Paved With Daggers

[Zapp]

The corridor leading up to the docking umbilical was plush and lavish, to say the least. It was designed for accepting dignitaries and wealthy patrons with grace. Sadaharu Nishiyama was always somewhat overawed by the whole ship, having never been affluent enough to afford a vacation aboard one. He was simply a man with a job, and was damn lucky that it was on such a beautiful and rich ship. Him and five other men stood around waiting for the hatch to pressurize before opening it for the Naval Forces officers. They were armed with simple handguns, not expecting any real hostilities to take place. A clipped voice in a Kusarian accent announced: "Seal pressurized."

With a nod to the rest of the time, Sadaharu walked up and keyed in the sequence to open the airlock and allow entrance. The door hissed open silently, and he moved to greet the officers. He froze in his tracks. Before him was several heavily-armed men bearing the uniform of the Naval Forces, all with heavy weapons trained on the stupefied security team.

"Disarm them," barked the obvious leader, a grizzled man with gray lacing his hair. Fluid and graceful as a dragon itself, the officers almost danced forward to remove handguns and communication devices.

"W-what is the meaning of this?" Sadaharu asked, anger breaking through shock. The next thing he knew, he had been hit with a stun-gun and was on the ground convulsing until blackness covered the world.

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