Version 2006 - Ch 54

"You look quite stunning." Shea said brushing my hair out. I wore a low cut clingy gown of thin black Saresii silk, hanging on thin straps from my shoulders. To it a fur stole and gloves and a tiny purse. Shea was finally done with the hair and Elfi handed me a feather domino with veil. I sighed, maybe I should simply wear an Atlas Battle Suit and we storm the place!" "We can still change it. It is your plan." Elfi said. "No we better get it over with. I want to meet the Red Dragon tomorrow. Get done with him and leave this world. It really gets to me." A luxury skimmer was there at the exact time . A Quadiped stepped out and held open the door. I was truly glad to wear a mask as I saw Wintsun getting out as well. I recognized him and I wondered what had turned him so completely. I considered him a friend once. But it was him who shot Narth while I was unconscious in the Crawler Cat. For that he still needed to pay. "Hold it right there Pirate. Need to make sure you haven't hidden any other than the obvious surprises under that dress." "If you even so much touch me you're dead!" "Be civil. We got the better cards here. Your crewmates will die and we going to blow your rust pot to pieces. Now let me scan you or the Quadiped will perform a manual search." He did use a scanner then and slid his hands up and down my dress, around my breasts and down my thighs. He was breathing harder and I never felt so angry in all my life. I also felt vulnerable and cursed the thin dress that was just a while ago still a great idea. He finally stepped back:" Nice body you got. Maybe we will have some fun later on tonight, but for now we do not want to make the Duke waiting." Elfi's voice came on in the tiny inner ear receiver. It was made of mostly organic components and operated on TransDim and detection proof." Most of the other skimmers make a wide berth around that Lexus Skimmer but there is one following you in a distance. Cirruit's team is on it, as soon as we know who it is we let you know." The Coliseum was a huge round building bathed in multi colored lights. Dozens of heavy armed Skimmers patrolled the sky around . We approached a landing platform high above the ground and the fat man was standing there flanked by two Togar male warriors armed with Kermac Line Blaster Rifles. He greeted me with what I would only describe as a slimy smile." Oh how lovely and mysterious. Well I am sure you will share your identity with us later tonight. You will soon realize that I always get what I want." "The night is still young and might hold a few surprises to us all." "I agree, now let us go in the event is about to start. I never thought you would come but then the Loki Torpedoes are no bluff and enough to blow your ship to pieces. Shields or no shields. Those Terran Weapons are magnificent. Now that you are here I think we can come to a business agreement where I get your ship and I let you live. It's a real good offer I assure you. I am not always that generous." "I thought I was here to discuss a price for my crew members release?" "Oh I changed my mind. I got you now and I am sure I can persuade you to give me all the necessary access codes." "I have my ship blown up before I give it to you." "My my the little Pirate lady thinks she still has choices." His face became hard and the smile vanished." I do not know who you are and frankly I don't care. Let me make it perfectly clear to you. You will die tonight in a most unpleasant manner if you don't do exactly as I tell you." One of the Togar extended his claws and growled." Follow him or I make you!" So we went in and into the VIP box with the best view over the fight arena. I estimated at least 20,000 beings in the bleachers around the arena. There was a GalNet Team complete with a group of Robo Cams. Flags and Vari Signs advertised well known Union products. Everything went dark and a spotlight caught the fat man and he held up his arms." Welcome to Fight Night at the Donheer Coliseum. Tonight we have especially great fights for you. Bets can be placed until the Fight siren signals the start of a contest. Merchandise and Souvenirs can be purchased at the GalNet Donheer Site. Get them now these will be collector items soon!" The spotlight turned off and the lights came back on. An unseen announcer now spoke." Tonight we have a special Super Fight spectacle! A Dai Warrior just captured form the most vicious Dai Clans of them all. A half Dai Assassin from a far off World with a long list of kills. From the deadliest planet in the Universe Green Hell we smuggled a real Stomper and two Insecto-Saurian. Our Union Friends supplied us with a special treasure tonight, a gray Nul-Nul known and feared to be the fiercest fighters in the Galaxy. To top it all off we throw in the greatest fighting champion this Arena had ever seen. The destroyer of life, the Terror from a far and unknown Galaxy. The one and only Terror Hammer!" Every time he announced a new fighter a cage lowered from the ceiling. I saw Har-Hi and Hans. The crowd went nuts and screamed and chanted. The Togar warriors aimed their weapons at me and the Duke said." To make your Dai really fight I decided to give him a little incentive. There is not much the crowds love than a Damsel in distress and evil monsters." Part of the front railing of his floating VIP box lowered." Jump Pirate or the Togar will fire!" So I jumped and landed in the fine sand 5 meters below. The Announcers voice spoke:" Captured by our very own Duke during a tremendous fight, one of the Unions most wanted Criminals. The Lady Pirate known as Black Velvet. Special Bets can be made by whom she is killed first." Elfi spoke in my earpiece:" Team One is deployed and falling towards the compound now. Team Two has neutralized the Compounds sensors. Team three has reached positions as well." I was thinking . "Narth take the Golden home now!" Then I whispered." Tell me when Narth and the Golden are safe." The cages holding the fighters and monsters clapped open and a pile of swords, spears and sabers was uncovered in the center of the arena. The stomper a terrifying monster with eight legs, a mass of long tentacles on one end screamed and went straight for me. Hans was immediately attacked by one of the huge Insectos .Looking like a cross between praying mantis, Scorpion and Dinosaur it had sharp looking scissor claws and a stinger oozing with greenish slime on a long flexible tail. The gray Nul, as big as Hans, wearing a slave collar. It blinked and I knew someone was causing the Nul pain via remote controlled shocks, they had glued something over his only eye and he staggered tried to get the sticky mass from his eye on the dome shaped neck. I threw away my heeled pumps and ran as fast out of the way. Har Hi only in his pants avoided the stinger of the second Insecto. I almost ran into the Half Dai Assassin, who hissed at me." I have nothing against you, I am forced like you. The crowd booed as he backed away from me. I made it to the pile of weapons. "Elfi here. The Golden is here. Narth should be next." "Is Cirruit ready?" "Almost he needs 5 more minutes, to hack into the power grid." The Stomper collided with the Nul and grabbed him with his tentacles. I never liked the Nul but even he wasn't here on his own free will. I threw a Vibro sword as hard as I could towards Har Hi. He jumped and elegantly took it by the handle out of mid air and swung it immediately against the Insecto severing its right claw arm right off. Hans had just showed what he could really do and grabbed the tail just behind the dangerously sharp stinger and with a groan ripped it right out of the poor animal and used the tail like an oversized club beating the wounded animal with it. The spectators cheered in an uproar. I threw a sword to the other almost Dai looking man and grabbed a boarding axe and ran as fast as I could towards the Nul and the stomper. The Nul was perhaps as strong as Hans, he had managed to get some of the gunk off, but his eye was still not all the way open. he struggled against the pull of the tentacles any lesser being would have long died between the maws of the stomper .I jelled. "Nul Warrior lean as much back as you can, I cut you lose!" I ducked the last moment as one of the barbed tentacles whipped towards me. the axe was a primitive weapon without any Vibro function but it was double bladed and as I drove it through the first tentacle It proved to be razor sharp as well. Stinking ooze sprayed over me as I hacked through the tentacles like a maniac. The Stomper had forgotten the Nul and focused now on me. I had to duck, jump and slice the heavy blade sticky with the rancid smelling blood of the Stomper! Somewhere in the back I heard the crowd but I had to focus now, one false step and I was toast. Somehow through all my feminine appearance and all my desire to be a woman broke the old Neo Viking upbringing in me. It was almost like in the tunnel of skill fighting with an axe to proof to the council of Elder I was a Warrior. It was like so long ago when I hunted the Tyranno and I was almost killed by the second larger one. The actual skin of the Stomper was hard as a rock and it took heavy blows to make it even splinter, but there was a thin yellow line of skin between the top and bottom armor where the legs moved. Something scratched my back and I knew I was bleeding but with three strong hits I severed one of the stompers legs. Just then I saw it, right behind the Stompers head, the same yellowish skin. I knew this was the mark of that beast and began hacking away. Always avoiding the remaining barbed tentacles. The sand was trenched with the stompers blood and stuck to my feet. The beast was now screaming and each blow with the axe cut deeper into the side. the Stomper now groaned and his remaining legs buckled! It was finished. I turned and there stood the others, Hans, Har Hi, the Nul and the other man. Suddenly the crowd roared and I heard them chant." Black Velvet." "Captain can you hear me?" "Yes!" " I was trying to reach you but you did not answer. Are you alright?" "I think so. How far are we?" "Everything is ready!" "Do it!" The lights went out again. I felt Narths presence and the faint pulling sensation. As the lights came back on I stood in the Sky Box of the Duke. Four pirate disguised Ultras and TheOther being his Y'All self had deactivated their cloaking devices and aimed their weapons at the fat man and Wintsun. The unnatural twisted body of a Togar lay before the feet of TheOther and a the charred remains of the other not far from it. The Fat man's face showed panic. A glance down to the Arena showed only the dead monsters. Hans and Har Hi were gone and so was the Nul and the other man. I still held the bloody axe and I could not even imagine how I looked but I stepped forward and he cringed back. "Oh no I won't make it that easy for you!" He held up a little device." One push and the torpedoes will launch." I swung the axe and his hand along with the device flew in spray of blood." Take them!" ________________________________________ We returned to the ship. Our landing tank was attacked twice but with little effect on the tanks shields. Our attackers exploding in midair as we returned fire. I felt exhausted and my back hurt bad. But after a visit in our Sickbay and a long shower I felt much better and called everyone into the Pirate Den. I nodded to Mao first." How did it go?" "As soon as Donheer took the Loki torpedoes and launcher and activated them we could scan and find them. As you ordered we went with 10 Ultras and 10 Cerberus Robots underwater . We would not even needed the Virus Shea and Ship planted in their Computronic system. We overwhelmed his forces fast and recovered a large cage of Terran Mil Tec in a vault deep below the main house. His men were very eager to tell Krabbel all he wanted to know. We then planted a 5 kilo AM charge and blew the entire island to rubble." Then I looked over to Har-Hi, Narth and the Golden one." You made my heart stop as I heard you were captured." Narth said."I did not now I was affected by Paralysator rays. It severely impaired my Abilities for hours. It won't happen again. I changed my physiology in that regard." Har Hi shrugged." There isn't much we could have done. That bastard used a F4 Paralysator, and stunned an entire City block." "I am not blaming you for anything. I merely tried to express how glad I am you are back and safe." Har-Hi put his hand on my shoulder. You are the best Captain and when I said I follow you to the Badlands I meant that. I know you don't like to send us in harm's way but you might have to do it again. Be assured we know that. " The Golden added." We never were in much danger. Narth recovered fast and told us your plan and Hans was there as well. They did not know we knew him and he could have freed us anytime." Hans nodded." They never considered the golden or Narth in his disguise as old man material for the Arena and wanted to sell them. Captain I never seen anything like you attacking that Stomper." Har-Hi agreed." Me neither!" I tried to ignore them as much as I tried to ignore myself about that. Of course I knew that Warriors could go bezerk, I heard many stories about it back on Nilfeheim, but that it could happen to me, that I while fighting that Stomper, somewhere deep down I felt an animalistic satisfaction, like I had felt after I killed the Tyrannos. " We need to interrogate our prisoner and learn from where he got these weapons." Har-Hi said." What about Wintsun. Will we go by the book?" "Yes. He was a friend I thought but he killed or tried to kill Narth and is a traitor." Har-Hi got up." I think it be best we perform a brain dump on both and let the Tronics go over all their memories." I agreed." Yes I agree." Then I dismissed them and said." Let's hope that Red Dragon still shows up tomorrow." ________________________________________