FictionPress.com - let the words flow| FictionPress.com - let the words flow |
| Home Just In Communities Forums Beta Readers Dictionary Search | Login Register Extras |
Lined up in the dock, Falcon looked over his crew before rereading their mission assignment. He didn’t like the looks of this, more importantly he didn’t like that the number one crew in Collections needed them. Normally the second place ship would help them, but they were on leave for the next week. He could only hope that after this mission was done that his crew would get their turn at a vacation.
“Looks like we are going to be joining forces with Collections 243.” Falcon explained, “We are enroute to their sector, and should be arriving within the next hour.” He looked over the stiff backed crew, their arms tucked behind them. “I don’t have many details on the mission other then it’s an information collection, and battle is certain. Any questions?”
“Joining forces?” Lynx asked.
“Yes, we will be mixing our group with theirs. Commander Bulldog is an old hunter partner of mine, and I trust him. He has three hybrids and three humans in his crew, and yes Serf will be involved, as will their trainee.” He looked between them, “Alright, check your ships and weapons, and prepare for battle. Dismissed.” Falcon exited the dock with Goose on his arm.
Everyone made their way to the tool closest and pulled out their tool boxes and scanners. They didn’t know how much they would be using their weapons and ships during this mission, but they had to be in top condition.
“When was the last time we worked with another ship?” Mac asked as he headed over to his ship.
“About four years ago, but we never met face to face.” Jackal informed them as he kneeled down in front of his ship, before opening a panel.
His eyes wandered over to Lynx, she was examining her ship’s exterior. Her small hands running over the cool metal to ensure that there were no major anomalies. When she seemed satisfied, she kneeled down like he was and began to scan the ship’s wiring. He had helped her only a couple days ago with that, and knew that he had left it in perfect condition.
His brow came together when Angel walked over to her, and kneeled down beside her. She smiled at the young man, which made Jackal’s blood boil. Lynx never smiled at him when he approached her.
“Jack!” Someone yelled at him, his eyes shot to Beau who was standing beside him. “For the third god damn time, can I borrow your scanner? Mine is broken.”
“When I’m done with it.” Jackal barked, slightly embarrassed that he had been off in his own world, and that his eyes had been locked on Lynx.
He began to scan his ship, ignoring the laughter he heard from Angel beside him. Though he questioned when the two had become friends, as far as he could remember Lynx didn’t like the boy. He stole bounties and he treated Goose like crap.
“Shouldn’t you be checking your ship?” Lynx asked Angel with laughter in her voice.
“I’m not very good with this whole thing.” He used his fingers to encircle her ship. “Want to show me what I should be checking for?”
“Sure. Let me finish my scans. I know my ship is in good condition, I just checked it not too long ago.” Lynx informed him, and Angel gave a nod before heading back to his ship.
Jackal kneeled down beside Lynx, and she jerked a little when she found him right behind her. “I need to borrow a tool.” He informed her, reaching into her tool box. “Since when are you friends with that little asshole?”
“Since when do you care?” She arched an eyebrow.
“I don’t.” He snarled, grabbing a random tool from the box before returning to his ship.
After several moments, Lynx stood from her position and headed over to Angel’s ship. She showed him how to scan his ship, which Jackal was certain the boy already knew how to do. If one didn’t know how to check their ship for abnormalities, then they didn’t need to be a hunter. He held back a growl when Angel slide his hand from the back of Lynx’s elbow to her shoulder, and prayed that she would put him in his place. Instead, Lynx showed him the scanner screen and began to explain a problem to him.
“Can I have it now?” Beau’s voice broke through Jackal’s concentration. Without a word he shoved the scanner into Beau’s thigh, and returned Lynx’s tool to it’s container.
His ship was fine, and he certainly wasn’t going to watch this unprofessional display between his two comrades. Throwing his tool box into the closest, he exited the dock and began the short walk to his quarters. He would check and clean his weapons in his room, before taking a nap for the rest of their journey.
The moment he sat down on his bed, a buzz came to his door. Allowing it to open, Lynx stood in the doorway with the scanner in hand. “Hey, look at this.” She held it out to him, forcing him to get off his bed and walked over to her. She never entered another person’s quarters, even when invited.
“Yeah, so? Show it to Mac.” He barely glanced over it, he really didn’t care what happened to Angel’s ship.
She half frowned and half pouted her lips, “What the hell is your problem today? You PMSing?”
Jackal glared down at her, “I haven’t done anything.”
“You were giving Angel and me dirty looks in the docks, and then you throw a fit on your way out. Now, I am showing you this really weird problem, that I thought would interest you, and you…”
“Why the hell would I be interested in this?”
Her looked confused him, it was as if she was dumbfounded but angry. “Apparently, I assumed you were interest in electrical engineering. The way you talked to me about it the other day lead me to believe it. Obviously, I was incorrect.” She turned around to leave, but Jackal grabbed the scanner. She didn’t even looked surprised, instead leaned over and began to point with her little finger. “Look how it connects here and here. Angel said that his mechanic on the last ship informed him that it saved energy and gave more power to the ship’s cannons without overheating them.”
Jackal rose an eyebrow, “I don’t see how that’s possible.”
Lynx walked around the scanner so she was standing beside him, her arm pressed up against his own. She gave the scanner one more glance over, before looking up to him. “Think I should show this to Falcon? I don’t know if we want Angel’s ship like this during a battle unless it’s been tested.”
He offered the scanner back to her. As much as he wanted to step back away from her, his body refused to move. “Yeah, you should show him.” His voice sounded a little more husky then usual.
“Alright. Are you cleaning your blasters?” She asked, seeing his guns laid out on the bed.
“Yes.”
“Could you… never mind.” She began down the hall.
“I could clean yours, since you are showing Falcon this, you might not have time. Besides I don’t want your weapons to fail when it could be saving my life… again.”
Lynx turned around with a grin and with one motion of her hand removed her belt and offered it to him. “Thank you, I owe you one.”
He shook his head, “No, I still owe you plenty.”
Lynx holstered her blasters that Jackal had offered to her when she entered. Excitement mounting in her chest, as well as the rest of the crew. This was something new and different, which was a rarity for them. Their lives mostly consisted of taking personal missions and working alone, except for the occasional high bounty missions which Falcon handed out.
The large metallic doors began to open, and they made their way through the umbilical to meet with their new partners. It took ten minutes to walk the length of the tube that connected the two ships, and when they reached it’s end, they were greeted by large white doors.
“Greetings, crew of Collections 101.” A feminine voice spoke before the doors opened.
They each stepped through a decontamination room, where they were sprayed with a mist of an unknown substance. This was something that their own ship lacked, however it was an older model. Finally, the doors to the entry room opened and they were met by the crew of Collections 243.
Standing in perfect formation, six hunters as well as their communications specialist, watched as they entered. Commander Bulldog stood proud in front of his crew, as Falcon’s own crew lined up.
Bulldog looked like the years had not been kind to him, though he still stood tall and muscular with gray hair. His face was full of wrinkles and scars, and when he smiled at his old friend, they were only highlighted even more.
He and Falcon shook hands, “You old dog, you haven’t changed a bit.” Falcon said.
Lynx’s eyes wandered down to the hybrids, and her jaw nearly dropped when she saw her friend, Spry. What was she doing here? Falcon had said she didn’t have enough merits to become a crewmate on their ship, how could she manage on this one?
“It’s good to see you again.” Bulldog laughed, “I’d like to introduce you to my crew before I go into details.”
Falcon bowed his head in agreement.
“My elites are Blaze, Wired, and Spry. The humans are Makeshift, Aegis, and Lion or Leo, as some call him.” He then pointed to the communications specialist, “And of course, you know my wife, Silver.” Bulldog looked over Falcon’s crew, as Falcon began to inform him of their names. “Only one Elite, Falcon? No wonder you are only number three.”
“Only number three?” Falcon rose an eyebrow. “Considering we are the only ones in the top ten with so little hybrids, I think that’s a large compliment to my human hunters.”
“Fair enough. Now, why don’t we go to my office and I’ll explain the mission to you. I would like our crews to get to know each other, so I have ensured that they will have a goodtime this evening.” Bulldog waved his wife over to him.
Silver was a woman just as old as her husband, but time had been more kind to her. It wasn’t uncommon for commanders’ wives to take the position of communications specialist on ships, even if they weren’t hunters before given the duty. The collections agency found that it kept commanders in their ranks for longer periods of time.
Goose sighed and rolled her eyes, when Falcon summoned her over to him. The last thing that she wanted to do was hang out with the two hunter buddies, and have to listen to their stories. Of course, it didn’t help that she knew Silver hated her guts.
As soon as the commanders were out of the entry bay, Spry jumped to life. She was a little shorter then Lynx, but for the most part looked just like her as most hybrids do.
“Lynx!” She squealed and ran towards her friend.
Lynx barely had time to brace herself, as she tumbled to the ground when Spry threw her body onto her. Her older, but smaller friend hugged her tightly as they both lay on the ground.
“I’ve missed you so much!” Spry squealed again.
Spry was much more then just a friend to her, some of her genetic material had been used to create Lynx. Spry and several others were prototypes for a more emotionally advanced hybrid. They had originally created hybrids without the ability to feel, but found that they were without humanity and cared not for human life. They fought with each other and some even fell into depressions, resulting in suicide. Spry and those created along with her had been overly emotional, though safe enough to release into the general population. However, they were sterilized and only briefly used to create other hybrids, Lynx among them.
Finally pulling herself off her friend, Spry helped her to her feet. Angel and the rest of her crew, all stared with impish smiles plastered across their face. Wired and Blaze, the other hybrids came to meet with her. Wired was a thin and tall hybrid with short silver hair and eyes, he was an older model then both Spry and Lynx, but no more then by five years.
Blaze, too, was an older model from around seven years before her birth. He kept his hair long but pulled back, and his build rivaled Jackal’s. It was time for the show of dominance with her newly aquatinted hybrids. The greeting was simple enough touching each other’s elbows. However, one person would grab the underneath of the opposing arm while the other grabbed the top of the elbow. The one on top would be considered the higher ranking individual.
Both Spry and Wired gladly took Lynx’s dominance, as Spry had known her as their group leader during training, and Wired was not the assertive type. When she turned to Blaze, she knew they were in for a duel of wills. Their hands began to circle each other’s elbows trying to get a lock on their inner elbow, after several minutes they were both successful. That merely meant they were equals for now, until one or the other tried to challenge.
“What the hell was that?” Beau asked from the opposite side of the room. The humans had gathered around to greet one another.
Aegis, a tall dark haired female, chuckled. “Show of dominance, looks like they tied.” She informed them. “I take it that you’ve never been around more then one Elite?”
“No, all we have is Lynx.” Mac answered.
“You’re in for one strange culture crash course then.” Her voice fell into a hush as the hybrids began to speak to one another.
They did not speak the common tongue, as a matter of a fact the language they spoke could never be deciphered by humans. It was a constantly changing language that the hybrids decoded as the other spoke, each had their own way of speaking it, but any hybrid could understand what was being said. The only thing known about the language was that it was based off of the common English language.
Lynx’s crew looked confused, and this time Leo answered them. “Hybrid language, let’s move to the entertainment room. We have food and… well, entertainment in there.” The short, light haired man informed them. One could only assume he was named Lion, because his hair was so wild that it looked like a lion’s mane.
The hybrids followed behind them, and for the very first time the crew of Collections 101 was seeing Lynx as the alien creature that she actually was.
“Was Lynx the ice queen back when you two were kids?” Beau asked Spry, who seemed more then willing to tell embarrassing stories about her friend.
“Lynx? An ice queen?” Spry laughed, shaking her small head. “She was the biggest damn flirt, all the boys lined up outside her door just to talk to her.”
Lynx squeezed her eyes shut and dropped her face into her hands. “Spry.” She moaned.
“Of course, that’s all Lynx was though. A big ole’ cock tease.” Spry’s choice of words made all the men laugh out loud. “But they always knew who to come to when they just had to have release.”
“Who’s that?” Beau asked.
“Me, of course.” She winked at him.
Lynx noticed that Aegis kept eyeing Jackal, who didn’t seem to be enjoying where the conversation had led them. Angel, on the other hand, was more then willing to listen to Lynx’s history according to her old friend.
Deciding that she wanted no more to do with her own humiliation, Lynx stood up and made her way over to the other hybrids. She had learned through Spry’s inability to keep anything intimate, that Spry and Wired had attached themselves to each other. It was nothing that surprised Lynx, as her friend always kept a male or two around in which she could use in the bedroom. She was shocked that it wasn’t Blaze though. Spry preferred the larger hybrids, and all she could determine that Blaze had probably been one of the few who turned Spry down and got away with it.
“She has been given a new audience, this will not end until they leave.” She heard Wired’s voice tell his hybrid friend.
Blaze’s eyes fell on Lynx as she approached, though they had come to a standstill in their show of dominance, she didn’t think he was the type to let that go for long. Whenever he looked at her, his eyes burned right through her. They were a pale blue like her own, but somehow seemed on fire when she was in his view. It took her several moments to realize that Blaze wasn’t trying to get her to submit to him, but instead eating her with his eyes. He was attracted to her, and Lynx found the feeling to be mutual. Not that they would begin a relationship that was wouldn’t even be possible if they worked on the same ship. Blaze was an older model, and therefore had less emotions. It had only been recently that most hybrids had been altered to have a libido, mostly because the cost of creating fetus was expensive. Lynx had read that it cost three million caps just to create the fetus, and then an additional seven to nine million to bring it to full term. Allowing the hybrids to mate with each other, removed that cost, as long as they were given the go ahead. For all she knew, Blaze could be her brother or uncle.
“You have known Spry since training?” Wired asked her, as she came to stand between the two men.
“Yes, she and I were close.” Lynx answered, she didn’t know why she added the rest. As an Elite, he only asked what he wanted to know. She chalked it up to her years with humans, who were always looking for elongated answers.
“Wired come here, I want you to show them that scar!” Spry cried out, and Wired obliged her.
“I find you highly attractive.” Blaze deep voice said in the hybrid language.
“Thank you.” Lynx responded, she knew that she was suppose to reply with whether she found him attractive or not. However, her modesty didn’t allow for it.
He bowed his head, “I did not mean for it as a compliment, but you may accept it as such if you wish.” Standing with his back straight, and his hands folded behind him, he looked more ready for battle then for the small party.
“You do not look comfortable in this setting.” Lynx observed.
“I find this an annoyance to my training. Recently, I have been having difficulties with my blaster accuracy.”
She looked up into his solid, square face. “Only recently?”
A small grin played on the corner of his lips, but he did not give into it. “Very well, I have always had difficulties with my blaster accuracy. In recent missions I have found it to be a set back and a burden.”
“I am rather good at firearms, perhaps I could give you a quick lesson or two.”
Blaze gave a nod, “Our weapons expert has had no luck with training me, but if you feel you could do better then I would accept your offer.”
“Well, he’s human, isn’t he? I could probably explain things better.” Lynx took a moment to feel some hybrid pride, something she would never allow herself to feel in front of a human. “Though, I don’t know when we will begin our mission.”
“Then perhaps, we should begin immediately. Our commander demanded that we become acquainted with at least one member of your crew, I do not see how I would be breaking his policy if we practiced firearms together.”
Lynx smiled, “Then lead on.”
“I’ll show you where they are.” Aegis ran to his side.
“There is no need, please stay and enjoy the party. I do not wish to trouble you.” Jackal wasn’t use to being friendly with strangers, but knew that Falcon would cause him no end of grief if he made an enemy in this crew.
“It’s no trouble.” She smiled, “Follow me.”
Her and Blaze had run through a quick training practice, so she could get a feel for his abilities. He was not very good with blasters. When they finished, he told her that he preferred hand to hand combat, and she told him that it was Jackal’s preference as well. Blaze offered her a demonstration of his unarmed abilities which took Lynx a moment to realize that he had attempted to flirt with her.
“Maybe we should try rifles. I know that Jackal is better with rifles then…” She stopped speaking when she felt Blaze’s hand on the small of her back.
He ran his hand up to her neck, and when she didn’t object, he positioned himself behind her. Placing two hands on her shoulders, he slide his hands down her arms and then placed them on her hips.
Lynx knew well enough what this was, he was inspecting her. Had he been human, she would of flipped around and knocked the wind out of him. Yet, this was another hybrid who was showing an interest in her. This wasn’t about feelings or attraction, this was about propagating their species and collecting a large sum of money if they did. She knew what his next question would be.
“Do you find me a suitable mate?” He asked with his lips close to her ear.
“For creating a fetus, you mean?”
There was a pause, “Yes. I will send word of our intent to headquarters to see if our genes are compatible, as well how much money they would pay. I don’t see any reason for us to try unless it’s worth at least a million caps, do you?”
“I agree.”
“Very good.” He didn’t remove his hands from her body, instead continued his inspection.
“Being assigned to different ships will make it difficult. We will have to take leave during my fertile periods and meet on the nearest planet.” Lynx informed him.
“Collections will give us leave for breeding during that time. Do not concern yourself with details, I will ensure that everything is taken care of.” He took several steps back, before folding his hands behind him. “Now then, you were suggesting rifles.”
Lynx selected a rifle, using the time to shake the nervousness from her body. “Yes, they are hardier to conceal, but much easier to target. Though not at close range.”
