by John Davis
Once a very popular model, the Glimmerian forces leaned on them heavily during their loss to the Legion in the first Glimmerian War. Once the war had come to an end, they were considered obsolete and quickly phased out in favor of more high tech vessels. The more advanced things became on a ship, the more likely they were to fall apart when you needed them the most, which is why Adam preferred the older model ship. It was solid, built to take a pounding and so basic that it reminded the Captain of himself; his core values simple, yet unwavering.
Kato followed the men inside aggressively hitting a red button by the door, followed by a hard turn of a switch to seal it airtight before they took off for orbit.
“Punch it Kelly, I'm on my way up,” Michaels said as he pulled the com unit from his pocket and headed up a narrow steel ladder that would eventually lead him to the bridge of the ship. “Dalton, put Roman in a room and give him the grand tour. I'll catch up with everyone shortly.” the Captain added as he disappeared up the ladder.
“You're gonna love the armory.” Dalton said proudly as he motioned Roman to walk with him.
Kato stayed in the cargo bay, shotgun over his shoulder as he held onto a stainless steel handle bolted to the wall until they broke orbit from this sad excuse of a planet, the vibrations of liftoff jolting throughout the ship.
Shortly after the Gunship had fully entered the system, Michaels met with Roman on the observation deck of the ship. It was nothing more than a small balcony with two large windows made from hardened glass looking out across the stars, but it was considered to be the perfect place to talk business amongst the crew.
For the next hour or so, the Captain heard all about Roman's past; or so he thought.
Everything from his many years of service with the Gali special forces, to the recent events during the past couple of years that had him moving planet to planet, doing his best to elude the Legion while making a living for himself.
“Sounds like it'd make a good book.” Adam said jokingly, trying to make the newest member of his crew feel a little more comfortable.
“I suppose it would.” Roman replied with a slight grin.
Adam went on to do his best in explaining each member of his crew's story to the newly acquired gun. How he had fought alongside Dalton during the Glimmerian war less than a decade ago, and how he was still the weapon obsessed alcoholic which he had become famous for then.
He explained how Kelly came to them fresh out of flight school, having graduated in the top of her class, she had decided that she would rather work for herself. It presented her a much better chance to see the star system, even the planets on the fringe of uncharted space. It was that, or start making a living taking orders from some suit and tie who would have been signing her paychecks if she would have accepted a job flying a standard commercial transport ship, and that just wouldn't be her style.
Kato had been introduced to Michaels during a two week stint in the prison system of Anon. They had formed a bond that only terrible food and forced manual labor can provide, which led to Michaels helping Kato escape a short time after the Captain himself had been released. Since then, Kato had served as the ship's mechanic as well as an extra gun when needed.
At last, there was Luck. The rest of the crew referred to him as Adam's pet, but the Captain saw him as much more than that. Sure, he was a reminder of the best hand of poker that Michaels had ever played, winning the android in a high stakes game back on Montague.
Still, Adam had grown fond of of him and thought of Luck as being as much a part of this crew as anyone else. Luck had his purpose on the ship, he was a decent mechanic and also knew enough about flying to get the ship to its destination under emergency circumstances.
Still, everyone knew that he was more of a trophy than anything else, giving Adam the opportunity to bring up his rendition of that game whenever he saw fit. Which, painfully for the crew; was quite often.
Long after the conversation was over and Roman had made his way to the crew quarters for the night, the Captain remained sitting in the same chair made of solid stainless steel, finding himself drifting off a bit, thinking of everything important in the here and now.
The ship's maintenance, his crew's safety and value to the overall scheme of things. He even wondered, as he had done from time to time, what kind of life he would be living if he were settled down on a decent planet somewhere; living a normal life.
At times, he found himself missing the feeling of settling down with a wife and children, even though it wasn't a feeling that he had been fortunate enough to experience. The thoughts that raced through his head all too often seemed to end up with the same conclusion time and time again. He loved what he was doing, from the near fatal gunfights to the deep space travel. Especially the deep space travel.
It's hard to explain what space travel is like until you've actually been there. The near frigid temperatures of the ship's interior that you are forced into getting used to. The constant silence of a vast nothingness as you learn to block out the sound of the ship's engines, all while surviving on freeze dried rations and what few supplies you were able to load before leaving the last settled world.
It sounded horrible, that is until you learned to appreciate the beauty of the stars slowly passing you by; almost as if memories were being revived in slow motion.
Most people will say it all looks the same, but the moment you begin to appreciate the simple things, suddenly you realize how beautifully different every trip becomes. As Adam sat on the observation deck, he had almost as many thoughts racing through his head as stars spread out in front of him.
It didn't matter though, all of the problems within the system, the challenges his crew faced every single day and the friends he had lost during the Glimmerian war; all of that was simply put on hold every time his ship became interlocked with the stars. It was the one place that nothing else mattered.
“Into the steel I see.” Roman said as Dalton continued meticulously cleaning nearly a dozen weapons.
Everything from the basic combat pistol to the punishing double barrel shotgun, it was all right here, laid out on a coarse brown blanket in front of them.
“Into the steel, hard liquor and the steel that produces the hard liquor,” Dalton said jokingly. “I'm also infamous with the ladies, you might have heard?” he added.
“Nope.” Roman replied with a sarcastically fluctuation of his eyes.
“What about you? I'm sure you've had your hands on plenty of steel yourself in Gali?” Dalton asked.
“As well as liquor and women,” Roman replied as both men laughed quietly. “Yea, I've been trained with quite a bit of everything, still prefer the tactical blade,” Roman said, pulling a combat knife from a black leather band that wrapped around his leg. “Never jams up on you and it's just as accurate.” he added, throwing the blade end over end throughout the room with blazing speed, hitting the wooden post of Dalton's makeshift gun rack, the bulk of the blade burying deep within its unfortunate wooden fibers.
“Nice throw, but too much damn unnecessary work for me.” Dalton replied, quickly shouldering a short barrel shotgun and cutting two shots loose, hitting both over and under the blade; chopping the piece of post down to the thick steel floor.
“Nice accuracy.” Roman said.
“You should see me when I'm sober.” Dalton replied.
A few moments after he had laid the shotgun back in line with the other weaponry, Kato burst into the room, a semi-automatic rifle in his arms and at the ready, responding to the gunfire.
“You know, I normally consider it a rule to kill anyone who draws down on me twice.” Roman said calmly as he looked into the barrel of Kato's rifle.
“Is that a fact?” Kato asked, tightening his grip on the weapon as he continued a deadlocking stare with Roman.
“Calm down jackass, I fired the shots; not him.” Dalton said, making his way to Kato.
“I don't care who fired the shots, I'm thinking more about him just threatening
to kill me.” Kato replied.
“Think you're fast enough, then I'm game.” Roman said, bringing a tense urgency to the room.
“RELAX! Nobody's killing anyone,” Adam said as he entered the room. “Put the piece away Kato,” Michaels added. “NOW!” he yelled, finally convincing Kato to slowly lower his weapon.
“You muthafu... ” Roman began to yell, charging into the direction of Kato as the Captain drew his revolver with blistering speed, holding Roman at gunpoint.
“This ends right now. You both understand?” he asked with neither man responding.
“It either ends or I'll personally airlock the both of you and hire two more guns when we land on Tameca,” Adam added. Seconds after Kato had walked away, Roman held his hands up and backed off slowly. “Good, after seeing what you did to those damn Legion soldiers, I'd have to hire two men to replace you. And I don't want to spend that kind of money.” Michaels said in an attempt to lighten the mood of the room, quickly holstering his revolver and walking away.
“See why I drink?” Dalton said, turning up a shot glass full of spirits before catching his breath and tossing a spare glass to Roman.
“I'm starting to paint the picture.” Roman replied, pouring himself some of the light red bubbly.
“You know, you may want to be a little more friendly when it comes to Roman, he may end up saving your life one day.” Adam said, catching up to Kato.
“That will be the day.” Kato replied, turning to enter the confined engine room as the Captain stood for a moment; watching him disappear into the steam filled cave made of faded gray steel.
“System checks out fine.” Luck said, his upper body under the control panel of the pilot's gauges.
“Alright, everything looks good up here as well, switching over to self pilot.” Kelly replied, clicking several buttons as she slowly stood from the plush leather seat to see the Captain board the small bridge area.
“How's the grid?” Michaels asked.
“We didn't pick up anything on our way out other than a little com traffic, looks like a clean getaway.” Kelly replied.
“Good. That's good.” the Captain replied, taking a seat in one of the two chairs that were stationed behind the pilot.
“We got into a little bit of local trouble with the Legion back there, shouldn't exactly be combing the system looking for us,” Adam added. “I need you to plot a new course out for us, we need to make a stop in Tameca before hitting the outer plains.” Michaels said as both Kelly and Luck looked on.
“Yes sir Captain. We got a job in Tameca?” Kelly replied curiously.
“Not sure just yet, maybe; will be a big payday for all of us if things work out,” Adam replied, the thought of the Hunters cemented into his mind throughout the entire conversation. “I'll pull everybody together when we get there, go over all of the details. Try to bring us to the edge of Tameca City somewhere, without drawing a lot of attention. Good job back there.” the Captain replied with a nod as he left the bridge to head to his rack for a few hours of much needed slumber.
The hazy gray rain began hammering the Gunship the moment it made its approach into Tameca's atmosphere. It had been a very short flight, having left one of its farthest moons before flying into one of the larger planets in the system. A semi-sweet sight to the Captain as he awaken to see the distant city skyline from a small circular window near his bunk. He was glad to be landing, still he couldn't help but think cautiously of the hidden dangers that always came attached to such a setting. A gigantic planet, which was predominately covered with water, held one of the most highly populated cities throughout the system. Tameca City, known for its massive number of ports; it was a smuggler's paradise.
Sure, there was a Legion presence here, however the run of docking ports was so immense that they simply couldn't check them all, relying on the help from its citizens. The same citizens who feared the most ruthless clan of criminals on Tameca, or any of its moons for that matter. The Hunters.
An almost vampiric group of criminals, they were feared, even by the Legion soldiers themselves; which served almost as a free pass to conduct underhanded business and wreak havoc abroad. It was the cannibalistic nature of the Hunters, combined with the stark white skin tone that caused many people to label them as vampires. Human enough, they bled and occasionally were even killed.
Still, the fact that they moved with exceptional speed and were so proficient with hand to hand combat only added to their legend. It was the Hunters who had brought the Gunship to Tameca, though the rest of his crew remained unaware of the fact.
Adam didn't like the idea of dealing with clientele such as the Hunters; but they had been looking for someone to move goods and were offering a lot of credits to anyone who was brave enough, or stupid enough, to accept the job. A very risky job, one the Captain knew he had to take in order to make financial ends meet; although selling the idea to the crew wasn't going to be the easiest of tasks.
With the crew gathered in the loading bay area of the ship and the vessel snugly nestled between two large hills of high grass, or as smugglers like to call it, a rural landing pad, the Captain knew that it was now or never. He had to sell the idea of working for a group with a name that was more ruthless than the luck that he had been burdened with his entire life. They would be lucky to finish the interview, much less the job unscathed, and it would take every one of them to pull it off.
“The Hunters! Have you lost you're damn mind Adam?” Dalton yelled as the rest of the crew looked on, his loud voice echoing against the hollow walls of the nearly empty cargo bay.
“I don't care how much it pays! If I can't kill 'em, then I don't want to go into business with the bastards!” he added.
“Relax, will ya? We do the job, collect the money. That's it. It is that simple.” Michaels replied.
“I'm with you Captain, the Hunters don't intimidate me.” Kato added.
“Easy for you to say, sitting back here at the fort while my dick's out there on the chopping block!” Dalton replied angrily.
“Captain, what does he mean you can't kill them?” Kelly asked. Michaels frowned slightly, looking at the floor for a moment before looking in her direction. Before he could say anything, Roman calmly replied.
“They die. Not easily done, but possible. I've put a few in the grave myself.”
Adam spun around to see Roman still sitting on an empty crate behind him, quickly asking “You can? You have?”. Roman replied with a slow nod.
“Define a few?” Michaels asked. The look he received from the former Gali commando let him know that it was a good damn many, which Adam wasn't sure should put his mind at ease or throw a red flag.
“I've put an entire rifle clip into one of the beasts myself! It did little to slow it down; much less kill it!” Dalton said with disbelief, as the rest of the crew looked on.
“What do you mean beasts? Captain?” Kelly asked, glancing hard at Michaels.
“Go on Adam, tell her.” Dalton said with heavy sarcasm, earning a long glance from the Captain. “Everybody just calm down for a minute. Relax. Feels good to be alive doesn't it?” Michaels said, trying unsuccessfully to lighten the spirit of the crew.
“Alright, they aren't human; at least not entirely Kelly.” the Captain said, referring to the Gothic appearance of the Hunters. Their hair and skin void of pigment, solid black leather attire and above all things, their uncanny desire to feast on the flesh of human beings.
“Any person that eats another person has some damn issues,” Dalton said with heartfelt emotion. “Unless she's hot and it aint' for keeps.”
Even though they kept to themselves, almost like a secret society, they were infamous among the citizens of the star system. Almost demonic in nature; relying on sleek weaponry and a code of honor that rivaled even the Mafia families of the small planet of Benza, which were also notorious for their hardline methods of getting the job done.
“Doesn't matter. By the time you and Luck get back with the suppli
es and the ship checks out flight ready, we should be back from our meeting with the Hunters and then it's business as usual.” Michaels said, trying to calm the crew down before turning to get a list of needed supplies from Kato.
As Adam turned to the exit of the ship, he could see Dalton and Roman gearing up for the much anticipated meeting; both men looking more than ready. Roman was equipped with nothing more than a large combat knife and a military grade pistol, each strapped to a separate leg with thick leather bands.
Dalton, on the other hand, was going heavy. And for him that spoke volumes. He had an arm sized buoy knife strapped tightly to one of his legs, with two older Knocker pistols strapped to the other, earning their unique nickname from the ability to either cut a man in half at point blank range; or bash in the unlucky victim's skull quite easily with the brass shielding at the bottom of the weapon's handle. All of this, however, was overshadowed by his black flack jacket which held several grenades as well as two short barrel shotguns. Both guns over his shoulders and crossed behind his head.
“A little much don't you think?” Michaels said as he looked on in disbelief. “That's what she said.” Dalton replied, laughing for a moment as he hesitated; finally taking the flack jacket off and tossing it onto a nearby table.
“Alright, but that's it. The knife stays. The sons of bitches 'aint eating me,” he replied. “Hold the fort down now, ya' hear?” Dalton asked Kato sarcastically as the three men headed for the exit ramp.
“Kelly, you and Luck grab everything we need as far as supplies go and stay in contact with Kato back here on the ship. Steer clear of any Legion eyes on the street, we don't need that on top of what's already on our plate. Kato, we'll be in touch.” said the Captain, as he glanced back long enough to see Luck and Kelly prepping the Rover.
It was nothing more than a large, mechanical vehicle used for carrying cargo, but he sure wished it were him riding inside of it at the moment. They both looked very comfortable to him, meanwhile he started out of the cargo bay door with the others, immediately hammered by a cuttingly cold rainfall.