Belle Starr, Confessions of an Ark Hunter: Episode 1 - The VBI years

Belle Starr, Confessions of an Ark Hunter: Episode One - The VBI years

A new short story series focusing on an Ark Hunter from the Defiance game universe.

The freelance reporter from the ERP (Earth Republic Press) was sweating through his white t-shirt from the heat of Marin’s summer sun despite the shade of The Crater’s patio. He paid a fair amount of scrip to Varus Soleptor to rent the bar’s patio for an hour and he wanted to get started right away to get the most for his money. Varus, in turn, kept the vagabonds who are the patrons of this dive, at least by his east coast standards, out of the patio. The reporter adjusted his cam-visor to focus on the pretty blonde woman in the red, white, and blue armor sitting across the table from him.

The reporter marveled that the young woman was clothed up to her neck in form-fitting Liberty Trooper armor, yet was sitting relaxed and comfortable in the chair with her shapely legs crossed and more importantly to the hot reporter, not a hint of sweat on her pale brow. Must be air-conditioned armor, thought the reporter. Not for the first time, the reporter wondered what possessed the attractive and shapely twenty year-old woman to become an ark hunter in this god forsaken wilderness. With her looks, she could easily be a model for a New York PR firm or at the very least a concubine for a VBI executive.

He lifted his visor to once again look at the embossed business card in front of him, which read, Belle Starr, VBI Associate. The reporter had asked a friend of his who worked at VBI Headquarters if he knew of any ark hunters who had survived the crash of the ERS New Enterprise in the Bay Area a year ago, and who might not mind being interviewed for a vid-podcast. His VBI contact had given him Ms. Starr’s business card, and the reporter, after finding she agreed to the interview then made the long trip from east to west coast.

The reporter pressed a button on his cam visor to zoom in on the ark hunter’s face. Belle Starr subconsciously swept a lock of blond hair from her pale brow to get it out from in front of her wide blue eyes, but it promptly fell back out of place. A smattering of small star tattoos stretched from the corner of her right eye to her right ear, contrasting with the natural freckles that crossed her cheeks. She wore no makeup, except for the ruby red lipstick she wore on her rose petal lips and the only jewelry he could see on her was the diamond stud in the right nostril of her pretty upturned nose. She gave him a warm smile, the same one that she had charmed him with when they first met.

The reporter knew he could put in an introduction at the New York studio and wanted to get right to the interview, so he asked “Ms. Starr, tell me in your own words, how you joined the EGO project and became an ark hunter?”

Belle Starr tilted her head, slightly tossing her shoulder length honey blond hair, as she regarded the reporter through half closed eyes. She was only doing the interview because her uncle, an executive in the VBI corporation, had insisted on it, thinking it would be great publicity for VBI. Belle felt she owes him and he is the only living family she has. Belle sighed and thought back to over a year ago, and began as the vid-cam recorded the following:  

“Mr. Greenstreet, my uncle is a bigwig executive with VBI, or Von Bach Industries, and got me a pretty cushy job, especially for a sixteen year old, as a machinist in the R&D division of VBI. For three years I lived at the VBI complex, but I got to take apart and build back up all the latest weapons from VBI, and even got to test fire them, which I’m naturally pretty good at. At 19 years old, VBI put me in line to test their new top secret EGO program, although probably at my uncle’s insistence. EGO stands for Environmental Guardian Online, but the VBI guys in charge of the program wouldn’t tell me what it did or why it was important. I missed having friends and family, but the scrip was good, and uncle would visit me from time to time. If I made the EGO program, I’d been promised I would get to travel… but I still missed having friends and family *frown*.

Anyway, I finally got to see an orientation film about EGO, with a whole lot of other folk, humans and aliens. Evidently EGO is a symbiotic neuro-muscular bionic implant that essentially gives you one of four, what else can I call it, super powers! There’s cloak, which bends light and makes you almost invisible for a short time; overcharge, which takes your body’s bioelectricity to supercharge your weapon’s damage potential; blur, which accelerates your speed so you run faster and do more physical damage; and decoy, which allows you to project a bio-electric hologram of yourself for a few minutes. Evidently, if you work real hard, and survive the process, you can develop all four powers! Neat!

So I do the operation for the EGO implant, but as I’m going to sleep from the knock-out medicine, two of the doctors start talking about me. One asks, ‘Is she the one?’ The other one says, ‘Yes, so take special care of her – she’s irreplaceable.’ The first doctor replies, ‘Aren’t they all?’ which the other one answers, ‘No.’ I drift off to La-La land thinking, isn’t that nice, they think I’m special… *giggle*

I wasn’t feeling so good after the operation – nausea and VERY light headed – but the VBI scientists said we egoists can rest on the way to our mission. I say, ‘What mission?’ They say, ‘You’ll be briefed on the ship.’ I say, ‘What ship?’ They say, ‘Shut up and get on the ship’ That would NOT be the last time they would tell me to shut up. I’m naturally curious. *big smile*

The ship was something else! It was huge. Papa Boudreaux took me as a kid to Mobile once and we saw the USS Alabama, an ancient battleship of the old United States of America. I loved running around the decks and climbing the old guns. But this Ship had to be four times the size of that old gal. And it FLEW! I didn’t think anything flew the skies anymore since all that space junk from the alien war was still up there raining down on us earth dwellers all the time. Evidently the Earth Republic had a few of these flying dreadnaughts that are armored enough to get past space debris, and they had commissioned this one to take VBI to its mission.

On the way, they briefed us about the mission. First, the mission was being led by Karl Von Bach himself – yes, THE Karl Von Bach – CEO and Chief Engineer of VBI. I and none of the other ark hunters – that’s what they were calling us – actually saw him until our last day on the ship, for he took all his meals and spent all his time in his stateroom and let other VBI executives and scientists brief us. To me, that just made him more mysterious and exciting! *blush* Second, we were going to search for and find arktech, or alien technology that was still in the wreckage of their spaceships floating above earth and often falling on it. Third, we were going to the San Francisco area because stuff fell there all the time. I was thrilled about that last point! San Francisco wasn’t much to see anymore because the failed terraforming pretty much left it a desert, but the Pacific Ocean was still there, and I had read about the beauty of that ocean.

The trip there was kind of uneventful. I was more into machines than people, so I’d run around the ship and examine some doohickey until a Earth Republic soldier would notice me and say, ”You have no clearance to be here young lady,” I’d smile and they would chase me away, whereupon I’d go do it all again with some other doohickey. It got to be a game with me and the ER soldiers near the end of the trip, but I think it also helped that I used to dance for them in the mess hall during down times, which wasn’t easy because VBI issued me this really bulky and ugly machinist uniform to wear. *smile*

The other ark hunters were a strange lot. There were self-proclaimed soldiers-of-fortune, outlaws, and survivalists. There were other machinists there too, but nobody I could relate to – or even really talk to. One exception was an ex-soldier of the Pale Wars named Nolan and his adopted Irathian daughter of about my age – I think she was about my age, but it’s hard to tell with aliens. Anyway, Nolan spoke kindly to me and would even sit at my table and small talk during mealtimes, and once- briefly – I thought maybe his daughter Irisa and I could be best buds, but she just glared at me and fingered her knife whenever I was around, so I quickly gave up on that idea. *small frown* 

The last day of the trip was the most exciting. The best part was I got to meet Karl Von Bach. Well, not really meet him, but I was as close to him as you are to me right now. Mr. Von Bach was arguing with Captain Grant, who was in charge of the Earth Republic ship and a really scary dude! But Mr. Von Bach stood up to him, telling him that he was in charge of this mission, and that he was going to save the world with the Arktech we’d find for him. OMG, Mr. Von Bach was so confident, so forceful, so handsome, and so – bald! I guess what they say about bald men is true, they are just naturally sexy! *blush* Mr. Von Bach was awesome. *small sad smile*

Suddenly, the ship lurched, and people were running around saying the ship was going down. I immediately thought ‘Titanic’ and got panicky because I had read that book and it hadn’t ended well. I wanted to stay close to Mr. Von Bach, but I quickly lost sight of him in the crowd. Somehow, Mr. Nolan found me, said something reassuring to me but I don’t remember what, and directed me and his daughter to sit in the emergency ejection seats on either side of him, but while his and his daughter’s seat ejected, mine didn’t. *grimace* So I did what I used to do when something wouldn’t work right on the old steamboat Sincerely Yours as an apprentice mechanic at thirteen years-old – I took the wrench from my utility belt and hit the seat’s console as hard as I could until the seat ejected! *giggle*”