Disappeared for a While

"Well... I'm back."

The immortal words of Samwise to close out The Lord of the Rings.  It seems those are my constant words here on Blogger as I swing between intending to continue blogging and wanting to give it up.

To be honest, I would rather leave blogging behind as I'd rather be writing my books rather than talking about them.  I believe that the main reason a lot of people don't fulfill their dreams of writing is because they're so busy doing everything around it rather than doing the writing itself.  Blogging is one of those distractions.

However, it is good to tell people about what's going on and provide behind the scenes looks, so here I am once again.  (Plus, it seems that there are a few more people reading my blogs now, so here you go.)

My time during Covid has been used intensely to get through projects and release them.  Millions of people out there have been captive audiences for a while, so there will never be a better time to provide entertainment.

As such, I've made more videos for Bandwagon Games, started a podcast for RPG Storytime, finished my book on Vietnam, gotten most of the way through the latest Relic Worlds book, and built a little studio in which to do everything.

I'm going to be posting about all of this over the next few weeks, so I hope you enjoy it.  Take a look at the links and you'll see the results of all my hard labor.

Enjoy!

Wanted, Foul, and Worthy - Part 9

Part 9

The Mandrake Leonne

The two rogues could hear the armies packing up and leaving.  Transport vessels were landing and filling up with soldiers; trucks were loaded with equipment.  The occasional squad came near the duo's cave in search of them.  But Jude had found a small opening that led to a wider cavern into which they were able to squeeze.

Neither needed to risk watching either.  Armies were not known for their discreetness and the amount and types of noise described how far away they were from finishing and being gone.  It was just an achingly long wait.  The day ended, nighttime passed, and the following day came and went.Dillon had brought a thermos of water, but that was gone by the time the sun set.  They had no food.  This had to resolve itself soon.

And so, regardless of the risk, they crawled out when they could see it was dark.  Dillon was first, and he immediately noticed that all the artificial lights were gone.  Only the reflected light from the enormous moon splashed over the scenery, which was covered in trash and discarded equipment, but no people.  This was the excrement of a corporate army; they left behind garbage and craters.

Behind him, the scraping of stone and tumbling gravel told Dillon that Jude was coming out.  He turned to find her squeezing out like she was birthing.  This could take a little while, so he took advantage of the moment and hurried away.

The ancient buildings were more visible now with all the army structures gone.  None were particularly large, a few meters tall by less than ten wide and deep.  Exact measurements were difficult as they had mostly merged with the rocky surroundings.  Details were difficult to see in the harsh moonlight, despite its brightness.  So he ran close to the entrances, looking over their doorways to see if any of them matched what Jude had described.

Jude at last made it out, and she spotted Dillon dashing madly through the cloisters.  He was doing the work for her.  So she watched him while she strolled a little way into the former camp.

Her attention was grabbed by a noise within one of the wider trenches.  She looked down to see a wounded soldier lying on the bed.  He might have been forgotten, but it was more likely that he had been deemed unprofitable.  Jude had seen soldiers discarded like this in the past.  Around him lay some abandoned medical supplies, a glowing metal bouquet, a couple bottles of some kind of whiskey, and the man's pack. 

His breathing was heavy and erratic.  He didn't have much longer.  Jude climbed down into the trench.  He watched her wordlessly as she grabbed one of the bottles of whiskey and took a swig.  Then she held it out to the dying man.  His arms were too weak to hold it, so she held it up to his mouth and poured it into his lips.  He sipped gratefully.  Then he visibly slipped into unconsciousness.

Jude lifted her head and looked for Dillon.  He seemed to have found the right structure.  A doorway hid within the overhang of an archway upon which floral reliefs framed the interior.  He felt the bottom of the arch as though to confirm it was real, then he felt the door.  He brushed aside age-old dirt from the edges.  The frame around it had small, decorative spikes, and one metal hook that looked like a pot which seemed to have once held something about the size of his arm.  The doorway had an embossment that was too worn from time to be distinguishable anymore.

Dillon couldn’t care less.  He felt around the door for a handle, and at last found something.  One part of the embossment had a thin gap beneath it under which he was able to squeeze his fingers.  He lifted, and a latch pulled out, then the door pushed inward with a loud scraping of stone.  Dillon cringed.  He had not wanted Jude to hear, but he figured there would be no avoiding that, so he pressed inward quickly to make the sound last a shorter time.

As soon as he could squeeze in, Dillon rushed inside.  The air was stale and his skin crawled with nerves of both excitement and fear.  It was too dark to see, so he pulled out his Spectrolight and pumped it up to full brightness in a 90 degree arc, and headed down the corridor.  A couple others branched off right and left.  He explored the one to the right first, winding down a pair of paths in that direction.  He passed markings of ancient burials but paid them no mind.  Unless they were containers that held the Mandrake Leonne, he didn’t care.

Coming to dead ends, he doubled back and tried more corridors.  He found that they spread out like spider webs, leading only to basic burial sites; no shrines, no treasure chests.  Frustrated, he moved faster and faster.  The walls became a blur to him as he tried one hall after another, until suddenly, a wide, round chamber opened up in front of him.  In the dim light, he seemed to detect valuable décor, so he widened his light and stepped inside.

A sunken stone floor sat in the middle 20 meters in diameter.  At the opposite end rested a platform bearing a small collection of valuables and what appeared to be a shallow, thin sarcophagus.  Along the periphery stood pillars supporting a walkway approximately a meter above the center floor.  Within the walls were faint lines and indistinguishable reliefs that looked like drawers which may be the belongings or perhaps the remains of those who were buried here.

Dillon couldn’t care less what was buried in here unless it was the Mandrake Leonne.  He jumped all the way down the stairs, not touching any of the unevenly laid steps.  As soon as his feet touched the ground, they were already running for the opposite side.  He jumped on the platform and knocked over the smaller treasures, desperately trying to find his goal.

He was so focused that Jude had to clear her throat to get his attention.  She was at the head of the stairs looking down at him, her hand near her pistol.  “We’re supposed to do this together,” she said.

She had the drop on him, so it was no use for Dillon to go for his own weapon.  “We are, red.  I’m just finding it for us.”

Jude strolled down the steps, her hand perpetually near her pistol.  “You’re not going to have much good fate with those.”

“Isn’t this where it’s supposed to be?”

Jude took her time to answer, then just nodded at the rectangular rise in the platform that looked like a sarcophagus.

“Here?” Dillon asked, turning to it.

Jude nodded.

Dillon grabbed the edge and began to pull.  It slowly began to slide off.  “Little help,” he grunted.

“Yes, Jude.  Why don’t you help him?” came a familiar voice from the entrance.  The eyes of both rogues whipped over toward it, and they saw who they expected; Nikos.  His pistol at the ready.  “You can then hand it over to me, and avoid becoming a permanent part of this site.”

Jude stared at Nikos passively.  He placed his own Spectrolight on the ledge of one of the pillars with its omni setting on high.  The room was lit up as though it was daylight.  “We could have shared it, Jude.  Just you and me.”

“And your five goons,” she said.

“They were hired minions.  They got their pay and that was that.  You and I could’ve split this fortune.”

“You would’ve turned on me before we pinged out,” she said.

“You’re wearing on my patience, Jude,” Nikos said.  “Give me my prize.”

“It’s not here,” Jude said, and she kicked the lid the rest of the way open.  All that was inside was a lever, which she then flipped with her foot.  A trap door slid open in the middle of the floor.

Nikos tried to peer into the hole but saw only darkness.  Dillon shined his light inside and it revealed rows of skeletons laid out in shelves.  “Catacombs,” he muttered.

“Kilometers of them,” Jude said as she strolled toward one of the pillars.  “A seemingly endless labyrinth.  Anyone going in there will likely join the bodies after they get lost for days.”

Nikos looked at her and said, “But you know where to go, I take it.”

Jude peeled off a loose piece of stone from the pillar as she nodded.  She then used one of her cybernetic fingers to fire a low-level beam to burn a message into the stone.  “I'm writing the directions the pilot told me.  Whichever one of us earns it, gets it.”  Jude finished writing, eyed both men, then laid the stone face down near the middle of the floor.

She then backed away toward the periphery, one hand nearing her pistol.  Getting the message, both men backed up to the higher platform along the rim.  Nikos already had his pistol out, but while they were talking he had let the hand drop to his side.  He had a decided advantage by his weapon not being in its holster, but that was countered by the fact that he was the worst gunman in the room.  He typically allowed someone else to do his dirty work.

Dillon knew this, and he eyed Nikos contemptuously.  But he had to keep his eyes on Jude as well.  She was a sneaky one and likely was ready to exact revenge on him.

Jude meanwhile began moving around the perimeter toward Nikos and the entrance, her eyes always on her opponents.  He moved away, and Dillon moved in turn.  They instinctively paced themselves to create an equal distance between them.  Their arms tensed, ready to strike.  Their eyes studied every tiny movement of their opponents.  Each disappeared for a moment when they moved behind a pillar, but then reemerged on the other side, still ready to attack.

Dillon twitched when Jude went behind a pillar, ready to draw on Nikos, but Nikos was completely focused on him, so he waited.  He then prepared to fire on Jude when she emerged, but her eyes were focused on him as though she was ready for that.

Jude had just passed the first pillar after the entrance when she stopped.  The others stopped as well.  This was where they would draw first and aim true, or die.  All three had to guess what the other two would do.  Whoever drew first would have the initiative, but they would also give an opening to one while firing on the other.

Nikos concentrated on Jude.  They had been friends once.  Surely that meant something more than a man who had tried to kill her.  But she only watched him with a blank stare.  Dillon had the same thoughts as Nikos.  The two old friends had probably set him up.  Made him find the tomb while they waited.  He couldn't think of that now.  He had to choose which one to shoot.  Of course he had both targeted with his cybernetic eye, but Jude would certainly have hers ready, too.  He concluded that Jude was probably waiting for one of the men to draw and she would finish up the other; because Nikos wouldn't shoot at her, and she probably knew Dillon would go after the easier kill...

Then Dillon noticed that her visage was fading, as though the light was dimming just around her.  Nikos noticed the strange look in Dillon's eyes, and looked over just in time to see Jude fade to blackness.  Then they heard the outer door slam shut.

“The hologram!” Dillon shouted, and he began sprinting for the corridor.  Nikos sighed.  He knew the trick, and he knew it was now too late.  While Dillon banged on the door and shouted threats, Nikos strolled toward the center and picked up the stone.  Written on the back was, “The wounded guy had it.”

Outside, Jude could hear distant banging from the doorway she walked away from it.  Next to the door was a now useless hook where the Mandrake Leonne had once rested.  Someone had taken it from there and given it to a wounded soldier.  After all, it did look a bit like a metallic bouquet.  Someone thought it would be appropriate for a dying man who needed comfort to have.

Jude thought about the irony of so many soldiers dying for the army to capture a treasure, when they had a more valuable one in their possession the whole time.  She had had it free and clear earlier when Dillon was searching for the right tomb; but she knew that Nikos still had the tracker on her, so she had needed to get him out of the picture as well.

She hopped into the trench, scooped up the Mandrake Leonne, then climbed out with the treasure in tow.  It would take her about a day on foot to make her way to the refugee center where they were loading up people onto transports to take them wherever they might be able to resettle.  She would be long off the planet by the time Nikos and Dillon learned to work together and either blasted their way through the wall or the door, or risked the catacombs to find another exit past the walls.  Regardless of how they did it, Jude knew that their combined cunning minds would get them out.  And then she would once again have to watch her back.

*          *          *

Mika Sinovi exited the classroom after all her students to find Jude standing outside leaning against a wall.  She did not know the fortune-hunter well, but she knew that trouble often followed her, so she nervously asked why she had come.

Jude answered by pulling out the Mandrake Leonne from a large pack she was carrying.  Jude stepped toward it wide-eyed and asked, “Is that what I think...” Jude was already nodding.  “How did you...” Mika began, then, “I don't want to know, do I?”  Jude shook her head.

“How much can the museum pay for it?” Jude asked.

“Not as much as you could get elsewhere,” Mika admitted.

Jude shrugged her shoulders.  “How much?”

“We'll talk to the head curator, but we won't insult you.”

Jude nodded and put the piece back, then said, “There's another reason I came.  We have a mutual acquaintance in the form of one of my past employers.”

“Nikos,” Mika said distastefully.

“That's him,” Jude said.  “I had a little time alone with his fon when I pick-pocketed it off him on his ship.  Past all the things that show what a sad little life he leads, I found something else that you might find to be an eye full.  So I scanned it into my own device.”

Jude pulled out a 3D projector and shot a hologram into the hallway.  Mika's eyes grew wide.

THE END

Wanted, Foul, and Worthy - Part 8

Part 8

Deadlock

A road led southwest almost directly along the path they needed to go, but Jude and Dillon used it sparingly.  They didn’t want to make themselves easy targets to Nikos or either of the corporate armies.  They primarily weaved along the scrub brush behind boulder outcroppings that separated them from the street, which always remained within a couple dozen meters.  The occasional nearby sound startled them, and when they turned to look, they found it was one of the tufts of scrub brush that had lost its roots and tumbled along the deep cracks of the rocky terrain, like a marble rolling along a wedge.

They spoke very little, and when they did it was to speculate on where their mutual enemy might be, or whether a sight or a sound might be military personnel.  Then, almost 20 kilometers out from the town, Jude spoke up, telling Dillon that they needed to break off from the path and go almost directly south.

“How do you register?” Dillon asked.

“I’ve been keeping track,” Jude answered.

“You were never that good with strassing a path.”

“I found our way to Sungrun where you got your infamy.”

“And you lost us on our way through the Fanges.”

“I had just come out of Virtua.  It’s disorienting.”

“We all almost starved.”

“You can’t go an hour without eating.”

“Speaking of, we should pitch a camp somewhere and…”

“Shh,” Jude hushed.

“You hushing me?  No one hushes me…”

“Shhh!” Jude insisted, tilting her head to listen ahead.  Dillon had to take a couple steps forward before he heard it, too.  Large numbers of people.  They weren’t doing anything specific such as cheering or marching or having a battle.  It was just the low rumble of thousands of voices, feet shuffling, and basic movement that comes from a massive crowd.

Jude hurried behind a large boulder and scurried up to the top.  Her chest remained low to the stone, her limbs crawling like a spider.  She peeked over the top to find that the noise was closer than she’d thought.  Within half a kilometer began the border of a military camp.  The force of a few thousand soldiers faced off against another force of equal size.  They were separated by a ravine, the middle of which was a slight rise upon which sat the ancient ruins of a Parthenon with 20 meter tall cracked pillars that formed a sort of rib cage around smaller structures inside.  Jude could not make out details of the structure, but she could tell it was important as little damage had been done to it, despite craters scarring the rocky landscape all around it.

Dillon climbed up next to Jude and kept his head low like hers.  He immediately focused on the tall structure as well.  “Is that where the Mandrake Leonne is?” he asked.

“No.  It’s in a mausoleum looking structure with an archway made of stantonflowers.”

Dillon stared at her strangely.  “Maybe the guy was delirious,” he said.

“Maybe,” Jude said.  “But if it does exist, it’s somewhere on the grounds where these armies are dug in.  We have to somehow get them to leave.”

No sooner were the words out of her mouth whenthey heard footsteps behind them.  Both of them whirled around, guns already in hand.  They were faced with a squad of armored soldiers and an officer who wordlessly held out his hand to collect their weapons.  Jude and Dillon hesitated, calculating the odds of surviving such a fight.  But the soldiers had the drop on them.  One shot from their pistols and they would be annihilated.  So they both twirled them over to place the butts of the guns into their captor’s hands.

“Come with us,” the officer said, waving them in a direction with their own pistols.  The twosome climbed off the rock and marched with their escort into the camp.

Makeshift battlements and hastily crafted trench-works zigzagged among the boulders.  Weapon emplacements sat readily pointed toward the enemy upon their tripods and other stands.  Temporary structures housed officers and soldiers alike.  And hidden among all of it, as though tucked away by time, were solitary stone structures wedged among the rocks almost as though they were natural landmarks.Though they were primarily featureless on most sides, each had a unique architectural frontage.These structures were bypassed and worked around by the army.  No one entered or left them.  They belonged to aliens from long ago.

The soldiers themselves appeared battle-worn and demoralized.  Those at firing posts appeared unready and uninterested to even look at the enemy, let alone fire on it.  Others wandered the trenches seemingly without purpose.  A select few, like the officer who had found Jude and Dillon, were eager to continue the fight, and they kept the others in line and ready for the call to action.

After a couple minutes of walking they arrived at one of the larger temporary shelters.  The uniforms of the guards outside suggested it was a high ranking commander, but their casual demeanor said it was one who wasn’t very particular.

Inside was no different, only one of the soldiers was that commander.  He took advantage of having no superior by wearing his clothes more disheveled than the others.  He turned from the opening that faced the enemy to meet his entering guests.  The officer of the guard who had brought them reported in, “We found these two spies lurking in the perimeter…”

“Spies!” Dillon exclaimed.  “We’re refugees who have been displaced searching for warmth!”

The commander only stared at Dillon through tired eyes.  Jude noticed his heavy breathing and cross referenced it with the redness on his face and realized he had been drinking.  His demeanor suggested that he wouldn’t care that she noticed.  In fact, it seemed he didn’t seem to care about much at all through his fatigue.

“Thank you for bringing them, Sergeant,” he said.  The officer saluted and left with this guards.

As they left, Dillon spotted smears of blood on the ground and he became frightened for their safety.  Well, his own safety at least.  “We would like to enlist!” he said.

Jude’s head shot toward him in shock.

“You want to enlist, huh?” the commander said skeptically.

Dillon nodded emphatically.  “We were curious and magged that we want to join the winning side.”

The commander’s head jolted as though scoffing.  He then turned to Jude.  “What about you?  You wanting to be on the winning side?”

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“The same thing that’s happening in every front across every damned world.  We’re killing them, they’re killing us, just as fast as we can over some naigh piece of junk or land.  This time it’s that box.”  The commander strolled back over to the opening and pointed out across the battlefield.  Jude walked over with him and looked out.  She saw the large stone container the man was referring to resting within the remains of the Parthenon.“Whatever’s inside is something the CEOs of both our sides want.  Could be some new power source.  Could be a weapon.  Could be a bunch of ancient teddy bears.  We in middle management don’t get to sav what we’re laying down our lives for.  All we know is it’s some sort of powerful relic that’ll bring them fortune and glory.  They want it so bad they’re willing to sacrifice all our lives for it.”

“Why haven’t one of you destroyed it?” Dillon asked.

“Oh!  We can’t destroy the precious cargo.  We can destroy each other but not the objective.  That must be preserved at all costs.  It’s the mantra of every battlefield in these Relic Wars.  Don’t harm the goods.”  The commander took a swig from his bottle, then closed his eyes tight, readying himself for something.  “You got here just in time for a battle.  You want to join up?  Come blick what you’ll be joining.”

The commander drew his weapon and led his staff outside.  There they signaled the troops, and prepared to charge.  Jude and Dillon watched out the opening.  They could just make out the soldiers on the opposite side preparing themselves as well.  Then, on the commander’s signal, the army pushed forward covered by mortar fire and heavy laser cannons.  The other side did as well.

The valley flooded with armored soldiers and the skies filled with rockets and small fighter craft.  But everyone avoided damaging the Parthenon.  When squads made a dash for the box, only enemy snipers fired, surgically taking them out one by one until a single frightened individual tried to hide for cover, and was extracted with a beam weapon that demolished the cover and sliced through the soldier’s armor.

Jude turned away from the battle.  Scanning the room, she spotted where the commander kept his spare uniform.  Looking back outside, she spotted the body of one of the armored soldiers nearby.  “Dillon,” she said.  “Drag that body in here and take his armor.”

“You are really sick, you know that, Red?” he said.

“Trust me, I have an idea.

The mortar team was working as fast as it could.  They had to be careful with the ordinance; it was based on an energy compound that was extracted from another alien site.  The size of the explosion could be adjusted based on the needs, but it was also unstable, and could explode within their own trench.

A red headed officer and her escort strutted into their trench and began barking orders.  It took them a couple tries to hear her over the roar of battle, but she was telling them to join the fight.

“We are firing!” the crew chief shouted.

“No, join the charge!” she shouted.  They looked at her confused.  “We don’t need explosions, you’re just going to hit our own soldiers.  We need more bodies in the fight.  Grab your guns and strass down there!”

The crew looked at each other, baffled.  They had no guns.

Dillon realized the dilemma, and he hurried over to where a couple soldiers had fallen.  He grabbed their guns and brought them back.  He then handed over the rifle of the soldier whose uniform he had stolen.  One of the members of the mortar crew noticed the blast marks and breach in his armor.

“Now take these weapons on to victory!” Jude shouted.

They moved only hesitantly.  One of them, tears in his eyes, tumbled toward the fight.  Another one backed off, then threw the gun away and ran from the fight.  Her friend saw that the officer wasn’t chasing, and ran as well.

Jude and Dillon let them go, and took over the mortar.  Dillon pointed at the ‘Caution’ written on the container and said, “That views promising.”

Jude went about aiming the mortar.  Dillon removed the arm pieces from his armor so he could more carefully hand her the explosives.  They moved slowly, carefully sliding the glowing globules into the tube.  Jude had to let it go near the bottom and she cringed as it fell into place.

“Try not to blow us half to Hades,” Dillon warned.

Jude nodded, sighing with relief, and she looked the tube over.  Locating the trigger, she grabbed it, and accidentally knocked the trigger.  The mortar fired, and they watched the glowing streak arc into the air, then fall down into the fight.  The blast exploded far above them.  “We need more time on the charge,”Jude said.  “And more power.”

Dillon studied the explosive, locating the time on the charge and the intensity.  His hands shaking with nerves, he adjusted both and handed it to her.  She put it in, aimed, and fired…

And it exploded a second into the air.  Both of them dove to the ground, their faces in the dirt to keep from blinding themselves.

“What are you doing!” shouted one of the voices from another nearby mortar.

“We got this!” Dillon shouted, raising a hand in the air.  “Just a misfire!”

“Well don’t misfire in our direction!” the voice called.

Dillon looked back at his partner.  Her eyes were burning at him angrily.  “Wrong direction, I know,” Dillon said.  He grabbed the next globule and twisted it the opposite direction while showing her.  She grabbed it and shoved it into the tube, then aimed and fired.

The blast seemed to be closer to their destination, but it barely sparked.  “You set the intensity lower, too,” Jude said.

“Okay, I got this.  I got this,” Dillon said, grabbing the next one.

On the battlefield, a couple of the officers noticed how close the mortar had gotten to the objective.  “Who’s firing that!” one of them said.

The commander looked toward them through his Vizros.  He spotted the familiar red hair bobbing just above the trench.

The other officer tried calling them over the communicator but was being ignored.  Another shot arched down from the same mortar and exploded within the Parthenon, blasting away the top of one of the pillars.

“I’m strassing up there to get their heads!” the officer said, heading toward them.

“You’ll do no such thing!” the commander ordered.  The officer looked at him with some confusion, and he continued, “That line is wavering over there.  See to it they don’t break.”  He pointed toward a unit of soldiers slowly making progress through the cover of boulders.

The officer glared at her commander bitterly.  She had an idea of what he was doing, and she would write about it in her report.  But for now, the best she could do was follow his command, and she headed down toward the infantry unit.

Like every other battle, this one was going nowhere.  There was a great deal of firing and killing and suffering and dying, but little was being accomplished.  Eventually one side would simply run out of people and the few survivors would walk up and take the prize to get their promotion.

Then a giant explosion blasted from the middle of the Parthenon.  Everything within disappeared in a bright flash.  The pillars were cut through as if by a scythe and they crumbled within themselves.  The entire structure blasted out from the bottom, and imploded from the top.

Everyone on both sides stopped, as if frozen in time, and watched; some in horror, some in amazement, some with delight.  Many even stood out of cover, the danger to them gone, and the need to kill ended.

Jude and Dillon hurriedly dashed from the trench, dodging among the rocks, searching for somewhere to hide.

To be continued...

Wanted, Foul, and Worthy - Part 7

Part 7

Shootout at the Ancient Courtyard

Jude led Dillon through the zigzagging alleyways in the direction she had seen the ancient structures.  The walls around them were primarily connected to intact buildings, but some were walls that had crumbled a few meters up.  Dillon turned his head time and again to make sure no one was behind them.  They were racing the sunlight, trying to get as far along as they could before the sky was alight.

They made it to a road where they would have to cross into the open to make it to their destination; which was, in turn, an open-air plaza with scattered stone structures.  They each drew their weapons.

“Any of your cybernetics working?” Dillon asked.

“Thanks to you, I only have my eye bionics.  And using those gives me a headache.”

“Well, you're going to need to negote a headache if we're going to rec there alive.  You ready?”

Jude answered by heading out into the street.  She blinked her infrared into one eye and targeting into the other.  They made her dizzy and she had to walk carefully, trying to step where she had already looked at the road to make sure it was clear.

Dillon watched behind them, almost walking backward, as he also glanced ahead to double check her view.  His one cybernetic eye was set for high res analysis.  It was the same trick he had used when he took down Jude.  Snapshots were constantly being taken of likely hiding locations and being analyzed for targets.  If one was found, he could target the spot and point his arm without even looking at it.

They made it more than halfway down the street and were nearing the plaza on the opposite side.  The antique walls stood out from the other ruins both because of the stark difference in architecture, and because they had an artificial appearance to them; like they were plastic set pieces.  Jude knew they weren't.  Old alien buildings had a look to them that was so foreign they seemed unreal.  Still, they caught her attention...

...and for too long as she missed the merc leaning out a third story window, gun pointed and ready to fire.  Dillon caught the man just in time and fired.  The shot went through him and his own shot fired off into the distance.  Jude eyed Dillon with surprise, and said begrudgingly, “Thanks.”

“Keep your eyes on the targets,” Dillon said.

They took a step down into the courtyard.  It looked like a giant, empty shallow pool with archaic decor littering the grounds, and crumbled, synthetic mortar walls framing the sides.  Somewhere among them would be a statue pointing them in the correct direction.  Jude blinked her eye out of infrared and into detail enhancement since the light was getting brighter all around them.  She winced in pain as she did, and the strain of keeping the cybernetics running were getting to her.

Dillon orbited Jude as they went, covering every angle.  They passed partial columns whose toppled tops made for low hiding locations.  They passed partially rotted sculptures whose forms had worn and smoothed over the millennia.  They rounded a facade that had once belonged to a building that was now long gone, and they passed over decorative reliefs in the floor.  All of it would be fascinating to one who studied long-lost cultures, but the two former enemies were trying to not become part of the exhibit.

Just as Dillon moved to Jude's right, one of the mercs appeared around a pillar to her left.  Neither spotted him.  He aimed directly for Jude's head and had a clear shot.  But Dillon's high res detection kicked in and found him.  His hand snapped in the direction of the attacker and fired.  The merc ducked back around the pillar just in time.

Dillon chased after him hurrying for a better angle.  Jude turned to see what was happening, but the sudden movement made her dizzy, and she lost track of them as Dillon weaved behind the downed part of the pillar.

Jude took a couple steps in the direction Dillon had gone, and found that she was facing two of the mercs standing under an archway, their guns drawn.  Jude's targeting was taking a moment to land on them, but she didn't have time to wait.  She dodged to one side and avoided a volley from them.  Then she shot the archway above them and it came tumbling down.  Both mercs dodged out of the way, but one of them did so closer to Jude.  That was his doom, as she shot him in the chest.

Dillon's merc retreated, and he chased him around a corner.  There he was met by the merc who had survived Jude's attack, and she fired and hit Dillon in the shoulder.  Surprised, he stumbled back, and his own shot went wild.  He went for cover, but the woman was on him.  Firing once and just missing, she adjusted directly onto his back.  The other merc backed her up and they both fired.

The shots were deflected out of the air.  They looked up to see Jude standing atop one of the monuments.  Her legs were shaking and she grimaced in pain, the result of using cybernetics that weren't fully healed, but she remained steady, and she shot them both down.

Dillon sighed with relief, but then his own enhancement caught a glimpse of the merc leader bearing down on Jude.  He didn't hesitate to warn her, he just fired, and hit the commander in the face.

Smiling with pride, Dillon looked up at Jude to see her weapon pointed at him.  She was breathing heavy and had a crazed look in her eye.  He couldn't tell if she was bearing down on him for some plan, or because something snapped.  He had heard the bionics sometimes played with the mind.  He said, “If you're going to kill me, it better not be half way.  'Cause anyone who tries to rub me into the ground and fails will soon be regretting they did.”

Jude blinked.  Her cybernetics disappeared from her eyes, and she put her pistol away.  She looked in the direction they had been walking and pointed.  “Found it,” she said.

Dillon kept his pistol ready as they marched forward.“Your friend is still out there,” Dillon said.  “You're going to want to stay armed.”

“He only wants you dead.  He needs me,” Jude said, and they came upon the statue.  It was a winged edifice; perhaps the Abnani version of an angel, or possibly of a bird.  The plastement, which held the alien structures together over millennia still had its limits, and many of the details had faded over time.  The fact that it was alien made it all the harder to discern what various minutiae were supposed to be.

But the most important aspect could not be missed.  One of its wings was pointing toward the southwest.

To be continued...

Wanted, Foul, and Worthy - Part 6

Part 6

The Ruins of Roslow

The stone and ash crunched beneath Bowie's feet as he carefully made his way through the ruins.  He had to move slowly along the mounds of rubble partly to avoid slipping in the dark, but also to make sure he did not miss valuables that might be hidden within them.  Berifir and Jorvex corporations had demolished the town in the process of trying to destroy each other.  The civilians had fled to a makeshift refugee camp, which left the remains of the city unguarded for the night.  Anything that disappeared would be considered destroyed in the battle.

The grade of the ruins began to rise steeply, and he eagerly climbed up the stone slabs.  The top floors of high rises often bore the treasure troves of top executives.  He was so confident that more would be at the top that he didn't slow to look at what might be buried along the way.

Once he made it close enough, he pointed his Spectrometer toward the rubble and searched.  A hologram floated just over the device, revealing what was being detected.  He widened its range, but not so large that the glowing bubble would attract attention.  Then he increased the distance further inside.  The holo-image shimmered as the ghostly mirages of rubble wiped by.  He stopped briefly when he thought he saw something, but it was just the body of a casualty, so he scrolled past.  About ten meters in, it faded to the point where it was hard to see anything.  That would be too far to dig anyway, so he moved on.

A little further he tried again, and he found two objects of interest.  One was a busted case of jewelry; the other was a doll.  Neither was far down, so he dug away some of the debris to get closer.  He then took his Appraisometer from his pack and scanned them.  The jewelry was nice, but the metals in them were not rare enough to warrant a high price.  But the doll, it had certain flaws, but just the right ones.  Collectors sought this item because of its peculiar rarities.  He quickly stashed the device and continued clawing away.

A bright light caught his attention as it flew down toward a flat portion of road.  Bowie took cover and watched.  It wasn't a warship.  In fact, it appeared to be a transport of some kind.  The masthead on its front was a generic design of nothing in particular, and its hull was utilitarian without windows.  A prison ship, perhaps?

After it landed, the cockpit hatch opened.  Bowie watched with keen interest through his Telenoculars.  A lone individual stepped out.  Behind him, two bodies could be spotted lying on the floor.  Now with particular enthusiasm, Bowie switched on the HUD to scan the man's face to cross-reference with wanted postings.  A number of entries appeared.

Bowie was no bounty hunter, but this man counted as one of the treasures he was seeking, and certainly worth much more than any trinket.  He could search this city all night and not find as much value as there would be in this one man.  And some corporations wanted him dead, so Bowie wouldn't even need to keep him sedated as he drug him around.

The wanted man seemed lost, and uncertain where to go.  Unfamiliar with the location; that should make the hunt even better.  He wandered a bit down one of the streets.  Bowie followed from a safe distance, popping on his infrared goggles so he could follow from behind cover.  The target reacted when Bowie knocked over some debris and it cascaded down the hill of ruins.  Bowie remained still, and allowed the man to get further ahead of him so as not to attract his attention again.

They reached a part of town that was less destroyed.  Several of the taller buildings even remained standing.  The man found one that had been a hotel.  Though the electricity was clearly out, the structure was intact, and he went inside.

Bowie watched from the outside.  He could see the glow from the light fade away into the building, then it blackened all at once.  He patiently waited, watching the sullen building as it provided no clues for a long while.  Then one of the windows on the fourth floor began to glow.  The light wobbled as it moved, then stopped in one place, where it remained, then faded.  Bowie counted up, then across the grid of windows to determine where he was.  He then grabbed Serggie, his pistol, and headed inside.

Dillon had drawn a bath in the room.  He was tired and tense, and he needed to relax.  He also wanted hot water to run over the wounds he had received inside Nikos' office.  The city appeared to be completely abandoned, so he had no need to worry.  He placed a towel at the head of the tub, rested one hand under it and laid his head down on it as he drifted off in the steam.  He had filled it almost to the brim, so some of the water spilled out the edge.  No need to worry, though.  It wasn't as if the staff would complain.

He hadn't realized how tired he was until he drifted off.  Dillon had gone nonstop for a couple days; and of course there was his brother.  That one thought kept him from entirely falling asleep.  He would be close, and then that look of judgment would appear.  Dillon would shake it off, but then the face of his sister would appear.  His dead sister.  He would see her as the smiling girl she had been, and then he would see her as a corpse.  And then... what she would be now; no more than a skeleton.  He couldn't imagine that.

His eyes shot open while picturing this to find someone in is room.  It was a scrawny rat of a man wearing little more than rags, pointing an IH-94 pistol at him.  The barrel was shaking with nerves and excitement.  The man's face held a greedy smile.  He wasn't used to this, but he was ready to try.

“This is nothing personal,” Bowie said.  “A man's gotta mag a living.  Especially when the business he worked for's been destroyed and every prospect he has is rolled over.  I can only pick through junk for so long.  And I'm abso whatever you done to get yourself wanted means you deserve to die.  I'm not gonna feel bad for...”

Dillon's hand whipped out from under the towel wielding his pistol and he shot the looter in the face.  He then leaned out of the tub and said to the corpse, “When you have a chance to shoot someone, just shut up and do it.”

*          *          *

Jude was sitting inside the window frame of an apartment; her leg against one side and her back against the other.  The fact that she was five stories up didn't bother her; she had a great sense of balance that had returned.

Two of the mercs were in the same room pretending to play a card game.  Jude could tell they were there to keep an eye on her.  Their game was too sloppy to be taken seriously, and it was what she knew Nikos would do.  He had injected a tracking device into her, but he didn't want her to have a chance to get very far if she did leave.  Jude did not blame him.  She was his only way of finding the Mandrake Leonne, the only reason he had come to this planet.

However, she was beginning to distrust him.  They at best had had a working relationship, and she had personally witnessed his ruthlessness.  Even now, she had looked through a doorway at Nikos speaking with the merc commander.  When Nikos saw her, he smiled his phony grin, then moved the commander away from the door so she could neither see nor hear them.

Then she heard the shot.  The sound had bounced around the ruined walls and its source was a fair distance away, far enough that the sound didn't make it into the room where the two guards were talking.  But she had heard it well enough, and she recognized the specific pitch.  Custom-crafted weapons that any self-respecting gunslinger carried all had a specific tone unique to themselves.  Many people didn't hear it, but those who were used to the sound, or who had highly-tuned hearing such as Jude, could distinguish the minute differences.  It was Dillon.He had probably gotten wind of the name of the planet, but it wasn't likely he knew where the treasure was.  He would be out searching for her, but he wouldn't want her dead.

Dillon would likely find them when they started out in the morning toward their destination.  Nikos had wisely decided not to travel at night.  The wilderness of Ocasol was rugged terrain and a lot could happen with them falling or rocks falling on them, not to mention the fierce animals that likely lived out there.  And then there were the armies who were always on alert and might mistake them for spies.  At least during the daylight Nikos' band could see the battle scars from far enough away to avoid them.

Being the only person who knew where the Mandrake Leonne was, Jude was at the center of everything.  She considered her odds, and the best course of action, and she sat down to play cards with the others.

As she figured, they didn't know what they were doing, so she set out to teach them Bancfresca, a game where each player tries to match a part of what they believe other players will be laying out with the hands are revealed.  She presented the game with fun and zeal, laughing at mistakes she and the others made.  She lost on purpose, and helped the male guard win.  She, in fact, built up a resentment in the female guard enough to cause her to leave the room.

Slowly, the mercs were going to sleep.  Nikos took the main bedroom for himself and locked himself away.  It eventually whittled down to only a few who were still awake.  They didn't have long before the sun would rise, so they were getting what little sleep they could.

But not Jude and themerc.  She had won him over with flattery and her wide smile, and her ability to act like he was in on a secret with her.  Then she locked eyes with him and fell silent.  He looked back at her curiously.  She nudged her head toward the bathroom, then hopped up and strolled quietly inside.  He stood as well, and tried to be as quiet as he followed.

There, Jude was already unfastening the clip on her togablouse.  He put one hand to help, and began to wrap another hand around her chest.  She rolled one hand back around his neck in an embrace and laid her head back so her lips were in his ear.  She whispered, “Stay quiet.”  Then her other hand grabbed the towel and she whipped it to the first hand.  In a flash, she had the towel around his neck and had slipped around behind him.  She kicked him to the ground and tugged.  Low gagging noises spurted from his open mouth, but nothing more as his face turned blue.  His hands clawed back at her, but they grew weak, and finally went limp.  Jude made sure to lock the door, then rapidly opened the window, and climbed outside.

Five stories to the ground wasn't difficult for Jude, but it was slow; slower than she'd like.  Once at the bottom, she was short on time.

She hurried down alleyways in the direction she had heard the shot.  The task would have been easier when taking main streets, but these would be open to sight from Nikos' apartment building, so she avoided them.

She arrived at the back of the building where she believed the sound likely originated.  Its walls were more solid than a lot of those around it, some of which had crumbled.  This was the sort of place where Dillon would seek shelter.

Just as she approached one of the back doors, she heard a sound that made her realize she had gotten the right place, but that was about to be a problem.  She turned to see Dillon holding two pistols at her.  “Where'd you pick up that piece?” she asked.

“Where's the Mandrake Leonne?” Dillon asked.

“I don't know,” Jude said.

“I'm in no mood to play games, Red.”

“I just got done playing a game.  It was pretty fun.”

“This is your last warning.”

“I don't know,” she said, looking directly into Dillon's eyes.

“Then why should I leave you alive?”

“Because I do know where the clue is that will lead us to it.  The pilot didn't know where it was either, but he knew how to find it.  It was a specific distance from a spot inside this town.  An ancient statue is supposed to be facing the direction of your treasure.”

“So you know the distance, but you don't know the direction.”

“That's right.”

“What if this statue is destroyed?”

“Then we're geffared.”

Dillon thought a moment, then asked, “You come here with that snob?”

“Yes.”

“So why aren't you piking with him?”

“Because I know what his goons are going to do to me the moment I show them where it is.  Asset management likes to liquidate their assets rather than risk someone talking.”

“What makes you think I'll treat you any better?”

“Because when I'm stabbed in the back, I want it to be by someone whose moves I can better predict.”

“You did a great job of predicting me before.”

“That won't happen again,” she assured him.

“So where is this statue?” he asked.

“When we were flying in I saw a courtyard that looked like it had a different type of ruins in it.  They looked more… ancient.  I'd bet my plastic it's there.”

Jude pointed in the direction she was describing.  Dillon looked toward it.  Sunlight was beginning to crawl across the rubble and the street.  Somewhere out there, Nikos' goons would be searching for them.  They needed to move fast.

To be continued...