Ben and Streek: Clone Saga Ch. 08

"I'm just borrowing it from a friend. We're coming into range."

The Clubber Lang came up on the ship and started firing its' balls of blue plasma, weakening the ships' shields further. Some of the laser cannons shot at the Lang, but the large laser turret still blasted away at the swooping Hornet.

"Whoo, this is fun!" said Ben-Two as he made another pass, firing on the ships' shields.

"Their shields are getting very low Captain. Ours are at eighty two percent." said Ben-Five.

"Ben-Two, reduce power to your lasers, target their turret first."

"Aye Captain. Ready to do some real damage."

"Their shields are at three percent, ...two, ...one, ...they're down!" said Ben-Five.

"Target their weapon systems, Fire!" said Bernie.

The Clubber Lang and the Hornet fired on the ship again, this time they smashed the ship itself, causing great damage. The large laser turret exploded as the Hornet made another pass and hit it with a volley of green laser blasts.

The Clubber Lang took out the other laser cannons, one after another. "Now target their engines," said Bernie. The thrusters at the rear of the ship were destroyed and the ship was dead in space.

"We've got a hail Captain. He wants to talk to you."

"I suspect he would. Open it."

The face of a middle-aged Asian man appeared on the screen. "Whoever you are, you've made a huge mistake attacking me. Skylar will have your heads. If I were you, I'd turn tail and run and never stop. You're fucked! You hear me?!"

"Mr. Chong I presume? I'm Captain Bernadette Anders of the Clubber Lang."

"Are you a Pirate Bitch? you should know I'm a close associate of Skylar. You'll pay dearly for this!"

"No, I'm not a Pirate. I understand you bought a very special item recently from my ...brother. I want you to tell me where it is."

"Anders. I thought I recognised the name. Look, I bought that item fair and square. It's not my fault your brother didn't charge me its full value. As I understand it, he was desperate to get rid of it. The Feds were coming after him hard."

"I don't care about that. I just want to know where it is."

"I sold it to the Pirate Alliance you dumb Bitch!"

"Be more specific. Where is it being held?"

"How the hell would I know?"

"You're a smart business-man, I bet you make it your business to know these things. Now tell me what I want to know or we'll blast you to the next system."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I really don't know. Say, that's an impressive fighter you got there. We hit it with everything we had. What the hell kind of shields does it have? If you can get me the plans for it, I can make you very, very rich Captain Anders. I'm the man to go to when dealing with Alien Tech. I can put this little incident behind us and we can be business partners. What do you say?"

"I say you have ten seconds before we turn you and your ship to dust."

"Look, I told you..."

"Ten, ...nine, ...eight..."

"You think I'm scared bitch?"

"five, ...four, ...three..."

"Okay, Okay, Fuck you! I'll transfer a file over to you with the details of the Pods' location. But if you're thinking of going there after it, you're fucked. You'll be blasted before you get close. Even with that fancy little fighter you got."

"We've got the file Captain." said Ben-Four. "It appears to be legit. There was a virus with it, but we fragged it, no problem."

"There, you've got what you want. Now go off and get sent straight to hell, you fuckin' Slut!"

"Thank you Mr. Chong, but we're not done yet. I heard you killed a couple of Resistance Operatives. ...You shouldn't have done that!" She closed the channel and then took a deep breath. "Resume firing on the ship. Destroy it!"

"Aye Captain." said Ben-Four.

"Aye Captain." said Ben-Two over the comm. The Hornet came around and let off a barrage of powerful laser blasts. The Clubber Lang shot a volley of plasma shots at the ship.

The large ship was engulfed in a huge explosion and debris scattered everywhere. "Any sign of an escape pod?" asked Bernie.

"Negative Captain."

"Ben-Two how are you doing there?"

"Peachy Captain. That was fun, can we do that again?"

"Watch out for debris, and stand by. I'm setting a coarse for Verona."

********

Streek, Mia and Zac walked through the streets of Keyser City. They had been shopping and bought some skimpy dancing costumes that they were wearing under their jump-suits. Mia and Streek also had their hair braided.

Streek had never really enjoyed shopping before, but it was a lot of fun with Mia, even in this dingy, Pirate infested City.

"So, is Keyser City like you imagined it would be Streek?" asked Mia.

"Pretty much, it's kinda trashy. It's sorta like the Undercity, but on the surface."

"There's richer suburbs, home of the more successful criminals. But the whole place stinks of Pirates."

They heard a couple of gun-shots off in the distance. Zac was eating some meat skewered on a stick, "You sure you girls don't want some, this is tasty."

"Do you even know what kind of meat that is?" said Mia.

"Sure, it's lamb, ...I think."

"It's probably rat, there's plenty of them about." Zac looked at the meat and then shrugged and took another bite.

"Is the Van Halen going to be all right?" asked Streek.

"Yeah, we paid the Dock-Master enough to ensure he takes good care of it." said Mia.

"I've integrated some pretty good automated defences into it anyway." said Zac. "If anyone messes with her, they'll wish they hadn't."

They walked on for a bit. The neighbourhoods were rough and run-down. A young boy, walking in the opposite direction bumped into Mia. "Sorry." he said as he pushed past.

Mia grabbed hold of him by the back of his jacket before he got out of reach. "Hey, What are you doing? Let go of me lady!" He looked to be around seven or eight and had dark, medium length hair.

Mia held her hand out to him. "What? What do you want? Fuck off! Leave me alone!" Mia sighed and then reached into her pocket and pulled out a couple of twenty dollar credit slips.

"Do you have a TAB I can buy off you?" she asked. The boy looked at her warily, and then snatched the slips. He slowly pulled Mias' TAB from his pocket and handed it back to her. "You should be in school." said Mia. She let him go and he scampered off.

"Why did you give him the slips?" asked Streek.

"He'll probably get a beating if he returns to his guardian empty handed. That's the way it is around here."

Mia looked at her TAB and pointed across the street at a four storey office building. "That's the place."

"I'll be close by if you need me." said Zac. "Good luck in there girls." Mia nodded and then entered the building, Streek followed close behind.

There was a fat, middle-aged woman sitting behind a desk when they entered, she didn't seem to pay them much attention. Mia and Streek approached her "We're here for the audition," said Mia. "We're dancers."

The woman looked up at her and then nodded to a door, "Go on through luv."

They moved toward the door, "You nervous Streek?"

"Yeah, can you tell?"

"You'll be fine, just do it like we practiced, and let me do the talking."

They went through the door. There was a large, open room behind it with a desk in the middle and a couple of men sitting behind it talking to each other, they stopped talking and looked at the girls.

"Who are you?" asked a rough looking, fat, balding man.

"I'm Julie Winfield and this is Veronica Vega, we're here to audition."

"Dressed like that?"

"Give us a second." Mia and Streek both unzipped their jump-suits and stepped out of them, leaving their guns and TABs in with the clothing.

Their costumes consisted of flashy golden braziers and golden arm bands and a golden G-string with red silk cloth coming down at the front. They showed a lot of skin. The men whistled in appreciation.

Streek could feel their eyes leering over her half naked body. "The brunette has a nice set of tits, and the red-head is really fit." he said to the other man.

"Come here in front of us so we can get a good look at you. I'm Romm and this is Marty. Where are you girls from?"

"New Heidi, but we travel around a lot." said Mia, coming forward.

When they were standing in front of them Marty said "All right, stand still for us now." He pointed a black device at them and lines of light swept through them as they were scanned.

"What is that for?" asked Streek.

"Just a precaution." said the man. Streek got worried that they would be able to see that she was a clone, but the men didn't seem surprised by the scan.

"Okay, let's see you dance then," said Romm. "Any particular music you want?"

"Just any dance music will do." said Mia. Romm pressed at his TAB and some crappy electronic dance music started up.

The girls started their dance routine, Streek was watching Mia and was a little stiff at first but she soon eased into it. Mia was a good teacher and the routine they developed wasn't too showy or difficult.

Pretty soon they had finished. Romm stood up from his chair and gave a half-hearted clap. "Pretty hot." he said, as he walked around to them. "Those are some nice tits." He moved his hands toward Streeks' chest.

"Hey!" she said, stepping back away from him.

"Look, but don't touch!" snapped Mia.

Romm gave them a lop-sided smile. "This gig is for a very important person. I'm sure you're aware how well it pays. I got scores of bitches just like you, lining up for this gig. I wanna know how much you want it."

Both girls were quiet, Mia gave him an intense stare. "Which one of you is better at sucking cock?" asked Romm, rubbing his groin.

"Fuck off!" said Mia angrily. "We're dancers, not whores!"

"All women are whores, some are just more difficult about it!"

"Come on Veronica, we're out of here. Thanks for wasting our time Ass-hole." They went over and started pulling on their jump-suits again.

"Heh, you can't blame a guy for trying," said Romm. "Truth is, you girls seem a lot more classy then some of the slutty trash we've been gettin'. You got the job, see my wife out there for the details. And just so you know, you get five times as much if you decide to do a little whoring, not bad for a nights work eh? Think about it."

Mia looked at Streek and smiled, they were in.

********

The Clubber Lang dropped out of hyper-warp into the Verona system. Seconds later the Hornet appeared as well.

"Now I see the down side to volunteering to fly this thing." said Ben-Two over the comm. "It's pretty damn cramped for long space travel, and I don't care much for the toilet facilities."

"You gotta take the bad with the good." said Bernie. "Stay in formation as we head to the planet."

"Aye Captain Balboa."

They started heading toward the planet Verona. Soon Ben-Two came over the comm again. "Captain, I'm picking up something on long-range radar."

"So am I," said Ben-Five next to her in the cock-pit, "Five ...no six space-craft on an intercept coarse."

"Shit! What brought them on to us so fast?" said Bernie.

"Oh shit! It's a virus!" said Ben-Four behind her. "Chong sent over two of them, one we were supposed to find, the other was way more sophisticated and fuckin' good at staying hidden. It's been broadcasting our location and announcing us as enemies."

"That sneaky Bastard!" said Bernie. "I should have been more careful, Fuck! We don't have time to make another jump. Go to red alert, full power to shields. Continue heading toward the planet, full speed."

"That takes us toward them."

"Yeah, but making it to the planet is our best hope."

"I can go ahead of you Captain, try to draw them away." said Ben-Two.

"No, stay with us. Be ready to engage them."

They continued speeding ahead toward the Planet. Bernie watched as the ships approached on the radar, they were three medium-sized gun-ships and three modified Federation Dart fighters. They lacked any Identifiers, they had to be Pirates.

"We're coming into range." said Ben-Four.

"Target the Darts and fire at will." ordered Bernie. Laser fire started lancing through space toward them and Bernie moved the Lang about, flying evasively.

Plasma and Laser fire returned from the Clubber Lang and Hornet. The ships got larger and larger on the view screen, and bright lines of laser-fire filled the screen, a lot of it being absorbed by the ships' shields.

"Shields below seventy percent." Their laser fire was concentrated on one of the Darts and it exploded as the ships zoomed past each other.

"That's one down." said Bernie.

"Our shields are at sixty-four percent Captain. The Pirates are coming about and are in pursuit."

"Of coarse they fuckin' are. Ben-Two, split off from us and see if any of them follow you. If not, get behind them and give them hell."

"Aye, Captain."

The Hornet flew away from the Clubber Lang and then the two remaining Darts went after it. The three Pirate Gun-ships continued going after the Lang. They were fast, and soon they were in range and started firing on her again.

Bernie started flying evasively again, but lasers were slowly wearing the shields down.

The Planet Verona was looming ahead of them, it grew larger and larger until it filled the view screen. "We're entering the atmosphere, shields at thirty-two percent."

"Drakk, were in big trouble here. Our best bet is to try and make it to the surface."

The Lang zoomed down through some clouds as lasers continued to strike it from behind. A green continent grew larger in front of them, soon they were able to make out geographical features on it.

"Shields are down below ten percent Captain." Bernies' heart was racing. She flew the Lang more erratically, trying desperately to avoid the laser fire, but the Clubber Lang was never a very agile ship.

"I'm picking up the Hornet again, he seems to have taken care of the Darts and is coming up on the gun-ships. Shields at five percent."

The Hornet swooped in, firing at one of the gun-ships. It's turrets swivelled around and started firing on the small fighter. The other two continued firing at the Lang.

A loud alert sounded in the Clubber Langs' cockpit, accompanied with a flashing red light. The shields were down. Then the ship shook violently as laser-fire smashed into the hull. By now the land was getting very close in front of them, it looked like green hills and light tree cover.

"Our thrusters have taken a hit, they're losing power!" said Ben-Four in a shaky voice.

"All hands, brace for a crash landing. Ben-Two, get out of here, there's nothing more you can do for us. You can't let them get a hold of the Hornet."

"I'm not gunna desert you Captain."

"I'm ordering you to retreat. Go!" She struggled with the unresponsive controls to bring the Lang parallel to the ground. The attackers stopped firing, the ship was already done for.

Black smoke trailed out from the wounded ship as it loomed closer to the ground. Bernie struggled with the controls as the ground came rushing up and the ship crashed hard.

There was a deafening roar and the whole ship shook violently. Bernie was thrown around as the ship slid along the ground at high speed, kicking up tonnes of dirt and debris. It crashed through some trees, smashing them and throwing them in all directions as it slowly came to a stop.

Bernie had been knocked unconscious in the crash, but slowly came around. Her body was awash with pain. She could hear one of the other Bens moaning and could smell smoke.

She slowly got up from the floor, debris was scattered everywhere. She moved over to a Ben clone near her. "Ben, are you okay? can you hear me?"

"Aaargh!, ...unnnn! ...I think my leg's broken."

"Come on, we gotta get out of here."

She put his arm around her shoulder and struggled to lift him. Another Ben slowly got up off the floor. "Give me a hand with him, will you?!" she said to him. They managed to help him out of the cockpit and exited the crashed ship through an emergency door.

As they limped out of the smouldering wreck, a group of men ran up to them with rifles pointed at them. One of the Pirate ships had already landed nearby. "Let go of him." they yelled.

"We need to get away from the ship, it could blow." said Bernie.

"I said put him down Bitch!" Bernie gently let the Ben down onto the ground. A couple of the men came and picked him up and carried him off. They kept the rifles pointed at Bernie and the other Ben and then cuffed their hands behind their back and forced them to limp off with them.

They got the other Ben clones out, and had all five of them lined up on the grass, amongst the fallen trees. They were all battered and bruised, on their knees with their hands cuffed behind their back.

Lots of rough looking men in mis-matched armour were standing around them with rifles. Ben-Five was lying on his back, grimacing in pain as his broken leg began repairing itself.

They could see the wreck of the Clubber Lang nearby, black smoke still rising from it, but it didn't explode. "I'm sorry guys, I let you down." said Bernie sadly.

A man came up to them, he looked to be in his forties with short black hair and beard. A younger, skinny man with long, dark hair and glasses was walking with him.

The bearded man looked them all over. "Clones." he said bitterly. "I heard you clones were tough. Our clone army will have the Federation shitting their blue pants."

His eyes lingered on Bernie and she met his gaze. "So, you're the ones who killed Chong. Looks like he got the better of you after all. heh, heh. Will the real Ben Anders please stand up." None of them moved.

Finally Bernie said, "He's not here. Who are you?"

The other skinny guy was staring hard at each of them through his glasses, "She's right Commander, they're all clones."

The Pirate looked at Bernie again, "I'm Commander Kahn, of the Piranha Faction. So, was Anders in that fighter then?"

"No, he's dead."

"Then which one of you is the leader?"

"I am. Captain Bernadette Anders, of the Fuck-You Faction."

"You?, I figured you were their fuck-toy. Why would you losers go and make the girl your Captain?"

"She could kick your ass!" said Ben-Three. Kahn stepped forward and punched him in the face.

Commander Kahn looked at Bernie again, "We've been looking for the Clubber Lang, and then you come and bring it right to us. Very nice of you Captain. Where's the book?"

"What book would that be?"

Kahn punched her in the head, knocking her to the ground. Another Pirate lifted her back to her knees again. "Don't play games with me Bitch, where is it?"

"I burnt it. You Pirates wouldn't like it anyway, it doesn't have any colour-in pictures or dot-to-dots."

Kahn punched her again, "Very fuckin' amusing."

He slowly walked in front of them, looking them over again. "It doesn't matter, Anders knew how to use the Cloning Pod, and that means you lot do too. One of you is going to work for us, operating the Pod. The rest will get an unpleasant death. Do I have a volunteer? Who wants to live?"

He looked each of them over and they stayed silent. He looked at Bernie again, "How about you sweet-heart?"

"Yeah, okay, I'll do it, but only if you leave my crew unharmed."

"You're not in any position to dictate terms to me."

"Think about it Ass-hole. If you hold them hostage, I'll have to do whatever you say."

"No, whoever it is, will do what we say anyway. We only need one of you. We already have some fun plans for the rest, heh heh heh!. Come on, let's get them out of here."

Bernie and the other clones were dragged off to the ship. They were locked in a small room with benches lining each wall, a couple of Pirate guards got in there with them.

One sat opposite Bernie, grinning at her. he was a rough looking man in his thirties with dark hair and stubble over his face. They felt the ship lifting off and start moving.