Galactic Bandits
Book 2
Duke Campbell
Contents
Newsletter
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Thanks for Reading!
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Chapter One
Regan left the bedroom of the late Mephistopheles, followed by the three beautiful women he had just shared a passionate evening with. They had quite an adventure beforehand and celebrated for all its worth.
He greeted the morning in no hurry, having successfully taken over the compound of his enemy, and feeling confident that with the continued help of Arkei, Straya, and Reverie, nothing would get in his way.
Regan had come a long way since his mediocre life on Earth. After being abducted into space, he had defeated countless alien warriors and won the loyalty of beautiful exotic women.
He felt like this adventure had been exactly what he needed to shake himself out of complacency, and now he was ready to find a comfortable paradise to chill with his girls.
But first he intended to loot this compound. This place was full of treasures—weapons, armor, gadgets, power packs, new technologies, and kidnapped representatives of many species, frozen in cryopods.
Regan planned to his take time, leaving nothing behind that could serve him on his ongoing adventures.
He turned first to Arkei, who before being released from her debt had served Mephistopheles for years, operating from this very compound. She knew this place better than anyone.
“Arkei, I think you should lead the looting effort.” He said as he gave her a subtle wink. Besides her knowledge, Regan remembered how much fun she had looting the pirate ship that first attacked them—the pirate ship that had brought them their next crew member, Straya.
Arkei winked back. “You bet.”
She led them down a hallway toward a door that resembled a thick safe.
“Why not start with the armory?” she suggested.
The group knew how much Arkei loved guns, so this wasn’t a surprise. But when Arkei put her finger on the security scanner, the door didn’t budge. She tried it again, but the same thing occurred.
“Problem?” Straya asked. Her eyebrow arched in typical Straya fashion, finding a moment for sarcasm as she liked to do.
“Mephistopheles changed the fingerprint scanners,” Arkei grumbled. “I no longer have access.”
Straya turned around and headed down the hall.
“Where are you going?” Regan called after her.
“I’m getting the person who has access!” Straya called back without turning around.
Regan thought of Calico, their prisoner and, until recently, a companion of Mephistopheles. Straya was right; if they wanted access to these rooms, they’d need Calico’s prints.
But Calico was a very tricky individual. Knowing that, Regan followed right behind Straya to give her back up.
The feline Calico sat in her jail cell, her eyes big and pleading, her lower lip stuck out in a pout. The expression might’ve worked on most people, but Regan and crew knew better.
“You’re going to help us,” Straya told her without hesitation.
“And why would I do that?” Calico asked with an indirect glare.
“Because Regan here was kind enough to let you live,” Straya continued. “You’d be dead if it were up to me, but since he has some compassion, then you can show some gratitude.”
Calico hissed at this.
Straya aimed her weapon.
Regan stepped forward with his arms up to diffuse the situation.
“Easy now,” he said. “Calico, let’s be real. You owe us big time. Helping us out by showing us around the compound will only make things easier on you.”
Calico’s face went from pouty to full on sad. It was an expression intended to show how much pain she was in, and how she’d been wronged.
“Don’t give me that sad face bullshit.” Regan said. “You tried to kill us—”
“I had to or else—” she interrupted.
“No!” Regan interrupted in return. He would leave no room for her excuses. Not this time. “You failed. And now you will help us get around this place, or we’ll leave you here to rot.”
Regan was serious, and Straya and Calico could both see it in his eyes. Calico stood and nodded her head. She didn’t say a word, but continued to wear the pout.
As they stepped out into the hallway and began making their way back to the armory, Straya had Calico walk ahead. Straya kept her gun unholstered and walked next to Regan behind their prisoner. She leaned into Regan, putting her lips up to his ear.
“You’re sexy when you’re firm,” she whispered.
Regan just smirked.
“Keep it cool, Straya,” he said. “We have work to do.”
Arkei waited for them at the armory door, but Reverie had disappeared. Before Regan could ask for her whereabouts, Arkei explained, “Reverie went to find Bob. She doesn’t have much interest in weaponry, so she thought she’d see what our confused human friend was up to.”
That made sense. Bob had been missing since the battle with Mephistopheles had ended. Regan wasn’t worried, but since Bob’s brain hadn’t been working right, and his memories were a tangled mess, Regan didn’t want the little guy to get confused and lost somewhere. They were on an alien moon after all.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Regan replied.
Arkei turned her gaze toward Calico.
“Mephistopheles changed the access panel permissions,” she said. “Open the door.”
Calico hesitated, but Straya put a pistol against her back. Calico then sighed and lifted her bound hands to the panel, placing her thumb on it. The scan engaged and the door unlocked.
While Straya found a post to bind Calico to, Arkei quickly scanned the room, her eyes wide.
She lifted all sorts of weapons from the wall. Big ones, small ones, and strange ones that seemed to overtake her entire arm. She reminded Regan of a little kid, her excitement almost contagious.
She showed Regan many of the weapons, calling them out by names that Regan didn’t know. As cool as it all was, he was a bit wary about picking up weaponry he knew little about. And Arkei seemed to notice this, as she brought a holster pack over to him.
“This would look so cool on you!” she exclaimed, snapping it around his waist. It sat low on one side where the gun holster was and had a leather sash that went over his shoulder across his chest. It was full of pockets and eyelets to fasten anything he wanted to it.
Regan admitted to himself that he felt pretty badass wearing it, but again, he wasn’t sure how much use he’d be in a gunfight.
“You know,” Arkei started. “I haven’t seen you use a gun yet.”
“Yeah, I’ve always been more of a melee type of guy.”
“Do you have any experience with firearms?” Arkei asked. “Beyond the simulations, of c
ourse.”
Simulations? Oh yeah, video games.
“Oh, sure,” Regan said, but then stopped himself. He could be honest with Arkei. After everything they’d experienced, she was by his side for life. “But I wouldn’t say the simulations were very accurate. I should probably get some hands-on training before wielding an actual gun.”
“Well, I’ll have to teach you sometime,” Arkei said, before turning back toward the weaponry again.
She was putting everything she liked into a pile in the corner of the room. It was more than they’d ever need, but they were looting this place, so why not?
Even if we don’t use them all to blast away our future enemies, we can certainly sell some off for a quick buck.
Then he caught Calico’s gaze. She was watching him, and only him.
Something different went on behind her eyes now. She was looking at him with respect. She had given him enough glares in the few days he’d known her for him to recognize that this look was new. Part of him thought it was another trick, but part of him thought it was something else, something she wasn’t as good at hiding.
Then Straya gasped. But it wasn’t a gasp of fear or panic, rather, a gasp of joy. Everyone turned to look at her.
Her chameleon skin was running through colors at a rapid rate, as if Straya was standing on a rainbow and the colors were moving through her like waves. From her expression, it was clear that her skin changes were caused by pure excitement, and Regan saw why.
She had uncovered a box of Universal Translators. Hundreds of them, still in their original packaging.
Straya waved an arm over the box. “Can you believe it? A whole box of these things! This is super illegal. I love it.” She faced Regan. “There’s a shitload of money to be made with these. It’s better than finding pure gold doubloons. They are worth more, weigh less, and we could sell these off and never have to worry about money again.”
“Except the only place you can offload them is on the black market,” Arkei noted.
“That’s the only market I know,” Straya said, winking at Arkei. She tossed the devices back into the box and pulled it off the shelf. “We’re taking these.”
As the pile kept growing, Regan had to wonder just how much room they had on Arkei’s ship.
Damn. Maybe we should just buy a new ship!
Just then, Bob entered the room, followed by Reverie.
“Right on time, Bob!” Regan said. “I’m headed to the species hall to look at the specimens. We have to figure out how to save them, and who we’ll bring with us as new crew members.”
“I can help you with that,” Reverie said.
“Thank you, Rev. Bob, maybe you can start loading this stuff onto the ship? Or better yet, maybe we can find equipment to help you haul them? Surely Mephistopheles didn’t carry all this stuff by himself.”
“No problem,” Bob said. “But why don’t we use the new ship?”
New ship? Seems Bob’s brain is still a bit screwy.
“Whatever you think, Bob,” Regan said, keeping his fellow human’s spirit up. “Calico, where can we find a cart or small vehicle to help haul this shit?”
He expected Calico to hesitate, but instead she just answered him without a fuss.
“They’re in that room by the front hall near the entrance,” she said. “Hopefully you didn’t destroy them when you blew up the door.”
Arkei smiled at her sweetly. “If we did, then you can help carry everything instead. I wouldn’t have had to blow up the doors had you simply cooperated with Regan.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Calico said with a groan. “Come on, I’ll show you where they are.”
The front hall was a mess from the battle with Mephistopheles, with his dead body still spread out on the ground. Regan’s axe had been wedged deep in his chest by Arkei, where it still remained.
Arkei walked up to the body and put her foot on his neck, ripping the axe out of him. She wiped the blood on her former master’s cape, before twirling the axe around.
“I’ll put it back on my ship,” she said.
“You should put it on the new ship!” Bob suggested.
Arkei simply nodded at him. By now the entire crew recognized it was best to just go with whatever delusions Bob had. Brain damage was nothing to mess with.
Straya secured Calico to another post after she opened the door to a large storage room. It was full of many maintenance items, including several large floating platforms. They hovered on their own, able to carry large loads.
“Bob, Straya, and Arkei,” Regan said. “Want to load up the loot?”
The three of them nodded, grabbed a platform, then made their way back to the armory. Meanwhile, Reverie and Regan began inspecting the cryopods.
They had screens on the sides of them that revealed the species and details that pertained to them, but they didn’t say the status of the specimens. Regan knew that Mephistopheles had unethical means of studying these creatures, so he wondered how many of them were on the verge of death.
“I don’t want to let anyone out if they’ll be in pain,” Regan began. “We’ll handle the ones in better condition first.”
“I can tell what condition they’re in,” Reverie said. “It won’t take too much of my power to go through all of them.”
Regan nodded. “We should start with building our crew then worry about the rest later. Choose species you know will be agreeable and helpful.”
Reverie nodded and placed her palm on each of the pods as she walked by them. There were mechanical bases with many buttons and dials, with screens describing the species, and glass containers on top, which each held a specimen. They were frozen still, but based on the readings, they were all alive.
The murky liquid in each pod concealed the species within. Regan had to rely on what the screens said for further information.
Soon, Arkei, Straya, and Bob came walking back through the hallway with their floating trailers full of looted items.
As they neared the door, an alarm blared. It wasn’t loud, but it was sudden and made everyone jump—everyone except Calico, who stayed still, and maybe even snickered.
Regan noticed her stillness, her composure, as if she knew something the rest didn’t.
Arkei reached for a dial near the front entrance and silenced the alarm.
“Uh… Maybe we should get the hell out of here?” Straya suggested.
“Mephistopheles has the alarms set to go off if so much as a foreign microorganism floated into his perimeters. He was greedy and paranoid. Trust me; the number of his stupid false alarms I’ve woken up to over the years is countless.”
Since Arkei spent most of her life in his service, everyone accepted her response and returned to their tasks.
Even so, Regan looked back at Calico, who seemed less than convinced. He shook his head, choosing to ignore her. He had work to do.
Chapter Two
As Regan continued looking through the species in the cryopods, he started to feel overwhelmed. He had originally seen them when he first entered, but inspecting each of them one by one was something entirely different.
They were no longer just specimens to observe. They were living things. And Mephistopheles imprisoned them.
Reverie reported that most of them were wounded. They found many healthy specimens too, but most would have difficulties once defrosted. This job felt too big for him to tackle.
It was the first time since Regan had been on this adventure that he felt inadequate to help someone. But unlike his previous challenges, this one wasn’t a matter of immediate life or death.
In fact, these specimens could stay frozen for thousands of years and not age a moment. He could leave them for someone else to save, but the thought still weighed heavily on Regan. If things had gone differently, he’d be frozen just like these poor creatures. Mephistopheles had them kidnapped from their homes, their families, their communities, and from their lives. It was unsettling to just leave them there, and since he had the powe
r to change their lives for the better, he should.
Regan knew that Reverie could sense this conflict in him. He cared for the good of all. He wanted this galaxy to be better than what it was. But he couldn’t figure out how to help.
She put her hands on him.
“I know you want to help them all,” she whispered.
“I’m worried for them, but there are too many for us to bring with us,” Regan replied.
“They aren’t your responsibility,” she said.
“No, but I can help.”
Reverie nodded and smiled at him. “We should take a few strong ones to be a part of our crew. The others… Well, we should alert the Intergalactic Council.”
Regan sparked up. He hadn’t considered the Intergalactic Council.
“Would they help?” he asked. He thought of Earth’s councils and politicians and how long it took for them to do anything worthwhile.
“They have their problems,” Reverie started. “There’s no doubt about that. But in an instance like this, where most of the species of the galaxy are represented, they will act quickly. If they didn’t, then the entire galaxy would be furious at them, and a galaxy-wide uproar is not something that anyone wants.”
Regan sighed, relieved. “Good. We should take advantage of that, then.”
But then Calico couldn’t keep quiet. “You’re fools,” she said. “The Intergalactic Council is a corrupt powerhouse. They’ll destroy these specimens with one well-aimed bomb.”
“What are you going on about?” Regan asked.
“They want no evidence of this place existing. Why do you think Mephistopheles got away with what he was doing for so long? It’s easier to ignore this issue than fix it.”
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