Gold's Assassins

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Though we'd been to school together and such, the first time I really talked to Isaias was in End, capital city of the Polaris system, during my initial years as a captain and mercenary. It had just been me and Xander then, making hit-and-run raids for various politicians and such. We had stopped in End to pick up some supplies and had somehow ended up caught in the middle of a bar fight. I still hadn't figured out how it was possible to have a bar fight in a cafe, but there you go. Anyone who can explain that, let me know.

Anyway, after the fight, Isaias had recognized me and the three of us just ended up chatting until the cafe closed. Xander and I invited him to join the crew, since our ship was way too big and way too quiet with just two people. Isaias eventually worked his way up to first mate, since Xander seriously didn't want the job. "Too much paperwork," he'd said. As if we'd have paperwork on a bounty hunter craft. Honestly.

Acheron and Radian (we call her Rad) joined up shortly afterward, Rad as our main techie and Acheron as our weaponry expert. The two were siblings who, like Xander and I, had run away from home and gotten into the bounty hunter/mercenary/smuggling business more out of necessity than desire. But that didn't mean they didn't enjoy their jobs.

We'd worked together for three years, stealing things, destroying things, and pretty much pillaging half the galaxy. It hadn't been as fun after Isaias left the crew a few months back, and I hadn't replaced him, perhaps out of a hope that he would come around eventually, perhaps because no one else wanted the job.

And despite what I'd said, he was going to take on his old duties as soon as we got back aboard. Isaias Jackson had been gone far too long.