They ran. They were betrayed by Tokoro Kobayashi. "The Last Dragon" used Knight knowing full well that he had Knight's wife imprisoned and subjected to a never ending nightmare of surgery and tests for some vaunted "greater good".
Daniel Knight paced around the bridge, saying nothing to his friends and nothing to Talos, who he was closer with than the rest. Daniel played the week's events over and over in his head. He couldn't understand how it came to this, he had been drifting in search for years, always keeping an ear open, an eye out, and he finds her like...that. Over and over. Play and play again. He didn't know what to do, he didn't care. Let the others figure out what was next for them.
...
Lilith frowned. She had been watching Daniel closely in the days since they escaped from Kobayashi and she worried about his mental state. He found something back at Kobayashi's base and it rattled him to the core. He had always had a tinge of sadness to him, but now it exploded into catatonic depression. He had said nothing to anyone in days. The only other person who knew what happened that day is Talos and he wasn't telling, though Lilith hadn't really tried to get anything out of that man. She couldn't put her finger on it but Talos upset her in an almost instinctive way. The barely restrained glee when he killed is probably a factor, it reminded her of something...
She made her way to Josef's room to find him laying in bed staring at the ceiling.
She knocked on the door to get his attention.
"Yeah?" he didn't look at her
She frowned at his lack of enthusiasm, "We need a place to hide, to collect our thoughts, we've been through a lot and a little safety will go a long way to help the damage. I imagine you all have someplace like that, the kind of work you do." She cut right to the meat of it. Dancing around grief at times like this tended to harm more than help.
"...yeah, we have a place like that. You ever heard of the Manifest System?"
"No."
"Always a good sign." He sighed, "TFP-10-2570, it's a backwater at the end of its terraformation. They have a single drive-sat station, anything from off-planet will take awhile to get there and even if word does make it, the locals only have bolt-action rifles at best. Easy and cheap to make." he swung his legs around the side of the bed, sitting up now. He looked at Lilith, "We're going to want to land somewhere discreet, attack frigates landing at the docks make the locals nervous."
"Alright, I'll let Talos know to set a course for Manifest." Lilith turned to leave, but Josef had questions of his own,
"What happened to Daniel? Has he said anything to you? What did he find at that base that we were lined up and almost shot over?"
She didn't know how to respond, what answer could she give? Without turning around she shrugged and said, "I...don't know." Lilith made her way to the bridge. Hopefully a little solace would be good for everyone.
...
They landed the ship in a field a mile or two south of the settlement. Lilith checked the UEC News Feeds to figure out what happened in the interim between the action they saw with Kobayashi's Pirates and now. Nothing.
There was no news feed.
She switched to Conglomerate Channels muttering about cheap government broadcasting and more than a little irritated with overly stylized and cinematic Conglomerate News. The surgically prettied Anchor began to recite the stories that the viewer could select. Most had to do with celebrities or some other entertainment centric article. Lilith held her breath at the name of the last article
"UEC Military Blackout - Fleets Cease Communications"
She frantically selected that story for viewing.
"For the last two days the United Earth Confederation's Fleets of Earth have ceased to communicate with each other or the homeworld and UEC Officials could not be reached. Speculation is that the recent election of Councilor Tokoro Kobayashi to the Conglomerate Council in Berlin has thrown the government into disarray as he is still part of the UEC Military. Corporate opinion is that the government is attempting to wrest the last bit of sovereignty the Terran Conglomerate still maintain after the Rebellions." The Anchor's voice stayed detached and dripping with faux concern to give the appearance of sympathy for those that would be negatively affected, "we may indeed be experiencing the final hours of the United Earth Confederation. This ha-" Lilith cut off the feed. Processing this information. Total military blackout? This was bad. Very bad.
...
A week went by with the only noteworthy event being Talos purchasing a weapon from one of the Kobayashi's subsidiary weapons manufacturers, it was a railgun though made compact enough to be about pistol sized. This is impossible to mass produce with the current equipment and ability of the UEC, yet Kobayashi can sell them hand over fist. It arrived at the local post station and he brought it to Joseph so that they might dissemble it and perhaps figure out his secret. The two of them took it apart and Joseph marveled at its construction, he had never seen anything quite like it. Talos examined it and frowned.
"It one of yours?" Joseph asked, already assuming the answer
"...No it is not...and it isn't human either." Joseph locked eyes with the timeless machine, "It would appear that Kobayashi has a foreign supplier or at least access to tech that no one else does."
Josef considered this and reassembled the weapon, despite who it came from it was superb and they would make good use of it, a bit of poetic justice killing an enemy with his own device. Josef called for everyone to meet up at their old brothel to discuss this revelation and what the next course of action would be.
...
It was settled. They would head back to the ship and return to Earth, Kobayashi needed to die. The man had designs and his election into the government would spell doom on a whole lot of levels. The Gallows would be the ones dragging the world kicking and screaming into peace if it killed them. Daniel had left early to prep the ship for departure while the rest made their way back to the MEV Sparta a little while after.
They were interrupted on the way. Eight men in dusters with guns blocked their path.
"Why hullo there ladies and gentlemen," the apparent leader spoke up, smiling all crooked and yellow toothed, "There's a bit of a price on yer heads, the whole lot of you." He had a bit of a drawl and it was very obvious he was trying to keep the smile off his face.
Lilith was tired of this already, "Yes, we know. Great. Leave or we will open fire." The augmetic muscle in her powered armor hissed as she stepped forward and switched the safety off her railgun.
"Oh I think you ain't in any position to make threats m'dear." He waved his hand and six men on the rooftops behind Lilith stood up with rifles aimed and ready to fire, "the bounty specifically wants you dead and I intend to please!" He chuckled, "We're about to be very rich men."
The stress of the past week had created a lot of pent up aggression in the remaining members of the Gallows and they were eager for a fight.
Talos sprang forward lightning quick, Chainsword drawn and revved. He took the head off of the leader and, continuing on the follow through of that first swing, took the arm off the man to his right. Turning hard on his heel he removed the leg of the man to his left. All three fell to the ground and were dead within seconds, unable to keep going after losing a torrent of blood so quickly. The remaining men all fired at him, their mouths open from fear and awe as not a single round managed to make the rampaging android flinch.
Derek Fayd gracefully stepped forward and put a round clean through a man's head, splattering bone and brain matter out behind him, and a second bullet in the crotch of the man next to his first victim. Both collapsed to the ground out of the fight.
Lilith took to the sky and began firing hyperfast rounds into her attackers; a coat and thick shirt is nothing at all to a gun that can punch through solid steel.
Josef joined Lilith in the air, firing his Gauss Pistol with deadly efficiency and precision.
The bounty hunters never stood a chance, they were dead in minutes having done next to nothing to their prey, only a few scratches.
Lilith rummaged through the pockets of the man who had been so confident just minutes before and was now dead, his head separated from its place on his shoulders. Her hand touched a dataslate in his coat. She pulled it out and examined it.
It was all of them, their names and faces:
"40,000 Cr per head
Payment will be received on verification of remains
Bounties *must* be dead to receive payment
Bounties are to be considered *extremely* dangerous"
She smiled at the severity of it. Tokoro wasn't taking chances and if she was reading this right, he might have been a little afraid of them. She looked at the rest of the slate and realized she didn't recognize the seals that marked them as official government targets, she enlarged the image at the top left and stopped. A large eagle framed by a four pointed star was prominently displayed, underneath this unfamiliar emblem were the words:
"BY ORDER OF THE EMPIRE OF TERRA"
I came.
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