Project - Prometheus Ch. 38

"Fuck! Aesha, keep us covered!" Zuzanna cursed as she bolted over to check on the man. Aesha did as she was told while the doctor checked on him.

"Is he OK?"

"He's got a pulse! Help me with him!" Zuzanna ordered.

"You cover us. I'll carry him in!" Aesha said as she kneeled and scooped the man up. He was a bit shorter and thinner than Aesha was, making him easy to lift. Zuzanna's eyes popped for a moment at Aesha's impressive display of strength.

"Are all Artucian as strong as you?" the doctor asked as she led the way out of the alley.

"I am among the strongest of the women of my kind. Our men are much stronger," Aesha stated simply.

Impressed at how easily the Artucian woman carried the man, they made their way out of the alley and into the clinic. They walked in just as Callista came out of the back to report to her boss.

"Zuzie! Tohln just walked in... oh fuck! Is he still alive?" the woman asked as she rushed over to check on the deputy in Aesha's arms.

"We need to get him on a table and stich him up before he bleeds out!" Zuzanna stated.

"I don't know if we'll be able to save them both! Tohln just walked in, bleeding all over the place, trying to keep his intestines in!" Callista stated.

"God damn it! Who do we save and who do we let die?" Zuzanna huffed, not liking it when she had to make this decision.

"Take Harhnek and get him situated! I'll make a call for some help!" Aesha stated. ******************************

"Hey there Aesha! What's up?" Taal'ani asked as she took the incoming call. Words spilled out of the Artucian woman in a torrent. "Wait, what?? They did what?!?!?"

"Talon, what's the matter?" Inari questioned.

"Here, I'll put you on speaker. OK Aesha, everyone is listening. Tell them what you just told me," the Fel'caan woman stated. Aesha gave the story about what just happened at the clinic. As she was talking, Taal'ani's hands flew across the console, searching for eyes on the clinic. She found the feeds she was looking for and gasped at the sight on the holograms.

"Ladies, arm up and let's get going! We have some lives to save!" Inari commanded.

"Are you sure that going to the clinic is the best policy right now? It's a warzone out there!" Priya argued.

"You'd let innocent men die at the hands of gangers? Like Aesha said, they're in a triage situation! If we get there fast enough, all lives will be saved! Besides, these gangers might know something," Inari rebuffed.

Priya saw the look in her girlfriend's eye and knew that she was being honest with her. In a few seconds, Priya swallowed her pride, locked away the green-eyed monster of jealousy, and nodded in assent. With that, the pair of them rushed out of the bridge, with both Luminia and Jaesa in tow. They headed down to the armory and outfitted themselves with everything they could carry, save the battlesuits.

The battlesuits would have given them considerable protection against any attackers, but wearing them after an attack was like sending an invitation for another one. At least, that's how things worked on Prodosia. Jaesa outfitted herself with minimal weapons, as she herself was a living weapon with what she knew. Being an AI in an android body did have its benefits, the biggest of which was that she could hit as hard as a Sentry.

"Bravo squad, with me! Activate Hoplite mode! Confirm!" Inari called out, commandeering the platoon of Sentries. They all chimed an accept sound as they fell in and followed their commander out of the Darkstrider. The other three women were right behind her, marching at the same military pace Inari had set. They quickly cleared the entry gate, the guards there letting her pass without complaint.

"Seems like folks might be starting to respect us around here," Priya commented.

"It's more like we're packing too much firepower for them to bother accosting. I mean, would you want to fuck with us seeing us marching through like we are?" Inari questioned.

"I wouldn't!" Luminia laughed as they kept going.

"So, what we've done so far has done nothing, then?" Priya grumbled.

"Not at all! Us bringing what we have has at least given us enough leeway to where the folk will let us roam about, provided we don't cause any trouble," Inari replied.

"Well, something is better than nothing I guess!" the east Indian woman said out loud.

"It is! You ladies can hear me OK?" Taal'ani asked over their earbuds.

"Loud and clear, Talon! You got something for us?" Inari questioned.

"Indeed, I do! The attack on the clinic was led by none other than everyone's favorite asshole!" Taal'ani growled over the comms.

"You're kidding me?!? Sargol again??" Inari almost yelled.

"Looks like it. He didn't take any active part in the attack, though. From what I can see, he directed it. The moment Aesha and Zuzanna returned fire, he got out of there," Taal'ani responded.

"The fucking coward! Talon, make finding that son of a bitch your top priority! He is making life way too fucking difficult for us with all this damned chaos!!" Inari growled.

"Already on it, boss! More than happy to track this fucker down! Working on an algorithm to try to counter the cloaking tech he's got! I'll keep you posted!" Taal'ani reported.

"Happy to hear it!" Inari huffed as they continued their march.

"Oh, and I contacted Aesha before I called you, so they know you're coming. You should also know that Daved and a few more deputies are on their way to the clinic! They're just as concerned about what happened there and are checking on their friends," Taal'ani informed the group.

"Copy that. Find that bastard! Whatever it takes!" Inari commanded, and the line went dead.

The group continued their march into the town, the townsfolk automatically making a lane for them to pass. Inari appreciated this, happy that they were being accommodating that way. She also noted the looks that were thrown their way, and they were the kind that were reserved for dangerous beasts. Where you knew that something or someone you encountered was dangerous, but only to those who were their enemies.

Such dangerous entities were often treated with a measure of caution, as one never knew when said entity would turn on you. Inari huffed a bit, but figured it was better than the open hostility and disdain she had received the last time she was here. The group rounded a corner and saw the clinic, which was a right mess. They slowed their pace as they approached, seeing that Daved and several of his deputies were just arriving.

"Inari!" Daved called out. "You heard what happened?"

"Got the call right after it did! These fuckers are a bold lot!" she groused.

"Damn straight! Let's head inside. Though people are clearing out, you never know who might be listening," Daved stated.

Nodding, Inari followed the man, but not before tasking the Sentries to set up a proper perimeter and patrol sequence around the clinic. As she vanished inside, Jaesa sent an information packet to her fellow machines, giving them some additional repair protocols she'd been working on. Their eyes flashed a few times as they accepted and uploaded the program.

After the upload was complete, the Sentries began their patrol circuit. Several others who were idle started scooping up the shattered glass, piling it up neatly. Once it was piled, they began using their built in blowtorches to heat it up. It soon started to glow as they moved to keep it off the ground, keeping the melted glass heated as they stretched it. Inari saw this and cocked an eyebrow at Jaesa, who just winked.

They walked on inside the clinic, finding Aesha in the reception area with her weapons ready. She smiled at the arrival of her shipmates and directed them to the back, where Zuzanna and the rest of the staff waited. As they walked in, the nurses were bustling back and forth between the deputies and the gangers, trying to keep them all alive.

"Dr. Walczak? Where can I be of assistance?" Jaesa asked. Zuzanna's head popped up, and she sighed in relief and smiled.

"Help Callista with those gangers! I want you to keep them alive long enough for us to finish up with Harhnek and Tohln," the doctor stated.

Jaesa nodded and dipped into the programs she had uploaded to her cortex and assisted Callista. Within a few minutes, they had stabilized the one ganger, as he wasn't too critically injured. While the man was in a substantial amount of pain, they hopped him up on some painkillers. Mainly to keep him from screaming and distracting anyone from doing their work.

The others stood back and let the medical professionals do their work. They kept an eye on the gangers, mainly to ensure they didn't try any funny business. Once the second ganger was stabilized, they turned their attention to the deputies that were on the tables. They didn't know how long they waited, but it seemed like it was forever before Zuzanna stood up and sighed in relief.

"They'll make it. All of them," she stated as she walked away from the operating area, taking off her surgical gear.

"How long before we can start asking them questions?" Daved queried, ready to get to work.

"Your men, a few hours of recovery. The gang members? You can question them now if you like. Though Aesha shot them up pretty good, their wounds were less severe," Zuzanna told him.

"Good! They need to answer for the harm they caused my deputies and my friends!" the sheriff growled.

"Daved... while they are deplorable people, I still have my duties as a doctor. No roughing them up... while they are in my care. Once they leave my care, then it doesn't concern me," she said out loud with a smile.

Her voice carried well enough to where both gangers heard her perfectly. They looked at her, the sheriff, then at each other, fear etching their features. Daved smirked evilly, knowing full well what he would do to these two once they were out of here. The gangers gulped for a moment before opening their mouths to speak.

"What do you want to know?"

"Whoa! You're just going to talk? Voluntarily?" Inari questioned.

"I ain't getting roughed up or broken over a few credits! Not when I'm at the bottom of the barrel!" the first ganger replied. His compatriot nodded enthusiastically, not wanting to suffer such a fate himself.

"Right. Start talking! Why did you attack the clinic?!?" Daved growled, making his intent to hurt these men quite clear.

"Credits man! We were paid to attack this place! The dude even gave us some guns to make it happen, seeing as we didn't have enough guns to do it ourselves!" the second ganger stated.

"Yeah! The man gave us the bomb we needed to blow the glass too! We thought he was crazy with trying to blow glass that bullets couldn't dent! Once we saw it go, we got excited and ran in, looking to take whatever we wanted! Didn't expect to get shot up so fast!" the first man said.

"So, wait a sec! You did all of this, causing all of this damage and mayhem... just because you got paid??" Priya scoffed, thinking these boys were more than a little crazy. "You didn't ask questions about why?"

"When you live like we do, and some smarmy dude walks up to you, hands you a gun and a thousand credits, all just to shoot up a clinic, would you ask questions?" the second man asked.

"Fair point. Gents, keep an eye on these two and keep them isolated for now. Once they're well enough, escort them to the cells at the station," Daved ordered, sounding tired. His men nodded and hopped to, more than happy to watch over and intimidate these men.

"You all right, Daved?" Zuzanna asked as they walked to her office.

"Yeah. Just wracking my brain with how I'm going to bring Sargol in! The bastard has always gotten away from us, and I don't even know how the fuck he does it! He's at the center of all of the town's current woes, but I don't know the first step to finding him," Daved lamented as they all filed in.

"Well... I might have an idea to bring him in," Priya offered as she closed the door behind her.

"What do you have in mind?" Daved asked, seeming hopeful but feeling like it might be a rehash of an old idea.

"Zuzanna, can you open a channel to the Darkstrider? We have to bring Taal'ani into this conversation," Priya asked.

Zuzanna nodded and opened the channel, hailing the ship. Taal'ani picked up on the second ring and they spoke for a moment before she put Priya on. Priya spoke with Taal'ani for a few minutes and once Priya had obtained an agreement from the Fel'caan woman, she then put the call through on speaker.

"So, the idea I have, is to enlist the help of the citizens of the town to catch this fucker," Priya stated.

"But I already did that, by offering ten thousand credits for his head," Daved told them.

"That is a monetary gain, that anyone could decide to opt out of because they think it's not worth it. But if we tell them that this isn't just about money, but their very homes, then they'll find that rat fuck in no time at all!" Priya replied.

"And just what is this idea, babe?" Inari questioned.

"That we out Sargol and anyone assisting him as Confederate spies," Taal'ani said to them.

"Wait, what? He's a spy??" Zuzanna gasped. "I mean... as far as lies go, it's a bit of a stretch, but not utterly out of the question."

"We're pretty sure it's not a lie," Inari told her former girlfriend.

"What proof do you have?" the doctor queried.

Daved sighed and told Zuzanna of everything that had been discovered since the crew of the Darkstrider arrived. The gangers and corrupt deputies protecting Neurocaine dealers, the arrival of Neurocaine to the planet, all of it. Zuzanna was still a bit skeptical of this until she was shown how Sargol had literally vanished into thin air on camera. That little tidbit made her eyes pop in disbelief.

"Plus, look at these weapons," Inari stated as she brought out one of the machine pistols the gangers had been using. "This is a Braddock LB31, a machine pistol that you rarely see outside of the Confederacy. I only recognize it because this is built off of the more common LB29. Braddock Arms and Tech only has one client they supply arms and armor to; the Human Confederacy."

"Then you have to take into account the cloaking tech that he has at his disposal. Stuff like that doesn't come cheap. Word on the web from my contacts is that the

Confederacy has been rumored to have something like this in the works for a while! If they have a working prototype deployed here on Prodosia..." Taal'ani inferred.

"Fuck! I need to sit down!" Zuzanna huffed, feeling a bit faint. She sat on her lounger as she breathed deeply, keeping herself from passing out.

"Convinced?" Priya questioned, wondering if the futa woman was going to be OK.

"Yeah. I thought there might have been something like this happening, but I didn't want to believe it! The Neurocaine should have been the big tip off!" she growled.

"Why? What is so special about this... recreational drug?" Luminia asked.

"Neurocaine, while popular among various circles, is illegal in most civilized space. The drug, while getting you high, puts your body into such a state by drawing upon everything you have, internally. It perpetuates the high by fueling it from every nutrient your body can provide. If there are no nutrients to be had, then it starts cannibalizing anything in your body. Organs, muscle tissue, everything," Inari stated.

"Yeah! I heard it was originally manufactured as some sort of weight loss gimmick, but getting the body to reverse course when you were at a healthy weight was a steady problem," Priya stated.

"Exactly! When some underworld schlub decided to play around with the formula, that's how Neurocaine as we know it came to be. Most users take a weak dose, so they get the high without sacrificing their bodies in the process. Problem is, that the addiction and need for a greater high is cumulative. The drug fucks with your brain, making you believe you need more to survive. You don't, but your mind and body believe it, and that's enough to keep you hooked," Zuzanna finished.

"By the mother goddess! That sounds awful!!" Luminia shivered. "But how can you link this to the Confederacy?"

"Simple. The only place where Neurocaine isn't outlawed is in the Confederacy. They manufacture it quite liberally and aren't shy about trying to get anyone who visits the Confederacy, hooked on it," Inari groused.

"So, it came from there?" Luminia questioned.

"All signs point to it. Callista recently brought it to my attention that this stuff isn't being done up by some smuggler or pirate operation. The quality level is too high for it to have been made by a bunch of ragtag pirates looking for a quick score. The level of purity of the Neurocaine we've been seeing is easily lab quality, if not better," Zuzanna told them.

"It is difficult to make then?" the Artucian woman asked, wanting to know more about the dangers of this drug.

"Among the more difficult compounds to get right, yes. I used to see a lot of people come in for Neurocaine OD's back when I was working as a doctor for the Confederacy.

When I got here to Prodosia, the worst I'd seen was a Groal Rock OD, which is markedly easier to treat than a Neurocaine OD. Didn't expect this shit to find its way here," Zuzanna huffed.

"It's a lot to take in, Zuzie. I didn't think we'd be dealing with this shit when we got here, but it's here now. Better to get a handle on it than let it spiral out of control," Inari stated.

"She is right about that. The sooner you can get a solid grip on any situation is better than have it spiral. The moment that happens, you get a free for all on shit and people die unnecessarily," Taal'ani chirped.

"I... I need to alert my staff! About all of this!" Dr. Walczak stated.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Priya rebuffed, thinking shit would hit the fan if more people knew all the details.

"They need to know that shit could get real! They have families! Children!" Zuzanna argued.

"Do you still have them ready for a Pineapple situation?" Inari wondered.

"Pineapple?" Daved asked.

"It's something that those of us who have served, sometimes do. If things are getting bad in your life and you need help, protection, whatever to get out of any situation, you come up with a codeword to say it. The codeword has to be innocent enough to avoid suspicion from anyone who might hear you say it, or read it from any device," Priya explained, having such a protocol in place with her girlfriend and family.

"Once confirmed, everyone involved knows to go to ground and meet at an agreed upon place. Or to stay down and out of sight until the one they need help from arrives. From there, things are figured out and everyone proceeds onward, to deal with the situation at hand," Inari finished.

"Yeah, I'm still doing that. You want me to have that ready just in case then?" Zuzanna asked, seeing this as an agreeable compromise.

"Please! We don't want you and yours getting hurt needlessly!" Inari told her in a worried tone.

"Can I at least tell Callista? So someone has my back and won't lose her shit when this eventually hits the fan?" Zuzanna questioned.

Inari looked over to Daved, as this was his town, so it was his ass on the line. He looked pensive for a moment before nodding, which made Zuzanna sigh in relief, and she thanked the man for that. She then called Callista in and brought the woman up to speed on the situation. Callista was shocked, no question, but after being given a few minutes to wrap her head around it, she accepted it much faster than Zuzanna had.

"I've had my suspicions for a while now about where that fucker's loyalties lie. The shit he's done has always been done for some purpose or benefit, but I could never understand who could stand to benefit from all the mayhem," Daved groused.