering Memento Mori. Her face flushes white when she sees her.
'I was right..... I wish I wasn't.... They chose me because I know the target.'
Jules feels guilty as she speaks. The tone of her voice was that of regret. Aegis wouldn't let her abandon the mission because of what she knew and she knew Silvia would likely protect whatever was in that ship with her life.
'Shit you know them?'
'Only the one with White hair, the hooded one I only saw in the bar. Damn it.'
'So what's the plan?'
Jules shuts watches the feed and comes up with a quick plan.
'We are going to have to go now. We wait until they leave the ship, enter, grab the asset inside, and bail.'
'What about the girl?'
'If it comes to it then she goes too.'
The two of them head to the armory onboard Antimatter and load up on breaching supplies. Once they have everything they need the two make their way to Hangar 12 in order to wait out Silvia and Kira.
****
As Leo and Jules approach Hangar 12 Silvia can be heard calling over to her ships AI.
'Verity secure the ship no one allowed onboard unless they are with me. Come let's head back. Don't know if I'd recognize anyone there if they did show up.'
Silvia and Kira depart and Jules catches a glimpse of a small fox like creature following behind them.
'Shit!' Jules says in a subdued voice
'What? What is it? Oh shit that's the asset isn't it?'
'Yep and it just ruined our whole plan.'
'Now what? We just wait until they come back and try to sneak in?'
'That's about all we can do. Just like old times eh?'
'Ha. Ya those were good times.'
The two sit and chat for a while waiting for Silvia to eventually return. About 2 hours passes by and Jules catches a glimpse of Silvia rushing into her ship carrying the creature in her arms. Leo being impatient goes to get up.
'Alright let's....'
'No! Not yet. Let her leave the ship unattended.'
'Fine. You're the boss this time around. Feels weird though. Was always the other way around. I was always the one in charge.'
'Which is why we always had issues. Also the reason I gave you the nickname Knucklehead.'
Silvia leaves the ship after 30 minutes wearing her bartender uniform. Seeing this Jules knew that they were going to have at the very least 4 hours to get in and out. She motions to Leo that Silvia was out of the ship and that the boarding ramp was wide open.
'Come on. Now's our chance. Let's grab that creature and get it to Azimuth.'
'Right. I'll follow your lead.'
Not thinking about it Jules and Leo attempt to sneak up the boarding ramp but no before Verity senses their presence and alerts Silvia to the access attempt.
'Commander unauthorized access attempt.'
'Verity perform a biological analysis and ensure Melli is the only lifeform onboard.'
Hearing this Jules shoves Leo off the boarding ramp. They hit the ground and both run, hiding behind cover waiting for the scan to complete.
'Certainly Commander. Performing ship wide bio scan.'
'Ship is secured, 1 lifeform onboard designation Melitta.'
'Thank you Verity. Continue to monitor for intrusions.'
Jules emerges from behind the crate she was hiding behind and throws her arms up as if to say what the fuck. She turns to Leo who is pulling out breach charges.
'Really? Blasting our way in? You think that's smart?'
'Don't think we have any other choice. Look.'
Leo points to Memento Mori as the boarding ramp begins to retract sealing the only easy access point to the ship. A frown forms on Jules' face when she sees their only easy access disappear.
'The hard way it is then!'
****
Jules places a breaching charge on one of the service ports on the hull of Memento Mori. There is a small blast and the hull is opened up. Smoke fills the hangar and Verity sounds the alarms and contacts Silvia.
'Commander. Breach attempt detected.'
Jules turns to Leo a determined look on her face.
'Boss says the cargo on this ship needs to be handled with care. Don't know what it is but he said we would know once we saw it.'
'OK I'll stand watch while you search the ship.'
Melli hears the explosions from the breaching charges and sneaks around to investigate. She pokes her head around the corner and spots Jules entering through the service port. Chattering to herself quietly she ducks back and runs down the corridor and looks for a place to hide.
As Silvia makes it to the hangar she sees a woman slip inside her ship. She takes a look around and spots a male about 6ft tall 250lbs standing watch with a hand held plasma accelerator. She draw her pistol knowing they were here for Melli. She snuck around the cargo boxes and make her way behind the male. Aiming down the sights of her pistol Silvia fires. The round strikes the man in the head and he collapses to the ground lifeless. Taking care not to make too much noise she enters the ship.
Inside the ship Jules spots Melli running away and knows immediately that this was her target. She pursues the creature and eventually gets it cornered. Melli pins her ears back and snarls baring her teeth and growling profusely. Jules takes a step forward and Melli lunges forwards in an attempt to scare her off. Jules keeps moving closer.
'Verity where is the intruder?'
'Deck B crew lounge. Melitta is there as well.'
'Thank you Verity.'
Silvia makes her way to the crew lounge on board her ship just as Melli lunges at Jules in an attempt to bite her. Jules reacts and snatches Melli out of the air with her cybernetic arm. She pulls out a black Kevlar sack with her other hand and shoves Melli into it securing it firmly. Silvia sees Melli disappear into the bag just as she makes it to the lounge. The moment she sees the cybernetics Silvia recognizes who it is.
'You! Drop the bag now! I won't ask twice!'
Jules turns and glares at her. The fire in her eyes, tells Silvia she is not willing to listen to her.
'I care nothing for you anymore. You.... you made this happen. If you want your precious little pet back you'll have to kill me. My boss is offering a pretty penny for this little creature because of the chip inside its head. If I get yours too they will pay me double.'
Afraid of what is happening Melli begins to thrash around in the bag. Chatters and screams are mostly muffled but still audible. Silvia catches a small amount of what the creature is trying to convey.
Melli is …. Kill..... let me out..... don't like the dark stinky bag.... scared..... Silvia help.....
Silvia aims down the sights of her pistol and fires. The overcharged kinetic plasma round strikes Jules just above the wrist taking off her hand causing her to drop the bag. She aims again and fires at Jules' chest. A large singed hole forms as the round tears through her leaving behind charred flesh and bone. Silvia fires a third round at this point just beyond angry at this woman for everything she caused. A fourth round strikes her in the neck decapitating her and causing her body to fall to the floor, lifeless, blood spurting out from the wounds and covering the deck in red.
Silvia rushes over and opens the bag containing Melli and pulls her out. She pulls her tight against her chest and hugs her tears falling down her face as she looks over her ensuring she had not been injured. She stops struggling once she realizes it is Silvia holding her and not the lady who just tried to steal her.
Stupid Thief... you deserved this
Silvia walks off the ship and contacts station security to inform them of the breach. Melli and her return to the Galactic Bar. A deep level of concern on her face as they walk back.