Kevin and His Bad Luck

"Hm. This is a pretty good soda."

Anton was sitting at the bar within the civilian section of Sanadir Station. The civilian section mainly consisted of motels, fast food restaurants, restrooms, and public showers, all within walking distance. A terminal transfer train shifted between the three civilian terminals holding starliners of various sizes along with warp-capable shuttles. At the center of the station bordering the military section of Sanadir, there was a trading hub for various items.

As he raised the bottle to his lips, he only received the faint residual scent instead of the fizzy taste of soda. He moved the bottle away and looked down, finding the bottle empty. Anton waved to get the attention of the bartender, setting down a couple Zeshani Chips on the counter.

"One Orange Seltzer to go, please."

The bartender nodded and took the empty bottle, dropping it into recycling before walking over to a fridge, bringing out the aforementioned drink and placing it in a bubble bag to hand over to Anton.

"Thanks."

As Anton was walking through the terminals, he saw a group of people suddenly jump out of the way as a crate fell, breaking the latch and spilling the contents out, mainly herbs and spices. A pair of security guards dressed in standard fatigues and law enforcement chest rigs ran over to clear up the commotion.

Anton made his way over and noticed someone in Zeshani Vanguard gear. The armor was slightly scuffed and scratched, but the man inside didn't have so much as a speck of dirt.

"You alright there?" Anton asked.

"Eh, I've been through worse. A crate falling off the shelf and barely missing my head is a godsend compared to the usual." The soldier got up and Anton got a good look of his face. White skin, dark brown hair, green eyes... his appearance was one you would normally see on an Alzitoran core world. "Kevin Keyes. The Host of Misfortune."

"You have an Alzitoran appearance."

"Yep. 12th Expedition, took part of the action in the aftermath skirmishes after the Empire fell apart. Still got the Expedition Badge and the Babel 3 Space Elevator Ribbon."

Kevin turned to expose his left arm, the upper plate bearing the unique red and blue badge of the 12th Alzitoran Expedition. On his chestplate, the award ribbon, adorned center to edge with red, yellow, black and white colors with a gold '3' in the middle, was pinned above the service ribbon and commendation ribbon, both also Alzitoran.

Anton had heard of the battles for two of the space elevators during the power vacuum five years before. Of the thirty-six space elevators built in the Amalga Dimension by the now destroyed Ixitol Empire, Babel 3 and Babel 7 were considered top priority in strategic value with their locations in the core sectors of the Dimension where everyone that had a starship crossed paths. The Zeshan Trade League and the 12th Alzitoran Expedition made a joint effort to take claim of the two structures against a combined force made of several interstellar nations. Babel 3 was lesser known due to it's quick taking by the Zeshani and what led to Alzitoran commanders boasting about the publicly disclosed capabilities of their new high-speed destroyers to news channels and navy recruits.

It was Babel 7 on the desert world of Mudagua that hit popularity as one of the latest tales to be set in stone. The majority of that combined force was sent there, and the Zeshani fleets suffered major losses. The Alzitorans, however, noticed a dust storm closing in from the nearby desert. With all their training on the hurricane-tempered world of Nindurn, it was effectively home turf. The Alzitorans lured the combined forces there and destroyed them in the blinding storm, shooting down ships where they had the opportunity and letting poor communication, blind shots, and even more blind navigation handle the rest of the enemy, even getting footage from the crew of one ship as they watched from the side and let the enemy shoot each other down in the confusion.

The good old military history lesson where the most difficult place to fight an enemy is in the land they know best.

But enough about history lessons.

'So this is the Kevin with lethally bad luck that Heydar told me about,' Anton thought.

"Why do you call yourself the Host of Misfortune?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Kevin responded.

"Try me."

"Okay, then. So, there's this objective my team and I need to complete. Out in the sands, there's an isolated power substation that we need to destroy so that the magnetic locks on the gates shut down and our main forces can pry them open."

"Okay, standard sabotage operation..."

"Enemy catches wind, and in a few minutes, we're surrounded, soldiers popping shots at the dunes and then tanks started rolling in. Then, these huge freaking scorpions pop out of the sand, all pissed off and screeching at the tanks for ruining the nests."

"How did you survive...? Mudaguan scorpions are infamous for tearing apart vehicles. Oblivion, I've seen a video of one ripping the entire turret off of a tank."

"Yeah. They were focused on the tanks, so the team and I took the charges and ran, set the timers and just chucked them over the wall as soon as we got in throwing distance. In all honesty, I thought we were dead. Saw a poor shmuck on the enemy side get swallowed whole. The charges detonate, and the sound was enough to scare them off."

"... You're serious?"

"Completely."

Anton could tell that Kevin wasn't lying. But still, that sounds like something out of an action movie.

"No mere mortal would survive something like that."

"Well, the enemy certainly didn't."

"True."

"Still, why does Heydar describe it as 'lethally bad luck'?"

"Well... okay, so back to the siege, we can't approach because the artillery is still up and running despite the gates being unlocked. So, one of the guys gets this crazy idea to send me in. Now, I already have a reputation of bad luck at this point. So I walk in, they point the artillery at me..."

"And...?"

"Suddenly, one of them misfires and blows itself up, and sends a bunch of other projectiles that destroy all the other artillery platforms."

"... Okay, that part, I won't believe until I've seen it for myself."

"Mate, this is the Amalga Dimension. It's made of the impossible."

Kevin turned and began to walk away, before stopping and glancing back.

"Also, knowing my luck, you might want to hold at the bottom of the bag."

Anton looked to his bag just as it broke open, and he caught the bottle before it could hit the ground.

"That was too close... I'm not losing a good bottle of seltzer like that."