Decent into the Darkness
By: Ansem Revived
Chapter 1: The Mission
"What are you giving me here?!?! A cassette?!?!"
"Not just a cassette, a cassette from an important person."
"I came all the way hear this. Duuz, you know how a busy person I am. I can't be running back and forth for no apparent reason. I have a carrier ship and three fighters to maintain, and it is REALLY expensive!"
My associates are so stupid, thought Duuz. "Calm down, Mirak. You haven't even heard what I need from you. I can make your money problems vanish, if you just hear me out."
Mirak looked into the Saurian's yellow eyes. He's serious about this. So he shuffled around in the office couch to get in a comfortable listening position. Once finished, Mirak simply said calmly, "I'm listening."
Duuz kicked his recliner back, put the ancient tape recorder on the coffee table in the middle of the room, and started explaining.
"Have you heard of the Galactic Leyline?"
"No. What is it?" Mirak asked.
"I really don't know myself, but James Parkers did."
"So why wasn't it in his entry then?"
"He discovered the Leyline some years after this. I asked an investigations unit to find out who James was, but the American Government seem to have disavowed any information about him. Nothing was found, no social security number, no birth certificate, no death certificate, nothing."
"Erased from history, huh?"
Duuz closed his eyes and simply said, "Seems that way."
A look of curiosity grew on Mirak's face. He sat up. "So, what's the job? Find this guy?"
"I'm not finished yet", said Duuz. His eyes still closed.
"Well, go on", Mirak replied as he lay back down.
"What is your status with the Kei Pirates?" asked Duuz.
Mirak smirked. "I guess they want all three of our heads after that convoy fiasco crap. You know, the incident with the mineral import/export ship. There was dragonite in it the size of fists in it. Good thing we stopped the pirates from taking it though."
"Yeah, the dragonite was used to make energy-based weapons for the Forces." With that said, Duuz lowered his recliner, opened his eyes, and walked to the wall that doubled as a window and stopped. He crossed his huge arms on his back and glared out into the darkness of space. "Do you know a certain pirate called 'Hazanko'?"
Mirak looked at Duuz's back blankly. After a few seconds, he laughed a little. "Is this a joke, everybody knows who Hazanko is now. The crew of the Outlaw Star killed him."
"Now", Duuz paused for a moment, taking a small breath in "I'm not trying to be insulting, but how can a small group of rag-tag outlaws take down an immensely powerful man of Hazanko. He was a Tao Master. He was even the leader of the Anten Seven." He turned around to face Mirak. "That just doesn't sound right. Even if casters were used."
"My team probably could've taken out six of those seven." Mirak said, fiddling with his empty knife sheath. "But I still don't see what this has to do with James Parkers, and another thing, the recording said that he had a pregnant wife. By now the child is probably a dead grandparent."
"Like you said before, he was erased from history. Even his ancestors and predecessors are gone. He had no family. They all just disappeared in the wind." Duuz said while walking back to his recliner. He didn't kick it back this time, but instead he laid his arms in his lap and leaned forward, making sure Mirak can see the light in his eyes. "But I know what ever happened to him AND how the outlaws killed the Tao Master had something to do with the Galactic Leyline! They all were searching for it."
"Whatever James did to find this 'Leyline' must've been pretty dumb for the U.S. to disavow information about him." Mirak whispered this to himself. He sat upright, put the sheath back into his coat, and finally said; "I think I've put two-and-two together about me and my fellow mercenaries job now." Mirak smirked while Duuz leaned back into his recliner.
"Oh really" He's brighter than he looks, thought Duuz.
"You want us to figure out what this 'Galactic Leyline' is, don't you?"
How disappointing. "No."
"No?"
"I want you to kill the crew of the Outlaw Star." Duuz said with no emotion in his voice.
"What the hell? Are you crazy? Even there was this Leyline, what makes you think that my team will be able to take down people who actually killed a Tao Master!?!?" Mirak's eyes had gotten very wide after hearing his friend talking like this.
"They probably have gotten magical powers or something from this Leyline to do what they did, but with power like that, they might be able to destroy an entire space station! The Angel Links* might not be able to destroy them, but I've seen the way you fly with the Cutting Edge Hellraiser* fighter and your team's. You guys are even great on foot. So I know you can do this." Duuz's eyes widened also.
"Okay." Mirak paused for a moment. He got up; walked to the door; turned around, and opened his coat, as if flashing. Duuz gasped at the sight he saw.
Sheaths. Rows and rows of knife sheaths. All sewn inside the linen of Mirak's leather coat. No wonder it almost took forever for his crew to disarm, thought Duuz.
"Now, how much are we talking?" Mirak said as he zipped his coat halfway.
"600,000 wong"
"900,000"
"750,000"
"800,000"
"775,000"
"Deal." Mirak walked up to Duuz and extended his arm to him with a opened, gloved hand.
"Deal." Duuz shook it with hesitation. What was I thinking?!?! 775,000 wong, that's a lot. But...I don't think I'm going to end up paying, He thought. Then, he smirked. If everything goes according to plan, I won't even have to.
What have I gotten my crew into? This is what Mirak thought while he was opening the door out of the office into the hallway, to tell the news to his team.
First Chapter complete. Thanks to the reviews, I got more self-confidence now.
Well…bye…I guess.
Ansem Revived