Graveyard of Empires

Vivian set the digital book down on the copilot’s chair when the comm rang through. Her feet were propped up on the terminal of her little ship, and she was beginning to feel sleepy.

The speakers of the little box-shaped freighter, Cudgel, chimed. It made a high pitched whistling sound, alerting the two men sitting inside the haphazardly-converted shipping bay that they had received a new message.

“Is it heavy?”

“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.

Abdullah stood in the conference hall in front of his seven chosen officers, arms folded behind his back. He surveyed their uniforms to ensure they were pressed and clean. Pristine.

Vivian watched the equipment vendor, a heavyset man with three chins and fading hair, as he disappeared into the spaceport crowd. He’d just finished setting things for the final goods to be loaded onto the Cudgel.

Maven sat in front of the terminal aboard the warship Eisle, stunned by the report she was receiving and trying hard not to laugh. “They did what?”

Jayson heard the train before he saw it. It started as a rumbling, just enough to shake the ground.