Just the Fiction: Notorious Actual Play - Finale
Malachi struggled his way back to Skab's palace. The Targ Cartel had increased the number of guards at the town entries, probably due to the recent battle between the empire and uprising
A guard stopped Malachi by grabbing his arm as he tried to limp past. "Where you going Pellucid? Are you deaf? Did you not hear me telling you to stop?"
Malachi looked at the Targ's large hand wrapped around his arm the met the gaze of Targ. "I am only going to ask you once to let me go."
Another Targ nearby rushed over and whispered into the ear of the guard holding Malachi. The guard instantly released him. "Just because you're a Nomad doesn't mean you don't have to follow our rules."
Malachi ignored the comment and made his way into the town. He remembered seeing a clinic here on his last visit and headed there.
He found the small clinic, it's sign nearly unreadable after being blasted by sandstorms. Without hesitation he burst through the door and went straight to the desk, ignored everyone in line waiting their turn.
"I need a medic."
"You need to get in line," an anonymous voice cried out.
"I'm a nomad. Get me the medic"
The medic's human assistant looked Malachi square in the eyes, "I don't care if you are the emperor himself. It doesn't look like your dying. Get in line."
Unwilling to cause a greater scene, Malachi headed towards the back of the line.
Another human whispered, "I thought Pellucid's were immortal and didn't get sick. Like walking statues."
---
Malachi had to wait hours to be seen. He nearly lost consciousness as the heat of the day cooked the inside of the clinic. Finally the medic brought him back to see her.
"Interesting, I only get to examine Murians and Humans all day. Congrats, you're my first ever Pellucid," she said in an upbeat manner. "What's the issue?"
Malachi removed his robe, revealing the deep gash across his chest. "This cut here. And I am having more and more trouble with the heat here. Headaches."
"Wow, this wound is pretty deep. Must have been something really sharp that caused this." The medic ran a scanning device over the wound then over Malachi's face and head. "Your outer crystallization is thinner and your crystal regeneration rate is a magnitude less than normal for a Pellucid. Did you suffer a disease a some point?
"Radiation."
"Interesting. Let me note this down." The medic began furiously typing on a data pad. "Look, you need rest. That is all I can offer you. The heat here is doing your crystals no favors. In fact, I think your are risking death if you keep spending time out there in the sun."
"I've got work to do, Doc. I have to take the risk."
"Then do it at night, Nomad," said the medic, shaking her head. "Patients are so damn stubborn."
Malachi began putting his robe back on, "Hey Doc, you don't happen to know a Murian named Tulu Suluun?"
"This is the best Murian clinic on Talus, of course I know Tulu. He's bad news. Thinks he's the biggest, baddest Murian on Talus, it's all show. Wait, is he your target?"
"No ma'am. I just needed to speak with him."
The medic looked slightly disappointed at that. "I saw Tulu last night, he being his usual loud self at the cantina. I overheard him say he was headed to the spaceport today."
"Spaceport? Thanks Doc." Malachi left a stack of credits on the counter and rushed out the door.
---
A large dust storm had roiled up in the desert as Malachi approached a wide chasm in the desert. There was a large metal bridge that spanned this canyon, not heavy duty enough to handle a scrapcrawler but it looked more than sturdy enough to be crossed on foot. The storm obscured the view to the other side and the wind was only getting stronger. Malachi began to think he should have followed the doctor's orders.
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| Photo by Artin Bakhan on Unsplash |
"No turning back now," he thought as he stepped up on the bridge.
Suddenly blaster fire rang out from the obscured side of the bridge, forcing the Nomad to seek cover behind a small boulder at the edge of the canyon. Malachi had to squeeze his arms and legs close to his body to not give any targets to his attacker on the other side of the canyon.
For a moment the blaster fire stopped and Malachi slowly turned his head around the far side of the boulder in hopes of seeing the gunman. The dust storm made it impossible to see across the canyon though. The blaster fire erupted again as shots hit the boulder just inches from Malachi's face.
"Tulu Suluun! Is that you?" Malachi yelled as loud as he could.
The blast fire stopped. "Yeah? You the Nomad?" A Murian's voice traveled back across the canyon.
"Yes!" Malachi responded. "I'm not here to hurt you. You are not my contract if that's what you believe."
"I know," responded the Murian, his yell barely audible above the wind. "You see, I'm going to get that bounty before you! Everyone knows I could use the money and it's my ticket into the Cartel! I was hoping to blow this bridge before you caught up with me. You move pretty fast though."
"Wait! Perhaps we can make a deal, something that benefits…"
Blaster fire peppered the boulder again, causing Malachi to tense up and press against the stone. He was pinned down. If Tulu was really going to blow the bridge, there was no way Malachi could beat him to the spaceport. The Nomad had to do something.
Malachi closed his eyes, focused his thoughts inward, and reach out with mystic powers. He could sense Tulu, just on the other end of the bridge, an optical turret set up besides him, and a thermite explosive half attached to the bridge support.
Malachi concentrated, he wanted to use the power to pull the turret over and pull the bomb off of the support. However, the control of his power slid beyond his means and everything on the other side of the canyon got pulled, suddenly and violently. Malachi sensed the horror within the Murian as he was pulled along with all his gear over the edge of the canyon. A scream amongst the howling wind for just a second, then Malachi sensed no other life in the area.
The Nomad stood up slowly, let the guilt wash over him and disappeared in to the dust as he crossed the bridge.
---
As Malachi walked through the Vas Babas Spaceport, he was reminded of the joy he once found in these places. While working with the Trade Federation, he had seen a hundred spaceports. The Pellucid used to relish in the observations of people and their emotions, reunions and farewells, sadness and excitement. Those memories of a past life feel more like grief than nostalgia.
Malachi found his way to the back corridors and tunnels of the spaceport. Places where only authorized personnel needed to be. He found an unoccupied office with a terminal and sat down to peruse the files on the computer system.
He found a manifest of all current ships docked at the spaceport and as expected, none are registered to a Kwame Devine. However one name did catch the Nomad's attention, Cardenes d'Rout.
Cardenes d'Rout was an executive and member of the Trade Alliance's council board. Malachi knew this because d'Rout was the chief executive over the new acquisitions department in which Malachi was employed. Malachi had met d'Rout on multiple occasions and d'Rout even wrote a letter of recommendation for Malachi when he applied for a promotion. The only problem with seeing his name on the manifest was, d'Rout is supposed to be dead.
Years before Ivee left Malachi on that forsaken planet, d'Rout and 11 other Trade Alliance employees went missing during a test flight of a new Trade Alliance cruiser. The search was massive, incorporating the help of Old Empire resources, hundreds of systems were systematically searched for any evidence of the ship. After a year of no new evidence, the crew and d'Rout were presumed dead.
The Nomad's mind raced. Ivee mentioned that Devine was working with the Trade Alliance but he did not say anything about Cardenes d'Rout. Was d'Rout still alive? The pieces were not fitting together for Malachi.
Wasting no time, Malachi hurried to the port exterior and found the Blue Spark, the ship listed under d'Rout. A shadowy figure was walking up the ramp and entered the ship. Malachi readied his rifle and quickly ascended the ramp into the ship's cargo hold.
"Halt! I have you sighted Devine!" Malachi said with his aim in the square of shadow's back. "Put your hands up and turn around slowly."
The man complied and once Malachi saw his face, he confirmed he had finally found Kwame Devine.
"Malachi Das? Is that you?" Devine said with his hands resting on top of his head.
"Don't move! Don't talk like you know me! As a Nomad of the guild, I hereby apprehend you legally under the terms of the guild contract. Come peacefully."
"I do know you Malachi," responded Devine. "Ever since you closed that deal with the Kimano, I knew you were special. I could sense the mystic power within you. Even when you didn't. That's why I sent you to do the deal."
"Wait..." That voice. It all made sense to Malachi now in a strange way. Cardenes d'Rout wasn't just involved with Kwame Devine. He was Kwame Devine! Malachi lowered his weapon. "Cardenes? How are you alive? What are you doing here? Why do you look different? Are you a smuggler?"
"Easy kid. One question at a time." Devine slowly lowered his hands, palms out to show no aggression. "To answer your first question, yes I am Cardenes d'Rout, your old boss. I look different thanks to an appearance augmentation procedure."
"You disappeared. What happened? Did you fake your own death?"
"It was all truly an accident. The test ship went wonky when we tried the interstellar drive. We ended up in an uncharted system in the fringe and crash landed on the only habitable planet in the system. Only 3 of us survived the crash. I'm the only one who survived long enough to picked up by some explorers. Sheer luck that I am alive, to be honest."
"Why didn't you contact anyone, Cardenes?"
"How many people get a chance to start anew Malachi? I didn't want to work at a desk until I died a bitter old man. Making decisions that impoverished some so that others could be wealthy. The emotions of the accident invigorated me, excited me, changed me. I reinvented myself and became Kwame Devine, smuggler extraordinaire." Devine bowed. "And I would have never have believed you of all people becoming a Nomad. I mean, I don't doubt your talent one bit. It just feels like destiny at this point, don't it?"
"But why run with the Cartel? They're ruthless. Obviously you pissed them off enough to hire me."
"They are ruthless. I always refused their offers for runs. I once saw them murder a whole loading crew for refusing them. I wasn't about to work with people like that, so I ran jobs mainly for Red Moon and Trade Alliance. Finally, the Cartel took my ship from me and held me as a prisoner for a few days until I agreed to make a run for them. Do you want to know what the shipment was? Nerve gas. To be delivered to a populated spaceport in a central Empire territory. They hoped a terrorist attack on a governed planet would reduce Empire pressure on Talus. Fuckin' monsters they are. I dumped the load out in space and detonated it. Next thing I know, I got a Nomad chasing me."
"Kind of a dumb move of you come to Talus with the Cartel after your head."
"I was actually planning to kill Skab, but the Empire and Uprising got the Cartel all on edge now. No one is getting close to Skab at this point." Devine raised his hands above his head again, "What about you? You have your code right? I'll come peacefully because I don't want to fight you. I always liked you Malachi. But you do know what the Targs will do with me, so I place my fate in your hands."
Malachi holstered his rifle. "Put your hands down Devine. I suggest you get off planet, find a new name, get a new face again, and never come across another Nomad for the rest of your days."
Malachi stepped off the ship and made preparations himself to get back to his ship and get off Talus as soon as he could. This place had a strange way of making him break the Nomad code.
THE END
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This fan fiction was generated from my playthrough of Notorious.
You can find my review of Notorious here.
You can find Notorious through this affiliate link if you want to force Drive Thru RPG to give me some pennies when you buy something.
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