Final part also added below the ***********************
Steve
Chapter 3: Jokers Wild
“Damn, no wonder you waited before springing that on me!”
Jackson paused, one boot already on the cockpit ladder of his Falcon fighter and lowered his voice conspiratorially to stop it echoing through the empty hanger bay.
“Just walking me to my ship, right, I bet you haven’t mentioned this idiocy to the electric chick, right?”
“She’d have more than a few things to say, none of them helpful,” Max admitted. “She’ll know what she needs to know when she needs to know it, meanwhile she’s happy planning the customisation of my new Orca. I need your help from the off though, are you in or not?”
Jackson scrutinised the face of his ally closely. His eyes were unreadable behind the mirrored shades but he recognised the set of his clenched jaw, and his lips, thin and drawn tight to colourless, no give.
“It all depends on my co-operation Max, what if I say no?”
“Then you don’t get the Stoertebeker base,” Force answered shortly. “Unless you can get an interplanetary assault ship to Teladi Gain without my help.”
A station in the Teladi home sector, once the hostile political situation was resolved it would be a licence to generate credits, taking him and the Confederation into the big-time. It was what he wanted, what he’d worked for, yet Jackson still almost said no.
“Damn it Max, you’re the nearest guy I have to a friend!” That realization was a surprise, even to Jackson. Peers were usually competitors but Force or Marteene, or whomever he considered himself today, wasn’t on the same track, particularly if he was willing to cede control of Law’s lair. It was one of those put-up points in Jackson’s mind, a marker for future intentions. If he were in Max’s position he’d seize it for himself and find a figurehead until he sucked dry the possibilities and opportunities provided by his legal status.
“And more to the point you’re my ticket to the top table. If you’re dead I’m back to the big-fish, small pond thing, with Morn on my case and Skull blaming me for losing a key piece of her jigsaw. It’s more than your life you’re gambling with here. What about the alien tech? You could be handing it to Law, you could be handing him the whole damn shooting match, and over what, a chick you hardly know?”
“I know what I feel,” Max answered evenly, after a dangerous silence. His voice had a serrated edge Jackson recognised viscerally in his own urge to throw the dice in the face of adverse probabilities.
“You’re going to pull some kind of stunt regardless of what I say, right Max?”
Max nodded.
“Okay, if I can’t stop you I’ll play along. I want to provide some backup though.”
“The plan already has back-up,” Max answered.
“Reliable back-up, Max. You know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean Jack,” Max replied. “If you can think of something, I’m all ears. I can’t, can you?”
Jackson thought for a moment and shook his head.
“When?” he asked finally.
“Twelve hours, Confed Station. That’ll give me time to fix a few things back at the new base and get Xela tied up in planning our move to Menelaus Paradise.”
Jackson sighed.
“Okay Max, I’m in. If it all works out I expect your help with business in that part of the New Frontier. You are going to be setting up a new Bliss Place?”
“Probably,” Max answered. “But just a bare bones manufacturing facility. Help me out with this and there’ll be room in the Orca for your stuff, no questions asked.”
“In the unlikely event you’re alive.”
“In the unlikely event,” Max agreed with a thin smile.
They shook on the deal.
Fourteen hours later Max was at Confed Station, climbing down from the cockpit of a Force Security Piranha to take control of his prisoner.
“Come here my dear, you should witness this moment.”
The blonde slave hesitated just long enough to signal her continued defiance and rose from her knees to join Law at the huge display window running the length of his new ready room, her small, quick steps jangling the short silver chain hobbling her ankles.
Without needing to be ordered she knelt at his left side, eyes down, chest out and wrists crossed behind her back in case he wished to bind her with the cuffs integrated into the slave harness. It pleased Law to have the woman of Max Force displayed in this fashion, the contrast of black leather and white, vulnerable flesh, her up-thrust breasts, the delicious transition from black mesh stocking to un-marked pale thigh, the tear swollen face.
Law trembled with un-slaked need, digging taloned nails into the trembling girls shoulder, drawing blood, which snaked in thin scarlet rivulets down into her cleavage. Tyre barely whimpered, even when he increased the pressure, widening the rips in the thin skin around her collarbone.
Good, he liked slaves that learned quickly and had a high pain threshold. Once Force was in his hands he would see just how high. But for now her abuse was minor, a foretaste, an anticipation of things to come for them both.
“Watch!” Law seized her hair, twisting his hand until he was yanking hard at the roots, practically lifting the mewling woman from the deck. “This is the birth of a whole new future.”
Tyre watched in a trembling fear she was finding harder to control as a huge ship sailed into view. She knew little about spacecraft but she guessed from the smooth, hump-backed lines of the main hull that it was Boron. Max had once said they designed the best-looking ships in space and there was something about this one that suggested the ocean, even the giant rectangular belly of the beast tapered gracefully. As she watched the belly split slowly open at the front and a giant metallic looking box drifted out. She knew what that was, a station construction package.
She bit her lip as Law twisted her hair further, desperate to deny the sadist any satisfaction. Small victories, she would live by small victories until Max came for her.
He would come, he just had to.
“That, my pretty little thing, will be a shipyard. My shipyard. In two weeks it will be ready to build me a new fleet, and your pitiful excuse for a man will keep it supplied.”
“Max won’t help you, you deluded savage!” Tyre screamed, twisting to blaze her defiance in his face.
Absolute, boiling rage flared in Law’s deformed visage, the human flesh flushing red, contrasting sharply with the thin white scar borders of the reptilian leather transplant.
And just as quickly it was gone.
“Then let us both hope that pain is something you will slowly learn to embrace,” Law said coldly.
Tyre could barely think through the terror.
‘Hurry Max, please.’
Max was running late, the Menelaus Paradise decision was public knowledge now and had fanned interest in himself and his business to new heights. Anje Delenari had a string of interviews set up, covering all the major news outlets and had travelled to Teladi Gain to make sure he said nothing to detract from the image she’d schemed to create. The woman had even leaked highly exaggerated details of the kidnapping of Tyre, his “beautiful young fiancée.”
“You score a 9.7 on the Public Approval Rating!” she crowed between remote interviews. “Max Force, avenging angel!” She paused and thought for a second. “There’s a T shirt in that, what do you think?”
Max thought she must be joking.
He did one more interview, a live feed to one of the major Argon late night news streams, and afterwards, ignoring the publicists’ protest he went straight to the launch bays. He would have taken the Pegasus rescue ship to make up lost time with it’s unmatched velocity but Corrin was flying it to Garleth Prime to recover the disguised teleporter from the Data Hub. Xela wanted to get the Mamba shadow-skin technology back online and insisted that the missing projectors were crucial.
It was a pity, he would have liked to have said goodbye.
Instead of the Mamba, which bounty hunters would be looking for, Max checked out his old Piranha. It wasn’t as fast as the Split fighter but was fast enough. More importantly, it was expendable.
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By the time the Boron fighter came under the control of the Confed docking computer Max was poised, focused and almost serene. It was a narrow path, littered with traps and treachery that could derail the whole project but he felt now he had no choice. Too many innocent people had been sacrificed in the easy name of the greater good and if it was in his power to prevent another pointless death, it was a gamble he had to take, whatever the risk or the consequences of failure.
The main docking bay still bore the patched gatling scars of his first encounter with Jackson and with a CAP launch in progress it was a tumult of activity. An armed party, six armed guards surrounding a single manacled prisoner, waited close to his docking slot. Jackson though, was nowhere to be seen.
The lead guard stepped forward as he alighted, holstering her sidearm as she came. She was just on the wrong side of plain, probably a few years older than him to judge by the lines forming around her eyes which had the distant stare of a combat veteran. The old, faded uniform said ex military, so did the crew-cut.
She stopped two paces from him and half saluted, a casual touch of fingers to brow.
“Lieutenant Vash, Commander. It’s a pleasure to meet you Sir.”
Definitely ex military Max decided as he returned the salute.
“Mr Jackson sends his apologies Sir, clan business but your prisoner is secure and prepared for transport. He wanted you to have this.”
She handed Max a data-chip.
It’s all the information we could get on the bounty Law’s set. Prisoner, advance.”
The gaggle of guards parted to allow Joker to step forward. The former Stoertebeker Clan member advanced, sneering general contempt and wiping blood from his battered and freshly bruised face with manacled hands.
“We had trouble convincing him to volunteer,” Vash stated dead-pan.
“Tell me what I’m volunteering for,” Joker countered with a snarl.
“That’s need-to-know,” Max countered, “And that’s between you and I. Hear me out?”
Vash took the hint and moved her team back a discreet distance.
Joker nodded sullenly.
Pitching his voice so it would not carry too far against the background of fighter launches Max explained his plan.
“So let me get this straight Force, you want me to turn you in to Law for the reward?”
“It’s the only way I can think of to get on his new base, in the sector beyond Menelaus Paradise. You were one of his men, he killed your wife, he’s holding my woman now and I’m offering you the chance for revenge. A quick in and out, with luck we can be away before they even know anything is wrong.”
“Station Prime?” Joker laughed. “He’s in control of Station Prime now, I guess you really screwed the pooch on that one, Force.”
He hawked and spat on the deck, almost hitting Max’s boots.
“I thought you were going to fix him good? ****** pussy.”
He spat again, taunting Max with his grin.
“Your wife,” Max said quietly.
Joker stared at Max with dead eyes, his face hardened to stone.
“Will I get to kill him?”
“If he gets in our way,” Max answered. “This is a rescue mission, not an assassination attempt but I promise you, he’s going down. Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but that bastard is going down. You help me pull this off and I swear you’ll be in at the kill. Deal?”
He extended his hand but Joker just raised his manacled wrists mockingly before him. After a couple of seconds thought Max nodded to Vash and the lieutenant stepped forward with the key card.
The instant the manacles demagnetised Joker exploded into action, one fist a nose-breaking backhand, crunched straight into Vash’s face, sending her reeling back into the escort group. The other snatched her sidearm, its black barrel was a cold threat against his forehead before Max could react.
Joker moved swiftly behind him, pulling his body close with a throat lock and holding the gun to his head. A dozen weapons covered him from all corners of the bay while flight engineers scattered for cover.
“No ****** funny moves or the pretty-boy pussy gets all messed up!” Joker yelled, using Max as a shield as he backed up towards the flight line. “No-one move, I’m not damn kidding around people! I want to see weapons on the ground and hands in the air, NOW!”
Vash and the other five guards placed their weapons on the deck, moving with exaggerated caution. The hanger echoed to the clatter of other weapons dropping.
“Good boys,” Joker sneered. “Now, you!” He singled out Vash with a swift wave of a gun barrel as he increased the savage pressure on Max’s throat. “Get those cuffs on pussy here. NOW dammit, I’m not screwing around here!”
The lieutenant moved slowly forward towards the fallen cuffs, her arms spread wide.
“Okay, take it easy, doing as you say, doing as you say.”
She picked up the cuffs.
“You can’t get away with this, give yourself up now.”
“Can it bitch!” Joker screamed. “Save the resistance is futile crap for somebody who gives a flying ****.”
He pressed the gun barrel hard against Max’s right ear.
“Hands out Max.”
Choking for breath Max obeyed. Vash slipped the cuffs over his wrists, the magnetic locks snapping instantly shut.
“The key, the key goddamit! That’s it, slip it into pretty boy’s flight suit, yea, that’s right, the pants pocket, cop yourself a feel while you’re at it,” he leered.
Vash obeyed, watchful for any opportunity. None presented itself, Joker was too experienced to leave an opening.
“Right. Everybody, and I do mean everybody.” Joker quickly scanned the flight line. “Move away from the ships and get down and friendly with the deck-plates. Face down friendly, out in the open, where I can see you. There.”
He nodded towards the escort group.
“Gather round those guys. If I even suspect someone ain’t playin’ along I’m gonna start shooting, NOW MOVE!”
Flight engineers and pilots filtered from concealment to join the hapless guards spread-eagled on the deck.
“Well done kiddies, Jackson’s going to so proud of you. Now, which ship do you fancy Max? The Boron rust-bucket, I don’t think so.”
He scanned the line of ships, mostly Bayamons and Mandalays.
“All too slow, I think we’ll take that one. You, the greaser that’s just shit himself, get a ****** backbone then tell me the specs of that Pegasus on the end there.”
Choking on a mixture of embarrassment and fear, the young flight engineer with the spreading stain on the seat of his pants, climbed unsteadily to his feet, his puppy fat face swollen red, on the edge of tears.
“Uhh, that’s Rescue Two, it’s clocked at 800 mps I think.”
“That then will do nicely,” Joker grinned. “We don’t want the Xenon stopping you getting to your own funeral do we Maxi-boy? Not before I cash you in, half a million for a wife, that sounds fair compensation.”
Shouting threats each time someone moved Joker backed Max down the flight-line to the silver painted Paranid light fighter. It was small enough not to require a boarding ladder and he cracked the cockpit and bundled Max into the rear seat, the gun barrel never wavering from him.
Leaning into the cockpit himself he activated the rear seat crash field and cranked it to the limit, pinning Max immobile.
“Okay boys and girls, it’s been fun.”
Still covering the prone group of Confeds he stepped in the front seat.
“Now then hero,” Joker picked again on the flight engineer. “Call the launch, use that comm. by the exit and tell them no funny business, launch doors open, LT’s off. And tell Jackson, I’ll be seeing him real soon!”
He pulled the cockpit shut and fired up the thrusters.
*********************************************************
“Little breathing room here?” Max called from the rear seat, forcing his neck straight against the constricting power of the crash field. Joker grunted a response and flicked off the protective restraint.
“Thanks, that was a good show.” Max massaged the cramped muscles in the back of his neck. “Jackson filled you in on all the details?”
“How the **** could I know if he told me everything, why don’t you give it a go? And pass me a helmet will ya.” Joker snarled as the fighter cleared the docking tunnel, flooding the cramped cockpit with sunlight.
It took a deal of squirming in the claustrophobic confines of the cockpit before Max could retrieve the keycard from his pocket and unlock the cuffs. He reached under the back of the pilot seat, passed the helmet forward and waited for Joker to activate the HUD and twist onto a heading for the east gate.
“Simple. You fly us to Law’s new hole in the wall, tell ‘em you’re claiming the bounty, we dock and take the first opportunity to brush off any guards and cause as much mayhem as we can with these.”
He reached under his own seat and pulled out a satchel. The combat blasters had folding stocks and he slipped one into his flight suit, making sure it was inconspicuous beneath the padding. The grenades he pocketed before he passed the second blaster over the seat to Joker.
“In the confusion we find the prisoners, get em back to the ship, out and away.”
“Shit,” Joker said after a pause. “He did tell me all the plan. Damn, this thing is FAST!”
They were already approaching the jumpgate; Joker eased them behind the string of Lifters approaching the activation point.
“I was kinda hoping there might be more. Well, I been there once, pulled a term flying CAP. Big deal, hush-hush, I don’t suppose you’re gonna tell me what’s going on there?”
“All I’m interested in is getting Tyre,” Max answered evasively. “You know the base layout?”
“Some, most of it was off limits but the slave pens are only a couple of decks above the main flight bay. I can take us straight there.”
The small fighter crossed the gate threshold and plummeted through to Omicron Lyrae. It was the heart of the Argon segment of the New Frontier with both an Equipment Dock and a Shipyard. Streams of freighters and escorts flowed through it in both directions, making the route to the Treasure Chest jumpgate as busy as a city throughway.
Joker eased the fleet Pegasus fighter out of the ecliptic plane and arced at full speed through the sector, keeping a wary eye on the sector security patrols. The ride was a lot rougher than Max expected and he ran a diagnostic on the tiny auxiliary control panel built into the back of the pilot seat.
“You’ve got a faulty stabiliser,” he warned.
“Backseat drivers are one of my many pet hates.” Joker responded. “I’m already compensating but trust Jackson to slip us a faulty ship. Hey, perhaps he’s trying to off you!”
For some reason, he found that notion amusing.
Max checked the small cargo bay to satisfy himself that there was not some hapless, overlooked pilot suspended in that sub-space half-world. Apart from a maintenance droid it was empty.
At full speed it took just minutes for the Pegasus to reach Black Hole Sun and the jumpgate to the Xenon sector that isolated the outer rim of the New Frontier from the rest of the X Universe. It was barely enough time to thrash out the final details of the plan, beyond Joker describing the slave pen layout and access points but he was as happy as Max to rely on surprise, speed and firepower rather than meticulous planning.
The run through Xenon space was not anything Max wanted to ever repeat. Tweaking the nose of death, he decided, recalling his own Pegasus run through Xenon space between Scale Plate Green and Eighteen Billion, was a lot less fun when you were just a passenger. Joker’s strafing run down the hull of the single Xenon cruiser in a position to interdict them, brought close to emulating the hapless Confed flight engineer.
He seemed to enjoy it though and it showed he was a great pilot, which, Max reflected, was probably the intention.
“Why you doing this?” Max asked as they sped through Thyn’s Abyss. “You know the story, Force. My wife. Revenge not a good enough motive?”
“It keeps me going,” Max answered. “You don’t want to talk about this?”
“Listen to the tone. Look Force, I’m not doing this for you, I don’t give a **** about your little war. All I care about is making Law pay and at the moment you’re my best shot. If getting your squeeze out brings that day closer then I’ll make it happen.”
“The enemy of my enemy?”
“Nothing gets past you does it Max?” Joker snapped sarcastically. “You should stop flapping your lips and get praying, we both know this scheme is just an elaborate suicide.”
“Then why come along, living to fight another day et cetera?”
“I’ve nothing left to live for,” Joker answered. His tone ended the conversation.
Suicide.
Deep down Max knew it was true, knew he was letting his personal interest jeopardise the mission.
Love and redemption.
Max deliberately embraced the memories he’d avoided, those dreadful final seconds, pleading with the Challenger crew. The memory intertwined with the nightmare, the drifting corpses and the mute accusations. Expediency did not lessen the stain on his conscience. It was now he could do with a smoke, something to wash out the numbness, stoke some good feeling. But he thought of Tyre and blamed himself.
Sector security challenged them in every Split sector but did not dispute Joker’s taciturn claim to be carrying vital medicines to Ocean of Fantasy. They were ignored by the Boron patrols, congregating in large wings near the gate to Chin’s Escape.
One wrong move indeed.
Menelaus Paradise was devoid of Royal Boron Fleet defences, just skeleton patrols hugging individual stations. Every man for himself, problem number one if we get through this, Max thought.
If? So much weight on the shoulders of a tiny word.
The Pegasus rocketed across the sector to the final jumpgate.
“So, what’s the plan, you want me to just jump through?”
“That’s why we’re here,” Max answered, steeling himself.
Joker threw the fighter into an arcing, high speed turn away from the looming gate, straining the artificial gravity to the limits and crushing Max back into the seat.
“You see Force,” he sneered. “This is why you just ain’t going to win, you don’t think things through, you just rush in with guns blazing and hope for the best. This ain’t the vids ya know! We jump through there in this pissy little heap of crap and we’ll be burned before you can blink. See that station?”
“The Bio Gas factory off the port forward quarter or the Bofu Lab ahead?” Max asked.
Joker banked sharply port.
“The Bio place, listen and learn!”
Max followed Joker’s actions on the auxiliary control panel as he tapped a specific narrow band frequency into the comm. settings.
“This is Joker, operative code Alpha, Alpha, Prime, Seven, Gamma, Four. Encode following message and deliver. Attention, attention, bounty hunter claiming the Max Force bounty standing by. Request clearance to proceed. Message ends.”
He glanced briefly over his shoulder to say.
“You’d better slip those cuffs on in case they want some proof.”
Max complied, leaving them unlocked.
Five minutes later, as the Pegasus orbited the station, came a single word reply. Proceed.
Joker banked towards the jumpgate and accelerated to maximum speed.
“Last chance to turn yellow, Force.”
“Go for it,” Max answered quietly.
The Pegasus plunged into hyperspace.
Rogues Revenge: Chapter 3: Completed 30/5/03
Moderators: TheElf, Moderators for English X Forum
Rogues Revenge: Chapter 3: Completed 30/5/03
Last edited by SteveMill on Fri, 30. May 03, 13:17, edited 7 times in total.
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Gandalf The White
- Posts: 2185
- Joined: Sat, 9. Nov 02, 12:21
Excellent development. Looks like Law 'has not heard the good news (my son)' yet. I guess that will mess up his day. But then again, if he wants to rely on Max for supply anyway it might play into his hands. Well, not the assault vessel, I guess 
Cool, looking forward to see what Max has planned.
found one typo:
"and his the lips"
Cool, looking forward to see what Max has planned.
found one typo:
"and his the lips"
Great stuff Steve. Cant wait for this fight to start cos it's gonna be a good one 
Noticed this:
"Without needing to be ordered she knelt at his left side, eyes down, chest out and wrists crossed behind her back in case he wished to bind her with the cuffs integrated into slave harness it pleased him to have the woman of Max Force displayed in. " The last part of this long sentence doesn't read too well although I cant think of a good way of breaking it up. I'll have a think and come back to it. Also there is a missing "the" between into and slave.
Al
Noticed this:
"Without needing to be ordered she knelt at his left side, eyes down, chest out and wrists crossed behind her back in case he wished to bind her with the cuffs integrated into slave harness it pleased him to have the woman of Max Force displayed in. " The last part of this long sentence doesn't read too well although I cant think of a good way of breaking it up. I'll have a think and come back to it. Also there is a missing "the" between into and slave.
Al
Thanks Al, i've amended it slightly.Al wrote:Great stuff Steve. Cant wait for this fight to start cos it's gonna be a good one
Noticed this:
"Without needing to be ordered she knelt at his left side, eyes down, chest out and wrists crossed behind her back in case he wished to bind her with the cuffs integrated into slave harness it pleased him to have the woman of Max Force displayed in. " The last part of this long sentence doesn't read too well although I cant think of a good way of breaking it up. I'll have a think and come back to it. Also there is a missing "the" between into and slave.
Al
Opps! Not the best idea Max has had. Although I have a feeling all is not what it seems..... 
Lets see if you can be truely remarkable and post the next bit before 5pm
Al
Lets see if you can be truely remarkable and post the next bit before 5pm
Al
Last edited by Al on Wed, 28. May 03, 16:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Deleted User
Push it then...SteveMill wrote:That could be pushing it a bit. I think i'm all writ out for the day.Al wrote:Opps! Not the best idea Max has had. Although I have a feeling is not what it seems.....
Lets see if you can be truely remarkable and post the next bit before 5pm
Al
Well I could wait until tomorrow.
But no longer.
IO
Oops 
Well, this could be a great show to make it convincing, considering there could be spies in Jacksons station. But it could also be a bit of a problem if he was serious. I guess we'll find out shortly.
Excellent read, Steve.
found a typo:
It’s all the information - it should have ->"<- to start with
Well, this could be a great show to make it convincing, considering there could be spies in Jacksons station. But it could also be a bit of a problem if he was serious. I guess we'll find out shortly.
Excellent read, Steve.
found a typo:
It’s all the information - it should have ->"<- to start with
Great stuff, especialy as I got both sections in one go , I think Joker is going after Law regardless of Max's plans, how will Max turn that around? The upcoming assult on the pirate base is going to make some very interesting reading too, lots to pull together still Steve, looking forward to it all, cheers.
, I think Joker is going after Law regardless of Max's plans, how will Max turn that around? The upcoming assult on the pirate base is going to make some very interesting reading too, lots to pull together still Steve, looking forward to it all, cheers.