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Description
Chapter 3

From her hiding place Jaylen could hardly believe it. She picked up an explosion from the food court on her sensors and then a stunned silence. On the official Henderson ISS comm channel the Kane City PD called in instantly to ask what the hell had happened followed immediately by the fire department. Seconds later the commander of the nearest MST checked in. The shift sergeant was covering and telling them nothing. On the unofficial sub net channel the sergeant was screaming and using language Jaylen hardly knew existed. It was such an intense tirade that it took Jaylen some time to work out what had happened. Eventually she worked it out, half the night shift had somehow got locked into the Mega Burger kitchen. Then the dumb asses had fired plasma guns at a titanium sealed lock and carnage had insured.

“Dumber and dumber.”

She cut to a video drone feed from the food court. There was smoke and debris and the guards were stumbling out of the Mega Burger and, inexplicably, others from Pizza King. They looked battered and bruised; uniforms were torn and ripped and they had the look of a shell shocked unit. Complete disarray.

That got Jaylen thinking. Her normal method of operation was to plan each and every move. She knew her exact movement around the Janescu towers but wasn’t totally sure of the layout around the underbelly of the Interchange facility. But she had the map and the security was in disarray. Was it a golden opportunity too good to miss? Instead of spending another week sneaking around the facility she could race back to the towers, complete the transfer of the money and disappear. The girls on the night shift would be far more worried about covering their own asses than dealing with intruders.

There was only one decision to be made.

Eventually Sergeant Piranha Ragan managed to herd the fourteen Mega Burger idiots into line and had them stand to attention. They were in a bad way but none seriously injured. Piranha debated calling medics but held back. Last thing she needed was an official report on this screw up. That said Piranha was struggling to think how to bury it. Which was surprising; you didn’t get to make Sargeant without being good at covering up screw ups. But this one was spectacular. The Mega Burger and Pizza King was wrecked and the food court would be out of action. There would have to be a report somewhere and it wouldn’t be pretty.

“…you fucking dumb asses!!!” screamed Piranha at the end of her latest rant.

There was full minute’s silence. Eventually Corporal Soreneson asked:

“Will this go on our records?”

“Of course it will!!!” shouted Piranha “you fuckwhits blew up half the fucking food court!!! I’ve got KCPD and the fire department on my ass. You morons are going to be disciplined and dishonourably discharged for this screw out. Hell, you might even get arrested.”

Kelsa gulped. Getting arrested didn’t sound good. ISS Guards tended not to do well in jail. Was this the end of her ISS career? Probably. The big, muscled up jockette fought back the urge to cry. She’d always worked hard at her job and had no serious black mark on her record. Until now. She was proud to play her part contributing to safety and security in Kane City. How could she have been so stupid? Would she really get arrested? A single Mega Burger outlet was hardly a big deal, right?

“Oh my Gawd” whispered the rookie stood next to her “I’ve only had my badge for like three weeks and…”

“Shut the hell up rookie!!!” screamed Piranha.

More minutes passed and the sergeant debated what to do. Procedure was to call the situation in to headquarters. But she didn’t want to do that. Her superiors might arrest the unit for gross incompetence and throw their asses into jail. As the shift commander they would probably include Piranha in that arrest sweep. Whatever, the whole mess would screw with her chances of promotion and she would definitely get booted back down to Guard Level 1. If she was lucky. Worse case they would all be shipped off to some labour camp.

She looked back over at the wrecked food court. It was too bigger mess to hide. Anybody with a pair of eyes could see it. The drones would be videoing the whole scene. So she needed to control the story.

“Who ordered who to shoot?” asked Piranha.

There was silence.

“If somebody doesn’t answer that question I’m going to have you all arrested. Sorenson, you were the ranking guard, did you order this?”

“Ummm…I….I…I…yes. I’m sorry Sarge I…”

“Shut the hell up!!!”

The stalemate was broken as the intruder alarm rang loud. An unauthorised trespasser had just appeared in the power facility under the Interchange. Sensors picked her up as Jaylen Carter. That was a red alert. All automated systems had switched to shoot to kill. Breaches around the perimeter were common but not inside the facility. Piranha collected herself. This was a chance to recover from the Mega Burger screw up.

“Okay, everyone down in the power facility and we’re gonna get this bitch. Remember, watch what ya shoot down there because you’ll get a lot more than an exploding frigging soda machine if you hit a fusion reactor. Only fire when sensors confirm a lock.”

“We going down to kick her butt?” asked one of the guards.

“You bet. We’ll use the Mosquito’s.”

“Hell yeah!”

The Mosquito’s were a one person airborne patrol vehicle used for covering large areas like the underground of the Interchange. Armed with two plasma guns the Mosquito’s were also deadly. Battered, bruised and drenched in soda Kelsa hauled her big ass onto a Mosquito and tried to focus. Back in her powerball playing days her coach had taught her to focus and dig deep. The Mega Burger screw up had been embarrassing and painful but here was a chance at victory. If the unit could capture a red alert criminal nobody would give a shit about Mega Burger.

Down in the facility the guards worked circuits as they hunted down Jaylen Carter.

“Somethings screwing with the sensors” said Kelsa “she’s on one second and then vanishes.”

“Stay focused Decala” said Piranha.

“Do we shoot to kill?”

“Yes, she’s got a red alert on her.”

“Oh yeah baby!” said the rookie.

“Stay fucking focused rookie!!!!” snarled Piranha “nobody fire until sensors have a confirmed lock.”

“Sensors can’t track her for…”

“I got her!!” shouted a guard “sensors lost the bitch…!!!”

Kelsa kept her focus. Twenty four years old and with years of softball and powerball behind her she had excellent reactions. Her scores were excellent on the firing range. Like all guards she’d participated in security sweeps and had fired her gun in anger more than once. But never in a potentially explosive facility with her sensors cutting in and out. What’s more the Mosquito was far from comfortable for the porked up babe. Her belly rubbed slightly against the control column whilst her utility belt dug in. She wanted to reach down and loosen it a notch but was instead using all her energy to search for the red alert criminal and avoid the piping and machinery that made up the facility.

So far she’d only seen blips on her sensors. Normally the intruder would have been marked clear as day on the system. Something or somebody was seriously screwing with the sensors.

CEO Jaxon Kolani had returned to his sprawling estate in the wealthiest suburb of Kane City and was sat in his private study. As ISS chief that study included a massive monitor bank with access to all ISS systems on Kane Alpha. At that moment his focus was on Henderson. First off there had been a small explosion in the transport interchange food court. Normally Kolani wouldn’t have noticed such a detail but with Henderson being right where the Janescu Syndicate and his hired gun was he watched every detail. Bemused he’d watched as a group of dumb ass guards destroyed a Mega Burger. He had found the scene mildly amusing. With over 30,000 ISS Guards employed in Kane City alone the girls were not always the smartest; any ISS recruit with real aptitude wouldn’t have been assigned a guard posting.

“Watching those dumb asses I understand Lazzaro more” said Jaxon.

Next thing his private comm channel picked up an alert. Billions of Corp Dollars had just been transferred from the Janescu Syndicate accounts to billions of private checking accounts around Corporate Worlds space. Each recipient would receive a surprise one thousand dollars. Nobody would return it. One thing that united all Corporate Worlds citizens was greed. Janescu was now broke.

Jaxon poured himself a glass of orange juice and continued to watch.

Fifteen minutes later ISS sensors at Henderson Interchange had picked up Jaylen Carter presumably making her escape. Jaxon watched the squad of idiots load their big asses onto Mosquito flyers and set off in pursuit. He listened into their comm channel. He heard the sergeant in charge confirm “shoot to kill” and then listened to the difficulties as sensors kicked in and out. It was the worm he had installed at work; Jaylen Carter had been partially invisible around Kane City.

Sitting back in his chair Jaxon reflected. The hired gun had transferred the money out of Janescu’s account. She was of no further use. Jaxon wasn’t sentimental. It was advantageous to have her eliminated rather than on the run. Moving to another screen he loaded the worm code up and clicked delete.

Jaylen Carter was now fully visible to all ISS systems.

“We got her!!!” shouted Piranha.

Jaylen Carter had popped up clear as day on all sensors. She was on the edge of the reactor heading for the passageways leading to the sewer system. For a brief moment Jaylen froze. Her own sensors had just picked up the sudden movement of the Mosquito’s toward her. Whatever worm her client had installed on the ISS system had just stopped working. Stood on the western edge of the reactor the porkers would be careful with their shooting but eventually they would get a clear shot. Her only hope was the passageways leading to the sewers. She figured the passageways would be too narrow for the Mosquito’s and those girls weren’t built for a chase on foot.

“Hell, some of those porkers might be too wide for the passageways…”

Sprinting as fast as she could toward the passageway Jaylen ran like her life depended on it. Which, of course, it did. Behind her she could hear the thumping roar of the approaching Mosquito’s. She could almost feel the sensors locking onto her and smell the plasma guns warming up. With one jump she was in the passageway; a whole barrage of plasma shots smacking the ground around the entrance. Half a second later and Jaylen would have been blown to a million pieces. Not looking back she kept on sprinting into the darkness.

“Did we get her?”

“Shit no!”

“The scum ran down that passage…”

“We can’t get Mosquito’s down there” shouted Piranha across the comm channel “everybody off and assemble in front of that fucking passage.”

She watched her girls offload and switched her comm channel to central control. If it was a simple foot chase down a maze of passageways it was hopeless but if they could cut the fugitive off they could get her.

“This’ central control” said an authoritative voice down the comm.. link.

“This’ Sargeant Ragan, Unit 3442 were pursuing a Code Red. Can you cut her off?”

There was a pause.

“Your red alert has run into a dead end.”

“Repeat” said a confused Piranha.

“I’m looking at the map and the passage your all stood at was blocked off ten years ago. It leads to nowhere.”

“Do you want us to go in and get her?” asked Piranha.

“Hold current position Sergeant Ragan and guard the exit. I will need to consult my commander. This criminal is highly dangerous.”

Taking a breath Piranha looked around her unit. They had done good. All the guards were pumped and ready to go into the passageway. Fortunately they weren’t going to have to. Before joining ISS Piranha had served six years in the marines and knew what real combat was like. These girls were tough enough but lacked any real combat experience and the majority had gotten really fat. Running a finger round her belt Piranha reflected on that; she was a good sixty pounds up on her marine sergeant days.

“Listen up!!” shouted Piranha “the dumb shit criminal scum ran into a dead end…”

The guards cheered.

”Shut the fuck up!!! This isn’t a frigging powerball game, this criminal is a dangerous Code Red. We guard this exit until further orders. Assume attention one stance.”

Drawing her plasma pistol from her holster Kelsa assumed the stance and held her gun steady at the entrance. Around her the other guards took an identical stance. She could feel sweat pouring down her cheeks as she stood tense and ready. A whole unit of guards pointing their guns at the entrance and the scum would be dead if she took one step out but Kelsa knew this wasn’t the normal security sweep. They weren’t busting some loser dunks, homeless vagrants or petty criminals; this was a code red.

“Okay” shouted Piranha “just got orders from control. We wait here on attention one and wait for a squad of Shock Troopers. They’ll clear the bitch out.”

“Can’t we go in and blast her?” asked Skyler.

“Hold position and shut the hell up!!!”

Kelsa held her stance. Minutes ticked by. She continued to sweat partly because of tension and partly because the combat stance was hard work for the outta shape ex jockette. Her back was starting to kill her. The aged hamburgers sat in her swollen belly were weighing her down and she was fighting the urge to barf. Discipline held her in place. She looked left and right for a split second; she wasn’t the only one sweating like a pig.

“Hold steady girls” said Piranha.

Inside the passageway and Jaylen had passed the panic stage. Now she was thinking hard. She was cornered and a made charge out of the passageway would lead to her being shot. She had to accept capture. The pause in action was no doubt the ISS Guards waiting for a proper Shock Trooper unit to arrive. That was bad for Jaylen. A group of overweight bimbo’s with a badge she could take on but a unit of fully armoured combat troopers was impossible to contend with.

Carefully she replayed the nights events. She’d made a mistake rushing the heist and not gotten a full map of the facility. That in turn had lead to the mad scramble down a blocked off passageway. But there was no point kicking herself over that. It was as it was. What confused her was why the worm in the ISS sensors had stopped at that crucial moment. She thought over that. ISS systems were notoriously difficult to crack so her client had to have inside access. Maybe the client was a senior ISS CEO? Maybe he had some score to settle with the Janescu Syndicate? Maybe the client was the ISS?

“Son of a bitch! You watched me all the way through and the second you didn’t need me you deleted the worm and left me. Now I’m stuck like a rat in a trap waiting to be taken out.”

Never one to wallow in pity Jaylen planned. It was time to start playing the angles. Considering the options she was certain the client was a senior ISS CEO on Kane Alpha. It had to be; only somebody with that level of access could have successfully installed the worms in the sensors and deleted them in an instant. Pulling out her own comm unit she pulled up the ISS hierarchy on Kane Alpha. There were five CEO’s with Jaxon Kolani appearing as the ranking officer. She knew nothing about Kolani specifically but judging by his rank and position he would be intelligent and ruthless.

Taking a gamble Jaylen pressed call and hoped the scrambled in her system would connected her to Kolani. 3am and he might be asleep but, if he was the guy behind the heist, Jaylen was prepared to bet he would be watching. The ISS CEO picked up.

“Who is this?”

“Jaylen Carter.”

There was a pause.

“I don’t know who you are” said Kolani in a level voice.

“Right now I don’t have time for bullshit so listen” snapped Jaylen “you know exactly who I am, where I am and what is about to happen to me.”

“Suppose I do” said Jaxon.

“You need to know that I know you’re my client. There’s a dead man release on me and the second I die a whole detailed account of this operation will be sent to your superiors on Prime. Maybe they ordered you to do this so you’ll be fine but my guess is your flying below the radar on this one. Corporate Worlds is a greedy, corrupt empire but one thing you seem to respect is private property. So I’m guessing bankrupting a major trading syndicate isn’t in your job description.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Yeah I am.”

Miles away in his mansion Jaxon Kolani killed the comm link and rested back in his chair. He thought for a moment. Then he changed the shock troopers orders from “shoot to kill” to “arrest”. It was better to play this one safe.

11am and Kelsa finally made it home. She powered her Camero down in her condo complex parking lot. Her shift had been twenty hours long and the big girl was tired. Her shifts were normally routine but this one had included the explosion in Mega Burger, the following dressing down by Sergeant Ragan, the pursuit of the Red Alert suspect and then watching a group of Shock Troopers arrest the criminal. Fortunately nobody seemed to care about the Mega Burger incident after the Red Alert pursuit. In the end Kelsa was proud of her work; she’d help capture a dangerous criminal and was proud to have played her part in the security of Kane City.

Hauling herself up out of her car she wearily walked to her condo. With three days off Kelsa planned on catching up on some sleep. She could also feel her stomach rumbling. Mentally she tried to think through what she had in the house. The beefy girl always kept her fridge well stocked and was confident she could fill her belly.

Stepping into the condo she groaned and peeled herself out of her uniform in the walk to her bedroom. Her pants, belt, jacket and boots flew off in seconds. The bodysuit was a little more difficult. It was designed to protect her from any knives or low calibre firearms and was worn underneath her uniform. It also had the added advantage of squeezing and holding all the pork that had built up around her muscular frame into place. Eventually Kelsa wriggled her way out of the body suit.

“Oh boy I can breathe again” she sighed.

She paused and checked herself out in the full length mirror. She spread her legs into her habitual softball slugger’s stance. Back at Kane City Tech she’d made the team every summer. She bent her legs and rocked her shoulders back; performing a basic batters swing. She watched her belly bounce. After a few more belly bouncing swings she slipped on a giant Kane City Cougars powerball jersey and padded out of the bedroom toward the kitchen.

Flinging open the door Kelsa grabbed an extra large pizza box and a selection of other left over’s. Without bothering to sit down she put the boxes on the kitchen counter and dug in. Kelsa focused on the food and gulped down pizza slices like was an extra rep at the gym. Her belly bulged out and she could feel that warm stuffed feeling.

With a last mouthful she lumbered back across the condo to the bed and crashed into a deep sleep.

Epilogue

Two months later and Guard Level 2 Kelsa Decala was stood on the tarmac of Frisco Airport watching a line of ten passengers complete a final DNA scan before boarding the SR-7 Regional Shuttle. Next to her stood an Aurellian girl from the Frisco Police Department. Kelsa’s visor was updating all kinds of information about the passengers but as they’d already completed two layers of security there was no surprises expected. The planets two suns beat down. Around her there was the small airport terminal, the four landing bays, the small city of Frisco to the south and then miles and miles of emptiness. One of the passengers popped up as a semi-VIP; the daughter of a minor CEO back in Kane City. Her visor told her to say:

“Have a great flight Miss Peterson” said Kelsa.

The girl ignored her and kept drinking her Galaxybucks coffee. As a daughter of a CEO she wasn’t impressed or scared of some basic level ISS guard.

The Aurellian said:

“Do you ever say anything that visor doesn’t tell you to?”

“Yeah” said Kelsa.

”Go on, prove it or are you half robot half fat Corp chick?”

“If you don’t shut up I’ll pull that stupid wig off your bald head and stuff it up your ass.”

The Aurellian gulped. By the looks of her Kelsa Decala was perfectly capable of doing that. The Aurellian shut up.

As the passengers moved on Kelsa thought back to how she’d ended up on a posting out in the middle of nowhere. After the capture of the Code Red prisoner she, along with the rest of the unit, had received a commendation. The Mega Burger incident, unfortunately for Kelsa, there on her record as well. No disciplinary action was taken but it was there like a big, ugly spot. The Code Red prisoner, it turned out, was so sensitive security wise that Kelsa’s unit had been broken up. She’d sat on the transfer roster for six weeks with every commander in Kane City avoiding one of Mega Burger idiots. Kelsa had been seriously worried about being Honourably Discharged when the Frisco ISS commander had taken her. So she’d taken the posting and moved out to nowhere Kane Alpha.

With the final passenger boarded Kelsa cleared the flight for departure and wiggle waddled her way back into the terminal. She ignored the Aurellian who followed on. Behind her the shuttle began its vertical take off. The other landing bays were empty. The terminal building itself was quiet; it was over an hour until the next arrival. Pausing at the Mega Burger outlet Kelsa said:

”Ummm…I’ll take a Triple XL Big Feast meal with Coke and…ummmm…extra fries and apple pie.”

“Okay.”

The server returned with her bag of food. Kelsa reached for her credit card:

“No, it’s on the house” rushed the guy.

She smiled; that was cool. Clearly the fast food owners in Frisco had the same approach to keeping ISS sweet as they did back in Kane City.

“Just please don’t blow up my restaurant. It costs $300,000 for a Mega Burger franchise…”

Kelsa forced a smile and walked away. Clearly her reputation followed her. Returning to the guard’s room she sat down in front of the bank of security monitors and dug into her food. Sat next to her was the only other Guard on duty; a big girl called Tendra from rural Issa State.

“Shit Decala, you can eat.”

“U-huh” said Kelsa.

“I’ve been in ISS for like a year and I’ve gained thirty pounds.”

“Yeah” mumbled Kelsa as she ate.

Opening her ISS email account Kelsa checked her inbox. Only one email and it looked to be some circular to all ISS inboxes on Kane Alpha. It was sent by CEO Kolani and was about the upcoming presidential election. Kelsa didn’t really follow politics but she’d learned to always read emails from CEO’s. It was about some candidate called Joseph Janescu who was standing on a law and order ticket and had the support of the Internal Security Services and Corporate Worlds. There was a link to click to place her vote. Only an idiot in ISS would have done anything other than what Kelsa did next – she clicked VOTE, confirmed her personal details and pressed send.

“You watchin’ the Bobcats game tonight?” said Tendra.

“I just moved and the satellite TV guy hasn’t got me sorted yet so I’m kinda bummed out I’m gonna miss it.”

“Local TV round here totally sucks” laughed Tendra “some of us girls and some guys are gonna head down to Brannigans Bar to watch it. You wanna hang out with us?”

“Awesome!”

“How come you got a commendation and then got no promotion and then got transferred out here?” asked Tendra.

Kelsa debated lying for a moment. If the guy at the Mega Burger franchise knew about the Henderson Interchange explosion then Tendra had to know about it. She knew a security drone video feed of the incident had gone viral on the ISS sub net. Nobody gave a damn about her unit tracking down a Code Red but they all knew about the food court.

Instead of answering Kelsa fixed Tendra with a glare that suggested that if they were going to be buddies then that subject would be dropped. Tendra changed the topic:

“Did you get that freaky Aurellian when you saw off the shuttle…”

Meanwhile many light years away, on a frontier Corporate Worlds galaxy Jaylen Carter stepped out of the spaceport arrivals and disappeared into the crowd…

Description
Chapter 3

From her hiding place Jaylen could hardly believe it. She picked up an explosion from the food court on her sensors and then a stunned silence. On the official Henderson ISS comm channel the Kane City PD called in instantly to ask what the hell had happened followed immediately by the fire department. Seconds later the commander of the nearest MST checked in. The shift sergeant was covering and telling them nothing. On the unofficial sub net channel the sergeant was screaming and using language Jaylen hardly knew existed. It was such an intense tirade that it took Jaylen some time to work out what had happened. Eventually she worked it out, half the night shift had somehow got locked into the Mega Burger kitchen. Then the dumb asses had fired plasma guns at a titanium sealed lock and carnage had insured.

“Dumber and dumber.”

She cut to a video drone feed from the food court. There was smoke and debris and the guards were stumbling out of the Mega Burger and, inexplicably, others from Pizza King. They looked battered and bruised; uniforms were torn and ripped and they had the look of a shell shocked unit. Complete disarray.

That got Jaylen thinking. Her normal method of operation was to plan each and every move. She knew her exact movement around the Janescu towers but wasn’t totally sure of the layout around the underbelly of the Interchange facility. But she had the map and the security was in disarray. Was it a golden opportunity too good to miss? Instead of spending another week sneaking around the facility she could race back to the towers, complete the transfer of the money and disappear. The girls on the night shift would be far more worried about covering their own asses than dealing with intruders.

There was only one decision to be made.

Eventually Sergeant Piranha Ragan managed to herd the fourteen Mega Burger idiots into line and had them stand to attention. They were in a bad way but none seriously injured. Piranha debated calling medics but held back. Last thing she needed was an official report on this screw up. That said Piranha was struggling to think how to bury it. Which was surprising; you didn’t get to make Sargeant without being good at covering up screw ups. But this one was spectacular. The Mega Burger and Pizza King was wrecked and the food court would be out of action. There would have to be a report somewhere and it wouldn’t be pretty.

“…you fucking dumb asses!!!” screamed Piranha at the end of her latest rant.

There was full minute’s silence. Eventually Corporal Soreneson asked:

“Will this go on our records?”

“Of course it will!!!” shouted Piranha “you fuckwhits blew up half the fucking food court!!! I’ve got KCPD and the fire department on my ass. You morons are going to be disciplined and dishonourably discharged for this screw out. Hell, you might even get arrested.”

Kelsa gulped. Getting arrested didn’t sound good. ISS Guards tended not to do well in jail. Was this the end of her ISS career? Probably. The big, muscled up jockette fought back the urge to cry. She’d always worked hard at her job and had no serious black mark on her record. Until now. She was proud to play her part contributing to safety and security in Kane City. How could she have been so stupid? Would she really get arrested? A single Mega Burger outlet was hardly a big deal, right?

“Oh my Gawd” whispered the rookie stood next to her “I’ve only had my badge for like three weeks and…”

“Shut the hell up rookie!!!” screamed Piranha.

More minutes passed and the sergeant debated what to do. Procedure was to call the situation in to headquarters. But she didn’t want to do that. Her superiors might arrest the unit for gross incompetence and throw their asses into jail. As the shift commander they would probably include Piranha in that arrest sweep. Whatever, the whole mess would screw with her chances of promotion and she would definitely get booted back down to Guard Level 1. If she was lucky. Worse case they would all be shipped off to some labour camp.

She looked back over at the wrecked food court. It was too bigger mess to hide. Anybody with a pair of eyes could see it. The drones would be videoing the whole scene. So she needed to control the story.

“Who ordered who to shoot?” asked Piranha.

There was silence.

“If somebody doesn’t answer that question I’m going to have you all arrested. Sorenson, you were the ranking guard, did you order this?”

“Ummm…I….I…I…yes. I’m sorry Sarge I…”

“Shut the hell up!!!”

The stalemate was broken as the intruder alarm rang loud. An unauthorised trespasser had just appeared in the power facility under the Interchange. Sensors picked her up as Jaylen Carter. That was a red alert. All automated systems had switched to shoot to kill. Breaches around the perimeter were common but not inside the facility. Piranha collected herself. This was a chance to recover from the Mega Burger screw up.

“Okay, everyone down in the power facility and we’re gonna get this bitch. Remember, watch what ya shoot down there because you’ll get a lot more than an exploding frigging soda machine if you hit a fusion reactor. Only fire when sensors confirm a lock.”

“We going down to kick her butt?” asked one of the guards.

“You bet. We’ll use the Mosquito’s.”

“Hell yeah!”

The Mosquito’s were a one person airborne patrol vehicle used for covering large areas like the underground of the Interchange. Armed with two plasma guns the Mosquito’s were also deadly. Battered, bruised and drenched in soda Kelsa hauled her big ass onto a Mosquito and tried to focus. Back in her powerball playing days her coach had taught her to focus and dig deep. The Mega Burger screw up had been embarrassing and painful but here was a chance at victory. If the unit could capture a red alert criminal nobody would give a shit about Mega Burger.

Down in the facility the guards worked circuits as they hunted down Jaylen Carter.

“Somethings screwing with the sensors” said Kelsa “she’s on one second and then vanishes.”

“Stay focused Decala” said Piranha.

“Do we shoot to kill?”

“Yes, she’s got a red alert on her.”

“Oh yeah baby!” said the rookie.

“Stay fucking focused rookie!!!!” snarled Piranha “nobody fire until sensors have a confirmed lock.”

“Sensors can’t track her for…”

“I got her!!” shouted a guard “sensors lost the bitch…!!!”

Kelsa kept her focus. Twenty four years old and with years of softball and powerball behind her she had excellent reactions. Her scores were excellent on the firing range. Like all guards she’d participated in security sweeps and had fired her gun in anger more than once. But never in a potentially explosive facility with her sensors cutting in and out. What’s more the Mosquito was far from comfortable for the porked up babe. Her belly rubbed slightly against the control column whilst her utility belt dug in. She wanted to reach down and loosen it a notch but was instead using all her energy to search for the red alert criminal and avoid the piping and machinery that made up the facility.

So far she’d only seen blips on her sensors. Normally the intruder would have been marked clear as day on the system. Something or somebody was seriously screwing with the sensors.

CEO Jaxon Kolani had returned to his sprawling estate in the wealthiest suburb of Kane City and was sat in his private study. As ISS chief that study included a massive monitor bank with access to all ISS systems on Kane Alpha. At that moment his focus was on Henderson. First off there had been a small explosion in the transport interchange food court. Normally Kolani wouldn’t have noticed such a detail but with Henderson being right where the Janescu Syndicate and his hired gun was he watched every detail. Bemused he’d watched as a group of dumb ass guards destroyed a Mega Burger. He had found the scene mildly amusing. With over 30,000 ISS Guards employed in Kane City alone the girls were not always the smartest; any ISS recruit with real aptitude wouldn’t have been assigned a guard posting.

“Watching those dumb asses I understand Lazzaro more” said Jaxon.

Next thing his private comm channel picked up an alert. Billions of Corp Dollars had just been transferred from the Janescu Syndicate accounts to billions of private checking accounts around Corporate Worlds space. Each recipient would receive a surprise one thousand dollars. Nobody would return it. One thing that united all Corporate Worlds citizens was greed. Janescu was now broke.

Jaxon poured himself a glass of orange juice and continued to watch.

Fifteen minutes later ISS sensors at Henderson Interchange had picked up Jaylen Carter presumably making her escape. Jaxon watched the squad of idiots load their big asses onto Mosquito flyers and set off in pursuit. He listened into their comm channel. He heard the sergeant in charge confirm “shoot to kill” and then listened to the difficulties as sensors kicked in and out. It was the worm he had installed at work; Jaylen Carter had been partially invisible around Kane City.

Sitting back in his chair Jaxon reflected. The hired gun had transferred the money out of Janescu’s account. She was of no further use. Jaxon wasn’t sentimental. It was advantageous to have her eliminated rather than on the run. Moving to another screen he loaded the worm code up and clicked delete.

Jaylen Carter was now fully visible to all ISS systems.

“We got her!!!” shouted Piranha.

Jaylen Carter had popped up clear as day on all sensors. She was on the edge of the reactor heading for the passageways leading to the sewer system. For a brief moment Jaylen froze. Her own sensors had just picked up the sudden movement of the Mosquito’s toward her. Whatever worm her client had installed on the ISS system had just stopped working. Stood on the western edge of the reactor the porkers would be careful with their shooting but eventually they would get a clear shot. Her only hope was the passageways leading to the sewers. She figured the passageways would be too narrow for the Mosquito’s and those girls weren’t built for a chase on foot.

“Hell, some of those porkers might be too wide for the passageways…”

Sprinting as fast as she could toward the passageway Jaylen ran like her life depended on it. Which, of course, it did. Behind her she could hear the thumping roar of the approaching Mosquito’s. She could almost feel the sensors locking onto her and smell the plasma guns warming up. With one jump she was in the passageway; a whole barrage of plasma shots smacking the ground around the entrance. Half a second later and Jaylen would have been blown to a million pieces. Not looking back she kept on sprinting into the darkness.

“Did we get her?”

“Shit no!”

“The scum ran down that passage…”

“We can’t get Mosquito’s down there” shouted Piranha across the comm channel “everybody off and assemble in front of that fucking passage.”

She watched her girls offload and switched her comm channel to central control. If it was a simple foot chase down a maze of passageways it was hopeless but if they could cut the fugitive off they could get her.

“This’ central control” said an authoritative voice down the comm.. link.

“This’ Sargeant Ragan, Unit 3442 were pursuing a Code Red. Can you cut her off?”

There was a pause.

“Your red alert has run into a dead end.”

“Repeat” said a confused Piranha.

“I’m looking at the map and the passage your all stood at was blocked off ten years ago. It leads to nowhere.”

“Do you want us to go in and get her?” asked Piranha.

“Hold current position Sergeant Ragan and guard the exit. I will need to consult my commander. This criminal is highly dangerous.”

Taking a breath Piranha looked around her unit. They had done good. All the guards were pumped and ready to go into the passageway. Fortunately they weren’t going to have to. Before joining ISS Piranha had served six years in the marines and knew what real combat was like. These girls were tough enough but lacked any real combat experience and the majority had gotten really fat. Running a finger round her belt Piranha reflected on that; she was a good sixty pounds up on her marine sergeant days.

“Listen up!!” shouted Piranha “the dumb shit criminal scum ran into a dead end…”

The guards cheered.

”Shut the fuck up!!! This isn’t a frigging powerball game, this criminal is a dangerous Code Red. We guard this exit until further orders. Assume attention one stance.”

Drawing her plasma pistol from her holster Kelsa assumed the stance and held her gun steady at the entrance. Around her the other guards took an identical stance. She could feel sweat pouring down her cheeks as she stood tense and ready. A whole unit of guards pointing their guns at the entrance and the scum would be dead if she took one step out but Kelsa knew this wasn’t the normal security sweep. They weren’t busting some loser dunks, homeless vagrants or petty criminals; this was a code red.

“Okay” shouted Piranha “just got orders from control. We wait here on attention one and wait for a squad of Shock Troopers. They’ll clear the bitch out.”

“Can’t we go in and blast her?” asked Skyler.

“Hold position and shut the hell up!!!”

Kelsa held her stance. Minutes ticked by. She continued to sweat partly because of tension and partly because the combat stance was hard work for the outta shape ex jockette. Her back was starting to kill her. The aged hamburgers sat in her swollen belly were weighing her down and she was fighting the urge to barf. Discipline held her in place. She looked left and right for a split second; she wasn’t the only one sweating like a pig.

“Hold steady girls” said Piranha.

Inside the passageway and Jaylen had passed the panic stage. Now she was thinking hard. She was cornered and a made charge out of the passageway would lead to her being shot. She had to accept capture. The pause in action was no doubt the ISS Guards waiting for a proper Shock Trooper unit to arrive. That was bad for Jaylen. A group of overweight bimbo’s with a badge she could take on but a unit of fully armoured combat troopers was impossible to contend with.

Carefully she replayed the nights events. She’d made a mistake rushing the heist and not gotten a full map of the facility. That in turn had lead to the mad scramble down a blocked off passageway. But there was no point kicking herself over that. It was as it was. What confused her was why the worm in the ISS sensors had stopped at that crucial moment. She thought over that. ISS systems were notoriously difficult to crack so her client had to have inside access. Maybe the client was a senior ISS CEO? Maybe he had some score to settle with the Janescu Syndicate? Maybe the client was the ISS?

“Son of a bitch! You watched me all the way through and the second you didn’t need me you deleted the worm and left me. Now I’m stuck like a rat in a trap waiting to be taken out.”

Never one to wallow in pity Jaylen planned. It was time to start playing the angles. Considering the options she was certain the client was a senior ISS CEO on Kane Alpha. It had to be; only somebody with that level of access could have successfully installed the worms in the sensors and deleted them in an instant. Pulling out her own comm unit she pulled up the ISS hierarchy on Kane Alpha. There were five CEO’s with Jaxon Kolani appearing as the ranking officer. She knew nothing about Kolani specifically but judging by his rank and position he would be intelligent and ruthless.

Taking a gamble Jaylen pressed call and hoped the scrambled in her system would connected her to Kolani. 3am and he might be asleep but, if he was the guy behind the heist, Jaylen was prepared to bet he would be watching. The ISS CEO picked up.

“Who is this?”

“Jaylen Carter.”

There was a pause.

“I don’t know who you are” said Kolani in a level voice.

“Right now I don’t have time for bullshit so listen” snapped Jaylen “you know exactly who I am, where I am and what is about to happen to me.”

“Suppose I do” said Jaxon.

“You need to know that I know you’re my client. There’s a dead man release on me and the second I die a whole detailed account of this operation will be sent to your superiors on Prime. Maybe they ordered you to do this so you’ll be fine but my guess is your flying below the radar on this one. Corporate Worlds is a greedy, corrupt empire but one thing you seem to respect is private property. So I’m guessing bankrupting a major trading syndicate isn’t in your job description.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Yeah I am.”

Miles away in his mansion Jaxon Kolani killed the comm link and rested back in his chair. He thought for a moment. Then he changed the shock troopers orders from “shoot to kill” to “arrest”. It was better to play this one safe.

11am and Kelsa finally made it home. She powered her Camero down in her condo complex parking lot. Her shift had been twenty hours long and the big girl was tired. Her shifts were normally routine but this one had included the explosion in Mega Burger, the following dressing down by Sergeant Ragan, the pursuit of the Red Alert suspect and then watching a group of Shock Troopers arrest the criminal. Fortunately nobody seemed to care about the Mega Burger incident after the Red Alert pursuit. In the end Kelsa was proud of her work; she’d help capture a dangerous criminal and was proud to have played her part in the security of Kane City.

Hauling herself up out of her car she wearily walked to her condo. With three days off Kelsa planned on catching up on some sleep. She could also feel her stomach rumbling. Mentally she tried to think through what she had in the house. The beefy girl always kept her fridge well stocked and was confident she could fill her belly.

Stepping into the condo she groaned and peeled herself out of her uniform in the walk to her bedroom. Her pants, belt, jacket and boots flew off in seconds. The bodysuit was a little more difficult. It was designed to protect her from any knives or low calibre firearms and was worn underneath her uniform. It also had the added advantage of squeezing and holding all the pork that had built up around her muscular frame into place. Eventually Kelsa wriggled her way out of the body suit.

“Oh boy I can breathe again” she sighed.

She paused and checked herself out in the full length mirror. She spread her legs into her habitual softball slugger’s stance. Back at Kane City Tech she’d made the team every summer. She bent her legs and rocked her shoulders back; performing a basic batters swing. She watched her belly bounce. After a few more belly bouncing swings she slipped on a giant Kane City Cougars powerball jersey and padded out of the bedroom toward the kitchen.

Flinging open the door Kelsa grabbed an extra large pizza box and a selection of other left over’s. Without bothering to sit down she put the boxes on the kitchen counter and dug in. Kelsa focused on the food and gulped down pizza slices like was an extra rep at the gym. Her belly bulged out and she could feel that warm stuffed feeling.

With a last mouthful she lumbered back across the condo to the bed and crashed into a deep sleep.

Epilogue

Two months later and Guard Level 2 Kelsa Decala was stood on the tarmac of Frisco Airport watching a line of ten passengers complete a final DNA scan before boarding the SR-7 Regional Shuttle. Next to her stood an Aurellian girl from the Frisco Police Department. Kelsa’s visor was updating all kinds of information about the passengers but as they’d already completed two layers of security there was no surprises expected. The planets two suns beat down. Around her there was the small airport terminal, the four landing bays, the small city of Frisco to the south and then miles and miles of emptiness. One of the passengers popped up as a semi-VIP; the daughter of a minor CEO back in Kane City. Her visor told her to say:

“Have a great flight Miss Peterson” said Kelsa.

The girl ignored her and kept drinking her Galaxybucks coffee. As a daughter of a CEO she wasn’t impressed or scared of some basic level ISS guard.

The Aurellian said:

“Do you ever say anything that visor doesn’t tell you to?”

“Yeah” said Kelsa.

”Go on, prove it or are you half robot half fat Corp chick?”

“If you don’t shut up I’ll pull that stupid wig off your bald head and stuff it up your ass.”

The Aurellian gulped. By the looks of her Kelsa Decala was perfectly capable of doing that. The Aurellian shut up.

As the passengers moved on Kelsa thought back to how she’d ended up on a posting out in the middle of nowhere. After the capture of the Code Red prisoner she, along with the rest of the unit, had received a commendation. The Mega Burger incident, unfortunately for Kelsa, there on her record as well. No disciplinary action was taken but it was there like a big, ugly spot. The Code Red prisoner, it turned out, was so sensitive security wise that Kelsa’s unit had been broken up. She’d sat on the transfer roster for six weeks with every commander in Kane City avoiding one of Mega Burger idiots. Kelsa had been seriously worried about being Honourably Discharged when the Frisco ISS commander had taken her. So she’d taken the posting and moved out to nowhere Kane Alpha.

With the final passenger boarded Kelsa cleared the flight for departure and wiggle waddled her way back into the terminal. She ignored the Aurellian who followed on. Behind her the shuttle began its vertical take off. The other landing bays were empty. The terminal building itself was quiet; it was over an hour until the next arrival. Pausing at the Mega Burger outlet Kelsa said:

”Ummm…I’ll take a Triple XL Big Feast meal with Coke and…ummmm…extra fries and apple pie.”

“Okay.”

The server returned with her bag of food. Kelsa reached for her credit card:

“No, it’s on the house” rushed the guy.

She smiled; that was cool. Clearly the fast food owners in Frisco had the same approach to keeping ISS sweet as they did back in Kane City.

“Just please don’t blow up my restaurant. It costs $300,000 for a Mega Burger franchise…”

Kelsa forced a smile and walked away. Clearly her reputation followed her. Returning to the guard’s room she sat down in front of the bank of security monitors and dug into her food. Sat next to her was the only other Guard on duty; a big girl called Tendra from rural Issa State.

“Shit Decala, you can eat.”

“U-huh” said Kelsa.

“I’ve been in ISS for like a year and I’ve gained thirty pounds.”

“Yeah” mumbled Kelsa as she ate.

Opening her ISS email account Kelsa checked her inbox. Only one email and it looked to be some circular to all ISS inboxes on Kane Alpha. It was sent by CEO Kolani and was about the upcoming presidential election. Kelsa didn’t really follow politics but she’d learned to always read emails from CEO’s. It was about some candidate called Joseph Janescu who was standing on a law and order ticket and had the support of the Internal Security Services and Corporate Worlds. There was a link to click to place her vote. Only an idiot in ISS would have done anything other than what Kelsa did next – she clicked VOTE, confirmed her personal details and pressed send.

“You watchin’ the Bobcats game tonight?” said Tendra.

“I just moved and the satellite TV guy hasn’t got me sorted yet so I’m kinda bummed out I’m gonna miss it.”

“Local TV round here totally sucks” laughed Tendra “some of us girls and some guys are gonna head down to Brannigans Bar to watch it. You wanna hang out with us?”

“Awesome!”

“How come you got a commendation and then got no promotion and then got transferred out here?” asked Tendra.

Kelsa debated lying for a moment. If the guy at the Mega Burger franchise knew about the Henderson Interchange explosion then Tendra had to know about it. She knew a security drone video feed of the incident had gone viral on the ISS sub net. Nobody gave a damn about her unit tracking down a Code Red but they all knew about the food court.

Instead of answering Kelsa fixed Tendra with a glare that suggested that if they were going to be buddies then that subject would be dropped. Tendra changed the topic:

“Did you get that freaky Aurellian when you saw off the shuttle…”

Meanwhile many light years away, on a frontier Corporate Worlds galaxy Jaylen Carter stepped out of the spaceport arrivals and disappeared into the crowd…