Thirteen

Kon was right. Benny wasn't impressed with their tactical plans. He spent the entire next day going over how wrong they were and how they were wrong. Then he showed them how to fix it. Benny loaded up a simulation of the entryways and close quarters combat.

"I don't like going in with rookies on something so poorly thought out, but we do what we must," Benny groused as he led them to the armory an hour before they were supposed to drop out of the lane. Benny clicked a few more hidden buttons close to their bunks and a sidewall peeled open. And kept opening, and opening, and opening. Kon felt his eyes widen as he stared at the wall of hanging death, each instrument well maintained.

"This is the lower armory. When deciding how to accomplish a contract one has to be careful not to overspend. If I had a high value contract that was buried in the center of this station I would just fire off some missiles and pop the station. If it's low value, I can't replace the missiles with how much I'm going to earn, so I have to be more economically conscious," Benny explained as he grabbed a long knife off the peg and its corresponding sheath. He turned to look at them and his bushy eyebrows rose as he saw the two of them staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"You would blow up an entire station to kill your single target?" Diur asked, horror in her voice.

"If it's the most expeditious way to get it done. Yes," Benny said. He looked them over and a cold look crossed his face as he stared at them.

"You are under false impressions if you think that there is a single innocent upon this station. We tread in the depths of the galaxy, the bloody, dirty, depths. They would kill you, harvest your organs, and sell your bones without blinking. And you'd be lucky they do it in that order," Benny said. He spoke in a flat cadence, not letting a hint of emotion enter his voice.

"When I take a contract, I do my research. I look for details like whether I can fire a spray of missiles to eliminate a target. I look into what the acceptable levels of damage can be occurred. I am not some bloody handed butcher looking to kill everything and everyone. I will accomplish my goal with the least amount of risk to myself or my team."

"Understood, sir," Kon said as the minute started to stretch out as neither him nor Diur said anything.

"Now, grab what you need." Benny waved over at the mess of weaponry. Kon turned to grab the first of the weapons he'd outlined in his original proposal. Anything to break the sudden awkwardness. He grabbed a shotgun with a drum barrel magazine, old tech, but good tech. It fired a scattershot of pellets which had high stopping power against organics but wasn't likely to pierce through a bulkhead. A small laser pistol for his sidearm, a heavy mace and a long knife finished off his weapons.

Diur simply grabbed a laser rifle similar to what he had used on Crucible, but of higher quality, and then her sword strapped to her waist. Benny nodded in approval as he grabbed his own weapons and then led them further down the hallway toward a series of heavy lockers that were suddenly unveiled.

The armor inside looked worn and faded but still in good condition. Kon looked it over carefully and saw that a lot of the wear and tear was actually brand new. It reminded him of the outside of the Puca. Everything Benny did was smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand meant to give false impressions.

"Not wearing your armor?" Kon asked as he pulled the energy and tear resistant jumpsuit on, hardened plastic plates in key areas to offer a thin layer of protection. Over the top of the jumpsuit was a scarred breastplate, the armor dull with long scratches. Diur helped him strap the tight plate on, the heavy weight reassuring. The helmet was pitch black, completely opaque, and domed.

"No helmet on yet. Need the prosthetics," Benny said. Kon stopped to look at him, raising an eyebrow.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Prosthetics under the helmet?" Kon asked, holding up the helmet.

"And if you have to take the helmet off? All of a sudden you don't look like a hardened mercenary looking for work, but a young, clean cut, human. Who's asking questions about the goblin tribe that just ambushed a human warship. That's a quick trip to things getting messy and the station ending up exposed to the vacuum of space."

"Prosthetics it is," Kon said, holding the helmet to his side as Benny led them into the makeup room. It had been a surprise to see the old man had an entire room dedicated to prosthetics and makeup. Benny sat them down on spinning stools and got to work.

Kon got a quick dye in his hair, adding bits of gray in his hair while flesh was flash grown in a small vat at the side. Each vat had a series of cut outs that Benny carefully laid against Kon's skin, adding wrinkles around his eyes, a goatee that covered his upper lip and chin, and a scar across his cheek. The old man took only a few minutes to do it, his skill and practice showing as his steady hands laid out the synthetic skin and glue carefully.

When he stepped back Kon had aged several decades and with a quick flip of his wrist Benny started to draw a series of brutal black lines across his face. The lines connecting to form patterns across his face.

"The Dach-Mau are a species whose home system has become heavily polluted from industrial overuse. Large swaths of the population have scattered across the galaxy and they're one of the closest looking to humans. Most of their differences are internal. They're hard to poison and have redundant circulatory systems," Benny said. Kon knew all of that already, having already read his alias forward to backward several times.

"Diur, your turn," Benny said. Diur sat there in silence as her hair was pulled tight to her skull and a skull cap was tightened across her skin. A wig of bone-white, fine loose hair was placed on her head. Her skin was powdered inky black and she was given a pair of contacts that turned her eyes ruby red.

"How do I look?" Diur asked.

"Horrifying. In a good way!" Kon said, offering her a thumbs up as she gave a quick smile.

"Nyxrian. Very gentle planet, full of greenery, not much in the way of natural defenses. Their rifts are generally managed by nearby system sects or even knight squads. When they do venture off planet though, they have a habit of making a name for themselves," Benny said.

An alert wailed through the ship, three long beeps before falling silent again. Benny rose and left the room, heading into the bridge that neither of them had access to. They had found the hatch a few days ago in the vast warren of hidden passages, the only one that wouldn't open when they hit the switch.

"This is my first mission aside from Crucible," Diur said after a moment of silence.

"I mean, I was only with the Chapterhouse for a few months. Didn't even finish our training before we went down," Kon said.

"Hopefully this will go better than the last time," Diur said, a momentary pang of sadness crossing her face.

"I have a feeling Benny is strong. Very, very, strong," Kon said. Diur nodded along with him.

"He acts timid, but I don't think we'll be in true danger," Kon said as he double checked the webbing on his armor and the utility belt. He only carried one spare drum but had several pouches on his belt and a fast loader that could get the drum reloaded in a few seconds. The knife and mace were firmly in place and the holster for his sidearm was secure. Nervous energy beat through him as they waited, not feeling the ship leave the lane.

"You'd be wrong," Benny said as he walked into the room, looking them over. The old man sighed and ran his hand across his face, looking every one of his years.

"I'll handle anyone beyond your rank. If you can't handle the lesser problems, then you aren't worth my time after all," Benny said, staring at Kon. He swung his head over to Diur and gave a shrug.

"Dealing with Daniur would be irritating if you died. I'll try to keep you alive regardless. But if I need to save you from weak foes, then I'll deposit you back in the Ulmna Confederacy without hesitation," Benny said. Both Kon and Diur nodded slowly, a bit of levity settling in.

"Now that this is settled, we will be arriving in a few minutes. Are you both ready?"

"Yeah we're good to go," Kon said, answering for both of them. They got up and headed toward the hatch, placing their helmets on and sealing off their visages. Benny did something and his features shifted, changing slightly to become younger with a sallow cast to his skin and slit eyes, Kon only had a moment to see before the old man put his own helmet on.

With a thump the ship landed, the auto-pilot successfully landed the ship without any guidance from Benny. A green LED popped on as the rest of the ship's lights turned off, leaving them in an emerald glow. The hatch slid open, the landing pad showing a chaotic scene of a half thousand races crowded together in the tight confines of the landing zone.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.