Hell's Hoplites - Book 1 - Thebes - 12 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 -

Sol System - Far Side Of The Sun - Planet Niburu

Privately Registered Vessel - Hoplite II

September 22nd 2535 AD - 14:08 GMT

Jack gritted his teeth as the wrench slipped off the nut again and brought a welter of crimson blood from the cut.

“You have to be extremely careful,” David told him. “You get any outside influences inside the rotor blades and we are all screwed.”

“I know what I’m doing David,” Jack growled at the slight computer nerd.

“Well I’m just saying…,” David trailed off at the look Jack gave him and went back to his computer where a schematic of a Halberd-Class frigate impeller rotor was rotating slowly with lines running off it giving basic information.

“Alright, she’s in as tight as I can get her,” Jack said turning the ratchet one last time and then wiping the wrench off with a rag before returning it to the tool box at his feet.

It had taken the two of them almost thirty hours to get the blade modified and installed, but even with the amount of reworking they were able to do in the ship’s machine shop the replacement blade still looked awkward as all hell, being slightly shorter and fatter in the cross section than the other rotor blades.

“Okay, I’ll have Oz run the diagnostics,” David said and started tapping furiously into the computer on his legs.

“Good it’s about time you did something useful,” Jack said picking up the tool box and putting it away in the cabinet across the room.

“Nyaee,” David said pulling his lower eyelid down and sticking his tongue out.

“Do that again and I’ll rip your tongue out,” Jack said nonchalantly as he left the room.

A few hours later found eight people crowded around the table in the conference room, Jack had the stub of a cigar in one corner of his mouth and still looked weary from his rapid repair of the ship’s impeller rotor, Samuel was sitting next to Patricia who was holding the blonde haired girl that they had found at the visitors center, Fuji had a folded magazine in front of him on the table and had his forehead supported by his arms as he read it.

The last three people in the room were David Callister and the two people they had rescued from the lizard things.

“Okay I think we need to actually introduce ourselves properly,” Jack said. “I’m Jack Sikorsky, Samuel Zion is the one rubbing the shoulders of the lady holding the girl, that would be Agent Patricia Reed, the little girl as far as well can tell is named Rochelle Kinsey and the guy reading the magazine is Fuji Satokawa, and of course the ships AI Oz, say hello Oz.”

“Hello everyone,” the AI said cheerfully over the intercom system.

“Now we know your name,” Jack said motioning to David. “But I don’t know you’re guys names,” Jack said facing the twenty-something girl and the Viking.

“Fox Carson,” the large bear of a man said, he’d taken a shower and cleaned up after coming aboard and now his long beard had two neat braids running down either side of his chin.

“Marie Kozlowski,” the girl said playing with her freshly spiked brown, red, and green hair.

“Alright I take you were actually with David and part of whatever he was doing?” Jack asked.

Fox gave David a gimlet stare that had the small computer nerd shrinking back into his chair.

“I didn’t tell them anything,” he squeaked out.

“You didn’t have to,” Jack said dryly. “Generally if someone is hiring you to retrieve something, even if it is only data you wouldn’t be going by yourself just in case you got caught or it dropped into the crapper like it did for you this time,” Jack said.

“Ignore testosterone boy there,” Marie said still playing with a lock of hair. “Fox has a tendency to shoot first, shoot again, and then let either David or I try to get answers from the dead bodies,” the girl said with an impish grin that was met by a growl from Fox.

“So what exactly were you guy’s trying to recover at UEF Forestry Ranger station anyway?” Patricia asked.

“Well we…,” David trailed off as looked at his two companions.

Fox didn’t look like he really cared but Marie just nodded for him to continue.

“We were sent to get some data about the location of a possible alien facility on Earth located in the Marianas Trench region,” David explained. “Apparently the UEF government found some sort of ancient facility somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 plus years old located about a mile below the lip of the Marianas trench, the data showed that so far they’ve been able to get inside but they have been trying very hard to do so,” David finished.

“Also there is something else you should know about the data,” Marie said hesitantly.

“And what would that be?” Samuel asked.

“Well…,” Marie looked at her other team members, David nodded his head and Fox just grunted shrugging his shoulders. “One your name came up in connection with it as well as your father’s Erskine Sikorsky, that and we were actually paid by three separate parties to recover the information from the database.”

“Three separate parties?” Jack asked blinking his eyes in surprise.

“Yeah,” David answered with a sigh. “The first one was this rather cold dude in a gray suit with a bunch of black clad mercenaries around him, he hired us about eight months ago to do this job, unfortunately the logistics required that we wait a certain period of time to before pulling of the mission,” David explained. “The second group was a bunch of guys in suits and weird multi-colored cloaks; they approached us about a month ago to get the data.”

“Sons of Merlin,” Samuel growled.

“Rainbow coalition,” Jack muttered.

“Excuse me?” David asked not understanding what they were saying, pulling his glasses off he wiped them clean with a rag.

“I think I can guess who the third person was,” Jack said dryly. “Let’s see a woman about six feet tall, long red hair, wearing a gray spider-silk catsuit.”

“Uh, yeah, how did you know?” David asked looking owlishly through his glasses for a second.

“Cause that’s just the way things seem to be falling of late,” Jack said a look of disgust on his face. “Oz are we ready to go yet?” Jack asked the AI.

“Certainly but I would suggest a jump to Mars to get repairs made and the proper sized impeller rotor blade replacement; otherwise I wouldn’t want to calculate what might happen,” the AI told him.

“Alright set a course for Mars’ Cidonia Spaceport and get us there as quickly as possible,” Jack ordered.

“Certainly,” the AI said.

Turning back to the people at the table Jack made a shoving gesture as if pushing something unsavory away. “Alright obviously this facility is of some importance to a lot of people,” Jack said looking at the others and getting nods.

Looking over at the other three mercenaries that were sharing the table with him he looked each in the eye. “Now we can drop you off anyplace you want on Mars and we’ll go from there but I’ve lost two people already and could use some extra help, you’ll get decent wages and room and board, but you’ll have to follow my orders,” Jack told them.

“You mind if we discuss this out in the hallway?” David asked.

“Sure go ahead,” Jack said.

The two men and one girl wandered out into the hall. David stood for a second scuffing his shoe sole against the deck, Fox had his arms crossed a non-expression on his face and Marie stood against one wall still playing with her hair.

“Alright,” David started, “You think we should take them up on their offer?”

“Well considering I think that one of our previous employers orchestrated the whole dinosaur smack down on the visitor’s center I’d say yes, that way we can get a little pay back in at the same time,” Marie answered.

“Yeah the only problem is which one,” Fox said in his usual quiet tones.

“Hard to say I’ll have to do some digging but the most ruthless one seemed like it would be the guy in the gray suit,” David said pulling his glasses off and cleaning them with the rag again.

“You’re going to scratch them if you keep doing that,” Marie told him sternly.

“Huh,” David said looking down at his glasses and the cleaning rag, he hadn’t even realized he had started that nervous habit up again and put his glasses back on tucking the rag into an inner jacket pocket.

“So, do we go with these guys or not?” Marie asked the other two.

“To get to the bottom of this yes, and who knows if the pay is good enough we may just stick around permanently,” David said. “I could definitely use some new computer upgrades,” he grinned patting the courier bag that held his laptop.

“Violence, mayhem, and interesting people, I’m in,” Fox rumbled flicking a piece of imaginary lint from his black leather vest, thick curly red hair poked out of it and through the arms holes making it look as if he were wearing a red/gold sweater.

“Alright settled then,” Marie said shivering as she unknotted the hoodie from around her waist and put it on, she ran the zipper half way up and then pulled the hood over her head. Playing with the draw strings for a second she forced herself to tuck her hands into the pockets of the sweatshirt.

“Cold again?” David asked a hint of concern in his voice.

“You know me and canned air or air conditioners, the longer I spend in them the more likely I am to get chills and a runny nose,” Marie reminded him.

“I keep forgetting,” David said and then nodding to the other two turned around and hit the door control.

The three of them trooped back into the conference room where the others were discussing something and Patricia was holding Rochelle while the little girl ate from a bowl of cereal.

“Alright we’re in,” David said.

Sol System - Jupiter Orbit - Moon Of Io

Kawamura Industries Io Facility

September 30th 2535 AD - 10:00 GMT

“Mr. Rice there is two women to see you,” the receptionist informed the Kawamura CEO.

“Who is it Miss Mellancamp?” He asked distractedly as he perused reports of possible sightings of Jack Sikorsky and his crew of mercenary garbage.

“A Miss Suzanne Di’Espinoza and a Taki Di’Espinoza,” the receptionist answered.

At the two names Edgar’s head snapped around to look at the security feed from the reception area and he saw the two women standing in front of the reception desk. One of them was tall and red-headed wearing a gray pant suit while the other had long black hair and wore a green sun dress.

“Send them in five minutes from now,” Edgar ordered and then started shoving the reports back into their folders and locking them in a drawer of his desk.

Five minutes later the two women entered his office, Di’Espinoza in the lead pulling the younger woman along by her wrist. Suzanne had a cool expression on her face as she entered and her hair was up in a tight bun being held in place by a pair of ivory chopsticks and several ivory combs.

“Well this is a surprise Miss Di’Espinoza,” Edgar said with a grin as he moved his chair back from his desk and crossed his legs.

“No more a surprise for me than for you, Mr. Rice,” Suzanne said with a sour note to her voice.

“Come, come, Miss Di’Espinoza,” Edgar said his grin getting even larger at her discomfiture.

“Stow it Rice, I have what you want and you have something that I want,” Suzanne told him.

“What makes you think I need the girl anymore?” Rice asked her.

“Because this girl represents a major technological find and if you can figure out where she came from you’ll have your hands on a cache of uber tech that would catapult Kawamura to the top of the game,” Suzanne paused for a second. “Or allow you to pretty much beat up the UEF and take over the world and eventually the Solar System,” she finished.

“What makes you think I want to rule the world,” Rice asked a tinge of surprise coloring the words of his question.

“Because you are an egotistical, sociopathic bastard that doesn’t care about anybody or anyone and would just love to play tin god,” Suzanne told him coldly.

“You know me so well Miss Di’Espinoza,” Rice stood up from his chair placing his arms behind his back and started pacing back and forth behind his desk. “What makes you think I won’t just shoot you in the head right now and take the girl?” Rice asked her with a cold smile.

“This,” Suzanne replied and opened her elegantly tailored suit jacket to reveal a small brown wrapped packet with an LED indicator sticking out of it.

“Ah, seems you came prepared,” Rice said his expression not changing after seeing the ½ pound block of composition ten.

“Yes very much so,” Suzanne replied coldly.

“I take it that it’s on a dead man switch,” Rice asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” Suzanne replied.

“May I look at the girl,” Rice asked politely.

“You may,” Suzanne answered giving her permission and stepping out of range of Rice as he approached the girl.

Rice approached the girl and roughly grasped her chin and tilted her head up roughly to look at her face and saw that her eyes were heavily dilated and then pulled his hand away in disgust. “She’s of no use to me if she hasn’t regained her memories,” Rice said turning towards Suzanne.

“She’s heavily drugged is all, Jack and the others were able to recover her memory for her,” Suzanne explained. “She was less than willing to come with me so I had to subdue and drug her,” Suzanne told him.

“So she’s recovered her full memories,” Rice asked quirking an eyebrow.

Suzanne just nodded not taking her eyes off the man for a second.

“And the memory access codes,” he asked.

“On this disk,” Suzanne said pulling a slim jewel case from her jacket pocket and holding it up.

“So what do you want in return?” Rice asked turning his back on Suzanne, heading back around his desk and sitting back down in his chair.

“I want you to leave myself, Jack, and the others alone,” Suzanne said moving back to the girl and placing her hands on the girl’s shoulders.

“Done,” Rice said quickly.

“I want it in writing,” Suzanne told him.

“Certainly, if you want to come back tomorrow I’ll have it in writing and notarized,” Edgar told her.

“Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow then Mr. Rice,” Suzanne said taking the girl by the hand and leading her out of the office.

“I’ll be awaiting your return with baited breath,” Edgar said quietly as the two women left the room.

Sol System - Jupiter Orbit - Moon Of Io

Io Hilton

September 30th 2535 AD - 15:37 GMT

Suzanne sat at the small dining table in the suite and cleaned her small arsenal.

“Am I doing the right thing,” Suzanne said to the drugged out girl sitting docile on the couch across the room.

Suzanne slid the bolt assembly back into the MP5 she was cleaning and then latched the top of the receiver back into place, slapping in a fresh magazine she jacked back the bolt and set it back on the table one finger trailing over the plastic grip.

“I hope you can forgive me for this Jack,” Suzanne said. She started to stand up when the wall of the suite exploded inwards.

Suzanne’s hand clutched the grip of the MP5 as she was thrown across the room; dry wall dust and plastic particles billowed from the destroyed wall and obscured the room.

Suzanne groaned and started to sit up only to be flattened against the floor again as muzzle flashes winked from the dust cloud and black shapes moved into the room; the impacts threw her to the ground and her head bounced a couple of times.

The dark shapes came into the room with two of them heading for where Taki was still sitting quietly on the couch.

“We’ve got the subject Colonel,” one of the men said his voice sounding muffled as he spoke into the comm built into his gas mask.

“And Di’Espinoza?” Pendlman asked over the comm.

“Dead Ma’am,” the figure said.

“Good, bring the subject back to headquarters,” Pendlman ordered.

“Yes Ma’…BOOM!” before the man could finish his reply his brains and blood were splattered over the eye lenses of the mask and his body dropped boneless to the floor.

“I don’t think so,” Suzanne said a wisp of cordite floating from the barrel of her Glock.

“Shit, the secondary target is still alive,” one of the men hollered and tried to bring his gun around.

“Yeah, it’s called a bullet proof vest,” Suzanne told him bringing the MP5 up and putting a three round burst into his upper chest. “Maybe you should load your guns with armor-piercing rounds like I did,” Suzanne explained cutting down the other four members of the entry team before they could more than get off a single burst.

Suzanne was just about to grab Taki’s arm when something impacted with her spine and tossed her through the window and down into the alley to land in a dumpster.

“Subject acquired, secondary target is confirmed dead,” the second team leader called into Pendlman.

“Is she actually dead this time?” Pendlman grated through her teeth on the comm.

“Yes Ma’am I shot her myself in the back with a load of 000 buckshot and she was thrown through a window and into the alley several stories down,” the team leader told Pendlman.

“Good get the subject back to the facility immediately,” Pendlman ordered.

“Yes Ma’am,” the squad leader said into his comm. “Alright gentleman grab the subject and let’s move,” the leader said turning to his team.

Sol System - Mars - Cidonia City

Cidonia Spaceport Repair Docks

October 3rd 2535 AD - 22:52 GMT

Jack sat at a sidewalk café brooding as he stared at the battered hull of the Hoplite II sitting in the repair dock. The repairs to the ship would take longer than Oz had thought and the entire Impeller Rotor Cap would need replacing and some micro fractures had been found in a few of the ships structural frames.

It would also cost millions of dollars for those repairs and even with Jack’s deep pockets the amount of cash required would reduce his available liquid assets by almost fifty percent.

“What are you staring at?” Fuji asked.

“The ship,” Jack answered, “And wondering how things have gotten out of control.”

“What do you mean out of…,” Fuji’s sentence went unfinished as his comm started beeping. Pulling the comm out he read the message that had been sent. “I’ve got to go do something,” Fuji said shortly and then got up to leave.

Jack’s brows furrowed as he watched the expression on Fuji’s face harden as he got up to leave.

“Something wrong?” Jack asked concerned.

“No just a little family business to take care of,” Fuji answered.

“Alright, well we’ll all take some down time then, I could use a break myself,” Jack commented lounging back in the chair at the table.

“I’ll be back in a few days,” Fuji said and left.

“Alright see you then,” Jack said pulling out a pair of sunglasses and putting them on.

Fuji left with a stiff legged gait and disappeared into the crowd jostling down the sidewalk outside the café.

Jack went back to staring at the hull of the Hoplite II and the small shapes swarming over the vessel.

Sol System - Mars - Cidonia City

Cidonia Child & Welfare Services Office

October 4th 2535 AD - 15:19 GMT

In the city of Cidonia Patricia and Samuel were trying to locate any family members of little Rochelle but they seemed to be drawing a blank. Even with the girls DNA signature she didn’t seem to exist at all, or her family either, matter of fact with the DNA samples they had collected from those at the visitor’s center they couldn’t locate the identity of a single person that had died there.

“Somebody is covering something up,” Samuel said.

“I’d have to agree,” Patricia told him as she eyed the child services agent. “Should we leave the girl with these people,” Patricia asked him under her breath.

“No, she’s a witness so whoever pulled that stunt on Nibiru may want to make sure she disappears,” Samuel told her just as quietly.

“She’s only four,” Patricia hissed to him.

“I’m sorry was there something you said?” The child services agent asked.

“Uh, no, just clearing my throat,” Patricia told the woman clearing her throat.

“Certainly,” the agent replied and then finished filling out a document on her E-PADD.

“So we should be able to find her a spot easily enough in a privately funded foster home,” the agent told them.

“Oh I completely forgot something of Rochelle’s in the car,” Patricia suddenly said standing up.

“Oh, uhm, okay well why don’t you go get it then,” the child services agent said slightly flustered.

“I’ll help you get it,” Samuel said standing up and leading Patricia who was carrying Rochelle out of the building and into the car.

“Privately funded foster home,” Samuel grunted from the diver’s seat.

“Yeah how much you want to bet it’s privately funded by either these Sons of Merlin or Kawamura Industries,” Patricia said as Samuel pulled away from the children services building.

“I wouldn’t put any money against that bet,” Samuel said pulling smoothly into traffic.

Sol System - Jupiter Orbit - Moon Of Io

St. Solomon’s Hospital

October 4th 2535 AD - 17:22 GMT

Suzanne groaned as she rolled over and nearly whacked herself in the head with the IV stand as it came crashing down followed by the clatter of running feet.

“Miss Hermanez are you alright?” A young female voice asked as the pressure of the IV stand left her back and firm warm hands flipped her back over on her back.

“I think so,” Suzanne said opening her eyes to see the face of a young woman wearing a uniform that was a cross between a nurse’s uniform and a nun’s habit.

“Where am I?” Suzanne asked.

“You are at St. Solomon’s hospital in IO City,” the young nurse/nun informed her.

“How did I end up here?” Suzanne asked again as the nurse/nun helped her sit up in the bed.

“Well silly they found you in a dumpster unconscious nearly four days ago, you’re lucky the driver’s assistant was paying attention or you would have been smashed into a bloody paste,” the nurse/nun told her seriously.

“Great, almost pasted,” Suzanne muttered to herself.

“I’m sorry miss did you say something,” the nurse/nun asked making sure that her IV line hadn’t been damaged.

“No just muttering at my foolishness,” Suzanne grumped.

Sol System - Mars - Cidonia City

Hangfire Bar

October 5th 2535 AD - 12:17 GMT

“I’m looking for Kelly Madrid,” Fuji roared as he walked through the door of the seedy bar.

“Well you found him,” a big bull of a man said standing up from a table at the back that a half dozen people were playing poker at.

“Are you the same Kelly Madrid that sold a bomb to Al Arary and his goons forty some years ago?” Fuji asked.

“And if I am?” Madrid asked.

“You know a man named Edgar Rice?” Fuji asked.

“And if I do?” Kelly replied.

“You always answer questions with another question?” Fuji asked.

“Possibly,” Kelly said with a smile.

“Ya know I was hoping to get some information out of you first but a simple piece of shit like you just needs to die, you’re responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people,” Fuji growled and charged forward katana in hand.

Fuji was just about on the smiling man when he pulled out a pair of Desert Eagles and opened fire emptying both magazines into Fuji and tossing his body back and down broken and bleeding.

“Way to go bro,” Ren said to Fuji bending over him as his blood soaked into the wooden floorboards of the bar.

Sol System - Mars - Cidonia City

Privately Registered Vessel - Hoplite II

October 6th 2535 AD - 14:08 GMT

“So where the heck is Fuji, the repairs are done and we need to get to Earth to check out that facility in the Marinara trench,” Samuel said biting a chunk out of an apple.

“Marianas Trench,” Patricia corrected.

“Whatever,” Samuel said eating more of the apple.

“I don’t know,” Jack answered. “He said he had some family business to take care of,” Jack explained.

“Family business,” Samuel said.

“Family business,” Jack answered.

“Uhm, does that usually happen?” David asked polishing his glasses.

“Yeah, just another day in the mercenary business,” Jack said.

“So do we wait for him to return?” Marie asked.

“Yes, I…,” Jack started to say.

“Excuse me Captain, there is something on the news you might want to watch,” Oz interrupted the conversation.

“Put it up Oz,” Jack said sighing.

“Certainly,” Oz replied and a few seconds later the view screen in the mess hall popped to life showing a live news feed.

“We’re reporting live from Cidonia Middle School,” a reporter said on the screen a school in the background.

“Approximately forty-five minutes ago this man,” a picture of a blonde haired man wearing a red leather overcoat appeared on the screen. “Entered the school and using only his hands killed first all the security personnel and several of the teacher’s; currently the remaining staff and students have locked themselves in an underground vault that the intruder it currently unable to get into.”

Jack groaned and clapped both hands over his face, “Shit.”

“I guess we should have turned him over to the authorities,” Patricia said.

“Yeah but if we had we would have been blown into tiny little atoms by Rice,” Samuel told her.

“True, very true,” Patricia replied.

“Uhm, so you guys know that homicidal maniac?” Marie asked staring wide-eyed at the monitor.

Jack sighed again and explained their meeting of Steve and then his supposed death during the attack by Edgar Rice’s ships.

“And you say that all he ever said was that he liked orange juice and whined a lot,” Fox rumbled in a deep voice.

“Yeah he was goofy jackass,” Samuel said. “I didn’t actually think he’d do something like this, I mean he was considered armed and dangerous but the files that the SSPF had on him never mentioned him being a homicidal maniac,” Samuel finished.

“What I’d like to know is how he survived,” David said. “You said there was a plasma flair right before you’re vessel was thrown into hyperspace and ended up at Niburu,” he asked.

“Yeah, right before we got knocked out and ended up on the other side of the system,” Jack answered.

“So the fact that he’s still wandering around is your guys’ fault,” Marie said.

“Way to rub it in,” Samuel muttered.

“She’s right it is our fault,” Jack said dry washing his face with his hands.

“Well true, but if he’s such a psycho why’d he supposedly sacrifice himself for us?” Patricia asked.

“Who knows with crazy people,” Fox said.

“So do we do something about him or not?” David asked.

“Yeah, but what about all the camera’s and everything,” Samuel asked.

“Well, you’ve got me now, and I can crack through just about any system,” David said flexing his fingers as if in anticipation.

“You can shut down the news cameras outside and the security cameras inside?” Jack asked.

“Sure no biggie; hell I cracked into that UEF Forestry computer didn’t I,” David said preening slightly.

“I’m the best sniper you’ll ever find,” Marie said proudly.

“I’m up for some mayhem,” Fox said.

“Oh god this is all going to end in tears,” Jack said still dry washing his face.

“Well if you think we should do something, shouldn’t we get a plan going then,” Patricia asked.

“Yeah, we need to stop him before he gets through to those kids,” David said pulling a small computer out of his jacket pocket.

“Get me some ranges,” Marie said pulling the hood of her hoodie up and pulling an empty .50 caliber shell casing out of a pocket and flipping it from hand to hand.

“Has any one really considered the fact this nut job walked out onto the hull of a ship in deep space without an environmental suit of any kind, some how set off a plasma flare, survived said plasma flare and then somehow wound up here on Mars,” Patricia said looking at them as if they were insane.

“You’re right we’re going to need some bigger guns,” Jack said rubbing his stubble covered chin.

“Flame thrower maybe,” Samuel suggested.

“Maybe a rocket or grenade launcher,” Fox said.

“I think I might still have a few depleted uranium or tungsten rounds left in my gear somewhere,” Marie said.

“Armor piercing, Incendiary, or high explosive,” Jack threw on the table.

“Well if you confront him near the armored room that the children are in armor piercing rounds could pass through the door,” David said still typing away at his computer. “As for high explosive or incendiary you might collapse the building or set it on fire making the situation worse,” David continued not looking up from the computer.

Patricia looked back and forth between the other five people sitting at the table. “Are you people out of your freaking minds, this man is a mass murdering who knows what,” Patricia screamed at them.

“You’re right we’ll just have to go with hollow points and semi-armor piercing rounds,” Jack said still rubbing his chin.

“Aaaggghhh,” Patricia screamed at their stubbornness and her head pounded against the table in frustration.

“Okay so here is what I think,” Jack said starting to outline his plan. “Marie and I’ll set up a sniper cross fire on these two buildings here and here,” he said with a light stylus indicating the buildings on the overhead map that was projected on the bulkhead screen. Samuel you and Fox lure him away from that underground box that the kids are hiding in and get him into this courtyard here,” Jack ordered pointing to a small lunch courtyard at the back of the school.

“David you’ll be in the car in this alley, if we can’t stop him at the school we’ll all fall back to the car and lure him even farther away,” Jack said. “Patricia you’ll stay on the ship giving us over-watch capability and a quick way to get us out of there,” he said looking at Patricia who just nodded.

“We have a limited window to help those kids in that school so get your gear together and we’ll meet in the cargo bay,” Jack told them and left the mess hall to get his own gear.

Sol System - Mars - Cidonia City

Cidonia Spaceport/Cidonia Middle School

October 6th 2535 AD - 14:23 GMT

Fifteen minutes later found everyone save Patricia gathered in the cargo hold with their gear. Jack was wearing an ammo vest with large pouches holding spare magazines for his huge Barrett rifle, Marie was wearing web gear under her hoodie with spare magazine pouches, several knives and even a couple of grenades clipped to it. Fox had one of his revolvers out and was loading each cylinder chamber with care and snapping retainers closed over several speed loaders, David was tapping rapidly on his computer, and Samuel slid a 40mm buckshot round into the under-barrel launcher of his M30 assault rifle.

“I take it we are all ready to go then?” Jack asked and received nods and audible assents from those around him.

Unfortunately the damage that the SUV had sustained hadn’t been repaired yet and the suspension and undercarriage were jacked up to allow easy access while Jack and Samuel had been working on it.

The five of them crammed themselves into the seats of the sedan poking and jabbing each other with equipment and gear.

David drove the sedan first to a building that overlooked the rear schoolyard where Marie and Jack jumped out.

Tossing a grappling hook at the building’s roof Jack was able to catch a protruding edge and shimmied quickly up the knotted rope and was followed soon after by Marie who pulled the rope up after them. Marie back to the edge of the roof they were on and sprinting across the intervening space and jumped across the alley to the next building, tucking and rolling as she landed she quickly sprang to her feet and the two of them set up their sniper perches.

Driving around the back of the school a block distant Dave dropped off Samuel and Fox in an alley and then left to park in another alley where he could work his computer magic.

Parking the vehicle he flipped the top of his computer open and started typing; his first task was to pull the police from around the rear of the school and send them to the front where they were out of the way of Samuel and Fox, the next was to set up a feed back loop for the cameras monitoring the hallways and courtyard that the two would pass through.

“Alright, Samuel, Fox, the way is open,” David said watching through the cameras as the police pulled back around to the front of the school building.

“Roger,” Samuel said and waved to Fox as the two of them raced from alley to alley to finally reach the wall surrounding the school’s rear courtyard and scaled the short wall.

Inside the courtyard the two of them crouched down for a second getting their bearings. Samuel pulled the bolt back on his M30 and let it go snapping a round into the chamber and Fox pulled both revolvers out and jacked back their hammers.

“Man its quiet,” Fox said surveying the courtyard.

“Yeah and that’s never a good thing,” Samuel said looking around the unearthly quiet lunch courtyard, the silence unnerved Samuel slightly. Where there should have been children eating their lunches, playing on the jungle gym and swings or running screaming and laughing in play there was only the slight rattle of leafless branches against the side of the courtyard fence and a large blood spatter partially covered one of the teeter-totters and the ground around it.

“Looks like they evacuated at least one injured person from here,” Fox said nodding to the blood stain.

“Or removed someone’s body,” Samuel said quietly not wanting to shatter the stillness with too much noise.

“Alright guys head through that set of double doors up ahead and then take a right at the first corridor and then open the eighth door on the right that’ll be the stairwell to the basement where the shelter is,” David told them over their ear-bugs. “Once you get to the bottom of the steps let me know,” David ordered.

“Roger that,” Samuel said then darted in a crouch over to the set of double doors leading into the school; he noticed that one of the panes had been shattered and fallen inward. Signaling to Fox and then himself he made a door opening motion and Fox nodded.

Darting over in a crouch of his own Fox paused to make sure that no one had noticed him and then holstering one of his revolvers he pulled on the door handle on his side and slowly pulled it open wincing slightly at the tinkle and then grinding crunch of broken glass.

“Entering the building now,” Samuel breathed into his mike as he slid through the door trying his best to avoid more crunching sounds from the broken glass.

“Roger that, Marie and I have you in our scopes, we aren’t detecting any thermal signatures on your level or those above it, unsure of any below your level,” Jack told the two men as he looked through his scope switching between thermal and normal telescopic vision.

On the building next to Jack’s Marie flipped between IR and standard telescopic as they both scanned back and forth across the building that their team members were entering.

Jack watched as Samuel and Fox followed David’s directions to the basement stairwell that would lead them to the safety vault.

“Alright Samuel and Fox are at the stairwell,” Jack told David.

“Roger,” David said distractedly.

Inside the school building it was even quieter than it had been outside and Samuel and Fox couldn’t help but have chills course down their spines as they passed empty classrooms that looked like a hurricane had thrashed through them. Papers, books, E-PADDS, light stylus, and book bags lay scattered over the floors in some instances desks had been overturned and one room looked like some enraged creature had entered and wrecked the room with no other purpose than to destroy things.

Samuel and Fox paused to survey the trashed room, all the desks had been tossed to the sides as if they had been made of nothing more than plasti-board and one of them had been imbedded six inches into the plasma wall where the teacher’s desk now lay flipped over.

“Hold up,” Samuel said pointing the barrel of his M30 at the overturned desk.

“What is it,” Fox asked in a low tone.

“There is a foot sticking out from under that table,” Samuel said motioning with his gun.

“Jack, this is Fox, are you picking up any thermal signatures besides ours in this room?” Fox asked over the comm.

“That’s a negative Fox there are no other signatures in that room or on that floor even,” Jack informed him.

“We need to check and make sure just to be on the safe side,” Samuel said. “Fox watch the door while I check on it,” he ordered.

“Roger,” Fox said turning and facing the door to the room.

Samuel slid slowly towards the overturned desk and around its side to find the body of what he assumed was a teacher or teacher’s aide, she had short red hair and was dressed in a simple blouse and skirt her once pretty face was contorted into an expression of fear and surprise and her now dead hands clutched at the edges of a charred gaping wound that had taken her in the stomach. Only a small puddle of blood lay under her body from the cauterized wound.

“We’ve got another one down here in class room 15C,” Samuel said quietly into the comm system and then reached over to close the young woman’s staring eyes.

“Roger that,” David acknowledged. “I’ll throw it in the data packet I’ll burst to the authorities after we clear the area,” he told them.

Samuel cursed quietly under his breath as he backed out from under the overturned desk and looked at Fox shaking his head.

Samuel rejoined Fox by the door and the two of them continued on to their next check point where they found the door to the stairwell.

“Alright guys, head down the stairs and go to the fifth corridor on your right, at the end of the hall is the shelter and most likely Steve,” David told them from his position in the car.

“Roger that,” Samuel said and the two of them continued down the steps.

“Samuel, Fox, we won’t be able to give you over-watch until you leave the basement again,” Jack told the two men.

“Not a problem, we’ll most likely be running back up the stairs in a few minutes anyway,” Samuel told him.

“Yeah well don’t let yourself get killed,” Jack said over the comm.

“No problem, I plan on living longer than you anyway,” Samuel joked back.

In the basement the two of them slowly made their way to the fifth corridor trying to be as quiet as possible. When they were several feet from the corridor they could hear the steady thud of something banging against thick metal and the occasional muffled scream or cry of terror just under that.

The two of them paused at the edge of the corridor and then quickly glanced down it seeing the distinctive red clad figure of Steve leaving fist size dents in the metal of the vault as he pounded on it relentlessly, after a few seconds the two of them backed down the corridor a few feet.

“Alright we’re at the corridor and I can see Steve,” Samuel said.

“What’s he doing?” Jack asked.

“Currently he’s making a pretty good impersonation of a steam hammer,” Samuel answered describing the battered and dented exterior of the security door.

“Judas priest,” David breathed. “That door is three foot thick battle plate there is no way he should be able to do that with just his hands,” there was a slight quaver to his words.

“No shit,” Fox breathed into the comm.

“You still got that buckshot round loaded?” Jack asked Samuel.

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Good, use it, and then get the fuck out of there,” Jack ordered.

Samuel stepped around the corner of the corridor. “Hey O.J. boy I got a present for you,” Samuel shouted to get Steve’s attention.

The banging against the door stopped and Steve turned to face him.

Samuel gulped at the sight of his face, it was filled with hate and anger and his eyes were literally glowing red as if they had been replaced with bright LEDs. Samuel adjusted his aim and then fired the M203. The oversized load of buckshot belching out of the barrel with a loud bang and impacting with Steve’s head, shoulders, and upper chest knocking him back a few feet and slamming him into the door he had been pounding on.

“I think I just took him down,” Samuel said over the mike and then watched as Steve stood back up 000 buck shot pellets popping from his skin and plinking to the concrete floor of the basement.

“Or Maybe not,” Samuel said backing up and putting another 40mm grenade in the tube and firing.

This time the load of buckshot didn’t even faze Steve as he walked slowly and purposefully towards Samuel and Fox.

“Okay we are running now,” Samuel said turning and running down the corridor with Fox a few feet behind him.

“Yeah in the immortal words of King Arthur run away, run away,” Fox rattled out.

“Ugh, he’s been watching Monty Python again,” Marie said to Jack as the two of them settled more firmly behind the scopes of their rifles.

The two of them pounded down the corridor and up the stairs. On the main floor of the school the two of them skidded around corners and blasted through the doors and back into the courtyard that they had entered through.

“Hope you guys are ready,” Samuel panted into his comm and dumped out the empty 40mm shell from the under-slung M203 and slid in another round. This time the shell was a white phosphorous one rather than the non-useful buckshot that he had used before.

Next to Samuel Fox re-holstered his revolvers and pulled out a pair of lever-action 8-gauge shotguns which he had previously loaded with slugs.

The two of them didn’t have to wait long as the doors to the school blew outwards and were torn off their hinges and were flung across the courtyard to impact with the wall surrounding it.

“Oh hey Steve,” Samuel said at a loss for words as the blonde haired man’s eyes blazed a bright red.

“I’m going to kill you and eat your hearts,” Steve said stalking slowly across the courtyard towards the two men.

“Not very imaginative with his threats is he,” Marie said over the comm.

“Oh shut up and open fire,” Jack said over the comm.

Down in the courtyard Samuel lead off with the 40mm white phosphorous it having just barely enough range to detonate across the court yard bathing Steve in burning white chunks that would have normally stuck to just about any surface; all they did was slide off the material of his coat and to the ground still burning and melting through the cobbled stones of the courtyard under his feet.

Both Marie and Jack opened fire at the same time punching round after round of .50 BMG into Steve’s body with Samuel opening up with bursts of 5.56mm from his rifle and Fox firing and levering slugs into the red coated man, the brunt of the impacts pushed him backwards and nearly almost through the doors of the school.

“This isn’t working,” Samuel screamed over the comm dropping an empty magazine from the M30 and slapping in a fresh one and opening fire again as the brass casings tinkled and bounced around his feet in ever growing piles and the empty blue husks from Fox’s shotguns dropped to the ground with dull clicks and clinks.

The rain of fire slackened and then picked up again as each member reloaded and then started firing again. The concentrated rounds didn’t seem to be having much of an effect on Steve save to push him back but even that had stopped for now as Steve brought his arms up as if to ward off the rounds and then they did actually start bouncing off them.

“Shit,” Jack said over the comm. “Samuel, Fox fall back to the car we’ll hold him here till you leave,” Jack ordered.

“Roger,” Samuel said running back to the wall and cupping his hands for Fox to pull himself up to the top who then leaned down to pull Samuel up with both tumbling over the side and running for the alley where the car was.

“This is so not good,” Fox said he had one of his shotguns gripped in his hands the lever in the open position as he pushed shells into the back of the shotgun.

“No kidding,” Samuel huffed as they slid around the corner of the alley and jumped into the car just as David started it.

“Let’s go,” Samuel shouted to David who threw the car into gear and sped backwards down the alley.

Without even braking David shot backwards across the street into the next alley and then circled around to the building where Marie and Jack were waiting already down off the building’s roof.

“We need to hurry,” Jack said shoving David over and getting behind the wheel.

“Yeah, we expended all our long gun ammo to slow that fucker down and all he did was laugh at us like it didn’t mean a damn thing,” Marie said shoving her rifle into Fox’s waiting hands as she jumped in.

“Yeah I’m down to just the FN’s and a couple of grenades,” Jack said spinning out in the alleyway detritus as he backed out into traffic and swung the vehicle around so that it was facing forward he accelerated down the street to a chorus of honks, curses, and shaken fists.

“Alright I guess we need to get back to the ship and get some heavier firepower,” Jack said as he swung the sedan around various slow moving vehicles in the street.

“Heavier firepower?” Marie said. “Like what a nuke?” She asked half hysterically.

“If necessary,” Samuel said from the other side of Fox.

“Are you out of your minds, we emptied several hundred rounds of .50 BMG into him,” Marie said.

“Yeah, I think that’s kind of a moot point right now,” David said pushing his glasses up on his nose as a red coated figure dashed out into traffic in front of them.

“Well I guess that makes it a simple matter of velocity and mass to weight ratios,” Jack said pushing the accelerator to the floor literally his nanno enhanced muscles reacting to the adrenal and stress.

“Oz we are going to need a pick up in less than five minutes,” Jack yelled over the comm. “Everyone when I say jump, jump from the bloody car don’t hesitate for a second,” Jack ordered the others.

The accelerating car continued to pick up speed until the needle smacked against the post at one end of the gauge.

“Jump,” Jack hollered tossing his own door open and tucking and rolling as he hit the fused ceramocrete at well over a hundred miles per hour. He couldn’t tell if the others had followed him as he felt the road abrade flesh from his arms and legs as he bounced and rolled down the street.

The vehicle with its cruise control set slammed into Steve and shoved him back, back, back, until they slammed into the ceramocrete wall of a building with humongous bang. The force of the impact sent cracks juddering and snaking across the surface of the wall and pedestrians and cars all around slammed to a halt to watch the spectacle.

“Everyone alright,” Jack asked over the comm and got various groans of acknowledgement from his team members.

“Looks like that finally did it,” Fox said dusting off his leathers. He’d come out of the tumble with the least amount of damage thanks to the fact that he was wearing leather pants and the heavy duty leather duster.

“I think I scraped about three layers of skin off,” Marie groaned and then vomited from the vertigo she was still experiencing from her tumble out of the car.

“Dammit,” David swore holding up the small computer that he kept in a pocket of his jacket; it was smashed to pieces with wires and parts hanging off of it and he had a disgusted look on his face as he jammed it back into a pocket.

Just as the team was well not exactly starting to pat each other on the back but thinking they would be able to walk away from the fight without further resistance they heard a scraping, crunching, grinding noise from the impact point and turned watching wide eyed as the full size sedan was shoved fifty feet away from the wall and Steve walked out of the cloud of dust that had been created by the impact.

“Oh you have so got to be kidding me,” Marie muttered.

Before anyone could say anything else Patricia came over the comm, “you guys need a ride?”

“Yeah,” Samuel grunted before almost being smacked with a knotted rope that she dropped from the open cargo hatch on the belly of the ship.

“Climb aboard then,” Patricia said.

“Everyone up, don’t even wait for the person in front of you to make it all the way,” Jack ordered and shoved Marie towards the rope who agilely but painfully scampered up the rope with David following and then Fox and Samuel, Jack was the last one on the line.

“Start hauling it in,” he ordered Patricia over the comm.

“Roger,” she acknowledged.

Even as the five team members climbed up the rope it started being winched in by the overhead and a few short minutes later they were back in the cargo bay standing around the open hatch peering back down at Steve who was glaring at them.

“So what are we going to do with him,” Fox asked jerking a thumb downwards.

“Samuel, Fox, go grab every piece of C10 in the armory and put it in the SUV,” Jack ordered still bent over breathing heavily from the ordeal.

The two men ran to the armory and came back staggering under the weight of over thirty kilos of the explosive compound each. Setting their burdens in the tailgate of the SUV Samuel tossed Jack a bag holding detonators.

Climbing into the tailgate Jack set each of the detonators on the same frequency and jammed one in each kilo block and then jumped back out and stood to the side with the detonator in his hand.

“Oz run the crane out over the cargo hatch and then release it when I tell you to,” Jack ordered.

“Certainly Jack,” Oz said and they watched as the upper body of the vehicle slowly ran out over the cargo hatch the mass swaying slightly.

“Now,” Jack shouted and the crane clamps released dropping the heavy SUV body downwards through the cargo hatch to the ground a hundred feet below.

The SUV landed with a massive boom right on top of Steve and Jack didn’t wait to see if he would stand back up from that; pushing the main switch on the detonator blasting a gaping crater in the roadway below that went down several feet and was almost fifty feet across.

“I hope to god that stopped him,” Fox said sliding down the wall of the cargo bay tiredly.

“You and me both,” Marie said sitting down a little more gingerly to avoid abusing her already abraded skin even more.

“Well I don’t see anything left in the crater,” Samuel said taking out a pair of binoculars that had some how survived the tumble from the car and peering through them.

“Even if it didn’t kill him maybe it blasted him some place far away,” David commented.

“We can only hope for either outcome and hope that he doesn’t start to massacre people anytime soon,” Jack said hitting the switch for the cargo bay doors and then looked at the chassis for the SUV still sitting at the front of the cargo bay. “This is seriously starting to turn into an expensively bad habit,” he commented and left the cargo bay to head for the Med-Bay with the others trailing behind.

Sol System - Jupiter Orbit - Moon Of Io

St. Solomon’s Hospital

October 6th 2535 AD - 20:13 GMT

Suzanne’s much needed convalescence didn’t last long; she’d been awake for nearly two days now and most of her scrapes and bruises had healed and the IV had been removed. They’d even let her eat real food, or at least hospital food, she was finishing up her dinner when a nurse/nun she hadn’t ever seen before entered the room with a covered tray.

“Time for some medication dear,” the gray headed nurse told her and set the tray down on the stand next to the bed and removed the empty food tray.

“Medication, what medication?” Suzanne asked suddenly suspicious the only medication they had given her had been some painkillers.

“Just an anti-biotic shot to help keep you from getting any infections from falling in that dumpster where they found you,” the nurse/nun told her cheerfully.

“Okay,” Suzanne said rolling her sleeve up.

“I’m afraid this has to go into some place a little more private,” the nurse/nun told her. “Just need you to roll over and bare your ass honey,” the nurse/nun told her squeezing the plunger of the needle and small beads of the fluid dripping down the outside.

“Not,” Suzanne said smacking the so-called nurse in the jaw with the bed pan from the table breaking the woman’s jaw and knocking her unconscious.

“Seriously if you are going to pretend to be a nurse in a hospital run by nuns you need to refrain from cussing,” Suzanne grunted as she flipped the woman over and undid her nurse’s uniform and put it on.

“I mean seriously what nurse would say ass anyway,” Suzanne continued as she pulled the habit over her head and then bent down grasping the woman under the neck and back of the head and twisting sharply. The gristly crack echoed around the small room and then Suzanne put the dead hitter in the bed covering her with a sheet.

Suzanne straightened her robes and the habit making sure that the crucifix could clearly been seen and then checked the pockets of the robes. Digging around she found a Walther P215 9mm and a couple of spare magazines, a folding knife, and about 10,000 credits as well as a set of car keys with a Mercedes key fob attached and then left the room.

“Please bless me sister,” a little girl asked as Suzanne walked through the halls of St. Solomon’s hospital.

“Certainly my child,” Suzanne said smiling at the girl who had a broken leg and made the sign of the cross over her. “May his lord bless you and keep you my child,” Suzanne said as she stood up from her crouch next to the girl.

“Thank you sister,” the little girl said smiling.

“And thank you little one,” Suzanne said patting her on the head.

Suzanne left the hospital and pulled the key fob pushing the buttons on it until one of the cars in the lot beeped and its lights flashed.

“Nice, and definitely not a nun,” Suzanne murmured as she got into the crossover and pulled the habit off letting her long red hair spill out. Inserting the key into the ignition it started without a hitch and she left the parking lot at a sedate pace so as not to alert anyone.

Several minutes later she pulled into a deserted rest stop along IO-238 and pulled around back of the building. Crawling under the vehicle she pulled the folding knife out of the pocket of her nun’s robes and flicked it open. Using the tip of the blade to pry the satellite location beacon free she tossed it in the trash before investigating the contents of the car.

“Now let’s see what goodies you left me miss potty mouth nun,” Suzanne said aloud as she opened the cargo hatch and found an overnight bag and two hard-shelled suitcases manufactured by Gibraltar. Opening up the overnight bag she found half a dozen blank passports for the UEF, Martian, and Venusian Republics as well as the Jovian Union. Setting those aside she found another 100,000 credits as well as the usual things a woman would pack in an overnight bag such as makeup, toiletries, and whoever the woman had been some really skimpy underwear and bras.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers though and she grabbed the bag and the two suitcases and slammed the hatch closed dragging them into a bathroom stall in the rest stop.

Sifting through the suitcases she picked out clothing and changed in the stall, most of the clothes were normal but there was a bullet proof vest which she put on underneath her new clothes as well as an odd one piece suit that was folded neatly at the bottom of the first suitcase. The outside of it felt rubbery but when she slid her arm through the interior it felt soft and smooth like silk or really well made spandex, the suit had a hood as well and a half mask was attached and would cover the forehead, eyes, and nose if worn. The lenses of the mask were a red color and Suzanne guessed that it was some sort of IR or low light vision system.

Tossing the suit back into the suitcase, thankfully the woman that had tried to kill her had been very close to her own size sifting through the clothing she chose what she was going to wear, unfortunately she’d also have to wear the woman’s under things but at least they seemed new.

It wasn’t easy to change clothes but Suzanne did it quickly taking off the rest of the nurse/nun outfit she slid the skimpy black underwear on and slid the bra on as well; it felt like wearing nothing at all and was oddly enough very comfortable.

Finally fully dressed in a pair of black leather pants, red turtleneck sweater, black leather jacket, and a pair of black high heeled boots with three inch stilettos, she brushed her curly red hair out had it being held back from her face with a tortoiseshell clasp. The woman’s makeup case had held all sorts of items including camouflage face paint but now Suzanne was applying a rather devilish shade of red to her lips and a light coating of makeup to her eyelashes as well as some eye shadow.

Puckering her lips to more evenly distribute the lipstick she finally looked away from the mirror and picked up the Walther from the counter next to the sink and slid it into a shoulder holster under her jacket. Belting the Jacket loosely she walked out of the restroom her heels clicking against the tile of the rest stop’s floor.

Walking back to the rear of the Mercedes she opened the rear cargo hatch. “Now little miss assassin/nun/nurse you wouldn’t be running around with just a single hand gun and a folding knife, where is your stash hidden at,” Suzanne mused tapping a finger against her lips.

Pulling out the folding knife she started tapping around the cargo compartment until the noise changed and a small compartment opened to reveal a keypad.

“Well what do we have here,” Suzanne said flipping the knife open she pried the keypad loose and reprogrammed it and then put it back into place tapping in the new code.

The cover over the back seat rolled up and the bottom of the cargo area opened with two hinged doors as she watched and she let out a low whistle at what was revealed. The seat back had a broken down sniper rifle, a shotgun and a couple of submachine guns; the cargo floor had several hand guns, knives, explosives and grenades as well as spare munitions for the weapons.

“Cool,” Suzanne said running her hands over the implements of destruction and then punched the access code in closing the panels. After the compartments were closed she tossed her suitcases and overnight back into the cargo area and got in the front.

Reaching over she opened the console and found a comm unit and after some examination found that it was clean, tapping in a code she was answered after the second ring.

“Vektor spacelines IO office how may I be of service?” A perky female voice answered.

“Yes I’d like to book a flight to Mars Cidonia Spaceport please,” Suzanne told the ticket agent.

“Certainly ma’am will there be any extraneous cargo involved?” The woman asked.

“Yes a small SUV and three pieces of luggage,” Suzanne told the woman.

“Alright and your name Ma’am?” She asked.

Suzanne pulled out one of the blank passports she’d pulled out of the bag and flipped it open to look at the name. “Deidre Peldman,” she told the woman.

“Okay Miss Peldman, and how will you be paying?” The woman asked.

“With a credit card,” Suzanne told her and read the number off of the card.

“Thank you Miss Peldman,” the receptionist said. “You’re ship will be leaving tomorrow evening at 19:00 hours,” she informed Suzanne.

“Thank you,” Suzanne said and shut off the comm unit. Reaching up to the visor she adjusted it and a set of sunglasses tumbled out, placing them on her face she adjusted the mirror and gave herself a fierce grin. That gives me just enough time to cause a little mayhem, Suzanne thought to herself.

The Mercedes spun out from the rest stop and she headed down IO-238 and back towards IO-City to raise some hell.