Chapter 192: One Hundred Seventy One Part 1

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 3

Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / After 1500

As Duncan looked around his room, he tried to keep calm as he sipped his soup. The others who had spent the last two hours fighting were all ordered to eat something. He had gathered what he was starting to think as his alpha team and a few others, inviting them to eat with him. Terra, Jessie, Dalila, and Vivian were sitting together, and they talked quietly. Zevortro, Vivis, Bryke, and QIANA were sitting on the other side of the room. Zevortro had told the others that Jessie wasn’t a researcher. Bryke then glared at Jessie like he had killed someone.

Duncan had stopped them all talking at first. Saying to wait until they were finished, saying that he wanted them all to recover first. Qiana had chimed in then, saying that the after-effects of combat were something to come down from. A moment later, some of the others had brought some soup that they

As they drank their soup, he looked around until his eyes found Vivian and Dalila. He didn’t want to think what their presence meant, but he had to. Bounty Hunters were a group that had as many reasons as there were stars for them doing anything. There was one reason that he could think they were here, and the idea rubbed him raw. The Ambassadors had a kid amongst them for stars shake!

Throughout the meal, the tension had been rising. His order had stopped them from talking about it, but one side had questions for the other. And from how he was acting, Bryke was leading the charge, with the others behind him.

“Alright, let’s talk. Who will start?” Duncan asked as he crossed his arms.

“Start? Chief there’s only one choice,” Vivis said as she looked towards Vivian, Dalila, Terra, and Jessie.

Duncan sighed and shook his head. “No, I want to know about the prisoner first, Qui1?”

Qiana looked at him and swallowed, a strange look on her face. “Well, the gene scan from the blood sample Dalila got us was finished before we came here. Their omnivores, they can eat anything. And I mean anything. They might even be able to digest wood if it was small enough. So any food we have can feed them. I looked at them while the scan was finishing, and they spoke a language I can’t even try and repeat. So we have no way to negotiate with their……… group.”

Duncan sighed and shook his head, a disgusted look on his face. “Wonderful, just wonderful. So the only choice we have is to keep them until we can then?”

“And we can’t let them go why?” Bryke asked with a sarcastic edge.

Terra was about to say something when Jessie put his hand on her shoulder.

“Simple, their culture,” Jessie said with a hard edge as he looked at Bryke.

Duncan had figured that out already, but he wasn’t surprised that Jessie had. It was pretty basic thinking for someone who had experience in the underworld. Any Bounty Hunter that survived knew the culture of criminals.

“What about it?” Qiana asked in an inquisitive tone.

“People like them, they might be all about what is seen. By being taken alive, they might have been shamed. If we let them go, they might be killed. Or they might come back leading the charge, hoping to kill us all. We need to talk to them first, and only then could we release them,” Dalila said with a weary tone.

“Yeah, it’s all about reputation. That’s it. And if they think we damaged theirs, then they might want to kill us,” Vivian said bitterly.

“How do you all know that?! What in the name of the stars are you!?” Bryke exclaimed in a shocked tone.

Jessie, Dalila, and Vivian all looked at each other for a moment before the girls nodded at Jessie.

“Fine, I’ll just go out and say it. I’m a Bounty Hunter, and so are the girls,” Jessie said as he looked back at the triad.

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Duncan watched as Bryke fell to the floor in shock as Vivis’s mouth dropped open. Zevortro only looked at Jessie for a few moments before he nodded.

“Oh, that explains everything. And that’s what you meant earlier,” Zevortro said looking up at the ceiling. As his friends looked at him, Zevortro only nodded. “Yeah, I can see where I misunderstood you. Explains everything!”

“Not for me! What are you three doing here!?” Bryke asked anger in his voice.

“Well. I’m on a vacation cycle. Came aboard with my ship and I figured I could spend a few years just relaxing here,” Jessie said with a small laugh. Everyone but Duncan and Terra looked at him. He just shrugged and released a bark of laughter. “I’m a workaholic. Just doing nothing would make me go mad after a while, maybe a month at most.”

“Same as me and planets. I was going to move into an apartment on the ship and enjoy a year of relaxation. It was going to be nice,” Duncan said with a smirk.

“Wait Wait! What about them!?” Qiana asked, a shocked and scared tone as she pointed at Dalila and Vivian.

“We were after a bit of data Bradford has. Figured I take it and then escape. There’s a big payday if I can prove something. Not sure about what she wants,” Dalila said as she shrugged.

Duncan looked at her, his mouth hanging open.

“That’s personal. But I expected to get what I wanted and leave with no one knowing what I did. I even rented a spaceship for a few months for it,” Vivian said as she crossed her arms, blowing out her breath through her mouth.

“Bradford, you were after Bradford. Him?” Duncan asked, totally shocked.

“The old man has fingers in a lot of pies. And that’s what we need to talk about Chief. He and Jones are working together. I’m sure of it!” Vivian said with a hard edge to her voice.

“What!? How can you know that?” Qi exclaimed, shock in her voice as everyone stared at her.

“I know body language, I could tell Jones was acting when he confronted us. And my nanites picked up enough tells to paint a picture!” Vivian exclaimed.

Duncan blinked and looked at her not quite understanding what she was saying. Then slowly, he started to. Then he felt his rage slowly build as he realized that Bradford had played him. He could see it all now, and he was shocked that he hadn’t.

Terra

Terra watched Duncan as he sank into his chair, shaking his head. “That old viper! He played me good!”

“Boss, you believe her!?” Bryke asked.

“Yeah, I do. There’s been a few things that other officers saw about Jones. Doesn’t surprise me,” Duncan admitted.

Terra looked at Duncan, blinking a bit. She had run into Jones before the crash, and he didn’t seem to be that bad.

“Wait, you’ve been watching Jones before we ended up here?!” Zevortro exclaimed with a

“No, just a few things that others saw. A few reactions here and there. We’ve been wondering if he’s a member of the Purity Path. But how does Bradford fit in?” Duncan asked.

Terra felt her eyes widen in horror, and she felt the room spin a bit as she held her head. She almost lost it before she felt someone squeeze her hand. She looked down to see Jessie’s hand in hers, and she smiled a bit.

“I’m sorry, the who?” Vivis asked with shock in her voice.

“A religion on the border regions. Human supremacists. They’ve been on the watchlists for a few years. Just a few bad apples that their leaders can say were acting on their own. But that’s just what they say,” Jessie said as he looked around the room.

“Religion? Try cult! It’s kind of interesting that each one of those bad apples always fights to the death. And how they always do things that make the Path look better or advance their agenda!” Vivian said bitterly.

“Yeah. The Guild has a file on them! Every Hunter sends in reports on our hunts, and all the work is taken together. It’s how we track down pirate fleets and the like. But there’s nothing to prove they acted on orders. But the number of them? Most of us think the Path is gearing up for war,“ Dalila said as she shook her head.

“And the company is weary of them. The Laws say that the rights of religion are to be respected. As long as the religion isn’t to hurt others. But look into their book? And it can be read as a humans over every other race thing. But they hide it without saying it,” Duncan said with a dead look on his face.

Terra kept quiet, not saying anything about her own experience with the Path. That was something personal, and the monsters responsible were dead. There was no reason to bring up that old pain, at least not now. If that changed, she would, but for now she would stay silent.

“So the slimy senator is working with one of ours. The same person that most of us think abandoned the others in his team. Bad news,” Zevortro said.

“Then let me make it worse. I did some research on him to prepare for my hunt. Most of the criminal underground of his world follow the orders of one person. Someone they all call the Patriarch. It took me months to even find that out. I tracked down a few middlemen and saw them meet with people. People I know work for Bradford personally,” Vivian said as she crossed her arms.

Terra felt the world fall away beneath her. If Vivian was right, then Bradford was a criminal mastermind who had control of the underworld of a planet.

“So then there’s a chance they might be trying to make a rebellion then? Before or after Jinn gets back here?” Bryke asked, massaging his head.

“We need to secure all arms as soon as possible. Keep them out of the passenger's hands. How can we do that?” Vivis asked as she looked around.

“I think we can make a charging station up on the clearing,” Vivian suggested.

“Most of the weapons are already up there. And if we do that, Bradford might figure out what’s going on. We need to spy on them and find out what they are planning.

“I have some drones. Vivian can handle them once I give her the right control program. I’ll be too busy to help,” Dalila said with a slight edge to her voice.

Terra looked at Dalila, wondering what she had to do. What on this strange island could she have to do that was more important?

“Busy with what?” Zevortro asked shock in his voice.

“There’s something else. I figured out what was hacking into the network,” Dalila said as she looked around the room.

As everyone looked at her, she swallowed and Terra was sure she saw fear in her eyes.

“To bring everyone up to speed, me and Jessie spent an hour trying to get the new console to work. We couldn’t because the network was rejecting any connection without a ‘handshake". It's a security setting," Dalila said with a hard look.

“How the nova did that happen?” Qiana asked shock in her voice.

Terra knew a bit about computers, and she understood a few reasons. But with her saying the system was being hacked, that was enough.

“Did you find who was hacking into us?” Terra asked, hope in her voice. Something was at the edge of her mind that she couldn’t see. A possibility that she could almost grasp.

“I….. yeah. And it’s my fault it’s doing it!” Dalila exclaimed.

Her words were like a bomb. Zevortro, Bryke, and Vivis gazed at her while Qiana fell to the ground, staring in horror.

“What do you mean, your fault!?” Zevortro demanded

“Oh by the Founders and the stars! Are you serious?! How could that thing even connect to the network!?” Qiana asked in horror.

”What do you mean!?” Bryke asked as he looked at Qiana.

Dalila took a deep breath and then sighed. “The thing beneath us. That’s what’s hacking into the network. And it learned while I was trying to hack it!”