To Fight for a Country that Hates You... (Tigre-Family Stories: First Generation)

[Mr.Fabulous]

"Dauntful, this is Porto Novo Traffic Control, you are clear to proceed, over."

"Roger that, Porto Novo Traffic Control. Casini out."

The CSV, Dauntful, enters docking bay 2, the red docking lights strobing the dimly-lit hangar room of Porto Novo. As soon as the ship lands, the engines powered down, the cockpit pops open, and Casini Chrisostomo quickly descends down the ladder to the bay floor, with Leonardo Tigre following behind. She pats out the dirt sticking to her black flight suit as if covered with ants, and heaves a very relieved sigh to herself, "Ay, carumba! I so hate this Junker-ship: it's practically falling apart at the seams! I'm just glad I got to land before it started to malfunction."

He takes off his trench-coat and flaps it against the air, creating a small dust cloud around him, and after putting it back on he remarks cooly, "That small flash-fire as we headed through that Jump Hole to Omega-50 was merely the cherry on top of the cake. That dealer sure knew how to patch up this hulk to make it appear it was still intact. I'll have to commend him for that someday, heh."

"Right after I catch him by the balls, that is." The Corsair looks around the hangar and made a large frown, "... This place is just sad... The lights are only bright enough for me to discern the difference between a robot and a man, and there's not even a welcoming engineer to talk to around here!"

"Guess again." The Zoner points towards the robot that was slowly approaching them.

"Welcome to Porto Novo, travelers. Forgive us for the inadequate service provided for the time being, due to the station currently experiencing a temporary blackout due to a malfunction in the Power Grid." The robot says monotonously.

"So the station is running on emergency power, I take it?" Leonardo nods at the robot, "Fine then. What we are interested in is this installation's local Ship-dealer, robot. Can you direct us to him immediately?"

"That is within this unit's parameters, traveler. This unit has been programmed to give any prospective tourists a quick review of the installation.

"The Ship-dealer, callsign 'Scott Peterson', has his office situated in Module-4, 1st-Floor, Bay 1. This unit may input the directions on any software-media of your choosing, if you desire."

"I desire your input, robot. Here..." he takes out his PDA from underneath his trench-coat, "Is the Ship-dealer open on this occasion?"

"'Scott Peterson' is available for the time being. His visiting hours are from 0900-1800-hours. Current time is 1435-hours, so it is very likely his office is still open."

"Acknowledged, robot. Are there any other news that have recently happened within this installation within the week apart from this blackout, robot?"

"Negative. Apart from electrical shortages that initiated within the 30'th of November, situation is neutral."

"Well that's a start." Casini walks over to the two, "At least this visit shouldn't be much of a hassle.

"... But we still have to stay alert. This is a Zoner installation, señor, so there are bound to be numerous muchachos that like to create a lot of noise behind the backs of local enforcers."

"Roger." Leonardo takes back his PDA from the engineering robot after the directions were inputed into memory, "We do not require your services any longer, robot, apart from any emergency repairs to be done on the Dauntful in the case the Ship-dealer doesn't have any in stock."

"Acknowledged, traveler. This unit will now commence general maintenance routines." and the robot proceeds to inspect the Dauntful.

"Let's get this over with, si?" and the two head off without another moment's notice...

... 20 minutes later...

... After a few elevator rides and some trekking through various hallways and corridors the two arrive in front of Bay 1, which had the label 'SHIP-DEALER' etched just above the blast-door. Leonardo politely knocked on the doors, which made the doors slowly slide open to the sides.

Both Casini and Leonardo look around as they cautiously walk in: the first thing they saw was a long, narrow, metallic, rectangular table that was backed up by several chairs in the very center of a medium-sized room; to the Northern wall was a very large viewscreen, and on both the East and West walls were wide elevators.

Situated right in front of the viewscreen was this Zoner in a plain-white business suit, who seems to be contemplating to himself, until his deep-thought is interrupted when he notices the two walk in, "Ah! Customers!" He gestured to them both to take a seat as he sat down on the northern face of the table, of which the two choose to sit on the opposite side, "Good afternoon, travelers! My name is Scott Peterson, at your service. Welcome to the Porto Novo Dealership. We---"

"Right then," Casini abruptly interrupts the man, "Let's cut to the chase, Si?" Casini formally places both her elbows on the tabletop, clasping her hands together softly, "My name is Casini Chrisostomo, and my compadre over here is Leonardo Tigre, former-Corsair and Zoner, respectively." She reaches one of her flight suit's pockets, and fashions out her PDA; She slides it towards Mr. Peterson, with Leonardo following suite, also sliding his own PDA towards the dealer's side, "In there you should find everything you need to know."

"... Al... right..." He takes both netbooks and begins browsing over them.

As he goes over the background checks, Casini continues, "Basically, we wish to purchase an IR-7 'Raven's Talon' Very Heavy Fighter, for the simple purpose of having a... better ship than the pathetic excuse of a ship we've currently rented ov--"

"Sorry to tell you this, Ms. Chrisostomo, but we're officially out of stock for the IR-7's." He puts down the PDA's and hands them back to their owners, "The good news is your reps check out... The bad news is, with the power outages going on due to some complications we've been having with the Main Reactor, automated ship production on the Porto Novo has virtually stopped.

"Though yes, I have other ships still awaiting to be sold, all of them are poor, second-hand ships that have started to show their age..."

"Great..." Leonardo leans on the table with a disappointed look on his face.

"... However..." He stands up from his chair and takes out a lighter and cigar from underneath his suit, "... You both don't look like you're after crap... You're after quality... and I think I have just the ship for you." As he walks towards the West elevator he places the cigar on his mouth and lights it. He grins as he inhales the tobacco deeply.

"And what would this 'special' ship be, Mr. Peterson?" Leonardo asks suspiciously.

"Well... I did say that the dealership's 'officially' out of IR-7's... but I've been having trouble selling one ship in particular..." He taps a single button on the elevator pad, and the doors swivel open, "If you would just follow me... I'll show you..."

Casini and Leonardo look at each other for a moment, wondering what this man was intending for them. Soon, they nod to each other in agreement, and decide to go follow the dealer into the elevator.





Upon entering the lift, the door closes behind them, and Mr. Peterson goes towards the panel that showed the many buttons that led to the various ship hangars; but he doesn't chose any of them. Instead, he takes out some keys in his pocket, inserts a particular one into a special slot, and opens up a small compartment that contained a button; he presses it, and soon enough, the elevator starts to move.

"I don't like this..." Casini whispers a remark to Leonardo.

"He seems to have some mysterious intentions at hand, so your suspicions are well-placed, Casini. Let's just hope we don't land ourselves into a trap." Leonardo replies.

"Do not worry, Mr. Tigre..." Mr. Peterson replies with a devilish grin without turning to look at the two as he hefts another puff of smoke, "I'm sure you both will appreciate what I'll have to offer."

"And if we don't..." Casini activates her pistol, which starts to squeal excitedly, "... You'll be the first to die by anyone's hand, muchacho."

The dealer only huffs a short laugh.





After a few minutes pass, the elevator room clicks as it reaches the designated floor. The doors swivel open to a pitch-black room. Mr. Peterson walks out first, and with a quick clap of his hands the lights flash on, revealing a large bay that harbored this single Raven's Talon placed at the very center: it was a beautiful ship that glistened in the flood lights, its loadout being a couple of Mk-I Improved Debilitators, 4 'MEDUSA'-codenames, a Debilitator turret on the back, a single Mini Razor mounted to the side, one Nuclear Mine Dropper, and finally an Enhanced Countermeasure Dropper; the ship looks as if it was well-maintained and well-kept, its paint job still new and comparatively-shiny...

... But something didn't seem to feel right with this particular ship: the black paint appeared to be blacker, the red paint even more blood-red, and as Casini stared at the cockpit it was as black as everlasting abyss. The ship sent shivers down her spine, "Señor... Do you---"

"Yeah... I feel it too..." Leonardo whispered cautiously, "... Though this ship does appear to be just like any other IR-7 I've ever seen... this one... seems to have some form of 'aura' about it... some form of dark history that not even I could ever fathom."

"This... my prospective purchasers..." Mr. Peterson walks over to the side of the Raven's Talon, patting it with pride, "... is the Netherwalker... A mighty-fine ship for mighty-fine people such as yourselves, am I right?"

"And it mighty-fine stinks of pure evil as well..." Casini narrows her eyes at the black-etched nameplate on the side of the hull, "There's more to this ship than meets the eye, isn't there?"

"So what if I told you the devil himself made passionate love with this fighter? Would that discourage you from buying it?" He takes out a remote control, taps a button, and the cockpit smoothly huffs open, while a ladder slowly descends down the side, "Don't let objective feelings keep you back from a potentially-good buy! Why not try it out, at least?"

Leonardo and Casini look at each other in wonderment, "I don't like this, Señor Tigre."

"Pfff... So what? It's just a ship. Big whoop..." Leonardo shrugs his shoulders unimpressed, and starts ascending up into the cockpit. Casini reluctantly follows behind, and soon both are now strapped onto the fighter. And the dealer was right: the ship, though it handled more or less the same as other IR-7's out there, this ship responds marginally faster as it was test-hovered, "Not bad at all, Mr. Peterson. The Netherwalker feels brand-new."

"Yes, well... To tell you frankly, the ship's second-hand. But unlike common second-hand ships, this ship was under capable and skilled hands... MY hands."

"This was your ship?" Casini steps down from the ladder.

"Afraid so! And I can tell you that the Netherwalker has been with me through many a-situations thick and thin back when I used to serve more... infamous groups, so to speak." He slowly puffs another cloud of smoke.

"Why'd you quit?" Leonardo comes out of the cockpit.

"I've got a family to take care of, Mr. Tigre... A loving wife and two teenagers would certainly NOT have appreciated it if I had kept at my previous career, would they?" his somewhat-innocent smile seemed to tell the two he was telling the truth.

Casini narrows her eyes deeply, "And should we decide to purchase this ship from you, how sure would we be that the reputation that you... AND this ship... had garnered over the years wouldn't catch up to screw us over? Who did you work for before all this, anyway?"

"Meh... It doesn't matter anymore... The organisation I've worked for is long-dead and forgotten by this time, so you would have little to worry about such things...

"... But you could say this ship has an unlawful history behind it, so that would initially restrict yourselves if you both had plans to head out into the colonies.

"And that's the problem I have with selling the Netherwalker..." He walks over to the Corsair's side, "Look... Point is, I don't want this ship to go to waste... It truly is a great girl, and I wouldn't want to see it simply age and break down without at least going off in a shining blaze of glory.

"I'll respect your decision if you're still against buying it... But it would mean so much to me if someone with skill gave this old girl her life back. What do you say?" He offers his hand to Casini for a handshake.

"... Hmmm..." Casini rubs her chin as she contemplated.

After a few minutes, she looks back at the dealer and decides to accept the gesture, "... It wouldn't be that bad, I guess. Fine, Mr. Peterson. Consider the Netherwalker sold." and she firmly shakes the man's hand with a wry grin.

"Right then. I'll finalize the preparations tonight. You both just take it easy, and I'll have the Netherwalker ready for flight by tomorrow."





As the three walk out the room, the elevator now rising back up into the office, Leonardo starts to daydream to himself once more...










----------FLASHBACK

"... So? Why do you care, Jack?" Leonardo replies in a cool tone.

"Is it really that worth it to go after the Nomads, Captain? Is it really that worth it to sacrifice everything you have and everyone around you, all for the vendetta you harbor against those blue freaks?"

Leonardo's tone grows very dark in response, "... You don't know what you're talking about. Don't say such things when you yourself don't even understand the pain I've had to go through because of what those monsters did to my family."

"Fair enough... I'm not you, so how am I supposed to understand? But let me at least make myself clear on one thing..." Jack's demeanor gets serious as he continued, "If you're gonna go after those monsters, that's fine by us... but DON'T you ever FORCE us to get involved in your vengeance, and risk our lives in the process all because of your selfish desires for payback. That attitude's gonna be your undoing if the Nomads' don't get to you first... Captain...

"... And you even have your little sweetie in on your misery... It'd be a shame if anything bad happened to Mila because of your hatred."

The last statement from Jack makes Leonardo's eyes widen a bit in worry, ... My hatred... for the Nomads... will she really...

"MEEP! I choose to come along with Leonardo cause he needs all the help he can get. And you being here isn't helping at all... Mr. Avernus. I suggest you don't talk like that to him again... EVER!" Mila's hands start to tighten up in anger.

Jack riles his head back in surprise, "Well, well! I never expected fighting words to come from someone as carefree and innocent as you. You're beginning to grow up now, Mila, heheheh...

"But in a way, you're right... He'll need the help... I just hope that help won't come at a very steep price." He walks away and leaves the two to themselves.

Mila quickly turns to look at Leonardo and said, "Mr. Avernus sure was mean all of a sudden, meep! You alright, Leonardo?"

FLASHBACK----------










"... No... I wasn't... I should've turned back... I should've..."

---

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