Hey Everybody,
I'm sorry this post is coming late. Between starting school, moving into a new house, work, and military duties I've been swamped and the new house has made internet connection an issue. Anyway here's chapter 7. Here we finish giving the backstory for Rory Swann, Eddie Burkey, and their operation on Meinhoff. Hope you all enjoy.
- James
Chapter 7: As It All Fell Apart
"If there are no more questions gentlemen, I'll be returning to Jorgenton presently." The balding Kel-Morian official stood to collect his things. Rory Swann and Eddie Burkey both shook his hand unenthusiastically and when he'd left they both sank down into two of the chairs in the small meeting room.
"More friggin' taxes… I swear Eddie ya'd think the guild wars was startin' up again the way these damn Kel-Morians are bleedin' us dry," Swann murmured disconsolately. He was wearing his customary worn coveralls over a sweaty white shirt. His goggles held dark smudges from the day's labors. The Kel-Morian representative had shown up unannounced a few hours before and Swann and Eddie had come straight from the mines to meet with him only to find out he had come to advise them of a new tax in a long string of taxes.
It had begun a few months ago with a similar visit from another Kel-Morian bigwig who had arrived to announce that the Combine might levy a new series of taxes over the next few months. And he had not exaggerated. Each tax was bigger than the last and Rory and Eddie's operation had begun to feel the financial strain. This latest one had been especially large and Rory had to wonder if they'd be able to handle the added cost.
As he spoke his gaze flicked towards Eddie. His friend's usually cheerful eyes held a dark brooding expression. His hand was raked into his thick brown hair and his jaw was clenched. He said nothing however, and Rory continued to speak.
"I don't… I don't think we can keep this off the town's back no more Eddie. We're gonna have to cut the pay…"
"Don't ya think this is weird Rory?" Eddie interrupted him suddenly.
"Weird? What do ya mean?"
Eddie turned his dark green gaze on his old friend and Rory looked back at him worriedly as the taller man continued.
"We've had three offers from Kerr to buy the operation this month. More than before… And don't it seem weird to ya that the last one was just two days before this Kel-Morian bozo shows up demandin' more money?"
"Ya mean… ya think Kerr's behind the taxes? That's a hell of a thing to say Eddie. He'd have to have half the damn Kel-Morian administration on Meinhoff in his pocket."
"Would ya put it past him? Everybody knows he's a creep and you've heard Molly talk about him…"
"Yeah but this? Eddie he'd have to have the whole planet in his pocket for that kinda thing."
A shadow of doubt entered Eddie's expression.
"Maybe your right brother… it's just… aw hell…"
Rory put one of his beefy hands on his friend's shoulder.
"It's Melanie ain't it?"
Eddie said nothing at first but after a moment he nodded.
"She ain't even a year old Rory. With things startin' to get like this… I dunno I guess I'm just scared if it keeps gettin' worse I won't be able to provide for her and Molly."
Nearly seven months ago Molly had given birth to a healthy girl. Melanie Burkey was a tiny thing, even to Rory's thinking but she was insufferably cute and the jewel of her parent's eyes. She'd gotten her fathers thick brown hair and her mother's hazel eyes. Eddie joked that she'd gotten her godfather Rory's height.
Rory turned his friend around in his chair to look at him.
"Hey brother. Don't you worry about that. Ain't nothin' gonna keep you from takin' care of your family. Hell they're my family too and I promise ya we'll get through this. Those Kel-Morians can't tax us like this forever and business is still good. So don't go talkin' like that."
Eddie gazed solemnly at his old friend. Finally he sighed and put his own hand on Rory's shoulder.
"I hope your right brother. I really do."
It was late 2501. Almost two years after they'd found the Dorium strike and almost six months since the series of Kel-Morian taxes had begun taking their toll on the town of Jackson. Things had gotten progressively worse for the mining town. The townsfolk had taken the pay cuts surprisingly well. Eddie and Rory were trusted and well liked and most people figured times were just tough all around. The whole town had pulled together and business had been good. But even good business couldn't make up for the heavy taxes.
Eventually the financial strain turned into a strain on the upkeep of the operation's equipment. Rory did his best, and his technical genius kept most of their equipment afloat and in working order. But new equipment and gear was out of the question. And to make a bad situation worse they'd realized that the Dorium vein was beginning to run out. Rory and Eddie had immediately set out to find another strike in the area but morale in the town had been low for weeks. Spirits rose again however, when Swann began to find signs of a large Dorium vein about a mile south of the town. There was only one problem. The vein was buried underneath formations of particularly thick rock and the equipment they had was having a hard time getting through it.
For weeks they tried to drill through tough layers of stone and they'd made little headway. The rock had too high a melting point for their laser drill and their heavy metal drill had broken against the tough rock several twice, taking days to fix each time. A more powerful drill would solve the problem but with the financial burden of the oppressive Kel-Morian taxes the operation couldn't afford the equipment. Stress was running high in the tunnel and none were in a fouler mood than the usually jovial Eddie Burkey.
Dust and bits of rock assaulted the goggles Rory Swann wore protectively over his eyes and the wrap around his mouth as he watched the heavy drill make another attempt on the thick rock between them and Jackson's continued livelihood. Beside him crouched Reggie Hernandez, Victor Kachinski, and four other miners in goggles and wraps of their own. Every now and then the drill would hit a snag and the shriek of metal gears fighting against heavily foliated rock caused the group to cover their ears and wince.
The drill itself was a large affair consisting of a tracked cab that held the vehicles driver and the drill itself, which extended six feet out from the cab. All in all the vehicle was a good ten feet from rear end to the sharp drill point. Currently the machine was struggling vainly to cut through the tunnel wall in front of it. Inside the cockpit Eddie Burkey was cursing furiously.
Rory cupped his hand over his comm headset to be heard over the shriek of metal and breaking rock.
"Eddie! Take it easy brother! If we bust this drill bit I don't know if we'll be able to get another one for a few weeks!"
When Eddie responded his voice was a mix of fury and desperation.
"We can't wait a few weeks Rory! You've seen the books same as me! We've gotta power through this bastard or we'll have to start sellin' equipment just to make ends meet!"
The freshly carved tunnel groaned and a shower of rocks and pebbles rained down on Rory and the other miners, who began to eye the tunnel's ceiling nervously. And all the while the shriek of the drill continued.
"Eddie back the drill out slow! I don't think this tunnel's stable!"
"Don't worry Rory! I got this! I think I'm about to bust through this stubborn fekker!"
The shower of rock and dirt became a steady pour and a large section of rock fell from the ceiling to smash heavily into the drill's cab, leaving a four-foot dent. Swann keyed his mike again in alarm.
"Damnit Eddie! Back it out! The whole damn tunnel's coming down!"
"Just a bit farther brother! I've got a good feelin' about this! You'll…" The rest of his words were drowned out by a great series of cracks and the sound of huge rocks tumbling to the cavern floor, many of which impacted heavily off the cab of the drill. Swann turned to the miner's behind him with a roar.
"ITS COMIN' DOWN! GET OUT!"
The miners took of at a run. Fleeing the collapsing cavern. Swann turned back and began beating on the metal back of the drill with his fists.
"EDDIE!"
With a roar of it's own the tunnel ceiling collapsed. Rory felt a big rock smash a glancing blow to his shoulder and he went down hard, feeling his head smack into the tunnel floor. Groggily, he distantly recognized the sounds of falling rock and dirt all around him. Whether by luck, or by some sick cosmic joke the rocks fell in a way that he was shielded from a good portion of the cave in. In moments it was over and an eerie silence came over the cavern.
"Rory! Can you hear me!" Distantly he recognized Victor Kachinski's voice and the sound of many hands lifting and digging at the freshly fallen rocks behind him. All his attention was in front of him though. Through the dust that hung in the air he saw that the drill was covered in dirt and fallen rocks so he struggled to his knees and crawled toward the big machine.
"Eddie! Eddie! Answer me brother! Hang tight I'm comin' to ya. Just gotta get these rocks off!"
Getting no response he looked around and spotted the shattered remains of his headset amongst the fallen rocks where he'd been knocked to the ground. With a strength born of desperation Rory Swann dug furiously at the debris covering the back of the drill. A moment later he stopped, and simply stared in shock.
A huge rock had impacted directly over the cockpit, collapsing even the thick plexiglass and utterly demolishing everything in it's path. Rory couldn't make out any sign of Eddie but in the back of his mind he knew with a grim certainty that his friend hadn't survived the collapse. Letting loose a cry of anguish and denial he threw himself at the rocks between himself and the cockpit.
When the other miners finally broke through they found Rory Swann scrabbling ineffectually at the rock that had collapsed the drills cockpit. The stout miner was sobbing as he clawed at the massive stone and his tears soaked his thick beard.
It was a rough three months.
Eddie's death had hit the entire town hard, though none harder than Molly Burkey. For days she had shut herself inside her and Eddie's living quarters with their baby daughter and refused to see anyone. Finally Rory had come, though consumed with his own grief, and pleaded with her till she'd let him in. When he saw Molly with her disheveled blonde hair and bright hazel eyes, red now from days of crying, he'd felt his heart break a second time and they'd collapsed into each other's arms. Weeping together as they grieved for what they'd both lost.
After that Rory fought through his grief and leapt back into work. He figured he had too many people relying on him to keep Jackson afloat to break down. He began pulling long hours in the tunnels trying to break through to the new vein, and in the maintenance bay working on the operation's equipment and vehicles. He tried to make as much time to spend with his goddaughter and Molly, who for her part, resumed her work as the operations accountant and secretary. Little Melanie, not even a year old, was too young to understand the loss of her father and both Rory and Molly considered that a blessing.
The following weeks were difficult for both of them, and for Jackson. Rory lost track of the number of times he'd found Molly with red eyes and freshly shed tears. At times like these he'd simply put his arms around her and murmur consolingly as he fought back his own tears. Molly eventually cried less and less, though anyone who saw her could see the raw grief in her eyes.
The financial stress on Jackson didn't let up either. Eventually Rory had to sell several vehicles and an assortment of gear back in Jorgenton but two months after Eddie's death he managed to scrape enough credits together to buy a drill powerful enough to break through the thick rock blocking the miners from the new vein. Following this was a period of celebration for the town because not only was the Dorium larger than even Rory had hoped for, but they found a large pocket of vespene gas trapped in thethick rock near the strike. Collecting and refining the gas would be difficult that far underground but the added income would be more than welcome to the struggling mining town. Work immediately began and Rory threw himself into the construction of a small vespene refinery atop the high canyon walls above Jackson.
The work was finished a month later and the success of the operation was immediate. Molly started to report steady profits in spite of the heavy taxes and the mood of the townspeople began to improve greatly. People began to whisper that the town's troubles were over and Rory couldn't help but be hopeful despite his still fresh grief over Eddie's death.
Then another Kerr Company representative showed up.
The man in the dark suit arrived one morning and had offered more money for ownership of the operation than any offer to that date. Rory Swann listened to the man's offer, feeling a dark anger rising deep inside of him. As the Kerr representative spoke Rory saw all the faces of the people who had worked and bled to make Jackson possible, the most fresh in his mind the man who might as well have been his brother. It was too much.
The Kerr Company man took being bodily thrown out of a meeting room surprisingly well. He stood up calmly, letting only a small flash of annoyance pass across his features, and dusted himself off. Saying nothing more to the irate Swann he turned on his heel and headed for the company truck outside the maintenance bay and drove back to the nearest train stop. Eventually Rory calmed down and went back to work. For a few days all was well and even Rory's spirits began to lift.
Then the Kel-Morian official showed up.
Rory's upper half was buried in the mechanical guts of the new drill when one of his techs came up to tell him about the man's arrival. The tech had to shout so that Rory could hear him and he sounded nervous. Swann didn't blame him. There was only one thing that Kel-Morians made the long trip out to Jackson for.
He didn't even bother cleaning himself up. His face and coveralls were stained by grease and oil, even more than normal, when he walked into the meeting room and sat down without shaking the official's proffered hand.
"Well?"
The official, a balding man in a dusty grey suit, blinked but then rolled right into the reason for his visit. Rory Swann didn't show even a hint of surprise when the man announced that vespene refineries were now subject to taxation by the Kel-Morian Combine. He didn't even look surprised when the man told him the ridiculous figure that the Combine would be taxing him. It was all finally clicking in his head.
"… don't ya think it's weird Rory?"
"… the last one was just two days before this Kel-Morian bozo shows up demandin' more money."
It was too much. Too many times for it to be coincidence. Rory had thought the idea to be outlandish before but he was all but certain now. Someone in the Kel-Morian administration was in the Kerr Company's pocket. The company was using the Kel-Morians to tax their competition into submission so that they could monopolize the mining industry on Meinhoff.
And Edward Burkey had died because of it.
The official trailed off as he saw the stone cold look come over Rory Swann's face. Finally noting his silence Swann looked up and took his hand in his. The man gasped at the iron grip the scruffy miner held him in.
"I think I get the gist of it mister. We'll be in touch."
The balding man grunted a reply through the pain and when Rory released him he murmured a farewell and made his way from the meeting room casting grudging looks back at the stone faced miner.
Rory Swann didn't move to follow. Nor did he even move to a chair. He just stood in the middle of the small meeting room. His face growing more grim by the second. When the tech came in to see what was holding him up he stopped abruptly at the site of him.
"Hey boss you wanna get both… b-boss you okay? …Was it that bad?"
Rory nodded absently. He turned to look at the tech and the man took a step back when he saw the smoldering fury in the stout miners eyes.
"Tell Kachinski he's gonna be in charge for awhile. I'm makin' a trip into Jorgenton."
The Kel-Morian Center for Combine Affairs on Meinhoff was an impressive building but relatively plain. The ten story structure was built from huge blocks of stone mingled with sporadic sections of prefabricated metal and a large but simple set of stone stairs leading up to the large but simple front doors. It was big, blocky, and built for efficiency. In other words, it was Kel-Morian.
The buildings surrounding it were a mismatched assortment of the same stone and prefabricated metal arranged in blocks with worn down north by south streets that ran perpendicular to the equally worn down east by west streets. Such was the layout for the entire city of Jorgenton. A mess of organized chaos that had sprung up in the last half century to house the growing Kel-Morian mining industry on the dusty lunar planet. The Center for Combine Affairs housed most of the Kel-Morian staff on planet save for the individual guilds, which each had their own headquarters, none larger than the mining guild of course.
Rory Swann made his way up the steps toward the large double doors. Sweating through the heat of the early morning. He showed no visible sign of his discomfort though. His brown eyes were fixed on the doors in front of him. His dark suit had been cleaned the night before and his beard had been trimmed and brushed until it was in some semblance of order. The suit had traces of grey dust on it, but then so did everything on Meinhoff.
As he moved through the entrance his eyes flicked to the four Kel-Morian Rippers, the elite of the Combine's Marines, flanking the door in black power armor. Swann noted that each Ripper carried a pistol holstered at his side. There were no gauss rifles or other heavier weapons in sight but Rory doubted they were far away. One of the ripper's spoke as he walked through the doors in a voice that plainly stated he hated his job and wished for nothing more than to be elsewhere.
"Welcome to the Center for Combine Affairs on Meinhoff. Proceed to the front desk for your needs. Maintain order."
Rory grunted an acknowledgement and moved through the lobby toward a circular front desk. As he walked he passed under a large white banner with the Kel-Morian K over M sigil. Plastered over the walls to his sides were large posters containing slogans about hard work, sacrifice, and obedience to the Combine. One poster had a picture of a curvy red-haired woman in what Rory could only assume was mining gear that had been mostly cut away, leaving little to the imagination. The woman was depicted holding a large drill with a seductive grin on her face and along the bottom of the poster were the words, "Real Men Drill Deep."
The desk itself was in the shape of a hollowed out circle surrounding another white Kel-Morian banner. Typing furiously away at terminals placed around its circumference were three receptionists in dark business suits. One, a middle aged woman with dusky brown hair and severe eyes looked up from her terminal as Rory approached. Somehow managing to look up at him from her seated position she opened her mouth and asked in a dry voice.
"Welcome to the Center for Combine Affairs. How may I direct you sir?"
Rory tried to muster a smile, though he doubted what he came up with was very convincing. His forcefully pleasant tone probably sounded equally insincere, but he doubted his performance was being graded.
"Mornin' Miss. I'm Foreman Rory Swann, outa Jackson. Here to speak with Overseer Bentley."
The receptionist raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"I see… do you have an appointment sir?"
"No… It's real important though."
She didn't look convinced.
"His offices are on the tenth floor. You'll have to check with his secretary for availability."
Swann nodded and looked around.
"You got a lift around here someplace?"
The woman gestured absently down the corridor directly behind the desk, her attention already back on her terminal. Her red-lacquered nails tapping away steadily.
As Rory moved through the corridor he felt his nervousness rise. This was his only shot. The Overseer was the senior Kel-Morian official on Meinhoff. The big cheese. The only people he answered too were off planet so if he couldn't help Jackson, nobody could. Swann only hoped the corruption he was now sure existed in the Kel-Morian administration hadn't gotten as high as the Overseer. If it had… well he didn't even want to think about that possibility.
He stepped in and punched the number for the tenth floor. The lift itself was plain with no decoration, but it was quick. In short order the doors split apart in front of him to reveal a richly decorated waiting area. A fountain bubbled against one of the white stone walls and an elaborately embroidered rug covered the floor. The chairs arrayed neatly around the room looked like they might even be comfortable and holographic pictures placed regularly along the stone walls depicted scenic vistas from other Kel-Morian worlds.
Near the large wooden door at one end of the room was a large desk where sat a curvaceous young woman in a tight, low cut dress. She didn't seem to notice Swann as he walked up. Instead her attention remained firmly rooted on the fone message she was working on. When she finally did look up Rory immediately noticed her dark red hair and pretty features. It was a cheap, man-made look though. The kind that comes more from a surgeon's knife than a gift of nature. She looked remarkably like the girl in the poster down in the lobby.
"You got an appointment?"
Rory shook his head.
"Nah miss. I'm Rory Swann, Foreman out in Jackson. The overseer will wanna see me. I've got somethin' important to talk to him about."
The secretary looked at him doubtfully, a trend that Rory was starting to notice, and gestured to one of the empty seats. As he moved back to one of the chairs he felt her eyes following him and his hackles started to rise. When he turned to sit he looked back to see the door to the office closing softly behind her. Rory Swann waited in the chair, which seemedcomfortable, with his meaty hands folded in his lap. His gaze moved idly about the room though it wasn't the bubbling fountain or the holographic pictures that he was seeing but the people he'd worked and suffered with over the last few years. He felt the righteous anger that had been his constant companion since he left Jackson boiling inside him with a rising intensity.
The secretary emerged from the office and moved back to her desk, her hips swaying seductively as she walked. Once she was seated she raised her gaze to Swann and gave him a smile that he suspected was about as real as everything else on her.
"I'm sorry Foreman Swann but the Overseer is in a meeting and won't be available for most of the mornin'. Maybe tomorrow would be better?" Her accent had the rough quality of someone born and raised on Meinhoff. Rory got the distinct feeling she hadn't reached her current position based on her vocabulary though. He gave her an equally insincere, though somewhat less attractive smile in return.
"Aw that's okay miss. I don't have nothin' else to get to anyway. I'll just wait."
The corner of the woman's smile twitched unpleasantly but to her credit she managed to recover quickly.
"Course Mister Swann. Please make yourself comfortable."
So began hours of waiting in uncomfortable silence. Rory Swann eventually decided that the chairs were in fact not comfortable and his hands fidgeted restlessly. The only sound as the time crept slowly by was the gentle bubbling of the fountain against the wall and the occasional giggle from the secretary as she exchanged fone messages with someone who wasn't trapped in this god-awful room. Rory's gaze seemed to move unconsciously to the chrono set into the wall and so literally watched the hours tick slowly away. At one point he couldn't help himself and walked up to the secretary's desk.
"Hey miss, is Bentley still in that meetin'? I really do gotta talk to him."
She looked up from her fone in annoyance.
"Overseer Bentley is still busy. You can either leave and try again tomorrow sir, or keep waitin'."
Swann forced another smile and murmured something that might have been an apology. Feeling his anger rising again he started pacing about the room, which drew no end of annoyed glares from the red-haired secretary. This in turn only encouraged Rory and so he continued pacing. Another few hours crept by and finally he collapsed back into a chair in sullen silence.
He had just opened his mouth, intending to question the secretary somewhat less gently than before, when the doors to the lift opened with a whine and a clunk. The man that walked out made Rory's words stick in his throat and his fingers tighten around the armrests of his chair.
The man was in his early forties, in good shape, and possessed a head of thick black hair that he wore in a neat comb over. His suit was an expensive specimen all the way down to his leather shoes and the dark briefcase he carried at his side. When the man saw Rory he gave him a wink and a grin, flashing an immaculate set of teeth. Swann felt his blood run cold. It was a face that was plastered across posters all across Meinhoff.
"Mister Kerr!" The secretary's smile was surprising for no other reason than that this time it was sincere. "Go right in! The Overseer's been expecting you."
Tavish Kerr flashed his dazzling smile at the red-haired secretary, his dark eyes moving slowly down her buxom form as he did so.
"Thank you Mindy. A pleasure as always."
Without so much as stopping he opened the door to the Overseer's office and stepped through.
The thud of the wooden door closing behind him snapped Rory Swann out of his shock. Not only that, it snapped something deep inside him. Wordlessly he rose and stalked straight for the Overseer's door. The secretary moved to intercept him.
"Mister! You can't just…"
The pure wrath in Swann's eyes stopped her in midsentence and she stumbled back, wide-eyed. Without breaking stride Rory shoved his way through the office door, which flew out wide as he moved into the room beyond.
The walls on three sides of the office were plexiglass, offering anyone inside an impressive view of the Jorgenton cityscape. The office was large and richly decorated. Too richly for even a Kel-Morian Overseer's salary. Swann barely registered any of it. The cold certainty of realization festered in his gut and his eyes were fixed on the two men at the desk on the far side of the room.
Overseer Bentley was not necessarily a fat man. A solid foundation of muscle could be seen in his form, though the years had also left him with a growing layer of what certainly wasn't muscle. A former military man he had the physique of someone who had worked for a living once but had now traded hard discipline for soft luxury. His finely tailored suit was new, and like his office, too expensive even for a man of his rank.
He stood in surprise as Rory Swann burst through the door.
"I didn't tell her to… Foreman Swann what the hell do you think your doing!"
Rory moved to stand in front of Bentley's desk. His fists were clenched and his face was red beneath his beard. Rage burned in the depths of his brown eyes and he glared both at the Overseer and at Kerr, who had remained seated and watched Rory with only slightly widened eyes.
"Oh so ya know my name at least huh? You damn sellout!"
Bentley's face was turning a shade of red to match Swann's.
"Now listen here you…"
"Overseer Bentley," Tavish Kerr interrupted the irate official. "I think I might be of some assistance here." The sleek businessman stood and extended his had toward Rory with a smile that never reached his eyes. "Foreman Swann? I don't think we've been introduced. My names…"
"I know who you are Kerr!" Rory snapped, seething.
Seeing his hand was as likely to be bitten off as shook Kerr withdrew it. His smile never wavered though his eyes hardened with displeasure.
"I believe you represent the town of Jackson? If it is financial difficulties you're here to discuss with the Overseer I'd remind you that my company is willing to offer a very generous…"
Swann's right hook took Kerr square in the jaw and he grunted in surprise. Stumbling over the chair he went down in a heap on the floor. Rory stood over him, the short man seeming on the very edge of murder itself.
"Financial fekking difficulties! Yeah you could say I'm here about financial difficulties! Difficulties we're havin' because you bribed the entire Kel-Morian administration to tax us into the dirt because we wouldn't sell!" Bentley looked up from where he'd been shouting into a comm unit mounted to his desk, spluttering in outrage. Swann heard none of it however. He only had eyes for Kerr now.
"You get my best fekking friend killed he's so desperate! And when things are finally lookin' up you have this piece o' shit tax us again! AND NOW YOUR STANDING HERE TRYIN' THE SAME SHIT TO MY FACE!"
Rory lunged at Kerr, who scrambled back to get away, mumbling incoherently in panic. He reached out to take the man's neck in his hands when something hit him from the side. Overseer Bentley bodily shoved Swann away from the frightened businessman. Cursing, Rory turned on his attacker and swung a big fist at the older man's head. But the years had not completely dulled Bentley's instincts and he intercepted the punch with his forearm and struck out with his own. The blow took Rory in his own jaw and he stumbled back, yelling and cursing incoherently. With a roar he rushed Bentley and the two went down in a heap, yelling and flailing at each other. For a moment neither seemed to be able to get the advantage. Then the door to the office swung open and Ripper's in black power armor came rushing in.
With little effort two of them pried the still yelling and flailing Swann off of the Overseer and held him between them. After a moment Swann ceased struggling, realizing the futility of fighting against powered suits. Instead he glared at Bentley and spat, the saliva splattering across the other man's cheek. Bentley's eyes went even wider. Already breathing hard, he struggled to get his words out between the fatigue and rage.
"Take… this little shit… to a jail cell… I want him executed."
"I don't think that will be necessary."
Tavish Kerr stood slowly, rubbing his jaw, and eyeing Swann with malice. Any hint of his previous good humor gone. Slowly he moved to stand in front of the restrained miner. Taking his hand from his jaw, which was starting to swell, he gave Swann an evil grin.
"I want him released. Let him go back to his little town and watch it slowly fade into dust. I want him to watch all the people he knows and cares for lose faith in him. Leaving him one by one until he comes crawling to me begging to buy him out. That or he's left alone. A sad little man in a sad little ghost town nobody gives a shit about."
Rory moved to spit at Kerr but one of the Rippers saw his intentions and squeezed painfully with a black armored gauntlet. Rory almost bit down on his tongue as he grunted in pain, his vision going red. When it cleared he saw both Bentley and Kerr standing in front of him. Both were giving him the same dark smiles.
Bentley nodded, satisfied.
"I like your style Mr. Kerr. I really do."
"It's a gift. What can I say?" Kerr leaned in till his clean-shaven face was only inches from Swann's. "Make no mistake Mr. Swann. I own this planet. Bought and paid for. When I want something I get it and not you, or any of your ragtag little town of misfits can stop me." Stepping forward he ruffled Rory's hair mockingly. Then, almost as an afterthought, he punched the restrained miner in the gut. All the air rushed out of his lungs in a rush. Smiling in satisfaction Kerr turned to face the rear of the office, nodding to Bentley as he did so. The overseer in turn gave a nod to the Rippers holding Swann.
The Kel-Morian marines turned, dragging Swann to the office door. Just before he was pulled out of the room Kerr's voice reached Rory's ears once more.
"And Swann? Send me a resume when your operation goes under. I think I could find you a job cleaning my bathroom."
Rory Swann's inarticulate scream of rage had echoed through the waiting room, chased from the office by Tavish Kerr's mocking laughter.
The screech of the hovertrain's whistle jogged Rory Swann out of his reveries. Looking up, his eyes a mix of exhaustion and burning anger, he looked out through one of the small windows, recognizing the town of Carver's hold. This was where his people transported their products to catch the train to Jorgenton. It was a good hundred miles from Jackson, which was too secluded to warrant building train tracks to it. He and Eddie had always preferred the isolation anyway.
The thoughts of Eddie sent a burst of renewed anger through his veins and when the mechanical voice came over the train's speakers announcing their arrival he was already up and moving with his worn suit and small bag. Stepping out of the passenger compartment, which was empty by now, he stepped from the train to the small platform that served for loading people and goods onto the train. All around him workers were rushing about unloading supplies and reloading goods onto the train to be transported back to the capital.
It took Rory only a moment to find who he was looking for. Reggie Hernandez stood at the edge of the platform with a half grin that turned to a worried look of alarm as Swann got closer to him.
"Boss… Rory you okay man? You look like your ready to kill somebody…"
Rory stopped in front of the other miner and looked at him with an expression halfway between anger and resignation. Moving toward the waiting truck he replied quietly.
"Damn them Reggie. Damn them all to hell."
There it is. The stage is set and the story can continue. Soon our disparate characters will find their way to Meinhoff and then the real conflict will begin. War and Love. Death and Betrayal. The action's only beginning.
To be fair however I should warn you all that it may be a while before I can post the next Chapter. This semester has come with a lot of reading and writing and the writing in particular is going to force me to focus on other projects for awhile. But the adventure is not over and this story will continue.
Be back soon.
-James