Meeting of Friends and Foes - Chapter 9


    Carlton’s Sweet Lounge, Mega-Station ‘Anywhere’, Galienta Sector, Neutral space


    ‘This is my luckiest of days!’ Thought Slyborg-Jones.


    “Gentlemen! I will be taking the pot this time too! Ahaha!” he said joyfully, showing his cards with a full damaria set.


    “Ah! Dammit! Ain''t my day!”


    “So lucky it ain''t real I say! Ahah!”


    “Nah! All skills my friends! All skills! But I think I''ll stop for today, I don''t want to spoil this luck now!” said the smuggler with a playful wink.


    “You cheated...” lygoonian said, barely containing his raged filled voice.


    “Aaaww come one Doxius! You know that''s not true! Don''t be like that! It''s just a game, so let''s end it here for tonight...” tried Slyborg.


    “NO! I won''t stand for this! You definitely cheated!”


    “You are going to stay and play until I get even!” said the lygoonian with a evil grin.


    “... tempting, but I don''t like winning money like this...” obviously lying, Doxius was simply trying to save face in front of the others with a plan in mind. “How about one last game, just you and me. Just to see if you aren''t lying. Let''s play for one hundred and fifty thousand...”


    “NO! YOU PLAY! NOW!”


    “What''s up with this racket!” said Doxius, grabbing a phone nearby. It was directly connected to some guards behind the door and when someone pick-up on the other side of the phone he yelled, “What''s going on out there!”


    “Sorry mister Carlton! We are actually fighting a- Wait! He is coming this way! Stop him! Stop! You cannot-”


    “John?!”


    “You know him?!” Squealed Doxius.


    “John? Yeah! We go far back! We did lots of crazy things together. Ahaha! Hey! Buddy! What''s up?! Still having fun in the DRA? Man! It''s been like, what? Five years!”


    “Yeah! Take a seat we were just- What the fuck!?!” Upon reaching him, the soldier grabbed the smuggler and threw him on his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.


    “You are late and we are leaving.” John looked at Doxius, “Sorry for the mess.”


    “This isn''t a mess! This is utter destruction!” screamed Doxius. He couldn''t believe his eyes! This was going to cost him a good fortune to renovate, however something more pressing was on his mind.


    “I couldn''t keep him here... They won''t be happy and it''s going to cost me more than the casino... Darius!” Doxius turn to his brother who he saw running in the casino towards him.


    “What the hell happen? I saw this armored dude running off with what seemed to be Slyborg-Jones on his shoulder. Wait, don''t tell me it was that guy! Please don''t ask me to send people after him, we can''t do a fuss in town.”


    “No no. They won''t be able to do anything. I want you to actually contact Exodus and relay them the information I''m about to tell you...”


    “You know what?! This reminds me of Haloxy! But with less shooting... and less explosions... and a lot less of everything, man! Are we there yet?! You know I can walk right! This is just ridiculous!” Slyborg-Jones had finally stopped struggling to get free and basically lazed on his friend shoulder “Booooring! So boring!”


    “I was sent to get you since we knew you would have never arrived at the location in time.” He let the smuggler get off his shoulder and continued. “We are now close to the secret rally point for the meeting. I made sure know one was following us.”


    “SURE! A big armored guy, running around, jumping over roof tops with another man on his shoulder! Completely and utterly inconspicuous! No one would have seen you as suspicious, at all!”


    “Thank you for the praise.” said John, strait face.


    “IT WAS SARCASTIC!”


    “I know... I was joking.”


    “... wait... You made a joke?! A JOKE! Holy shit balls!!! Progress! Finally progress! Wait... is the world going to explode? Shit! Sky? Check. Ground? … Check. My body? Triple check! Shit! What can it be! I can''t find the answer... Oh no...” Slyborg-Jones approached John and started to inspect his body. He then started to smell him and made an exaggerated surprised expression. “I smell... A WOMAN!!!!! OH MY FUCKING SHUGGLE BAGGLE!!!!”


    “Avoiding the subject! IT IS A WOMAN! UNACCEPTABLEEEE!!! I must know more! NO! I need to know more! What kind of being is she to be able to conquer this heart of pure magnus-steel! How did she do it! I will not move until you tell me!” said adamantly Slyborg-Jones.


    “Wait, wait! What the- I SAID WAIT!!!”


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    “Welcome back major Thamor! The general went ahead with the two temple sisters. Is this the target?”


    “Yes. I will be going ahead. Continue the good work.” he said briefly.


    “Yes, sir!” Joy could be heard in the soldiers voice.


    “Major? A promotion again?! My my! My little boy is growing up so fast!” said Slyborg, pretending to be teary-eyed.


    “That soldier was looking at you like you were some legend! Ahaha! What did you do? I thought you were trying to stay low-key?” Slyborg seemed completely relax while being dragged, again resigned to his fate.


    “Those soldiers are a hand picked grouped under the general and we worked together on some ops in the past. They are some of the very few who know partially of my deeds.”


    “Partially you say. Ah! I bet they don''t know what happens when you get mad! Ahahaha! Wow wow! Shiiiiit!”


    “Asshole!” cursed Slyborg. “Your lucky your my friend-”


    “THAMOR!!!” a loud and excited voice rang out. Dark winds, dark purple lightening streaks were flying out of the body of the floating masked man in the room.


    “HOLY SHIT! JOHN, IT''S THE PSYCHO!” screamed Slyborg-Jones, he then started to roll under the table.


    “Vickrein...” he said calmly, ignoring the coursing lightening on his armor.


    “STOP!” a piercing voice came from High councilor Ziban and the air became heavy. He had black fog coming out slowly around him. Vickrein stopped midway in his swing of his weapon, starring at Thamor which had his laser-rifle aimed at him.


    “Everyone! Stand down! That is an order, major!” the stern and fierce gaze was directed to everyone, but landed on the major at the end seeing as he was completely focus on Vickrein and any movement he was doing. After a moment, he and the rest finally holstered their weapons, but they hadn''t move from their places. A heavy air was filling the room.


    “Sheesh! If I knew you had brought a psychopath like that to the meeting, I would have prepared differently my entrance!” said Slyborg-Jones. He was now actually sitting next to Thalyana''s seat, cuffs untied, with his feet on the table, eating grapes. “Oh! Well! Even though I am still shocked and stuff, we should all take a seat for starters... Oh and make sure those two aren''t sitting next to each other. I''m sure that only having the wall smashed-in is pretty good as the only outcome of this... meeting.”


    “BAHAHAHAHA!!!! The man is right! Sit everyone! Let''s start over! Bahahah! Such an interesting fellow!” cheerfully remarked councilor Ziban. “Come everyone, sit! Sit I tell you!” Keeping a beaming smile of a mischief driven old man, he opened his arms wide to indicate to everyone to sit back down. “I suggest, before continuing that all past... problems should be kept there; in the past. The issues we will be discussing have far bigger repercussions and affect the whole galaxy and needs our joint collaboration.”


    “I concur, you all will be fighting together against a powerful enemy and cooperation is highly necessary. So without further ado, here are the details you were all wondering about this meeting...” continued general Grant, but before he could start displaying the information, Rav Talok interrupted him.


    “Wait, aren''t we all still missing someone? I thought you were bringing a fourth man in.”


    “We did and he is here.” confirmed the general pointing at the major.


    “Didn''t you tell me it was the ''Monster of Balkarian'' that would be joining us old man?” Rav was confused and tried to get confirmation from the councilor. “He looks nothing like the pictures and we all know that the ''Monster'' is an expert biomentalist yet I don''t feel a ounce of power off of this soldier.”


    “I don''t like to agree with him, but he''s right. I met with the real hero of Balkarian and he doesn''t look at all like the major. He might of surprised me with his scuffle minutes ago, but any exoskeleton armor has as much power...” Javera was confuse since all her investigation didn''t even once mention this majors existence in the events of her past.


    “Little girls shouldn''t deny the truth that is in front of them. He is not wearing any exoskeleton and I can also confirm that he was holding back, were you not, old friend.” said Vickrein rebutting Javera and turning back at the major after facing her.


    “What did you call me you fucking genocidal psychopath!” spouted Javera.


    “Another specimen I see...” sneered Vickrein.


    “Calm down sister, this is not the place to squabble insignificantly. General, we need an explanation about this if we are to continue this meeting. ” asked Thalyana. She seemed calmed, but she was very distressed. Hiding such information from the entire DRA did not make any sense to her. Was their a reason and what was it? Either way, this man that was simply next to them could be an important piece missing to their search, but finding him might also mean stepping on a closely guarded secret of the DRA. With secrets comes either with small or big dangers, but this one seemed particularly dangerous.


    “Major Thamor is the real Hero of Balkarian. For top secret reasons, we had him replaced by the public hero that both nations know of. I cannot say more.”


    “Can''t or will not? The identity isn''t the only thing you are hiding, general. To ashamed to tell the population that your ''hero'' is a much bigger genocidal maniac than me? Ahahaha!” the mockingly scornful laughter of Vickrein resonated inside of the room.


    “You are not in possession of all the details minister Noxus.” firmly responded Gran.


    “If you say so...” cryptically said Vickrein.


    “If I may interject, this line of questioning is simply delaying the meeting. Knowing who is who and what is what can come after the meeting when we will be preparing for our first mission. The briefing is the more important right now, anything else can wait.” Said Decoder five.


    “As expected of the IIA! Always strive to get to the point of things!” praised Ziban.


    “Give this woman a leather suit! My heart is fluttering!” exclaimed Slyborg-Jones. Mobek choked on his drink while the High Councilor started laughing with the smuggler. Most sighed while Decoder five simply stared reproachfully at Slyborg.


    “This enemy is hidden well and seem to have agents that have infiltrated both factions and informing them of our moves. Through the years, they relayed information about secret locations for resources and troop movements to avoid detection which caused huge numbers of resources to have been stolen on both sides across decades without being caught... until know at least.”


    “This scene was taken from the planet Morkenus. Like you all know, this is one of the biggest strongholds of the Avalon Empire which stores enormous amounts of resources for the war effort. These ''thieves'' were caught stealing equipment from the empire.” he stopped and let the video continue. He stopped the video when a huge explosion occurred affecting even the recording video. “Like you see an explosion occurred which affected the whole city of Moressy. Experts from the empire have declared that it was caused by multiple planted explosives scattered in the city. Their aim seemed to be to attract as much attention to them while taking out as many imperial soldiers as they could to divert the attention of the authorities from their real aim: varienal crystals. Some were stored on planet and were stolen from the empires vaults.”


    “This happened three months ago, now this scene has happened one month ago.”


    “The cruiser and the rest of the fleet was completely destroyed. They had approach an unidentified spacecraft that was unresponsive. After ten minutes, they decided to approach the ship. When they were at approximately ten kilometer from the craft, a high energy output was registered and obliterated the fleet. From the video of other ships you can see that the laser shot one ship, but then spread out to the others in multiple streaks of shots. We have concluded that only a weapon that is powered by a varienal crystal could be able to create such destruction.” the general took a pause, letting the information seep in their minds. “Both factions have acknowledged this threat and have call a truce to hunt down this enemy and destroy them and their weapon. They cannot be left alone with such power that can threaten both civilizations. Operation Arbiter is a joint team of experts from both factions that will be supplied with everything needed to succeed in this mission.”


    “WHAT?!?!” an outraged scream from Rav Talok sounded in the room, producing an awkward silence.