Pioneers: Creation

The Ongoing Battle

The Ongoing Battle





present...





         Kenshi Tamaki leaned forward in his fighter ship as he studied space through the viewscreen in front of him.  There was nothing, of course, but the endless sea of stars and the occasional rock from the nearby asteroid field.





         'Just like that day,' he thought to himself.  He felt his left hand clench and unclench in anticipation and the toothpick between his teeth nearly snap.





         The fighter he sat in was the same ship he'd flown for just over three years: a CTG-45 II Raven, or a fighter ship modified for extended use in space, used exclusively by SEALS operatives.  It was large for a fighter and small for a home, but it was quick and maneuverable, packed a good punch with it's four powerful plasma blasters and fit well enough for a nomad on the run.  The Raven was just big enough to hold a small cockpit, sleeping chambers with all the simple necessities and an engine room.  Not much, but it was what he had to live with being one of the most wanted men alive.





         That thought made him sigh, lean back and tense his left hand, his mind traveling to the past as it always seemed to do these days.  Whatever happened that day there was one hell of a mix-up afterwards because he suddenly became number two on the MMC top ten most wanted list.  It didn't help that they thought he had run away with number one on the list and it certainly didn't help that he knew all the MMC procedures and such.  His future was looking pretty grim but he was determined to put things together again.  How he did that would be simple: turn in the person who had started this whole mess.  How he did that was the hard question.  The most wanted criminal in the universe had earned her reputation long before he was wearing diapers.  She knew how to avoid would-be capturers as a second nature.  Any of those that weren't avoided usually became another piece of dust in the endlessness of space or a bit of gore under her shoe.  That's why he was still wondering why he was still alive.


         Kenshi didn't know how many times they'd fought, the encounters blending together after five times, but it was enough times to know that she was not taking him seriously.  She was like that.  Playing with her prey and believing herself to be unbeatable.  Sure, she had never lost a fight before, but this time it would be different.


         'Just like last time would be different, and the time before that, and the time before that, too.'  Kenshi sighed and clenched his fingers again.  This whole game was becoming tedious.  It was like one huge game of cat and mouse.  Only problem was he could never tell who was the cat and who was the mouse.  The roles seemed to switch on her whim.


         The difference this time were the modifications on his ship.  He smiled.  'The things you learn from the internet,' he thought with an inward chuckle.  It wasn't really dangerous...if you could survive the sub-zero temperatures of space - which she could - but it would disable her ship, allowing him to tow her back to the nearest high security Midolloni base he could find.  All he had to worry about was aiming the thing right.  EMP blasters took a lot out of a ship and he would only get one shot.  One shot with an untested weapon which would almost completely drain his ship of power.  He was getting desperate.


         Kenshi leaned forward again and resumed his vigil.  She would be there any time.  This was the direction she would head to meet her next contact.  He'd tracked her for months just for this, recalling movements she’d made for years beforehand, and he was going to get her this time.  Just like the last time and the time before that.


         'STOP THINKING THAT!' he screamed in is head.  He would get her this time.  Ruki's pirating days were over.  Just like his days on the run.  Just like last time.  And the time before that.


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         Rietvan was a planet named after an ancient god of war and storms known for his merciless and brutal behavior.  He raped women, murdered the innocent and put all those who didn't worship him into a sort of hell where they would live in excruciating pain for eternity.  Those that did follow him were close to never in his good graces, which meant flooded crops, destroyed buildings and few virgins.  Those in his good graces were simply left alone.  He was a devilish god and said to be a being beyond evil.


         Rietvan the planet was a beautiful and inexpensive vacation world whose climate was that of an eternally pleasant summer populated by a small, friendly people.  Unfortunately, though the planet was beautiful it was not as popular as it could be.  So while the people didn't make much money off of tourism they did make fortunes on one commodity: jewelry.  Rietvan held some of the most skilled jewelers in the universe and some of the rarest gems to work with.  The result was an oversupply of expensive jewelry just waiting to be stolen.


         Or that's what Ruki thought.


         Rietvan had an almost untrained police force, a minuscule navy and close to no MMC around for billions of kilometers.  It was simply uncanny how no shop ever seemed to be robbed.  She smirked.  The greatest jewelers in the universe were about to get their first security lesson from the greatest pirate in the universe.


         Ruki walked down the street, keeping the grin on her face as she started a light skip.  The street was lined with beautiful and inexpensive jewelry stores and Riets looking into each one while tiny cars flew by slowly overhead.  It was a shame she couldn't get a bigger bag.  The grin turned into a carefree smile as she saw the store she was looking for.  Ruki skipped into McLemmon's Jewelry Shop.


         'Not much to look at.'  Ruki thought to herself.  She'd seen nicer fast food restraunts.  The place was filled with scratched and broken wood for shelves and stained, lime colored walls.  There was enough jewelry to make a small fortune, however.  The place had everything - statues, necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, key chains, toilet paper rolls...you name it and there was a silver or diamond version of it.  Despite the rather shabby building, the jewelry itself was actually quite awing.


         "Can I help you?" the store keep, a small, aging man with a somewhat high pitched voice, asked.


         Ruki gave the Riet an award winning smile and answered, "No thanks.  I'm just looking for now."  The store keep nodded but kept his eyes glued to his first customer of the week.


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         He couldn't quite place it, but Marc McLemmon knew this woman from somewhere.  She had exotic features that absolutely no one could forget and the demeanor of some excited schoolgirl, but her identity remained on the edge of his memory.  Marc was too old to personally know any schoolgirls and no schoolgirl ever came to his shabby shop, so that’s not who she was.  There was just that feeling that he should know her.  She was beautiful.  Great body.  Great face.  Tall, at least for these parts.  Pale skin.  A long, fuzzy tail.  And he didn't often see women with blue hair.  He couldn't help but question if it was her real hair color...and how he could find out.  Marc started sweating.


         The outfit she was wearing didn't seem to hide much.  A tight red tank top and blue jeans - neither of which hid an incredible figure.  More proof she couldn't be a school girl, or even just a girl.  She looked too mature.  Young yes, but her body had matured too much.  Why then was she in his store acting like a little girl in an amusement park?  And where did he know her from?  Her tail was going nuts - like some excited puppy, he noticed.  Maybe he’d read about her from the local asylum.  It wasn’t far away, after all.  Something just struck him as wrong and he examined this...woman more closely.  She was thin, but seemed to have muscle weaved in under her skin.  She was athletic.  Two red cat-like eyes examined everything in what looked like pure glee.  Red eyes?  No creature he'd ever heard of, besides albinos, had red eyes and this woman certainly wasn’t albino.  Contacts maybe?  Slitted eyes were uncommon as well.  He stared right into those red eyes and, after a moment, realized they were staring right back into his brown ones.  The sweat came down faster.


         "Yes?" he squeaked out.


         "Oh. I...uh...think I know what I want," she said in a sweet voice that dripped innocence like syrup.


         "And what would you like today?" he asked, suspicions replaced by the thought of business.


         "I want that right there!" She pointed to an expensive necklace in the glass in front of him.  His eyes widened.  Make that very expensive.  "And that too!"  Now she was pointing to a pair of earrings on the shelf behind him.  "And that!  And that! And that!"  She pointed too quick for him to see the first two items, but as he followed her arm to the last item his eyes widened even further.  Not because of the black marble statue of two lovers with rubies and emeralds for eyes and a silver waterfall behind them - one of the most expensive items in his shop - which she was pointing at.  It was the object right next to it.  A picture.  An old black and white photograph of a sinister looking woman with exotic and sharp features and two cat-like eyes staring mischievously at the camera with a wide grin. 


         The woman in the photograph.  The woman in the shop.


         She spoke again, but now her voice wasn't so innocent.  "Ah hell I'll just take everything!"  It was sweet, mischievous, seductive and playful all at once.  Marc looked back at the woman and saw she now matched the expression on the picture.  Ruki the pirate, murderer and mercenary - the woman they called the most dangerous single being in the universe - was standing right in front of him, getting ready to rob his store.  Marc fainted.


-------------------------


         Ruki watched the store keep fall down and cracked up the second he contacted the ground.  "What a wimp!  I gotta come back to this place later.  This is just too fun."  She erupted into another loud cackle which made passers by scurry away.


         With the last of her laughs she punched her hand through the glass casing of the front counter, taking as many items as her bag could hold and then taking even more just to put around her neck, fingers and wrists.  Just as she was leaving, she looked back to the marble statue she had pointed at earlier.  Her smile grew once again as she picked it up and threw it under her arm.


         The store keep wouldn't have guessed it, but his shabby jewelry store would become the most popular store on Rietvan from then on.  Everybody wanted to see the shop which drew the famed Ruki's attention.  He died years later in another robbery, unfortunately, his son running the store from then on.


-------------------------


         The Rietvan streets were suddenly very empty.  There was no one and nothing.  Everyone had heard about the robbery and run to their homes in fear. 


         "Cowards the lot of them," Ruki mumbled under her breath as she made her way to a small, nearly empty space port.  A few guards stood around, protecting the few ships kept in the hangar and looking about as bored as can be.  "Well then...let's give them something to be excited about."


         Ruki walked straight to the main hangar receiving mixed stares of awe and lust from the few people she walked by.  Ahead a short line of people waited as security checked through their baggage.  She walked right past them all.


         "Hold on there," one of the guards said in the higher tone of his people.  "We need to check your bag Miss."


         "But you didn't check it before," Ruki said, putting on her innocent voice again.


         "Before there wasn't a robbery.  Sorry but we need to check your bags."


         "A robbery?!  Oh my God!!!  What was robbed?!"


         "A small jewelry store not far from here.  A few people said they saw somebody looting the place," a second guard said.


         "Jewelry?  Those jewels wouldn't perchance look like these, now would they?"  Ruki opened her bag and showed the men her spoils.


         The two guards looked surprised for a moment before the first drew his gun.  He started to say, "Freeze!" but was stopped when Ruki took two quick steps and grabbed his wrist.


         "That's no way to treat a lady!"  The man howled as she squeezed his wrist until she heard and felt a snap.  By this time the second guard had managed to fumble out his own weapon and was taking aim at her.


         "Drop him lady,” he said shakily.  “Don't make me fire on you."


         Ruki gave the man a smirk and dropped the other guard's arm, but not before sliding the gun out of his hand and quickly taking aim at the second guard, her finger sliding down to activate the quicker secondary fire of the weapon.  The man looked visibly tense and behind him other people scuttled away, fearful of this violent new person.  Ruki's grin grew into a smile just before she fired her weapon, knocking the gun out of the guard's hand.  She threw the gun away, stepped toward the man and took him by the collar of his shirt.


         "Thanks for not shooting me.  It would have hurt."  She gave him a peck on the lips and headbutted him, crushing his nose and sending him into unconsciousness.  She looked back down to the first guard who was now crawling to retrieve his gun.  "You should have stayed put, pal.  Oh well."  With a brutal kick, she sent his head flying back and flipped his body over.  He would wake up two months later with no memory of the incident.


         Ruki looked around to see other guards either cowering away or already gone.  Grinning, she adjusted the statue in hand, grabbed the jewelry bag then entered the hangar.  The inside only had a few ships in a huge open space.  She walked right toward the center one, a slender red beast that resembled some sort of ancient dragon and entered.  Seconds later the Reaper took off and away from Rietvan.


-------------------------


         Kenshi almost hit his head on the ceiling once he heard the radar blip.  He looked on his radar then back into the sea of stars.  Hitting a few keys, a window appeared in front of him with a picture of the Reaper flying directly toward him.


         The ex SEALS felt his hands relax and he took the time to loosen his fingers and crack his knuckles.  Gritting his teeth around the toothpick he narrowed his eyes at the planet before him and the red gunship which was only a dot in on his viewscreen.  He'd only get one chance at this.


-------------------------


         Ruki approached the asteroid field slowly, finally stopping when it became too dense for her larger ship to safely make it’s way further.


         'I wonder if he's out there.  He's been following me for days but I haven't seen signs of him since I got here.'  She looked at the visual of the asteroid field and, using her keen eyesight, located a strange looking ‘rock’ only a kilometer away.  She zoomed in her viewscreen to find the black, blue and silver hull of a CTG-45 II with the markings of a squadron which had been destroyed three years ago.  Ruki smiled and hailed the ship.


         "Hey Kenshi!  How've you been?  Long time no see.  You were following me for awhile, but I thought I’d lost you.  I'm so happy to see I didn't."  She giggled girlishly, knowing how it aggravated him.


         What she saw on the viewscreen almost made her wince.  Kenshi looked like he had just passed through hell.  His face was pale, his eyes were wide, his hair was uncombed and stubble littered his jaw.  And did she catch a toothpick falling from his lips?  It took a moment for him to pull himself together and say in that quiet voice of his, "Same old, same old.  Let’s get this over with."


         She smiled.  'He still hasn't lost that rasp,’ she thought.  ‘And to think that was my fault.  Oops.'  "You say that like it means something.  Why do we always have to play cops and robbers?  And why do you always get to be the cop?  I could make a very good police woman.  You should see what I can do with a pair of handcuffs and a nightstick."  She always liked getting him riled up.  It made it all the more fun.  And these little skirmishes with Kenshi were always fun.


         A slight blush sneaked into Kenshi’s face and he looked for a moment like he might try to respond.  Instead he just shook his head, fired a shot and accelerated out of the asteroid field.  Her energy shields crackled blue for a second and Ruki had to smile at the futility of it.


         "Now why'd ya have to go and do that?  Now I have to fight you."  Ruki laughed, closed the connection then jetted forward with blasters all over her ship firing.  To anybody watching it would look like some great red dragon taking it's vengeance for something so simple as being annoyed by a fly.


-------------------------


         "Shit!"  Not only had the surprise attack been ruined, but now she was fighting him head-to-head as well.  The Reaper was not a fun ship to fight.  With 22 blasters, 18 of which automatically targeted, eight missile tubes with a few dozen quickly rechargeable missiles stored in each, speed and maneuverability doubling his own ship's and shields to match that of a battleship, the Reaper was near invincible one-on-one.


         'Just like Ruki,' Kenshi thought.  He'd have to find some opening in which to launch the shockwave without killing himself.  He sped forward, dodging red hot streaks of plasma as he tried to take few shots of his own.


         Kenshi maneuvered all over and between asteroids and debris, trying to find a solid opening in Ruki's offensive while keeping his own ship undamaged.  'This is hopeless,'  he thought as a plasma bolt nicked the edge of his energy shield.  'I need to do something quick before Ruki decides she's had enough target practice.'


-------------------------


         "I've had enough target practice.  What's say we end this round," Ruki said with a smile as she prepped her ship's missiles.  "Bye bye."  With those words, Ruki pressed and held down a small red button on her piloting wheel causing dozens of small, swirling compressed plasma missiles - designed to home in, penetrate, explode then quickly recharge - to fly out and seek the other fighter.  Kenshi dodged wildly between the asteroids as he braked and sped through his turns.  He was all around her, flying a thousand ways at once to avoid the missile and plasma bolts that should have disabled his ship, forcing the projectiles to go wide and impact with the floating rocks surrounding them.


         "How the hell does he do that!?!"  Every time.  Every single damn time she got anywhere near serious with him he’d do this.  He'd go nuts and fly around with quick turns and speed changes, doing maneuvers that tied knots in her aiming and generally just confused her or, if on foot, go just as nuts and attack her with an aggression that would make a rabid wolverine proud.  And then he'd do some even crazier stunt to try and bring her down.


-------------------------


         Kenshi was breathing heavily and sweating profusely with all the adrenaline pumping into his veins.  But his mind was only on one thing: bringing down the Reaper.  He managed to avoid another pair missiles and fly between a score of plasma blasts when he found the opening he was looking for.  Just a simple angle.  A tiny pause where her blasters couldn’t get a reticle on him.


         He braked and turned then sped up again, heading straight toward the Reaper, head-to-head with the red dragon of a ship at a downward angle from him.  Stupid with common sense, but Kenshi wasn't thinking with sense.  He sped up and slowed down to avoid plasma fire, but always remained on a heading straight toward the Reaper.  He fingered the shockwave trigger.


-------------------------


         "Kenshi?  Hello?  Kenshi?!  Open up the line Kenshi, 'cause you're about to fucking ram me!!!"  The nutcase was heading straight toward her and Ruki couldn’t seem to get her blasters in quite the right position.  She tried to hit the retro thrusters, but it was too late.  The guy had really lost it and was going kamikaze on her.  "Dammit Kenshi!!!  What the hell are you trying to prove?!?!"  But a second before he hit her a great crackling ball of bright blue light emerged from the fighter, illuminating the space around them.


         It was huge...and probably very powerful too.  But she would never find out if it could contend with her shields because it had one problem: it was slow.  Ridiculously slow.  So slow that after the initial launch from Kenshi's fighter he ended up running straight into the blast.


         The good news was the ball slowed Kenshi's ship enough for her to get out of the way.  The bad news was, if looks had any indication, it fried a lot of the circuits on his ship.  Ruki hailed him right away.


         "Kenshi?  You alright?"


         "Oh yeah.  Just dandy," he replied sarcastically.  Another toothpick dangled from his lips.


         Her voice took on a seductive tone.  "Want me to come over there and double-check?"


         The only barely noticeable blush came again, though his face kept an obviously angry and frustrated look.  “Fuck off.”


         There had once been a time when he had taken her up on that offer in a similar situation and she had all too willingly come to him.  He’d held a gun to her head, of course, and the short battle to follow had him nearly turned inside out from the pressure leak caused by the hole in the hull.  He’d made sure to keep away from personal meetings in space after that.


         Ruki wanted to tease him some more, maybe surprise him by coming aboard anyway, but she had a contact to meet.  Pirating was hard work.


         "My pleasure.  I’ll be thinking about ya," she said, closing the connection on a scowling and overly tense wanted ex soldier before heading into hyperspace.


-------------------------


         Kenshi closed the door to his personal cabin and fell onto his bed.  This was it.  The short conversation with Ruki had taken up most of the little bit of power which had somehow survived the EMP blast and the rest was being used up at the moment just to keep the heat in.  To make things worse either the distress signal was fried or he was deep enough in the asteroid field that it couldn’t get through.  In any case, another five to ten hours and he'd be a popsicle.


         The modified fighter made a noise as if a wrench was being tossed around in a grinder then all was silent.  The dying breath of a ship.  He would be doing the same soon. 


         He curled up into his blankets - the cold was already seeping in - and thought about the last few years of his life.  'What a shit time.  In just over four years my life is torn apart and I die.  I'm  Only 28!  This isn't supposed to happen yet!'  But he knew it to be a possibility the second he had decided to become a SEALS - not like he had chosen it as great job more than something to do, besides the fact that it’s what he’d trained to do for a good chunk of his life.  But it shouldn't have ended like this!  Disgraced and wanted for something he didn't do then humiliated in his attempts to redeem himself to the universe.  For the second damn time.  What a way.


         He sat there for hours thinking of those last few years.  Kyrie and their breakup.  Joining the SEALS and the training to have them accept him.  The Orlius Massacre and the death and sheer chaos it brought.  The occasional encounters with bounty hunters and MMC patrols wanting to collect a reward for his capture - money for bounty hunters and a promotion for MMCs.  His first meeting with Ruki and her flirting cat and mouse games.  The wild chase throughout the galaxy trying to end it all.  He figured she'd probably come back years from now, wondering what ever happened to her little toy only to find an old ruined fighter and a frozen corpse.


         It was freezing now - probably not all that far off from absolute zero - and he felt his consciousness start to slip away into something warm and pleasant.  All he could think about were those wild chases in space.  In his fogged mind they were actually a little fun, now that he thought about it.  For some reason he’d always enjoyed fighting, the adrenaline and excitement, unlike the vast majority of the universe.


         Kenshi smiled as he felt himself being pulled into the warmth.  Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard a deep rumbling and the sound of metal scraping metal, but he didn't care.  He was tired.  Sleep sounded good.  As he closed his eyes he had only one thought: 'What a way.'