Page 5 of True As Steel

It would take me five days at least to reach my own destination. Part of me wondered if I should have gone to the closest city with her. But it was a tiny city with no off-world transportation.

And ran by a group of black-market traders that would not hesitate to claim the bounties on us.

Once more, guilt flared through me at the thought of what likely awaited Tamryn should she make it there. But dwelling over the female’s fate was a waste of time and energy. I needed to assess my own situation. With my hyperalloy-reinforced skeleton, and the special wires that replaced my normal tendons to withstand the demands of that heavier skeletal structure, I needed a strong muscular mass to keep moving. That meant constant training to keep my strength up, but also a large amount of food to fuel those muscles. Five days of fasting and without water could seriously impede my chances of success.

And yet, I left all the water and energy bars for the female with little chances of survival.

It was unlike me to act in such an illogical fashion. And yet, I did not regret my decision. Just as that thought crossed my mind, a distant hum drew my attention. Using my acute vision, I stared ahead for a few seconds before detecting the tiny snitch flying overhead. I couldn’t decide if I felt annoyed or relieved. It didn’t surprise me in the least that someone had detected the landing of an escape pod onto a mercenary planet. The question was how many had been alerted to our presence? In a way, this could be good to the extent that it might spare me the long and painful walk back to civilization. I just hoped it wouldn’t be in shackles.

Acting inconspicuously, I bent down, as if to fix one of the latches on my boots, to pick up a few sharp flat stones. I slipped a couple into my pocket, and another inside the sleeve of my uniform while getting back up on my feet. I continued walking straight ahead, pretending not to be aware that I was being spied on. The snitch hovered high enough overhead that most normal species wouldn’t be able to see it. If not for both my enhanced vision and hearing, I would have been completely clueless.

The snitch flew a short distance away, probably checking if there was someone else with me. As I had been walking for 78 minutes already at a pace of 12 km per hour, I had put enough distance between the landing site and myself that the snitch didn’t bother going that far. It took a few more minutes before the silhouette of three riders appeared in the distance, followed shortly thereafter by the sound of their speeders. Now this was interesting.

I continued walking as they closed the distance with me, the three men stopping in a half circle in front of me. Although not threatening in and of itself, their position somewhat hinted that they didn’t want me escaping without flat out stating they wanted me trapped.

“Hello there,” called out the man in the middle, clearly the ‘brain’ and leader of the group. “Strange place to take a morning stroll.”

In his late thirties, early forties, he had greasy brown hair tied in a tail and a two-day scruff on his oddly pointy chin. He stared at me with light blue eyes that starkly contrasted with his tanned skin, which testified to long hours spent under the brutal sun of Xyva. The man to his right looked like a young recruit, short-cropped blond hair and a bit of a babyface—the snotty kind that instinctively made you want to punch him in the throat. He was undoubtedly the grunt, whereas the brawny man on the left was the muscle.

“Indeed,” I replied nonchalantly. “However, the scenery doesn’t quite live up to expectations.”

He snorted and gave me a slow once over. “Judging by your outfit, you must be the lucky survivor whose escape pod landed a little over an hour ago. Why didn’t you use the distress beacon? Would have been easier to come to your rescue rather than having to scour this damn desert. The news broadcast is flooded with tales of the explosion of the transport ship from Kirs.”

“A rescue party?” I asked, acting pleasantly surprised. “Had I known you would have gone through such trouble to assist a lost soul, I would have spent more time trying to repair it.”

“The escape pod is damaged?” the young pup asked, his voice dripping with disappointment.

That earned him a warning glare from their leader. Of course, they were scavengers and would have tried to recover whatever they could make a few credits off of.

“It’s a miracle it even made it here,” I said with a shrug. “Debris from the explosion severely damaged it.”

“Then it sounds like you’ve been lucky twice today,” their leader said.

“Judging by your presence here, it sounds like I’ve been lucky three times,” I replied smugly. “I wasn’t looking forward to the very long walk back to the city. Youarehere to give me a ride back, right?”

The greedy glimmer that flickered through his blue eyes told me everything I needed to know.

“Sure, we’ll take you back to town…” he said.

“But?” I insisted.

“Should there be a but?” the mercenary leader countered.

“No, but I sense there’s one coming,” I deadpanned.

He chuckled, the other two imitating him like the idiots they were. By my assessment of them, their leader represented the real threat. Once I went on the offensive, the pup would freeze in shock first, then fumble with his weapon to take aim once he recovered. The muscle guy would be more stoic but slower. I could only hope he wasn’t an expert marksman. I clasped my hands behind my back and tilted my head to the side in an unimpressed attitude. But I in fact allowed the flat rock to slip from my sleeve back into my palm while my neural processor calculated the angle, speed, and force with which I needed to throw the stone to instantly kill their leader. It accounted for the wind and for the likelihood he would try to dodge the moment I made my move. I would have a fraction of a second to adjust my throw, depending on which direction he moved.

“You know how it goes, my friend,” their leader said in an apologetic tone. “There’s a huge bounty on you Cyborgs—the kind of bounty that will have our families set for life.”

“You know that you’ll never see a single credit of those bounties, right?” I countered. “The minute you inform the Emperor you’ve caught one of us, he will tell you to hand us over and be on your way. And if you make a fuss or tell anyone you didn’t get paid, he will make your life and that of those you love very unpleasant.”

I knew it all too well for having been ordered to enforce such immoral practices. Where his minions snorted in disbelief, the leader hesitated. He was smart enough to know that with Emperor Shui, there could very well be truth in my words. But greed won the day.

“If you don’t mind, we’ll take our chances,” he replied, his hand slowly moving towards the blaster cinched in his belt.

It never reached the handle.

Exploding into action, I flung the stone at the leader’s face while dashing towards the brawny guy. Their leader stiffened, his eyes widening in shock before he tried dodging to the left, as I had suspected—the side opposite to his weapon. He wasn’t fast enough. The rock found its mark in his right eye and sliced through his brain. He fell over without a sound. As anticipated, the rookie froze, staring at his leader in horror and disbelief while the brawny guy raised his weapon to take aim at me.

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