Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “There were more, huh?” Rana said.

  “Many more,” Gengei said, while offering his data pad to Gomez, Rana, Cooper, and Stepanovich. They crowded around him to look at its contents, a female Aryile psionic on the screen, with long dark pink hair. “This is Veinea, she was one of the lower ranking psionics aboard the Explorer.”

  The screen switched and showed two additional pictures of her. One of them depicted her being on the Explorer and one from the attack that occurred in Unity city. “That’s the same person for sure,” Gomez said. “Any idea what became of her?”

  “She was last seen heading toward the transport bay aboard the Explorer and vanished after that for the last five years,” Gengei said. “We did not think much of it at first, a lot of the crew requested transfers or resigned, many felt guilty for what happened on Earth. We assumed she left her post due to the stress.”

  “Why would a psionic need to take a transport if they were going to ditch their post?”

  “Exactly my thoughts,” Gengei said “There have been rumors of a Hashmedai transport in the system a year or so after we arrived from Earth. None have been confirmed, but if the heretic activity in the system is high as we now believe it to be, those reports could have been forged and labeled as incorrect signings.”

  “Hashmedai transport secretly docking with the Explorer,” Rana muttered.

  “And allowing her to get the slip,” Gomez said.

  “Recently we have run investigations into crew suspected of having links to the heretics. Those that were taken in and confirmed to be working with them were usually seen spending time in northern area of Unity city.”

  Gomez handed the data pad back to Gengei and asked. “That’s one of the shadier areas ya?”

  “There is, as you humans call it, a red-light district there,” Gengei said.

  “A place where people come and go without the rest of the world knowing what they were doing,” Gomez said.

  “Must be hiding someone,” Rana said. “I think we got our first clue, Jefe.”

  “Hell, yeah we did, thanks for the heads up,” Gomez said.

  “My ship will be in orbit for the time being,” Gengei said. “Should you require assistance or a transport, contact me. Knowing that we might have brought a demon back with me from Earth is, troubling, and so I want you all to succeed.”

  Northern Unity City, Lejorania Sanctum, Alpha Centauri system

  Nightfall covered Unity city, something that wasn’t common all year around. To the people that spent their whole lives on Lejorania Sanctum, seeing the night sky, or the lights of the city brightening the environment up was considered to be a seasonal treat, especially those flying about or coming in for a landing from space, like the four EDF-2 members on their transport.

  The northern region of Unity City was a heavily populated section where Radiance pushed people of their society away from the public. From what Rana understood, every major Radiance city had at least one area where the more unsuccessful members of their society were forced to live as it was cheaper and plenty of gig work to get by. Many of the people living there were working hard and striving to earn enough credits to catch a transport heading to the Morutrin system to fully embrace the life of an exile, a self-imposed one at that.

  The streets were filled with members of all five Radiance races, most of them being Linl and Aryile. Lights from the shops of nearby hustlers shined on them as they walked past. Cube and sphere-shaped skyscrapers provided a home to those that could afford one, and a small landing pad where Rana, along with the rest of her team, set foot after exiting their transport.

  Brief strolls through the muggy sidewalks led them toward the red-light district Gengei mentioned. All four of them felt out of place being the only people walking around with a protect suit on and magnetic rifles strapped to their backs. A brothel or at least that what it looked like came into view as they passed through a sea of pedestrians, shooting them strange looks.

  Inside, electronic music of off world origins played, while women of various Radiance races hung out on a raised platform as if they were merchandise on display. Many of them wore sexy attire and exotic make up highlighting the unique parts of their faces and or bodies, how they displayed themselves depended on their species. Aryile working girls exposed a lot of skin on their necks, arms and back to show off the glitter they applied on their scales. Rabuabin women painted the tips of their horns or covered them completely with expensive jewels and rings. Linl women placed heavy emphasis on their cleavage as their species naturally had a large size compared to women of the Aryile and Rabuabin race, unless of course said Aryile or Rabuabin was genetically enhanced at birth to develop a larger chest. The girls not on display sat at tables, enjoying a glass of wine as they eyed interesting patrons that stepped in with bedroom eyes, especially Gomez and Cooper.

  Gomez smiled right back at them. “Oh man, why is it only now we found this place!”

  “Oh, please,” Rana said to him.

  “Cooper man,” Gomez said, nudging him with his elbow. “Look at all this! Bro we gotta come back.”

  Cooper’s eyes rarely looked at the girls on display. “Err. Uh yeah,” he said shyly.

  Gomez stopped in front of a Rabuabin woman. She was half naked, sitting back on a couch, waving toward Cooper in a flirty manner. “What’s wrong man? You don’ sound excited?”

  “It’s just . . . uh.”

  “I see you looking around awkwardly,” Gomez said. He snapped his fingers upon realizing something. “Oh, man, I get it. Those stories you told about life before the war, you were always playing fucking World of Warcraft.” Cooper’s face flushed after turning his gaze away from the Rabuabin. “You never been with a woman eh?”

  “Well, you gotta understand I was young back then, in collage.”

  “You ain’t anymore! Man we gotta get you some fucking pussy!”

  “It’s fine.”

  “Bro, don’t get me wrong I hella played video games when I was young but I still took the time to get some here and there.”

  Rana chuckled. “Jefe, you a gamer?”

  “Why do you think I joined the marines back on Earth Farhadi? It was all those first-person shooters, poppin’ aliens ‘n’ shit.”

  “Ironically, shooting hostile aliens is exactly what our job is now,” Rana said as a Linl woman, probably no older than twenty walked past Cooper waving at him. He jerked his head away, visibly nervous at her advances as well. “Maybe he’s waiting for the right person, ever think of that, Jefe?”

  “Fuck that, this is a deadly job yo, don’t die without getting your noodle wet at least once. Bro I wish this Nodevar asshole would show up right now.”

  “Seriously, Jefe?”

  “We could fucking pop him, haul his dead ass back to HQ, call it a day then come back to get Cooper laid.”

  Gomez started to laugh, Rana couldn’t help but let a small bit of laughter out as well. Stepanovich however stood silent as usual, her shades were hiding her face like an expert poker player. Rana felt Gomez nudge her, his finger pointed toward a section of the establishment neither of them had looked at. It was full of half-naked buff men on display for the many ladies that came in looking to buy some fun for the evening. The men wore either pants or a Speedo, and flexed their biceps as interested women stopped to gawk at their chiseled and tanned bodies.

  “Check this place out, they got manwhores too, Rana.”

  Rana bit her lip. “I’ll pass, Jefe.”

  “That Linl with the huge junk pack is perfect for you Rana,” Gomez said to Cooper. “What do you like bro? Rabuabin ladies? Linl girls? They just like humans.”

  Rana shook her head at Gomez’ relentless pestering of Cooper. She turned around to see what else there was to this place. She felt her heart skip a beat upon noticing Veinea, eyeing them from across the room, next to a set of stairs going up.

  “Jefe, check your six.”

  Gomez spun around, laying eyes on their psionic person
of interest. Veinea ran up the stairs quickly. “That was her, wasn’t it?”

  “I think so,” Rana said. “Is that the only way up?”

  “Looks like it, if she’s coming down it’s through there, or the window.”

  “Or teleportation she is a psionic.”

  “Stepanovich, Cooper,” Gomez said. “Get outside. Keep an eye on the windows facing this section.”

  “Understood,” Stepanovich said. It was likely the first time Rana heard their silent sniper speak all day.

  As ordered, the two moved outside past the crowd of people. Rana and Gomez moved toward the stairs to walk up. Their trip became a short one as a Linl woman blocked them, speaking to them in the Radiance language. She, unlike the rest of the girls was fully dresses and spoke with authority. Must be the Madam, Rana thought.

  “Oh hey, just wanted to head up,” Gomez said to the Madam. She spoke to him in Radiance. “Yeah, we didn’t get around to learning that language. Speak any English? No English uh? El español? No? No service for the human gringos, eh?” He wasn’t making any progress. “Farhadi help me out.”

  “Uhmm try Yuntiag.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “Genitals.”

  “Which one?”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “It kinda does yo! I don’t want them to get the wrong idea.”

  “I mean the word. Radiance doesn’t differentiate between male and female parts. It’s just one word Yuntiag.”

  “So yeah, Yuntiag,” he said to the Madam, making a sexual hand gesture with his fingers.

  The Madam smiled and uttered a bunch of Radiance words, one of them being “Yuntiag.”

  “Yeah, you know what I mean now, ya?” Gomez reached into his side storage slot, and pulled out his credit chit, waving it in her face.

  The Madam led him over to small group of ladies on display and said more words to him he didn’t understand. Probably pick a girl you like, Rana followed behind pondering if deceiving them like this was going to work.

  “Yeah uh,” Gomez said, randomly pointing to a blonde Linl wearing a halter top and long silky dress. “She will do.”

  Payment was made and the two were led up the stairs with the Linl Gomez had chosen. Both Rana and Gomez looked about awkwardly at the situation as they climbed further up. “So I guess this means they think we’re going to double-team her,” he said to Rana.

  “This is going to be an uncomfortable log entry to write.”

  He grunted. “You and your data pad journal.”

  “We’re one of the first humans to come this far and make our home on another planet, might be worth something one day. Or at least to someone.”

  Their ascent up the stairs came to an end, and they were led down a long hall with several doors on both sides. No doubt rooms for clients and their playmate for the right price to get it on. Their eyes started to scan the halls, looking for any signs that might lead them to their targets. Veinea slipped up here not long ago, if she didn’t teleport out then she had to be inside one of these rooms.

  “I guess they don’t mind our get up,” Rana said. “Combat armor and rifles equipped.”

  Her answer came seconds later as one door opened up. Two Linl rangers left both donning combat armor, while the Rabuabin woman they both shared stood at the door naked with a satisfied grin on her face to see them off.

  “Guess that explains it,” Gomez said. “Lots of rangers use this place. They must trust them and us enough to not cause trouble.”

  “Either that or they know that so many people here are packing heat that if you start shit up, you’ll have a gun pointed at you and get capped quick.”

  Their Linl escort led them toward a left turn in the hallway, at the very end was Veinea, standing next to a door as if she was guarding it. Veinea looked at the two humans with concern, as they were led away into a vacant room by the Linl.

  Inside they were offered a shower to freshen up and a place to store their equipment. Not that either of the two had plans to do any of that, which brought them to their next challenge. Slipping out without looking suspect.

  “Guess she wants to get the action started,” Gomez said.

  He was right about that, the Linl slowly started to undress before them, Rana turned away quickly heading to the door. “I’m going to check out the end of the hall, see if she’s still there.”

  “I’ll make it sound like you forgot something.”

  “Jefe,” she said, reaching for the door control. “Don’t let the little head control the big head, okay?”

  “Hey, you know me. I can take missions seriously when the time is needed. Let me know what you see.”

  Rana’s gaze shifted toward the end of the hallway where she last saw Veinea. There was no sign of her, she grimaced as she ran toward the door Veinea was guarding, and hoped there might be some clues there.

  “Stepanovich,” Rana transmitted to her team member outside. “Room on the North-East corner, can you see it?”

  “Yes.”

  Rana lowed her visor down across her eyes. A tactical HUD appeared, superimposed over her sights.

  “Hit me with what you can see through the window.”

  Stepanovich’s transmission projected to Rana’s visor with an image of the inside of the room in question displayed as if she could see through the door and walls. Nodevar was inside, tied to a bed while a sex worker rode him up and down elegantly dropping ice cubes all over his chest from a nearby bucket. Veinea walked away from the doorway toward the bed where Nodevar was getting some action. Judging by Veinea’s hand gestures and body language, she was upset about something. It appeared Nodevar said something things back, thus souring the mood of the Linl girl he paid time for. She stopped moving her hips and climbed off him stepping toward the corner.

  Nodevar and Veinea continued to chat, both of them seemingly concerned about something. Who was Rana kidding? Veinea must have known they came here looking for them. She was probably trying to tell Nodevar end the session and escape.

  “Looks like both our targets are in here,” Rana transmitted to her team. “And a good chance that the theory is correct, Hashmedai working with the order.”

  “If that’s the case it’s safe to assume those commandos we saw are with the order as well,” Gomez said. “And probably some of the workers.”

  “Expect some action when the guns come out,” Rana said.

  The four EDF members quickly moved into position, Cooper on the streets below the window of Nodevar’s room, Stepanovich on top an adjacent building where she had been since Rana first contacted her. Gomez was the last to join up, having left the room to stand next to Rana outside of the door to Nodevar’s room.

  “Well, that was quick,” she said with a grin.

  “Hey!” he shouted back. “Left her alone to bathe, she doesn’t know I’m here, so let’s be quick before she realizes something isn’t right. Stepanovich?”

  “Targets locked,” Stepanovich said grimly.

  “Cooper?”

  “I’m outside in the streets, ready for action.” He looked at Rana, she nodded in reply.

  “Let’s do this.”

  Rana stood at the left side of the door, while Gomez stood at the right side. He placed a small P-4 explosive on the door, and set it on a low blast setting. A digital countdown on the device started to tick down.

  Ten.

  “Back up a bit Farhadi,” he said to her.

  Nine.

  “Major Vaughan isn’t here, Jefe.”

  Eight.

  “I can still hear her voice raging at me for being too close.”

  Seven.

  Six.

  “You were practically on top of the P-4.”

  Five.

  “That’s why we got shields.”

  Four.

  “Need to keep shield power as high as possible.”

  Three.

  “And during a breach you need to get your gun pointed in ASAP, letting
your shields take the blast as you charge is—”

  “Are we really gonna argue about this now?”

  Two.

  “You and I are gonna have a nice chat about effective tactics with this new gear we got.”

  One.

  Boom.

  The door exploded with hot plasma energy, sending small melted and burning pieces inward into the room. Rana and Gomez entered with their rifles drawn as Stepanovich’s sniper rifle fire shattered the window, hitting Veinea’s psionic barrier multiple times in a display of brightly shimmering purple light. Gomez’s rifle joined the action upon seeing Veinea’s cybernetic implants start to glow blue.

  If Veinea had enough time to get her barrier up and start to counter, then Nodevar was probably up to something as well. Rana’s rifle pointed to him as he was still lying on the bed, she went to pull the trigger, but stopped midway. The sex worker that was performing on him stood in the way, and started to panic. She wasn’t going to move and Rana wasn’t going to gun her down, even though her bullets had enough fire power to pierce through her and hit Nodevar.

  Rana’s rifle sights switched to Veinea, who was at least still in the open and taking repeated fire from both Gomez and Stepanovich. Veinea flicked her wrist toward Rana and Gomez and the two of them were launched backward out into the halls via a strong telekinetic push. The two crashed into the walls, their shields absorbed most of the hit. As Rana got back to her feet, her visor’s HUD reported she and Gomez’s shields were at were at eighty-three percent. That was a helluva hit.

  Veinea vanished from sight afterward as Rana ran back inside. Only the sex worker remained, even Nodevar’s gear on the floor was gone.

  “Exit stage left,” Gomez said, running inside the room.

  Rana took one quick peek to see what got Gomez fleeing so quickly. Then she remembered, the ranger clients. Most of them were probably armed and half of them were probably loyal to the order. Most of them probably heard the commotion the four of them created.