Revelations: Judgment Day: Kingdom of Sand - Book 1

by R. E. Graham

  Mikhail was just about to change his story when Otto busted out laughing. His men joined in, and all enjoyed the joke at the expense of the other branch of the Five Skulls.

  “You’re alright Mik,” Otto said as he sat down on a crate that was behind him. “I’ll give you fifty-kay for everything.”

  “Poosh!” Hern exclaimed. “All that is at least worth double.”

  Mikhail's eyes grew very wide, and he gave his gunner a stern look.

  “Your friend may be right, but I figure you are here offloading this on me because it is too hot for you to go someplace else.”

  “Fifty will be just fine,” Mikhail said with a tight smile.

  “But Cap we…” Hern started before the Captain gave him a nasty stare again.

  Mikhail turned back to Otto and grinned. “Like I said, we’ll take fifty.”

  Several of the pirates set their rifles down on a table behind them and started to offload the content of the truck bed.

  The Only Hope’s crew stepped aside and let them go about their job freely. Mikhail kept a close eye on everyone while Hern hadn't quite let his guard down just yet. Rhonda, on the other hand, had backed up near a stack of random crates. She hadn't noticed the greasy looking pirate who slowly approached her from behind. Without a doubt, it was clear that the man had not bathed in rotations.

  He licked his lips as he extended a trembling hand. Before Rhonda knew it, she felt a strong hand grasp her bottom. She spun around immediately and drew a sidearm she had concealed and aimed it square at the pervert’s forehead.

  Seeing Rhonda draw her weapon caused both Hern and the Captain to do the same. This of course caused all of the other Onyx to do the same. Otto remained relatively still and blinked his weary eyes at the three troublemakers.

  “Whoa now!” Mikhail shouted as he used his free hand to gesture everyone to stop.

  "Mik put down the gun."

  The Captain ignored the order but kept his focus on the men aiming their rifles at him. “Rhonda, what happened?”

  “Sorry Cap, this guy here got a little too frisky for me,” she replied as the pervert looked squeamish.

  Otto’s face turned angry when he slowly looked over to the man causing all the ruckus.

  “I’m sorry Otto, I don’t know what came over me,” the man said pleading for his life as he stayed still so that Rhonda didn’t blast him into eternity.

  “Did you molest that woman Teeto?” Otto asked coldly.

  “I…I…I…” Teeto stammered as he sought for the right words.

  Otto did not wait for a proper response. He drew his own pistol and fired it right into his fellow pirate's stomach. The dirty man fell to his knees and gripped his bleeding torso. He tried to speak, but the lead Onyx pirate shot him six more times. As the dead man's body slumped to the floor, wisps of smoke trailed upward from Otto's gun.

  Rhonda breathed heavily as the bullets weren’t that far away from her. She had felt the gush of wind blow past her in the shooting.

  Otto was the first to speak, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen on the room. He holstered his pistol, and everyone else in the room slowly lowered their own guns. "I apologize for that miss," he said before he turned back towards Mikhail. "I don't tolerate that sort of behavior within my house."

  “Understood,” the Captain said as he holstered his own sidearm. “I feel the same.”

  The Onyx got back to work while Otto whistled loudly. A small boy carried a heavy black box from some other room. He handed the case to the pirate leader and stepped back. Otto opened the container and pulled out two bundles of cuso bills. He tossed both to Mikhail and then closed the case before handing it back to the child.

  “Pleasure doing business with you,” the Captain said happily.

  The ride over to the marketplace up the road from the Only Hope was quiet while Hern was pissy and Mikhail didn't want to address it just yet. As the hovertruck came to a stop, the Captain turned back to Rhonda. He handed her a small stack of cuso bills.

  “I want you to go and buy the food supplies the town needs. You have the list, right?”

  “Yes Cap,” she replied as she accepted the money.

  "Good, have it delivered directly to the ship. Hern, I want you to go and pick up the medical supplies we were missing."

  “Yessir,” he said begrudgingly.

  “What will you be doing Captain?” Rhonda asked as she unbuckled herself.

  “I’m going to take the truck back to the ship. Make sure everything else is ready to go for when you both get back. We need to get home with the supplies. We’ve already been gone too long.”

  Both crewmembers exited the truck and went their separate ways. Mikhail got out and got back in on the driver’s side. The door gave a loud thump as he pulled it shut behind him.

  He ran his hand through his hair and then looked out the driver’s window to his left. People went about their business as they bought and sold all sorts of items in the marketplace. There was no telling who was with Onyx and who might be with the government.

  Best we get out of here without drawing any extra eyes our way…

  Chapter 10

  Cycle: 434 Month: 2 Rotation: 14

  Corre Republic Space

  Prefecture: Siimon

  Planet: Marie

  Location: In the system

  The six-vessel flotilla of ships known as the Geyser Cluster drifted through space as they headed for the planet Marie. Every citizen born on a Republic world was required to be chipped, which meant that they were tagged with an identification microchip beneath the skin in their right hand. This chip contained vital information such as who you were, personal history, medical information, and where you were permitted to live. This particular group of ships had people who were considered to be drifters within the Republic. They had no true home, except for the vessels they lived on.

  Other flotillas similar to the Geyser Cluster were scattered throughout the known 'verse. Many of them had come about during the war against the Synthetics some four hundred cycles ago. When their worlds were destroyed by the machines, those that evacuated would form a group and would travel to the next world. While it was less than ideal about how they came to be, some of the flotillas that were formed out of the remnants of dying worlds stayed together. The Republic Prefect Major had allowed them to exist despite not being properly tagged. It was an old law that stretched back hundreds of cycles.

  This particular group had recently visited the planet Destiny to do some trading. Aboard the lead ship, Sunrise, several children kicked a very dirty ball back and forth to one another. Their ages ranged from six to nine. They all laughed as the one little boy with a missing front tooth kicked the ball so hard that it bounced off the nearby wall and hit old Mr. Heckles in the back of the head.

  "Watch it you confound hooligans!" shouted the old man as he shook his fist at the giddy kids.

  A little girl retrieved the ball from under a chair and returned to the group to play. Captain Tyoto observed the joyful children and allowed himself a slight smile.

  The comm unit in his wrist device rang. He raised his arm to his face and spoke with his thick Polaun accent. "Yes, Jovi?"

  "Captain, we have a problem. You are going to want to see this."

  Jovi's family had been a part of the flotilla since the beginning. She was a hardened woman who understood the darkness of space and was very aware of potential problems. It was one reason Tyoto had pushed for her to be a part of his command staff.

  "I will be right there," he said as he turned away from the playing children and made his way up to the bridge.

  The blast door slid open, and he stepped inside. All of the other members of his staff were very frantic, that is, except for Jovi. "What's going on?" the Captain asked as he stepped up to the holotable.

  Jovi pressed a series of keys on her keyboard at her station and the image of three government Carina ships formed out of the blue pixels. Tyoto guessed what was going on, b
ut he wanted to hear it directly from his second in command.

  "We spotted them several minutes ago. They are closing with us clearly on an intercept course and will be within weapons range in ten," Jovi said as she continued typing on her keyboard.

  "Have you tried to hail them?" Tyoto asked as he took a deep breath.

  "We did. They have not responded."

  That's bad...

  "I want you to try one more time. Make sure they know who we are and tap it through the bridge's speakers."

  Let’s hope they aren’t here to cause any problems…

  Jovi did not respond, but the Captain could tell she was busy working on her new order. She pressed the side of the mic built into her headset. "This is the Geyser cluster to the pursuing government admiral. We are on course to conduct trading with the planet Marie. Please respond. I say again, please respond."

  Tyoto's heart beat faster as his mind raced with possibilities.

  After another couple of moments, a voice finally answered back. "This is Inquisitor Cyrus. I wish to speak with the captain of the lead vessel within your flotilla."

  The Captain's face instantly went pale as the rest of the bridge crew froze in place. He looked about the room, unsure of what to do. Several uncomfortable seconds passed before he came to his senses. "Um...th...this is Captain Tyoto of the Sunrise. May I ask why you are pursuing us?"

  "I am conducting an investigation into an incident that occurred several rotations ago that resulted in the death of Senator Servius. I know that you are harboring known fugitives within your cluster. You are to power your engines down and allow us to board. Any aggression will be immediately dealt with."

  Tyoto looked over to Jovi whose face was in complete shock. While it was true that the flotilla had many unarmed people just looking to get by through trading with other colonies and worlds, they had accepted a ship of small-time pirates several months ago that had been on the run. At the time he fought against the idea of fugitives being in his cluster, but they gave him and the council a very hefty sum thus buying their way in. Plus, they promised that they wanted to give up their life of crime. To his knowledge, they had been on the straight and narrow path since they joined the flotilla without any incidents.

  This is real bad...

  The Captain knew he needed to make peace as quickly as possible before any blood was shed. While he had never dealt with an inquisitor in person, he had heard enough of the stories from others.

  "Inquisitor Cyrus, we will comply. Please be assured though that we are a very peaceful cluster. We have no weapons here per the regulations set by the Republics trade commission," Tyoto said as his knees shook.

  "We shall see about that. Have the captains from each of the ships in your flotilla be aboard your ship by the time I arrive." Cyrus responded before the line was cut.

  Jovi looked over to her Captain. "What are we gonna do?"

  He saw her out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his gaze locked on the holographic image of the Carina’s heading straight for his people. "We..." he started before he got control of himself again. "We are going to show them that we are not violent and then they are going to be on their way."

  The other crew nodded nervously.

  "Contact the fleet...tell them to power down and for the captains to head over as quickly as they can."

  "Yes Captain," Jovi said as she got busy transmitting text messages to each of the other vessels in the cluster.

  He continued to stare at the government ships with a growing sense of dread in his stomach.

  Why now? What have we done to deserve this?

  Within the next twenty minutes, each of the five other captains was aboard the Sunrise waiting anxiously as the lead Carina launched a small shuttle. Only one of the government ships had moved into the flotilla while the other two stayed back, but still close enough to use their weapons with deadly accuracy.

  Tyoto turned to the rest of the group as the shuttle docked in the Sunrise's cargo bay. "Listen everyone. We have not broken any laws, so we shouldn't have anything to worry about."

  "That's easy for you to say," said Captain Yonni from the Rosewood vessel.

  He was now the captain of the onetime pirate ship. The older man had an eye patch that covered what remained of his left eye socket. He ran his right hand through his graying hair as he paced back and forth.

  "Yonni, just relax," Tyoto said just before the blast door slid open and a team of Republic troopers rushed into the bridge, weapons up.

  The Sunrise's command staff along with each of the captains raised their hands in surprise.

  "Clear," shouted one of the troopers.

  Inquisitor Cyrus dressed in his all-black uniform stepped onto the bridge. Each of his steps echoed throughout the bridge as his heavy boots clanged against the metal flooring. The leather of his pristine suit squeaked. His eyes burned with an intensity that made some of the nervous captains look away. Tyoto forced himself to maintain eye contact when the Inquisitor looked over to him.

  "You must be the captain of the Sunrise," Cyrus said as he placed his arms behind his back.

  The Captain nodded. "I am."

  "Please have your staff pull up a visual of the ships in your cluster."

  Tyoto looked over to Jovi and said, "Go ahead. Pull it up."

  The Inquisitor turned to see the hologram image warp into a display of the six civilian ships. He turned back to the gathered captains.

  "I know that your flotilla has existed since back from the days of the war against the Synthetics," the Inquisitor began. "What concerns me is that you have taken the Republic's generous gift of autonomy and spat in her face."

  Tyoto's face started to sweat. "I uh...don't understand sir."

  "Several months ago, your council authorized the acceptance of a ship into your cluster. This particular ship was crewed by a band of raiders who had conducted several raids on Inferno and another colony."

  It took all of his strength to not shake. "We...we were not aware of this."

  "Oh really?" Cyrus asked with a twinge of anger in his voice. He motioned with his hand to the fireteam officer of the troopers that stood by him nodded. The veteran marine pressed a key on his own gauntlet and Silverbolt opened fire on the small gray frigate in the cluster.

  The female captain of the attacked ship, easily a head shorter than Tyoto, watched in horror at the pixelated explosion that rocked her vessel. Debris and a stream of oxygen blasted away from the ship. Several members of the attacked ship's crew were sucked out into space. They writhed for a heartbeat or two before it was too late.

  She cursed loudly at the Inquisitor. It wasn't until she took a step forward that she was hit in the back of the head by one of the trooper's rifles. She collapsed to the ground and gripped her head to find blood on her hand.

  Each of the other captains was utterly unsure of what to do. Jovi's station lit up with requests for communication from the Sunrise. Tyoto started to speak up, but the Inquisitor cut him off.

  "Here's the deal. I need information on the whereabouts of each of the members of the pirate's vessel."

  Tyoto glanced briefly over to Captain Yonni but noticed that the other captain was trying to remain as stoic as possible.

  "Seeing as how the pirates originated from a Republic world, each of them will have chips. We will go through and scan each and every person within this flotilla to find them if we must," Cyrus said as he looked around the room at each of the captains.

  "What do you want with them?" Tyoto asked. "We haven't harmed anyone."

  "Perhaps not. As I mentioned earlier, Senator Servius was attacked by pirates several rotations ago. Your cluster was not too far from where her attack took place. And we are investigating to find those responsible."

  "This is a bunch of poosh," the female captain spoke up as she struggled to again stand. Tears welled up in her eyes as her heart ached for the crew she just lost on her ship. "You easily could have searched for the dust left behind, and yo
u would know that our flotilla was not part of that attack."

  "Maybe," Cyrus said as he stood up straighter. "Regardless, I am not going to leave any stones left unturned. The pirates. Now."

  Yonni began to look very nervous, but none of the other captains spoke up. While those who lived on a planet would never understand, everyone else in the room did. Flotilla life was very hard. Those you traveled with were more than your traveling companions. They became like family as each ship would have to help out the others with parts and other assistance along the journey. Selling any of them out actually could substantially harm the cluster as a whole.

  "Here's the deal," Cyrus began as he started to pace in front of the captains. "I want every single one of those pirates brought before me immediately, or we are going to destroy each of your ships."

  The tension in the room spiked as each captain began to shout, beg, and plead. Cyrus drew his sidearm and shot the female captain in the head. Each of the other captains was in total awe as her body collapsed to the ground. Her blood began to slowly pour out of her wound as the Inquisitor lowered his arm but remained ready to react to anyone doing something reckless.

  He looked over to the fireteam officer. “Do it.”

  After the marine pressed his own gauntlet again transmitting the order to the Silverbolt, again the Republic ship opened fire with a barrage of missiles into the damaged ship, consuming it in explosions.

  "None of this makes any sense," Tyoto finally exclaimed. "If you had the intel that the ship had joined our cluster, then surely you know who the pirates are."

  Cyrus glanced over at the Polaun captain and smirked. "Oh, I do."

  The troopers opened fire on the captains and the bridge crew. All except for the retired pirate captain were instantly killed. Blood had spattered on the left side of one-eyed Yonni. The older man shook in terror as his fellow flotilla captains were gunned down.

  "Why?" he said with someone else's blood dripping down his face. "We weren't hurtin' anybody."