[Erick Sanders]

I stared up at the barrel of the gun and scanned our surroundings. There were Three others with Faron, bracing themselves against trees and aiming their rifles at the Jack and the others. I sighed as I looked down the barrel into the depths within. “Fuck you’re annoying,” I muttered,

“What was that?” Faron pressed the end of the barrel into my face, “Daron?! What the fuck are you doing?” Faron exclaimed, looking over at his brother. I would have taken that moment to rip the hand from Faron’s arm, but I could feel one of his friend's rifles straying over the little boy and I wasn’t sure if Jack could block a stray bullet.

Daron crept around the side of a large tree, looking across at his brother, “Faron, I don’t think they will let you take these two, it might be best if you move on, maybe.” He spluttered, not looking his brother in the eye.

“Me? Move on? What does father always tell us, Take what you want, say sorry after, and I don’t have anything to apologize for,” I felt Jack’s, Keg’s, Sam’s, and Mia’s eyes on me. They were all watching, waiting for me to move. Probably to pull this dick heads gun from my face and start killing people. I felt Faron’s friend's rifle sway as he tried to watch the interaction between Faron and Daron. Centimeter at a time it moved away from Geren and Senta, then it was clear and I struck.

“Daron, who are these…” Faron was mid-sentence when I moved, twisting the dial in my mind I struck the barrel of the gun with one hand and sliced up with the sword in my other. It dug into the flesh below Faron’s elbow just as the barrel cleared my face. The muscles in his hands went limp as the tendons were severed, and the rifle dropped from his hand amid the start of a pained scream.

I tossed my sword and swept the rifle from the air as it tumbled, bringing it around and firing three shots. Two propelled themselves at the man pointing his rifle, now vaguely in the direction of Geren and Senta. The last shot entered the eye of the man who was aiming at Mia. With my slowed perception of time it was almost comical as his head rocked back, blood spilling from his face in an arch. I dropped the rifle and grabbed my falling sword before it hit the ground.

It had been less than a second and my muscles ached from the strain of forcing my body to move that fast. I twisted my perception of time to a more manageable level and leaped up. As I passed Faron, I sliced into his other arm, leaving him to crumble uselessly on the ground.

Bullets started flying, but with Faron and one of his team down, they were outnumbered. Jack and Keg were firing as they sprinted to cover, while Sam and Mia pulled Senta and Geren roughly behind a fallen tree.

Bullets slammed into trees and bodies, creating a cracking and thudding cacophony that echoes through the forest, I shrugged off two stray bullets as I sprinted through the fray, I rounded a tree and stabbed out at an unsuspecting man. He moved at the last moment, leaning out of the way of my sword, his rifle came up to knock it wide. I spun as he kicked out, his boot sending moss and bark cascading down the tree.

I knocked aside his elbow strikes, his moves were tight and his tempo violently rapid. The only downside to his fighting style was its predictability, It was like a child playing chess, they only knew five moves and could only think of three ways to use them. I knocked aside an elbow, then another. Intercepting a knee before it could gain any momentum, I slammed the hilt of my sword into his sternum, feeling the bone crack and give way. The man staggered back, a breathless cough caught in his throat. I blinked as a bullet zipped past my ear and slammed into his eye, dropping him dead to the forest floor. I turned to see the others, rifles all raised and ready, the last of Faron’s men already dead.

“Daron… Is that your brother?” Keg said, walking across the forest floor at pushing Faron’s writhing form onto its back.

“Up yes, He would appreciate it if you didn’t kill him, He recently died and was quite mad about the loss of ranking. Our father wasn’t happy when we told him,” Daron whispered. Faron groaned as if in response.

“You sure?” Jack asked, looking from Daron and Faron.

Daron hesitated a moment before nodding. “Okay. Erick, don’t kill him,” Jack said, looking at me with hard eyes.

“Fine,” I sighed, sheathing my sword, before reaching down and pulling a backpack from a dead man, opening it, I began to rifle through. There was little of use, a couple of nutrition bricks and items of wet weather clothing. I closed the bag and carried it over to Senta, handing it to the shaking woman. “I assume we're still going to take them to their uncles?” I asked the others.

“You know, we could see…” Daron started before Jack silenced him with a dark look and Daron shrank back behind a tree.

“We’ll take them. But we should get moving, that fight would have drawn a lot of attention.” Jack said.

We left Faron bleeding in the dirt and cut through the forest, Senta and Geren following close behind Keg to direct him, while I stuck to the middle of the pack, constantly scanning the area. The last thing I wanted to do was miss someone and end up with another gun in my face. The others chatted around me in hushed voices, constantly checking with me that no one was around.

“What’s up with your brother? And your father? Is he a bit of a hard man?” Jack asked Damon behind me.

“That’s a book I’m not sure you want to open. Dad’s a pretty intense person. He owns a... company. Makes more credits than he could ever spend,” Daron said.

“So, you’re rich?”

“No. My father is rich, Faron, and I had to earn every credit we have. He paid us as kids, every hour of study, had a rate. Every chore and job had a price. He didn’t raise us, he employed us.”

“Sounds fun,” Jack said sarcastically

“It wasn’t all bad. But now Faron and I are here. We’re expected to run ships for him.” He sounded so bitter as though he hated even the though. I couldn't imagine the conflict he must have felt between doing as his father wanted and wanting to be his own person.

It also made a lot more sense now, Daron’s and Faron’s presence on Nerion. Of course, they were weak, they weren’t here from the strength of their backs like the rest of us, not representing a guild or a company. They were here due to the size of their father's bank account. I could only wonder how many others were in the same boat.

“So Erick once said that you were from ‘Earth’, What’s it like?” Daron asked. I ignored Jack's response, my attention turning to the conversation ahead of me, Where Mia was in the process of asking Senta about her settlement.

“It's on the other side of this mountain range, it was small, our family was small. Our mother died when Geren was young, so it was only the three of us and twenty others. Any more and we would have drawn the attention of your people,” Senta said, she spoke slowly and quietly, he voice trembling with the memories.

“Our people?” Mia asked

“You ride in metal boats, flying through the sky, setting up giant towns of glass. There is one such place, three and a half days from our home, which is full of fake people, their skin looks real but their bones are fake. The first time I saw it, it terrified me.”

I had heard of this city, it was one of many on Nerion. They were created for training, a simulation filled with androids made to mimic a real situation. I knew that within the next month I would be there for a simulated bounty hunt. To find a shinning needle in a haystack of fake people. I had been looking forward to it since Mia had described it after her low altitude urban flight training.

“It sounds like a frightening life,” Mia commented quietly.

“Why are you helping us?” Senta asked, and Mia blinked at the question.

“Why wouldn’t we, you need help and we have the ability to help you.”

“Many of your people would not. Our father told us stories about what happened when we encountered you sky folk. We would be sold to your schools, like bounties on a rat infestation.” Senta spat into the dirt.

The schools? Whoever ran the colleges on Nerion wanted to be rid of these natives. Fuck sake, All the technology in the world, people had crossed millions if not billions of miles through space and virtual space, but pig-headed ignorance still persisted. I scowled at the trees, as though they could ever feel my frustrations. I received a cold slap on the face from a dew-covered leaf as a response.

“I’m sorry this happened to you, is there anything else we can do to help?” Mia asked.

“There is little to be done. Those metal people are such an overwhelming force. Normally we are safe, our settlements are buried deep within the tunnels of the mountain, away from the eyes of your flying boats. We can normally disappear into them if anything threatens our people. It was only horrible luck that we were trapped when they found us.”

“What do you mean?”

“A cave collapsed. It is not uncommon when your lives are built in the darker places of the world, But this time it was our escape tunnel, leading deeper into the rock, without it we were trapped. The gods trapped up like cattle.” Senta's head dropped as tears spilt to the forest floor, splashing among dead leaves.

We walked on in silence, Senta only speaking when she needed to direct Keg. We rose higher into the mountains, emerging from the trees to follow a thin mountain trail, so narrow it was as though only small game ever used it and was nearly invisible in the moonlight. When Geren grew tired and slow, Mia lifted him onto her back to carry him up the steep slopes. After three and a half hours, Senta came to an abrupt halt. I scanned our surroundings carefully, assuming I had missed something that Senta had seen or heard. There was nothing around us. Daron bumped into my back, not realizing the column was coming to a stop.

“What is it?” Keg asked, realizing the rest of us had stopped behind him. We all looked to Senta.

“We are here,” Senta stated plainly, looking at us knowingly.

“Where, I don’t see anything.” Keg said, looking around at the rough stone, we all copied him, trying to see the cave that Senta was so sure was here.

Senta looked at us all, ignoring the question, “thank you so much for helping us. I could never repay you, but I have one more favor to ask. Do I have your word that this will remain our secret? Please. I could not bear to lose more family.”

Even without asking, there was no way anyone here would betray this woman and her younger brother. We had nothing to gain from selling them out, the credits wouldn’t be worth the damage to our conscious. Everyone nodded or grunted in acceptance, Jack going so far as to kneel in front of Senta and Geren, “Of course, you have our word. Do you know the way to the closest…school. Where we live?” he asked.

“I have seen it. We have tunnels that go everywhere in these mountains.”

“Good. If you ever need us and can get to us, we live in this building.” Jack said, tapping his scanner and showing her a picture that one of his drones had taken. The grey stone hall at the edge of the campus. “If you need us, we are here, we have the rooms on the south side of the building, third floor.” Senta studied the picture, then nodded. Jack was about to close his scanner when Gerens small hand reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling it down as he looked up at the image. “Thank you,” He muttered, wiping a muddy hand across his face before stepping closer to his sister again.

“You’re welcome, little man,” Jack said. He closed his scanner and stood again. “So where is this cave?”

“Beneath your feet,” Senta said, pointing down at a flat stone that lay across the ground.

Jack and Keg stepped aside, as Senta reached down, the tight muscles in her arm showing under her dirty skin as she pulled. The stone lifted, and two vertical stone beams rose to hold it in place, revealing a steep stairway into pitch blackness.

Senta pulled Geren into the hole, then as soon as their heads had disappeared into the shadows, the stone slammed back down with an immediate crack.

“Christ, Sir Jackson! You still thinking about a career as a knight?” Keg said, howled with laughter at Jack. “Did you see him take a knee and pledge his protection! That was great!”

“I was just getting down to Geren’s level,” Jack complained his hands flopping to his sides.

“Okay, Sir Jackson. Can we head back now, I might still not fail if you shift your honorable ass.” Keg said, slapping Jack on the back and taking off back down the mountain.

“I was just trying to make sure they knew we would help if they needed, did it really look like I was trying to play the knight?” Jack asked me as we began following Keg.

“Here, A knight should have a good sword. I don’t really need two,” I said, pulling one of my blades from my back. Letting the moonlight glint off the black steel, I flipped it and offered Jack the hilt.

“What? You wouldn’t give me that,” He said, though I felt his hand twitch towards the blade.

I stopped and looked at him for a moment. Looked my older brother in the eyes. “Yeah, you’re right. Go get your own fucking sword.” I laughed, flipping the sword around again and sheathing it.

“Fuck you,” Jack laughed. “Come on, I think Keg’s really started running,” he said, taking off down the narrow path.