by R. E. Graham
As a young boy, he had a terrible accident where both hands were crushed. He had undergone extensive and rather expensive procedures to repair the bones. Both of his parents were not exactly wealthy, and they did the best they could. His father had agreed to take a massive loan so that he might have the chance at being made whole. While he was able to regain the use of his hands, using them now always hurt. Every movement had some sort of twinge of pain to it. In spite of his injuries, he was able to successfully pass each of the inquisitors' requirements the order could throw at him.
We are so close to ending this.
He walked over to his bag and pulled out a food bar. The packaging crinkled as he peeled back the wrapper before he took a large bite. It didn't have a great deal of flavor, but it was loaded with all of the nutrients and vitamins a person could need. He took a deep breath as he continued to chew the fruity flavored food. Flashes of the raid replayed in his mind as he analyzed his decisions.
What would Varius have done? Did I perform as he would have? Am I missing something?
His secret idol was an inquisitor from cycles ago. Damien Varius was the embodiment of the order and was what many had looked up to. Ever since his defection to rescuing a terrorist on Eden, before his untimely death, his legacy had been left tarnished. Nowadays he was referred to differently when talked about by inquisitor instructors, but Cyrus always felt like there was something more to that incident. Something didn’t sit right with him when he compared his exemplary career up to his fall.
The Inquisitor walked over to the chair behind the desk and sat down. He had been on plenty of raids or busts into criminal bases, but losing men under his call never got easier for him.
He sat in the dim light of his quarters as the Carina prepped to hop back to Destiny. His body ached from pushing himself harder and harder, but hopefully, the end was finally in sight.
This will all be worth it if I can actually locate those responsible. Soon…very soon.
Chapter 26
Cycle: 434 Month: 2 Rotation: 22
Corre Republic Space
Prefecture: Colonial
Planet: Marie
Location: Aboard the Only Hope
Mikhail and his team sat in a row in the anchored seats down in the cargo bay of the ship. They slightly rocked back and forth as the Only Hope burned through Marie’s atmosphere. Hern realized that Jax squinted in pain as he realized he made his harness a little too tight.
As the shaking stopped Mikhail ordered, “Alright, let’s do it.”
The team released themselves from their seats and each checked their weapons. Hern used his right fist to pound his plated armor he wore under his jacket. Rhonda adjusted her left knee pad then tugged on her top. Jaymes holstered his pistol then cocked his ballistic rifle.
Jax stood off to the side making some final preparations to his gauntlet. It had actually belonged to an inquisitor at one point, but he had never told anyone how he came across it. Mikhail had found it best not to dig too deeply into anyone’s past since it no longer mattered.
"They bought it, Cap," Joker said over the speakers built into the cargo bay.
"Roger that," Mikhail replied over the radio earpiece he wore.
While they intended to use a comm's disruptor to disrupt any electronic signals in the town, Jax had built customized radios that would still function. Mikhail marveled at the creative inventions his overrider came up with and was very happy to have him as part of the crew. He had told him multiple times that he was one of the reasons the team made it back from so many runs.
There were plenty of stories of raiders getting caught and prosecuted by the government. Which of course was code for executed. The Only Hope’s crew had managed to be on many safe runs with very few causalities thanks in part to the strong aspects the team brought together.
Riko sat up in the Goblin chanting his prayers to the universe per his Starist religion. As he finished, he kissed to of his fingers and touched the printed picture of his wife and his two daughters.
The rest of the ground crew loaded up into the truck as Joker brought the ship down several miles out of Hyssop.
“Happy hunting,” Joker said over the radio to the crew as the Only Hope’s cargo bay door shut and the freighter lifted back off.
Hern and Rhonda rode in the bed of the truck, while Jax sat in the backseat, Mikhail rode shotgun, and Jaymes drove. Jax used the planet’s Global Positioning System to display the fastest route to their destination and then flung the map to the truck’s onboard computer.
The truck went at a reasonable speed down the old highway road, trying to not look extra suspicious. They had been offloaded where no one could see them, but as they got closer to town, they could see the lively activity of vehicles driving this way and that. Most of Hyssop's structures were one to two story, but some rose above the rest at five or six. Overall, it wasn't a heavily developed town compared to most planet's capital cities.
Jaymes guided the pirate's truck through the traffic, stopping at the necessary lights along the way. A small girl riding in a green hovercar pulled up alongside them and stopped at the stop light. Hern happened to look over and noticed that the child was making a face at him. His cheeks burned with anger, but before he could say anything, the truck began to move again.
After several more minutes, they had finally pulled up into the driveway of the warehouse. So far, everything was going according to plan, that is until they realized that to get closer to the building they would have to go through a guarded checkpoint. Multiple armed officers stood outside, while one could be seen working on a computer inside of the guard station itself.
Jaymes glanced over at the Captain while Hern and Rhonda tried to not look more suspicious in the back than they were.
“What are we gonna do?” the driver asked as he turned his attention back to the guards.
“Well, if they have guards, then they have somethin’ worth stealin’,” Mikhail said as he analyzed the situation. “Go ahead and pull up Jaymes,” the Captain said as he looked around them.
He pressed his earpiece so he could speak with the Only Hope. “Nina, go phase one.”
“Roger that,” she replied as she flipped a switch and activated the disruptor.
The town wasn’t aware of it just yet, but they were now unable to communicate with the outside world.
Jax ran a quick test to be sure their comm gear still functioned while the truck drove up slowly to the guard post. In the back of the vehicle, Hern started to feel real trigger happy. e
“What’s he doin’?” he whispered over to Rhonda. “Are we goin’ through all those guards?”
“Shhh!” she said as she tried to lay low.
One of the guards held a gloved hand up as the truck approached. Jaymes slowed to a halt, and the same guard walked the last couple of steps. He spotted the two sitting in the bed of the truck then glared at the others in the truck's cab through his dark orange sunglasses.
“Are you here on official business?” he asked as he rested his hands on the rifle slung across his chest.
“Yessir,” the Captain started as he pointed to the warehouse. “We were told to come work on moving some crates around for a client that rented out a small space in the back.”
The guard looked confused. He pulled up a hologram of a file of all expected visitors for today but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “What’s your name?”
Jax tried not to look nervous while Mikhail smoothly thought up a name. “Henry Gurts.”
“I need to scan your hand chip or see some ID Mr. Gurts,” the guard replied.
“Come on now, we already had to be cleared to even get the job in the first place officer.”
The guard stood to his full height, obviously irritated. “Look, you either show me some ID or you can go ahead and turn around and piss off.”
Mikhail held up his hand. “I don’t want no trouble; can you go ahead and message the warehouse’s supervisor. They’ll be a
ble to clear me and my people.”
As he continued to get more and more irritated, he grabbed his radio from his shoulder. “This is the front gate, trying to reach Mr. Jorse.”
You could hear the low hum from the truck’s engine as everyone waited for the response. The guard’s face now looked confused. He twisted his body away from the visitors and tried again. “This is the front gate, does anyone copy?”
Still nothing. He turned to one of the other guards at the front. “Hey, can any of you reach someone on the radio?”
Two of them tried but found the same thing happen to them.
“Is there a problem?” Mikhail asked innocently.
Suddenly the Only Hope flew low over the town, engines roaring loudly. Each of the guards instinctively ducked down reacting to the startling sound.
Rhonda looked up to see the Goblin launch out of the front of the pirate vessel and use the jumper pack on its back to guide it to the center of town, toward the comm tower.
The low paid guards were wholly distracted by the sight of the deadly WarMech. A moment later you could hear the whine of its plasma weapons firing a barrage of globules.
Mikhail covered his mouth to try to prevent the guard from hearing him. “Light ‘em up!”
Hern and Rhonda stood up in the bed of the truck and started firing at the guards at the gate. Jaymes smashed the guard next to their vehicle with his door before he knew what happened. He crashed to the ground dazed by the hit. As the pirate vehicle was leaving the area, the ship’s gunner fired a burst at the downed guard, killing him as well.
The truck quickly accelerated and smashed through the thin guard post arm sending chunks of fiberglass flying.
Deep within Hyssop, Riko and his Goblin had engaged against several local lawmen and their rifles. While the men knew their weapons couldn’t really damage the destructive WarMech, they couldn’t allow it to go unchallenged throughout their home.
“Captain, I have found the local armed forces. I am going to draw them away from the target.”
“Roger that Riko,” Mikhail said over the radio.
An alarm sounded off in the cockpit, and the pilot checked his radar. Two large red triangles were off to the West of town but were now moving in his direction.
“Dammit!” Riko shouted before hey keyed his mic back to the Captain. “Sir, I have two large enemy contacts inbound on my position.”
“Are they WarMechs?”
“Unknown. I will draw them away as well.”
He cut the connection and launched his Goblin into the air with the jumper pack. As he soared over the surrounding buildings, he used the descent to look for the approaching enemies. His HUD displayed red outlines of the advancing forces.
"Enemy WarMechs confirmed," the onboard AI said through the mech's internal speakers. "Two Sierras.”
Both of the opposing mechs saw the Goblin land further North of their position. Being equipped with their own jumper packs, the mechs launched themselves above the city and landed only two blocks from the raider pilot.
Riko gripped his controls tightly as he knew that a full-fledged fight for his life was about to break out in the streets of this small town.
Back in the warehouse, Jaymes had parked the truck back by one of the loading doors. The ground crew exited the vehicle and Jax quickly got to work gaining access to the locked personnel door.
“I’m in!” the overrider cheered as he stepped back and Jaymes entered the building with his scattergun up.
The rifleman motioned with his head, and the rest of the team followed him inside.
Jax pulled up the map of the interior of the building and slung it to Jaymes who had point. Rhonda covered the back of the group as they went down the wide hallway. On the other side of the wall to their right was the massive storage area of the warehouse. But before they could get in, a man with work gloves on his hands rounded the corner.
“Woah!” he shouted as he threw his hands in the air and backed up against the wall.
“Are there any guards inside?” Mikhail asked aggressively.
The man stammered unsure of what to say. Hern got angry and used the stock of his rifle to smack the man in the side of the head. He fell into a heap, and the Captain gave him a look.
“What?” the gunner shrugged. “At least I didn’t kill him.”
“Let’s move,” Mikhail grunted.
Jaymes moved up to another door and stepped aside. He used his left hand to wave over the door panel, but it did nothing. Without a word, Jax stepped up and began using his gauntlet to run his door hacking program. While the rest of the team tried to make their bodies smaller by hugging the walls, Rhonda was careful to watch the hall they had come through.
“Come on, come on…” Hern whispered.
“It takes a second!” the overrider quietly shouted back.
The panel's light changed from orange to green. Jax waved his hand over the board, and this time it opened.
Again, Jaymes moved in first, and the team was right behind him. Hern and Mikhail continued to clear the room when they heard a tremendous explosion in the distance.
Jax's eyes widened, and the Captain activated his earpiece. "Riko? What's going on out there?"
“They had two Sierras here. I just took one out, but I still have another.”
Riko throttled up his jumper pack again, and his Goblin boosted over a three-story office building so that he could conceal his WarMech. He wiped the sweat built upon his brow with the back of his hand as he checked his readout. His armor display was still entirely green.
So far, he had successfully avoided the cannon fire from the Hyssop mechs, but the second pilot was much craftier than the one he took out.
He checked his radar and saw that the remaining Sierra wasn’t hopping over the row of buildings to engage him head on, but instead was walking around on his right.
Out of nowhere, a tracked Republic tank rolled out onto the same street that the pirate was hiding on and aimed its turret at him.
“Poosh!” he exclaimed as he brought both of the Goblin’s plasma slingers built onto the forearms of his mech and fired.
A small stream of glowing green plasma launched from the weapons barrels and sprayed the vehicle and portions of the road around it. The initial impact of the heated globs blasted pieces of the tank off of its thick outer hull while the rest of the globs melted some armor beneath. Despite the shots, the tank was still operational. It fired its main cannon, but the round went wide and destroyed a chunk of an apartment complex behind the attacking mech.
Once more Riko stepped on his foot pedals launching the pirate WarMech up and above Hyssop. The Sierra just finished rounding the corner and locked onto the mech as it fell back to the planet. It fired three of its buster missiles from its shoulder launcher.
“Incoming missiles,” the AI said coldly as the enemy attack closed in.
While his mech’s automatic anti-missile system began targeting the incoming explosives, Riko used his joysticks and pedals to flip the Goblin upside down. “Aaaaah!” he cried as he pounded both pedals and launched his mech down at the ground.
The remaining missiles missed and flew outside of town where they exploded harmlessly. Riko had to do a whole lot of quick work to again twist the WarMech right side up and used a bunch of fuel to slow the mech enough to land safely before it crashed headfirst into the road.
“Phew,” he exhaled as he realized he had successfully dodged the fatal blow.
He brought his mech's arms up, and he rounded a large building on the corner just as the Sierra landed further up the road. It fired its main cannon again and blasted a chunk of the structure off and scattering into the streets.
The pirate mech launched above the building and fired a barrage of plasma into the Republic mech. Its left arm was melted off at the elbow while its 14D cannon's barrel was also destroyed. Before the enemy pilot could lock on with its remaining two buster missiles, it fell to its side when its right leg was maimed.
It crashed with such intensity that the ground shook profoundly.
Inside the warehouse, the team anxiously moved about looking for their target. So far, they were having trouble locating the medical supplies.
“This is taking too blasted long!” Hern shouted angrily. “Where in the blazes is the medical supplies?!”
While the rest of the team continued searching the large, and very full warehouse and its contents, a shadow approached the pirate. Behind the ship's gunner, a man raised a pistol at the back of Hern's head.
“Who are you?” the man asked stuttering.
The raider started to turn around, but the man shouted, "Stop! I have a gun, and I will shoot you."
As Hern raised his hands to show they were empty, Mikhail stepped up beside the newcomer and aimed his own pistol.
“We won’t be long, we’re just looking for something.”
The man froze with fear as he spotted the other invader to his right from the corner of his eye.
“Perhaps you could help us?” the Captain asked as he used his free hand to remove the pistol from the other man.
Hern lowered his arms and spun about with his rifle aimed at the employee’s face. “He almost shot me!”
“Yes, but thankfully I was here.”
“Let me shoot ‘em,” Hern said as he tightened his grip.
The man’s legs shook so bad he fell to his knees. “Yo…you’re pirates.”
"Aye, but we aren't looking to do any killin' if we don't need to," Mikhail said as he moved to the front of the man so that he could see his face.
“Well, some of us are,” Hern gloated.
The Captain squatted down but still kept his pistol ready to shoot if the other man did anything stupid. “We are in need of the medical supplies you store here.”
Before the man could protest, Mikhail raised his free hand. “We know they are here. Let’s skip the heroics and just get to the part where you cooperate.”
“How do you people li…live with yourselves? Stealin’ from good folk for what? Drinking money?”
