DJ's Mission (10 page)

Taking a long drink off his Guinness, he looked
around the bar. There had to be over a hundred people in this room and there
were only two areas where it wasn’t body to body; the small space around
himself and the ten foot radius around the lone occupant at the end of the bar.

DJ studied the loner. He had his head down on the
bar with his hands folded underneath him in front of an empty glass. He had a
shaved head and wore a black synth-leather outfit that had seen better days.
His broad shoulders and massive arms were covered with tribal tattoos. No
weapons were visible but then, if this was who he thought it was, he didn’t
need a weapon.

Ordering a second pint, DJ made his way down the
bar and sat down on the empty stool.

“Hello, Jagger Jax.”

The notorious thief looked up. “Whatever it is, I
didn’t do it. I’m innocent.”

DJ nodded and placed the drink in front of him. “I
know. I just thought you might need another drink.”

Jax sat up. He took one look at his empty mug and
then at the foaming pint being offered. With a nod, he grabbed the mug and took
a long drink from the Irish stout. “Damn. That’s good.” Turning his body
slightly toward DJ, he gave him the once over. “You’re the Red Falcon aren’t
you?”

DJ nodded.

“You’ve put on weight since the last time we met.
When was that three, four years ago?”

DJ realized that he was talking about the imposter
Falcon but needed to play it off. “Something like that. But don’t worry; you’re
not my mark…this time. The last report I had on you lifted all warrants but
still had you listed as a person of interests on several other cases.”

Jax nodded. “Long story.”

“I’ll buy that. We all have our secrets but
indulge me this, what are you doing on Titan?”

“Working.” The slight cocking of his helmet
informed Jax that the Falcon didn’t understand and unless the hunter had
changed a lot that meant he might detain him. “Nothing illegal. As a matter of
fact, that past is behind me now, forever.”

DJ took another drink. “I’ve heard that one
before.”

“It’s the truth but not by my choice. Ever since I
got that Presidential pardon, no one in the underworld will even deal with me.
Hell, I couldn’t even score some weed from the local dealer on Haven. The word
was out. I was excommunicated.” Taking another drink, Jax continued to ramble.
“It was the same on New Atlanta, London and Phoenix. When I tried to return to
Ceres, I was thrown on the first shuttle outbound at gun point. That shuttle
was heading here.” With a shrug, he returned to his drink. “So, now I work on
the docks unloading cargo and I drink. Is that a crime?”

Whatever DJ was going to say next was forgotten
when two ebony skinned dancers in very revealing feathered outfits slid up to
them. The first one was dressed in yellow feathers and had curves in all the
right places, long legs and golden-brown eyes. She caressed his armor as she
said, “Hi. I’m Lashandra.”

Her partner was dressed in blue feathers was a bit
shorter but with a rounder bottom. “And I’m Tinya.”

“Welcome to Mocha…”

“…Delights. We are here to see to your every
need…”

“And desire. How may we serve you?”

Judging from the way the two dancers finished each
other’s sentences, DJ guess that they had done this greeting before.

Lashandra’s hands roamed up and down DJ’s armored
torso. Even though he couldn’t feel it, it was still arousing. “We have a
special room reserved just for VIPs.”

“It’s been a boring night.” The one in blue
feathers broke away and placed her arms around Jax’s shoulders while pressing
her bounteous bosom in his back. “Your friend is also welcome.” Tinya
punctuated her sentence with a bite on the nape of Jagger Jax’s neck.

“Why don’t you two brawny men enliven it for us?”

Both DJ and Jax were immediately tempted. After
all, the girls were gorgeous and their bodies promised a night of pleasure that
would be hard to forget. Even as they were leading the warriors away from the
bar to the Promised Land, one part of DJ’s mind was trying to focus on his
mission. He’d come into the casino for a purpose. Hooking up with these lovely
sirens was not it.

Somewhere deep in his subconscious he heard his
daughter’s voice, ‘
I know you won’t let me down, you never have before.’
DJ
stopped so suddenly that Lashandra traveled two steps before coming to a halt.
Turning back to look at him, she knew that her hold over him was broken and
just nodded her head slightly before fading into the crowd. The passive threat
alarms built into the HUD of the Red Falcon armor began to go off as bouncers
seemed to appear out of nowhere. A quick scan counted twelve Jovians each armed
with a stun baton and they had him completely surrounded.

Jovians were the descendants from the first
settlers of the moons around Jupiter. The increase in gravity on the settlers
combined with the radiation leaks in the early bio-domes caused the genetic
mutation of dwarfism in their children. Even though living conditions on
Jupiter and her moons had improved over the last century, the rates of dwarfism
were still one in four. Of course, with their compact stature and extra muscle
development due to the increased gravity of the gas giant lead to increased
strength which made them a great choice for bouncers.

One of the bouncers stepped slightly forward from
the rest and pointed his stun baton at him. “Okay hunter, there is no reason
for this to get ugly. Just lay down your weapons and come along quietly.”

Still hoping to diffuse situation, DJ raised his
hands but with the flick of his eye, he had his armor lock onto the position of
all twelve bouncers just in case he lost track of one during the impending
fight.

“What seems to be the problem dwarf…other than you
being too short to reach a light switch?”

The head bouncer grimaced at the insult but held
his ground. Lowering his tone and furrowing his brow Pridgen demanded, “Your
weapons. I won’t ask again.”

DJ ignored the bouncer and calmly ran down the
list of non-lethal weapons available to him on his armor’s HUD. He had five
capture nets, ten tranquilizer darts, ten bean bag rounds and pepper spray on
his left gauntlet. While his right gauntlet had an electroshock emitter and
three shots of sticky foam that would completely incapacitate an individual.

The longer DJ wore this armor, the more he saw
Jay’s hand in tweaking out this particular suit of CSA. The retired Master
Chief was a whiz at electronics and mechanical contraptions.

Pridgen was flustered. Never had anyone ignored
him, especially when surrounded. Either they gave up or tried to make a break
for it but never just stand there and ignore him. He twirled his baton in
circles expertly both to bolster his courage and to buy some time. Unsure of
exactly what to do, he called out once more. “Last warning hunter…lay down your
weapons and come along.”

“I thought you weren’t going to ask me again.
What’s the matter Oompa-Loompa? Can’t count?”

Not only did Pridgen see ‘red’ but so did the
other Jovians. Being called a dwarf was something that they took in stride. It
was also normal to be the butt of short jokes, all Jovians got used to it. But
being compared to the characters from the classic film of
‘Willy Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory’
was too much.

With a yell, all twelve bouncers attacked.

DJ had hoped for such a reaction. He’d seen Iaido
use a similar strategy too many times not to learn its worth. Granted it was
twelve on one but now they were angry and would easily get in each other’s way.
Waiting until almost the last second, DJ jumped straight up and engaged his
boot jets. These weren’t actually strong enough to let him fly but he could
hover for several seconds which would give him a wonderful angle for his
attacks.

His initial two targets were the ones closest to
the exit. If things went south, he wanted an unimpeded egress. With a flick of
his eye and a simple thought, he selected his weapons and fired. His first shot
was a capture net. Which is a simple and yet elegant weapon. Basically it is a
simple net of titanium alloy thread with weights on the ends designed to
entangle an opponent. These also had a small electroshock charge built in to
render captured marks unconscious. For his second attack, he chose the
electroshock emitter which produced a fair sized lightning bolt trailing out of
his right gauntlet to strike the hapless Jovian bouncer.

With two down in the first few seconds of the
fight, the remaining bouncers paused and looked up. Unfortunately for them, DJ
was on his way down. Using the increased acceleration of the fall, DJ came down
swinging. It was utter chaos. Only his armor’s AI let him keep track of the
different targets. He swung and fired non-lethal weapons at anyone stupid
enough to attack him. And just like in any bar fight, people who don’t know
what’s going on hop in on one side or the other. Within moments, the fight was
no longer contained to just DJ and the bouncers but encompassed the whole bar
and threatened to spill over into the casino and dance floor.

For a brief second, no one was attacking him which
gave DJ a chance to survey the situation and it didn’t look good. It was only a
matter of time before someone pulled a weapon and the killing would commence.
This was threatening to become a full fledge riot and he knew he had to do
something. He remembered Iaido saying something about a mob only needing a
spark to turn into a riot. Which gave him an idea.

Checking his power levels, DJ fired his jump jets
again and leapt into the air. This time he forcefully turned a full circle
while firing off his flamethrower which lit up the entire room. Pushing his
external speakers to max volume he yelled, “ENOUGH!”

The super loud sound reverberated through the bar,
mixed with the simple but effective pyrotechnics display, caused everyone to
pause.

“This does not concern you!”

As his short hover ended, DJ boldly walked toward
the biggest patron who had joined in the fight. He kept his volume loud as he
pointed his left gauntlet, the one everyone had seen the fire come from, at the
bruiser.

“This is a matter covered by intergalactic law and
the treaty of 2201 concerning a simple bounty pickup. Anyone who interferes is
subject to immediate capture and incarceration. And I’m authorized to use any
force, up to and including lethal force, to affect my capture. Do we understand
each other?”

The patron nodded his head.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you? Are we good?”

Raising his hands, the brute took a step back.
“Not my problem, dude.”

DJ turned and looked at the rest of the patrons.
Most wouldn’t even look at him as they miraculously had somewhere better to be.
Ignoring the rest, DJ moved toward the downed bouncers when an alarm went off
on his HUD. A weapon had cleared its holster somewhere behind him. Diving
forward, he tried to do one of the forward rolls he’d seen Iaido use time and
time again. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as skilled or graceful as the deadly
Myrmidon and just managed to kind of barrel roll to the side.

Drawing both of his Graver Mk7s, he scanned the
area toward the bar for the threat and didn’t find one. He did find Jagger Jax
holding a stun baton standing over top the unconscious bar patron he’d shamed
into speaking. Replacing both of his weapons, DJ moved back to stand next to
the ex-thief. “Thanks.”

Jagger Jax just smiled as he placed the baton on
the back of the unconscious patron’s neck and triggered another jolt. “Don’t
mention it.” Jax flicked the dropped Graver Mk3 to the side with the stun
baton. “He was going to shoot you in the back. I don’t like cowards.”

DJ leaned down and rolled the patron onto his
back. Scanning his face, he contacted Aeolus.

Seconds later, his ship’s AI responded. “How may I
be of service sir?”

“I’m sending you an image. Run him for warrants.”

“Right away sir.” There was a brief pause before
the Aetós’s AI responded. “That is one Harry Fisher. He has quite a rap sheet
if I might say sir. Mostly petty larceny and burglaries but he does have three
counts of arson on his record. He is currently out on bail awaiting trial on
Terra concerning a string of robberies where a homeowner was killed during one
of the crimes.”

“Any bounties?”

“Aye sir. If he is here on Titan, then he has
officially jumped bail and the credits placed for bail are now considered a
bounty.”

DJ nodded. “How much?”

“Twenty-five thousand credits, sir.”

DJ rolled the subject onto his stomach and bound
his hands with cuffs. “He’s wanted for robbery and murder back on Earth.”

Jax nodded. “Which explains why he was willing to
take a shot at you, he thought you were here for him.”

“I wasn’t but I won’t pass up the credits.” The
beginnings of an idea popped into his head and DJ looked up at the ex-thief.
“You looking for work?”

Jax shrugged. “Could be, I don’t have anywhere
better to be at the moment.”

Before DJ could respond, Jagger Jax began to shake
and quiver before falling to the side, stunned. Pridgen stepped up and put one
foot on the unconscious ex-thief. He stood there with a stun baton in each hand
and grinned. “This isn’t over between us.”

“Yes it is.” DJ calmly raised his right gauntlet
and fired a sticky foam round which struck the dwarf bouncer center mass.

Sticky foam was an ingenious device. Technically
it is considered an incapacitate form of less-than-lethal force. It consists of
various tacky and/or tenacious materials carried in a compressed form until
fired with a propellant. Once the content of the shell is exposed to oxygen, it
expands to nearly five-hundred times its compressed size, thoroughly entangling
whatever it hit. Ten seconds later the foam dries to form a hard cocoon-like
shell. The downside to the sticky foam is that once entangled, that subject is
stuck in the material until a solvent is used to dissolve the foam.