Graveyard of Empires

Jonah waited outside the dining hall, debating internally whether his friend would be better suited discussing the situation out loud or being left to himself.  Quinn was inside, seated at one of the tables and lost in his thoughts.

“Are those the new shipping manifests?” Oliver asked. “Yeah.” “What did we get?”

“When I went to the market today they didn’t even have bread.”

Wade received the report only a day after it happened. He was in his private chambers on Axis. The words were clear and easy to understand, but he had trouble processing them just the same.

“What is the meaning of this?” Captain Queston asked, settling back into his chair and glaring at the monitor. On the other end was Captain Emilio Finch, traitor, and turncoat to the Republic. “You would dare stop my ships?”

Geid was a smaller planet than Wade was expecting. That wasn’t to say it was small, but compared to Axis it was barely a dot. Wade touched his ship—the Hummingbird—down just outside one of the larger cities, Averton.

The revolver thundered in the courtyard below. Argus Wade could taste bile in his throat. It tasted like jealousy.

Thunder rumbled outside the soccer stadium: a deep roar as storm clouds gathered in strength, the prelude to a ferocious storm.