Chapter 1: Preview Part 2

Billy normally allowed James to sleep at the saloon for free since his parents had died, but tonight, he said that James did not need free lodging. He paid the average lodging fee of twenty Credits to Billy.
The Gray and Exanoid took a room next to James. He was still thinking about the Gray in the bar. What he had heard of Grays were that they were a weak race, normally captured as slaves by all other races.
Any aliens at all were a rare thing to see in Galis. Galis, as well as all of Zona Nox, was a human-owned planet. They did see aliens once in awhile on trade ships or in embassies, but alien civilians were rare.
James could understand the man in the bar’s racism however; many of people’s relatives and friends had been killed by aliens. The Empire of Xank attacked every month now.
The Trooper outposts could handle them most of the time, but every once in a while, a Xank Attack Force got through. Just the other day, a Zangorian Squad was rampaging through the Poor District. Ninety people died, including five guards.
Exanoids and Grays were not a part of the Empire and were counted as Free Races, but that did not stop a lot of people’s hatred to their races.
Grays were thin and skeletal creatures called grays because of their skin colour.
James remembered hearing somewhere about what people thought they were like thousands of years ago. People back then thought they had advanced technology and mind powers. In fact, Grays were tribals until the Imperial council, Humanity and a lot of other races found them and enslaved or civilised them.
Exanoids were renowned managers and overseers. Their skin was brown with light brown stripes, their noses were long and had a pig snout look to them. One of the remarkable physical traits of the Exanoid was its permanently bent spine. Its spine bent forward so that its legs were always uneven to its body.
James stayed around the Rusty Trooper for the next few days.
News had been put out about the stolen battery but no one seemed to care.
The Gray and the Exanoid left that morning, to the relief of the racist man whose name James had found to be Ryan or, as most people called him, Racist Ryan.
Guards were patrolling the streets more, but he knew that this was not for crime prevention, but because the Empire of Xank was once again ammasing for another attack on Zona Nox. James had even got some glimpses of Reapers, large walking vehicles used by the Zona Nox Military. The Governor had to have been worried about the city to pay for protection with Reapers.
Galis City was mainly controlled by corporations and gangs, but somewhere in history, the Troopers placed a governor to administrate the city. First, they tried to actually take over the city, but when they got to know the populace more, they settled with just running the bureaucracy and making sure the city was not torn apart.
Galis was the capital of the Northern section of Zona Nox, apparently controlled by the Troopers. James had lived in Galis all his life. He knew the streets as well as any of his age. James had lived here for the fourteen years of his life and there were still districts he had not seen.
James had lived in the Poor District with Billy and his son. Billy’s wife had been killed nine years ago in a Xank invasion. James remembered Billy mourning for a long time and still sometimes these days but he had recovered on the whole. His saloon was profitable and his fence job, even more so.
Galis was, for lack of a better word, a crap place to live, but it was James’ home and was much a part of him as anything.
The poor district was scattered with rundown buildings and decrepit shacks. It was a breeding ground for crime and lawlessness. The only thing keeping the little sanity left in the district and the whole city for matter of fact, were the gangs.
The gangs maintained order while destroying it at the same time. If a business wanted to last longer than a day it needed security and protection. The gangs provided that. Many smaller groups that called themselves gangs existed but they were just street kids trying to gain some rep. The real gangs were the power holders of the Districts, the people who decided who lived or died. They were the real lords of Galis.
There were many gangs, but the only ones that really mattered were the Marzios, the Zenites and the Purgers.
They controlled most of Galis and made sure the city did not try to tear itself apart while the Troopers were stopping the Empire of Xank from tearing the people apart. James looked at the streets around the Rusty Trooper while taking a drag from his cigarette.
To his left was a drug den. James watched as a wasted junky staggered out of the door to be mugged by a group of small children. The children beat the junky to the ground and run away with his spare change and hopefully a morsel of bread. The junky is left lying on the ground battered and thrashing to try get up. No one spares him a glance.
On the right was a Gun store. Billy had bought James his first pistol there, an Aegis 9mm. He had fought his first firefight with that pistol.
Opposite the saloon was a brothel. These were common all over Galis and as a merchant once told James, all over the galaxy. Scantly clad woman and men could be seen advertising themselves on the pavement near the brothel. Once a customer picked a product, they would enter the brothel. Sometimes a prostitute would exit the brothel with a bruised eye or worse. Sometimes the prostitute never left. Some of the prostitutes looked content with their profession while others looked like they would be happier dead.
James noticed his friend, Andrew, coming up to the Rusty Trooper. He had black hair and was rather muscular. Compared to Andrew, James was a runt. Brown hair and stringy arms, he could run like the wind however and had an eye like a Grengen Spotter. He was a criminal like James but preferred the unstealthy method of stealing. He was a mugger but what little people knew was he would never hurt any of his victims only intimidate them, unless they got him really angry.
"What do you thinks going to happen?" Andrew asked James.
"The usual - Zangorians break in, kill people, then get mowed down by the troopers."
Andrew sighed and accepted James offer of a cigarette.
"Are you looking for some extra money, James?" Andrew asked.
"Not really. I have five thousand Credits from my last job, but I will probably do whatever you want just for the fun of it".
"Well, as you may have realised. We’re behind on tribute to the Don.”
James replied, “So what?”
"So what? You do know that Don Marzio practically owns a third of the city right?"
"Yeah yeah"
“So your in?”
“Meh, I have nothing better to do.”

James arrived at the meeting place at the agreed time. Andrew and two other people were there. The meeting place was a warehouse near Petes Store. The plan was simple, break in, steal the stock and fence it.
It was about 4 AM, three hours before opening time, and just enough time to cause enough damage and steal most of the stock. Andrew signalled for all of the people to follow him. Petes store sold many ‘Rare and exotic items’. Obviously they were all scams strangely enough many people didn’t seem to notice. They arrived at the back door of Petes Store.
One of the gangsters kicked down the door. James winced at the noise. So unprofessional, he thought to himself.
They entered cautiously. The shelves were filled with junk like Zarxian Crystals, Vacaraptor Claws and Imperial Helmets.
They all started putting stuff into sacks and taking them outside the store. They would send one guy back to carry all the stuff back so when they started smashing the place and had to escape they wouldn’t need to carry anything. The one gangster took the two full sacks and carried them to the warehouse.
Andrew, the other gangster and James started breaking the furniture and remaining stock. James smashed the cash register and took the money. Andrew was busy destroying the shelves and tables.
James wondered why the guards weren’t even around this part of the city because they were not getting any heat at all. Then James heard a knock on the door. Thinking that it was probably his imagination, he ignored it. Then the knocks became louder and more frequent. Andrew whispered to James, “Go check who’s knocking.”
James moved towards the window. At the door were two Troopers each armed with a Z20 Assault Carbine. The carbine was a military issue, fully Automatic with a 40 round clip.
The Trooper knocked on the door again. James crept to Andrew and said, “There are packed Troopers outside the store.”
Andrew showed an expression of shock then whispered, “Sneak out and get to a cache. If I don’t show up in a day or two, go to the Saloon.”
James nodded and snuck towards the back door. The hammering on the door got louder and the door started to splinter. James began to edge his way to the door a little faster.
Then the door gave in and fell down. The Troopers entered. “This is the Galis Delta Guard Unit, you are under arrest.”
James bolted for the door. The Troopers opened fire. He dodged and got out of the building in time.
The chase was on.
The Troopers were out of the building soon after him. They fired until he got out of range then they would continue chasing him.
The cache was just a block away. If James got there he could hide or use the weapons hidden there to fight the troopers. He turned at a corner. He stopped to catch his breath when some more Troopers appeared from a nearby building.
They aimed and opened fire. James dodged and ran while evading more projectiles. He had always had a great, near inhuman, stamina and was already pushing it to the limit. James could see the cache. It appeared to be a regular concrete hovel but the cache was ingeniously hidden inside. James turned to see if the Troopers were behind him.
The Troopers were not there. They were probably in the next street though. James opened the door to the cache. Inside the small rundown building was a chair, a table and an empty book shelf. He walked to the book shelf and felt around for the secret switch that he knew was secreted there as he was the one who set it up.
Some pain shot up his arm. He had triggered one of the traps that he had set there. He sucked the finger that had been hurt then tried again. A small beep signalled that he was successful. The ground behind him opened to reveal a trapdoor. He started to climb down. After he had climbed onto the ladder, he could see the entrance close shut above him. He was in complete darkness. He got down to the bottom and then counted to three in his head and when he opened his eyes the lights were on. The room was a small concrete bunker. A bed, some food and a gun could be seen.
James sidled over to the cupboard to fetch some food. He ate the stale bread and drank. Slowly he started to feel his energy levels rising again. He heard movement above him.
“Where could he have gone?” a trooper asked in a mystified fashion.
“I’m sure I saw him run in here.” Another trooper replied, “Let’s move out; he might still be nearby.”
“We better find him or the Corporal’s gonna be pissed.”
James heard the door close and then all was quiet.
He hoped Andrew got out ok. He was probably fine. With that thought he lay down on the sleeping pallet and drifted into exhausted sleep.