Red's Tales: The Relic PT2

PT2 is here an expedition is formed, and the antagonists are revealed! 

 Inside Patches' shop Sheriff Geoffrey Parsons, clad in khaki with blasters at his side, rubbed his brow. “So let me get this straight. This metal flower bulb knocked your friend out and now she’s a raving loon?”

Rusqa nodded, “It’s true!”

The sheriff sighed. 

“I believe you Rusqa. In fact that’s why I’m here. Mayor Blackbark is sending a select few to retrieve this artifact.”

Rusqa seemed surprised that Parsons believed her. He spoke a bit more.

“Whatever’s affecting your friend is linked to that artifact. The only way we’ll be able to help her, is to find out what exactly that artifact is.” Continuing on the sheriff looked over to Red. “I know you Red. You’ve spent more time out in the Badlands than anyone else. You ever see anything like this before?” 

Red swiveled an ear back. 

“The badlands are home to many strange things and Caligula is like no other planet I’ve seen or heard of. I’ve seen things that might be ruins of some forgotten civilization out there and all across the galaxy archeologists have found remnants of long forgotten civilizations.”

“I'm going to have to deputize you again, Red.” Parsons proclaimed

Without further prompting Red raised her right hand and recited the oath quickly and perfectly from memory.

Parsons narrowed his eyes and grumbled, “The oath is my favorite part.”

“Time is of the essence,” Red said. “We can’t waste it on ceremony right now.”

Sheriff Parsons tossed her a deputy’s badge.

“Fine,” he muttered. 

He turned to Rusqa and inquired, “Think you can find the place again?”

Rusqa flicked her tail out of annoyance. This was the second time she’d been asked that question and she loathed repeated questions.

“Yes,” She responded.

“Good! We leave in a few hours time,” The sheriff declared.

“And I’ll be coming along too,” Patches declared.

The sheriff looked at him, “What?”

Patches folded his arms determinedly, “That’s my daughter you’re taking along and I’m coming too.”

The sheriff knew he wasn’t going to win an argument with a concerned father and a Patheurian father at that.

“Alright, you can come too,” Parsons relented.

Sheriff Parsons turned then and addressed the whole group. “All of you get what you need. And do not discuss the particulars with anyone else. The less people who know about this the better. We don’t want the city going into hysterics or for some artifact hunters to get wind of this.”

With that in mind, Red headed directly to her home. Her abode was located directly over her business office. All that she really needed was just needed a few items. She took down her rifle from its usual spot and belted on her Daedalian blade. She made sure to grab a handful of powercells for her gun, a canteen, and jerky. Already strapped to her thigh was her sandlamprey tooth dagger.

Satisfied that she had everything for a short excursion into the badlands, Red set out for the city walls. Hoping to be the first one there, she soon discovered that Sheriff Parsons was already on the scene with two of his full time deputies. Morrison was a dark skinned human who almost always had sunglasses on despite the weather. Sable was a petite woman with dark hair and brown skin.

Red had met them both before. A few seconds were spent getting reacquainted when Patches and Rusqa arrived. Patches had an older model blaster at his side that looked like it had been gathering dust on a shelf somewhere for years. He also carried the tools of the trade, which drew a few odd looks.

“What? You never know when you need tools,” Patches grumbled.

Red shook her head and asked, “Are we moving out now?”

“Not quite. We’re waiting for one more,” The sheriff said. “And looks like he’s here.”

Red looked to see a Hejel approaching them. Hejel were an odd race. They had leathery black skin and three legs which ended in frog like suction cup feet. This gave him an almost tripod like appearance. His head was shaped like a U with two eyes on either side of it.

“Glad you could make it professor,” the sheriff nodded.

“I wouldn’t miss it! An unknown artifact found right here on Caligula! I’ve always dreamed of something like this!” He noticed everyone staring at him. “Oh where are my manners? I’m Professor Ortagh-Na-Rhhalo of the university, but you can call me Ortagh. I teach archeology.”

 “Good to have you professor! Now we really need to get a move on while it’s still light,” Parsons commanded.

“Yes, of course that young human needs us to find answers. I’ve already sent messages to all my colleagues.”

Red flattened her ears.

Parsons cocked an eyebrow. “You... did... WHAT!?” 

“I had to share such an exciting event.” Ortagh defended.

The sheriff scowled, “Do you realize that you just let crucial information out? Now anyone can be out looking for this artifact!”

“I didn’t think about that.” Ortagh moaned.

Red started to move to the gates and advised, “We’d best get a move on.” 

****

Some miles out of town, well away from the walls of civilization, a group moved through the badlands. They were dressed in a variety of clothing. Bandanas or shemaghs covered their faces from the dust that the wind kicked up. All carried weapons as they trudged across the sand to their lair.

These were outlaws, bandits, renegades. Their leader picked up the pace as something caught her eye, a flame by their lair. The bandits’ dwelling was a small hut set atop a butte and  overlooking the badlands. The cabin was dusty and creaky, but it was home.

The leader, Kaitlin, burst into the hut, drawing down her shemagh, and revealing her features. She had fair skin and blonde hair with a purple streak through it. Her face was deceptively sweet. She had taken over control of her own bandit gang sometime ago. The gang was made up entirely of humans that followed her into the hut to look for the bandit they’d left on guard duty.

“Why aren’t you on guard, you idiot!” Kaitlin raged. 

“Oh you’ll have to forgive him. He’s a bit... disposed at the moment,” an unfamiliar voice said. 

Kaitlin and her gang whirled around and brought their weapons to the ready. A female Daedalian faced them. Her fur was a common brown and black. Her long ears were pierced with several different earrings and her bare arms were adorned with bracelets. There was also a necklace around her neck and she was dressed in cutoff style clothing. At her hips were a Daedalian blade and a pistol, but most alarming was the flechette launcher she had aimed at the group. A pull of the trigger would send dozens of tiny fin stabilized darts into the gang.

“Who are you,” Kaitlin snarled. She hadn’t had the best experiences with Daedalains. One in particular with red fur had killed or injured a lot of her old gang friends.

“My name is Zaerdra, and I just want to talk. So, why don’t you just calm down,” she cooed.

Another voice joined her from the back of the hut, “Yeah just take it easy.”

None of the bandits had thought to check the next room after Zaerdra had made her presence known. A human stood behind them with a blaster pistol, his right hand was an obvious prosthetic, and he was clad in what looked like a military uniform. However, it was absent of any patches or rank insignia, but the outlines of where the devices would have been were present. Kaitlin took this as a sign that he was probably a deserter.

The human wasn’t alone. There was also a Sh’ra with a flechette launcher. The reptilian didn’t need the weapon to be intimidating. His sickle claws on his toes and hands along with his serrated teeth would have sufficed. There was also a birdlike Xyl armed with a flechette launcher and a beak capped with metal.

Lastly, there was a Patheurian with white fur and a notch cut into her ear. She carried a pistol and had a large blade that didn’t seem to know if it was a chopping knife or a short sword.

Kaitlin’s gang may not have been outnumbered, but they were packed together and facing three flechette launchers. 

“What do you want,” Katlin asked out of fear and annoyance.

“I just want to offer you and your gang the opportunity of a lifetime,” Zaerdra’s words dripped with honey.

Kaitlin started to seem interested, “An offer? What kind of offer?”

“A rewarding proposition. You see, my captain has quite an interest in archeology. Especially with lost civilizations,” Zaerdra declared.

“Your captain? Artifacts? What does that have to do with me and my gang,” Kaitlin demanded.

“Patience, dear. I’m sure out here in the badlands you haven’t heard the news yet, but a very interesting artifact was found in the badlands. The archeological community is quite excited about this. There’s currently a local team going to retrieve it. I want you to snag it first.”

Kaitlin wrinkled her nose, “Why don’t you do that yourself?” 

Zaerdra parted her ears briefly before speaking, “Because, my shipmates and I are rather well known. Especially, given who we work for. If we were to turn up and snag this artifact, we’d attract more attention than we’d like. We want our involvement in this played down and that, my dear, is where you come in.” Zaerdra’s voice was filled with delight as she indicated the gang with a sweep of the gun barrel.

“You’re local. You won’t cause quite as much alarm as we would. Besides, this is a golden opportunity. Pull this job off and I can almost guarantee a spot for you and your gang with our crew. Captain is always looking for new talent. No more scrounging around the meager pickings here. You’d be plundering whole ships.”

That was the last piece of the puzzle for Kaitlin before she exclaimed, “You’re pirates!”

Zaerdra nodded, “Yes. Yes. Anyways, will you take the job, or not?”

Kaitlin looked around there was a slew of weapons trained on them. She knew there was only one right answer. At the same time, Kaitln didn’t want to look weak in front of her gang.

“How do I know you’ll honor your part,” she inquired with great hesitation.

Zaerdra chuckled, “You don’t, but why would we not honor our agreement?”

Kaitlin sighed, “Since you put it that way, I’ll accept.”

Zaerdra grinned showing a maw full of sharp teeth. “Wonderful! Meet us at these coordinates.” As she spoke the human with the prosthetic tossed a small datapad into the group of bandits with a simple set of coordinates on it.

“I trust you can find your way there,” Zaerdra asked.

“Of course,” Kaitlin replied.

“Excellent! We’ll see you there. May fortune guide you.”

At that, the pirates began to file past the bandits with weapons still trained on them. They all looked like they were ready to pull the triggers at the slightest twitch of provocation. Zaerdra kept her gun trained from the window until her crew was out of the cabin and then she slowly backed away out of sight.

Sometime later, Zaerdra and the rest of her shipmates were gathered up at their own hiding spot.

“You sure that group can pull this off,” the human with the prosthetic asked.

“I’m confident,” Zaerdra said.

“What if they fail,” the human asked.

“Hix, darling, you worry too much. If they fail that’s less heat on us. You know how Captain gets when he doesn’t get something he wants.”

“Yeah…,” Hix said as he took a flask and drank from it.

“Go easy on that for once,” Zaerdra scolded him.

The white Patheurian spoke then, “So, now what?”

“We wait around, swap stories, and let the locals do all our work for us. Anyone bring cards?”

The metal beaked Xyl produced a deck and suggested, “Beggar’s gamble?”

The Patheurian scoffed and sat down, “Why not?”

“That’s the spirit Shmirdra,” Zaerdra said as she pulled Hix down with her to play.

You're probably wondering more about the pirates... well they're from a different story entirely set in the same universe. 

Link to the original: Red's Tales: The Relic Part 2 by MercenaryBlade on DeviantArt