Chapter A Raging Case of the Porkies

Chapter A Raging Case of the Porkies

Roberts looked up at the ceiling of his stateroom with the escort, Chalya, curled up against him. The look in Helena’s eyes still burned in his memory. It wasn’t the first pair of hurt, betrayed eyes that he had looked into, not by a long shot, but this time it was different.

This sucked. Everything sucked. He wished that it was Helena next to him but he had taken care of that didn’t he? God, he wanted this whole nightmare to be over. It was still far too many days before he could finally get out of this trap.

Too many days before he could lose himself in violence and greed... Too many days before a lot of poor innocent bastards get snuffed out before they even have the chance to realize they are fucked...Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Woah. Where the hell did that come from? He got up and went to the bathroom, splashed some water on his face and looked in the mirror.

These are porkies. They deserve this, he thought as he stared into his worn haggard face. This is war, a war that they started.

Yeah, but Helena didn’t start shit and she is going to be right in the middle of this. How many other “Helenas” are on this ship and how many of them are going to die... badly.

Roberts walked to the mini-bar and poured himself a stiff drink. He sat in a chair and sipped his gin and tonic.

“It’s too late,” he muttered. “The mission has already started.” He downed the drink and poured another. “It’s a good target.”

He took a deep breath. It’s like Gloria said, these inside jobs do get a little weird. Once this bullshit is over everything will be back to normal. It wasn’t like him to get all soft and sentimental over a little collateral damage, especially porkie collateral damage. If you asked him last week he would have told you that there was no such thing as collateral damage as far as porkies are concerned.

“Get your shit together, Roberts.” He said quietly to himself. Helena was just a fling. This was a good target. Porkies dying is a good thing. The mission is everything.

The mission is everything.

He nodded with clenched teeth. That’s right Roberts. You are on a mission. Your team’s lives are at stake. What’s more important, your team or some bitch you just met?

He swirled the gin in his glass watching the dim light reflect off of it and the ice and nodded.

Remember the mission.

He smiled and took a drink. This ain’t nothing but a thing, he thought with a grim smile. Helena was a beautiful dream, nothing more. In another life, another galaxy, maybe things would be different but right here, right now, he had a job to do.

It was a job that he was very, very good at.

He walked over to the wardrobe and retrieved his tablet. He returned to his drink and just as he unlocked his device in order to review ship’s schematics a quiet beep issued from his ship’s communicator. Wondering if it was a message from Gloria he accessed the message only to find out that it was from Helena.

I should just delete it. His finger hovered over the message. Don’t... he told himself as he opened the message despite himself.

Hey Paul. I don’t really know what’s going on but it’s pretty clear you don’t want me aroundanymore. I don’t know what I said or what I did but it looks like I screwed things up. I do that.All I really know is that you are hurting. I wish that I could somehow help, that I could hug youand just make it all go away but I can’t.

I know I haven’t known you long but I really care for you, Paul. I really do. There. I said it.I kind of fell for you, you know. It’s stupid but I did.

Just know that I’m here for you if you want me to be. It doesn’t look like you do so don’t worry. I’m not going to go chasing you all over the ship like a lovelorn puppy even if I feel that way. Like I said it’s stupid and I know it is but that’s just how I feel.

I’m writing something based on what we’ve talked about and other shit that I was working on. It’san article that I am going to post whenever I get back to the real world. I would really like foryou to read it. I’m not sure why but I feel that it’s really important that you do.

Attachment: Hate

Roberts paused for a moment, his finger hovering over the attachment. He should just delete the message. He knew that.

Still...

“Goddammit...” he muttered to himself as he opened the attachment and started to read.

***

On the Paper Tiger Sheila was walking through the cargo bay checking up on the squads and making sure that everything was going ok. She walked up to Jak’kul’sha who was pouring himself a cup of tea.

“Hey, Jak’kul’sha, right?” she asked.

“Yeah?” Jak’kul’sha said trying to look like he was standing up straight with his hands behind his back like her people did when she was talking business.

“You’re the leader of squad six aren’t you?”

“I ain’t nobody’s boss but I’m in squad six, yeah.”

“Well you might want to talk to your guys then,” Sheila laughed. “I asked who was in charge and they pointed me your way.”

“Ugh. Why do they always do that?” Jak’kul’sha buzzed in annoyance. “Ok, yeah, when the shit goes down I do the yellin’ but that’s about as far as it goes. Ain’t nobody in charge of those animals most days.”

“I feel you, dude,” Sheila laughed. “I know that feeling all too well, trust me.”

She slapped him on his shell.

“Well, I just wanted to say that I’ve heard good things about you rock eaters.”

“Yeah?” Jak’kul’sha said happily.

“Yeah,” Sheila replied. “Top scores across the board and the other Z’uush squads, and at least one non-Z’uush team really look up to you guys. You did a lot of above and beyond shit during the training and I wanted to tell you that it didn’t go unnoticed. You do a good job on this gig and we will definitely be talking afterwards.”

“Y-yeah? Ok!” Jak’kul’sha said beside himself with happiness. “Don’t worry, we’ll cover our zones and whatever else you need.”

“I don’t doubt that for a second.”

Greg walked up and interrupted them.

“Hey Sheila... Can I talk to you for a little bit... in private,” Greg said uncomfortably.

“Sure, step into my office. Sorry, Jak, looks like I gotta take care of some shit.”

“S-sure,” Jak’kul’sha said snapping to a rough approximation of attention. Sheila gave his shell another swat and walked off with Greg.

“Holy shit!” Jak’kul’sha said happily. “Hey guys, guess what?” he clicked excitedly as he ran back to his team.

***

“Ok, Greg, what’s up?” Sheila said after she closed the door to her quarters.

“Look, I didn’t want to say anything but... I don’t like Logan.”

“You never like Logan,” she laughed.

“No, I mean this time in particular. He’s acting strange. Normally he just sits around and gets drunk or stoned and wanders around you trying to cop a feel. This time he, well...”

“Was actually interested in what was going on?”

“Exactly and then some. He was snooping around a lot. A bit unusual don’t you think?”

“I asked him about it and it turns out that he just wants to actually make something of himself, finally.”

“Did you just listen to yourself? Logan? Wanting to make something of himself? Logan?”

“I see your point,” Sheila laughed. “So, when you asked Jessie to put him through the wringer behind my back did she find anything?”

“That little rat!”

“She didn’t tell me shit. I just know you dude. So, find anything interesting?”

“Not a goddamn thing.”

“So, you just don’t like him like usual?”

“It was something in his eyes. I don’t like it. Got a bad feeling.”

“Look, he’s fine. He was all questions, for once, but it was pretty innocent shit. He won’t be a problem. I’m certain of it.”

“Sheila, I love you, and you have one of the finest brains I have ever encountered... but your twat is fucking retarded. I’m telling you we might have a real problem here.”

“While I’m certain you are wrong about this I am even more certain of something else. Ignoring your NCO’s is a great way to get you and your entire team dead.” Sheila grumbled and then pinching the bridge of her nose she said, “Ok, sergeant-major... Let’s say, for the sake of argument, he’s a rat. How do we find out for sure and what do we do about it if he is?”

***

Helena stood in front of a vending machine looking at the various meager offerings. She sighed and selected a cup of instant noodles. At least those would fill her stomach until supper. She found a nice spot near the fountains and sat down with her laptop. She fucked everything up but at least she had something to write about.

“Art is suffering, right?” she chuckled to herself as she grabbed a forkful of noodles. She started to type a bit as she ate.

“Not much of a breakfast,” an old voice said behind her.

“Oh, hey high-five lady. How they hanging?”

“Very very low these days, dear,” the woman laughed. She pointed at a chair next to Helena, “Do you mind?”

“Sure. Suit yourself,” Helena replied. The elderly woman sat down next to her.

“So, where’s your raider boyfriend?”

“Running out of time? Memorialized?”

“A reporter is asking questions when the Jocelyn Hernandez is offering to spill the real dirt? Take advantage of an old woman and some whiskey and start typing. Boy do I have some shit to tell you...”

***

Roberts was sitting near the fountains watching the water while Chalya sat next to him holding his hand. Sure enough, she got herself an open-ended daily contract out of this... with a hefty bonus! She just sat there silently gently holding his hand. She knew what a client needed and right now, this was it. Easy money.

“Hey, whore. Take five.” a flaxen woman said as she walked up.

“Excuse me bitch?”

“Chalya, why don’t you take a little break.” Roberts said with a little smile. Chalya just got up and, glaring at Gloria, walked off.

“Quite the scene there, killer. You ok?” Gloria asked genuinely concerned.

“Well a shipboard romance hitting a mine is hardly noteworthy.”

“Yeah, but damn, dude...”

“Got something to say?”

“Nah. At least you got rid of the little bitch.”

“Yeah,” Roberts said, “That I did.”

“You actually told her your first name?”

“She asked and it sort of slipped out.”

“Fuuuuck. That pussy must shoot out rainbows or someth-” Gloria suddenly fell silent when Roberts glared at her. “Oooookay then....”

“So, moving on,” Roberts said calmly, “I take it you have a way onto the bridge?”

“Yeah, that’s set. The big problem I have is keeping him from dragging me up there early,” Gloria chuckled. “That little piggie is ready to go to market.”

“Great, then all I have to do is get arrested Saturday night,” Roberts said simply, “Actually, the whole little scene Helena made is perfect. Me getting messy drunk over a lost love makes perfect sense. I just get all drunk and trash a bar while yelling her name and there we go. One stunner later and off to the security office with me to sleep it off. Really stupid of them putting the cells in there don’t you think?”

“Sounds like a plan. You just pretend to sleep it off till morning and then we hit the security control center and the bridge. The ship will be ours... with a little help from our girl Jessie of course.”

“Then we little Trojans open the gates...” Roberts smiled. “And then finally this nightmare will be over.”

“Yeah, you ok? You really don’t look good. I’m really worried about you, killer.”

“I’m capable of completing the mission. That’s all that matters.”

“That bad? That little... cunt...”

“It’s not just that,” Roberts said quietly. “Do you ever get tired of it... the hate?”

“No, I don’t get tired of hating... because I don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Hate. Don’t bother with it. Waste of effort.”

“You don’t hate the Federation? The porkies?”

“Nope,” Gloria said matter of factly. “Since we are getting all touchy-feely do you know what I actually did during the Federation War?”

“You flew Morays didn’t you?”

“Yes and no,” Gloria said looking off into the distance for a moment. “Ever hear of Reapers?”

“Aren’t they a class of Morays”

“Calling them a class of Morays is like calling a AK a paintball gun. They are something else entirely. They were lengthened, had enhanced FTL and cloaks, not to mention a whole lot of classified voodoo stealth and a whole lot of other shit. I can’t say how far they can jump but they can jump and they can carry any warhead or missile in our arsenal... any of them.” Gloria smiled her trademark predatory smile. “I had a career as a suicide sled driver measured in years when most don’t last a month. When the Reapers started to roll out I was one of the first in line. They didn’t want them to just go poof or worse, get captured. They wanted the best suicide jockeys they had. Anyway, I was a Reaper. Everyone talks about the total ruin that a carrier or a Sovngarde battle group wrecked but those fast strikes and deep penetration raids that we did don’t get a lot of press.” Gloria paused and looked at Roberts. “See when the big boys took out a system and went to town there was warning. Hell, a lot of the time they even broadcast evacuation orders before they went to town. We... We didn’t do that. I would enter a system solo, fully cloaked plus stealth. Fuck, a lot of the time even the missiles were cloaked. We have those you know, cloaked nukes. I took out cities. No warning. A lot of the time they didn’t even know I was there until the nuke went off and those nukes were big. Yeah, we targeted starports, logistics centers, vital infrastructure, or whatever but those things... they were in cities or entire cities themselves. I’ve killed millions of them Roberts. Millions... Men, women, children... didn’t matter. Nukes don’t care. Ever see what a one gigaton cobalt bomb does? It isn’t pretty.”

She paused and looked up at Roberts with empty soulless eyes.

“Jesus Christ...” Roberts whispered.

“I hated the bugs when we fought them. I hated the Federation at first but when you start doing shit like that... It makes you think and during those long deep penetration raids I had plenty of time to do it. I’ll be honest. The first few times I sent one of those scrub-cutters downrange and listened to the screams and chaos as I slipped away it really bothered me but after awhile I realized something.”

“What?” Roberts asked kind of not wanting to know.

“You don’t hate roaches. Well, I don’t anyway. Me, I hate people, not animals, not things... people. Cletus, you know that asshole who runs with Dwight’s gang? I hate him. If I ever meet him alone in a dark alley he isn’t leaving it. Pierce Lagrange... I hated that little shit. He would call us porkies when I was growing up and then beat my ass when I tried to protect my kid brother from his bullying. He got killed by the bugs by the way. It made my day when I found out. But when we had those hyper-roaches get into the ship? I didn’t hate them, even when they got into my underwear and I had to free-bush it for weeks until we could get into a friendly port. Oh I wanted them dead. They pissed me off. But I didn’t hate them. They were just vermin. You kill vermin. You don’t hate them. The Federation? Vermin. They are a stain on the galaxy, an infection that needs to be cured, just like the bugs. Porkies? They are just the genetic trash that we sifted out of our bloodlines and the sooner we can burn that trash the better. It’s not hate, killer. You see some moldy bread you throw it away. You don’t hate it.”

“What’s the difference?” Roberts asked, “What makes them ‘vermin’ or an ‘infection’ and not us or the Empire for that matter?”

“Well, I’ve thought about that too,” Gloria said matter of factly. “The way I see it, the Collective and the Federation, they can’t do any wrong. Just ask them. Well you can’t actually ask the bugs but you get my meaning. The Federation, they are always in the right. They are always right. They are always completely justified in anything that they do. They are never evil. They don’t even have the concept of it. It’s a dangerous mental illness on a galactic level,” she laughed. “Look at the meltdown they are having over that info we dropped on them. They can’t handle it. Now we and the Empire, we can do wrong. We can do evil. The concept is very real for us. That makes us different. It makes us think, make a real decision when we decide to do something fucked up. When we accepted that bullshit truce with the Feds you didn’t hear any of that right or wrong bullshit from the brass. They justified it with risk and profit and costs and gains and things like that. You didn’t hear any of that moralizing bullshit. That is what makes us different, makes us sane. Those officers that handed me my targets when I was a Reaper, some of them couldn’t even look me in the eyes. They knew what we were doing was pure evil. There was no justification, no moralizing, no bullshit. They just handed me my orders while trying not to throw up. And when I got those orders I knew goddamn well what I was heading out to do and I knew exactly what I was doing when I pulled the trigger.” she looked at Roberts and smiled. “The Feds? They would try to make it pretty, gloss it over, make up some bullshit excuse to blind themselves to what they were doing. It makes them capable of anything even shit worse than anything we would do. They are a disease, one we need to wipe out utterly, every single last one of them.”

“Gloria,” Roberts said shaking his head. “just when I think I have finally reached an understanding of exactly how bugshit insane you are you go and reveal a whole new layer of fucked up.”

“Aw... thanks sweetie!”

“Seriously, you are unquestionably the most fucked up person I know. I mean it.”

“Yeah, but I cheered you up didn’t I?”

“You know what?” Roberts said in surprise, “You did, you sick fuck. How the Hell?”

“Sometimes it helps to know that there is someone just a little more fucked up than you are.” Gloria laughed and punched him in the arm. “Look, you just got a little too close and wound up catching a raging case of the porkies. I told you that they were a disease didn’t I? Just hang in there killer. We will be delivering the cure in just a couple of days.” And I will personally “cure” the source of your little infection. Nobody hurts my family, she thought to herself while smiling at Roberts reassuringly.

“Don’t worry anymore. I’m on the mission and nothing will distract me this time,” Roberts said with a grim smile.

“Good to hear. Now roll around in some hooker snatch and get the smell of that porkie off of you. It’s kinda gross.”

“Classy as always, Gloria,” Roberts said with a chuckle. “Oh, and thanks for coming by. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, killer. I always look out for family.”

***

“Hey, Helena. I got something for you. Actually it’s something of yours,” Jocelyn said as she handed Helena a small box.

Helena opened it and exclaimed in joy.

“My camera! How the fuck did you get this?”

“I’m porkie slime. We have our ways,” Jocelyn laughed. “It’s a nice one and it would be a shame to wind up in the hands of somebody’s kid making galnet videos.”

“Thanks! But why?”

“Well it belongs to you and to be honest you are going to need it regardless of where you go next,” Jocelyn smiled. “Speaking of, what are your plans?”

“Well, I think I’m more than done with this fucking ship. Paul said that there is a launch leaving tomorrow. I’m thinking I’m going to be on it.”

“Well, you are a reporter right?”

“Yeah?”

“A good one?”

“I like to think so.”

“A brave one?”

“You read what I’m going to print. What do you think?”

“Well, why don’t you hang out for a few days then as my guest? You have your camera now and I assume it has a recorder as well? I’ll feed and water you and give you some interviews.”

“Wow... Yeah, ok,” Helena said eyes wide with astonishment. “But I don’t need to be brave to do some interviews do I?”

“I’m willing to bet that one hell of a story is going to play out on this ship sometime in the next few days, something that you will really want to witness, something big.”

“What are you going on about, old woman?”

“And spoil the surprise?” Jocelyn laughed. “Something is going to happen that really needs to happen and you want to be here to catch it, at least I think that’s what’s going to take place.” Jocelyn shrugged. “If I’m wrong, then you have a nice few days getting some exclusives that most people would kill themselves trying to get. I’m ready to tell tales and name names.”

Helena just shook her head in astonishment. This goddamn ship wasn’t letting her go just yet. She didn’t know what was going on with Paul and she had no idea what Jocelyn was hinting at but she did know one thing.

She was a reporter. She was a reporter and there was a story here. She just knew it. First Councilor Morgan, then Paul, and now Jocelyn? She wasn’t even sure what she was chasing anymore but the old woman was right. Something was about to go down and she was not going to miss it. She set her jaw and slammed back another shot. She was going to see this one through to the bitter end... and then she was going to drag the whole stinking mess out into the light, goddammit, no matter what.