Chapter 31: The Empire's Rule

Unsure on how many days, or perhaps weeks, had passed them by, Guida and crew continued to track Shirken and his team wherever they went. Our heroes knew they had enough supplies to last them for at least a couple of months, so there were no problems in how long it was taking to actually come anywhere close to their enemies. They would stop soon though. They just had to.

And just like that, Airen could see a planet coming up on the map, and it even seemed like the others were deciding to stop there. Their tracking signal was coming from around the same vicinity of the planet and it was having a hard time of actually pinpointing the position. They must be down on the Planet's surface.

"What shall we do, sir?" Airen asked, turning around in his chair to face Guida. The crew's supposed leader stood up and looked at the map.

"This doesn't seem to be a planet that's watched by the Patrol," Guida pointed out. He seemed to be a little annoyed by that, but it seemed that they were too far out of Patrol jurisdiction. "Take the ship down, maybe we'll have a chance this time."

With that Airen saluted, turned around in his chair again, and the ship began its descent down onto the, as of this moment, unknown planet. The cities appeared to be pretty large, but there were quite a lot of similar looking ships floating in the sky over the city that they were headed towards. Niku stood up in his seat and appeared to be a little uncomfortable with what he was seeing. Guida walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"What is it?" Guida asked. Niku didn't look away from the window and sighed. The ship continued over parts of the city and they began to notice some labour camps that appeared to be run by soldiers. Talia appeared to react to this as well and stood up at the window looking down. Niku turned away, fists clenched.

"The planet is under Cold Empire rule," Niku informed them. He took a breath and composed himself, his anger appearing to disappear. "I didn't think I'd run into them again, but there must still have been a whole operation out here that I didn't even know of."

Guida sat down in the unoccupied seat next to Airen and began to help co-piloting.

"We'll set the ship down somewhere on the opposite side of the city and we'll look for Shirken and the others on foot," Guida explained, as Niku walked out of the room without saying anything. Guida looked over his shoulder to the door and then to Talia. She shrugged her shoulders and walked off too. Guida returned to looking forward and appeared to ponder something, but there wasn't too much time for that.

The ship touched down in an empty part of what looked like a Scavengers bay. This meant they would have to be wary of leaving the ship alone. Guida offered to stay behind with Airen and the ship while Niku and Talia grabbed a few supplied and began trying to narrow down where Shirken and his crew might be. It was odd that he wasn't going himself, but he seemed to think this was best for the moment. Talia and Niku didn't argue.

While the duo was out doing their business and looking around, Talia was making sure to keep an eye on Niku. She was expecting him to be acting strangely, but he was strangely calm. She didn't know how to deal with it, until Niku made note of it.

"You don't have to feel awkward around me. The Cold Empire is a part of my life I had moved on from, but I'm not scared about having to confront them again," Niku explained, "There were both good and bad things to come of my time with the Empire."

Talia felt that Niku had helped to put her at ease a little there. She seemed to be relieved.

"I was expecting you to want vengeance or something," Talia said, a half smirk on her face. Niku chuckled and shook his head.

"There's no point. What's done is done. I just want to get on with my life now," Niku replied, smiling back at Talia and walking on, continuing to look around. Talia stopped for a second and watched as the former soldier walked on, almost without a care in the World. This didn't completely put her mind in ease.

"So, what happened with you back then?" She asked, rushing to catch up with him. Niku looked down to her and cleared his throat.

"Nothing too interesting. Just my team-mates and I performed an act of treason and stole from the Empire," Niku explained, briefly and quickly. "Nothing big."

Talia didn't really have anything else to add, or have any questions prepared. It seemed like Niku was rather eager to drop the subject for now, so Talia wasn't about to press further.

"My team were all killed by Yamo Niha," Niku said, without warning. Talia stalled and looked up at him, but he didn't look at her. "I was meant to die too, but luckily I survived and that's when I was taken as a prisoner."

Niku turned back to face Talia with a look as if to say, 'Are you satisfied with that information?' but he still didn't appear to be angry or annoyed with her. Talia didn't expect to get almost the full story, but there it was. She cleared her throat and walked up next to Niku.

"I'm… sorry about that…" She muttered, nervously. Niku scoffed.

"Why are you sorry? Were you there?" He asked her, she looked up and shook her head immediately.

"No. Niha never…" Talia trailed off as she realised something. Niku raised an eyebrow and looked at her. She looked back at him. "He never let me have any involvement with the Cold Empire. Said it wouldn't benefit me in the long run."

Niku continued to look at Talia as she looked down again.

"He must have cared about you once," Niku stated. He placed a caring hand on her shoulder. She looked up and smiled awkwardly as they continued on together.

While Niku and Talia were off in the city of this unfamiliar planet, back on the ship Guida was pacing around the room, awkwardly. He didn't know what to do with himself. He said he would stay back at the ship to keep an eye on things with Airen, but something was on his mind. Shirken was out there. Guida couldn't just stand around and wait for Niku and Talia to come back with some information, whether reliable or not. He had to take action.

The former Patrolman went straight for the exit, without telling Airen, and left the ship. He would find them quickly and do what he could to either stop them or find out some good information. He knew there was no sense in hanging around by these docks, but if he headed to find the other nearby ports he may actually find their ship and some of the crew. Guida went off, making sure to keep his head down and not cause a scene so to draw any unwanted attention. That wouldn't be good.

It didn't take him long to get to the other port, but now it was a matter of doing some investigation and perhaps staying low and hidden. He really didn't want one of Shirken or his crew to spot him first, otherwise they would get scared and probably run away. No, he needed to remain hidden until he could find them. It didn't take too long for Guida to spot one of the crew. It happened to be Shibo, the most noticeable of the crew. He appeared to be walking around with a small cloaked creature that Guida wasn't familiar with.

He did his best to get close to Shibo, but stay in cover and that was a little difficult to do while also not drawing attention to himself. He tried to stay in shadows and behind pillars, but Shibo was a little too far out in the open. Guida had to do his best, and that's when he passed by a stall that had a lot of old battle helmets and other head-gear worn by the Cold Empire. They were either battle damaged or old, but they would serve their purpose of hiding Guida's face. That was really convenient for Guida. Almost a little too convenient, but who was he to question it?

He just grabbed one of the helmets while the shop's clerk wasn't looking and threw it on. He now had a way to get close to Shibo without drawing any attention to himself. This was it, he could finally either follow him back to his ship, or get whatever information he needed from the fat alien. He started to listen in on Shibo's conversation with the small creature.

"Trust me, I know what I'm talking about when it comes to getting scavenger work," The small alien said, with a strange, raspy, high-pitched voice. "And it will pay well."

"I don't know, I really don't trust you," Shibo said, confident in his own thoughts. "Nobody on this planet is going to give us enough credits, especially when it's a planet run by the Empire."

"It's your loss, but the rest of your team seems to trust my judgement," The alien continued, "And I didn't mean here anyway, I was talking about a different planet."

"A different… planet?" Shibo questioned. Guida was listening intently, while walking around in a nonchalant manner.

"Yeah. Eoz. It's a great planet for Scavengers," The alien replied, sounding very enthusiastic. "We go there, we find the best work, we'll make a lot of money."

Shibo started chuckling and placed a large hand on the alien's head.

"We?" He said, menacingly. He lifted up the little alien and looked him square in his hooded face. "What makes you think you're in on this?"

"Well… Shirken… he… promised," The alien said, struggling with the hand, tight around his head. Shibo chuckled again, a little louder.

"Promised? Don't make me laugh. Shirken isn't one to trust," Shibo told him. Guida rolled his eyes under his helmet.

"You can say that again…" The former Patrolman said to himself.

The little alien continued to complain and wriggle in Shibo's grip and a few of the aliens nearby were starting to take a little notice and soon after, Shibo was aware of this. He set the alien down lightly and leaned in close.

"We'll see what Shirken has to say later on, but you've already given me the location, so it's not looking good for you," Shibo said as he patted the alien once more and continued walking on. Guida watched as the duo continued on again. He looked around and followed them some more. He wasn't done just yet.

It was only as he started walking off that he started to think more about what he would actually be able to do alone. Maybe he should just scout for information now and worry about fighting them when he had the help of the rest of crew.

A little time passed by and Talia and Niku had finally collected a few extra supplies, but weren't having too much luck on finding just where Shirken and his crew could be located. Their tracker was having some severe difficulty in narrowing down a search radius. It was frustrating them, but it wasn't as if this was the only opportunity to try and find Shirken and crew. They had time and it would probably benefit them if it took longer to find Shirken. It meant they would have a lot more of a chance to prepare for the bigger fight to come. The one with Niha.

Niku and Talia were walking through a small market district when some commotion caught their attention and their focus on the tracker was shifted. This wasn't something either of them were anticipating and when they spotted a group of Cold Empire soldiers they started to feel just a little nervous. These soldiers didn't look very nice. Two of them were carrying energy rifles, while one, at the front of the group, was wearing a wrist weapon. He seemed to be the leader of the group, and the one drawing the most attention. He was firing his weapon at walls and at the ground to threaten all the people.

Shop or stall owners were hiding behind counters while parents were rushing to their children, and the rest were all panicking and either running away or hiding anywhere they could. Apparently, this seemed to amuse the soldiers as they continued on through the district. Niku and Talia stayed away from the soldiers and kept to any of the crowds or darker, unseen spaces. Talia noticed a frail looking child try to rush away from the Soldiers and she stepped out of hiding to help them out.

Talia helped them get away from the main walkway and tried to comfort them.

"It's ok, here," Talia went into her pack and pulled out a little bit of food for the little child. "Here, have some of this."

The child graciously took the small piece of food and went to rush away, but ran straight into the legs of one of the soldiers. The kid bounced back and crashed into the ground, dropping the piece of food. It looked up at the soldier with teary eyes.

"Aw, did you drop your food? That's a shame," The soldier said mockingly as he walked over to the food and stamped it into the dirt. "Eat it now."

The soldier walked off chuckling quite loudly and Talia was ready to go up to that soldier and give him her opinion the matter, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. Talia turned around and saw Niku standing there, shaking his head. Talia wanted to protest it, but the look on Niku's face was really serious. Talia sighed and nodded, stepping back as the Soldiers continued on.

The soldier walked on and as he did, he smacked a nearby civilian over the head, knocking him to the ground and continued laughing. Talia didn't want to stand for this and rushed out to help the guy up off of the ground.

"Are you ok, sir?" She asked as she helped him up, but that's when the soldier turned around and decided to intervene again. He knocked the guy back down and stood up to Talia, looking down at her.

"Do you mind? You're ruining the fun," The soldier said, but Talia didn't back down. She wasn't one to back down from any fight, ordinarily. Niku stepped forward, not wanting too much attention on them, but just that action got the eyes on him. He stopped for a second and gingerly made his way towards Talia. He placed a hand on her shoulder and tried to pull her back, but she stood strong.

The other Soldiers decided to come and see what was happening and Niku started to curse under his breath.

"What's going on here?" The leader asked, sizing up the two strangers. Talia glared at the soldiers, clenching her fists. Niku continued to stand back with his hand still on Talia's shoulder. The leader scoffed and turned to his allies. "Forget about this trash, let's go."

The group of soldiers finally walked off, leaving Talia, Niku and the rest of the civilians alone, for now.

"Ok, can we get back to the ship? It's a little dangerous out here now," Niku suggested, definitely very worried of what could happen by now. Talia watched after the soldiers and then turned to Niku. She nodded and followed on with him.

"I don't like how they were being treated," Talia stated.

"You think I do? I hate it too, but that used to be me and I know it's their job to keep order," Niku said, trying to help alleviate some of the hatred Talia seemed to have towards those soldiers. "Maybe some are worse than others, but that's just the way they are."

"I know… that child reminded me of… well, me," Talia explained. Niku glanced down at her as they walked along back towards the ship and he was starting to understand her a little more.

The two of them were silent for the rest of their journey back to the ship and made sure not to draw any attention, especially after everything that had happened. Niku was right, they couldn't stay out and about now. It was far too dangerous.

They made it back to the ship without any disturbances and upon arrival they were greeted by Guida, who appeared to have made it back, safe and sound. He had decided against going after Shirken and his crew alone as it would end up being too hard for him to handle.

"How'd the search go?" Guida asked, as soon as they stepped on-board.

"The tracker wasn't having a good time, but they're definitely here at the moment. The signal hasn't changed," Talia informed him, she glanced over to Niku afterwards.

"The Empire does have a really big presence here though, we can't be out there too long," Niku said, hoping that Guida would be understanding, despite how desperate he was to get this done. Surprisingly, Guida agreed.

"It'll be better if we rest up tonight and go and check things out tomorrow," Guida told them. Niku and Talia glanced to each other and nodded, heading off to their quarters to do as Guida said, and get some rest.

Once in her room, Talia had some thoughts going through her head. She remembered seeing what was going on in the streets, how those soldiers were treating the people, and that made her wonder what was happening while they weren't around. There must be so many bad things happening around here, and not even here, but on all the other Planets that the Empire still had control over. What was happening inside those camps?

Talia couldn't help but dwell on these thoughts as she lay awake in her room.

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Thanks for reading.

Next Time... Chapter 32: Talia's Contempt