The first light of morning peeked over the mountains, splashing Kaelis in the face, shaking her awake. Eyes popping open, her awareness returning in a flash, she was immediately struck by a sharp sting of shame—she’d let herself fall asleep! Swiftly, she snapped her head upright, only to smack it against the cannon’s steel base.

  “…Gyah…” Kaelis grimaced, clutching her skull and kicking. Once the pain had faded, she heaved herself to her feet, blinking blindly as the glare of the sundrenched dirt bounced up into her eyes. She shuffled over to the railing and gazed out over the new landscape she’d awoken to, soaking in its vivid richness.

  They’d made it—the Sarulean Valley. For Kaelis, it only seemed to grow more grand and dazzling with every visit. Monumental plateaus stood like great sentinels lording over the badlands, islands adrift in a sea of swirling amber sand. A thin haze ebbed at the base of the mesas, cut into ribbons by the long shadows of the morning. Kaelis took a deep inhale as she basked in the majesty of the scene, breathing in the crisp, dry air of the desert.

  As the Redland Runner rumbled past the buttes, a tower of rock wiped into view. Kaelis felt her chest swell at its appearance. In the middle of the valley, standing like a kingly throne, was a mesa of mammoth proportions, with a pair of steep, sloping cliffs jutting from either side of its plateau, curving inward like the ends of a horseshoe. The two cliffs met at a narrow point, sealed together by a bulky, metal barrier. Past the gate, cradled between the mesa’s arms, were the hints of a small slice of civilization, with only a scant few structures tall enough to be seen from afar.

  “Kaelis!” yelled Sheah from the upper deck, her sudden shout slapping her in the back with surprise. “Is that the village?!”

  Kaelis whipped around and threw Sheah an affirmative thumbs up. “Yup, that’s it!” Filling with excitement, she scampered up the steps to the upper deck, joining her employer on the bridge.

  To Kaelis’s alarm, she found Jira in the driver’s seat, having apparently traded positions with Sheah sometime during Kaelis’s very brief and completely appropriate power nap. She suddenly felt a flushness staining her cheeks, brewing with worry that the Captain had seen her drooling over herself at the cannon.

  “Oh, uh, good morning, Captain Sirroza,” chirped Kaelis, burying her bother beneath a heap of morning cheer.

  “Xelon,” said Jira with her usual terseness, her eyes fixed forward. Kaelis found the greeting strangely reassuring—if Jira had seen Kaelis asleep, she thankfully didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

  Jira eased up on the gas, swinging the ship around and gently lining it up with the gap between the mesa’s arms. Slowly, the Redland Runner passed between the pair of craggy cliffs and trundled onto the long, wedge-shaped field that tapered off into the town gates.

  Sheah adjusted her glasses and squinted through the window, staring at the twin sets of hulking steel sealing in the town. “Those are the gates?” she asked with a splash of astonishment.

  She was right to be surprised. The makeshift gate of Concord village was unique, to say the least. Wedged together between the gap were a pair of enormous rusted warships, scuffed and battered but well-maintained despite their obvious age. Though equal in size, the ships were of vastly different designs and configurations—the machines of two nations once at war. On one side was the Wolfram Avalanche: a soaring eagle of a ship painted Imperial blue and ostentatiously lined in flowing filigree like deadly gusts of wind. On the other side was the landship Divinity of the Peoples’ Republic of Dierros: a no-frills battering ram of sharpened steel, functionally fatal in every way. The only thing the two landships shared in common were the dozens of thick cannons that lined their hulls, their aim fixed out towards any and all that would dare attempt to enter the village uninvited.

  “Hm,” grunted Jira, studying the Dierrosi ship ahead of them.

  As the Redland Runner grew nearer, Kaelis watched Sheah as she anxiously shifted her attention from the gates to the fields around them. The ground on either side of the ship was battered and scarred with deep impact craters, some made fairly recently from the looks of it. Stains of soot, oil, and blood painted the dirt. Errant metallic chunks of raider landships and lumps of rotting Unbound flesh and wood lay scattered along the edges of the depressions. Sheah pinched her lips, her face paling with deep concern.

  “And you are certain this place is safe?” she questioned.

  Kaelis shrugged. “Sure. Safer than anywhere else in this region.”

  Wordlessly, Jira eased her foot onto the brake. The Redland Runner crept to a stop a respectful distance from the gates. Throwing the ship into park, the Captain leaned back into her seat and folded her arms. Kaelis and Sheah joined her at the windscreen, and together the three women stared at the gates, waiting restlessly for some form of acknowledgement. Several seconds passed without so much as a simple sign of life aboard the ships.

  “…Is anyone even here?” asked Sheah. Suddenly she gasped. “Could this be a trap?!”

  “Calm down. It’s still early for them,” said Kaelis. “We just gotta get their attention.” She walked over to the dashboard and politely requested the radio receiver. Jira slapped it into her hand. Clearing her throat, Kaelis spoke courteously. “Hello?” she called, her voice shooting out of the speakers and echoing against the mesa walls. “Hello, is anyone there?”

  The crew leaned forward in anticipation, eager for a response. A long beat passed. Finally, a tiny spec in the shape of a man climbed onto the deck of the Imperial landship. They picked up a metal brick attached to an absurdly long rubber chord and raised it up to their mouth. Their voice rang out over the warship’s external speakers.

  “Declare yourselves,” the figure sternly stated.

  “Hi!” Kaelis greeted, casually chipper. “I’m looking for Isola Lange. Is she here?”

  “What business do you have?” asked the sentry.

  “I’m a friend. Can you please just see if she’s around?”

  The sentry lowered their radio and yelled something into the ship. They turned and coldly stared at the Redland Runner, folding their arms unpleasantly.

  “I don’t like this,” whispered Sheah.

  Kaelis waved away her fears. “Ah, you worry too much.”

  After some moments, a thin, sturdy woman jumped onto the deck of the warship. The sentry handed her the receiver, which she accepted with a friendly nod. The sentry then promptly took their leave, disappearing into the ship.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  The woman walked over to the edge of the deck and planted her boot on the low railing. She leaned onto her knee, looking down at the Redland Runner and cocking her head curiously. “Who’s this?” she asked.

  Kaelis smiled brightly at the woman’s voice. It was warm and husky and somehow sounded like cinnamon—just like she remembered. “Lange! It’s Kaelis!” she excitedly called. “Kaelis Vintra. From the Avareo job.”

  Lange tilted her head to the sky. “Kaelis…” she muttered as if sifting through a dense phonebook.

  Kaelis rolled her eyes and sighed. She brought the receiver to her mouth and mumbled into it. “You know… Brighteyes…”

  “Brighteyes!” Lange exclaimed. She threw her arm into the air, her movements turning lively and animated. “Moon and stars, it’s been ages! How ya been?”

  “Oh, same as always,” Kaelis replied as the Redland Runner creaked and sputtered beneath her. As if on cue, a pathetic puff of smoke wheezed out of one of the ship’s forward vents.

  “Looks as much,” said Lange.

  “Listen, we’re in need of a place to do some repairs,” Kaelis said, cutting straight to the chase. “You think we might be able to slip inside, get that taken care of?”

  Lange rubbed her chin. “I dunno. Things are a bit tight ‘round here at the moment…”

  “Ah, c’mon. Please? We’re in a bind, we really need this.”

  After a brief pause Lange shrugged and waved away her doubts. “Ah, I don’t see no reason we couldn’t squee—”

  Abruptly, Lange’s attention was seized. She turned around to face a thick, grayed, bearded man marching out of the ship towards her. The man gestured for the receiver with his meaty hands.

  “What is it now?” sighed Sheah.

  Kaelis shrugged. “Oh, it’s probably nothing.”

  “Tsis is Genzo Xenova, mayor of Concord,” said the man, his voice steeped in a thick Dierrosi dialect. “Declare your business here.”

  Jira’s brow raised high upon hearing the Mayor’s accent.

  “Hi!” greeted Kaelis, once again casually chipper. “We’re just a small expeditionary vessel, looking for a safe space.”

  “Is tsat so?”

  “Yeah. We’ve hit a rough road, and we just need a few days to—”

  “I have seen tse bulletin. A Voyager-class has been stamped a corporate enemy, and you so happen to show at our door right after?” The Mayor grumbled, brimming with displeasure. “You think me a fool? Leave, you have no welcome here.”

  “What?!” cried Kaelis. She and her crewmates shot each other nervous looks. “But that’s ridiculous! Even if we were that ship—which we aren’t—since when does an independent settlement answer to the corps? Even the Empire doesn’t have jurisdiction out here.”

  “Which means tsere is notsing stopping Verloren Industries from storming on my town, should tsey feel it needed.”

  “Well… yeah,” Kaelis admitted. “But we can lay low! Nobody has to find ou—”

  “Tze—No. We are harboring too many malzurra already,” declared the Mayor. “Take your ship and clear.”

  “C’mon, there’s gotta be somethin—”

  “We have money!” interrupted Sheah, jumping in and ripping the radio from Kaelis’s hand. “Imperial saebles! We are more than willing to barter.”

  “I do not care,” he flatly rejected.

  “Please sir, you must let us in,” Sheah begged. “You are consigning us to certain death otherwise!”

  Before the Mayor had a chance to reply, Sheriff Lange sauntered up behind him and gathered his attention. Leaning in, she gesticulated between herself and the Redland Runner with calm, friendly motions.

  “Look, see? Lange’s putting in a good word for us,” said Kaelis, trying to cling to whatever hope she could. “This is all gonna work out just fine.”

  The Mayor stood stiff, unmoving. With a stern hand he gestured to the town behind him. Lange launched into a renewed, more impassioned argument, but the Mayor simply raised his hand and shook his head solemnly. Exasperated, Lange threw back her head and retreated a few steps.

  “Yup, just fine,” Kaelis grimaced.

  Standing tall, the Mayor returned his attention to the Redland Runner. “Your bearing is no concern to me,” he firmly declared. “My decision is done. Leave.”

  Sheah shouted into the receiver with one last desperate plea. “Please, sir! You can’t—”

  “Leave!” With that, the Mayor threw down the receiver and stormed off the deck, signaling to the Sheriff to follow. Lange threw one last look towards the Redland Runner. She apologetically raised her arms before slinking off after her leader.

  “That dirtbag!” shouted Kaelis, flinging her hands into the air. “Where does he get off?”

  Sheah drooped her shoulders, dejected. “Oh, what are we going to do now?” she moaned, burying her cheeks in her hands.

  “Hm,” grunted Jira, eyes shut, arms folded.

  Kaelis’s mind raced as she considered their options. Concord Village was supposed to be their saving grace. Without it, there wasn’t much they could do other than try and find a cave in the area both big enough to house the entire ship and somehow free of any Unbound. And even if they managed that miracle, what were they going to do without replacement parts? It was only a matter of hours before Verloren swept through the area—they might as well just surrender and get it over with.

  “What’s goin’ on up there?” crackled Dez’s voice through the radio. “They gonna let us in or what?” Jira picked up the receiver and clicked the button to speak.

  “Ah, this is such bullshit!” Kaelis shouted, her frustration boiling over.

  “Oh…” said Dez, overhearing her outburst. “Okay then… So, whadda we do now?”

  “We withdraw,” said Jira. “Form a new strategy.”

  As the team quietly considered their lack of options, Kaelis thrust her hands on her hips and shot a sharp sigh through her nose. Suddenly, the bridge felt even more stuffy and cramped than it usually was. Excusing herself in a huff, she burst through the back door and latched onto the railing at the stern, taking in a deep breath of fresh, calming air.

  A rumble drifted in on the wind, like a sound of distant thunder. It floated into Kaelis’s ear, followed by another a few seconds later. And then another. With every instance, the rumbles heightened in volume. Kaelis cocked her head curiously and lifted her eyes to the horizon.

  There, far away, was a dark mass, shaped like a wayward rock, shimmering in the desert sun. It quavered across the ground… growing steadily closer.

  Suddenly a sickened roar cut through the air. Kaelis shot upright, snapped from her stupor. Seconds later, her teammates burst out of the bridge and joined her at the stern, their eyes wide and their faces pale. They stared into the distance, their vision fixed onto the mountain of an Unbound that was rapidly approaching, moving in for the kill.

  Kaelis squealed, barely able to speak.

  “Oh, ass…”