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Post by Miller on Nov 6, 2008 12:48:48 GMT -5
Miller lay in his cabin, Willie laying beside him, his hands behind his head. He never thought it would be this good. Life, that was. Even if he had to expose a bit of his dark side in which to do it.
Willie was still reeling from that, even though she did not show it very often. He could tell that, some times, she was even a little afraid of him. Of what he might do.
This reverie was interrupted by the proximity alarms. Miller sat up with a jolt, as did his lover. They threw on their clothes and started to bolt from the room when an announcement went over the comm system.
"This is the Mamba Warship Anaconda. Prepare to recieve Mamba personnel. Major Miller of Mamba, you are under arrest for treason and crimes against the state. Stand down immediately or be prepared to be gunned down."
Willie gave him a wide eyed stare. Especially when Miller did not immediately deny the charges.
"Willie, no matter what happens," He said, taking her hands in his. "Remember that I love you."
"But, Miller, what's going on?" She asked, a frantic, confused look in her eyes.
He would have replied, but a garotte went around his neck instead. A gorgeous young woman in a Mamba uniform with tied-up, white-blonde hair and steel blue eyes seemed to materialize from nowhere behind Miller, holding the wire tautly around the Mamba's neck.
"This is touching, really." She purred as Miller gasped for air, "But you have a date with a tribunal, Randy. And don't reach for a knife. I'll see you do it and then maybe I'll panic and slip and pop, there goes your head."
"What the hell is going on?!" Willie yelled, confused and frightened.
"Your boyfriend has been a naughty boy." The woman purred.
"Cottonmouth, stand down." A voice behind them asked. The blonde pulled away, releasing the garrote. Miller began to cough and held his throat. The source of the voice was a young man a little older than Miller, but not much, with brown hair, a moderate build, and a scar across his eye. He also wore the Mamba uniform, markings of a brigadier on it. Cottonmouth had the marks of a colonel.
"Asp." Miller hissed.
"Taipan. You know why this is happening, don't you?" Asp replied. "Or is this all a terrible mistake?"
Miller said nothing.
"I repeat. What the hell is going on here?" Willie asked.
"Nothing for your to concern yourself with, Corporal Barbary." Asp continued. "The Major here is coming with us for his trial."
"Miller? Miller, what did..."
"Remember what I told you, Willie." Miller said, turning and kissing her briefly before turning to Asp and Cottonmouth. "Alright. Alright, I'm ready to go."
"Glad to see you're doing the sensible thing, Taipan." Asp replied. "Keep cooperating and we might be able to get you out of a death sentence."
The Mamba then walked to the airlock and into the Anaconda, leaving Willie confused and, even worse, alone.
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Willie Barbary
Buccaneer
Pilot
It's worse when you know that hell is coming, but nobody else will believe you . . . .
Posts: 52
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Post by Willie Barbary on Nov 6, 2008 13:04:03 GMT -5
Willie was left staring at the closed door, her ears ringing loudly and her mind a confused, painful jumble.
Miller had stood there staring down at her, love in his chocolate brown eyes. But resigned guilt as well. He hadn't denied the charges.
Major Miller, you are under arrest for treason and crimes against the state.
Willie, no matter what happens, remember that I love you.
The Major here is coming with us for his trial.
Keep cooperating and we might be able to get you out of a death sentence.
That last one hit her the hardest. Death sentence. Willie knew damned well what Miller was capable of. She'd seen it with her own eyes. His 'crimes against the state' could be just about anything under the sun, and--just maybe--he might actually deserve his punishment.
But the thought of him dying tore her heart right out of her chest, deserved or no.
Willie gasped a little, tears welling. Not knowing what else to do, the woman stumbled over to Miller's comm. terminal and quickly inputed an address, one that was ingrained into her head from the time she could walk and talk. Moments later the screen flickered to life, showing the face of a white man in his early fifties, his golden blonde hair streaked in regal bands of silver, with a goatee to match. The stars and badges on his finely pressed dark blue uniform proclaimed him to be a Forward Admiral of the United Earth Fleet.
As soon as Nicholas James Barbary saw his only daughter's tear-stained face, his formerly smiling expression dropped into one of cold, calculated anger. "What's wrong, Willona?" her father demanded sternly, without preamble.
"I'm sorry I . . . I didn't know who else to call," she whimpered. The tears started rolling faster down her cheeks, her expression crumbling. "Daddy, I need your help."
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Post by Miller on Nov 6, 2008 13:45:16 GMT -5
"Major Randolph Ulysses Miller." The holographic tribunal addressed him in the bowels of the Anaconda. "You are here on charges of accessory to kidnapping, giving state secrets to outlaws, and accessory to the release of a Class X threat from custody of the UE government, which condenses neatly into High Treason. How do you plead?"
Miller assumed they found some secret security footage of him selling out Anton LeValle. There was no defense for this. There was hard evidence pointing to him and only him. And he had no remorse about having done it. "Guilty, your honors."
"Very well. You have been sentenced to spend the rest of your natural life in solitary confinement on Io. As it has an unnatural attatchment to you, your AI will be wiped of its memory and personality components before reissue." The judges added. To that, Miller's eyes went wide.
"You can't do that! Fang's an innocent, she's done nothing to hurt the UE government!" He pleaded desperately.
"It is a machine and property of us, Miller. We may do with it whatever we please."
"But she's a living, sentient, sapient creature! What you're going to do is murder, damnit!" Miller cried out. "Please, don't do this."
"You are in no place to make software suggestions to us, Miller." The tribunal replied. "This matter is closed. Court adjourned."
Miller just stared hopelessly and brokenly as the Mamba guards on him started to drag him away.
"No." He muttered. "Not Fang."
"You brought this upon yourself, 'Major'." One of the guards snickered.
Miller said nothing in response. Instead, he lurched forward, and then slammed his elbows back, right in the stomachs of his two guards. They doubled over, and he kneed one in the face while wrapped the chains binding his wands around the neck of the other, even as the door guards were raising their weapons. He pulled the captive guard upright in front of him.
"Open the door or I break his neck." Miller said calmly.
"No way. He's a dead man regardless." The guards countered.
"You're right. But this has been an excellent distraction for me to use to slip my cuffs." Miller said as he dislocated his thumb and feet briefly enough to slip the magni-cuffs there. Then he pulled a combat knife from the belt of the guard and threw it like a dart at one of the door guards, stabbing him in the throat. The other guards started to fire, but Miller was already moving, snapping the neck of the guard he held prisoner and rushing to the guard by the door. In two motions, he disarmed the man and shot him in the face. Without looking over his shoulder, he fatally shot the guard he had kneed before.
Taipan opened the door and quickly shot the guards flanking it. First, he needed to find Willie. Then, he was going to save Fang. And, hopefully, his lover would come with him when he left to become an outlaw.
The ex-Mamba snuck carefully through the warship. He had made it to the airlock and into the Excalibur when alarms started to go off all over both ships.
Time was running short. Miller knew if he waited much longer, the two officers on board would come for him. And, while Cottonmouth was his equal, he knew he could not face Asp and hope to do anything but limp away from that fight.
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Willie Barbary
Buccaneer
Pilot
It's worse when you know that hell is coming, but nobody else will believe you . . . .
Posts: 52
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Post by Willie Barbary on Nov 6, 2008 14:08:21 GMT -5
Willie had just hung up with her father--who had promised in an extremely vague and round-about way to do what little he could to help Miller, against his better judgment--when alarms started blaring. She slowly got to her feet, wiping away the tears still on her face, frowning.
What in Stars' name . . . .
She had just started for the door when the sharp echo of gunfire made her jerk and stop again. Her eyes widened. A heart beat after that the door opened, and Miller suddenly appeared through it. A still-smoking gun in his hand. Willie almost fell back a step, eyes wide. Miller didn't seem to notice her nervousness, slipping inside on utterly silent feet, his own expression hardened with determination.
"Yes the charges are true," he began unceremoniously. "I did let Anton LeValle get captured, helped Pirates kidnap him and in so doing allowed them to release a highly dangerous and very deadly girl into the open. But that girl was also his daughter," he continued harshly, "and that sick, sadistic bastard tortured her and experimented on her for years, and they let him get away with it. All in the name of science. I did what I thought was right," he finished then, tone heavy. "It might not have been right in the eyes of the law, but it was right in my heart. And because of it they want to imprison me for life in solitary on Io and wipe Fang's memory banks clean."
Willie stared up at him, her heart continuing to break, as she feared that this conversation was going to end in a goodbye, one way or another. "Well then what are you still doing here, you dumb ass?" she snapped through her tears. "You and Fang should be ten clicks from here by now."
Miller stepped up to her then, curling the hand not holding the gun around her neck and tugging her forward, bending down until his forehead was against hers, and all she could see was the intense emotion pouring out of his dark brown eyes. "I don't want to leave you behind, Willie," he whispered then, hoarse. His fingers tightened into a fist in her curly hair. "I need you with me."
Willie gaped up at him. "What? You . . . you want me to come with you?"
"Yes."
"Are you nuts?!" she demanded then, somehow tamping down her initial, immediate and fierce urge to agree out of hand. "I can't go AWOL, Miller! My father is a fucking Forward Admiral! He'll have kittens!"
Miller's expression tightened. "Please, Willie. Come with me." He must have put the gun somewhere, because all of a sudden he was cradling her face in both hands. "I swear to God, you won't ever regret it."
Willie whimpered a little, and didn't fight him when he was suddenly kissing her, hard and deep. He was completely insane. And so was she, apparently. Because she was going to throw away six grueling years of her military career, fighting tooth and nail to be the best UE pilot in the skies.
All because she loved the pretty bastard.
When Miller pulled away, Willie groaned louder. "My Dad is gonna kill me."
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Post by Miller on Nov 6, 2008 20:41:37 GMT -5
Cottonmouth was standing on the bridge next to Asp when the report came in.
"Sir," The cadet began to the two officers. "Taipan has escaped."
"Figures." Cottonmouth muttered. Asp ignored her.
"Alright. We'll take care of this. He's only one Mamba." The Brigadier replied. As if on cue, of the comm officers suddenly said, "Sir, it seems that command wants you and the Anaconda to babysit the Rear Admiral. This is a high priority mission."
Asp twitched. "Rear Admiral Barbary, no doubt. I should have just shot that pilot and saved myself the headache." He sighed. "Cottonmouth, bring in your errant cousin, dead or alive."
"Yes sir." She replied and slipped off the ship.
******
Miller and Wille dashed into the cargo hangar where the shuttle, Fang, and Willie's fighter (formerly Jackson's) were. Almost immediately, Miller tensed up and brought his knives up. They went up just in time to keep the garrote from snapping across the front of his neck. Miller pushed outwards then and strained to prevent the now purple glowing garrote from closing on his neck.
"Aunt Helga is crying, Randy." Cottonmouth said with a smirk. "Last I checked, she was going to call Uncle Jim at work and tell him all about your court martial. You'd think you would at least have some sympathy enough for your parents to go with dignity."
Miller grimaced and ducked forward, his knives following as he slipped from his cousin's grasp. and stepped into a fighting stance.
"Willie, load up the shuttle with Fang and the fighter. I'll keep Gerta busy." He said, eyeing the damage to his knives. They had deep gouges in the blades where they had kept the garrote at bay.
"You better not get yourself killed or I'm gonna hurt you!" She called as she rushed to the machines.
The two halves of the garrote came together, forming a single handle. Cottonmouth gripped the handle and made a cracking motion with it. From the end, a wire-thin, glowing pink whip shot out. She then began to advance on Miller, keeping him on his toes by cracking and whipping the whip at him. He dodged away, and ever miss left a deep gouge in the floor or a nearby crate split in half.
Miller flung a few daggers at her cousin, who dodged and, in the same motion, cracked her whip out. It hit Miller's right forearm and quickly wrapped around it. Cottonmouth pulled the weapon tightly and, unexpectedly, though the sleeve was gouged straight through, his arm held for the moment.
"Looks like I found a knife bracer." She mused. "Oh well, one hard pull and that arm will come right..." Before she could finish, Miller was rushing her. Not able to retract the line fast enough, the whip handle severed the cord as she pulled then handle into two parts again, this time pulling out a line about half the length of her body. She blocked Miller's first knife swipe with it, and the two dueled faster than an eye could really follow, his knife-strikes being parried by the glowing line, her attempts to entangle being dodged by her agile cousin.
He thrust with his main knife, and Cottonmouth sidestepped and looped a length of the glowing cord around the blade, pulling it taught and severing the blade. Miller fell back and dropped the useless hilt, throwing a fan of daggers at Gerta which she deftly avoided, but also put her on the defensive rather than the offensive.
He tossed another fan of knives and got in close to her, swiping low with his remaining combat knife. The blade swished across uniform as the hyper-garrote tries to once more loop around his hand. However, Miller pulled his limb back fast enough this time and back off a bit, switching hands on his combat knife and watching his cousin's motion carefully.
"Miller! We're ready! Hurry up already!" Willie yelled. Cottonmouth slipped her weapon into whip mode again.
"You've gotten better, Gert." Miller said to his cousin.
"So have you, Randy." She sneered back.
Neither moved for what felt to be a very long time. Then Miller lunged forward. Cottonmouth cracked the whip down, but Taipan was too fast for her and dodged around it, his knife raised high for an overhead swing. Cottonmouth pulled her weapon into close combat mode and blocked the swing, but left herself open to the knee Miller drove into her stomach. She gasped and adamantly tried to prevent herself from doubling over and managed to block several of Miller's attacks before he punched her with the pommel of his knife right in the temple. She swayed, and then collapsed.
Not wanting to waist any more time, Miller rushed to the shuttle, the hangar opening and the pair blasting off into the black.
After a while, Willie asked, "Where to, handsome?"
"The Cove."
She blanched at that. "That wha? I know I didn't hear you right. Because I thought you said we were going to the worst den of thieves and cutthroats in the Solar System."
"Well, yes. Where else would we go if we're going to be pirates?"
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Willie Barbary
Buccaneer
Pilot
It's worse when you know that hell is coming, but nobody else will believe you . . . .
Posts: 52
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Post by Willie Barbary on Nov 6, 2008 21:09:21 GMT -5
". . . ."
Willie took several slow, even breaths while Miller shifted a little in the seat next to her, uncomfortable.
"I just went AWOL," she started, tone deceptively even and calm. "I just gave up my entire life and shoveled my piloting career down the tubes. I probably just got myself disowned from my father. And you want me to pilot this damned shuttle to the Cove so you can be a pirate?"
Miller shifted in his seat again, uncommonly fidgety. "Well, the exact plan was for both of us to--,"
"Pirates!" Willie shrieked again, near to bristling with indignant rage. "Oh my fucking God, Miller, are you kidding me?! Space Pirates are the bad guys, or has your brief moment of incarceration pushed you right over the edge into full-blown villainy?"
Miller sighed somewhat blandly in the face of her temper-tantrum, much more used to dealing with this version of her rather than the eerie calm she had been under. "Most pirates are just rebellious free-lancers," he corrected softly. "They do a lot of thieving and illegal salvage, but only a small minority are really the murderous cutthroats that the stories portray them to be." He sat back a little in the seat, folding his hands behind his head. "Besides, what else did you see us doing for the rest of our lives? I'm a special-forces soldier good at killing, and you're a combat pilot. Not exactly job skills with a whole lot of demand. And we're going to be wanted fugitives now. What better way to stay one step ahead of the authorities than in the company of those who've made a lifetime of it?"
Willie just sputtered incoherently in the face of his cold, irrefutable logic. "You're trying to get me killed by my father. He's already going to burst blood vessels at me ditching service and running away with you. But this? How's it going to look on him that his only kid is a fucking pirate?"
Miller conceded that with a wince, then brightened a little, obviously trying for a stab at levity. "Well, at least you won't be with just any pirates." At her confused glare he gave an uncertain smile. "Ah, remember that Pirate I said I helped kidnap Anton LeValle?" At her nod he sighed. "Turns out that Pirate was Captain Josetta Hart of the Plunder's Heart." Willie just stared at him, so he continued, his tone becoming a little more uncertain with the longer she continued her dead-eyed look. "Um . . . s-she offered me a job, then, and a spot on her crew. If I ever found myself in the position to take her up on it."
"You've gotta be shitting me." Miller shook his head.
"I shit you not," was his immediate return, lips twitching and trying not to smile.
"Whaaaaaaaat?!"
They were interrupted by Fang's sudden appearance. She hovered in front of Miller, wringing the sleeves of her kimono, ears flat against her head and her fox tail twitching in agitation. "Big Brother!" she huffed. "Pirates!? I cannot become a Pirate! Pirates are bad! Their combat tactics are both immoral and utterly deplorable!" Her lip quivered. "Not to mention I'm sure to become woefully out of date within months, and be forced to start depending on hack-job, illegal upgrades to compete with all the newer models!"
Miller became visibly pained. "I'm sorry it had to happen this way, Little Sis," he professed sadly. "But we'll be okay. I know we will. You know why?" Fang's ears perked forward a little, curious. She shook her head, and Miller smiled, glancing at Willie before answering. "Because we'll be together. And that's all that really matters, right?"
Willie felt herself melt, as that statement was meant for the both of them, not just the AI. Fang herself looked torn for a moment before she sighed heavily and nodded.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Okay, Big Brother," she heaved then. Her ears were still a little droopy, but she forced herself to straighten. "If I'm going to become a Pirate mecha," she pronounced. "Then I think a new paint job is a very first priority." She made a face. "No more icky snakes on my shoulder plates."
And then she disappeared from the cockpit, leaving Willie and Miller alone again.
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