Galactic Bandits Compilation

by Duke Campbell

  “I’m not all fun and games,” she said, her voice choked up. “Ever consider that maybe I want to expose the corruption in the Universal Council?”

  Regan thought about this, but somehow it didn’t seem likely.

  “You don’t strike me as the liberation type,” he finally said.

  “Well, that was the idea! How else would I get on Mephistopheles’s good side? How else would I be able to access and steal the cube?”

  “But why?” Regan asked.

  Calico then straightened her back, her posture pristine. “I’m a princess, as I’ve told you. My family stands for honor and justice in this galaxy, and that crooked council is ruining everything that hardworking families like mine stand for. I will bring them down.”

  A speaker in the room clicked on with Arkei’s voice coming through.

  “We have it,” she said.

  Regan stood up, and so did Calico.

  “I have to figure this one out,” Regan said.

  Calico just nodded.

  “And you’re coming with me,” Regan continued.

  Calico blinked in surprise. Regan unlocked the door but lifted his hand to her before she left the cell.

  “I’m not putting your inhibitor cuffs back on,” he said. “Don’t give us any reason to kill you. You know that Straya and Arkei won’t hesitate.”

  Calico nodded. They both left the room.

  On the walk to the bridge, Regan didn’t hurry. He thought about the things she said. She had claimed to be a princess before, but could it be true? Could she really have been a spy trying to bring down a corrupt government this entire time?

  She would have killed you, dude!

  Yeah, and she would have claimed it was for a greater good… if she were telling the truth. And Regan realized that if that was where Calico stood with her beliefs, then she wouldn’t hesitate trying to kill him again if he continued to stand in her way.

  He wondered then if he should have put the inhibitor cuffs back on her. It was too late now. They were on their way. He’d have to play this one right. He wasn’t sure what to do, but his nerves were kicking into high gear. This wasn’t the situation he wanted to be in.

  Regan and Calico entered the bridge to find Arkei and Straya on opposite sides of a small table with the data cube sitting on top. It was just like Salvato described it. The blue lights on the sides pulsed as if it were breathing.

  “What do you want to do?” Arkei asked.

  “To be honest? I just want to catch a damn breather and enjoy my space yacht. I don’t give a shit right now about exposing any corruption.”

  He was angry. This situation was big—bigger than a simple fight to the death with an abusive tyrant. A great deal was at stake here.

  “Do we know how to contact him?” Arkei asked.

  Calico shook her head. “No, nobody can.”

  Straya gave her a piercing glare when she spoke. But Calico stood up tall and held her position.

  “I’m serious!” she continued. “Either he contacts you, or you wait. And if he’s making you wait, then it’s likely because he’s planning an all-out assault on you.”

  “Well, that’s no good,” Regan said. “There has to be a way to talk to him before he goes nuclear on us.”

  The room fell silent, before Straya spoke up.

  “I might know someone,” she said. “He’s an old friend. Well, actually he’s a real slimeball, but he’s good at intercepting distress calls and squeezing the poor saps for money. When they don’t pay up, he destroys their communications systems and raids their cargo.”

  “Sounds like a really great dude,” Arkei said.

  “I told you, he’s a slimeball,” Straya affirmed. “But if he doesn’t do business with the mob, I’d be shocked.”

  “Where do we find him?” Regan asked, starting to rub his eyes in exhaustion.

  “His home base is a gas station,” Straya said. “I can enter the coordinates.”

  Regan dropped his hands and looked at Straya. “Is there any chance you owe this asshole money too?”

  Straya smirked. “You wound me,” she said slyly. “But no. We have cleared our debts years ago.”

  “Please rethink this,” Calico said. She was pleading with all of them, and her face was full of sadness.

  But before any of them could answer her, a massive rattle ran through the ship and the alarms started to blare.

  “Are you kidding me?” Straya growled.

  “We’re under attack!” Arkei shouted, before everybody moved to their stations.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The ship jolted again. This time it was a heavier impact, sending all passengers on the bridge to a side.

  Regan dove for his captain’s chair and strapped himself in. It felt as if a very large missile had made an impact with their ship. Salvato couldn’t have found them already.

  “Anybody got a read on who’s attacking?” he shouted.

  Straya, Arkei, and Calico all took their previous seats, forgetting the conflict that was brewing earlier. Right now everyone needed to do their part, and there was no argument about Calico resuming her seat in the pilot’s chair.

  However, Arkei was quick to grab the data cube on the way to her station. She locked it inside a compartment next to her as she was strapping herself in. She slid the key into her pocket before bringing up all the data and view screens.

  The radar revealed that an unidentified ship was right on top of them.

  “How did they find us out here?” Straya asked.

  “And how did they get so close without our radar picking them up?” Arkei added.

  The force field was still in place, but the unidentified ship had a lock on them.

  “We can’t go anywhere,” Calico started. She was flipping a bunch of control switches. The entire control panel seemed to be locked in place. “But our force field is keeping them out… for now.”

  “For now?” Regan exclaimed.

  “Well, any ship that can lock us in place like this will have the ability to break through our force field,” Straya said. “It’s expensive technology, and difficult to procure, but it’s certainly effective.”

  “Is this a mob ship?” Regan asked. He tried to keep the anxiety out of his voice, but he knew it was creeping through.

  The speakers kicked on, followed by a robotic voice blaring through with an unpleasant distortion.

  “Attention! Attention! This is a representative ship of the Intergalactic Council. We have overtaken your communications system and your flight functionality. We demand you shut down your defense systems so we can board.”

  The entire bridge crew shared glances, but it was Straya who spoke first.

  “Shit,” she said.

  “What?” Regan asked.

  “We can’t let them in!”

  “They will find a way whether or not we let them!” Calico shouted.

  Just then Squit and Bob came running in.

  “What is going on?” Bob shouted.

  Regan pointed at an empty chair. “Grab a seat, Bob, and buckle in!”

  But before Bob could grab a seat, the ship took another strong jolt, the most significant impact yet. It sent Bob flying across the room, but Squit caught him with her tentacles, catching herself too. She then found a place where she could hold on while also keeping Bob strapped in, like he was a small child on her lap.

  “This is your final warning!” the robotic voice declared through the speakers. “We will begin our boarding process immediately!”

  “I told you!” Calico shouted. “They will break through and board this ship sooner than later!”

  “Who will?” Bob asked again.

  “Space Patrol Interception Troops, a division of the Intergalactic Council!”

  Bob frowned, confused. Regan threw him a bone, saying, “The cops, Bob.”

  “They’re about to raid us!” Arkei began. “We’ve got all kinds of illegal shit on this ship, so we’re screwed if they get in.”
/>
  Straya quickly turned toward Regan. She was frantic, but also in aggressive control.

  “Captain!” she shouted. “They’re trying to break through in one of our hallways, which means they’ll be in a bottleneck. We can get there ahead of them and unload on their asses!”

  Regan closed his eyes. He had to think.

  A good amount of his crew were bandits. He was an undocumented species, and he was captaining a stolen vessel. He didn’t need to be told what would happen if the cops boarded. Not only would he be held in some intergalactic prison, but everyone on board would be named an accomplice.

  Regan thought hard about an alternative. Whether or not they were crooked cops, sent after them by the mob or just doing their job, he couldn’t allow himself to give an order to kill them. The ramifications of such an action would only cause more problems down the line.

  And as he was trying to think, several things distracted him. One was Straya, Arkei, and Calico arguing about how they were running out of time. Another was the constant banging and jolting of their ship from the other ship trying to break through—and it was breaking through. Then there was the relentless squabbling coming out of Squit’s mouth. With all the noise, Regan didn’t even notice that Bob had been shouting the entire time.

  “She said she can do it!” Bob was shouting. “She said no one needs to get hurt!”

  Regan lifted his head and opened his eyes. He heard Bob only in that moment.

  “Calico, Straya, Arkei, zip it!” he commanded. “Bob, what is Squit saying?”

  A blast sounded throughout the ship. Their enemy was getting closer.

  “Long story short, she can hack into their ship and send them packing,” Bob said.

  Regan didn’t think about it a moment longer. He snapped his fingers, pointed at Squit, and said, “Go get ‘em!”

  Squit let go of Bob and the wall. She went crazy all over the bridge flipping a bunch of switches and command buttons. The noises she made sounded irritated.

  Regan looked at Bob, who returned Regan’s glance with wide eyes.

  “Apparently there are many things we should have done to prevent this from happening in the first place,” Bob said.

  “Bullshit,” Calico said.

  Squit growled at her.

  “Nope, you could have adjusted your cloaking mechanism so that it looks like you’re somewhere else,” Bob said.

  “We can do that?” Arkei asked.

  “It’s a smart ship,” Bob started scratching his hair. “It’s got all kinds of technology just waiting to be used. You also should have turned off our internal communication devices when their use isn’t critical, as they can be tracked pretty much anywhere.”

  “Shit!” Straya said.

  “And, well, yeah, a bunch of other stuff,” Bob said.

  “You said ‘long story short,’ Bob,” Regan said. “Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?”

  “Aye, captain.”

  Squit was moving with incredible speed across the room and finally got to a point where she had nothing else to adjust. She dashed from the bridge, squealing on the way out.

  “To the boarding port,” Bob translated.

  Straya, Arkei, and Bob all followed along.

  Regan gave Calico one last order before leaving with them. “I need you in the pilot’s chair in case something goes wrong and we need to peel out of here.” He paused at the door and turned back to her. “I’m trusting you.”

  Calico nodded.

  “I’m with you, Captain,” she said.

  Regan then turned to face Reverie.

  “Stay safe,” he said.

  She blew him a kiss and nodded.

  Regan then followed the rest of his crew down the hallway toward the boarding port.

  Squit’s speed was incredible. Her tentacles allowed her to reach great distances and take long strides.

  By the time Regan got to the entrance of the boarding port, it looked like a tug of war. The blast doors had been opened part way, but seemingly jammed.

  It was clear the cops were on one side trying to get the doors open, and Squit was on this side doing what she could to override their invasive commands. Great, so they had gotten on board.

  Regan could see the midsections of robotic officers on the other side. They were frantic and eager to come busting through.

  “How did they get on board?” Regan shouted. “I thought you hacked their systems.”

  Squit made some noises, which Bob said meant, “They aren’t on board yet, and they won’t be. They are inside their umbilical line that is fastened to the outside.”

  Regan nodded. Good to know.

  So these blast doors are our last defense.

  Squit used every one of her tentacles and was adjusting dials and pressing buttons on screens on all sides of the door. Regan noticed that some of her actions weren’t on screens or buttons at all, but on the wires themselves, which she no doubt had pulled out of their casing.

  She must have had skin that prevented electrical shocks from getting through, as there were sparks all over the place where her tentacles touched the wires.

  Straya and Arkei stood by looking eager to help, but Squit seemed to have the entire thing under control. It was then that one robotic officer dove through the partial opening of the blast doors. He rolled upon landing and drew a gun on Regan.

  Straya and Arkei both went for their guns, but they weren’t as fast at Squit, who whipped the gun out of his hand with a tentacle, then wrapped him up in it, throwing him back through the door.

  The flying robotic body hit several others upon entering with such force that they went scattering like bowling pins.

  Squit then lifted the weapon to the screen and did some sort of energy transfer. Regan couldn’t quite tell what she was doing, but he could follow the trajectory of lights lighting up on the side of the weapon, then the image of that same weapon appearing on the screen, then a loud pulsing sound came from a metal wall across from the door. The pulsing grew.

  Squit squealed.

  “Get away from the door!” Bob shouted.

  Then multiple copies of the same weapon flew through the door and stuck to the opposite wall. Squit had made a specific magnet that pulled all their weapons away.

  “Holy shit,” Arkei said. “Those are pulse rifles! Top of the line models!”

  A few more maneuvers by Squit and the blast door slammed shut. There was a moment of silence before there was a significant release of energy that shook the entire ship. They all felt it and fell off balance, but Squit’s tentacles reached out and caught all of them before they hit the ground.

  The release was their ship pulling away from the would-be boarders’ ship. Squit had done it.

  The magnet inside the wall shut itself down and all the rifles fell to the ground. Arkei hurried over and picked up two of them, one in each arm.

  “Oh, hell yes!” she said. “Amazing work, Squit!”

  Squit made a few noises and did several body motions which seemed to resemble taking a bow.

  “The soldiers are disarmed and returning to their cruiser,” Bob translated.

  It was then that Regan noticed Squit was still holding onto Bob. He didn’t seem to mind and kept relaying what Squit was saying.

  “She set their ship to run a series of deep diagnostics on all systems,” he continued. “That will take about two hours, so they’ll be inactive for a while, unable to pursue us.”

  The entire group chimed in with praise for Squit’s quick thinking and abilities.

  “She says no problem,” Bob continued. “She didn’t mean to be short with everyone earlier, but she just loves doing what she’s good at, and right now all she wants to do is… Oh?”

  Regan raised an eyebrow. “’Oh’?”

  Bob just smiled. It was a fearful smile, but with a hint of excitement.

  Squit turned and carried Bob down the hallway away from the crew. She made squishy noises at him the entire way. Regan was sure he could
hear Bob giggle.

  “It looks as though she has officially chosen Bob as her mate,” Straya announced.

  “It certainly does,” Regan said with a smile. “Well, good for him, I suppose.” He turned to Straya then. “Now, I guess we get out of here and go talk to that friend you mentioned earlier.”

  “He’s not my friend,” Straya said with a smirk. “But yeah, let’s move it.”

  The three of them headed back to the bridge, the ladies on opposite sides of Regan, Arkei with a new pulse rifle strapped over her shoulder.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Regan, Arkei, and Straya entered the bridge with a confident air. Reverie met them at the door, giving them hugs, but holding Regan’s the longest.

  Calico turned the pilot’s chair around and stood up. She moved aside. Regan could tell she felt awkward as the other ladies celebrated. She clearly wasn’t sure of her place on this ship, and if it was appropriate for her to share in their victory or remain quiet.

  Arkei instantly jumped into the pilot seat. She spun around and held her new pulse rifle with a giddiness that Regan hadn’t seen her display since they looted Mephistopheles’s compound. If there was one thing for sure, Arkei loved acquiring new toys.

  Calico moved to the back of the bridge near the captain’s chair.

  Regan nodded at her. “Let’s speak in the hallway for a moment.”

  Calico nodded and stepped out. As Regan followed after her, Arkei waved him over, looking flustered as she fidgeted with the FTL drive panel.

  “What is it, Arkei?”

  “I think it’s going to be offline for a while,” she responded, not turning to look at him.

  That’s odd. Why would that be?

  “I don’t know if it is because of the attack, or because Squit shut a bunch of stuff off,” Arkei continued. “Either way, our destination isn’t too far, so we can just fly.”

  “How long will that take?”

  “I’d say just under an hour,” Arkei replied. She spun around in her chair, hesitating before finally saying, “And as for Calico, I know you’re leaning toward trusting her. I support whatever decision you make. If we’re going to stay ahead of these mobsters, she might just be the one to get this ship operating at its full potential.”