Living in the Fray

Chapter 27

Krieger and Ronson absolutely hated personnel shuttles. They didn't feel right, they made weird noises and the ride was stupidly uncomfortable. Personnel shuttles were pure turbulence in a tin can with bucket seats. Their only use was to transport planetside passengers up to and from orbiting ships and stations, without the need of a ship actually going down to the planet. They were cheaper to run than passenger ships, plus they were completely automated. The downside was, they carried no armaments so they were completely defenceless should anyone start shooting at them.

It didn't take long for the shuttle to reach the dock on Dharma, but every single second was too long for both Krieger and Ronson who complained the whole way. The ride was awful and the landing didn't fare much better either. As soon as the shuttle landed, the pair switched over to airgap mode and tested their new two-way personal comms devices again just to be sure it was working. Thankfully it was and the two could still talk with each other via their neural mod. There was a little delay, but it was better than having nothing.

When the shuttle had completely finished it's docking procedure, Krieger and Ronson grabbed their bags and cases and carefully made their way out of the now open shuttle doors. Ronson shielded his eyes from the bright daytime sun while Krieger did nothing; her fancy new Zeiss eyes had a handy shade function that dimmed daylight down to avoid glare. She loved these new eyes, in fact she had suggested Ronson get an upgrade and have the EMA foot the bill for it. He said that they wouldn't unless his current Nikon's were starting to fail. And according to his last medical, they were still pretty okay. He could have had them upgraded when the Galaxy Police offered to upgrade whatever augments they wanted, which Krieger took full advantage of; but he had got quite used to his Nikon eyes.

'Captain Cassandra Krieger and Vice Captain Chris Ronson. Welcome to Dharma, it's a pleasure to finally have you here.'

Krieger and Ronson looked over to who they knew was the one and only Ethan Muller. Nobody really knew what the man actually looked like and there were rumours about him, but now they had seen him with their own eyes. He was quite tall, around six foot or so, athletic build similar to that of a gymnast, light brown hair that had been sort of sun kissed and quite a healthy looking near tanned complexion. The duo hated to admit it, but the psychopathic eco-terrorist was actually quite good looking; on a level with Frank Da Costa, but not as hot as Lovely Erik. Either way, the psychopath in question who was wearing beige cargo shorts, flip flops and a vest and unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt combo, was surrounded by a few armed guards.

'Ugh, why do the decent looking ones have to be complete nutters?' Ronson sounded off in Krieger's head. She heard it half a second later than usual neuralcomms but replied as soon as she was able, the two way comms device showing it's obvious lag.

'Dude was there any doubt in your mind? This is how things always end up it's kinda like, the fucking law at this point.'

Ronson resisted the urge to shrug at this point so he just groaned directly in to his friends brain. They eventually stepped down from the shuttle with their bags and cases in tow, to which two of Muller's minions walked over and took them away, presumably to be scanned. Muller however casually sauntered over to Krieger and Ronson, which in turn made his armed guards twitch slightly. He went straight for Ronson with his hand outstretched, Ronson instantly shot his hand out and gave Muller's a firm shake. He soon turned to Krieger and gave her one of the biggest smiles he could muster.

'Captain Krieger as I live and breath, I'm a big fan.' Muller said to her, hand outstretched again. Krieger took his hand but he tugged her closer and then proceeded to give her the very European two kiss cheek thing. She could've sworn she heard him sniffing her when he did this. Not that she stank horrible or doused herself in perfume or anything, normally she smelt of WD40 and cigarette smoke. She tried not to gag.