There he stood, naked, hungry and pissed. At this point he did not think he could trust anyone from the future, not even Tina, his wife. The crowd around their well-sheltered camp was looking solemn. They had been here for a few weeks now and the rains had let up. There was not even any grass left in the center around the big fire pit. Something else was bothering them. They were terrified of something; not him, not anything they knew, and certainly not Eddie.

Although he was holding the branch capacitator Eddie was not there. Cave-Girl was, and she was crying. He went to her to ask about Eddie. Then he heard the sound of something familiar, from a nightmare battle out of the past, a different, less deep, but darker past. It was the sound made by the foot-piece of the operations suit worn by military Gens from the 24Th Century—and he had just been there.

Shoot dummy they traced you back after that next-to-last jump.

He turned to see the spitting image of Kreel emerge from the largest tent, with Eddie walking meekly before him. The figure was 6’ 6” tall and weighed about 240 lbs. He had the build of a perfectly muscled combat athlete that did a lot of swimming. The most frightening aspect of this person was what he wore, an operations suit: a living bio-engineered organism that would have been incubated in the same artificial womb as the genetically engineered freak that wore it. The stated purpose of the operations suit was to permit these soldiers to interact with nuclear-powered weapons packages without being torn apart.

Over a few generations of use special operations military gens developed many methods for utilizing the suits to enhance their bodily functions. The suit itself responded to commands in an unknown language spoken only by these individuals. It served as a medic, body armor, spacesuit, quartermaster, optics and audio package. Commander Kreel had even used his suit to permit him to whistle at lethal frequencies. Jay did understand that the suit was a living thing, required rest, and, if worn as a fully enclosed unit for too long, could cause insanity and/or mental impairment on the part of the wearer.

The fact was, even for an elite killer like Jay, his chances of surviving combat with this man were pretty much zero. To make matters worse, the Gen held both of Jay’s katanas in one hand. He placed these respectfully back in the tent and advanced on Jay, speaking a word to himself—or his suit—which caused the hardened headpiece and insect-like eye and ear-pieces to retract. In fact, the entire suit retracted—to where he could not imagine—to cover only the naval and groin. The man appeared to be Korean, but spoke with a British accent.

Maybe he is an ally like Hoost?

“Bracken, I am not an ally. I am under contract to the Minority Council of Life Science Ministries, and have been tasked with terminating you and acquiring the branch capacitator in your possession. Sadly, these orders are nullified, by the fact that you have somehow—witlessly no doubt—managed to change the course of Man’s very ascent, even at this remote date; which was not thought possible by your handlers, or mine. They threw you away, to draw me off a more important trail.”

That’s right, they read minds too.

“You are a simple brute to be certain. Sir, my functions—though subordinate to military protocols—are primarily diplomatic, scientific and medical. It is no longer necessary to slay you, so I shall not. It is impossible now to remove the capacitator from this timeline.”

“You must have one. I’ll take that after I kill you.”

“I am Captain Davis, and I now seek only to sway you from your pointless quest through Time and win you over to the True Cause, that which shall benefit all humanity, for all time. In return for your cooperation I shall provide technical and medical support for this humanitarian mission you have engaged in so selflessly.”

“Fuck you Davis. [Redacted sentence] We’re enemies.”

Eddie then spoke up as Cave-Girl ran to him, “Jay-Bone listen to this dude. He makes sense son. ‘Sides it’s not like you kickin’ ‘is ass or notin’.”

That hurt. And Captain Jockstrap there just took note.

Davis was soothing, almost hypnotic with his words, as he stepped forward with his arms spread, “I am here to win you to the better more righteous team Jay, Jay, Jay…Jay…Jay…”

He was falling toward the ground when he heard the beast that he knew was him snarl. It woke him up, and there he was crouched on all fours growling and slathering at the enemy.

Davis backed up, “Commendable…marginal but still tenable. I would consider you for commissioning after a thorough psyche-scrub.”

He stayed where he was, crouching and waiting for his opportunity as Davis circled like a priest, arms spread wide as he espoused his bullshit, “I seek Three-Rivers. My employer is a religious institution, and Three-Rivers is a figure of enormous religious significance. We will do him no harm.”

The beast was salivating savagely, gnashing its teeth, and clawing the ground.

“I understand you Jay. You fear negotiating with me. You are weary of being manipulated, even by those you love. Life is confusing enough. Only violence simplifies things into a dynamic state that you can understand.”

Jay snarled and went to a three-point stance as he circled Davis, looking for a way to his throat before the Gen could command his suit to armor him back up—looking for an instant, two seconds at most.

The Gen continued, like some articulate lion-tamer soothing his flesh-puppet with beautifully crafted sounds, “I have promised, to my new friend Eddie, your science officer and my counterpart, not to kill you Jay. I will keep that promise, because I care about Eddie, I care about you Jay.”

Kill him!

“You are a good tactical decision-maker Jay—better than I to be sure. How can I convince you of my goodness, of the goodness of my cause? There you prowl, thirsting for my blood, knowing that I can defeat you easily by employing my suit, can heal my wounds, or even avoid them altogether. Has your noble Hoost taught you the operational paramaters of his suit—of those worn by us all? Has your wife? Did you know she is a suited military Gen; that she has already calculated your demise, and simply uses you to satisfy her prurient lusts?

[Redacted paragraph].

“If they truly cared about you managing encounters with suited Gens in the future, why have they not educated you? Why, because they know themselves to be those very adversaries that you shall one day face.”

One more step then rip his throat out.

“Kreel gave his suit a verbal command like so.”

Davis said a single word and the suit retreated to a mere strip around his waist.

Shit hillbilly, he’s got a bigger dick than you too.

Davis smiled and chuckled.

“Do you imagine Jay—may I call you Jay?”

A blood curdling snarl sounded from his chest.

“As you will Bracken, do you imagine that this vast living organism has actually shrunken to nothing? How do you account for the mass? It is inside of me Jay. The suit is simply on idle and can be revived at a word. As my dear friend—the suit—is a living being, my brother in fact, do not you suppose that I wish him good health? Why, of course I do, and like I, he needs rest. There is also the occasional need for one of my kind to self-terminate—for instance upon failure to secure a sworn target. In such cases, the suit’s automatic commitment to save, repair and revive, must be bypassed. Especially in light of the fact, that when I die, so does my suit.”

“Bracken, think, Tina is mentally far superior to myself, a master linguist. Could she have not explained this to you as have I? So Bracken, in order to prove that I am their moral superior, and that I do serve the Just Cause I put myself at your, should we say questionable, mercy.

Rip his head off as soon as he moves.

“When I touch any of my fingers to my naval, and think, ‘sleep-brother’, as I have just done, then my suit will retreat within me, and appear only as a mole on my naval.”

Even as he said so it was. He was just a big naked perfect man with a mole on his naval.

Tina has a mole in her belly button.

“But, my barbaric little adversary, I did not master The Way of Five Animals, nor travel thirty-five-thousand years into the past, to be killed by you, simply for being a more adequately evolved human being…”

He could hear Eddie scream, “No!” even as he sprang from the ground and hurled himself at Davis like a drug-sniffing hound leaping through a car window.

Davis moved with speed and grace, and hit Jay across the left side of his jaw with a tiger claw blow that broke his jawbone on impact and tore the ligaments of the right mandible as the whole bone threatened to unhinge from his face.

He was in close now, grappling through a sheet of pain. He took a kidney shot that turned his blood to acid and he retaliated with a head-butt that left a front tooth imbedded in the point of his skull.

Now it’s a fight freak!

Jay was later able to recall very little other than the next blow, which was a heal-palm that drove the tooth of his opponent into his skull. At some later time, he came to as he was sinking in a savage rear-naked choke on the big bastard. He had him stretched out on his belly, hooks all the way in, and was cranking like a maniac, ignoring the taps of submission from his noble opponent. The body of his enemy was beginning to go limp. Now all that remained was to keep the blood and air cut off, and snap the big neck for good measure!

Beyond the Ember star runs for another 52 pages. All of Dawn Star’s perspective chapters have been omitted from this abridged version to avoid spoiling the story. Jay and Eddie’s adventure into the past concludes in Chapter 28: In a Blaze of Stupidity. If you would like to finish reading this novel the Pillagers of Time e-book is available at our e-store. The print version should be released by DarkEyedGirl Books by March 2015.

Pillagers of Time will continue in the new year with a presentation of select chapters from the novel Thunderboy.