Jean stared at the scattered bodies he and Monique created through the swift application of skilled violence. There was a place deep in his heart that wanted to mourn the needless loss of life, but these soldiers had come searching for him and his survivors. The Scaladorian government believed Took'Sar was behind the missing shipments of Gravitrum, but maintaining that lie required continuous and ruthless reinforcement designed to strike fear relentlessly in the hearts of their enemies.

  “Rodney, we need a pair of pilots at our location.” Jean said into the radio, “One to fly the transport here and the other to take the transport and its materials.”

  “Are we going to need help with loading?” The human pilot transmitted, panting lightly. Jean didn’t want someone so crucial to their survival in a position of danger, but he also knew how much the ace wanted to reclaim the sky, and how important it was that he remained part of their core leadership.

  “Yes, bring five. But make sure everyone is human. I don’t want any Scaladorians to see what we had to do.” He replied, searching the bodies for a command nodule that would allow him access to the transport vessel. Eventually, he found what he was looking for in the front pocket of a decorated Scaladorian and pressed buttons until a ramp leading inside lowered to the ground.

  Most of what they’d acquired from the monthly Scaladorian guard ships consisted of riot equipment that could put down a prisoner rebellion, if necessary, but would be next to useless in a real firefight. Hopefully, that was about to change. If Monique and the Scaladorian armorers had enough time to work on the equipment in this ship, modifying it for human use would be the easiest thing they’d accomplished since landing. Dozens of weapons lined the walls, each proudly displaying the spiraling tip of a Scaladorian stinger.

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  “Understood. Leave the remote somewhere safe and we will handle it. Any luck locating the ruins?” Rodney asked, strapping himself into the cockpit while signaling that he needed people to help him outside the compound.

  Jean turned the volume of his radio down and looked over at his second in command. Originally, they’d been searching for the abandoned base that only existed in text. Ironically, it turned out that their enemies had planned to make their camp inside a set of sprawling ruins that both pirates believed could be the site they were looking for.

  “What do you think? Should we tell him what we’ve found?” Jean asked, raising a hairless eyebrow to accentuate the question.

  “We don’t hide vital information, Jean. That is the fastest way to die.”

  The pirate king nodded his agreement and keyed his radio with metallic fingers. “We are in the ruins now. Monique thinks she knows where the entrance to the deeper portion was, but there is no way to know yet.”

  “I understand. Let me know if you find anything and we can get a crew in there to dig up any secrets lying dormant own there.” Rodney said, the familiar whine of the transport clear in the background.

  “We will be silent for a while. Monique and I plan to break through whatever protection the Stygibora thought was enough.” He said, closely following his female companion to a set of weathered stone doors, cracked and broken by time and exposure. Fully expecting the trip to be a loss, the bald eco-warrior slipped a hand between the stones and pushed. When the door slid open with no trouble, he simply shrugged and walked inside. He wouldn’t go far, but he had to know if this old location was as important as his gut was telling him. If it was, several extra steps needed to be considered before moving forward with the next part of his plan.

  As it turned out, those several steps would need to happen significantly faster than he initially thought.