Might is Right
Chapter 1
Dustbowl
Tallan was a desert planet – nothing but small plants and burrowing animals lived there. At a glance it may look like a T0 class planet, but it was in fact clinging to the status of T1. The plants were black and gnarled, and the animals rarely moved to save the precious little water there was. A small Geboya, a rodent like creature with two little paws, each with 3 long nails, burst through the layer of sand, one small eye narrowed against the buffeting sandstorms. It took a moment to realize it was in a shadow of a huge floating craft. It slowly shrunk back into its burrow as the Spaceship sped along. On the side of the hull, glinting gold in the afternoon sun was a name – the OHS Righteous. It came to a halt and sank lower and lower, coming to rest behind the tall walls of a colony. With a slow hiss and a dull thump, the landing gear extended and the boarding ramp was set down.
A short, slightly muscled bird strolled down on two legs, wings resting on its back, hawk clawed hands in plain view, with a beak that was bony and spiked along the top. It had eyes of a dull orange, with red feathers which became more of a muddy pink on its belly. Clad in a loose fitting metal suit and trench coat, it clanked its way to a small, wooden saloon near the city walls, long feathers fluttering in the sandstorm beside its head like hair. It pushed on the door, which opened into a room filled with pipe smoke.
Hundred of aliens of all different types were huddled around tables with bottles in hand. Some looked towards the door when it entered, but knew when to mind their own business and look away. Something told them that this new arrival wasn't like them. The scarlet bird slowly made its way towards the bar, where a tall, frog like man with eyes on stalks turned to him, still cleaning a glass of deep blue.
"What're ya drinking, Varo?" it grunted.
"Nothing fancy, how 'bout a Triolite Lc'teth?" Varo replied, looking around the seedy bar. He spotted a 3-eyed purple alien, speaking quickly and quietly in a strange, language that consisted mostly of hissings and clicks. Its eyes darted around it as it spoke, each staring in different directions, as its large mandibles clicked together. A small yellow lizard nodded and agreed, looking just as furtive. Varo turned back to the barman.
"Hey, Klesch!" he whispered. The barman turned back to Varo, a half filled glass in his hand. "D'you know what Glars'hivick's having?"
"Eh? Oh, Glars is havin' a Xlatan," Klesch said, "and Yorvish…" he indicated the yellow lizard, "has got a Double Jigolio." Varo made a chirping whistle sound.
"I see Yorvish has come into some money, then?" he said with mock surprise. He'd been on Yorvish' tail for a while now, and he knew he was running an illegal Cansathus ranch.
Cansathus were dangerous, particularly the males, and they had dangerous jaws and two powerful insect-like legs. Many species used them as mounts, particularly the Ornathay – the species he was proudly part of. They more commonly used the reptilian Kinthas, but some, including Varo, had tamed his own from a small child and had kept it back on the homeworld ever since.
Cansathus ranches were popularly used by criminals as a quick way to get money, as Cansathus were quite rare. Banacho, the Ornathay Home world, had only 4 identified herds of around 15 animals. If Yorvish was running a ranch, he could use the money he earned for goodness knows what…
"Hey Yorvish, found some money, have you?" Yorvish started and span round, only to come face to face with Varo. He narrowed his eyes and grunted.
"What'ssss it to you?" he hissed. His specie's snake-like tongue gave them distinctively long 's' sounds.
"What's it to me?" Varo said, his eyes widened in surprise at Yorvish' stupidity. "Well, let's see. I'm designated ranger of this system, an' I happen to know that you've got a ranch on planet Uvulon-2, with a warehouse on Uvulon-1…"
Before Varo could continue, Yorvish had stood up and was pointing a phase-stunner right into Varo's face. Glars'hivick was quick to follow, pulling a long Tesilon Beam-Rifle from a holster on his back. People in the bar stopped talking and looked towards Varo and Yorvish.
"You couldn't jussst leave it alone now, could you?" Yorvish spat, glaring at Varo. "You could've left this ssssandy rock and crawled back to your precioussss Banacho, but now," he said venomously, "I'm afraid thissss issss it for you… Captain Varo." He smirked and pointed his stunner towards Varo's heart – a full power blast at close range would quite easily stop it from ever beating again. Yorvish stared into Varo's eyes and made a face of mock sadness, and pretended to blink tears away… but on the second blink, Varo had gripped Yorvish' neck and was using him as a living shield. He had yanked of his coat off and revealed the electrically-charged power armor, complete with powered claws, and scratched the side of Yorvish' neck, where beads of greenish blood began to form.
"What's it gonna be, Glars'hivick?" he breathed, pushing the claw further into the side of Yorvish' neck. "I could always turn on the power… that's run some nasty energy through Yorvish' body…" Varo grinned at the sight of Glars'hivick's bug-like face, small drops of sweat forming on his brow.
"Or," Varo continued, "I could flip the triggers of the pulse rays and send a disruption field through his puny brain." Varo's claws were unique, as they had built in pulse rays – an uncommon feature that was rarely found even in the highest end models. They could also send two different kinds of energy through them: the more common plasma energy or the slightly rarer and dangerous modified electromagnetic energy. Modified electromagnetic energy could send anyone into a coma almost instantly, as well as fry their armor and weapon systems.
He could see that Glars'hivick was struggling to make a decision. The barrel of his rifle trembled slightly. Varo glance at his hostage's face – his eyes were bulging slightly, the cocky smirk now replaced with a grimace, and his bright golden face had turned a shade creamy yellow in places. Glars'hivick shook his head to clear it and steadied his rifle, before letting out a shrill squeal as Yorvish' head became nothing more than a bloody stump, still trying to pump greenish blood to the brain that was no longer there. Varo's claw had swept cleanly through his flesh, and Yorvish' head had rolled a few feet towards the bar, looking surprised to be dead. Suddenly the whole bar was in uproar.
All manner of alien species pulled out firearms and began shouting and blasting wildly. Klesch ducked behind the bar, only to emerge a moment later with a double-barreled scatter blaster. Varo, taking advantage of the chaos, ran straight to the door. He thought he heard Klesch shout after him, calling him back in an angry voice, but he just smirked and ran to his ship, punching the boarding ramp's button on the way in, which swung shut behind him with a clunk. Panting, he sat in his chair and gripped the control lever, tapping various buttons on the control panel and checking the HUDs.
"OHS Righteous, you are not clear for leaving. Where do you think you're going? The port authority…" Varo flicked off the radio, grinning to himself as the engines whirred into life. The Righteous shot straight up and the landing gear retracted, leaving the port authority ships as dust in his wake.
"Computer; set course for star system Haelicorn. I've got some business to tend to." Varo sat back in his chair, grinning wider than ever before. Now that Yorvish was gone, a few of his clients needed to be 'informed.'
"Hold it…!" cried a voice behind him. He smiled and put his hands up, turning his chair to face Leethya, his only crew member, pointing a pulse pistol at him. When she saw who she was threatening, she hurriedly lowered the gun and rubbed the back of her neck, looking disgruntled.
"Spode damn it, Varo, you gotta stop doing that!" she said, staring at him in disbelief.
"Doing what?" said Varo, still sporting his smirk.
"You know full well!" she yelled. "The port authorities, you idiot, across the entire bloody galaxy you've pissed off at least 500 planet's port security!"
"~Just doing my job, Leeth~" he sang, turning back and double checking the navigation terminal. He heard her give an annoyed click of the tongue, and he could just imagine her standing in the doorway shaking her head at him. He didn't turn back until he heard her clawed feet clicking back along to her room.
Varo refused to let anyone other than fellow Ornathay onto the ship. The number of different races he had to deal with daily gave him many enemies. It seemed for every enemy he made, he made an ally with another race who had a long term argument with the first, which made keeping aliens on board risky – he couldn't tell how they were going to feel about him one day to the next. That's why when he heard Leethya's amazing singing talent at a bar of Graxigon-4, he walked to the backrooms and asked her to join him on his ship. She came useful for diplomatic missions because she had a way with words, and, when the situation turned ugly, she had at least 4 energized knives on her person at all times that Varo knew of. She had a particularly well built body and exotic beauty that also came in handy for missions that may involve seduction, and sometimes when Varo was thinking deeply, lost in a world of his own, he'd come too, finding himself somehow staring at Leethya. But he didn't let his love life or wishful thinking get in the way. His job came first and foremost, no matter how lovely such distractions might be.
And here he was again, lost in his own world, sitting on the chair gazing back into space. He shook his head and proceeded to the kitchen at the back of the ship, where Leethya was preparing a broth of some sort, made from the roots of some exotic plant and a leftovers from yesterday's roast Spoffit. He sat at the head chair of the table and put his legs up.
"Smells nice," he said suddenly, almost making Leethya drop the boiling pot. She slammed it onto the thermal ring and scowled at him. He just grinned boyishly back. Indeed, life was good.
***