Armageddon Theft: An Arek Lancer Novella

by Troy Osgood

Who were these guys? Why were they here?

  Slightly shifting my position I sighted on Torsi, the back of her head. I was a decent shot with the blaster and an even better one with a rifle but at this angle and distance I didn’t need to be that good to make it. I laid my finger alongside the trigger and waited.

  I wanted the deal to start going down, when they would be letting their guard down the most. Right now they were all amped up. Waiting for the other party to betray them, some kind of double cross, anything. Once the deal commenced, they would feel safer.

  I’d participated in some black market dealings in the past. I knew how these guys would operate.

  I just hoped that Dresla wouldn’t get impatient.

  The lead Herfto signaled to the other two to spread out, one walking around between the pod and the forest, the other moving closer to the stream and looking in that direction. I hoped that Dresla was well hidden. Also hoped they didn’t have a bio scanner. Torsi watched them both, watched all three really. She twisted as one of the Herfto walked behind her. It was hard keeping eyes on all three, four if you included the driver, but she tried.

  Torsi was lucky she was dealing with Herfto. They were generally honorable as long as you were honorable to them. She had no weapon, no backup, nothing to guarantee they’d hold up their end of whatever bargain they had agreed to. Lots of criminal groups would just kill her now. They’d get their prize and wouldn’t have to pay for it.

  The two guards spoke to the apparent leader. Probably in their language but I couldn’t hear it. I hoped it was something like “all clear” instead of “there’s a Terran in a tree and a Storwo in the bushes”.

  I didn’t get shot at so figured it had been “all clear”.

  The leader stepped forward and started talking to Torsi, who evidently did understand the language. They went back and forth, gesturing, before finally both nodded. The Herfto touched a couple buttons on his wristcomm and Torsi glanced down at one she was wearing. Where had that come from? Must have snuck one onto the Wind in her bags. She glanced at hers and smiled, satisfied.

  Money had been transferred. Deal was done.

  Torsi stepped away from the pod but paused and asked a couple more questions. The Herfto leader tilted his long head and nodded after some thought. He pointed at the vehicle and Torsi started walking towards it. Looks like she’d asked for a ride back to the city. The leader then pointed at the two guards and gestured to the escape pod.

  I think she sold my escape pod as payment for the ride.

  Taking a deep breath I adjusted a little bit, holding the rifle steadier and put my finger over the trigger. I lined up my shot, watching a Herfto through the scope and waited.

  One of the guards reached into the escape pod, bending down and lifting up a small object. I could barely make it out, but saw enough to know it was the Daelot. Confirmation that it was here, all that I had been waiting on. I hadn’t shared that thought with Dresla, figured she had it as well. There was a chance that Torsi could have hidden it somewhere nearby to use as insurance to make sure the deal went through. But it was here. So it was time.

  I waited for the Herfto’s head to appear above the pod, the shiny metal catching the sun. The pale skinned being turned back towards the leader and the others. He grunted something in his language and I pulled the trigger.

  The Carlyle jerked a little, a single plasma bolt streaking down to the ground incredibly fast. A bright blob of green, the bolt slammed into the Herfto’s head and out the other side leaving a smoking hole.

  It’s body still moved for a moment as the limbs took a bit to stop receiving messages from the brain. The Herfto crumpled to the ground, the Daelot falling on top of it.

  Silence fell across the clearing, everyone stunned.

  Then the blaster shots came from the side, out of the trees.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Dresla had gone to the right, choosing to take position on the opposite side of the stream. A good choice. It provided the most open attack vantage of the clearing. The pod was in the back, behind the targets. Lots of open ground, not much cover.

  Her first shots went wide but caused the Herfto to duck. The leader lay on the ground, starting to crawl back towards the vehicle. I shot him in the leg.

  The second guard crouched down and pulled up his weapon. Trained fighter, he started returning fire where he thought Dresla was. Or had been. Turns out she had moved after firing her first shots. Smart.

  Torsi was close to the hovercar and ducked behind the front, just ahead of the door, while the driver took too long to come to a decision. I saw him reach behind the seat and pull out a weapon. He stepped out of the hovercar, eyes scanning everywhere, and took a shot from Dresla in the chest. Different angle, she had moved closer to where I was. Almost directly under me. If Torsi had been crouching higher, it would have hit her and I had to wonder if the shot had been aimed for Torsi and Dresla had missed.

  The guard now tracked Dresla, whose position was exposed, firing rapidly in that direction, but leaving himself open for me. I caught him in the shoulder and he dropped, his weapon flying from his hands. The leader lay still, smoke coming from the wound on his leg. Couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead, but either way the Herfto was effectively out of the fight for now.

  That left just Torsi.

  She was sliding along the hovercar, moving towards the driver’s compartment. She crouched low. I couldn’t get a good shot at her and doubted Dresla could either. Instead I took the shot I could make.

  The plasma bolt slammed into the polycarbonite window of the hovercar. The material cracked and splintered, not breaking. The stuff is tough, but it did what I wanted.

  Torsi stopped and stepped away from the hovercar, hands in the air.

  I adjusted and leveled my weapon at her, head centered in my targeting sight. But I didn’t pull.

  Dresla walked out of the treeline, her borrowed weapon pointed at Torsi. She stepped around the fallen Herfto, giving the ones still alive a wide berth, glancing at them quickly.

  “You’re under arrest,” Dresla said loudly, speaking Tradelan, probably for my benefit.

  Torsi ignored Dresla and started scanning the trees, along with the tops of the trees.

  “Captain Lancer,” she said, her voice carrying. “Is that you out there with the rifle?”

  I pulled the trigger.

  Torsi jumped and yelled. The bolt had hit the ground a good two feet away, maybe a little closer. Purposefully missing. Dirt and grass shot up, falling all around, leaving a nice crater in the ground.

  The shot had been to keep her honest and to give me enough time to scramble down the tree.

  Which I did, quickly slinging the rifle and retracing my path back down.

  Not my fastest or smoothest, but considering I hadn’t done anything like this in awhile, I did good.

  Landing on the ground I quickly made my way through the short distance of trees to the clearing, stepping out and walking casually towards the two Storwo women. I kept some distance between Dresla and me, stopping equal distance from Torsi. This made her have to turn slightly to keep an eye on both of us. She eyed the rifle hanging loosely from my shoulder, slung so the barrel was pointing down and an easy swing to being in hand. I left my blaster holstered, but my hand hovering over it.

  “Sorry about the pod,” Torsi said, smiling. “They were going to pay me extra for it,” she continued indicating the Herftos. “A good chunk of credit. That’s why it took so long for them to get here. Had to find a hovercar that could take it.”

  I ignored her.

  She shrugged.

  “What now?”, she asked looking at Dresla.

  “You’re under arrest.”

  Torsi laughed.

  To be honest, I almost did too. It was a stupid statement from Dresla.

  Once a cop, always a cop.

  “The Storwo government is reconvening on Hoin. I will turn you over to them for justice,” Dresla said. It came out like she was re
citing it. I wondered how long she had practiced the speech. “You will be tried for crimes against the people of Storw.”

  Torsi shook her head, disbelieving.

  “What justice?”

  “Storw is no more,” she continued without a hint of remorse or sadness. “We’re just a bunch of homeless beings spread out across the galaxy.”

  She paused and for the first time there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

  “Those of us that got off anyways.”

  Was that also a trace of guilt? She had taken a pass meant for another and left the person behind. On purpose. She had no way of knowing that I was going to show up and save the guy.

  Even if there was a trace of guilt, it was too little and too late.

  “So I took an artifact. So what.”

  “The Daelot is a piece of our cultural history,” Dresla replied, angry, no longer on script. “To sell it,” she paused, unable to find the words. “Yuintol, hui ta yuo,” she finally said.

  Something in Storwoi. Whatever it meant, it made Torsi take a step back, shocked. Had to be a pretty bad insult.

  “How dare you,” Torsi said in Tradelan, clenching her fists and taking a step forward. She seemed to have forgotten that Dresla had a blaster pointed at her. She also didn’t see me draw mine. “You judge me? You have no idea who I am or the life I’ve led. Storw is not the paradise you think it is. It’s all lies.”

  She started to turn towards me as she talked. Was she trying to convince me? To sway me to her side?

  I sighed and pulled the trigger.

  *****

  The pulse blast hit Torsi square in her chest. The green lines of energy wrapped around her, sparking and flaring. Her body jerked and spasmed before she fell to the ground in a heap.

  Dresla looked over at me, shocked and surprised.

  “Stun bolt,” I said walking over to Torsi. “I was tired of her talking.”

  I knelt down and felt for a pulse, hoping it was in the same general spot on a Storw that it was on a human. It was. Faint but there. Torsi was still alive.

  One of the benefits of the galaxy being made up of humanoids that are basically the same.

  I’d hit Torsi with a full charged stun bolt. My weapon was calibrated for an average height and weight human. Stunning a different species can be interesting. Each species has lots of variables that makes calibrating the right amount of power for stunning a nightmare. A weapon can really only be set to work perfectly on one species. Or near perfectly. Any other species is a crapshoot. It can work. It can not work. It can work too good. Lots of different effects.

  Sometimes it can cause permanent brain damage.

  I doubted that would be the case here. It just probably meant Torsi would be out for an extra hour or two.

  Standing up, confident that Torsi would live, I casually moved around the clearing and shot each of the Herftos. The ones that weren’t dead anyways. I didn’t want any of them waking up.

  Holstering my blaster I grabbed the closest Herfto by the shoulders and started dragging him. He was heavy. A lot heavier than I thought he would be.

  As I piled the sleeping Herfto in a heap, I watched Dresla walk over to the escape pod. She reached down onto the last Herfto and picked up the Daelot. She flipped it around, examining all the surfaces, looking for damage. I got my first good look at it.

  About a foot high, three inches wide, it was a tube with carvings along its surface. There were pieces attached at the top, an inch thick, that came out to the sides and curled back in. These were also covered in carvings. It looked to be some kind of metal as it caught bits of the sun. Didn’t look like it would be worth that much. Kind of ugly.

  She was still standing there looking at it as I leaned down and grabbed the Herfto at her feet. I had to pull him to the side to get around her. So distracted she didn’t even move. This one I had by the feet and smiled as his head bounced over the rocks in the clearing. I laid him alongside the others.

  I was nice enough to keep the ones alive out of the pool of blood that still flowed from the head wound I had made.

  “Torsi’s right you know,” I said breaking Dresla from the trance she was in. Her hands had been roaming the surface of the Daelot, tracing all the carvings. “About there being no more justice, not for Storw. No one will care about that,” I finished pointing at the artifact.

  Dresla sighed and lowered the Daelot.

  “I know,” she replied walking over to stand above Torsi. “On Hoin she would be tried and convicted and would be just another mouth to feed. One that couldn’t help us rebuild or do anything useful. She’d use up valuable resources guarding her. Take people away from other tasks.”

  She looked up into the sky, staring off into space. The sky was blue, but I knew she was looking past and into the stars. Was she even looking in the right direction for Storw? Didn’t matter.

  “All in the name of justice.”

  “What she did wasn’t right,” I said coming to stand next to Dresla. I looked down at the unconscious Torsi. Looked peaceful.

  “No it wasn’t and getting the Daelot back will be a boost for my people. It had to be done. But it will also be a reminder of what we have lost.”

  She was silent for awhile, just staring down at her fellow Storwo.

  “What do you want to do with her,” I finally asked.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  We left Torsi lying alongside the Herfto.

  They could all help each other get back to the city, leave each other or kill each other. It wasn’t our concern. Not anymore. She was resourceful, she’d find her way back. Or she wouldn’t. The Herfto would probably abandon her but again, not our concern.

  Sure the Herftos would probably be pretty damn mad that they paid some money and didn’t get the item. Hopefully Torsi could reimburse them. If not, I didn’t like her chances.

  But she brought this on herself.

  The people of Storwo might not be able to bring her to justice but there were other ways to get it.

  *****

  I maneuvered the flat bed hovercar around so the bed was facing the pod. It had a winch mounted to the back and I was able to connect the cable to the front of the pod. The bed also inclined, which was a bonus.

  In the end it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to get the escape pod onto the flat bed.

  The pod needed a lot of repairs. The underside was damaged and got more so when we dragged it across the ground to get onto the flat bed. I had to use the thrusters which caused more damage.

  Only about an hour and we were done.

  Plenty of time before the Herfto and Torsi woke up.

  Checking the straps I climbed into the hovercar driver’s seat, Dresla already in the passenger side clutching the Daelot. She looked over at where Torsi was laying next to the Herfto. As I started the hovercar I wondered what she was thinking. As a cop, this wasn’t normal. But she really wasn’t a cop anymore. There was no Storw to police. Would she find a place in the refugee camp, doing the same thing? Was that why she was so focused on the artifact? It represented her old life, the one she was losing? Recovering it was doing the job she loved one last time?

  But it didn’t end like most of her assignments. Leaving the thief behind at the mercy of criminals. That wasn’t what a cop did. I had no problem with it. I’d done worse in my time. How would she reconcile it? Would it change her? I knew how easy it was to step over the line again once you had done it the first time.

  I turned the hovercar around, being careful not to get too close to the unconscious Torsi and Herftos. Their clothes and hair blew in the breeze generated by the hovercars thrusters against the ground, but that was it. Maybe they got pelted by some small rocks and sticks, got covered in leaves. Maybe I could have easily moved a couple of feet away so it wouldn’t have been a problem at all.

  Maybe.

  The hovercar moved sluggishly up the small slope. The controls were sticky, not smooth at all. But I managed.

  Taking
it slow I got into the trees, following what looked like a logging trail. I could see from the marks on the ground that the Herftos had come this way. It circled around, looping back the way we had come from.

  Made sense, there was just the one city around here.

  “Our hovercar,” Dresla asked.

  She had been so quiet that I’d almost forgotten she was there. She was looking through the forest, towards the edge of the valley or where she thought it would be. Dresla wasn’t any kind of a forest tracker or else she’d know we had passed it a couple minutes ago. For a guy that spent most of his time in space in a ship with a navcomputer, I had a very good sense of direction. I’d known when we had passed by our hovercar. It had been about a half mile into the forest, south of the logging trail we had been on.

  I was a little annoyed. We had cut through the forest when this trail had been so close. It hadn’t appeared on the map I’d downloaded onto my wristcomm so I wondered if it was more of a smuggler’s trail. Either way, it would have been useful to know about earlier. Using the trail we could have gotten to Torsi before the Herftos.

  Things could have been much different.

  “Nothing we can do about it,” I said. “We’ll let the Tuis know where to find it.”

  Dresla looked like she wanted to say something but changed her mind. She settled back in the seat, staring out at the forest without really seeing it.

  I concentrated on driving. The road was rough, the hovercar weighted down. It wanted to swerve and caught all the bumps. The thruster’s compensators, designed to keep the hovercar level over any terrain, were having a hard time keeping up with the dips and rises. These things really weren’t made for overland travel, especially when the land was not flat, and with the load it was carrying. A lot of places still used wheels and suspension systems when out of the cities. And a lot of places couldn’t really afford the tech of hovercars.

  The galaxy was not a fair place.

  As Dresla was learning.

  We passed the time in silence.

  *****

  The towers of Yorunital were visible long before we broke through the trees. The smuggler’s road snaked through the thick trunks, the branches overhanging and growing close. Through the gaps we could see the gleaming metal of the city’s skyscrapers. They dominated the sky.