Early Days: Part-5 (First Bounty)
"Three hundred units up front. Five hundred after the job is done."
"Why doesn't Hubery send his own men?"
"It's a walking vulture."
"So?"
"A rabid walking vulture."
Hubery's men had arrived on hoverbikes with a task. One of his shipments had broken loose. The creature slaughtered dozens of his fighters, injured as many more, and now stalked the desert. Hubery wanted it back—alive.
No one else dared accept. That's when she came to his mind.
"Alright. Let me grab my—"
The men whistled. One of them flipped open a steel briefcase. Inside gleamed a smart plasma dispenser and a plasma blade.
Eve finished her sentence with a grin. "—sword... Look at these beauties." Her eyes lingered on the weapons. "Alright then. Just let me get my coat."
It was was winter season.
Eight hoverbikes roared across the canyons and out into the desert. Eve rode among them.
She knew about the walking vultures. They looked like their carrion cousins, but larger—fifteen feet tall. Their wings were not feathers, but metallic blades sharp enough to shear flesh, concrete, even steel. They couldn't fly, but ran faster than riff-horses. Bullets did nothing. Plasma only scared their feathers. Their beaks could pierce exosuits.
A rabid one, was deadlier ten times a normal one.
The riders stopped at the mouth of a jagged mountain. A cave yawned before them.
"Last place our men saw it."
"Hold the perimeter," Eve ordered. "I'm going in."
The cave twisted in a zigzag path. Her iridescent torch glowed brightened the walls as she moved with careful, silent steps.
The creatures shriek echoed through the stone, gave her goosebumps, but she pressed forward.
The tunnel widened until it felt like the neck of a great stone flask.
Then it struck.
From the shadows, the vulture lunged. Eve dove aside, plasma fire flaring in her hands. The bolts seared but barely slowed it. Its wings slashed like scythes, its beak snapping for her throat.
She drew the plasma blade and met its strikes, parrying blow after blow, cutting at its legs whenever she found an opening. Slowly, the animal weakened—now it moved in erratic, short burst movements.
She struck it again into submission, but rapid ones fought to their last breath. It continued to crawl towards Eve as she slowly led it to the cave's mouth.
Men stood ready with nets. It shrieked tirelessly. Eve felt mercy. She injected tranquilizing syringes into its neck. It dozed off slowly.
Hubery's Tent. His personal residence was three stories tall. She stood at the Balcony.
"Don't worry. I am not going to expose you."
"There's not much to be exposed. It's about time I say goodbye to the Canyon."
"Where will you go?"
"I don't know. Maybe Notulous."
"You are leaving Thalen's Reach?"
"I have too. I have been here long enough. I might be back. I might not."
"You are more than welcome to stay here. You don't have to work for me. Just a few errands here and there… and only if you feel like it."
"Thanks for the kind offer." Eve knew nothing in Thalen's Reach was absolutely free.
"Are you running away from something? I can protect you."
"You want the truth? Thelarians." Eve confided in him to honor his generosity.
The color of his face changed. She could notice he was stunned. Thelarians sent mercs and soldiers after her, but she stood in the same place, they could send an entire spaceship… or even more. Hubery's men, this town and many others like it stood no chance.
"I have a history with them. Can't tell you the whole story."
"I won't insist on it. If you need a ride?"
"That would be nice."
"My next shipment. We'll squeeze you in."