Red Star Sheriff Chapter Nineteen ~ The Storm ~ Part Four: Story Time With Tim

Here we go with Act Three of my first MAJOR novel that I self-published a few years ago! I’ll be posting the whole work here with links to where you can find the novel on sale, to read completely, and author pages to check out all the other work I have available out there! Feel free to support the cause! Or just enjoy all the free reads I’m giving you. No worries. No hate. Just continue coming back and reading my work! I am Timothy Scott Purvis and THIS is Story Time With Tim!

Red Star Sheriff is a work inspired by several sources. First off, it is a sort of light homage to the Dark Tower series written by Stephen King. It doesn’t go overboard with the inferences, but the travails of a lead character who isn’t very emotional overall lends the weight to a protagonist who will go out of her way to get the job done. Secondly, this work was initially inspired by the video game series, Wild Arms. I had once considered this sort of an anime’ in literary form. A high octane lead character driven to become the best gunslinger in the solar system. Third, and definitely not least, I drew significant inspiration for overarching details from the show Westworld.

Many elements came together to make this work what it is. It is a long story coming in at just under 190 thousand words in total. Yet, it is a quick read, if I do say so myself with a lot of intense action and interesting characters. I’ll post links below for where to find this novel in its complete form so feel free to support the cause and check them out. I will also include links for prior chapters and postings throughout this venture so that it will be easy to keep pace of where the story has been so that the reader can keep up with the story.

Anyhow, Aidele Wilson is the lead protagonist. Her father was murdered so the story starts out with a quest for revenge. Then, a journal he’d written becomes the focus of a fast paced journey across the Wastelands trying to evade Union soldiers who want the journal for what lies within its pages: key technology specs that will alter the balance of power in all of the colonies.

Thanks for reading and read to you again next week! See you then.

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ACT ONE

RSS Chapter One Part One, RSS Chapter One Part Two, RSS Chapter Two Part One, RSS Chapter Two Part Two, RSS Chapter Two Part Three, RSS Chapter Two Part Four, RSS Chapter Two Part Five, RSS Chapter Three Part One, RSS Chapter Three Part Two, RSS Chapter Four Part One, RSS Chapter Four Part Two, RSS Chapter Four Part Three, RSS Chapter Five Part One, RSS Chapter Five Part Two, RSS Chapter Six Part One, RSS Chapter Six Part Two, RSS Chapter Seven Part One, RSS Chapter Seven Part Two

ACT TWO

RSS Chapter Eight Part One, RSS Chapter Eight Part Two, RSS Chapter Nine Part One, RSS Chapter Nine Part Two, RSS Chapter Ten, RSS Chapter Eleven Part One, RSS Chapter Eleven Part Two, RSS Chapter Eleven Part Three, RSS Chapter Twelve Part One, RSS Chapter Twelve Part Two, RSS Chapter Twelve Part Three, RSS Chapter Thirteen

ACT THREE

RSS Chapter Fourteen Part One, RSS Chapter Fourteen Part Two, RSS Chapter Fifteen Part One, RSS Chapter Fifteen Part Two, RSS Chapter Sixteen Part One, RSS Chapter Sixteen Part Two, RSS Chapter Seventeen Part One, RSS Chapter Seventeen Part Two, RSS Chapter Eighteen Part One, RSS Chapter Eighteen Part Two, RSS Chapter Nineteen Part One, RSS Chapter Nineteen Part Two, RSS Chapter Nineteen Part Three

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RED STAR SHERIFF: ACT THREE: CHAPTER NINETEEN~THE STORM~ PART FOUR

#

THE WHOLE SHIP shuddered like some great giant was pounding on the hull with a mallet. Aidele and Grandfather hurried from corridor to corridor following the layout provided by Durante in the head mounted display she’d been given. The brig wasn’t much further now and, so far, they’d managed to evade patrols that were seeming ever more on edge. The violent shaking and thrumming probably wasn’t helping their nerves any, she figured.

  “What is that thudding?” Aidele asked.

  Grandfather looked pale. “I hope it’s not what I think it is. However, we can’t afford to concern ourselves with that right now. We have to free the others. Are you certain the waverider will be safe?”

  Aidele nodded. “Even if, when, they drop those shields, I anchored it down gravitationally to the deck. Hopefully, no one’s bright enough to figure out they can reverse the deck’s polarity to free it. But, even if they are, maybe all will be said and done by then.”

  Grandfather nodded and followed Aidele as they navigated the hallways. Approaching the cell blocks, she grew wary. The patrols were thinning out and they’d yet to discover any actual guards in this sector. She leaned against a wall seeing they were almost to the brigs. She inched along to the entrance and peeked her head inside the cellblock. Nobody was within. Aidele pulled her right Iron and pushed aside the satchel hanging off her arm. Inside it were Drevan and Asta’s weaponry.

  Aidele looked to Grandfather. “Better bring your sidearm to bear. I’m getting the distinct feeling this is a trap.”

  “Had that feeling in the docks. What now? Clearly they’re not in here.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it would be best to head to the bridge. Storm it now.”

  Grandfather frowned. “Do you think Berricks would really risk taking them to the bridge?”

  Aidele shook her head. “I think one way or another, he’s expecting us there. But we need to be cautious. The fact it’s all so empty here does not bode well.”

  “There’s also those, regrettably.”

  Grandfather pointed up the hallway and Aidele saw a camera pointing their way. “Yeah. I know. Durante informed me of the security networks. He marked them on my holodisplay. Might be futile now, though. Let’s double back and—”

  Two soldiers peeked out from the corridor ends, the intent obvious to her: they wanted to trap them in a crossfire. The soldiers brought their weapons to bear and both Aidele and Grandfather opened fire on the freshly arrived soldiers. The troops went down fast. Aidele and Grandfather hurried down to the end of the corridor. But as they reached the intersection, soldiers from the other end filed into the hallway, all firing indiscriminately at them. Rounding the corner, four more soldiers arrived on their end forcing the two to crouch low as weapons fire was exchanged. The corridor resonated with gunfire as they were forced to duck, weave, and dance a dangerous ballet without benefit of cover.

  As more soldiers poured in, Aidele saw they were quickly running out of avenues of escape. So, she dialed her left Iron up to three-and-a-half and fired a projectile into a corner wall at the current corridor’s end. It exploded causing troops there to be blown to the ground.

  “Come on!” she shouted and Grandfather followed her to the newly decimated intersection hearing a whole contingent of troops racing down the hall they’d just vacated.

#

THEY WERE MARCHED down the hall without consideration for Asta’s wounds. Any moment it looked as if she might collapse. Things had gone south rather quickly, Durante considered, and he wasn’t sure how they were going to get out of it. That concern was soon addressed, though, as their guard got distracted by gunfire down the hall. They stopped and looked. The corridor here was broad and glistened under reflected light, reflections of walls, light fixtures, and their own shadows in the floor.

  Durante looked to Drevan and Asta. The guards’ backs were to them and it looked as if Drevan and Asta were ready to pounce, to strangle the four guards with their bindings. But then they all saw Aidele come sailing out of a cross hallway about halfway down the corridor. She was flying through the air back first guns blazing in front of her. She hit the floor in a slide yet still continued firing at whoever her adversary was giving chase. Ten seconds later, Garret rushed out of that hallway as well firing behind him and seeking cover by the intersection wall. He leaned into the corridor firing once more. The four soldiers escorting Durante and his group raised their weapons towards Aidele and Garret. Before Durante could shout, Asta howled.

  “Aidele! Look out!”

  One trooper turned to her and plowed his rifle butt into her stomach doubling Asta over. Aidele saw this and rolled onto her side as Garret performed a grim dance holding off the soldiers they were fighting at the intersection. Drevan jammed his shoulder into another of their guard sending him careening into his two other cohorts. They all fell over as Aidele reached into her satchel and pulled out a gun.

  “Asta!” Aidele screamed out and slid a silver revolver down the hall towards them. Somehow the weapon had enough inertia to reach them. Asta dove into a forward roll grabbing the weapon and flipping onto her back. Two soldiers were already regaining their footing and Asta fired two shots into each of their heads sending their helmets flying off and their bodies flinging backwards. One on top of another guard who was still getting to his feet. Asta shot him twice into his shoulder and gut while Drevan grabbed ahold of the last soldier and kept driving his head into a wall. The whole affair had taken less than twenty seconds.

  Asta rolled over onto her side as Drevan raced over to kneel at her side. She groaned and clutched her chest. Durante stood staring in stunned silence as Aidele and Garret spent another two minutes in their own lethal gunfight. After they were done, they took stock of their situation. Garret clapped Aidele on her back and, together, they made their way to the three of them. Aidele dropped down to Asta’s side where she was struggling to breath. Drevan had a wild look in his eyes as a result.

  “Are you alright? Can you walk?”

  “Yeah. It ain’ nothin’ ah kent walk off,” Asta replied to Aidele, wincing. Drevan and Aidele both helped her to her feet.

  Asta handed a key to Aidele she dug out of a pocket and then leaned into Drevan’s proffered shoulder. Aidele walked over to Durante.

  “Turn around,” she told him and he did.

  “You’re hurt,” Durante said turning to her and rubbing his wrists after the cuffs dropped off. There were several bullet holes in Aidele’s coat. Which was sad since she’d only just reclaimed one of her mother’s dusters.

  Aidele smiled in grim satisfaction. “You should see the other guys.”

  “Yeah. No, that’s okay. Saw the last one.”

  “So, the damn plan went to hell. What happened?” Aidele looked around the haggard group.

  Asta shut her eyes. Durante choked up. He couldn’t imagine what it was like to lose your own children.

  “What… happened?” Aidele repeated, eyes widening.

  Garret let loose a deep sigh and dropped his shoulders.

  Durante looked to Aidele. “Berricks… destroyed Aquila Mons.”

  “W, what!? …How!?” Aidele took a step back, hands coming to her mouth.

  “The dreadnought’s cannons…” Garret replied.

  Durante nodded and pursed his lips. “The city never stood a chance.”

  Aidele looked to Asta who was on the verge of tears. Then there was more thudding, a tremor through the Invicta’s hulls. Aidele glanced to Garret.

  “They’re still firing… why?”

  Garret shook his head. “I… don’t know. Perhaps there are targets we are unaware of as well? No…” His eyes grew large. “The military installations are all underground. The food production systems too. He’s trying to cripple Hinon’s ability to fight back. The Union fleets must be on their way.”

  “Yeah, I think Berricks might have mentioned as much,” Durante grumbled.

  Aidele dropped her hands and a scowl crossed her face. “It’s not happenin’! Ah need ta git ta Berricks, now! It’s time ta end that bastard fer good! Ah don’ care whether or not he knows we’re comin’! Ah honestly hope he does!”

  Durante nodded. “And, I need to disable the weapons systems. Give Hinon’s fleets the time they need to engage. I don’t know why they haven’t already. …” He paused a moment and looked to each of the others. “Fuck it. I’m overloading the core. Destroy this monstrous thing so that there’s one less obstacle for Hinon to deal with.”

  Garret looked to him. “I thought you didn’t want to hurt innocents?”

  “Who said anything about harming innocents?” Durante queried, a sharp look in his eyes. “We’re going to evacuate the whole ship by taking charge of the command systems from Berricks. He’ll be completely locked out. Unable to do any more damage. But we need to go now. And, Aidele needs to get to the bridge to murder that motherfucker.”

  Aidele frowned. “That’s rather dark for you, Durante. I’m shocked…”

  He looked to her. “I know the truth now. President Lee ordered the invasion. And that malicious… man up there, he won’t be stopped unless you stop him. And if it’s for the greater good… Look, I hate violence, Aidele. But, deep in my heart, I know that some men… just have to die. And nobody’s better at wanton violence than you.”

  “Ah’ll go with her…” Asta said still holding onto Drevan’s shoulder, her face wet from tears. “Ah own that sumabitch fer ever’thin’.”

  “Ah’ll come too,” Drevan let go of Asta’s shoulder and checked his guns.

  Asta stood on her own, finally feeling well enough to use her own muscles. She took his hand.

  “No, yer not. Yer gonna help Garret’n Durante. Ya need ta keep ‘em safe ta finish the job.”

  Drevan’s eyes found hers. “Are ya sure ya want ta split up like that?”

  “D’ya want ta kill Berricks?”

  “More’n an’thin’.”

  “Then ya do as ah ask,” she said then grabbed both sides of his face and drew him in for a long kiss. He gripped her head back and they embraced fiercely. Then, Asta took a step back and took the second gun Aidele offered her.

  “Ah love you,” Drevan said.

  Asta smiled. “Ah’ve always loved you as well, ya crotchety ol’ bastard. An’ ah’ll see ya soon.”

  Drevan nodded. Asta turned to Aidele. “Ah ken show ya the way ta the bridge.”

  “Okay.” Aidele shared a gaze with the others. “We’ll meet back in the docks in no more’n twenty minutes. Think that’ll be enough time to do your damage?”

  Durante nodded. “Yeah. More than enough time. I’ll trigger the evacuation alert. Then, I’ll set the core to erupt fifteen minutes from then.”

  “Don’t be late,” Aidele smiled and turned to follow Asta.

  Lights flashed a stuttering red and an alarm sounded.

  “Looks like they finally realized their well-planned trap failed as epically as out infiltration did.” Durante said. “We’d better hurry.”

  No further words were spoken as they raced for the engine room.

#

“DEFENSE FORCES INCOMING!” Commander Riley shouted as the bridge rocked under fresh assault.

  “So?” Sam growled. “Fire back. Take ‘em out. Our guns’re more’n a match fer ‘em.”

  “Yes… sir,” she replied frowning.

  Sam leaned over Commander Kyle’s station and looked at some data readouts.

  “Now, focus the forward cannons on those coordinates,” he pointed and Commander Kyle was taken aback.

  “Sir? There’s nothing showing up on visuals there…” They looked up at the screen where what was left of Aquila Mons stood as little more than a crater. The area Sam wanted targeted was out in the desert scarp a few miles to the west. The screen panned out to show the new coordinate field.

  “It’s subterranean,” Sam stated. “A titanium processing planet. It’s where they manufacture the building materials for all those wonderful starcraft swarming us right now. I want you to bury it. Should only take a few minutes. Then we’ll move on to the next target on the list. Commander Riley, continue to maintain defensive measures.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Commander Kyle swallowed hard, “Yes, sir.”

  Sam straightened and looked out the viewport to the forward section of the bridge. HDF ships buzzed the Invicta’s hull and were doing some minor damage. But Riley picked them off at a fairly decent clip. However, taking too long wasn’t an ideal prospect. More ships would be called up, then they’d be overwhelmed. He had to finish off the Chuhukon resources fast to bring all their own weapons systems to bear on the defense forces. Then, there were the intruders to deal with. Undoubtedly Wilson. And she’d escaped the trap. Reports were coming in of firefights all across deck ten. And that wasn’t good. Wilson was supposed to have gone to the brig and gotten gunned down. But, apparently, she’d brought help. Now she was running around with whoever causing mayhem and likely freeing Lynch and her team by now, which meant they’d be coming for him.

  “Commander Riley, lock down the bridge.” Sam crossed his arms over his chest. “Send word to all decks the bridge is off limits until further notice. Order all soldiers to eliminate anyone they don’t recognize on the spot, and to do a full sweep of all levels looking for intruders. And, post guards at the bridge lift too. Not that it’ll do much good. But might buy us enough time to finish the job.”

  “Uh… yes, sir.”

  Fifteen minutes. That’s all they needed.

#

DREVAN FIRED TWICE, downing the soldier permanently on the second shot. Garret was in cover beside him by a corner and then leapt out to down two more that were rushing their position. Despite the shooting, there was a remarkably light presence of soldiers. They’d only encountered around twenty. Seventeen wouldn’t be seeing tomorrow, but three seemed to take the red alert as an excuse to abandon ship.

  Some ‘loyalists’. Drevan shook his head.

  They rushed to the end of the hall and followed Durante into the engine core where they found five scientists hiding behind a control console. Durante gave a smile and a quick off-handed wave, then proceeded to the core command station. Drevan and Garret took covering positions beside the entrance doorway. Strangely, no more troopers were coming after them.

  “Think they done ran out?” Drevan quipped.

  “If so, it will be that much easier to get back to the bay,” Garret replied. “But I fear those actually performing their duties are busy with Aidele and Asta.”

  “The two o’em are pretty good at gittin’ inta trouble.”

  Garret huffed as one of the scientists stood up. “Durante? What are you doing? Where’ve you been? What’s going on?”

  Durante approached where the pylons lined the long tubular room to the rear of engine observation and opened up the command station’s control panel. Afterwards, he glanced over his shoulder to the woman. His former Second Administrator, Tella Brighton.

  “Berricks was ordered to destroy Aquila Mons. There’s nothing left of the city. So, we’re disabling the Invicta before she can be used to deliver any further damage.”

  “That’s… impossible! He wouldn’t do that!” she protested.

  “Yeah, I thought the same thing at first. Seen a lot since then,” Durante said.

  Another scientist stood up, his brows furrowed. “Dr. Brighton, if it wasn’t a surface attack, then what were the cannons firing upon?”

  “I… that’s to say…”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Durante interrupted turning back to the panel and entering commands. “I’m going to need all of you to evacuate the ship. The order will blare out soon. Anyone who stays, well, they’re going to have a real bad day.”

  “Wh, what if we won’t let you?” one of the others asked trying to look defiant.

  Drevan glared back at him. “Don’ make me shoot ya.”

  The scientists shared confused, nervous looks. Then fled the room not giving Durante, Drevan, or Garret another look. Garret and Drevan let them through still on the alert for more soldiers. None were coming.

  “Did they abandon ship?” Drevan scowled. “Aidele and Asta aren’t commanding all of the ship’s attention! Ah was expectin’ more o’a fight.”

  Garret grunted. “It’s unusual. However, let’s just count ourselves lucky we’re not being overwhelmed.”

  “We’re in the Invicta’s engine room. Shouldn’t that be attracting some attention? I don’t like this.”

  Garret said nothing and frowned while Durante went to work breaking into the executive files in the system. After a few minutes, he scowled with a curse. Garret looked back, brows knitted.

  “What’s the problem? Can’t you break the coding?”

  Durante shook his head. “No. No. That’s not it. I’ll be able to override the systems in two minutes. The problem is… they already transmitted the journal copies. It’s… in Union hands now.”

 Garret walked over to him trusting Drevan to sound the alarm if necessary. “Is it possible to… unsend it?”

  “Union transmissions are encoded. The second one is sent out it’s already in the ether with no way to undo the action without an advance set of codes. In a matter of minutes, they’ll have every note, diagram, and schematic the professor put in that book. But I can record a copy onto a data disc. Having it will definitely be beneficial. I just wish we didn’t have to lose the journal in the process.”

  Garret placed a hand on his shoulder and rubbed gently. “Do what you can, Durante. If the Union has the journal now, well, there’s other matters we must attend to right now.”

  “Yeah. Don’t worry. I’ve got it.” Durante waved a hand through the air and pushed onward into his override commands.

  Garret went back over to Drevan and took position opposite him, waiting for any adversary at all to come racing down the corridors for them. Drevan glanced over to Garret.

  “Never rains, but it pours.”

  “Tell me about it.”

#

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Thanks for reading and hope you had fun! There will be more to come next week! Until then, have a good week!

~Timothy S Purvis

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Amazon Kindle Author’s Page–> Timothy S Purvis

Smashwords Author’s Page–> Timothy S Purvis

Red Star Sheriff On Amazon Kindle–> Red Star Sheriff Volume One Kindle

Red Star Sheriff On Amazon Paperback–> Red Star Sheriff Volume One Paperback

Red Star Sheriff On Smashwords–> Red Star Sheriff Volume One Smashwords

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SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION STARTS!

I would appreciate if you have Kindle or even if you want some paperback goodies if you’d head on over to my page and maybe show me some love there. I mean, if you’ve been reading a while and see something you like, wouldn’t you like to have it in your personal library? I have some cool short stories available for cheap. Also Tales From A Strange Mind that collects my short stories (there’s also a Kindle edition but, for some reason, Amazon wouldn’t let me link them together) , Tales From A Strange Mind II which collects my old novellas, Red Star Sheriff (Which also has a Kindle edition but Amazon, am I right?) my first novel ever released, though, yes, it does have some grammatical errors and drags on for way too long, sigh. But I still love it and I will be writing a follow up sometime within the next few years. I have a collection of my poems called MisAligned: The Heart Waxes Poetic which collects my old poems but not some of my newer ones included those flash fictions! I’ll probably do that in the future as well. And if you love the perfectly inane, why not check out my Star Cloud scripts presented in book form? Star Cloud The Original Scripts. Another one where Amazon was being difficult with me in connecting the Kindle and PB versions. Still, the paperback they let me sale for cheap and it’s well worth a look if I say so myself. Or, if you don’t want to click on individual links (all of which will take you to my author’s page anyway), just click on my author’s page directly by tapping my name: Timothy S Purvis See for yourself what all I’ve published since I began this venture in 2016.

I mean, if you like my work, of course. No pressure. Just trying to find my way in this world without working menial tasks and suffering physical and mental issues as a result. If only I could merely stay home and write. That would be my most epic fantasy brought to life. Well, if you don’t want to do that, you could also donate to my cause down below after all is said and done. It would help. You know, if you liked what you saw and all. Up to you. I don’t have a lot of reviews on my materials because of low sales. I mean, very, very low sales. In the single digits. Right now, I have to rely on Pubby for reviews and those people only read your synopsis and recap it for a five star review. I want honest opinions. Not mean ones, but honest. So, if you ever find yourself buying some of my work, I’d certainly appreciate some feedback. Again, up to you.

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