"Good news and bad news."
The party had returned to the ship, they sat gathered in the conference room to discuss their next move.
"Assuming it's correct, the information Dunbrau gave me was well worth it. It seems the crew we're chasing was here, and they did make a sale," began Forrester.
"So we're too late." interjected Tobey.
"No, let me give you a brief overview of the slave trade as it operates here; the suppliers come in with new slaves, either captives from raids or those born and raised to it. If they bring them to Catalan they have to do business through one of the Svesh cartels, they sell direct to them, then the cartels either turn around and sell them immediately, or they tag them for retraining. Either way they make money hand over fist acting as a middle-man. No one can sell to anyone but a cartel, and no one can buy from anyone but a cartel. It's a nice little exercise in economic advantage."
"Fascinating Mr. Forrester, but where does that leave us?" asked Col. Strong.
"Right, well our source confirmed that our pirate friends showed up on station with a load of new slaves. They made the sale day before yesterday and left almost immediately, that's the bad news."
"Go on..." prompted Doc Merrill.
"The good news is that the cartel they sold too hasn't turned them around yet, so they're still here, in fact I checked the market registry and they're available for sale as untrained."
"For sale, we gonna buy 'em?"
"That might be easiest, I'm sure we could get reimbursed for the cost," said Col. Strong. "I think we need to formulate a back-up plan though, just in case things don't go our way."
"When have things not gone our way?" asked Fang innocently.
A short time later, the party took up their positions around the market. Forrester and Doc' Merrill, dressed in inconspicuous local garments were posing as interested customers. Meanwhile Col. Strong, in full battle armor, would play the bodyguard and remain to cover their exit. Cyrus and Fang came into the markets through one of the other entrances and would be placed to provide cover and additional assistance.
Hetzer, because of his hard-won noteriety with the cartels, was relegated to loitering outside a secondary entryway. He was tasked with providing a distraction in the event that they needed to escape quickly. He sat alone at a bench along one wall, fingering the grenades in his pocket and giggling unpleasantly.
Double-checking his pocket computer, Forrester identified the kiosk he was looking for. A squat, unadorned building with no windows that had heavy security doors; one of which was open and led into a fenced off pen for display. Searching the sea of distraught faces in the slave pen, neither of them could see the two children. Forrester took stock of the guards and dealers around the pen and decided to try to bluff his way through.
"You there!" he declared imperiously, "I have purchased some of your slaves, I want them brought to me now."
One of the dealers, a Svesh that was unusually thin for his kind, walked over and examined them.
"What slaves have you bought, do you have a purchase tag?"
"I bought two human children, a boy and girl."
"This is impossible, these slaves have already been purchased."
"What, someone has stolen my slaves, when?"
"No one has stolen your slaves, they bought them from us fairly just a few moments ago."
Deciding he had gotten all the information from them he was going to, Forrester brushed past the slave trader and called over the radio.
"We have a problem, someone bought the kids before we got here, they said it was only a few minutes ago so they might still be here."
"Alright people, spread out and look around, we need to get eyes on before they slip away." said Col. Strong.
The party split up and began to search the market, with Strong and Hetzer watching the exits, they broke up and quartered the interior of the market.
Fang was the first to spot them; "I see them, two human children, it looks like their being taken by Bio-Pharm!"
Sure enough, there were the two children they were hunting, the two children that a Bio-Pharm executive had hired them to safeguard, being dragged off by three fully armored men in corporate livery.
"They're headed for the side entrance."
"Alright, Cyrus, Hetzer; time for a distraction. Everyone else, run them down." order Col. Strong.
His heart pumping, Cyrus reached into his pocket and pulled out the grenade he'd been given. He felt the bile rise up in the back of his throat as he pictured the destruction it represented. He didn't want to kill anyone, and he was terrified that he'd does something wrong and kill himself. He surveyed his surroundings in near panic. Finally his eyes lit on a clear space behind an apparently empty outbuilding. He could throw it there and it wouldn't hurt anyone, but it would still draw all eyes to it.
Steeling himself he went through the actions he had been showed to prime the grenade and disarm the safety. Then he reared back and flung the explosive as hard as he could towards the empty space. To his dismay he had greatly underestimated his own strength and he watched dumbfounded as the grenade soared high over the empty space and plunked down in a balcony box high above the trading floor. He could just make out the terrified scrambling of some cartel bigwigs before the charge went off and the box was torn asunder.
Everyone on the market floor ducked, for a brief second their was a stillness as the only sound was the ringing of the explosion and the sound of glass raining down. Then chaos erupted and a thousand beings tore off in different directions seeking shelter.
Outside, Hetzer watched the guardpost as the first confused reports came to them. Half of them turned and sprinted back into the market to try to restore order and the other three waded into the surge of people trying to direct the tide.
Grinning malevolently, Hetzer sauntered up to the post and casually tossed his grenade into the guardshack. When it went off the tiny prefab building simply split apart, pieces of it flinging off in all directions. One of the Svesh turned towards him and began to reach for a weapon.
Without batting an eye, Hetzer charged forward and crashed into the guard at full speed. Hetzer was not a large man, the Svesh outweighed him by almost 50kg, but he had a fury in him that even the hardened gangster couldn;t hope to match.
With all his strength, the human forced his opponent backwards towards the railing of the concourse, then reached down and wrapped his arms around one of the struggling alien's legs and, with a grunt of supreme effort, lifted the flailing guard up over his head and flipped him over the railing.
The Svesh screamed as he fell the forty meters to the lower level and landed with a sickening crunch. When Hetzer turned he saw the remaining two guards staring at him in disbelief. He winked at them, then turned and disappeared into the crowd, followed by a volley of ineffective gunfire.
Inside the markets, all was turmoil, Fang had clambered up onto an overturned groundcar ad was surveying the chaos. His perceptions were honed on the hunting grounds of his homeworld and he swiftly spotted his prey. The corporate men were being funneled towards the main entrance, dragging the children with them bodily.
He radioed his teammates, giving them an update and location for the target. He knew he'd never be able to catch them on the ground, but he didn't have to. His people had evolved on a world renowned for its massive forests, and he'd been raised learning to travel across miles of virtually impassable terrain without ever touching the ground. He leapt off the ground car and caught a low hanging support structure, using the momentum he swung around and flew a dozen meters through the air to the next handhold. Fixing his prey again, he swung in pursuit.
Outside the market, Col. Strong received Fang's report and positioned himself to intercept. He bulled his way out into the crowd and watched for their appearance. Within seconds he spotted them being swept out by the push of the crowd. They were being pulled along too fast and he couldn't reach them in time. He watched helplessly as they brushed past, just out of reach and went down one of the numerous exits from this promenade.
He set off after them, notifying the rest of the party over the comm of what was happening. He almost stopped in amazement as he saw his companion Fang sweep by overhead, swinging from handhold to handhold and easily outdistancing him.
 |
| Mass transit stations like this are a necessity on stations like Catalan, with interior volumes in the millions of m3. Without them it would take hours or days to get from one location to another. |
Once into the side tunnels, the pressure had eased significantly and the rest of the party had managed to regroup. As they rushed down the corridor they received Fang's frantic report. They had to get to the docks quickly, if the Bio-Pharm goons managed to get to their ship they'd be able to burn for the outer system and warp in any direction.
Searching around frantically, their eyes lit upon a heavy repulsorlift truck, abandoned in the panic. Without a word they all piled in and Forrester gunned the powerful engine. With Col. Strong in the rearbed, they took off into the air and dove over the side of the railing, headed down the wide open expanse of the inner habitat towards the central docking bay.
Mere moments later they skidded to a halt along the inner ring. Before them lay a wide observation window with a panoramic view of the innner core of Catalan station. For a moment they stood awed by the sheer magnitude of the sight before them. Hundreds of ships, ranging from tiny courier boats to massive bulk freighters were arrayed across the entirety of the huge bay.
A strident beeping sound tore them from their reverie, it was Fang. He had followed them from the tramway station into the inner observation ring, thier ship was docked on the far side and they were heading for it quickly.
Wordlessly, the party fell into line and sprinted down the wide corridor. Soon they were joined by Fang and they spotted their targets. Because the corridor sloped upwards in a ring around the interior of the central docking bay, they appeared above them on the horizon. They put on speed to close the distance but as they rounded the curve they were fired on.
The Bio-Pharm goons had noted the pursuit and left all but two of their number behind as a rearguard. The party dove into cover and returned fire, all the while watching as the children were led closer and closer to the enemy ship.
The party fired frantically into their enemies, but the furnishings around the observation ring were built to withstand spacecraft collisions and were proof against small arms. Col. Strong looked around for a way to break the stalemate, his eyes lit upon an emergency airlock.
"Mr. Forrester, can you hold them for a few minutes, I think I can bypass and cut them off at their ship!"
"Go for it Colonel, we'll handle these guys."
Col. Strong stood up and let loose a long burst from his assualt cannon, the corporate soldiers all ducked for cover as Strong sprinted across the corridor and dove into the airlock. The rest of the party used the opportunity to advance by bounds, maintaining a heavy suppressive fire the entire time.
Focusing on the Bio-Pharm starship, several kilometers distant across the docking bay, Col. Strong set his feet, grabbed a reserve thruster bottle, and hit the emergency blow release. He was shot out of the tiny chamber like a bullet by the sudden decompression.
As soon as he launched he knew that he'd judged correctly, he'd be thrust over to the other side by the force of the explosive decompression alone with only minor corrections needed. This was good because he'd be able to use most of the thruster bottle to slow his approach and make a controlled landing.
As he neared his point of contact, he studied the silhouette of the corporate ship.
"Captain Saul, that bogey we ID'ed back at the Leslie, could it have been a Perry-class patrol ship?"
"One second Colonel, let me check the numbers...yes it's possible, the emissions profiles aren't a spot-on match, but its not unusual for little runabouts like that to be extensively modified for specialized work."
"Thank you Captain. Be advised, we might be coming back in a hurry so prep the ship for immediate departure."
"Aye Aye Colonel."
With his extensive suit training, not to mention a dozen years of space service, Col. Strong expertly adjusted his course and come in to a featherlight landing directly abaft the secondary personnel 'lock on the patrol ship. He immediately broke into the panel and connected his suit computer to the security system. He wasn't as adept at cracking as Hetzer, but this wasn't a particularly secure lock, his suits built-in intrusion subroutines were sophisticated enough to make short work of it.
He slipped into the ship and began running up the ships central corridor towards the command center. He'd seen the umbilical connecting the ship to the station he knew that they would be boarding from the starboard side near the bow.
He slowed down as he passed through a gastight safety hatch amidships and skidded to a stop. The last two Bio-Pharm troopers stood on the raised platform above him with the two children off to the side.
Without hesitation, Col. Strong closed the distance on the stunned corporate lackeys. He unloaded a long burst from his assault cannon, walking the fire expertly from one target to the next without endangering the children. His two targets were both in class IX personal battle armor, the heaviest unpowered armor available, but at this range it was as effective as so much tissue paper to the thumb-sized hypervelocity slugs the cannon fired.
He slid to a halt at the top of the ramp and looked down at the cowering children, he extended his hand.
"Come with me, I'm here to rescue you."
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