On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance (5 page)

****

Nero and Col walked along a relatively busy street, lined with a variety of merchants, with a number of potential customers browsing the goods on offer. Some of the merchants occupied buildings, whilst others - the majority, Nero noted - had just a temporary stall set up on the street. Many looked to be just an old crate with items displayed on top.

Casually talking to each other, both teenagers kept their eyes on the stalls, looking for a likely target. After a while, they noticed a merchant with a medium-sized stall, just two crates pushed together, with a few protein and carb sticks laid out. He was currently talking to a hunched woman, with a cane in her hand, who was looking over some of the food sticks.

“For all of them?” the woman was saying, disbelief in her voice.

“They’re getting harder to source,” the merchant explained, with a shrug. “I’m afraid that’s just what they cost now.”

Nero glanced at Col, and they altered their course to take them closer to the stall, the woman still complaining about the price. Col, with skill that spoke of years of practise, stumbled into the woman, who went flying to the side with a yell, cane uselessly falling from her hand. She knocked a couple of protein sticks down with her as she fell, and the merchant, ever the gentleman, leaned forward to try to catch her.

Nero waited a moment, and when he judged the merchant to be distracted enough, he stepped closer to the stall and slipped a few of the protein and carb sticks into a pocket. Then, before the merchant noticed, he walked away, Col following shortly behind, having muttered an apology to the woman, who was still on the ground.

Col glanced at Nero as they walked away, who flashed him a grin in return.

“Good one,” Nero said. Col smiled, happy with the haul they’d managed to collect that evening. They wouldn’t go hungry for a few days yet.

With a glance at the nearly-dark sky, they turned down an alleyway, and headed back across the few streets to where Talyah and Jerad were waiting, huddled next to a fire they had already got going in a metal trash can. Nero and Col sat down next to them, and both emptied their pockets of the various sticks of nutrients.

Nero heard Talyah’s stomach rumble in response, and wordlessly, they all picked a stick and began to eat. Nero shivered as he did, the chill of the night air getting to him. He wished, he reflected, that they could go back into the tunnel system. But he knew the Nostra would have claimed the system by now.

He sighed, and the others, mouths full, glanced over at him.

“I’m not going to live like this,” Nero said, having come to a realization. “I’ve been thinking, why don’t we just carry on doing what we’ve been doing for the last few years? But on our own.”

“Because the Nostra are sniffing around,” Col helpfully supplied, taking another mouthful.

“Yes, but they’re not going to expect anyone to do anything. They’re too big, and powerful. Who would be stupid enough to steal from right under their noses?”

“Let me guess...” Jerad said. “We will.”

“Exactly,” Nero said, and took another bite of his hardly-touched protein stick. “But we’ll be careful; we can get in before they even know we’re there, take what we want, and be out without them noticing anything.” He glanced into the fire, and took another mouthful.

“That is all very well, Nero,” Talyah said, “but where will we get in? Do you have anywhere in mind?” She always cut to the chase in a discussion, and got a couple of appreciative nods from Jerad and Col. It was one of the things that Nero liked, and admired, about her.

“I do,” he replied, with the faintest of smiles spreading across his face. “You remember when I went to get the sticks a couple of days ago?” Nods all round. “Well, I overheard one person near a stall. He was discussing a shipment of food that was due to arrive tomorrow. I think he was discussing plans with a colleague, but whatever, he mentioned that it would be stored in that warehouse over in Section 110...”

“When you say ‘person’, Nero, do you mean...?” Talyah interjected.

“Nostra, yes.” This elicited a frown in Talyah, and downright shock in the other two. “But hear me out. They were planning to go in tomorrow night, I think. I say we break in early evening, after the shipment’s arrived and everyone’s left, but before the Nostra move in. We take what we can, but there’ll still be enough left that the Nostra will never know we were there. It’s perfect.”

“And these Nostra people didn’t notice you snooping around?” Talyah asked.

“No. I was discreet, they didn’t see me behind them. Don’t worry Tal, I’m not new at this sort of thing.”

She sat there thinking about the idea, whilst Jerad and Col just ate their protein sticks. Nero watched them, confident that they’d go along with the plan. They had all come from lives that saw them barely surviving on the streets, and none of them wanted to go back to that. This brief reminder had been enough. And besides, Nero knew the idea was a good one. The warehouse the food was in was one that Nero, Mal, and Talyah had broken into about a year ago. Unless the security had been vastly increased, it should be quite easy to get into again.

“Alright, Nero,” came the eventual reply from Talyah.

With Tal and Nero going, Jerad and Col both agreed that it was a good idea too. For the time being, however, they went back to finishing the meal Nero and Col had obtained. Tomorrow, though, tomorrow they would get back to doing what they did best. Nero smiled faintly to himself at the thought, pleased to be back to his calling in life.

CHAPTER THREE

NINETEEN

Five years later

The wind howled around the ship, driving the pouring rain hard into the window. Beneath it, the last of the city lights could just be seen flying by, and then darkness enveloped everything. The only reference points now came from the AI computer that assisted with flying, which projected a bearing onto the window. Next to that was the estimated arrival time, in a little over two minutes.

Far above the small shuttle, as yet undetected by the ship’s sensors, was an even larger ship. This was built to travel vast distances in space, and to carry cargo all around the galaxy. The small shuttle would be able to fit into the cargo bay of the behemoth hundreds of times over, still with room to spare. As it slowed down after its descent into the planet’s atmosphere, the giant ship fired up its antigrav thrusters.

The roar from these engines was powerful enough to be heard for hundreds of miles in any direction, and easily overcame the drumming of the rain on the little shuttle’s bodywork. Inside that shuttle, Nero looked up, leaning forward over the console to get a look at the sky. The behemoth was directly overhead, still miles above, but the thrust from the engines was enough to rattle the shuttle, setting warning lights flashing inside.

Nero watched as the other ship slowed its descent even more, and then began circling around over the city to reach the far side. Ships that large rarely visited planets this far from the centre of the galaxy, but it wasn’t unheard of. Nero knew there was only one place a ship like that would go, and that was to the spaceport on the far side of the city. There, it would jettison the supplies bound for this planet, and whatever supplies that were loaded back onto it would be flown up to the ship. It all happened so quickly, and efficiently, that the giant ship didn’t even need to touch down.

He turned his attention back to flying his own shuttle, thinking about when he’d last seen one of the giant intergalactic ships arrive. It must have been a couple of months after Mal, Ryate and the rest of his old gang had been killed. He smiled as he remembered how different his life had been back then, compared to now. Now, he was running his own operation, much larger than Ryate’s had ever been, and had a base outside the city, far out in the desert that covered most of the planet. And he had his own shuttle, taken from an old Scraper resident.

“We’ve arrived, Nero,” came the artificial voice from his ship, breaking into his train of thought. He relinquished control to the computer, and felt the ship decelerate rapidly as they came in to land. There was still nothing visible outside the window, but with the sudden cessation of the rain, Nero knew they were now undercover. Not ten seconds later, the ship turned its external lights on, illuminating the inside of the cave in which they’d settled down.

“I hope you had a pleasant journey,” the computer said, as it powered down the engines.

“Indeed I did,” Nero absently replied as he put his jacket on. He left the cockpit and walked down the shuttle’s boarding ramp, emerging from the rear of the ship into a cave.

It was actually very large, with enough space for four shuttles at a push, but Nero didn’t pay any attention to it, instead walking purposefully towards the rear. He followed the discrete lighting in the ground that lit the way there, and came up to a small passage leading deeper into the mountain. With his steps betraying a growing sense of urgency, Nero entered the passage and walked quickly along it.

He had received a message from Talyah whilst he was in the city, which said nothing more than ‘We need to meet soon Nero.’ If anyone else had sent the message, Nero would have thought nothing of it, but not when it was from Talyah. She sent messages rarely, preferring to speak face to face if at all possible, and when she did send a message, it was usually important. The fact that she hadn’t even said what the issue was was even more worrying. Hence Nero had flown straight to his base, hidden in the mountains, to talk to Tal.

“Freeze,” came an authoritative voice from the passage in front of Nero.

“It’s me, Jez,” Nero replied.

“Oh, sorry boss. Carry on.”

Nero walked past the man, who had now lowered the laser rifle, and emerged into the second cave in the mountain complex. Nearly as large as the first, this one served a variety of purposes. Mostly, it was a storage area, used to keep items they obtained before being moved on, but Nero and his men often planned their jobs there, and sometimes they slept in the cavern when they weren’t in the city. It was a sort of second home, and they’d even installed some rooms along the sides of the cave, if they needed privacy.

“Jez, you know where Tal is?” Nero asked, turning back around to speak to the guard.

“No, sorry boss. She might be in one of the rooms at the back. I saw her round there earlier.”

Nodding, Nero made his way over, passing a few guys sat around a table, gambling on a game that Nero didn’t recognise. Making a mental note to socialize a bit more in the future, he looked in some of the rooms, eventually finding Talyah sat at work behind a desk.

“Tal,” Nero said in greeting.

“Nero. You came quickly.”

“I’m at your service Tal. What was your message in aid of?”

“Have a seat, Nero,” Talyah said, standing up herself, and beginning to pace behind the desk. Nero deferred, preferring to remain standing. Something had obviously got Talyah in a fluster, which was very unusual for her.

“As you know, I have had suspicions about the Nostra infiltrating our group,” she started to explain. “Well, I’ve been talking individually to our guys recently.”

“Sure,” Nero said, aware that when Talyah said she was talking to people, she was also using her ability get a vague sense of what others were thinking. It was a useful skill, and made her invaluable in many situations, though, Nero admitted, her ability didn’t always work.

“Most were fine,” she continued, “but there were a few I was unsure of, so I’ve done some digging on them. Most of these turned out to be just minor cases of theft - which you can deal with later, if you’d like,” she added, looking up at Nero, “but there’s one that I’m worried about...”

“Who is it?” Nero asked, feeling himself getting annoyed at whoever it was already.

“Nero, it’s Col.” Talyah said, with just a brief hesitation.

He didn’t know what to say in response to that. Col? “How sure are you?”

“As sure as I can be, Nero. I didn’t want to believe this either, but his movements have become increasingly strange recently. There are periods that no one can account for, and it has been the jobs that Col was involved in that have had the most... resistance, from the Nostra.”

“But you’re not certain?”

“Not certain, no. He’s being watched closely, so if he tries anything we should find out.”

“Good. I hope you’re wrong, Tal.”

“I hope I am too.”

Nero sighed. “There are fewer and fewer people I can trust,” he said. “What’s happened to the honour, and respect, in our world? We used to stick together, fighting against the world, but now, it’s every other week we find someone who’s stolen from us, or betrayed us. And this, when I make sure everyone has enough to eat, somewhere to live...”

Talyah watched Nero as he talked, a sympathetic expression on her face. “If Col has betrayed us,” she said, “we’ll need to make an example out of him. We need to show others that we won’t tolerate that sort of behaviour.”

“We will. I’ll think up something special,” Nero said, a menacing glint in his eye. Changing the subject, he continued. “You said you found some men stealing from us, Tal?”

****

Back in the main area of the cave, a bit of a commotion had started up, apparently centred around the men who had been gambling.

“That move isn’t allowed!” yelled one of the players, directing his vehemence at a newcomer to the game, who wasn’t there when Nero had walked through.

“What move?” the guy politely asked.

“You know perfectly well ‘what move’. You saw it, didn’t you Staf?” the player said, referring to the female player on his left.

“Hey, don’t get me involved in this,” she protested, with mock anger playing on her face.

“See, no one saw anything. It was a perfectly good move, and you, Ty, are just annoyed that you lost,” the newcomer said with an horrendously satisfied grin plastered across his face. “Now, if you would hand over those bonds to me...”

Reluctantly, the man slid the money over, which the newcomer swept off the table, and into his hands, with a flourish.

“I thank you,” he said.

“You know I’ll win that back, don’t you Nate?”

“Ha, I look forward to it. I shall see you all anon.”

The newcomer, Nate, stood up from the table, and placed the money in one of the pockets on his combat trousers. “Where’s that boss, anyway...?” he muttered to himself, having been waylaid only briefly by the allure of the game. Even as he said that, the door from Tal’s room opened, and out strode Nero, followed closely by Talyah. Both, Nate noted, with rather serious expressions.

“Why the glum faces, chaps?” he asked, walking over to them.

“There you are, Nate,” Nero replied. He glanced at the table behind Nate, where the others were still sat, with Ty obviously in a sour mood. “You been playing Ty again? I told you to take it easy on him.”

“Me? Ignore your commands? You know me better than that, Nero...” Nate said, his tone perfectly contradicting the words. Nero rolled his eyes.

It was about a year ago now that Nero had first found Nate. He’d heard of a large stash of valuable drugs being stored temporarily, and had led some men into a building to take them. When they’d arrived, though, they’d found Nate on his own in there, casually loading up a hover-board with the stuff, having used explosives to blow his way into the building. At first Nero thought he was a member of the Nostra, but it quickly became apparent that he was just a very enterprising individual. Seeing promise in the young man, Nero had quickly recruited him. Now, he was second only to Talyah in Nero’s rudimentary command structure.

“Whatever. We’ve got a big job coming up Nate,” Nero told him.

“Excellent. I was starting to get a bit bored. Where is it, what is it?”

“It’s in one of the Scrapers in the city,” Nero answered.

“Sounds good so far. What is it we’re going after then...?”

Nero paused briefly before answering Nate’s question.

“You know, when I was young, my mother treated me differently to how other mothers treated their kids. They were always out playing games, having fun. Or as much fun as was possible on the streets. My mother kept me inside, to teach me what she knew about our world. At the time, I hated this, I couldn’t stand it. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go out and play. But my mother was determined, always telling me that I had to improve myself to get on in this world, to compete with everyone else. It wasn’t until after she’d gone that I realised how true this was, and I’ve always tried to improve myself, mentally and physically.

“But, if any of us are to improve enough to compete with the real big-time boys, with all their technology, we need a little help. How many residents of the Scrapers have you seen, Nate?”

“Not many. The odd one on a job. Why?”

“Ever seen any with augmentations?”

“Can’t say as I have.”

“No, they don’t generally do the menial jobs where we might encounter them, but there are plenty that have augmentations fitted. Improved limbs, vision, hearing. They can even have chips implanted that improve their cognitive abilities, allowing them to think quicker, make better decisions. For any of us, born on the streets, to stand a chance of moving up any further, we need these augs.”

“So... you’ve been planning how to get your hands on some, eh?” Nate asked.

“Yes, but it’s difficult. They keep augs secret, and very secure. Generally only the richest can afford them, and they do not want them falling into the wrong hands. Imagine what would happen to them if all of us on the street could easily break into the Scrapers and overpower any security? It would be a nightmare for them.”

“And a money-spinner for us,” Nate interjected.

“Quite. And I think I’ve found where they store augs and operate on people. It’s one Scraper, in the middle of the city. We need to get in there, and find where they keep the augs.”

“So that means we’re going on a little recce?” Nate asked.

It was Talyah who answered him. “We are, Nate. Just the three of us. We need to find out the exact location of the augs, before we go in and have a bit of fun.”

****

It was early the next morning, and the sun had just emerged over the horizon. Its rays spread throughout the thick atmosphere, turning the entire sky a dull red in colour, and giving the impression that the planet was bleeding. Through this, one small ship was flying, having emerged a few minutes earlier from a hidden cave in the arid mountains, far away from the main city. Flying well in excess of the speed of sound, it didn’t take long for the ship to make its way to the city, the towering buildings appearing on the horizon as they neared.

Inside the ship, Nate, Talyah and Nero were getting ready. Since this was just a reconnaissance job, they weren’t going to be taking many weapons in, though they did think it prudent to each carry a small pistol that slipped into an ankle holster. Their main preparations instead lay in making themselves look respectable, and not like they had just come from a cave. Talyah was finding this harder than the other two.

“I don’t see why the women in the Scrapers dress like this, Nero. I can hardly move my legs, nor my arms. How am I meant to fight anyone wrapped up like this?”

“I don’t think people in the Scrapers really think about hand to hand combat, Tal,” Nero replied, amused. “Anyway, at least yours is relatively simple. Look at all this elaborate stuff on my jacket...”

“Where did you get this stuff anyway, Nero?” Nate asked, who was admiring his getup.

“I, uh, commissioned them from a clothes shop. I gave them some instructions from what I’d seen Scraper people wearing. They did the rest,” Nero admitted.