Asher flicked the lens of his glare goggles clearing the static from them. His breath came in crisp and cool through the filtration mask keeping the blistering arid heat of Ares’s desert out of his lungs. The wind whistled through the canyon. He looked over the red desolate desert that stretched for as far as the eye could see to ever corner of the world.
I will die on this world, and my death will change nothing, Asher thought the morbid reality of his existence like a dark specter haunting him. It didn’t weigh on him as it did others he had long since accepted the reality of his existence.
He leaned against the shaft of his two-handed hammer as he looked down at his Mobile Armed Command Center. The massive tank was over ten times his age, a remnant of the last Great War on Ares. The tanks which had acted as the command center for armies and heavy support with their rail guns were now the only way to traverse the massive deserts that made up seventy percent of the surface of the planet.
“How’s it looking captain?” came his first mate’s voice over his headpiece.
“We’re too exposed,” Asher growled. “I don’t like this spot at all Krell.”
Krell laughed over the intercom. “You said that when we got here Captain, but we’re still here. Why is that?”
Asher sighed. “Because we stumbled across one of the largest veins we’ve seen in years, doesn’t mean I have to like it. Anubis is just the sort of target that would tempt a nest of scavengers to try and raid us.”
“If they do, they’ll regret it,” Krell said his laughter subsiding at the thought of the raiders who hid in underground strongholds. They could be found throughout the edges of the desert near the port cities waiting to attack any maks or convoys who passed near them and looked vulnerable. “I’ve two men working in shifts on the guns at all times, if anyone comes by thinking Anubis is vulnerable, they get a rail spike through their ship so fast it won’t clear the cliff ridge.”
“I’m not worried about an aerial attack,” Ashur said. “I worry about a bunk of bikers; this is prime country for them and the Skival Tribe is known to patrol these canyons.”
“You really think they’d have scouts this deep out in the desert?” Krell asked.
“I’m worried we might have been followed,” Asher said. “Anubis isn’t exactly stealthy.”
“We’ll keep a sharp lookout,” Krell said. “If trouble comes, we’ll be ready for it.”
Asher continued to watch from atop the ridge as lasers cut apart the ground and bore into the rock. They had three illegal construction droids, while the use of AI was heavily regulated everywhere else in the Empire the Archons turned a blind eye to almost everything that happened on Ares as long as the supply of aresite kept flowing off-world. Loud booms filled the air rock-breaker explosives were dropped into the holes cut by the lasers. The rubble was then hauled up and shoved into a portable furnace powered by a fission reactor. The furnace wouldn’t refine the aresite into aurchium but it would get rid of the useless common slag so they could haul back a purer product to sell in the port cities to be shipped off-world.
This metal was the only reason anyone had any interest in Ares. The mineral was the reason for the massive port cities with hundreds of ships entering from orbit every day to trade, it was also the reason for the planet’s near inability to support humanoid life. There was plenty of water deep beneath the crust, but food was scarce. There were subterranean caverns beneath the surface filled with dense underground flora, unfortunately, they were also the home of mutant fauna that could rip through a man in power armor. The Great Wars fought over aresite had removed almost all vegetation on surface leading to the desertification that had created the vast red deserts.
Asher remembered his mother leaving him at the Temple of the Radiant as a child. The monks there looked out for children while their parents worked in the factories and refineries. He’d been taught his letters, mathematics, geography, astrology, and history. His teachers had to be very careful about what they taught due to the spies of the Archon Empire always keeping an eye on any religious orders, especially those who had once been a great power that fought against them. Even so, the monks had shown Asher and the other children what the surface of Ares had looked like once, a vast green expanse with rivers and flickering lights from the cities.
Those were all gone now, most of those cities were ruins somewhere in the deep desert, and the forests had been burned to ash by the bombs that had scoured the planet’s surface. It had been a slow but inevitable death for the planet.
Asher found himself grieving for a planet that not even his grandparents had ever known. It had been three hundred years since the last great war and the planet had been turned into a permanent wasteland. Now every day was a struggle for survival for the people of Ares, children had to kill before even becoming an adult; they married young, had children young, and then died young. At twenty-five Asher had a decade on almost half his crew. He’d be lucky to see thirty-five and considered an elder if he made it past forty.
Asher let out another sigh taking in a chilly breath. He allowed himself only a few luxuries, but the cooled filtration mask was one that no Dust-devil went without, doing so made the desert life unbearable with air so dry and hot it sucked the sweat from your brow before it could even form.
A dust cloud appeared on the horizon. Asher’s heart skipped fearing it was a rising Iron Storm, it settled somewhat when he saw no sign of the lightning flashing in the sand. Tapping the side of his goggles he focused his vision spotting the speeder bikes as they tore down the canyon pass. True to his word Krell had the rail guns fire but the erratic weaving of the bikes and the obscuring sand made it hard to get accurate targets.
The weakness of a mak was that it had been designed to take out other large enemy vehicles and aircraft. During the war when she was constructed, Anubis would have had an entire army around her to deal with small threats like the raiders. Now she only had her crew and captain to protect her.
Flicking a switch on his speeder bike Asher started up its engine. The grav-repulser came to life and the speeder-bike lifted off the ground. Swinging a leg over its saddle Asher revved the engine and the ion-thrusters burst to life and blue plumes of energy appeared behind them as it shot off. Asher held onto the clutch of his speeder one-handed his other holding a massive warhammer its telescoping shaft extending to as long as he was tall. His speeder was modified for extra speed at the price of removing its turn thrusters; that was fine with Asher, he had a different way of turning.
Cutting the thrusters Asher held out his warhammer to the right of the speeder and pulled the trigger on it. A small jet of blue flame from the miniature ion engine on the warhammer burst to life and turned the speeder ninety degrees as it kept its momentum. Jerking around a rock in his path Asher headed straight for the scavengers.
There was no way to misinterpret their actions, this was a raiding party coming to strip them of their food, equipment, and weapons and tear apart Anubis for parts. Asher closed the distance between him and scavengers; more speeder bikes from Anubis racing to catch up. Crew members dragged mining equipment back into the mak as its rail guns swiveled and fired in the cloud of stand.
The first scavenger was upon Asher, he brought up a heavy pistol and fired a blast of plasma. Ducking down the shot passed overhead, then Asher was on them. His hammer swung out knocking a man off his bike. Asher could barely see fifteen feet around him. Bikes sped past shots were fire at him but missed in the fast-paced confusion. Asher swung the hammer again burying the front of a speeder into the sand and sending its rider flying.
Cutting the power to his thrusters Asher held out the hammer as far as it could go and pulled the trigger. The hammer’s engine burst to life, and he spun three-hundred-and-sixty degrees as he continued to slide with his forward momentum. Revving the engines again Asher pursued the scavengers, they fired behind them towards the sound of his speeder but were shooting blind with the sand around them.
With the extra forward thrusters replacing his turners Asher’s bike was much faster than theirs as he came up behind them again.
“How are we on getting everyone inside?” he asked Krell as he dodged the blue burst of plasma.
“Working on the last piece of equipment now,” Krell replied. “How are doing with the raiders.”
Asher jerked to the side to avoid another blast of superheated plasma, his speeder leaning putting him almost horizontal with the ground. “I’ve had better days,” Asher grunted.
The mak had the ability to sink down flat to the ground and bunker down like a hermit crab. This was what allowed the massive tank to survive the iron storms when everything else was shredded or fried by the lightning. The red aurchium metal plating of the mak let it whether almost any attack but even its armor pieces had to be replaced from time to time after an iron storm.
Speeding up Asher swung his hammer in a wide arc, he was in the midst of the scavengers and his strike caused three to jerk to the side one colliding with another speeder causing both riders to crash. His strike hit the throttle stick of another speeder smashing it into full thrust and breaking it off. The man jumped off his speeder as it veered into the cliff wall and landed on the back of another speeder bike. More plasma rounds were shot at Asher, this time three hit him, one in his thigh, the other two in his back. His leather duster was made from the hide of one of the mutated abominations beneath the surface and its natural properties let it diffuse the heat somewhat but still there was a hole burned through his coat the plasma spattered against the metal plate he wore over his bodysuit.
A burst of laser fire came from Anubis as a sniper picked off one of the scavengers. The guns of Anubis stopped firing the speeder bikes were too close for her to fire effectively without risking our own men. A blast from a heavy plasma gun hit Asher’s speeder, and a leakage in the engine caused it to start spinning wildly out of control. Asher jumped off pushing off his out-of-control speeder. A blast from the jump-thrusters on his boots carried him through the air. Hitting the ground, he went into a roll diffusing the force he took as he slid behind a rock outcrop on the canyon floor.
Unholstering his own sidearm Asher leaned around the rock and fired off a round of plasma his thumb cocking back the hammer of the revolver again he yanked his head back as return fire burned black holes into the red rock. Hatches along Anubis popped open, and rifles fired down on the scavengers.
“Why haven’t they retreated yet?” Krell asked over coms.
“Not sure,” Asher replied firing off blindly around the rock. “we slowed them down enough for Anubis to seal up so there’s no way they can get in her now. They can’t be desperate enough to try and attack a prepared mak.”
“Pierre, what’s your situation?” Asher asked the crew’s sniper.
“They’re all hiding from me now,” Pierre drawled slowly. I couldn’t see him, but he was somewhere on top of Anubis, his laser rifle, searching for new targets. “I’ll need you to flush them out if you want me to take care of them.”
“What percentage of the ore did we get from this mine?” Asher asked, it might be better to take what they had and just leave rather than risk more lives.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“We mined around forty percent of what was in the vein, but Anubis is only up to fifty-percent capacity,” Krell said.
“Damn,” Asher said. “Is Twitch inside or out here?”
Pierre laughed over the coms. “You can’t keep that man inside when there’s a fight to be had.”
“Twitch,” Asher said over the group frequency. “What’s your position?”
“I’m on the northeast side of Anubis,” Twitch said. “A group of six of them got me pinned down.”
“How many fighters are out with me?” Asher asked.
“You got ten men, used to be twelve but two died at the start of the firefight,” Krell said.
Asher nodded, he regretted the deaths of every one of his men but there was no place free of risk on Ares and those men had done their duty.
“I’ll need those inside to lay down covering fire on my say-so from the hatches as we move in to flush them out for Pierre,” Asher said giving out the order.
“Captain, we have a problem,” Pierre said.
“What is it?” Asher asked.
“Dust clouds to the north,” Pierre answered.
“More raiders?” asked Asher.
“There’s lightning,” Pierre said as way of an answer.
“Fuck,” Asher swore. “Krell, get Anubis out of this canyon I don’t want her buried under a mountain of sand in here when that storm hits.”
“Aye captain,” Krell acknowledged. “What about the scavengers?”
“I’ll deal with them,” Asher said. “Pulling out a white handkerchief he put it on the end of his revolver and stuck it out. “Hold your fire I want to talk.”
A nervous shot went off near his hand but there was shouting, and all fire stopped.
“What do you want?” a voice called out; it had the distinct accent that marked the man as one of the scavenger tribesmen.
“There’s an iron storm approaching!” Asher yelled. “Do your people respect the desert laws?”
“We do,” the man replied.
“Then I offer to break bread with you under my roof,” Asher said.
There was silence for a moment then a man in a long leather duster similar to Asher’s stepped out from behind a boulder. “I accept your bread and your hospitality.”
“Open up the bay door,” Asher told Krell over the intercom. “Let them bring in their speeders than get us moving I want us to the top of that ridge in ten minutes or less.
Moving quickly the discarded speeders were grabbed and hauled towards the back of Anubis. The boarding ramp lowered, and the sliding bay doors opened with a grinding of gears. The scavengers and dust-devils who had been locked in a furious fire-fight before now worked together to bring in the vehicles and wounded.
No one who still had their soul and had ever seen what an iron-storm did to a man would willingly leave another out for one. Everyone was soon inside the mak, and it started moving unsealing itself as its wheels unlocked and pressed against the dirt then began rolling up the canyon pass. Anubis’ prow pushed and smashed anything in her path. Her mass and power were a match for anything the planet could throw at her which was why she was still crawling across its surface three centuries after being deployed to it.
Asher took a loaf of bread from Gristle, the ship cook. Breaking it in two, he offered it to the leader of the raiding party.
“I offer this bread as a sign of peace,” Asher said.
The man bowed his head and took the offered half of bread. “I accept your gift and shall abide by the rules of a guest and bring no violence into your house.”
The traditional ritual completed. The men stood as tables were brought out and set down. Anubis came to a slow stop then sank down. Her crew shifted easily with her movements while the scavengers stumbled as she shifted and stopped. Sealing down again Krell turned off all power disconnecting the reactor. The lighting outside shouldn’t affect the systems but taking that risk was a good way to get the internal systems of a mak fried. Then without cooling and movement a crew would roast to death out on the sands.
Battery operated lights were brought out casting the room into shadow and lights. Asher sat down across from the leader of the scavengers.
“I am Captain Ashur of Anubis,” he said extending his hand.
The man took it his arm much smaller than Ashur’s, but then again everyone’s was.
“I am Galfroy, hunt-master of the Skival tribe,” he said.
Food was set out and the scavengers dug in hungrily. The crew of Anubis ate more conservatively although no one would accuse either side of having manners. Only Asher and his officers ate with any level of decorum. The meal was mostly beans, rice with a meat-based protein compound whose ingredients one shouldn’t ask about. Asher’s meal was served with an additional slab of synth meat. The pure protein product was a necessity for him to eat.
Born with a genetic mutation that caused him to be much larger and have double the muscle mass of normal man Asher was a mountain of a man. Such conditions were not uncommon, it was result of the injections Archon Legionaries were injected with during their years of service. For the soldiers of the empire the effects were temporary and would disappear entirely after one to two years without more injections. However, while on them the effects could be passed down to children sired by them, for this reason the legionaries were forbidden from procreation during their years of service.
That rule might have been enforced on other worlds but on Ares no one cared what the Legionaries got up to. Asher was not the only child to have been fathered by a legionary on leave, it was a story that was repeated over and over again. A girl hoping to have met her shining knight only to be left pregnant and abandoned as soon as the father was recalled into service and sent to some other planet by the empire.
Asher’s mother had difficulty providing for the dietary needs of her son. She had to leave him in the Temple of the Radiant which offered free childcare to working parents and single mothers. He’d had to start sifting the sands outside the city shields for aresite to get enough credits for extra rations.
Finishing his meal Asher sat back and watched as Galfoy finished his own meal. The scavenger took a piece of bread wiping up every last drop before sitting back in his own seat. The man had bright yellow eyes similar to Ashur’s own marking them as descendants of the original inhabitants of Ares.
“Tell me,” Asher said. “Why did you continue attacking after we sealed up, there was no way for you to break Anubis’ shell.”
Galfoy sighed. “We’re desperate for food. A carcatow, a creature of the depths burrowed up into our farms, it destroyed all of our crops before we could kill it. Now our people are starving as we ration what little food we have.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Asher said.
Galfoy looked over the captain in thought. I understand that your vehicles carry a great deal of food aboard.
“We carry several months of rations,” Asher answered carefully and truthfully.
“And how would you feel about trading them?” Galfoy asked, leaning forward.
“Your people are not miners,” Asher said. “What do you have we would want to trade.”
“Information,” Galfoy said. “We do not mine the desert for the red metal or old relics like you, but we have seen many such places when the winds have blown them clear.”
“And you think you know a place that would be worth that much?” Asher asked raising an eyebrow. “Food is one of the most valuable things on Ares, what could be worth that many rations.”
Galfoy lowered his voice. “A Radiant Command station,” he said.
Asher stiffened. Of all the loot to come across in the desert that was most sought after the most was the technology of the Radiants. Since their near complete destruction no one had yet been able to replicate their engineering. Ashur’s own hammer was a piece of their technology, the biolock on it let only descendants of its original wearers use it. It wouldn’t do any good to just steal the weapon since it would only sit in an armory until someone whose genetic code was close enough picked it up again. The weapon was basically indestructible, despite being over three-centuries old there wasn’t a scratching, dent or mark to be found on the golden metal surface. It couldn’t be opened without destroying it to get a look at its components either, that one weapon was worth nearly half the price of Anubis.
“How can you be sure it was a Radiant Command Center?” he asked.
“Two of my men with more bravery than sense entered it,” Galfoy said. “We watched them over a vidlink, the traps that ripped them apart were unmistakable.”
Despite the danger it offered, the fact the traps were active excited Asher even more. It meant the site was still in working order and unlooted. Unlooted meant Radiant artifacts and technology could sell for more than a hundred loads of aresite, it might mean passage offworld for all of them aboard Anubis.
“How long ago did you see this base?” Asher asked, if the information was decades old there was a chance some other crew could have stumbled across it and it was just an empty tomb now.
“A year and a half ago,” Galfoy said. “I could mark it on your holomap, the exact spot as well.”
Asher didn’t jump on the offer. Sitting back, he thought it over, it was a risk, that food was expensive and if he sold it all he’d have to head straight back to port to sell the metal they had. There was enough in the war chest to replenish their stores but buying that much food was always expensive. The chance at that treasure was just to great to pass up though.
Asher extended his hand. “You have a deal.”
---
Anubis docked in repair bay nine at Helvesh Station. They paid a monthly premium to keep the repair bay empty for their return and to keep stationed there while the crew was on leave. Helvesh Station was the name of the loading docks cut into the stone of Ares at the base of the mountain Andromeda was set into. Andromeda was the third largest Port city on Ares, it hadn’t been a city originally instead being a massive military fortress, being set into the mountainside and its energy shield were the reason it had survived the scouring of the iron storms. Asher left the ship to see to business in the city, a group would remain aboard Anubis to guard her, but the warehouse security would deter most thieves.
Asher walked through the tight streets crammed with people. Andromeda extended deep underground and into the sky. His business was on the higher levels with the brokers and merchants. Taking an elevator platform, he rose up into the air. Firearms weren’t allowed in the city officially, but Asher still had his hammer. Despite being bio-locked there were some who would steal it to sell to an off-world collector. The platform came to a hissing stop and everyone on it stepped off.
His leader duster and body armor underneath marked Asher as a dust-devil, it put him a tier above those in the cities who worked comparatively safer jobs but also ones that didn’t pay nearly as well. Asher made his way through the slightly less crowded streets of the trades district until he came to the business he was looking for. The run-down-looking warehouse was guarded by two men almost as big as Asher, they didn’t outwardly carry guns but there was sense of restrained violence about them.
“I’m here to see Barker,” Asher said.
“Your early Asher,” the guard to the right said. “What happened? Blow your systems out in the sands?”
“I had some unexpected business that required my return,” Asher responded coolly. “Is Barker here?”
“Yeah,” the guard on the right an enforcer named Kodis said. Putting a finger to the side of his goggles he contacted Barker. “Boss, Asher wants to see you, should I tell him you’re busy?”
The man listened for a second then waved Asher through. They didn’t ask for his weapon and Asher wouldn’t have handed it over. Making his way into the hallway and down a set of stairs Asher entered Barker’s office. The man wore a brown suit that did little to hide the body armor underneath it, a highly illegal laser pistol sat in a shoulder holster in plain sight.
Sitting down before being asked to Asher waited as Barker lit up a cigar.
“What do you want captain?” Barker asked.
His beard was styled with imported guanine bees wax his long dark brown hair styled with gel contrasting it significantly against the messy short steel grey of Asher’s hair.
“I need a thief,” Asher said.
“A thief?” Barker asked. “Planning on raiding the Archon armory for weapons or sabotaging another captain?”
“I don’t do sabotage you know that,” Asher said flatly.
“That’s right, forgot you were too good for that,” Barker said taking a long pull from his cigar. “But not too good to do business with the likes of me.”
“Better the devil I know,” Asher said.
“What you want a thief for?” Barker asked.
“I might have a lead on some Radiant technology,” Asher said. “But if its still there its location is trapped, I need someone who can deal with those traps.”
“Radiant Technology, that’s worth a lot these days,” Barker whistled. “Even more so from the rumors I’ve been hearing.”
“It might not be anything,” Asher said. “It was a tip I got from a Scavenger so it could just be a boobytrapped weapons bunker from the war or nothing at all.”
“One third of the loot,” Barker said.
Asher laughed. “For supplying me with a thief? One-twelfth is already generous enough for a simple employment job like this.”
Barker laughed. “You always did have a sense of humor Asher, thieves able to disable Radiant traps are not easy to come by, one fifth.”
“A fifteenth of what we get is already more generous than what your service as a broker is worth,” Asher said.
“One-sixth then,” Barker said. “And I’ll get you someone who won’t talk your ear off.”
“One-twelfth,” Asher said. “I won’t go any more than that and you already know it’s a good deal.”
“A pleasure doing business with you,” Barker said extending his hand and the two shook on it.
--
Asher stepped back onto Anubis deck the dark red metal a familiar comfort making him feel more at ease.
“Did you go and see your sister,” Krell asked him.
“Her husband doesn’t want to see me,” Asher said shaking his head.
“Who cares what that drunk thinks,” Twitch said. “She’s your sister you need to watch out for her.”
“If Naomi needs me, she’ll contact me,” Asher said. “And don’t talk about Malik like that, he was one of us once.”
“He let the desert break him,” Twitch said. “I know he’s your family, but he drinks away the money you give your sister. It’s a harsh truth but it would be better for her and the kids if he stepped down a mine shaft and never came back.”
“That enough Twitch,” Asher snapped.
Twitch held up his hands. “I’ll drop it, but we both know its true.”
“We get a thief?” Krell asked.
“Should be here any minute,” Asher said nodding.
A dark brown-haired man with dark ceramic armor and a desert hood walked up to them.
“You Captain Thorn?” he asked.
“I am,” Asher said.
“Barker sent me to help you with… an excavation,” he said. “I’m Doctor Renard, I’m an archeologist from New Siren, I specialize in the Luminari civilization.”
“Welcome aboard,” Asher said. “Krell, fire up the engines we’re heading back out into the dust.”