Sunday, February 24, 2013

The Worst Enemy is Your Family

The transport shuddered slightly as it docked in the Ishukone factory in orbit above the second moon of the tenth planet in Huola. The intercom pinged an arrival message and the passengers began to disembark. Among the poorest dressed was Katerina Tzestu. She kept her hood as far over her face as she could, hoping to slip unnoticed into the station in enemy territory.

"You lost miss?" A deep voice came from behind her, sounding bored. She jumped slightly and whirled around to face the large Ishukone security officer. She cast her eyes down and bent her head slightly, acting like a scared, lost poor migratory worker, the first emotion not entirely feigned. She shakes her head slightly, "N-no sir. I just got a job here working in the factory lines." He grunts, "Well assigned worker quarters are on decks 5 through 11." and he walked away before she could reply.

An hour later she had managed to sneak into an unoccupied office. She sat down at the desk and activated the data terminal, hoping desperately that she was equal to the task of finding out what her brother was up to now. She had received word several weeks ago that her brother had once again followed her.

He still blamed her for the death of her sister, Kat knew. He hated her so much that when she had left the high security regions of space to depart for the region of Cobalt Edge as a capsuleer member of the Intrepid Crossing alliance, he had signed on to help the Goonswarm Federation, leader of the CFC coalition, enemies of Intrepid Crossing, since they were the most likely to be able to kill her. And when she had moved south to join Test Alliance in Delve, he had followed, this time joining the Blood Raider Covenant and assuming command of many of their operations in Delve, so as to have the best chance to destroy her ships, and though it was never likely, kill her.

And now, he had done the same thing again, leaving the Blood Raiders in order to become an agent of the Minmatar Militia once he had heard that she had joined the Amarr Militia, as always, with the sole intent of destroying her life's work. The only time he had not been able to follow her was when she had left known space entirely, instead living inside the unknowns of wormhole space. And even then, he'd always been watching for her to appear in known space. And now she had found out through an Amarr agent that he'd been sighted in Huola -- on this exact station. All Kat had to do, was find him. She wasn't sure what she was going to do next. Talk to him? If only that would work. Kill him? As far from human as she felt, she still wasn't sure she could do that, regardless of what her brother had done.

Her eyes never left the screen, and her fingers flicked keys without pause, until a voice interrupted the silence.

"Been a while, Katie." She jerked up, and her green eyes flicked up towards the now open door, and locked with his green eyes. She cautiously stood, and said, "Michael. What are you doing here?" He laughed and held his arms up in a mocking gesture for a hug. Kat pulled a gun from behind her and barked, "Stop! Don't make me shoot you." Michael only laughed and put his hands up, making the gesture sarcastic. He then backed up towards the door slightly, snapped his fingers, then said, "You remember Greg right?" as the large Ishukone security officer entered the room. "Well, we both know that Mom and Dad would be so sad to hear that I killed their darling girl, so I think I'll just let Greg here handle that." He then pulled out his own weapon and fired three shots at her, none of them hitting her, but distracting her while the security officer battered into her. Michael then left the room while the two of them wrestled around. The security officer lay on top of her, attempting to stop her squirming while he wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed.

As her vision faded, her fingers brushed up against the checkered handle of her pistol. Her eyes widened and she gripped the handle with all her strength. She then brought it up to the side of the security officer's head and squeezed the trigger twice, and gasped as she was showered with hot blood, bone, and brain matter. She rolled the now lifeless corpse off her and lay there coughing for a minute. After she'd regained her breath, she got up and staggered out of the room. Another security officer was nearby, and rushed over in shock at her bloodied, battered form. Before he could say anything, or do anything other than reach for her shoulders, Kat quickly jabber an elbow into his throat, and the last thing he saw was her running form retreating down the passageway as he struggled for a breath that his crushed larynx could no longer allow into his lungs.

The next time she encountered a living soul that acknowledged her was in one of the docking bays, she stumbled blindly, still choking and blood splattered into a family that was heading towards a transport similar to the one that brought her to the station.

She bounced off of an older man, who was still strong enough to catch her before she could fall. He looked her over in alarm, then asked her, "Are you alright? What's going on?" She managed to whisper back, "Nothing, I just need to get off this station." And pulled the hood of her cloak back over her face. He gently grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him, and kindly said, "You need to see a doctor, and to report whatever happened to the station security." At the mention of the station's security, she tried to break free, but he wouldn't let her. She started sobbing, and managed to get a few words out "No-no, please, I just need off....of this station." He mumbled "Okay, you're safe now." and gently guided her along with the rest of his family into the transport, the crew of which completely ignoring them as yet another group of migrant workers.

No comments:

Post a Comment