6200 - Book 1 - Beginnings - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 -

As part of my research project to investigate, catalogue and understand every known living and extinct race in this spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy I made a trip to the Malkenet Nebula where the former slave races of the alternate universe race known as the Black Council now reside.

Gaining at admittance to the Nebula was not an easy task that area of space is crawling with Malkenet Naval Units, Theban Cluster Fleet DOSL ships and their escorts as well as Masters Armaments Security Patrols, needless to say sneaking in wouldn’t be easy so I took advantage of the fact that I also have a medical degree and as such garnered a ride aboard a Galactic Medical Association Battle Cruiser that was bringing in medical supplies to help the Nebula’s doctors.

After arriving in the Nebula I first started with the lowest order of bureaucracy as you would with any star nation was surprised by the openness and kindness of those who ran the Malkenet Nebula.

Of course everyone knows that the Oracles and their consorts the Celoan run the Nebula but what most people don’t understand is that all the races of the Nebula worship the very ground that the Council of Oracles walks on, beautiful, graceful, fragile, and completely blind the soft spoken kindness of these women surprised me.

But I digress this is an opening to start explaining the first of many entries on Malkenet Nebula races.

Dr. Stanislaw Medloe - Professor of Galactic & Xeno-History Cambridge College

In His Book - A History of the Milky Way Galaxy and its Inhabitants - Vol. XIX 5928

UNSF - Manhattan Sector - Brooklyn System - Brooklyn IV/Neo-Brooklyn

Barr’s Warehouse

December 24th, 6200 C.E. - 07:00 CST

“Wakie, wakie, Anthony,” Jon said his thick Brooklyn accent chopping off vowels as he pitched a bucket of ice cold water over the mobster’s head.

“Wha…, blah,” the younger man tied to the chair in front of him said spluttering water out of his mouth and gasping as the freezing water soaked through his clothing.

“Hiya Tony boy,” Joe said sitting down in a chair across from the young mobster.

“Who the fuck are you two losers?” The young Gandredi asked with a snarl.

“Me, I’m no one of consequence, now you,” Joe said pausing to light a cigarette with a Zippo and puffing smoke into Anthony’s face. “You are the one and only Anthony Gandredi son of Don Gandredi.”

“Yeah I am,” Anthony sneered. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let me go before my father busts down your door and whacks you all,” Anthony growled struggling against his bonds.

“Wrong,” Joe said and ground his cigarette out on Anthony’s cheek.

Anthony let out a girly little squeal at the burning pain in his cheek.

“You see your daddy doesn’t know where you are and if you are thinking he’ll be able to find you through the tracking device in your left ass cheek think again,” Joe said lighting another cigarette. “Who uses the word whack anymore,” he said looking at Jon who just shrugged and loomed menacingly over the nearly naked and tied up mobster.

“Here’s how it’s going to go Tony, I ask you a question and you give me the god’s honest truth,” Joe explained. “If you don’t or if I so much as don’t like your tone of voice I’m going to put another cigarette out on a piece of your anatomy or let my menacing associate there knock you around a bit,” He said nodding to Jon.

“You think you punks scare m…,” Anthony was cut off as Jon slugged him with a right hook that knocked a tooth out and across the room.

“Now see that was just the kind of reply I was expecting from you,” Joe told him.

“Unngh,” the Mafioso grunted in pain as blood dribbled down his lips.

“Now let’s try this again,” Joe said. “How many men does your father employ?” he asked.

It took most of the day, several more knocked out teeth, four broken fingers and Joe putting out a couple more cigarettes on him before they finally got their answers. When they were done they hit Tony Gandredi with a knockout nanno-injector and dumped him off in front of the Gandredi Baked Goods office.

From the information they were able to find out from little Anthony it seemed that the Elder Gandredi spent most of his time at either his estate outside of Neo-Brooklyn or at a Gentlemen’s Country Club several miles further outside of the city.

It was decided however that they would hit the Gandredi Baked Goods facility first.

UNSF - Manhattan Sector - Brooklyn System - Brooklyn IV/Neo-Brooklyn

Barr’s Warehouse

December 25th, 6200 C.E. - 12:00 CST

Once again the six crew mates were gathered around the Holo-Vid watching a news report about how a faulty electrical conduit had set an explosion off in one of the Gandredi Baked Goods grain silos causing the resulting fires to gut the rest of the buildings of the huge bakery.

“Gee what a shame,” Joe said buffing his fingers against his shirt.

“Yeah, good thing it was Christmas Eve and nobody was working,” Jon said jamming a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

“Oh just think of all that dirty soot, and then the slushy rain and hydrant water, goodness it’ll be such a chore to clean that up,” Aehgr commented.

“Well that’ll certainly set Gandredi back several hundred million if not a couple of billion dollars to rebuild,” Jason said with a grin as he lounged back into the overstuffed chair in what used to be the warehouses break room and had been turned into a living room for the crew.

“Can we turn back to the channel with the parade on it, I really like parades,” Ernie said.

“Sure,” Barr said clicking the Holo-Vid’s remote and then lighting the cigar that was dangling from one corner of his mouth.

Unknown Region of Space - Edge of the Milky Way Galaxy

Planet Designate BCP-001

December 25th, 6200 C.E. - 12:00 CST

The cloaked and hooded figure at the apex of the table slowly turned his head looking around the table at the eight representatives present. “It seems we may have been able to hash out most of our grievances and agreements,” he commented.

Most of the figures nodded others just made noises that could loosely be termed as agreement.

“So the major thing is to wait for our final ally to appear,” the hooded figure nodded to the empty seat on one side. “Which should be within the next month if everything I’ve planned works out well?” The hooded figure commented.

“Just who exactly is this last representative?” Wrath questioned.

“You’ll see, I estimate that she’ll arrive here by January 17th,” The hooded figure said with a smile in his voice.

“Mostly women representatives,” Wrath muttered. “Pervert,” she muttered even more quietly.

“Ssso what are we sssupposed to do for another three weeksss?” Kasssandra hissed her slit pupil eyes dilating in annoyance.

“Why we are going to find one of the resources that you so badly need,” the hooded figure answered.

“And what would that resource be?” Imperial Admiral Kvathr questioned.

“Why troops of course, each one of you is pretty much able to infect other humanoid life with a nanno-virus, Symbiote, or parasite, we’ll just find you some planets to do so,” the hooded figure explained.

“And just where are we supposed to find a large enough selection of planets to do that?” Skltchnk queried. “That and planets that no one in the other star nations aren’t going to immediately send a force to stop us, or the fact that the Skurmvald Republic is unable to just snap its fingers and create more troops so what good would that do us,” he added.

“Why right here,” the hooded figure stated making a waving motion with one gloved hand as a holographic three-dimensional map of the Milky Way Galaxy appeared above the table a red dot burned solidly on the edge of one of the upper spiral arms.

“What is that, there aren’t any star nations up there,” Ailene-67 stated.

“Ah, you are quite wrong my dear,” hood said raising a finger. “There are none that you know of, this is called the Castellan League it’s made up of roughly twenty-four systems and was colonized by one of the Progenitor’s first extremely slow boat cryogenic colonization ships approximately 750 years ago,” Hood explained and as he spoke the three dimensional map zoomed into to show two dozen systems.

“Now each of you will be allowed two planets to work your wonders on save the Skurmvald,” the hooded figure told the gathered representatives.

The Skurmvald representative came angrily to his feet. “This is outrageous why won’t we be allowed to have two planets of our own?” he burbled and spluttered his body oozing off chunks of the slime that was constantly extruded from his body.

“Because my dear Skltchnk you and your entire race has been deemed expendable and will be used as an example,” the hood told the representative and a large weapon appeared in his hand pointed right at the Skurmvald. “With the push of this button,” the Hood said revealing a small remote looking device in his other hand as he pushed the button, “and now a nanno-virus that has infected your race will quickly kill 99% of them.” The hood pulled the trigger of the large gun, there was a click, and then the sound of the weapon’s miniature cyclotron spun up rapidly the weapon seeming to buck and spit out a black orb that raced to the Skurmvald and tore him apart at the sub-atomic level.

“What the hell was that?” Wrath shouted coming to her feet.

“That isss an ssspell gun,” Kasssandra hissed in disgust.

“Yes quite right my dear Kasssandra and it was also an example of what I can do if I feel like it,” Hood explained.

“Query: why not eliminate the threat of the Theban Cluster and the other human controlled star nations personally?” the Tantalan Empress asked.

“Oh my dear golden child,” Hood said running a hand down the Unit’s golden skinned cheek. “What would be the fun in that?” He asked with an evil chuckle.

It was at this point that most of the representatives realized that the hooded figure wasn’t really playing with a full deck of cards, probably not even half a deck, but most of them supposed if he could do that to the Skurmvald he might just be able to do that to them as well.

UNSF - Manhattan Sector - Brooklyn System - Brooklyn IV/Neo-Brooklyn

A Ridge One Kilometer outside the Seasoned Woods Gentlemen’s Club

December 25th, 6200 C.E. - 22:00 CST

The plan for taking out most of Gandredi’s goons was pretty simple. Show up at their Christmas party while most of them were still half sloshed and just start gunning them down. Of course when it comes to some plans oversimplification can be a bad thing.

“You sure we aren’t making this overly complicated,” Aehgr whined from his position behind the wheel of the Charger a block away from the gentleman‘s club.

“For the millionth time Aehgr, shut it alright,” Barr growled into the mike of his earbug.

“Alright, Jon, Joe, Ernie, as soon as Jason launches the missile hit the building and don’t stop for anything till you’re out the other side,” Barr ordered.

“Roger,” Joe said confirming the order.

“Understood and acknowledged,” was the reply from Jon.

“Wow what a really clear sky tonight,” Ernie said.

Barr rubbed at the bridge of his nose as a headache started to form and then put his binoculars down to peer through the scope of the H95 particle beam sniper rifle. Zooming in with the weapon’s scope he saw almost eighty cars in the parking lot there would normally have been a hundred or more attending Gandredi’s Christmas party but with the elimination of the goons at Tony’s apartment building they’d dropped the forces arrayed against them by twenty percent at least.

Ernie was right it was a very clear sky oddly enough considering the amount of factories that ringed the city of Neo-Brooklyn and spewed out industrial pollution. Another thing that rarely occurred while Neo-Brooklyn rarely saw snow it was a crisp night and Barr’s breath puffed out and was wisped away by the slight breeze and he had to be careful not to fog up the lens of his night vision/IR scope.

Looking through the scope he saw that the others were in positions located at the front and rear gates located at the northern and southern parts of the fence as well as a small service entrance to the east, flipping over to IR from night vision he saw the blinking IR beacons on the back of the team’s tactical vests.

“Alright gentlemen here we go,” Barr said holding up three gloved fingers next to his head so Jason could clearly see them.

Jason lifted the LAW 108A4 to his shoulder sighting down the length of the tube painting his target; a large Lincoln limousine that was obviously armored; with a green designator dot.

When the first finger closed he flipped on the auto-tracking system, at the second finger he flipped the safety off, and when the third joined the first two his finger tightened on the firing stud sending a magnetically packeted blast of particle beam energy streaking towards the armored limo.

The magnetic packet around the particle blast slowly deteriorated as it streaked through the clear night and had totally disappeared just as it impacted on the limo’s side between the front and rear doors. The limo was picked up and thrown on its side skidding for several feet a glowing edged hole clearly showing where the blast had hit.

Jason had four more shots in the magazine of the LAW and he intended to use them all as he targeted various other large vehicles in the parking lot of the gentleman’s club.

Joe, Jon, and Ernie made short work of the guards at the three entrances using the silenced assault rifles they had purchased before to good effect. After eliminating the guards and deactivating the security systems the three of them ghosted through the mass of parked cars and towards the front of the gentlemen’s club.

Setting the LAW aside Jason settled behind a spotting scope and peered at the front of the building, he watched as the three figures in their night camouflaged nanno-sheaths made it to the last row of cars just as the club’s door opened and light spilled from inside.

“Target,” Jason said reading off the range, landmarks, and wind velocity to Barr.

“Target confirmed,” Barr said letting a half breathe out before taking up the slack in the rifle’s firing stud.

The first man out the door was blasted from his feet and against the wall a dinner plate sized hole in his torso as the passing energy bleed from the weapon set his clothing on fire.

Below in the parking lot dozens of figures spilled from the various entrances of the club and the fight was on in earnest.

UNSF - Manhattan Sector - Brooklyn System - Brooklyn IV/Neo-Brooklyn

Parking Lot of the Seasoned Woods Gentlemen’s Club

December 25th, 6200 C.E. - 22:23 CST

Joe pressed his nanno-sheathed body up against the fender of a Bugatti Veyron sports car while the others chose different positions behind equally expensive cars. The nanno-sheaths had been a good investment he mused, they didn’t snag on anything, they were form fitting and could even cover the entire face and head.

Currently the nanno-sheaths were doing a good job of disguising their features completely leaving just the lens like covers over their eyes as their only facial features.

The research that they had done showed that Gandredi had eighty seven of his gun toting Mafiosos in attendance at the Christmas party as well as an unknown number of gentleman’s club employees that were mostly female strippers and hookers.

When the first Mafioso went down with Jack’s first shot the others started ducking and diving behind decorative portions of the building as well as other cars in the lot.

“So how many guys are we up against,” Jon asked over the earbug comms.

“Oh only about eighty or so,” Barr replied and another mobster went down with a massive flaming hole through his body.

“Contest?” Jon queried.

“What’s the payout?” Joe asked.

“Winner gets five bucks for every kill from each person,” Jon suggested.

“Make it ten and you’re on,” Joe said.

“Ten it is,” Jason said.

“Oh I just love contests,” Ernie said.

“You actually have to shoot someone for this one,” Joe told him.

“Not a problem,” Ernie said and put a three round burst into a Mafioso.

“Shit, somebody must have already shot at him,” Joe said.

“Yeah that stripper with the huge tits,” Barr told him.

“They all have huge tits,” Jon complained.

“The one with the MP76,” Jason said giving a more detailed description.

“Oh that stripper,” Joe said putting a burst into the boobs of the woman.

“You are seriously messed up man,” Jason said over the comm.

Gunfire shattered the silence as the two sides traded shots the three team members able to maneuver more swiftly and with more impunity than the large mass of milling gun men as they started to pick them off in groups and singletons.

Ernie was able to nail a group of six with a single grenade from the under barrel tube of his assault rifle sending the half dozen men spinning through the air with the aid of a high explosive 40mm round. Their cover an old dumpster was shredded and went wheeling and tumbling across the parking lot slamming into the side of an expensive Porsche Cayenne cross over whose alarm immediately went off and then silenced as the HBT power couplings ruptured from the impact of the dumpster.

Moving through the cover of vehicles Jon just about had his head taken off by a machete toting gunsel who tried an over hand hack at him. Jon was able to catch the blade on his rifle barrel sparks flickering and questing into the darkness as the blade skidded across the weapon. Knocking aside the blade Jon whipped the composite stock of the rifle around and into the man’s throat crushing his wind pipe. The man fell to the ground clutching his throat and grasping for air as his face turned from blue, to purple to black as he suffocated to death. Unfortunately the noise of the melee alerted another large group of men nearby to what was happening. The group rushed at Jon opening fire with various weapons.

A few of the rounds impacted on Jon’s nanno-sheath, thankfully they were the same low powered 9mm garbage that most thugs still used to this day and not military grade ammo, or Flechette rounds, or even worse gyro jet rounds. The impacts only knocked him back and down unmoving but as the group crowded closer to the spot that he had dropped he sat up a Masters Armaments H96 select fire particle beam pistol clenched in each fist. Bolts of compressed particle energy zipped through the night leaving burning trails of purple light etched across the retinas of any unfortunate enough to look that way and the group of gun men fell dead their clothes and skin smoldering. “Eight,” Jon said over the comm.

Whether it was fate or luck somehow Barr managed to line up five gunners coming out a door and taking them out with a single particle beam charge, “five more down.”

Joe was trotting around the side of the gentlemen’s club when he saw half a dozen figures pile into a large SUV and start driving away from the gunfight. “Ah, leaving so soon,” He said out loud pulling a grenade from his combat harness. Depressing the fuse button he armed the magnetic collar on the bottom and tossed it under handed towards the vehicle. The grenade bounced a couple of times before rolling under the SUV and locked into place on the undercarriage of the vehicle as it shot into the sky, a few seconds later the grenade detonated showering the parking lot with burning debris. “Six,” Joe said over the comm.

Jon was reloading his assault rifle when he came around a corner behind a Mafioso with more sex drive than brains and was pumping away at one of the strippers with his pants around his ankle and a handgun clenched in one fist. Jon just shook his head pulled his combat knife out and slowly prowled up behind the man grabbing him by the hair and jerking his head back enough to slit his throat and windpipe. “Add another,” He said coldly over the comm.

Barr’s third shot impacted on a large outdoor gas fueled fire pit imploding the propane tank and immolating half a dozen mobsters hiding behind it.

UNSF - Manhattan Sector - Brooklyn System - Brooklyn IV/Neo-Brooklyn

Inside Of the Seasoned Woods Gentlemen’s Club

December 25th, 6200 C.E. - 22:33 CST

“Dammit does anyone want to tell me what the hell is going on outside in the parking lot?” Don Gandredi raged at his personal squad of bodyguards as gunfire and explosions rent the night outside the club.

“Dunno boss but we need to get you out of here, it might be the same guys that kidnapped Tony,” Salvatore Medeler answered his boss.

“We need to get the boss to the escape tunnel,” One of his other bodyguards said.

“Yeah,” Medeler nodded his head in agreement and over the Don’s protests they hustled him into one of the back rooms and down a stairwell into an underground garage where an armored limo was waiting. After his men bundled the crime boss into the limo it sped down the escape tunnel for a kilometer and then zoomed into the sky outside the security fence.

UNSF - Manhattan Sector - Brooklyn System - Brooklyn IV/Neo-Brooklyn

Outside Seasoned Woods Gentlemen’s Club

December 25th, 6200 C.E. - 22:43 CST

“Oy, guys I got movement outside the compound, looks like an armored limo,” Aehgr broke in over the comm line.

“Follow it then,” Barr ordered.

“But what if they start shooting it’ll fill the car with holes and then it’ll start smoking and that’ll leave stains and then all the fluids that’ll leak all over the place, and it’ll get all nasty and dirty,” Aehgr started into one of his usual whines.

“Aehgr just follow the car and stay far enough back that they don’t notice you,” Barr ordered in exasperation.

“And if you do a good job I’ll buy you a lollipop,” Jason added unable to help himself.

“Lollipops are just so sticky and they accumulate nasty things even germs and dust out of the air…,” Jason and Barr ignored the rest of what Aehgr was saying as they saw the lights of the Charger dwindled into the sky.

“Alright guys we’ve a runner, my guess is the Don is heading for his compound,” Barr told the other members of the team over their earbuds.

“Roger that, disengage or continue the sweep?” Jon asked.

“Continue the sweep, I’ve got Aehgr following the vehicle,” Barr told them.

“Roger,” Jon replied.

Ernie’s assault rifle rattled off a quartet of three round bursts tumbling and dropping a group of thugs that had been trying to bust through the heavy fire of the team. “Four more, red is such a pretty color” he said cheerfully.

Jon got off a lucky shot with a 40mm grenade that bounced off the manicured lawn and spun into the groundskeeper’s shed where seven more goons were hiding and trading fire with him. The round exploded inside the building the shrapnel shredding the gunsels’ flesh and the over pressure blowing the walls off the small building causing the roof to collapse on top of the remains. “Seven I think,” Jon added.

A group of eight gunners Joe was facing off against weren’t really that smart as they had taken one of the women hostage and were threatening to blow her head off as they stood behind a late model Escalade with too much chrome on it.

“Back off or we kill the whore,” the Mafioso holding the woman hostage demanded.

“Okay,” Joe said and shot him in the head and watched as the strippers head was blown completely off by the dead man’s twitch, the other seven men watched stunned at the act long enough for Joe to waste them.

Barr and Jason were still doing over watch and admiring the carnage that was occurring below their position.

“Okay got a couple of wise guys trying to make a break for that green Cadillac CTS,” Jason said.

“What’s the range?” Barr asked an unlit cigar stub in one corner of his mouth as he moved the scope to the indicated men.

“752.6 meters,” Jason told him.

“Oh, not very bright are they,” Barr said peering through the scope and seeing that the two had lined themselves up perfectly. Three seconds later their bodies fell to the ground. “Two more,” Barr breathed.

Jon had moved up to the side of the building and was duck walking under one of the windows that must have led to the strippers’ dressing room when he heard a voice over his head.

“Shut up you stupid bitches or I’ll blow your fucking heads off,” a gruff male voice commanded.

The command was followed by a female voice saying something and then the sound of a flesh on flesh followed by sound of a high pitched feminine scream and someone hitting the ground.

“I fucking warned you,” the male voice said and Jon heard the ratchet click of a gun’s hammer being drawn back.

Rising over the windowsill with just his nanno-sheathed face exposed he saw a large beefy man straddling the form of a woman lying on the ground, with his gun pointed directly at her. One of the girls must have spotted Jon’s alien like face as she screamed and pointed at the window.

“What the fuck,” the gunsel shouted as he brought his weapon around to point at the window to the outside.

Jon’s arm came back and up releasing the throwing knife at full extension the light flashing off the tip of it as it rotated through the air and embedded itself in the man’s throat; dropping his gun he grabbed with both hands at his throat he fell gurgling and jerking to the floor.

Joe intercepted some sleaze balls that were trying to cram themselves into a Chevy Aveo that must have been one of the stripper’s cars. It was like watching a clown car in reverse as he emptied the entire magazine of his rifle into the vehicle the dead thugs leaving an oozing trail of body fluids that mixed with the punctured tanks of the cars engine and pooling in the parking lot.

Ernie was in the middle of reloading his rifle when he was grabbed from behind by a behemoth of a Mafioso that must have weighed three times what he did. The thug started squeezing slowly but surely and Ernie felt the air pushed out of his lungs as his rib cage was painfully compressed.

Unfortunately for the big goon he had made the mistake of picking him off the ground and Ernie brought one nanno-sheathed boot heel up and into his private parts eliciting a bellow as the man‘s hold loosened on him.

Squirming loose Ernie turned and jammed the magazine of high explosive tipped rounds into the man’s mouth and rolled backwards firing a single shot from his H96 particle beam pistol at the man’s head. The detonation of the magazine was rather spectacular as it vaporized the man’s head and shoulders leaving the body standing for several seconds to twitch brainlessly.

Targets were getting scarce so Barr just started picking off anything that didn’t have boobs or a flashing IR strobe.

Jon had actually slithered through a window down the wall from the stripper’s dressing room and found himself in a broom closet. Opening the broom closet’s door a crack he peered cautiously out to find himself behind a group of nine wise guys that had flipped a table over and was using it as a shield facing the main entry to the building.

Tapping one of the guys on the shoulder he waited till he had turned around and pulled the pin from a hand grenade and put it in his front jacket pocket. “Can you hold that for a second,” he asked and then leapt out the broom closet window and was actually picked up and tossed a little further from the back blast of the grenade.

The last eight Yule celebrating Mafiosos locked themselves in the fortified office of the Gentleman’s club. The team tried every thing they could but the room was windowless and only had a single door that was made of battle plate, they only thing they would be able to do to get in would be to bring the whole place down on the head’s of the Mafiosos.

After a few minutes discussion that was exactly what they decided to do and Jon went back to get the SUV and drove it through the parking lot of burning and exploded vehicles trying to avoid as many of the shredded and torn bodies as he could. The team set charges throughout the gentlemen’s club and then mined the remaining vehicles save for one large sedan that they jammed all the strippers into and sent on their way.

“So who get’s credit for these guys?” Joe asked retracting the nanno-sheath’s hood as he set the final charge.

“Nobody,” Barr said watching as he lit another of his cigars.

“So who won then?” Jon asked.

“Jon, although my vote is for Barr getting the best single kill with that one shot that took out five wise guys,” Jason replied.

“Who got the largest single kill?” Jon asked.

“That would be me, I gave a group of nine wise guys a grenade shaped Christmas ornament,” Joe said.

The other three people that actually took part in the killing each gave Jon 270 creds each and they all walked out the door leaving the gentlemen’s club. Barr drove the SUV out of the compound and as they reached the street Jason depressed the button on the detonator the building behind them literally imploding as the hundred pounds of composition thirty completely obliterated it.

“Aehgr where are you at?” Barr asked over the comm as they drove down the street.

“Oy, I’m outside Gandredi’s home, the place seems pretty deserted, I’m not going to have to go sneaking around am I, because I really don’t want to get all dirty, and he’s got all those flower beds and I just know my allergies will start acting up and I’ll get hives,” Aehgr complained.

“No Aehgr just wait for us there we’ll be at your location in a few minutes,” Barr ordered.

“Okay,” Aehgr replied and Barr shut the comm channel off before he could start on another complaint.

The SUV quickly jumped from the surface street to the air traffic lanes and sped towards Gandredi’s country estate where he was most likely only be guarded by a handful of wise guys.

Traffic was pretty light on Christmas Eve so they made good time being sure to obey most of the traffic laws and not speed overly much.

“We’re here Aehgr where are you parked?” Barr asked over the comm channel.

“Over here under the street light where I can get a good look at the front gate and make sure no one is sneaking up on me,” Aehgr told him.

“Good job captain obvious,” Joe said as they pulled up behind the charger and got out.

“Well since Aehgr has blown any chance of us being sneaky how about a full frontal assault,” Jon said slapping a fresh magazine into his assault rifle.

Barr shrugged and looked around, “Well?”

“Sure,” Jon answered.

“Why not,” Samuel said.

“I like frontal assaults,” Joe said with a wicked grin.

“But we might get dirty,” Aehgr whined.

“Let’s do it,” Jason added.

Barr had to pinch the bridge of his nose for a second before saying anything, “Alright everyone activate your nanno-sheaths and let’s go then.”

After a few seconds all six figures were covered head to toe in night black camouflage and looked identical save for their heights. Six bulbous eyed faces turned towards the front gate of the house and as one they each dumped a 40mm grenade into it blowing it halfway down the driveway.

“Alright let’s move,” Barr ordered waving an arm towards the blown out gate and the six figures loped forward over the driveway and into the house.

It didn’t take them long to find Gandredi he was in his office cleaning out a floor safe with only half a dozen bodyguards left to protect him. The team made short work of those remaining guards and a black blur slammed Gandredi into the wood paneling of his office as it streaked through the door.

“What do you want; I’ll give you anything you want?” Gandredi pleaded blood leaking from one nostril after his impact with the wall.

“How about bringing Isabelle and Patrick Frescetti back to life or their parents Doreen and Eugene,” Barr growled screwing the barrel of his FN tightly into the back of the man’s head.

“No but I’ve got lot’s of money, lot’s and lot’s of money,” Gandredi whimpered.

“Too bad we had planned on taking all of your money already,” Barr said pulling the trigger. He didn’t feel the warm splash of blood through his nanno-sheath as it beaded off or was absorbed by the sheath’s nannites.

Barr let the dead man’s body hit the floor and sat in the desk chair as the other’s cleared out safes in various parts of the house, they netted several million dollars in cred coins as well as a dozen fake IDs that hadn’t been used yet.

“Rusty Shackleford, what the hell kind of name is that,” Jon muttered looking at the ID.

“Hey that sounds like a pretty cool name,” Jason said.

Before leaving the house and heading back to the warehouse Barr tossed a small thermite charge on top of Gandredi’s body and the morning news would report that the entire mansion had burned to the ground.

Independent Systems League - Haupschradt System - Haupschradt II

Secondary Dig Site

January 9th, 1 2E - 01:29 CST

Wind howled around the secondary dig site building on the planet of Haupschradt II. Although howled would have been a strong word to use considering how thin the planets atmosphere had grown over the last fifteen thousand years. At one time it had been a lush beautiful jungle planet filled with numerous forms of life, now it was mostly an ugly barren rock with scrub brush, deserts, rocky plains, deserts, oh and more deserts, the atmosphere was just barely thick enough to use with a rebreather.

Inside the secondary dig site building Dr. Marcus Eberlee finally realized what time it was. Generally a night owl; Marcus generally worked long after all the other archeologists and assistants had packed it in for the night including his own wife who was most likely asleep by now in their bed.

Considering their discovery of a pre-progenitor race his eccentricity of working into the wee hours could be forgiven by his wife and the other scientists. But now Marcus realized that it was extremely later than he had thought it was and he was starting to feel the drag of his sixteen hour day, that and the realization that the next work day would be starting in less than five hours had Marcus setting down a fine haired brush and a dental pick that he had been using to clean off a tablet of some strange black metal.

Standing up from his stool the scientist stretched as he headed for the airlock and the cabinet where the rebreather masks were stored. Reaching for his own mask he realized that there were actually two of the full face gas mask like re-breathers hanging in the cabinet, frowning in tired thought he didn’t remember there being two there earlier and everyone had already left for the day. Shrugging he picked the one with his name on it across the brow. “Probably someone forgot theirs and used one of the spares in the outer airlock rather than walk all the way back here,” He mumbled yawning tiredly to himself as he pulled it over his face and snugged the straps down tightly.

What Eberlee’s tired mind hadn’t noticed however was the fact that both masks had been labeled with his name across the brow above the eye lenses.

The rebreather mask would not only allow him to breath comfortably in the thin air of the planet but the remaining atmosphere had a high concentration of heavy particulates and the mask helped to filter those out before they reached the team members mucus membranes.

With his mask properly secured Eberlee started walking towards the hallway to the outer airlock but froze in place as something felt wrong about the re-breather. Quickly realizing the problem was the lock of air flow, with shaking fingers he scrabbled at the edge of the mask trying to pull it off but could no longer find the seam and realized in horror that for some reason it had smoothly bonded with the flesh of his face.

As his thoughts became more sluggish and confused he collapsed to the floor thinking of the meatloaf that they had eaten for dinner the night before.

As the final breaths left the Archeologists body a nanno-seed detached itself from the mask and dropped into his tear duct traveling to his brain where it quickly spread tendrils throughout the dying mass. As the nanno-seed bloomed and the entity known as Sakron took over the brain reprogramming it for his new home wiping out all that had been Dr. Marcus Eberlee.

The material of the mask flowed and squirmed as it covered the body of the archeologist completely creating a hard glossy black shell over it and eating away any clothing and hair.

The material also worked changes at the genetic level enhancing and making the body more muscular and toned, the glossy carapace that covered the body flowed even more showing the complete definition of every muscle.

Finally standing up Sakron gazed at the hands of the body he had taken over and saw that even the nails of the hands were perfectly defined by the black carapace of his skin. Looking down he saw that the feet were similarly defined and if he’d had a mouth under the rebreather mask’s filters he would have smiled as he saw something else that would help him continue the return of his race.

The final stage of the transformation occurred when several hose like umbilici extruded from the top and back of the head and sunk themselves into receptacles in the sides of the neck and back, the umbilici seemed to move and sway even while Sakron was standing still.

Sakron had fully taken the former body of the archeologist and made it anew his glistening black carapace covered body, sans hair, eyes shiny opaque portals, ears nothing more than raised mounds on the sides of his head and his mouth was nothing more than the filtration grills on the front of the rebreather mask.

Continuing the deceased archeologist’s journey Sakron entered the airlock and walked the five kilometers to the dig team’s living habitat. Once inside the habitat he entered the room that Eberlee and his wife shared and slid under the sheets next to her.

“It’s about time you finally got back Marcus,” Linda Eberlee muttered half asleep as the disturbance of her husband’s weight settled into the bed next to her. At first she didn’t get any response then felt her husbands arms twine around her, they felt oddly smooth and warm, and she felt as he pushed her over onto her back.

“I’m really tired and not in the mood,” she mumbled less asleep than she had been a few minutes before and tried to roll back over but the bed shifted again as her husband’s weight held her in place. She started to panic as she felt her husband pull her arms over her head with one hand and hold them in place.

“Marcus what are you doing?” she asked in sudden panic as her husband held her tightly in place. Finally opening her eyes she saw her reflection in two black lenses that looked back at her from a glossy black skinned face, she also noticed that she was looking at her reflection cast back at her from the glossy black nanno-sheath of the person that held her in place.

Linda sucked in a huge breath to let out a scream that would most likely awaken the entire dig team but when her mouth was at it’s widest Sakron leaned over and a portion of his facial carapace liquefied and dropped into her mouth hardening suddenly and rapidly expanding to fill her mouth and all she was amble to get out was a strangled and muffled croak.

“Silence, it is time for my queen to be reborn and you shall be the vessel that she emerges from,” Sakron hissed to her.

Linda’s eyes opened wide in fear as she saw what she had assumed was dreadlocks start to writhe and move from the back of the figure’s head.

The umbilici whipped around and extended themselves from the back sides of Sakron’s head and sank into Linda’s flesh, two of them embedded themselves into her tear ducts, two up her nostrils and two more in her ears, the remaining writhing umbilici buried themselves in her neck, chest, and stomach.

Linda’s eyelids fluttered rapidly as her eyes rolled back in her head to show nothing but whites, she bucked and heaved as the umbilici sent strands of the black carapace material throughout her body as it ruptured from her pores spilling across her torso and down over her pelvis and legs, her face was soon consumed by the flow as well and formed a mask like that of Sakron’s. Once it was deemed that her body was ready one of the thin nanno-metric tendrils that was writhing at the ends of the umbilici stabbed its way to the center of her brain and released the nanno-seed that was the core personality of the Queen.

Sakron released the heaving woman’s body and sat back as the final transformation occurred, umbilici similar to his own extruded from the back and top of her head, these however were even longer than his own and trailed puckered marks down her back as they imbedded themselves.

“My queen it is very good to see you again,” Sakron said bringing his face close to hers and stroking the umbilicus that curved from her head into her back.

“It is good to be seen again,” Savelle Queen of the Falcra said gazing at her body in wonder as a sexual shiver coursed down her body from her husband’s touch. “My lord this is a very interesting body that you have procured for me,” she husked through the grills of her face.

“Indeed they are, so very like our old enemies the Senvick, but completely different at the same time,” He told her. “With these humans as they call themselves we shall spread our reign once again,” he said bringing his face to hers and the two merged there umbilical from both writhing and then attaching to various points on the other’s body.

Savelle could do no more but nod as she and her king’s body melded with one another as the felt the touch of one another after millions of years.

After they had finished with on another the two of them quickly infected and turned the rest of the dig team members implanting them with nanno-seeds that held the personalities of their former court and their most trusted advisors. The number released was a small drop in the bucket compared to the billions of personality nanno-seeds spread amongst the awakened Falcra.

When the dig teams re-supply frigate made its scheduled stop they also turned them and then their attention was concentrated towards the old and battered vessel that the University of San Cristobel had assigned them. The fifty awakened Falcra stood around the small battered vessel as it sat on the temporary landing pad outside the main encampment buildings.

“Kind of ugly milord,” one of the courtesans commented.

“Yes but it shall do,” Sakron intoned waving the others towards the vessel as they positioned themselves equidistantly along its hull. The black glossy carapace covered figures leaned spread eagle against the hull of the vessel and at a signal from Sakron a droning hum went up simultaneously from them; the glossy black carapace of their bodies squirmed and flowed over the vessel reforming the interior and exterior to their liking.

After several hours of reshaping the vessel it lifted off from the surface.

Independent Systems League - Sargasso System - Sargasso Deeps Space Station

Office of Hadrian & Deniavar Block

January 17th, 1 2E - 10:18 CST

“What do you mean someone bought up the property of the Church Of The Multi-Spatial God on Godhead?” Hadrian Block yelled into his comm unit as his lawyer informed him that the two brothers no longer owned the rights to one of their biggest scams.

“You and Deniavar let the copyright on the church elapse without renewing it,” their lawyer explained to them.

“Well we’ll just have to see about that,” Deniavar said from his own desk across from his brother.

“Just don’t do anything that I’ll have to bail you out of jail for,” the lawyer sighed.

“Don’t worry we won’t get personally involved,” Hadrian told the man and stabbed off the comm unit.

“Send Sylvia,” Deniavar suggested.

“Yeah, Sylvia should be able to figure out what is going on,” Hadrian agreed.

Their decision made the two pucks set their plan in motion with a single Galactanet Mail to one of their numerous agents throughout the galaxy.

Independent Systems League - Halliburton System

Halliburton

January 20th, 1 2E - 11:09 CST

“It seems someone has put the Gandredi family in shambles and killed the Don himself,” Pride said to her remaining five sisters Lust, Avarice, Gluttony, Greed, and Jealousy.

“Yes, they were a major supplier of baked goods to most of that portion of the UNSF,” Gluttony added.

“Well since it involves a food related business, and their other main source of income was a chain of strip clubs and a prostitution ring I want you and Lust working together on this one,” Pride ordered the two sisters.

“Yes, Pride,” they echoed.

“My suggestion would be to turn Gandredi’s son Anthony and make him a Horseman,” Pride’s suggestion was more of an order than a suggestion.

“I’ll take care of that part,” Lust said turning to Gluttony. “Why don’t you work on getting the food portion of things back up and running,” She suggested.

Gluttony nodded silently.

The meeting continued for several more hours and was ran more like a board meeting than a meeting tallying up the ill gotten gains of a galaxy spanning criminal organization.

Independent Systems League - Fountain System

Planet Godhead - New Church of the Multi-Spatial God

January 21st, 1 2E - 12:00 CST

“Rejoice brethren,” Samcar shouted from the stepped side of the burnished pyramid that had landed on the grounds of the Old Church of The Multi-Spatial God. “For your god has returned to toss aside the false trappings of those that would mimic and befoul the imagery and majesty that is his and his alone,” Samcar shouted at the top of his voice to those below.

“Welcome brethren to a new age of enlightenment welcome to the New Church of The Multi-Spatial God,” Samcar evangelized the light of Godhead’s sun sparkling off of his golden hair, eyebrows, lashes, lips, and nails.

Below the huge stepped pyramid was a milling crowd, some of which were former worshippers of the Multi-Spatial God until the pucks had become bored and disinterested in maintaining the con, some where just curious as to what the huge oddly shaped vessel was, and others were members of other churches protesting the sudden appearance of the pyramid.

“Come forth brethren if you wish to bask in the light that is the multi-spatial god, come and make supplication and abase yourself and be born anew as you partake in the wisdom of the one and only true god,” Samcar proselytized as several hundred people trooped past him and into the interior of the pyramid where the lower order priests and priestesses showed them the way to a moderate sized worship chamber.

“Good day brethren,” Samcar told those still milling about outside the base of the pyramid. “Perhaps tomorrow you’ll wish to partake of the wisdom of the Multi-Spatial God,” he intoned and turned towards the interior of the pyramid disappearing.

In the worship room the lower level priests and priestesses abased themselves along the walls as Samcar entered and abased himself before the small black pool of liquid night that was the center piece of the worship chamber. The abasement before the pool continued for several minutes before Samcar finally rose from the ground and turning to face those who had gathered to worship the Multi-Spatial God. “Have you come to worship and partake of the knowledge of the Multi-Spatial God?” He asked those gathered in the room.

“Yes,” Reverberated from the walls and ceiling of the small worship room as three hundred voices of the men, women, and children replied to him.

“Then first you must partake of the flesh of your god,” Samcar said and the priests and priestesses arrayed around the room rose and filed towards the black pool pausing only long enough to stop at cabinets on either side of the wall to pull out simple burnished metal goblets.

The goblets were dipped into the black pool after which the priests and priestesses arrayed themselves along the lines of worshippers. Each row had been designed to hold twenty people per row, and the goblets were passed down each end of the rows.

“Take but a sip of our god’s flesh,” Samcar ordered.

The worshippers gathered took dainty sips from the cups, even the children partook of the black liquid and when each worshipper had taken their portion the goblets were sent back along the rows to be replaced in the cabinets.

“Now feel the love and power that is the Multi-Spatial God,” Samcar shouted raising his arms above his head. When his arms reached their apex the worshippers seemed to freeze in place as their skin turned a midnight black, their eyes swam with black till there was no color left and metallic silver coated their lips, and the follicles of their hair turned silver quickly shooting down the lengths of it.

Samcar led the new converts in worship, “Our Father, Our Lord, Our Master, Our God,” reverberated and shook the room as three hundred plus bodies abased themselves before the black pool, it stirred slightly the liquid rippling.

UNSF - Pressman Sector - Vegas System - New Vegas [Vegas A-IV]

New Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino Suite 399

January 22nd, 1 2E - 17:21 CST

Sylvia Strautman was lounging in the spa of her suite at the New Mandalay Bay hotel and casino relaxing. It was nice to just relax for once, generally her job as a go between for the Pucks on Sargasso Deeps kept her running thither and yon but she had demanded a vacation of no shorter than a month and the pucks had caved in easily to her demands.

Maybe a little to easily, she thought her eyes slitting drowsily. Aw well, if they are up to something it wouldn’t be the first time.

The comm console imbedded in the edge of the spa beeped and Sylvia languidly raised one arm from the hot churning water to stab the accept key. “Yes,” she said drowsily.

“Miss Strautman you have a long distance message from the Sargasso System,” the switchboard operator informed her.

Sylvia sighed and sat up straighter in the spa. “Go ahead and send it,” She ordered.

“Yes ma’am,” the operator told her.

A few seconds later the pre-recorded faces of Hadrian and Deniavar Block appeared on her comm screen.

“We realize that we have promised you a month long uninterrupted vacation,” Hadrian started.

“But we need you to travel to Godhead,” Deniavar finished for his brother.

“It seems,” Hadrian said elbowing his brother rather sharply. “That we allowed the copyrights on the Multi-Spatial God franchise to elapse and we need someone to go to Godhead and investigate these new owners and see what it would cost us to buy the rights back.”

“It would be a shame to lose that much income just because we forgot to dot some I’s and cross some T’s,” Deniavar said.

The message ended and Sylvia stared at the screen in disgust, fine if they wanted to ruin her vacation she would ruin their pocket book, leaning over she typed some commands in and sent a message back.

Theban Cluster - Caruthers Sector - Caruthers World - Caruthers City

Street Outside Tantalus Pleasure Palace Formerly Executive Ladies Escort Service

January 23rd, 1 2E - 17:25 CST

Edward Finnegan O’Reilly was what a human would call a huckster, one of those people who spent their time exhorting the values of something and enticing others to partake in that which he was proclaiming; he would have been right at home on the midway of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus.

Edward had been born to immigrant parents from New Dublin who had traveled to the Neo-Prussian Empire’s capitol world of New Bavaria thinking it would be a better place to raise their young son than the constant warfare and strife that was constantly occurring on New Dublin as the Catholics and Protestants tore each other apart.

They had been sadly mistaken; Edward’s father had been arrested a few years after they arrived on the capitol world for theft, he’d only stolen some food to feed his family but he’d been arrested, and sentenced to a lifetime of genetic slavery. The last time Edward had seen his father he’d had the bar code of a genetic slave nanno-tattooed into his forehead, his body had been sheathed in black nanno-rubber malleable that covered all but his head, this too marked him as a genetic slave, he’d also been genetically modified to work in the system’s orbital mining facilities, he’d not even recognized his own son at that point.

When he was only sixteen years old Edward’s mother had died from a combination of a broken heart and tuberculosis, after that Edward had become a con man and grifter using his natural glib tongue to talk people out of their possessions, whether it was money, drugs or what not he could easily make a deal that fell in his favor.

Things changed though at the end of the Quisling War he’d been infected with the Infiltration/Assassination variant of the Quisling nanno-virus and been held in reserve on the planet to take out those that had spoken out against the emperor, grandfather to the current Emperor Nathan IV. After the war when New Bavaria became part of the Quisling Quarantine Zone he lingered inactive in an underground facility until the Tantalan Emperor and Empress came along and was assimilate into the Hive Mind. He’d become one of the rare black nanno-sheathed Infiltrator Series Units.

Now TINU-13-55-70-81 was exhorting the values and joys of the Tantalus Pleasure Palace that had once been the establishment known as Executive Ladies Escort Service. When his nanno-sheath was inactive Edward didn’t even know that he was an assimilated unit of the Tantalus Hive Mind, and received his orders unknowingly through the Quantum Subspace Flux transceiver that had been created at the base of his brain stem and connected all Tantalan Units to the Hive Mind.

As an Infiltrator series unit Edward’s human guise had undergone some genetic level changes beyond that of any other Tantalan Unit. His already good looks had been increased to model proportions and his vocal cords had been modified and refined by the nanno-virus that flooded his body. His vocal cords had been modified to vibrate at a certain pitch that could work as a subluminal sort of hypnosis when necessary.

O’Reilly was outside the Tantalus Pleasure Palace doing his barker routine when the Tantalus Hive Mind focused him on a man walking down the street towards him.

“Sir, sir, May I have just a moment of your time if you don’t mind,” Edward called out to a 30ish looking man in a business suit and carrying a briefcase as he was passing by.

“Yes, what do you want?” Jefferey Allen Gamaoran the Silverfield Republic Special Trade Attaché that was assigned to their embassy on Caruthers World and whose job it was to review all of the Tantalus Hive Mind’s mineral resource requests to the Republic.

If anyone had bothered to look closer they would have seen O’Reilly’s eyes turn almost black as he received his instructions from the Tantalus Hive Mind.

“Sir, we are running a special today, how would you like to imbibe the pleasurable fleshes of a Tantalan Pleasure Drone,” Edward questioned his vocal cords starting to vibrate at the subluminal level.

“I don’t know,” Gamaoran said swaying slightly his pupils dilating somewhat as O’Reilly’s modified vocal cords went to work on his brain. “I hear they aren’t safe and can infect you with the Tantalan Nanno-Virus,” Jeff said.

“Pshaw Sir, pshaw, base lines, and misdirection my good Sir,” O’Reilly said hitting his stride. “Totally safe sir and they can’t infect anyone with the TNV, they have been certified safe by numerous health inspectors galaxy wide, even the Galactic Medical Association has cleared them for recreational use,” what O’Reilly didn’t mention is that those health inspectors were disguised Infiltration Units, although consciously he wasn’t aware of that information. “And sir as a way to show their sincerity in integrating with the galactic community they’ve started these bordellos,” O’Reilly explained.

Gamaoran felt slightly odd as he glanced at his watch, confused, his thoughts a little fuzzy he wondered why he was even considering doing this, but that thought was chased away quickly. “I guess I could give it a try,” he found himself replying; once again he wondered why he would even consider doing such a thing, he wasn’t the type to cheat. The thought was chased away by some small reasoning part of his mind, but it isn’t cheating these aren’t even considered people so how would it be cheating the small voice told him.

Edward ushered Gamaoran into the house shutting the door behind him. Inside the house he was met by a beautiful olive skinned woman wearing a dark blue mono-film duty suit under a light blue Sari style dress.

“I am Saris Melush-Vahti the house coordinator or Madame if you prefer,” the woman said smiling at him. “How may the Tantalus Pleasure Palace serve your needs today?” She asked with a slight bow. In the mind of Saris who was known to the hive mind as Infiltrator Unit TINU-6-65-78-60 her Quantum Flux Space transponder activated and she was ordered to steer this client to a particular pleasure drone.

“Uhm, I’m interested in a pleasure drone interaction session,” Gamaoran told the olive skinned woman, his brain still fuzzy and somewhat confused.

“Ah, certainly sir, if you will fill out he first portion of the survey form, that way we can get your thoughts on you experience; and then we’ll have you fill out he last part once you have completed your first session, that way we can know of better ways to serve you,” Saris told him handing over the small E-PADD form.

Jefferey quickly filled out the form and handed it back.

Taking the form Saris pretended to peruse it for a moment and then set it down. Moving out from behind the counter she started down a hallway lined with numerous doors. “If you will follow me this way Sir, I think I have the perfect pleasure for you,” she said smiling brightly. Passing by half a dozen doors on either side she finally stopped at one and opened the door.

Looking in Jefferey saw the pleasure drone reclining on the bed; it had raven black hair cut short to the back of the neck, its creamy peach colored skin shone with a metallic highlight. Looking more closely he saw that the first toe of each foot was separated from the others. The mouth, vagina, and he assumed the anus was covered by dark metallic gray material that seemed to form an O-shaped sphincter; he also noted that it seemed to have no arms.

“This is drone TSAU-6-44-55-45,” Saris said motioning to the reclining pleasure drone.

“Why doesn’t she have any arms?” Jefferey asked as he stepped into the room.

“Oh, the pleasure drones have arms; it’s just that our surveys show that they seem less threatening if they are kept out of the way. The particular form of the Tantalus Nanno-Virus that infects the Pleasure Drones fuses them to their backs with the palms of their hands cupping their buttocks,” Saris explained.

“Ah, okay,” Jefferey replied lamely to the answer he had gotten.

“Before you can start your session with the pleasure drone you must read and verify the Pleasure Drones certificate of assimilation,” Saris told him pointing at a framed document on one wall.

I Reika Kenjo Kemagabe hereby revoke my status as a citizen of the Theban Cluster and have been granted citizenship in the Tantalus Hive Mind and hereby testify by my own free will that I have given myself over to the Tantalus Hive Mind to become a Pleasure Drone Series TSAU-6 designate TSAU-6-44-55-45.

Jefferey read the document and felt a slight chill run down his back wondering why anyone would do something like that willingly.

“I just need a voice confirmation that you’ve read the document sir,” Saris said holding out an E-PADD.

Jefferey cleared his throat and spoke, “I confirm that I have read Pleasure Drone TSAU-6-44-55-45’s official documentation.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then,” Saris bowed again backing towards the door. “And if you wish you can refer to it by the name of Reika, if using her designation code would cause you any discomfort,” Saris informed him and left the room.

Jefferey slowly walked about the small room for a second then even more slowly approached the Pleasure Drone on the bed. Reaching out a finger he ran it down the drone’s face; he was expecting to feel a cool metal surface because of the metallic sheen that the Drone’s skin was giving off. However he found that its skin was somewhat silky, and warm to the touch, even having a slight malleability to it. Moving a bit closer he pushed his finger against the O-Ring sphincter covering it’s mouth and was startled when it flexed open and then closed again when he removed his finger.

Suddenly feeling aroused as the pheromones that the drone gave off started pushing his libido into overdrive Jefferey tore his clothes off and crouched down over the drone. What Jefferey didn’t realize was that nannites that were keyed to mimic sexual pheromones were being pumped into the room ever more rapidly as he lost himself in the act. The drone felt soft and yielding as he felt himself become even more aroused and then started the act slowly at first.

He soon found himself losing control and bent over the drone gripping it by the back of its neck just under its hair bringing its face to his and kissed the sphincter over its mouth. About to pull away from the embrace he found that he couldn’t pull his lips back from the drone’s O-ring and then they let go with a slight sucking sound, he clawed at his lips feeling the same gray material that had covered the drone’s sphincter. Now panicking he tried to pull free of the drone’s warm confines but it tightened its legs around his waist and held him in place. He felt the nannites from the drone sink into his lips and disappear and then he felt a warm sensation below the waist.

Saris re-entered the pleasure drone’s room a black nanno-sheath extruding from her skin as she entered, Jefferey was now standing in the middle of the room unmoving. The Infiltrator Unit ran an exploring hand over Jefferey’s nanno-sheathed face and body checking to make sure that he was fully assimilated. Unlike the drone however his arms were not behind his back because he would soon be a normal human being again.

Inside Jefferey’s mind the Tantalus Nanno-Virus reworked his neural pathways and installed a Quantum Flux Space transceiver at the base of his brain so that Jefferey could unknowingly receive orders from the Hive Mind and steer his colleagues towards better reviews of Tantalus Hive Mind’s mineral requests.

After leaving the Tantalus Pleasure Palace Jefferey returned to his wife Delilah that night and consummated their marriage in another way, unknowingly to both of them they were now under the sway of the Tantalus Hive Mind.

UNSF - Manhattan Sector - Brooklyn System - Brooklyn IV/Neo-Brooklyn

The Gandredi Family Beach House

January 30th, 1 2E C.E. - 14:00 CST

Anthony Gandredi was sitting in the living room of his family’s last remaining property; a beach house that sat on a promontory jutting out into Danielle Vega Bay.

He was currently feeling sorry for himself and was just about healed from the injuries that he had sustained from the men who had kidnapped him, blown up the families businesses and killed his father and all his men.

Needless to say little Tony wasn’t smart enough to try and restart the family businesses, legal or otherwise.

Tony was just about to turn in for the night and sulk in his bed when there was a sharp rap at the door, getting up warily he pulled the gun he was wearing and approached the door slowly.

“Yeah who is it?” he asked through the door.

“Someone who wishes to speak with Mr. Anthony Gandredi and offer him a way to get back at those that have ruined his life,” a husky female voice said from the other side of the door.

For some reason Tony felt himself being aroused, unlocking the door he found himself confronted by a woman with black hair, porcelain white skin, and pink eyes, her lips and nails matched the shade of her eyes and the formfitting Chinese dress she wore was of the same color and was slit up past the thigh showing her perfectly proportioned creamy white legs.

Each one of the Seven Deadly Sins had a different way of converting their horseman, Gluttony literally fed her victims a portion of her nanno-laden skin, Pride first fed and stroked the ego of hers and then used an atomized version of her nannites to infect the potential horseman.

Lust had a more hands on approach, “Hi I’m Lust, can I come in?” she asked smiling brilliantly at Anthony Gandredi.

“You certainly are, I mean sure you can come in,” Anthony told the woman opening the door wide to let her in blinking dumbly.

“You said you had a way for me to get back at the people who had killed my father?” Anthony asked mesmerized by the petite white skinned woman’s movements as she lazily stalked around the room examining it.

“Why don’t we leave business for later, let’s have a little fun,” Lust said smiling even more broadly and pushing Anthony down on the couch he had just vacated a few minutes before.

Soon a pile of clothes was lying on the floor next to the couch and Lust was bouncing up and down as she straddled Anthony on the couch. Letting out moans of pleasure she raked her nails down his chest, the scratches rather than welling up red blood gushed white nannites and before Anthony knew it he was Lust’s latest Horseman.

A short time later Lust sat in a recliner across from the couch smoking a cigarette as the final transformation took hold of her newest pet. As she watched the nannites that she had infected Anthony Gandredi with literally rewrote his genetic code. Skin was replaced by the smooth porcelain white nannites, breasts swelled from the chest with intriguing off-white nipples and areola, the genetic restructuring destroyed his manhood and replaced it with an intriguing stark white womanhood, color swelled at her lips and nails turning a sultry pink and the hair lengthened to the shoulders and the rest of the body and facial features became more womanly.

Internal changes were made to the former mobster’s body as well, the male reproductive organs were replaced by female ones, nanno-factories were created in key glands throughout the body, a miniature wormhole and flux space transceiver were created on the periphery of the brain connecting the newest Horseman to her Mistress. The final internal change was a change to the tongue, a nanno-metric needle capable of delivering nannites to a victim and siphoning off their emotions was created. Siphoned off emotions were directly sent to the Horseman’s mistress with a little of the residue being kept within via the miniature wormhole.

Lust had smoked almost a pack of cigarettes by the time the newly created horseman awoke from her transformation. She sat up confused not bothering to cover her nakedness, after a few seconds she noticed Lust sitting in the recliner. “Who are you, where am I, who am I?” the woman asked in a frightened voice with an edge of hysteria to it.

Males always seemed to have more of a transition problem than females for some reason; maybe it had something to do with the sex re-orientation.

“I my dear am Lust, your mistress, you are currently in some tawdry beach house on the planet of Neo-Brooklyn, and you my dear,” Lust said running pink fingernails down the woman’s cheek and then cupping it in her hand sending waves of sexual pleasure through the woman’s body. “Are my newest horseman Lisette,” the Sin told her.

Theban Cluster - Caruthers Sector - Caruthers System

Caruthers World - Caruthers City

Unknown Date & Time

“So have you started remembering anything yet?” Jack asked Ethan.

“No not…,” Ethan started to trail off and then shook his head. “Oh god what have I done?”

“What, what is it?” Jack asked leaning forward and putting a comforting hand on the other man’s shoulder.

“I remember what happened,” Ethan said tears welling from his eyes.

Former Neo-Prussian Imperial Sector - New Bavaria System

January 10th, 6198 C.E. - 07:22 CST - 24 Months Earlier

Ethan helped Raven to her feet and the two of them watched as Klaus mocked them through the emergency air locks thick view port, “seems I’ve finally won Masters, I’m safely in here, and you’re in their and the ship has been set to self destruct in ten minutes and your only way out is through that air lock. Unfortunately you I stripped out all the environmental suits, so I guess you’ll be riding this ship to its death.”

“What exactly have you won?” Ethan asked the obviously insane Prussian.

“I’ve won my honor back, and the reward of finally being able to become one with the Emperor’s will,” the mad man said cryptically.

“The emperor is dead you maniac, I put the particle beam through his throat myself,” Ethan grated out.

“Ah well, the Emperor has children, one of them will succeed him, the Emperor Is Dead, Long Live The Emperor and all that, now good evening Herr Masters, Fraulein Sikorsky,” With that Klaus pulled a massage mask over his head and stepped out of view. A half minute later Ethan and Raven felt the escape pod next to the air lock detach from the ship.

“Crazy bastard he really did become one with the Emperor’s Will,” Ethan shook his head in disgust.

“What are we going to do?” Raven asked calmly but Ethan could see the fear in her eyes and hear the undertone of desperation in her words.

“Search through those lockers, and I’ll check this crate under the benches,” Ethan ordered.

While Raven searched through the lockers Ethan pulled the crate out from under the benches and found that it was actually a cleverly disguised clothes trunk. Two beautifully engraved hardwood boxes sat on top of the clothes in the trunk. Both boxes had I’s emblazoned on them and one had the outline of a man while the other had an outline of a woman.

Curious Ethan opened the boxes and found that each held a massage mask, without thinking he jammed one in the side pocket of his cargo pants and the other into his back pocket as he turned around.

“Find anything?” He asked Raven.

She shook her head in the negative, “the lockers have been stripped, I guess when you’re crew is made up of Quislings you really don’t need environmental suits for them.”

“Well I guess if we’re going to die you could at least let me hold you in my arms for a few minutes,” Ethan said pulling her into his arms. While Raven cried quietly into his shoulder his mind worked furiously to figure out some way to save them. Something clicked in his brain as his hand brushed against the massage mask in his back pocket, and he remembered what Raven had said just a few moments ago. Ethan slowly pulled the mask from his back pocket and held it behind Raven. “I hope you can forgive me some day for this,” Ethan told her.

Raven tilted her head up, “Forgive you for what?”

Ethan pulled the mask down over Raven’s tear streaked features and whispered in her ear lovingly his voice cracking, “Initiate Quisling Protocol.” Raven stiffened in his arms as nannites intruded into her body and her arms hung stiffly at her side, her back rigidly straight the nannites quickly flowed over her body. When the transformation was complete Ethan saw that the sheathing covering Raven was metallic gold color rather than the pearl gray that covered other Quislings a small remote fob nestled in one of the wooden boxes beeped and a voice asked, “Activate Tantalan TIU-6-0-0-0, Yes or Negative it queried?”

“Negative,” Ethan replied and the fob fell silent.

Ethan slowly lowered Raven’s still form to the floor of the air lock, her skin feeling glass cool and smooth against his sweaty palms. Working frantically since he only had five minutes left Ethan resealed the trunk and latched it then took two safety tethers from one of the lockers and attached them to the handles of the trunk. One of the tethers went around Ravens ankle, while Ethan left the other dangle loose for the time. Walking over to the air lock’s control panel he quickly programmed it to open in two minutes without evacuating the oxygen inside first. Going back to the crate he wrapped the loose tether around his ankle and lay back on the ground and pulled Raven into his arms. Pulling the mask from his pocket and over his head and said the activation words he felt himself stiffen as his facial orifices were invaded by the nannites and Ethan Masters was lost to the hypno indoctrinization and subliminal programming.

After thirty seconds the remote fob in the other hardwood box inside the crate beeped and queried, “Activate Tantalan TIU-13-0-0-0, Yes or Negative?” When the remote received no response it repeated the query four more times at five second intervals and then shut itself down.

Five minutes after Ethan had programmed it the airlock blasted open sucking the crate and the two golden figures wrapped in each others arms attached to it out into space, and after another two minutes the Neo-Prussian Imperial Naval Dreadnought Kaiser II detonated.