Retired – Chapter Six – Death from above

I moved to the spaceport and watched. Most of the men had withdrawn to the shuttles. They were standing around them as if they were afraid their rides were going to explode. I had to laugh.

Then I looked across the tarmac at the hanger standing open on the far side. There it was. It was a beautiful old star yacht. It was going to be a shame to destroy it.

It took me the better part of two hours to get to the yacht, and another thirty minutes to get inside without being noticed.

Once I was in the pilot’s seat, I pulled out my identity hacker again. I broke the code and started to plot a course for the yacht. Then I waited.

The beeps sounded in my ear again. It was now one beep, repeated seven times. I set the time for the pre-programmed flight to occur and snuck off the yacht.

It took me another hour to move to another hanger. There I found what I was looking for. It was a small jump shuttle. Two hours later, I left it with a pre-programmed jump in place. It took a while to hack the flight control system and allow the jump. I hoped I had gotten it right.

I moved to another location and waited. When the beeps hit a single non-repeated beep I moved out. I came to the first patrol I found and held my arms above my head. I smiled to see Jax and his buddy in the group. They took my weapons and then chained my hands behind my back.

I was led by them to another group. Once there I saw the leader of the duchess’s men. He spun and back-handed me. Then he held up his hand in front of my face. The scar there was obvious. “I have waited a lot of years to get my revenge for this. I am going to make you watch as me and my men rape your women in front of your eyes. Then I am going to kill you by cutting your balls off and letting you bleed to death.”

Then he drew back his rifle and hit me with the butt of it. I saw stars as the men started to kick and beat me with their weapons. I knew this would be rough, but I had to be in the right place.

After I was beaten until I was barely able to stand, they led me to the starport.

Once we were inside, they led me to the controller’s office. There inside were the countess and Lizell. Next to them was a man who made my blurry eyes sharpen. It was the leader of the duchess’s forces. But this one had no scar on his hand. I turned to look back at the man behind me and it all clicked. They were twins. I felt like an idiot! There were two of them.

A voice spoke from the chair which was turned around at the desk. “I have waited a long time for this, Drake. You have interfered with my plans to become empress so many times. I wanted to be here when you died.” The Duchess Daria turned the chair to look at me. She was a handsome woman with a cruel smile. Her grey eyes held a tinge of evil that she could never hide. The long, almost white, hair that hung down past her shoulders was thick and full.

“I guess we will die together this day,” I said, as I tried to crack a smile. My swollen lips hurt when I tried.

“No, my poor little thorn in my side, you will die alone. After you watch my men rape these two women repeatedly.” Then she turned to the leader of her forces. “Dundal, have the men line up. This should be fun to watch.”

After she spoke she turned her chair to watch out the window. Dundal moved out the door and started to gather the men.

“Who the hell is moving that old yacht?!” The duchess stood up and pointed out the window.

The man behind me moved forward to look. As he passed, I spun on my knees and lashed out with my foot. He went down hard. Then I rolled over as I extended my leg out of the summersault. My foot came down with all the force I could manage and impacted with the back of the man’s head. The man Angel had shot so long ago was now dead.

The other two guards in the room tried to come after me. One of them was Jax, the other was his buddy. I rolled up and spun. My foot connected with Jax’s throat. As he stumbled back into his partner, I continued the spin and broke his neck. Both had died as quietly as a mouse.

The duchess was so wrapped up in the moving yacht that she had not even noticed our fight. The duchess screamed as I rolled and grabbed the man’s pistol. Out on the tarmac, the yacht accelerated and ran head long into one of the shuttles. Then the small jump shuttle suddenly jumped out of the hanger and came out of its jump inside the second shuttle.

The resulting explosions rocked most of the city. The duchess just watched as I took out two more of her spacecraft. She still was not aware I had killed the three men in the room.

Below, men were yelling and running out onto the tarmac. The duchess had not realized what I had done to her men yet. I moved as best I could, and found the man’s vibe knife. It cut my chains like butter. Then I stood and pointed the gun. “Grand Duchess Daria, you are under arrest, for more charges than I can name right now.”

The duchess spun with rage on her face. Then she saw her men dead on the floor, and me standing there with a pistol. I moved over and used the vibe knife to cut the bonds on the two ladies.

I saw the men on the tarmac turn and start running back towards the building. I smiled. She had contacted them with her ear bob. “Thank you, Daria. That will make it much easier when the troops arrive.”

She started to laugh. “Your precious imperial forces will not arrive for another day. You will be long dead and I will be long gone by then.”

It was now my turn to laugh. “Daria, you have made this easy. The beeps are a deteriorating signal. The last twenty-four hours was signaled by one beep. Did you really think you had another day?”

“Supreme Marshal Daemon, this is the Tidal Wave. Please state your status.” My bob had activated and an Angel’s voice came into my ear.

As I spoke, the thunder of multiple sonic booms started to sound off. The noise of twenty drop shuttles hitting the atmosphere was deafening. “Grand Marshal Angel Kita, it is good to hear your voice. We are condition red. We are in the rats’ nest and surrounded. Please advise.”

“We have twenty thousand troops deploying now.