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CHAPTER 3

We emerged from subspace near the asteroid belt. A blue gas giant lay beyond. Todd and Jeff climbed into the seats behind me as I grabbed the controls and prepared to take us in.

I never got my drink or those celphos rings.

Instead, I got a priority message that flashed on the screen displaying a name I didn’t want to see: Hylus. I tapped the button; his face didn’t appear. Instead, it was merely an audio spectrum.

“Edgy!” He growled in a deep booming voice.

Hylus sounded like a chain smoker with a deep voice, and he always sounded overdramatic and pissed, like he was growling at you. I swear he has a voice changer in that armor he wears.

“What do you want?”

“I need you to report to planet Moxia.”

“Moxia? What for?”

“There’s a ship there. You’re going to dock on it and await further instructions.”

“Hylus, I’m right outside Starkey’s and trying to get some food. Can this wait?”

“No, report to Moxia immediately!”

“Alright, geez.”

Hylus ended the call. Without needing me to say anything, Todd fetched the quarax whiskey and a glass full of ice. Exhaling, I punched in the coordinates and made sure we had enough fuel. Then I had to check if there was a fuel station at our destination. So back to subspace. I took a sip of my drink and spun around in my chair.

“Guess I’m not off the clock yet,” I grumbled as Todd gave Jeff some but didn’t pour any for himself.

Quarax whiskey is some powerful stuff, as if it’s dark red, almost black, color didn’t give it away. Humans can’t handle more than one perfectly portioned drink without needing a trip to a hospital, and it’s just what I needed before the shit storm I was about to walk into. I don’t remember the trip to Moxia and couldn’t feel my body for almost all of it until the end. Swiveling in the chair, I faced the ending psychedelic trip around us. Jeff was in a stupor behind me and groaning to himself as we came to a large green gas giant with hundreds of white rings around it.

“So, this is Moxia?” Todd asked.

“Yup,” I said as I sat up. “The ship. Where is it?” I asked, my limbs and face still feeling odd.

Another incoming message flashed on the screen. “What?”

“Unidentified ship, transmit your code.”

“The code is fuck off,” I muttered as I transmitted the code before he could get mad.

As they verified it, the ship popped up on sensors just outside the large rings. Theirs was a war machine, easily eight times the size of ours. It was longer than most skyscrapers. The ship was too large for on-planet hangars.

“That’s a large carrier class,” Todd said as he leaned over my chair. “I wonder what weapons it has?”

“I’m not in a hurry to find out,” I muttered.

“Vermillion, bring your ship down to hangar ten and remain inside.”

“Alright.”

Luckily for me, docking while intoxicated wasn’t an issue. The auto dock took over as soon as I got close. Our ship glided into the rectangular opening, with the number ten displayed in front of it as a hologram. Docking clamps secured the ship. Then a tube connected to our ship via the airlock. They wanted to send us something. Before I could ask about it, Hylus called.

“Hey, Hylus.”

“Report to your holodeck. We have much to discuss.”

I muted and looked over my shoulder, “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”

“Knowing you, probably,” Todd replied.

Both Todd and Jeff knew me better than anyone. We’d been friends since we were kids. I nodded and crawled out of my chair.

“Fuck this day,” I muttered while entering the holodeck.

The holodeck was a small, black chamber with rising chairs. I didn’t bother with them and saw that Hylus was calling from there. I tapped the button, and the room changed. Now I was standing in a giant, darkened stone temple with a large rock desk. The throne chair was designed for a giant and swiveled. A lit fireplace sat behind the chair. The temple windows lowered so I could hear the pattering of rain against the stone walls. This was Exaal, Hylus’s domain, an old planet destroyed thousands of years ago.

Speaking of Hylus, he sat behind the desk with his back to the massive fireplace. No one knows what he looks like beneath his black, orange, and red armor. Spikes covered many parts of the armor. The helmet had a mane of razor-sharp glowing red crystals coming out of it. A purple diamond-shaped crystal with golden ornaments around it rested at the center of his helmet. Larger, spikier crystals of the same type covered his shoulders. On his hips, he had smaller crystal spikes too. He wore a black and red cape with his insignia: a sword and shield featuring a monstrous face. I couldn’t see his face behind that armor, only his glowing yellow eyes. The suit also had several glowing orange lights on it. The largest one sat on his chest and looked like an upside-down triangle with two smaller triangles branching off it at the sides. His armor resembled a cross between an ancient knight and some high-tech armor. A large goblet, likely filled with wine, lay on his desk. No idea how he drank it when his helmet obscured almost all of his face.

“What are we doing here?”

“The mantoid, I instructed you to apprehend him, unharmed!”

“You said to bring him in alive. So, I brought him in alive.”

Hylus’s gargantuan fist struck the table, and he leaned in a bit. “He is in a coma, thanks to you!”

I shrugged. “So? Quiz him when he wakes up.”

Hylus leaned back in his chair. “I am growing tired of your rogue behavior! For example, last month, you caused millions in collateral damage during a rescue mission by setting the pirate ship on a crash course with the planet below!”

“Hey, I had to take out the ship somehow.”

“You leveled half a city doing so, Edgy! Not to mention your previous job, you were supposed to secure the package and keep a low profile. Instead, you led a bloated chase across half the planet against Union, and you landed yourself on Commander Cissus Gnar’s radar!”

He went down the list, including some missions I had forgotten about. I couldn’t contain my smile when he mentioned what happened on Katon VII. I baited a great ice worm into crashing through the Union base by getting it to chase me on a jet bike. It displaced small towns on the way. But, in my defense, it was the most direct route.

“You need to follow orders!”

“You know how I feel about rules,” I grumbled.

“I know! But when the situation requires you to follow our rules, you must comply! You are a loose cannon, and you must have some sense of control! Unfortunately, because of your antics today, we have to wait for him to awaken before we can interrogate him!” He stood up, towering over me even more.

“What’s the big deal anyway?”

Hylus pressed a button on his console, displaying a chemical equation via hologram.

“A new drug is flooding the populations in my territory. It’s turning people into violent mutants. We’ve had mutants attacking my forts and structures across sixteen worlds now. The man you abducted is a supplier of one of the key ingredients needed to synthesize it.”

“Mutants huh? Sounds fun.”

“They mutants are dangerous. I’m sending you to planet Karr. We’ve located another criminal that supplies one of the rarer components. You’re in charge of interrogating him.”

I smiled a bit. It’s been a while since I had the chance to interrogate someone, and I wanted to beat my record.

“Cool. Send me the info.”

“That’s not all. To make sure you fall in line, I am sending one of mine to observe you.”

I froze. “Am I being audited?”

“Yes, you are. He will monitor and notate everything you do.”

“Seriously?”

“The situation is dire; I need you to handle this properly.”

“Fucking hell, fine. Send in the snitch!”

“One last thing. I suspect Dr. Woo is behind this.”

That got me to pause. I hadn’t heard that name since the time Jeff stupidly bought one of his products. The packaging claimed it would remove all traces of drug use from your system so you could pass a drug test. It may shock you to hear that it didn’t do that. Instead, Jeff spent the entire day in a hospital, getting his stomach pumped. Not pleasant. Woo was a deranged scientist that concocted highly dangerous and addictive drugs. The guy made his own criminal empire and found himself on Union’s shit list and then Shard’s.

“You told me he was dead.”

“We never found the body,” Hylus answered. “It seems like something he would do, cause discord in our territories for trying to kill him. He did the same thing to Union when they locked him up.”

“You’re paying me double for this,” I told Hylus.

Hylus’s fist balled. “We’ve refueled your ship. We will discuss payment when the job is done.”

“Fine!” I groaned as he ended the conversation.

When I got there, the auditor was in the living room. He was a celium, a living mushroom. His head resembled a straw hat with a single eye at the center of the mushroom stalk. Coiling, vine-like structures made up his arms and legs. Like other members of Shard, he wore black and red armor that hid most of his body. In addition, he had a red split cape with Hylus’s emblem on it. His body was largely tan with specks of green, and the mushroom cap was a deep red. Two flaps that moved like sideways lips rested beneath his single yellow eye.

“Hello,” he said. “I’m Zoltar.”

“Yeah, whatever, Todd, help the shroom into the guest room, and make sure Jeff doesn’t eat him to get high.”

“Did you say shroom?” Todd asked as he poked his head down the steps.

Snitch did not like me calling him a shroom and glared up at me with his eye. I didn’t care. He couldn’t reach my lower chest and was here to annoy the hell out of me.

“I’ll have you know I am here to survey you, and as the auditor, I outrank you, and I must see everything!”

“You’re welcome to watch us jump through subspace, Snitch.”

“My name is Zoltar.”

“Your name is Snitch.”

We disconnected from the ship, leaving Moxia.

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CHAPTER 4

To reach planet Karr, we had to travel through half of the Epsilon Sector and pass over a thousand worlds, which was a long journey. Because of the high risk, we had to exit subspace multiple times for safety reasons. Zoltar made the trip even more agonizing. He walked around with his tablet, noting everything and asking me questions I didn’t know how I was supposed to answer.

He disliked Jeff’s constant weed smoking and his questions about celiums. I was just grateful Jeff kept his attention by annoying him. When we finally came out of subspace, we saw Karr. The main landmass was split into four colors, representing the planet’s massive rainforests. Emerald Forest in the west, Crimson Forest in the east, Platinum Forest in the north, and Golden Forest in the south.

“Wow… is the whole planet forests?” Jeff asked.

“Almost,” Todd said. “Except for some coastal towns and research camps.” Todd then presented a 3D planet readout.

“Hylus said our target is a hydrix named Skaltak. He’s in a town on the east coast near the Crimson Forest.” I told them.

“I must mention that the town is full of botanists and scientists belonging to the Hermes Medical Federation. Therefore, we should avoid causing unnecessary damage,” Zoltar spoke.

“Buzzkill!” I complained as I brought the ship down towards the planet’s surface.

When we passed through the atmosphere, we saw deep blue waters and a large earthen cliff. Dozens of white and red tents dotted the cliff and people wearing shorts and T-shirts moved between them. Beyond the camps was the Crimson Forest. As the name suggested, all the plants and trees in the area had bright red leaves.

Several large circular disks that served as landing pads rested on the edge of the cliff, with an open spot close by. Since we were in a more regulated part of the Delta Sector, I expected a message about our arrival, but no one called. So instead, we got pinged by the AI managing the landing pad. It functioned like a posh parking meter, soliciting payment for the length of my stay. Being on the safe side and cheap, I told it two hours and landed.

“Fucking Delta Sector,” I remarked as I watched the two hundred credits transfer on the screen.

Cargo ships dropped off supplies or loaded local plant medicines. As I docked, I hopped out of my chair and headed for the armory. On the wall, I had a few of my favorite guns. As I decided which one to pick, I heard footsteps behind me and turned; the Snitch was there.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I beg your pardon?” The talking shroom answered. “I am an auditor. I cannot audit you if I cannot observe you.”

I face palmed as he spoke. “Goddammit Hylus.” I turned back to my choice of weapons and settled on one.

“A Zeus cannon? Is that level of lethal force necessary?”

I ignored him as I grabbed the gun. It seemed like an exaggeration to call it a cannon based on its appearance. The device had a cylindrical body that ended in a small box shape. I paid good money for the portable mode feature. With it already collapsed, I could attach it to the slot on my lower back and hide it in my coat. Then I grabbed a shield generator, snapped it to my hip, and set it to active.

“Trust me, when it’s a snatch and grab, it almost always gets lethal.” I muttered, grabbing four small orbs with a blue light on the side, shock grenades, perfect for stunning. “You better not slow me down.” It was hard to read the snitch’s face, but I could tell that offended him. I didn’t care. “You armed?”

The fibers making up his left arm split apart, twisted, and changed into a disgusting-looking barrel, with small mushrooms pulsating on the side.

“One benefit of being a celium,” he replied. “It’s a paralyzing agent, non-lethal, but I can only make a certain number at a time.”

I shrugged. “Good to know.”

His arm returned to normal, and I opened the door and extended the bridge to climb out. I regretted wearing a long orange-red coat. The humidity on this bitch was ridiculous. Despite the ocean breeze, it felt like a cranked-up sauna.

“Rather sweltering, isn’t it?” Snitch complained.

“No shit. Alright, he’s supposed to be in that lab up there,” I pointed.

A large green tent loomed on the edge of the red forest. As if the heat wasn’t bad enough, the bugs wouldn’t leave me alone. Snitch expelled spores that reeked, but it drew the bugs away at least. I just buried my beak in my shirt. Researchers of a bunch of different species looked at us.

Penguins were super rare. Outside of Jeff and Todd, I had only ever seen one other penguin, a famous pilot named Ace Starborne. He used to be one of the most feared starship pilots in the EdgeWorlds. No one could rival his ship, the Azure Flash. They considered him a hero in many systems and a celebrity. Honestly; as a kid, I’d watch anything and everything involving him. After one last battle against Death Head’s fleet, when they tried to attack a medical station, he vanished. No one knows where he is.

The penguin homeworld, Aves, disappeared and nobody knows why. Penguins stayed isolated, so when the planet vanished, most of us did too. Guess I’m an endangered species now.

Entering the tent, some researchers questioned my choice of wearing a jacket in this weather. Zoltar told them he was here to study the local fauna and mentioned something called Mother taking an interest in this planet and that I was his ride. I did my best to play along and looked around. Eventually, I found our target sitting at the far end and bent over a microscope.

Hydrix were easy to spot with their multiple heads and tails. This one had blue and white scales and two heads sprouting from the top of the serpentine body. Six eyes, three on each side of their head. Left head had blue eyes, right head had green eyes. If memory serves, a hydrix gained more heads the longer they lived. Every century, they grew a new head and tail. One head jotted notes, the other examined a microscope. I didn’t think he saw us.

I walked towards him and reached into my pocket for the stun grenade. He sat back in his chair, and I saw him rise. He spun around and fired a pistol. His aim was way off and meant for someone much taller than me. He climbed out of his chair and hissed. I tossed the stun grenade.

I forgot one nasty detail about the hydrix.

Energy breath.

I got hit by two streams of arcing energy, striking me dead in my chest and knocking me down. The shield bore most of the impact, but the dome turned orange upon my landing. The grenade went wide, and Skaltak bolted out of the tent. I coughed and crawled to my feet.

“Edgy!” Zoltar shouted.

I looked over my shoulder and realized why he had missed. A researcher, a large cat-like alien with a scorpion tail, pulled a needle from his neck. I watched as his body balloon. His claws grew more prominent, and so did his teeth. Green veins exploded across his body. Rather than waiting for him to finish mutating, I reached for the Zeus cannon and flicked the switch. The cylinder part extended out, and the box shape at the front unfolded into four rectangular barrels.

I squeezed the trigger, and four blasts of lightning fired from the gun. Then, with a loud bang, the lightning slammed into the ballooning cat’s chest and sent him flying through the side of the tent.

“Don’t kill him!” Zoltar exclaimed.

“You can’t be serious!” I complained as I ejected the spent thunder shells by pulling the charging handle in front of the trigger.

The cat growled, viciously scraped the ground with its claws, and arose despite consuming enough electricity to deep fry a pig. I brought the gun up as it charged. Firing again, I watched it jump over the wall of lightning and slashed with its claws. I ducked, but I didn’t dodge its giant body as it pinned me to the ground. I planted the gun in its chest to keep it back. The tail lashed at me, going for my eyes. I dodged to the left as it got stuck in the soil. Zoltar ran up and swung with a blade arm and sliced off the tail.

The shrieking mutant slashed him. It tore through his armor and sent him flying across the dirt. That gave me the time to pull the lever and load the new cells. I targeted the cat and fired; the blast sent it high into the air. I rolled to my feet, pulled out fresh cells, and plugged them into the empty mag.

“Shroom? You alright?”

“Ow,” Zoltar grunted as he sat up.

White fluid trickled from the cuts to his chest. The angry kitty rolled to its feet and roared. Damn thing almost made me deaf. Zoltar transformed his arm again and fired a pod. A cloud of spores slammed into its face. The beast snarled, and I hoped that would slow it down, but no. It just charged me. I fired another shot, and it dodged. I used the cannon to deflect the claw that came for me. Unfortunately, this knocked me on my ass, and my back hit a rock.

“Fuck!” I screamed as a sharp pain surged through my spine.

Before I could recover, it snatched me in its claws and tossed me into the tent. I hit a desk full of glass beakers and vials and fell over the other side. Many researchers hid under the desks, others fled. I spat out blood and crawled to my feet. The world spun, and I couldn’t feel my ribs.

“Somebody’s been pumping them Arnolds,” I groaned.

Buff kitty tore open the tent and roared. I shot him again and sent him back outside. Zoltar had already fired three spore pods when I arrived. I watched the juiced-up mutant stagger around, and then it keeled over on its side. It snarled and tried to bite me; I aimed the gun at its face.

“No!” Snitch pleaded.

I pulled the trigger and watched its charbroiled brains hit the ground. I looked around and spotted Skaltak. He was running for a ship. Not on my watch. I retracted the gun and threw myself into a full sprint. I shouted at the panicked researchers to clear the way. The left head spun around and snarled at me before firing another energy blast. I dodged it, but the researcher behind me wasn’t so lucky and exploded into a pile of ash.

He stopped to load the gun again—big mistake. I tossed the shock grenade, and it went off right above his heads. He did the electric boogie in place while I caught up. He tried to say something, but his tongues weren’t working. I crowned him with the cannon and knocked him down. One of his heads was asleep, but the second wasn’t. I knocked it out with two hits. I wanted to hit him again, but Snitch had caught up.

I pulled out two sets of cuffs—one for his hands, the other to keep his necks together.

“Why did you kill him?”

“I read what Hylus sent. They don’t turn back.”

“They’re innocent people. We could have restrained him and delivered him to Hylus for a cure.”

I shook my head. “Does my ship look like it can contain that shit? It’ll take Shard a while to collect him, and he might rampage again. You shot him four times, and he was still going.”

“There must be a better way,” Zoltar sighed.

“I wasn’t hired to be a mutant wrangler. Let’s go.”