Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Not For Bounty ❯ Desperate Times ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Not For Bounty
Author- Byakko Rei

Part One :
Motives


Chapter 1
Desperate Times

The first Hyperspace Gate experiment had blasted a large portion of the Earth's moon off and the sky was shadowed by its debris. The meteorites that fell through the atmosphere rendered the Earth marred and desolate. Most of the survivors had wisely migrated to Mars. Those who stayed were drawn to the communication satellites for information. The Earth, in essence, had become a hacker's Mecca and was a great place to hide out. Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the 4th was good at both, and right now her life depended upon it....

The fourteen year old had recently been reunited with her father, Appledelhi, who fondly referred to her as Ed. Her father was kept busy as a map maker due to the constant changes in the Earth's topography from meteoric fallout; consequently Ed was often left to her own devices for long periods of time.

Ed was alone when soldiers bearing Red Dragon insignia invaded and attacked the hacker's underground operations, destroying everything in their wake. She had been scrounging through junk piles for useable electronic parts when she saw them approach her at an alarming speed. With her heart in her throat, she dodged bullets and rough hands until she reached the huge scrap yard near her house.

The petite girl squirmed into a rather enormous heap of junk and quickly lost her larger pursuers. Ed found the narrow entrance that led to the underground tunnels and squeezed through. Scarcely breathing, she watched through a peephole as the soldiers searched for her. Then she heard the order given to abandon their quarry and start torching the houses. Ed's heart leapt in her chest... Ein, her 'data-dog', had stayed home this time. Tears gathered unbidden as Ed watched the Red Dragon soldiers destroy her father's home.

Hours later, Ed made it to their remote bunker and, to her relief, saw Ein sitting expectantly outside the door. The diminutive teen gathered the Welsh Corgi under one arm and pulled the heavy door open.

When Ed heard someone approach the bunker, she holed up inside one of the ration closets to prepare for the worst. She shook in terror as the door opened, then relaxed when she saw that it was her father who stumbled through it. Ed quickly clambered out of her hiding spot when he collapsed to the floor and put her arms around his bullet riddled torso.

Appledelhi stroked Ed's orange hair for a moment or two, then pushed her gently away to gaze into her cat-like golden eyes. "Ed..." he rasped hoarsely, "the old Red Dragon regime has fallen and a new, more evil, order has taken its place. Th-the tracking station was destroyed... I managed to get to the tunnels...."

Ed clutched him closer as his voice got weaker, tears now streaming down her cheeks. "Papa, don't die! Ed just got Papa back!" she plead with childish desperation.

The dying man then spoke again softly, "Call your friends, Ed, and get off of this cursed planet while you can! I... love you... Ed...." Appledelhi's voice trailed off as his heart stilled in his chest.

A 'Gatherer' appeared and Ed stared mutely into eyes that reminded her of dying red embers. Its hideous blackened furry face split into a fanged leer as it stared back at her. It folded her father unceremoniously into its huge bat-like wings... then dematerialized.

Ed screamed, then. She screamed until her throat was raw, and when her voice was lost completely, she shook with silent sobs. When numbness finally filled her soul, she e-mailed the Bebop crew.


To be continued....