Alien Soldier's Prisoner

Chapter 1

Annie

“Crap.”

I look down at my finger, a single drop of blood welling up from the cut on my skin. The jagged edge of the metallic panel I had been trying to pry open has a smudge of my own blood now, and I frown as I stare at it. Sucking on my finger, I mutter a string of curses and then go back to work. I place one foot down on the amalgam of droid parts beneath me and, holding onto the metallic panel with both my hands, I pull on it as hard as I can. 

The cover comes free almost right away, more easily than I was expecting it to, and I lose my balance and fall on my backside. A sharp stab of pain explodes up my tailbone, and my frown deepens as I realize that most of the tech components of the droid I was ripping apart have already been stripped bare. 

I should have been looking at a reactor coil, a neural microchip processor, and a few more parts that would net me some hard credits back on the market. Instead, I’m looking down at an empty hole, the droid’s hollow chest completely devoid of anything I can use. Someone must’ve beaten me to it. 

It’s odd. 

Only two weeks have passed since the Kraaj shut down the droid army the IHC unleashed upon Luvon, but it’s already hard to find anything of use in the many droid graveyards littering the outskirts of Sannar. I even went as far as Hela, the capital city, hoping that the pickings would be easier there, but it’s been the same everywhere I go. The fields of deactivated droids remain packed with empty metallic carcasses, but most of the tech parts I could sell have already disappeared. 

At first, I thought that other scavengers like me had descended upon these fields like hungry vultures, but I rarely see anyone in these places. Somehow, people feel oddly superstitious about these machine graveyards. I’ve heard tales of machines moving in the dead of the night, blinking lights cutting through the darkness, and the rumours that the droids aren’t as dead as the Kraaj think just keep on growing with each passing day. It’s all bullshit, if you ask me.

These particular droids can’t operate without a constant signal from a transmitter relay, and the Kraaj blew up the one these droids were functioning under. There’s absolutely no way these machines will start moving of their own volition. Still, the fact remains that parts have been disappearing at an alarming rate. Even if the scavengers are avoiding these fields, someone is definitely collecting the machinery. 

I know that a few anti-Kraaj factions have taken it upon themselves to reprogram the droids, so that might explain it. Even the Kraaj might be interested in dismantling and reverse engineering the IHC droids, so they might be a part of it as well. Either way, I don’t like it. Thousands of deactivated droids should have been a boon for someone like me, but I still find myself struggling each and every single day. 

“You can never catch a break, huh?” I ask myself, wiping the sweat off my brow as I look up at the sun. It hangs right in the middle of the blue sky overheard, beating down on the outskirts of Sannar with merciless heat. The day has the mood of a perfect summer day; and it would be one, if it wasn’t for the fact that the entire planet isn’t in the mood for a relaxing summer. 

 Luvon used to be a little jewel of a planet, smack on the border between the Coalition and the IHC. There was peace here, despite the fact that war engulfed the entire galaxy, and almost everyone believed something like that would last. Well, it didn’t. The Kraaj, silver bastards with a penchant for violence, saw this little planet as a place they could transform into a beachhead for their conflict with the Coalition, and they decided to take it. 

Months after the Kraaj have made Luvon their home, we’ve already been attacked by the Coalition and by the IHC. Death has knocked on every door, and the streets that used to be filled with laughter are now eerily silent, the only explanation for that silence coming in the shape of dry blood on the cobblestones of every market square. 

Sighing, I sit down on a large smooth rock and place my backpack between my legs. I rummage through its contents until I find my canteen, and then bring it up to my lips, the cold water feeling like pure bliss on my parched lips. I scan my surroundings lazily, the sun reflecting on the thousands of metallic panels and discarded parts of this droid landfill, and I feel a bout of discouragement wash over me. I’ve been on this place since the crack of dawn and I’ve only managed to find two reactor coils. Sure, after selling them I’ll have enough money for a couple of warm meals, but it’s still a poor result after an entire morning of hard work. 

“What the…?” Narrowing my eyes, I look into the distance, the sun bouncing off of something on the hills where the droid graveyard ends. I passed through that hill this morning, and there’s nothing on there that should be reflecting the sun; only tufts of dried out grass and a few thirsty shrubs. 

Reacting on instinct, I throw myself down and flatten my body against the ground. Cautiously, I grab a pair of binoculars from my backpack and take a better look at the hills. Could that be another scavenger on his way here? Or maybe that’s a Kraaj, spying on me. That’d be bad news—the bastards have issued a new law, prohibiting anyone from selling droid parts on the markets, and what I’m doing here flies straight in the face of that law. 

I remain motionless for the better part of fifteen minutes and, only when I don’t see that glint in the distance anymore, do I dare move. Groaning, I push myself up to my feet, chiding myself for being overly cautious. Still, part of me likes the fact that I’m cautious—better to play it safe than to end up in chains and on the Auction block. God knows these damn Kraaj would love to put a price tag on me and sell me to the highest bidder. Definitely not a future I’d like to have. 

I go back to scouring through the discarded droids, prying open the panels on their fuselage with my hunting knife. I find almost nothing of interest, and my bag remains awfully empty, a constant reminder of how shitty my life has become ever since the Kraaj landed here. 

Sure, I wasn’t a high-roller before the invasion or anything, and I still lived with my parents despite the fact that I was in my twenties...but it was a good life. I had a family that loved me, and a stable job as an assembly-line engineer in a tech factory. I’ve never been a girl of ambition, and I was happy with the way things were. Then, a stray mortar landed on my parent’s home, and I lost my entire family in one single swoop. Three days later, and the factory I worked at was bombarded by the Kraaj. In a matter of a few days, I lost both my family and my job, and I was forced to become a scavenger in order to survive. 

It isn’t an easy life. 

I spend most nights nestled in whatever burrow I find in the wilderness, and my days are spent wandering through empty woods and old machine graveyards, looking for things I can collect and sell on the city markets. It makes for a meager living but, hey, at least I’m still breathing. 

Suddenly, I hear a loud popping noise a couple yards away from me. I tense up, my eyes darting to where the sound came from, and for a moment I think I see a metallic claw scurrying away on its own. I shake my head, annoyed at how ridiculous I’m acting. The other scavengers can act like superstitious idiots, all with their rumours of the machines wandering on their own during the night, but I can’t afford to pay any heed to those stupid stories. 

“Just focus, Annie,” I tell myself, and then go back to my knees, my hunting knife firmly placed on my right hand. Working like an automaton, I go back to what I was doing before, and continue picking apart the discard droids. Finally, after loosening one more panel, I see the purple hue of a core chip processor. The circuitry seems to be intact, and the attachment nods are fully operational; if I manage to pry it out from the metallic block it’s embedded in without breaking it, this chip alone might be worth a week of warm meals...not to mention it might cover a week’s stay at some lodge in the city. 

Wouldn’t that be nice? Warm meals, and a warm bed. 

With that thought burning in my mind, I let a smile spread across my lips and start loosening the screws keeping the processor in place. From the corner of my eye, I see that the reflection on the hills has returned, but I barely pay it any heed. 

Right now, all I care about is keeping my eyes on the prize.