Tuning up the hover was better than wasting time complaining about the situation. Just a few days, then they were heading home. He glanced over his shoulder, Tech was still working, but he was tense, like he was doing his best not to blow up at someone. A few days.
Yeah, he had a feeling they were going to be a long few days.
“Just keep busy, Jacoby,” he grumbled. “And you’ll be able to get through this.”
He looked up in reflex at Alex’s running on the roof of the hover. He was moving to the other end. Whatever had caught his attention he was in a hurry. Jacoby went back to working on calibrating the power distribution, trying to get the sensor’s connector to reach the contact points, way behind everything else. Why was it they always built these things thinking everyone had the equipment needed to easily remove every components?
He’d dropped the sensor and had pulled his arm out of the hover before he’d realized he’d heard something. He’d run by the door, grabbing his gun belt before he’d consciously identified it.
Blaster fire. Not military, but more powerful than a handgun. The land went up to a small hill right behind the hover. He didn’t stop at the top. It gave him a view of what was happening. A small hover had landed roughly and three people were using it for cover, firing at Alex.
He could see a handful of dead animals, and one person dead, human by the gray clothing and pale skin. The Samalians were running off, urging more animals.
Jacoby was too far to do any good. His Kentric AG-325 didn’t have the range to do any damage. He couldn’t even remember putting it by the door. Habit, years of living the life ingrained some habit so deep even back home he always kept a gun within easy reach. If he’d known he’d have to fire from this distance, it’d have brought a rifle.
Alex ran in an erratic pattern, trying to get around the cover offered by the hover, but he wasn’t firing back. All he had were knives. Still, he was deadly with them. Jacoby saw one of the men behind the hover lying on the ground.
As soon as he judged to be close enough he stopped and carefully aimed. He had the time, they were focused on Alex. He fired twice in quick succession and one of the men, dropped. He aimed at the one next to him, a woman who raised her rifle and fired blindly in his direction. He ignored her wild shooting. And fired twice again. Both in her chest. Down she went.
He’d created enough of a distraction Alex made it around. He threw a knife and ran after it. Another woman dropped, she wasn’t dead, but Alex ignored her, another knife in hand and on the last man.
By the time Jacoby reached the hover, there was no doubt they were all dead. Alex had cut their throats. “Good shooting,” he said. Wiping his blades on a dead man’s shirt before sheathing it.
“Thanks.” Up close they looked like tourists, even the Arlian hunting rifles were something tourists would use.
“Yes! This thing’s connected to the net.” Alex jumped in the pilot’s seat. The hover wasn’t a tourist one. It was a hunter’s hover, with plenty of cargo space for the kills. These people had come here looking to bring back some trophies, and maybe meat.
He knew plenty of ordinary people enjoyed hunting. That was how he’d learned to shoot; with his father, in the woods around their property. His father and his friends would hunt a few times a year and bring in enough meat to last. Jacoby had never understood why they did that as a kid. They had plenty of money they could buy all the meat they wanted. His father had explained about the thrill of the hunt, but He’d never felt it hunting animals.
Hunting people, now that was a thrill, being in a fight where your own life was actually in danger, that made it worthwhile. Until it almost killed you and you either retired to a planet so far from everything else you don’t get tempted by the life, or put your life in order and keep going, knowing your days were numbered.
He’d thought he was far enough away, but friendship had a way of making you do things you’d promised yourself you wouldn’t do anymore.
Alex had his eyes closed and the look of someone eating after being without food for weeks. “Anything useful?” he asked.
“Our acts of sabotage had been attributed to local anti-corporation activists. They’re talking about making changes to some policies to try to prevent more needless damage. They are sending messages out to let the humans know that everything is under control. News of the destruction has already reached the core worlds and their stock dropped three points.”
“What about our would be hunters?”
“Nothing in here. This is a rental. Probably a bunch of tourists who thought they’d impress their friends by bringing back some of the ‘local wildlife.’ Look for their datapads. There’ll be more information there.”
“You know you can’t keep it, right?” Jacoby went through the closest woman’s pockets. Power packs for the rifle. Why did she have eight of them? Was she planning on killing each and every animal in that herd? “It’s on the network, if it stays here the rental company is going to send someone to check on it. Even if we hide the bodies, they are going to want to know what happened.”
“I know. Just let me get my fix. This is the longest I’ve gone without hearing the net. The silence is driving me nuts. We’ll throw them in the hover and I’ll program a course away from here. Have it crash on its way… okay, on its way back. Looks like this was their destination.”
“Here? Is there a city close by? A human resort?”
“No, they came from the same place we did. Took them a little under two days to get here.”
“That makes no sense, Look at them, they’re on vacation, heading somewhere to have some fun. This was a spur-of-the-moment thing. They saw the herd and went ‘hey, let’s have some fun.’”
“The clothing say one thing, the flight path another. Have you found a datapad?”
Jacoby was on the second man. “Not yet. But they’re packing enough power to take down a few hundred animals.” He looked them over and tried to imagine them in armor. No, the firing had been too sloppy to be mercs. They knew how to shoot, but didn’t have the precision that came from your life depending on every shot hitting its target.
“Is sending them away going to do any good? They’ll see where the hover stopped in the records.”
Alex snorted. “The records are going to say what I tell them to say. Don’t worry, no one is going to know they even came close to here.”
“Got one.” He turned it on. “It’s encrypted.”
Alex looked at him from inside the hover. “Now why would tourists have an encrypted datapad?”
“Maybe they are just security conscious.” He looked them over. The rifles showed signs they hadn’t been maintained. The clothing wasn’t practical. “Is there any security on the hover?”
“None.”
The datapad was the anomaly. He turned it over in his hand. A Tolera, a good brand, popular enough a lot of people used them, but build tough, so they were a favorite among mercs and criminals. Anyone who lived rough.
“The route’s been rewritten. Let’s throw them in and send them away from here.”
“You don’t mind if I keep one of the rifles.” Jacoby handed Alex the datapad.
“Go ahead, the spoils of war and all that.” He looked it over and saw something on the back that made him frown. “This is this years model. Just came out while we were in transit. How did they get this?”
“Maybe they’re rich? This is a vacation spot after all.” But even saying that, Jacoby shook his head. It didn’t add up. The rifles had seen a lot of use, but hadn’t been maintained. Rich folks either knew how to take care of their toys, or had someone to do that for them.
“We’ll have time to ponder the mystery that our dead vacationers are once they are gone from here.”
It took them five minutes to throw them in, and the hover took off, first straight up and then at an angle.
“How long until it crashes?”
“At the speed it can reach, four hours at the most. The history will show they flew over here, then turned around.”
“Isn’t that risky, showing they came here?” Jacoby indicated the blaster holes in the ground and the blood.
“They came here directly, so someone might know that was their plan. If I alter that it could raise a flag. As for the blood. I expect there won’t any traces for long, there’s a storm on the way.”
He headed back and Jacoby followed. It did sound like their tracks were covered. He still had an uneasy feeling about this.
The Samalians had gathered at the top of the hill, and Jacoby tried not to look at them. Couldn’t any of them put clothes on? Alex didn’t seem to care, but then again, he’d lived with Tech, and everyone knew that he didn’t wear much when he didn’t expect company. It was why they always called ahead when they needed to talk with him.
So many naked people made his skin crawl.
The priestess was wearing pants at least, if not the vest.
“Sorry about the mess,” Alex said.
“Thank you for protecting my people.” She sounded cautious. “Why did you intervene?”
Alex shrugged. “Reflex I guess.” He looked over her shoulder. Jacoby followed his gaze to Tech, who was still working at his wall.
“You still have my thank. We did not lose as many Orsh’ak, this time.”
“This happened before?”
“It is the third time this year.”
Alex looked back. “How many of your herd do they take normally?”
“They do not. They fire, kill as many as they can, then destroy the bodies.”
“Jacoby, I don’t think they…” Alex trailed off.
Jacoby had kept on walking. He didn’t care what they were or weren’t. He’d dealt with them. He had no interest in getting drawn into a discussion of retribution of plans or anything that resembled the life. He was here to take Tech back home when he was better, nothing more.
He forced his uneasiness away and took out his cleaning kit.
