Chapter Seventeen - Jaina, Our target

It took around five Ris, to pinpoint the elven attacker's location to a few systems, instead of searching through the entire galaxy.

We were now hiding nearby on the orbit of a human colony. There was scheduled a military convoy for departure from said planet, that was headed towards the Alliance Command. We thought that she would likely attempt to strike this convoy, as it was carrying materials for the automated defenses, which were developed to strike at the Harbinger scout fleets.

"Annie, let's get ready. We'll follow this convoy, cloaked and see if she shows up." I've said from my pilot chair, typing some commands into the control console. Annie looked at me, understanding what I've meant and said: "Yes. I think this will be fun. We can try to approach her without igniting a battle. It's going to be hard, though."

I nodded back at her, smiling happily. Then we waited for around two more Heris for the convoy to depart from the planet, and started following it.

After it jumped into FTL, my sensors aboard the fighter went crazy around ten Mis later.

They detected a fleet. More like a ship. A strong one, at that. I've immediately smashed the button to jump, and we went straight to the convoy's last location.

When we arrived there, the convoy was actively engaged in a space battle, fighting one destroyer-class warship, but getting quite a hammering. I've activated the combat mode of my fighter, while Annie readied her daggers in her hands, seemingly prepared to board said destroyer.

We disengaged the cloaking system and flew straight into some of the heavier shots, that were on their way to break the convoy's engines.

After we disrupted that salvo, we turned and headed straight for the hostile ship. I've loaded disruption ammunition into the primary weapons of our fighter and placed it into an autopilot. The fighter flew in, hard-hitting the destroyer's engines, shutting them off. I've gestured to Annie, that we're going down there. "Yes, let's go, dear. I wonder what she's like. And why she's doing this."

Annie responded to me, following me into the crew bay.

I've opened a portal, straight to the signal, where the opposing force had their life signatures on their CIC. There were around ten thousand crew members aboard the attacker ship, though.

"Let's head for their CIC, Annie. I think that is where we'll find our target." Then we both walked though the portal, weapons in our hands.

We jumped out of thin air straight in front of the CIC window, weapons at the ready. The crew in front of us appeared to be seriously shocked, as there was someone jumping out of nowhere.

In the captain's chair, there was our target, an elven girl with blonde hair, who fitted the description of our bounty target. She was wearing mage robes, and had her staff laid against the back of her chair.

She immediately turned to us, grabbing her weapon from behind. Beneath our feet, there started to appear a fairly complex magic circle, which meant that she tried to attack us with some offensive spell.

"Hey there, Jaina. That's your name, is it? I think you're causing trouble to my allies. Mind putting away your staff? It's not gonna have any effect on us anyway." I've turned to her, speaking.

She seemed like she stopped for a second, but then continued to cast her spell. Beneath our feet, black fire started to spread, setting us both ablaze.

I've started to laugh. At first, it was quiet. But my laughter increased in volume, as we both were engulfed in black fire. That fire didn't do a thing to us. Thanks to Annie's new armor, she was unharmed too. So even she started to laugh like crazy.

We both looked at the elf, mouths wide in laughter, both saying at the same time: "You are funny. Trying to grill us."

"It was a nice try, though, and that spell was fairly strong, but as you can see, miss Jaina, we're quite alive." I added.

Then we looked at each other and kissed. Jaina looked at us with confusion, as she didn't know what to think. Her crewmates were confused as well, as they didn't have anticipated that someone has survived her spells and started kissing right after that.

"Just what the fuck are you two? And why do you, elf male, have two Shards? Not many beings are even able to withstand their power." Jaina looked at us, then fixed her gaze upon me, looking very angry.

"Allow me to introduce myself, then. I'm Dorian Artherius Tornelis. Does that name ring a bell or two? If not, then I'm bounty hunter with ID of 9445210. You have a really nice, big price on your head. We're here to get that bounty." I said, looking at Jaina with mixed feelings.

"About those Shards. I'm not giving them. And I'm not intending to use them on you. Don't worry." I tried to reassure her as hard as I was able to. She seemed to calm down a bit after that, at least.

"Well.. That name sounds familiar. And your ID is very well known around here. Say, Mr. Tornelis, how big that bounty is?" She asked me, while looking at Annie, who was still battle ready, holding her daggers and looking back at Jaina.

"It is a nice, big number. 100 million credits, that is. For your head." Annie responded instead of me. "So tell us, why we should spare someone, who is intentionally disrupting operations of our ally?" I added.

I've kinda felt conflicted, as someone quite skilled in the art of magic was going the wrong way. Even though the credits were actually necessary for us to proceed to buy equipment from Helius, I didn't have wanted her to die. It may be because of many things, but the first one on my mind was that she had potential.

I've turned my back to the blonde elf sitting on her commander's chair, and turned to Annie, asking her:" So, dear. Let's think. I sense that she has very good potential in becoming a very strong mage, but her personality may be a bit corrupted. And we need the money. However, she may be too valuable an asset to lose. Kill her or take her?"

Annie looked at me, a bit baffled by what I just asked her, but she seemed to think the same way as I did. She was also considering that we can spare Jaina, instead of killing her and let her join our 'party'. "Well.. I have no problems with her joining us. It would be more fun to have someone else here to talk with. And you know. I prefer more open relationships than just having one person with me."

I looked at Annie with mouth open. Why does she like these kind of things? Is she some kind of harem girl? What did I stepped into? "So you are into those things, I guess.

"But remember that she better follow some rules, if we're to let her join us. It will make us trouble at the Hunter Company, though."

Jaina was watching us from her chair, her staff again laid against her chair, as she probably wanted to know what I was talking about with Annie. It seemed like she didn't understand the Ancient Speech, so we were kind of safe from her potentially dangerous reaction to our talks.

I turned to Jaina, telling her: "I have a proposition. We'll let you join us, Jaina. But you have to pay us those 100 million creds so we can 'pretend' like we've completed the bounty. I'm sure you have such an amount of money on you, selling stolen goods here and there. It'll mean that you will no longer be wanted, and I'll protect you myself. But if you ever betray us, you die. Got it?"

Jaina looked at me, obviously not believing my statement. However, she ordered her subordinates to stop attacking the Alliance convoy and to stop them from pointing their rifles at us. Even though that they wouldn't be able to damage us in any way.

I've sheathed my handguns and Annie her daggers. "We have a deal, Mr. Tornelis. Or can I call you Dorian?" She reached into her pocket and threw a credit chip at me. I've catched it in my right hand in midair. Immediately after that, I checked it if it contains said sum. I was satisfied, as we had our payment for the bounty, so it was no longer necessary to kill her.

She turned to her second in command, and told him that he's now the boss of their company, then got up and moved next to us. "Now, how are we going to leave this ship? You just popped out of nowhere, so I suspect that you don't have a ship, do you, Dorian?"

"I do, but she's not present. We came in here inside of a small fighter. That will be our transportation." I've opened a portal gate to our fighter and walked through with Annie as we were again holding hands. We waited for Jaina to follow.

I've sat down at the pilot's chair, and as usual, Annie took the next one to me. Then Jaina popped in, looking around our fighter with newfound curiosity: "So that's not your primary vessel, is it? Otherwise you cannot be Dorian Tornelis. Do you mind if I sit here?" Jaina said, while pointing at a chair behind me.

"Sure, sit wherever you want. And yea, this is not my main ship. Alyss is undergoing some repairs at an Alliance station. Which we're headed to, right now." I said that as I was preparing our fighter for a FTL jump to the planet, where Alyss is docked at.