Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 42: Slum Patrol

Steel was armed with a stun rifle and his sidearm. His armor was fixed, but he had yet to have a chance to attach the sword with its sheath to the suit. He and Corporal Wise were making their way into the slum district.

He was right about it being in the lower layers.The bottom two layers of the city to be precise. The third layer was strictly government facilities that controlled amenities and necessary systems for the station.

Steel walked past some drug dealers that looked surprised but he ignored them, eyeing a weapons dealer that had his merchandise sitting out on a table in the open. He walked up stowing the stun rifle on his back.

"Cadet Steel, what are you doing?" Corporal Wise asked in surprise as she glanced around. Everything here was very new to her, even the pair having sex behind a dumpster she could see.

"Checking out the merchandise. Is this an ion cannon, how did you get your hands on one of these? They all but disappeared when the Grand Hexarian Empire fell." Steel asked the robotic cyclops. His gears turned as he leaned forward.

"Bah, no one knows any good merchandise these days." The droid's voice was robotic, an ancient model by anyone's standards. "It is not just an ion cannon, it is an ion pulse cannon. You want it? I can sell it for five hundred BM Credits if ya gottem."

"BM Credits?" Corporal Wise asked.

"Black Market Credits, it is a special type of credit used in the underworld. It is universally used in the underworld across the galaxy." Steel explained before he turned back to the weapons dealer. "You want to sell a used ion pulse cannon that lacks ammo for five hundred? Why don't you just rob me?" Steel joked, "at most this would be worth one fifty."

"One fifty, talking about robbery. Nah, I sell for four hundred. No less." The droid tried to stay steadfast.

"Bah! Three hundred and you tell me about the big underworld players of this station." Steel compromised.

"Mmmm… three twenty five, and I will tell you about the heads of the underworld and a few other big names you might need to know." The droid compromised as well.

"Deal." Steel stuck out his hand and the droid clasped it as well.

"Well you got five heads, three of which are locally grown. Two are from large families based off station." The droid explained. "The first of the locals is the Berangs with the leader being Vanko the Butcher, they like chopping people up. The next is The Su Lees with Chang the Silencer, he likes removing hands and tongues. The last of the locals is Occassa, with the leader being some occult person no one knows his real identity."

Steel transferred three hundred and twenty five to the droid. "Unusual but not unheard of."

"Yeah, then there is Talus Mob, the one in charge of the gang on this station is called Octo. The last is Bubblegum-Green, if you know about the underworld you already know about them, they have no leader to speak of." The droid answered as he checked his account and nodded.

"Yeah, I know about them. What about the other people?" Steel asked as he took the ion pulse cannon.

"Orslov Mankow, he is basically a hired gun. Electobe, he is a hacker that works for hire. El Chunko, is a hired thug as well." The droid then shrugged and waved them off, his gears creaking as he did so.

"Come on," Steel started walking down the street again. They walked past several more vendors and dealers. Wise occasionally asked about a few things like illegal foods, caged animals, and open door buildings that had various people sleeping inside.

They full-on stopped as they walked past an alley and could hear screaming. Steel hesitated as he took in the alley and noticed something. But Wise ran straight into it, running down the alley with her stun rifle drawn.

Steel sighed loudly before walking after her. As he walked into the alley he was treated to the sight of Wise's rifle being knocked out of her hand by a thug. There were three other thugs surrounding her. Steel raised his stun rifle but dodged backward as another person jumped from a balcony above him.

Steel headbutted the woman causing her to drop unconscious with a bleeding nose. Then aimed and fired several shots taking down two of the thugs surrounding Wise before he walked into the opening that the alley led into.

"Hey Steel-"

"Don't worry I will just watch. You are the one that ran in here without thinking." Steel interrupted her, getting a frown in response. He watched as the last two thugs looked confused for a moment. Wise took advantage of their surprise, landing two quick jabs and a solid hook on one, knocking them out.

"You bitch-" The last one jumped forward to attack Wise but left his jaw open to an attack. Wise took advantage again and landed a single solid blow that caused a cracking sound and the man to fall to the ground.

Wise looked around and frowned before looking at Steel, "seriously? Why didn't you warn me?"

"Honestly? I thought it would at most start on the second day. We should warn the other patrols to watch for traps like this." Steel waved his hand at the mess before them.

"What should we do about them?" Wise asked as she looked at her would-be attackers.

"Take any credits, units, or anything or value from them." Steel answered honestly as he walked over to two bodies he had stunned unconscious. "It will send a message."

Five minutes later they were walking on their patrol again. Having robbed the unconscious attackers. They saw one more such a trap and an actual attempted rape. Wise was currently dragging the unconscious man as they walked to the entrance of the slum district.

Arriving on time was Sergeant Tani and Cadet Charlie. Armed in the same way that Steel and Wise were armed. They looked at Wise first who had some scratches on her armor then at the person she was dragging.

"Anything we should know?" Tani asked.

"Yeah, they are setting up do-gooder traps, if you hear a scream or a call for help be prepared for a trap." Steel explained as Wise dragged the unconscious man past them. "That man was trying to rape someone. Oh, if you do end up getting attacked remember to rob them of everything worthwhile."

"What?" Tani was surprised and attempted to process the information. "Rob them? Okay, I will also pass the message up to the major. Anything else?"

"Yeah, I got some info on some of the underworld. But if you see any places of interest, highlight them and we can work through them." Steel explained as he sent a list of individuals he got from the weapons dealer.

"Okay, Steel go get some rest. From what I understand you start your engineering duties in a few hours." Sergeant Tani responded and Steel saluted in response before running to join Corporal Wise in handing over the prisoner to the waiting Station Policing Unit.

Steel arrived at his garage less than an hour later and immediately began work on disassembling the ion pulse cannon. He was not lying about it being rare. The military might have had the specs on the weapon but he doubted they would share it with him.

Ion Pulse Cannons fired a field of electrical energy that was known to knock out electrical systems. It also fried most biological creatures and made objects levitate because of the resulting magnification. Ion Cannons were different; they made a single beam that temporarily shorted out electrical systems while it caused metal to become brittle.

He would see if the Ion Pulse Cannon's dispersal methods could allow him to create a hover plate. Then maybe he would see about additional uses or incorporating it in some of his designs. It actually gave him an idea for boots and an electromagnetic shield, well if he could stabilize it.

Solisa suddenly appeared while he was working. He glanced over for only a moment before focusing back on what he was doing. Before he did a double take and made a dubious expression as he looked at the Otter.

She was still an Otter but now she was wearing a Vexical Military hat and vest. With even a ranking of Technical Specialist. She looked incredibly proud about that.

"Solisa…" he sighed before turning back to his work. "What did you do?"

"I became a soldier." Solisa offered freely before swimming over and making her clothes disappear. "It just got approved. Admiral Dakota was able to make me a Technical Specialist. He was very helpful when he heard my idea. He even agreed that I did not have to disclose anything pertaining to my past. But if I manage to find anything of strategic importance relating to the immediate safety of the people I am required to help."

"Oh joy, Tani is going to be thrilled." Steel offered jokingly.

"Humor, very fun. What are you doing now?" Solisa looked over the piece of hardware he was dissecting. "Curious, what a strange piece of… weaponry?" Solisa asked.

"An Ion Pulse Cannon, look up historical records. I believe in its creation someone might have accidentally created something useful." Steel answered as he created a holographic blueprint of the cannon.

"Hmm… I don't… Oh I see it." Solisa spoke in surprise before swimming around the blueprints. "You are absolutely correct, a dispersal system like this would be even better than the Requiem's. Then there are the electromagnetic properties and- wow! Whoever created this truly did not know what they had created. To think it was only used in war." Solisa shook her head, clicking in disappointment.

"I am well aware." Steel answered as he pulled up his hover plate and began modifying it. He also added a note to make a combat boot version.

"But I do not understand? Why did you buy it? The moment you touched it you had the blueprint for the cannon. You even have the blueprint of the droid who sold you the cannon. Was it necessary to buy it?" Solisa asked. Steel had gotten into the habit of blueprinting anything mechanical he touched.

"I was buying the information more than I was buying the gun. It is cheaper if I add it as an add-on. Besides…" He looked at Solisa and shrugged, "now I do not have to waste resources printing and putting the gun together." Solisa rolled her eyes as she swam away.