Empire’s Rogues Book 1: Yesterday’s Heroes

A capable teammate, a simple mission, what could go wrong.

***

Planet Navarran, Member of the Satrapy of Zorault, Two Years Ago

Chendo knelt in the gray-green brush beside the road, waiting for his contact to arrive. He plucked one of the plant’s versions of a leaf and rubbed its smooth surface between his fingers. As he thought, the leaf was a deep green without its dusty coating. The gray dust that filled the air also stuck to his clothing and worked its way under his breathing mask. He reminded himself that his gear indicated the dust had given him increased camouflage during his wait. It didn’t quite make up for the difficulty breathing, even with the mask.

The road was a simple dirt track, deserted in the blazing midday heat. He was grateful for the lack of traffic since the passage of a float car would stir up enough dust to prevent him from spotting the contact he was supposed to meet here. He wondered why the contact had insisted on this location. Unless his information was disastrously incorrect, the convoy wasn’t taking this route.

He hated jobs like this one. He had no idea why he’d been asked to assist in the rescue of this woman when her people, the Hrithain, should have handled the job. Adding to his annoyance, he’d never met the contact who was supposed to be the other half of this rescue team. There was a lot of risk working with an unknown associate.

His clan could have sent someone he’d worked with before, but as an agent for the Sorchan Clan, he did what he was told, usually. His argument about this job with the Sorchan elder who handled outside contracts had been explosive.

Yet here he was, manipulated into another risky operation without any understanding of why, other than the fact that he was the only Sorchan operative who had met Kailin ha Artheci and was aware of her history. He liked the prisoner he was here to rescue and had worked with her on a few Hrithain-Sorchan joint operations. She was a prickly individual, bitter over a personal loss, yet highly competent.

He refocused his thoughts, tamping down his annoyance. That was for after the job was complete. When he returned to the massive space station that was his home, he would have a serious discussion with the elder who selected him for this job. In the meantime, he settled himself carefully and continued his intent scrutiny of the surrounding area. Personal annoyance had to be set aside when he was working.

He spotted the movement before his eyes and brain coordinated what he saw. It was a being, humanoid, but camouflaged so well and moving so carefully that he couldn’t determine much about the person. Whoever that was, they moved with a skill level he seldom saw. He was certain that without his training and attention to detail, the person could have easily arrived beside him before he noticed them.

He remained motionless with his weapon drawn, following the barely noticeable movement with his gaze as the figure approached. Chendo saw more details as they drew closer.

The clothing’s dusty gray color was intentional. This person wore something designed to fit into the environment and remain nearly invisible. What he saw of their movements was more fluid than should have been possible. As the person arrived at a bush across the narrow, dusty road from his, he predicted that he was dealing with a woman.

She wasn’t tall and appeared slender despite wearing combat gear. She wore an odd type of breathing mask. Now that she was situated, he saw her face clearly through the mask. That was different from his mask, which obscured the lower portion of his face.

She had wide, light blue eyes, and when she saw him looking at her, she smiled with a cheerful wave. Both surprised Chendo. This was serious business. They had a prisoner to rescue. Then he couldn’t resist and returned her smile, although she wouldn’t see his lips.

He decided it was time to learn what she knew. He wanted to know why she, or someone providing her with orders, selected this out-of-the-way spot for a meeting. He motioned for her to join him. She nodded, then looked around carefully. That was good. Her actions so far lessened his resentment and worry that the job could go wrong because of an inexperienced operative.

He nearly lost sight of her crossing the road. That was more than caution. That was skill at a level he’d never seen. If he hadn’t been paying attention, he would have been surprised when she appeared beside him.

Up close, the clear mask allowed an unobstructed view of an attractive face. Amber-gold hair was pulled back efficiently under a combat half helmet, although a few wisps had escaped. She appeared younger than he had expected. Unless, like him, she was a member of one of the slower-aging and longer-lived races.

He tapped the side of his mask to activate the communication device that should work for her as well. “You’re well-camouflaged. I barely saw you until you were nearly here.”

 “It’s a skill. It comes in handy on missions like this one.” Her voice was soft and melodious.

“I wouldn’t mind learning a skill like that.”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid it’s racial. I was born with this. It only required training to enhance it.”

“A race of spies and undercover operatives? Handy.”

“Most of my race never leave their homeworld. So not all that handy.” She looked around to be certain they were still alone. “The Zoraulti changed their route. They’re coming along this road. I saw them when I landed. At the time, they were about thirty kilometers that way.” She pointed to their left.

He looked in that direction and saw a faint plume of dust. It looked like something was coming, although it could have been anything.

“I’m Laralei, but you can shorten it to Lei. It’s easier in a combat situation.”

“Chendo.”

“Plans? I can give you a rough description of the convoy.”

He nodded. “How many vehicles?”

“Four. Odds are good that our target is in one of the middle ones, but it’s not certain. I thought we might have time to set up a trap, blow up the lead vehicle.”

“I brought some explosives, just in case.” It seemed like a solid plan. “What kind of vehicles are they using?”

“The lead one is a large military-style float van. It’s heavily armed. That’s why I suggested destroying it. The rest are standard float vans. They could pass on the street in any Empire city.”

“Then taking out the lead vehicle should limit their effectiveness. Unless those other vans are more than they seem?”

“That’s a good question. I suspect they’re relying more on guards and the lead van, but it won’t help us to underestimate them, either.”

He was beginning to like this woman. She had seen the convoy, relayed the necessary information, and already had a plan. She seemed like a good combination of caution and action. “What do you know about our target?” he asked.

“She’s a former Hrithain warrior. She can’t walk and uses a float chair to get around.”

“I’ve worked with her. Don’t underestimate her because of the float chair. She’s deadly, with a serious attitude problem.” Despite that, Chendo had liked Kailin ha Artheci the times he’d worked with her. His surprising admiration for her had tipped the scales in favor of taking this mission, regardless of his misgivings.

 Lei nodded. “Her Zoraulti captors will have disabled the chair. That’s one reason why I was selected for this mission. I can quickly repair it so she can move on her own during our escape.” She held up a small device that looked like it would plug into a van’s or flyer’s charger.

“Tech support?” he asked half facetiously.

“Partially.” She tapped the holster at her side.

He looked at her weapons again. That was a high-powered energy weapon at her right hip. The holster on her left carried a standard strength stunner.

“Weapons specialist as well,” she added.

“And you do a good job of sneaking up on a person. How did you end up in this job?”

“Hired by the Hrithain, the same as you, I assume.”

He grinned wryly. “My people sent me. They’re the ones with the Hrithain contract. My role is simply the errand boy.”

She nodded. “As long as we’re not working at cross purposes. But we need to set that explosive surprise for the oncoming convoy.”

They both reached for their supplies, then looked at each other. Lei chuckled, and Chendo grinned again. Although it wasn’t visible, her expression indicated that his eyes had given away his expression.

“Why don’t I plant the charges?” he suggested. “Can you find a place where you can see farther down the road? We want to be warned when they’re close.”

“I already placed a spy eye about a kilometer from here.”

Chendo wondered if he should sit back and let her do all the work.

Then she shrugged. “If it comes to hand-to-hand, I won’t be as much help. It’s my weak point.”

“I can handle some of that. If you’re accurate with those weapons, stay back and shoot anything that isn’t already dead. Except for me, or our target,” he added as an afterthought.

She grinned. “I think I can shoot better than that.”

“All right, let’s plant the charges right away. It won’t take them long to cover thirty kilometers.” He looked carefully in all directions, then stepped out into the road.

She handed him something that looked like a roll of fabric about half a meter wide. She had a second roll of the stuff and spread it across the dusty road. He recognized it right away. “That’s a trick used by the rebels on Estancia.”

“They learned it from the Grennels, who used it to prevent the Hrithain takeover of their homeworld for at least a generation. Then the Hrithain got their hands on some of the stuff, which is why I’m using it. I don’t know if the Zoraulti are familiar with it, but they shouldn’t expect it on this deserted byway.”

They could cover the fabric with a light layer of dirt. It contained a powerful but stable explosive. Until they placed detonators at either end and linked them to a remote device, the explosive would remain inert.

They were careful laying down the explosives, and even more careful covering the strips in a way that wouldn’t be visible to the oncoming convoy. It wasn’t long before they were back behind the bushes and planning the next stage of their assault on the convoy.

Lei’s face lost its animation as she thought about their task. “She could be in any of those vehicles. The way we set up the explosive strips, only the front of the lead vehicle should be badly damaged.”

“Which means we’ll have Zoraulti military swarming out of its rear, plus from the other three,” Chendo speculated. “Tell me again why they only sent two people, and two people who’ve never met and don’t know each other’s capabilities?”

“From the way they handled my briefing, this was a rush job. They didn’t know where the Zoraulti were taking her until a few days ago.” She didn’t look any happier about this situation than he felt.

A soft buzz sounded at Lei’s hip. “That’s the warning. They’re a kilometer out. We’d better finish planning, and fast.”

“Yeah. The goal is to rescue the target, not land ourselves in a Zoraulti prison along with Kailin.” They got to work setting up the rest of the ambush.

A few minutes later, the convoy’s lead vehicle exploded in a blaze of light, sound, and flying bits of metal. Chendo barely had time to think, We’re not ready yet! Then the entire operation fell apart.

***

The plan was flawless, what went wrong. Find out on February 27th, when Empire’s Rogues: Yesterday’s Heroes is released. Until then head over to Amazon and pre-order it today.