LF Friends, Will Travel

Our Clockwork Children: Chapter 18

The Terrans and Parket in general were holding up well, most refusing to give any information requested of them. Scellestra had watched as the only thing the Uhae could get out of Ivan was detailed descriptions of him having sexual intercourse with their mothers.

But the Terrans weren't the only ones fighting back.

A Parket with bright blue feathers referred to as "Estana" several times, an avian who had been chosen specifically by the Queen to be the newest part of their retinue. The Estana was not looking good: Patches of feathers had been ripped out, bruises, cuts, and even one of her wings lay in a sling. Each injury was the result of a punishment for disobeying and resisting. But even now she continued, attempting to use cleaning materials to poison the one who tormented her.

Another punishment would be forthcoming.

The Woolean had wanted to intervene or to even provide simple comfort to their friend, but they knew logically now was not the time. They would lose the advantage of surprise if they did anything too soon, if they let slip that the Terran AI knew where they were.

Scellestra just had to wait, because they knew that help was on the way.

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"If it isn't my favourite customer! How is the best Warmachine in the universe doing!"

TANK had not been lying when they said they knew a guy, in fact, they might have been underexaggerating, as the reality was TANK knew an entire moon's worth of weapons.

"Red Talon's Weapons and Weapon Accessories." was situated on orbital object GZP001-TH. It didn't have a proper name, even the Terrans hadn't bonded to it well enough to give the nameless rock a title. That's what it was in reality: A rock. No minerals of note, no water, no life, not even a proper atmosphere. It wasn't even in a system.

The borders and legality of space are a strange thing. Space is huge. While maps and graphics will show each government's territory as if they are one continual mass, the reality is the vast majority of any territory is empty space full of uninteresting empty things. If you took the right path, you could easily travel through a vast empire of trillions of lives and planets without ever actually meeting or interacting with anyone.

GZP001-TH was in just such a space. Technically from a gravitational perspective, it was a moon orbiting the Sagittarius system, but it was so far out it didn't come under any system's governance. Officially that meant it lay within the Terran Conclave's general laws, but in reality pockets like these were completely ungoverned and unmanaged. Nobody was going to come out and ticket someone for a parking violation in the same way that getting the police to come and enforce laws on Mount Everest was a bit difficult.

This suited Pirnt perfectly fine. The owner of "Red Talon's Weapons and Weapon Accessories" rather liked this lack of oversight as he spent his time in the grey area of the law, selling weapons and anything weapon-like to anyone who wasn't obviously a criminal. The Ritilian loved his job. There were no annoying customers for a start; he was the manager, an exceptionally armed one at that. He didn't have to deal with taxes or regulations. He didn't even have to advertise or do stupid social media marketing; his customers came to him and for good reason.

The entire moon was filled with weapons. Ships of war of all varieties and kinds lay across the surface of the uninteresting rock, from single-seater fighters to vessels of orbital bombardment. A few ancient 'atmosphere only' fighter jets lay in surprisingly good condition in a small corner: F-22s and F-35s built for a war that never happened.

Ground vehicles and anti-air systems were parked in great lines next to each other. Amphibious, urban, all terrain. Whatever you needed, there was a weapons system that could suit your needs and Pirnt probably had one to sell. There weren't even only Terran weapons here: Ritilian, Hatil, Lithoirian horde, and even a few items from non-Terran alliance species. Bullets were a universal language that often explained intent very clearly, and Pirnt would let you become a messenger of any kind you desired.