Cerveza del Oro, one of the many Brotherhood owned bars in Heraklion, planet Crete.
As he sits, a small dog licks and yelps at his master. ‘’Shh.... Oah Salchicha.......... cut it out , basta!’’ Machete mumbles to the little dog on his lap.
‘’MACHETE amigo! what happened to you!?’’, a weedy figure asked with a concerned tone in his voice. ‘’You’re supposed to be in Kappa, what are you doing here, Where are the others!?’’
Machete look up with a sad look in his eyes. ‘’Muerte..... they are all dead , Flipado , all dead’’
Flipado waved his hands in the air and yelled: ‘’All dead? MACHETE , you had a wing of fifty Titans under your command , on a training mission!
What the hell is going on amigo??’’
‘’La Diabla Roja... we’ve got her.
She’s locked up in el Presidente’s dungeon’’ Machete calmly replied.
Flipado smashed his fist on the table and yelled: ‘’You are so full of mierda MACHETE, are you saying that the entire Kappa Titan-wing got wiped out for what? …for one woman?!’’
Machete quickly jumped up , launching poor Salcicha meters away, and grabbed Flipado by the throat.
He grunted while grinding his teeth: ‘’Sit down and I'll tell you what happened amigo....
She is no ordinary woman, you have only seen a fraction of what that demon is capable of!
Now... as I was saying...” The men both took a shot of rum , and shared Flipado’s smoke, and Machete started talking.......
"Okay we’ve done the butterfly formation around planet Gammu, the Squeeling pig formation at E6.... the raging bull formation ….erh and what else, ah si ,next time remember to hold up your viva el presidente signs on my command."
Machete was annoyed by these stupid drills, the new batch of young pilots seemed to learn even slower than the last one.
"Roberto wake up! Are you stupido? We have that parade planned in four days, do you dare to make a fool out of yourself when our great elder Presidente is watching?"
"Baldinio , stop eating while you are flying!"
"NO MARIELLA , WE DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR A TOILET BREAK!!"
"Come on you bunch of smelly roses , plot your course for Omicron Del-" before Machete could finish his sentence he got interrupted by a short range transmission.
"*Static*Am*Static*os amigo*Static*t’s me , Marico 'Enne' Benitez! Please help *Static*, she is killing *Static* at the Kappa *Static*ole!"
Machete replied with an annoyed tone in his voice. "Who is killing you, Caballero …... SEÃOR!?"
"El Diabla Ro.." *An explosion was heard and the channel dropped*
An explosion is seen in the distance, and a small ship, black all over, with a couple of scorch marks appears not ten seconds afterwards.
Silver, La Diabla Roja, leader of the Reaver Merc. Co. claimed another death to her ledger.
She punches the console, and a part of it spits sparks and a small column of smoke. “Eff these frackin’ comm’s. That bloody ‘sair managed to bust up this piece of crap.”
The orange dyed hair, her trademark, flew to the side with a swift movement of her head.
“And what a nice neighbourhood for this to happen. In the middle of effin’ Gamma. No comms, no backup. I better get out of dodge before they summon the whole Omega fleet on my arse.”
She grabbed a bottle of Jack, and started to gulp the precious liquid.
Suddenly, a flare to the side of her ship called her attention.
An arrival from Kappa.
A lone Titan.
She grinned as she wiped her mouth and prepared for round two.
But then. Another one.. And another one.. Ten.. Twenty.. Thirty.. A lot of flashes, each one disclosing a Titan arriving in quick sucession.
“Rule #4.”
She muttered as the flashes still continued.
The bottle of Jack Daniels hit the ground of the cockpit with a thud and the cruise engines beckoned to roar up to life.
Her hands flew with precision and speed as she tapped the commands in the console and grabbed the stick to turn around. Counter-measures launching in fury. Engines full on.
The cruise engines only met power for a brief second as they were drowned in a gigantic barrage of cruise disruptors.
Silver sighed. “Guess i ain’t gettin’ out the easy way.”
Machete and Padre tried to calm down their men. What was a training session in Kappa, became a problem as half of them were screaming for blood, and the other half were screaming to run, since they were expecting a trap.
El Diabla Roja, all alone, in front of all those corsairs?
Machete’s mind was being pounded with the thought that it was a trap.
The Malvada Cloud already was known to be something akin to the old Bermuda Triangle in the stories that survived from the Sol System and Earth.
Communications were below the acceptable there, it was a nightmare to fly in where one could easily loose track of his direction and get lost.
Many corsairs have died there. It was a place reeking of death, where the sight of half destroyed Titans, lit up by the electrical discharges of the cloud, brought the eerie feeling of doom to anyone that flew in it.
And above all that.
El Diabla Roja’s prime hunting grounds.
Padre, the cleaning lady of the Brotherhood, chirped in the comms. "Senor MACHETE! The men are getting out of hand!”
“Tell them to hold their cuecas, senorita!”
Machete replied, and opened a channel to the already known Black Dragon.
“Eh Diabla.. You lost? Need a hand... or a gun to kill yourself?” Silence was his answer. Something that only made him even more nervous.
But his trail of thought was cut off. A rookie, stupid or nervous, fired his guns.
It ignited hell.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:12:00] Traxit: this is smut stop
Flipado hurled a column of smoke. 'Estupido. I knew those rookies were dumb, but.. That one did that without an order? Stupid.' ''Si , I remember the times when we still had a talented one between the usual rubbish...Beer?'' ''Si I'll have one amigo , this rum is almost finished anyway'' ''Barman!''Machete yelled with a grin on his face ''Two beers or you'll die''
''I don't have beer.''
The fat balding sair coughed the words out from behind his moustache ''All I got is this piss warm Chango....'' he continued in a not so apologising way. ''That's alright ... that's my brand!''a not so excited Flipado replied.
Machete took a drag from the smoke and looked at Flipado. ''Qi en fuma?..''he stuttered releasing smoke out of his mouth. ''Il puma!'' Flipado said and started smoking.
''Now I am sure you'd like to hear more of the the story si?''
By now some more hombres sat down near the table, the whole bar was quiet ,
except for the music playing.
''MACHETE, I don't understand , what happened to the fleet,
where's Padre , I just can't believe you lost a group of fifty fighters!
Show me some guncams, I wish to see it with my own eyes or it didn't happen!'' For a moment Machete's face appeared even more disturbing than usual. ''Believe me, Cesar.... the bravest , toughest among them where crying like niñas.
We simply got '¦ overpowered.
DO YOU THINK I HAD TIME FOR A KODAK MOMENT?''
"La Diabla isn’t human. She can’t be. She should be dead already!”
Machete whispered as he saw another Titan exploding.
This time against one of the large asteroids.
Screams of rage, of panic filled the failing comms, due to the Malvada’s radiation.
If he was lucky, his call would reach Crete. If not..
This time another explosion, one of the rookies got vaporized by the blue’ish guns of El Diabla’s ship.
He tried to hit it, only to fail at following her ship against the jagged edges and corners of the asteroids.
One second she was in front of you. The next, she was at your six.
Padre’s voice was heard in the comms.
“Senor MACHETE! We are dying out here! I tried to contact Crete but Malvada wants to claim our radios and souls today!”
“Just tell the rookies to dodge, senorita. They can’t survive if they try to catch her! They are falling into her game!”
“Si, Senor!”
Another explosion. But this time, it seems the brave pilot managed to ram his exploding ship against her, connecting a mine and his ramming debris. Slowly, but surely, El Diabla was getting damaged.
“FRAAACK!”
Silver shouted as the debris hit the already damaged hull of her Betty, as she called the Black Dragon.
In the back of her mind, sure, she was doing her best in using Malvada’s prime features to her advantage, since the Titans couldn’t turn faster than a brick.
Coupling that to the size of her ship and agility, she was doing more damage than three Liberty Dreads on a Xeno convention in Colorado.
But they were getting at her.
Every hit was like the countdown to doom. Her last nanos were used a couple of minutes ago as she got rammed fully by one of the Titans, Padre, it seemed, that was fully missile based, with good ol’ Machete in tow, dropping two mines, damaging the left engine.
“How quaint. A fully ‘sile Titan, and i don’t have cd’s. Just my effin’ luck... Hmmm.”
An idea came to mind. “I don’t have cd’s.. But you do.”
She trailed one of the titans and took some pot shots. The way he dodged screamed rookie on the stick. What she wanted and desired. After getting his attention, she turned to the Titan that was named Padre. “Time to play.”
As Padre was clearly moving in for the shot, feeling a sense of dread in the whole move.
El Diabla Roja was in front of her. Prime for a full mansile blast.
And Padre could feel La Diabla looking back.
She even thought she heard a small laugh.
Silver ignited the cruise engines just for a second.
But enough to alarm the rookie that was on her six.
One countermeasure was all it took.
Padre’s missiles exploded as they were launched, hurting the Titan in ways that a sadomasochist would blush.
“ESTUPIDO!!!!”
The cleaning lady shouted on the comms.
And then the rookie exploded. Just like that.
And all that was seen was the Black Betty flying through the debris, with the mini razor gun tip still hot from it’s last kill.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:12:00] Traxit: this is smut stop
Flipado stared at his Chango and mumbled “By Espi’s name, MACHETE, we’ve been told countless times not to fight in Malvada, now I understand why after all these years you still didn’t get a promotion.’’
The bartender was running away from Salchicha now, since he tried to pet her.
Alas, he failed and was already without pants now.
“How many times have I told you people , that perra is worse than a Hessian on cardi, leave her alone!’’ Machete ranted , conveniently ignoring Flipado’s words.
He noticed that by now many of his friends were following every word he said.
He then banged his fist on the table and stood up “You better pay attention to my story , hombres.
Because what happened next … it’s unbelievable.’’
“But how many got slain by then , MACHETE?
What happened to Padre , we have the right to know!’’ Ricardo said while bringing more piss warm Chango to their table.
“Padre is … at the ethernal cuichinas now , making a big paella for all our fallen hermanos y hermanas.’’ Machete said with a sad voice. “Padre... She cleaned everything... how must we go on with the smell of Werss’s socks, el turco’s cooking, Alberto’s underwear and your culo, Flipado.’’
Machete took a deep puff and a sip of his Chango.
He mumbled: ‘’This.... is a very sad day for the Corsair Brotherhood. ” On that note Flipado yelled“SALUD TO OUR HERMANA!and all the hombres in the bar toasted. ‘’Tell us more Machete, You said you’ve captured la Diabla Roja!’’ Machete smiled. ‘’I was already wondering when you were going to ask caballero...
here’s what happened’’
The hombres in the bar were hanging on his lips , nobody noticed Salchicha dryhumping Trujilo’s boots.
“Padre , What is our profession?!”
Machete’s cracking voice sounded over the short range comm frequency,
and it was answered by a loud “Yalalalalala!”
The battle was at it’s fullest and on. Slowly, the corsair group felt they were winning.
And they wanted to capitalize, in order to revenge on a year that was marked
by Silver’s Reaver Mercenary Company incursions in Gamma.
Not far away....
The shape that spelled doom to many bounty hunters, hessians and mercenaries alike, slowly moved within the Malvada cloud. Like the slow stomp of a giant, it wrecked everything in it’s path and left destruction in it’s wake.
A Corsair Dreadnought, Legate, wasn’t built to excel in the navigational hazard of Malvada. It was built to arrive and deliver punishment until it would rest in pieces.
This particular Legate was diferent.
Scratched, bent, badly painted, it kept hitting the several asteroids of the cloud and one could even hear the voice of it’s captain in the void of space.
The Armin. It caused fear both in corsair as in foreigner.
A staunch protector that would stop at nothing to erase Omicron Gamma’s enemies.
And in this particular situation, the only one that heard Machete’s backup request.
Captain Armin yelled to his pilot. “These damn rocks. Our great vessel keeps getting stuck.”
Machete saw the IFF tag and yelled: “Capitan , there are mucho Titans in the area , hold your fire!!”
“Do not worry,” Armin replied confident,“my crew and I are well trained! Helm! Fire the missiles! ALL THE MISSILES!”
“Ostio , Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
At that moment , all the pilots shared something in common.
An eerie feeling , and a red flashing incoming missile warning.
Machete knew there was nothing he could do.
All the ships moved frantically.
Panic was the norm.
Fear was the rule.
And death the outcome.
An explosion that rocked the battlefield was felt and the instruments on Machete’s cockpit flared up like it was an early Christmas. Not that he ever had Christmas. He heard of it. And he knew it had a lot of lights.
As his shields ran out, he closed his eyes and listened to the death screams of 10....15.... he lost count.
After the shockwave passed, there was a moment of silence.
Armin was nowhere to be seen. As usual.
And all Machete could see was debris and rocks.
[color=#3333FF]“Amigos … report...”
Static filled the comm.
“Any survivors?... I am not going to wait for four hours..”
“MACHETE, look at this mess!”
“Ah Padre... Seems like those rookies couldn’t get out in time.”
And out of the smoke and carnage.. The most devilish of ships appeared..
The Black Dragon, burned, bent, with blood stripes and gorish body parts of the dead corsair pilots ..
And still flying.
Machete could feel Silver’s eyes sizing him up.
He could imagine her cold embrace.
He shuddered at the thought and shook his head.
That wasn’t a woman.
That was La Muerte in front of him.
“La Diabla Roja! She’s still here!”
“Not for long senor MACHETE!” Padre replied.
Suddenly, an ancient song found his way to Machete’s mind. No one moved. No one twitched.
All expecting for the decisive moment. When they had made their peace with their maker.
Kalliste Silver could sense the eerie feeling seeping in everyone.
This was her home. The dance with death.
That which made her feel more alive than anything else.
She grabbed the now broken bottle of Jack Daniels and even with it’s jagged edges,
she longed for the succor that remained in it.
With a small grin after tasting the liquid, Silver threw the bottle to the space in her back,
and eyed the two titans.
“For Kane, bishes.”
Machete double checked his helmet and cracked his knuckles,
while Padre quickly wiped her window with a piece of cloth and SuperKleenex4Windows.
Machete’s voice cracked on Padre’s comms. “Let’s do this together, Padre. She is La Muerte. But what is our profession??????” “YALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA!"
Machete and Padre shouted on the comms as they moved their half busted Titans for the showdown of their lifes.
Silver’s ship suddenly moved also in their direction.
Every meter, all Machete felt was the courage that he and Padre were creating with their voice!
They were Corsairs!
Not afraid to die, not afraid to loose.
The seconds felt like hours (or days, depends on how high one was) as the ships moved closer.
Suddenly, all their guns (the ones that remained attached to the ships) fired, and like their ancestors, they were running and gunning for their death.
Except Padre.
She nudged her Titan against Machete’s and took the lead. He spun out of control, just enough to get distance from the duel.
“Sorry senor, but you got to survive. This is my job. I have to clean.. Everything!!!!!
VIVA LO MANSILE, DIABLA!!”
And she fired all her missiles. The explosion shook and broke Machete’s canopy.
His Titan was flung against one of Malvada’s asteroids, braking it’s wings in the process.
With a quick push, he ejected to his pod, while screaming for Padre and cursing her existence with tears in his eyes.
But a pod flew in front of his. Could it be? That Padre was alive and that devil was dead at last?
Was all of this death, destruction and mayhem worth it?
If La Diabla Roja was finally dead.. It was worth it.
He put his helmet back on and put on his gloves.
His body was bruised and battered. His head was with a pounding that reminded el mariachis going loco on blonde groupies behinds on saturday nights while high on methane and weed.
Each movement brought a sharp pain to him.
“Ahhh.. Madre de Dios.. I’m sooo banged up. And not in the good way...
Time for a walk.”
He said to himself , closed his visor, and took his knife.
He then opened the exit hatch.
“Five minutes of air... I hope you are in there Padre, I don’t want to know how that Diabla fights outside of the cockpit.” the voice in his head said.
Cautiously he floated towards the other escape pod.
It was hard to tell if it was corsair made or foreign, it was banged up really bad and looking like it was just a piece of an engine.
He whiped some of the dust from the glass and peeked inside.
His heart skipped a beat when he layed eyes on.. La Muerte.
Lack of gravity made her orange hair dance gently around her pale face.
He could see some bloodstains and a lot of bruises.
Her triggerfinger softly shook , she was breathing raggedly.
"La Muerte viva?...Como..’’ Machete whispered ,
and the corners of his mouth betrayed a small grin.
Suddenly.
The mass of orange hair that was floating around aimlessly, flunged to the small visor of the pod.
All Machete could see was those eyes.
Eyes that were above crazy. Eyes that were above rage. Those eyes were screaming murder. Even in the void of space, he could swear he could hear her voice in that pod, calling out for his blood, his skin, his life.
Those eyes were piercing him, like he now.. belonged to her.
And then suddenly.. they lost focus and closed.
The woman known as Silver collapsed once again and her body flew without reign or control in the pod.
"Madre.. They are never gonna believe this back home." Machete mumbled.
He grabbed his knife and slowly carved a peculiar phrase in the glass of the pod.
† La Muerte † . ↑ This side up. Handle with care.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:12:00] Traxit: this is smut stop
'Cool story hermano.'
Alberto Rodriguez interrupted Machete's story.
He nodded while taking a sip from his Chango. 'It is true hermanos , El Diabla Roja will trouble us no more.' Rodriguez was a well respected Centurion.
If there was one person in that bar who knew more, it was him.
And he did. 'El Presidente is meeting with the Elders as we speak , probably la Diabla will be pubicly executed someday, but first we will get all the information out of her that we need. She's in a coma.. But i've sent al Santi to do that job.'
When the name Santi fell, a wave of excitement went through the room.
He was known as the butcher of Fez, a cruel Brotherhood agent known for his special ways to get prisoners talking.
''Santi?.. He couldn't even tame his own son, how do they expect him to tame a demon!Â?'' Machete yelled. 'No one can tame Death! We should cut her head off right now I tell you, while we have the chance!" His Chango was spilled in his excitement and Salchicha took advantage on drinking it.
'Don't worry, amigo. No one, never ever managed to break from Rhodes. I think tribune Werss himself gets lost there sometimes.'
The Centurion said in a attempt to calm him.
'This is no time to joke Alberto, you don't know what that demon is capable of!!!'
Flipado lighted another smoke and said 'Relax MACHETE, You won the fight , I am sure that she'll be enjoying her last days here.'
'That wasn't a fight, Flipado, we needed 50 men and women to die so we could catch her! El Diabla is a menace even in jail! NOW WHERE'S MY CHANGO????'