Regolith

First Draft - Chapter 2

2

The green light of the countdown clock stuttered through lines of lime colored mist overhead, ticking away until the LifePod doors would release their lock, and the numbers sped faster as it ticked from minutes to seconds. I held the edge of my palm against the cold handle of the pulse rifle, unlocking its safety and arming it's biometric protocols. The counter on its side read full, and I swapped the micro explosive secondary rounds for phosphorous rounds, so as to blind anyone using night vision equipment if, when the doors opened, we were in pitch black, another common routine amongst the security forces I'd dealt with.

I pulled back the latch on the cuffs encasing my right forearm from wrist to elbow, and rotated the band until it read "Grapple" and heard the familiar click-whir-click of the system spooling up some cable. That seem to trigger Pin, who interjected again.

"Sir, in the interest of my own self preservation, I must advise against an armed frontal assault from such an indefensible position. We are most likely surrounded, and we don't yet know if the security forces are hostile or not, perhaps we might approach the situation with a bit more..."

Pin hesitated and I cut him off. "Tact?"

"Precisely Sir."

"I just want to be ready, Pin. I'm not looking to get us killed, but I do have a bounty on my head in several systems..."

"Understandable sir, but I can assure you that we are far from those systems, far enough in fact that collecting on such a bounty might not even be possible. Besides, the ship, and thus the security forces, have no idea who is inside this LifePod. It seemed quite curious to find out."

"So you two are best friends now, or what?"

"Actually," Pin replied, immune to my sarcasm, "it's been quite accommodating, leading me to conclude we are either a welcomed guest or being lulled into a trap, though I see no reason for the latter."

"No reason except the well armed space pirate with null-sec mods emerging from a hacked LifePod, you mean?"

"Well again," still immune, "these systems aren't likely to detect-"

I cut him off again, "Can it, Pin," as the numbers overheard spun down their final moments of confinement.

11, 10, 9... I took a deep breath, steadying my mind and deleting thoughts of Rala and of Skim, erasing guilt and fear and hunger, and all the other trappings of my humanity that would only hinder my performance as an unmitigated killing machine, should the situation call for it.

8, 7, 6, 5... I held that breath, tensing my muscles, envisioning a red neon triangle with tendril arms unfolding from its sides, one of the triggers for the null-sec mods, this one releasing endorphins and keying up adrenaline, to be released in a flood if triggered, allowing me to control the slowing of time and my fight or flight response.

4, 3, 2... I felt the mod kick in, fast, booting up the partially charged nano mesh and damming my emotions against a cascade of endorphins and biochemical signals traveling like a chill down my spine and into my elbows and knees...

1, 0... Click

The chill hit my hands, and they wrenched tight around the hilt of the pulse rifle, locked on the metal and ready to respond. My feet, tingling the same, pressed up off my heels and wiggled to the side, muscles coiled to explode with force. Moments passed...

"Sir?" Pin queried.

"Pop it." I said, laser focus in my mind.

The locks clacked and thumped as cylinders withdrew and the metal frame hoisted aside, unfolding outward like a steel-hinged flower. The fog of medicinal air from the LifePod dispersed, equalizing with the stale metallic air of the docking bay, white and black panels showing through the dissipated cloud. I tensed a final time, swung out into the open room, no longer protected by the bay of the pod, and in a flash scanned the room for threats.