Badlands

When Megan and Tony D'ags and crew came to San Angelo, they were surprised to find that the sheriff was an old acquaintance of Tony's. Not quite a friend, not quite an enemy, the whole situation was odd enough to keep Megan and the rest of the crew on their toes. Even Tony didn't really trust the sheriff and his cronies. When they found out the sheriff was crooked, and that they'd set themselves up with a little black market operation on the side, nobody was surprised. When they found out that the sheriff, the town, and now Tony and his crew were about to be dragged in to be sacrificed to something from the outer darkness, an evil being from beyond too hideous for human comprehension... Badlands is a novella set in M. K. Dreysen's Open Wounds Universe, the second in a series of shorter works. Here, Megan and Tony continue as apprentice and mentor, and Megan discovers for the first time that there are things stalking the Empire, indeed humanity itself, from outside space and time.