Chapter 54: Chapter 53: Third Time’s the Charm

“I’d say you’re in a pickle. But what I wouldn’t give to switch places with you.”

Alex could only chuckle and shake his head as their rover made a quick jaunt over to the mining biosphere for the start of their shift. Rick was with him and they were both seated in the back of the rover, just in front of the gunner while another man took the front passenger seat.

“You want my place, you can have it,” said Alex. “Because either way, I think I’m going to hurt someone.”

“It sounds to me like that someone will be Jenna,” noted Rick. “But it’s something that I don’t understand. She knew what she was signing up for. As many Vestans as I’ve now met, I haven’t met any couples of just one man and one woman. All the married people here have at least two women. I don’t know why she would think otherwise.”

“Ellie thinks it’s because she’s young but I think that’s only half of it,” replied Alex. “The problem is that Jenna is still scarred from her last relationship. I think she assumes most people are out to hurt her until they prove otherwise.”

“Until they’ve proved that they’re good people to her, and then she trusts them blindingly,” added Rick. “It puts all of you in a hard position. Mostly you. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to turn down Ellie. That woman has a body built for sex, I’m telling you.”

“It just makes things more complicated with the election coming up,” said Alex once they arrived at the mining biosphere. “I don’t want either of them to get pissed off before we know the results or it could throw a serious wrench in the whole thing.”

“Do you think Jenna would pull out if she knew?”

Alex nodded. “I think she would. And that means Belladonna would win.”

Rick let out a low whistle. “Tough spot to be in. It could always be worse though.”

“How do you figure?”

Rick grinned at him. “Well, you could have no women wanting to be with you. Instead, you have two of the hottest on this planet trying to fight over you. Now the only thing you need to do is to get them to stop fighting and learn how to share.”

Alex started to laugh. “I’m not seeing any scenarios where they learn to share. I think they’re destined to be at odds with each other for the foreseeable future.”

Rick summed it up succinctly. “That’s going to suck for you then.”

Rick had a point about all of it. As long as he was stuck in the middle, he wasn’t going to know peace. Truthfully, he was happy to put aside the election today and take his shift at the mining biosphere, if only to take a break from the situation.

The day started off simply enough. Once again, Alex had two squads under his command, led by the same two surly lieutenants—Hans Mueller and Rob Decklan. Neither man had thawed in his attitude toward Alex, making them both difficult to work with. Alex found that as long as he followed the same rotations and positions that were in place before he arrived, he didn’t have many problems with the two men.

It was only whenever he asked them to take different defensive positions—like up around the rim or further out—that they started to complain. Alex had figured out that it was Hans that went to Rooney several days ago, letting the commander know about Alex’s unorthodox approach. Since then, Alex felt that his hands were tied to make the changes he wanted to make.

Though he had no way of knowing it, the lack of any substantial changes was about to define Alex’s entire day.

It all started when one of the watchtowers reported in before they were scheduled to. The message was brief and to the point.

“Captain Hawthorne, there’s been movement spotted on the upper rim. I believe it might be a bear, sir.”

Any suspected bear sightings always set off a flurry of activity. By rule, Alex was supposed to treat those sights with a display of force, and that’s exactly what he authorized at that particular moment as all the VDF members (apart from those in the affected watchtower) set aside what they were doing and moved toward the tower in force.

Hans and his men were the first to arrive, followed minutes later by Alex, Rob, and the rest of the VDF members.

“Any further sightings?” asked Alex as soon as they made it to the tower.

“Negative, sir,” replied Hans, his eyes scanning the rim. “We haven’t seen anything yet. My guess is that this is a false alarm. The men think they see bears all the time but usually we find nothing.”

“I don’t want to take any chances,” said Alex. “Let’s spread out but stay in pairs. Everyone covers a different portion of the rim. Each man in the pair is responsible for the man next to him. If there’s a bear out here, let’s nab it without losing anyone.”

“Is that really necessary, sir?” asked Hans, showing his truculence once more. “If it really was a bear, it’s probably gone.”

Alex stared him down. “You heard my order, Lieutenant. I expect it to be executed. Move out.”

Hans said nothing apart from telling his men to act on it. It was clear that the display of authority was chafing at him but Alex couldn’t care less at that moment.

Hans would have to learn his place one way or another.

Both squads started to spread out, covering more ground around the entire biosphere and searching around the rim. Alex was joined by Rick and the two men took a section on the other side of the plain from the watchtower, where the cliffs above them weren’t as steep.

“You really think there’s a bear up there?” asked Rick quietly as they searched.

“I don’t know,” replied Alex. “But I don’t want to take any chances, that’s for sure.”

“I sure hope not,” said Rick. “We just got here. The last thing I want to do is die now.”

You are reading story Starfinder: Guardian of Vesta at novel35.com

“With any luck, you won’t die anytime soon—”

Alex never got a chance to finish his sentence. His attention was diverted to the rock wall in front of him. Several small pebbles had rolled down the side of the cliff, many of them no larger than his fingers. Yet, it was the movement below that had his eyes moving upward, and Alex nearly jumped when he saw the creature on the upper rim.

It was another bear and as soon as Alex spotted it, it made a headlong dash down to the bowl, making directly for him. The speed that it moved at was nothing short of miraculous. And Alex didn’t know if he had enough time to even fire his weapon.

Alex had barely raised his pulse rifle to his shoulder and fired off two shots before the bear barreled into him at full force, forcing him to his back. The full weight of the alien creature landed on top of his chest while the bear’s mighty jaws and piercing teeth fell right against his face. It was so close that Alex could smell the creature’s breath—a foul stench that made the hair on his back stand up.

It soon became obvious that his first two shots had mortally wounded the creature, and by the time that it landed on Alex, it had slowed down enough for Rick to fire a shot into its side, giving it only seconds to live.

In those seconds, Alex heard it speaking to him, just like he did with the second bear he’d killed.

Protect the home. Kill the . . . invader.

Those were the last thoughts of the bear before it died.

“Alex! Jesus Christ, are you alive under there?”

Rick was in a panic as used the butt of his rifle to hammer at the bear’s flank, trying to get its weight off of Alex. After the shock of the blow had subsided, Alex added his strength to Rick’s, pushing the bear to the side.

“Alex, you’re alive! Holy shit, how the hell are you alive?”

“I wish I knew,” said Alex, grabbing his chest. “These fucking things weigh a ton. I bet he cracked a few of my ribs.”

“Can you stand up?”

“Maybe if you helped me.”

Rick extended his hand, helping Alex get to his feet. In the process, his chest started to throb with pain, confirming his thoughts about some broken ribs.

“Jesus, Alex, I knew you were fast and I didn’t doubt the rumors about the other bears you’d killed but that was something else to watch it go down. I still don’t know how you got a shot off that quickly.”

“It nearly wasn’t quick enough,” replied Alex. “I felt like I hesitated as he looked down on me from the rim.”

“Your hesitation is another man’s quick reflexes.”

Rick seemed to have a point, and at that moment, the other members of the VDF were now swarming his position after seeing what happened. Almost all of them were cheering as they approached. Many took a turn to give Alex a hearty slap on the back while a good many gawked at the body of the dead bear.

Even Hans seemed to drop his aggressive posturing.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in all my years on Vesta,” he said, nodding his head. “I thought you were as good as dead as soon as it collided with you. And yet, you killed it instead.”

“Not before it did some damage,” said Alex, rubbing his chest.

“And I thought the rumors were bullshit,” admitted Hans. “I thought you were lying your ass off about killing the two other bears. But you were telling the truth.”

Alex didn’t know what to say to that so he simply nodded.

“I’m sorry I doubted you then,” said Hans. “I can see now that you know what you’re talking about.”

It wasn’t much of an apology but Alex suspected that the moment was more momentous than it looked. Similar sentiments were soon given by Rob too, and it didn’t take long until the bear’s body was being dragged back inside the mining biosphere and the news was being given to Commander Rooney.

A few minutes later, Alex took the call directly from Rooney on his P-com.

“You’re lucky to be alive,” said Rooney before breaking into a shit-eating grin. “You have to bring the body back to the city. You’ll be even more of a celebrity here.”

“Are you sure about that?” asked Alex. “I don’t need anymore fame in Vesta.”

“Trust me, this isn’t just about you, Hawthorne. The people need to see this. They need to see that fucker’s big, hairy body and know they can be killed. This is more about morale in Vesta than it is anything else. Bring it home and celebrate with the city.”

“All right then,” conceded Alex. “You’ve convinced me.”

“One more thing,” added Rooney. “I think this is really going to help your candidacy for the Council.”

You can find story with these keywords: Starfinder: Guardian of Vesta, Read Starfinder: Guardian of Vesta, Starfinder: Guardian of Vesta novel, Starfinder: Guardian of Vesta book, Starfinder: Guardian of Vesta story, Starfinder: Guardian of Vesta full, Starfinder: Guardian of Vesta Latest Chapter