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Life is a tough bitch to love.

Why do you have to love and appreciate something that just... Throws you for a loop every time you think you finally feel happy?

I lived most of my life in a shitty place with a shitty family and nothing but a fucking shitty future to look forward to. So yeah, everything was shitty...

Well, not everything, but still.

Live most of your life ignored by your very absent mom. Be bullied by other kids because NO ONE in the neighborhood likes that very same mom; they think she is a traitor and a bitch, and you believe them. Be bullied by most of your siblings for being the useless runt of the litter; mom is not home like ever, so you have to learn to take care of yourself. Have no fucking money because she decided to keep her eight kids even though her husband just up and left AND she keeps rejecting guys that offer her a fortune for a simple handjob, so you get into a gang that pays well.

Mom, I wouldn't have given a single flying fuck about what you did with an old as fuck dude as long as we were showering in IG-Units...

Damn... I miss you.

So yeah, life is a bitch.

One moment. One single moment. One ComCall. One stuck-up Council officer knocking on your door. One single piece of bad news... And that's all it takes to make you realize how fucking IRONIC life can be.

You know that thing about not appreciating something or someone until they're gone? To realize the sheer EFFORT it took someone to keep your pathetic life relatively okay?

It's true.

And it fucking sucks ass.

Worse of it is when you realize how shitty you were. How you could have been better. Why were you not better? Why were you not thoughtful? More loving? More considerate...?

A decent person...?

Why were you such an ungrateful screwup...?

And Guilt... It eats you away, you push away everyone around you, you drink yourself into an ethylic overdose, you hang out with the wrong people, you fuck the wrong people... Bodies with no name, you get worse. You do things, wrong things for the wrong kind of people, things that she wouldn't approve of.

But it doesn't matter, cuz she's gone anyway, right...? Cuz you weren't there.

So, tell me.

Why should I love life?

When I feel so fucking miserable.

________________________________________________________________

Some standard rotations ago...

_________________________________________________________________

RIPLEY

I'm blinded by red lights around me as a cloth bag over my head is violently taken off, the very same one my captors put me in when they took me from a bar on Xylos. A hangover creeps at my senses and the killer headache forming because of the way these assholes treated me is making me sick. I try to regain my vision but the constant blinking of my heavy eyelids ends up making everything spin for a moment and what's left of the contents of my stomach churns.

"Bucket." that's the only warning I give before bending my head down and spilling last night's mistake into a trash bin someone scrambled to place in front of me.

Huh, nice carpet.

I try wiping my muzzle with my arm, but I realize it's kept in place by some kind of fancy handcuff that locks my arms behind the chair they sat me on. The thing is pumping some kind of electric current into me that prevents me from using my strength- at least they had the basic decency to not electrocute me into a coma.

"Done being a waste of organic material?"

I look up at the figure sitting in front of me in a posh-looking seat very similar to a throne.

Now, there is a face I did not want to see. Julianos Serono, A.K.A. The Sovereign, one of the biggest mafia crime lords on the Gorus system in the Maffei-01 galaxy... someone I owed a lot of IG-Units to. The giant and obese alien with tubes jutting out from his expensive suit into a breathing mask on his face looks as bad as ever. While I could not see his mouth, his three pairs of eyes gave a clear expression of disgust... The audacity of this bitch.

"Serono," not the best way to greet the fucker who will probably tear your limbs off for not paying him his money but I don't really care... This headache though...

"O' Wain."

"It's Ripley."

"O' Wain."

Okay, I take the fucking hint you're angry.

"Panini, options?" I whisper under my breath... No answer.

"Looking for this?" He asks, holding a black leather collar that I usually wear around my neck. He knows that inside the collar is a bunch of wires and chips housing a portable version of my personal AI assistant.

No wonder Panini didn't wake me up, nor were there any annoying pop-ups in my vision and a voice in my head telling me useless shitty information... Shitty information I could use right now.

Fuck.

"If you damage her I'm charging you, you puss-sniffing asshole!" I had personally smelled the contents from the masks his species need to be able to function normally and it's fucking disgusting.

He signals someone to my right, I turn to look at them and recognize the thug. If my memory serves me right she was the female Katzenan I fucked the other night, her multiple arms and sweet feline-like face were indeed a treat that night. Maybe she remembers me? I could use that.

"Hey, ain't you that chick that I-" She punches my face so hard that I'm left seeing purple spots.

Guess she doesn't remember me... Or maybe she does and that's why she hit me so hard? She did leave the room quite angry when I asked her for a snack after we fucked...

"Charge me? Your lowly mammalian ass owes me a lot of money." Serono stands up and saunters over to me. "That fancy Coil in your chest? I paid for it. The females and males you fuck? They work for me. The drinks you guzzle and then vomit all over my bar? I own them. And lastly, the fucking money I told you to retrieve and YOU spent behind my back, and lied to MY face saying you got ROBBED!?"

He starts counting on his arms my many flaws and fuck-ups... You will run out of arms eventually, bitch.

"Well you do have a face that pretty much looks like an acne-infested ass, it's pretty easy to lie to a face like-" I see a flash of pale yellow, and then I'm suddenly flying across the room, breaking the chair as I land. The stinging on my face tells me that I'm still alive, though in a lot of pain... Not from the slap, the hangover has a better chance at killing me than this bitch does.

Though were it not for my enhancements, my head would have been slapped right off my shoulders. I hate Lighbearers and how easily they could off you like a fucking fly, even if they're a lowly rank five. Why did I work for this ass-hat again?

"You fucking ingrate! You know I can get your sister fired from her job right!? Send one of my guys to pay her a visit?" Oh right, that was one of the reasons I worked for him from time to time.

"Now you listen to me, shithead-!"

"No! YOU listen to me, O' Wain! The only reason why I don't do a favor to your sister and end your pathetic existence is that you still have a... Chance to repay your debt." So he needs me, then...

"Ooooh, so THAT'S what this is all about." I wiggle on the floor trying to get a better look at Serono. "You could have just called me if you needed my services, would have saved us this whole theatre".

"I think you understand that you are very hard to get in contact with when you are off spending my money on getting drinks and getting drunk nonstop." Yeah, I was very shitfaced, I'll grant him that, but only once.

"Okay, fine, BUT I'm still charging extra for this whole shit."

"Fine." He agrees and I'm thrown for a loop. What?

I expected him to fight me on that for a while, he must really need me for this job then. I glare suspiciously. "What's the job about?"

He sighs looking as if he was dreading having to answer that question. "You'll be delivering a very important thing to me, it is imperative that the package is not to be opened at any moment and as soon as you get it you will immediately deliver it to me with the utmost discretion, I have reasons to believe that there are other individuals after its contents." He sits down, asking one of his lackeys to get him a drink.

"And those contents are?" I crawl with whatever body part I can get a grip on the carpet with since my hands are still bound up, also I still can't use my strength... These fancy handcuffs suck ass.

"None of your business." He gulps a really colorful glass that the bitch who punched me gave him.

"Listen here, you marinated scrotum face!" He is really starting to piss me off. "I'm the one that is gonna risk his neck while you sit here getting pansy drinks from a bitch who doesn't even give good head! I would fucking appreciate knowing what I'm having my tail on the line for!"

He glares, and his thugs walk towards me, about to beat me up again while I'm unable to fight back. What they don't know is that NOW I'm fully aware of how much Serono needs me, and I'm about to exploit that to its fucking fullest. Just as I thought he raises one of his many hands, signaling his goonies to leave me be.

Chacke. Fucking. Mate.

Architects be dammed, who would have thought human expressions are so powerful? I should have said that out loud. I don't have any fucking idea what 'Chacke Mate', or whatever it is even means but holy shit does it feel good.

Note to self, ask Panini to look up what 'Chacke Mate' means.

"Mr. O' Wain." Oh, so it's mister now, what a douchebag. "I will clear ALL of your debt, make a handsome donation to your sister's quaint little business and make an anonymous deposit from a 'Concerned Citizen' for your nephew's and nieces' school bills." He folds all his pairs of hands and leans his ugly mug of a face on the upper pair, he does so in a way only a cartoon villain is capable of. After all of this is said and done I'll probably kill him...

"I also want a 100K I.G.U.'s for... Administrative affairs." I taunt him, I could ask for more intergalactic units but I better not risk it. Serono seems desperate but he ain't dumb. I learned that the hard way before, not about to make that mistake again. "Oh, and I want it in cash," I may be pushing now but my intuition tells me he will agree.

"You better bring me my package in perfect condition O' Wain, or I'll make sure that what is left of your miserable life is spent in the utmost agony and suffering, you hear me!?" He signals his butt lickers to release me.

"Get in line, bitch." I raise my lips in a snarl, my teeth may not be as menacing as an Aswad'Yakul but you always gotta act like you are the bigger threat in a situation like this.

Especially if you are the one with, ahem, less... stature.

After releasing me, I rub my wrists, tempted to just kill these guys but I realize I would just make more trouble for Rika and I don't really want to piss off the only relative who still talks to me besides her children.I hold out my right hand towards Serono and he extends one of his to clasp it in a handshake.

"No." I pull my hand back before he does though. He raises one of his many eyebrows.

I point to the black leather collar still on his leftmost hand. I mean, I accept the deal and all, but I just want my Panini back, no way I'm shaking hands with this ugly motherfucker. He shakes his head in exasperation, clearly done with me. Hey, I'm done with him too, I should get a prize for dealing with an asshole like him.

_________________________________________________________________

_Minutes later... _

_________________________________________________________________

After he hands me all of my stuff, turns out he had not just Panini but my rifle as well, the hangover must have been dulling my senses more than I thought, luckily I'm feeling better. I still want to just get to my ship and have a nice nap before setting course to Rigó-9. I put on the fake leather collar, loading the data Serono and his people gave me for the job onto Panini when I boot her up.

GREETINGS MASTER RIPLEY. DO YOU WISH TO KNOW YOUR CURRENT SCHEDULE?

Ah, the comfort of your own homemade illegal A.I's voice in your head. A HUD appears in my vision with relevant info, like the Standard Council Time, the planet's time, remaining energy on my shields, my vitals, and things like the nearest cheap bar... You know, important stuff.

"Panini, load the data on this HoloPad and start a new quest for tomorrow, name it 'Operation GetPaidALot,'" I command while holding the thin Holopad near my collar so Panini gets the info faster.

Right away Master Ripley, do you wish anything else? I recommend checking your mail. You have 377 unread emails, 12 of those from Mrs. Rika.

A popup with all my unread mail appears in my vision, I do a gesture of swiping left with my right hand to get the thing out of my vision. "I'll take a look at it later, we have more important stuff to do like..."

Oh, right.

"Panini, define the human term 'Chacke Mate'"

_____________________________________________________________

Some minutes before the encounter with Ace and Stygian...

_________________________________________________________________

RIPLEY

"The fuck you mean you can't sell me Human whiskey cuz it's illegal!?" I yell at the tentacled alien store clerk who, for some reason or another, thinks he can get away with this. Fucking ass-kisser, he is just refusing to sell it to me cuz I'm a wanted mercenary, so what if I'm a criminal? I can still pay for things like seventy-seven percent of the time, the other twenty-three percent of the time I steal it from assholes like him.

This is what I get for trying to be nice.

"Look, pal, do you even know what planet are you on? Rigó-9's lower cities give no fucks about laws, especially one that doesn't exist, so either you sell me that shit, or I'll make sure this fucking joint of yours goes out of business!" I stab my fusion knife on the counter, the clerk yelps and goes inside to get the drink in a hurry.

You can always trust in good ol' intimidation to get assfuckers to comply.

Pulling my knife from the counters and putting it into its sheath I take a look around. Life in the undercities of Rigó-9 is indeed a sight to see. Metal pipes crawl along the walls, every building itself seemed to be made out of a weird combination of glass, iron, and whatever scraps its residents managed to get a hold of. A greenish light comes from A.E.R.-powered lamps on street poles, houses, stores, and so on. The streets are filled with life, aliens bustling about buying, talking, drinking, and many other activities.

In a way, it reminds me of my childhood in Bogu-15. Poor bastards making the best out of whatever scraps those above them feel like throwing away, in this city's case their 'Masters' being those on the city above, Felett-Varos, while mine were rich idiots from my own species. Was I not on this apparently very important job I would probably spend a few days here.

What is taking that fuck so long by the way? Did he call the cops on me...? Maybe I shouldn't have-

"Oh excuse me, coming through!" I suddenly get roughly pushed aside.

"FUCK, sunnuva bitch!" Some airheaded giant must have not noticed me and I fall to the ground, losing the briefcase along the way.

PACKAGE LOST. RELOCATING

"I know that already, Panini" I grunt.

I make finding the package my priority, not even getting up from the ground while I search for it. It couldn't have gone far, so it may be around here some-

Oh.

Why, hello there.

There is a human a couple of steps from me, looking at me like prey caught in the headlights, and he-... I don't know, he just... I'm- I'm frozen in place, I can't see the crowds anymore, can't hear the noise, I can't focus. Those eyes though, look at me with hidden emotion, curiosity, and some degree of shock. His face is covered by a weird black fabric, his clothing shows me he worries about mobility and looking good while at it, plus he is carrying more weapons than a Council arsenal. I love someone that can handle a gun.

I should be cautious of him, should be angry at him for staring when I made a fool of myself for falling... But my eyes are glued, what is this sense of dryness in my mouth? is this-

WARNING. HEART PALPITATIONS DETECTED

Oh, shut up Panini.

I shake my head, snapping out of whatever... thing was going on. I feel my heartbeat in my throat and at the tips of my ears but I ignore it, for now, I need to find the briefcase. Looking to my left I notice that the thing did not land very far. I stand up quickly and retrieve it making sure that it ain't broken. I won't get paid if it is... Aaaaaand, it's good, thank the holy fuck that nothing got broken.

Unlike how the asshole who obviously toppled me on purpose is about to be.

I look to the culprit and I bury down all surprise of seeing an Aswad'Yakul in this part of the cluster, to march to him in the most menacing way I can muster. They are pretty rare outside Of Ovoloid 'Assholysima' properties, let alone one that doesn't look like the miserable slaves they are to their masters.

"The fuck is your problem, Slavey!?" I use the derogatory term normally used for slave species. Sue me, I'm pissed off.

The huge dark-colored alien steps back, offended. He opens his maw in shock... Good.

"What did you just call me!?" He shows me his gargantuan fangs in a snarl, and I do the same with my several times smaller fangs. Not about to back down, you Ovoloid lapdog.

"I called you a Slavey, can't hear me with that huge ass head of yours so far up your ass!?" At this point, I'm itching for a fight, been a while since I kicked a bigger dude's ass for thinking they can manhandle me or someshit like that.

"I'm so sorry. Excuse the issues caused. What my associate here is trying to say is that he is SORRY and that we'll get going, right?" The human I was totally not checking out not even two minutes ago suddenly moves to the long-eared alien's side, pulling on his arm with little progress.

Shame. He is with the douchebag... Somehow that makes me angrier.

"And who in the zero fucks I give are you, Fleshbag?" I see his expression deflate in what seems like disappointment, looking directly at his eyes I feel some kind of static on the edges of my vision.

UNKNOWN ERROR. SCANNIN CANNOT BE COMPLETED.

The hell!?

Panini should have been able to give me some info on him, even if he doesn't have a criminal record she should have come up with basic info at least, like his species, gender, and measurements. Is Panini glitching? No that can't be it... Who the fuck are these guys?

"That's it, I'm gonna eat him, Ace!" He pushes the human away stomping towards me. I ain't afraid of this asshole, I'm dying for an excuse to hurt him.

UNKNOWN ERROR. SCANNIN CAN NOT BE COMPLETED.

"I'm gonna use the pipsqueak's ribs as a TOOTHPICK!" What?.

Did he just-

WARNING. ELEVATED BLOOD PRESSURE

Memories of my childhood and being called similar things while pushed around by other kids flash before my eyes. My face full of blood and mud after being left on the ground when they finally get tired of me...

"What. Did. You. Just. Call. Me?" I'm not gonna hurt him.

I'm gonna fucking kill him.

"I called you a pipsqueak, what are you gonna do pips-"

I don't let him finish.

I gather all my strength in my hand and punch him so hard that for an instant I see that I have caved in his skull. His body goes flying to the side loudly crashing into some lame-ass store. The crowd that I had not noticed around us before scatters messily in blind panic, screaming and running away from the scene.

UNKNOWN ERROR. SCANNIN CAN NOT BE COMPLETED.

"The fuck you looking at. Wanna join your boy toy over there in the afterlife!?" I turn towards the human, it's unsettling how there is no reaction coming from him other than a look of disappointment.

I have a bad feeling about this.

"My friend won't be happy when he wakes up..." He pulls out a knife and starts spinning it in his hand.

SCANNING COMPLETE

I snort mockingly, to disguise the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. "If he wakes up at all. I'm guessing you fucks are after this right here." I wave the briefcase in front of him, he shrugs, faking disinterest.

WARNING. WARNING.

My stomach drops. Panini doesn't sound like this unless it's bad. Really bad. She is probably processing the info, I need to know what I'm dealing with, something tells me that if I'm not careful I'm most likely dead.

"I'm getting paid a sweet deal fer' it and also sealing off some debts so no counteroffers. That means to get the fuck outta here before I kill ya, runt!" I say businesses-like, at this point I'm just stalling, waiting for more info from Panini. My eyes never leave his movements when he starts circling me, spinning his knife in a fancier way.

"Don't worry, you'll hand it to me of your own volition." He says.

WARNING. WARNING. "S.T." Level threat. Extremely deadly.

S.T.? As in the special terrorism category!?...Da' fuck!?

"Say, I have a job offer for you, one that you really shouldn't refuse." In your fucking dreams.

I reach over my shoulder, freeing my gun of its magnetic holster and putting the briefcase in its place. I quickly turn on the A.E.R. generator on "The Devil" as I like to call it.

"Are ya deaf? I said no counteroffers!" I take aim at him, why isn't he pulling out the gun on his back. I've got a bad feeling about this. "Hate to break it to you, but I ain't accepting these terms, and since ya pissed me off I'll take what ya have right after I kill ya!" A shame really... But it's better him than me.

"Don't worry. You doing this exact thing is part of the plan..." I raise my gun, ready to shoot... But I don't. I can't.

WARNING. WARNING. SAFETY COMPROMISED.

My body freezes with fear when I hear it, some basic instinct within me locks my muscles and joints in place. I should turn around and face the grave sound but I can't, my whole body is paralyzed in fear with each passing second that I hear it, I hear it getting closer... It is said that the Aswad'Yakul were made into slaves because if they weren't they would have turned into unstoppable killing machines., It is said that they can eat any living and nonliving thing with their potent jaws, crushing bone and metal alike... And lastly it is said that the very last thing their victims would hear...

Is the dreaded sound of their stingers rattling away.

MASTER, RUN!