THE RELIANT: DARK HORIZONS

VOW OF VENGEANCE

Lisa awoke to find herself in a strange room. The last thing she remembered she was down on the vacation planet Nupra doing some shopping with Tamala. At one point, she and Tamala became separated. While she was looking for her, she felt something jab her in the side of her neck. She suddenly felt dizzy before she passed out altogether before she awoke in this room. At first, she thought she was alone until she heard a familiar voice speak to her.

"Well, hello, sleepy head. Nice of you to finally wake up."

She gazed over as her eyes grew wide when she saw who it was. "Patty Lucas."

Her former Resistance comrade smiled broadly at her. "Hello, Lisa. It's been a little while, hasn't it?"

"Not long enough for my taste," Lisa said bitterly.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Patty replied while shaking her head. "Now is that any way to talk to an old friend?"

"I'm not your friend, you psycho," she snapped at her. "What are we doing in here anyway?" Lisa gave her the once-over. "And why are you dressed like that?"

Patty was sitting on a dirty bed the same as she was. She wasn't wearing her usual armored suit the way she did when she had abducted her months before to try to draw out her Morlon crewmate Bortis. But something told her she wasn't the one who was behind her abduction this time, especially given how disheveled she looked like someone had already started to rough her up a little. She was clad only in a flimsy white shirt and panties.  Lisa figured it was what she wore underneath her armor.

"Believe it or not, I have no idea what we're doing in here. As for why I'm dressed like this," she glanced down at herself and shrugged, "whoever took me apparently took my armor."

Lisa couldn't help but give her a once-over. She always thought her onetime friend was an attractive woman with her blonde hair and piercing green eyes. However, it was what was behind those green eyes was the problem.

"So how were you abducted?"

"I was doing a job-"

"You mean you were hunting someone?"

Patty narrowed her eyes at her. "I am a Lorien."

Loriens were a group of ruthless bounty hunters Patty had hooked up with after the Morlon war had ended and they were no longer occupying Adderon. Lisa had always figured Patty joined them to try to satisfy her bloodlust which she gained during the war and her time in the Resistance where she seemed to take joy in brutalizing Morlons.

"Anyway," Patty continued, "I was flying around in my jet-pack trying to look for my target on the planet Napus 712. Next thing I knew someone had shot me down. When I landed on the ground, someone-I presume it was whoever had shot me down-was sitting on top of me. Next thing I knew they yanked off my helmet, shoved my face in the dirt and stuck something in the side of my neck making me all dizzy. And then I passed out."

"So you didn't see who it was that had abducted you?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "What about you? How did you wind up here?"

"I was vacationing on the planet Nupra when someone snuck up behind me and jabbed something in my neck like they did you." She rubbed the spot on her neck where she had been jabbed. "I'm guessing it was some kind of knockout drug."

"Good guess."

"So, the question is, who would go to all this trouble to abduct us?"

"Who knows?" Patty shrugged nonchalantly. "But something tells me we'll find out soon enough."

And then, as if on cue, the door to their room opened and in walked three Morlons, a woman with two armed male Morlons flanking her.

"Morlons," Patty muttered with much disdain.