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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons— living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

INCEPTION

FORSAKEN MERCENARY

JONATHAN YANEZ

CONTENTS

Books in the Forsaken Mercenary Universe

Stay Informed

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

A Note For You

Books in the Forsaken Mercenary Universe

BOOKS IN THE FORSAKEN MERCENARY UNIVERSE

0 Inception (A Short Story)

1. Dropship

2. Absolution

3. Fury

4. Vendetta

5. Annihilation

6. Nemesis

7. Rivals

8. Wolves

9. Crusade

10. Traitor

11. Parabellum

12. Judgement

Forsaken Mercenary Case Files

1. Preacher

2. Cassie

STAY INFORMED

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CHAPTER ONE

This brave new world was built for animals, not men. That’s okay with me; I am an animal. I’ve accepted that.

When the Earth was all used up and thrown away like a cheap napkin, humanity migrated to the stars. The Moon and Mars were the first places to be colonized.

As their insane search for more humans continued to spread throughout the galaxy, reports came back of alien life and habitable new planets. None of that bothered us much on the Moon. These days, fake news was all the rage. No one really knew what to believe and what to pass off as pure fiction.

I didn’t really care, to be honest. I had a job. I did my job. I was the best at my job.

As time passed and science fiction became fact, one thing remained: the need for people to cope with reality by escaping it altogether. Bars like Zero Gravity never really went out of business; they just evolved along with everything else.

When I was hired as the centurion by the bar’s proprietor, an elderly woman named Ma, Zero Gravity was a dive. A few jaws had to be broken, concussions doled out, and dozens of troublemakers thrown out the door.

That was then. Now Zero Gravity was a haven for people to come and relax. I sat at the corner of the barroom next to the dance floor. Music played in the background, but that was all white noise to me. I rested my elbows on the circular table in front of me, examining my domain. The bar was a wide square room with restrooms and storage on the right and offices to the left.

A full service bar sat in the middle of the room right outside the dance floor. Tables and chairs were spread throughout with a few holo tables for gaming.

It was a weekend, so things were already busy despite the early hour. Miners came in dusty and tired, factory workers still wearing their blue overalls, and of course, our regulars.

A commotion at the bar caught my interest. One of our bartenders, Denise, was shaking a very specific finger at a trio of off-duty praetorians. They still wore their dark mustard yellow uniforms, unbuttoned and open. Praetorians, or prats, were foot soldiers of the Galactic Government. Usually, they were calm enough, just looking to blow off some steam. These three didn’t look like that.

As I rose from my seat and made my way over, one of the three praetorians grabbed at the open bottle in Denise’s hand. His reach was clumsy. He might have already been drunk.

“Listen!” he yelled. “Are you blind? We’re Galactic Government Praetorians. You owe us that drink on the house. You owe us all drinks on the house. We keep this place safe.”

“You grab for this bottle over the bar again, and that’ll be the last thing you reach for,” Denise told him with a glare.

Denise, along with the rest of the staff, had found a new level of courage with anyone willing to give them trouble. They knew I was a quick call away. In most cases like this one, I was already there.

“Easy, let’s be easy, everyone,” I said in a calm monotone voice. “You boys can get your drinks. We just ask that you wait to be served instead of reaching for your beverage on your own. I’m sure you understand. All the liability wrapped up if anyone were to get hurt—the last thing we want is a lawsuit.”

The three off-duty praetorians turned to look at me at once. They were just kids who had to be in their early twenties. They looked like they worked out and kept in good shape. The largest one giving Denise a hard time pointed a finger at my chest.

“Why don’t you go mind your own business before you get hurt,” he said with a huff. “What are you anyway? Like forty?”

“Mid-thirties, I think, but that’s a whole other conversation, friend,” I said, still trying to diffuse the situation. “Listen, we’re still good here. You get a drink on me. We’ll sit down and be neighborly.”

A small crowd was beginning to gather. The locals who had seen me in action before were actually smiling and rubbing their hands together. One of the other centurions who worked at Zero Gravity moved in to provide backup. Brutus was a great brawler. Since I had been training him, he was even better.

I scratched the back of my neck with my right hand, our signal that I was good. I knew the more of our centurions I included in the fight, the nastier it was going to get. Besides, if anyone else backed me up, they could get hurt.

The lead praetorian almost looked like he was going to agree with my offer. The locals were about to be disappointed in not getting their show. It was his buddies who pushed him over the edge.

“You gonna let this guy talk to you like that?” one of the other praetorians asked. “Come on, Vic. We should run this place.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Vic said, puffing out his chest and advancing on me. “We’re praetorians or can’t you see that? You do what we say.”

“Praetorians newly graduated by the look of it; young, dumb, and about to make the very worst decision of your life,” I said. I was starting to run out of patience. I was all about giving them the first chance to do the right thing. I even smiled. Right now, they were getting close to me reaching my threshold for stupidity.

“You just call us dumb?” the third praetorian asked, advancing on me. He was shorter than I was but stockier. “That was a mistake.”

He moved in to punch me. I didn’t give him the chance. I stepped sideways out of the path of his right fist. At the same time, I wrapped my right arm underneath his own and across his chest. My left arm grabbed the back of his head. With the choke applied, I maneuvered us both back to face his friends.

“This still doesn’t have to end with you in the local infirmary,” I told Vic and his other friends who glared at me.

They were already advancing, and to be honest, I was hungry for the fight. The same heat I got every time I entered a conflict rose to my face. My heart picked up speed; it was like a drug. My very own drug my body produced. I was addicted.

I wrenched the guy in my arms to the side, throwing him to the ground. That left me open to take a step back from a wild swing sent to my face. I felt the wind from the prat’s knuckles caress my face as he missed.

I stepped in, delivering a brutal elbow to the side of his head. Something snapped, probably his jaw. He went down hard.

Vic didn’t waste time. Seeing I was busy with his buddies, he took the opportunity to full-on tackle me. He wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was a big kid, large enough to bully me back. I nearly lost my balance. I was able to walk backward, going with his momentum instead of against it.

We came to a stop as my back slammed into a pillar supporting the Zero Gravity structure. I winced as pain raced down my spine, then smiled. I knew there was something more than a little wrong with me for liking how alive I felt in a fight.

Why anyone thought this was a strategic move was beyond me. He was trying to take me off my feet, I got that. In the meantime, he left his entire back, including the rear of his head, exposed. Taking advantage of that, I went to work on his exposed back and head.

I hammered on the sides of his ribs to soften him up. When he pulled away the slightest bit, recoiling from the pain, I went to work on the back of his head. Another round of blows and he too was down.

There was a cheer from the crowd who gathered around me, both the other centurions as well as the regulars and those visiting for the first time.

“Thank you, thank you!” I said, lifting my hands in the air. “I’ll be here all night.”

I wasn’t usually the one to take center stage, but like it or not, I was the center of attention at the moment, so I might as well enjoy it.

The cheers silenced as the first prat who tried to take a swing at me lifted himself from the ground. He looked enraged instead of scared. Maybe even a bit of both. To the kid’s credit, he didn’t run.

Seeing his two buddies unconscious on the floor seemed to infuriate him. He launched himself at me again. I almost felt sorry for the kid. For all of them, really. None of them had gotten in a single punch so far.

You’re just going to put this guy down like all the rest. Maybe you should let him land a punch to let him feel better about himself when he wakes up, I thought to myself. Naw.

I raced toward him, closing the gap as he came for me. At the last instant, I launched myself into the air. I pointed my right knee up, angling it toward the underside of his chin.

CRACK!

It was a perfect shot. The crown of my right knee took him on the underside of his jaw. I sailed over him. I tucked my head, allowing the momentum to take me into a roll, and stood up on the other side of the maneuver.

The crowd roared again. This time, people came up to congratulate me.

“That’ll teach them to mess with the Zero.” A regular with missing teeth clapped me on the back.

“That’s our boy, Daniel Hunt!” Another regular grinned.

“Didn’t even have a chance,” someone else said.

“Do they ever?” her companion asked. “Not against Danny.”

I looked over at the pair of women. I knew them well, Lisa and Victoria. They ran a scam in the clothing district. They looked innocent and pretty as anything you’d see but would rob you blind in a second.

“Come have a drink with us, Danny.” Victoria lifted a silver cup. “I’m buying.”

“You know I don’t drink,” I told her with a wink.

“Ahhh, such a tease,” Lisa said.

Motion from the corner of my eye warned me something was wrong. I looked past where Brutus and the other centurions hauled the unconscious prats from the bar.

A wide man made his way toward me. He was bald with an expensive white suit and a look on his face that said he meant business. In my line of work, you knew how to tell the real threats from those full of hot air. The praetorians had been hot air. This man was a serious threat.

I clenched my hands into fists, turning to meet him.

The man stopped short, eyeing me with a sideways grin. He was measuring me, weighing my worth in that moment as if he were having an internal debate on how much I should cost.

“Daniel Hunt,” the man said in a rough voice. He extended a meaty hand. “My name is Mr. Tomb. I run the Half Moon on the other side of town. I want you to come work for me. I won’t take no for an answer.”

CHAPTER TWO

I didn’t want to be rude, so I accepted the gesture. His palm dwarfed my own. I didn’t exactly have dainty hands myself.

He squeezed not uncomfortably hard, but firm enough to let me know he meant business.

“Calloused hands,” Mr. Tomb said, releasing my own. “You’re a man who knows what he is doing. I need a man like that. I have a feeling I know what you are, Mr. Hunt.”

My mouth went dry. I didn’t think Mr. Tomb was bluffing. He didn’t strike me as that type. For the second time that night, I saw my centurions looking to me for direction.

“I’m not your enemy, nor do I want trouble,” Mr. Tomb reassured me. “You can give your other centurions the signal to stand down. I only ask for a few minutes of your time. That’s all.”

My mind immediately went to anything I could ever remember hearing about the Half Moon and Mr. Tomb. The Half Moon was the largest, most prestigious nightclub in Dome.

Mr. Tomb himself was a wealthy businessman known for his brutal tactics. He was ruthless and a shrewd financier. He owned a dozen businesses, from mines to freight lines.

“Okay,” I told him as I scratched the back of my neck, giving my centurions the all clear. “Let’s go talk.”

Mr. Tomb gave me what I guessed passed for a smile. On that large face of his, it looked more like a grimace. He turned to the side and extended an open arm. “Please lead the way, Mr. Hunt.”

I walked over to my table in the corner of the room, glancing over the crowd for faces I didn’t recognize. A few stood out, but none more than a pair of suits that shadowed Mr. Tomb. A man of his standing didn’t go anywhere without muscle.

The black liquid in my cup beckoned to me like an old friend. I didn’t need the caffeine dump at the moment; my senses were heightened enough.

I took a seat on the stool, placing my back to the wall. I motioned for Mr. Tomb to take one of the seats opposite me.

“Your bodyguards can sit down too if they’d like,” I told Mr. Tomb. “Or you can give them the all-clear sign.”

Mr. Tomb gave me that grin again that looked like he was trying to smile.

“They can stand,” Mr. Tomb said, taking a seat. “Not much gets by you, Mr. Hunt. It must be difficult for a man of your talents to not know where he came from.”

I stiffened then forced myself to relax. I didn’t know how he knew what he did, but he was right.

“You having me followed or something?” I asked, already knowing he wasn’t. I would have been able to tell if someone was following me for any period of time.

“Nothing that nefarious, I assure you,” Mr. Tomb said, shaking his head. “Just having you looked into like I do all my future employees. Your record was strangely lacking in information once we looked more than five years into your past. You have records up to five years ago and then nothing. Like you didn’t exist.”

I didn’t say anything. He was right about it all, of course. I didn’t know where I came from, if I had family, if I loved anyone, had kids—none of it.

“I take your silence as deep thought and perhaps even insecurity,” Mr. Tomb said, folding his massive arms over his chest. “I only bring up these facts to say that I can help you. Come work for me, and I’ll pay you handsomely. We can talk about your past or not. That’s your choice.”

“What’s going on at your club that an army of centurions wouldn’t fix?” I asked, looking over at his two bodyguards. “Someone like you could hire half the Galactic Government to come in and take care of your problem.”

Mr. Tomb nodded in agreement. “I could. I could have a full battalion at the Half Moon taking care of the issue, but then my patrons wouldn’t be eager to spend their hard-earned credits there. The issue that haunts my establishment needs fixing from the inside out. I want you to go there and do what you did with the Zero Gravity.”

“I don’t know,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “I mean, I have a pretty good thing going here. I get paid well and I’ve already done all the hard work. Besides a few scrapes like you just witnessed, trouble seems to stay away from our doors these days.”

“And I would compensate you handsomely, of course,” Mr. Tomb assured me. “You are the best. I would pay you as such. Your reputation alone will be of value.”

“How much?” I asked.

“Double, no, triple what you are making here,” Mr. Tomb said. “A new living space, transportation, whatever you like. I will arrange it. I have learned in my many years of business to let professionals do what professionals do best and compensate them as such.”

The offer was tempting. I had to give him that. I didn’t exactly get paid garbage here. I liked my staff, but the truth was, I was getting bored. The three prats who stumbled in hadn’t even proved a challenge.

Mr. Tomb was right. Our reputation here at Zero Gravity meant only a few scuffles a week broke out. It was starting to get sad really. Kids these days weren’t even learning how to fight anymore.

“Triple, you said?” I asked.

“Triple,” Mr. Tomb repeated.

“You didn’t even ask how much I’m getting paid now,” I answered.

“Well, how much are you getting paid?” Mr. Tomb asked, leaving me open to name whatever number I wanted.

“I’m making two thousand a month with free rein to the kitchen and I drink my weight in caff,” I answered, looking down at the cup in front of me.

“Six thousand credits plus food and board included.” Mr. Tomb looked down at my cup with me. “All the caff you can drink.”

I picked up my cup and swirled the dark liquid around. I took a sip, feeling the once warm beverage hit my taste buds. I didn’t really drink caff for the taste, although I had acquired a taste for it by now. I drank it for the kick it gave me.

I placed the cup down on the table between us. I felt the surge of energy rush through my body.

“We can keep your past a mystery if you like or look further into it to provide answers,” Mr. Tombs said, misreading my hesitation. “Whatever you prefer.”

The truth was I had no idea who I had been. The last person I wanted digging into my past was someone who could blackmail me with it, like Mr. Tomb.

“I’m at peace with my past,” I lied, looking him square in the eyes. “I’m good with the six thousand credits offer.”

“Excellent,” Mr. Tomb said. “Will you be able to start tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” I asked more to myself than my new employer. “Ma’s not my favorite person, but I feel like I owe her more than a day’s notice.”

“I’ll compensate her for your loss, of course, until she can find someone to take your place,” Mr. Tomb said, rising from his seat. “I would like you to start as soon as possible. Let me handle things with Ma. I know her on a professional level. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

“If she’s good with it,” I said, also rising to my feet.

“Very good, very good.” Mr. Tomb extended his meaty hand again. “Mr. Hunt, I look forward to working with you.”

I shook that paw he called a hand again before he departed. I watched as the two suits fell in line behind him.

What a life to live where you can just throw money at whatever your problem is and have it fixed, I thought to myself. Hey, that might be you now. You just tripled your income.

The rest of the night was pretty slow, more reassurance that I had made the right decision. Ma came in toward closing. I broke the news to her. It seemed Mr. Tomb had gotten to her first. As promised, he paid her handsomely for me leaving.

I said my goodbyes to the crew at Zero Gravity when the doors closed. Ma pulled me to the side before I left.

“I would be angrier at you for leaving, but I’ve always known you weren’t staying here forever,” Ma said, looking up from her stooped stance in front of me. “It was just a matter of time before others saw your value as I have. I’ve also seen you train Brutus. He’s not you, but he’ll be able to manage.”

“Brutus will do great,” I said to Ma. “When he started, he lost most of the fights he tried to break up. Now he’s hardly getting touched.”

“You have been a wonderful teacher, Daniel,” Ma said.

The older woman almost looked like she wanted to give me a hug. I wasn’t exactly the lovey dovey type.

“All right then,” I said, heading for the door before things could get awkward. I looked over at the rest of the crew closing up Zero Gravity. I nodded to them and walked out the door.

I had never been a great one with goodbyes. I wasn’t going to try and start now.

The city we lived in was appropriately named Dome. A massive structure rose up thousands of feet in the air over our city. The hardened glass showed us a view of the dark night sky and many stars beyond.

Within the colossal dome were smaller glass domes designed as a second layer of protection against the harsh elements of space. The idea was if one of the domes cracked, the other would save us.

Dome, the city I lived in, happened to be the largest city on the moon. Massive buildings with neon lights reached toward the upper section of the dome protecting us. Wide streets were packed with people selling their wares. Storefronts boasted everything from a hot meal to a warm bed for the night.

Transportation had taken to the sky. Small flying crafts zipped this way and that. There was no room for them on the ground with the press of people. The poor and low class were left on the bottom as the middle class and rich took to high-rise buildings.

Those who were mega rich, the true elite, had fled the moon altogether. Rumors of the wealth on Mars reached us here on the moon. I had no desire to see it for myself. Where others dreamed of going to the fabled cities on Mars, I was just fine here.

The room I rented was only a few blocks away from Zero Gravity. I wound my way through the press of people. Every so often, I felt for the weapon at the small of my back.

I carried it on my walks to and from work. The hand cannon I used was an outdated model. Most weapons these days fired plasma or lasers, but I still preferred good old tungsten steel.

The power propelling the rounds from the hand cannon was more than enough to punch through the hardest armor.

Cries from vendors caught my ears and were disregarded just as quickly.

“Warm soup! Get your warm chili soup!”

“Credit exchange, going to Mars? Maybe even the planets beyond? We’ll exchange your moon credits for you.”

So on and so on, the vendors called out their services and wares. I kept my head down and moved along with the rest of the crowd. As someone who made the walk on a daily basis, I knew most of these were scams.

“Tell your fortune?” an unfamiliar voice asked. “Daniel, let me tell you your future and a tale of your past.”

CHAPTER THREE

The use of my name more than the offer made me turn to look. To my right, pressed against the side of a shabby building, was a young girl. She wore clean but well-worn clothes. Her eyes were pure white, no pupil or iris to be seen.

She couldn’t have been more than eighteen.

“Daniel, let me tell you your future,” she said again. “A future tied to your past.”

I looked up and down the street thinking this could be some kind of trick or con. If someone else was waiting to jump in, I didn’t see them. The only thing the streets held was the normal trudge of the lower class coming to or from their jobs.

“How do you know my name?” I asked the girl. “You been following me?”

“No, just listening to the stars,” she said with a sad smile. “I feel sorry for you, Daniel. Not knowing about your past. Only accepting your present.”

“Listen, I’m not sure if you think this is funny or how you know my name, but I’m not interested in fairy tales,” I said as I turned to go. I was prepared to write off the girl’s use of my name as a guess. Maybe one of the vendors who knew me had called me by name one day in passing. If the girl was here day in and day out, she could have picked up on that.

“You are lonely and dangerous and you will continue to be both unless you discover the truth concealed in your past,” the girl said. “You don’t wonder? You don’t want to know who you were? Who you left behind?”

I knew better. I should have turned and walked. I was only a few blocks away from my building.

“How do you know all of this?” I asked, hating myself for asking the question.

“The stars have whispered to me since I was a child,” she said, opening a hand. “I’ll tell you what I see for you regardless, but credits seem to help as well.”

I looked at her skeptically before digging into my pocket.

What do you have to lose? I asked myself. You just got a fat raise. You can afford a handout.

I dropped a few credits in her open hand. The small square pieces of hard plastic made a clinking noise. She smiled, feeling the grooves of the credits through her fingers.

“Thank you,” she said, making the credits disappear in the folds of her clothes as if it were a magic trick. “The stars tell me your past revolves around a brotherhood. They tell me to tell you to follow the moon and the one who bows to it.”

I stood there waiting for more. The girl blinked her unseeing eyes in my direction. She didn’t say anything else.

“That’s it?” I asked in disbelief. “Listen, if this is a ploy to get me to give you more credits, it’s not going to work. I probably shouldn’t have given you what I did, but I was feeling generous.”

“No games, no ploy,” the girl said, shaking her head. “That’s all I know. That’s all the stars have told me. Brotherhood, follow the moon, and the one who bows to it.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said, turning to get back to my building. I was overdue for a hot shower and date with my bed.

The girl’s words echoed in my mind as I made my way through the street. I knew it was nonsense. She was a fortune teller, a street merchant preying on insecurity and chance. Still, her words haunted me. Brotherhood, moon, the one who bows to it.

I reached the building where I rented a room. It was a shabby high-rise with flaking paint and dirty windows. I made my way up the long flights of steps to my floor in the smelly building. By moon standards, it wasn’t half bad. Praetorians patrolled each building, keeping the peace. And not those newly graduated praetorians either. Real soldiers I had no beef with.

I jogged up the last few steps, making for my door in a narrow hall. A silver pad welcomed my hand. I pressed my palm on the scanner. A hard click rewarded me as my door opened.

My place was small, even tiny. That was fine with me. All I needed was a place to bathe and sleep. I discarded my clothes on the way to the shower.

My place was a wide open room with my bed to the right and a small kitchen section on the far end. A restroom and closet were the only two doors in the apartment.

I walked into the restroom, placing my hand cannon on the counter and dropping my pants. I caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. My body was a canvas of tattoos I didn’t remember getting. The one that always caught my eyes was a menacing wolf on my left shoulder. He glared at me as if he were trying to tell me something. What, I had never been able to tell.

What wasn’t there were the many scars I should have had from brawls at Zero Gravity. Wounds had healed as good as new, better even.

In the mirror, I saw a confused, lost animal more than a man. Mr. Tomb’s offer to dig into my past fought its way to the surface.

“No,” I said out loud. “No, if I ever go digging for my past, it’s not going to be at the mercy of someone like Tomb.”

I hit the shower, letting the hot water wash over my body. The question I had asked myself a hundred times before was asked again.

So why haven’t you tried to find out where you came from? Who you are? I asked myself. I already knew the answer. I was afraid of what I would find.

Like I always did, I pushed these thoughts from my mind. After my shower, I toweled off and ate a meager meal from a protein pouch. The taste was fruit-flavored, although I doubted very much that anyone actually remembered what fruit tasted like.

The pasty consistency touched my lips, then slid down my throat. It was an act of necessity more than actual desire. I ate because I knew I needed to more than I was looking forward to it.

After dinner, I hit the sack, and just like most nights, nightmares came soon after.

I stood in a giant room full of crates and boxes. It was too dark to see much. Voices near the center of the room told me I wasn’t alone.

Illumination from a pair of holo lights in the center of the room told me exactly where to go. I made my way through the maze of crates in the near darkness. As I traveled closer to the lights, I could make out two distinct voices: one male, the other female.

Images of heavily armed soldiers came into view. I ducked behind a crate waiting for what, I didn’t know.

This was a recurring dream I had had before. I knew I was in a dream but was powerless to stop it. I could see through my own eyes but was given no real control of my actions. Once again, I was a prisoner in my own body, destined to watch this play out before me all over again.

“Kill code, Gorgon,” another female voice said in my ear.

That was it. I screamed in my dream to try and change the events set into place. Nothing changed, nothing ever changed. I struggled in my dream to tell my body to do anything else besides what I knew was about to happen. It didn’t work.

I rose from my concealed spot behind the crates feeling that same heat in my chest, the same eagerness and rush of battle. I carried some kind of high-tech blaster in my right hand, and a thick blade in my left.

The weapon I fired was completely silent when I pulled the trigger. I moved through the warehouse filled with armed guards like a wraith dealing death and destruction in my wake.

The weapon’s invisible rounds penetrated the soldiers’ helmets with ease. As soon as I ended one life, I moved on to the next, and so on and so on. They didn’t have a chance.

They didn’t know something was wrong until I reached the center of the room where the man and woman spoke. I entered the glow of the lights, pointing my weapon at the woman first. Something told me she was the more dangerous of the two.

She wore tight fighting body armor. Short dark hair fell behind her slender ears. A scar ran down the left side of her face.

The man beside her stood tall and lean in a dark suit.

As soon as they saw me, the woman reacted first. She slammed her right hand against her left wrist. An electronic shockwave covered the area just as I squeezed the trigger to put her down.

The mechanical wave shorted my weapon. I tried to press the trigger one more time to confirm what I already knew to be true.

My weapon clicked dry.

The woman and the man with her removed their own blades and advanced on me as one. Maybe I should have felt something as we engaged. Should I have felt remorse? Maybe even sadness at killing indiscriminately? I wanted to, but all I felt at the moment was the thrill of the fight.

I grabbed the barrel of my useless weapon in my left hand and traded the knife to my right. They came at me together, slashing quickly and efficiently.

I took a kick to my chest and a slash across my left arm that felt like fire ripping through my skin.

I blocked a blow to my head from the woman’s knife and received a left hook from the man. The blow opened a shallow cut on my lip. Why I decided what I did next was always a mystery to me. No matter how many times I encountered the dream, I always did the same thing.

Instead of shying away from the woman’s next stab, I moved into it. Her knife punctured my chest, sending an explosion of pain through my core. There was no mistake here; I intentionally allowed her to stab me.

She looked at me, surprised, before I shoved my blade into her heart. She fell to the ground, giving me time to turn to face the man. Her blade still stuck out of my chest.

The man took a step back, horrified. The predator grin on his lips from before was now replaced with a look of horrific shock. He shook his head.

“You—you’re one of them,” he said, dropping his knife. It clattered to the ground beside him. He fell to his knees. “Please, please,” he pleaded, “don’t kill me. I have no problem with you or your employer.”

He pressed his hands together in front of him with a prayer on his lips. He recited an ancient passage I’d heard somewhere before. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death—”

He said more, but the same voice in my ear that gave me the kill code before spoke again. “Kill him.”

There was no hesitation in my action, no second thought. I ran my blade across the unarmed man’s neck.

“No!” I screamed as I was awoken from my nightmare.

“Danny, Danny.” A woman rolled over in my bed beside me. “Danny, it’s okay. It was a nightmare.”

I looked around, confused that I wasn’t in my bed in Dome at all. I was in a wide open room that smelled like vanilla. Next to me was the most beautiful woman I had ever laid my eyes on. It was dark, but I could see the concern in her deep green eyes. I knew her somehow. How did I know her?

I was actually awoken from my dream this time by the bleeping of my alarm next to my bed. A wave of sweat covered my naked body as I reached to turn off the incessant blaring.

I rolled over to lie on my back and stared around me at my small room. I had never seen that woman before. The many times I experienced that same nightmare, it ended with me screaming myself awake, never with the image of the woman.

I’d have to figure out who she was later. I had a new job to begin.

CHAPTER FOUR

I was a glutton for punishment. I got that. I took a detour on the way to visit Mr. Tomb’s club by a few blocks and backtracked to see if I could find that same girl with the sightless eyes.

She was gone.

Don’t let it get in your head, I told myself. You’re better than that. Move on.

I consoled myself with a hot meat burrito from one of the vendors. I smothered the thing in hot sauce and continued on my way to the new job. I didn’t really know what kind of meat the thing was made from, but it was tastier than having another protein pouch.

I walked through the major parts of Dome to the downtown district. There were fewer homes here and taller, more impressive structures. Mr. Tomb’s nightclub was at the very top of one of these high-rises.

As I traveled deeper and deeper into the city, the number of praetorian patrols increased. They were easy to pick out, wearing their dark mustard-yellow armor. The insignia of the Galactic Government, a fire feline with two massive fangs, lay encrusted on their shoulders.

The congested walkways and shoulder-to-shoulder crush of the poor end of town also subsided. I could actually walk now without fear of bumping into anyone.

The crafts overhead became sleeker and newer as those living in this section of the city were able to afford better and more expensive crafts. The street vendors yelling out their wares disappeared as well as the homeless population living on the streets. Even the clothing the people wore here was ratcheted up a couple of notches. They wore suits of fine lines and long cloaks.

If this is what the high end of the moon looked like, I didn’t even want to think of what they were wearing on Mars. I looked down at my own long-sleeved shirt and pants. My boots rounded out my simple attire. I shrugged, feeling the comfortable hand cannon hugging my lower back.

I didn’t have a permit to carry the weapon, but no one else knew I was carrying it. I walked casually past the praetorian guards standing near the entrance to the building housing Mr. Tomb’s restaurant. They seemed more interested in a pretty young attendant at the moment.

I entered the lobby of the gaudy business building. Gold and red pictures, chandeliers, and fluffy furniture spread out in front of me. I ignored it all and strode toward the cylinder-shaped ascension pods. There were dozens of the clear tubes waiting at attention to take users to whatever floor they requested.

I stepped inside the closest one and pressed a button to the top floor. A second later, the doors slid shut and I shot upward. The inertial dampeners kept me from losing my balance as the ascension pod traveled quickly to the top. Half the pod faced the outside of the city, allowing me to get a good look at the distant Earth.

Earth didn’t look like much more than a dark circle to us now. Having used up all its resources, humans had cast it aside over a thousand years before. Those who decided to stay were the very desperate or the very crazy. Stories of roving gangs, evolved beasts, and other not-so-pleasant creatures made their way to the moon.

I didn’t care much what had become of the Earth. It was not like I was going there anyway.

The ascension pod came to a stop at the top floor and the doors slid open. I wished I had more time to look out over the city. I had a love-hate relationship with the city of Dome. On one hand, it was the only home I had; on the other, I understood how corrupt the place really was.

Instead of getting too deep into my own thoughts, I exited the ascension cylinder and made my way down a broad hall. Thick red carpet cushioned my feet. It was easy to tell which way to go; there was only one path to take. A pair of closed double doors with two large centurions standing guard sported a sign overhead.

The sign read The Half Moon in thick silver font. An image of a crescent moon followed the words.

The warning I received the previous day from the blind girl ran through my mind. She spoke of a moon. Could this be it?

“You’re way early, buddy,” one of the centurions said to me with a smirk. “Club doesn’t open for another six hours or so.”

The other centurion next to him whispered something hurriedly in his ear. The man who spoke to me went flush then muttered an apology. “Sorry, Mr. Hunt. I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you.”

“Mr. Tomb let you know I’d be coming?” I asked, brushing away his apology.

“Yes,” the other centurion said, approaching me with an open hand. “My name’s Carl, this is John. We were told you might be coming early. We just didn’t know this early.”

I traded handshakes with both of the men then nodded toward the doors. “Is Mr. Tomb here?”

“No, but we were told to show you around and give you anything you needed when you arrived.” Carl eagerly motioned me forward. John opened the doors for me.

These guys were either really scared of me or Mr. Tomb, or both.

“I can show you around,” Carl volunteered. “I’ve been acting as the head centurion since we—lost our previous one.”

I caught the hesitancy in his voice, even if he didn’t. I was looking forward to finding out what was going on at the Half Moon.

The place made Zero Gravity look like a poor man’s bomb shelter. The Half Moon was easily four times as large as my previous place of employment. Not one but two full bars stood on either side of the room with chairs and tables in front of me. A dance floor lay beyond with a raised platform for a band on the far side of the wall.

“We have a full kitchen, a band comes and plays each night. Our staff consists of forty-eight members; that includes a dozen centurions.” Carl rattled off numbers. “We see anywhere from five hundred guests on a slow night to a thousand people a night when it gets busy.”

I nodded along with his words, my mind already running through a mental checklist of what needed to be done next.

“We have cameras lined up everywhere,” Carl said, pointing to the ceiling, where a tiny thumb-sized black dot appeared above us. “We can see every square inch of the place. We have a team of two techs who feed us information via earpieces as to where we’ll be needed and when.”

“You pat down the guests before they enter?” I asked.

“Each one of them walks through a scanner when they arrive. We don’t let blasters or blades through,” Carl answered.

“Thanks, Carl,” I said. “I’m going to walk around and familiarize myself with the place. When do the rest of the centurions arrive?”

“Not for another four to five hours,” Carl answered.

“Okay, when they do, come get me. I’d like to talk to all of them at once,” I said, already moving away from Carl to check out the place.

“Yes, sir,” Carl said, taking his cue to go.

“Oh, Carl?” I asked, making the large centurion stop in his tracks. “What happened to the previous person who had my job?”

Carl turned, discomfort written clearly on his face. “Mr. Tomb caught him stealing from our pull each night. He had him—taken care of.”

His eyes said it all. There was no need to make Carl continue the conversation. He looked like a kid having to tattle on one of his friends.

“Got it,” I said, turning away.

I spent the next few hours exploring the place. There were two sets of restrooms on either side of the main room. Stairs on the right side led to an office suite that overlooked the club.

On the left side of the massive open room was a storage area as well as the kitchen.

I met one of the chefs named William, who was eager to meet me and insisted I let him make me a hot cheese sandwich. Who was I to refuse?

Just like Carl said, the night’s crew of centurions filed in at five thirty, a half hour before opening. Carl gathered the centurions at the base of the raised platform at the far side of the room.

They looked at me expectantly, some with smiles, most with intrigue. It was easy to see why Mr. Tomb hired them. They were all wide-chested, tall men wearing black, with grim looks on their faces. They were measuring their new boss and I was fine with that.

“I know you all have work to do, so I’m going to make this quick,” I said. “My name’s Daniel Hunt and I’m going to be the lead centurion at the Half Moon from here on out. I don’t have a lot of rules. To be honest with you, I don’t really like rules myself. Rule one, you never start a fight. Rule two, you always be the one to finish it.”

I got a couple of grins from the guys on that one.

There were eight of them, including Carl. Most of them were bigger than me, but a true mountain stood out. His arms were crossed over his chest, his eyebrow raised. There was always one in every class.

“I’ll be walking the floor with you,” I told them. “Tonight will be like a get-to-know-you date. It’ll take time for us to find a rhythm and longer to build trust, but we’ll get there. Questions?”

The large man with the raised eyebrow lifted a hand.

I nodded to him.

“I thought you’d be bigger,” he said. “Aren’t you kind of small for a centurion?”

A few of the other guys chuckled, but the rest had the common sense to keep their mouths shut.

I smiled at the beast of a man. Carl was about to tell the centurion to shut his mouth. I raised a hand. “I get that a lot in this line of work. What’s your name?”

“Vasily,” he said.

“Vasily, why don’t you join me on stage?” I offered.

Vasily looked at his counterparts, for the first time unsure of himself.

“Come on, big boy, don’t be shy now,” I said, waving him over.

Not wanting to look bad in front of the other centurions, Vasily had no option but to join me.

I was no midget at six feet two inches and two hundred and fifty pounds; still, he dwarfed me by a good six inches and sixty pounds. That was fine with me.

“Vasily, I want you to take me down,” I said to him. I rested my hands at my sides as comfortable and relaxed as if I were speaking to a friend. “Sorry, I want you to TRY and take me down.”

Vasily looked incredulously at me, then at Carl.

“You heard the man,” Carl said.

Vasily shrugged. A dark smile split his lips. He jolted to action, trying to take me by surprise.

My first kick caught him in the solar plexus, sucking the air from his lungs. In the seconds he had to try and figure out what happened, I sent my boot to the underside of his chin. He was unconscious in the space of two heartbeats.

The guy was so big, the stage shuddered when he fell to the floor.

Everyone watched wide-eyed.

“That’s rules one and two in real time,” I told those gathered. “I forgot to mention the final rule. Rule three, we have each other’s backs no matter what. Come on; help me get Vasily up. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

* * *

Daniel Hunt will be back in the first book of the Forsaken Mercenary Series – Dropship. Jump into the first three books of the action-packed series HERE or visit jonathan-yanez.com.

A NOTE FOR YOU

I wanted to take some time from writing Dropship to personally thank you for showing interest in my work. In a world full of entitlement and vanity, I have no delusions of why I’m able to do what I love for a living.

With readers and friends like you I’m able to not only write full-time but make a paycheck doing so.

For everyone wondering why Inception was so short, I wanted to give readers the opportunity to try this new universe without making a novel length commitment. I wanted to give something for free that would hopefully pique your interest.

I’d love to stay connected and have two options for you to do so below. I hope you decide to stay in touch.

1) I have a private Group on Facebook I created for all of us to hang out. There are hundreds of similary-minded readers who enjoy everything you do. We’re there just sharing cool new books, movies, and the occasional meme. Join The Pack here https://www.facebook.com/groups/1944447962437071/

2) I know some readers don’t like using Facebook and/or would rather just receive an email with info when new books are out. I totally get that. If you’d like to be part of The Pack via our newsletter, you can go to www.jonathan-yanez.com and join the ranks.

Thank you again,

Jonathan

BOOKS IN THE FORSAKEN MERCENARY UNIVERSE

0 Inception (A Short Story)

1. Dropship

2. Absolution

3. Fury

4. Vendetta

5. Annihilation

6. Nemesis

7. Rivals

8. Wolves

9. Crusade

10. Traitor

11. Parabellum

12. Judgement

Forsaken Mercenary Case Files

1. Preacher

2. Cassie