3.
Without Mercy
"M'lords, all the towns are burned and demolished. As ordered." A warrior saluted and waited for the next command.
"Any worthy of conversion?" Vaako looked up from the planning holograms, his cold glance hardening the warrior's defenses.
"Barely." He replied.
"You know the drill, Nawkon, weed, herd and shackle," Riddick looked up finally, his glare softer but without emotion. It was rumored that Lord Riddick had no soul to go to the Underverse.
"M'lords," Nawkon bowed and stepped back, leaving the strategy rooms.
Vaako watched his companion move about the room, as if trying to find something. He had seen the ex-convict rise from depression and become the ruthless being he was meant to be. He was a hard ruler, a born leader and definitely no kind paternal figure to anyone.
"Vaako, tell me something." Riddick requested, leaning against the edge of the map table. "What are we doing?"
"Are you in another depression, Lord Riddick?" He smiled slightly as he said the time, making Riddick chuckle. He had caused a near Necromonger population conniption when he announced that he would have an equal, not a second in command. Both he and Vaako were addressed as 'Lord', something they used to mock each other in private.
"Do I look like the Lord Marshall's harem?" Riddick returned, making Vaako laugh. It was no small secret that the private mistresses of the previous Lord Marshall were near suicidal with depression because neither Vaako nor Riddick would use them. When they did, none of the women would want to be used because Riddick was known to be as ruthless in bed as he was in the field. A complete animal, one of the surviving women had said. Vaako on the other hand preferred to use them then test poisons or drugs on the women and many less women lived to see the next day.
"Ah, my friend. What will I tell you this time? You ask this every time we conquer a new terrain. With every furthering of the frontier and the known universe, you ask 'what are we doing'? Is conquering a philosophy, Riddick?" Vaako smirked and sat on a nearby chair, a thin drapery covering it.
"We conquer land and souls, Vaako. What use of this do I have?" Riddick sharpened an old shiv that he refused to let go.
"We do this to expand the empire. Count it by planets, people, deaths, whatever pleases you the most, but from a full scope, we are creating an empire." Vaako avoided Riddick's last question.
"Answer it, Vaako," Riddick growled, his silver eyes glinting in the dark room.
"To further-"
"Our resources and become self-sufficient, yes, you've said this many times." Riddick waved off his first answer.
"It satisfies your animalistic need to make everyone around you feel inferior, your inner desire to have people to exterminate by the millions if it pleases you." Vaako ventured, never wanting to verbally acknowledge the pleased glint Riddick got in his eyes when another planet was tied under his control.
"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Riddick remarked, standing up again. "Thank you, Vaako."
"As m'lord commands." He mock bowed, as the court gossipers did, trying to gain Riddick and Vaako's favor.
"Well, if m'lady insists, we'll get her back to her cushions and makeup paints as soon as possible," Riddick shot back and Vaako sneered.
"Are you quite done?" He asked, his pride slowly coming back to life as Riddick focused on his plans.
"Hn. Let's get out of here by sun up. We should keep moving." Riddick nodded at a system that was only holographic dots the size of a grain of sand at the edge of the maps. "How long will it take to reach there?"
"Give or take, three or four months. This is if you conquer every system between this one and that." Vaako added and Riddick nodded.
"Let's get started, then."
"GRAWR!" Jack threw herself over the banister, taking her father completely by surprise. He caught her just in time, inwardly relieved but laughing all the same.
"The mighty huntress has caught her prey!" He joked and Jack clambered onto his back, hugging him from behind.
"HI DAD!" She shouted in his ear and he winced slightly. He attempted to consol himself by saying that this behavior could have never come from his side of the family.
"Hi to you too, Jackie. Mom in?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at his daughter.
"Yep, yep. In the kitchen." She replied and got off her dad's back when he set her down at the back door.
"Go outside and play for a while." He said, turning away.
"I wanna be with you!" She nearly whined.
"Alright, you can come only after you do one thing. Catch fifteen butterflies and four rabbits. Can you do that or is that too hard?" He looked down at her and she grinned.
"You got it!" Jack bounded out the back door and into the garden.
A few minutes had passed and she had only caught nine butterflies, having a recapture a few because she could only hold them in her hands. Jack sat on the grass and played with them, naming them and watching them flutter lightly around her. Just as she thought it would be a nice time to take a nap, a word floated out to her from the open kitchen window.
She quietly got up and snuck over to beneath the window and crouched, shushing the butterflies that followed her. They continued to lazily float around her, but she stopped paying attention to them.
"We can't just move, Mark, where will we go that they won't go to?" Her mother's voice sounded worried, something Jack didn't like at all.
"It's better then staying here! Haven't you seen what those Necromongers have done?" Her father's voice was tense.
"I know exactly what they do. But if we move Jack will ask why and what are we going to say? I won't lie to her!" Her mother was shushed by her dad.
"We've got to consider it. I mean, the longer we keep her away from that sort of life, the better! We can't let her live that life." Her dad continued. "Just look at her out there, playing with the-"
"Oh my god, where is she? Jack! Jack!" Her mother ran from the kitchen and out the back door, the screen door banging against the house. Jack crept to the side of the house and came back running.
"Mom?" She called, catching her mother's attention.
"Jackie! Where were you?" She was worried still. But it wasn't just about the brief disappearance of her.
"I was chasing butterflies like dad asked. They went to the other side of the house, so I followed." She sounded innocent and her mother hugged her briefly.
"Tell me before you do that, alright?" She hugged Jack again, kneeling the grass. Jack hugged her back and looked over her should to see her father's dark and troubled gaze watching them from the porch. Her mom pulled back and kissed Jack's forehead. "Go in and wash up, dinner will be ready soon."
"Ok, scuse me Dad." She said, passing him and going into the house. She ran up to the second floor and went into the bathroom, soaking a small towel and squeezing it. Jack quietly stood at the top of the steps and heard her parents being busy with dinner, so she snuck into their room and hurried to the computer chair.
She sat on it with her legs folded beneath her and waited for the screen to show up. It came up and she quickly moved the mouse around and finally got what she wanted.
"Few more minutes, Jack!" Her mother called up.
"K!" She shouted back down, reading the information one more time before shutting down the computer and leaving her parent's room. Jack put the washcloth back in the bathroom and made sure she looked clean enough before heading downstairs.
She couldn't wait to go to bed tonight, she had a lot to tell Kyra.
Thanks for the reviews, guys. More chapters to come.