Blockade Runner - Chapter 1
Guns for Hire: Book 1
Here we go! If you enjoy classic space adventure stories in the vein of Star Wars, then you may just like the first book in the Guns for Hire series: Blockade Runner!
Story Synopsis; Seiko Kajira, the top investigative reporter for the Galactic News Gazette, finds herself on the run one stormy night on the planet Ruvale, being chased by a corporate security team that shouldn’t be there. When she’s captured by the company’s lead arcanist, it’s up to Isaro Karr, mercenary and star pilot for hire, and his loyal co-pilot Gallus, who may have a slightly unhealthy fascination with explosive ordinance, to get her free. Things only get hotter when they learn that a corporate fleet is on its way to lock down the planet. Can they reach Seiko in time and escape the blockade, or will they find themselves in custody alongside her?
I’ll be releasing a new chapter every couple of days (assuming no delays due to weather and other factors) until the full novella is done (15 chapters plus an epilogue), totally for free for everyone to enjoy! I hope you’ll enjoy the ride ahead! Now, without further ado, let’s get started on the first chapter of Guns for Hire, Book 1: Blockade Runner!
Chapter 1 – The Rains Down in Radermere
Planet: Ruvale
Location: Radermere City, Downtown Corporate District
Time: 1:57AM local
“I’m telling you, this is bigger than we thought, and I’m damn sure they’re onto me, Kir,” Seiko said in a harsh whisper as she hurried down the trash-speckled alleyway, water from the growing storm overhead spilling down in waterfalls off the piping that ran between buildings. Her high-heeled boots splashed into a puddle as she pushed through, one hand pressing down on the earpiece in her right ear, static making her wince a moment later. “What was that, Kir? I didn’t hear you.”
“-no information, not a drop, I said! DSM shouldn’t be there,” came the garbled response. Was it the buildings, the storm, or something else interfering with the signal?
“Tell that to their security guys tailing me,” Seiko said, ducking around a corner. She pressed her back against the wall and leaned carefully around the edge of the gray concrete. Sure enough, she saw two of the armored security team members slowly turning into the alleyway, their night-vision goggles glowing pale green beneath their helmets.
Those two were tenacious, she had to give them that. And pretty good trackers, too, given the many twists and turns she’d made since she’d slipped out of the office.
The reply in Seiko’s ear was pure static, followed by a louder, painful electronic burst, then silence. Muttering a curse, she pulled her comm from her pocket and pressed the button on the side to light up the display. Zero signal, all channels from the satellites dark, not even a link to a local tower. So, they were jamming her.
Seiko shoved the comm back into the inner pocket of her long raincoat, wishing she could have managed to sneak a pistol with her when she’d gone into the office earlier that day. Tail swishing with frustration beneath her coat, she yanked the earpiece out and dropped it in her pocket.
Seiko eased away from the corner and started down the adjoining alleyway to her right, keeping close to the wall and away from the stream of water running down the middle of the alley towards the drain. She grimaced as she ran by the drain, the stench coming up through the grate immediately negating the sewers as an escape route in her mind.
With the security squad closing in fast, Seiko looked for another route. The alley continued ahead for another fifty feet or so, then it was back onto the street and into the open, and she’d surely be spotted by the patrols. There was a door to her right, but it only opened from the inside. Another door to her left a little further on was locked; she could get it open, but she didn’t have time for that.
Walking around a heavier stream of water falling from above, she looked up. A drainpipe running horizontally along the building had a gash in the side, letting the water spill into the street. But more importantly, she saw an open window. Without even a second thought, Seiko dashed toward the opposite side of the alley, jumped, and kicked off the wall in the opposite direction.
She caught the damaged drainpipe and pulled herself up, finding just enough purchase with the toes of her boots on the wall to get her legs fully up and underneath her. The drainpipe felt like it could give any moment beneath her, so she scooted quickly down its length and then ducked under the tilted window panel. Seeing nobody in the small, cramped room, she pulled herself in and dropped quietly atop a crate.
The crate immediately rocked and started to fall, so she slid off it and onto the floor, and grabbed the crate to keep it from falling and making any noise.
Disaster averted for the moment, Seiko walked silently through the narrow path of the storage room, the scent of cleaning chemicals and old mops mixing with a recently burned cigarette wrinkling her nose. Reaching the door on the other side, she tested the knob, found it unlocked, and eased it open just a crack. Looking through, she saw that she was in a warehouse of some kind, on the second-floor catwalk, more crates stacked high beyond the railing. She spotted a lone security guard on the far side of the upper walkway just as he disappeared behind some of the crates.
Slipping out of the storage room, Seiko eased down the catwalk in a crouch, staying behind the guard, letting him keep his lead. He was human, so there was little chance he’d hear her with the rain drumming on the metal roofing overhead. She saw him fiddling with his comm, then watched as he smacked it and muttered a curse. Apparently, he wasn’t getting signal either.
Spotting her next destination, Seiko waited for the guard to move far enough away, then scurried for the steps that led up to the next level. She was careful to keep her steps light and balanced for fear of drawing attention with an unwanted squeak of metal. Soon enough she had gone up two floors and was at the roof access door. It was alarmed, of course, but she had just the thing for that, pulling out a small toolkit. As she set to work disabling the simple alarm, she pondered on a few questions.
Why was DSM here? And with an entire security team? This wasn’t their turf; they had no holdings on Ruvale. If this was some kind of corporate war, why wasn’t the other company, the Radermere Mining and Drilling Company, fighting back? Not that they could hold out for long against a giant entity like DSM, but she would have expected some shots to be fired at the least. The locals were nothing if not fiercely independent. Was this an acquisition then? A hostile takeover? If so, why hadn’t she found out anything about that during her own clandestine time inside the company? Surely there had been some warning, some indication that DSM wanted to buy them out; they had more than enough money to purchase a comparatively tiny company like RMDC.
Maybe it had something to do with RMDC’s shady CEO, Lyle Anders. He’d been getting heat from the board lately, and had been taken to some erratic behavior, apparently tripping over enough toes to have drawn the attention of the Galaxy News Gazette. Seiko had been working her way around the RMDC’s offices under an alias for a couple weeks now, trying to get the details. She knew he’d gotten squirrely after something had been found on a recent mining operation in the asteroid belt further out in the solar system but hadn’t managed to get the details yet. Apparently, Anders had been making offers to sell whatever he’d found, had been having clandestine meetings in the Red-Light district with possible buyers, but that was as much as Seiko had managed to uncover so far, given her lowly position as a new secretary for the office.
She had the alarm disabled a moment later and stowed her tools, then eased the door open. The rain hadn’t let up, but she saw no DSM security waiting for her. From here she saw her next destination: a parking garage, about two blocks away. If she could make it there, then she could borrow a car and hopefully slip DSM’s sweep.
Getting to the garage wasn’t the most difficult thing she’d ever done, only requiring a few jumps from rooftop to rooftop, once she’d verified none of the goons were in the alleys below watching for her, anyway. She had to get a good running go before the final jump, and she caught the thick rail on the open wall of the garage.
She lost her grip, the surface slick from the rain.
Seiko fell, but only for a moment before her fingers caught the rougher concrete edge, her boots scraping on the outside wall of the garage. Huffing, she pulled herself up, got a better grip on the rail, and hauled herself over it, landing on the cold floor in an empty parking slot.
Blowing out her breath, Seiko got to her feet and shook the water from her coat and took a moment to squeeze as much as she could from her long blond hair. Thankfully the catsuit she wore beneath the coat had kept the rest of her dry. That done, she turned her attention to the scant few cars parked up here this time of night, frowning at the poor selection. Older ground cars, most looking like they’d barely survive a shopping trip through town, let alone a potential high-speed chase.
What she needed was a grav-car, something that could get some serious speed and could bypass the roads.
“The rooftop parking, dummy,” she muttered. Shaking her head, Seiko jogged down the slanting garage floor toward the corner elevator, still not spotting any security. That was fine with her. She didn’t even have to wait long for the lift to arrive, thankfully empty, though it smelled like someone had taken a piss inside. Was that rainwater on the floor or something else?
Rolling her eyes and avoiding the puddle, she stepped inside and hit the button for the roof. After a short ascent, the doors slid open with a grinding of metal.
Seiko stepped out of the elevator and right into the path of an elvish woman, her long, knife-like ears raised to the sides of her head, which was topped with light green hair secured in a tight bun. The elf looked up, her cool brown eyes catching Seiko’s, a sly grin upon her ever-youthful face.
Seiko gasped, eyes going wide. “You!”
Before Seiko could try to run, the elf’s hand shot toward Seiko’s mouth, two fingers pressing against Seiko’s lips. Seiko felt the magic rush through her body the instant the elf’s fingers touched her, her body tingling all over, suddenly numb. A whimper came through her sealed lips, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t move, the magic holding her stiffly in place.
The elf smiled at her, far too pleasantly to be as friendly as he looked. “Well, well, I thought it might’ve been you. My favorite GNG reporter, Miss Seiko Kajira in the flesh. Been a while, hasn’t it?”
The elf paused, leaned back, and took in Seiko’s outfit, using her free hand to open Seiko’s long coat to reveal the tight-fitting catsuit beneath. “Well, that’s certainly a lovely look on you. Is it really appropriate for an upstanding reporter, though? Or a secretary for that matter? No, definitely too flashy. Now for a spy…that’s something else. Bit cliché, if you ask me. Or maybe you were just making your way to a club after a long day at the office? It’s a little after two in the morning now, so you’ve missed most of the fun. What’s the nightlife like here, by the way? Any good? Worth me checking out later?”
Seiko felt her body quivering, but that was about all, a groan coming from her throat this time as she looked upon Mara Sai, a witch from DSM’s Arcane Research and Development group. Had it not been for Sai’s fingers on her lips, Seiko was certain she’d have fallen into a heap on the floor.
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Mara chuckled, and Seiko groaned. “Yes, even I must admit that was a bit lame, even for me. You’ve given us quite the chase tonight, Miss Kajira, but all good things eventually come to an end. You can’t escape my eyes in the sky. No drones can beat my arcane vision, especially in this weather.”
As Mara spoke, a heavy grav-vehicle lowered into view and came to a rest not ten feet away. It was one of DSM’s armored troop transports, and the side door slid out, then to one side, a pair of DSM’s security troops stepping out into the rain. It was then that Seiko realized that neither she nor Mara Sai were getting wet. She looked up, her eyes the one thing that could still move, saw the rain hitting some kind of invisible shield, shaped like an umbrella.
The goons took hold of Seiko’s arms, quickly securing them behind her with a set of stout zip-ties. One was human male, the other an orc female, each about the same size, meaning they were taller and much more muscular than Seiko herself. She missed the names on their uniforms, though.
“Take her back to headquarters and process her; consider her a spy and take appropriate measures. I’ll be back soon enough to begin her interrogation,” said the elf, all business now, finally lowering her fingers from Seiko’s lips. The moment the touch ended, Seiko’s numb body fell straight down as her knees gave way, but not far as the two troopers held her upright. As the two dragged Seiko along, back into the rain, Mara spoke again. “And Private Harnell, Private Ironspite, do be extra careful with that one once the spell wears off. She’s been known to bite.”