I surrendered peacefully to the bounty hunters because they would have certainly killed me in a heartbeat, maybe I might could’ve shot one but the other two would have dropped me and Jo like a bad habit, easy as shit.

So, they call in a trooper transport to haul our sorry asses to Thunderbird, the capital city of Blasted Lands, ironically, that’s where I was trying to go to anyway, but the accommodations are not very desirable, nor the company; the troopers have four guards with us, they aren’t taking any chances of us making any kind of escape. And I thought I heard something about freedom fighting terrorists being a possible danger because of us being high value assets/targets and such or something… not sure what that was all about though. Freedom fighting terrorists? What the hell is going on out there since I’ve been laying low and on the run?

Guard one says to guard three, his voice slightly distorted from the helmet, internal microphone and external speaker combination, “so you think Radiance and Hope will go to war after the attack on the Tricon Moon mine, even though Hope is denying it was them?”

“Don’t know, don’t give two shits neither, it’s far from here and we got closer, more real problems to worry about, so keep your head in the game, here and now, you understand rookie?” Says the ranking trooper, some sergeant I figure.

“Yessir!” Snaps the rookie trooper.

Then a half hour goes by in total silence, it’s gonna be a long boring ride I guess, I figure we got about 3 more hours of this bullshit to endure, but then we begin to slow down for some reason.

The sergeant says, “what the fuck you mean, they are here, now?” He’s clearly responding to something on his internal comm systems. Four confused troopers look at each other as we come to a complete stop, in the middle of nowhere, this can’t be a good sign.

There is a hydraulic hiss, and the hatch opens and there is a platoon of shock troopers outside waiting, and three Sentients; two are female looking and the other an elderly looking male. These must be the Hunter-Seekers, they are here to take Jo away, and there ain’t a goddamn thing I can do about it.

“Here’s your damn machine, I don’t know why you can’t wait until we get to Thunderbird and process them properly,” that sergeant says to them with saltiness in his voice.

But the elderly looking Sentient says back in a warm but commanding voice as he points at me, “we will take the human too, you can have him back when we are finished with our investigation.”

“The hell you will! He killed a trooper, this fucker is going to be hung,” says the sergeant in protest, but the shock troopers move in and push him aside and grab my arm and start to escort me to their dropship twenty meters away, I have little choice but to comply.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, but this isn’t a request,” the Hunter-Seeker says, and turns and walks with us to the dropship and the shock troopers close in around us and we move in unison, more or less, while that sergeant is still mumbling profanities and protests, but makes no move to interfere.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I’ve never been to space before, I always meant to, but never got around to it, but here I am now, inbound to Hope’s capital warship in low orbit. We land in the docking bay in the center axis of the ship, then we are escorted to adjacent holding cells. Here I await whatever is in store for me, some interrogation and questioning I suppose to ascertain if, and to what extent Jo might be rogue.

A few hours go by, or maybe it’s the next day, I don’t really know because we are in space, and they don’t exactly give me access to the GCN or any kind of chronometer/time-keeping-device. There is gravity but it’s artificial from the rotation of the rings, it’s these rings where most of the work is done and where the crew stays. Eventually, the guards take me to another area, I think this is some interrogation room or meeting room, I don’t know.

Now, here I wait in this room for another hour or two, bored as shit, with two guards that might as well be robots with how much personality they have, even without their helmets. Eventually that elderly-looking Sentient comes in and he says, “I plan to question you soon, I was going to today, but we are being recalled back to Hope. The trip is about seven days, there will be ample time on that journey.”

“Oh, for fuck-sake! You guys are hailing my ass across the entire trinary star system, just to ask me a few questions, only to put me on a transport for another goddamn week back here?”

“Oh, it’s doubtful you will be on a capital ship back, it might take longer because only a few ships in the fleet can attain level 10 hyper-photonic speeds, likely it will take up to and not limited to several months, but are you in a hurry to be executed?” Says that damn Sentient, in his elderly but commanding voice, a voice and tone that is starting to annoy the shit outta me.

“Listen to me asshole, Jo ain’t fucking rogue. They were going to kill him, I saved him, hoping to get him to you guys, so you can hear the whole story and maybe, just maybe give him a fair shake.”

“We will talk soon,” the Sentient nearly cuts off my words, as if he isn’t even listening to me.

As I shake my head I says, “So, are we done then for today, asshole?”

“I understand your frustration, but your insults are not necessary, neither are they entirely warranted or particularly productive, and they are most likely counter-productive to your goals. Have a good day Mister Black Crow.” Says the Sentient, then he walks on out as I hit the table in frustration, a frustration that is doubled because I can barely hit the table because I’m shackled to it. When I look out the window to take my mind off this shit, I see a shuttle out there, kinda far at the other side of the Delta Icon.

What is unknown to me at that moment is that it’s a shuttle bringing supplies from the surface, it’s not military but is a military subcontractor. On that shuttle is a man that isn’t what he seems; he is the uncle of Dahlia, and he is the head of the Jihad Djinn rebel group. Somehow, he was able to bring a high-explosive device on board the shuttle, a military-grade tac-nuke that can be masked from scans, supplied by Radiance Coalition Force, or RCF for shorthand. What I did know was that there has been political tension between Hope and Radiance for some time, but it was kinda like a cold war and I don’t pay much attention to all that bullshit.

Boom! A gigantic explosion shutters through the Delta Icon, knocking the guards off their feet, slamming them into the wall. I’m still shackled to the metal table that is mounted to the floor, so it keeps me from smashing into the wall but nearly breaks my arms.

As I gather my wits from nearly being knocked unconscious and still seeing stars, a siren sounds, echoing through the ship's halls, “alert, alert, abandon ship, we are in freefall and crippled, the Delta Icon is going down, I repeat, all hands abandon ship!”

I look out the window and see the rear section of the ship separated from the rest of the ship, and drifting apart, she’s blown in two and lost her engines. But I’m still shackled to the fucking table as a stress crack starts to tear through the outer haul of the room.