I Will Surely Die:
Chapter 1


Generations ago Sol Lucia was a planet rich in ore and mineral deposits, prospectors and miners moving to stake their claim as companies began to pour their assets into building mining towns and quarries. A superpower in its time, the planet generated billions of tons of sicherite, thallium, and gypsum annually- for a time, Sol Lucia was a prosperous hardworking planet and one of the main influencers of the greater Berrin Gate sector. While the planet's deposits were rich, so too were they shallow; within two generations of around-the-clock mining and drilling, the veins started to dry up. Smaller companies and individuals were forced to pull out or close up, leaving millions of workers without jobs or any form of income. Within the following 25 years, Sol Lucia's mining industry had been completely monopolized by Bellum Industries. Then the war came.

What began as a protest by disgruntled miners and factory workers quickly grew into an all-out rebellion by the natives of Sol Lucia against Bellum Industries. The festering resentment for the company that had suppressed the planet's population and kept them in squalor in the interest of profit fueled the uprising despite the widespread lack of weaponry or gear. Attempts were made by homegrown militant groups to seize the factories and other facilities, but Bellum was quick to file an appeal with the government and received assistance from the Marine Military Police. It also helped that Bellum had thought to add a small army of mercs to their payroll. Full-frontal assaults on corporate structures were persistent for the first several months, but within a year's time the insurgence had been reduced to sporadic guerilla warfare-style attacks by the most diehard anti-establishment fighters. Meanwhile, the rest of the population was forced to return to working and trying to eke out some form of existence.

With unemployment at a staggering 64%, once thriving urban centers soon became overpopulated as rural populations flocked to them in hopes of finding work in the quarries or at the refineries; lacking the infrastructure to house this migration, shanty towns sprung up in back alleys and side streets before slowly consuming entire cities. In response to the shortage of resources and money, many of the overrun towns became black market networks or safe-havens for criminals. Gangs claimed 'territories', demanding money or goods from the people who lived there in exchange for "protection" from rival gangs, resulting in assault, robbery, and murder becoming common occurrences in the daily lives of many. But that was daily life in a practically lawless society. Well, lawless with the exception of a single existing rule: don't fuck with Bellum Industries. Between the high electric fences, razor wire, armed mercs, and attack dogs present at every corporate site in the aftermath the war, the concept of another attempt at rebellion had lost a lot of its appeal.

If you were ever curious to see the depths of the depravity human greed was capable of creating, all you had to do was look around any of Sol Lucia's cities. The air hung thick with particles that billowed from the smokestacks of refineries, casting the trash-strewn streets in an oddly appropriate perpetual twilight. Untreated water from subterranean fracking was pumped up to street level to the storm drains, overflowing the congested sewers and frequently flooding the lowest areas of the city where the poorest of the poor were forced to live. In broad daylight, literal marketplaces for illegal goods operated like any other business, fed by smugglers, scrappers, and scavengers looking for a place to fence their wares which ranged from stolen goods to firearms, exotic animals, and drugs. Things like drinking water were commodities while human beings were normal market fare.

Sol Lucia was a literal hellscape. You couldn't rely simply on smarts or strength to survive- really all it came down to sheer, dumb luck.

In this case, luck meant you lived to reach adulthood; if you were really lucky, maybe you even got a job in the mines; and if you were truly undeniably lucky, you might even make it off-world by your own volition. Whether you survived off-world or not was an entirely different matter, but those who remained behind all seemed to agree on one simple fact: no one goes back to Sol Lucia.


"Get me this con's file now; and I want everything," Harkon instructed around the butt of his cigar, sitting heavily behind his desk as he stared down the still-frame image on the monitor across the room. His first week as Warden and a prisoner practically waltzes out of Hubble Bay without a scratch- and of course they just had to be one of the ones smart enough to disable the locator beacon on the ship they jacked making any attempt at trailing decidedly pointless.

One of the Deputy Wardens, Stokes, soon returned with a one-page printout on holofilm from the prisoner database which he then passed over the desk. "I said I wanted all of it: the whole record," Harkon repeated, the Deputy frowning as his thumbs hooked over his sidearm holster. "That is the whole record. First-time offender," Stokes replied flatly as the Warden began to read, a bit of ash dropping off the end of his cigar onto the film before tumbling onto the leg of his pants.

\\Vanora Lessing
\\Prisoner No. 7233159-35
\\Date of Birth: c. 2553-2554 GST
\\Place of Birth: Sol Lucia, Berrin Gate sector, 3kpc local cluster
\\Last Known Residence: Aquila Major, Aquila system, Orion-Cygnus local cluster
\\Prison Time Served: 0 years, 3 weeks, 2 days
\\Summary of Charges
\\2583 - One count murder in the first-degree, one count statutory burglary
\\Plea: No contest
\\Sentence: Life in prison without the possibility of parole

"Murder, huh. That's a pretty big first bite," Harkon commented, dropping the film onto his desk before scratching his jaw as he observed the holographic image of the woman on the sheet. Staring back at him were a pair of unreadable almond-shaped amber eyes affixed to a pale angular face and topped off with a short crop of dark hair. All in all what he was presented with was a fairly average looking woman who wouldn't have any trouble blending into a crowd- the worst kind of convict to try to catch. While this was his first stint as a warden, Harkon had been part of the Mercenary Guild for the better part of forty years and in that time he had developed a strong gut instinct when it came to cons and civilians alike.

This one, well, this one worried him. As far as murderers went she could almost be considered average, having only one kill to her name. She was from Sol Lucia after all; this may have been her first murder on record, but that didn't mean it was her first murder. The odd bit was that she opted to use debilitating but nonlethal force on all the mercs that stood between her and her way out, including one particularly unanticipated headbutt that broke a merc's nose and fractured his cheekbone. That was even after she got her hands on a loaded pistol.

So she'd shoot a defenseless man in his own home but wouldn't kill a merc aiming a gun at her; Harkon wasn't a math whiz by any means, but those numbers just didn't seem to add up. If nothing else it seemed to imply she had a death wish of epic proportions.

"Stokes, if you were still in the game doing freelance, what kind of price would make you take an interest in our free-range jailbird here?" Harkon asked around the cigar that hung from the corner of his mount, fingers tapping absently on the holofilm. "100,000 UD, maybe 75,000 if I were in a pinch," Stokes said after a long moment, lifting his hat up enough to scratch his scalp before tugging it back into place as he spoke, "But then again there aren't many people who can break out of a double-max security prison."

"Put a bounty out for 150,000 UD- and make sure any Guild members on Sol Lucia get a heads up that there might be an easy payday coming their way," Harkon instructed after a moment, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smirk. "You think she'd go back to Sol Lucia? Why not Aquila Major? Seems like that would be the easiest place to find a sympathetic acquaintance," Stokes commented, the Warden giving him a blasé glance before stubbing out the meager remains of his cigar in the crystal ashtray near the corner of his desk. "Sol Lucia is one of the easiest places in the galaxy to disappear and still be able to get off-world with ease if the search starts to heat up. She knows that without a doubt. Besides, didn't you hear? Our friends in the Aquila system got a visit from the Necromongers; there ain't a soul left there to help."


Coming out of cryosleep was rarely a pleasant experience, even negating the grogginess; dry mouth, stiff joints, and for some reason everything smelled vaguely of antiseptic. Vod clenched her eyes shut before taking a deep breath and reaching up for the hatch release she knew was just over her head. The cryo locker let out a hiss as the seal broke before the front glass swung away and she began the process of detaching the cryo injector from her forearm. She would choose the locker with the sticky injector, of course, drawing a string of muttered curses from her lips before the gauntlet finally split open and she yanked her arm free.

Stepping over the short threshold of the locker Vod returned to the nav center before dropping heavily into the pilot's chair. For a prison transport ship it had pretty nice seats and plenty of legroom, something she was decidedly grateful for as she stretched herself out as much as she could given the somewhat lacking headspace. Through the front glass she saw the familiar construction of an Aquilan outpost, her current coordinates indicating it was Outpost 7670 just outside the Aquilan system. Killing the main engines she blipped the directional thrusters to keep the ship's trajectory until the outpost's magnetic tow took hold and guided the ship the rest of the way into the hangar.

As soon as the airlock engaged Vod was off the ship and headed past the main console cluster inside the outpost toward the lone door protected by a bioscanner panel. Simply resting her hand on the light blue glass activated the scanning mechanism, the entire pad flashing green after a few seconds as the tumblers in the door released. Vod pushed the bare-faced metal door open and passed into a portion of the station designed for exclusive use by the Aquilan Security Corp. Tramping down a winding staircase she emerged in a compact command center, half of which was active and maintaining a number of the outpost's functions while the other half sat on standby.

First and foremost, she decided, a warm shower was in order. A check in the cubbyholes near the munitions room lead her into possession of a clean change of clothes, and within 15 minutes she'd showered and redressed herself in a white g-unit top and contrasting black compression leggings with leather reinforcement points. Running a hand back through her rapidly drying hair after lacing up her boots Vod relocated to the lone chair in the middle of the computer cluster.

Methodically Vod began dredging the outpost's database and gathering major publications and vids from the last few weeks in an attempt to catch up to the outside world after her brief incarceration. Hubble Bay, like most detention centers, was a notoriously poor place to obtain any sort of news about the outside. Hell, a black hole could spontaneously appear and obliterate half the galaxy and it'd take at least a week for anyone in the cages to even hear a whisper about it. Even the transport she jacked was lacking any sort of connection to public access channels. What kind of bullshit was that?

As she scrolled through, vids began to surface dating back less than two weeks ago of newscasters reporting the destruction of the Aquilan system, a chill going up her spine the first time the Necromongers were credited with the attack. A recording from Aquila III showed the entire surface scorched black, a fact which didn't surprise Vod in the least. It wasn't unusual to hear traders at the markets on Sol Lucia talking about this planet or that system being wiped out in a day's time by some kind of unstoppable juggernaut force. All that ever remained were the large conquest icons that removed any sort of doubt about who or what was responsible. It sounded more like a ghost story than anything, especially when you accounted for all the dead souls that now haunted Aquilan space.

The Aquilans, as a whole, were a very altruistic people- their doctrine seemed to stress selfless giving and second chances. But, of course, there was an ugly secret that helped them continue being one of fastest growing 'positive' influences in the galaxy. Bring us your tired, huddled masses of convicts and ne'er-do-wells and we'll return to you an elite force of human-sized WMDs. It was the secret deal of the century, and to get a chance at it all you had to do was get yourself arrested in the Aquilans' jurisdiction. Then their government would offer to provide asylum throughout the duration of ASC training, and once you earned your cert any outstanding bounties would be cleared and your criminal history would be completely purged. A clean slate in exchange for military service didn't sound like such a bad deal, assuming you were okay with the idea of being under their thumb until the day you died. Those who enlisted in this way without exception became what the regulars referred to as Spooks- the arm the Corp could use for any purpose while having plausible deniability of any involvement. The covert nature of the Spooks meant they were never listed in ASC personnel records and, as such, even if one were arrested during a mission it would be nigh impossible to trace back to the Aquilans. Needless to say it wasn't unusual for Spooks to get ghosted.

As one could expect, that's exactly what happened to Vod. But she wasn't mad- not at the Aquilans, anyway. The terms of the agreement were made painfully clear during the initial extension of the offer and as such she knew the predicament she now found herself in was solely her own doing. Considering the fact that the entire Aquilan system was now a wasteland it seemed Vod was free of the contract and completely on her own. That meant she would have to come up with a new place to go underground for a while.

As the news she was scanning through became more current, she came across a report on the Necromonger invasion of Helion Prime; for some reason when the Necros pulled off the planet they didn't raze it. This was… unheard of. Vod's brow furrowed as she expanded the search for Helion Prime. One of the auxiliary screens sprang to life mid-search, displaying a query report from the outpost's public console on the upper level. Pulling all the searches from the session log dated close to sixty days ago, Vod's eyes roved over the items with mild curiosity.

# Session 332-J7: Day 134, 2583 GST
# helion prime /…
# aquila major /…
# furya /…
# u.v.6 /…
# richard b. riddick /…

While the upstairs consoles provided access to portions of the outpost database and most public channels, a majority of the data in the array was only accessible from the ASC terminals. Fortunately, Vod had access to such a terminal and made quick work of re-querying the more intriguing items on the session log.

# furya /…

# Planet: Furya
# System: Furyan system
# Local cluster: Perseus
# Orbit: Irregular
# Race: Furyan
# Initial mapping: 2499 GST
# Re-mapped: 2556 GST
# World status: Dead – External causes

'External causes…' Vod frowned minutely, clearly less than satisfied by the vague explanation. For being so keen on documenting and mapping the galaxy the Aquilans were pretty shit when it came to certain aspects of the task.

The next two searches seemed to yield less interesting yet equally useless results.

# u.v.6 /…

#Planet: U.V.6
#System: Frigido
#Local cluster: Outer
#Orbit: Elliptical
#Race: None
#Initial mapping: 2510 GST
#Re-mapped: N/A
#World status: Uninhabitable

# richard b. riddick /…

#Riddick, Richard B.
#Date of Birth: Unknown
#Place of Birth: Unknown
#WARNING: Escaped convict
#BOUNTY: 1,500,000UD - Anonymous

Curious, Vod entered one last query.

#vanora lessing /…

#Lessing, Vanora
#Date of Birth:
2553 GST
#Place of Birth: Sol Lucia
#WARNING: Escaped convict
#BOUNTY: 150,000UD – Warden J. Harkon, Hubble Bay Penal Facility

With a slightly aggravated sigh Vod finally leaned back away from the terminal before beginning to reconsider her next steps. While 150k wasn't an incredible amount of money for a payday it was certainly enough to turn a few heads. Admittedly, it'd been a few years since the last time she was stuck carrying a bounty around but that didn't mean she'd stopped thinking and planning as if there were.

First and foremost she had to find somewhere to ditch or swap out the prison transport to avoid drawing too much attention to herself. Fortunately, she knew just the place.


- To be continued; comments/thoughts/critiques welcome!