Chapter 62: Shaken, Not Stirred
Brothels, massage parlors, strip clubs and even more brothels! Lyra sighed dejectedly as she traversed the streets of Amusement Mile, which was apparently the name for the platform’s Red-Light District, which the mint green unicorn had come to believe to have been named as such because the locals thought that it would be ‘amusing’ to see ponies like her wandering aimlessly through the district.
She had been walking around the district looking for a bar where she could get a drink without being bothered by some random stallion or mare asking her join them for some ‘fun’. So far, she had no luck of finding such a place and was about to give up and go back to Trixie’s clinic when she found herself standing in front of a nondescript bar called the ‘Salty Spittoon’.
She raised her brows at the strange name, but her lips had grown parched in her search for a drink so she ignored the strange name and entered the establishment. The interior reminded Lyra of one of those 'seedy saloons' one would see in an old western as people were drinking or playing poker at the faux wooden tables, but she ignored the rowdy bar patrons and looked for the bar itself.
Her gaze soon settled on her target on bar at the far side of the room and the dozens of drinks being displayed on the shelves behind it. She licked her lips as she trotted over to the bar. The bartender, a mustachioed grey earth stallion, nodded at her when he saw her approaching.
“Good evening miss, what can I get for you?” he asked.
“Appletini, shaken not stirred.” Lyra stated as she sat herself down on one of the barstools. A bemused smile grew on the bartender’s face before he nodded at her request and reached for the appropriate bottles from the shelves and started mixing her drink for her.
While her drink was being prepared, she looked around and noticed that quite a few of the bar patrons, most of whom were male, were looking at her…or rather, her flank. She let out an undignified snort at their perverted gaze and turned back to the bar where the bartender was putting the finishing touch on her drink.
“Here you are miss, one Appletini, shaken not stirred.” The bartender said as he placed the cocktail on the countertop.
“Great, what do I owe you?” Lyra asked, reaching for her wallet, but the bartender shook his head.
“No need, the gentleman over there paid for you.” He then pointed over to a table where a group of stallions was playing a game of cards; one of them, a light brown pegasus, waved at her, indicating that he was the ‘gentleman’ the bartender was referring to.
Lyra rolled her eyes at the cliché pickup routine and ignored the stallion, but accepted the free drink as she lifted the glass up to her muzzle and was about to partake of the alcoholic beverage when the stallion who paid for her drink sat down on the stool next to her.
“I’ll have what the beautiful lady next to me is having.”
“I’m afraid that we’re all out of the special cider we use for the Appletini, sir.” The bartender said as he showed the stallion the empty bottle. “I could go into the back and get a bottle of regular cider if you don’t mind waiting.”
“I can wait.” The stallion replied. The bartender nodded and left him alone with the mint green mare. “So, what brings a girl like you to a place like this?”
Lyra ignored the stallion and his attempt at picking her up as she turned back to her appletini but the stallion was undeterred by her cold shoulder treatment. In fact, it only made the stallion even more attracted to her, that or he was as dense as a rock.
“Come on baby, don’t be like that.” He said as he tried to get her attention, but frowned when Lyra continued to ignore his advances. “I paid for your drink, didn’t I? The least you could do is talk to me.” He implored but Lyra didn’t want to give him the satisfaction so she stayed quiet as she took a delicate sip from her appletini.
“Give it up, Hoops! That chick is way out of your league!” One of the stallion’s friend shouted from the table.
“Shut up, Score! Can’t you see I’m working here?” Hoops yelled in return before turning back to Lyra, who was still ignoring him. “Sorry about my friend back there, but he’s a bit of a knuckle-head.”
“You really should listen to your friend…” Lyra said as she finally spoke up before taking another sip. “…and give up now before you make a bigger fool of yourself than you already are.”
“Hey! You can’t talk to me like that! I’m with the Iron Claws and we own this whole platform so show some respect!” Hoops bellowed, attracting the attention of the entire saloon, but the mare was unfazed by his outburst.
Lyra turned to look at him and said. “Really? Guess the Iron Claws’ standards have been slipping lately if they let a blowhard like you join.” Hoops’ friends then started laughing at him, followed by the rest of the people in the saloon, which made the pegasus turn red with anger and embarrassment.
“Nobody insults me and gets away with it.” Hoops said before grabbing onto Lyra’s arm holding the cocktail glass, which fell with a crash on the floor.
“Hey! Let go of me!” Lyra cried out in protest but Hoops only tightened the grip of his precision glove on her arm. “Oww! You’re hurting me! Let go or else..!”
“Or else what?” Hoops yelled back before a large bottle of vodka wrapped in the golden glow of Lyra’s magic smashed itself over his head, giving him a concussion while soaking his mane and fur with alcohol. The stallion then stumbled backwards a bit before falling to the floor in an unconscious heap.
“Hmph! Like you even had a chance with me.” Lyra sneered before turning back to the bar and saw the bartender returning with another bottle of cider. “Perfect timing, mix me up another Appletini. That jerk made me drop mine.” She said as she pointed at the unconscious stallion.
The bartender looked at the mess before he let out a weary sigh. “Of course miss, but what about the other gentlemen behind you?”
“What are you talking about?” Lyra asked before turning around and came face to face with Hoops’ friends, who weren’t happy that she just knocked their friend out cold as they surrounded the lone mare who said only one thing.
“Shit.”
When they arrived at the hangar where the Talyn was docked, Starsong saw that they were in the same hangar where the Radiance was being repaired as dozens of repair drones hovered in and around the cruiser, working alongside the technicians to repair the damage done to its hull and internal systems.
He shook his head as he remembered how foolish he was behaving when he wanted to resume his pursuit with his ship in such a damaged state. If Amaka hadn’t stopped him when she did, both him and his crew would have probably been killed by raiders in an ambush due to his impatience. He reminded himself to thank her when he sees her again.
He turned his head away from the Radiance and gazed upon the shadowy carrier docked next to it as his eyes widened in surprise at its size. He knew that the Leviathan-class Carriers were massive, but he never realized just how massive they were until he saw it occupying half of the hangar all on its own. He felt a brief twinge of jealousy when he saw how small the Radiance was in comparison to the Talyn, which was more than twice the cruiser’s size.
However, before he could compare the other differences between the two vessels any further, he heard Rylus calling out to him. “Overseer Starsong, is something the matter?” Rylus asked in concern, “You’ve been staring at the Talyn for quite some time now.”
“Oh, nothing’s wrong.” Starsong replied, “It’s just that I’ve never seen a Leviathan up close before.”
“Ah, I see. Then would you care to see the interior now, Overseer?” Rylus offered, “I can assure you that the Talyn is even more impressive on the inside.” Starsong nodded before he followed the white stallion towards the carrier.
When he boarded the Talyn, Starsong had expected the interior to be painted in the same black and red color scheme on the hull, but saw that the ship retained the familiar gold and azure walls typical on most khalai ships. Rylus then proceeded to give the Overseer a personal tour of his ship while sharing more of its history with him.
The Talyn was apparently the very last of the Leviathan carriers to be constructed before the more combat oriented Kraken Class Carriers replaced them as the Golden Armada’s primary tender ships. Unlike the remaining Leviathans, which were either converted into training vessels or disassembled into parts, the Talyn was put away into storage and forgotten until it was brought back into service to serve as his flagship.
When he first received the ship, he found that many of the onboard systems were obsolete so he had the carrier retrofitted so the it could keep up with the more modern ships in the Golden Armada. Some of the modifications included converting half of its massive cargo hold into a reserve hangar where they stored and maintained the Interceptor Drones that fight alongside the carrier’s manned starfighters. The converted hangar even had the means to produce more Interceptors to replace any units lost in combat, provided they have the necessary parts.
In addition to the Interceptors, the carrier was also armed with twelve missile launchers hidden across its ‘wings’ that could be configured to fire either anti-air or anti-ship missiles at multiple targets across long distances. For close range combat, two gun batteries of five rapid-fire Plasma Cannons were mounted on both the port and starboard side of the ship, giving the carrier the ability shoot down high-speed starfighters that pirates tended to favor.
Aside from these formidable armaments, the ship was equipped with a large Proton-Phase Cannon mounted on a retractable turret hidden on top of the ship. While the cannon wasn’t as powerful as the Radiance’s Photonic Beam Cannons, it was still capable of shooting down a cruiser with a well placed shot, but it had a long recharge time before it could be fired again, leaving the cannon only as a last resort.
Near the end of the tour, Starsong was thoroughly impressed by the Talyn’s capability as a warship as well as the crew that operated it. Like his own crew, many of the Talyn’s own crewmembers had also been augments from the Golden Armada, but unlike his crew, they have served under the Sub-Overseer for many years and had become seasoned veterans and fully trusted Rylus as their captain. Hopefully, he could regain his crew’s trust after they retrieve Seeker from the Dominion Ghosts.
They were later informed through the khala, that the shuttle carrying the pirates had just arrived in the hangar, so they ended the tour and left the massive carrier behind them as they made their way towards the shuttle. Once they boarded the shuttle, they saw the guards watching over the pirates. They exchanged a brief greeting with the guards before dismissing them until the interrogation was over.
With the guards gone, Starsong turned to the pirates and noticed that a few of them were covered with bandages that have turned red with their blood; they must have gone up against the Dominion Ghosts who had abducted Seeker. He approached them and decided to start the interrogation on a friendly note.
“En Taro Discovery, I am Overseer Starsong.” The pirates gave the unicorn stallion a blank look before one of them realized that it was a greeting.
“Er…yeah, Enteroo Discovery to you too.” The pirate said in return before he asked while ignoring the looks he received from the two Templars. “Are you the guy in charge of this station?”
“No, I’m not.” Starsong calmly replied, “However, we have been sent here on the Matriarch’s behalf and we want to know about the ponies that killed your crew and where they went.”
“Yeah? Why do you want to know about it?” the pirate asked.
“We have reason to believe that the ponies who killed your crew are a pair of Dominion Ghosts that we are after.” Starsong explained. “If you want them to pay for what they did to you and your comrades, you’ll tell us what you know.”
“All right, we’ll tell ya.” The pirate said as he cleared his throat, “After them Ghosts killed off my friends, one of them started searching the ship for medical supplies, bandages, nanite shots and all that.”
“Why would they need medical supplies? Was one of them hurt in the attack?” Starsong asked.
“One of our mates shot them in the back, guess that’s why they also took our prisoner.” Another of the pirates spoke up.
“Prisoner? What prisoner?” Starsong asked as his eyes narrowed at the pirates, who he was beginning to suspect to be slavers as well but kept it to himself.
“An Umojan Mage, she said she’s a healer.” The second pirate replied, “Probably why them Ghosts took her with them.”
“And why exactly did you have an Umojan Mage as your prisoner?” Starsong calmly inquired.
“Ex-Umojan Mage, she apparently got kicked out when she pissed off some of the higher-ups in the Vatican.” The first pirate explained, “Though for some reason the Vatican wants her back now, even put a big bounty to bring her back alive. The captain tried to collect on the bounty before the whole mess with them Ghosts of yours.”
“I see, would you have any idea on where the Ghosts gone with the Umojan?”
“The mage mentioned that she runs a clinic out on the platform over New Sydney III, so they probably took her there so they could take a better look at their buddy. Hope the bastard dies on the operating table.” The pirate said angrily.
“Would you happen to have the coordinates to the platform?” Starsong asked in a slightly urgent tone.
“Yeah, the coordinates should be in our ship’s navigation logs.”
“Thank you, you have been a great help to us.” Starsong said before he turned to Rylus, “Overseer, can you get some of your men to retrieve the coordinates for us?”
“I’m already on it.” Rylus replied as he relayed the order to his men through the Khala.
“Good, then let us be on our way.” With that, the two stallions turned to leave when the pirates called out to them.
“What’s gonna happen to us now?” the pirate asked worriedly.
“As far as we know, the Rust Reavers have not wronged the Khalai in the past and as such, we have no jurisdiction over you.” Starsong replied, “However, that doesn’t excuse you for the crimes you have committed back in the Consortium. Once you are well enough, you’ll be escorted to the Consortium core worlds and be handed over to the local authorities.”
“Normally, me and my mates here would object to that, but I think we’d prefer a few years in jail over being killed by the boss for losing a ship from his fleet.” The first pirate said as his crew mates nodded in agreement, “Though I do have a favor I’d like to ask of ya.”
Since the pirates have been nothing but cooperative, Starsong decided to humor the pirate and asked, “And what would that be?”
“When you find those Ghosts of yours, put one of your fancy laser swords up their asses for us.”
Starsong was disgusted by such a gruesome request and felt the same disgust from Rylus but more intense than his own. “I’ll see what I can do about that.” He replied before he left the shuttle, with Rylus following closely behind.
“Overseer, you aren’t seriously going to fulfill such a despicable request, are you?” Rylus asked when he was certain that no one else could hear them.
“After what those Ghosts put me through, I have half a mind to do carry out that request.” Starsong said angrily before he calmed down and added, “However, my duty as a High Templar takes precedence over my desires.”
Rylus nodded as he followed Starsong as they made their way back to where the Talyn was docked. As the pair neared the carrier, they saw Amaka waiting for them by the entrance ramp, along with Erina and the rest of Starsong’s crew.
“Good, it appears that we’ve arrived just in time to see you and my son off.” Amaka said as she greeted them before she gestured to the crewman behind her. “Your crew has already been informed of the departure and has been assembled before you.”
“Thank you Amaka, I am truly grateful for everything that you have done for me and my crew.” Starsong said as he bowed to her, “Now, if you would excuse us, we must leave soon before those Ghosts get another chance to escape.”
“About that Starsong…given the possibility that you might need to use more than just brute force to rescue this Dark Templar of yours, I want you to take my personal Shadow to join you on your mission.” Amaka said before she sent him a message through the Khala.
If this Dark Templar of yours has indeed betrayed the Khalai, then you will need my Shadow's help to bring her in.
Starsong briefly narrowed his eyes disapprovingly at her. While he didn't want to believe that Seeker may have turned against them, he knew that Amaka was right, again. He nodded to her and said, “I am indebted to you once again, Amaka, but when is he going to arrive? I do not wish to postpone our departure any longer than necessary.”
“You don't have to worry about that, Overseer.” A voice said before a stallion dressed in the attire of a Dark Templar suddenly appeared before them, startling both Starsong and his crew. The Dark Templar then bowed down to them as he introduced himself.”
“En Taro Zeratul, Overseer. I am Moon Fang, Matriarch Amaka’s personal Shadow.”
After regaining his composure, Starsong cleared his throat before he returned the greeting, “En Taro Zeratul, Moon Fang. It’s an honor to have you join us on this mission.”
“The honor is mine, Overseer.” The white stallion said before he saw Rylus walking towards him.
“It’s good to see you again, Moon.” Rylus said as he shook hooves with Moon Fang, who smiled at the young stallion.
“The same to you, sir.” The Shadow replied.
As Rylus and Moon Fang exchanged pleasantries, Starsong could sense his crew growing tense and apprehensive when they realized that they would have to work together with another Dark Templar, which wasn’t surprising. However, he also felt the same apprehension coming from Erina who was giving Moon Fang a wide berth when she saw him.
He was going to ask her what’s wrong when Amaka interrupted him, “Is everything ready for your departure?”
Starsong turned to Rylus who nodded his head in confirmation, “We are ready to go at your command, Overseer.”
“Then I wish both of you a safe journey. May the Khala’s blessing be with you.” Amaka said before she walked away with Erina following closely behind but before the two mares left the hangar, Erina turned to Starsong and sent him a quick message through the khala.
Beware of Moon Fang…
The red unicorn raised his brow at the odd message and looked at the stallion in question, wondering Erina had meant by that. Aside from the fact that he was a Dark Templar, there wasn’t anything suspicious he could see about him. He shook his head before he ordered his men aboard the Talyn.
After the last member of both crews had boarded the carrier, its engines hummed with power as it left the hangar and headed away from the station. Once it was far enough from Hoketa Station, the Talyn opened up a portal in space as the carrier’s hull took on a shimmering glow before it flew into it, vanishing in a flash of light.
The streets of Amusement Mile was normally a busy place filled with dozens of ponies, zebras and even the occasional gryphon, all of them seeking some companionship, and there were those who were willing to give them that companionship, for a price. A price that many were more than willing to pay so they could scratch that certain ‘itch’.
However, the hustle and bustle typical of Amusement Mile was soon replaced by the sounds of the heavy footsteps in the distance. Everyone looked down the street and some of them ran inside when they saw the pair of guards in power armor walking through the district. However, it wasn't the guards that they were afraid of, but the female gryphon who walked between them.
Unlike the guards with their bulky power armor, the gryphon wore a lightweight combat suit that had been modified to fit her leonine body as her jacket was unzipped, showing the white undershirt she wore underneath. The gryphon ignored the ponies hiding inside the buildings as she led her men through the district until they reached the front of the Salty Spittoon.
“What do you want us to do, boss?” one of the guards asked.
The gryphon took out a pack of cigarettes out from her jacket but frowned when she realized that she only had one left, making her more aggravated than before. She used her beak to pull the solitary cigarette out and discarded the empty pack before she lit it up with a well-used lighter. She spent a few moments to savor the nicotine-laced smoke before she pointed a talon at the entrance.
“Bust down those doors.” She ordered. “We’re going to show those dweebs what the Iron Claws do with slackers around here.”
The guards nodded before they both kicked the door down, causing it to break off its hinges and fall to the floor with a loud clang. The guards then marched into the establishment, followed by the gryphon who extended her talons in anticipation.
“Alright you lazy fucks! If you think you can slack off patrol duty and get away with it, you got-” her cigarette fell from her slack jawed beak when she saw the ruined state of the Salty Spittoon’s interior.
It appeared that the Salty Spittoon had suffered another typical bar brawl as broken pieces of furniture lay scattered across the floor along with a few of the bar patrons who were either groaning in pain or just unconscious. The gryphon recognized some of them as the ponies she was looking for and grabbed one of them for questioning.
“Who the hell did this to you?” she demanded.
The stallion lifted his arm and pointed at the bar before he promptly fainted. She turned to the bar where she saw a lone unicorn mare who had picked a nearly unconscious Score with her magic and threw him into what was left of bar as the remaining bottles fell on top of him with a shattering crash.
“Alright…” Lyra huffed as she brought her arms up in a defensive stance, “…who’s next?” she said as she looked around the bar for anymore of Hoops’ friends stupid enough to challenge her, but all her bravado vanished when she saw the gryphon and her power armored guards staring at her.
“Uh oh.”
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lol run Lyra Run!
4711378 Pfft, fuck that. Mind Control one of the guards, have him shoot the second one, and then Mind Control the Gryphon and have them make out and have hot sex in the middle of the bar!
4713596
4713596
4713650 Exactly my sentiments Shadows
As for Jirodyne's...unique suggestion, it's definitely in line with some of the more random ideas my collaborators and I might come up with...well, except for the whole public act of copulation.While Lyra could try and Mind control the guards and kill any eye witnesses, it would cause problems for her and Skyfall, who's still in a coma so she would-Oops, almost spoiled the next chapter
Besides, Kriss and I agreed to cut down on the sexual innuendos unless it's relevant to the plot. Pun unintended
4714204 What pun?
I fail to see anything that resembles a pun.
4728692 Sexual humor, Plot...also known as... 'Dat flank' as you once wrote for a chapter
4728738 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh! Sorry, forgot about that.
Salty spittoon, lol. Spongeob reference ftw!
Funny, I even read the bartender s lines in the voice of the bouncer from that spongebob episode ( Thomas f Wilson, aka, Biff Tannen) .
7356085 Actually, I picked that name at random when I couldn't find out what the bar in Appleloosa was called though I suppose watching Spongebob a few years ago might have played a part in that so kudos to you.
Though with Appleloosa's bar in mind, think you can spot the actual reference/easter egg I sneaked in there?