I blink at Galinae slowly from behind my helmet. My voice modulated through the helmet so I can be heard. "You're here to see me off?" Galinae smiles "I am actually coming with you."
I stare at her in a momentary silence. Was she looking to get herself killed? No, that can not be it. She is naive, but not stupid. The more likely story is that she does not know what I am planning. "Stay with the ship." Gali protests "but-"
"That is an order! Stay put." I bark, cutting her off.
Gali droops and sighs "okay okay, but be careful."
After this exchange, she gives me a sheepish smile, reaching in a pocket of her coat. The hangar bay and cargo deck always was kept at a lower temperature on the environmental control system. "Here.." she finds a lapel pin in her pocket, pinning it to my vest atop my left breast. "For good luck. I know you are not the superstitious sort of girl, but I am."
I nod my head at Galinae slowly and turn, entering the shuttle's ramp. The same shuttle we comandeered from that bunker. I pause and turn my head over a shoulder to look at Galinae as the ramp shuts. I sit next to the ramp's edge in a seat and check over my gear as the shuttle lifts off.
A voice cheerfully calls over the Shuttle's PA "Welcome aboard, Captain! Crewman Daniels speaking as your shuttle flight officer today. We'll be descending planetside in T-minus five minutes. Buckle up and check your gear."
***
Eight minutes later, Our shuttle comes down to land on the landing pad of an Iridian compound amongst a remote area of the moon orbiting Eridan III. As we land on the landing pad, I stand, preparing for the back ramp to open as I draw my sidearm and screw the suppressor on the circular compensator on the end of the muzzle with a quarter turn and a click.
The shuttle door opens and there are two guards immediately at each end of the ramp. Likely expecting the late princess. I do not give them time to speak and use four bullets to put them down. One to the chest, one to the head. The 5.6x33 millimeter bullets penetrate the body armor plates they wear, penetrating through their sternum and shattering it before lodging next to their spinal column before the second shot strikes them in the head, creating a small hole in their forehead and scrambling the gray matter behind their skull plate. The second guard takes both to the chest and I have to walk up to them to deliver the final shot to the head. Correction, Five bullets.
As blood pools around the bodies; I take a moment to look at their ornate and brightly colored armor that represent the house Vansae Noble guards. Not practical for combat and more ceremonial than anything. Meaning they are not expecting trouble. I silently come up to the door entrance to the main compound hall where I can hear Iridian zither music for a gathering of Vansae nobility and their friends.
I holster my sidearm and ready a pair of concussion grenades, cracking the door enough to roll them into the room before I shut the door. Three seconds. Three. Two. One. the grenades go off with a loud bang and a blinding flash. I feel the concussive wave hit the wall and I open both doors, raising my shotgun.
Two guards either side of the entrance. One shell each should be enough. I fire at the first guard. Their abdominal cavity is ripped apart by the cloud of depleted uranium flechettes. Her armor glows red hot around the edges of the entry holes for the flechettes, highlighting the pyrophoric nature of depleted uranium. I rack the shotgun to load the second shell into the chamber as her body falls over dead and aim at the second guard.
I squeeze the trigger and the flechettes strike this one's breast plate on the ceremonial armor. Sparks fly out from the metal plate as the flechettes strike it and dig holes through it, and then penetrates their body. Ripping multiple holes in a pattern in their chest and tearing long channels through their body. Eviscerating organs and fragmenting their rib cage. The flechettes even exit out the other side of their body and strike the wall behind them, leaving pock marks in the wall.
At this point I turn and slam-fire the remaining shells in the tube magazine (six shells in all) at a purple-clothed Iridian wearing ornate jewellry. Likely nobility from house Vansae, identifiable by the jewellry as Matron Vansae's sister and her chief enforcer.
The Flechettes work even more effectively, ripping straight through the light, airy clothing and fracturing her spine, cutting apart organs and soft tissues, and even tearing off fingers as they had tried to shield their face from the concussion grenade effects. They are reduced to a fragmented mess. Barely recognizable as an iridian. Badly mauled and deformed by the depleted uranium darts.
After cutting the noblewoman to pieces with the shells, I let my shotgun hang by the sling on my left side and pick up my Submachine gun. Racking the charging handle to chamber the first round as I shoulder it. I aim at the guards first as they come back to their senses as the effects of the concussion grenades wear off.
I spray in short, controlled bursts of 3-5 rounds each at the guards. Penetrating their ornate armor with ease with the high-velocity 5.6x33mm cartridges. Blood pools around the dead and dying. My SMG runs out of ammo and a guard grapples with me, grabbing onto my bicep in a desperate attempt to stop me, but their grip is feeble.
I draw my combat knife inverted in my hand and sink it into their underarm from behind, twisting the blade and turning as they let go of me because of the pain, I take the knife out and deliver a heel-kick to their diaphragm, sending them into the air and crashing into a stone pillar.
Another guard attempts to bring me down, grabbing my throat. I curl my toes on my left foot and the blade concealed in the sole of my low-heeled boot springs out below my toes. I hook my foot behind their calf, pivoting my ankle and thrusting my foot towards their left ankle. digging the blade into their ankle and slicing through with a twist of my leg. The move slices their foot off. Which now hangs by a patch of skin.
They scream and fall over as I draw my sidearm and end their life with a single shot to their head, between the eyes. I reload my Z&M model 56 SMG and continue down the center aisle of the large hall. The iron smell of blood now fills the room along with the stench of propellant smoke.
I Am interrupted in the middle of my reload by a house Vansae guard attempts to stop me as I approach the head table, but I kick at their groin and bury the toe blade of my boot into their inner thigh and shoot them in the chest at point blank with my sidearm. I discard their dead body by pushing their cheekwith my opposite hand, Simultaneously sliding the blade out of their thigh as blood pools on the floor underneath them and they lay there dead.
Noblewomen scream and run for the exits of the compound as I walk towards the main table with a trio of women sitting at it. I identify them as Matron Vansae, Her husband and Federation ambassador to the Iridians, Amadaeus Taegan. An Austrian man with a tall and broad stature and platinum blonde hair with hazel eyes. As well as the High Matron herself, the noble Kelle Vansae.
High Matron Kelle is Farsa's half-sister. Farsa relayed that bit of information to me behind closed doors a few months ago. However, be that as it may. However she is one of house Vansae, having sworn her allegiance to the house many years ago before she became high matron. The pieces start to align in my head.
Kelle was likely responsible for the death of the previous high matron. She did not abdicate as the official public story went, or so my suspicions were. She was murdered by Kelle. Sibling rivalries in Iridian society always were amusing in a rather deadly sort of way.
Kelle watches me approach with a distant interest as Matron Vansae stands with her husband "how dare you enter my domain just to cause a disturbance! And what is this? Is all this bloodshed for your own pleasure or..?" she sighs "it doesnt matter. I assume you are the one who killed my dear daughter?"
I do not respond to her and instead load my shotgun, taking my time as she continues to speak. Three slugs and three flechette shells. One flechette and one slug behind it and so forth. I load two slug shells in front of those.
"..if you are know that I do not take kindly to those who wrong me-" I rack my shotgun, interrupting her with a KER-THUNK! Of the slide, which echoes in the stone hall. I aim at Matron Vansae and squeeze the trigger.
The shotgun goes off with a very loud report. The Depleted Uranium slug tears into Matron Vansae, striking her in the head. Her skull blows apart and her jaw deforms. Gray matter and blood sprays behind her on the wall and on the food on the table as her now headless body slumps back in the chair and settles in an upright position, now lifeless and limp.
KER-THUNK! I rack the slide again and aim at her husband. I squeeze the trigger and the slug round penetrates his ribcage, creating a massive exit hole in his back and taking a lung and the right half of his heart in pieces with it back to the wall behind him in a mist of red and pink. Blood pours out of the entry and exit holes as his body falls backwards in the chair to the floor with the shear impact force of the depleted uranium slug, it buries in the wall and ignites in a pyrophoric reaction. Lighting a banner on the wall ablaze as I point the muzzle at High Matron Kelle.
I fire and the slug hits Kelle in the shoulder, throwing her off the chair with the force of the impact and disabling her arm as it hangs from her body by a few strands of connected tissue. I rack the shotgun slide and the spent 6 gauge shell clatters to the floor as I approach, using my sidearm to dispatch the last wounded guard slumped over by a pillar. "It seems my plan to draw you out of hiding worked, High matron. Iridians and your funeral banquets. You came to pay respects to the esteemed Matron Vansae's dear departed sister, but in doing so here you are."
"Who… who are you??" she croaks at me. Terrified of who she is dealing with. "If you are going to kill me, I want to look directly into the eyes of the person who delivers the blow. Not at some skull-faced mask." I decide that since there is no immediate danger, that I can at least give her this final dying wish. So I remove my helmet and her eyes widen. "You! You killed General Moldsyava! The reports said you were dead!"
"I could have died, but that did not happen thanks to house Regyn." I smile coyly "Matron Farsa took me in and helped me get back on my feet figuratively speaking. But…" I pause and look to the headless body of Matron Vansae. "I owe her a favor in return. She wants you dead, and it all makes sense to me now. She wants you dead because you killed her sister. She did not abdicate, it was a convenient cover for the fact that you along with members of house Vansae murdered her to attain the position of High Matron."
I smirk smugly at the High Matron's facial expression at this revelation as she opens her mouth to say something, but instead all that comes out is sputtering. I continue "So, I killed Laza to start the conditions to draw out members and associates of House Vansae. I stole a shuttle to make infiltration past any house security easier. The rest? Well.." I glance back at the bloody scene in the large dining hall stretched out behind me.
Kelle stares at me "what sort of monster are you?" I smirk and chuckle "A necessary evil. I will give you one final piece of information before I send you to the afterlife. Much as it pains me to be cliche, You got wrapped up in something bigger than yourself so, it is what it is." I walk over to Matron Vansae's body and find her stiletto, taking the blade and scabbard from off of the back hip of her body, I examine it as I elaborate.
"You see, Humanity is being manipulated behind the scenes. I killed General Moldsyava because I bought into a narrative that he was secretly attempting to start a plot to re-ignite the conflict between the Systems Commonwealth and the Terran Federation. I was wrong. I should have been pointing my gun at the people behind me." I smile "it is a masterful example of manipulation, but Matron Farsa helped me grow, to be able to see that."
I draw the stiletto from its scabbard, admiring the well-polished blade. "Iridians make very well crafted blades, I always admitted that you know." I look at Kelle with a smile "well, shall we finish up business?" I drive the blade into the High Matron's chest between her third and fourth ribs, piercing her heart. I Twist the blade and the woman wheezes and grunts with the twist of the blade. I pull it out and stab her again in the throat, cutting her trachea and throat open before I drive the tip of the blade into her left eye and through her brain, killing her.
I stand up and wipe the blade off onto Matron Vansae's sleeve. Putting the blade in her hand and dropping the scabbard nearby.After I put my helmet back on, I quickly exit the hall and am confronted with six more guards. 'Are you fucking kidding me?' I think to myself, bringing my shotgun to bear. racking the slide, I level the muzzle with the first guard and fire. The flechette round tears their head apart inside their helmet and sparks fly from the entry holes in the metal. Lighting a House banner on fire and singing a cloth on a table nearby.
I rack the slide and fire at the second guard, A slug round eviscerates their ribcage and sends them staggering backwards. I kick them at one of their comrades and rack the shotgun slide, chambering another shell. I turn and fire at a third guard and rack the slide, whirling back around to finish off the guard I staggered with the body of their sister in arms.
The shell tears one of their legs off at the upper thigh. Blood sprays on the floor and they fall over onto their back. Howling in pain as I rack the slide and quickly finish them off with a slug round to the chest.
I turn and chamber the next shell, another flechette.Leveling the muzzle with the fifth guard. I fire and the cloud of Depleted Uranium darts tears into them. Killing them as their chest cavity is ripped open for the world to see. They stagger backwards and fall as I transition to my sidearm, letting my shotgun hang to the left side by the sling. I fire twice at the last guard in the chest, staggering them as the rounds penetrate their breastplate, then once at their head as they hunch over, each hit sends blood spraying behind them as the smaller but higher velocity rounds penetrate their armor and exit their back. They fall forward dead and I holster my sidearm, exiting onto the shuttle pad.
The shuttle sits on the pad waiting. Crewman Daniels had been patiently waiting there for me to return. I board the shuttle ramp "get us out of here Daniels!" He responds cheerfully "Aye captain! Dusting off."
I bring my SMG up to watch for incoming iridians trying to disrupt our takeoff. A dozen of them run towards the shuttle's back ramp. I crouch at the top and fire at them in quick bursts. Killing nine of them as Daniels lifts the shuttle off the ground. I run out of ammo and swap back to my sidearm, using it to dispatch two more of the guards as we climb higher. The back ramp closes and I sit in a seat for the return trip to Void Star, enjoying the respite as a wave of exhaustion hits me.