Tales Of The Rocket Patrol 2

    As the second sun rose into the sky, the skyline of Capital City became that much brighter, informing the more lazy residents of the city that the morning was already half over. The sky of Earth Colony Gamma didn't always have two suns, but a star in a galaxy several light years away was close to going nova. It didn't post a threat to their galaxy but prior to dying out the sun in that system expanded to more than ten times its original size, which made it visible to the residents of Earth Gamma as they liked to call it. When it had started to expand, colonies that were located on the planets in that system were evacuated as the people barely managed to escape before the planets were roasted by the enlarged sun. There were still scientists on those colonies, watching and studying the enlarged star, which was a gigantic gamble since there was no way to tell when it would explode. The people studying the planet would change up every two months, limiting their risk to being killed without notice.

    Yet to the residents of Earth Gamma, it was a sight to behold and one they have gotten used to over the last few years. The second sun in the sky wasn't as large as the one in their system, less than half the size, yet it was a dark orange which made for quite a site. People often came to visit this system, just to see what it would be like to look at two suns at the same time. After a few years the fad began to fade and life returned to normal on Earth Vega. The people on the planet had gotten used to having two bright orbs in the sky and when the second one eventually faded out, which was only a matter of time, it would missed by the residents of the city who had grown quite fond of the sight.

    As the orange star rose into the sky, Amanda Star rolled out of bed and finally got her arse in gear. Usually when the second sun came into the sky it meant she only had a few hours to get ready for her shift. Watching the Capital City was a lot more daunting than patrolling the colonies as the tech of the city made crime much more prevalent, which meant more arrests, more paper work. In the end it also meant quicker promotions, which was why she didn't mind being assigned the Capital of Earth Vega. After a scorching shower to clean herself up after a night out on the town with the girls, Amanda slowly prepared herself for work as she the machines whipped up her favorite breakfast and played the morning news to get her up to speed on what was going on in the system while she was dead to the world after drinking up a storm. Usually she was more responsible than that the day before a long shift but she had good reason to celebrate. A friend was celebrating a birthday and Amanda didn't have too many friends so she made an exception and partied deep into the night. Despite not having too much sleep, she had recharged enough to get through the day. She would likely crash early tonight, unless something big came up at work but she doubted that would be the case.

    After cleaning herself up and eating breakfast she tossed on the city uniform, armed herself with the usual weapons needed to do her patrol. As a member of the Rocket Patrol, one of the duties of the force was to guard the Capital of the star system. Most colonies and cities outside of capital were responsible for their own security, which was coordinated by the patrol but the Capital was always watched and enforced by the patrol. By guarding the Capital, it made the big city the home headquarters for all members of the Rocket Patrol, whose jurisdiction was this one solar system. It had several planets, but most of the colonies in the systems were on moons which were more inhabitable than the planets themselves.

    There are two planets in the whole system that command deemed fully inhabitable, Earth Vega which was about two times the size of Earth Alpha, the world where all humans came from. The other was called Nero Delta. It was similar to mars, red in colour but has an atmosphere that was breathable and carbon based. It was half the size of Saturn but without the rings. It had several moons, three that were home to colonies. The red planet had several of its own colonies as well and the population of the large planet has already swelled to a few million. The population of Earth Vega was a paltry several hundred thousand, but it was a comfortable number. Moon colonies were never allowed to swell beyond fifty thousand to avoid potential famine disasters. Planets were allowed to hold a lot more people because they were more capable of providing more resources which allowed them to thrive and grow at an acceptable rate.

    With so many people in the star system, the twenty-second system to be taken over and inhabited by the human race since the race first started expanding to the stars. Not all star systems are selected for expansion. Any systems that had a single indigenous species already naturally evolving in any of its planets was automatically disqualified it from being expanded into. After humanity's long history of colonizing indigenous peoples throughout their history on Earth Alpha, it was not something people wanted to repeat when expanding to other planets. There were countless star systems in the universe, so there was no need to encroach on other people's home worlds if they could just move on to the next system.

    After centuries after being complete douches, Amanda was relieved humanity had finally learned from their numerous mistakes. She dressed into her uniform, armed herself and then left her condo to get to the station. As a defender of the capital, Amanda didn't require a ship capable of interplanetary travel, merely a small vessel that could get her from one part of the city to another promptly to take care of domestic issues. She had what was called a land speeder, which looked more like a flying ski-do than a vehicle. It was like an airborne motorcycle, but she had the option to sit down or stand. Given her preference to jump off at a moment's notice, Amanda was the kind of office who preferred to stand, which she did often knowing that the ships autopilot would kick in the moment her weight was no longer detected on board. It was a fast and very reliable machine, and Amanda preferred it to the spaceships that the other Rangers used. Sitting down in a cockpit and being sealed in like a sardine didn't appeal to her one bit. She enjoyed standing straight, with good posture and the wind blowing in her hair. She felt free on her speeder and wouldn't trade it in for anything. Seconds after reaching the helipad, Amanda had boarded her speeder and was zooming between buildings towards headquarters. In order to fly around the city through the streets, you needed a special license so traffic in these parts were light but that still no reason to not keep any eye out for others zipping around. It took her speeder less than ten minutes to travel to the center of the capital and to her destination: Rocket Patrol Central.

    This was the central hub for the Patrol. Every member of the patrol worked through this building, which was a staggering eighty floors high and even had its own prison twenty floors beneath the building. While there were other buildings in the capital and others on two other planets in the system, they all answered to the capital building. Amanda loved working in the capital as she got to work under the people who were in charge of the patrol throughout the entire galaxy, something she thought might increase her odds of moving up sooner rather than later. When approaching the building, Amanda always chose to use the upper landing bay, unafraid of the heights as she loved landing and departing through the higher zones rather than staying close to the ground. He lack of fear with regards to heights made her more effective at her job, as many disputes were often in buildings higher than Patrol Central. If you were afraid of heights, being a part of the Capital Patrol was definitely not the position one would want to take when signing up. As she approached the landing bay, she was stopped by the machines guarding the doors.

    "Identification." One of them called out.

    "Sergeant Star." Amanda replied. "Badge number eleven, two, five."

    "Voice print verified." The robot replied. The machine then proceeded to do a scan of the Sergeant's head. "Retina scan complete. Good morning, Sergeant Star."

    The big doors opened and Amanda moved her speeder in gracefully and then landed on the same spot in the landing bay she had been using for months since starting her career as a Capital member of the Rocket Patrol. Once parked, Amanda realized she had arrived earlier than expected and decided to get something to drink from the break room before attending the morning briefing. Something told her she was going to be the kind of day that might require her to get as much energy as she could get.

    After grabbing something hot to drink that contained a lot of artificial caffeine in it, Amanda walked into the hallway and bumped into a familiar face. She hadn't seen the old man in some time, as the capital city patrol was keeping her very busy. Her old training officer did most of his work off world so Star was always happy to see him.

    "Hey!" she called out as she walked towards him. "What are you doing back here so soon, old man?"

    "Nice to see you too, Sergeant." Captain Rogers said with a grin.

    "Where's the rookie?" Star asked as she looked around.

    "Like you have room to talk." Rogers replied. "It hasn't been that long since you were a rookie yourself!"

    Amanda didn't respond and gave him a look that told the old man that he was pushing his luck. "What's going on?"

    "O'Brien is downstairs." Rogers answered. "We picked seven prisoners from one of the moon colonies. They were causing mischief in one of the techless colonies."

    "We have people in the techless colonies?" Amanda asked.

    "We did that day." Rogers said with a chuckle.

    Amanda padded the old man on the shoulder. "You'll have to tell me more about it later. I've got a briefing to get to."

    "I'll do that, Sergeant Star." Rogers said as he gave her a wink. "You take care of yourself out there."

    "I will." Amanda said as she left the old man in the hallway and strolled over to the large conference room for the day's briefing.

    As she walked into the conference room, most of the seats were already taken. Amanda didn't really care as she preferred to stand close to the doors so the she could make a quick exit when the meeting was over. She did that so that she could get to her speeder and to work as soon as possible, but also to prevent the commander from calling on her to do something or gripe about another civilian complaint. While civilians were free to speak their mind, it never meant that what they had to say was correct. Sergeant Star had her fair share of complaints but she only took that as a sign that she was doing her job properly. She never took them personally and shrugged them off as sour grapes from people who had been caught breaking the capital law. The officers quieted down when Commander Anders strolled in. With blonde hair so bright that it could only come from one of the Swedish colonies. Once at the podium, Anders paused for a moment and then started to brief the crowded conference room.

    "We've had some unusual off world activity," The Commander started, "Arrests off world are up, so we're going to have to work hard to make sure that this trend doesn't spill over into the Capital. Gang activity has been at an all time low, and it's been mainly pushed out of the city to the outskirts. I prefer to keep it that way. Any suspicious activity is to be called in immediately and no one tries to be a hero. Heroes go home in body bags and I really don't need the additional paperwork. I get enough of that from some of you already."

    He shot a glare over at Sergeant Star when he made that comment.

    "Your patrol routes have been forwarded to your speeders," The commander resumed, "Good luck and follow your directives."

    The briefings were never long so Amanda personally thought Anders did it just to make sure that everyone arrived on time and were present to start the day. Sometimes she felt like a school kid being called for attendance every morning and with the technology that was available, doing an in person head count seems rather redundant. It was still the way Commander Anders preferred to run his unit, and he never hesitated to remind people who was in charge. Amanda wasn't in the mood to hear what his gaze was about and quickly shuffled out the door and towards her speeder, which carried her patrol route for the day. Once at her speeder, she discovered that her assumption was correct; Anders was angry. She was given one of the worst patrols in the city, something he was known to do whenever an officer got a complaint which caused him to do more paperwork than usual.

    Star found it ironic that putting her in tougher parts of town would really make things better for him. Being in that part of town would result in more arrests, more interactions and thus more paperwork for Anders. Amanda thought putting her in a softer zone would be a harsher punishment as she would be bored and have nothing to do, hence less complaints. Either Anders was a glutton for punishment or he just didn't seem to care as long as she was up to her neck in scumbags and having to work her tail off. She also dared to think that one reason why she was getting this part of town was because of the fear of escalating violence and preferred to have his best in place, paperwork be damned. Amanda didn't require approval from neither Anders nor Captain Rogers to know she was the best in the Capital, she already knew it.

    When Sergeant Star had cleared the hanger and was on its way to her assigned section, she immediately activated her communication boards and started to listen to incoming chatter. There were hundreds of officers working the ground, busting people who were bring rowdy or just getting in the way of citizens trying to do their own thing. The job of the patrolers above was to monitor the ground from above and only intercede when things became too dangerous and the officers on the ground required a stronger hand to help out. With millions of people in the city, it was too much for just the patrol to handle on their own, so there were assigned police forces but they were the lawmen in charge when things got really out of hand. More like marshals that only stuck their heads in when it hit the fan. In the section that Anders kept assigning Amanda to, that was often. She hadn't been in the air more than seven minutes when the first call for assistance came in.

    "Sector seven to Patrol." The com-link called out.

    "Patrol seven here." Amanda replied.

    "We have a robbery in progress at a local shop."

     "I have the location on my panel." Amanda said as she began to change course. "Are officers enroute?"

    "Affirmative."

     "I'll met them there." She said as she began to weave through traffic on her way to the shop that was under siege.

    It didn't take her long to figure out why backup from the Patrol was called in. One of the crooks emerged from the shop armed with a disrupter and fired at her without hesitation. Star had no problem dodging the shots, but was surprised that the blaster was working at all within the city limits. There was tech installed in the city that was supposed to render all unauthorized laser weapons disabled but for some reason it wasn't working on this particular blaster, which meant Star was going to have to go old school and disarm the gunman with extreme prejudice. When she was close enough to make a move, Amanda leaped off the speeder and flipped out onto one of the balconies above the shop. She then withdrew her own blaster and returned fire. Unlike the man who was shooting wildly, Amanda hit the range everyday and never missed her targets. She nailed the gunman with a perfect shot to the chest, which stunned the man and knocked him to the ground.

    Once on the ground beside the man she just stunned, Amanda placed inhibitor cuffs on the man and picked up his blaster. There were no markings, no logos or serial numbers. Wherever this blaster came from, it was homemade and not effected by the city's defense systems. She had never seen anything like it before. Whenever someone walked into the city limits with a blaster that wasn't authorized, there were defenses in the city that would deactivate it until the person returned outside city limits. When it came to this blaster, those defenses were not working. This was the first time someone had shot at Amanda within the city since she started working there. She could tell this was going to be a problem but immediately shrugged it off and walked into the shop with her own blaster raised, ready for anything. When she strolled into the shop, it was very quiet. People were lying on the floor with their hands on their heads. She moved in further, looking around for possible hostiles but there were none. Amanda then made a motion to the shop keeper who was in the corner.

   "Where'd they go?" she whispered.

    "The other two went out the backdoor when their friend started shooting at you." He answered while pointing to the door that led to the back.

    Starr nodded and then proceeded to the backroom, still with her blaster raised and ready for anything to happen. She was usually very calm when working in the city but being shot at suddenly shook her up again. It wasn't like she wasn't used to it, she's seen her fair share of firefights in other systems and on other planets. She just wasn't ready for it here in the city, which startled her a little bit. That moment was over and Amanda was back in the game, in top form and ready for anything this time. She kicked the back door open and immediately strung into the alley way with a roll. When back up to her feet, she took a quick scan around. Nothing... the other two men had made their escape while their friend bought them time. She looked down at the illegal blaster she put in her holster and began to realize that things were going to get a lot worse before they got better. This was going to be a long day.

    It didn't take long for news of Sergeant Star's firefight to spread around town like a wildfire. It had been almost twenty years since an exchange of blaster fire had taken place within the city. Citizens were used to hearing a single blast here and there as the law was being enforced but no one had heard return fire since the city's defense systems were activated. The tech that was created by one of the city's smarted scientists would deactivate any unauthorized blasters that were brought within the city limits. This made the job of officers and the patrol to protect the streets of the biggest city in the system much, much easier. After its complete success, other mega cities in the galaxy bought into the system and did the same to secure their cities. If someone managed to create tech that could bypass that system, it could spell big trouble for cities that use the system to protect their people.

    The news of a fire fight in Amanda's part of town had caused a panic. People of importance, like the mayor, were calling Patrol HQ and asking what they knew about the firefight that went on downtown. People were asking questions in a panic and often led to assumptions that just weren't true. Sergeant Star brought the man she arrested back to HQ personally. He was still out cold from the shot she hit him with. She also still had his blaster, eager to make sure it made it into the right hands. Amanda had lived in the city long enough to know that things the city deemed unpopular often disappeared when they were sent through the usual chain of custody and then denied as if they never existed. Star didn't want that to happen with this blaster, despite the panic its mere existence was causing. She landed in the section of HQ that handled prisoners and she had two guards pick up the man from her craft and carry him away.

    "Send him to interrogation one zero three." Amanda ordered when they took him away.

    "Right away, Sergeant." One of them replied.

    She was about to pull her speeder out when someone else approached her. "Sergeant Star?"

    "Yes." Amanda replied.

    "Is it true?" the tech in the landing zone asked. "Was there a firefight downtown?"

    "I'm afraid so." Amanda answered. "But the perp only fired a few times before I stunned him. It wasn't as bad as it's being reported."

    Before the man could respond, Star took her speeder back up to the level where she previously parked before starting her shrift. She could understand why people were talking; the blaster she was carrying was evidence that the city's security might be compromised. Amanda was eager to make sure the science department of the Patrol got a chance to see it and why it was able to beat the system they all depended on. If they couldn't find out why, the Rocket Patrol as well as the city's security forces could be overrun and that would cause mass panic in the capital city. As she was landing her speeder in her usual spot, the com-panel on her left forearm started to beep. It was a message from Rogers.

    ROGERS: Just heard about the blaster fight. Are you all right?

    Amanda sent a quick response to let him know that she's all right and that the blaster fight wasn't as bad as it's going around. She could tell that the news of an illegal blaster was already causing a stir. Her fears were confirmed when Rogers sent her another message.

    ROGERS: Top brass is freaking out. Watch your six.

    Amanda agreed that she had to watch what she did next. As she strolled through the lobby, she kept the illegal blaster holstered where her usual weapon was and she carried her own casually. She was about halfway through the lobby when someone stopped her from making it.

    Two guards stepped in front of her, blocking her route to the science wing. "Commander Anders wishes to speak with you."

    "Tell him I'm busy." Amanda replied. "I'll be happy to make time with him after I speak to a few people about something very important."

    "This is more important." The other guard replied. "Please come with us."

    They didn't seem to notice she was carrying the illegal blaster so she went along with them, casually carrying her own blaster by her side as if it were a fashion accessory. When she was arrived to Commander Anders' office, there were several high ranking members of the patrol in there. They had obviously heard about what happened to her and were waiting for her.

    "Sergeant Star." He called out. "We need to speak to you about today's rumored event."

    "It's not a rumor." Star replied. "Someone fired at me when I was trying to break up a robbery... several times as a matter of fact."

    "That's impossible." One of the other high ranking men in the room replied. "This city is secure from unauthorized blasters."

    "That doesn't seem to be the case, Sir." Amanda respectfully replied.

    The Commanders didn't seem impressed.

    "All I see is a Sergeant who is trying to use this controversy to make a name for herself." A lady at the back of the room suddenly commented. She could tell by her uniform she was from internal security, those who are in charge of the city's anti-blaster grid.

    Amanda replied by tossing her own blaster and then pulled the illegal blaster she took from the crook out and pointed it at her. "Are you willing to bet your life on it?"

    All the commanders in the room backed away a few feet.

Anders was less than impressed. "Sergeant. What is that?"

    "This is the blaster that managed to bypass the grid." Amanda replied. "I was in the process of taking it to our scientific labs to determine how it managed to beat our system."

    "Sergeant Star!" the other Commander snapped at her. "If you do not bring these fictitious rumors to an end..."

    Rather than listen to the rest of that threat, Amanda pointed the illegal blaster at the other corner of the room and fired. In the corner of the room was a small bureau that was used to display Commander Anders' awards. The sound of the blaster was so loud, the windows shattered. As did Anders' bureau as the shot turned the solid wood frame into tiny splinters. Suddenly everyone in the room was witness to something that was not a rumor. The blaster was still functioning, despite the fact that it was within city limits. There were even more advanced security systems within Patrol HQ, which also failed to disable the blaster. Sergeant Star then pointed the blaster back to the woman she passed her own blaster to.

    "Do you require another demonstration?" she calmly asked the room.

    Commander Anders' first instinct was to have Sergeant Star arrested for what she had just done, but it was a daunting task. She was not only one of their most skilled officers in hand to hand combat but she also possessed the only fully functional blaster in the building. He took a deep breath, stood up and then approached Star.

    "What do you plan to do with that?" Anders inquired.

    "I'm going to take it to the science lab, find out why it's still working." Amanda replied, "We need to find a way to shut these down before we're overwhelmed with a new crime wave like we've never seen before in the city."

    As much as he hated her right now for what had just happened, she was right. They needed to study the blaster to make sure they could fix and update their security systems. "Take that to the lab, tell the geeks down there that this blaster is priority one. They don't have anything more important than this."

    "Yes, Sir." Amanda said as she turned and walked out of the Commander's office with a smile on her face.

    She had not only blasted something in his office, but she was able to get away with it. Amanda was still confident that she'd pay for it later but in the end Commander Anders was a good officer; the city and its people where his top priority and not some petty grudge with a cocky member of his patrol. She respected him for that and would do what she could to make sure neither of them would get caught with their pants down again when more of these blasters came into the city. Her worst fear was that a lot of them were already there. The soot out today was just a test to make sure they worked. If that was true, they were about to be knee deep in blaster fire fights which was something that a lot of recruits took for granted and slacked on as they assumed the defense grid would always be there.

    Amanda had always wanted to work off world, travel with guys like Rogers so she practiced three times a week in the blaster halls. If she wanted to work off world where there were no defense grids to help her out, she would have to be the best shot in the galaxy. She worked very hard to be the best shooter in Rocket Patrol history. Over half the records in the city blasting zones belonged to her as her hard work had been paying off over the last several months. That didn't change the fact that most of the officers in the patrol were not ready for that kind of fire fight and were horribly ill prepared. Any attempt to give them all a crash course would cause a panic and the people in the city would know there was something wrong. Most of them were going to learn through trial by fire, not a preferred method but a valuable teacher. Those who survive will walk away better patrolers, if any of them survived at all.

    While she was strolling towards the lab, she spotted someone in the hallway and pulled him aside. He was a good officer, despite his lack of discipline concerning his waist line. He seemed more surprised than upset that Amanda wanted to speak with her.

    "Peter, I need your help." she told him.

    "Anything for you." Peter said as he seemed eager to do anything.

    She let the comment pass and proceeded to quickly tell him something. Then without any notice, she shoved Peter away from her. "Watch where you're going next time, you clumsy oaf!"

    Peter was about to say something back but stopped when he saw Amanda wink at him, indicating it was an act. "I'm terribly sorry. It won't happen again."

    "Make sure it doesn't." Amanda snapped back. "And tuck in your shirt!"

    After making that last abrupt statement, she walked away from Peter and carried on down the hall towards the lab where she wanted to drop off the blaster for inspection. She was about halfway to the lab and avoiding as many people as possible when something finally happened. Two of the guards that were present in Commander Anders' office approached her as she tried to walk past them, blocking her way to the lab.

    "Is there a problem?" She quickly asked.

    "The blaster, Sergeant Star." The man said with his hand extended. "Hand it over."

    "Or what?" Amanda asked.

    Rather than tell her, one of the two men attacked wit the intent of taking the blaster from her by force. Star not only caught the man's terrible hook but proceeded to strike the elbow of the offending arm as well as land two more body shots before using her left hand to drop the big man to the ground with a sharp uppercut. Before the other man could respond, Star immediately attacked him with a barrage of hard kicks, most of which he was able to block before taking a shot that caught him in the side of his knew which forced him to the ground. Once cut down to size, Amanda took her own blaster and pistol whipped the second man, sending him crashing to the floor with a loud thud.

    Rather than hang around, Amanda proceeded to continue walking towards the lab, eager to deliver the blaster for them to examine. It was clear that someone in the Patrol was too scared to even let the rumor of this blaster cause a panic, which was the wrong move. They needed to get a head of this and denying its existence was only going to set them up for embarrassment when the next blaster comes into town and then the next hundred after that. It was clear that someone didn't want her to make it to the lab with the blaster. What confused Amanda the most was their motives. Did they just want to quell the panic, which didn't make sense cause they can't deny it if more blasters make it into the city. She had to conclude that there was someone on the inside trying to keep the blaster's secret from being exposed. Someone who was a part of the new blasters being smuggled into the city for what Amanda had to assume was for something far more sinister. Like Rogers had told her earlier, she was going to have to keep watching her six, because someone was out to stop her. Star was less than twenty feet away from the lab when the lady who was in Anders' office, escorted by several military officers, blocked her from accessing the doors. She took the blaster that was in her hand, and hid it behind her back.

    "Can I help you with something?" Amanda asked.

    "The blaster." The woman replied, "I want it."

    "You can't have it." Amanda said, boldly standing up to her.

    "And why not?" the woman then asked.

    Amanda smiled at them all, but not for the reason they thought. Behind them was Peter, already in the lab. He had taken the blaster from Amanda and delivered it to the lab while she was fighting in the hallways. To reveal this little fact to them all, she pulled out the blaster from behind her back to reveal it was Peter's primary pistol, which then revealed to them all that the illegal blaster was no longer in her possession.

    "Because it's already in the lab." Amanda answered.

    The woman turned around to enter the lab, but it was too late. On her instructions, Peter had ordered the lab to lock down. Anders himself said that the blaster was their only priority so once it was in their possession, the geeks locked all doors and immediately began to inspect the weapon.

    "This isn't over." The woman called back to Amanda.

    Amanda pulled out a pair of cuffs. "If you and your men don't walk away, I'm personally going to toss you all into lock up for obstructing a Rocket Patrol investigation. We clear on that?"

   The officers behind the woman scattered and walked away. Their boss stood there in the middle of the hallway and stared at Sergeant Star for a moment before walking away. Amanda had won for now, but she had a feeling that wasn't the last she was going to see of that person.

    With the lab on lock down, Sergeant Star knew that her place was back out in the city, looking for the people who tried to blast her. Some of them were still at large and still carrying blasters that were not deactivated by the city barriers. Amanda could tell this had the potential to be a long day but refused to let it bring her down. This was a challenge to overcome, not an inconvenience to her and the patrol. This was exactly what she signed up for; to protect the people and have a life that was a lot more exciting than the one she was leading before signing up. She had her chance to be one of the lemmings. To stand on the sidelines and let someone else make the big decisions. It just wasn't in her to be that kind of person. She wanted to do bigger and better things with her life and her ambition was as bright as the two suns in the sky. As she was approaching her speeder to get back out to the city, she was cut off by Commander Anders, who still looked as angry as he did when she fired a blaster in his office earlier.

    "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have you arrested." Anders said with a look that told her he was very seriously considering it.

    "We still have at least three unmarked blasters out there that are unaffected by the barrier." Amanda replied, "You need every person you can get out there looking for them."

    Anders paused for a moment but he knew she was right. She was also one of his best troopers so benching her now didn't make any sense.

    "Alright," The commander conceded, "But try work with me instead of against me. If this turns into a crisis, the only thing that's going to keep us together is the chain of command. Understood?

    "Yes, Sir." Amanda said as she gave and salute. "I will try."

    "I suppose that's better than nothing." Anders admitted, "Last we heard the suspects who attacked you were spotted in the under markets. I suggest you go down there and have a look around. See if you can pick up the trail."

    "Excellent idea, Sir." Amanda agreed, "I'll get right to it."

    "Dismissed." Anders said through grit teeth.

    Considering that Sergeant Star had obliterated a piece of furniture in Commander Anders' office, she took the slap on the wrist she was just given and ran with it. She continued walking to her Patrol Pod and got ready to head back out into the city. She at least has a place to start, which was the market. She also had to consider that Anders might have used this situation to give her false Intel so she wouldn't cause any trouble for the rest of the day. She couldn't think that the Commander would waste her time like that, so Amanda was determined to hit the market and if it turned out to be a false lead, she's pick up a few items for dinner before heading home. She even considered picking something up for Peter for putting himself into harms way to deliver the illegal blaster to the lab. As pulled her pod closer to the hangar door, she could see out of the corner of her eye the woman that tried to take the blaster away from her. Amanda had no idea what division she came from but could tell that she was going to be a problem moving forward with her investigation. It was a bridge she was going to have to burn down when she got to it.

    She got back on her speeder, put on her helmet and finally got back out into the city, away from the politics and bull puckey that stopped real officers like her from doing their job. She couldn't blame people for wanting to climb the ladder and advance their career but it shouldn't come at the expense of their job, which was their entire reason for being there. As long as they did their duty to the patrol and the people of the capital city, Amanda didn't care whose asses they kissed during their downtime. She preferred to be out there on the field rather than behind a desk. Anders knew that and threatened to not suspend her but take her out of the field and make her do paper work for the next year. That would drive her literally insane so she did what she could to make sure he didn't get too pissed at her. Star could have swore she crossed that line when she fired the illegal blaster in his office but even he knew this was a legitimate threat to every man, woman and child in the city. Even to a politician like Anders, the city and the safety of the people was just as important. He knew her place was out there where all the action was. Amanda was also no dummy and she was well aware why Anders approached her alone in the hanger bang. If she saves the day, he takes all the credit for not keeping her away from the chaos. If things go south, a rouge officer who fired a blaster in the office was the right person to toss under the bus for it. Star knew what Anders was up to but that was the least of her concern at the moment as she sped towards the market to look into the lead her commander gave her. All Amanda wanted to do was crack this case and find out who built these blasters and what they wanted to do with them.

    It took Sergeant Star less than twenty minutes to get to the market flying above and between the sky scrappers of the capital city. She parked at a spot near the market that was reserved for only for public officials. Usually on days when the weather was nice, Amanda would roam the market without her helmet to interact and be friendly with the citizens. With functional blasters being smuggled into the city, she preferred to stick to code and keep it on. As she strolled through the market, she could tell that keeping it on was making some of the patrons and especially the vendors a little nervous. To make everyone feel better, she strolled over to a coffee hut and ordered a double java with a cheese bun on the side. She hadn't eaten since the blaster fight and needed to keep her energy up. Amanda ended up giving half of the bun away to one of the beggars in the grounds when she was full but slowly sipped the coffee as she browsed around, trying to look like a patrol officer who was looking for a deal during her lunch break rather than someone who was looking for a suspect. Eventually she strolled out to a specific vendor, one that specialized in electronics. As she slowly approached the vendor, he seemed relaxed as she still sipped the coffee on her approach.

    "Good afternoon, Sergeant Star." The vendor called out. "Is there anything I can offer you to upgrade that amazing speeder you have?"

    "Very tempting, Joel." Star said as she looked up from the merchandise to look the vendor in the eyes. "But if you're going to attempt to sell me illegal parts to enhance my speeder's abilities, I prefer you do it when I'm not on duty."

    "I don't think I've ever seen you off duty." Joel noted.

    "Well, the next time I'm off duty." Amanda said as she finished her coffee. "I'll make an effort to drop by but that's not why I'm here."

    "What's going on, Star?" Joel then asked, all business.

    "I need to know what the word is going around the market about the blaster fight earlier today." Amanda asked.

    "I've heard rumors of a blaster fight, nothing more." Joel replied, "Personally I don't believe it myself. No one's broken through the grid in almost a century."

    "Believe it." Amanda said as she stepped closer. "I was the one they were firing at this morning."

    "Not good for their health." Joel noted.

    "I agree." Amanda said with a smile. "I need to know where someone like that would get the parts around here to beat the grid defense and we need to do it before there is another incident."

    "I will ask around." Joel replied, "If someone is hawking illegal blasters, I'll see if my people are hearing about it."

    "Thank you, Joel." Amanda said as she tossed her expired coffee cup into the bin with precise aim. "Give me the usual signal if you hear anything."

    Joel had been her informant for well over three years, every since she caught him upgrading speeders for people who wanted to outrun the patrol during high speed chases. He had come through for her many times and she hoped he'd come through this time. This was the one time she really needed him to come through and find a lead for her. She didn't exactly trust the one Anders gave her and since she already had a C.I. at the market, she would get him to look into it for her instead. If there was any validity to what Anders gave her, Joel would have no problem sniffing it out for her and verifying if it was legit. The patrol didn't approve of making deals with criminals, but Amanda knew this was the best way to go. She had a few informants that she paid out of her own pocket to not only keep the flow of good Intel coming her way but to also keep an eye on these goons and keep them out of trouble as well. If she ever got caught using these people against regulations, Anders would not hesitate to decommission her service on the patrol. She didn't care and the Intel she bought from them led to numerous arrests. It was working so she wasn't in the mood to let something like a minor infraction get between her and the real criminals.

    Amanda could tell that her presence, along with her brooding presence looking at everyone through the visor of the helmet was making people nervous so she decided to leave. She was about half way to the market when something happened. A man came up behind her and before she had a chance to respond, she felt the barrel of a blaster press up against her lower spine. This guy had to be good to be able to sneak up on Amanda without her noticing until it was too late. Sergeant Star stopped walking and paused, waiting to see what her attacker would do next.

    "I don't have to remind you how functional these things are." The man whispered from behind. "I fired a few shots at you this morning."

    "What do you want?" Amanda asked.

    "We're going for a little walk." The man answered as he nudged her with the barrel of the blaster. "Make a move, not only will I destroy your spinal cord with a point blank shot, I'll kill whoever around here witnesses me do it. Are we clear on that?"

    "Perfectly." Amanda said as she moved forward. She was tempted to try to disarm the man but she didn't want to risk it, especially with the blaster pressed so close to her. She decided to wait for a better opportunity, one where there wasn't as much potential for collateral damage. She walked slowly and away from the market and past her speeder as he led her towards a building and then into the alley next to it.

    "You and I are going to have a little chat." The thug informer her.

    "What about?" Amanda asked. "We can talk about baseball. How about those mashers?"

    "Shut up." He said as he pushed her into one of the building walls in the alley. "You know exactly what I want."

    "If it's a deal you want, I'm willing to talk terms." Amanda suggested. She doubted that was the reason but it was worth a shot.

    "I'm not here for a deal!" He screamed at her. "I just have a few questions: where did you take my blaster? Where the hell is it?"

    Amanda didn't need a doctorate in criminal science to know what was going on. This thug had lost a very, very valuable piece of hardware and wanted to get it back before his boss found out he had lost it. Chances are if he returned back from whence he came short a blaster, he's be shot where he stood. This meant those blasters were in short supply, and that even one missing wouldn't go unnoticed by the man or lady in charge. If word got back to them that one of their men was arrested and a blaster was in the possession of the Rocket Patrol, heads would most certainly roll. That made this man desperate enough to hold up the officer he shot at to get answers. It also meant he was nervous and anything was bound to set him off.

    Amanda was walking with the man behind him as he led her to the back area of the market. When she waited for the perfect moment, something that was bound to distract what was an already nervous man. That break came when someone in the market dropped a few plates and the sound of them smashing on the ground caused Star's captor to turn in that sound's direction. When he did, Star made her move as she spun around and dropped to one knee as she die, which moved her head out of the line of fire. As she dropped to one knee she three a hard right fist into his rib cage of the man, knocking the wind out of him. Star then grabbed the wrist of the hand that held the blaster, and began to stand up. As she did, Star spun around again so that her back was leaning up against her attacker's torso. She than flung the man over her shoulder while grabbing the blaster at the same time and taking possession of it. When the man landed back first onto the hard ground, his wind was knocked out of him again.

    "Thanks for the second blaster," Star said as she inspected it to discover that it very similar to the one she had taken earlier that day. She rolled the man onto his back and cuffed his hands behind his back, "Now you're coming back to headquarters with me."

    "I'm not going to tell you anything!" he called out.

    "We'll see about that." Star said as she dragged the man back to his feet.

    Sergeant Star walked the prisoner back out into the market and towards her speeder which she had already activated remotely to warm up while waiting for her arrival. She wouldn't get halfway to the speeder before all hell broke loose in the middle of a large crowd. The first shot rang out and echoed throughout the crowded market. Before Star could react, the chest of the man she was escorting had exploded as the shot hit him right in the chest. The shot had killed her prisoner instantly as he fell backwards and on top of Sergeant Star. This action was the only thing that saved her life as the person standing above the market on a higher floor fired several more shots, trying to kill Star. The prisoner's body prevented those shots from hitting her, shielding her from fire. This is when things got a little crazy.

    Star wanted to fire back but there were a lot of people running in all directions and she couldn't risk hitting a civilian. The crowd was dispersing as quickly as possible with some people diving behind counters and taking shelter in the stores while many others just ran for the nearest exit while screaming in panic. Once the crowd had thinned down, Star timed the shots that were still being fired at her and then acted. She used the blaster she had taken from the prisoner, which seemed a lot more powerful than her own and started to fire shots at the floor she assumed the shots had come from. The shots from her blaster also rang out as the wall where the shots were coming from exploded from the shot's impacts, sending bricks and other pieces of the frame crashing to the ground below. Rather than assume she hit her target, Star moved her arm back underneath the prisoner, which was a wise decision as the next shot almost took her arm off. A few more shots hit the body which sent more blood splattering everywhere. This exchange of blaster fire went on for a few minutes until sirens could be heard coming as several patrol speeders arrived on the scene.

    The man who was firing from above knew better than to hang around and stopped firing, making a very tactical retreat. He was about to be out manned and certainly out gunned so it was in that man's best interests to retreat while he or she still could.

    When the officers from the Patrol started to stream into the market place, Star tossed the body off herself and to the side before getting back to her feet. One of the officers from the patrol walked up to her to inspect her since she had a lot of blood on her.

    "Are you alright?" he called out.

    "I'm fine," Star said as she looked at the mess on her uniform, "The shooter likely went in that direction."

    "We got people on it," The man replied but he stopped for a moment as a message was being related to his helmet, "The commander on site wishes to speak with you."

    "Alright, alright." Star said as she started to walk away from the officer in the direction of the other patrolmen that had arrived. As she approached what she thought was the commander, she was surprised to see the woman who tried to take the blaster from her earlier standing there with the site commander.

    "Sergeant Star," the woman said as she looked over at her, "Why am I not surprised to see you here?"

    "What do you want?" Star asked, not in the mood to fool around.

    "I need you to grant us access to the lab," She replied, "It's imperative that you give us access to that blaster."

    "Why can't see just share?" Amanda suggested, "You let the lab keep working on their blaster and you can have the one that I took from a perp less than ten minutes ago."

    The woman looked at the blaster. "How do I know you're not lying?"

    Sergeant Star pointed the blaster at ground and fired it. The shot rang out and cause all the officers of the patrol who were there to flinch and turn around to see what had happened. Amanda took two steps closer and handed the blaster to the woman who graciously accepted it.

    "I'm not trying to fight you," Amanda told her, "I'm just trying to do my best to make sure these things are taken off the streets before good members of our Patrol get themselves killed."

    "Thank you, Sergeant Star." The woman said as she held the blaster with care. "If we find anything out, I will not hesitate to share the results with Commander Anders and remind him how we got this blaster."

    "Whatever, lady." Amanda said, as she walked away.

    Star didn't care about credit and walked away, heading back to her speeder. She needed to get back to base and get into a new uniform, preferably one that didn't have any blood on it. She also had some additional evidence that she wanted to go over. Evidence she didn't trust the other woman enough to share with her. Not yet at least.

    It took Sergeant Star less than twenty minutes to fly back to headquarters. With her suspect's blood all over her, it was against regulations for her to resume patrol until she cleaned up. Since her day was almost done, she didn't think Anders would gripe about her calling it a day a little bit early. He probably preferred it rather than risk her finding more trouble than she already had. Once back at the station, she immediately went to the lockers and removed the filthy uniform as soon as she possibly could. Once it was removed could Amanda tell how much blood was really on, and she was just thankful it wasn't hers. She had been in an intense firefight, and was able to walk away without so much as a single shot taken. It was an event she didn't want to repeat, and she thought about it the entire time she was in the shower cleaning up. Once she was cleaned up and back in a fresh uniform, Star walked very quickly to the lab which was surprisingly open for anyone to walk in. If the tech room was no longer in lock down, it could only mean one thing: they solved the problem. She had a big smile on her face as she walked in.

    "Give me the good news," she quickly asked, "I could really use some."

    "We found out that the blaster was using an algorithm that allowed it to go unrecognized by our sensors." the tech answered, we've made a configuration recommendation to the top brass and if implemented, it should disable all guns like it."

    "So no more shoot outs?" Star asked, smiling at the thought.

    "For now," the tech answered, "That is until they can make a new code that can bypass us. We're going to have to do further studies of our own system to make sure there are no other holes in our code that can be exploited. This could take some time so I'd recommend being careful out there."

    "Duly noted," Star said, giving the tech a half assed salute, "Seriously, thanks for taking care of that. I have a feeling someone was planning to use this for something bigger."

    "That is pure speculation, Sergeant." a voice called out.

    Commander Anders had entered the tech lab, and all eyes were on him as he strolled over to where Amanda and the head tech were speaking. He didn't seem impressed, but to be honest there wasn't many times either of them could remember when he had any other look on his face.

    "I'm sorry, Sir." Star replied, "Just a gut feeling. The guy who attacked me this afternoon seemed desperate to get it back."

    "Why is that?" the commander asked.

    "He was afraid," Amanda replied.

    "Of what?" the tech then inquired.

    "Probably of his boss," Star answered, "If he didn't die at the shootout, I am sure his boss would have ended him for losing his gun, especially now that none of them will work after we reversed engineered it."

    "Good work, Sergeant Star." the commander said, "We will be implementing the changes recommended by the tech lab as soon as possible. The blasters should be ineffective very soon. We have you to thank for that."

    "Just doing my job, Sir." She modestly told him.

    "Keep it up," Anders said, "But I'd recommend not bumping heads with upper management again anytime soon. It's unhealthy for both of our careers and I would hate to lose a good member of my patrol."

    "Affirmative, Sir!" Star said, giving a more serious salute to her boss. It was obvious to her that he had taken some heat on her behalf.

    "You've earned the rest of the day off," Anders said as he was well aware of the time. "Have a good weekend."

    Star and the rest of the techs watched in stunned silence as the Commander left the lab. It's the first time any of them had heard the Commander speak to anyone with such respect, let alone let any member of the patrol check out before their shift was early.

    "First time for everything," The tech said with a smile.

    "Hopefully not the last," Amanda said, as she also left the lab she quickly texted something to Captain Rogers, hoping he was still on world.

   STAR: Meet me at the pub, first round is on me.

    As she was walking back to the hanger to grab her speeder, a message from Rogers came back in and she quickly checked it. 

    ROGERS: No can do, sport. We've been given a last minute assignment. Rain check?

    Star was disappointed to see the message but was still going to get a drink before heading home. The events of the day warranted at least one brew before heading back home. The capital city was safe again, at least for the time being, but it wasn't every day someone was shot at while one duty and it happened to her twice. If that wasn't a good reason to grab a few pints at the pub, Amanda didn't know what was.

    He sat there at his desk, looking a down at the blaster that sat before him. There were several other men in the room, standing there in silence and waiting to be spoken to. The old man had been sitting there for the better part of ten minutes, trying to digest what he had just been told. Years of research, millions of dollars spent on techs working around the clock to build the new algorithm was just flushed down the toilet because one of the beta testers got greedy and tried to hit a store for some extra cash on his way back from the test site. Shots were fired and one of their prototype blasters was seized. Less than ten hours later, the grid had been updated. Their new blasters were useless. They were now just very expensive paper weights. The man stood there and stroked his grey beard, trying to settle his nerves and resist the urge to kill the men that were standing before him, especially the one up front who had vouched for the man that had gone rouge that morning, as his arrogance and inability to grasp the big picture had cost them everything.

    "Do you filthy beasts have any idea how much it cost to make these blasters?" he finally asked, "Any idea what so ever?"

    When it looked like one of them was about to speak, the old man stood up and grabbed one of the blasters that was sitting on the table and threw it at the wall. The site of the expensive blaster breaking into pieces upon impact with the sturdy wall was enough to scare many of them.

    "Millions!" he roared at them, "Worse than that, they were being produced for someone who needed them in two months! Now that person is going to have to roll back their schedule because he has no blasters to complete his operation. Do you bastards have any idea how embarrassing this is?"

    One of the men again tried to speak. "Professor..."

    Without warning the Professor clenched a tight fist, which caused an electrical gadget on his arm to activate. Without warning, the man who tried to speak was no longer able to speak or breathe. He stood there, with eyes gaped open and his tongue sticking out of his face and blood coming out of his eyes as the Professor shook his fist until the man collapsed onto the ground, dead before his body hit the ground. Once his was down, the professor opened his hand and the machine on his arm deactivated. He looked back at the other four men who were still standing there in silence.

    "No one speaks out of turn!" he roared at them, "If you cannot understand even the simplest instruction, how on all the Earths can I even trust any of you with these important jobs?"

    The men stood there, not making a single sound. They all had the answer but were not speaking out of turn as they were all aware that the professor was again testing their resolve.

    "Much better," he said as he sighed, "I will give you another chance to make up for this enormous blunder. The client was unaware we had cracked the grid, so we will tell them that the algorithm failed. They were aware this could happen, and they will likely move on with a different operation while waiting for the blasters to be finished. If any of you screw up like that again, I promise that you will suffer just like this man has. Are we clear on that?"

    The men still stood there and remained silent.

    "Get out of my sight before I change my mind." the professor said with a clear tone of disgust in his voice.

    As the men walked away there was another man in the background who didn't seem as thrilled as he walked up.

    "I'll smooth things over with the client." he told the professor. "Grant me some extra credits and I'll wine and dine them to see things our way."

    "Very good, Clive." The professor said as he patted a few keys on the side of his arm, the very same machine that had activated earlier. "It's done. Send them my deepest apologies but give the usual bull. Like this blaster thing was a long shot to begin with but we'll keep working on it."

    "That's how I'll sell it." Clive said, grinning.

    "I'm glad this amuses you," the professor said, still unimpressed.

    "You need to look on the bright side," Clive informed the professor, "The Patrol thinks they beat us. They have no idea this is just the beginning. We will make them pay for what they did to us. We also still have the element of surprise; they'll never see us coming."

    "Yes," the professor said, as he finally smiled, "That is true."

    "We were just delayed," Clive continued, "I think our next plan is better anyway. The Capital will fall and then the real fun will begin."

    "I look forward to it," the professor said, "it shall be glorious."