THE BIG STAR BOUNTY
(SPOILER ALERT! This story takes place sometime after Book 2 a future scheduled book by Page Publishing)
The Rockshot was a small freighter spacecraft originally designed to haul elements from asteroids. It was an older model and due to its past asteroid cargo run missions, quite banged up, but with many modifications it was still a space worthy vessel. It flew through the atmosphere of Hortis 5 and landed in a surface-based spacecraft dock designed for small and medium sized ships. A muscle toned yet seven-foot-tall human named Bear Kron followed down the ramp after a beautiful blond human female about five feet in height with the most curvaceous figure seen on this planet in a long time. She wore a tight gold leather one-piece bathing-like suit with clear plastic see through slashes. It also had a short skirt attached. She accessorized it with scarves of various colors wrapped around the top of her head, upper arms, and legs. She was Haze Allura and as her name stated, she was very alluring in beauty. She was much more pleasing in appearance and wardrobe of her partner Bear. Bear although tall and muscular sported a grizzlier look with his long brown hair and a long brown beard that ran down to the top of his chest. He wore a special black and gray powered battle armor and strength enhancing gauntlets and gloves.
Hortis 5 was a mixed-race world like Hortis 6 and 7. There were many strange looking alien beings all moving around and conducting business transactions. They were much less human looking and a lot of their attention was drawn onto the humans that had just disembarked the Rockshot. Hortis 4 only allowed more closer to human looking alien beings while Hortis and Hortis 1 through 3 were strictly humans only planets.
Haze held out a small computer device slightly larger than her hand and brought up a holographic file on a race called a Saca and a name of Talsyl. She mentioned he was worth 270,000 drekings and an additional 30,000 if brought in dead. They walked the street lined by a raided and yet abandoned Black Guard outpost. They continued across from that to a tavern named, the Blasted Beyond. It was clearly a more alien friendly bar as their human appearance drew many hostile looks and there were no other humans seen in the crowd. A female Kydeno waitress approached their table as they were seated. She was human in appearance except for her elf-like earlobes pointed downward and one solid brow. The waitress asked in a rude tone if they even had currencies. Bear tossed out 80 drekings in coinage onto the table. The waitress then claimed that with the Black Guard in a state of crumble that their currency was not worth a whole lot in areas like this one. Haze raised one of her black leather knee-high boots to the table and pulled back her long jacket to reveal a short skirt and more importantly, holstered onto her hip a special modified looking blaster pistol. Haze then firmly stated as fact that it would be enough as she accented the statement with her hand on the pistol grip. The waitress then took their order of two kartziil steaks and Toxic Scums, a liquor drink so thick and strong it was joked to also double as an engine lubricant replacement.
Bear stated as the waitress left and the non-human stares at the two of them continued, that if the splintered Black Guard did not pull together, it was going to get very difficult to make a living. Haze disagreed by claiming the lawless state would just increase the crime and hostility and someone was always willing to pay for someone’s head when they have been done wrong.
After the tavern, they walked into a more human populated area of the city. There was still a Black Guard presence on this planet but the strength and fear of it had become severely diminished. Haze and Bear peered over a short barrier wall that overlooked a gathering of non-human assembly at the bottom of the hill. There were many banners and flags with an intricate design of lines and giant star as the logo that represented the growing anti-human terrorist group known as The Big Star. Haze pointed out the leader of the group delivering the hate for humans filled speech as their bounty. The Saca named Talsyl was encased tightly in a vacuum sealed suit that was in human form and solid dark black in color. The Sacas were beings of sentient sand and needed the humanoid suits to walk around the rest of the universe instead of being bound to their home world.
The Sacas used a fluent hand sign language to communicate so the interpreter was actually speaking out the words through a loudspeaker. The interpreter was a humanoid form but red in skin and resembled a devil from Earth culture right down to the customary trident weapon. The race was called Dovols and the interpreter’s name was Sill Enn who had travelled long and closely with Talsyl. The interpreted words were powerful and harsh. Citing the atrocities of the Hortis core world humans that forcibly drove the Pide and the Rypan from Hortis 3 which was their world before the humans settled on it and the Momekks of Hortis 4 persecuted by the humans and forced to live in secret on their own home world.
Bear asked Haze how much longer they had to do this work. His dark past was shameful enough and the bounty hunting lifestyle was brutal. Haze calculated that if the human supremacy government of Hortis Planet Affiliation paid the full 300,000, they should only need a couple more jobs. She added that they would then be retired on a beach on Tyzalon 2, drinking Forever Suns. Bear then added his own comment about possibly living on an even more remote paradise where the Structural Sun Corporation would not be able to interfere with or control them and they could freely be together. Haze grew even more beautiful to him as she smiled and said that would be nice.
They maneuvered down to the outskirts of the assembly and forced their way past the non-human aliens by pushing them aside. As they reached the rear of the assembly they moved inward. The best plan that Haze had was to take out the interpreter and grab Talsyl as they both walked down the backstage stairs. Bear looked over the backstage area and counted twelve aliens of various races as security. Haze looked up at him and smiled with an added wink. She said, “Just leave a couple of them for me okay Sweets.” They then recited their traditional comments they always said to each other before combat engagement. Haze would tell Bear that she loved him and Bear would reply that he loved her first.
As Talsyl and Sill Enn walked down the backstage stairs, Haze shot a Blivord Industries Bullseye Dead Six sniper rifle and the blaster bolt hit straight and dead center into the forehead of the interpreter, Sill Enn. Bear then leaped into action with his absorbent powered body armor taking all the blaster shots as he used his superior fighting techniques and strength provided by his powered gauntlets to plow directly through all the alien security guards. Talsyl took off on a dead run as Haze swung her katana style sword on her approach charge and removed a head from one of the guards. Bear said that he had left her one. Haze replied, “Thanks Hun. Now let’s go get our paycheck.” With that they ran after Talsyl.
A major riot broke out as Talsyl ran directly between some of his non-human supporters that he had driven into an uprising and a crowd of humans he had set them against. Haze and Bear kept pushing through the riot and cornered Talsyl in an alleyway dead end. He quick drew a heavy blaster pistol and shot Bear in the chest. The blast was fully absorbed by Bear’s powered armor but it angered Haze. She quick drew and fired her own modified blaster pistol stunning Talsyl just for brief seconds but hitting through his suit. Talsyl stood up and shook off the stun. Bear engaged his power gauntlets and punched rapidly on Talsyl. Simultaneously, Haze also hit him with multiple enhanced energy bolts from her blaster now off stun mode. The suit that bound the Saca’s sentient sand into a humanoid body form was shattered and the sand fell all around Bear’s feet.
Haze and Bear a few rotations of travel later brought the gathered sand to the Hortis Planet Affiliation on Hortis. Even though the being was still technically alive, they were paid the full 300,000 dreking bounty. At their insistence they were paid 200,000 in gems which was a more real currency throughout the universe, 75,000 in Black Guard drekings and the remaining 25,000 was in resource deeds. The sand was then placed in a barrel container, sealed and locked in a vault.
THE END of this story but the backgrounds and more adventures of Haze and Bear as well as the future of Talsyl await in a future Book 4.
