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| - "Alright, now you're just being an asshole," Simon said, glaring up at Ro'nin. The Sangheili mercenary just snorted. "As if I'd let you anywhere near my ship, Mordred." "There's a lot of money in this," Simon insisted. "More than either of us could imagine." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder to where Zoey was standing at the other end of the docking bay. She was staring, wide-eyed, at Ro'nin and the hulking figure behind him; when she'd said she could deal with aliens, she probably hadn't expected these specimens. "Her family is loaded," Simon explained for the umpteenth time. "All you gotta do is get us to Earth, and then we all walk away really damn rich. It's the easiest job you'll ever have!" "No, it isn't," Ro'nin growled, folding his arms over his battered armor. "And do you know why?" "Enlighten me." "Every time you get involved in a job involving us, things... how do you humans put it? Go to hell. Very, very quickly." "Oh really?" "Did we not just go through that back with the Path Walkers? We're lucky we didn't get prices on our heads after the things you pulled back there." "That was Kahn who hired you, not me," Simon protested. "We were in the same boat--" "Famul," continued Ro'nin. "We nearly got killed because you stabbed us in the back." "You wouldn't have even been there if your partner hadn't been so friggin' obsessed with going after that asshole Fira," Simon said coldly. "And for the record, I tricked Mallunus into hiring me back then. It was all part of the plan--" "You aren't fooling anyone, Mordred," Ro'nin snapped. "You only turned on Mallunus when you thought your friends were winning, and then you still made money off of it." "If you're pirate friends hadn't destroyed my shuttle, we wouldn't even be having this conversation!" "And now we have a ship and you don't. Why don't you just buy yourself a new shuttle with that money you got off of Kahn?" "Because I need it for other things. Look, this is the best deal any of us are going to get for a while the way things out here are going." Ro'nin let out a bark of laughter. "And what makes you say that, Mordred? Perhaps you're having employment problems, but the two of us are doing just fine. Right, Kenpachus?" Behind Ro'nin sat his hulking Jiralhanae partner. Kenpachus had his huge metal sword out and was busy sharpening it at the foot of their human-made shuttle. He looked like a picture of a gorilla Simon had once seen during wildlife training with the other Spartans on Onyx. The gorilla in question had been sitting down and chewing on some sort of twisted branch, and Kenpachus looked exactly like it if one replaced the branch with a massive, cleaving blade and decked the gorilla out in battle armor that was almost as scarred as the warrior underneath it. Kenpachus looked up from his sharpening. "Some more money would be good," he grunted before going back to his blade. "Like I said," Ro'nin said quickly. "We're doing just fine without getting work from humans like you." "Which explains why you two are sitting around in a human port on a human colony," Simon pointed out. He was beginning to wonder if he should just buy Zoey a ticket to Earth and have her contact him when she got there, but even with all her innocence and naivete he knew better than to trust her completely. Besides, with the Path Walkers and the UNSC on his ass, he needed the extra security that Ro'nin and Kenpachus could provide. Ro'nin glared at him. "Get out of here before that Path Walker bounty starts looking tempting." "I'd just remind them how you helped us hit their compound." "So I'd deliver a corpse." "I'm worth about twenty thousand more alive, moron." Simon's arm tensed. He didn't think Ro'nin would really go for it, but it paid not to be the trusting type. He couldn't take the Sangheili in a straight fight, but he could probably get himself and Zoey out before Kenpachus could come to his partner's aid. As if on unwanted queue, the Jiralhanae swordsman grunted and lifted himself onto his feet. Simon heard Zoey let out a small squeak behind him, and he didn't blame her. Standing in the light, with his battered armor and the scarred body underneath, he was truly a hulking figure. Each of his massive hands looked strong enough to snap a human neck between their fingers, and his trunk-like arms seemed capable of tearing holes in titanium battle plate. Of course, it would be a fatal mistake to assume that such power made him slow as well. Simon knew that once Kenpachus started swinging his oversized sword around, he could be as quick as the lithest Sangheili. "The Path Walkers are hunting him, correct?" Kenpachus rumbled at Ro'nin. "Yes, of course they are!" his partner snapped impatiently. "Why do you think he's skulking on a human world?" But Simon saw his opening and took it. "Listen guys, I've got hundreds of these guys on my tail. Do you know how hard it is to kill just one of them?" Kenpachus's eyes narrowed, as if he knew he were being baited, but he took the offering all the same. "Then he comes with us," he announced. "We get paid and we have the whole galaxy after our hides. What could be more fun?" "Do you have a death wish?" Ro'nin snarled. "The Path Walkers, Sangheili, and the humans... oh." His shoulders seemed to slump a little. Once Kenpachus was on the trail of a good fight, no force in the universe could divert his course. He snapped his glaring eyes back to Simon. "Let's hear some numbers," he grumbled. "I want something real, not your hazy promises." Simon opened his mouth to speak, but to his surprise Zoey beat him to it. "Ten million for you two once you prove that you have me for my family," she said. Her voice quavered in the presence of the two large aliens, but she kept talking regardless. "Plus ten more once I've been delivered safely." Ro'nin's reptilian eyes narrowed as he did the math. "Quite a sum. How much is Mordred getting?" "That's none of your business," Simon cut in. He was already blown away by how much money Zoey's family seemed able to throw around--Ro'nin and Kenpachus were already looking at twice of what David Kahn had been offered for the job against the Path Walkers. He didn't need Ro'nin getting any funny ideas. Ro'nin leaned back. "Very well, Mordred. We'll take you to Earth after we stop by a Sangheili colony to refuel." He waved his hand back at his ship, which was an odd hybrid of Covenant-made base and human-style add-ons. "They don't have the kinds of fuel we need on the black market here, so we'll have to hit Cordial Harmony before we can make for your homeworld." "Fine. When do we leave?" Ro'nin clicked his mandibles. "Does half a cycle work for you?"
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* "Just wait outside," Simon had told Zoey. "Act like you belong out there and don't get yourself kidnapped or anything." Alone in his apartment--or as alone as he'd ever be, thanks to Diana--Simon kicked an empty crate aside and realized he wouldn't miss this place at all. He'd only rented it in the few months since his old shuttle had been destroyed, but he'd still manage to cover the entirety of the single-room dwelling in filth and trash. There were even dark stains on the walls; broad, heinous-looking patches that hadn't been there when he'd arrived. "I always said this place was a shithole," he muttered, pushing three boxes up against the wall. It was depressing to think that almost all his worldly possessions could take up so little space, so he did what he always did with depressing subjects and didn't think about it. "If I never set foot in here again it'll be too soon." "So I'm guessing you have plans, then?" Diana piped in. "For when we're rolling in all that money Zoey's promising us, I mean." "Get my lungs fixed, for one," Simon replied, turning to a final, larger box. He tapped the light armor covering his chest. "So I don't have to worry about drowning in my own blood every time I forget to take some pills." "Oh good, something that helps you out," Diana sneered. "And where, pray tell, will we find the magical doctor who can fix you up properly? Plan on turning yourself in after all this time? Maybe you can sell out some of our contacts for a lesser sentence." "Don't even joke about that." Simon bent over the box and gave it a small push; it was heavier than the others. "I'm never going back to the UNSC. Ever. Not after what they did." He sighed and nudged the large box again. "Besides, the only sentence I can expect from them is a bullet in the head. Same with the Path Walkers, only with them it'll be a lot slower." "So when are we gonna try getting under the hood of that armor?" Diana asked. "You can really stick it to those UNSC goons by giving me access to all that classified technology they must have stuffed in there." "Yeah," Simon muttered. He glared down at the box, remembering the face of the dead Spartan; young, like him. Like Cassandra. Like Rat Pack. What the hell was the UNSC--no, what was ONI thinking, getting a whole new generation of kids like Gamma Company to fight their wars for them? Didn't they have enough minions without creating more broken killers like him? He bent down and shoved the MJOLNIR-concealing box up against the others. "We can take it apart once this job's over," he said, casting one last disgusted gaze around the apartment. "Right now, let's just stick with the tech we're familiar with." "And the disk?" Simon blinked. "What disk?" "That Covie data file. The one we got off the last job's mark, dumbass. You may not give a damn what those Path Walkers have on there, but I do. It could be worth something, right? Some more cash to pay for that lung surgery?" Simon shrugged. "It's probably just a bunch of troop deployments. Or maybe it's some Sangheili porn." "Do they even have porn?" Diana sounded fascinated. "I always thought they got aroused by swords and honor and things like that." "How the hell should I know?" "You did live with them for two years. You should have picked up on stuff like this." Simon snorted and adjusted the two energy sword hilts strapped to his chest. "I spent those two years learning how to swing their swords around, not what turns them on. Besides, Master Visag ran his keep like a monastery. If there is Sangheili smut, it didn't make its way in there." "Shame. I guess we should have looked into that sooner, seeing how many Sangheili colonies we've done jobs on." "Why the hell do you even care, anyway?" Simon demanded. "Oh, I just like getting all the intel I can on the more embarrassing bits about different species," she replied innocently. "Speaking of which, have you ever heard of blood bonding?" "No, and I don't really feel like hearing about it." Simon strode towards the door, wondering if he could get shanghai Zoey into helping him move the boxes. "You can look at that stupid disk once we're off this rock." "And on our way to yet another madcap adventure," Diana reflected. "What'll we run into this time? Savage pirates who want to kill us or savage rebels who want to kill us? Or maybe the government troops who want to kill us? The possibilities just don't end, do they?" "I know the feeling," Simon muttered. "You get used to the whole galaxy trying to kill you after a while." "I guess the trick is to not take it so personally," Diana mused. "Oh, I take it personally all right." Simon slid his helmet back over his face. "Very personally."
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