Forastero's Redemption

[Ryummel]

//All of this was typed via Skypelancer by Kaze, Joey and me. Converted logs into forums' format in a lazy manner, gg enjoy.

Silver walked up to the sleeping man, poking his head with the data-pad.“Yo. Get up. We're almost there.”

Jack's sleep hadn't been deep enough to keep him completely unaware about what was going on around himself, blaming on the nerves, being excited or rather unsure how he would explain the feeling. He opened his eyes swiftly and blinked a few times to get used to the light flooding the cargo bay. "Ah, eh. Sure." He simply answered, getting up from the seat.

Silver hid her data-pad under her robes and looked at Jack. Still the same after two years. A little skinny maybe. "Hmmm. Until we reach El Presidente, you will use the mask and the robe. Let the corsairs think you are one of the Trece. When we get alone with him, well, put your game face on, 'kay?"

Jack Darrow. Libertonian born, worked for DSE as a dock worker in the Pitt, or Pittsburgh for the locals. A long line of boring jobs followed until he ended up as escort pilot for one of the minor companies that Bowex held in Bretonia. Nothing else, just a mere man. "Might take some credit myself as Bowex dude who went to deploy that load of crap into Nuremberg's orbit back when the Bretonia Rheinland war was going on." He chuckled as he mentioned it, just to feel a bit relieved before reaching Crete.

"Now, Jacko. I got to hit Freeport One again, so after El Prez, you'll be all alone."

"I'm kinda bad at introducing myself." He replied, implying he'd at least want Silver's brief support there.

"I'll be there, no worries. But after that.. Well.. I really have to go to Freeport One. The frickin' station can't run without the new administrator, can't it?" Silver grinned and lit up a cigar.

"Otherwise I don't know why we'd have removed the previous one."

"I asked for a favor, Genine asked for one back." Silver replied with a soft voice. "She wanted out of the whole Freeport, CoF, the whole schbang. I gave her that." He began to walk in little steps around the cargo bay, willing to arrive already. "Fair enough." The gunboat alarms flared, indicating a system jump. The wave of vertigo was fast, but still somewhat dizzying. Silver walked to one of the small hatches and peered into it. Orange clouds. Black volcanic dust. And the sight of a weapon platform gun barrel trailing the ship.

"We're in Gamma."The ship initiated it's cruise engines and Silver turned back from the hatch. Thirty minutes later, the gunboat was finally landing in Crete. As the cargo bay doors opened, Silver and Jack got their masks up and started to walk out, where a full detachment of guards stood in attention. As Silver placed her first foot in Crete's soil, all of them bowed and started to pray to Santa Muerte. Silver stopped on her tracks and Jack could swear he heard her sigh.

Another day in hot Crete. The sun, the air and the floor were hot. And Silver resumed her walk once again, signaling Jack. He merely followed Silver closely, while he glanced slowly around himself, contemplating the Corsair architecture in such harsh conditioned planet.

Children and women started to stalk them. One of them ran to Silver and started to ask for help to "Santa Muerte". A small girl. A skinny little rat with big eyes and dirt all over her face and body. Silver kneeled at the side of the little girl and started to whisper in spanish to her. Her mother, who probably didn't saw it was her child who was with Santa Muerte, screamed. With a fast move, Silver placed her hand on top of the child's head. The crowd that was gathering, clearly tensed. She removed her hand and a small credit chip sat on top of the girls head, who grabbed it with both hands and smiled to Silver.
"For food, you got that? And don't worry. You won't die so soon."

The small child smiled and nodded, running happily to her mother. One of the men in the crowd grabbed the small child to try to relieve her from the credit chip. The small child squirmed and when finally the man had the chip in his hands, he raised it up to see it clearly. And got his face punched by a very pissed off Silver. The credit chip fell into her hand, who then gaved it to the small kid.N ow, she looked at the ragged man, with very few teeth. "Now you.. Well.. Your time is up."

The man started to run, down the street, while grabbing his nose. Pushing people aside in the crowd and almost falling. One of Los Trece was stopped, waiting for the man to come, in the middle of the crowd. As he reached the Trece's position, he went against it. And found himself with a blade stuck in his heart. The crowd fled, screaming. And Silver stood, looking at the man, now crumbling down to the floor alongside his blood, meters away and returned to her walk to the Palacio. A hover car awaited them. A man, military, for certain due to the uniform, kept his head bowed and the car door opened. Silver entered before Jack. And just as he entered the car, two Los Trece entered the car as well. The door shut and the car started to hover to its destination. The full city view of the Valencia Space Port was shown off through the windows.

Jack took a peek at the urbanized landscape below them, amazed at how the slow technological advancement of the Corsairs -compared to the 'civilized' Houses as he considered- didn't stop them from fielding a military strong enough to be able to cause troubles through the Omegas, Sigmas and Rheinland and Bretonia. "Oh well." He mumbled as gesture of amusement.

The hover car finally arrived at its destination, a palacio high in the mountains. At least 4 A-A guns were trailling the car as it came close and landed in what seemed a garden. Several guards stood in attention and opened the car door. Silver came out and started walking through the grass, not waiting for the guards or Jack. The two Trece rushed behind Silver before Jack could even notice she had left, also getting out seeking to stick close to his only friendly soul in that hostile place. "El Presidente is in his study, Santa Muerte.". Said one of the guards.

Silver nodded and picked up the pace. Two minutes in the house, through corridors and stairwells, always with guards everywhere, Silver, Jack and Los Trece arrived at the study hall door. The Trece leaned against the wall, right next to the guards, who gulped. "Time to make an entrance, ye?" Silver whispered to Jack. "Right after you." He replied confidently, although he still had the surprise factor stuck in his mind. Silver pushed open one of the doors and entered, removing her mask. El Presidente was there, having a huevo massage given by Rosita, while Lupe was giving his pedicure.

"Evenin', El Prez." She slowly and ever so gently bowed her head. "I bring forth news of Freeport One."

"Santa Muerte, what news do you have? Is that emissary delayed? don't tell me it got ... intercepted by our forces.'' El Presidente mumbled while enjoying his huevo massage.

"I am Sarah John-Kane." Silver replied, looking at some books in the immense library of the study. Jack just stood there. "What the faruuu****'' Presidente swore in this Tripoli dialect. Silver chuckled as she randomly picked a book written in old spanish and opened it.

''Diabla Roja ... I should have known you were involved in this. Who is that skinny niña you've brought along, and put that book down, you might hurt someone with it!'' Jack had been again observing the bizarre scene with a rather jaw-dropping gesture, hidden under the mask he was wearing. Silver closed the book and placed it back in the stand, chuckled and made a gesture to Jack to remove the mask. "You see.. I saw an opportunity. And i took it. I was the one that dropped the tip of BDM in the sector. And i was the one that tipped the BDM that a certain Libertonian was in the sector."

With a cat like grace, she walked to El Presidente's table and grabbed hold of one of his cigars, lighting it up. Jack removed his mask slowly, holding it in a hand while he made his best to cast a serious glance as he was trying to get the funny scene off his mind at the same time. "With the Freeport One under my control, now you have access to better food stores to your people.. And a direct and legal link to more assets." She exhaled the smoke, while walking back to her original position near the bookstand.

''Si, I see you've been useful for the empire once again... but what about the alleged sabotage?'' El Presidente asked with a excited voice. ''If this whole thing is staged by you diabla roja, we need to make sure there aren't any fingers pointing our way. The last Zoner conflicts left some... scars.'' he continued, he then snapped his fingers, gesturing his servants to leave the room. Silver smoked and looked at El Presidente with a grin.

"We just did some minor explosions to disguise a couple of situations. The actual sabotage wasn't even made by me or one of the Trece. And don't you worry. Los Trece removed any actual footage of us." She grabbed the book again and opened it. "To top that.. If any evidence do shows up.. The Administrator of Freeport One will take care of it."

El Presidente grinned as he pushed a button on his desk, a hologram appeared showing a map of different starsystems, as he pushed another button the grey colored Omega 3 system turned bright green around Freeport 1. ''Si Diabla Roja, you have done very well. Now would you mind explaining me who your companion is, and what he is doing here?'' He asked.

"Mister Darrow here... Came at me in a crucial part of the execution of my plan.. And managed to help. He wants to drop his previous life and become a 'sair." She started to read the book and Jack nodded, firmly. "He has some skills.. But.. I think he needs to be reborn again, don't ya think, Prez?"

Buonocore raised an eyebrow. ''One does not become Corsair... But, we could turn him into something else si. 'Have you ever heard of hostel Rhodes señor Darrow?'' El Presidente smiled playfully as he spoke out the words. "Negative, sir." He replied, surely having not taken any time to check on the locals' 'leisure' habits.

''You will like the place señor, its guests participate in a wide variety of activities, enjoy a wonderful cuisine and the view is spectacular.'' El Presidente then pushed the intercomm button and yelled over it. ''Guards, Santa Muerte dragged something into my office, please remove it to one of our special suites at Rhodes!''

Silver waved to Jack while reading, as he was being dragged away by the guards.
"I'll be sure to keep an eye on you, Mr. Darrow."

"Aye, aye." He replied, somewhat molested at the rudeness of the guards, now really wondering what that Rhodes place was about.

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