BRAND NEW The Chronicles of Coral:CHAPTER 2: Devil's Child

[Azbats]

Dana remained quiet. Over the course of the last six months she had taken any job that was given to her. Any chance to make some meseta to fund her desire to resurrect her late husband. But those plans had now changed. The attempt had failed at Dana had made the decision to move on.
“Depends on the job.” She snapped.
Tyrell’s eyes shot up to look at her. She returned the complement. He started to laugh, the deep chug of someone that was overweight and spent far too much time sat behind a desk.
“Don’t worry Pearce. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Hundred thousand meseta!”
“Fifty!”
“Seventy five!”
“Done!” Tyrell paused rubbing the white stubble on his chin. His face began to tighten again. “It seems we have a little problem.” He continued. “Some of the Pioneer Children have gone missing. And I don’t mean the little brats that inhabit the streets. I’m talking Pioneer Project Children… Children like YOU were!”
Dana’s shoulders relaxed slightly. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to refuse this job.
“No trace, no explanations… Nadda!!! It’s as if they just vanished.” Tyrell leaned back in his seat; the leather creaked under his weight. “Something’s happening and if it involves my elite personnel, then it’s something big! I want you to investigate and report anything you find.” His voice now turned severe. “And you WILL find something… Understand? I don’t need this shit Pearce, it’s election term.”
Tyrell now pressed his terminal button and it sprung back up on the desk. Dana saluted again and turned around.
“Your investigation will begin on Tener Sinus, that’s where the last one vanished from. The guild will provide you with a weapon in the unlikely event that you actually need one,” Tyrell began, “and you will meet the rest of your party there too.”
Dana’s eyes widened and she could feel the anger in her body rage: “WHAT?” She growled.
“You heard.” Said Tyrell, deadpan.
“You know I work alone.” Dana argued slamming the palms of her hands down on the Principal’s desk, causing his monitor to flicker.
“Dismissed Ranger.” He added calmly.

Dana flew around and marched quickly towards the warp. Her nostrils had flared. He knew that she didn’t like working with others. He knew that she always performed better as an individual than in a crowd. There are too many people to look after; too many backs to watch.

245 Beats:


“YOU!” Exclaimed the girl, her eyes wide with delight. The soldier’s face never twitched at all.
“I’ve come to escort you to the Research laboratory Ma’am.” He said calmly.
“Oh I’m a Ma’am now am I?” The girl joked. “Last week I was Dana and now I’m a Ma’am. Humph!” The girl breezed past the soldier, who grinned when he had left her eyeshot. Slowly he shook his head.
“This is official business D… Ma’am.”
The girl spun around giggling: “See! You nearly let it out then.”
The soldier’s body relaxed and he placed his hands on his hips, frowning, but with a wry smile: “When I’m on duty I must address you this way Dana. It’s the rules!”
The girl’s face dropped and she displayed a sense shock: “You called me Dana… I’m telling!” She flashed one of her smiles that made the young soldier’s heart miss a beat.
“Oh…” He stuttered, “Ooooooh… bite me!”
“Shan’t, you’re not chocolate.”
The soldier chuckled and pointed to the lift: “Oh why, oh why did the warps have to breakdown today?”
“Fate.”
“You think?”
“Nah! You just drew the sort straw.”
“Y’damn straight I did.”
The girl whacked the soldier on the arm.
“Oi! I’ve told you about that…”
“I know,” interrupted the girl, “it’s your shooting arm.” She mocked.
The couple entered the lift in silence, standing side by side, and both displaying huge grins. Dana pointed at Javah’s sidearm: “So how good are you are you with that?”
The soldier never moved his head and saw her actions peripherally: “I trust you’re pointing to my gun.”
Dana blushed. Javah chuckled, “Good enough to stop anything on Ragol.”
“That’s an awfully big boast considering we’re still seven years away from arriving. You’ll be a geriatric by then.”
“And you might have finished potty training.”
The girl folded her arms in a pretend huff: “I bet you can’t even hit a bay door at ten paces.”
“Ha!” Blurted Javah, “Me thinks a bet is presenting itself.”
“Maybe it is…” The girl now started to ponder, scrunching her face up in an exaggerated pose of thought. “I bet you can’t hit ten bullseyes in a row.”
The soldier chuckled: “I thought you were going to make this difficult.”
“Your confidence will be your downfall.”
“So what do I get if I win?” Questioned Javah.
“Erm…?” The girl hummed.
The young man turned to face Dana, resting his hand at the back of the lift: “I get to take you out to dinner!” He said matter of factly.
Dana’s eyes rose up to look at the grinning soldier. Her heart was racing at such a bold proposition, her lips slightly apart, but she was glad for it. “Ok.” She confirmed without moving a muscle on her face.
The soldier nodded affirmatively and adjusted himself to the pose he was in initially. The girl’s eyes now drifted to the lift doors that had now opened at the requested destination. A glimmer of a smile teased itself on her lips. She exited the lift with a slightly more exuberant stride, but soon realised that she left alone: “What’s wrong lost for word’s now?” She gloated as she turned around.
Javah’s body was slumped in the corner of the lift. The skin on his face had decomposed many months earlier. His neck was twisted to one side and claw marked covered his tattered and torn outfit. His boned fingers still clutched at his handgun. A wind seemed to echo through the open jaw of his skull, “I’m… dead!”


“Ma’am?” Questioned the guard
“Huh?” Replied Dana.
“Ma’am this IS your stop isn’t it?”
Dana nodded her head at the Pioneer soldier and laughed quietly to herself: “I must have zoned out there for a second.” She joked.
The soldier let out an unconvincing half laugh and rolled his eyes as he turned away. Dana wasn’t bothered and left the lift heading towards the entrance to the Hunters Guild.

With an echo of moving steel, the doors parted and she entered the sterile room.
“You’re late!” Snapped the FOnewearl
“Half the warps are out,” started Dana without breaking stride, “and if I give a shit about what you have to say I’ll ask you first. OK?”
The Fonewearl folded her arms in an act of defiance, her completely black eyes burning a hole into Dana. The redhead stopped when she was in front of all three of her new team.

“What the Hell have I done to deserve this?” She winced.
“Now, now play fair.” Smiled the young HUmar. “We’re all aware of your desire to destroy the scourge of Ragol alone.” He flung his arms around dramatically, theatrically throwing his voice. The he stopped and grinned, widely. “And now you have us.” He lent forward towards Dana. “And I can be very, very nice!”
“Oh, pur-lease.” She responded. The HUmar scoffed and stood upright again flashing smiles at the Fonewearl.

The largest presence in the room wasn’t too hard to spot. It towered nearly seven foot in the air, and maybe just as wide. The RAcast was decorated with metallic red legs and arms. Its feet were blue and white stripes complemented its neck. A large head pointed straight ahead and was also red in colour. It had been granted the section ID Purplenum [Fist of Coral]. Strapped to his back was a photonic shotgun. Devastating at short range, sending a spread of photonic bullets into advancing forces, cutting them up instantly.
“Fuckin’ Hell!” Exclaimed Dana, “Tyrell really went for the subtle approach didn’t he?”
The RAcast never flinched and the HUmar stuck himself in Dana’s eyeshot: “Malcat here is the group leader.”

Dana shook her head from side to side. Androids, cold emotionless androids. She didn’t like RAcasts, they lacked the humanoid characteristics of the HUcast and in her opinion didn’t care about who were in their team, just as long as the job gets done. Casualties didn’t seem to matter to them, only the mission.

The HUmar himself was hardly dressed for jungle manoeuvres, but he wore his armour with pride and she couldn’t begrudge him that. He was dressed in orange trench boots, with matching greaves and the angelic white body armour that was only awarded to soldiers who fought and survived the Battle of Timbus Rai. Timbus Rai was one of the Principal Governments greatest victories in Coral’s Civil War. It was a small outpost that looked out over the Fusurvius Ocean. No more than fifty guards had been stationed there and judging by his age now, the HUmar must have been no more than a boy most likely on his first assignment. These fifty soldiers held their positions and fended off an attack by over ten thousand civilian usurpers. Only twelve of the soldiers were left alive at the end, but over five thousand of the attackers lay dead. As a mark of honour this armour was specially cast for them and they each had the prefix Rai’ placed before their names so everyone would recognise the valour of these soldiers. And shinning on his cheat was his Pinkal Section ID, an honoured gift, translating to “Mother’s Bosom” or “Favourite Son”.

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