Nickels and Nails

[Zapp]

Things weren't going too good. Five minutes after narrowly escaping the Tundra's "siren's call", with it still in hot pursuit, they ran across a lone Nomad fighter. It had a weird transponder name, Scout-[Tundra].

Stop.

The thought shook Nickel's mind, and hearing his brother's bit-off curse told him that he heard it too. He managed to just barely stop himself before his hand disabled cruise. They kept flying onward, the Nomad fighter right next to them. It didn't seem to have a cruise disruptor...

Stop. You have something we need.

The thoughts seemed somewhat... too human for a normal Nomad. As if a human was behind the sendings, though that was impossible.

Stop. We will not harm you.

"Yeah right, you alien freak..." came from Josh's ship.

Then they were out of cruise. Two train cruise disruptors slammed into their ships, and both brothers cursed. While the Nomad fighter had been ordering them to stop, the Tundra had been taking advantage of "formation" cruise speed... and inching closer to them without them realizing it. It was right behind them, turrets tracking both of their ships.

Instead of any verbals demands, a mental shrieking came from the Tundra, and everything went black...


... And they woke up on the floor of the Tundra's cramped launch deck, the walls and ceiling glowing blue, and covered in some weird substance. In front of them was a man with a gun, flanked by two beings that they took for Nomads. The man spoke.

"Give me the artifact, and you can go free. Resist, and die."

Nickels was at a loss for words. He looked over to Josh...

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