Revelations: Judgment Day: Kingdom of Sand - Book 1

by R. E. Graham

  Her husband shook his head to bring himself back to the here and now. “I’m fine. Just missed you both.”

  Mrs. Tarvus smiled lovingly and took a bite of her food. Her eyes got wide as her tongue tasted the recipe and wanted to reject it immediately.

  “Problem Lees?” Mikhail asked trying to hold back a laugh.

  Leesa brought her hand up to her mouth to not be too impolite. “It’s…delicious.”

  “I love it! Mmm, mmm, mmm…” Coral chimed in while humming to himself. He bobbed his heads to the side in happiness.

  Suddenly Mikhail’s communicator rang. Leesa gave him a sad look, but he didn’t respond. He withdrew it from his pocket and put the device up against his ear.

  “Yes, Jax?”

  “Captain, I’m sorry to interrupt, but our long-range scanners out in the asteroid fields detected a shuttle.”

  “Oh?” Mikhail said as he took a bite.

  “Looks like it might be heading for Starspin or Eon. Would you like me to ready the crew?”

  Leesa couldn’t hear the conversation, but her eyes begged him to not go.

  “Yeah, get them geared up.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Jax said as the call went dead.

  Mikhail placed his communicator back in his pocket and began to eat his food quicker.

  “Do you really have to leave so soon?”

  The Captain chewed his food and swallowed hard. “I’m sorry Lees. You saw the haul from the last trip, we barely brought enough back. And like you said, we need medicine.”

  “Don’t we have something else the town could sell to buy the medicines we need?”

  “We’ve been over this dozens of times, Lees. We have to do what we have to do. The Republic deserted us.”

  Mikhail devoured the last remnants of his food burning his tongue from the intense heat and stood up. He walked over to his son who continued to sway back and forth as he enjoyed his meal.

  “I love you Coral.”

  “I love you too Daddy…”

  “Be good for your mother. I will be back in a rotation or two.”

  As Mikhail headed for the door, his wife followed behind.

  “Why Mik. Why do we have to live this way? I wish you wouldn’t do this.”

  Mikhail stopped just before he reached the door and sighed. He turned back to his wife and shrugged. “What would you have me do? Stand around while our town starves to death?”

  “Well, no…” Leesa said as she grabbed her left arm. “I just…there has to be another way.”

  “I truly wish there was Leesa. I really do. But the Republic left us to rot. It is because of pointless laws that we are in this mess, but I will not stand by and do nothing so that our town starves to death.”

  “You have to only have faith…”

  That was the last thing the Captain needed to here. His eyes flared with rage, and he glared at his wife. "Don't go down that road again. I've given up on the Creator and all of that nonsense. There is no god watching over us. We are on our own."

  Leesa didn’t know what else to say. Instead of trying to fight her husband one more time, she walked up and gave him a loving hug. “Let’s just leave this place. We can go anywhere else. I don’t want you to be a pirate anymore.”

  The tender gesture wore down his angry temper. “You know that I am willing to do anything to protect you. I don’t know what I would do without you…”

  “I would be lost without you my love,” Lessa said confidently.

  Mikhail embraced his wife and kissed the top of her head. The few stray hairs sticking out from the bun she formed her hair in got caught in his short facial hair.

  “This certainly is not the life I would have chosen. But you know that things are bad all over the Republic. We don’t have the credentials to move to one of the core worlds, and the border worlds aren’t safe enough for me to move us there.”

  “What about Carbin or Nativity? There has to be someplace not too far that is better off than Destiny.”

  Even though he didn’t want to, Mikhail released his wife. “I have to go. We can discuss this later. I love you dearly. If anything were to happen…”

  “Don’t talk like that again,” Leesa begged.

  "Listen, on our last mission I had a close call. Like, really close. So, I want you to know that if something does happen, take Coral and go for the capitol. I have some cuso and gold stashed away in a hollow book behind my desk. Take it and use it to get a shuttle off of this world and head for ORCA. It'll be much easier to hide there than anywhere else with your data chips. If we get caught, I don't want you and Coral to get tossed in with everyone else here if the Republic shows up."

  The married couple shared a tender kiss, then Mikhail left without another word. He would never say it out loud, but every time he headed off world, since he had become a pirate, he always wondered if it would be his last.

  Chapter 2

  Cycle: 434 Month: 2 Rotation: 9

  Corre Republic Space

  Prefecture: Siimon

  Planet: Destiny

  Location: Aboard the Only Hope

  The Only Hope’s bridge was not very large. Terminals and buttons seemed to cover every square inch in the small boxy cockpit. Being originally designed as a transport vessel the pirate's spacecraft underwent many modifications to assist them on their raids.

  Mikhail entered the bridge and settled into the captain’s chair. While he buckled himself in with his harness, he made his routine visual inspection of each of his people to make sure they were ready for the coming mission.

  Before the economy tanked on Destiny during the Loaner Crash of 429, Mikhail was a simple cargo transporter. He knew of or personally knew each of his crew in their previous lives, not one of them was in a profession quite this despicable. Well, except for maybe Hernando.

  He found that some people simply could not handle the hardships of being a pirate. If that was the case, they found themselves as part of the ground crew. While they all knew what they were doing was morally wrong, they had to take care of each other for survival. The Republic certainly wasn’t in a rush to help them, so they took matters into their own hands.

  Nina Fo operated the navigation and communication console, Hernando Troy was the ship's gunner, and Karl "Joker" Higgs was the ship's pilot. Each of the others looked stern and ready for the next raid. Good enough for Tarvus. He made sure his harness was tight and waited for Karl to commence the liftoff sequence.

  He knew that most of his crew would rather be home than going back out on another run. Especially since they had just barely refueled before they were heading back out. However, they had already discovered that they had to strike when the opportunity arose to avoid making desperate decisions.

  Breaking through the atmosphere into space was as peaceful as could be asked for, except for the violent rattling sound coming from within Mikhail’s chair.

  Still need to have that worked on.

  They had quite a bit of time before they would intercept their target. Mikhail’s mind began to wander and think about his wife’s words before he left.

  Is there another way?

  He shook his head to himself.

  No, the Republic has abandoned us, and I will make the hard choice for my people.

  The Loaner Crash was the result of several dozen Republic planets all on the same loan system from a group of bankers called the Loaners who had been the most powerful banking source in the nation. They had stupidly been assigning home, personal, and business loans to millions upon millions of families across the Corre Republic who couldn’t afford them.

  When the market crashed, Destiny went with it, and many citizens lost their jobs within weeks as business after business capsized as loans came due. The Republic Senate had voted on numerous stimulus packages to get the market going through government funds, but with all of the levels of corruption in the bureaucracy, it didn't make it to the ordinary little guy on an inner world.

  We did what we had
to. What the Republic forced us to do!

  The locals living in Largo did the best they could, but when inflation took over, and many families went hungry, things continued to break down. Cycles ago the Republic had begun a new policy to pull the Republic Armed Forces, otherwise known as the RAF, garrison units to move them to the border worlds front defensive line. This removed the government's actual soldiers and replaced them with mercenaries. The idea was that they would be the ones to ultimately maintain peace in the inner worlds.

  Once the economy tanked, citizens of Destiny began to riot and have other violent demonstrations that filled the streets across the planet. The local mercenary garrison, the Razor Claws, attempted to squelch the violence by gunning down those labeled as instigators. Eventually, things calmed down, but without Republic aid, things continued to get worse.

  After several months of struggle, the people of Largo knew they needed to do something. Rations coming from the capitol were pitiful, and other towns were raiding their neighbors for what little they had. Under the guise of being shipping or transporting companies' raiders from the small town would go out to other worlds and colonies to raid them for needed supplies. After a failed mission on the Only Hope, the previous captain got killed for being too trusting of the people they were robbing. Mikhail took control and helped his crew to escape. He was chosen to be the next captain from then on.

  Since their target was traveling near an asteroid field, they would have to use the Only Hope’s thrusters to close the distance.

  Hours passed until Nina finally spoke up, "Captain, scanners have locked onto the shuttle. Looks like it is a large personal spacecraft, luxury model. The database says it is a newer Hydra design.”

  The Captain brought his hand up to his chin as he slumped over in his chair. “Nina, does it look like they have spotted us?”

  "No. They are maintaining the same speed and direction."

  “Alright, Hernando, let me know when we are in range. I want you to fire a shot at a nearby asteroid to get their attention.”

  “Aye Captain,” the ship’s gunner said as he checked his display and readouts.

  He pressed a series of switches on his console that activated systems which flipped and rotated multiple weapons out of the “hull” of the Only Hope. The model of transport that the raiders used had at one point just been an ordinary spacecraft meant to haul cargo around. To more easily slip by government patrols, it was decided to mount weaker weaponry than having properly fixed weapons on the hull that could be seen from a great distance away. Of course, this meant it would be wise to avoid larger more dangerous raids, which in turn could mean that they were less likely to get caught if they did things right.

  The pirate captain turned to Nina on his right. “Tell Riko to be ready in his WarMech. And have the launcher powered up. I don’t want this one to get away.”

  As Nina pressed her headset mic, Hernando called out. "We will be within weapons range in three…two…one…"

  Mikhail brought his fingers together as he got one more idea. "Nina, I want you to send a recording just moments after we get their attention."

  “I am ready when you are Captain.”

  The tall man took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. He motioned with his hand to Nina while he made eye contact with the camera positioned just above the main view screen. "This is Captain Tarvus. Out of necessity, we are going to board your vessel. If you and your crew want to be able to walk away from this encounter, then you need to power down and bring everyone together on your bridge. If you do something stupid, then I swear to you, every single one of you is going to be shot in the head." He made a cut motion with his hand, and Nina cut the recording.

  “Hernando, fire.”

  The gunner nodded and pressed a glowing key on his screen that fired the small cannon on top of the Only Hope. A large puff of fire and smoke was quickly snuffed out in the vacuum of space as the slug was rapidly propelled forward.

  Utterly oblivious to the initial shot, the Hydra continued on its path until its crew was startled by the sight of one of the nearby asteroids exploding.

  “Nina?” Captain Tarvus asked.

  “Message delivered, Captain.”

  Mikhail held his breath for a brief moment as he waited to know the response of the Hydra’s crew. This was the part of this madness he always hated.

  Don’t run, don’t run…

  As if she could feel her captain’s anxiousness, Nina shook her head in disappointment as she reported, “The Hydra is altering course and has increased its speed. Riko is ready to be launched.”

  The Captain let out a grunt and hung his head. He looked back up at the screen with anger in his eyes. “Standby to launch Riko. Hernando arm an overloader. Joker pursue them.”

  Unlike most transport class spacecraft, the Goto was designed to take cargo through large bay doors in the bow of the ship. When the Only Hope had been initially upgraded it was modified from salvage to house a large magnetic accelerator that could launch a WarMech at a very high speed. This helped the Goblin not waste precious fuel in launch nor scorch the innards of the pirates’ ship.

  After pressing two keys, the gunner looked up and said, "Armed, sir."

  Captain Tarvus clenched his jaw. “Fire.”

  Located on the bottom of the Only Hope were two missile launchers. The overloader missile fired out the left tube, and the raider's bridge crew watched on the view screen as the projectile raced out to meet the Hydra ship. It twisted and twirled as it gracefully dodged asteroids in its path.

  “Launch Riko!” Mikhail shouted as he steadily got angrier for having to use the expensive overloader missile on such a small target.

  Nina pressed her mic and spoke directly to the pilot on standby. “Riko, prepare to launch.”

  “Riko here, launching.” The mech pilot tightened his grip on his joysticks as the powerful magnetic slinger launched his modified Goblin WarMech forward at high speed. Just as the Goblin was free of the Only Hope’s hull, the Goblin automatically fired its own thrusters on its back.

  Typically, a WarMech was only armed for ground combat. Depending on the mission a WarMech could be upgraded to carry extra fuel and gear to allow it to "fly" through the emptiness of space. Captain Tarvus preferred a WarMech over housing a winged fighter or two because the uses of a mech could heavily outweigh the maneuverability of fighters in several scenarios once the crew was operating on the ground. Since they usually employed the hit-and-run tactic, using the Goblin was a far easier task.

  Just before the overloader collided with the Hydra, it detonated and created a massive electromagnetic wave that consumed the ship. Immediately its engines powered down, and the vessel began to glide through space. The crew braced themselves as an asteroid slowly floated into the Hydra’s trajectory, and they could do nothing but watch as it grazed the starboard side of the ship sending it careening away from the debris field.

  Riko and his Goblin darted forward as the Only Hope inched closer.

  Tarvus’ face popped up on a small monitor to the WarMech pilots’ right. “Riko, slow down their momentum so we can catch up.”

  “Aye, Captain,” he said as he closed the distance.

  Suddenly something caught Riko’s eye. He pressed a button on his console that zoomed in on the powered down shuttle. A blue light began to flash.

  “Captain, they are getting the power back up. How do you want me to proceed?”

  Nina and Hernando looked at their captain as he rubbed his chin with his left hand. He stood up and put his hands on his hips. Everyone knew how valuable the engine on the other vessel would be if they could get their hands on it. They were out of overloaders, so it all fell on Riko being able to slow them down. Allowing the Hydra to escape now would just bring the authorities down on them. It had to be done before their target hopped.

  “Riko, destroy their engines. Then slow them down.”

  “Captain!” Hernando couldn’t help himself.

  Tarvus
twisted his gaze on the gunner inhumanly fast. His harsh stare made the other man literally quiver inside for a split second. He knew if he spoke out of turn further, he would be given the task of inspecting the outside of the airlock without a suit. While the previous captain would tolerate his crew being outspoken, Mikhail was not a fan. When on a mission, rank, and order came first. Every time.

  Riko hesitated for a moment but knew that the Captain was correct. “Engaging target.” He reached over and pressed the “Weapons-Safe” key to “Weapons-Live.” The plasma slingers housed on both of the WarMech’s forearms extended their barrels into the combat position and warmed up.

  "I am heading down to get my suit. Nina, you have the bridge," Mikhail said as he exited the cramped room. He glared one more time at Hernando who did his best to avert making eye contact.

  As the Goblin came within weapons range the Hydra’s engines lit back up. The blue glow showed that their power had been restored, but it would still take several minutes for them to power up their HOP drive.

  The WarMech pilot guided his Goblin around an asteroid and lined up behind the drifting vessel. A faded red crosshair symbol turned bright signaling a lock. He squeezed both triggers sending two bursts of blue plasma globs forward. The engine couldn't take the attack, and as the plasma burned its way internally, it exploded in a flash sending the Hydra into another partial spiral.

  Riko throttled the Goblin forward and finally caught up to the ship. He retracted the plasma slinger barrels and pushed his joysticks forward to reach his WarMech’s arms out. The Goblin reached around the spinning ship and grabbed hold with its armored fingers. Riko fired his jets to slow and counter the momentum of the vessel and ease it out of its spiraling.

  “Errrrrrr…” He struggled against the controls to maintain the grasp until it got easier as he was able to slow the Hydra down. The Goblin released the shuttle and used its jets to position itself in front of the disabled ship.