The Idorian rolled over on the bed and picked up a smoke. The whore lay beside him with her eyes rolled over into the back of her head while she regenerated. He looked at her tits again, and as if she felt his eyes on her she closed her silk robe. His dick was throbbing; it had been a long time since he'd been with a synth-whore. He loved that they could feel their customers' desires through their skin and the knowledge that they would regenerate a new outer layer of skin for each customer made him feel completely at ease. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room; the one where all there is left to do is to pay up, clean up and leave the room. He took another fag on the smoke and felt the heat fill his lungs. He couldn't stand the smokes, but he loved the feeling when they came into his system and the nanoids began to do their work. Little did he care that they used his lung tissue to convert into the pulses that gave him the wonderful sensations, as long as he would get the wonderful sensations. The whore got up from the bed, walked over to a small table and sat down in front of the mirror, her skin was partly peeling off and partly regenerating so in one place she'd look old and cracked with furrows and in another like a newly born child, smooth and clean. She began to clean her face and put on new makeup, but she could only do the side of her face that was already regenerated, the other was too cracked and skin was still coming off in small flakes.
   Without warning, the door burst open and a man walked into the room. The Idorian reached for his gun, but the man had already drawn his own two guns and fired two shots that hit the table next to the bed. The table exploded in synthetic wood fragments as the depleted uranium bullets sprawled inside its framework.

"Don't even think about it Twek. You won't have time to reach your guns now and if you even as much as think about raising your nanoreactive skin, I'll blast your brains all over the wall."

"You!" the man turned to the whore, "get out of here, NOW."

She got up from the floor, leaving a small pile of shedded skin looking almost like the scales of a fish, and ran out of the room. Several other pleasure girls ran in panic from their rooms, with more or less naked men of several different species following them.
   The man who had entered the room didn't take his eyes off the Idorian. He stood in silence with the guns pointed straight at the head of his target. The Idorian was scared, he was naked and his guns were out of reach. This time a bounty hunter finally had him. He studied his captor carefully, hoping to find a sign of a weakness he could exploit.
   The bounty hunter wore an old, red, leather coat with black trousers and shirt underneath. He had short, black hair that ended in a small ponytail and a metal clasp in his left ear. He was quite tall for a human, standing over 6 feet tall. Twek, with his 7 foot and 2 inches, was actually short for a race whose eldest warriors could reach as much as a full 10 feet in height, but he didn't care about height or fighting in wars. All he ever cared for was money... money and his own pleasure... well, that and inflicting misery upon others, and he was very good at it.

"Get up!" the bounty hunter ordered, "slowly"

The Idorian got up from the bed and walked towards the bounty hunter, he had no intentions of going quietly. No stinking human bounty hunter was going to turn him over to any authorities for a bit of credits, and if they were, he'd make damn sure they would earn their pay.

"Put on your trousers! And don't try anything like reaching your gun or activating your nano-skin, these babies tend to make a big mess out of people."

The Idorian looked at the guns pointing at him and with a loud roar lunged at the human, who was taken back by the sudden outburst of rage from the big beast. He managed to stay cool enough to roll with the impact of the heavy Idorian though. They both rolled out of the room and smashed up against the wall on the other side of the hall. The Idorian grabbed the bounty hunter by his coat and smashed his head into the wall several times, as spit and drool from his mouth covered the face of the bounty hunter. The wall started to break and in that split second when the Idorian paused to recognize the sound, the bounty hunter seized the moment to crack the head of his target with the barrel of the one gun he hadn't dropped, when the Idorian presented the back of his head to the wall. The Idorian screamed in pain as blood ran down his pale-brown, pudgy face and prepared to hit the bounty hunter with a fist the size of a large ham that would surely send him all the way through the wall. The fist came ramming down towards the bounty hunter, who in turn kicked the Idorian in the groin and dodged the fist as he rolled to the side. The Idorian continued through the wall with blood splattering over the floor as the wood tore up his fist and arm, but came to his feet again quickly and turned towards the bounty hunter, who was trying to get up but the pain from the wound in the back of his head made him feel dizzy and disoriented. He managed to react at the last moment before the Idorian came upon him and got his boot up in time to connect right in the belly of the large alien. All the air was knocked out of the Idorian, but he continued towards the bounty hunter. The kick to the stomach of the alien did, however, give him a single second to get his gun in position and pull down the hammer, which instantly made the raging Idorian stop.

"You know I'll fire in an instant, Twek, so are you going to follow nicely or do we have to do it the hard way?"

The bounty hunter and the Idorian stared at each other. There was fury and pain in the eyes of the Idorian and there was cold bitterness in the eyes of the human. They continued to stare at each other for another few seconds, both of them out of breath from the fight but none of them flinching for even a single second. Then Twek the Idorian, snarled and flung towards the bounty hunter, but flew back against the opposite wall as the bounty hunter squeezed the trigger of his gun and an ear-splitting noise rang through the hall.
   The bounty hunter stood up and walked over to the motionless body of the Idorian. He squatted down next to the body and pulled out a small communicator. He pressed down a button on it and after an initial scratching sound he spoke...

"Cal? You there? Did they express how they wanted him delivered?"

After another scratch, a slightly metallic voice responded through what sounded like a roar of an Ungarrath Dragon, but actually was the sound of the engine of his own ship the Fury.

"What the hell have you done now? You know we won't get paid if they can't confirm the id of the mark... you didn't shoot him in the head did you?"
   "Uhm no... no of course I didn't shoot him in the head, what do you take me for... an amateur?"

The bounty hunter looked down upon the headless corpse of the Idorian and sighed, he knew there was no way anyone would pay any amount of money for a headless corpse of someone who could be any Idorian who just happened to get in the way of a couple of lazy bounty hunters. Maybe they could sell the corpse to a medical facility... they often paid a decent amount of credits for specimens to use in their experiments, but this guy Twek wasn't a very impressive representative of his race so they would probably just end up paying more for the trouble than was worth it.

"Alex?"

The voice from the communicator sounded upset.

"Nothing to worry about Cal, I'm coming back shortly. He slipped me, I think we'd better let this one go."

"You shot him in the head didn't you... How many times do I have to remind you not to shoot the target in the head? No one will pay us if we can't give them a proper id of the mark. Check his body, maybe there's some kind of identifying mark, a tattoo or something."

"I'm looking, I'm looking, but there's nothing there Cal. I think I'd better get my ass out of here; I'm getting more attention than I care for and we weren't exactly discreet. The whole block must've heard the fighting, not to mention all the naked people running out in the street."

"When you get back, we're gonna have a looong talk. Now hurry the fuck up moron."

"Yeah yeah, I'll get back as soon as I can."

"Bring me back a hooker or two will ya'?"

"Right, you want the 300 pound one, or the one with the eye-patch?"

"Fuck you"

"See you when I get back. Alex out."


2
   Back on the Fury, the bounty hunter named Alex came from the docking bay into the living quarters. He threw his red, leather coat on a chair and put the two, black handguns on the table. A door opened on the other side of the room and Cal came out from the engine room. He was a big man, easily 6 foot 7 inches and with a chest the size of a big barrel. A metallic clank followed him every time he put his right foot down on the floor and he had a slight limp there as well. He had tan skin and short, blonde hair when it was clean, now it was dark and greasy and matched the overalls he was wearing in grease spots. Besides the tan his skin also had a slight metallic glare to it, the result of the cybernetics he had inside his brain, arms and legs. He could do complicated metaphysics calculations while lifting a truck, but they had never been able to make his legs work right. While stabilizing him and making his legs stronger, they also made him quite heavy and slow, and whenever a servo would leap out of its socket (something that happened quite often as a result of his heavy lifting) he would develop a limp that would slow him down enough to make him useless in a hunt. He wore big, round welding glasses and as he stood in the doorway, he lit a big smoke with a cutting torch, took a deep drag from it, then turned off the torch and walked towards Alex, who had thrown himself casually on the couch and turned on the TV.

"So, what happened out there Alex?"

"Uhm, just the same old song, y'know. Guy goes to hooker, guy pays for sex, guy probably can't get it up so he pretends to come, guy gets asked nicely to follow, guy refuses and starts a fight, guy gets his head blown off. End of story."

"Did you check to see if he had any distinctive marks or signs... maybe a DNA tattoo or something?"

"Yeah, of course I remembered, the guy was naked. Not exactly the most difficult thing to notice if he'd had a DNA tattoo, but I wasn't about to give him an anal exam to see if it was up his colon. D'you have any idea how ugly and fat Idorians are? They're gross."

Alex gave a shudder and contracted his face in revulsion. Cal took another drag of his big smoke and sat down in his favorite chair. Alex was up in a flash and dragged the big cyborg out of the chair.

"What're you doing, you big lump? I've just managed to clean up the chair from all your grease spots. Goddammit, it took me hours to get it clean."

"Relax Alex, why clean it if you know it gets dirty again. Besides, I'm the only one who's using it, you might as well just let it be the way I like it."

Alex let out a sigh.

"You just don't get it, do ya? Its not about who's using the chair or if it'll get dirty again. I just don't want your filthy butt in here; if you're going to sit here you have to take a bath first. Otherwise you'll just have to stand up instead... and you're not coming back in here in those pants, I know you have clean clothes... I know, because I'm the one who has to clean 'em for ya."

Cal got up and walked out of the room towards the private quarters, a thin stream of smoke followed him and lingered in the air for a few seconds before dissolving into nothing. Alex got back down on the couch after a few minutes of frantic cleaning the chair after Cal, while a low muttering escaped his closed lips.

"The man has an IQ of 351 and can bench press two tons easily, but can he keep a simple spacecruiser clean...? Not likely."

After setting the course, Alex spent most of the time relaxing in front of the TV and cleaning up after Cal, and Cal spent his time in the engine room tuning the spare hypo-drive... "just in case something goes wrong"
   The ship was cruising through the empty void of space, past red dwarfs and star systems, past interstellar caravans and space stations, past tiny planets where huge purple worms struggled to stay within the planet's gravity and through quasar vortices until they finally reached their destination... The Havoc Space Port just outside the Atlantean Nebula.
   After docking and unloading their garbage, which the spaceport then used for fuel, Alex and Cal locked up the Fury and went inside the spaceport.
   Inside, the lights were dim and the metallic walls were warm to the touch. Everywhere they looked people walked around in bright, neon-colored clothes, smoking strange, red smokes and wearing see-through hats in shades of green, blue and yellow. The small tunnels that were the streets of the space station were lined with vendors who sold just about anything, from Drukk-beast Delights and Captain Cop action figures to illegal nano-implants and imported 3-D porn vid-tapes.
   Alex walked over to the nearest vendor and looked through the wares with a disinterested look, Cal walked up beside him.

"What's wrong?"

"We're practically broke, and I screwed up on the last big job we had... If only I'd been more careful..."

"If you'd been more careful, you'd have your head ripped off and served as that guy's dinner. You did what you had to do... you're a survivor, you survive... that's what you do."

"But I'm supposed to catch criminals and get the reward for bringing them in. Am I a bad bounty hunter Cal?"

"Dammit, what's wrong with you Alex? You're just about the best damn bounty hunter I've ever seen. You never lose your cool or flee from a mark, and even if you do blow their heads off, you still save the universe from another bad guy."

"Yeah, I s'ppose you're right..."

"Of course I'm right, I'm always right. That's what you like about me, I'm right, right?"

"Heh, yeah I guess so."

"Damn straight, and now I'm off to see if I can find some spare electro-bolts, we need 'em for the fuel capacitator."

"And I'll be at the Blue Lizard bar and see if I can't find a new gig for us. There's bound to be somebody who's willing to hire a couple of bounty hunters. See you around Cal."

They separated and Alex walked down the street until he found the Blue Lizard bar. The sign above the door was un-surprisingly in blue neon, but only every second letter was lit and the tunnel was filled with smoke from the pipes and air vents thus making it quite difficult to see more than a few yards ahead. It was not until he stood right in front of the sign that he noticed the image of a serpent coiled around the letters, its head looking fiercely down upon the street from the 'B' at the top. It reminded him of a girl he used to date before he met Cal, before becoming a bounty hunter. He shook the memories off his mind. He hadn't been with a girl for a long time now; he had more important things on his mind, like catching wanted criminals and watching TV; he loved watching TV.
   As he opened the door and entered the bar, an immediate smell of urine and cheap blaze whiskey hit him hard and almost made him gag. The smoke-filled room was small with tables spread out on the floor, a door was at the other end of the room with a sign on it that said "Private," and the bar was to the right of the entrance. The wall behind the bar was pretty empty and the bottles that actually had any content in them glowed in strange colors, as did the liquids in them. The bartender was mildly unimpressive; he was part human, with a dirty face, big forehead and scales on his lips and around his eyes, his hands were clawed and every now and again the claw-like end of a tail would appear from under his apron. He was standing behind his bar looking very disinterested or even apathetic while cleaning a mug with a dirty rag. Music was playing from an old jukebox standing in the far corner of the room, the lights were broken, the sound was scratching and the people in the bar didn't really seem to listen that much to it anyway. The patrons were a raggedy bunch. Not the kind who could be found among the upper classes, these were the scum of life and most of them chose this place because it was a place the law generally avoided. Alex preferred it like that, he and the law weren't exactly the best of friends and there were times when he and the local law enforcement officers were after the same target, but he wouldn't hesitate to put their lives on the line so he could collect the bounty... after all, they would still get the criminal, why shouldn't he earn a little money off it as well.
   Alex walked up to the bar and ordered a blaze whiskey. The bartender picked up a bottle with a fluorescent blue liquid in it and poured some of it in a shots glass with very slow movements and the continuing disinterested look on his face. Alex threw a few coins on the bar, picked up the glass and turned around to face the rest of the bar. He sniffed to the drink and immediately felt his lunch beginning to rocket all the way up from his stomach and the room began to spin around fast. He put the glass back down on the counter with a frown. He was used to drink, but this stuff was simply too horrible to even consider drinking.

"What? The drink's not good enough for ya?"

A huge, hulking beast of a man was sitting on the barstool next to Alex. He turned his head; he had piercing red dots of cybernetically enhanced eyes, and every now and then they would blink with lids of black metal circling in as spirals from the sides. He continued to speak in a voice that was low, but still audible enough so that people around them could hear what he said.

"You're maybe too good to drink what the rest of us're drinking... is that it, huh?"

Alex looked at the big man, measuring him from head to toe as well as trying to find out what sort of weapons the guy was carrying.

"I would watch out where I pointed that breath if I were you. Smells as if a Drukk-beast left something in there to die."

"What'd you say?"

The man got up from his stool, and Alex looked up at him. He was easily half a man taller than Alex, and as wide as Cal around the chest. If Alex felt any amount of fear of that man, he didn't show it. He was ever so cool and calm, but he was still holding the glass of blaze whiskey in his hand.

"I'm quite sure you heard what I said... that is unless you've been skullfucked by your husband one too many times."

The guy stood for a moment, looking quite baffled as if he didn't quite understand what Alex had just said to him, and then he finally realized that he'd been insulted and bared his dirty, black teeth in a snarl. That was when Alex flung the glass of blaze right in the face of the man and followed up by butting his head into the guy when he roared with pain from the blaze that hit the circuits in his eyes. He tumbled backwards while clutching to his stomach but he was up again faster than Alex expected. Alex only just managed to get back up from his rendezvous with the man before he was staring right into the cybernetic red eye dots. Yellow, red, and blue sparks were flying in all directions... the fluorescent blue of the blaze whiskey was running down the guy's face and his fist was heading straight for Alex's jaw. It impacted right on his lower jaw, sending him flying back over a table, spilling several drinks in the process before his face connected with the floor. He hurried to his feet, and while the big guy was running towards him he managed to get the table up in time to spear the guy with the leg. Alex started running with the big monster of a man at the end of the table and slammed him into the wall, but the man was big and the reach of his arms was enormous. He grabbed Alex by the throat and started to squeeze. Quickly the color of Alex's face started to turn a pinkish purple and for a short while it was a deep, intense battle for who could squeeze most out of the other. Unfortunately, Alex was a lot smaller than the other guy and so he was the first to let go. They both stood for a short while and regained their breath, but it was the big guy who first came to it again. He grabbed Alex and flung him across the room. Alex landed on a table and continued off it onto the floor, the table flipped on its side, bottles smashed and the stench of blaze continued to threaten to knock everybody out faster than a bullet to the brain. The bar was nearly empty now and all the furniture lay broken on the floor. Alex could hardly move, but he knew it would only be a moment before the huge monster of a man would be on top of him again, and if he didn't manage to prevent that the man would surely kill him. Before he could finish the string of thoughts, the guy came flying upon him. By pure instinct, Alex managed to get his feet up in time so his boots hit the guy directly in his belly, knocking every last ounce of air out of him and sending him flying back towards the exit of the bar. Alex got up, grabbed a bottle and smashed it to the guy's head. He kicked the guy in the gut as the man lay on all four, then he finally threw him out of the bar into the street. Alex walked cool and slowly through the door while never taking his eyes off the man. The guy spat blood that hit the street with a dull splat and got up. He snared angrily when he saw Alex coming towards him and drew a knife from his boot. He motioned to throw the knife at Alex, and there could be no doubt he would hit and Alex would probably be thrown back from the impact, but Alex was quicker and before the knife was thrown he had drawn his gun and pulled the trigger. The man hit the wall on the opposite side of the street and left a wide trail of blood from the not unsubstantially large hole in his chest as he slid down to a sitting position and fell limply to his right.
   It was only then Alex started to feel the pain, but he held his composure and wiped blood away from his lips.

"Nice fight young man."

Alex turned around, still with his gun drawn. It was an old man standing before him, he was dressed in gray robes and his hair was almost like silver silk, but clearly thinning.

"Put down your gun, I mean you no harm. I come with a business proposition to you."

Alex holstered the gun, but didn't attach the safety cord to it. He was wary of fancy clothed men walking about without bodyguards in the slums; they were usually the trickiest bastards in space but also those that paid the best money.

"What do you want? I don't have a lot of time here, somebody will soon start to ask questions."
   "I know, that's why you're going to follow me. We'll talk business somewhere else, somewhere a little more private."

"Why should I follow you? I don't know you... you could be leading me into an ambush. For all I know you could be working with hole-in-one over there."

Alex nodded his head towards the corpse of the man he just fought moments ago, now lying in the street and leaving a tiny stream of blood running out in the gutter.

"Simple."

The old man replied...

"Money! I know your kind, you'll do practically anything for money and I'm willing to offer you a substantial amount of money for the job I have to offer you."

"Great, you lead the way and you pay for the drinks."

The old man led Alex through several small streets and alleys until they finally reached another bar in the district. This one was a bit more upscale, indicated by the waiter-bots with butterfly and cufflinks, but still not enough not to invite the more seedy parts of society. The décor was mainly red and gold, with paper lamps in the corners and small sections of wickerwork separating the tables. Holo-plants stood in various places, making the whole room seem more serene and helped making it easier to forget the type of clientele who frequented the place. The tables were short and square with small, backless stools around them. There used to be pillows on the stools to sit on, but they were either too worn out or had been stolen. The walls were decorated with streamers in red, gold and green colors, symbols were written down vertically on every streamer, giving the whole place a mystic, ancient look. There was a misty haze in the room and a subtle smell of herbal fumes made Alex feel a bit dizzy as it took him a few moments to get used to the place. A waiter-bot followed them to their table and took their order for drinks, it returned a few moments later with the glasses and a bottle then moved on to serve other customers. The old man opened the bottle and poured the clear liquid in one of the glasses, gave the glass to Alex then poured one for himself. They both emptied their glass in a single gulp, the old man refilled them and they both drank again. After the glasses had been filled for the third time, Alex spoke.

"So, old man. What is it you've brought me here for? I assume it isn't just for the drinks..."

"No, it isn't. I've brought you here to acquire your services to aid me in a small business venture."

"You speak like someone from one of the core worlds... are you an agent or maybe a bounty hunter?"

"Good lord no, I'm not either one of those things. I'm merely an independent merchant dealing in various exotic and wondrous things."

"What sort of wondrous things?" Alex raised a brow then took a sip from his drink.

"None that are important now. All I need is for you to deliver a small package for me, and I assume I can count on your discretion?"

The old man's hands were shaking a bit, but he tried to hide it by holding on to his glass. He looked at Alex, waiting for his answer.

"What's the package?"

"Merely a small canister, nothing that won't fit inside a big pocket. You should have no trouble transporting it.

"What's in the canister?"

"Do you always ask this many questions about a job? Do you really care about what's inside the package?

"Heh, no I don't. But I do care about being paid."

"Of course, of course. I'll pay you 5000 credits, and all of it in advance. All you need to do is to get the package delivered to the address on this piece of paper and avoid any unnecessary interference. Will you do it?"

The man slid a piece of paper over to Alex who picked it up and quickly read it. When he looked up again, the old man had put a small bag next to the table on the side closest to the wall.

"Its all in advance?" Alex looked suspiciously at the other man

"Yes, all in advance and all you have to do is to deliver the package to that address, no strings attached and no paperwork. I trust you on your word."

"Either you are very stupid, or very powerful... but I'll do it, and you can trust me on my word that I will get the package delivered."

"Excellent, I knew I could count on you. Here's the package, I trust it will remain unopened?"

The man reached inside his robe and pulled out a small canister. It was about 30 centimeters long, made from an alloy of meteoric iron that had a slightly green tint to it. It was contained within a black, metal casing that prevented it from being touched when grabbed but was still open on the sides. The lid was black as well, with a small, digital display on the top, which kept showing different sets of numbers that changed regularly in a seemingly random pattern. The whole thing emitted a slight buzzing sound as if it was electrically charged.
   Alex took it when the man reached it over to him; he held it up as if studying it then put it inside his coat. He looked back over at the old man who was gathering his stuff, took a final sip from his cup, then stood up and left the bar. Alex sat calmly for a while, finishing his drink... after all, it was paid for, why leave it...
   He got up a little while later and left the bar. He met with Cal at a less-than reputable space-hull dealership. Cal was trying to buy some theguilian ion rods, but the dealer was first-degree moron; a four-legged green glob with his neck in the middle of the back and a pair of arms sticking out from what seemed like the front. They were arguing in trade-tongue about the price and the leather bag with the tips of four ion rods sticking out from one end lay on the table. Even though these particular ion rods were illegal in most of the galaxy, the dealer made no attempt in hiding them; or he simply was as stupid as he looked with the dull, slow eyes and the drooping mouth that revealed the incapacity to observe even minor details any quicker than a very young child. What the creature lacked in cognitive sense, he more than made up for in stubbornness as it was seemingly impossible for Cal to reach a price that was reasonable and when Alex put a hand on his shoulder he had to settle for the outrageous price the dealer asked for the rods to begin with.
   When they left the shop, Cal muttered something about not being able to find another dealer with theguilian ion rods in less than 3 hours anyway, and with their reputation they had better leave quickly enough as it already were; bounty hunters were generally not well-liked even among the scum of the galaxy.


3
   After they had left the spaceport, they plotted the course from the directions Alex got from the old man at the bar. It was not too far away; they expected to be there in a few days. Alex spent the time as usual by cleaning up after Cal and training to keep in shape, those cheeseburgers Cal made were usually even greasier than he was after a day of working on the engine and Alex needed to stay in shape for the hunts. The canister was kept locked up in a small, secret compartment in Alex's room where he used to keep his various sorts of liquor safely away from Cal, who liked big smokes and booze... both in large quantities.
   As they passed through the Vilusian Nebula, Cal came down to Alex who was watching the sixth tape of his new anime series. Cal's limp was heard clearly throughout The Fury, it sounded bad.

"Fix your leg, it's too loud again," Alex shouted over the sounds of the TV.

"Hurry up Alex, there are someone inside the nebula... might be marauders."

"Oh fuck, that's just what we need right now... fucking marauders."

Alex got up from the couch and followed Cal to the cockpit where a blue light was blinking solemnly in the darkness, and before them, through the window they could see the purple gas clouds with silver twinkles as they silently sailed through the nebula. The cockpit was cramped and to people not used to it, it gave a remarkable claustrophobic feeling. The dashboards and consoles were dark gray, matching the two leather seats in their used-look, and a pair of dirty, old fuzzy dice hung from a nail in the ceiling.

"Show me," Alex said as he walked up to the leather seat in the front. He sat down in the seat while Cal walked over to a console and started punching in commands. A light lit up the window in front of Alex, making the clouds seem to glow faintly with sickly shades of green, a blue circle appeared on the window and started searching seemingly at random throughout the nebula. The circle moved towards the upper corner, Cal turned to stand next to Alex and pointed at the circle.

"Look," Cal said as the circle moved upwards to reveal faint outlines of a dark shape deep within the cloud.

"What is it Cal? Marauders?"

"I don't know, but it is common for marauders to hide within space clouds and dust belts and wait for potential prey to fly by."

"Damn! I have heard stories about marauders, but I didn't know they would travel this far out from their territories. We're only a few clicks from the core worlds, they never come this close so what the fuck are they doing here?"

"Calm down Alex. We don't know if its marauders yet. Maybe it is a ship in need of help, maybe their ion drive failed and they're stuck without any ways of communicating their distress to nearby ships... or maybe it is a huge vacuum spirit."

"Yeah, in which case we should be going the other way anyway. Come on Cal, I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Me too, but ya' don't see me all cryin' about it. Besides, we need to drop off the package as quick as possible, and this is the fastest route we can take."

Alex sighed, but before he could say anything, the screen lit up and the circle turned crimson red as it locked on to an ominously looking ship that was slowly moving towards them from the cloud. Although the ship was a fairly old model, it was sleek, dark and had a shape that made the two bounty hunters shudder, even if they did not realize what had happened until later. The menacing feeling that they both had, might also have been caused by the fact that the ship was many times bigger than the Fury, and that the indicator on the screen in front of them said that the ship had locked its front weapons on their energy signature. Cal and Alex hurried to their seats. While Cal would handle the steering, Alex handled the guns and energy-flow from the ion drive to the various sections of the cockpit. They were both intimately familiar with their part of the ship and instantly began to function as if they were in perfect synchronization with each other.
   The dark ship slowly continued towards them as they began the defense procedures, and while they feverishly got the weapons systems online the dark ship came to a halt just in front of them. They could see the dark windows of the ship but not who was behind them, and instead of firing, the ship just stayed in front of them with the menacing shape of its design and the dark windows scowling down on them.

"What're they doing Cal?"

"Dunno, waitin' I guess."

"For what?"

"Dunno, maybe they're trying to scare us. Marauders like to scare their prey."

"Well, it ain't working on me. I'm gonna give 'em hell before they'll ever scare me."

"Don't do anything stupid Alex, you know they've got the upper hand... I mean... look at the size of that thing."

"Yeah, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall, all it takes is a precisely aimed shot and the big bird goes down."
   "Is that your plan? Bore me to death with bad proverbs? Think I might prefer the marauders instead."

"Shut up Cal, I'm trying to calculate the trajectory to the plasma weapons chamber without the factors of the flux energy shield."

"We don't have time for this Alex, any time they see us powering up they'll fire, and I'm not sure they'll just use a magne-beam if we piss them off first."

"All the more reason to do it... I'm not letting them catch me... alive."

"I hate it when you say that... Fuck, they're charging the guns, we need to get outta here now!"

"Fuck, evasion... now."

A yellow beam of light began to gather from the muzzle of the other ship's guns, and while Cal and Alex started their evasion maneuvers, the other ship fired at them. The beam hit the side of the ship and tore a big hole in the hull. Cal tried frantically to keep the ship under control; he pulled at the guidance controls while punching in commands for keeping the balance of the ship that was rapidly falling apart. An alarm bell sounded and the evacuation message started, but quickly died again as Cal tore out the wires that linked it to the power supply. Meanwhile, Alex kept his cool and actually seemed quite untouched by the whole situation. He was intensely focused and never kept his eyes off the other ship. Slowly, he moved a small stick and the targeting circle on the screen followed every movement he made, until finally it turned crimson red again and focused on a small area of the enemy ship to the side and back. While Cal was screaming for Alex to focus on the current situation instead of the other ship and help him bring the Fury down in as big a piece as possible, Alex calmly removed the safety switch and pressed the button that fired the only weapon they had on the ship. The blue beam hit with deadly precision, but apparently only caused some minor damage on the huge ship, and while the Fury fell faster and faster towards the nearest planet, the other ship stayed in place, like an arrogant fighter just watching his weak opponent go down without ever putting up any real threat or fight.
   The crash was quick and left the Fury in a state of complete and utter destruction. Slowly and painfully, Alex and Cal crawled out from under the wreck. Alex had bruises all over his body and blood ran down from a deep gash in his forehead, almost blinding him on the left eye. Cal did not bleed as profusely as Alex, but instead, small electric sparks kept surging up and down one leg and the other, the bad one, was letting steam out in a cone much larger and more dense than anything he had experienced before, additionally, he also had several bruises around his right eye, which revealed some of the cybernetics behind the skin, and a tiny hatch was open in the back of his head, revealing a small lock about the size of a small coin which lead to his brain enhancement. They both got up and looked in silent sadness on the wreckage.
   "Oh shit," Alex startled, "what about the package? We gotta find the package, Cal, help me look for it."
   He dived into the broken hull of the Fury in a frantic search for the small canister, hoping and praying that it was undamaged so they could finally get just this one job right. After a futile moment of searching, he stopped and looked at Cal who was standing quiet looking at him, while carefully closing the hatch in the back of his head.
   "whadda'ya doin' man? Get down 'ere an' help me find it."
   The excitement made Alex talk even faster than usual, but still Cal didn't move. Alex got back up on his feet and started walking angrily towards Cal, the big cyborg didn't move and just slowly reached behind him and pulled out the canister from his back pocket, where he had kept it the whole time. When Alex saw the canister, he broke into a relieved smile and instead of pounding the big man in the head as he had initially planned; he gave Cal a big hug. He stopped only after it had already gotten awkward and Cal tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention on something.
   Alex released from the hug and looked at the sky where Cal pointed. They both saw the ship coming down from the clouds. It wasn't the big one that had blasted the Fury apart, but there were no doubt in their minds that the one above them came from that ship and were headed directly for them. As one they both dived for their weapons in the wreckage and hurried aside to hide in the tall grass.
   The ship came down only a few yards away from them. It was only a small landing craft, but it still had the menacing look of the big ship, resembling an aggressive insect, sleek, deadly and ready to strike without any warning. The dry sand and dirt blew away in the winds created by the exhaust of the ship as it slowly came down to the ground. Faint thrusters kept it hovering at a meter above the ground, and a ramp opened in the back. Alex and Cal kept their heads down, but without ever taking their eyes off the craft, while trying to be as invisible as possible with itchy grass sticking in their wounds and Cal's leg emitting a puff of smoke every now and again. They watched as the ramp touched the ground and the ship came to a steady halt, and while both men held their breaths, the sound of boots stomping on metal could be heard from the dark within the ship. At first they saw a single man walking slowly down the ramp, but soon more followed. Six in total walked off the ship, all visibly armed with rifles but otherwise indistinct at that distance. The faint light of the weak, white sun reflected in their dark armor and the boots made heavy, metallic noises whenever they hit the ramp. The men walked down the ramp and turned towards the still-smoking Fury. They had pale skin, even more so than usual for people who spends the better part of their lives in the cold vastness of space, and were quite muscular despite clear signs of skin erosion from prolonged exposure to ion-rusted steel. The blood veins were clearly visible on their skin, like electric-blue strings stretched thin on top of the pale white, only rarely would a faint trace of red be seen as an afterglow of what once ran through these veins, but other than that the skin looked as if it had been dead for many years. As they slowly, warily closed in on the Fury, Alex and Cal could see their faces... they had metal spikes and tattoos all over their faces, but only the one or the other, and the tattoos seemed to have some sort of meaning to them, almost like grad signs or ranks within their society. Those with the tattoos showed signs of long-term piercings now removed, and those without tattoos had piercings everywhere on their faces.
   They started looking through the remains of the ship, moving small pieces with the nose of their guns, none of them appeared to have noticed the two men hiding just a few meters away in the hills of the crater.
   Alex and Cal exchanged looks between each other, and as if a plan had formed mentally between them they started moving in opposite directions, out of sight of the marauders and in a circle around them. Cal moved clear of the wreck, while Alex moved slowly, silently, deadly around to the other side. Alex had drawn the one of his two guns, always by his side, and while moving, he turned on the fusion propeller reactor installed in the grip of the gun to make the velocity of the bullets even faster and more lethal than normal. He hoped it would be enough to penetrate the armor of the men now scavenging his ship, most likely for the canister Cal had with him. There was no guarantee he could hit them in the head at this range, and he would most likely only have time to get a decent aim at one of them before all hell would break loose.
   Many thoughts and strategies went through Alex's head while he circled around the marauders. Meanwhile, Cal lay silent on the ground, waiting for Alex to get in position. This was one of the few situations when his CPU was silent. No mathematical calculations ran through his circuits, no philosophical discussions or theories being developed, even the voice of the thesis on interstellar angels had quieted down in his mind. There was only waiting... waiting for battle... the inevitable fight for survival, the taking of the lives of other people, and he didn't mind that at all. He had managed to salvage a rifle from the wreck before the arrival of the marauders, and now he had brought it in position to take out the first marauder the second Alex gave the signal. He didn't open up for the scope yet, or someone might see the reflecting of the sun in the glass, giving them an unnecessary warning before Alex was ready. When outnumbered and outgunned, it was essential to winning a battle to have the element of surprise. Some great philosopher once said something like that on a distant planet, but Cal couldn't quite remember the details, only that the name was something like a sun and that the philosopher talked a lot about war. His memory wasn't that detailed on prehistoric backwater planets somewhere on the outskirts of the universe, but he had meant to freshen up on that sometime soon.
   Instinctively, Cal opened the scope and took aim, as Alex appeared directly across from him on top of a hill.
   "Hi there," Alex said in a frisky tone of voice. He stood on the hill with one gun in his hand hanging casually by his leg; the other still in its holster, but his left hand was not far from it. His small ponytail had come loose during the crash so his hair was now flowing freely in the wind in synchronized waves with his long coat. His eyes were piercing and observant, even though he smiled and put on a face of playfulness, he was tense and ready for combat.
   "What are you guys doing here on this rock anyway? I hear the food here isn't much of an attraction. Me? I'm just here for the beautiful scenery, maybe get a tan or something... from the looks of it, I'd say you could use some time in the sun as well."
   Carefully he eyed his opponents. They were all armed with high-powered pulse rifles; though old and worn, they were still extremely dangerous and quite unstable.

"You will give us the package and we will make your death swift and painless."

The one who spoke was big and had tattoos everywhere on his face. He had a row of small holes in his bald head where metal gleamed like something was meant to screw into it, almost like a metal cock's comb.
   "Refuse, and we will make your death legendary across the galaxy".

"Uh, I tremble with fear," Alex played it cocky, and Cal shook his head in disbelief over the time it took.

"Then so be it. Men! Bring me that canister from his smoking corpse."

"So I guess we're done being friendly now?" Alex drew the other gun.

The first shot was fired and one of the marauders fell to the ground, a deep wound in his throat let out massive amounts of blood. He rattled for a short moment while clutching a hand to the wound, then lay still forever. Cal cocked the rifle again. Alex fired both guns at the leader, but only managed to scratch the surface of the armor, though the impact forced the leader to take a few steps back. He grunted, then smiled and showed off his copper-green teeth. A moment of realization fell upon Alex as it dawned on him that his bullets couldn't penetrate the armor of these guys. The bullets that could stop an imperial tank couldn't even make a tiny hole in that armor. The sound of a pulse rifle being fired snapped Alex back out from his thoughts and he dived for cover, but the shot still found home in his right shoulder and he felt the sharp pain as he spun around and landed on the dusty ground.
   Cal had stood up and now fired several shots in rapid succession, each of them flew true and felled three marauders before their comrades had even realized they were down. The leader remained, and with his two remaining men turned to bear their rifles on Cal. The pulse rifles blasted holes in the hills as the rounds exploded inside what ever they hit. Several of them nicked the sides of Cal's body and head now revealing more of the metal plating that covered his entire skeleton and protected the fragile circuitry. The marauders had him pinned behind the hill, and just when he turned to look over it and fire again, he faced right into a boot that kicked him squarely in the face and sent him flying to the ground. He was instantly knocked unconscious by the extremely lucky fact that the metal plates on the marauder's boots had kicked so hard into his already softened skull, as to activate his emergency panic button that was used to shut down his entire system in case of extreme levels of pain. As the adrenaline released by the shutdown rushed through his body, Cal was blissfully unaware of the fact that the marauders had taken the canister from his belt pouch.
   The marauders went back to their ship, but not before they had picked up their fallen comrades... not to bury them or mourn the loss, but to strip them of all their belongings and probably eat the meat as well. The leader was carrying two men by himself, one was carrying the remaining marauder and the last was holding the canister.
   Suddenly, a gun was fired from across the crater and the canister flew from the marauder's hand. Alex stood on top of the hill with one arm bleeding heavily and a smoking gun in the other.

"I believe that does not belong to you, please leave it here. I'm not going to ask politely again."

"Get that thing you cretin, we must bring the Singularity back to the Magister or he'll have our hides," the leader yelled, dropped the bodies and drew his rifle.
   The two marauders followed their leader's example and fired their rifles at Alex, who quickly dived for cover again. This time though there was no Cal to give him cover fire, instead two marauders covered the last one, while he went and picked up the canister. They dragged the bodies back to the ship and only one of the shots Alex fired managed to find its mark. The bullet hit the leader and took off his hand clean in an explosion of blood, bones and soft tissue with a slight hint of infected pus as well.
   The ship took off, and Alex hurried over to where Cal lay, his system had managed to bring him back to consciousness, but he was still not able to stand up.

"What happened Alex?"

"They took off with the payed job."

"So what do we do now?"

"I guess we'll just have to do what we were paid to do, go and get the canister back."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that..."