Yuka crawls out of her escape pod after it landed on barrier, her left sleeve was stained with blood and she had a terrible headache. "Bakana Vigilante." she mumbles as she tries to stand up, she hears a familiar voice, but it seems so far away.
"Yuki-chan? Is that you? Has Seiji-kun arrived yet?"
Yuki runs towards her sister and helps her stand up.
"Hai, Nee-sama. Seiji-kun's escape pod arrived about 10 minutes ago, he's doing fine."
Yuka tries to remember what happened while Yuki takes care of the wound. She remembers another ship... "Consortium?" She mumbles. All she remembers is having talked to someone of the Consortium who had a proposition for Kaizoku. She torments her brain to remember more, but that's about it, no name, no callsign, nothing. All she can do is wait and hope for the Consortium to contact her.
Distant... the situation was observed. Machines sending data to their operators, tens of light years away.
With the contact wing's interference on behalf of a simple vigilante, a minor speedbump turned into a manhunt. Through intelligence records, commerce observation, and sensor probes deployed in likely areas of activity, the 'individual of interest' was tracked to, unsurprisingly, the Barrier gate station.
The opening of Baffin just days previously gave a route. The simple password of 'All Hail Eris' enabled the package to be dispatched. Less then 36 hours after the attack... a container arrived on the Barrier gate. Addressed to 'Yuka and Yuki Kaizoku'...
Yuka was sitting in the living quarters of her personal yacht when Yuki ran into the room.
"Don't run Yuki-chan..."
"But Nee-sama! I just arrived with the 2 new Falcata's for you and Seiji-kun when I noticed a large unmarked container in our hangar!"
"In our hangar? Show me."
The 2 sisters walk back to the hangar and approach the container. They stare at it for almost 2 minutes, then Yuki walks up to the doors and reaches out to the lock.
"Yuki-chan, don't!"
Yuka runs towards her little sister and pulls her hand away.
"Don't open it, we have no idea what's inside! It could be dangerous."
"H-Hai! Nee-sama."
Yuka inspects the other sides of the container, but it doesn't say where it's from.
"Leave it here until we are sure what's inside."
Together they leave the hangar and close the massive gate.
And so the container sat. For several hours. Being watched and studied, with little indication what was inside.
The container itself was little more then a standard, rectangular corrugated box. The same basic type in use for centuries. Scanners however, were thwarted by something inside the box... something which clearly indicated a lifesign...
The Kaizoku Siblings dragged a couch to the hangar and sat in front of the container, thinking what could be inside. Since the scanners show some sort of lifesign... They had to open it...
"I'm not opening it Nee-sama..."
"Well... neither am I..."
"How about rock scissor paper to decide?"
"That's childish..."
"But it's effective..."
And so the 2 sisters put their hands behind their backs and count down. Yuki formes a rock, and Yuka a scissor.
"It seems I won..."
"unbelievable..."
Yuka walks to the door of the container and prepares to open it, then Seiji enters the hangar.
"Konnichiwa!"
"Konnichiwa Seiji-kun... now... open this container!"
Seiji approaches the door and reaches out for the lock. Carefully he unlocks it and pulls. The door makes a Squeaking sound as it opens.
As the metal door slid open, a creeping fog of grey exited the container and slid along the hangar floor. A strange, low, hum could be heard from within.
Before anyone could look deeper, a powerful floodight activated from within the hangar, obstructing vision. In a swift motion, the source of the light moved forward from the container and upwards, looming over the three. The machine stood on three tentacle-like legs, connecting to a large core and center device, containing the floodlight and unknown other devices.
And in the center of the machine, a human figure, obscured by the blinding light, was suspended. And then it spoke, in a mechanically amplified voice, that of a Kusari female...
"<::Which of you is the "Kaizoku?" Sister we were sent for?"
As the machine exited from the container, Seiji hid behind the door, Yuki stepped back and tripped over the couch. Yuka didn't move a muscle and watched the machine. She had a vague idea where this came from.
"I believe that would be me... Consortium? Correct?"
Yuki scrawled back on her feet and appeared from behind the couch, Seiji carefully put his head around the container door to look at the machine.
"<::You would call us that... now, which of you... is the Kaizoku?" The voice repeated, and the floodlight turned off.
The figure in the center of the machine was a young Kusari female. Dressed primarily in civilian fatigues, denim coveralls and a White shirt, covered in an Armored Vest with Consortium identification. The Machine she was on... or linked to... appeared as an oversized backpack with anti-gravity, and legs and various attachments.
The machine lowered somewhat toward the Kaizoku sisters, a faint spherical shield now visible around the occupant...
Yuki approached Yuka and whispered something in her ear, then she left the hangar. Yuka puts her attention back on the machine.
"I am the one you are looking for, tell me... why are you here?"
Seiji also left the hangar, leaving Yuka alone with the machine, she stared at the face of the kusarian woman in front of her and somehow felt sorry for her... how can she live like this? She walks to the couch and sits down.
The woman spoke again, her tone immediately picking up, becoming less menacing and friendlier. "<::Excellent! Then we're in business."
She lowered to where her feet touched the ground, the mechanical legs retracting into the backpack. She seemed able to maneuver the bulky pack with ease despite it's size.
"<::Yuka... Kaizoku, I presume? You spoke to the Pilot of Taskforce 23 in the Magellan System?"
![[Image: signature.jpg]](http://www.seifert-trans.be/discovery/heraklion/signature.jpg)
