The Skeet brothers were born on the agrarian world of Shax in the populous Shaxson system, which was one of the last to join the Legion and it was not an easy transition or indeed a wholly welcome one.
In fact it was a protracted and bloody
courtship which involved three years of bitter war and it was that war that saw
the Skeet’s swap their plough shares for Pulsar weapons and tractors for Spider
Hawk Fighters, Lyris was 22 and his brother Zerrad was just 19 when they left
their home.
When the war came to an unsatisfactory
conclusion for the Shaxson rebels the Legion exacted a heavy retribution which
lead to some of the former fighters having to turn their backs on their home
worlds to escape the Legions punitive punishments and give up living on the
land and live on the lam instead.
Not that the Skeets had much appetite for
farming after all the action they had seen.
They had no family left on Shax by the time
the war was over so even if the Legion had been prepared to allow them to live
in peace there was nothing left to bind them to their birthplace.
So they left the Shaxson system and signed
on for to an inter galactic freighter and spent two years jumping from galaxy
to galaxy until they tired of the life, albeit a well-paid one, so they
disembarked at the Exodus 9 space dock before the Goliath departed through the
star gate.
They found life outside of the cossetted
world of the “deep spacers” and found that most employers treated people very
differently and they had a very uncomfortable 12 months working as flight crew
on an Omega class planet hopper, the Phoenix, until one day as they were
approaching the Exodus 9 space dock to drop off a load of farming implements
Lyris made a hasty decision.
As they were on their final approach an
Apantician grain freighter was just leaving and momentarily it put the little
Omega on its blindside so instead of proceeding to dock on the outer docking
ring Lyris had a sudden rush of blood to the head and concealed the Phoenix
beneath the grain freighters starboard engine array rendering it invisible to
the ship’s crew and the space docks instruments.
“What the hell are you doing?” Zerrad asked
“We’re getting the hell out of this system
before this work bores us to death” Lyris replied
“Better that than being worked to death on
a penal planet” his younger brother pointed out “and if we go through the gate
we don’t have enough fuel to get us to the next one”
“Firstly these little Omega’s are ten a
penny so they’re not going to waste time and money tracking us down and
secondly we don’t need fuel, we’ll just hitch a ride on this beast” Lyris said
“But we don’t know where it’s going Ly”
Zerrad said
“Anywhere is better than here” he
retorted
Which was how and why they ended up living
and working
in the Cammaratian System plying a fairly
lucrative trade going from planet to planet, moon to moon and mine to mine
where they worked on the margins of legality, frequently operating on the wrong
side of the law just to make a living and with Scav Raiders at large they
needed their wits about them at all times just to stay alive.
But although the Phoenix was unarmed it had
a good turn of speed which could outrun most of the trouble they came across.
They were only half-brothers, but despite
their differences they were unmistakably brothers.
They were both six feet tall, broad and
muscular but Lyris had black hair, dark almost black eyes and a short fuse, while
Zerrad was blonde, grey eyed and was quiet and thoughtful.
Like many of the independents in the system
they had their base on Alwi the fourth moon of the seventh planet Aragon, which
was where they got to know the crew of the Tornado, and Merionwen, Malena and
Shiyne were their closest friends although Zerrad secretly hoped for more in
regard to Malena.
Lyris was content with friendship though,
although they were all really attractive and of the right age for him they all
had drawbacks, tall slim Merri with her abundance of red hair trailing behind
her like a mane, pale skin, penetrating green eyes and an altogether striking
appearance but along with that she was a forthright, volatile and feisty
personality and that made her far too like him for them to be anything other
than friends.
Then there was Malena, also tall and slim,
brunette hair, olive skin and hazel eyes, at least that was how she appeared
but of course in reality, she was an Obgaron shape shifter so in her own
natural Mercurial form of liquid silver glass she looked very different, not
that he had ever seen her in that form or any other Obgaron for that matter,
but he understood that even in their natural state they were very pleasing to
the eye, but Lyris was a meat and potatoes kind of guy, unlike his brother who
he knew saw her in a very different light.
And finally there was the smaller Shiyne,
who was completely bald, had cerise coloured skin and purple eyes who he found
to be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, alas though she was a Vann,
and the Vann were telepaths and he couldn’t get anywhere with someone who could
actually read his mind, it was difficult enough with the ones that thought they
knew what he was thinking.
For Zerrad it didn’t matter how beautiful
Merri and Shiyne were, he had eyes only for Malena and he knew she was Obgaron
and was not really as she appeared to him but he didn’t care, he didn’t love
her because she was beautiful he loved her because she was kind, gentle and a
voice of reason in a turbulent world.
But nothing ever came of his infatuation,
because he was far too shy to press his suit, so he just enjoyed her company on
the occasions when they were both on the ground at the same time and she filled
his thoughts all the time they were apart, not an altogether sustainable
situation which is probably why the universe intervened.
It was ten years after they left their
agrarian home world of Shax in the Shaxson system and four since they arrived
in the Cammaratian system and it had suited them very well because it was one
of the few remaining neutral zones left in the known galaxy and it bordered 11
other systems, all much busier and more populous than itself so it was in
effect a short cut, a rat run between systems with the advantage of far less
stringent border controls, ideal for those either in a hurry or more likely
those transporting contraband which the Skeets had often been known to do.
Using the Cammaratian routes however was
not without risk, which was because of the lack of scrutiny of the system by
the Legion and the Mehreen empire, those choosing the less high profile route
were left vulnerable to the other inhabitants of the neutral zone “Scav
Raiders” which were in essence little more than pirates, so no one entered the
system unarmed unless they were in convoy or had the benefit of speed and the
Omega class Phoenix certainly fell in that category.
The other reason it was used so readily
despite the perils was because it gave the merchant men easy access to the star
gates beyond the frontiers, which in turn accessed the lucrative trade routes
through hyperspace.
The Phoenix would occasionally travel in a
convoy but more often than not they pressed on alone and trusted to Lyris’s
instincts which hadn’t let them down before.
They were quick and they knew the most
likely spots where they might be vulnerable and avoided them, which was
normally enough.
But no one was completely safe even their
friends on the Tornado which was fast enough to out run most of the predatory
pirates and certainly out gun them with the twin Pulsar Lasers at the front and
a rear facing Plasma cannon, got scragged by a posse of raiders and had been
grounded with engine problems for three months.
Which was why Lyris chose the safer route
of passing close to Zandros on his way back to Alwi, which was regarded by
everyone as a safe passage, a milk run even, so they saw no danger.
They were making good time and Zerrad had
allowed his mind to wander to an occasion time when he could spend some time
with Malena and then it happened, a photon mine detonated off the port side and
disabled one engine.
“What the fuck!” Ly cursed “Where did that
come from?”
“More to the point why is it here?” Zerrad
asked
“It’s probably just a stray” Lyris retorted
optimistically but Zerrad wasn’t so sure
“Maybe” he said and studied the scanners
looking for more.
“It must have drifted towards Zandros and
got caught in its gravitational field” Lyris added trying hard to convince
himself but failed, and Zerrad was even less inclined to that notion, and he
was right to be sceptical as at that precise moment three Scav Raider craft
appeared on their long range scanners.
“We’ve got company” Z said
“Three bogies closing in fast”
“We’ll never outrun them with one dead
engine” Ly pointed out
“Hit the beacon and send out a mayday”
With that said Zerrad sent out the distress
call as Lyris tried to put some distance between them and their attackers and
he managed to keep out of range of their guns for about ten minute before they
were caught and they felt the first Pulsar strikes on the hull which were
followed by strike after strike.
“Are you sure there’s only three of them?”
Lyris asked as he tried to squeeze every last ounce of power from the engines,
but they received repeated hits however they were still maintaining forward
momentum and had sustained a lot of damage by the time help arrived and they
were still taking fire from two of their assailants while the third was trying
to latch on to the hull in preparation to breach.
They weren’t aware of it at the time that
the help was in the form of the Tempest Class Freighter, Tornado, and they
didn’t even know it was there until one of the Raiders, which was circling
around to attack again was taken completely by surprise with a sustained
targeted strike from the Tornado’s twin Pulsar Lasers which tore a gash along
the ships port side and a few seconds later it exploded into a flaming patch of
debris.
“It looks like help has arrived” Lyris
exclaimed
“It’s too late” Zerrad retorted “They’ve
broken through”
In response Lyris killed the engines and
drew his Laser and said
“We’d better go and introduce ourselves to
our guests”