Andromeda's Gates: The story of Yseult Brenneaux

Chapter 1: The Mark

Yseult Brenneux stood silently in a dim corner of a M.A.N.T.S garage on Marphacia looking at the shabby shell of some old hovercycle, getting angrier by the moment. She didn't try to calm herself down... She didn't want to be calm...

That's the one... The hairy scientist, she thought as she noticed Big Sal leaving the compound in his transport. She followed from a distance, a gentle cruise for her pride and joy, a modified Skyblade hovercycle. Once a bright azure, she'd painted it murky reds and greens to blend in to the equally murky topography of the planet she'd ended up being stuck on. When the transport stopped, as she expected, the occupants got out, as expected and the hairy scientist began pointing around wildly trying to make everyone understand his newest experiment... as expected. Yseult had no idea what it was all about but after listening to the scientist jabber on about it in a café at a nearby trading post for half an hour, it sounded ridiculous... Something about laser beans. It wasn't beans she was interested in though, it was the transport's uplink back to the M.A.N.T.I.S. compound.

She'd managed to convince the scientist that she could supply him a rare piece of equipment he'd been asking around for and was even willing to deliver it to his test site... for a price. The muscles in her arms tensed as she brought the cycle to a stop by the transport; only she knew the item in her backpack was a worthless piece of junk, but everything went to plan: the part looked convincing and he made the payment. That's when her plan activated. The remote hack in her pocket decrypted his remote login and piggybacked his authorisation through the uplink back to base. Once there, it transferred large amounts of credits out through various accounts to hidden locations. She just needed to keep the link open long enough for the program to return the locations to her. She felt nervously at her right pocket while the scientist enthusiastically inspected and began installing her delivery. Her left middle finger developed a nervous twitch as he began flicking switches in no particular order. It was just as he reached for the most unnecessarily large of the levers that the hack 'bonged'. She had the account details and bee-lined for her bike. Feeling the eyes of everyone present watching her every move, she tried to act casual. She put her helmet on; it felt tighter than usual. It's the nerves, she told herself. Stay calm, stay calm. She started the bike, took one look back at the scientist and for a moment that lasted far too long, they seemed to just stare at each other.

Her journey back to the outpost was uneventful, that was until her front hover pad exploded. The next thing she knew, she was on the floor and her bike was in three or four pieces fifty metres down the road. She tried to get up but every bone hurt. Her vision was blurred. She saw shadows moving towards her. Five... Maybe six. One of them came really close.

She woke up an a room, it was dark, or maybe just black. She was tied to a chair with the hairy scientist sat opposite her. "They'd like to execute you" he began, "Not me, of course, but, erm, we need the credits back". She stared at him silently.

"Shame about your bike" he added in an annoyingly pleasant tone.

"I'll buy a new one" she replied.

He had an irritating smile as he shook his head. "No you won't. No shops here" he said, waving his arms around like he didn't know what to do with them. His look turned more serious, he wagged his finger. "You have a problem". She raised an eyebrow "You?" she replied but he didn't seem to get it. "I can help" he continued. He leant forward and looked her in the eye "Give us back he credits and you'll walk out of here with a vehicle credits can't buy". She wanted to be awkward and just say no, she wanted to fight her way out, she wanted anything except the answer she knew made sense. She leaned forward as best she could and looked him in the eye...

Once the credits were all back, he took her to a dim corner of some garage in the compound. She couldn't believe the wreck that stood before her. "Don't see what it is now" he nervously prompted, "work for us, and with our resources... a-and my research. see what It could be", she wondered for a moment how it had all gone wrong. How did they know where I'd be to hit the... It suddenly dawned on her. The hairy scientist wasn't the mark in all this... she was.

Yseult Brenneux stood silently in a dim corner of a M.A.N.T.S garage on Marphacia looking at the shabby shell of some old hovercycle, getting angrier by the moment. She didn't try to calm herself down... She didn't want to be calm.