Galactic High

The aftermath of their raid was a scene of tense control, as the group were keeping their captives in a vast room, covered in spider-webbing wires, linked to gleaming holographic displays, sprawling server racks, and intricate-looking cyberware interfaces. The room pulsed with a soft green hue, projecting from various monitors that displayed streams of constantly changing data.

It had been about ten minutes since the group had taken control of the ‘nerve centre’, and both Jack and Chiyo had made several quick trips to drag all the unconscious guards into the same room, with Chiyo leaving a sensor in the room leading downwards just in case, though it didn’t appear as if anyone was planning on coming up any time soon.

“Nobody moves unless we tell you! Stay down!” Jack warned with a growl, levelling his plasma rifle at the captives. “Or I’ll banish you to the Shadow Realm!”

“W…we have credits!” one of the scammers squawked. “Just let us go and we’ll pay you!”

“We know full well that you have credits,” Alora coldly informed them as she pointed her wand at the speaker to shut them up. “That’s why our slicer is going through your systems right now.”

“No! You can’t!” the lead slicer yelled, launching himself to his feet, before Nika’s bo-staff flicked out and smacked him hard in the side of the head, sending them clattering to the ground. The insectoid’s blue skin bruised brown as they stared at the Kizun with bulging almond-shaped golden eyes.

“You’re lucky I didn’t enable the kinetic modules, Viel,” Nika snarled. “Otherwise it would have killed you instantly. Not that would be our problem considering you’re worth a lot dead. I’d honestly start praying to your gods if I were you.”

At least three of the group were on the captives at all times, while Sephy sliced in the moment the building and all occupants were secure and accounted for. Occasionally, one of them would be sent on a quick errand by Sephy to check some physical information or flick a switch that would make things easier. Turning his head to look at the Skritta sitting in one of the chairs, Jack could see their face twist and grimace as they worked to dismantle all immediate scamming programs in active operation, and bring the system under her control.

“Woof!” Dante suddenly barked loudly, scaring several of the prone scammers as one tried to make a move for a button under one of the desks.

‘Damn’ Jack thought to himself. He needed to pay attention. He couldn’t allow himself to get distracted!

I would suggest that you don’t make things even worse for yourselves than they already are, Chiyo warned the captives.

Nika let out a quiet, deep breath, keeping an eye on the captives as she switched to subvocal comms and made sure none of the slicers could see. “Alora, we need to work out our play here. We’ve got too many captives between us and they’re getting bold.”

“Sephy needs to take control of the systems first and put a stop to it,” Alora replied back in kind. “And we need a better idea of what we’re dealing with before we contact Tagrilla, though he’s sending us messages requesting an update.”

“We’re going to need to start scanning them for bounties.” Nika shrugged. “Reckon we have a few wanted dead, but it’s best to keep them compliant for now. Church of Tyrus has an interest in this group, so the sooner we let those guys know, the sooner they get here.”

“Don’t we need to confirm what our guy wants out of this first?” Jack asked, not taking his eyes off the scammers. Viel especially was looking frantically for any kind of escape, finding none.

Tagrilla’s primary objective was to stop the operation from continuing, Chiyo reasoned. Though he was unspecific about anything else prior to the operation, I believe it would be prudent to talk to him and not take too many liberties, not least of all because of why we took this job in the first place.

“Yeah, he has other slicer friends working with him, we want to make a good impression. Reputation is good,” Nika acknowledged, as she gazed at their captives. “Though what we need to do may be bad…”

“Owww!” Sephy groaned as she sliced out of the system, taking several breaths as Chiyo quickly moved to support her. “Sorry guys, this is a complicated system, but I have control of the operation now.”

“You alright?” Jack asked, worried. The Skritta was panting, giving several deep breaths before responding.

“There’s other stuff here as well, I think they’re up to other things.” She looked to Alora, who nodded with understanding.

“Take a break for now, we need to make a few calls and you know Tagrilla best," Alora ordered. “Plus we need to confirm the identity of the other scanners and check if we have any active bounties.”

“Alora…” Sephy held out a hand to stop her as she kept gasping in air, recovering from whatever ordeal she just had to deal with. “I was able to get their full transaction history for the scams and access to their accounts, that’s why I took so long. Though they’ve taken bits out, there’s still most of the funds still in there. I can reverse the transactions, splitting what’s left in the account between the victims as a proportionate percentage of what was received.”

“That’s great, Sephy!” Alora exclaimed.

“No!” Viel roared. “That’s our money! We earned it! Fuck you!”

Fuck you too, Chiyo coldly told the scammer as she lifted him up with her power, and began crushing his bulbous head before sending them flying to smack against the wall next to Jack.

“You didn’t earn shit,” Jack growled, kicking Viel in the stomach. “You scammed vulnerable people out of their money during a time of crisis. That’s fucking disgusting.”

“So what?” Viel snarled. “If they’re retarded enough to fall for it, that’s on them. Things are shit for everyone, we’ve gotta do what we can to survive!”

“You have considerable supplies stocked in your kitchen area, you reside in a desirable district, and code slicers are in demand by almost everybody,” Alora noted. “You made your choices.”

“Guys…” Sephy called to the group aloud. “Can I do it please? I think we should while we can, but it will mean that we can’t take the funds for ourselves…”

“NO!” one of the scammers yelled, rushing to their feet as Jack nodded their agreement. “NO! NO BITCH NO!”

A thunderously loud smack echoed throughout the room as Nika smacked her staff full force into the stomach of the offender, dropping the dark-skinned Korrigan as quickly as they had stood up.

“Anyone else?” the Kizun snarled as the remaining scammers thought better of trying to resist. “Do it Sephy, one click of a button and we can do a lot of good.”

I agree. We can find a better payday than this. Chiyo nodded, as Alora gave Sephy a nod of agreement, proud of the unanimous decision.

“Done,” Sephy acknowledged with a relieved grin, savouring the looks of absolute horror from the scammers as all of their funds were returned to their victims.

“Fine! You’ve bankrupted us! Congratu-fucking-lations,” Viel snarled, almond-shaped eyes narrowing as he looked at the group in hatred. “Now fuck off and leave us alone!”

“I don’t think so.” Alora scowled, summoning several vines to hold the lead scammer down. “I think we’re just getting started. Sephy, let’s make the call, everyone else keep our captives pacified, and blast any that try anything funny!” She finished with a dark look to the cowering scammers.

“Got it,” Jack acknowledged, placing himself in the way of the primary exit as Alora and Sephy left the room, while he, Chiyo, Nika and Dante remained on guard, acutely aware of the need to maintain dominance and control over the captives, ever desperate to find a way to escape...

“Finally, took you long enough.” The excitable voice of Tagrilla picked up almost as soon as they called. “Give me a sitrep.”

“Operation dismantled, as requested,” Sephy told the Lizta. “They won’t be able to scam anyone anymore, their scripts and lists are all deleted and funds were returned.”

The Skritta looked to Alora at that last addition with a tense look. They had agreed that they’d need to tell the truth about the funds instead of making up a story, and that it would be best to just tell them unprompted and await whatever reaction would come.

“I see…” Tagrilla answered after several good seconds. “I was hoping to collect a cut myself, but my associates are satisfied with that outcome. What is the status of Viel? Is he dead yet?”

“Not yet, all are alive for now,” Alora confirmed. “What do you want us to do with them?”

“Execute Viel when you have the opportunity. At least half of those assholes are wanted dead, but perhaps I have a solution that won’t require a massacre.” Tagrilla sighed, thinking carefully before continuing after conversing with some of their fellow slicers.

“We will need to make a few enquiries on our end, but if you’re not going to execute them we may be able to pass them onto a third party,” their client finally continued. “Slicers are in high demand and several factions would be willing to take them and make them an offer they can’t refuse. That way the scammers will stay out of trouble and we can still ensure a payout for ourselves, split halfway for our groups. We know an independent contractor that can take them off your hands.”

“Wait, are you proposing selling them into slavery?!” Alora asked incredulously.

“That may be the fate of some of them, perhaps,” Tagrilla retorted nonchalantly. “It’s more likely that they’ll be encouraged to take up employment with a MegaCorp or something. If you don’t like it, either execute them for the bounty or hand them in live.”

“Very well, contact your guy, but we don’t want this taking too long,” Alora responded after considering for a moment.

“Neither do I, try and find a place for them to land in the meantime.” Tagrilla sighed on the other end of the call. “I understand Vireo Heights has a Digital Canopy, but you are next to a district wall that borders a mostly undeveloped settlement - do the scammers have a way to access the other side?”

“They have a tunnel,” Sephy pointed out. “And an industrial cable running down, but we haven’t checked it out yet.”

“Very well. Get one of your team to do so while I speak to our guy. Was there anything else?”

“We’ve got electronic equipment here…” Alora began.

“We don’t need or want it, we have what we need. Take it if you want, but I suggest you format the shit out of it. Whatever you don’t take should be incinerated.”

“Understood,” Alora acknowledged. “We’ll contact you again once we have your drop point.”

“I’ll have to slice back in and start checking for any paydata,” Sephy told Alora the moment the call ended. “It’ll take a while, but I’ll start with the stuff they really want to hide, I reckon they’re doing worse than just scamming people.”

“We’ll keep everyone here while you do that, we’ll need to further secure the hostages.” Alora sighed. “Jack was right about the manacles, much easier than magical solutions.”

“Want to grab a few plants to do your vine-rope trick?” Sephy asked, to a nod from the Eladrie. “Who’s going down the tunnel?”

“Nika or Jack, possibly with Dante,” Alora instantly replied. “We tell them over subvocal and keep the captives in the dark until we’re ready to transport them.”

“Got it,” Sephy acknowledged as they headed back, though not before quickly heading back to the dorms and picking up a few potted plants.

“Everything alright?” Jack asked as he quickly checked that it was them returning.

“All good.” Alora smiled, holding up the potted plants bundled in her arms while Sephy immediately sat back in the chair and sliced into the system again. “We’re going to better secure the captives. Chiyo, could you place these?”

Good idea, Chiyo acknowledged, lifting the plants with her powers and hovering them over the nervous captives, with the closest ones recoiling away, looking at the pots like they were about to explode.

“All of you turn around, face the far wall!” Nika ordered, pointing her shotgun at the closest one that looked like they wanted to try something.

They all did so, as Alora began chanting, growing the plants as Chiyo held them in place. The moment the vines touched the ground, Jack and Nika immediately began to hogtie the closest captives, working as quickly as they could to make the bindings as secure as possible even as the vines kept growing.

Just as they were finishing with the last captives, there was a sudden gasping sound from behind them as Sephy jerked upright in the chair.

Jack immediately finished the binding for the last captive and growled in their ear. “What did you do to her?”

“Please! I was only brought in to work as a closer for the scam and frontal security, I have no idea what else Viel and the top guys were up to,” the gold-furred creature told him, whiskered trunk quivering with fear.

“If you’re lying to me…” Jack began, but immediately stopped as he saw Sephy fall out of the chair, a look of absolute revolution and disgust on her face.

Sephy, what’s wrong? Are you hurt? Chiyo exclaimed in panic as she immediately dropped the plants and rushed over to the distressed Skritta.

Sephy said nothing, quickly getting to her feet as if possessed. Ignoring Chiyo, she looked around with grim purpose, then immediately dashed forward on spotting Viel, drawing a knife from her belt.

“Woah! Sephy!” Jack called out, but it was too late.

Roughly tackling the screaming insectoid, Sephy jammed her knife into the neck of Viel, stabbing again and again and again in rage, yelling with every blow.

“YOU. DON’T. DO. THAT. TO. KIDS. YOU. MOTHER. FUCKER!” The Skritta yelled, as Jack suddenly had to fight to keep the captives on the ground, who were terrified and desperate to get away.

“Sephy, what the hell?!” Nika called out, using her staff to non-lethally bash any captive that tried to get up.

“Chiyo, stay with the captives,” Alora told the Ilithii, who nodded in understanding, using her power to press the closest ones to the ground.

“Sephy…” Alora began, as she placed a hand on the Skritta’s shoulder. “Sephy…”

“Don’t give me a speech Alora,” Sephy whispered with a hoarse voice, turning her head ever so slightly to show the tears running down her face as she kept stabbing. “Just don’t.”

“Sephy…” Alora whispered back in a reassuring tone. “I don’t know what you’ve found, and nobody’s blaming you, it’s alright. But you can stop now, he’s gone.”

Sephy stopped, looking for a moment at her blade before dropping it clattering to the floor with a sigh. “I need a break. Viel’s personal files are accounted for. Shouldn’t take too long to go through the rest and copy over the paydata, including the stuff for the Church of Tyrus.”

“Sure,” Alora agreed, making sure to switch to subvocal comms. “Once everyone’s calmed down, I’ll ask Jack if he’s up for checking out the tunnel - Nika’s a bit more experienced with managing the captives. If I make a show of him leaving then the captives might think help is on the way and not try anything stupid.”

“Alright.” Sephy nodded. “I’ll drag the body out and take a breather…”

Ten minutes later, the captives had mostly calmed down enough through reassurances that they would not be harmed if they behaved, and would be killed if they acted out of line. Sephy had returned and sliced back in, noting the ‘evidence’ she had found among Viel’s files and intended to notify the organisations that put the kill bounty out on the dead slicer.

“Check out the tunnel?” Jack asked curiously, once Alora pulled him to the side and explained the situation. “Can’t we meet this guy in the courtyard outside?”

“Local security won’t allow any unknown fliers to land, and taking them through the streets is way too risky.” Alora sighed. “This is the best way to do this quickly and quietly, but we need to see where that cable goes. Tagrilla thinks it will surface in a more favourable area nearby, and if it does then we can have their guy meet us there and we can hand the captives off.”

“That doesn’t sound sketchy at all,” Jack sarcastically quipped. “But I get it. Once they’re out we have free reign here.”

“That’s right.” Alora nodded. “Can you do it? You can take Dante with you”

“Sure.” Jack nodded. “But Dante should stay here and help with the captives, I’ll do this solo and stay on the line with you.”

“If you’re sure.” Alora nodded. “Do what you need to do to get ready, but the quicker we get these captives moved the better.”

“Will do,” Jack acknowledged, before Alora suddenly remembered something, reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out a small object, keeping it hidden from view of the captives.

“You mentioned this last time we were dealing with underground stuff.” Alora grinned, as Jack looked at the stick of coloured chalk. “Keep talking to us on the line even if we don’t respond so we know you’re okay.”

Jack sighed as he descended the stairs, taking a few sips of water as he did so. He knew this was risky, but during the almost half-hour they had been holding up the hostages there had been no movement detected by the devices they had left there. With luck, this meant that there would be no surprises waiting for him, though on the flip-side, it could also indicate a cunning enemy.

Cursing that he didn’t have his shield or flamethrower, Jack quietly picked up the ladder and set it down securely, shining his light down the roughly dug hole where the thick cable dangled down like an ominous tentacle. While he couldn’t see any imminent threats, he could see the light shining off a damp puddle of something at the bottom, an occasional drip interrupting the beak silence.

Steeling himself, he quickly descended and jumped down into cover by several long-rusted and ruined pipes, checking his angles for any contacts, and once again finding nothing in the straight corridor he found himself in. Noting that the cable snaked along one direction of the corridor, he quickly dipped in the other direction to check that it was safe, with the t-junction at the end having some kind of shoddy barricade blocking the left, while what looked like an ‘intended’ hole sunk deeper with cables and pipes following it down. Taking a look, Jack could see that it went deep, and there was no threat, though the unnatural, deep grinding that he could hear made him anxious.

Confirming that the rear was safe, Jack pressed onwards, as the pipes and cables running along the floor of the tunnel suddenly and abruptly gave way to damp earth and cobblestone, with moss and intermittent patches of luminescent fungi casting a soft glow, creating dancing shadows that moved with every step he took. Though there was a soft breeze from an unknown source, the air was damp, and carried a musty scent that made Jack scrunch up his nose in discomfort.

Something knocked against his foot as he slowly advanced, listening out for any possible sign of enemy contact. Leaping back fearing the worst, he pointed his torch down to the ground, not recognising the bright yellow and brown object at first, before realising it was some kind of stuffed animal or child’s toy.

Immediately recalling what happened with Sephy and deducing what she found, Jack growled in anger as he moved quicker down the corridor, fully prepared to kill anything or anyone he encountered. But nothing came. He checked the floor and could see it was dusty, with no recent footprints to be seen. Had the scammers been down here since laying the cable? Though some of them were hired as guards, they weren’t exactly imposing, so perhaps they avoided this area? Maybe the stuffed toy could have been dropped there a long time ago?

After what felt like several hours but was only a few minutes, Jack finally saw a ladder built into the wall straight ahead that was lit with a low, green light. Carefully checking, Jack found he was at another T-junction, with both left and right corridors twisting and snaking away. He remained there for several moments, listening for anything, and once again hearing nothing.

“Hey everyone, I’ve found a ladder heading back up,” Jack called into his commlink. “It’s a straight route down the corridor, and I’ve checked our rear. I’ve marked things in chalk with a few arrows and I’m going to check it out. Nothing I can hear on either end of the corridor and I can’t see any signs of recent activity. Everything good over there? How’s Sephy?”

“She’ll be fine, she’s compiling the paydata and we’re almost done on the technical side,” Nika spoke up. “Captives are compliant, can’t wait to get rid of them.”

“I’ll check things here then make the call,” Jack confirmed. “Once we’re set, I’ll meet you at the tunnel entrance.”

“See you soon!” Nika chuckled, before the line went silent.

Emerging from the confines of the tunnel, Jack pulled himself up into some kind of concrete building, surrounded by dust, mould and little else. Following the cable, Jack realised he was in some kind of power building as he emerged into a larger room with several large twisted metal monstrosities in rows ahead, with the cable ending with some kind of complicated-looking device plugged into one of the structures.

Deciding not to mess with it, he looked around, doubling back and finding a thick, metal door which theoretically needed a key, but was easy enough for him to force open.

The street he emerged on bore the marks of neglect, with weeds pushing through the cracks along the ground, with many stains along the walls of the ramshackle-looking buildings. He could see the small signs of life within the buildings, with a few faces being seen through the windows peering out, clearly paranoid about the MegaCorps starting trouble, but just as quickly went back to what they were doing. This was perfect, they had their exit.

Jack made the call.

***********

“Nobody move,” Alora told the captives as the dark, crumpled-looking dropship carefully landed in the street, about ten minutes later. The group was holding the captives in the power building, who were making extra sure at this moment that nothing bad happened. “Jack, would you be able to be the ‘face’ here and meet the guy? If anything bad happens you have the best chance of surviving it. Dante, go with him!”

“Woof!” The dog barked as he followed Jack, high on alert for anything to go awry as a landing ramp began to descend, revealing three figures.

Walking down, Jack could see that two of them were just guards for the third - a shiny green alien with bulging muscles, wearing nothing but a thin beige t-shirt and black trousers. As he approached Jack, he looked at the human emotionlessly from behind a large, thick pair of sunglasses, before wiping a bead of sweat off their bald head and pulling out a large cigar, lighting it and taking a smoke.

“That’s far enough,” Jack called out, as Dante let out a low growl at the man that did not subside. Something about the bald man gave the ‘dog’ a bad vibe, so Jack took control and held him back. “I don’t like it either, but I don’t want to kill them,” he whispered to the dog.

The man did not immediately comply with Jack’s order, taking a few steps forward before casually taking another drag of his cigar. “Yew gowt captives?” he asked with a slow, bored-sounding drawl.

“We do,” Jack acknowledged, listening to the other’s talking in his ear. “As soon as Tagrilla confirms the payment is ready to be received, they’re all yours.”

“How many?” they drawled, as the guard next to him fiddled on a datapad.

“We’ve got 23 Bad Hombres for you,” Jack confirmed after Alora finished counting and began to bring them out. “As Tagrilla informed you, here they are. Pay up, and they’re yours.”

Staring at Jack, he quickly did so, taking the pad from his guard and providing biometrics.

“Confirmed, payment received,” Alora announced, with the boss snorting in slight amusement as he spotted the Eladrie. “They’re all yours.”

Several more individuals dressed like the guards got out and quickly ushered in the anxious-looking captives. Nobody said anything as the boss dismissively turned his head away from Jack and returned up the ramp before the shuttle flew away.

“Let’s hurry back and bag what we can,” Alora told them with a long sigh. “I’m going to call Obeda and see if he can get some people over here to ferry this stuff back!

*****

The shuttle rumbled as fifteen minutes later it began to land. Nobody said anything, with the only sounds being the boss taking calm drags of his cigar. He was only about a quarter of the way through before the ramp descended, and he calmly walked down towards his eager buyer and her escort.

“Kobrah, always a pleasure,” Izadora Mal’Kar greeted dryly. “Why don’t you tell me about House Mal’Kar’s newest recruits?