Chosen of Chaos (Eve of Destruction Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “They attacked my shop and tried to kill me. Incompetently. However, they managed to destroy the weapon that Captain Eight-Fist reserved this morning, and which he was going to be picking up the day after tomorrow,” Evelyn said shortly, pausing, then added, “Now, are you going to lock them down, or do I need to add the port authority to my list of people to be very upset with?”

  “No, no… of course not,” Maggie said, her sense of dread solidifying as she learned that one of the Pirate Kings was going to be visiting. She’d have to arrange to be off shift before anyone else found out. “Their bay has been locked down. Be aware, they have a tank in the bay.”

  “I know. Maybe this one will actually manage to shoot at me. Tarth out,” Evelyn said, and Maggie paled as she heard the note of anticipation in the woman’s voice, then the line went dead.

  For a second she was silent, then she raised a hand. “Ah… Daren? Would you contact the security team, and tell them to get the hell away from bay fourteen? There’s about to be an Evelyn Incident.”

  “Oh shit!” the man said, and lunged for the comms, spilling the coffee he’d just poured into his mug in the process.

  Maggie entirely agreed, though after checking to make sure there wasn’t a ship inbound, she switched her monitors to the cameras in bay fourteen. If nothing else, at least it’d be fascinating to watch.

  “I could just teleport us inside,” Fya offered again, barely keeping up with Evelyn due to how fast she was moving.

  “While certainly effective, it isn’t the best when I’m trying to work off frustration,” Evelyn replied, checking the charge on her pistol to be sure it’d last through a couple of firefights. The sword definitely would, she’d spent too much on an enchanted battery for it to die after only a few minutes of use. A few hours, maybe. “No, I think I want them to see their doom coming for them. And if they grovel, begging for their lives, so much the better. That’s rather satisfying.”

  “Sure, but will you let them surrender?” Fya asked, tilting her head.

  “Mm… depends on how sincere they seem. If they try to fake it so they can shoot me, they’re dead,” Evelyn said, slowing slightly as she approached the doors to the bay. “Except their leader. He’s dead either way. Or she, or it, I don’t care.”

  “Alright.” Fya said, smiling widely as she chambered a grenade. “I just wanted to be sure, since we’re about to have a whole bunch of people shooting at us! I’ll try to leave them intact enough for the Reanimator’s Guild!”

  Evelyn glanced over and raised an eyebrow as she saw the markings on the grenade clip. “Not with those you won’t be. Don’t damage the ship, it’s actually worth something.”

  “Got it! I’ll avoid the tank, too. It’s worth something, right?” Fya asked, reaching over and pressing the button to open the bay doors.

  “Yes, but not that much. I’ll just take out the crew,” Evelyn said, watching the doors begin sliding into the ceiling and floor… then she dodged.

  The flash of the tank’s main cannon lit up the hallway, barely missing Evelyn as it scorched the floor tiles and doubtlessly demolished part of the concourse behind Evelyn, but her shields kept the heat bloom from doing more than ruffling her hair. Seconds later, multiple soldiers unloaded with dozens of rifles and heavy weapons, but they weren’t quite skilled enough to hit Evelyn immediately. At least not intentionally, as a stray shot bounced off her shield.

  A dull whump sounded as Fya’s grenade launcher coughed, and the grenade arced through the air gracefully, falling toward a group of soldiers who didn’t notice it over their muzzle flashes… then suddenly everyone noticed as the heart of a star raged into existence, incinerating five opponents.

  Evelyn wasn’t idle, and as she ignited her sword she charged forward, zigzagging to make herself a difficult target. Spotting a knife stuck into a barrier, she smirked, flicking the hand holding her sword, and the knife trembled, then ripped free and rocketed across the room to find a weak point in the armor over a woman’s throat, punching through the seal and sending her to the ground as she clawed at the blade.

  The tank’s barrel tried to track Evelyn, but she ignored it, barely glancing toward the large, stubby ship that half-filled the bay. It had weapons, but unless they wanted to vaporize the entire bay, they couldn’t fire them here, and the locals would not take that kindly. The next moment Evelyn was among the soldiers, energy bolts and bullets bouncing off her shield, and she smirked. It was only down to eighty-eight percent integrity, which was just sad.

  A single spinning sweep of her sword cut two soldiers in half, and she lunged forward, putting a bolt through another man’s head, then she was next to the tank and flipped up onto it.

  “Stupid,” Evelyn muttered, punching her blade through the driver’s hatch at an angle that almost certainly dealt with them, then hopped up onto the turret as the secondary weapons tried to get a bead on her and did the same to the gunner. It’d take some work to repair, but compared to what she’d done to the other tank, this was nothing. It wasn’t a good tank, anyway. She shook her head, looking up as another plasma grenade bloomed, killing more of the mercenaries. “Should’ve aimed at the ground, at least we’d have been hit by shrapnel. Idiots.”

  Only two dozen people were outside, Evelyn noticed, and they’d already killed all but four. One of those was running for the emergency exit, and she put a bolt through his lower back, reasoning that if he managed to live he was lucky. With the numbers she’d been given, there should be between twenty and forty more opponents. If they were all so poorly equipped and came at her piecemeal, they wouldn’t be a problem. Actually, they wouldn’t be a problem either way, it was more a question of how much collateral damage Evelyn was willing to deal.

  Evelyn hopped to the bay floor, cutting off the arm of one of the fallen who was trying to aim a pistol at her, then magically ripped a key card from the man’s belt. She examined it, just as Fya froze the last pair of opponents in a blast of magical ice. Apparently, she’d had enough fun with weapons for the moment.

  “Found an access key for the ship. I wonder if it’ll work?” Evelyn said, examining the ship after a moment. It wasn’t what she’d call a good ship, but it wasn’t bad for a bunch of mercenaries, she supposed.

  “Maybe? Depends on how quickly we get to the ramp,” Fya replied, glancing at the starship. Then her eyes widened, and Evelyn looked up and saw one of the cannon mounts turning to face them.

  Dropping her sword, the blade winked out the instant it left her grip, even as her telekinesis spell caught it, and Evelyn’s hand snapped up to point at the cannon, her mind focusing as she mouthed the words of a spell and she felt mana flood out of her. A beam of brilliant red energy flashed out of her hand and hit the cannon, which glowed for an instant, then fell apart like it’d been made of sand.

  “Idiots. Using shipboard weapons in a docking bay is just stupid,” Evelyn said disdainfully, snatching her sword out of the air and reigniting the blade as she stalked toward the entry ramp.

  “Ah… I thought that you said not to damage the ship,” Fya protested, trotting after her.

  “Eh, the gun wasn’t that valuable, anyway,” Evelyn said, shrugging, and she smiled coldly. She’d been right, though. This was far better for blowing off steam.

  “Shit.” Maggie breathed, her eyes wide as she watched the two women climb Daggerhound’s entry ramp.

  “What? She didn’t do that much damage this time around,” David said, frowning. “Last time there were a lot of explosions.”

  “Yeah, but most of them were from the defenders,” Maggie replied, looking at the room and all the deceased. They’d crushed the defenders like they weren’t even there, and the craters the plasma grenades had left in the bay floor made her wince. They weren’t deep, the floor was built to support the weight of starships, after all, but repairing them wouldn’t be fun. “This… did you see how fast that was? It wasn’t even a fight! They took some shield damage, but that’s it!”

  “Well�
�� yeah? I mean, she conquered a country without too much difficulty, from what I heard. Sure, she had allies, but she built her power base in only a few years. It’s been four times as long as long since she was overthrown as it took her to take over to begin with, so why wouldn’t she be that good?” David asked, looking at Maggie oddly. “I mean, she isn’t exactly our problem, is she?”

  “Not now, but what about next week, or next month? If she comes after us, what the hell are we supposed to do?” Maggie demanded.

  David just shrugged and nodded at the screen as he replied. “Well, based on that, I’d say surrender before she gets in range to murder us. That or die, but I think the first option is better.”

  “Maybe so,” Maggie said, chewing her lip and eying the mount where Evelyn had casually disintegrated a shipboard cannon. Maggie didn’t have enough magical training to light a candle, let alone destroy part of a ship like that, and it made her uneasy.

  Finally, she sighed, glad that at least the two were on the ship now. Unless they blew it to kingdom come, she wasn’t going to have to worry about further damage to the starport. She really hoped that wouldn’t happen, though at least it might kill Evelyn. Maybe. Possibly. On second thought, she didn’t want to test the theory.

  “So… has anyone contacted the boss yet?” Maggie asked at last.

  The silence in response was practically deafening.

  Chapter 6

  Two soldiers had surrendered quickly enough to live so far, which was fewer than Evelyn had expected. A part of her wondered if she’d been a touch too aggressive … but she honestly didn’t care that much. They’d swept a good part of the Daggerhound’s decks, and they’d dealt with another thirty people, give or take.

  The ship was in better condition than Evelyn had expected, even given its exterior. Nothing was truly expensive aboard it, but the crew kept it well-maintained, which she found curious when the gear wasn’t impressive. She also hadn’t heard of the company before, but that wasn’t surprising. She didn’t keep up with all the mercenary companies in the region. No, she was mostly pleased that the ship was in reasonably good shape because she had plans for it. Not plans its current owner would care for, but plans nonetheless.

  Now she examined the doors blocking the way to the bridge and quirked an eyebrow. She considered just cutting through them, but decided against it. Instead, she called out. “You do realize that the doors being locked just means that I’m going to destroy them? Open the doors so we can get this over with.”

  There wasn’t a response, at least not a verbal one. Then the doors hissed and began to slide open, revealing the multi-layered, overlapping metal plates that made up the doors as they began moving to either side. A man began speaking as the doors slid open.

  “Now, don’t do anything hasty, maybe we can come to some kind of—” a man in heavy armor began saying. He had numerous markings that looked like they belonged to an officer, and the magical runes on them gave additional evidence of his rank. So Evelyn put an energy bolt through his faceplate.

  The bolt punched through his faceplate with only a little resistance, apparently, he’d skimped on those enchantments, and the man toppled as smoke rose from the hole. Around him, five mercenaries froze, obviously in shock.

  “No,” Evelyn said crossly. “That was the captain, was it not? If so, the rest of you can surrender. Unless you don’t want to.”

  For a moment she thought they’d fight anyway, but then another woman, this one in armor that had similar markings to the one she’d shot, but not quite as nice, spoke. “Ah… I think I’ll surrender, yes.”

  She dropped her rifle, and a couple of seconds later the others dropped their weapons as well. Evelyn smiled thinly, stepping into the room to examine the captain. After a few seconds she spoke.

  “I don’t appreciate people trying to kill me. I like it even less when they choose to destroy my property. Killing me is at least an understandable goal. Destroying things I care about? That makes me upset. Very upset, as your ‘mercenary company’ just experienced,” Evelyn told them, her gaze playing across the men and women coldly. “Not that I believe you qualify as such. You were too much of idiots.”

  Evelyn couldn’t see their faces through their helms, but she could imagine how they were flinching from the way their heads jerked back. She paused for several seconds, then looked at the woman now in charge.

  “This is Fya. You will give her whatever codes are necessary to operate the ship, take whatever items she allows you to take, and be off it before I return in a few hours,” Evelyn said precisely. “If you do not do so, or if you are here when I return, I will kill you. I will not listen to pleas, excuses, or anything else. You will die, just like your captain did.”

  “Y-yes,” the woman agreed, her voice quavering.

  “What’re you doing, Milady?” Fya asked, looking at her and frowning.

  “The only way that they could have done as much damage as they did was by moving without my information network picking them up. The only way to do that is if the network was told not to tell me,” Evelyn said, her smile wintry as she glanced at the screens showing the bay around the ship. “As such, I’m going to have to have words with the Commodore. I’ll be dropping by the shop to get a few items, just in case I need to implement a regime change.”

  “Oh, drat. And I don’t get to come with,” Fya replied in obvious disappointment.

  The way the surrendered soldiers stiffened just made Evelyn want to laugh. They truly were incompetent, if that was all it took to scare them. She ignored them, and instead turned to leave the ship.

  “Um, was she serious?” Sabrina asked, but only after she was damned sure that the avatar of death masquerading as a woman was out of the docking bay. She didn’t want to talk anywhere near her.

  “Hm? About which part?” Fya asked, looking up from the console she’d logged into, barely having pushed the captain’s body out of the way. That was rather creepy on its own but considering what the two had done to the company Sabrina wasn’t about to breathe a word of disrespect. “I mean, if you’re still helping me when she comes back she probably won’t kill you. She might, but it’s not likely. She’s pissed off, but she’ll calm down in a bit.”

  Sabrina flinched, then explained nervously, “The regime change part.”

  Fya paused, looking at Sabrina curiously for a couple of seconds as she tapped the console’s rim, then murmured, “You really are clueless, aren’t you? She’s Evelyn, of course she’s serious! If the Commodore is behind this, he’s going to pay through the nose, hating every moment of it, yet he’ll be thankful to be alive afterword. If he’s stupid enough to try killing her, well… what you saw here will be a warm-up. She barely used her magic.”

  The blood drained from Sabrina’s face and she swallowed, desperately wishing she’d argued with the captain more. He’d said that this would be an easy job, a way to increase their profits by an enormous amount, maybe even enough to upgrade the gear of the entire crew. Instead, most of them were dead, and she had no clue how it’d come to that.

  The woman examined Sabrina for a few more seconds, then sighed, speaking impatiently. “Oh, come now! Evelyn Esendria Tarth? Former empress of Peldra? The Bloody Empress, Black Shipbreaker, and Death’s Mistress? You must have heard of her.”

  “She’s who?” Yurik asked, his voice strangled, and for a moment Sabrina’s vision grew hazy, as horror almost caused her to black out.

  “You heard me, and at least that much rang a bell. You’re all idiots. If you were going to kill her, an orbital bombardment would’ve been safer,” Fya said, clicking her tongue. “Not that it would’ve gotten through the shields. We have a system in place to keep track of orbital and sub-orbital threats. Might have to adjust the ground-based one after all of this… anyway, what were you carrying? This shows you had cargoes for two different groups, which seems odd. Not many mercs carry cargo for people.”

  “I… you’re not going to kill me if I answer, are you?” S
abrina asked, her stomach twisting even more, now that she realized who the woman who’d butchered ninety percent of their company was. She wasn’t happy about the most recent job, but with how bad their finances generally were, Sabrina had agreed to it. She was really regretting it, though.

  Fya turned to look at Sabrina thoughtfully again, tilting her head and smiling slowly. When she spoke, her tone was light, almost teasing, even if the content… wasn’t.

  “Ooh, you really are doing bad stuff, aren’t you? Things that would get you killed on a bunch of worlds? Not smart, not smart at all!” Fya said, tapping her fingers together as she grinned. “If you don’t help me, you’re dead. If you do help me, unless you manage to make me angry, you’ll be able to leave with most of your things and live. Now, what cargo are you carrying?”

  “I… well, most of it, the bigger cargo, is just a bunch of medical equipment that’s rather rare and controlled on the planet we were going to. A good supplement to our income.” Sabrina replied slowly, looking at the others nervously. They weren’t looking back at her, she noticed, which wasn’t appreciated. “The rest… a rather wealthy client requested two shipments. The first is a whole bunch of custom Dolls, still in their maintenance pods and packaging. That’s the bigger part of it… and the rest are, um… slaves.”

  Fya paused abruptly, looking at Sabrina closely, and her eyes narrowed. “Slaves. What type of slaves?”

  “Based on their appearances…” Sabrina swallowed hard, looking away intently. “Pleasure, probably?”

  “Oh… you’re so lucky that Evelyn didn’t hear you say that. She might’ve let you live, might not have. She hates slavery, though she’s not quite outraged enough to go wreck their market. She’s muttered about how prophecy is a jumped up form of slavery by the gods, and that she ran into a nasty crew early on,” Fya said, whistling softly as she shook her head. “I don’t like it either, mind you! I was a slave to a lamp for a couple of centuries, but it gave me time to work out my issues. Her reaction tends to be more violent than mine… but we’d better take care of this.”