A Fistful of Credits: Stories from the Four Horsemen Universe (The Revelations Cycle Book 5)

by Chris Kennedy

  I was almost disappointed when she let go of me. “My father?” she asked.

  “I have no idea,” I answered as I continued removing knotted rope. “Who’s your father?”

  “I am,” a deep voice said from the door in much more practiced English.

  Turning, I found myself staring at, perhaps, the only Sirra’Kan I would recognize on sight.

  “Prime,” I said and eased into the common bow we were taught to give the royals of Te’Warri.

  “It seems I am further in your unit’s debt than our contract could have foreseen, Human.”

  “Just doing our job, sir.”

  “You have done much more than your job today, Human,” he said. “This was an assassination attempt. If you had not intervened, my transport would have been next. Then my daughter would have been killed, as well. There will be a sizeable bonus for your company.”

  I grinned as the memory of that drop was relived.

  “That was an interesting drop,” I said.

  “No shit,” Kal answered. “I remember a certain corporal disappeared for two days of downtime, only to come back with gashes on his back. No one asked how he got injured. They just patched him up and entered the injuries in the log.”

  “Those ceremonial claws aren’t ceremonial,” I answered.

  “I think it’s safe to say you’re the only man in this outfit to sleep with a Sirra’Kan,” he said. “A princess, at that.”

  “She just wanted to show her gratitude.”

  “To top it off,” he said, “the injury bonus meant you got paid to do it.”

  His hand slapped my back. “And that, my friend, is frakkin’ legendary.”

  Chapter 4

  “This is the final payout for your contract, Sergeant,” General Tarpin said as he placed the envelope in my hand. “But I would like you to wait a moment.”

  I nodded.

  He turned to the men lining the square, “We came here today to honor those that have completed their contracts in an honorable fashion. Sometimes these men and women complete their contracts in a fashion that goes above and beyond honorable.”

  “In front of you stands a man who came to us ten years ago through the court system. I know the courts tend to send us ‘less than desirable’ members, but sometimes, there is a diamond in the rough. Sergeant Martin Quincy is just such a man. I could speak of his first deployment, or his third, or any one of many. He has served honorably in all of them, but he is now being recognized for a deployment where he and his squad truly did go above and beyond….”

  We all knew what deployment he was speaking of.

  Emergence didn’t even draw a reaction from me anymore; I was strapped into the rack on the dropship, half asleep. One thing Sergeant Goros had instilled in me was a readiness to sleep or eat at every opportunity. There may come a time when you just couldn’t do either.

  The half-sleep was a great tool to allow rest yet still be semi-aware.

  “Look at the sarge,” DeLamont said. “How does he do that?”

  Corporal Kal Turner laughed aloud, “Practice, Private.”

  “Detach in Three…two…Now!” Lieutenant Pim announced.

  There was a familiar thud as the docking clamps released. We’d all had the mission brief and knew our job. Pekoni was a mining colony under the control of the corporation listed as the Pekoni Initiative. There were three races combined in the Initiative, the Metial, Rantofa, and Meedin’Tal. Many of the Metial were planet-side, as they were the workforce.

  There had been threats from a rival group, and we were tasked with delivering a sizeable shipment of weapons and ammo. Our company would train the Metial in the use of the weapons so they could protect themselves. Our dropship held a single squad of Legionnaires and ten thousand semi-modern ballistic weapons.

  They weren’t quite as good as the weapons we were equipped with, since they were older stock that was being replaced with newer models, but we had spent the last ten years using said weapons in a multitude of contracts.

  The rest of the company was in the other dropship.

  Just as we hit the atmosphere, and the dropship began to shake like a toy in a dog’s mouth, the comms went crazy.

  “Under fire! We are under fire!”

  The ship jerked around much harder than the typical drop.

  “Oh Frak! We lost the frakkin’ Zephyr!”

  The lieutenant gasped, “That’s the whole company…”

  “Hold on tight, kids,” I said.

  The dropship wasn’t made to dodge and weave but I had to give it to the guys in the cockpit. Whoever was flying this brick was a genius. He wasn’t doing my intestines any favors, but we were still flying.

  I was beginning to think we had made it when the ship slammed to the side, and a huge hole ripped in the ceiling above us.

  “Frak me,” Kal said as one of the crates of guns broke free and exploded out of the hole.

  “Masks on!” I yelled and closed the faceplate on my helmet.

  The ship spun around, putting us under the strain of some serious G’s. The hole that had been bright darkened as we hit clouds. Dark clouds.

  “Really!?” Kal asked. “Crashing isn’t enough?”

  Flashes of lightning illuminated the interior.

  “Might just save our asses,” I grunted into the comms. “Depends on the weapons they’re using.”

  “Can’t do anything about the spin,” a woman’s voice came from the comms. “If I stop the spin I can’t stop the drop, too.”

  Pim was slumped in his rack, and his mask was open.

  “Damnit, Boss!”

  There wasn’t anything I could do for him without unstrapping. The spin would toss me around like a rag doll if I did, and I still wouldn’t be able to help him. The way his head lolled, I was pretty sure he was gone.

  “Do what you have to, pilot!”

  “I’ll do my best,” she answered.

  Watching my troops, I could see Tarkle, Simms, and Dorn were unconscious. My own vision blurred and I could feel unconsciousness coming for me.

  Then I was kicked in the gut as the drop jets fired. The spin eased but the G’s were from straight below this time. We slammed to the ground with a large crunch.

  The ship was still spinning as it slid along the ground. I could see limbs and tree tops exploding upward as we skidded through the stormy forest. My vision dimmed for a moment.

  “Sarge!” my eyes popped open.

  “I know you can sleep through almost anything but this is ridiculous,” Kal said.

  “Just takin’ a break.” I groaned as my muscles screamed at me from the tension they had just endured.

  “SitRep?”

  “About to take stock, Boss.”

  I slapped the release on my straps and staggered forward.

  “Check the kids,” I said and looked into the helmet at Lieutenant Pim. His face was an unhealthy shade of blue.

  Shaking my head, I climbed toward the cockpit. There were three pilots, and I dearly wanted to find those flying geniuses alive.

  I was lucky enough to find the single female pilot still breathing. Unfortunately the other two pilots were gone. One was a grisly mess with a tree limb impaling him to the seat. The other was just gone. There was blood where he had impacted the viewport and shattered a hole in it big enough to get sucked out. The living pilot’s leg was obviously broken; it was probably a good thing she was unconscious, as she would have to be removed from the ship.

  “Kal!” I yelled back into the bay. “How is it?”

  “Surprisingly good, Boss!” he returned. The lieutenant is the only fatality.”

  “Get everyone off the ship, and send two to get the pilot,” I said. “She just saved all our asses. It would be rude of us to leave her behind, even if she is a navy puke.”

  I could hear Kal chuckle as he entered the cockpit behind me.

  “That’ll leave a mark,” he muttered as he passed the other pilot. “Aren’t there supposed to be three?�
��

  I pointed to the bloody viewport.

  “Shit.”

  I popped the straps and pulled the woman from her seat. She was lighter than I expected. Dead weight was always heavier, but this girl was tiny. She was no more than five feet tall and probably weighed 95 pounds.

  “Careful,” I warned as I passed her down to Kal. “Leg’s broke. I’ll bring the kit out with me.”

  “Got it, Boss.”

  Private Tripper was right outside the cockpit.

  “Trip,” I said. “Dig out the medkits from the back. I’ll get the two from the cockpit. She’s light, Kal can handle her.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I scavenged both kits, and headed toward the back. The others were off the ship, and Trip was at the door with three kits. I nodded to him, and followed the private out of the ship.

  We moved a short distance from the ship.

  “What now, Boss?”

  I was quiet for a moment, looking back toward the dropship through the dark rain.

  “That was a straight-up ambush. I’m assuming our clients were hit and lost the base.”

  “I would say that’s a safe bet,” Kal said.

  “We need to remove any trace of our survival to get some breathing room,” I said. “But first I want the cargo off that ship.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Kal turned to his fire team, “You heard the man, let’s get that cargo.”

  I placed a poncho over the unconscious pilot and felt along her leg. It seemed like a clean break.

  “Glad you aren’t awake for this,” I muttered and gripped the leg.

  There was a crunch as the bone slid back into place and her body twitched. Reaching into the kit, I pulled out the painkiller and the hardset. I shot the painkillers directly into the affected area and pulled a clear plastic boot from the kit. I held the tube of hardset to the thin plastic as I slid it up and over her leg. When I pulled the trigger, the hardset filled the boot in seconds. Less than thirty seconds later, I peeled the boot off and her leg was encased.

  Pulling the poncho down to cover her leg as well, I joined my squad. It took three hours to unload the dropship and get the weapons far enough away from the ship for the next part of the plan.

  The explosion rocked the whole valley when the dropship self-destructed.

  Kal and I stood, staring down into the valley at the ruined ship.

  “They’ll not be searching for survivors after that,” I said. “Which is a two-edged sword. Our folks won’t know we are alive either.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “If I remember the brief correctly, there are two major mining operations.”

  “Yeah.”

  “There were four minor operations, as well, and several closed mines.”

  “We get to one of the closed mines and see if we can’t get a signal out,” he said with a nod. “Sounds like an excellent plan.”

  “There are problems,” I said.

  “Of course there are,” he replied.

  “If it was easy, we’d let children do it.”

  “True enough.” He grinned.

  “It’s close to a hundred miles, filled with the hostile indigenous life forms.”

  “Is that all?”

  “That’s not enough?”

  “Not for a Legend…”

  “Bite me.”

  He laughed. “I’ll get the kids ready to move out.”

  “Has the pilot come to?”

  “She’s still out,” he said. “She took a knock to the head in addition to breaking that leg, and somebody put enough painkillers in her to put Horton to sleep.”

  Horton, part of Kal’s Fire Team Delta, was the size of a horse. Close to seven feet tall and as wide as a damn Torvasi.

  “Had to guess.” I shrugged.

  “That’s not a good thing, Boss,” he said as he turned to get the others ready. “Last time you guessed you had to fight an Oogar.”

  “Fun times,” I answered. “I hope we don’t run into any of those bastards again.”

  The plan was risky, but I could see no other way out. Our starship was still in the sky, at least I hoped it was. We would need to cover some ground to reach the closest mine. I pulled my slate from my pack and checked the maps I had downloaded. If we could just find a powerful enough transmitter, the slate would do for communication. The comm system on the ship was toast.

  Placing the camo nets and plenty of living camouflage over the weapons, we moved out to the west. Even with the unconscious pilot, we covered close to twelve miles through the dense forest before nightfall.

  Two guards were placed when we bedded down, and I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that I could sleep anywhere.

  “Boss!” Corporal Rillen shook me. “We got trouble.”

  My eyes shot open, and my mind came instantly awake. I rose to my feet to find the camp completely surrounded by indigs.

  “Shit,” I muttered.

  The indigs of Pekoni were a centaur-type race. They had long bodies with six legs. At the front of those legs the torso turned upwards, and two arms with usable hands met shoulders much like ours. The heads were elongated with wide mouths, but I could see intelligence in the eyes of the one I stared at.

  The indig spoke into a translator, “You our prisoners.”

  I was surprised he would even have one of them.

  “I don’t think I’m going to be a prisoner today,” I answered. “I suggest you leave while you can.”

  “Challenge?” he asked, incredulously looking at my tiny form. He was literally a thousand pounds heavier than me.

  “Challenge,” I returned.

  “Accept,” he rumbled, and he pulled out the spear he had carried in the harness across his back.

  He smiled—well I think it was a smile—and stepped toward me.

  I drew the fifty caliber handgun holstered on my chest and shot him in the head.

  There was silence for nearly a full minute as the indig toppled to the ground. Then the whole horde let out all sorts of yells and such. I glanced back at my squad and shook my head as weapons were raised.

  The pilot groaned and woke up. She sat up on the stretcher she was carried on, looking at the centaurs running in circles around us, yelling madly.

  “Frak me,” she said.

  Another of the indigs approached with a huge grin and retrieved the other’s translator.

  “Challenge victory,” I stated.

  He nodded, “Come. Join.”

  “What now, Boss?” Corporal Portes asked.

  I looked at the howling indigs and back the way we came, and a slow smile crossed my face. “I have an idea.”

  My mind snapped back to the present.

  “The initiative Sergeant Quincy showed in recruiting the Andori of Pekoni to join them in the assault on the mining hubs was far beyond our contract, but we were contracted to provide weapons to them so that they could defend themselves.

  “When the Pekoni Initiative members asked what they were to do about the Andori, Sergeant Quincy gave them a simple solution that more than fulfilled our contract. It garnered us another contract with the same group.

  “He suggested that they bring the Andori into their Initiative as a partner. They held ten thousand weapons and a force that was more than willing to use those weapons for their defense.

  “Our new contract starts tomorrow as we launch Phoenix Company for a training mission of six months to help the Andori become a modern force, along with a shipment of fifty thousand guns to arm them.

  “For this effort by a lowly squad sergeant, we award the highest-level bonus to his final disbursement.”

  There was applause, and the general placed a second envelope in my hand.

  Chapter 5

  Raising the beer to my lips, I smiled at the Legionnaires as they celebrated after the latest contract. I sat in the back, watching from the shadows. The lights were dim back in the corner, and it was good for a private vantage.

  Six mo
nths had passed since my retirement. I’d traveled to various places I thought I wanted to see only to find them drab and unappealing. I had tried to lose myself in women and wine when the boredom had set in, to no avail. Two days with a Sirra’Kar princess was damn hard to match.

  Watching the Legionnaires brought it all back to the forefront of my mind. There was only one thing I was great at. I hated them for that. I had avoided the mercs because I didn’t feel the need to kill anyone. They showed me it was the only thing I was truly good at.

  It hurt to think that my greatest skill was destruction.

  I watched the Legionnaires and loved them as much as I hated them. The brotherhood in arms was something I missed greatly.

  I almost stood up and joined them.

  The door opened, and a stranger to the bar walked in. He cast his gaze around the room, and Tommy, the barkeep, nodded and twitched his head in my direction.

  My hand fell below the table to grasp the hilt of the pistol I still carried. Then my mouth dropped as the man turned completely, and I could see his features.

  Jim frakkin’ Cartwright of the Four Horsemen made his way across the bar to sit right in front of me.

  Tommy placed a cold bottle of Coke in front of him as Mr. Cartwright stared at me for a moment, then asked, “You ready to play in the big league, Quincy?”

  As I walked from the bar with Jim Cartwright, still somewhat dazed, Kal Turner walked from the shadows to smile at Tommy.

  “That, my friend, was frakkin’ legendary.”

  # # # # #

  Chris’ Introduction to:

  WITH THE EAGLES by Doug Dandridge

  Doug likes to say that no area of the fantastic is outside his scope, as he has completed works in both near and far future Science Fiction, Urban and High Fantasy, Horror, and Alternate History. That isn’t surprising to me, as he has led a very diverse life. For example, he studied biology, geology, physics, and chemistry as an undergrad, but then ended up with an advanced degree in Clinical Psychology. He was also an infantryman and squad leader in the Army, and was the trooper chosen to hump the M60 as the leader of the machine gun squad, which is about as far as you can get from clinical psychology. Or maybe it’s not, as having someone fire an M60 at you will do wonders for getting you to change your mind about what you were just about to do.