Firefly/Serenity Fan Fiction ❯ Genesis ❯ Rabanast ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1 - Rabanast

 

“We had a deal, Tor.” His voice carried just far enough across the cantina to reach the other side of the table where the smug Halfling sat, his nose barely reaching the level of the tabletop. His eyes glittered maliciously.

 

“Captain Lae, you really aren't in a bargaining position, here.” Tor squeaked in return, his eyes flickering to the pair of large quadrupeds glaring down at Marcus from the mezzanine.

 

Captain Marcus Lae grinned tightly to himself, following the Halfling's gaze up and toasted the two haired brutes draped over the table. In stony silence they each took a sip of their drinks. Marcus's grin widened. So did their eyes. Almost in synchrony they realised that their drinks had been drugged and they slumped to the floor, unconscious.

 

“The money, Tor.” Marcus demanded, yanking a gun from its holster at his hip and aiming it at the diminutive being across the table from him. The petty crime-lord squeaked in consternation but pulled out a wad of papers from his jacket, his tiny hand pushing it across the table. The Captain smiled politely and shoved the wad of notes deep into his jacket pocket and turned to leave. He didn't even bother glancing back until he was out of the door and onto the cold night street. A harsh wind kicked up the spray from the road and exacerbated Lae's feeling cold. Pulling his collar up, he flicked on his communicator and brought it close to his face so that no passers-by could overhear him.

 

“Elise, you there?”

 

“Loud an' clear, cap'n.”

 

“Good work with the poison, you were right - he did try to screw us.”

 

“You got the money though, right?”

 

“Yeah. Where are you now?”

 

“Headed back to the bay, just round the corn-oh you are kriffing kidding me!”

 

Marcus stopped in his tracks, a cold fear gripping him.

 

“Elise talk to me. What's wrong?”

 

“That dirty little rodder had our ship impounded. They're locking the doors now.”

 

-=[]=-

 

She was perhaps 1.6 meters tall, dressed in a jumpsuit that did all the right things to her figure, and she was obviously used to the attention. She wore a pair of fighting gloves, the metal knucklers attached to the worn black material were scuffed and dented and strapped across her back was a sawn off carbine. About her waist were various tools and a satchel strap cut across her body, its contents unknown. She walked past bay 72 without so much as glancing at the three Federal Dock workers who were welding the door shut and kept moving down the line, her gait long and free. As soon as she was out of sight around the corner, she put the communicator back up near her mouth.

 

“What do you reckon we should do?”

 

“There's no way you can work your way into that bay?”

 

“Short of shooting them off the door and trying to cut through again myself, nope. Plus they're bound to have locked down the outer doors already. Our little bird has had her wings clipped.”

 

“Spast. We can't let her computer be cracked. Can you find a vent access somewhere for a roller?”

 

“Yeah that shouldn't be a problem, Cap'n.” Elise replied, her hand darting into the satchel to feel the smooth treaded pebble contained within. Little more than a remote EMP bomb, it was ideal for shutting down areas of security, or, in this case, for getting near enough to a transport's avionics section to wipe the computer records.

 

“Oh slice I'm going to miss the Longshot.” Marcus's voice was full of sadness, detectable even over the distortion of the communicator line.

 

“You ever considered a career in piracy?” She asked as she knelt down by a vent and started unscrewing the cover.

 

“El, you read my mind. I'm going to make a couple of house calls and meet up with you in the Afterburner.”

 

“Gotcha. I'll be there once I have the memory on the Longshot wiped.”

 

-=[]=-

 

“Who else handled that data-clip?” His voice was harsh, clipped and filtered through a heavy, ornate helmet. His armour was a glistening silver chrome and a dark matte black cape flowed behind him like a storm cloud. Surrounding the Halfling were a group of elite troops, their blue armour matching the Inquisitor's. Their faceless masks showed no compassion for the diminutive being's plight.

 

“C-captain Marcus Lae! He acquired it for me! He was my contact!” Tor squeaked desperately, eyeing the arc-caster warily.

 

The two smoking holes in the `quads' flanks cast the room in a hazy light yet the elite shock troopers seemed to not notice or care.

 

“Commander, find this Captain Lae and bring him to me.” The voice grated out, and the elite troop's commander chopped off a nod before stalking out. Behind him there was a sharp discharge of electricity, and one more corpse added to the cloying scent of burning flesh in the room.

 

-=[]=-

 

“You are of course kidding.” Elise said as she nursed her drink in the Afterburner, staring at her captain as if he'd just turned into a quadruped with the mange.

 

“Tit for tat, El.” Marcus replied, grinning.

 

“This isn't stealing some kid's speeder. You're talking about taking off with a Federal cruiser.” Elise hissed, and Marcus motioned for her to quieten down.

 

“I know that. But I'm not going to let those kriffing little rodders have my ship for free. They take the Longshot, I take their governor's personal yacht.” His eyes hardened ever so slightly, and Elise knew there was no talking him out of this.

 

“Fine, then how do we get into their restricted section of the landing quadrant?”

 

“That” he replied smugly. “Is the beauty of this entire endeavour.”

 

-=[]=-

 

With a hiss of hydraulics, the cryo-stasis chamber was unloaded from the cargo bay of the Eye of Odin, surrounded by technicians. The Chief Scientist of the `Magus' project watched on impassively, his lip twitching as one of the techs snagged the corner of the cryo-stasis unit against the bulkhead.

 

“Careful!” He shouted over the din and several of the security troops stirred restlessly. He paid them no heed - they didn't enter into his work, and he wouldn't enter into theirs.

 

With exaggerated care, the team of technicians moved the cryo-unit down the hallway towards the waiting transport. His new laboratory would be most educational.

 

-=[]=-

 

Much of the Federal Facility on the backwater world of Rabanast was constructed underwater to aid in security. Indeed, the water itself prohibited most ships from being able to get to it, plus the waters were infested with large vicious beasts that took great pleasure in rending the invaders limb from limb. It was assumed anyone stupid enough to go into the water would be torn limb from limb in minutes.

 

That was an incorrect assumption.

 

A pair of suited individuals strolled along the seabed, a pair of meaty sacs in their hands and a strange framed apparatus across one's back. They bypassed most of the other modules, instead heading straight for the hangars, blissfully undetected by the base's scanners. As soon as they reached one of the glass tubes connecting the hangar module to the cargo bays, they pulled the frame from their back and attached it to the glass. There was a brief flash of light, and where there had once been a ring of glass there was now a membrane that shimmered as the water passed over it, but not through. Gingerly, the two squeezed through their improvised entry and dropped to the floor.

 

Elise was the picture of grace as she peeled off the E-suit and un-slung her carbine, checking the corridor for threats. Marcus, despite having sandy dark brown hair and a pair of soft green eyes that had attracted many a sentient in his short time in the `verse was not so elegant as he stumbled from the E-suit and drew his out-dated pistol. Nevertheless, the pair proceeded quickly down the corridor towards the Hangar bays praying to whatever gods that could have been listening for their luck to hold and for them to not be discovered.

 

-=[]=-

 

“Looks like they have four ships. One Destroyer under refit, a couple of heavy fighters, Lionhearts, and the Governor's Yacht. The last one has just come back into bay an hour ago, so she'll hopefully still be primed.”

 

“See? Providence.” Marcus replied happily as he stared at the screen over Elise's shoulder.

 

“The Destroyer is too big to steal, the Fighters too small to actually do business with, just the transport, and her engines haven't even cooled. I want that ship.” Elise purred almost to herself, the light dancing over the exotic facial tattoo she had on her left temple.

 

“Right, let's go get our ship.”

 

-=[]=-

 

The cryo-stasis unit was finally erected in the centre of the laboratory when Dr. Gejjer arrived, to survey the scene. Technicians, analysts, administrative clerks, a pair of inspectors, security personnel, they all ran about his laboratory checking and double checking every detail regarding the contents of the cryo-stasis unit. He nodded in approval, but flinched when all of the consoles went dead and the lights deactivated momentarily, with only the emergency lights flickering back on a moment later. The shouts of surprise from his staff changed subtly to one of confusion - the reserve generator was still operating, so station defences would be in place; what was the point of only taking out the primary power if they were being attacked?

 

Dr. Gejjer was similarly perplexed until he froze, realising an unfortunate side-effect of the power drop.

 

“Was the cryo-stasis unit hooked up to the main reactor?” He demanded, approaching the centre of the lab.

 

“Yessir, we'd just transferred it over.” A tech replied as he made sure the power feeds from the auxiliary source were plugged into the cryo unit.

 

“Get me feeds from the security cams. I need to see the moment of the blackout.”

 

A security officer appeared a moment later with a data tablet and Gejjer snatched it off him, replaying the fateful moment. The lab was shown in grainy detail with the various Federal Employees hard at work, and then just as the rear monitors began to flicker off, there was a brief arc of electricity flickering over the surface of the cryo-stasis unit before the feed cut out.

 

His insides went cold.

 

“Everyone out! Evacuate the lab! The unit has been compromised!” He hollered. Mass panic ensued. Dr. Gejjer didn't waste time gathering any items. He just made for the nearest exit. He froze on the spot when he heard the tell-tale hiss of a rapid evaporation.

 

-=[]=-

 

“You sure severing the main power lines won't be like kicking a hornet's nest?” Elise asked dubiously as she watched Marcus bury his arm up to the shoulder into the maintenance hatch, yanking out a bunch of wires and hack liberally through them with a wicked-looking knife he kept in his boot. He smiled over his shoulder at her as the lights flickered and died, and the red emergency lights sprang to life a moment later.

 

“They'll now be busy trying to work out what caused the power failure, leaving us able to slip into that Yacht.”

 

“I guess.” She replied, but she wasn't convinced. The pair hurried along, hoping their luck held.

 

-=[]=-

 

Steam poured from the cryo-stasis unit and someone's hand darted for an alarm. Claxons started blaring in the background, but every occupant stood transfixed. Arcs of electricity danced over the unit, splaying out onto the metallic floor with cracks and sparks. The steam danced across the floor and with ponderous grace, a near-naked young human male fell from the gripping cold he'd been kept in. His hair was blonde traced with jagged lines of electric blue, his hands bound together by a high tensile cord, and his eyes closed, peaceful. Yet the wracking scream that erupted from him chilled Dr. Gejjer to his very core.

 

His eyes flashed open, showing twin orbs of pure blue energy and he flexed his young shoulders, shattering the restraints about his wrists. He stood, stretching every lithe muscle in his teenage body and swept a glare about him, fixing on the nearest security personnel.

 

The guard flinched and raised his rifle up to aim at the boy. Gejjer shouted a warning, but it was too late. The boy's arm jutted out and a lightning tendril shot from his palm, catching the guard in the face, snapping his neck back, killing him instantly. His charred face evoked screams from several of the technicians. The boy's gaze snapped over to him, but several gunshots prompted him into action. The bullets were burned from the air as a wall of electricity appeared before them, deflecting and blunting them away from him - it was entirely instinct - indeed the boy hardly seemed to notice. He slammed the bottom of his fist down on the ground, and a wall of blue, fiery death shot out in a cone that obliterated consoles, smashed glass and killed everyone caught in its path. More shots were fired, the shield sprang up once more and Gejjer looked on in horror as his greatest work tore his lab apart, killing relentlessly. He didn't notice that he was backing slowly to the nearest door.

 

The boy jumped from his position by the cryo-stasis unit in a dizzying display of acrobatics, lightning arcs launching themselves once more from his hands, catching several techs and security personnel scrambling for cover even whilst he was in flight. He landed on one of the upper gantries and turned himself into something of a hardpoint personified, sending gouts of electricity out as soon as he could build up the charge, frying anyone near him. If was like something out of a nightmare.

 

It was only when one of his wayward arcs of lightning caught a power transformer, dislodged a power cable and said cable hit the gantry, electrocuting him that he stopped. The blue energy possessing his eyes and the lines that had started glowing neon under his unblemished skin left him and he was once more a frightened adolescent with no idea of the carnage he'd just created. His eyes grew wide in horror and he ran for the nearest door.

 

Dr. Gejjer couldn't bring himself to speak into the communicator squawking for his attention and tell his supervisors that their 60 billion credit project had just blown up a state of the art lab, wiped out at least half of the project personnel and fled the room in an amnesic fervour.

 

-=[]=-

 

The Yacht had obviously just been used to transport something important. However, there were no dock personnel - indeed there seemed to be a commotion going on a few levels up. This suited Marcus and Elise just fine. And they strolled up the boarding ramp without so much as a `by your leave' from any security measures.

 

It wasn't old, but the yacht was hardly front-line stuff either. Marcus grimaced as they overrode the door security to the cockpit and entered, glancing over the holographics.

 

“We'd have been better off with a tug.” Elise murmured quietly to herself as she sat down at the navigation console. Marcus privately agreed with her, but was determined to be optimistic.

 

“Where'd this scow come from?” He asked as he primed up the sub-light engines.

 

“A research facility in deep space - not on any official charts.” She answered promptly.

 

“Any idea of what research they do there?”

 

“Doesn't say…but I've got sensor records of the hangar interio-Oh cap'n you are going to love this.”

 

-=[]=-

 

The boy's bare feet slapped against the darkened decking as he roamed desperately through the corridors, searching for any possible refuge. His now dark blue eyes caught sight of a sign directing him towards the hangar, urging him on. He might be able to stow aboard one of the transports. There were shouted voices down the corridor behind him and the blond haired adolescent surged onwards.

 

-=[]=-

 

The doors to the command centre opened and before they had even settled into position, High Inquisitor Bharic strode into the room, pointed his fist at the base commander, straightened his first two fingers, and killed him without so much as a greeting. His smoking corpse dropped to the floor, and the Governor, who had obviously been woken in the night, let out an involuntary yelp of fear.

 

“What the hell happened here?” He demanded. The Watch officer was the first to respond.

 

“There was an unexplained power failure which we're still trying to lock down. Main power was brought down, I'm guessing by a severing of the main arterial power grid's cluster point. This caused a surge in the cryo unit, which awoke the subject, who then, having been `activated' as it were by the surge, did what he'd been made to do. He's now fled the lab and we're trying to track him down - we don't think he'll be a threat, as he's not activated any longer.”

 

“Congratulations. You're the new station commander. Your first task is to completely redesign security protocols for this installation and fetch me the chief scientist.” Inquisitor Bharic replied.

 

“Err, we're still trying to determine if Dr. Gejjer survived the incident - half of the staff are charred corpses and it's taking a while to identify them. He hasn't reported into any of the Hazard Teams down there yet.”

 

“I want him found. Dead or alive, he's got some answering to do.”

 

“Yessir.”

 

-=[]=-

 

The pair of self appointed pirates worked quickly and efficiently familiarising themselves with the controls. They'd thus far managed to centralise the different stations on the helm and navigation stations so that they didn't have to run about the cockpit trying to man more than 8 stations themselves, but it was now pretty crowded on their boards and Marcus was getting impatient.

 

“Let's lift her off.”

 

“We asking for clearance?” Elise queried as she sealed all of the hatches.

 

“Marcus just glanced at her with a withering look of condescension and she took the hint.

 

“Priming torps. We're ready to blow this popsicle stand whenever you want.”

 

“Fire.”

 

Twin balls of red light shot out from under the nose of the blunted yacht and slammed into the hangar door before them, and instantly alarms started blaring. Marcus ignored them and brought the ship up from the ground and down the entry chute. He gunned the throttle and the yacht (named Rood) jetted down the chute until they were fast approaching the main doors to the airlock.

 

Elise didn't wait for orders - she fired again in twice succession, loosing a pair of salvos. The first smashed through the inner doors with ease and the second past through the breach made a quarter-second before and into the outer doors, opening the chute to the ocean. The Rood shot through the breach before the water could press her down, and with a shudder of exertion, she was free. Marcus angled her stubby nose towards the sky and burst trough the surface of the ocean a moment later. Several panicked warning shots passed by her hull, but Elise and Marcus paid them no heed as they gained altitude. It didn't take long to break orbit and set in a course for an unremarkable portion of space. With a flicker of pseudo-motion, the Rood left normal space and entered Underspace.