TotHB: Seelah

"Kalus Haijikioten was always the more hot-tempered of us two brothers. We were consummate Civire children. There was never a task we couldn't rise up to meet, and to be honest, we were very close for the majority of our lives, until he met Seelah" -Titus to Ryven


Bridge of the Battlecruiser, Lyssa

Titus stood gazing at his tactical display.  Out there in the cold and black of space was his brother, Kalus.  Titus sighed, accepting the inevitable, knowing his brother as he did.  Immediately he knew they were both there for the same thing, but Titus had arrived first and had already completed his mission.  Ynnas' escape pod had been retrieved.  She was already on board, her new identity assumed.  Seelah she would be called from now on.  Kalus, Titus knew, was here to kill her, his clients would naturally be the Guristas pirates.  Titus shook his head.  Kalus would take a contract from anyone with no thought or question.  He had no scruples.  Titus had been hired by Seelah to fake her death, and he had succeeded in doing so.  Kalus, he knew, would assume that Titus had just stolen his contract.  Titus waited for the alarm to alert him to incoming fire.  He had already attempted to contact Kalus, but received no answer.

Titus didn't have to wait long.  Alarms blared as the first rounds struck his ship's shields.  He waited a few moments, railing within against the insanity of having to destroy his brother's ship.  Finally, sighing deeply, his eyes closed, he gave the order he had been dreading for the eternity of the past five minutes.  "Open fire."

Kalus's cruiser was outmatched.  Rounds from the Lyssa's batteries of blasters ate through the cruiser's shields quickly and Caldari ships were not heavily armored.  Titus hated to do what he was about to, knowing full well that it was probable his brother would not survive it, but he watched as the cruiser exploded, debris twirling off into the cold vacuum of space.  He shut his eyes and felt a tear streak salty warmth down his cheek.  He swore loudly.

He finally regained his composure and ordered the bridge crew to take the Lyssa in and search for any escape pods.  He held out one last hope.

***********************************

Several days had passed since he had been forced to destroy his brother's ship.  He had been a mess right up until one of his junior officers knocked on his cabin door and informed him that they had retrieved his brother's escape pod.  Titus had never known such relief.

As an added bonus, the woman Seelah had been comforting him.  He was quite taken with her, had been ever since he had accepted her contract in a backwater station cantina.  She apparently felt she should supplement her payment of credits with payment of a more intimate nature.  Every night he had returned to his cabin to find her waiting there.  He had lost a lot of sleep, but he considered that a fair trade.

Further, she had agreed to stay on as part of his crew for the time being, which made Titus quite happy.  She was an extremely skilled pilot and knew her way around a ship.  He had already agreed to pay her a cut on their next contract if she stayed on.

Kalus had stayed in his quarters.  Titus refused to let him leave the ship, even if they docked up.  He wanted to keep an eye on his brother and he hadn't quite forgiven him for trying to kill him, or for running out on him to start his own business, a competing firm no less.  

Little did Titus know that the recipe for disaster was already completed and that in a few weeks time, he would speak to his brother for the last time.