Week 6 - The Hands of Su Maehl

Timothy 12 was so excited he could burst. A JOB! From the Disconnected! He might even have the chance to exchange currency for goods and services! Talk to a desk clerk? Visions of supermarkets and dressing rooms danced in his head as he walked to Su Maehl's office. It was difficult to find...who ever heard of not having a pathfinder program in wall nodes? Balancing a map in one hand and a thick folder of documents in the other, Timothy 12 made his way to what he hoped was Su Maehl's office
On either side stood two Blackheart Security Guards, they were definitely new additions to Mr. Maehl’s security detail. They had the modified patches of LionGuard M&T (Medical and Tactical) Teams on their shoulder armor.

He could spot clones a mile away, a side effect of having lived next to so many Vrangian Guards. There was an aura of youth that even the oldest memories and rapid-grow bodies couldn’t get rid of. They were clones, but randomized, from what the phenotyping his uplink was picking up. Unity geneticists on a planet on the other side of the galaxy, returned him a phenotype workup via uplink in 2.45 seconds.

The guard on the left pointed at Timothy 12’s sword, shaking his head no.
“That can’t be allowed past this point sir,” said the guard sternly, “Mr. Maehl hasn’t returned from his meeting yet.”

“How long will it be?” asked Timothy 12.

“As long as it takes,” said the guard.

Su returned from his meeting with Zaodonai Ha'Jima. He was already behind in his work. He had a war to avert with the EEF, ironically enough since he just spent the last few days among their Uth contingent. He had reports to file for IG Capital, and then he had to deal with Ryuk's casino. Too much work, Su thought to himself.

Hiring Blackheart was a risky move for him, as he wasn't sure it was good to keep someone whose motives were historically questionable... and while Childeen Blackheart himself was a hunted man. However, as Su explained to anyone that asks, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Besides, it was a calculated move. He had less than love for Vulfrym and Ar'Yay Hive Queen, but Blackheart was a valuable asset ... for now.

His guards were everywhere, as were Blackheart's. He just purchased a bunch of Grey Waveform weapons, which were nice because his Tzira guards could carry, and most importantly shoot, 4 of them at the same time. All but one, he had regular guns and ammo, just in case. But this was his office...just cameras everywhere, as was a Leyas scanner. His guards everywhere else had the same, as well as larval scanners. When lots of people want your place in this galaxy, it's always safe to know what's coming at you. He tapped his temporal alarm he kept in his pocket, as a nice reminder that it was good having honorable friends, no matter what. Plus, there's always the potted plant in the corner, which thankfully never needed watering. It was a large, bushy thing, but it did it's job. The color was great, and often "softened" up the room.

Su checked his watch. It was tea time with Timothy 12. While he rarely did HR tasks personally, this one was semi-personal. He wanted to meet the man that kept him out of a penal colony. He also wanted to experience the excitement that Timothy exuded from his correspondences, especially when he found out he was being put on a consulting team to maximize computational efficiency... for what he called "esoterics." Plus, it was a nice business crossover.

Su laughed at himself for a moment. Who would have thought, two years ago, he'd be here today? He used to be the second in command of one of the largest Pirate Fleets in the Free Systems. 14 years he spent as pirate, and all those years of experience were not wasted. It wasn't merely luck that allowed him to rise in the ranks the way he did.

"Let people forget that," he thought to himself. The less intimidating he appeared, the better off he was. As always, people never see him coming. Captain Q had always loved that about him, and it has served him well in the business world as the owner of the largest IRLC in the Polar Expanse.

Su was still armed, despite being a business man. He packed a Grey Waveform pistol, which was nicely weighted and not very heavy. He also concealed a whipblade, which was nice because it retracted into a relatively small handle. Nice for close quarters if needed, especially for strangling and quiet kills. Also goes through armor, which was a double bonus. He thought briefly for a moment about what his life would be like without being in an IRLC, when suddenly there was a knock on his door. He looked over and checked on the tea, which was ready.

"Come in, Timothy 12," said Su.

“But sir, what about the blade?” asked the Lionguard.

“If the Unity wanted me dead, I’d already be shipped off to an I.R. penal colony and been shived for good measure,” said Maehl, “Let him wear his blade, if this meeting goes well I will be bringing him onboard.”

Timothy walked into the office with joy in his heart and sat down at the chair Su offered.

Just as they sat down and were ready to talk business there was a polite but insistent knock at the door.

It was the Lion Guard with a tactical update, “Sir just came in on the comms. There is a known Kasanthian sellsword, Valic Darkblade, with a pair of Kasanthian Black Cats tearing up the third floor sir. Guards have already been dispatched.”

“Listen, just tell me what channel you are on and I will click in,” said Maehl pressing a console on the table between the two chairs.

The Lion Guard sighed but it would save these tactical updates, “Here you go sir.”

He set the comms to receive the unencrypted tactical updates, but not the encrypted. Just in case the Unity coder was a turncoat.

The voice on the comms immediately said with concern, “We have a team of 19th century English gentlemen sniping our front door guards. Confirmation of laser burns on the bodies.”

“That is most concerning” whispered Su.

“Are we under attack?” asked Timothy 12 in a state of glee, “I never expected this when I came in for work this morning. Is this usual Mr. Maehl?”

“More usual than I’d prefer,” said Su with a chuckle. He swore he saw a slight shimmer of glitter by the vents into the room, but he couldn’t be sure. He activated his wrist computer, which displayed a scan of the room. No one was in here, but there were quite a few Leyas spikes.

Behind Su’s chair in the shadow of his book case leaned out the Burning Shadow Assassin, Lenny Karinos the Quall Hives had sent. Lenny Karinos held his fire blade in his right hand while he raised his poison dart blowgun to his mouth in the left, Taking aim he fired it straight at Su Maehl. He knew the poison would work if it hit, it would slow down the victim's movement without dulling their senses so he could still feel pain. Lenny was very well trained, after the dart hit he would drag down Maehl pull his arms forward and begin to slice his hands off above the wrists. Lenny was quite confident in his abilities he worked very hard to get where he was. He was proudly Second in command of the Burning Shadows.
Ever since he joined, during the time when his home of Druzi was being attacked by the Trilat and Maehl Holdings spent more time trying to look good and make profitable deals with the Trilat then trying to protect the people there. It had been two months ago, and he had risen the ranks suspiciously quickly. But when the Burning Shadows Master Assassins heard of his deep hatred of Su Maehl, they had a quick ceremony declaring his number 2 of their order and sent him out to cut the hands from Su Maehl as the HiveQueen had demanded.
The dart’s aim was true and Su slumped from his chair.
Lenny Karinos looked over as his fellow Burning Shadow rose up and melted the lock on the door, keeping the Blackheart Security Guards outside. By this point the Blackheart Security teams were split as the Larval scanner alarms went off inside the office of Su Maehl.

Su was paralysed but fully awake watching Timothy 12 rise to his defense.
Time slowed, as his training kicked in. He was an Esoteric coder, but he was also one of the Unity's finest blademasters.

In 0.05 seconds, Timothy 12 discarded his papers, and drew his Harmonic Blade. In 0.10 seconds he lightly touched the wall, changing the local electronics to flood the room with light as a featureless mask assembled around Timothy 12's face. He smoothly rushed forward.

Timothy 12 became as death, whirling amongst the assassins and protecting Su Maehl. He sent the call to his brothers, who would soon arrive, thrilling in the dance of blades.

With a Burning Shadow on either side, Timothy 12 was hard pressed to keep up. Battle writhed around him, but he knew he had to protect Maehl. He ducked below a projectile that whistled over his head, twisting in a smooth option and striking with his harmonic blade. His opponent split at the waist, shock quickly turning to the glaze of death.

As he turned to flip, he saw Lenny Karinos, the Burning Shadow lop off the paralyzed Su Maehl’s hands. With both hands in custody, Lenny activated his armor and the Quall artificings ripped open an Energy and Lenny leaped through. Timothy 12 knelt as Maehl’s side protecting him, as his uplink picked up five unknown Unity members in the room that followed Lenny Karinos through the Energy Bridge.

Timothy 12 could see the swirling forms of five K’ias Sanguine Lords following the Burning Shadow through the Energy Bridge to the Land of the Quall N’drone. Before the last left it coalesced and said, “Our Master Ryuk sends his well wishes to Su Maehl, while we were not here fast enough to prevent this atrocity by the Quall we will take your revenge to them. We deliver the message you should visit Ryuk at his casino when this is all over.”

Timothy 12 had heard rumors of those beings, but never seen Sanguine Lords in battle. In a way he was happy he wasn’t going to face them now. His voice was monotone, unlike the picky Timothy Maehl thought he knew. He stated that the facility was insecure, and that they must withdraw. Timothy activated him causility manipulator he word under his suit, and teleported them to another end of the building. He quickly moved them again to another location, prepared defenses, and called for more guards. His allies caught up, protecting Maehl from further attacks by a mad vampire. Lionguard took out the vampire, and granting him final death. Gary, Tom, and Fran from accounting took out the three remaining Elegant Psychopaths dressed as 19th century gentlemen, in an amazing ambush.

At the end of the battle, five of the Elegant Psychopaths were taken into custody, as well as Valic Darkblade, and placed into the prison facility at Olde Esiroh.

Meanwhile on Kyrpos

Twain had his face pasted to his ships' side starboard view port. Every which direction he looked there was something new to take in. KYRPOS! Twain was actually in the land of Quall! The very idea that he was in the home of the boogeymen that mothers on Refuge scared their children with was almost too much for him to take.

"Sir, we're coming up on the rendezvous point." The ships' pilot announced over the intercom.

Twain was in Kryptos to drop off some samples for his clients, the Church of the Horned Dog. Ostensibly, the samples were for the Prelate's people to consider for their new ship but Twain was hoping that they would be used in a much more immediate capacity.

Arriving at the coordinates that they had been given, Twain's Trident uncloaked and landed on a small island in the middle of a seemingly unending sea of lava.

Exiting his ship Twain paused and took in the sight of 5 Quall dressed in Red Fist Power Armor and the 3 Earthers who stood next to them.

Clearing his throat Twain greeted the group "Good day, I don't want to offend anyone but who should I be addressing first?"

"We will take care of the technical aspects of your samples Sir" one of the Earthers volunteered. "But we need to know if the samples can be used immediately or if they need some sort of special setup."

Twain glanced over at the Red Fist Commandos, "Would the samples need to be able to be fitted to power armor for the 'test trial'"?

The Earther tech nodded his head and Twain went back into the heavily modified Trident coming back with 2 large fire extinguishers, 2 small sprayers and a small box.

"These are Non-Newtonian Radiological Absorptive Foam dispensers," Twain said gesturing to the fire extinguishers, "meaning that they spray a dense foam that will at least partially absorb leyas energy. It comes out in a good sized cone and has a range of about 20 feet. Don't, and I repeat don't get any on yourself if you plan on using the leyas or moving since the foam is designed to expand, gum up joints and generally be a pain in the ass."

"These sprayers are full of solvent that will disperse the foam with no ill side effects.... at least that we've found so far."

"Lastly," Twain said holding up the small box, "this is a BN Box. It is a weapon of last resort. It's non-lethal but can have some pretty crazy side effects. My personal recommendation is that you use it away from any population centers. It works using sub-audible frequencies so I suggest that you have your communications gear filter out everything on this list." Twain passed the list and the sprayer instructions to the tech.

"As you undoubtedly have noticed the 'Foam dispensers, sprayers and the BN box have weapon, power armor and ship mounting brackets so you can attach them to whatever you want to mount them on for testing. One more thing, the BN Box is a one time use device and will melt down after use so make sure that you have 'ideal' conditions before using it."

Twain heard a voice behind him say “What would you consider ideal conditions?”

Twain turned to see a pair of silver skinned creatures that looked like liquid metal standing on the top of his TRIDENT.

Twain felt his heart jump into his chest. That ship was his baby.

“Whatareyoudoingonmyship? Huh? Answer the question?” asked Twain as a man ran over to their position carrying a pair of bloody hands. The man was dressed as an assassin and was looking over his shoulder as if being chased.

“Sorry for this interruption,” said Lenny Karinos, “I have the hands of Maehl… What the hell are those things?”

Both of the silver creatures slammed their hands over and over again into the hull of Trident until a cloud of ten Oblivion Shades surrounded Twain and his Quall business partners.
Lenny bugged out through a nearby shadow with the three Earthers carrying the payment leaving the Red Fists and Twain to deal with the four sanguine Lords who remained. Two were in cloud form, and two were in liquid metal form.
The last one flew into the sky and began to broadcast their position to the forces located at the Continent of Dead Quall. But Lenny and the hands escaped.

Twain watched as the lifeforce was ripped out of all five Quall N’drone Red Fists in a moment. The two K’ias Sanguine Lords leapt down as the cloud of Nanite Ghosts closed in. The vampiric strike had instantly killed the Quall Red Fists, and they were some of the toughest guys Twain had ever seen in action.

Twain pulled the pins on his EMP grenades and blasted the cloud of Oblivion Shades apart around him.
Even with all the grenades blast damage, the five K’ias Sanguine Lords remained.
Twain ran past them up into the wreakage of his ship. It was totaled, and Twain was appalled. On a husk of the ship surrounded by Sanguine Lords, Twain waited until Unity task forces would arrive. He just hoped he could talk his way out of this one.

Continued in the Negotiations on the edge of Fire.

--
Rewards

Ar’yay gains The Hands of Su Maehl
+ 10 Bonus to Negotiations, its easier to get your way when they know you’ll cut their hands off if the deal goes south.

Su Maehl gains Give the Man a Hand.
He needs cybernetic replacements, healing artifacts or something to heal the wounds caused by the cauterizing blade.

All players involved in this mission gain 500,000 ghaz in spending cash.

Blackheart Security gains an additional 50,000 ghaz in payment.

TNI gains Sample Delivered
He knows what it means.