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He tried to slip past in a camo-suit but the mob was too large and he brushed against too many people. Before they swarmed him and tore the suit off of him he managed to shoot a few of the mob, fortunately with normal paralytics, but they did find several darts loaded with cyanide and nastier toxins such as sarin, which destroyed nerve endings rather than simply disabling them like the tetrodotoxin favored by Olga, which in parahumans condemned them to a slow lingering death from asphyxiation not dissimilar from the one I had faced in vacuum or at best a life of drastically limited mobility. Regardless many considered the mere possession of such toxins ample justification for the rather creative hanging they gave him, dropping him off the roof of a ceiling-scraper with some weights tied to his ankles and a rope just two meters short of the building's height around his neck. Would have been considered overkill anywhere with even a percentile of earth's gravity. Derrick's death was but one of many suffered by the Protectors Guilds all over Vesta, but unfortunately the Guilds responded in kind, enforcers brutally bashing in the skulls of protestors and filling them with neurotoxins, sometimes of the fatal variety.\n\tAmidst all this chaos Jakob Griggs had withdrawn the SPPS into their headquarters building and fortified it with armed guards and auto-turrets. After the first few rioters were gunned down they generally left the place alone, the king in his castle under siege. Meanwhile we were ourselves hunkered down at the spaceport, Olga had apparently been planning to hide us in Wolf territory but now that her Clan knew that she was the notorious blogger HoundOfGod they had made it quite clear that she was no longer welcome at home. Guess I'd screwed up a bit there. Olga had modified the ship to include a pair of retractable mini-turrets flanking the primary airlock to either side, they fended off the first attempt at invasion by a Marquez SWAT team quite adequately.\n\tThe turrets did not need to face a second invasion though, shortly after that first attempt a group of supporters began to gather around the entrance to our ship. Most of them heavily armed with a wide variety of different weapons, everything from improvised clubs made from pipes to automatic gauss rifles. With the abundance of hardware and people between us and the Guilds we decided it was necessary to disable the auto-fire on our turrets, we kept the manual override in easy reach but now we could get someone to remove the bodies from the first assault.\n\tThere were two more attempts by what appeared to be mostly Marquez troops to gain entrance to our sanctum, but the improvised militia before us drove them back both times. I'm sorry to say that there were losses incurred on our side, a ferret who caught a stray bullet in the neck, a bull who took a cosh straight through his lower jaw and into his brainpan, among others. Still this seemed to bolster their resolve, more and more flocked to our side, setting up fortifications and portable shelters in the cave that served as the main reception area of the port. It was starting to resemble a military encampment as the population of the spaceport reached the hundreds.\n\tEvery so often I left the safety of the ship to walk among my unintentionally gathered followers. I'm sure they thought it was like the messiah himself had risen from the grave to see them. For my part I did my best to smile and tried to remember not to shake hands with my right, though inevitably I forgot and cracked some fingers. I would apologize, they would say that it was no problem and that they understood that I still hadn't recovered fully from my injuries, and the next of my fans would come up to meet me.\n\tAfter three days of this siege I was sick and tired of it all, appropriately that was when the opposition decided that they wanted to negotiate. I received a message from Jakob stating that he would be sending one of his clones, along with three of the Guildmasters under his domain, to speak with me and my followers. He wanted to meet on \"neutral ground\" in the primary airlock doors separating the spaceport from the Marquez cavern. I told him that there was no such thing as neutral ground in this asteroid, and he may as well come out here to the bay. He agreed, but only on the condition that each of the representatives he was sending be allowed to bring a bodyguard. I told him that we would match each of these bodyguards one to one and if they brought too many the negotiations would be called off immediately. At that the date and time were set for the following day shortly after noon.\n\tThe day of the negotiations we set up a large table in the middle of the cave, far enough away from the camp that it would take time for our people to run up and grab the negotiators, but close enough to give everyone in camp a clear shot at everyone. Handling negotiations on our side were myself, Olga Wolf, and a horse by the name of Harvey who seemed to be one of the organizers of our little militia. Denal was acting as one of our bodyguards, somehow he'd gotten a hold of another sword like the one that had snapped off in Derrick Marquez's bodysuit, but he kept it sheathed and carried a gauss rifle loaded with armor-piercing flechettes, clearly he had learned something though I admit it wasn't much. Half an hour before the representatives were due to arrive we sat down and awaited their arrival.\n\tWe were waiting for almost two hours before they showed up. As they came up Denal and our other bodyguards held out portable IR, UV, and radar scanners to make sure they weren't accompanied by more than the four fully armored men we could see, as if they needed more. They were Jerome Marquez, Georgia Wolf, and a ram who went by the name of Nicholas Oak, all dressed in suits that I guessed concealed body armor, as well as a familiar looking savannah cat dressed in the white robe of the SPPS hierarchy. A very familiar looking savannah cat I realized as he sat down and shot me a small wink.\n\t\"Maximus?\" I exclaimed in a moment of recognition.\n\t\"Yes,\" came his reply. \"Father thought that you would be more inclined to trust the one of us you already knew best.\"\n\tI looked around at the other negotiators, Olga and her mother were staring at one another in an expression of mutual disapproval, while Jerome Marquez was shooting Denal a look that couldn't be interpreted as anything less than murderous intent. Harvey and Nicholas on the other hand seemed to be studying one another, attempting to guess one another's next move I supposed.\n\tI turned back to the Griggs representative, \"how can I be sure that you're really Maximus, there are what, six of you? And Octavius helped your dad shoot me out into space, fried my subvocal comm.\"\n\tMaximus withdrew at that accusation. \"Seriously? We knew he had some trouble passing the ethics portion of the entry exams but I didn't know he was assisting in executions.\" Noticing that everyone at the table had turned to stare at him he cleared his throat and addressed my question. \"Anyways, I could remind you that you showed me the mutation in the promoter to MOR10X-6 in the first place. Or that I was the one who told you all that stuff about sexual reproduction's benefits and gave you the backup I'd made of the data dad made you delete.\"\n\tThe others on his side of the table turned on him immediately. \"You did that?\" Jerome Marquez demanded angrily of him. \"You're the one who gave this creature the means to tear down the very foundations of the society we've worked so hard to build?\"\n\t\"When the foundation is rotten it needs to be torn down.\" Olga threw in her own comment. \"And this society is founded on the worst form of government known to humanity.\"\n\tGeorgia Wolf leaned across the table to glower at her clone. \"We have been working our hardest to treat our clients with the respect they deserve.\" She pointed to Denal, \"we even took in that murderer when he gave us evidence that he had been framed.\"\n\tDenal cowered behind his mate at this statement. Olga only laughed at it. \"Please, I know that you only decided to defend him in order to use him as a bargaining chip with the Marquez at some point.\" I could see her rolling her eyes as she further told her mother \"and I've seen some of the stuff my sisters have gotten away with.\"\n\t\"So what does Jakob want?\" I cut in, not particularly caring for this little family reunion that was interrupting the peace talks we so desperately wanted at this point.\n\t\"Right,\" Maximus started. \"He wants you all off this rock.\" I just stared at him blankly for a few seconds. \"He's chartered a fleet of passenger liners to move you and all your supporters to Ceres.\"\n\t\"An entire fleet?\" I asked incredulously. \"For just a few hundred of us? Sounds a bit expensive.\"\n\t\"It's not just the small army you have gathered here.\" Nicholas Oak finally spoke up. \"We're estimating that with all the rioters scattered across the asteroid and the non-violent followers of yours there are possibly five thousand 'reproductionists' as some of us have started to call them.\"\n\t\"Five. Thousand.\" I had no idea there were so many parahumans who believed me, much less that they were willing to fight for the right to use my invention.\n\t\"Yes.\" Max confirmed. \"And dad wants them all out of Vesta by the end of the week. So badly that he'll spend a small fortune to get them out of his way.\"\n\t\"Sounds like a very generous offer.\" I replied. \"But I'm afraid I can't go to Ceres, as I'm sure you can recall why.\"\n\t\"Then go to Hygeia or something, I don't care so long as you're not interfering with our rule over these habitats.\" Marquez's statement seemed rather angered, but it sounded sincere. Like he really thought that this was the best plan for dealing with us, which actually made me suspicious.\n\t\"We can order the ships to go anywhere within their range.\" Maximus stated. I perked up at the word \"we\". He seemed to notice because he then said, \"I'm coming with you.\" He pulled at his SPPS robe and began to tear it off. \"I no longer feel safe here.\" He said as he tossed the discarded robe to one of the bodyguards.\n\tWe stared at him in amazement as the now naked feline walked around the table to stand next to us. Our own guards training their guns on him. I turned back to the remaining Guild negotiators. \"Tell Jakob we accept his offer.\" I moved to stand up, wincing a little as the hole in my side was forced to bend. \"And I believe that concludes our meeting for today. Goodbye.\"\n\tGeorgia Wolf, Jerome Marquez, and Nicholas Oak gave us a last parting look of displeasure before getting up to leave themselves. Once they were gone Olga turned on Maximus. \"What are you thinking? You're a clone of Argen's sworn enemy entering a camp full of people who want to overthrow your father, how long do you think you'll survive here?\"\n\tMax grimaced as he tried to formulate an answer, finally he settled on. \"You're a clone of one of my dad's lapdogs, they seem to accept you just fine.\"\n\t\"They know that I'm HoundOfGod, they're well aware that I'm on their side.\" Olga responded rather emphatically. \"And for the record, house Wolf has a reputation as one of the, the…\" her gaze drifted downwards as she began to trail off. Suddenly she slammed her palm over her eyes and said. \"Somebody give him some pants, that's very distracting.\"\n\tAt this command Denal walked up behind his mate and put his arms around her possessively. A low hissing sound began to utter from his throat. Seeking to diffuse the situation I undid my kilt and held it out to Maximus. Now everyone's eyes were on me instead. \"It's not like I have anything to hide.\" I retorted. Then I moved to change the subject. \"So, Max, what's the catch that you didn't want to talk about in front of the goons?\"\n\tAs Maximus struggled to put on the kilt he spoke again. \"Well, they didn't tell me anything, but after seeing that video of yours where he confessed to engineering my grand-progenitor's demise I would expect that he somehow sabotaged the ships he chartered.\" Harvey, Denal, and two of our bodyguards mouths dropped open in shock. I had expected as much though, and if Olga was surprised she didn't show it.\n\t\"And what do you suggest we do about it?\" I asked.\n\t\"Well,\" Max shrugged. \"I do have quite a few qcoins in my personal wallet.\" He held up his wristpad, which aside from my kilt was the only thing he was wearing I might add. \"I might be able to purchase some old freighters and habitation modules to take us wherever we decide to go.\"\n\t\"Let me see.\" I told him and he pulled up the qcoin wallet on his pad. I read the number and my eyes went wide open in shock. \"This may be enough for the habitat modules and a down payment on a junker freighter to carry them, we would need a lot more to buy one outright. And it might be enough to transport 3,000 people.\"\n\t\"Well, how many ships do our supporters have?\" Denal suggested. \"We might be able to cram a dozen people into our ship, and I think we have the capacity to haul enough modules for twenty more.\"\n\t\"At the moment I'm more concerned about where we'd go. You and me cannot return to Ceres and I get the feeling that these people will want to follow us wherever we go.\"\n\t\"How about Pallas.\" We turned to Harvey, this was the first time we'd heard him speak since the negotiations began. \"It's pretty close in size to Vesta, but there's no permanent settlements due to its erratic orbit, any colonists would be cut off from the majority of the belt for months at a time.\"\n\t\"But that happens to be what we want now isn't it?\" I stated. \"But how would we get there if there's no permanent settlements?\"\n\t\"I own a small cargo hauler.\" Harvey replied. \"I think I could transport maybe fifty people in habitat modules. And to answer your question Denal the people down here have at least partial ownership of maybe five mining ships like yours and eight cargo ships of various sizes. We could load them up with habitat modules, use the mining ships to land them on the surface of Pallas, and dig tunnels for more permanent habitation, or seal up the ones already dug by prospectors.\"\n\t\"You've thought this out haven't you?\" I suggested.\n\t\"Always helps to have an escape plan.\" The horse told us. \"But if that sheep was telling the truth about there being nearly 5,000 of us out there we are going to need that freighter this clone was talking about.\" He pointed at Maximus.\n\tI looked at him as if expecting him to do something. Finally I told him, \"transfer the money to Olga, we're going shopping.\"\n","writing_bbcode_parsed":"Derrick Marquez was jumped by a flash mob as he attempted to leave the apartment he had been using to access the network from. He tried to slip past in a camo-suit but the mob was too large and he brushed against too many people. Before they swarmed him and tore the suit off of him he managed to shoot a few of the mob, fortunately with normal paralytics, but they did find several darts loaded with cyanide and nastier toxins such as sarin, which destroyed nerve endings rather than simply disabling them like the tetrodotoxin favored by Olga, which in parahumans condemned them to a slow lingering death from asphyxiation not dissimilar from the one I had faced in vacuum or at best a life of drastically limited mobility. Regardless many considered the mere possession of such toxins ample justification for the rather creative hanging they gave him, dropping him off the roof of a ceiling-scraper with some weights tied to his ankles and a rope just two meters short of the building's height around his neck. Would have been considered overkill anywhere with even a percentile of earth's gravity. Derrick's death was but one of many suffered by the Protectors Guilds all over Vesta, but unfortunately the Guilds responded in kind, enforcers brutally bashing in the skulls of protestors and filling them with neurotoxins, sometimes of the fatal variety.
\tAmidst all this chaos Jakob Griggs had withdrawn the SPPS into their headquarters building and fortified it with armed guards and auto-turrets. After the first few rioters were gunned down they generally left the place alone, the king in his castle under siege. Meanwhile we were ourselves hunkered down at the spaceport, Olga had apparently been planning to hide us in Wolf territory but now that her Clan knew that she was the notorious blogger HoundOfGod they had made it quite clear that she was no longer welcome at home. Guess I'd screwed up a bit there. Olga had modified the ship to include a pair of retractable mini-turrets flanking the primary airlock to either side, they fended off the first attempt at invasion by a Marquez SWAT team quite adequately.
\tThe turrets did not need to face a second invasion though, shortly after that first attempt a group of supporters began to gather around the entrance to our ship. Most of them heavily armed with a wide variety of different weapons, everything from improvised clubs made from pipes to automatic gauss rifles. With the abundance of hardware and people between us and the Guilds we decided it was necessary to disable the auto-fire on our turrets, we kept the manual override in easy reach but now we could get someone to remove the bodies from the first assault.
\tThere were two more attempts by what appeared to be mostly Marquez troops to gain entrance to our sanctum, but the improvised militia before us drove them back both times. I'm sorry to say that there were losses incurred on our side, a ferret who caught a stray bullet in the neck, a bull who took a cosh straight through his lower jaw and into his brainpan, among others. Still this seemed to bolster their resolve, more and more flocked to our side, setting up fortifications and portable shelters in the cave that served as the main reception area of the port. It was starting to resemble a military encampment as the population of the spaceport reached the hundreds.
\tEvery so often I left the safety of the ship to walk among my unintentionally gathered followers. I'm sure they thought it was like the messiah himself had risen from the grave to see them. For my part I did my best to smile and tried to remember not to shake hands with my right, though inevitably I forgot and cracked some fingers. I would apologize, they would say that it was no problem and that they understood that I still hadn't recovered fully from my injuries, and the next of my fans would come up to meet me.
\tAfter three days of this siege I was sick and tired of it all, appropriately that was when the opposition decided that they wanted to negotiate. I received a message from Jakob stating that he would be sending one of his clones, along with three of the Guildmasters under his domain, to speak with me and my followers. He wanted to meet on "neutral ground" in the primary airlock doors separating the spaceport from the Marquez cavern. I told him that there was no such thing as neutral ground in this asteroid, and he may as well come out here to the bay. He agreed, but only on the condition that each of the representatives he was sending be allowed to bring a bodyguard. I told him that we would match each of these bodyguards one to one and if they brought too many the negotiations would be called off immediately. At that the date and time were set for the following day shortly after noon.
\tThe day of the negotiations we set up a large table in the middle of the cave, far enough away from the camp that it would take time for our people to run up and grab the negotiators, but close enough to give everyone in camp a clear shot at everyone. Handling negotiations on our side were myself, Olga Wolf, and a horse by the name of Harvey who seemed to be one of the organizers of our little militia. Denal was acting as one of our bodyguards, somehow he'd gotten a hold of another sword like the one that had snapped off in Derrick Marquez's bodysuit, but he kept it sheathed and carried a gauss rifle loaded with armor-piercing flechettes, clearly he had learned something though I admit it wasn't much. Half an hour before the representatives were due to arrive we sat down and awaited their arrival.
\tWe were waiting for almost two hours before they showed up. As they came up Denal and our other bodyguards held out portable IR, UV, and radar scanners to make sure they weren't accompanied by more than the four fully armored men we could see, as if they needed more. They were Jerome Marquez, Georgia Wolf, and a ram who went by the name of Nicholas Oak, all dressed in suits that I guessed concealed body armor, as well as a familiar looking savannah cat dressed in the white robe of the SPPS hierarchy. A very familiar looking savannah cat I realized as he sat down and shot me a small wink.
\t"Maximus?" I exclaimed in a moment of recognition.
\t"Yes," came his reply. "Father thought that you would be more inclined to trust the one of us you already knew best."
\tI looked around at the other negotiators, Olga and her mother were staring at one another in an expression of mutual disapproval, while Jerome Marquez was shooting Denal a look that couldn't be interpreted as anything less than murderous intent. Harvey and Nicholas on the other hand seemed to be studying one another, attempting to guess one another's next move I supposed.
\tI turned back to the Griggs representative, "how can I be sure that you're really Maximus, there are what, six of you? And Octavius helped your dad shoot me out into space, fried my subvocal comm."
\tMaximus withdrew at that accusation. "Seriously? We knew he had some trouble passing the ethics portion of the entry exams but I didn't know he was assisting in executions." Noticing that everyone at the table had turned to stare at him he cleared his throat and addressed my question. "Anyways, I could remind you that you showed me the mutation in the promoter to MOR10X-6 in the first place. Or that I was the one who told you all that stuff about sexual reproduction's benefits and gave you the backup I'd made of the data dad made you delete."
\tThe others on his side of the table turned on him immediately. "You did that?" Jerome Marquez demanded angrily of him. "You're the one who gave this creature the means to tear down the very foundations of the society we've worked so hard to build?"
\t"When the foundation is rotten it needs to be torn down." Olga threw in her own comment. "And this society is founded on the worst form of government known to humanity."
\tGeorgia Wolf leaned across the table to glower at her clone. "We have been working our hardest to treat our clients with the respect they deserve." She pointed to Denal, "we even took in that murderer when he gave us evidence that he had been framed."
\tDenal cowered behind his mate at this statement. Olga only laughed at it. "Please, I know that you only decided to defend him in order to use him as a bargaining chip with the Marquez at some point." I could see her rolling her eyes as she further told her mother "and I've seen some of the stuff my sisters have gotten away with."
\t"So what does Jakob want?" I cut in, not particularly caring for this little family reunion that was interrupting the peace talks we so desperately wanted at this point.
\t"Right," Maximus started. "He wants you all off this rock." I just stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "He's chartered a fleet of passenger liners to move you and all your supporters to Ceres."
\t"An entire fleet?" I asked incredulously. "For just a few hundred of us? Sounds a bit expensive."
\t"It's not just the small army you have gathered here." Nicholas Oak finally spoke up. "We're estimating that with all the rioters scattered across the asteroid and the non-violent followers of yours there are possibly five thousand 'reproductionists' as some of us have started to call them."
\t"Five. Thousand." I had no idea there were so many parahumans who believed me, much less that they were willing to fight for the right to use my invention.
\t"Yes." Max confirmed. "And dad wants them all out of Vesta by the end of the week. So badly that he'll spend a small fortune to get them out of his way."
\t"Sounds like a very generous offer." I replied. "But I'm afraid I can't go to Ceres, as I'm sure you can recall why."
\t"Then go to Hygeia or something, I don't care so long as you're not interfering with our rule over these habitats." Marquez's statement seemed rather angered, but it sounded sincere. Like he really thought that this was the best plan for dealing with us, which actually made me suspicious.
\t"We can order the ships to go anywhere within their range." Maximus stated. I perked up at the word "we". He seemed to notice because he then said, "I'm coming with you." He pulled at his SPPS robe and began to tear it off. "I no longer feel safe here." He said as he tossed the discarded robe to one of the bodyguards.
\tWe stared at him in amazement as the now naked feline walked around the table to stand next to us. Our own guards training their guns on him. I turned back to the remaining Guild negotiators. "Tell Jakob we accept his offer." I moved to stand up, wincing a little as the hole in my side was forced to bend. "And I believe that concludes our meeting for today. Goodbye."
\tGeorgia Wolf, Jerome Marquez, and Nicholas Oak gave us a last parting look of displeasure before getting up to leave themselves. Once they were gone Olga turned on Maximus. "What are you thinking? You're a clone of Argen's sworn enemy entering a camp full of people who want to overthrow your father, how long do you think you'll survive here?"
\tMax grimaced as he tried to formulate an answer, finally he settled on. "You're a clone of one of my dad's lapdogs, they seem to accept you just fine."
\t"They know that I'm HoundOfGod, they're well aware that I'm on their side." Olga responded rather emphatically. "And for the record, house Wolf has a reputation as one of the, the…" her gaze drifted downwards as she began to trail off. Suddenly she slammed her palm over her eyes and said. "Somebody give him some pants, that's very distracting."
\tAt this command Denal walked up behind his mate and put his arms around her possessively. A low hissing sound began to utter from his throat. Seeking to diffuse the situation I undid my kilt and held it out to Maximus. Now everyone's eyes were on me instead. "It's not like I have anything to hide." I retorted. Then I moved to change the subject. "So, Max, what's the catch that you didn't want to talk about in front of the goons?"
\tAs Maximus struggled to put on the kilt he spoke again. "Well, they didn't tell me anything, but after seeing that video of yours where he confessed to engineering my grand-progenitor's demise I would expect that he somehow sabotaged the ships he chartered." Harvey, Denal, and two of our bodyguards mouths dropped open in shock. I had expected as much though, and if Olga was surprised she didn't show it.
\t"And what do you suggest we do about it?" I asked.
\t"Well," Max shrugged. "I do have quite a few qcoins in my personal wallet." He held up his wristpad, which aside from my kilt was the only thing he was wearing I might add. "I might be able to purchase some old freighters and habitation modules to take us wherever we decide to go."
\t"Let me see." I told him and he pulled up the qcoin wallet on his pad. I read the number and my eyes went wide open in shock. "This may be enough for the habitat modules and a down payment on a junker freighter to carry them, we would need a lot more to buy one outright. And it might be enough to transport 3,000 people."
\t"Well, how many ships do our supporters have?" Denal suggested. "We might be able to cram a dozen people into our ship, and I think we have the capacity to haul enough modules for twenty more."
\t"At the moment I'm more concerned about where we'd go. You and me cannot return to Ceres and I get the feeling that these people will want to follow us wherever we go."
\t"How about Pallas." We turned to Harvey, this was the first time we'd heard him speak since the negotiations began. "It's pretty close in size to Vesta, but there's no permanent settlements due to its erratic orbit, any colonists would be cut off from the majority of the belt for months at a time."
\t"But that happens to be what we want now isn't it?" I stated. "But how would we get there if there's no permanent settlements?"
\t"I own a small cargo hauler." Harvey replied. "I think I could transport maybe fifty people in habitat modules. And to answer your question Denal the people down here have at least partial ownership of maybe five mining ships like yours and eight cargo ships of various sizes. We could load them up with habitat modules, use the mining ships to land them on the surface of Pallas, and dig tunnels for more permanent habitation, or seal up the ones already dug by prospectors."
\t"You've thought this out haven't you?" I suggested.
\t"Always helps to have an escape plan." The horse told us. "But if that sheep was telling the truth about there being nearly 5,000 of us out there we are going to need that freighter this clone was talking about." He pointed at Maximus.
\tI looked at him as if expecting him to do something. Finally I told him, "transfer the money to Olga, we're going shopping."
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