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Drom 6: The last day.

Reality slammed into Milo like a tidal wave of icy water. He bolted upright, flinging the sheets away from his body. He sucked in air with great heaves of his chest as he panted from some unknown exertion. Milo placed one paw over his thundering heart, only to find his paw pads covered in sweat. He felt the adrenaline pumping around his body as he glanced hurriedly around the dark room searching for whatever had pulled him so violently from his slumber. Nothing but darkness and some small electronic lights answered him. Milo groaned tiredly to himself as he briefly wondered what nightmare could be so abhorrent that his current reality would be preferable.

A fragment of a memory, a facet of his intangible dream rushed back to Milo. Splattering of rich red blood across dusty floorboards. Blood. So much Blood. As rapidly as it arrived it vanished from his mind.

Milo shivered slightly, already having difficulty recalling the image as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He groaned once more, trying to shake off the sleep induced fog that clouded his mind. His body felt like it had just ran a marathon. Or fled for his life from some unimaginable horror. He flinched suddenly as he felt course hair glide over his sensitive, pointed tip. Looking down, Milo was shocked to discover his engorged penis jutting out of his crotch, painfully erect. A glob of clear preejaculatory fluid collecting at the pointed red tip.

He tentatively reached a paw out of touch himself. Oddly, besides the physiological effects of his body, he didn't feel aroused. Another faint image leaked into his mind, a flash of a dream now forgotten.

Delicious destruction. Order that is now chaos. He dipped his paw into the bright red pool and smeared the fluid over his muzzle. A memory, a memento of pain inflected, of a slow death wrought.

As fleetingly as it had come the thought evaporated. Milo shook his head in confusion. What was he thinking again? No matter. He looked down at himself, his painfully stiff member demanding stimulation. Milo giggled as the thought dawned on him that he has a whole new organ to explore. It had been a long, long time since his member had been so engorged, so virile. In fact, it was his first time with this member. Even Milo's tiny inert nipples felt sensitive, something he had never experienced before. Whatever his dream was, it must have been damn good. Or maybe not all penis were created equal. He must be one of the few people able to make such a assessment. It would be my pleasure, nay, my duty to fully investigate this theory! He thought to himself as his digits curled around his stiff red shaft.

Before he could begin to enjoy himself a whimper penetrated his sleepy haze. His head snapped up, ears flicking erect. Was someone here with him? He caught it again. A soft sound, a muffled murmur. Milo stood, it sounded like it came from the small en-suite directly in front of him. He placed his ear on the door. It was as if someone was softly sobbing in the room beyond. Milo cautiously opened the door and entered the small pitch black room.

He was immediately assaulted with the rich scent of viscera. There was a murmur and he heard someone move around in the darkness. Milo reached out a paw, fiddling with the door's control panel to turn on the rooms light. A harsh white light bust over the room causing Milo to winch in pain and shield his eyes with his paws. His eyes slowly adjusted to the light revealing it's occupant to Milo.

Laying in a pool of deep red blood a cottontail rabbit withered on the tiled floor before him. Her body was covered in gaping lesions leaking blood and great purple contusions. She convulsed in the thick pool or her own vital fluids, slowly, painfully perishing. Her leg was bent at an impossible angle,jerking and twitching as if it was unconnected to the rest of her body, clearly broken. The rapidly expanding pool of red crept over the floor, almost lazerly approaching Milo.

He stood in shock, almost feeling the blood run from his face, his heart freezing in his chest. As his eyes adjusted, the scene before him acquired more and more detail. The rabbit was Sara. The woman he had been forced to kill on Drom. She convulsed suddenly, red tinged digesta spewing from her choking mouth, the mess running down both sides of her muzzle to join the pool she lay in. Her sightless eyes rolled back in her head, her struggles growing weaker and weaker.

Milo felt a pleasurable constriction around his shaft. He somehow managed to tear his gaze away from Sara's dying body to investigate. He was astonished to see his own paw slowly pumping over his red cock. An intense wave of pleasure reverberated around his body. More potent then anything he had ever felt before, it made his knees go weak as he released a gasp of titillating pleasure. No, that was a lie. He had experienced such highs before, greater ones in fact. Back on Drom, when he had the rabbit. Abused her, soiled and destroyed her. The mix of power, pleasure and raw destruction was intoxicating. It took 80 years to make Sara, and only one night of pain and distress to crush her utterly.

There were a pair of scissors on the bench next to him. If he took them, maybe he could draw one more scream from Sara. One more echo of her slow death. One more crack in the fragile shell that once was Sara.

Milo slowly picked up the scissors, as if in a trance. He was fixated on the withering rabbit. He felt a string of drool spill from his muzzle and drip slowly to the floor as he took a single step forward. He could almost taste the sweet agony he was about to inflict ...

Finally the mist lifted and Milo realized what he was doing. Standing, posed over the rabbit, ready to inflect pain for his own sick sexual pleasure. He was masturbating to a corpse, to death.

He didn't hear the scissors hit the ground. He didn't feel his back slam into the wall as he furiously back peddled. His chest tightened, his heart feeling like it was suddenly climbing up his throat. His whole body quaked with each thunders convulsion of his racing heart. Milo shook his head rapidly, muttering the same word over and over. "no .... no .... no ...."

Sara was looking at him. She rose one quivering paw towards him. The claws had been ripped from their beds and the digits twisted and broken, blood dripping from the mutilated paw. She opened her mouth, attempting to speak despite the near constant flow of gore from every orifice.

"Please ... don't hit me again." She whispered.

Milo weak mental bearing collapsed. He bolted from the room, still accelerating when he impacted his bed. Staggering from the blow to his legs, he lost his balance and fell to the floor with a dull thud. He was driven onward, desperate to escape the horror behind him. Milo crawled ferally on all fours directly away from the small room as fast as his bumbling limps could carry him. He soon made contact with the far wall, moving along it until he found himself in a corner of the room. Confronted with the corner he felt he had nowhere else to go, his animalistic state driving him only away from the source of his terror, utterly lacking the cognitive ability to double back and head for the door. With nowhere else to go, Milo crawled into a ball as he pushed himself as far into the corner as he could. The universe was crushing down on him from every direction, pushing, compressing and squeezing. His vision began to tunnel, becoming smaller and smaller as he hyperventilated. His heart rate continuing to accelerate as he started to violently shake. Milo could barely think, but one overriding thought kept going through his mind: 'sick creature ... sick creature... sick creature...' Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew his pistol was still in the room. He had to end it. He couldn't live with what he had done, what he was. What he had pleasured himself too. With monumental effort one paw reached the short distance to the bedside table. In the darkness he couldn't see what he was grappling with, but the rapid shakes would have made fine motor control impossible anyway. His paw managed to knock something off the table to his feet. Instead of the pistol a data pad hit the floor besides him. He clawed at the display desperately, franticly as he stated to sob and whine.

The darkness took him. It crushed him utterly, squeezed him into a tighter and tighter ball, suffocating him. He could no longer feel his paws. He couldn't breath, he couldn't move. Milo collapsed into a the foetal position, his paws gripping his head tightly. His unseeing eyes straining in his skull as he sobbed unevenly, heart pounding in his chest. His stomach felt as if it was tearing itself apart, he felt like vomiting but his throat refused to convulse. And yet his physical state was a welcome distraction compared to his mental trauma. Every fibre of his being screamed at him to flee the room, to escape the impenetrable darkness that surrounding him, to run from the great evil he knew resided in his own skull, but he simply-couldn't-move. He was dying. He didn't need the pistol. He was simply going to die from the weight of his own sins.

"Sick .... sick .... sick ...." he heard himself whisper over and over as tears of terror started to roll down his muzzle.

An electronic buzzing filled Kali's bedroom, demanding attention. She rolled over in the darkness, slowly rising from the blanketless bed. One hoof tried to rub the sleep from her eyes as the other fumbled in the darkness for her data pad. She found herself unconsciously grinding her teeth as she finally found the pad. The last time Adelaide had called her in the middle of the night was when she had blown a hole in the hull. She grasped the data pad and brought it up in front of her, dreading the contents. Her face was lit up by the soft blue light from the pad as it activated. She blinked once as she discovered it was a call from Milo. Kali hesitated a moment. She had noticed the way he was starting to look at her. How his gaze lingered longer then necessary, how he seems to stand up straighter when she entered the room. It was clear Milo was becoming more and more interested in the Alpaca. She wasn't completely opposed to the thought of a relationship of some kind with Milo, either casual or much more serious. But the events of yesterday in the medical laboratory still troubled her. Was this what she wanted? Was this a relationship she should encourage? What if he was about to make his intentions direct? Would she refuse him or accept? Kali felt her ambivalence unyielding as she hovered over the answer button.

She tapped it lightly, still undecided as she held her breath. Far from the greeting she was expecting, Milo's uneven sobs blared from the pad's speaker.

"Milo?" Kali asked inquisitively.

Milo's voice came faintly through the data pad. "Sick .... sick .... sick ...."

"Milo can you hear me?"

Milo's sobbing continued unabated.

"I'm coming Milo, just stay where you are!" Kali leapt from the bed and headed for the door.

Kali entered Milo's darkened quarters with a medical kit under one arm. "Milo?" She called into the darkness. She waved her hoof over the door controls, triggering the room's lighting system, banishing the darkness. The room was a mess, bedding lay crumpled on the floor and the contents of the bedside table lay strewn around the room. Milo cowered at the edge of the mess, trying to push himself further and further into a corner. He was lying on his side, his arms tightly wrapped around his head, his whole body fraught with tension as it shook with each powerful sob that tore itself from his muzzle. She rushed to his side, kneeing over him.

"Milo? What happened?" he still refused to respond to her. "I need you to calm down Milo." Kali began her calming mantra as she reached out with one comforting hoof.

Milo emitted a whimper and shied away from her. "Please Milo, you're having another anxiety attack. I need you to calm down." She said softly. "I'm not going to hurt you." She whispered as she placed her arms around him.

She sat next to him and pulled him onto her. "It's alright Milo. I'm here now. Everything is going to be OK. Just breath." One of Kali's hooves deftly opened the med kit and rummaged around it's contents. She soon withdrew a small syringe. It contained a weak sedative she had prepared after the first time Milo had suffered a panic attack, just in case he had a relapse.

A needle loomed large in Milo's unthinking mind. Everything else faded to black. He was seized by two overpowering urges that pulled in completely opposite directions. One wanted to leap on the needle and shove it into his mouth, arm, nose, anything! Forcing it into himself in any way he could. It could be the reason he existed. It could be Keen. The sweet green concoction would banish the dark weight consuming him, it would liberate him from all his pain and suffering. It's kiss held salvation. His other urge, equally as strong, knew that everything he loathed, everything he felt and saw in the en-suite was contained in that needle. If it came anywhere near him he knew that he would lose who he was, his very essence taken from him. With a certainty known only to the insane he knew that syringe would suck his very soul out of him. In a flash this internal conflict was resolved by the thinnest of margins, the potency of his urge no lessened for it's near defeat.

As Kali moved the needle closer to Milo his reaction was sudden and violent. He screamed in terror and leapt at the wall away from Kali. Milo started to claw viciously at the wall as he whined in fear, scratching the metal panel and tearing chunks of keratin off his claws.

"OK Milo! It's alright! I wont use this!" Kali shoved the needle back into the Med kit and kicked it away from them.

As it skidded across the room, Milo finally started to calm. He collapsed onto the wall and started whimpering softly. Kali hugged him slowly, ready for another out bust as she stroked his shoulders, murmuring quietly. "It's OK. It's alright. Everything is fine. You just need to calm down, to breath." Over and over she calmed him. Milo's breathing gradually returning to normal as he let himself be pulled backward into Kali's lap. He retuned Kali's embrace, clinging to her like a child. His claws digging tightly into her wool, as if he was afraid his only refuge was about to disappear. He began to softly cry into her fleece, whining like a pup. "It's alright. You are safe here. No one will hurt you. Take a deep breath Milo." She cooed down at him. She smoothed over the tear streaked muzzle as Milo's quivering gradually started to subside.

Kali simply held Milo as he slowly recovered. The crushing pressure lifted and the mind numbing fear slowly faded. After what felt like an eternity Milo's senses returned to him. He lay exhausted in Kali's lap as she comforted him, slowly caressing his shoulder and head, Murmuring softly.

"It's OK Milo, relax. Everything is going to be alright." She whispered to him over and over. Her touch was so soothing, her calm almost a physical quality she was able to transfer from herself to him. He had regained his mind, but didn't want to move. He never wanted to crawl from that soft lap and caressing hooves, it felt like the only warm, safe place in the entire universe.

They sat for some time, Kali holding Milo as he clung to her. Eventually Milo started to detangle himself, sitting up and putting his back to the wall besides Kali. He kept one of her hooves, tightly gripped between his own. He didn't look her in the eye. He couldn't. He felt weak and small, vulnerable and pathetic for succumbing so completely to his fears, cowering in front of her. And yet, with Kali he knew these feelings were meritless.

"I don't think I will ever be able to thank you." He finally whispered horsely.

"If I am ever able, I will help Milo. No thanks will ever be required."

"If angels exist, surely you are one." He forced a weak smile purely for her benefit.

Kali paused for a moment before she nodded once, smiling. 'No, Angels are sinless.' She thought to herself.

Milo took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and brought Kali's hoof up to his cheek, drawing strength from her touch. "Could you ... do something for me?" he said quietly.

"Of course Milo. What would you like me to do?"

Milo pointed in the direction of the en suite without moving his head. He couldn't bare to so much as look at the door, so there was no chance he would investigate it himself.

"You mean the bathroom?" She asked.

Milo nodded.

"I'm going to need my hoof back." Kali said softly with a warm smile as she lightly stroked Milo's other cheek.

Milo loosened his grip, allowing Kali to stand. She crossed the room as Milo hugged himself, closing his eyes tightly. If Kali screamed, or run from the room he would find the pistol and end himself.

After a moment he heard Kali speak. "What is it in the bathroom that you want me to do Milo?"

He opened his eyes, finally forcing himself to look up. Kali was standing in the open doorway, looking at him inquisitively. "N ... nothing." he managed as he released a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"Milo ..." a concerned Kali crossed the room once more and sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at him. "You need to talk to me about this, about what's going on, so I can try to help you. Do you know why you have these attacks?"

Milo shook his head, slowly climbing to his hind paws "It's fine Kali. Really, I'll deal with it."

"Milo, I can't help you unless you let me. Together, no matter what it is, we can work this out and get you to a better place." Kali stood with Milo and lightly gripped his forearms. "Please Milo, I want to help you with this, but you have to talk to me."

'And tell you what? I get off to rape and beating people?' Thought Milo. No. he had a plan. He knew how he was going to get better. Or at least well enough to kill Thomas Hinderson. He knew that if he got the smallest taste of Keen his demons would quieten and he would be able to operate normally. He didn't need any misguided meddling.

He was about to tell Kali no again when get caught her eyes. Her large, beautiful brown eyes. Maybe he should tell her. Maybe if he explained everything, she could ... could .... no. There was nothing anybody could do, not even Kali. He loathed to ever say no to her, but in this case he knew it was necessary.

He lightly grasped her wrists and pulled her arms away from him. "I'm sorry Kali, but I don't need help. Just forget that his happened. And please, don't tell Adelaide." Milo turned and walked away from Kali, heading out of the room.

"Milo!" Kali called after him. "I think you're making a mistake, but If you ever change your mind, do not hesitate to approach me, at any time of the day."

"Thanks Kali." Milo said from the doorway.

"I'm always here for you." She added.

Milo winched. It would be so easy to turn around, crawl back into her arms and spill his troubled mind in it's entirety. But he knew that would only result in her hating him. How could she not if she knew what he did? What he was? "Thanks Kali." he said again as he left the room.

Milo inhaled deeply as he stood outside a locked door. At last he believed he had a solution to his Keen shortage problem. Not that it would be easy. There was simply no way around it, he only knew of one location that might have some of the drug, his armour on Drom. He had stocked the armour with as much Keen as it could carry just before he left the mansion on Drom. Then he had injected himself with a tiny amount of the drug and met Adelaide. She had made it clear she didn't inspect his armour closely when she left, so in theory it must still be on Drom gathering dust. Milo tried not to think about how viable the chemical was after six month sitting in the dust of Drom, or the likelihood of anyone else already having found it. His only other option was to 'port to some rotten, lawless, over populated cityscape overran with drugs and gangs. Even then there was no guarantee he could find the drug he was looking for amongst the filth.

The door gave an excited beep as it was unlocked. He felt like he was about to enter the dragons lair or the nest of the spider queen herself. It slide open to revel Adelaide on the other side.

"Hi Milo!" She said brightly with a grin. As always, her prefect face slid back to a careless expression after a moment. It suddenly occurred to Milo that she may be doing that just to annoy him.

"Adelaide" he nodded in greeting.

She turned and reentered the room. "What do you want?"

As Milo followed Adelaide into the armoury he couldn't help but be impressed with the set-up. Unlike the endless racks of identical guns he had worked with during his time in the supply corps of the CPF, Adelaide's armoury was extremely well stocked with a impressive variety of equipment. The walls were overflowing with rifles, pistols, machine guns, three complete sets of powered suits and many pieces of equipment he couldn't even identify. Every object was mounted on its own stand attached to the floor or wall and looked clean and well maintained. In the centre of the room were two tall workbenches, powerful lights dangled from the ceiling above each. On one bench a rifle was half disassembled. On the other, a disembodied canine head was mounted upright in the centre of the bench. Milo looked at it worriedly for a moment.

"It's not real." said Adelaide noticing his concern "Go have a look."

Milo approached the head. It looked like a perfect replicate of a canines head, eyes closed as if in sleep, complete with textured fur and floppy ears. If it wasn't stone still and disembodied he would have swore it belonged to a living being.

He reached out and touched it. Thankfully, it was room temperature and barely yielded under his touch, convincing him it really was just a prop.

"I should thank you Milo." Adelaide called from the other bench more then 12 paces away.

"For what?" Asked Milo distractedly as he examined the head. The only weak point of the model was the glass eyes. Besides that, it looked oddly familiar for some reason.

"Because if you hadn't said what you did back on Drom, I wouldn't have spent the last six months perfecting this."

As Milo turned questionably towards Adelaide he heard her grunt with exertion. There was the sharp sound of air being cut and a silver blur flew past Milo's muzzle at great speed. With a wet thud that sent the head bouncing erratically in it's moorings a thin knife appeared embedded deep in the brow.

Milo sprung away from the vibrating head. "The fuck!?" He said in shock. The knife had past no less then 15 centimetres in front of his face.

Adelaide ignored Milo's distress. "Bugger" She trotted over to the head. "I was aiming for the left eye socket." She took a firm grasp of the knifes hilt and yanked it out of the head. The tip of the knife was now covered in what Milo hoped was red dye. "Still, penetrated the brain cavity." She said as she examined the blade. "You do have a 'kinship' with it, so I guess getting your panties in a bunch is only to be expected." She pulled a cloth out of a pocket and wiped the blade clean.

"Kinship?" Milo looked anew at the canine head. The white Canine head. The white husky canine head. "oh god!" he recoiled away from it once more. "That's not ...."

"Your old head? Why yes it is." She bumped the head on it's nose, sending it vibrating in place once more. "well, only the skin and skull really. Took me forever to clean that bastard out and stuff it. Before I was just tossing knifes at paper targets. This is much more fun."

"Fun ...." Milo muttered in disbelief. Concentrate Milo! He told himself. I'm here for a reason. Milo decided to change the subject. He visibly gathered himself as he shook his head. "Yes, well, you member you told me to get 'un-distracted'?"

"I do indeed. By the way, I heard you were down on the track at 4.30 this morning, I approve."

"The track?" Milo lifted one of his hind paws up and massaged it. "Yeah, about that. Think you would have paved that with something with a bit more give. My hind paws are killing me from all that pounding on a hard surface."

"Hard surface? I hadn't noticed." She said. Milo glanced down to her hard, thick hooves and her indifference made a bit more sense. Bloody hoofers. "Besides, I would have thought you were all pounded out by that point." She said as she shot him a smirk.

Milo gave Adelaide a confused look.

"This was after you rooted Kali right?" Adelaide clarified.

"What? No! What are you talking about? That never happened!" Milo almost shouted.

"Yeah, Kali said something similar, but she reeked of you this morning Milo. She cleaned up well, but I could still smell a bit of your .. essence on her. Don't bother telling me otherwise."

Milo had completely forgotten that his paws were still covered in his pre ejaculate as he had clung to Kali. What must she think? There was no way she didn't noticed such a distinctive scent. "We didn't ... she just ... helped me out with a problem I had ...." Milo managed.

"Keeping your cock hard is not a problem Milo, it's a carnal pleasure."

Milo shook his head. Explaining what actually happened was not an option, and try as he might, no other explanation sounded plausible. "Whatever Adelaide. Think whatever you want."

"Whatever I want? Hmmmm" Adelaide lay one arm casually over the bust, idly stroking it's brow as she tilted her head in thought. "I want to think your not pointlessly over committed to one woman. I want to think your available for satisfying a few more carnal pleasures ...." Adelaide started to hungrily look over Milo.

Milo sighed and shook his head. "You're unbelievable sometimes Adelaide. Honestly, why are you so damn horny all the time?"

Adelaide snorted. "You've been a solider Milo, in a war zone. You know that sometimes you just have to be at peace with the fact that this day, today, here and now could be the last day. I don't intend to waste the last day of the universe in any way, shape or form."

"'The last day of the universe'? You make it sound as if the universe ends when you die. Life goes on without you Adelaide."

"When I'm dead, what does it matter?" She said with a small shrug.

"That doesn't sound like the attitude you had back on Drom."

"Really? And woman just throw themselves at you with just one kiss normally do they?" She said casually.

"well ... um ...." Milo had never really considered it. Now that she mentioned it, it did seem a little odd that she had been so willing to reciprocate his advances that night.

"That would be a no. You seemed different on Drom too. A lot less frigid for one. On horny pills or something were you?"

A spike of fear lanced through Milo. Could she know .... no. It was a coincidence, nothing more.

Adelaide gave a sudden short laugh. "Or maybe ... maybe you get turned on by people shooting at you ...." She reached out and picked up a sub machine gun from the wall while she gave Milo a mischievous look. "of course, you'd never admit it. Unless ...." She trailed off.

Milo took a step away from her, his eyes going wide in disbelief that she would even suggest such a thing. She wouldn't actually ...

The dead silence the befall the room was sudden dismissed by a metallic twang as Adelaide cocked the weapon.

She would. "Adelaide ... just .... no ..." She merely cocked an eyebrow at him. "Why is it that after every conversation we have, I get just that little bit more frightened of you." He added.

Adelaide didn't respond. Instead, Milo watched as the barrel of the weapon slowly rotated to point at him. "This isn't funny Adelaide. Put down the gun."

There was a click as she flipped the safety off and placed a digit on the trigger.

"FOR FUCKS SAKE ADELAIDE!" Milo screamed at her. He tensed up, ready to dive at the Ewe, but he knew it was futile as she was a few paces away from him. He would never get to her before she pulled the trigger.

There was a impotent click as she depressed the trigger. Milo sprang forward, seizing the weapons barrel. He was muzzle to muzzle with Adelaide until his mind caught up to his body and he reailzed that the weapon never discharged.

The pair stood toe to toe for a moment. "There's .... no bullets in any of these guns is there?" he said finally.

"Nope." She answered. "They are only as dangerous as any other lump of metal. This, however ..." Milo felt a sharp pain in stomach. He was painfully reminded that Adelaide was still carrying her knife. "Remains both lethal in any state and one of my favourite ways to kill people."

Milo stepped away from her. "You ALWAYS treat a firearm as if it's loaded Adelaide!"

She merely gave a dismissive snort.

"You're deranged!" Said Milo in exasperation.

"So I've been told a few times." She flicked the safety back on the weapon and returned it to the wall. "Anyway, if your not going to drop your pants, get on with whatever it is you came here for." continued Adelaide.

Milo shook himself once more, again attempting to focus. "Well ... if we're going to get into fire fights ... " He glanced pointedly at the sub machine gun "... at some point I'm going to need protection, as in my own suit." Milo waved a paw towards the armoured suits mounted on the wall.

"You make money." Adelaide said flatly. "Not my problem if it takes six or seven missions to earn your own equipment."

"Yeah, well, life expectancy goes up, way up, if I have some form of armour. And I know where to get some. Low risk and all that."

Adelaide thought for a moment. He was right, reducing the chance a comrade was incapacitated was generally a good idea. "I'm listening."

Milo sighed internally. He thought it would be harder to open Adelaide up to the idea. He even figured she may have already procured some for him. God knows this ship seemed to have everything else in supply already. "I already have a suit. Back on Drom. The set I was wearing before you um .. did me in." Was he really so jaded that the thought of what happened was increasingly a non-issue?

Adelaide made a disapproving nose. "That was some time ago Milo. There are no guarantees that pile of junk is still there."

"Junk? It served me well enough. It's got a few tricks. And it's attuned to me anyway, so no dicking around is necessary. Once I have it I can climb right in."

The Powered suits were a marvel of modern defensive technology. As expected, the Commonwealth had the most advanced models, but a flourishing black market kept all well funded and discreet groups as well equipped. Models ranged from basic kevlar able to absorb most of a small calibre pistol round to airtight, pressurised suits with ultra-dense metal that can completely shrug off direct hits from high calibre rifle rounds. Most advanced suits have a skin tight under layer and a hardened outer layer that fit snugly together. The miniaturization of technology allows the suits to house any number of gadgets to assist the combatant. Common enhancements included amplification of user strength, advanced range finding, geological positioning systems, night vision and manipulation of non-visual wavelengths of light, auto administration of medical drugs, heads up display and many, many more.

The suits have a user-suit interface centred mostly in the coif, or the part of the under layer that covers the head. Advanced brain scanning technology constantly monitors the users brain activity and reacts accordingly. This interface allows the suit and user to train each other to get specific results after specific mental commands. Users who have trained extensively with a specific suit, or rather a specific on-board computer, become 'attuned' to that suit and can merely 'will' something to happen, for example switch to night vision, and the suit will obey. In this way the suit almost becomes an extension of the user, obeying commands as intrinsically as would any other limp. The level of training to achieve this is extensive, so as a compromise most suits are shipped with a preconfiguration that allows trained military personal to don a suit they have not used before and still retain a degree of control, although commands must be clear and the user must concentrate to a much higher degree to achieve a result then a suit and user that have been acquainted with each other for some time. Consequently, attuned users and suits are faster, stronger and have complete control over every aspect of their suit compared with combatants armed with off the shelf suits, despite using the same equipment.

Milo had only worn his suit of a relatively short time, and so 'attuned' was a bit of a stretch, but Adelaide didn't need to know that.

"Drom is a dangerous place Milo. You could run into nothing or a firefight around ever corner. And if the Commonwealth sees me running with you it could endanger my verified bounty hunter status with them. I'm one of only a hand full of mercenaries that are not shot on sight on Drom. I worked hard to get that contract Milo. And by hard I mean I killed many people, contracts and competitors alike."

Milo knew Adelaide would need a solid reason to go back to Drom, but he didn't think she would have such a defined reason not to go. Luckily he had a trump card.

"I had a cloaking device on my armour."

Adelaide look at him as if an moron had just appeared where he was standing. "Well obviously Milo. You appeared out of thin air right in front of me."

"If you help me get my armour back it's yours."

"If I wanted it Milo, I would have already gone and got it. I've used them before. They are fragile, only work for very short spaces of time and suck power like nothing else. And if I know how to detect them so do other people."

"But do you have one?"

Adelaide made a dissatisfied sound. "No. I don't. But like I said Milo, if I wanted one I would already have one." Adelaide paused for a moment and looked at Milo slyly. "That said give me the cloaking device and one other condition and we will go and get your armour back. "

Milo rolled his eyes as he sighed. "One other condition? I'm starting to think I need a lawyer on staff to start drawing up all these little contracts between us Adelaide. What's your condition?"

"You show me some of the love Kali's getting. And by 'love', I mean prove why 'knot' is the greatest word in the language."

Milo give her a disbelieving look. "You would risk your life just to get laid?"

Adelaide just shrugged. "Hey, if you are unable to meet the requirements of the agreement ..."

Milo growled weakly. It was an odd request to say the least, and under normal circumstances he would never even contemplate it, but is wasn't like he and Adelaide hadn't already gone there ... beside, once he has some Keen he knew performance was not going to be an issue. "Ok Adelaide. We go to Drom THEN do the dirty. But promise me .... no knifes or sharp objects of any kind this time, OK?"

"Only if you want it that way." She said as she fingered her slender blade.

"Definitely."

"OK Milo, Agreed. Keep little Milo on ice for me." Adelaide gave Milo's crotch a sudden squeeze. Milo had to hold back a yelp from the sudden violation. "Now, I got some transmissions to make. Ensure we don't walk in on a Commonwealth sweep of the sector. We should be good to go in a day or so." With that Adelaide dismissed Milo, turning away from him and fiddling with one of the suits of armour.

As Milo left, he felt oddly dirty. Like he'd just sold his body.

Milo jogged down the corridor to the fortress like teleportation room. He felt almost giddy with anticipation, but at the same time brimming with nervous energy. Over and over in his mind he turned the possibility of the drugs not being with his suit. He came to the same conclusion time and time again, that there was simply no way he could know until they went and looked. He found Adelaide and Kali waiting for him by the teleportation pad. Adelaide, helmet tucked under one arm, was in full battledress complete with her camouflaged poncho.

"Ready to go?" She asked. Milo glanced at Kali, a little surprised to find her seemly ready to accompany them.

Kali was wearing a vacuum suit. At some point in the past it had been bright yellow and the word 'Rescue' could still faintly be seen printed on the back. Now it was covered in subdued browns and dull yellows. The heavy suit was designed to allow the user to safely operate in atmosphereless vacuum and other hazardous environments. It's thick plates offered protection from the various hazards that a user could be exposed to without the protection of a space ship's hull. Designed to protect the user from radiation, extremes of heat and cold, tiny impacts of debris, corrosive or biohazardous environments it was not suited to combat. However, the protection it offered was better then nothing. In fact, Milo had considered using one of the suits himself, but had discarded the idea as he fully intended to equip his old armour, no matter its condition. Instead he settled for his normal attire with the addition of combat webbing to hold ammo and the other equipment he thought he may need before he reached his armour.

"I didn't realize you were coming Kali." Milo commented as he hefted his assault rifle.

"I normally don't. But this time Adelaide wanted me to come. Frankly, I don't often leave the ship so this is a welcome change of pace."

"Is that ... really a good idea?" Milo looked at Adelaide. "Everything I've come to know about Drom tells me it can be a very dangerous place."

"Kali is one of the few people I know who knowledgeable enough about Drom tech to be able to tell the difference between shit and gold. By the way, I almost died for every cup of coffee from that very complex looking machine in the mess hall." Said Adelaide.

Kali smiled. "You should have seen her face when I asked a very dirty, exhausted and shot up Adelaide why she was lugging around a coffee machine."

Milo chuckled. Adelaide just shrugged. "Well in that case ..." said Milo, returning to a sombre tone. "I notice your not carrying a weapon. Take this." Milo unholstered his pistol and presented it grip first to Kali.

She shook her head. "No Milo. I'm not going to carry a gun." She gently pushed the weapon back towards him. Milo glanced at Adelaide, but she was merely regarding him coolly.

"um .... why not?" he asked Kali.

She sighed sadly. "Milo I've .... just seen to much of the results. I won't ... cause that kind of harm." She said softy.

"I understand that Kali, but this is different." He presented to pistol to her again. "Please, you probably wont have to use it, just take it. Just in case."

Once more she pushed it way from herself. "No Milo. Please don't ask me to do this. I will not carry a gun. Under any circumstances."

Milo exhaled. He already knew that Kali had strong pacifist tendencies, but to not carry a weapon on a place so chaotic and lawless as Drom was just suicidal. "Look Kali, I can understand that. I can even respect that attitude in a nice, calm and ordered society. But out there ..." He gestured toward the pad "there are people who will kill you, and worse, without hesitation."

Kali remained calm. "I know that Milo. I will not carry a weapon." She repeated.

Milo emitted a small growl of frustration. He looked once more at Adelaide. She remained apparently disinterested in the conversation, still quietly watching Milo.

"Kali." Milo said forcefully. "You're being stupid. This isn't just about you. What if you see someone getting a bead on me or Adelaide before we see them? You weaken the whole group by refusing to carry a weapon just for some feel good pacifist crap!" Milo felt his voice rising.

Kali remained calm. "Like I said Milo, I will no carry a gun. Under any circumstances." She added.

"You would rather be dead then carry a gun? What kind of retarded logic is that?" Milo knew where his anger was coming from. The thought that she was going to be hurt because of some stupid sanctimonious conviction made absolutely no sense to him. He was already uncomfortable with the thought that she was going to Drom, but to do so without protection was just ... unfathomable. What if she was hurt? The mere thought provoked a flash of anger in him.

Kali finally lost her calm demeanour. "Yes Milo!" she matched his voice. "I would rather die then cause that kind of suffering! I will watch it, I will treat it and I will even enable it but I will-not-cause-it."

Silence befell the room as Milo just looked at Kali in disbelief. "What ... what do you think Adelaide?" he asked in search of support. Surely she would agree with him.

"I think she's an idiot. But I know that she wont carry a gun. Times wasting Milo, get on the pad." Adelaide stepped up to the teleportation pad, soon followed by Kali.

Milo shook his head. "OK Kali." he said, defeated. "But ... promise me you won't do anything stupid. Please just .... be safe, and stay close to me. I mean us, stay close to Adelaide and me." his tone was more desperate and needy then he had ever heard himself before, but he didn't regret a single word.

"OK Milo. I will." Kali answered softly.

Milo stepped onto the pad, hoping, praying that their journey would be uneventful.

Adelaide fed some coordinate into her suit, which in turn gave them to the teleportation pad. The trio disappeared, the space they had occupied replaced with the hot air of Drom.