((Ok, I posted this on the Recursion board and it seems to have been ignored so I'll try again here. Anyway, some of you who know me may know I've been writing stories in MxO for some time. However they've always really just been for me and faction mates. Well, I've finally been pushed into posting here. This one I finished a couple of months ago and it sets up the latest story arc for Asamodai. It's pretty long, 27 pages in Works Word Processor. So I'll post the beginning, if there's demand, i'll keep it going. Hope you enjoy.
P.S A little background knowledge might be needed. Asamodai's old ship The Fugitive was wrecked by malfunctioning Sentinals. At the time he was currently not on board as he was recovering from previous injuries. He spent a short time on another ship named The Artemis. During his time on board he was involved in the recruitment of an operative who now goes by the handle Bencao. At the end of the mission he was severly injured while fighting the Blood Noble Luke, who he eventually vanquished. However, he was stricken with wounds from the exiles blade. This story leads on several weeks after this mission))
Weeks had passed. The Fugitive II proudly hovered through the tunnels of the real. It was smaller then it’s mother ship. The engineers had wanted to use as little additional material as possible meaning what was left of the Fugitive had to be spread a bit further. It was good though. It was still larger than the Logos had been. Asamodai had his new crew too. A few old faces, a few new. He’d been as amazed as anyone when Lock had presented him the first application for places, Asania and Gabriel. So, at least he had an operator, one he knew he could trust. He always liked to Asania where he could keep an eye on her too. Then there was Kelder, once Captain of Zion’s Specialists as well as serving time on various other Zion Hovercraft. He was a well respected officer and Asamodai had seen few better shots with a shotgun. Then there were his two new crewmen, Neon, ShadowTears and Crimotic. They seemed like an ok bunch for wetbacks. Of course he was going to get rookies and of course they’d struggle with some things, but he could do a lot worse.
Asamodai was almost fully healed again too. The medics on the Artemis had done a good job of looking after him after the run in with Luke. He was lucky Nehemiah had come along when he had or he would’ve been over. The medics back at Zion had cleared him for duty again but only through certain amounts of pleading and covering up the real pain he was in in some areas. On this ship though he was the most senior medic too so there was no-one to stop him acting. He felt free to express his pain in some of the more severe wounds and injuries he’d picked up. He could still often be seen nursing a limb on his right leg from a deep gash in his thigh.
Today was one of these days and Asamodai limped heavily onto the ships bridge and sat down hard in his seat and let out a groan. ShadowTears sat over from him in the navigators chair.
“You ok Captain?” she asked.
“Yeah I’m fine, just my leg again.” Asamodai replied without looking over.
“Shouldn’t you rest it?”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t aware you were the chief medic on board.” Asamodai said sarcastically, still not looking up.
“I’m not sir. Sorry sir.” She replied, looking back to her console.
Just then a signal went off. It was coming from the comms station. Asania jumped on it before Asamodai could heave himself out of the chair and limp over. She slipped the headset on.
“Operator.” she said. Anome’s image appeared on the screen. “Oh Anome. What can I do for you?” she asked. By now Asamodai had managed to get over and leaned heavily on the console, looking over his little sisters shoulder.
“Ah Asania. All you have to little lady is listen and remember what I say. Can you do that?” Anome replied. He was so condescending sometimes.
“One day frogger I’m gonna rip you a new one. Get on with it.” She snapped back at him.
“Ooo feisty, you want me. Don’t worry everyone does.”
Asamodai leaned down in front of the screen and leered at the controller. He moved the mic of the headset in front of his mouth. “Get on with it Anome.” He liked Anome usually. Sometimes he just went too far.
Anome leaned back from his screen seeing Asamodai lean in. he wasn’t aware the Captain had been stood just off screen. “S-sure thing.” he studdered slightly. “As I’m sure you know, a lot of hovercraft have gone missing recently. One of them I’d think you’ll recognise. The Horizon.”
Asamodai’s face sank. He had no idea what was going on with these ships but it couldn’t be good. Knowing the Horizon could be involved made him uncomfortable.
Anome carried on “We don’t know if the Horizon is connected to these other disappearances though. The Horizon disappeared before the other ships. Of course we want to locate the ship and it’s crew. We’re assigning two crews. Your own and the Danthalzar. I believe you’re familiar with them.”
“Captain Turokhan. Yes I know him.” Asamodai could’ve gone into the matter further but he wasn’t in the mood.
“I thought so.” Anome continued “We want you to search the Matrix while the Danthalzar search’s the real. However I suggest you meet up in the Matrix sometime to co-ordinate your efforts.”
“I am capable of running a mission Anome. I know procedure.”
“Yes quite. Well, one last thing. We have another redpill we’d like you to pick up from hover barge A310.”
“Anyone I know?” Asamodai asked.
“Yeah but I’m not gonna tell you. Trust me you’ll enjoy it more.”
Asamodai shook his head. “Whatever. I assume they know we’re coming.”
“They’ll be ready and waiting for you.” Anome said. “Now if you have managed to get that all in your heads I’ll be leaving you.” Anome’s image disappeared before either of them could respond. Not that they had anything important to say apart from threatening him some more.
Asamodai looked from the screen to Asania. “Well then. Guess we’d better head for A310 then shouldn’t we. Contact the Danthalzar too.” Asania nodded and started to hit buttons on the console. Asamodai turned and limped back to the pilots seat next to ShadowTears and sat down hard with a groan. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself and turned back to the console, working out how to get to the barge after overhearing the briefing. Asamodai grabbed the flight controls and they were off.
