Yes. Easily. What kind of stupid question is that?

Elias and Mark are degenerate drunks and gamblers, but they don’t let that stop them from being the top assassin team in the galaxy. Together, they scour the stars to find their targets, and between gigs they search for clues to their pasts.

If only they had known that some things are best left forgotten.

Hey everyone! I’m writing this story on the fly for a contest on Royal Road, and figured I’ll post it here as well. I’m not quite sure where it’s going, or if I’ll finish it. Let me know if you like it and want it to continue. Just keep in mind this is basically an edited first draft. It may not be up to the usual quality. This story is just for fun, so have fun reading it. <3 There will be more of the higher quality serious stuff coming as well.

Now, enjoy this preview.

—PREVIEW START—

“Now that is a big fucking ship.”

The Merrick Lavigne sat in the vacuum of space between two toes of the Cat’s Paw Nebula. An unusual place to park a luxury cruiser, so close to the heat birth of new stars, but it won points for creative insanity.

“What kind of cunt names their ship after themselves?” Elias asked, sitting in the pilot seat of a much smaller vessel as he examined the cruiser through a telescope. His own ship, the Barbara Anne, wasn’t much. She was more akin to a car than a proper vessel, but she was fast and big enough for one man to live in for a few weeks at a time—everything an assassin needs. He had her stopped fifty feet outside of the Merrick Lavigne’s radar range to be safe.

“Zzz-ckt-euhhtk-kttickt-zzidt-i-cktzz?”

The question came from his shoulder, where a small beetle was perched, or large depending on the scale someone went by. This bug was a bit like the rhinoceros beetles that Elias remembered from back home, except not at all. It had three horns, pincers, and four golden wings underneath a holographic shell. Add to that the drinking and gambling addictions, and there wasn’t another one like him in the galaxy. Elias called him Mark.

“I don’t actually know a Barbara,” he answered, “ship had the name when I bought her.”

“Tkickt-ckt-zzzzdt-zztckt?”

“Nah, why bother?”

“Zct-cktickt-ckzzickt!” Mark jumped up and down on Elias’s shoulder, wing cases clicking along with his words.

“Look, if you want to pay for the new paint job she’ll need, you’re welcome to name her whatever you like.”

The bug went silent, busying himself with cleaning a nonexistent piece of dust from his antenna.

Elias glared down at him before shaking his head and returning to watching the Merrick Lavigne. “As I thought. You’re a cheap bastard, you know that?”

Mark’s response was to jump onto the telescope and wiggle his carapace in a rude gesture.

“Bug off,” Elias waved his hand, the gust from Mark’s wings blowing his hair back as the beetle returned to his shoulder. He stowed the telescope back in its overhead compartment. “Seems they’re here for the long haul. You ready?”

“Zzickt!” Mark’s entire body bobbed with his nod.

“Alight, tuck in.” Elias held a pocket on the front of his jacket open, and Mark hopped in. “Could be a rough entrance.”

—PREVIEW END—

First chapter coming up soon!