Empire of Machines

***A Four Horsemen Universe Short Story*** The Quest Continues! Jim Cartwright is commander of Cartwright’s Cavaliers, one of Earth’s storied Four Horsemen mercenary companies. He’s not your typical merc commander. He’s overweight and, at 20 years old, he’s the youngest person to ever take the reins. After a series of successful contracts, though, Jim’s brought the Cavaliers back from the brink of financial ruin. Having discovered a functioning Raknar—a 20,000-year-old, 100-foot-tall war machine left from another era—Jim was able to use it to win a decisive battle. But now Jim wants more. Lots more. Jim found a warehouse of Raknar and brought 20 of them back, but now he needs to learn more about how they were built, maintained, and operated. Searching for clues, Jim and Splunk visited the Valley of Loss, and barely came away with their lives. Now Jim is after the source of the Raknars—an enigmatic city-state known as the Machine Empire. Will Jim and Splunk be able to find the source documentation for the Raknars there, or will they become one more victim of the empire?