by J Bigby
Ivory Soldier
By J. Bigby
Book One of The Paragon Chronicles
Prologue
The year is 4044 A.E (Ancient Era) in the Eos System, a low economic society. The common people are desperate for food and supplies. The wealthy run the system with their own private security and corrupt law enforcement preventing any uprising from the hopeless citizens.
In the deep loneliness of space, a barrage of destroyed ships and pieces of metal debris engulfed by fire, surround a man in a white power armoured suit.
"Ten minutes... of oxygen left... sir," a disembodied AI voice says distortedly.
"I'm pretty sure at this point you can call me Dex and don't worry Vicor we will get through this. We've had pretty good luck so far." He tries to say with a smile, as his oxygen tube hisses out air into the black vacuum of space.
"Positive attitude Dex... if I had emotions... I would be sweating with fear... so much... I would short-circuit myself..." Vicor says as his speech breaks up every few seconds.
Dex laughs, his smile disappears from his face. "We've been in worse situations than this, right buddy?"
"Nine minutes... of oxygen left..."
"Okay maybe not." Dex jokes as he tries to hide his emotions. He pauses and sighs "this is all my fault. I always think I have every situation under control," he confesses.
"I have been with you... ever since you were a child... You were one of the few... who proved themselves worthy... and earned me in the process... You have overcome every situation... no matter how many times... I tell you it's impossible... you always find a... way to overcome those odds..." Vicor says.
"And what are those odds now?" Dex asks. There is nothing but silence for a few moments. "Would you like... another... hope speech... sir...?"
Dex smiles as he realises Vicor has always helped him even through his traumatic childhood.
"I feel... sleepy sir... I think... I need to rest..."
"I don't know what I'd do without you Vicor, please stay with me," Dex begs.
"I don't... think... I can... hold... out... any... longer... sirrrr..." Vicor says as his last word slows down then comes to a stop.
"Hey, hold in there, buddy. I'll find a way out of this... Somehow,” Dex cries! "Vic... Don't leave me." Dex is now alone, as he drifts around the emptiness of space.
Chapter One: Soldiers Fortune
2 weeks earlier:
In space, on a vessel known as The Tiger Claw, an elite group of mercenaries called The White Tigers, are travelling to the planet known as Halfe World. It is a world similar to our own. They are delivering their best bounty hunter to take out a top political target on the planet's surface.
A man in a white armoured suit, walks down a corridor towards the bridge.
“Dexter Ivory reporting for the next assignment.”
A man, in a black powered suit, almost identical to Dex's body armour, is looking out into space as they arrive at their destination.
With his back turned towards Dex, the man says “Beautiful isn’t it?”
The man continues, “In the two thousand years that I have lived in this universe, I’ve traversed the known and the unknown. I have seen many sights, just like this and yet, it still amazes me every single time I look out into the infinite depth of space.”
He pauses and turns around. His face, filled with scars, one eye, cyber blue, the other brown.
Dex stares at the man with no emotion on his face. Inside, Dex could only feel the hatred for the man who slaughtered his loving family in front of his eyes.
“Let me tell you something; I saved you from your pathetic family. They couldn't feed you or themselves. I bestowed upon you, a life of riches and freedom. You should be grateful! I went through the trouble to turn you into a ruthless killer, ready to eliminate anyone at my command!”
“I am happy. I can be whoever I want and have whatever pleases me Commander White, sir.”
“That’s what I want to hear.” Commander White says. He pauses, “Have I told you how I got this cybernetic eye?”
“No, sir.”
“This organisation worked for a group who travelled across the universe kidnapping children, forcing them to fight for people's amusement. We were sent to take a kid from Thoron and he stabs me in the eye. Tough little bastard."
"I've got to thank him in a way because of him nothing gets past me,” The Commander says as he points to his bright blue eye.
“Your next target is Ambassador Raygan. A discrete group of people want him dead and if they have the units then we want him dead too.” The Commander continues as he walks over to Dex and firmly grips his left shoulder.
“I don’t want to remind you what will happen if you fail me.” He pauses and stares into Dex's soul “Understand?”
“Completely Commander White!” Dex shouts.
Dex turns around and heads towards the shuttle bay.
“Hey wait!” a man shouts with a New Orleans like accent.
Dex turns to see his most trusted friend in The White Tigers, Colt Winchester. His nickname, Hotshot, was given to him by Commander White due to him killing his targets with pinpoint accuracy.
“Hey there Hotshot, can’t talk for long, I've got an assignment.” Dex states as Hotshot catches up to him.
“Yeah I know, I came to wish you good luck. Don't die out there.”
“Thank you man, you always come through.” Dex gives him a little smile.
“Don’t thank me yet if you fail, my orders are to hunt you down,” Hotshot says, he turns around and starts to walk away but looks back and says “please don’t fail.”
Dex's smile slowly disappears, he focuses on his task at hand and walks with determination. He grabs his helmet and weapons which consists of a sniper rifle, assault rifle, a pistol, an explosive charge and a shitload of ammo. He jumps into his ship, Whiplash and accelerates toward the planet's atmosphere.
“Okay, Vicor fly this thing to the ambassador's speech event while I put together a little surprise for our friend.”
“Yes sir, autopilot engaged,” Vicor replies.
Dex assembles his sniper rifle then opens the roof of the ship and climbs up the ladder and opens the hatch to the roof. He lays down on his stomach looking into the lens of the rifle and adjusting the scope.
“We have arrived sir, we'll have plenty of time spare, may I suggest chicken?”
“Can we talk about this after!? And just so you know I prefer pork,” Dex says with a smile on his face.
He looks through his scope and sees a podium with the Ambassador yelling and shouting things that makes the massive crowd cheer and applaud. Support banners are everywhere.
'Why would someone want to kill a guy like this. He seems to genuinely want to help people,' Dex thinks to himself. 'No, I can’t afford to have these thoughts, I have no choice. I have to kill without remorse or the same will happen to me.'
Dex grips the sniper rifle tight and puts his finger around the trigger. Flashes of his parents screaming run through his mind as he pulls the trigger slowly. Every time it would become more and more vivid repeating over and over in his head.
“Arghh!” screamed Dex. As he fires the shot, the ship starts falling fast out of the sky hurling towards the ground. The crowd panics and disperses causing a stampede. The shot misses the ambassador, his bodyguards rushes him away as Dex falls to his doom.
As the ship falls out of the sky, Dex tumbles off the ledge of the vessel and accelerates toward the ground “Vicor now would be a good time to active the boot thrusters!” he shouts.
“Excellent idea sir,” Vicor says calmly as ever.
Mere meters from the ground, the thrusters boost him into the air. He begins to fall and lands onto a nearby rooftop moments before the
ship crashes and explodes. He stands up and sees the ambassador rushing into a car with lots of security surrounding him. Dex runs toward the car but as he goes to the edge to jump, a blue force blast knocks him onto his back.
'That’s the same thing that brought my ship down,' he thinks.
“Look you seem like a nice guy and I didn’t want to ruin your day but I can’t let you kill him.” A voice says coming from the side of the building. Dex looks up and sees a black hooded mysterious man suddenly appear on the edge of the roof. He steps down and walks towards Dex intimidatingly.
“Yeah appreciate that, but you're the one that’s going to have a bad day. Rockets Vicor!” Dex yells. A compartment around the wrists of his suit opens up to reveal several small rockets on each arm. Dex aims at the ground where the hooded man stands and fires them all.
The hooded man covers his face with his arms, creating a small blue force shield made from energy. The floor beneath him crumbles and he falls.
Dex runs as fast as he can along the rooftops to catch up to his target. He sees him in the distance. He pulls out his assault rifle as he jumps from roof to roof. He aims for the wheels of the vehicle and takes a deep breath. Shots begin to fire and the sound of screeching tires fill the air followed by a loud crash.
Dex heads towards the fire exit on the side of the building. He slides down the fire escape for a few levels. He pauses as he hears a noise coming from behind him. As he turns to look, he sees the hooded man shoot a blast of blue energy from his hand. It completely destroys the wall and part of the fire escape Dex is standing on. Dex is thrown down onto a car, crushing the roof.
“I think I’m going to stay here for a while,” he groans. The hooded man jumps down from the destroyed level of the building and walks slowly towards an injured Dex.
“Why are you trying to kill that man?” he asks.
“It's my job not to ask questions,” Dex replies as he slowly slides off the roof and starts to get to his feet.
“So you're a hired gun then? I don’t want to kill you but I will if you pursue him,” the hooded man remarks.
“Why is this guy so important anyway? I have to kill him, bad things will happen to me if I don’t,” replied Dex.
“Like what? Not getting your pay check? There are more important things than fucking money! There are lives on the line. Don’t you get it! Of course not because all you think about is blowing it all on grog and cheap broads.”
Dex looks directly at the man and says “No, like my life. You think I’m a mercenary because I choose to be? My whole family was slaughtered like pigs while I was forced to watch them. They starved me and beat the shit out of me every night until I did exactly what they wanted. This wasn’t the life I chose but it was the one I was given. Now get out of my way, I wasn’t contracted to kill you.” Dex turns around and starts to walk towards the crash he caused. He feels a hand touch his shoulder, the same way the Commander did earlier and without a thought, Dex pulls out his pistol and shoots in the direction of the hand on his back.
Dex runs as fast as he can, away from the hooded man, not looking back to see what happened. “Vicor, scan the area for Ambassador Raygan. He couldn’t have gone far.” Dex says while running.
“Scanning... Scanning... I found him, sir. He appears to be hiding in a bar.” Vicor states.
“Didn’t think he was much of a drinker,” Dex jokes as he runs toward the building, vaulting over cars and every obstacle in his way. He bursts through the bar door and quickly scans the room.
He see's two people at the bar, a tall white haired girl with violet eyes and pointed ears drinking heavily and a muscular man, who knocks one of her drinks over.
“Hey, you owe me a drink!” she shouts.
“You don't need it. I bet your so drunk your seeing double.” The man replies.
“That's right and I have two swords one for each of you,” she slurs.
Dex looks over to the right side of the room and sees the Ambassador cower at the back of the room with one of his guards to his left and the other to his right. Dex lets off two shots instantly killing the Ambassadors bodyguards before anyone can react.
The Ambassador falls to the floor and crawls back into a corner. “Please don’t hurt me, I just want to help,” he begs.
Dex looks at him with remorse and says “I’m sorry but I have no choice,” as Dex goes to pull the trigger, a random civilian in the room jumps out in front of the ambassador extending his arms out and shielding him from harm.
“Stop!” the civilian shouts. At the sight of this, other civilians jump into the line of fire to protect the ambassador with their lives. They all form around him until Dex no longer has a clear shot.
“What the hell is happening right now,” Dex says to himself.
“If you'd let me explain, a few rooftops ago, you would understand why this man is so important. This planet and all other planets in this solar system are about to collapse. There’s just not enough food to go around. Thousands of people are dying every day from starvation and this man, can bring enough food to make these planets thrive again.” The hooded man says as he walks into the room.
Dex turns around with a surprise on his face. “Well, if this man is so great, why do people want him dead?” he says.
“Why do you think!? Organisations who are profiting from this sort of thing, sell food at extreme prices, so only the rich can eat. ” The hooded man explains. “I know that they will kill you if you don’t kill him but what makes your life worth more than billions of people. If you help me take him back to his own system, bring back food and supplies, I will not only help protect you but I can help bring that whole organisation down. Only if you put down the gun.” The hooded man continued.
Dex pauses and thinks back to when he was a kid, knowing the feeling of hunger every day. He sees an opportunity to do the right thing and leave The White Tigers, something he has dreamed about doing. He sighs and puts away his pistol.
“There will be more mercenaries after the Ambassador. We better hurry, by the way, I didn’t catch your name,” Dex says.
The hooded man smiles “Fury.”
Dex and Fury sit down with Ambassador Raygan.
“Okay, I know I tried to kill you but I'm you're only chance to make it out in one piece,” Dex says. Fury clears his throat with the intention to get Dex's attention “and also this guy,” Dex’s continues as he points to Fury.
“So I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Ambassador Raygan asks.
“We always have a choice.” Fury says as he looks towards Dex.
“Okay, what’s the plan?” The Ambassador asks with a look of determination.
“The plan is to fly out of here using your ship, then go into hyperspace until we reach your home system, hopefully before The White Tigers hunt us down. Once we're there, you can call your armies and The White Tigers would think twice about starting a war with an entire system,” Dex explains.
“Why not my ship?” Fury asks.
“Are we going to just stand around here, arguing about who’s ship we’re going to take?” Dex asks back.
“Well no, fine. You do have the most experience when it comes to bounty hunters. We’ll do it your way, then.” Fury says with a defeated look.
Dex gives Fury a little smirk. “Was that a compliment?” he asks.
“Don’t get used to it,” Fury responds.
“I’m sorry to break up this little wit battle but my life's on the line here, so if we could hurry this up, that would be great,” Ambassador Raygan says sarcastically.
“Right, good point,” Dex says as they all get up and rush to the door.
Dex says to the Ambassador. "Stay between me and Fury."
The Ambassador points towards the direction of his ship to Dex, as Dex scans the environment for any bounty hunters. Dex hoping in the back of his head that it wasn’t going to be his friend Colt that ends up coming for them. They rush through the streets taking a shortcut towards the docking bay
. They see poverty everywhere. People starving in the streets and endless violence.
“There it is, my ship!” Ambassador Raygan shouts. The ship is on a landing platform by the bay of the ocean. They run up the docking bay ramp, meters from the ship. A large explosion suddenly expels from the ship, destroying it beyond repair, sending them all back down the ramp in the process. Dex takes the brunt of it with his vision blurring, his hearing dampening and everything around him slowing down.
“Critical damage,” Vicor states.
Dex looks up to see a man with a cowboy hat and wearing a long leather coat over his grey armoured suit. He was leaning against the platform, smoking a cigar with a detonation device in his hand. The man walks towards Dex, throwing the used device onto the ground and reaches for his heavy laser powered pistol that seems heavily modified. Dex realises who it was coming for him as his sight comes into focus. It was his best friend, Colt.
Hotshot bends down in front of Dex, completely ignoring the other two who were unconscious. He lifts Dex's head up by the chin to look into his eyes, as everything starts to get clearer for Dex. “Well now, brother, you chose the wrong people to betray and you can’t say I didn’t warn you,” Hotshot says both friendly and intimidatingly.
“I think we're in trouble sir,” Vicor says.
“Yeah thanks for the heads up,” Dex says sarcastically as he groans in pain. Hotshot uses the back of his large pistol to knock Dex unconscious.
Chapter Two: Fury Fighter
Dex wakes up unarmed and unarmoured with chains wrapped around his body.
"Hey buddy, woke up a lot quicker than I expected ya would," Hotshot says while looking back at Dex and flying his ship towards the atmosphere. "I sometimes forget your one tough bastard," he continues. "By the way, I tossed your armour out into the ocean. I just know Vicor would find some way of getting you out of this kind of situation, couldn't risk it."
Dex looks around for any means of escape. "Colt listen to me..."
