Topic: Whispers of the Past

Sentinel

Date: 2012-10-18 02:53 EST
Eugphoria was rather unforgiving in the winter. One never knew if they would roll their car over by turning the wrong icy corner or they would slip while walking and fall into the river. The Unity station in Prague was usually devoid of any ice, by way of maintenance people they hired every year. So when Section Chief Xi'kov stepped out of his car, he was quite angry at those very maintenance people who's paychecks he signed. The ice in the parking lot was almost horrendous.

He walked into the building and stepped into the elevator. His office was on the top floor by design, and no one but him and other Section Chiefs had a key to unlock the top floor. Of course, the CUI (Chief of the Unity Intelligence), a woman who went solely by Rose, also had a key. And he knew Rose was involved when he opened the door to his darkened office, seeing Sentinel sitting in a chair across from his desk. Waiting. Patiently.

Sentinel spun around the chair to face Xi'Kov. "Rose encourages and applauds you for making some extra credit on the side, Xi'Kov. She'd just prefer it if it weren't classified Unity Secrets."

Xi'Kov took off his coat and placed it on the rack next to the door. He saw that Sentinel was still wearing his. No doubt carrying his weapon underneath. Xi'Kov just gave out a light laugh. "Theatrics don't frighten me," he walked over to his five-foot tall blue lit network tower full of drivers, "and you're wasting your time with the wrong man, Sentinel."

"I'm not so sure of that." Xi'Kov noticed that Sentinel had placed a gun on the desk. It was Xi'Kov's personal side arm.

"If Rose is so certain that I'm a traitor, she'd have sent a Whisper. Benefits of being Section Chief, I'd have knowledge of anyone who'd been promoted to a public Whisper. You need?" He was cut off before finishing.

"4,000." Sentinel finished for him. If Xi'Kov only knew

The flesh that stretched over Sentinel's knuckles were split open as it made contact with Major Seirk's face. The sound of molars could be heard being loosened. It was earlier that very evening Sentinel found himself in a brightly lit bathroom with the Major.

Splinters of wood crackled and screamed as his targets body was thrown threw the door of a nearby toilet stall. The bowl cracking under his weight and began to leak water onto the tile floor. His shoes slipping and leaving streaks of black tread as he stumbled to his feet. Snapping a quick elbow to Sentinel's face in protest, hard as stone. The broken toilet seat was within reach, slammed it into the assassin's stomach.

Xi'Kov quickly grabbed the gun from on top of the desk and pointed it at Sentinel's head. "Shame," he said, "we barely got to know each other." He squeezed the trigger, CLICK! Sentinel though he would have better luck using a stapler.

"Hm, Performance troubles?" Tilting his head to the side, "tends to happens when you age."

Xi'Kov dropped the gun. "Interesting." He took a deep breath. He knew what was coming. "How did he die?"

"Your contact?" Sentinel shrugged, thinking back earlier that evening, "Janitor won't be happy."

Seirk tried to land another punch. Sentinel was quicker. Twisting around his body and grabbing his intended target by the neck. SLAM! Face to wall, breaking the artistic tile designs and maybe a few bones. His arm reacted like a tightly coiled spring and sprung into the mans gut, drawing back slowly as he pushed his skull into the wall hard before letting another powerful punch land to the rib cage, rupturing his lung. Then backhanded him in the face. Jaw dislocating on contact with the sink. CRACK! The heavy wheezing of one lung under stress was a sure sign of what happens when people decided to fight back.

Xi'Kov smiled. "People tend to give a good show when they're life is on the line."

Sentinel almost scowled. Xi'Kov knew from experience that Sentinel spent his younger years in the galactic arena's, fighting for his very survival.

The target decided to change the rules, a gun was quickly brought up and let out a loud pop towards the assassins direction. Sentinel ducked into a stall and backed himself against the wall, close call. This target was eager to do anything in his power to live and in an act of stupidity came around and was greeted by another punch. The sound of a heavy gun dunking into the shallow water echoed through the bathroom.

As the target regained his senses and looked around he couldn't see or hear the assassin. Only the feel of a cold blunt object came across the back of his skull, pistol-whipped. Fingers sunk deep into the roots of his hair, grasping, yanking. The sound of running sink water, The assassin forced his targets face down in it. With only one fully functional lung it didn't take long for the squirming to stop. Satisfied he pulled him out and dumped him on the floor.

Sentinel smirked, "Yea, some show he gave."

Xi'Kov leaned back in the chair at his desk, and continued to smile. "Forced information out of him did you?"

"He wasn't much for small talk."

"Good."

"Not really."

"Actually it is. With no proof and a dead contact, you have absolutely no evidence to convict me of leaking information. And with only one kill, 3,999 will be hard to obtain. You have yet to be promoted to Whisper status. But you needn't worry, I have something for?" Once again Sentinel cut him short. This time, he didn't finish his sentence. He brought up his weapon and put a bullet straight into Xi'Kov's eye.

"Yea," Sentinel said, flipping the safety switch on his Candlestick (gun), "Who knows."

Sentinel took a moment to catch his breath. He hadn't had this bad a fight for some time. While his back was turned, Seirk regained consciousness and pulled another gun from the small of his back. He raised the gun and squeezed the trigger, putting a round directly into Sentinel's back. Watching him part the water as he hit the bathroom floor. The target who apparently had an extra life despite his injuries raised to his feet, walked over to the body and rolled it over with a hard aggressive kick. POP!

A round struck the target in the exact center of his forehead pushing his body off the ground and towards a stall. Sentinel sat up from his blood clouded pool and looked to the Major's limp body. "Be sure to flush." He got to his feet and walked out from the bathroom. Holstering his gun and disappearing into the general public.

3,999 down, one to go, Sentinel thought.

Sentinel

Date: 2012-10-20 04:25 EST
Aljid-Crow was drinking from a bottle, watching two deadly beasts fight to the death, a Pakharian Death Hound vs. Striped Helixion Neck Biter as it were called. When Sentinel found him. Axion was down in the crowd. They were ready for the catch.

Sentinel's first assignment since becoming a Whisper was to catch Crow in order to interrogate him and find out his latest contact. 'They' provided him with a hefty sum of cash for whatever it was they were about to do. Unity had been keeping tabs on Crow's monetary assets and other dealings for the past six months, quietly, so as not to give Crow any suspicion.

"There's our man," Axion's voice came over the radio. "You weren't kidding, he's a skull." Meaning the man had his flesh ripped from the bones of his skull as an initiation to become apart of they're little terrorist club.

Sentinel turned to look up at a pink building off in the distance that overshadowed most. Axion sat in a supported prone position with a high powered MAC rifle with a very advanced scope decorating the piece like a black steel trophy. "I wonder if terrorists are insured or compensated for that?"

Crow took another drink from his bottle, then he must have heard a noise, or something. He reached around and pulled his data-pad from his pocket. Something in a message or a reminder must have come up. He hit a button or two and put the data-pad in his backpack. He turned to the left and began through the roaring crowd who was betting on the fight.

"He's walking away from you," Axion said, raising his hand to focus the scope. "I have you covered if anything goes wrong."

"This one should be a cake walk," Sentinel ordered.

"Sorry?" he nearly screamed.

"A cake walk" Sentinel sighed for a moment, "Never mind, stay focused."

Crow had that tingling sensation to look over his shoulder. A quick glance and before locking eyes with the Whisper and dumbfounded realized right then and there that Sentinel was unfriendly. Sentinel grinned and nodded to Crow. The hunt had begun, Crow bolted, jumping down into the fight pit. The two beasts hissed and growled at the Skull Terrorist as they backed away.

"Not that easy!" Axion protested as he pulled the bolt back and loaded a round into the chamber, then locking the bolt back into place, safety off. VHOOOM! VHOOOM! The two beasts heads had combusted like melons as the rounds passed through. The clouds of dirt that kicked up into the air turned to glass from the super heat rounds.

Axion 's stone cold poker face didn't hint at giving up, but the sound of jet engines caught his attention. "What the hell is?" The impact must have initiated a reflex action. A single shot sounded. Everyone started screaming and running. Crow took the opportunity and weaved in and out of the crowd. Sentinel caught sight of him and instantly gave chase. "Axion, green?"

"Guessing Crow's buddies wanted to spoil my party. I'll stay in touch."

Crow jumped up onto the roof of a parked vehicle. Sentinel ran around it. He then hopped over a fence, and Sentinel did the same. Crow jumped high, over a chain link fence. Sentinel Leaped onto the side of a building and began to free climb upwards. When he reached the top, he caught sight of Crow. He had made it inside the new construction zone for a new rooftop estate. Sentinel looked around for anything, and saw his advantage.

Crow stopped to catch his breath. The hunter was fast. Never before had he been given quite a run for his life. He turned back to see if he was still behind him, but saw nothing. There was a sound like a large machine starting up, but that was common in a place like that. He had to make it to the Unity Support Office. That was his only goal now. The hunter would not be able to do anything then.

Suddenly a Construction mech crashed through the nearby wall and piping. The hunter was piloting it. The strong mechanical arms tore apart the wall and stepped directly towards Crow, who sprang into action and ran. He pulled out his IR-E37 and fired off a few shots, but they hit the Bu'glass, which was about four inches thick.

Crow climbed up onto the foundation of the building being put up. At the moment, it was nothing but a skeleton. He quickly started climbing up the steel framework of the building. His ability to travel quickly with agility and precision allowed him to overcome feats such as climbing and jumping through difficult urban obstacles.

The front of the Mech split open and Sentinel jumped out with his famous blade in hand and onto a large crane mech that was positioned to the top of the building frame. He ran as fast as he could up the crane, matching Crow's speed up the framework itself. They reached the top at the same time, but Crow was still a tiny bit faster. He jumped onto a bundle of steel pipes and climbed to the top of the crane holding them. Sentinel made the jump as well, then made the climb, but Crow was still ahead. He was about to jump to another Mech's crane arm when Sentinel arrived at the top.

"Damn, how many doses of MedSync Energy Shots did you take," Sentinel said, his machine like lungs compressed air quickly for his next run. "We may need to have a drug intervention when this is over."

Crow pulled his weapon out again and pulled the trigger six or seven times, none of which mattered, as his magazine was empty. He threw the weapon at Sentinel, who caught it. Spinning it around his finger then letting it's momentum slip out of his grip back towards Crow. The gun hit the terrorist in the face and nearly knocked him over. Sentinel then cautiously walked over to him, but Crow had jumped to a second crane arm and then to the roof of an uncompleted building.

Sentinel at this point ignored timing. His muscles coiled then released as he vaulted far outward, landing on the second crane. When he climbed up, he jumped as quickly as possible to the roof of the building. Thin metal made a warping sound as he landed on an air conditioning unit. Not all too comfortable to land on.

Crow entered the building as he saw the Whisper land on the air conditioner. He got in by way of a hole in the roof which had yet to be sealed or covered. Once inside, he broke into a run for the nearest elevator.

Sentinel kicked in a door and ran down some stairs until he caught sight of Crow. He turned and ran toward him, nearly losing his balance a few times on sawdust and sand. As he was about to grab the terrorist, Crow jumped through a vent on the wall, near the ceiling. Sentinel simply broke through the weak plywood.

Once through the wall, Sentinel saw Crow bouncing down an elevator shaft. In order to cut him off, Sentinel slid along the floor using the sawdust and fell through a hole, landing directly on the terrorist. Crow punched him in the face a couple times, then kicked Sentinel off of him before breaking into a run and jumping off the building down to ground level.

Sentinel gave chase, breaking into a strong bursted sprint, leaping through some clear plastic where a window would be and falling down a few floors, a smoke cloud shot into the air as he landed in a large pile of cement mix. Crow, however, had made it over another fence and was out into the sky-way. The assassin hopped the fence, falling down a mere 10 feet into air-traffic. Vehicles flew past him at nearly 200km an hour until one clipped him sending him on the back of a transport vehicle that was heading the same way as Crow. Sentinel looked down to the bottomless sky-way, they must have been in the upper level of the city to have been up this high.

---

The sound of rounds hailing from the flying craft was endless it seemed. Axion had sprinted as far as his legs could carry him. The large 4 foot rifle was strapped across his back, ever so turning and firing off a few rounds from his side arm. "Damn, these guy don't give up. Time for a game changer."

Running from rooftop to rooftop he ran. The craft followed with plenty of enthusiasm. Ducking into a building while the outside was peppered with plasma heated led. He was towards the back of the room behind a counter. Tripod feet perched on the counter top as he looked through his scope. The twin bladed vertical flyer known as the Urban Hawk or UH1 for short hovered back and forth, pacing around the building trying to make enough holes in the structure for it to collapse. VHOOOM! He let off a single round, the bolt automatically shot back and a large round popped out, spinning around the floor. "Just my luck."

The UH burst into orange and blue flames as it twirled around, it's crash course; the building Axion was in. He didn't bother shouldering the rifle, he just picked it up and ran through door after door trying to find an exit. BOOOOM! The building collapsed into a cloud of smoke. The craft still hurtling itself through a handful of rooms. It's burning crushed metal rolled through like a bowling ball. Would Axion get a spare or a strike off his life?

---

Crow made it to the Embassy. He was nearly out of breath. He showed the man at the gate his papers and walked inside. The Whisper was no where in sight. He was home free, now. He walked up to the second floor and into the officer of Minister of Support; Twynn, who was surprised to see his unwanted cousin after so long a time.

Sentinel watched as Crow entered the Embassy. As the public transportation vehicle sped by, he tried to time it right and leaped from the roof. Both hands came grasping a horizontal pole sticking out of a building and spun around it like he was a Olympian gymnast. Then released. CRUNCH! The sound of crushed garbage broke his fall. He leaped out from the dumpster and onto the walkways, walked up to the man at the gate.

"Sentinel. UIS Business."

"Go on," the man said after looking over Sentinel's ID keycard.

Sentinel walked inside. From what he'd gleaned from Crow's background, he was cousin, on his mother's side, to Minister Twynn. Twynn's office was on the sixth floor, over looking the garden.

Sentinel reached the Minister's office, his boot coming to Crow's face, Crow into a chair. Then spinning over top of the desk into a punched to the Minister's face. Casually grabbed the gun from off of the table. Crow tried to lunge into a punch, but Sentinel jammed the side of the handgun into his skull, fracturing it slightly. Crow was defeated and knocked back into the chair. "Your family doesn't know when to quit." pistol-whipping the Minister for good measure, who attempted to retrieve another handgun from his desk drawer.

The assassin grabbed Crow by his backpack and drug him out of the room half dazed. The Minister must have hit the alarm, because it was blaring once they got to the hallway. Unity Soldiers carrying IR-D7's 9 (assault rifle)and IR-E37s burst into the hall and began shooting without question. Sentinel took a few of them out from behind cover, going for head shots but scoring hits in the neck and shoulders as well.

Sentinel shoved the terrorist into what looked to be an large shared office. Popping off a couple shots to empty the room, then pushed him out the window. The assassin followed, landing on Crow and quite possible breaking some of his bones, as well. When the soldiers and the Minister came out and surrounded him, Sentinel held Crow at gunpoint.

"Big mistake coming here!" the Minister shouted. Sentinel stood still. "No man causes trouble here and escapes to tell the tale! Throw down your weapon and come with us."

Sentinel pulled the gun off to the side, ejected the empty magazine and ejected the one round in the chamber. He then tossed the gun off to the side. He pushed Crow away?quickly and carefully grabbing his backpack?a moment of starring occurred before drawing his Candlestick and shooting first Crow in the chest, then another at a grenade attached to one of the soldier's vests just behind the Minister. BOOOM! He hopped over a wall and fell into a free fall.

This job had a nasty habit of making him run a lot. His body twisted and turned as he regained control of his free fall through the sky-way again. His body shot straight downward, through multiple levels of traffic until he spread his arms out and used his feet to glide in any direction except up. Eventually the blaring of horns stopped as he landed into the back of a large recycling craft that transported the cities waste.

ZIP! The bag was opened and the contents emptied into a recycled box. A bomb made of several sticks of explosives, a data-pad, a bottle of water, a picture of an shipyard somewhere. Sentinel looked over the picture, but there was nothing to determine the location of the shipyard. He picked up the data-pad next and saw that a message was the most recent thing sent, from a mysterious contact.

\\VX: UNICOM - Bringing The Universe Closer Together.

Fr: Light of Destiny
To: Torch of Truth
Subject: Just A Friendly Reminder!

Mr. Aljid-Crow,

MedSynch Industries - R&D Department is testing newly finished prototype vaccine in Montrah Calvin. For your families safety I hope you accomplish the tasks given to you.

p.s. test subjects will be released when your job is done!

Best regards,
Professor V PhD.

Sentinel didn't know what it meant, but he kept this on his mind. He had a feeling it was going to be very important in the near future.

Sentinel

Date: 2013-01-07 01:54 EST
Chief of Unity Intelligence, the woman known to her people only as 'Rose' left the committee's room in a mad fury. Aegis, her chief of staff, followed behind her very quickly. She was barely giving him a chance to keep up.

"What a bunch of self-righteous, ass-covering suits!" she shouted, almost certain they could hear her. "The people I report to aren't stupid enough to ask what it is we do!"

Aegis tried to speak, "Listen, Ma'am..."

Rose cut him off. "They get wind of a Whisper blowing things up."

"Ma'am, Sentinel was just?"

"Yes, Sentinel! He becomes a whisper and now look! How the hell could he be so reckless? He makes a bloody mess of an embassy! Is the man deranged? Where the hell is he?"

Aegis almost didn't answer for fear she'd cut him off again, then he said, "He's not a man... and we don't know."

"No Shit! I've never gotten this much problems from any of my children, I don't expect it from Sentinel!"

"Yes, Ma'am..." Aegis shook his head. She'd never been this mad at any other operatives. Sentinel's career was off to a very bad start, it seemed.

"When I was an operative and we did something embarrassing," she smacked the datapad in her hand, showing the picture of Sentinel holding Crow at gunpoint with the Unity military all pointing their weapons at him, "he'd have the good sense to kill himself. The Core, now those were a good bunch!"

Sentinel

Date: 2013-01-07 02:01 EST
The Unicom Datapad were of the easiest to jail break. He tapped the screen to life and pinched at the operating system and tossed it's data into his own datapad. Bringing up UI domain and searching. Using basic computer hacking skills he managed to trace the message back it origins.

It took a few seconds for the triangulation, but eventually Mahikanah appeared. The triangulation zoomed in on an upscale sort of small city called The Oasis. He memorized the location, then heard the elevator start its ascent. He faded the screen and picked up a cigarette from the table.

Rose exited the elevator and turned the lights on. Sentinel imagined she was quite surprised to see him there, sitting in the living room of her flat. Her first words to him were, "You had to flick off the camera?"

Sentinel knew what she was talking about: the camera that had seen him at in Embassy. "what can I say, I enjoy my work."

"You have some nerve Ink."

Sentinel smiled.

Rose continued: "You started a riot, destroyed a construction site, blew up an embassy, nearly killed a foreign Minister and why? To kill some nobody!" She threw a silk rectangular data pad to him. "We don't like shoot first, questions later mentality!" She walked around the room. "Axion will be in the rehabilitation factory for days after being being sliced and crushed by that buzzard. The manager of that fighting pit is looking for answers. The government wants you dead or thrown into the arenas! You violated the most absolutely inviolate rule in the playbook, Ink." For a moment she seemed to realize where she was and asked the obvious question: "And how the hell did you figure out where I live?"

Sentinel smiled again. "Same way I figured out your name. I thought 'Rose' was just a randomly assigned alias, I had no idea it meant?" He paused, lighting his cigarette.

Rose cut him off. "Say one more syllable and I'll have you killed!"

sentinel was still smiling. "You know, Rose, I thought that one less terrorist in the universe would be a good thing."

"Yes," Rose chuckled, "one. We're trying to figure out how they function and you give us one, hardly the winning steed, don't you think, Sentinel? The man was a mercenary. What happened out there?"

Sentinel sat back. "The V'flixtrha Species have an incredible 13 senses to help them survive on their home world, making them ideal predators and assassins."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I did break a good deal of construction equipment. Not to mention the embassy."

Rose sat down. "What am I going to do with you, Sentinel? infinity... Sentinel, this may be a little too much for a," she paused, as if trying to find the right words, "K'Rynai, like yourself, to understand, but I need you to judge every situation dispassionately."

"I'm a Whisper mum, K'Rynai isn't who I am, it's what I am?"

"Exactly." She picked up the silky datapad. "I also need you away from Unity. Go and take up vacation on some beach or backwater planet for a while," she looked up at him, "They know your face, and you've been made their target."

Sentinel nodded. "Tell them to take a number." He stood up and walked over to the elevator. He pressed the button and waited. Rose called his name before he was about to enter.

"Don't ever break in here again," she said.

"Whatever," he said.

Sentinel

Date: 2013-01-07 03:02 EST
Sentinel arrived at Mahikanah the next day. He rented a Terrawheel and drove to the Oasis. Whatever he was looking for was there. He hoped that it would present itself quickly.

When he arrived, a plethora of people were going in and out of the building: loungers, golfers, people who looked like they were going to gamble. The multitudes of different types of people were amazing to watch. He thought back to the Embassy, where dozens of similar types of people were standing around an arena, watching two animals fight. Sentinel had never been one to fit into a crowd, just watching other people was interesting to him.

He looked around and saw exactly what he was looking for: Messengers, Data Pads, Eye Enhancements. The call had come from this small city. Granted, in this day and age, ninety-nine percent of the world had such a device, and on this side of the planet in particular, people were on them seventy percent of the day, but hopefully, it would work.

From the confides of his vehicle he sat and played some screen top bottle cap game while his other program he designed hacked into the Security Department and gathered all the messages that were sent out at that certain time, narrowing his target down. Finally his game was interrupted by a message. He thumbed over it and it pulled up a man on his eye enhancer, walking out of a fancy restaurant. Beside him, an equally beautiful woman in a black dress.

Sentinel knew who he was looking for, he just didn't have a name. He did, however, have a way to get it. Anyone with a car that expensive and well-kept must have money, and anyone with money must own a home or a permanent villa in a place like this. He just needed to ask the right question in order to find out who it was he was looking for.

He walked up to the woman at the front desk. She said, "Hello, sir, welcome to the Oasis. Will you be staying?"

He gave a charming smile to the women, "Yes, a change of scene."

She slightly giggled before flipping through the screen, "We have an Ocean View Villa."

Sentinel handed her his card. "Perfect." She scanned it, did all the necessary things, then handed it back to him. Sentinel then added, "Oh, last time I was here, there was a man and a beautiful women that go to the Alice Steakhouse regularly. Do you know where I could find?"

She cut him off. "Mr. Domo?"

"Domo as in Domo Industries, yes."

She leaned in close and whispered. "If you valued your life, I wouldn't seek him out."

"What if I felt... compelled to meet him?"

She grabbed a pen and a piece of paper. "He has a house on the beach."

"Thank you," he said, taking the paper.

"...and if you need, anything. Anything at all, don't hesitate to let me know." She smiled as her eyes flickered, looking him up and down.

---

Sentinel watched Domo' villa from the beach. He saw little, other than his wife collecting sea shells and Domo himself coming out every so often to call her inside. After the sun went down, Sentinel went back inside and pulled his datapad from his bag. He signed in to the UI network once more. He typed in Domo and waited for the results.

Sentinel

Date: 2013-01-07 03:04 EST
Back on Unity, Rose was almost asleep when she heard the tablet vibrate and tone in. She rolled over and picked it up. Her husband didn't even stir. "What is it?" she asked.

"He's on Mahikanah. Oasis," Aegis answered.

"You called me to share his holiday plans?"

"He's signed into our secure networks using your name and password," Aegis said.

"How the hell does he know these things?"

"I couldn't answer that, ma'am."

"Who's he looking at?

"Hitoro Domo."

Rose flipped her finger across her tablet bringing up the information Aegis sent her. Domo' face was plastered on the screen.

She said, "That crooked snake."

Suddenly, the image changed. Several known associates of Domo' appeared. The last one to appear was Monstergo.

"Monstergo?"

Sentinel

Date: 2013-01-07 03:06 EST
Sentinel checked his shirt one more time before going into the club. Domo apparently fenced professionally every time he came to The Oasis. Sentinel hoped to corner him there and get something out of him. Or at least see what the man is like.

Sentinel stopped at the bar and ordered a drink. He rather fancied his newest discovery. Something he'd come up with one day while he was mixing drinks. He gave the ingredients to the bartender, then waited. He turned to his left and saw the two Gormick golfers sitting there, staring at him. When his drink came, he nodded to them and said, "Gootin ahbiin."

He took his drink and walked over to the fencing floor Domo was playing at. They had one less player than they needed. "Mind if I join you?" he asked the caller. She nodded.

They fences for four hours. After the first hour, it had basically become a duel between Sentinel and Domo. Domo had lost twenty thousand dollars in the past two hours, most of it to Sentinel. Currently, they were the last two duelers. As the final round was about to begin, Domo' wife entered the room, wearing an extremely stunning red dress. She walked around behind Domo and put her arms around his neck, then left a kiss and a smear of lipstick on his cheek.

"Infinity, you took your sweet time haven't you" he said to her. Sentinel smiled.

Sentinel remembered from his inquiries into the UI database that the wife's name was Moiji. She'd come from the Business Districts of Unity, a rich, and snooty community. But, she was different.

He returned his attention to Domo, away from Moiji's beautiful neckline. Domo was a sore loser. He didn't like being stuffed with the losing streak. He assumed that if his next moves were more aggressive with ten thousand credits invested into a few fancies, then Sentinel would feel at a disadvantage and surrender. He'd guessed wrong dueling against a Whisper.

DING! The bell rang and the light flicked green. Sentinel had stepped to the side and swung low. Domo's blade hovered inched across Sentinel's back as a snap was heard. Domo's shoelaces were severed, and the point was awarded. He knew he had the win, with another fancy ready.

Domo submitted all of his dueling credits. "All in, wait," he pulled his datapad from his pocket, "plus, twenty thousand."

"Duel stakes only, sir," the caller said.

Domo wasn't happy. He pulled out a key ring with a small halo trinket hanging from it. "This is on the line. It's the keydeeds to my Orbital Luxury Platform."

"I'm sorry, sir."

Sentinel smiled. He'd love to win that platform. "Please, give him a chance to win his money back," he said.

"Fine," the dealer seemed aggravated. "Let's see a winner, gentlemen."

DING! The bell rang and the light turned green for the last time. Domo attempted to use a Bojin Kham Advanced Thrust on Sentinel.

"Tie." The dealer announced. DING!

Sentinel had flipped high over Domo. Pivoting quick with a slash.

The dealer pulled the scores. "Stranger wins. Four to Five."

Domo looked as though he was about draw a gun and shoot. Instead, he just pushed he confirmed the credit transfer. Sentinel quickly grabbed the Halo trinket and put it in his pocket. "Oh, I need the deed coordinates?" he asked. Domo looked as angry as a man could get, then pulled out the transfer card for his Orbital platform and nearly jammed it in Sentinel's hand.

As Sentinel collected his winnings, he watched Domo walk away, right past his wife.