​Quick Progress/Life Update

Still in the teething trenches with my youngest. I made an offhand comment that I hope he gets his first batch of chompers all at once to rip the proverbial bandaid off, and it seems I've cursed the poor lad. I think he's speedrunning getting teeth since he's so excited to eat all the things.

Either way, getting in writing on various projects when I'm not too much of a zombie.

All the TTRPG fun times are running afoul of the true end boss of trying to get in games as an adult, scheduling. Are you interested in tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons or the like? Feel free to reply to this email and let me know. I actually like hearing about what other people are playing.

On to the story. Flipping the script a little with this one :D

A Change of Heart

Rays of deep orange sunset fell across the surface of Casyyan III. Long shadows stretched across the city from smokestacks rising from its sprawling industrial sector. Lines of sickly ant-like humanoids called zixx queued up on the streets outside a packed medical centre. They braced themselves from the sonic boom as a spacecraft soared low over their heads and rocketed toward a larger vessel looming in the skies above. The bigger ship bore the same flowing corporate logos plastered over many of the city’s factories.

Hip music played inside the executive lounge of the Synthcorp freighter. The regional manager in charge of operations on Cassyon III took a long drag of his cigstick and sank the winning ball of the holo-billiards match he played. His opponent, wearing a similar but less expensive suit, forced a smile and wrung their hands on the cue.

The rest of the entourage cheered and heckled the loser as the manager exhaled smoke in their face. “Nice hustle. Maybe one day you’ll realize I never lose. Until then, I’ll be happy to take your credits.” The manager tossed his cue to a passing assistant, dropped what remained of his cigstick in his half empty drink, and grabbed a fresh one from the bar.

After noticing the assistant clutching a holopad and not making herself scarce, he shot her an expectant look and snapped his fingers. The aide cleared her throat and said, “Um, sir, the, uh… help… you hired has returned.”

The manager raised his eyebrows. “Shit, really? Hell yeah. Send her up.”

The assistant reviewed the camera feed on her holopad that showed an armoured woman with fire engine red hair stomping out of her craft and shoving security out of the way.

Before the aide could rush outside and greet her, there was a loud slam outside, and the doors hissed open. On instinct, the assistant jumped out of the way lest the burning gaze of the warrior’s one cybernetic eye fall on her.

Unphased, the manager spun around, pointed finger guns at her, and beamed a wide grin. “Fhenriss! Babe. They said you were good, but I wasn’t expecting results this quick. Guess you really are worth the money. So, job done? Those tangos in the dirt?”

Fhenriss’s natural eye twitched despite the smile she put on. The freelancer grabbed the aide’s shoulder with her cybernetic arm and spoke through her teeth. “Get out. Lock the door.”

The rest of the entourage snickered as the manager turned to them. “Ooo, I like where this is going.”

Armoured footsteps echoed across the ferasteel floor as she beelined for the bar. “Move it or lose it.” The look on her face compelled the loser of the billiards game to fall out of his chair trying to get out of the way.

As she poured her drink, the manager flicked out another cigstick and lit it before whistling at her. “Hello? All that gunfire make you deaf? Job done or what? I gotta report to head office and leave this rock in the dust ASAP. You find those uppity rebels and put them in their place?”

Fhenriss downed her expensive liquor, then snatched the lit cigstick out of the manager’s mouth to take a drag of it. “Oh yeah, I found them. Was a little surprised when they stepped out to meet me unarmed, waving a white flag.”

The manager, lighting another cigstick, tutted. “Spineless vermin. Shoulda just sent the company security team to clear them out. You gonna get to the point sometime this century?”

She turned around, resting her elbows on the fancy bar. “Their translators didn’t work, but I gathered they had no interest in fighting me. They did, however, lead me inside and showed me everything.”

The manager crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really.”

Fhenriss took a long drag, staring hard at the man. “Did you know even the fumes from that toxic sludge you dumped into the earth by their hives soften and erode their exoskeletons? Have you seen a zixx try to walk without bones? ‘Cause I have.”

He chortled. “One sec. You’ll love this.” The manager snapped his fingers at a member of his entourage. “Do the thing.” One of the suits sauntered over, got into character, then performed an exaggerated pantomime of someone struggling to walk with wobbly legs. Everyone but Fhenriss cackled.

She smiled at the comedian. “I see someone wore their dancing shoes! Come here. Lemme have a closer look.” He lifted his leg up, proud of his fashionable footwear. She held his leg out, slammed an elbow into his knee, hyperextending it, then cracked his nose with her forehead. The others stopped laughing as the comedian fell to floor screaming in agony, but the manager found it amusing.

Now with blood spattered on her face, Fhenriss stepped closer to her employer. “Did you know their eggs get so brittle, even a slight tap cracks them, spilling everything inside onto the rotting floor?” Her voice grew louder. “Did you know a fetus can choke? Cause I have that sound in my head forever now!”

Another suit got brave and stepped in front of their leader. A swift kick to the groin dropped them to the floor with a sickening crunch as her armoured foot struck pelvis.

The manager crossed his arms and shook his head. “I can’t believe this. Fixer said you were the best around. Well worth the fat price tag. She also said you were a professional who didn’t ask questions. Now you’re squeamish at squishing a few bugs all of a sudden?” Her face twitched as dark memories flooded back from her last assignment. He continued, “Unbelievable. What’s the play here? Do you even know what you’re doing here?”

Fhenriss felt the overpowering the urge to crush his head with her bare hands, then turned and kicked over the holo-billiards table with a hoarse roar before walking over to a wall. She placed her head on the cold, hi-tech steel and looked down at the polluted city it displayed. After smoking the last of the cigstick, the merc did a compulsive check of her wrist-mounted holopad. It displayed an unreasonably large number of credits cast in a haunting red hue on her ledger. She closed her eyes and thought about the fateful previous job she limped out of. Fhenriss couldn’t shake the fact that she stepped out of that accursed jungle a different person than when she came in.

The manager tapped his foot, checked the time, then rolled his eyes. Stepping forward, she saw his reflection over her shoulder as he said, “Look, you’re clearly having a… moment. So let me lay this out real simple for you. You signed a pretty wicked NDA when you took this gig. So throw out any thoughts of pretending to be some kind of hero by blabbing about this to the press. Won’t make a difference planetside since you’ll have to get out of our signal jammer’s range to even send a signal. We’ll be long gone with a rock solid cover story by then. You’ll get sued into oblivion, never work another day in your sad life, and we both know nobody important’s gonna give a shit, anyway.”

He stepped closer, put a hand on her shoulder, which prompted a low growl from her, then whispered in her ear. “Or… you can go back down there and take care of my little problem like the good little trigger puller you’re supposed to be. When that’s done, you come back here… well, maybe just send up a flare or something, get paid, minus a few percents for wasting my time, then we both go our merry way and keep… making… money. That’s what keeps the galaxy moving, and we’re both so very good at it. So, come on, babe. You gonna get back to work or not?”

Fhenriss took a deep breath and looked at her reflection in the wall’s polished metal. For a moment, she saw the bright-eyed, unscarred face of her in her youth. For over a decade, she worked very hard to bury that guiding voice in her head. After recent events, it broke through the surface and spoke louder than ever.

Without looking back, she reached her cybernetic hand over to hold his and spoke in a low, shaky voice. “That jammer you mentioned. No signals in or out, huh?”

He nodded. “Not a one.”

His face contorted in a silent scream as her hand crushed his. The remaining members of the entourage scattered, calling for security. As the alarm blared, Fhenriss held his face to hers. He stared in horror at the wild glint in her eye as she said, “No matter how things shake out, at least one part of my reputation will stay intact.” She flipped him around to use as a shield against the rushing corporate security forces and whispered in his ear, “I have a nasty habit of crashing big ships like this one.”

Fhenriss ordered her spacecraft to fire torpedoes into the hanger it docked in. She raised her rail pistol and opened fire on the security forces as the ship rocked with cascading explosions. All the while, a genuine smile graced her blood and tear-stained visage.

For the first time in a long while, she felt free.

Aj Atherii. Well met, Freelancers.

Captain Davius Tolvaren here with an intriguing after-action report that my esteemed co-host submitted to me for my expert evaluation.

Nestled in the crevice between the Libers, Void space, and Juno’s Heart lies a zixx hive on Casyyan III. The local branch of Synthcorp, long-time investors who set up textile factories on the planet, suffered a major setback when their executive freighter took critical damage from improperly stored ordnance and crashed into the company facilities. Though the regional manager was unavailable for comment, it seems he transferred a vast sum of credits to the hive and shut down their operation as an apology for corporate carelessness before he disappeared.

The rub here was this news broke from none other than the infamous freelancer, Fhenriss, who just so happened to be in the region when this all went down.

As I’m sure anyone with half a brain can see, this account strikes some rather dubious chords. When I reached out to the source for additional information, her reply was simple: You heard what I said.

The truth will likely never see the light of day, but I would like to raise a toast to this new brand of unhinged our beloved Fhenriss has adopted. May her new mantle let her soar to heights she only dreamed of.

Takes a bit of the sting away from that time she punched me in the face.

Hope you liked this continuation of Fhenriss's development! The previous job she alluded to is the first story in Phoenix Company Book 1.5 - Lost Souls. The whole book stands on its own giving more background on the cast of Phoenix Company, but the opening story, Future Nightmares, is a bombastic adventure that fans of Aliens will enjoy.

Check out this link if you're interested!