Chapter One - The Shot
Our story begins with me, of course, entering the ‘Nomad’s Path’ on New Earth.
It’s a large bar filled with all kinds of scum, naw I'm just messing with you, why would I go somewhere so generic, but it does have a nice atmosphere, created by its dark blue wall and spruce wood interior.
I went to an empty bar stool and sat down waiting for my latest contract emissary to arrive.
"So what you'll have?" said a gruff voice.
That my good reader is my friend Edd the barman.
"One regular, please"
"Got a good contract? Here"
"Thanks, it smells like a good one, how are things here?"
In response I got something along the line of *grumble* “Kicked him out” *grumble* “Shot his arm” *grumble* “Fine”
At last, a small green woman came to me asking “Are you the bounty hunter Jayzarr?”
To which I grinned “The one and only”
“You look young” she said unimpressed.
“Well go find another twenty year old who has not yet failed a contract and has a record like my own”
I answered angrily, I have to deal with too many people who judge me by my age, didn’t they hear about the book and its cover
“There's a first for everything" she retorted
I know what you're thinking, what a bitch.
"Now down to business, my client is offering you a chance, do well here and we can see about working together again in the future” she said while passing me a file.
In it was the picture of a man in his late 40 ‘Name: Richard Bower, lead researcher in ExoCorp science division’.
"Hey, I don’t kill for corporate espionage”
"Rest assured, your employer is ExoCorp, Mr Bower threatened the company and is trying to use his research to create illegal weapons.
The rest of what you need to know is in the file, Goodbye Mr Zarrin”
And with that she left.
So I got off my barstool, tipped Edd and started walking towards my ship Her Highness. She looks like a bus but bigger with two sets of small wings going out the side’s. She’s a rusted old thing, but it's all for cover, truth be told it’s a custom ship I got for saving some Avak Zone Prince. I did bring him in though, he was wanted alive, anyway back to my ship.
Her Highness could run undetected for hours, and had a class R-55 railgun that could pierce through most shields.
I opened the door and the engine starting to run automatically, got to love AI. I told her my destination, New London, and we went off.
So I forgot you don’t know much about me, do you, where to start, well my parents were both in this line of work, it’s how I got their skill. It’s also how they met, , tied to kill each other, fell in love, but this is not their story it's mine , so let’s continue. I’m not fully human, I’m actually a fourth fyalke from my mother’s side. They look like humans but have purple skin and can create bio electrical shock from their hands. It’s also how I got my purple and green eye colors, one color from my mom and the second from my dad.
For those of you who are interested in how I look, the handsome devil that I am, I’m a meter eighty one, short brown messy hair (I don’t take care of it), both eyes have an outer purple ring and an inner green one. My clothes usually consist of blue jeans, a plain T-shirt and most importantly my Tec gear: a pair of goggles with heat and night vision, my fingerless glove that connect with my ship's AI and can hack most guns and systems, and last but not least my black duster with its awesome purple neon design, which also is a personal cloaking device.
At last I arrived at my destination with Her Highness announcing
“Sir we have arrived at New London” in her feminine robotic voice.
I got up from my trazigari leather couch, i'm not lying you could fall asleep in it, put on my gear and opened the weapon rack. Now I know what you’re thinking how could a young bounty hunter like me get such good loot, well when your parents worked in the same business as you do sometimes that can help. They introduced me to a Blaxian weapons smith so all my loot is one of a kind, just like me.
So you must be wondering what guns and other toys I had lying around. Well for starters I have an ion modified shotgun, I assure you it’s an explosion maker, my twin black raven pistols, modified with armor piercing bullets, and most importantly my laser rifle. It can shoot a twichle bug from kilometers away, and as the name suggests they tend to twitch a lot.
I took my rifle out, made sure it was charged and got out of my ship.
“Your Highness please you cloak yourself”
“As you wish sir” and with that she cloaked herself becoming invisible to the naked eye, I can still see her through my goggles, but well most people don't have goggles like mine.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I turned around and started walking away from my invisible ship in the parking lot.
Richard (my target) live at Branch street, building number 395, this area of the city consisted of mostly four to five floors high buildings.
Once I got close I activated my cloaking duster, disappearing from sight.
I went to the building in front of his apartment and touched the front door, my gloves did the rest. Within 30 seconds the door opened and I got into the elevator which I of course also hacked, taking it all the way to the top floor, climbed the rooftop stairs and took base.
I first scoped out the rooftops near me and the one I’m on to make sure no one was here, even though I’m cloaked I prefer to work in solitude, with no distractions nor witnesses.
After I double checked that I was alone I took out my rifle, which was in its compact form, from under my duster and opened it, a full 1.3 meter weapon.
I put it on the ground with its base open and started waiting.
About 2 and a half hours later, patience is a very necessary skill for this line of work, he arrived home, got out of his car and started walking towards the door. I could have shot him right then and there but the contract stated that they want him done quietly, so no witness and while he’s on a chair or bed so he doesn’t make any noise from falling.
I activated my goggles on to heat vision, and let me tell you when you see all living thing like this and you got a gun it’s a little scary to think what you can do, but I’m a professional so I focused on my target.
It took another 15 minutes before he sat down on a couch and I waited for him to put down his mug.
17 seconds later I shot him.
It was a simple shot to the heart in which the laser burnt a passage blocking it so it looked like he had a heart attack. With my target dead I closed my rifle, hid it under the duster and started walking back toward Her Highness.
Once I got to her I told her “Open up, we got a bounty to collect” while I uncloaked myself, setting course to the central police station.
Now I’m guessing you’re wondering why would I do that, well it’s because I’m a legal bounty hunter. This means that all my bounty’s go through the government's bureaucracy, that way most of what I do is legal or in the grey.
So as usual I got there, parked Her Highness and went to the bounty hunter department to complete my contract.
Usually it takes a few days until the processing of the bounty is completed, you know bureaucracy, but after I filled the contract form the clerk panicked and called security. Suddenly 20 armed men rushed to my position, handcuffed me, read me my rights and threw me into a holding cell, all to my complete shock.
After a few hours in the holding cell, I had about enough.
“The hell do you want from me “ I shouted hoping someone would give me an answer
“You're sentenced to appear in front of a tribunal for an illegal contract” answered a voice “you made a mistake coming back here boy”
“You think I would have come back here if I took an illegal contract AND report it!? I'm not an idiot”
“Says the man behind bars” as he chuckles to himself.
More hours later two guards came to my cell “move to the back of the cell, face the wall and hands behind your back”
“You could buy me dinner first” they were not amused
“Time to appear before the tribunal” one told me as he cuffed me and led me out of my cell.
Now you need to understand ‘Tribunal’ sound big and scary, and well sadly it is. This is not a civilian court, I don't get a lawyer and the odds are against me.
I was brought before a tribunal with 3 judges: a blue male with white hair clearly showing his age, a blonde human with short hair in her sixties, and white (and I mean white like snow) female with long white hair which age I could not discern. She looked too young to be in a tribunal, but that's Dagonians for you, youthful looking sons of bitches.
The blonde spoke first “Case 3-5t1, one Jasper Zarrin (my real name) committed the crime of accepting an illegal contract and completing it, standard sentence 20 years to life, what do you have to say in your defense?” she finished at last gesturing me to talk, clearly not expecting much.
“I scanned the contract it was clean, if I had known it was illegal I would not have taken it”
“You should have followed procedure, and taken the contact directly to us for scanning, and for failing to do so you’ve killed an innocent man” answered me the blue man.
“If I may interrupt, Jasper-”
“Jayzarr, I prefer using my business name”
“Fine, Jayzarr, who gave you this contract?” said the white lady slyly, with her eyes glowing like a child with a new toy.
“I was contacted 3 day ago by one of my contact telling me that I have a chance in a lifetime opportunity,
A contract from ExoCorp, and a chance for future work,
The emissary they sent was a woman with green skin, about 1.50 meters give or take, listen if I could help more I would but I don't know anything else”
“I believe you” the white haired lady assured me
“And yet that does not mean he is innocent lady Soryon, he still committed a crime!”
The blue guy said slamming his fist, clearly not caring.
“I suggest we use him, after all he so generously offered his help” continued lady Soryon “instead of locking him up, how about we give him a chance to find and capture the real perpetrator of this fiasco” she suggested “Given his skills he should be able to complete this task”
I don’t quite like what she's saying and surely not how she's saying it, but as long as it's not prison.
“This is highly irregular madam” the blonde said surprised
“And what promise can he give that he will do it” retorted the blue man
“We shall send him with an officer to aid him and to make sure he follows this task till the end and for a little added security we’ll implant a tracker in him”
Lady Soryon said looking at me, making me realise that this whole tribunal was just too make me her piece in some larger game. I'm a wild card thrown into her deck and she's taking a risk.
“It is decided then, you will have one week to complete this task. You’ll be assigned a probation officer to accompany you. Succeed and you clear your name, if you try to run a bounty will be placed on your head and in the event that you’ll fail” she paused “well, prison isn't going anywhere”
Finished lady Soryon and hit the table with her hammer.
I got escorted out of the courtroom, starting to comprehending the depth of shit I just stepped into.
The guards led me to the med center in the station. Here they ran a full physical checkup finishing up by Implanting the chip behind my left ear. “This leaves a unique radiation trail that will let us track you anywhere” the doctor explained
“Hold it, did you say radiation?!” I asked alarmed
“Don’t worry, there aren’t any long term effect” a new voice said to no real comfort
In front of me stood a woman in her late 20, she was of medium height with a strong build that somehow still looked feminine. She said coldly “Nice to meet you Jasper or do you prefer being called ’Jayzarr’” somehow it felt like an insult “I’m Bethany Nax, your new probation officer”
To my situation I could only amount two words
“Fuck me”