Ranchers of the Storm

[Darth Osano]

Pollux and the rest of the Syndicate hired guns slowed their speeder bikes down and came to a complete halt some thirty or forty feet away from Vulgrim. Their reason for stopping short was two fold: one was that Vulgrim was currently in a state of bloodlust and was single handedly thrashing the Fulcrum goons. The Sullustan's face had become unrecognizable, like ground meat, and his swoop bike remained hovering in place from where he had been yanked from it- idle. Several of the goons that had come to assist their boss or take out Blackwell had been similarly flung from their bikes and minced to death. The remainder fled for all they were worth, speeding off back towards the adjacent farmland they controlled.

This was only the beginning of their problems, like the fact that the Nerfs had been petrified by this entire ordeal and were about ready to stampede. With [member="Vulgrim Blackwell"] in the middle of the herd.

Maelibus or not, Blackwell was not going to survive being crushed underfoot by all one-hundred something of these terrified Nerfs. It did not appear that Vulgrim shared Pollux's concerns either, because he was still wailing on one of the goons long after the goon had died... And also the wakizashi was still sticking out of him. Sheesh. "You three, head off those runners." Pollux ordered, "The rest of you, head off the herd before it stampedes. Drive them towards the ranch."

Pollux gently gunned the engines and guided the speeder slowly towards Vulgrim, not wanting to be mistaken for another Fulcrum Cattle Company agent. "Blackwell." Pollux said, cautiously remaining outside of the zone in which the blood splatters were reaching.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

It took two more times of addressing him, before the Maelibus suddenly froze in his movement.

The claw was retracted from the inside of the mushy wastes and studied for a moment. Vulgrim bend his neck for a brief moment, almost as if he was trying to see the scene from a different angle, yet, there did not seem to be one that allowed it to be cast in any better lightning. In fact, it was presumably worse from certain angles and Blackwell wasn't all too pleased with what he saw.

"Mister [member="Pollux"]." Vulgrim calmly replied, before climbing back to his feet and surveying the scene. "I see that I let myself go for a brief moment."

Their eyes met.

"I apologize profusely for the inconvenience."

And then there was a flicker in those eyes, some manner of fire, that suggested that perhaps in one way or the other? Blackwell's manners were pose, dignity, but also wholly an act for the benefit of society he draped around himself.

You cannot live among the civilized, while being completely barbaric yourself, can you?

"I hope this does not ruin your plans overly?"

 

[Darth Osano]

"You did." Pollux confirmed, as if he was recounting to a hungover alcoholic the meandering blackout antics from the night before. "It doesn't."

Not that either author has any experience in that regard.

The Nerfs were pacing around now, agitated and nervous. The fact that Bertha, the prized Nerf with flowers in her Nerf-y hair and joy in her Nerf-y eyes, had passed on in the middle of Fulcrum's heist was not doing much to soothe their nerves. So far Pollux's men had managed to keep them from stampeding by establishing a perimeter and keeping them fenced in. This was mostly just to give Pollux and [member="Vulgrim Blackwell"] time to clear the area- if they kept them like this any longer and didn't allow them to fan out, there would be a stampede. Pollux almost offered Vulgrim a ride, but the Maelibus' daunting frame meant he could not properly mount a speeder bike... Not to mention Pollux would look silly.

Pollux jerked his head, indicating the way he came. "Take the sword out of your shoulder and follow me." The wakizashi was still sticking out of the rancher. It was not buried up to the hilt, but it was still pretty far in there. Pollux could only guess as to whether or not Vulgrim actually felt it. Did demons feel pain? Was it adrenaline? The ambiguity could be helpful in scaring their competitors into compliance... After Pollux had these corpses Vulgrim had just created dumped in front of the homes of Fulcrum's shareholders, of course.

Having run out of anything meaningful to talk about, Pollux turned his bike around and left Vulgrim to walk his own way out.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Vulgrim nodded, before looking down at the little toothpick sticking out of his shoulder.

He sighed a little.

His suit was perfectly ruined now, but that was the least of his worries. With a very careful and deliberate movement, he managed to get the toothpick between a set of his claws. Then with a gentle pull, it was extracted from his carapace and dropped to the ground. It didn't really hurt, most if not all Maelibus possessed a natural thick armor that could deflected blaster fire and even high intensity energy contact. A little metal pointy stick wasn't gonna do much harm to him, but sadly he couldn't say the same about his suit.

"This was my favorite suit, you know." He mentioned while dusting himself off and taking one last sad look at Bertha. This only underlined for him that humans were really an irredeemable sort- Bertha had never done anything wrong, been always kind and understanding. His first nerf, actually, and one that had always accepted him; scales and horns and burning eyes and all. "Poor Bertha, truly."

Ah well, we have work to do.

Blackwell followed [member="Pollux"] away from the site and presumably the Helix operatives would ensure that the herd was safe and not stampeding. Some distance away they stopped and the big demon looked at his lands.

"What's next then, mister Pollux?"

 

[Darth Osano]

Once Vulgrim had cleared the herd, the Guavians proceeded to open up one end of their encirclement and drive the Nerfs forward. The antsy creatures were eager to move on, but neglected to stampede. All in a days work. As charming as it would have been to see the Nerfs stampede all over Fulcrum property, there was a risk that too many of them would die or otherwise get captured. Their move against Fulcrum had to be more decisive than that. To let FCC go on too long knowing that [member="Vulgrim Blackwell"] now had friends from up North with big guns and big money would give them time to formulate a response that might actually become some sort of inconvenience.

Pollux leaned forward on his idling speeder bike, watching the milling Nerfs. Goggles were pushed up to his forehead again. "We wait."

Truly a more ambiguous statement had never been uttered by a more ambiguous Givin. Fortunately, Vulgrim did not actually have to wait that long. The two Enforcers that Pollux had sent off after the runners had returned. On each of their speeder bikes there was a cattle rustler, hog-tied and laying long-ways on their stomach. Not a comfortable way to ride a speeder bike, but after rustling so many Nerfs this was the least of their worries. Wordlessly, the Guavians ripped their captives from the bikes and threw them to the ground, dragging them before Vulgrim and Pollux.

"My men and I can interrogate them if you like." Pollux said. "Or you can yourself. They seem to have made it personal."

Pollux could respect personal vendettas. He had one of his own; against a God-King, no less. The rustlers, whose mouths had been muffled with cloth, looked desperately between the demon and the skeleton. Truly a spookier pair had never been assembled in the history of the galaxy.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

For a moment the Maelibus did not reply.

Instead he simply started to undress in a fashion. His splendid hat was put aside, as was the upper-body suit, which he made sure to properly gather up and put on the ground. Now there was just the thick, gleaming black carapace that was his natural-formed armor and a pair of trousers.

"I do not wish to stain my favorite jacket anymore than it has." He explained in a conversational tone to [member="Pollux"] while patiently studying the two gagged individuals. The approach was silent, yet again as if he was floating across the grass instead of walking on top of it with his bulk.

"Respect, gentlemen." This time the words were aimed at the nerf heisters. "This is all that I request when dealing with me."

One of his talons was raised, claws, sharp and deadly in utility. It gently skidded across the surface of the right man's cheek, blood welled up almost immediately and there was the screeching of a piglet in danger.

"Yet, you found it necessary to ruin my favorite suit.... and kill my favorite nerf."

There was a hum at the end of the sentence, a turn upward of his strange mouth in the corner. "Did you know that I can sing? Quite lovely, really. Strangely enough... not everyone agrees with me on that last regard though."

Vulgrim rose up again, turning his head slightly towards Pollux.

"Do you and yours have protective headgear?"

 

[Darth Osano]

"Do you and yours have protective headgear?"

Pollux did not know very much about Maelibus. If they were able to screech at such high frequencies that it could be used for torture, it meant that Pollux had chosen his choice of partner very well. Pollux leaned back and grabbed something from off the back of his speeder. Wordlessly, the two nearby Guavians fiddled with their helmets. There was a faint hissing sound as they sealed, followed by another as Pollux donned his own trademark Guavian Death Gang Helmet. It was so strange. Pollux now looked virtually indistinguishable from the other two Enforcers. Maybe he ought to get his own made one of these days. Or not. It sounded like too much work, and he didn't need Guavian armor where he was going.

Once all the helmets were sealed and their ears sufficiently insulated, Pollux nodded to [member="Vulgrim Blackwell"]. "Go on."

This was going to be good. Pollux could feel it in his bones. Or more aptly, he could feel it in his exoskeleton. But given the true nature of his biology, he supposed it would be even more accurate to say he could feel it in his cartilaginous interior structure. That just didn't have the same ring to it, though.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Vulgrim smiled sweetly at the gagged thugs.

"You must understand." The Maelibus calmly responded to their urgent crawling. "I do not do this for my own pleasure or indeed anyone's pleasure."

He shook his head, just to be completely precise with his meaning.

"But Mister [member="Pollux"] here made me understand a simple truth of this Galaxy. You are not given respect, you take it and sometimes a respectable individual needs to dirty his hands to achieve this respect." The demon shared a look with the two humanoids in front of him, it was a shame they had already soiled themselves, this would have been a perfect snack. Oh, Vulgrim rarely partook in such barbaric practices, but he had already broken his sabbatical with the earlier killing. When in Nar Shaddaa, no?

"So this is about respect."

The silence hung heavy afterwards, but only for a moment.

Soon after an eerily tune started to resonate around. At first, the thugs just looked at each other, before one tentatively smiled behind the gag.

Hey, this isn't that bad! The thought probably rang, but it was cut short.

They suddenly stopped moving. Then there was this soft, high-pitched whine rattling behind their teeth, their eyes rolled back and blood started to seep gently from their ears. After that it was a rapid succession of reactions: they would have clawed at themselves, if they weren't bound. Their backs stretched as their bodies-

Well, you get the image, no need to get overly graphical about it.

It was quite distasteful, but soon enough they went limb. Not dead, but severely incapacitated.

Vulgrim waited patiently for Pollux and his men to re-enable their hearing.

"I hope this helped, mister Pollux."

 

[Darth Osano]

Through the insulation of the helmet, Pollux could hear a dull and unsettling sound. The Guavians with him exchanged looks among themselves, sensing it too, but didn't dare to cast any glances towards their employer. There was no room for weakness or discomfort in the Helix Syndicate... Expressed outwardly, anyway. Composure and professionalism must be maintained at all times. Even though Pollux could hear, in his imagination, the muted screams of those poor cattle rustling chumps as [member="Vulgrim Blackwell"] sang the sweet song of agonizing torture to their ear drums.

Pollux had not known Maelibus were able to do that. Maybe they couldn't. If it should be happening was less relevant than the fact that it was, presently, taking place right before his very Givin eyes. Eventually Vulgrim turned around and started talking to Pollux, indicating to him that it must have been over. Pollux could not initially hear what Vulgrim said, but that didn't matter. He could read lips quite easily. It was one of those skills you find useful to acquire in this line of work.

Like singing.

He removed his helmet and spoke. "It was." Pollux dismounted, the two Guavians following his movements. They propped up one of the whimpering rustlers so that Pollux could look at him. "Can you hear me?" The rustler gave a sad, frantic nod. Almost pitiable if they weren't working for such an uncouth company as Fulcrum. "These two men are going to take you home. Tell your masters what happened here." He whimpered again, louder this time and almost in protest, as he and his friend were heavied unceremoniously back onto the speeder bikes that had ferried them here. Pollux had toyed with the idea of slashing their throats and stringing them up from trees on Fulcrum's property, but this would be better. Having them tell this tale would be more graphic.

It would push Fulcrum to the negotiating table.

Pollux folded his hands behind his back as he watched the two Guavians dart off into the distance, back the way they had came, precious cargo wiggling about. All in a day's work.

"This was good progress." Pollux said. "Fulcrum will want to negotiate. I advise you allow me to mediate."

He nodded to Vulgrim's bloodied shirt, still lying in a crumple on the ground.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

It was quite the dirty shirt and that only served to remind Vulgrim of what had transpired a moment of five ago.

This did little to improve his already sour mood. No surprise really, the old Maelibus had been able to maintain his restraint for a very long time now and this snap of his, was quite the disappointment for himself. But alas, you could not always have what you wished and sometimes you had to just accept that things were gonna go the entirely different route.

It wasn't like he had been forced to snap either, so Vulgrim couldn't blame anyone but himself.

In truth there had been many opportunities to simply bow out and forget about this little venture. Probably would have been the more intelligent move in the long run, but pride was a funny thing.

"I think that would be for the best, mister [member="Pollux"]." Vulgrim finally responded, while picking up his shirt and jacket, the shirt was folded neatly in his hands while the jacket was gently hung around his massive shoulders. Torn at so many places, there wasn't really an alternative here.

"I am still quite annoyed about this all and I fear I would do something rash if I came eye-to-eye with these hooligans."

The look of the mansion in the distance served to center him a little bit. It reminded him of the good they already had accomplished, simply by being more stern with these individuals.

Perhaps Vulgrim had to let go of his passive ways and look at the future.

 

[Darth Osano]

Of course it would be best. Pollux did not think he would have gotten this far if he did not know what was best. Sometimes he had to consult others on what was best, though. Such as the matter of the pulverized corpses Vulgrim had left in the field. Pollux could still see them. He had not decided if he would just let them decompose, hasten their conversion to fertilizer artificially, or have them incinerated. Perhaps the second one. It would be another horror story the Fulcrum Cattle Company could tell itself to remind them of their folly. How did the saying go? There was always a bigger fish. It just so happened that the small fish of the Blackwell Ranch had just formed a wonderful symbiotic relationship with a dazzlingly large fish from a faraway sector.

Maybe not dazzlingly large on its own. In comparison, certainly.

"Your reputation of restraint is commendable." Pollux said, "Don't waste it further on the likes of Fulcrum."

The Givin returned to his seat on the bike, revving the engines ever so lightly. He wasn't a biker, he just wanted to make sure it hadn't stalled. "You will retain full control of your business here, Mr. Blackwell. I only ask you remember what I have done on your behalf when I call upon you again." Blackwell figured very neatly into a vast smuggling conspiracy being orchestrated by the Helix Syndicate. The profits [member="Vulgrim Blackwell"] reaped from importing food into the core, while massive, did not interest the Givin. The ease with which his freighters would be whisked through customs, however, did.

And it would fascinate [member="Narbo"] as well... Provided the Aqualish could, indeed, understand how difficult it usually is to smuggle thirty tons of raw Neutron Pixie past customs. A topic for another thread, surely. Pollux equipped his goggles over his eyes one more time, nodded his farewell to Blackwell, and proceeded back to the shuttle that had originally ferried him here.

And then, somewhere over the horizon, the credits rolled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeYG4PlxG3E​