Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction ❯ Zone of the Enders: Triad 2177 ❯ No Surprises ( Chapter 7 )

"Jim!" Vera yelled, slamming open the door to his office.

"Yes, yes, I understand Mr. Countras. This is the real thing, I swear to God we found it and we're ready to give it back for a reasonable sum. You're willing to play ball? Yes, yes, you are a very good samaritan, sir. How about thirty million?" Jim said into the phone, ignoring Vera.

"Captain, don't sell that Frame yet! I'm telling you, something is seriously wrong here! It was scheduled to be delivered to Tarver Urenbach! Do you know what that means?" Vera said, propping herself over Jim's desk.

"Yes, sir, call me back when you are prepared to pick up. I'm on Ganymede, yes. Thank you again, sir, goodbye," Jim said before hanging up the phone. He leaned back, lit up a cigarette and laughed joyfully.

"Captain! That Frame was being sent right into terrorist hands, do you understand what's going on?" Vera said, desperate.

"Vera, my dear goody-two-shoes ex-cop, I could care less if they were sending it to the devil himself. It's not ours, holding onto it is going to make us prime targets for space pirates, and I just got paid thirty million for it's safe return. We can fix the A/C, get some decent weapons, and tune up your Phantoma all with the change left!" Jim said, taking a long puff of his cigarette.

"First, that's ex-LEV special forces. I wasn't just some normal cop," Vera corrected.

"I don't care if you scrubbed toilets or took bullets for a public official, a cop's a cop to me," Jim said, turning his chair slightly to the side.

"Anyway, you should hold on and let us find out from ADA more about what that Frame was suppose to be for. We can find out who really lost that Frame," Vera said, cringing in frustration.

"Vera, I could care less about who owns it, it's finders-keepers in this solar system. The fact is, I made out pretty good in this deal and that's all that matters," Jim said, puffing his cigarette some more.

"Is that all that matters to you? Money?" Vera said with an angry look.

"Yeah, you just figure that out? Money, my ship, and my crew are all that matter to me in life. In that order too," Jim said, pointing his cigarette at Vera and then putting it back in his lips.

Vera cringed, seething in anger. She bit her lip and refused herself to stick up for herself further or risk loosing her job. "Fine, whatever you say, captain!" Vera yelled and stormed out of the office.

"Must be her time of the month, sheesh," Jim said, opening up and reading a newspaper.

Miryhn pulled Jim's convertible into the hangar and stopped it in the spot reserved for meshing it to the floor. He got out and hobbled towards the door, keeping his injured leg straight as he walked.

"Rough time out?" Nash asked sarcastically.

"Shut up," Miryhn said, rolling his eyes.

"So you and Ester ran after the infamous Tarver Urenbach and came back empty handed, eh? That's why you're a better pilot than a bounty hunter, Miryhn," Nash said, packing up his tools.

Miryhn smiled. "Not quite," he said and started hobbling again.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Nash said, closing the hangar doors with the recently repaired door controls.

Miryhn yanked his handgun out of his belt and aimed it at Nash in the blink of an eye. "Bang," he said playfully.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Nash said, rolling his eyes.

"This thing is an antique. Walthier P99, a very well preserved gun, probably almost two hundred years old around this time. Usually only old bats and higher-ups in the syndicates carry these. The older the gun, usually the more professed and highly regarded someone is," Miryhn said, aiming the gun at Nash as he walked by Miryhn towards the door.

"Damn shame, eh? You aren't any professional and you aren't exactly highly regarded to anyone but Jim," Nash said bitterly.

"That's cold, Nash. You can go to hell too," Miryhn said, hobbling towards the door as well, jamming the handgun back into his belt.

"So you're saying carrying an almost two hundred year old handgun around is some kind of sign that Ester is a higher-up in a syndicate?" Nash said, putting his tools in a wall storage shelf.

"Nah, she probably popped a higher-up and took his gun just to dishonor him. She has no problems with looting corpses as far as I know.

"Whatever, just don't point that thing in my face to wake me up or anything," Nash said, hurrying out the door.

"Pussy," Miryhn said to himself as he walked out the door. He ran into Vera as he opened the door.

"Miryhn! Hi! Move!" Vera said quickly, ducking beside him and dashing into the hold.

"Excuse you," Miryhn said sarcastically and walked out the door.

Tarver grumbled as one of his croonies tied a bandage tightly around his right arm. "I can't believe I've been disgraced like this."

"Boss, this is no time to be spiteful. We may have lost an Orbital Frame and a LEV, but we still have the other seven LEVs and Shango," the croonie said reassuringly.

"What a bugga'. I'm sick of sitting on my laurels waiting for the 'okay' from Lazarus. I was do'in fine without him to begin with and I can 'andle myself fine now!" Tarver said, rotating his arm around.

"Sir, the deal was he'd give us the Frames to do our plan as long as we did it when he said to," the croonie reminded.

"You needn't be remind'in me all the time, wanka'! I don't care if that raspy motha' and his stupid cloak tell us to do it tomorrow or ten years from now, I'm sick of waiting!" Tarver yelled in anger.

"Sir, he said if we disobeyed him, he'd make sure we were all dead," the croonie said fearfully.

"He comes in 'ere, rambl'in that religious garbage about 'God's true will for man' and 'righteous hearts and minds to serve our Lord', pushes us around, then leaves like it was nothin'! To hell wit' him, we're doing this tonight!" Tarver said, storming out of the backroom to the tenement his gang relocated to after the bounty hunters escaped.

"May God bless our eternal souls, we're damned either way," the croonie said, shaking his head.

Miryhn plugged his headphones into the rather ancient compact disc player in his room. He slipped an old techno compact disc out of a moldy old case and put it in the compact disc player and pressed the button with a sideways triangle on it. He sighed and walked away, letting the ten-foot long cord stretch from the wall to him as he sat on the bed. He unbuttoned his shirt and threw it off. He lamented his lanky figure for a moment and hit the floor to do a few push-ups. He collapsed after twenty and panted hard. The ship was still stuffy and hot, making him sweat a puddle within ten push-ups. He clambered back to his feet and took off his pants, putting on some exercise shorts instead. He yanked out his hairband and picked up a brush to fix his frizzing hair. After brushing, he put his hair in a ponytail again and sighed as he plopped onto the bed.

Miryhn glanced at his nightstand and saw the small, cell phone-shaped object ADA gave him before he left Masamune sitting beside his sunglasses. He reached over for it, but was leashed back by his headphones. He rolled his eyes and took his headphones off. He grabbed it, and then sat up again, examining it. He found a ridge along the side and flipped it open. A series of glowing, flowing lines like on the Orbital Frame ran along the sides of it outward from a small screen on the upper-half. Miryhn's curiosity grew and he tapped the lower half. Several touch-sensitive buttons were apparently there because every section he tapped sent smaller flowing lines outward from the spot and into the object. Miryhn arched his brow and kept tapping the random "buttons".

"Why are you entering nonsense into the transmitter?" ADA's voice said from the object.

"Geez, you almost gave me a stroke! What are you doing in there?" Miryhn said, examining the object closer.

"I told you, this is the control unit for the Orbital Frame Masamune. Without it, no action may be performed within the cockpit. It is also a remote link directly to my systems and a remote control unit for the Frame," ADA said.

"That's really nifty and all, but as of right now, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with you," Miryhn said, smiling smugly.

"You are the official Runner of this Frame now, per your own words. You need not worry about getting rid of me, I shall serve you dutifully," ADA replied.

Miryhn sighed deeply and ran his free hand through his hair. "Look, I'm not going to get into that with you right now. Just sit tight," Miryhn said, flipping the transmitter close and placing it back on his nightstand. He put his headphones back on and layed back on his bed. "What am I gonna do with an Orbital Frame, anyways?"

"What am I gonna do with this Orbital Frame, anyways?" Vera asked herself, sitting in Freya's cockpit.

"If you have found my scheduled Runner and plan to deliver me as per our agreement, then that is what you are to do with this Frame," ADA replied.

"But Tarver Urenbach is scum! He's just some terrorist always bullying the Ganymede government to stop harvesting Ganymede Sea Rodents for food," Vera said, leaning on her elbow on the side of the cockpit.

"That is none of my concern, I am only programmed to be delivered to my scheduled Runner and after that, I may take orders freely," ADA replied.

Vera thought a moment. "May I ask, though, if Tarver has any other Frames?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That information is of no use to you, but I may supply it. He ordered a total of four Orbital Frames. All of the others are offline at the moment, except one that is within two miles of this location," ADA said.

"There's one within two miles of here? Where?" Vera asked, astonished.

"It is the Orbital Frame Masamune. Through records in the network log, it was delivered to the scheduled Runner, but the registration never occurred within the allotted time. Thus, the scheduled Runner never even entered into the Frame's registration logs. Instead, another Runner was entered," ADA said.

"And can you tell me who that would be?" Vera said, curious.

"That is classified. I fail to see what you are trying to figure out," ADA said.

"I'm trying to figure out why Tarver wanted four Orbital Frames and also who they're from. Something is just very fishy about Ganymede's number one threat to its welfare having four Orbital Frames," Vera said, rubbing her chin. "I mean, it makes no sense. How can he afford to bribe for them? If not that, how could he have extorted them?"

"May I ask why you are so concerned with my mission?" ADA asked.

"Because he might use this Frame to hurt a lot of people. Something terrible might happen and you'll be responsible because you let yourself be manipulated by someone with wrong intent," Vera said, leaning over towards ADA's console.

ADA paused. "As part of a network, I share with several other ADA units past experiences and data logs. I can recall a past Runner of a Frame I was installed in who was very concerned for the well being of the whole as well. He was very brave and strong; even when asked to do something he protested against and ended up being part of a greater, benevolent whole. For some reason, if you are telling the truth, I cannot bring myself to assist in such madness."

"There's no doubt about it. Go on, try it, I'm telling the truth," Vera said, placing a hand on one of the cockpits control spheres.

ADA ran a few lines through the sphere, doing a brief lie-detection test utilizing her vital signs. "What you say is true, I can trust you. But having my prime directive eliminated now leaves me with nothing to carry out as well as with no Runner to be registered to."

"Well, then enter me!" Vera said happily.

"You have shown past combat experience that is acceptable for being a Runner, I shall register you. Please give me your full name," ADA said.

"Vera Rachel Michaels," Vera said, leaning back.

"You are now registered as the Runner of this Frame," ADA said.

Vera cheered to herself and then stopped remembering everyone would hear her.

"Okay, ADA now that I'm your Runner, can I get into some of the more interesting information you kept holding from me all this time?" Vera said, grinning.

"Yes, but to an extent," ADA replied.

"Who's the Runner of Masamune?" Vera asked sternly.

"From the register logs of Masamune's ADA unit, the Runner is registered as 'Miryhn Troxel' as of earlier this day," ADA said.

Vera's jaw dropped. "It can't be! What would he be doing with a Frame?"

"The logs also indicate he escaped an area outside the old Harpersville airport in desperation, hijacking the Frame with surprising knowledge of the manual override system," ADA said.

"Oh, I see, he went after Tarver and hijacked a Frame to get out of a sticky situation. That's smart, but at the same time, really stupid," Vera said, shifting her eyes around.

"I think I understand. Do you know him?" ADA asked.

"He's just the slacker pilot of this ship, but I never knew he could pilot a Frame!" Vera said, starting to climb out of the cockpit.

"Wait, take this transmitter. It's the control unit for this Frame, making cockpit operation impossible unless the unit is installed," ADA said, opening a small console. Vera reached in and took out the cell phone-shaped object. "It also has remote access to my systems and remote control capabilities to the Frame."

"Sweet!" Vera said, grinning widely. She pocketed the transmitter and shut the canopy, hurrying off.

"What odd Runners," ADA commented to itself.

Miryhn had managed to drift to sleep on the floor where the cold metal managed to counter the hot air. The compact disc player went into repeat and Miryhn snored slightly.

"Wake the hell up!" Vera's voice yelled through Miryhn's subconscious.

Miryhn struggled to open an eye before something was shoved in his face and his headphones were ripped off his head. He quickly opened both eyes and saw Vera holding a transmitter in his face.

"Look familiar?" Vera said.

"It's a cell phone, so what?" Miryhn said, half asleep.

"Liar, you have one too, it's on your nightstand," Vera said, kicking him lightly in the stomach.

"No use bullshitting," Miryhn said with a sigh and got up on the bed. "What, you got ADA to like you all the sudden?"

"For some reason, when I told it what Tarver was like, it decided that it didn't want to be used like that and let me be the Runner instead. Kinda cool, eh?" Vera said, shaking her transmitter in Miryhn's face.

"Want mine? I'd rather not have a Frame to mess with," Miryhn said, offering his transmitter off the nightstand.

"I don't want two. One's hard enough to keep around. Jim found a buyer and later on tonight he's gonna hand over Freya," Vera said, sadly.

"That's too bad. However, I'm not letting him sell off Masamune. Somewhere in those Frames is the reason Tarver bought then and also how he bought them. I want to find that out so I can catch him next time," Miryhn said, putting the transmitter back on the table. "After that, I'd rather just dump it on Callisto or something."

"So you want to know what's going on too, huh? Yeah, I think something really stinks and I wanna do something about it," Vera said, pocketing her transmitter.

"Once a cop, always a cop, eh?" Miryhn said, scratching his slightly frizzy hair.

Vera nodded and smiled.

"Yeah, well, I could care less what they're for. Those Frames are just a means of getting to Tarver next time," Miryhn said, then yawned.

"Geez, am I the only one around here with a sense of right and wrong?" Vera yelled, frustrated.

"Go do your hero antics without me, I just want the bounty on that guy. No one pops me in the leg with a shotgun and gets away with it," Miryhn said, reaching for his headphones.

"So that's how your leg got torn up. Sorry to hear that," Vera said, looking at his bandaged right leg.

"Been through worst. Now, lemme sleep, I'm gonna worry about that Frame tomorrow," Miryhn said, lying on the floor again.

"Well, alright, goodnight," Vera said, leaving the room.

"Yeah, 'night," Miryhn murmured and slipped his headphones back on.

Dingo shuffled on the couch and pulled the throw pillow under his head more. He yawned and layed there quietly, finally able to get some rest.

Ken walked in the lounge and saw Dingo. She looked on him angrily and walked up to him, putting her hands on her hips. "Having a little nap while we're on standby?"

"Ken, I seriously doubt Urenbach is gonna go ahead with his plan tonight. Every line of connection we get to him says he's not and one anonymous tip doesn't exactly put me in a panic," Dingo mumbled, his face in the pillow.

"Dingo, we can't ignore this, it's from one of his own men!" Ken protested.

"In that case, sit on your ass in 'standby' and wake me up when something really does happen, which won't," Dingo mumbled, rolling over so his face faced the back of the couch.

"Fine, I'll do that," Ken said angrily and stormed out of the lounge.

"What a cocky person she's being lately," Dingo murmured and yawned again.

"Alright, boss, what was the plan again? It's been a while since we thought it up," one of Tarver's thugs said from a LEV flying nearby Shango, the only Orbital Frame Tarver had left.

"You wanka', can't you remember anything? Oh, bloody hell, it's simple. We put that small freighter in the new Urenbeck Catapult and launch it non-stop at Ganymede's ocean. It hits and everywhere on the moon floods. Unless, of course, we get a healthy sum of money and a bill passed prohibiting the harvest of Sea Rodents," Tarver said, smiling with a chuckle.

"Sounds a little too easy, sir. Why did we need a squad of Phantomas and an Orbital Frame for this?" the thug asked.

"Because, you nincompoop, this Catapult is guarded quite heavily. We need to overpower them with this 'ere Frame and then put the freighter in and power up the Catapult. The Ganymede politicians will be piss'in their pants when they see what we did," Tarver said, laughing.

"That's brilliant, boss, I guess," the thug said stupidly.

"Of course it's bloody brilliant, I thought it up!" Tarver said proudly.

Shango and its escort of seven LEVs onboard the small freighter ship broke Ganymede's atmosphere and went into space. Against the backlight of Ganymede's glow, Shango's features shown through. Its face was flat and human-like with an open helmet that had two glowing ovals where the eyes would be. The body of the frame was bright white and its armor sections were green. The shoulder pauldrons were large and circular with glowing tips on the end of each. The breastplate spanned the chest and connected around the back, leaving the "stomach" area open. In its left hand was a large, round shield and in the right was a large claymore. It had two Vernier "wings" on it's back.

"Boss, that Frame is really freak'in cool," one of the thugs said over the com line.

"I know, ain't it?" Tarver said, smiling evilly. "Now set up the patrols, I want absolutely no surprises!"

Vera was nodding off on the couch in the lounge, trying to watch the late-night HBC news broadcast. She reached over in one of her awake states and grabbed the can of Pepsi she had opened and sipped at it. She reached for the remote to catch a little of David Leno's late night talk show and head to bed.

"This just in, as of a mere five minutes ago, a mysterious LEV force attacked the Urenbeck Catapult outside the orbit of Ganymede. We take you live from the scene as our correspondent Ara Shirland has moved to the scene, Ara?" the news anchor said, turning to the side.

Vera raised an eyebrow and sipped her Pepsi again, dropping her remote hand to the couch.

"Yes, Mark, as you can see a LEV force consisting of seven Phantomas all in a small freighter just attacked the new Urenbeck Catapult outside Ganymede. With them is a mysterious LEV we cannot identify as any...hold on, our people in the control room took a shot of it and have enhanced the image. Here it is," Ara said within a HBC news-ship a good distance from the combat. An image of Shango slashing two U.N.S.F. LEVs in half replaced Ara's live feed after his statement.

Vera arched her brown and leaned over the couch.

"So far, no one has claimed the ownership of this attack force and there is no government statement on the identity of this group or what this strange LEV is," Ara said, the image minimizing and being put in the corner of the screen, showing his live feed again.

"Does it appear as if this is just a minor attack by a long since disbanded anti-Earth force, Ara?" Mark Rather asked, his image being put on the left of Ara's on the screen.

"As I said, there is no official statement and we cannot identify these LEVs are from any particular force but...oh, wait, an anonymous tip has just been submitted by someone calling themselves 'East Wind'. They claim that the man behind this is none other than ecological terrorist extraordinaire, Tarver Urenbach," Ara said, reading off a piece of paper suddenly handed to him.

Vera choked on her Pepsi sip, hacking until it cleared from her throat. She looked up after she finished choking with wide eyes at the television screen. She shot up and out the door, sprinting to the crew quarters. Vera burst into Miryhn's room and kicked him in the head hard.

"Ow! Sheesh, what the hell do you want this time?" Miryhn said, ripping off his headphones and staring up at Vera angrily.

"Get up! Now!" Vera said, yanking on his arm.

Miryhn grumbled and got to his feet.

"Here, come on!" Vera said, shoving his shirt into his chest.

Miryhn snatched his shirt from her hand and threw it on, not caring to button it.

"Come on! Go!" Vera said, pulling his arm. As Miryhn stumbled out the door, she pushed on his back, guiding him out and down the hall.

Miryhn quickly spun out of her push, causing Vera to stumble forward. He caught her arm in mid-stumble and stood her up straight. "What's this all about? I'm not going anywhere unless you have a damn good reason!"

"Its Tarver, the newsies found him! He's trying to take the Urenbeck Catapult near Ganymede!" Vera said before skipping to the side and jogging to the lounge.

"Why didn't you say so? Lemme see!" Miryhn said, jogging in behind her.

Vera pointed to the television screen and picked up her Pepsi to finish it off.

Miryhn squatted down, pushing his bangs out of his eyes.

"We just got an official government statement. It seems Tarver Urenbach has just submitted an ultimatum to the Ganymede government. He demands fifty billion and a new law prohibiting the harvesting of Ganymede Sea Rodents. The government is currently in negotiations with him, but is confirmed that this is an attack by Tarver Urenbach," Ara said, reading off another piece of paper.

Miryhn sighed and looked up at Vera. Vera sipped her Pepsi and smirked.

"We'd also like to note that the government has another official statement. They would like to tell any and all bounty hunters in the area that the reward for Urenbach's capture has been tripled for the time being. That is all," Ara added quickly.

Miryhn looked back at the television and his eyes widened. He shot up and staggered towards the door.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Vera said, throwing her Pepsi in the laundry basket reserved for aluminum cans.

"I told you, I'm in it for nothing but the reward. You can do whatever you want," Miryhn said, heading out the door.

"Wait a minute! Miryhn, we have to work together on this! Come back!" Vera begged, running after him.

Miryhn dashed back to his room and snatched this sunglasses and transmitter. He walked out of his room and slid the sunglasses in his shirt's breast pocket and flipped the transmitter open. "ADA, can you have Masamune ready in five minutes?"

"Affirmative, I take it you had a change of heart about being the Runner?" ADA said.

"No, I'm still not that thrilled, but this is an emergency. Be ready for my arrival," Miryhn said, flipping the transmitter close.

"Wait a minute! Miryhn, I'm going too!" Vera said, catching up to him.

"As I said, do what you want, I have a bounty head to snatch," Miryhn said, running as fast as he could out the hallway door towards the hangar.

"Aren't you gonna put on any pants at least?" Vera asked as the door closed.

Miryhn dashed across the spaceport in the dead of the night. He shoved open the rusty gate to the old hangar he hid Masamune in and kicked open the door. Inside, Masamune kneeled there quietly.

"Time to kick some ass, buddy," Miryhn said, hitting the canopy opening button. He threw himself in and the canopy shut.

"Please insert control unit for combat operation," ADA's voice said from the console. Miryhn shoved the transmitter into the console ADA had opened earlier and the console came to life with streams of light. As the system booted up, Miryhn nervously tapped his bare thighs with his hands and breathed deeply.

"Any day now, ADA!" Miryhn exclaimed.

"All systems functional, good evening, Miryhn," ADA said.

"Good, now let's go!" Miryhn yelled, grabbing the two control spheres.

Masamune's flowing lights came to life and the eyes lit up. It leaned over slightly as the Verniers fired slowly. The Frame launched out the small hole in the wreckage leading over the water. It uncurled its body and switched to flight mode, the arms extending out, legs coming together, and the cockpit being raised. The Verniers fired again and the Frame streaked upwards.

Miryhn sighed and relaxed a little. He began to shiver and remembered he had run out of the ship in his pajama shorts and his shirt. He looked down and his nipples were hard. He cringed and pulled his shirt together.

"You seem uncomfortable," ADA said.

"No crap, ADA. Can you warm up the cockpit just a wee bit?" Miryhn pleaded.

"Affirmative, temperature adjusting," ADA said. The cockpit began to warm up and Miryhn sighed contently and relaxed.

"Thanks, I came out here in a hurry and forgot how cold it was at night," Miryhn said, grabbing one control sphere and scratching his head with the other.

"Incoming comlink from the Orbital Frame Freya," ADA said, a message prompt coming up on the screen.

Miryhn cringed. "Geez, forgot about her, put it through."

A small box opened of Vera sitting in Freya's cockpit. "Miryhn, you asshole! How care you take off without me! I'm in on this too, you know!" she yelled angrily.

"Heh, sorry, I guess I was just over anxious," Miryhn said, smiling with a chuckle.

Vera growled. "Look, I don't know how or why you know how to pilot that thing, but you better be damn good at it. Tarver has his own and I'm sure he has no problem with taking us on," Vera explained.

"It's like riding a bike, right? You never forget!" Miryhn quipped.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Vera said, raising an eyebrow.

Miryhn laughed and shook his head. "Just don't worry about me, mind your own ass," Miryhn said and closed the comlink.

"Communication ended," ADA said.

Miryhn sighed and sat back in the seat. "Yep, you never forget, ever."

Dingo yawned as he put on his space helmet. After that, he rubbed his side some more where Ken had kicked him to wake him up.

"Hurry up, Dingo. Time is of the essence!" Leo's voice chattered over the Vic Viper's comlink.

"Keep your pants on, sheesh. You people are always in a rush," Dingo said, grabbing the controls.

"This is serious, Dingo. If they drop that freighter on Ganymede like they plan, then-" Ken started to nag.

"Yes, I know, the whole moon is screwed. Gimme a break alright?" Dingo interrupted.

"Good, at least you've been listening to my reports," Ken said, smiling.

"Actually, Angie told me," Dingo said, smirking.

Ken groaned and cut her comlink to his cockpit.

"That was cold," Leo said, grinning. "But I have to agree with you, she's overworking us."

"So you've been faking your enthusiasm, huh? Good plan," Dingo replied, grinning back.

"Hey, if it keeps her off my back," Leo said, shrugging.

"You bastard, leaving me to take all of her nagging. We'll settle this later," Dingo said, closing the comlink. He sat back and braced for launch.