“Are you trying to toss me out already, Kilian?” Placido challenged as he read the message on the tablet. “Is this because I’m starting to surpass your tally? Are you scared that the student will become the master?”
“Ha! You may be catching up, but you still have a ways to go there.” Kilian took another puff. “Besides, I’ll still get the majority of the cut. I win either way.”
“You should treat me to more meals,” he muttered and held the tablet up. “What do you think about this?”
“Well, if I thought it was shite, I wouldn’t have bothered to bring it up,” he retorted. “I figure it’s something with multiple benefits for you. The truth is, you’re still wanted down here, so getting up in the great black with several dozen people to guard your back is better than sticking down here with only me. Plus, you keep all these little doodads with you on the occasions we go tripping through a lab or a research center.”
“I have to keep myself occupied,” Placido said. “Besides, that shield generator I restored for you has helped you more times than you care to admit.”
“I don’t care to admit that,” Kilian grumbled. “But my point is, think about the haul you’ll get while you’re with them. They go out and bust far-off colonies and stations all the time. You’ll get way more toys to play with out there.”
Placido thought it over. “I’m not sure. What about you? Why don’t you sign on?”
The older man took another long drag before he set the vape stick down and exhaled a billow of vapor. “I’m afraid I don’t have much more time.”
“What?” He looked up in concern.
“I stopped at Gilly’s med shop after the last gig. Obviously, he’s not a real doc, but that machine of his don’t lie.” He pointed to his heart. “I ain’t got much longer to breathe on this planet.”
“So go to another,” Placido retorted, and his mentor laughed loudly.
“Don’t be a fool.” Kilian sobered and leaned back in his chair to stare directly into his pupil’s eyes. “Listen here, sonny. You’re the closest thing I’ve had to progeny, and I wanna make sure you have something ahead of you when I’m no longer here.”
“Why can’t I keep doing what you’ve taught me?” he questioned.
“You can do more than that. Guys like me, we keep to the shadows. Our names will never be remembered, and we’re lucky to inspire fear if someone bothers to,” the man responded. “But you? I think you could be a rev.”
“Reverend? That’s a hell of a lot of ‘our Fathers’ I’m gonna have to say to be considered.”
“No, idiot. Revenant. I’m talking about the Revenant List,” Kilian chided. “Those are the guys you wanna be like. They are feared across the galaxy. You’d never have to worry about trash gigs ever again, and never worry about being lost to time. Most people may think it’s a myth or some sort of unofficial list, but it’s quite real.”
“Wouldn’t that simply make me more likely to die?” Placido pointed out. “I mean, I would imagine that being on a list like that will mean that everyone would be after your ass.”
“If you make it on there, I doubt there will be many who could actually do anything about what you wanna do,” Kilian challenged. “I’m not saying you have to stay with them, but think about it as a starting point.”
Placido looked at the tablet again. “If I’m gone, what happens when…you know?” He tapped his finger against his own heart while he looked at his mentor.
“I never wanted a grand burial anyway. They’ll toss me into some landfill with a tiny headstone like the life I led deserved,” Kilian huffed. “Or maybe simply send my body up in smoke. But knowing that you’re out there doing me proud? I can actually look forward to it instead of wasting away.” Kilian drew his blade, Macha, and handed it to Placido. “At least think about it, sonny.”
He took the blade and studied his reflection in its sheen. “Strength is about more than who’s the better fighter.”
“Is that a proverb or something?” Kilian asked. “I’ve heard you mutter that a few times after a kill. I thought it was some sort of tic.”
“It’s something someone said to me a long time ago, about power versus strength.”
The older man scratched his chin. “Eh, it seems a bit weird, but I guess I can see the wisdom in it, especially in our business.” He smiled at Placido. “After all, how many times have we taken out a bounty hunter or captain who was supposed to be unbeatable?”
He looked up and smiled as he spun the blade in his hands. “Every time.”
Placido walked through the underground market and searched for the bar listed on the message. Two men tumbled out of a door on his left, followed by another two with gang tattoos who tried to separate them. He glanced at the Warlock’s Bar sign on the top. Having found his location, he circled the scuffle and stepped into the bar.
It was filled with smoke, crowded, and smelled of alcohol, blood, sweat, and strangely, citrus. He walked cautiously forward and looked for anyone marked with the symbol in the message. In the far corner of the room stood a man who wore a blue and black underlay with chest armor and greaves. On the shoulder, a star with a blade in the middle was easily recognizable as the Star Killers’ logo.
Placido walked up to him and tilted his shades down. “Are you a Star Killer?”
“Yeah. Who are you looking for?” he asked, puffing his chest out. Placido handed him the tablet, and the guard read it quickly. “New blood, huh? Go check in with the boss, but if you have Kilian’s backing, I’ll call you ‘brother’ soon.”
“Just don’t ask for money,” Placido joked. “You’re more likely to get a knife to the belly.”
“So you already know the rules. Good to know.” The man snickered. “Get inside. The boss is in a good mood today.”
He nodded, skirted the guard, and opened the door to the private room. It was dark inside, with low red lights. A man sat on a long half-circle couch with two women, and two guards hovered behind them. The gang leader had long white hair and handsome features and wore a long blue jacket with a black underlay. “Well, who do we have here?” he asked. His voice was playful, but there was an edge of maliciousness to it.
The guards straightened and eyed the newcomer, who waved casually at them. “Evening. My name is Placido, and I’m—”
“Kilian’s protégé, right?” the man asked, and he nodded in return. “Good to meet you. The name’s Vito. Do you want to take the gig?”
“What do you need me to do, exactly?” he inquired. “Kilian said you need people willing to get…intimate.”
“Oh, I have those,” Vito said and winked at the girls beside him. “But if you’re talking with a blade, fist, or gun, that’s exactly right. Do you think you— Hold up.” He pressed a finger on the transmitter in his ear. “What’s going on? Uh huh, tell them to piss o— Actually, hold that thought.” He released the transmitter and looked at the new recruit. “Wanna give a quick demonstration?”
Placido walked out of the room and paused to study two men who yelled at the guard. “What’s going on?”
“That asshole in there is with our chicks,” one of them cried.
“That’s bullshit! Who knows what he’s doing with them?” the other yelled.
“He’s currently fondling the breasts of one and kissing the other,” Placido stated.
This enraged the men and they shoved up against the guard, who held them back.
“I’ll fucking kill him!” the first man bellowed.
“No, you won’t,” Placido said casually. He drew Macha in a fluid movement and sliced the man’s throat. The other backed away, his stare fixed on his friend. His shock gave Placido time to snatch him by his shirt and draw him forward, stab him in the chest several times, and release him with a grim smile. The man tried to walk away, but only managed a few steps before he collapsed.
No one seemed to notice, and the few who did paid him no mind.
“It’s not the best idea to start fights in a place fi
lled with thieves, gang members, scavengers, and contract killers,” Placido mused and grinned at the guard, who looked at the bodies with surprise on his face. “Do you mind taking care of those, brother?”
The guard relaxed. “You gonna tip?”
Placido smiled, called a waitress, and told her to bring his new friend some drinks. She nodded and stepped over the bodies on her way to the bar. “Something to look forward to after you take these to the dump.”
“Physical labor does get me parched.” He chuckled. “I’ll take them out. I guess the next time I see you will be on the ship.”
“See you then,” Placido promised and walked back into the room.
“Damn, I said I wanted quick, and you delivered,” Vito said approvingly. “You got the gig, kid. It was only a little taste, but Kilian obviously didn’t only make you sound good. No hesitation at all.”
“It’s mostly muscle memory at this point,” he explained.
“Silvio here will take your info down.” Vito snapped his fingers, and one of the guards produced a tablet. “What do you want your handle to be?”
“Handle?” Placido asked.
“We don’t work in the legal business, obviously. Most guys assume fake names or titles as a buffer—or, you know, something that’s cool to them for the sake of image. It’s something of a tradition. What do you want to call yourself for your new life?”
Placido thought about it for a moment and tapped his fingers on his chest. “Gin…” He looked at Macha. “Gin Sonny.”
Chapter Five
“And there’s the big reveal, but you waited with bated breath.” Gin chuckled, flipped Macha in his hand, and studied his device. “Ninety percent…almost there.” He leaned against the desk. “Thanks for being so patient. I planned to consider this a test run anyway. This thing had a number of options already in it that worked right away. I didn’t think adding a new one would be such a slog.”
His companion nodded, then reached for a mint in a bowl on the desk, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth. After a moment, she picked the bowl up and offered it to him.
“Why, thank you,” he said with a smile as he took a couple and followed her example. “You know, I thought my time with the Star Killers would prove more fruitful. That I could work my way up in the ranks and become a leader or something. From what I knew of the Revenant List, most of the guys on there were leaders in big organizations, so it seemed to be the best way to ‘make it’ in that regard.” He shook his head, tossed Macha up, and caught it by the handle. “It was a hell of a nuisance when it turned out they were so damn weak. But it was another important realization, and the final stop on the journey. The beginning of the end. Wait, no, the beginning of the beginning? That seems redundant. Whichever, it began with our little tussle with the guys in the Omega Horde.”
Gin breathed heavily. Most of his armor was compromised, and explosions continued outside. The battle had raged in earnest for at least forty minutes, but he had been in this damn base for almost three hours in preparation for the strike. He began to see a hell of a lot of names with the word “deceased” beside them on the network list on his HUD. The Star Killers were apparently confused. That, or they thought they could live up to their name no matter who was dead—including themselves, apparently.
But he was a little preoccupied at the moment. Four bodies lay at his feet, but the beast of a man in front of him clad in jet-black heavy armor wielded a giant hammer that Gin was certain was either a metaphor or compensation. That notwithstanding, the fiend now launched forward for another strike. Gin leapt back as the attacker swung. He had no problems dodging him, but he was actually there to kill him. Unfortunately, that thick armor and the shielding device he used to block his shots made that difficult.
“Do you think you pests can come onto our planet and claim it so easily?” the leader of this sect of the Omega Horde challenged. “You’re scavengers. You should have stayed in your lane and eked out whatever measly life you could.” He activated a bounce jet on his armor and flung himself at his opponent, and his shield activated as he closed in. Gin vaulted upward and dropped a flashbang as he jumped over him. The leader landed, and his shield condensed into a ball that he flung at Gin. It slammed into his stomach, and he tumbled awkwardly along the ground.
The man yanked a rod from his belt and clicked a switch, and it transformed into a rather pointy spear. He had just cocked his arm to throw it when the flashbang went off and blinded him. With a curse, he stumbled back and shielded his eyes until they adjusted. He grinned when he saw that Gin hadn’t recovered and was still trying to push off the floor. With a triumphant snarl, he snatched the spear up again and flung it at him. He gaped when the projectile passed through his adversary without pause. No blood covered the point of the spear or spurted from the target. Instead, his adversary became intangible and disappeared. The man cursed when he realized it was a hologram.
Gin came up behind him with Macha in his hand, shoved the blade into the center of the leader’s bounce pack, and cut through it. The damage to the systems inside caused electricity to spark and shock them both, but Gin had a mod in his armor that enabled him to resist it for the most part. The leader was not so lucky. Although his shields were able to absorb some of the shock, the blade had dug deep enough to strike the core. This, combined with the surge of electricity, overloaded the core, and it exploded and hurled them both away in the blast.
Sonny scrambled to his feet and readied himself to continue the fight. His opponent slammed the staff of his hammer into the ground to help him stand. Without the power core, most of his systems would malfunction until reset or the remaining power was manually redistributed. He would have a hard time moving in all that weight.
Victory was within reach when Gin received a call from Vito. “Gin, this is Vito. We have to retreat. We’re being overwhelmed.”
“What?” He sneered. “I’m about to finish—”
“It’s taking way too long, Gin. We’ve already lost more than half our men. There are lots more guys in this base than we thought.”
“You were responsible for intel,” he yelled into the comm. “You told me that the leader wasn’t a fighter but a logistics man.”
“The intel was bad, or I confused it with another base,” Vito muttered, too nonchalantly for Gin’s taste.
“You damned idiot,” he snarled. “This failure is on you.”
“Watch your tone, Gin,” Vito retorted angrily. “I am the leader of this crew. You will fall into line. Now, if you're not back in ten, we’ll leave your ass to the Horde, so get the hell back here.” With that, he signed off and left Gin trembling in rage as a timer appeared in his visor.
The Omega Horde’s captain, still on his knees, chuckled, which drew his attention. “Your mic is on, you know,” he said through heavy breaths. “While it’s probably a little unorthodox, considering the men you’ve killed…” He motioned to the bodies that littered the floor. “You’ve been able to both catch me by surprise and bring me to my knees. Neither has happened since I was only a grunt.”
“My guess is you haven’t seen much action in the time since you became captain of this sect,” Gin responded and looked at Macha’s blade to inspect the damage. It would probably need to be replaced.
“Hardly. All captains enter the field of battle with their men in the Horde,” the captain stated. “Where’s yours? Your mission was to take me down? Should he not be with you to make the final blow?”
“He said he was ‘coordinating,’ as always.” Gin sheathed Macha and drew a plasma blade.
The Horde captain removed his helmet, tossed it on the floor, and spat. “What a pathetic leader, hiding in the shadows while his men do all the work.” He looked up to reveal a toothy grin. “And have all the talent.”
“I’m glad you seem so enamored of me. I still have to kill you, though,” Gin said unapologetically. He held the plasma blade up and turned it on, and the edge turned bright blue.
“
I would be disappointed if a few compliments made you malleable.” The captain grunted and heaved himself up. He turned to grab a box on the console behind him, threw it at Gin, who let it fall at his feet, and prepared to back away. “Don’t fret, it’s not a bomb or a trick. You’ve earned a reward. All pirates get their cut.”
Gin eyed him suspiciously, but against his better judgment, he kicked the button on the front of the case. It opened to reveal a shielding device. “What’s this?”
“A shielding mod like my own,” the captain explained. “I’m not sure what power unit you have, but it’s useable as soon as it’s installed.”
“You would give me something like that when yours is blown and we’re still fighting?” he questioned incredulously. “You do understand that I’m here to kill you, yes?”
“That’s one way it could end.” The captain nodded and pointed to his helmet. “But we were able to hack into your commlink. That’s how we were able to overwhelm you so easily. And I heard your leader call the retreat. That must sting after all your hard work.”
Gin stared at the captain, unmoving. “We’ll have words when I return.”
“Or you could kill him for his transgressions,” the captain suggested. “Maybe under the banner of the Omega Horde.”
“Is this some sort of unorthodox job interview?” Gin inquired. He closed the case with one foot, kicked it up, and caught it in his hand. “After today, if I leave the Star Killers, I don’t think I’ll throw my lot in with anyone.”
“That’s a damn shame. I see real talent in front of me.” The captain shrugged. “You’re running out of time. I may like you, but I’ll still kill you if you are dead-set on trying to end this. Our little chat has given me plenty of time to get my armor back to working condition.” He took a fighting stance and swung his hammer to prove his point.
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 23
