by Scott Moon
Several of the outlaws rushed to help their friend. None of them saw her in the shadows. She slammed her forearm across the neck of one as he rushed forward. By the time he landed on his back, she was gone into the night.
She paused to watch Sledge. The man could fight. He front-kicked one of the armored men in the chest, launching him backward. Without hesitation, he dropped low, spun in a tight circle, and tripped the other with a leg-sweep. Then he was shooting on the move with a blaster in each hand.
She considered her options, then ran up the ramp of the closest ship.
* * *
Sledge was sad to see Ruby go. He’d really thought she would be up for a team fight. They’d never be friendly, but they had a lot in common. She was small but quick. Her parents had forced her to train in self-defense from an early age, and she had a natural ruthlessness in a fight that served her well. He had a couple of scars to prove it.
Two more of the White Skull’s goons rushed him. He took them out with aimed shots to their throats. The blasts didn’t penetrate the armor, but dropped them all the same. He holstered one of his weapons and started unlatching one of the breast plates.
Blaster fire forced him back. He returned fire and circled back to the half-removed breast plate, yanking it free of the groaning man, who was probably going to die from a crushed larynx. Then he used the black and white plate like a shield.
The ship Ruby had boarded lifted off.
He moved away from the downdraft of the engines.
The ship hovered, turned, and swooped low.
He stared in surprise, then roared. “Thanks, Ruby Miranda!”
The engines of her stolen ship had cleared a path to the other ship. He sprinted up the ramp and evicted the pilot from the cockpit. “Go ahead and jump off before we get too high up. I’d hate for you to break your legs when I throw you out the door.”
He primed the engines as the pilot considered retaking control of his ship. “White Skull is going to make you pay for this!”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Sledge said.
The pilot ran down the ramp as his companions were trying to charge up it.
Sledge punched the engines and lifted off, dumping the entire squad on their asses.
He looked back once, then established a pursuit vector of Ruby Miranda and her stolen ship.
Something wasn’t right.
He looked down as Maximus settled in for a nap under the instrument panel. “What did you eat today?”
The dog-thing rolled its eyes, then curled into a large, ugly ball of fur.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Three Ships
Sheriff Thaddeus Fry, former ground forces captain, thought he might have been a decent Air Force or even Space Force pilot. He burned toward the mines like judgement tearing apart the sky. Once his vector was set, he started checking his long-range scanners—radar, sonar, and infrared because that was what he was familiar with. He left the more esoteric instruments alone.
What he found was both good news and bad news.
There were a lot of huge ships touching down near the mines. He thought most of them were freighters. Two small ships flanked them, then paused. He was too far away to know for sure, but he assumed these were deploying White Skull squads to seize the landing zone.
Minutes felt like hours as he pushed the engines of the airship as hard as he could. The only way he could stop two full squads in combat gear was to catch them in the open and hit them with ship guns. He hoped they would surrender first.
Once they made it inside the mines or any of the support buildings, he’d be screwed. One ship and a sheriff with a blaster couldn’t fix this. He needed a company of ground troops. Flashes of the first Centauri Prime assault haunted him for the rest of the trip. His memories felt dry and distant this time, but clear as the day they happened.
He brought the stolen ship into a tight orbit pattern around the mines and saw mountains of exotic ore flowing from the open doors of storage bays. The White Skull mercs pointed guns at groups of miners and shouted at them.
The crowd of miners grew larger and larger, outnumbering the armored soldiers by five to one, then ten to one, then twenty to one. Which only meant more of them were about to die.
Thad looked for a shot, but couldn’t find one. He wanted to swoop in and face down the squads with the ship, but knew the engines would burn the growing crowd of angry miners. P. C. Dickles was at the front holding some kind of cutting tool as a weapon.
The two airships that had deployed the mercs lifted off and turned toward Thaddeus.
He dove on them and fired as soon as they were clear of the landing area. The first ship fired back as it struggled to build speed and altitude. Thad’s guns cut it in half. The wreckage tumbled into the canyon.
The other ship followed it, using the dive to build speed. Thad went the other way, uncertain of how he should fight the other pilot. Suddenly, his own skill in the cockpit seemed woefully inadequate.
The White Skull ship appeared behind him and fired.
Thaddeus steered to the right and then hard to the left. The airship felt slow and vulnerable. Something impacted one of the stubby wings. He lost altitude as warning klaxons filled the cockpit.
He struggled against the steering grips. The ship started to stall. He let it fall as his stomach jumped into his throat. “Air combat is for crazy people!”
The ship caught up to him and fired again. He narrowly avoided it. A red light appeared on the dashboard. Stunned for a second, Thad hammered the flashing button.
“Hello, Sheriff. Would you care for assistance?” Ruby Maranda asked.
“Why not,” he said as he flew increasingly desperate evasion patterns.
A new set of guns lit up the night. His pursuer went down in a ball of flames.
Several of the outlaw freighters still flying toward the mines veered away after seeing the dogfight.
Thad leveled his flight vector and checked his instruments. There were two ships following him now. “Ruby, I think you have a bogey on your tail.”
“Yeah, you might call him that. I don’t think he is quite mad enough to kill me,” she said.
“I might be,” came the voice of SagCon Special Investigator Michael “Sledge” Hammer.
“Don’t get too excited,” Ruby said. “There are still two squads of White Skulls down there.”
Thad circled back to the landing field that was more than half full of surplus ore. The situation had turned into a tense standoff as both sides watched the ships. The outlaw mercs pointed guns at the crowd of miners. Neither side backed down.
“I’m going to land and negotiate,” Thad said. “The two of you need to stay in the air.”
“Sledge should go down with you to watch your back,” Ruby said.
“So you can escape when it suits you,” Sledge said. “I don’t think so.”
“As long as one of you maintains air superiority, I don’t care who it is,” Thad said.
“She’s not going down there. She could get hurt,” Sledge said.
“How sweet,” Ruby mocked. “I didn’t know you cared.”
“Listen, kid. You’re worth a lot of money and I don’t want your grandfather—or your mother, for that matter—sending a guild assassin after me,” Sledge said.
Thad landed his airship as they argued. As soon as it touched down, he realized it was never taking off again. The short wings had been damaged more than he thought. A little longer in the air and he would have become a glider that didn’t glide.
He took off his headset but kept it around his neck as the runaway and the SI argued in circles above the crowded landing field. He pulled his hat snug and made sure his coat wasn’t blocking his blaster.
P.C. Dickles strode toward him. “Sheriff Fry, what are you doing here?”
“You’re welcome, Dickles,” Thad said.
“I will thank you when you’ve cleaned up this mess. My men work hard. We need better security to protect what we pulled from this backward pla
net,” Dickles said.
“I don’t disagree. Unfortunately, all you have is me. Why didn’t you call the Marines at the spaceport?” Thad said, knowing the answer before he asked it.
“We couldn’t get through. I couldn’t even contact the Company Man,” Dickles said.
“That’s probably not a bad thing right now,” Thad said. He faced a man who looked like the senior of the two squad leaders, maybe the equivalent of a lieutenant or first sergeant. “We’ve got a problem here. You can take the freighters and leave, but my ships will just shoot you down. And even if you get by them, it will be with empty hulls. These men aren’t helping you load them.”
“White Skull will make you pay for this,” the squad leader said.
“Probably not,” Thad said.
The squad leader looked at the other squad leader. Radio communication Thad couldn’t hear passed between them for nearly a minute.
“Did you kill him?” the lead asked.
“Would you be in charge if I had?” Thaddeus asked.
“No. We would avenge him. Just because we were forced to steal doesn’t mean we are without honor,” the leader said.
“I’m not sure I agree with your loyalty, but I understand it. I have him in custody. This raid of his is over. I need you to put down your weapons and surrender. We’ll let the courts decide your fate after that,” Thad said.
“You mean SagCon.”
Thad didn’t respond.
“Return White Skull to us and we will leave,” the senior squad leader said.
“Can’t do that,” Thad said.
“Then we start killing.”
“You could,” Thad said, wishing Dickles would tell his crew to get out of there. “All of you are soldiers. I can see that easily enough. We probably fought in some of the same battles. I know you could kill everyone here, but I think you’re bluffing. Slaughter gets old, doesn’t it?”
The White Skull mercs stared at him.
The leader spoke, “There is no honor in killing miners who can’t fight back.”
“We can fight back!” Dickles said.
“Give us one ship full of exotics and we will leave peacefully. And White Skull. He must come with us.”
Thad shook his head. “No deal. One empty ship and a head start before I send the Marines at the spaceport after you.”
The White Skull squad leader stared at him, hands gripping his long-blaster and stance ready for a fight.
Thad lifted the ship headset to his ears and adjusted the boom mic. “Sledge, please destroy one of the landed freighters. I need to establish my bargaining position.”
“Roger that,” Sledge answered. His ship changed course and fired on one of the White Skull freighters. The explosion caused everyone on both sides of the landing field to crouch and hold up their hands against the shockwave.
“SagCon won’t thank you for that,” the squad leader said. “We will be back for White Skull. It would have been better for you to hand him over. It might have saved lives in the future.”
“It is what it is. The clock’s ticking. I haven’t had dinner. Don’t make me hangry,” Thad said.
He watched them load into one of the White Skull freighters and lift off.
“Those dudes are pros,” Sledge said.
“Agreed,” Thaddeus answered. “I need to get Stacy Rings—aka White Skull—into the custody of the Darklanding Marines as soon as possible.”
“Good luck. They’re understaffed and under-motivated last time I checked on them,” Sledge said. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to deal with Ruby.”
“I can hear you,” she said. “I’m going back to the Mother Lode. I won’t run as long as you promise not to take me in right now.”
“So I can take you to your grandfather after you’ve had time to relax?” Sledge asked.
“We’ll see.”
Sledge laughed. “I’ve heard that before. You’re going to be the death of me, girl.”
“That’s the idea,” she said.
Thad watched the White Skull mercs fly away and considered asking Sledge to shoot down the unarmed ship.
Exhausted, he listened to P.C. Dickles complain and tried to care. “I don’t know when the trains will be back in business.”
“But it will be soon, won’t it?” P.C. asked.
“Talk to the Company Man.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Reconstruction
Shaunte Plastes worked late into the night, squinting at screen after screen of angry numbers and dire financial predictions. The relief effort to Transport Canyon was going to be massive. There were far more people living in the badlands than her predecessor had led her to believe. The last Company Man had written them off as crazy survivalists and actively punished them whenever they tried to initiate trade with Darklanding.
She read the reports and shook her head. The townsfolk in the canyon didn’t have access to exotic ore. What they brought to market were mundane goods she saw as more valuable than her predecessor had. Why not establish a local economy?
She looked up at the sound of a knock on her door. Not expecting anyone, she assumed it must be the sheriff. “Don’t you normally just barge in?”
He opened the door, taking his hat off as he stepped through and closed it. When he turned around, she couldn’t believe how tired he looked. Dark circles ringed his haunted eyes. She knew without asking that he hadn’t slept since returning from rounding up the last of the outlaws.
“I’ve put Amanda Preston in charge of the Transport Canyon reconstruction,” Shaunte said.
Thaddeus Fry sat down in a chair and slouched. He nodded but said nothing.
“You’re sitting in my office? Now I know something’s wrong,” she said.
He didn’t take the bait.
She turned off her computer screen and pushed it to one side, then interlocked her fingers as she leaned her elbows on the desk. “I’m not a therapist or a mind-reader. You look like you need sleep and some time off. As soon as your deputy returns, you should take some time to recover.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about David Rings?”
“He was the sheriff before you. Someone blew up his office. I thought you knew that,” she said.
He worked on the crease of his hat, examining his work as though it were important. “It might’ve been useful to know he had a brother who hated him and was a former commando. I’m glad he didn’t come in to Darklanding to continue his vendetta.”
Shaunte leaned back in her chair. “His vendetta wasn’t with you.”
“Men like that have a vendetta with everyone. Sledge is having him shipped off to an ultramax facility.”
“Is that who he came to Darklanding to find? He spent a lot of time in the Mother Lode if he was looking for an outlaw living in the badlands,” Shaunte said.
“He wasn’t looking for Stacy Rings or any of the other mercs. He will be staying in Darklanding for a while, I think,” Thaddeus said.
Shaunte sensed there was more to the story but didn’t want to start asking questions when she didn’t know what they were talking about, and she didn’t have the time to listen to a long story, either.
The oversized special investigator from SagCon seemed to make friends easily in Darklanding. She didn’t understand it, because his type normally brought more trouble to the spaceport than anything. She certainly didn’t have any use for special investigators or other SagCon personnel.
“When do you think Mast Jotham will be back to duty?” she asked.
Thaddeus shrugged. “Currently he’s on some sort of spirit quest that can last a long time. I’ve been told these things can be fatal.”
“Do you have a replacement in mind?”
Thaddeus shook his head.
She waited for a while, but he just sat there brooding. Annoyed, she reactivated her computer and pulled it to her. Charts and graphs and digital messages spread across her screen as she reviewed progress reports on the reconstruction.
“You should have Ama
nda work with P.C. Dickles. He knows how to move ore out of the ground, it only makes sense that he could pick it up and transport just as easily. He may not like it, but I bet he’s a good person for the job,” Thaddeus said.
Shaunte’s eyes lit up. “That’s a great idea. I will look into it.”
He didn’t leave.
She stopped typing. “Was there anything else?”
“What do you know about Ruby Miranda’s family?”
The End of Episode 3.
Episode 4 is available for pre-order on Amazon: www.amazon.com/author/craigmartelle
Stay tuned, there’s more to come.
Thank you for reading this story. If you liked it, please leave a review.
Social Media for Scott Moon
Amazon – www.amazon.com/Scott-Moon/e/B0082VIWL8
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Scott’s Email – [email protected]
Social Media for Craig Martelle
Amazon – www.amazon.com/author/craigmartelle
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My web page – www.craigmartelle.com
Craig’s Email – mailto:[email protected]?subject=Darklanding
Other Books by Scott Moon
Darklanding with Craig Martelle
Episode 1: Assignment Darklanding
Episode 2: Ike Shot the Sheriff
Episode 3: Outlaws
Episode 4: Death of an Unglok
Episode 5: TBD
Episode 6: TBD
Episode 7: TBD
Episode 8: TBD
Episode 9: TBD
Episode 10: TBD
Episode 11 TBD
Episode 12: TBD
The Chronicles of Kin Roland
Book 1 – Enemy of Man (also available on audiobook)
Book 2 – Son of Orlan (also available on audiobook)
Book 3 – Weapons of Earth (also available on audiobook)
SMC Marauders
Book 1 – Bayonet Dawn
Book 2 – Burning Sun