Collection 24 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 24

-VB-

Michael Arlaoskas, Pastor

Kendall, Free Worlds League

3003 January

His son had grown up in so many ways he didn’t expect but also in ways that he found himself wary about. 

Edward had come home as a mercenary. Well, he left it as a mercenary after pulling off stupid stunts in space and somehow fixing up a dropship by his lonesome, but he also came back home as a bigger and much more important mercenary. 

Because how else would be less important when he had eight ships to his name, including a jumpship, apparently? He certainly wasn’t a member of the League Navy. 

Those ships alone made Edward the top 1% of Kendall’s citizens, and Michael had been worried. Worried that his sons - and apparently also a daughter-in-law, would have become corrupted by power and money to become the very thing Michael preached against on an almost monthly basis. 

But his fears had been assuaged, though not completely laid to rest. 

The weird baubles, ranging from arm-sized and body-tall boxes to high tech wristwatches and more, he brought didn’t help his concerns.

“You want us to come with you?” Michael asked in surprise across the dinner table. 

“Yup,” Edward said before dipping a potato latke into sour cream and taking a big bite out of it. His appetite was still the same, apparently. “I think it’ll be good for everyone.”

“I think so, too,” Armas said with a smile, though it was a unnerved one. 

Michael glanced around and saw some emotions across everyone’s faces. 

His wife, Maria, was upset, though this upset wasn’t with Michael or what he was suggesting or what Armas did with Amy. Whenever she looked at Amy, though, the nearly sneering woman would become a doting mother-in-law, especially since it was Armas - and not any of his older siblings - that would be giving them their first grandchild.

Katrin, their oldest child and eldest daughter, hummed as she didn’t look up to meet anyone’s eyes, which was a sign that she was thinking. Her husband, Anton Lika, looked surprised by the offer. 

“Just to be clear,” Edward spoke up again. “I’m not making anyone a captain of any of the ships. Those are all combat ships except for Humpty Dumpty and Solo Killing, so putting you on any of those would be the same thing as saying I want you to die, which I don’t.”

This didn’t make anyone look displeased or put off. In fact, they looked even more interested.

“And how would we be making a living then?” their eldest son, Marco, asked. The scarred man was the only one among them that had been involved with the military or military matters before Edward became a mercenary out of nowhere.

“Well, I’ll be making sure to build the entire family a ship, one meant to be lived in and comfortable, too.”

Marco leaned back with a sneer. Marco was aggressive and confrontational but that was because he believed that such characteristics were necessities. 

“So, what? You want us to live on your dime?”

“If you want, then sure,” Edward sniffed and faux-haughtily raised his nose up. The sour scream smear underneath his lower lip didn’t do much to help that image, though. Then he looked back down and smiled. “But if you want to make a living, then I can find something for you, too.”

“And if I want to continue to be a pastor?” Michael asked. 

It wasn’t a guarantee that they were going to leave Kendall with his son but …

Kendall wasn’t safe. In the time between Edward’s departure and return, there were at least two pirate raids that struck Kendall at different areas of the planet. Even if it was for safety, he needed to bring the entire family off of Kendall and to a planet deeper within the League. 

“Then you can. I’ll make sure there will be big enough of a room so that you won’t have to repeat the same sermon five times,” Edward smirked. 

Michael rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes. I took your advice years ago, Edward. The church moved to a bigger location.”

“Saved your throat, didn’t I?”

Michael huffed. “And what about your crew? Are they okay with you just … bringing a bunch of people onboard?”

“They better,” Edward said coldly, his demeanor changing abruptly. 

Marco wasn’t convinced. “And who are the people in your crew? Some random crew members you picked up?”

“One or two, yes. The rest are all Kendall-born. Like Armas, for example. I’ve made him the captain of Humpty Dumpty.”

“And what kind of name is that? A ship should have powerful names!” 

Edward chuckled, obviously not at all alarmed by Marco’s snappish replies. That’s just how Marco was, no matter what they tried to change him. 

“Humpty Dumpty can field sixteen aerospace fighters at once while barely being bigger than your standard Leopard. If anyone thinks my Humpty sounds rough, then how bad would it be for them to have ‘Killed by Humpty Dumpty’s minions’ on their tombstone?”

And … there it was. 

Edward had grown callous. More callous than before. 

Marco grimaced. “Horrible.”

“Exactly!”

Marco seemed to think about it for some time before he sighed. 

“Would you make me a ASF pilot or ship captain if I asked you?”

“Marco…!” Maria hissed with worry.

“If you pass my tests, yeah,” Edward replied casually. “Within the family, you’re the best fit for leading an assault dropship and the like.”

Michael sighed. Edward might be more polite than Marco on the surface, but he could be as cold and aggressive as his older brother when the occasion called for it. Was that why Edward felt rougher than before? 

How many people did his son have to kill to live? How many came after him? 

It hurt him a little to think that he might not have done his best with Edward, but he also knew that Edward chose this path.

“Besides, I think you are all targets right now because of me. Sorry.”

Everyone except Edward, Amy, and Armas turned to look at Edward. 

“What?” Anton asked with narrowed eyes, speaking for the first time since the meal began. He was a cautious person like that. “What do you mean by targets? Did you cause problems with big name nobles like Mariks?”

Edward scoffed. “If it had been something like that, then I wouldn’t even call it being targeted. No, I showed off too much,” he sighed. “And people will eventually make the connection that I came from Kendall. That I have family here. And, unlike many things in life, family can be leveraged against me.”

Michael froze. 

That … 

“For example, those ships still in orbit?” he asked and waited for someone to respond. When Marco, Anton, and Maria nodded, he sighed. “Those aren’t manned. They’re drones.”

What were dro-?

Marco shot up to his feet, the chair cluttering behind him, and stared at his brother in horror. 

“You built Caspers?” he asked, horrified. 

“What did he build, Marco?” 

His eldest son turned to look at him. “Ed-. Ed built the things the Hegemony built. The things that Kerensky and his Star League fought,” he stuttered out for the first time, his sun-baked bronze face going ashen pale. He turned back to look at Edward. “How…?!” 

Edward smiled.

Suddenly, that smile didn’t look so comforting. 

“Like I said. I have attracted attention, and people will come for us who will not hesitate to use my family against me.”

Marco nearly lunged over the table but Anton stopped him. Not that it would have done much. Marco may be the most militaristic member of the family, being a lieutenant of the planetary militia, but he was a head shorter than his younger brothers and Anton was about the same size as Edward. 

“So what? You came to take us away from everything we built here?!” 

“I’m not going to force you but I wanted you all to know what might be lurking out there. It’s no different than being a scientist, engineer, or professor at any of the big name planets.”

“What do you mean, honey?” Maria asked. 

Edward sighed. “People who can advance technology tends to mysteriously disappear or die in accidents. And it happens across the Inner Sphere and beyond,” he said as if that wasn’t ridiculous. 

… was it? 

“So you think the fucking Steiners or Capellans will come after us?” 

Michael’s blood froze in his veins. 

“If it was just those two, then I wouldn’t even bother telling you. They would come after anyone who are important enough, and I’m not that special.” He took a deep breath in and let it out. No, what I -.” Then Edward’s fancy wristwatch shrilly screamed. 

And then there was an explosion outside. 

-VB-

Ivan Detkov, Precentor Kendall

Kendall, Free Worlds League

3003 January

“May God forgive me,” he sighed as he waited to activate the HPG system.

As soon as he did that, agents across the system moved. 

A jumpship that came into the system via the pirate point immediately began to target paint the assault dropships still in orbit. This predictably caused them to face the jumpship and the dropship attached to them. 

And while this was happening, agents on the ground began to move to secure Arlaoskas and his family. 

The jumpship then began to shoot at the assault dropships, and they shot back.

Unfortunately for them, the jumpship exploded, taking all crew with them, including the crews of the dropships that it had been carrying, some of whom were Free Worlds League nobles. 

And he, the Precentor Kendall, would do his duty and send doctored videos showing Arlaoskas’s assault dropships firing upon the jumpship first.

Just as he was about to send the video across the HPG network, the comms lit up.

And they lit up with the screams of men and women of ComStar dying. 

The ROM officer in charge of the operation quickly brought up the video feeds from the ComGuard soldiers in action.

Everyone froze as they saw a faceless blue humanoid robot lunging forward and killing the soldier watching it. 

They heard the ComGuard gurgling before the video feed suddenly ceased. 

“... What the fuck?” Ivan muttered.

-VB-

A/N: should I use A.I. to generate some faces for the family members?