Adelphus

Dane was in a panic. He breathed in a short rhythmic tempo. Cold blue desert surrounded him, as vast as the Sahara and just as deadly. A thick cloud of the mercenary's breath shown in the slight dawn light. The only hope, a small outpost, lay visibly in the distance, glowing a contrastingly inviting red from the suns fiery radiance.

He was only alive out of some horrible fluke. His companions had all been taken by the creature. The screams of his fellow mercenaries had woken him in the night. The monster must have spotted him as he escaped. Now he was surely dead.

Making matters worse, Dane left his gun at the encampment. Without time to think, he only grabbed the package before trying to save himself.

'It would be a shame to die here, so close to safety, so far from home.'

Footsteps in the dunes heightened his sense of panic. Their thud could only come from an animal large enough to be audible as its feet sank in the cushioning sands of Gliese 580 which was renamed Adelphus by the colonists.

'Keep running.' Dane's feet grew heavier as sand filled his boots. 'This was supposed to be routine.'

His heartbeats grew louder. His breath became labored. His muscles screamed in agony. The sting of sweat filled his eyes.

Only the fear of death kept him going in its dull, aching longing for life. The creature was treating the mercenary like an antelope.

As he tired, his resolve grew as wide as his pupils and as bright as the sun which now bathed the desert a diluted bloody red. He was on a mission with laser focus bounding through the sands with an ever slower pace in the increasingly unbearable heat.

The colony wall was a few hundred yards away.

Dane started shrieking for help as he stumbled on the increasingly stable ground.

The mercenary collapsed in terror as a wall mounted laser cut through the predator.

A distant voice yelled back. It barely registered through the prey's exhaustion.

'Those damn cretons have us surrounded.'

It was dusk before the fluttering of a fan woke the weary mercenary. A dull swoosh grew to a cantankerous thud as consciousness returned.

'Wolves,' a dull voice cackled. 'Right off the new ship and the poor sapling thinks of wolves.'

As the embrace of the deep black cleared. Dane realized he was in a makeshift infirmary full of the colonies farmers who utilized the scant resources in the mountains to help feed the settlers.

'If a wolf had two legs and a reptile brain.' Another weathered farmer's voice chimed in. 'Those things would eat all of us except for that pass.'

Dane was awake now. The creature was becoming a distant memory. The cargo took precedence.

The employer paid dearly and every precaution was taken to avoid detection. Yet, despite planning for human related issues, a brutal Sanguinosaurus nearly destroyed the mission. In this new world, a desert reptile adapted to harsh environments could kill anyone with the same icy chill as the strongest soldier. Luckily, Sanguinosaurus was not immune to the large heat based lasers mounted on the colony walls.

With the greed of a junky, the skilled and stocky mercenary began calculating the risks of failing. They were too great. His employers were no common criminals. They vied for control of everything.

Adelphus was awash in the staples for a new civilization. The original colonists were filled with excitement at the idea of establishing a colony as the powers that be developed faster means of space travel. However, their descendants created a much different mission. The order of the ship gave way to a society of thugs even in an environment already suitable to human life.

Dane was now aware of the presence of a much different predator, a large man with a towering persona. Despite his own size, the mercenary knew he could do nothing. The man approached with the aura of an angry rhinoceros and the officiousness of a faction thug.

'What happened to the package!' The man bellowed in a low voice that seemed to reverberate off the canvas walls.

A nurse approached and tried to explain that Dane was still dehydrated. The boor brushed her aside with ease. She scoffed away in obvious disappointment.

'Where is it!'

The inquisitive tank threw a bottle of water on Dane's chest.

Dane took a small sip and strained to answer.

'Wherever they took my satchel.'

The man was unsatisfied but skulked away towards the nurse's station. Dane knew the trouble he would be in if the unwelcome visitor was not a member of his hiring faction. He struggled to his feet, lightheaded and nearly collapsing. Dane pushed against his own will to the entrance of the hospital tent he was only now aware he was in. The struggle to survive nearly cost the mercenary everything.

By the time his journey concluded, the thug was gone. The normally resilient mercenary stumbled towards an orderly.

'Did you give the brute anything?'

'A satchel. He claimed to know you.' The staff member grimaced at the thought of his previous encounter.

Dane began pushing down the only road in town with the same growing tempo as the rise of the two aligned moons in the sky. The planet's dwarf moon chased the crescent in an awesome display.

House to house, office to supply depot, market to saloon with no sign of the target. The boxcar like pre-fabricated structures contained not even the faintest outline of the town's most recognizable enforcer.

'They paid you to do a job.' A tall scraggly deputy with a high-pitched voice whined, stopping the search cold.

'Damn Sanguinosaurus!'

'You're still going to finish it.'

It was the thugs in charge. That could only mean the people he was after were the Eatons, the losers aside from the original government in the three-sided war erupting after disembarkation. They were the slightly lesser of two evils.

There was no use in refusing and no use in trying. Either way, Dane would die.

'They are in the mountains.'

'The Sanguinosaurus?'

'Gone.' A slight shift in the eyes of the deputy let Dane know this was a lie. They never left. Humans were food.

'If you know where, let me know. I also need a gun.'

The deputy waved Dane into a small metal structure. It was the police station and an armory of sorts. Dim light flickered against the serrated red walls on which racks of rifles rested. A backroom jail loomed at the far end. The deputy walked with a slight limp to a table near the jail.

'Do you have any water?'

Dane was still parched.

The deputy pointed to a water cooler near the entrance. The hall of guns framed the corrupt officer.

Dane drank greedily.

'Done?' The deputy inquired.

One last deep gulp of defiance.

'Yes.'

Dane threw his cup into the nearby garbage can with force and down the hall.

He knew what he had to do. Fear and paranoia gripped him. Every scenario for survival and death began racing through his mind.

'I was told they are here.' The deputy pointed to a large conical mountain on the topographical map laying perfectly flat on the desk. 'There is a cave where some of the Eatons and their supporters live. Take a rifle.'

The mountain was perfect. The lines on the map made the feature too tall for a direct assault. The rocky terrain only made it more defensible. One man would clearly be better for a quiet assault.

'We need any intel you can find. Don't look in the satchel.'

Dane wanted to ask why but was too smart to try. He grabbed a rifle instead. The metal was as cold as the society in which he presided.

'The ammo is near the door.'

Dane took bullets and a grenade belt from the cabinet near the entrance, exiting into the night. The deputy said nothing.

The dwarf was still in the same location. Due to its rotation, the crescent was growing into a half moon on its movement towards the opposite side town. The mercenary trod towards the dwarf, the mountains, and the protective wall.

Rather than head towards the formerly active volcano, Dane began to head towards the farms he spotted on the maps. The rustle of rocks alerted him to the presence of another predator. Not sure whether a deputy or a raptor was behind him, his next actions would have drastic repercussions for the colony. Caravans rarely came to the mining town due to the dangers lurking in the desert. The farms were the main food supply.

Dane ripped the grenade belt from his waste, pulled the pins, and threw it as far up the left side of the bouldered steep valley as possible. The loud rumble of a large rock slide rattled through the pass as Dane slipped into the night unhindered. It was a temporary escape covered by soft rock and shale.