RidOv Chpt-33

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==Ridiculously Overboard!! (A Captain Roberts Tale!!)Chapter 33 - Liberation==
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===Fighting a underage Manei Domini===
Former SLDF Prison, Devil's Breath - Outworlds Wastes, Periphery
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They'd apparently...
...gotten the only Battle armored platoon with their pants down, the rest of the base was manned by most of a company of mixed infantry and a small aviation section.
"I was going to let some of you live." the cyborg said, "Then I got a look in the cells." her tone was flat.
To Doakes, the under-aged Manei Domini in front of him was a nightmare made flesh-a thing that shouldn't be.
That thing, was walking toward him, drawing a vibro-cutlass along what should have been a secure escape corridor to the shuttles.
It wasn't.
"I was going to let you live, to answer questions...then, I saw what you had in the cells." she repeated, walking forward inexorably.
"I'm trying to be a better person." she added. and the cutlass whipped up under his chin. he could feel the faint vibration stop. "We're gonna make it hurt, okay?" she told him, "And maybe if you talk, I can make the hurting stop, and maybe if you don't, I'll draw it out and see how long I can keep you alive, how much pain you can express, doesn't that sound like fun? You, me...and a dull blade? I wonder if I can make you die a year at a time, in seconds...if I can become the leading expert on pain, and write a nice monograph?" 
She slashed, pulsing the blade just enough to tear tender skin under his chin. "OOOWWW"
"I know, it hurts..." she said, "but tell me, how does it feel??"
Her knee came up, lifting his feet from the floor and impacting something decidedly sensitive hard enough to rupture tissue.
His breath gone as her fist gripped his shoulder. "What does it feel like, Mister Doakes?" she asked in a plaintive, childish tone, "I know it hurts. we can do this for days, with the facilities here, weeeks even, would you like to? because after what you've done to those people downstairs, I think we should see how you like it!!"
He was sobbing, babbling, begging. In a part of his mind, Doakes realized he was spilling everything.
Eventually, he blacked out.
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===Looking for a Ride Out===
Laird General Buellin had...
"Well, we have two mark sevens now, and seventy eight passengers to pass over to the group." Seron stated.
"Seventy seven." Amanda stated.
"Seventy...seven, you killed him?"
"No. I strapped him down in one of the wards with automatics. He's on life support, and nerve stimulus." she stated, "we're going to leave him for his boss to find. I assume the stocks in the medbay and the automatics can keep him alive that long...and in pain, until his buddies find him." she was pulling her eyelids over her false eye as she spoke tonelessly. "It's not the full measure of justice, but it's the best I can do...most of these people need a proper hospital, counseling, help."
Seron nodded silently. 
Amanda turned, and keyed the prison's comm-channel. "Larry? You in range yet?"
"We're in range, you called down the whole bundle, Captain?"
"Have Bedwyr find space for two Mark VIIs, and we're going to need room for seventy six traumatized civilians, some of them have bombs, so it's going to be a delay while I do some bomb disarming, tell Lori to call her friends and let them know what we dug up down here, it appears that the Sons of Plunder have more than a single battalion, and they've got resources...also, you'll find contact address for President Avellar. I want Lori to arrange a direct link when I come back up, full service with digital packets. The President needs to know what someone has been doing to our citizens, what they've been getting away with doing to our citizens."
She wiped tears from her one good eye clumsily. "Am I clear, Larry?? They all need to know."
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===Rage of source of the Victims===
The rage reached the...
...rest of the ship as they brought up the victims from the former prison. It extended to the rest of the task-force when those victims were transferred to the Yoshiro's Fortune.
"None of these were from Northsun...christ." Supervisor Todd Siegert almost whispered. "They're from..."
"They're from inside the Outworlds Alliance. Border worlds." Amanda told him, "Yeah...imagine what they've been doing to YOUR folks."
"I don't want to. God in heaven..." the recordings she'd taken, and the upload from the Prison's databases, played on screens aboard the Jumpship.
"It's too big now." she said, "I'm calling in whatever help we can get from the central government, and the...the Clan, because we have to end this. That means we need more than we have. So...new orders, take them to Northsun and hand them over to the Ravens or OMC when they get to you."
"You're not coming?"
"There's another site on Joan's Post," she said, "but you've got the JumpShip with the Dropship Collars, and I don't. We have to put an end to this."
"I have a better idea. Call them in here." he said, "We give them their people back-" he looked at the playback, "And they'll see it."
"that's...actually a really good plan." she said. "Let's do that."
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===A Patriot is Rewarded===
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"Mister President, this can't wait, we know they're larger than anyone thought." On the monitor, Amanda Roberts looked haggard and drawn, aged right past the end of teens and early twenties to a hard-used thirty.
"The Touman is already working the other side of your operations plan, Captain." he said, "This does change things. I will ask Khan Crowe to have a hospital ship with escorts come to collect those victims at the site, and take charge of your...prisoner. After which, you can proceed forward with the assistance of a full task force, I'll find one to send."
"Thank you, Mister President, sir." she said, and raised a hand to salute in the Outworlds manner.
"We're going to have to fix that-you're a patriot." he observed.
"I do my best, sir." she said.
"I'm chopping you a commission and a letter of marque, Director Roberts. You're doing the job, you might as well get the pay. Inform Section Leader Todd Siegert that his rank has been adjusted accordingly, and Section Leader Nichols. I'm sending over the paperwork now."
"Thank you, sir, I'm honored to serve." she said. "I wish...things were more like the stories and less...horrifying, Sir."
"Making a better world takes work, Director Roberts." He told her, "Do the best you can, and I don't mind if you keep calling yourself 'Captain'." he smiled, "We should always try to remember our dreams."
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