John let his anger rage unchecked as he strapped Lucy into the co-pilot seat of the Pelican. Anger at himself, anger at DEN, but mainly anger at these damn pirates. He could forgive himself, as immersing himself in these worlds during his travels was what made living in them worth it, though he would have to be more cognizant in the future of when to hold back and when to cut loose.

  He could somewhat forgive the DEN gods; they didn't make humans the way they are. They just gave John some out-of-this-world skills and wanted to enjoy a good show. They had no responsibility to end all suffering within the Omniverse.

  Pirates, though. Pirates were getting up there on his most-hated list. Not the ones who were forced into the life, like Lucy and Sandy, but the ones like that Susie woman. Ones with the powers to change how they operate, but chose not to.

  "John-sama, you have a dangerous look in your eyes," Lucy said, sounding worried.

  "I am a dangerous man," He replied, gently cupping her cheek with his hand. "Don't worry, I have it under control. You ready to go Spider hunting, or do you want me to bring you to the medical facility first?"

  "I will stay here. At least until you are ready to come back as well, my Danna." She said, leaning into his touch. They kissed for a moment, the simple contact cooling John's rage. He rested his forehead on hers, taking a few moments to just breathe.

  Right. Don't get cocky. This ship doesn't make me invincible; it just happens to have an edge over the tech in this world. I doubt it would stand up to a significant beating and keep going as a mech could.

  "Let's go. Do you want to shoot them, or shall I?" He asked, a smile forming on his face.

  The Pelican flew several miles into the air, starting its sweep for the st two pirate mechs. It didn't take long to find them, the two speedy Spiders racing along the perimeter of the mountains, trying to reach their dropships from the other entrance into the pirates' base. Lucy, wearing the copilot's helmet that was tucked under that seat, opened fire as soon as they were in range, the autocannon sved to her helmet's HUD.

  John really wanted to take vengeance on them himself, but Lucy needed this. She seemed resigned to death not long ago, then to life as an invalid. There were prosthetics they could graft onto her legs in this world, but that would take time and money, money she did not have. He could tell she was feeling helpless, so this was a way she could contribute, even though she was injured.

  The autocannon barked again and again as she pelted the mechs from about half a mile away, well outside of their medium sers' range. It didn't take her long to get used to how the gun worked, and it was quickly apparent she was better with it than even he was. She was leading the mechs properly, their nearly 100 mph speeds no match for the Pelican, which could nearly break the sound barrier while in atmospheric cruising mode. If he throttled it up, it could go much faster, but that was only meant for exiting the atmosphere and orbital flights; its frame was not designed to withstand the stresses of high-speed atmospheric flight.

  She didn't let up on the barrage, eventually bringing both mechs down, their pilots ejecting from the battered machines. A quick burst of cannon fire finished both pilots off, neither of them wanting to stop to subdue them. With the death of the st pirate, Lucy took off her helmet and unbuckled herself. With some grunting, she pulled her body forward and dropped herself on top of John's p.

  "Thank you." She whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning on his chest.

  "My pleasure, Sugar." He replied, rubbing her back with one hand while angling the Pelican back to the camp. He needed to go back to supervising the detainment of the pirates, not to mention he needed to talk with the old man. Once that was all cleared up, he would bring Lucy home.

  Flying over the dropships, John could see Trix had the situation well in hand. The first Leopard had already arrived and was disembarking the company of reserve infantry that the Bckstone Guards kept on retainer. Most of them were just miners who were in town during their off time; they were little more than civilians who had put on body armour and were given some basic firearms training. Still, for this purpose, they were more than enough to round up the already surrendered pirate crews.

  Moving the two Unions would be a more difficult proposition, as there would be a shortage of trained crews for those vessels. John would move them himself if it came down to it, confident his skill would let him at least pilot the ships, though he wasn't sure about any engineering things that would need to be done. They did have crews for a reason.

  The Old Man's Centurion was nowhere to be seen, though he could detect something in the main cave. He tried to bring him up on the radio, but got no response.

  "John. I couldn't reach him either. I was waiting for the pirates to be secured before going to check on him." Trix came across the radio.

  "Don't worry about it, I'll see to it. Just keep an eye on things here." John replied, moving the Pelican over to the other side of the mountain and back into the cave.

  James’ Centurion was seated next to the Charger, the pirate dangling from its hand actuator. Apparently, he plucked the woman up right out of her cockpit by the back of the cooling vest she wore and dragged her all the way here. That took a serious amount of skill; those fingers were each nearly the size of a human.

  Damn it! I need one of those vest for Suzy Q... wait, why would I ever get in that mech again? Maybe the Marauder?

  John set the Pelican down beside the mechs, then deposited the now-sleeping Lucy in one of the co-pilot seats and exited the craft.

  "Excuse me! Can you help him? I believe something is wrong!" The pirate woman shouted, pointing at the Centurion's cockpit. "He has not moved for about fifteen minutes now. Oh, and if you can put me down, I would appreciate it! I am losing the feeling in my arms."

  John stared at her a moment, then rushed up the jumping dder. Thankfully, it was already deployed; otherwise, he would have had a harder time getting up there.

  Crawling into the cockpit, he could see James lying over the top of his control panels, struggling to breathe. Blood and ichor covered his lips and the panels in front of him.

  "God damn it, why didn't you say it had gotten this bad? You old fool." John said, moving beside him. He knew he was getting sick, but not this sick.

  Who am I kidding? I know exactly why he didn't. I was the same way.

  *Cough, cough*

  "John. Just give me a few more minutes, and I will be right as rain."

  "Sure you will. And I will win next year's most eligible bachelor contest at the Bckcat." John said, ying his hand on the man's back. "Middle Heal!"

  Green magic flowed into the old fossil, entering his lungs. He could tell there were growths in there, tumours and other severe damage. "You got cancer, don't ya?"

  He didn't have a diagnostic tool that would tell him exactly what it was with his skill, but he could see where the damage was and make a good guess. Middle Heal could fix what remained, but it didn't seem to be doing much to the tumour itself. "Cure." Same result, though it did seem less... angry? It was a weird thing to try to describe.

  "Ahhh!!! *Cough, cough* What in the heck *Cough* Did the doctors tell you? I will string them up for that. Doctor patient confidentiality, my butt!" He replied, still coughing, but his voice was coming back stronger. "Now, what in the heck did you just do to me. I feel like I am in my eighties again all of a sudden."

  "Do you want the truth, or can I call it a magic trick and leave it at that?" John sighed.

  "Something is up with you these st few days, John. You have been more assertive than you have in years, yet more secretive." The old man stared at him with bloodshot eyes.

  "Share it with you over a beer ter? You do have a passenger princess that needs a little help right now." He pointed outside at the dangling woman, deflecting for the moment.

  "You're buying. And you deal with her, too- what in the hell is that ship?"

  "Several beers? Oh, did I mention we captured Susie Morgaine-Ryan? And two Union dropships."

  "John... you had me at several beers, you didn't need to butter me up that much." He chuckled, then yawned. "Damnit... I need to sleep all of a sudden.

  "Here, take one of these," John said, pulling out his Substance X tin. "It is an energy pill, good for about six hours, but then you will need to sleep." He popped one, then offered another to James.

  "Energy pill? At my age? Ahh, whatever, the cancer is gonna get me by the end of the year anyway. Might as well ruin the rest of this body while I am at it."

  "The woman?" John said after he put the tin away.

  "Oh, right. She is still yours to deal with. I have quite the climb ahead of me and don't have room for a passenger. She seems quite affable for a pirate. I wonder if she is in the same situation Lucy was."

  "How do you- Wait? You knew about Lucy?"

  "I am old, not blind. Seeing her reunited with her daughter was quite cathartic to me. Make sure you treat her well." James said, ughing at the expression on John's face. "Hell, man, eighty per cent of our popution are former pirates of some sort. She obviously passed whatever check you gave her. That was good enough for me to let it slide. Now, get out, I need to get moving."

  "Give me ten, and I will give you a lift."

  "More beers?"

  "More beers."

  After securing the pirate, who was actually more concerned about the old man than being captured, he brought her onto the Pelican. When he stripped her of her cooling vest, he noticed she already had a sve colr on, of a simir design to the one they used here on Bckstone. That led him to believe she was another person doing this unwillingly, so instead of tossing her in with Susie, he brought her into the cockpit with him.

  Lucy was still asleep, so he just cuffed her to the other chair in the cockpit and strapped her to the seat. He tried not to be handsy, but much like Jaina, she had some assets in the front that he couldn't help brushing against. She had to be a DD-Cup at the very least.

  She was around five and a half feet tall, with fiery red hair and a shapely build. Her blue-green heterochromatic eyes watched him as he secured her in pce, trying to make it as easy as possible for him to do his job.

  SpoilerSnagged off image search instead of trying to make AI make something else.

  [colpse]"Sir, are you not the commanding officer of this unit? Why are you handling a dezg- pirate?" She asked as he buckled the first csp.

  Dezg what? Is the nguage filter not working again?

  "No. Not yet anyway. Why do you ask?"

  "You were the pilot of that Charger, were you not? That is the rgest mech I have seen on this pnet. In fact, it is the rgest mech I have seen in quite some time."

  "I was piloting it, yes. But the old man who carried you here is the CO. He's... he will be retiring soon, and I will take his pce." He replied, finishing up the buckles.

  She has a very odd way of speaking. I can't pce the accent at all.

  "I understand. Am I now, how do you call it, your sve?" She said in a straight tone, as if she were stating that water was wet.

  "Okay. What are you talking about?"

  "Is not that what you people from this periphery do instead of taking bondsmen? That is what Major Susan Morgaine-Ryan did when she captured me."

  "Bondsmen? I haven't a clue what you are talking about..." He said, finally activating his Scouter skill during this weird conversation. Her thoughts struck him like a hammer.

  Figures, he even uses contractions like some lowborn filth. Why did our jumpship have to have that misjump? Still, maybe he can help me. I could not earn any honour with those pirates, but maybe with these Bckstone Guards I can retain what little honour I have left.

  "I am Lance Commander John Wayne, second in command of the Bckstone Guards. May I ask what your name is?" He asked.

  "I am Mia Bckwell." She said, her expression remaining the same. Her thoughts though, made his confusion run even deeper.

  Star Commander Mia Bckwell of Cn Steel Viper.

  John just blinked.

  What is Cn Steel Viper?