Planet Leviathan

^{Chapter 11} Payback Time

Skin immediately started freaking out and asking what was going on. Stacia, on the other hand, didn’t even bother to give the marines a second look, even as they came up to her and removed every single one of her weapons all the way down to the sonic blade. Instead, she was taking in the features of the room, making sure she had ever detail.

There were a number of tables that had been shoved aside into one corner, leading Stacia to think that this place might be used as a communal food hall. Or maybe it was Roo-Soh’s equivalent of the bar back in Hobbes. There were no naked people dancing in here, though, and no sign that these Shellheads were here to let loose some steam. Hanging from the walls on Stacia’s left she saw a large number of what looked like maintenance tools, ranging from rough chisels to extra ladders and a number of sinewy ropes with hooks on the end. It made sense that the people here would need to regularly check for and repair any damage from the tremors, and that this might require some level of acrobatics and skill with ropes.

Stacia nodded almost imperceptibly to herself. No one seemed to notice, not even all the people looking like they wanted any excuse they could get to blow her head off.

“I’m sorry,” Cobble said. One of the Shellheads had already pulled her off to the side and had his 808 pointed at her.

“Let me guess,” Stacia said. “Lexton’s people got here shortly before we did?”

“Early last night,” Cobble said.

“And maybe they’re holding someone close to you? Someone to guarantee that you would cooperate and lead me into a trap.”

“They have my husbands.”

“That’s okay. I understand. I promise, I won’t kill you after I’ve finished killing all of them. I can’t guarantee that you won’t bleed out from your injuries, though.”

Cobble looked confused. “Um, thank you?”

“Actually, given the mess she left behind in Hobbes, I’d take that seriously,” someone said from just outside the door. Faust stepped in. In one hand, he had a plasma pistol. With the other, he pushed in Stanton Borealis.

Stacia had never actually seen the younger Borealis in person. The few pictures she had seen made him look handsome, if someone was into tall and lanky and angular. It was kind of difficult to tell that now, though, as his face was marred with blue and purple splotches where he’d met the business end of someone’s fist. She presumed that someone was Faust, but there was no way to tell how many other enemies the man had made so far on this planet.

“Faust. Good to see you again,” Stacia said. “I was looking forward to eventually ripping out your spleen. I didn’t think I’d get to do it so soon.”

“Miss X-79. The feeling’s mutual.”

“I’m assuming Lexton isn’t far away?”

“You assume wrong,” Faust said. “She’d be happier if she were around to witness you get what’s coming for betraying her, but she’s not stupid. On the off chance that you figure out a way out of this, she’d rather not be within firing range again.”

“So she sends you instead. Guess that tells us what she thinks of you.”

“It says that she knows I can do the job by myself.”

“I’m sure it does.” She nodded in Borealis’s direction. “Whatever happened to having someone kill him that couldn’t be directly tied to Lexton?”

“She figured screw it. Originally, what she wanted was to take out Borealis and everyone else in Roo-Soh that advocated for Skins and Shellheads being equal, then slowly absorb the rest back into Hobbes. Mostly the Skins. She didn’t want any Galactic Marines that might turn on her, while the Skins could just be, well, skinned immediately with no little trouble. The Skin of Hobbes would probably even welcome it. It would give them a reprieve for a while.”

“Wait, what?” Cobble asked. “None of that was part of the…”

“Hey, you know what’s kind of fun about this planet?” Faust asked Stacia. “They don’t have the same knowledge of literature and pop culture that we do. So they don’t see inevitable things like betrayal coming.” Faust nodded to one of his Shellheads, who turned and casually shot Cobble in the stomach with a plasma pistol.

“Yeah, I saw that one coming,” Stacia said.

Cobble dropped to her knees on the floor. The Shellhead must not have had the intensity on his plasma pistol turned up all the way, because that shot should have immediately melted every organ in that woman’s gut. Instead, the outer skin was burned away, leaving most of the organs intact. The plasma had cauterized the wound, meaning that Cobble might actually live rather than bleed to death. Assuming she found a way to keep her intestines from spilling out. Cobble collapsed to the floor on her back as though she instinctively knew this.

“What happens now?” Skin asked timidly.

“Now we kill you, Borealis, and every person in Roo-Soh that we can’t herd back to be used in Hobbes.” Faust stopped and stared at Stacia’s impassive face for a long time. “Does any of that bother you?”

“No, not really.”

“You don’t care that you’re about to die? Or your friend?”

Stacia nodded toward Skin. “It’s a shame about her, but otherwise, no. I don’t know any of the people in this town. And I didn’t think I was going to live too long on Leviathan anyway. All that really matters to me is that Stanton here goes down with me.”

Faust smiled. “Rather pragmatic in your vengeance, aren’t you.”

“Why?” Stanton asked. His voice was hoarse and slurred thanks to his beating, but Stacia understood him just fine. “Why would you want to kill me? I haven’t done anything.”

“Everyone who’s on this planet has done something to be here,” Stacia said, then thought about it. “Okay, maybe not everyone. But you didn’t just accidently show up in orbit over Leviathan and then happen to crash land.”

“It was part of a protest! I was trying to bring attention to the fact that there were people on this planet who were innocent.”

“But you didn’t know that for certain.”

“No, no one did, but we do now! Stacia, I’ve heard of you. I know who your mothers are. Is this really what they would want you to do? Kill someone who was trying to do good and ignore all the people in Hobbes being treated like cattle?”

“Don’t presume to know what my mothers would and would not want me to do.”

“Everyone, aim your weapons directly at Miss X-79’s head,” Faust said. Although a few of them looked confused by the order, every Shellhead in the room followed his directions.

“What’s that about?” Stacia asked.

“You’re going to die. No way around that. But how would you like to still get your revenge?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Stacia asked.

“No, not at all.” Faust took one of the plasma pistols back from a Shellhead and held it out to Stacia handle first. “Here. Go ahead. Take it.”

Careful not to spook any of the Shellheads that might have itchy trigger fingers, Stacia took it.

“You can go ahead and kill him,” Faust said. “Immediately after you pull the trigger, my people will blow your own head off. If you try to turn and aim at someone else, they will also blow your head off. Either way, your head’s about to disappear. My advice to you would be to take advantage of this to get one last moment of enjoyment.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m going to enjoy any of this.”

“Satisfaction, then.”

For several seconds, every single person in the room was still and quiet, with the only exception being Cobble moaning on the floor. Slowly, Stacia raised the plasma pistol and put the barrel directly against Stanton’s forehead. He closed his eyes.

“Stacia, no! Don’t!”

“Skin, stay out of this.”

“But he didn’t do anything.”

“I already told you. This isn’t about anything he did. It’s about what his mother did.”

“He’s innocent, though!”

“We’re all about to die anyway. Why does it matter which one of us pulls the trigger on him?”

“Stacia, I’ve only known you for two days, but I know this can’t be the real you. You believed in the Galactic Marines. You felt you had an honor and a duty to help people.”

“Skin, stop. Just stop. I told you before, there’s still more to this than I told you.”

“Then tell me now! Make me understand!”

“God damn it, Skin. You really want to understand?”

“Yes.”

“Really really?”

“Yes!”

“Fine then. Here’s the truth.”

Stacia ducked and swept her leg out in front of her, tripping Stanton and sending him sprawling on the floor. She’d counted on the Shellhead’s complacency to lull them into a false sense of security while she and Skin argued, and thankfully, most of them obliged her. Two of the Shellheads, however, tracked her with their weapons as she dropped and fired. Stacia rolled out of the way, knocking down two more of the Shellheads at the same time. She felt a sharp, exploding pain as one of the bullets shredded her left ear, yet she suppressed her cry. Instead, she rolled to her feet, hit Faust in the face, and then fired five times at the Shellheads still on their feet. She got three in the head. One she hit in the chest, which sent him flying backward even though his armor absorbed most of the blast. With Faust on the floor, most of the Shellheads either dead or knocked out on the floor, and the rest rushing out through the door before Stacia could take them out, Stacia stood in the center of the carnage and nodded in appreciation at her own handiwork.

“Whuh?” Skin asked. She herself had ducked and run out of the way, hiding in a corner until Stacia’s brief flurry of violence was finished. “Huh? I don’t understand.”

Stacia ignored her, instead walking calmly over to Stanton as he stared unbelievingly up at her from the floor. Stacia still had the pistol in one hand, but she kept it pointed well away from her target. Instead, she offered him the other hand to help him up.

“Stanton, your mother sent me. I’m here to get you off this shit-hole of a planet.”