Truth Stealers (Thief's Signal: Book 1)

33

Drigs shoved the gun further into the dock worker's back.

"I'm on a tight schedule here. You don't wanna be the next person I kill with this pistol tonight, now do you?"

The dock worker's eyes widened as he processed the fact that Drigs was already on a killing spree. He hurried along.

"Ah, there she is," Drigs remarked appreciatively as his space cruiser entered his view.

The dock worker looked up from the anchored control pad.

"Hey, get your head down and work son. I ain't got all day."

The dock worker entered a key code into the pad. "Could you please enter your card details..." the dock worker suddenly realised that Drigs was staring down at him with a gun to his head. No, it was not likely he would enter his card details. The dockworker tapped a few more buttons, and the transaction was completed.

"She's all yours," he said, proud of his own work under the circumstances.

"Good," Drigs replied. And then he shot him.

"Buckle up children," Drigs off-handedly told his men. "Let's go complete our mission."

The holding bay of the ship opened up with his voice and facial recognition.

A resonating crack filled the room. The door fell onto the floor, and the soldiers from the Preachers stepped through.

"I'm beginning to think they like to make a grand entrance," Drigs said to himself, quickly clambering the steps into the control bay. His men below rushed to find cover. Two couldn't find it quickly enough, and were instantly gunned down.

"It doesn't have to be like this!" Oderm shouted. "I can give you a nice cell in the high security prison!"

"Nice as in an actual toilet rather than a chamber pot. No thanks," Drigs said from the pilot seat. He turned the ship's turrets on the Theta soldiers.

Oderm watched intently as the turrets rotated to lock onto his squad's position.

"Riot shields, up!" he roared to the rest of his team. They followed his lead, and unlatched the shields from their backs, expanding them and then anchoring them to the ground in front.

The ship's turrets blasted straight at them. The ground shook, but the soldiers remained unscratched.

Drigs shook with anger in his seat, looking Oderm in the eye through the glass window. The captain smiled smugly back at him, and Drigs turned away.

"Still won't catch me," he said, and revved up the engines, readying them for take-off.

"Sir, he appears to plan to fly off," Devlink exclaimed to Oderm, whom calmly nodded back.

"Looks like he plans to go through the roof. Fullback! We don't want the debris falling on us."

The soldiers retreated back, shuffling with riot shield still held out in front.

Drigs' remaining three soldiers looked relieved. And then they saw the ship move.

"He's leaving without us!"

"Shit! Someone get his attention!"

But it was too late for them; Drigs had made up his made, and he wasn't planning on changing it for anything. The space cruiser lifted off the ground, blowing hot air into the men on the ground. And then it accelerated, moving higher, and higher, and higher. The roof burst apart, shattered by the top of the ship. After the initial hit, the roof quickly fell apart, and then the ship sped away.

Oderm observed the scene from the edge of the building, watching the men inside react to their inevitable death.

"What goes up must come down," Devlink mused.

And come down the roof did. The floor quavered as chunks of metal sheets ran into it. The men beneath were flattened or impaled instantly.

"Now it's up to our pilots," Oderm explained to the rest of his squad.

"Gregariza?" the captain opened up his com-link. "Send our crafts on him."

******