Burnt Pheonix

Chapter One

Uncomfortable travel on the train

Three furry humanoids stood in the scant shade provided by the crumbling brick wall of the train station. An ancient looking, beat up train waited on the tracks before them.

Towering over the other two, the bear held a heavy energy rifle casually, while his eyes roamed the area. He reached up with a large paw to wipe the sweat from the black scar over his brow. I don’t like this job, Naja, the thought from the ursine rumbled through the mental link between the three figures as they stood in silence.

You don’t have to like every job, Copper, the larger of the two rats returned. While a full two feet shorter than the bear, she stood confidently in the lead of the other two on the staging area, black, furless tail lashing back and forth. I’m not fond of a lot of them, but we do what we must to remain free and earn our way off this dying planet.

“The ancients stopped caring about what they did and destroyed themselves before being able to get off-planet,” the other female – a short white rat – whispered, not bothering to use the link. She stood slightly away from the other two, though closer to the bear and out of the way of the black-furred rat’s whipping appendage. She stood slightly crouched, as if to make herself smaller and harder to see – though her white fur made her the most visible of the three.

The black-furred rat’s tail paused mid-sway. “We don’t know what really happened to all of them.” Naja turned back to look at the bear and white-furred rodent. “Just because some of them killed each other doesn’t mean others didn’t get off planet before whatever killed them all happened. There shouldn’t be any killing today, just some uncomfortable travel on the train.”

Two cars down the line from where the three stood, a seven-foot humanoid in clean, neat armor and wearing a steel-colored helmet shaped to look like a snarling wolf’s head stepped off the end of the last train car in line. A long-barreled rifle was slung over his shoulder, glittering in the sunlight as he walked over to stand before the black-furred rat, not bothering to step into the shade. “The train may be old and beat up, but it is still functional. Trains on this line are sometimes stopped by Fang Legion forces on patrols, but there’s no sign of the local cohort here now. The passenger cars are clear, like you said your contact promised.”

Naja gave the tall figure a quick nod. Good to know, Velak.

The figure gave a quick salute, though the reddish wolf tail that started wagging happily behind him did not quite match the crisp look such a gesture normally carried.

Frowning, the black-furred rat’s brow furrowed as she reached through the mental link the group shared. Sahar. What’s taking so long?

Damn it! returned through the link, making the white rat giggle and the bear smile even as he kept watch. I was hoping Velak would find something interesting to make him take longer so he’d be the one yelled at for being last finished. So far I’ve only found cargo like the engineer said was being transported. There’s one more car before I’ll be finished. The three passenger cars are all empty though, if you wanted to have an optimistic outlook and start boarding, dear sister.

The bear’s smile vanished at Naja’s quick response. We will remain pessimistic and alive, Sahar. Quingor, how do things look?

The voice that come over the link sounded bored, to the point it was trying to fight off a yawn. I see a lot of sunshine from the larger than healthy reddish orange ball of fire in the sky. There’s sand and heat shimmers from all the sunshine and I can see Velak’s shiny helmet. Hi Velak.

The wolf looked up, giving another quick salute. I’m just another heat shimmer, dragon.

An ‘all clear’ would have been fine, Quingor. Naja snapped, her tail lashing again.

The small white furred rat stepped back from the swinging appendage and bumped against Copper. The contact sent a shiver through the rodent.

The large ursine reached down and patted the rat’s shoulder comfortingly as he slipped back far enough to break the contact. “Sorry for standing too close, little one.”

Aurora sighed and calmed her shivers. “You know your touch is not painful, it was just surprising.”

Cooper grunted softly, but did not respond otherwise.

Front car looks like a standard, well-maintained though old as dirt power source for the engine. As you know, the engineer won’t let any of us up into the Engine, so I can’t check it.

Naja strode out from under the overhang, past the armored wolf and towards the train. Everyone on board.

Copper gestured with one of his huge paws. “After you, Aurora.”

The short, white-furred rat cautiously followed the darker-furred rodent’s path to the old, beaten up cars. The bear followed, his fur shining like the metal he was named after as he stepped into the sun. His gaze still watched the area as he followed the two rodents.

That includes you too, Quingor, Naja commanded through the link.

Are you sure you don't want me to keep an eye on things from above?

Naja stopped at the entrance to the second passenger car and squinted up into the sky. Do I ever give an order I don't mean?

Shaking his head, the wolf sent a message into the group link immediately after the question. Don't answer that Quingor. You might not be able to see from up there, but boss lady is in a bit of a mood.

Naja turned her head to glare at where Velak stood. When did Black Scar Scavenging become a bunch of complaining comedians?

The black-furred rat looked from the wolf to where Aurora had stopped ten feet away, the bear behind her and looking around calmly. Naja glanced up, seeing the rapidly approaching dragon, his scales slowly changing from the color of the sky to their natural storm-cloud gray.

We have always been like this Naja, Sahar's thoughts came through the group's mind link. I think we may all be a little nervous after how our last scavenging run went. But then, we're usually on edge before most missions. You've just been more grumpy this time and not sharing details about this job that requires us to climb on a train through the mountains.

Taking a deep breath, the dark furred rat sent another thought out to the team. I know this mission has a lot of you concerned. If I'm short it is because I am trying not to let the importance of this mission affect me.

Aurora's amber eyes looked up, meeting Naja's pink ones. What do you mean?

Quingor landed in the middle of the space in front of the first passenger car, his scales all having returned to their natural blue-gray tone. With his wings still spread, he looked taller and larger than Copper. As he folded them tight, wrapping them around himself, his true height revealed itself to be between Naja and Aurora.

We will talk about this after the train gets rolling. I understand you are all concerned. I'm nervous as well, which is why I've been snapping more often. That sent, she turned and boarded the train, passing through the sliding door and into the passenger car, tail still lashing irritably.

The car was not as messy as she had feared, but still showed its age. The seats were obviously reupholstered and several showed mismatched patches. The lighting was inconsistent, which didn't matter as much during midday, but might become irritating as the huge orange sun set.

Letting out a sigh, the black-furred female strode to the center of the car before choosing a bench to sit on. Before she could send a message to 'hurry up', Quingor came through the entrance at the front of the car, while Velak dipped his head to come through the entrance she had used.

It will be a tight fit, Copper, but I believe you can make it in, the wolf sent. We both better hope there are seats that can accommodate our size or we will be bumping out heads on the ceiling a bit, but we've been through worse with our short rodent pack members.

Naja frowned when the term “pack” came over the link, but did not correct the wolf.

Quingor sat down in a seat near the front entrance and sent something himself, though. I am short, but I am no rodent.

Velak chuckled, the sound muffled from the helmet that also transmitted it.

Sahar walked in, the chestnut-furred rat giving the dragon's shoulder a light punch as the rodent grinned. You should wish you were a rodent. We are the coolest members of the team. Well, Aurora and I are. Boss lady rat is all grumpy today so she is less than cool.

Naja glared, but had learned long ago not to rise to her sister's teasing. The younger rat was actually better at the mental ability to form bonds and read minds than her, which is how the team had managed to grow so large and include half their number as members of other species. To be fair, while she was a rat, Aurora did not possess the natural ability to form mind links either. Her ability was still incredibly useful, reading past events of high emotion from an object. But the link – despite letting them needle each other without saying a word for outsiders to hear – made operations so much smoother.

It just meant that the leader had to guard her thoughts from her sister, especially when she was trying to hide something.

Sahar sat down beside Quingor, while Aurora stepped onto the car and moved slowly down the aisle, looking at each seat carefully before choosing one of the less beat-up ones in the middle. Most likely, that seat had the least emotional residue on it. Copper squeezed in shortly after the small white rat and carefully made his way to the most open and sturdy looking seat available, which happened to be closer to the front of the car.

“Are we all settled in?” Naja asked once the creaking subsided from Copper's bench. Receiving agreements and affirmation that they were, she reached up to press the communicator button above the seats.

“We are all settled in and ready to start when you are,” she announced.

“Acknowledged,” came the reply.

The car jerked a little as the train immediately started moving. It's acceleration was quite impressive for such an old system. Obviously, there had been great care taken in maintaining the old train's operating systems, even if the polish had long worn off the rest.

Once the speed had stabilized at a rapid pace, Naja looked again at all of her team members.

I promised I would explain more. Certainly I owe it to you all. The dark-furred rat grabbed her tail to keep it from lashing.

I will admit, she continued, I am a little nervous about this one. After the fiasco during the last mission, I was not sure how to proceed. But I believe that I found a means to get all of us off world. The secrecy is needed to ensure I didn't get anyone’s hopes up before I was sure of this path. I believe we now have the chance to make our team's goal. This mission should get us off planet as its reward.

As she expected, the team went wild, responding with various declarations and questions in the link. She had been expecting it, so had shielded herself and let a hint of a grin show when she saw Sahar's ears flick in pain at the multiple thoughts.

Ease off everyone! the chestnut furred rodent blasted out, making the group's thoughts slow. ...thank you. Before we start hounding Naja with questions, let's let her finish explaining and then she can let us ask one at a time.

Naja's brows rose, crinkling the scar on her right brow. Thank you Sahar. I know that we all agreed we would not go into service with any of the mercenary groups or companies that offer passage off-planet in exchange for terms of service. We are all about working for ourselves and being independent. This means we occasionally do a mission for one faction or another, but never sign up for the long term.

Brushing her tail softly as a means of remaining calm, she continued: While we've never been able to procure enough to get us, as a group, off-planet securely, we've gotten a lot of funds saved up in the off world accounts we have, both individually and as a group. With many of those accounts actually dwindling after the last mission, I made the assumption that instead of credits, if I could get us passage off the planet as our payment, there would be no complaints. There will be no strings attached to that passage, and it will set us down, as a group or even – if there are any of you who wish it – as individuals in any system you desire. Once there, we will still have access to our accounts, which should be enough to start making a living in a better place.

All eyes were on Naja. She smiled and nodded to Aurora and Velak. She looked the other way, meeting the soft brown eyes of Copper. She nodded to where Sahar frowned slightly, sitting near Quingor. None of them said anything.

Eventually, she turned from looking at Sahar to face Velak. I can never tell how you are taking things, when I can't see your tail move. That helmet makes me realize just how much I depend on ears and eyes to figure folks opinions. What, if anything, do you want to ask, Velak?

The wolf leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. Does that help you realize I am discouraged you did not trust us with this information before we got on this train? I am surprised that those in our group with family have not asked if this new passage will include passage for others, like the gateway we had been hunting would have.

Naja gave a curt nod. I respect you wishing I had said more, but after what happened last time, I did not want any information to leak that would mess this up for us. I trust all of you – I really do – or you would not be here today. But in the past, there have been others in the team that could not keep private information out of the hands of those that would ruin a mission.

The bear grumbled. Do you think one of us called the Fang Legion forces that spoiled our last mission?

The black-furred rat shook her head. No. That was an unfortunate occurrence of the bandits we ended up fighting in those ruins leading the Legion there as well. I trust you all, but I have also – from having dealt with greed and treachery within other teams – developed a need for secrecy. After missing our chance to grab that crystal, I would rather be unfairly paranoid and make it off this dry and horrible planet than miss out on another chance to find my way off under my terms.

Naja realized she was squeezing her tail painfully tight and let it go to lash back and forth beside her leg. I would rather apologize to you all after we have succeeded in what this team is built to accomplish, rather than lose another chance because I missed something that should have given me a better understanding of one of you. And no, I am not saying I don't trust any one of you. I am saying I don't trust myself to be able to handle missing another opportunity off Erimos. Her tail curled around her leg, and she realized she had not shared how much that old betrayal had hurt her with most of these people. She had told Aurora, and Sahar knew because she was the only survivor from the original team.

Everyone kept to their own thoughts for several minutes. Naja began to wonder if anything else would be said.

I get where you are coming from. Sahar's thought was calm and reassuring in the quiet everyone had retreated to. Wishing you had told us everything up front doesn't help us prepare for this job now. What can you tell us about the mission and the folks who are powerful enough to offer this fantastic reward, but need our small team to accomplish it?

Pausing to take a deep breath, the black-furred rodent looked around the group again. They were all focused on the mission now. They need us to procure something locally for them that has eluded their ability to find and acquire. Our team has a great track record with grabbing items from ancient ruins, as well as newer locations that other scavenging teams and the Fang Legion have difficulties even locating. We can easily hand over what they are looking for. That they value it so much only works to our benefit.

Quingor frowned at her answer. She gazed at him, waiting to see if he would make the reason for his unhappiness known.

You all know I'm from off-planet, he sent. I have seen more than the few large companies that have interests on this planet, and usually don't trust any of them. Who are we working for, and are they representing themselves as an individual or as a company? Are they local or from off planet?

Even without saying the client was from off world, the dragon had made the correct assumption. The rodent would have to speak very carefully. Gently increasing the power to shield her thoughts as well as concentrating on appearing open and honest, Naja turned to look out the window.

The train sped up a steep slope that ran alongside a riverbed that was growing deeper every minute they climbed. They were entering the foothills of the mountains. He is not local. He goes by the name Mr. Gold. He is wealthy and influential enough to be able to offer this contract's prize on his own, but that does not mean he isn't secretly working for the interest of a corporation or government in this mission. You all know that is always a risk, even when the reward doesn't look as good.

Quingor's frown had deepened and Naja expected the next question from the dragon. Wouldn't it have been better to let us all use our contacts and abilities to research such a mysterious individual before getting on a train? For that matter, why are we on this train? Are we going to a place to meet Mr. Gold, or to the location where he believes we will find the item he is after?

Concentrating on keeping her tail from lashing more at the questions raised, Naja took a calm and deep breath, letting it out slowly.

Before she could send an answer, Quingor bolted up out of his seat, eyes wide. We've got company!